Anarion

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

"Oh, no doubt."

Giri plays with her collar with the same hand holding the leash. She'd gotten a somewhat confident walk going with it on the barge and relaxing over tea, but with this rough overland travel, she doesn't have the luxury of it and has been conscious of her jingle jangles as they press onward, especially with how fast the golden spirit had been driving them, distance stepping or no, it felt like they'd been running from clearing to clearing. She honestly would have thought that Azazuka would have been sweating as hard as she was, spirit of travel or not, it was still the same body, but the Golden Banneret must have some fortifying magic to her because she doesn't seem to have flagged in the slightest. She's keeping an eye on Azasuka though, if Giri gets hungry, she's going to insist they stop and eat, if they encounter any streams near their clearings, she'll have the spirit drink some water. This isn't a body to seize and then discard when it's wrecked.

Still, Piri's asked a question that Giri will happily answer.

"I've never seen Han fluster like that with anybody. I can get a bit of a rise out of her because I knew her as a kid and she wants to pretend to be tough now even though she's always really liked affection. But nothing like I saw her with the priestess."

She offers Piripiri a deliberate look before turning her eyes forward to ensure she doesn't trip on any errant roots as they rush to the next clearing. The choice of word there, priestess, was intentional and Giri at least wants to protect the fact of Lotus' demigod status while they're out in the world.

"I hope they stuck together wherever they escaped. My biggest worry is that even they though both seemed to like each other, they might have no idea what they're doing and end up splitting up for a stupid reason before they really get to know each other." Giri, again, giving Piripiri a pointed stare. "Part of the reason I'm helping is that I think this is good for them. I know full well that the Red Wolf has some big plans for this or we wouldn't both be here, but I care more that they're happy and get a chance to be together than about Flower Kingdom politics."

She's trying to offer an opening here, Piripiri. Trying to give you a chance to share something of your own, to talk about how you feel about love or happiness or all the big picture things you're supporting, whatever's on your mind.

[Giri is offering Piri an emotional support. 6+6+2=14. Lots of benefits if she opens up to Giri a little here.]

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

Crescent stops and gives you an absolute deadpan stare. She just cannot even get her head around this. Lilika finishes getting her own tea (lots of sugar), realizes that in fact Crescent is not going to say anything and tries to fill in, spilling into more of an explanation than she might even have intended. “Uh…yeah um, the Arena grants you a wish for yourself AND your faction if you win. If you come in with a new faction, you can wish them a free system. That’s within bounds, had to be as part of an agreement for the big factions to stop warring. You can ask for a system, sometimes even a couple connected systems. Like in the last one, there was a handover and access rights and all that complex stuff for the Cerulean Belt systems all in one go. They’ve all agreed to that being possible so that they don’t start blowing all their stuff up. So of course it’s full of pirates. So far nobody independent has won, it’s hard when the big players have customized equipment backed by a multi-system intergalactic faction. But we’re all gonna keep coming.”

She and Crescent are both looking at you like, you should have known this. You’re part of a big TC house, intergalactic business, major connections, how did you not know this?

Finally Crescent breaks her silence too. “How in goddess name do you not know who Solarel is?! The Walker of the Mountain, The Varangian, The Empress' Champion, The Hunter of Huntresses, The Exile, you know the crazy Zaldarian pilot that ran around in the strongest mecha anybody’s ever seen wreaking havoc on the other two factions until the wars stopped only to get banished when the new empress overthrew the old empress? THAT Solarel. I thought you people prided yourselves on your connections and your cosmopolitan values. Goddess, just, you do know how to pilot, right? You’re not just an idiot who’s got a secret AI doing it? Cuz that would really mess up our trials.”

Crescent undoes your harness with a small key on the catchpad and then you’re free, still with your tea. They don’t seem to care much. Something beeps and Lilika opens the hatch. You could walk outside, and at least go take a look, but you shouldn’t because of what you’ll see at the hatch entrance.

Before we get to the action though, the sky of Roius swirls with neon pink light blending with hints of yellow, the colors of the Cerulean Belt mixing with the unusual cloud systems to produce a spectacular show. It’s eye catching, breath-taking, and worth a glance even with everything else going on.

Further down, two Zaldarians (one pulling another) and two lionesses (one carrying the other) are sprinting towards the ship and the lead Zaldarian is gesturing with her hand in the universal gesture of “get the fuck out of the way!” Behind them are several men with shotguns sprinting to catch up.

We’re going to switch to Solarel’s perspective now, but the question is open to you as to what you do here and on the shuttle ride that’s about to happen.

Solarel

<Elder spirits> she signs, and turns to head towards the shuttle with you following. The second lioness is looking kind of groggy and has some trouble standing up. She’s armored, but the shot looks like it punched the wind out of her. You realize that her companion has broken off combat and picked her up, carrying her the same way you’re going.
There’s a sudden race as the boatmen chase you towards the shuttle, the sound of soft footsteps swishing through tall grass contrasting with the crack of their shotguns. Unfortunately for your luck, you eat a shot straight to your hip, which hurts like hell and makes you stumble, though it’s not nearly enough to bring down a robust Zaldarien. Annika grabs you by the arm and hauls, shoving you bodily into the shuttle, jumping in herself, the two lionesses piling in behind. You bowl over Isabelle Lozano, a TC pilot who had a notable match just recently that you definitely haven’t paid any attention to, sending the both of you sprawling on the ship deck.

Annika gestures frantically, and a TC woman with a ponytail and…is that Crescent from the fashion show? Regardless, the two of them race to a console, punch the controls and the little shuttle lifts off to the sound of Boatmen bullets ricocheting off the entry ramp.

The shuttle isn’t going far, you notice that the acceleration stops after only a brief few seconds, you’re probably not much above the height of a low mountain, still in atmosphere, they’re just going somewhere else on the planet.

There is, now, a moment of both pain and calm.

***

Mirror

The sound that greets you is the clang of hammer upon metal. It is not ruinously loud, but soft, round, and rhythmic. Ting, ting, ting, it goes. Not perfectly uniform, but focused and concentrated. It is an old sound, a sound of a working that machines had long since made obsolete as a matter of efficiency, but which never lost the satisfaction of its craft.

Trosta’s arms and armor is not far from the port on Akar II, indeed one standing near the door can see much of the comings and goings of the gray spaceport, which is lower and smaller than the one on Akar Prime. You had just enough time on the way over to go through Mayze’s mail and see a few requests. They are notable. You have one from Adriana Teresio, the most powerful woman in TC. She wants a dress of red roses, something to really make an entrance. It’s simultaneously grand and boring, and her directions identify that and ask for some aspect to it that takes it beyond the typical theatrics of roses. There’s also one from Maelia Dala three Quetzl, one of the leading scientific minds of Hybrasil, looking for something with hibiscus flowers, not a lot of detail. It’s particularly interesting that she contacted you at all, she was supposed to be in the Ringed Nebula, which is a whopping ten jumps away from Akar without going through Zaldarian territory, making the shortest possible trip for her to get here twenty galactic standard days. Perhaps she left before the tournament even started. Or this could simply be a proxy stationed here ordering on her behalf with her name. A third is from a man you haven’t heard of from the Styx system. He signed his name Charon and the specifications ask for your judgment in flowers that complement eye and partial face cybernetics. He included a specific shade of red #ed2939 that he’d like you to match or complement. The last is, fan mail? It just says “I love your work and your style. I want to open people's eyes, I hope you’ll help someday. I’ll be in touch.” It’s signed with a picture of a chrysanthemum and nothing else, and it came from an account somebody actually named “anonymous” so that’s almost cute.

