The Miys, Ch. 100
Whaaaaat....? I never get over seeing that chapter number.
This is the chapter that will wrap up the Cult Panic story arc. I honestly didn’t intend for it to go this long, but after rushing the Plague arc, I was determined to focus more on making sure I liked how this one went than finishing in a certain timeframe.
After this chapter, our crew will go back to more ‘Humans are Weird’ content, with the fluff and comedy I think we need in current times (especially if you’re American).
Once again, thank you to @zommbiebro for letting me play with Jokul, and @baelpenrose for beta reading and helping me particularly with this story arc.
After our conversation with Jokul, he agreed rather quickly to meet with the Council. I could even say - truthfully - that no threats were necessary. Instead, Antoine and I had explained the level of concern Jokul and his group had eventually caused, the former cult-leader had offered to make amends and set the record straight. The only point I had to convince him of was that the session needed to be recorded and distributed across the ship. In the end, he conceded only for the reason that such a broadcast was the only way to regain any trust among the population of the Ark.
Two days after our meeting in my office, the Council was gathered in the same room where Arantxa’s trial had taken place. As this wasn’t a trial, instead of each Councillor having an administrator present, the six of us were joined by Jokul, with Tyche, Antoine, Parvati, Simon, and Arthur as witnesses to attest to Jokul’s statements.
Pranav Ranganathan, as the most neutral member of the Council, opened the meeting. “Jokul Bjornson, you are here of your own volition to account for your recent actions. To be clear, you are not on trial, there are no charges against you. You have voluntarily submitted yourself to be questioned by us and to offer to make amends for the interruptions you and your group of followers have caused among the social structure of this ship. Do I understand that correctly?”
To his credit, Jokul was entirely unflinching. “Yes, Councillor Ranganathan. When I arrived on the Ark, I realized that humanity had endured Ragnarok, and our journey to Von was our way of emerging into the renewed world. I never intended to start a cult, and did not realize that is what happened until very recently.”
It took everything in me to keep from cracking up laughing, just to avoid ruining the recording. The reality was, Jokul had nearly fainted when we explained to him that his group of ‘followers’ had a religious-level worship of him. He was actually queasy at the concept, it turned out - sure he wanted followers, but he abhorred cultish behavior, ironically.
Without batting an eyelash, he continued. “I will readily admit, I am not the most socially savvy person. The people I considered to be my friends rephrased every piece of information I received, either by providing it to me directly or by being of one mind in their conviction regarding the underlying meaning of what I learned independently. In the end, I believed that Councillor Reid had nefarious designs towards not only myself but the entirety of people on this vessel.”
Pranav nodded. “And how did you come to realize that you were acting in bad faith?”
“Let’s simply say I had some sense knocked into me,” he managed to joke. My chest hurt from restraining my laughter, and I was envious of the snorts Tyche and Arthur indulged in.
That, combined with the presence of witnesses who were not likely to lie for him, seemed to mollify the Council enough regarding his intentions. Pranav took his seat, opening the floor to questions.
With an entire half-second of hesitation, Xiomara surged to her feet. “I’m sure it will come to the surprise of no one that I’m going to cut to the chase: How can we be assured that you and your allegedly-former followers pose no danger to the society we are trying to establish? We have no jail to hold you in, our economy is currently calorie-based but we do not agree to any manual labor as punishment. How do we hold you accountable?”
He gestured to where I was sitting. “Councillor Reid is recording the entirety of these proceedings, with the goal of distributing them to the ship. None of this will be kept in the dark, and everything I say and admit to here will be public knowledge. The entire Ark will be able to hold me accountable to my actions and promises.”
“And what are those promises?” Xio asked, refusing to give an inch of slack.
“One of the demands I made to Councillor Reid was that, should I win the challenge, she would be required to step down from the Council and would never be able to hold a position of leadership at any point in the future. I feel it is only fair that I make the same commitment.”
