dagung | January Mirrorbound Council Post

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January Mirrorbound Council Post

January Mirrorbound Council Post

Welcome to the Mirrorbound Council discussion post for the month of January! This is the space to discuss IC concerns from your characters that can be brought to Parliament by members of the Mirrorbound Council. Here are some quick facts!

• Membership in the Mirrorbound Council is open, so if your character is the type to get involved, you're more than welcome to sign up here.
• More information on the Council's history, current members, and motions can be found here.
• Each motion must be cosigned by 3 Council members.
• Each council member can only cosign 1 motion per month.
• As a result, there may be months where not all motions can be raised. In that case, motions will be brought to Parliament in the order of greatest IC support to least IC support.
• To suggest an IC motion, please post to the most appropriate heading below. Make sure to list the name of the character who would suggest it so they get credit!
• To support an IC motion, comment to the motion with either "+1" or some other indication of your character's support. There's no limit on how many motions each character can support, so be sure to check the whole post!
• All characters can suggest and support motions ICly — not just Council members! Consider this post an OOC representation of an open-forum style discussion open to all Mirrorbound. The goal is to get as many people involved as possible, both ICly and OOCly, so don't hesitate to chime in!
• The deadline to submit motions is January 27th. After submissions close, Council members will attach their names to motions and submit them to the mod team by January 30th.
• All OOC ideas and suggestions are welcome as well, so please hit us up!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

To suggest a motion related to business or commerce, fill out the following.

To suggest a motion related to Bonds, fill out the following.

To suggest a motion related to Research, fill out the following.

To suggest a motion related to charity & humanities, fill out the following.

To suggest a motion related to infrastructure, fill out the following.

Character name: Ozymandias
Motion description: To address the overcrowding issue in the Western Residential District, it is proposed that some of the dilapidated buildings be torn down and replaced. Since there is no room to build out, it makes much more sense to build up and construct taller apartment buildings. Rent should be subsidized based on income/employment and priority should go to those displaced when the Haven was created.

On a (more) OOC note, this could create some quest opportunities with the construction piece and helping families get moved in once construction is done! There also may be some opportunities to help anyone who might get displaced during construction, since some people are likely still making do with the buildings that are there due to having no other alternatives. This could range anywhere from having a temporary roommate (or multiple!) to helping to make them more comfortable in a location like the barracks. Just some ideas to kick around if people would be down for that or interested lmk. I would think all this stuff wouldn't really get underway until winter passes (so kind a spring to summer sort of thing) in Aef in terms of timeline.

Support; while Myr has not been tremendously active in the council he's been following along with the efforts to help the Outer City as well as improve life inside the walls. More housing is always a benefit to that.

No pressure if you don't wanna/changed your mind/whatever, but in case you (like me) just didn't notice: did you want to support the motion officially? It's at 2/3 necessary council supports in the final motions below.

I'm on it! Thank you for the reminder--I'd intended to if this didn't get full support, but didn't want to take a slot from someone who didn't have, uh, slightly bad optics this month due to plot involvement.

I figured that might have happened, because the same happened to me, except replace slightly bad optics due to plot involvement with slightly bad optics due to Being A Child. I just was lucky to see a thread where a character mentioned the council this morning and I went OH. OH RIGHT.

Honestly Being a Child probably better than maybe-potentially involved with a weird cult??

~~we gotta get those booster seats though so she can sit at the table with the rest of us~~

Her proposal is fabulous, however, and I'd love if these two could get CR someday, somehow on that note. :D

Maybe so, lmao. Imagine if she were both (but I’m pretty sure that even if I hadn’t been so absent at the start, everyone would have screamed if the child tried to infiltrate a cult).

Leslie would say that she can manage. It would be a waste to get a new seat for her when she will soon be much taller, she says, having been here a year and has grown like ~3-4 cm (somewhere in the 1-2 inch range). She’s trying to actualize being tall by insisting it will happen, I guess.

