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Entry tags:
- !plot: send in the clones,
- daniel jackson,
- dr mcninja,
- dustin brooks,
- eleventh doctor,
- gaignun kukai jr./rubedo,
- hana asakura,
- hit girl,
- howard bassem,
- kang,
- kanoe zouichi,
- kon-el,
- lash,
- lex luthor,
- lord zedd,
- lord zetta,
- nightwing,
- querl dox,
- rory williams,
- ruffnut thorston,
- sakura haruno,
- tana moon,
- ter'thelas
"Listening to others, considering well what they say" (Part 3: Maingate Hotel)
The Maingate Hotel was pretty extravagant, and an entire section of it had been eked out for the crew's use during their stay. They had several suites, three communal areas, a conference room, their own kitchen with a chef on call if they required her.
They were all teleported from the main teleport pad of the hotel into the conference room, which was a large enough room to be able to hold a group their size and had plenty of chairs arranged in a circular pattern so they could mostly all face each other or whoever was in the middle of the room.
Everyone had to settle down so they were all able to talk, and the meeting itself would have to be carefully controlled so they wouldn't all talk over each other. But they were up for the task, right?
[ooc: Guardian Setup, General Mingling, Clone Checkup, Newbie Briefing, General Briefing, More Mingling, Back to the Meeting, and The Idea Guy sections are open. Backup characters introduced to the plot can join in the mingling subthreads if they want. The opening of new subthreads will be announced here and the ooc. Please read the linked OOC post for a plot timeline.]
They were all teleported from the main teleport pad of the hotel into the conference room, which was a large enough room to be able to hold a group their size and had plenty of chairs arranged in a circular pattern so they could mostly all face each other or whoever was in the middle of the room.
Everyone had to settle down so they were all able to talk, and the meeting itself would have to be carefully controlled so they wouldn't all talk over each other. But they were up for the task, right?
[ooc: Guardian Setup, General Mingling, Clone Checkup, Newbie Briefing, General Briefing, More Mingling, Back to the Meeting, and The Idea Guy sections are open. Backup characters introduced to the plot can join in the mingling subthreads if they want. The opening of new subthreads will be announced here and the ooc. Please read the linked OOC post for a plot timeline.]
Guardian Setup
[ooc: Subthreaded with clones and guardians, and lots of thread-hopping.]
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She was angry, humiliated, and so completely horrified. She'd seen many cloning facilities, some more advanced than others. It was something unavoidable in her line of work, and it never failed to upset her each time she took a case involving them. So to see something so large-scale like that... there was still some lingering shock she couldn't shake off.
And of course, this all brought up those issues again. Issues that she had long since buried before being brought onto this ship. Issues that had been dug up during the incident with Molly, back when she was just "Mei-Xing's clone". She needed to get off this planet as quickly as possible, or else all those horrible thoughts and emotions will threaten to overwhelm her.
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General Mingling
[ooc: Standard subthreaded mingling. Eat a sandwich, talk amongst yourselves, poke at a pretty indoor hotel fountain.]
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One hand of his was constantly up, brushing and poking and nudging the brand on his forehead repeatedly. Of course the irony was that he used his right hand to do so, where the much older brand of the ominous number 666 rested on his palm.
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Re: General Mingling
He was actually contemplating using it to shoot off the holographic brand that had been implanted in his forehead. It should be relatively easy for his systems to calculate the exact angle of fire required to scrape the skin without puncturing his skull. There would be blood, of course -- head wounds always bled quite a bit. But on its lowest setting, the shell should produce a minor, predictable path of damage. The wound should be completely healed, without scarring, in a day or two.
He looked at the gun barrel.
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Re: General Mingling
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Re: General Mingling
'Better' would include not finding out that Galilean lifestyle depended on bred-for-slavery labor. 'Better' would include not having the Galileans ignore their ways and trample all over the team's rights. According to the Councillor, clones were property, like having a car. No feelings, no worries, just a use they were all entitled to because they made life. That was bad enough. It got even better that it felt underhanded, and they'd just acted without even consulting them or warning them ahead of time. Daniel resisted the urge to pace. He tried to keep himself neutral, look at this from the anthropologist point of view. It wasn't like there weren't caste systems all over the galaxy, all over Earth at some point. China, Yi society, had divided into classes, with the Ajia and Xiaxi being slaves. Or the Baekjeong. Not quite the same, they weren't artificially created, but Daniel was thinking it didn't make a difference. Still living, sentient beings being oppressed for the benefit of a few. Maybe the big difference was that they were molded from birth. Didn't even have a fighting chance.
All you had to do was look at the Goa'uld and the Jaffa.
