[Day 10 - LE] Live Reunion Show

[Thousand Miles]

"I'm sure there'll be a discussion over whether to bring Pantheon into the fold," Miles said, sounding conciliatory. "But here's probably not the time or the place. There'll be plenty of time for strategy and politics later."

"This is the Elite House reunion show! Let's fight about who forgot to take the trash out again, or who left makeup on the bathroom mirror, or who keeps stealing my sandwiches." He shot one of the Frankies an I know it was you glare.

[Babble]

"We experienced a number of difficult and dangerous situations during the show." Arturo said. "That did a lot to shape who we are now, here on this stage. There were other, more personal, moments that led us each here too, both on and off the camera. When I entered this house, what I wanted most was to help people, to protect those in danger, no matter who they were. That hasn't changed. That's still what I want. I may not be able to do that the way I had hoped, but I will still do whatever I can to help others. I do not doubt that that is true for everyone else here."

[Ultimate Frankie]

"Claro. There is no forgiveness for the ones that don't want it, the ones who can't put the past behind them. But we do not need to be like them. We do not need to lie over and over again," He gestures to Ultimate Frankie, "about who is doing what. The lies we've heard and seen exposed make me wonder what other lies there are that weren't exposed?

Some or most of Pantheon may not be willing to put their own prejudices aside, but it sounds like some already are. Pushing them away only hurts us and I question os motivos of those that do."

"You calling me a liar?" she responded. "What the hell Camilo, I thought we were cool, yeah, where all this beef come from, bruv?"

[Ayana Kebede]

"I'm sure there'll be a discussion over whether to bring Pantheon into the fold," Miles said, sounding conciliatory. "But here's probably not the time or the place. There'll be plenty of time for strategy and politics later."

"This is the Elite House reunion show! Let's fight about who forgot to take the trash out again, or who left makeup on the bathroom mirror, or who keeps stealing my sandwiches." He shot one of the Frankies an I know it was you glare.

"Hey I always did the dishes," Ayana said with a light laugh, hoping to bring down the temperature.

[Babble]

"Ultimate Frankie was mistaken months ago when she claimed that she and our other Frankie were both from this universe and that our troubles couldn't be blamed on alternate universe nonsense. She thought Pantheon was the true threat at the time." Arturo said. "But, she's now working with Frankies throughout the multiverse to address the real threat. So, she's obviously realized the error she made back then."

[Bee Haw]

Bea looked a little perplexed. Key Pantheon folks were at the table already. UNJE was just ... lying about it not already being the case? She'd like to be surprised by that. But she wasn't.

She'd said her peace.

"I was glad for the chance to train and work in teams with the good folks here, and others who I hope to yet see again, like Malik and LD. It is a great responsibility. I know that I will continue to use my time to help people and do good and prevent harm, wherever I land. And helping us prepare for the invasion. That's the priority for the next few years."

The rest was pretty trivial in comparison.

There was no way so called Ultimate Frankie did not believe that there were alternate universes back when the blue herald appeared. She lied. They all knew it. Remorse would have been nice. It was all a little disappointing. But also nothing to hold onto when they were all threatened by a common foe. If she was working with Honest Frankie now, great. It just didn't much matter what mistakes anyone had made in the past. That was true for Ultimate Frankie, for UNJE, for Pantheon, for everyone.

[Galatea]

Galatea turned her head to look at Miles, she gave him a soft smile but there was unmistaken sadness in it.

''I am sorry Miles. That train left the station a while ago.''

She returned her attention to 'Ultimate' Frankie, once again perfectly calm, collected, reasonable. She never actually saw that Frankie do anything of note...she was attacked early on but was fairly absent from any major event and her contribution, if any, must have been fairly unnoticeable.

An insecurity perhaps?

