ximilia | ✨ XIMILIA TOWN HALL MEETING ✨ ( video/audio/action )

✨ XIMILIA TOWN HALL MEETING ✨ ( video/audio/action )

[ some morning in the middle of the week, during their return to the station, an invitation will be taped on the door of every orber. though the calligraphy would suggest this must have been typed on a computer and printer, each invitation is actually very carefully hand-written and reads as follows: ]

[ the idea is for everyone to meet in the mess hall at the intended time, but if some choose not to attend, the meeting can still be accessed by the earpieces, allowing all orbers to watch or listen in and contribute however they wish, no matter where they are.

however, for those who do decide to attend, the mess hall features a full display of bagels and donuts, along with plenty of fresh coffee, all to help everyone wake up and feel refreshed for the meeting that's about to take place.

a makeshift little stage, arranged by stacking together a few metal boxes is at the center of the room, atop of it being the one and only rita farr herself, with a bright optimistic smile. when she sees enough people present and settled, she speaks up, loud and clear: ]

Hello, everyone! Welcome to our first Annual — or monthly, or however we decide to do it — Town Hall meeting! Thank you all for coming and please enjoy the food to your heart's content. For those who don't know me, I'm Rita Farr. Now— though my name does appear on the invitation, this is hardly about me. This is about all of us.

After our ... last mission, it became quite clear that our group could use a bit of improvement with how we approach our next missions moving forward. And I thought the best way to plan for that is to allow all of us an opportunity to discuss how we all feel about what we've done well and what we could do better. After all, everyone deserves a say in this, right?

[ she points behind her where a giant board is on display on an easel, once again, hand-written with careful and precise calligraphy in giant letters: ]

Here, I've written some sample questions we can all try to offer answers to, but the floor will also be open for any other questions and suggestions that anyone might have. Remember, there are no wrong answers! We're all here for an open forum discussion. But before that!

[ she reaches over to the board, pulling it off to reveal another one behind it. this one reads as follows: ]

Please consider the "Keys to Success", not only on our missions, but as we talk together in this room right now. We'll go ahead and take turns either stepping up here on the stage or speaking out from wherever you are. There are no microphones but the earpieces should get your voices out to everyone. Now, who would like to start?

( this post is open to all! the idea is that everyone is taking turns in each thread to speak out to the entire group (whether from within the room or from elsewhere), but thread-jacking and hopping around for discussion is the key here! feel free to run wild with ic suggestions or questions regarding mission layouts or planning or whatever floats your boat (ic complaining/protest is always an option too). though rita is organizing it, it's open to whatever people are inclined to discuss. )

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[Ha!

He winks at him.]

Maaaybe just enough to keep everyone's eardrums intact.

[ joe sighs, reaching out to pat finn's shoulder. ]

I appreciate that.

[ he's not going to dismiss finn's apology. just because he did what he thought was best doesn't mean it didn't have consequences and joe isn't going to pretend otherwise, but joe knows better than most too that it can be damaging to brush aside an apology freely and remorsefully given. it isn't joe's place to give finn absolution, he will need to find that in himself, but he can give him a hand up. ]

People want something to hate so they don't have to look inward at themselves. And who knows, maybe the Fables will use sending us away as a cause to rally behind. Hopefully some good came from it regardless.

[Natasha shrugs. She doesn't exactly feel like she won any arguments there.]

Oh, I am apparently very capable of making things difficult for myself.

[She won't blame him for that. She decided to engage.

She could have always not listened to advice without arguing about it.]

I understand having obligations to follow through with. I'm not mad about it.

Perhaps not everyone are this used to someone else being in charge. For what it's worth? I think you did very well.

[Natasha and Yelena, working together as if they've done this a million times before. The glances that spoke volumes and how well they fought.]

But having them, as many are asking for here, can backfire on us on the next mission. Or the one after that. Asking everyone to make promises that might prove impossible, once we're in the thick of it.

[Alina, you're going to get frosting in your pockets.

Ziggy makes a mildly concerned face, as if Alina is a drunk girl at a party who needs to be walked home ASAP after holding her hair, but she'll let it go. Who is she to deny someone their God-given right to stuff food into their clothes????]

You'd think it would get me more sob story points, but I think it just makes me easier to catch.

The people here can be ruthless against my obvious charms.

[Natasha smiles slightly at the compliment. She doesn't agree, but it's not an argument she's going to have.

She's had more than enough arguments recently.]

