katabasis | inbox.

[Oh fuck you.]

Not if you first feed them full of drugs and liquor then ask them to sail around the harbor, they aren't.

Hm. Maybe they need better training.

[ Then, so he doesn't push Flint far enough that he hangs up on him - ]

Because they are reliable. You can't say that about any scallywag hired from the Kirkwall docks.

[They're reliably likely to stab someone. Reliably guaranteed to be split down the middle about the prospect of working for the pleasure of some rich assholes, extravagant compensation or otherwise. He says no, he's fucked; he says yes, he's fucked. Either way there will be grievances to sort.]

Consider the benefit of an extravagant party on land where no one is at risk of falling overboard. I can't imagine the Provost would approve of encouraging more turn over in the Inquisition's leadership.

Hm? What's that?

[ He laughs - ]

Aren't you a fussing mother hen all of a sudden! Isn't the life of a pirate supposed to be carefree? Indifferent to all danger and strife?

[Have some goddamn mercy, Byerly.]

When is this meant to happen?

[ never. ]

I was thinking - two weeks from now? Thereabouts.

What's your offer?

[This is a living nightmare.]

Hm. Let's say -

[ and here he names an amount of gold that I could probably figure out after researching thedas economics but I'm not gonna. It's appropriate but not, like, remarkably generous. ]

[Dragon Age money, like real money, is stupid.]

Plus ten casks of wine reserved to the crew - five for the men working the Tevene ship and five to be delivered to the Walrus after. I also require some novelties of whatever design pleases you [gilt children's telescopes or eyepatches embroidered with bare tits on the inside for all he cares] to be supplied to every hand on the Tevene ship. You broker a separate deal with Vane or Bonaventura to captain the damn thing, but I choose the route and I select the men.

[Fuck, this is exhausting.]

Hm. I get right of refusal on them if they're not pleasing to the eye. Why the novelties?

[You'll get who I give you, a low noise seems to say.]

So they can trade it or lord it over their peers once they've done the work.

[The bickering might serve to distract the crew from arriving at more legitimate complaints.]