That One With the Meeting [OPEN]

[pure_havoc]

characters: Cao Pi and OPEN!!!
location: the town hall
date/time: appx moonrise Sept. 2, for a couple of hours
content: Cao Pi proposed a meeting for everyone to talk about what ideas they have for organizing, protecting the town, and safely exploring their confines. This is that meeting. Newcomers are welcome as well! Assume characters have heard about it through the grapevine, but especially on Sept. 1 as Cao Pi makes the rounds and tells people this is happening. He will have a moment to orate but after that the floor is open, threadjacking is encouraged, and whatever comes of this is a complete free-for-all!
warnings: probably some discussion of character death. lmk if I need to edit this.

Despite the fact that Will Ingram's messages providing further information were yet to come, Cao Pi had made a public promise and he would hold himself to it, carrying out his meeting as described. At moonrise on the 2nd, he is already present in the town hall, hoping to see not just those who told him they would be there, but also some of the unfortunate newcomers freshly thrown into this situation. He had done his best to prowl around the Invincible and the bonfire, mentioning that the meeting would happen, but he still had to rely on word of mouth to do its work.

When he decides there are enough people present to begin, the Lord of Wei steps up before the assembly, clearing his throat importantly. "For better or worse," he begins, "we are a community. A town, if we are not a country. The hints and cryptic comments from the Lighthouse Keeper have suggested that we have a job to do, but we're still waiting on information as to what it is and why - why us, why the dead stolen from their worlds or their respective afterlives. But the recent mission to connect the Keeper to the network our tablets can access has shown a number of weaknesses that may hamper our ability to do any job, let alone the one which will keep us all from being permanently obliterated." Is that harsh? Too bad. He doesn't care. "We know a few things for certain. One, that we must carry out the purpose which the Keeper understands and encourages. Two, if we fail in any way, she will kill us all by ordering the spirits to destroy us. Three, the spirits deep in the forest are not just her weapon against us, but they have their own will and may attack or destroy anyone who simply wanders out too far. Our explorations have uncovered a number of things but not everything, by far. If you are new or simply haven't kept up on the recent developments, the record is here." He holds out a hand to the logbooks kept there in the town hall.

"I've asked you here to discuss the issues facing us in Beacon, and to offer up any ideas for how to solve those issues. There are quite a few of them, some that even I, perhaps, haven't considered yet. Please be orderly and take your turns, but I should like to hear from everyone. Whether you have questions, or have an idea you wish to share, please. Speak up. We will all be better for the sharing of ideas and discussion of pros and cons, rather than just waiting and hoping that someone will take charge and give us orders."

With that, he steps aside, inviting anyone and everyone to come up and speak. Or simply rise from their seat and speak. The floor is open, Beacon, use it to say things that you might not want anyone connected to the network to overhear. Sass the Keeper, gush about the Postmaster, whatever you want. Hopefully by the end of it all, someone might have some plans that can be brought about. For his part, Cao Pi is not putting himself up as any sort of authority or the one actually in charge, he literally is only there as organizer and moderator and nothing else. At least, so his cool half-smirk and perfect manners would suggest...

Comments

[colonists]

Having observed this little gathering from the fringes since the beginning, Clarke sees an opportunity for an entrance during a lull in the discussion, and particularly when medical services are mentioned.

"I'm a medic. I'm not a full-fledged physician, but I was trained by one — my mother — and I'm familiar with triage medicine. I can patch up wounds, set broken bones, things like that."

With that said, she turns to the group and addresses them at large. "It's true, it's better if we're more organized and therefore more efficient, in case we have a repeat of the event that just happened after the lighthouse. We don't know anything about whether these spirits will attack again, and if the lighthouse keeper somehow is or isn't involved, and whether she'll provoke them or not." She purses her lips, before going on: "But in my experience, a single leader isn't going to be able to do the job alone. It's already been suggested that a committee might work, and I agree with this — we informally appoint a group of leaders, a small faction who can delegate and run several different aspects of tasks we need. Like a council, if you will; we can appoint someone to strategize, someone to organize defense, someone to train, someone to heal.

I think having more than one person in charge, ensures that the burden of leadership doesn't fall on just one single person's shoulders. Because that can be overwhelming, when the chips are falling."

[pure_havoc]

Sir is fine, Daylight, given the slight curl of a smile that evokes. But Cao Pi politely waits until Clarke offers her skills before summing up the general flow of opinions. His gaze sweeps toward Kol, first. "It would be wonderful if we were all intelligent, well-adjusted individuals who knew instinctively to employ common sense when acting and reacting to the unique dangers of this place. We are most certainly... none of that." It's wry, but just this side of actually turning judgmental, and he is quite deliberately including himself, not acting as if he's above flipping his shit in an emergency. "A committee or, as the lady says, council, offers the greatest balance. Balance of power, balance of opinions, and a balance between needing some kind of guidance without setting one lone person up as a dictator. Those who still feel as though they can live without leadership, well, they're welcome to do so, as long as their willful independence doesn't cost the rest of us our lives."

