abraxaslogs | OPEN MINGLE: Time to Talk, Summoned!

OPEN MINGLE: Time to Talk, Summoned!

Who: Istredd, Wanda, and all the Summoned
What: Istredd and Wanda called people to the meeting to give an info dump, let people ask questions or share their own information, and then a hang out after with refreshments so people can chat after and make new CR or check in with old CR.
Where: Istredd's Horizon
When: Saturday, September 9th, at midnight so less attention given to them.
Warnings: Discussion of the game plots including all content warnings up to now like psychological thriller, horror, the cult kidnapping, gods being trouble. Abraxas is a wild place, friends.

HORIZON AND SET UP

The Lighthouse was described by Istredd in detail so people would know where to go. During this mingle, it will continue to shine and circle around like a normal lighthouse so people know where to go. His domain is unique for being essentially a tower of books. Shelves upon shelves of books and multiple floors. The only other detail before the talk starts is that there are five ravens who will be curiously watching everyone from a perch nearby. Your character may end up with a lapful of one of the two leosylphs who live here, one baby blue colored and the other one black with red eyes.

The main floor has been turned into a large meeting hall of a sort, although mostly in terms of having a large space full of chairs and a few tables if people wish to sit there. Your character can perch anywhere they want including up a floor. A key note about Istredd's domain is that people can easily morph chairs or create them in whatever form they'd want, so if you want them to have their childhood chair, go ahead. If they want a gaming chair, it'll show up automatically for them. His space is very intuitive. People can choose to speak either from the back of the room, as Istredd will do, or from where they sit/stand.

If your character wants to attend but not be noticed, they can intuitively use his Horizon to mask themselves/go invisible. Istredd will not call you out, Henry Creel.

After the initial formal talk and information gathering, Istredd will ease up the more formal atmosphere of the large hall and create a food and drink section against the walls. Wanda assists him in making this look nicer and homier. There will be extensive offerings but people can add any type of food or drink to this, it's up to them to modify it.

If your character would like to explore the library or get a beat to themselves/talk privately with someone, they can do that by wandering the floors. People will find that if they open a book it will appear to be empty at first, but if they think about their favorite book, the pages will fill in. It is entirely based on their recollection of the book so may not be entirely complete, but if their subconscious mind has memorized much of it, they will see what they need to in there.

They may also find that as they move through the floors, a 'reading nook' may appear in the corner that will instinctively know what they would feel comfortable sitting to read with. They can also 'lock' this room if they want to discuss something with another person and need privacy.

ISTREDD'S SPEECH

[Istredd will wait until it appears everyone has arrived or most people have and he will clear his throat to get their attention if they are already chatting with other people. He appears as he often does in Thorne, with very plain clothes in a dark shade of blue, serious and calm. He stands straight-backed, hands clasped behind his back. Istredd speaks in a very clear and calm way.]

Please sit or stand as you feel comfortable. If you want, you can create any chair you wish to sit in. After the initial conversation, food and drinks will be provided and you are free to add your own favorite dishes. This is intended as an information-gathering conversation. Last year, Sam Wilson hosted something similar to keep the Summoned informed, and a great many things have happened since. Wanda and I thought to do the same this year.

We posted on the network a breakdown of what happened with the kidnapping earlier this year. If you missed it, the general idea was that a cult from Solvunn took half of the Summoned and held us in a pit, where they were experimented on. The cult's intention was to try and take the connection the Summoned have to the Singularity, and what they believed to also be a connection to their gods.

It should be noted that Thorne tried something similar early on in the Summonings. Their experimentation also did not work, as far as we know. We thought it prudent to keep every Summoned informed of what happened in case something like this happens again. We have put forward from the Solvunn and Thorne conclave a request to our factions to allow us to have access to the island. We'll let people know what we hear.

I also put together a history timeline of the Summoned.

[He pulls out a blackboard with this list written down over it in clear readable words. He points to the February 20,078 section where the details about the kidnapping are written out in particular.]

If anyone would like to add notes or months I missed, please either write it yourself or let me know and I will add it. I am hoping to keep this an active timeline for us. This will always be available in my library here to anyone who wants it. We have also been given a pantheon of the gods from our friends in Solvunn that is also available in here.

