Message 6: Tue Jun 12 11:43:48 (read) From: eccles [To: caligari zahn] Thomas: mental link "Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasing!" Message 8: Tue Jun 12 11:45:05 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "Duuude?" Message 7: Tue Jun 12 11:46:09 (read) From: zahn [To: caligari eccles] "we need to talk" off the link Message 3: Tue Jun 12 11:46:22 (read) From: eccles [To: caligari zahn] You can meet up in a fairly short time... Message 6: Tue Jun 12 11:46:59 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "..and?" "Is this about the Reconcilliation sept?" Message 5: Tue Jun 12 11:48:34 (read) From: zahn [To: caligari eccles] "not so much 'about'... more 'from'. They want you to er... butt out..." Message 4: Tue Jun 12 11:50:42 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "And this ... request ... came from where?" "Melissa and Waits- were here talking to me, but refused to say anything more than 'stop' - they gave no reasons." "I want only to help the local people, not to interfere with the plots of the Reconcilliation sept, but if there plans are so important that they require that I stay away as an individual offering my help, they should at least be willing to tell us why." Message 3: Tue Jun 12 11:51:39 (read) From: zahn [To: caligari eccles] "I'll be blunt. We owe them, they are calling in the debt. You are to stop." Message 2: Tue Jun 12 11:52:52 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "Our pack and sept are not without consequence..." "a debt..." "What could this be that it is so important to them..." "This is wrong, but as you have so ordered. And as a debt is involved." Message 1: Tue Jun 12 11:54:32 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "So I am to stop offering to help the koori, even as a office hand." "so be it." From: zahn [To: caligari eccles] "I agree, it is Wrong. But they are in a position to do this, and we do owe them... Possibly in the future something can be sorted, but for now..." From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "Too many things go unsaid between packs and septs. You have acted for the honor of the pack and sept. I respect that. I asked them for a reason, but they were not willing to say anything. *sigh* This was something I was able to do to connect with my own past, as well as help those in need here. It is unfortunate to lose that link. But perhaps such luxuries are not for me any longer. Thanks for your words." From: zahn [To: caligari eccles] "the only reason given top me was 'He is interfering with our relations with the local Koori associations, and we regard them as being at a delicate stage". ... I tried to state that you were offering to help on a personal level, not as gourou... but they woulden't have a bar of it" From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "I'm sure there is more to it than that, but I doubt they will be willing to tell us about it directly. I'll drop it." From: zahn [To: caligari eccles] "We'll try and make this up for you... somehow..." From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "There is nothing to make up. Its for our honor. You have no personal failing here. As leader you have passed on the right thing to me. That is good. I have plenty to do here." "Have you heard my latest revision of the Saga of the Hive? I have added a descant section..." :) From: zahn [To: caligari eccles] "why no... let us obtain some munchies, and you can run it past me" From: caligari [To: eccles zahn] "Ahh yes! Food... I had forgotten to eat breakfast and lunch.... I'll sing the parts to you while we eat... " :)
Kimu would like to talk with Thomas alone, and finds someplace and time That gives them some privacy...
Kimu:
"Pack leader. You are strong and you are wise in the ways of combat.
That is not all this pack needs right now. We need one who is wise with
Words and decisive, and knows of many things. You are not that leader."
Thomas:
"I have thought similar myself, many times. Often I have expected challenge
From another, and it never came."
"Do you believe you would lead more appropriately?"
Kimu:
"I believe there is none other who can lead this pack at the
moment. Brett is too hasty and barbed, Mathias's past is a problem,
John is indecisive, and Melissa has insufficient experience. While I
am an outsider, that has not served us badly or late, as I have less
"history" with most of the packs and septs of this land, and "history"
seems to be our enemy a lot of the time."
"Yes, I should lead Holistic Approach now. You should stand aside."
Thomas:
"history will always follow this pack close on the heels... an "outsider"
in the lead will do little to help that fact."
"I have this 'feeling' that our path will take us again to events close to those which gave us a history in the first place. And as much as I dislike the feeling, and know that I should not feel this way any more, I have doubts as to where you will stand on these issues because of the way you came into this pack. I know others will feel the same way."
... "Because of this I will not stand aside, unless challenged properly. If in that challenge you can prove you are more appropriate... then I will honor our traditions. And you will be pack leader."
Kimu:
"You seek to justify your leadership with vague feelings that at some
point we may face a situation where you don't know how I'd decide? That
is the future. We are in the now. If you do not think a leader is right
for the now, then you seek to replace them at that point. You are not
the right leader for this pack now. What we need you do not have. I ask
you again to stand aside to me."
Thomas:
"you speak well, and a valid point"
"then I will not deceive myself. I hide reasoning in the future because I am uncertain of the now. Much as I should know and trust you as any other packamte... there is an air of uncertainty which I cannot shake."
"I hate it... but I do not know where your heart lies, and I defy my own morals by doing so.
the challenge will let you show me I am wrong. When that is done... you can lead... the pack rests now for a few days... If you are challenging then I will have it and we will be done by the time we leave again"
Kimu:
"You force a confrontation where one need not exist. You yourself know
that you are not the right leader for the pack at this time. Your ...
poor wording ... with Mamu... I cannot permit you to lead the pack any
more without a challenge. You doubt my purpose, one of your own pack
members. How can you lead with such doubts in your head? We, who are
so much more tightly bound than any other pack? How can you lead, and
expect us to follow, to be at your flanks in war or in peace, when you
cannot even trust us? And now you force us in to confrontation where
none need exist. There is no dishonor in stepping aside, in realizing
the situation and accepting the signs that the time has come for another
to lead.
"I have led packs before.
"I do not relish the responsibility for the power that it brings, or because it will allow me access or privilege. I ask you to step aside because it is what the pack needs. Leading, at this time, is the furthest thing from my desires. I came to this land seeking my own destiny, a quest that has pushed me for most of my life. I did not come here to run with a pack and observe the return of a long tribe. These things are great, and they demand much from us. And while I have many things that I would like to do, I know that our pack is a fulcrum, and we must be led well for the trials we face. Right now that means that another should lead, and I believe that only I can properly fill that place. I do not try to deceive you, my pack leader, in this. It is simply the truth.
"Stand aside. Do not require a challenge. I ask you this last time."
Thomas:
* thinks for some time *
*stands up, removes shirt, shifts to chrinos and extends two large... green wings. back to arms, and back to homid*
"but then when I look into myself I find mixed loyalties and questions. who am I to do this to others?"
"you are indeed wiser than I, more tactful than I, and more knowledgeable in the ways of our people. you speak as such, and with feeling that I can only aspire towards. But then those are your ways.... not the ones I have chosen always to follow. I have waited for challenge, expected it, planned it... and now I see that I should never have thought such.
You come to me now with more will than I have to counter, and indeed, better reasons"
"I will stand aside, let me call the pack now to tell them"
"I apologize for the mistrust, for it was a formation of my own, which you did nothing to earn"
Kimu:
"I am familiar with distrust. The ways of my tribe do much to foster
such attitudes. A pack is greater than such mistrust.
"You do me great honor by standing aside.
"I should like to fight with you. At a time when the stakes are not the pack. There is much I need to learn about the brutality of combat, and while your soul is gentle, your arms are as stone."
Thomas:
"as I fight with the body, there is much strength of the mind and spirit which
I lack. I would be honored to fight with you to teach, and I hope you can do
the same for me. Your knowledge of the ways of our people, and of the
other half of our nature all too often ignored, as recent events have highlighted all to well"
at this point I expect the pack will have been told "oi' I got something to say, yall get down 'ere" (or something like that)