Cao Pi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pure_havoc) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
logsinthenight2019-12-09 01:08 pm
pure_havoc) wrote in logsinthenight2019-12-09 01:08 pm
Round 2 [open]
characters: Cao Pi and everyone who wants to show up
location: town hall
date/time: Dec. 8, starting at moonrise
content: Community meeting, take 2! After the Dreamer/Defender incident, there's a lot to talk about and Cao Pi has encouraged everyone to come and publicly share what they learned while asleep or what ideas they have to make the next massacre less massacre-y. Feel free to handwave catching his post or hearing about it from a friend.
warnings: none likely but lmk if that changes. Threadjacking likely; if you don't want to be threadjacked, make some sort of indication.
As before, Cao Pi arrives ahead of time to ensure the town hall is ready for a session, righting any chairs that might have been thrown about in recent melees and checking the logbook for recent information. When a fair amount of people have arrived and he can see the waxing moon rising through the leafless trees outside, he rises to begin with a short intro.
"By now we know that those who succumbed to the food at the feast had a strange experience - they shared dreams with each other, in which they found themselves seeing Beacon as it was in the past. I encourage all those who dreamed, and remember it well, please tell us all what you saw. There may be considerable clues to our purpose and progress in even the smallest detail.
"The rest of us, well. We managed to make it through and I believe those who were killed are whole again, but for our part we can go over what worked and what didn't. Defending ourselves isn't merely a matter of being trained to use weapons. The spirits which attacked were formidable, powerful. We will need more than just our strength to outlast another attack. Ideas are welcome, as is any new information we have on everything from communications to threats."
That's all he'll ramble about this time, he'll take a seat and allow others to have the floor before he makes any more grandiose speeches.
location: town hall
date/time: Dec. 8, starting at moonrise
content: Community meeting, take 2! After the Dreamer/Defender incident, there's a lot to talk about and Cao Pi has encouraged everyone to come and publicly share what they learned while asleep or what ideas they have to make the next massacre less massacre-y. Feel free to handwave catching his post or hearing about it from a friend.
warnings: none likely but lmk if that changes. Threadjacking likely; if you don't want to be threadjacked, make some sort of indication.
As before, Cao Pi arrives ahead of time to ensure the town hall is ready for a session, righting any chairs that might have been thrown about in recent melees and checking the logbook for recent information. When a fair amount of people have arrived and he can see the waxing moon rising through the leafless trees outside, he rises to begin with a short intro.
"By now we know that those who succumbed to the food at the feast had a strange experience - they shared dreams with each other, in which they found themselves seeing Beacon as it was in the past. I encourage all those who dreamed, and remember it well, please tell us all what you saw. There may be considerable clues to our purpose and progress in even the smallest detail.
"The rest of us, well. We managed to make it through and I believe those who were killed are whole again, but for our part we can go over what worked and what didn't. Defending ourselves isn't merely a matter of being trained to use weapons. The spirits which attacked were formidable, powerful. We will need more than just our strength to outlast another attack. Ideas are welcome, as is any new information we have on everything from communications to threats."
That's all he'll ramble about this time, he'll take a seat and allow others to have the floor before he makes any more grandiose speeches.
no subject
"Things might have not been so dire if the spirits had waited until everyone had done so. I personally had my cup to my lips when everyone next to me slumped over. Would you condemn a man who was but seconds away from eating? What if such a man was used to watching others be poisoned at dinner by a political rival? Can you, perhaps, forgive that man for deciding not to drink?"
He shakes his head, then, doing his best not to pace or make a fuss. "What happened cannot be undone. We can second-guess ourselves after the fact all we want, but in the light of information provided by both Commander Rosinante and Master Riku, it still seems in our best interests to protect one another and prevent further death. That is the real matter, here, not whether or not anyone should have eaten at a feast."
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Bruce doesn't return the smile but he doesn't scowl either. If he were in another mood, if he were capable of anything around the yawning emptiness in his stomach, perhaps he would have played along. Instead there is a kind of perpetual impassivity that settles over his shoulders, that he wears like a shroud.
"My forgiveness is irrelevant. It is the spirits that were offended."
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"Perhaps, but they were also the ones to make the first mistake. To attack rather than wait." He nods toward Riku again. "Master Riku made a breakthrough, he managed to convince them that we meant no offense and only had to defend ourselves. They are trying to tell us something, but as with any difficulty translating between languages, they made some missteps. We had no choice but to dance with those missteps at the time. Now, we know a little more than we did. But next time..."
