crystal; closed

[foxsays]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Araceli Bonaventura
RECIPIENT: Korrin Ataash, Val de Foncé, Melys, Samouel Gareth, James Norrington
WHAT: Roll call for the Inquisition naval projects team
WHEN: Now-ish
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: threadjack away

I don't wish to make assumptions on anyone's behalf so I won't but all of us have either chosen to look to the seas and the possibility of an Inquisition navy in some shape or you've been assigned to it. I would hope it means you have a passion for seafaring and all that comes with it but that isn't necessary, it just makes the hard work easier.

Unfortunately I only know half of you so I will introduce myself: my name is Araceli Bonaventura, at your service, I've been chosen to lead but I would like to know who you are, your background, where you are from, what you enjoy. [Who knows how all the pieces fit together and she actually doesn't know like half of you. So. Trying to fix that. Awkwardly. Instead of just parkouring into your lives.] If you have any questions about me, please feel free to ask.

I'm not from Thedas but I come from a nation of sailors, where our whole home is a series of islands and archipelagos, so I've never not been around sailors or pirates or shipwrights and so forth. Have you sailed before? Are you familiar with it in Thedas? If there are ideas that you have, I would be glad to hear them and discuss them.

If you'd all like to meet together or separately over drinks and perhaps cards and dice? That can certainly be arranged. Thank you for your time.

Comments

[gatheringstorm]

Checking in, o fearless leader. I'm all for a meeting over drinks and cards at the Hanged Man, of course. Let's do it.

[Formal meetings are so tedious, they can mix business and pleasure. Please?]

[el_tybs]

I second meeting up for drinks and games.

[It would also do them all good to get to know each other in person rather then over a crystal.]

[gatheringstorm]

Good man, I knew you'd be on board.

[el_tybs]

A little ship humor there, Korrin?

[gatheringstorm]

Only a little, I don't plan to be murdered for one too many nautical puns.

[aforethought]

Not that I got a problem with all that, but is this the kinda shit we should really be talking on in public? Ain't like it's all friends out there.

[gatheringstorm]

We could bring the drinks over to one of their private rooms?

[aforethought]

Dunno about you, but that's the first place I'd go listening for someone. They got space coming out the ass in here, and over on the island. Could even do it on one of these here boats, be all thematic.

[gatheringstorm]

...you know, that's a good idea. I'm all for being thematically appropriate.

[foxsays]

[You know your girlfriend well enough to know the exact face she is making right this second.]

Don't ever call me that sirena or you're sleeping on the floor. [There isn't a couch to turf her onto.] The Hanged Man isn't really where I had in mind though, the Herald's Rest might have worked if we'd been in Skyhold but too many ears and eyes.

[gatheringstorm]

[Unrepentant chuckle, but at least she stops.]

How about Melys' idea? We grab some hooch and take over one of the Inquisition ships for a bit. Thematically appropriate, too.

[foxsays]

The captains hopefully wouldn't mind, and we need to know them well enough anyway. I can steal anyone away from their other duties too.

[And probably bribe the sailors with dinner or drink.]

[aforethought]

It's Melys. Ferelden. I been on a boat before.

[ not as crew or necessarily a paying passenger, but whatever. details. ]

You know how to play anything what ain't out of the Fade?

[ there's no particular vitriol attached to the question. whether araceli's a demon or something matters a lot less than whether they're about to get grifted at some game they actually know the rules of. ]

[foxsays]

How did you find it?

[Passion not required but. She really loves the sea. So much.]

I can play Wicked Grace honestly and dishonestly, there are more dwarves in Kirkwall so I can actually practice Diamondback now. Soldiers are good for fleecing money out of, not so good for actually learning how to play a game.

[Soldiers have honest faces, you don't always need to know the rules of the game to know when a soldier's bluffing or thinks that they've got a damn good hand.]

[aforethought]

Wet.

[ alas, araceli's passion is going to have to do for them both ]

There's an honest way to play Wicked Grace? [ there is, but it's not a fun one ] I been outta wool for years, but figure we can play for short straws or summat.

[foxsays]

Any seasickness?

When most everyone is bigger than you sometimes you are required to play more honestly in certain company. [Sometimes when you've got a hand that marks you out you need to be a little more careful about who you might try to cheat. It all reflects. She has friends and other people who might get hurt if she upsets someone.] What would wool have to do with that?

