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Entry tags:
- † alcuin nó delaunay,
- † annabeth chase,
- † ava ayala,
- † combeferre,
- † damian wayne,
- † grantaire,
- † hellboy,
- † jack frost,
- † jake english,
- † jason bourne,
- † javert,
- † kon-el,
- † kyle rayner,
- † leo valdez,
- † marius pontmercy,
- † mavis dracula,
- † randolph lyall,
- † santo vaccarro,
- † temeraire,
- † zelgadis greywords
002 | video
[Live from the Fire Sector, it's a large black dragon with a very nice necklace! He is seated in his three-story suite, the intervening floors of which have mostly been removed thanks to the expertise and efficiency of Javert's construction team. What parts of it are visible onscreen give the suite a far more spacious appearance than it did previously, which serves to make Temeraire look a little smaller and (hopefully) a little less intimidating.]
It has come to my attention that my appearance has caused some of you distress in the past few days. I should not like to alarm anyone further, so I suppose I had better introduce myself now and clear away any more misconceptions before they have had a chance to start.
I suppose I cannot blame you for your reactions, since I am given to understand many of you are unfamiliar with dragons, save from various legends, most of which sound farfetched at best and highly offensive at worst. But I do not breathe fire, and I am not feral, and I would certainly never do anything as rude as try to kidnap and eat any of you, regardless of whether or not you are a young lady; I cannot imagine it would make much difference in taste, besides. Of course I would not object to having a great pile of gold to sleep on, but as I do not have one at present I am certainly not going to steal yours, unless you are such a booby as to leave it lying around for anyone to take.
[He huffs slightly, then settles back on his haunches, somewhat mollified.] So there we have it: you know that I am here, and that I am not going to accidentally squash you, or eat you, and with that out of the way, I have have noticed a few things which I suppose everyone should be aware of.
Firstly, there seem to be a great number of you from the twenty-first century at least, which I thought was very exciting at first; but now I realize I must have missed a great many things over the course of the last two hundred years, particularly in the realm of the sciences, and I should like to catch up on whatever I have missed. If you are not averse to discussing any of it with me, I should very much like to listen to all you have to say.
Secondly, whatever miasma has afflicted the other sectors is present here in the Fire sector as well; it has grown cold these past few days, and our suites are poorly lit besides. I am certain the damage must have spread elsewhere, and I would like to propose a small expedition of perhaps two or three others, to the outer reaches of the shell. I am curious to see if the disease has also affected what local wildlife remains, and if there is some aspect of its process that we may have overlooked. It will be no great inconvenience to take you on my back; I expect we will be able to get around faster and more comfortably than most, if we fly directly. Of course anyone may come, if they like, but I think it would help very much if you are a scientist, and not afraid of heights.
Pray inform me if you have any questions. [He pauses, then switches off the feed.]
It has come to my attention that my appearance has caused some of you distress in the past few days. I should not like to alarm anyone further, so I suppose I had better introduce myself now and clear away any more misconceptions before they have had a chance to start.
I suppose I cannot blame you for your reactions, since I am given to understand many of you are unfamiliar with dragons, save from various legends, most of which sound farfetched at best and highly offensive at worst. But I do not breathe fire, and I am not feral, and I would certainly never do anything as rude as try to kidnap and eat any of you, regardless of whether or not you are a young lady; I cannot imagine it would make much difference in taste, besides. Of course I would not object to having a great pile of gold to sleep on, but as I do not have one at present I am certainly not going to steal yours, unless you are such a booby as to leave it lying around for anyone to take.
[He huffs slightly, then settles back on his haunches, somewhat mollified.] So there we have it: you know that I am here, and that I am not going to accidentally squash you, or eat you, and with that out of the way, I have have noticed a few things which I suppose everyone should be aware of.
