01. un: hound - [Voice]

[cantilevers]

[He was still learning this whole earpiece device, so excuse him for it turning on and there sound like someone was fiddling with the setting. Where was his far more technologically inclined smart kid to help him? Ah well, he did realize it was on sooner than later thankfully.]

Uh... sorry? [Chagrin tone.] I was curious about an idea, since I still consider myself fairly new to this situation. Here's hoping you all with entertain me here:

What does a sense of community mean or feel like to you?

[A beat of a pause.]

Is it friends and family? Is it gathering places and camaraderie? How about a sense of people uniting for a specific purpose in mind? Everyone here has their own agendas and their own interests, and, with no overt crime present at the moment, it's curious to me how we could build a sense of community around these parts.

Comments

[wolfish]

Sure, there's always the third option.

My people are my community, back home. They work together toward a better future, and that's not easy in our world. Uphill battle, but I imagine it's that shared struggle that allowed them to relate, despite wildly different origins.

[cantilevers]

Those struggles are aspects that can unite us here. I expect there are many similar stories of community struggles, not the exactly the same but similar enough to allow for commiseration.

I was always told that hardship builds character.

[wolfish]

I'd say a hard life sharpens you, but my aim's to spare others from it.

How would this community work if, say, people get pitted against each other? Competition has thus far been sporting, but that doesn't necessarily guarantee the nature of the tasks we're set to won't change.

[cantilevers]

Is that because that kind of sharpness cuts both ways?

And perhaps keeping it sporting is how we have to face down the challenges. If this place requires a full battle royal, well, do we have to participate? If everyone refuses, that's telling enough. Now if they force us... then we would need to come together afterwards and parse through the trauma I expect.

[wolfish]

I've seen too many die first before ever honing an edge, but there is that too.

How many would refrain if the fate of their universe is allegedly on the line? There's the question. Not saying you can't convince people, but that's a hefty risk for anyone to assume.

[cantilevers]

Not you it seems.

It's true. There would need to be mutual agreement, and I doubt that's possible. The effort is worthwhile is most of us stand down though. It still sends a message about their games and our willingness to participate in those cases.

[wolfish]

I've been graced with such luck.

[ He says, but it's only half of it. ]

You may need to take stock of your fellows here then. Who would stand with you and who can't take the risk. It's difficult to gauge unless one has a good read on another, and even then, high stakes can lead to surprising upsets.

[cantilevers]

Is that all? Sounds like more than luck.

Hence why I asked what people considered community. I'm hoping to at least make a start to bringing people together if they are willing. Those that aren't? That's fine too. The more that see the benefit, the stronger we'll be in my opinion.

[wolfish]

Maybe I've had something to live for too.

[ To survive for, rather. A little motivation does wonders. ]

I'll wish you some luck of your own in the endeavor. Your instinct's sound, reminding people of their common ground. It's a place to start. Plying people with good food never hurts, should you arrange a meeting or two.

[cantilevers]

I know what that's like. There usually is something worth surviving for or to promote the survival of.

[He was thinking of Vi mostly. The last he'd seen her felt like ages ago, but he's make the same sacrifice again even if everything played out the same.]

Ah well, I might be leaning towards a meeting or two. I expect there are a wide variety of opinions and ideas across the board. Would you consider attending one?

[wolfish]

Some things are consistent across universes, it seems.

[ As for him, well. He'd do damn near anything for his mother, and there's the Abyssians relying on him too. But it started with her. ]

If you're angling for someone to bring good food to the proceedings, I might be your man.

[cantilevers]

That's not unusual. I expect many of the base pressures are the same across most sentient societies.

[Well, he hadn't been heading in the direction of a food providing gathering, but now that the opportunity was here.]

Are you? What kind of food would you bring to such a gathering?

[wolfish]

It does stand to reason, though I fancy exceptions may exist.

[ Food is essential. Any of his countrymen would agree, if only they were here. ]

Dishes to be eaten with one's hands. More communal, less clattering of silverware — and less implements to jab someone with.

