mapping party redux

[rebells]

Who: mapping party! (late signups for mapping party can go here)
Where: the near western side of the island
When: Day 85
Open/Closed: semi-open! feel free to mingle/run into mapping party at any of the locations. if you would like to be in mapping party, signups are above!

[So maybe you were invited along on this expedition by Jay or a friend. Maybe you heard a telepathic message a couple days ago looking for people with scouting and mapping skills and answered the call. Maybe you just happened to be in the area. Whatever the reason, there's a small group of people and dragons assembling on the beach near the huts, and Jay appears to be in the center of it, checking that everyone he's expecting is accounted for.

They'll be going by air to map the near western coastline and circling back around to camp, touching down every so often to look for landmarks and other potentially useful areas on the way. You're welcome to come along, if you can bargain yourself space on dragonback.]

Comments

[rebells]

[Jay emerges out of one of the tiny hut-houses carrying a hunting knife and some cans in the other.]

This place just keeps getting more and more bizarre.

[imsorey]

[Sorey pokes his head out of the hut next door, inspecting a can of powdered milk and trying to compare it to the cans that Jay has.]

No kidding. It makes me think that there was a group of people here before us, if there are things like this lying around.

[rebells]

There definitely were people living here before us . . . quite recently, too, if the abandoned house is anything to go by. One wonders what happened to them.

[imsorey]

Genette and Brie don't seem to know anything about it, but they might not have explored the area as much as we have. There could still be people living on other parts of the island that we don't know about yet. Maybe they come and go just like we do, so we don't run into them.

[he's quiet for a second, focusing his attention on the canned goods.]

Qri is collecting sources of energy, right? We don't know the full details of that, but could living beings full of energy count towards that goal?

[that's the less appealing thought, but somebody's gotta say it]

[rebells]

[That is a . . . disturbing, and entirely possible, thought.]

We really don't know. If it does, that raises the question of why she doesn't just use us, but . . . .

[He frowns, and looks distinctly disquieted.]

[imsorey]

She might be, though.

[he taps at the crystal at the base of his neck, matter-of-fact]

It could be that it doesn't have any negative side effects; I don't want to jump straight into thinking it's bad. It could be like a pact where it's a give-and-take sort of agreement. We just don't know what we agreed to.

[rebells]

We didn't agree to anything. She did it all without asking us.

[He thinks that's worth pointing out.]

[imsorey]

A forced pact that we didn't agree to, then. In my experience you can't force a pact on someone and it has to be a mutual agreement, but we don't know the full extent of what she can do yet. If she's wasting energy to bring us here and have us search for things without a guarantee that we'll do what she says, she must still be getting something out of it.

[giving a small shrug]

That's just speculation though. I don't know her well enough to say if it's something she'd do or not.

[rebells]

No, that's a good point. It's odd--she couldn't have gotten many bones from us, after we gave so many to the Palai, but she hasn't said anything about it, even to Genette. It could easily be that she wants something else out of us.

[imsorey]

It would be easier for us to handle if we knew what that was...I guess she either can't tell us, or won't.

[pausing a little before adding]

On my world you can obtain more power by binding yourself in some way. One of my friends was able to do that, but in exchange there were a lot of things she wasn't allowed to speak about. If Qri's in the same situation I might be able to understand her a little better.