He swept the assemblage with his eyes. “Any other questions?”
The actors looked around as well, but there were no takers. “Very well.” Phule nodded. “I’ll be trying to spend some time with each of you, individually and informally, during the trip in an effort to get to know you better. In the meantime, if you’ll follow Sergeant Moustache now, you’ll be issued uniforms and given your teammate assignments. If you would, please change into your new uniforms and report back here in an hour.”
He allowed a faint smile to flit across his face.
“I’m giving a cocktail party to introduce you to the rest of the company and welcome you to our ranks. It will be a good time for you all to start getting to know each other.”
Despite my employer’s good intentions, his cocktail party was something less than a roaring success.
While the regular Legionnaires had long since resigned themselves to the inevitability of their new assignment, and had even accepted the necessity of breaking up their established two person teams, the idea of “outsiders” standing duty with them as equals was still unpopular. Though they were careful to keep their feelings hidden from their commander, it was readily apparent to a careful observer that little warmth was spared on their new “colleagues.”
This was particularly noticeable at the cocktail party … though almost as interesting, if you are a confirmed people watcher like myself, were the opening gambits as the actors themselves began to jostle to establish a pecking order within their own numbers. Without blatant eavesdropping, the exact details of the various conversations remained a mystery, but the general content could often be distinguished simply by observing the body language of the individuals involved …