Desnia follows close behind him, smiling back. She’s glad he gets to be outside soon. 

Here's the atrium. Phew. He plops himself next to the azalea. Anyone else here yet?

Lucia waves happily!

Roger is reading some transcripts of another committee. But he's here.

Josep arrives right after Jofre and Desnia.

Who is that and why is she here. Maybe she's the sailor's girlfriend and he's about to send her on her way while he does actually important things? Unlikely, but one can hope.

Present. She brought her sun hat this time.

Ignasi is unfortunately present, not that he wants to be.

"This is Voyager Desnia. I'd like an Abadaran too but haven't been able to catch one yet," out of doors so he can think straight, "but it's Trade and Travel, so. Voyager, do you want to introduce yourself?"

“Good afternoon, everyone. As” oh no she doesn’t remember the title for clerics of Gozreh, is it going to be a snub that he called her by her title but she’s not calling him by his “Delegate Jofre said, I’m a cleric of Desna and have been since before the war. I used to deliver messages and sometimes goods for smaller towns and villages. I’ve been in every archduchy in Cheliax, though I’ve spent more time in the western half of the country. While I’m more familiar with the travel part of this committees mandate, I also have some experience with trade throughout Cheliax. Do you have any questions for me?” 

That sounded - experienced, she thinks. Except the slip with title, if anyone noticed her brief pause there. Experience with trade defined very loosely, though it can probably stand up to some questioning. 

Ignasi is obviously not going to say anything that might offend one of the priests in power.

"Since we already voted to abolish travel passes, I'm not sure how much role there is for further travel expertise on the committee," which seems like a politically palatable excuse for excluding a bloody Desnan.

“I hadn’t realized the vote on that had already passed that this committee! What’s the text of the resolution? When do you plan to bring it to the floor?”

Ahhh. Is it a resolution? Or is it called a different thing when the committee does a thing and then sends it to the main convention? Jofre had made the committee sound undecided on this issue but maybe she had misunderstood him. And maybe this guy is right and she’s not going to be that useful here but she wants to try and see if she can do more useful things in committee than when bills make it to the floor where it’s much harder to engage with them. 

"We got bogged down in definitions, but we were for getting rid of them, it was just unclear how to word it exactly."

“So it sounds like I could still be helpful there. And I do have some experience with trade even it’s less than travel. Does anyone else have any concerns?”

Does it sound like she’s trying too hard? This isn’t quite the same as talking her way past checkpoints but it’s not not similar. 

"Well, let's put it to a vote, if nobody's got more questions," says Jofre. "I'm in favor."

Three sensible people, the countess, the sortition, and the idiot... Wait until the countess votes. Chair breaks ties so if she's in favor it's not going to work and better to go along with it.

"More clerics of good gods can only help!"

Damn. "Alright, I suppose it will."

Josep makes the same calculation, but he expects that the sortition might vote against, actually, and is disagreeably surprised when Texidor cannot be counted on. Ugh. No point in making an enemy pointlessly, that's two votes in favor without the sailor now.

"Yes, I suppose I will vote in favor."

"In favor." Ugh.

"Abstain."

"Welcome to the committee, Desnia!"

Fuck.

“My pleasure, thank you for having me.”

She’s unreasonably relieved about it, considering how many more risky evaluations she had passed. Not so unreasonably relieved that it would be readable off of her face.

It would have probably been fine if she wasn’t on, Jofre seemed reasonable enough and if something bad was going to come out of the committee she could hear about it from him early enough to prepare an actual speech for the floor maybe.

“Could someone say a bit more about where things stand on the travel passes?” 

"So we're leaning to abolish them but were trying to figure out exactly how to word the draft - there's ways you could say it that would make it sound like nobody's allowed to travel anywhere on the grounds that they don't have a pass because the passes don't exist, say - without making it really easy for bandits to operate, since apparently they're a major motivating force behind the passes existing."