arcaneadvisor: (Default)
arcaneadvisor ([personal profile] arcaneadvisor) wrote2015-12-06 12:26 pm

ooc: inbox/plot with me



{sending crystal | notes & letters | personal visits}

Note: I work Mon-Fri and I'm basically away 11 hours a day but I do tags in gdocs and I try to do a round a night. Timezone is GMT.

ooc contact:
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ombranera: (Well if that is how you feel...)

5th of Guardian, midnight

[personal profile] ombranera 2016-02-16 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
[ A carefully wrapped circlet is delivered to Morrigan's door, with a note that says- ]
The brooch was quite impressive, Morrigan. This is for your boy. I think he will be quite dashing with it upon his brow.

-Zev
fightingale: (pic#9839082)

midday, via a scout.

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-02-25 01:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Most Esteemed Arcane Advisor,

Has much research been conducted into potential connections between dragons and the rifts?

I have heard suggestion that they are prominent in mythology and worlds beyond our own, and was curious,

Nightingale.
fightingale: (pic#10010461)

crystal, as soon after the anders' situation as she can manage (so basically: timeywimey)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-02-29 10:18 am (UTC)(link)
Morrigan.

( her voice sounds cold, and distant, and so very removed from Leliana that she herself finds it strange to hear. )

We should speak.

( as much as she can imagine it would pain Morrigan to endure such a task. )
fightingale: (pic#9852347)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-02-29 11:14 pm (UTC)(link)
In person, I suspect.

( Which is not good, nor pleasant, and she should likely provide more information but does not. )

Can you come to the Rookery?
fightingale: (pic#10010459)

PEERS AT THAT RAVEN SUSPICIOUSLY; via raven.

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-02-29 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Morrigan,

Do you think it would be prudent to expand our focus, or result in spreading ourselves too thin? It seems a strange coincidence, if it is one.
It seems that, once again, matters are more complex than we believed.

Far less than yourself, no doubt. They have not been a point of focus for me.

Nightingale


( FIGHT HER MORRIGAN SHE IS THE NIGHT NIGHTINGALE )
Edited 2016-02-29 23:23 (UTC)
fightingale: (pic#9839082)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-02 10:55 pm (UTC)(link)
( That will never stop being impressive, nor shall it cease to spark-- something in her, that old creative bent that composed songs, and has gone long ignored, now. She suspects that is a good part of why Morrigan does it, beside the convenience. It reminds people exactly who she is, and why she is so above them.

Never mind that.
You may wish to sit, she'd tell most. She suspects Morrigan would take that as an insult, or condescending, and so Leliana holds her tongue on the suggestion, instead watching for a moment, her own arms crossed, as well. )


What do you know of a mage called Detlef?

( Part of her wonders if Morrigan has concealed, as well. If Morrigan has lied. It would hardly be beyond the realms of possibility. )
Edited (wrong icon v important change) 2016-03-02 22:57 (UTC)
fightingale: (pic#9852348)

leliana is always nice to the ravens tyvm

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-03 11:14 am (UTC)(link)
Morrigan,

I appreciate the idea. It's a good one, in fact, although if Cassandra is determined to interrogate, I am not certain I can have any influence on the questions asked in those circumstances, and I may not be privy even to the responses gathered. Conducting a second set of interrogations may do more to rile their ire, than win their knowledge and cooperation.


( she can say that she enjoys the way Morrigan writes. )

I spoke with a young woman of their world's archdemons. Names for the Deadly Sins, she called them, of lust, pride, greed, the list went on. They sounded greatly different from our own understanding of demons, and yet the overlap struck us both. I think we may have a good deal of work ahead of us. Can I rely upon your assistance, with this?

( I cannot do this alone, she could well say, and in this instance it would be true.
also, she's can't quite help herself; )


"None can say how far dreams extend" verges on poetic, you know. Perhaps you have something of a bard in you. The interplay of magic and stories seems another fine topic to consider, would you not say?

Such a marvel as the eluvians surely cannot be without risk. Do you think them another possible thing to bind together worlds?


Nightingale
Edited 2016-03-03 12:03 (UTC)
fightingale: (pic#10010452)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-03 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes.

( Yes, the scruffy thing, yes, the one who helped rescue Zevran. And yes, she can believe he was interested in learning shapeshifting, because he is hungry for power, for more of it, because with power you can instigate change but she does not trust for a moment what he would do with such power.

Better to tell Morrigan, because Morrigan has always been tempestuous and dangerous, and she has never known wild things to become less dangerous when there is a chance their young might be endangered. She should know soon, and she should hear it privately, and she should know because she is one of the people Leliana has known longest, and she cannot entirely reconcile herself to Alistair and Zevran lying to her, and Morrigan not having done so.

