[Closed] 93 Meetings

[overharrowed]

WHO: Members of the Corypheus' History project
WHAT: Project meeting
WHEN: Slightly backdated to the beginning of the month
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Backdated far enough to be before projects that might take people out of Kirkwall. Julius would have reached out by crystal prior, though, so if you're not there and would want him to bring up something project related to the group, just DM/contact me and let me know. If you prefer a one-on-one thread with Julius, just indicate it in your starter and we'll say it happens earlier or later; otherwise, no particular order for the main thread.

Julius has cleared the entire day -- not because he expects one meeting to go that long (Maker, he hopes not), but because everyone is busy and not everyone is likely to arrive or leave at the same time. Part of the reason he's generally met with project members in ones and two before is just simple logistics.

That said, there's been a fair amount of turnover in the project recently, he has Hanzo to introduce, and Corypheus himself turned up recently, so it seems to him that they're due. Possibly overdue. He's secured a large enough room in the Gallows to fit everyone who might turn up, and he's earlier than he told anyone else to be, using the extra time to catch up on some reports he owes.

At least he's secured a few refreshments, by way of apology (if not bribe) for attending.

Comments

[coquettish_trees]

Alexandrie had showed up a few weeks after the return from Tevinter with a stack of translated Venatori letters in Kitty's swift frank handwriting bound by a nice length of ribbon that had not been Kitty's, a pleasantly efficient rundown of her research and language credentials, and a fervently expressed wish to be included if such things were needed in the project.

This is, perhaps, the most she has applied herself in years--certainly the most she has used her Tevene--and it is mostly because after what happened in Minrathous, she wants Corypheus dead, and she wants him anguished beyond bearing when it happens, if anguish is a thing such a being can even feel. Whatever it is he values most, she wants it destroyed, and she wants it done in front of him with him rendered incapable of stopping it. Not of trying. Just of stopping it.

It is for this reason also that not only is Alexandrie on time; for the very first time in her entire life she's early, her movements crisp with the clarity of anger held on a choked up leash. Even so, for the Enchanter, a smile. And, perhaps more importantly, a cask of better-than-decent wine and a covered tray of glasses for it to add to the apology-bribe.

[ipseite]

“Oh, my dear, I shall be sitting with you,” is Petrana's laughing greeting upon seeing what Alexandrie has arrived with (she had simply arrived with Julius, for her part, and has been making herself useful in preparing the room before everyone else turns up)— “So I had better introduce myself.”

As she's not sure they've met, though she does think she's crossed paths with the sister, perhaps briefly?

“Madame de Cedoux. Mlle de la Fontaine, no?”

[overharrowed]

Julius stands, reflexively, when Alexandrie comes in; he's not really nobility, Circle-raised as he was, but manners you can learn from a book he's got in spades.

"Thank you for coming," he adds, allowing her to confirm her own identity, but coming to accept the cask and the tray from her. "I know it's a bit of an inconvenience to find a time for everyone, but I think we were past due for collaborating in a larger group. Under the circumstances."

[eruit]

There's an edge of something awkward as Hanzo moves and steps into the room, looking uncomfortable and uncertain as he glances at the other members. He's not exactly well known, not by Inquisition standards, but the shape and mould of him screams Tevinter in a way that is completely obvious. There is no way to try and disguise it.

He moves forward and sits at the table without too much said for it, looking left and right before he makes himself comfortable. The bow he always carries is placed to one side and he pauses, breathing out before he looks over and nods his head at Julius.

[byblow]

"Circumstances?" Alistair says, coming in the door, because the absence of anything useful to say can't mean he should just be quiet. That would be ridiculous. (Today, right now. He is capable. Official meetings just bring out the worst in him.) "I haven't noticed any circumstances."

And speaking of bringing out the worst in him, when he sits down, it's at least one seat away from everyone else.

[overharrowed]

Julius returns Hanzo's nod, lightly, and his expression remains mild as he replies to Alistair. "Oh? How would you describe the situation in Tevinter? I'm happy to use a more accurate turn of phrase."

