"Alright everybody, muster on the roof." Mike Joyner said to his cohorts in the Fellowship.
It had been another day in New Humansville and with the fall of night and the completion of dinner it was time for the nightly meeting, which everyone had started referring to as 'muster'. The previous nine days since the Unicorn stallion had appeared and clung to Ashley like glue, he had become not only accepted, but somewhat liked. He almost never spoke to the other Kavim, but he was friendly in his demeanor, especially toward Humans. Ashley hadn't said much about him but the Human and Kavim were already fast friends. They were almost never apart. They ate together, they slept side-by-side, and they worked together. The stallion had yet to touch his sword and overall, behaved like it wasn't there. The Humans had been leery of the stallion at first but Ashley's conduct and that of the stallion had mitigated their reluctance.
Alex wiped his hands on his towel and addressed his cooks, "Alright same as always, take the cauldrons down to the river and wash them out then hit the hay." he walked away, toward the doorway of Town Hall.
He walked up the stairs to the medical station just as Cessily and Leo were finishing putting away the equipment for the day, "Muster time guys." he said.
Leo looked up from the box of bandages he was shifting, "Yeah, we know. Tell 'em we'll be up in a minute." he turned back to the box and slid it into its designated niche.
Steady Hoof was carrying one of the crystal powered medical devices in her mouth. She maneuvered around Leo and placed it next to the box of bandages. Leo's eyes briefly wandered over to the strange device and he smiled a rare smile at it. The Human medical staff had only recently learned what the devices could do. One worked like a hand-held x-ray machine. With the touch of a button, it could show the different layers of the body from skin to internal organs. That particular device had already been useful for examining the pregnant women. Leo remembered the tears of joy and expressions of wonder on their faces when they saw their unborn children in real time color images with perfect clarity.
Of course there had been more than a few issues too. Many of the women refused to be examined by anyone except Cessily. She was Human and she was a woman and to many, that's what mattered. Nearly all the Humans refused to be examined or treated by any of the Kavim doctors or medical staff. The same was true in reverse, Kavim refused to be seen or treated by the Humans. Bobby in particular had begun getting very frustrated with the bias. He had yet to say anything at muster, but both Leo and Cessily were waiting for it.
Cessily carefully set down the case of glass syringes in its niche. The syringes had seen more than a bit of use recently. There were no supplies of immunizations for Humans but injections of antibiotics and taking blood for testing had become a common thing. Every syringe and accompanying needle had to be meticulously cleaned and sterilized after every use. It was time consuming but they were thankful for what they had. She thought forward to the next day and the lamaze class she was supposed to be organizing. She had the privilege of being the only Human woman who had any experience with child birth, having gone through the process twice. She was truly grateful that the Kavim medications included a goodly supply of local anesthetics, they would be needed. She had already asked around and there turned out to be only one person who had been studying pediatric medicine, Rachel. Cessily shook her head and rolled her eyes, 'These women need to get over their fear of the Ponies. Their doctors are the only ones who have delivered babies before and I sure as hell ain't lettin' their fear put them or their babies in danger.'
She finished her work and wiped her hands on her blanket/dress then headed up to the roof. Everyone else was already up there, except Andrew.
Cessily sat down next to Mike Joyner, "Did I miss anything?" she asked.
Mike shook his head, "Naw, we were waiting for you." he turned to Morris, "Is that everybody?"
Morris shook his head, "Nope, we're missing Andrew."
"I'm right here!" Andrew said emphatically.
Every person on the roof startled and followed the voice. Sure enough, Andrew Masonete was seated between Tina and R.J., however both of them nearly jumped out of their skin.
"Yo man, don't sneak up on me like that!" R.J. exclaimed.
Tina held her left hand against her chest, "God Andrew! You almost gave me a heart attack!"
Andrew, for his part, just looked around, eyes wide and aghast, "Yall seriously need to chill out and pay attention. I was with everybody when we all walked up here." he gestured with his hand, "Kaneesha saw me."
Kaneesha nodded her head, "Yeah, he was right between Darryl an' Kolo." she turned her attention to the two men, "Yall saw him, right?"
Both men shrugged their shoulders, "I wasn't really paying attention." the stout Marine admitted, "I figured we'd take roll-call like we always do, so I didn't concern myself with it."
