My Village is Number One

[Halbarad]

Tim shrugs towards Bjorn. "Your guess is as good as mine. Pandora and Alan - don't know if either of those names mean anything to you - suggested we come here and meet with you, possibly join forces. I'm not going to try to speak for Bigfire myself, but at this point I'm just tired of running. Pandora couldn't tell me much - although I plan to ask more, next time I Dream - but from the little I know the Order of Symmetry is a movement that's opposed to the people who've been trying to kill us, and that it was recently revived. And that's about all I have in the way of details for who you are and what you're doing. Anything further you'd care to fill in would be a help, at this point."

[Ginrai]

Ginrai quietly watches the conversation while digging into his plate of scrambled eggs. Though when he hears Phil's comment, he smiles and says in response, "Chain lightning is the way to go when fighting Ogres."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn sighs, and pushs the remains of his breakfast around on his plate.  "Ah," he says, "the hard question."

He leans back in his chair and frowns up at the ceiling, ignoring the side conversations for the moment.  "All right.  The people who are chasing you -- without knowing any of the details beyond that -- are one of two groups, Pax Arcana and the Seventh Cabal.  Maybe both.  And to understand this properly, you have to understand that we don't oppose them.  Not directly.

"Without going into detail, it turns out that when there's too many people on Earth, reality becomes unstable.  This instability is what is called the Enemy."  The capital letter is clearly heard.  "To fix that problem, you need to change something fundamental about reality.  What decides who gets to change reality is something called the Contest.

"There are three groups that participate in the Contest -- Pax, the Cabal, and the Order.  Except that a couple thousand years ago, Pax and the Cabal managed to off the Order."  He shrugs.  "Each has a different approach to fixing things.  Pax will kill off three quarters of humanity, and the Cabal steals other realities and patches them onto our own."

He pauses, looking around to make sure everyone is following him so far.

[Halbarad]

"Sounds completely off the wall so far, but considering everything else that's happened, I'll take it at face value," Tim nods. "No idea on why yet, but let's get what out of the way first."

[Bjorn]

"Well, why matters," Bjorn says, "so let's cover that.  Basically, it's the density of minds that attracts the Enemy.  Kill off a big chunk of people, and the density goes down.  Similarly, increase the space that the minds occupy, and the density goes down.  

"Now, the obvious question should be: what keeps the Enemy back most of the time?  And the answer is: the Dream.  The Enemy is only a threat when the number of minds gets to be more than the Dream can protect.  This is where Cabal's solution falls apart.  Whey they steal reality to add to our own, they don't do anything to increase the Dream.  So the Dream gets stretched thinner and thinner, until eventually, nothing anybody can do will make it enough to hold the Enemy off.

"So the approach the Order takes is this.  If the Dream is what holds the Enemy back, then the logical thing to do is increase the strength of the Dream.  And it turns out you do that by strengthening the connection between the real world and the Dream."

He shrugs.  "So you see, from one perspective, the Order, Pax, and the Cabal are all on the same side.  We're all trying to prevent the Enemy from destroying the world.  What makes us difference is our approach to the problem -- but those are pretty much incredibly different.  And of course, we all want to be the winners, so we'll end up going against each other.  But in the end, the Order isn't about 'opposing' Pax or the Cabal."

[Dracos]

"I dunno, I'm a fair bit about opposing both of 'em, myself." Dracos shrugged.

Dracos

[Halbarad]

"I have no problem with that. And whatever's happening to me seems to be tied pretty tightly to the Dream, so I suppose acting in its best interests is acting in my own best interests as well. Selfish it may be, but practical is what works. And if it's got the added bonus of shielding us from these other groups, all to the good. Whatever they stand for, they're not too choosy about their methods, so I'll oppose them on those grounds if nothing else.

"But, as you said, the real question is 'what now?' We were sent here to meet up with and possibly help you, but the question that follows that is HOW do we help you? And I'd guess you know the answer to that question better than any of us would."

[Brian]

"I hate to interrupt," Mark interrupts, "but, uh, you mentioned Brian.  He was, well, my brother, if we're talking about the same guy."  He leans over his barely-touched oatmeal, closer to Phil.  "You knew him, right?"

[Bjorn]

When Philip speaks, Bjorn clearly is on the verge of saying something, but bites back his words.  But when Tim then speaks, he rubs his eyes tiredly for a second before leaning forward, ignoring Mark's question for the moment.

Speaking intently, he says, "Look, let me be honest.  Selfish doesn't cut it, and neither does practical.   We got into this for the wrong reasons,  frankly -- and one of us has already died because of it."

He's still looking at Tim, but the words echo across his Dream to Philip, trying to convince him as well.  "The only good reason to get involved in the Order itself is to believe in what we're doing -- to believe that humanity will actually be the better off for being more in tune with the Dream.  Not just because you can't afford to lose focus, though that's a big part of it; there's too much at stake here to let ourselves be side-tracked by anything, including stopping some truly frightening hidden conspiracy-type groups.  But also because in the end, this is a contest of will.  What determines the winner is, more than anything, the dedication to the goal.  Both Cabal and Pax are focussed on just that: winning the Contest and shaping the world to their specfications.  If we can't match that dedication, if instead we're only thinking about stopping them, then we'll fail.  If you're a Dreamer, you know this -- it isn't just some feel-good touchy-feely bullshit, it's an axiom of existence.  Will Defines Reality."

