warforged | [OPEN] The Redsworn Reception

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[OPEN] The Redsworn Reception

Who: The Redsworn of Ruby Sanctum + Guests [OPEN TO ALL FLIGHTS]
What: ~~Carolina~~ The Redsworn have invited everyone to dinner! Let's see how well diplomatic relations between the flights can be improved, eh?
Where: The Ruby Sanctum
When: Forward dated to 6th June.
Warnings: Fires, ~~food poisoning~~ cooking for all, shenanigans, possible bad language.
OOC: Come gets some cross-flight CR! c: Some setting options below the cut, or go ahead and make your own.

A: COOKING FIRE SHENANIGANS

Feeling peckish? Have a delivery to make? Or just want to try your own hand at serving up some grub? The Redsworn's usual cooking area has been expanded for the evening, with two extra firepits dug out to cater for additional mouths. Over one fire burns the now "traditional" starter meat of bear flank, something any newly sworn (red or otherwise) will have the pleasure of sampling first. There's also several baskets of berries, fruit and vegetables, while a pot obtained in trade from Silverglen bubbles merrily.

B: FIRESIDE MINGLE

The redsworn of the Ruby Sanctum have claimed a corner of their own beneath one of the larger trees. There's a smaller fire here set for warmth and ambience, and have logs set about for seating for those who don't like perching on rocks or roots, or don't find the comfy grass comfy - park yourself and have a chat!

C: OPEN/MISC.

Choose Your Own Adventure! Just remember: wander alone at your own risk, non-redsworn, for the Red Dragonflight will have their eye on you.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Inhaling the scent deeply, Nepeta's mouth watered. She could be patient, but man did she want that fish to be done soon...

"Well, at least it isn't just us, then." She'd learned all too well how much that statement applied to trolls.

"Nope. Sad to say, it's most everybody." Though the fish hadn't cooked terribly long, Mar quickly flipped it over to sear the other side. Fish never needed too much to be excellent, after all, if you seared all the juices in while leaving the insides barely touched. "Look at things here, after all."

"Yeah, you're right. I thought the dragons fighting each other were bad, but those elves... it's ridiculous! It's like people want to get themselves and efurryone else killed, sometimes."

She didn't think it was too idealistic to assume that people might be able to work together if it was the only way to survive, after all that's how her group had gotten through the game... but then again, look where that had gotten them once Jack had shown up.

"Oh, it makes sense in its own way." Mar kept an eagle eye on the fish as he spoke, his free hand slowly picking up a slice of bread that would serve as a plate. "After all, do you want to get hurt?"

"Get hurt? Well I'm kind of used to it, but no..."

She wasn't quite sure she was following, but she'd come to understand by this point that Mar's logic didn't quite make sense at first, until you'd talked through it a bit. Granted sometimes it didn't make sense afterwards either, but at least there was a decent chance.

"Well, that's what offering trust and the benefit of the doubt brings. You get hurt." With a decisive slash of his cooking knife, he freed the sizzling fish from its makeshift pan, nearly transferring it onto the bread. Producing one fat berry of some sort from a nearby bag, he bisected it with that knife, then slid both halves over the top of the fillet for just a hint of extra flavor.

Then, with a grand flourish, he bowed to her, extending out the hand that held the meal as an offering.

"But that's true of any relationship! I mean, I'm risking getting myself hurt trusting any of the people here, including you, but I'm willing to do it beclaws I don't think it makes sense for you to hurt me even if I wanted to. Also you don't seem to be the type of guy who'd do that, but that's not even the point."

She accepts the sandwich with a giggle that manages to wipe away the aggravated expression pointing out the silliness of that viewpoint gave her, but she can't help but frown again at the implications of what he's saying and how afraid these people must be as she bites into it.

Enjoy, Nepata. Mar did amazing work with food.

"You understand perfectly!" he said with a bright grin and a thumbs-up. "But most people don't realize that life is all about asking to be hurt just by living. They want to avoid the pain, and everything becomes a value judgment about 'is what I can gain worth the pain I might end up with'?

"Which is fine, don't get me wrong." Mar flopped onto the ground next to her with more delicacy than a man wearing plate armor should have. "It DOES make sense to avoid pain if you can help it. But people have a way of putting more and more emphasis on avoiding pain, instead of remembering why they risk it. Instead of offering chances, they demand proofs. Instead of trying to maximize the potential gain, they try to minimize the potential harm. And instead of taking each situation as it comes, they make snap judgments from the past."

She pondered his explanation as she munched on the sandwich, finding it very, very tasty. She could almost have forgotten about the whole discussion until she finished it, but this whole thing was just getting under her skin.

"I can understand avoiding getting hurt. You have to be cautious." Taking another bite, she pondered how best to say what she was thinking. "But... if you take it too far, then it just become cowardice and paranoia. If you can't take risks at all, you aren't even really alive, are you?"

"Thank you! You're now officially on top of the list of people I would run away with forever," Mar said, so casually he had to be joking. "But then, those people are the ones who'd say they don't need to take risks, they should protect what they have because it matters most to them."

