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RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 3] - Rocking the Casbah

Luca

The Ultimate Badass
🎖️ Game Master
Shareef don't like it
Rocking the Casbah
Rocking the Casbah

The Clash - Rock the Casbah

Crimson Kestrel, Mess Hall
Candles. Paper. Pencils. Erasers. The smell of freshly printed character sheets and graphite particles against the page. John was sitting at the end of the table hiding behind a screen, to his left, a stack of books, and to his right there was a bottle of sugary drink sitting next to a candelabra with six candles on it, burning bright in the dimly lit room.

The Mess Hall's tables long were perfect for the occasion, as just in front of him his players were sitting and looking at their character sheets on paper and the dungeon map that'd been laminated and drawn on with whiteboard markers. It smelt a little of whiteboard cleaning fluids as much elbow grease had been put into cleaning it over and over again.

On the table were miniatures of a paladin played by Shayla, a necromancer played by Lodemucker, a ranger from Zeta, a warrior and a 'dance mage' that Seiren made himself and a thief played by Allison with a couple of other miniatures on the board for the other players. Echelon meanwhile was playing perhaps the most optimised character on the table for a third level figher/mage/thief who could do just about anything.

"...the pungent scent of mildew pervades the room as the group moves inside. Your torches illuminate the room and you can see a decayed corpse in rusted armour resting against the furthest corner on the left while to your right, it stretches on past the range of your lights," John said, letting them imagine it all before continuing.

"Drips from the ceiling fall down thick and heavy, and a chorus of plinks fills your ear as the walls of this room turn from stonework to natural cave wall the further you look up, soon turning into stalactites about twenty five feet up. Perhaps as time went on, the ceiling begun to erode and let the moisture in..."

Still with the painting of the picture, getting quite descriptive with the way the room looked, perhaps getting hung up on it. "Oh, uh," he checked his notes as he realised that he forgot to read a piece out loud. "a-and there's twenty skeletons hiding for you in the dark," he recited as he started placing skeleton miniatures on the table, "They see your torch and charge for you with old and rusty weapons and scream at the top of their lungs despite not having larynxes - or lungs. Roll for initiative!"

"Oh no not the Skeletons!" Allison said as she got her dice ready and checked her sheet for her character's bonuses against undead. "Lodemucker, control them or something if you get first turn," she advised as she realised that her thief did not get any bonuses against undead.

And then the dice rolled across the table, one of them bumping into the miniature of a paladin that Allison had 3D printed out of plastic and another knocking over a skeleton that John had put down, which one of the players righted.

Crimson Kestrel, Captain's Suite
Luca was in the middle of his daily exercise routine, doing some situps in his room. He wearing his heart-print boxer underwear and a light singlet. Some jaunty music was playing to help him keep a rhythm, but he found that it cut out suddenly, and he was up to his 249th sit up of 250 to do. Aw... he sighed as he laid back down and wiped his sweaty brow.

"H3Y LUC4, B4D N3WS." Echelon said over the communications, her face appearing on the viewscreen in his room.

Luca's head swivelled over and down at the viewscreen. "Yeah?"

"S0S S1GN4L, 1TS FR0M N34RBY, 1T S33MS T0 B3 4 PL34SUR3 SH1P TH4T'S B33N B04RD3D BY P1R4T3S!"

"Pirates?" Luca echoed. "Hmm..." he seemed to be considering whether or not some run of the mill pirates were a better way to get the blood pumping and some light exercise done. "Sure. Should I tell the others?"

"H4NG 0N 1'M R0LL1NG F0R 1N1T14T1V3."

Luca groaned, "Again? You nerd," He got down from the ceiling, landed on his feet and cracked his knuckles, cricking his neck. "Can't you put it on hold or something?"

"N0T N0W. SCR34M1NG SK3L3T0NS!"

