driftfleet | And Let Us Gather 'Round [ Video + Action ]

Who: Kirk and The Fine People of the Fleet
Broadcast: Yes
Action: On the Iskaulit, Specifically at the Melting Pot - Note: After the Broadcast
When: After they start heading away from the system

Video
_{[ Kirk appears on the screen, and probably like many people he looks tired and a bit beaten up. Scratches not yet healed on his face, one even covered with a bandage on his cheek, that sort of drawn look around his eyes after all the sleepless nights and the battles and general horridness. A little to pale, perhaps.

Even so, he gives as warm a smile as he can as he begins to speak. ]}

For those of you who might not know, I come from a world called Earth - or at least, one of the versions represented here. On my world, in the country I hail from, we celebrate something known as Thanksgiving roughly around this time of year if I've done my calculations correct. Some people call it Friendsgiving, but it's all the same really.

Essentially, it's a time to a give thanks for the good things in your life, your friends, and your family. In the spirit of that, I've arranged for a gathering at the Melting Pot - a thank you to Jarvis for that. Everyone who wishes to come is welcome.

I just thought we all could use a day, a place, to be together and to just enjoy each other. So I hope to see you there.

Action: The Melting Pot
_{[ The restaurant is set up to allow as much mingling as possible when people arrive - places to sit, of course, but there's gentle music playing for those who might want to dance and just to give some atmosphere (but not loud enough to stop conversation at all). Food and drink is laid out - things to nibble on rather than the usual feasts associated with a Thanksgiving. Not particularly ideal, but it's what could be managed. Unless, of course, anyone decided to bring something else to add to the spread.

Not a fancy party, to be sure, but it's warm and inviting, which is what Kirk had hoped for. A place for them all to come together and enjoy each other and just be glad they were all there and if not quite completely whole, then, well, able to be there. ]}

_{[ooc: Open mingle! Feel free to create your own starters and do as you like - tis a warm Friendsgiving party for the Fleet! ]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Fenris lets out a soft, annoyed scoff.]

I would care more for our enemies feelings if they hadn't spent all their energy on trying to kill us. Do you think they would have paused for a second to think how we felt? How they dragged our own for blood rituals? Do you not think that cruel?

[His tone has some sharpness to it, but most of it is genuine worry that this sort of logic will get Pavel killed one day. That sort of thinking would make you dead in Thedas within forty eight hours.]

Your kindness is admirable, but very misplaced here.

You expended enough energy attempting to kill them. And there was no organized effort to communicate with them before we retaliated and began to kill them, was there? Their actions were cruel, yes, I agree with that, but...

[He trails off and gestures in an exceedingly unhelpful and frustrated way. Words are extra hard after a few drinks.]

There is always an alternative. I didn't--I don't--know what it was. I killed one of them because I was too slow to think of another way, but what happened... responding to cruelty with cruelty is not the right thing to do.

They were savage. Would you have rather I stood by and tried to speak to them? To be gutted in the process? If they showed any signs of wishing to pause in their attempts ot slaughter us then, yes, diplomacy can work.

They were not. Attempting to reach out to them would have only got us killed. Not everything can be fixed with a conversation. Sometimes, responding to cruelty with cruelty is the only way to keep alive.

No, I wouldn't have preferred that.

[He sits back and stares down at his drink. Fenris is making a lot of points that he wants to argue against and can't.]

There have been people like that at home--people who would not be reasoned with. They were killed after all other options had failed, and they were allowed some dignity in death. [And Chekov didn't have to kill any of them himself, which, y'know, helped him out.]

I doubt they would have afforded us the same dignity, given they were cannibals, Chekov.

[He shrugs. ]

As I said, it was a deterrent. They did not come near the ship after, right?

We can be better than our enemies.

[He's really lost all enthusiasm for this conversation now that he doesn't have logic and reason on his side. Moral righteousness alone doesn't win arguments.]

It was an effective deterrent. It deterred me effectively as well.

No, we can't.

[Fenris looks off into the middle distance, lost in something else for a moment, something dark and awful and way into the past. But still very much there. When he turns his attention back to Pavel, there's a sharpness to him that wasn't there before. ]

If you wished to risk yourself by leaving the ship out of your own moral code, that was your choice. Do not try to make me feel guilty for that.

[Pavel can see that he took a wrong turn there, but he's a little drunk, a lot stressed, and currently not at all inclined to back down when he's convinced that he's in the right.]

We can, and I'm not trying to make you feel guilty, I'm trying to explain that murder and barbarism are never the correct responses to a threat.

Are you that naive? You have no concept of what-

[Of what truly evil people can do to you if you don't strike first. He calls it murder and barbarism while Fenris calls it staying alive. Worse, he's being lectured on it.

He realises he's getting angry, and that kind of thing leads to violence. He'd rather not swing a punch at Pavel. Still, the walls he'd let down to allow the man get close to him are solidly raised again. He lets out a shaky breath, standing, hands clenching into fists he does not intent to throw. Best remove himself from the situation entirely. ]

We're done here.

[And off he walks, heading towards the door. ]

[He is not that naive (he thinks, possibly incorrectly) and he is fully prepared to defend his worldliness when Fenris decides that they're done. Pavel does not feel done.

Pavel does, however, have an extremely keen sense of self-preservation. As such, he bites back an angry retort, drains his glass, and then moves on to the bottle of... whatever it was he was drinking. He's much too sober to cope with people who think that murder and the desecration of corpses is a fine idea.]

And Let Us Gather 'Round [ Video + Action ]

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