tushanshu_logs | [EVENT] Courtyard of Public Opinion

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[EVENT] Courtyard of Public Opinion

Characters: ALL!
Date: January 10th
Location: Central Keeliai - Courtyard of Public Opinion
Situation: A meeting has been called to determine the status of the Foreigners in the city, including the upcoming and highly anticipated Shangpar race. The major NPC players can be approached, and Foreigners have a chance to make a case for their treatment within the city.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.

The Courtyard of Public Opinion has been around since before Emperor Eshai's death, a relic of a time when all kedan would have preferred talking about their problems instead of fighting. Even now that the spell suppressing their true nature has been removed, none of the kedan want more trouble than Keeliai already has, especially where the Foreigners are concerned. Violence is frowned upon - though by no means forbidden - and while discussions can get heated, a disagreement will usually be taken outside the Courtyard before it comes to blows.

The Courtyard isn't any bigger than some of the open fountain areas in the Water Sector, and it isn't set up the way some of the Foreigners might imagine a political debate area to be set up. There’s no podium, no chairs apart from the stone benches too heavy to be moved, and no grand banners or archways. This is done deliberately; everyone is meant to have an equal voice in the Courtyard, so everyone is on level ground. Apart from the greenery, the stone paths, and the low stone walls surrounding the Courtyard, one could almost imagine it’s just another Market Day in an open square.

The kedan arrive early in large groups of eight or ten at a time, and they'll exhibit a wide variety of reactions to the Foreigners' arrival - everything from open disapproval and fear to a new and very cautious optimism.

LINKS
Shangpar Races | Foreigner Status | Tu Yunxu - The Snakes | Zanru - The Metalworkers | Heojin - The Woodsmen | Milyn - Cherrywood Healer | Questions

OOC
There are six starters for various parts of the discussion, one specifically on the races, one on the Foreigners' overall status in Keeliai, and then one for each of the major NPCs. Characters are present for the entirety of the conversations listed below, and those who wish to input or engage on the first two topics should reply to them in the relevant comment, and the NPC comments are for directly speaking with that NPC or those in that group. The rest of the post is for Foreigners talking and organizing amongst themselves.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Zanru might have been the leader of the Metalworkers, but it was a five-foot-tall woman with close-cropped hair who first got up on the bench to address the crowd on their behalf. “Listen up, you lot,” she said, and her voice rose enough to be heard by anyone who had been jostling for the Metalworkers’ attention. “A lot of you might recognise me as the person in charge of fixing and upgrading the consoles. A lot of you might also remember asking me questions. Questions like, ‘When’s the tram-line going to be finished? Can you sponsor me for Stark Industries? Can you entertain me while you’re trying to work? Can my four-year-old child play with that highly expensive and sensitive pot of goo?’”

She held up a hand to tap her fingers as she answered. “I’m here to answer those questions in order. ‘When politics is tossed in the rubbish and stops getting in the way of people doing things. No, go and apply for a job there like everyone else. Hell no, because I’m working. Bloody hell no, unless you don’t want a child anymore, then yes, go ahead, I’ll visit you in jail.’” She dropped her hands and lifted up one pants-leg from the knee, revealing the artificial leg with a shoe-shaped appendage on the end. “That’s it. Anyone else who interrupts my teams on the job will get a boot up the ass with this leg, and any other questions can be answered by my blithering idiot of a cousin, here.”

The woman clapped a hand to Zanru’s shoulder. “All yours, cousin.” And she levered herself down using Zanru as a support.

“You’re the light of my heart, Xuiyu,” Zanru said with a snort, and got to her feet, declining to actually stand on the bench. Not that she needed it, anyway. “The tram-line’s still pending,” she confirmed, “and yes, we’re hiring Foreigners--yes, I heard those rumblings back there, don’t think I didn’t. No, they’re not getting special treatment; they’re going through the exact same process of application as everyone else. Anyone who has that big a problem with that doesn’t need to work at any of our factories or offices.” She spread her arms. “Anything else? Questions go here.”

Sonja scoffed. Whatever. There's such a thing as manners, you know.

She did note that the metalworker with a bad attitude was related to one of the Kedan who seemed to have some authority.

Nice to know that the head of the local - did it even pass for a technological corporation? a collective, perhaps, but whatever such group was nothing like the one he knew from San Fransokyo.

