[IC] [TWI-Only] The League of TWI (Assembly)

[Polar Svalbard]

Stephanie just rubbed the bridge of her nose, "Delegate do you know what the League is for? Or did your nation not train you on the basics?"

[Atnaia]

Barbury began to chuckle. It began in the back of his chest, roiled up through his throat and back into his gut, turning into a full-blown, belly-bursting course of laughter that threatened to bring tears to his eyes. It didn't last long, but long enough to be discomforting. There was something mechanical about it, like a computer trying to display emotion.

"My my," he said as it died down, leaving only breathlessness. "What vigour. What vitriol. I'm sorry, but did I ever imply this was just Taziristan's holy war? This war is about religion on both sides. That family you mentioned was detained as a result of religion. This war revolves on religion. This is a war of personality, not of resources or economics. A petty affair caused by petty men about their petty beliefs about petty issues. Your inability to see past the end of your own nose notwithstanding, certainly someone in your nation must realize that this war will begin and end on the whims of zealots, whether Norse or Taziri. A war of vengeance it most certainly is. Does that make it right? Does it make gas attacks and genocide righteous? Play the victim all you like, but there have been enough victims in this war. Enough martyrs. And I will not have a petulant child shout at me over an issue they apparently barely understand."

[Skaitsya]

Ŋalíjas stood there, dumbfounded. Then the rage came. It flowed over him like a rushing river. He felt like jumping at Barbury and strangling him, then taking his ugly head as a trophy. He restrained himself, but his fists still clenched. "PETULANT CHILD? I doubt you have fought wars and battles like a true man. I understand this issue, I have fought many wars and battles and I know the price of war. My brothers died in a civil war you probably haven't even heard of. I fought in that war. Do you know the gut-wrenching terror of trudging through a metre of snow to aid your comrades, only to arrive too late and find only headless bodies, the body of your brother?", the river was flooding now, his rage barely contained, "I am no petulant child. This war must be ended decisively else it never end, and yes Stephanie, I do know what this league is for. It is for keeping peace. Sometimes the only way to achieve peace through war. Our soldiers are dying in the KUN fighting for justice..." Ŋalíjas stopped abruptly. His heart stopped. After a few seconds the rage left him, replaced by utter terror. He had just revealed something he shouldn't even know, let alone reveal to the wider world. He knew his life was over the minute those last words escaped his mouth. His face turned pale. "I-I," he started, but could not find the words to finish. He sat down, ready to vomit.

[Atnaia]

Something had shifted in Barbury's face, something deep but perceptible. It was like his blood had been replaced by ice, his emotion with stone. He was like a panther on the hunt, his shoulders set into a predatory posture that screamed a readiness to kill. He lowered his predatory gaze on Ŋalíja.

"Never fought a battle?" he said. He slowly stood, using the table to help steady him, and walked around his table. As he did, he pulled up his pant leg. Beneath there was no flesh, no blood. Chrome and black fiber glass glared out from beneath the cloth. The prosthetic limb was high quality, even beautiful in its way, but it was not living tissue.

"I do not know the cost do I? Pull out your phone and do a quick search of my name. I. Will. Wait."

[Skaitsya]

Ŋalíjas shifted uncomfortably. Gone was the rage of before. He tried to speak but his throat was dry. He tried make a pretence of anger, slamming down his fist, albeit lightly. "I-I don't...I don't..." he stopped. I'm dead he thought resignedly.

[Atnaia]

"I have paid for my words with blood," he said. "I have given my pound of flesh for the right to speak on the horrors of war. I am not a vapid, empty diplomat playing games with the lives of people he doesn't understand. I am a soldier. And I know what peace requires. I know the price. I am also aware of what needs to be done, what the meaning of a just war is. You speak to me about losing brothers? Each and every second that passes, the nations of Taziristan and Upper Norseland are stealing brothers from one another. Bhikkustan tears itself apart. You try and lecture me about vengeance? You try and lecture me about war?"

Barbury slammed his fist on the table. "This is not a just war. This is not an eye-for-an-eye. You do not burn down the house to deal with the rats. You do not scourge a nation's youth to deal with corruption. This is not justice. 'Who overcomes by force, hath overcome but half his foe.' You want to feed the fires of hell with your troops and your trade? Well, I will not stand by and watch the world burn."

[Taziristan]

"Genocide? Scouring the youth? You are sorely mistaken. We are not that sort of people."

[Skaitsya]

Ŋalíjas began to get angry again. He new he was going to die, so he had nothing to lose. "You have lost your leg, but I have lost my soul. Do you think I will ever be able to forget the sight of my brothers' headless corpses? Of hundreds of beheaded young men and women? Of starving children? You fight your wars, but war is a savage thing in Skaitsya. Your wars are softer, your people don't take the heads of the fallen, your people don't take their finger bones and braid them into their hair. You say you have seen war, but you have seen only a glimpse of it's true horrors! You are no Kariac, you are no warrior! You have seen nothing! You call your imperialism just? Was annexing Merrit Isle just? You know nothing of justice." His face was once again contorted with rage, but this time with a hint of despair. Barbury had awakened a rage in Ŋalíjas, a warrior's rage. His blood boiled. The diplomats table was no place for Ŋalíjas, he was a warrior. He shouldn't even be there.