Kolo jerked his left thumb at Darryl, "What he said. I weren't payin' it no mind either."
Mike waved his right hand over his head, "Alright everyone, that's enough. We've got more important things to discuss." he turned to Kolo, "Where are we on the sewage system and toilets?"
Kolo cleared his throat, "We nearly half way done with shovelin' all that old poop out o' the cistern. Give us about another two weeks an' we'll have it all done an' ready for use. Tina an' I been wrackin' our brains tryin' to come up with some kinda design for the toilets but there's only so much we can do. We ain't got the measurements o' the Kavim body AND we gotta take the little ones into account too."
Mike scratched his chin, he'd need to shave again soon, "Do you have anything to add to that Tina?"
"The single biggest issue we've come up against is the significant differences in the Ponies' bodies and our own. Trying to make a toilet that is usable for both species is tricky. We briefly thought about trying to design two different toilets, one for each species, but our limited resources nixed that notion almost immediately." she brought up her hands and began making motions for visual aid, "Our usual toilet is more-or-less circular, however that design isn't compatible with the Ponies' quadrupedal stature. Humans have to squat to poop but the Ponies do it standing up. Now that's enough of a difference right there, but then we have to take into account the height difference and then, even after all that, we have to think about children of both species needing to do their business. Worse yet, we don't even have base-line models of either toilet to work with so we're having to come up with ideas from scratch. It's a slow process and we still don't know what materials we need to use for it. We could use wood but then we run into the issue of waterlogged wood, stone comes with its own problems too, coarse surface and so forth. The bottom line is that we need more time to come up with a solution." Tina explained.
Mike nodded, "Is there anything the rest of us can do to help?"
"The only thing that can help us speed the process along is to take measurements of the Ponies' bodies, both children and adults, but I'm not about to ask one of them to hold still while I measure out their backsides. There's just no way to ask something like that politely without a common language and even then, how do you say, 'I need to measure your height and your child's height and how wide your butt is.' without sounding like a creep." Tina said.
"Perhaps I can be of some assistance." a feminine voice called out from above.
Every eye shot upward and more than one person rose to their feet as Princess Luna landed in the center of the circle.
She looked around the the people she had startled and blushed in embarrassment, "My apologies, I should not have announced myself so suddenly." she looked around at all the confused faces and lowered her head slightly, "May I join in on your meeting, or would you rather I leave?"
Never one to stay surprised for long, Mike Joyner cleared his throat, "Vote." he said loudly, "By show of hands, who wants to let her stay?"
More than half the people raised their hands so Mike nodded and addressed everyone again, "Majority votes in favor of letting her stay. Everyone have a seat." he looked at Luna, "Take a seat wherever you want, just not in the middle. We all need to see each other."
Luna inclined her head toward him and trotted over between Kolo and Eduardo then lay down on the roof. The other Humans slowly retook their places and sat down. There were more than a few shared glances among the Fellowship.
Mike gestured to the Princess of the Night, "Will you please introduce yourself and I'm sure I speak for everyone here when I say we want to know how you learned English."
Luna smiled pleasantly, "I am Princess Luna of Equestria, I know you've already met my sister, Celestia. I was here nine days ago when I dropped off Beacon and I believe I saw many of you then. As to how I speak your language, your friend Dan managed to convince my sister to share your language with all Alicorns and I thought that since my duties at night are something I can manage quite well in the back of my mind, I could be of some assistance to you all."
"You said you could help with our toilet design problem?" Tina ventured boldly.
Luna nodded, "I believe I can. I'll ask some of the Ponies to submit to your measurements and I can even provide you with a model of the type of toilet we use. Would that be sufficient?"
"Could you answer one more thing for us?" Tina asked, "What material do you use for them?"
"Stone, specifically porous stone covered with wax." Luna said.
Morris spoke up suddenly,
"So does this mean that you're going to teach us all Horsish?"
"Velensovth," Luna corrected him, "And the answer is 'no'. My sister and I will weed the path for you, but it is up to you to walk it. We would be doing you no favors by giving you everything you want. You, like our own Ponies, must learn and grow. We try to foster a certain level of personal growth among all parties involved. We're willing to assist and expedite a process, which is what I'm here for, but we never just give out answers."
