Round 2 - Festival of Ability!

[SerakHawk]

Festival of Ability

Grand Hall of the Tiotanic Aeroship

Early morning on the day of the festival had many of the attendees and showcases setting up through the grand hall. Small walkways criss-cross between beams in the space and along walls up high in the room with more strategically placed walkways at roughly average shoulder height of the majority of species. Jy’mar scurried along the walkways and between the showcase areas ensuring all the guest displays had everything they needed for the dignitaries to observe and experience the cultural displays from across the system. A Banquet table was being prepared with breakfast food recipes from various nations across the system being prepared and displayed, with menus highlighting the intended rotation of food throughout the day. Utopian staff on hand throughout the banquet area to obtain special and specific dietary needs as required. Console Prisca was pacing near the main dias where festival events would be announced waiting for the hour to tick-over to the official start of the festival.

Various rooms and display areas ringed the perimeter of the Grand Hall for people to congregate or to set-up their designated showcase. The Illumined Utopian had a few rooms set aside as well as areas in the Grand Hall to display their own people’s expressions of their souls and showcases of ability. 

 

Showcases of Artwork

Various tables and displays of original Jy’mar artwork and sculptures fill the few tables set aside for the artwork sections of the Utopian showcases. While the majority of the pieces are sized for Jy’mar enjoyment, the display areas have magnifying glasses available to all guests to use to appreciate the pieces. A few central pieces are ‘full-sized’ reproductions specifically made for the guests to appreciate at scale. A general theme of realistic portraits of landscapes of Badal storms are interspersed with sunsets and the star-scape of Badal in various seasons. A life size sculpture of Queen Constance Comment fully painted and set in a regal pose is predominantly set in the middle of the artwork display.

 

Showcases of Agility

In one of the side rooms athletic Jy’mar show their astounding feats of physical prowess. Protectorate soldiers spar within a plexi-glass enclosure a dozen feet across, various soldiers queue up to fight each other - bounding from edge to edge of the enclosure sparing and leaping between the walls before clashing in the middle with swords, fists and shields. Another similar enclosure has one way glass for the observers to watch tactical teams of Jy’mar breach and clear hostage and bomb situations - giving all the ability to see the superb teamwork and speed of the elite teams. Jy’mar gymnasts on another table tumble and spin - showing off the feats impossible by most who are more impacted by the effects of gravity - daring twists and twirls with ropes, ribbons and even some dancing with sticks of fire bend and dance around the field.

 

Showcases of Ingenuity

Another of the side rooms is set aside for the scientists and engineers, tables and displays of deconstructed machinery and diagrams showcasing studies on various conditions, vehicles and equipment. The Center of the room is reserved for a Live-Projection of the Khylokian Fusion Device as Jy’mar technicians currently dissemble parts of it highlighting the modifications they have made to the device for stability and for better control. In the corner of the room large couches curtained off from the rest of the area house several high-end psychologists ready to discuss issues with any attendings and perform services to those who wish to talk.

 

Opening Ceremonies

In the Grand Hall as the assembled digitaries gather for the opening remarks several projectors send the image of Console Prisca across the room so all the assembled can observe her as she opens the stage.

 

”Greetings fellow Badalians, Representatives of the Imperial Court, Dignitaries from Sansar, Veehra and Mekhala. I greet you all and thank you for attending this festival of ability. I congratulate all of you who have set-up your own showcases and look forward to seeing each one in person! This is a great moment for all people of Tekhum to be able to share cultural differences and benefits after such a long time of isolation, by the Emperor’s providence we from all orbits may gather together and showcase the calling of our souls. The Illumined Utopian is focused on improving everything we are involved with while expressing the true calling of our souls. I will not spend long talking about our beliefs beyond our desire for the betterment and improvement of one’s self. Today is a celebration! The Celebration of the pinnacle of self expression! Showcases of nations and people’s best, the brightest of minds, the expression of culture and soul. May your souls burn bright this day! Let the Festival Begin!”

 

A chorus of claps and shouting from the Jy’mar crowd on the catwalks and walkways erupts as Prisca walks off the stage, waving to her people and the dignitaries from across Tekhum. In the gap a crew of Jy’mar musicians take to the dial stage and start playing music to set the stage of the festival. Utopian guides stand ready to help anyone to give a ‘guided’ tour of the Tiotanic if they need a break from the Grand Hall and the crowds.

 

Showcase Contest Details!

The In-Character Judges are Console Prisca, Karim-12 of the Imperial Court, the Blogger Queen Glim’Bosk of the Glix, and Queen Constance of Comment of the Arkhive. They will be roaming together or alone through the various showcases (at their own discretion).

• The showcase write-ups are pieces of fluff / information on how your people wish to express or show-off on their abilities, cultural differences, artwork or other expressions. You may update and adjust these write-ups until the ‘deadline’ below - please make the location of these obvious in the event thread.
• The contest deadline will be on the friday before the round closes, exactly 48 hours before round close
• Silent, Feather, and Lum will pick their top three each (ranked) and I will abide by their votes unless there is no clear leader. 
• First place gets an Embassy and Treasure from me!
• Second place gets a Treasure!
• It is required that if you are in a winning position you mechanically attend the event so that I can provide the treasure, if you do not wish to attend you will forfeit the treasure prize position and it will be assigned to the next in line.