Looking up from that contemplation to the sound of hammers reveals a hall built in an old style with modern materials. The Zaldarian nanobots construction on Akar II defaults to a slate gray, but barring the color, the hall looks like something a Hybrasilian bioengineer would have cultivated out of a great tree. The roof is low and slanted, with a small opening for smoke, and there are beams and columns creating a set of rafters holding the structure together. In the back there’s a door connecting to a private hangar, then there is an old-fashioned forge glowing with a gentle orange light and several very modern fabricators that glow with a faint white light of tiny crystal fire at their hearts. The center of the hall is set with metal workbenches set out with various tools, more tools hanging on the walls and in storage bins against the sides, and in front as you come in is a large bar and cashier’s register. But it’s all built out of light nanobot metallics in that slate gray color. It looks like someone’s perfect recreation of a model lodge and smithy.

You’re initially greeted by the Hybrasilian who’s working the bar, who introduces herself as Mattara Swimmer, eight Cigni when she sees another Hybrasilian come in, and who quickly explains that she is in fact a Hybrasilian engineer who recently took a job here and is very excited to have you visiting, you’re their first Hybrasilian customer in fact!

Trosta herself is working the forge in the back, her strong bronze arms the source of the rhythmic clanging of the mallet. Matty explains that Trosta uses her forge-working as a way to better her nanobot crafting, she apparently forges utensils to help direct the nanobots. It’s not one to one, it’s more about making something that functions as a guide and Matty seems to think there’s a spiritual component to the matter as well. She also offers you a drink, ginger beer on the house.

***

Jade and Dolly

She’s yours.

It’s an exultant feeling. Ksharta was easily impressed, there was never any doubt she’d be up for the hunt, the game, the service. That was the easy part. But there was doubt about how she’d feel, if she’d be nervous inside and try to hide it, if she’d wonder if this was really all okay, finish the night, get scared, and keep her distance.

But now you don’t have to wonder. You can hear the purrs. Dolly can feel them where they’re holding hands, not through the mesh but the pure physicality of it, and so Jade can feel it too through the link. Ksharta likes to be touched like this. She wants to be touched like this more. She’ll hunt for you, but she could just as easily curl up with you tonight and just be touched and pet in all the right places for the rest of the evening. She’ll want more when it stops and she’ll come back for more. When she goes to her own bed and remembers, she’ll smile and she’ll shiver.

She flushes as her own awareness of self comes back to her. The flush comes up from her neck and into her face, but she doesn’t know, doesn’t let go, doesn’t want it to stop. You know that feeling Dolly, that sense of mortification and pleasure mixed together. She does squirm, and her tail wags, and her legs get all twisted up together. She looks at you Dolly, to make sure it’s okay, and when she hears your noise, the one you can’t plausibly deny, she somehow blushes even harder and tries to hide her face with her one arm, but even still she’s leaning into Jade, into the touch and the embrace and she’s nothing but squeak and squirm and joy here in the booth.

This really is everything isn’t it. The exultation of a new follower, the special treatment of Dolly. Angela’s arriving in Akar II as well, Jade will get a notice from the spaceport that she’s been tracking for the next shuttle and it’s a guarantee with Jade’s lure that she’ll come storming into Keoni’s tower looking for the two diners. You’ve got everything right where you want it. What’s the plan to ambush her? Or is there a plan in the face of these absolutely perfect kitty scritches?

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

“Zaldar didn’t write it!” she screeches, almost shouting. Her mask slips, and you can see an almost feral gleam in her eyes. One of the geists riding along with her stirs, and she puts a hand to her chest and stops it. She straightens, brushing down her cloak. Then she just looks at you, like she’s coming to grips with what just happened. She wanted to show you something, not say what she thought. She sighs and then returns to signing.

<Fine. If all you care for is material, that’s fine. Come with me and you can take whatever you can please the spirits into building for you. It ought to pay your debt twice over.>

It’s not quite so simple as that for all her mystique. She’s only got a few Hybrasilians with her, and two of them are still fighting the five Boatmen behind you who are sweeping into your position. They’ve got two of them down and bound, but the other three have circled up and are using their guns to advance. One of the two lionesses eats a shot right in her chest plate and goes flying past you, standing up groggily while the other one dodges to the side.

Annika’s mecha must be here even though you didn’t see it on your trip over, there’s simply no way she’d be this vulnerable otherwise.

The Boatmen, meanwhile, are not about to let you walk away. You also notice from the sudden geist activity that they’ve signaled back to their shuttle, so several more of them will be coming towards your area with shotguns.

Annika doesn’t wait, she grabs you by the arm and pulls (dangerous though she knows that to be, her touch is soft even in force, expert in its positioning). She signals to the other lioness with her free hand, and you’re caught in the middle of the fight being pulled by Annika on one end, three Boatmen advancing you on from the other.

***

Isabelle

Crescent snorts, loudly. “Wow, I did not see that one coming. Everybody has you pegged as the cold, calculating business girl and you’re actually a hopeless romantic. Oh this is too good.”

Ponytail pointedly says nothing and fetches you the tea. It’s hot, enough that you have to blow on it and sip to avoid burning your tongue. It makes for a dainty look as you carefully sip it, the astringency making your tongue pucker in that good way that comes from a solid black tea taken straight. Ponytail makes a face, telling you that she’s the lots of milk and two sugars type.

After another chuckle at your expense, Crescent smiles a feral smile, all sharp teeth and finishes her last bit of workout routine, coming to rest on her feet gently.

“I’m Crescent, that’s Lilika, we’re part of the Ebon Claw, we’re taking you here, which is Roius in Aoi, mostly because Solarel was here and we really wanted her. You’re more like the control group of opportunity. And…no, I won’t ravish you, you’re not my type. Get a robot arm maybe and we’ll talk.”

So the answer was yes, you do get the standard questions. Whether or not any of that was helpful is itself an open question of course, but Crescent seems so casual about the whole thing that it’s a little scary. Perhaps the note about the planet is the main point. They could take the restraints off and let you go and…then what. Roius is a mostly unexplored planet in a contested system in the middle of the Cerulean Belt light years away from Akar. As far as you know, the only transport off this planet is the shuttle you’re in right now (though you can faintly hear some fighting outside) and Crescent seems supremely confident that you couldn’t steal it from her even if you were unrestrained. So, it does make some sense that she’s casual about it all.

***

Mirror

You can stay with Slate as long as you please. The Hangar is a secure space (or at least it was supposed to be) and is equipped for overnight stays. If you stay long enough, it will be your own belly growling to pull you out of your reverie ahead of Slate’s. The rest of the team can get the Whip mostly in order, replace the burnt out bits, check over all the controls to ensure no other sabotage was done, and leave everything for you and Slate to do final reviews in the course of time.

