In the center of a bustling city stands its crown jewels, a trio of grand, enormous pavilions. Within the facade of this old palace churns a city all its own, bodies chattering and exploring and roving about in search of the exotic and new and awe-inspiring. After all, no place could be better, for here, in the form of these stalls and displays for this fair, is where the worlds have chosen to convene. On the convention floor, they hawk their creeds, their products, their livelihoods, all competing for the attention of attendees as diverse as they are. But who is this 'they'? Why, anyone, from anywhere at all. From friendly small businesses to ominous corporations, from rebellions trying to gain ground to dying regimes attempting to rekindle their glory, from scientists and scholars to artists and storytellers. If an attendee can think of it, it could very well be here. Who knows what you'll find?
- Current Time: Noon/Early Afternoon (Day 2)
- Current Weather: Clear
Hello, Writer's Block, and welcome to the latest installment of the Character Development Threads! These shared story exercises give you the opportunity to develop your characters, practice writing, and have fun alongside your fellow writers, no signups, profiles, or GM approval necessary. Want to join? If the thread's gotten long, there's no need to fear Archive Panic- just head on over to our discussion thread
and say so, and we'll give you a recap of what's going on and good spots for working your characters into the thread; how you choose to do this is up to you. A little communication in endeavors such as these can go a long way towards having fun, helping others, getting that kink in your character worked out, getting your characters out of their comfort zone, or whatever you're here for, so if you ever have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to ask. We're all for helping each other out.
This thread's designated trope page is here, and its map is here
◊. Don't forget to add your contributions to the page!
In this thread, as the introduction and name suggests, your characters will be coming to a convention, a gathering open to the various and sundry worlds of our stories, whether as attendees hoping to see something cool... or as parts of the exhibition themselves. Yes, you, the writer, will be shaping not just the cast and plots, but the setting as well in the form of stalls and exhibits. Note that this necessitates that we keep a few small things in mind to keep things running smoothly.
- Our standards of location for this thread are intentionally vague to allow ourselves the freedom to make up stalls on the fly as our plots demand, as well as to account for the fact that wandering around between stalls and chatting with your friends is as much a part of the convention experience as the stalls themselves. For the sake of keeping track of people, in lieu of standard location tags in the vein of [Market Hall], we recommend that you also append the names of the characters you're with.
- Though you're welcome to bring a piece of home in the form of a stall and control the characters running it, you're also welcome to bring a stall that exists solely as a plot device without ever mentioning it again. The basic rules to keep in mind are to write a stall as long as it takes to fulfill its raison d'être, whether that's to develop a faction or similar in your work or to keep the plot moving along, and that stalls can be anything. More specific info can be found on the trope page linked above.
- If you find yourself unexpectedly busy in other endeavors after entering the thread, there are easy ways to back out, whether you're writing for attendees or stalls. Attendees can step out into the covered walkways connecting the convention buildings or the adjacent courtyard for some fresh air and relief from the constant noise of the crowds, while stalls can suddenly become flooded with enough nameless background characters to render the stall too busy to reply to any troper characters that were interacting with it at the time.
With all that out of the way, we cordially invite you to stay and experience the Character Worlds' Fair! Onwards!
(Credit for this post and much of the work on the thread belongs to Crystal Glacia).
Fair has now concluded.
edited 31st Mar '15 2:06:36 AM by nrjxll
[Market Hall - Tevarian's Booth - Somlan Erris, Tevarian T'jok]
Somlan quietly and gingerly put the tablet back where he had gotten it, moving slowly, as though he thought it might explode. T'jok has used far to many nonsense words in that explanation. Clearly he was from some place with more than a negligibly different history, to say nothing of its physical laws.
"Well, what about these?" he asked. He indicated both the glass prism-object and the chip-mounted sphere. "Do they have practical uses, or are they just decorative? They look like they might make good gifts for"—He paused almost imperceptibly—"ah, friends. Souvenirs, as it were."
[Showcase Hall - Martian Dynamics]
"Stuart." Dimitri turned back to his security detail head.
"Sir?"
"You didn't bring any of those Lunar Guard things, did you?" Dimitri's tone was studiously neutral.
"No sir. Not with us." Stuart's tone was also perfectly neutral. Dimitri sighed. He rather suspected that was a deliberate dodge.