"Begging your pardon Princess," Darryl said, "But you seem to have forgotten one major thing," he gestured around himself, "WE aren't your subjects."
"No indeed, that fact is not lost to me. You do not hail from Equestria, nor have any of you sworn fealty to Equestria, my sister, or I. I am well aware of this. However, while none of you are, by technicality, our responsibility, we would be remiss fools not to offer you aid. None of you are here voluntarily as I understand it, correct?" she asked.
Darryl nodded, "Right."
"Yet we find you suddenly thrust into our midst, effectively helpless. As a civilized species, we are obligated to provide you with some form of assistance. What kind of assistance we chose to provide is our decision. We chose to provide you with crates of food, tools, and medicines. We do not necessarily expect anything in return, but some measure of gratitude would be nice." she said pointedly, "Should you find yourselves stranded in our world, we wish to make it possible for you to co-exist with our subjects peacefully. Were we to simply violate our own laws and just give everyone the same language, Human nature would begin bickering and arguing with our Ponies, however, by forcing you to make do without the language, for at least a portion of the time, fosters trust. I think you will agree that trust between Ponies and Humans is a thing sorely needed."
"And because you couldn't trust us, you had us all put away the only way we can match any of you. Humans use weapons, simple fact." Darryl argued.
"And you misuse them as well." Luna said evenly, "I am of course, referring to the incident where a number of your people moved to attack a nearby village. We simply cannot have all of you walking around with weapons when so many are prepared to use them to massacre innocents. Weapons are bad enough, but they are a necessary evil we have come to accept."
"You're one to talk about massacres." Darryl said sourly, "If it weren't for your own undisciplined soldiers, we wouldn't have the slightest inclination toward violence. You want to talk about the massacre of innocent civilians? Then let's fucking talk about it! Your soldiers ambushed us at night and slaughtered sixty three innocent people . . . "
"Seventy." Luna corrected calmly, "Seven of the women were pregnant."
"Fucking fine, SEVENTY innocent people! And what do you do after that? You fucking herd us, like cattle, to a place you can hold us! This place is nice and all, but a prison is still a prison, no matter how nice it is! We're building our own prison! So EXCUSE ME if I'm a little pissed that you can command your 'civilians' to slaughter us at any given moment! You're stronger than us, you're faster than us, AND you have magic and weapons! What do we have? Our bare hands. How is that fair!? Tell me! I'd really like to fucking know!" Darryl shouted.
Luna regarded the upset Marine calmly, "You say Ponies are stronger," she nodded, "True but Humans are more creative. From my understanding, your world is covered with complex machines. You say Ponies are faster, true but Humans are more agile. You say Ponies have magic, true but Humans have hands and you can twist and move in ways we cannot. Yes, it was our Guards who attacked and murdered seventy of your people and the survivors have been punished severely. You say you are offended that we herded you here, true but considering the most recent encounter you had with our Ponies, we thought it best to guide you through indirect means in order to minimize the chances for further misunderstandings and loss of life. You call this place a prison?" she looked at Darryl evenly, "Have any of the Ponies attempted to stop you from leaving? True, the vast majority of Equestria remains ignorant of your existence, but what would it gain anybody involved to spread word?"
Luna shook out her head suddenly and flexed her jaw before continuing, "Once New Humansville is ready, there will be a public presentation and all of Equestria will know of you. My sister is already planning to bring in skilled workers so each of you will be given ample opportunity to chose your occupation and go wherever you wish to live. We have merely asked, not demanded, asked, that the weapons you have be left in a single location for safe keeping. Have any of our Ponies kept you from them? And finally as far as carrying weapons for self preservation goes, in one month's time Celestia and I are hosting a fully catered meeting here. The meeting will be to determine laws for every being living in Equestria and you will have your say in that. Our law books will be open to alteration and change on that day. This is meant to be a type of peace offering between us. None of us harbor any of you ill will, but we also know that once trust is lost it is very difficult to obtain again."