You may perhaps want to investigate the details of the space as well, given what happened. A Zaldarian artificer would be the most knowledgeable person on the techniques that could have done the deed. Trosta, on Akar II, might be the most obvious port of call there. If you wanted to know more about where Solarel got the missiles, there are some members of the criminal underworld that enjoy high fashion and could be convinced to share their information.

Perhaps stepping away from the immediate problem, if you arrive on Akar Prime in any reasonable amount of time, you’ll find that Valentina paid a courier to wait for you at the spaceport with flowers to celebrate your match (she assumed you’d come to the same planet on the regular, perhaps a quite serious mistake). If you go to Akar II, you’ll only find out about the delivery later via one of your engineers. You’ll also find that several reporters are frequenting both spaceports and are very interested in speaking with you if you’ll give them the time of day. All pilots are minor celebrities, but when there’s a truly spectacular match like yours, it does garner some fame and concomitant interest. The only other match of the series to come close so far was the Isabelle Lozano vs. Ada Smith match, where there’s already slow motion close up neural mesh options to view the ending where Isabelle nearly took down Ada and Ada overloaded her crystal fire drive. Only the Unseen Goose overloaded though, there were no convergent phenomena and the Emberlight’s drive remained fully safe in its core protections.

Getting back to your match though, it was both a sustained exciting fight and has multiple airs of mystery. Popular speculation is centered around how Solarel got ahold of all her tricks and what your big attack might have looked like if you’d gone through with it. If you wanted to start finding out who was really paying attention, you’d probably do best going somewhere lively and simply listening to the conversations.

***

Jade

It’s nice performing for someone new. Not that it’s bad performing for Dolly, she’s always adoring, but adding to the audience, that’s really something special.

Ksharta is quite the audience too. She’s been great with Dolly of course. She eats voraciously, orders lots of food, is full of life and pep as she talks, telling stories of home, of food she made, some stories of the huntress lodges. Some of this could be your life, both directly and through Dolly, if you are even moderately successful in this tournament and return to a life serving in the Hybrasilian forces. Would it feel good to go on jackal hunts with the lodge? To luxuriate in Dolly’s adrenaline, the taste of blood? Perhaps to luxuriate too in Ksharta preparing the food afterwards and the taste of the fine cuisine, meat and spices in just the right balance.

But then when you go all out upon the table, Ksharta squeaks, she meeps, she blushes in the best style and mouths “omigosh” in the most awed whisper. She answers in a flood of speech, her version of a mind blank being stream of consciousness.

“Of course, I mean there was that one time when I was a kitten and my mom made crickets and I hate crickets even though they’re healthy, but they taste so bland and mom never used salt, so I didn’t really give thanks for my food, but then I still feel bad about that so that means I was already punished, and and I always offer some of my food to the goddesses, and I think that might count extra cuz people keep telling me it’s really good and that makes it a good offering, but how much salt would a goddess even want, I mean like, do they like salty food or would it be kind of offensive to offer them something that masks the natural flavors of the offering. I mean, you would know of course but you don’t have to answer and um…”

The fluster is very real, and very cute. And from this, you can get two things clearly. The questions you have asked are on very easy and one very hard. Obedience is the simplest thing. Ksharta is a good girl and a faithful Hybrasilian who believes in all the rituals and practices. Just tell her what you want, maybe tell her it will be a fun game, and she’ll happily pounce Angela in any ambush you could come up with. But what she loves most. Oh, what a cruel and terrible question to pry into the mind of a young catgirl. Ksharta loves pleasure, and she loves joy, and she loves safety. But she’s so sheltered, so silly and full of life. She’s never questioned what makes for any of those things. She did what her parents said, and they offered her a life full of mostly good food and healthy living. She learned to cook and people were happy with her. She joined the huntresses and she cooked, she flew, she hunted, and these things were good. But Ksharta Talonna has never asked herself what do I love? Me, just me, what do I really love? She doesn’t know yet, hasn’t found it, hasn’t found the things that would make her ask. You could give her those things, if you’re careful, oh so careful.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

On Ada
Ada Smith leads the Snow Geese. Officially, they are a fearsome pirate band. TC news accounts indicate a number of freighters that they’ve intercepted, disabling their mecha guards, humbling several skilled pilots, and taking the lion’s share of the cargo.

If you read what isn’t said though, you’ll start to get a better picture. None of the defeated mecha pilots died or were even seriously injured. They tend to be left to float, making the freighter have to clean them up and then limp to the nearest system for repairs. The freighters themselves are rarely taken. In fact, Ada’s reputation is so fearsome that most captains simply pay a bribe when ambushed, which means that no violence is required at all.

She’s mentioned in Hybrasilian sources, a few of which were available on Akar Prime. They speak very glowingly of her, in fact it seems like she hasn’t hit Hybrasilian ships at all and instead is running some kind of her own transport business in their space to quite positive reception on skill and professionalism. A few TC accounts mention that she may run a legitimate business of her own in TC space as well under some kind of false name.

It’s hard not to think that if these folks could simply be a legitimate business in TC space, they wouldn’t need the piracy at all. But they’re not willing to bow to any TC planetary authority, they declared their own independence, and they set up a base in some unknown location, so they’re the enemy now, that’s how TC works.

Your “walk”
There’s something nice about walking the streets of Akar Prime. You’re known, but in that minor celebrity kind of way where people mostly recognize you because of all the trappings. If you go into a souvenir shop, folks are more likely to be like “hey you know you look a lot like Isabelle Lozano?” than they are to shout “hey, it’s Isabelle Lozano!”
That lets you relax a little, put a coat on, enjoy the wind blowing over your face and your hair. A lot of the Akar Prime streets are wind tunnels, the tall buildings were thrown up quickly, and until you get to some of the distant mountains surrounding the valley where the spaceport and main population sits, there isn’t a lot of natural terrain blocking the wind, so it blows cool and fast through the streets. A good reason for most people to seek shelter and social company, but also a way to let your thoughts pass in isolation. Nothing but the wind, the lights, the nameless traffic of strangers who know nothing of you and therefore want nothing of you.

This made it all the more surprising when you suddenly felt a pressure on your back and a hand around your throat. It was very fast, and you don’t remember exactly what happened after that. They didn’t hit you, your headache upon coming to was more of a dull sort of headache in the temples, groggy, drugs of some kind, but no bruised spot or any sharp pain.

You’re bound to a chair, but you’re not gagged or otherwise have too limited motion, you can move your hands around too, though the shuttle restraint they’re using is tight and has a locked buckle so there isn’t really much to do with your hands other than check out your headache and see that you’re uninjured.

Speaking of which, you’re in a shuttle. A small one, would hold about ten people and some light cargo. Right now there’s actually just two people in the shuttle besides you. A bored-looking TC woman with slim features and her brown hair in a ponytail filing her nails at a little table near your seat, and a buff Tiger Hybrasilian who’s doing some stretches in the center of the room, her butt high in the air. Her name is Crescent, but you don’t know that yet.

