please bore someone else with your questions | closed

[hassaran]

[ The war room is almost cozy on a winter evening, the hearth blazing, the firelight flickering off the great ironwood table. Yseult occupies one of the heavy wooden armchairs, but treats it like the softer upholstered version in her office, legs drawn up onto the seat as she picks up the list she has been scratching down. ]

People to put in her path. So far we have agreed on Seeker Tiffany, Bastien, Jude, and Julius. People to remove from the Gallows for the duration if possible and at minimum keep out of her path: Edgard, the Averesch brothers, Gwenaëlle, Matthias, Marcus, Astarion.

[ She looks up, pencil held at the ready between her knuckles. ] We will need more. Madame de Foncé could easily fill several hours?

Comments

[propulsion]

[ Tony raises his eyebrows for flat look. What.

But; ]

He's smart, and if we're looking at this like a numbers game, then throw him in the mix. But she's a whole nun, right? Religion seems inevitable.

[bouchonne]

[ Byerly gives a small shrug. ]

To offer Rifters without offering a bit of heresy would perhaps be a disappointment. He seems like he can shock without scandalizing.

[hassaran]

Religion must be assumed inevitable, [ she agrees, but there's a tip of her head to Byerly's point, too. ]

You and he have some history, [ this to Tony, essentially rhetorical. They all visited it. ] What made you balk at the suggestion?

[propulsion]

[ Tony raises his hands, a sort of no big deal gesture. ]

Just, diplomatic's not how I'd describe a guy who says whatever he's thinking and what he's thinking is about how he's the smartest guy in the room. Which kind of created some tension, initially? Because that's me.

[ Right? We all agree. ]

If we don't want anyone to debate and argue with this lady, I'm not sold on him being that kind of ass kisser.

[bouchonne]

[ A little to be obnoxious, and a little because it's true: ]

He's not nearly as bad as you are, Stark.

[tender]

[ Smoothly, in the wake of that— ]

That's why we put someone alongside him, to temper that impulse.

[ Though, as a concession, Derrica offers: ]

We can hold him in reserve rather than relying on him when she arrives. We might not even need him, if her stay is short.

[propulsion]

[ No further argument for longlisting Stephen, instead tipping a too-obvious wink to Byerly beneath Derrica's response. ]

[hassaran]

Likely a necessary category.

[ Yseult gives Derrica's offer a nod, and draws a brisk line across the middle of the page, writing Stephen Strange below it. ]

Other suggestions?

[bouchonne]

[ By blows a kiss to Stark in exchange. Then - ]

Barrow, perhaps? To speak with her? The fellow has such a sturdy and comforting air.

[katabasis]

He's inoffensive.

[The less than ringing endorsement is punctuated by a small shower of sparks huffing out of the fireplace and across the expansive hearthstone as Flint wedges over a shrivelled log with the fire iron.

He promptly stamps out the little embers most at risk of wandering to touch the room's heavily trafficked rug with a boot heel.]

[tender]

He's a templar.

[ A statement carrying the undercurrent of no. ]

I can have little a boomerang as a treat

[katabasis]

[No he's not. But what Flint says is—]

Good. [He leans the poker up against the edge of the fireplace.] Definitive proof we don't kill all of them.

[propulsion]

Yeah, not the hot ones,

[ agrees area man refusing to not also have jokes.

Tipped aside to Derrica, borderline sympathetic, if breezily, ]

It'd play well.

elbows back in

[tender]

[ Ha ha (unless—)

Jokes aside, it doesn't seem to fully convince her. ]

It would be a risk. I'm not sure we need it.

[hassaran]

[ Yseult's pencil is poised--this is not a democracy and even if it were the vote's clear. But she pauses and turns her head to Derrica. ]

Are you suggesting we ought to try to prevent her speaking to any former Templars?

[bouchonne]

[ Byerly just sips his coffee quietly. ]

[tender]

We're in this position because of an agent of the Chantry.

[ All her restless movement has settled. ]

I am suggesting that we have other options before we create opportunity for that damage to repeat itself.

[propulsion]

[ Tony links up his hands behind his head, eyebrows communicating a degree of spectatorship. You know, for at least another five seconds. ]

[hassaran]

[ Yseult takes a moment to consider before responding. ]

It is unlikely that she will depart without speaking to any of the former Templars. Any seeming reluctance on our part will only make it appear more imperative.

[bouchonne]

[ A sniff to his coffee. Is the flavor a little off? No, it's fine. ]

[katabasis]

[Flint's hand coming to rest on the mantelpiece suggests—

+1 for the peanut gallery.]

[tender]

[ A beat of quiet, her fingers tapping her mouth. Letting Yseult's point settle. Considering her own. ]

Then there's no reason she should find more than one here. And not one templar alone, without another person to partner them.

[ If it were someone other than Yseult holding the list, Derrica might have reached for it to study the names on it once more. ]

If we are certain of Barrow, he remains here while we send the others out of the Gallows.

[bouchonne]

[ Murmuring: ]

Our Templars are no worse than any others of our miscreants.

[hassaran]

[ She doesn't so much as flick a glance Byerly's way. ]

How would you propose we do that?

[propulsion]

Spa day?

[ There are no bad ideas. ]