F—>4 [Cassandra|Rinji|Souji|Talia]

The rafters of the shack, covered in the same gloomy darkness that seemed to haunt the entirety of Fragment Village, had concealed more than dust and rotting wood. Clinging to a single, splintered beam was the form of a centipede. Rinji, a human-sized centipede Digimon, whose colours were rendered into muddy browns. Not from fading pigments, but simply from the drab lighting.

It made it easy to go unnoticed, whether he'd really succeeded at that or not.

Seeing that the envoy hadn't burst in, guns blazing, he made a decision. The decision to, well, come down. With a discreet activation of his holosuit, which resulted in not much more than a dim red glow and a change of form, he snatched a bundle of blank papers wrapped with a pen and dropped to the floor.

"Good morning," he greeted before he brushed off the dust that'd transferred to his clothing. "I hope you didn't have any trouble finding this place." As expected, his tone was wavering yet cordial. Anyone who knew him would've known that this was his typical mellow, generally agreeable self.

Not bad traits, when negotiations were quite literally going to be on the table.

"I'm Rinji, in case there's any confusion." He almost kicked himself for letting his introduction slip. "I'll be taking notes of our discussion for today." His eyes glanced over the three new individuals. Make no mistake, the power levels of these Digimon were high. The woman herself was likewise strong, in her own human way.

It was best not to risk offending them.

With that, Rinji went to pull out a chair, and sat down to the right of Amelie. He untied the binding of papers and left the pen on his left, ready to write down any notes during the meeting. Once everyone was accounted for and ready to begin, of course.

As a businesswoman Talia wasn’t all that new to the art of negotiation, but she was still pretty new to how the DLC functioned as a group so it was only fitting for her to sit in on this meeting and observe, possibly give her thoughts here and there if she saw fit based on her own past experiences doing this kind of thing. “Call me Talia,” She gave a friendly wave and verbal greeting to the group as they entered. To be honest she wasn’t sure what to think of the woman who entered with the dark and gold coloured twins, all of whom seemed to give off an intimidating, wild card aura sort of vibe?

Nothing that flashed distrust, just...sort of a browser with an anonymous proxy installed, if that made sense, possibly because she could tell her twins were much stronger than her own two, both of whom quietly sat next to her in a chair, watching the fellow twin with poker faces, but both very much intimidated on the inside, being able to sense their power, all knowing that if this didn’t go well there wouldn’t be much they could do to protect the group. Nonetheless, a pat of affection on both their heads staved off that sensation a bit as the meeting goers began to settle in.

Normally bugs made her skin crawl, but there was something oddly adorable about the large centipede that came down from the ceiling, so much so that she wanted to see if it was friendly and or would enjoy pats but kept her composure for the time being - perhaps she was being a bit dramatic, but for some reason she felt as if this was a really inappropriate time to make any sudden movements. ‘They should have snacks for these things - carbs relax people don’t they?’ The silent thought rang in her mind while things got started.  

"Its a pleasure to meet you Rinji, Isabella, Souji, Talia," The Doctor spoke nodding to each individual in turn with a soft respectful incline of her head. "I am as you've already heard Dr. Cross." She added before turning her gaze to Amelia with a scant smile at her mention of their first meeting. Her comment garnering a few chuckles from the twins behind her. 

"Well where would the world be without us to cut threats down to size hmm?" Dagger joked lightening the ominous mood a little.

"However, we shall stand for now. It is a nice change after the ride we've partaken of." The Tactimon spoke his tone far more formal from where he leaned back against the wall only letting out a small shudder in memory of the Doctor's hairpin turns and nearly manic driving when racing across the Dark Area's expanse on the back of that hellspawn machine she kept as a pet. 