So much for cultural relativism and objectivity. Maybe he needed to cool off somewhere.
On top of that, they had negotiators practically offering up military service as if Stacy's crew had to apologize for the Galilean actions. It didn't make any sense. Why would they do that? The Galileans had been the one who'd committed an offense, if you could call branding their people a simple slip up, and the burden was on them to apologize for completely disrespecting their visitors' ways. After all, the Galileans had reached out to them after all. Jumping to offer them anything at this junction was a mistake. A big one.
Daniel glanced at the offered food and found that, no, he still wasn't hungry. Hard to when guilt was eating at you already. The food was probably made by people that, according to the Galileans, weren't considered sentient beings. Just a tool like any other. This entire hotel, for that matter, the beds they slept probably all came from clone labor. Daniel's stomach flipped a little, and this time it wasn't due to the air shuttle.
Find Dick, see about checking out the processing plants or that computer. He'd try and keep himself objective, do his job. It wasn't like this was the first time he'd seen something that massively conflicted with his own beliefs.
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The fact lives were being lost on a world that could revive next to anyone indicated scale in a different way. Now, Sakura could only imagine how much of that life-loss could be clone related. How many 'actual' citizens had been lost? Was this more financial than anything else?
She wanted to talk with Rory, she wanted to speak with Henderson, check in with all those who had been taken off to be branded, listen to the people around her. She wasn't hungry, if she knew she needed to keep her energy levels up for whatever they'd have to discuss, and whatever they'd have to do tomorrow.
Walking neutral lines was difficult. Yet who was right? When had this become about being pulled into another world's civil war and told to stop out the leaders of one half of the war? Not to say it wasn't the kind of work a shinobi could find themselves in. She'd be lying if she thought otherwise.
But the trade off? Where was the justification in helping potentially escalate one skirmish, one war, in the face of the largest war she'd ever encountered? The technology that could be used to save their lives, the lives of everyone in the GIA, potentially -- if. If they could work with a morally reprehensible group, if they could find the trade-off, if they could keep parts of their own crew from defecting to fight with the people not content with their dictated lot in life.
It was so very hard to figure out how to walk that line.
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He stopped to the side, taking a moment to rub his fingers over the bridge of his nose. "It can't ever be easy, can it?" he asked nobody in particular, then shook his head and straightened. There was still a little bit while the conference room was being set up. Probably better grab something to eat.
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Re: General Mingling
A slight bit of political maneuvering, and Lex had all the information he had asked for previously. Information on the terrorist group and their recent attacks. Information on the laws of this world.
Information on the crew themselves.
It made for excellent reading, and he sat there quietly soaking in all this knowledge. He really should've asked for information on the global economy, but he should probably pace himself a little.
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This was not unusual for Ruffnut. For how much she had learned so far the universe was still too vast for her to comprehend and this was honestly the first time such a problem and come into her life.
So she sat slumped in a chair, Helmet askew, legs folded watching the crowd mill about and thinking as hard as her uneducated and sheltered Viking mind would allow her.
Maybe she'd feel better if she hit something...
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Though he seemed utterly uninclined to mingle or be social with the others, he HAD expressed an unpopular opinion on the comms. Throw things at him.
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Finally, she has to give voice to her concerns from the corner where she's standing, to whoever happens to be nearby and listening. "Can anyone tell me why we're still here eating hors d'oeuvres and chattingafter members of our crew were attacked?"
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Re: General Mingling
God, just, everything that they had heard now, from some of the members of the crew was just completely horrible. She had no idea what she could even do about it though. Fighting against the government of this planet wasn't exactly something they were going to be able to do. Not if they wanted that tech.
Of course, as far as Will was considered, Fuck the tech. She already knew from Nerissa doing it that if she had enough power to do it, Will could do everything that medical tech could do. But, that would really only help the ship, wouldn't it? Not the rest of the GIA.
Either way, right now Will was pretty pissed, and trying to make sure that she didn't start accidentally send bolts of lightning towards every native non-clone of this planet.
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Re: General Mingling
And what about the other pieces of information she should be telling the others sooner or later...
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Re: General Mingling
It wasn't about the mark to him, it wasn't about being denigrated himself--it was the clone banks. The clone banks of Krypton and the clone banks here looked exactly the same. It was just like Kal had showed him that one time, with the visions of Krypton and Black Zero. Fighting over clone rights had led to the destruction of a world, and while it also led to the Earth getting one of its greatest heroes, that was a steep price to pay.
How could they not see what this would lead to? How could they help oppress people who were enslaved just for some medical tech they could probably eventually develop on their own or get from somewhere else?
