EVENT: SPACE PIRATES ▒ OXYGEN GARDENS

[ataraxites]

CHARACTERS: Ensemble production!
LOCATION: Oxygen Gardens
WARNINGS: Camping.
SUMMARY: Hanging out in camp, discussing pirates, etc.
NOTES: Open to all!

Camping may not be an expected activity on a spaceship, but the gardens are large and have clear, grassy areas for people to gather together. You can help set up tents, inventory supplies or guard the perimeter — just keep an eye out for any strange faces trying to sneak in...

Comments

[magewarden]

"Exploit it?" He glances sideways at Thranduil, considering him a moment. "I am a diplomat by nature. If I had the chance I would bring them to the table, apply pressure until they came to an agreement. Yet in my experience pirates rarely wish to talk. They wish to attack, steal, and then run. A conversation leaves them too long in one place, and staying too long in one place would make them vulnerable -- since a pirate is usually on the run from the last person they have met, or from law enforcement. So, to exploit it..." Daylen darts his eyes back out at the hallway, making sure he's still walking in the right direction and that the path before them is still safe. "You would need to surprise them. If they expect only civilians, and not enough skill to stop them, they need to learn it is not so."

[elvenking]

"But too late." Daylen is rewarded with a smile. "Once they understand beyond doubt how very outmatched they are, they may be quicker to come to your table, Daylen Amell."

[magewarden]

"Perhaps. That would require a show of force to not be fatal. It would need to be tactical, controlled, and many on this vessel do not enjoy being controlled. Given the chance they would ignore any attempts via the guard here to take prisoners alive, and all would end in bloodshed. It may yet be going that way as we speak, people do not like to be surprised and many are already on edge." People on edge are dangerous, he knows. An unstable person with a weapon is more likely to use it when caught off guard.

[elvenking]

"You seem to know very much about the future, Daylen. Things even the wisest would not claim to know."

[magewarden]

"I only speak from experience, soldiers are often reactive. Frightened people equally so. I have watched the way people behave on this network. They see a person as a threat, they wish to remove the threat. That is logical, and perhaps just -- it would depend on the law. I only fear that if they instigate themselves into a fight the injuries will be extensive on both sides, once one of their number is harmed they may be more inclined to attack us on sight too."

He's thinking of Han, if you see a pirate shoot them. He's thinking of all the people he knows who are more likely to defend themselves in a way not designed to injure, but to kill.

[elvenking]

"Bad soldiers are reactive. Good soldiers react only when you tell them to. But in this case, bad soldiers may make them run faster and more immediately. The point is to frighten them, to make them run."

He gives Daylen a long, searching look to see if he can see the wheels turning in his head.

[magewarden]

Daylen tilts his head at that, debating. Is a soldier still a bad soldier, if they are abiding by their own rules? If they are leaderless here, and only doing what is common sense to them? In a place with no apparent law? It is... complicated. He hesitates, trying to process whatever Thranduil is implying.

"You wish to make the pirates fall back? Chase them away from civilian areas?" he clarifies, glancing up as they reach the gardens then back around at Thranduil. "You hope, then, they will leave? Give up on us as too difficult a prize to win?"

[elvenking]

"I would not rely on cowardice I do not know for certain they possess. If they are cowards, that will be enough and my plan has done good. If not, then my plan will fail. I should instead assume they are determined. If they are determined, they will not fall back for ever. How then might I use their retreat to my advantage?"

[magewarden]

He frowns at that, turning over the question in his head. Use their retreat to a tactical advantage?

"You might corner them, if they box themselves in, keeping them away from the rest of the vessel." Daylen's frown deepens as he thinks, then he blinks as he realises something. "If they have a camp, a base of operations, you might discover it's location -- either to disrupt it and drive them into disarray or to learn from it more subtly."

[elvenking]

"Consider also our location, Daylen, but you have the right string. You must only tug it a little more. We are not in a wide battlefield--we are in a maze of hallways. What might we do once we know where they are?"

[magewarden]

Daylen makes a soft sound of frustration. As sharp as he may be, as clever with his words and quick to learn he is not as wise nor long-lived as Thranduil. He is but a child in comparison, not a general or a king. He is simply a young mage forced to try and learn how to command. Even if he wishes to be more he is not that person yet, is still scrambling to live up to some vague expectation.

"Mislead them, in some way? Lose them in our maze?"

[elvenking]

"Simpler than that. Trap them. Hold them hostage in their own ship, separated from their own kind, till they are forced to negotiate in order to be allowed to leave."

[magewarden]

He tilts his head at that, considering this.

"You would have to be sure that others were indeed separated from them, and... it relies on them being loyal to those parted from them. Still, yes, if a hostage situation can be achieved it may force them to consider negotiation."

[elvenking]

"It relies on very little. I simply gave you the best of endings. If they leave without their comrades, they are still gone, and have taken very little from us while we hold the rest of them prisoner, and they will know not to trouble us again. It is still a victory."

[magewarden]

"Of course." He sounds a touch chastised at that, as if he has forgotten has place and remembered it very suddenly, and nods. "Forgive me, I did not mean to criticise, I was just... thinking allowed. You are correct, if they leave regardless it is still a victory."

[elvenking]

"I took it as no criticism. I only wish you to know that the trick isn't to choose a single plan that may work and may not, but to choose so that any outcome at all will serve your ends."

[magewarden]

"As you say," Daylen answers softly -- eyes cast down in acceptance for a moment before he hesitates and glances back up. "Then, you have a plan in place?"

After all, that is what it sounds like to Daylen. That Thranduil has already worked out a solution to this problem, and that Daylen is rather late to the whole situation.

[elvenking]

"Naturally. Would you be party to it?"

[magewarden]

"Of course, if you would have me. Any chance I am given to help this situation is one I would take."

He glances around himself a little, suddenly aware that his guard has dropped a little during the discussion.

"Who else is involved? Is there a meeting point? If you need more people versed in combat who can be party to such a thing a good friend of from home, Sigrun, would welcome such a chance. She is quick on her feet, clever, and she would follow instruction if given it."

[elvenking]

"Then ask her to join us. I will let you know the other answers as I have them."