Luca groaned. Again with the skeletons. Wherever he looked this month, skeletons everywhere and he was getting quite sick of them. He left his room and started heading towards the Mess Hall. SOS signal from cruiser ship, attacked by pirates, passengers and crew taken hostage? Sounded like easy pickings to him anyway.
 
Shayla adjusted her mini as the die bumped into it, grunting. She rolled her own dice a moment later, which seemed tiny in her hand. "No way we're lettin' her get a whole army of these things. Let me handle it." She grinned, finally getting to use one of the special abilities that hadn't come up yet. "BY THE GODS OF GOODNESS AND LIGHT!" Shayla bellowed, raising one big fist and shaking it in the air. "I hold up my holy sword Demonspanker and it glows and...uh..." More dice were rolled. "And it goes bwooo-zzzhapp! for twelve points of turning damage. HA!" She leaned back in her chair, which creaked in protest, a satisfied smile on her face. This type of thing was more her style than the digital or virtual games that were commonplace now.
 
Crimson Kestrel, Deck 2 Starboard Passageway

Vitalia ran into her father coming back from getting a few more bottles of 'Hill Water' for the gaming table, the sounds of rolling dice told her that she was missing out on something and didn't have her miniature on the table.

It made her sigh; her sheet had been min-maxed, and nobody had noticed but Echelon, who had wrote it for her. It seemed like a pretty good way to pass time, but her character wasn't on the table yet. That settled awkwardly in the pit of her stomach, but Vitalia had decided not to complain about it. After all, she didn't know the rules, and it seemed like everyone else had been playing the game for so long that they could quote them by heart.

"Hey V.," Luca said in passing.

"Dad." They happened to be going the same direction, so she skipped a step and fell in with him, looking up. "What's up?"

Luca grabbed a towel on the way and wiped his arms down, "Ech says there's an SOS nearby," he said as he dried himself off from his exercises, "might be worth a look."

"I'll go get some of the others." Vitalia offered over two handfuls of plastic bottles. It would be more interesting than just watching everyone else play, anyway, and she'd been wondering just where in the ship's ventilation that Gartagen had nested himself.

Luca took the two bottles and saw the fizzy drink inside. Not to my taste, he thought. "Are you... winning?" he asked, barely knowing how Ogres and Oubliettes worked.

Vitalia almost told him she wasn't playing, but could only imagine what sort of an impression that would leave - she shrugged, instead, and left out her misgivings about being included or not. It wasn't their fault, it was hers for not being loud enough about it. She'd been nervous.

"I don't know yet. Ask Echelon. If anyone would know, she would."

"Ech, are you winning?"

"F1GHT H4SN'T 3V3N ST4RT3D BUT 1 R0LL3D 4 TW3NTY F0R 1N1T14T1V3." she said over intercom, "V., Y0U C0M1NG?"

Vita struggled a bit with herself, and wilted. "Yea." She reached for one of the bottles she'd given to Luca and then bit the bottlecap off with her teeth. Because it was only Luca watching, she also chewed on it thoughtfully, swallowed it, and washed it down with the soda.

Luca motioned for her to go and join the others. Maybe some time could be taken, the SOS wasn't going to go away and the coordinates had been triangulated as well as the ship type identified. Maybe he could get Ech to download a floorplan too. "Go on," he said as he passed the other bottle over to her and gave her a kiss on the forehead.

The kiss made her sigh, resigned.

"Okay. I'm coming back, Echhi."

Crimson Kestrel, Mess

Vitalia re-entered the room carrying two bottles of soda, tossing one to Seiren and keeping the other for herself.

She sat down at the table, and after glancing to Echelon for confirmation, placed her character - a Cleric - near the edge of the encounter zone, behind the other players.
 
Crimson Kestrel, Mess

Kipped out in a corner of the room on a cushion she had liberated from one of the couches of the hotel, Tani was trying to watch a movie on a little screen she held. She was having a trying time of it though, with all the gamers being loud and what not.


