[On some otherwise unremarkable evening during phase two of the trials, with flat affect, Viktor sends a message:]
Abby Anderson didn't strike that name from the list. It was me.
[Whether or not Wysteria chooses to answer, he will not engage his sending crystal again tonight.]
Abby Anderson didn't strike that name from the list. It was me.
[Whether or not Wysteria chooses to answer, he will not engage his sending crystal again tonight.]
Edited (a) 2023-10-30 08:04 (UTC)
I can't believe you would do something like this. —And then say nothing at all about the affair! Not even in my defense when Clarisse was being so terrible. [Or when Abby might have benefited from Wysteria being deflected?
Obviously that doesn't figure in the calculation half as much (not in the moment, anyhow).]
It is highly irresponsible. Cowardly, even! I look forward to receiving your apology!
Obviously that doesn't figure in the calculation half as much (not in the moment, anyhow).]
It is highly irresponsible. Cowardly, even! I look forward to receiving your apology!
[And then, some hours later, in the tenor of a young lady who has been stewing and perhaps has failed to locate Viktor so she might express the exact measure of her disappointment in person:]
On second thought, you may keep your apology. I no longer care for it.
On second thought, you may keep your apology. I no longer care for it.
[The reply is long in coming. Hours, certainly. A day, perhaps, depending on the timing of the original note. But eventually, in Wysteria's fine looping hand:]
[If he wishes to read it, he will simply have to look her in the face first.]
That would seem the correct course of action, yes.
He left a letter for you. I have it on my person. —W.
[If he wishes to read it, he will simply have to look her in the face first.]
Cosima has read the report thoroughly. For all that she is still sorting through her inherited position, this likely would have flown to the top of her queue regardless of when it had arrived. She's made quite a few notes, but before she proceeds with anything either personal or Division-related, it seems prudent to speak to the authors. (Both, eventually, but she'll start with Wysteria as the author of the covering document.)
She sends a small note, briefly asking if Wysteria prefers her office or Cosima's for a meeting. Under other circumstances, Cosima would just offer to host outright. But she suspects that for Wysteria as much as for Cosima herself, the office still feels like Tony's. Maybe easiest to not press that transition with his nearest.
She sends a small note, briefly asking if Wysteria prefers her office or Cosima's for a meeting. Under other circumstances, Cosima would just offer to host outright. But she suspects that for Wysteria as much as for Cosima herself, the office still feels like Tony's. Maybe easiest to not press that transition with his nearest.
(I guess the first tag was technically text, whoops)
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youwonscience
- 2023-12-30 21:44 (UTC) - Expand[Brightly but informally because, of course, they are friends.]
Wysteria, how are you?
[Cut to the chase.]
Busy, yes? I saw your report in the dining hall. Since you've always been so helpful and knowledgable, I was wondering if I could ask you about it.
Wysteria, how are you?
[Cut to the chase.]
Busy, yes? I saw your report in the dining hall. Since you've always been so helpful and knowledgable, I was wondering if I could ask you about it.
[ Beginning with a letter dashed off to Val Royeaux two weeks after Tony's disappearance, it has taken them this long to pull everything together. Everything is:
Ellie's original illustration of the Iron Man, previously sent away to be transformed into a woodcut by the printer of Tales from the Rifts but now returned with only one crease and mounted neatly on a wooden board, above a carefully clipped paragraph from a book review from an Orlesian quarterly that mentions the reviewer's daughter and her friends squabbling over who gets to be the Iron Man in their make-believe games.
And two thin volumes bound in floppy leather containing hand-inked transcriptions of some of the songs Tony played with Byerly, Ellie, and Bastien during their "band practice." The handwriting on the lyrics, annotations, and the musical notes themselves varies; it's been a group effort from all three of them.
They've been wrapped together in burlap. The note card affixed to the outside says, ]
T.R.I.P.
(Tony Remembrance Item Package)
[ An attempt was made.
And on the back, ]
We thought you would like to have these. He will never be forgotten.
Yours,
Bastien, Byerly, and Ellie
Ellie's original illustration of the Iron Man, previously sent away to be transformed into a woodcut by the printer of Tales from the Rifts but now returned with only one crease and mounted neatly on a wooden board, above a carefully clipped paragraph from a book review from an Orlesian quarterly that mentions the reviewer's daughter and her friends squabbling over who gets to be the Iron Man in their make-believe games.
