Character Meet and Greet

[smk_mods]

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"You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality."

I. Exploring Main Street! Take a trip through a little town taken straight from 1890's America. Visit the shops, dine at the restaurants- but don't forget you are here on a mission. As an Apprentice, you will need to gather some supplies. A weapon, or tool for producing magic.

But we understand if that corn dog cart on Market Street is your first stop.

II. Apprentice Class 101! Practice your spell casting and weaponship on the open commons behind the Firehouse. Sparring, casting or just general confusion abound here. Try not to hit anything or...anyone, the paint on the infirmary is still drying.

III. Look out! A level 2 corroded monster has managed to get onto Main Street! Protect the citizens and defeat the cur, and please watch the damage, the paint is still wet!

IV. One Little Spark! Go ahead, show us the strength of your imagination and come up with your own scenarios. Just, stay out of the Corroded Lands...if possible.

Comments

[situational_ethics]

Have a face full of snarling 4 inch fangs. Two rows of them. "Who are you claiming has no honor. Conning people happens to be perfectly acceptable on some dimensions. Check me on this," he snarled, "you're just as new here as I am. So whose to say which dimension's ethics are in sway here? Just because your Dimension might be backwards doesn't automatically mean this one is!"

[king_of_egypt]

If the gesture was meant to be intimidating, it seemed to have little effect despite the current lack of a method to defend himself with. Perhaps the pharaoh was a little too used to being able to call upon his usual strengths and abilities that he no longer had access to, or his convictions were just that strong. "You can try to rationalize it however you please but I am inclined to believe that if you did not at least marginally accept the darker connotations of the practice then you would have referred to it as negotiating or bargaining in lieu of conning.... unless the word itself means something entirely different in your dimension."

To the rest, he really had no answer. I mean the people of this world or at least a few specific individuals had resorted to kidnapping so..... the ethics here could be a little dodgy.

[situational_ethics]

"Situational ethics. I'd rather be alive to rationalize than dead for a lack of proper weaponry. Besides, we'd be using it to protect the people here, so if that is who I got it from, I'm doing them a favor in the long run as the fact is that anyone I can con is demonstrably not as good as I am. So they're safer with the weapons in my hand than in theirs. Add to that if the person I con out of the weapon is on the side of the opposition not only am i arming myself, I'm depriving those who want us dead of a weapon. Either way...."

[king_of_egypt]

"It's that kind of thinking...." Atem trailed off visibly shaking with anger for a moment. Those 'situational ethics' of his current companion's were exactly the sort of thinking that Aknadin had employed when he decided it was better to sacrifice the populace of Kul Elna to create the Millennium items. Had there been a need for the items? Yes. Could the kingdom have been in great peril without them? Quite possibly.... but did that absolve Aknadin of guilt for his crimes? Didn't his transgressions beget the greatest evil to plague the land in it's wake? A spirit filled with feelings of hate and vengeance who wished to stop at nothing to destroy civilization as they knew it?

He had to take a steadying breath, since that was not what the green man directly suggested- but it certainly was down that path.

"No." Atem said firmly. Just no. "I will make my connections in another way. If the people cannot see that it is in their best interests to aide us, then I will find a way to earn the resources myself. That's all there is to it.....". Not telling the other what to do, but reaffirming his own position on it.

[situational_ethics]

"Getting them to see that it is in their best interest to help us is exactly what I'm talking about, friend. And helping them out is earning it. just sometimes in the other order. Certainly you can see that."

[king_of_egypt]

Still dubious of the other's methods, Atem really didn't wish to entertain this discussion any further. Still, it would have been rude to just walk off when one was speaking with you. He wasn't sure he felt comfortable being called friend just yet.... not by this man. His father had trusted the wrong person before, the aforementioned Aknadin (who also happened to be the former king's brother), and Atem wasn't keen on doing the same. Trust would have to be earned over time.

"... If that's all you were referring to....." Still leaving it open ending and not openly condoning it. "It's that reverse order I'm not so sure of." Or- that once the weapons were procured they would be put to the best use.

[situational_ethics]

"Lots of people get paid in advance for work. It's a reasonable enough business model. And besides, if they want us to do a job, equipping us for it before we do the work makes a lot more sense than holding out to give us the weapons after, doesn't it?"

Aahz's tongue might be purple. But it was also silver when he needed it to be.

[king_of_egypt]

"Yes... they do," Atem paused briefly but added,"... but then they also tend to go through mounds of paperwork as well where there is no bargain until both parties agree as to what their contract entails. It's not as if one or the other can just decide on their own what a fair payment for their services is." Seto Kaiba isn't the only one whose ever had to strike bargains before. "The people here are in great need of help, which led to desperation... while I don't necessarily agree with how they decided to find that help I can accept that they had no alternatives."

".... I want to work with the people here, not against them because I believe it is the right thing to do fully understanding that they are not in the best position to provide for either themselves nor us."

"It has to be a mutual effort, or this will all be for nothing... so no... I'm not intending on striking any unjust deals, because they have to be able to believe the one thing that I have left that holds any meaning. My words. I need the people here to feel as though they can trust me, and I think you'll find when trust is established... real trust.... then nothing will stand in our way."

