Cayce's <s>War</s> Diplomacy Council, Part 2

[caycep]

Identical letters sent out to Daniel, Crichton, Logan, and Susan:

Hey guys,

I think we need to meet again to discuss the situation in New Orleans Square. Tomorrow evening, upstairs at the Starcade. See you then.

-Cayce

Comments

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

Well, that didn't put him at ease any.

John normally would have knocked before entering the Starcade (despite how little Cayce seemed to care, his own sense demanded it every time; probably something to do with the fact that no one on Moya ever bothered with personal space rules), but since it was a specified meeting he didn't bother this time around.

"Cayce? Holler once so I know you haven't been baked into a pie."

[caycep]

Cayce waved from halfway up the stairs to the second floor of the Starcade. "Hey there, John." She had an armful of sodas and water bottles in hand; she'd already schlepped some snacks upstairs.

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

John followed to the foot of the stairs and started up after her. "I'd ask how you are, but I'm mostly just glad that you're here, period." It was coming back around to that cycle of park-life; feeling caged and useless and otherwise insufficient as a human being. Perhaps this little meeting was coming at exactly the right time.

"This place starting to feel like a way station to you? It's like they said in the good old land of Oz: people come and go so quickly here." Not the first time John has compared himself to Dorothy Gale, and it surely wouldn't be the last.

[caycep]

"Way station. Yeah, something like that." She was quiet the rest of the way up the stairs until she'd set down her burden. "You ever read the Chronicles of Narnia when you were a kid? Specifically the one book, what's it called, The Magician's Nephew?"

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"Jumping in and out of pools. Yeah, I remember it." Actually, the connection was entirely fair. "Wonder why we haven't gotten one of them yet. Then again, having a giant talking lion show up might panic people a little bit." He paused. "Did you know that Doctor Who is here? I don't know if you ever watched the show, but when I saw the TARDIS at the gates I kind of flipped out in a nine-year-old way."

[caycep]

"Not just any giant talking lion. A giant talking Jesus lion." She thought of Psyche and of Crowley's Antichrist story and her mouth twitched. "That would be ... awkward." She chuckled. "A friend of mine was totally hooked on Doctor Who when we were kids. I never really got into it, but I've got a sort of passing familiarity. Weren't there like, several actors who played the character? Which one did we get?"

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"Everyone could get all pissed of over being called a Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve," Johna agreed. "Heck, that might even make me uncomfortable." Wasn't like he had time to go to church in recent years. Or felt any inclination to go.

"Yeah, there's been over half a dozen, I think. But it looks like we got someone new. Never seen this guy when I watched it, and it's definitely him. Which makes me think it was revived the same way Battlestar was." He paused a moment, frowning. "Tell you the weird thing, though... he knew about some of the stuff I was talking about. Like when I told him I had spent the past few years on a Leviathan, he knew what they were. And I've been stuck on that one ever since, because it holds all sorts of insane implications for this parallel universe/alternate reality theory, and I can't tell if it makes me feel better or worse."

[caycep]

Cayce considered this; then her mouth fell open slightly. "So ... right, a fictional character just told you that he recognized something from your world -- yeah, I can see how you might be a bit uncomfortable about that." Her disconcerting conversations with Logan and Setsuna about being fictional, mostly left tucked safely in the box of Things Cayce Does Not Think About Too Much, crawled out of the box, and she wondered if she ought to say anything about it to John. She really didn't want to.

Her expression was a bit of a study at the moment; she looked as if she'd bit down on an orange and discovered too late that it was a lemon instead.

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

It wasn't as though John hadn't considered the fiction thing; all the characters from familiar sources made that idea kind of inevitable. Cayce looked a little blown over at his rambling, though, and he had to wonder just where she was on it. "Look, I know you've been thinking the same thing a lot of us have. I mean, in the 'what's reality and how do I know I have one now?' department. But where I've come from, there are a few extra things to consider in it, which somehow makes it more bearable. Possibly easier to explain."

He cringed a little. "I don't want to break your brain any worse, though, so I could just keep it to myself if you'd rather stay away from extra complications. I'd sure as hell understand."

