Town meeting

[spherenpc]

Who:Everyone and the Council.
Where: The theatre in the rec dome.
When: Evening of December 13th.
What: The City meeting.
Notes: This is the plot event for the month of December, as laid out in the plotting post here! Remember, all activity on this post will account for triple points with AC rewards. I know it seems like a lot but all you need to do is remember five things. 1: Characters are voting on the currency system. (One vote per character please.) 2. Opening the floor for the possibility of a player character police force. 3. Opening the floor for a guardian system for child characters 4. This is your chance to have the NPCs answer questions about things. 5. Alex will be posting a recap of what happened if you don't wanna read and your character would want to know and :6 Max is a sketchy ass dude.


 The auditorium doesn’t look like one that should be hosting a meeting like this. The entryway looks more like a theatre, and judging by some of the flyers and signs in it entryway, it has done just that in the past. But nothing is listed for the last year or so. It’s not as if the place is a dusty old hole, but it does have a stale sort of sense of disuse despite the fancy opulence of the place. On the steps that would normally lead to the theatre’s upper levels, there are several tables set up with baked goods, or coffee, tea and punch. On a different set of stairs, there are the same sort of tables that were present in the welcome log: tables for possible jobs and clubs of almost anything you can think of.

At six-thirty, the doors to the theatre itself open up, and there’s a table on the stage, with three microphones standing on it. In the three chairs, the councillors are seated. Max, the older gruff man with the beard looks annoyed, Laurie, the older woman looks slightly bored and Annie, the youngest of the three looks the most engaged. At the end of both of the aisles there is a microphone stand as well, obviously for the question and answer portion of the evening. At precisely seven, Max bangs a gavel before he practically growls out: “Alright so this city meeting will come to order. Let’s get this shit over with, shall we?”

The meeting is actually quite well attended by the people of the city, it can be difficult for people to find an aisle seat, or with three or more seats together. All total, the meeting definitely has something in the range of five hundred people present. Like with so many other things in life, the more enthusiastic and engaged people of the city tend to sit in the front, where as the more angry people are sitting in the rear with their arms crossed in front of their chest.

Starting with old business, something that Max brings up is obviously something that has been on the agenda for a while, judging from some of the groans of the various people in the audience. “Look, we’re finally going to vote on the creation of money and economy here in the Sphere. It’s been too god damn long since it was introduced and we’ve done all of the fact finding about this shit that we’re gonna do. Yes, you’ll still be able to live and eat and have clothing and shit. The Sphere wants us to be here so we ain’t gonna just throw people out into the street and shit. This is above that, so people can do things other than just trying to get the shit they want other than with a sob story.” Yeah, Max just scowled at that before he continued on.

"Everyone will make a living wage, and as we said before no one will have to work. The new currency will be called 'bucks.' I know most of us are from versions of Earth and I don't see no reason to go about changing that. If you wanna open a business, the council will be opening grants to everyone in town to someone who wants one. We want our community to grow people, and it's not growing if we just keep hoping that the lot of us are just gonna end up like being nice enough to give people the things that they want. 

Laurie just scowled and interrupted him, "we are not here to debate whether or not people would do it. Enough people here in town have asked for this change that we're opening it up to voting. It's there if you decide it, and if you don't then it isn't. It's as simple as that."  

Annie added, "we will be doing a secret ballot that's tied with yourselves on the network, all you need to do is think of how you want to vote, and it'll be recorded."  (Actually, the place to vote is here! )

When they announce new business, Laurie is the one who spoke up. "I know we haven't talked about it in a long time, but it's certainly time to reconsider the matter of some sort of law enforcement community. Officially.  The fact that we don't have one already is troubling enough, but if we're actually going to be forcing people to work, then we should be able to protect the things that they're going to own. If for no other reason than the fact that it would create new jobs. Is there anyone who wants to speak in the audience as to why or why not we should do this? 

