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therookery2024-07-18 12:43 pm
crystal; ota
FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Ness Tavane (tadfool)
RECIPIENT: Errbody
[ the sending crystal comes on, and a feminine voice clears their throat; she is clearly entirely new to this, and perhaps to public speaking in general, but she wants to make a good impression!! ]
Hello, Riftwatch. My name is Ennaris Tavane, I'm a recent arrival to your organization. If Ennaris is a mouthful, Ness will also do! I wanted to introduce myself, and I also have a request, should anyone be willing to assist me.
I've joined the Diplomacy division [ cuz damn do y'all seem to be the most in need of bodies ] and am eager to get my feet beneath me as far as work there goes. I can read and write with proficiency, and am an excellent note taker, should those skills be of use to anyone. I... can scribe, [ said with all the enthusiasm of someone admitting to being physically capable of mucking out the stables, yes, but— ] though my real skill lies in research and compilation of disparate sources of information. I'm happy to offer my assistance to anyone who needs it while I suss out what jobs need doing and where my skills would best be applied.
As for my request, I was hoping there might be someone—or even multiple someones—who would be willing to tutor me in history. I have several gaps in my knowledge, and would prefer to fill them in as quickly as possible. Please feel free to reply back to me here, on the crystal, or to get with me privately if you're interested. We can discuss compensation, though I admit I've not got a terribly deep purse at the moment.
Erm. Thank you for your attention. Have a good day? Binder's knots, feels like I'm talking to air...
no subject
How is one meant to fit in someplace when one is ignorant of its history? History, whence comes culture and tradition, shapes a place and a people. If I don't know the history, I'll always be on the back foot. It'd be like entering every conversation blind and deaf.
no subject
The books in the library not good enough for you?
no subject
Books are a good starting point, I've learned quite a lot from them already. In my opinion, though, rote memorization by itself is a job half-done. "Following the Llomerryn Accords in 7:84 Storm, the northern Rivaini people—Qunari, by definition, and thus compelled to follow the rest of the conquering horde to their new archipelago home—refused to leave their homeland. Unable to turn their people back to the light of the Maker, the Rivaini Chantry slaughtered them in an attempt to purge them from the nation."
I can recite for you many such facts, but none of them will tell you a single thing about how this battle or that treaty affected the people who experienced it, and how those effects rippled out to touch us, now. Were there survivors of this attempted purge? How did they respond to the slaughter of their neighbours, their families, their friends? Does the rest of Rivain know what was done to their countrymen, and do they agree with it? If they do not know, how was this information suppressed within the country, but made it into Sister Petrine's scholarship without?
Without understanding that, the facts I recited—they're just words.
no subject
[ But it's not a bad instinct. Not dissimilar from his own, in execution if not necessarily in motivation. ]
I can help with Tevinter though, if that's on your list.
no subject
They're not, [ factually, ] but they will help me integrate into this place more, which is my long-term goal.
As our current adversary and a figure casting a long shadow over the whole of Thedosian history, Tevinter is most certainly on my list. I would appreciate any and all assistance you'd be willing to provide.
[ sloooowly, cautiously, she can't tell any of these accents apart from the others, where the fuck are any of you from, ] Do I take from your offer that you are particularly familiar with Tevinter, then?
no subject
You're not from around here, I take it?
[ Not every Southerner has ever met someone from Tevinter, probably, but they must have rude plays here too. ]
no subject
I believe the term is Rifter, [ confirming. ] I'm doing my best to adapt quickly.
no subject
[ Interesting. Useful. He's yet to meet a Rifter, but there's no time like the present. ]
If you're eager to get started, I could meet you in the library in, say, an hour?
no subject
I think I can wrap up all the nothing I'm working on right now by then, sure. [ haha, she's so funny. ] Who should I be looking for?
no subject
no subject
You don't sound very boring to me, [ matter of fact: the sky is blue, grass is green, you don't sound boring. ] I'll meet you there, Caius. I'll be the very interesting ha- [ a stutter, ] human, blonde hair in a braid.
-> action;
[ He's late.
Not so late as to make one think he isn't coming — more, that guy's always late levels of late, and maybe that isn't so strange yet for someone who's never met him. (Later, it will be.) Just late enough to ensure she's there first.
When he does show up, it's with staff gripped white-knuckled in hand like a walking stick, as if he'd just needed it for the stairs, only he isn't out of breath. Not even a little. The look on his face when he spots her is more— relief.
(Ah. Not a demon, then.) ]
Miss Tavane. [ After an awkward pause, ] Or— do you prefer Ness, or is that just for people who can't be assed to pronounce things?
no subject
[ even if ness were to notice his tardiness, she wouldn't mind overmuch—she's not terribly concerned with anyone else's punctuality, only her own—but she's been too absorbed in her reading to pay attention to the time. when caius arrives, she's sat prim and proper at a table with a book in front of her and notes spread out in some kind of organized chaos. at the sound of his voice, her head lifts to look at him immediately, but there's a furrow in her brow and a far-away look in her eyes that takes a few blinks to clear.
if she's a demon, she's not a very frightening demon. ]
Messere Caius, [ remembering who he is and why he's talking to her, and gaining no small measure of enthusiasm as she does, ] hello! Whatever you prefer is fine.
