22: Dinner Conversation

By dinner time gossip was running wild. Students were glancing at each other, hushed whispers and snide remarks being exchanged. There were even a few direct confrontations.

A few people tried to play peacemaker, and had limited success. Gossip was just too good to ignore!

The messages from Garion’s groups had spread, and other people had spread their own stories.

Those with Domains were using the excuse that they had to be careful when joining clubs due to possible restrictions from their Domains. People were discussing the idea finding obscure names for concepts that cover multiple things they wanted.

A woman came over and was pissed at them!

“What the fuck are you lot doing? Do you know how bad you have hurt my club’s recruiting?”

They looked at each other confused. Garion frowned and asked “I do not know who you are, let alone what you club is.”

“You don’t?”

“Well, you seem vaguely familiar, but I checked out a lot of the clubs when they opened.”

“WHAT!” Everyone winced at her voice, even those who did not have ears or pain receptors in their bodies.

Garion shook his head. “Come on, how do you expect me to remember everyone I meet in passing while in a chaotic situation?”

She was stunned, so Garion continued “If that yelling was a clue, then I don’t recognize it. I mean, if it was a Karen who managed to join this class I would have been familiar with it, but that one was new to me.”

People looked at him in shock, or amusement.

The woman was getting angrier and angrier. “I head the Social Activism Club!”

Garion frowned “Wait! You’ve been S.A.C.ed?” He pronounced it sacked, as in fired. People who knew the term laughed.

“Listen, I have to ask something; how do you deal with opposing groups in you club? I mean, a group that promotes racism and one that promotes social unity would be hard to manage, wouldn’t they?”

She lost it and started calling him a lot of names, but he endured it, and eventually asked her “Why are you so upset?”

She glared at him “Firstly, we do not allow hate groups in!”

Garion raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Then I guess it does not cover all social activism.”

“It does! Those bigots are not social activists!”

“But they are.” Came the reply “That is not why you came here. Why did you seek me out?”

“Because you have hurt our recruitment.”

Garion frowned in confusion before Drenak cut in “I think I might know why she is ticked.”

“Really? Why?”

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Drenak looked at the woman “I have seen this kind before in other forms. They recruit people who want to be seen as kind and good to drum up their own image. They do not care if the people actually believe in the cause, but instead seek to swell their ranks. She might believe in her cause, whatever it is, but others who would join may not. People join groups to promote their public image, and often corrupt it. She believes that we stopped her recruiting such people.”

“But how? And why would she recruit those she knows would corrupt it?”

“How? You heard the gossip here. It started when our private conversation was overheard by some gossips. It exposed them, and drove them away from joining her club as we had exposed the scheme. It was doomed to fail anyway.”

Some people shouted out “WHAT?” or variations of that.

One whistled shrilly and asked “What do you mean it was doomed to fail?”

Drenak was calm as he sipped some water and replied “Don’t you remember the lesson? Your totem has to be of how you really are. To pretend to be good and kind while you are actually selfish and evil would not actually work for you.”

People were stunned and started swearing. A man who seemed very kind and helpful even went full on temper tantrum, yelling and smashing anything nearby that he could until a sentient flying jellyfish restrained him and smashed him against a wall, knocking him out. Considering that he had helped create a club that would focus on helping other students, this had more than one type of impact.

Drenak waited until things calmed down.

“As to why she would recruit them? She either believed they follow the cause, she could convert them, or what they would do would not hurt the cause.”

“How could corrupt people joining her not hurt her cause?”

Jane frowned. “I have heard of this in the news. Things like money raised for buying things that are needed being used to buy that stuff from one who joined the group. Want to hurt a family run business that is a competitor? Have people protest and harass them for not employing people of other ethnicities. “

Drenak nodded grimly. “Exactly. Lass, you have entered the world of politics. We all have. You need to tread carefully and think things through. Why exactly are you angry with us? What did we do wrong? In fact, what is your name, or rather, what should we call you? Most here understand that names can hold power.”

She managed to calm herself down “You can call me Sandra. My pronouns are She/Her.”

Drenak nodded and told her “I am Drenak, This is Garion, Jane and Harlen. I do not understand why you specified pronouns stating you are female.”

Harlen said “Well, I think it might be because with people from so many species here, it might be hard to tell. We don’t know how many genders they have, if any, or if things shift around a bit. After all, at least Gallen can swap genders at will, so things might get confusing.”

Garion nodded. “That actually makes sense.”

Sandra seemed to be getting angry at Drenak’s question, until Harlen responded. Suddenly mentioning pronouns actually made sense.

Drenak conceded. “Yes, it does make sense. Now, Sandra, what should we have done? You are angry at us, but what did we do wrong?”

“You started the rumors about people joining my group just to promote their image! This is hurting my group! We can’t help others unless we get stronger!”

Drenak frowned. “So, you consider us in the wrong because we had a private conversation, which someone spied on and spread around? We hurt your group because we thought about how people might seek to abuse it for their own gain, and it stopped people from trying it?”

“YES!” She cried out.

Drenak frowned. “What precisely did we do wrong? What should we have done?”

“You should not have said that about my group or others like it!”

Harlen told her “We did nothing wrong. You are misguided and have been nothing but rude to us.”

She was stunned. “Me? You are the ones being rude to me!”

Harlen was serious as she replied “I am of the Hearth Domain! There is a strong overlap with the Hospitality Domain. This means I am well versed in the Laws of Hospitality. I consider it best to follow them. We students here are morally obliged to follow them, and you are breaking them with your actions in accusing us without even trying to sort things out peacefully. Such conflict risks breaking the peace which is required by the Laws of Hospitality. Another Domain that can overlap Hearth is Etiquette, so I have been taught it. You actions breach that as well, both formal and informal.”

There was dead silence for a bit, but Harlen broke it “I consider you misguided, misinformed and ignorant, and offer you a chance to join us and discus things peacefully.

“You seek to help others and that is a good thing I have no desire to harm.”

Sandra left in a hurry.

The group turned back to Harlen in shock, but she just smiled. “I might not like being stuck with Hearth . . . but it comes in handy!”

There was laughter at that!