tushanshu_logs | Catch-All for Operation Get Our Stuff Back

Entry tags:

Catch-All for Operation Get Our Stuff Back

Characters: Tony, Sokka, Valdis, Gene, Cain and YOU
Date: December 12 onwards
Location: The Hotel
Situation: Tony is pissed about SI falling into kedan hands, and more levelheaded people have to talk him out of doing something stupid. Once sense and discretion have prevailed, it occurs to Tony et al. that the foreigners might be able to more rapidly regain some leverage in Keeliai if they worked together to befriend/infiltrate the gangs, especially the three major families. Devious plotting ensues.
Warnings/Rating: None so far

[1 - the common room of the Hotel - December 12]

Tony returns from his meeting with Zanru after less than two hours, and he is seething. Sokka had asked him about the status of his job at Stark Industries, and Tony had promised to go find out right away (he'd put off meeting with the new "boss" of SI long enough already). The meeting had not gone well. To put it mildly.

Now he's back at the Hotel, looking for Sokka, to deliver the bad news. And poor Sokka is about to get an earful.

[2 - around the Hotel - the following days and weeks]

Tony had - miraculously - been talked down from teleporting his entire lab and all its contents out of SI and permanently alienating the Metalworker family. A longer-term strategy of insinuating themselves into the families' good graces had been suggested, and Tony, grudgingly, had acquiesced.

Since then, word has been getting around. Anyone who hears about that discussion and wants to ask Tony about it or offer their help should be able to locate him pretty easily around and about the Hotel. That's where he's spending most of his time, after all, since he is currently unwelcome at SI.

[3 - Make your own starter!]

[ooc: the initial discussion will be closed to Tony, Sokka, Valdis, Gene, Cain, but anyone who wants to have their character hear about it second-hand is welcome to post a thread here. You can request a thread with Tony or any of the other original conspirators, but it isn't necessary - anyone can thread out anything related to this plan in this log.

Keep in mind that this is not (currently) a conspiracy to depose the families or destroy the gangs or take over Keeliai - merely an attempt to organize the foreigners so that they can pool information and coordinate their negotiations with the gangs without making the kedan more distrustful. However, this is supposed to be on the DL, so if your character accidentally or intentionally lets the plan slip to the kedan, expect there to be IC consequences!

The ooc plotting post for Operation Get Our Stuff Back can be found here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well, to be fair, Tony, you're hardly a sporting target. Your terrible, terrible ideas and poor impulse control are especially low-hanging fruit, and everyone in this room would have to be fools for not going for it.

Also, because you're acting like a stupid nineteen-year-old shitbaby.

First, to Sokka:] I can call him that when he's acting like one.

[Then, to Tony, his tone sharp:] Nobody is saying we should cower away, we just shouldn't completely fuck over all the other Foreigners in the process of solving your problem. You lack tact, and you lack subtlety, and you need to step back before you cause us all some serious harm because you are behaving like a spoiled child.

[His hand settles back on Tony's shoulder again, half-reassurance, half-restraint, and his voice softens.] You are better than this, Tony. [He'd bring up Howard if he wasn't absolutely positive that would backfire.]

[Valdis dipped her head at Sokka's words before meeting Tony's glare with her own, slightly more terrifying, one.]

You need to calm down, Tony Stark. We have all lost things important to us, but you don't see us trying to start a war, do you?

[Well, as much as he doesn't like what Gene called Tony (because after all, Tony is a good friend), Gene has a point. For a moment there's a glower on Sokka's face, but eventually he backs down on that one and just folds his arms over his chest.

[Because let's face it. Tony is being something of a poohead at the moment.]

Okay, okay... well then, are we all agreed that we should make a concerted effort to actually get stuff done? That we should take back at least some of the stuff that those guys took from us? That that's fair?

[Sound good? Right? Right? Right? Okay, good.]

Then what we need is a creative plan on how to get that. Much as I don't really like it, we need the kedan a little more than they need us. So we've got to convince them that, hey, we've got a right to be here too, and that they should help us rather than just be complete jerks the entire time. Because we can be useful.

And then we can get our stuff back.

That's it! That's what we should name this! Operation Get Our Stuff Back!

It's not just my problem, [Tony snaps. ] Nearly all of us lost our jobs and everything else we had. Last time I checked, I'm not the only one around here who needs to eat.

[Valdis' glare doesn't intimidate him, and her rebuke only riles him up more. But Gene's comment, along with the reassuring touch, are enough to keep him from lashing out again.

So he falls into surly silence to listen to Sokka, who... is making a fair amount of sense. Still, Tony's not going to jump on the "let's all be friends" bandwagon just yet.

He grunts dubiously.] Okay, so how are we going to do that? According to them, they've been doing just fine without us for a year, and they're not interested in how useful we can be. They just want us gone again. What's going to stop them from turning down anything we have to offer, just to spite us?

[Hmm. Not a bad name, Sokka. Though Gene respectfully recommends we keep Operation WAFFLE-O as a backup. Given the way things have been going so far.]

The fact that if they turn us down outright, we are both powerful and spiteful enough to burn the entire city to the ground, [Gene says lightly. It could almost be a joke, except he might be serious.] And the fact that, for the most part, giving our stuff back is less onerous than dealing with a campaign of concentrated harassment. [Unemployed Foreigners missing their trinkets have a lot of time on their hands and a lot of tenacity.]

Obviously, we have to prove to them that we're beneficial. Which is crap, of course, without us they'd still be petrified of Malicant...so maybe we should remind them of that fact.

[Make 'em an offer they can't refuse, Gene.]

Edited 2015-01-09 05:50 (UTC)

[Valdis decides not to mention that she doesn't, in fact, need to eat, thinking it to be irrelevant at the moment.]

You geniuses are either really self-involved or just plain stupid if you think that intimidating the Kedan will get us anywhere. Have you even tried to find out what happened to them in the year that we were comatose? Do you even know the changes that went on within their lives? Why don't you try understanding them instead of trying to force them to understand us?

[Was she really the only one making an effort to understand what had happened in the year they had been gone?]

[Hey, Sokka's not trying to intimidate anyone. Unless Valdis is just ignoring Sokka's presence in the room because he's a little more animated and zany than the other two, at which point, she can knock herself out with that.]

Well, in fairness, Enj and I had that idea the other day.

[He grumbles a bit because that he feels like that rebuke doesn't apply to him, even if he was pretty angry just a bit ago. There is some justifiable anger within him, even if he's a little carried away sometimes.]

Look, I'm sure the kedan aren't completely ungrateful for the things we've done for them. I'm sure they like the technology and that they like not having the Creep Lord ruling over the turtle any longer. [Try as he might, Sokka just won't say Malicant's name out loud now that there's a nickname for him.]

[And then, turning to Valdis, indicating that he's got a small idea of what's going on, he adds:]

But if I gather rightly, we've got a couple large gangs that are ruling the city now that there's no more emperor to speak of. So we either have to make friends with one of the gangs or convince the kedan not in the gangs to like us better than the gangs themselves. Either of which is going to require us working with them.

Look, I'm not saying we have to be completely oogie [he says this word half-romantically and half-deadpan] to the kedan, and let me tell you, I'm not too fond of them myself right now, so I won't be the first. But we do have to live with them. And at least pretend to be happy about it?

[Oh my god, Valdis, you are so not helping. What's wrong with a little intimidation, huh? At least Gene gets it.]

Well that all sounds really nice, but there's the little problem of those three gang "families." From what I hear, they hate each other's guts even more than they hate ours. If we suck up to one, the other two will really, really hate us, and if we suck up to the small gangs we'll probably end up with all three of the families out to get us.

Anybody have any non-genius ideas [another scathing look in Valdis' direction] for how to get around that?

[Gene takes this opportunity to look at Valdis quite witheringly. Jeez, why do people always gotta think the worst of him?]

