MISSION 8 - START!!

IN THE LAST EPISODE:
"So where the heck is Drift, anyway?" Was the question on most viewer's minds. Fortunately, John answered that question and lead the team there, with relative ease. However, being IN Drift was significantly harder than getting there, with a sudden NMX Mishhuvurthyar raid from within - that was barely contained, but the damage was kept to a relative minimum with the Phoenix Crew's presence.

Now, they head onwards, reimbursed by the generous Governor of Drift to go and pick up a new vessel. However, as always, things will get interesting for the Crew of the INTERSTELLAR SPACE CRUISER PHOENIX!!

Eventually, as the movie wound down and Galar leaving to oversee the minor reconstruction of Drift, the ISC Big Bird was free to leave whenever it wanted. With that in mind, John got the ship flying quietly, so as to maintain the festivity.

Luca was, for the most part, lounging in the cargo bay, with the makeshift living room. John had gotten himself some books and odd-shaped dice. There were some pencils and paper scattered about too.

"So lemme get this straight," Luca asked as he held up an icosahedron, "I roll this, and add the number?"
"Yeah, you add your Brawn bonus to it." John explained, hiding behind a large book labelled, 'Galaxy Adventure TTRPG', "Or, if you're using a gun, add your Reflex."

"Weird, can't I just do it for real?"
"No no no, the point is that you let the dice decide the outcome," John justified.
"I can shoot plenty fine," Luca shrugged, contemplating at the sheet in front of him, "Why can't my character?"

John sighed a little, "Your character is a character, he isn't you in terms of skills, but he's an extension of your personality," He explained, word from word from the book casually, "Or whatever personality you want to play as, get it?"

"I'm good at playing personalities," Hitori crept out of Luca's shadow, taking a look at a spare sheet and penning in details.
Luca couldn't get his head around how all this worked, resting his hand on his chin and sighing dejectedly.

Panther walked in hearing sounds of "dice" and "personalities" wondering what human traditions are going on. He wore a sleeveless blue shirt and baggy light brown pants while walking barefoot so each step made a light clicking sound of his claws tapping the metal. "Luca, I doubt you would roll an unfavorable number no matter the game," Panther stated while assuming whatever they were playing was a game of chance.

The Kohanian then took an unused chair and spun it around to sit in the reverse manner while his tail slowly curled left and right in has Nargul curiosity. His arms rested on the chair with his head on his arms resting and watching like a cat eying a ball of yarn.

Robert walked into the room behind Panther silently seeing how long it would take the Kohonian to notice him. But he couldn't resist saying "Got an extra sheet for me? I've never played any game like this but might as well learn how too." he grinned as he had started off the sentence slightly louder than normal.

The Kohanian was intent on figuring out this human game when his tail hit something behind him, followed by a loud noise. Suddenly his eyes flared and he quickly pulled out one of his larger knives was pointed squarely at Robert's throat. If one observed, this motion also shifted the chair 90 degrees with his other hand ready to pull a second knife.

"If you want a sheet, go back to bed where there are plenty of, human," Panther replied in a very serious tone, cursing that he couldn't even let his guard down on home territory.

Robert raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. He gave an easy smile as he backed up a step. "Chill out man. I was only playing with ya" he slide carefully around the angry Kohonian and sat down at the table silently marveling at the speed and presicion of Panther's reaction.

"Nah, I mean character sheet, fuzzball," John said, in the least patronising way possible to Panther, "It's a sheet of paper, but I suppose you could write it on a bedsheet if you were outta paper, and..." He rambled off on an unrelated tangent.

"Anyways, let's get this started, shall we?" Luca asked as he picked up a pair of twenty-sided dice and threw them. He came up with an 11 and a 15.

"I haven't even told you what you're doing," John said, "Why are you rolling?"
"Just testing my luck. How come you aren't flying the ship?" Luca asked back.
"Autopilot," He replied, "We've got friendly ships around us too, so no real cause for concern. Anyway..." He cleared his throat as he got his 'game master' voice on.

"You're standing in a vast plain, with your weapons ready, as you spot the gaping chasm of doom before you. You've heard that both vast riches and great danger lurk beneath the surface," John said, waggling his fingers.
"Oooh, real scary-like," Luca chuckled.

"You've all decided to jump forwards and see if you can purloin some treasure from here, after some discussion and deliberation written down hastily on a barmat and fuelled by greed, alcohol and most importantly - ADVENTURE!" John continued, letting his voice raise slowly as he continued the litany.

"Now, can I get a look at everyone's character sheets, please?" He said before continuing, putting his hand forward from behind a privacy screen he'd erected.
"Paladin here," Luca said, putting his sheet forward and getting it examined, and handed back with a thumbs up.
"Yep, looks good to me."

Meanwhile, the ship continued its course at a steady pace, with other ships nearby on the same route. Sebastian was lying down on the couch, with Anna by his side, exchanging sweet nothings.

"Naturally a thief here." Robert said as he quickly wrote up the character sheet. He handed it over to John. Then he smiled.

Seiren was hard at work, making two batches of candy. One of which was probably the spiciest candies known to man- er. . . civilization. The other was another attempt at making the perfect sweets. Both were out to cool, however, the spicy ones were above the sweet ones.

"That'll show whoever stole them. . " He devilishly snickered, hiding around a corner.

Naoko edged her way out from beneath a couch, and submitted for approval a signifigantly smaller character sheet, which had been sketched out on a peice of notepad paper.

It was a Wizard.

The small Nekovalkyrja had dressed herself more or less for the part - Naoko sported an embroidered robe and a jaunty little witch cap that she wore with the same natural grace as she would have worn more regular clothing. She pushed the hat back a little bit, to get a better look at the other players, who were considerably taller than she was.

"So, are we supposed to act drunk, or is that just backstory?"

The Kohanian kept on eye on the "thief" while setting his chair in the correct position. He began flipping though the manual to get a better handle on the "game" and figure out what character is best suited. With a chuckle he submitted a beastman warrior with duel wielding abilities.

"A game of chance sounds like an interesting challenge," Panther remarked as he handed his character page. He glanced over at Naoko and his ear twitched in curiosity to what she was wearing, wondering if she was getting ready for sleep.