2. ☾ Video | Unlocked

[nottame]

[Sometime after the fairies and imps have flitting around noting wishes and providing updates, a locket connection opens to an evening sky and some tree-lining - a Shard-Bearer's on the move someplace, and he doesn't show up onscreen, but his voice is coming from not too high aboce, off to the side, as if he's sitting on the ground and crouching in some.]

What happens at a royal audience? [...is what he asks, with a lightness and earnest curiosity. Not loud, and not with entirely full breath, perhaps, but it's nothing worse than sticking tiredness from traveling.]

Comments

[gordianknots]

[They're interesting remarks, one that Waver puts away from later. He always likes knowing who's unsure against participating in a nonsense conflict.]

You certainly aren't, and your doubts aren't uncommon. The monarchs, old as they are and old as this war is, are used to such hesitations and as a result, do you think that they don't know how to combat them and turn reservations into enthusiasm?

By not telling them that, or approaching them at all, you go unnoticed and are freer to act in a way that can work against this war. Does that make sense?

[nottame]

[He processes that, and on his end his ears pull back a little. He nods, unseen. No fear of manipulation - but it's still not exactly heartening to think of.]

Yeah, it makes sense... [And his tone matches his offscreen pose.]

They haven't tried to trick us, have they?

[gordianknots]

Trick may be a strong word, but you seem to have the general idea.

[nottame]

[He does. And consider him dampened.

Not shut down, no, and he believes other bits he's getting - assurance that the monarchs are nice. It still doesn't make any sense not to so much as see them...]

...What if I just - don't let them?

[It's not argumentative at all - merely discussing, as it were.]

They can tell us anything they want - but we don't have to take any... I dunno - "offer" they give us. Do we?

[gordianknots]

[Waver has been in the Drabwurld for enough time to understand that the nuances of the court means that people take away so many different impressions. But he has been in the camp of walk away from the bullshit and work for a third option since arrival, and is always inclined to offer that path to others as another way.]

You always have the option to refuse what they offer. You also always have the option to leave the court and find somewhere else to settle, away from the politics and the fighting.

It isn't easy to do, not when they draw you here and try to make you dependent on them for things like food, shelter, clothing, and safety, but it can be done.

[nottame]

I lived in the wild with my friends for ages; I could figure all of that out if I had to. [Partly a reassurance to himself. Even if he couldn't off the bat, he'd accept and not slack off on obligation to.

This next is directed more properly at Waver.]

Is that -- what you've been doing?

Whoops permaprivate on his end now

[gordianknots]

Mm.

Every time I try and think about what happens if either side wins the war, it becomes upsettingly clear that the losers will get annihilated. I refuse to contribute to that end.

Got it!

[nottame]

[Reasonable considering the way he'd been speaking - but an affirmative. He trots slower to a stop. His ear twitches. Focuses on listening a bit more closely.

And his head sinks.]

-- Yeah. [A little swollen-throated. Certainly somber. Comprehending.]

( mean -- even if they won't, even if it's not that bad, for one side to win a war, uhh...

[One side's got to be brought to submission. The most obvious way to force that is to rid the other of anyone to defend it. People've already died, for a full committed war to run its course many need to die...]

But - but what d'you wanna do? I mean -- I bet you don't just want the fighting to go on without the rest of us, either...

[gordianknots]

True enough, but I can't force the matter either. Makes me no better than the courts. But there are ways to gently nudge people towards thinking twice, and re-considering their positions.

[It is something Waver has done time and again in his role as a professor, successfully.]

I can only provide information that both courts leave out, and hope people come to their own conclusions.

[nottame]

-- And what do they do once they do that?

Are they supposed to figure out for themselves how to get the courts to stop fighting and go home, if they want to? If they could, uh - why wouldn't you help 'em?

[Not to say the man wouldn't, mind! It is indeed a hypothetical roundabout "would anything stop you", not a "why won't".]

[gordianknots]

I have very limited capabilities here. Back home, I'm just a professor, with no ability to partake in a fight. I can provide information, and input when people have plans, but to go beyond that would be a risk.

[One he'll take in the right circumstances, but the plan must be solid first.]

[nottame]

Well, yeah, you couldn't fight, maybe, but -- you could plan a fight. Tell people what to do...

[He really is trying not to sound insistent rather than scoping, as it were - as for planning fights, he knows virtually not a thing about organized warfare.]

[gordianknots]

That'd require a proper general I'm afraid, not a professor.

[nottame]

Think it's possible to stop the fighting...?

[gordianknots]

I like to think there's a plausibility, but centuries of conflict is very against me. If I'm wrong, then at least I'll have maybe made things bearable for a few other people.

[nottame]

But that's not good enough... [He isn't being confrontational, mind, at least not in tone. Merely attempting somber discussion.] If out of all these people, one side has gotta die...

[gordianknots]

If it is the best that can be done in the circumstances, then it has to be that way. I like to think realistically fist, lest I be set up for disappointment.

[nottame]

But -- realistically, people don't wanna get hurt! Right? There's gotta be some way... Even if it's hard to find, some way to get people to find a way that works best for everyone.

[gordianknots]

Some people here are all for fighting though. I've spoken with them and understand their perspective, unfortunately.

[nottame]

[He's shaking his head to himself on his end - and he's being dead earnest, still not challenging.] What's there to understand? I still don't get it; I know why people have to fight - I don' get why anyone deep down would want to...

[gordianknots]

For some people, it seems fighting is a way of life, enjoyable, and what they're comfortable with. This war suits them, and suits their goals.

[nottame]

They think that...

[Why wouldn't sparring, or hunting, or the times a person needs to fight, or something else be enough for someone with some innate need? Actual desire to fight's got to be the result of - poor experience, poor teaching...]

Like it's just - what they know.

[gordianknots]

Exactly so. [Waver shrugs, he knows that on some microlevel, fighting and being more clever than the next guy is all he knows too.]