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

[pure_havoc]

Zihuan arches an eyebrow right back. Touche. "Indeed, I have," he acknowledges. "I prefer discretion, it has constantly vexed the more bloodthirsty of generals under me who would rather race off to destroy. To that end, I am pleased that the general attitude here is not to take up arms and go out to destroy the spirits before they can destroy us. That, I think, is the most foolish of paths."

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."

[worthallthis]

The Soldier is Not Here. They are outside and listening in under a window, sitting in the snow, because they couldn't convince themselves to actually walk inside. Which means adding to the conversation is kind of... hard. Even when one has actual pertinent information to share, which they do.

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.

[mind_blown]

[ jason feels the vibration, and has to pull out the tablet-- his eyebrows furrowing for a moment. that's interesting. he already had suspected there was a hierarchy, and that they were more than capable of understanding intent more than words. just based on his brief conversation with them. but, he's been asked to intervene, and so he tucks away the tablet. ]

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.

[pure_havoc]

Having had a couple of productive chats with Jason before, Cao Pi is quick to listen but also to give him a hard stare. "What? You're certain. How do you know this?"

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!

[mind_blown]

Got a friendly heads up from someone who's listening in.

[ 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.

[worthallthis]

Jason gets another message. If he wants to get details later he can. I just can't come inside. Too many people. I have a contact with the spirits who told me.

[pure_havoc]

Listening in? Pardon him a moment while he looks around suspiciously. Anyone who would rather eavesdrop than join in is already not on his good list.

"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."

[mind_blown]

[ he flashes his tablet, with the message. ]

It's Soldier.

He says he'll meet with you, if you need more. Just feeling shy right now.

[worthallthis]

The Soldier is just. Gonna put their head in their hands and stifle the urge to groan in embarrassment, even while still safely outside. Shy. Jesus.

[pure_havoc]

Still unimpressed, but... "Very well."

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.