[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #118

"I don't know much about bears, we don't have them at home. I think. But I'm pretty sure that we don't have greenish bears though." she looks at Maya, expecting her to know more.

Dana bluntly said "I can slay it if we have no choice..." Had she known just how big was that green bear she wouldn't have said that.

Maya looks around at the others and her heart sinks just a bit. "Listen. I am not a fan of staying near him, but Addie and Dana make some compelling arguments. I have spent years in some of the wildest areas on earth and have interacted with many indigenous people. I am definitely not for supporting any sort of attempt to combat this person, but I might be the best one to talk to him. I am relatively harmless in appearance and have little in the way of skills or equipment that would threaten him. I also have the ability to make my way through the area to get to where he is, provided Vincent can give me adequate directions. And, despite my obvious limitations, I do have some ability to try to negotiate with him. I do not know of anyone else more qualified."

She makes eye contact with all of the members of the council and her own companions. "It should be me."

Looking at Maya and then at Addie Dana say "Given circumstances, the lore about toxic mages and his unusual animal friend, nobody should be going alone. I agree that being mundane and generally unarmed increase chances of sucess but should you go, the rest of us should not be very far from there in case things go badly. "

Maya nods. "I could support that. But not so close as to give him the idea that I am bait for a trap." She looks around "It sounds like this is our plan. If so, I should probably leave in the morning. I guess my only real question is what am I negotiating with him? Is this just a talk to feel him out or do we really have something to bargain for and with?"

Dana said "I'd like to know how he got here and if he knows why WE are here... I mean we are very far from settlements, perhaps he can give us some insight about our situation."

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #119

"You know, you're making some huge assumptions... First among them that it is possible to talk to someone like that..." she shakes her head "I'm not saying they don't talk, but they prefer to do so before they kill you. And should you go there, he will ask you why he should free you and not enslave you or something..."

Dana looked at Caillin softly say "You assume that we cannot talk to him, that all he cares about is enslaving people. Now we have never actually met the guy.... Except Vincent - what do you think Vincent? What is he like?" Dana faces Vincent and waits for his thoughts...

Maya nods. "He might do those things, yes. But he did not harm Vincent and I see no reason why he would harm me. Don't get me wrong, I am all in favor of just leaving the area, but it seems that the vote is angling more to someone going out there, either to talk or fight, and I think talking to him is the better option. I think I am a good choice to send there, for the reasons I already mentioned."

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #120

"You're missing the fact that Vincent wasn't exactly let go... What will you do if he wants you to tend to his garden? Does this risk counterbalance what we could maybe gain from him?"

"Do we have any other ways forward? With him maybe we can get some information. If we avoid him, what is the other plan? We can't just stay out here, right?"

Maya looks thoughtful. "I understand that risk and am willing to take it. Besides, I think others will be available to back me up if something like that happens. And, just to be clear, I still think that the best option is to just leave the area entirely, but I do think I am a good choice to send to talk to him if that is our decision."

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #121

"I'm all for the leaving without telling anyone option. if it is possible..."

"Wait he didnt harm me because if I died or mutated and lost my wings he'd have to get food himself... I think..
Being an eagle was blurry..." Vincent said holding his head.

Descending the hill in order to get away from the 'tribunal' meeting, Lindsey can't help but worry she'll get sucked into this toxic shaman mission regardless of what she does. Rick seems insistent on committing everything to that task. "I guess I'll have to worry about that if it comes. Hopefully out of sight is out of mind..." Reaching the girls tent, she pushes back the flap and sees Niyaf sitting on one of the back cots with most of the other human girls clustered around her. Niyaf starts when she hears the sound of the tent opening but then obviously relaxes when she sees Lindsey. "It's going to be okay Niyaf," Lindsey comforts, "Muhammad is going to be punished. It won't make up for what he did, but it should keep any of those other boys from doing the same thing."

Niyaf sobs, "I hate this place! Why are we even here? As if this wasn't bad enough, the guys think they can just take advantage of us like there's no rules anymore! Why!?" Some of the other girls almost start crying as well, "Yeah!", "I don't want to be here anymore!", "What's going to happen to us?!"

