007 // blink and you'll miss a revolution

[serpentis]

Who: Dorian!
Broadcast: Fleet-wide!
Action: On the Three Twins
When: 5/26, night

Well, now that we've all gotten our fill of rampant debauchery, I thought I might pose a little question to you, Fleet. A more...somber question.

[Dorian looks considering for a moment, and when he speaks, he talks with his hands as much as his mouth. It seems like a subject he's certainly into, that's for sure.]

What would you do if, for example, you disagreed with the politics of your home? What measures would you go to? At what cost would you ensure that things were righted, were changed for the better?

[He raises a brow.]

Would you kill for it? Would you bring about chaos and disarray because the end would justify those means, as it were? How many deaths can be justified by a revolutionary change? 10? 100? Thousands? If it were for the greater good, how many lives could you sacrifice?

[He brings the hand back to his chin, thinking.]

Color me curious. What are your politics there?

Comments

[wolfuncaged]

[It's a dangerous game, this. It's been far easier to focus on the things he admires about Dorian, than the things that mark him exactly as the people he despises. Bringing it up makes him have to take stock of his choices. It makes him have doubts.

He's not the best at self reflection. He tends to shift to anger and frustration, than trying to truly understand himself. Doubts only serve to add fire to the anger bubbling quietly under the surface. ]

A small handful of decent people does not mean the entire country can be fixed. You and Felix, those like you, are more anomalies than anything else. And they do not require redemption, if they already understand what is wrong with Tevinter in the first place.

[serpentis]

And what of the Servus, the Soporati? The common folk who bleed and die so the wheel of Tevinter can turn? Certainly, you think that we owe it to them to ease their suffering? To reform the system entirely?

[A measured, but pointed jab. The Servus. The slave caste.

Dorian has been avoiding the subject ever since their last argument on it, not letting the word cross his lips around Fenris.

For all that they complimented each other, they also matched in the sense that they hated to speak on things, sometimes.]

[wolfuncaged]

[The jab hits home, and it shows in Fenris' face. His features twist into a sneer, eyebrows furrowing, lip curling.

There's a good reason this is a subject they dance around. Every time they have it, Fenris is reminded just how sheltered Dorian has been from it all. Yes, he has learned the lengths his father would go to for the status quo, but his father is but one man, and his was one experience. Something turned on him. Perhaps if it had not been, he would have remained in ignorance to how twisted Tevinter could truly be.

A part of Fenris is glad that Dorian hasn't faced such suffering, but a greater part is frustrated by it. By the fact that the nobles keep their own purposefully ignorant, make them see everything as normal. To not understand the truest depravities of the country. ]

And whom do you think the magisters would sacrifice first to any attack against them? The common folk [the term is practically growled out] you speak of would be seen nothing more as disposable flesh to throw upon the field of battle to protect them, or fuel for their blood magic.

How many of them would survive a reform? Or are those people the sacrifices you speak of for the 'greater good'?

[serpentis]

Fenris.

[Dorian controls his tone as best he can. but some of his own anger rises to match the tone. And his face twists a bit, into almost a matching expression.]

If it could be done without sacrificing any, I would do it. I would give myself for that much. Or do you think that I would so carelessly throw them to the serpents? My entire fucking aim is to ease their suffering, or did you miss that?

[He wouldn't sacrifice them at all, if he could avoid it. But for as much as he is an idealist, Dorian has no illusions about what the true costs of revolution in Tevinter would be.]</small?

[wolfuncaged]

[That was not the answer Fenris wanted to hear, and something like disappointment crosses his face, for just a moment, before it's replaced with the anger again. ]

By charging off into Tevinter trying to change it, throwing to them to the serpents is exactly what you'll be doing. Do you think the Magisters will sit back and just let you reform them? Do you think they will listen to a word you have to say? They have no incentive to change, and any attempt to do so will be met with resistance. And for that, they will use the people they consider disposable.

[His fists clench for a second, the desire to punch the daylights out of something is strong.]

Of course, if you consider them justifiable deaths, perhaps you do, too.

[He'll regret saying that, later, but he's never been the best at filtering out what he wants to say and what he should. He's definitely not good at stopping himself from jumping to conclusions. Anger does little to help that. He doesn't even listen for Dorian's reply, he just snaps off his communicator and throws it on the table. ]