Sending crystal announcement

[mythalenaste]

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Pel Ashara
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Announcing the publication of her first book
WHEN: After Weisshaupt/Western Approach things calm down a bit
WHERE: Skyhold

[A somewhat monotone voice is heard over the crystals.]

It's Pel. Of Clan Ashara. I've written a book and it's published now. It's about Dalish culture. I will be selling it at my yarn shop until the new Divine is elected, at which point it will be banned because it's a book about elves written by an elf. So buy it while you can.

[What? She's not a hawker. She's not a beggar, either.

She'll hang around on the crystal in case anyone has questions.]

Comments

[arsebiscuit]

That's what they all say.

[mythalenaste]

I...don't think it is, somehow.

The whole point of this is to show we're just people like anyone else. Scratching, snoring, farting, doing chores from dawn till dusk, just trying to get by without getting murdered. Sort of against the point to put down other elves.

[arsebiscuit]

Except it's a big part of the culture, ain't it? How we aren't good enough. If you're leaving that out, it's just the nice bits. Same as humans do.

[mythalenaste]

Our culture believes that we keep the lost lore. And when there's a new elven homeland and elves from around the world come together, we can teach that lore to the others. There's nothing in our actual lore that puts down elves who want no part in it, just. Arseholes like any other culture has.

[arsebiscuit]

Yeah. And your first okayed this book of yours, yeah?

[mythalenaste]

My first?

[arsebiscuit]

Keeper, then. Thought those lot were too busy for the little folk.

[mythalenaste]

Oh. I was First of my clan till I left to do this, and if my former Keeper has any problem with this, she can bite me.

And you've got it the wrong way round. When you're Keeper, or First, your whole existence surrounds your clan. Whether it's magic or not. If old Anan doesn't have children to take care of him, it's the Keeper or their apprentices who'll trim his toenails and give him a sponge-bath. You...fill in gaps. Anything people are doing without, you step in and help.

[arsebiscuit]

...Former?

[ Sorry, Sera stopped listening after that. ]

[mythalenaste]

I left my clan. To do this.

[It's not spoken impatiently, just slowly. Maybe she was going too fast, before.]

[arsebiscuit]

[This may be an important moment.

For some.

For Sera? It's laughing time]

Oh! You're the wrong kinda elf yourself now, yeah? Now I get it.

[mythalenaste]

There isn't a wrong kind of elf. [Now she sounds a little irritated.] And I'm still Dalish, I'm just without a clan.

[arsebiscuit]

Sure. That kinda talk's why you're out of clan.

[mythalenaste]

[Pel cuts herself off before reiterating that she's the one who left.]

What's your point?

[arsebiscuit]

Book got the shit parts? The bits you left over in it?

[mythalenaste]

It's...it's not a biography. There are definitely shit parts in it, and some of them are reasons I left, but it's not about me or my feelings. If you'd like the bits I left over, it's better to save your money and just ask me.

[arsebiscuit]

So more edited history.

[mythalenaste]

Not edited, it's just...it's not a book about me. It's not a book about...about Merrill, or any other number of individual elves. There's only so much that can go in a book.

[arsebiscuit]

So when's that book?

[mythalenaste]

When it doesn't hurt as much as it does now.

[arsebiscuit]

Right. Send a note when it's honest.

[mythalenaste]

[There's the sound of a book opening, pages being flipped.]

"To be a Keeper or apprentice is a painful sacrifice of self. It means the wellbeing of the self is secondary to that of someone else, anyone else, whatever the need. I have been Keeper's First from a very young age. When I was nine years old, a plague came to our clan. It was my task at that time to tend to the sick and dying, and aid in the burial of the dead. Duty among the Dalish does not know age, size, or strength. It is expected that a Keeper or apprentice will find the strength needed at the time they need it, with nothing given back."

That's why I left. If that's not a sensational enough exposée for you, go get your excitement from someone else. You don't have any business poking around for my personal story when you haven't even given me your name.

[arsebiscuit]

Sera. Of the Jennys. Life's hard all around, yeah? But most of us just try and make it less of a bitch, 'stead of writing books about the people that don't give a shit about us.

Ask your old clan if they want a book on them out there before you start shitting on the Divine, yeah? That name means something to most of us. And bet the Dalish burn it first.

[mythalenaste]

Look. If the Dalish hurt you, I'm sorry. But if all you're going to do is stand around and make up more reasons to hate me, fuck off. Nobody's making you buy the book.

[arsebiscuit]

You started it with the same old song and dance about the Divine. So you had to help people as a kid. Don't count as honest.