open

[inkindled]

WHO: Matthias, Nikos, Salvio (tbd if Doki, Val, and Darras will get open stuff. how did I get all of these characters) + YOU
WHAT: just open stuff, man
WHEN: NOW
WHERE: various
NOTES: tiny bit of self-harm but it's so small and it gets fixed so fast

Comments

[assistente]

Yes-- yes, the--

[The mage. Salvio looks at the drawer that is close to his left elbow and gives it a little frown. The faint tap, it was clearly in his mind. A trick of his distraction.

He moves decisively to open the drawer that she had gestured to.]

'Complicated' is a good word for it. If it is true. Yes. It is foolish, but-- [He frowns, again, as he takes hold of the drawer pull.] I hope to find it. To refute it. Or... if it is, ah, true, then--we would know. Though I do not know what we would do, after that.

[skulltasm]

[ It's probably because the tapping is the sound of bone on glass within the cabinet, and not tapping on the cabinet itself. But wait, was that a sigh? Just then, before more rapid tapping? ]

[heirring]

Well. If it were true, I can hardly imagine that the gentleman in question is the first person to— [But she is distracted from finishing the thought, her frowning study of the cabinets deepening.]

Do you hear that?

[Is a somewhat hypothetical question, given that Wysteria doesn't wait for an answer before she hauls open one of the drawers between them to investigate that strange rattle.]

[assistente]

Um.

[And then he has to take a quick step backwards to avoid the drawer--but with cautious interest, he leans forward to peer inside the drawer, too, to see what is making the noise.]

[skulltasm]

[ As soon as the drawer opens it's obvious what the sound is, because there's that telltale green glow coming from within and that tapping is suddenly very clearly the sound of bone on glass. ]

FINALLY! I THOUGHT I'D NEVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY AGAIN!

[heirring]

[For a moment, Wysteria regards the jar in the drawer and the skull inside of it. Then, with her hand still on the handle, she glances up to Salvio and effects some unfathomable wiggling of the eyebrows that could roughly translate to Shall I shut the drawer again? but might just as easily be Isn't this nice; I thought we could do with company.]

[assistente]

[Salvio does not sigh. He does close his eyes for a second, then opens them again and looks at the ceiling, which could roughly translate to, It is too late, it has seen us, leave the drawer open, but might just as easily be I am so happy to see the Skull that I am silently praising the Maker.

He moves forward and reaches for the jar.]

I did not know you were in the office.

[skulltasm]

NEITHER DID I, UNTIL I GOT BORED ENOUGH TO READ.

[ if he had arms, he'd be holding them the way a child does while chanting up, up! ]

NEVER A DULL MOMENT 'ROUND HERE WHEN ANY GIVEN MOMENT YOU MIGHT BE BLACK-BAGGED AND SHOVED INTO A DRAWER.

[heirring]

[With the jar and skull retrieved, Wysteria slowly closes the cursed drawer.]

I don't suppose you've read any correspondence from a distressed mage while you were in there, did you? The Seneschal is evidently on the hunt for a bit of mail.

[assistente]

I'm--

[Somewhat strained, as he carries the jar over to a flat pillow beside the office's sole bank of windows (two, both cut too high to offer a view but still allowing in a narrow band of light), a more fitting place--]

--merely looking, to confirm.

[skulltasm]

[ wheee! ]

NOPE, NO MAIL IN THAT DRAWER. A PAMPHLET ON GOATS AND A TREATISE ON BUTTERFLIES, THOUGH.

[ A pair of eyes pop into the skull's sockets, rolling until their gaze lands on Salvio. ]

WHY, DID SOMETHING HAPPEN? YOU LOOK MORE HARRIED THAN USUAL, SAL.

[heirring]

We had a gentleman with some complaints make an appearance, and then become possessed. It was quite the to do. The dining hall is in recovery.

[She moves to the (theoretically correct) drawer hanging open and begins thumbing through the available rows there.]

[assistente]

[Salvio winces slightly at possessed, but as his eyes are always quite watery and squinted, said wince blends in quite nicely with his overall look.

He crouches down, in order to avoid the Skull's sudden eyeballs, and turns his attention to the cupboards there. Never mind that Poppell is looking in the more correct place. He must be busy.]

Yes. Precisely as Poppell said. I will transport you there, later, if you-- if you wish to see for yourself. And there was evidence of a letter, a letter to the-- to the person, in question, which is what we are-- what I am looking for, and Poppell has offered her assistance.

[skulltasm]

EVIDENCE, OR TESTIMONIAL?

[ Maybe if Skull had facial features or a slightly less grating voice, it might be perceptible that he sobers ever so slightly at this news.

