open

[bouchonne]

WHO: Byerly and Kitty and thou or even you
WHAT: Open post!! open post
WHEN: The month of KINGSWAY
WHERE: EVERYWHERE but mostly in Kirkwall and in the Gallows
NOTES: Warning: chatterboxes

[ Starters in comments!! Feel free to tag in or start your own thread it's groovy ]

Comments

[degenere]

That requires research? Interesting.

[Cute, is the subtext there.]

Your choice, that is, not necessarily its focus.

[rathercommon]

[ She favors him with a thin-lipped smile. ]

In my experience, when people assume something isn't worth learning about, it's more because they're not curious enough than it is because the topic isn't worthy.

[ She's assuming that's going to be a sick burn on this guy, given what she's heard him talking about before. ]

[degenere]

[It is a decent burn, which is why Val's smirk gets a little sharper.]

Ah, I see what you are saying. This is why you refuse to visit the University: a lack of curiosity, that restricts you to a single questionable text.

[He sighs, hugely, and turns his eyes toward the sky. Sanctimonious:]

I will pray for you, mademoiselle, that you might overcome this weakness and affliction.

[rathercommon]

[ Ugh. ]

If I show up at your precious university, they're not gonna teach me. They're gonna turn me away.

[degenere]

With that attitude? Certainly yes. But even if that were to happen, the University still boasts the finest library in all of Thedas, where you might learn for yourself.

Such an effort, I know. Your poor malnourished curiosity might not be able to stand to it.

[rathercommon]

And they'll just let anyone who marches up to their door into their library, will they.

[degenere]

Parts of it, perhaps. But of course one must submit to a test, to prove their worth. Can you guess at its material, this test?

[rathercommon]

[ With a sneer: ]

"Who were your parents? How much money d'you make in a week? Who do you know? Because we simply couldn't bear to let gutter trash dirty up our pretty halls."

[degenere]

[Val wrinkles his nose.]

"Wrestle a troll", was the answer. But your guess says quite interesting things of you, and the way that you think. Who were your parents?

[rathercommon]

[ Firmly, because she's determined not to sound ashamed - ]

A laundress and a shop clerk. Don't need to ask who yours were.

[degenere]

[Smoothly, in contrast--]

A troll and a troll in a gown, both bearing titles. Of course, the University is available even to the children of the shop clerks and the laundresses. It is an institution of knowledge and learning. Its death knell would be to remain unchanged by time, and the world these days is full of clever laundresses and plucky shop clerks, so why turn them away?

Of course, sponsorship is required. But that is necessity. I imagine the library would accept sponsorship from me, if I awarded it. A letter would suffice. There is a librarian there who is quite fond of me. Even a whisper of my name could unlock doors.

[rathercommon]

[ She meets his eyes directly. Her face is hard and suspicious. ]

And what would it cost me?

[degenere]

[As cool and as careless and as handsome and as self-assured as ever, and completely unstung by hard looks, Val smiles.]

Wrestle a troll.

[rathercommon]

[ Come on, man. ]

[degenere]

[Come where to watch you wrestle a troll????]

[degenere]

[No ok but]

I require proof of curiosity. Meaning: you would share your research with me, when you returned. And you would deliver a small item to the University to me. And you would owe me a small favor. But that is all!

[rathercommon]

[ She sits up fully. The suspicion isn't gone, but it's warring with interest in her face. ]

What kind of favor, and what's the item.

[degenere]

Favor: indeterminate. Item: envelope. Library: vast, full of books, some of them the only remaining copies in all of Thedas. Collections of letters and writings, which are not permitted to leave the sanctum of the library itself.

[rathercommon]

What's in the envelope.

[degenere]

A letter. And, before you ask: it is being delivered to a professor of the University.

[rathercommon]

And will I get in trouble for delivering it.

[degenere]

[Val actually laughs.]

Of course you will not! What a thing to say.

[rathercommon]

[ Skeptically: ]

You swear.

[degenere]

Often.

And to this, yes. I would put nothing in a letter that would endanger you.

[smile smile smile smile]

[rathercommon]

[ A long, considering pause - ]

I don't trust you.