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It didn't take long before I was on the ground floor. And there were... I counted Seven people, excluding Mr. Grand.
He looked up with relief when I arrived and waved me over. "This here is going to be my assistant. She's going to take notes on everything, so don't mind if she's typing on her phone in the corner, alright?"
And then... I got a message. Or, to be more specific... a 'letter' and it wasn't from the System or the Eldritch Assholes. It was from Grand.
Hey, I'm going to hit send when you get here. This is going to be rushed. You can write letters to people on your phone and then send it as a letter, so it'll go to their menu. Just choose 'Menu' in the dropdown section. It doesn't look like a dropdown at first, you have to click on it. Send me any and all questions I should ask or tell me what direction you want me going in. These people are getting impatient.
Hmmmm. I don't like subterfuge and manipulation, but people don't like me and it's a survival situation. People usually say the same rules don't apply when survival is on the line. Ethically it's questionable, but if I don't do this, no one would listen to me anyway. So I sat down at reception and made a show of looking down at my phone.
I see. If they haven't introduced themselves and said their piece already, you should ask them to do so, now that I'm here and it seems everyone who is going to come, has come.
Grand clapped his hands together not twenty seconds later.
"Alright, I think everyone who's coming is here, so let's get started. Introduce yourselves and say your piece," he said.
"Emily Carter!" a woman with a dark brown bun and a modest dress, stepped forward. "We decided to group up all the religious folks in the building into a faction, because we saw that people were grouping up in political groups and we wanted to just leave the politics aside."
"Politics can't just be left aside," a man with salt and pepper hair and a mustache replied to Emily and then turned to address Grand. "Jacob White, sir. I was a football linebacker in the day, so I want to take a combat class as soon as it's approved. Us in the Unified Voices faction are willing to put our heads together to find solutions that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on, at least a little."
"I'm Sarah Johnson," a woman with curly auburn hair said. "I'm representing the parents. We just want some security. Immediately, to protect the children."
I send a message to Toria to tell Felicity that Sarah Johnson and Emily Carter are likely who she should speak with about her concerns.
"Alright, next on the list?" Grand said when a group of people broke out in bickering instead of introducing themselves.
"I'm going next!" a Black middle-aged man said and stepped closer to Grand. "We're paramedics, people with first aid training and anybody else with a medical background of some kind. And we want people to start finding all their medical supplies and handing them over so we can treat people in the building."
"Is someone injured?"
I assumed the quotes would be enough to communicate what he should do.
"Somebody hurt?" he asked.
"Two people died in the initial... you know, so... it's a matter of time before we get more injuries," he said. "We were told about both their bodies and found them. We need combat classes and medical personnel standing by in the future, too."
"Just giving you a bunch of over the counter medicine, will that really be that helpful? We need you to compile a list of things you need."
"Well we can't just haul off and give you shit you don't need," Grand said. "You'll just be overworked for no good reason. Tell us what you need and we get it. As much as you say you need."
"That's all we can ask," he said and reached out to shake Grand's hand. "Michael Lawson."
"Morrigan Grand," Grand replied.
I found I didn't need to type on my phone. I could think and it would translate my thoughts to text for me. I still had to send it through my phone and hit the 'send' button. Thank the Eldritch Assholes.
"David Clarke!" a man in denim and boots with a flannel top and short cropped dark hair said. "I'm in construction. We all got together in the building and we think it's important we secure everything physically first. We can worry about classes later. We need to build barricades, cut off the supply of water and electricity from elsewhere and make ourselves independent with Solar panels, wind turbines. And dig a well."
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"That, sounds like an awful lot," Grand said to stall as I was composing my message.
"Sensible, but not feasible at the moment. The barricades are the only thing we can do right now. Working on the tenth floor should be quieter."
"We can only really manage the barricades right now," Grand said. "I think you should get right on that, though. Before one of those things takes notice of us. Take everything up to the tenth to hammer or screw it. We don't wanna attract any attention."
David nodded and stepped back, walking immediately toward the stairs.
"Yes, no one has a problem with barricades, I'm sure," Jacob said. "But we're very concerned about the classes being chosen. We should carefully select based upon what will most serve the common good. Allowing everyone to choose their own, now that some people already have, it'd be irresponsible. There are too many people who have no idea what they're doing!"
A woman with a blonde pixie cut and blue eyes also stepped forward. "Now hold on a second! If we just go dictating which classes people can choose, they're going to be miserable! That leads to stress which can lead to rioting and strikes. We need to let them choose and then only tell them what jobs they need to do."
"And they're all going to choose well?" Jacob asked. "You and I both know that most people in this building don't have any combat experience and that playing video games is NOT universal. How are we going to get protectors and security members in enough numbers if everyone focuses on what they're already good at or people muck it up because they didn't know what a certain class even was?"