[situational_ethics]

"Some transactions need contracts, sure, but do you use a contract every time you make a purchase? You have to be flexible and judge the needs of the situation on the situation. You can lose a lot never seeing past the piles of contracts on your desk. But I disagree that they had no alternatives. There are always choices, even if they're not always good ones. And kidnapping a Pervect? Bad choice. Kidnapping one with connections to M.Y.T.H. Inc? Worse choice. Let me fill you in on a little something. Company I work for? Takes jobs like this all the time. As contract work. As in those contracts you're so enamored with. Yes, the president might have chosen to charge them more if she found out they were desperate, but she might just as soon have chosen to charge them less. I will admit the main factor would probably swing down to which of us was in the room with her while she considered the job. But either way? Had they tried to HIRE good help there would have been no need to kidnap anyone. That they CHOSE to kidnap us rather than offering us fair wages and a choice tells me that they might well be hiding something and it is fully possible they aren't the ones we want to ally ourselves with at all. Of course, it is always possible that they're just stupid."

"Either way, my faith in the local talent pool, or their morals, is not particularly high. When someone bargains with me in good faith, I generally return the favor, but when someone sets me up to hang? I generally return the favor as well."

[king_of_egypt]

"Of course not- that would be ridiculous.... but for something long-term then primarily yes." As this venture was likely to be. The corruption had already spread so far. "... The thing is, we also don't know what they may have tried already either. I highly doubt, though it is possible that they sat idly by as they lost more and more ground." This frankly could have been their last resort, their last stand. Crossing his arms over his chest, his lips quirked up slightly at that next part. "That is perhaps the first thing we've agreed on all day..." It had in fact been a mistake for the people here to have brought this green man of M.Y.T.H. Inc. He might have experience in these matters, and be good at what he does but Atem couldn't resist the little dig. No one is perfect.

Oh, yes... please do fill him on on your mercenary work. It is not as if he has ever had to... oh say.... command an army before. Atem, tried oh-so-hard to keep himself in check. What he wouldn't have given to have Yugi by his side right now to remind him not to let his temper flare again. "When you're running a business, you do have to negotiate the terms for each client I'm sure."

"I wonder one thing however, how can we be sure they are able to freely communicate with the outside world to make these negotiations?" It was assuming a lot given the state of the land. "They can't offer what they don't have either....... plus now that we are here, I'm sure some will refuse to help at all."

Atem felt a mild pang of guilt at the end, because he'd also questioned that himself. Whether they were allying themselves on the right side or not. He was relying on his instinct and his heart to guide him but he really had no proof and he hated to concede that the stranger had hit upon the one solid point. "It may turn out that we have been misled..." See.. he can admit it. " .. but I believe the truth will make itself known as things develop"

[situational_ethics]

"Well I'd rather find the truth before the trap springs around my leg, if it's all the same to you. And let's say they couldn't communicate despite clearly having the power to work with to perform a mass kidnapping across several dimensions. They could have used this power to take one or two key people to negotiate with them. Nothing keeping them from talking to us here and now, and yet have you seen a single offer? Besides, fees aren't always in money or land. Deals can always be worked out if both parties come to the table ion good faith. But the fact of the matter? No one has offered us squat. Not even the chance to go home if we don't like this bones for nothing deal we got being kidnapped."

[king_of_egypt]

"That's part of the point I was trying to make." Atem interjected swiftly. "Don't you think the selection they drew here was a little scattershot?" Then he proceeded to explain. "If they had more time, or more control over how the summoning spell was utilized I don't think they would have chosen us at random, if it can be said that we were chosen at all. For whatever reason the magic sought us out and drew us here without much input from the caster. At least..... that's my theory at this juncture." What the green man was suggesting would have been all well and good if they had that luxury, but whose to say they did or didn't.

"There has been no offer yet, no... but they have provided us with room and board for the first few weeks," Which is something. There would be no moving either party on this subject it would seem.

"I suppose.... we'll see if the conditions change within the next few days." Since he wasn't sure if their hosts/kidnappers had something else in mind to smooth over this situation.

[situational_ethics]

Aahz shook his head. "Too many variables on that. They could have a reason for picking us that we don't see. Or there could be some commonality between all of us that we're too close to the subjects, being ourselves, to ever see. Especially if there are things they missed or overlooked themselves. for example, if they had decided, and this is just an example mind you, that for some reason what will serve them best were people with more hair than sense, if they had seen me under the influence of a disguise spell and my dubious character act, I would have fit that model to a T. Seemingly. But the truth of the matter is this is who I am stripped of spells and that act. So they'd be wrong. But looking for a pattern from our level, as i have no hair at all and a fair amount of sense, that couldn't possibly be the criteria."

Yes, he did just insult you in the middle of that.

"But that's just two of the possibilities. Maybe it was gimmick magic and it is on the fritz. That is one of the concerns when you deal more with tools for magic than your own sense of the force lines. Just because the selection seems stupid is no reason to presume there was no selection in the first place. You always have to allow for the possibility that we are failing to see a pattern, or that they are simply incompetent."

"As to providing us room and board, that is no sign at all of goodwill. We're here for a reason and they need us for something. Presumably that means needing us at a certain level of readiness. Even if we're just here to be cattle. Now some people might be more positively inclined to them for providing this room and board anyway, but let me put this question to you, spiky. Would we need or appreciate that if we were free to go home?"