Evening at the restaurant

[Lcythas]

 

 .

 

Character Stats

No.17 AkA Vicel Luc:
Aspects: Deniable Operative, Living Weapon, [Redacted] Training, An Intrinsic Relationship with a certain Ms. Concorde.
Skills: Mecha Weaponry +4, Mecha Pilot/Stealth +3, Investigation/Athleics/Burglary +2, Resources/Contacts/Will+1,
⌬STRESS⌬
Physical Stress: OOO
Mental Stress: OOO
⌬STUNTS⌬ X3
Blade Dervish:
If you share a sector with more than one enemy, No. 17 gains a +2 to mecha weaponry attacks.
Wraith of the Battlefield:
You get a free additional invocation on successful stealth checks. 
Blitzkrieg:
Subject able to move, attack, and then abandon his current opponent to intercept another.

Mecha Stats

Lie Vante(Hassassin Series Mk II)

⌬STRESS⌬
Physical Stress: OOO
Mental Stress: OOO

⌬Systems⌬ (5 CP Worth)
Camouflage:
Able to use Stealth to hide.
Flight:
Able to fly. 
Greytalon D.I.R.K.:
Charger(+2 WV after moving)
Penetrating(Conditional Free Invoke)
Weapon Aspect: Gaebulg(Free Invoke)

Action Mechanics

Totally normal here.

No.17

 

No.17 opened his mouth, before closing it with a light snap. He frowned in thought, opening it once again before deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, ceding the point with a soft exhalation of breath and a tiny rueful smile directed at Remy. "All of the points given are perfectly true, although I think you'll agree, Ms Concorde, that in terms of unusual places to propose such affairs, that bathrooms are among the most uncommon. Although, I cannot say I've heard of this tradition of lighting candles and liberally applying rose petals. Perhaps you could enlighten me.....Sometime later, perhaps in more private settings." 

He leaned in a bit closer, studying Remy's features in silence, before lightly touching one fingertip to the tip of her nose, in a rare show of emotion. "Be that as it may, Ms. Concorde, I shall take that into advisement and yet still decide to keep my theoretical letter that I may or may not have written close to my chest for now. That does also apply to you, Ms. Amuthini. If I'm not letting Remy see it, there is certainly no chance of you glimpsing upon it." 

No.17 blinked slightly at Amuthini's comments, before simply deciding to settle in, as he glanced over towards Remy, waiting to see what she had to say. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[vicky_molokh]

Remy Concorde - Stats

Aspects: Lab-Grown Ace, "That's the World's First Clone Citizen!", Surprisingly Savvy Bookworm, Friendly Rivalry Motivates Self-Improvement.

Skills: 

+4: Mecha Piloting.
+3: Rapport, Lore.
+2: Empathy, Athletics, Shoot.
+1: Engineering, Will, Resources, Computers.

Stunts: Mecha Gunner, Advanced ACM Mastery, I've Read About That.

Pools:

Stress: Physical [ ] [ ], Mental [ ] [ ] [ ].

Consequences: [ ] [ ] [ ]

FP: 3/3.

[Background track stops.]

 

Remy Concorde

"What."

 

Remy stared at Amuthini.

 

"I'm sorry, are you saying this as a friendly prank, or do you really believe in all the stuff they show in the films? Because, well, I think I've had enough opportunities to compare, and the differences are normally negligible. They tend to be exaggerated in fiction and-or when people are trying to deliberately wear the clichés like masks in real life. But once those silly masks are off, suddenly most people are just people as far as honest interpersonal communication goes.

 

I mean, surely you can't be saying that, for example, you hitting on Huston and on Casval would be different in some sort of essential way, because of their chromosomes? Or in the two reversed hypothetical situations? Surely?"

 

Remy first leaned back in the chair, then leaned to Luc's side, still keeping her eyes on Amuthini, and trying to answer his questions, albeit clearly still distracted.

 

"I'm not a serious connoisseur of romantic matters, so my familiarity is somewhat superficial. But it seems that I picked the correct imagery, since you seem to have recognised, and I assume so would others. Also, hopefully I can assuage your concerns by disclosing that I do not share Amuthini's desire to pry into that piece of your private writings, and was merely pointing out that it is unconstructive to be ashamed of one's aptitude in such matters, as receptive audiences for such creativity do exist and are reasonably commonly-occurring."

 

Edited November 5, 2022 by vicky_molokh (see edit history)

[Lcythas]

 

 .

 

Character Stats

No.17 AkA Vicel Luc:
Aspects: Deniable Operative, Living Weapon, [Redacted] Training, An Intrinsic Relationship with a certain Ms. Concorde.
Skills: Mecha Weaponry +4, Mecha Pilot/Stealth +3, Investigation/Athleics/Burglary +2, Resources/Contacts/Will+1,
⌬STRESS⌬
Physical Stress: OOO
Mental Stress: OOO
⌬STUNTS⌬ X3
Blade Dervish:
If you share a sector with more than one enemy, No. 17 gains a +2 to mecha weaponry attacks.
Wraith of the Battlefield:
You get a free additional invocation on successful stealth checks. 
Blitzkrieg:
Subject able to move, attack, and then abandon his current opponent to intercept another.