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

Logan came in through the smallish glass door on the upper level, long familiar as the best way to shave half an hour off the wait for Space Mountain by cutting in line halfway through. Weird, these days, having no lines and the feeling of invading other people's personal space, instead. Kind of like having the expectation that people could just disappear on you. Logan expected he'd need large amounts of therapy if and when he ever got out of here, which was a comfortingly normal reflection and one that put him in a good mood.

"Hey there," he called to Cayce and Crichton. "So. Anybody sustained serious injuries?"

[a-good-man.livejournal.com]

About the same time Daniel came in the door downstairs, carrying a heavy book and a stack of loose paper.

"Hello?" he called.

[caycep]

"Hey Logan." She was a little relieved to see him arrive, thus changing the subject. Hearing Daniel downstairs, she shouted, "Yo, Jackson! We're up here!"

She looked around. "I guess all we're missing is Susan, and then we can get started."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Right about then, Susan pushed open the Starcade door and followed the sound of voices up to the second floor.

"Good afternoon," she said, a bit shortly. She looked around the group, pausing curiously on Daniel's armful. "What have you got there?"

[a-good-man.livejournal.com]

“Oh, it’s um… it’s Latin, actually,” Daniel shifted the stack of papers and set them down, holding up the battered book to show her. “I’ve been teaching it to this kid, Sam Winchester.”


((And it occurs to me, as I write this, that Sam was doing a thread with Susan... I completely forgot, lol. >.<))

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

Susan leaned forward to look at the book; her curiosity was actually piqued, but the matter was better left until later. "I may have to ask you about that myself," she said. "I suppose we've got other things to talk about now?" She shot Cayce an inquiring look.

[caycep]

"Right." Cayce ran her hand through her hair, took a deep breath, and dove in.

"So I already told you guys about what Boba Fett learned -- about Todd moving into Lovett's shop." She paused, once again thrown by just how ridiculous that sounded. "So. His considered opinion is that there probably has to be some kind of confrontation or something, and the best thing to do would be to do it on our own terms. Try to reassure them -- him especially -- and convince them that as long as they, you know, behave, no one's going to do anything. Right now he's scared, and scared means potentially volatile."

She paused, waiting to see if anyone had any questions.

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

Just the one. "What are the odds of him actually buying that?"

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"Well, you can't really ask for better than that," John said reassuringly. Mainly because he was fairly certain that was true. It was kind of like having a one man legion at your disposal. "That in combination with park security makes it pretty unlikely that anyone's going to get hurt. Maybe we could send them a note ahead of time, make them less likely to get jumpy on us."

[sensiblesusan.livejournal.com]

"You really think that would make them less 'jumpy'?" Susan said incredulously. "What if it makes them panic instead?"

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

"Not to mention, can they even read?" Logan put in drily. He was still hovering over Cayce in concern.

[a-good-man.livejournal.com]

"I don't like the idea of having Boba Fett come," Daniel felt he had to add. "If we're going to them to say that we're giving them the benefit of the doubt, that we're giving them at least some semblance of trust, bringing along an intergalactic bounty hunter seems like the worst thing to do. I wouldn't believe a word of it if someone came to me to say that to me with that sort of back up."

[caycep]

"What if he just watched?" Cayce said. "I'm not proposing dragging him along in person either."

[always-confuzed.livejournal.com]

"That sounds like the best idea to me," John agreed. "Having him come in like the secret service would probably weird them out in a very bad way. He doesn't look like anything they can relate to."

[thebadboyfriend.livejournal.com]

Well, obviously you wouldn't just show all your cards like that. "So what do we say, exactly? Whoever goes."

[caycep]

"I think --" Cayce began, then stopped. She ran her hands through her hair, took a deep breath, and began again.

"I think we need to finally be honest with them. It's the cover-up that always kicks your ass, right? Tell them: you know we're from the future, your future, and your story ... didn't go away. So some of us know what happened, and because of that, we were afraid. And we want to know that we don't need to be afraid."

She looked at Susan, Daniel, and Crichton. "What I can't decide is whether it should be someone they've already talked to or not. On the one hand -- you won't be a new face, and they'll already have some ... sense of you. On the other hand, it could flip them out even worse."