You don't hate a person because someone told you to

[motherfucking_ghost]

WHO: Church aaand anyone who wants to show up!
WHAT: Rifter meeting reboot
WHEN: Noon-ish on the 24th-ish
WHERE: Upper room of the Herald's Rest
NOTES: After this notice went up. People who are not Rifters are welcome to show up--nothing stopping them from dropping in, and he isn't going to cause an incident (probably) by throwing anyone out.
Mingle! Share knowledge! Talk about your trials with your pain lasers!

He's not nervous. He's totally not nervous. This is just like calling a Blue Team meeting, except with a lot more people, and most of them (probably) aren't dumbasses. Araceli believes in him, for some reason, so, obviously, he's got this in the bag. His letter was super professional and everything.

Look, there's even some snacks! People can get drinks downstairs. What does he look like, a bartender?

Comments

[universal_charm]

Kirk could pick a few out, simply because they looked so very different from the native Thedas peoples, or held themselves differently. Kirk suspected that he fell into the latter category as far as giving himself away as a Rifter. And even though he and Galadriel came from very different worlds, he could not help but like her and be glad of her presence here.

"Do I want to know?" he asked, giving her a side-long look with an arch of his brow over his mug, licking his lips before pressing on. "It's... interesting, to say the least. I think I'll be adjusting for awhile yet - especially when I'm not sure I want to find a place here. What of yourself?"

[laurenande]

"I have had several changes of heart on the subject," Galadriel answered honestly, though there was a bit of hesitance in her cadence. She considered how best to explain and, after a moment, began again.

"When I arrived, I had feared the worst for my home and, during my stay in the jail, I was given truly grave news," she said and settled both of her hands on the flagon of ale she carried. "In my grief, I had...resigned myself to being here, to walking Thedas ere the sun rose its last, but...I think, perhaps, my assumptions were false."

"I am more heartened, now, even though I shall remain here for some long time yet. I think of how this place could be repaired, restored, and those thoughts give me purpose."

She took another drink from her flagon.

"As for my shadows, no, I think you would not like to know...but, fear not, they are unharmed. I wish no injury on the people of Thedas, by in large, and I do not think I will come to.

"I am sorry that you are less comfortable finding a place for yourself in these strange lands. Take comfort, though, for very few things in any world are eternal. Our places within them are fleeting, whether we wish them to be or not, so there is no shame in devoting yourself until you can return to more familiar soil."

[universal_charm]

When she spoke like that, Kirk got the sense of her being far older than she appeared. It was entirely likely, given that different species had different life spans and counted their years different. She was lyrical, and he liked the cadence of her words, but there was a certain weight to them that made him - not quite shiver, but he felt them somehow, like they were pressing ever so slightly on his bones.

"We were brought here, so it stands to reason there is a way back out," he said reasonably. "I had hoped that my stay would be short lived, but I can see that it won't be quite so easy as I had hoped to get back home." His lips turn up in a wry smile. "It makes me wish my equipment functioned here. It might help to figure out the process of what brought us here, but as is... well, either we'll get lucky or we're going to have to get creative."

Always looking on the bright side, this one. He wasn't one to just give up lightly, not until every other option had been exhausted. And he would never give up trying to get home, back to his ship and his family.

"The advice is appreciated. It is not that I don't want to devote myself to anything, I am just... cautious," he admitted. "I've come to the conclusion I do not have to worry about fully representing the Fleet here, just myself, but even then, I don't want to just throw in with a cause I don't fully grasp, or approve of. Besides that, even making a sort of living here is a bit more difficult than I had thought - the skills I possessed back home that made my career don't translate as well as I had hoped. But that's my issue to figure out, and I'm sure I'll find my niche eventually. I'm just taking a bit longer to get my "Thedas-legs" than I had thought I would."

[laurenande]

"Your caution does you credit," Galadriel replied, her tone was even and polite, but carefully impersonal. There was no mockery in her response, but she withheld as much accolade as she could; her ways were not the kindest, after all. "I am often reluctant to engage in the affairs of others, for such situations are always fraught with things unspoken and unknown.

"In these lands, however, there is an unease in the air." She regarded her drink as she spoke and, for a moment, there was a distance to her. Briefly, she looked more like an ancient statue than a living person. "I fear that their need may prove greater than they realize. Their enemies are ancient and dreadful and they are ill equipped to deal with the plagues that fall upon these lands, however hard they try."

She stared into her cup for a while longer, caught up in the reflection of the liquid within it, but her trance was fleeting. All too soon, her stare broke and, as she drew a deep breath, she seemed to return to herself and was rendered mundane again.

"I think I will help them, if I can, but we should reserve such heavy topics for the meeting ahead. Tell me, how have you attempted to make a living in Thedas?"

[universal_charm]

That was what made this world difficult. He didn't have the Fleet to back him, and he wasn't necessarily representing the Fleet here either. It meant he was on his own for decision making, which was fine, but it leant that air of caution. He no longer had to play at neutrality, but even so he felt for the time being it was the best course. The political stage of this world was a complicated one, at best, and there just wasn't a lot of information to go on that wasn't colored by bias. Sussing out the truth of everything would be difficult, to say the least.

He could not say how Galadriel might know such things, but there was that feeling again, clenching in his gut, that to ignore her words outright would be a mistake. To be tell the truth, he was worried about much the same thing. A calm before the storm, as they said. The staring was odd, but he didn't think it was something to press hard on in a room full of people.

"Mostly odd jobs like manual labor or fixing things," he replied, accepting her change of topic without a blink. "I think I've earned a reputation of being an honest and hard worker, so it's become easier. I've been teaching someone how to use hand-to-hand techniques to defend themselves in return for training with a staff weapon. I've begun to consider offering lessons for a small fee to a wider range of people, but I'm not sure how well it would go over here. People, I'm finding, tend to dismiss hand-to-hand and focus on weapon style combat. Or magic, if they have it."