Before Kaldalis could mentally process what just happened, there was a ringing of a bell. Big Mike started shouting something from his position next to the helm, but it was all nonsense boat jargon to Kaldalis. The pointing and gesturing he was making seemed to correspond to what the sailors were already doing, and Kaldalis figured it was more out of habit than anything else. Either that, or it was for the benefit of the non-sailors to let them know that they would be docking soon.

In what little time he’d had, Kaldalis hadn’t reached any real conclusions about Garyung’s plans for Cotanaku. At least, not about his degree of involvement.

Then again, perhaps he had. Talking to Myrin had made him realize that he viewed his friends in this world as family. Wasn’t Garyung a part of that now? He might be the older disaster brother who pretends to have everything in order for the parents but is really just barely holding on, but that was still family.

Kaldalis had considered the good of Cotanaku his primary concern. He had bent over backwards at every opportunity to put the good of the town over his own needs. In the most basic sense, it felt unusual that Garyung didn’t share his motivation. But thinking about it for a moment, he realized he had to concede that they were two different people. Kaldalis could stomach a pretty significant amount of suffering in service to others - as evidenced by him walking into the Jormongumo den - but could he reasonably consider forcing that suffering on someone else?

Obviously, as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he knew he was going to help Garyung. He couldn’t leave him out to dry like that, especially when they were going to deal with Zarans all over again. But if he was going to help, he was going to need to be prepared. Garyung’s plan might be the best he could come up with, but that didn’t mean that it was the best plan possible.

As the work going on abovedeck redoubled, Kaldalis decided he needed to go find Garyung. As much as he wanted Ein to finish running himself ragged, he called the dog back into the pet menu and made his way towards the door, heading back belowdeck to seek the Bhogad out.

Apparently the bell that had rung called for a change in priorities for the sailors, and so many of the people and cargo that had clogged the passages a few minutes ago were elsewhere now. It was still a challenge to find Garyung, though. Not only was he in the last place Kaldalis looked, he was in the last place Kaldalis wanted to look.

The ship had a pretty well-constructed brig, which was where Onirioago was being kept while in transit. Demriv, Onirioago’s sister, had claimed one of the cabinets near at hand to the cells, and spent much of her time making sure her sister wasn’t left alone. Considering what she’d been told - by Onirioago - about her treatment while being imprisoned, Kaldalis wasn’t too surprised. She didn’t want someone to try something before Onirioago was formally transferred to Zaran custody in Baimer.

It was the last place Kaldalis wanted to be. Which naturally meant that it was where Garyung was.

Garyung and Demriv were out in the hall, presumably so that their quietly hissed arguement wouldn’t be overheard by Onirioago in her cell. Kaldalis couldn’t hear what they were arguing about, but there weren’t many options it could have been. It was either another fight about Onirioago’s treatment and care, or it was another debate about Cotanaku’s relationship with Zara. It would depend on which one had initiated the conversation. Kaldalis hoped that it would be the latter. Then his participation might be helpful.

Despite his hope, when Demriv saw him her visible irritation with Garyung was replaced with outright hate directed at Kaldalis.

“I can presume this one isn’t involved in this,” she snapped, gesturing angrily at Kaldalis. “If he was, I wouldn’t be hearing about it for another month, right?”

“Demriv,” Garyung said, trying to put forward a voice of authority. “The decisions I and my council make do not involve him.”

Demriv didn’t dignify that with any more response than a snort of obvious disbelief. Kaldalis struggled for a moment to figure out what to say, but she turned on her heel and stormed off, leaving whatever discussion she had been having with Garyung unfinished.

“Sorry,” Kaldalis said, “I didn’t mean to ruin everything.”

Garyung only shook his head. “You didn’t ruin anything. She’s just… Gavinkim said she’s been talking to Onirioago a lot, whenever they can do so without him listening in. I don’t know what’s going on, but I sure wouldn’t want to be you when whatever they’re doing comes to a head.”

“Me, neither,” Kaldalis said with a grimace. “Though neither of us have a choice in the matter, do we?”

