Character Mansion

[Parlor]

Linna shifted again, causing the faux-starfield on her uniform to change position and shape as well. The styling was Germanic, striking, but the one-tone nature lost some of it. She had the UN/SSD patch on one shoulder, the UN insignia with satellites orbiting it, but the other shoulder's unit patch and her rank were oddly omitted. The only other identifying mark was a pair of warfare ribbons over her right breast pocket with "IA" in gold on a blue background and a white ribbon with a black center stripe. "It is."

Linna raised an eyebrow at him. She couldn't really imagine it being taken for anything else...well, not unless there was a serious case of temporal hijinks going on. Which couldn't be ruled out out here.

Anatoly nodded. "That's a strange-looking uniform. Another thing I've never seen before. The style is somewhat familiar but the material and insignias are completely alien. Suppose that's only to be expected here. That patch." He indicated the globe-and-wreath symbol. "What does it mean?"

Garden

Anne thought for a few moments. "Erm...I guess philosophy could be interesting at times. I do know that I definitely enjoyed the times Father took me along whenever he had to meet with the ruler of another kingdom. Granted, that was more because I liked the change in scenery as opposed to what I was there to learn." She shrugged. "I'm not that big on politics, honestly. Hence why I wasn't eager to get the throne."

She was confused as to what 'school' meant when Tamara asked her as such. After probing her memory for a couple more moments, she concluded that it referred to the system of teaching Samira had told her about shortly after she had arrived at the building.

"I didn't sit in a room with a bunch of other kids and listen to an adult go on and on about a subject, if that's what you're talking about," she said, "I had a mentor my Father hired, and sometimes Father himself taught me something. As for hobbies...nothing too exciting. Read, take walks around the pond in the courtyard, talk with the royal chef and pick up a few cooking skills in the process, go out on the balcony at night and watch the stars...I could go on and on."

That last thought gave her yet another thought, and she glanced at the door that lead out of the garden. "I still look at the stars a lot, actually. The dwarfs have a clearing out back with a large boulder sitting in the middle. At night, the view of the night sky is wonderful." She turned back towards Tamara and Xavier. "Assuming that it's evening or nighttime and the fog's cleared up by now, I'm curious as to what the stars look like here. It's a different world from Theodiscus, after all. I imagine that the sights have to be somewhat different."

Grimhilde gave Irilemi a death glare for a few seconds, but she quickly shoved her angry thoughts to the side and then simply waved her hand in dismissal.

"So you're saying that they're not worth hearing, then? That's the usual I get from advisors who are only concerned about money. They don't care about how well you run the kingdom; they just want their paycheck." She turned back to her mirror. "Besides, I have a feeling that I'll just be wasting my time arguing with you. I don't need yet another headache to deal with after the one Agustin gave me."

Ulrich glanced towards the back of the hallway, taking note of a flight of stairs, before turning back towards the pig and nodding again. "I see," he said, "thank you for the information...Baconbeard." That last word had a slight tone that suggested he was confounded at what he just said.

At that, he turned away from the pig and headed towards the stairway.

[Wine Cellar]

Irilemi chuckled and said, "I wasn't offering to sell you my advice. I doubt you could make an offer I could accept — it takes a lot more than gold to motivate me, on account of having, you know, a sense of right and wrong." She then waved a hand dismissively. "Go, then. Harass your fellow blue-blood. You know you want to."

[Balcony]

The old man and the pig man seemed to have finished talking with each other and parted ways. The old man continued down the hall—to the cellar, Ozzy presumed, wherever it was. Surprisingly, the beardy old man passed by all of the surrounding rooms, continuing down the hallway towards... well, there was one last set of rooms, and then... the stairs.

Ozzy drew back slightly, but kept hold of the banister, and followed the man with his gaze until he'd passed underneath the balcony, and out of sight. At that moment Ozzy quickly— quite quickly— rushed back to his chair, sat down upon it, winced, stood up again, then sat down a little more carefully. When he'd seated himself without notable discomfort, he leaned back, tipped his head forward, and waited. Whatever doubts he had were mitigated by the light sound and sensation of footsteps, reverberating from below. Beneath his mask, a large toothy grin grew upon Ozzy's face.

[Sparring room]

"Well, gee," said Mai, raising an eyebrow, "I can't imagine why one would want to have someone close to confide in who you trust completely and wouldn't betray you, rather than flitting schizophrenically from partner to partner with no solid anchor in your life." She snorted. "There's more to monogamy than just sex, you know. Someone to trust in who cares for you and thinks the world of you and will always help you out. Sometimes, sex is just a lucky bonus rather than the point."

A term Mai had heard a long time ago clawed its way to the front of her mind. "Besides, if you loathe staying with one partner so much, you could always try serial monogamy. Pick a guy or gal, stay with them a while, go to another person when you get bored, rinse and repeat."