Nous restons ici.[Hotel 10F Vakaza Room (Rey, Iris, Mijo, Lihiri, Nioba, Adrien]
She looked away from Adrien without another word, then headed around the bed.
"I was going to give my piece to a friend of mine anyway." Mijo skipped up Iris's arm and back onto her shoulder, glaring at Nioba and Lihiri with his head raised. To Rey, she added, "He's a scientist, he works with things like that for a living. We can track down our money while he looks at it." She took her piece of the armor out of her purse. "Suppose that leaves you three to find his friend. Have fun with that," and she turned to head out, waiting for Rey to follow.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."[Hotel 10F Vakaza Room -> Hotel Lobby (Rey, Iris)]
"He - hecks, I couldn't care less about the money," Rey replied. "I just want to know what was really going on with the guy."
She turned and followed Iris, stopping briefly to give one more look at the remaining people in the room. Lihiri and Nioba got a stare similar to how she'd look at a piece of awake but unexploded ordinance. Their naivete had been more amusing than anything else, but after Shark's demise she found herself much more wary of them.
Her glance at Adrien was more measured - she still wanted his story. Though not enough, in the end, to try and get past her post-combat apathy and actually make the effort to tug it out. Perhaps they'd meet up again; the fair might have been huge, but coincidences had a habit of happening beyond the Gates. Or at least I think they do. Kel'd know more than me.
Path, I cannot wait to see his reaction when I finally tell him about this.
That thought gave her a little energy back, and she quickly caught up with Iris. She didn't speak until they'd entered the elevators and were on their way to the lobby, though. "Well. That was... enlivening. If nothing else."
As Rey and Iris made their way into the lobby, it was obvious through the windows that the sun had nearly reached the horizon. Outside, more and more of the fair stalls had either closed or turned on their lights, while more and more knots of activity formed around the stalls catering to more nocturnal activities. The area near the gates grew more crowded as many of the daytime guests left, while new ones arrived for the nightlife and such.
The sky was lit in brilliant shades of orange and red as the sun prepared to set, but was otherwise clear.
- Current Time: Sunset
- Current Weather: Clear
edited 25th Dec '14 2:10:44 PM by nrjxll
[Market Hall - Tevarian's Booth - Somlan Erris, Tevarian T'jok]
"Ah, well, the prism device is a Coilarian Energy Freezer - very rare and valuable," Tevarian said, "it can freeze energy pulses, lightning, and forcefields in midair, for many potential applications. Mostly academic, but it can be useful defensively as well."
"And the second is a Xenarian Calibration Chip," he said, "an artifact from the great precursors of my universe. It's a very mysterious device, sometimes capable of miracles beyond imagination, and other times strangely inactive. I'm afraid it's in one of those inactive phases now - has been for the last 20 years or so. But you never know what it might be capable of under the right circumstances."
[Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]
Alice briefly opened her mouth to argue the first point, about radioactive decay. However, after a bit of thought, she decided she didn't understand the topic well enough to get into the fight. She felt like there was some important distinction or point that Isaac could have jumped on. He was an agronomist, not a physicist, but would probably have significantly more relevant knowledge. Lacking his scientific background, however, Alice decided it was best to let it go.
Onto the new word for her vocabulary. "I see," she said, "or, at least, I think I see. A 'serah'," she did a surprisingly good job of pronouncing it, tapped "r" and all, "is something's essential thing-ness, more or less?" She frowned thoughtfully. "Reminded of a phrase I heard describing... something troublesome. I think it went... 'neither matter nor energy, but the echo of both, even as it shapes the same'. Sound familiar?"
edited 25th Dec '14 8:06:51 PM by KillerClowns
[hotel lobby (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
"Until those two showed up. Last time I saw them, they sided with a madman who threatened to eat Mijo. Rather not be around them any more than I need."
Iris headed around the elevator, picking a seating area that would at least be out of the girls' direct line of sight should they choose to come downstairs. She looked off to the side seemingly at nothing until ripples began to form in midair, like the surface of a liquid in a glass only rotated vertically. The ripples stopped no more than a hand's length from their epicenter as though striking the inside of the glass, the circle darkening in color to a reddish mahogany hue. A small portal, aimed at a closed door. Unceremoniously, she reached through with her free hand and knocked. A moment passed and a man who appeared to be in his forties answered the door, hitting both women in the face with the warm, heady aroma of hot French-pressed coffee. His skin was a tanned olive similar to the Vakaza, but in contrast to their heavy builds, everything about him was exaggeratedly thin and sharp, and his short, dark brown hair was mussed in the backwards direction from repeated finger-combings.
