#the circles

[nostalgia-eh52]

Circa 1979 The Circles 🎶

[thenevarranaccord]

“Glinting. Gleaming. Stealing us with steel. Splinters flying as they kick in the door to our home...”

Cato shivered involuntarily at the memory of Knight-Commander Meredith kicking down the mansion door.

He had half of a second to hope that Emmrich and Taash hadn’t noticed before he realized that they had. Already, they were turning to him with worried looks on their faces.

“Hey,” Taash said, their voice as soft as Cato had ever heard it, “you don’t have to do this. You can go back to the Lighthouse. Emmrich and I’ve got this.” Then, Taash realized something—probably that Emmrich was also a mage—and looked at him. “Unless you’d also like to go back? I can handle this on my own.” Cato could already see Taash steeling themself for a solo fight with a few more rounds of demons. “It’s a job for a Rivaini.”

“No,” Emmrich said quickly. “I’m fine to continue.”

“How?” the question was out of Cato’s mouth as soon as he thought it. He was surprised to hear it voiced.

Emmrich looked at Cato. For the first time, Cato saw the professor look stumped. Emmrich opened his mouth and drew in a breath, and Cato could see the wheels turning in his head as he tried to craft an appropriate response where none existed.

Cato swallowed, with difficulty. He wanted to tell Emmrich, ‘Nevermind. You don’t have to answer that,’ but suddenly he was thirteen years old again and he’d lost control of his voice.

“The Mortalitasi are protected,” Emmrich admitted softly. “Templars only come when we ask for them, or to pay their respects like any other Nevarran. We didn’t join the mage rebellion. Although we felt for our brothers and sisters in the Circles, our quality of life in the Necropolis was always good. We had too much to lose. We couldn’t abandon Nevarra’s dead for an unknown amount of time. There was a vote and… I truly am sorry.” Cato believed that he was.

Cato hadn’t joined the mage rebellion either, even though he’d wanted to. He too had been protected by royalty, and by parents that most Templars would think twice before crossing. Even the Inquisition had protected him, if only accidentally at first.

He’d still joined the Inquisition even after they abandoned the mages and allied with the Templars. He still believed it was worth it to fight the Venatori, but part of him still felt like he’d betrayed his fellow mages, Anders, and maybe himself. The Inquisitor had married the Templar who made Cato’s phylactery.

Still unable to speak, he tried to tell Emmrich with his eyes that he understood. He nodded.

Taash approached him. A big Qunari hand squeezed Cato’s shoulder gently, and it felt like a hug. “Let’s get you back to the Lighthouse,” Taash said.

Cato stepped away from the touch and shook his head. “It’s fine.” It came out as a whisper, but it came out. He could do this. He didn’t want to do this, but he had to do this. Going home wasn’t even an option.

He led the way to the next spot Compassion had indicated. Taash and Emmrich hesitated, but followed.

-

“Baking in my armor. So much hotter here than back home in Ferelden. Kill on sight. But they don’t look like Abominations. They just look sad.”

The sick part was, Cato related to that. It was so much hotter here than in Ferelden; although Ferelden had not been Cato’s home for a very long time.

He thought about Cullen, and wished that he hadn’t.

He thought about a dark tunnel filled with scared apprentices, waiting out a long night to see if they’d be rescued or cut down when the door was opened.

This Templar, this dead Templar, hadn’t wanted to do it. Maybe that was why he was dead now. Maybe it wasn’t; maybe he’d done it anyway and died a well-deserved death.

Taash and Emmrich were watching for Cato’s reaction, but he felt more in control this time. He took a deep breath.

“Does Isabela ever talk about the Kirkwall rebellion?” he asked Taash.

Taash hesitated for a second, then said, “Sometimes. Mostly just when she’s asked about it.”

“What does she say?”

Taash glared, but not at Cato. “She says fuck the Chantry, the Templars were bastards, and the mages should be free.” Cato could hear the echo of Isabela’s anger in Taash’s voice.

He smiled a little. “She’s right about most of that.”

“You’re holding a sunburst staff,” Taash pointed out.