[Featherscale]

An invitation was sent to Snimt'Glek, Prime Minister of the Glix Combined Commonwealth.

A written invitation.

The increasingly embattled Prime Minister would not admit to knowing what it said, nor its fundamentally positive and innocent nature.

Indeed, a better politician would have simply erased it and paid it no mind.  Perhaps, in a society of Telepaths and Empaths, that might have sufficed. There were laws and strictures and traditions protecting the minds of Workers from spying. 

But those laws were meant to protect the trade secrets of Teivosks, not affairs of state.   The daily thoughts and doings of the Brothers of the Outer Duma were fair perusal to the Queens of the Inner Duma.

Even then, it might have stopped.  The Inner Duma was composed of Freeholding Queens, generally traditionalist.  They were, as a body, likely to interpret the invitation as an insult and disregard it after a moment's consideration.  For, though stodgy and illiterate, the Inner Duma was composed of educated and smart beings, ones unlikely to make react rashly.

It just so happened, one of them had a sister.  Not in the trivial sense that "all Queens are sisters."  That was true enough.  Rivalry between "Hives" was the stuff of folk tales of a past most believed never really happened.  Queens disagreed, but they were, all of them, united against non-Glix and the harshness of an indifferent cosmos.  Rather, it so happened, as did, about once a Jubilee, two Queens hatched from the same clutch of eggs.

They were very different. One grew up in strictly conventional ways.  She viewed her name as a childish thing.  Insisted on being addressed as "The Nymph" until she was old enough to fuse with Drones, at which point, every Worker knew her as "The Queen," and her fellow Queens communed with her telepathically, without need for labels.  She lived in a Basilica all her own.  Once every eight Sansar months, she gave three of her eggs to a Teivosk in exchange for material support and political capital, and kept any remainder to service her.  There was a slight migration of in-kept Brothers joining Teivosks and Teivosk Brothers leaving for Service, but that was a right granted them by The Great Charter, and The Queens did not greatly mind.  Brothers who left were either embarrassments or unhappy, and keeping them against their will was as stupid as it was cruel.

Such had Glix lived since coming to Mekhala, and it echoed patterns dating back to the captivity, and echoed in turn in The Sagas.

Then there was Glim.  It was a name given to a famous Bard in The Sagas, and given as a afterthought to an unexpected second Sister born to one Mother.  It was never expected she would keep it.  She grew fast, and smart.  But her psi talents were weak, and she didn't like them.  She often pined for having hands to make things.  It was when she, after moping, was granted a reverse-theramin, a tool designed for direct manipulation of dangerous or otherwise impractical materials by the mind, that it was discovered her gift.

She, a Queen, was hatched one of the greatest Lepkashramov sculptors of all time.

Had a Worker this talent, he could name his price to any Teivosk, and be a confidant of the Elder Brother and the Duma Representative inside a decade.  A Queen willing to formally join a Teivosk and forgo her independence and seat in the Inner Duma already could do that,  if they were willing to spend 8 hour shifts 24 nights a month trancing the Teivosk into greater productivity.   But Glim's mind was her own, and her talent was non-transferable.  The Elder Brothers she spoke with were unclear what to make of her.


It was Bosk Teivosk who took a chance with her.  And it was they who taught her to read.   She renounced Slingid immediately.  He was a fake, a fable, and any moral good he represents paled to the massive crime of his myopic views on literacy. So Glim said.  Out loud.

With her actual voice.

For Glim was so bashful about the minds of others, she talked vocally, like a Worker. 

From there, her skill with Ikons and her Iconoclasm both grew.  Until, among the underground of Glic Literati, she was a legend. Glim'Bosk, Glim reborn as a Queen.  And then, her sphere grew, until she was mildly famous even to aliens as an educational Blogger specializing in the Geomantic Sciences.

And she had a sister, who knew about the invitation and, from skimming Snimt'Glek's mind, understood enough details that she intuited it might interest Glim.

And so, shortly after a speech decrying the insensitive cultural attack represented by the invitation, Bosk Teivosk put out a Press Release that they would accept it, and send "Their Sister" Glim'Bosk as a representative. 

The first vote of no confidence was held within the day.  But that's a story for another time.

Glim's Basilica was outfitted with Imperial Engines to her specifications. The entire habitat would be under gravity for the whole trip. Without lungs to smother or bones to snap, Glix did better than most with indefinite freefall, but the physiological toll was still massive, and the Basillica relied primarily on mechanical and telekinetic aides for the first week of the trip.

By which time, new wrinkles had evolved.  The Jy'Mar were even more devoted to being "proper hosts" than the Glix were to being "ruggedly independent."  When it was explained that Glim had hired a Herald, a very good one, used to dealing with Nymphs and the mentally unwell, as parapsychologists considered Glim for her bashful reserve and apparent lack of talent in Psi, to help her deal with the tiny spaces of beings two orders of magnitude smaller than herself, the Jy'mar reacted poorly.  Surely they could take her anywhere worth seeing!  Surely, if a mental vessel was needed, they could volunteer!

Glum nearly turned around then. 


