pirates are friends not foes

[ebeje]

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.

Comments

voice > private

[sclavus]

Colleagues.

[ Vane snorts, nearly a chuckle, but nor if he making a fit to argue against her taking the reins of this. Leave that to Flint. He's more than dangerous enough for Max to tangle with over this. So long as they're sent back to an island minus demons and Venatori, Vane's content to battle it out from there.

the rest he says under a private filter. ]

And what answer will you give them, when they come to you with fears of piracy and murderers? [ how much farther can Max throw them under the bus, and is she willing to split from their relative protection of them here for it? ]

private ∞

[ebeje]

[ Problem? :> ]

I will remind them that they have made allies of rebels, mages, Templars, and mercenaries all, and they are facing an enemy who is not half so discerning.

[ Look. Nascere isn't going to liberate itself. She needs you all to not get hanged. ]

Although it would help if the crew could abstain from thieving or murdering for the duration of our stay.

[rathercommon]

What's that mean - reinstating legitimate Tevinter governance?

[ebeje]

[ How to answer this in a way the fewest people are going to be angry at her about. ]

Nascere is part of the Tevinter Imperium, [ technically, ] but it had been without a sitting governor, nor indeed any significant Imperial presence, for a number of years. When the man we now know to be a Venatori leader arrived, he claimed to be legally appointed as such.

[ And she believed him, the fuckface. ]

[rathercommon]

[ Oh. With real interest - ]

Then - how was it being governed? Before he showed up?

[ebeje]

Common commercial interest. The captains each kept their crews in line, and businesspeople like myself helped soothe tensions between them and kept the street in good order.

[ For a given definition of order. ]

[rathercommon]

And it worked, then?

[ebeje]

Not well enough to keep the Venatori from our shores.

[rathercommon]

Well, I'm not talking about foreign interference. I'm talking about - you know - your own governance. You were able to hold it all together without a formally-recognized leader?

[ebeje]

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.

[rathercommon]

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.

[ebeje]

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

[aventuriere]

So you are all pirates? Or were pirates. Would you say that you are still?

[ebeje]

I owned a tavern. That is not a crime, no?

[ Unlike, say, holding a share in a pirate crew that stole millions of gold pieces worth of gaatlok from the Qun. For example. ]

Whatever Captain Flint and Captain Vane may have done in the past, their only occupation now is seeing Corypheus defeated.

[sclavus]

Yes.

[ hi max, is he helping? :)

but, okay, give him a second to have his fun, he'll try to be slightly more political. or uh. less hard on the P word. ]

More aptly, we are free men. Nascere alone protected that status for many of us.

[sclavus]

Hm. [ a vague hum, not clear if he approves of the strategy or not, but clearly doesn't disapprove enough to argue against it. Not long ago, their tactic had been to remind Tevinter why they'd feared pirates.

Somewhere on the other side of the Gallows, Vane rolls a shoulder and scowls at a passing city guard, trying to will his skin to stop crawling. This is what they have now, stop bitching, Charles. ]

The men will mind themselves. With Flint, Silver and I watching, none among them have the balls to do otherwise.

[ebeje]

[ She's almost proud but also: :| ]

[sclavus]

[ h e l p i n g ]

[elegiaque]

I'm in Orlais, presently. If I hear anything returning, you'll hear of it.

[sclavus]

[ 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.

[ebeje]

Good. [ She trusts them to keep their men in order, at least as long as they manage to get along themselves.

But she is not oblivious to his mulling, either, even if she can only guess at the cause. ]

I know that this situation is not ideal, but it is our best option. And it is temporary.

[ebeje]

You have my thanks. [ Genuinely, as the only one so far to have offered. ]

Forgive me, I did not realize these crystals extended so far. You are not at the front lines, I hope?

[elegiaque]

The crystals carry as far as we carry them, to my knowledge. But no, under absolutely no circumstances.

[limier]

You will wish to speak with Sra. Bonaventura, when you've settled.

[ wish, need. same difference. not the first pirates the inquisition’s had dealings with. inevitable, past a certain degree of north — half antiva must operate below the law, else wield it with impressive flexibility.

even so. a risk to harbor (to toss in with the other risks, the whole great heap of them) ]

Is there aught you require to do so?

[ refugees, ravaged home, a week ago. all that. ]

[rathercommon]

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?