We must resist

[arcaneadvisor]

WHO: Morrigan; open
WHAT: Checking in on friends, checking in on the mage and rifter situation and research. Wildcard and shapeshifter lesson discussions available!
WHEN: Post-rift opening in Skyhold onwards, basically a big catch-all
WHERE: All over Skyhold
NOTES:A few so please bear with me:
1) Morrigan is seeking out rifters since what happened to Sina, there’s a starter just for them
2) For the same reasons she’s seeking out members of the mage council
3) If you’re interested in shapeshifter lessons, there’s a handy sticky post here
4) The research Morrigan is doing is based on the Hinterlands expedition here

Library - artifact research;
Since returning from the Hinterlands, she’s devoted more time to the artifact that had returned with them, or rather to the notes that had been made about the surroundings. It makes a change to reading the book on the Veilfire runs and making her own notes from what Pel had directed her to, taking her deeper into history, into Avvar culture and Ferelden legends for a change. Each time Flemeth is mentioned she makes what might be a grimace or might be a smile.

Spread across the table are copious notes taken in the Hinterlands, including sketches of the artifact, as well as a symbol drawn on the floor in the ruin, a few more of the strange statues, the piles of bones.

Another perspective would be welcome, as would a distraction in all honesty.

Gardens;
Instead of the usual peace, Skyhold's garden is a battle.  Not a serious one to most but to the children playing Wardens and Darkspawn it's very much real, shrieking and lunging, hacking and slashing with swords.  One little boy holds Morrigan's attention more than the others; this is a rare moment of peace, when things have been on edge lately.  As it is, she's kneeling, planting the seeds she brought with her, a few she's carried around since she left the Wilds, others brought with her from Orlais and beyond.  Simple, quiet work, no devious plans some might think she has, just a break from researching out in the fresh air. 

And no, contrary to what some might have you believe, not a single one of the seeds will grow into something poisonous.

Seeking rifters;
She's met a rifter or two since she came to Skyhold, and talk of them has been everywhere but hunting them down to talk was never a priority until the rift had opened within the very walls.  Now?  Well she has theories, theories she cannot test herself but looking for them might help, and it's a different sort of magic, something new to draw her attention when not working on whatever scraps of elven lore they've uncovered thus far.

Wherever the rifters might be, she seeks them out eventually, appearing around a corner seemingly from nowhere, perhaps after a particularly intent crow or cat has watched them before disappearing.  The introduction is the same each time, for she only knows one or two in passing.

"Greetings, you may call me Morrigan.  I wonder, might you have the time to talk a while?"

Seeking the mage council;
That they've made a little Circle themselves here is still a notion that disquiets her, something that she keeps an eye on without joining in, unwilling to be held to whatever rules they've made but it wasn't just anyone who opened a rift in Skyhold.  It was a native, a native mage and when she arrived in the first instance it was after an Abomination rampaged.  It hardly helps matters that she's Dalish as well.

There are too many Templars here for her liking as it stands, unsure of what reprisals there might be.  So she waits, quiet and patient, seeking Adelaide LeBlanc in particular simply because they've spoken before but it is opinions she is after, a sense of how things truly lie.  She's lingered before, to watch, to listen, to judge silently and she never could abide things being caged.

wildcard;
[Or feel free to find Morrigan elsewhere!]

Comments

[wickedchase]

"If you're a mage wandering without a lease, you're a blood mage. Half the time, that is true to them." Fate won't disagree at all; the Templars whose company he's enjoyed are just a handful from the pile of the ones eager to hunt down a mage and throw their power around as they'd like. Not all Templars, but not enough Templars deal with the ones that are corrupt in any sort of fashion. "Too true. What's another elf but another knife-ear? And when I put on enough to cover my vallaslin, I'm even easier to miss."

Standing out is a kind way of putting it, and he knows. Fate grins, too glad for it. Standing out is exactly what he'd wanted, and still wants. "There are a few things. The fancier the clothes, the more confounding I appeared to be. An elf, dressed in fine silks and leathers? Blows the mind for Dalish and everyone else. I like it when people play guessing games. Keeps things interesting."

[arcaneadvisor]

“Or an abomination in the waiting, I wonder just how many of them think of us as that. As if we are counting down to that moment of idiocy from that first sign.” There are some who would have annulled each and every Circle, others who would have seen them all made Tranquil, but they all want them locked up and watched, and that there are so many even within the Inquisition who wish to return to that? She will never not be disgusted and horrified by it.

When one stands out as much as Morrigan does, in the manner she does, it’s hard to say how much is deliberate and just how much is a refusal to change for anyone. “You hid your Vallaslin,” she repeats because she can’t imagine any Dalish doing that. “But the more you can keep them off-balance, the better, though I’m sure you must have had imitators in your wake. They have a habit of doing that, especially when it upsets them.”

[wickedchase]

"Enough. There are a handful of Templars will say otherwise, but deep down I think they all fear that of us." Even the mages that miss the Circle make him wince slightly. The lack of freedom of it all? He'd never understand.

"More than once, actually. Made for some of the easier targets I've taken, actually. Without it, I look like another elf. With it, I'm a little easier to peg. Not by much, of course." The suggestion of imitators makes him laugh quietly. "If I do, I haven't heard of it. There are many who aren't fond of my choices. But it suits me fine."