Zihuan would like to believe that just by making some kind of truce using the network, everything would be smooth sailing from here on out. But he's a pragmatist and doesn't think it will be easy at all. "They could be manipulated. Forced, as we were when we all hallucinated phantoms. It could be no fault of their own. But just as one cannot reason with a rabid wolf that has lost its senses, 'oh please Lord Wolf I am not your enemy do not bite me,' we will still have to defend ourselves. And that is what I would like to collaborate toward. I have no interest in continuing to talk about what might have been. Let us move forward, or else lay down here to die so that we don't offend the spirits any further."
His last sentence is said somewhat sharper than the rest, his usual mellifluous tone evaporating rather rapidly. He's entertained the philosophical long enough, it's time to talk concrete solutions instead.
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Bruce does not separate the philosophical from the pragmatic, not because he fears action but because he knows that any choice will come with a cost. He would rather know precisely what he is to pay for before that happens. His hands fold into his pockets and though the other man nods in Riku's direction, Bruce's gaze doesn't move from his face. "After all, their numbers haven't suffered nearly as much as our own."
With anyone else he might experience some measure of hesitation before laying such a summary out. He's found that in broad strokes, people within Beacon tend to fall into two camps- those quick to adapt an Us-vs-Them mentality that promises to perpetuate fighting into the foreseeable future, and those who have begun to shake off the rules and expectations of their own world in an attempt to better analyze another. The way that Cao Pi chooses to respond will at least allow Bruce to solidify his understanding about which camp he chooses to publicly identify with.
"Surely you can see the wisdom in knowing your enemies." His hands remain at his sides, empty and still, but a single brow raises. Bruce too considers himself a pragmatist though there are many ways one might model the concept. "Talking about what might have been would better inform our actions in the future. As they've demonstrated many times already we are hardly their equal in strength, and what else would they conclude from a group that begins fortification and patrol except that we're prepared and willing to fight again? History is full of wars and skirmishes started this way."
It doesn't escape his notice that the capstone of Cao Pi's explanation has ended on such a fine point, but Bruce doesn't rise to meet it because it isn't in his nature. He isn't here to lecture or to spar and that's the reason his cadence remains so even and quiet.
"With your experience, I'm sure you've seen the adage hold true several times. Discretion as the better part of valor."
no subject
Riku is his best example of someone who managed to find a clue, despite several trying with various degrees of success. Cao Pi failed due to sarcasm. Lunafreya got only so far with their threats against her. So he keeps glancing at or gesturing toward the young man as he pontificates. "We know they mourn their dead. We know they would like to communicate with us but their efforts can come off wrong. What we don't know, yet, is if there is a hierarchy among them - say, for example, that the ones who live and interact with us in the town are of one sort, kind and eager, but there are others further away who are not at all interested in helping, who would rather kill us all, who have their own motives and don't agree with the friendly ones. We do need to learn more about them, for sure. But in the meantime, to leave ourselves entirely exposed out of some fear of looking too threatening is to invite other factions to come have their way with us." He gives Bruce a cool look. "In my experience, I have also seen innocent people who would like to simply be left alone trampled underfoot by the bigger neighbor next door who would very much not like to leave them alone."
no subject
They heard Jason in there, though. Jason knows Bruce. Jason might not mind breaking into that particular conversation.
Jason gets a ping on his tablet from "Soldier" that says, Spirits do have hierachy. The green-eyed ones are bosses and give out jobs and control the others. They hide from them if they don't want to do what the green-eyed ones want.
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I've been asked to pass along the message that they do have a hierarchy. Y'know. Give out orders to underlings. Something at least one of you is familiar with. [ and something the other will quickly get familiar with, judging by the quick glance he gives bruce before looking back to Cao Pi. ]
And they hide from their bosses if they don't want to do what they want. The bosses in this case are the green-eyeds.
Also, just gonna point out... you build a wall, and shit hits the fan again, how long you think that's gonna last? It's not a bad idea, but you can't do it alone.
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It would undoubtedly change all of his plans, and some ideas for that matter, going forward if this was confirmed. Wall be damned, this is important!
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[ who he figures could have interrupted if they wanted to be known. for now, he offers a shrug. ]
After my last conversation with them on the network, I wouldn't doubt that. Something smart enough to steal our words, even if they hate them, is smart enough to steal concepts, and tactics from us.
If they didn't have them before.
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"I want to believe it," he cautions, "but I should like more than a third-hand account. If it's true, that would mean that the spirits which live around the town and interact with us genuinely are on our side, and if they can be made allies, we could learn so much more very quickly."
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It's Soldier.
He says he'll meet with you, if you need more. Just feeling shy right now.
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At least that way he won't be completely surprised to be accosted outside the door later. But there are other things to focus on, let's see who else has a tale to tell.