getting the ball rolling

[foundmyselfagain]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Gareth
RECIPIENT: Everyone
WHAT: Time is ticking, let's get some plans up and running.
WHEN: Now
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: this is open to everyone, not just researchers!

Alright, so, I know there's a lot of people feeling blue around here, and it doesn't seem like it's getting any better. So, I have an idea: Ideas! I figure it's high time that we all got together with our notes and research and whatnot and start spitballing any suggestions we've come up with so far.

Spit need not be included.

Obviously, we're probably not going to try everything people throw out here, but I figure if we can agree that something's a good idea, it might be worth a shot.

My contribution is: runes! I heard you guys used runes to strengthen the Veil when you got here, which, by the way, thanks, I've seen enough abominations running around here for a while. And there's obviously some connection to the Veil involved, so. Maybe take runes like those and use them on people? I mean, it probably can't hurt them, maybe they'll just be less prone to being possessed. Which is always nice.

Comments

[aestivation]

I advise caution in applying lyrium to living tissue.

[ #sup ]

Toxicity aside, it bears examination. Lyrium may be used to reinforce the Veil — or to thin it. Perhaps it's imbued some connection in the templars, though what that says of our Rifters, I'm uncertain.

If it were a problem purely of the Fade, I'd expect our mages to be affected.

[ and like. everyone but the dwarves. ]

[foundmyselfagain]

[ It's a good thing this is over crystal, so he doesn't have to restrain his wince at the horribly familiar tone of voice. Not the voice itself, but. Gareth has had more than his fair share of exposure to the Tranquil.

If the Gallows had lasted much longer, he might have become very familiar with them. ]

No, I suppose you're right. Maybe we could just have the runes near them? Rune necklaces, maybe. Start a fashion trend.

--The fashion trend was a joke. The necklace idea was fairly serious. It probably couldn't hurt to see what effect it'd have. As long as we avoid the lyrium touching the skin. Obviously.

[faithlikeaseed]

Do we know if anyone's gotten better from being around the Veil-strengthening runes? Or we could take 'em somewhere it's stronger naturally. Runes on or about them might make a difference but it'd be nice to know before we launched on that that it has got something to do with the Veil's thickness.

[foundmyselfagain]

I haven't tried putting any near them that aren't already...you know, around. A field trip might work, but we'd have to take them somewhere that's not Kirkwall.

I wonder--If the thicker Veil doesn't help, maybe thinner...? We could take them to Sundermount, you couldn't use the veil there to blow your nose.

[aestivation]

We don't know yet whether others may be affected, and the Inquisition doesn't house all of Kirkwall's templars. There's a risk of spreading it.

[ dat's bad, yall. but, ]

We'll be running through our lyrium as it is, but if there's enough reason and supply — entering the Fade is a possibility.

[ just, fuck if he can figure out what use it would be. ]

[foundmyselfagain]

I don't think that'd do much, honestly. Least of all to them, it's not like any of them can trundle on into the Fade.

[aestivation]

The only value I can see would be in observing their presence there, [ and there may be other ways to accomplish that; kostos is here, the healers are. ] Whether it's odd, or changed.

[faithlikeaseed]

Not having seen them in the Fade before, it might be hard to know what's changed and what's--just rifter nature. Though I know rifter mages start to dream as we do; might be able to give us some kind of baseline if they've seen themselves. [He thinks a moment of how Sina had appeared before her death(rebirth) in the Fade; it prompts a quiet huff of breath from him, and no more.]

Wonder if Callistus has anything on this; is he on our reading list right now?

[foundmyselfagain]

They didn't call Callistus 'Fade-Touched' because of his whole unwholesome affection for the Fade deal, yanno.

--Well, that had to do with it, but it was an ironic kind of thing.

[ The dude was cray cray. ]

[faithlikeaseed]

[A snort; touché.] True--but he'd noticed things about his, uhm, beloved that other mages hadn't so it's worth investigating, at least.

Might even be worth asking the magister about, [ugh], since I know we haven't gotten all of Callistus in translation down south here.

But so we've got the idea of taking a peek at the rifters and the templars in the Fade, somehow. We think whatever it is might be burning the lyrium from templars' blood. ...D'we know what happens when rifters take lyrium? That's a thing they've tried before now, right?

[justice_is_blond]

I don't know if any rifters have tried lyrium, but we should find a volunteer. A Rifter has... consumed something else blue and felt effects similar to that described by Templars on lyrium.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Warily,] "Something else blue."

Why does that have me suddenly worried, Warden Anders?

[justice_is_blond]

[Hesitantly:]

Some things that are not... normal behavior in our, mm, society are apparently...a little more acceptable in other worlds. But nothing went in forbidden or illegal directions.

private;

[faithlikeaseed]

...Does this involve blood magic somehow? [He said "not illegal", but...]

private;

[justice_is_blond]

No.

[The answer is fast.]

