logsinthenight | Round 2 [open]

Entry tags:

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.

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[ Not that he's in any position to, but in Riku's opinion, arriving when he did just means Quentin missed the requisite pontificating. He does, however, offer his new seat neighbor something he hasn't really done since he got to the town hall - he smiles, a subdued curve of his mouth aside at him.

The magician is more of a bookworm than Riku appears to be, but here they are, writing down whatever they can like their lives depend on it. That's how Riku looks at it, anyway, that their lives MAY in fact depend on what they learn here.

Prodded a few times by his elbow, Riku gives up on writing for a moment to blatantly lean over and peek at what he's writing. That's around when he nudges at him, turning the book he's writing in - one of the log books - around so he can glance at the notes. Just some of the stuff he might have missed earlier. ]

[It takes half a minute. It always takes about half a minute when he's in a new place, before Quentin can find the energy to look up and around and when he does, the first thing he sees is Riku giving him a crocked kind of half-smile. The kind that says hey and maybe welcome and Quentin's lips twitches one back. A flash of a small smile before he turns his attention to the speakers and the notes.

There's a lot of new information and the amusement park? Jesus Christ. And yeah, sure, Brakebills isn't the safest place to be, and yeah, the teachers couldn't give two shits about any of them. But still. A killing machine? For kids? That's-- crazy.

He skims the text Riku holds out, mind still too much on everything everyone sleeping had been through, to properly appreciate it. But he still copies down the important points, in between lulls in conversations and in the brief pauses between speakers.]

Do you really believe that? That it's all just a misunderstanding?

[ The reaction Riku gives to the question is half a shrug, half a non-committal tip of his head. He's both not quite ready to resume speaking out loud and requires a moment to formulate an answer that's honest - because Quentin deserves that, and because unlike some people, Quentin's one of those he can give his opinion to without him making whatever he wants of it.

There's a certain refreshing quality to not being a tool of someone's agenda.

He swaps his writing for his tablet. ]

there's a cultural difference between us.
not sold entirely. some of them obviously enjoy the hunt. the spirits with no taste for it go into hiding.
sometimes you need to make deals with people who dont have your best interests at heart to get what you want

[Frowning down at the tablet, Quentin's head whips up as he looks back at Riku. This was a lot more-- practical and cynical than he thought it would be. Riku passionate speech aside, he did seem to like at least some of the spirits.

The big bird-person by the bonfire still freaked Quentin way the fuck out. Not the fact that he was a bird-person, but what the existence of a bird-person might say about this world. Or, about the world Rastus came from. Did he come from an egg? Was he a mammal? And what about the other spirits? Were they made? Born? Wished in to this world on the dying breathes of the children and adults that used to live here?

Quentin nods, answering in a whisper.]

You're not wrong. But. Trusting them, the green eyes ones, that's a risk. They can get inside our heads. I think, I mean, I saw things when they were around. And-- and the Librarian. Maybe it did something to me. But, I get your point.

a compromise isn't exactly trust. if we see each other as valuable partners that partnership could be key to our survival

[ Riku thoughtfully pauses for a time, until he adds: ]

you seem surprised

Well--

[It's hedging and he knows it, stalling to get his thoughts in the right order and in to something that's not going to sound like he thought Riku was an idiot, because he didn't. Even before the rescue at the docks and by the river, Riku had showed him just how easy it would be to control someone. How dangerous trust could be.

Quentin pulls one leg up on the chair and rests his arms around his bent knee.]

I just didn't think you had it in you. You want them to think of us as irreplaceable. Think it'll work?

If we can communicate with each other, then we can learn about their priorities, about what's important to them. Don't you feel it? A strength and passion to do something when your heart is in it?

[ Then, about "I just didn't think you had it in you" presumably, he adds: ]

Why?

Oh no, I get that. It's-- do you think they'll think the same of us? That they should try not to kill us, just because they can? You saw what they did.

[Quentin doesn't want to elaborate on that, the sheer amount of bloodshed only a week ago and the exhaustion that still seems to linger on the faces of the people to stayed awake.

It's not even that obvious, probably. But it's the way someone will glance quickly at the door in the middle of making conversation, or how some sentences just peter off in to nothing, because there's nothing to say or it touches too close to something raw and painful.

He shrugs.]

You're a nice person.

[Like that ever explained anything, but maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise. Not after the things Riku let slip in the quiet between their conversations. About his loss. About his regrets. How Riku has enough reason out of everyone to hate the spirits and he still tries to not give in to the hate. To the darkness.]

[ Quentin is expressive. What he feels so often makes its way into his face and his hands, in the bow of his spine and how he has a habit of folding up into himself like he wants to disappear sometimes.

The trait they share is how much can be translated from their eyes; Riku's go away a little, reflecting on the carnage, on what it's like to choke on your own blood or to feel a friend grow lighter and still in your arms.

The terror of being attacked with no warning, the despair of having nowhere to run, the longing for vengeance. Another time, Riku might have been consumed by these things, instead of turning it into strength.

That doesn't mean he doesn't get tired, or sad, or scared, and in truth the long and never-ending dark wears him down for reasons that are entirely human.

