therookery | (no subject)

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FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Adalia (and dragon son Charis)
RECIPIENT: Errybody
WHAT: Don't kill the dragon! Adalia can make you stuff! She has welcome packets for new rifters! HUZZAH!!!!
WHEN: Day after the Rifters show up
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: I don't have actual ooc writeups for the welcome packets. Yet.

( the voice that comes over the sending crystal has quite a bit of pep, though it may be manufactured pep. either way, the girl sounds energetic. )

Hello Inquisition, and hello especially to all the new Rifters who showed up yesterday! My name is Adalia, and I have a few points of order I wanted to let everyone know about.

First off, you will periodically see a baby dragon out and about in the Gallows! That would be my charge, Charis. Say hello, dear.

( there's a trilling call from the crystal this time, the sound going up and down in pitch — like an imitation of the word "hello" from a creature who can't actually say it. )

Please don't try to kill or otherwise harass him. He isn't a native dragon, I brought him through the rift with me as an egg, and the dragons where I'm from are both intelligent and rather friendly! He'd love to meet you, if you come say hello in good faith, and I promise you will not leave the meeting worse for wear.

Secondly! I have welcome packets for new Rifters I've been working on. They aren't particularly fancy yet, but included is a glossary of terms you need to be familiar with in order to carry on conversation here in Thedas, a map of the world as it is currently understood, and a short introduction to the various factions and politics at play at present. In the future I'll try to do more, but it's only been two months since I got here so this was as much as I could get done when I'm making the things myself. If you would like one, please stop by the Gallows library, look for the lady with curly blonde hair accompanied by a dragon, and simply ask! I will provide.

( a clapping noise, and she sounds even more excited now. )

Lastly, and most excitingly personally, I've figured out how to make a couple of the things I could make in my home here in Thedas! If you have need of a sleep aid, perimeter alerts, or a hangover remedy, I'd be happy to provide, either for money or trade. Feel free to find me in the library or get in touch with me over crystal if you're interested!

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I'm glad to know that your work is going well, were you able to use any of the old information left with the Rifts and the Veil project?

[Rifter information packets isn't why Araceli made this private however. She'd just rather not do all of this in public but since the dragon is being brought up with the aftermath of the Necropolis likely to be a headache for the forseeable future...]

Have you had the chance to learn the history of the Gallows at all, prior to the Inquisition being given leave to work out of it and it being a Circle of Magi before that? [She's going somewhere but jumping in would be rude, Adalia's cheerful, friendly, and making an offer to help which is far more than could be said for others but it's still a dragon.]

I was, thank you! It was very useful.

( the rest is a... rather strange non sequitur, but adalia isn't one to get annoyed by such things; instead she considers the question thoughtfully before speaking. )

I know Kirkwall itself is a city built on the backs of slaves. With a name like the Gallows, depending how far back that name stretches the implications are unfortunate to say the least... But I've been focusing on general knowledge rather than local history in my studies, and I can't say with any certainty I know to what you are referring.

Good, I am glad someone is doing something with it so it won't be gathering dust or going to waste.

[Reading's been done which is more than could be said for others but at the start of her third year, too aware of too many things she holds in a sigh not at Adalia but at the world, generally.]

Tevinter held Kirkwall once, and the Veil was already thin before the Breach as a result of the massive blood sacrifice of those slaves. Tevinter who would worship the Old Gods in the form of dragons, same as Corypheus has some monstrous one now; people see us, here in Kirkwall where the mage rebellion began, where not long before there was an invading force occupying part of their city.

[Some things no matter how gentle Araceli's voice might be come out how they are; these are facts and they're awful but this is the world we have to live in right now, slow to change because to change it too fast is to invite more violence into all their lives.]

( adalia listens to araceli's explanation and feels no more enlightened for it — whatever point she's driving at, it has gone completely over adalia's head. )

I'm sorry, Araceli, I'm not sure I understand what this is supposed to mean to me other than that Tevinter is terrible and Thedosian people are skittish.

( a thought, then, and adalia's voice loses its inquisitive brightness, replaced instead with dull disinterest. )

Are you trying to tell me people will accuse the whole of the Inquisition of worshiping ancient dead gods just because I have a dragon child.

That isn't what I'm saying, I'm just saying to be aware? We aren't well-loved here, and for all that you can say that he's friendly and intelligent, there are things that won't change. Even within the Inquisition there are those the question the wisdom [that's probably the best word for it] of having rifters in positions of power.

I'm asking you to be careful. There's a weight of history here, and if you're from the other side of a rift, you're the least likely to be trusted; I don't want you or Charis to be hurt. This isn't--

[The noise of frustration is swallowed, same as the urge to say that they likely already do. The Inquisition is not well-loved, and after Nevarra the reputation has suffered a blow it could ill-afford.]

