@diomcdes location: after the governance and tech in gaia panel. time: week two.
with the discussion finished, odysseus was left to mingle among both those bright-eyed and those hungry -- those that considered themselves wolves and those that knew how to hide their teeth. individuals stopped him to follow-up on regulations, on innovation, on that nebulous thing they had collectively dubbed the future. and he almost made it through it all, smiling as he needed and humming in consideration as he listened. none of his exhaustion showed; none of his uncertainty. he was the same he had always been, as he always would be.
odysseus would have made it through as he had made it through countless other events -- until he saw diomedes. they were not someone to ignore; they would not become someone to placate either. odysseus saw diomedes, and diomedes saw him. together, they formed a snake eating its own tail. endless, endless.
that cold flush of anger fell over odysseus, and he felt separated from his body as he approached her. appearances, he convinced himself. it was always about appearances.
( hadn’t she been one of many to teach him that? )
“quorum member delyle,” he greeted, quiet enough it might have just been the two of them. as if all the world existed in the space between them. “dare i ask what you thought of the discussion?”