When you look around, the girl filing her nails startles, but Crescent doesn’t seem to notice, or she doesn’t care if she does. “Hey she’s awake!” Ponytail says.

“Yeah and?” the tigress responds, continuing her routine.

“Well like, aren’t we supposed to make demands or issue a threat or I dunno, something like that?” Ponytail looks like she has expectations. One too many animes maybe? Not that you’d know how a scene like that ought to go, since your mother would never let you squander perfectly good study time watching anime, even as a cool off period. Cool off is for walks and other exercise, right?

The tigress looks up enough to roll her eyes, then starts kicking her legs. “No, we’re not doing that.” She sighs, obviously not enjoying being stuck here. “Pilot, you need anything? Water, food, painkillers, trip to the bathroom? Once our [pack] get back, we’re gonna march you for a bit, it will be a lot easier if you’re all set to move on your own.” She uses the Hybrasilian word for family or companions, you wouldn’t know it but the context clue is obvious enough. She starts practicing some swipes in the center of the room bouncing on her feet. Fast, not worried at all.

Ponytail looks like she’s gonna say something, but doesn’t, instead seeing how you answer the tigress. Seems like she knows she’s on the hook to get whatever you ask for.

***

Solarel

You know Annika Nornsdottr. She served in the military with you, serving the previous Empress. You might have called her a friend at one time, perhaps more even than that. She was smart, exceedingly so, thoughtful, sometimes sensual.

She, unlike you, did not leave (was not forced to leave) her service upon the regime change, but she does not appear to be in service to the new Empress now. No regalia, no symbols of office, no geists accompany her indicating rank or reporting structures of any sort. She does have geists with her though, but they are not speaking to you at the moment, nor to her, they are watching and riding along with her.

She was always unusual. She had better geist-site than most Zaldarians, better than yours even though she lacked your extremes of strength and reflexes and would never have been able to pilot the Aeteline to full capacity. Her mecha was (and perhaps is) called the Ebon Claw, and it was fast and sleek with grappling abilities. Against most opponents, she surely could and would have held them fast until they were disabled.

Her heart has always been with the past, with mystery. You remember that during the war, she used to talk about finding new planets, understanding the precursors, why the Zaldarian lands were as they were, how that came to be. She wanted to know, she always wanted to know more than anything else. Knowledge filled her heart with delight, and surely still does.

<I’m not a catgirl, as you well know> she signed back, her motions indicating amusement. She stands in some swaying grasses that look more blue than green in the odd atmosphere of Roius. Her own cloak, a deep black, seems to catch the colors and reflect them, an iridescent rainbow playing across her.

<Would you come with me, Solarel?> she asks. <This wasn’t my first choice of planet for this, but it will do. There’s something you don’t know about our titans, and I would show you. I think it somewhat more important than your current ridiculous debts.>

[If Solarel is hesitant, Annika will spend her newly gained string to ask what it would take to convince Solarel to go with her]

***

Mirror

Slate considers the question. She sends one of the engineers scurrying away with your empty glass and scurrying back with a refill while she does. They must have set up a little fridge in the break room here, though you could drink them out of house and home at the moment if you wanted.

Slate herself knows better than to move though, not when you’re like this, not when you’re resting. She is blushing, of course, the heat is staying in her face, and in her thighs. They feel warm. But she’s also staying very still, adjusting only enough to make sure your head is nestled as comfortably as possible in her lap.

“You looked like a goddess, like in the comics boss. Seriously wasn’t joking about that. Taking the missile barrage like that, and then going in with your trident, and the sunspear with your tails, like, it’s surreal.

Not sure that’s what you’re asking exactly? I mean, you looked good. I think you’re kind of underselling the fight, actually. Like, sure the model was old and lacked speed or strong defenses, but she had the whole thing retrofitted with missiles coming out of its ass, like literally, boss. And not cheap ones either, those were hellfire grade or I’ll find a hat somewhere so I can eat it. That’s enough to take out most mechas no matter how crap the firing platform, especially coming as a surprise like that. Hell it might even have been better on a crap platform like that. If she’d been in something really modern, you’d probably have approached more cautiously and then if she’d fired the missiles you could have just evaded and taken them out. Getting you in close to blow up her rust bucket seemed like the whole plan. The match looked tense, is what I’m saying, and it didn't look like you screwed up to most people watching. More like a bunch of back and forth until she ran out of tricks before you did.”

She takes a risk, starts gently stroking your hair with a paw. Slow, gentle strokes following the line of it, front to back, around the ear and down, then start again. She knows how to make it gentle and soothing in a way Valentina might take months to figure and she’s one of the more dextrous humans you’ve met.

“I think…that’s still not what you’re asking though, right? You wanna know if you’re about to get a bunch of job applications trying to replace me cuz of how the power down and recovery went. Yeah, I got it. You won too fast coming out of the power down, somebody who’s looking really closely could guess that it doesn’t match with neural controls. But I don’t buy it. Number one explanation is gonna be that you never had a power down, you just decided she wasn’t worth it, didn’t deserve your best trick, almost walked out and just beat her in the way she deserved. Did it to yourself, undid it to yourself no big deal. Number two is that you just pulled out a miracle by force of will. It’s not like neural mesh is perfectly solved, people keep pushing the envelope on the pilot sync, the lag time, the controls. You’re doing a weird top of the line thing, people will assume you just have more in you than you’d give yourself credit for, boss. Most of the attention’s gonna be on how it got done anyway, sabotage is a big deal, it’s not gonna be taken lightly. But…yeah somebody that really knows what’s up could maybe figure out the controls. I'm not gonna take it off the table.”

She keeps stroking you, hoping it’s okay, not wanting to hide the bad news but worrying about it too.

***

Dolly and Jade

Ksharta is blushing. She liked you doing her seatbelt for her though, Jade made a good call on that one. It made her feel a bit like a kitten, but loved, close, like you were really paying attention to her. Having to bury your head in her shoulder, she felt like she wanted to draw away as a reflex but didn’t, couldn’t maybe.

People on the shuttle do stare. A few other pilots, some engineers. There are some giggles, at least one person who thinks the whole thing is cute from the sound of it. One Zaldarien cheers once before his neighbor leans over and loudly whispers “you’re not supposed to acknowledge it publicly!” and then the first one tilts her head and just looks like the most quizzical mechanical bird. If you have time to be looking, that it. You might be busy.

The shuttle takes you in pretty close to the exit on Akar II. It’s night at the spaceport at the moment. There are lots of lights on, landing strips, building lights, shops working round the clock and manufacturing spaces lit up for ingress and egress. In atmosphere, the engines make a please thrum as the shuttle lands, drowning out any sounds of you two together and any more speaking. Getting to Keoni’s tower won’t take long, and you can get your own table easily, maybe on an upper level further away from prying eyes. Though d note that when you come in you might get some cheers, your match today was a big deal for Hybrasilians.

Ksharta waits patiently for you to undo her seatbelt this time, a grin of expectation on her face like a proper princess. What’s next?

