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Who: Thán, Benjamin Link, Varric Tethras
When: ...sometime in January
Where: starting in Thán's room
What: Varric pays his respects/noses around
Warnings: None right now!

He was slightly surprised to receive a letter in return - not a missive requesting his presence somewhere, or something equally impersonal, but an actual letter. It already says something about this Thán - whether it speaks to something genuine or calculated is something he's just going to have to figure out along the way. But if he's going to be stuck here until this ship reaches its mysterious destination, with no one he knows and few people who have even heard of what he is, he'll have time enough.

But he waits little more than what seems a polite amount of time after receiving the letter to make his way to what the map he recently discovered tells him is the captain's room and, regardless of whether or not there's any kind of chime on the door, he raps on it firmly. Another shake of the head at the metallic clunk under his gloves - he just can't get used to that - and he waits.

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Thán opens the door a few moments after the knock, stepping aside to gesture him inside.

"Varric. I wasn't expecting you."

Not that he minds, of course, since he had asked him to come by as soon as he was available. Since introductions are polite, and Thán isn't alone in the room, he gestures to himself and the man behind him as he shuts the door.

"I'm Thán and this is Benjamin. Make yourself comfortable."

"Hello, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Since this is the first crew member Ben has had the opportunity to meet, he's very cordial, reserved even. He isn't sure what sort of crew this is, though he has his suspicions, but since he'll be living here for a while, he'll keep that to himself.

"We were just talking about how the crew functions. Where the ship is going. You should join us."

Would he have still turned up had he known he was going to walk in on the captain and his brand new betrothed? ...Of course he would have; he would have made a point of it, so there's a part of him, the highly nosy part (which is most of Varric) that's pretty satisfied with his timing.

So when he steps into Thán's quarters and sees the man just as Thán affects an introduction, he looks first surprised, then a flicker of a pleased grin starts to spread across his face as he bows his head first to Benjamin, then in one fluid motion to Thán as well.

"The pleasure is mine." He goes to sit down, and Varric isn't the perching sort - he sits back in that chair like he belongs in it, has belonged in it all along. If there's even a hint of unease that he's meeting the captain of the ship - the captain of a ship he can't even begin to understand - he'll be damned if he's going to show it.

"Funnily enough, that's exactly what I was here to ask about." He grins in a slightly wry way, gesturing to Benjamin. "I think we may have had some of the same questions."

Thán takes a seat on the couch, about midway between the end Benjamin is on and the chair where Varric is sitting. He's not necessarily uncomfortable having him here, just uncertain what sort of 'relationship' they could even have with everything that's going on.

"I was explaining how we've been slowly trying to get the ship in order. That.."

He thinks of how there's never quite enough crew to do the jobs that are needed.

"We've had some trouble in the past and are working to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Benjamin stands and stretches out an arm to shake Varric's hand, sitting back down right after. He might not exactly like what's going on, this situation wasn't ideal, but he did want to leave and travel, so he'd at least get to do that much. Thán didn't seem so bad, but he still had to get to know him better.

"Caducus Primary, right?" He looks to Thán to make sure that's the name of the planet that the crew had had a part in its destruction. "I was telling Thán that he should consider penning a peace missive to send to the survivors and their people. It only makes sense to attempt some form of an apology."

Perhaps he'd do it himself, on the crew's behalf.

Taking absolute first impressions into account, both men seem the quieter, serious types. Not the type, he finds himself thinking, to usually become a captain of a ship. Quartermaster, maybe, if he was well-liked enough. But a captain - that usually requires power and friends in high places, and neither of those are easily won by being the 'quieter, more serious type'.

So there's that to ponder on.

He hasn't heard of any specific ship trouble - rumblings against this world they've stopped at, sure, a lot of that - but his brow quirks at Thán's comment...and his eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline at the mention of peace missives.

"I haven't been around long enough to have heard about this," he says, leaning forward slightly. "What in the world did we do that was bad enough to need a peace missive?"

A split-second's consideration went into whether to say 'you' or 'we' there.

