Void Where Prohibited?
Clang. Clang. Clang.
The striking of hammer against steel was a constant, soothing thing for the little Lalafellin smith - like listening to the heartbeat of his forge. Fully hale and hearty again thanks to Ms. Fiona's tincture and Ms. Aya's bag of recovery comforts, Chachanji had jumped back into catching up on his work that had slacked due to the grip of the disease. Plus, making the base plates that would later be turned into the various other tools and armor was always a nice time for him to collect his thoughts.
And he had plenty to think about after the meeting.
Chachan hadn't attended a lot of security meetings before, but even he had felt the whole thing hadn't gone very well. First was the part he walked in on - introductions that were quickly stymied by one of the number deciding to play with their cards close to the chest and not even divulging their name as they harangued the rest of the group. The others had responded pretty understandably to it - not wanting to share security information with someone whose attitude seemed to be quite the security risk, later seemingly justified when the figure apparently mentioned bypassing the door guard with some sort of teleport-y rift magic.
The fact said door guard was Hammersmith meant things would have gotten... rather violent should the man have followed through on his idea. Or failed at it due to the wards. Which the Roegadyn seemed to have Plans for if such a thing had happened. Violent Plans.
Speaking of Hammersmith, he had caused his own scene after the meeting had been relocated to one of the smaller rooms of the Clinic. The smoking mountain of a Roegadyn had very Strong Opinions on many things - especially Voidsent and anything related to them. Chachan had heard plenty on that one from Tiroro as well as from Hammersmith himself, so when it came out that the Rangers utilized some sort of void power to combat the voidsent... things went as they usually do when the one-eyed Roegadyn had a Problem with something. Badly.
It didn't help that someone had tried to appease him with some holy water, which he then made a point of spraying on everyone and then lurking outside the meeting hall to dump even more on anyone exiting to check for "voidshite." While it was more nuisance than anything else for most attending, the Rangers - as well as Chachanji's newfound friend Ceredwin - had reacted poorly to it... Chachanji paused in his hammering for a moment.
The holy water, if the lady who gave it to Hammersmith was to believed, reacted to void-stuff or something like that. The Rangers had obviously reacted due their void power, but why had Ceredwin been set to sizzling? She had mentioned she was practiced in the Red Magics, which weren't - as far as the little Lalafell was aware - involved delving into the Void. Unless Ms. Artemis wasn't telling him and Tiroro something, and he liked to think she would mention something like that.
Unless what Ceredwin had asked him the day she had come to check on him was the clue. After all, when Chachanji had mentioned he liked his friends no matter what type of person was or where they came from, she had asked him: "What about half-voidsent?" He had figured she was just setting an extreme example, to test his convictions - and many seemed fond of doing, now that the little Lalafell thought on it - but given the holy water incident... Chachan shook his head and resumed his hammering.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
He had told her before that such things didn't matter - and Chachanji would hold to that even if Ceredwin was part Voidsent or Voidkin or Voidtouched whatever. After all, despite potentially having that cursed heritage, the Elezen seemed just like anyone else - wanting to have friends and loved ones. In fact, her visit to his smithy had cemented just how much she wanted those sorts of very human comforts: while Chachan may have gotten upset with her for thinking he couldn’t take care of himself and that he was going to make a martyr of himself, it was because she cared. She was worried for him, like he had been for many of his own friends who had been in dire situations.
And from her demeanor and the things she had said, it sounded like she was sorely lacking in the friends department.
No matter how the little Lalafell looked at it - Hammersmith's very vocal and infectious distrust of anything void-related aside - Ceredwin seemed... just like anyone else. As had Belladonna and her Rangers, in the brief period he had interacted with them; despite whatever histories they had and what obstacles they had to overcome, they were still people. Perhaps the circumstances of their birth or the whims of fate had dealt them a terrible hand, but they were still trying to do to help people in spite of it. To do good with what they had been given. The Rangers had literally described their purpose as using void energies against the actual threat of the Voidsent themselves - fighting fire with fire - even though they hadn't gotten much of a choice in the matter when used in that Ranger project thing.
It just didn't feel right to Chachanji to so harshly judge them out of hand for situations in the past that had been out of their control, had not been their fault or even their decision to make. What they wanted to do, and what they were going to do, was what mattered most right now. Belladonna and her Rangers were out there fighting actual dangerous entities, and Ceredwin seemed to just be trying to find her own place to belong. And all of them were just as for dealing with the threat that the Whispers brought as anyone else. Yet the unfortunate circumstances that brought them to where they were today coming to light was what ended up derailing the security meeting horribly and drawing lines in the sand that the little Lalafell didn't think needed to be drawn.
After all, the purpose of the security meeting was to help determine some sort of safe manner where those who defied the Whispers could work together, to protect and help each other against this Greater Threat. How could they do that if people were being secretive and distant - like the man in the cloak and hood at the very start - or turning against potential aid because of questionable pasts? Sure, it was one thing to be a little concerned, but to devolve into the squabbling and ire that had followed...
If something as simple as a sordid history was enough to break down the lines of coordination, to drive wedges in the group, could they really band together to provide a concerted effort against this otherworldly presence? Against those who had joined its cause and were already working to oppose and hinder their efforts? Or were they doomed to failure before they even began?
Clang. A pause, and then... Clang. Clang. Clang.
No, Chachanji didn't want to believe that. Call him stubborn, but the little Lalafell had already seen firsthand the good that they had already accomplished despite how ragtag the group was and all the different walks of life they had came from. Drawn together simply due to questionable circumstance of “hearing voices in their heads,” they had managed to come together and combat the first threat of the Whispers - a deadly plague.
Chachan standing at his forge like nothing had happened was proof of that. The cure that he had been given wouldn't have been possible - or developed so quickly - without that communal effort everyone had provided. And even now they were working their hardest to make more and spread it to those who needed it, as well as deal with the flowers that caused it.
They would overcome this obstacle as well.
Together.
( @the-faceless-ffxiv and @ceredwin-hollows )