I’d say the council stuff will give us some opportunities to jump off of for CR. We shall watch for what there will be.

Leslie will want to convince any council members who seem reluctant of the motion that this is A Very Good Idea. Both because she thinks that it is and because it is being worked on by ~~her dad of another household~~ someone very important to her and was worked on by her now absent ~~adoptive-mom-in-all-but-name~~ housemate. Who could say no to this face?

She may attempt to prepare cost estimates and a report on construction methods to allow for especially tall buildings at this current technological level. It would be a good idea to rely on someone who actually has experience with this sort of thing, but her work on a theoretical secondary Bright Wall means her understanding of architecture is not actually terribly off for someone largely self-taught. (It's still off, more often underestimating than overestimating. She's very smart but she's thirteen.)

If there aren't enough council members cosigning, she will join this council and do it herself, gosh darn it, but she doesn't think "diminuative preteen" is really the best role for actual politicking, so she's currently just doing what she can to support it as a non-member.

To suggest a motion that doesn't fall into the above categories, fill out the following.

This space will contain all motions collected by January 27th. Council members can then decide in the below thread which motions to attach their names to.

Motion brought by: Ozymandias & Edelgard
Brief description: Building more suitable housing to alleviate the challenges of overcrowding in the Western Residential District.
Link: here
Council members supporting: Ozymandias, Leslie, Myr

Edited 2021-02-01 04:02 (UTC)

Number of motions: 1
Number of Council members needed to support all: 3

Please fill out the form below with which motion your character will support!

Character name: Ozymandias
Motion supported: Western Residential
Help:

Ozymandias has spent a lot of time surveying the western portion of the district to identify lots that are either straight up abandoned or are in such poor conditions that if it wasn't for the overcrowding, they most likely would be. This is to identify locations to construct these taller buildings in to avoid as much disruption and displacement as possible. He has also been speaking with his former Bonded's landlady who has a farm about the possibility of temporary placement for those who would prefer that over waiting construction out in a place like the barracks. He has also been using the contacts from the community garden project as much as possible to try and drum up support for the project with those in the residential district.

Hindrance:

Ozymandias is being extremely careful not to do anything that could be overtly offensive or detrimental to this particular motion. But see below where this could be open for interpretation about whether that's a hindrance or not.

Anything else?

Ozymandias has not been as focused on such direct convincing of Parliament in his typical fashion. While Ozymandias is still absolutely schmoozing and making use of the in-roads he's made with previous motions (which includes his usual pitch of wanting the city to reflect well by caring for those who have less, leaning on the relationships he's managed to make with MPs that actually appear to give a hoot, etc.), there's a lot less attention to direct benefits to members of Parliament or the aristocracy in general compared to previous motions. Not that he's unwilling to make concessions with them. For example, he's willing to exchange support of one motion to another so long as it aligns with his own values and goals. Or if someone wants their name slapped on one of the buildings, that's fine. The way to think about it is that he's not intentionally bruising egos and is willing to fluff them up to a limited extent, but he's not going out of his way to inflate them as he might normally because this isn't about them.

And he wants to somewhat test whether or not Parliament can think outside themselves.

Motion for the western residential district has 1 out of 3 necessary supports!

Character name: Leslie
Motion supported: Western residential expansion
Help:

Leslie has drawn up a report on the costs and feasibility of building such tall buildings with current technology. While her initial estimates were a bit off, more often from underestimating than overestimating, she has improved her (actually not terrible for a self-taught amateur from her research on the Bright Wall) estimates by getting in contact with local architects. The final version is quite accurate in its cost estimate ranges and lists some benefits to the project running from the sentimental (opining on the improvement of standards of living) to the “practical” (speculations on an increase in tax revenue/economic growth from a growing population that is less concerned about housing problems). The author of the report has the same “von Hresvelg” last name of a previous council member who was particularly active in the business community (Edelgard).