Thán hadn't always been a captain, hadn't actually chose this profession. It was more of the it fell into his lap arrangement, which is something that he would now have in common with Benjamin. Though, he supposes, it's not quite the same considering that Benjamin doesn't want to be in a position of authority over the crew, and Thán wouldn't ask him to do that.

"We were there gathering supplies."

He shifts, very much uncomfortable. Fortunately, he'd already aired his dirty laundry to Benjamin and wasn't worried about that necessarily.

"They mistook us for thieves and asked us to leave. When we weren't finished in time, which was an error on my part, they tried to force us and one of our own was triggered.." He glances at Benjamin.

"The on-planet Ingress was damaged and the planet was destroyed. Many people lost their lives."

He knows the weight of that might be unbearable, but he doesn't let that show in his expression. Benjamin does lean over and give Thán a pat on the shoulder, more friendly than romantic.

"I believe sending out a missive might help smooth things over. No matter what Thán's thought process was, or whether the accusations of theft are true or not, the destruction was accidental and is what they'd be upset over. Loss of life and home."

Benjamin raises a brow, glancing at Thán then over at Varric.

"You should help me talk him into it."

Varric listens intently through the story as each man takes his turn with it. There's a lot of ways the story could go and he's waiting for the worst, but neither man could possibly miss the way Varric's eyes widen as he stiffens in his chair and lets out a sound something close to an 'oof', like all the air in his lungs has escaped in protest. He can't fathom the destruction of a planet, and that isn't what he pictures. He sees in his mind's eye a ruined landscape - desolate, unlivable, its occupants decimated. The power to do that alone would be a phenomenal one to be able to wield on purpose, but accidentally? It's beyond reckoning.

The Ingress on board, though in another room several decks away in the aft (he's slowly been memorising this shit. Slowly) is suddenly painfully clear in his imagination.

At least, he reasons, Thán's being open about this - to Benjamin, to the random new crew member who just walked in and sat down like he owned the place. It's better than a slow trickle of information giving him the wrong idea far more slowly. That said, he might have a better time asking another crew member just where the accusations of theft came from. Wrong or not, lies or not, they came from somewhere.

If there's one thing Varric loves, though, it's being asked to talk. It takes him a moment to gather his thoughts for it - accident it may be, but the very possibility of it has left him as cold as if the void outside has started sinking into his gut.

"The way I see it..." He starts slowly, "there are two ways of looking at it. Like a diplomat or like a businessman. A missive isn't going to make these people just forgive and forget what they've lost...but it's a start. We did them wrong, and the least we can do is show penance. Missives, peace offerings, whatever we can do for them. To be honest, I don't know what you can do for a destroyed planet.

"As a businessman..." He gestures to himself. "It's damage control. if the news gets out that we show up to places, break everything and run away without so much as an 'I'm sorry' afterwards, no one's going to want us as house guests. Hell, they might want to stop us ever showing up anywhere at all, if you catch my meaning. This just might make things easier for us."

Thán settles back on the couch, eyes downcast as he considers what they're both saying. Frowning at the way Benjamin nods at what Varric says, how they're both in agreement that something needs to be done. It's not that Thán doesn't agree, he does, he's just not sure how to go about it all without making it into something huge that could cause them more problems.

"I'm not a businessman, but I am a diplomat. At least, I used to be. I would be more comfortable taking that stance, but perhaps we could combine the two?

He leans forward, glancing at Benjamin and then focusing on Varric.

"I believe that a few rough drafts are in order, that I would need to begin to write it out and then maybe you and Benjamin could read it over and alter it as you see fit?"

Benjamin shakes his head, only to stop the movement he realizes that Thán is at least going to try to make things right. He had assumed, like his parents, that this man was something of a fortune hunter in the universe or perhaps like so many others in this universe, out for themselves with no thought to anyone else.

He's pleased that he's surprised by this, that Thán shows he's capable of at least trying, and whether it's because he truly cares or not, he'll have to learn as they get to know each other better.

"We wouldn't want that. From what I've been told, our trip back to the creators of the Ingress will take some time. More than could be made on one cargo supply run. We'll need to make sure that nothing hinders the process."

He tips his head to the side, and then nods, firmly.