"Hey Let the skeletons be the only ones screaming!" she growled before shifting a little and holding the screen up before her, blocking the table and the players from view. The movie was the third in a proposed four, they were re-imagined versions of a series that had been out for sometime now. It was great other then the winy boy who piloted the bio-titan. The red head was cool, but he blue haired one reminded her over someone from her time of creation, a vat sister.

She turned the sound up a bit more and tried to get back into the redhead fighting her red and orange bio-titan in space to retrieve the winy boy...

Tani was a bit impatient, he had checked the order que nearly a hundred times since Ech helped her get her orders put in. the movie was an attempt to fight the urge to check it a hundred and one times. But she was just so damned excited to get the parts that would make her MINDY more and more self-sustaining.
 
Zeta picked up her character sheet. She checked out what she could use against the skeletons. Her initiative roll was lousy anyway so she had time. It was pretty clear that bow would be useless against something that is made of bones, except maybe for headshots, but it turns out, doing headshot is in Table Top RPG is way harded then doing them in real life. When she made the character, she knew very little about the rules and figured that being ranged oriented character that can also fence was a good idea. Except it also turned out that most enemies needed two or three arrows to be killed, unlike real life where most people just die. Still it was kinda fun, once Zeta threw out all the knowledge of logic, real physics and what not.

"All right, I guess I will have to take out my bastard sword for these arseholes." Zeta said as she put her sheet down and poured herself another shot of vodka. Which was also very strange drink for a RPG. "I am going to charge the nearest skeleton." *roll, roll* "Ha, 16, not bad."
 
Seiren nodded at Vita, then gleefully poured his attention over his carefully crafted sheet and decided a course of action. He sat in Rebeka's lap. The woman watched him as he made his move, not entirely sure how this game of make-believe and paper worked.

"I'm gonna cast Fortune Dance at the skellies! Roolllllling!"

The inventor made an exaggerated motion with multiple dice in his hands, as if waving his arms wildly would somehow imbue the pieces of plastic with good luck. Rebeka would note that that was a bizarre superstition, particularly because his dice were not evenly balanced. She said nothing, and assumed this to be part of the game.

"Aaaaaand. . . that. . ." he declared, his face crestfallen. Seiren pulled the soda open and sheepishly took a few sips. "Is a lot of ones. . . Uh. . . Free mully?"

Poor Seiren didn't realize that his dice had gotten too close to one of his machines and got badly unbalanced.
 
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A trained ear had heard a certain noise from across the next room over. There were a few such sounds this ear could hear and they included the unclasping of a brassiere, the sing-song jingle-jangle of coins, the weighted sound of the correct cup in a shell game, and most important to this particular occasion the sound of unbalanced dice clattering just a bit louder than they should. Almost immediately after Seiren rolled, Enzo materialized in the lair.

"Hello-hello everyones, if it ain't a good oald game o' Dildoes and Drag Queens." He announced his presence with a rolling ramble, talking as he made his way around the table, "Yes, I remember the old days of yous guys playin' this old shits in the cahgo bay o' da Big Boid, you noids. Such a long time it's been, hasn't it, you noids? Nah, I'm just yankin' yer chain-- you guys are decent folk and whatnot."

The conman stopped right at Seiren's dice and leaned forward over the edge of the table, then knelt so he could be eye-level with the offending cubes. He took in a short breath and started again, this time more quietly and more eloquently, "Say, is this by any chance the family of dice which were just rolled to the great misfortune of the poor soul who threw them? I gots a feelings for these things, see? These is unlucky dice."

A wiry hand wavered up and stroked Seiren's hair in an act of both (fake) kindhearted reassurance and (very real) greasy filthy lust.

"Never gonna roll good for yous, pipsqueak." He added, "Why don't you sell 'em to ole Enzo and have youselfs a noice new set, on me?"