Mecha Stats

Lie Vante(Hassassin Series Mk II)

⌬STRESS⌬
Physical Stress: OOO
Mental Stress: OOO

⌬Systems⌬ (5 CP Worth)
Camouflage:
Able to use Stealth to hide.
Flight:
Able to fly. 
Greytalon D.I.R.K.:
Charger(+2 WV after moving)
Penetrating(Conditional Free Invoke)
Weapon Aspect: Gaebulg(Free Invoke)

Action Mechanics

Totally normal here.

No.17

 

No.17 seemed to be examining Remy with an odd expression on his face, before letting out a soft breath and leaning in just enough that their shoulders touched. He seemed to be analyzing how physical contact felt with regards to this moment, before relaxing slightly. Apparently, he deemed it a pleasant enough experience. "Remy," He began, before blinking slightly in surprise at having unconsciously used her first name, before continuing after a moment's thought to recollect himself. 

"I am of the opinion that I do not believe that she quite meant what you may be indicating. Rather, it may be that she might differentiate herself in terms of appealing to either Huston or Casval on the basis that they might be individually different rather than simply based upon their sex. She may find certain aspects of one or the other to be the attractive component of themselves. After all, I'm sure you'll agree that both genders do tend to have a certain disparity in terms of appearance and therefore, differing areas of physical priority in terms of care and attention." 

"While I'm sure that once in motion, such relationships would not have any significant emotional or social differences in play, one would agree that there is a differing outlook on what may appeal to her depending on whom she is interested in, and what she may wish to make more appealing to the other individual in return, no? Perhaps Huston has a different taste in fashion than Casval, or vice versa in a wide selection of physical preferences. I'm sure she meant as individuals, rather than applying a wider heuristic."

"As for the second line of scenarios......I do think that remark is simply due to availability heuristic. On average, she may have simply inferred a difference when one or the other gender approaches their relative counterpart with the intent to court based upon her pre-existing experiences, which may have been influenced by media and other vehicles of information. I do not believe that, however, there would be any true difference in relationships determinant upon gender in our current social paradigm." 

He almost sounded like he wished to calm her down slightly, after filtering down the complex verbiage, before a teasing light briefly entered into his eyes. "For your information, Ms. Concorde, that was also an invitation to explore what relationships are in more private settings later. I'm sure that such elucidation would be most beneficial to both parties." 
No.17 blinked lightly back at her, tilting his head slightly to glance at her in a bit more of a closer manner. "Thank you for the reassurance, although if you really wished to I would show it to you, contingent upon the agreement that we do not ah...mention the contents in any form ever again. It's not shameful or......Badly written in a grammatical sense, persay, but it's simply....." He trailed off a bit more, before simply lapsing into comfortable silence without bothering to attempt to explain further his little forbidden letter. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hakootoko]

She stares at Remy wide-eyed through her speech, and then at Luc through his, though she has to admit she perhaps got less out of his.

 

"Wow, that got serious fast. Let's back up a bit. None of what I said would apply to either Lt Huston or to Casval, because I already know each of them as individuals, and that's what I'd base things on."

 

"Up to that point, we'd been talking about interactions with strangers, which means that for better or worse we're dealing with gender roles. Not chromosomes; societal norms. For example, if a guy I don't know touches me as a way of flirting, I'm inclined to find that creepy and want to run away. But if I touch a guy as part of flirting, he's going to take that as a sign things are going well. I've done and seen enough flirting in the years I've been on Terminus to know that this holds true for an awful lot of women and an awful lot of men, even though it has zero basis in biology."

 

"And," she adds with a pleasant smile for everyone at the table, "Just to be clear: I don't like the complications, so I don't date co-workers. So this me hitting on Lt Huston or Casval is never going to happen."

[vicky_molokh]

Remy Concorde - Stats

Aspects: Lab-Grown Ace, "That's the World's First Clone Citizen!", Surprisingly Savvy Bookworm, Friendly Rivalry Motivates Self-Improvement.

Skills: 

+4: Mecha Piloting.
+3: Rapport, Lore.
+2: Empathy, Athletics, Shoot.
+1: Engineering, Will, Resources, Computers.

Stunts: Mecha Gunner, Advanced ACM Mastery, I've Read About That.

Pools:

Stress: Physical [ ] [ ], Mental [ ] [ ] [ ].

Consequences: [ ] [ ] [ ]

FP: 3/3.

[Background track changed]

 

Remy Concorde

Remy leaned very slightly into 17's shoulder, but in contrast to the other times they intruded into each other's personal space, the current gesture seemed entirely platonic. She was still looking at Amuthini, and eventually began to speak, slowly and thoughtfully.

 

"Hmmm. I have to say, after you explained this perspective like this, I'm finding it harder, not easier, to accommodate myself to it, at least to the point of constructive coexistence. Because had it been a genuine belief in hard biodeterminism, that would be . . . well, misguided yes, but at least a coherent - misguided but coherent - extrapolation and exaggeration of people's real traits. And had you treated people based on demonstrated consistently recurring behaviours over a long-term period of interaction, that would also seem more reasonable.