Before realizing their mistake.   Only a medium could be possessed by any but the most powerful Queens.  But such a thing was the stuff of folklore.  No Queen would ever directly, fully enter the mind of anyone but a Herald who had given full recorded consent and was calmly emoting.  It just wasn't done.  And Glim barely even gestalted with the minds of anyone but her sister and a few Brothers in her workshop.  That she would ride the mind of a stranger, especially an alien, was such an audacious comment it could be ignored as meaningless.

As for the idea she would provided a rickshaw, when she had a perfectly good golem-palanquin.... that was silly, but not a request worth fighting.


All of which is to say, the "Blogger Queen" Glim'Bosk is among the judges on a cart pushed by a score of Jy'mar and flanked by two Glix Workers in finery and with bipedal prostheses.

Edited February 12 by Featherscale (see edit history)

[Lumaeus]

According to all known laws of spaceflight, there is no way an Arkhive ship should be able to fly. Its wings depend too much on flapping to maneuver its fat little body through space. The ship, of course, flies anyway, because bees don't care what humans think is impossible.

The transport that her Arkhival Majesty, Queen Constance of Comment, arrives on resembles nothing so much as a great bee. Deliberately done up in the yellow-black-yellow of the insect, the somewhat cramped transport comes to rest on six hydraulic legs, which lower it safely to the ground. Despite no sign of thrusters, despite the fact that the only visible propulsion source are flapping gossamer-synthetic, this thing somehow flew here from Sansar. The only mechanical peculiarity, to a curious observer, would be the fact that the ship doesn't seem to turn off on arrival, a low hum unceasing. Yet closer investigation, either through Arkhival documentation or by sneaking aboard, could reveal that the buzzing is no engine, but a laticework of honeycombing hive all throughout the walls of the ship. Beyond that, the interior is almost unusably stuffed with plant life, carts of books, pamphlets on various library programs like 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten and posters for various holidays like Don't Teach A Glix To Read Day!

In the hold, there is another thing. It is an object of terror.

But that's a surprise tool that will help us later!

---

The Queen herself is dressed to acknowledge her station without drawing undue attention to it. Her dress is a shining mass of golden hexagons, layered on top of each other like a dragon's hoard of gold coins. Its skirt is sheathed within a series of hoops, connected by vertical supports in an unmistakable allusion to a classical hive structure. Her crown of living bees buzzes softly as slowly shift in a constant flow, never losing but always permutating the shape of this mark of office.

Constance is here to work as a judge, but she is here as well in both official diplomatic and in personal capacity. And so, once the chance arrives, her first order of business is in fact to personally meet and thank the good Console for her generous hosting of this event and her people's dedication to the work of the Arkhive. And also no one has posted their submissions yet, which makes sense, so this is a good chance to get this out of the way.

"Console Calpurnius," she begins with a bow just low enough to be generous without inviting indignity on either party, "I am delighted after all these years to finally make your personal acquaintance. That our people have only for three years been in close contact, and that our bond has been forged so quickly and powerfully is a testament to the very virtues of character which saw your people elevated to the Elect. I have here a gift for you from the Arkhive, and I sincerely hope we can continue to discuss how we can continue to work with one another."

A Hinged Box of Wax (with hexagonal decoration)

Inside sits the personal library card for the Console, resting on a number of closed honeycomb cells, each about an ounce in capacity. Inside each are Honeyed Words, and in one a quarter of the size of the others, bounded by thick walls directly in the center of the box, a tiny globule of Royal Jelly.

 

[Silent_Interim]

High Lord Karim-12 prowls the hallways and display rooms of the Festival with a permanent self-satisfied grin and the coiled energy of a great cat ready to pounce. Ze pop up seemingly at random to pass judgment on displays, often seeming to come out of nowhere- an impressive feat, given zir attire. Ze wear a garish suit in neon purple on the left sharply giving way to a sickly-sweet yellow across from it, with zir hair short and spiky with the same colours on opposite sides.

 

It seems ze have taken to their role in the festivities with alarming enthusiasm.

[SerakHawk]

On 2/12/2024 at 1:53 PM, Lumaeus said:

The Queen herself is dressed to acknowledge her station without drawing undue attention to it. Her dress is a shining mass of golden hexagons, layered on top of each other like a dragon's hoard of gold coins. Its skirt is sheathed within a series of hoops, connected by vertical supports in an unmistakable allusion to a classical hive structure. Her crown of living bees buzzes softly as slowly shift in a constant flow, never losing but always permutating the shape of this mark of office.

Constance is here to work as a judge, but she is here as well in both official diplomatic and in personal capacity. And so, once the chance arrives, her first order of business is in fact to personally meet and thank the good Console for her generous hosting of this event and her people's dedication to the work of the Arkhive. And also no one has posted their submissions yet, which makes sense, so this is a good chance to get this out of the way.

"Console Calpurnius," she begins with a bow just low enough to be generous without inviting indignity on either party, "I am delighted after all these years to finally make your personal acquaintance. That our people have only for three years been in close contact, and that our bond has been forged so quickly and powerfully is a testament to the very virtues of character which saw your people elevated to the Elect. I have here a gift for you from the Arkhive, and I sincerely hope we can continue to discuss how we can continue to work with one another."

