un: karsa

[aprescoup]

( And now for a beautiful interlude featuring the party's witch Karsa and an especially plump, smug pigeon chasing her legs on the Senate steps. )

- go. You hear me? ( The pigeon only comes closer. ) No! No food. No food. You hear me? No. ( Fireball? Fireball. A startled pigeon briefly flies away, while Karsa cackles. Finally, she returns to the pendant. )

You. What are you doing? Not speaking. Not organising. Fools. Why do you never speak? Mouths too busy? I put mustard seeds in them. I put brine. We make pickles. At least we know.

( A pause. ) I am told you are... kingmaking. Wonderful. Very wonderful. I am delighted. If you think this makes you special, I step on your backs.

I know the choices: Caius Justus. A tyrant who is not dead, but that can be helped. Messalina. She is dead. No one helps that. And the man without opinion, Caelius Silvanus. So he says, delay the vote! Always helpful, to say nothing concrete. Someone must have stepped on his back.

Talk and decide among yourselves. You cannot work at odds, or what one hand does, the other undoes. And you are stuck no where, doing nothing. ( Another pause, while the pigeon appears impudently in the horizon, and she sends a warning shot towards him. ) Except for me. I am eating pigeon.


( ooc: this is your convenient post to give your character's $0.02 on whether to support:

— undead lady Messalina, who wants to gain the elite Hand army of Ephes
— the despot Caius Justus, who wants to keep the Hand for his own design
— Caelius Silvanus, who wants to put off the vote

...during the upcoming polls. Please feel free to threadjack — Karsa will only be commenting sparingly. You can have your character factor all this in when submitting threads about swaying votes, if you like! )

Comments

un: Black Prince; text

[blackscales]

[ Alright fine. ]

I'd suggest we put off the vote.

Caius Justus is seemingly a tyrant, and Narula has his favour. Narula and the Hand are waist-deep in dark water, so Titans know what manner of deal has been made there.

Messalina speaks of peace and freedom but I have no evidence she tells the truth, only evidence she killed a member of the senate and had a demon replace them. I understand she's against the Brotherhood, as are we, but her offer is too good to be true. There's a catch, and without knowing what it is I cannot say if it's worth the cost.

Putting off the vote gets us time to either find reason to trust Messalina or replace Justus with someone who had a modicum of sanity, if anyone here does. If putting it off presses Messalina into action, she's shown her hand we've still learned something.

un: lockwood; audio - Threadjacking is love!

[recklessenough]

I spoke with Messalina. [ Had he shared that fact? Errr .. might have slipped his mind. ]

I have no doubt that while she put forth a good argument, there was quite a lot of deliberate omission. [ That just seems to be the case; always. ] Regardless, I am inclined to believe she is pulling in the same direction as our own objectives and for now, at least, could be a useful ally.

What I did not come away with was a comfortable sense of what would happen once her goals are achieved.

[ He pauses, pensively and then continues. ]

Ultimately our goal does not seem to include living out our lives in this place. But there are civilians here who will be left in the aftermath. Has anyone spoken with the populace to gauge their opinion of these matters?

[ AKA: What do the poor sods left to deal with all the fallout from this want for their city? ]

un: wisdom

[mashiara]

Could Caius Justus be placed forward and then handled in the way Karsa is suggesting?

I don't know either 'leader' would hold the balance if Caelius Silvanus has his way. The fact we're looking at two factions of the dead and being told decide which one is least deadly won't end well left on its own.

un: mansbane

[bravelyrunsaway]

What, is there a reason we can't just leave?

un: yiling laozu

[weifinder]

I've a few handfuls of the dead who'll take the floor with me, and ah, that can provide... distraction enough, should others seek to shift the landscape.

They aren't the sort to be terribly fond of Messalina, for what that's worth. For what else it's worth, Karsa has a point. Messalina can't be simply solved, but both Justus and Silvanus can. I doubt either is unaware of the fact.

un: worm wife / text

[wifedup]

I don't trust Messalina.

But then again, I don't trust any of them. We're being played like game pieces either way. If anyone knows how to upturn the board entirely then they have my vote.

( Set it on fire? Set it on fire. )

text;

[reparo]

Jacob and I found written proof that Caius Justus has been selling the grains to Matthias.

text;

[beitangmoran]

That would appear to need to be dealt with urgently.

And also that means we are once again in the middle of a proxy war between the Brotherhood, or what's left of it, and the other undead of this world.

un : dappled peals of the parted seas (voice)

[beitangmoran]

I would tend to agree. Leaving the reins to any undead, no matter their affiliation, seems unwise. From the start, the fact that she begs humans for help has been... bizarre. She's either desperate, which is not good in an ally, or she has ulterior motives, also not good.

[weifinder]

Or both! In either case, her soldiers don't stop at death. And the living can become excellent soldiers even when they stop with living. Isn't that the case here?

The Hand changes them significantly, warps their life into deaths reclaiming. Messalina can afford to be more straightforward than Matthias bothers with. More like Anurr - you give, you get, he benefits.

[beitangmoran]

The Hand also needs to be dealt with. Clearly, that's Matthias's in into the city's government.

I suppose delaying becomes the best choice, by default. And then dealing with our actual enemy. Messalina will have to wait.

[weifinder]

Or enstate a tyrant and take him out in the same day.

[blackscales]

Why put a man in charge only to kill him? I don't object to killing him, I just don't see the benefit of allowing him to take charge first.

[blackscales]

That does make unfortunate sense, I wonder if the deal struck with Matthias was for protection, and the Hand's strength their own experimentation with the water, or if Matthias taught them to use it. If he's dealing with Matthias then that's equally likely why he's anti Messalina. We're still missing something, however.

[mashiara]

Because it's the moment he wouldn't expect to lose everything, perhaps, but who knows? Winning lends a certain arrogant blindness.

Choosing to wait will make both death minding sides move.

[beitangmoran]

That could also be arranged. Assassination is not quite trivial, but also no undoable.

[weifinder]

It would have a similar effect while possibly allowing the Hand to be better controlled, while sorting out what follows.

[beitangmoran]

Hm, I see your point. Give them the illusion they've won while keeping a trump card in your sleeve. Sound strategy.

[weifinder]

Mm, and it won't necessarily change Melassina showing herself, unless the point becomes to leave it confused as to who was behind the assassination attempt, ah?

These are not, however, my realms of expertise.

[beitangmoran]

Well, having been both on the giving and receiving end, I could say it is part of my expertise in more than one way.

We have a few expert hands among our numbers, and if none is willing, more than enough coin to find someone to take it.

[aprescoup]

You want to kill... all of them. Really. That is the way? That is what we are doing? Again?

[aprescoup]

Because he is a man.

[aprescoup]

I do not think he paid. He is poor. He has an air of poverty and anger.

[aprescoup]

People are like ducks. Or goats. You ask. They answer. They think of today, for them. They not think of tomorrow, or you.

[aprescoup]

Do not pretend to me you will take sane decision. It is not your way. You meddle.