She looked straight at Darryl and sighed wearily, "The actions of a few of our Ponies caused you to lose trust in us. We are taking steps to try to regain that lost trust, rather extreme steps, if I do say so myself. Even now, you all have tools that can be used as weapons at a moment's notice. How many of our Ponies carry such devices? Furthermore, how many even have the capability? Mere strength and speed and magic do not a warrior make. The Unicorn civilians have no idea how to use their magic as a weapon. The Pegasi can fly but how is that a combat capability? Earth Ponies are strong but none of them could hope to hold down any of you. You would bend and twist and slither out of their grasp like eels. You overestimate their capability and underestimate your own, because your confidence is wounded. Were the situation reversed, during the massacre, the result would have been far worse. Ponies naturally run from violent confrontation unless they're protecting their young or loved ones. If it had been Humans attacking Ponies that night, it's quite possible that you would have slain them all. Truthfully, more than anything, Celestia and I worry that you Humans will become angry for some reason and slaughter the Ponies. You present a potential danger but we're willing to trust you."
The Fellowship was silent.
Eventually Mike Joyner cleared his throat, "Anyway back on track. Tina, would it be enough, what Princess Luna is suggesting?
Tina nodded, "Yes, it should help immensely."
"Good," Mike turned to Chris, "How are things going with building houses?"
"Well I'd say they're going really smoothly. We've got eight house frames already erected and we're looking at about additional one frame per day. The process of actually putting up walls is tricky though. See I'm used to using sheet rock and so forth but the only material we have to work with is wood. That's both good and bad. It's good because we can manufacture the planks we need for the houses and it's bad because we don't have anything to weather treat the wood with. There's no water sealant or siding for us to use so the wood is exposed to the elements and then we have roofs to worry about. A little bit of caulk would do wonders for keeping the rain out or better yet, roofing shingles or even tiles. Simply put, we don't have all the materials we need to finish the houses, not even close. There's water piping and electrical wiring and insulation and then we have to worry about what to put IN the houses once they're finished. Beds, couches, sinks, toilets, light switches, fireplaces, the list goes on." he turned to Luna, "I'm not trying to sound ungrateful here, but we need more supplies."
Luna opened her mouth to respond but Rachel spoke first, "And that's not all either. The women who are pregnant need specific vitamin supplements plus we're going to need all kinds of things once the babies are born. Sleeping on the floor with a bunch of people is going to be a terrible health risk. Some Mothers might accidentally smother their babies in their sleep and having everyone wake up six times a night whenever a baby cries is not going to work either. In addition to that, the women need a clean and comfortable place to deliver. We need diapers, bottles, nipples, toys, infant medicines, baby food, cribs, blankets. We need a lot."
"Alright," Mike said, "Let's not overwhelm the Princess right away. R.J. how is your crew doing on harvesting lumber?"
R.J. smiled, "We got a nice smooth system goin' on right now. I got twenty crews o' five with two Ponies in every group and they can chop a tree down an' have it prepped to move every half hour. I got this down to a science baby."
Mike smiled, "Excellent," he turned to Spearman, "What about on your end?"
Spearman held out his hands, "Smooth as silk. We have a steady stream of trees coming in all the time. The Mill is up and running well. The Ponies use their strength to smooth out the planks we form and me and my guys clip and chop everything they don't have the manual dexterity to take care of. Everybody stays busy all day and I have a one hour rotation going on so everybody can rest and drink enough water to stay healthy."
Mike smiled, "See, this is what I want to hear the most. Alright, next on the list: food. Darryl, Eduardo, David how are we doing on crop usage and regrowth?"
Eduardo spoke first, "The simpler crops like corn and wheat are fine, but the more complex ones like the tomatoes and cucumbers are going to have to be rotated out otherwise we're going to run into the problem of having all this land but it's useless because there's nothing to feed the plants."
David continued Eduardo's line of thought, "Now we've got more than enough people out there working but most of the crop rows are still overgrown with weeds. The Ponies are a fantastic help in regard to the weeds but once the weeds are all gone our usage of food is going to skyrocket like crazy. We need more land to plant simple as that. We have all the tools we need, especially since the Ponies started bringing back their tools in the evenings. We have the raw power to plant and harvest all the time but we need miles more usable farmland, a ton of seeds, fertilizer, and enough glass jars and brine to pickle and preserve what we harvest or we won't last the winter. Plus we need someplace to store it all."
Joyner turned to Morris, "Start up a list of things we need."
Morris held up his piece of paper, "Already did when we started the meeting."