Alistair gets something of a pass from Julius, at least in principle, because of Kinloch Hold. But on the other hand, he'd rather engage than ignore that sort of comment. (He did once teach actual adolescents.)

[byblow]

—damn it.

Alistair looks a bit caught for a moment, in the specific way of someone who did not have any follow-up planned to something stupid, but he keeps smiling. Smirking. He didn't convince an entire abbey to hate him as a child by knowing when to shut up.

"Situation works well, I think," he says. "For there to be circumstances there would have to be at least one additional dragon."

[ipseite]

In the process of—most helpfully—pouring wine for both herself and Alexandrie, Petrana says, “I shall remember this when we are presented with another,” sedately.

[coquettish_trees]

Mildly, while accepting the glass with a murmur of thanks to Petrana, "Is there a word for two additional dragons? It is imperative we be prepared, and defining of nomenclature seems the best use of our time."

[overharrowed]

"'State of affairs,' perhaps," Julius says, because he can't entirely resist.

"Honestly," he continues, "what we call it doesn't matter. It's a reminder, as if we needed one, that our project is on a deadline. We may not know precisely what that deadline is, but sooner than we'd like seems safe to assume."

Maybe they could all use more wine.

"If no one wishes to suggest where we focus, I can decide unilaterally. But I don't think that's the most productive way to use our time."

[coquettish_trees]

"The artifact," is Alexandrie's immediate suggestion. "As an ancient Magister he would be formidable enough, but that orb of his is what makes him truly dangerous, no? Able to accomplish what he has, and what he aims to? What know we of its origin, its power, its weakness if it has one? Surely magical artifacts may be understood and destroyed."

[overharrowed]

"A good point. Perhaps worth more directly coordinating with the Elven Artifacts project, as well, as I imagine there is some overlap in potential leads. And I could wish for more helpful observations from the survivors out of Haven, frankly; if there are more detailed notes, they're misfiled or not in Kirkwall." He's looked.

He moves to jot down some notes. "Vulnerabilities would arguably be most useful, but anything more we could learn about the orb might help."

[eruit]

"There may, perhaps, be some notes on it in libraries across Thedas. It may be useful to investigate what resources the Inquisition might obtain." Hanzo, of course, thinks, that Tevinter might be the best place, but there is very little chance of them being able to get into Minrathous any time soon. Not with Corypheus so close.

It's obvious just how uncomfortable and on edge Hanzo is, breathing out gently.

"Would you have me speak to the elven artefacts?"

[overharrowed]

Julius glances up, and nods. "That's a good idea, if you would. Even if there's nothing to come of it right away, I think it's a channel of communication worth keeping open; we may learn things of interest to them as well, as we pursue information on the artifact."

He's more focused, with Hanzo, but not brusque; he simply doesn't know him well enough to know if more warmth is welcome, and is proceeding cautiously until he decides.

[byblow]

The artifact is a good topic, in Alistair's opinion, because the artifact is one of few things about Corypheus that isn't the Wardens' fault; his smile at Lady de la Fontaine is particularly bright, when she brings it up, and he nods along.

But, "Even before it, no one could kill him. I realize indefinite containment didn't really work out for us, as a long-term strategy, but we might need to—I mean, containing him again would be better than not, wouldn't it? If we could, while we figured out how to destroy him for good." His point: "It might be worth rebuilding what held him before. The weird magic bits, not the whole prison."

[wythersake]

Isaac didn't intend to be late.

Very seldom do people intend to be late to routine meetings, there's nothing dramatic about the occasion, you just look like a bit of a tit. So here he is now, with a bit of a tit's question:

"How did they try killing him, the last time?" They. You. Wardens probably, and it isn't only Wardens trying to kill the bastard now, is it — "Do we know what specifically didn't work?"

[byblow]

"We know Wardens didn't work," Alistair says. "That was the main problem. Any one of us who got too close to him wound up trying to help him. If anyone kept notes on exactly what they tried, those have been lost now. But then there was whatever Hawke did. I imagine it was fire and swords and a bunch of arrows."