faderift | The human element drags you down (open)

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The human element drags you down (open)

WHO: Julius and others
WHAT: Catch-all for Harvestmere
WHEN: At a point in the month when he's not offsite for drake wrangling; we can handwave specifics unless you need not to
WHERE: In and around the Gallows, mainly
NOTES: While participation is obviously opt-in OOCly, if you'd like Julius to track down your character without their IC permission, that's a thing that can definitely happen. Ditto involvement with Sashamiri projects - if you want in but haven't been already, Julius is not above corralling people. Dive in or hmu if you want a hook beyond what's here. (Also note that there is discussion of sex between consenting adults in the closed thread for Petrana.)

I. Official business (open)

Now that the projects are sharing personnel, Julius is less concerned about recruiting, per se, and more interested in keeping track of all the people with their fingers in various red lyrium or Corypheus-flavored pies. So while he keeps semi-regular office hours, he is also getting a bit more proactive at looking people up. On a given day, he has a list of people who have participated in recent Sashamiri missions, people whose names turn up in reports, or people who other people have told him to talk to. He also noted down those who had comments about things other than mabari statues, the last time Alistair reached out.

There's plenty to do. It's just a matter of finding people with the skills and the time to get it done.

II. Off the clock (open)

Julius tries to make himself approachable, and he knows not everyone will want to encounter someone first in an official capacity. (It's not so different from the Circle, in some ways, though he knows better than to observe as much aloud.) He makes a point of eating at reasonable meal times, and sitting with people he knows a little less well when the chance arises. He's a regular at the organized Wicked Grace games, and neither wins nor loses enough to draw attention. And, for all he isn't part of the Research division anymore, he's not infrequently in the library. In any of those places, he's happy to talk with acquaintances old and new.

What he likes now and then, however, is a bit of time on the top of the tower, watching the city below or the sunset over the water. He's not opposed to company, but for once, the company isn't the point. It's a thing he does just because he likes it, and there are few enough of those.

III. Annotations (closed to Petrana)

Julius had been looking for something else entirely -- he'd mislaid a book, and couldn't remember whether he'd last been reading it in her room or his. When he found the small codex, he'd not intended to pry, exactly, but he'd seen his name and been unable to resist.

However, his particular attitude when she discovered him was less of a man salaciously invading his lover's privacy and more of a scholar engaged in revisions. He had a pen in hand and was making notes on a loose sheet of paper he'd gathered at some point, concentration serious enough that he doesn't immediately break his train of thought when she enters the room.

IV. Wildcard

[If you want to talk about something specific that won't fit I or II, grab me on Discord or Plurk and let's make it happen.]

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There is a small man standing on the desk that Julius favours most. It's nothing personal, given the communal nature of the thing, but it is definitely what's happening. The desk has been dragged towards a nearby bookshelf and used as a means of getting to its upper climes. There's a stack of books being compiled behind him, and he is currently leafing through a journal with another one trapped between his teeth. Muttering a little in a muffled manner.

Dressed oddly, too. Tony has reverted to the familiar clothes he'd arrived in, synthetic and form-fitting fabrics to combat the humidity of the day. Grey dust smears on grey polyblend. More startling is the circle of glowing blue illuminated through the fabric at the centre of his chest, but then again, there's a lot of glowing things of strange arcane nature in this world.

Tony closes the journal he was perusing, reaching to slide it -- kind of -- back where he found it, and turning to extract the other slim volume from between his teeth, but pausing when he notices he has company. A little like a raccoon caught in the trash.

Edited 2019-10-06 10:15 (UTC)

"Not that I mean to criticize," Julius says mildly; he's clearly been observing the scene for a moment. "But you do know that there are step-stools about? They're slightly easier to move than desks, though I suppose you're saving yourself a step by not having to pile them on the floor and move them somewhere else."

He's been with Riftwatch long enough not to be terribly put off by Rifters who dress like Rifters. Different people deal with Thedas differently, and that's true even among the native population. The glowing circle is new, but it's hardly polite to stare, so he doesn't. Time to ask about it later if the opportunity arises, and if not, they have plenty of other things to worry about.

The journal flops down onto the top of the stack o' books.

"Question asked, question answered," Tony says, from on high. The literature itself, from where Julius can glance, is variations on a common theme -- properties of things found in nature, more minerals than plants. The journal itself is a more recent publication on the matter of Fade-touched artifacts found in nature.

