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[rathercommon]

crystal | letter | cease and desist notices slipped under her door | action

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[coquettish_trees]

And you think the world should be improved to what, might I ask?

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty hesitates, biting her lip. She realizes abruptly just how dangerous it is, what she's saying. And she's speaking it freely. She bites her lip, and shakes her head, going abruptly reticent. ]

It - doesn't matter.

[coquettish_trees]

[ unfortunately, Alexandrie is like a hawk. Once she's bound her claws into something, simply trying to take it away will only make her clench tighter, and she's generally too clever for distractions unless she lets herself be drawn aside. ]

It matters not what the world becomes as long as it changes, or it matters not what you think about such things?

[rathercommon]

[ Urgh. ]

What I think. My opinions have never mattered a whit to the world at large.

[coquettish_trees]

And yet you have never stopped having them nor expressing them, even when it would have been more convenient and less dangerous to do so.

[ so why stop now, hmmmm? ]

[rathercommon]

[ That draws a little huff out of her. ]

That's hardly true. I wouldn't have survived this long if I didn't ever keep my mouth shut.

[coquettish_trees]

[ her eyes sparkle with amusement, and then, not unkindly: ]

"Ah, I believe shortly after my arrival in this new and strange world I shall publicly threaten to fiercely injure every Altus from powerful Houses in Tevinter who have come to aid the organization I now depend on! I think I shall also do the same to an Orlesian noblewoman! As a little cake for dessert afterwards, do let me insult the governance of every country in this world!

What? Certainly I can keep my mouth shut if the situation calls for it!"

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty sighs, transparently annoyed by the comment (though not angry over it). ]

The place I'm from is a lot worse than this. I survived there by keeping my mouth shut. And anyway, the day someone gets in trouble with the Inquisition for slapping Benedict Artemaeus is the day I eat my boots without sauce. I expect that most of the higher-ups want to see him slapped themselves.

spoilers, god ;)

[coquettish_trees]

[ both the annoyance and the mention of Bene's eminent slappability make Lexie chuckle quietly. ]

I am only teasing, cherie. Your stubborn insistence on being stubborn has grown on me much like ivy. Eventually I imagine, much like ivy, it shall weaken the structure of my stubborn insistence on propriety.

[ she clucks ruefully ]

You are a danger. But a kind one, I think, at your center.

whoops gave it away

[rathercommon]

[ With a puff, she blows her hair from her face. ]

I hope it does. Weaken all that.

[ Anyway - ]

And I don't know about kind. I'm not really that. But as long as I'm going to be here, I want to help people in this world and make things a bit more decent and just. And stop us all from getting murdered by a mad magister.

[coquettish_trees]

[ a mostly facetious sniff of affront ]

There is nothing wrong with a little propriety.

[ and then, with the 'as long as I'm going to be here' she is reminded of something Kitty had mentioned earlier. So, gently: ]

Who was it, who told you your time here was limited?

[ and all the rest that went along with that. ]

[rathercommon]

Oh. [ A shrug. ] Kostos. The grouchy one. And his - I think it's his twin? The other one. I never actually got his name. Gwenaelle, too. And Petrana made it pretty clear that - you know - it looks like there's nothing else for us Rifters except this. That once we're gone, we're - quite gone.

[ She sounds pretty steady about it. ]

[coquettish_trees]

Ah, all the friendliest members of the Inquisition!

[ she loves Gwen dearly, but the woman is not a font of optimism or kindness. From what she's heard and observed, the others are either prickly and abrupt by nature or not given to mincing words. ]

I imagine we can truly know as little of what happens to Rifters who disappear as we can about what transpires upon our own deaths. There are those who have been here since right after the death of the Herald, there are those who have come and gone.

[ she waves her unoccupied hand dismissively ]

Even if they are right and you are here for only a short time before dissipating, you may make as much of a mark as any of the rest of us do before we are poisoned, or shot, or stabbed, or any of the other lovely things that befall us in this world. It is not as if the impacts of the departed are destroyed with them.

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty glances over, her expression going a little gentler. ]

You don't have to try to make me feel better. But thank you. That's sweet.

[coquettish_trees]

[ another such wave of her hand. how dare, she isn't sweet. ]

They were not required to attempt to cause you to feel poorly either. Perhaps they and I together shall cause some manner of equilibrium.

