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[slaveking]

WHO: Marcel Gerard & you!
WHAT: Open and closed log for Marcel kicking around Skyhold. The closed starters will be down in the comments, the open starters in the entry below the cut.
WHEN: February to March 2016!
WHERE: Various
NOTES: Potentially some PG-13-rated violence or language, nothing else.

[open] tavern

By now, Marcel has moved on from lifting heavy boxes. Not that he had any particular objection that work-- he still does sometimes, lending his better-than-human strength to the early morning task of shifting supplies. However, he has also managed to insinuate himself in the more bureaucratic management of the Tavern, making some use out of his education with letters and numbers.

Every few nights and a couple of mornings, too, he is the one in the back office, pouring over ledger. Quill in hand, a piece of scratch paper laddered with numbers. His writing is impeccable, pausing only now and then to correct his hard-won cursive into something a little easier for Thedosians to interpret. His errors are far and few between, marked out with a single line that's as straight as a ruler. Come in then, and you're wont to interrupt a reverie, but a break is welcome.

Other evenings, he's at the bar. He laughs easily, offers to buy you an ale. The bartender jokes with him about where his paycheck goes-- first ham for the Rifter meet, and now free drinks for anybody who happens to wander by? But it's an easy ribbing, and he doesn't mind.

[open] sparring forever

Other times, he has a sword in hand.

There's one Vahshoth that he's been squaring off against consistently, and they've changed it up from wrestling as of late. The two men can be found in the courtyard, sun sinking low over the rooftops. They charge, and metal rings from metal, snaps sparks into the brisk mountain air. Sometimes they laugh. Occasionally, there's a grimace-- the tip of a sword slipping through skin, called break, the healer standing by rolling his eyes. But perhaps more interesting than that, is the banter about the Inquisition.

Marcel has had more questions since the Rifter meeting, but the only one his Vahshoth friend has to ask, between drinks of water and the stretches for cooldown afterward, is always: "When will you join the Inquisition?"

And the vampire's answer, easily overheard: "Like the Good Book says. There's a time for everything." Punctuated with a wag of his eyebrows, playful, but not insincere.

wildcard

choose your own adventure \o/

Comments

[el_tybs]

"Not quite. So far there have been two kinds of Rifts. More common ones spread around the land that demons have been coming through, and then the rarer ones where demons and Rifters have been coming through." Maybe they should consider a different name for those so that it wasn't as confusing.

"Generally there isn't a report before it happens. A Rift rips open and rather than the usual demons there are numbers of new people from other lands. I've been present to a couple of them, only one of which I was actually there to see it. We don't know why they open, that's just an observation that I've made."

[slaveking]

Marcel makes a thoughtful noise. Hmmmm. He does find that distinction rather interesting himself. If Sam suggested naming them different, he would certainly be in favor. Any extra degree of separation between the Rifters and the demons would be highly welcome where he's concerned.

"Are there any differences you've observed besides what kind of -- being is coming through?" he almost says 'critter,' but he supposes that isn't the best advertisement for Rifters. Not that Sam needs to be sold, apparently. Always the friendly mage. "All shining out green light? Same size?"

[el_tybs]

Well considering that demons still came out of the rifts with the newcomers there still wouldn't be much of a separation. Mostly it would make it easier to specify the kind of rift they were dealing with.

"The rifts that the Rifters are coming through all seem to be alike - we cannot tell you who or what is going to come through until it's already through. Other than that... they might be just a bit bigger than the usual ones. I think there's a group researching this - last I checked at least."

[slaveking]

"That's too bad," Marcel says, his voice mild. He studies the young mage's face as Sam talks through the comparison of Rifts, his choice of words, trying to press the similarities over the differences. He isn't sure why it is that Sam hesitates to observe what seem like optimistically stark separations to him, but it doesn't bother him. He is certain he didn't come from the Fade. "It'd definitely be good if we could cut Rifters off from coming through. And demons too, of course. Might be better for you with less of us underfoot in the war, though."

Marcel sets a few more cups away into the cabinets under the bar. Warm interest in his face, as ever. "Do you know who is involved in that group?"

[el_tybs]

It's not so much trying to make them similar, it's just he has only really noticed the similarities. Too often when there is a rift he's either too busy fighting a demon or having to drag new people away from the fights, or even taking care of the injured.

Sam gives a small shake of his head. "I do not, except they're often in the Undercroft. I do know some individuals who have been interesting in studying the rifts though. Lady LeBlanc certainly is doing some or at least planning on doing some. Then that one elf woman, I forget her name, who is also a Rifter I believe has been looking into it."