Coryphriends } Closed

[aventuriere]

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!

Comments

[alankazam]

I was going through the books in the library, to organize them, [ by size and colour ] So that we can find things more easily.

Wait. Sorry. I was organizing the books to find them more easily, because I couldn't find the flat purple one with the frayed edge that was in Skyhold, and we brought some of the books from Skyhold so it smelled like it should be there. Or at least that if it wasn't there, that they should have their own.

I was looking for the flat purple one because it has a good drawing of gurguts where you can tell what they're supposed to be is mostly water, which I was looking for because —

[ this continues on for several minutes, far past whatever initial reason one looks for gurgut pictures ]

— So he told me I should go ask the bloody Orlesians if I was so set on it, and then I saw the signup list.

[ he sounds faintly pleased at that. almost proud. orlesians! he found them. ]

Oh — right. I'm Alan.

[ hello!! ]

Is he in a book, then? Corypheus?

[byblow]

We haven't met, Lady Freddie— [ formalities are terrible, but that's fun to say ] —but I specifically remember you calling me broad-jawed and bland—but not oatmeal bland, unless I might be more interesting with other things put into me.

[byblow]

[ Great. ]

[aventuriere]

[ Congratulations, Alan, you have achieved a rare feat: Freddie is speechless.

But only briefly, let's not get too excited. ]

Well. You may congratulate yourself, Alan, for you have found the Orlesians. [ Because where Freddie is, the others are too, at least in spirit. ]

He may be in a book, that's one of the things we shall have to sort out. Is organizing the books your job, presently? Or-- something with animals? [ She's guessing. ]

[aventuriere]

[ She laughs. It's a very pretty sound that is not at all as mean as one might expect from just reading comments like that one. ]

I can't claim to remember writing any such thing, but I shall happily take credit for it. It's not a bad line, is it? It sounds so like something I might say. So tell me, sir, are you more interesting with other things put into you?

[ She really did come into this intending to be professional but here we are. ]

[alankazam]

[ so

happy ]

[alankazam]

I thought you were. Is Lacapalette a place?

[ or. the rest of them. barons think they own places, he knows that much. ]

I'm a scout now. I suppose.

[ he sounds a little uncertain about that. ]

[aventuriere]

No, it's just a name, Haut-Brion is the place. [ the place that she totally owns ] You suppose? Do you wish to do something else?

[alankazam]

A place in Orlais,

[ he confirms, slowly working it out. ]

I don't know. I've never been a scout before. They're supposed to find things, aren't they?

[ so he's already doing great ]

[justice_is_blond]

[...They're being lead by one of the ones who likes charging into danger for the sake of adventure. This really is the story of his life, over and over again.]

I've met him before. Corypheus, that is. I don't think you and I have met, though we've spoken and I've met one of your... cousins? I'm actually not sure if you three are really cousins or just call each other that. I'll not be using titles.

And I'm Anders.

[justice_is_blond]

Is... Corypheus.... in a book.

[He's not trying to mock the question, just trying to repeat it so that somehow it can make sense.]

[alankazam]

Yes. Should we be looking in books?

[justice_is_blond]

I don't know of any books that address him. He's mentioned in Tale of the Champion, but there's so much added detail in everything Varric's written there that he may as well be talking about particularly murderous sheep.

If there's any about Corypheus, it would be Tevine. Can you read that?

[aventuriere]

Indeed. Near the city of Val Foret.

[ Freddie is so nonplussed by all of this. Is this some kind of joke? Has Val signed a child up for her team as a prank? She's read his file but that also read a bit like a prank. ]

I believe finding things would describe many of their duties, yes. And I'm sure skill in finding things will be quite useful in our work here, as there is much information we need to find.

[ Finding reminds her of his comments about the library, and she pauses. Eyes narrow. ]

You have been reorganizing the library? By what system?

[aventuriere]

Alan is quite right not to discount book research. We cannot hope just for explicit mentions of Corypheus but should cast a wide net in search of any hint of our quarry.

And as it happens, my first teaching post at the University was as a tutor in Tevene. It's been many years since that course but I would be happy to assist any who'd care to learn. It will certainly be of use in our work.

[byblow]

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

[aventuriere]

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.

[byblow]

Killed him before, wasn't it?

[aventuriere]

[ For the sake of knowledge, Anders. Completely different. Not at all the same feeling when you die.

Anyway there's a pause in which she recognizes his voice and then her tone is extremely dry. Not hostile, but very dry indeed. ]

Is it truly possible that the pretentious fellow lecturing me on endangering myself was you, the Anders, mage, warden, notorious criminal? How extraordinary.

[justice_is_blond]

The evidence suggests we were, perhaps, not as successful at that as initially believed.

[byblow]

That's what happened with Dumat, the first dozen times.

[aventuriere]

Ahem. [ She's clearing her throat but it literally comes out as 'ahem'. This is the sort of skill that got her this job. ]

Explain yourselves, monsieurs.

[byblow]

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.

[byblow]

The Archdemon from the first Blight. [ People know that, right? Rifters might not. Alan might not. ] They killed him, and he just came back later, good as new, until eventually a Warden tried it and it worked. And that's why people have to put up with us.

—anyway, in this case a Warden did help, at least. Anders was there. But I've wondered if he couldn't do the same trick. Maybe even do it better.

[justice_is_blond]

I wasn't discounting book research. The phrasing threw me for a few moments.

I'd like to learn how to read it, actually, beyond a few sparse things here and there.