[cantilevers]

There's a vast variety of differences based on how each world operates. At least survival ties us together.

[Who was he to deny the value of a good meal? Angry people sometimes simply needed something to eat.]

I don't know, some of the best parties that I've been to there have ended with immediate need for medical treatments thanks to dinner ware.

[wolfish]

True enough. I've yet to hear of any world in which people don't strive for at least that.

[ There may exist some wild exception out there, but if that isn't present here, so much the easier for them. ]

Sounds like you'd be right at home with my men. Thankfully I can also treat injuries, should the need arise. Anything severe will require an expert, however.

[cantilevers]

I expect some populations are far better at it than others. I expect wars are a common thread too.

[This didn't seem the correct medium to share notes on the best and worst of sentient species across space and time. They may not like what they discovered.]

That is useful. I've been injured since I arrived here, but I'm a good at sewing myself back up.

[wolfish]

Most likely. I came from nearing the end of one.

[ He would've liked getting to enjoy some peace, but alas. ]

Well, if it's something that might benefit from healing magic, you can give me a call. Best to be primed for whatever gets lobbed our way.

[cantilevers]

Would you have come out on the proclaimed victorious side or...?

[Who knew, maybe it would just be another war right on the heels of whatever geopolitical mess that usually started wars in the first place.]

Oh! You know magic? Does it turn you to stone too?

[wolfish]

Looked that way. The leadership of the nation that tried to invade us has effectively collapsed.

[ Considering what happened to the Emperor — what had been the case for some time as it turns out — Yuri can't say he's surprised.

The woman he saw after that last battle wasn't the one he knew anymore. ]

My magic neither costs me in any lasting manner nor turns me to stone. I'm getting concerned about just how many worlds suffer backlash from its use.

[cantilevers]

Ah, sounds like it then. Most wars fall apart when the leadership falls apart.

[He was reminded of his own revolution; when the leadership fell apart, the large scale operation fell with it. There had been sentiment to continue, but it was aimless and full of outbursts, easy to truncate.

Easy to be brought in line.]

Interesting. So these magic rules are not all the same depending on where your from. Is this a gift you're born with or anyone can learn?

[wolfish]

My hope is they can rebuild and that we may enjoy better relations. I come from a border territory myself.

[ He may despise the corrupt nobility of the Empire, but its common people don't deserve to suffer. ]

Where magic's concerned, people have different aptitudes and incline toward different elements, but nothing's to stop a man from learning. Natural aptitude or no, hard work pays off.

[cantilevers]

I hope for you and your countryman's sake that the tensions will ease with the war coming to an end. Here's also hoping that leadership is reasonable.

[War left victims and few winners.]

Interesting. Where I'm from the arcane is a talent that one has to be born with. Mages caused the foundation of my city as they were warring each other and nearly caused the apocalypse.

[wolfish]

In war, the people suffer more than they already do. I'd not wish that on them regardless of lines on a map.

[ They've no control over the circumstances of their birth, after all. What they can see to is what they do with the lives they have, but war's ruinous boots trample all but a select and privileged few. With those dark mages gone, perhaps the cancer in the Empire has been excised.

In this place, he can only hope. ]

The masterminds behind the war were evidently a faction of dark mages who seized control using methods we're unfamiliar with. In their case, they effectively weaponized the Empire in an effort to destroy us. I'm sorry such power threatened your home. From the sounds of it...have they been stopped?

[cantilevers]

That's all conflict, not just war. It does seem most wide-spread in wars. You never lost anyone you were close to in your world's conflicts?

[He didn't wish for this to potentially devolve into losses, a part of his past that he preferred not to think about. The losses did seem to stack up, but he wouldn't dwell on them with others.]

That sounds about how things apparently happened in my world, but that was long before I was born. History books aren't entirely trustworthy as they are usually written by the victors.

[wolfish]

Don't we all?

[ Not a direct yes, but a confirmation of a sort. He records them all, every name — every person he could not save. ]

We've a shadow library that attests to that very thing. Inconvenient truths have a way of winding up there.