A dinner party

[ordinarycitizen]

WHO. All off-worldlers
WHERE. Liselotte's flat in Light
WHEN. Sometime before the plot starts
WHAT. A dinner party, and sharing information
WARNINGS. N/A

Louise sends the invite out in a timely manner to Bramble, Stone and Phillip, though when everyone arrives, they will find that Louise picked up a new face or two on the way while running a last errand (or perhaps someone else has brought a guest along).

The table is set for six, though one chair is a kiddie chair. A few different dishes will be served, as Louise doesn't know if anyone has limitations as to what they can eat, and a few candles have been placed on the table to give a nice ambient light.

Comments

[whatsina_name]

"Pretty likely, I think. They know I have no interest in trying to hurt their goddess." Quite the opposite, actually.

[ordinarycitizen]

"How come?"

She raises her eyebrows. That sounded definitely suspicious, Phillip.

[whatsina_name]

Phillip gives her a weird look back. "I'm not a native, why the hell would I care?" It's definitely not suspicious. It's fine.

[ordinarycitizen]

She leans back slightly, watching him very closely.

"Especially since you're not local they should normally not trust so easily. There's no telling where your allegiances may lie; with a local, they could trace their history for inclinations." She crosses her arms over her chest. Politics, why do they keep following her around. "Unless of course you have made your allegiance known since arriving here."

[whatsina_name]

"...I feel like there's a question you're trying to ask and I dunno what it is." At this point, he would much rather her think he doesn't know what he's doing than know what he is doing. Mostly because he still hasn't quite figured out for himself why he's doing it.

[scarsolderthanyou]

"She's asking whether you told them you're on their side, or specifically did something to make them think you are," Stone clarifies. Politics are not his favorite thing, either, but at least he's aware enough of them to know how to cut through them. "Because she's right. Outsiders usually aren't trusted just because they're outsiders. Especially if you haven't picked a god to support here, yet, when that's how the locals all get their power."

[ordinarycitizen]

Louise nods briefly at Stone's words. That's exactly her line of thinking.

"You may look and act like a dumb teenager, but you know exactly what I'm asking." She can't tell how well he knows the consequences of whatever he has done, and what his actions mean in the greater picture, but he is old enough to understand declarations of support or membership, or somesuch. Perhaps not the intricacies of them, but the basics.

"I'm not saying that you shouldn't have, I just think that it would be good if all of us knew. Because it will affect how we can move."

She quietens and then directs the next words at Phillip, but they clearly mean everyone in the room.

"Assuming there is a "we" here. That we, those who are not from this place, want to remain united in some shape or form. Even if we on the surface are in different factions and join opposing groups."

Because her and Phillip will end up on different ends of the spectrum, most likely. Whatever that spectrum ends up being. She can't herself siding with Blood, or a group that represents its values.

[whatsina_name]

Phillip rolls his eyes up to the heavens, muttering an 'oh my god' under his breathe, the perfect picture of drama. He would be quite pleased with himself, if he could see it.

"No, I haven't sided with them, haven't picked a god to get powers from, not going to." Hopefully not, anyway, he doesn't want to actually get in with the Meteor guy. "All I've done was tell them I wanted to figure out why their goddess hasn't been around and try to keep the balance they've currently got going. I don't exactly want there to be a war."

He doesn't actually want to end up on the opposite side of them; they seem like nice people. He's just not that willing to give up his secrets, after holding them so close to his chest for six years. But he meets Louise's gaze, and holds it maybe a little bit longer than he should, and she might get a feel for exactly how much power he's holding. "Does that answer your question?"

[scarsolderthanyou]

The eyeroll earns him a slap on the back of the head-- not hard, but enough to muss his hair or hat and bop his head forward a little. Respect your elders, fledgling.

"Not really, since it doesn't explain why they trust you, but I know you well enough to guess you're going to keep dodging that one, because you hate answering questions," Stone grumbles. "There should be a 'we'. I'm intending for there to be a 'we', anyway, even if it annoys the rest of you. We should trust each other, because we don't know who here, if anyone, really has our best interests in mind-- much less are interested in sending us home."

[ordinarycitizen]

Louise holds the gaze until he looks away and frowns. That's... both very interesting and very troubling. There is a power there, great power of a kind that she cannot really place. Power that he is way, way too young for. It makes her feel inadequate - both concerning power and concerning humanity. She does her best, but in the end, she is not human and has never been.

She shakes her head, trying to get those thoughts out of her head, and then nods at Stone's words.

"...If you pick a group, god or no, it would be good if we knew." She's not going to discourage it - having a mole might be a very good idea. But he should very much tell them.

"And what Stone said. The people here who are most likely to have the same goal in mind - returning us home - and want it with the same priority as us are others who've come from off-world." There is no guarantee, there's never a guarantee, but it makes it more likely.

[whatsina_name]

Phillip's hat nearly falls off his head as he's pushed forward by the slap, glowering at Stone as he shoves the cap securely over his mess of black hair. At least Stone knows he hates answering questions. Even though he will probably still keep asking Phillip questions.

But he's getting the feeling that he can't dodge all of them, and he sighs. "Look," he says quietly, "I've got leads and ins in a couple of place, but I'm afraid if I talk about them I will fuck that up. I'll let you know if anything useful comes up."

[scarsolderthanyou]

"I'm pretty sure telling us about them won't get you in any trouble," Stone comments. "But sure, keep your secrets. Just know we can't actually help if we don't know what you're doing. Nobody can do everything alone without help." He pauses, then adds, mock-reluctantly, "Not even me."

[whatsina_name]

"I'm not worried about my safety, I'm worried about not being able to get the information we need. The more people that know shit, the more people can accidentally slip it up." Do you not know how this works?

Anyway, Phillip looks back at Louise. "Weren't we talking about the Meteor guy and dragons and shit?" Leave him alone.

[scarsolderthanyou]

Stone's lips draw back from his teeth, showing fang, and there's a sound that's probably a growl, not low enough to vibrate the floor but still obviously annoyed. Then he pointedly turns his face, body, and attention away from Phillip, towards Louise and anyone else still hanging around and even more pointedly changes the subject.

He's offended. Can you tell?

"The dragons didn't know that they can be killed," he says. "I got a thing from the person in charge of Ice to let me talk with them, a little, and they were shocked at the idea that this magician could kill them."

[whatsina_name]

....He can tell. Anyone who's still watching Phillip will see his expression soften a little bit, and he sinks into his chair while trying not to look shamed and failing.

He'll be keeping quiet for a little while now.

[ordinarycitizen]

"That's interesting. Because from what I can tell, killing dragons has been something that has been undertaken in the past. ...Or at least I think it has." She throws a sharp look around, trying to watch everyone and everyone's reactions at once as she speaks. "The hearts of dragons are crystals, like the ones that we collected. The ones that are used as a source of energy here. And I can't prove it, but I'm rather sure that that wasn't discovered by waiting for one of them to lay down and die."

[scarsolderthanyou]

That's an unpleasant thought, earning a bit of a lip-curl and fang again, but also seems a bit unreasonable to Stone, given the sheer number of crystals that he knows has to exist. "Unless there was a mass destruction of dragons at some point that everyone forgot, crystals have to come from somewhere else, too," he says, shaking his head. "You saw how many of them there were in that terminal thing that fell, and that's only one of dozens or maybe hundreds of those things. And that Wintersmith person said he could track dragon hearts, but not crystals. There's got to be some sort of difference between them."

[ordinarycitizen]

Louise nods. She agrees with that, but there is an adjacent thought that worries her.

"Even if there is a difference, someone might be desperate enough to try and tap into the unused potential of dragon hearts if they cannot get their hands on enough crystals."