( jade is offering a very useful and thoughtful lens beyond the assumptions clarke had first walked away with, and then natsuno's coming out of left field with more supportive evidence — but most pressingly, the idea that the captain might be a shadow of some sort of human himself.

and hey, is there paper and pen easily accessible? if so, she's commandeering any items in her immediate vicinity to start jotting down their rap-scrabble collection of tidbits and notes. a furious chicken scratch of bullet points to touch on everything the three of them has divulged, in no particular order of importance. )

Okay, so. The most important part there is figuring out how to make him lose his composure. And thus his grip on magic.

( she is not from a world what contains magic, but likens it most to a hand getting so sweaty it can no longer grip a sword hilt or reliably pull a trigger. to losing enough composure you can no longer form rational thoughts, to getting so angry you sweep the contents of your desk onto the floor without thought, and don't notice that a shard of glass from your inkwell has sliced deeply into your palm. )

Any plan to overpower him would bank on catching him by surprise, and at his weakest. That part's not up for consideration, which I guess means... That's the part we'd have to test first.

( there's a sidelong glance at natsuno here, because clarke doesn't consider this a big leap from when she suggested at least one of them stay on friday's good side. and out of the two other occupants in the room, she cares the most that he understands what she means.

someone may have to talk a fall. )

How do you exploit arrogance and vanity, and how do you undermine suffering? How do you disrupt chaos without knowing the rulebook?