therookery | crystal.

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Gwenaëlle Baudin
RECIPIENT: All y'all.
NOTES: There's a new junior dad in town. Tell her all about your sick magic weapons and how buff or noodly your little nerd arms might be. (Happy to do action spam here or in her inbox for any office threads!)

Alright, Riftwatch, I assume I don't need to introduce myself,

( possibly because she hasn't been paying strict attention to recent arrivals, but she is certainly not herself a new face, )

but if you have somehow mistaken my accent for Alexandrie, this is Gwenaëlle Baudin, and if you haven't noticed my taking up the office, I am now your acting Captain of the Watch. ( because they are still pretending that dad might come back (with smokes) and that rowntree's appointment might be temporary. she has already begun studying nevarran, but she isn't all that optimistic about when she's going to need to know it by. ) I've started with inventorying our armoury, and as such I have a couple of requests to make of, primarily, those of you not in Forces. If you are in Forces, I need to know if you possess any personal weaponry of note that we should be taking into account. You can provide details by crystal, book or at my office. If you are not in Forces, I would like to know that, but disclosure is voluntary unless your division head decides to make it mandatory.

( yes, she checked with rowntree before announcing it's mandatory for forces. )

Further, if you are not in Forces, I'd like to have an overview of the combat readiness of our ( nerds ) general non-combatants and what their, your needs are. If you'd like particular training, or if you specifically wouldn't. If you're going to be particularly vulnerable in the sort of emergency we recently experienced, or if it'd be useful for me to be aware that you won't. Again, we can have these conversations by whatever means suits you.

( there's a brief pause. )

And to be clear, I'm not assuming all diplomats and researchers need to be provided personal fainting couches, and you will not be considered clever for getting up in arms about having your toughness questioned. If you would like to be provided a personal fainting couch, ask the Seneschal.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maybe you will someday.

[ Look, Clarisse has come to appreciate ranged fighting a lot more since she joined up. Riding a griffon in battle some of the time has only made it worse. Better? Whatever. The thought of cheating with magic doesn't seem like such a shitty idea when she's a hundred feet up in the air, is all.

She gives Gwen a little bit of a more searching look, a sort of rare acknowledgement that she's a lot more observant than people assume. ]

You okay?

I am—

( she breathes out through her nose. maybe it's nearly a laugh, the sound she makes. or something else. her fingers flex at her thighs, twist in her summer-weight skirts, and she settles on: )

I'm having sort of an odd day.

( for someone who'd probably say I'm fine with a sucking chest wound, )

And I haven't felt like that holding a sword in— a while. Years. But I'm alright, ( she decides, and it sort of sounds like she's deciding to be, but maybe like she has a sturdy enough place to stand that she can. )

[ "An odd day" is super vague, but also the fact that Gwen is even alluding to dealing with something not normal is kind of shocking. She always seems so fucking confident and composed. Clarisse is instantly caught in between not wanting to pry for information and wanting to deal with someone else's problems so she doesn't have to think about her own, but she manages to settle on something sort of in the middle. ]

Well... if you ever want to talk about it. I'm around.

( even when she'd sort of rather open a vein than her mouth about her feelings, it's easier than it once was to accept the sentiment, even to be grateful for it. easier to believe that it's exactly what it sounds like, not a trap, not an implication about how she's just too weak to handle it by herself, just—

it's not nothing. )

Merci. It's just,

( honestly, sort of dogshit timing to be taken off-guard by a rifter's return. )

I wasn't expecting the first person who answered me, today, and I think it's going to be awkward as all hell. But it'll be fine, I think.

( and no need to examine the way she'd still rather talk about that than the knife thing, at least immediately. )

The guy asking about fainting couches?

[ Clarisse didn't recognize his voice, but she doesn't always pay attention to chatter over the crystals, especially when multiple people are using them at the same time. Besides, even though she has a general idea of who most of Riftwatch are, there are people who sometimes pass through and then leave again, doing work elsewhere. Not a big organization, but just big enough that she doesn't feel weird about not knowing absolutely everybody. ]

Why awkward?

( given the timing—

but there's limited time, she knows that. if she says nothing, to him, to anyone else: thranduil left a history behind him. she isn't the only person in kirkwall who remembers him. not the only person who remembers their history. it will come up. and maybe to thranduil she could say, you don't know me so it's not your history so I didn't have to share it with you, and that doesn't sound totally unreasonable. she isn't as sure about what clarisse might think, if she evaded her, and she found out later.

or at least, is more sure that it matters. he's a clean slate; what that will mean remains to be seen. clarisse is her friend, now, in front of her.

it takes her long enough, this train of thought, for the extended silence to have become awkward. )

The first time that Thranduil Oropherion was here, ( echoing her own phrasing, ) the time he doesn't remember. He was, that's—

That is my ex-husband, that I mentioned. There's paperwork with his married name on it, he was a very. Large part of my twenties and everything I did, early on, with Riftwatch. We were separated when the Fade took him back and it hadn't ended well.

( large. yeah, he's fucking six foot six, he was a huge part of her twenties. )

[ The prolonged silence is awkward, yes, but as soon as Gwen begins talking again Clarisse understands why she hesitated for so long.

Ah. Fuck.

It feels a little bit like slipping under icy water without warning. No chance to take a breath, just sudden cold washing over her. Inside, it hurts, her heart pounding and her stomach rolling, but on the outside it just feels like she's frozen. ]

Oh, [ she says, because she doesn't trust herself to say anything else.

Clarisse's rifter girlfriend, gone without warning. Gwenaëlle's rifter ex-husband, back less than a month later. It's not anybody's fault, she tries to tell herself. It's not like he's... the replacement. That's not how it works.

(But that's how it feels.)

Say something. She must look angry sitting here in silence, and this isn't Gwen's fault, say something. ]

I'm—sorry. That must... feel so weird.

crystal.

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