Meeting of the All-Ventican People's Council and Anacodia

As the delegates shuffled out of the aircraft, a tense atmosphere hung in the air around them for a few moments before one - Mr. Almippa - decided to break the undesirable mood by striking up a conversation about the scenery around them. Looking around properly now - Lucilla had only just woken up from her nap minutes before the plane had landed - the anarchist, although she found it predictably cliché that it would be the moderate of the four who'd try to mellow the unspoken hostilities present between the representatives, could see that the sights in and around the airport were truly discussion-worthy.

To the north and south of the airport lay rows of towering gold and white skyscrapers covered in impressive greenery; many towering over even the largest buildings in Ventica's major cities. The airport itself had a state-of-the-art design to it, with innovative design elements built into it even clearly visible from this distance away. Even the Anacodian planes - although the transport aircraft they had flown in wasn't anything particularly special, for good or for bad, by Ventican standards - were much more modern-looking than most comparative things of Ventican make. Truly, Anacodia had to be a scientific marvel of a country, if any state could be called one.

As the car containing the Anacodian leader - the AI, Perseus - began to approach them, Lucilla came to two conclusions after looking once again at the surrounding scenery. Firstly, regardless of who ended up coming out on top in Ventica, the state's new leadership would have to take drastic steps to bring the nation's standards of living, state of advancement, and overall development up to those of the nations that hadn't been ravaged by war and conflict for the past several years in order to stand a chance of having the country be respected as an equal in global affairs. Secondly, though there were, of course, certain obvious risks associated with it, the prospect of having Anacodian representatives aid with such development was an attractive one indeed...

The four Ventican representatives shook the hands of their Anacodian counterparts. Mrs. Anasi and Mr. Renell were - as could be expected, given their rough ideological similarities - given warm greetings from Lucilla and Almippa, respectively, and each of the Venticans were eager to try and show a good side to the science-knowledgeable Mr. Danar. The final Anacodian present to be given handshakes from the gathered Venticans was AI Perseus; though none were hostile towards him, his appearance and synthetic nature did seem to provoke a tinge of hesitation in Mr. Diaz - the Representative of the "Tradizionalisti" faction - though he, too, after a brief moment's hesitation, shook the robot's hand.

"The marvels of modern engineering, eh?" Vitti, slightly provocatively, whispered to Diaz as the group began to head to the airport's metro station. Diaz could only let off a nod and a small "tsk" in response.

On board the fast-moving tram - a vehicle whose interior was as modern and sleek as nearly everything else in the city - it was silent for a time before Lucilla, not wanting to let Fiore get another chance to break the tension, silent and mild though it may have been here, spoke up;

"Oh, this silence is no good", she remarked, "and it doesn't feel right to sit here quiet like this right before such an... important meeting."

At this, the Moderati and Tradizionalisti representatives, both having been looking through their pre-prepared notes and files, looked up from their work and turned towards the anarchist.

"Yes, I concur." Vitti replied, watchfully glaring at Lucilla before turning towards Perseus. He had been seated right across from the Anarchici delegate, and, as such, had been paying the most attention to her when she spoke up. Continuing, he commented; "...though it would be unsatisfactory to speak of perhaps contentious political matters before the meeting itself. Instead, what could there be to make small talk about...?"

He paused for a moment to think of a suitable topic of discussion before continuing.

"...ah, yes. Perseus, sir; I am interested in something. What is your opinion on... life, and what it means to live, what with being a robotic lifeform yourself and whatnot?"

At hearing this question from Perseus, Almippa - arguably the most level-headed of the four Ventican representatives - spoke up.

"While this is perhaps... not the sort of unpolitical small talk Mr. Vitti had wished to converse about on our way to the formal meeting area, I'll..." he began, looking around for any signs of particular dissent among his colleagues before proceeding, "...take the opportunity to answer such a question."

The Moderati delegate took a moment to think before continuing. As he did so, the other Venticans present looked upon him with further attention, all curious to hear how he would describe the Council's political state in his own words.

After a few further seconds, he proceeded with his answer; "It must be bluntly said... the All-Ventican People's Council, as it currently stands, is a politically disorganized mess. It has no formal constitution; the four factions had only originally united in an attempt to fight back against the various forces of anti-proletarian reaction present within the county; an alliance of necessity, if you will. Furthermore, the joint leadership structure set up under the framework of the Council as an administrative force itself only has effective direct control over Tedine and a handful of particularly strategic or otherwise important settlements and outposts across its territory. The rest of what I'll call Council-aligned territory is administered by a series of local councils and unions who govern with only moderate government oversight. While most of these political groups are officially aligned with one of the four main factions of the Council as a whole - and, as such, are kept in line by their corresponding set of upper leadership - many aren't, and even those that are often don't even try to form any semblance of a united set of policies with those following a different creed; just on one stretch of highway, one could come upon an anarchist commune, a town implementing a strict collectivization plan, a bastion of those professing the superiority of Ventican laborers, and a settlement practicing a form of leftist democracy within a half hour's drive."

The Anarchici, Tradizionalisti, and Nuovi Socialisti representatives were - surprisingly, considering the level of tension that had hung between them earlier - largely in agreement with Mr. Almippa's description of the Council's internal political situation. Though some of them quietly scoffed at some of the details or descriptions he had brought up if they were different to how they, themselves, thought about such an aspect of the overall topic, none made a concentrated effort to interrupt him or otherwise prevent him from continuing.

