OPEN.

[broodypants]

WHO: Fenris, Jone, & YOU.
WHAT: Fenris & Jone are back in Kirkwall.
WHEN: When... people... are back in Kirkwall... waves hand.
WHERE: KIRKWALL
NOTES: None yet.

Comments

[poleaxed]

Jone would be a very different person if that didn't immediately endear her to this Loki bloke. Has his priorities in order, him.

"I'm there most days," she scratches her head, thinking. "Give it a day or so. Been busy. Usually, I'm a better mind for work, but we almost died and all."

You understand.

[icasm]

"Understandable, that." Loki was here for some of it, albeit only some and albeit here, trapped in the Gallows. "I'll come to find you, then, in three day's time. Were you in Starkhaven, then, or Hasmal?"

Or both, he supposes there are those unfortunate enough for that marker of Thedosian history but fortunate enough to have survived it.

[poleaxed]

"Starkhaven," Jone says, pulling a skin of wine from her little picnic bag. She stares at it, as though considering something, before putting it back. "My first siege. Not looking forward to the next."

[icasm]

"I can't imagine it was very fun." He's never been in a city under siege either, as much as he's fought in a variety of conflicts over his long life.

[poleaxed]

"Bloody terror," she says. She holds up a bit of her hair, shorter than the rest-- singed. "Nearly got set alight, I did. Sodding fire mages."

[icasm]

Loki's eyebrows go up a little. "Is most of the invading force mages?" That sort of thing isn't in books.

[poleaxed]

"Tevinter?" Jone's eyes bright in sympathy. Definitely a rifter, then. "They're all mages. Their rulers are mages. Everything's magic to them."

[icasm]

"Huh." Loki knew that the Tevinter internal politicking involved mages but didn't realize that the entire force, or at least the bulk of it, was also mages. Makes sense, in retrospect. "They've invaded before? Historically, I mean."

[poleaxed]

"Oh, heaps," Jone says. "Entire continent used to be their playground. Bloody empire for a reason, innit."

[icasm]

"But this is the first time they've had a so-called god on their side." He takes another bite of his carrot. "Where do you think they're headed next?"

[poleaxed]

"Here." She taps the table, the wall. "Pissed the lot off, we have."

[icasm]

Up go the eyebrows again. "Really?" Well, obviously. She just said. "How long do you think that will take?"

[poleaxed]

"Ten years? Twenty? There's no way to tell." Jone slumps a little with this reveal; it isn't the sort of exuberance she's in the mood for. "Best live well while you can."

[icasm]

"A problem with a war this size in this place," Loki says, taking another bite from his carrot. It's difficult to predict how long the conflict will last. "Best live well while you can is the motto of mortality, I think, but you're not wrong. What do you think it will be like, here, if the war is won in our favor and Tevinter has to retreat?"

[poleaxed]

"Lotta fancy words for yes, Jone, you're right, Jone." Just keeping score, over here.

She considers his question, frowning slightly. "Lot of cleaning up to do. Questions to be answered. It'll be ugly."

[icasm]

"Yes, dear, you're right, dear," he mimicks, but then grins at her, taking the last bite of carrot.

"Because of those who have eased the way for Tevinter's push south?" He shakes his head a little. "My understanding of war is from a very different standpoint; one monarchy, one culture, going to war against others that are very much the same in those regards but not sharing a landmass."

Except for Midgard, but that was a special case.

[poleaxed]

Jone frowns. "Daft, that is. Our folk... all about owning land. Even when we ain't at war. Land is everything."

[icasm]

"Oh don't get me wrong, it's all about the same kind of power. Land is everything because land is power, because you need the land for the means of production." A beat. "Mostly food, I'll bet, but I'm sure there are other factors as well. That wasn't any different, not really."

How the hell does he explain this to people who might not even know they're on a planet, much less that said planet travels through a galaxy? "We traveled to fight." There, easy enough. "Mostly because we had no nearby neighbors, and like any good empire, there was the drive to expand at one point." Peace by the negotiating word is what he'd been taught, but apparently, it had actually been peace by the sword.