anarqrists not-so-anonymous: redux

[rebells]

Who: Salty Anarqrists Club (Jay's invites + anyone those people decide to invite)
Where: DRAGON HOUSING (on the first floor of the coven's apartment complex in Shehui)
When: Day 148, evening
Open/Closed: ICly closed! potential gatecrashers should PM rebells.

[The process will be familiar to some of you and new to others: some time over the past week, Jay or someone else would have quietly approached you in person and let you know about a meeting that was taking place tonight, hopefully away from the watchful gaze of Brie, Genette, and Qri.

Jay will greet you by the door. It might be a tight fit in the Geir-and-Vern apartment (if indeed it can be considered an apartment), depending on how many people show up. Take a seat on the ground next to the dragon--or on the dragon, if he'll let you--and wait for the meeting to come to order.]

Comments

INTRODUCTIONS / MINGLE

[rebells]

[rootandbranch]

[the whole first floor lobby of the residential building where the coven is staying was earmarked for Geir to stay, and had its walls, dividers, and furniture removed so he could actually fit inside. even with those accomodations, it's a tightish fit -- snug, though not unbearably so.

Geir has pushed his coils out to the edges to leave the space in the center of the room open for discussion, curling around the space, on the logic that this will make it easier for people to hear each other; however, that does mean that everyone's more or less standing within the half-circle of his body. there isn't much seating to be had except on his tail or against his side, but there are a couple of people (most notably Vern, who's leaned up next to his face at some point) already using him as a chair or backrest. they aren't getting eaten.

more succinctly:

there is a DRAGON here. people are sitting on him. he appears to have NO PROBLEM WITH THIS.]

Tell me if anyone needs me to move anywhere...

[rebells]

[Jay is leaning against the wall next to the door to the building, idly leafing through his notebook. He'll look up as people come in.]

I'm glad you could make it.

[dawninglight]

[technically a new face to these gatherings, Yona has settled for taking a seat close to Geir's face and fairly out of the way; she isn't trying to hide that she's people-watching, and if you catch her eye she'll wave hello.]

[alienates]

[ that loud short gray guy is just hanging around, seemingly glaring?? at everyone??? this is just his normal expression. ]

[oneandmikleonly]

[he gets a tiny wave from Mikleo]

I'm glad you came.

[rebells]

[This busybody smiles sunnily at him.]

Oh, hello.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir puts his nose close to Karkat, not hard to do in these close quarters, to take a better look at him. that skin and those horns are really quite familiar now that he's talked to Terezi.]

Oh, you're another one of the grey ones--!

[imsorey]

[there is an obnoxiously pleasant person waving hello to him!!!! this is a new face but he can recognize the trolls by now]

PURPOSE AND RECAP

[rebells]

[When everyone's settled in, Jay will move to the center of the space, or as close to it as he can manage, and speak up.]

Welcome. The purpose of this group, for those of you who haven't been with us before, is to discuss Qri and the situation we've found ourselves in freely, share information, and discuss possible plans of action. I'd like the group to accommodate anyone who has the best interests of the coven in mind and is open to thinking critically about Qri and what she's asked of us, so please, if you know anyone who would do well here, please suggest them to me.

I thought I'd begin by passing out this short summary of what we know so far--all this is according to Qri and Genette, of course. If you have any questions or want clarification on some event, don't hesitate to ask--I've been here since the beginning, as have Dirk, Mikleo, and Sorey. And of course, let me know if there's something I've missed and should add.

[terezias]

Question! How much do we know about Brie and Genette, besides what is written down here?

[imsorey]

We know a little bit about the world Genette is from, just from asking her about it, and she seems fine with sharing it. I haven't heard much about where Brie's from, but I'm pretty sure it's similar to the worlds that have electricity--like where Dirk's from.

[not that Brie is from Homestuck, but it's the closest comparison he knows of.]

Was there something in particular you were curious about?

QUESTIONS FOR QRI, REDUX

[rebells]

Some time ago, Geir gave a list of questions we'd compiled to Qri, some of which she answered through Genette. On that occasion, Qri also spoke to us to say that she would answer our questions directly next time. I'd like us to get out in front of planning for that.

I'm passing around a revised list of unanswered questions -- I'm planning to give this to the coven as a whole, to solicit more questions and prioritize the ones we have according to what people want answered most. But since there's a sizable group of us here, I wanted to know what you thought as well. Are there questions we should push the coven to focus on?