After a brief sip of water, Fiore Almippa continued. "I think, now, I can speak for all of us", he said, gesturing to the other Venticans present in the tram, "in saying that, while we're committed enough to stand together while dealing with the hated militarists, despised pseudo-fascists, opulent capitalist democrats, twisted cultists, and other, general forces of banditry present in Ventica currently, such a power-sharing agreement is unlikely to last too long once the country has otherwise been pacified; the political disagreements between our ideological blocs are just too great, at least as things currently stand. Saying that, however, I, at least, would be willing to discuss - and perhaps even send to my superiors for review - possible arrangements that could be made in order to better control the Council's opposing groups, if it would mean guarantees of Anacodian political or material support in return."

After saying that, he took a breath and paused; awaiting Perseus's response.

AI Perseus's blunt manner of speech brought the Ventican representatives to attention; if there was one thing they feared more than the process it would take to build harmony between their respective conflicting factions, it was the possibility of returning home empty-handed from this meeting.

Mr. Diaz, once more looking up from his document folder, was the first to respond to the Anacodian. "Well, such a level of military support would, if provided, certainly give the Council an upper hand against its variety of foes spread throughout the rest of Ventica, but couldn't a blunt, direct sort of intervention of that nature also stand a possible chance of leading other nations to do the same with their opposing faction of choice? While I'm... mostly sure that none of the major nations of the world would want to support those... cultists in northwestern Ventica, I could certainly see the Jesian government directly intervening on behalf of the fascists or military... or even New Nationale Einheit coming in to lead the capitalist democratic faction, among other such possibilities. As such, I, for one, would be hesitant to allow that numerous of an Anacodian reinforcement force into Ventica unless steps were taken to either hide their presence or to convince other great powers to not do the same elsewhere... a form of escalation that would only wreak upon the country much more devastation than it has already suffered throughout much of this last decade."

Mrs. Serdonza and Mr. Vitti nodded thoughtfully at this argument from the Tradizionalisti representative, while Mr. Almippa once again spoke up soon after he had concluded, wishing to get his thoughts in before the Anacodian side in this meeting was to respond.

"In addition to what my... well, colleague has said," he began, "if such a military intervention were to be carried out, by when... or, well, by how soon, really, would you want a proper political agreement between the Council's factions to be finalized? While I'm sure that, even if all of us present here were to put our full efforts behind convincing our respective factional superiors to all together settle on a roughly finalized constitution, it would still take some time for such an arguably monumental task to be completed, I'd also assume that, if the sort of document in question wasn't ready within a certain amount of time, Anacodian leadership could grow tired or otherwise impatient with the Council's internal political situation, and be less willing to supply the sorts of reinforcements in question as a result. Accordingly, having a rough timeframe that we could make use of when attempting to help the Council settle on a proper constitutional document would likely be.. handy, so to speak."

"Certainly, " Mrs. Serdonza chimed in, eager to get a word in, "that sounds like quite an agreeable deal, to use your word choice. If more direct military intervention was deemed necessary in the future - and if the international situation were to allow it, of course - I'm sure that a secondary agreement could be made for such provisions, and, furthermore, your... leniency in regards to the timeframe proposal Mr. Almippa suggested is also reassuring."

Before continuing, the Anarchici representative looked around to see how the other Ventican representatives were holding up. Though she didn't bring herself to look any in the eye, she could note that they were beginning to get slightly restless; in part due to the unorthodox meeting location and in part due to the pressure put upon them by the event's importance. She figured that it would be a beneficial idea to try and wrap the meeting up shortly, before any of her colleagues did or said something they could perhaps regret in the future.

"Mr. Perseus, sir, there was one other particular matter we of the All-Ventican People's Council wished to bring up at this time; that of an educational exchange program between Ventica and Anacodia. While Ventica is, for lack of a better way of describing it, likely not especially safe for Anacodian students to travel to at this time - though future developments in that regard could be sorted out later down the line - we would like at least for Ventican students within our territory to have the opportunity to study abroad in Anacodia. The University of Tedine's in a somewhat unfortunate state currently, what with a number of its departments and services having been converted to help directly promote leftist thought to the populace and aid the Council's war efforts, and I would imagine many Ventican students would appreciate the opportunity to develop their views in a country blessed with a longer-lived socialist political tradition. Of course, if you wished to decline the formation of such a sort of program, then that would be understandable as well."

The Ventican representatives present appear to be thoroughly impressed with this show of Anacodian good will as they behold the plane in front of them.

After a brief moment of lightly hostile muttering between them regarding how the supplies - particularly the rifles - should be partitioned between their respective political factions, Mr. Almippa breaks away from the group and walks towards Perseus, hand outstretched as if to await a handshake.

"On behalf of all the... competing blocs of the Council, I believe I can say "thank you" for the impressive amount of kindliness and consideration you have acted towards us with, sir, despite the internal troubles and difficulties we face. I wish to tell you that we will... well, at least try our damnedest to not let your generous offerings towards us go to waste."

As the Moderati representative shook Perseus's cold, metallic hand, he thought of his homeland. Perhaps the Council, acting on behalf of the Ventican people's will, would be able to bring the country into the future by connecting its bitter and weary past to a bright, warm, and modernized tomorrow.

He hoped that would be the case, at least.