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

asks you about your own character

[detestable]

What pushed 'em into picking a side here? Same thing Chuckles over there is talking about?

[ Loose gesture at Julius, who did nothing to earn this nickname but exist at a time where Seth was too focused on something else to think of a better one. ]

Interim negotiations?

love that

[youwonscience]

Yeah. Well ... indirectly. A few years ago, when we were still with the Inquisition, the mages went on strike, in large part because the Inquisition recovered a cache of phylacteries and the mages weren't getting a say in what happened to them. Julius, [Chuckles, by the inclination of her head] and some other mages ended up negotiating a complicated agreement with the Inquisition leadership, Inquisition-affiliated Templars and the Chantry. But one of the things that came up at that discussion was making phylacteries for rifters.

So then there was an entire second set of negotiations with a rifter delegation.

[detestable]

[ a strike. ]

And that went...?

[youwonscience]

[The exhale that's more or less a sigh is merited, she feels, as someone who was actually there. At least for the second part.]

Mages got a mixed bag. You can ask Julius about it if you want, he doesn't seem to mind talking about it. But any mage actively in the Inquisition got the right to have their phylacteries destroyed, if theirs could be identified.

I was part of the rifter delegation, but it was complicated. We're less ... Southern mages are used to thinking of themselves as a group, even when they disagree. Rifters have a couple years, sometimes just a couple months, of thinking of themselves as a constituency, if they do at all. We weren't as good at focusing, and on their end, the Chantry didn't know how to deal with us. We did manage to prevent "the Chantry makes a phylactery for every rifter, just in case," which was on the table for a minute.

[detestable]

[ :grimace: ]

So we're not named in this bullshit proposal, but what's your read on that? They going to remember we're here and come up with a part two?

[youwonscience]

Best guess? The Loyalists weren't thinking about us at all, but if Circles come back, the Chantry isn't going to forget to put rifters in them just because the mages didn't specifically ask for that.

[detestable]

Great.

[ derogatory ]

Loyalists not a fan of Rifters either, I'm guessing.

[youwonscience]

Not a monolith, like any other group. I think a lot of them don't have an opinion on us; there's not a lot of them who have been in a position to know any of us personally, to be honest. But there's certainly some who'd be happy to throw us under the bus if it'd get them something they wanted.