there cannot be any sign of LIVING in this house!

[tender]

WHO: Mother Pleasance
WHAT: Company is here.
WHEN: Drakonis
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: The fabled Mother Pleasance has arrived and is roaming the Gallows, as announced (warned, announced, very similar). This log is a container for threads requested on the OOC post. If you want Mother Pleasance to drop in on a thread already in progress elsewhere, holler at me here. Remember, she's out and about in the Gallows so CONSTANT VIGILENCE.

Comments

[bouchonne]

He takes a breath and hums thoughtfully. He, in turn, tucks his hands into his pockets.

"That although Andraste's crusade was literally against Tevinter, in a truer way it was against corruption of all sorts. That in times of war, it is easy to accept evil in the name of expedience, and to do wrong and think it is just. But the most important battle is against ourselves, and the cruelties and wickedness we might be tempted to."

It's a sincere answer. Both inasmuch as it sounds plausible, and inasmuch as it is truly what he took away from it.

"You?"

[hmmmmm]

"Much the same," is delivered so briskly on the way to, "Do you find the matter of cruel and wicked temptations to be a pressing concern within your operations?"

Yes, it is a war. Yes, certain measures must be taken.

And yet, errors may be made. Is there a reason for such meditations to be close to hand?

[bouchonne]

He lets a breath out, and presses a hand into his pocket, clearly taking a moment to think about that.

"It is," he says after a moment, "something that is often on my mind. I don't know if you're aware, Mother, but I used to be...something of a rake. It'd be easy to fall back into that sort of bad behavior, even with the civilizing influence of a wife, and of duty." A small gesture - "But you're asking more about whether Riftwatch is prone to cruelty, yes?"

[hmmmmm]

"I have been made aware of certain reputations among your order."

An expansive, but certainly unsurprising, confirmation.

"But you are correct. I am interested to know whether you've concerns as to the possibility of unnecessary cruelty in the work Riftwatch undertakes."

[bouchonne]

“I do,” he replies, quietly, genuinely. “I wish I didn’t.” But if the Mother thinks she’s about to get something nice and juicy here, instead what she gets is, “Andraste herself didn’t shrink away from warfare. She did what is necessary to find victory. But I find the violence difficult, at times, to endure. I find it hard to follow in her footsteps.

“I’ve been on the front lines myself, you know. I fought and was wounded at Ghislain.” He resists the urge to theatrically bare the scars from his heroic battle. ”It is like a vision of hell, to be out there amongst the blood and the mud and the fear. I hope, Mother, that you have never been caught up in anything like that?”

He doubts that she secretly has a military background (though Chantry mothers will sometimes surprise you). But it’s not impossible, in this world of theirs, that she would have seen atrocity.

[hmmmmm]

"All of us who live in Thedas in this day and age may find ourselves subject to the threat of violence. And some of us more so now as the enemy moves further southwards."

There is no confirmation; she is not truly meant to be divulging much of herself, an old woman who has seen much in her service of the Chantry.

This is, truly, a passing aside along the way to—

"I wonder how much Andraste guides the work of your organization. I have noted Riftwatch's involvement in such crucial points, like Ghislain. But we know so little as to what draws Riftwatch's attention from one matter to another."

[bouchonne]

Byerly hums in acknowledgment. "I can imagine that from an outside perspective, we might well seem to be...unpredictable," he says. Then, as if the word has occurred to him in the moment, "Or irregular. Which is apt, because, indeed, we ourselves are irregulars: we do not have the strength or the numbers to fight in a traditional way, but instead we must look to stranger and less conventional action."

He taps the back of his hand - he himself has no anchor-shard, but the gesture evokes that bit of magic. "The core of what we do, of course, is closing Rifts and ensuring that the common people are safe from evil. Even if we accomplished nothing else, that would be worthy work."