"You girls just want to give up?" Lindsey asks. "You don't think you're strong enough to handle this? Well, you might be right, I mean, we're just kids, right?" She shakes her head, "Don't give them the satisfaction! We might not be the strongest, but as a group we can handle this! If we stick together, we'll be fine and we'll find a way back home from wherever this place is. There's some sort of man made structure down the way and we should be heading there soon. That might give us some idea of what's going on and where we are. Maybe even who put us here!" The girls seems to be calming down some and the thought of finding out more about their situation seems to have re-energized them some. "But first we have to get there, and that means getting through today. I know this seems crass Niyaf, but we need to keep going. What happened to you was unforgivable, but the council is dealing with it as best we can. You need to be strong and keep going. We all do!" Niyaf wipes her eyes and sits up a little straighter. "Now we need to keep up our strength if we're going to be moving soon, and there's practically a feast going on out there, so lets go out there and get something to eat. Together!"

The pep talk seems to have worked as the girls let out a ragged cheer and they all start moving towards the entrance of the tent. Moving against the flow, Lindsey makes her way back to Niyaf and helps her up into a standing position. Hugging her tightly, she whispers, "Don't worry. He's going to get what's coming to him. I promise! He won't get away with this." Niyaf finally looks up and meets Lindsey's eyes, finally nodding after a few seconds. "Okay, now lets go get some food, it will help you feel better." With an arm around the taller girl's waist, Lindsey propels Niyaf forward to follow the rest of the girls out of the tent.

Emerging into the light, Niyaf and Lindsey join the rest of the girls as they head towards the campfire where the feast is in full swing. As they approach, the weight of eyes from the camp is almost palpable as many of the other kids turn to look between Muhammad, sitting at the table, and Niyaf, in the middle of the girls, waiting expectantly for an explosion. Lindsey speaks quietly, "Be strong, we've got this, lets get some food and not give them what they want." The girls straighten their backs a little and almost march up to the table of food, vaguely reminiscent of their previous performance with the hunters. After Lindsey gets her own portion, she steps away from the table and almost runs into the girls in front of her who are standing around instead of taking seats. Looking past them, she realizes most of the tables are fairly well occupied by boys, the least full one being the one with Muhammad. Pausing for a second, Lindsey seems to make a decision and mutters under her breath, "This won't do!" Stepping past the front girls, she says, "Come on, I'll take care of this..."

A little puzzled, the rest of the girls nevertheless follow her as she walks towards an open space on the other side of the fire. She concentrates for a moment and then looks off to the side expectantly. A few gasps can be heard as a large shape appears on the edge of the camp and resolves into what looks like a boy... if boys were almost seven feet tall and translucent. Striding forward, the figure stops in front of Lindsey and she points at the ground in front of her. The thing turns and gestures with its hands as dirt starts to fountain up from the ground in front of them. Pointedly ignoring the stares and whispers from the rest of the camp, Lindsey watches as the spirit finishes its task and starts to walk back out of camp. Stepping forward, she walks down the carved steps and sits in front of the table that had been excavated out of the ground. Motioning for the other girls to join her, she quips, "See, I told you we'd be strong together!" The other girls gingerly step down into the sunken table area, although some of them are clearly weirded out from what was obviously something unnatural. "It seems like there's lots of magic centered in our camp here. I'm not a mage like those others with Maya's group, I can't cast spells or anything like that, but I do have some friends that can help out," she motions vaguely in the direction the spirit went, "and I'm going to make sure we stay safe from here on!" There's obvious mixed reactions among the girls as they take in what just happened, but there seems to be a general acceptance given everything else that's happened recently.

Addie chews her lower lip a bit, and twists one foot in the dirt, to show her reluctance to disagree with Maya – then reflects that is entirely possible that the other girl – no, woman – won’t pick up on those human body language signals. “All I can do is hope that being so close to the people in the small camp has made her more comfortable around humans from her own age range; it certainly feels like she is less skitter than she was before.”

Once she is done with the body-language disclaimer, she speaks her bit. “I don’t think anybody should head off alone. We just talked about the dangers we know of and the ones we don’t, and while I think nobody here is more at home in the wilds than you, you still only have two eyes, have to sleep, and presumably are not immune to mistakes. But it is more than that – where do you find us afterward? We can’t exactly agree to meet at 2pm at the corner Soybucks. What if something pressing comes up that calls for a change of plans, how do you find out?”