He slumps back in his seat, clearly a bit exhausted.  "Look, I'm not trying to talk you out of helping us.  We need every hand we can get.  But deciding if you believe in our cause, completely and utterly -- well, I just told you what our cause is.  Take some time, think about it.  If you don't think you can get completely behind it, then there's still plenty of stuff we can work together on."  He shrugs again.  "And if you can believe in it, then we can talk some more."

[Carthrat]

"Yeah. Strengthening the connection to the Dream... I dunno. That has some strange implications," comments Tom. "For instance, my understanding of Tim, here, is that he uses the connection to the dream to change reality by.. what, creating stuff?

If the connection to the Dream is stronger, then he presumably would get a sudden rise of power. I think. And if there are others like him in the world.. well, they'd become *quite* potent.

I think."

He leans back in his chair, looking a little tired himself.

"But let me get this straight. Judging by what you say, one group thinks that the way to save the world is to kill a bunch of people.

The other group has a plan that essentially isn't going to work.

I don't know the full story of strengthening this connection... but from what I can tell, it sure beats out the other two options. Maybe I don't believe in the cause in and of itself and only because it seems to be the only viable one.

But, hey, save reality without leaving behind a pile of corpses. For now, I can get behind that."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn nods at Tom.  "That's about right.  But it's not just Dreamers, but everyone who has any metahuman abilities."  He says those words with a slight inflection of distaste.  "All of 'magic' comes from the Dream.  So what you'd find is that anybody with those powers would get stronger, and people who'd never had powers would start to develop them."

[Dracos]

A lecture, Bjorn?  Look, I know the truth of the matter as much as you do.   Sure, when push comes to shove, petty 'they're fuckheads' stuff has to go to the side.  But to pretend we're not opposing them is silly.  One died because he was crazy.  One because he was petty.  I'm not being petty.  I do oppose them.  They're, to be simple, my enemies.  That isn't to say I'm going to ignore the bigger goal because of it, because that couldn't be farther from the truth, or be unaware of the fact that should we lose, they need to win.  But that doesn't mean I stop opposing their existence.  In a turn of phrase, just because one doesn't give up bigger goals in exchange for smaller ones, doesn't mean one has to completely ignore the desire to fulfill those smaller goals.  Eh...  Look, don't worry about it.  When push comes to shove, I'm not going to drop going after the real goal for a shot at their heads.  Even if they tick me off.  I want their failure because for them to succeed means we've failed.  In that way, I certainly will retain opposing them.  I can see the notion of keeping in mind 'what if we lose, what's the best we can arrange to happen?' but I'd much rather spend that energy saying "Both of them must lose and we must win and that's the only scenario we can allow."

Turning to mark, simultaniously, he nodded.  "Yeah, did indeed.  Chatted with him regularly enough.  So did Bjorn here and Rez, the one who headed off."

[Bjorn]

The mists of the Dream thicken for a second, beforing thinning and calming down again.  All true, to some extent.  But like you said, Paul died because he was petty, because he took his eye off the goal.  These guys are thinking about joining the Order, and so what they have to know is what the big goal is, and that the big goal is what matters first, and in the end, the only thing that matters.

If what they want to do is fight Pax and the Cabal, then they can help us without being part of the Order.  They can join New Delphi, coordinate what they do with us, and it'll be great.  But if what they want to do is fight, then there's a chance that in the course of what the Order has to do, they'll make the wrong choise because of that.  That's a risk we can't afford.

[Halbarad]

Tim remains silent for a few minutes, considering Bjorn's words. "I do understand it, yes," he replies quietly. "And I can understand exactly where you're coming from. I'm not going to say that I don't believe, and I'm not going to say I do - right now, I'm still assimilating all the information I've been hit with in the last week.  Frankly, what you've said applies to any contest of any nature - the party with the greatest will to succeed generally does."

He leans back in the chair again, closing his eyes as he thinks. "I think what I need right now is some time. I do want to talk with you more about this, since I think it's clear that you do believe in the cause, and it sounds like you understand what it is AND its implications a hell of a lot better than I do. Tom's right - it's rather clear that out of the three plans, one's unworkable and the other's unthinkable. I think the bottom line for now is that I'm willing to help out, whatever the reason. The reason may change as my understanding of things changes, but the practical side of the matter is that I'm here and I'll do what I can. And that's all I'm afraid I can give you for now, until I can understand things better myself."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn nods at that.  "That's appreciated.  Every bit helps, eh?"  He grins at Tom and Tim.  "But for right now, we're still figuring out what our next move is, so feel free to relax, think things over, and ask us any questions you might have."