EmBark

Inter-Orbital Diplomatic Delegation VIP Box #X Back home on Al-Miraiya, all the channels were abuzz with news that the sporting events of the Llort Society Protectorate were now becoming a kind of cultural export, as shown by the collaborative effort put into it by the Uhrayans and the Eucrus Alliance. Naturally, a large excursion of civilian ships was organized so that the people of the Society, human and llort alike, could attend it and be part of the audience. Above all was Society Consul Hanyeo, the Grey Eminence of the Imperial Senate, who had championed this cause. They stand in one of the VIP boxes for the inter-orbital diplomatic delegations, as close to the edge as possible, as close to the action as possible, arms wide and smiling. They stand at nine imperial feet tall with several pairs of curved horns, almost like antlers. Their skin is space-black and specked with gold and silver, almost like many glowing tiny tattoos, or as if someone had pricked holes into their skin to let through an inner starlight. Their garb seems comparitively solemn, robes in grey tones that don't come close to the ground. "Marvelous! This is marvelous!" Hanyeo says. "It has been ever so long since I personally could attend a mageball match. The cross-national teams are a great twist on the typical concept. I am eager to see the prowess of all the athletes on the field!" OOC Since I made the mechanics for the game, I figure it's probably fairer to stay out of competing myself, but if a sixth player is needed in like 48 hours I'll happily jump in with my heir.

The Llort Society Protectorate Round 7, Standard Years 2052-2054 of the 99,803rd Era of the Imperial Calendar Capital: Al-Miraiya (region 88) Society Consul Hanyeo (llort, they/them) Diplomacy: 10 Military: 4 Economy: 10 Faith: 6 Intrigue: 4 (Expected gains from this round to next round: +1 ???, +1 ???.) (Heir: Dip 4+2, Mil 1+1, Econ 3+2, Faith 4+1, Intr 3+1) Actions: [Diplomacy 10 Special] - [Economy 10 Special] - Invent Technology Smart Space Colonizer Suits (Tier 1) Requirements: Vacuum Adaptation technology, any Conductors and Circuitry category resource, any Fabrics and Textile Products category resource (may be the same resource) Effect: This tech takes effect during and after exploring a region in another orbit or a zero-G region in the same orbit as your capital, if the region doesn't have any significant sophont population. A successful roll against TN 12 reveals the full details of the region and you reveal any sites of archeological interest or similar unique features in the region that might otherwise be hidden. You get a +1 bonus to the Colonize action taken in the region in the following round. On a great success (TN 18), you may attempt to colonize the region as a non-action on the following round. Spacesuits are made of fabrics and other products to function as a suit for survival. Attached to these suits you have various devices that can help the cosmonaut by scanning stuff, communication with other cosmonauts, etc. The way these new suits are made is with a deeper integration of those devices into the suit and by extension into the cosmonaut themselves directly. They become one with the suit and one with their tools, effectively. This allows those tools to function as an extension of them. It lets them fine-tune their scanning to locate archaeological sites and good sites for colonization efforts. It allows them to survive longer stretches in space to make that colonization happen. It allows them to spend more time on the exploring and colonizing by eschewing all the countless seconds spent on menial tasks that are now automated by them becoming one with their suit. This is all aided by the rather fantastical nature of the resources typically employed to make the suits and integrate them for their users (although the processing techniques can be adapted to resources that are different, so it's not limited to just Crystal Weave), and it cannot be applied to just anyone, they need to have some adaptation to living in space already for their bodies to not reject the process. "Just as the Emperor and Ophon are one, so a llort flightmaster and their suit are one." [???] - [???] - [???] - Non-Actions: [Co-Host] an Event! The Eucrus Alliance graciously hosts the Llort Society Protectorate and co-organizes efforts for a new sporting event on Badal: the First Pan-Tekhum Mageball Competition! Resist & Hinder any Conversions that would reduce the Imperial Cult to less than a Majority in Region 88 (-2). Resist all buyouts of Trade Post 1 in region 88 (-2) Supply the Arkhive with the LSP's Spacer's Cabbage (for compostables DI) through the Embassy functioning as a Trade Route Donations to the Arkhive (through our Embassy) Donations to the Arkhive and Imperial Court Donate a cultural work to the Arkhive and the Imperial Court: Donate a historical work to the Arkhive and the Imperial Court: Donate a philosophical work to the Arkhive and the Imperial Court: Llort Society member _____ (llort/human, he/him), who brings these works to the Arkhive, joins the Arkhive. Their noteworthy accomplishments include _____ Grey Eminence duties: Society Consul Hanyeo ventures into the depths of the Imperial Senate... News and Rumours: Mechanics notes Stored in my country thread . Charter to E.A.T. Currently in the process of accepting two more members. Processing details... (Bureaucracy is hell, y'know?)