[Garden]

Xavier looked up at the roof of the cave and frowned. "Hmm," he said. "I'm not sure. Didn't bother trying to get a clear look at them when I came here, although now that you mention it, my interest is piqued." He looked back to Anne. "I wouldn't mind heading outside to take a look, if that's what you want."

[Sparring Room]

Aseyu actually took some time to seriously consider Mai's words, her usual jovial attitude suddenly turning contemplative. Finally, she said, "I think I have someone like that already. A woman named Rachel Hosseini. You might see her mother Samira around here. Except..." she frowned, twiddling her thumbs as she considered. "Well, me and her aren't lovers or anything. She's straight, after all. And, I dunno, at this point she feels too much like family for me to even see her as attractive. But the trust, the confiding, that's all there." She began to tap her upper lip, considering this.

[Sparring Room]

Gabrille and Jonathan glanced at the wall of weapons. Jonathan wasn't quite sure which one to choose, but he did know how to use a sword from the fencing lessons in his youth. He took a cane sword that had a nice balance in his hands.

Gabrielle wasn't a fighter, she was just an engineer, but she knew enough tricks up her sleeve to still be useful. She decided to forgo a weapon.

"We're ready," Jonathan said.

[Parlor]

Andrew started to play Moonlight Sonata.

[Parlor]

"United Nations insignia, with the satellites showing I'm Strategic Space Defense." Linna smiled a bit. "Name isn't perfectly accurate, but close enough. Like about half of SSD, I've never actually been spaceside. That'll change with my specialty, I'm told, but they seem to need me where I am pretty badly..."

She shook it off. This was a really nice chair. Maybe if the owner turned up she'd ask how much to buy it. She purposely didn't explain the warfare badges or the lack of unit identification. He hadn't asked and besides, trying to explain the unit thing might be awkward.

The music, however, made her frown.

edited 30th Mar '13 8:25:17 AM by Night

[Sparring Room]

Aseyu glanced at Jonathon and Gabby and said, "ooh! Alright, then. Which one of you wants the first dance, hmm?"

Gabby didn't seem like much of a warrior — Aseyu would probably probe her, test her for a bit. She wasn't so sure about Jonathon — he might be tougher than he looked, so she'd be a bit more cautious, but he didn't seem to be the most deadly foe she'd ever faced. Looks could deceive, though...

edited 30th Mar '13 9:36:37 AM by KillerClowns

[Entry Hall]

As the old man headed towards the staircase, Frank said "Bye, and remember, make sure to check the bottles before you start drinking them. I once took a drink from a old-looking ale bottle and there was a goddamn snake in it!"

edited 30th Mar '13 1:19:51 PM by BiggerBen

[Sparring room]

Mai was about to respond to Aseyu — wouldn't you want someone attractive who you can also confide in and get a twofer? Is she always going to be there, or will you two part ways eventually? — but she decided against it. If Aseyu was going to be fighting, it wouldn't be good for her to keep talking at the same time and divide her attention.

Instead, she leaned against the wall and folded her arms to watch the fight. She turned her thoughts over in her head, trying to get them a bit more... solid. They felt a bit lackluster right now.

[Garden]

"Oh, ha, well," Said Claire, seeming a bit embarrassed. "What can I say? A.I.s are a big part of my life." She briefly paused, a wistful look appearing on her face. "It's more than just a career; it's my life." She smiled halfheartedly. "You might even say I couldn't live without ongoing research into Artificial Intelligence..."

Tamara just listened quietly. Anne's life as a princess sounded quite peaceful, even boring... Though, as she thought about it, she wasn't sure what she had been expecting princesses to do all day. What Anne was saying just made sense; no-one's life was a movie, after all. Well, maybe Anne's resembled a Disney movie a whole lot, but that didn't mean they were the same... She also wasn't sure she wanted to go back outside. It was foggy and cold and muddy out there, unless the weather had changed dramatically since they had come inside.

[Garden]

Samira raised her good eyebrow at that and said, "mm-hmm. And when you say 'you couldn't live without AI research'?" She frowned, now watching Claire very closely. "I can't shake the feeling there's more to that comment than meets the eye..."

Anatoly raised an eyebrow. "United Nations? What is that, some kind of federation? And you made it into space?" He looked somewhat awed. "Not even the Commonwealth's been able to do that yet- at least, not to my knowledge- and we're the most technologically advanced power in the world."

[Parlor]

Linna's eyebrows went up. "Yes, and yes. It's...fairly normal by now, honestly. Not even that impressive, anymore, to have been yourself. Kind of like going on cruise ship. It's neat but it's not beyond the reach of the average person if they try a little."

She raised an eyebrow. "That you know of? It's kind of a big deal to be the first. Not something you'd even want to keep secret under most circumstances..."

Anatoly looked away. "Yes well, let's just say that the current situation on Avanterra doesn't exactly fall under the heading of 'most circumstances'. Besides, I can think of more important things than bragging rights when it comes to a given nation's national accomplishments. For one, if access to space travel gave you some sort of advantage over national enemies, wouldn't you want to preserve that advantage by making sure nobody else knew about it? Or are the bragging rights the primary advantage of space travel?" The idea seemed ludicrous to him.

