It’s been nearly twenty-five years, a quarter of an age, and that time passed mostly in the care of staid, self-possessed mages who survived Harrowings and then another thirty, forty, fifty years in the Circle afterwards, impressing upon apprentices the litany of things—fear, rage, pride—that would kill them and everyone around them if they didn’t master themselves, and he still wants to slap Nikos in the eye. In person, having to look at his stupid familiar face, he might not have been able to resist.
He lets out his breath as silently as he can, and takes another. ]
[That's it? Nikos waits for more, but more doesn't come, so he has to circle back to the statement and come to terms with its simplicity and, he should assume, sincerity. People have beheld snakes with a similar level of wary apprehension.
There's nothing. It sounds a little like Kostos is being made to say this, which means there is probably some truth to it, since there is no one but Kostos that can make Kostos do anything (which means he's proved a disappointing rebel, since Kostos' version of rebellion comes salted with obedience, because he's chosen obedience).
[Nikos makes something nearer to a laugh at that.]
Now I know it's you.
[He could leave it there, maybe. But leaving it there wouldn't do near enough. It's stupid to hope that he might have a chance with Kostos, to convince him of the rightness of what they'd done, and what they'd hoped to do. Kostos isn't who he'd hoped his brother would be. Too measured for a rebel.
But there was something in him, once, that turned him. So.]
Are you going to refuse to understand, if I tell you more? [And in case there's any confusion:] I don't owe you an explanation.
[ To understand. To agree, maybe. Anyway, he thinks he already gets it. Nell did manage a little bit of an explanation, before it devolved into a barely-coherent flurry of personal blows. ]
[Yeah okay sure whatever, but, fine. Nikos calls upon the spirit of Caspar to help him with this.]
She wouldn't have gone far enough. [Correction, except, also, I guess:] Yes. But there was more to it than that. The chief goal was to drive support to the more liberal candidate. To raise the stakes and move the hearts and the hands of those on the fence with their support. To make real change happen.
You gain nothing by waiting and watching and hoping someone will decide to do the right fucking thing. People are disappointing. You agree with that.
I don't decide. It is the right thing. The 'right thing' is enacting change, lasting change, that will benefit everyone. Disassembling institutions that no longer serve the people.
[He's not picking a fight, though his impatience might make it seem that way.]
We aren't talking about perfection or anything close to it. We're talking about lives. Traditions and decisions that will impact people living far beyond us, and now, and anyone. If we were anywhere close, caution might be merited. Right now it's like a luxury not easily afforded.
[No YOU don't be stupid is barely, barely avoided. Mostly because Nikos is, at last, actually thinking. He prefers to charge forward in everything. Impatient. Frustrated. He holds his breath a moment and stares, hard, down into his cup of wine. Eventually:]
The world works unfairly. Shitting on those who can do nothing for themselves. Who have been tricked into thinking that they can do nothing, that they are nothing. These lies, which the powerful have told the world, must die. The systems that prop up leaders and figureheads and grind down those beneath them, doing the real living, and dying--
[It's turning to a lecture again, and Nikos grabs his cup and takes a gulp of wine to shut himself up. Better:]
What I want is for the people who have nothing to have something. It does not need to be everything. It must be something. No matter who they are, who they were born to, what power they have, or do not have--magic, wealth, title, land--they deserve something. And they deserve not to be controlled. To be lied to. That is what I expect. What I want.
[First:] Truth is twisted, always, to suit a purpose.
If the people can't read, they should be taught to read. That should not be held from them. And then they can decide for themselves what is true and not true. They should be trusted to make that choice. Too many choices are made for people, by powers and institutions.
[Correctly guessing where Kostos is going with that, but almost by mistake. Just a good chance to get a jab in.]
I mean it, in a way. Not you personally. I wouldn't trust you to teach a flea to bite, let alone inflict you on someone learning to read. But others.
