set your heart against the scales, keep your head above the tide

[dashing]

WHO: Ambassador Amsel & others
WHAT: a Herian catch-all
WHEN: through the month
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: closed and open starters to be added through the month, I have a hideous cold atm and am even more forgetful than usual, so if we have discussed something and I've neglected to follow up or set something up, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Comments

[dashing]

( A quiet sound of amusement. )

He'd likely be as thrilled by your daring in smuggling them as the gift itself.

( A flair for the dramatic, that Alistair. Not that she knows anything about that. )

No, unfortunately. ( A looooooong pause. ) I am attempting to... find a means to address the matter of the proposed rifter phylacteries and shifting the Chantry to revise their stance, allowing them to believe that it is to their benefit that rifters not be exposed to the indignity that mages have endured so long. I have a number of ideas I am working on, but it is not an entirely simple process.

[elegiaque]

The fact that we still have to try to convince people to stop working against their own best interests is the best fucking argument for just letting Corypheus have the sorry lot of them.

( she doesn't mean that.

she doesn't entirely mean that, but it's been a long few months and she's tired. )

What sort of ideas? Anything actually useful?

[dashing]

( Herian doesn't respond to the first point; she doesn't need to. She understands Gwen is tired, shares the exhaustion in different shapes. Doesn't feel the need to validate or diffuse dramatic statements, at least not with Gwen, who she is slowly starting to better understand. A gently correcting lecture is neither necessary, nor would it be very effective. )

The recent incident with phylacteries being remotely impacted and their tracking capabilities could be one reason, given that the Venatori and Corypheus have captured and experimented on rifters before, for reasons we do not fully grasp. Phylacteries would create a means for them to be tracked, yes, though potentially to world-wide detriment.

( She shrugs, already knows that may not be a very effective argument. ) Another avenue would be a display to demonstrate that Templars can nullify a rifter's abilities just as they nullify magic, supporting letters from communities and Chantry members who have witnessed significant good and ways the rifters have benefitted the Chantry, and...

( A sigh, contemplative, ) the possibility of portraying rifters as strong allies of the Chantry, committed to Thedas, and perhaps even symbolic of the power of the Maker and His will to protect Thedas from evils. Protection can take strange and unexpected shapes.

[elegiaque]

( the likelihood of being able to sell that to anyone who's actually met a lot of the rifters—

well, it's not out of the question. she's aware of thranduil's own machinations toward that end, had thought araceli's speculation on the maker's third children might be worth pursuing. it's a balancing act, but what isn't? )

Araceli was talking about her thoughts on that particular subject. I think it's worth pursuing, certainly; if we can play a shell game with which rifters are most visible to the people who need it sold to them, it might even work. They called Trevelyan the herald of Andraste, but who's to say what it is she heralded, exactly? It's rifters and a handful of the rest of us bearing the shards of her anchor, nowadays.

( the conversation she'd had with morrigan, about stories. about how a god is made. she could draw a line between the two, but the thought is unformed, a feeling. )

Most people who need to believe will never meet them.

[dashing]

Most, but... we cannot control who meets who, and what might become visible. If it were to backfire in the long term, the repercussions could be severe.

( And yet she is not eager to turn her back on it so easily. )

I think... kernels of truth in it will be far more effective than... outright constructions. ( A little sigh. )

[elegiaque]

Obviously, ( slightly bemused, after a pause. ) Isn't that what we're talking about?

You concentrate it on the ones we can tell the truth about, and manage it the best we can. If you want a solution that's going to make every shrieking idiot palatable without repercussion, you'll never find one.

[dashing]

Yes, and you are entirely correct.

( Herian is just Brooding, as she does. ) I— I feel I cannot leave any rock unturned. Cross examination is for the sake of settling on the best idea, rather than the perfect one.

( She wonders, sometimes, if some part of her fractured in the Anderfels, in the Spire, in all these different places and times, and slowly she has grown less and less capable of retaining reason thought. )

A cause for celebration and excitement might be the best banner of all, but I know not what that opportunity might be. Something... unifying.

( Like a bake sale. She has no idea. )

[elegiaque]

( pulling a face- )

If it hadn't all gone to pot at the end, the tourney had promise. A rifter champion and all.

( not that she's at all biased in iorveth's favor, generally. she shakes her head; )

It's hard to sell celebration, under the circumstances.

[dashing]

( Herian huffs out something that could be a laugh. Not a laugh on most people, but a laugh on Herian, because these things need to be scaled. )

If only we could orchestrate a wedding. Those seem to inspire excitement among many.

[elegiaque]

( oh, and that's a genuine grimace, that: )

You've been talking to Thranduil.

( safe bet. )

ah i thought i posted this hours ago

[dashing]

( She looks abruptly, sincerely perplexed. )

What?

[elegiaque]

( a pause, parsing that - how clearly herian doesn't know what she's talking about - and she shakes it off, shrugging; )

Nevermind.

( if the negotiations go the wrong way, it won't matter. not, of course, that she hopes for phylacteries, but it would be one silver lining. as public relations efforts go, it's as clever as it is violently unappealing. )

Either we succeed or we all die, right.