"I think if we go that way, it should be kind of like those old style rocket ships that launched in stages. A solid group, that sets up a small camp somewhere that with at most a not-too-long walk can keep commlink contact with the big camp – call it halfway, although I don’t know if it is actually half way. Then a few, with a mix of strengths, goes closer to actually see the area we think this guy is in, around this polluted lake. Then maybe – emphasis on maybe – we make a move to talk to this guy, but I think it would make sense to fall back to the small camp first, communicate with the big camp, spread information around, and possibly go back with a different mix of people to provide support for the actual approach.”

She makes a bit of a face, then adds “You aren’t going to like this part, I think. I don’t think it should be you to approach him. Your survival skills are too valuable. To survive we may need to travel far to get out of here, or we may need to start gathering a lot more of our own food. Either way, I think everyone here has a better chance to survive if you are around. If the magicians think my ‘ware makes me look too threatening – I don’t know if they do think that or not, just saying – then we can see who else is brave enough to do it. But our magicians, you, and Rick are people who we really shouldn’t risk if there is any other option.”

Dana moves around angrily "Addie the things you say are appalling and are going to destroy everything you have going at this camp. Following your logic the Orcs should dominate the camp because they are stronger and we are in the wilderness. They are needed more than the rest. What will you answer them if they ask to get one of the 'useless' girls as entertainment? I mean it makes sense right?

Sacrifice someone useless to gain the favor of useful people. What I describe is acutally what is currently happening. Didn't you had a discussion about rape? That rape is the result of exactly the same kind of thinking, stronger people should get more.

Should I damned to special privileges because I can do magic? Perhaps someone should rub my back or wash my legs? Why not warm my bed? Where would you draw the line? Leaders should lead and warriors should fight. None of them can do their job if we are starting to grade how important each of us is.

If anyone is going to talk to a mage it should be a leader. Perhaps Maya or Rick, yourself if you consider yourself a leader. I should be there regardless to keep whomever goes safe. I like your suggestion about logistics, we should have some communication and backup and so forth."

"Dammit... now I think about Addie rubbing my shoulders." Dana thinks and finds herself embarrassed and excited by her own argument... That perhaps she should be treated better than the rest. Perhaps "everyone are equal before God, is just an excuse of weak people" She represses these thoughts thinking "No, this is a test to my values, to the core of my code. I should resist this kind of thinking". It works for now, but she'll have to make up her mind sometime in the future.

"Um... i'd go get him." Vincent said. He gets the feeling they don't notice him.

Maya looks around the group and considers the various choices being put forth. As she is about to say something, Rick breaks his silence by bellowing out. "Enough! What is wrong with you people?" He stares hard at Maya. "Maybe it was for the best that you left. Your leadership skills fragging suck. When did run or kill this fragger turn in to sit down with him for tea and cake? There is no way can you expect to reason with this guy! His kind are bat shit crazy and nothing they do will make sense to a rational person..."

Maya shuts her mouth and bites her tongue a bit as Rick continues. "OK, here is how it goes. Each of you gets a chance to put your paw in on the options to leave or go find and attack this mage. The option to sit down and talk is not on the table. Got it? Then I vote."

Rick looks around at the others then adds. "I can even give the goody goodies a vote, since they are here and will be affected by what we decide. Now vote!."

Simon is the first to stand. He looks angrily at Maya and snorts as he votes to fight. Sim is next and looks at Rick with some trepidation, eventually bowing his head and voting to leave. Rick smiles at him then looks to Addie and the rest.

Seeing how she was sidelined by the experienced leader Dana say "From these options I give my vote to you Maya as you wanted to leave anyhow." Dana's heart was clearly not at that vote, she seemed distant and cold when she said that. Dana knew so much, she was going to reach out to that mage. She got this far in life by trusting her own internal compass, not by democracy or convincing argument - Dana has always followed her desires and consequences be damned.

Maya nods at Dana but gives her a sharp look. Something about the girl's voice did not seem right. Oh well, she will need to deal with that later.

Raf listens and listens. And listens.

In terms of real experience, both his father and the people to whom he would delegate authority were decision makers. Some slow. Some quick. Some in consultation, some alone. But all decisive. And obeyed.

In terms of theory, however, he knew that group decision making was common in lower-level project teams. And he also knew that studies had demonstrated that such teams completed from 80-90% of their work in the last 10-20% of the allotted time.

So he listened. And was patient. And while he listened he kept working.

And then the moment came when he stepped just a short distance from the rest of his small camp companions and with three quick whooshTHUNKs but a trio of arrows into a tree some twenty meters distant. He went and collected them, putting them back with the others into his little mutant-skin quiver.

