epidemiology | A post-meeting greeting (Closed)

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A post-meeting greeting (Closed)

CHARACTERS: Laedo Ledo and Evan Friave-Somethingsomething
DATE: Post newbie integration
WARNINGS: n/a
SUMMARY: Laedo's looking for others who are not gung-ho about the killing and pillaging after finding Nalanni quite agreeable, at least for a goddess. He's testing the waters.

Considering the atmosphere that Laedo had found himself in once he'd been blown to the surface, he felt it behoved him to take the pulse of his new team over the prospect of killing immortal beings. One of the first conversations he'd had with another team mate had been about destroying the very fire goddess that he had taken a liking to.

He couldn't very well announce his intentions to halt the hero Gilgamesh or any others so foolhardy, so he kept his qualms close to his chest. If he looked especially sour over the course of the next day or so, it was difficult to tell from his usual stand-offish behaviour, and besides, nobody else here appeared to have a muzzle, or a tail, or fine-tuned ears with which to articulate their displeasure. He could read humans better than he used to be able to, but he had an alien advantage.

Still, Laedo was looking for others who were less intent on deicide, and that gave him hope.

This was how he had managed to wrangle Evan into the picture: once he'd finished listening to a particularly irritating debate, he chose to seek the red-headed human down. He partially liked Evan's logical thought process, and partially felt a low roll of disgust with those who took to trolling all logic for the sake of their own ego. In a word, he didn't appreciate rudeness in others. Getting the human to agree to go out of the sight of the deer-folk who'd been worked up to a similar fervour, though, was going to be difficult.

Rounding on Evan when the man was passing between buildings, the askan corralled him neatly with one long circling motion, tail forming a cage that would be impolite to hop over. "Human," Laedo greeted the one-eyed creature, voice cordial, chin inclined almost--but not quite--like a cat that expected to have it knuckled in a massive scritching. "I'm sorry for stopping you, but I noticed you were injured. I might be able to help, if you would consider an exchange."

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The newcomer had been a shock of a particularly interesting variety, when he had first begun to show up on the network. Since ALASTAIR had reassigned Khisanth, he had not seen another non-humanoid among the ranks of recruits and in all honesty had not expected to. Khisanth had been, well, she had been very prone to doing her own thing and ignoring imperatives from above. In Evan's experience, that was not an uncommon theme among dragons.

So when the great gold-and-nacre beast emerged in a smooth surge of fur and sheer mass, Evan stopped in his tracks even before that tail formed its impressive courtesy corral. The creature's voice was massive, much more so than it had sounded over the network, and it took a moment for Evan to adjust to the rumble that he felt in his bones before he parsed the actual words.

The words, though, drew up unconscious tension in every part of him.

The ruin of his eye had been healing, and it had been healing well enough, but it was nowhere near healed. Bandages, though less than before, covered that side of his head. And still, Evan had not given up hope that one of the myriad impressive healers in this place would be able to undo the damage entirely, once they had their powers back.

Was that what this massive creature was offering?

"An exchange?" He was cautious, not wanting to get his own hopes up, but interest vibrated clearly behind his voice. "What is, I mean... what kind of exchange?"

Laedo flicked his ears sedately, in lieu of being able to tap his tail. "Counsel," he replied simply. "Yours, specifically."

Among the recruits, Evan has never been in a position of authority, or even really a position of particular influence. From his perspective his protests have frequently been talked over or ignored, and his suggestions only followed if he follows them himself, and so his first -- and rather embarrassing -- thought is to wonder who exactly told this creature that he was the man to go to for advice.

But one of his own guiding principles, from all the way back home, was never to argue with a dragon unless it was absolutely necessary. He squinted a little at Laedo, with his one good eye. "Counsel? Well, I mean, that's easily enough given. What, um, were you wondering about?"

"Something about a few of your thoughts as voiced to those with deaf ears," Laedo replied, tone similarly brief to what he'd already slipped into. However, he loosened his tail in a twitch so that Evan could retreat, if need be. Moreover, if he wanted to retreat outside of the town's limits, it would serve Laedo in good faith. "Follow me."

