[ bright and airy as the best of autumn days: ]

Dearest compatriots!

The wind blows crisply through the trees, and the preparations for gift-giving and the masks and costumes filling the shops cannot have gone unnoticed. Satinalia approaches! Thus, I have come to charge you all with an important duty. If we are to have festivities at all—which we must, it is so very important to keep morale up in trying times—we must have a proper Ruler to preside over them. So! Who shall it be, this outrageous ridiculous individual least suited to the task of being such on all other days but this?

I shall not make my own feelings on the matter known, in the interest of not being overly influential, but I rather think we shall be coming to similar conclusions on who ought to be seated at the head of our feasting table.

Now discuss boisterously, with both reason and passion!

Hello [ a woman's voice, low, with a mostly-Marcher accent. ] My name is Yseult and I will be assisting with leadership of the Hostile Powers project.

Many of you will be tasked with heading into hostile territory in the near future to carry out the Inquisition's work. To assist you in achieving your goals, the leadership and I thought it wise to offer all of you some additional training in skills that may prove useful in fieldwork. The first is construction of a cover identity that you can assume when operating covertly. We would like each of you to construct a cover identity and answer the following questions about it. We can then help you to refine it.

There will be missions that require very particular covers, but many will not, and it is helpful to have a default cover that works in many situations and which you are comfortable with and can fall back on if needed suddenly. Assume in this case that you will be sent on a simple mission to gather general intelligence from a city in Tevinter.

Here are the basic questions you must be prepared to answer if confronted by an enemy patrol or similar:
( Read more... )

For goodness sake, it's marriage, not plague that I am asking if you've contracted. Why on earth do so many of you look like I've asked if your leg has rotten off over something as simple as marriage and children? And at your ages no less?

[ There is that tsk, that universal tsk of a Mother, Grandmother, Aunty, pinching a cheek and fussing. ]

Your fathers and mothers must be growing grey hairs as we speak in worry with your being in a war camp and they are still with no grandchildren.

[ P.S, this is Byerly's fault. ]

[ Vane rarely ever posts on this thing, because he rarely ever has anything to say, unless responding to someone else. But today he has gotten A Letter. His voice comes in with a tone like he's reading off of a script. ]

"We do hereby assign you, Charles Vane, the title of Assistant Project Leader of Naval Presence." [ There's a low, rumbling chuckle, and the rustling of paper when the letter's set aside. Well doesn't that shit just sound like an actual, legitimate job. It feels a little gross, but here we are. ] Alright then.

[ man of many words. not quite silence falls, but he does stop talking for a while. what's left is a deep inhale and slow exhale as he smokes, the easy wood creaking of a ship underneath him, and the distant lap of water against the piers and the ship's hull. eventually, after half a minute or so: ]


Where's my pet kraken?

[ what? Araceli has one. ]

[ it usually isn't a good omen when Iorveth decides to say something on the crystals. last time it happened, an innocent message board was stabbed, and a lot of people became very upset (arguably, that part was not his fault). but, nonetheless, here we are again. ]

I had the pleasure of visiting Arlathvhen some weeks ago. [ he sounds content enough as it is, at least? but if you know Iorveth, you know he doesn't make announcements just because he's happy, that's stupid, who does that? (Happy people). ]

Overall, an incredible experience, rich in culture and tradition. While many were not receptive to Rifters, I did find some willing to take time with me. I spoke with elders and master craftsmen, learned of history and the intricate details of Dalish life.

However, one rather unskilled warrior did see fit to refer to my companion and myself as 'flat ears'.

[ if you know Iorveth, you already know that Did Not End Well, but hey, he didn't fight anyone, okay? Technically. Be proud of him. ]

I'd like to invite any fool, of any faction of elf, that believes any of us within these walls is deserving of that title, to come meet with me in the Gallows training grounds. Prove to me you're more an elf than the rest of us.

[ by which he means, come fight him, because he's still mad about it and didn't actually get to bleed anyone. Fancy ass Arda elves not invited, y'all keep your thousands of years of experience to yourselves, ok? XOXO Thranduil, but fuck off. ]

Mn — do you ever feel like, I don't know, maybe you put something off too long?

Like, you wake up and walk outside one day and oh! That thing on your calendar, it's right there, and it got bigger and meaner while you were looking the other way. Deadlines, except that's a bit shit, because no one really knows when they're going to die, do they? 

[ it's sort of a new concept ]

How do you think you're going to die? Or no, I suppose that's a bad icebreaker. Let's try it again.

Hello! I'm Lux, and I really don't want to die. 

[Kain sounds very controlled and measured, the tone of someone speaking carefully so as not to let too many emotions out. This idea has been brewing in the back of his mind throughout the whole journey home. Covering it up isn't quite... covering it, though he's still trying that anyway. Still. The shard caused this problem, so it has to go.]

Might anyone have an axe I could borrow for a time? A smaller one that can effectively cut… uh, especially hard materials. The extras available in the armory aren't quite good enough. [And it's pretty difficult to swing his usual two-handed sword at... what he wants to swing it at.]

I'm willing to pay for allowing me its use, if that helps any.

[Just say no.]

So what do you actually do for fun around here? Besides drinking or sex. [ Because she already knows the joy of those, obviously. ] Do you have hobbies.