My jaw dropped at this. This was a surprise, even to me, and so much so that the iron grip I was keeping on my composure snapped. The rest of the Council was in an uproar, demanding clarification. Xiomara held a hand up, drawing attention to the fact that she still held the floor. “Please explain what you mean by ‘the challenge’, Mr. Bjornson.”
Jokul paled as he seemed to realize he slipped up. “Sophia Reid came to a gathering of my - well, followers, I supposed - attempting to parlay, so to speak. I refused to listen and made demands of her, insisting she step down from the Council. When I refused to take the path of peace, Arthur Farro agreed to negotiate on my terms, so to speak. He won, so Councillor Reid was able to have her parlay.” He waved to the room in general. “And here we are.”
That is NOT what happened, I thought to myself. I was fairly certain I was scowling with the effort of not gaping at his explanation. He wasn’t exactly lying, but I had never seen someone throw themselves under the bus like that, much less execute an Olympic-qualifying swan dive beneath one. Still, Pranav and Eino were looking at Arthur with suspicion, while Huynh smirked his approval at the underlying story Jokul hinted at.
Xiomara arched an eyebrow but said nothing, despite the fact that I knew she had the true story. “So, no holding positions of leadership in the future. And with this recording, you can be held accountable by the ship. Neatly done. That accounts for you. What about your followers?”
He nodded in acknowledgement. “They can only be held accountable if they are known.”
Silence roared through the chamber as my fellow Councillors weighed what he just said. “Jokul Bjornson,” Xiomara ventured carefully. “Please elaborate on what you mean by that?”
Rather than an explanation, the words that fell from Jokul’s mouth were names. One hundred and seventy three names, carefully enunciated and separated only by a brief pause. At no point did his eyes drop from Xiomara’s. Hers only glanced away once she realized what was happening, and only long enough to confirm that I was recording this for them to refer to later.
After six minutes of names, Jokul finally finished. “Parvati Fletcher. She was only present at that last gathering, but the ideas she spread and comments she made give me reason to believe that she could be a potential traitor in the future.”
Xiomara blinked slowly, processing this information, before coughing violently. Tyche shook with silent laughter, and I was getting a headache from holding my breath to prevent laughing. Arthur didn’t even try and rolled his eyes dramatically before dropping his head to his hands.
“I would strongly suggest keeping a very close eye on her in the future,” Jokul intoned, entirely serious.
The entire Council looked at a loss for words, unable to even start to explain the issue.
Arthur, apparently, had no such internal battle, it seemed. “Yeah. Tell you what, we’ll leave that to Xiomara, I think.” How he kept a straight face eluded me. I made a mental note to ask Miys if there were superpowers involved.
“I am quite serious. I believe the entire ship should be monitoring her,” Jokul insisted. “Why would you limit responsibility of this to only one Councillor? I understand she is over Health and Safety, but even she cannot be everywhere at once.”
Delicately, Grey spoke up while keeping one eye on Xiomara. “Parvati Fletcher was part of the group who infiltrated your organization. I recall she acted as a distraction to provide additional surveillance.”
“But her anti-establishment tendencies - “
“Joke-skull,” Arthur interrupted drily. “They’re lesbians.”
I could hear Jokul’s jaw snap shut from across the room as he turned an amazing shade of red. “Jokul,” he muttered in correction.
Unable to speak up through her laughter, Xiomara sat down, waving at Grey to proceed while shaking with laughter at the odd turn of events.
Entirely nonplussed, Grey stood. “You said that you never set out to create a cult. I ask that you provide insight as to how we can prevent such events from recurring.” Jokul was clearly caught off guard by the question. His face scrunched in concentration, head tilted.
After two minutes of silence, I surrendered. “Have any of you heard of a post-turtle?” I asked, earning a giggle from Tyche, who was still propping her head up from the shenanigans around Xiomara and Parvati.