I have been taking notes since I got here about general information that may be of interest to people when they arrive, including details about magic, the Singularity, and the factions. They're very broad but you can read it on this.

[He creates another blackboard to the side, also able for other people to make notes upon.]

I don't want to be talking this entire time, so instead I would like to invite people to share any findings or information they have that they think the whole group should be aware of, and also ask questions that could be answered or talked about. Please be polite with one another and understand there are some things we simply do not have the answers for as of now.

There are less than a hundred of us, and I believe it is important that we stay on the same team. Thank you. Feel free to eat and talk, or wander in the library.

OOC NOTES

Hey everyone, it's Dee! I am so sorry for the tl;dr. I have the headers below: Speeches (information sharing/tl;dr like mine), Questions (you can specify what exactly they have questions about), adding to the info dumps I have, and whatever else you think of.

If you want your character to speak/offer information but don't want follow-up questions, you can put 'OTA' or 'no follow-up' to indicate what your preference is here. If you put OTA people can reply with a sort of Q&A option, but the no follow-up idea is so that people can share information but not need to commit to that unless they feel like it.

And from there, mingle to your heart's content! Your characters can talk afterward, before, go explore the library, whatever you want, I support it. You can plan closed or open starters, follow your heart.

If nothing else, I want people to take from this mingle that their character can hear any of this information or see it in the library and have it from now on for your RP purposes, and take this opportunity to maybe make new CR/discuss all of this. Do as much or as little as you want! If you have any comments/concerns, please message me on plurk.

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James makes it a point to make a mental list of anyone who gets his attention, and tonight, Istredd does just that. The speech was rehearsed, of course, but eloquent and to the point, just the right length to keep everyone's attention without losing sight of purpose or anyone's interest.

It's a skill not everyone has. James personally doesn't see himself as the inspirational type, even if he's got a silver tongue of his own, it just serves more selfish purposes.

After he gets to have a good, long look at the information on display, he steps away from the groups gathering near the boards, walking to Istredd and waiting until their eyes meet to greet him with a nod.

"This is pretty useful," he gestures to the blackboards. "It's not always easy to get access to information on everything that's happened involving the Summoned so far."

Istredd is practiced at reporting information to his superiors, but it's a new skill to report information to his peers. Becoming one of the leaders - reluctantly or not - of the Thorne Summoned has required him to get better at all of this but it never stops being unnerving. Now that the initial speech has finished and people are talking or looking through the information, some of his stiffness can relax.

Istredd's striking blue eyes meet another pair and he nods respectfully back at him. "Yes, I've been gathering this information since I got here a year ago. I have a lot more notes that just didn't seem ultimately helpful in a general way. I'm a scholar, we tend to go on and on if we're not careful."

Istredd rehearsed this with Lucifer and Wanda giving him notes until it was polished. He has a book on each location they've been to with everything he's observed and heard about. It would just require far too much reading for people who are interested in the basics and not much else. Condensing it took hours, which is what he did once the rifts closed.

"Thank you for coming, I know all of this can be very overwhelming."

"It's pretty useful, yeah." He nods lightly, eyeing Istredd with keen interest. "I'd like to read through everything else you've got, actually. Provided you don't mind sharing."

There's no such thing as too much information in a situation like this, James believes. Even if most of it ends up not being useful, one never knows. He prefers having more information rather than miss something important.

"I'll admit that it hasn't been too difficult, for me. Hardest thing to get used to is the technology level in Cadens. It's incredibly outdated when compared to what I'm more familiar with."

"The way my library works is that people can add books and they stay here if you want them to. Mine all permanently stay. You just need to know what to think about. For example, Feywilds notes."

Istredd puts out his hand and a book appears in it, offering it to James. He's written details about they Feywilds visit and everything they experienced while there, plus details he observed outside of the events and from the history of the world. The Feywilds are still mostly unknown, with the Summoned being the first beings invited in a long time. He didn't keep these notes in person, too afraid of Thorne getting their hands on it. He has one on Luna, Ikorr, and Nocwich too.

"You must be very adaptable if it's been easy. Are you someone who has traveled the multiverse before?" It probably isn't only those people who adjust easier here, but it likely helps. He knows that Stephen and Wanda for example have adapted fairly well due to their own knowledge. Kyle too, in a way.

"And they're advanced technology compared to what I'm used to." The sphere Istredd is from is a medieval time at best and while full of magic and monsters, technology is not something people put a lot of work into. He's only somewhat seen what the Free Cities gets into, but he's heard from others. "Are you from a sphere with spaceships?"

"That's handy," he agrees, gladly taking the book offered to him. He's going to hang onto it while he's roaming around the gathering, if that's fine. Although— "So this would theoretically be available to me anytime I came back here? Or any other book you think into existence?"

He likes the idea of being able to consult all this information in his own time, maybe on his own, do his own studying up on the events here.

"Traveled, no. But I've had experience with it, you might say." He is familiar with the existence of parallel realities, at least, and he's met others who did travel across universes, albeit accidentally. Which, to be fair, he's not entirely convinced this isn't, but time will tell. He does look fairly impressed at how quickly Istredd reaches that conclusion. "Yes, actually. Space travel is very commonplace where I'm from. I'm Captain of a starship."

"Yes, it stays even when I'm not in here. It's hard to explain how it all works, but it does."

Even Istredd as a skilled psionics mage couldn't come up with something like the Horizon. His imagination isn't that large. It is too grand, too complicated and yet simple. Natural to use, shifting with him barely having to think about it. And the creatures in here exist without them too, establishing their own basic habits, without being told. Istredd doesn't bother trying to make full sense of it in his head. He certainly can't explain it all to others.

"I also have a few books on Academic Magic here, if you'd like to learn any basic spells. Thorne is the only place with a library full of them." The Free Cities probably has some, especially in the universities, but it isn't encouraged too much as they hate relying on magic. Solvunn uses High Magic.

"I've heard about the spaceships, it seems wildly impossible to me personally, but I would assume we're thousands of years away from that advancement." It's possible people go faster, but he's skeptical. The continent is doing better on creating technology, but it's mostly going to creating war weapons, not on other topics.

"We have something back in my world that's not too dissimilar. It's like a computer program, easy to save into memory banks. I get it."

Sure, he knows it's magic doing it here, but the principle is the same, just the methods that differ. It doesn't confuse or boggle James. If anything, it's great to hear. He doesn't have to depend on Istredd's presence to visit the place, or read through these books all he wants, study the information at his own pace.

"I've leafed through a few of them. I'll admit, I'm not exactly magically inclined, but it seems like it could work to my advantage to have a few spells up my sleeve." Nothing he would heavily rely on, but stuff he could make use of in a pinch. Especially if he's fighting, or lurking about where he shouldn't.

James smiles a little as Istredd talks about spaceships seeming impossible. "Less than four hundred years ago, it seemed impossible to humans in my world too. Technology takes leaps, every once in a while. After warp speed was discovered, that evolution moved at a pace quicker than ever before. So, you never know. Might come sooner than you think."

"Yes, from what I've heard about computers, they are like advanced human minds. Memory banks is one way of putting it." Only much better memory banks than human memory, but Istredd's getting accustomed to hearing stories about technology. He doesn't have any of it in his domain although people sometimes do mix and match once they learn more, but it simply isn't his vibe. If he was born in another time he probably would be the person who loved all the technology.

"Magic can be enormously helpful, but I'm a magic teacher, so obviously I'm biased." Istredd wasn't one until he came here. His future was probably always to become one after a few centuries, many mages did inevitably, and he was fine with that in the future. The future became his present in that way. He's found great enjoyment in it though.

Istredd smiles and shakes his head. "This world? Is more advanced in many ways than ours." So they're not even at a farther point than what James sees around them every day. They're medieval-esque. "I like it but it does require flying blind with the majority of you in a different setting."

"Human minds pale in comparison," he says, but doesn't correct Istredd. It's not wrong, and probably not the first time someone's made a similar kind of comparison. Nevertheless, impressive that a guy from a time with so little technological advancement can understand so much. It speaks volumes to his intelligence, that along enough to garner James's interest.

"Guess we all need to adapt to how things are here, some more than others. From what I gather, I was lucky to land in the Free Cities. Not sure how I'd feel about living in a place that didn't even have basic electricity." Probably would go stir crazy. He very nearly could in Cadens too, luckily for him there's a military to keep him busy.

"Don't be too fooled by the Free Cities, New Magic is still magic. They haven't found a way to live without it, thankfully. Thus why it's still valuable to know." Istredd doesn't 100% understand how the New Magic works but he does know that they still rely on a form of magic to make it work, which means they're reliant. It's a good thing they are. Until that changes, they won't go after the Singularity, that's his primary focus.

"But I understand, while our situation is far from comfortable in Thorne, it is the best place for me for now. I think I'd be as lost in the Free Cities as either of us would be in Solvunn." It's not that Istredd would be lost, he does understand the sort of community it has, there are many small villages and places in the outskirts of his continent exactly like that. It's more that he would not choose it if he could avoid it.

"Yeah, I've noticed. It's subtle, but there." It's not as prevalent, though, not everywhere. He doesn't feel absolutely incapable even when surrounded by magic users, since he can at least interact with the technology in some way, but he knows he'll need to start studying some of the magic if he wants to develop more in the setting, even if it's just basic spells. At least, the powers he's gained courtesy of the Singularity are helping.

He huffs with mild amusement, and nods. "Yeah, anything but being stuck in farm land again." Especially if it came with all that weird cult vibe. Really not for him. He would have even preferred Thorne. "So where you're now is more similar to where you've come from?"

"Again?" Maybe he's from farm land which would make it even more likely he'd like to get away from it. Istredd's spent plenty of time wandering but it has never really worked with him. Also those villages he's gone through have a tendency to not like mages, since mages primarily work within courts, and are somewhat suspicious to everyone else.

"Yes, technically I was raised to be comfortable in a castle. Mages, where I'm from, are trained to be advisors to royalty or military leaders. We had classes on it even, and special trainings. But I preferred being a scholar so I went into the research chapter and never had to be in one." Preferred being one way of saying 'absolutely fucking not' and avoiding courts at all cost. He almost went to one for Yennefer's sake, but it was still a compromise based on him doing research rather than having to be a diplomat.

"I've never had the temperament for politics so it isn't easy."

He nods. "Grew up in a farm. Left a long time ago, and frankly the farther away I stay from anything even remotely similar, the better." Clearly, no love lost there. Not even good memories for him to reminisce; he left it behind a long time ago and there isn't a single thing he misses about it.

"Takes a unique kind of patience," he agrees. "I'm not politically inclined, either. Personally, I'd much rather be in on the action instead." Hence the military. It was always what he was going to lean to, in the end.

"But it is interesting. I've noticed a lot of the Summoned seem to be brought to whatever faction they seem most familiar with. I'd call it a curious coincidence, if I believed those."

"And you ended up in the stars. Unfortunately landing here, for now." But maybe not forever. Istredd wants to stay there forever, but he understands that is not everyone's preference. The life he's made is better.

"Very patient. Our mages had to soothe and pet the leaders and give in to all their whims, hoping to gently lead them in the direction they wanted. I would lose it within days." Istredd is patient in other ways. Very patient as a teacher, as a researcher, he spent half a lifetime digging around for answers to a historical mystery he only recently learned about. To other people that would be frustrating, to work so hard and have been no where near close to the truth, but he just saw the truth and got excited.

But patient for people like royals, no. He barely is civil in Thorne, although to them, his perfectly polite calm works in pretending otherwise.

"It's true, we have several royals in Thorne. I don't know that I believe they can entirely control who they are Summoning. Otherwise they would wisely Summon only people who are likely to help them, and no one who is a threat." That's how he would do it anyway. It seems very risky to do it this way. "But it's possible they have a wide net aimed at a type."

"Well, it hasn't been awful so far. It's a detour, but I don't mind for now." Depends on how long he's kept here, or if he can't find a way to climb up the ladder in this place. He likes his odds, after all he's faced worse, harsher ones. He'll work his way up just as he did back in his reality.