[Taziristan]

"Genocide? Scouring the youth? You are sorely mistaken. We are not that sort of people."

"Also, those rats you speak of are the horrifically tortured souls lost to a cruel and evil culture."

[The League of TWI]

Sveihl smashed his gavel down harder than he ever had before, "Delegates! We will not fight like insolent children in these halls, you are grown men and women. Act like it. In these halls we are here to discus nations not which one of us has it worse or has seen the horrors of warfare. If you cannot control yourself leave and come back when you are ready to face your fellow delegate honorably."

[Polar Svalbard]

Stephanie smirked, "Yes, if the delegate from Skaitsya would like to be a delegate and not a warrior that would be good."

She turned to where the AM delegate was, "If you say that you have gotten permission from the leaders of Bhikkustan, then if you can prepare it to show us that would be best. I'd like to punish Taziristan for their callous acts and then move on to at least try and stabilize one part of the Isles."

[Skaitsya]

"I resign my position as representative of Skaitsya. This is not my place. I will die in peace. I apologise that I have poorly represented my country, but I do not retract what I have said. Please do not let my example cloud your vision and opinion of our new representative. I'm sure he will be better for the job. Ŋalíjas prayed to Kariaicšol that no picked up on what he had said. Perhaps he could survive. He silently cursed Barbury and put a pox on him. Maybe groveling will save my life he thought.

He shot a venomous glare at Stephenie and cursed her, bringing a thousand poxes and 1000 years of infertility on her and her family.

[Atnaia]

Barbury's face softened into something vaguely resembling mirth. He sat down. "I was simply proving a point. Namely, that this war has been reduced to a point of barbarism and backwardsness, buttressed by terrifyingly modern tools of war. That if we are to be an organization of peace, we must do more than simply try and punish wrongdoers. We must act proactively to prevent conflicts before they happen. We must act above the squabbles of our nations and act in the interest of the region, not one nation or the other."

He leaned forward and steepled his fingers. "If the delegates from Skaitsya and Taziristan wish to insult me, that is their imperative. However, they should not misunderstand me. Firstly, when i speak of rats, I do not speak of the Norse as a whole, I speak only of cruel leaders...the leaders who initially imprisoned a family of your people. Or perhaps you forgot what this war started over, in you haste to turn this into a race war. When I speak of scouring the youth, and you deny it, I must wonder who you think makes up the forces that you both send out to fight and who who stand against you. Not the elderly, I can assure you of that."

He turned in his seat to the Skaitsyan delegate. "As for you...well, you've done well to prove my point. Kudos. You have revealed a backwards way of thinking reveling in bloodshed and so self--centered as to be completely incapable of recognizing the suffering of others as meaningful or worthwhile. A trait that, if seen in a single individual, would be called sociopathy. Seen in a nation, it is much more worrying. This is not meant to start an argument, but clearly your people are more concerned with collecting fingerbones than in acting in a concerted and concentrated manner to end this and other conflicts in the region."

[Skaitsya]

Ŋalíjas froze. His voice was cold now, less rage and more venomous hatred. "That war was 30 years ago. You forget the value of good education, you forget the struggles of the poor man who knows not how to read or write. We do not collect fingerbones now anymore than you go around colonising the nations of the Isles. Our customs have changed and we have grown out of those old habits, as you have grown out of yours. Our country is not sociopathic. We recognise the suffering of others. It is your country that is incapable of recognising the suffering of others. It is your country that enslaved my ancestors and allows indentured servitude, thinly veiled slavery. Do not tell me that I can not recognise the suffering of others, let alone that my nation cannot. Do you think I laughed when I saw my dead brother? Do you think I was happy I was now heir to my fathers farmstead in Rjansya? Do you think I did not try to help the starving children I saw? I have had enough of you, Barbury. Perhaps the new delegate will get along better with you." Ŋalíjas walked out of the building filled with pure hate, forgetting his inevitable death, his entire being focused on cursing Barbury. That weasel shit he thought angrily.

[Atnaia]

"If that war is so far from memory that it doesn't matter, why bring it up to try and undermine the pain I suffered to reach the position I am in now? What happened to the League's goals of cooperation and respect?" Barbury grinned behind his hands, then let out a long, theatrically sad sigh and dropped his hands to the arms of his chair, watching the man go. "I am sorry to say it, but I am not sad to watch him leave. I request a brief recess so that I may attempt to regain my composure. I regret to say that such behaviour has me somewhat flustered. Diplomacy should be above one man's ego, and I must remind myself of that before we continue."

[Keomora]

"Genocide? Scouring the youth? You are sorely mistaken. We are not that sort of people."

