OPEN - Rooks, Pawns, Bishops and Knights

[madame_de_fer]

WHO: Vivienne and OPEN
WHAT: Catchall post for Madame de Fer to get to know the players great and small in the Inquisition.
WHEN: Wintermarch, all month
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: There's a specific bit for the Council members, but the remainder is open to everyone. Anyone who's been wanting CR with Viv, feel free to assume your character got one of the vaunted invites and tag in!

For the Council
Early in Wintermarch, all members of the Council receive a gilded paper invitation. No impersonal sending crystal for this message. The contents invite all the Councilors to join Madame de Fer at the hot spring for a day of relaxation and massage. To her mind, this is no frivolous social gathering meant to impress or irritate the others. (Though if either of those become true, that is useful as well.) There needs to be a dialogue enough amongst them that they do not dither away precious time and resources having to renegotiate their relationships upon meeting. That and none of them are any use to the Inquisition if they are tired, weary, and not well taken care of.

Some of her most comfortable chairs and lounging couches have been brought to the hot spring, and tables set with with a full tea service, both sweet and savory, and a few bottles of champagne. There's even imported Antivan cheese wheels, for the eyes, not for snacking. She is determined not to be caught out letting any of the others languish behind in attending to the important business of self-care. Anyone who brings up anything of a political or divisive nature, however, will find that they are most unwelcome. Relaxation and learning more is the point, not to posture and jockey. Not today.


For the Advisors and Companions
All the advisors and previous companions of the Herald likewise receive Spa Day invitations, albeit the day after the Council. Thank the Maker Sera is not around to make a mockery of such generosity. Knowing that Cullen is most likely to be the most stubborn about leaving that musty office of his, Vivienne plans to drag him along by the ear like an errant child if he dawdles too long in arriving.


Open to All, All Month
Before everyone can scatter to the four winds on business following the start of the new year, Vivienne sets out to some business of her own. She needs to know as much as she can about anyone within the Inquisition who might be a considerable piece in the Game, whether they are aware of such or not. Invitations to join her at her balcony begin to go out to anyone of interest: mages, templars, second sons of minor nobles, people from out of the rifts. For those whose invitation falls in the mid-afternoon, it is to join her for tea. Others receive invites for drinks, well after the dinner hour, but clearly with the intent of having uninterrupted time for getting to know the other better. As much as anyone is allowed to learn more about the Iron Lady.

Comments

bwahahahaha

[madame_de_fer]

Ah yes the perennial problem of elves in Orlais. Naturally most don't even see them, being installed as servants that should go about their business and not make a stir. Vivienne is all too aware of these nuances and plays along in pretty ways, but she's also very cognizant that elves within the Circle are seen as equals and peers. Honestly, if she has any actual personal gripe with the elven people, other than some overblown sense of arrogance and importance for their ancient ways (looking at you Solas), it's the practices of the Dalish to throw out any excess mage children to fend for themselves. Barbaric practice and cruel.

Vivienne chooses to gloss over the reference to his pointed ears and instead mentally pounces on his reaction. The mention of pretty maids got his attention and it tells her quite what she needs to know. And where he can be useful. While she could supply the whole list of fluttering ladies, there is a way to trim that list. There are a few nobles who have managed to rouse her ire or make a nuisance of themselves with ill-planned moves in the Game. Nobles who have pretty daughters and one who has a flighty impressionable wife.

Those ladies are the names she supplies. Five of them in total. And if Zevran seduces all of them? Well she cannot be held accountable for their wanting a taste of a literary figure they expressed such interest in.

The Crows present another variety of problem, however. "Are the Crows still chasing you, my dear? I would think at this juncture they should simply call it a loss or a misunderstanding and claim misinformation has been spread." The book wasn't all that clear on quite the nature of that particular run in, the vague reference made it all the more thrilling. "After all this time if they've been unable to eliminate someone they want, it's quite going to ruin their reputation for getting jobs done. Very bad for business. And I would think joining the Inquisition would buy you immunity. Its power and influence is growing and they'd be foolish to target a member and have it seen as a direct attack on the whole."

[ombranera]

Now those are fascinating names- he takes and tucks them away for future reference. Something will come of them one way or another. He might even manage to get something useful out of the seduction. Whoring himself out for the Inquisition isn't the least noble use of his skills, after all.

He's done far worse for far less.

"Well..." Idly, casually as he sips the brandy, blinks, and stares into the glass. Good brandy. One of the best available, even. "I do keep the name they gave me from house Arainai- if only out of spite. That I am an elven son of a whore that never achieved the rank of Master and yet have not only left them, failed them, survived their attempts to see me dead and struck back at them in my own way often enough to earn my very own nickname whispered amongst them in fear? It is a point of burned pride. At this point either the Crows must die, offer amnesty, or I must die. Their claim to my life precedes the Inquisition long enough- or so they will claim- that it is no attack on the organization at all."

[madame_de_fer]

"How terribly messy of them. And how difficult for you." Vivienne has no direct interest in angering the Crows other than it offends her sensibilities that they could potentially cause trouble with this longstanding grudge, trouble that could pit them against the Inquisition and that would be foolish. Already she's debating at the very least a sternly worded letter. Possibly a more elaborate move, pushing them into the Game where she excels. Time will tell.

She does sigh softly and takes another sip of the brandy. "I do hope in due course we shall see that unpleasantness resolved in a satisfactory manner. It seems most unfair for someone to be prevented from taking a trip home when he hails from so lovely a country." It's been years since she and Bastien managed to get away for a seaside holiday but their time there was well spent and delightful. Provided one avoided some of the more smelly and dirty segments of Antiva City.

[ombranera]

"I have lived with outfoxing them for this long." It is trouble but it is not so large a problem so long as he remained away from Antiva proper. Finding ways to kill them first was the trouble but that was not a topic one discussed with a lady like Vivienne. He settled himself with a bite of one of the spicier sausages, sighing at the sharp burst of pepper on his tongue. This, this was what he missed. Not that he'd ever been treated half so well but he can enjoy the pampering while it lasts.

"They might be pressed to parlay if I am in a secure position and that is made plain. Once the Inquisition has enough backing they may thing twice, offer a truce of some manner or another." Which he wouldn't abide by in the slightest, but again. Things one did not tell politicos.

[madame_de_fer]

"Indeed. That would be ideal." Though the Inquisition does have a long way to go in making itself into the powerhouse of influence that it has the potential to become. Vivienne looks to the long road and recognizes that this is the heart of history in the making. Power being birthed that could be the biggest contender Thedas has seen since Andraste herself. This snag with the Crows is an unneeded blemish that ought to be ironed out and banished before it can escalate into something worse.

And yet again Vivienne is struck with the foolishness of others, holding a grudge when the Veil has been sundered and all of Thedas is plunged into chaos.

She's careful to school away any hint of annoyance she feels about the stupidity of people at large and indulges in another drink. "I shouldn't wish to weary you with such heavy thoughts tonight. Surely there must be far more pleasant tales you'd rather speak of. You've traveled extensively, I gather, my dear?"

[ombranera]

He sits back to watch her consider what he has said for some sign of what she is thinking, how she means to make use of it. But the wiles of beautiful, powerful women are strong and he easily allows himself led into more pleasant conversation. Especially with the brandy at hand.

"But of course. The past decade I have traveled all over Thedas- once or twice daring so far as to find work in the Imperium. I find their hospitality wanting, however, and returned to Rivain." Too many slavers, too much blood magic.