"Anyone who has a combat class as an option, is probably going to pick it," Michael said. "Unless they're one of us. We're all going to pick healer if everyone is fine with it."
"Well of course, that's only reasonable!" Jacob said. "But there are people here who can use... god above, I can't believe I'm going to say this- people who can use 'magic' to attack instead of their bodies who would end up choosing a class only because it's what they're most familiar with and not what would be useful right now. And if we could use those people as security personnel, it'd ensure we had some protection without putting people directly in the line of fire!"
I could see a very simple solution to that...
"We could let people choose and then recruit from outside if we need more of a certain position."
"Hey!" Grand said and clapped his hands once firmly. "I got a great idea! Let's just let people pick their class and if there's positions we got holes in, we just recruit from outside! There's bound to be people looking for safe places to stay."
"That's an idea," the blonde with the pixie cut said. "Ooof, forgot. I'm Olivia Turner. I'm representing the Conscientious Objection faction. We don't want religion or politics to interfere with the cold, hard facts."
Huh. Could I join that faction? Though their name is a bit confusing. Conscientious Objectors are those who don't want to go to war because they didn't consent to the draft or something, isn't it?
"You always decide what those are," Jacob stated disdainfully. "You keep saying everything is scientific and then flip-flopping your opinions!"
"Science provides new answers and you have to change your point of view based on newly discovered facts!" she protested. "And we do not 'flip-flop'! We determine whether or not scientific theories are credible and when we find out they aren't, we find ones that are."
It sounds agreeable, but... I've met people with those opinions before and they aren't as similar to me as would be necessary for them not to be annoyed by my mien.
"Science, Psychology and personal experience contribute to everyday life and sometimes people just focus too much on one and not the others. We should pool our perspectives instead of arguing over which one is correct."
"I think you're ALL vital," Grand said.
Not what I asked for, but I waited to see where he was going with it.
"We've got the Political point of view, which means personal experience. We've got the Objector point of view, which is science. And we got the Religious point of view which is good for the morale and all. Then there's the medicals for physical welfare and such. These are all different things, which is why we have different jobs for 'em, you know?" He appeared to be floundering, so I offered another line.
Ask what they would all do if a child was crying and injured. They would not only treat the injury, but soothe the child. And if that child asked them to fix the stair they tripped on, they would. Every problem has multiple angles.
"If your kid tripped on a stair, you'd fix the stair AFTER you got them a bandaid and told them everythin' was gon' be okay, right?" Grand said. "All those things are important, but they have their order, don't they? So, we just need everybody to decide that everyone's opinion is important, even if you personally think it's dumb."
There was a slight murmur and a latino man with a compact, muscular frame spoke. "I'm John Ramirez. We're Essential Workers. Two Janitors and a Cook. We need everyone we can get to help us clean the place up. We'll have to get those bodies out as soon as possible. Can we get approval for that?"
"Go on and do what needs to be done, my man," Grand said. "Bring whatever you find on their bodies here so we can identify them and maybe find their families."
"Will do," John said and walked off.
There was a woman and man waiting at the stairs. The man left with John and Michael made a head movement toward them. Grand nodded and Michael took off after them.
"We should absolutely advise people on their classes," Emily spoke up again. "But we don't need to order them or force them. We can just put up a notice that we need certain class types and people can be incentivized. We can put up Coin for it."
A great idea, actually.
"That's a good idea, let's do that. Vote?"
"Let's vote, since we got three options!" Grand said. "I'll send a message to the other people, I'm sure my assistant has their names. So, do we tell people which classes to get, let 'em choose and deal with them afterward or help them decide and incentivize with Coin? Everybody just send their vote to 'BlissfulDreams' with no other words. No arguments. Just 'This is what I pick'." He seemed somewhat overwhelmed, but was handling himself ably.
Grand made a show of coming to sit next to me in the other chair and started muttering. "You've got those names, right?"
I listed them off, as I had been taking notes. Couldn't do otherwise and keep up the ruse.
"Damn, how'd you focus on two things at once, like that?" he asked.
"It was mostly talking," I replied. "Delete my letters to you."
"Right, I'll do that next," he muttered and began messaging each person who was no longer there.
Everyone else left to speak with the people in their own factions. They'd have to reach some kind of consensus to vote. Though I was sure the Political and Objector Factions would just vote for their suggestions. Same for the Religious.
That just left four factions to convince one way or the other. And they'd all be trying their damnedest.
Where is everyone else? I wondered. Seven people, ten floors...
"It's likely best..." I said and waited for Grand's attention. "For you to send that message to everyone and simply list the names of the faction representatives."