She has also hand-copied a condensed version that focuses less on details and more on the less member-of-parliament-oriented list of benefits (tax revenue, for example, is not mentioned), turning it into a small pamphlet to circulate among the citizens of the western residential area to popularize the idea among those residents.

Hindrance:

She is a child. Specifically, a 13-year-old child who looks a couple of years younger than that. Though this might grant the cause some extra pathos among the softhearted, she does not look like a council member “should” and has only joined the Mirrorbound Council this month. It is possible that the members of the Parliament will not find out she is the one who wrote the report without investigating it, as she will ask Ozymandias to submit it to Parliament on her behalf, but it may make it more difficult for the architects she contacts to take her seriously at least at first, even if she’s fairly knowledgeable for an amateur after her extensive reading from her previous attempts to figure out how to construct a wall around the Outer City.

As an almost opposite problem, her report is kind of dry even if it is also written with confidence that this is a good idea. The pamphlet is less dry, but there are limited copies since she made them herself.

Anything else?

~~we need a booster seat for the mirrorbounds’ parliament seats~~

Motion for the western residential district has 2 out of 3 necessary supports!

Character name: Myr Shivana
Motion supported: Western Residential
Help:

Like Ozymandias, he's been working existing contacts from other community improvement projects (such as the garden) to garner support for the idea and gather information who might be willing to donate time and materials (to further cut down on costs in return for warm fuzzy feelings about altruism). He's also been feeling out potential sources of NIMBYism in both the Western Residential district and areas immediately neighboring it; while he cannot make any promises and is clear to let people know that, he is listening seriously to everyone's concerns and will take them back to the Council to be incorporated or addressed in eventual building plans. Special priority goes toward any MPs who might be alarmed by apartment towers going up where they can see them.

Hindrance:

Unfortunately, Myr has also been responding to the Coven's request to investigate the Evergreen Circle this month. Practically this means he may be known to be involved with the group and not schmoozing as much as he could be with MPs or other notable personages (who are not also involved with the Circle). While he absolutely would cop to being on the Coven's mission if directly asked, MPs who are leery of the Circle might not like the optics.

Anything else?

please send help half the council has been eaten by the evergreen circle

Edited 2021-02-01 03:57 (UTC)

Motion for the western residential district has 3 out of 3 necessary supports!

For any ideas, questions, suggestions, brainstorm, etc.!

OCTOBER

Initially brought up in August, Ozymandias began speculating that making changes to the Residential District may be a good place to improve living conditions within the city by addressing the overcrowding issue due to Parliament's previous hesitation to help the Outer City. (More information on that can be found here!) This has since spawned two discussions:

For the Residential District plan with Ozymandias and Edelgard, please see the update in November for more updated information.

For the Outer City, there was a large discussion about the limitations and barriers to effectively addressing the needs of that part of the population. Some of this was purely ooc and player obtained information, but some of the discussion is a bit handwavey communication between characters. Those involved so far (in addition to the a-Pharaoh-mentioned character at the top of this) were Jin Guangyao, Leslie, Near, and Heralia. It is a lot to summarize briefly, so it is encouraged to read the thread for more details, but to provide the broad strokes: some ideas were generated about potential quests to improve relations between the Mirrorbound and the Outer City; there was a brief discussion about how to continue making in-roads with Parliament for both the Outer City and Residential District, including some less than savory ways (i.e. stabbing with plausible deniability) involved; it was confirmed that Parliament functions primarily on nepotism; and there were some ideas kicked around about how to actually provide more protection to the Outer City. For more specifics, please see here.

Although only brought up briefly before most were distracted by talking about what to do for the Outer City, Jin Guangyao did bring up the idea of developing more improved relations with the Underground, primarily through the Monster Mirrorbound. Top-comment here is what is most relevant.