Following that debate, it's Annie's turn now to state her proposition. "We've all seen how we seem to have an influx of children once again," there's a casual glance to Max that's rather decidedly too casual,  but neither one of them remark on it. Instead she just continued on, "so we should consider their welfare. I move that we once again consider the creation of a guardian system here for the children to make certain that they are properly fed, cared for and educated. We would make this a volunteer position, and there is the potential..." Just staring off into space for a  moment, the woman looks completely blank as if she's listening to something that's distant. Then she nodded, before she continued. "We will look into the creation of domes for family units should it become required. Also, if there is a concern about the safety of children placed with these people, there needn't be," Annie's voice was firm and clear and perhaps even a little bit threatening: "the Sphere would never allow any harm to happen to the children here." 

There's a quick and angry flash on Max's face that just appeared for a quick second before he barked out, "and now we're going to open the floor for questions. We're limiting you to three if you wanna ask any." 

In the lobby of the theatre after the meeting, the three Councillors are standing around in varied distances from one another. There had been a small delay between when the meeting had actually closed and when they'd come out, and all three of them carried tension in their shoulders. Annie and Max are as separated by the space within the area as the two of them can be. 

Comments

IC questions!

[spherenpc]

IC questions for the councillors will go here. Please limit it to three. Or Max will pick which three to answer.

[11calls]

[Well, of course Alex Reagan is going to be one of the first people up for questions. She wouldn't be her if she wasn't. So, she's got a smile on her face and her voice is calm and inviting. It's her question asking voice, and people possibly should be very afraid.]

Okay, I have a few questions: 1. Why isn't anything about the government practices here written down? I mean it feels like it should be and it isn't hard to do it. Why haven't you?

2. How long have all of you been on the council, and how long have you been here in the Sphere?

3. What resistance has there been to the currency creation? How many times have you attempted to do this in the past?

[spherenpc]

[Like he so often does, Max is just going to take the lead.]

Why isn't it written down? Because shit that's written down tends to go missing around here. Books, rules, pamphlets, wrappers, it all just disappears sometimes. And yeah, from the network too.

I've been here seven years, on the council for three. Laurie's been here three years and on the council for two and Annie's been here three years and on the council for a few months before ya'll arrived.

Some people just don't like money. This is our third try. And third time' the charm, right there, missy?

[eyefortrouble]

Eventually, Aya steps up.

"I'd like to know what kind of research has been done re: the nature of the Sphere. How have we been brought here? For what purpose? How can we get back?"

[spherenpc]

Perhaps surprisingly, the person who takes the question is the one who has been doing the talking least. Laurie just nods to Aya before she rises to her feet as if she's going to give a lecture. There's an ease in it; the position is familiar to her. "Doing research on the Sphere is an incredibly difficult proposition, and not merely because of the glass that encases it and has since before my arrival here. Unfortunately, the Sphere doesn't show up on any of our scanners. It's as if it's a void despite how we can see it and how we know that it's running this place and interacting us in various ways."

She takes a little deep breath before she adds in a frustrated tone, "we don't know why we're here. No one does. And we don't know how to get back, only that some people are sent back before others. So far there is nothing that anyone can do in order to increase their chances of getting back. Being terrible doesn't do it, being good doesn't do it, and hell even killing yourself a lot only means that you lose pieces of yourselves that were here when you got here. I know it seems futile, but people do go home. We've seen it. We've seen it when they come back with their memories returned, as well as the lives that they've lead back home."

[10milliondollars]

Naturally, Rhys has questions. He listens to a few others before stepping up to ask his own.

"All right, first, do we know anything about the technology here? It's fairly advanced. If it's possible, I'd actually like to help in studying that." Because of course he wants to ask about the technology. He's been trying, rather unsuccessfully, to integrate his cybernetics with it since he arrived.

"And secondly, would you allow a weapons and tech manufacturer to set up shop here?"

[spherenpc]

Perhaps surprisingly, considering how she's been present before, Annie is the one who stands up to take the question, her blue eyes focusing on him in an almost unnervingly intense sort of way. "The technology here is beyond what any of us have seen. People who are geniuses back home in various timelines and from various worlds have all made the effort, but due to the nature of the walls around the Sphere itself and the domes life support systems, we have found it impossible to do any meaningful studies on it. Our technology, even the ones that have been gifted to us by the Sphere..." Annie's sentence drapes off for a moment before she reaches behind her ear to touch the circle that connects to the network. "Have been impermeable thus far."

