you’re too mean, I don’t like you, fuck you anyway

[elegiaque]

FORM: A published work, and a letter.
SENDER: Gwenaëlle Vauquelin
RECIPIENT: Anyone who purchases a copy; Gregoire Leblanc.
WHAT: On the Inquisition: A Lady's Observations, by Lady Gwenaëlle Vauquelin, part three. A gossipy depressing letter home.
WHEN: The editorial went out earlier, but the letter is mid August.
WHERE: You know, around.
NOTES:

• Previously.
  
• This publication is always fronted by the title and a bust sketch of the author, making her easily recognisable around Skyhold to any characters who want to talk to her about it.
  
• There continue to be no references to the Grey Wardens.
  
• You guys better not fuck up Orlais after she's said all this or she's going to be so mad.
  
  
  Written in advance of the Inquisition's rolling out to Orlais, this edition of her monthly bulletin is less of a meditation on the Inquisition or its work (as past works have been) but rather a sort of introductory piece: what can the heart of Orlais expect when the Inquisition arrives? Taking great pains not to commit to paper anything to do with things like troop movements, combat readiness or tactics - Gwenaëlle instead focuses on things like the daily interpersonal interactions of the Inquisition members, on its melting pot of cultures and what Orlesians might have to anticipate.
  
  There is an entire segment devoted to sensitivity to the Dalish (and other elves or whatever), which is. A start! It is also largely Gwenaëlle counselling patience in the face of those who, due to their less fortunate circumstances, are also unavoidably less civilized, reiterating their valuable contributions to the Inquisition's efforts and how they have therefore "earned" the leeway she suggests granting them when they (inevitably) show their ignorance of proper comportment or think themselves better than they are*. There is a section where she expands upon her understanding of the difference between 'Qunari', 'Vashoth' and 'Tal-Vashoth', which she acknowledges to be limited and essentially boils down to 'they do not like to be called ox-men' and 'they also do not like you to assume which thing that they are' and 'please call the large people with horns anything they like, politely'; her admiration of them is hard to miss in this writing, and is written with more natural ease to her literary voice than the painstaking way she approaches the Dalish.
  
  On the subject of mages, she refers her readers back to her previous edition regarding their council and recommends that any with concerns regarding the presence of the newly-independent mages direct said concerns to any present Councilors or their representatives (rather than acting individually or taking it higher in the Inquisition hierarchy); in this way she implicitly legitimizes their authority. (And possibly creates busy-work they didn't anticipate.)
  
  The piece continues in the vein of Gwenaëlle's effort to normalise the Inquisition for Orlais (touching on rifters, who are Even More Foreign And Ignorant, But We Cannot Blame Them For That) in what is a. essentially a puff piece and b. her small effort to protect her friends in a place she knows to be dangerous and unfriendly; she concludes by saying,
  
  It is my greatest pleasure to think that soon my countrymen will see for themselves what I have come to truly respect and appreciate here in Skyhold.
  
  
  G.,
  
  Do you remember when I met that Avvar mercenary, Asher Hardie? The one that led the Boneflayers. The mercenaries I mentioned the last time I wrote. The story you couldn't write because my lord would have had you strung up considering how hard he worked to quash it and because there's already that series of books about him. (You know, I do give you the credit, you'd have done it much better.) Well - he has been in Skyhold. It was as if not a minute had passed and we were only picking up the thread of conversation - I wanted to write to you to tell you that you should come just so you could meet him yourself. He doesn't didn't care much for Orlesian nobles, as a rule, but I do think he would have liked you. I think you could charm nearly anyone if you set your mind to it. I will deny saying this if you repeat it.
  
  I am writing this as we travel to the Avvar hold where we'll attend his funeral. I sat with him, like I did for my lady. Warriors aren't supposed to die in their beds like that, it was all wrong. I don't think it's right that he should have had so much time to be afraid. It felt cruel to watch. But I thought that I could at least that he could be with someone he hadn't got to be brave for. Someone he didn't have to comfort. I know about these things, you know, these battlefield types don't know about the little betrayals. My shard's done something strange and I was going to ask him for help because the elf that knows about those matters said that I'll have to learn to protect myself and then I remembered that I couldn't. That he couldn't. And now he won't do anything ever again, not for me or for anyone else. He's gone to his Lady in the Skies and there's nothing more to say on the matter because there'll never be anything more.
  
  I don't understand why it should have happened to someone who was so very alive. I will miss him awfully. I didn't know that until it happened.
  
  I miss you awfully. I wish you were here. I don't know what I'm doing. Morrigan and Thranduil and Bellamy are all in Orlais and I suppose the Boneflayers will leave, too, and then I'll be all alone here. Your sister is always busy and Aleron thinks I'm seven. I'm going to go and sit with Yngvi a while. I want to ask him more about this Marcher Lord who is a blacksmith that knows Carta dwarves.
  
  
  G.
  
  PS
  
  Please don't embarrass me if you meet anyone from the Inquisition in Val Royeaux.
  
  
  
  * THRANDUIL.

Comments

(no need for any response, of course)

[thecookery]

[With one of Gwenaëlle's meals this week, there is an extra plate of desserts. One of her favorites (someone may have asked Guenievre about this). There was even almost an apology note along with it as well, but this idea has long since been scrapped.

Bon appétit.]

A sealed letter, because the crystal felt very presumptuous with a stranger

[youwonscience]

[Cosima eventually found someone to pass along the following:]

Lady Vauquelin,

Please forgive any mistakes in my form of address or writing style; I am trying to catch up, but I am still too new to Thedas to be sure I won't offend accidentally. I wanted to write you and offer my compliments on your observations. The ones I've read are both helpful and interesting. If you'd ever like a glass of wine (or refreshment of choice) in exchange for a bit of conversation, I'm more than happy to foot the bill. If not, don't give it another thought, and please accept my compliments in the spirit they're meant.

Sincerely,

Cosima Niehaus

[She's still not really satisfied after several drafts, but she's not a writer. Eventually, she realizes she's in danger of not sending it at all and so just... does.]

[elegiaque]

( a skyhold runner brings the response, promptly, though the coin paid to him does not merit waiting about for the reply; )

Tea will suffice and I am sure it can be provided by the kitchens, if you wish a conversation. I am available in the afternoons. Perhaps in the library.

L.G.V.

( she might prefer wine, in all honesty, but she doesn't prefer drinking whatever the coin a rifter can acquire might pay for and she isn't at all prepared to offer anything of her own to a dubious stranger. )

[youwonscience]

[Cosima is pleased she got a response at all, much less an agreement to meet. She's not really sure that she'll have much success with someone so clearly aristocratic, and whose descriptions of Rifters are dubious, though she doesn't seem to think they're demons, so. On the other hand, her praise wasn't idle; the writing she's read has been sharp, interesting behind the decorative elements. Cosima has hopes.]

The library is excellent; I'm there most afternoons already. I'm a human with dark hair, working through Genitivi's "In Pursuit of Knowledge" at the moment. I look forward to speaking at your convenience.

[And she will be there, as promised. She has seen Gwenaëlle's portrait, but wants to leave the ball in her court, so to speak.]