voidtreckerexpress | Blue Meeting:

Entry tags:

Blue Meeting:

Who: Gladio + Blue Team and Friends.
Where: Dining carriage. (Change of venue, larger space)
When: Grasshopper 15th after lunch.
What: The first Blue Team meeting with the new Leadership in place.
Warnings: Unknown. Possible cuteness. Snack induced jealousy. Will update if something comes up!

To say that Gladio was nervous would be an understatement. He hadn't been able to get much sleep the night before worrying if this would work out the way he had planned. Would people be receptive to what he asked? Would people even come to this meeting? He had been assured by several people there would be at least some (who could resist lovingly prepared snacks?) but it remained to be seen.

Gladio sat at a table, there was a notepad and a pencil in his hand. He would be taking notes of things he deemed important.

Once people started filtering in, Gladio began to feel somewhat better. Calmer. He watched them milling about with a smile. It was only when he thought there was enough that he rose and gave a call to get people's attention.

"First, I just wanna thank everyone for coming. I know it was short notice, but between the mission and platform day coming up, my hands were tied.

In future I'm going to do my best to have a meeting like this before every big mission, once we get the info. I don't think a little organisation can hurt. And... with that in mind. The reason I wanted to get you all here. I want everyone to get to know each other. And I want to learn more about you all. I'd like, if you're all willing, to assign simple roles within the team to each person for missions. If you don't want to be part of that, just let me know. That's your choice." He smiled wider. "If you do... I'll get to you. If you've any questions, I'm open to them. Piccolo and WangJi are also here to answer your questions and concerns. Not just here and not just for missions, but any you have. We're here for you."

With that his smile became a grin. "Now... I know two of our number have been working hard to make delicious snacks, so do me a favour? Make them happy and dig in! Enjoy them and... chat. Mingle. Get to know your fellow blue. We're a small team, lets make us the best team!"

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She gave him a look from under her hood. One that had it been just the two of them might have come with teasing.

But she did risk looking up at Gladio, watching him as she asked a question. "If I don't obey you... what..." her voice broke, dropped to a whisper. "What happens to me? To Axel?"

"Obey...?" Gladio looked genuinely confused, and glanced at Lea to see if he understood. He imagined he would, after all these two were friends. But he was missing something big here and it bothered him. That wording also bothered him.

"Nothing." He said, as if that had been the most obvious thing. "We're not a military unit here, Xion. I can't treat you like a soldier. But on a mission, if a lead gives you a direct order to do something, I would expect it to be followed to the best of your ability... We have everyone's safety here a top priority, we'll never order anyone to do anything that'll put them in danger. But if you say no... if you don't want to be a part of the team, there's no punishment, if that's what you're asking?" Gladio sighed and dropped his chin onto his hand, looking a little sad then. "... See... As I see it, we're the smallest of teams. We should help each other out. If you're there for us, we'll be there for you. Like a friends. Like a family. We protect each other. That's my hope."

Oh she was so very very confused. Why would those in charge care about anyone else's safety? And weren't missions inherently dangerous? She frowned under her hood and took a half step back, shaking her head.

She didn't know what military was or family or any of that... but he said they'd never order someone to do something that would put them in danger. But missions put them in danger. To protect whoever they decided mattered more. Like those Somebodies on the Island, or the weird Somebodies underground. The teams were what the leaders threw at the problem to protect the Soembodies who mattered... right? Which meant he was lying.

She took another step back, one hand dropping to her side, ready to call her Keyblade if she needed it, watching for any sign he might be about to attack her or Axel...

Gladio slowly sat himself back, both of his hands were on the table now, palms flat. Clearly showing that he was unarmed. He'd pulled back, leaning away... because she was moving away from him. And Gladio honestly wasn't sure why, or what he'd said, that had caused that silence and that reaction.

All he could do was turn his attention to Lea and hope for some kind of explanation of what he'd done wrong and how he could fix it.

Well then that made three confused people, because Lea was confused too, though for him it was due to Xion's reaction. If anything, Gladio's answer should have been reassuring, but it seemed it was having the opposite effect.

Wait did she... really not understand that people went on missions by choice here? ...No, she wouldn't would she? Because she apparently didn't pay attention to anything if it didn't directly involve him or Roxas. He sighed.

"Xion, you know no one forces anyone on the train to do missions, right?", Lea said. "Or to do anything else. I do them because I think it's the right thing to do and want to help out. And you tend to go where I go, so you do them too. But if either one of us decided we didn't want to do the mission and just stay on the train, or that we wanted to do another team's portion of it, there wouldn't be any penalty for that." As he'd explained to multiple newbies and as anyone who'd been paying attention to how things on the train worked at all should know by now.

"And it's not like the team leaders pick the missions anyway. The train just.... goes places, with us along for the ride, and a lot of those places end up having people who need help on them. That's all."

Gladio looked a little relieved, though was that really what Xion's issue was? Had he made it sound like she didn't have a choice when missions were concerned?