"I'll help look it over. My father is a businessman, and taught me what he knows."

He hadn't been sure whether to expect a refusal or not himself. Sending something is just good sense, in his mind, although deciding not to send one and escaping into the galaxy to forever escape one's responsibilities isn't exactly something he'd judge. It's just going to make life easier for them all to...not do that.

But Benjamin is surprised too, and he's not sure if that's comforting or not.

"I'd be happy to look it over." Genuinely, both to have some idea of what's going on and because if he's going to be on this ship for the duration, he has a pretty damn vested interest in making sure they don't starve or... Well, not sink. Fall apart in the void? Blow up? Who knows. "I'm more a fiction writer than a diplomatic missive writer, but I promise not to suggest too much purple prose. If I can help it."

He leans back, rests one elbow on the arm of the chair so he gesture with that hand. "Just how long is this journey likely to take? If it's going to be that long, we want to try to put a stop to the rumour mill before it gets going too strongly. You know how these things can turn into a game of Grapevine if you're not careful. It starts with a simple, 'this ship destroyed a planet by accident' and ends in 'this ship is on a mission of war to kill us all one planet at a time' if you don't quash it."

Thán nods to them both, and even though he doesn't show it, he's glad that they've both decided to get involved. It makes it all a little easier to move past if he knows that there are others helping him.

"Hopefully not much longer. It all depends on how quickly we move through, but the stops we make slow us down. We've discussed it and we don't believe that it would be good for the crew to go too quickly."

He pauses, leaning back against the couch.

"I mean, as someone who's traveled many places, I know that people don't handle being cooped up for long. It's good for mental health to stop."

Benjamin's frowning during all of this, watching Thán closely for tells or signs that he's lying. He doesn't see any, and he's always been good at discerning dishonesty. He does, however, disagree to a point with his last statement.

"It is good for crew to get out, take a breather once in a while, but at the same time, the longer this trip takes, the more antsy everyone will get."

A head tilt, tapping his chin a few times in thought.

"I say we optimize. Get more crew on cargo, make sure that is taken care of immediately with each stop we make. Then let the crew have their fun and then move on."

Varric is doing much the same as Benjamin here the whole time Thán speaks - watching carefully, the hint of a frown playing across his features. He's done business with a few too many good liars to not be ready for it...but he sees nothing.

"If my opinion counts for anything, that sounds like a good idea. The more people dealing with cargo quickly, the longer the crew has shore leave. I've known a couple of ship captains - long pit stops and a little persuasion for as many crew as possible to get involved in the big jobs.

"Granted, the ship captains I know were pirates and the big jobs were mostly raids, but we can, ah, gently adapt the general idea."

And out of sheer personal curiosity: "How long do you expect this trip to take? Assuming everything goes to plan from this point on."

These things never do, but it's a start.

Thán finds himself enraptured with the conversation they're having. He's not so much a social person as he'd like to be, but it's nice that he's able to hold a lengthy and important discussion without angering anyone.

"When we made the trip that brought us out this far, it took us close to three years. We didn't stop nearly as much, but when we did, we stayed far longer."

He considers it, counts the time.

"But if we didn't stop at all and could travel from the exact point we are now to there. Three to four months."

Ben raises a brow, cutting in.

"So you're saying that it could be a short trip we if do everything we can to make sure it stays that way?"

He nods his head, folding his arms over his chest.

"That's not as bad as I thought it would be."

Varric raises one eyebrow. No, it's not as bad as he thought. He'd expected - well, he hadn't really put a specific number to what he expected, but it wasn't that short.

"But let me guess - we'll have to take the long way round and make quite a few more stops before we get there?"

He's never been one for unhealthy amounts of optimism.

His brow raises as well, but he's always favored the bold, so Thán doesn't give him a hard time over it.

"We'll definitely have to be careful, if that's what you're asking."

Ben rolls his eyes at the pair of them. He can understand, to a degree, Thán and the other captains unwillingness to be completely honest. It was hard to find a balance of honesty that would make everyone happy.

"It's different for me, considering that I've chosen to leave my home, but I'd like to see as much as possible on our trip."

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