Round 2 [open]

[pure_havoc]

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.

Comments

[callada]

All good points which Rosinante nods along with. He and Cao Pi and Kuai Liang have spent so much time talking these things over in the last few weeks that it's no surprise many of his thoughts, and their discussions, have been so swiftly put forward. But he's had a few additional ideas come up that the rest might be able to weigh in on, so he looks not at Cao Pi but at the rest of the people assembled around them.

"One thing I spoke about some time ago with both Eliot and Ambrose was the idea of magical wards. Invisible walls that could serve to defend us. What would be most helpful would be if these could be placed either around the majority of Beacon or, if that's too much space, a key location like The Invincible, but only activated when needed. We don't need to keep spirits out all the time, and sure, an initial attacking group would make it past before we knew to trigger them, but it would prevent them from receiving backups. Is this possible? Placing wards but keeping them inactive until the time comes?"

Who knows, and he'll leave that an open question to be answered by someone with more magical knowledge than he has.

"I also want to stress that part of the reason we lose people in these attacks is because we don't know where people are. If someone is stranded at, say, the Museum and needs a team to bring them to safety, we won't know that unless they speak up. I want to make sure when people flee to either The Invincible or the Armory that someone at those locations is appointed to keep track of who's there. Keep a list. Make sure people check in, or out, or whatever you need to do to know who's on patrol and who's supposed to be present so that if someone goes missing, you know when they were last seen."

[notthatjason]

It's been bothering Jason as of late as well. Jason has remained quiet for most of the meeting, he'd fought and returned from a particularly rough voyage. He didn't have much new information to share, but he could weigh in on this.

"I agree. A wall is a nice idea in theory, but we don't have the supplies and it would likely send the wrong message. We need to concentrate our limited supplies. The Invincible may have too many entrances to protect right now, but that doesn't mean we can't convert it to a more fortified location. At Camp Jupiter one of our war games was called Siege. One team would defend a fortress while another attempted to breach it. I can pull from what I remember of those designs, they were created to be taken down and put up quickly. We could construct pre-made barricades, stash weapons, and maybe even put together some defenses along the upper floors or even the roof that could be saved for emergencies."

And, if not against the spirits, then whatever else might be coming for them in the future.
Jason shifts uncomfortably in his seat. His arm is wrapped up tight, his back was mostly healed up but now he's got bites out of his lower half that he'd rather not get into but are by no means comfortable to sit on for any length of time. Still, you wouldn't be able to tell from his stoic expression.

He looks over at Rosi. He didn't know anything about barriers or wards outside of the one activated by Terminus around New Rome. It would be amazing if they could establish something like that, but it wasn't in his wheel house. However, his other suggestion catches his attention, "You mean like a buddy system or something bigger like establishing cohorts? I've noticed I'm not the only one who goes on patrols around here...it might be time to start making that a more structured and official kind of thing. Maybe even setting up a job board or schedule that people could check off."

He'll stop himself short of suggesting barrack checks since everyone is so spread out, but even within the village maybe someone at each group of cabins could be in charge on checking up on their neighbor in times of horror.

[callada]

"If you like. I'm not going to tell people they can only go out in organized groups." He can only be so hypocritical after all. He knows he's most effective on his own when scouting, even if the spirits' variety and numbers mean a solo patrol should only be for surveying their locations or making supply runs, and not for combat.

"Mostly I just meant that I want one person at The Invincible and one person at the Armory, or wherever we retreat to, to be responsible for keeping an eye on who comes and goes. Those two people would then report to each other, or send runners if the network is down, to make sure everyone is accounted for. It's when people are left alone and isolated that they tend to vanish permanently. But if you know who you work well with and want to get a patrol group together, and keep tabs on each other, then please. That's helpful too."

[pure_havoc]

Cao Pi nods his agreement to both of them - what a good, healthy discussion. "There are things that can be set up officially," he acknowledges, "and other things we simply need to remind everyone to pick up as habit. For example, I admit that it isn't my habit to check in or make a report, if only because others always made their reports to me. So someone like me ought to learn the habit of picking up their tablet and reporting in."

Maybe by phrasing it as something he, too, would need to remember to do, he can convince others to do it. It is rather disturbingly telling that no one grabbed their tablet and put in a call on the network this last time - again - but they also had a pretty good read on where people were.

