warriorscribe | Snowblind Inbox

When not the result of head trauma, yes. Though not all such ailments are the same. Some strike in the womb, some in old age, and some in between.

[Dorian is serious about that.]

Of course, it can be difficult to tell the difference between an ailment and eccentricity in some cases. So perhaps not a perfect correlation.

It seems like something so...erratic, to plan for. Focusing on education sounds much less of a gamble.

You sound like my mentor.

[Dorian means that as a compliment.]

Yes. Education is important and we altus mages have access to the best. I attended three different Circles and spent the bulk of the time from when I was nine to when I was fourteen being privately tutored. I'm something of an outlier but from what I saw, the educational system works well enough for the majority. It doesn't always do well by prodigies nor does it do well with gifted children who would rather visit brothels.

My mentor was in favor of opening the Circles to children from families without magic to get the best of their talents as well. He never made much headway but then he wasn't much of a politician.

[Circles sound like schools for mages. Pretty clear from context, so he doesn't consider it worth confirming.]

If that's the sort of man your mentor was, I'll take the comparison as a compliment. Many skills can come from the most unlikely of places sometimes.

On good days, that's who he was. It's how I prefer to remember him. And I agree. We would all be better off if we offered opportunities to people from all walks of life.

It's one of the things I plan to push for in the Magisterium. Everyone should have a chance at a better life. A fair chance.

That's how better futures come about. Envisioning them, acting on those visions or empowering another to do so... I hope you can help get your country what it needs should we escape.

[It normally would be "when we escape" but his optimism has taken a beating.]

Yes, very much so. Better futures don't happen by accident. We have to work for them.

[Which may not be quite what Enoch meant but it's the kind of optimism Dorian believes in.]

Should we escape, what do you hope to achieve where you go?

[It is exactly what he meant. People create their own paths. Or should.]

I'm not sure. It depends on...well, where I go. If we can follow others, I'm not sure I could simply return to my own world as if nothing ever happened.

That sounds reasonable, I suppose. I would not want to forget but if that was the price... that's bearable.

[There were people here he cared about but none he cared about more than Tevinter.]

That's not quite what I-...

[He goes quiet, solemn, trying to word what he means in such a way that it still carries all its weight, without making it sound as if he's abandoning either side. That's the hard part, he's not. But...]

...I meant, I'm not certain how much like home it will feel anymore.

That... well. Yes. Home changes, we change.

[Dorian sounds subdued.]

We change...

[So does he.]

...The strange thing is, I didn't have a home, really. And yet here we are.

[With this conversation, this train of thought...]

I've been told home is more of a feeling than a place. There are things we become accustomed to, for good or ill. We feel loss when they change even if they were terrible.

A feeling...

[Still subdued. He sighs.]

What would you say it feels like, being home?

For me?

[Dorian laughs bitterly.]

One of my friends said it was where when you go there, people let you put your dirty boots on the furniture.

[He gives a laugh of his own, awkward in that sense that Dorian definitely just avoided answering for himself there, but in that he...also gets it, really.]

A place where one can do and be as they please, within reason.

Yes. That's a clean summation. Of course, his home is a city filled with demons, blood magic, and mobsters so 'reason' may be a bit of a loose fit but I think that was what he was getting at. Or he was distracting me during cards. Take your pick.

[Another awkward half-laugh, still mulling over that definition of home.]

A place I could just be myself...mm, I've been more open here than I was with anyone, anywhere in my own world. I'm not sure I would call this place home, however.

[It's fine as long as one can reasonably be at least partially joking, right? Dorian has the right idea, clearly.]

Having the choice to remain in a building for more than a handful of days at a time would likely help with that. Something about being forced outside makes this place seem even more hostile than the piles of snow and occasional bouts of murder.

[There's a dry irony to Dorian's tone because this is what bothers him more than the cultists and technology he doesn't understand so he's going to mock it.]

[Enoch wishes his experience were such. The worst thing here is definitely the cultists, if you ask him.]

Or...worse, yes. Ousting the vengeful spirits of the cult might make it more tolerable here.

That as well.

But being able to stay in a building long enough to make meaningful repairs would go a way too.

There are plenty of houses in decent repair. If we could restore all of our abnormal abilities...

[But that's a thought he's retread too many times.]

I wonder if this place could be a home...do you think you would be able to stay here, if you didn't want to return to the world you came from?

Snowblind Inbox

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject