[Action] House Meeting: October 5, Friday, 1pm

[mysterium_npc]

[At around 1pm Elias and Taylor can be found in the drawing room, along with an older gentleman with iron gray hair, a hawkish nose, and wire-rimmed spectacles. He is smoking a pipe which he seems to be in the habit of tapping nervously against the palm of his hand

Comments

[sandnsky]

[Daisya looks from Taylor to Elias and back to Taylor. His expression is uncharacteristically grim.]

If I hadn't stumbled upon George when I did, I dunno if he woulda made it. 'm not sayin' he's a slouch or can't fight or anythin', I'm sayin' you can't fight those things with fyin' pans an' kitchen knives.

[He shakes his head, then, lifting his hands in a gesture of peace.]

'm not sayin' that your concerns aren't real. Obviously they are, I saw 'em myself. ... but you're askin' us t'fight for you while we're here, while you try t'find us a way home... an' who's gonna guarantee you're gonna do that? That's why I say I don't know if I wanna fight this war for you.

[With that he turns to Elias, eyes hard.]

You can call it what y'like. I said 'm not a fan of flowery words, so you'll hafta excuse that. This's just th' beginnin' of somethin' that's gonna be a long, drawn-out fight... so yeah, 's a war. Maybe 's on a smaller scale than what you or I're used to, but don't disguise it.

[He stops, then, and makes a frustrated sound. He's never been good at this, and he just feels like he's not making himself clear enough.]

I don't think we have much of a choice at th' moment. ... but whatever it is you're doin' t'call these things- y'might wanna consider not doin' it.

[ideograms]

[Elias sighs rather heavily.]

You seem, if I may be blunt, to be misunderstanding the situation, Daisya.

No one among us is "calling these things," as you put it. It is not a matter of us ceasing some activity that we are doing now.

An artifact was stolen from us. It was the thieves who attempted to call something into the world by using it. What we did was to try and halt the effects of their ritual.

We did our best to stop it entirely. But we failed. You are here, if you will, as a result of that failure. We simply did not have the skill to undo what those fiends had begun.

You wish to return home, and we are willing to do our best to make that happen. But to be frank, doing that for you means that we will have to be meddling in forces that we don't understand, that present a risk for us and potentially for this whole world. We will have to learn about them, learn how to control them.

We are undertaking something very dangerous in order to return you to your homes.

You have asked what guarantee you have that we're going to try and find you a way home. What you have is our word, and the fact of our honesty about just how challenging and risky the whole prospect is.

I do not think it so unreasonable that, as we undertake dangerous work to help you, you be willing to help us manage the danger to whatever extent you can.

After all, unless I am very much mistaken, [His tone of indicates that he knows he is not] neither you nor the others from your world needs to fight with frying pans and kitchen knives.

We are not asking for the help of school marms or housewives. We are asking for the help of a group of people uniquely able to fight creatures from the unknown. You all proved as much last night.

[Diplomatically--or perhaps because of the seniority of his professional position and his desire to avoid academic debates with an unschooled teenager--he does not bother to point out that, properly speaking a war is fought between armies, between geopolitical entities or factions, and that it is a human undertaking.

Daisya has already indicated that he's not interested in the particulars of words, but words are Elias's specialty. He believes firmly in them being applied correctly. The boy can think what he likes, but to the philologist's mind, what they are talking about in this situation is by no means a war.]

[sandnsky]

[Daisya just shrugs. He doesn't particularly care about the specifics.]

Whatever y'say. If it takes protectin' you t'get us home then that's what we'll do. ... but 'm not gonna be used by anyone. [He shrugs again.]

[disinters]

[Taylor shifts a careful look between Daisya and Elias, noting Daisya's prickledness and what he had come to recognise over the years as Elias steadily losing his patience. After clicking his teeth thoughtfully and trying to come up with a way to express things differently he pushes a hand through his hair and gives it a shot.]

I think what we're saying isn't as one-sided as just asking you to protect us, though I do get the caution, we are pretty much strangers to one another.

Instead what we're saying is that working together as a unit may benefit all of us. We have skills you don't, you have skills that we don't. We're not trying to use any of you, and we won't force you to agree if you say no.

[He gives the boy a firm look, his 'teacher look', if you will.] But to turn the question around, why should we help you if you're not interested in returning the gesture?

[sandnsky]

[Daisya shakes his head.]

Don't misunderstand- 'm sorry if I haven't been clear. I don't wanna get caught up fightin' here an' not be able t'get back home in time t'be of any use. I don't wanna end up bein' useful here an' havin' you decide that it might be better t'keep me around, if that makes sense.

[He's visibly frustrated- he's never been good at speaking his mind and this is why he typically just lets Kanda or Marie talk for him. He can't keep relying on them, though, not when Marie isn't here and Kanda- well, Kanda is Kanda.]

Whoever's causin' this t'happen, an' I'm sorry I mistook it for you, is gonna hafta be dealt with. ... that could take a lot of time. [He trails off and then shakes his head. He's not even sure where he's going with this, he just knows he wants to go home, because this place is unfamiliar and the weapon he's come to rely on so much barely works at all. He feels rather helpless and he doesn't like it.] Heh, I don't even know if I can go home, so I guess I may as well be useful t'you here, yeah?