Of Monsters and Music

Therapy - Tick, Tick, Boom!

LENA

I am learning, very quickly, that diplomatic meetings mean very different things to different cultures and species.

With humans, such as when I'm talking to the Canon, everyone assumes that everyone has an equal say, even when that may not be true. Some people prefer to stay quiet in Canon meetings, keeping their opinions to themselves until it's time to vote. Others stay quiet because they feel the dynamics in the room shift in accordance to different stressors - the people more equipped to handle certain situations will become loud as they take charge, and others will become quiet as they realise that their skills aren't necessary. Finally, you have the people who stay quiet because they don't like to talk unless absolutely necessary. Those people are generally the nicer ones, I've found. But they all believe that their opinion is just as important, even when Gandhi, the Hemsworth brothers and the Queen of England might be seated at the same table as them.

Dwarves are very similar to humans, but over the years (and through asking Ima and Iggy a lot of questions), I've learnt that there are a few key words and phrases you should never say that are pretty common words in English. Scissors is a great example. I made the mistake of asking for a pair once and got SHUT DOWN.

With the Fey, diplomacy is kept by following a lot of rules whilst simultaneously following none of them (which is why we leave most of the Fey meetings to Chase). I have virtually no experience navigating the rules of what to do and say and what to definitely not do and say, but I do know that as long as you obey the person in charge, you'll probably be able to walk out with all your limbs still attached to your body and your brain only slightly confused as to what just happened. Generally, the person in charge is a member of the royal family, but really it's down to... respecting the people in power, even if you don't really respect them.

Pixies are frustrating. They often have way too much energy to sit down and talk business, so meetings last for about five minutes before they 'need' a break. This can be very tedious if the entire meeting could fit into about seven minutes.

Trolls are similar to the Fey in the fact that the person with the highest status takes charge of the whole meeting, but they spend a hilarious amount of time trying to figure out who, exactly, is in charge. The Fey assume it's them, but the trolls will respect you enough that they'll be a little confused as to who is meant to lead the meetings. I've had to remind them that they are the ones in charge on more than one occasion. Usually, I don't mind going to meetings with the trolls because they're harmless (unless you insult their height or their tiny hoarding problem when it comes to shiny stuff, in which case, make sure you can run very fast).

This meeting with the trolls, however, is really... weird.

When Lady Aspenwind blabbed about the whole there may be a rebellion happening thing, people became restless very quickly, and started asking us Canon members questions about it almost instantly - hence the meeting Kyle told me about.

People were desperate to see the people in charge actually doing something about what was going on. After a meeting that definitely went for too long, Sarah Thumb decided that we should organise a meeting with the trolls.

It seems like a terrible idea, considering that this meeting is to test whether the trolls are rebelling against us, but the aim is to try and play off of the troll's, well, stupidity, for want of a better word. If we could talk to the troll King, maybe we could figure out if the group that ambushed Chase was acting on his authority, or if they weren't aware of it. If they were acting on instructions from the King, maybe we could convince him to, you know, not attack EAS.