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

[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."