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[ His noses wrinkles, and he quickly chews and swallows his cheek-wad of bread while he decides: ]
Masks and paint for special occasions. When they are fun.
No Chevaliers, [ more seriously. ] No serfs. How do they worship the leader of a slave rebellion while they have serfs?
Masks and paint for special occasions. When they are fun.
No Chevaliers, [ more seriously. ] No serfs. How do they worship the leader of a slave rebellion while they have serfs?
If I could think what to replace it with.
[ A sideways glance, a smile. ]
And if it would not make stopping Corypheus more difficult.
[ No need to worry about him misusing his post. Maybe it's a subconscious need to balance out that sense of obedient duty that makes him stick his finger directly in the jam pot to pull out a glob. ]
[ A sideways glance, a smile. ]
And if it would not make stopping Corypheus more difficult.
[ No need to worry about him misusing his post. Maybe it's a subconscious need to balance out that sense of obedient duty that makes him stick his finger directly in the jam pot to pull out a glob. ]
[ A wave of his hand dismisses that last part. It can go unsaid; By knows that Bastien has his priorities sorted. Survival first; reform later. ]
The Landsmeet isn't the worst system. Though it's corrupt, and dominated by those of certain bloodlines.
The Landsmeet isn't the worst system. Though it's corrupt, and dominated by those of certain bloodlines.
Bloodlines.
[ A teasing, snobby sniff of derision, before he sticks his jammy finger in his mouth. He’s so interested in the conversation that he doesn’t try to make sucking it clean even a little alluring. ]
It does seem better. But Ferelden has had the Landsmeet for longer than it’s been a country, hasn’t it? [ Facts from listening to 2 a.m. political arguments in various taverns. That one might even have come from Byerly. ] How do you convince someone who already has unchecked power that they need it checked after all? Pamphlets?
[ A teasing, snobby sniff of derision, before he sticks his jammy finger in his mouth. He’s so interested in the conversation that he doesn’t try to make sucking it clean even a little alluring. ]
It does seem better. But Ferelden has had the Landsmeet for longer than it’s been a country, hasn’t it? [ Facts from listening to 2 a.m. political arguments in various taverns. That one might even have come from Byerly. ] How do you convince someone who already has unchecked power that they need it checked after all? Pamphlets?
Edited 2022-03-18 04:26 (UTC)
Maker, no. Too many of them can't read.
[ Not a joke at their expense, or elitism, or anything of the sort - a simple statement of fact. In some parts of the South, the peasantry is more literate than the nobles with their hired scribes and footmen. ]
I don't know there is a way to convince them. Sometimes I wonder if Nikos Averesch might know the only real path to reform. [ Then - ] Or was it Kostos? I can never remember which one's the mage and which one's the rebel.
[ Not a joke at their expense, or elitism, or anything of the sort - a simple statement of fact. In some parts of the South, the peasantry is more literate than the nobles with their hired scribes and footmen. ]
I don't know there is a way to convince them. Sometimes I wonder if Nikos Averesch might know the only real path to reform. [ Then - ] Or was it Kostos? I can never remember which one's the mage and which one's the rebel.
Edited (torturing you) 2022-03-18 21:07 (UTC)
[ Bastien laughs, then shakes his head. ]
Maker. Having a twin would be terrible.
[ —is a topic for later. For the present: ]
I don't know if he was right. Maybe he is now— [ with his mysterious shady revolutionary activities; who knows ] —but before, I mean. In Nevarra. You kill a king, you get another. It is like clipping the highest leaf off of a weed.
Maker. Having a twin would be terrible.
[ —is a topic for later. For the present: ]
I don't know if he was right. Maybe he is now— [ with his mysterious shady revolutionary activities; who knows ] —but before, I mean. In Nevarra. You kill a king, you get another. It is like clipping the highest leaf off of a weed.
Mmhm.
[ Byerly leans forward to nibble gently on one jammy fingertip. Partly because it's delicious, and partly just to give himself a bit of time to think. Bastien has thought about this. ]
And kings don't deserve to die just for being kings, either. Many of them are just people of ordinary talent trying their best.