She raised her armor piece up so he could see, which his blood-colored eyes immediately followed as he cracked a smile.
"Can you find out what it's made of?"
"Oh, that's what this is about? Here to use me again?" He smirked playfully, then pulled the piece out of her hand with telekinesis. Without missing a beat as the piece flew into his own hand, he turned to Rey. "Hi, Vinicio Acquati." He gave her a friendly nod, then apparently took his end of the portal with him when he began walking down to his lab as though it were but a camera. "Not sure how long this will take, it's definitely not of our world..."
Leaving this open in case Rey wants to add something
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."[Hotel Lobby (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
Rey blinked behind her glasses. "Huh, you have history with those two? I didn't pick up on that at all."
Any elaboration on her part was cut short by the portal opening up. She blinked again and set her glasses to full scan, though just from the visuals alone, she guessed it was probably a major upgrade from what the Vakaza had. Or at least more directly controlled. Okay, I was definitely not expecting that. Add it to today's list.
She returned Acquati's nod somewhat warily, her instinctual response of 'well duh' dying in her throat. Then she turned towards Iris. "So yeah, that wasn't quite what I was expecting. All your friends do that?"
edited 26th Dec '14 11:52:13 PM by nrjxll
[Hotel, 10th Floor, Vakaza room]
Adrien took the flask from Nioba and, after hesitating, took a sip. The spicy cider burned his throat and left him with a pleasant tingle in the back of his head. "Hm. Not bad."
He returned the flask, then reached a hand down to straighten the front of his uniform. "Well, that was exciting," he said, "and I think that's a good idea. I should like to find this mysterious employer. There's a chance he knows more about those terrorists. Speaking of them, the second one is gone. That portal wouldn't have led anywhere near here, It'd be a waste of time to look for him."
Adrien waited until the others left, and then spoke again to Nioba and Lihiri. "I take it you and the two of them have some mutual history?"
edited 27th Dec '14 4:27:27 AM by Gault
yey[Hotel Lobby (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
"Portal-making?" Iris rubbed the corner of her eye, careful to avoid her makeup. "It's a common Atonari skill. Sorcery has never been my strong suit, so I only know how to get to about three places."
Acquati kept walking, through what seemed to be an endless array of blue decor. "One of which is inside my house."
Icily, she shot back. "Your study might as well be your entire house considering how you work."
He blinked, studying the two women in silence. Tired, he thought as he played with the armor piece in his fingers, they should get dinner. They went through some shit to get this, didn't they. He reached a door and stopped, then turned to face the portal head-on. "Iris, I'll send the results to your tablet." She nodded. "Either of you have any questions or things of that nature for me before I go?"
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."[Hotel Lobby (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
"Not really," Rey said. That is a lotta blue in there.
She scowled, realizing her thoughts were getting a little fuzzy. Focus. You've never seen anything like this before, and all you can do is snark at the color palette? "Actually, yeah, I do. You said that thing's 'not of this world' - how can you tell? And how're you going to test? D... the thing's nearly indestructible."
She decided not to mention anything else about the portals. She couldn't quite tell if they were a real sore subject between Iris and Acquati or just banter, but if it was the first, better not get involved.
"You don't have to get into a lot of hardcore sci-tech jargon or anything," she added hastily, raising a hand. "Just kind of curious about it. Old mil-college lesson: always know that there is a process, even if you don't know the process."
edited 27th Dec '14 11:10:46 PM by nrjxll
[Market Hall - Food Court] (Leo, Nore, Solin)
"The timestamp for the video showed that it was taken a while ago." the man said.
As if ascertained, Leo walked up to the security mob, "I'm convinced that I did no wrong, and I'm very much willing to prove that." Leo said. "Still, we've been quite a bother to people eating here. Can we take this somewhere else?" he asked. Leo shot Nore and Solin a glance, "By the way, it's been nice talking to you. Shame someone has to ruin our chat." he said.
The security mob gave a "We're done here" nod, and after strategically placing some guards on Leo's flank, began to made their way outside the food court.
[Market Hall - Food Court] (Aida, Marion)
"He can use another pair of hands, never know what those guards are up to." Aida said, "See you later, Marion." she said, before subtly following the group.