"The tram-line," he called, leaning forwards slightly. "Will the 'Metalworkers' be taking care of all maintenance and upgrades, and will it be a public service or otherwise limited?"

Part of him wanted to ask if it was even going to require some sort of fee, but- if it wasn't, he didn't want to give them the idea.

"My teams have got maintenance and upgrades," said Xuiyu, looking over to Callaghan and looking him up, and looking him down, and looking him up again, and lifting her eyebrows. "But if you're interested in private talks, I can arrange that somewhere."

"So much for questions being mine," Zanru muttered, and then addressed Callaghan more directly. "If there are people to contract to, we're willing to contract to them, and if that's what you're angling for, it can be arranged pending proof of your qualifications and a contract, and all those fun things. Whether that means you're on a team or leading a team depends on those fun things and my unsubtle cousin. Otherwise yes, the system is a public service which right now it only goes between Fire and Metal Sectors. We're hoping to expand that for all sectors, but we're having trouble negotiating for land rights. Price is a juulan for an all-day ticket."

He wasn't fitting in that badly, was he? Robert couldn't help but glance down at himself, briefly, then back up; the clothing seemed normal enough, but then again, these people weren't...well, maybe they saw something else.

As for the offer? It got a hand-tilt gesture in response. We'll see. It'd give him something to do, and a greater 'in', and he'd make note of hunting the women down later to begin discussion...

"I understand how bureaucracy can complicate things." All too well, in fact. "And I can't speak for how it is here, but I'm familiar with a system where the responsible group also takes care of any byproducts their ventures may or may not produce, with as little bureaucracy as possible. You already have this accounted for, as well...?"

If Xuiyu had been eyeing Callaghan before, at that she harrumphed and crossed her arms. "That sounded an awful lot like 'Do you clean up after yourselves'. We may not be as advanced as whatever world you came from, but the turtle's back doesn't have enough resources to go around pissing in the parts we use."

"Any scrap we can re-use, we take back," said Zanru. "Any scrap we can't, we're still figuring out how to deal with long-term, but we put it somewhere it won't get in the way in the interim. The tram is designed to use the same biomechanical goo the consoles do, so there isn't much in the way of byproduct regarding its actual running."

For that? That made Callaghan chuckle, though not unkindly, and raise a hand in a pacifying gesture. "That's what I needed to hear. I'm glad for the ethic, and I won't waste your time here asking for the details on all that."

Later, on the other hand...

"It's practicality," Zanru corrected. "The turtle's back is doing better than it was in terms of agriculture, but as far as ore and industry are concerned we don't have much to work with except for what's already being circulated or already 'scrapped'. We just can't afford to treat it as if we do. Anything else?"

"The video broadcasts," Tony pipes up. Now that the radio broadcast for the race has been settled Zanru can't heckle him for trying to change the subject, he wants to get this squared away.

"For future races, or whatever you want to use them for. We've got enough foreigners with advanced tech expertise to take on that contract, if that's still on the table."

"Right." Xuiyu pointed at him. "You're talking to me about that. Have fun, cuz." She left Zanru on the stone bench and stumped over to Tony, and took his arm to pull him away from the crowd. A few of the kedan looked after them curiously, but moved away when she growled at them and found an unused seat.

It wasn't exactly something Xuiyu and Zanru had discussed beforehand, but Xuiyu was the person Stark would have to collaborate with the most so it made sense for her to be the one to forge the contract. Besides, she wanted words with the boy. "Sit," Xuiyu said, and it sounded more like a command, even as she pulled herself onto the seat herself. "So you're the kid who's been giving my cousin no end of grief."

Edited 2015-01-30 23:02 (UTC)

Uh, what? What, no, this one is even grumpier than Zanru, Tony doesn't want to talk to her, and he certainly doesn't want to be manhandled like this, what is going on, why is any of this happening.

He lets himself be dragged away mostly because he is too surprised to resist. When she barks at him to sit, he does so, but with obvious wariness. Is being aggressively abrasive a family trait, or is it part of the Metalworker entrance exam?

Her opener brings a sardonic smile to his lips. "She's been giving me plenty of grief, too, so I guess the feeling's mutual," he replies drily. But, he then adds, "things got out of hand in our first meeting. It was my fault. I'm trying to do better."