Firstly, there seem to be a great number of you from the twenty-first century at least, which I thought was very exciting at first; but now I realize I must have missed a great many things over the course of the last two hundred years, particularly in the realm of the sciences, and I should like to catch up on whatever I have missed. If you are not averse to discussing any of it with me, I should very much like to listen to all you have to say.
Secondly, whatever miasma has afflicted the other sectors is present here in the Fire sector as well; it has grown cold these past few days, and our suites are poorly lit besides. I am certain the damage must have spread elsewhere, and I would like to propose a small expedition of perhaps two or three others, to the outer reaches of the shell. I am curious to see if the disease has also affected what local wildlife remains, and if there is some aspect of its process that we may have overlooked. It will be no great inconvenience to take you on my back; I expect we will be able to get around faster and more comfortably than most, if we fly directly. Of course anyone may come, if they like, but I think it would help very much if you are a scientist, and not afraid of heights.
Pray inform me if you have any questions. [He pauses, then switches off the feed.]
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YOU DIDN'T.
If Marius had only been cold and somewhat irritated before, now he looks affronted and outraged. He frowns, clenches his fists, and speaks with an intense passion.]
On the contrary, monsieur, Bonaparte did not fight for lack of reason!
Come, let us recall his accomplishments! He, from the small island of Corsica, made it great when he rose from a lowly second lieutenant to the man of the highest importance in all of France! What other man could have united a people divided in loyalties but one as dauntless as he, a brilliant and captivating general, France's own Alexander the Great, delivering victory after victory: Marengo, Arcola, Austerlitz, Jena, and Wagram? And yet he did not limit himself to success in the battlefield. He set out to reform the laws in the process of Justinian. He struck down injustice by forbiding privileges based on birth, by allowing the people to practice the religion they chose, by delegating government positions only to the most qualified. And despite all this, he appointed time for his child, he did not forget that he was a father, and he laughed beside his child's cradle while the armies of Europe trembled in fear!
[There is a slight quiver in his voice that seems to come from his very being as he continues.]
And when he slipped back into Paris from his exile in Elba, what did the armies do? They welcomed him, proclaimed their loyalty to him, shouted "Vive l'Empereur", chased away that great hog Louis XVIII. They revered and venerated him, and his soldiers swore their lives to him and followed him to the end: he, who made his Empire akin to the magnificent Roman Empire, the archangel of war who brought greatness and glory to France!
Do you truly say, monsieur, that all this is immaterial, that he acted without reason?
[Mmm yeah he's just going to ignore that whole "take over lands that are not yours" ok ok]
no subject
I do not question that he may have done good things for the French people, and perhaps [in tones of the greatest reluctance] for the French dragons, as well, but it is all of no consequence if he only did it so that he might better attack his neighbours unprovoked. I cannot think much of any man who would unite his own country, only to disregard all the others, and break treaties, and trample all over Europe like a bully and a scrub.
[Flashes of his serrated teeth are showing now, and he has quite forgotten about trying not to be rude or threatening.] I was at Dover, and Jena, and Danzig, when you would have been a hatchling at most, and I can tell you there was no glory in it, none at all. You say his people loved him: then he would have done better to take care of them, and not flung them into battle and gotten them all killed because he did not think France was quite large enough.
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But the surprise quickly disappears, replaced by a determination to defend the general that his father had fought under.
Even if it is to a dragon with teeth that can tear him apart if it so wished.]
What you may see as terrorizing, France sees as victory. Moreover, I believe, monsieur, that these battles against Europe have not been entirely unprovoked. Let us recall that the entirety of Europe had been threatening to descend on France, that while its own people had been at odds with one other, war had also been knocking at our doors, long before Bonaparte had been crowned Emperor. You say that he has trampled over Europe; I say that he fearlessly struck like lightning, straight through France's adversaries in a magnificent display of military strategy. If victories against our neighboring enemies is what France desires so that its people may unite, so that it may grow and prosper, then is it wrong of him to bow to the whims of his country? Should he have refused the calling of his motherland?