James snorts, shaking his head. "You and I both. We don't gently lead anyone back in my world. Or give into anything, for that matter." The Terran Empire is ruthless in that respect. Harsh and unforgiving. It wasn't easy growing up in that environment, but it has made a survivor out of him. He belongs nowhere else, and frankly, he doesn't want to.

He nods slowly at that. It's much how he figured these summonings happen. Not specifically handpicked, but maybe still a pattern to it. He's sure all the factions would make some changes if they had that power. "Do you have anyone there you'd consider a threat?"

"That's a refreshingly neutral take. Usually people either want to leave or want to stay, there's less middle ground." It's not that Istredd assumes everyone is one way or the other, there are probably plenty of neutral people who keep their opinions to themselves, it's more that they keep quiet if they do. Or it could be as small a difference as having a preference but accepting things as they come.

"The human royals are extremely spoiled and foolish in my opinion, in my sphere. They want to hear promises and flattery. There are a few headstrong ones, but then our mages can simply wait a generation. We live many centuries." So if one king is a problem, the mage can wait until their children are slightly older and start bending their ears instead. Almost raise them, in a way, so they trust their mage and want their counsel. They can play the long game.

Istredd assumes the pattern is in part to do with the arcana too. It's hard to say as they have no access to the spell. He smiles wryly at that. "Oh, most people are. I've had to talk down multiple people from trying to take out the queen."

"I'm usually less middle ground," he admits. "But I don't mind the excitement of something new. I wasn't counting on it, sure, but it's not the worst place I could have landed in." His own world would have been a much worse place than this, for one. At least half of the Summoned would have been either dead or captured by the Terran Empire, if his world happened to be the one they were being summoned to.

"Amazing people like that would even remain in a position of power," he observes. "Don't the people in your world rebel against that, seek to overthrow them?" Is no one power-hungry anywhere else? Damn.

At least it seems like that's not the case around here. Does it give James some comfort to hear some people have thought about offing the wqueen? Maybe. "And you don't think that would go well. Do you think it could bring negative consequences to the Summoned, or do you just think the Queen is a worthy leader?"

"Occasionally, but more often it's just kingdoms fighting and dominating each other." So less people rising up and fighting, and more squabbling between their own kind. It's about who has the power, and while peasant revolutions are good in theory, they need financial backing to get anywhere. This is why Istredd avoids politics. It's all too frustrating and there's no way to fix it, as far as he can tell.

"I think it'll be bad for us, bad for Thorne, and bad for the continent in general. For now. Never say never." So Istredd's not necessarily against regicide, it's more about strategy than anything else. He sounds very confident in what he's saying and the reasons he would have for it, but he's not crossing out the possibility, so he's not morally opposed. He just wants to be smart about everything they do.

"Come by another time and I'd be happy to talk more about the politics of this world, if you're interested."

That makes sense, he supposes. The ones with no power and little economic presence don't tend to have much weight in terms of politics. And revolutions are very idyllic on paper, but someone needs to front the credits they need for the tools, the infrastructures, the plans they might come up with. That, and a few good minds that can actually produce solid ideas. That's just as rare.

"I'll take your word for it, given my current lack of inside knowledge." He doesn't know much about this place yet, but he certainly would not be opposed to regicide if it proved to be necessary, or useful. Although to be fair, James comes from a world where murder is the way to climb the ranks, so. Might not be the best person to weigh in on topics like this.

"I'd like that, actually. Another time." He offers a curt smile, and his hand for a shake. "Plenty of people wanting to talk to you, so I'll get out of your hair."

And he certainly doesn't mind being left alone to roam around the library, so with that, he takes his leave and goes to do just that.

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OPEN MINGLE: Time to Talk, Summoned!

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I was on vacay but I'm BACK

welcome back!! and I am sorry this is so late too, sobs...

No worries at all!

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back from hiatus-y thanks for the patience

no problem at all! I'm up for wrapping up in a few tags if you wanna <3

Perfect! We can wrap here

Sounds good, and done! ♥