(1708) Freehold Meeting

[Seraphina]

She was defiantly going to have hit the gym after this and hit things.

Fair? Life wasn't fair. The life they were now forced to live, to hide in, was not fair. Fair was not how things worked.

And she had a feeling it was going to be her losing her cool and not Mhairi. Who she thinks is handling herself quite well. Holding her composure, keeping her head level and remaining cool about it.

This was bullshit, and the amount of shit rolling off the Summer was almost comical. At least to her.

Did he talk that much cause he liked the sound of his voice? Or was he hoping that the more useless words he used the less people would question the crap? It was hard to tell. But if this clown got his way and became Groundskeeper again and Mhairi was removed as Director, the Nix knew it'd be time to find a new Freehold. One without a used car sales man filling peoples ear with crap.

[Thomas Land]

Thomas can hold his tongue no longer. The little man is no public speaker, but Alex is pressing his Sovereign and he doesn't intend to stand idly by.

"Rights? Hm, well. I don't believe this is a dictatorship. But I'm not sure it's a pure democracy, either, Mr. Brown. What 'rights' are you guaranteed here? It, um, seems to me that you serve at the pleasure of the Director. But, perhaps, that is something close to, well, our governmental system in this country. Like a cabinet member, you served at the, um, pleasure of the Chief Executive. That would be Mhairi. And, given her displeasure with you, whatever it's source, it was within her right, certainly, to dismiss you."

The Mole-Man pauses to wipe sweat from his brow.

"That, hm, does not make her some despot. It does not mean that she will, hm, claim total dominion over us, the members of this Freehold. Indeed, she has done nothing of the kind, and, from what I have seen, has no intention of doing so. Perhaps her delay in calling this meeting was to avoid such an impression. In any case, the only issue here is that you were found wanting, or that she felt that your, um, working relationship was not feasible."

He shrugs. Beady eyes, glittering spitefully, examine Alex's face.

"Well, perhaps there is one more issue: your desire to spread dissent and dissatisfaction within the ranks of the Freehold. Hmmmmm? To use your own dismissal for your own advantage? After all, it seems that you're more intent on, well, questioning Mhairi's virtues, her composure and her temper, than contesting her right to remove you as Groundskeeper. Could that have anything to do with the fact that, hm, you have no actual argument against her decision?"

With that, Thomas falls silent. Looking drained by his little bout of rhetoric.

[Circe]

"Excellent word for it Lev," Circe giggled as she continued munching popcorn as she agree with her wall buddy. "Eh, in my experience no. Technical truths some people could finagle but that'd be with really long Pledges. But with the penalty being death, must folks don't fuck around and try lying," was her surprisingly calm reply to Lev's question. She was also calm as she responded to his next concern, "I'm less worried about management changes then the first thing. Banishment threats followed by a potentially lethal Pledge being forced on Alex because Mhairi was scared of him? And what's Mhairi gonna do to the next one that scares her? She said it herself: she's supposed to act in the Freehold's interest. Alex is a member and he scared me ain't a good reason to banish him."

She darted her gaze to Thomas as he spoke up. Her ears folding back flush against her skull as she listened. Circe was less then pleased with his arguments, "Thomas using this country's rapidly turning over cabinet as an example is a shit argument. I for one don't want her," She pointed at Mhairi, "imitating that at all. And no, Alex being found wanting isn't the only issue. Just a bad business model."

Circe took a swig of her bottle, "I mean if someone ain't performing right, ya give 'em a chance to fix it. Even criminal enterprises give time to make amends. With lethal consequences if ya don't but given that pledge." She growled in annoyance, "And Hell, Alex agreed to quit after a couple months, right? She could'a just waited him out. He'd be out by now and this clusterfuck," she turned to Lev, "thanks again Lev for the word, wouldn't be here."

She held up a hand to stop anything Thomas had to say, "I'm not saying the business angle and firing Alex ain't true. Ya set this up as a business so that is how its gonna be run, even if why she axed Alex would probably scream lawsuit in a norman business. The origin of Mhairi's hatred for Alex however ain't been explained. Cause right now neither of them," she points with the bottle at Alex and then Mhairi,"have told us why Mhairi tried to banish Alex. One through ignorance, the other through silence. That I have issue with. I thought this was a better place then San Fran. Friendlier without Lost get banished or executed cause the Sovereigns don't like 'em. So I'd like to know the answer that wasn't given."

