station72 | mental link; after everything goes down on the evening of :038

[As it becomes apparent that it's time to move on—to shift forward in what feels like an endless pilgrimage, one in which none of the Hosts will gain any "true" enlightenment, as they will never see this culture as anything more than a means to an end. (At least, that's as far as Lexa sees it. Perhaps it's disrespectful. Perhaps she would bristle at it herself if it were about her culture. But then, no one is calling these people primitive and uncivilized like she's heard about her people in the past.)

Not that any of this will be spoken. This mission will go on, but it's a mission that can come to an end. That is something within their reach.

Which is why she opens up a mental communication to all the Hosts.]

( We must discuss, as a whole, how we hope to proceed moving forward. Before we pack up our things, I would prefer that we have some plan in place for how we act next. It'll prevent any further need to take on actions individually as we will be acting for each other. With the knowledge of each other's future actions.

That is not to say that I recommend against actions. But we can't act in contradiction to one another. Out of impatience for each other. We all hope to be done with this mission as soon as possible.

We have confirmed the presence of the Enemy. How do we hope to proceed? How will we ensure that the Descendants do not claim control of this power?

Furthermore, I implore you all to consider why it is the Enemy would act to prevent peace talks that could secure them the Nectar. And why it is that they need the Nectar. We are only fighting one battle here.

I won't lead this discussion. But we must have this discussion. We work well under time constraints. Let's have an idea of how we hope to proceed before we continue our journey. )

[That's her way of setting a time constraint, all in hopes that people will discuss what they will have to do. It's no longer about Keya (as far as she's concerned), but about their greater mission.]

[ooc: please please please treat this as an IC discussion post where people can threadjack and discuss whatever! i figured it would be a good idea to facilitate discussion here!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Was our goal not to definitively find the traces of our Enemy. Why so much chatter, still. )

[ Her response is airy, cold. ]

( Perhaps we are not so clever as we think, in our idea of 'definitive'. )

[ Wow, Ilde... you are not.... helping... ]

[ ilde............... ]

( Finding traces doesn't end the Mission. We still need to decide what to do about the Nectar. )

[ a pause, something in bellamy shattering slightly to betray a flicker of guilt and grief. ]

( And I promised to help Keya's aunt. )

[ She is not going to try to dissuade him from caring about Keya and her aunt. She knows Bellamy all too well and she knows how the rest of this band reacts to such displays of heartlessness. ]

( Fair enough. )

[ Look, she got her shitty dig in, she's satisfied. ]

( What are we going to do about the Nectar? )

( I don't know. )

[ Exasperation. Bellamy's tired of trying to navigate this power struggle. ]

( Lexa thinks the Meradans are the safest choice. I agree with her. )

[ but. ]

( I still think we should try to sweep their quarters for traces before we go any farther with this. )

[ His exasperation is almost amusing to her... like watching a little toy spin... ]

( We will all be intermingled as we travel. We could determine this before we reach our next destination, could we not? )

[ She pauses, and just because she's feeling cruel: ]

( How do you feel, about deciding the fate of a war? )

[ The initial response takes shape and then dissipates. It'd be easier to search when we're settled in one place is subsumed by discomfort, guilt rising like smoke. ]

( Ilde. )

[ The long term consequences of their decisions here weigh on him as much as Keya's death, more so since Rhan met his hopes with pessimism. That's probably obvious to anyone prodding at his thoughts. ]

[ She had told him, not to let her be cruel to him, and yet here they are, and she pushes, like a knife sliding between his ribs: ]

( Are you prepared to deal with this? Have you steeled yourself? )

( Yes. )

[ That's true, at least. Bellamy had come to this planet knowing that might have to blow it out of the sky. Leaving a full on war behind is only mildly better. It isn't much of a cushion against the knife-twist of Ilde's questioning. ]

( Are you enjoying this? )

[ She is, she is enjoying watching all of them suffer from the safety of her frozen pavillion where she does not have to share it. ]

( I know you. Your heart is soft, I wouldn’t want it broken over this. )

( My heart's survived worse. )

[ arguably. ]

( There might not be any alternative here. )

[ their people are going to have to come first. that's all there is to this for bellamy. ]

(no subject)

erbier - 2018-02-04 22:31 (UTC) - Expand

deployed - 2018-02-05 00:29 (UTC) - Expand

( Reconsider that promise, Bellamy. We aren't here to be used. )

( I'm not going to. You know that. )

( Then consider this in a different light.

She died for the Enemy. The aunt doesn't know that, nor will she know that, because we can't use that when we barely know about the Enemy's overall goal. Other than that they mean to kill us before we can receive the symbiote.

If we stop the Enemy from receiving the Nectar, we are honoring Keya.

Letting her aunt die so that she can have the satisfaction of facing Keya's killer is not honorable in any way. It's walking her to the very death you'd otherwise hope to prevent. )

( That isn't going to bring her any peace. )

[ pointedly refusing to acknowledge that lexa is appealing to bellamy's own sensibilities and point out a way to alleviate his own guilt. ]

( We have to give her something tangible. Just telling her it's been taken care of won't resolve this loss for her. )

( Bellamy, we can't lose sight of protecting our people because you made an ill-advised promise to a woman. Suggest something reasonable that's tangible. )

( I haven't lost sight of our people. )

[ just overestimates the possibility of multitasking. ]

( We can do both. If we're smart about it, we can do both. )

( How do you propose we do both when we literally cannot defeat the man who killed Keya? I asked for a reasonable plan. Your avoidance of it tells me you know that it's unreasonable to make up our promise.

As I said before, we are honoring Keya while preventing the Descendants from getting this power. It may even help all these worlds. I met her, too. She would prefer that. )

( You have a grasp of the big picture as always, Ilde. )

( Don't speak to me, you duplicitous animal. )

( How long until those around you this time realize the narrow nature of your scope?

That you can't think beyond this moment is unsurprising. But you'd think you'd take care to avoid being insignificant by having little input. )