sixthiterationtexts | un: wiccan

[voice:]

You know, I've been thinking. If I were back home right now--[Leaving aside everything that had gone terribly wrong back home, dealing with the interdimensional parasite that had brainwashed his parents and wanted to feed off of him and his magic for hundreds of years, his missing brother, et cetera]--it'd be time for auditions for the spring musical. I think this year was supposed to be Bare, which would have been amazing, especially since it would've been senior year, so, my last chance at a lead role, you know?

Maybe you don't, I mean, I know a lot of people aren't from Earth, or from the twenty-first century, but that's not really the point, sorry, I'm getting distracted.

The point is, I miss music, and I miss theater, and even with learning self-defense and first aid and reading everything in the schoolhouse and foraging and all the things we need to do here to survive, I still end up with a lot of free time. So, I was thinking, I'd love to learn some new songs, and new dances, and new stories. I don't know if there're enough people here interested to justify putting on a show or anything, but I thought it might be fun to get people together to trade those sorts of things. Share parts of our cultures, you know? Anyway, if anyone's interested, let me know, we can work something out.

[action, OTA:]

[Those who frequent the schoolhouse might run into one Billy Kaplan there after this broadcast, sorting through books on the shelves attempting to organize things by genre and/or season and trying to figure out what he has or hasn't read. If he isn't there, you might run into him in the inn grabbing lunch, or on the road heading to or from the eastern woods outside of town on a mushroom-hunting run. Wherever you find him, chances are he's humming under his breath, if not singing outright. What? It's been stuck in his head for a while now.]

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[So...sort of like some sort of spiritual communism, maybe. Everyone is born for a purpose, and that purpose is decided by someone else. Part of that sounds kind of like it'd be a relief, not having to figure it out on your own, knowing your purpose already, but it's also kind of confining.]

So you were born to be a soldier, but they thought you'd make a better spy, so that's what you did instead. Did you like it? I mean, I know that's kind of a dumb question, or a dumb way to ask it, but...

I was good at it. And I thought I was protecting my people. I also spent ten years in a war zone they pull most soldiers out of after two. I saw people slaughtered. Heck I slaughtered people myself because I was taught that was the right thing to do. My name was liar because that is what I did. If we suspected you were working against the Qun, I'd be your friend or lover, get close to you, figure out if there was any hint of truth to that and then turn you in. I turned myself in when I thought I wasn't safe to be around anymore. Got reeducated and then sent away like the broken tool I was. So... I am not quite sure. When I was in the human lands after they sent me away it was good.

[That's a lot to take in. Ten years at war in a place most soldiers get pulled out of after two, he says, and while Billy might not have that experience, there has been a war of one kind or another going on as long as he's been alive. There are the stories he's heard from his grandmother, from his grandfather about the atrocities committed during the war they lived through. He knows something about what kind of toll that takes on a person. And that's not even considering the rest.

There's sympathy on his face as he watches Bull, listens to the entire story.]

So they used you as long as they could, and they didn't even take care of you after you did all of that for them?

I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories, just...I'm sorry.

They did, in the way Qunari see the world. Which is different than most people I guess. To them being without a purpose is bad. It is considered a waste. So they'd find something else for me to do. And they did. It wasn't safe to have me around Qunari so they sent me to be a spy.

[ he shakes his head. ]

I am not saying that they did was good, just that they thought it was. But that is a different kind of world I come from. I am not Qunari anymore anyway. I broke with the Qun, defied it and got a ship full of soldiers destroyed in the process to save a bunch of non-qunari.

I try really hard to keep an open mind and not judge other cultures just because they're different from my own, but...I don't know. I just can't accept that a person's value is determined by their use.

[He shrugs in return, a gesture that's half apology, half frustration, but the last part makes him look at Bull again, almost surprised.]

You--oh. Can I ask why?

[Not that he wouldn't understand. You save innocent lives when and where you can. But the way Bull talks about the Qun, it doesn't seem like many people would even think about doing what he did.]

I had spent a decade as a spy and during that time my cover was to be a mercenary. I was the only Qunari in the group, the rest of them were actual mercenaries. We worked together, drank together, bled together... You know how it is. Then one day we're out helping our boss at the time set up a meeting with the Qunari for an alliance. The Qunari have a warship. But a group of our enemies attack and begin casting magic that would destroy the ship. My men rush in to stop them but it is clear that they are overpowered. I have to make the choice between having them stay and fight and distract the casting long enough that the ship gets away or pull my men back and watch the ship get destroyed. I chose the latter

I'm sorry.

[The words are soft, full of sympathy and understanding. Because he does get it. Despite being younger, despite not having the history of Bull or the education of Nida. He's been there.]

It's never an easy choice to make, when you're choosing between lives to save. But you knew your team. They were yours. There's a reason you talk about them like that, I think--if you don't mind me saying. 'The Qunari' versus 'my men.' I know it's not a very heroic thing for me to say, but honestly, I think ultimately we save the lives that matter to us, and that's not a bad thing.

That is the thing though, under the Qun you don't do that, you do what the Qun asks of you. No matter the personal cost. I guess that is why I'm no longer Qunari, when I can't do that.

I understand.

I don't...think that's really a bad thing, though.

Do you miss it? The...certainty, I guess. Knowing you're doing something for a cause.

Yeah, yeah I do. Back home I did find something different to work with. A group called the inquisition. I was working with them when it happened too. But here it is ... strange. I was always raised to believe that a Qunari without the qun turn crazy and start attacking everyone around them.

Maybe some of them do. Or maybe the people in charge of the Qunari just find that it's easier to keep people focused on the purpose they're given if they think turning away from it and doing something different will make them go insane.

I mean, for what it's worth, you don't seem like you're crazy.

Maybe. Or maybe they believe it too.

And thank you, I... I really don't want to be, you know.

I don't think anyone would, honestly. But you seem like you've got some good priorities. You worry about your friends. That's a good thing. Definitely not a crazy one.

un: wiccan

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Re: Warn: Mention of eugenics

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