Mike then turned to Luna, "Can we expect more supplies or would that be asking too much?"
Luna covered her mouth with her left wing, "Not at all. It takes a great deal of materials to begin any community. I will take the list with me back to Canterlot and see to it myself."
Mike nodded, "Good and thank you. Next up, medical. Bobby, Cessily, Leo, you're up."
Bobby cleared his throat, "In all honesty, Rachel should be included wit us. She's our resident Pediatrician. But since you brought it up, the only things we really need badly are a fully stocked lab to make pharmaceuticals and beds. We could use some specialized equipment, but I don't know if even half of it even exists. The reason we need the lab is so we can start making epinephrine. The Ponies don't seem to know anything about it. Epinephrine, defibrillators, tracheotomies, they've never heard of this stuff as far as I can tell."
"You are correct." Luna said suddenly, "I know the words and their meanings and I can tell you we have none of those."
"Ever heard of the Cesarean Section?" Rachel asked.
Luna paused and adopted a contemplative expression as she matched the word to its definition in her mind, "Nay, 'tis a useful practice it seems." she turned to Bobby, "You do realize these medical advances will be accredited to you."
Bobby shrugged his shoulders, "I mean, that's cool and all but I'm not fishing for accolades here, I just want to be able to do my job."
"Speaking of doing jobs," Cessily cut in, "We got to get people to let the Ponies diagnose them. Bobby, Leo, and I aren't gonna be available to see to everybody all the time. They gotta get over their prejudice. And the same's true in reverse. The Ponies don't want any of us treat them either. I mean, how hard is it to sterilize and stitch up a laceration? I know it's been bugging the Ponies too, we've all seen it. Now obviously, the more specialized stuff has to be taken care of by doctors who know the most about each species but the simple stuff is just that, simple."
"I can speak with the doctors and have them spread word." Luna ventured.
Mike nodded and moved on to the next topic, "Morris, which plans do we have on hold right now?"
Morris rattled the answer right off the top of his head, "The mobile mill and the forge. We don't need them just yet."
"Alright then, I think it's time to address one of our generously donated resources that isn't being utilized: the dozens of bolts of cloth and fabric that were with the first and second supply shipment. I don't know about anyone else but I'm getting tired of wearing a blanket all the time. We need clothes. Does anyone know who may have some experience with textiles and design?" Mike asked.
Kaneesha provided the answer, "There's three I know of, Sheranda, Kylie, an' Corina. Sheranda was studyin' fashion, Kylie was a functional garment designer student, an' Corina was a historical apparel student. All three o' them know how to make clothes."
"Uniforms," Darryl said suddenly, "We could use some uniforms. The colors would indicate what line of work people are in."
"Not a bad idea." Mike said, "But we need to be cautious. Uniforms can be both a good thing and a bad thing. They'll be great in the short term because they'll foster a sense of camaraderie, of belonging. They'll promote teamwork, but later on it could lead to the ideology of factions and factions are never a good thing. Factions represent fractures in any community and will, inevitably lead to infighting. Uniforms should be only for work and there should be non-uniform clothing for casual wear. The last thing we need is to have people start 'wearing colors' all the time. That kind of mindset leads to disharmony and that has never been a benefit to any society." Mike cleared his throat again, "So we have three skilled seamstress but no one for them to work with. God knows three women can't handle the clothing needs of over seven hundred people. Rachel, we've discussed this before but it didn't happen, get the pregnant women together and have them work with Sheranda, Kylie, and Corina. If those three work out well, we'll include them into the Fellowship. Eduardo, Darryl, and David, you said you have an excess of people, find the people you can do without and have them link up with Rachel and the pregnant women on the first floor of Town Hall tomorrow and I'll send some of the fishermen we don't strictly need as well." he looked around, "Anything else?"
David raised his hand, "How about we use the excess field workers to dig a big root cellar so we have someplace to store food."
"The supplies won't be here for a few more days and you need someone to shore up the walls in a cavern that size." Chris volunteered, "Besides, the Ponies don't need me to supervise them. I had to alter a few of their diagrams to fit Humans, but they adapted to the floor height change like they had already planned on it."
Mike nodded, "Sounds good. After they're done, then send them to Town Hall. Is there anything else?"