He's said that so many times in the past week, it at least sounds true, even if it still doesn't really feel true.

"You're an entitled pissant with an itch up his ass," said Xuiyu amiably, and slapped her artificial leg. "And I'm a grumpy old hag with a crippled leg, and Zanru is a bitter, bratty loudmouth. Did you really come out with the 'woe is me for being kidnapped and having to kill the old nightmare' excuse, or was my cousin being hyperbolic? She can get like that when she's fired up."

Jeez, rude, much? But, despite himself, Tony is taking a shine to this Xuiyu woman. She doesn't beat around the bush any more than Zanru does, but she seems less... well, "bitter and bratty" is a pretty good way to put it, actually.

"How about I promise not to whine about being kidnapped if you don't whine about being exploited by the scary mean foreigners?" Tony says, with the same tone of reckless amiability.

"Since I don't give a shit about whiners, I'd usually be okay with that," said Xuiyu. "I'm here to do a damned job, not to cater to idiots who run off their mouths. That's what Zanru relies on me for. But she also relies on me to tell her to shut the hell up when she needs shutting up, so I'm going to be nice and do the same thing for you."

Even though she was going to get punched in the bargain. Not by Tony, oh no; Xuiyu wasn't afraid of any scrawny cloud-snatcher with designs at being god-like. But by Zanru, yeah, that's probably going to be in the cards. Zanru would thank her for it once the bug left her butt. Hopefully.

Xuiyu looked at Tony in the eye, and that required actually looking up. "You've got a problem, kiddo, and that problem is your ego. You came in here all pretending at being downtrodden, when the fact is that your lot holds a galleon of power. Not in numbers, but in ability and in knowledge. The only thing the kedan have are numbers and passion. If you wanted you could take over that city, and yeah, that makes people nervous. It makes them even more nervous when you act like you're poor nobodies who can't stitch two sheets of steel together, because we all know that's a load of dragon shit."

Tony meets Xiuyu's gaze steadily, wearing a very slight frown. He's still not used to people talking to him like this, and it still riles him up pretty good. But he really is trying to do better - not for Zanru's sake or his own, but for the other foreigners, and for Gene.

And Xiuyu sounds like she's willing to talk straight and doesn't have a chip the size of an iceberg on her shoulder, which already makes her a lot more appealing to deal with than Zanru.

"Fair enough," he says, crossing his arms. "We've got abilities and knowledge, but you've got numbers and passion - and that's what makes us nervous. It's not like we expected to come back to parades and speeches in hour honor, but a 'thanks' would have been nice. And instead, half of us are living off of Anton's charity, and half the city would probably rather knife us than sell us an apple. That's not really helping us trust you guys, and it makes it pretty hard for all of us to work together for the good of everyone. If that's what you're after."

Edited 2015-02-01 05:29 (UTC)

"When did you show we could trust you?" Xuiyu asked bluntly. "Sure, you offed the old nightmare, but he was a threat to your own worlds. You weren't doing us a favour; we just happened to benefit from you saving your own asses. It's not really the act of a kind soul to come back later and say 'hey we want credit for saving you' when we weren't much more than an afterthought in the first place. When the palace was cleared, did you go into the dungeon?"

If he hadn't, then Xuiyu could maybe excuse his attitude as ignorance, even though he was an idiot if he hadn't at least heard what was down there from one of the other Foreigners. But if he had been down there, and still saw fit to act like he deserved instant trust from the kedan, then Xuiyu might have to punch him herself.

Tony's frown deepens. "I don't know about the rest of the foreigners, but I never saw it that way. Innocent people don't deserve to get hurt. No matter what world they're from. Protecting this universe wasn't an 'afterthought.'"

It's one thing to find the foreigners annoying or problematic or even threatening, but Tony's pretty damn offended by the suggestion that the foreigners would have left the kedan to die if they'd had the choice. He's also frustrated that she either can't or won't see the difference between 'wanting credit' and 'wanting to not be treated like shit.'

He's considering how best to articulate that, but her mention of the Palace dungeon stops him cold.

"...I didn't. But I heard about it." And what he'd heard... If he'd gone down there, he'd probably still be having nightmares.