[And now, we get to a fun part of Jade and Dolly both being present. Dolly, Ksharta will spend her string on you, with all her affection and youthful pep, and ask what it might take to get you to slip out of acting along Jade’s script? Jade, for you, well, you see you could tip off Angela about where the young couple are going, it would be very very easy. She could get from Akar Prime to Akar II in time to crash the date if she takes her own mecha. You could do this if you wanted to see how that might work, perhaps see them all together. She’d do it too, the way she was enjoying your Dolly earlier. There’s an XP in it for you if you take this step.]

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Mirror

You won.

You won?

You won…

When you reach the Hangar, Slate’s already got a team prepared, everyone that’s safe and cleared to work on the Whip, arranged for some to pull an off shift and they’ll all sleep after. A good detail to have seen to in the circumstances.

Slate pulls you out herself, already talking. “...can’t figure it, boss. I’d have seen if somebody got in who wasn’t supposed to be here, I should have seen if someone was here. They might have had a Zaldarian agent with nanobot skills, gotten them to reweave the hangar to create a back entrance right to your bay so we wouldn’t see them. That’s my best guess. I mean, or whoever was on duty at the time was blind, I dunno.”

“Goddess, if it stopped you for more than a few seconds, I couldn’t tell. Actually, for a sec there, I thought you’d just called the match. You had that big sunspear all ready to go, like you really were a goddess out of the comics, and then you just went dark and I said to myself, ah fuck it, Mira’s called it off, she’s too angry at being pushed to do this by this hunk of junk, she’s just gonna eat the last shot and let us fix it later so nobody gets to see any more.”

She’s got a drink she’s pushing into your hands, there’s a straw too. Some kind of tea, sweet with salted cream cutting the astringency. Thick and strong after a match.

“That was some serious bullshit though. I haven’t seen somebody take that many shots since the time my cousin went off with an arctic type, you know people say they go harder because they hibernate so they have to make up for lost time. But seriously, like, that’s crazy she was doing that, that was something special for you, nobody would fight like that every time, even that crazy TC queen who won the last match couldn’t afford it. I mean, she could but like, she wouldn’t, it would be wasteful like crazy and none of those types get those top jobs by being like that. Plus I hear she likes to get up close if you know what I mean.”

Slate’s prattling right now, meaningless noise but also useful to get you into the moment, catch you up out of your own head after a match like that. She knows you can cut her off whenever you want.

The rest of the crew is swarming over the Nine Tails, checking out the damage, pulling up schematics, marking baseline numbers and damaged components so they know what they’ll need. Repairs will be swift, the burnout wasn’t bad, damage didn’t go as deep as Valentina’s one good shot. The check over the interior controls for any other issues will be the longest part. And figuring out how to shield from that in the future. Maybe some kind of cockpit seal.

How’s the mental comedown after all that?

***

Isabelle

“You’re goddamn right it does!”

[Ada Marks insecure]

She stops trying to block the blows at all. Ada reverse her momentum, flicks her arm back, and the pommel of the blade strikes you in the head, making your ears ring through the mesh.

[Ada responds to the fight by inflicting Isabelle’s fifth condition.]

“Fuck, you’re almost so hot! Look at this! At all this! The Unseen Goose hasn’t had it this bad since I got ripped up by Adriana. Congratulations!”

She says it with a bit of a sneer though. The Unseen Goose can barely move with the wounds you inflicted. All you need to do is get clear to win the match. That’s it, but her bulk, her strength. Ada made herself collapse towards you. Her hand is around the Emberlight’s shoulder. Her arm still functions, it’s not critical for mecha operations, there wasn’t time to disable every system. It’s so strong, so firm pressing into your back, your breasts. You feel the whole of Ada Smith holding you close, electric energy runs through her breast to yours.

“But I heard you out here today. I heard what you didn’t say. You’re a proud engineer, what an amazing system! You’re a good pilot, really fucking good actually. But the only fire you pulled out all match was when it seemed like I was going to take away something you wanted.”

You can hear Ada’s pain in her voice coming from the cockpit. She wanted more than she got. She wanted more. She wanted to share passions together, to thrill in this fight. But instead she’s mad and she’s hurt. The energy pulsing from her breast course through you, sending every part of your body into numb tingles.

“How the fuck do you think you’ll be a good leader if the only thing that make you feel something is being denied?”

She leans in, presses the head of her mecha to yours. It’s a soft touch, gentle, barely a feather compared to the energy from her heart. A hint of what could have been. Then she overloads her core.

[Isabelle is Taken Out in the destruction, as is Ada. The match is a loss on a technicality, as both mecha are inoperable after it but Ada remained standing in hers.]

Isabelle, part two

You’re in the Hangar. You were towed back to it, Emberlight’s systems are fried and your whole body feels like every muscle in it fell asleep at the same time and now you’re all pins and needles. Asil’s there, along with her whole crew. Madame Toldeo isn’t, she’s off managing some matters on Akar I probably. Luca, Tadeo, and Carmella are all there. Luca looks sad, Tadeo looks mad, Carmella looks disappointed.

Asil’s the one who helps you out of the cockpit and onto a raised platform with the family. Your regular team is going over things first, Asil’s engineers hovering over the projectors, pulling in new data. She looks excited, actually. She’s trying to look she’s not sure what, sorry maybe. It’s mostly just a sort of pout and her eyes are shining because all she can think about actually is the absolutely massive amount of data you just generated at scale for her work. She blushes when she pulls you out though, just for a moment. Like she remembers when she touches you that there’s something else that could be occupying her mind.

Luca’s right behind her, helping your other arm. Tadeo and Carmella behind. Tadeo makes a fist like he’s going to say something but then thinks better of it. Carmella hovers anxiously. The floor is yours for the moment.

What have you got to say? To whom?

***

Solarel

There are three salient details of your situation. One, There’s a man wearing a heavy coat pointing a shotgun at you. Two, there is a lioness running through the grass behind the man who is in the process of jumping into a drop kick aimed at both of you. Three, the sky is a gorgeous shade of pastel pink with swirls of yellow.

According to your captors, you are on a planet named Roius, in the Aoi system. Its atmosphere has an odd effect with the light from the Cerulean belt resulting in the unusual pink sky. It is, apparently, breathable though, and gravity is 0.8x Zaldar’s, which makes you feel light and springy.

You got here somewhat rapidly. The second your shuttle got to Akar I, you were met by some of the Boatmen, who politely escorted you at gunpoint onto their shuttle. You might have thought you were going to Styx, but they went the opposite direction toward’s the Aoi jump point. You were also tailed by a small shuttle (or coincidentally, there was a delivery of cultist catgirls that just happened to land at the same time as you, your guess really).

The distortion of the jump means it doesn’t feel like a ton of time has passed to you, maybe a couple hours, although in point of fact two days have passed according to the galactic calendar. Not that you would know this precisely, as you have not had access.

You barely even got to the good part. One of the other men, who was obviously less important because he was not pointing a shotgun at you, had just started to say something about just how badly in debt you were when the lioness pulled up and leapt.

You are now at the center of what is about to become a small brawl, five Boatmen vs. three cultists (interestingly, two lionesses and one hooded behind them that might well be a Zaldarian), with you in line to kindly body block for the first Boatman who goes flying.

What do you do?