Her ears then moved back to there normal place, "Oh and I totally gotta disagree with ya on the Hedge tactics boss," she looked at Alex,"But that's mostly due to a arbitrary," snarky Circe was being to Alex, most certainly: "preference for loud, aggressive, high velocity problem solving to threats among the Thorns. Talkin' and being sneaky like is fine over here though."

[Donovan Ackerman]

In the middle of all the talking, Donovan appeared. Covered in dirt and mud, with a half full trash bag tied to his belt, it looked like he had been picking up around the park. There was definitely an extra layer of black on his hands that wasn’t dirt.

Though he seemed to notice that as much as his own tardiness because he walked up to the cookies, and grabbed a handful. Then he took a step back and looked around as he started chewing, clearly expecting whatever conversation was going on to continue as if nothing had happened.

He was pretty sure he could get a good idea of what was happening and going on. It was pretty easily to mentally summarize as 'stupid politics'.

[Quick]

Quick nods grimly at Ingrid's proclamation. Everyone has opinions, after all, but political bickering could threaten to tear apart any sense of community they had. Spring, as he's come to expect, wants nothing more than to preserve the unity of this ragtag group.

One Sovereign after another, each offers their own insight.

Mhairi next, explaining her concerns. Is the Fear her Season invokes affecting the Witch-Queen herself in turn? He can understand her being cautious and protective of the Freehold, but she clearly has deeper, darker concerns.

The fact that Alex refuses to back down sheds the man in a new light. Quick has only briefly experienced a hint of this intensity, when he met the former Groundskeeper to be formally inducted into the Freehold. The man, then, had seemed far from someone who wished the Freehold harm. If Quick remembers correctly, Alex had given him the third-degree, all but accusing the Elemental of being a potential threat. Forgiving the Summer King had come easily enough, but Quick is uncertain why speaking on the man's behalf would seem wrong.

Finally, making eye contact with the Onyx Queen, Quick again observes how she represents her Season. This time, the answer is silence. She doesn't shy away to the back to be overlooked, though. She holds her ground. The Levinquick, blinking a few times, can't help but marvel at how much one can communicate without speaking at all.

Circe, in stark contrast to Winter's Sovereign, offers more from the sidelines than he's comfortable with. He shoots her a nervous look, hoping she would take the hint and not get herself into trouble. For what it's worth to him, she's become something of a friend. Quirks and all.

Lev's outburst, however, is almost comical. The lion-man had seemed gruff and guileless before, and Quick is hardly surprised that he's rumbling aloud amidst it all.

Stepping in to bat next is, surprisingly, the timid mole man. Quick's face screws up into something of a bemused sneer. The look slowly fades into resigned acceptance, as the man seems to speak sense. Mhairi has been nothing but accommodating to Quick since his arrival, though he hasn't spent much time getting to know her. Politics aside, Thomas is right to defend the leader of the Freehold. And in Quick's mind, everything lines up until he lashes back again, siding with the Autumn Queen in her mistrust of Alex.

Quick shakes his head. He's been quiet long enough. How is this argument going to end? He draws a breath, preparing for what he hopes can de-escalate the situation. "Alex c---"

He lets what would have been his voiced opinion fall flat as, again, Circe voices her dissent. Perhaps it's pointless to interject. Quick can barely sit still for 5 minutes, let alone calm this sea of emotions through some long-winded speech. Fear and Wrath - or perhaps paranoia and indignation, in this case - are only fueling each other.

Donovan's arrival may have gone unnoticed if he hadn't clear-cut through the mob for the plate of cookies. With really dirty hands. Quick wrinkles his nose a bit at that. At least Donovan hasn't added anything that would fan the flames further. For this, Quick is grateful.

[Mhairi Ankaa]

She lets everyone get in a word or three. Her fell-flames are on Alex, but that doesn't mean she doesn't hear, or respond to Thomas or Circe. The former, she gave a nod to, silently thanking him for his support. The latter....she'd most likely have to have a one on one with. She let the gun pass because the women was a Summer. Demanding a weapon from a warrior...didn't see right to Mhairi, but all the other comments. Were they real feelings, or just heckling to see if she'd snap?

Mhairi not having to turn to Brown, since he was being weird and nearly invading her personal bubble with his weirdness, which honestly made her want to call him on it, but she didn't because if it made the mirrorskin feel better being a weird asshole, she'd let it go.

