[ With savagery in her tone, but not savagery directed at Lexie - ] Somehow still friends. Even though you ought to have had nothing to do with him after how he treated you. One a man makes you cry, he's worthless and might as well be dead as far as it matters. Honestly, Lexie, it's not like there aren't thousands of better ones out there who'd just about die over how lucky they are to be with you.
[ Realtalk Jones over here. Anyway - ]
But not really, as far as I can tell. He's still talking about how he's going to use magic to make the Empire grand and powerful and safe and all that.
It should be an understatement to say that I was hardly kind in return; but we have forgiven it of each other.
To the fellow, he can hardly do that from here. And you have a chance, with him separated from the society and influences that formed him, to cause him to reconsider his ideals.
[ amusedly: ] I have changed enough, removed from the life I had known, and in no small part due to your persistence.
I do. [ it's readily agreed, ] but I save such things for people who should be best pleased by it.
You are best pleased by honesty, the which I have promised you, [ a look of amusement passes across her face, ] on the considerable honor of my sister, I believe, and so honesty it is.
[ Her flush deepens. ] No. I mean - Well. I guess so. Honestly, usually, people tell me to piss off 'cause I'm annoying. And I definitely haven't changed that many minds.
[ Gently, but pointedly: ] That you are aware of. After all, you seem surprised to find yourself an influence on me.
[ Alexandrie sets her cup on the saucer in her lap, the better to express her full attention. ]
I had little reason to think past the ebb and flow of my own life, plans, and fortunes when I arrived in Kirkwall. The Grand Game is a consumptive thing, and, I have found once removed from its immediacy, incredibly isolating. We have our world, the lower classes have theirs. The twain meet rarely, and the moments in which they do are easily overlooked.
Even on my forays into Val Fontaine, both town and surrounding lands, I felt myself separate and above. [ She makes a forestalling gesture, in the likely case that Kitty has something to say about that. ] In the way of a caretaker to their charge--which is what we are meant to be. We compensate for seasons of poor yield, outfit the town guard, aid in dispensing justice, encourage new trade, care for the roads and concern ourselves with the safety of traversing them, and enjoy the resultant wealth that is provided to us in exchange.
Why should I have ever had cause to think about the myriad of ways such a way of things could be exploited and made cruel?
[ She picks up the cup again and gestures with it, a smile tugging at her lips. ]
Unless it is repeatedly and aggressively elucidated upon, at least.
[ A "good person". For that, a small wistful smile. ]
Ah, no. I am not good, cherie. I am selfish and vengeful and both capable and willing to be terribly cruel in it, caring not a whit for the injury of any others who stand in my path unless they are important to me, and that is hardly the whole of it.
But I shall at least grant that there is enough of something good in me to continue to find myself concerned with "getting it".
I have arranged for men to be killed for no other reason than they caused me injury.
[ She lifts her shoulders and frees a hand to gesture the lack of worry it causes her. ]
There are a great number of things I should do for the preservation of this world, but I suspect only inasmuch as it aids me or those I have come to care for as well. Good acts do not mean good actors.
But, to the original subject of our conversation, nor do evil acts mean evil actors. You may well find change has been planted in your erstwhile foe.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 04:04 pm (UTC)[ Realtalk Jones over here. Anyway - ]
But not really, as far as I can tell. He's still talking about how he's going to use magic to make the Empire grand and powerful and safe and all that.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 04:19 pm (UTC)It should be an understatement to say that I was hardly kind in return; but we have forgiven it of each other.
To the fellow, he can hardly do that from here. And you have a chance, with him separated from the society and influences that formed him, to cause him to reconsider his ideals.
[ amusedly: ] I have changed enough, removed from the life I had known, and in no small part due to your persistence.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 04:32 pm (UTC)My persistence?
no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 06:13 pm (UTC)Are you unaware, then? That you effect change simply by being as you are?
no subject
Date: 2019-03-16 09:58 pm (UTC)Yeah, right. Don't be a flatterer, Lexie.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 06:05 am (UTC)What would it gain me, were I speaking falsely?
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 05:53 pm (UTC)You are best pleased by honesty, the which I have promised you, [ a look of amusement passes across her face, ] on the considerable honor of my sister, I believe, and so honesty it is.
Are you unaccustomed to hearing such things?
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 05:58 pm (UTC)[ Her flush deepens. ] No. I mean - Well. I guess so. Honestly, usually, people tell me to piss off 'cause I'm annoying. And I definitely haven't changed that many minds.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 06:29 pm (UTC)[ Alexandrie sets her cup on the saucer in her lap, the better to express her full attention. ]
I had little reason to think past the ebb and flow of my own life, plans, and fortunes when I arrived in Kirkwall. The Grand Game is a consumptive thing, and, I have found once removed from its immediacy, incredibly isolating. We have our world, the lower classes have theirs. The twain meet rarely, and the moments in which they do are easily overlooked.
Even on my forays into Val Fontaine, both town and surrounding lands, I felt myself separate and above. [ She makes a forestalling gesture, in the likely case that Kitty has something to say about that. ] In the way of a caretaker to their charge--which is what we are meant to be. We compensate for seasons of poor yield, outfit the town guard, aid in dispensing justice, encourage new trade, care for the roads and concern ourselves with the safety of traversing them, and enjoy the resultant wealth that is provided to us in exchange.
Why should I have ever had cause to think about the myriad of ways such a way of things could be exploited and made cruel?
[ She picks up the cup again and gestures with it, a smile tugging at her lips. ]
Unless it is repeatedly and aggressively elucidated upon, at least.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 06:36 pm (UTC)Yelled in your face, you mean.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 06:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 06:52 pm (UTC)[ A little sigh, and a shrug. ]
You were always a good person, under all the masks and the giggles. I hardly had to state anything emphatically until you - you know - got it.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 07:14 pm (UTC)Ah, no. I am not good, cherie. I am selfish and vengeful and both capable and willing to be terribly cruel in it, caring not a whit for the injury of any others who stand in my path unless they are important to me, and that is hardly the whole of it.
But I shall at least grant that there is enough of something good in me to continue to find myself concerned with "getting it".
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 07:17 pm (UTC)Oh, come on, Lexie.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 07:41 pm (UTC)[ She lifts her shoulders and frees a hand to gesture the lack of worry it causes her. ]
There are a great number of things I should do for the preservation of this world, but I suspect only inasmuch as it aids me or those I have come to care for as well. Good acts do not mean good actors.
But, to the original subject of our conversation, nor do evil acts mean evil actors. You may well find change has been planted in your erstwhile foe.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 07:47 pm (UTC)[ A sigh, and a flick of a hair from her face. ]
But...Maybe. And if it doesn't - Who knows. Maybe being one of the oppressed, rather than an oppressor, will be good for him.
no subject
Date: 2019-03-17 07:51 pm (UTC)For once I find myself glad you think so.
As to him, I imagine it will be terribly enlightening.