Part of her almost hopes that Morrigan's response is to be smug at the revelation, that she confirm that she kept secrets as well, and then this quiet evisceration can be over more quickly. )


I have uncovered his true identity. He is Anders, that same one who blew up the Kirkwall Chantry. The Grey Wardens have taken him into their custody, as one of their own.
fightingale: (pic#10010460)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-05 11:37 am (UTC)(link)
( Better to wait out Morrigan's anger, she suspects. Fighting with Morrigan seems, at times, as though it might be about as sensible as attempting to yell above thunder, as though tearing your throat raw in the rain with your clothes slicked to your skin and lightning burning the ground will make any progress. (And yet, how many times has she fought Morrigan? Beyond counting, if that year is counted in full, and doubtless more as time stretches on. In this moment, she has no cause to fight with Morrigan. Her yelling is the anger Leliana felt knocked from her the moment Zevran took it all so well in stride.)

Anders turned himself into the Wardens, and they exist outside our jurisdiction. ( Leliana braces herself for what she does not doubt will be the bluntest delivery of anger she has received thus far, and may be the most vicious anger of them all. Morrigan's words cut deep. ) I agreed he should be allowed to them. Ostensibly for his atonement, but... I would not see a man such as he made into a martyr.

( Her expression tightens, anger winding her jaw to clench and her shoulders and neck rigid. She hopes he chokes on that compassion, she truly does. Of all the people to be granted mercy, and she is not fully at peace with it, but what backlash might his death have sparked? Against the faithful, and against mages? It does not sit well, but with the Wardens making their claim, how much ground had there been to order his execution, when there were so many reasons to argue against it? )

I am sorry I did not uncover him sooner. ( Before he had turned himself to the Wardens, before they had already determined to approach the Advisers. Before Morrigan had spoken with him, before any number of things. She wishes she had unravelled his mind when first she went to Kirkwall under Justinia's orders. Another instance of information gone undiscovered, of deaths that might have been avoided, if she had done something better.

Is this going to get worse? Probably, though she isn't sure she wants to drop to those depths. What she wants has not been a question in so long though, has it? )


He knew. ( How many people could Morrigan mean? ) He and Zevran, both.
fightingale: pb! inquisition era. (bruh)

does morrigan want delicious treats, leliana made them herself

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-05 12:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Morrigan,

That you, of all people, discuss the merits of honey over vinegar illustrates how very dire circumstances have become. I thought you might have deemed the acidity vinegar the more pragmatic approach to honey's excessive sweetness.

( WELL IT'S TRUE, THIS IS STILL WEIRD FOR HER.
but onto being less of a snarky jackass: )


I will appeal to her sense of reason.

That might be the nicest thing you've ever said to me.
Overt flattery aside, unravelling the truth in tales is as much a point of interest to me as enjoying how they have developed and changed over time. The latter is of precious little use to us at present, and so I will dedicate as many of my resources as I can to the former as I can, without compromising the network my scouts have created for the Inquisition.


( They are both committed, it seems. She is not sure if that is for better or worse.

A drop of ink from where her quill hovered over the parchment a moment too long before penning this part of her response is all that might give away the surprise that had lingered, even after reading over Morrigan's letter twice before going to pen her reply. )


Was that an offer?

Nightingale
fightingale: pb! inquisition era. (sry but my plan is better)

pls mushrooms would not do at all... snails tho

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-10 09:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Morrigan,

How can I forget, when you remind me so often?


( leliana it's maybe been twice in ten years
but logic has no place when she wants to make dry commentary, and they've always had a tendency to bickering, although this seems friendlier, or at least that is how she is reading it, and it makes her squint a little at the parchment. besides, she could argue that morrigan reminds her constantly with her lingering fondness for those clothes. )


Your letter has already been posted to the wall, with the relevant section underlined. Josephine is drafting an announcement, even now.

( c: #helpful

but she sighs, and if she were not so tense simply by default, she might have laughed very quietly. as it is, she simply shakes her head. to think that the day would come when morrigan was lecturing her on stor-- actually, no. they were doing this years ago, but to think that it would be part of a collaborative discussion rather than a sharp, scornful reprimand is the strangest part. )


You make an excellent point.

Thank you. Whenever there is an opportunity, I will endeavour to make myself available, though there is no accounting for last minute delays.

Nightingale
fightingale: (pic#9946835)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-10 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
It is not so simple as that. ( A little sharp, harsh, though only a little. ) They are a potential means to undo Corypheus. They may yet be able to provide clues to his destruction, and we cannot lose them.

( "We benefit from their cooperation," she might have said. Cooperation, though, would suggest several members had not lied to the Inquisition, that they were not harbouring such a man as that, no matter what the Champion might have decreed.

