spellbinders | [OPEN] super secret meeting time!

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[OPEN] super secret meeting time!

Who: Sorey, Flynn and everyone!
Where: A (Secret!!) Palai Meeting House
When: Day 71
Open/Closed: COVEN MEMBERS ONLY!!1 No Qri Allowed (Open to All)

[Qri's call to collect as many Elto magic structures as possible did not go unnoticed--mostly because it was really, really hard to miss, with the aftereffects of the call leaving some quite shaken. A whisper of concern and suspicion has slowly been spreading since, with some coven members indifferent and others wary of complying with the request. The chatter has been quiet, but a decision should be made by the group as a whole. They're all in this together, after all.

So sometime after all the celebrations and good times, you were pulled aside and told about a meeting to figure out exactly what the coven wants to do, and given a super secret location. Or maybe you weren't told at all, but just so happened to follow the curious group of people trickling into a Palai meeting hall that the Palai had kindly allowed them the use to hold this little gathering.

The hall itself is pretty plain, and no particular person has the stage, so to speak. But Sorey and Flynn are standing in the center of the room gathering people in, and once there are enough people present then Flynn clears his throat and speaks.]

Thank you, everyone, for being able to come here today. My name is Flynn Scifo.

And I'm Sorey! Thanks for coming on such short notice.

Now, as you are all likely aware, this meeting lacked any formal announcement on the network and all of you present here today have heard of it through word of mouth. The reason for this is due to the nature of the topic we wish to discuss today: Qri. Sorey, myself and some other individuals all have our own concerns regarding her and the duty which she has given us. Today, we wish to hear your own opinions on the matter.

Maybe giving Qri the Elto bones isn't the wrong thing to do, but she hasn't given us enough information or even much of a reason to comply with her request. In my opinion it's up to the Palai people to decide what should be done with the magic structures, not us. But if we need them for a purpose and want to ask, I think they'd listen to us. So...the question is whether or not we want them for a reason, or if we should just give them back to the Palai. Or, if there's another option, we're open to hearing it.

Also, we'd like to hear your opinions on Qri herself. Do you find her trustworthy? Do you have reservations over swearing loyalty to her? The floor is open for discussion so please feel free to share any and all thoughts you have. Let us use this opportunity to ensure our next course of action ends up the correct one.

[that's all that they have to say. the floor is anyone's who wants it so come and speak your mind.]

(ooc: please feel free to tag around as you please for the discussion!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Geir is coiled up and draped over the building they're in so he can get his head in the front door comfortably. it's not the most reassuring thing for any of the coven members who might want to use it (fortunately, there are other doors), and it's not the most anonymous thing either, but Geir doesn't really care. he wasn't missing this meeting.

after listening to everyone speak with keen attention, he clears his throat to say something himself, keeping his words short and to the point.]

I'm fine with holding back the bones.

[he tilts his head, thinking about how to qualify that point -- it's not exactly that he wants war with Qri, or cares enough about this to insist on something that would lead to a fight. he just wants slightly more information for his own curiosity, honestly.]

She has power, but she wants something from us. We can refuse to give it till she says why she wants it. If she forces us, it'll tell us something. If she refuses, it'll tell us something else. What her priorities are and what she's willing to do about them... defying her will force her to show us how the land lies. She might ignore that we did anything at all.

[he grins more sharply than most of the coven members who know him are used to seeing, showing teeth.]

I like to learn more about people.

[Vern peers over Geir's crest of spines and ridges, heavy-eyed and looking perhaps a touch more annoyed than usual]

Mm, what he said.

[rolls an eye back to look at Vern, softening from his barbed speech of a moment before]

Honestly, I wanna talk to her. If she tried a little that'd be nice...

Surely a conversation can't be more energy-consuming than transporting us in and out of realms and giving out magic powers like candy.

I wouldn't mind getting an update from that Genette, even.

[said with a disagreeable snort; he's not fond of Genette thus far.]

But Qri herself would be much better.

I don't really like the idea of using the bones as leverage. [Moon is rolling a Pokeball back and forth in her hands, staring at it as she tries to bind her thoughts together on her tongue.] Force and defiance... It's treating her like she's our enemy. Maybe all of you guys are right and we shouldn't trust her, but we shouldn't start out treating her like that.

No matter what everyone decides about the bones, I think we should try being nice first. We can ask if the bones are what she needs to use as energy without saying we're thinking about not giving them to her, can't we?

[Geir turns his head to look at Moon attentively, bemused; his bemusement grows stronger as he hears her out. there's nothing of hostility towards her or her ideas in his tone when he answers, though.]

Why shouldn't we treat her like a potential enemy, though? She summoned us without asking. She's obviously powerful, and she hasn't proved she's a powerful person who cares about being fair. We've tried to talk to her, and she hasn't answered. Her putting us in her power hasn't been enough yet to make her pity us and treat us like people with opinions, and we haven't been strong enough to make her explain herself either.

[he's honestly and straightforwardly trying to parse how she got to that conclusion aloud, and isn't having much success. Geir is a nice person, but his past life with the gods hasn't given him a lot of experience in being nice-- only with being powerful, and how people with that power use it and think about it.]

I don't want to be in a worse situation so she pities us more, so we have to go the other way and make our position stronger. Right?

