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the senate floor
( ooc: The following video network transmission can be seen and answered by everyone in Ephes, including all characters in the party, politically oriented or otherwise. Key notes:
■ Everyone can tag in, threadjack or pose questions. Don't forget to introduce yourselves and your patron, if you want!
■ NPCs (politicians or rabble) can witness your characters' comments and also speak up, ask questions, cheer or boo as needed.
■ There is no private messaging available in this post.
■ Various Senators may be swayed to give you their vote, based on the speeches of fellow politicians and supporters of Messalina. Everyone else can assist and/or sabotage as needed!
■ This is dated to the Tenth Day of Chaining, before Maximus Faustus' banquet on the Twelfth. Consider the post OOCly available for tagging with NPCs until 4 October, but permanently available for threadjacking between characters! )
 | SPEAKER HORTENSIUS MAGNUS: Good people of Ephes, good women, good men. I come to bring you the wisdom of the Honourable Caius Justus, who, but for a greater calling, would walk today these sacred halls among us — |
 | A senator, muffled: Where is he? Where is Justus? Another, farther back: ...hasn’t been seen for days, for weeks, they say, what wisdom is this? With his whore, Valeria... A third, closer: He is alive, we know it sure? We know it certain? |
 | CAELIUS SILVANUS: Forgive our impunity, Speaker, but it is only fear and care that keep us grounded in our great uncertainty over the fate of beloved Caius Justus! Who, we do not wish to contend has abandoned his duties and obligations, before this honoured assembly and men of good standing, whom he has not conceded to see in — |
 | RHEA SABINIA: What care, Silvanus? You nip at his heels like a dog on a bone, you have no rest! |
| CAELIUS SILVANUS: I have a right. As do all men and women here, fine men and fine women, full not of whim and verve but of reason and inquiry, and we wish to know where. Is. Caius? What is to become of us? What of Mistress Messalina, whose plea remains unheard for months? |
| RHEA SABINIA: Father and mercy, these are the days of our Chained Father, you want to speak of war now? Repent and think better of your — |
 | MARIANUS VALERIUS: Though it pains me to agree, for we all know our past discontent, but Silvanus speaks with reason. A day of no qualms will never come. We have dead things at our gates, living in our villas, drinking our wine, and making demands of us! We must turn. Her. Away. |
 | MAXIMUS FAUSTUS: And why? |
| A senator, muffled: ...why? Another, farther back: He asks why! Maximus Faustus asks why! A third, closer: Well, isn't it obvious? Isn't it plain? |
| MAXIMUS FAUSTUS: Is it? Months past, we sent Captain Narula to task, we told him, raise us armies, and by the Chained God, he has done. The best, the finest of the realm, absent only the skilled command to win us victory. |
| MARIANUS VALERIUS: If he is so honoured and so accomplished, that feral wolf, Narula, why do you not entrust him? |
| SPEAKER HORTENSIUS MAGNUS: As we know, Caius Justus holds Captain Narula in great esteem, but has had his reasons to... |
| MAXIMUS FAUSTUS: Caius Justus is not here. But one thing is certain, in my heart, as should be in yours: he is a beloved son of Ephes, who in turn loves the mother citadel above all. He wishes her splendour and her growth, and Messalina would give it. |
| RHEA SABINIA: How magnanimous she is! She would give us our war spoils, won with our armies! |
| MAXIMUS FAUSTUS: Would you have us only gain reward, taking no risk? Have you won a single coin piece in your sour life? One must pay and compromise in any alliance! |
| MARIANUS VALERIUS: If she is so accomplished, why does she not conquer her citadels alone? Why does she not repel evil, and free her people? Why is she at our gate, begging? Are these not her people? Should she not speak to them, as we speak, brother to brother, in this assembly? Perhaps it is simply that the dead are not civilised. They cannot be trusted. They must be repelled. Why take chances against us? Against Ephes? |
| MAXIMUS FAUSTUS: Valerius, your father’s father owned ships for fishmongering, but by the Chained, have no fear, the stink has finally washed off you. You reek instead of cowardice! |
| MARIANUS VALERIUS: You dare? |
| SPEAKER HORTENSIUS MAGNUS: Sileeeeeeeeeeence! Silence! This assembly asks silence! It is shamed into rumination and overcome by the illustrious rhetoric of such esteemed speakers. The Senate will hear... from our youngest tribunes, good citizens and representatives, on such matters as Mistress Messalina and the dead. Our scribe will write down the opinions for the study of Caius Justus himself, and have no fear, Silvanus, he will soon be with us. Now, whoever has a learned opinion: speak. |
no subject
SPEAKER HORTENSIUS MAGNUS
My dear friend, you are young, and you are new in your position. And all men who are possessed of youth and novelty think they are the first to be afflicted by such circumstances. They assume their arguments have never been spoken before! But indeed they have. This great and wise Senate takes pleasure in debate and in the greater refinement of understanding that comes from conflicting notions. Arguing is of help.
no subject
( He won't. He tries to imagine the Ten Devils allowed to debate and the very thought has him shuddering. Changing Ghost would pontificate to the point where Wen Kexing would have to kill him just for some peace. )
Is Mistress Messalina not here to answer for herself? How are you to find out what it is she wants if you spend your time with such ... circular discourse?
no subject
Colleague. I wonder what my dear friend Servius Flaccus would say, to know his protegee speaks both so freely and uncouthly in a gathering that is not obliged to hear him. Messalina has presented her plea already. It was heard. For understandable fear of retribution against those who do not support her case, she cannot be allowed to witness the discussions of the vote.
no subject
So there is some fear then? Good, I'd worried you'd all lost your heads.
( They remind him irritatingly of the Five Lakes and their never-ending discourse. It's almost enough to make him want to incite violence again, if only for something to do. Zhou Zishu isn't even here to judge him for it. )
Has there even been an account of the type of people she hides in her camp? Or are you merely taking her good word?