A crowd of men stood crammed in a dark and dusty cellar. The only source of light was from the few slivers of light that shone through the battered wooden cellar doors. This gave the room dim and minimal lighting. Most had their arms folded across their chest and their expression was stern and serious. A few of the men murmured quietly with other, but majority were silent and listened to those who stood in the center of the room. Of the blades of light, where the largest one shined, there were five bodies huddled over a small table with papers and maps scattered on it.

"That won't work. You took place in the war. We don't stand a chance against them and you know that!" The five were deadlocked in a discussion about proceeding with a coup on the throne, but no progress had been made in days. Despite this, the dissatisfaction with the current administration had many would-be rebels on standby. They only needed a plan.

"That don't matter, we have to fight! We can't just let this go! There's a pirate sitting on our king's  throne!" "So, just send a mass of our own people to go be slaughtered by them? You're not thinking at all!" One man grabbed the other by the collar, but they were quickly broken up and brought back to a simmer. Tension within the council had been rising steadily, it was looking like today would be the day things reached their climax.

"Even if we recruited the people how would we arm them? We don't have backing from those Revolutionaries anymore. Bastards left us high and dry. "*pfft* The man blew air and rolled his eyes. "Don't even mention those fuckers around me."

"What if we recruited mercenaries? I'm pretty sure I could bring in a crowd of em." Geo hadn't many ideas to offer, but despite this because of his reputation in Alabasta he had earned a spot at this table of countrymen.

"Now that's an idea. An army of mercs would be able to get us somewhere." Geo's suggestion earned him a toothy smile from this particular table-man who was the closest in age to Geo. He had a feeling they were of the same cloth. "Oh? This man rose his brow at the suggestion, his arms had already been folded across his chest, but now they hugged even tighter. "And you boys are going to be paying these mercenaries out your own pockets? If you can't tell by how we're cooped up in this damn cellar like chickens, we're not exactly in the position to be hiring folk."  

"Agggh! I can't stand this guy. He just shits on everything. You probably like being a pirate's bitch huh?" The brow that was previously raised dropped into a deep scowl, but before he knew it the youngster had already jumped at him and pinned him to the ground to start a scuffle.

Geo sighed at this. His patience was running thin. They had been stalemating on practically every proposition and it was starting to look like they'd just have to accept that the country had fallen. He let out a deep breath of air and threw his hands over his head as he walked away from the table and fighting in irritation.

Men from the background came to breakup the two countrymen again, but things stayed rowdy and bickering amongst all those in the cellar broke out until the last man in the group of five cleared his throat, then opened his mouth to speak. "We could pay them with the treasury..." At the very least he had quelled the fighting, but still that one country-man remained negative even after having to helped up off the ground.

"Hire an army of mercenaries, then hand them the nations treasures? I've never heard anyt-" Before he could finish the same youth struck him right in the jaw, sending him back to the ground. He glared up at the young-man as he was being wrapped up by the countrymen and tossed around. Spitting blood out his mouth he stood once more.  "I standby what I said."

At this point Geo was no longer listening and had retreated into his own thoughts. Would they really be able to save the country? He couldn't even bare to look around at the one's he had to call his allies anymore with how these meetings were going. The only one he had respect for was the one all the others also respected and the one who suggested offering the treasury as payment, Leto.