There were a few seconds of silence while they thought about it. “Is it definitely forever going to be just us, or can other people join?” Sadie asked.
“We shouldn’t close it off from the beginning – we might have other friends whose roommates aren’t as awesome as us, or we might even make new friends from the other school or other class or something. I don’t really want to make it too big, but there should definitely be the possibility of adding people if we want to.” Heather fidgeted with her sandwich wrapper, crinkling and smoothing it anxiously while she waited for the others to evaluate her suggestion.
Danielle nodded. “I agree. We might even want to have a member level and an inner-circle level, and of course a ‘you messed up but you’re not kicked out yet’ level, for people who break the rules.”
“Do we all start as inner circle or as members?” Akari asked.
“Inner circle,” Danielle said. “Members would be for if we add people later.”
“So we’ll all be club officers, and there may or may not ever be regular club members?” Sadie chuckled. “I knew a lot of System clubs like that, when people were first Awakening, and it was cool.”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Danielle groaned. “Let’s not call it officer. Let’s call it council-something. Counselor? Council member?”
“Council Member, Trusted Member, Welcome Member, Probationary Member. Breaking rules automatically knocks you down to probationary,” Heather proposed.
Danielle nodded again. “I like it. Welcome Members can be added to the Party by a majority vote of the Council or of the Trusted Members. Moving people up the ladder requires a majority vote of all members of higher rank. Let me get out a notebook, I think we have to write this stuff down.” She got down from her stool and into her footlocker, pulling out the soft-sided leather journal from the necessities store along with a pencil. She sat on her bed, the better to see everyone’s faces at once, and started writing out the proposed rules of the organization on the second page. “OK, I think I’ve got down everything we said so far. What do we want the rules to be?”
“Any attack or hostile Skill used against another member knocks you down to Probation,” Akari said immediately. “If it was a prank or something, you can get voted back up, but we’re out of the safety net here. Pranks can still have consequences.”
“Make that the rule for members in good standing. If a Probationary Member does it, they’re out,” Sadie proposed grimly.
Heather nodded seriously. “Agreed. That should be for any rule.”
“OK, any Welcome, Trusted, or Council member who breaks a rule is automatically demoted to Probationary. Any probationary member who breaks a rule is ejected from the organization. Members may not physically attack other members. Members may not use hostile Skills on other members. Members may not share information they have been entrusted by the organization to keep hidden. Permission to share previously hidden information may be granted by a majority vote of the council. Anything else?”
Heather said, “Members will make reasonable efforts to protect the life and health of other members, so long as their own life or health is not put at risk by doing so.”
“Agreed. Good wording.” Akari gave her a thumbs up.
“Got it. Do we want something about helping each other grow in the official rules?” Danielle asked.
Sadie spoke slowly, as if working out the words as she went: “The council may assign members tasks relating to the aid of other members, and assignees must make reasonable efforts to complete the assignments so long as their own life or health is not put at risk by doing so.”
“Ooh. So if we end up with a dozen Welcome members, we can make them help each other level,” Akari said.
“That’s a good idea.” Danielle blinked as another thought hit her. “We might need to adjust the rules about attacks and hostile Skills, though.”
“Why??” Heather asked, already aghast without even hearing the adjustment Danielle had in mind.
“So people can train their fighting skills,” Danielle explained. “Like, Sadie’s best with a bow, and she can drill the rest of us on that with just trees as targets, but I’m best with a staff. For me to teach the rest of you, we’d need to be doing staff sparring, but that won’t work if it counts as an attack.”
“Oh, good point. Maybe add something about consent?” Sadie suggested.
“Hm. So, ‘Members may not physically attack other members except with prior consent’ then?” Danielle asked.
Sadie nodded. “Yeah. Same for hostile Skills. Some Skills probably can’t be trained like that – ”
“And some just shouldn’t be,” Akari put in.
“ – yeah, but some might be safe to train. It should be allowed,” Sadie finished.
