#it really has something absurdly feudalistic to it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inoshatrynn · 6 years

Text

More AU babbling:

To Addison’s surprise, Sloane does not smell like a barbecue pit or like she rolled in cologne before she arrived. In fact, she smells rather pleasant. Her eyes are as brash as her mouth in telling Jien and everyone else that she is just here to be polite.

One side glance to Addison, and the Colonial Director knows exactly how Sloane feels about her. Not that she really cares. Addison never really cared for things or people.

Sloane’s eyes remain level with everyone as she asked questions by Jien which are more fluff designed to get Director Kelly engaged with everyone else, or at least for everyone to start seeing her as something other than the pig in a palace.

The more Kelly gets into it, the more animated she becomes. Addison finds her voice pleasant, and she is more educated than she appears. Her face stretches attractively with her expressions and she uses her body to gesture as she speaks in a way that Addison finds herself liking enough to goad her into doing it some more.

Even though Sloane isn’t looking at her and she has worn this type of dress in public before, Addison feels self-conscious about her bare stomach exposed through the window in the fabric.

Every fiber of Sloane’s being does not want to be here. She is thoroughly uncomfortable. Even worse is making idiotic small talk with these stuffed shirts, or boob windows in the case of Nuara and Addison.

A small comfort is Jien is present and knowing her, she is undoubtedly doing this as a service to them as much as Sloane is. Sloane starts wondering if Jien invited her for that reason: A kindred spirit. Sloane is mindful of the profanity that she used earlier, remembering people trying to look for an exit while they were talking with her, but occasionally some slips out.

Nuara doesn’t seem to care, nor do the others. Addison has a few pithy comments, which Sloane isn’t surprised about. Her impressions of Director Addison are the same as her first ones: Snobbish, filled with self-righteous attitude, and petty. In fact, everything about Addison screams petty to Sloane. Especially her over-application of makeup and the fake gems glued to her stomach and chesticles that disguise the pleasing speckle of moles that occasionally dot her skin. All of which is a clear attempt at trying too hard to impress everyone but herself.

In Sloane’s mind, Addison is no doubt, a spacer or a colonist with money or descended from money and thought that the Andromeda Initiative would be a continuation of the same feudalistic oligarchy that it sought to escape.

Sloane wonders why Jien keeps Addison around when she is obviously the opposite of what she is trying to do.

Garson watches the interactions between Director Kelly and the rest of her leadership team carefully. Nuara doesn’t seem to care about the sudden uptick in energy that Sloane brought, and actually seemes intrigued by it. Jien also gleaned from Nuara that she and Sloane were familiar. Perhaps on the battlefield.

As for the rest, the only other interesting one is Foster who is standing next to Sloane with a standoffish scowl she normally wears when confronted with someone who takes her out of her comfort zone. This was precisely something Jien had hoped for.

Oh, she loves Foster as a dear colleague, but she is absurdly uptight sometimes and insufferable in her desire to be a leader, which isn’t her strength. Addison loves people that she perceives as strong, decisive, and good motivators, but hasn’t figured out whether she wants to be this type of person or is infatuated with these personality traits in others.

Furthermore, Jien also knows that deep down, Foster is an explorer of personal experience, and her fulfillment of this mission is by occasionally surrounding herself with people who are her opposite. Usually when she feels bored, which also makes Foster much less reliable than she thinks she is.

There is something else curious about Foster. Since Sloane joined the conversation, her posture is a lot more guarded.

1 note · View note