Cloud Hotel - Vakaza Room (Nioba, Lihiri, Adrien)
"I've never met the green one before," Nioba responded, "but that little grey bitch allowed her pet to attack a man earlier today while he happened to be talking to Lihiri. I was not overly fond of the man, but given that the little beast appeared to be uncontrolled and there were civilians around, I drew my sword to in the event that fighting was necessary. Exactly what happened next, I am not sure - I had moved behind the grey woman to intercept her in case she chose to fight, and thus my view was obstructed - but it appeared that the man managed to scare the little beast, but sustained injuries to his hand. Lihiri, as she is prone to do, offered to heal the man's injuries. That woman seems to interpret these actions as a personal affront."
She shrugged. "Perhaps I am simply prejudiced against her because her appearance and demeanor remind me of an Azikathi." A pause. "My people have ritual weapons designed for killing Azikathi."
Meanwhile, Lihiri had awoken and had moved to the bathroom to transmute the corrosive splatters on the wall into something more benign.
Nioba considered how to go about searching for either the employer or the terrorist. "Do you remember anything about the people who kidnapped you?" she asked Adrien.
By now, it should be clear to all except the most dense of us that sheep are secretly conspiring to kill us all and steal our pants.[Market Hall - Food Court —> Heading to Hotel]
Nore and Solin exchanged looks, then shrugged, and Nore said, "you seem to have matters under control, and," she glanced at the sun, "the day grows late. Dead gods, already?" She exchanged a bemused look with Solin, then said, "fare thee well, Leo, and it was a pleasure meeting you." With that, Nore and Solin headed off — for now, planning to return to their hotel room.
If someone wants to encounter or bother them, they can.
[Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]
"Yeah," said Richard, nodding. "'Thing-ness' is close enough for now. There are some differences, but they're largely semantic and... well, really hard to translate out of Menyic."
Upon hearing Alice's phrase, he frowned and tugged at a frill. "I've... never really heard that, no. And that's not really accurate for sera'en, anyway. They're not really an echo, more a... a quality something has. It's hard t- No, wait, it's like matter has to have mass. If you have matter, you must have mass, and if you have mass, you must have matter. Or if you have an electrical current, you must have flowing electrons, and vice versa. A serah isn't an echo of matter or energy, it's an inherent quality of matter or energy."
He was about to leave it there when something else came to him. "Although there are sera'en for physical qualities, too, like malleability, color, reactivity, specific heat, stuff like that. You could make iron rustproof by removing its reactivity-to-oxygen serah, for example."
As he spoke, though, Richard couldn't shake the feeling that Alice was trying to get at something else. Something... bigger, maybe? Maybe not. She was probably just be comparing her stuff with his stuff. But she seemed bright enough to be able to ask about things in a roundabout way. Still, Richard wasn't too concerned about that. It wasn't like she was insulting him or anything, which was more than could be said for some people (from his own world, even).
Market Hall (Heading Towards Food Court) (Nagako, Tamara)
"Just shopping? Aren't you at least a little interested in what these other places might be like?" Nagako asked, before frowning slightly. "...Or is that sort of thing business as usual for you? The land I'm from is a little...secluded to say the least, and my family doesn't travel a whole lot. I wouldn't know what a life like that would be like."
Icon by Civvi the Civilian![Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]
Listening to Richard's explanation, Alice was at first visibly relieved, but as she listened, worry began to show on her face. She muttered to herself, "I... well, a simple example, but an illustrative one." She looked back up at Richard, and, after a few moments racking her brain to make sure she recalled the details competently, said, "so, color, you mentioned. Color is just what wavelengths of light are reflected. Let's make sure I understand, then. You can change the wavelengths reflected. Are there any side effects?" She wished she'd brought an expert, but she grabbed something from elementary physics. "I would expect a heat absorption change..."
Before Richard could reply, she suddenly added, "oh, and, silly question; would it be possible to make something a color that's, say, darker than pitch-black? Because that should, hopefully, be physically impossible."
edited 28th Dec '14 3:10:42 PM by KillerClowns
[Market Hall — Food Court]
"Feh," Marion muttered as Aida left. "If you want to go help him, just go and fucking help him, I don't give a shit. Don't waffle about trying to not insult me." To be honest, she actually would've preferred Aida leave early. It would've meant she actually valued him more as a friend.