He moves, stepping down onto the chair, and down onto the floor, all a little reckless and athletic for the dusty confines of the library, but at least he's stopped. "Not gonna tell on me, are you?" As if maybe Tony's antics had escaped the notice of literally anyone.

"Thankfully, I am emphatically not in charge of the library," Julius says, amused. "Also, I've arguably made a worse mess. Granted, not on purpose, but about a year and a half ago someone was targeting mages with long-distance magic. I was thrown backward into some shelves and knocked down a considerable number of books. No idea who had to clean that up." He can speak lightly enough of it now (easier since it can't be repeated, at least for him). "Could be worse; could have been fire."

He glances up from where he's unapologetically been scanning the titles of Tony's stack, and adds, "If no one has suggested Oswin of Highever, you might add him to your list. Wrote a long treatise on the difference between cloth made out of Fade-touched materials and cloth that becomes Fade-touched later on. Though fair warning, he rambles a bit."

Tony takes a seat where he is -- not in a chair, but leaning butt to desk instead as he picks up the top most journal for something to fidget with as he listens. Head at a cant, some unknown twist of amusement to his expression -- not so much for content, but for tone.

Oh, you wacky mages and your wacky mage hijinks. "Oh yeah?" he says, blithe while still filing that name away for later reference. "No suggestions yet -- and, not that the magic internet isn't full of incredible helpers, but I was kinda just. Following a rabbit hole, I guess. Good to know.

"Tony," he says, putting out a hand to shake. It has green magic in it, but it doesn't bite.

"Julius," he replies, taking the offered hand without hesitation, though it's more of a clasp than a shake. "Assuming by 'magic internet,'" the faintest trace of a weird emphasis suggests it's a word he doesn't know, "you mean the sending crystals, I'd say there's a decent level of enthusiasm but a mixed level of expertise. So I suppose helpfulness depends on what you're looking for really."

It's not a question, but it is a loose invitation. His idea of what Tony is looking for is necessarily broad, but it's not entirely outside his experience. Then again, some people prefer to make their own way, and he's not going to push when they've only just met.

Edited (someday I'll write a tag without a typo) 2019-10-08 11:20 (UTC)

"Rocks."

Tony had reflected upon the frequency at which Thedosian have to stop and navigate around his anachronisms -- but to try to stop himself would probably make him crazy, and who knows, maybe he'll discover the one other contemporary earthling through a casual reference about the Reading Rainbow theme (which has been stuck in his head for the past two hours).

"Minerals used in enchantment. Enchanting? And then I got started on the Fade-touched click journey, on which there's a weird amount of scholarship and no one thing that actually explains what the hell that is, and. That's how scholarship worked in my world too. Unfortunately I never went to wizard school."

"Enchantment's the noun, enchanting's the verb, either could be right depending on what specifically you meant." A beat, then dry: "I suppose it's increasingly obvious I did go to wizard school, assuming I correctly gather that by 'wizard' you mean 'mage.'"

For all that, he doesn't seem to find Tony's topic ridiculous or even especially out of the way. If anything, he looks at the stack with a bit more interest. "If you want minerals, specifically, obviously Oswin will do nothing for you. Part of what you might be running into with the scholarship is that, by and large, the people doing the enchantment and the people using the enchanted items aren't the same people. So anyone writing about it is likely to be a bit lopsided as a result." He smiles a bit, then adds, "Not that you need me to do your research over your shoulder, sorry. I used to teach at wizard school, too, and some habits are hard to break."

"Man," says Tony, after a second of peering up and at Julius with both amusement and interest, "where the heck were you on the crystals like, three weeks ago."

Not that Julius has told him anything earth-shattering so much as it's such an easy flow of dialogue without Tony having to play twenty frickin' questions that it is in itself a marvel, along with the implicit offerings for further guidance. What a luxury. "I mean, I'm starting from square one with this stuff and all signs point to me not being able to tap into it."

Said, a little, like there's a silent we'll see buried in there.

"What do you do now?"

Edited (banishes repeat icon) 2019-10-15 08:14 (UTC)

"I'm the head of Project Sashamiri," he says, lightly. "That's the one that's working on Corypheus' history and what red lyrium can do. About three weeks ago, I was likely getting attacked by a drake while it rained on me an excessive amount, but most of the time my work is more focused on reading reports and writing very sensitively worded letters on Riftwatch's behalf." Which he's much more inclined to than getting attacked by magical wildlife, if anyone asks him.

