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

[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.

[bouchonne]

[ And now that Flint is looking to him, Byerly speaks. ]

Only one word of what you just said is wrong.

[ A little gesture of his fingers. ]

Now. Dearest Flint, you perhaps mistake our comrades for mabari - clever enough, but unable to anticipate the future. But I promise you, anyone who dreamed themselves aligned with the enemy started looking for escape routes the moment their eyes opened.

If we stay silent, their imaginations will configure something terrible. They will imagine something is coming for them - or, at best, they will imagine that they will be mistrusted forevermore. If we make clear our planned vengeance, and make it absurd, that allows some measure of catharsis. A vent for their fears.

[hassaran]

[ The tip of her head, however slight, puts her in agreement with Byerly on this subject once again. His approach has its points. It is not, however, the one and only thing Flint said that she disagrees with. ]

They have just been reminded why they are here. And a desire to spend more energy combatting Solas and the Qun is not what divides anyone's attention or loyalties. [ If anything, it's the opposite. ] Anything we might do now will only seem to take the situation more seriously, or draw attention back to personal agendas they ought to have set aside at least for the brief moment this remains fresh in their minds. If we simply get back to work, so will they.

[bouchonne]

[ A tip of his glass towards Yseult puts him in alignment with her. ]

Very true. I'm not tempted to suddenly resume sending daily reports back to Denerim - but if I found out that you were diverting our fleets to search for a new pirate haven, I might cast my eye more southwards again. Selfishness begets selfishness.

[katabasis]

[He looks between them. The cup of coffee is set aside without him ever drinking from it.]

Is it that unbelievable that what they want might be made compatible with what you do?

[hassaran]

[ Yseult takes a sip of hers. ]

If they believe they can make their private goals compatible with the mission of this organization, they are welcome to bring us their proposals.

[katabasis]

[Snapping then, all that quietened frustration boiling abruptly up—]

And what have you done to make anyone with something more to lose than this war trust us with what they give a fuck about?

[bouchonne]

[ Easily: ]

Captain, I think it is possible that the recent frustration of your own desires may be coloring your judgment.

[katabasis]

And I think you looked better with one eye, but I don't plan to hold you to poking on out.

[bouchonne]

[ That earns Flint a delighted cackle. Genuinely hilarious, well-played.

Still: ]

The dog who chases two rabbits catches neither.

[hassaran]

[ The outburst, the exchange, are both viewed with the flat patience that is by now familiar as exasperation. When Byerly's laughter has quieted sufficiently to speak over without raising her voice, she does. ]

I don't need them to trust me with their hopes and dreams. I need them to trust that defeating Corypheus is my singular objective. It is a clear and simple point of agreement. If we begin to complicate that by trying to support their other goals, those goals will inevitably conflict. We will be seen as taking sides, playing favorites. It will encourage them to politick for our favor. Then we will lose trust, and we will lose members.

it* out, slaps my own hands

[katabasis]

You are already playing favorites, [He barks back in the face of her flat patience, Byerly's laughter a splinter under a fingernail.]

For the people who ask no questions and you need sacrifice no scrap of your own comfort to please. Go back to the Inquisition if you have so little interest in leading the people you have here rather than the ones you might prefer.

[hassaran]

[ No louder, but harder: ] And let you twist this company into your personal army, to set afire whatever bits of the world you can while everyone else is occupied with Corypheus? No.