And two thin volumes bound in floppy leather containing hand-inked transcriptions of some of the songs Tony played with Byerly, Ellie, and Bastien during their "band practice." The handwriting on the lyrics, annotations, and the musical notes themselves varies; it's been a group effort from all three of them.
They've been wrapped together in burlap. The note card affixed to the outside says, ]
T.R.I.P.
(Tony Remembrance Item Package)
[ An attempt was made.
And on the back, ]
We thought you would like to have these. He will never be forgotten.
Yours,
Bastien, Byerly, and Ellie
Edited (forgot it was man instead of knight and it's important) 2024-01-12 03:29 (UTC)
[ He is not quite so petty as to have gone out of his way or climbed any number of stairs for this. But when he walks past an open door from which her desk is visible, on his way between more important things, he stops. Gears turn. And he adjusts his plans to include a brisk walk to loom over her desk in all his dark layers of winter clothing. ]
You're in charge of mediation.
You're in charge of mediation.
[In a very lucky turn of events, Wysteria is actually at her desk to be looked over. She is presently bent over a number of papers and various diagrams, hemming and hawwing with a ruler and graphite, and marking down various measurements and cross-referencing a separate sheet and so on—
And then Kostos is there.
She sets the graphite down and squints up at him.]
If this is about mine refusing to be overly familiar with you, I think you'll find that I'm entirely within my rights— it is considered a compliment, you know.
And then Kostos is there.
She sets the graphite down and squints up at him.]
If this is about mine refusing to be overly familiar with you, I think you'll find that I'm entirely within my rights— it is considered a compliment, you know.
Wysteria?
I’ll be quick, promise.
I wanted to apologize for how I carried myself in our last conversation. I didn’t mean to scare you, but looking back I can see that I clearly unsettled you.
I swear that I work hard every day to fight these urges; I would never want to put anyone in danger. Tonight I will be under lock and key and hence no danger to you and yours. In fact, I will finally get some much needed sleep to clear my head.
Apologies, I tend to ramble. Thank you for the list of books; I’ve already finished one and it’s deeply insightful and quite helpful as well in learning the differences between home and Thedas. You didn’t have to help me after my brutish attempt at conversation, but you did anyway.
Thank you and apologies again for my ramblings.
Tav
I’ll be quick, promise.
I wanted to apologize for how I carried myself in our last conversation. I didn’t mean to scare you, but looking back I can see that I clearly unsettled you.
I swear that I work hard every day to fight these urges; I would never want to put anyone in danger. Tonight I will be under lock and key and hence no danger to you and yours. In fact, I will finally get some much needed sleep to clear my head.
Apologies, I tend to ramble. Thank you for the list of books; I’ve already finished one and it’s deeply insightful and quite helpful as well in learning the differences between home and Thedas. You didn’t have to help me after my brutish attempt at conversation, but you did anyway.
Thank you and apologies again for my ramblings.
Tav
[Wandering into Research probably isn't the best indication of security, but luckily he is both sober and being relatively respectful, in the sense that he's not touching anything that he can't figure out and he's not moving anything, either.
He is, on the other hand, eating an apple, and currently staring at a long and very confusing document that lists -
- actually, Gannicus doesn't know what it lists. He can read, but it's truly a "barely" kind of thing.
He hears her come in, and he doesn't turn. He's in his usual subligaculum, but his boots do come up to his thighs, and he has his cloak sort of wrapped around his hips.]
What mess is this?
[He turns, and spots her, and she's younger than he imagined.]
Is this yours?
He is, on the other hand, eating an apple, and currently staring at a long and very confusing document that lists -
- actually, Gannicus doesn't know what it lists. He can read, but it's truly a "barely" kind of thing.
He hears her come in, and he doesn't turn. He's in his usual subligaculum, but his boots do come up to his thighs, and he has his cloak sort of wrapped around his hips.]
What mess is this?
[He turns, and spots her, and she's younger than he imagined.]
Is this yours?
[It's easy to hear Wysteria coming. Her boots have a hard sole on the that go tak-tak-tak as she makes her way along the corridor, and she is accompanied by a little white dog so thrilled to be moving from one point in space to the next that his little nails drum a very similar beat before her.
The dog is, in fact, the first one through the door. He bounds directly for the stranger, quite eager to jump up and put his small paws all over the man's shins and knees and whatever else in a bid to say hello hello hello what have you got in your hand bark bark bark. Wysteria is only a half stride behind him. Her reception is markedly less warm.