"I'm sorry, but I don't feel that way about you." She answered with a teasing grin.

Which vanished as she thought about those elves again. "Well let's see them protect it on their own against that horde of demons." The face she made left no doubts to her opinion on how well that was going to work. The whole thing struck her as short-sighted at best, idiotic at worst.

Mar answered with a laugh. "My loss, but let me keep cooking for you and then we'll see."

On that note, he shot a glance at her, then tilted his head back at the fire, to ask if she wanted more.

"From their perspective, they're protecting themselves from a horde of demons and whatever we are. And they do have some cause to worry about us. The Sin'dorei, for a personal example, are a people with a long history of arcane magic addiction, who tuned to fel energy and even the forcible conquest of a being of pure light to sustain themselves. Am I better than a demon, knowing that?"

"I don't know much about any of those things, but you said it was to sustain yourselves, right? I don't know about anyone else, but I can't be mad at you fur doing what you had to to live, even if it meant hurting someone else. That's nature. It's no worse than when I hunt."

It's a very simplistic view without being black and white about it, the sort of thought process you could only really have from living in the wild for so long. But it lets her make observations some might not think of, sometimes.

"Maybe so, but it's also inarguable that the best thing we could have done would have been to find a way that hurt no one, even if it was harder or we suffered a bit more for it. Now me, I think as you do, but it's hard to blame others for being wary of us, when we have such things in our past. And even then, some of the people who will be most wary of us are ones who have been hurt many times, or badly, to the point that not being hurt again IS what's most important to them.

"Pain," he said, unusually solemnly, "real pain, has a way of changing a person straight down to their core."

She finishes her sandwich as she thinks that over, but in the end, she shakes her head as she swallows the last bite.

"Me and my furriends have been through a lot of pain. And... worse. I won't say it hasn't changed us, but I won't let it get in the way of me making new furriends or trusting people. Maybe some other people, like them, can decide to just stop caring about anything other than not getting hurt anymore, but I can't accept that. I don't think I'll efur be able to. I mean... If that was how I felt, I'd be alone here."

"And I'll bet you anything that there are some people even in our own flight who feel that way right now. At least in my opinion, that means you're smarter than they are." Mar flashed her a grin, but that wasn't flirtation; he was being quite serious. "But I do understand those other people's ways of thinking. Which means it's our job to show that trusting us and letting us in is the right thing for them to do, no matter their fear!"

"I suppawse you're right. I guess all we can do is keep on fighting the demons and trying to help them until they believe us, then. Though... the elves who kidnapped Shirley and the others, they purrbably are going to be harder to get anything across to."

Silverglen Retreat was one thing. At least the elves there were willing to listen to them. But the other group... Honestly, at this point she almost hoped the demons wiped them out before they attacked the Sworn again.

"Do you think the other Flights will listen to us more now, at least?"

"No," Mar said, bluntly and frankly as he folded his hands behind his head. "Less, maybe, because diplomacy proved to be such a disaster. Plus there's no doubt that the Aspects have different goals and agendas, and may perhaps have very good reasons not to work together nor want us to work together. But... it's all down to the individuals, I think."

"Ugh..." She placed her palm over her face and groaned in abject exasperation, but she knew he was right.

"So all we can do is try to talk to them purrson by purrson, is that right?

Mar laughed at her response, not unkindly. "We shall be valiant in word and deed. We shall live lives to be admired, and serve as examples to others." He lifted one hand, closing it into a fist as he stretched his arm out to the sky. "We shall take the risks that need to be taken, and fight the battles that need to be fought, not just the ones we're sure we can win. We'll talk to them, yes, but where talking fails, we'll stand up nonetheless. And if we fail, we will at least fail knowing we tried."

She honestly wasn't sure whether to be amused or genuinely impressed with that little speech. In the end, though, there wasn't really anything he'd said that she disagreed with.

"Alright. I can do all of that... at least I think I can. I'll try, at least."

"Yep, definitely top of my list."

The answer was both, Nepeta. Don't take Mar seriously, but take his ideals seriously. Value what he stood for, but not him.

He let his hand fall, then tucked it behind his head again. "It's not hard to do any of that in my mind, though. Because the alternative is worse."

"You mean, laying down and dying? Yeah, that's worse. That's much worse."

Because as far as she could tell, those were their only options. Fight as hard as they could, or just lay there and let the demons kill them all. Nothing else seemed a possibility, because certainly they couldn't run, nor hide in the sanctums forever.

"Or half-assing it. Failing to commit. Trying to achieve success while guaranteeing safety. Living and dying with regrets."

He waggled a finger in her direction. "Not that you shouldn't value your safety, mind."

"Well, of course... but you can't purrmise anything, really. No one's efur completely safe. I'm not sure even the sanctums are purrfectly purrtected, and those elves... I mean if the demons get past their guards, they're purrty much doomed. Purrtecting yourself is impurrtent, but total safety is an illusion."

Another lesson learned from hunting in the harsh Alternian wilds. Try as hard as you can, but you can never be completely safe from danger.

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