"That's right." He said, keeping his tone calm and as gentle as he could. "No one can make you do anything, least of all me. Stay or go, join a different team for the mission, sit off and watch it from the sidelines, you do as you please. No one will force you." Judge a little, maybe... if you can fight and choose to watch others struggle and not help in any way you can, even in the smallest of ways, there would be definite judging unless there was a damn fine reason. And something told Gladio that Xion had that reason.

"I'm not the only lead of blue team. But I can safely say that we're not here to force anyone to do anything. That's the reason for this 'meeting'. I wanted to find out more about everyone, what they can do, what they can't do... I wanted to try a little... organisation." He looked up then, he'd had his eyes on his notebook as he spoke, but now Gladio turned his attention to Xion. "For everyone else, having an idea of what to do when a mission happens seems to be reassuring. We never know what the mission is until just before it happens, but being prepared can't hurt, can it?"

"Missions are missions," she said to Axel. He should understand. He knew.

Except... he had been the one to convince Saïx to let her and Roxas work together. To change missions. Her shoulders dropped. "I don't get to choose my missions." Even if Axel could. But she couldn't say any more because Gladio....

The moment he said Organization... she froze, stiffened. Her look under her hood was aimed at Axel, alarmed and yet there was a hint of told you in it.

"You didn't get to choose them," Lea corrected her. "But now you do. Just like everybody else." He seriously didn't know why that was a difficult concept to get one's head around; new circumstances meant new rules. "And he means 'organization' as in 'being organized' like, not messy or chaotic."

Turning to Gladio, he explained. "Xion and I used to work for a group called Organization XIII, or just the Organization. Our bosses there were... well, let's just say it was the kind of group that didn't accept resignations. Unless the ones in charge were the ones resigning you. And since Xion was one of the newest and lowest ranked members of the group, she tended to feel like she was in constant danger of having that happen to her for any kind of slip up."

Gladio... was getting a headache. He lifted a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

"... Don't you get exhausted jumping to conclusions all the time?" He had to ask of Xion. His hand dropped and he looked to Lea and smiled unhappily. "I can understand that. But if she can't tell the difference between that and what's happening here, I don't think there's much I can do to help." And he hated that, it felt too much like giving up and that was something Gladio hated to do. But if he was going to have a fight on his hands every time he opened his mouth because Xion was far too quick to assume without listening to his words, he didn't think that was healthy for either of them.

Wasn't that how she was supposed to learn? By figuring things out?

Her shoulders hunched in. This was better than she hoped, right? Just being given up on? Since he wasn't going to destroy her yet over it like when Saïx and Xemnas had given up on her and wanted to see her or Roxas destroyed since they couldn't both serve well at the same time. But if he wasn't going to destroy her, that was good, right? She should be happy, right? Not scared and confused?

Lea sighed. This... wasn't going how he had hoped. But what the heck could he do? He could only push Xion so far; eventually she'd have to walk on her own. But getting her to take those first few steps was like pulling teeth. Why was she so determined to remain invisible? Why was she so determined to remain a Nobody? And how could he get her past it so the rest of the train could see the bright, sweet, stubborn, and sometimes even cheeky young girl that he saw?

He wanted to ask her those things, but this wasn't the time or the place. Finally he said, "Xion, you really... You need to stop looking at everything through an Organization lens. And more than that, you need to stop being afraid not to. But it's pretty obvious you don't wanna be at this meeting, so go ahead and go back to the room if you want. Or wherever. I'll see you back there later. I'm gonna stick around awhile longer."

Lea hated giving up too. But he was starting to seriously run out of ideas. If Xion wasn't going to believe the evidence of her own eyes and ears, or was going to filter everything through a fear-colored lens always waiting for the blade to come down on her, there was only so much he could do.

Edited 2020-09-02 04:03 (UTC)

As bad as things had been at the Organization she had at least understood things there. And even when she found out things were lies, there were still enough other things she understood - even if they were bad things - that she could get her mind around the situation. Sometimes. But first at the school, then here, she had so few anchors that she often seemed to be falling, unable to find roof under her boots. At the school she had two. Him and Roxas. And even they were different than she remembered in some ways. Enough the same to still be them, still be her best friends. Maybe she could have handled the other different if everything else had made sense, but it hadn't.

Then they came here and things made even less sense, and Roxas... didn't remember and then vanished...

She had to see things through the lens of the past, because the present made no sense and kept changing too fast for her to follow. She wondered, sometimes, if things would be easier if she still had Sora's memories. Those flashes had been confusing but there had also been something almost solid there, almost. But they were gone now. All she had left was Axel and what she knew about herself. But he kept telling her that none of that was true. It was all too much, too different. When he said she could go, she knew he wanted her to stay. And she wanted to for him. But after a moment hesitation she gave in and fled. She ran away, back to their room, to hide in her bed, hoping for something that would make sense.

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Blue Meeting:

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Thank you for the thread.