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[sunmon]

Comments

[morozova]

This wasn't intended to be that sort of conversation.

( though it's a forgivable assumption to make, considering. )

I have.
Surprisingly, you neglected to include a clause about my not communicating with you outside of the prescribed circumstances.

( and after throwing all but the kitchen sink at him, no less. should he be impressed? he's a little impressed. )

[sunmon]

And you've taken it upon yourself to ensure that I regret my mistake.

I'm surprised you have the capacity for regret.

[morozova]

I do wonder what you'd do if you didn't have me to rail against.

( like an ordinary and cheerfully mundane existence, probably. )

Evidently you've been rubbing off on me. ( #rimshot. though anyone that's known him for longer than five minutes knows just how much he loathes this. )

But I'll spare you the details.
What I meant, earlier, is simply that there is yet another celebration on the horizon and it got me thinking.

[sunmon]

You mean it got you scheming.
Wondering what the LIES program hopes to gain.

[morozova]

Scheming implies a nefarious end when this is closer to academic.

Not entertainment, clearly.
For all their love of parties.

[sunmon]

I thought it would be obvious to you.
Power.
Somehow, it gives them power.

[morozova]

Power, yes.
But what kind?
Humiliating and dominating us will get tiresome quickly, even if there aren't those inclined to rebel.

[sunmon]

Humiliating and dominating us keeps us docile. It's incidental, not the goal. Not unless doing it gets them something we aren't seeing.

[morozova]

Incidental but rather brilliant in that they have us enforce their rules for them for the most part.

( because that much is obvious. the sin guards are the strong arm of the lies program, yes, but if you removed the captured participants and left only those that had been born here one wonders just how much of a role they'd play. )

I realize your impulse, here, will be to lie but I do beg your indulgence a little.
Have you felt weaker, at all, since the beach?

[sunmon]

No. When my power returned it came back fully.

[morozova]

It's been the same for me.

And yet they are able to neutralize us, on a large scale, which means that they do know of our abilities and how to hamper them.
And supposedly can revive us upon death.
That suggests that whatever they get from us requires us to be alive to generate.

[sunmon]

It would be exceedingly difficult to have sex while dead.

They have the other citizens doing it too. It's not just us. It's something about the sex itself. It's the only thing that makes sense.

[morozova]

Yes.
And they're likely using whatever we are generating for them to draw in more people.

[sunmon]

If you're about to use this as an excuse to fail quota so you can get me a citation...

[morozova]

Getting you a citation, for whatever reason, would be self-defeating, don't you think?

No.
I'm trying to understand.

[sunmon]

It would be petty and spiteful and cruel, all of which you are. If you drew the line in harming me at harming yourself, you would not have made even one nichevo'ya.

And our contract does not make us allies, discussing war tactics on the Fjerdan front.

[morozova]

Petty, spiteful and cruel, yes.
Stupid, no.

( he's still feeling out this new dynamic, deciding where and how best to press. getting into trouble deliberately would only end in her ending the contract and him being back at square one. )

Do you want to remain here forever?

( she had assumed, at the start, that he would be looking at ways to upend the system and she hadn't been entirely wrong. )

[sunmon]

Maybe I like not being someone's saint.

[morozova]

I doubt the Saints of old wanted that recognition, either.

[sunmon]

It's not Ravka. But it's not terrible. Not on its own.

[ is she really admitting this? to him of all people? ]

My power doesn't mean anything to anyone here. No one needs me.

[morozova]

The weight of the responsibility would be crushing to anyone. I'm not unaware of that, whatever you might think of me.

( not that it would have kept him from pushing her, from using her. )

You should be able to delight in your gift.
I'm sorry that I made you feel otherwise.

[sunmon]

I can, here.

[ but she also knows that mal would never be able to stand it here any more than at the little palace. she knows that she will always have to choose between her power and him. right now, with no way home, it's not a choice. that's freeing in a way. ]

[morozova]

Then I suppose it is fortunate that we will be going nowhere for some time.

[sunmon]

Good. Then you can be patient.

[ he had scared her, his commentary just this side of revolutionary. but she had agreed to this because he was smart. because he knew as she now did that building power was the first step. ]

If you need something to keep you occupied, go clean the studio.

[morozova]

If I finish early perhaps we can go to whatever festival they're holding in town?
I promise to keep my hands to myself.