eachdraidh | text;

[ so if we're pretending there's a list that's called Things Malia Shouldn't Do, but She'll Definitely Do it Anyway, this would be on it. probably up there pretty high, top three. but that list doesn't exist, it's not real, and even if it was, she wouldn't pay any attention to it. so she's just leaving this out on the open locket network- ]

i don't care about the war. i don't care about the courts. my shard says i'm unseelie, but i didn't ask to be. i won't fight someone just because somebody else tells me to. the only thing i care about is keeping my friends safe, and keeping my home safe, and right now that's Cothromach. why is that a bad thing now?

[ "now" because of how things are shifting, how the sides matter more than when she first got here, and when she first moved from caer scima, to the mountains. which no, she doesn't realize it's not the other shardbearers' faults ( not completely ), but it's noticeable in a way it wasn't before. she's mostly just curious what changed, and annoyed that her loyalties are being questioned over something she has/had no control over. so yeah! obviously confronting the lockets about it is the Best Idea Ever! malia tate, everybody. ]

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[GURL he feels for you but even he knows that declaring it over the lockets isn't a great idea]

[His voice is delicate, quiet, sympathetic. But not wavering.]

That seems to be the way of people, when the dividing line changes from a border to a knife's cut. It is the logic of survival, and it ensures that the war will come to you whether you will it or not.

[ ah she'll switch to voice to talk to people, sure. it'd be a lie if she tried to say there wasn't a reason for texting that first part, and that reason is definitely so she could read it over and over again and make sure it made sense ]

I'm okay with fighting. I'm good at fighting. [ ehh let's not focus on that. and she doesn't sound mad or anything, just frustrated. like she's stuck on a stupid math problem. she doesn't get it. ] What I don't like is someone trying to tell me who I should fight and why. And getting mad if I don't.

[He does voice mostly because he doesn't understand why they aren't using proper epistolary format in text, honestly . . .

A smile sneaks onto his lips and into his voice.] That must be why you're Unseelie.

[A pause, and he tries to work out how to say it, working over his words with caution just so he doesn't say anything treasonous himself.] It isn't so harsh in my day, but in older times, in times where the British Isles looked like this place, dissent was met with violence. They would speak of it in medical terms at times, I recall. The body of a kingdom has to be whole and united. Defiant or disagreeable subjects, like sick limbs and dead flesh, are cut away for the health of the whole.

[ she has to really focus on what he's saying ( like, actually listen, not just hear him. novel concept for her, but she's trying ) to understand him, but she thinks she does. maybe. ]

Does "dissent" mean I don't like something? Or don't agree with something?

[ sounds like an SAT word.......... ]

Maybe I don't care if I'm cut off. -- Not literally, I'm not looking for a fight.

[ she's not sure if she cares. she's only ever asked for one thing from her court - before she even realized that's what she was doing - and it was to gain he control over her shifting back. which she likes having, sure, being a coyote is way easier than being human here, sometimes. but. she hasn't thought of it in much detail before. ]

What happens to people who get cut off from their court?

[ cause clearly he knows. sure. that's not a big assumption at all! ]

Edited 2015-01-27 04:06 (UTC)

[Fear has cut down on his own recklessness and willingness to express dissent. He may not know what happens to those cut off from their court, but he has seen his monarchs enact a punishment, and he knows that what they did was a mere fraction of what kings and queens are capable of. So he answers her as patiently as he is cautious, not wanting this stranger to come to harm for her views.]

It means that you don't agree with the views of your court and monarch, and that you express it where others might here. I don't only mean in public, although that is the crime of spreading dissent as well as expressing it, but in older times in my country, it was a danger even to tell others dissenting thoughts privately. If the person you trusted told the authorities, a punishment would come as swiftly as if the words were said in a public square. And then they would be burned, or drawn and quartered, or tortured, as suited the leader of the time.

[Oh, the wars of religion. And a lot of other wars, honestly. The United Kingdom: not that great at unity.]

In truth, I do not know what happens to those cut off, only that their power over us is absolute, at least as far as I have seen. I don't think there is anything they can't do to us. [He thinks of his picture, and of his soul being lacerated at the wave of a hand, and he tries not to shudder with the fear of it. Nothing could be more terrifying.]

[ she's listening to everything he's saying, really she is. but. ]

Is it like this where you're from?

[ she wants to say something like "you sound like you know what you're talking about" but that's probably insulting. she really just means that he sounds like he has experience with this kind of situation, but she doesn't know how to.. word it. ]

There's people who think they can control other people, where I'm from, but we can always stand up for ourselves. I don't like not being able to do that here. That we're not even given the chance.

It was, but not in my lifetime. There are portraits at the family estate of those of my ancestors who got on the wrong side of a monarch.

[And blood remembers, or so Dorian thinks. Blood remembers, and it learns what it must to survive.]

[He wants to say more, encouragement and caution, but he does not know how to do so safely, in a manner that won't call attention to him. Maybe it's a fool's errand anyway, or maybe it doesn't matter. But . . . ]

I don't know what to say. I am still myself learning how to navigate these rules. I've never been very good at it, honestly.

I'm not very good at rules.

[ rules / social norms, sure. she's gotten better, of course. she's spent the better part of a year as a human again, so it's not like her coyote tendencies overpower that anymore. well, not usually. sometimes, with things like this, she feels so damn protective over her friends and her home that she can't help it. but she doesn't think that's just a werecoyote thing. ]

But I don't get how I can be on the wrong side of a monarch when I don't want to be on either side. And I'm not against either side, either.

[ she probably sounds like a kid, and in a way her thinking on this kind of is. she knows of right and wrong, of loyalty, but man! the social norms here are even more confusing than they were in high school, and figuring out that whole thing was a nightmare on its own. ]

[He can empathize with her logic. He would have held to it himself if not for a few recent lessons in fear, and all the lessons of history. He doesn't even think of her as childish for the approach.] The logic of war is that if you are not on either side, you stand against both. It doesn't mean that it is true, only that enough people insist on it to make it a reality. Like the stain of a shameful family history, it remains regardless of who you are.

Oh.

[ shameful family history hits a mark, and it's not a nerve or anything, just. oh. okay. sure. she gets that. ]

That's stupid.

[She isn't the only one. His smile gets into his voice.]

I imagine it is.

So which court are you in? Seelie?

Yes, although I have never been to the Cothromach. My name is Dorian Gray. If I ever came to the Cothromach, I would be pleased to meet with you.

Cothromach is great. It's huge, and it makes it easy to forget about the rest of this place when you want to.

-- I'm Malia Tate. And yeah, if you're ever around, we should hang out. I can show you around.

[ or whatever. how do casual interactions. ]

[by being Victorian??? they're so good at this]

I should like that very much, Miss Tate. Thank you.

[so good at casual!! so good!]

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