logsinthenight | That One With the Meeting [OPEN]

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That One With the Meeting [OPEN]

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...

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[The Soldier has been watching and listening to the meeting from outside, because no way in hell is it going inside with all those people all crammed together. That's a recipe for a knife outbreak, right there.

But the Soldier does like Javert's idea. And when the inspector is leaving, it's waiting outside in a military-style parade rest, lantern at its feet, metal arm reflecting a little in the light.

Without preamble, it reports,]

I can teach. Hand to hand, knives, knife throwing, guns. How to fall, how to block, how to dodge. Just tell me when.

( The meeting a bit of an ordeal even for Javert, who normally prefers to keep himself more isolated. But he manages to muddle through, and slip out the door once the chatter is beginning to wind down. He doesn't seem startled when the other man speaks. He just raises an interested brow. )

Were you a part of the service? ( It makes sense given all the experience he has. Javert can't help but ask. ) You must be one of the new arrivals. I have not seen you around before.

( Shame, too, because they could have used someone like him, earlier. )

Sniper and assassin. Worked with military sometimes.

[A pause. Not sure where that came from, so it adds,]

I think. But outside the official chain of command.

[Javert is also officially the first person the Soldier has been so straight-forward with about its actual job. (Also, it picked up that Javert is speaking in French, for all everyone else seems able to understand him, so the Soldier is also speaking in French. It's only polite.)]

Codename the Winter Soldier. Asset.

( His honesty is appreciated, as is his speaking of French. Javert tucks all that information away, and mentally underlines the word assassin in his head, which is probably the most concerning bit. )

Is that what you wished to be called?

( The Winter Soldier. It's a good thing Javert's learning to be a little more lenient, or he may have turned down the other man's offer just for being too dangerous. But perhaps he does genuinely want to help? Javert considers this possibility for a moment. )

I will be honest. I do not know if I can accept your help. What you lack is not experience, but my trust. I want be sure you will not harm anyone learning under your care.

( He could take his word for it, but Javert has a better idea. He looks the man up and down, then says, )

Perhaps we should get to know each other better.

[A feeling. Disappointment? Understanding. The Soldier might not trust itself, either, but it needs tasks and this one is better than murdering people. (Not that anyone has told it to murder people here. Yet.) It's not sure how "getting to know each other" actually works, so it can't think of what to say to help that-- there isn't much to get to know, as far as the Soldier thinks. It glances up from its stare fixed on Javert's chest, to his face, briefly.]

I take orders. If I am told not to harm or to kill, I will not harm or kill.

[It looks back down again, and says,]

Ask any question you want.

( Javert's idea of "getting to know each other" is actually more of an interrogation than it is a social ritual. He's a police officer, after all. He hardly knows how to be anything else. )

Is that so? I will give you an order, then. You will not kill anyone, especially not if they are to come to you for training.

( With that said, he then asks the man, )

What sorts of people were you assigned to assassinate? Government officials?

[That is exactly the sort of "getting to know each other" the Soldier can handle. Bring it on, Inspector.

That is the weirdest order it's ever been given, though. (Okay, maybe not quite the weirdest. Handler Misty has weirder ones, like getting things off of high shelves and pulling weeds. But still weird.) Not entirely unexpected, at least, because it did just say it wanted to help this man train people and this man had been uncertain about those people's safety. So it nods, after a pause.]

Yes, sir.

[And then it answers the question.]

I don't remember them all.

[It doesn't remember... any of them, actually. It only knows the general feel of its past, not the details. So it offers that, slowly and with an expression of concentration as it tries to dredge up what it can.]

Sometimes politicians. Sometimes scientists. Sometimes military or other assassins. Several rogue members of HYDRA, my handlers' organization. Sometimes. I didn't know who they were.

( It's fine that he doesn't remember. It's concerning, certainly, that he's having memory issues such as that, but it's not anything Javert can help with. He just listens, cataloging all of this information away and remarks, just as calmly, )

That is well. I do not need to know their names, only that they were important figures. People someone else wanted dead. I want to know that you will not attack someone without reason.