***

Dolly and Jade

You’ve won the match!

It takes a moment for everyone involved to realize it. Ksharta gasps, holds her breath, and lets out a noise that’s somewhere between a squeak and a kettle boiling. Meanwhile, the drones have freed Jade from the net in simple jackal precision. That matters slightly in the sense that you can move if you want, and there’s an established dominance to the position that becomes available. But Ksharta is mostly past noticing. She’s past having any fight in her. She had been ready to shoot you, but she’s been chosen by a goddess, blessed with a stream of the most beautiful, hot, sweaty priestess that she’s ever seen, and declared to be a new adherent. If the position were different, she might bow and begin to worship.

All of which is to say the fight has gone out of her at the same moment that she would need some fight to win the match. So it’s just…over. She concedes, you win. She doesn’t let go either.

Both mechas being mostly intact, Ksharta in fact insists on holding hands as you make your way back to the hangar, parting only briefly to get the Pulsar Cat properly docked, before reappearing next to Dolly at the shuttle boarding.

“Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh! That was incredible! Does she do that all the time? Do you do that all the time?!” Her eyes go wide as she imagines it. “Oh my gosh, is she always with you somehow? What do you when you’re not piloting in full neural mesh though, how do you commune with her or do auguries or um, you know goddess stuff? Oh, will you wear that, um…” she blushes, “um, tonight the dress with the open inner thighs that um, show off your um…” she can’t finish before she goes completely red and throws herself on your shoulder as you board the shuttle.

By the by, where are you taking Ksharta? Both Akar planets are open to you. You could even go off-system by one or two jumps if you feel comfortable with the time, Hybrasilian tech is fast enough to get you back before your next match.

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

"I don't intend to involve Naji in my rituals one way or another. She's been through quite enough. Is she not in our care?" Giri does not shout, nor does her face harden. She is simply speaking through her blush, through the touch, through the words of good girl making her heart sing. This is the strange thing about hearts, after all. They can go through a lot very quickly. A heart can pound against your chest straining with desire and yet still call for you to be better.

Naji didn't want to die. She didn't deserve either offering or guard duty. And maybe Giri had learned something. Less from Agata, who seemed to treat the whole matter of her courtesy as an option for those that pleased her. But from Piripiri and Kalaya. At any rate, her voice is firm and clear, and if the Red Wolf wishes to laugh it off, it will not be because Giri can use the girl in some way or another.

She does have a ritual to do though. She needs a clearing, no roof, so she steps out of the pavilion, looks for the best space she can between tree boughs in this forest. Closer to the barge wreck, it downed some trees and will have to do.

She looks towards the sky and draws her sword, letting the raindrops fall about her, upon it. She holds it up straight, pointing to the heavens. Her head held high, she begins to pace, drawing a circle with the toe of her boot, then crossing lines through it, a triangle, then a star, inviting for a spirit that gazes upon the heavens to come down and inspect.

Then she chants, calling out her supplications. With the rain, the wind, the wreckage she knows the spirits are busy. She offers her humble thanks for their work and asks if they would come to grant her a favor. Her collar jingles as she speaks, like a fancy cat prowling back and forth. But always her eyes are to the heavens and her sword is held high. Only when the spirit comes will she lower it across the ground before the spirit in a gesture of humility and beg her favor on behalf of the Red Wolf.

[Giri will Commune with the unseen: 6+2+2=10. She will endeavor to learn from the unseen where Han is and to change the nature of the place to easily guide the Red Wolf to Han.]

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

"Not really"

The Unseen Goose is fast. Faster than it should be considering how heavy it is, how much it relies on its stealth systems. You get the immediate sense that Ada is pushing the limits of neural mesh here, translating her own physicality into the utmost amount of technical speed and strength that can be squeezed out of her equipment. It wouldn't be safe for a weaker pilot to do the same.

There's the briefest shriek of engines and the shimmering of air as it instantly heats behind the Unseen Goose. The hit is with her shield, already held at the ready, and it's square to the center of mass of Emberlight. Metal groans and buckles. Your metal, your structural supports. It broke right through your shields. You feel it like getting punched in the gut. Actually, more like pile-driven in the gut with a boulder. It knocks the wind out of you and it hurts like crazy.

[Take Insecure from Ada's return fight]

"You know what's dumb about that trick? You did it for nothing." She raises her sword above her head, flips it so the point is aimed downwards. "What's the point? You gave away your tech, your threw away your honor. And for what? You don't even want anything out of this competition!" She's putting energy from her core into the sword, powering it up to full capacity. It whirs and hums, the exterior glowing with white hot crystal fire energy that tinges towards blue as it grows more intense.

She'd be vulnerable now, but she knows you're recovering, that you can't get yourself moving just yet and she's using that time. "I've got people to feed! A whole godsdamn family that needs me. Someday, TC's going to be mine, and you and Adriana can fucking deal with it!"

She brings down the sword. There's a bright flash. The light reaches your eyes about one thousandth of a second ahead of the shockwave, just fast enough for you to register it before the explosion hits you and the whole building crumbles. The sound of an intense boom overwhelms your ears even within the cockpit as all the air bursts outwards in a massive pressure differential. What was once solid ground explodes in rocks and shrapnel, the world turns to a rain of dust and debris in every direction and you are falling, turning, and tumbling.

[Stagger from the destructive attack, both literally and mechanically. Also, mark your Coveted Destiny and take your XP for that. Ada's designs are close enough to your own to covet that destiny.]

***

Dolly

Have you done this with another Hybrasilian before? Jade's done a lot for you of course, she can create sensation all over your body with the neural mesh and get quite a lot of direct feedback about how you're enjoying yourself. She might argue that this isn't really all that much different. You're still in the cockpit, still wearing the neural mesh, still getting that same sort of translated sensation.

But there's a way Ksharta moves that's different. There's a raw pleasure in her body, translated directly into her mecha and sent directly to you. A Hybrasilian sort of pleasure, a sort of movement that you yourself have made before, one that Jade hasn't ever considered herself, might not even be able to do unless you got in a different mecha and let her have at you that way. It's sort of like playing with a mirror of yourself. Almost. She's a tad shorter and thicker than you are (both in height and reflective of her mecha build), but that just adds to the strength of her thighs as they press against you and she moans.

You're familiar with Hybrasilian customs of course, you've read and written so much fanfic. This isn't a one-off moment of pleasure. Not with someone young like Ksharta. Jade's pushing her to lose herself here, and she's going to expect more of out this. You and Jade are promising her that with this tactic. Expect to spend the night with her, and from there...well you'll see how things work out but this might be her first big crush.

Jade

Your plan is working. You're taking in a new follower here. Ksharta is committing herself to you. This is easier with a Hybrasilian follower because you've got a massive databank on their customs and behaviors. And their physiology. Even with just your legs free, you know where to touch, where to press. You've had so much practice with Dolly too, you can make Ksharta utterly lose herself in the moment. She wasn't expecting this at all, how could she have?