How much do you think the Averesches are worth? Really. At the end of it. Sell the property and the holding and dissolve all the fucking ceremonial jewelry, and how much do you think there is?
I have not thought about it since I was nine. Nikos.
[ Nikos with a similar tone as Dickbag.
And he’s still going to answer. He just wants to establish that he’s allowed to be off base, since he went from wondering exactly how many elephants he’d be able to buy when he was in charge to not handling a single coin for twenty years. ]
I have thought about it. They used to let me help with the books. All those numbers, that money--eight hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand, six, three--it doesn't matter. It's a fucking ocean of worth.
Think of what it could do. Pay salaries, fund organizations, construct buildings--and that's us, that's not everyone else in Antiva sitting on a mountain of coin. Take a fourth of it and spread it out, among the people. What else is it used for? Throw a feast every Satinalia where a live peacock bursts out of a fucking pie, and outside the door, a man starves to death in the street.
Because no one listens. They set themselves as deliberate fucking obstacles. They let tradition rule them as much as their own greed. I'm sorry, didn't you fight in a war against people who wield arbitrary power as a weapon?
That was different. There are only so many of us. We were already organized. We know how to read. We could have governed ourselves. And they came to kill us. We were not hunting down old women whose politics we did not like.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-08-23 07:21 pm (UTC)[ Tempting, is what it is.
It’s been nearly twenty-five years, a quarter of an age, and that time passed mostly in the care of staid, self-possessed mages who survived Harrowings and then another thirty, forty, fifty years in the Circle afterwards, impressing upon apprentices the litany of things—fear, rage, pride—that would kill them and everyone around them if they didn’t master themselves, and he still wants to slap Nikos in the eye. In person, having to look at his stupid familiar face, he might not have been able to resist.
He lets out his breath as silently as he can, and takes another. ]
That’s it. I shouldn’t have done it.
no subject
Date: 2019-08-27 09:44 pm (UTC)There's nothing. It sounds a little like Kostos is being made to say this, which means there is probably some truth to it, since there is no one but Kostos that can make Kostos do anything (which means he's proved a disappointing rebel, since Kostos' version of rebellion comes salted with obedience, because he's chosen obedience).
He sorts through this. Comes up with--]
Are you at knifepoint?
no subject
Date: 2019-08-30 02:21 pm (UTC)No.
[ Not literally. Maybe there’s something to the image of holding a knife to his own neck—but if there is he isn’t going to think about it too much. ]
And I still think you’re a reckless idiot who’s made everything worse.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-01 08:47 pm (UTC)Now I know it's you.
[He could leave it there, maybe. But leaving it there wouldn't do near enough. It's stupid to hope that he might have a chance with Kostos, to convince him of the rightness of what they'd done, and what they'd hoped to do. Kostos isn't who he'd hoped his brother would be. Too measured for a rebel.
But there was something in him, once, that turned him. So.]
Are you going to refuse to understand, if I tell you more? [And in case there's any confusion:] I don't owe you an explanation.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-04 12:19 am (UTC)[ To understand. To agree, maybe. Anyway, he thinks he already gets it. Nell did manage a little bit of an explanation, before it devolved into a barely-coherent flurry of personal blows. ]
She wasn't liberal enough for you.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-05 10:43 pm (UTC)She wouldn't have gone far enough. [Correction, except, also, I guess:] Yes. But there was more to it than that. The chief goal was to drive support to the more liberal candidate. To raise the stakes and move the hearts and the hands of those on the fence with their support. To make real change happen.
You gain nothing by waiting and watching and hoping someone will decide to do the right fucking thing. People are disappointing. You agree with that.
no subject
Date: 2019-09-13 07:34 pm (UTC)[ By everyone he cares about killing clergy.
Without him. ]
Why do you get to decide what the right thing is?
no subject
Date: 2019-09-19 04:30 pm (UTC)I don't decide. It is the right thing. The 'right thing' is enacting change, lasting change, that will benefit everyone. Disassembling institutions that no longer serve the people.
wow hi sorry
Date: 2019-10-07 12:14 am (UTC)[ He's aiming to sound like he's picking a fight—because he is—but the question almost sounds a little bit earnest—because it is. ]
Something that is not perfect may still be the only thing preventing something worse.
hi wow good
Date: 2019-10-07 03:43 am (UTC)[He's not picking a fight, though his impatience might make it seem that way.]
We aren't talking about perfection or anything close to it. We're talking about lives. Traditions and decisions that will impact people living far beyond us, and now, and anyone. If we were anywhere close, caution might be merited. Right now it's like a luxury not easily afforded.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-07 05:25 pm (UTC)What do you expect the world to look like? If you succeed.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-11 01:00 am (UTC)The world works unfairly. Shitting on those who can do nothing for themselves. Who have been tricked into thinking that they can do nothing, that they are nothing. These lies, which the powerful have told the world, must die. The systems that prop up leaders and figureheads and grind down those beneath them, doing the real living, and dying--
[It's turning to a lecture again, and Nikos grabs his cup and takes a gulp of wine to shut himself up. Better:]
What I want is for the people who have nothing to have something. It does not need to be everything. It must be something. No matter who they are, who they were born to, what power they have, or do not have--magic, wealth, title, land--they deserve something. And they deserve not to be controlled. To be lied to. That is what I expect. What I want.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-13 07:43 pm (UTC)[ Ugh. Being more eloquent than him isn't a high bar, but it's still aggravating that Nikos clears it. ]
Many people cannot read. Who is telling them the truth, as you see it, about what is happening outside of their towns?
no subject
Date: 2019-10-16 09:18 pm (UTC)If the people can't read, they should be taught to read. That should not be held from them. And then they can decide for themselves what is true and not true. They should be trusted to make that choice. Too many choices are made for people, by powers and institutions.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-24 05:32 pm (UTC)[ Impatience. Not an agreement on all counts. ]
—but who will teach them to read?
no subject
Date: 2019-10-25 03:06 am (UTC)I don't know, what are you doing these days?
no subject
Date: 2019-10-28 01:15 am (UTC)[ That's a joke. Because what he's up to is sexy. ]
no subject
Date: 2019-10-28 07:57 pm (UTC)[Correctly guessing where Kostos is going with that, but almost by mistake. Just a good chance to get a jab in.]
I mean it, in a way. Not you personally. I wouldn't trust you to teach a flea to bite, let alone inflict you on someone learning to read. But others.
How much do you think the Averesches are worth? Really. At the end of it. Sell the property and the holding and dissolve all the fucking ceremonial jewelry, and how much do you think there is?
I have no idea how to value money and you’re cruel for making me
Date: 2019-10-30 03:08 pm (UTC)[ Nikos with a similar tone as Dickbag.
And he’s still going to answer. He just wants to establish that he’s allowed to be off base, since he went from wondering exactly how many elephants he’d be able to buy when he was in charge to not handling a single coin for twenty years. ]
Eight hundred thousand andris.
B) but also i'm sorry
Date: 2019-11-04 06:52 pm (UTC)I have thought about it. They used to let me help with the books. All those numbers, that money--eight hundred thousand, seven hundred thousand, six, three--it doesn't matter. It's a fucking ocean of worth.
Think of what it could do. Pay salaries, fund organizations, construct buildings--and that's us, that's not everyone else in Antiva sitting on a mountain of coin. Take a fourth of it and spread it out, among the people. What else is it used for? Throw a feast every Satinalia where a live peacock bursts out of a fucking pie, and outside the door, a man starves to death in the street.
no subject
Date: 2019-11-13 04:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-15 02:19 am (UTC)Because no one listens. They set themselves as deliberate fucking obstacles. They let tradition rule them as much as their own greed. I'm sorry, didn't you fight in a war against people who wield arbitrary power as a weapon?
no subject
Date: 2019-11-18 02:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-20 05:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-11-20 07:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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