"Listening to others, considering well what they say" (Part 3: Maingate Hotel)

[cityship]

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.]

Comments

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Maybe. As for what they're hiding from us, who knows? They didn't have any problem whatsoever with using our genetic information to depower us. I can't imagine they'll see any issue with using it in any way that benefits them."

[thewunderkind]

"It's definitely something I have to talk to Dick about. Dunno if I feel like we should jump the gun to the other side too, admittedly. Gonna sound like a downer, but this isn't our war. I expected something, but not this whole upside-down stupid world."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

He frowned. "Way to straddle that fence. All I'm hearing about is how we should 'reserve judgment' and not get ahead of ourselves. Except none of us did, did we? We waited here, for everyone to get back."

Which had taken considerable effort on his part, at the time. Zouichi hadn't particularly wanted to swallow his anger, but he had. Because he wasn't in this alone. Because if they'd gone wild, attacking everything in sight, their fellow crewmates might be caught unawares and harmed in retaliation.

But if people were going to start lecturing him about not taking sides and asking how they could possibly pass judgment on a culture that ran on the backs of slaves with no past, present, or future, that was going to get his ire back up fast.

"We should, at the very least, try to talk to the other side."

[thewunderkind]

Well it wasn't like Lash wasn't the type to dig herself into deeper pits.

"What do you think we'd accomplish with that?" She was being truthful and not at all sarcastic.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"For one thing, it would give us a more complete picture of what's going on. We've heard the song and dance from one side -- we should get the other."

Since they weren't going to immediately blow up the government or anything.

"The government isn't going to give us information about their weaknesses, about disharmonious elements of their society, about constraints of time or resources, or about just how desperate their situation is... except in the most general, glossed over sense. We can guess at what the truth really is, or we can ask the people who have taken issue with them, and glean the truth about both from the lies of the other."

[thewunderkind]

"Oh I get what you mean. We hear their side of the story and then get a better plan of action of what must be done, or nothing done at all and just let the war between them continue. Regardless, it could be a good way to gain invaluable intel."

To put it lightly.

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Not quite the way he'd put it, but...

"Basically, yes. We shouldn't let our eagerness to grab this technology blind us to the rest of the situation. We've done that once already." It was strangely easy to explain things to Lash. Talking to a lot of the crew members was, for him, like speaking to a brick wall, but for whatever reason, Lash seemed to listen to what he was saying and actually absorb it.

Bizarre.

[thewunderkind]

That's because she was a wunderkind, she'd argue.

"Either way I bet we're in trouble with someone anyway. Might as well get knee-deep into it before leaving. It's more interesting that way." Lash really didn't have a way with words at times, but her thoughts were in the right place. "Not to mention I gotta see what the resistance has in terms of technology if those guys think they are a threat."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"I guess that's one way of looking at it. At the very least, I think the resistance must have a way of evading the notice of the security systems on this planet -- if their members are made of clones, and clones are tracked..." He shrugged.

"Being able to move around unmonitored would be enormously helpful. There's only so much you can learn through official channels."

[thewunderkind]

"And I do oh so love snooping around, tee hee hee" Lash replied with an enthusiastic nod. "While gathering proper intel, of course."

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

"Of course."

You're not fooling anyone, Lash!

[thewunderkind]

Glad to know they were on the same page.

"I'll talk to you later, okay? Once we've figured something out." She gave him a tiny wave before walking away.