Brooking no argument--or hopefully none, anyways, Laedo delicately wove his way through the Nalawi buildings, all of which were laughably small by his estimates. He wasn't sure how the humanoids, already a touch too large, tolerated the cramped spaces. Looking back once to see if Evan was following, Laedo carried on towards the beach, and then slowed to a pace that the redhead could keep up with as he wandered up the beach strip. "I have been keeping tabs on this communication circuit," he explained as they walked. "Yours has been a voice of reason that I do not see echoed among our more barbaric numbers."

That immediately pinged off of Evan's ego, that little validation that someone, somewhere, had been listening with agreement to his concerns -- and with similar dismay to the louder voices in the crowd that were calling so stridently for blood. But the last few weeks had been humbling, and Evan is warier than he used to be, and so he eyes this large creature thoughtfully rather than with confidence.

"I'm hardly the only one who thinks this plan to attack a couple of incredibly powerful creatures is a dubious idea at best." Though he had been one of the few vocally protesting, he supposed. He had picked up his pace to keep up with the dragon, working to trot beside him along the beach strip.

But maybe that wasn't the best bent to take just yet. Instead he cocked his head up at the creature. "Might I ask your name? I don't think we've introduced ourselves yet."

Laedo, not wanting to bring up either goddess in the presence of the deer-folk... or of their disagreeable teammates, for that matter, was happy to leap on introductions in the meantime. "I am Laedo Ledo, an askan asandus from a world very far from here. It is... suffering from similar circumstances to the one that the Nalawi face, yet I suspect my insight as a new recruit will be laid low." He couldn't help but hunch his wing shoulders angrily for a moment or two, but he was doing his best not to lash out. Not at this humanoid, in any case. "I've been following your line of questions, but haven't had your full name."

The mantling was not subtle, not on a creature of that size, and Evan wondered for a moment if he ought to leave more space between him and this gigantic predator. There was no denying that even with a voice and an apparently sensible demeanor, the sheer bulk of Laedo set Evan's animal hindbrain into a spiral of danger signals.

"Laedo Ledo," he repeated, fixing the name in his mind and verbally derailing himself from his momentary stab of nerves. He added, reasoning it never hurts to be polite to something that could swallow you whole, "It's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Evan Friave-Goodlace, from one of the apparently many iterations of Earth."

He tucked his hands in the pockets of his uniform, solemn. "And you're likely not wrong. There's a bit of a hierarchy of opinions around here, and you have to be especially loud, or especially senior, to be heard above the rest."

"One loud voice can still be drowned out by many, especially if they have pointy objects," Laedo replied, deeply sour. He did not return the favour, but then nothing here was a pleasure to meet and Laedo knew how to speak as loudly with silence and with words, even if he didn't always practice it. Looking around, judging that they had left enough room that the only people likely to follow them were those trying to incite trouble... and feeling strongly enough that he had been cautious enough not to merit that, Laedo settled into a set and curled his armor-covered tail around his jewel-studded hands.

"Speaking of which, I wish to be frank with my offer. I can heal you, or begin the process of healing, but my magic has been reduced to next to nothing." He sat a little straighter, as though a chill or an electric rasp had been drawn up his back. "What little I have I am concerned about keeping for later, but I am willing to part with some of it in exchange for a frank conversation between moderates, for I need details on who is planning what... and should you prefer not to make this exchange, I shall like to know to whom you might suggest otherwise." Overly stiff and formal, but Laedo's not sure how to garner the approval of a human, and cordiality had always gotten him through with the Edilion lot, even if at the time it grated on him fiercely.

It was strange to see a dragon sit at attention. They did not tend to offer anything like subservience to any human, in his experience, and while this isn't that, Laedo's bearing is not that of someone who is at ease.

