whoops

[rootbound]

Who: Geir, Vern & you!
Where: Shehui (various)
When: Day 196 (backdated to just before the telepathic fail hijinks)
Open/Closed: Mostly open!

i. setting it up (closed to geir)

[this is it. they've spent days discreetly smuggling a small heap of Palai bones one by one to a public park in a less-busy area of the city. with traffic drawn away from it by the festival, and minimal risk of anyone actually getting hurt, it's time to finish up their plan and place the final bones. one to be the trigger, one as bait for the monitors...

they peer down the street.]

...I think we can go.

ii. kaboom (open)

[and if you're in that sector of the city today, you're likely to hear a thunderclap of noise and see a brilliant flash of light coming from said park. Shehui citizens and visitors around you exclaim and turn to look, and you may see monitors making their way through the streets to the source...

Vern speaks telepathically through the entire coven's signets before the dust of the explosion's even settled, voice clipped and abrupt]

Vern and Geir here. If you're walking the city today, don't go near-- [he names the neighbourhood of the park.] If you're already near it, don't actually go to the park; make sure there are eyewitnesses that you weren't there at this time. You don't know anything about this, you weren't involved. All right?

iii. in the aftermath (open)

[Geir and Vern don't actually get themselves arrested; they're on the ground floor of the coven house as usual that evening, if you want to ask them questions face to face in a reasonably private space. they look kind of pleased with themselves...? mission success?]

Comments

[allbroea]

Even if he can't produce them on demand, it would be best to have him look at the lock if he's technologically-minded. [ a pause. evenly: ] I don't think it was a clean way to acquire information, but you did acquire it, and you've been forthcoming about what you found. I owe you some gratitude.

[rootbound]

[raises his eyebrows a bit, behind his glasses]

You're surprisingly gracious.

[it's hard to tell his tone]

[allbroea]

[ he doesn't think he's ever been called surprisingly gracious, but maybe that should be more of a shock considering how much of an ass he can be. ]

Hardly. [ ... maybe? it's true he doesn't actually know much about geir or vern, but they made an effort to resolve an unfavorable situation and do as little harm as possible. ] You minimized damage done and furthered our understanding of the situation. It would be discourteous to act as though you've caused nothing but trouble.

[rootbound]

Well...you're welcome.

[he honestly wasn't expecting to be thanked at all for this, hence the surprise; he went in aware they were pretty much being loose cannons about it.]

[allbroea]

[ he could have done a much worse job about being a loose cannon, at least ... or maybe a better job. ]

Don't take that the wrong way. The next time you pull a stunt like this, I think all of us would appreciate a warning beforehand at the least. The opportunity to offer our input would be even better.

[ the warning message they got was already lacking in information, too ... ]

[rootbound]

[he shrugs a little]

I'm hoping we won't be put on this ridiculous countdown timer with no clue where to start and an uninformative populace again, but I'll take the constructive criticism.

[allbroea]

[ a little annoyed: ]

One hopes for the best, but plans for the worst. If the coven had done that in the first place, I doubt we would be having this conversation. It's a miracle none of you have established a chain of command for something like this.

[rootbound]

Uh, good luck with that? I'm not saying I won't make a better effort to discuss and warn people next time, but also, we have a constant flow of people in and out of this group, half of it is suspicious of Qri's motives and unhappy about being kidnapped at any given time, and most everyone is from a different place with a different idea of answerable authority.

It's not impossible, but I think you'll be hard pressed to unite everyone here in a sense of community spirit and obeying orders.

[allbroea]

[ maybe 'chain of command' was a bit too heavy. ]

Of course not. I don't expect a rank-and-file organization, but the barest effort towards order would go a long way. [ he's ... okay, a little bit of an idealist, but not that much. ] It's not as if we have no precedent to work together as much as possible. You said yourself half of us are suspicious and unhappy. If there's a congregation of suspicious and unhappy coven members already, I'd like to hear about it. If there isn't, I'd like to know if the attempt has been made, and if it has been made and fell apart anyway: Why?

[rootbound]

It's not fallen apart; I think it's just had more trouble meeting in this city, what with all the monitoring. I don't run it, though. Talk to Jay.

[allbroea]

[ the fact it exists at all is reassuring, though it's still frustrating that they haven't been working around the monitoring. ]

Jay ... Thank you. I'll see if I can get in contact with them.

The only question I have left is where the building actually is.

[ well, the only reasonable question. there are still plenty left. ]

[rootbound]

He rooms on the eighth floor if that helps.

[he also gives a fairly good description of the neighbourhood it's in, though sadly the player did not get those concrete details and thus has to handwave :(b SORRY]

[allbroea]

[ he makes a mental note of jay on the eighth floor and the description of the neighborhood. ]

Late as it is and on such short notice, I don't think there's much else that can be done for now. You two should take care in your follow-up. Keep the rest of us informed of any important developments, if you can.

[rootbound]

[tips him a tiny military-looking salute with one hand, ironic]

Sure.

[allbroea]

[ vern wins ... a second eyeroll. this time he can see it!

somehow, jusis refrains from commenting on the salute. it helps he is technically military, and unbearably formal besides, so the gesture isn't ... wrong ... just kind of juvenile. he offers a half-hearted wave of his fingers back. ]