on the nature of oaths

[zuhrovet]

[In the current move, Sasha has just accepted an oath of service from Jedao, a relationship Reshad believes is coercive. I'm not sure whether this properly counts as character rp or a new half-move, but I think we all need some new space to deal with the fallout!]

Sasha is waiting outside the antechamber. She has tied her scarf again, and looks as put-together as she ever does. "Are we having this conversation in my office?" she asks Reshad. "Or over tea, with everyone?"

Comments

Re: Hallway Conversation (warning: theories of comparative abuse)

[zuhrovet]

Sasha has promised to assume good faith, so she meets Reshad's eyes and tells the truth. "You understood, I think, that the way the Shuos heptarch bound him was not clean. She used his strength against him, and she hurt him. I cannot guess the method, but that much was very clear, from how he spoke. You think, if you tell him it should not have happened, it will be a comfort. But it was his strength. He is the person that she aimed at, and he is the gun she aimed, both together. When you say this should not be, you tell him he should not exist. I cannot stand by and let you do that. Not to anyone, but particularly not to him."

Reshad has a perfect diagram, now: she has seen every knot in the net of Sasha's current loyalties, and she knows the shape, if not the details, of the ways Sasha has been hurt before. Of course, if Reshad uses this to bind her, it proves Sasha was right all along. She smiles a bitter half-smile: that's a stupid way to win.

Re: Hallway Conversation (warning: theories of comparative abuse)

[hoardingpearls]

"Yes; she hurt him." Simple confirmation; Reshad holds Sasha's gaze, not least because her training demands it. History alone would illuminate the surface of the wound, and seeing Jedao's reaction to it plumbs some of the depth. And - she cannot help but see that Sasha projects something of herself into the situation. More than something.

"You are correct that I intend to comfort. I can only hope that he did not hear what you did, but rather that the rebellion is not the Heptarchate."

"I will ask you more about your binding when we debrief. Such ties should be well understood by those who need to work with them, and I am not convinced he knows Naxorian culture." She meets protectiveness with protectiveness: Jedao is not a thing, not a toy, nobody's possession. "Shall we?" A graceful gesture, toward the Cantata's conference room.

"And after, I will inquire, and see whether I've done more harm than good."

[Is anyone else around?]

Re: Hallway Conversation (warning: theories of comparative abuse)

[zuhrovet]

"I would have sworn to the Nirai, had they accepted me. I thought about the nature of the oath."

Sasha walks toward the common room, hands in her jacket pockets. She knows where Reshad is walking--she can't help but monitor--but she forces herself to move at an even pace, without checking the corridors or asking the grid to map the ship's inhabitants, as if everything here is safe.

[I'm going to assume we'll meet Ione, and maybe Sulen, in the common room.]

Re: Hallway Conversation (warning: theories of comparative abuse)

[kese_seyli]

[Seyli very well could pass everyone on on their way to the shooting range, but would ignore any attempts to stop them unless presented as a forceful order.]