Marion realized she was thirsty. She pushed out her chair and began flitting her gaze over the shops. What would be a good place to get a drink? She didn't really care what, at the moment, so long as it wasn't just a drinking fountain.
[Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]
Richard paused for a moment, and realized- "To be honest, I don't really know," he admitted. "But I strongly doubt it. Magic, being, you know, magic, doesn't necessarily involve conservation of energy, so artificially shifting the color might create or destroy tiny bits of energy to adjust." He flared his wings.
"I don't think it'd matter that much," said Myles. "Have you ever felt that much of a difference wearing a blue shirt as opposed to an otherwise-identical green shirt? The energy differences are probably real small."
"Or that," nodded Richard. "That makes sense."
That second question seemed a bit specific. Maybe his hunch was right. But Richard wasn't going to pry. Not yet, anyway. "No going darker than black, though. Black is just the absence of light, and we can't take something away from nothing to make it darker. We could make something completely black by absorbing all the light that hits it, but that'd just make an ideal..." He frowned and scratched his head. "A... um..." He glanced meaningfully at Myles.
"A blackbody," said Myles flatly.
Richard slapped himself in the face. "Right," he muttered. "Duh. That'd just make a blackbody."
[Hotel Lobby (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
"It has its own pulse, for starters. Faint, but there. Definitely an anomaly for something this unreactive, not to mention it's off-beat." He turned the piece around in his bony fingers, now seemingly more interested in it than the portal in front of his face. "Generating a molecular profile should be trivial, but that pulse just demands an energetic analysis..." Acquati tapped his fingernail against the armor piece's glassy surface, then looked back at Rey to wrap this up. "I didn't get your name, did I?"
Iris watched him blankly, more than happy to close up the portal and get out of this damned hotel. Mijo had positioned himself backwards on her shoulder, watching for anyone they met in the hotel room.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."[Hotel Lobby (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
"Pulse. You mean it's alive or something?" Rey stared at the armor through her glasses again, trying to see what it was Acquati was seeing, but there was nothing. The armor was totally dark. ...Wait, he probably doesn't mean a pulse like that anyway.
"Since you asked, name's Reyondh Agavhi. Colonel Reyondh Agavhi, technically, but you can probably just call me Rey. Nice meeting you, doc."
She looked over at Iris. The other woman was hard to read, and not just because she looked much closer to human than orl; there tended to be a sort of impassivity about her face most of the time. Or maybe Rey was just lousy at reading people subtler than most of her co-professionals and employers. But either way, right now she could tell that Iris seemed bored.
"So," Rey told her, "I think we've been in Fancy Hotel long enough. What do you say to journeying over to the food court and getting some kind of dinner?"
[Market Hall - Food Court (Marion, a gluvpaki)]
As Marion looked around in the food court, she could see several stalls that were selling drinks, from small snack carts with cheap soft drinks, to beer stands, to one stall manned by what appeared to be a large green insect with a sign reading Zzym' 1395739205775's Pure Refined Water.
As she approached whichever one she was interested in, a smallish bipedal reptilian alien - about the same height as her - approached the stall as well. It (or 'he' if she could tell that) looked vaguely like a featherless deinonychosaurian, with a triangular snout, clawed hands, and a long tail. It was covered in pale orange scales and had eyes roughly the same color. It wore loose gray clothing, a couple of pale green metal rings around its neck, and had a transparent strip of off-white fabric wrapped around its eyes.
The alien looked from Marion to the drink stall. "Would you mind allowing me to pay for that, zer?" it asked her in a high-pitched male voice.
Leaving the exact details of the stall up to you.
[Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]
Alice nodded, visibly relieved when Richard and Myles declared it was impossible to get darker than a blackbody. She dimly recalled the phrase "blackbody radiation." Was that relevant? Another thing out of her areas of knowledge. Probably not. Then she said, "okay, that's all good to hear. Saves a lot of mess. Still not sure quite how I feel about conservation of energy being tweaked about like that..." she then sighed.
She'd noticed that her odd questions were inspiring a bit of suspicion. "If you're wondering... well, where I come from, the laws of time and space are kinda like a mosquito net. You pull on a few threads a bit too hard, even if it doesn't seem like much, and, uh," she began to subtly start shifting her weight back and forth, from one foot to the other, "things get through. I don't suppose you have any experience with that?"
edited 29th Dec '14 5:04:45 AM by KillerClowns
[Market Hall — Food Court]
Wine. Marion decided she could go for some wine. Just a little, though; she didn't want to wind up drunk. She zeroed in on a wine stand and was looking over the menu when someone behind her spoke up.
