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]

[ 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.

[bouchonne]

[ Byerly just sips his coffee. No comment here. ]

[katabasis]

[He takes a step toward her. Byerly fades to a black spot in his peripheral vision.]

If that's my intention, then explain one thing to me. Why do you think I'm wasting my time in this room with the two of you?

[hassaran]

So long as Corypheus rules Tevinter and this place is full of impressionable would-be revolutionaries, it is an easy source of support and opportunity. And you are confident in your ability to persuade or manipulate us as needed.

[bouchonne]

[ Byerly still says nothing. It's honestly rather fascinating - He's never been a fly on the wall in a conflict between the two of them before. He'd like to see it play out a little more before he opens his mouth and diverts their ire. ]

[katabasis]

This is what you think me persuading and manipulating you looks like?

[He laughs, all bared teeth.]

I'm telling you the facts. It has been six years since the Breach. If defeating Corypheus were the singular objective with which to motivate the world, everyone would be under the Inquisition's banner and we would be having this conversation in Minrathous. If we want people to fight, they must see a future for themselves to be won. And the truth of the matter is that no one will propose anything which aligns too closely to that vision because they have never seen this organization proudly take up anyone's work unless it was already protected by convention.

[hassaran]

I said you were confident; I didn't say you were right.

[ 'the facts' just about gets him a sneer, head turned and jaw angling as lips press, like she's loosening up her neck for a blow. Her voice doesn't change. ]

You think that Antiva and the Marches are reluctant to fight because we neglect the rights of mages and elves? Or that fomenting revolution in their streets will do anything but create confusion and opportunity for our enemy, as it did in Nevarra? You may hate that this world is ruled by princes and admirals, but it is. The truth of the matter is that this battle needs them and their power and resources more than it needs the people who might follow you and your vision.

[katabasis]

So you admit it. [Is like a dog securing its grip on something--no change in heat, just the pressure of those bared teeth clamping into place.] That you're using those who are here, under your command today and looking for leadership in a fight to which they've already committed, only for as long as they conduct themselves in whatever imaginary way might appeal to princes and lords who have refused even the Divine.