''I am not the one talking about Pantheon, Frankie. If you want to argue against me then you should at least speak to what I am trying to say rather what you misconstrue it as.'' There was a good chance that not using her new moniker had a good chance to irk her while looking innocent the viewer

''But if we are on the topic then I would like to point out that radicalization and violent radicalization are not new problems. There is a lot to say on the subject but I agree with Bee Haw, Bohemian and Babble that we can't close the door. Not everyone that orbit around the Pantheon network have the same level of involvement or the same level of adherence to their extremists view. One of the problem with extremist groups is that they don't always fully reveal themselves or their endgame until people are either committed or don't have a choice anymore. There can be an insidiousness to the recruitment strategy, the targeting people who they can prey on...the offer a place to belong to, a community...all the while damaging previously held relationship until they become isolated and dependent.''

She gave a nod to Bea

''That is why her approach is so valuable. Movies and comic books might solve their conflicts with epic fistfights until the irredeemable villains are laid low but...actual history tend to show that it doesn't work in solving the roots of the issue. Keeping an open hand out for those who could take it is paramount to help solve the problem of extreme radical violence. It's hard, it' not sexy, it doesn't sell merchandise but it needs to happen.''

She passed a hand down to remove a wrinkle from her dress

''About the drama.'' she readjusted herself ''My initial quip was intended as humor, to laugh at the situation rather then dwell on the pettiness of it all. It seems I failed in doing that, perhaps it was forced. Though, to be honest, I must admit I'd be lying if I say that I haven't been hurt by getting pushed aside by an organization I looked up to. Not making the team? I expected that. The edits? I expected that too...I know how it goes behind the camera...but I did not expect them to be so thorough in making sure doors would close in my face for saying something they had to admit a few months later.''

She joined her hands together

''But that won't stop me. I share Arturo's commitment to doing good and that always was one of the main reason I joined the show to begin with. The opportunity to learn from real heroes, from people I idolized, was not something I could say no to. Some did not meet the image I had of them but I am glad to say that much more rose above it...Some of them on this very stage.''

Funny how 'Ultimate Frankie' was notably not there or that she only said some on this stage. A poor turn of phrase, really

''I will not lose the drive that brought me here in the first place. It'll just have to be outside of the UNJE''

[Ultimate Frankie]

Ultimate Frankie shrugged and said, "Like I said, bruv, ain't my place to delve into your beef with the powers that be. Just defending myself against all this weird hostility. You want to make nice with Pantheon, bruv, brilliant. They your new best friends, more power to you. I am still cautious, yeah, hell one of them killed Michael Bay... I mean Uri-el, and then he like came back, like wot, whatever that means, bruv."

"I didn't come here to debate anything, just have a chill time with people, I thought were my friends, yeah, but it's cool, innit. Better to know now, anyways, bruv."

OOC: As an aside, it can be assumed she and other NPCs were involved in the background with stuff and not just twiddling thumbs, but the focus was mostly kept on the players. As for Pantheon at the table, that's through backdoor channels mostly controlled by the players than the powers that be at UNJE or Pantheon Network.

[Camilo Batista]

"Except you didn't come here. You're off in New Zealand on a press tour or whatever.

And you forgot it was a former Pantheon member that fought side by side with Uri-El, or maybe this was just another lie by omission?

And I can't stand to see you there with her face spouting these lies and acting so damn selfish. It's the opposite of what she stood for and you don't deserve what you've been given. If anyone does, my Frankie does. But instead she went home where she's going to keep risking her life to save others until it costs her hers."

[Ultimate Frankie]

"Bruh you got problems, I am not qualified to fix, yeah. I'm here in new Zealand doing humanitarian work, and press touring, because it's my job to help people. Okay and," she said about the omission, "point stands, they are still violent offenders, yeah. But bruh, maybe get some help about the whole... whatever you got going on, yeah."

[BadWitchPatel]

"Wow, there seems to be so much animosity and anger," the hostess said. "Anyone care to elaborate what happened between the end of shooting and now? Because our fans are certainly surprised to see some of this. Plus not everyone follows social media."

[Ayana Kebede]

Ayana quipped quietly, "I missed it too."

[Julia Waters]

Julia who had been quiet and probably overlooked on stage piped up and said, "I don't know, I am just as surprised too. Maybe people are mad at how things went after the attack on the city?"