She inclines her head for a moment, almost as if she's listening for something far away before she just adds: "why do you feel as if they are needed here? Do you not feel as if this is a safe place?"

[10milliondollars]

The woman's intense gaze is unnerving, but Rhys is practiced in the art of faking confidence. It was a way of life on Helios. And from her first answer, it sounds like further study of the tech would be futile.

Her counter-questions are a bit more unsettling. "Well, where I'm from, nobody offers to take care of people for free. It's not so much that I don't think this place is safe, as it is that I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop." He shrugs then, spreading his arms in a nonchalant gesture. "Besides, weapons and tech are just my business~ It's what I'm good at. Maybe they aren't necessary, but I'm sure there are people who collect weapons as a hobby. Or maybe people who wanna learn the trade."

[spherenpc]

"But you are not at home," the words are gentle but they are definitely point blank. Annie isn't pulling any of her punches, not that she tends to do it anyway. She's definitely keeping eye contact with him as she talked. "You are in the Sphere, and you are safe here. We do not need to plan for war or such. The Sphere doesn't want war." There's definitely something in her voice, an authority that she doesn't have when she's not speaking about that.

"Weapons are dangerous though. I do not understand why someone would wish to collect them." She blinks slowly, and then looks around the room again before focusing on him once more.

[10milliondollars]

"All right, all right, I get it, no violence. Some people just like to collect them. I dunno why, but I usually don't ask a lot of questions before trading my goods for money." He shrugs and shoves his hands in his pockets, taking a more casual approach. "I can stick to just tech. Or maybe teach a class on coding?"

[spherenpc]

"Do you consider yourself a technical expert on things that you do not understand? Unless you mean the tech not from here."

Max: OTA

[spherenpc]

Max Tinder wasn't drinking coffee. Nope, he purposefully was holding a rather large flask as he stood leaning against the open door after the meeting. His eyes are flat and cold and there's a rolled smoking tube hanging off his lower lip while he's looking out towards the rec dome. If someone speaks to him, he just gives them an unfriendly stare before just asking: "what?" 

[nobasisinfact]

It wasn't the flask that caught Richard's attention, or, to be more accurate, it wasn't only the flask. Max's words were clearly those of a man who favored one way over another. A very decisive person. A person who didn't sound like the drone-like people who they had been meeting since their arrival.

He waited until the throng of people moved away from Max before even contemplating moving toward the other man. "You didn't seem particularly trustworthy about this place 'taking care' of people."

[spherenpc]

Max's eyes just move over the tall man for a moment, and they were hard as ever while he took another drag of the make-shift cigarette that he was smoking. Then, as if making a decision, the man just gave a long carefully casual shrug. "It's not the City's responsibility to take care of people. It's sure as shit not the Sphere's. So hell no, I don't fucking think it's trustworthy. The only person someone can depend on is themselves and anyone who thinks otherwise is lying to themselves and everyone around them."

[nobasisinfact]

Richard easily noticed how calculated Max's movements were. When you've spent years doing the same, it's easy to see it in others. The fact of it solidified a suspicion he'd been having since the man had spoken in the meeting. Max was the shadowy figure who was not trying to hide his bias. The thought, if it were true, was rather refreshing. If he were playing some long game while staying safely in those shadows, he would be a problem — one that was potentially similar to Thomas Warren. This, however, would be more similar to himself.

"Is it safe to assume that you have an alternative option to what was proposed?" It wasn't, Richard knew that, but it was a way of phrasing it that kept it noncommittal. An easier way to gauge the man's true thoughts on the matter.

[spherenpc]

The question that Strand asked is carefully considered for a moment before he takes another drag on his cigarette, and then he held it loosely between his fingers at his side. “About the kids?” There may be a slight softening in the brisk tone around that last word but not for very long.

“Nah. I know that it’s the best we can do for em here. I mean shit we can’t just let em run wild or whatever. I just don’t blindly trust that the stupid golden ball is gonna give a fuck about em. So all we can do is protect em as much as we can.”