“Right.” Cato reached back and pressed a finger into the top of one of the sun rays, hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to draw blood. “Most of that.” He didn’t really carry it out of loyalty to the Chantry. He carried it as a reminder of his time with the Inquisition. He knew what most people thought when they saw him with it, though.

He dropped his hand back to his side, and began walking to their next location.

After a few steps, he asked Taash about a subject he rarely brought up with people: “Does she ever talk about Anders?”

He heard the soft skids of two people stopping in their tracks behind him. He turned around to see Emmrich suddenly very interested in the horizon, and Taash biting their cheek.

“No,” Taash said, and Cato believed them. “She won’t talk about him. Last guy that asked got stabbed.”

“She stabbed him for asking a question?” Cato was smiling, despite himself. That did sound like Aunt Isabela. Cato even understood the impulse to stab anyone who asked about Anders, though personally he would never act on it.

Taash shrugged. “Just a little. He’s fine. The asshole deserved it, trust me. It wasn’t innocent curiosity.”

Cato nodded. He knew how loaded questions about Anders could be. Emmrich had relaxed a little too.

-

“We ran, but they chased us. We tried to surrender, but they killed us as we knelt. The spirits roar as the fire comes. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.

“The wood will always be scorched, but the rain has washed away the fire and smoke. Thank you.”

Cato took a deep breath. It was done. The crime had been committed over a decade ago, and they had done all they could do now.

“Emmrich,” Cato said, “Do you think the dead know that we’re here? That at least we listened to them? Or is this all for the benefit for spirits?”

Emmrich considered the question. “I think that a soul is, essentially, a collection of memories,” he said. “If a spirit absorbs those memories, in a way, the soul lives on through that spirit. We see it quite frequently in the Necropolis. Spirits possess a body and they behave as if they were the original inhabitants of that body. Some of them don’t even realize they’re not the original inhabitants of the body until we explain it.”

“So are the spirits just confused, or do you think part of the soul stays with them?”

“I think part of the soul stays with them.” Now it was Emmrich’s turn to approach Cato and put a hand on his back. “I’ve tended to the dead after mass disasters. I’ve found that the dead like knowing that there were survivors. Although you survived a different annulment, I’m certain these souls were glad that you were here.”

“Thank you,” Cato said. “I wish there was a way of telling them that the Divine is a mage.”

“The mages still aren’t free, though,” Taash pointed out.

“I know,” Cato agreed with a sigh. “She took two years of my life for the crime of being a mage, and she acted like she was going me a favor.” He shook his head. At least his time in the Circle had been better than his grandfather’s. Divine Victoria was still on his Wintersend card list. She even replied, most years. “But at least I’m here now, and so is Emmrich, and the mages in the Circles are a lot safer than they used to be. It’s not nothing.”

“I was overjoyed when Divine Victoria was elected,” Emmrich said, injecting a bit more cheerfulness into the conversation. “I never thought I’d see such a thing in my lifetime. Johanna and I opened a bottle of—” he stopped himself. Cato knew that look: The realization that a once happy memory had been forever ruined by who the other person involved turned out to be.

Sometimes Cato still heard Anders’ voice in his head, guiding him through simple healing spells.

Emmrich squeezed Cato’s shoulder involuntarily. “Well,” he said, “there were many celebrations in the Necropolis that night. We shouldn’t overlook what Divine Victoria has done for the public image of mages in the south, nor the freedoms she’s granted to Circle mages.”

Cato nodded. “Justinia would have taken a lot more than two years.”

“Still,” Taash said, “they were your two years.”

“The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice,” Emmrich said, not unkindly. “Let the dead mages and the living ones have hope, Taash.”

Taash looked at Cato.

Cato shrugged. “It’s both, right?” He looked from one of them to the other and his mouth twitched into a smile out of genuine affection for both of them. “Emmrich’s right to have hope and Taash is right to be angry. One keeps us going and the other keeps us fighting.” He took another deep, cleansing breath, and he didn’t at all mind that his friends saw him do it. “Let’s go home. Lucanis is making paella.”