I didn't mean that we should intimidate them, [he says shortly,] I meant that they owe us. Without us, they would have all been so much dead meat. And it seems like they've forgotten that.

[Well, Tony, the Foreigners could always make their own gang. With blackjack! And hookers!] So we don't 'suck up' to any faction in particular, [he says.] We deal with them as much as we have to, but prove ourselves to be coming from a place of power on our own. They're treating us Foreigners like our own faction anyway. Why not make it official? [Then he smiles a little.] We are the biggest badasses on the turtle, since the kedan owe us all their lives, probably several times over.

[Valdis sighed again. Tony did not seem to get it, she had apparently misjudged Gene's intentions and poor Sokka had felt slighted.]

It isn't about 'hating each other's guts', it is about balance. After the invasion, the Kedan achieved a sort of balance between the three major families. Our arrival threw off that balance and now they are uncertain. We are both a problem and a solution, we confuse them, they a afraid of us in a manner of speaking.

[She nodded to Gene]

Being our own faction gives us an advantage, but only if we are respected. Fear will only unite them against us, we must move slowly and carefully, play the long term game, similar to what Sokka suggested.

One thing you should know is that these are no longer the passive people whom Malicant walked all over. Whatever magic suppressed their potential has faded and now they have regained their true selves. They are proud. Damage that pride, threaten their balance, and they will not hesitate to strike back.

[Okay, well... strike one. It started off as a nice plan, but of course Tony is admittedly slightly right. However, Gene kicks it off going in a different direction, and that definitely sounds like a reasonable possibility.]

That's actually not a bad plan, [he says with a gesture to Gene, subsequently nodding to Valdis.] We kind of are our own force, whether for good or ill. The whole thing really relies upon us being able to control our own image on the turtle. You know, the long game is that we have to erase that nasty perception that they have of us of [and here Sokka plays the part with a whiny voice] "oh no those foreigner guys are so mean and irresponsible" thing with something that they feel like they can trust and get behind.

And that can either be a mixture of forceful posturing—because we do have to interact with the gangs at least somewhat—and some decent humanitarianism. We need people behind us, so we need people to like us. Or at least like us enough where we're more likeable than some of these gang types.

Somehow I get the feeling that it's going to be a little hard to get the kedan on board with the idea of our own foreigner faction. Just based on their reactions to us so far. And, you know, the fact that they hate us. In case anyone had forgotten that.

But hey, you're the mastermind here. [He gestures at Valdis, who is currently the focus of his irritation since she showed up uninvited to the dogpile.] So, Glorious Leader, what's our next step? Design a logo and slogan and start printing off buttons?

The point is, they basically already are on board with a Foreigner faction, because they've spent the time since we returned proving that we're not welcome in kedan society. They've pretty much boxed us up, and we should welcome that. Play the long game. [He nods to Sokka.] Prove our worth without acting like we have something to prove. Nobody likes a try-hard.

They fear us? [Gene snorts.] They should. To a lot of these new bosses, we're an unknown quantity. We can use that. Balance forceful posturing and humanitarianism - or I suppose kedanitarianism - like Sokka said. Carrot and stick.

[His brain is ticking away. Something he'd thought long-buried is coming back. He remembers running the Tong at sixteen, but he's older now, wiser, more clever, more powerful. And the Tong are small potatoes compared to his displaced fellows.

If need be, he can build a network strong enough to crush Yunxu and Zanru and Heojin and all of them beneath the Foreigners' heels. Not the ideal, but if he can do that, he can surely build a small empire to make the kedan know they can't kick the Foreigners around. They are a force to be reckoned with - they are - and it's time to give the kedan a gentle reminder of that.]

[Valdis frowned at Tony, he was being far more difficult than he needed to be, but at least Sokka and Gene were reasonable.]

There are several ways we can play this, but a common theme is avoiding conflict with the Kedan. [She nodded to Gene] Gene seems to be on the same page in that we need to make ourselves useful to them, but as a whole we must maintain our independence. [She turned to Sokka] Sokka, you have the right idea when it comes to what is needed, but do you have an idea of how to make it happen?