Maybe. I do meant what I said back then. [Pitched low, because she doesn't need to reopen any other conversations.] At the end of the day, I think we have to trust the people on the scene to do what they think is best. Maybe they'll make a mistake, but they're still the ones with the best perspective in the moment.

[ Did you just put that back in your pocket? Peter-

But Finn just shakes his head, loops his arm through Peter's, and makes his way to his room. It's not really much of a room to speak of, once they arrive. The only difference is that there's now a couple of picture frames on a shelf. They're lying face down but they're there. Finn ignores them, just tugs him towards the bed.

Sorry that he's not the best company, bud. ]

[ Was that a compliment? It sounded like a compliment. And... honestly, it does make him rethink some things. Just like the rest of the conversation has done.

So, after a quiet pause, all he can really find in himself to say is- ]

Thank you... I'll, uh- I'll be better.

[ Yusuf's response feels good, honestly. No, it's not absolution or anything, but it feels like a start. That's more than he had a few minutes ago. ]

Maybe... I hadn't thought of that. Hopefully, they were seen as the heroes a little.

[ Hopefully. Hopefully. ]

We'll probably never know, though...

Don't just be better because someone else wants you to, either. That's a surefire way to get yourself manipulated if you run into the wrong person.

You do it for yourself. Because even if you want to do it for others, it won't mean anything in the end if you just wind up hurting them by not giving a shit about yourself.

It really is, I am not sure why either. Maybe the ob knows my species has a talent for chaos? I haven't lived with that many humans in decades, either, all my team is made entirely of different species of aliens. One is a tree, the other is a raccoon. Both can talk. My girlfriend is humanoid-looking but green and far stronger. Her species also has a different facial bone structure and two livers, which is why she always beats me at drinking contests.

[ Peter sounds fond as he reminisces about his family. He also gives Minimus a sympathetic look of understanding after his last reply. ]

Sorry, Minimus. I shouldn't have brought it up.

( isn't she feisty? she reminds him a little of naruto in fact. )

How did you know? ( his eye widens comically in faux surprise. ) That's precisely what I'm doing.

( he actually has little interest in eating the food right now. maybe later. )

No, we may not, but even if we did know, there is no way to know how the ripples of our presence will affect anything. Even a good outcome could down the line produce something terrible. There is an explosive on Earth called TNT, trinitrotoluene. It was originally meant as a fabric dye, a beautiful honey-yellow, lovely and rich. Some decades later people realized it could be used as an explosive and introduced it to wartime ordinance. An innocent invention turned to a weapon of slaughter.

[ his smile is sad, but understanding. ] I don't mean to be pessimistic, but I know the reality. The world can be a cruel, unhappy place. We can only hope to leave some good behind us, like seeds in a garden, whether they flourish into a garden or wither it up to them, but it only takes one person to nurture a seed. It only takes one ripple to show that person the seed is worth caring for.

[ don't tell copley that joe is paraphrasing the pitch of his creepy scrapbook boards. ]

I'm not important enough for you to bother with poison.

[ — factually untrue. but removed from ravka's saintly pedestal, perhaps it's a skewed version of a new truth. she's no more significant than the next orber among their numbers, bizarrely normal in this sea of unique powers and people. she sinks her teeth into that change like a famished animal, always in pursuit of that belonging, that removal of otherness from her existence.

perhaps she's merely playing pretend as kirigan would likely accuse, like a child inventing stories for her precious dolls. with all that ravka would take from her, she's more than earned the right to a little session of make-believe.

there's no need, then, to mention the tasters she'd had at the little palace. that the only ones who believe themselves important enough to be poisoned are those with ambitions or those with a paranoia to rival her own. her lips pinch, instead, an expression of begrudging good-humor.

with considerably less grace, she lifts her own cup to her lips. it is, by some stroke of fortune, considerably less of a messy affair this time — though there's a moment where her fingers tap her mouth, trying to soothe them from a scorching sip of tea. ]

Better. [ a beat ticks by. her eyebrows lift. ] We'll have to see if you drop dead from slow-moving poison in the next hour.

If they were seeking chaos, they would have brought in more Cybertronians. We have a talent for erasing entire civilizations and ruining our reputation.

[Though...it makes sense that they have five of them on this ship, even if four are from the same universe. The orb has successfully figured that part out.]

I'd like to meet your friends some day. They might be analogous to species from my universe.

