“It’s making perfect sense so far.” Internally, Ishani grimaced. They’d lost their BrightSpace monopoly, and they wouldn’t be able to research the strange tech realm their new acquaintances found themselves in. It would be a great shame for their father. At least he wouldn’t be one he’d have to carry for long.
Scytheros was going to have a great start to his reign.
“If you don’t mind, lets keep moving forward.”
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“Well, Party A may use materials in the Nexus, to plan, use and acquire information. This may be done with the use of a Rift Walker. Sadie will be your residential Rift Walker. This may change with time. Party A & B are to engage in wargames. Wargames are for military preparedness, which will be done in realspace. Both parties will create a hosting celestial body or station. Realspace Space battles can be performed in the vicinity of the Wargame Planet. Ground Battles will be on the celestial body or station.”
Tullia laughs a little, but suppresses it
“The military people want a sparring partner, and honestly, a little competition never hurt anybody, right?”
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“I’m sure the military would love someone to fight against. I presume, seeing as we are to respect your sole ownership on the Rose Nexus, you’ll respect our right to research countermeasures. After all, what good are wargames if you can just disable our ships? I’m sure you could also gain some useful insight on how other star nations may try to negate your advantage over them.”
Ishani paused, brewing over something. Sparring seemed like asking for trouble, but it couldn’t be helped.
“Very well, I suppose sparring matches can be arranged, but I’d urge both parties to act in an air of caution. As you already know, the mandi are much stronger than they appear, and that’s without mentioning the soldier caste. They’re also not overly fond of non-insectoid life…”
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“Well, of course. There’s a touchy subject around here though. Sadie, if you would, as you stated you would.”
Sadie perks up
“Oh right! Eternity! So… You know how I can do all these data things? There’s a spot where you do that. And… The Nexus, will most likely be under joint ownership from here on out. There’s a provision here that states that a person from the Colonus Pact can, at any time, enter into Eternity. Think of it as… Hell. Literally. But if you survive yourself, you become like me. Attached to it. And since we’re good friends… Good friends are good custodians. Please don’t send anybody weird. And when mean weird, I mean power hungry.”
Tullia begins to speak again
“Sparring as in… Vehicle combat? It’s hard to explain to an outsider… It’s called a tank… Essentially it’s tracked, and it has a big gun… And it’s mobile on the ground. These are for us since we are really squishy… to direct damage. You probably don’t need such things, since you are extraordinarily strong.”
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Ishani looked at Tullia. All eight of their eyes blinked. This was certainly turning out to be interesting.
“I’d be surprised if there was a spacefaring nation without some form of ground warfare at some point in its history. It also helps that my brother is the Lord of the entire human fragment of Colonus, so yes, I know what a tank is. We’ve also found that ground warfare negates some of the advantages of orbital defenses/offences, since it’d require bombing their own planet, soldiers, infrastructure, etc… As for Eternity, well, I’m sure there’s someone out there who could survive it. But that’s for later, literally putting our citizens through hell doesn’t sound like a good representation of unity.”
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Tullia smiles, though internally grimacing
“It’d be better to not assume, first contact and all…”
Tullia’s smile vanishes
“Well, that should be it. You can take it back to your legislative system. I’ll be waiting here.”
Tullia takes a pen, and pushes it in Ishani’s general direction, placing it midway through the table before stopping, indicating to return when they wanted to talk or sign the document
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Ishani looked at the pen, unsure if they were supposed to pick it up. But, if they were, why stop in the middle? Cultural symbols were so delicate, as any vanti should know. Ishani supposed it was better to not take the pen than to pick it up. A lack of engagement in societal norms had to be more excusable than blundering their way through to not look like an idiot.
“I’m sure the Senate will be thrilled to give this their support. By now, Lord Scytheros should have gotten through to High Lord Araknis.” Ishani went to leave, but paused. “About your mother… far be it for me to comment on parenting, I’m not even 25 yet, but I’d be careful if I were her. Sometimes people just need a nudge in the right direction, and sometimes you just end up building the wrong character.” Ishani continued into the gate, muttering something about “Vrache” and “Zelani”.
