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

[indocile]

No one would say it didn't, in my family.

( neutrally )

[mythalenaste]

Oh, of course all the legal things still hold. You lose the protection of the law and any property you had with it. People look at you funny. But you don't stop being who you are just because of that. You carry your country and culture with you even when your country and culture don't want you.

[indocile]

( sounds a lot like beleth does say who's outclan, when you put it like that. )

So what she says is true.

[mythalenaste]

Yes and no. We're outside the laws of the Dalish. But if we find other clans, or found other clans, it's completely reversible. At any rate, it isn't a fallen state or anything to be ashamed of.

[indocile]

I don't think you should be ashamed. No.

( but your family was shit and she's sorry. )

[mythalenaste]

[Pel mistakes what she means at first and almost retorts when she catches the emphasis on you. Mythal help her, she's so accustomed to hostility that she's returning it automatically and without thinking. It's never easy for anyone to leave their clan, or be thrown out, but Pel is luckier than most. Too lucky to think she has a right to complain, and so she has defenses written into her brain, ready to call up in place of complaining. Complaining is considered pathetic, defending is considered strong.

And all this time, she has mistaken pity for disappointment.]

I...thank you. What's your name?

[indocile]

Margaux.

( a best passes )

I'm sorry that happened to you. It didn't sound like she said. A choice.

[mythalenaste]

Well--

[It was a choice. It also wasn't. Pel was the one who cut the ties, but Deheune was the one who gave her the shears and packed her bags. Deheune had raised her from infancy to do just the one thing, and then suddenly discouraged her so strongly from doing it that Pel still wonders what really would have happened if she's said she wanted to stay.]

Leaving wasn't what happened to me, [she says softly.] Would you like tea, or something to eat? We could talk about it more in person.

[indocile]

( she has to think about it, but - )

I'd like some tea. Thank you.

[mythalenaste]

Come to the kitchen and I'll have some hot tea for you. I'm the pregnant one.

[Might as well use her most distinguishing marker. Anymore, she is known as "the pregnant one" even more than she's known by her name.]

to action.

[indocile]

You'll know my hands for the tattoos.

( it becomes apparent her hands may not be her most immediately distinguishing feature; she's not more than 4'11, slender, and while half of her hair is swept back in a high ponytail, much of it falls loose to her waist, lilac waves. her cheekbones are high and her complexion dark -

but sure, people are looking at her hands when she walks in. )

Hello, Pel?

[mythalenaste]

[Pel is comfortably parked at a table, writing in a book. In contrast with Margaux, she has grey hair in two plain and disheveled braids, as if she slept in them last night and hasn't redone them. Her clothing is of solid but inexpensive make, and she's clearly wearing some manner of corset underneath. In front of her are two steaming cups.

At her name, she looks up, and perhaps she can be forgiven if she stares for a heartbeat. The Winter Palace had been work and masks and fans, so she has never seen such a creature as this before. Even the highest of the high ladies she has known haven't had such a striking appearance.

Her gaze falls to the wayside as she realizes she is staring, and her hand leaves the pen to smooth over her disheveled hair, as she is suddenly conscious that she woke up with it like this. What a beautiful woman. She feels shamefully shabby by comparison.]

Yes, Margaux.

[She has barely had time to register that this lady is an elf. She isn't entirely sure what to make of it, either. Some noble's pet? A glamorous courtesan? It probably isn't her business at all.]

[indocile]

( the clothing doesn't make anything obvious; sturdy leather trousers and vest, soft from wearing, a dark blouse, boots - those are the most visible expense, of better make than most elves wandering into skyhold can afford. she wears no jewelry, no cosmetics; is nevertheless lovely when she brightens and joins pel. )

Thank you for the tea. I've still the road, it's welcome -

( shaking her hair illustratively as she sits. )

[mythalenaste]

[It's not the clothing. It's only a little bit the unusual hair color. It's the smoothness of skin and the quality of grooming, the sort Benevenuta and Vivienne always had, though they lacked the unusual hair color that gives Margaux the edge. Pel's fingers don't catch on the wool broadcloth of her coat anymore, as many oils and creams as she has been given for stretch marks, but she remembers when they did. She sees that hair as it moves and wonders if she dyes it, and what it would take to make it that color.

It's when Margaux speaks and moves and thanks her like a person that Pel manages to snap out of it. Her smile flashes briefly, as it almost always does, but it remains in her eyes even when it has left her mouth.]

You're welcome. What's brought you to Skyhold?

[indocile]

( the question makes her smile skew wry, tattooed hands curling around her cup; she is so much younger than benevenuta or vivienne and it shows in the girlishness of her mannerisms, how she glances back up at pel from beneath her lashes, measuring.

it isn't hard to imagine people willing to give those eyes all manner of things. )

I want to be a part of the Inquisition. Only see what happened when they came to Halamshiral - I was there. Not in the fighting and all, but - we left for Val Royeaux again only after. Would the Marquise -

( how she savors that address of her hero )

- have achieved so much? Well, ouais, but maybe not so fast, not all at once. It is good for her, for us to do more - to make it hard to take away.

Also I have an arrest issued there.

( teasip. )

[mythalenaste]

[That makes the rose-colored glasses shatter. And when the smile reaches Pel's mouth, it stays this time. She raises her tea.]

Congratulations. I hope it was for something fun. [Sip.] I was at Halamshiral as well, though I was part of the fighting. You know you can't see vallaslin from behind a mask, so it was pretty easy to pass for a servant.

[indocile]

I forged a nobleman's signature and borrowed - ( "without asking, because he'd say no, which is stealing" ) - his seal to persuade a merchant ship from Antiva to take a family as passengers.

( not much fun, really, but she's not sorry. only that it will make directly operating there's hard. )

Shems don't look close. Mostly they cannot tell one from another. If the shipping manifest hadn't turned up, for instance--

( she spreads her hands, invites conspiracy. elves gotta do. )

[mythalenaste]

That's amazing. [Like something out of one of Varric's better novels.] Did the family make it?

[indocile]

They've a contact - they will disappear there.

( she's very proud of herself. )

A little messy only, so I think a good time to be in the mountains, no?

[mythalenaste]

That deserves at least an extra cup of tea. And anything you'd ask of me, ever, except for the baby. I've a feeling if you call in a favor, it'll be worth it.

[indocile]

I know a lot of people, from traveling. It's good-- you always know the right someone, somewhere.

Then you can do lots of things. Like this!

[mythalenaste]

That's it exactly. So you know what it is I do for the Inquisition, I'm an arcane researcher. I also do a lot of practical work--spinning, knitting, camping. Magic and wool, basically. And writing, I guess. And a bit of sword work. Be with the Inquisition long enough and you'll have picked up a great many things.

[indocile]

I hope so. I'd like this, to know more things - I am a dancer, I know a little to fight. To pick pockets. I went to university a very little.

( her nose wrinkles - a complicated memory. )

Siuona said there's many mages to your - former - clan?

[mythalenaste]

[Pel would love to go to a university. She doubts she would be welcome.]

Former clan, yes. [Yep, she's a former Asharan. She is a very stoic person, but her brow smooths out almost preternaturally when she speaks of it.] I was very little when my magic manifested. Dalish can't have too many mages in one clan, so my parents gave me to Clan Ashara. My mother's cousin was there, so I had someone, at least. I was older when Beleth's brother and Ellana came into their magic. The Keeper decided to keep us all, I'm not sure why, but she got one with me and wound up with just the one in the end, so I suppose it doesn't matter much.

[judgemewhole]

[You can't see it Pel but James is Grinning Go On Girl.]