The offer sent prickles up his spine, too. Evan stood facing the dragon on the sand, staring with a fierce kind of mingled hope and skepticism. He would talk to this dragon, certainly, regardless of the offer, because really there should be a whole lot more of the same going on than there is, but before anything else there was one thing he had to know.

"When you say heal me..." He pauses and takes a different track. "My eye isn't simply injured. It was... removed. Is that something you can fix?"

Laedo looked away, the purple etched mark across his face removed from Evan's limited sight for a short time as he fought his own disgust and embarrassment. "My training with the Guard prepared me for many complex triage spells, and that with the fida'venae more complex regenerative frameworks still. A human eye is a complex thing, but not so much that it could not be replaced."

Turning back to stare him down, Laedo added more quietly. "It's an intricate procedure that requires fine handling of magic to craft a suitably reliable facsimile. That takes time, something I am afraid we do not have much of. The impending threats against the goddesses will soon find traction, because several of us know Nalanni's wearabouts. Word will reach the ears of those with teeth."

That was a lot to dump on the young man all at once, and he went wide-eyed as he listened. Laedo's description of the healing raised questions, further questions that burned at him to investigate, but it was the dragon's last that caught Evan's attention fiercely.

"Wait. You know where Ryba's trapped Nalanni? You and who else?"

"Anyone with half a brain who was trapped in the tunnels below this island, I imagine," Laedo replied dryly. He'd run into a few other new recruits and thus far, he was not entirely impressed. "I parted ways with the others before I discovered the goddesses prison, but I can't say for sure who else found her."

Evan made a noise of startlement, dismayed and blackly amused both. Staring at the dragon, he asked flatly, "she's in the lava tunnels? Lord, of course she's in the lava tunnels."

He furrowed his brow and rubbed his face with both hands, his heart rabbiting away with frustration and a kind of low-key growing alarm. "You actually met her? Did you speak with her? How trapped is she, exactly?"

"Yes. Yes." Laedo answered Evan's two questions as quickly as they'd been asked, but he took his time considering the third. "I can't say for sure on the last. I was freely able to walk in to speak with her, but she seemed... subdued." For a goddess made of pure flame, in any case. He didn't know if she was benevolently warm in all her states, but she had seemed almost tepid here. "She understands her crimes."

This was beginning to sound more and more serious, and Evan was sent to wondering why no one else had been brought up to speed. But no; Laedo had told him why, and that just somehow made it all grimmer.

Looking grave, he carefully sat down in the sand, keeping the distance between himself and Laedo small enough that he wouldn't have to holler to be heard. "Laedo, if you would be willing to tell me every detail of that conversation, I would be much obliged. This is more firsthand information than anyone's had on Nalanni, as far as I have heard."

That, at least, seemed to cause the askan's ears to prick forward. "I was under the impression that I was the one in the dark," he admitted. He felt vindicated, somewhat, but that didn't overshadow the grave situation they would soon be in, especially if the moderate factions (if there indeed were any) of this party were being held intentionally away from information...

To believe in malice over crass ignorance was a foible of his. Laedo, vindication blossoming into a petty sense of solidarity, dished up the gossip. Nalanni had not had time to say much: she'd admitted what she'd done, and why, and the remorse in her voice was utterly genuine--as far as Laedo believed. She'd taken to the idea of being taken off-world with hope and relief, and had admitted she knew her staying on this one could not last forever.

Most importantly, she expressed conviction that convincing Ryba to do anything was dangerous, that hunting her down was a worse act. In that regard, Laedo could only prove Evan terribly correct.

By the time that Laedo came to the end of his winding tale, Evan had more than once put his face in his hands in frustration and strung-out worry. His last week or so had been one long ordeal of trying to work out how to approach this terrible, terrible attack plan, and that only because he was so certain that there's no derailing the ALASTAIR recruits who were so deadly intent on their deadly plan.

He looked up at the great creature who had called him out for this discussion, his face tight and drawn. "So we don't have to kill her. She'd come... she'd come willingly? If we asked her to leave the planet, she'd actually come?"

