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[portalling]

stephen strange

crystals · correspondence · private scenes

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[portalling]

( strange waits to reply until there’s a good stopping point in his latest experiment (best not explode your face by abandoning all the arcane energy at once—). then he carefully sets down his work, and goes to each edge of the tower, craning to see through each nearby embrasure until he can locate gwen’s houseboat and catch sight of it. a beat, then, dryly: )

Are there supposed to be?

[elegiaque]

Not if Florent doesn't want to end up in the harbour alongside all of them.

( but she sounds in good humour, so— )

Bohemian excess is probably not the angle with Mother Inferior, I'm sure he'll behave.

( it's just!! comforting to know!! )

[portalling]

Ah. The nun.

( something halfway between wariness and withering disdain, like he bit on something sour. but that wry humour creeps its way back in a moment later: )

By that token: half-naked elves gallivanting inside your boat is probably fine, right? As long as they’re not within view of a scandalised older woman, taking her morning constitutional along the riverside?

[elegiaque]

( yelped: ) Fuck the mother, absolutely not.

( that's her BOAT, no one is having sex parties on it, least of all sex parties she isn't party to. )

[portalling]

( an actual laugh. he likes to torment, so he can’t resist the needling: ) Hm. How good is Guilfoyle at breaking up sexy bacchanals?

[elegiaque]

- that is a reassuring thought, actually. He's got a lot of practise.

[portalling]

Spray them all with cold water. I’m sure it’ll be fine.

[elegiaque]

I might try that on the ghosts in de Fonce's place, if we're stuck up here much longer.

[portalling]

Is that where you’ve all been squirreled away? What’s it like up there?

( he knew, ish, that they’d been shunted off to a secondary location — the gallows was a little more empty, with a chunk of its personnel relocated into kirkwall proper — but he doesn’t know the assignees that well, besides mobius and gwenaëlle.

still. it’s been quieter around here, without them. )

[elegiaque]

I'm staying in my grandfather's residence, I only have to go to the haunted house for work. I've offered the mages rooms with us if they want a reprieve, though. And the pirates.

( not the templars, though, who are included among the things that everyone else might want a reprieve from. )

It's tolerable, for now. But it won't hold indefinitely.

[portalling]

( an assessing beat. ghosts had sounded figurative at first, but she’s mentioned it twice now, so he just has to double-check he heard right— )

Is it literally haunted?

[elegiaque]

How did you think a rifter could afford a mansion in Hightown? It's not the husband, she married the de Fonce they disinherited and having known the man for more than a decade, I'm not sure what possessed her for why.

[portalling]

I suppose it’s a tried-and-true method. Back in New York, you might’ve noticed how the Sanctum Sanctorum stood out from all the buildings around it— part of the reason the Masters of the Mystic Arts were able to hang onto the real estate is because it’s terrifically haunted. No other owners held it for long.

I feel like I need your gossip notes on all my colleagues. I work with the woman and didn’t know this about the husband.

[elegiaque]

People try to gossip with me and they find it dull, historically.

( mostly because she's boring about the fun parts — very little of it interests her all that much, unless it seems relevant. )

But I'm very observant. I had the advisors permission to document everything about Skyhold during the early days, I guess I'm in the habit.

( she "guesses". she has kept meticulous notes, unfailingly, every since; has long thought of writing a detailed history, once publishing won't risk active engagements. )

[portalling]

Ah, so you’re our Mother Pleasance.

( don’t kill him )

[elegiaque]

That's not my kink.

[portalling]

( another bitten-off chuckle. and herein lies the trouble with this conversation being over the crystals rather than written, while he’s already half-multitasking and turning back to the workbench: it means it’s like having a cell phone to his ear again, and so his response is quick, off-the-cuff, and he doesn’t have the chance to rein in that unthinking mouthiness. so, flippant: )

You could probably still rock the robes, though.

[elegiaque]

I feel as if I'm learning things about you, Strange.

( which is a worrying sort of thing for her to say under circumstances that don't involve nun kink. )

Is it that dire without us there?

[portalling]

Some details, I’ll have to take to the grave.

And— ( a beat, contemplating, ) not dire, precisely. Just a little quieter and more tense around the Gallows. This came on very suddenly for everyone. This whole arrangement also robbed me of my sparring partner. And I’ve been appointed as a Nun Wrangler, somehow.

[elegiaque]

( about to inquire about the sparring partner, she is instead derailed by: )

What? Why?

( which is a harsh review from someone who isn't even allowed to talk to the woman, really. )

[portalling]

( caught somewhere halfway between “right?? that’s what I said” and: )

Do you not think I can be nice to an old lady? I can be nice to an old lady. … Probably.

[elegiaque]

I'm just curious as to whether the old lady will know you're being nice to her or not —

[portalling]

— Hmm. Fair point. People do misinterpret my good intentions sometimes, can’t imagine why.

Is there anything I ought to know about Chantry sisters? Strategically.

[elegiaque]

( considering, )

Well, no matter what she comes across as, most Chantry Mothers are knuckle deep in politics,

( which doesn't sound like much until you consider what that metaphor probably is, )

and certainly any of them sent here. And she's going to benefit extremely from being, probably, a tiresome old woman it's difficult to take seriously. Take her seriously.

[portalling]

Underplay oneself as a meddlesome old biddy which everyone will underestimate, then use that underestimation to gather crucial intel. That sort of thing?

Has the Chantry often spied on Riftwatch?