crystal

[pathlit]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Jason Talons & Viktor Tendercrisp
RECIPIENT: One thread private to Cosima, Marcus, Yseult & the current Diplomacy representative; otherwise, open.
NOTES: Context under the cut.

[ It's an ordinary day in post-sieged Kirkwall. The air is muggy with intermittent summer showers that dampen dirt and stone, invoking the scent of earth and, in the lower streets, aerosolizing the stench of a crowded populace. Reparations continue, maneuvering around them normalized.

So it's an ordinary day in Kirkwall up until the exact moment that a workshop in Lowtown erupts with a brilliant hue of blue light bursting from every open window, door and crevice. The blast is felt more than heard; a subtle drop in pressure 'round the block seconds before acute release, its pulse strong enough to rattle the foundation and knock an average-sized human off their feet.

A pillar of fire shoots out from the building's chimney, high enough to be seen from The Gallows for all of a few seconds before abruptly vanishing. Light blue particles glimmer in its wake, as if suspended amongst the humid air, then gently float downward to vanish the moment they alight.

No casualties (aside from whatever creature may have been naïve enough to roost upon the chimney's crown). Mild property damage. Elation. ]

( open )
[Viktor's voice, broadcast to Riftwatch at large, is at first distantly quiet.]

What should I—

[Suddenly much closer and clearer:]

Ehh— should anyone happen to have noticed a combustion event on the mainland just now, please be assured it's nothing to worry about.

( closed to Division Heads )
[ Minutes later, the sending crystals of the division heads light up. ]

Hey! Hi, uh-- [ Jayce clears his throat. ] Hello. It's Jayce. Jayce and Viktor. Research div. There was a-- an incident in Lowtown. That was us, not an attack. Everything's okay. Could you let the Viscount know?

[From a few metres away, raised thin with excitement, Viktor's voice:] Tell them! Tell them what we've done!

[ Jayce, with a breathy laugh and an excitement scarcely backdropped by the worry of reprimand (and-or shock of success): ] Yeah, we've-- we've got it! Runic enchantment. Viktor and I figured it out. How to do it ourselves, I mean.

Comments

crystals;

[wythersake]

What the fuck —

[ animated orlesian follows ]

crystals

[sprent]

Should anyone — everybody noticed that!

[grindset]

Please try not to panic. We, ah... we need to set an example for, ehh...

[grindset]

You think so? How did it look from outside?

[wythersake]

Oh piss off, you condescending little hermit. I know you're clever enough to have read Kirkwall's particular history.

[ what were they JUST saying about disavowing anders ]

If you aren't certain of your company, get somewhere that you are.

[sprent]

(Faintly,) There was a plume of fire. How are we going to explain this to the civilians —

Are you both alright?

[pathlit]

[ In the background, a sudden burst of nervous, half-smothered laughter. ]

[cozen]

Putain, mec—

[ There's a burble of conversation in the background, pitched frantic in tone if not in volume. And, notably, someone wailing.

Everything is muted by the way Bastien's hand is closed around his crystal, mostly hiding it. ]

You made a grandmother cry.

closed to the criminals + div heads.

[luaithre]

Do you need help returning to the Gallows?

[ —and it is dead impossible to tell of this is Marcus' angry-efficient or just the normal kind, a snapping to what he deems most immediately important to determine. ]

I'll send a griffon. Where are you now?

[ Before they get, you know, arrested. ]

crystal.

[elegiaque]

( irately, )

You couldn't have done this when we actually had Anders on hand to throw under the cart wheels?

[pathlit]

Gela! We're fine. [ Superficial damage, really. ] Everything's fine. It was just a little bit of fire, it didn't do anything--

[grindset]

We're—

[Flapping his hand at Jayce—stop, it's going to sound so bad if he laughs too—]

We're as certain as we can be of, [quick idiot math,] everyone inside this building. A-and the surrounding— they know us here.

[grindset]

[They're both talking into the same crystal.]

A plume? How tall?

[pathlit]

Sorry, sorry! It was just a little overshot, nothing serious!

[biggame]

[ Since everyone else has the panic and irritation covered, ]

That was so big.

[ you're doing amazing sweeties ]

[pathlit]

Return to the-- wait, why?

[pathlit]

Is that a... [ frysquint, wracking his brain for context, ] person or a thing?

[sprent]

(She's answering Jayce,) Good, I won't feel bad for being angry with you, then.

It was very tall, Viktor! We all saw it from the Gallows—

[grindset]

It may not be stable enough to move yet—

[luaithre]

[ A pause, then, ]

I'd rather send our apologies to the Viscount as a gesture rather than as part of a bid to extricate you and your companion from jail.

The location, Talis.

[elegiaque]

( she makes a sound best described as angrily orlesian and counts backwards from ten in her head which at least stops her from saying fucking debatable! immediately. )

A problem we really don't want to remind people we harbored for years while he wanked himself off about how hard it had been for his social life doing a terrorism to Kirkwall.

[grindset]

[Somewhere in Lowtown, a nerd clenches his fists in triumph.]

[wythersake]

Oh, good, so they know you're inextricably tied to us. Hide or pack anything you don't want the guard tossing through.

[pathlit]

[ A pause in return, followed by glance to Viktor and the workshop they incriminate. ]

Shouldn't one of us stay to explain?

[grindset]

It's fine, it's... judging by the state of the workshop, the surrounding neighbourhood will have sustained no appreciable damage, and,

[looking to Jayce for support, perhaps nodding along to each other,]

and this one was blue.