[Closed] Who Runs The World

[youwonscience]

WHO: Cosima & Gela
WHAT: Div Head meeting and chill
WHEN: some handwavey date in Kingsway
WHERE: Gallows War Room
NOTES: A sign of things to come

Division head meetings are, these days, less a "meeting" and more a "consultation." Even so, there's plenty of triage to do and correspondence to discuss. Cosima made today's meeting agenda and included a significant space for letting Gela debrief about the recent trip to Val Royeaux, both for practical reasons and because — based on what Cosima gathered — Gela may need a chance to vent for a while.

Cosima herself is perched on the edge of the war table, legs swinging. They keep the table as up to date as is practical, but it's much less central to their meetings with Marcus and Yseult both gone. Cosima has a mug of tea in her hands, warm but no longer steaming; given what they've gotten through in this meeting so far, she thinks no one would blame her if she'd spiked it. (She hasn't.) Kirkwall hasn't yet developed a chill in the air, but the long afternoon shadows she can see out the window still suggest that proper autumn is on its way.

When Gela comes to a natural resting place in catching Cosima up on the situation in Orlais, Cosima says, "I know there's supposed to be power in people underestimating you, but at this point I don't think that's the angle we've been trying to cultivate." Her tone is sympathetic. "But I will say take over the department to walk straight into an emergency is almost traditional at this point. So you have that going for you." Probably not especially comforting, actually.

Comments

[sprent]

"Don't try to convince me any of this is normal," Gela says and she's only sort of joking. "But you're right — we've gone too far in the other direction, now. They're going to start thinking we're nothing to be bothered about at all." It's good in some ways, as in they will be able to keep a low profile for even longer, but bad in more ways, such as the cessation of funding (probably). Who would bother to support a group that seems to be barely on the radar in terms of its level of threat?

Gela has long since moved from her chair to pace around a bit. This happened when she started getting really into talking about the play and all the letters she's had to write, and all the extraneous people who have been roped in, the critics willing to pen a bad review, and Connor's mother, who has insider knowledge, and Gwenaëlle's old circle of poets she can still (probably) extract some favours from.

She says, both hands on her head, "I wish the others were here." Yseult and Marcus both, she means, they had felt so senior. Compared to her, anyway.

[youwonscience]

Softer, Cosima says, "Yeah, me too." It feels so recent that she was the new one, stepping in after Tony disappeared. "That actually... I wanted to talk to you about that. The holes in the leadership structure."

She watches Gela pace, but doesn't suggest she sit. Cosima understands well enough that sometimes motion feels necessary.

"We can keep going the way we have done. Tap someone we think can handle Forces and someone else we think is right for Scouting. But before we do that, maybe you and I can talk about an alternative. As a hypothetical for now."

[sprent]

Gela does not sit but she does stop. She breathes out (didn't know she was holding her breath) and her hands descend to her hips, perching there. It's not a bad suggestion. It's probably the best suggestion — she can't think of who they might ask from Forces (perhaps Gwenaëlle? Though she has not presented the idea to them yet and Gela thinks that she would if she wanted it) or Scouting to step up, and what would they do if nobody wanted to?

"Okay," she says, thinking. "Do you mean something like how Diplomacy was run before I took the position?"

It could work again, though they'll get the odd person who doesn't take it very seriously...

[youwonscience]

She shakes her head. "Not exactly. I was thinking more like ... I think the Division structure made a lot of sense at the time. But there's fewer of us these days, and I think maybe just ... opening it up to see who is interested in big-picture strategy? I don't know if we want to aim for four seats, or maybe more, but more of a committee. A council, of sorts." Cosima's given it some thought, obviously, but the way she asks is workshopping. Does it make sense, are there obvious holes? She's not presenting it fully done for approval.