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[archademode]

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[littlemissfutility]

No, no--everything's fine.

[ Okay, this is starting to feel like a stupid idea. But it's too late to back out now, if only because telling someone everything's fine and then going "never mind, I gotta go" isn't a great way to convince them everything's fine. Which it is. So here goes a stupid idea. ]

I just wanted to tell you...I think I'm gonna go with Diplomacy. For a division. But thinking about it for a while probably helped, so--thanks.

[archademode]

[There’s a faint sound of approval across the line, a little exhale of breath that might even precede a smile— were he the sort of man for it.]

So you chose not to fight.

[Good, is the part that goes unsaid.]

[littlemissfutility]

Yeah.

[ Okay, maybe it's not so stupid after all. Something in her voice relaxes a little, like she's decided she's talking to a friend. ]

I'm kinda sick of fighting.

[archademode]

I am relieved to hear it.

[There is grief in having no recourse, and while he cannot confess to wanting differently for himself, one of the balms that will always ease the sting of his own path is knowing it will not be followed by one who may yet have time enough to do better.]

Byerly Rutyer is a good man, if not at times difficult. He will do no wrong by you, should you place faith in him.

And, failing that, speak with me as you like.

[littlemissfutility]

[ There's a lot to take in there, a lot she wants to respond to, but part of her is still quietly canvassing for information about her new boss, so: ]

You've worked with him?

[archademode]

For him. [He corrects mildly, though he’ll allow himself no further room to explain the details of their first meeting.]

A necessary matter. One of vital import. [Babysitting: extremely crucial to Thedas proper.]

My only suggestion would be that you request clarity from him, when discussing potential tasks to be taken.

[Still, the man seems to have a softer hand than perhaps he’d initially let on. Beth might very well receive gentler treatment by way of her own nature, and Gabranth would have it no differently, if so.]

[littlemissfutility]

...Clarity. Got it.

[ That doesn't seem to be too hard so far: Byerly likes to talk, as far as she can tell. ]

So you're going with Forces?

[archademode]

Mm. [Done and dealt with already, in fact, though it has left him with a task in hand he hardly relishes.

Reading, that is. Not murder.]

Does that disappoint you?

[littlemissfutility]

Why would it disappoint me?

[archademode]

[A gentle heart indeed, hers.]

No matter. [Said dismissively, willing away his own supposition as he draws back in his own perch to thumb idly through the next few pages of his unbearably enlightening required reading (imagine thinking for fun).]

What think you of this world and its people, now that you've had opportunity to know it?

[littlemissfutility]

[ She has to think about that, weighing the possibility of answering truthfully against admitting a little too much. ]

It's weird, being in a city. A real one, I mean--one where everyone's alive and just...living. There's so many people here. [ Not a very long pause. ] What do you think of it?

[archademode]

Much the same, in fact. I have spent too long away from my own kind— from the living, as you say— and thus returned to a place so ordered with life and structure...

[A soft noise, pinned against the back of his throat.]

Perhaps I no longer remember how to function in such a world.

[littlemissfutility]

[ She doesn't have the heart to explain what she means by the living--but the general sense is exactly what she means. Orderly, structured, full of people who already know the rules. And it still feels like there's got to be a catch somewhere. ]

It's not that hard. [ It's a fake-it-til-you-make-it sort of comment, something she wishes were as true as she's trying to make it sound. ] You just gotta...practice, I guess.

[archademode]

And that is why you chose diplomacy?

[What, after all, could make for better practice than that.]

[littlemissfutility]

No. It was just...the only one that made sense, I guess.

strangles dreamwidth gently for concealing this

[archademode]

Made sense?

[How so, Beth?]

[littlemissfutility]

Yeah. I mean...I don't wanna fight anymore. I don't wanna sleep in the woods all the time anymore. I didn't, um, get to finish school. So not Forces, or Scouting, or Research. Diplomacy's kinda all that's left.

[archademode]

It will suit you in due time, have faith.

[Her personality is warm enough, her presence presumed welcome— even by someone as dour as him.]

Tell me, have you met many others yet?

[Trouble or comfort, he would hear it all.]

[littlemissfutility]

I have faith.

[ Helpful, pleasant, without hesitation. ]

Yeah, a couple of people. Byerly, Amos, Wysteria, Derrica...

When'd you join Riftwatch?

[archademode]

Ah, so you've met Byerly already. Perhaps my counsel was unnecessary, then.

[Still, he has a feeling the Head of Diplomacy will have given her no trouble regardless. The man has a soft heart somewhere in his uniquely thin-boned body.]

Not long before you. Barely a week's time.

[Deceptive, perhaps, how well acclimated he seems when discussing it at large, but that's a matter of his nature and nothing more.

Read: he's fucking old.]

[littlemissfutility]

No, it was really helpful.

[ The last time she had a job to do, it wasn't one where she could trust anyone around her. Anything that tells her a little more about the people in charge here is good. ]

Have you talked to many people yet?

[archademode]

Too many.

[It hardly fits him, not after an eternity of solitude— not even before that, in his shortened life as a Judge Magister of Archades: he'd benefited from the distance of leadership, the necessity of adopted guises and crueler cast shadows.

Here, now, he simply acts as ally and aide, and it taxes him all the more for it.]

[littlemissfutility]

You don't like talking to people, huh.

[ Still friendly, just a little teasing. ]

[archademode]

[He matches that tone with the barest catch of his own breath; he's well aware of his own shortcomings, if nothing else.]

It has never suited me.

[littlemissfutility]

I dunno. You're doing okay right now.