I’ve been on an emotional rollercoaster since their defection. Communications with ‘Safe Haven’ and their ‘reps’ have not gone well. I waffle between being deeply hurt and not giving a fuck. Sari isn’t my pain point—it’s the betrayal of people I’ve called friends for years. Some of them have been here since I took the reins of the Resistance and are turning their backs on me for the offer of validation that Sari and Belle are dishing out.
That’s what guts me.
When the trickle of attendees arriving wanes, I look at Lily and she nods. “Okay, everyone. Last chance to get your food and drink before we start. While you do so, Lily will explain how we’re going to run this meeting.”
Lily smiles and steps forward to take the stage. “Here are the rules of order: everyone will get their say, but it will be one at a time?—”
“Excuse me! I have a question!”
All heads turn to Tamara and I sigh. We got one fucking sentence in before the horseshit started. Sari coached these people to interrupt, disturb, and disrupt. “Yes, Tamara?”
“Do we have a starting point or are we just going stream of consciousness for the whole thing?” she asks.
“We have an agenda. However, all personal issues between neighbors should stay off the floor. If you have a personal problem with any one person or persons, we should resolve them in private,” Lily replies, giving the redhead a look that dares her to contradict her statement.
Tamara frowns at her, her expression petulant. “I don’t understand what that means. Are you saying we can’t address certain ‘taboo’ issues? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of this meeting?”
“I have a piggyback question to Tamara’s. Someone asked me this, and I feel we should address it because it’s important. Is someone recording this for the people who couldn’t be here tonight?” Sari asks, eyeing the phone that’s lying on the table next to me.
“There are security cameras on the outside of the house.Everyone can see it anyway,” Talia replies, giving Sari the evil eye.
Those two are going to be an enormous problem, and it’s starting very early.
Despite that, I could kiss her for jumping in. She’s making sure Sari knows we will record her behavior for all to witness, and her usual DARVO bullshit won’t work. That will not stop her entirely, but it might help a little.
“Correct,” Lily says calmly. “Tamara, I need more information on what you don’t understand. I think what makes up a ‘personal issue’ is a simple term, definition-wise.”
“I can answer for her. I have several problems with the premise of the meeting rules as described so far. I’ll list them one by one,” Sari cuts in.
Lily looks ready to strangle her for stepping on Tamara’s time, and I cast a glance at Talia, knowing this is going to be just one of many pain points in tonight’s discussion. She’ll have to stay calm, or we’ll get nowhere. I’m trying not to be the bad guy, so Lily should step up and tell Sari to get fucked, but of course, she doesn’t.
Great.
“This is a community of friends. We need to know what specifically we consider a personal issue that’s not ‘up for discussion’. Also, who gets to make that distinction? I have an issue with the security as well. It’s live—which means people who shouldn’t be here can watch it. We should record it via hand-written notes.”
Talia’s temper flares over our connection, and I send her a mental stroke. I plead with the boys internally to help keep her calm for me. We have to do this, and if we let Sari bait us, we’ll never find out what’s been going on behind the scenes. Her points are stupid, as the rules only said the droids and clones couldn’t attend, not that we had to hide shit from them.
“Sari, I posed my question to Tamara. However, if you cannot wait for your answer and Tamara allows us, I will answer you first,” Lily says. I can see the adversarial nature of this dialogue is bothering her. Lily is not one to suffer foolish bullshit, and she will not allow Sari to dictate terms to her.
At least she finally spoke up to say it.
“Can we agree personal issues—by definition—don’t affect community interaction as a whole?” Michaela asks.
I didn’t expect her to be helpful, but she often surprises me. “I agree. ‘Personal issues’ are between members and don’t affect everyone in the town.” I turn to smile sweetly at Sari, knowing she’ll see right through it. “However, the security is non-negotiable. It’s never been off since the ‘party incident’. The audio/video keeps people from paying more attention to taking notes than to the meeting. Plus, it allows everyone who isn’t here to see what was said, by whom, and how it was said. There is no room for misinterpretation when you can see our faces in HD.”
The coyote gives me a murderous look, and I smile benignly in return. I herded her to a seat that is angled to show every one of her ugly tantrums on the live feed. It will be hard to hide what she’s doing from that angle. Even her micro-expressions will show up on the ridiculously expensive system that Mickey had Quark install.
I feel Taurus give me a proud caress inside, and I let it calm my raw nerves.
“That sounds reasonable.” Michaela gives me a thumbs up, and I smile again, looking pontifical in my cushioned throne.
“I don’t agree with your definition. What if I say, ‘So and so insulted me in public’? Does that count as personal?” Tamara asks, looking at Rita pointedly.
Christ, she’s like a dog with a bone.
There’s something she wants to publicize in this meeting. I don’t know what it is, but I am not happy. Tamara has several agendas, and I’m not sure what either is yet, only that one serves her and the others are for various people who have used her desire to be popular as leverage.
“If it was at a public event or on public intranet, we can discuss it. If it was in private, then it shouldn’t be in this forum,” Talia says. “I will say—for the record—I will discuss any issues here and now in the interest of transparency. I will cede to the council if they find a discussion unproductive, though.”