Instantly, Enzo snapped out Seiren's old dice and dug his other hand into one of the many deep pockets on the vagabond's saggy brown coat of stuff-- only to return an instant later with a new bundle of dice and toss them onto the table, which have rolled, according to some website on this wide internet: 5d6 → [2,4,6,6,5] = (23)
 
Above the darkened messhall, a telltale thumping and clanking could be heard, quickly followed by the appearance of a familiar hooded gartagen next to the door. At first, it seemed like a good idea to see what his... 'friends'... did for fun, as he had neared the messhall in the vents, he grew steadily more and more uncomfortable with the noise. He asked himself why he had bothered falling into the room.

Earlier he had spent hours in his nest checking his gear, using some of his tools to tune what he could and sharpening the blades of his weapons. He had even found the time to engrave patterns on his knives. Eventually he had nothing left to do and started wondering what everyone else did when they had nothing to do. This motivated him to go see for himself.

He glanced up at the ongoing unfamiliar tabletop game curiously, slowly approaching the table, looking on from a distance, "What... is this?"
 
After their jaunt in Yamatai Reeves had shut himself inside his room, only coming out to work and for the occasional meal. He had been especially shaky since their time in customs. He could have sworn he had caught a glimpse of a familiar face. Not many faces from his past were something he would be pleased to see. So even though it was most definitely a case of mistaken identity he had been walking about like he had seen a ghost.

The silver haired Technician had his feet resting on the wall, while he tipped his head over the side of his bed. He scrolled through the remainder of the article on Gravitronic Radar he had been browsing before deciding he was hungry.

Rather gracelessly he flopped onto his side and crawled to his feet.
He shook his head trying to clear the slight dizziness from his mind before leaving his quarters and heading for the mess hall.

He stepped around the crowd of crew members standing around the group of people playing their tabletop game before stopping to peek at the miniatures set across the table. "Wait are you actually using real candles? A bit over dramatic isn't it?" He hadn't had the chance to play any sort of game. Other than the FPS the girls had shown him earlier.
 
“Yeah, real candles.” Vitalia took another sip of her soda, looking between Reeve’s mismatched eyes until she thought it might be awkward, then looking back at the board.

“We’re playing Ogres and Oubliettes.” She motioned to the board, the miniatures, and the dice – although Seiren and Enzo hadn’t quite finished with them, yet, it did serve as an appropriate backdrop. “I don’t know much about it, though. Someone helped me make a character. Do you want to play?”
 
"Sure join up mr. Ninja-man," Zeta said to the alien who appeared from the vents. She did not like this Gartagen much, but then she only met three gartagen and two of those she did not fancy way too much. She out right hated Bronzi and would be happy to see him gone. This one could be a bit annoying, but at least he behaved himself. He just seemed to not understand what doors are and how to use them. "We can also explain you the use of hallways and doors. It is super nice and easy to use. You can even walk upright and not have to crawl through vents. 10 out of 10 neps use hallways."
 
Crimson Kestrel, Mess Hall
John had a weird habit of being overridden by the sheer force of the other personalities on ship. It wasn't his job to manage the personalities of these people, just their inventories, transportation and paychecks. Unfortunately, a heated game of Ogres and Oubliettes tended to let people's personalities - even veiled under those they'd adopted for their characters - shine through at full force. He was about to contest Seiren's roll and bear it, but Enzo let him take that mulligan. Seiren's Wardancer dashed through a crowd of skeletons and destroyed four of them with a Tango. Of death. Jubilant death.

Shayla's paladin outright destroyed a pair of skeletons with their Turning power, using eight points of damage to kill one, then the remaining four points bleeding into the sack of bones next to them. Zeta's character's bastard sword turned another one of them into dust and the Cleave feat that Echelon had recommended allowed her to bleed the damage into the next enemy, smacking them apart too, then the leftover to another.

Allison rolled badly on initiative and found her thief lobbing a flash bomb into the Skeletons to disorient them - until the end of her next turn. However, most of them passed their saves. Echelon then had her turn, opting to skip out of initiative order.

