open

[bouchonne]

WHO: Byerly and Kitty and thou or even you
WHAT: Open post!! open post
WHEN: The month of KINGSWAY
WHERE: EVERYWHERE but mostly in Kirkwall and in the Gallows
NOTES: Warning: chatterboxes

[ Starters in comments!! Feel free to tag in or start your own thread it's groovy ]

Comments

[degenere]

Because it is! It is the finest university in all of Thedas. There is none that could hold even a candle to it. And I spent many happy years there--indeed, some of my happiest--and I believe, truly, that everyone should see it.

But I love my research too well to be confined by classrooms and corridors. A book is a marvelous thing. One learns much from it, and there are many that I love, more than I love most people. But a book, she is static. She cannot change. The world, it is ever changing. No classroom can contain it, and looking upon it from a window, or upon the page of a book, it is like eating a boiled pigeon and saying it is as good as duck confit.

[rathercommon]

Duck coffee?

[ Ew, what? But she shakes her head, because that isn't what's important here. ]

So then why aren't you telling other people to go out and learn from experience?

[degenere]

Confit.

[--A smooth correction that will be totally lost on Kitty since it sounds exactly the same as the the first time he said it.]

And of course I would tell people to learn from experience! But they should still see and experience the University. Why would I tell them to stay away? They might be of those peculiar sort that adore classroom work. They may need to have their lives changed, utterly, just as mine was.

[rathercommon]

Or maybe they'll go there and find that their ideas get shut down and stifled.

[degenere]

You are oddly pessimistic about an institution that you refuse to visit.

[rathercommon]

[ She widens her eyes at him in an expression of exasperation. ]

I've gone to school. I had schooling all the way from when I was seven till when I was thirteen. And you know what I got out of that education? Rapped knuckles and a whole lot of please put your hand down, Miss Joneses and please stop asking questions Miss Joneses. And I know how to sew and make a proper shepherd's pie. And I can read, 'cause I was one of the few selected to learn that skill. And that's it.

[degenere]

[Val's eyebrows raise. But he lets her get through it, like the gentleman he is not, really.]

And what country is it, that you are from?

[rathercommon]

[ With a little sigh - ]

Nowhere you'd know.

[ And she lifts her hand briefly to display the speck of green embedded in it. ]

[degenere]

[What! Val gives a short laugh.]

Then your preemptive measurement of our University against your schools is an even greater offense. How can you!

[rathercommon]

People are people, there and here.

[ She shakes her head. ]

And you told me that to get there, you need a recommendation. My social better would have to vouch for me. If it's a place that's worried about social standing, then it's a place that wants to enforce the social order. And if it wants to enforce the social order, then it won't like me one bit. Did you ever consider that perhaps you oughtn't be vouching for me?

[degenere]

You remind me of a friend of mine. She is a painter, and for her washes, she does these with a wide brush, so that it takes but four strokes to cover a small canvas. But you wield the wide brush of assumption.

There may be some who play at society, who would be available to recommend. I do not associate with them. It is those with vested interest in the University that give those recommendations. True souls do exit among them, who seek only to find potential. Cleverness, wit, talent--all of these might ensure a recommendation.

[And--]

Should I not be vouching for you?

[rathercommon]

[ Instead of touching that first bit, she challenges: ]

Why would you? You don't know me. You don't know if I'm dangerous or dishonest. You don't know if I'm intent on stealing the artefacts they keep there, or defacing books, or taking them to resell elsewhere.

[degenere]

[Okay, but--]

Would you?

[rathercommon]

Maybe. Maybe not. All you've got is my word. You never even considered that I might be a bad sort?

[degenere]

More the confusing sort. Mademoiselle, be straight: why are you now lobbying to be excluded from the great library?

[rathercommon]

That's not what I'm lobbying for.

[degenere]

Then you do want to visit the library.

[rathercommon]

[ She stares at him like he's crazy. ]

Of course I do.

[degenere]

[excusez-moi, the crazy one is the one who just tried to make a case for being so bad]

Very good. Then why are we talking of this? Accept my offer and make your arrangements.

[rathercommon]

[ She crosses her arms, and her chin clenches stubbornly. ]

Because I'm not going to owe you a favor, or carry your letter. Because if I'm going to go, I'm going to go, and not as someone's bloody pet. Not because someone's condescending to me.

[degenere]

[Girl. He raises his eyebrows.]

So, in another way of saying, you will not go. I see. Well, this has truly been stupid.

[rathercommon]

[ Her lips tighten. ]

So you think that's the only way I can go. As a pet.

[degenere]

You are the one who said 'pet'.

It is not so unreasonable as you are acting. Would you expect to go to--let us say the scoutmaster--and demand to see her records? And when she would say, you are not a member of the scouting division, you would say, so you think I am a pet?

It is a matter of requirement and clearance. Of course you might go to Orlais alone and petition to access the library. You may even be allowed. They are letting Rifters do all sorts of things these days, it is very encouraging. But I could get you to the books faster, easily, without any effort at all. Why not go?

[rathercommon]

Because -

[ She struggles a moment, trying to put into words her dissatisfaction and anger. ]

Because you're treating me like I am just some mascot of yours. Like I'm just - some idiot child who'd go in there and toddle around and make a lot of cooing noises and then leave. You never even thought for a moment what I'd do with what I learn, you never even asked what subject I'm interested in beyond slavery which is really big and really broad - because you don't think I'm going to learn anything, you don't think I could, really. All you want from me is to go and be impressed.

[ She squares her shoulders and looks at him directly. ]

I want your sponsorship to go and see the university only when you give it to me as a scholar. Only when you are giving it to me because you're interested in what I have to learn and what I have to say. 'Cause I'm clever enough to earn my way in, and I'm never gonna see that compromised by some man smirking about how he was the one who opened the door for me. How he got me there. I'll get myself there.

[degenere]

[All through the lecture, Val's smile stays in place. It is a smile that begins to tint toward the patronizing, as if he has already made his mind up about this Rifter, and she is saying things that only further makes up his mind.

Which of course is exactly what she is doing.]

An interesting argument. And you will become a scholar how?

[No wait. He sighs, with some regret.]

Mademoiselle. You mistake me, I think. I am not opening a door for you so that I can boast about opening a door. I do not give a shit, truly. I am saying, here is a door, it is open. And you walk away from it. Well do I understand the need to make one's path in the world alone. But I understand better what it is to use what is offered to me. I love the game that is played, with systems and expectations and traditions. It is a laugh to climb on the shoulders of the highbrow and then kick them in the face once I have been supported.

But! [He claps his hands together, once, briskly.] You will do it alone. Please, tell me when you make your attempt. I should like to see it.