crystal.

[exequy]

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. ]

Comments

[thunderproof]

Oh, wonderful, is this where the well-meaning, moderate adult tells the passionate but abrasive child how she's actually the problem? Please, do tell, why do people speak to Rifters like we're morons.

[wythersake]

Because a lot of them act like morons.

[ it’s blunt; that’s life in a circle.

why does that templar always give me shit? because you give him the opportunity. why doesn’t the senior enchanter remember my name? because you haven’t been harrowed, and she doesn’t see the point. ]

You’re not the problem, but you know there is one. The question is whether you want to fix it.

[thunderproof]

It's adorable you think I'd give any shits whatsoever what you think I should do when you were just talking about taking my dragon's bones and making them into an urn.

❰ such a funny joke, haha, wonderful to hear, not terrifying at all. ❱

[wythersake]

I’d use Kostos’ skull, but they reserve those.

[ cover them in jewels, stick incense in the sockets, wank about what a bad idea the entire country is.

if you want to be treated with respect, ask yourself what that looks like. clearly they’re not there yet. ten years of pietro; he’ll survive. ]

I'm frightened, [ level, conciliatory. this is an offering. ] Every day. If you want to know why so many Circle mages are cynics, then know: We’re frightened. We’ve been frightened since we were very small. And when you live with fear, there are only so many ways to wear it.

I’ve seen a lot of men die. More will — good, and bad. Elven, and human. Even dragons. Do you understand me?

[ gallows humor is a pun too far ]

[thunderproof]

Oh, I perfectly understand using humour to cover up fear. I wouldn't give a shit what you say to make yourself laugh when the threat of Circles hangs over all our heads and Corypheus is still at large.

But my dragon — Charis, is his name, it means hope in his language — is as intelligent as a mabari here, and would be more intelligent than a person in our home. I consider him a sacred charge, and a child, my child, and if you think there is any mother who would take well to hearing of the bones of her son being used to fashion an urn for a dime-a-dozen mage who's decided both she and the child deserve no consideration whatsoever —

❰ whatever. she knows very few people take her seriously, and even fewer care about charis. that doesn't mean she's just going to sit down and shut up when she hears someone talking about him like that. ❱

You don't have to give a shit about me, or about Charis. But acting as though this is about something larger than you talking shit about him is laughable. I don't care what you think. You've made it perfectly clear I mean less than nothing to you. I won't forget it.

[wythersake]

[ if i screamed for every apprentice i lost, i'd have been made tranquil a decade ago.

that's more than he's willing to give. ]

It hangs over all of us, [ he agrees. ] But you haven't paid for it. Not yet. Every dime-a-dozen mage here has.

If you want to help yourself, and Charis, stop biting the hands extended to you. This isn't only about a joke in bad taste. This is about mastering your fear, to get something done.

My name's Isaac. I work out of the Infirmary most nights.

[ whether she cares to find or avoid him, best that she knows where to look. ]

[thunderproof]

You don't get to make a joke about murdering my child and turning him into an urn into a teachable moment, you absolute fucking dipstick. This isn't a hand extended to me, this is an opportunity to make yourself feel better by making me look like the asshole.

❰ there's a lot adalia has learned to take with a bitten tongue and clenched fists. talk from templars, talk from thranduil, coupe — the idea that she needs to be told by any more people what she needs to do to earn respect is infuriating, but she might sit through it, if she thought that was what was really on offer.

isaac made a joke about killing her child, and expected her to sit and thank him for the opportunity to swallow the fear of it really happening. ❱

You have no idea what fears I have mastered. You don't know anything I've done. I've paid higher prices for more important things than you will ever understand — but it means nothing because I'm not from here, and no one's ever asked, so I've never tried to tell. But if you think all I am is an abrasive child who needs her hand held through how to earn respect — save your condescension, and your hands.

I've taken plenty of the hands extended to me here. Never yours.

[wythersake]

Why do you think you look like an asshole?

[ this has been stored up a while, if the sudden fucking torrent is anything to judge by. ]

[thunderproof]

If you actually cared about anything I think, you'd have apologized for the shitty excuse for a joke you told as if the caretakers of those dragons whose bones you're so eager to claim wouldn't hear you. I'm the perfect mark to make Rifters look unreasonable for being attached to dangerous, subhuman beasts.

[wythersake]

If I wanted to make you look unreasonable, [ mildly ] I'd have done this in public. Have others?

[thunderproof]

Is it your business?

❰ nell, when she first arrived, making a joke at adalia's expense that left her feeling humiliated and stupid. before thedas, the way everyone would talk about her like she wasn't right there with them, twisting her words to mean something she'd never intended. ❱

I don't care about your intentions. I don't care about your fake concern. Stop talking to me.

❰ because the only reason he'd carry on the conversation is to gain further ammunition for some future dig, and adalia doesn't have the willpower not to respond when she's already so heated. ❱

[wythersake]

[ that's a yes. ]

This hangs over all of us, [ she's made it his business. but he's also not in the habit of pressing young women alone. he repeats: ] The Infirmary. Nights.