SALTBURNT ❖ inbox

[wines]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK
USERNAME: ORCHID
text ❖ audio ❖ video

(this inbox is a choose-not-to-warn experience, please read at your own discretion.)

Comments

text; un: Bugs

[honorism]

[it's actually like 4 or 5 pictures, 4 of which are out of focus. The 5th is a bit clearer, showing two very pretty dragonflies, one blue, and one green]

do you like butterflies?

[not at all related to the dragonfly picture(s) but like. it's fine]

[wines]

[ Dorian was a quick study with the technology, but he's not surprised it takes others longer to adjust. The blurry photos are charming, in their way. ]

I do. I've been watching them in the greenhouse, here.

Shall I send you a picture next time I go?

✉️ text — un: ev.

[volkarin]

Dorian,

As the person here who has perhaps known me the longest, I was hoping you'd do me the favor of answering a question as objectively as possible:

Does my bedside manner leave something to be desired?

sorry about him

[wines]

Coming to me for bedside advice, Professor? I'm flattered.

text; un: persephone

[semicharmed]

Am I doing this right?

[ IMG_062.jpg

Blazer with pattern? Check! Transparent shirt? Check!! Deep v? Check!!! Only because Matt is a fashion baby wearing little fashion water wings, he has added the third item over the second to provide a bit of extra protection. ]

backdated to substance sadness RIP

[wines]

[ A week ago--or a week later, had Matt waited to call on him--he would have received an entirely different response. Dorian lets it sit for several hours, before finally returning: ]

I'm not the right person to ask about this.

text | @aemond ( jan. 22nd )

[provoke]

Do you have a preference for your meats?

[ he promised a dinner, after all. ]

uwu

[wines]

I'll eat most anything other than quillbacks, but I have yet to see those on the menu here.

Are you finally surprising me with dinner, so we can make use of your leash?

text at some point idk, 1/?

[lightandjoy]

🐻😘😘😘😘🌻🌹🌹🌸☺️😸🐻

2/?

[lightandjoy]

😘😘👀🐻🤗🤗💓😚

3/?

[lightandjoy]

💦😜☺️☺️

ok done for now

[lightandjoy]

😘😘💓🐓

text ; un: bugs ; backdated to shortly before event stuff

[honorism]

Don't feed the hungry guest. The cold comes with a bite.

[wines]

[ Well, Dorian has heard a little more about Helaena's prophecies from Aemond and does not love the contents of this message.

Several minutes later: ]

I don't suppose you can elaborate on any of that?

in person.

[provoke]

[ wherever it may be that dorian has holed himself up in — and aemond had searched for him in the library, swept through the mezzanine and the more hidden aisles to be sure — aemond comes to him with a heavy blanket wrapped around his shoulders, cheeks and ears pinked by the cold, and with little warning drags him to a low daybed nearby and shoving him onto it. ]

You're warm, [ is all the explanation aemond gives, as he crawls next to him and throws the blanket over themselves. ] I'm so fucking tired of freezing.

[wines]

[ There are many problems with their current predicament, but one that Dorian hasn't quite solved is how much he needs shared, human warmth, and how much he also needs several hours of peace and quiet in a day if he wants to retain his sanity. The library isn't much like a library these days, as far as the peace and quiet portion goes: it's a hub of activity, so Dorian has taken to sneaking naps in a much smaller and emptier room nearby.

He's dozing off while trying to read, when Aemond finds him. Dorian doesn't protest in the slightest, tugging his own blanket over them and pulling Aemond close, arm around his waist. ]

Come here. Pretend I have my fire back. [ Face tucked against Aemond's throat, his nose cold as he nuzzles in. ]

text

[lightandjoy]

[ Unannounced, and probably unwise given how difficult it is to keep everyone's phones charged: a photo of a squirrel, red and fluffy and bright-eyed, sitting on a fallen tree in the snow and nibbling on some small bit of Halsin's breakfast. ]

[wines]

[ Why is his boyfriend(???) so goddamn cute ]

Not an undead squirrel, I hope?

text — un: @aemond

[provoke]

Dorian. I am in desperate need of your mind.

[wines]

Just my mind? Not my dashing good looks and clever hands?

text — @aemond

[provoke]

[ with the house undergoing repairs, it seems a good time to ask this now: ]

Are you well, Dorian?

[wines]

I was feeling sorry for myself, but I find myself perking up, with your words gracing my fingertips.

text; un: bugs

[honorism]

dorian if you were to have an insect named after you, what kind you like it to be?

a hasty response, if you can please.

[wines]

Hasty, she says.

I suppose one of those mantises we talked about, a while back.

✉️ text — un: ev, cw suicide.

[volkarin]

My dear Dorian,

Allow me to be — uncharacteristically, you might say — blunt: When you read this, I will be dead.

Worry not (or, I suppose, not too much), as my death, such as it is, is of my own choosing. You will have seen, I expect, the missive that Miss Starkov posted to the network. She said herself that she can't be certain if the ritual she performed will work again, but if there is a way of lifting the effects of the separation of one's soul from one's body, then it is what I owe to this place, these people, to study it. Yet I cannot in good conscience ask for those who have already suffered to suffer yet again, giving their blood to me for an entire turning of the moon for the sake of what could be nothing — hence my brief departure, now. (Brief, should all go well.)

But the ritual is not why I've written to you. We now know, of course, of the cycle of resurrection. I wished to ask if you would assist in ensuring this occurs as quickly as possible, as I cannot be sure of the state in which I will return to you, and would rather not risk further casualties in the time before my soul is returned to me. I have asked Solas for the same, in the event that the two of you might find it easier to complete such a task together.

I also wanted to ask you, if I may, to keep an eye on Parisa. I would advise you not to ask her outright how she's faring, as I expect she'll tell you not to worry, but I'd like to know that someone will watch over her in my absence.

Forgive me. It appears that, in attempting to help the rest of the house, I've inconvenienced those few for whom I care most. If you cannot forgive me, I hope you — ever clever, ever worthy — will at least understand.

Ever yours,
Emmrich Volkarin

text ❖ @orchid

[wines]

[ For whenever Emmrich happens to turn his phone back on, postmortem: ]

You're an idiot.

text, un: fen'harel, after the above

[dirth]

I assume you received a letter from the esteemed professor.

text ❖ @orchid

[wines]

I did, and I can't say I'm pleased about it.

What did he say to you?