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Tullia says as Ishani is about to leave
“The Pen stays on the table, ‘til we both sign. I apologize for not making it clearer. Farewell, Ishani.”
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Ishani chuckled. “Farewell Tullia. That pen won’t be resting there for much longer.”
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Tullia sighs, dwelling on what Ishani was talking about with ‘wrong’ character. She decided not to think too much of it, and walked to her room in the embassy, seeing Sadie follow her and manifest a game board
“Sortie Order?”
“How’d you guess?”
“It’s the only board game here with a 21x21 board.”
“Fair enough.”
“Yes, i’ll play. Nothing better to do while we wait.”
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[@Stormfire10 you wanna continue, or wait until the current round of The Crucible finishes?]
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[I know, it’s more that we both have the crucible going on, you have a fc, and I have a solo rp, so we’d be juggling a lot all at once]
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[More like annoyed]
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Ishani gingerly stepped back into the embassy, the first time she had since her father’s funeral, and the awful things that had happened after. Scytheros had ordered the ship decommissioned; it was always going to happen, the time table for it had just been moved forward a little bit.
She shook her head. It still felt strange, being 25. A couple hundred years ago, she’d even have been considered lucky. It was just so weird. Her siblings told her that she’d grow accustomed to it.
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Colonus Pact Embassy Building
The Data Frontiers, Nexus Territory
Tullia Cicero & “Sadie”
Conditions – Light Data Storm
Tullia emerges from her own room in the Embassy, wearing the Serniani equivalent to something comfy
“Hey Ishani.”
Tullia walks back to the table
“You alright? Sorry for your loss.”
Sadie is sitting in the corner of the Communal Space, fidgeting with what appears to be something blue and dusty, but it dissipates as she looks up to see Ishani
“Hey Ishani. Happy late Twenty-fifth birthday!”
Sadie reads the room, for the first time in a long time
“Sorry for your loss. Sorry I couldn’t make it to the funeral either. Don’t think the others would appreciate my presence. You okay?”
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“Yes, thank you both for the kind words. We have a saying, back in Colonus, that the Avansi live long and love short. I’m just lucky I had as much time with my father as I did.” Ishani paused for a moment. “Anyway, Scytheros has asked me to be the official ambassador to the Scientific Directorate of Roscordia, at least until I get my domain.”
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Colonus Pact Embassy Building
The Data Frontiers, Nexus Territory
Tullia Cicero & “Sadie”
Conditions – Light Data Storm
“Domain?”
Sadie looks very confused
“Like…?”
“A position of authority, Sadie.”
“Oh… So my domain is the Nexus?”
“Yeah, technically.”
“So, uh…”
Tullia Cicero looks at herself and shyly smiles
“Sorry, about all this… Are you here to chat? Diplomacy? Tea?”
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“Science, actually. As you may know, my father didn’t exactly leave the Colonus Pact in the most… modernized state. My brother figured, since you already have acess to some fo the technology, and, of course, in the spirit of friendship, you might as well have a delegation in a new scientific effort of his. I believe he’s calling it the ‘BrightSpace Project’”
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Colonus Pact Embassy Building
The Data Frontiers, Nexus Territory
Tullia Cicero & “Sadie”
Conditions – Light Data Storm
“We’ll see what we can do. There’s a couple people who’d love to, since our labcoats at our shipyards who reversed engineered that drive would love to.”
Tullia pauses, unsure how to carry the topic, instead choosing to shift the topic to another thing
“So… Any news diplomatically? I know we’re hosting that… Thing. With Enver and Colonus later in a few months. What’s your brother’s opinion on that?”
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“He’s… cautiously reserved, for the moment. I think he’d like some time to assess the alliance more thoroughly. After all, we hardly know you- no offence intended- and we’d never even heard of this ‘Enver’ before.”
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