"She wants only for her children to be protected, and she knows that staying here would be a slow death for them," Laedo replied, huffing with irritation. It was enough of an answer, wasn't it?

"More importantly, she wants her children safe from whatever goddess-bitten plan is being formed. Her sister is the glutton, she will gladly devour us all. I swore an oath: they will remain safe to whatever means I can provide. ...But I will need to rely on others to ensure that they are spared. I want to know with whom the worst of the danger lies." In other words, he wanted to know who might attempt to harm the deer people, or Nalanni herself.

Evan sighed again, a release of tension, though not a largely successful one. "Ryba... I always thought Ryba was bound to be the more dangerous of the two. Nalanni... well. It's hard to excuse genocide, but it doesn't seem like she planned it. Hell, though, why didn't she try and fix her mistake?! Then at least Pomarr wouldn't be..."

But he trailed off, redirected, refocused. His gaze is flat as he looked up at Laedo. "You'll want to talk to a man named Gilgamesh, and a man named Koltira. They both seemed... well, I don't think it's much of an exaggeration to say thrilled at the prospect of going on the offensive. Gilgamesh, at least, seems to have some sort of history killing deities on his world, and Koltira... I think he's, um, I think he might be undead. "

He shook his head. "There's another, Kida, but I think she's more concerned with making Nalanni answer for her crimes, whether or not that means execution. I don't know if she could be talked to."

Laedo, annoyed to be correct about his assumptions, slapped his tail against the bare sand and blade-grass that grew in the dunes between beach and forest. "I have spoken to one of them, though not the other. I do not cherish the idea of approaching an abomination. The last I will consider, though in my experience, when one phrases things thusly, justice and vengeance are not far apart."

He sighed, scrubbing the purple-marred part of his face for a moment before wiping his pink-beaned fingers against the ground. "Are these three the main faction, or are there others braying wildly about their superior, murderous qualities?"

Evan grimaced expressively, watching those mighty paws execute a remarkably human gesture for their size and configuration. He put his hands on his knees, considering how to phrase what he had to say next.

"Laedo, you won't find many people right now who aren't planning some aspect of the attack. I think those three are the most strident voices for taking such measures, but ALASTAIR made it sound very much like attacking and destroying them was our only option. I can count on one hand the number of people I've heard actually saying they're going to opt out of the battle... but I'm certain if more people knew what you know, they would change their minds.

"Have you considered getting on the network and describing the conversation the way you told it to me?" The redhead's expression was very grave.

"I would be drowned," Laedo retorted, ears snapping back as he bared one side of his muzzle. His teeth were distressingly pointed, but Laedo restrained himself. "And yet... if the very prophet we are leashed to has seen this as the only forseeable correct outcome..."

He clutched his head in both hands, long neck arching with an elegance that he did not feel. "Evan, the more that I think about this, the more I feel how wrong this is." He had closed his eyes, lowered his muzzle onto the backs of his crossed hands once those were back in the sand, and tried to think forward... but all he could do was to think back. "The world from which I come, Avengaea... it harbours many parallel portents to Nalawi. I find myself paralysed. I tried to act on behalf of the safety of my charge in my world, but every act I took put her in further danger until she was finally and unreachably out of my grasp. If I act now, I will push these heretics to further action."

On a regular day, in the course of a regular conversation, Evan would have jumped in immediately with questions about Laedo's world, digging for the rare and precious nuggets of information about planets so very different from his own that they'd foster creatures such as this one. But Laedo's concerns ran deep and pinged off of so many of Evan's own that the young man for once wasn't even tempted.

He looked soberly down at the sand he was seated in, and then up at the dragon, who was again indulging in a remarkably human piece of body language. "If it makes you feel any better, nothing you could say could elicit worse violence than what is already planned. I'm not sure how much more extreme than kill the goddess that you think they could get."

"Killing the Nalawi," Laedo spits, but quietly, as though he fears it will come to that. "I was charged with protecting them. They will remain safe." And yet he sounds despondant beyond words.