If anything, the GIA probably wanted their own handy-dandy disposable clone armies over the tech--an endless supply of soldiers that didn't count as people to be tossed against the faceless Ohm hordes.
He had to calm himself down, though. He knew that much. Which was why he caught some fresh air on a balcony outside, still visible to the group but set apart, where he had some space. He was breathing deep, ragged breaths like a bull, trying to let the cool air soothe his inflamed temper.
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Re: General Mingling
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Re: General Mingling
He needed to gather his thoughts, knew he needed to gather his thoughts. Had to stay focused in order to get everything together. He'd need to dissimulate the information later. He wasn't really meant for this sort of thing, wasn't really the sort of thrived in this environment. But he was the only medic that had gotten a first hand look at the tech. At how they did things.
How was he supposed to say "They can regrow limbs" without coming off as entirely complimentary? How was he supposed to admire their recovery time when most was caused by transplanting organs that had been cloned to cut down on rejection? Or using a clone to provide blood and plasma? He wasn't a doctor, and he couldn't help coming back to the mark. The brand, like these people were nothing more than cattle, incable of being shamed by a caste mark that told all who saw them that they were subhuman.
Couldn't help thinking of Molly and Conner.
Beings created for a purpose with no choice given to them. It would be like randomly assigning jobs to every baby every born. It would be impossible to know anything about the person they'd become, unless it was programed in. Which seemed to be what the plan was here. The hospital had been amazing, beautifully designed, clean, efficient...
He sighed, staring down at his notes. If it weren't for the clones, if they hadn't attacked five members of their party...well, Galilee would have gotten their assistance with no questions asked. And now? Now where did they stand?
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Clone Checkup
[ooc: Subthreaded with medics tagging clones. For general mingling, clones, just tag the mingling threads.]
Re: Clone Checkup
So he relied on his healing factor to take care of most things, and avoided MedBay except for social purposes (for some reason, he knew a surprising number of the medics there).
But Sakura had asked that each of the branded individuals be examined. He looked around for an available medic.
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Newbie Briefing
Say hi, backup Meatcrew! You're now in a massive conference room with all the others again and they don't look too happy. Nightwing will have to tell them to settle in and that they were going to talk about everything that happened with the rest of the crew in a moment.
[ooc: Please note, everyone in the whole mission is in this conference room as this goes on, but only a few are allowed to talk just to keep the convo under control. Pretend everyone else is sitting there letting them talk. Posting Order: The Doctor, Jalith, Tana, Samuel Henderson, Nightwing, The Doctor, etc.]
Re: Newbie Briefing
The Doctor takes the teleport in a stride, as if he's quite used to being beamed from once place to another, and he now takes the time to straighten his bowtie before plopping himself down in his chair. Despite the grim news, his expression is still polite and friendly even as he settles into his chair, folds his hands in his lap with exaggerated care, and glances around at the crew assembled. Some he recognizes, like Otter Soother Daniel Jackson; Zouchi from the Book Club; Rory the On-and-Off-Again Roman (human never could seem to make up his mind). Some of the others he's seen before but never talked to.
He waits for Nightwing to begin, showing an odd sense of tact by not immediately trying to jump into the middle of things. Instead he meets Rory's eyes and...well, he doesn't quite consider himself the expert on humans, but it's quite clear Rory's upset. The Doctor dips his head slightly toward Rory, a shorthand way of saying "it'll be okay, don't you worry", except not quite like that after all, on second thought.
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General Briefing
Even though they were all in the room, one person from each group was to speak with Nightwing about what they'd learned from the Councilors/Galileean society to keep the meeting under control.
[ooc: Posting Order: Nightwing, Rory, Lash, Kang, Signum, Nightwing, etc.]
Re: General Briefing
"The broad strokes? Galilean society is pretty much peaceful. Their people are provided for so that they can follow whatever path they want. Crime is nearly nonexistent and the rehabilitation rate for what crime they do have is high." He'd seen the statistics on that. "Or, at least, that's what they're telling us. No doubt to give us as good an opinion of their society as possible to present themselves in the best possible light."
He couldn't even fault them for that. It's what any society would do when asking for help.
"This is all possible, though, because of their cloned workforce. The clones are of limited lifespan and are only given the programming necessary for their caste. Whatever work they do." He was TRYING to stay neutral, or at least sound it. Dick knew it might not be going that well. "This programming comes from something called a Mother Brain.
