The Calm Lands, Spira -- Day Three of the Conference (Tuesday Afternoon) (NFB-distance)
Lulu
Lulu had decided, three hours into Monday, that the conference was the worst. idea. ever.
Today she was contemplating ways to resurrect Yu Yevon, just so that she could feed all of the delegates to Sin. Even the Guado. Especially the Guado, because they wouldn't even stand up for themselves.
The Ronso wanted the Guado dead. The Al Bhed wanted the Guado dead. The Machine Faction and New Yevon kept sniping back and forth about 'superstitious fuckwits' and 'blasphemous weapon-mongering fools'. New Yevon and the Youth League kept sniping back and forth about 'impetuous young idiots' and 'decrepit old sticks-in-the-mud'.
Even the Hypello weren't happy; the Machine Faction had apparently been testing some machina in the Moonflow, and it had upset the Shoopufs.
"Enough," she said, standing. She didn't bother shouting, just pitched her voice to cut through the tent being used as the main conference room. She leaned forward, placing her hands squarely on the table in front of her.
The junior representative from the Youth League stopped mid-sentence. He almost complained about being interrupted, but one look at Lulu was enough to silence him. "If no one has anything useful to add, then why are you all even here?" Lulu asked. She'd been trying to stay calm, but her voice began to rise nonetheless. "These are supposed to be peace talks, not a shouting match! Are you all even listening to yourselves? Not one person here has offered anything that might help Spira flourish in the days, the years to come. All you care about is whether you're getting what you want right now!"
Tromell
The silence following that was uncomfortable, until the lead delegate from the Guado faction stood up.
"Forgive me," Tromell said. It was softer, more tentative than his usual oily sycophancy. "But we have one small thing we would like to say, if no one objects."
Voices from the Crowd
"We object!"
"Who cares what you think?"
"Ronso think Guado should go back to forest and die!"
Yuna
"The Guado may speak."
Yuna's voice was gentle, but there was a hard edge underneath it. Her eyes swept around, catching each delegate in turn and conveying just how... displeased the High Summoner was with them at the moment.
Tromell
"Thank you, my Lady," Tromell said, bowing to her. "We, the Guado ... received a summons to attend this conference, and we, the Guado, declined. We felt -- as many of you do -- that we did not belong here. Lady Yuna came to the woods, to speak with us, to insist that we were needed. Her young Al Bhed friend was angry, and to her, we offered our lives. She declined. She asked, instead, that we attend, and so we have."
"Another of Lady Yuna's Guardians," Tromell indicated Lulu with a nod of his head, "indicated that we should have something constructive to offer, when we arrived, if we truly sought atonement. We recognized the wisdom in those words, and we have thought, for many hours on what we could possibly hope to offer any that we have harmed, in Spira. We found an answer. We do not know if it will be acceptable, but we came to make this offer, nonetheless."
Rikku
They actually had something!? Rikku's jaw dropped.
She had thought it was all for nothing, that they had gone to the woods.
And now, the Guado were actually trying. Even if they had come up with something ridiculous, even if their idea was booed out from the conference -- they would have made the attempt.
She would protect them, from the Ronso, if it came to that. She was a Guardian.
Voices from the Crowd
Murmurs, too, from the attendees:
"What could they-"
"Is it worth listening to them?"
"Nothing they say is worth believing."
"But will it hurt ze shoopuf?"
Tromell
"We have caused great pain," Tromell continued, "to all of Spira, but there are few who would contest that our greatest sins lie against two groups, whose numbers we have diminished unforgivably. The Al Bhed, during our assault on Bikanel Island, and the Ronso, at Mount Gagazet."
Tromell's eyes found those of the Al Bhed delegates, and the Ronso, and he bowed once to each group.
"As regards the former matter: amends suggest themselves quite readily. The city of Home was destroyed, and so the Al Bhed are left with no place to call their own. Some have moved into other cities, on Spira, and some still reside on that peculiar airship. We, the Guado, find this to be unacceptable. As it was our actions which cause their exile, we now vow to resolve the matter. We have laborers, we have tools. It will not absolve us, for what we have wrought upon them, but we can make this small matter right. Therefore: we entreat that the Al Bhed direct us towards a location, where they should like their new Home to be, and we shall lend laborers and tools to the matter. We would suggest they return to their ancestral home, in Mushroom Rock, but we do, of course, defer to their sentiments."
Cid
Cid, as representative for the Al Bhed, stood up and cleared his throat. "'Kay. I appreciate what you're tryin' ta do here, I really do, don't get me wrong, and I'm touched, really I am, but the Al Bhed've done all right by themselves without any help from anyone, especially not from you. We'll rebuild Home our own damn selves, thank you very much."
Yuna
Yuna shifted slightly in her seat, just enough to draw attention to herself. Then she leveled Cid with a glare. He was not about to derail the first bit of progress anyone had managed to show at this conference so far. "Please allow the Guado to finish speaking," she said in a perfectly polite but utterly unyielding tone.