Evan looked up, clearly startled by how far the dragon thought this could go. "That's way beyond any of ALASTAIR's directives. No one here would... I mean, it's not like the goddess's power lays with her subjects. If anything it'd be the other way around... right?"

Suddenly Evan was worried. Did Laedo's worry mean more than it seemed? Had he found something else, something about the Nalawi that might end up making them a target? A little round-eyed, he eyed Laedo, suddenly leery.

"I've no idea," Laedo replied, "though if I were to rely upon my gut, then yes, it is a matter of the goddess producing for the good of her children. But I have seen conflict, and where goddesses involved there are casualties that were never intended. These creatures are at their weakest, too."

His momentary concern allayed, Evan's mind relaxed... right back to the wider concerns that Laedo has brought up. He sighed, closed his eyes, frowning and rubbing his nose.

"Collateral damage. You're not wrong about that, are you." Opening his eyes again he stared up at Laedo. "I'm certain none among our numbers would plan on killing the Nalawi, for all that it sounds as if they have their own... political troubles these days. But you're right. Not everyone here is as careful as they could be. So..."

He stopped for a second, gathered himself. For all that Evan, frazzled and having trouble with the entire situation, was inclined towards snark, talking to a dragon was making him watch his tongue. "Might I ask what exactly you're proposing in this case? You're hesitant to go on the network, I understand, but the two of us are going to have very little luck convincing the group at large to change its plans without some voices of support. Even then, I mean..."

This felt dangerous, somehow, and he swallowed as he looked up at the great beast. "Even if we fail to convince just one other recruit... after what Nalanni did to the dakal, I'm not convinced that she wouldn't slay all of us that ALASTAIR has sent here for the aggressive act of a very few. We would need consensus."

Laedo thrashed his tail at the implication, made outright annoyed by Evan's accusation. The human might not be wrong, but the askan resented the thought that imprisoned Nalanni, bereft of all but the most basic of her powers, would stoop to such a thing a second time, after having had all this time to think things through. She was a goddess... and goddesses learned, or so he fervently believed.

"I gave her my word that her children would be made safe, and she seemed willing to speak then. I would go to her and gratefully bear the brunt of her fury if it meant those on my," ugh, he was going to say this, wasn't he? "my team were kept indemnified of that level of wrath." Here he puffed his chest up, the jewels on his breastplate thrust forward whether he meant to show off the magic gems and the opal that had been bestowed upon him. Rarely had he been called to such important requirements. Laedo was blinded a little by his newfound responsibilities.

Evan, seeing that tail lash and that irritation, felt a spike of alarm that put him on alert. He held up his hands to Laedo, uncertain if that puffing-out was pride or indignation or an act of aggression and unwilling to chance it in any case.

"You don't have to convince me," he hurried to assure the gigantic creature. "That's a generous offer by any means."

"It's not generous," he grouses, "it's duty. You don't treat a deity like any other being, they are not... they're not meant to be bargained with, or done favours for. You wouldn't understand, being human."

He lowered his hands, feeling his kicked-up heart rate continue to rabbit on despite himself. That ire really was something, even if he could objectively see that in this case it was closer to grumbling than anything resembling real rage.

"Forgive me," he offered, trying on the courtesy he'd tried on other dragons in the past, to reasonable effect. "My world doesn't have deities in more than just the abstract sense. This is a little outside of my usual realm of experience." What he wasn't going to say was that he questioned the very idea of gods. That was a debate for another day, and perhaps another debate partner.

"It would stand to reason, if your world is a world of humans. They lack the internal spark," Laedo grumbled on at a subdued pace. "On my planet this is also true; so much so, in fact, that our Goddess determined they were so vulnerable that they needed shepherds. If not for your kind, my entire species would not be able to take a similar form to the one you live in every day. Would a normal mortal alter the course of her children's development just to ensure the safety and well-being of struggling creatures the lesser of them? Aska is a different creature, pure benevolence and light. She sees far beyond what we are able to comprehend, but she brings great power to make things right."