Maybe the foreigners don't deserve the treatment they're getting from the kedan, but the kedan have some pretty good reasons not to trust anybody.

"So you don't trust us. And we're having a tough time trusting you. But we both need things from each other, and not trusting each other isn't helping any of us. Since you're talking to me, I'm guessing you want to do something about that."

"Talking to you is what I'm doing about it," said Xuiyu. "I'm talking to you because like it or not, the onus is on the Foreigners to get our trust, not the other way around. The more you bleat about what you deserve, the less trust you're going to earn, and the reason you're not going to earn it is because of what I'm about to explain, so you'd better bloody well listen, 'cos I'm going to get punched for this."

She shifted in her seat, rubbing her knee and swinging her false leg. "When the old nightmare had the palace, you might've noticed we were all a bit narky about how you were handling things. Zanru was one of the ones who wasn't. The Foreigners are here for a job, she'd say. Look at the things they can make, they'll get it done. Well, you did, but too little, too late. There were bodies in the dungeons we can't even identify because they were so rotten, and even the bodies that were there don't account for all of the kedan missings we've got."

Xuiyu looked back at him. "When you whine about being kidnapped and how it's all awful for you, Zanru isn't thinking about how your position, coming unwillingly to a place where you were housed and clothed and fed. She's thinking about her five-year-old daughter, snatched terrified in the middle of the night and taken to a dank dungeon. When you talk about how you deserve some trust because you beat the nightmare, Zanru isn't thinking of the fact you won. She's thinking about the fact that her daughter was tortured for months in the palace because you were all so busy making plans that the enemy got tired of waiting for you."

Xuiyu's thick fingers dug into the joint where the fake leg was attached to her knee. It was psychosomatic, but it still itched. Her gaze was still on Tony. "We don't even know if she's dead. She wasn't one of the identifiable bodies. When you folks died, you didn't stay dead. When you go home, you won't have to live with what happened during that war. You'll pick up your lives just by picking up your date-book. But we, the kedan, will have to live with what happened for the rest of our lives. Zanru will have to live with knowing that she won't know what happened to her kid because she trusted folks who couldn't get the job done. You can say all you like about how innocents don't deserve to get hurt, but words mean exactly shit. You had a job and you stalled, and it was kedan who got hurt because of it. You're old enough to understand why people might dislike the fact that the first things you were worried about when you came back was the fact that you lost a few personal belongings. We lost our daughters, sons, parents, siblings, and I haven't heard about a single sympathy card regarding that."

Tony doesn't know what losing a child feels like, but he imagines it feels like losing everything; like suddenly finding yourself in some strange alternate reality where nothing matters and nothing makes sense. And that... that's something he can understand. He'd been a young man shining with promise, with a loving, supportive father and enough money and power to buy him anything else he could ever need - and in one horrible moment, all of it had been snatched away. Next thing he knew, he was just a broken kid in a hospital bed with no family, no certain future, and a timer in his chest counting quickly down to zero.

It's not the same, but it's close enough to leave him pale and speechless for several long moments.

He looks down. "I'm sorry," he says, almost in a whisper. He could say he didn't know, but he had known about the kedan casualties, so all he'd be saying is 'I didn't know any of the kedan well enough for their losses to affect me personally.'

It had been too easy to lose himself in the lab and in the insularity of the foreigners, and distance himself from the real cost of the war. But there had been a cost, and winning the war hadn't magically made everything better. He's not used to that. He doesn't know how to deal with the consequences of doing his best, and his best not being enough.

"You're right." He sighs and runs a hand over his face, and swallows hard to loosen the tightness in his throat. "I'm sorry. You're right." He doesn't know what else there is to say.

The fact that Tony could respond to that without being defensive about what he had or hadn't done said a lot about him. He was young and too smart for his own good, and had a bug up his ass fatter than a pet bird, but he wasn't a bad kid.

Xuiyu pointed at him with her spare hand. "That's the message you need to be sending to people. Ask what you can do to help, instead of telling 'em what you should get. If some people say you can help by buggering off and leaving 'em alone, that's their prerogative." She grimaced and dropped her hand. "Just don't be stupid and go up and tell Zanru you're sorry; she'll get all pissy about the pity."

