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[rathercommon]

crystal | letter | cease and desist notices slipped under her door | action

Comments

[rathercommon]

But not the things you care about. Not your ideals.

[elegiaque]

...why not?

( a genuine question. )

Of course I'd care about different things.

[rathercommon]

[ Incredulously - ]

Just because you didn't have a person in your life any longer? The world would still be the same even if he died. There'd still be all the same injustices.

[elegiaque]

Yes, and that's terrible.

( in much the same tone as kitty spoke of the marriage thing, and just as unintentionally revealing; she isn't mirroring it on purpose. )

It would be a different life. I wouldn't lead it the same way. I don't know what it would look like.

[rathercommon]

It's not as though you lack imagination.

[elegiaque]

What I care about is people. My people, the people who I love. And I will always do what's best for them. We live in the world, so we should save it. And whatever they need me to do, or to be—

( gwenaëlle doesn't have ideals, she has a heart as wide and as treacherous as the ocean. )

I'll be that.

[rathercommon]

But - people are...Not to be too blunt, but people are generally awfully disappointing.

[elegiaque]

Yes, that's why I don't care about very many of them.

[rathercommon]

And you can't ever help people. Not really.

[elegiaque]

Of course I can. And I intend to.

( ...alongside her husband, because he wants to. )

[rathercommon]

How?

[ A shrug. ]

People never do what you are want em to.

[elegiaque]

That will depend a great deal on how the end of the war leaves us positioned, and what Thranduil thinks best. It's really more his area than mine.

[rathercommon]

[ A quick half-laugh, and she shakes her head. ]

Will how the end of the war leaves us positioned - will that wipe out people's free will?

[elegiaque]

If Corypheus wins.

( she says it like something she believes might happen, because it is. something she's thought about in seriousness. )

[rathercommon]

I'm talking about if we win.

[elegiaque]

Then no, obviously not.

[rathercommon]

So, in that case, you can't get people to do what you want. Regardless of how Thranduil is placed.

[elegiaque]

( there's a very long pause, and then, bewildered: )

You've completely lost me.

[rathercommon]

I said that people never do what you want them to - that you can never actually really help someone, because they'll just do what they will. You said that depends on where you and Thranduil end up, but I say that it doesn't. That at the end of the day, people will just do what they want.

[elegiaque]

( eventually— )

I think we're talking about different things again. Unless you've abruptly changed your mind in the course of this conversation and now it isn't important to ever do the right thing because helping people is pointless.

[rathercommon]

[ Firmly: ] Helping individuals is pointless. Staking your happiness on their choices will just frustrate you. You can help people - by breaking down the institutions that stand in their way, by creating more justice in the world - but it doesn't make sense to try to help individual people.

[elegiaque]

The only purpose to creating more justice in the world is improving it for the individuals that I care about.

( equally firmly. )

That is helping individual people. That's why it matters where we stand at the end of this; what resources do we have, what allies has Thranduil made because fuck knows I won't have done, what's still standing? What can we have conveniently lessened the influence of in the meantime? Who's going to listen? Who do we know won't? We're not talking about doing different things.

It's just different reasons. 'Ideals'. If an ideal doesn't serve me, why should I serve it?

[rathercommon]

[ It's like they're speaking different languages. ]

Because it's the right thing to do. Because if you're only fighting for yourself, and for the people around you, it's hideously easy for your intentions to get twisted into something truly wicked.

[elegiaque]

( seems fair. gwenaëlle's answer is a verbal shrug— )

Well, it's a good thing my intentions aren't the only ones that matter, then, isn't it?

[rathercommon]

[ A noise of frustration - ]

Gwen, you can't - not care about that.