therookery | crystal.

Entry tags:

crystal.

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Kostos
RECIPIENT: Everybody
WHAT: Nothing remotely inflammatory
WHEN: Time is a manmade construct and I refuse to be bound by it
NOTES: Context.

The next time any of us— [ That isn't an all-inclusive us; he means, specifically, mages and rifters and maybe templars, but everyone can figure that out on their own. Or not. He doesn't care. ] —is in the position to make demands, I think we should make sure we have a say in which rifters go to which Circles. We could pick in turns. Like choosing teams.

[ That's all. ]

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[ He can’t possibly be expected to keep track of everything he complains about. ]

About the world. Not me. Read another book.

Aren't you a part of the world? I don't think there's a better way to learn about mages than by talking to a mage. Especially since it seems we're all to become comrades. I mean, surely I've got a right to learn a bit more about the people who get to choose my people for their teams.

And you think asking people if they have committed murder is the way to do that?

—I haven't. By the way. [ Define innocent. Define deliberate. Define kill. ] But that is also what I would say if I had.

Are you joking? You? If you'd done something truly wicked, you'd be trumpeting it up and down the streets just to prove how wretched you are.

And if you haven't hurt someone deliberately, then I'm really quite unimpressed with the evil within you.

Evil and dangerous are two different things.

You're right. They are two different things. 'Cause if someone's evil, then yeah, they ought to be locked up and kept away from others. But if they're just dangerous, then well done, welcome to being a living creature. So's everyone else, to different degrees.

Do not be flippant. [ excuse him for a millisecond while he throws a sheet over his hypocrisy ] You are cleverer than that.

[ She claims. And he believes, reluctantly. ]

A man sleepwalks. The neighbors find him in their children's bedroom with a knife.

[ Whoa was that something actually resembling not-an-insult ]

All right. Sure. In that case, it makes sense to lock him in at night - but at night, not forever.

[ He’ll deny it. ]

Or hide the knives.

[ Almost wry. He’s not good at metaphors. Might as well get more or less literal. ]

But while he sleepwalks he can tear doors off their hinges and set fire to the house with half a thought. The only people who can stop him if he needs stopping are soldiers who give their whole lives to learn how. If they are are not already there, he might kill a few dozen people before they arrive. Sixty to a hundred on the outside.

Would you ask his neighbors not to mind?

Is that what you find yourself doing?

[ Kitty purses her lips. Man, he's really bad at metaphors. Well, to be fair - so's she. ]

Are you constantly waking up to find yourself having murdered dozens in the night, all unawares?

Yes, all the time.

[ tears that sheet back off of hypocrisy ]

[ Seriously. ]

Don't be flippant. You're cleverer than that.

[ Is it wrong to literally slap fight a teenage girl? Something to consider, at length, for several days probably. ]

It only takes one abomination in the mix to make the cost of twenty mages' freedom become twenty others' lives.

[ MATH. ]

The Circle mages you'll meet here have been trained from childhood. We were guarded. We were Harrowed. The most dangerous among us are already dead, [ except Gareth, and Evry, both of whom Kostos will hide behind furniture if anyone comes looking, #goodloyalist ] and we watch the young ones like we were watched. It will take at least a generation to know whether we are this well-behaved despite the system or only because of it.

[ Kitty asks, abruptly - ]

There's ways to suppress magic. The Templars' skills. Who developed them, and are they still working on developing 'em?

I—

[ He doesn’t know, exactly, who first came up with the idea of guzzling lyrium to stop magic. But he hates admitting he doesn’t know something he would probably know. So. ]

Whatever innovations there have been in the last thousand years would have come from the Seekers. [ Probably. ] And the Qunari are better at suppression than we are. They have collars and control rods. Sometimes they sew their mouths shut. I am sure they are still working on—

[ The problem, but even he can’t talk about Sarebas that clinically. Fire would be kinder. ]

Why?

They...What?

[ God. Kitty sputters to a halt for a moment from the sheer horror of they sew their mouths shut. It takes her a moment to get started back up again. ]

I, um...Right. I'm asking 'cause - I've got something about me - and don't go telling people this, please - but I can resist magic. No lyrium needed. And I was wondering if - I don't know - something about that could help with...a shield against demonic possession. All that.

[ If this conversation were taking place in person there would be a slooooow head turn. ]

Resist it how?

Like - [ She hesitates, then says - ]

If someone casts a spell on me, it doesn't really work. Like, if I get hit by a blast of fire, it burns my clothes, but it doesn't really burn me. Not much, at least. It stings, but I don't die.

All the time? Or does it require effort?

All the time. I couldn't stop it if I wanted to.

How would you feel about someone taking you apart to see how you work?

I -

[ Well. Bad. But Kitty gathers her sassy self and shoots back: ]

You're a Loyalist, so you'd know - is that something your Seekers would do?

I hope not. It probably depends on the Seeker.

[ What. ]

Seriously? You're loyal to an organization that might or might not chop a girl up into bits for experiments?

That—

[ was a joke, sort of, but not a very good one, and he doesn't want a reputation for telling jokes anyway. ]

It would hardly be a matter of policy. A bad apple. Most Andrastians avoid dissection.

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rathercommon - 2018-08-22 23:18 (UTC) - Expand

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