"Ten years ago, a radical group of citizens claimed that clones were sentients that deserved the same freedom as anybody else. To this end, they uploaded new programming to the Mother Brains which would allow for more freedom in the clones. The Galileans did their best to get rid of this new programming, but the way that the Mother Brains are set up makes it impossible to get rid of all of it." Privately, Dick thought this was a good thing. "The Clone Liberation Front, the group behind the attacks, appears to be made up of clones who have received programming from this addition. The Galileans say that the contradictory programming causes most clones who receive it to commit suicide. At this point, I don't know how much of what they tell us to believe."
He looked around at the group. "The price we've been asked to pay in order to get this technology is to break the back of the CLF. Get rid of the major players in an attempt to save their way of life and society."
Which was why he turned to Rory. Since his group had seen the medical technology that the GIA wanted so badly.
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More Mingling by request
[ooc: More subthreaded mingling, now with everyone having information to discuss.]
Re: More Mingling by request
Daniel leaned against the hallway. After how crowded it got inside, he needed a breath of fresh air. And more importantly, space to think over what they'd all just heard. Things just kept getting better and better with this mission. The technology itself sounded like it almost wasn't worth their time, not for what was being asked of them. Granted, there was another side to it too. That the needs of the few had to be judged against the benefit for everyone else. It was asking the clones to put their humanity aside, and Daniel didn't think he could ask that of anyone ever. No go there.
The actual cultural relations front wasn't looking all that great either, and that wasn't even touching on the politics. The Galilean representatives were either so different to their own cultures that they either honestly didn't get that there was a breach in conduct or they were being less than trustworthy. After speaking with Jr, Daniel was leaning towards the second. Just looking at them within the Galilean frame, the representative wasn't acting as he should have, implied that there was some deliberate attempts to conceal what they were doing. They were being taken advantage of.
What didn't help was Kon and Kang attacking one of the delegates. Were they insane? The Councillor had been completely out of line, but to actually attack a Galilean without being physically provoked? He was surprised they'd still been set up in a nice hotel rather than dumped into a jail or something. He didn't expect the clones to be passive. That would only feed into the Galilean notion that they were just tools, non-people, but attacking also just made them look like savages.
It was like every time he turned around, things kept getting progressively worse around them as they piled up. Daniel could feel himself going gray at this rate. This must be what it felt like to be Jack.
Re: More Mingling by request
Re: More Mingling by request
Let's pretend Eleven ate something before the meeting?
Eleven's stomach is always open for business.
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Post-meeting Medical thread
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Back to the Meeting
[ooc: Free-for-all, for throwing ideas at the wall. Always refresh and tag the most recent comment to the thread. When they strike on a certain line of thought, we're going to a new thread with a controlled posting order for them to develop that idea.]
Re: Back to the Meeting
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The Idea Guy
[ooc: Posting Order: Howard, Lex Luthor, Nightwing, Rory, Sakura, Superboy, Lash, Fate, Ruffnut, Ildraniath, Brainiac 5, Ter'thelas, Kanoe Zouichi, Howard, Lex, Nightwing, Jr., Will Vandom, Dustin, Nanoha, Daniel Jackson, Overlord Zetta, Lord Zedd, Hit Girl, Signum, Hana Asakura, Howard, Lex, Nightwing, Dr. McNinja, Kang, Tana, The Doctor, Jalith, Sam Henderson, Howard, Lex Luthor, Nightwing, Rory, Sakura, etc. If your character would say nothing, post with a placeholder or tell the next person to skip you. Stay in order or Saphie will end you. One or two passes of this and they should have a solid plan. PLEASE KEEP AN EYE ON THIS AND TAG PROMPTLY HOLY GOD]
Re: The Idea Guy
He's angry at what happened to Zouichi, ticked at how they've all been treated by the Galileeans, and unnerved by how easy it was to sow discord among the crew, but he can't bring himself to think committing to a side here is a good idea.
He drums a hand against a tabletop. "Okay, wait, no." He jerks a thumb over at Zetta. "Back up, back up. He's got a point. Who says we even get to the negotiating table? Why are we even arguing over whose agenda to back when hello, we've got our own fricking agenda right here: get the tech."
He rolls another piece of candy around on his tongue as he talks. "Am I the only one seeing the sweet spot here? We've got two groups who hate each other, enough to dehumanize each other and want to kill each other, and we've got us in the middle being asked for help, and no matter what Councilor Scales is selling you, we don't actually have a stake in this. This isn't our planet to save or damn, this is the clones'. Their clones'. We've got different fish to fry, no matter how bad they made us feel.
"We can use the fact that they hate each other. Play both ends against the middle, cause an uproar and bust out of here with the goods in the commotion. It's not that complicated."
He pauses. "Well, I mean, in theory. I'm not actually volunteering logistics."
Re: The Idea Guy
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