[sunshineandlyrics]

Bigger Than Me (​I feel like Louis is trying to hypnotise me), Tecate Pal Norte, 30 March 2024

[shiningdesignersreflections]

Nikki: Warming Match

Designer’s Reflection: Warming Match

Obtained: Memory Stairway

Rarity: SR

Attribute: Green/Fresh

Awakened Suit: Cool Match-Up

Story - transcripts from Designer’s Reflection

Chapter 1 - Mix and Match

Chapter 2 - New Inspiration

Chapter 3 - Breaking the Rules

Story - summarized

Nikki wants to enter a design competition... if she can ever come up with an idea. The rules are to create a unique outfit, but only using ordinary elements.

Her sister, Yoyo, is in the middle of college, but she likes to visit a bustling, up-and-coming district full of fresh and unique outfits. She calls Nikki and invites her to a day out at the district, the Settlement. More specifically, she knows Nikki is having a hard time with inspiration, and she wants to take her to her favorite store down there called The Circles.

Wanting to look her best, Nikki chooses a cute and popular suit to wear to the Settlement... but she quickly learns that the main style there is innovative and not popular. She feels conspicuous as Yoyo leads her to The Circles.

Yoyo is friends with the owner, a young man who styles a suit with a skirt, pink with plaid. He tells Nikki to try any of his clothes, encouraging her to try new styles. So, with her sister’s enthusiastic help, Nikki finally finds an outfit that brings out her wilder side. The owner says that the best way to find a unique style is to try different things together until you find something great.

With this in mind, Nikki returns home and looks over the original suit she wore that day. Cute, pink and purple, sweet... She re-layers the clothes, adds a pillow bag, repurposes her rain boots, and tweaks her design until she finally has a unique outfit with ordinary elements for the design competition.

She wins the competition! To celebrate, she wears her fresh, new outfit as she and Yoyo visit the Settlement for lunch and a visit back to The Circles.

Connections

-Yoyo is always willing to help her sister, even if it means pushing her out of her comfort zone. She did this in Before the Dawn, tricking Nikki into making a costume for herself and pulling her onstage to sing with the band.

-Nikki uses the re-layering technique in her suit for Flower and Jenny. Both have a bra-like shape in the bodice to give it a special touch.

-In the Ark, you can tap on Nikki’s image in the Reflection to bring up extra lines of dialogue. One of the lines mentions “sweaters, lace, and long hair.” Nikki is talking about her very first design as a child, First Snow.

Fun Facts

-This is the third Memory Stairway suit to get a third color, right after Choco Time and Soccer Tone. The pattern on the suit is plaid, like the pattern the owner of The Circles was wearing on his skirt when they first met.

-Each of the Memory Stairway suits demonstrate a different lesson or memory about design that Nikki had to experience to grow in her skills. In Warming Match, she learns to keep an open mind by breaking the rules as she goes; there is always a new way to style.

[urbanenemy]

Visit Original Link

CIRCLES - Angry Voices

[fallingleavesandtears]

The Circles • Tevinter Imperium • Seheron • Rivain • Avaar • Chasind

[kyliafanfiction-archive]

I really hate my view on the Circles and Mages - because it sits in this very muddled middle area where I think something like the Circles are needed - including the mandatory-ness of being part of it (at least enough to be trained) - but the way they worked before the Mage-Templar War is immortal, inhumane and, from a practical standpoint, utterly untenable.

Mages needed to be trained - and untrained mages are dangerous, much more vulnerable to demons. If one mage goes rogue, their capacity for destruction is quite high. Templars need to be available to watch mages - but they also can't have the freedom to act that they did before. I think one mistake that was made was having the watchdog of the Templars, the Seekers, be made up entirely of Templars - which means they'll all be pretty sympathetic to the Templar argument, mostly.

You can't have the watchdog too much in sympathy with the ones being watched (though you need a certain amount to allow for nuanced rulings and such).

And of course, there's no reason to pen mages in so utterly in the towers, make then unable to see their families and whatnot - and most of the rest that goes on.

The basic idea of the Circles is sound. The execution by a mage-hating Chantry and badly trained Templars is bullshit