At Amelia's prompting however the Doctor nodded reaching into her Infini-store her movements slow and purposeful so as not to startle anyone and withdrew a data tablet. Reaching out she placed it within the middle of the table before clicking a button causing a hologram display to hover above it showing a blank screen. "I shall be blunt. It is well known that Luminas, Terminus, and Whitewater are the three strongest and most powerful cities in the Digital world forming a nearly unbreakable triad. While Terminus harbors sympathy for Virus type Digimon Luminas's distaste for them and the Dark Area are well documented. Radicals within their sect aside Luminas's purpose within the triad is to act as the strong arm of the digital world disposing of threats to it before they can grow dangerous with power. However, of late Luminas has operated under their own agenda." The Doctor explained pulling up a document on her D-terminal which was reflected upon the hologram. The document itself detailed the discovery of the first statue, it's destruction, and the damages suffered by the teams that first encountered the D-reaper at full force as well as the various teams Whitewater sent in to investigate. 

"We have irrefutable proof that Luminas has known about the D-reaper threat long before their public announcement of their search for the Effigies. The City of Angels have turned a blind eye to the threat for years leaving it to fester and grow here only acting when it became a threat to the main land." Cassandra explained pulling up further documents. Those listening population, the limited and heavily embargoed trade between the mainland and the Dark Area, and a mission report detailing the near loss of one of the Dark Area's primary farmlands to Luminas's orbital cannon should a private team hired by the owners failed to deal with a recent minor D-reaper incursion. 

"Despite housing over twenty-five percent of the Digital Worlds population the Dark Area has little to no representation in the courts of the digital world nor an established city of their own. I'm sure you all have noticed the proclivity of certain establishments who refuse to adhere to the strict and frankly unfair and detrimental trade restrictions placed upon the Dark Area to be declared threats and wiped off the map by Luminas's city cannons." The Woman pointed out pulling up a few pictures of such ruined and pocketmarked areas though she saw no need to show them images of how the area had suffered for it. The state of Fragment Village alone was proof enough of that.

"This is why I wish to propose an alliance. The Dark Area is bleeding refugees faster than a severed femoral artery and those refugees are being picked off like fish in a barrel. Of the Cities I know of only Tenebrous has thrown open their doors to refugees regardless of type. Whitewater has been accepting and screening some along with Terminus, but it's all too easy for such individuals to fall through the cracks. The reason these previous Dark Area cities were picked off is the same as why your own citizens fleeing the threat of the D-reaper are dying in droves. They lack allies. They lack representation. They lack a champion whom Luminas cannot gun down in a blaze of glory and paint their murder as justice." Cassandra spoke as she drew a manila folder from her coat and casually tossed it upon the table it's content spilling out over the surface to show photos of angry citizens upon the streets of the city of silver and pearls, police records of barely justifiable mass arrests, the after effects of the various assaults upon the effigies two of which Luminas critically failed to prevent.

"Change is coming to the City of Angels. The Wolf is at their door." The Doctor intoned ominously.

"However, while these reforms are in the works I do not trust them not to label the Deeplane Council and your efforts a threat and attempt to use you as a scapegoat to draw the attention of the public away from their own failings. I believe however, that should Tenebrous and Deeplane ally that such an alliance would discourage them from blowing your city to bits. Previously they have acted under the assumption they could merely wipe out such an establishment in one blow and disenfranchise the public to the accounts of any survivors with a well placed smear campaign declaring them terrorists." Cassandra explained before pulling up another document listing Tenebrous's healthy and rapidly growing trade network as well as a vague, for safety reasons, account of their increasing martial defenses as well as natural defenses.

"However, they cannot bombard Tenebrous with their cannons without hitting their own allies in Terminus. While they may be able to close what meager public trade routes there are to the Dark Area they cannot cut Deeplane off from our City's routes. Trade between our two cities could prove highly profitable and more importantly as a combined front I believe we could break the stranglehold of the triad raising Deeplane and Tenebrous to the Council of Cities and ensure more equal representation for Digimon of all types." The Doctor argued making her request with steel like control and passion even as she returned to her seat. 

"If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them. You are free to peruse the information upon the tablet and those within the file. I hope you all with give equal consideration to this alliance." She added dipping her head in a nod of respect and thanks for them lending her their ears.

