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[She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. She really is getting tired of how little her people are cared for.]

Not a fan of us, are you?

[A frown forms on his face. There's a pause as he mentally deliberates what to do.]

[Finally, he gives a shrug and decides to be honest] ...I've had decent experiences with elves, one-on-one. They're people just like anyone else. I can see that.

But the only elf group I've encountered? Made a kid wait in a monster-infested swamp forest while our group attended to business because they couldn't stand to have a half-elf dirty their village. Meanwhile the only reason humans were allowed in at all was because we had orders from the King saying they had to help - but they sure did what they could to make it extra difficult.

[Like making them climb a gorge for a leaf and then not warning them the leaf was guarded by a GIANT MONSTER. Thanks guys]

So...no, even if I know they're just people and it's not fair to judge a whole race on one part of them - especially when I haven't met an elf from Heimdall in the fleet? ...I can't deny groups of them makes me feel a little...uneasy.

Edited 2015-02-17 03:53 (UTC)

[Since leaving her own clan, Jove has heard similar disturbing stories about what other groups of elves can be like. It doesn't excuse laying a blanket of hate over her entire race, but it's difficult not to see where someone is coming from when it's accepted to leave a child to die for such dumb reasons. She can't shake memories of Minaeve now, and it's because of her that Jove won't dismiss Kaneis and his explanation.]

I wish it hadn't been so. In Thedas elves mistrust humans because they've rarely treated us as anything better than slaves or servants, and I would like to say I've met more than a handful who do the opposite, but I can't. Still, I try to save my judgements on a case to case kind of basis. I hope this won't... disrupt anything, between us.

[Honestly, the fact Jove's willing to hear him out at all causes him to relax. He gives a shake of his head]

Don't worry, it shouldn't...I don't think. Even if part of me feel uneasy sometimes, I do try to try to treat everyone on a case by case basis.

[He shrugs] 'Sides, like you said- it's not like my kind are a whole lot better. I'm not blind to the terrible things they've done either, it's just...well, I have to see them more, so...I guess I'm more used to their shit than elves'?

[That gets a laugh, at least. Their shit. No one has ever put it more accurately than that.]

I guess all we can hope for is trying to try, hmm? I think we'll get along just fine.

[Hey man it's true. Humans do a lot of bad shit. He could spend all night listing it off. And that's not even getting into angels]

Heh...yeah, I hope so.

Do let me know if I say something bad, alright though? I'm barely familiar with talking to elves of my world, much less the other worlds where apparently half the stuff's different.

As long as you don't call me rabbit or knife ear we won't have any problems.

[He doesn't think he would, or that those insults even exist outside of Thedas, but just to be sure it doesn't happen in some sort of terrible nickname attempt she'll put it out there. Just to be sure.]

Are there any secrets about humans I would be better off knowing, to be sure we stay on each other's good sides?

Knife Ear? [Rabbit he could get, but-] Seriously? That's what they came up with? That sounds more like a pirate name than anything else.

[Seriously Thedas, pick up the game. But he considers the question before shrugging]

I can only speak for Aselian humans, but...really just steer clear of ranching jokes and calling us "Inferior Beings" and you should be fine.

[There's a moment where it stings that he would mock a name people used against her kind to keep them aware they were thought of as lesser in a world where almost all the power lay in the hands of humans, but she won't focus on that. Instead she laughs, ignores that it sounds a little strained, and presses on.]

And yet it still works, and there are still elven children who will cry when shemlen spit it at them. Context is everything, I suppose. And I imagine it can only help me understand how ranching jokes are offensive, because as far as I'm aware ranching is a perfectly sensible way to make a living.

[He can hear the slight strain, and he can tell he went a bit far with that joke- even if he really doesn't get it. It was a bad habit of his, making jokes when it really wasn't appropriate too.]

Mm, I suppose. Sorry.

[The sorry is said casually, lightly even- but definitely noted in his mind not something to say again. He didn't have to understand for it not to be painful, right. But at the question of the ranching, he'll purses his lips just slightly]

If you're talking about ranching livestock animals- sure. That's sensible. I've heard of other worlds still using that phrase to mean it that way.

But there's this half-elf group, Desians. They like to run these places called Human Ranches. [There's a slight shake of his head] They're as pleasant as they sound.

[Just like that, knife ears and rabbits are forgotten and Jove looks horrified, a hand raising to her mouth even as it drops open in shock. She's seen the terrible things people of all races can be capable of, but that doesn't mean it's made her immune to the shock of it. What he's suggesting sounds horrible, the kind of thing she would use her station to eradicate with no hesitation.]

That's awful. [There are other words, but she settles on awful.] I hope it isn't something you had too much exposure to, for your own sake.

I didn't grow up near any, if that's what you mean. The Chosen of Regeneration had banished Desians from our w- kingdom a long time ago. The lands outside of Tethe'alla, though...

[They weren't so lucky. He gives a little shrug and wrings his hands; his tone is lighter on the next part, as if trying to go back to casual]

Did help take a couple of them down, at least, so I saw them then. It was a weird job. Signed on to just help escort a group to a city I'd been to before- but then crap kept getting weirder and weirder until next thing I know I'm in another land raiding Human Ranches so we can stop a rampaging tree from consuming the whole country.

...Still not entirely sure how it came to that.

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