Well, let's say she's telling the truth. I know she might not be, but if she is, then I think there's good reasons for what's been happening. She took us without asking because if she dies then a bunch of universes die, too. She even started out not taking a bunch of people, so this could be a last resort. The times she's done something like talk to us it's hurt, so she might not want to hurt us more. She might not be able to talk like we do at all, even! That's something we could ask Genette about. But if we all go in right away acting like she's bad and then she or Genette give us proof that she's right, then we've split into our side and her side for no reason when we could be working together.

Even if we decide to use the bones as leverage, I don't think it'd hurt to just ask without bringing it up first. We could always talk about the bones later.

I don't really mind being taken. She had the power to do it, and for whatever reasons she had, she wanted to. I can't argue with that.

[Geir figures he might as well be up front about that much. who is he to say how someone uses their power?]

She might not even be lying, but she's not treating us like equals, either. And it's probably because we're not. She has the power to do this stuff, and we don't have any power to do anything but go along with her. Let's say she's telling the truth! Pretend you're her.

You're acting in desperation, trying to call people. If those people are your equals you need to find ways to talk to them, get their cooperation. You're desperate, you care a lot about the universes, so you find ways. You make it work.

Right now we're not her equals, so she hasn't. It isn't something she has to care about. So even if she's not lying, she is disregarding us, and it's because she can do it and still get what she wants.

...I'm not really against helping her. But I don't like that kind of situation, either.

I think it's definitely true that right now neither side totally understands the other. [Good or bad intentions, the fact that there's a meeting taking place right now proves that.] She could think in a totally different way from all of us, or maybe she thinks she's doing what she can. She might think having Genette talk to us counts.

[Geir hums thoughtfully to himself, glancing away, before returning his gaze ruefully to Moon.]

Okay, you've got a point. Sometimes I don't understand how humans think at all. She might not either.

But what if you're wrong? If we just give the bones up without trying to see what she'll do, and she ignores us, we wouldn't have our leverage any more.

We could give her some of the bones without giving away all of them, if that helps. [She's still giving Qri the ones she collects, but...] Then you can see what she does with some of them, too.

I don't think leverage really works that way... if she gets enough from people who aren't worried, whether some of us give more on top of that won't matter enough for her to talk to us.

[Geir figures they can always give them to her later, if she convinces everyone-- right?]

I guess that could happen. [She's still thinking of it as something Qri needs to survive.]

What do we do if she really is already doing her best to talk to us, though? She wouldn't be able to do more even if she wanted to.

[Geir does his best to consider the question; he's aware that assuming someone is lying no matter what is a fallacy too, of course, and he doesn't want to go down that route. even the best liars tell the truth sometimes; that's what makes them the most effective. he has personal experience of that.]

If she really can't do anything else, she should tell at least Genette a little more. We know she can talk to Genette some. Genette should tell us what to do so Qri can answer our questions. I bet you that everyone in this room would be talking differently if Qri had said "give me 100 extra bones and I'll use that power to answer all your questions for twenty minutes till I have to go to sleep again." We'd be lining up to give her bones. Do you see what I'm saying?

Edited 2017-09-20 02:40 (UTC)

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[well the reasoning is harsh but he's basically proposing information-gathering based on their plan of action and that's not wrong, probably]

You want to learn more about Qri? You're not alone there. But she hasn't given us much of a reaction so far, so I'll admit I'm not expecting one for this either.

[Geir narrows his eyes, something feral and dangerous in his expression. he's grinning, though.]

Won't that tell us something, too? Till now we haven't gone against what she wants from us outright. If we do and she still doesn't take action... well, there's a couple of different things it could be. She can't, or she doesn't care enough to, or she's waiting for us to blink. It's a different picture, anyway.

[tilting his head, more curious than concerned over the expression. is this how dragons make friends, is this a friendly face?]

Her reaction would tell us more about her, but we do kind of already know something based on what she has and hasn't done so far. If she wanted our obedience right from the start she could have led with something more hostile to force our hands early. Instead she's been mostly indifferent to our presence aside from giving the occasional order. If she follows the same pattern then she's just being consistent. It seems like the same picture to me, we just can't see all of it yet.

If she follows the same pattern, she's being consistent! But she brought us here for a reason, and if it's not the one she told us, it's something else.

[idk Sorey that face doesn't look too friendly. Geir looks interested and eager and a little manic, but considering that they're talking about power differentials...

it seems like it could be a good game to him, if it's approached that way in the end.]

If her reasons are what she said, it doesn't make any sense for her to be consistent when we stop doing what she wants.

[he has only seen so many dragons to compare expressions against and most of them were mindless malevolence beasts, he's trying]

You're right about that. But if she is being honest with us then it doesn't make that much sense for her to withhold information from us to begin with. The more we know about the situation, the more we'll be able to help. I'm guessing that the details are probably where things get complicated.

True, that!

[Geir withdraws his head for a moment to shift himself, sitting up more comfortably, before lowering his eye down to door level again.]

So, what do you think we should do?

[sorey still has to look up to sort of make eye contact with him, but at least he isn't getting a crick in his neck anymore]

I don't want to give Qri anything until we have more information. My concerns were the reason I wanted to ask everyone to discuss it in the first place.

Okay, but you just said it yourself. If she's being honest-- she won't have any more.

What do you want to do then? Get more information on our own?

Well, yeah. I don't know how much information we can get on our own, honestly, but there's no harm in trying. We still haven't explored the whole island where we first arrived, and I'm hoping that gives us more clues. It's a place to start.

[that puts Geir in mind of a question that'd been bothering him about the Hub ever since he heard about it.]

--I did mean to ask. What's that place about? Is it Qri's home?