Tromell
We do not wish to cause strife," Tromell insisted. "We shall leave it to this most excellent conference, to debate the matter further.
"As for our second concern." Tromell sighed, holding his hands out helplessly. "We confess we were quite stumped. What we took from the Ronso was ... the Ronso, themselves. So many of them died at our hands. No action we can take will return those proud warriors to Spira. We mourn to know of Spira's great loss.
"We, the Guado, have come to this conference to make what little amends we can. We know only too well the pain we have caused, and the destruction we have wreaked, not just upon others, but ourselves, as well. Many Guado were lost to us, in following Lord Seymour's commands. I do not dare to ask your sympathy, but the Al Bhed girl is right. There has been far too much death.
"What we propose to do, instead, is to keep that knowledge. We are the Guardians to the Farplane, the most sacred place in all of Spira. What we guard now will be no less precious: the memories of the fallen. The truth of what Spirans have done to one another, and for what petty, insignificant reasons. What our hate, and our unwillingness to question the lies we were told, has led to.
"We will remember those brave souls who were lost. We will tell the story of how hatred ruled Spira, for so many years. Stories of those Al Bhed who died, protecting the Summoners to their last breath. Stories of those Ronso who placed themselves between Lady Yuna and certain death, sacrificing their own lives for Spira's future. Stories of the brave High Summoner Yuna rejecting death, rejecting comforting lies for truth, and breaking the cycle of Sin. Stories of the Al Bhed and the Ronso, at this very conference, choosing a forgiveness that we, the humble Guado, do not deserve. How their noble choice to renounce hate was the only reason we could live on, to tell those very stories at all. To our children, and our children's children: let Spira never forget what it has done, and what it must never do again."
Rikku
Rikku ... was at a complete, utter loss for words.
The Guado were ... choosing peace, and not hate. They wanted to keep the peace, and treat it like the sacred, beautiful thing that it was, and honor the fallen.
They got it. She was starting to think no one would.
The rest was too overwhelming to even consider. Home? They wanted to rebuild Home? The Al Bhed had ancestral lands?! Was that why her Godhand had been there? Had it been Al Bhed to make that for her, hundreds of years ago?
Rikku had a hand over her mouth, and was shaking, silently. The more she blinked, the more tears seemed to crowd her eyes.
Lulu
Lulu reached over, smiling -- she was smiling now, that was unexpected -- to cover Rikku's hand, where it rest on the table, with her own; she gave it a little squeeze. "That sounds to me," she said, cutting through the responses of the other delegates before they could even start, "like a very good idea. I think this is the first intelligent thing I've heard during the entire conference. And what does it say of all of you," she added, sweeping her eyes across those gathered, "that the 'evil Guado' brought something constructive to the table?
"Are we ready to act like adults and talk about this, or shall we continue to squabble like children?"
She paused. "And Cid? Don't even think about saying that you're all fine on the airship. If you don't accept the Guado's help, I will personally cast Ultima right up your shoopuf. Don't think I won't."
Gippal
At the Machine Faction table, their leader stood up.
"I don't want to know about Cid's shoopuf," Gippal said, with a smirk. "But I, uh."
He scratched the back of his neck, sheepishly. "We're not making weapons," he said. "We have some patrol droids, and we can teach everyone how to dismantle them easily. The towers are just to make those cell phones work. When someone else said earlier that we ... should agree not to make weapons, as a compromise? I got pissed off, 'cause ... I thought you were saying we Al Bhed couldn't be trusted with weapons, or something like that. And I didn't really feel like making concessions, so we shot it down. But I'm okay with that, now. The Machine Faction won't make weapons, if that's gonna make everyone else less scared about machina."
Baralai
"Perhaps we were too hasty ourselves," Baralai replied, standing himself and offering a shy smile. "We would condemn that which we do not understand, which is a mistake made by our forefathers. I cannot say that I am... That is, I do not believe that my followers will be entirely comfortable with these 'patrol droids', as you call them, but it would be unjust of us not to at least listen, no matter that we fear that perhaps you go too fast, reach too far."
He stopped there, covered up a wince. "I apologise. I did not mean that quite the way it sounded, merely that we proceed with different philosophies. And yet, I find myself wondering: we of New Yevon would accept anyone, including any Al Bhed, who wished to join us in proceeding a little more slowly into Spira's future. Might the Machine Faction offer the same for those who are not Al Bhed? To teach those who would learn the secrets of the machina, no matter their origin? I don't believe I trust them myself, but we've all seen proof that they are not to blame for Sin, for the thousand years of tragedy that Spira has faced. Perhaps there is a place for both of us."
Yuna
Yuna? Was totally beaming. It was working! There were details to be hammered out, and there would definitely be some more fights and arguments, but people were trying. Compromising.
She glanced over at Rikku and, in what seemed to be an impossibility, her smile broadened. Her cousin was a genius.
(OOC: preplayed with the still-kick-ass mistressofblack and summoninghope, with some NPCing by mistressofblack and sarcasm_guy because they rock. NFI, NFB, OOC is love.)