therookery | Coryphriends } Closed

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Freddie Durfort-Lacapalette
RECIPIENT: Members of the Corypheus' History project
WHAT: Intro + brainstorming sesh
WHEN: Right now
WHERE: In your ears
NOTES: Threadjacking encouraged! And with this group, probably some kind of terminal sass overdose warning

[ The message begins with the genteel clearing of a throat and then a voice, lightly accented but unmistakably Orlesian. ]

Good evening, all. I do not believe any of us has met in the past, but my name is Frédérique Durfort-Lacapalette, Baroness Haut-Brion, but you may simply call me Freddie, or Lady Freddie if you are the type to insist upon formalities. [ Which would be an absurd thing to say to this particular group, if she'd ever knowingly met any of them before. But she has not, so enjoy laughing behind your hands at the notion. ]

I will be leading this effort to uncover more information regarding our adversary Corypheus, and I am pleased to have your assistance in this endeavor. To begin, I would like you each to introduce yourself, and to share how you came to be assigned to this project, and if you have any particular expertise you believe will be useful to achieving our ends.

And of course, ideas! Should you have any suggestions for how we ought to begin, I would like to hear them. While my research skills are of course formidable, I freely confess to knowing little about our foe in specific, and even were that not so, I believe an open exchange and discussion of ideas is essential to the development and transmission of knowledge.

I look forward to hearing from each of you!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't know. It depends. I think I get duller with liquor, but much more interesting when I've been stabbed.

That is quite fascinating on its own, as I've found that the reverse is true for most people.

Not fascinating at all, I'm afraid, are these letters you copied for the advisors. I've encountered thousand year old pictographs carved on rotting bark that were easier to decipher than your hand. You'll need to either bring me the originals or dictate their contents to someone because these will not do for our files.

Hey!

[ Despite the exclamation point, that's a mild hey, almost reflective. ]

I learned my letters from the finest tutors a Chantry abbey in the middle of nowhere had to offer. [ A pause. ] I'll bring you the originals, as long as I can have them back someday. But the gist of it is that the Grey Wardens—the first ones—caught him after the First Blight. They thought they could learn from him, or use him as a weapon, and when they realized that wasn't the case, they managed to imprison him, somehow. They used Dumat's carcass to lure him and some weapon or another to stop him. I don't understand how they held him except that it involved blood magic. And they couldn't kill him. They tried. Eventually they sealed it all up, and most of us never knew he was even there.

I'm sure that answers all of your questions.

[There's a slow sigh before he speaks, not glad to be volunteering the information but perhaps they should have it out there.]

Blood magic of a specific blood line. If that's relevant when it failed before. We've one person with that lineage in Kirkwall, and I know one blood mage. Don't ask for the mage's name.

[She can say it herself if she wants to.]

I don't think it had to be that lineage for any particular reason, except that that's who they picked first. The seals are already broken. We can probably leave them out of it.

[He snorts.]

If they're willing to be left out of it.

[Hawkes...]

This is a great deal of new information, Alistair.

[ Freddie says, after this summary and also the exchange below about killing (or not) archdemons. She sounds irritated. Like maybe she just took a minute to throw a tiny little tantrum in her room off-crystal and is now speaking through clenched teeth as she regains control. ]

It is fascinating, and truly begs as many questions as it answers.

[ Nope, okay, nevermind that control for a moment. She sounds significantly more Orlesian when she's outraged. ] Have the Wardens ever considered the colossal stupidity of keeping information like this from the vast community of scholars who might have been able to help with it? All of this hidden for a thousand years! Dumat's carcass! A talking darkspawn! When it could have been studied--by people whose minds it cannot control!--and written about and experimented on and-- this could shake the very foundations of scholarship on the history of the Blight, the nature and anatomy of dragons, likely several schools of magic, and that is just off the top of my head! It is a-- a-- an unconscionable theft of knowledge!

Edited 2017-05-27 06:41 (UTC)

[ If this were a cartoon his hair would be blown back, but the expression on his face—and his tone of voice, which is what counts here—doesn't change. ]

Well, when you put it like that...

[ He clears his throat and manages to sound slightly more like a serious person involved in serious events. ]

We've made a lot of mistakes. And at this point a lot of us have died for them. What little any of us know now, it's yours.

[ That he doesn't try to argue, really, that pulls the rug out from under Freddie's anger somewhat. But she's not completely disarmed, not yet. He may not be able to see her narrow-eyed gaze, but he can probably imagine it from her tone. ]

That easily? And what caveats come with this cooperation?

None.

—well. [ Yeah, no, that was probably too good to be true. ] There are a few things I could be killed for telling you. [ Kaisa. ] But you have my word I'll tell you when I'm not telling you something, instead of lying or talking around it. I'm no good at that anyway. So you'll have a fighting chance to convince me it's worth it.

Hhhhmmmmmm.

[ A drawn-out and skeptical noise. But hey, at least she's considering. And not yelling. He should consider this a win. ]

Very well. You have a deal, Alistair Not-Theirin. But I reserve the right to renegotiate this arrangement in the future should it prove deleterious to our goals.

I'd expect no less.

[ The ridiculous verbal flourish on that completely warrants italics. ]

And I appreciate your accuracy almost as much as I'd appreciate not being called that.

Coryphriends } Closed

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(private) i don't have an appropriate icon for this. use your imagination

(private) are you sure you want to give me that power

absolutely

https://marthalhyde.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/angry-baby.jpg

amazing

ty ty