The Reserves were kind of fidgety today. Karla, at least, was filled with a kind of nervous energy that made it hard to keep still. This would be a nice break from her current state of constant near-exhaustion, if it hadn't come with all kinds of, well, emotional distractions. The kind that made it hard to concentrate.
Mostly--since we're all being honest here--because her libido was racing along faster than a NASCAR driver. And she didn't even get that reference.
"Hi everyone," she said, waving around a table filled with pastries and teas. Sorry, Raven. Comfort food won out over healthy eating today. Especially anything that might be...suggestively shaped. "Sorry for not being around--in a useful shape--for the past few meetings. I got into some trouble that I then dragged a lot of other people into."
Okaaaay. She hadn't meant to quite put it like that.
"Today, we're going to talk about some of our strengths and weakness, either individually or as a group. We want to make sure that our meetings are useful to people and you all have a reason to come back week after week. More than that, we want to make sure you all feel comfortable and capable of handling yourselves in an invasion because, well, we've seen more than enough death recently and have no desire to add your name to the casualty list."
Randomly dark. She must be more distracted than she thought. Maybe someone else should jump in and bail her out bail her out?
"And not just powers," Dolf interjected quickly. He was going to be working this week through a nearly omnipresent blush; it was a miracle he had any blood left at all to do anything else with. "Also how to organise, how to talk to each other. I know some languages, I know how to bandage people and take care of them. Some of them. Sometimes. A lot of people die no matter what you do, sometimes there's nothing you can do, sometimes they get sick and they die, and you never know enough--"
He was rambling. He shut up very quickly.
Distracted? So was Raven as she contemplated the overly honest conversation she'd had after class with Lady Ghanima and Max and tried not to contemplate Karla too much. Well, thinking about how to keep her safe and healthy, that was fine. Any other thoughts, like how her blonde hair was shimmering like gold in the sunlight, not so much. And Tara was also right there and looking so very pretty today. And she was just now really noticing that Dolf was very cute, too. Azar help her if she looked out at the members of the Reserves. If Jono showed up today she was going to be done.
Wait, meeting. Yes. "If there are certain areas where many people feel they could benefit from instruction, we can hold meetings on those topics," she said. "And also pair up people who have a strength to counter someone else's perceived weakness, either for learning purposes or when we are protecting the island."
Tara had, if she was honest, been having a hard time paying attention to what the other leaders said. Her eyes kept falling on the gold of Karla's hair, or how Raven filled out her dress, or how Dolf really had the cutest accent if she thought about it ... Oh. It was her turn to talk.
"Don't be afraid to admit where you're weak," she said. "We can't -- we can't get stronger if we don't start from knowing what we don't know. And we're all young. There's a lot we don't know yet."
Karla was thinking how the smile Raven had given her earlier were making her knees a little weak, but was pretty sure that's not what she was supposed to be talking about. "Right, so yeah. If there's anything you want to talk about--or talk to us about--today's the day to do it. We're all here for you."
It was probably best not to ask how they were volunteering to 'be there' for you. They might answer.
[Written with the fabulous
swordsandsoccer,
trigons_child, and
life_inshadow. Go make out while you wait for the OCD is up an ready!]