Finish Line! At the end of the race, with over 8 imperial standard weeks having past by, the air is tense on Al-Miraiya. The tension is broken when Zabir's ship bursts through the sky and comes down, shooting past the finish line! And yet he is closely followed by the humble Unit 2323. The remainder of the racers follow over the days after that, with the first among the main body of the racers--the "peleton"--being Gerald 48223, racing closely against Lewis. The festivities that follow are lavish and uproarious, during which time the PEREGRINE arrives with Lady Charyti and Guyineber, just in time to witness the bestowing of the championship belt upon Archmage Zabir. The Mekhala-Veehra Dash Championship Belt OOC Zabir has 11 points, Unit 2323 has 10, Gerald 48223 has 4 and Lewis has 3! (I'm taking notes for how a potential future Mekhala-Sansar Dash should perhaps be different mechanically.) Thank you all for participating! And thanks to FriendlyHeadcrab for sportscasting!

"Hail and Emperor's blessings upon you, Cassiope." Ambassador Yessikruz Donce greets Unit 2323. She gently takes the box from it and opens it, admiring the ores within and the craftsrobotship of the chest and cloth itself. "This is absolutely marvelous. Thank you for this gift, honoured representative." She bows and directs the robot to the EAT lounge, informing it that other Mekhalans like the Glix and dwarven representatives have already arrived. She silently hopes that Karcheras hasn't gotten them too drunk before the official meetings. On Veehra When Guyineber returns to consciousness, her eyes flutter open and she looks up at Charyti by her side. With a light crackle, the glow in the crevices of her horns and in her irises flares back on, just duller and softer than usual. "How are you here? I'm not dead... did you save me?" She tries sitting up, then sees Charyti's hand held out for her. She takes it. "Um. Yes. That sounds good. Wine. Cozy. Meals." She shakes her head as she rises to her full height, then bends over a bit again, clutching her side with her other hand. She winces. "Especially the wine right now. Thank you for the save, Charyti. Lady Charyti? My lady." She stumbles over her words. "I'll be in your care then."

