A while. There are Chantry representatives here, and it's not just about phylacteries, either. The Templars brought all kinds of demands. It will be days, at least. Maybe a week or more?
[ He's going to LITERALLY DIE or maybe, you know, make ear plugs. One of the two. He pauses long enough to do a mental sweep of the room, then switches to Nevarran. ]
What don't they want? New phylacteries for anyone unharrowed, apostates, rifters, prisoners, any mage Division Heads! Any mage striking to be punished, no one who's ever sat next to a rebel to be allowed any part in handling problem mages. The Chantry of course wants the phylacteries returned and is trying to get its claws into the Inquisition asking for reports and research and lists of mages.
[ it's a half-breathless list, and she pauses. he can probably picture it, familiar with the way she stills herself after a rant and comes back to earth. ]
We've thrown a lot of things back at them to dilute it. I don't know what we're going to come back with.
If you come back with anything at all it will be an achievement.
[ Is that... supportive cheer? ]
Everything on that list is something they already have the right to do, if you ask anyone but us. [ Nope. False alarm. It's supportive cynicism. ] They just haven't done it in a few years.
[ Whatever, she'll take supportive anything at the moment. It's not often that Nell admits to any insecurity--and almost never sober--but he'll hear it now in her inflection. It's easier, somehow, in Nevarran, but she still stops a little short. ]
They haven't done it and there wasn't any talk of them doing it. And now suddenly it may be a thing we end up agreeing to allow them to start. If we get our phylacteries destroyed but allow new ones made and give the Templars back power they'd lost and put the Inquisition into the Chantry's pocket....
Then we'll know where we stand. [ There's movement—he's standing up, leaving a room. Even if no one else around speaks Nevarran, he'd rather they not infer anything from her tone, either. ] We won't spend the rest of the war letting them pretend by omission.
[ Somewhere quieter now. If he were better at this he'd have more to say, about the mages—like him—who would prefer to trust the Inquisition no longer being able to use the absence of action as proof of goodwill, or about knowing to prepare for the worst, to have an escape route planned and allies secured and a destination in mind, and a plan for the damned phylacteries as well, so they're ready to leave en masse the day Corypheus is defeated. ]
And I will have to admit I was wrong. How much is that worth?
Yes. [ She doesn't disagree; the conversation they had on the Storm Coast and the decision made that day stands. It's better to know the truth now than allow the Inquisition to continue to coast on benefit of the doubt. And he manages to draw a laugh, even if it is quiet, a little tired, and a smirking retort: ] That depends, how will you make the error up to me?
[ It's maybe a measure of her mood that she doesn't let that derail the conversation. ] Even so. If this outcome does not feel like a victory, I'm not sure how many will agree with us that something has been gained by stripping away their comfort with this situation. Or how many will trust us in the future if we urge action.
Yeah, [ Kostos says, approximately, more casual in Nevarran, ] well, fuck them. It's telling enough they got comfortable in the first place.
[ They'll know where they stand, too—they already have some measure of who's committed and who isn't, with the strike, and more hardship will only slough away additional dead weight. Or, alternatively, they'll wind up with no weight whatsoever, a handful of hardliners in a sea of people who just want everything to calm down, too outnumbered to accomplish anything, lucky to escape with their own lives and independence, if that.
[ Nell snorts, amused but generally echoing. It's part of the reason she only bothered arguing with those who seemed like they fell in the middle somewhere in terms of opinion, and didn't bother with the ones clearly committed to their wrong ideas. You can't help those who don't want to be saved. It's a waste of time to try. Lessons learned in Perendale. ]
I wish you were here. It was the right call to bring the others and they're doing well, but I wish I had your read on our enemies. They're playing games, and we are too but it's all guesswork. This is your strength more than mine. [ A pause, and then an addition lest he think she's forgotten who she's speaking with. ] Sussing people out. Not the speaking bits once you have done.
Voss. You miss me. [ Or, like she says, she has a use for him. But that's touching in its own way—not that he's touched. Your mom is touched. Proof: ] That's pathetic.
[ Seriously though, ]
If I were there you would regret it. [ He pauses, then admits—not so much because he's proud, he isn't, so much as because he thinks she'll appreciate it— ] I threw a roll at Myrobalan Shivana.
Oh, fuck off-- [ Nell is replying before he's finished the word pathetic, because it is a long word in Nevarran and she gets the gist midway and also because he can fuck off and telling him so is comfortingly familiar.
Then he goes on, and she barks a laugh, taken completely by surprise. ]
[ Kostos still sounds vaguely offended by this horrific act of attempted charity. But he probably shouldn't throw things at blind people, if only for the sake of public relations. ]
You shouldn't be. It was far, far beneath anyone's dignity.
But I thought you might be.
[ There's a pause that isn't quite silent. He inhales a couples of times, and each time makes noises that are nearly the beginnings of words, but abandoned before there's any sound other than air to go with them, before he arrives at something he can say. ]
Next time I'll come with you. We can let Gareth nanny.
[ Hopefully there will never be a next time and it will never come to that, if only because it might mean coming back to find the mages barricaded in a room behind dining tables throwing fire into the hallway. ]
[ She doesn't mean that hardly at all, but solidarity is more important than honesty and she doesn't linger second-guessing it. She doesn't linger long over his plan, either, not interested in trying to read into the making of the offer when he'd been quite certain about the wisdom of the opposite course, before. ]
Good [ is about all she says, firm, no sentiment in her tone ] He could do with the experience.
[ At best, but Nell's at about a B- on the opposite argument at the moment anyway, so whatever. ]
Yeah. And we need to make sure everyone focuses on this as a victory, anyway. We'll keep a close eye on those who didn't join us but moving against them now wouldn't serve us, even if we had a way.