“That works for me. Heather? Akari?”
“I think that’s a good set of rules,” Akari said.
“Just in case this gets bigger than I think, we should put something about refusing assignments,” Heather said. “Like, members can revoke council assignments by appealing to a vote of all trusted members.”
“Ok, that’s fair,” Sadie agreed. “We should make it so members can be demoted by a vote of all members with Trusted status or better, too – meaning, trusted and council together.”
“So if we added someone to the council and then regretted it, we could vote them back down to Trusted or Welcome rather than having to kick them all the way out?” Danielle asked.
“Yeah, good point,” Akari admitted, “but a vote of all trusted and council level members should also be enough to kick someone out, if that’s what needs to happen.”
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Heather added, ““Better include something about the person being voted on not getting to join the vote.”
“Oh, yeah, probably.” Danielle did some more writing and a little erasing, and then said, “OK, gather around and make sure I’ve got everything, then we’ll do the incorporation.”
The other three didn’t so much gather as pass the journal around, but a few minutes later everyone had read the list.
“One last thing, and then I think we can read off the charter to the System,” Akari said. “Council members may add rules by a majority vote of the council, or remove rules that are not part of the original charter, also by majority vote of the council.”
“Oh, agreed. Sadie? Heather?”
“Agreed.”
“Why did you add that in good standing bit to the hostile Skills rule?” Heather asked.
“Oh, because I remembered the guide saying that restraining Skills count as hostile, and if someone just attacked another member, we might want to restrain them or something, you know?” Danielle shrugged. “Hopefully it’ll never come up, but just in case.”
“Oh. Good thought. All right, then, agreed.”
“OK then.” Danielle took a deep breath, and started reading her journal aloud. “We, the four occupants of room 6024, hereby call upon the System to incorporate an organization according to the charter here declared:
This organization shall be named The SHAD Party (SHAD will be pronounced the same as "shade.")
Membership levels shall consist of several ranks. The top rank shall be “Council Member," and the group of members with this rank shall be referred to as the council. The four founding members shall gain this rank at incorporation of the SHAD Party.
Below the Council shall be the rank of Trusted Member.
Below the rank of Trusted Member shall be the rank of Welcome Member. New members shall be added at this rank.
The lowest rank shall be Probationary Member. Probationary members are not considered to be in good standing with the organization.
In any vote regarding the status of a single member, that member shall not be required nor allowed to vote.
Any member in good standing who breaks a rule shall be demoted to Probationary member.
Any Probationary member who breaks a rule shall be ejected from the SHAD Party.
Welcome Members may be added to the SHAD Party by a majority vote of the Council or of the Trusted Members.
Promoting a member requires a majority vote of all members of higher rank.
Demoting a member requires a majority vote of members with Trusted or higher rank.
A member may be ejected from the Shad Party by a majority vote of members with Trusted or higher rank.
A member may leave the SHAD Party by informing the council of their intent to exit.
Members may not physically attack other members except with prior consent (as in the case of consent to spar for training, for example).
Members may not use hostile skills on other members in good standing except with prior consent (as in the case of consent to spar for training, for example).
Members may not share information they have been entrusted by the organization to keep hidden.
Permission to share previously hidden information may be granted by a majority vote of the council.
Members will make reasonable efforts to protect the life and health of other members, so long as their own life or health is not put at risk by doing so.
The council may assign tasks to members, relating to the aid of other members, and assignees must make reasonable efforts to complete such assignments so long as their own life or health is not put at risk of doing so.
Members can revoke council assignments by appealing to a vote of all Trusted members.
Council members may add rules by a majority vote of the council.
Council members may remove rules that are not part of the original charter by majority vote of the council.
Charter rules may be amended by a majority vote of the council and a separate majority vote of all other members in good standing, both of which must pass to ratify the amendment.”
As soon as Danielle finished reading, Akari spoke up. “I ratify this charter for the SHAD Party.”
Heather quietly followed her, “I ratify this charter for the SHAD Party.”