The First Stretch - Guyineber "Tea! Emperor's shins, that would have been a great idea." Guyineber tells Elias. "Everything's going quit well! Pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is Guyineber, LSP racer." Over the weeks that followed, Guyineber makes herself as comfortable as she can in her ship, small as it is. Chatting with other racers over comms, playing little games on a console her friend Ani-Quin had given her ("trust me, you'll need this"), and occasionally stepping outside the airlock to stretch her legs. She talks at length about her childhood on al-Miraiya, her love for sporting events and how little she's been to other planets. She speaks very familiarly with Lady Charyti, remembering her voice and name from the Grand Opening of the Golden Phoenix casino on Badal, and she compliments her on her singing. She occasionally jokingly berates Ani-Quin for "leaving me in the space dust", cracks wise with a Khylokian, and shares music from her home planetoid. When at one point the question of their winnings comes up, Guyineber is struck by the realization that she hadn't even considered that. What would she do with it? The First Stretch -- Ani-Quin Ani-Quin laughs loudly in response, their barely-more-than-thrusters ship speeding along quickly. "And here I thought you would be too busy getting your ass kissed at some palace! Better keep up, princess, or else you will miss the show I'm putting on!" The Pickup Guyineber makes her way down to the planet carefully, calling ahead to Soom-Clan air traffic monitors to announce her arrival and purpose. When she lands and gets out to meet with her local team, one enterprising local pipes up and asks "want to buy some HUDs before you go? Implantation as a free bonus, just today!" "Ah, uh, thank you? But no thank you." Guyineber waves them off awkwardly. She grabs hold of the metal canister with dust desert sand... and finds it has been cracked open. She stares at the merchants. "Sorry," the merchants say, "we don't know what happened. You'll be good with any canister right?" She curses. "No! I need one properly labeled for the Dash, otherwise they'll think I cheated!" She hops back into her spaceship, onwards to find a different spot where she can get some sand. ... Guyineber flies off and through the sandstorms raging around Veehra she tries to find another pickup point with the necessary soil samples. Her attempts to contact the WTU central base fail as the dust particles raging around her appear to block her signals. She thinks of turning around or venturing north, hoping to perhaps run into the lost expeditors from years ago. Finally, her on-board computer signals that she has found herself in Vesper, as all lights turn red and alarms go off. Engine failure. She prays to Holy Space, thankful that at least she didn't get a thaumonuclear engine installed just before the race. She loses altitude at a rapid pace as the Crepuscular Cliffside all but nosedives towards the ground. Guyineber takes a deep breath and wills her magic out, causing her glow to increase and the green light to wrap itself around her in a blazing verdant aura. From a distance, the ship is seen barely through the haze of dust as it crashes and burrows into the ground. When the storm passes--however briefly--the shining mirrored tail end is all that can be seen sticking out of a sandy hilltop. The sunlight reflects off it, visible for miles around. Guyineber's radio goes silent.

Llort Sosai vocabulary (and direct translation to Low Imperial, where available): balayit masate (flightmaster): a llort captain, pilot, scout and priest all in one. A rank of honour. hekaton (hundred): a military unit's leader. komesi (viscount): a minor noble rank. milesi (knight): an accomplished soldier or duelist, a knight. sasa: a term of affection for a parent. senore (senior, sir): a general semi-formal form of address, akin to "sir" or "ma'am".

Guyineber watches Charyti's results with the slots. Win, lose, win... maybe that would mean that a second go at it would be more successful for her as well? She looked at the chits she had remaining. Would her mentor chide her for throwing it all away? Probably not, but she didn't want to only lose tonight. She took a deep breath. "Right. Bumps included." She put all her remaining chits into the machine. "I've got one last shot. I'm going all in! Double or Nothing!" ... "Holy space! I won! Yes! I won!" Guyineber cheered, watching the machine spit out chits and making dinging noises. Apparently it really paid off going all-in on the final possible bet.

"Ah, hello!" Guyineber responded, excited to hear Elias' voice. She realized mid-sentence that her ship didn't have an official name yet, but she didn't want to seem as inexperienced at racing as she was. She quickly thought about tall things and adjectives with the same initial letters. "This is the, uh, the Crepuscular Cliffside." Yeah, that made sense! Cliffsides were tall, just like her. She listened to the other pilot's accent and tried to decipher it. Her own Low Imperial was practiced, but since she hadn't talked regularly with people from other orbits the way most ambassadors and flightmasters were expected to she had a much stronger accent than a lot of llort that foreigners might be used to. "I hope I'm not disturbing you. I don't know what the proper ettiquette is during races, but a friend told me it's okay to have an... what is it called... social conversation? During a Mekhala Dash? My apologies, I am more used to more formal gatherings when speaking to humans." She didn't mention that her mentor consistently reminded her of the fact that she also was terrible at ettiquette at formal gatherings half the time. OOC notes For ease of reading, I don't write an accent into my characters, but Guyineber's speech sounds more like it's missing some consonants and vowels. Like she'd be more like "Ah, elo! Tis is de Kerebooskoolar Kilibsayid. Ayi ope ayim not distoorbin yoo. Ayi dont no baht de borober etiket is doorin reses, boot eh boorenid tolod meh is okey toh ab an... baht is it kalad... sosiyal konbersasiyon? Doorin a Me[pleghm]ala Des? Mayi abologis, ayim mor yoosoot too mor boromal gaderinis ben soopikin to yoomanas." The VIP Dome - the E.A.T. Meeting Room Hekaton Karcheras Katos responded with a grin of satisfaction. The moonshine burnt pleasantly down his throat and the dwarven chief executive taking well to it pleased him. "Naturally, Chief Executive. It is my mission to lay bare the secrets of Holy Space and prepare the way for the people and establish early outposts. On behalf of the Protectorate, I will gladly share our information with you and the others in the E.A.T." The VIP Dome Ambassador Yessikruz Donce shook herself out of staring after Lady Charyti d'Partout as she left. "My. Queen Chalise, you've certainly come with a spirited racer. That counts for a lot in the Dash. If not in becoming Champion, it certainly matters for the love of the audience."