Is it? I know we can paint it as one, and we will. Just forcing them to negotiate with us on this at all is, in some sense, an incredible step forward.
But I can't help feeling we've fallen into their trap. We tried to play by their rules and have now had to concede things to them in return, like our freedom is something to barter and buy piecemeal and not something we deserve the whole of without caveat. Why are we paying for something we are owed?
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[ He's going to LITERALLY DIE or maybe, you know, make ear plugs. One of the two. He pauses long enough to do a mental sweep of the room, then switches to Nevarran. ]
What do they want?
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What don't they want? New phylacteries for anyone unharrowed, apostates, rifters, prisoners, any mage Division Heads! Any mage striking to be punished, no one who's ever sat next to a rebel to be allowed any part in handling problem mages. The Chantry of course wants the phylacteries returned and is trying to get its claws into the Inquisition asking for reports and research and lists of mages.
[ it's a half-breathless list, and she pauses. he can probably picture it, familiar with the way she stills herself after a rant and comes back to earth. ]
We've thrown a lot of things back at them to dilute it. I don't know what we're going to come back with.
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[ Is that... supportive cheer? ]
Everything on that list is something they already have the right to do, if you ask anyone but us. [ Nope. False alarm. It's supportive cynicism. ] They just haven't done it in a few years.
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They haven't done it and there wasn't any talk of them doing it. And now suddenly it may be a thing we end up agreeing to allow them to start. If we get our phylacteries destroyed but allow new ones made and give the Templars back power they'd lost and put the Inquisition into the Chantry's pocket....
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[ Somewhere quieter now. If he were better at this he'd have more to say, about the mages—like him—who would prefer to trust the Inquisition no longer being able to use the absence of action as proof of goodwill, or about knowing to prepare for the worst, to have an escape route planned and allies secured and a destination in mind, and a plan for the damned phylacteries as well, so they're ready to leave en masse the day Corypheus is defeated. ]
And I will have to admit I was wrong. How much is that worth?
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[ It's maybe a measure of her mood that she doesn't let that derail the conversation. ] Even so. If this outcome does not feel like a victory, I'm not sure how many will agree with us that something has been gained by stripping away their comfort with this situation. Or how many will trust us in the future if we urge action.
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[ They'll know where they stand, too—they already have some measure of who's committed and who isn't, with the strike, and more hardship will only slough away additional dead weight. Or, alternatively, they'll wind up with no weight whatsoever, a handful of hardliners in a sea of people who just want everything to calm down, too outnumbered to accomplish anything, lucky to escape with their own lives and independence, if that.
Whatever. ]
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I wish you were here. It was the right call to bring the others and they're doing well, but I wish I had your read on our enemies. They're playing games, and we are too but it's all guesswork. This is your strength more than mine. [ A pause, and then an addition lest he think she's forgotten who she's speaking with. ] Sussing people out. Not the speaking bits once you have done.
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[ Seriously though, ]
If I were there you would regret it. [ He pauses, then admits—not so much because he's proud, he isn't, so much as because he thinks she'll appreciate it— ] I threw a roll at Myrobalan Shivana.
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Then he goes on, and she barks a laugh, taken completely by surprise. ]
You did what? Why?
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[ Kostos still sounds vaguely offended by this horrific act of attempted charity. But he probably shouldn't throw things at blind people, if only for the sake of public relations. ]
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Don't get cocky. I would have done it if you were here.
[ The unexplained connecting thread between if I were there you would regret it and the current roll-throwing discussion. ]
And if I were there I am sure I could find something to throw at Commander Cullen.
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[ so there? ]
Come on, tell me the context! Shivana offered you a roll, and... what? You just bounced it off his head from a foot away?
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He was walking away. He's still working, you know, and he tried to give me things. He said he'd heard I was short. [ Horrendous. ] I'm not proud.
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I'm proud.
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But I thought you might be.
[ There's a pause that isn't quite silent. He inhales a couples of times, and each time makes noises that are nearly the beginnings of words, but abandoned before there's any sound other than air to go with them, before he arrives at something he can say. ]
Next time I'll come with you. We can let Gareth nanny.
[ Hopefully there will never be a next time and it will never come to that, if only because it might mean coming back to find the mages barricaded in a room behind dining tables throwing fire into the hallway. ]
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[ She doesn't mean that hardly at all, but solidarity is more important than honesty and she doesn't linger second-guessing it. She doesn't linger long over his plan, either, not interested in trying to read into the making of the offer when he'd been quite certain about the wisdom of the opposite course, before. ]
Good [ is about all she says, firm, no sentiment in her tone ] He could do with the experience.
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He wants to find a way to punish those who didn't join us.
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[ A vague, non-committal noise. Thoughtful, but from her thoughtful does not necessarily bode well. ]
I can understand the temptation. If we'd made a stronger, more unified stand we might not have had to concede so much.
[ She's probably just trying to push him into hashing out the counter-argument. Probably. ]
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We've been divisive enough for one month. This is important, it's worth it, but if we don't... If we don't let it go and focus—
[ B- for effort? ]
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Yeah. And we need to make sure everyone focuses on this as a victory, anyway. We'll keep a close eye on those who didn't join us but moving against them now wouldn't serve us, even if we had a way.
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[ Between the two of them they can come up with something that sounds more convincing later, probably. Surely. ]
It is a victory. Whatever you end up with.
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But I can't help feeling we've fallen into their trap. We tried to play by their rules and have now had to concede things to them in return, like our freedom is something to barter and buy piecemeal and not something we deserve the whole of without caveat. Why are we paying for something we are owed?
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