crystal

[bouchonne]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Byerly
RECIPIENT: Everyone
NOTES: None

[ The tone here is quite amused, even if the topic is not particularly...amusing. ]

So, now that we've all woken up, I'm sure there's just one question on everyone's mind. What are we going to do with all you naughty little boys and girls who are dreaming about joining the Venatori?

Comments

[bouchonne]

[ Dryly: ]

Rowntree also was rather famous during the war for the amount of Templar blood he spilled. And non-Templar blood. I know he's helpful enough to you, Captain Flint, but if he wanted to fuck off, it'd certainly make my job easier.

[ A pen is produced, and handed over. ]

[katabasis]

[The look Byerly receives in exchange is flat, held for a single unimpressed instant, and then reverts to the list where Flint scratches out a few additional lines.]

[hassaran]

You could say the same of half the company, including both of you.

[bouchonne]

I think it's a bit disingenuous to put the two of us in the same category of disreputable, Spymaster.

[ A drunken clown who married well isn't exactly equal to a pirate king. ]

Honestly, of those who "defected," I can think of only perhaps two or three where their desertion would be a net loss. [ Well, that's not really fair, and he realizes that after it's out of his mouth. So he amends: ] If their loyalty is already so tenuous that a bit of ridicule would send them packing.

[katabasis]

It won't happen today, and it won't happen because of this. It will happen because tomorrow they will find something real to be worried by and won't trust us with it. Or because the concerns they have already fed that dream, and by dismissing one we've dismissed the other.

[This without looking up. Scratch, scratch says the pen. When he's done, Flint slides the paper and the pen to Yseult so she might review and add to it.]

To say nothing of the damage an exodus would cause to the company. You may have no love for him, but I'd guess that even Leander has friends.

[bouchonne]

Like Matthias, for example? Who he's twisting to be just like him?

[ There's a bit of heat to that; Byerly tries to dismiss it immediately afterwards with a wave of his hand, embarrassed at having revealed a bit too much of his anxiety there. ]

I'm sorry to reveal this to you, Captain Flint, but there are rather more people like me in Riftwatch than there are people like you. Humorlessness is a comfort to a cold few.

[hassaran]

[ Yseult takes the paper and pen both, adding a few notes of her own. ]

Are you proposing some course of action, Commander, or do you simply find comfort in speaking your fears aloud?

[katabasis]

[A cutting look. Or a cut one; it's hard to say whether he's offensively digging in his heels or offended by it—]

We make our list of names. Identify those on it with the most sway and make our reassurances directly in whatever form suits them.

Not personally, [he hastens to add.] The last thing we want is for every person in this place to think they have our ear and can shout in it as they please. An officer of the watch or a liaison appointed for each division. Someone whose judgement you trust.

[bouchonne]

[ A little scoff. ]

Teach them that the more they seem to be on the verge of abandoning their posts, the more attentive we are, and the more concessions they can earn.

[katabasis]

—Would be criticism with merit, were I suggesting we work with all of them and not just some.

[hassaran]

You would attempt to improve trust among the company, and trust in our leadership, by having unofficial mouthpieces secretly whisper our intentions in the ears of a chosen few who dreamed themselves traitors?

[bouchonne]

[ By points his finger at Yseult in the universal gesture for what she said. ]

[katabasis]

[It's a fine point with which to prod an ill tempered man into snarling. Flint looks at her, then back at Byerly, and then something does give—

He laughs, all bafflement. And then again as his hand rises to rub the headache high in his forehead. With remarkably good humor, given all the bared teeth he'd blown in with—]

Maker's breath, have neither of you ever managed people you weren't there to discard?

[hassaran]

[ ...no. ]

[ Still: ] Do you often find patronizing them effective?

[bouchonne]

[ Also no. But: ]

Dear Captain, if Fereldan learned any lessons during the Occupation, it's to not extend a loving and trusting hand to collaborators. We lost a queen that way, if you recall your history.

[ A shrug. ]

I prefer my vipers outside the home.

[katabasis]

And I prefer to do the work we came here for rather than driving out useful hands because they cast frightening shadows on the wall.

[By now, Flint must be perfectly aware of where Byerly keeps his spare cups. He rises to fetch one.]

I was given the impression the three of us are meant to be partners. If you would rather be led, then by all means. I will find some pretty words to preserve your prides with.

[bouchonne]

[ That gets under his skin. Rather be led, like his plan is unquestionably superior. ]

Fuck off, Flint. I've seen your cock; it's not that big.

[hassaran]

Stop. [ Yseult's thin-lipped look now takes them both in. ]

I don't care about your cocks and no one is talking about driving anyone out of the organization.

[katabasis]

[A pause. Flint fills that cup with coffee from the side table during it. Evenly then, moderated (which is its own kind of fuck you, Rutyer)—]

You and I [Yseult] have talked more than once about what motivates those people. Like it or not, it isn't as simple as all of us just agreeing to bring Corypheus to heel.

[bouchonne]

[ Byerly rolls his eyes very elegantly at Flint, but doesn't comment on this truism. ]

[hassaran]

And if you thought me disinclined to indulge that lack of focus before, do you think my position likely to have altered now that we've all experienced what his victory could mean?

[katabasis]

I think we had better do something to address it, because just watching with the hope that it resolves while we're looking seems to be a problem.

[No. He stops, modifies, looks at her directly and is very frank.]

Is a problem. It has been a problem to me.

[bouchonne]

[ By sits back, saying nothing, perfectly content to let Flint talk directly to Yseult as long as it gets By some interesting gossip. ]

[hassaran]

[ She too is all ears. ]

Go on.

[katabasis]

[Still standing, the look he cuts between them flashes—resentment, a kind of humor that sits bitter on the tongue. Irritation, that this is what checks the pair of them, held like a stone in the fist.]

You may have everything you need waiting for you in the wings, or you may be happy to not care what comes after. But let's not forget that half those dreams were as much concerned with that as the other was with picking sides and fighting a losing war. We find how what they want tomorrow overlaps with our purpose today, and then use it to remind them why they're here.

Which will be harder to do without without suspicion, [he adds, attention drawn to Byerly like filings to a magnet. He can't help himself.] Now that they have every reason to expect us to come for them.