Garyung gave a single mirthless bark of a laugh at that. “I suppose not,” he said. “So I suppose you have a new emergency for me, if it was important enough for you to come here to find me.”

“Not an emergency,” Kaldalis said with a smirk. “But I didn’t just come here for my health. I wanted to talk to you about your plan.”

Garyung stiffened for a moment before he ventured to ask: “and what did you have to say?”

Kaldalis sighed. “I’m on board.”

The tension filling Garyung evaporated instantly. He didn’t even try to hide him blowing out a huge sigh of relief.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Kaldalis said quickly, “I don’t like the idea. I think this is going to be a lot more complicated than you say, and there’s going to be consequences. But I’d be a real heel if I left you hanging after all we’ve been through together.”

“I can’t possibly thank you enough,” Garyung said. “I promise I’ll do all the heavy lifting on this, I just… I can’t do this alone, you know?”

“Executive dysfunction is a bitch,” Kaldalis said with a nod.

“I’ve got some coping mechanisms,” Garyung said defensively, “and some connections. I can put this together. Mostly what I need is a friendly face. Obviously you corroborating my stories about the upgrade isn’t going to be super useful, since you’re a PC, too, but once we’re under the gun with whoever we need to talk to, I’m gonna need to not be alone. I need someone to be next to me in case I need to stall for time, or help me remember.”

“Right, of course,” Kaldalis said, nodding along. “So how are you getting started with this? What connections do you have?”

“Well, I finished the Baimer questline during the alpha,” Garyung said. He reached up and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “Technically, I have a title and lands in Baimer. I’m a duke or something.”

“Okay,” Kaldalis said, a little surprised. “That’s certainly a starting point. Do you think that will help you with their prejudice against PCs?”

“Maybe,” Garyung said, though he immediately grimaced. “Probably. Maybe not. A lot of the quest text around the title is about being not like the others, that all of the others are soulless destructive assholes, but that I am one of the good ones. You know, basically the racist Solas talk.”

Kaldalis shared in Garyung’s grimace. “That’s a bit uncomfortable of a starting point,” Kaldalis said, “but it’s a starting point. The big hurdle is going to be getting them to understand that you didn’t mean to upgrade the camp into a new nation. If they think you’re… one of the good ones, maybe they’ll believe it wasn’t malicious.”

“Right,” Garyung said, “that’s what I’m hoping.”

“Obviously though,” Kaldalis pressed on, “that only helps you. Not the rest of us. What can we do to try to make sure that they don’t treat us all like shit once the place is theirs?”

“I think you’re overreacting,” Garyung said, crossing his arms. “Why do you think they’re going to be shitty to us?”

“Uh, basic pattern recognition?” Kaldalis snapped. He stopped, raised a hand, and forced himself to stop matching Garyung’s defensive tone. “Maybe Onirioago and her council are cool with PCs - maybe a little too cool in Onirioago’s case - but you didn’t hear her going ham on them when she was on her way out. She was a misfit, and she recruited misfits. They’re not the norm. Meanwhile, Cerh has been an ass from the start, even when being an ass didn’t do anything for him. He hung me out to dry over and over again, and none of his people cared enough about ‘our sort’ to say a word against him.”

“That’s not enough to make a fuss about, though,” Garyung said.

“You literally just said that the official Zaran stance is that we’re soulless destructive assholes,” Kaldalis shot back. “That’s another piece of the pattern. Cerh’s assignment came from him being part of the bureaucracy to reinforce the Zaran way of life. He might actually be nicer than them because he was sent out to deal with us directly.” Kaldalis grimaced and crossed his arms. “Cerh is just kind of a dick. If the people here in Baimer think we’re mindless killers, that probably means they’ll be worse than that.”

“That doesn’t change what I have to do,” Garyung said with a scowl.

“I know,” Kaldalis said, shaking his head. “I guess trying to come up with a plan for that is going to be up to me, then.” He sighed. “One step at a time though, right?”