A Hinged Box of Wax (with hexagonal decoration)

Inside sits the personal library card for the Console, resting on a number of closed honeycomb cells, each about an ounce in capacity. Inside each are Honeyed Words, and in one a quarter of the size of the others, bounded by thick walls directly in the center of the box, a tiny globule of Royal Jelly.

 

Console Prisca stepping down from the dais and mingling with Jy'mar on her own dedicated hovering platform. A white and purple stola adorned her frame with slits rotating around her body accentuating the whirls and patterns of her orange-brown fur. A golden laurel wreath rested between her ears, contrasting the black whirl of fur symmetrically flowing from her nose to her back.

On Constance's approach and bow Prisca returns the gesture gracefully and her small stature does nothing to diminish the volume of her reply.

"Illustrated Prime Marcus gave his glowing report of the Arkhive and you personally as well. It is an absolute pleasure to meet with you in person. What is this?"

A few attendants rush out to take the corners of the offered box and place it on the platform, cracking the lid so that Prisca can peer inside.

"Oooo this is fantastic! What a wonderful gift, thank you very much for the library card - this is so nice. Honeyed Words? And this? Is this the fabled Royal Jelly! What a treat, I knew I should have prepared something for you - what a poor host I am. Do you wish to walk the floor and talk about our partnership or would you rather have the conversation in a less.. public setting. Actually I did have something I wished to discuss with you about your Charter, in the last few years I studied the copy Marcus brought back."

[EmBark]

Before the Showcase of Agility

Epeka Sunderlanad was nervous. She had spent a long time training just for the Festival of Ability, an event that most of her peers back on Mekhala would look at her in confusion about. "What is that?" said the many unfamiliar with it. "On distant Badal?" said the rare few familiar with it. "Are you even good enough for such a thing?" said her mother.

As a llort, she was relatively short, just under six imperial feet. Her black horns were short and curved and her skin was pink, fading to a deeper rose colour at the tip of her spade tail. She wore a uniform befitting a gymnast, with no sleeves, shorts down to her knees, and the letters "LSP" on the chest and "EPEKA" on the back above a number.

Now she had come as part of a small delegation from the Llort Society. They'd had a small departing ceremony in the Mouth of the Emperor canyon on Al-Miraiya, whereafter she'd sworn she might just have died then and there for the eyes and expectations placed upon her. She had to quietly admit though... most of those expectations placed upon her came from herself. High expectations. High stress. High expectations... to fail. It didn't help that a Mekhala celebrity, the Blogger Queen Glim’Bosk of the Glix, was one of the judges! That meant her results would definitely be known to her peers back on Mekhala.

Before going in, she stood in a side hallway and smacked her cheeks with both hands.

"No!" she whisper-shouted to herself. "I will go out there and I will do great!" She took deep breaths.

During the Showcase of Agility

Entry

Epeka Sunderlanad stood on a platform. She took a deep breath and leapt at a bar, swinging around it once, twice, three times... and letting go! She grabbed a pole in mid-air and swung around it, grabbed it with her other hand and descended as she swung round and round, moving her legs around it. Music began to play with soft strings. She spun slower as she got mere inches off the ground, the tip of her nose almost brushing against it. She slowed down so much, she stopped.

Silence.

"This floor... is very clean," she said.

Then she started glowing softly, a rose hue emitting from the crevices of her horns and surrounding her skin. She let go of the pole and floated in place. Arms and legs spread, she slowly rose, then turned to float vertically, feet off the ground. She took a breath. She took a bow. Then the music picked up and drums and wind instruments joined in. On cue, she moved like she leapt and curved around the pole, then a different one, then a third and fourth and then diving into an entire obstacle course of tight curves and impossible bends. Her body bent to form shapes like letters, shapes like animals, just to fit through some holes in the course set up for her. The flight of a llort who had perfected one magical ability in its physical form.

At the end of the obstacle course she did it in reverse, and then top-down through a different part of it. She came out of a hole in the front and soared over the audience, then back for a final few twists and turns, before bursting out again and grabbing the pole that had been there at the start. Round and round and round and descending, slowing down, the music slowing down, until finally hanging in place again, setting out one foot and stepping away.

She bowed and did not rise until she heard a response.

She couldn't look anyone in the face. She told herself she'd done well, but in the quiet fractions of seconds the voices still told her no.

 

Edited February 14 by EmBark (see edit history)

[Lumaeus]

On 2/13/2024 at 9:47 PM, SerakHawk said:

"Do you wish to walk the floor and talk about our partnership or would you rather have the conversation in a less.. public setting. Actually I did have something I wished to discuss with you about your Charter, in the last few years I studied the copy Marcus brought back."

Queen Constance of Comment is a genuinely enthusiastic individual who enjoys meeting and building relationships with like-minded leaders. She doesn't lean on insincerity or deception to get what she wants. But honest passion still works in service of her greater aims, and those are securing a place for the Arkhive among the Elect. The Console is officially her closest ally, and the Queen's entire being focuses in on making sure that bond remains.

"While I can hardly restrain my enthusiasm for the gathered wonders of Tekhum, I will gladly defer to you if you think the content of our discussion should be removed from such a distracted setting. Please, my duty is to you my host, and since my duty as a judge is also to you, it is a subordinate one. Let us discuss, wherever you feel most comfortable."

