Meadowlark Inbox;

[wittingly]

@ian.fowler | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

Comments

[lifetothefullest]

I'm glad at least some people see it that way.

[Especially since he's not so sure everyone did.]

I would've preferred if it could reach the point of funny, though. But I guess that'll teach me not to listen to my intuition when it says there's no point in sharing something.

[He'd literally said that in the conversation and then decided to take a chance, choosing to believe Akechi wanted to discuss in good faith, but it looks like he made the wrong call there and he feels like an idiot for it. Not that it was something he has a real problem with anyone knowing, but still, it's the principle of it.]

Thanks for pointing out what I meant, though.

[wittingly]

You're welcome, not that I think it really accomplished anything in the end.

[lifetothefullest]

It accomplished reaffirming that I hadn't somehow come across completely differently than I thought, which I appreciate.

[wittingly]

No, of the two of you, you're definitely not the one with the communication issues.

[lifetothefullest]

I seem to be having constant misunderstandings, so that's good to know.

[But this isn't supposed to be about him, so--]

So I see Kyna told you about the Riverstone excursion.

[Since Akechi mentioned it vaguely.]

[wittingly]

Yup
She sure did
I have a lot of opinions, I'm betting you do as well

[lifetothefullest]

I do, though I'm mostly concerned with trying to deal with the potential aftermath of it. It's been made clear no one cares about my opinions regarding how the whole thing actually happened.

What do you think?

[wittingly]

Aside from being concerned about Kyna's wellbeing and the potential to target her (and the others involved) in the future, I think it does give them leverage over us.

Right now we're in a favorable position in the media and with the local government. Having evidence in hand of the displaced breaking & entering, attacking & mind controlling a guard, and stealing from Riverstone during an all-expenses-paid good-will study could tip that in the other direction if they wanted to.

[lifetothefullest]

I think you're right; the fact that one of the Displaced used their powers on a guard and another used it to break into secure areas of their lab is extremely damaging if they decide to use it. If not, it's still leverage, as you said.

Getting confirmation that Riverstone wants to use us also removes that advantage Riverstone might've otherwise thought they had, and therefore the incentive they have to protect us; if we could've been useful to them, they have reason to help us. That can't be used to our advantage anymore if they think that information will get out to all the Displaced, and ruining their plans is also likely to encourage retaliation.

There's also the very personal--and honestly justified--anger that the person who the power was used on must feel.

[wittingly]

You're right. We do lose the advantage that comes with them thinking we're ignorant to their motivation. There are a lot of benefits we could've gotten from keeping that quiet until we needed to break away from them.

I'm going to imagine they see it as justified, despite the fact that the employee in question isn't Riverstone, he's just a guy working at his job. It's easy to dismiss the invasion of someone's mind if you only see them as an irredeemable cog in the big bad villain machine.

But that won't stop him from taking legal action against us, which would be a public spectacle and no excuse will be good enough for the media or a court if that happens.

[lifetothefullest]

Yeah, and we should be prepared for those possibilities. They seem convinced that the repercussions of this won't affect anyone but the four of them, but I find that very unlikely.

Kyna said they're planning to tell the others, so at least everyone will be aware of the situation.

[wittingly]

I'm gonna need a fuckton more weed for that conversation

[lifetothefullest]

I really wish it worked that way for me; the one time I tried it in college I just got all the paranoia, which sucked.

Drinking may be necessary, though.

[wittingly]

My condolences
If you find the right combination of drunk to stoned it usually mitigates that, but
you know
most people don't care enough for the effort, can't really blame them

you know what might be fun though
we should come up with a drinking game for it

[lifetothefullest]

I probably should set a better example than engaging in crossfading.

[As tempting as it is.]

That sounds horribly dangerous to our livers. Though we could take bets on who's going to make the post and own up to it, and who will make which arguments in the comments.

[wittingly]

Well, we know it won't be Nate's brother
I don't think it'll be Kyna
I'm betting it'll be the other kid

[lifetothefullest]

Ren? Probably.

He actually contacted me to talk to me about the whole thing because he didn't like that I was annoyed with Kyna about it.

[So, you know, another issue.]

[wittingly]

Teenagers

[lifetothefullest]

Teenagers who are very concerned about not being seen as teenagers, but don't seem to want to be treated like adults either.

[wittingly]

So, teenagers.

I haven't been a teacher in years, I'm out of practice handling cocky youths.

[lifetothefullest]

It's been awhile since I was a teenager, despite what people might say, so I'm also out of practice. Usually just treating them like adults works fine.

[But alas, not recently.]

[wittingly]

They have to act like adults to be treated like adults. The behavior I saw today was not that.

[lifetothefullest]

I think they may have the belief that they're being disagreed with because they're being disregarded for their age, when it's really just that people disagree with them and are telling them so like adults. I'm not sure how to actually get that across to them, however.

[wittingly]

It's particularly frustrating because I wasn't disagreeing with them, not entirely. The complete inability to accept even the slightest deviation from their opinion is one thing, but immediately responding with the most scathing possible comment?

It's not even worth listening to them or speaking with them. I think that's the ultimate conclusion I've got to draw. A lack of engagement or response is the only sane way to deal with it.

[lifetothefullest]

Ren seems to usually be reasonable and offers helpful information even if I sometimes disagree with his conclusions, but I think you're right regarding Akechi. If I wanted to argue with someone who has their mind made up and clearly isn't listening to anything I say, I would've gone to law school.