[Melys she had never seen like 90% of land animals in the flesh before Thedas.]

[degenere]

Look to the seas. There is such poetry in this. Is such speech common, in the country that you are from?

[actual introduction to follow, maybe, sorry]

[foxsays]

We came from the seas, all of it is much the same. The sea is witness to all things and tears are only so much salt so return your joy and sorrow to what created you.

[Why not continue to give examples, this is the icebreaker round.]

[degenere]

How curious. Then you are made of water, or of fish meat? It seems to me dangerous that we should trust ourselves to some captain of fish, but then again, who should know the seas better than she who was born of the seas.

With a fin, I presume.

[judgemewhole]

It's an expression, you nitwit.

[Grumble.]

[foxsays]

[Val that's rude, she doesn't go asking about if you've perhaps added a lot more to your name because you're short in the trousers.]

I'm flesh and blood and my father was the captain, not me; we do not forget where we come from, the first stories we are told of how the world and the waves were made.

The royalty are the ones who have the gills, you understand.

[judgemewhole]

[Huh.]

I am for meeting on a ship, there are a number of smaller ones tied up at the docks at our perusal.

Pardon me, my manners. James Lysander Norrington, Templar Order [he's not saying the title you people should all know what it is by now.] Tantervale born and bred, Ostwick polished. I do love the sea, even considered becoming a captain of our merchant fleet when I was a boy -- but fate had other plans. I enjoy riding, swordplay, reading historical texts - and prayer.

If you like, over these drinks, I can tell you something about the Ostwick port and some of the other Free Marches ports, whom we might want to speak to about materials, the like.

I, ahem, will have to sit out on the cards.

[foxsays]

The last of my good rum from Rivain, donated to ensure we have our meeting place.

[Pour one out for the last of the good shit, when and where will she be sure Kirkwall isn't selling her trash better suited to stripping paint off the walls?]

Had you come from my home you might have done both, those from other lands mistake men such as my father as a preacher upon the waves. [She isn't going to say pirate preacher to James outright but sailing the seas and spreading the good word, going wherever you please? It's a tempting life.]

I'd welcome hearing about both those things, thank you, the Inquisition will need supplies and even if we are overseen by the forces, I report to diplomacy, it can't hurt us to make sure we have a friend or two who would be thankful or even indebted to us for information when it's needed. [But James, what's this she hears…]

Do the vows forbid it? If so then you must pray deeply for so many who enjoyed their off evenings in the Herald's Rest with me, and not just those who wore the armour.

[judgemewhole]

I do not think that will be necessary, so please hold onto the good stuff until we have something worthy of celebrating with it.

[A wryness there, before there is a soft 'Huh'.]

Your father was a fortunate man, then. I would have loved to had the option to be a Templar, and a sailor both. [More tempting than she knows.]

I think you will find that passing on good trade route information is worth it's weight in gold, to merchant traders. From a diplomatic point of view, at least. [He's here to make sure these things get from each port unmolested.]

My particular vows, yes. [And a deep, deep sigh.] As long as you do not name their names, the Maker will forgive them in His own shadow. No need for me to pray for them as well. [Or bloody well have them stand guard duty for a month. Vow of Poverty. Argh.]

[foxsays]

This isn't about celebrating, this is about securing a place without eyes and ears; they brought us here but they aren't beholden to us. Not yet at any rate. A single sailor talks, a whole ship can shout.

[Araceli says it with a sigh, an edge of knowing in it. Even before this, just talking to anyone by the docks to get to know them hadn't always been the easiest or most pleasant thing in the world.]

He is not like a Templar precisely but in all his life he has never spent a full day and night on land, he must return to his ship to be close to the waves. He reminds all people where we truly rose from, if we had a war he would be called upon to defend our home from attackers. [Felix Bonaventura, pirate supreme. Good dad, best dad.Araceli has never been anything but honest about that part of her life after all, if she's leading this then there's no reason to lie about what skills she can bring to the table.

Still, she laughs quietly, the sound muffled as if she has a hand pressed to her mouth.] Señor, they are fighting a war, sometimes a war that has seemed like several at once. Are they not allowed their times to indulge, to forget themselves when they give all of themselves to a cause far larger than a single woman or man?