There's a lot they don't say but ends up telegraphed in these easily-missed gestures.

Riku shakes his head. ]

One of them said they will try. Hoping that's true isn't the same as counting on it. If we can convince them there's value in not killing us that's one less threat.

[ He adds: ]

Doing nice stuff sometimes doesn't make someone a nice person any more than doing the opposite makes a bad one.

[It's like trying to catch fish underwater sometimes, reading other people's faces and getting the right feeling from that. Trying to guess if they're sad or happy or just too wrapped up in something he's not a part of, to be all here.

It's like that with just about every person he knows, with a few but important exceptions and it's no different with Riku. They're building something, a kind of fragile friendship resting squarely on saved lives and whispered confessions in the dark.

The feeling of Riku's strange magic coursing through him, and his cold hands in the woods.]

Bullshit. That's exactly what makes someone a nice person, doing nice things. It's always going to be what you do, and not what you say you'll do that defines who you are.

[Goddamn Harry Potter, and the way it sneaks in to even everyday conversations because it's so simple and Quentin frowns at his notes. The meeting is still buzzing around them, so many voices joining in to tell about what they saw in their dreams and everyone is willing to take it as truth. As if it couldn't be one big lie, designed to make them complacent. To make them let their guard down just long enough for the spirits to murder them all.]

And how do we do that? Make them see that not killing us is better than killing us? Leave food out for them? Some of them eat books.

[ It's why they share information - or.. Riku hopes it's why. So they can build a bigger picture, can look for discrepancies and come to their own conclusions. Because information is an armor and a weapon, and they need every advantage if they're going to survive.

There are plenty of those who will use this for their own benefit in whatever way that aligns best with their priorities and motives, it's rarer that those align to benefit the community as a whole, but not impossible or unheard of. Neither does Riku see anything inherently wrong with what others call selfishness. ]

That's true. If it's about what we do then I need to correct you. I haven't been very nice. I hurt a lot of people. That's not all that I am. You're the same way.

[ To look at Riku's expression, it's easier to tell he's being serious than about what he's thinking. He keeps a lot locked up inside. Quentin bottles things up, too. Heck, he's even literally bottled his feelings. ]

When it comes to the spirits, there's a lot we don't know yet. I'm thinking of trying to reach out in a different way. No solid plans yet.

[Frowning at Riku, Quentin just shrugs.

Sure, they were here to line up information. To learn from each other and figure out this whole, huge thing. Build a bigger picture, but no matter how far they get, it still looks like a Picasso. All disconnected. Disjointed and so very fucking messed up.

Robin, who has been here for more than twenty years. And Quentin's own theory about this being a proper reset, not just for the town but for everyone- had failed. Will didn't know any of them, which meant that hundreds of people had been through here, for years and they all came up empty on how to bring back the light.

Those were not good odds.]

Maybe you're right. Maybe I have hurt people, and maybe I've paid for that? Unless this is-- it could be hell. It could be what we all deserve.

[What a shitty way to put it, but Riku doesn't look like someone who'd hurt people on purpose. But neither had Julia. Neither had Alice. Quentin rubs his hands over his face before wrapping both arms around the leg he's folded up against his chest.]

So. Need any help with those plans?

[ Their odds aren't good. Riku knows that, too. He's noticed an... escalation, too. When before they could venture out on a little raft on the lake, there's now tales about creatures ripping people apart for attempting something in a boat. Things were already dangerous and that danger is growing, on top of the one looming over their heads.

A part of Riku isn't too convinced they aren't headed for an inevitable reset. A part of him also holds onto the hope that Sora will come back, he's always been able to pull off a miracle like there's nothing to it at all. A real hero, in every sense of the word.

It doesn't surprise Riku when his own failure to communicate effectively - to find the right words - results in being misunderstood. He wasn't very clear about what he meant when he said like you. He hears Quentin out, waits a moment, and then puts a hand around one of his friend's wrists.

He's not wrong. Everyone's hurt someone before. And what he said, that he's paid for it, Riku can relate with that feeling all too well. But he disagrees with the idea of there being some terrible place where people are punished for what they did while they were alive. This is another journey, another adventure, another road they have to walk. No greater power is judging them. ]

...

[ He nods. Yeah, he'd like his help. ]

[It's all in theory. Most of what they're all talking about, it's crunched in maybe's and what if's. Interpretation and those are so fragile, so prone to being wrong and they won't even know it until it's too late. Until something else falls on them or kills them.

Until something new or old comes crashing out of the woods or splashes out of the water and picks them off, one of one.

Working together. Right. Sure, because Quentin had the best track record on that one. He wants it, though. He wants to be a part of the solution, to be the one to find the way out and save everyone that's stuck here. Save the world again, like it's not something that's keeping him up at night or making his blood run cold. Thinking about what the price might be this time around.

They're all dead here.

But.

With Riku's warm hand around his wrist and his eyes when Quentin looks up at him. They all still have heartbeats. They breathe. His own is almost catching in his throat as he blinks back at Riku and then, looking down at the hand on his arm, Quentin mouth opens and closes a few times.]

Was that a yes? I'm going to take that as a yes, and. I want to. To help.

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Round 2 [open]

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