Then he walked back and started whittling on another piece of wood he'd spotted and grabbed on their walk here. "Who gets the next one?"

Maya, already having cast her vote to leave the area, watches as Raferty demonstrates his bow. She smiles at him and comes over. "Very nice, Raferty. Could you make one for me? I have some skill with a bow."

The boy smiled and shrugged.

"First come first served. Guess you've got dibs. Another four days, I guess. Hopefully we won't even be out here that long."

Addie was ticked with Rick; no doubt the debate had been dragging on, but she felt this was in large part because of lack of information, and that the longer it went the more it made her point about scouting.

Of course, she should be letting others decide, and just looking for the right opportunity to stop messing things up... but scouting would have given her more opportunity there, too.

And it was SO HARD not to push her opinion.

And now Rick had cut that off, and insisted that they choose between extreme options. Maybe Maya had been more right than Addie wanted to admit?

Out of the two. Her instincts said attack. To see a problem and deliberately turn her back on it was intolerable. But everything she had done had become wrong, so did that mean she should vote avoid?

Then Rafferty pulled out a bow, and proved it worked.

"You made that? That is amazing! And with no real tools... wow!"

Then it hit her. The realization had been building for a while, but finally she could put it into words. Darn but this was going to make missing how things worked out sick, except that she wouldn't have to worry about it.

"You know what? You we aren't victims and we aren't weak. I don't mean in a pep talk way, I mean seriously this group is kick ass! Someone who knows how to make bows? More than one person who knows how to use one? How many awakened? A couple of people really experienced in the wilderness and several with some training? A lot of muscle, experienced leadership, several teenagers with internal commlinks, a ton of bravery and determination, basically anything you look at, we are way better than random."

"No way we were chosen at random, or just bought here to die easy. We are meant to survive, or put up one frag of a fight on the way down. And we have people here smart enough to figure out what is really going on."

It takes effort to back down from full public speaking contest mode, but she forces herself to damp it down. "Not that it was perfect of course, they can't have known everything about us, I'm sure we don't all measure up to what they saw in us. But as a group we are pretty amazing. So I have to go with attack. I don't know that it is the right choice, but I think it is wrong to have all this potential and decide to not do things with it."

Safely in her own thoughts, he adds "Grabbing an Addison must have made sense, they just didn't know that I don't measure up to the name. Well, hopefully I just have to fake it a little longer."

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #122

Cailin looks at Addie a bit weirdly "Uh... Yeah? Not sure it has much to do with this Toxic however..." looking at Raf', she asks ""May I borrow your bow? I won't damage it don't worry, just improve it a bit.""

When (if?) Raf' gives his bow to Cailin, she takes the only tool she brought, one she made the day before, and starts to draw on the wood. It doesn't look like anything specific, which would be next to impossible given the bow, but some elaborate abstract stuff. As she does so, she seems...calmer. One way or another, the activity soothes her.

Addie wonders again how it is that she and Cailin manage to see things so differently? She forces herself to take a couple of breaths before answering, trying to keep her frustration out of her voice.

"I think it has everything to do with it. The best way to thrive as a mouse and as a lion are different, so I think it is important to know what we are. I think we are strong and capable, and should take on challenges directly. I'd still like more information -- there is no reason to be stupid or ignorant -- but as I learn more of what we are capable of, I feel more and more that the question shouldn't be 'should we dare?' but 'how best to dare? Or something like that, I need to work on a better way of saying it."

"Ok so I guess i'll go... Scout..." Vincent said aloud and walked to the perimeter of camp to see if he could spot anything interesting.

"Here we go again" Thinks Dana as Addie talks. She looks in wonder at the bow Raff made and seems fascinated by its design. A tragic bow, shifting things through action. Reluctant to talk anymore - and feeling guilty for talking so much. Dana watches the happening silently, still present but no longer speaking just observing.

Dana takes a seat at the earth near a nearby rock. Rick is silent as usual, Addie thinks that a bow changes things and gain confidence. Maya is with her own pragmatism, things seem t click. Dana sighs as she understands that she is not going to be comfortable around too many people, not now, perhaps not never. It is not safe... for them. "What if something terrible happens and I lose my composure - strike a man like Grok - what then?"