Another time, Leliana might close her eyes, might brace herself against the force of Morrigan's words and her ire, because they are harsh and cutting, even if Leliana does not suffer as a result of them directly. She feels the impact of their meaning, not as a personal slight, but as a painful truth revealed. It is absorbed, and she stands silent, rather than making a response, and perhaps it is in part because she is not certain that it is true. Morrigan is blunt, she is honest in a way that can be manipulative and cruel and sincere, and none of those things dismiss the possibility of her being wrong. (Ten years ago Leliana would have contended that Morrigan is wrong about most things.) )


That is a question I cannot answer. ( Or that she will not, perhaps, because all the conclusions she draw are painful. Better to withdraw a little. If she pulls back too far she cannot be what she must, but of late she has let herself rise too much to the surface, has let what she felt amplify, as though they were echoes reverberating in an abandoned Chantry. Whispers were loud enough in such places, but a yell or a song? They could fill up the space until it seemed there was room for nothing else.

Leliana cannot afford that, will press them back, even if it feels as though her skin may blister and burst with the fire raging just beneath it.

A long silence - if it is allowed - lingers before she speaks again. )


We have never been close, you and I. ( "We could barely stand each other," she could say, but the words are needless. ) But I meant what I said when I told you that I would protect this Inquisition.

( By extension Morrigan and, more importantly, Kieran. Her eyes and ears tell her much, and yet she needs them not at all to know what the boy means to Morrigan, or at least... to grasp at it. )

Whatever must be done will be done.

( Though what such an assurance will mean, she does not know. )
fightingale: (pic#10010456)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-13 01:24 pm (UTC)(link)
More, I think, but I await more information.

( There are whispers that might counter their staying in these walls, the possibility of a camp, but that is not yet a thing confirmed and she will not raise false hope onto to betray it later. There is too much that is uncertain, as yet - the damnable Wardens and their secrets. )

Pray do not speak to me as though I am ignorant of the risks or my responsibilities.

( Not a warning, quite. There is a quiet edge of something else in it, a knife sneaking down into the space between, trying to pry pieces of her apart, though she will not allow it. It is met with too much resistance, for all that it makes it through. It could verge on a request, a rasp of rawness in it that she would snatch from the air if she could - snatch, pull back, and burn 'til there was no evidence remaining. Not anger, but something far worse and something she will not allow herself.

The greatest spy network that Thedas has seen, some say, or fast becoming it. Even so, they had missed this. They had failed to see something under their nose, and it was being kept secret by those she had trusted. Part of her wonders if she is a fool to trust any. Part of her wonders if she has become too cruel for people to come to.

Leliana does not look at Morrigan when she looks up - quite when her gaze dropped she's not sure - casting her gaze towards the window instead. The people who have known her longest now without betrayal are Josephine, Morrigan and Shale. One once idolised her, two had believed her a fool, but all of them had been allies and none of them looked at her as they used to. She would not wish them to, even as she wonders if the betrayals are inevitable here, too.

Then Morrigan speaks of repercussions and drags Leliana's watchful focus back to her, as she smiles that dangerous familiar and unfamiliar smile, and Leliana thinks she might be able to see something else in it, but she does not know if she should trust her judgment in the people she used to know so well, any more. She had tested Josie before she trusted her with the Inquisition. Perhaps Alistair and Zevran deserved no less. )


Do not mention it. And-- Thank you.

( Though she does not know if she should take that offer. Not yet. Not now. )
fightingale: (pic#9852347)

[personal profile] fightingale 2016-03-14 09:44 pm (UTC)(link)
( And that is a shock quite on its own.
Leliana stills her voice on the retaliatory response supplied so sharply by her mind, gaze fixed on Morrigan so she gathers up pieces and tries to gather and weave together what she finds. To think that Morrigan would be the honest one - or at least the one best at keeping the appearance of it. Her concern for Kieran, though, her love for him, seems that it could only be genuine.

And to think, scant weeks ago she had been so incredulous that Morrigan could be a good mother. To think she had been making quiet jokes with Zevran, some of them comments at Morrigan’s expense, and even then he had been lying by omission, while Morrigan had been… loyal is not the right word, but honest is not fully sufficient when considering all the consequences.

Leliana only nods when Morrigan says she must depart, turning away to face down a pile of letters and information, to begin filtering through how they might control this information as it leaves Skyhold, as it inevitably will. Her mind is almost entirely moved on from Morrigan to the larger scale of these concerns and their implications, when Morrigan speaks again.

To be fair, it’s not a personal or friendly remark. Of that Leliana is more than certain. It is a professional one, a pragmatic one, but that does not keep Leliana’s brows from raising or her expression turning a little surprised. )


Understood.

( And Morrigan has lost something here, as well. If Leliana had few friends she could trust, the same must be said for Morrigan, though quite how that came to pass has been very different for both of them. She… pauses, a moment, considers if there is something she can say to reassure Morrigan, and realises that she has nothing to offer, and that the Morrigan she remembers would scorn whatever she did attempt. This is not the Morrigan from the Fifth Blight, though, as she is continually reminded.

Instead she only nods, while her hands smooth over some parchment, and she tries to determine from where they should begin as Morrigan departs. )

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