[Parlor]

Linna shook her head. "Far from it, though at first the main advantage is passive rather than active if your progress is like ours...but getting there is a large undertaking and visible for many miles usually. Hiding everything, all the production and the physical launch is...very impractical, even for nation-state."

She paused and considered how to explain . "An advantage kept perfectly secret is an advantage unexploited. One used but unexplained induces paranoia, which is not always wise. An advantage known is one your enemies must take into account, helping to keep the balance or ensure that they understand you are in a position to dictate, and they should perhaps listen."

She leaned back in the chair again. "And of course, doing something nobody else has or can do is a great thing to be able to sell to the population, with tangible benefits to public order and probably other things. Give people a little pride in their nation."

Terenkash wasn't convinced, and it showed in his expression. "Maybe this is more a product of my perspective as a Commonwealth politician, but it seems to me more sensible to play your best cards close to your chest." Not to mention the fact that you're an ally of the SDU, he thought wryly to himself. "But then again, what with the nature of this place, the context might be different. For one thing, the United Nations is probably not embroiled in a war against the remnants of a continent-spanning arcane Empire that it deposed four and a half decades ago."

edited 31st Mar '13 8:56:56 PM by Gault

[Outside=> Entry Hall]

"Come on Lance, you gotta get yourself over him, have some fun, get some..."

"Hilda I..."

Hilda looks down at Lance hand on her hip, her black hair in a long braid behind her head, "It's been an hour. Either you're going to go in there and attempt to enjoy yourself, or I'm going to tie you down and force liquor down your throat until you do."

"I hardly think that's..."

"No buts!" Hilda begins literally pushing Lance towards the door, red silk evening gown billowing behind her. "You're not going to get your happy ending by looking pretty, do you think I got Franz to..."

Lance stumbles forward and dashes over to the door, "Fine if you're going to be so pushy." He opens it wide and sighs, "After you."

Hilda rolls her eyes and walks in, pulling him in behind her. "So, this is the glorious place where you got hammered."

[Parlor]

Linna shook her head. "It's not. Four and a half decades? Continuous warfare? Because that seems like a rather poor job at the initial deposing. The Empire never ended if it managed to bring in another two whole generations." It occurred to her she'd just quoted a line from one of those cyberpunk novels Nene loved and she frowned. "At some point it's not mop-up anymore."

As a former...well, not really an insurgent but certainly an urban guerrilla, she had a practical interest in counterinsurgency technique. Four and a half decades smacked of incompetence or dogmatic unwillingness of the power structure to integrate. "But the UN is not so much a formal alliance as it is a theoretically neutral forum for diplomacy. Which just happens to be able to rain death upon most of the planet. The original mission has been somewhat blurred by the space-based weapons treaties."

Anatoly gave a solemn nod. "It's tough work, pulling something that had once been so pervasive and powerful up by the roots. They still have the natural advantage their magic gives them, and that's been more than enough to keep Humanity under their bootheel for over a thousand years. But, we've made recent gains and we will eventually win. We have to. It's the only way this war's ever going to end." His tone turned scornful. "There are still sympathizers, people who pine for the bad old days of Mage-lord oppression, if you can believe it. And hearing that, I'm somewhat glad that the present conflict doesn't have that outer-space dimension to it. It's more than bloody enough a conflict with land armies alone."

[Garden]

Claire raised an eyebrow herself. "Oh?" She said. "Now, what makes you think that? It's just an expression, after all..."

[Sparring Room]

As an answer to Aseyu's challenge, Jonathan used his magic to manipulate luck. It was a subtle thing, and since Jon was new to this power, he could only do small things. But it was enough to turn the time in battle, and hey, in the words of Cain Stellark: Fighting fair was for pussies.

Gabrielle set up a Counter, over herself, a magical shield that softened physical damage and reflected it towards the attacker.

Jonathan unsheathed the sword and took a swing at Aseyu, while Gabrielle shot out a blast of magical energy at her.

[Balcony]

Ozzy's neck ached. The possibility that he was, again, waiting for nothing had begun to dawn on him. He considered checking the stairs, for the man was old, but never did act. However, when he heard the front door open up again, he did not wait to bolt out of his chair and back to the edge of the balcony.

It was not the old man leaving, as he had feared. No, it was two people entering from outside, a man and a woman, and upon a second glance, Ozzy could recognize the man as the same downtrodden man he'd run into on the stairs earlier. It seemed he'd returned again after... well... it had been quite some time, hadn't it? Ozzy backed away from the banister, a little unsteadily. He made his way back to his chair and slowly sat down, fortunate enough this time to not land in any uncomfortable positions. Even if he had, it probably would have taken quite a bit of time before he noticed. Ozzy resumed his position, though his mind was taken with uneasy thoughts, and the fear that he was just wasting more time.