Dana closes her eyes and lets air inside her lungs, slowly breathing in and out. Slowly,
Dana's mind becomes clear and after five or six breaths she feels detached enough from the discussion. Maya looks at Dana with suspicion - but does not address Dana, as she is entangled in the discussion and Dana is no longer part of that discussion.

Once her minds calms, Dana begins almost instinctively practicing, her body has trained - but her mind was important too. Dana's body was all about actions, strength, reflexes and agility. It was about graceful movements - it was for a lack of another word, loud and visible. Strength however, was not only about action it was also about lack of action, about idleness. The perfect casting was done without any physical gesture only with the mind. Yet, even Moses felt like he needed to strike a rock with his cane to create water. It was not as easy as one thinks, it took years of practicing and Dana had a late start.

Being an adept and a fighter has turned Dana completely aware of her body, it made the exercise more efficient - and more difficult. Dana's mind is practicing the mental shapes needed to cast a spell and her body is calm, until Dana unwillingly makes some small physical gesture. Then, she starts it all over again. Her pretty fingers are the most difficult to control as people are used to manipulate objects with their fingers.

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #123

Cailin shrugs, working on Raf's bow. After a moment, she answers "I'm all for knowing why we're here. And why us. And I don't think we were picked at random. Mainly because the only way I see of doing it would have been by drawing SINs randomly. Since not everyone has a SIN..." she shakes her head "Maybe it's something that was found in our medical files, maybe it was a divination, no way to know at the moment."

She pauses for a second, paying attention to what she's doing, then resumes "We could have been sent here for a social experiment, a sick Battle Royal. It could have been done by megacorps, dragons, or whatever." she shakes her head "Right now, there is no way to know even if finding out is probably the second most important thing on the agenda. We don't have enough elements."

She puts her hands on the bow, and looks at Addie "So as you see, I do agree with the need to know more. And, I agree that the composition of the group is...peculiar. Even if there are some outliers. But, that doesn't mean having potential implies we absolutely have to use it. Especially considering that if we attack, there will be casualties. As I was reminded no later than yesterday, I'm probably one of the less strong Mages in combat, but that doesn't mean I can't do anything to you. And make no mistake, a toxic shaman is built to destroy."

She grimaces "Do you know of the adage 'When one only has a hammer, every problem looks like a nail'?" with that, she resumes her work on Raf's bow.

Maya looks closely at Addie and listens to several others before responding. "Yes, I agree with you that we are all special and that it is quite likely that we are here for a reason. I also agree that we have a chance of attacking the toxic mage and surviving. But I am also pretty sure that we would suffer casualties. Look around, we barely number fifty and losing even a handful of people would be a major blow to our survival chances. To me, this all seems like someone is playing a game and we are the pieces. Only, we do not know all of the rules. Maybe we do not even know any of the rules. I really believe that we should limit our risks of any of us being killed or incapacitated, either of which would be a big loss. I strongly recommend that we avoid this fight and move on to a safer place to live.

"To breath in, to breath out and paint without color, to do out of idleness..." Dana could almost hear the soft whispers of Idan, her previous magic instructor. Out of all of Dana's instructors - Idan was the only one that did not consider himself a warrior.

Her fighting instructor was a former Olympic medalist in Judo and most of her magic instructors were soldiers. Idan was a pacifist and a vegan, he had soft curly hair and blue eyes. Physically Dana could toss him over - but he was one of the most powerful mages in the institute an initiated mage that has dedicated his life to study botany and his mastery was recognized in the entire institute. Yet, despite his fame, he knew all the administrative staff by names and even greeted the cleaning lady every morrning, nobody else seemed to pay attention to her. Clearly, nobody planned for Idan to teach Dana. After all Dana was a military project and Idan was the furthest from that kind of applications as one could be.

Yet, he taught Dana for two wonderful hours once a week... He helped her because she asked him. It was as simple as that, and the fact that Dana asked him in the most terrifying manner imaginable only seemed to fascinate him. The two first met when Dana was hiding in the trunk of his car. She wanted to meet him outside of the institute so she hid in his car.

Dana could never forget the surprise in the man's face when he opened the trunk. She saw that surprise quite closely as she jumped him and pinned him to the ground. There she was, with the elderly man underneath her, the young adept said "Hi I am Dana..." as if there was nothing awkward about a teenage girl jumping out of the trunk of a car and subduing a middle aged man. "I had to meet you! The gardeners always speak so nicely about you" She added.