( Also, because he's already building a profile of him, but the soldier doesn't need to know that. )

[Oh, have fun with that one, Javert. It's certainly possible to profile the Winter Soldier... but not without a lot more data than you have right now. It looks blankly puzzled at the last statement.]

Why would I attack anyone without orders.

[Technically that's a question, but it comes out flat rather than in a typical questioning tone.]

( It's fine. He likes a challenge. )

Perhaps because you are human, and will act accordingly on your emotions.

( Even Javert, incorruptible police officer that he is, has been found guilty of this. The quizzical look give him all the information that he needs to know, though, so he moves on, nodding at the other man's metal appendage. )

Do you remember how you lost your arm?

[Ooooh, the Soldier's gotta correct that one before Javert gets the wrong idea... these people really need to stop calling it a damn person.]

The arm has always been like this. And I'm not a person.

[How's that for your profile, Inspector.]

( Far be it for Javert to discourage him, but. )

You think yourself an animal, then?

( There was a time when he never thought of himself as much of a person either. He was just an officer of the law, not a person with any wants or desires, or even many feelings beyond the pride he gets from his work. )

Or perhaps you are just a tool that follows orders?

[The next feeling is satisfaction. Someone got it without the Soldier having to explain. Nice. Maybe he won't even make a big deal out of it.]

The second one.

[The Soldier has discipline and a fine tactical mind, thank you very much, it's not an animal.]

( Javert is pleased as well, although it doesn't seem to show much on his face. )

That is well. You may be of more use to me than I had anticipated.

( He can accept the Soldier not thinking of himself as a person, but that doesn't mean Javert isn't going to treat him like one. Even before, Javert never mistreated criminals. He was never cruel, though he often thought of himself as better than them. He will not be so now. )

Though I worry about your memory issues. Is it amnesia of some sort?

[This guy. The Soldier likes this guy. So long as his orders aren't awful and he doesn't decide he needs to experiment or torture or anything, the Soldier can accept another handler. Elena hasn't really felt handler-ish, anyway, not like Crowley and Misty, so the Inspector can take her place and he'll just protect her, instead.

It's always nice knowing where someone's place is. It helps keep the Soldier from flinching at the things it has to say.]

Before and after every mission there would be the Chair--

[Okay, a little tiny flinch. Fucking Chair.]

--to take memories away, and then my handlers put the body into cryofreeze which took the rest. I only remember clearly from the day before I died, and the time since then. I don't lose current memories, but I don't have any older ones. Just impressions.

( Well, that's. Certainly not what Javert was expecting to hear. It shows as much on his face, with the way his brows knit together. It's not so much concern as it is bewilderment. There are a million questions running through his head, like what is this chair and how does it work, but the one he ultimately settles on is, )

So if you stay away from that chair, you will remember everything as you normally do?

( He just wants to be sure he's understanding this correctly. )

You truly remember nothing from before these sessions?

Nothing but my programming. How to interact with a handler and a field team, standard knowledge and skills required for missions, necessary understanding of geography and technology.

[That was the correct response for a handler. Admitting to anything more, to the annoying chatty presence in the back of its mind that seems to know things, even the vague familiar-but-don't-know-why feeling, might rate punishment. (There is no Chair here, no cryo. But there are other punishments.)]

Very well, then. You've given me a lot to consider.

( And a lot to wrap his head around. He understands what the Soldier is saying well enough, it's just the idea of someone being able to wipe certain parts of a person's memory that puzzles him. He gives the man another appraising once over, saying, )

I will not make a decision yet, but when I do, I will let you know.

[Yeah, it's weird. The Soldier will readily admit that it's weird. But that's the situation it has to deal with, and it's been dealing with it for longer than it can remember. It's familiar, now.]

Very well. Thank you, sir.

[And now it will just hope. And make an effort not to kill anyone. (Not that it was trying to do that, in general, anyway.) Assuming that's a dismissal, it picks up its lantern again, takes a step backwards with a nod of farewell, then turns and heads for the house.]

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That One With the Meeting [OPEN]

after the meeting

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