Maker, they've enough reasons to want to execute me, I don't need that on my plate as well. But it does involve blood. Apparently the... unconscious man's blood is very blue and when a Rifter decided to try drinking it she got a reaction similar to what I've heard described by Templars drinking lyrium.

private;

[faithlikeaseed]

[...Well, that's a little viscerally disgusting but neither illegal nor ... okay, maybe it's a little immoral.

But it's a lead, even if it's a gross one.]

So he--bleeds lyrium? Or something like it?

private;

[justice_is_blond]

That seems to be the case. So that could be the way it was transmitted to Templars - he *is* a Rifter so it spread to them, he's something similar to lyrium in his blood so it spread to those who had that.

They... shared a nature, so to speak.

private;

[faithlikeaseed]

It's as good a thought as any right now. Wish we had a half-dozen more of them to knock together.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Quietly,] S' it just the lyrium or something structural-- [about the brand, but even knowing Casimir isn't equipped to take hurt from so blatant a remark he's got enough filters left to check himself.] --that's to say is there a way to shape the effect to weaken the connection without severing it?

[Though the more he thinks of it the less that seems a productive line of conversation.]

The rifters passed through the Fade to get here. Wouldn't be wrong to call them Fade-touched themselves, maybe--but what's that give them that templars also have? Up until-- [he counts back in his head, how many sleeps has it been, how many draughts,] --a few days ago their symptoms were alike.

And the templars are going through their lyrium like something's draining it out of them--and taking more only sets them back to where they were--and magic makes it all worse...

[There's a link here and he's not finding it and that is profoundly frustrating.]

[aestivation]

All runes are structural, [ it's not what they're speaking about, though whether he's aware of that is a matter of debate. ] Perhaps another time.

[ a blunt questioner would be disappointed. he knows little of the ritual; hadn't been privvy to more than its results. ]

The new symptoms — the fires, the — [ at a loss for how to describe it in trade, he settles on: ] They're there, then they're further away.

[ nailed it ]

It might indicate a stronger connection to the Fade, as it progresses. If it's also the case with the templars, perhaps that's what's taking their lyrium.

[foundmyselfagain]

So the sickness might be...giving them a stronger connection, that's effecting the lyrium in their bodies? That might explain by mages aren't affected. We only take lyrium sporadically. A stronger connection to the Fade could mess with Rifters, since they came from there.

Like demons. [ Just saying ]

And the anchor shards don't really change your connection to the Fade. It hasn't made mine stronger, or given nonmages magic.

So--That's a decent theory. Dunno what we'd do about it, though.

[aestivation]

Not all of it tracks. We've [ past tense ] An inherently stronger connection. Or perhaps — more open.

[ perhaps not. metaphors for the memory of an intangible sense, it gets tricky. ]

But the nature of the connection may be different — more similar between lyrium and Rifters, than between either and mages. [ gareth's already said as much. he's thinking aloud, a sign he should sleep at some point today. ] So what's changed it? Why is it only happening now?

[faithlikeaseed]

The newest set of rifters appeared not long before it began. They bring bits of their worlds with them; why not something that could sicken people on ours? [Ugly thought. Should they be quarantining them all on arrival now?]

[foundmyselfagain]

That's fantastic. And by fantastic, I mean terrifying. We probably haven't got resistances to their diseases, so they can just waltz into Thedas with a plague or two to pass around.

I think I'd rather have them be demons.

...Resistance, though. Do you think there's anything about mages that'd make us resistant to this thing?

[sunshinethroughgrey]

... There is one Rifter. I, ah. I don't know if anyone else notices this, but I can't seem to remember him. I mean, I have him in my notes with the other rifters and the other symptoms but. I completely forget about him every time until I read my notes.

And now I don't know where he is.

If this theory is sound - and it seems to be - then he might be the link we are looking for. I just.

I don't know where he is. He's not in the Gallows, anywhere, and ... according to my notes he was too sick to go anywhere. So. He just. Vanished.

[tactical_alert]

Do we need to draw up some wanted posters? Do your notes describe this mystery Rifter such that we might go on a manhunt? We can't have someone like that out there in the city without supervision.

[sunshinethroughgrey]

It does! Well, what I remember which is sort of vague ... but some details. Little things. There was nothing wrong with his shard, he seemed to have all the same symptoms as the others. I just had problems, not remembering him.

[tactical_alert]

Then surely someone has seen him or seen to him. If he's afflicted same as the others, then he can't have gone far. Or someone who might have taken him can't have gotten far?

1/2

[foundmyselfagain]

EYEBROWS.

2/2

[foundmyselfagain]

...He had weird eyebrows. I remember that!

[ Helpful. ]

[tactical_alert]

...That...is a start... [he doesn't sound convinced of that himself but-] Weird in, ah, what manner? Oddly styled? Oddly sized?

[sunshinethroughgrey]

OH OH they were ... really bushy. Really bushy eyebrows. Like caterpillars.

[Wracking her brain.]

I ... think he had pale skin?

[foundmyselfagain]

A right weirdo, that's what I remember.

[ The most helpful. ]