Jokul and Parvati were both clearly fighting smiles, but the rest of the room looked confused. With a sigh, I forged on. “It’s literally a turtle on top of a fence post. You don’t know how he got there by himself. He doesn’t either. But both of you know: he doesn’t belong there, he didn’t get there by himself, and he needs help getting down.” Granted, my explanation was met by a combination of groans and dawning comprehension, but it was accurate enough that everyone clearly got the point.
With a nod of acknowledgement in my direction, Jokul finally spoke. “I ended up where I was because of isolation and a very narrow group of opinions. I insulated myself in the familiar, and that led to all of my information and discussion coming from sources with an agenda. To prevent that, I would suggest continuing to encourage that people meet and become familiar with people they normally may not. Cultural sharing.”
I shook my head as I heard the man who tried to kill me for my actions actually encourage those actions to continue.
And then, he took it further. “Not only with entertainment, which is optional, although they are essential I realize. Take cultural sharing into account when allocating work assignments, which are not optional.”
The last person I expected to speak up defied my last tenuous hold on reality. “I would add class assignments, as well,” Arthur insisted. When I turned, eyes so wide I thought they would fall out, to stare at him, he shrugged. “What!? You know as well as I do that we learn through the lens of our culture. Mix up culture, you get questions you would never get normally. Is this dish from this planet halal? I don’t know! You don’t know! But I would love to find out.”
Damnit. He had me there.
“What about further surveillance to prevent clandestine meetings?” Grey asked, dragging us back on topic.
Jokul firmly shook his head against the notion. “There is plenty of surveillance, and you cannot increase it without creating a police-state. Ordinarily - I guess ordinarily for humans? - travel is the enemy of narrow thinking. We are already travelling at light speed to another planet, but we also cannot go anywhere but this ship. The next best thing is spending a prodigious amount of time around people who are as different from you as possible, I would think. At a certain point, no matter how hard you try, that person becomes a person, and they start to matter to you. You start to care. And you learn whether you want to or not.”
Oddly, that seemed to be the answer Grey was looking for. “I concede the floor to Eino Wiitala,” they intoned officially before taking their seat.
With a nod of recognition, Eino stood. “You just mentioned adjusting our class rosters to provide a more diverse group of students in each class, which I agree with. From an educational perspective, what other flaws are lending themselves to situations such as this?”
Without hesitation, Jokul responded. “The only compulsory course we currently have is the Galactic Core curriculum, and I do agree - now, at least - that it is essential to our new start. However, there is no course in existence that covers the late 20th century through contemporary times. That would be a solid start… Divisiveness ruined our world, did it not?”
Nods echoed around the table, as he had a solid point. I had to admit, he thought through this far more than I had anticipated.
Suddenly, the tables turned. “But you - “ he gestured at the entire Council, “do realize that most people on this ship don’t actually know any of you?”
Again, silence filled the room. I felt horrible as the accuracy of his question hit home, but Eino’s infinite calm only went so far as to nod in acknowledgement and encouragement for Jokul to continue.
“One of the underlying flaws that led to all of the recent events, I’ve realized, is that I saw Sophia Reid as a foe to be conquered. And I believed it when others told me she had designs for sovereignty. Had I known her? Were she more familiar to me as a person?” He scoffed, and for once I didn’t get offended. The fact that even Huynh had to stifle laughter at the idea that I was plotting to rule supreme may have helped.
Jokul spread his hands, gesturing at how absurd everyone found the idea. “Everyone close to her finds the concept of her seeking power laughable, it seems. Anything approaching what I thought of her would not be possible for more than a few minutes of rational thought if people on this ship knew any of you, beyond being the people in power.”
Eino nodded and started making notes. “A series of workshops or seminars, perhaps? Open forums where one of us can be asked any question, get to know people better?”
Huynh grumbled. “Or you snots could just eat in the cafeterias once in a damned while.” Everyone turned to him, stunned. “What? I know I’m the only one who eats with everyone else on the Ark on a regular basis. Somewhere that I’m not ‘Councilor’ anything, I’m the grumpy Vietnamese guy in the corner who ordered whatever someone was eating that looked good when I walked in.”