You know that the way Ksharta is moving and moaning, this is intense pleasure for her. You had to make it that intense or she wouldn't have lost focus, but that plays into Hybrasilian custom as well. You understand that if you abandon her after this, she will be extremely hurt. You've really committed yourself and Dolly here, but you've basically disabled her in the process. She can't position to fire her autocannon, isn't even thinking about it in this moment, and that gives you a chance to try and do something even pinned by the net as you are.

You have an opportunity to turn the fight around, she won't even be mad.

[Whatever you do next, roll to entice]

***

Solarel

The crowds are going nuts. The Bezorel is falling apart, it's a miracle you can move in the thing at all with the way the legs were stabbed out. The announcers are trying to bet how long that's going to last before you lock up completely.

But there's actually one downside to the last move you pulled, in a sense. Well, many downsides considering that Mirror is gonna be pissed and your underworld contacts are going to be calling in a lot of favors for all this. But one immediate downside is that the cancellation of Mirror's big attack has every camera on her. Everybody wants to know what happened and that means the attention is off you, close as you are. Even the flamethrowers are uninteresting, it's the Gods-Smiting Whip that everybody wants to pay attention to now.

Mirror

Every camera is on you. Well no, that's not right. Every single camera is trying to figure out what went wrong. Did one of your tails give out? Did Solarel deploy a secret weapon that everybody missed? It's happened before, maybe a missile came around or there was a laser weapon outside the spectrum of visible light that the crews didn't think to look for. Everyone wanted to see that final attack, and now they want to know why it didn't happen. There's going to be a lot of guessing, speculation, and conspiracy theories. Some of those conspiracy theories are going to be right too.

Of course, that's probably the last thing on your mind now, but you might think about it later.

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Isabelle

“Oh I got it backwards, didn’t I sweetheart?” Adriana hasn’t taken the bait yet. You’re still bantering, you’re moving up, she’s somewhere, comms still open.

“I thought, y’know, girl like this, she wants to be a queen, I better get in on the ground floor of that. But you’re not in for that, huh?”

The cameras are on you, but this part of the match is a little boring, some of the feeds are cutting to different fights, just a couple are hanging on the banter. A downside of a slow approach, nobody setting up anything decisive or aggressive out of the gate. How were you supposed to know that Solarel was going to set up a bunch of hellfire missiles in spectacular fireworks.

“Adriana’s not who you think she is. I’ve fought her. Listen girl, I’ll teach you something for your trouble here. If you want to be a lackey, you play the game other people set for you. You play it well, you could be Adriana’s right-hand girl, or go dance through the great wheel on her strings. Or somebody else’s. Your house, some other patron, some grand faction or other. Hells, if you just want the thrill of flying, come find me and I’ll give you work!”

She snorts, laughing to herself about some image she’s got in her head over that. She’s stopped using your name, too. Something about your answer, lost some respect for you. There’s a pause while she gathers herself and you finish your climb.

“Adriana herself isn’t like that. She’s fire, girl. She’s passion. She’ll cut straight through your heart, no hesitation. She wants you to try and stop her, just so she can show you how dumb that is. You gotta have that. You can’t climb to the top on skill. You can’t break through all the crap people set just because you want to be rich and powerful and bring honor to your house. That stuff is horseshit, and if that’s all you got, I’m gonna crush you before she does!”

You feel it before you see it. There’s a rush of wind, like a sudden vacuum, and then the flicker of air as the stealth system cuts out. This isn’t a long-range fight, this isn’t her taking a free shot. She’s on the roof, right there in front of you, the Unseen Goose bulkier and heavier than the Emberlight. Her shield is held low in her left hand, blade’s in her right. That blade feels like it’s inches from your face, so close you felt the air sucked away as it sailed past you and through the decoy. This little trick saved you from an embarrassing one hit loss. Made her blow the opening move that would have taken your head off.

She grunts in surprise, and this is your opening. Give it your best.

[You may, if you wish, also ask your playbook question for reading a person when crossing swords with them.]

***

Dolly and Jade

Ksharta stabs with a triumphant shout, full of glee. Her plan worked! But then she’s tugging, trying to get her spear free. All that momentum, you’re all falling together, you’ve pulled it from her.

“Eep!” You can tell she’s blushing. “Oh I, um, I’m sorry, I mean, I’m not, I didn’t mean!” But her hands are on you, and the way she’s moving her leg, the metal sliding between you, this is good, this is special, she likes this. It feels good. To you too, the pain in your leg, and her weight pressing on it, it’s full of heat and sensation! Dolly, it makes you want to bite your tongue and moan. Has Jade ever pushed this hard, has she ever made it hurt like this?

“Get your head in the game, Ksharta!” whoops, she left her comms on, the silly girl. “You got this, you got this, they’re just throwing you, you know, like literally.” Don’t worry about it, she’s giving herself a pep talk that you and the cameras get to hear. But she’s also got her net ready, she’s still the one on top, and that shoulder-mounted cannon of hers is untouched.

She’s fast too. The speed and reflexes of youth, always the biggest advantage of a new combatant on the scene. One you might have had too if you weren’t at odds about how to move. So fast, the net’s already out. You’re snared, Jade. You can feel it on you, the electricity coursing through it, pinning your arms, pressing on your chest. On Dolly’s chest. It’s not big enough to completely enwrap you, your legs can move, your head, the top of your shoulders. But your center of mass is pinned down, and Ksharta’s pulling up to bring that cannon of hers to bear properly. This is gonna be really bad really fast if you don’t do something. But honestly, would losing the match here even be so bad?

[Ksharta uses her fight to take a string, and sets up an opportunity from the stagger. Also, she’ll offer a spend of that string right away. If you let her take this shot because you want to feel it, even though it will cost you the match, take an XP]

***

Mirror and Solarel

You’re busy, but it might be notable to you either now or later that you’re on the main screen for a minute. Ada Smith vs. Isabelle Lozano was supposed to be the feature match, but they opened slowly with stealth and chatter, so the cameras cut away.

You, on the other hand, are putting on a show for the ages. People are going wild over the missile barrage out of nowhere, and they’re flipping out over how the Gods-Smiting whip responded. There’s already fan art! A bunch of the feeds have cut over to you for the moment, especially on the Zaldarian Akar II outpost and from all the Hybrasilian bars (though a few still have Dolly and Jade against Ksharta on too because of the home interest).

Welcome to primetime!

Huntresses of Hybrasil

Solarel

The missiles deploy like a charm. Everything works like they said it would. The Boatmen of Styx that is.

The thing with TC is that it’s filled with mechanics. Everybody and their mother learned how to fix things growing up on a small station somewhere. And if they didn’t, they watched it on TV and decided that they were going to be the heroic mechanic instead and started tinkering. But when you’ve got that many, it’s not hard to get into a variety of work. Most people do it through family. Your old uncle has a job he needs doing and he expects you to hop to it. Your auntie, she’s got some friends she knows and they’re nice people that a young girl should help out without asking any questions. Besides, who’s going to miss a couple crates on a container ship that measures its hold size in cubic kilometers?

On Styx, they’re all in the middle already, prepared to work for whoever has the money ready to spend. Right on the border between the Zaldarians and TC space. Past a dead system and far from TC prime. They picked their own name, the border between life and the afterlife, and they think it’s funny to imagine that they’re all rowing along it. They’re a mere one jump from Akar too, for easy shipping. The creation of the Arena is the best thing that ever happened to the Styx system, and their legitimate businesses and less legitimate businesses rushed to get representatives there.

