crystal || OPEN.

[degenere]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Val de Foncé
RECIPIENT: E V E R Y O N E
WHAT: researchers, meet your new boss. everyone else, give Val a high five. applications for Research Secretary now being collected.
WHEN: right now
WHERE: your ears

Research, Inquisition. [Hail and well met my dudes Val is still Orlesian. Note the accent.] If this word does not thrill you as it does me, we have very little to speak of. In fact we may not have spoken at all. In Val Royeaux, at the University, I and my friends are well known for all of the research that we have contributed to the vast stores of knowledge that are contained within our much beloved and greatly venerated University.

And I am pleased now to inform you, Inquisition, that I have been made Head of Research for this very organization that we all name as our own. A very wise choice. There are so very few that possess my credentials, experience, and charm. It is my belief that we, as a division, shall far surpass the work of all other divisions. For our purpose is not only superior: it is clearer, too.

[In a more serious tone, now:] To those lucky enough to be working on research projects for the Inquisition, I am requesting that all work you have amassed on each topic be put into the fires and burned. [And a pause before, more cheerfully:] No! Do not do that. What I mean is, we start anew, together. But you must submit your work to me for a metaphorical burning. I shall burn it with my critique. I require at the very least a written proposal for the work you are conducting. If a project has begun, let us visit it together.

I shall also require a secretary. Chief duties for this position will be, of course, reading project proposals. Please, make an introduction and submit your credentials to me in my office forthwith. You need not be a member of our research efforts, but you must have a keen interest in reading terrible handwriting.

[And generally doing all the work but that part remains unsaid.]

And! To those that might contest my selection, I shall quote the translation of a rustic proverb found engraved upon the wall of Orzammar, taught to me by my very dear Baroness Frédérique: may a demon eat your arse.

Comments

[youwonscience]

Sure, though they're not going to be ready by the end of the day too, unless you want something really cursory. You have any particular areas of interest? A whole world is a lot to describe, even just sticking to one country.

... in fairness, it's a big country.

[degenere]

So is Orlais. I see your meaning. I could write pages and pages of her fair lands, her people and her customs, her culture--such culture!--and her history and her traditions and everything of her that makes her so very great, and it would take much more than a single day.

I suppose let us then begin on things that you are interested in. Write of these, for you will write of them with great passion. Passion is an area that is my interest, as it should be for all.

[youwonscience]

Is that an Orlesian truism, or your personal perspective?

[It sounds as if she's smiling.]

[degenere]

Ah, well. As I am an Orlesian, I suppose the moment that I say it, it becomes an Orlesian truism.

So your answer is: both, mademoiselle.

[youwonscience]

Cheeky.

[She will never stop making jokes for an absent audience.]

But fair enough. And whatever I write, it's probably going to trigger more specific questions for you, which I can then answer, so we'll make progress eventually. It seems like a handful of the other rifters are from my world too, or one close enough we can't tell the difference.

[degenere]

That is a strange coincidence, strange enough that I think it must not be a coincidence at all. You will be studying the rifts in particular, yes? I believe I saw your name written on that list.

[youwonscience]

Yeah, I think I got assigned that for obvious reasons. It's what I was looking at mainly before I got formally assigned anyway. What the Veil is, how rifts work, how not to die from the shard in my hand, all kinds of fascinating stuff.

[degenere]

Have you any magic?

[youwonscience]

Negative. I mean, apart from the shard in my hand, but I haven't figured out how to use that for anything other than closing rifts and "producing dull muscle aches" so far. Nothing innate to me.

[degenere]

On that, you are in good company. Well-- the lack of magic, anyways. My hands are blessedly free from such shards. I have heard rumor that there might be some magics that they can do, but these are, I think, mostly rumor. And of course if anyone would know better, it would be you, mademoiselle.

[Because, the shard.]

[youwonscience]

The shield thing is documented, at least a little, if that's what you mean. I can't do it myself, though. I wonder if it might have to do with the duration of how long someone's had a shard, but that's honestly conjecture at this point. You'll see a section in my notes about it. It can't be stress alone, anyhow, as I've been in sufficient physical danger to trigger it if that were the only factor.

[Look, it's not Cosima's fault that these "perfectly safe research missions" keep going pear-shaped.]