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

[exequy]

You are wrong or you have been lied to. You arrived in the middle of a temporary ceasefire. It only exists because there is something out there that is more frightening to Thedas than our freedom. For now. No one has decided what to do with us afterwards, if there is an afterwards and we are not all dead.

[ Always look on the briiight siiide of life. ]

What you do about that now will affect us, too.

[letoldthingsdie]

We aren't mages. Isn't the whole point of a Circle to protect Mages from themselves? Things like possession - I doubt that's something that could happen to a Rifter who can't even perform magic.

[He's been doing some reading, okay.]

There's no point in lumping us all together. We aren't like you at all.

[altusimperius]

[letoldthingsdie]

[exequy]

[ With aggressive boredom, ]

Keep throwing out arguments. One might eventually make sense.

[letoldthingsdie]

That is exactly the response of someone who can't refute my argument in the first place. You can't even deny that Rifters don't belong in Circles because it's true. Explain to me why you - a mage - would think that Rifters belong in Circles? If you like them so much why don't all the mages just go live in them instead?

[exequy]

Fine.

[ Grudging, with a tone like he’s counting off on his fingers but hates every moment of it. ]

If anyone wanted to protect us from possession we would do Harrowings differently. They want us to prove we can protect ourselves from it, and to execute us quickly if we cannot. Circles are to keep the rest of the world safe from us.

You do not know that rifters cannot be possessed.

All rifters perform some magic. You have anchors.

It does not matter where I think you belong. I did not make the decision. But it has been decided that you will go to Circles if we do, and won’t if we don’t, so if you do not like that idea, you can try convincing everyone else in Thedas that you would be a good neighbor.

And I never said I liked Circles. I’ve never liked anything in my life.

[ That’s a joke, at the end, but it doesn’t particularly sound like one. ]

[letoldthingsdie]

[There's a stretch of silence that follows as Kylo struggles to find a better rebuttal for Kostos' words. It was a sound positioning, but he still refused to believe that anyone besides mages could be possessed.]

No one's ever explained to me what happens if we decided to cut off the hand the anchor is embedded into. Would that exempt us from being considered like mages if we did?

[At that last bit he actually makes a sound that could be construed as a laugh.]

No, I can't imagine anyone would like being kept in a prison. Is that where you got your personality from?

[exequy]

No. I made it myself.

[ Dry, still. ]

And I am not the one who decides who is or is not exempt from anything.