So, everything’s available for a price from the Boatmen of Styx. For you, Solarel, that price came in two parts. The first part was a caress. Your negotiator, Mene Tosa, was a big woman, strong arms, thick chest like a barrel, hair long and tied back for work. She liked you, and when you asked for what you wanted, she told you the price was first that she could hold you and run a hand along your arm. She wanted to know what it felt like to hold a Zaldarian and carry their weight. Her arms were strong and firm.

The second part, that’s going to be a favor. These missiles cost a lot. Maybe you do well enough down the road to simply repay their kindness with money. More likely, they’re going to call in a debt and if you don’t live up to your word, they’ll spread theirs around far and wide. That Solarel can’t be trusted, don’t do business with her. It’s a special kind of afterlife when nobody will offer you trust. That too is the currency of the Boatmen of Styx.

[The Boatmen of Styx take a string on Solarel]

You’ve got the missiles though, all in working order delivered and installed exactly as requested. How are you going to use them?

***

Mirror

You’re really playing the long game. An opening like this is the kind of thing that wins you a match by making those pre-game briefings untrustworthy. Pull the same opening three times in a row in your debut matches and people will still think it’s your “tendency” even if you don’t do it four matches straight after that. You won’t have any need to retool your kit between matches if nobody knows what you’ve really got in the first place.

The real question is will it work here? The Bezorel has shown a lot of missiles. More than Solarel should have been able to afford based on the available data about her. She’s got no income for this, not as far as anyone can tell. This fight has got to be paid in favors. If it is, it’s utterly unsustainable too, but that’s hardly the point. With something like this, the missiles themselves are the real opponent. The Bezorel can create one moment of absolute fury where you’ll be under assault, or it can create an extended stream of attacks designed to distract you and catch you maneuvering unawares. Once it’s done either way, it will be spent and at that point calling it shooting fish in a barrel would really be an insult to the noble fish. That’s the risk with a loadout like this: finite physical ammo and no backup plan. This is actually about as close as you’ll see a mecha like this get to a real combat scenario. An old mech like the Bezorel would already be plotting an exit route, unloading its payload and trying to flee before retribution could reach it. That’s one of the ways that hunks of junk can remain in service when modern models could tear them apart at close quarters.

It’s likely you will need to Defy Disaster to maneuver in response to it.

***

Dolly

Did you ever go hunting with jackals when you were younger? You might have, though probably not often if you were living in a city studying and working on romance novels. The living ones are probably a bit smarter than the drones actually. They’ve got all those eons of biological development to handle simple things like maneuvering around obstacles, distinguishing their target from the terrain, and signaling that they’re on the hunt. Drones need all that programmed. It’s easier in games because even if the player might see a tangled and camouflaged jungle, the computer can easily distinguish between gameplay objects flagged for interaction as opposed to terrain boundaries and so forth. The real world is not so simple, which is why somebody refining drone AIs would eventually get themselves to something like Jade, even by accident.

Ksharta might not know how to deal with Jade herself, but it’s about to become clear that she has hunted with jackals, and the same techniques work on the real ones and the drones. You might remember that she was popular on the Hybrasil homeworld, actually. She was a great chef on top of being an ace pilot, so they kept her planetside for two whole years, giving her ample opportunity to run with the huntress lodges in old and new sports. She was around when you were first testing out Jade, in fact.

So, she knows some tricks. The first one is simply a distraction. She makes the first bit of noise, slips away, pulls the drones to her. That gives you a direction to head towards. The second is to double back and ensure the drones are chasing her as she moves towards where she’s guessing you’ll be heading. Then she simply inserts the third dimension into a system that had been working two-dimensionally. Her burst out is above the canopy, but she’s jumping over Jade, twisting herself as her opponent comes out of the underbrush, using the open river to maneuver and turning everything into a chaotic mess. She stabs the closest drone behind her, impaling it on her spear, and flings it back at you, and suddenly you’ve got your opponent coming around behind you as you’re tangled in one thrown hunting drone and a handful of others that all want to rush through your current position, limiting your own ability to maneuver.

To top it all off, Ksharta is talking rapidly. “Hi Dolly, hi Jade! I heard about you, oh my gosh, the girls were going on about it for days when you first appeared! I’m so excited! This is just like the time back home when we went on the iguanodon hunt and they tried to slip the jackals, except I’m the iguanodon and you’re the mighty huntress! Oh I love this. My turn though, here I come!”

She’s thrusting with her spear and your only options are to try and meet it head on without your own spear (likely painful!) or impact at the last second with your drones (sacrificing them) to pull off a dodge.

***

Isabelle

You’re the bait. You have to be, she’s coming for you, there’s nobody else in the fight, so it has to be you. The drones aren’t magic and you don’t have a stealth system, but you could make yourself appear just a little bit off from your actual location, like those tailed cats in the role-playing games that you’ve probably been too busy to read since you were younger. It would give you a last second opportunity. Pretend like you got impatient, go out in the open, a rooftop maybe, and let her take a shot at you, then use that instant where she’s just a few feet off her aim to try and turn it around.

Risky, of course, but it’s a good shot, it really should work. Plus it’s exciting, daring even. It will put the ball in your court. Asil will love it too, she’s really excited to see the drones do something special and a legitimate displacement would qualify. She didn’t stay up all those hours getting them tweaked just so for this match for you not to use them either.

Here’s the question that Ada’s looking for in return though. What do you hope to get from this tournament? Sure, sure everybody knows you want to be Adriana’s new chosen one. But Ada Smith is a deeper person than that. She’s reading your movements, your voice, your tells and trying to get a sense of what makes you tick. So when you tell us what you hope to get from the tournament, what she really means is what you want to feel, what would make your heart thrill and your soul soar?

[Don't roll when you describe how you pull off your trap, at least not yet. You might be able to just do it from this move result]

TSL: The Excess of Flowers

Giri blushes. It's hard not to in Agata's presence. The heat of her touch, the strength in it, yet the gentleness with which she takes up Giri's own. There are a thousand pleasures to imagine from that touch, some of which Giri has already felt. So she blushes, and she tries to swallow and finds herself wishing that there was still more tea to be had.

She has just enough mind left not to simply nod and smile. She wants to, wouldn't it be nice to simply agree with Agata, to give her exactly what she wants? But that's not right either. She manages to swallow, nods but opens her mouth to speak too, pausing briefly to blush again as her collar, of course unharmed despite her swinging from the side of the ship and the crash, lets out a a jingle reminding them both of her position.

"I can, but there may be a price. The little gods here will all be unsettled, the Rakshasa and the..." Giri makes a small hand gesture with one of her hands, reluctantly removing it from Agata's, not willing to say the word "barge" out loud just this moment after the argument she had heard from afar. "...well, at any rate, they can help, they can ride the wind and the clouds and find Han and her little girlfriend, but they may ask for quite a lot to step away from their duties in the area right now. If that's acceptable, then I'll begin a ritual right away."