Idan softly said "My name is Idan, it is nice to meet you - but if you are not going to strike me why are you on top of me?"'

Dana felt embarrassed and said "Reflexes, I sometimes move before I can think about it. I did not intend for it to be like that... I just wanted to get out of the institute to see where you live. People speak so nicely about you, but they never let me leave it because formally I am not a person."

Idan only said "If you are already here, stay for dinner please... I insist it. "

It was since that moment that Idan have joined Dana's teaching stuff, he seemed fascinated by the young and exceptionally strong teenager. Perhaps because he could not have children of his own...

Maya senses some indecision in Cailin and turns to consider what she knows of the girl, which is practically nothing, other than that she is an Elf of some kind. "Cailin, I sense that you are torn in your decision. I believe quite strongly that leaving this thing to continue to do damage to nature here is wrong, but do not want to pay the price in lives to try to take him on at this time. Still, you have a right to your own opinion and your own vote. Search your soul and decide what is right."

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #124

Head down, Cailin chews her lower lips. She seems to have trouble to decide. After a moment, she wipes her eyes, and raises her head "I don't want him to continue... You speak about lives, but ours aren't the only ones we should take into account. You say he damages nature, and you are right. But that's not all he does."

She looks at the sky, then sighs "I told you about the spirits a Toxic uses. What I didn't say, is that those spirits were once just like Mairin you saw earlier. Corrupted by a Toxic Shaman."

She turns to Maya "Our existences are precious of course", then looks Sim in the eyes "But aren't those of spirits, who have been alive since the beginning of time, just as precious, if not more? Can we flee when it is one of our friends that could be tortured and twisted next?"

<<<??? Day 4 Somewhere in the forest>>>

I sit over a fire roasting a squirrel on a spit, the most recent victim of the sling I had created days ago from strips of my clothing. A long spear rests next to the hammock/satchel I fashioned I out of a blanket. I pull out the edible leafy greens I had scavenged along the way for a bed on which the squirrel will be placed.

My thinking has finally started to clear and the visions had mostly stopped though there was some lingering pareidolia. Faces in the trees and whispers from the woods. I was fairly certain I was not alone out here. I vaguely remember there being a group, but I can't quite tell if that was an hallucination or real.

Clearly I'm not on my adulthood trials. Perhaps I will run into one of these others and see if they know what is going on. But I must be careful. They may not be the friendly sort.

Raf watched as Cailin worked on his bow. Or maybe he was just watching her.

"I agree that we have a duty to stop this supposed toxic. It is for good people everywhere to confront evil where they find it. But I also think it is foolishness for us to take him on now. He poses no immediate threat. Here and now we are barely surviving - both socially and physically - and to take him on would only deplete us further. This, in turn, would diminish our chances of ever getting out of this situation. Whereas concentrating on escape would bring us closer to again accessing the resources of our normal lives. I have gathered that I am not the only one of us with considerable assets at my disposal. Our escape would first of all allow us to expose whatever has been done to us and prevent it happening to others. And it would allow us to bring considerable force to bear on this reported toxic. Concentrating on survival and escape is not only the best course for ourselves, but for the greater good. As is always the case."

He looked at Addie, whom he had begun to see in a new light. "Your observations are the most insightful I've heard so far regarding the nature of our predicament. I believe if we spent half as much of our energy on a solution to our core problem - to wit, our being here - as we are on this peripheral threat, then we would be well on our way out of here."

Addie is comforted by the fact that she had been right: Raf would have been great on the rules council. Not just because he flattered her, although that WAS nice, but because he obviously had a big picture way of looking at things. What could have been if he and Maya had stayed ... but no use crying over spilled soymilk.

Maya and Raf had both raised good points about protecting people. Cailin's concern for the spirits was a bit harder to make sense of; Addie supposed that corrupting spirits was bad, but it felt a bit abstract to her. What did it mean that she was on the side of Cailin and arguing against Maya and Raf?

She quickly starts mentally listing pros and cons of both attacking and avoiding, but quickly realizes that many of the possible pluses of avoiding hinge on one question. Facing the small camp group, she asks “If we move and avoid, would you stay with us, or stay close enough, to transfer some of your knowledge and to work together on investigating just what is going on?” She nods at Raf to give him credit for raising that point.

“Avoiding the toxic to preserving skills, but then splitting them up, or to look for answers but as one group with a lot of relevant skills but few people, and another with more people but perhaps lower relevant skills -- seem to me to be somewhat pointless. I say attack over avoiding and status quo on organization. But all working together without attacking, that is a tempting option.”

