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Ash Holloway Location: Education Center (M)
Skills: N/A |
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Ash recognized that Thana held the ethical high ground on this issue. Many of the others had spoken from points of hypothetical situations with varying, if questionably probable, outcomes, mostly drawing from personal experience. As for himself, Ashton had attempted objectivity with the focus being on what he felt would be best for the most people. A little cold perhaps, but as it stood as counterpoint to everyone else's stance, as everyone had uttered an argument to the contrary. Not just that; every argument up to that point had been structured in much the same way. However, the cold logical point Thana made was not only a different approach, but difficult to counter. And Ash agreed with it. Everyone signed on. Everyone agreed. Everyone had the opportunity to leave on more than one occasion if they didn't want to be a part of the community. When she was through speaking and came to sit next to him, Ash read the room (so to speak) and gave her a simple look of admiration and, like her, remained seated with his attention on the stage and those who were upon it.
Following this, subsequent speakers came and went. Nikki's testimony was predictable, and like others was colored by sentiment. Though she did provide an interesting alternative: probation with immediate expulsion upon violation. Perhaps there was some merit. Perhaps not, it was not Ash's place to say. Freedman was up next. His viewpoint (as Ash understood it) might have been the moral side of the ethical coin from which Thana had just spoken earlier. The problem was that they didn't agree with one another. Ash gave consideration to the concept that morality and ethic weren't quite the same thing despite some overlap. Both views held merit and he honestly could not refute either. Still, his own stance on the issue was voiced. If fell closer to Thana's than to Freedman's.
Shakespeare gave his own answer which, while far more histrionic than he preferred, was also rather predictable. The term
vanquishment was interesting, translatable from English to English by means of context. Thankfully, his part was short. Experience and the voiced opinions of others told Ash that, literally given a stage upon which to speak, this might have turned into a full, iambic pentameter sonnet.
The big moment came from Tatiana. Not quite a surprise, from his point of view. He knew of the changes which had come over the woman. The more surprising part of this was that she actually voiced her more cutthroat nature in front of others. Moreover, Ash had a few of his own feelings in agreement with Tati. The thought of Richard did come up, though he decided as he spoke that it might muddy the waters by demonstrating specific, subjective motivation. And he did worry that showing this side of herself all at once might also target her by those who sought to assess risks. Her passing words to Ash were noted. When their eyes met, he gave her a mild, barely perceptible nod of comprehension. Ash understood what she was getting at. Richard was a threat, left to his own devices, and he became akin to an infection within their community. The biggest difference from Hunter here was that Richard attempted subtlety when he could. He tried to pretend to fit in, all the while working to his own devices at the expense of others.
CMB had their own way of handling things. If Ash felt that it should be handled differently, it was a matter of working through the system to effect change, barring a sudden change in circumstances or an emergency. He was about to see just how they were going to handle it.
Ash looked to Thana, following the announcement of deliberations. He did not want to downplay what had happened. Simultaneously, he did not wish to address it directly, either. He blew out a breath and shook his head slightly.
"Woah," he whispered. Continuing, Ash nodded to the stage, quietly inquiring,
"How long do you think they'll be?" It was an important decision to make, but with clear cut parameters. He could see it going either way. If it would be a while, Ash wouldn't mind a temporary change of location. That aside, sticking with Thana was priority. If she was staying put, so was he.
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Thalia Carmichael Location: Education Center (M)
Skills: Stealth |
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Thalia debated holding up a hand for Tatiana to high-five on her way back to her seat, preferably with an utterance of
"Damn, girl!" Two things prevented this. The first was better judgement. The second was that the slightly out-of-the-way seat Thalia selected for herself wasn't between the stage and ballerina mom's spot. Mostly that first one, though. Nevertheless, the thought did cross her mind.
Her brother's words were also present in Thalia's thoughts. Less pressing, certainly. This time around, she got the odd impression that between the two of them, they both had a finite amount of words they could share. Maybe that was why she had longish bouts of quiet - Joaquin had already used up everything from their word pool and she didn't have a good selection left. Or perhaps it was the other way around and because of her spartan use of verbiage, Joaquin was forced to compensate by burning through the syllables before the pool could refresh. A mental shrug later, and Thalia found herself giving less of a shit about it in the face of more important observations.
Observation Number One: They were adjourning for a little bit.
Observation Number Two: A man's life, quite possibly, was at stake here. And finally,
Observation Number Three: The Mess Hall was probably serving supper at that time.
Conclusions drawn from this, thanks to her earlier profession as a Security Specialist - This might be a deliberation that would take some time, owing to the serious nature of the outcome. So there was probably more than enough time to scoot down and grab a sandwich or something and get back. To say that she could eat right then was like saying that the sky was blue or water was wet. Of course she could eat. And she was going to.
Thalia figured that discretion was the better part of valor here, and settled on making a nice, quiet exit from the room, disturbing absolutely nothing and no one in the process. This was the plan, anyway. Reality decided to take a Super Soaker full of kerosene to her and ask her to hold an ignited road flare for a minute or two. What started out as her deftly rising from her seat turned into an interesting vision, mimicking the very best outtakes of "Epileptics On Ice" as her sleeve got tangled around the arm of the chair. Not expecting this, Thalia shifted her weight to prevent a tragic fall, rapidly bending at the waist even as she spun around. Balance being an important thing, she wound up accidentally tapping her favorite head on the seat back, not really doing much in the way of damage except for smacking her as yet unhealed facial laceration. Giving a quick yelp of surprise and alarm, sounding very much like
"...gahfuckshit!" she slapped her flesh hand to the side of her face, not knowing how bad the bleeding was about to get. It wasn't actually all that bad, but it took her mind away from the internal pressure that had been building up in her abdomen. Between that and the bowed position she found herself in due to a severe lack of luck, a vicious, goose-barking sound erupted from the back of her borrowed pants, finding just the right pitch and direction to catch the room's acoustics in such a way as to amplify the sound of her gaseous expulsion many times over. It echoed.
Angrily.
The decision was made, and quite reflexively, to rise and turn, just to see if anyone noticed. Call it denial. When it was evident that there was no escaping this brand of fresh hell, Thalia simply gave up.
"Ah right, then!" she called,
"I'm just gonna ...sneak outtah heah... and get me a sandwich. Yah heard me. Sneak." She began walking toward the exit.
"Heah I go." It was quite possible that she couldn't actually get embarrassed, but she could be relatively pissed off at failing something so basic when, not too amazingly long ago, it was something she had mastered.
"Β‘La madre que te pariΓ³!" she growled, putting the door between herself and everyone else.