[That he hoped weren't wiped out in the war. That didn't go extinct. That didn't die off, like Verity and every other human that befriended the Autobots and Decepticons.]

...You were not aware. I harbor no ill will towards you

[Who her, feisty???? No way.

She definitely doesn't seem to trust a single word Kakashi says.]

Mmmhmmmm. Right.

You're not masking up as a way to, like, keep some anonymity in the crew, are you?

Because that's kind of weird.

[ what are extra pockets for if not for food storage? if ziggy's concern goes noticed, alina is all too content with her choice to blithely ignore it. there are worse Looks of Judgement™ she's had thrown her way, with more malicious intentions than an innocent teenager. ]

I can't imagine why. You're very charming.

[ she sucks the tacky residue a donut has left behind on her thumb, mouth curving into what looks suspiciously like a smile at ziggy's expense. ]

It pays to be underestimated. You might be down one leg, but people will forget you still have two working fists.

[ sage life advice. ]

Those who are only interested in their own opinions seem more primed for defeat than victory. Then again, a leader too willing to capitulate to everyone will never gain significant ground.

[ It's about the balance, anyway, between diplomacy and dictatorship; she has seen too many kings fall prey to their own misguided perspective, unwilling to even entertain the word of their most trusted advisors, only to reap the consequences. Similarly, she has seen others paralyzed by indecision, refusing to make a definitive move until it becomes too late to do anything significant — and therefore leaving themselves open for stronger kingdoms to conquer.

She doesn't inquire along further lines when he doesn't elaborate on the contents of his note-taking; she has the strong impression that he's keeping record for some purpose yet to be confirmed. ]

I've never had one. [ Nor so much as ever heard the name before. ] They're something... baked?

If that were my aim, don't you imagine I would have used one I am not likely to be affected by?

（ he may not have been an expert, but he worked alongside an aburame and troubled himself to learn appropriate measures and countermeasures, waiting for that inevitable betrayal that was instead directed against shisui. since he was in anbu, he has carried antidotes sewn into the hems of his clothing, immaculately labelled with a neat hand, and in his later years... kotarō gave him uncanny tolerance to a great many things, in the grip of its vile clouding of the mind. ）

But it is much likely to simply be tea.

[ Oh... Oh, wow, Yzak... Oh, wow, you just hit the nail right on the head there... Oh, boy...

It doesn't help that Jim used to say the exact same thing. Anyway, it takes him a beat to answer, and he may look like he's going to burst into tears before that happens, but he pulls himself together. Sorta. ]

Ye- Yeah... Yeah, I learned that the hard way.

[ Doing better for himself has just never been a thing that's worked out well, though. He doesn't know where to begin. Which has been his problem for the last two years. Thing is, he would love to have that kind of mindset. But... where do you even get such a thing? Caring for himself is so much easier when it's to help or spite others. ]

[ ... Huh... ]

I used to believe those things... And now I just don't think about them at all.

[ Depression, probably, not that he's leaping to that conclusion or anything at the moment. ]

You're right, though. I guess-... I guess all we have is hope. That's enough, isn't it?

It has to be. Otherwise... [ he trails off, sadness pinching around his eyes. otherwise the grief makes people do terrible things at the expense of the people they claim to hold dear. ]

What's the point of it all?

[ he gives finn's shoulder another squeeze. ]

It was good to meet you, Finn. I'm glad.

[ He's staring off into the middle distance when Yusuf grips his shoulder, jostling him a little but bringing him back to the moment. All he can offer is a soft, warm smile, but it's all he's got right now. ]

It was good to meet you, too... Thank you.

[ Because you've given him a whole lot to think about. ]

Oh, socharming. [She says it as she takes a very unladylike bite out of a doughnut, hobbling along with the grace of a baby cow.] I've been trying to be a little less tempermental; there's a stereotype about redheads that they're short-tempered, and I've spent a lot of time in my life proving that stereotype, soooo...

[....]

If I calmly punch someone, does that count?

And I agree with you.

[Too used to being the one who made the tough calls, the one who made the impossible choices, to let it go easily. But Natasha worked well, quick-thinking and rabbit-quick on her feet.]

Have you tried the donuts? I've never had anything like it before, but I can assure you - they are delicious.

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✨ XIMILIA TOWN HALL MEETING ✨ ( video/audio/action )

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cw: vague medicinal drug use

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im sorry this is so short sjdlf

shhhh there there... 🧹

♥

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