"HOW CAN YOU WIN THE GAME IF YOU NEVER MAKE A MOVE?"
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What would you do, if you were given a chance to save millions of lives throughout a galaxy?
Would you do it? Could you even do it? Is such a feat even possible?
Or would you crumble and choke...
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Pawns; they are the soul of chess: it is they alone that determine the attack and the defense, and the winning or losing of the game depends entirely on their good or bad arrangement.
— François-André Danican Philidor
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Melanie picks at the edges of her food with her fork, listening vaguely to the chatter of the men around her.
"And then, the clanker said—" Fives's voice travels over to her from across the table, absolute maniacal glee dripping from his tone, as he mimics the droid's next words to the chorus of men around him, "—'Huh, guess I'm in charge now'—"
She lifts up a piece of red, dried up looking meat, grimacing in distaste at the sight. Still—beggars can't be choosers—so she forces herself to take a bite, choking the dried meat down as she takes a sip of her water to help wash the taste off her tongue.
Fives's voice, undeterred at Melanie's internal struggle with the utter slop on her plate, continues on, "—And then, right when the clanker went to use his comlink, I came up behind it and said, 'Oh, but sir, a captain always goes down with his ship.' And then I knocked its head clean off its body!"
Fives leans back, cackling hysterically as he slaps Echo, who sits next to him, on the shoulder repeatedly.
The whole table descends right into laughter along with him. Even Rex, who sits near the head of the table, twists his lips up into a small smirk at Fives's tale.
Melanie sits quietly near the back, awkwardly chewing more bites of her food as she stares down at the steel surface of the table.
Come on. Say something! That's the whole reason you're here!
Finally, she forces a loud laugh to escape her lips, smacking the table a few times to try and mimic Fives's descent into hysterics. But, where Fives's amusement had been genuine, Melanie's is very clearly fake.
Fuck, she really sucks at this, doesn't she?
The table of men in blue and white armor fall into silence, all turning to stare at her, brows furrowing in confusion at her behavior.
She shrinks slightly in her seat, an awkward silence filling the small corner of the large mess hall.
To her absolute relief, Rex is the one to come to her aid.
The Captain clears his throat. "So, sir, I don't believe I actually got a chance to properly introduce myself earlier today. You left... pretty quickly... from the hangar before any of us had the chance."
