[ open ] all hands on deck

[kaientai]

Who ⬤ sakamoto ryouma (rider) + other sutoku alliance lost souls
What ⬤ post-event emergency meeting
When ⬤ several hours after the assassination
Where ⬤ konoha — vip area
Content Warnings ⬤ none right now but will update as needed!

[ once the dust (steam?) has settled, an sms goes out to fellow sutoku alliance contacts. some might recognise the username rider more than others and know the man it's attached to but in any case, everyone who shows up will know him soon enough anyway. ]

Hello!

There's a lot of confusion right now, but what's important is to stay calm and not do anything hasty. I'll be organising a meeting tonight at Konoha. Let's exchange what we know and discuss next steps. You're going to have to pay for your own refreshments though, sorry! Space is on me though! (*_ _)人

Don't be discouraged! We're only getting started. (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

If you think there are any other Sutoku who haven't gotten this, pass the message along, ok?

— Rider

[ someone has to keep the spirit of the daitengu alive, okay?? the message also comes attached with a calendar invite. ]

---

[ later, anyone arriving for the meeting will be directed to the club's VIP area and encouraged to place food and drink orders as desired. this has definitely set ryouma back, but under the present circumstances, there's no better time than this to spare no expense, right? ]



☆ ooc; this is a mingle in addition to a general sort of information sharing prompt so feel free to throw your own top levels up and thread amongst yourselves! i give everyone free rein to threadjack as you see fit — just check with other individual players if you have any questions!
☆ i left the exact time of the meeting sort of open, but assume it's sometime within the next half-day or so after the assassination to account for people needing to finish up investigations, potentially heal up a little after fighting, time for him to book the club, etc. feel free to have characters wander in late too!
☆ i also provided the option for characters to phone in (since it was mentioned to me on the ooc post), so if they can't make it in person they can still be in the loop!
☆ any non-Sutoku tag-a-longs are assumed to be showing up late so as not to be sitting in on private discussions earlier in the night.

Comments

[playfoul]

I can't see what the Daitengu would gain from orchestrating this, but I agree it's suspicious that much of the planning came from within the Alliance.

[ Yuri had slinked in looking a little scuffed up but eyes alert. Having listened to Ydris and Ryouma up to this point, he's going to put out an idea for them to chew on. ]

What if the Alliance isn't as unified as we believe? If the Daitengu is an idea and anyone can assume the identity, maybe a tribe within the Alliance is scheming to instill a member of their own in the position, and used the Kappa as scapegoats to deflect blame.

[pathofsacrifice]

[ Artemy is pale; not from what is said but recovering from having been shot. He is visibly beaten, but still he sits with old blood on his clothes and face. ]

All for the sake of power? To cut at one's family for power?

[ His voice sharper than what he intends it to be. Artemy recalls how he had come to love the miracles -- the youkai -- deeply; he seriously took his vow that he would think of them as kin. There may be machinations working, but he would like to believe it is not --

He then remembers what Aerith had said. He did not attempt to do any digging himself; he does not like the idea of the youkai not being so close. Kin may fight, but this goes beyond all measure. They may -- not be the same as his own people, but -- ]

We are as kin, are we not? These bad actors could make us all turn on each other. [ But he does not know what to do. How do they find them? ]

[playfoul]

They're united under a common cause, but that doesn't make them family. We haven't seen the tribes act particularly chummy. Given the right opportunity, an assorted lot like the Alliance is bound to see a few who would choose self-interest over the group.

[ Maybe Yuri's cynical because he's suffered betrayals and had people who were once part of his gang turn against him for as little as coin. That was the risk when you led a bunch of outlaws cobbled together from the streets. It's hard to think the Daitengu wasn't aware of the challenges that heading a diverse group entailed, though. So why did they not take countermeasures?

Yuri senses tension from the man as he grapples with the wicked thought that is kin betraying their own. On that, he can offer one thought with certainty. ]

True family wouldn't betray each other.

[kaientai]

Well, not by orchestrating it. But simply participating? Maybe that's different. [ ryouma smiles, because he's done something like this. ] You could gain information. Or maybe they have a pretty good idea of what the real culprit is planning, so they know letting things play out like this will only work in their favour assuming nobody does anything too stupid.

[ it's optimism but ryouma likes to think it's not blind optimism. he considers another question in return. ]

What do you think about this place? As a whole, I mean. When you consider all of it, where do you see the lines drawn?