"I know some people feel like some things were said that were misleading, but not all of us were on the in-crowed I guess. It's hard to bring a message of unity when we got so much anger about petty stuff."

[Ultimate Frankie]

"Ultimate Frankie was mistaken months ago when she claimed that she and our other Frankie were both from this universe and that our troubles couldn't be blamed on alternate universe nonsense. She thought Pantheon was the true threat at the time." Arturo said. "But, she's now working with Frankies throughout the multiverse to address the real threat. So, she's obviously realized the error she made back then."

"Yeah, it's water under the bridge for Frankie and me, bruv," she said with a wave of her hand.

[Galatea]

Julia who had been quiet and probably overlooked on stage piped up and said, "I don't know, I am just as surprised too. Maybe people are mad at how things went after the attack on the city?"

"I know some people feel like some things were said that were misleading, but not all of us were on the in-crowed I guess. It's hard to bring a message of unity when we got so much anger about petty stuff."

''I think you are on point with that, Julia. For my part I have spoken up about being blacklisted from the UNJE...but I am not the only one. It's just that I don't want to speak on anyone's behalf without their permission and I have the luxury of being able to do for myself without risking too much.''

[Babble]

"There were things that happened back then and since then." Arturo said. "They aren't really suited for discussion here, but they were strongly connected to the months we spent in this house. Being back here has stirred all this up. It's unfortunate, but fully understandable. I think people will figure it out, in time. But, yeah, we didn'tall walk away from this on equal footing."

[Bee Haw]

Bea felt like she had to speak up. Enough arguing about this. She had tried to avoid stirring the pot, but perhaps the plain truth was the only path through.

"It is a lot of pressure to try to save the world. It's no wonder that tempers are short, though I think folks are trying to do their best. I am glad to see folks I haven't seen in months."

"Galatea is telling the truth. We were told to lie about what we had eye witnessed. Some did. Some didn't. I thought it was too important to lie about. Or to blame the wrong organization for it, distracting efforts to prepare by expending resources chasing the wrong target, and framing those who were innocent of it. Perhaps there was a rationale for it that I still do not understand. I am not angry that telling the truth cost me the chance to be on the team and to make a salary. It has helped the world be more ready. I'd rather be free to help others as I can, without the soul-crushing burden of dishonesty."

"All that said, the truth is long revealed. No one, including UNJE, disputes the facts now. I don't understand the lingering confusion, but golly it's been a stressful time, so it's certainly possible not everyone here has been tracking all the details. If you've been too busy helping others, good for you!"

"There should be no question who was telling the truth then. Not everyone was an eye witness to the blue herald. I do not blame folks who weren't for not standing up for a truth they hadn't seen. It was surely confusing. It was meant to be confusing to have an authority figure tell you that things you knew were true - like the existence of other dimensions - proven numerous times during the course of the filming - are not. And not everyone was present every time those matters came up. But you certainly interacted many times with the various inter-dimensional visitors, including the 2nd Frankie here, the 3rd Frankie, the entire team of our doubles from another dimension... Those folks were all living at Academy House and speaking plainly about their origins. Maybe that was all edited out of the TV show, but I do not think anyone here had their memory altered."

"But there is no reason to argue about it now. Those facts should not be in dispute."

"We should all be focused on returning to the work of helping people with the ordinary troubles and violence that kept us busy before the invasion, and the specific work of preparing for it. And we should be working together. This is all water under the bridge. And far less important than the invasion coming."

"There are plenty of ways to help going forward. And, in all fairness, communities and neighborhoods may have to have truthful conversations about past wrongs on the path to unity, so they are truly ready to stand side by side when the invaders come. We can at least role model that is possible. And just ... human."

[Uri-el]

A thunderous sonic boom overwhelms the studio's audio. Somewhere in the booth. a lighting director curses under his breath. It would seem a certain someone has arrived.

[Galatea]

Galatea grinned wide

''Well now, I bet a dollar on who that might be''

[Uri-el]

The studio doors opened to admit the seraph, who slowly scanned the room before mounting the stage.

"I apologize for being late," he said, seemingly unaware of the double meaning. "Have you been having a good discussion?"