NOVEMBER

Regarding the Residential District, Edelgard seems to be of a similar mind of how to go about addressing the overcrowding issue by building up instead of out. More information available here. Since then, Ozymandias and Edelgard discussed the motion further and have discussed the challenges of assisting those displaced during the construction. The possibility of those temporarily displaced being temporarily housed in the farmlands with a Mirrorbound patrol for protection seemed the most beneficial way to address this. This appears to be relatively ready to propose as a motion, although it is notable that with Edelgard's departure from the game, there is definitely room for additional support!

December

Although there have been no significant updates, here is a link to last month's thread.

While I don't want to distract from the fruitful thread of discussion wrt the Outer City, Momo's recent post collecting IC information on Monster changes reminded me that Myr wanted to put forward an initiative for classes for Mirrorbound Monsters. Something to run parallel to what Witches have with the Coven--"here's what your powers are going to be, here's some changes to expect, and here's the best way to manage them." The intent is to avoid a lot of nasty surprises, trauma, and ferality for incoming Mirrorbound who aren't Witches.

Definitely not a distraction! There's room for all sorts of ventures. :>

I definitely think this could be a good idea though. The Coven is more or less taking on the responsibility of the magic and Bond end of things, but there doesn't seem to be too, too much for the more Monster-y specific bits beyond "Bond or else bad stuff!!"

I would also be curious to see how Parliament responds to this since I don't get the sense there's particularly good Monster representation there with the exception of Mirrorbound. Which along those lines, I think Ozy would make the suggestion of either having some direct/blatant benefit or at least emphasizing how/why this would be good for the city itself. Since if that part isn't present in a proposal, it seems to be much harder to push through and Parliament gets testy with the notion the Mirrorbound are only in it for themselves. Otherwise, he would probably suggest taking it to the Coven since they seem to be a little more sympathetic to the Mirrorbound by comparison and have a lot less of a "but what's in it for me?" attitude.

Oooh yes these are all good thoughts--I am also interested in how Parliament would respond, since it does put a finger one of the essential tensions in Aefenglom anyway vis-a-vis the social status of Monsters.

Given Myr's background (lol Circle mage), as much as it pains him to do so, I think he would actually paint it as "the current situation isn't safe because the Mirrorbound don't have the social structure that teaches them how to manage their monstrous abilities safely, unlike natives". Inserting themselves into Monster communities to gain that social structure also seems Fraught; while it can be beneficial for everyone involved, it's unfair to Monster communities (esp disadvantaged ones) to expect they'll just absorb these sometimes-recalcitrant and combative foundlings and teach them what they need to know.

Also, while it is A YEAR late, we did have it that Monsters born and raised in Dorchacht didn't have much experience with the lunar cycle. Ostensibly there are Monster orphans who don't always get picked up by their own community who could benefit from more formal schooling (dovetails into the orphanage efforts?). And, the Wilders are already teaching "advanced Monster ability" classes for those who choose to join them; learning other practical uses of one's abilities could give a Monster education initiative longevity even though the supply of new Mirrorbound Monsters has slowed to a trickle.

An additional thought I have that ties into this is this could also serve as a way to collect and safely archive more Monster lore and ethnographic/historical data--what their societies were like before the Cwyld pushed them into cities, and made cooperation with Witches a necessity. Especially relevant now that we've got contact with Dorchacht and the Underground, who have different information available on all these events.

Anyway I will roll this forward into next month and see if I can put more structure into it to discuss!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

January Mirrorbound Council Post

MOTIONS

BUSINESS & COMMERCE

BONDS

RESEARCH

CHARITY & HUMANITIES

INFRASTRUCTURE

Improving the Western Residential District

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

+1

ET CETERA

FINAL MOTIONS LIST

PENDING MOTIONS LIST

COUNCIL MEMBERS ONLY

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

OOC DISCUSSION & BRAINSTORMING

no subject

god i'm sorry, i thought i responded to this, but i apparently dreamed it

NO WORRIES, i am frequently this way