Rafferty was quick to respond.

"Avoiding costly, dangerous, and completely unnecessary conflict is absolutely the correct course, as I've demonstrated. Making the selection of the wisest course contingent on some other condition smacks to me of compulsion - the very scent of which was what led to the split in the first place. Whether my last few hours here have changed my view of uniting the groups or not is a separate question, I won't join a group that says 'join us or go on a fool's errand and get yourselves and others killed.'"

He paused long enough to catch a breath, and made a second point. "And here's another thing to consider - this individual you want to go merrily a'hunting, you know absolutely nothing about him or her. You have constructed an elaborate image of who and what it is based on baseless assumptions, vaguely recollected academic knowledge, and altogether sketchy and unreliable accounts. We have no proof it even exists. And if it does, that it is hostile to us."

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #125

Clearly unhappy, Cailin scowls "Baseless assumptions? Vaguely recollected academic knowledge?"

She looks at Raf' like she was just betrayed, and hands him his bow back, not wanting to even touch it for a second more. "No proof he even exists? I can admit that Vincent's report is really lacking. But what about Mairin's information? Does it count for nothing? It comes from a magical source so automatically suspect, is that it?"

She groans "I really don't want to fight this shaman. But what I want even less, is to allow him to continue as is. I don't mind if we take hours or even days to prepare, but we can't... I can't just leave like nothing happened. It is dangerous, and it might be costly. But it is certainly not unnecessary! And a toxic is hostile, it's in his nature. Maybe he didn't act yet, but that just means he's bidding his time, nothing more. Would you just pack and leave if it were you family that he was torturing? You have absolutely no idea of the significance of what he is doing and you callously declare that since it's not affecting you directly, then it's not your problem? That is... That is... You should be ashamed of yourself."

She looks at all those who don't want to come. For a moment, she seems on the verge of adding something, but stops here. For now at least.

[Fourth Day, Main Camp]

As Raf speaks, Addie feels almost giddy -- he is good, especially when she considers that he is a boy and younger than her. She feels familiar instincts from debating club coming back on-line as she considers what to accept and what to counter, but then Cailin jumps in first, tweaking Addie's own sense that she ought not to evade something just because it is 'unpleasant'. "And while," she thinks to herself "taking on a toxic mage is a bit different than telling Arthur Ng that he spits when he talks, the principle does still hold for both."

When Cailin is done, Addie gives her a nod and says "Basically, I agree with Cailin. Avoiding an unpleasant task might have worked when we were kids, or even now if we were back home -- because our parents or teachers or someone might step in to take care of it. But here we have only ourselves. Like I said before, I think that we are maybe capable of more than we've given ourselves credit for -- but 'capable' doesn't matter much if we don't do anything, right? Avoiding the issue, maybe dealing with it by surprise later without the advantages of planning and scouting? I think avoiding lowers our short term danger, but raises our long term danger. And it just rubs me the wrong way."

Turning to Raf, she continues "BUT, maybe that would be worthwhile, if later the group would be stronger. More knowledgeable, better trained, and working together to better advantage. Or if the group is just fragging GONE, because we've figured out how to get away because we really organized and focused on that. But divided? I don't think we get stronger, and I don't think we move very fast on figuring out what is happening. Deliberately splitting into groups that work together to a common plan is one thing, people heading off on their own is another."

Freshman debating tournament at Chapel Hill Academy, the opening topic had been "Be it resolved 'Politics is the problem.'" Addie had hated that tournament, but now she was at least grateful for the practice. "Me saying that you could have my vote to avoid now, if you would agree to stay? I wouldn't call it coercion, I'd call it politics." She puts on her best 'sincere' face to show she doesn't mean it as a dirty word. "You don't want to fight now, and I don't want a completely fractured group. On the other hand I don't want to put off the fight, and you'd rather not agree to work with the large group. Maybe we can work together to get the things we want, maybe we can't. Politics -- its the art of getting as many people what they want as possible."

Maya holds up her hands. "Yes, you are right. I have been bothered by my decision to leave, but you have put it in words I did not have. It is rather hypocritical of me to talk about weakening the group by losing some people to an attack on this mage, then go off and weaken the group. I agree that I have divided the camps and weakened both. My decision to leave was personal, but it became larger than that. I can admit that I while it was correct for me at the time, it was not right to take away the other talent. I will agree to remain here and try to convince those that left with me to do likewise.