 

But you seem to acknowledge that you're talking about made-up cliché-masks people can put on, not about who they are, and you explicitly acknowledge that it has zero basis in who people are, and yet seem to judge complete strangers based on these mask-expectations that you don't even know if they're ever wearing? I don't know, to me that seems . . . off. Unfair in a petty kind of way, generalising people almost to the point of cruelty. Not enemies, just random people. This attitude also seems to, in effect, though not sure if in intent, reward people who do perpetuate the cliché-masks and punish those who don't."

 

Remy sighed.

 

"I apologise, I must be being very rude by what I just said, it's just . . . one minute you're telling those stories of abandoning a collective because it applied superstitious double standards to you, and then another minute you're saying things that made me realise that had we met under different circumstances, you might've applied some similar things to me anyone else of our mutual acquaintances. And now I feel like I dodged a metaphorical bullet but now have to live with the realisation that said bullet of yours could've hit any one of us had we been strangers.

 

Note, I'm not expecting everyone to treat me or my colleagues nice and fair; I like to think of myself as reasonably mentally robust; I'm adult enough to compartmentalise. It's that I'm flabbergasted to hear such an admission from you of all people, and it's difficult for me to reconcile in a coherent way the different things you said over the course of our acquaintance."

 

[hakootoko]

Somewhat exasperated, Amuthini leans forward and puts her splayed fingers on her forehead before sitting back up and continuing.

 

"Can we avoid the over-generalizations and loaded words, and just talk about the scenarios in question? 'Demonstrated recurring behaviors' have nothing to do with it, because this is about encountering people you know nothing about, so you don't know 'who they are'. It's not about anything I 'make up or put on', because I can't create cultural expectations all by myself."

 

"So put yourself in one of these scenarios. Imagine you're in a crowded dance club where talking is impossible. Looking around the room your eyes land on a guy, who turns around and makes eye contact. Where do you go from there? You don't know who he is and aren't able to ask. The only mask he has on is what he's chosen to wear. Do you avoid him because you don't want to make any assumptions about him, or do you go with cultural expectations of what's permissible under the circumstances?"

[vicky_molokh]

Remy Concorde - Stats

Aspects: Lab-Grown Ace, "That's the World's First Clone Citizen!", Surprisingly Savvy Bookworm, Friendly Rivalry Motivates Self-Improvement.

Skills: 

+4: Mecha Piloting.
+3: Rapport, Lore.
+2: Empathy, Athletics, Shoot.
+1: Engineering, Will, Resources, Computers.

Stunts: Mecha Gunner, Advanced ACM Mastery, I've Read About That.

Pools:

Stress: Physical [ ] [ ], Mental [ ] [ ] [ ].

Consequences: [ ] [ ] [ ]

FP: 3/3.

[Background track]

 

Remy Concorde

Remy relaxed a bit as the reply took a softer turn, but then thought more about it and regained a smaller fraction of the prior tension.

 

"Hmmm. Avoiding generalisation is exactly what I was striving for. Especially about people we know nothing about. That being said, I'll try to answer your question.

 

I am not exactly the type to go to such clubs often, especially on my own. But I'm going to assume that the intent of such a scenario involves some degree of intent to find or interact with interesting mates. Which probably means that in such a scenario I'm already in tow with someone else. Which means my likely next step is to return my gaze to my dance partner or partners, in a manner which clearly indicates to the new guy - or otherwise - that he'd be a fifth wheel or in some other way not a suitable match. Now, if we're looking for a +1 or a swap, and he's visually at least as intriguing as half of this team, then I would call my team's attention and at the same time make one of a variety of visual signs requesting approach, and if that fails to provide inter-understanding, switch from signs to gestures. In the variant of this scenario where the nonverbal communication is contact-tactile rather than purely remote-visual, similar principles hold but specific implementations would differ.

 

So I suppose the core of the answer to your question is that I would try to communicate in a way to clarify the situation and convey my attitude towards it, in a manner that tries not to jump to hasty conclusions about strangers."

 

[Brian Skies]

Neli quietly listens to Remy and Amuthini. While sympathetic to Remy's ideals, Neli finds some truth in Amuthini's words in regards to strangers and basic behavior. Still, she'd rather not get caught up in the debate and instead uses the time to think of a response to Remy's question.

 

"Hmmmmm," Neli begins, hoping her slightly obnoxious and misplaced interruption was enough to have the others focus on her instead of restrooms and public courtship thereof. "There was this boy I had a crush on while in high school. He was a few years older than me, and he went to a different school. But we both went to the same ranch for horseback riding. Most days, after finishing the trails, he would take one of the horses into one of the training pens to practice horse-riding tricks. He was talented and a joy to watch. So one day, hoping to catch his attention, I attempted one of these tricks. Let's just say the horse did not take kindly to the way I was riding him and he bucked me off. He would have attacked me too if it weren't for the boys jumping in to rescue me. I ended up looking like a complete fool. Turns out, my crush already had a girlfriend. Some cheerleader that didn't even know the first thing about horses. The instructors said I was lucky to have escaped serious harm, so now I avoid doing anything physically reckless just to impress my love interests."