Julius considers Tony for a moment, and then said, "It's relatively rare for rifters to be able to do magic, but it's not unheard of. There have been a few. Most could do something like it where they were from, but even after a few years, it's largely uncharted territory. Some rifters have made notes... a gentleman named Newt Scamander, though he's been gone about a year, I think he did a bit of research. Cosima Niehaus, gone too, but more recently. Adalia was interested in cross-world magic, but I don't know if she wrote anything down." A small, apologetic shrug. "As you can see, continuity is an issue. But you could always ask the provost if Research still has their notes on hand. It might offer a head start."

'Do magic' is such a weird yet increasingly familiar turn of phrase. Going on and on around that stuff -- the way people talk about magic, the assumptions those ways carry, the limitations they imply -- tends to net Tony reactions on a scale between vague irritation and assuming he's a simpleton for getting so preoccupied with them, which--

--never stops him, but, he has bigger fish to fry right now.

"That sounds like-- well, a little like something I'd order with a bottle of sake, but also like a big deal. Sashamiri, I mean. Um, actually, I'm more interested in cross-world--" He gestures, an A-to-B type vague hand-talking. "Technology. Machinery and mechanisms that can harness and interact with magic, which-- it's interesting, you can actually quantify magic the same way we measure electricity back on my world. Leads me to think it can be harnessed the same way, and, I mean."

His hands raise for the purposes of air quotes. "I don't 'do' magic. But I don't 'do' electricity either, so that's not a deterrent. Yet. If I explode into small pieces I'll stop."

Edited 2019-10-21 01:39 (UTC)

"I'm not familiar with electricity, I'm afraid, but I am interested in a methodical approach to magic. There's a great deal we still don't understand. Even for natives, we were kept fairly scrupulously apart from one other for the most part before the Circles fell. Well, wait, I suppose I should back up; has anyone explained the Circle yet?"

He can feel so many of his fellow mages grinding their teeth over the prospect of his explanation, but he's sure it must become grating to have people just assume you know the touchstones of Thedosian history, recent or otherwise.

"I also generally advised my students against exploding into small pieces back when I taught, but you're an adult, so I'll trust you to make your own decision on that."

"I got a rundown," Tony says, with the dismissive air of someone who doesn't want to get it again. "Controversial topic, I gather, though I can't tell if you're meant to be learning how to magic or learning how to not magic."

He gestures, palms together, directing the tips of his fingers towards Julius. "But then, you had to teach something. And you know what lighting is -- that's a current of electrical energy. It's pretty powerful stuff if you can learn to harness it in more ways than just-- at people you don't like.

"Where were you, uh, stationed?"

"Ferelden. Place called Kinloch Hold. Part of the controversy," that led to a war recently, yes, "comes from the fact that there was a fair bit of variation in application of the overall mission statement of 'learn to control your magic well enough you don't get possessed or go mad with power.' Or one and the other in sequence. Kinloch Hold was, in relative terms, more interested in letting mages actually learn things, as long as they didn't go getting ideas like leaving the tower. Later on, it might have gotten harsher, but we were so short-staffed it wasn't practical to crack down, and not so emptied out that it was practical to send all of us elsewhere." He's sure that option had been discussed, for all he wasn't privy to the discussion.

Julius smiles, a bit ruefully. "And now, here we are, talking to non mages regularly and comparing notes with one another. I personally have learned all sorts of things in the past few years, but that was never someone's plan." Julius' own, possibly.

"And look at you now, so tall and handsome and not an Abomination," Tony says. "Will wonders never cease."

Coming in from the outside, the whole Circle system seems like the recipe of disaster that it inevitably became, but what's he gonna do: care about the local politics? Haha, no thank you. He wants to make a Thedosian hovercar, please.

"Happy to trade notes on magic method, anyway. If you can take time out of your busy schedule, uh, studying the guy who wants to take over the world, and what have you. We got a couple of workshops in the middle tower where we try our best."

Edited 2019-10-25 09:07 (UTC)

Julius brightens a bit, at the offer. "I'd like that. I've always been interested in experimental magic, but the opportunities for practical tests were limited, before. Lots of pen on paper theory, but you can only get so far without the ability to test those theories. Besides, depending on the type of machine you're working on, it might arguably be useful to the war effort anyway."