"Yep." Andrew said, holding up a rolled piece of paper, "Kaneesha and I finally finished updating the map." he tossed it to Mike, "We got us a nice quarry to the North-East and on the Eastern side of it we've got some lines of banded iron, as we mentioned before, but we also found some other ore veins in different areas of the quarry. There's a smaller field to the North, about a three hour walk, just keep the lumberjacks going that direction and you'll find it. The field is about five square miles of empty land we can use for expanding our crops. To the West, we've got that little village, but to the North-West of that, by about ten miles, is a whole stretch of land that's got no grass on it but tons and tons of holes in the dirt. To the South-West of the tiny village is a much larger town." he clapped his hands together, "We know everything within thirty miles of our little burg here."
Mike nodded happily, "Sounds good. Why don't you and Kaneesha take a day off tomorrow and rest." he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "I think that's everything. Does anyone else have anything to add?"
No one raised a hand or spoke, "Alright then, meeting adjourned."
Everyone rose to their feet and began making their way downstairs, ignoring Princess Luna as if she weren't there.
"I'd like a word with you, if you don't mind." Luna said to Mike.
Joyner stopped and turned to Luna. Eduardo, Darryl, and Spearman stopped as well.
Mike turned to them, "Go on ahead guys. I'll be down shortly."
The three men looked unsure but decided to continue down the stairs.
Mike waited until they were gone before turning to Luna, "What's on your mind?"
Luna rose to her hooves and gracefully strode over to the edge of the roof, "I heard something tonight that surprised me." she was staring off into the darkened horizon, "You used a word that, as I understand it, is uncommon." she turned her head and looked at Joyner, "Disharmony. Why use that particular word?"
Mike crossed his arms and shot Luna a deadpan stare, "Why should it matter? It was a good point. Would you have preferred me to use the word discord?"
"Not at all. In fact I find that second word to be inviting trouble. No, I ask for a very specific reason, which I'll be more than happy to divulge if you're willing to explain why you used the word 'disharmony'."
Mike shrugged, "I really don't know. It just seemed like the best word right then. If you think about it, harmony is extremely important in our situation. We have to learn to get along with Ponies in a way that is best described as harmonious." he shrugged again, "It just seemed right."
Luna smiled at him then turned back to stare at the nighttime horizon, "I find it particularly interesting that you chose the word 'disharmony' because our nation, Equestria was founded on the principle of harmony. The fact that you used that word is, I believe to be, a good sign. The entire world operates on the principle of harmony and the fact that you used it leads me to believe you are beginning to align with the Natural Magic of the world. Hopefully others will follow your lead."
Mike raised his eyebrows, "Oooookkkkkaaaaayyyyy, that doesn't make sense to me but I'll take your word for it. Was there anything else?"
"Two more things actually. One, would you object to my participation in your meetings?" Luna asked.
"I don't have any issues with it, but it would be decided by a vote. What's the other thing?" Mike asked.
Luna smiled, "Do not use the other word too frequently, as I said, it invites trouble that even my sister and I cannot stop with mere might."
"What word . . . discord?" Mike asked in confusion.
Luna nodded, "I bid you goodnight. Hopefully I will be permitted to join your meeting tomorrow."
The lunar Alicorn spread her wings and leaped off the roof then her horn lit up and she vanished from sight in a brilliant flash of light. Mike stood in place for a few seconds then headed back down stairs to sleep.
* * *
The following morning three young women were asked to go to Town Hall and wait for instructions.
"So why we here again?" Sheranda asked crossing her arms, "I don't feel like gettin' yelled at cause I ain't doin' my 'job'."
Sheranda, Kylie, and Corina were all standing in the first floor of Town Hall while Morris and his small crew rummaged through different crates. The three young women were all standing in a line and Sheranda was not particularly happy.
A noise behind them made all three turn around. Rachel led no less than forty-three women through the doorway of Town Hall and Sheranda's, Kylie's,and Corina's moods all changed instantly.
Sheranda, being the most vocal, spoke first, "Oh hell naw!" she planted her left fist on her hip and pointed with her right hand, "Why you bringin' all them knocked up bitches up in here!? We ain't been skankin' around like them!"
"Cool it." a commanding voice spoke.