Well with the introductions out of the way Souji had an excuse to remain silent from now on and just observe what will go down, for after all he did seem like the least experienced out of everyone present. Isabella however was interested in learning more about Cassandra, for this Tinkermon is a medical digimon and the stories of a famous digimon doctor who also happens to be a human would totally grab Bella's attention so to get a chance to meet the doctor herself was a pleasant surprise. But today Isabella was not here as a fan but she was here to represent an orgnization, so she is gonna keep it purely professional. 

The brown haired boy then noticed something that made him relax a bit, Amy spoke to the doctor with a sense of familiarity almost like the two were friends, which is great since any friend of Amy is a friend of his right ? Anyways now that that's out of the way Souji can focus on listening to Cassandra out, and boy did she a lot of stuff that went over the brown haired boy's head, but one term caught the boy's attention, and that was the name of a city, Luminas mainly because that name made the voice inside Souji's head to growl out of anger, the boy wondered why his spirit hated that name. 

"Guys I hate to interrupt, but I need to ask two questions, first of all, what exactly is Luminas ? Why is that name hated around here ? And what is this D-reaper ?" Souji was a bit nervous, but he knew he had to ask or else he will get lost in the conversation. 

"Allow me to answer you Souji, Luminas is as Cassandra said a city. A powerful one in fact, I lived there for a while and I can concur that I heard the name D-reaper before, thought I thought he was just a boogyman to scare to kids away. I would like to learn more about this D-reaper fellow though. But that is not our current topic, I like your plan, but to do that kind of change we need more cities to join, a city like Rustport is more likely to join our cause than say Whitewater, but I will wait for my colleagues to speak first before expanding on my point." The fairy said in a playful manner, the digimon was having fun to say the least. 

    It was rather interesting, looking at how each person in the room handled themselves in the face of a situation like this. For Amelie, this was a learning experience in more ways than one. After everyone had said their pieces, and the brunette had listened attentively to each and all of them. Yet, for now, she had remained silent; truth was that taking all that information and pondering about it would take her a bit of time, even if eventually she sighed before beginning her own speech.

    "I am aware that there's radicalized groups in every major city. The fact that they hold a measure of real power in Luminas is concerning without a doubt. I had that in mind before beginning this project; never was my intention to be a sitting duck in the face of being threatened with the city's overwhelming firepower. Just like you said; attacking without warning is not something that's bound to be taken well in the grand scheme of things, especially if it's not even a proper city what is in front of them at the moment. Just foundations and workers. I'd even call Fragment a more habitable place than our project"

    On that much, the two of them seemed to agree. However... "I honestly couldn't care less about it all; I'm here to work, and I'm completely unconcerned by what petty politicians think of our city. Everything is going to be fine as long as nobody bothers us, but the second somebody thinks they can, or that we are pushovers, it won't end well for them. That is all I've got to say regarding that matter; I'm not particularly looking forward to getting my clothes dirty."

    It was more than obvious that many entities had the power to level entire tracts of land if they so desired, and that a bunch of religious fanatics had access to a good deal of them. Living in fear regarding that wouldn't be becoming of somebody who wanted to lead by example. It wouldn't do for Amy.

    Luckily, those weren't all the motives why Cassandra was here. For that much, the brunette was thankful; mustering a small smile, she resumed her small speech. "Forming partnerships, on the other hand, is something I Deeplane would greatly appreciate, even though we can't really talk about most of what's happening in there, considering the place's still under construction, and finishing it is our highest priority at the moment. In any other occasion, I would receive the offer with open arms, but at the moment I feel like any trade deal wouldn't be equal for you, given how taxed our human resources are and the fact that we can't stretch then in any measure. It's true that everyone in the team is brilliant, but I can't task them with anything that wouldn't contribute the hasten the project's deadline. I'm confident in that changing as soon the construction work finishes, but that's our reality at the moment; whether those are acceptable terms or not, that's up to you."

    Her words might've sounded a bit blunt, but they had been the truth. "I don't have any issues with an alliance in the long term, though. It would be my pleasure to collaborate with another emergent city in any way I can once the work here's done. Do you want to discuss the details right now, or do you think that it would be more opportune to address them on another occasion?"

    That topic was something she handled notably better. Even if she knew it was a naive way of thinking; aiming at prosperity rather than war was something she enjoyed quite a bit more.