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

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]

[rootandbranch]

See, that's the thing. I don't know if it's Qri doing it, or if it's the world that the people who died came from doing something really weird...

[Geir doesn't mention names. he doesn't know if he dead individuals in question would want that spread around. luckily, he also doesn't think that implying a world is very weird will narrow the potential choices down at all: everyone's world is weird to someone else here, for certain.]

[splinten]

[DIRK, HELPFULLY, LIKE IT DOESN'T MATTER]

No, Paradox Space was definitely ready to let us die that time. Either she brought us back from death or pulled us from right before death and healed us. None of us remember waking up in our version of the afterlife so it's impossible to be sure.

[rootandbranch]

[well if Dirk's not worried about it, Geir's not going to be! though that's an explanation that salves his irritated sense of metaphysics somewhat, actually.]

Oh, right before you died would actually make more sense--!

[splinten]

It could, and I'd imagine it's easier. The other option isn't impossible, though, and maybe Qri's powers lend towards resurrection more readily than healing. We can't really say at this point

[But Geir can take the salve to his metaphysics.]

[rootandbranch]

We know Genette can heal. I don't think anyone's died yet, so I don't want to go assuming she can bring people back from the dead! I guess it'd be useful if someone in the coven-- but it's better not to chance it.

[Geir wonders idly for a moment if he could bring something back from the dead. the word "enlivening" seems like it would cover that, doesn't it? but there aren't any dead coven members around to test it on, and he sort of hopes there won't be. he doesn't know what he would do about that.]

Is that the weirdest thing we've heard of for people being brought here?

[alienates]

[ from the back: ]

If she could somehow save me before I died while I was being burned alive I would be really impressed.

[imsorey]

[...PUTS...A HAND ON DIRK'S SHOULDER...what is your life and why is it worse than malevolence imploding the world]

Maybe it's a separate issue, but you might not want to go back to your world until we're sure. I'm not sure how this kind of stuff works but I wouldn't want it to kill you again just because you were supposed to be dead somehow.

[splinten]

[Is that. Is that a hand of comfort. This is so confusing.

Let's be practical instead. That's easier. ...Let's gloss over how they can't go back to their world EVER because the timeline is done for and they're going to be replaced by different versions of themselves. Sorey is clearly having a hard enough time with multiply-dead kids.]

Which raises the issue of potentially being sent back involuntarily.

[imsorey]

[being dead is sad and generally not okay, that is a hand of comfort. it is also to make sure he's not a ghost.]

The people who have gone missing, right? I was hoping they were just going home, but that was before this.

[rootbound]

[pipes up from like, the top of Geir's head, where he is sitting to avoid too many feelings, because wow there seem to be a lot going on on the floor]

She said she could let you stay or go as you willed, didn't she, if she reached full power again, so that's...

Actually, that would be nefarious if everyone she brought here turned out to be dead originally, but I think you might be a minority right now.

Sorry that happened to you, by the by.

[apatheia]

[nodding over here]

I can attest to this as well, but I assume that it's because of Qri that I was brought back online. Given the circumstances, I can't imagine anything else that would have achieved this.

[rootandbranch]

Is it different because you're a-- [not a machine. Nines was very clear that machines weren't the same thing.]

Because you're not human?

[apatheia]

It's possible, but I'd think that Qri would have to have very extensive knowledge of how androids, specifically YoRHa androids, work. When she can't even communicate with us directly though, I don't know how she'd be able to obtain that kind of information.

[Like not even most androids themselves would be able to explain how they work and how to repair them, so how could a with in some distant universe figure it out?]

[splinten]

Corpse party high five.

[He holds his hand up for a high five. Give him a high five, 2B.]

[apatheia]

[He's gonna have to teach her what a high five is first, whoops.]

... What's a high five? [If he hadn't said that specifically, she would've guessed saluting since he has his hand raised.]

[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.

[dawninglight]

Most of us might not know how to quantify whatever exact measurements she might have, anyways.

[she's not going to pretend that she would be good at doing math for magic]

But--even if we don't know exactly how much we need to eat a day, we can still say "having three meals a day" is how much food is ideal to get by on. It should be something similar for magic, if it's helping to sustain her.

[spaceforged]

That's a good way to put it. [If they translate it like that maybe they can lessen the confusion for all of them.]

It would be a good way to lead into asking her why she's so low. ...if it's not a natural cycle we need to know what the cause was. Or this could happen again to us, or to people we know.

[dawninglight]

--You think it might happen again, even after she gets all of the energy she needs?

[it was a concern she hadn't bothered to consider--in theory, the problem should be solved once she has what energy she needs, but since she's put it in the same frame as constantly needing food it makes sense.]

Then we wouldn't really be solving the problem by offering her a short-term solution like the one she's asking for.

[spaceforged]

And that’s exactly why we need to know what is going on. Right now we know something happened but not what or why. Like every thing else surrounding the Qri we lack any idea how this happened.

We can’t rule out any possibility. [He doesn’t want to see any of his team or anyone else who has other concerns stuck doing this work. Shiro crosses his arms over his chest.]

If something caused it, then there’s a chance we can find a longer term solution. Even if it might just be asking people to gather energy so she has a constant flow of energy to supplement what she loses. So long as they were a volunteer team that wouldn’t be an issue.

[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.