Given this contract, there was a large chance Zanru and Tony's paths would cross somewhere, and Zanru was sure to notice a change in Tony's behaviour. Xuiyu wasn't intending to keep the fact she'd spoken to him a secret. She just ... wasn't going to rush into getting punched.

"Be upfront," she said. "Tell her she's wrong when she's wrong, but don't be defensive or self-righteous about her mudslinging. It's all just talk, because she doesn't trust people who dress things up in pretty words. She blows more hot air than a smithy's bellows, but when the hammer hits forge she cares more about doing the job right than being petty, and if that means hiring a self-righteous idiot with the skills, then she'll do it."

Given how Tony had gone off on her, and the speed of his turnaround which indicated it wasn't all sincere, Xuiyu was surprised that Zanru had even offered the contract. It'd be good for the city, of course, and Zanru considered what was good for the city. But Tony had hurt Zanru personally in his ignorance and entitlement and in spite of the fact her words didn't prove her actions, offering the contract indicated a willingness to open herself to disappointment that Xuiyu hadn't expected. It worried her, a little.

Still looking down, Tony nods. "Okay. I'll try." Nothing about this is easy for him, but he will try. Try to offer help instead of expecting people to help him, try to swallow his pride when the kedan turn him away and when Zanru blows up at him. Try to remember that not all Keeliai's problems are going to be solved with a well-placed repulsor and a witty one-liner.

He lets out a quiet chuckle, more wry and self-deprecating than amused, and meets Xuiyu's eyes again. "So, is this contract a good place to start? What do you need me to do?"

"See?" Xuiyu clapped him on the arm. "I already don't want to hit you. Now, the contract. We're going to have to go in and have a contract written up and printed out before you start, but after that, what we need is a blueprint--a schedule, an estimate of how many locations we need and how many structures in those locations, an estimate of the cost, financial and resource-wise."

She stopped to take a breath. As blunt as she was, when she got down to business her tone turned brisk, not quite sharp but quick. "How many teams you'll need is up to you and what we can afford. Pitch it to us and we can negotiate for it. One thing we are going to stipulate is that there's at least two Metalworkers on each team. If all they do is stand around and take notes, fine, so long as they learn what you're doing and how to repair it, and can teach it to others back at the company. We're also going to need an estimate of how many labourers you'll need for actual construction--I don't care if you can do it all yourself using your fancy machines, you get to have a job as overseer and there are kedan in the city who need the work too."

Hm. What else. Oh, yeah. "You can do a flyover for surveillance if that's what you want," Xuiyu continued, "but there's some land we might need to buy from the Woodsmen. We'll handle that, but you'll need to have a list of backups as well as preferences. We're also going to need to talk supplies, but that can happen once you've done a write-up of maximums and minimums in terms of labour, and we've figured out locations and teams."

"Oh, great, thanks," Tony says dryly. ~~Don't be sarcastic, Tony, somebody not wanting to hit you would be a step forward in most of your interactions.~~

But he nods in agreement with all her conditions, since they are all, fortunately, reasonable.

"I can get all that to you within a week. I haven't really done surveying before..." That's the kind of logistics that his dad usually deals with, and Tony has more interest in machines than buildings and structures, anyway. "But I'll do a flyover of the sites and tell you whatever I can. I'll record video so your engineers can look over the aerial views, too."

“If you haven’t done it before then you should have someone along,” said Xuiyu. “The video will help, but it’s completely different to standing on the ground. It’ll take longer that way, if you have to wait for someone to walk ’em, but maybe you’ll learn something in the meantime.”

In fact Xuiyu could name four people offhand who would do good surveyor’s work without needing to outsource to the Woodsmen. All of them had been on her sapper squad during the Chihuelan invasion—they’d protected the foundation of the city’s walls during the brief siege.

"Cool, a stroll through the countryside. I'll pack a picnic." The sarcasm is good-natured, though, and he's almost smiling.

"That's fine. I'll bring you the plans and estimates, and you bring me a surveying schedule. I don't have a whole lot of other obligations to work around, so just give me what works best for your people."

[EVENT] Courtyard of Public Opinion

Zanru - The Metalworkers

Re: Zanru - The Metalworkers

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tl;dr - "PLEASE TELL ME YOU ARE NOT MUCKING UP YOUR OWN ENVIRONMENT IN THE NAME OF PROGRESS"

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cw: slight discussion of child torture

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