He gets up and strolls a little to nod at a few folks whose opinions have already aligned well with one another. "Master Riku brings up the most important point: the threat of reset. We're only just now beginning to understand what that means and what can cause it, and from what I've heard and read, it could be as simple as the population sitting around on their hands and not doing anything to explore or help. All of us running around on our own could cause the Lighthouse Keeper to look down at us, decide we're just making a mess, and reset us. That means calling in the spirits to kill us all. For the newcomers, know that this means a second and permanent death - possibly, depending on your views, a death with no afterlife. Nothing. Knowing that, it is imperative that we do everything in our power to avoid such a fate. If that means sucking up your pride and agreeing to work alongside the rest of the town, or at least not hampering the council in their efforts, consider it a small sacrifice to make in the interest of all of us continuing to live.

"The lady is right," he says in conclusion. "Defense, training, medical assistance, and so on. These all go much more swiftly, and with much less headache, if there is organization. Newcomers will learn about them and be able to find resources or volunteer their own much more quickly. I personally cannot see anything wrong with that, but I invite a counter argument if there is one."

[unpredict]

To achieve balance requires imbalance. There's no such thing as a perfect balance, and Kol knows it. But his goal in life has always been to try and find it, even despite knowing it'll never be attainable. Something close to it is.

The threat of a "reset" isn't new to Kol, given the amount of times he's been neutralised by Klaus. The idea of it being permanent... He isn't ready to die yet. By the looks of these people and the rhythm of heir heartbeats, neither are they.

"And who decides who sits on this council?"

His questions may appear antagonistic, but it's not his intention. He's not opposed to the idea... but he isn't the biggest fan of a select few being at the helm.

[pure_havoc]

Hey, it's a valid question.

"I suppose that depends on how many people volunteer to shoulder all that responsibility."

Cao Pi is clearly angling to be on said council, if only because he doesn't really have the skills to build or be friendly to newbies or...well, most of the other ideas floating around. He is super great at plans, though. His wry sarcasm implies that he doesn't expect there to be a fight about it. "In my experience, when it comes time to ask for help, a number of people who are eager to talk about it are less eager to actually do it. If we end up with too many volunteers, well, that would be a delightful problem to solve. A vote by the populace seems fair."

[colonists]

"Clarke," she corrects Cao Pi gently, and as unobtrusively as she can while the conversation flows around them. "Not 'lady', just Clarke."

She nods at Kol, acknowledging his skepticism while seeking to reassure. "A vote does seem fair. If someone has a particular skill set that's an unmet need, it stands to reason they should volunteer their services — but by all means, we should leave it up to the populace to decide who they want to guide them."

[unpredict]

The lady. Usually it's Kol stirring people up, but seeing Cao Pi do it unintentionally is amusing. But he'll behave, so he doesn't try to rile the lady up anymore.

Despite feeling like he's being baited, Kol doesn't immediately put his hand up. What can he help with? Jokes? Pranks? He hardly doubts what he knows will be helpful, and he sincerely doubts anyone would care to learn it from him. Every time he's had his own independent thought, straying from the council of Elijah and Niklaus, he's ended up punished for it.

In some ways this may be a new start, but Kol has many bad habits and insecurities to shed.

Nodding at the suggestion of unmet skill sets being able to volunteer themselves, he continues easily, "You should consider having more than one person heading each section of this council. More than one medic is going to be needed—" he looks to Clarke and not unkindly continues, "— and I mean no offence, but there's going to be something you don't know that someone else will.

Same with defence, and whatever this training happens to be. If you don't want a reset, then we should use our best resources."

Themselves. Each other. It's common sense to him.

[sunborne]

Oh! Maybe Daylight could help here!

But first- Daylight raises his servo, again, before he speaks up. He doesn't want to butt in if someone's going to speak up first. Once he's sure he's not going to trample over anything, he begins with, "I was stationed on the Lornful Light and for each department and its crew, we had a Chief Officer and around two to three Major Officers.

"Chief Officer was the leader overall, sure, but the Major Officers were always selected because they, um, usually had a specialisation or skill that the Chief Officer didn't." Daylight looked nervous at the start of his explanation but the more he spoke, the more confident he sounded as he recalled his experience on the starship. "It helped round them out. Not only that but it helps address the issue mister pointed out: They can give insight and information to things others don't know."

Maybe they could use something similar for their situation.

[pure_havoc]

Cao Pi smiles very slightly and accept the correction with a meager bob of his head. Really, it's a title of honor for when he doesn't know someone's name but now he has a name, so. No harm, no foul. At least it seems they're all coming around to more or less agreeing on a process.

To Daylight, though, he raises a finger in caution. "I wouldn't want to go so far as to install a military hierarchy. I too have generals, subordinates, and so on, but it doesn't seem necessary for a population as small as this. Still, if anyone on the council wants to recruit deputies to assist them, that sounds fine to me.

"Then," he says quite robustly, content with the conclusion, "all that remains is to actually put forth, in public, a call to volunteer. As with this meeting itself I would do it if no one else takes up the cause, but if someone else would like to, by all means." A huuuuuuge smirk crosses his face. "I have been told that some people might not like the way I speak to them."

[colonists]

She tries not to bristle at Kol's point about her shortcomings as a doctor — as well as she tries not to be obvious about sneaking a furtive glance at Cao Pi, for that last comment — because it is a good point, and she manages to stifle anything said prematurely in response with a nod and a purse of her lips. Clarke will always be the first to admit she doesn't know everything, regardless of how she prides herself on using her mind to get her out of trouble.

"I think you should do the honors," she offers to Cao Pi. "If you don't mind doing so." She doesn't really think he'll mind all that much.