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #126

At that, Cailin seems really uncomfortable. And maybe a bit afraid.

maya looks around and fastens her gaze on the young Elfin girl. "Cailin, you are a strong young woman and have already proven to be a good companion and friend. I do not know spirits as you do, but I saw and heard what your friend had to say and I believe every word. My heart goes out to every spirit that might fall into the clutches of that monster, just as it does for every animal or person he might contact and corrupt. But I feel that there are times when we have to decide something is too hard or too dangerous. I do not want to be the person who votes to attack him and then have people die doing it. My conscience would bear me down immensely if I did that. I think that part of growing up, here or anywhere else, is learning when to fight and when to leave. It is not cowardice, nor is it not wanting to help. It is thinking of what sort of damage we could do to ourselves, to our group, if we go fight this mage. Look about you......are you willing to live with knowing that Dana, or Addie, or Raf, or even Rick were dead because we attacked this thing? Even if we kill him, what is the cost? I am no pacifist and have fought...and killed....but I do not think this is the time to do either."

Holding his bow, Raf was glad Maya was there. They disagreed on some things, but they shared the same view on this issue. And she was able to move the case forward without alienating erstwhile friends.

Unable for the moment to look at Cailin, he examined what she'd done with the bow. Sadly, whatever she'd meant for it was only in the structural stages - rough texturing to lay the groundwork for what he assumed would have been some lovely relief work, but she'd not gotten to any of the detail.

He'd keep it as a reminder of what his management tutors had already tried to pound into him - keep your eye on the objective, but don't take it off the resources you'll need to achieve it. And people were the only resource that mattered.

He'd have offended anyone and not minded really. Except Cailin. Moreover, he'd known she shared that proto-religious belief common among conjurors that the energy constructs they wove were sentient beings. And he should have respected it.

He was already thinking of a dozen ways - better ways - he could have couched his arguments without angering anyone.

And now it appeared that Maya was staying. Which meant he probably was as well.

He'd had a bad feeling about this camp since they'd gotten here - there was an oppressive social vibe - and there'd been nothing but, well, the art of getting as many people what they want as possible (oh, what a generous view) the whole time.

He put his head down and kept working on a new bow for Maya.

But his ears were open - he needed to head off this misadventure with the supposed boogieman at any cost - and he'd speak again if need be.

Few minutes of silence in training and clarity gave Dana all the answers she needed.
"I am sorry, but I have something that I must do now." Said the redhead elf. Unlike before Dana's voice was confident and focused - talking gave her doubt - but training gave conviction. The young mage begun to walk towards the edges of the camp, dedicated to go and talk to that toxic mage, hoping he has some answers about why she is there.

At the same time at camp Muhammed was continuing with his scheme to rally the orcs and rebel. Conditions were rough - the meta's did not get their due respect - and did not need much convincing to side with Muhammed. Additionally, the long council meeting and fancy dinner has given him the best opportunity he could possibly have for staging his rebellion.

"No more pesky weakling girls, getting ahead of us... no more listening to spoiled cooperate princesses. We are the strongest, we do all the hard work we should be treated like kings, and these pesky princesses should be our entertainment." He said to his group of angry orcs.

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #127

Cailin calls out to Dana "Dana, remember what you told me about leaving in the middle of an argument?"

Dana smiles at Caillin warmly and tell her "Talking makes me weak, as it takes me out of my element. Want to join me? there is a lot of work to be done."

Raf piped up - "Um, I'm all for action over talk, but join you in what, exactly?"

Dana asked Raff "Isn't it obvious? We seat here and debate what to do with the toxic mage. I am going to search for your body gloves. Addie said that they were flown in that direction but it does not seem like anybody searched for them yet. Once we found the gloves, we are going after the lone warrior that attacked the hunters. With his help we can approach the mage more safely. You see... all I needed was some clarity the debates are a bit too Ivory tower for me, it confuses me instead of focus me. A person strong enough to survive alone - is a worthy ally - if he does not cooperate, I'll just do to him what he did to us. An eye for an eye... "

[Cailin - 4th day - Main Camp] #129

Cailin seems to hesitate a bit "Oh. Ok then. I'm not too sure about that man, but we can look for the clothes for now yeah. You want to shapechange for that?"