[He pauses for a moment, but only to take a breath.]
It is true that I had not witnessed the battles for myself, but my father had been a colonel under Bonaparte's Army. When he had retired from service, Bonaparte himself bestowed on him the title of Baron, so you cannot say that the Emperor did not care for his loyal soldiers. My father had been an honorable man; do you imply that he had risked his life for a general unworthy of it? Do you say that my father fought simply to antagonize Europe?
no subject
I am certainly not absolving the rest of Europe of blame, as any rational person would attack someone if provoked, but what Napoleon is doing now cannot certainly be termed any kind of self-defence; not when he has spent so much time and effort trying to ferry his troops across to England, and massing all the men and dragons he can muster across the Channel. Besides, I cannot say it was his strategy which won the day at Jena, or Danzig: not when all his advice was given him by Lien, who had learned it all in China. I do not like to speak well of her, but if the good done to the military, and to unharnessed dragons, and to the state of draconic citizenship in France must be attributed to someone, it must certainly be her and not Napoleon.
As for your father, that speaks well of his character, but says nothing for that of his general; I have known plenty of honorable men who would follow orders without question, no matter how unreasonable the command. [One of whom may or may not be his captain, but shhhh.] People are so very quick to trust to king and country, but I cannot see the point of it; it is only a man who tells you what to do, in the end, and lines drawn on paper, and excuses to make other people miserable.
[He snorts.] You may keep your title, it is all stuff; I had much rather have my captain and a clear sky before me over all the titles and gold in the world.
no subject
Temeraire, there is no point in talking to Pontmercy about Bonaparte unless you approve of him. Nothing anyone has said has convinced him that the man was anything but a hero to the French. Remember, however, that there are not dragons in our world and any successes of Bonaparte's might easily be credited to him even if they were no doing of his.
Pontmercy, you are entitled to your opinion and it is understandable that you want to defend your father. Your father was not Bonaparte, however. What he did does not necessarily mean that Bonaparte would have done the same. I will not get into a debate on the matter--I am fairly certain Combeferre and Enjolras have said all that really needs to be said about it. Both of you, please stop this argument. There is no point to it.
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Still, he is not in the mood to apologize to Temeraire. Instead, he focuses on what Jehan had said: that his father and Bonaparte are not the same.]
He is not; I know that.
[But his voice is soft and in no ways argumentative.
(And for a short while a series of memories play before his eyes: the room filled with mourning inside a house in Vernon, late nights in a library hunched over newspaper articles, visits to a grave with a cross of black wood.)]
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He should not have allowed it to spiral out of control this much, to the point where Jehan was intervening. Fiercely. In a terrible attempt to lighten the mood, he smiles slightly, fondly, at Marius and shakes his head.]
My dear Marius, I believe we've been over this already. This is not how one makes friends.
[Especially with dragons. Honestly, Pontmercy.]
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...Although, he does not know exactly what to say. Being called out by two people, first the poet and now his friend, makes him turn a deep shade of red, and the need to withdraw from the problem, to shy away from everyone, threatens to overwhelm him.]
Ah, Courfeyrac...
[You'll have to forgive him, Courfeyrac, he's not exactly the most socially competent person around.]
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It is wonderful that you love and defend your father--no man would hate you for that--and I am not attacking him. But your adoration for Bonaparte is...it's a bit overwhelming.
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[And, well, he's more than embarrassed for himself right now, but he's unsure of what to do. Should he disconnect? Would that be rude? He's undecided, so he keeps the feed going as he just sits there awkwardly while avoiding Jehan's eyes.]
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[He is so telling Courfeyrac to train you better.]
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Good day to you, as well.
[And he hurriedly shuts the feed off before he could turn even redder. Marius Pontmercy A+ social skills! Needs all the training he can get, really. Sob.]
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I am not sorry for what I said about Napoleon, at all, [he mutters a little stormily,] but I suppose you are right, Jehan. I will not pursue the matter further.
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