we_meet_again | Phone inbox

Well... we made a policy...

[hands her this paper]

About a month after we arrived, there was the first out-of-game murder. It happened during a Live, so everyone saw it, and right before the murderer killed the victim, he said "they're going to put you back together anyway, so I might as well get some satisfaction out of this." And then he killed the victim in... a really bad way. A really bad way.

Of course, this was our nightmare scenario -- that someone would do this level of violence because they expected us to fix it. We were furious. In our anger, we drafted this policy and announced to everyone that we'd be charging 1500 points per revival, and that we wouldn't revive anyone from the murderer's unit until it was paid. The idea there would be that murdering people would create an inconvenience for both the murderer and their unitmates, to keep it from being too easy.

Once we cooled our jets, we took another pass at the policy and decided some of it was no good. So we changed it.

[reads...]

Is this how things are currently being handled by our unit?

Theoretically.

We're not doing the parts where we refuse to revive anyone in the murderer's unit any more. At most, we may refuse to revive the murderer themself if they don't pay the fee, if we choose to exercise that option. However, this has never really come up so far, because none of us have charged even a single point for a revival before. There's never been a fee to pay in the first place.

After that first murder, we made a big announcement about the policy. Then we changed it on the downlow, which most people don't know about. It's not a secret or anything, so you're welcome to talk about it with anyone who asks. But we thought it would probably be a bad idea to publicly announce that we had chosen to be more lenient about murders, you know?

Edited 2019-03-30 08:25 (UTC)

Mm. But then... It's like what you said about the games? We're pretending to charge to discourage people from killing others, but it's only for show?

Edited 2019-04-02 20:00 (UTC)

I - you know, I'm glad it's just for show. I don't think I could charge someone for... something like this. Wouldn't it be really risky to make a murderer pay for a revive, anyway? If they decided not to because they wanted to... to force the victim to go to Lilith, and then we didn't do anything because they hadn't paid...

[She doesn't want to think on it.

[Wednesday stares back down at the paper instead, and even that makes more comfortable reading. Never mind that there's a lot to take in here.]

Um... is it okay if I take a picture of this with my phone? Just until I get it all straight in my head?

I mean, it's not necessarily just for show? You're still allowed to charge people for revivals if you feel like it's the right thing to do. We've let the community know that they should be prepared to expect that from us, but the few people in our unit who have done revivals so far have made the personal decision not to exercise a fee for those specific revivals. That's their choice!

Also, in case it isn't clear at first glance: the way the fee works is that we don't charge the murderer to revive the victim. One way or another, we will revive the victim if we can. But if the murderer wants us to revive them in the future, they need to pay the fee we ask for. Otherwise a murderer who dies can ask Lilith for a revival, instead.

Honestly? This is your power. You have the right to use it the way you want, and nobody gets to tell you what to do with it. It is my hope that we can use it to help and not harm, but you're never obligated to revive anyone, nor are you obligated NOT to revive anyone. The most important thing is to act with integrity and make decisions you feel like you can stand by.

The policy isn't binding or anything. Its purpose is to try and protect both the community and the members of pep!pep!, and this is the best solution we were able to come up with so far. The main takeaway is that this is an option available to you, but it's up to you do decide how you want to use it.

You can take a picture, if you like! You're also welcome to just hang onto this copy. You can put it back in the podium when you're done.

I'm not sure I'd charge people for it. It'd depend on whether the people involved take things seriously or not...

[grabs her own head]

Aaaah, I still think this can't be real! I'm not used to magic, so I don't think I'll be able to really understand it until I see it with my own eyes. But even though I said that, I don't want to see it.

Hopefully you won't have to! Fortunately, this kind of emergency is pretty rare.

What you do about the policy is up to you! I just wanted you to be aware of it in case it comes up.

Setting aside the stuff about fees, the part at the end is still important, about "what to do when a call comes in." The main takeaway is to treat the injuries first before reviving. Taking a friend along has been helpful in the past, too. And I would strongly discourage reviving people in the middle of a bad game when there's a chance they could get killed again.

There's a lot left up to chance, but I suppose that's how it is...

All we can do is our best!

Do you have any other questions about anything?

[shakes her head no and glances at Wednesday]

Um... no. No, I don't think so. I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

Oh, um... I'm quite good friends with someone on sensitIV. Levi. Do you think it would be worth letting him know I... might need his help sometime? I know he knows how to heal. So, since we - like one another already... just so he knows if anything were to come up?

That's perfectly fine! None of this is a secret or anything. You can tell whoever you want.

Leviathan is a good kid. I like him a lot.

Oh, so do I...!

[Is she blushing? She's probably blushing--]

Um... Dawn, if you ever need any help, and you aren't sure who else you can ask... I'm sure he'll be glad to help you, too. He's got blue eyes and silver hair, and - well, you'll know him when you see him. He's the one with the dragon hand.

Phone inbox

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100

Re: Day 100