open | full circle pt 1

[exequy]

WHO: Concerned mages/rifters/others
WHAT: An emergency meeting!
WHEN: Solace 20
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: Explanation in the OOC post. Please tag this like a network post. There are top-level comments to provide a little chronology/structure, but threadjack to your heart's content.

Before and during dinner on an otherwise unremarkable Wednesday, there's a chain of whispers (or notes, or perfectly audible comments from the particularly unsubtle) about an emergency meeting, at an evening hour, in a basement room, regarding a matter of concern to rifters and mages.

The basement part is probably unnecessary. It's certainly ineffective; the organization is too small, the Gallows too contained, and the halls too echoey for something arranged with this much finesse-wrecking haste to truly remain a secret. They could have done it in an empty office or the recreational dining hall, probably, and sat on chairs instead of storage crates. But Kostos picked the location, and he's dramatic. If nothing else it signals a clear intention to do this as unofficially as necessary.

Anyone who accepts the invitation (or just decides to come see what the fuss is about) will first encounter Marcus Rowntree, posted up outside the door like a bouncer, letting mages and rifters move through undisturbed but stepping in to question and likely bar the arrival of anyone else. Inside, Kostos is nothing but a dark scowl in the room's far corner, picking at a splinter of wood on a crate and not mustering a word of greeting for anyone who comes in. Derrica has parked herself within arm's reach of Kostos, a long gold-edged shawl spilling over one shoulder. Her diplomacy pin gleams from the front of her tunic. The worried pinch to her brow is the only outward sign of anxiety; otherwise, she is tightly contained, watching people enter. Julius–notably not in robes–is serious but calm as people come in, standing next to the ever-composed Madame de Cedoux.

Once as many people have arrived as seem likely to, Marcus closes the door, remaining beside it, and they explain what the problem is.

Comments

[evilstick]

[ 5% less bitchily, and therefore with a mite less overconfidence, ]

I am aware that possession, in the rare instance it occurs, is not a reversible state.

[ But as to the specifics... ]

[luaithre]

Aye. I doubt the handling of an Abomination to differ, once what is done is done. But the fear of its occurrence—the danger of it—is much of the foundation on which the southern Circles are built. That which gives Templars their status.

I imagine that much is different, north.

[notathreat]

Yeah.

I don't think handling an abomination would be that different. Should try to avoid that becoming a thing in the first place, though. You never know what somebody's going to do when they're backed into a corner.

[luaithre]

[ A glance to, a pause. Considering her. Then; ]

It's the fear of mages turning into Abominations that sways public opinion in favour of Circles. That's the danger they speak of, the heart of it, as much as they will twist that meaning. But how valid that fear is, how certain we can be that a mage might become possessed and who makes that decision, is the currency we're trading in.

It isn't to our benefit to threaten its possibility when backed into a corner, but we will need to speak to it directly lest we allow the Loyalists and the Chantry both to wield it as a cudgel.

[notathreat]

Got any ideas there?

[luaithre]

That we take care of our own.

[ This is territory that is harder to speak within, but hell, he needs practice. ]

Possession occurs for a number of reasons, and frequently, it's through mental weakness. I believe that a society of mages who aren't brought up through childhood in fear, separated from their families, surrounded by armored men and women who carry heavy blades, stand a better chance at raising strong mages than the Circle could cultivate.

At first, we may need to live separately from the world, at least in raising our children, in sheltering those in need of it. But over time, it won't be so.

[notathreat]

[Nod: this is something Ellie absolutely won't talk over anyone about. Abominations aren't something she personally knows enough about. Not yet.]

[evilstick]

[ Look at this single non-Tevene mage talking sense ]

There is educational precedent in the North you may find worth considering, whatever stories you have heard of us.

[luaithre]

[ A flick of a glance, a nod. ]

That which you can see applicable to the south?

[ Without that precedent of power and domination in their hands, that is. He would do better not to sound too favourable to the Tevinter way of things. Is that not always held up as the worst case scenario, if southern mages are given their freedoms? And given certain future projections, he has his own personal reasons not to appear so willing—

But she's making points. ]