The Starting Line Guyineber looks to her left at Ani-Quin's ship. They exchange thumbs-ups. She looks to her right at Elias' ship. The Eclipsing Eagle is a great sight in her opinion. She hopes it and all the other ships can give her a great challenge... but still that she will beat some of them. As soon as the lights turn green, she rams her foot down on the pedals and her ship shoots forward so fast and noisily that she doesn't hear the straining of the pedals under the strength of her feet. The ship glitters in the light of Ophon's sunrise as she veers towards a rock formation that resembles a ramp, races across it and gets launched into the sky... into holy space. The First Stretch (to Veehra) Guyineber did not go very fast compared to many of the other racers. She was still getting used to a lot of controls of the ship. If only they'd had ships that she could just send her own personal magic through to control it the way she could control her body and flight path. That would have been so much easier. She pressed a button and accidentally turned the radio on. "Is that... music? No. Voices? Anyone there?"

The Deepest Darkest Secrets (entry costs 5 Treasure) Trust Me Needed a place to store this information. :3c

The Casino floor "Right! I see." Guyineber responded, thinking through the rules of the games she had seen so far and watching the slot machine spin. "I personally prefer making my own luck. It tends to be a lot easier, because I know what I'm doing and I have control over the outcome. In here... well, I guess it is as you say. Luck is only what you put into it. And I want to get lucky!" She steps to another nearby slots machine and puts chits into it, then pulls the lever. ... The clatter of half her bet being returned and the sight of that big red "1" in the center of the machine had Guyineber groan. "Ah, fuck."

The VIP Lounge Pako nods back in understanding. "Patience is a virtue, some say. Many seem to think that the old are more appreciative of it." He chuckles. "When it comes to tea, I find myself capable of it. Were this anything else, I might find myself with haste to still get the things done that I wish to get done while I still have years of life left." His hands close around the hot cup. He waits patiently for the flavor to strengthen. "Even if you have not the time or attention to give me for a game of Lotus yourself, I want to thank you for what attention you've been able to give this old man, senore Ben Ying. Such personal attention is commendable. I hope I am not keeping you from more worthwhile or needy guests." He rumbled a bit, swished the cup gently around, took a sniff of it and then a sip. Hot. Strong. Good. Pako nodded in approval. "Say, I heard that some high-standing members of the Biarbu Society are present today. I don't suppose there's any you could introduce me to? Perhaps not for a game of Lotus, although it is a game of faith and growth. Or at least, I like to think so. I am, let's say, fascinated by all I've seen of your Society so far." Black Bird, Table 1a Guyineber sucks in a breath through her teeth. With the House busting she at least didn't lose too much this time. If she hadn't called a hit on that last card though... "Well, it looks like if my luck stays this way then I will have to leave y'all's pleasurable company all the sooner." She says, then looks at the stacks of chits in front of Charyti next to her. "Oh! Congratulations on your winnings, Charyti! Looks like I could stand to learn from you." Guyineber counted out her chits. "Hmmm... maybe I should try the Fortune Favors tables or the slot machines before I run out of these..." She mumbled to herself. She certainly planned to play until the end. To her, there was no sense going back to her room until she'd either had one win or lost it all.