"Fairweather. The Dragon. One of Them. He's dead now. But he wasn't when you got here. When you got here, you knew things, things about us that no new arrival should. During our last meeting when I brought this up, you said that it was 'disquieting' but offered nothing but, your love of information. I let it go then, because I wasn't yet Director, and you were not of my Court." even though he said he wanted to have a talk in private, he obvious only said that to keep up appearances, since he apparently wanted rehash everything when they had an audience. "Yes, my feelings, are you just upset about that word, or should I have used 'intuition' or 'instinct'? It equals much the same to me. As for that Pledge, the first one I demanded of you. Yes it was a Lifelong one, yes it's conditions were harsh, but it wasn't something I wasn't willing to myself. If you had taken the time to talk about it instead of trying to wiggle around it, refusing to entertain the idea of the Pledge, you would have realized that. I was willing to swear the same pledge as I demanded, with Sasha, Onyx Queen and Freehold Notary as witness. But you spent your time trying to wiggle out of it, and instead of gong batcrap crazy and demanding your death, I accepted a lesser pledge. One that's done in October." and Mhairi still didn't know why a short term pledge that said one wasn't a Loyalist or Privateer was better then a lifelong one. One would end, and with it the assurance that the one bound by the Pledge wasn't a Traitor to the Lost.

Mhairi blinks once more, fell-flames sputtering, what the....? "Edna's? It was always an Autumn holding, not a Commons for all it was was a Boarding House. I wanted it close to the heart of the Freehold. And I still offer it as a place to sleep. Yes it serves a different function during the day, but it still has rooms, and I not turning people away. I've actually offered it as a place for new arrivals to sleep." she says, nodding to Donovan as he passes by to snag some cookies.

"The fact that you have a very large network of mundane allies, contacts and a job at city hall. All of which need you to tend to them on a regular basis is why I know you can't disappear for x amount of time to see to patrol the Hedge. Sure you offered a three month probation, but that's only three months. I'd rather get to know you outside of that, learn to trust with your Pledge still in effect and see where we would be at after the Pledge was up, then have a person I didn't trust as the entire Freehold's Head of Security." Mhairi explains, counting her breaths, keeping calm. She wouldn't explode, she was a Ask-wee-da-eed, not a Fireheart, and while fire was at both of their hearts, hers was a different sort.

"You...no. You're ignoring my words. Yes I needed time to cool off. Not two months, a few days. The rest of the time was spend waiting to see if anyone wanted to talk to me about being Groundskeeper, or had any questions. The reason I gave it two months, is that we have jobs, and I know most of us can't just take time off all willy nilly to see to Freehold stuff." which she shouldn't have to explain to one of the Lost, but for a man with cushy job and fancy contacts, maybe having to scrape by every meal, and having to huddle in an alley was too far removed from his memories, if he ever had to do either to survive. "Oh? I just figured it was that people didn't want to call me for something they had no interest in, or they didn't want to call up the Director and demand answers to things. This is why I called a meeting, to show people that it's completely fine to just call me up to talk, or question things. I'm not one of Them, call me up, find me int he street, yell at me, we'll talk and deal with whatever's the issue. I'm not, a power hungry hoebag." directed at the rest of the Lost. "Promise." a smile.

ooc/Edna's

Can you please stop bringing up Edna's in arguments? The reason it was move was for OOC reasons. When everything switched over/Funderland opened, anything that didn't have xp from people still in play (like Edna's) into it was going to removed from play (like the Quicksilver Gate), I didn't want to see Edna's disappear so I had it moved, it hasn't been until recently that I finally had the xp to buy Edna's as a Site.

[Ingrid]

"Right. Glad we got that sorted out then. Fairs fair." Ingrid brushed crumbs from her hand. "So. Like, what now? We need to get a bit of transparency. Ergo, this meeting. And we want consultation, ergo, which is what we get from a meeting like this. Good. Can we move on?"

She sighed.

"As for Groundskeeper. I was asked. I said yes. I think Mhairi gave everyone enough time to put in an offer to take on the job. Now, does anyone want to talk about that? Or if we want a common Hollow we all can share in the Hedge?"

It was time to put things back on track.

"I think Alex bought up some good points - something to think on - but we should be moving on. This Freehold is still young. We gotta get some basic infrastructure worked out - Hollows; what we want from the Hedge; ways of communicating with each other."

She let her voice trail off.

[Circe]

After Mhairi explained why she'd been spooked by Alex Circe decided to render a response, even before she moved on to Edna's. With surprising cheer the Summer just chirped in: "Thank you," before giving Alex a look that pretty much shouted: dude for real! Circe was familiar with the whole knowledgeable mysterious stranger sales pitch. She got the idea in her head now the Alex was playing up being a spy master and tried to sell that to Mhairi. That tactic made people aware that you could get them information or knew about their needs in a way that could make business easier. Among a more paranoid clientele however, it could get you attacked. With the Lost, the latter was more likely unless it was typical of a Freehold. Here it certainly wasn't typical.

Anything further Circe might have said was cut off by Alex going next. Circe was getting a little annoyed with how things were going. She felt she knew what happened: Alex made a bad spy master sales pitch, Mhairi panicked, Alex overdid the ham, Mhairi over panicked, and then a clusterfuck. She needed to treat Lev to a dinner for that apt description of this event.

When Alex called Mhairi a bad business manager Circe couldn't help but quip: "Didn't I say that?"

When Alex made his question about living here to everyone, Circe just scoffed. She did answer when he was done with his speech: "Dude, I left San Fran for exactly that reason. But, you've called Mhairi incompetent, not a despot." And Alex planned to have someone else replace the Director. Not himself so it was time to shoot some holes in her boss, right? She hoped that was the plan and if not, she'd just tell him later that she'd misread him.

Circe looked to Alex, "Speaking of competence, I've a question boss. The all knowing mysterious stranger sales pitch? I know not showing yer hand was the thing to do back in San Fran but this lot," she waves her hand with the bottle outwards toward the crowd, "ain't Byzantine assholes like them. Plus, paranoids have a notoriously bad reaction to that sales pitch." Circe nodded as she kept going, "Over hamming it up plus overreacting equals cluster fuck. You two are fun."

Then Ingrid came in. Circe was amused when the new Groundskeeper brought up communications. If she'd had a hand free she'd have pulled out her phone to point at it. As was, she just giggled. She knew that wasn't what Ingrid meant but it was easy for the dull witted to misinterpret it.

Then Circe straightened up, "Well Ingrid you should try to look on the positive side here. Both of them are agreeing on something," the elf's ears were bouncing, "I didn't expect to hear these two," popcorn bag points at Alex and bottle at Mhairi, "to agree on anything tonight. But both of you," she was looking at Alex and Mhairi now, "are saying communication is good. Granted, sounds like you're disagreeing and agreeing at the same time but I guess that is politics. Such a shame, I'd have shipped them."

"I'd be cool with a Hollow that lets me store some product an access it with a foot locker. Its a great trick for smuggling past muggles. Normans, whatever the cops are. As for sociopolitical communications, there's probably an app for that," Circe shrugged as she munched more popcorn, "Shit for secrecy to outsource it though. If I had the right computer equipment I could probably make an app or setup something digital. It'd still take time."

[Thomas Land]

"Well," Thomas replies. "Perhaps, hm, if there was no working relationship, that itself is a symptom of the problem, yes?" Thomas is timid, but he's not stupid. Indeed, he's a little too proud of what he sees as his superior intellect to let Alex win an argument. "What I'm saying is, well, the lack of trust evinced by Mhairi could be the reason that relationship never formed. In any case, if this is all about your opinion, that, um, the director is a poor manager, then I see no reason to continue this debate." He gives the Darkling a snarky grin, "After all, your removal from the position is not a life or death situation, at least not to the rest of us. Simply a minor point of procedure."

Beady eyes narrow as Alex keeps on. Oh come off it. "No one here wants to live in that kind of community, Alex. Which is why you posed the question in just that way. But I, for one, don't wish to, um, live in a community where our leaders are unable to perform the duties of their office. And what Mhairi did was just that." He shrugs. "And as for advantages, I'd say that, hm, your very position here, in this argument, implies that you, yes certainly, you know what's best for our little community. By opposing Mhairi's leadership you, hm, cloak yourself in the very mantle of, well, leadership."

The rest is just wind to the Mole. More of the same from the Darkling. And then from Circe, his second it would seem.

Until Ingrid speaks and Thomas nods his Mole's head empathically.

"Hm-hmmmmmm," he hums his agreement. "Hear, hear, Ingrid! I for one am glad to have you in the, um, position. And would very much like to move on to more important matters. Who knew the Mole Man had such a spiteful streak in him?