Siento, I didn't intend this to be a lecture, I just don't want to see people hurt. I haven't lost friends to violence because of what they are here, but I've lost friends here. I've been hurt because of what I am by the enemy too, because I have an anchor in my hand, because I came through a rift, and it was...it was terrible. It's why I-- [I worry, I worry most of the night, every night] That's all.

You think I'm not? That this chipper attitude is out of ignorance?

❰ adalia doesn't sound angry, exactly, more — disbelieving. she's the one living with the dragon, and that she advertises such is only so that she has forewarning of who to avoid or be wary of, and perhaps a second's hesitation on the part of those who would hurt him. ❱

Araceli, I appreciate the concern, but the entire reason I behave the way I do is because people are so afraid of him. If I can put into their heads that he's safe, and there are demonstrably no incidents caused by a rampaging wyrmling, maybe I will have bought him enough hesitance to get away should things go poorly. I have lost opportunities because of him. I can't get into Hightown because of my ears and my shard and my magic. I am aware of the things that work against me here.

❰ again, not angry, not even preaching — reassuring her, more than anything, because adalia knows how she comes across. ❱

I will not walk around with my shard-hand bound and my dragon locked in my room because of other peoples' fear any more than I would cut the tips off my ears or stop using my magic. I can't... I wouldn't even know how to do that. It's antithetical to my entire existence.

[Given that whatever chipper is didn't sound fully real, Araceli's going to just leave it at that for the first.]

One of the best lessons I was taught that keeps me going here wasn't a lesson I learnt here. I learnt it at home. I learnt it when I was being taught how to duel by my teacher Marjani who was the sort of woman who took no nonsense from anyone. That in life, in everything, we're always the novice to someone, and that every novice must swallow their pride. The last three words? There's a lot of that to go around here. Because you swallow it, not the other way about. [Marjani had slipped in a my dear, but Adalia doesn't sound too far from Araceli in age, and they aren't close enough in age so it'd sound patronising to quote her teach directly.]

Sometimes you have to be called a terrible thing, you or the people or things you love, and keep the smile on your face the whole time – that's what this is, this—chipper? [The word doesn't parse, she doesn't know it in Trade, and it doesn't scan through her other languages so—so she doesn't know if that's exactly what that means.] But sometimes you have to be so polite too so it doesn't try to claw its way under your skin because they're looking at you. Common girls? Common girls are ten-a-penny and can be replaced just as cheaply.

And sometimes that means you talk, and the words out of your mouth are agreements that make you want to die inside. Or you sit, smiling, apologising because oh no, you don't understand a word of what they're talking about, it's far too complicated for you. You pretend you haven't seen the document on the table, or that they're exchanging coin, or that someone is far too familiar with a person they have no right to be. Stow your blessings in your holster until you can use them.

[Is part of her maybe encouraging? She doesn't know, but she wants to give advice to survive without feeling as if you're cutting pieces of yourself away even if her belief is that to be part of a thing larger than yourself is to sacrifice to a degree, that you aren't who or what you were before. Especially for a rifter. There isn't a going back. She knows that. Knows that this is it, and that there's only the life they make here.] There are times then that people sing praises and don't realise what they've agreed to because they only saw what they wanted to or what you wanted them to. You want to protect Charis, fine, there are ways to do it that aren't always offering a reassurance. Sometimes you have to do it their way, because you learn more that you might turn to your advantage.

Mages, elves, rifters, none of us are loved well and yet look who leads most of the Divisions: two rifters, one an elf, one a mage, a Dalish elf, and a Templar. The project heads are just as much a mixed bunch. It can be done but you can use the things that work against you. Carefully.

[Patiently. That Araceli is a thief and a pirate, and a pirate captain's daughter comes out as much as that she's a guard somewhere else if anyone but a private few knew it: you play the hand you're dealt, you watch their tells as much as your own, never overplay your own hand, and you have as many plans and back-ups as you might possibly require.]

❰ adalia listens to the whole speech, tries to take it in as much as possible, but... ❱

That sounds like an utterly miserable way of living, ❰ she says, without judgment. as she'd said: making herself smaller to get what she wants is not a way she knows how to or has any interest in living. these ideas, of pretending you don't know things that you do, or that someone is right when they're wrong — she abhors the very notion, for herself if not for others. clearly they have a place in the world, araceli hasn't made it as far as she has in the inquisition because they don't, but they aren't ideas adalia can adopt. ❱

I appreciate your advice. Maybe I will use it one day. But I don't yet see a need to swallow my pride, as you suggest. For one thing, I'm in Forces — I'm not likely to come across many situations where I have to use that particular brand of diplomacy or espionage. For another... it's just not something I'm suited to.

❰ adalia is, more than anything, a battering ram. a battering ram of personality, of power, of stupid ass terrible decisions that somehow don't get her killed. pretending she isn't something she is, using doublespeak or flattery or coquettish ignorance as a weapon is not something she has ever had any interest in or use for — she knows her strengths, or she's coming to, and they don't lie in the things araceli is suggesting.

besides. it's just a dragon. ❱

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