thecapitol | War Room One

Who | The Dragon Age cast and Friends
What | Dorian plans a covert meeting in the middle of the night so they can actually, you know, plan and shit
Where | In the Training Room
When | Right about now, but at 3 am in the morning
Warnings | uh, nothing I can think of so far

Jason had him on a leash tight enough to suffocate. It was simultaneously as binding as it was embarrassing, so he was loathe to bring attention to it. But they needed to meet. Iron Bull had just arrived - how many more of them would come before the next arena?

It had everything to do with planning and nothing to do with a growing anxiety about making sure they were all okay. Nothing.

The notes came first. Carefully drawn notes with the Inquisition eye at the top, and a sketch of the training room at the bottom, requesting the attendance of the Inquisition and any of her allies that they'd happened to make. He didn't send notes to anyone outside the Inquisition - he trusted them to bring anyone that they thought was worthy. They could use all the help they could get.

The time was set for three in the morning - late enough that Jason would not be awake to keep Dorian from slipping out of the District Suites in the middle of the night and taking the elevator right down to the training hall. (He was getting used to that box.)

He wrung his hands before he stepped into the room. He wasn't nervous. How utterly ridiculous.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Garrus let go of his wrist almost immediately, leaning back against the wall he had taken up residence on for the time being.

"Yeah, I'd say nearly a year now, Shepard has been here longer than even me." He'll sigh, it certainly wasn't something that made him happy to think about. "Seven arenas for me, and it looks like an eighth one soon."

"Seven?" he echoed, clearly caught off guard by it. He'd known, obviously, that some had been in the Capitol longer, but that long... Did that mean there truly was no way out? No going back? He'd wanted to hope, despite Dorian's theory, there might -- that there was a chance.

It read on his face, surprise shifting into a disappointment. Regret.

"So this is really all there is. These 'games' one after the other, until we either either or die."

"Some people have been here longer than I have so they've seen even more of them," he really didn't know how to explain how they were there or if there was a chance they'd get back home. Maybe there was but it so far hadn't made itself clear.

"You die in the games, the Capitol is just kind enough to revive us to play it all over again." Seven times he'd died, twice he'd almost won, coming in second both times, but was there any finality to it, he didn't think so, unless the capitol found you a traitor of simply not getting the ratings you once did in the beginning.

"Very kind of them," he echoed lowly, tone making it clear just how grateful he was.

He took a breath, and forced it back out a moment later.

He'd deal with that possibility later - if and when - it presented itself. Right now, they were trying to prepare.

"...Your Commander hopes we might be able to reach an alliance. How do you feel about that?"

"An alliance would be one of the better ideas going into the Arena. I brought the subject up to Cassandra when we were sparring. Not sure if she was entirely comfortable with the idea of alliances outside of your group." he rubbed the back of his neck, looking around the room at some of the others that were gathered around.

"Here's the thing, alliances need to stand outside of the arena as well, you're not safe when you get back here in the Capitol. We're monitored, constantly, and they will come after us here as well if you're not careful." Even saying that much might have him being monitored more closely for a few days, last thing he needed was to get hauled into questioning by the peacekeepers.

"I would say she's open to trying it," Maxwell replied. "She's the one who suggested it to us."

He turned slightly toward Garrus - would that make a difference to anyone listening? No, probably not, but it was a hard thing to imagine, however often he heard it.

"How does it help out here?" he asked as carefully as he could. "With all their power, surely there's little changing their mind once they've decided."

Were there perhaps options still open to them?

"She continues to surprise me," he didn't believe that Cassandra would've taken any of his warnings to heart, but it seemed that she had, or at least thought of it as enough of a threat to bring it up.

"If there's one thing I've learned: never underestimate the power of allies, even small ones, they can really turn things in your favour even if everything seems bleak. For all the Capitol's power, they can't see everything, constantly."

He didn't say it, but it was there on his face - a little ease of tension around his eyes and mouth.

That was comforting to hear.

(All he needed, was just a silver of hope.)

"I'd advise getting used to that," he said instead. Cassandra presumably the safer topic to linger on if they were being watched. "She is full of them."

A soldier like no other on the surface, and a romantic dreamer underneath.

"...In fact, I think we all might, if we can come to an arraignment that suits everyone."

"I've dealt with enough soldiers and various warriors, I'm sure there can be arrangements made without too much bloodshed. Although broken noses might happen if Shepard gets close enough to that guy with the moustache again." It was a slight joke but he'd seen Shepard punch people for less and he wasn't about to comment on any of her decisions.

He was glad that this group seemed to be in a similar head space as Shepard's crew had been; stick together, stay alive.

"Some snipping is to be expected," he replied, mouth twitching slightly. "And not necessarily a bad thing."

Good-naturedly, it would help forge friendships, cement bonds - he knew that only too well.

"As long as it doesn't impact effectiveness."

"It shouldn't, unless he does something to really piss Shepard off." He wasn't going to say that people like that usually ended up dead at least once. But it was a possibility unless they were in an allegiance, which was seemingly highly likely.

It was almost funny how they kept saying that, as if it were merely on Dorian's shoulders and Shepard weren't entirely capable of instigating an argument herself - especially when he'd seen otherwise within a few moments of knowing her.

"Dorian is many things," he replied simply, "but he's not so foolish as to risk the success of a mission or the safety of his friends over anything so petty."

Maxwell had every confidence that if things truly got difficult, he, at least would be big enough to simply leave the woman be.

"I'm sure it's not entirely his fault, Shepard just has limited patience, and almost none when it comes to certain topics." He chuckled knowing that it was likely far from entirely Dorian's fault, but if he was anything like Cullen in getting explosively defensive, Garrus wasn't surprised that Shepard wanted to deck him.

"We're all adults here," he replied mildly with a thoughtful side-long look at Garrus. "Or at least I assume so, I'll admit I haven't met the remaining member of your group."

He didn't look any stranger than Garrus, but those eyes - even from a distance - were disconcerting.

"We are, Thane's middle aged for his race." He clarified, relaxing a bit and glancing around the room. "So unless you have anyone under age I guess we can all legally get into the bar without having to sneak someone in when we get back from the arena."

"Good to hear," he replied, smiling mildly. "Though we should probably wait to see if we have anything worth celebrating before we start counting our rounds."

They didn't know how the arena would go. Didn't know yet how this tentative alliance would withstand.

"But if we all survive, the first one's me, you have my word."

War Room One

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I apologize for this being so super late!

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