Edited (formatting) 2015-01-13 19:25 (UTC)

[For the most part, Sokka is just listening now and assessing things whilst contemplating various angles for how to proceed going forward. Tony, aggressive guy as he's being, at least is somewhat funny when it comes to the logo and buttons; Sokka may actually laugh inappropriately at that before quickly shutting up when he gets odd looks. Gene and Valdis seem to be coalescing around the idea that he's helped formulate.

[Though when Valdis proposes the question of how to achieve that, that generally surprises him, and suddenly he almost jerks as if suddenly coming awake.]

Me?

[Okay, Sokka, think fast.]

Okay, well what is it that the gangs have that we don't? Besides logos and buttons, I mean. [He's going to still try to flash Tony a smile, and maybe that's going to humour him a bit.] They've got a reputation, for one, and they've got a leader, for two. But the biggest thing they've got is territory.

So the first things we're going to need are a place to call our own. Somehow, I don't think Anton is going to be too keen on us using this as a gang headquarters somehow since he's all about neutrality between foreigner and kedan. So we need to take over at least some place as our own.

And then we're going to need a spokesperson. Someone who won't take lip from any of our other gang bosses, but also someone who's going to not just fly off the handle in public. He doesn't necessarily really have to be the boss of the foreigners, but at least someone to manage everything. That'll give us our reputation as well.

And then as for... kedanitarianism... [Sokka eyes Gene as he says that word slowly,] well, that's the slightly tricky part. It's not like we're all that resource-rich at the moment to just shower them with money, happiness, and hugs.

[Your amusement is noted and appreciated, Sokka. Tony's still wearing his grumpy face, but Sokka can rest assured that he has gone up several points in Tony's book.

He's still not sure he's convinced by all of this, though. He frowns.] What we need is infrastructure. Territory doesn't mean anything on its own. What we have that the gangs don't is technological expertise and unique magical skills, but if we don't have any way to use that, [aside from using it to, uh, threaten them,] we don't have any bargaining power.

And I still want to know how we're going to avoid alienating somebody while doing this. If there's a three-way balance between the major players right now, adding another faction into the mix is definitely going to throw everything off.

[He pauses, and then mutters under his breath, to no one in particular:] Also, for the record, "intimidation" and "forceful posturing" are the same thing.

[There is a long pause. Then:]

In terms of territory...isn't the palace open real estate now?

[You know, if everyone isn't totally creeped out by the murder and stuff that happened there. Which is valid. Things got pretty gnarly.] Who could we have as the leader for these purposes? [He's not going to suggest himself, that's for damn sure. He'd do it, if someone else asked, because he has the experience, but he's not going to seek power of his own free will.

Under his breath, to Tony:] Not necessarily.

[Tony seemed calmer now, and his brain actually seemed to be functioning in a helpful manner.]

I'm happy to work with you on this problem, [Valdis replied] But I'm not going to play forward on this one. I have my own agenda and it doesn't involve monitoring a bunch of teenagers. [She looked at Sokka and Gene] Even if some of them are capable of intelligence. But yes, the Palace is there for the taking and I agree that we should use it.

[Sokka is about to interject the moment that Valdis refers to him as a mere teenager, and he even raises a finger into the air, but he backs down the moment she offers a compliment to chase it down.]

Well, okay, infrastructure is good, I won't deny that one. But, we have to have a structure first before we can build support for it. And the palace... well, if no one else is going to own it, we might as well take it. Besides, there might be something left in there still worthwhile. And if nothing else, it means we're not going to be stuck here in Anton's debt.

As for a leader, well... I'm just the idea guy here. I mean, I know I've got the looks and the charm and all, but I've tried being the front guy for an invasion before. That... didn't exactly go well. I'm better suited at being the power behind the throne.

Your own agenda? Which is what, exactly? [Probably nothing sinister. But Tony's inclined to be suspicious of Valdis, simply because she's ticking him off right now.