"Patrols are one thing and an organized sense of who is doing it when would not be bad. But the Commander has a fine idea: to have a plan that would only go into effect if someone called an alarm. Both the barricades, and the manpower, or whatever other form it takes."

[notthatjason]

And this was really the problem. It was difficult to organize groups and strategize when so many here were used to going solo. He understood it, but he wished people would be just a little more open to the idea. It was easier for him though since he had grown up in that custom.

"How do we establish who those individuals are though? Start a sign up sheet?" It sounds like it should be a sarcastic question, but he's genuinely curious.

Jason nods at Cao Pi's addition, "If nothing else, everyone having or at least knowing about a plan in case of an emergency would be good."

[pure_havoc]

"Quite frankly, if we must." Why the hell not? It's a reasonable idea. "If it makes it easier to coordinate with the tablets, rather than a piece of parch...er, paper, then by all means. If the good doctor's advice is worth taking, having a schedule may help keep people focused and give them a task on a timeline to maintain sanity."

Which brings him back to the core problem, something he and Jason clearly agree on. "It still requires someone to take charge and do so, to say they will and then follow up on it, and I believe we are no longer at a point where we can just look hopefully at one another, wishing for someone else to speak up and take the lead."

[policier]

Javert, for his part, has been keeping to himself through most of the proceedings. He's installed himself somewhere in the back, and has been observing everything keenly. He agrees that there needs to be some sort of a check-in system, something so that he and everyone else does not have to run all over town looking for people. It is the first comment that draws his skepticism, and he cannot keep quiet about it as he scoffs,

"Come, now. That is our solution? Protecting the town through superstitious nonsense? Shall we draw a ring of salt around our homes now, too?"

It's nothing against Eliot, of course. Javert has all the respect in the world for him, but he's still quite intolerant of magic. Unless someone explains, it's not much of a solution to him.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"You don't believe in magic?" Asks the guy who magically turns into a big, winged, scaled monster. He looks skeptical of Javert's skepticism, to say the least. Maybe a bit amused by it. "When we live in a town where we come back from the dead and spirit things put people to sleep for two weeks and give them intelligent dreams?"

[callada]

Rosinante nods at Stone's commentary, then looks over at Javert again.

"I know. Magic like what I'm describing isn't something I had at home either. But people here have abilities that can't be explained by any science I'm familiar with, and they do work. Whether you want to call it magic or search for a concrete, nonmagical explanation, their spells and wards are still real things. Why not use them to our advantage?"

[policier]

"I believe in magic well enough, monsieur, but that does not prevent me from thinking it absurd."

Nothing makes sense in his life anymore. Why not? Javert has just come to accept it. Stone brings up yet another point that should be addressed, though, and so Javert continues, arms folded across his chest,

"Let us say that this works. We find a way to keep them out. What, then, is there to stop them from crawling into our minds again? Is there a spell to prevent that as well?"

[pure_havoc]

Cao Pi lets them go back and forth for a bit, since he's actually with Javert on this. If not for his sojourn in Orochi's realm, he'd be right up there scoffing at sorcery too. "That is my concern as well," he notes. "We can physically repel attacks all we want, but what can be done against the green-eyed spirits?"

[callada]

"I don't know. And those ones in particular feel so hard to deal with I'd rather hunt them down and kill them," he admits readily. "If it was safe to do so, that is. From what I've seen of them, I don't expect we'll be able to reason with them either despite the best efforts of those working on their language."

[policier]

"I should think not, considering their first instinct was to attack us without any negotiation on their part."

He understands why others may wish to connect with the spirits, but Javert himself is far less forgiving. Let them make up for what they have done, then perhaps he will consider it.

"You are right, however. We should not provoke them any more than we must. Perhaps for now, all we can do is keep watch over the forest."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I know you people don't like magic, but there might be magic to keep your head safe," Stone muses. "I don't have it, consorts of my people don't have that kind of power. But someone here might. There are people with all kinds of weird talents here."

[pure_havoc]

Cao Pi nods firmly. "Then we will list that as something to investigate, or work on, should someone with the means to experiment be among us now. It is nothing I, nor the inspector nor commander, are experienced with, it will have to be someone else's realm.

"That said," he adds, somewhat cautiously, "I don't wish to rule out anything that can and will work. If there is a way to make an invisible barrier, I would like to see it tried. If there is any other idea, no matter how far-fetched, it should be considered. If the spirits among us actually agree that their more vicious overlords are not to be trusted, then perhaps we can enlist their help rather than push them out."