Our next encounter with Qri may also be a chance to get some idea of what sort of person she is, in addition to getting questions answered. I think whoever gives the main list of questions to her should take a fairly conciliatory tone, so that we have the best chance of getting them answered. However, if we get the opportunity to converse with her, it may be a good idea to have other people take different approaches--more aggressive ones, for example--towards her, in order to see how she responds and what works best. If we do that, we should decide ahead of time who is going to take what approach.

[rootandbranch]

[after someone reads the updated list to Geir, he lays there with his head bowed and eyes narrowed for a few moments, looking at the ground, tailtip and claws twitching in thought. when he finally looks up, it's with a serious, thoughtful expression.]

This might not be a question for Qri as much as what people here have seen so far, but has anyone noticed a lot of coven members coming from backgrounds that seem... well, strange? Things you wouldn't expect.

I don't mean weird other worlds, I mean things like-- people who had died. Barriers that are normally more difficult to cross than space. I've heard a little about stuff like that. I'm wondering how much there is.

[imsorey]

You mean she's bringing people back to life and then bringing them here? Is that even possible?

[it must be if it's happening, but bringing people back to life isn't usually something that can, well, happen]

[dawninglight]

[nodding to herself as she reads through the list, tapping at a few of the ones she knows that she's interested in getting answers for]

I can't speak for everyone on what should be a priority, but I'd like to know what will happen if she doesn't get energy, and how much of it she requires to bring us home. If she's low on energy then she doesn't seem to need much to bring us here in the first place, so it should be the same to take us back.

For all that her situation sounds urgent, she doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get it done. But some of us still have things that we need to do back home. So...whatever information we need in order to move forward is best.

[spaceforged]

She has stepped up from using two people to achieve her ends to a vastly larger group. We still don't know how much energy she derives from having us bound to her.

[It's possible every action they take is adding to the Qri's power.]

But I agree we need to know how much energy she needs. Even if it's a rough guestimate it would be something to go on.

[lohengrins]

Is obtaining magical energy the key to waking her from her coma? — if so, she may be able to physically manifest in due time. I want to speak to her as an individual rather than an omnipresent force.

SHEHUI EVENTS

[rebells]

There's also the matter of the city we've found ourselves in, and the fact that Qri isn't anywhere that we know of. Should we make an attempt to find her, or investigate other aspects of this city? Or should we encourage others in the coven to be cautious and avoid attracting attention until we get our next set of directions? [A smile passes across his face.] Or both? Neither?

We know that Qri will eventually want us to retrieve another source of magical energy. I plan on taking a similar approach to the one we took in Aimintas--not to actively collect energy for her, but not to prevent others from doing so, either--while we wait for our next conversation with her. There are, however, advantages and disadvantages to such an approach, so you are all welcome to suggest alternative courses of action.

[oneandmikleonly]

I think it would be safer to try and avoid attracting undue attention from Shehui, at least to start with. Whether we choose to go with what Qri wants on this world or not, or explore other aspects of it, we don't want to give the native people here a reason to hamper us too much when they've not done us harm and let us stay to begin with. Save that sort of thing for an emergency.

[lohengrins]

I want to find her. We may need her presence in these coming weeks. However, if she expects us to retrieve another source of magical energy, she's daft. She'll have to consider the consequences for us first. These people are adverse to magic — we'd have no choice but to refuse unless we were somehow starved for corporal punishment.

[spaceforged]

I agree with the others, we do need to be careful about attracting attention. But we're putting ourselves at a disadvantage if we don't find out more about why they're so adverse to magic. Especially if situations come up where we have to use it.

Finding where the Qri is should be another priority. No matter how we feel about her she is our way off this world, isn't she?

OPENING THE FLOOR

[rebells]

[Jay will now let anyone else who has something to bring up speak.]

[rootandbranch]

Hey, I was talking with 2B about this -- the powers we have might be a good list of what Qri can do. Jay, weren't you keeping a list of powers you knew about...?

PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE

[rebells]

As I intimated before, I'm planning on calling a meeting of the whole coven in order to solicit questions for Qri and prioritize our existing questions. I'd appreciate some help with that--getting word out when it's time, and helping keep the meeting on track. Let me know if you'd be interested in that.

I think that's it for the moment. I'll let you all know if the time comes for us to meet again.