But only slightly. ]

YOU KNOW, BACK WHEN I WAS ALIVE I KNEW A RIGHT NUMPTY OF A FELLOW WHO KEPT UP CORRESPONDENCE WITH THE BUTCHER'S SON FOR MONTHS BEFORE REALIZING HIS MISSIVES WERE BEING INTERCEPTED. SOMEONE ELSE WAS PRETENDING TO BE THE RECIPIENT! WHAT A LARK, EH?

[heirring]

What on earth could have kept a fellow writing to a butcher's son for so long? That seems like a very long time to entertain a discussion about meat. —No it is this drawer, Seneschal. Here, allow me to pass you these stacks from the back so we might review them more thoroughly in the light.

[She begins to peel reams of paper from rear of the cabinet.]

[assistente]

I have always found butchers to be interesting, [Salvio says, quietly, and mostly to himself, and then,] oh-- yes-- um, I will--

[His joints creak audibly as he struggles to quickly stand, so he can accept the stacks from Wysteria and begin shuttling them to the table.]

In any case. The letter that was found--evidence, and testimonial, in its way. It was one side of the correspondence. I suppose--interception is the most likely, in this case, but I--perhaps a small, um, slightly smaller stack, Poppell, this next--time-- [breathless, as he accepts the next stack of papers from her] --I want to be certain.

[skulltasm]

I IMAGINE THEY TALKED ABOUT MORE THAN JUST MEAT, POPPELL. MAYBE EVEN MORE THAN ONE KIND!

[ With the attention no longer on him, Skull lets his eyeballs disappear. Without any sound effects, too! ]

GOODNESS, I HOPE WE DON'T HAVE A MOLE. HOW POSITIVELY DREADFUL.

[heirring]

Yes, of course. This one is much smaller-- [she is saying, and it is a rather more reasonable pile of papers; she also fumbles it thanks to the startled (equal parts horrified and enchanted) exclamation of:] --A MOLE!

[And so dumps the whole stack more onto Salvio than otherwise.]

[assistente]

Oh-- [Salvio tries to make a sort of cradle of his arms, to catch the small deluge of papers. Most of them smatter onto the ground despite this effort, scattering on the floor.] That's, you--

[He stoops to gather some of the straying pages. Another creak of joints; he winces, oddly balanced, one arm clasping paper to his chest, the other actively seeking other paper.]

I do not think it will be anything so-- so dramatic. As a mole. This is a very... Well. I cannot imagine it, in Riftwatch.

[skulltasm]

WOULDN'T THAT BE THE POINT? WHY WOULD ANYONE SUSPECT ONE IN SUCH A RINKY-DINK OPERATION LIKE THIS?

[ Now he's just being silly. Tugging at a loose thread in Salvio's calm. ]

FAR MORE LIKELY THAT IT'S JUST RUN BY INCOMPETENT BLOWHARDS.

[heirring]

[From where she is gathering the papers that have slipped to her side of the expansive drawer and shoving them in Salvio's direction, Wysteria shoots the Skull a sharp look.]

You're being very rude, you know.

[assistente]

[Now fully crouched on the floor, Salvio accepts each new folio from Wysteria with his free hand, and scrounges for the fallen pages between folios.]

It is in its nature. I think. The, um. Pithy observations. I do not mean that as a critique, just--perhaps it is not an intention, um, you know, rudeness, precisely. I suppose I might somewhat agree. Not--in Riftwatch, precisely, or exactly, in--organizations as a whole.

[skulltasm]

[ Higher pitched, defensive: ]

ALL I'M SAYING IS, IF SOMEBODY TOLD ME THAT THERE WAS A MOLE IN THE RANKS OF RIFTWATCH, AND I WEREN'T PRIVY TO ALL THE GOINGS-ON IN THIS PLACE, I'D PROBABLY LAUGH 'TIL MY BOTTOM RATTLED, WHEREVER IT IS.

WE ARE NEITHER LARGE ENOUGH NOR INFLUENTIAL ENOUGH FOR ANYONE TO EVEN SNIFF AT, MUCH LESS INVESTIGATE.

[heirring]

Come now, that's hardly true. We may not be large, I grant you, but surely we have been very influential in a great many respects. We are the only organization in all of Thedas which works to close rifts, for example. And we have connections - well, perhaps connections is a strong word. But relations, certainly, with a great many important figures abroad, such as-- Well, it cannot be denied that we were instrumental in seeing a great many people safely out of Nevarra City, for example.

[This all said in one long breath as she has worked a dozen more pieces of rescued paper into Salvio's possession.]

Besides, what we are doing now should hardly be the only subject which concerns a would-be saboteur. I would think what we might do could be just as compelling to such a person, and surely we are nothing if not suffused with possibility.