therookery | pirates are friends not foes

Entry tags:

pirates are friends not foes

FORM: Sending Crystal
SENDER: Max
RECIPIENT: Everybody (yeah)
WHAT: Introducing pirates: your latest problem courtesy of the Corypheus. The Venatori have sacked their island off the Tevinter coast, and Max consequently has a request.
WHEN: Nowish
WHERE: Kirkwall

[ The journey from Nascere to the Free Marches had been a difficult one, not just for the number of days it had spanned, but for the things each of them had left behind, still tethering them to its beaches. Hopes and dreams that, with each passing mile, they must watch unravel, and begin to accept may never be within their grasp again. Amid the bitter mire of blame that had welled up in its place, one thing had become clear to Max: if she wants to have any say in what comes next, she needs to be the face (or at least the voice) of Nascere, as surely here as she was on its shores.

And she needs to do it before anyone else does.

So it is, the very day the terms of their recruitment to the Inquisition and continued presence in Kirkwall is agreed upon, the sending crystals alight with a new voice. ]

Good afternoon, Inquisition. Some of you I have already had the pleasure to meet, but for those I have not, my name is Max.

[ It's a not unpleasant voice, as these things go. A smooth, melodic Orlesian of the sort one can imagine trading one's cares away to in exchange for gentle but firm reassurance. Today, it is mostly business, but artfully tinged here and there with a withheld sorrow. (Most of which may even be real.) ]

I have recently arrived from the island of Nascere, in the Colean Sea, under circumstances I believe concern us all. One week ago, after operating for some time under the guise of reinstating legitimate Tevinter governance, persons we believe to be agents of Corypheus ravaged our home and have killed or captured many of its people.

The situation in Orlais is no better, as you must know, but even as the Inquisition fights on that front, I would ask one small thing of all of you. While some of us were fortunate enough to make berth in Kirkwall, our sisters and brothers of Nascere have been scattered to the four winds. Some may be dead, others we fear enslaved, but there are still more whose escape we may simply not be aware, who may become allies to you as myself and my colleagues Captains Flint and Vane now are.

[ ‘Colleagues.’ As if they are partners. Perhaps friends. :> ]

I ask then, in the course of your travels to fulfill your duties to the Inquisition, if you should hear word in taverns or crossroads of refugees from Nascere, that you bring this news back to us as soon as you are able. And if you should have business with a man or woman of the account, that you pause but a moment where sense and safety allow, and ask if they are of Nascere. You may find a friend in place of an enemy, and one who would join our cause.

[ Or one of their causes, at any rate. Of those who once called Nascere home, a fair number are more likely to want her dead than reinstated. But there are some whose good opinion Max does not expect, who she would risk more than this to see alive again.

She draws herself up, forcing a gentler warmth into her tone. ]

And, as I am certain rumors abound, [ False ones, surely, ] I would be happy to answer any questions or concerns any of you may have about our island or its former residents as we join your ranks.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We managed our affairs adequately without governor nor king, yes. [ Not pictured: murder, mayhem, Ned Low's head on a spike. ] But holding anything together that you cannot defend is not holding it at all.

Oh, I don't think that's true.

[ Kitty wrinkles her nose. ]

No system lasts forever, does it? Everything eventually falls. Just 'cause that happened to you a little sooner rather than later doesn't make it a failure.

The Imperium has stood for two thousand years. I would measure our success in something more than months.

Yes, but -

[ Kitty gives a little huff. She wants to be excited about a form of sort of quasi-democracy, dammit. ]

Were people treated justly?

That depends very much on who you ask.

[ But since Charles is helpfully providing his answer, well. ]

For most of those who called it home, it was more just than the treatment they could expect anywhere else.

What about for you?

[ Max gives a small hum, considering. A complicated question, made more complicated still by her current relationship with her companions, and a more personal question than she cares to allow to define her. She does not share Vane's candor. But honesty has particular value in this moment, in this place where all anyone expects of a pirate is deceit. So, a different tack: ]

If a woman is attacked in Kirkwall, it matters perhaps if she is rich or poor, if she is human or dwarf or elf, if she has a good reputation or not, if she has family and if they are well liked enough that upsetting them would have consequences for those in power — or if instead her attacker has these things in his favor. In Minrathous, it matters too if she has magic or not, and if the man who harms her has ownership of her body, or if the attack infringes on his right.

In Nascere, all that matters is if she has made strong allies, or if her attacker has something of value that someone stronger than him wants. [ Even Vane couldn't put Ned Low's head on a spike because it was right. ] In none of these places does it particularly matter what is just. But as a woman with only allies, and the ability to make more, I would choose Nascere.

[ Kitty's silent a moment. When she speaks, her voice is quiet. ]

It doesn't have to be like that. It shouldn't be like that.

Neither should there be a darkspawn magister tearing holes in the sky, no? But I do not think that will change only because I will it.

[ Although partly, perhaps, because she wills it. Kitty's idealism is not entirely lost on her, though. ]

How would you see the world different, Mademoiselle Jones?

Oh. Just Kitty, please. I'm not...mademzelle anything.