On 2/14/2024 at 6:50 AM, EmBark said:

During the Showcase of Agility

Entry

Epeka Sunderlanad stood on a platform. She took a deep breath and leapt at a bar, swinging around it once, twice, three times... and letting go! She grabbed a pole in mid-air and swung around it, grabbed it with her other hand and descended as she swung round and round, moving her legs around it. Music began to play with soft strings. She spun slower as she got mere inches off the ground, the tip of her nose almost brushing against it. She slowed down so much, she stopped.

Silence.

"This floor... is very clean," she said.

Then she started glowing softly, a rose hue emitting from the crevices of her horns and surrounding her skin. She let go of the pole and floated in place. Arms and legs spread, she slowly rose, then turned to float vertically, feet off the ground. She took a breath. She took a bow. Then the music picked up and drums and wind instruments joined in. On cue, she moved like she leapt and curved around the pole, then a different one, then a third and fourth and then diving into an entire obstacle course of tight curves and impossible bends. Her body bent to form shapes like letters, shapes like animals, just to fit through some holes in the course set up for her. The flight of a llort who had perfected one magical ability in its physical form.

At the end of the obstacle course she did it in reverse, and then top-down through a different part of it. She came out of a hole in the front and soared over the audience, then back for a final few twists and turns, before bursting out again and grabbing the pole that had been there at the start. Round and round and round and descending, slowing down, the music slowing down, until finally hanging in place again, setting out one foot and stepping away.

She bowed and did not rise until she heard a response.

She couldn't look anyone in the face. She told herself she'd done well, but in the quiet fractions of seconds the voices still told her no.

The Queen has never seen anything like this, not in person. This is not a grace that would be possible on Sansar, not in the same ways, and the elegant athleticism strikes her at once as brutal and delicate. The sheer stunned pauseI hope you don't mind alternate interpretation of the elements you included. You're welcome to be right about the meaning of it, but unless it chafes, Constance reads everything with a much more positive bent in the audience at the conclusion tells her that the assembled feel the same way. If she weren't a Queen, she would cheer, but in respect to her station, she restrains herself to a warm smile and just-too-enthusiastic clapping.

 

[volthawk]

While there was no official delegation from Eilif Dhaoine slated to appear at the festival, that didn't mean nobody from the Reserve had arrived. Besides the usual scattered sealga bands that were slowly and unfortunately becoming increasingly common across Tekhum, there was one group from the Reserve that had made the proper arrangements to put forward an entry into consideration. Set up in the room used for the Showcase of Ingenuity is a team led by Raoic Tàirn, a...well, he politefully refuses the term "artisan" be applied to him (despite that being the norm for craftsmen in Eilif Dhaoine as far as anyone outside of the Reserve could see), instead asking to be called an engineer or technician or similar. The reason for the distinction isn't particularly clear at first glance, and the main guess that takes root in the crowd watching them set up is that "art" appears to not at all be within the man's plans - the device they unpack and assemble is definitely not one built for appearance's sake, unlike the way that suits of chitincraft armour worn by the lannan also serve as an elaborate uniform or how sealga equipment often also serves as trophies showcasing notable kills and feats. Some bàscail chitin is definitely used in its construction, that much is clear, and while the mixture of the inhuman chitin and human machinery may have some appeal there's the lack of the usual...intent shown in chitincraft equipment to showcase that dichotomy. Instead, this weapon - and it is becoming increasingly clear that the piece being worked on is a weapon - simply uses it where it is needed* to make the whole more effective.

Once he's done with overseeing the bulk of the construction, Raoic steps forward towards anyone watching and clears his throat before speaking in Low Imperial - something that had been becoming increasingly popular among the Dhaoine who were interested in the wider world. "Ahem. Those of you who were present at the Arkhive's banquet some years back, or have had further dealings with the various groups of artisans selling their gear on the open market, will be quite familiar with the chitincraft armour and weapons that have helped bring Eilif Dhaoine a fair amount of fame in recent years. This, what I have here, is not that. It isn't the work of the artisans, those who outfit the lannan or give the sealga their little ego-boosters, but the work of us, the engineers and crawler technicians that spearhead the design of armoured vehicles. It is the continuation of centuries of research and development that have recently seen new heights in the construction of the glungagan ships. This is work that has primarily answered a very simple question in increasingly simple ways - when you have an array of light vehicles that need to work around rough terrain while also needing to take on any one of a wide variety of monsters and leviathans, how do you take the biggest gun possible and fit in on the lightest vehicle possible in a way that allows both halves to work at full effectiveness and in harmony, rather than building something that tears itself apart after a few shots or which sacrifices too much mobility and gets torn apart by the bàscail? This here, my entry to your competition, is my current best answer - the dealan-sleagh, which I'm told translates to something along the lines of "lightning spear" in Low Imperial - I'm sure your translators will all verify that. Simply put, it is an exercise in using mass driver technology to fire armour-penetrating rounds at the highest rate of fire possible while still being practical to use in a light vehicle - we typically use it on light crawlers, while the main crawler tanks tend to use something a little different which I don't have to hand right now. This thing can tear through most bàscail one might encounter out on the Reserve, and in our recent campaign in the mainland it served to great effect against enemy infantry and light to medium armour, including vehicles significantly larger than ones we mount this weapon on." He pauses, a little unsure where to continue. "So...any questions? Is that what we're supposed to do at this point?"

