#(we're all in this world together and we're made to share limited resources! we're gonna need the same things at the same time sometimes and

[frankiensteinsmonster]

I hate able bodied embarrassment. You know, the kind when they realize Oh No! I actually ran into a disabled person who needs the accessibility tool I'm using for funsies! I didn't know they Actually Existed!!

How about you stop doing things that make you embarrassed to get caught doing??? You feel shitty after making our lives harder? I have excellent news. You can literally never experience that again in one easy step. 🙃

[deathswcrn]

As she set up her own campsite, on a shelted section of terrace above the apothecary so she had a good view of the village and down towards the bog and the Chionthar, Breina watched a small fishing boat sail by. She wished that they had the comradarie of sailors, but they did not. They were too disorganised. But, the sight did give her inspiration, a thin hope that - should they agree, and she suspected she'd have enough agreement to enact it - that she could convince them they should act like pirates, voting and sharing their opinions. And even better, it led her to her next conclusion - how to make the most use of their very limited time to stop their ceremorphosis, in a way that might make everyone happy, and keep those who would rather fight each other than the enemy apart. A compromise.

She raided the apothecary for a mostly empty journal and sketched out her idea, the feel of the charcoal in her fingers more natural than anything in the world. When Astarion found her, thoughts of the dark urge and the sickness of the blood had left her head. She had hope, and she was mentally vibrating in anticipation of progress.

"I feel better," she said, grinning at him. "I have a plan."

She called them all together and set out her plan. She conceded to Lae'zel that they were too vulnerable to be resting on their laurels - every hour they were not making progress was an hour more the tadpoles could fester in their skulls. She conceded to the complaint that they couldn't run on fumes and adrenaline forever, and that even if Lae'zel liked to play the invincible Githyanki, even she would run up against a limit. And she conceded that a mistake was made by resting last night - the mistake being that no-one had been on watch. Finally, she conceded that they needed a way to work together, but hadn't really agreed on a way to come to a conclusion they all agreed on.

"There's getting to be too many of us to do anythin' sneaky anyway," she said. "So this is my proposal. We're gonna do dog watches, like sailors. We'll split into two teams - at any one time, one team will be out in the wild doin' things like scouting, fighting, collecting resources, moving this ship along - whatever it is we need to be doin'. Second team will be on maintainance, of our stuff and ourselves. Restin', eatin', making potions. And one person will be put on watch whilst folk sleep - they'll get rotated out every time we switch over who's restin' and who's fightin'. So we're always rested, and always making progress, yeah?"

She showed the schedule she had drawn on her journal of who would be doing what and when. The day had been split into chunks, with each chunk being buffered by 'handover time'. She'd even thought about who was in each team - Wyll and Karlach together, given their synergy. Shadowheart and Lae'zel, kept tactfully apart. Astarion with her, so she had her secrets held close. Gale was down to take first watch.

"That bit," she explained, pointing to handover time, which was roughly an hour between each shift, "is when we discuss what needs to be done next in the expedition and maintainance teams, and sort out our infightin'. And it is, I swear upon any God listenin', democratic time. If we're bickerin', we vote. And if you want to stay in this group and fight for your brain with us, you accept the vote whether you like it or not, 'cause we have got to work together somehow."

She slammed down her charcoal. "Are we good with that, or not?"

Strangers forced together under unusual circumstances. At least Karlach, Wyll, and Gale seemed amenable enough to the concept of camaraderie. The other three? Not nearly so much. At least Astarion could count himself as more surface level friendly and chatty than Shadowheart who remained as closed off as when she was first collected.

Curious Breina who ripped a bard apart just a night past found herself sickened at the sight of blood. No. Something rattled in his skull that wasn’t the tadpole. Something amiss. For people afflicted with squeamishness ruthless killers did not oft make. She mentioned amnesia and a lost sense of time. A troublesome thought began to form. Were the divine smites more than that? Had they triggered something else in her? He knew all about the mind’s ability to flee while the body carried on without.

With her past a mystery who was to say Breina hadn’t been one of those poor soul trapped in the asylums ran by ne'er-do-well clerics. Hm. A thought to dissect for another time.

“See? Now can we all just find our wretched little corners to sleep in.” He waited not for their replies. He had a spot already picked out on the second floor remnants of an apothecary. In the room even resided an old, rotted out bed. One he had no intention of using considering how long the village appeared abandoned. He staked his claim by rolling out a few of his effects across an area near a dresser. The others could fight among one another all they liked.

Sufficiently satisfied the area screamed ‘owned by Astarion’, he returned to the fold to seek out Breina. The others in various states of setting up camp and taking over this smelly hovel. “Feeling better? I loathe to think of what would occur to this little group of miscreants without your word to bring us all to heel.”

Around them the others were taking up their own little pieces of the village. Some in the aforementioned tavern, but others like Lae’zel staked out prime watch locations. Already he eyed Wyll patrolling the outer reaches for any goblin stranglers.