Zonama Sekot, Monday Evening Fandom Time

[weetuskenraider]

Another long day of sorting out arguments and soothing flared tempers, playing translator, writing up reports and transmitting them back to the Council, and all the dozens of little yellow-tape things -- all of that was done, thankfully, and Tahiri finally had a chance to get some alone time

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[endsthegame]

Ender hadn't checked in on Tahiri's progress on Zonama Sekot for a while, though he'd been planning to. Now, just back from work (and clearing some minivan stuff with Warren) seemed like as good a time as any.

Hence, he was calling.

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Tahiri, luckily, had just managed to log her twelfth and final vote call by the time Ender's call came through, so he was spared any heartily guttural swearing when she picked up. And where before she might have answered with a casual "Hello, Ender," she'd been back on the job for long enough that habit kicked in.

"Jedi Veila here. Hello, Ender."

. . . mostly.

[endsthegame]

If Tahiri thought she was hearing amusement in Ender's voice, she was... probably entirely correct, as he returned a, "Hello, Jedi Veila. Debrief me on your progress?"

Hey, he spoke fluent military.

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Better than she did, that was for sure.

"I'd be happy to, but I'd like to know if the volcano is still a cause for concern," she answered, having stretched her capacity for military jargon as far as she cared to. "Besides, I don't report to you, so I'd like to know how you're doing, too."

[OOC: Ugh, notification fail. *smites*]

[endsthegame]

"The volcano has cooled down," Ender reported, not being all that attached to the jargon to begin with. "It won't be murdering us in our sleep this week."

[[ omg, mine too. *kicks them* ]]

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"That's a relief. Like I told Ben, it'd be a shame if you managed to make it back from your trip only to get swallowed by the island," Tahiri joked. She didn't have a bad feeling about anything yet. "I take it Fandom's latest bout of insanity's cooled down too? You know, some days I miss the long quiet periods between the episodes of craziness."

[endsthegame]

"You say that now, but I know Jedi," Ender said, a little fondly. "Give you too long a quiet period, and you'll stir up the trouble by yourselves. But yes, it's cooled down - we even had a downright quiet weekend just now."

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"I have plenty enough trouble to deal with these days without stirring it up myself, I'll have you know," Tahiri retorted lightly, "and that's making me feel disturbingly grown up, not having the time to go out and find more of it. Or make it. I'm allowed to be nostalgic -- for now. No doubt I'll have reason to change my mind soon enough."

There was a low-hanging pingpear within reach, and she paused to pick it and take a bite.

"An actual quiet weekend, huh? Bet the new kids are grateful enough for that. Hope they're settling in all right."

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"No one's run off screaming yet," Ender said, "Which is a win as far as I'm concerned." He glanced up at the ceiling of Room 204, pursing his lips thoughtfully. "Good trouble, or bad trouble?" he asked.

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"You don't ask the easy questions," Tahiri pretended to complain. "But no, it's not bad trouble exactly. Definitely not a dire situation, just a million tiny complications and snarls, the occasional minor --" of course, in the context of a recently ended war 'minor' was fairly relative -- "fight to break up, but that's to be expected under the circumstances. I guess you could call them growing pains."

[endsthegame]

"And every new civilisation has to have growing pains," Ender said, with a little smile. "You sound hopeful."

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Was she? Tahiri had to stop and think about that.

"Maybe," she allowed. "At the least, I'm trying to focus on an positive outcome. There's enough adversity that it seems . . . the most practical approach."

[endsthegame]

"Hope is very practical," Ender said, "Without it, lying down and doing nothing becomes not just an option, but a self-fulfilling prophecy, I think."

He sat back in his chair. "Does that mean you're happy with the way things are going?"

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"I think so, yes," Tahiri decided after another bite of fruit. "All things considered, things are fairly peaceful here most of the time, even if they can get contentious. This will be the work of several generations at least before there's anything like harmony, and I don't expect to see most of the Yuuzhan Vong strolling casually past the planetary hyperdrive without so much as blinking any time in my lifetime, but I like being here at the start of it. I'm learning as much as they are, I think."

She chuckled. "It's like a much more intensive version of finding an old family holocron you never knew existed." Holocrons like that popped up conveniently more often than you'd think they ought to, in her galaxy.

[endsthegame]

"I'm glad to hear it," Ender said, honestly. "Even knowing terribly little about holocrons."

That last bit was a joke. "It's a good thing to put your shoulder to, though." Part of him was almost envious, in its own way. Humanity wouldn't let the Formics just run off on their own planet and let them help him, not right now. No redemption so straightforward.

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"You'd probably figure them out in a second," Tahiri opined. "I actually wonder what you'd think of some of the Yuuzhan Vong biots; I think they're fascinating, but it's hard to find anyone who doesn't have a lot of negative associations with them."