[ speaking of hands, her first is complete, and the attendant moves to sit on the other side of the lounge. Alexandrie examines the first with a satisfied smile, and swaps her wine glass into it to offer the other hand. ]

four hundred years later

[limier]

Kitty, then.

[ she drags a hand along jaw. if the gesture’s weary, it’s not for kitty. she straightens, a conscious restructuring of form — abandons it for a bad job, sits along the edge of the bed. ]

Outside the Gallows, that is most prudent. Within, you will hear others. Those chosen say less of me than they do the one speaking. My friends, [ or the presumptuous and disrespectful. ] Call me Wren.

[ the edge of her mouth crinkles, rueful. ]

Coupe will do for now, I think.

[ better not to crowd the girl. she turns to rifle, comes up with book in hand. the binding’s old, frayed; still clearly once printed with some reverence. the rays of a sun are scored deep into the cover. an LC is inked into the corner of a page. she offers it to take. ]

You will need forgive me some hypocrisy, but consider it an accessory to practice, rather than the substance.

This is the Chant of Light. It is absent of certain verses — copies of these are rare, and I regret, not mine to give freely. In the mean, that is Orlesian, beside the Trade.

[ a parallel column. ]

Best to familiarize yourself with its contents. I understand that Skyhold intends to render them mandatory reading.

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty's brow wrinkles as she turns the book over in her hands. Mandatory reading. So is this book a piece of propaganda, then? Something to indoctrinate its readers? Why else would people be forced to read it? Books that challenge your way of thinking, in Kitty's experience - those are kept away, behind lock and key. Books that anesthetize you, that lull you into stupidity, they're printed in big text with lots of pictures and pretty covers. But, to be fair, Kitty's experience isn't experience from this world; maybe that's just cynicism talking.

Still. The apologies are interesting. Her gaze flicks up from the cover of the book to the nearly-as-weathered face of the woman before her. ]

So - you don't agree with that decision?

[limier]

I do not see that it will accomplish its aims. You are as a stranger here,

[ her hands spread, indicating borders broader than the imperium alone. ]

What do you imagine those to be?

[rathercommon]

The aims of the decision? Well.

[ Her answer is cautious. ]

I'm a stranger, like you said. I'd need to know more about everything - politics and all - to really understand it.

[limier]

[ Her smile’s thin. It’s a good answer, politic; it says nothing very much at all. (That — itself — says something. Opinions aren't the product of facts alone.) ]

To understand the South, you must understand the Chant. It is as much a language as the words within.

We hold that when it is sung from all corners of Thedas, the Maker will return. Deliver the world,

[ The tip of her chin aside. ]

There are some who accord you a place in that. A matter of statement and expectation, no?

[rathercommon]

[ Oh. Sung from all corners of the world. No pressure.

Kitty fiddles with her hair a moment, then asks a slightly more daring question: ]

Do you believe that?

you're a hero i'm on email tags again

[limier]

[ A breath in, ]

No.

[ There are any number of ways to avoid the question, she's exercised them before. But you have to extend a bit of trust if you want it returned —

And the Imperium aches like an old fracture.

(The former face of Inquisition outreach; in service some thirty years. Who would even believe kitty?) ]

But I do not know that it matters. I believe that we can make a better future — what is this, but the inheritance of creation? To work for that which you cannot see — what is that, but faith?

<3

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty hesitates a moment, then says, bolder still - ]

You're a Templar, right? Aren't Templars... [ She trails off; she doesn't quite have the knowledge or vocabulary to describe what they are yet. But she trusts that Coupe will understand the thrust of the question. ]

[limier]

I served the Chantry, before the Inquisition. I will do so again, when our work is done.

[ That's optimistic. A slight gesture for pause, an explanation: ]

We are not all of a mind. The Order has declared its independence — others have been used by Corypheus, led astray. I understand the Imperium to keep its own to different standard; you may see templars in this city, but we've little common of it.

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty gives a small nod. She doesn't fully understand, not yet, but she says, her curiosity getting the best of her - ]

I've heard the perspective of some of the mages here. A lot of them - they see Templars as...cruel. Others see them as a necessary evil. [ Kitty tilts her head slightly to the side, studying Coupe's face. She certainly doesn't look cruel. Or evil. ]

I haven't heard the perspective of a Templar before, though. In your eyes - what's the Order for?