This One Just Became a Leadership Conversation

[prettycoolguy]

This is Spartan One-One-Seven broadcasting on an unknown communications array.

[ A few members of the team have seen the Master Chief around, but he hasn't made major contact before now. For most of the group, it's the first time they've seen this scarred face. And for one of them, it's far from the first. ]

I understand that this is a different world than the one I come from, and we have no way to return until we accomplish an... objective.

[ An objective that they all have only vaguely heard about from a weird hallucination. He doesn't have to say that part. They already know. ]

This being the case, I'm offering my skills.

I have significant experience leading teams on a variety of ops. I can work longterm on terrain like this. You can count on me in a fight.

But first of all, I do need to know who's in charge of this outfit.

[ Bless his entire heart. ]

Comments

[hasapoint]

[No visual, and Need's voice is strange.]

The rabble's in charge. Or Stacia is, as the only person with an interest in claiming the position. Not a bad candidate as they go, I'll say, even if there was actual competition.

[prettycoolguy]

I see.

This is more... [ he considers, ] irregular than anticipated.

[millenyal_pink]

Seize the means of production!

[prettycoolguy]

[ This gets an uncertain squint. ]

[steelandtemper]

I'll explain when we get a minute.

[STOP CONFUSING HER LARGE, SHELTERED, 40-YEAR-OLD SUPER-SOLDIER.]

[just_ace]

Wait, we have means of production!?

[konman]

I think I'm a big chunk of the means of production, even though a lot of people chipped in. [He'd still organized.] No seizing.

[millenyal_pink]

Try and stop me, Incredi-Boy.

[She's teasing. She's also a little offended at him claiming the title of the 'means of production'. That doesn't sound like he's acting in the interest of the proletariat.

Okay, she's still joking. Mostly.]

[hasapoint]

You're telling me, boy. Most of us are brought together never having known each other at all, so there's been some 'oh no, you look dangerously familiar, time for a painful misunderstanding!' stuff getting in the way too. The 'Chosen Ones' do not presently feel united.

[prettycoolguy]

Sounds unpleasant.

I'll do my best not to add to it.

[ He'll be fine as long as no Covenant show up. ]

[hasapoint]

Please do. If you must fight someone here, try and refrain from killing them, I don't think we'll always have the luxury of people rushing in to stop it.

[prettycoolguy]

I don't turn to lethal answers unnecessarily.

This isn't a war.

[ Yet. ]

[hourglasshalfempty]

A leader is whomever the group chooses to follow. I, for one, don't know the girl, nor do I intend to take orders from her.

[hasapoint]

And without established hierarchies to lean on, we get to the point of choosing because a would-be leader has vision and an eye for the people around her, and what they're capable of.

I do know her. I can't tell if she has the knack, but I've seen people with less promise go on to do well.

[hellbentley]

I hate hierarchies to begin with. With a burning hate. Just...flames. [He makes an abortive gesture with his hands.] Flames alongside my face.

And I'm especially not following one run by what I presume is a fifteen-year-old.

[A pause.]

Is she fifteen? I'll admit I'm fuzzy on kid's ages in any other stage besides ages 5 to 11, and I only know what they look like during those because I helped raise one in that range.

[okayimin]

All of you look like over large babies, so I don't see why that makes a difference.

[hasapoint]

Structure's a tool like anything else. Having someone dedicated and ready to tell new people what's going on and see their needs are met and find what they're willing and able to contribute, and to say by the way we're running low on such and such, is not a terrible thing.

She's a bit older than that. But if I refused to look to someone younger than me, I would've been left with...

[Long pause, and a muttered Hmm, no, Windborn's a legacy...]

You know what, I'm not going to say.

[credit_not_blame]

Assuming that I age outside of my home universe, I'm within a few months of my nineteenth birthday. But I'll cherish your compliment of my youthful good looks.

[prettycoolguy]

Wouldn't be the strangest thing I've seen.

When you ask who's in charge in chaos, you accept the answer you find.

[ John was leading his team in the field at fourteen. He's also uncovered more than one pocket of unlikely survivors in strange, dangerous places where the personalities shook out in an unexpected way. He could've rolled with it. ]

[hourglasshalfempty]

Who chose? She declared. Because one person asked. I am disinclined to accept the sole dicatatorship of a fifteen year old girl on the basis that she volunteered and no one else objected. Nor do I seem to be alone in this.

[hasapoint]

I don't think it will come to that.

[Then, directly, in Mindspeech:]

:But I'm pleased to see you're willing to disagree with me, my dear. I usually think I know better - and often I do - but outside of some very specific and immediate circumstances, that doesn't mean everything I say should go unquestioned.:

[prettycoolguy]

Then the situation is worse than I thought.

[hourglasshalfempty]

The situation is quite dire, yes.

[hellbentley]

Infinitely worse.

[ragefeathers]

You should. She knows what she's doing.