All eyes turned to the stairs as Cessily Richardson descended from the medical station, "You can clam it Sheranda." she snapped, "You're here because for some reason, SOMEBODY thinks your mouthy self actually has a few redeeming qualities, so cut the judgmental crap and use your head."
Sheranda glowered at Cessily but she didn't say a word. Cessily had proven herself, beyond any doubt, to be a leader among the women and every woman respected her. She had the complete support of every woman from Earth and they considered her almost as much of a leader as Mike Joyner.
Sheranda reigned in her tone and addressed Cessily with a normal tone and voice, "So what ARE we here for? Did someone find ANOTHER way to waste our talents?"
Cessily stepped off the bottom stair and casually approached Sheranda with her hands behind her back, "Actually, we're here to see those so-called talents for ourselves." she grabbed Sheranda by her hair and yanked her head back then looked straight into Sheranda's eyes, "You're going to lose the attitude." she said calmly, "Now."
"I'm sorry, Ces." she said quietly, "I'm just tired of diggin' in the fuckin' dirt all day. I'm a designer, not a fuckin' farmer."
Cessily let go of Sheranda's hair and began walking around the first floor speaking loudly, "I don't know about you girls, but I'm getting tired of wearing a blanket all the time." she pointed to her covered breasts with the index fingers of both hands, "The 'ladies' need support!" she dropped her hands and continued pacing, "So, the Leadership has decided to give you three creative liberties with designing clothes for everyone. The women behind you will do what you say and follow your directions." she stopped and faced Sheranda, Kylie, and Corina, "But you WILL treat them with respect. Do I make myself clear?" she looked steadily at Sheranda, "If I hear of any name calling or bullying, I WILL address it personally and you will NOT like the result. Understood?"
Three heads nodded silently, Cessily nodded in return and continued, "Not only do we need clothes, we need specific clothes and each of you will be in charge of each specific type. None of these categories is more or less vital than any of the others so don't be talking crap about each other." she pointed to Kylie first.
Kylie swallowed and stepped forward, "Yes?"
Kylie was a small woman who could only be described as mousy or timid. She stood five feet six inches tall with long, curly brown hair, fair skin, green eyes, and a quiet voice.
"Functional garment design student, I believe?" Cessily asked.
Klyie nodded, "Y . . . yes."
"Good." Cessily smiled brightly, "The three categories are: undergarments, casual clothes, and work uniforms. Which one do you want?"
"Um, undergarments are the most complex and they have to be the most comfortable. I can handle those." she said, voice all but a whisper.
Cessily nodded, "Very well. You get first pick of materials and tools. Take an entire crate, we have some empty ones, and fill it with whatever you need. Try not to be greedy."
"Corina, you're up next." Cessily said.
Corina was a round faced young woman with a sweet voice and sweet, but intelligent temperament. She stood five feet three inches tall with light caramel colored skin, soft brown eyes, and a knowing smile that always seemed to say she knew some hidden secret.
"Historic apparel, huh?" Cessily asked, "Alright, you get next pick: work uniforms or casual wear?"
"Casual wear of course." she said with a glint in her eyes, "Not only is it the most difficult one, but I can't have first or second choice in material. Casual clothes need to be scrappy, made with scraps, it promotes creativity. So I'll chose my materials last and I'll reserve the right to snag any scraps Sheranda and Kylie don't need."
"And that leaves the uniforms to you Sheranda." Cessily said, "Let's see you put something together that really makes my eyes pop." she walked over to Sheranda, "Walk with me for a moment will you?"
Sheranda could hardly say no, so she followed Cessily out the front door and around the building, "I'm going to be very honest with you here. The uniforms are going to be judged the most harshly and I'll tell you why. Uniforms serve as a way to tell which work group a person belongs to, but if they're designed poorly they can lead to everyone having a superiority mindset. Your uniforms have to be functional and clearly specify what a person does, but also promote a sense of teamwork and community. How you do that is completely up to you, but you will provide a full demonstration of your design to the Fellowship once one is ready. You were whining about your talents being wasted, here's your chance to shine." she stopped and looked Sheranda dead in the eyes, "Prove this is more than a waste of effort on our part. There are plenty of people who complain about you and those complaints are going to cease completely or else I'm going to find somebody else to head this up. Are we clear?"
Sheranda nodded, " Yes ma'am."