[nobasisinfact]

The softening is noticed and noted, as is the comment. Richard could believe that there wasn't another way. It didn't seem like people here were exceptionally interested in protecting the children (unless you counted foisting them on a brand new system that would probably fail almost foisting) at least by the way they had explained it. Of course, there are things that he's sure are left unsaid.

"How long have they been left without guardians so far?" Not that Richard cares about the children, or anyone other than himself and Alex ... and maybe Simon.

[spherenpc]

"The kids come and go. Sometimes we have a lot of em, and sometimes we don't. So, we get all these good intentions, and then the kids go home and then people just say fuck it and they run wild for a while until someone like Annie steps up and decides that they need to be taken care of." There's a hell of a lot of bitterness in his tone right there, and it's not quite Strand's 'my father' level, but it's certainly close enough to it before he takes another drag off his smoke.

"It'll keep happening, because that's what happens to kids here. The Sphere decides it wants em for whatever the fuck reason, and then it decides it doesn't and it doesn't give a fuck who gets hurt in the meantime."

Laurie: OTA

[spherenpc]

Laurie stood in the middle of the room. It's clear that she had just come from her duties at the clinic, because she's got her white lab coat over her arm, and her briefcase is sitting on the floor at her feet. The woman looks tired, but not unpleasant as she just stands there giving the people the chance to ask her questions. All and all, when she's asked a question, Laurie just stares at people with a laser focus, almost as if she can read into what it is that they really want to know. Or so it feels anyway. 

Annie: OTA

[spherenpc]

Out of the three councillors it feels like Annie is the most open to taking questions, probably because she is. In  a way the woman is holding court near the main food table. She's holding a cup of tea, even though she hasn't raised it to her lips once. There's a smile on her face but it's one that doesn't quite touch her eyes when she's asked something, or when she greets someone. Every so often, her eyes dart in Max's direction, and her expression goes blank before her attention is drawn back to the people in front of her.

[10milliondollars]

Ah, Annie, she's the woman Alex had instructed Rhys to talk to. He hangs back for a bit, watching her, trying to analyze her. Nothing comes up when he scans her, other than mundane information like her height and weight. He doesn't miss the glances she sends Max. It's...odd.

He files that information away for later as he finally saunters up to her. "Hi, Annie. I'm Rhys. Someone said I should talk to you to find out if any of my friends ended up here. Or maybe at least trying to get a message back home?"

[spherenpc]

"Hello Rhys," the words are quick and there's an intimacy in them, even though they've not met before, and Annie just gives him a small bob of her head for a moment before he asks his question. When he does, there is a gentle look of sadness on her face, even if her eyes are still slightly more vacant than they otherwise would be.

It's clear from her voice that she's trying to let him down easily when she answers his question first. "I'm afraid that there is no way to send any messages out of the City itself. For anyone. To anywhere. We don't even know what it's on the surface because it's almost as if the Ocean acts as an insulator. Any sort of messages simply bounce off of it and reverberate back to us here. But if you tell me their names I can check and see if they are connected to the network. No one is here who is not connected to the Network, the Sphere wouldn't allow it."

[10milliondollars]

Well, that's a bummer. Yet, it's intriguing all the same. He's suddenly got a lot of questions about the Sphere, his distrust of it growing further. Something about the place just doesn't sit right with him.

But he can save those questions for another time, or maybe even for another person. Maybe someone who doesn't work for the Sphere. Best to focus on his main goal.

"Vaughn, Fiona, Sasha, and August," he lists. "Especially Vaughn."

[spherenpc]

When he says the names, Annie's eyes go blank for a moment, and she looks as if she's not actually in her body for that second before she comes back and gives him a small but sad smile. "I'm sorry, Rhys," it definitely sounds as if she means it, and then she puts a hand onto his arm and she shakes her head. "I'm afraid that there aren't any of those people here with the designation from your universe. If they were here, they would be marked with the same universal tag that you are."

[10milliondollars]

So he's alone. Rhys can handle that. He's been in worse situations. At least he's learned something new about the place. Universal tags, another thing to file away for later.

"So this...Sphere...It's keeping track of where everyone is from? Why? A-and why bring us here?" Okay, so maybe he's a little frustrated. He can't keep the edge out of his voice as he asks these questions.