crystal.

[indocile]

FORM: Sending crystal!
SENDER: Margaux
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: An observation
WHEN: Current
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Warnings TBA if necessary.

( the voice that comes through the crystals is young, light, high lilting orlesian; educated, but after the fact, someone whose speech is influenced by time spent around the upper-classes rather than someone who is identifiably one of them. the tone is thoughtful; )

There are an awful lot of Dalish, aren't there?

( like, any. )

Are they all one clan?

( gosh, they can probably hear this. )

Comments

[arlathvhen]

[ There's a hesitation, not because Margaux is wrong, but because Beleth knows agreeing could...allow people to take offense. Even if she's right. ]

They are Dalish, in a cultural sense. But. They wouldn't be allowed in an Arlathvhen, for instance.

[ So, yes. Fakey fake fakers. ]

[indocile]

I didn't know that you did that to your own.

( she'd liked to imagine -

but they were just stories. the nice version is never the true one. )

[arlathvhen]

[ Slightly tersely: ] We give our own free will, to do as they will. Sometimes, what they will is to separate themselves from the clans. No one is forced to hold to a clan, if they desire otherwise. [ It's not like she likes knowing her clanmates ditched her for shem booty. ]

[indocile]

In the stories, ( with care, ) they're like families. Are they not, really?

[arlathvhen]

They are, from my own experience. My mother is our leader, my brother, her apprentice. [ There's a touch of pride in her voice. Busts open wallet, let me tell you about my brother. ] And the others--blood relation or no, you grow up with them, side by side. Through all the awkwardness of adolescence, and sometimes, the awkwardness of adulthood. I'm close to many of the members of my clan, and miss them dearly.

[ Then, the warmth fades from her voice. ]

Still, there is always the choice to leave. Some choose it.

[indocile]

Mmm.

( unconvincing, beleth. )

Thank you for answering.

[dalishious]

Some don't get a choice.

[indocile]

Do any?

( because beleth sounds like a fake bitch is why. )

[dalishious]

Sure. But you can be kicked out too.

[indocile]

Can they choose to go back?

[dalishious]

I can't.

[indocile]

I'm sorry.

Can anyone?

[dalishious]

Not all clans are the same. I can't speak for everybody.

Just don't fuck up enough to get banished.

[indocile]

I don't think I have to worry. ( wryly ) They wouldn't want me to the first.

[dalishious]

What's with the interest in the Dalish, anyway? We're not a pet project.

[indocile]

( not a 'we', either, she thinks -

but the question doesn't make sense, at first. from someone else, someone not dalish or former dalish or however it works - then she would understand. but merrick's question frames him and them in a way that margaux can't instinctively grasp, not raised on stories of the heroic, true elves. saviors of their ways. we will all be dalish one day, her mama said, kissing her ears. she wipes gold paint off her face some nights and thinks: we won't. every day that they don't come, every whisper of what happens when you look for them -

and then dalish. real dalish, here, big as life! maybe they do care, maybe they are coming, oh, no one knows how many elves live in the woods, what a difference it could make, when the nobles push back - and they will - against what celene and briala have done, maybe they are everything her mama promised -

but they aren't. she listens to them talk to her and her heart sinks and she's angry with it for sinking; for thinking differently. they still don't care about anyone else. they still aren't coming. these aren't even proper dalish, just the cast-offs, and that they have cast-offs is awful, every story of a city elf's mistaken hope that hardened her heart never let her imagine they'd even turn on their own.

eventually; )

I was surprised, only.

( but she isn't, any more. )

well damn ):

[dalishious]

[ Sorry, Margaux. Merrick isn't someone who will candy-coat things, no matter what it is. The Dalish are better than he's making them out to be, he knows that, but the bitterness is strong with this one. ]

Well, we exist. Anything else?

elf feelings the musical

[indocile]

No. No, I think not.

[dalishious]

You an elf?

[indocile]

Yes. From Val Royeaux, originally.

[arlathvhen]

Really.

[ So who put a blade to your throat and made you scream at my mom. ]

[dalishious]

I'm not gonna fight with you on this.

[arlathvhen]

[ She makes a quiet, upset noise at the back of her throat--only barely audible over the crystal. She didn't want Merrick to leave, she could speak to her mother, she could fix things--

But when she speaks again, it's with her diplomatic voice. Polite, but emotionally closed off. ]

As you say.