When she glanced at the reptile, she had no initial reaction. Then her eyes went to its neck and she cringed a little. "Yeegh. Orange and green? Really? Make the green blue. And a bit darker. Because seriously. Orange and green? That's... Yeegh."
When she turned back to the menu, Marion's gaze went to the rightmost side of the menu, the really expensive side. If it thought it could just walk up to her and... oho, was that wine a millennium old? No, actually, it was two. That should do wonders for the taste. Red, too. She'd never heard of the name — Speyer — but figured she'd give a shot (ha ha) anyway. "If you want," she said. And to the proprietor, "I'll have a shot of the Speyer."
[Showcase Hall — Drs. Tsaadlo and Whittaker]
Myles shrugged. "You get used to it. And after seeing some of the things transfiguration can do, well..." He chuckled. "A lack of energy conservation is pretty tame, let me tell you."
Richard was quiet for a moment, racking his mind as best he could for something about Bad Things coming into the universe. It sounded a bit like one of those weird conspiracy theories, but it didn't hurt to be safe. After a while, he said, "Nope. Never heard of anything like that. And given how widespread magic is in our society, it'd've turned up by now if that did happen."
So that was it. Huh. And you know what? He could be the one asking questions this time. "So you just want to be sure we're not letting anything in? It doesn't sound like it could be anything good."
[hotel lobby > to food court (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
"Likewise. I'll see you in a bit!" Acquati snapped his fingers and the portal closed without a trace.
That was when Rey suggested dinner. Dinner sounded good. The two headed off, Iris moreso in the hope that they might miss the girls. "There was a little stand selling lemon Italian ice. I doubt they're still open at this hour, but I could go for something lemony after all of that." Tea? Sherbet? A different stand's Italian ice? Meringue? Cake? Now she wanted it all.
"Jack, you have debauched my sloth."[Food Court (Rey, Iris, Mijo)]
Rey raised her eye-ridges. "Lemons? Not sure if... hang on." She entered the term into her backup's search feature; they weren't hooked into a planetlink, but there was always the chance it was in her stored database. And in fact it was.
She read the overlaid text briefly, and shook her head. "Personally I was thinking something a little bit... eh, let's say energetic. Don't know about you, but I always get the urge to try and get some action back after seeing action." She picked up the pace to avoid a passing knot of guests heading home for the evening. "Not sure exactly what that'd be, though. You see anything interesting while you were roaming around the place earlier today?"
Probably not, she's not even the type, upper-class warlady like that. But you never know unless you ask.
[Food Court (Marion, Gerrune)]
The gluvpaki (for such was the name of the alien's species) gave a slightly pained-looking smile that revealed an extensive set of sharp and nasty-looking teeth, before turning to the proprietor. "I suppose I'll be paying for the Speyer, then."
His expression turned pained again as the proprietor indicated the price, but he produced a small metal triangular pad and entered the payment information into it without any verbal complaints. As the proprietor turned to fetch the drink, he turned towards Marion.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Cy-Par Gerrune, and I would like to take this moment to offer you a proposition of sorts." A pause. "Although if I'm correct in understanding there was a specific rationale behind your selection of wine, I should probably first clarify that I mean a business proposition." He made a slight honking noise, the gluvpaki analogue to laughter, although it was clearly somewhat forced.
edited 30th Dec '14 1:03:06 AM by nrjxll

[Market Hall - Tevarian's Booth - Somlan Erris, Karl Emmesin, Tevarian T'jok]
"Goodbye," Tevarian said as Emmesin left.
Then, to Somlan, he said, "yes, there are many worlds, some say an infinite number, even. Each one is different, although can be very similar. They can also have radically different laws of physics, such as having magic or not, and any number of other changes. This Worlds' Fair is a meeting ground of many of these alternate worlds, and so you never know what you may find!"
"As for that tablet," he said, "it is an SCTC encryption demo system. It is a sort of writing surface; however, the data you put into it is garbled mathematically so that only someone with the encryption key can retrieve the data. The SCTC, being as secretive and defensive as they are, have some of the best encryption known. In fact, even master forensics cannot tell if there is information encoded in one of these tablets or not. It works like an invisible safe for information."