come_sailaway | [semi-open] we got to get up and organize

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[semi-open] we got to get up and organize

Who: Team Mutiny (including infiltrators, double agents, and those attempting to play both sides)
When: Early February
Where: Cabin 159
What: The second semi-official meeting of mutinous malcontents (say hi, mutinous malcontents!)
Warnings: Game-typical angst; other warnings to be added in reply headers as needed

She's passed the word quietly, asked others to do the same. Been as careful as possible not to let the word spread any further. With no other good options presenting themselves, she's asked Lieutenant Tayrey to host the meeting in her cabin.

It's been just over a month since they last met on the subject. Time and past to reconvene.

[See headers below!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I ... wasn't here for the incident you speak of. Salamander people?"

"If I may interject? I was there during that excursion. I remained after most had returned to the ship, because I had the intention to shove off on a raft." Yes, that raft. "I saw that group gathering on the beach. More than that, Ava Starr was one of the participants in that covert operation. I have heard her account of what happened, along with Skulduggery's and some of what Maximilien said. He was also present." Number 6 is laying out his sources so they have full disclosure of where his information comes from.

"The salamander people were not important, but it is important to realize that they actually existed. They and the animals we encountered were real and remained real after we left. It is significant because, unlike all the other worlds we've visited such as that mountain hotel, this one was not a fabrication of the Captain's making. So it is telling that this was the one place he hesitated to step foot into on his own. If he fears recapture, that would be a very good reason why he chose only those he thought he could trust to do that task for him."

She nods approval at his laying out the sources, and at his conclusion.

"Have you any idea what the task was?"

"It was to obtain an object of importance to the Captain. What kind, I do not know. That was a closely held secret." A secret he is not completely willing to divulge now even if he does know.

"The timing of his, presumably, successfully attaining that object and the deterioration of the ship in the month of October is, I think, not coincidental."

Another nod, and she turns back to Natsuno. "I have to agree it seems likely that he fears to be found. And, presumably, bound again. But when you say that his power shouldn't fall into the wrong hands ... would you elaborate on that?"

Mr. Smith explains it perfectly. Natsuno waits until it's settled and Cass addresses him again.

"Anyone who'd use him is the wrong hands, and he comes from a reality where enslaving his kind is common enough that people raid villages to hunt them. With all the research he's been doing since he escaped, he may be exceptionally powerful compared to his species. All it takes is one person who's ambitious, cruel or reckless enough to start wrecking realities and lives."

She studies Natsuno as he speaks, waits until he's finished.

"And I think many of us have known such people. So. I see why you feel binding him would be unwise."

Turning slightly now, to direct the question to everyone else present. "Does anyone disagree?"

I do.

[This may be a surprise, from Tayrey, with her sense of honor and her strict codes. She's quick to explain.]

Slavery is obviously wrong, and nobody should hold that power you're speaking of. That said, if binding him could be a path to our freedom, I don't think it should be ruled out entirely. Not to use his power ourselves, but to limit it. You're worried about such power falling into the wrong hands - his hands are the wrong ones. Nobody should control others the way he controls us here.

As I've said before, escape is my priority. I'm content to ignore the man if there is a way out that doesn't involve him. But I am not, in principle, opposed to this.

Yeah, I'm with her. It doesn't have to be Plan A, but if it turns out to be the best way to get us out of here, I'm all for it. I can't imagine most people using his power any worse than he does.

[ A few people would. He knows of at least one. But he's willing to take that chance.

And, frankly, he knows it's what'll hurt the Captain most. After everything they've been through, the vengeful part of him really wants that. But he knows better than to say it out loud. ]

"Then you do not have a broad enough imagination. I realize this will sound as if I am defending his abhorrent actions, but he could be doing much worse. Do not discount that."

"The chick that was possessing Friday, when she was dying she begged to be sent back to Hell instead of the Nothing. Unless Hell's all sugarplums and rainbows where she's from, it sounds like it really couldn't be that much worse."

"The nothing is unfathomably terrible, I grant you. That is why one of my primary goals is to retrieve the souls lost there. But my point is about scope. No matter how bad things are here, they are contained. I worry what could happen if the Captain's powers could be harnessed by someone with larger ambitions than becoming the god of one small sliver of a universe."

"I don't think anyone here is like that," he says, "We just wanna be free."

"I'm not only talking about here. I'm talking about the ones who imprisoned the Captain previously. Our attempts to leave carry a risk that it might make us targets for whoever else is out there."

"Do we know that whoever's out there looking for the Captain would be worse for us than he is? Or is this one of those 'better the devil you know' situations?"

They could be worse. But the fact that the Captain is on the run from them doesn't, on its own, convince him of that. Killers run away from people trying to stop them all the time.

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be_seeing_you - 2023-02-18 23:19 (UTC) - Expand

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pinballer - 2023-02-19 04:43 (UTC) - Expand

"No." Dimitri's voice crackles. Static prickles in his hair. The dissonance between principle and need makes his head ring, iron and rot in the back of his sinuses, but on this point he's decided, with all the desperate determination of someone who often trusts neither reality nor himself. "Our freedom will not be bought with his slavery. We must not escape only to become the very people who made him into this."

"So you'd damn everyone here to the Nothing forever just to avoid being cruel to the bastard that brought us here in the first place?" Vance says, "I'll do whatever it takes to make him stop hurting us. If that makes me just as bad as him, then you can fucking kill me too when I'm done for all I care. But if it's the only way to get us out, I'm not letting everyone go to the Nothing just to avoid it."

"How about we focusing on finding a way to kill him without killing the rest of us, then. Maybe through another reality he didn't make. Any objections to killing him?"

"I'm willing to kill him no matter what, and I'd rather kill him than do anything else, but if binding him is really the only way to save us I'm not going to take it off the table. That's all I'm saying."

“Some fates are worse than death,” Dedue says.

He is appreciative that Dimitri argued back with them - he has been feeling very uncomfortable about the direction this conversation has been headed but didn’t want to say anything.

"Yeah, like going to the Nothing. Why should we all suffer a fate worse than death to spare the guy who brought us here in the first place? If he's afraid of that then he can give us a better way out."

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glassaxolotl - 2023-02-11 22:59 (UTC) - Expand

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pinballer - 2023-02-11 23:05 (UTC) - Expand

Dimitri flinches, but holds his ground. "I would take it off the table. I will not allow any plan that requires his slavery." He tenses, draws himself inward. His gaze flicks to a spot next to Vance, then back. "It will not be our only option. This place was created -- it can be destroyed."

With or without them inside, well, details.

"And what if it is our only option? What'll you do then?"

As much as he hopes it doesn't come to that, he needs to know where everyone will stand.

Cassandra's brows rise slightly.

"When you said that your aim is not to kill the Captain, then, did you mean that you're actively opposed to doing so? It's best to have these things clear."