mental link

[adamance]

WISDOM passing on her legacy, her knowledge, and showing a willingness for more	COMPASSION looking upon her people with care, with hope, and understanding a different layer of strength
STRENGTH strength is more than just mere words or mere actions—it is everything	PURPOSE being born for this

( CODE BY WHAMBAM )

Comments

[adamance]

[Perhaps it's Lexa's arrogance that leads to Misato's words striking a bad chord for her, or perhaps it's just Bellamy's suspicions lingering for some time—either way, she isn't pleased by what she hears. It leaks out before Lexa can realize it.]

( Do you trust her? )

[A more important question.]

[wille]

[ They could spend their time exploring the bonds within their own faction too. Everyone, even those closest to each other, have their own conflicting motivations. Misato is optimistic, prone to simplification and tunnel-vision mentality, but she isn't naive. ]

( Honestly, Lexa? As much as I trust you. Competence is a given, motives is something else. )

[adamance]

( It's interesting that you use me as a measurement of trust. )

["Interesting"—what Lexa really means to say is, "It's meaningless."]

( Unless it is in terms of whether you think she will act in our best interest. Am I meant to take that from it? )

[This is a genuine question. Lexa's question of trust has nothing to do with faith, but she has no intention of explaining as much to Misato herself. If Rhan doesn't have their best interests at heart, that will have to be determined by other parties.]

[wille]

( That's exactly what you're meant to take from it. Motives, not competence. )

[ Is there such a thing as questioning the other person's good will while maintaining civility? Misato doesn't even care to walk the tightrope, presenting her view as one tosses a stack of untested accusations on the table. Careless, callous. She doesn't even deign to soften the edges of her next words. ]

( I don't hold that against you. But, like her, I still wonder what it is you're really working on. )

[adamance]

( I cannot speak for Rhan, but I can assure you that I'm not inclined toward such grandiose intentions that my overall goals become unclear. I've nothing to gain from an agenda like that. )

[And—more specifically—she doesn't have the power or foundation to enact anything truly complicated. Her impatience is as it is on the surface: frustrated by the pilgrimage, by her perceived lack of progress, by what solutions she's come up with being thwarted.

Though her impatience itself may fall in the arena of concern over Rhan's motivations from the very beginning. Rhan has no reason to act in their best interest—only her own. That much is certainly clear to Lexa.]

[wille]

( That's reassuring. )

[ Without a dash of sarcasm, because it is. Misato wears her emotions and intentions so plainly on the surface that she expects others to do the same, all while knowing they don't. Lexa's calmness and intelligence tell her that she must be less like herself than otherwise, but that too is a baseless assumption. ]

( Anyway, I'm wary, let's just put it at that. I know it's easiest to focus on the mission and think that everything's gonna be okay if we get out of this planet alive, but that's not even the worst of it. )

[adamance]

( Our time here wears on us. It always does on these missions. One month may be nothing compared to the span of our lives as they are now, but we are as we have been from the beginning: the blind led by someone who is less than that. If we are truly a distraction, then we should at least be willing participants. We have no reason to trust what Rhan intends because Rhan is hardly part of us. Wariness is the least we should ask for. )

[Lexa knows that she shouldn't speak on Rhan's intentions without speaking to her herself, but that's beside the point right now.]

[wille]

[ There's something to be said about attempting to draw divisions between what may be a whole. A host may be one thing, so is a brood, but none as complete as the entire nest. That is to say, Misato responds with hesitation, because the difference between Rhan being a part of them, as any other person in the nest is a part of them, is so slight as to be immeasurable. ]

( Let's just keep digging. I don't intend on staying blind until we find the gun already pointing our way. )

[adamance]

( But where do we dig now? )

[To Lexa, there is always a divide, a belief in a nation over anyone who's an outsider. To her, the divisions make sense. Rhan and the others were here for a year spying. That is their own nation (so to speak). The group brought here now is another nation. And so on.]

[wille]

( Everywhere. Leave no stone left unturned, isn't that what people say? )

[adamance]

( They say that, but sometimes those stones may be wasting your precious time. )

[wille]

( So is choosing to turn only, say, the blue stones without good reason for ignoring all the others. )

[adamance]

( So you begin to find reasons to narrow down the stones. Means to do so, as well. We're accomplishing nothing because we have been attempting to handle all the stones on this mission, while our guides have had more information than the rest of us. We have no choice but to narrow our focus. )