Fair… I thought guiltily. It had never occurred to me that my love of cooking meant I rarely ate with people outside my social circle, and I realized that I had been the same way Before.
Xiomara nodded thoughtfully. “Cooking classes.”
Almost everyone looked confused. The only exceptions were the smirk Tyche threw my direction and the look of horror I knew filled my face.
Sure enough, Xiomara turned to me. “Sophia loves to cook. What if she did some cooking classes for people on the Ark? And had other people - not the Council - come in and teach her how to make something, as well as the class?”
While that sounded marginally more bearable, the idea of hosting a cooking class in general flooded me with anxiety. I decided in that instant that, if I had to host education courses, so did the other Councillors. Either they would back down, or everyone would be in the same position. I could handle either solution, honestly.
Eino conceded the floor absently, intent on his notes. Pranav was next. The first thing he asked about was the proximity alerts, which Jokul shamelessly admitted to being something they found out by mistake. After Miys confirmed that they would have to replace the implants with some rated for higher electrical current in the brain, we moved on. “It is known that a significant portion of your perception of Sophia Reid stemmed from the similarity between her primary traits and yours. However, this information is not publicly accessible. How did you obtain this information, and who among your group was able to provide her file? Educator Farro’s as well, for that matter, seeing as you are on record as referring to him as Sophia’s, quote, pet warlord, end quote.”
I was dying to know the answer to this question. I had been waiting for this question. Derek and Zach had been working around the clock for close to a month to find out the answer to this question, to no avail.
However, the expression on Jokul’s face screamed that I was about to be disappointed.
In what could only be described as extreme confusion, Jokul actually removed his data band and passed it to Pranav. “I have nobody’s file but my own. I’ve never had anyone else’s file. You are welcome to perform whatever test you need in order to confirm the truth of that.”
Taking the data band with a nod, Pranav continued his line of questioning. “Assuming what you are alleging is true, how did you obtain information you should not be privy to?”
I should have been clued in by the sigh from Simon and the subsequent look Tyche fixed him with. I should have. But, in that moment, I thought nothing of it. Like an idiot.
Slowly, as though wanting to ensure we understood what he was saying, Jokul answered. “I was freely given this information, when I first woke up on the Ark.”
My stomach dropped when Tyche kicked Simon, who managed not to yelp but tried his best to scowl at her.
If anything, the majority of the Council looked more confused. Xiomara, however, groaned loudly. “When you woke up, who did your initial interview?”
“Interview?”
“Who was the first human you spoke to on the Ark?” she clarified pointedly.
With relief, Jokul’s expression relaxed. “Simon Rodriguez. When he explained why I was on this ship, he stated that there was another person with similar attributes who they were searching for. One Sophia Reid.” He gestured to me. “When we discussed my history in the After, he also mentioned that his previous conversation was, ironically, with another warlord.” Here, he pointed to Arthur. “This information was freely given. Certainly nothing obtained by devious means.”
Recording, hell. The sound of my palm hitting my forehead was echoed around the room and punctuated by a loud crack. When I peeked around my fingers, I saw a smug look on Parvati’s face and bright pink mark on Simon’s face.
After a couple more minutes, Pranav stood hesitantly, all formality gone. “That. That satisfies my questions? I believe so. Giang?”
“No questions,” he barked. “I will keep that suggestion in mind for the engineering crews,” he added, pointing at Jokul. “He has a good point, and we should listen to that.”
I never, in my life, thought I would wholeheartedly agree with Giang Huynh, but I found myself nodding hard enough to risk injuring my neck. When he turned to me with a pointed look, I realized it was my turn. “No questions,” I held my hands up in surrender. “All of my questions have been addressed, quite publicly.” I couldn’t resist, in the end.
Arthur smirked in satisfaction and reached for the hilt of his sword but managed not to stroke it. Jokul scowled deeply, but at Arthur instead of me. I could live with that.
It was astonishing what I had just learned I could live with, it turned out.
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