*It is noted in the literature related to the topic that have been slowly produced by Dhaoine cities for wider consumption that the chitin gathered from certain varieties of bàscail has a number of properties that regular insect chitin does not, and chitincraft started out as simply taking advantage of those properties, and the artistic aspect and the connotations around the struggle between Dhaoine and bàscail came later.

Edited February 15 by volthawk
Missed a question mark at the end, whoops (see edit history)

[Lumaeus]

6 hours ago, volthawk said:

"So...any questions? Is that what we're supposed to do at this point?"

After some initial questioning, Queen Constance raises a hand with light dignity, neither stretching to be seen nor exercising her station to push ahead, though if acknowledged she speaks regardless of whether a line was cut.

"You say that this weapon can 'tear through most bàscail,' not all. What would you cite as the primary reason for lesser returns against the remaining few? And, if I may append a followup, do you intend to improve this technology to make up that gap, or do you feel this is the highest potential of this line of technology, and further research would be better spent in adjacent designs and weapons?"

A beat.

"And are these designs proprietary or are schematics available for interested scholars?"

[Featherscale]

11 hours ago, volthawk said:

While there was no official delegation from Eilif Dhaoine slated to appear at the festival, that didn't mean nobody from the Reserve had arrived. Besides the usual scattered sealga bands that were slowly and unfortunately becoming increasingly common across Tekhum, there was one group from the Reserve that had made the proper arrangements to put forward an entry into consideration. Set up in the room used for the Showcase of Ingenuity is a team led by Raoic Tàirn, a...well, he politefully refuses the term "artisan" be applied to him (despite that being the norm for craftsmen in Eilif Dhaoine as far as anyone outside of the Reserve could see), instead asking to be called an engineer or technician or similar. The reason for the distinction isn't particularly clear at first glance, and the main guess that takes root in the crowd watching them set up is that "art" appears to not at all be within the man's plans - the device they unpack and assemble is definitely not one built for appearance's sake, unlike the way that suits of chitincraft armour worn by the lannan also serve as an elaborate uniform or how sealga equipment often also serves as trophies showcasing notable kills and feats. Some bàscail chitin is definitely used in its construction, that much is clear, and while the mixture of the inhuman chitin and human machinery may have some appeal there's the lack of the usual...intent shown in chitincraft equipment to showcase that dichotomy. Instead, this weapon - and it is becoming increasingly clear that the piece being worked on is a weapon - simply uses it where it is needed* to make the whole more effective.

Once he's done with overseeing the bulk of the construction, Raoic steps forward towards anyone watching and clears his throat before speaking in Low Imperial - something that had been becoming increasingly popular among the Dhaoine who were interested in the wider world. "Ahem. Those of you who were present at the Arkhive's banquet some years back, or have had further dealings with the various groups of artisans selling their gear on the open market, will be quite familiar with the chitincraft armour and weapons that have helped bring Eilif Dhaoine a fair amount of fame in recent years. This, what I have here, is not that. It isn't the work of the artisans, those who outfit the lannan or give the sealga their little ego-boosters, but the work of us, the engineers and crawler technicians that spearhead the design of armoured vehicles. It is the continuation of centuries of research and development that have recently seen new heights in the construction of the glungagan ships. This is work that has primarily answered a very simple question in increasingly simple ways - when you have an array of light vehicles that need to work around rough terrain while also needing to take on any one of a wide variety of monsters and leviathans, how do you take the biggest gun possible and fit in on the lightest vehicle possible in a way that allows both halves to work at full effectiveness and in harmony, rather than building something that tears itself apart after a few shots or which sacrifices too much mobility and gets torn apart by the bàscail? This here, my entry to your competition, is my current best answer - the dealan-sleagh, which I'm told translates to something along the lines of "lightning spear" in Low Imperial - I'm sure your translators will all verify that. Simply put, it is an exercise in using mass driver technology to fire armour-penetrating rounds at the highest rate of fire possible while still being practical to use in a light vehicle - we typically use it on light crawlers, while the main crawler tanks tend to use something a little different which I don't have to hand right now. This thing can tear through most bàscail one might encounter out on the Reserve, and in our recent campaign in the mainland it served to great effect against enemy infantry and light to medium armour, including vehicles significantly larger than ones we mount this weapon on." He pauses, a little unsure where to continue. "So...any questions? Is that what we're supposed to do at this point?"

*It is noted in the literature related to the topic that have been slowly produced by Dhaoine cities for wider consumption that the chitin gathered from certain varieties of bàscail has a number of properties that regular insect chitin does not, and chitincraft started out as simply taking advantage of those properties, and the artistic aspect and the connotations around the struggle between Dhaoine and bàscail came later.

Glim'Bosk chuckles in glee.  It is unbecoming a Queen, but she doesn't care.  She was aware most planetary cultures placed a distinction between "practical" and "artistic" that was, itself, impractical.