Black Bird, Table 1a "Kagermor... Cagairmòr..." Guyineber slowly pronounced the name, first with Sosai syllables, then attempting a closer approximation of the proper name. "Tariti... Charyti..." She says, turning over another in her mouth and trying to get the movements just right. She nods and smiles at them, pleased with the company and what little success she made in pronouncing their names as correctly as she could, while evidently struggling initially. It wasn't easy sometimes for someone whose native language had only ten consonants. She still pronounced her teacher's name as "Bako" half the time. Guyineber swayed in her seat, as if she was repressing the urge to dance to a tune in her own head, possibly a tune celebrating that minor victory. She taps the table to signal the dealer. At the reveal of more cards, she mumbles, a little frustrated. "That's too bad. One over, it looks like? 22 is over, right? I overshot it. So close..." The VIP Lounge Pako nods as he listens to the hotel owner's explanation. That all made sense, although he questioned if he himself was really all that interesting. The old llort didn't think to bring up that matter. The note of "local aid" flew by and only after a moment did the flightmaster think that there was more to it than met the ear. Was there some subtle implication of the hotel owner's sources there? Pako wondered. Badal and Mekhala being so far apart likely didn't help much in any regard. That seemed more of a concern for the Consul, if anything. A note to file away for later. He nodded at the explanation of the buttons and booth functionality. "This all seems very user-friendly. Thank you." At the hotel owner's suggestive notions regarding the possible nature of company, Pako's light fluctuated. "Intimate? Oh. Oh no, not at all! Do not misunderstand this old cleric, senore Ben Ying, I appreciate your candor and assurances, but I have no need beyond the sort of polite discussion. Perhaps a private, non-Casino game of Lotus, if any are willing and able? Otherwise I am much content with someone with an interesting life story or ambitious goals, and a cup of your hottest and strongest and most flavourful tea."

The Starting Line... Starting! One of the announcers took position in the platform of their lightning dome. Their sunglasses gleamed in the light of the first rays of Ophon rising over the horizon of Al-Miraiya. Their voice came through to the audience loudly and more softly to any racers who decided to set their channels to receive it. "It is that time again, lords, ladies and gentlethem! People across the spectrum and from every gene pool and arcane persuasion! It is here! It is now! It is the MEKHALA-VEEHRA DASH 2050!" A horn blared. The lights went on. "On your marks!" Red One "Ready?" Red Two "Get set!" Red THREE "GO!" GREEN! OOC Until and including on Friday next week you're free to make your rolls for the race and decide what bits of the race you want to describe! There's the kickoff on al-Miraiya, the trip to Veehra, the pickup of sand in one of the dust desert regions on Veehra, the checkpoint in Veehra's orbit, the trip back to Mekhala, and finishing on al-Miraiya again. Since it is an endurance race, stopping is possible and coasting mid-flight is possible, so remember your racer doesn't have to be in their seat and actively steering the entire time. They can open communications to other racers, they can make a pit stop in other regions, they can eat, drink and be merry. Prooobably don't want to sleep though, despite it being a long race. Oh and please put all your rolls in a single post in this thread. + anyone else who still wants to join in... you can do so until Friday!

Black Bird Table 1a Guyineber clasps one hand over the other and makes something of a small bow in Charyti's direction. "Agreed! I like that spirit." At the extended hand, she reaches out as well across the table with her long arms. The gesture is somewhat awkward, with Guyineber's movements mimicking Charyti's, clearly still unused to regular interaction with people from other orbits and their cultures. "My name is Guyineber. I would be happy to hear you refer to me by name as well." The llort woman picks up a handfull of chits, counts them out, considers it for a moment, and then taps the table for the dealer.