voidtreckernet | Council Meeting # 1!

[ooc: I thought this might be easiest for people to tag and talk. So the invitation to the dining car is going to be through the ICP, the actually discussions aren't. I'm listing a few topics as starts, but add your own if you'd like. Please indicate which conversations people should be able to threadjack and which ones they shouldn't.]

[ICP Part: OTA?]

[Mid-morning on Basoon 15, Tony appears on the ICP looking freshly showered and still in his sleeper 1C room.]

Council members, please join me in the dining car. It's time we finally got together and discussed some matters that have come up on board. Ash, that means you too.

[Council Meeting Part: Council Members Only]

[When the council members arrive, they'll find tea and coffee have been freshly made and a freshly baked coffee cake with small plates and a spatula are next to it.]

Welcome everyone! Please, get yourself some refreshments and have a seat. Since Manabu appears to be missing, I've asked Ash to join us as the alternate.

[ooc- in case anyone forgot the council members are: Tony, Feanor, Manabu, Sarai, Dread, and Lightning with Ash as the official alternate.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

We should come up with some basic agreed upon rules for the train and how we will enforce them. I'm not saying we boot someone off the train for eating all the avocados. I mean something more serious. What happens if there's a real violation of trust and boundaries? We need to be ready with how we're going to handle this.

That's overcomplicating things. We don't need to label things as wrong for them to be wrong, and labeling some things as wrong will make people say that other things we didn't list are okay.

No rules at all? That seems like a recipe for disaster.

[Dread takes a deep breath. Some things he just doesn't like doing; one of those is a lot of talking.]

There aren't enough of us. Anything someone does is going to touch all of us anyway. Laws are for a society that gets so large that some people never meet, and for a society that has some sort of way of enforcing them. A legal system and a class of guards or officers to enforce them, judges to administer them... There isn't enough of us for that. We can and will handle everything directly.

[Tony was too focused on their topic to notice how much more Dread was talking than usual. When or if he did, he would be impressed.]

Except we don't know how many more are coming. It's better to start a system now than have a problem and not a way to handle it. What about that Harry kid who has been going around stealing things? What if we find someone has been attacked or harmed? What about that crazy woman who keeps stinking up the place with her cigarettes? We don't have anything in place to force either of them to stop until there are rules and a semblance of government.

I think making smoking illegal may be controversial. There's our first problem. [Dread clears his throat slightly, as if the mention of smoke has made his mouth dry.] Right now we deal with things on a personal level. Is it really going to do any good if we chain the kid to a wall? If someone's hurt, shouldn't we investigate and make our decision instead of just blindly saying whoever is responsible gets locked in the gym? We don't have any good punishments, by the way, except social ones. We can't actually lock people up, we don't have a jail. What about justicars and advocates? Do we make the rules and enforce them?

Who cares if it's controversial. I never pegged you for being someone who shies away from a challenge. We have more at our disposal than you're giving us credit for. We can control food. We can lock someone in the medical room. We could probably lock someone in the luggage car. We can also assign additional chores. And what if we double at the next platform? Then will you say it's worth the effort to put down some guidelines that we can all agree to? It's what's called a social contract and in every society there is one.

I care if it's controversial. That's not a moral thing, that's just stopping something you don't like. What else are we going to ban? Gambling on games? Sparring? And are we really going to starve people? Double-starve them if they won't do their additional chores, when some people don't even bother to begin with?

[Dread slaps the table. Not hard, but his hand sure isn't small.]

The point is we're not a society. Even if we double we're not. We start being one when we actually have things to do to keep this system functioning that aren't just minor chores and cooking. What next, are we going to make our own currency? Is the spider going to charge for her silk, and then I charge for weaving, and then I have to pay for the meals someone else cooks? As soon as we start slapping laws onto this place, we risk the laws being more important than the people. We're not there yet. I don't think this train CAN get there.

It's not about whether I like it or not, it's about the fact it's poisoning the air for others. It's also deadly if anyone shows up with asthma. If for any reason something happens to Peter's abilities, he could die because that bitch wants to smoke.

[He rolls his eyes at Dread's remarks on starving people.]

Reducing their meals isn't starving them. God, and they call me melodramatic.

[The part about a society though has any humor fading again.]

Why do you get to decide if it's a society or not? It's a group of people who have to live here together in peace- or violence if that's the mission. We haven't even gotten to what we should decide about that topic. And if you haven't noticed, there is a train currency. It's the team points. I'm paying you to clean by me cooking. That's a barter of services.

Also, just having a set of agreed upon rules in no way makes those automatically more important than the people. It means there's accountability for one's actions.

[ Ash had been watching this conversation go and degrade. She raised her hands to get their attention. ]

Gentlemen, please.

I think you both have valid points. Dread is correct in saying we are not a society, but I do not think we would be overstepping ourselves to create an outline of expectations for behavior. I believe we may be able to find a middle ground. Here are my thoughts:

We create a framework of expected behaviors. No stealing, no fighting unless it's training, things of that nature. Should someone break the rules we can call an emergency council meeting to discuss the nature of the issue and deal with it personally. We can choose on an appropriate punishment at that time based on the severity of the crime and with a vote of confidence from everyone in the council.

[ Sarai murmured her agreement with Ash and gave a nod. ]

Ash, you just spoiled our fun.

[It was said with a playful smirk, sort of jarring compared to his mood a second ago.]

I agree to the outline, though I don't agree that we aren't a society of some kind.

Council Meeting # 1!

Topic: Train Rules and Enforcement

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Sarai mentioned with Elly's permission!

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