...or not, but Julius is still interested either way.

"Yeh. Great excuse, war. I know I'm still kind of in the design phase myself, and the, uh--"

Tony pivots, glances down at his way too tall stack of books, looks back at Julius like, well. "This part." And back to the books, which he carefully gathers into his arms, hands securing the bottom of them first and letting them list against and balance on his chest, where blue light is reflected briefly up at his face before being blocked completely.

"But I'll let you sneak peak, maybe it'll fast track us around to prototyping. I like working collaboratively," sounds more like a decision he has had to make about himself recently, very specific when said out loud like that.

"I'd be delighted. I'm usually easy to find; someone can point you toward the Sashamiri office if you need directions. And I do usually try to answer my sending crystal, especially if it's a direct call."

Office hours are for people who aren't lowkey workaholics.

"In the meantime, I suppose I'll wish you luck with the research. I'll be interested to see what comes of it."

From behind him, there's a trace of only slightly exasperated amusement to the way that she says, “I should not be surprised that any man should find himself a most diverting subject of study.”

She sets down her satchel of work on the bedside table, since he is seated at her desk, and sits to remove her shoes; she certainly recognises the work he's happened upon, and she might have been more defensive of it had he not been so obviously absorbed by it. As it is—she reserves judgment.

"Ah... hm." He turns to her, though finding she's already seated, he doesn't get up. "I would rather put it that a man doesn't often stumble across the opportunity of finding a candid source of suggestions for improvement. It does occur to me, now, that I may have gotten carried away."

The page of notes based on her notes, yes.

"I wasn't looking to... I'm sorry for prying. I was looking for something else and, well. You are an excellent observer of human behavior, but that's no excuse." He is not embarrassed by the subject itself, but at the belated realization she might feel (rightly) indignant that he'd violated her privacy.

Her feet swing up beneath herself as she loosens the braided knot she's made of her hair, regarding him with a smile that hints at forming as he apologises, considers his evident self-reflection.

“I am prepared to forgive you,” most graciously, “in exchange for your thoughts.”

He smiles a little, relieved that he's not inadvertently hurt her. (He may pay for it, but then again, that's true of the entire relationship.) "Well," he says, after a moment. "A man does like to pretend he can make the earth move, so it is slightly disheartening you had so much mental energy free. That said, I think most of your observations are correct as far as they go. A few could use expansion."

After a moment, he just offers her his paper.

“'As far as they go',” she repeats, mildly, her amusement sharpening into something harder to miss as she takes the paper and leans back onto her (their) bed to study it, which would be a sight more comfortable if she'd got so far as loosening her corset. She's in no great hurry, though, and certainly has made notes upon his expertise in the removal of various items of her clothing.

After a few moments, “You know, I don't know that I have ever found myself rendered able to only experience and not consider the experience.”

"Never, even in the moment? I know I tend to analysis myself, but at least a time or two has been mainly retrospective." He considers her, and comes to sit beside her for comfort as well as closeness. (And, perhaps, to signal that he isn't making any more notes.) "Is that something you'd even like, do you think? Or are you disinclined to give up that much control?"

It's an honest question, not a loaded one. At least not loaded beyond any potential applications of the answer. She's not the only one interested in learning more about their partner, even if his notes take more of the form of a mental catalogue.

Out of habit as much as anything else, she lifts her stocking feet from the floor to his lap as he settles with her, considering him over the edge of the paper he'd handed to her for her perusal. It does still feel like something of a loaded question, but not objectionably. Merely—

one that merits contemplation.

“I suppose it was...” She considers her words. (She always considers her words.) “Previously,” with some caution, the way she speaks around what was her marriage and not directly of, “I did not feel it entirely wise to give up all control.” Nor had she the luxury of giving up none.

That her slight, perceptible distance had been a point of contention she doesn't feel she needs to get into.

“And now I am simply not in the habit. I do trust you.” It isn't exactly an answer to his question; she doesn't seem sure of the answer. She doesn't seem to have thought about it before.

He idly massages her ankle as he considers that answer. "I'm glad you do," he said, after a moment. "I don't want to push you, either. It's not as if I'm unfamiliar with the impulse to keep a bit of one's control intact." Even his relationships with the lovers he'd been closest to had been necessarily colored by the knowledge they had to be secret, or temporary, or both. It had been the rare moment he'd been able to forget that. Still, he can't help the feeling she means something a bit different. (He thinks of how they've never spoken of her Marius, even after coming face to face, in a manner of speaking. Then again... he doesn't want to push her.)