"Also, those rats you speak of are the horrifically tortured souls lost to a cruel and evil culture."

"Funny," said Yin, chuckling aloud," You just described your own culture."

[The League of TWI]

Sveihl looked at his watch, "Yes I do believe it to be almost time for lunch, a recess would do us no harm, we have been debating for quite a bit now and words here can do more than in most other places. If the delegates would reconvene in an hour that would be best." Sveihl turned to the ex-Skaitsya delegate, "When do you believe your replacement will be able to arrive?"

[Skaitsya]

Ŋalíjas heard the question just as he moved to open the door. "A few hours." he shouted.

[Moukere]

"If that war is so far from memory that it doesn't matter, why bring it up to try and undermine the pain I suffered to reach the position I am in now? What happened to the League's goals of cooperation and respect?" Barbury grinned behind his hands, then let out a long, theatrically sad sigh and dropped his hands to the arms of his chair, watching the man go. "I am sorry to say it, but I am not sad to watch him leave. I request a brief recess so that I may attempt to regain my composure. I regret to say that such behaviour has me somewhat flustered. Diplomacy should be above one man's ego, and I must remind myself of that before we continue."

Hamadi walked up to Barbury slowly.

"It regrets me to see the disrespect you got there. No warrior who has paid a price for his bravery should have it insulted."

[Athara Magarat]

"Ah yes," Ramesh spoke up after the long silence due to the barrage of words. "10,000 Athara Magarati soldiers serve the Khan and Bhikkustan through as soldiers of the Bhikkustani Armed Forces. Furthermore, the Khan's wife is still a citizen of Athara Magarat. The National Assembly of my nation has received calls from both the sides of this ongoing conflict in Bhikkustan. And furthermore, when we declared the unwanted resolution, Bhikkustan immediately supported it."

Lord, forgive me for the sins I am about to commit. He smirked. "If you doubt us, why not ask Thaksin, the man from Bhikkustan?"

He turned to the delegate from Atnaia, "Mr Barbury, why don't you get some fresh air?" And then to the Keomoran delegate. "And it would be wise for you to not make inflammatory remarks about other people's cultures." And finally to Eser, the Taziristani. "Please believe us, whatever we tried to do was for betterment of Taziri and Norse lives. There are no deception and lies. In the name of my lord, I speak the truth that the further you refuse the help of other nations, the more destruction you are going to face. However, it all rests upon your hands. May the lord show you the right path."

[Andergentina]

A older small framed woman walked into the chamber and took a seat in a section of the room that had only moments before been reserved for the delegation from Andergentina. She surveyed the room and studied the placement of the other delegations. She stood and began speak...

"My noble Delegates and Ambassadors, I am the Andergentinean Ambassador to this great body, Sonja Gutierrez-Olsen. Perhaps this is not the best time to discuss the reasons of this war, who is to blame, or to trade insults. A formal peace treaty is something the two warring parties may not find for many years after the last gun is fired. Would our time best be spent establishing a cease-fire so that civilians may get the aid they need, the coup can be assessed, and a demilitarized zone established?"

[Athara Magarat]

"Ahh, finally someone who has talked some sense," Ramesh smirked. "Welcome to this conference room, ma'am. I will say this again as well. If Athara Magarat and Keomora can come to a peace treaty, why can't Taziristan and Upper Norseland do the same?"

[Atnaia]

"You appear to be conflating two separate issues," Barbury said. "The coup in Bhikkustan is a separate issue from the war in KUN, despite a frankly baffling complication of the two in the resolution presented by Athara Magarat. And however noble the sentiment, and while I certainly agree with the need for a ceasefire, I am highly doubtful that either Taziristan or Upper Norseland would agree to such a proposal."

He turned in his seat to Ramesh. "The situation face in the Keomoran-AM conflict was one of land resources and expansionism, quite different from the religious fires that are fuelling the conflict between Taziristan and Upper Norseland. While a ceasefire or treaty is possible, assuming that the two conflicts bear any resemblance to one another and that they can be ended similarly is the height of folly. The propaganda machines of both Taziristan and Upper Norseland...hell, even other nations...have set out to demonize and generate hate for the opposing nation. The situation with your nation and Keomora never escalated to this degree."

He turned back to Gutierrez-Olsen. "A demilitarized zone is untenable anyways, since they do not share a land border. The only thing between them is international waters. My purpose has never been to spin blame, but to bring a pragmatic perspective to situations like these. And let's be clear, the pragmatic solution is looking less-and-less like trying to get everybody to sit down and have a nice cup of tea and talk about their feelings. Spare the rod, spoil the child. I am not suggesting a League invasion, I should be clear. But we must be more decisive than an easily broken ceasefire."

[Perawin]

"What is the point of the League if half the nations choose not to follow the accords?"

[Taziristan]

"INVASION?!? INVASION? Are you out of your minds? Never in the history of the league has such a measure been called for, despite similar wars in the past! What a tremendous load of idiocy and hawkish war mongering!"