She screams, dropping a great deal of papers there on the doorstep.]
Sweet gods in Heaven—!
[(You'd be startled too if you walked into work thinking about airships and found a half naked man standing there.)]
The dog is, in fact, the first one through the door. He bounds directly for the stranger, quite eager to jump up and put his small paws all over the man's shins and knees and whatever else in a bid to say hello hello hello what have you got in your hand bark bark bark. Wysteria is only a half stride behind him. Her reception is markedly less warm.
She screams, dropping a great deal of papers there on the doorstep.]
Sweet gods in Heaven—!
[(You'd be startled too if you walked into work thinking about airships and found a half naked man standing there.)]
(cont'd)
For a moment, this threatens to distract Wysteria entirely from the daunting prospect of her own confession. A gentleman? Here?! Which gentleman? Under what pretenses? For what purpose!
But she has been a member of Riftwatch for many years now, and thus is used to bravely rallying in the face of shock. She gawps like a suffocating fish only for a moment or two before shutting her mouth again with a brusque click of teeth. Wysteria sucks a long breath in through her nose.
"Very well. Then on your life and our friendship, I am presently in the process of liberating a few volumes from the library with, perhaps, the intention to take them along with me to Orzammar."
Which is to say that she is stealing.
For a moment, this threatens to distract Wysteria entirely from the daunting prospect of her own confession. A gentleman? Here?! Which gentleman? Under what pretenses? For what purpose!
But she has been a member of Riftwatch for many years now, and thus is used to bravely rallying in the face of shock. She gawps like a suffocating fish only for a moment or two before shutting her mouth again with a brusque click of teeth. Wysteria sucks a long breath in through her nose.
"Very well. Then on your life and our friendship, I am presently in the process of liberating a few volumes from the library with, perhaps, the intention to take them along with me to Orzammar."
Which is to say that she is stealing.
This shocks Lia not at all, but regardless she gasps loudly in scandalized delight.
"Stealing? From the library?"
She cranes her neck to peek.
"Are the texts unseemly? Can I see?"
She giggles.
"When I was a child, I would sneak into the study sometimes to see anatomically correct drawings in medical texts."
"Stealing? From the library?"
She cranes her neck to peek.
"Are the texts unseemly? Can I see?"
She giggles.
"When I was a child, I would sneak into the study sometimes to see anatomically correct drawings in medical texts."
(cont'd)
"Oh, very much so. You musn't let his habit for hiding away fool you. I believe him to be the most sincere sort of fellow. And broadly far more personable and sensitive—in the kindly sense—than a vast majority of our ranks. Which is to say that he means quite well."
These are all things which might be best said to the man in question himself, of course. But it is very complicated, she has found, to give anyone very genuine compliments directly. It would only make her miss Viktor preemptively when she has weeks yet before she means to sail away across the Waking Sea. Much like she is not, presently, thinking very much at all about how much of a shame it will be to not have Ser Barrow here at her beck and call when desired. Indeed, thus the most productive and thoughtful thing to be done with the whole sensation is to merely crush the two gentleman in question together and be very satisfied with herself over the arrangement.
Yes, it's a very good idea. She has decided Viktor and Barrow will be friends, and so they will be.
"Besides, I doubt Serah Lazar cares to spend much time at all in the research workrooms. So the arrangement may be of some benefit to you as well."
"Oh, very much so. You musn't let his habit for hiding away fool you. I believe him to be the most sincere sort of fellow. And broadly far more personable and sensitive—in the kindly sense—than a vast majority of our ranks. Which is to say that he means quite well."
These are all things which might be best said to the man in question himself, of course. But it is very complicated, she has found, to give anyone very genuine compliments directly. It would only make her miss Viktor preemptively when she has weeks yet before she means to sail away across the Waking Sea. Much like she is not, presently, thinking very much at all about how much of a shame it will be to not have Ser Barrow here at her beck and call when desired. Indeed, thus the most productive and thoughtful thing to be done with the whole sensation is to merely crush the two gentleman in question together and be very satisfied with herself over the arrangement.
Yes, it's a very good idea. She has decided Viktor and Barrow will be friends, and so they will be.
"Besides, I doubt Serah Lazar cares to spend much time at all in the research workrooms. So the arrangement may be of some benefit to you as well."
