therookery | pirates are friends not foes

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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.

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[ 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.

[ Kitty, still ignorant of who these people are, takes that to be a stroke of misfortune. ]

Oh - how dreadful.

[ that drags a real, perhaps sharp but genuinely amused laugh barked from. yeah, super dreadful. or the best thing that ever happened to him. ]

The merchants, had they found me, would've sold me off at the nearest port for some extra coin. The pirate captain, after I bit his arm when he tried to drag me from the barrel, saw more worth to my life.

Dreadful is what I would call meeting the next port safely instead.

Wait -

[ Oh. ]

I always thought that pirates were the ones who'd sell you for half a shilling. [ But it's not as though she hasn't been misled before. ] Then - you were all right? They treated you well enough?

Half the pirates of Nascere are former slaves, or have former slaves on their crew. Attempting to take human, elven or qunari cargo as a prize would be courting a raid from another crew that took offense to the act.

[ aka, charles vane has maybe sunk some bitches for doing that exactly. after freeing the slaves, that is. in general, it's a bad idea to be a slaver transport in the waters around Nascere. ]

They took me in, raised me, taught me skills. They aren't the only crew to have done so for others. [ Billy and Gates, for one. ]

Edited 2018-07-16 23:19 (UTC)

So - then - are all of you pirates? From Nascere?

No.

[ a small, wisp of a smile that she doesn't see, because this isn't video. technically it's true, because Max is not a pirate. She's just about the only exception. ] Some.

But -

[ Kitty shakes her head, cutting short what was going to be her protest and replacing it with a more politic: ]

I'd always learned that pirates were just...thieves by another name. People who were just out for themselves and for profit. I guess - I must have been misinformed, then, if you all work together like you do.

[ the urge to respond with "no, we are thieves only out for ourselves, you were right the first time" is so, so great, and if Max weren't likely mouth breathing over this conversation willing him from afar not to fuck up her expert diplomacy, he'd do it.

Alas, he would like to get back to his island and his friends sooner than later. ]

Was it pirates that informed you?

[ Kitty hesitates before admitting - ]

No. It was out of books, mostly. [ Sighing - ] And some musical theater.

[ vane's going to assume that means books not written by pirates. ]

That tell you much about the quality of the source?

[ he thinks a moment on that noble's girl, abigail, that wrote of them in her diary, of it being read out over the charlestown courtyard. he thinks, too, that the moment ending with he and flint reminding them they were right to fear. yeah, sounds fake. ]

Maybe.

[ Certainly, the musical theatre was never to be trusted. Still - ]

But I notice you've not really denied it.

Why should I be expected to define myself for you, to confirm or deny what traits comply to what you think you know of me?

[ about 95% of Vane couldn't give half a shit what people from the main land nations think of him and who he is, what his motivations are, what the things he does mean to him. 4% of him thinks it's more funny than anything else, but just about 1% is legitimately annoyed. ]

There's at least 60 of us came in with the Walrus. Plenty first-hand experiences to get a better idea of.

[ Kitty, with that damnable and irritating freshness that only youth can provide, responds with a sincere, unashamed, and thoughtful: ]

Well - because we're speaking to one another, aren't we? If you define yourself, then I'll understand you a bit better. And mutual understanding, I think, is the key to making the world a better place. [ Then, with a little bit of cheek: ] Max clearly understands that.

Max makes a better pirate than half those that sailed in with us.

[ and she's never touched the helm of a ship. She's ruthless, cunning, and ambitious enough to drown the rest of them. She's had Nascere by the throat before, and she'd doubtlessly manage it again in time, if given the opportunity. Like many of them, she was nothing before coming to Nascere, where she'd become something else entirely.

But he'll not get into all that, at least not in front of Max herself. ]

What's to say I don't just lie to you? Tell you I devote my time to helping nuns cross the street and rescuing kittens from trees?

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