Mekhala, however, if it had a unitary theme, it was lacking this line.  To the Glix, art was a science, and competent, simple elegance, a high virtue.  The Dwarven brutalism and Exile finery, were, to Glim, two sides of one disk.  CASSIOPE were constructs, pure in their trueness to their original function.  The sorcerous Khylokians were, likewise, true to their utter disdain for the material, as the psuedo-monastic Llort were true, at heart, to their religion.  Sincerity and simplicity, Slinq*qid, the one word aphorism that was almost theophoric, was the watchword of Mekhala.  Though an atheist, Glim was aware the myth that Slingid manifested on Parrot's Perch to signal His chosen people their chosen land, was less fancy than simple metaphor.

All this was to say, that she was delighted the arms merchants from The Reserve, the long-ago place of The Captivity, shared some Glic virtues.  The place was in good hands.

She considered talking, but, in keeping with the decorum of the event, nudged Rosq, one of her Worker assistants, to deliver her verdict. "She who is named Glim would have you know there was a slight misunderstanding and it will take a day for her to craft ideal targets with Lepkashramov.  In the meantime, please forward any technical information you feel like sharing and mark any you did not want her to publicize in her review piece...."

[EmBark]

Before the Showcase of Artwork

Pol Mediki stood in the hall while all the artwork was being brought in. Next to him was the art piece he was supposed to champion and sponsor, and above all, to guard with his life. A lot of money had gone into this that few artists were being given. He had convinced his parents to sponsor it, which meant that he was also charged by them to fulfill all sorts of other duties surrounding it. Now he stood here, next to the piece, which was covered by a tarp and clearly the size of a multi-person vehicle. Now that the piece had been created and it was here, it felt to him like all the artist had to do was show up.

And he still wasn't here.

Gorram it, why wasn't he here?

"Mister Mediki!" A voice called out. It belonged to a llort that came running into the hallway, his pale white tail held under one arm as to not accidentally smack multiple people in the back at every turn. He was dressed in some old-fashioned clothing, like the style of the Merely Players, another culture on Mekhala. The cloth hat with a striped feather in it really completed the look.

"I'm sorry I'm late, mister Mediki," he panted as he came to a halt. "There was one last thing I needed to get for the showcase."

"This better be good Leyonarad." Pol admonished him, crossing his arms.

"It is! Just you watch." Leyonarad pulled out a small data drive from a pocket and dove underneath the tarp.

 

During the Showcase of Artwork

The banner next to their showcase said "a marriage of the second and third dimension--of light and paint--of the visual and the physical--of dream and other dream".

Entry

The tarp removed, the artwork showed a small platform barely inches high, a large painting the size of a human doorway towards the back of it. The was a chair in the middle of the platform.

The painting seemed like an ordinary painting at first. Stylized and very colourful and very textured with paint. It showed the edges of a doorway and a landscape beyond lit up by the sun. There were mountains in the distance, a house by a creek slightly nearer, and fields of yellow grass between the house and the viewer. Some trees on the edge of the field were seen on one side, with a dark figure leaning against one, back turned towards the viewer.

After approaching at least as close to the painting as the chair and being near the painting for a few seconds, words lit up above the doorway.

"Please touch."

Touching the painting felt the texture at first, like real paint, but there was a slight ripple. Then, the figure in the painting turned, revealing it was much more than just paint within the artwork. The figure walked closer, until face to face with the viewer, just beyond the doorway, and recognizable as a youthful androgynous llort dressed in planetbound human clothing and with bare feet.

The llort extended their hand, placing it as if against a glass wall between them and the viewer.

A viewer who might return the gesture, placing their hand against the 'wall' as well.

A viewer who would find the painting pressing back against their hand, as if the llort from the painting pushed through, pushed the viewer's hand back, as the llort stepped forward and slowly materialized as a hologram created by generators within the platform and the painting's frame.

There were some basic physical responses, involving the llort from the painting reacting to the viewer, either dancing around them or even with them, touching their shoulders gently if they sat down in the seat as if trying to give a massage that a hologram did not have the physical pressure to perform, shaking hands or laughing at a joke. After at most a few minutes, the llort stepped back into the painting, letting go of the viewer, and disappearing into the forest in the painting. They would only reappear again minutes later, as long as the original viewer had left the platform in the meantime.

 

[volthawk]

Raoic chuckles a little at the Queen's question. Not that it was an unreasonable one, of course, but more out of amusement that the question had taken him by surprise - you sometimes forgot that people not in your position in life had to ask about things that were a given to you. "Put simply, ma'am? Eventually they get big enough that they start shrugging off dealan-sleagh bursts. That's when we start bringing out the bigger guns, like the ones mounted on our main crawler tanks or used on our gunboats to hunt the aquatic ones." He shrugs. "Less call for that these days, though - downside of being bigger is that you're easier to find, and when you've got big enough guns it's not too hard to make the hunter the hunted."

