Conversation 4: Daisy and Pearl

Green: Daisy

GM: Black

((Ok, for Pearl, I'll say it's evening, and you're on your way to your room. You pass by Pearl's room, and see the light still on. As you look, the door opens, and Dexter steps out.

"Goodnight Pearl. If you need anything, just call." You hear Pearl say something back, but can't make it out. Dexter walks away, attempting to close the door, but the door hitches and remains open a crack. You walk by and see Pearl at a desk, working on something. She suddenly tenses, and grabs a weapon at her side. She looks up towards you, and says

"Dexter? Is that you?"

"Whoa, whoa there," Daisy said lightly, pushing the door open wider. "If you're gonna pull a sword on everyone who walks by your door, you're gonna wear out your arm long before you hit the battlefield. Why so tense?"

Pearl relaxes her guard, and takes her hand off her weapon.

"Oh, Daisy. Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. I just thought I heard someone, and then I saw the door open... I thought someone was sneaking around. I guess I'm just a little paranoid. Did you need help with something?" she asks.

"No offense taken," Daisy chuckled, strolling into the room. "Best to be on your guard anyway, in case anyone ever does try something in here; no reason to think they couldn't. I was just passing by, but since I'm here, how are you feeling about the way things are going? Think we're on the right track?"

"Yes, yes I do. We've made rapid gains recently, securing entire regions under our banner. The Kobolds and dwarves are with us, and it's only a matter of time before the elves join us too. Maybe even the wingers if we can keep up our momentum. It's been such a rush, seeing the rapid changes in our army. I've been trying to organize a united stand against Harmonia for so long, and it's finally happening. With all the new help we have, from you and your friends, to Caesar and Katherine, Wayne and Cyrus...we're making this work. We have a real chance of making a difference not just for us, but for the whole continent. Don't' you think so?"

"Yeah..." Daisy said, scratching her head under her thick blond hair. "That all sounds pretty good. With the way things have been going, and with my help, I think you'll be able to accomplish anything you want. So... what do you want? Are you going to be the next emperor after Hikusaak?" she asked. Her voice held nothing but polite interest.

Pearl does a double take looking at you, and then laughs. "I have no such ambitions," she says, chuckling. "Honestly, I think it's up to the people who should govern them. I think a representative government like they have in Dunan would be for the best, but I don't know if Harmonia is ready for such a thing. The class based society has held sway for so long, I don't know if we could enforce the laws in such a state." she says, sighing.

"Winning the war is only the first part of this battle. Creating a new government that everyone will accept, and then defending it will be the harder challenge. As one of my old mentors used to say, "Killing is easy. Living is what is hard."

"Well, I'll agree that it feels like killing is too easy sometimes," Daisy allowed. "I don't know about the 'living' part, though. There are already all these classes and species living together in this castle, more coming all the time, and it sure doesn't seem like we're forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to do around here. Things worked out in Dunan for my dad's army; I think they'll work out here, you'll see. People would rather live in peace than fight; even someone like me can see that, and I'm just a merc."

"You're from Dunan, yes? It may be hard to understand for you, but this castle is an exception to the rule. If we put a kobold or dwarf on a council here, I doubt any former first class citizens would take them seriously. They've been taught non humans are not people, just animals to be ignored. I don't know how to make people like that see that life is life, and that it's precious. Change will take time, and I don't know if a new government will last long enough to make people see that. If Camaro, Dunan, or even Grassland decide to invade while we're weak, we may just be taken over by a foreign power before we've established anything. I'm trying to work on defense plans with Caesar to prevent that, but it's not easy."

"I don't really get it," Daisy said. She found a seat and sat casually, leaning on her sword. "Would that be so bad? I mean, Dunan's done pretty well with equality and tolerance and all that. If they take over Harmonia, maybe they can help shape this into the kind of place you want it to be. If Dunan's like what you want Harmonia to be... And Camaro's a knightdom or something, they shouldn't be so bad. I don't know much about the Grasslands, but I'll bet they have something to offer too. I'm just saying, maybe these are changes that a little group of us like this won't be able to make as well as a country like Dunan could make for all of Harmonia, I guess."

Pearl bites her lip. "I doubt that would be so easy either. A country like Dunan might try to make a peaceful change, but the fact would remain we would be a conquered nation. Just look at the Higheast province. They've rebelled twice in the last decade. Trying to control an area the size of Harmonia under a foreign rule? There would be rebellions all over the place, and we'd be at war again. The country would break away piece by piece, and we'd likely end up a collection of small countries instead of a united one, just begging to be attacked. The wars would start and the cycle would resume all over again. Harmonia has made too many enemies for us to be that weak. We need a unified nation that all can be happy under and still defend ourselves from foreign powers. We need to strike a balance, and I've yet to find it. There has to be a solution, I just don't know what it is."

"There's always going to be war. I'm sure Hikusaak didn't make the country he wanted to right off the bat, and then he still hoped that this country would last forever. There'll be flaws, and unrest, and rebellions, but maybe every time we'll fix something, and make it a little better. Jowston becomes Dunan, and Harmonia becomes...? Something better." Daisy smiled. "I'll help make it better, too. Not counting a lot of the humans, I like the people I've met here."

"I like the people here too. I guess that's part of the reason why I want to make this work, so the people here and everywhere in this country can finally live in peace. Maybe it's naive, but I hope we can create a country without war. A country strong enough to dissuade foreign attackers, but without the military expansionism of Harmonia. Caesar and I have debated a few ways to dissuade any future rulers from being able to declare war, but until we get a stable working government, it's a moot point."

"The transition to a new country should be easy enough, all things considered. I mean, a couple of priest generals have joined us already, and they should be pretty respected, right? The only one I've met so far who's been really hateful is Relos, and I don't see him becoming our ally anyway. Maybe it'll help if generals like Marcus and Reuben are seen treating leaders like Cyrus and Wayne like equals, eh?"

"One can hope," Pearl says, sighing. "You make this all sound so easy, Daisy. How do you stay so....optimistic? You've probably seen more battle than most, and yet you're always so chipper."

"Optimistic, huh? I guess so," Daisy said, tilting her head. "It's just that I've always been able to get done what I wanted by my own power, and I've been trying to prove people wrong for as long as I can remember. My dad used to worry about me all the time, so he'd try to leave me behind when he went off to fight. But I didn't want other people fighting a battle I could be fighting too. So I'd follow him and fight anyway until he figured out that that's just how things were gonna be. 

"To me, this isn't so different. You know what you want to happen. You have the power and the muscle to make it happen," she said matter-of-factly, "so there's no reason you should fail. Right?"

"Of course," Pearl says, giving you a weak smile. "We won't fail, not a chance. I may not know how we'll make it work, but I know we will. I just have to keep trying to find the way..." she says, looking back down at her collection of papers. She sighs, and says. "Thanks Daisy. I should get back to work. This country won't free itself, after all."

"Gotcha. If you ever wanna talk, just holler," Daisy said, standing up. She glanced back at Pearl at the door. "I mean it. I might seem all business sometimes too, but me and the girls know how to have a good time. April is the best at making sure everyone loosens up. So come with us sometime, okay?"

"I'll do that," Pearl says. "Take care, Daisy."