driftfleet | Chapter Seven [video]

Who: Richard Castle and YOU
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: N/A unless Windrose crew wants it
When: June 7th

[When the feed clicks on, Castle has his feet propped up and is reading aloud from a book, although the cover is obscured from view. Also, his Scottish accent is atrocious. Bear with him. He's discovered the cheap vending machine romance novels.]

"Lass, from 500 years intae the future ye may be, but theh be things ye kannae ken." Lord McKraken then doubled over in pain, holding his stomach.

"But I love you!" Elizabeth cried out, rushing over to her Lord's side, holding his sweating form in her arms as he grimaced in agony, running her hands along his feverish pectorals. "I've promised to never leave your side no matter what comes between us."

"Ah beg ye, lass, get thee away before it be too late- AUUUUUUGH!" Elizabeth was forced to back away as McKraken's skin became slimier and slimier. "Ah'm... Ah'm..."

"What is it?"

"Ah be a were-cuttlefish!"

[Castle then has to place the book face-down on the table and lean his head back, laughing.]

Sorry, I just had to share that with someone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Vampires- most myths where I come from depict them as human-like creatures who need to drink blood to stay alive. Some of them can't go out into the sunlight, either.

How is drinking blood romantic?

[He is perhaps more affronted than he should be but Thedas has a bad history with blood magic and this sounds something like it to him.]

Search me. I guess it's the thrill of having the vampire take their sustenance from their true love, or something.

More barbaric than thrilling.

[Really that's disgusting. But he shouldn't really be surprised by people romanticizing blood magic and associated stories. Merrill certainly did, or at least tried to use it as a tool, nevermind it forced her to bargain with demons. There's just one thing that confuses him about it.]

I'm surprised your Chantry hasn't tried to ban books like that. Or does wherever you're from not have a Chantry?

I'm not quite sure what a Chantry is, but in the country I live in, we're pretty big on freedom of speech and the press. And it's seen as harmless fantasy besides- we don't have any powers or magic or anything to give it negative connotations.

That makes a bit more sense, then, I think.

[Maybe? He's not sure. He's busy trying to wrap his head around a world without mages, much less whatever 'freedom of speech and the press' is.]

I'm sorry, but... really, no magic?

Nope, none at all. The type of quote-unquote magic we think of is really just showmanship and sleight of hand. Parlor tricks.

I can't decide if that makes things easier or harder.

Hmm, me neither. I guess if we were used to real magic, it'd make life seem easier, though.

Seem yes, but there is a lot of controversy in my world about mages and what they're allowed to do.

[Which is a major sore spot.]

I can't say your world wouldn't be the same if there were suddenly some with magic and others without. Maybe if everyone had magic, but it's also a danger and a responsibility and no one would know how to use it properly... It would just be a disaster.

Yeah, it would be- and not everyone would want to use it for noble ends, people being people. Some might want to use it to help, but magic ending up in the wrong hands would be a recipe for disaster.

The prevailing school of thought where I come from uses that as an excuse to take and imprison anyone who exhibits magical talent. I do agree that magic can be just as dangerous as a sword in the wrong hands, but does that justify rounding up everyone who could possibly misuse it and treating them all like criminals even before they've had a chance to learn?

[He lets out a breath. Apparently with Anders not spouting his manifesto left and right, Hawke's inadvertently taken up the rhetoric.]

Sorry, that was heavier than I intended for this to go.

[Castle smiled back.]

Hey, no worries- it can be a heavy subject. And no, it's not a use to round people up, hell no. If anything, that could make it worse- if you don't know how to use your magic, it could go out of control, no?

That's the thing, is they use that very excuse to take children from their parents and lock them up into the Circle Towers as if they're no better than criminals simply for having magic. Young children, no more than eleven or twelve in some cases.

The mages were in the midst of a rebellion when I left. Or, rather, something else happened and the majority of them had thrown their lot in with a new peacekeeping organization. I'm not sure if a decision had been reached before I was brought here. Probably nothing formal considering the other threads that needed dealt with first.

Now, see, as a parent, that would be enough to get me to rebel. My daughter is one of the best things to happen to me, and if someone wanted to just take her away with me because she happened to have magic? I'd throw my lot in with the rebels.

You're a good father, then.

[He sighs.]

The doctrine is so ingrained that much of the time it's the parents themselves who call the Templars. Magic usually manifests in destructive ways the first time a mage uses it. Not on purpose, it's just usually brought on by an emotionally charged moment. I know a man who accidentally burned down his family's barn. I ended up encasing a bully in ice. Non-mage parents - and most parents are non-mages unless they're apostates, on the run from the Circles and the Chantry - are afraid for themselves in the face of magic and afraid of the Templars coming down on them if they run. Some are also just at a loss of what to do with a magical child. You can't teach what you don't know. And some - many - believe their children to be demons for merely exhibiting the talent. The Chantry treats us the same way, like weapons ready to go off at any moment.

My father escaped the Circle, and he vowed never to go back, nor to let my sister or I be taken. I'm glad there are other parents who believe the same way.

She's the most important thing in the world to me.

[Castle then fell quiet as he listened, though one could practically sense the rage seething from him.]

... Now, I can understand being afraid of it a little bit- because how CAN you teach something like magic if you have some yourself, you know? And when you've been taught your whole life to be afraid of it, or that it's demonic, what are you supposed to do when your kid sets the barn on fire? But still- even aside from that, I couldn't just hand my child off. I mean... that's your kid. When Alexis was born, I knew I could never do anything to let her come to harm, and you can't change what they're born with.

As I said, you're a good parent. Alexis is lucky to have you.

Thanks for saying so, friend. My ex and I weren't exactly planning on having a kid, but when she signed custody over to me, well, I knew I had to do the right thing. It made me grow up fast.

Chapter Seven [video]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject