UN: Twilight Sparkles | @Everyone

[thegreatexperiment]

[It's video for a change, although all that's on camera is the ceiling of Sam's room at the Inn. She's been working on a mural actually. It's the underbelly of a dragon, wings outstretched as it lifts up into the sky. Still little more than a pencil outline at this point. And it's missing both a head and a finished tail. But there's an enormous amount of detailing in the scales. It's no Sistine Chapel. But then again, it's not trying to be.

The camera moves as Sam speaks, as if she's gesturing with her hand. Her face never appears, but the disaster zone that is her room appears in flashes.]

Can someone tell me what the fucking point of turning twenty two is?

I mean, seriously. Bar or Bat Mitzvah at thirteen. Quinceañera at fifteen. Super sweet sixteen, whatever the hell that is. Donate blood at seventeen. Vote at eighteen. Drink at twenty one. All the good milestones are gone. Twenty two is a filler year. And don't say you can rent a car at twenty five. My world is literally flame and rubble. I'm never renting a damn car.

[She sighs.]

Anyone still alive after that party?

Comments

[thegreatexperiment]

The...Ben-Hassrath? What's that?

[ataashihunter]

An organization among Qunari. We're... they are tasked with keeping people and the qun safe. They track down people who disobey, they are spies and they reeducate people

[thegreatexperiment]

Okay, next question:

Qunari?

[ataashihunter]

The people who follow the Qun and are the same race as me.

[thegreatexperiment]

Next vocab question:

Qun?

[She pauses.]

Sorry, just don't want to misunderstand or say something fucking stupid. Or worse, insulting.

[ataashihunter]

[ He smiles slightly ]
A set of teachings about how the world works that was written by a man called Ashkaari Koslun a long time ago. It is the teaching that Qunari follow. It defines the role of everyone and everything and Qunari are supposed to follow it without question.

[thegreatexperiment]

So...like a holy scripture?

[The camera wobbles a little, like she's nodding to herself.]

And you're a warrior who defends it. Started training at twelve.

[ataashihunter]

Well, more than that, it is the laws and also the document that tell them how to deal with the outside world.

And I was... Though I was more ... My name then was Hissrad, meaning Liar. My job was to hunt down those that left the qun, infiltrate groups of traitors and capture them. And then in the last decade, it was to be a spy in the lands of the humans. I pretended to be a mercenary, I'd drink and fight and fuck and sometimes I'd tell my superiors about it. Not exactly what they had intended but not a bad life.

[thegreatexperiment]

[Not a confession one would expect to hear. Of course, living in the clown rodeo is an extraordinary circumstance.]

What should I call you now? If not Hissrad?

[ataashihunter]

The Iron Bull works. I am no longer Hissrad after all. I am now a Tal-Vashoth. Someone who has left the Qun, one of the traitors I used to hunt.

[thegreatexperiment]

[She should be writing all of this down...]

Iron Bull. Okay, I like bulls. That was the name of my favorite basketball team...

But. Uh. If it's not too fucking personal...why'd you do it? Change your mind, I mean.

[ataashihunter]

Well, I was a spy and my cover was a mercenary captain. The chargers were my mercenary group, none of them were qunari. So, the group we worked for was making an alliance with the Qunari and as we were talking about the deal we were attacked. The Qunari wanted me to order the Chargers on a suicide mission to distract the attackers while the warship got ready to fire back. I refused and with that disobeyed a direct order. I told the Chargers to pull back, the attackers went after the warship and it sunk, and the whole crew drowned.

After that I was Tal-Vashoth.

[thegreatexperiment]

[A moment of silence on Sam's end. Not everything is a joke to her. And she takes this story rather seriously.]

Any decent person would have done the same.

[ataashihunter]

Is it decent to make a warship full of people who rely on you drown? Is it decent to chose someone over someone else simply because you have an emotional attachment to them? Is it decent to betray your country?

I am not saying you are wrong, just that Qunari see things differnetly

[thegreatexperiment]

It's decent not to betray the trust of the people who serve you.

I get it, though. No-win scenario.

[ataashihunter]

Yeah. And I made a selfish choice and the Qun does not approve of that.

[thegreatexperiment]

[It doesn't feel selfish to Sam. But what does she know?]

...I'm a defector too.

[ataashihunter]

I am sorry to hear that.

[thegreatexperiment]

Don't be.

It was...the only choice.

[ataashihunter]

Sounds like my deal. It was the only choice I could live with.

[thegreatexperiment]

Exactly...

[She sighs.]

Which isn't to say living with it is...easy.

[ataashihunter]

No it isn't. Especially because there are people who see you as a traitor to your kind and will hunt you for that.

[thegreatexperiment]

I guess I've been lucky on that front.

Too much drama for anyone to hunt me.

[ataashihunter]

That is good at least. Qunari hunt down those who leave the Qun. It actually was my job for a while, just for the perfect irony.

[thegreatexperiment]

Shit.

This place must be the ideal vacation for you, then.