[ Byerly leans forward to nibble gently on one jammy fingertip. Partly because it's delicious, and partly just to give himself a bit of time to think. Bastien has thought about this. ]
And kings don't deserve to die just for being kings, either. Many of them are just people of ordinary talent trying their best.
[ The curiosity makes his smile smaller, but only out of shyness—a tiny little dab of it—in the face of scrutiny. No sadness. ]
If we all laid down our swords and accepted their rule, [ pause for sucking another finger swiftly clean, ] I’m sure they would stop.
If we all laid down our swords and accepted their rule, [ pause for sucking another finger swiftly clean, ] I’m sure they would stop.
I don’t know.
[ More direct than the hedging question he might have posed to someone he was inclined to hide his own opinions with. He shifts and stretches to put his legs in Byerly’s lap. ]
Tyrants are not all sadists. I think most of them would settle down if everyone was obedient and never threatened them.
[ More direct than the hedging question he might have posed to someone he was inclined to hide his own opinions with. He shifts and stretches to put his legs in Byerly’s lap. ]
Tyrants are not all sadists. I think most of them would settle down if everyone was obedient and never threatened them.
[ Bastien nods in a wobbly, considering way, and for a few seconds he's quiet. Some of those seconds are to think about what By's said. The others are to bask in being cared for, and in being so utterly certain that he'll still be cared for just as much even if they have found something they might not agree on. ]
You know I would still love you if you became the Empress' own bodyguard, [ he says, in case that certainty isn't mutual, as he nudges one of his slightly-achy knees into the path of By's hands. ] And I think you are probably right about tyrants.
But the king who has sent the men to kill you—maybe he is not a tyrant. Maybe he’s good to his own people and thinks yours are barbarians who need to be rescued from their backwards ways through his fatherly subjugation. [ A little eyebrow raise says he knows that's a low blow argument to make at a Fereldan, and he is sorry but not very sorry. ] Maybe he has an earnest disagreement with someone about whether or not their land is his. Whether they owe him taxes.
If all the harm in the world was only done through sadism or paranoia, there would be much less of it.
You know I would still love you if you became the Empress' own bodyguard, [ he says, in case that certainty isn't mutual, as he nudges one of his slightly-achy knees into the path of By's hands. ] And I think you are probably right about tyrants.
But the king who has sent the men to kill you—maybe he is not a tyrant. Maybe he’s good to his own people and thinks yours are barbarians who need to be rescued from their backwards ways through his fatherly subjugation. [ A little eyebrow raise says he knows that's a low blow argument to make at a Fereldan, and he is sorry but not very sorry. ] Maybe he has an earnest disagreement with someone about whether or not their land is his. Whether they owe him taxes.
If all the harm in the world was only done through sadism or paranoia, there would be much less of it.
[ By flutters his eyelashes at Bastien in confirmation that he has no great fear about this conversation, and that Bastien could say just about anything without causing By the least bit of hurt. Byerly has always, after all, had the privilege of not really needing to worry about politics - has always been one of the few who would not really be affected by any decision in the Landsmeet, as neither a recipient of or a provider of tax income, as someone neither possessed of or desirous of power. He listened for the moments when malcontentment became danger; he tried to keep the queen alive; that was about the extent of his political leanings. ]
All that is true enough. [ He agrees easily. The low blow, it seems, landed soundly. ] But none of those sound like sins great enough that a man ought to lose his life. And even if they were, why does a sour-faced Nevarran lush get to appoint himself judge and executioner?
All that is true enough. [ He agrees easily. The low blow, it seems, landed soundly. ] But none of those sound like sins great enough that a man ought to lose his life. And even if they were, why does a sour-faced Nevarran lush get to appoint himself judge and executioner?
Hm.
[ That's not untrue. And if By really saw himself as incompetent, extraordinarily incompetent rather than the garden-variety incompetent he is, then there's no way he'd ever scrabble to hold onto the position.
By traces a circle around Bastien's kneecap. ]
But who's to decide who's good or not?
[ That's not untrue. And if By really saw himself as incompetent, extraordinarily incompetent rather than the garden-variety incompetent he is, then there's no way he'd ever scrabble to hold onto the position.
By traces a circle around Bastien's kneecap. ]
But who's to decide who's good or not?
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