[ can't please people if you have something as gauche as preferences, after all. ]
Let me make room. Since we were going to be discussing Tevinter, I thought I should brush up, [ she explains, closing her book and making a tidy stack of notes to place atop it, clearing the table for caius to sit opposite her. ] I must have got carried away, I didn't realize it'd already been an hour.
no subject
It helps that her enthusiasm is a little infectious, too. His expression softens a touch, grip loosening on his staff as he approaches, taking the seat opposite her. ]
Don't worry about it. There's a lot to brush up on.
[ Two thousand years of history, etc. ]
Before we get into it— we didn't discuss payment. [ A thing he could have mentioned before arriving; the tilt of his head is a touch apologetic. He's not an altruist, he just didn't want to risk scaring her off. ] More of a trade, is what I had in mind, if you're amenable. You'll be learning from more than just me, I'm guessing. Wondered if you wouldn't mind passing on what you learn from them, too. Just the things you can't find in books.
no subject
[ most up to this point haven't been terribly concerned with payment, so ness had foolishly begun to take it as a given that no one would be. at the mention of it now, her smile begins to fall, and she folds her hands in her lap, bracing herself—but it's nothing dire, and the smile is quick to return. ]
I wouldn't mind that, sure. Are there topics you're especially interested in? I can comb my notes to see if there's anything that fits the bill already.
[ except—hang on. she's naive, but she's not stupid, and there is a war on. she looks at him very seriously, almost like a parent exhorting their child not to lie. ]
This will be very awkward if you turn out to be a spy, Messere Caius. Please don't do that to me.
no subject
Nobody'd send a spy to ask after Orlesian table manners, anyhow. [ A beat. ] I bet they've got books on that, actually, but seems like it'd be hard to capture the, uh, nuance.
[ What the fuck are Orlesians on about, anyway. ]
no subject
I don't know, [ thoughtfully—she does believe him, you know, but also, ] that actually seems the exact sort of thing a spy might want to know? There is nuance to it that might be missed in just reading about it, and if you're pretending to be someone from a different country than you really are you'd need to know those nuances, or you'd give yourself away immediately. Don't you think?
[ now that they're both sure they're not threats, time to have a riveting conversation about what if, hypothetically, they were. ]
no subject
Val Royeaux, maybe. Churneau, if you want to be a little less obvious. Better yet, recruit an Orlesian governess north. But the only thing worth the risk of getting into Riftwatch -- and more importantly, getting back out again -- is information you can't get anywhere else.
[ Not that he's, you know, thought about it extensively or anything. ]
no subject
That's true.
[ and, not for nothing, interesting that he's thought about it enough to have ready opinions. but she's decided she believes he's not a spy, at least, if not trusts him, so there must be another reason for that.
probably. ]
So why are you interested in things like that, filtered through someone who knows even less about this area than you?
[ the question isn't meant to be probing, but ness realizes that it could be at about the same time that she realizes that she is also, effectively, convincing caius that she's not worth trading information with.
she blinks, eyes wide with the realization, then chuckles, a little nervous. ]
Not that I'm not willing to pass things along to you! I'm just curious! You don't have to say, if you don't want to.
no subject
[ She is agreeing to help him, after all. And if he can't wholly dispel the possibility he might be a spy (is anyone really a spy, before they turn?), he can at least try to put her mind at ease. The last thing he needs to be is a suspected spy. ]
We don't learn very much about the South. I don't think Southerners realize exactly how little.
[ And he's not eager to inform everyone. ]
But you, no one expects you to know anything. I just think that's a more useful place to start -- from scratch, without anyone assuming you already know half the rules or eat babies for breakfast or whatever.
no subject
[ she relaxes in relief, the habitual smile beginning to spread back across her face before it's replaced with furrowed, befuddled brows. ]
Is that literal? Do people really think Tevinters eat babies?
[ because look, she understands that broadly the country is the enemy of the moment (of the year, the decade, the centuries) but people are always just people, no matter where they're from, and people don't tend to eat babies. ritual cannibalism, occasionally, consuming vanquished foes to absorb their power, not unheard of, but babies—
she might be taking this too seriously, cutting humourous hyperbole off at the knees by interpreting it literally and confusing herself. well—moving on, then, let's not linger on a stupid question. ]
I do have some notes on customs, etiquette, that sort of thing, but I didn't bring them with me. I can go to my desk and fetch them, if you want them now?
🎀
Don't worry about it, [ shaking his head, easy. ] We're already here. Let's get you up to speed on Tevinter first — the parts that aren't pure gossip.