[ there is something innately calming about the sounds of food. not of eating, necessarily, but the clinking of silverware. of bowls and plates and cups being picked up and set down again. it's a sound he's always been drawn to, but he knows that has little to do with the sounds themselves and everything to do with the shape it makes. the place it holds. hell, he's sitting in his sister's house at this exact moment. he doesn't need to be focusing on silverware. and yet here he is.

sam snorts, once, at the sarcasm in stephen's words. quite the host, indeed. sam's brow arches, arms crossed over the front of his chest. ] He try and tear you apart too? [ which is...skipping through a lot of the build up. of how it was sam who came looking for him, sam who wouldn't budge. sam, who probably could have been a bit more diplomatic, who probably could have avoided provoking him.

it's inevitable. well, at last goro's consistent. ]

He's using the Cities and their distrust of magic to force Marlo's hand take action against Solvunn. Held a rally a few days ago just to provoke a march on the government buildings. [ and that's...really the long and short of it. he doesn't know where stephen stands in terms of background info, and truthfully, sam doesn't remember what all thorne felt towards the other countries. he's officially been in the cities for longer than he was in thorne, and even then, it feels like everything is escalating.

sam frowns. it's pretty obvious how he feels about all of this. ] He said that because the war's inevitable, he might as well give it a push.