Sending crystal;

[ragweed]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Kit Gandir
RECIPIENT: Locked to Ser Coupe, Madame de Cedoux, Ser Ashlock, and Ser Norrington.
WHAT: A message describing his experience speaking with the Tevinter apprentice, Benedict Artemaeus.
WHEN: During Benedict's time in solitary confinement.
WHERE: The Gallows
NOTES: None.

I've spent some time interacting with Benedict Artemaeus at the suggestion of Madame de Cedoux and with permission from Ser Coupe. [There's a long pause. Possibly the message has been edited a lot, and somewhat clumsily, by someone who really doesn't get this magical social media shit yet.

Then,] Let me just get right to the point, if you folks want to use this kid as some kind of resource in the fight against the Venatori or Corypheus, you're going to need to get him out of solitary pretty damn fast. [Maybe also quit scaring the shit out of him, he thinks, but doesn't add.] He's a quick study; I taught him a pretty complicated card game in almost no time, and short of making a few rookie errors, he picked up on it fast. I get the impression everyone around him thinks he's an idiot, to the point where maybe he thinks he's one too. He's been chronically under-estimated by everyone around him.

[A pause.] He's a prick, but he's not an evil prick. If you get him out of solitary, give me a little time with him, I think I can bring him around.

Comments

[ipseite]

When you say bring him around?

( A prompt. Her tone holds only polite inquiry, no prejudgment or projection of his answer. )

[ragweed]

[Yeah, he maybe left that one a little vague. Kit fiddles with the crystal in his grip, considering his words uncomfortably. Then, slowly,] I think he's on the cusp of going a little out of his head. The kid's terrified--what's the point of scaring him more? Prior to this, I think his biggest worry in life was what to wear at fancy dinner parties. Now he's stuck with a hostile foreign power far from home, and from what I can tell, the guy who was supposed to be his mentor and protector trapped him in this scenario without giving him so much as a head-up. He's just left him to the wolves.

[Consideringly,] Under those same circumstances, can't say I blame him for lashing out. If you feel like you've got nothing left to lose, your priorities reorder themselves accordingly. [That much, at least, he knows from experience.]

...anyway. You can manipulate him on pain of death and torture to cooperate, or you can make him want to cooperate. He's clearly got no love or loyalty to the sodding Venatori; why use the stick when we haven't even tried the carrot yet?

[ipseite]

Mmmm.

( He'll find no disagreement in that sound; a thoughtful hum, just this side of leaning toward his argument. What she says, though-- )

There are ideal outcomes and there are acceptable ones.

On your first impression, where might your expectations fall? If you'd elaborate for me a little further the goal as you see it.

[ragweed]

Make a friend out of an enemy. I don't think it's impossible, but I think the longer he's kept in isolation, the harder that's going to be for us to accomplish.

[He knows he hasn't convinced her, and he's no diplomat; he doesn't have Petrana's way with words or her political instincts. He just knows the potential for good when he sees it, even if articulating that instinct doesn't come naturally to him.]

[ipseite]

( Her revised expectations are significantly lower than his, it's true, but he doesn't have to convince her; she isn't going to tell him to cease a task she recommended him for because she thinks he's more of an optimist than she is. )

Thank you, Mssr Gandir. It is unfortunately not for me to make decisions on his incarceration, but I am inclined to agree.

( For different reasons, probably, but in practical terms they aren't served by isolating him. )