He raises his eyebrows at the suggestion of the Palace.] The Palace? You don't think the kedan are going to have a problem with that? Eshai and Evandau and Malicant and gruesome blood magic sacrifice rituals is not what I'd call a great legacy to inherit. And as for a leader— if neither of you is volunteering, who exactly would you suggest?

[This is so dumb. All these ideas are dumb, and everything about this is aggravating, and Tony's halfway ready to just walk out and go back to his original plan of taking their stuff back.]

I know a thing or two about working to turn around a bad legacy, [Gene says, a little too lightly.] The kedan should be glad to see the Palace go to us. They want no part of it, they want us out of their hair; to them, we'd be solving two problems in one. And maybe turning the place around - making it safe ground for Foreigners and kedan alike - could do wonders for how we're perceived.

[He frowns, very reluctant to say the next thing.] I suppose...if there's truly no other interest from anyone here...I could look into it.

[No claim to power, no assertion of leadership. He'll look into it. He'll check the feasibility of the idea. If they want to make him leader, that's on them. But he's not going to rush headlong into the position unless as a matter of absolute last resort.]

[Valdis looked at Sokka with amusement. The power behind the throne? This boy was hilarious.]

My agenda is none of your concern, Tony. Besides, even if I wanted to babysit, you probably wouldn't listen to me. [She looked to Gene] You look into it then and let me know what you decide. [Despite her earlier reluctance about Gene, the boy seemed level-headed enough, and if he had Sokka with him as well, then they should be able to counteract Tony's...eagerness.]

[Sokka just sighs at Tony. Tony, you're stepping in on Sokka's Mr. Negativity shtick here.]

Hey, out of the four of you guys, I'm the new guy around here. I still don't know half of us guys that are here on our side, much less who's going to be best at being a leader. I mean, I barely even know two of you in this room! [He gestures at Gene and Valdis; while he does know Valdis, it's... very vague and nebulous.]

Besides, Gene's right. If they actually would mind us taking the palace, they'd have taken it already for themselves. Who cares what sorts of evil voodoo things happened in there before. Unless you can just wiggle your nose and make a new building for us, it's kind of all we have.

So... are we at least mostly in agreement here?

If we're going to work together to make a stable foreigner faction, your agenda is everybody's business. [Come on, Valdis, are you trying to sound shady and suspicious?] We can't know that your "agenda" isn't going to hurt the rest of us if we don't know what it is. [Oh, what, is this annoying, Valdis? Somebody suddenly giving you criticism that you didn't ask for and hounding you relentlessly about it? SUCKS, DON'T IT?

Honestly, he doesn't really care what Valdis' secret agenda is. But if she's gonna be all cryptic about it, he'll get on her case about it just on principle.

He's a lot more concerned about Gene's offer to lead this little scheme. He knows Gene isn't planning on making a power grab: it's not that he doesn't trust Gene, it just... feels a little bit too much like encouraging old, bad habits. Tony's not really sure he's comfortable with that.]

What other foreigners have political or diplomatic experience? We should have them on board even if they don't want to be the leaders. [And maybe, if they're lucky, someone from that group will step up to the plate so Gene doesn't have to.]

If you guys really don't think the kedan are going to be pissed about us taking over the castle, I guess it's not a bad idea. It'll solve the housing problem, for sure. [Maybe it won't come with a fully-stocked lab pre-installed, but at least they won't be - literally - building from the ground up.]

I can ask around, see who else has credentials, [Gene says, the gears really going in his head. He could probably do all this by himself, but he really doesn't want to.] I'd welcome any input.

[He shrugs.] They've taken over everything else. They took over Stark Industries, they took over our suites, they took over everything. Hell, they even replaced the police station with a mansion for Yunxu. But they left the Palace alone.

and then you need the rest of these losers for a crappy idea stew

Re: and then you need the rest of these losers for a crappy idea stew

Sokka is the best namer of things ever.

/makes him a construction paper badge "#1 NAMER"

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Valids makes me hilariously aware of the number of canine-related colloquialisms in English

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