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[ninefox]

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[ninefox]

"It's open!" he calls. He's sitting cross-legged in a chair he dragged from the table to set in front of Jedao's fish tank, half-twisted to look over at Quentin as he comes in.

After hearing Quentin's reasons, a small, bright burst of laughter catches him by surprise.

"Jedao's notes do seem...a bit too dramatic to take seriously."

[magician_king]

"Like what?"

He asks, quietly. He had been planning to cut and run, but now he's curious.

"Some of it's probably true. He overreacts to weird things."

Like ducks, for example.

[ninefox]

"He's got pages trying to figure out how the prejudices work, and whether or not Steve is fucking with him about some kind of elaborate legal hallucinogen called a bill of rights? And there's an entire screed on the Festival that doesn't know if it's about monsters or not. Would you like tea?" he asks, because despite how few people he ever invites into his quarters on the Citadel, he still understands propriety.

[magician_king]

"The bill of rights isn't a hallucinogen, it's one of the founding documents of the country."

He says, brow furrowing.

"Tea would be nice, thank you. Do- you mean Halloween?"

[ninefox]

"A legal hallucinogen is like a legal fiction, but moreso," Jedao says. "And more volatile, I think? I'm not a rahal, I don't know when he picked up the nuances."

Jedao unfolds and gets Jedao's tea set down from a cupboard. His movements with it aren't as thoughtlessly smooth as Jedao's, but he clearly knows how it basically works.

"Strongly caffeinated, right?"

[magician_king]

"Oh god, this is my least favourite argument." But he's going to get into it anyways. "So your whole world, thing, all this memetic warfare and ritual and stuff, you know that at a certain point it was developed, right? Created, invented?"

[ninefox]

"Given that we know the inventor, it should be hard to miss," he says dourly. "But how is writing a document any less of an invention?"

[magician_king]

"So what do you imagine government was like before he came along?"

Pausing this train of thought.

[ninefox]

"I barely know how it worked after. He said children used to starve. Which certainly has less visual panache than remembrances, I'll give him that," Jedao says, unassuming but deep and cold, like the glassy surface atop a shaft of well-water.

[magician_king]

"That's true. My world still has scarcity. The cost of anarchic disorganiation and total freedom is tremendous inequality."

Says Quentin, with a soft frown.

"But that happens because we do enshrine the rights of the individual."

[ninefox]

"It does seem like sort of an unstable philosophy. Even if he can't be fair about it," Jedao murmurs, diplomatically.

[magician_king]

"Oh, it's a terrible system. It's like Democracy in that way- awful, except for every single other system out there."

He says, with a small smile.

[ninefox]

"It seems a bit myopic for one planet running on invariants to assume they've already tried everything," Jedao observes.

[magician_king]

"It's a joke."

Anyways;

"The point is, all individual rights are not a fiction, all literature and art is not propaganda-"

[ninefox]

"Jokes can be revealing. And of course rights are a fiction."

His opinions on art, at least, are more forgiving.

[magician_king]

"You are so frustrating, I swear to God."

Says Quentin, irrepressible sentiment leaping right past that initial caution. He never falls down for long.

"Well the book is by David Sedaris, he's a writer who does funny absurdist stuff about American life and nervousness."

[ninefox]

"Rights are the fiction that what you have determined to be moral treatment has some objective and inherent quality that can be observed in the recipients. The benefits of such a fiction are saving time re-deriving one's positions, erring on the side of generosity, and strengthening cultural commitment. The detriment is that if you forget it's a fiction, and anyone ever notices that there is no such objective quality, you have also forgotten how to show your work."

He wrote an essay about it once, as a refutation of a Liozh treatise that was old even four hundred years ago. Perhaps he won't take the white. He's smiling, a little, even if only because he's certain that answer is at least differently frustrating than Jedao's would have been.

"That sounds wonderful, though." And he means it: he reads very little comedy, although he semi-secretly loves the silliest dramas Hemiola has in its roster. He probably ought to laugh more.

It's time, and he pours. "I'm sorry, Jedao wrote a lot about you, but not how you like your tea?"

[magician_king]

"Black."

He says, distracted by the fact that;

"Wait, Jedao writes about me?"

It never would have occurred to him in a million years.

[ninefox]

Jedao snorts.

"Well, he left his flood selves profiles on like half the ship, which I think are probably only about 15% intentionally misleading as a precaution against being replaced by an asshole, but yours is extra long. After several paragraphs of introductory swooning, I've been thoroughly assured that if I do anything to hurt you, you'll turn me into a gadfly and feed me to the carp, but also that you're a bit misty and need looking after. I'm supposed to bring you food at least once a day, carbohydrates and protein, preferably snackable finger food. But I haven't yet because I hate people pushing food on me. Should I?"

[magician_king]

"No, I'm okay."

He says, lifting the teacup to his mouth, thoughtfully, thinking back mentally and wondering, does Jedao really feed him once a day? He definitely knows he ends up snacking with him in bed often while they read, it hadn't occurred to him where that food all came from.

"He's swoony?"

[ninefox]

"He calls you an oasis of the soul. It's genuinely mortifying."

Worse because Jedao can kind of see it.

[magician_king]

"Oh my God."

Says Quentin, going tomato red.

"Jesus Lord, he's. That's." He takes it about as graciously as he takes the 'thank you,' but Jedao isn't here for him to argue with about it. He just up and says; "Is it inappropriate if I admit to you that I didn't think I'd be able to feel like this again? The last time I loved someone, people got hurt."

[ninefox]

Jedao swallows.

"I...don't know what's appropriate. But I can understand the feeling."

[magician_king]

"He has, and you seem to share, this ability to just. Exist with this tremendous density. Gravitationally. Magnetic. Like of course it's all proper and good that we slide into your orbit."

And, clearing his throat, trying to control his blush.

"It's nice to hear that he values me too."

[ninefox]

"Have I?" he asks softly, a wistful thought given breath. It's funny to imagine. His world is so small, now. And the rest, with his swarm, always felt like walking around in his big brother's jacket.

He focuses.

"If he hasn't said he loves you, it's entirely because he knows or figured out the bad history thing, and he doesn't want to hurt or pressure you."