[ The simplicity of her vocabulary, however, contrasts against the complexity of her thinking. She takes a moment to gather her thoughts, then says: ]

It's hard, seeing all the cruelties and injustices of my own world replicated here. It does start to make me half wonder whether it really is just a problem with humanity, and whether there isn't any way out. Whether we can ever break away from these cycles of hatred and violence. But there's no reason for us to be like this. We don't have to be hard and cruel and afraid. Humanity gains nothing by it, and loses so much. So -

I think...I think that it's possible for people to set aside the things that divide them. I think that's how I would see the world different. I don't know how to solve the problem of men doing horrid things to women, or of violence generally, but if men see women as comrades rather than subordinates then justice would be easier to find. Or even Corypheus - they say that he does a lot of what he does because he's furious that Tevinter isn't grand and glorious like it once was. Well, so, if he would just stop tying up everything he is with Tevinter, he could take joy in how far humanity has come, rather than convincing himself that his home is the be-all-end-all. You know?

[ just gonna slide on in because max is Doing It Wrong. charles may still hold some respect for her intelligence and gratitude for keeping a protective eye on jack and anne while he'd been doing his own thing, buuuut, Max was never a pirate. there's a difference.

also, Ned Low's head on a spike was just the Nascere beach equivalent to lawn gnome ok, vane thought it was very tasteful. ]

Nascere worked because crews held loyalties to their brethren, and on the shore, captains understood the need for those in commerce to keep our way of life a continued reality. A man, or woman, could make or break themselves on their own ambitions, with no King demanding tribute, or telling them their place in line.

For near on a decade, it worked. Without the Imperium's magisters and slave legions they've built their two thousand years on.

[ See, this is more the sort of answer that Kitty can get fired up about. Thanks, Vane. ]

How'd someone become a captain, anyway?

[ yaasss excellent, +1 for team anarchy, eat it, max. ]

Most start out with experience in the crew of another captain, become known to others on the island as respected and competent. From there, you'd want to find a Quarter Master and a few loyal men willing to take a chance on you.

Then it's a matter of recruiting and finding a ship. Assuming you'd done the first part well, the last shouldn't be so difficult .

[ Hm. Kitty thinks that over. ]

But that does mean that people without many resources - people who started out poor, say - they'd have less of a chance of becoming a captain, right? Since you probably would have a lot more chance of finding a ship and all that if you started out rich.

[ vane chuckles, a deep, rough sound, but quiet. ]

No one is rich in Nascere - not for long, besides - and no one buys ships.

[ you steal them, you trade for them, you convince a crew that owns a stolen ship to sail under your captaincy, you deal for it. No one out right purchases a ship. ]

Most come to the island owning nothing. What they make of themselves from there is due to their own cunning, will and strength.

[ Kitty purses her lips, and wonders how you get a ship if not to buy one - but she doesn't want to sound silly, so she doesn't ask. Anyway, she can probably guess. Spent enough years robbing people at knifepoint herself, didn't she?

She's thinking out loud as much as she's asking a genuine question as she says - ]

But isn't that dangerous? If people come to power through cunning and will and strength, that means that governance will always be dominated by cunning and will and strength. But oughtn't there be a space for other qualities, as well? Mercy and compassion and wisdom?

Our people are not driven to the ends of the globe because they were kind. [ you realize we're talking about pirates, right booboo? Maybe she doesn't. ] There's nobility in most crews, a certain code of honor, and should one violate it, their character will be known to the rest of the island and all who frequent it. Not likely to find another captain or crew willing to touch them.

[ or you'll just get shanked in some back alley. Which Vane feels is deserving enough. Kitty may be looking for a Utopia, and while Nascere is that to men like Vane, it's far from it for those used to the loving arms of polite society. It's more a wilderness than a nation, and Vane prefers it that way. ]

Such freedom comes with a lack of comforts, like consideration for those not so bold. Nascere is not, and has never claimed to be, a place for those with anything less than stalwart conviction to her way of life.

D'you think that's the right way to do things?

[ That's not a rhetorical question; it's an honest one. Kitty isn't scolding him for that history, nor attempting to assert her point of view. She's really asking him. ]

[ without hesitation: ]

I do.

[ and truly, he does. Few are so extremely devoted to the concept of freedom beyond simple oppression. Freedom from others opinions of decency, of civility, of morality. He'd rather live harsh on the outskirts of the world than take what comforts Tevinter promises (food, clothes, security) in exchange for his submission. ]

[ And still with that honest curiosity: ]

Would you feel that way if you weren't one of the strong ones?

I came to Nascere a 15 year old child escaped from a slave camp.

[ skin and bones, hungry and scared but vicious and frenzied all the same, determined to survive. He'd taken plenty in the way of hard knocks metaphorical and otherwise, and built himself into what he is today. He'd been raised by Nascere. ]

I have. I would still.

[ Oh. ]

A slave camp. Meaning you were...?

A slave? Yes.

How'd you escape?

[ there's a decent length of silence, because Vane doesn't typically discuss this part of his life with many people, beyond the simple fact that he'd been a slave once. Those that know of it tend to know better than to ask.

But what harm can a curious young girl do? Well, a lot, to be honest (see: Eleanor Guthrie), but there's not much the knowledge of it can do here, so far from Tevinter. ]

I stowed away in a barrel in a merchant ship's cargo hold when they'd come to collect the lumber the camp supplied. Two days out to sea, the vessel was set upon by pirates.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

cw: oblique discussion of sexual assault

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject