anarqrists anonymous

[rebells]

Who: salty anarchists club
Where: an undisclosed location near the mountains
When: Day 93
Open/Closed: closed to invitees and invitees of invitees!

[So Jay may have pulled you discreetly aside some time over the last week or so and invited you to a particular location near the mountains, or you may have been dragged along by a friend. Either way, there's a small group of people forming in this forest clearing, Jay at the center, pacing back and forth as has become his tendency.

Let the Qri shittalking begin.]

Comments

INTRODUCTIONS / MINGLE

[rebells]

RECAP / INFORMATION-GATHERING

[rebells]

[After everyone has arrived and gotten a chance to settle in, Jay claps his hands to direct attention towards him and begin to speak.]

Welcome. Most of you will remember a meeting Sorey and Flynn held towards the end of our time in Aimintas. The purpose of this meeting is similar: to discuss Qri and the requests--or demands--she's made on us, share information, and discuss possible plans of action.

[He'll go into a brief recap of their situation, giving Qri's story as they understand it: the need for magical energy to maintain worlds, the conscription of Brie, then Genette, and then the rest of them. The comings and goings of various coven members. Qri's request for the Elto bones, and the extent to which the coven responded.]

Now we're back here, and we still have very little information to go on. I consider it a certainty that Qri will make similar requests of us in the future, and that we will have to decide whether to follow her directives. With that in mind, information-gathering is a top priority. Unfortunately, our main sources of information here are Genette and Brie, and for different reasons they don't seem that interested in interrogating Qri's story themselves.

Genette has said, however, that she'll help convey any questions we may have to Qri. So I thought I'd put together a list of things we want to ask her--feel free to add to it or refine it. We should also continue to pursue other sources of information: Genette and Brie, of course, as well as leads we may come across while exploring this island or the other worlds we're brought to.

Is there anything I've missed, or anything someone else would like to bring up?

[oneandmikleonly]

I did ask Genette directly if she could pass this one on to Qri, when we spoke.

[taps one of the questions on the list; the one asking about failsafes for coven members who were maintaining their own worlds in some way]

She didn't ask for much back -- hair accessories, she said, if I found any? So it is at least easy to pursue that route, though hard to verify information received that way.

[spaceforged]

Just hair accessories? She might not be banking on finding much. But, it's something.

[It's been on his mind since he got here. Without him, his universe is down its greatest defense.]

There's no way we can check our memories or, of anyone else from our universes to confirm anything, right?

[oneandmikleonly]

It may be. Still, it doesn't hurt to pick them up if they come our way.

[he frowns, a little.]

I don't think we can reach back to anyone back on our world, no. Sorey has a -- connection to several people back home, and while that hasn't exactly been cut, we haven't been getting through to anyone through it either. But what do you mean by checking memories?

[splinten]

I think we should take the opportunity to learn more from Genette and Brie what they've been asked to do in the past. Our only mission so far has been relatively benign. If someone's been hurt by us taking these bones, that fact was seriously obscured against all our best efforts. We don't know if that will change.

I bring it up because if we're going to raise our flags against the wagonwitch here, we need a better sense of what kind of retaliation she might bring in. That's important both for knowing how much risk to take in extending trust and how to defend against it. Someone openly throwing themselves into the possible noose of the coven gallows would be really fucking stupid and unnecessary, so the next best measure of what Qri might be willing to do is to see what she's willing to ask others to do.

I think Genette's the best person to go for here. She thinks so positively of Qri that any suspicious actions Qri might have taken will seem positive to her eye. Not that I think Brie's likely to hide things, but that kind of blind optimism might mean she's more likely to talk openly and effusively about exactly the kind of action we want to know about.

[oneandmikleonly]

Apparently Brie robbed a magic bank of magic currency once, if that helps. I asked a lot of questions around that; it seems like they mostly stayed around on each world until the ready source of power presented itself, and then took as large an amount of it as they could, but the form tended to vary.

[splinten]

It's worth noting, in my opinion. I'm not against telling the institutions of economic control to go fuck themselves, but the consequences tend to hit those who are helpless to do anything the hardest.

[dirk why are you like this.]

It raises the question of if we would be asked to kill Palai in order to harvest their bones, if a huge supply hadn't conveniently dropped on us.

[alphonse]

[In the interest of putting everything they've heard from Genette on the table:]

There's a lot that Brie and Genette still don't know even after being with Qri for this long, and our biggest question might not even have an answer. Genette's convinced that her story about being important to other worlds is impossible to prove--she's never seen a world benefit from them showing up, but she also thinks it would take Qri actually dying before there would be any negative effects.

[It's like a terrible fable about blind faith.]

[rebells]

That seems . . . convenient. Does she have any reason for believing that, or is she just speculating?

[alphonse]

I think she was just making a guess. For whatever reason, she seems sincere about taking Qri at her word on pretty much everything.

[imsorey]

[adding a question to the list]

It might not be the most immediately pressing, but it would be nice to know if there are other groups of people doing the same things that we're being asked to do. Especially since there are signs of other people living on this island without us having run into them yet.

If Qri only had enough energy to bring Genette and Brie here to start then that brings up even more questions. It still seems out of place that she's asking so few people to do such a large task; she should know roughly how much energy that she needs and how many people it would take to get it. If she provided us with that information then we would know how many worlds we need to go to before her task is completed. Not knowing means there's a chance that we'll be staying longer than she wants us to be aware of.

[rebells]

That's something to ask Genette and Brie about too. If they've seen signs of other people on this island.

[They might lie, but neither Genette nor Brie seems like a great liar.]

[imsorey]

I would assume not if they haven't mentioned it, but sometimes I can't tell with them.

[they may not be great liars but he wouldn't put it past them to not bring something up unless directly asked.]

I'll ask, though. We might as well get answers when we think of the questions. Otherwise the questions will just keep piling up.

DIRECT ACTION

[rebells]

At the last meeting, one of the courses of action that was discussed was whether to actively keep the Elto bones away from Qri as a means of gaining leverage and therefore getting information out of her. That failed because we weren't in agreement, but I think it's something worth continuing to consider.

It would obviously be easiest if the entire coven came to an agreement, but I think a smaller, dedicated group could potentially take and hide enough of whatever Qri has us collect next to serve as leverage. The disadvantage of this, of course, is that there's no going back from that: we'll have made clear our intentions to oppose Qri if necessary, and there's no telling what she'll do in response. But I thought it was at least worth consideration. If that's what we decide to do, we should start planning for it now.

[rootandbranch]

Where are we going to hide something like that, and how are we going to keep it safe once it's hidden?

[Geir is laying down so his head (and thus this meeting) aren't visible above any treetops, or as obvious from the air. his head is still held high, though, alertly following everything that's been said. he's been fairly quiet for a while, the very end of his tail twitching as he listens.]

Vern and I already kept a bunch of the Elto bones from Aimintas, so we've got those where we're lairing now. But I'm not putting the ones everyone kept in one room unless we decide we need to make the cave bigger.

[he scratches at the back of his head with a hind foot, a doglike gesture that those who are familiar with him can quickly begin to recognize as thoughtful.]

As a group, we could always claim a place to keep things and figure out a way to hide it, or set up traps so no one else can get in. There are a few caves in the mountains that are too small for me to get into, and one of them might work. It'd have to be a special sort of place, though. The Uvi proved why we don't want to just shove lots and lots of magical objects into one place without separating them and keeping track of what they're doing. Especially since I'm guessing that all the stuff like that will still work here.

[bulletbiter]

[ Julius had been quiet most of the meeting, devoting himself to listening to the ideas of others. But now that it's time to discuss concrete action, he has an idea to voice. ]

I have a certain... ability. It lets me analyse something by taking it apart very carefully, and it works here as well. I am still unfamiliar with it, so I need practice. If we come up upon some new item, I could analyse it to see what exactly it is that she feeds off.

[ He can technically also recreate it if he knows enough, but he's not confident about that yet. ]

[splinten]

[Well this is interesting.] Did you try it with the bones?

[bulletbiter]

Not yet. Once I analyse it, the item will be lost.

[ He's avoided it because he could be not skilled enough and end up wasting an item. ]

I will try it once I have more practice.

[alphonse]

I know no one wants to make a decision while we have so little information, but not doing anything is the same as helping Qri since she's still getting the power she wants in the end.

[For better or worse, inaction is a decision in itself etc. etc. etc.]

My opinion hasn't changed since last time, but... it's a big risk, and we'd have to be prepared to take responsibility.

[Reckless plans are par the course for him, but he's less willing to push the group to put themselves in danger.]

[rootandbranch]

I don't think that just keeping the stuff is that much of a challenge to Qri, honestly. We could always still share some with her if she and the rest of the coven were in a pinch. None of the information she gave to Genette said she expected us to be completely devoted to her cause and none of our own.

[he tilts his head, thinking it through. being purely reactionary in their efforts together will be just as crippling to their ability to get things done effectively as inaction would be.]

We'd just better find out what those goals are. If we're going to work together, as long as we haven't agreed that we're trying to kill her and completely take her down, we should have our own goals and not just be reacting to her being annoying all the time.

[alphonse]

[Their own goals, huh? Al reacts to that a little more strongly than anything Geir actually said warrants, his shoulders hunching slightly as his hands curl up nervously in his lap. He knows that Geir's talking about important, big picture things--which are definitely Al's priority too--but after a lot of long talks about honesty and secret intentions he can't help feeling a little awkward. Being critical of Qri while also having a deeply personal interest in the energy sources she's after has the potential to look pretty shady down the line, but he's not sure if saying something now is the right call.]

Yeah.

[A little distantly, like he's answering a different question entirely. How helpful.]

Did you have something in mind?

OPENING THE FLOOR

[rebells]

[After that cheery discussion, Jay will open the floor to whoever wants to speak. Have something you'd like to bring up or discuss? Want to take advantage of getting a bunch of salty anarchists in one place and make an announcement? Go for it!]

FUTURE MEETINGS

[rebells]

What does everyone think about making these meetings a regular occurrence? How about adding additional members?

[Jay is impassive himself, looking around at the group to see their reactions.]

[rootandbranch]

I don't mind meeting more. If anyone gets answers, we can talk about them.

[Geir looks around the group with interest, looking at each face. it's a weird group, honestly.]

And I think a lot of people don't really like Qri. I don't mind if anyone else wants to come.