"As far as development goes..." He's quiet for a moment, before giving another shrug. "To be frank? It's impossible to tell at this point. It's less than a decade since we found out there were whole other planets with their own similar but different avenues of development and designs, and on top of that there are a lot of materials and processes out there that may or may not lead to the ideal weapon for the future. Add to that the way that the battles coming are quite unlike any we've seen before - even if other countries don't have the unconventional military history of the Reserve, it's still true that the scale of fighting is quite new, let along the fact that orbital support is now possible - and...well, it's like I said, it's too early to see how the wind is going to blow at the end of the day. We can probably still make what we've got more efficient though - the heavy cannon mounted on the Armothan is somewhat more advanced than what we've got here, after all, but that is something we're not exactly allowed to share as freely as this thing. So yes, we're allowed to share designs and provide more detailed commentary if you like, although you may have to find replacement materials with similar properties in the parts where we typically use bàscail chitin."

The Glix response gets an appreciative nod. "That's fine, we can wait. And as I said, this gun is commonly used enough that the Dhaoine aren't that bothered about the design getting out - it's a fantastic piece of weaponry, don't get me wrong, but it's not so outside of the curve that we've seen elsewhere that we're putting ourselves at risk by putting it out there, if you see my meaning."

[Rocket Relm]

Moonsoul Mountains Display Of History

Calling the Moonsoul Mountain display a shrine was technically accurate, but all in all it seemed ot resemble the interior of a castle and a tunnel into a mountain at the same time. Shaping the area around their hall into hallways lined with writing, ones that would speak to you as you passed, when touched would glow and impart their knowledge. Knowledge of the history of these people, the cataclysm from which history beyond was a mystery, the forging of the councils, the degree to which methods to allow their radiated bodies to produce children and grow their number were forged.

Methods which include a good portion of magic and mean that the Moonmen are infertile without explicit attempts to do so. Methods which are deliberately not elaborated on in great detail.

Through the tunnels of history branch each of the main 'families', each having their own history catalogued. Due to their genetic structure there really isn't much of a differentiation between "family" and "clan", though 'special bonding' between groups of two, or sometimes three and rarer still four, happen, and lineage is very much catalogued.

Within the center room, a wider area showcasing lots of the building structure, is the skeleton of a great beast. An oversized diorama one can walk inside and look out through the eyes of. More, one can observe the 'controls' being twisted around to make it move, for all that it is empty and more metal than ivory. Near the top is a singular spaceship, a true one, a different one manifested based on which Moonman is present at a given hour and showcasing their ability, but the relative smaller scale of such a thing compared to the greater culture emphasizes how new it is, despite the current overwhelming importance.

"Would you care for a game?"

The voice calls out from the side. A woman in deep blue cowl and hood, gloved and decorated with ordinary stones as if they were gems, with no features visible spare glowing blue eyes. She offers the chance to participate in the many games, from simple card games to those involving miniatures to those involving dice and pamphlets with pens that seem to take emotional effort to scribe with. One can sample the games, though the girl who only goes by Cascade recommends any judges or tourists with an aim to win play against each other, whatever the stakes, because to win against a native in a game they have played on first glance is a daunting task indeed.

 

Edited February 17 by Rocket Relm (see edit history)

[Featherscale]

Later

Back at her workshop, the five members of Glim's working group make up a series of hard image projectors to serve as targets for the Arms merchants.  She decided to gift them, afterwards to the Illuminated Primarch as a thanks for the invitation.

 

The Glix and the Moonsoul Mountains exhibit

The exhibit was the first test of the Jy'mar hospitality.  It wasn't done for a Queen to enter a protected space she did not own, even a Shrine.  Glim was willing to buck tradition, but, realistically, probably couldn't safely, given she was twice the size of a Moonman and required her palanquin to get around.  Well. She didn't, technically, but, even if she weren't heavily gravid with the next generation of Bosk Teivosk, walking was a bridge too far even for an iconoclast.

They had that Herald they had hired at great expense...  He took two seconds listening to the description of The Shrine and had a meltdown, not simply refusing to consent to the possession, but in a frenzied state over the offense it represents to Slingid.  

The Jy'mar found out, parenthetically, that the Glix delegation had brought the Herald, after all, and were clearly offended. Well, it was clear to the Glix Workers with their empathic senses.  Which demoralized both sides further.  The Jy'mar suggestion, repeated, to simply possess a willing Jy'mar, was not welcomed.   The hysterical Herald laughed and explained that he was a trained professional and an [untranslated presumed insult] like Glim couldn't possess even a normal Worker, let alone an alien...

At this point, Glim started glowing blue and the Herald said, in a strange voice, "A [untranslated presumed insult] am I?  I'm slightly pregnant for that, you [different presumed insult].  Let's see how you like..."

"You see my point, a real Queen would have had me doing backflips by now, but she could only get me to do funny voices, and that was with a physical manifestation."

"You're fired, maybe the Llort will give you a ride back to Mekhala," Said Glim, giving up her Psi use. 

The Herald makes a presumably rude gesture and storms off.

After this display, Rosq and Qosk, two of Glim's assistants, agree to go on the tour and let Glim do a "ride along." They explain to the Jy'mar this will allow her a unique perspective on the games section.

 

Edited February 17 by Featherscale (see edit history)

[farothel]

Earl Vikesh Bafatis was looking around. There were a lot of interesting things here. Unfortunately the Bafatis had arrived a bit later and they were still setting up their displays. As Vikesh wasn't really good with that, he had decided to have a look around, talk to people and have a look around the other exhibits.

 

OOC

the fluff pieces will come later, but for now the Earl is available for talking.