That thought prods him a bit farther than he might have otherwise gone. "I'm not unhappy," he says, "and I trust you'd let me know if you were. But finding your notes did make me think... it's easy to just go along. Maker knows we're both busy enough, splitting our attention a dozen ways or more, but I don't want you to think that I take you for granted. Take this for granted. I know it's something I wasn't entirely prepared for."

“Well, we've been—”

Petrana pauses. Her head tilts, as she considers her ankle in his warm grasp and the phrasing I'm not unhappy and counts weeks and months. It's a startling realisation that they have been not taking one another for granted (at least mostly) (she might say) for, now, upwards of a year.

It merits a pause.

Finally, “I should think we might be beginning to get the hang of it,” faintly.

He smiles, though he's not sure how to read her tone. (He either hasn't done the math, or did it before now.) "I think so. But I know it's not always an easy conversation to begin. When something is causing discomfort, there's a built-in pressure to do something about it. But for this..." He trails, watching her. After a moment, he says, "If it could be better, I think it's worth the effort. To try to make it better. We don't know how long we'll have, it's true, but if it's a long time I think we'll be well served but establishing good habits."

A pause, then he adds: "I'd like it to be a long time." She couldn't mistake the vulnerability for anything other than deliberate.

“I had not thought it had been so long, already,” she says, eventually; they meandered through their relationship with quiet ease for long enough now that it had seemed at once both most natural and most new. A refreshing change; a habit easy to fall into.

It rather supports his point, she thinks, after a moment.

“—I don't mean to say I wouldn't wish that as well. I was merely struck...yes, I think that you're. I would like that, and you are right. We should be well-served by perhaps...”

It has been so easy they haven't felt pressed to consider if it might be better, again.

“A bit of judicious purpose.”

At her comment, he does do the math... then laughs, rueful. "Maker. I suppose I've lost the opportunity to surprise you with a romantic gesture for the anniversary. Next time, perhaps." An optimistic assumption that they'd both be there, in one piece, a year hence. "Or perhaps we can have a bit of delayed celebration now. Carve out an evening when neither of us will be too badly missed."

Maybe Melys won't even turn up in the middle of it to set something on fire.

As calculated and deliberate as Petrana can be—it is a testament to something, probably, that while there is some perception of Julius drawn around by her finger beneath his chin the fact that she's nearly a decade his junior is not why—there's something wonderfully disarming about her when she smiles, suddenly:

“I would like to celebrate you and I. We are, as you say, worth the effort. No?”

Yes.

(No promises about Melys.)

Then, “Perhaps—would you like to—well, you see, it was a terrible nuisance to relocate my desk the once, but perhaps it might be time that we allowed Riftwatch the use of a room again.” His, for instance, if he were to join her in hers. “I suppose I am proposing a chore more than a celebration—”

He laughs at that, warm. "I mean, they can be two separate things, the celebration and the moving. I suppose it's true that I work in my room less frequently than you do, so if it's a matter of convenience..."

Teasing, a bit, now that he's on surer ground.

“It has always seemed the wiser thing to have a second desk than to give into inertia and simply pull a cot into my office—” which does, knowing her, seem altogether too plausible. At least if she's working in her quarters, she's more likely to actually go to bed at some point.

Especially if there's a warm body in it, though he's as likely to be reading something work-related as not.

"A cot is altogether too small," he says, definitively. "I suppose there's nothing for it, then." Julius leaned in to kiss her, properly. "We're both terribly practical people, it makes romantic gestures a bit harder to come by. But I think we do better together than apart."

Practically and romantically.

He adds, "I'd warn you about my habits, but you know all of them already, at this point."

Very seriously, with her palm against his cheek— “I have forgiven you your terrible Wicked Grace game.”

"And I forgive you the heartless theft of my socks," he returns, instantly, though not managing such a straight face as hers.

“If you cannot adequately defend them—”

"I was attempting to be gallant, which shows how well that is rewarded. I will grant it is partially my own fault for underestimating you, but in my defense, you were actively encouraging me to do so and you're very convincing."

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The human element drags you down (open)

ii. off the clock; library.

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