Sadie concluded, “I ratify this charter for the SHAD party!”
A breath later, system messages appeared in Danielle’s Interface:
- > You have joined Organization: The SHAD Party
- > Your status with Organization: The SHAD Party has been set to “Council Member”
There was a long moment of silence as everyone read and dismissed their notices, and looked at each other, and then tears started spilling down Heather’s cheeks. “I feel (sniff) so much better now! You have no idea how scared I was at the way they’re just a-abandoning us out here, and (sniff) it’s such a relief to have it in writing in the System that (sniff) that someone is definitely still there for me!”
“Aw, it’s OK,” Akari said, coming to sit where she could put her arm around Heather. “I think I kinda had that moment for myself when I got to our square this afternoon and saw you guys in it, and Danielle was all excited that they granted her – your – request to put me in this room, and I realized – someone still wants me. Danielle Falconer wanted me bad enough to ask for me. I’m not completely unwanted after all.”
Heather leaned against her, trying to get her breath back under control “I totally u-hunder-(sniff)-stand!”
“I get it too,” Sadie said. “I was trying not to dwell on it too much, but I was also kind of preparing for having to go it alone, and do everything on my own. A lot of people last night and at breakfast were talking about who was going to kill who and whether it was going to be an all-out mana war, and how many of us were “supposed to” survive and all. Well, I don’t want to get involved in some stupid mana war. If that’s how this goes, I want to just leave, you know? If we’re sticking together, though, either we have a chance to be too big for people to take on that way, or else if it’s war, we can go off north or south or wherever together.”
“I hear you,” Danielle agreed. “I didn’t know if the Logistics skill tree was worth anything until the guide Ranger mentioned it, but now I’m thinking I need to start saving up right away for whatever Skill leads to making boti bags. If I can really learn to make those before the crazy guys get too dangerous to live around, then if we do have to leave, we won’t have to leave all our tools and references behind.”
“Oh, um. I actually don’t know what a boti bag is?” Sadie admitted, a faint blush of embarrassment rising to her cheeks and ears.
“Oh – it’s short for Bigger On The Inside. B-O-T-I. It’s the System magic they do to let Rangers and couriers and other Outside workers carry everything they need in just one bag. I think they do it to places Inside sometimes, too. That must be expensive though – in mana, I mean.” Danielle didn’t mention that her mother’s work gear included one; normally boti bags were for rich people. In her mother’s case, it was more about a rich company.
“The bags are probably expensive too, at least for us. We should probably start making some mana tokens,” Akari said
Danielle frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t know – we don’t know if it’s even a tier one skill. You’d probably do better to save your mana for Skill practice and hunting and Payment Plan, don’t you think? I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s going to want an extra Skill ASAP.”
“True,” Akari admitted. “And speaking of that – I’m surprised I know something these two don’t about your mana?”
“Oh, right. So, we Councilors of the SHAD Party all agree that we can ask people to share status information with the council, but that information is a secret unless we have permission from the person whose status it is to share that specific piece, right?”
Akari nodded. “Yes, agreed. That’s why I didn’t say anything before.”
“That’s literally why I suggested the party, so yes,” Sadie said.
“Agreed. And, um, in the future, we probably shouldn’t ask permission in a way that hints at what the secret is, like that,” Heather scolded. “Not in front of people who don’t know. Because you technically haven’t told me anything yet, but somehow I already know something’s weird with Danielle’s mana.”
“Well, yeah, sorry I guess. It just seemed like since we kind of made the Party just for this, it was time to do it, you know?” Akari said awkwardly, mostly to Danielle
“Yes, no hard feelings, you’re right,” Danielle admitted. “You were much more subtle before, and I already said I’d tell if everyone agreed to keep the secret, so it’s fair to bring it up a little blunter now. I actually learned more about it from the Access Point, too.”
“Really? Do tell.” Akari leaned across the counter, as if a closer view might reveal the secrets of Danielle’s Status.
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