[ there's more than one way to carve up a place like jigokucho and it's not all neatly down faction lines in his mind, so it makes him wonder how others view it. ]

[playfoul]

They faked their death, you mean? I dunno, there's a body out there that looks pretty dead to me.

[ He hasn't examined it personally, but the guards seem convinced, so unless they're all in on this... ]

Even if it's some other poor soul who took the fall, that's not exactly a good look for the Daitengu. I want to believe it's a trick, but if it is, it's left a real mess. People will be stupid, and our all-knowing boss should know that.

[ If this is a joke, the punchline isn't coming soon enough. The Alliance is fraying and that could spell trouble for the Lost Souls under their contract. ]

As a whole? I think we're all pawns in their game, and we could be playing for a very long time.

[kaientai]

I hoped everyone getting together would ideally persuade anyone considering anything potentially stupid to at least hold off on whatever they're planning, but even so... what can any of us do anyway?

[ it's easy to be in the middle of this and assume the things they do matter, but it's the fact that they're sitting at or near the bottom of the food chain that probably accounts for why he's not ultimately more stressed about this than he already is — which, all things considered, could be a lot worse. ]

At best, you get your pay docked and at worst there are way more severe consequences for us, but I doubt any of the major players would care on a political level. Which is to say, leaving us to our own devices right now is probably pretty harmless.

You're not wrong about it being a game though. I agree. But most things are, one way or another, so it comes down to evening the playing field. That's doable... just, you know, given time.

[ time he's willing to believe they'll have plenty of in the future. if things were so dire that it could all fall to pieces so easily, it would already all be over... wouldn't it? ]

[playfoul]

Problem is, we aren't the only ones making moves. Seems awfully risky of our boss to vanish and trust the other tribes and factions to act the way they want. It's not a gamble I would've taken.

[ Yuri's all for a good scheme, but with so many moving pieces in this one, there just seems too much that can go wrong. ]

Much of it is out of our hands, sure, but you wouldn't have called us together if you really thought there was nothing we could do, right? So let's put our heads together. Even if it's just organizing ourselves better, there must be something.

[ He's realistic enough to realize they won't be making waves anytime soon, or even splashes, but Yuri's never been the kind to simply sit around and accept things. Ryouma doesn't strike him as the type either. ]

[kaientai]

That's true and it's the one part of this I haven't been able to think of a reasonable explanation for since everyone around here has been pretty upfront about the fact that the Alliance has its own internal issues. It's possible that if the Daitengu did see an opportunity to play this to their advantage that they didn't have very long to pull a detailed plan together. Securing their life might've been as far as they were able to get. In any case, it's just a silly theory at this point.

[ but there's not much that can be done about that, so he just has to put a pin in these things and keep it moving. yuri is exactly right that he's not just going to sit on his hands and let things happen around him. ]

We can do a lot more than nothing, even if it isn't much in the grand scheme of things. I don't think we'll have any shortage of people interested in gathering information, so that'll probably take care of itself. Getting everyone together will also ideally make people more willing to share information in the future.

For now? I think we should work on the Kappa. They're the ones that are going to need the most help and we're going to need their expertise when it comes to the Underground. That's our advantage that the other factions don't have and we would be foolish to squander it.

[playfoul]

Whatever the case, let's hope the Daitengu is seeing something we're not seeing.

[ He won't bet his money on it, but there's a part of him that wants to hold out this is all trickery. We can't be down a leader so soon into the game!

Yuri nods to Ryouma's points. Theorizing is fine and all, but this is what he wants to discuss tonight - plans and next steps. ]

I agree there's no better time to make the Kappa our allies. We're a nosy bunch from what I've been hearing around the room. Why don't we all exchange contacts and keep each other informed? It'll be faster than getting us all together like this. Easier on the wallet, too.

[kaientai]

Ah, well, that's the idea for the future! You're right that it's a lot less expensive to communicate, but for this... I felt like we should all see each other face-to-face.

[ maybe he's just being overly sentimental about this; after all, the whole event and its immediate aftermath really brought him back to a place in his head he hadn't expected to end up. too many old memories managed to get called up way too easily for comfort. maybe he just likes seeing everyone gathered around, calmly talking things through. ]

The ability to communicate quickly and across long distances is really an amazing technological innovation we should be using to the fullest. I have a feeling what we know and when we know it will be important.