The pleasant smile that's begun to develop onto Barrow's face, in light of Wysteria so fondly describing Viktor, turns into a full grin at her offered reasoning.
"Well why didn't you lead with that," he laughs, scoffing, "maybe I'll just move all my things to the workroom, get ahead of it entirely."
"Well why didn't you lead with that," he laughs, scoffing, "maybe I'll just move all my things to the workroom, get ahead of it entirely."
(cont'd)
The line to the kitchens is advancing. Wysteria shuffles forward by the requisite pace and a half, her attention dividing halfway between this motion and the young lady behind her. She has in some shape had this conversation a half dozen times, under considerably less polite circumstances. That the person asking is a stranger hardly makes a difference. Besides, they are both members of Riftwatch and the other woman has an anchor of her own. The information is probably of some relevance to her, or will eventually (inevitably) be.
"It," Wysteria says, surely referring to the limb in question even as some fraction of his thoughts wanders back to puzzling out Brown's note where it presently resides in her pocket. "Had begun to be adversely effected by the anchor embedded in it. It had begun to make me quite ill. So it was removed for the sake of the remainder of the limb."
And, presumably, the person it had been attached to.
The line to the kitchens is advancing. Wysteria shuffles forward by the requisite pace and a half, her attention dividing halfway between this motion and the young lady behind her. She has in some shape had this conversation a half dozen times, under considerably less polite circumstances. That the person asking is a stranger hardly makes a difference. Besides, they are both members of Riftwatch and the other woman has an anchor of her own. The information is probably of some relevance to her, or will eventually (inevitably) be.
"It," Wysteria says, surely referring to the limb in question even as some fraction of his thoughts wanders back to puzzling out Brown's note where it presently resides in her pocket. "Had begun to be adversely effected by the anchor embedded in it. It had begun to make me quite ill. So it was removed for the sake of the remainder of the limb."
And, presumably, the person it had been attached to.
Edited 2024-04-13 18:46 (UTC)
(cont'd)
"Now there's an idea," Wysteria says, reaching as directed to give the big mabari a scratch behind his gnarled ears. Yes, yes, very well done. Good dog. "But no. I have an entirely different proposal in mind."
Because of course there must be some manner of scheme involved. Time sensitive, she had written. Indeed maybe this is the deciding factor for why she chooses to be so very direct with her next barrage of sentences.
"It must be said, Mister Ellis, that you have spent a great deal of time wandering about these last few months. Obviously, I blame the Commander first and foremost. But I wonder whether it isn't indicative of some more basic inclination on your part. I believe it is true," she says, continuing to scratch Ruadh. "That Wardens are by and large somewhat given to a more nomadic lifestyle. And it must be said that you have spent a considerable amount of time stationed here in the Gallows, field. Work not withstanding. It is therefore unsurprising that you should grow restless and care to travel abroad."
This is all merely preliminary to her points of course, but it's important for one to set an argument in its best context. With a last ruffle of Ruadh's functionally not very ruffleable ears, Wysteria pivots her attention to the Warden beside her more directly.
"Well you will be pleased to hear then that I have quite the opportunity for you to do just that."
"Now there's an idea," Wysteria says, reaching as directed to give the big mabari a scratch behind his gnarled ears. Yes, yes, very well done. Good dog. "But no. I have an entirely different proposal in mind."
Because of course there must be some manner of scheme involved. Time sensitive, she had written. Indeed maybe this is the deciding factor for why she chooses to be so very direct with her next barrage of sentences.
"It must be said, Mister Ellis, that you have spent a great deal of time wandering about these last few months. Obviously, I blame the Commander first and foremost. But I wonder whether it isn't indicative of some more basic inclination on your part. I believe it is true," she says, continuing to scratch Ruadh. "That Wardens are by and large somewhat given to a more nomadic lifestyle. And it must be said that you have spent a considerable amount of time stationed here in the Gallows, field. Work not withstanding. It is therefore unsurprising that you should grow restless and care to travel abroad."
This is all merely preliminary to her points of course, but it's important for one to set an argument in its best context. With a last ruffle of Ruadh's functionally not very ruffleable ears, Wysteria pivots her attention to the Warden beside her more directly.
"Well you will be pleased to hear then that I have quite the opportunity for you to do just that."
Edited 2024-04-14 16:24 (UTC)
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