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[galvanising]

crystal // note // action

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[exequy]

I need a new staff and I can't decide on an element.

[ A pause. But then, in case she would actually prefer to be helpful: ]

They want to make rifters less—unnerving.

[galvanising]

Fire. I hear the winters here are miserable.

[ a pause, a sigh. she would prefer to still be asleep, but barring that yes, she would like to be actually helpful. ]

They've had rifters for years now and they've never thought to do that before? Make them wear gloves and dress normally, for a start.

[exequy]

[ Fire works.

Get it. ]

As I understand it, the prior strategy was to hide them in a remote mountain fortress when they weren't being used. Now they're wandering around a city being [ you know ] themselves.

I'll recommend gloves. I'll be sure they know it was your idea.

[galvanising]

Ugh, no, don't tell them that.

[ She groans, a tired and exasperated sound not really directed at him. There's more rustling around, the soft thunk of a head settling back against a wall. ]

Alright, so are they doing something in particular to unnerve people here or is it just the fact that nobody has any idea what or how they are?

[exequy]

Both.

Maybe.

I don't know who put the overnight forest in Hightown.

[galvanising]

I heard about that. Was it definitely someone from the Inquisition? I thought maybe that was just a rumor.

[exequy]

It is, I think. But the Inquisition arrived with a dozen strange people with strange abilities, and within months a crater that had been there for six years turned into a forest overnight—

I heard it might be an elf. But that isn't what it looks like.

Gloves, though. You're onto something there.

[galvanising]

I know you're making fun, but gloves might actually help. It's coming on winter, it wouldn't look strange. It will give people a chance to speak with them without being constantly distracted by their insane glowing hands.

It's like us carrying our staffs with us. When we have them, all they see is a mage and no matter what we do all they think about is all the terrible things they've been taught about mages. Leave them at home and suddenly we're people first.

[exequy]

So they'll never see us coming.

[ J ok ing . ]

[galvanising]

Exactly. Why do you think I've been practicing staff-less magic?

[ not at all joking ]

[exequy]

[ AGGRESSIVELY DISGRUNTLED SIGH. ]

[galvanising]

[ she mimics his sigh but even more exaggerated ]

[exequy]

[exequy]

[exequy]

Want to get a drink later?

[galvanising]

Of course.

You've been here a while, have you found any good taverns yet? Every time I ask all anyone suggests is this Hanged Man place but I was not impressed.

[exequy]

You're going to get stabbed.

[galvanising]

At any other bar, or if people hear I don't like this one shit tavern in a city full of shit taverns?

[exequy]

It's a local landmark. They're very proud.

[galvanising]

Of what? It's not even impressively bad. It's the most average tavern I've ever seen and we both know that I have seen a great many.

[exequy]

The... history... [ A horselike beats me exhale. ] They used to hang people there. Varric Tethras, the author, used to live there. That's all I know.

I'd been going to the Crooked Archer, but I can't go back.

[galvanising]

[ she makes a noise that goes with a shrug, somewhere between huh and a thoughtful hmm. ]

Tethras is something I guess. How much do you owe at the Archer?

[exequy]

Not much, honestly, but I had a fight with the bartender.

[galvanising]

Like an actual punching fight or like you slept with the bartender and it didn't end well?

[exequy]

I broke his nose. Not that anyone could tell. As if I'd ever—

[ He would ever. He might yet. ]

I can't go back there. So it's the Hanged Man or somewhere new—not the Falcon's Nest, either. They don't allow staves.