I've never managed to grow trousers. And Vivienne...
[Anders sighs.]
She's very politically adept. It's a shame she uses it in hopes of returning the Circles to exactly as they were, and it's worse than a shame that she killed mages in White Spire as they tried to flee when everything went down there. I realize it's incredibly hypocritical to say that anyone else has crossed the line, but for me, she has. If you can murder your own as they run in terror, then you're no kin of mine.
[A long and thoughtful pause, broken only by a faint noise of acknowledgment.]
The line is different for everyone, I suppose.
[How many of the Hasmali defenders, templars or mages, would have been willing to cut him down if he'd let them? He doubts Clarence would have hesitated, for all his simpering faux-civility in the years they'd shared a room. He can imagine Philomela running him through with a remorseless spirit blade, with that same you were never anything but a hindrance look he always imagined in her eyes when she would come to forcibly detach Myr from his side and whisk him off for training.
And yet every one of them now, everyone left behind in that tower, if that drunken conversation on Satinalia is to be believed, thinks of him as the Vivienne. Monsieur de Fer, cruel enough to cripple his own flesh and blood and flee into the night without ever looking back. He is the bogeyman of Hasmal now. Who is he to judge?]
I don't know if that's where the hypocrisy lies. But what's done is done, for all of us.
Sometimes I forget that isn't actually what the Inquisition's for.
[It sounds like a joke, paired as it is with the closest thing to a self-deprecating laugh as he's willing to get. It isn't. Not really.]
I'm not suggesting we leave Corypheus alone to do as he pleases. But it's so easy for people who aren't mages to take for granted what the Inquisition offers us. And for the rest of us, it feels almost too good to be true. Like bait.
[Demon's advocate again, speaking for the dead now, the ones who insisted on throwing their lives away with self-professed integrity rather than surrender themselves to one more institution with the power to betray them. It is not a position Vandelin wants to give a platform. But perhaps he owes it to their memory to present it as if it's worth refuting.]
I want to help build things. And I want to do it before we have any more ashes to build on top of. But I recognize that what I want and what we may need are not necessarily the same thing.
It's too comfortable, and it's lead by a Seeker and a Templar and a sister, along with a diplomat, and one of the leaders here is a Templar. I agree with your concerns. And I think your want here is parallel with the need of mages.
[It's absolutely bait. Chantry-inspired bait, no less.]
The cause is important. But we have to look toward our future because once Corypheus is dealt with the power void left by the Divine will be obvious once more, and how better to solidify one's power than... dealing with the mage issue?
Now is vitally important, because I don't want more ashes either.
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no subject
[Anders sighs.]
She's very politically adept. It's a shame she uses it in hopes of returning the Circles to exactly as they were, and it's worse than a shame that she killed mages in White Spire as they tried to flee when everything went down there. I realize it's incredibly hypocritical to say that anyone else has crossed the line, but for me, she has. If you can murder your own as they run in terror, then you're no kin of mine.
no subject
The line is different for everyone, I suppose.
[How many of the Hasmali defenders, templars or mages, would have been willing to cut him down if he'd let them? He doubts Clarence would have hesitated, for all his simpering faux-civility in the years they'd shared a room. He can imagine Philomela running him through with a remorseless spirit blade, with that same you were never anything but a hindrance look he always imagined in her eyes when she would come to forcibly detach Myr from his side and whisk him off for training.
And yet every one of them now, everyone left behind in that tower, if that drunken conversation on Satinalia is to be believed, thinks of him as the Vivienne. Monsieur de Fer, cruel enough to cripple his own flesh and blood and flee into the night without ever looking back. He is the bogeyman of Hasmal now. Who is he to judge?]
I don't know if that's where the hypocrisy lies. But what's done is done, for all of us.
no subject
[One day he'll not lead conversations to a gloomy place. And one day mage freedom won't be endangered.]
What matters is building our future, now, with those of us who would build toward freedom and independence. And with those who would build with us.
[And those who would work with him in particular.]
no subject
[It sounds like a joke, paired as it is with the closest thing to a self-deprecating laugh as he's willing to get. It isn't. Not really.]
I'm not suggesting we leave Corypheus alone to do as he pleases. But it's so easy for people who aren't mages to take for granted what the Inquisition offers us. And for the rest of us, it feels almost too good to be true. Like bait.
[Demon's advocate again, speaking for the dead now, the ones who insisted on throwing their lives away with self-professed integrity rather than surrender themselves to one more institution with the power to betray them. It is not a position Vandelin wants to give a platform. But perhaps he owes it to their memory to present it as if it's worth refuting.]
I want to help build things. And I want to do it before we have any more ashes to build on top of. But I recognize that what I want and what we may need are not necessarily the same thing.
no subject
[It's absolutely bait. Chantry-inspired bait, no less.]
The cause is important. But we have to look toward our future because once Corypheus is dealt with the power void left by the Divine will be obvious once more, and how better to solidify one's power than... dealing with the mage issue?
Now is vitally important, because I don't want more ashes either.