catch-all open log!

[rebells]

Who: Anyone and everyone!
Where: On the beach, and various other places throughout the hub island
When: Day 80, and the next couple days after
Open/Closed: open log for hub shenanigans!

[This evening, someone has placed an old, rusted-over camp stove on the beach near the coven's row of huts--anyone examining it in detail will see that it's not operational at the moment, but that could potentially be changed, couldn't it? If someone was handy with mechanical things . . . .

Next to it is a crate (which, from the weight of it is empty) and pinned to that crate is a sheet of paper with a map on it, something like a much cruder, black-and-white version of this:



with the following key:

1 - crags. Contain snakes which may be poisonous. Watch out.
2 - ocean, going about one mile out from the coast.
3 - lagoon. Contains thick reeds (could be woven or shaped into tools) and frogs (edibility uncertain).
4 - abandoned campsite.
5 - orchard. Currently, trees are diseased and bare. Plant healer needed.
6 - abandoned house. A family used to live here, from the looks of it. Still contains some useful supplies.

And there should be a 7 north of base camp with the notation "graveyard. Graves unused." but the player forgot and is too lazy to go back and fix it right now. Observant individuals will note that the map looks like a more detailed version of one hanging on the door to a certain coven member's cabin, one that has a note on the bottom: "Have information? Ask for Jay."

Other than that, it's a quiet night on the hub island. We've been here for a couple days; maybe you're getting restless? Want to check out that ocean, or lagoon, or even those crags? Maybe just go door-to-door in the beach huts? Maybe you're sick of shrimp and looking for other things to eat . . . hopefully someone's got a fire going tonight, and thought to kill a boar . . . .

What are you doing tonight?]


((here or here for place descriptions))

Comments

[rebells]

[He's a little nonplussed by that tone, but he supposes to a thirty-five-foot dragon, the question of destroying humanity is a bit academic . . . . ]

The latter. [And given the above, it feels a little safer to say this:] My home is--was--the Legacy, not the lands that were going to be destroyed. But I doubt the Radiant would have left the Legacy alone after causing another Cataclysm. They were very angry.

[rootandbranch]

Oh...

[that makes sense, he wants to say -- and senses it would be appropriate to say. but he hesitates before saying it, anyway. he can't help it. the idea someone could have a home that inspired them with enough feeling to want to protect it that way tugs at him.

is there any place he'd do that for? not his dim memories of Angrboda's domain. not Odin's hall. not under earth or under sea. not really even the lands of Midgard he was just starting to come to know, either, though he thought they were beautiful.]

You must have liked it.

[oh right-- Jay wasn't even defying anyone. defense was what his god wanted. lucky son of a sheepherd...]

Not that-- I mean, you said you were with the god below, anyway.

[rebells]

. . . I would have tried to stop them anyway. The Quiet Nerifes just gave me the power to actually make a difference.

[Because yes, he does like the Legacy, quite a lot. He leaves that unsaid for the moment, though, because it's actually painful to think about.]

[rootandbranch]

. . . that's impressive. I don't know if I could do that.

[that's brutally honest, though it's said fairly unemotionally. Geir's bitterly aware of the yawning pit of uncertainty in his belly about whether he's even enough of a person to make his own choices that way, much less act on them. he was right, back in the meeting they had about whether they'd cooperate with Qri: these humans really do take the ability to choose for granted.

it's admirable, though. it takes a very specific kind of strength. he can acknowledge that untouched by any of his private frustrations and fears, and it's certainly not Jay's fault that Geir was born a tool.]

So, what happened? You won?

[he assumes that Jay wouldn't be talking like this if the Legacy was destroyed.]

[rebells]

[He shrugs; it's not something he particularly wants to be admired for, especially considering what he did right before he left the Legacy.]

Yes. We convinced the agent of Nerifes to stand down and . . . fought the Raging Nerifes into submission.

[This is a fancy way of saying they punched the ocean.]

[rootandbranch]

...I'm glad.

[he is. he likes and respects Jay. it'd be sad if his home was destroyed.]

Did you ever find out why the seas wanted such different things?

[rebells]

[That makes him quiet, remembering everything humanity did to the Radiant to make Nerifes angry and fuel a desire for revenge.]

I presume because they represented two different worlds. Two different peoples. Two different sides of a race war.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir... edges his nose a few inches closer to Jay across the sand for the reassurance of proximity. he sort of wishes that he felt familiar enough with Jay to beg for petting outright, because this is an unsettling conversation, and the best approach to unsettling conversations (in Geir's opinion) is to have them while petting a dragon. but Jay is a very closed off sort of person, and Geir isn't sure about it, so he lets the brief impulse pass.]

It's so strange... I don't think that's why everyone was fighting at home. I guess I don't know much about it, though. I haven't been awake for very long.

[rebells]

No? What were you doing, back in your world?

[He's genuinely curious about the answer--he likes knowing about people, and Geir more than qualifies as a person--but he's half-asking just to change the topic. Talking about the Legacy like this is depressing him.]

[rootandbranch]

I wasn't really fighting. That was the humans. I was doing something else.

[Geir hesitates and considers, narrowing his eyes. finally he cautiously says:]

If I tell you, you have to promise not to put a bear skin on. I don't really feel like getting in fights today...

[rebells]

A . . . bear skin.

[Bemused--he's never heard the term, although he can guess from context.]

[rootandbranch]

[Geir yawns, unimpressed by the request for clarification.]

One of the berserkers. Biting your shield and roaring into battle. That kind of thing.

[rebells]

I don't roar, as a general rule.

[Dry, sardonic. But he's really curious now, if Geir thinks what he was doing would provoke some sort of argument.]

I'll try not to pass judgment on your previous activities.

[rootandbranch]

Sorry. Last time it came up, someone yelled at me. Geez...

[he huffs, remembering, and tilts his head on his front claws a bit to eye Jay appraisingly. finally he stretches his shoulders and wings out, refolding them in a shrug.]

I was supposed to sleep until the end of the world.

[rebells]

[He tilts his head, thoughtful. There's nothing about that that seems immediately objectionable, but--]

But you're awake now. So did your world end?

[rootandbranch]

No. We're still figuring out whether to do it or not.

[Geir really can't beat around the bush.]

[rebells]

[He . . . tilts his head further . . . he's better at being calm about things than Tara-Fay is, anyway.]

Well.

What were the points in favor and against?

[rootandbranch]

It's not like that -- not for me, anyway. It's what I exist to do, that's all.

[Geir's eyes shift away. of course, someone who told the story Jay just did would expect reasons, some kind of principled decision and followthrough. Geir doesn't have any of that. just the certainty in his bones that he's carried since he was a child: that he'd wake up, and Heimdallr would blow his horn.]

You could say it's what I am.

[rebells]

[Jay understands the idea of existing for one single purpose, a little, but this time it's Shirley he thinks of first--the Merines, prophesied savior of her people and destroyer of the hated Orerines. She turned that on its head. She's a better person than Jay is, if Jay is a person at all, but he knew that already.]

Are you? [He's not entirely sure whether it's him talking, or the Shirley he imagines.] You talked about making a choice.

[rootandbranch]

Vern summoned me, so he's got a say.

[always.]

For me, I'm not-- sure it's a choice I can make.

[rebells]

Why not? [This is skating closer towards his own issues--he remembers that conversation about purpose now. But Geir is, to all appearances, a mythological creature, so that gives the issue a little bit of distance.] Will you be--compelled if you don't?

[rootandbranch]

[Geir tilts his head, considering that.]

I'm not really sure. My dad, for sure, would be mad about it -- probably everyone else, too. I don't know how far the others would stick their noses into it, but Dad would definitely have the rights and grounds.

That's not what I mean, though. You just have to have it in you to do that.

[he glances at Jay again, eyes steady, not betraying a lot of emotion about it.]

When you said you'd fight the Radiant even if the Quiet Nerifes had wanted them to win, I told you I didn't know if I could have. That's what I'm talking about. You have to choose.

[rebells]

[He arches an eyebrow.]

Do you not think you have the will to go against what everyone else wants for you?

[rootandbranch]

[Geir narrows his eyes right back.]

It's a matter of will, but it's not about what other people want. It's about what I am.

[rebells]

[The thing is, Jay knows very well the terrifying uncertainty of making your own choices for the first time, having nothing and no one to guide you, unsure if you're even capable of acting on your own in such a way. Of being more than what you've been told you are.

He's known it, and come out on the other side, if only temporarily, and he has to (has to, has to) believe that the answer is yes. Yes, he succeeded in being something like a person, even if Solon came and took all that away again. No, it wasn't pointless to try.

It should make him sympathetic to Geir, but he's the sort of person who, having come to a conclusion, doesn't like to admit to the uncertainty in it. So his reply is a bit snappish:]

I don't know what you are, or what you're capable of. But I do know that you'll never know, either, unless you try. And if you go in hiding behind the belief that you can't, you've already lost that battle.