Or she did. Laedo is still wrestling with the truth like a bone stuck in his gorge. It hurts, knowing that the goddess might have wanted things this way. That she might have been pursuing this unstable little imbalance of power, that in fact humans might have, all along, that little spark that made them if not equals, then only a little further behind in their overall development than asandae. That just leaves him worrying about Fara and her uncertain fate, and his spirit crumples.

"I must remember not to base my opinions on the world I have known to be true for so many decades. This is not Avengaea, and you are not an Avengaean. Forgive my lapse."

He watched the dragon rail, full of interest and trepidation for the sight. At least he didn't seem to be inclined towards rage so much as indignation, and Evan had to admit the world he was describing had some tantalizing little hints that, on a better day, Evan would have wanted to chase. Shape shifting? More gods?

But it was Laedo's final statement that hit Evan particularly. He inclined his head, feeling a spike of empathy for the huge creature, agitated as he was. "That's something we all learn, here. There are so many worlds represented among our number... it's all too easy to try and apply your own social mores to worlds where they aren't applicable. But if you come from a world with gods, I won't argue that you've likely got more insight into the situation than those of us on worlds without."

"And those that bray the loudest are from worlds in which their gods have been slain," the asandus snarls... but it's without the same vitriol he'd been showing a little earlier. "I don't suppose that once you are a destroyer of gods, you can ever turn back, though? Such a blood-lust is dangerous, for their number is few. Few and far, far between."

Thinking pensively for a few moments, Laedo murmured--his voice a sonorous little rumble, "Where does ALASTAIR gather their information, I wonder, that their eyes can see out beyond those of a goddess'?"

Some of the fight had gone out of Laedo's speech and Evan felt both relieved and strangely sad for the massive recruit. With his own tension levels dropping, he could look up at Laedo with sober seriousness. "I don't know how many godslayers we have here, but largely you're right. I suppose they think they know exactly what to do here, while the rest of us grapple with the implications."

He sighed and shook his head. "Honestly, Laedo, I don't know, but I suspect their scope is more limited than they care to admit. ALASTAIR's, I mean. Why didn't they give us this directive right at the beginning of the mission? I think they just didn't have all of the information. I think we're getting used as recon as much as a team of problem-solvers. You know what I think," and he had been thinking about this a lot lately, "I think that they get little peeks into potential futures. I think they've managed to mix the unreliability of seers with the extrapolative powers of complex algorithms. I've heard a couple of the senior recruits refer to something called magitek, and I hope to hell that that's combining the best parts of magic and technology, and not the terribly glitchy, unreliable parts." He heaved a sigh, half talking to himself.

But he swung his gaze back up to the dragon he was sharing the discussion with. "But you wanted my counsel, didn't you? I'll be honest and say that I think it will be hard to stop the crass forward progress of those among us who have decided that they know what to do and that they're the ones to do it. But I think it's worth trying, and if there are ways that I can help, please, do call on me. I'm not exactly one of the foremost voices among the recruits, but I know at least a few people who think I talk sense sometimes." He huffed, self-deprecating.

The implications of magitek, of the reliance on prophets of one kind or another, makes Laedo's stomach drop.

"Prophets are far more trouble than they are worth," Laedo rumbles dangerously. "When I spoke with her, Nalanni seemed resigned. I do not understand how she would not... do what is needed... of her own volition. Truly, should the task of fighting goddesses not lay within the hands of their peers?"

That startled Evan out of his pensive spiral, and he stared at Laedo, wondering if he'd parsed correctly what the dragon was saying.

"You mean why would she not kill herself? Laedo, maybe she couldn't. I mean, that's a steep task to put on anyone's shoulders. "I mean, if you're asking why she wouldn't be the one to fight Ryba, I really don't know. If it's something we really must do, it would have been good to -- to have that kind of backup, considering. But then we'd be stuck with the same problem, wouldn't we? ALASTAIR was adamant that it cannot be one or the other, that it has to be both."

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A post-meeting greeting (Closed)

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