Peter's Office, The Hegemony Compound, Thursday

[lockestheway]

From: PeterWiggin%private@hegemon.gov
To: SacredCause%OneMan@FreeThai.org
Re: Suriyawong's actions concerning Achilles Flandres

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie's eyebrows were still knitting together from watching Virlomi's... whatever it was. She was used to the overly intelligent and confident young people of this universe, but that was still something else.

"I don't think those first two questions matter," she said. "If she's crazy, that won't stop people from believing in her."

Which led to his third question. But she didn't have an answer for that one.

[lockestheway]

Peter rubbed his forehead. "Which leaves the third," he said.

Beside him, Bean frowned. "What was that business at the end, with the fingers on her forehead?"

"She was drawing the mark of Shiva the Destroyer on her forehead," said Peter. "It was a call to war." He sighed. "They'll be destroyed."

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie's eyebrows smoothed before one of them arched a little higher.

"You mean her 'children'?"

[arcane_delphi]

Bean shook his head. "Alai won't let them."

"Don't you see?" Petra added. She gestured at the still image of Virlomi's face. "The Muslim occupation of India absolutely counts on supplying their armies from Indian produce and Indian revenues. But Shiva will be there first. They'll destroy their own crops rather than let the Muslims have it."

[whenshewasnice]

"... Is it on them or on me that I don't see the sense in that?"

Beyong being a point of pride.

[lockestheway]

Petra's eyes flicked to Natalie. "The Muslims will strike back," she said. "But they'll run out of bullets and they'll discover that they can't get more because the roads are blocked. And for every Hindu they killed, there will be ten more to overwhelm them with their bare hands. Virlomi understands her nation. Her people."

Well, didn't that sound neat? For a complete hypothesis built on hot air, that is.

"And all of this you understand," said Peter, raising his own eyebrow, "because you were a prisoner in India for a few months?"

"India has never been led into war by a god," said Petra. "India has never gone to war with perfect unity."

"A guerrilla war," Peter pointed out.

[whenshewasnice]

"And, perfect unity? Are we really getting that from -" She pointed, briefly, towards the screen and Virlomi's image. It was small, precise gesture. "- this? I know she's been gaining a foothold but is it really that strong?"

[lockestheway]

"All I know is, right now, it seems like Virlomi has the strongest hand," Bean said thoughtfully. "She has the power to disrupt Alai's supply lines."

"If they listen to her," Peter said. "Like Natalie says, there's no reason to be sure of that."

"I think enough people will listen to her for it to matter," Bean said simply. "She really does know her people."

[whenshewasnice]

"She already said that," Natalie noted, dryly, nodding at Petra.

Meaning that saying it again would not actually convince her.

[lockestheway]

Peter threw Natalie a look just to establish they were on the same eyerolly page here, but apparently the runaway Bean-and-Petra exposition train was now going and could not be stopped.

"I think what we just saw was a marriage proposal," Bean said.

Peter burst out laughing.

Bean and Petra didn't.

[whenshewasnice]

"If not for the rampant islamophobia earlier," Natalie drawled, "that would be the most OSC thing I've heard today so far."

Perhaps she was feeling a little petty, and perhaps it manifested in saying things only one other person in the room understood.

Kind of.

At least he knew it was a meta thing?

[lockestheway]

Peter appreciated those moments. It gave him the impression there was this one in-joke he and Natalie shared no one else would get, and that always got to him in a good way.

Bean sighed and rolled his eyes. "Virlomi is India," he said. "She just said so. And Han Tzu is China. And Alai is Islam. So will it be India and China against the world, or Islam and India against the world? Who can sell that marriage to their own people? Which throne will sit beside the throne of India? Whichever one it is, that's more than half the population of the world, united."

Peter closed his eyes and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. "Hello, nightmare."

[whenshewasnice]

For all that Natalie disliked Bean and Petra's unified front, she was aware of how to reinforce her own with Peter.

"Neither of those sound ideal."

Sometimes, she could pick up the slack in stating the obvious. Her mild manner made it sound less dumb. "

[lockestheway]

"Don't worry," said Bean. "Whichever happens, it won't last."

Yes, Bean, Peter thought, you know everything. Because apparently 'Because I say so' is evidence now. "You're not always right," said Peter. "You can't see that far ahead."

Bean shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. I'll be dead before it all shakes out."

Immediately, Petra leaped to her feet and paced, growling quietly to herself.

Which, of course, prompted Peter to throw Natalie another look that read, more or less verbatim, We're so much better and less melodramatic than these idiots. She had Fourth Wall 'Fu. She'd get it.

[whenshewasnice]

She got it. She responded with an expressive enough eyeroll.

"Focus, please," she said. Directed at Petra's pacing. "Do we have options at hand?"

[lockestheway]

Peter looked back to Pacin' Petra. "I don't have any right now," he admitted. "I tried to talk to Alai, and all I did was incite a coup. So now what do I do, oh wise ones? Do I just sit here and watch the world collapse into war?"

Petra snapped at him. "I thought that was part of your plan. To make yourself seem indispensable."

"I don't have a great plan," said Peter. "I just... respond. And I'm asking you about it instead of figuring things out on my own because the last time I ignored your advice it was a disaster. But now I find out you don't actually have any advice. Just predictions and assumptions."