[PUBLIC CHANNEL] RINGMASTER'S ELEVENTH ADDRESS (D72)

[lordofthering]

[The radios will glow green as the Ringmaster begins a broadcast.]

Welcome back to the carnival, everyone. Things may look the same as before, but I assure you, there is no stone that has been left unturned or tree that hasn't been uprooted. We'll have no more stalkers from here on out.

There are a few things of relevance that I have to tell you about. Firstly, Ignatius is no longer in the moon. Instead, he's been relocated to a small island in the middle of the lake. He can't leave it, and you aren't allowed to visit it without my permission. If you do, and he wounds you, you can consider it your own fault.

In a related matter, I've decided to invest my magical energies into granting each of you a ressurection egg, as we clearly can't anticipate any peaceful resolutions from this. If you don't know what that means, it's essentially a ritual spell I'll need your help in completing - once it's done, it will bring you back to life if you happen to perish, but only once. Also, you will have to be in the egg long enough to regrow and hatch. This is no small favour on my part, and it won't work unless your soul can make it back to the egg.

Thirdly, after calling in several favours, I think the location of Eden is almost within view. A few allies will be joining us over the next week and giving us more information. Until then, carry on about your business, as there are some new things you'll have to get used to.

We're going to be organizing the Supervisor guided departments differently from now on. I have explained the details to the Supervisors, and they can fill you in on what will be expected of you. There will not be only six categories: Militia, Acquisitions, Engineering, Management, Administration, and Medical.

Supervisors, feel free to sound off with what group you are leading and what it is for.

Comments

[stillwinningthehardway]

[Scout tries to sound neutral, because she hears Strange and is determined to not be That. Anyway, as a... noncombatant???? she's more likely to survive and get back to her people, which after mulling over all the last stop and most of the one before is her major priority.

Absolutely a good thing. Totally not a sting in her pride.]

I guess I'll be helping equip you.

[whattaprick]

[ One less yelling voice is something Lambert appreciates, but he also knows Scout well enough to know she probably isn't the happiest about this news.

After all, he's pretty sure she likes hitting things more than she'd like to let on. ]

Look like it. [ A pause. ] Though if you haven't yet, you should let the Doctor know what you can do. Helps to know that kind of thing.

[stillwinningthehardway]

Well.

[She's liked scouting. It's not what she thought she'd do with her life, but it's closer than a lot of things. Certainly closer than repairs. Or... smithing, or construction, or whatever this is. But begging for a different assignment seems childish, especially when her skills in that field are so limited.]

I know they've got real healers for that. And you've got real fighters, so it works out.

[whattaprick]

Decided you weren't a real fighter all of a sudden?

[ That doesn't sound much like her. ]

[stillwinningthehardway]

[And now he's teasing her. Scout grits her teeth and forces her voice to neutrality.]

Of course I'm a fighter. All my life. [All eighteen years.] But since you've decided you don't want me in that subheading, well, I'm forced to abide by that decision.

[whattaprick]

I didn't come up with the assignments.

[ But he didn't challenge the Ringmaster on it, either. ]

If you still want to fight, you could probably ask.

[stillwinningthehardway]

No, you just think they're acceptable.

Come in begging, that'd be taken seriously.

[Pride is a hell of a thing.]

[whattaprick]

[ Pride is something Lambert’s had to dealt with too much recently. ]

What’s the real problem?

[stillwinningthehardway]

I don't like people evaluating me and deciding just because I don't instantly master everything I set my hand to I have to go into farming or reshaping pieces of metal or anything like that.

[This is not the same as the debate on if she would become a Padawan again or go into the Agricultural Corps but it hits a similar nerve.]

I only got into repairs in the first place because I took two or three classes on machine function and repaired a hyperspace engine once. That's nothing.

[whattaprick]

[ To be fair, it probably stings a little that a talking cat and a literal child made the cut. But-- ]

I think you're reading too much into it. The only person saying any of those things is you.

You've been a good scout. [ The trouble with a nickname like that is that it always sounds like he's making it a pun, but... ] Nobody else in engineering has that experience, right?

[stillwinningthehardway]

Yeah, well, I know the logic. This isn't the first time.

[In the Temple it was always couched as keeping her safe, that the war ate people so much stronger than she was and staying would get her killed. And yet, she'd escaped what so many others hadn't.]

That human supremacist droid does, and I see you're keeping him.

[whattaprick]

[ It's great how projection works, isn't it. It takes him a moment to realize that she's talking about 9S. ]

Nobody else in engineering now. Rita ended up in research. This is all he does.

[stillwinningthehardway]

Whatever.

[A word in English, it's vocabulary from Portland, but just now she can't think of any other one word that has that same disbelief and dismissal.]

If I didn't need this contract to actually get anything done, I'd walk out now.