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

[serpentis]

I suppose my answer is, being from Tevinter, myself.

[He falls a little quiet, a little thoughtful.]

It's hardly a perfect place, but I do love it, despite the flaws. I've been learning to stand without it, but I suppose old habits die hard. Back home, I was part of a reformation movement.

You see, Tevinter is corrupt, from the top. I don't believe it's corrupt in the way that the Southerners point to it and say "this is what happens when you leave mages unchecked", no.

I think...a great and many things. But perhaps part of what I've come to realize is that power corrupts men. It's like an addiction. They get a scrap and they want more, and more, until you have a country like Tevinter- a machine that runs by crushing others and forming them into what it wants them to be.

[He was almost speaking to himself, at this point, and he realized it, waving a ringed hand dismissively.]

Ah, but I'm babbling.

[Anders doesn't care, he assumes. He largely assumes no one cares, save for Jove and Fenris, and even they don't see Tevinter like he does.

Dorian loves Tevinter, in his heart and soul. He's bled for it. And that was the greatest tragedy- was that he saw his homeland for what it was an was not, but still looked at it and saw a country that could be saved.]

[unconfines]

I hope you don't think sacrificing yourself is going to fix any of that. Because I'd have bad news for you, in that case.

[Dorian is right, though, for the most part: Anders doesn't care. Or, at least, the rationale he gives himself is that it's a fight he has no stake in and isn't affected by, so the only thing caring about it will do is wear him out. Even fights that he does have stake in wear him out for all the good that caring about them does— which is to say, nothing.

There's something to be said for idealism, maybe, even if most of those things are said in self-aggrandizing history books and children's stories. He's reminded of Justice, incidentally, though he imagines every Thedosian on this fleet would be appalled by the comparison, save maybe for Hawke, who might just laugh.

You have seen oppression, and are now free. You must act to free those who remain oppressed.

Anders ignored that too, or tried to. The fact that he still thinks about it even now may be more revealing than anything else.]

What is it exactly you're trying to do with all this, if that's what it's about? Drum up support? Get some intergalactic aid against the magisters?

[What he's hearing is just a lot of words, more or less. The reality is, things don't change, no matter how many speeches you give. This different version of himself Hawke mentions on occasion, the one who tried, the one who cared— Anders doesn't see that in himself. Months later, he still isn't sure it all hasn't been a massive misunderstanding.]