Her half-human, half-dragon character that she'd created with an obscure rules loophole patch from a now deprecated third party manual breathed fire at the skeletons and had herself a bonfire, destroying 8 of them in one go, and somehow able not to do any damage to any friendly party members because of another strange feat that she'd picked up from a current third party book.

John just kind of grit his teeth at her.

"WH4T? 1 H3LD B4CK S0 Y0U GUYS C0ULD G3T S0M3 H1TS 1N."

The skeletons charged in after her turn and started rough housing the paladin with rusty weapons, smacking her about while the fighter took some hits too. There were still a handful of skeletons stunned by the thief's flash bomb that were unable to attack effectively this turn, unable to reach the others.

Crimson Kestrel, Lounge Room
Luca, meanwhile, had more substantial things to worry about than mere skeletons. He was examining a floorplan for a Harvester Class vessel. Then, he overlaid a patch plan of a Fruna Ruica ship on top of it. Three decks worth of cargo space was converted into convention floors, restaurants, hotels and shops. It was intended to be able to roam through space and with steady deliveries, remain out there for months at a time before having to fuel up.

It was basically a small, flying city. It only needed ten to fifteen to crew, and it could hold about two hundred and fifty people, plus about two hundred or so service personnel throughout the ship. "So these things are basically flying ghettos if the owner's a dick," Luca observed as he tried looking for points of entry.

It seemed to be that this vessel was intended to be used in such a way that you'd load up on guests BEFORE you took off rather than let ships come and go. There didn't seem to be any hangar space. Though, there seemed to be a way to attach vessels up top to 'piggyback' and airlock into for customers and clients. Basically, a carpark for comers and goers.

"Get me visual of the roof," Luca said. "I think I have a way in."

"N0 W0RR13S," Echelon replied as an image of the top of the ship. Luca nodded back to her, satisfied.

"Hm. That explains where the pirates came from," he said as he saw two shuttles clamped to the roof. "I think we can place a third one..." he said, placing his finger on a spare space. "There. If we come in quick, the Pirates will be on the back foot. There's probably going to be a handful here," he put his finger on the Bridge, "to keep things under control and keep the crew down."

"H0W D0 Y0U TH1NK TH3Y SUBDU3D TH3 S3RV1C3 P30PL3? TH3R3'S 4 L0T 0F TH3M."

"They made a straight rush for the bridge probably, then started rounding people up. Maybe they have powered armours with them."

"R1GHT, S0, TH3 S3RV1C3 P3RS0NN3L 4R3 H0ST4G3S T00..."
"That gives us maybe two hundred partygoers and two hundred staff who need a pickup, I'd reckon there's about fifty, sixty Pirates in there, one for every ten or so people."

Curious, Echelon decided to do some investigation. "W3LL 1F TH1S W4S 4 GUN RUNN1NG C0NV3NT10N FR0M N3PL3SL14," Echelon queried while giggling, "TH1S W0ULD B3 0V3R QU1CKLY, BUT, ER..."

Luca chortled before he looked up at the viewscreen again, crossing his arms, "So what sort of a convention is this?"

Echelon showed him a picture of what sort of a ship this was. He blushed and his shoulders slumped.

"...th-that's a penis," he said, looking at the smiling people of indeterminate genders - possibly both - up and down as they were dancing underneath a logo in Yamatai-go.

"0N3 0F THR33! 1SN'T 1T W0ND3RFUL?"

Luca's brow furrowed. No, it wasn't wonderful - it seemed like too much maintenance. He had enough trouble keeping his wits about with just one. "...is this some sort of a..." he held out his palm and waved it parallel to the screen, "body modification convention?"

"1T'S A L1F3STYL3 C0NV3NT10N," she insisted. Luca just nodded at her and dismissed the image. "0N3 0F TH3 B3ST."

No wonder they got themselves all tied up. Luca mumbled.
 
Soruk frowned, crossing his arms, his gauntlets glinting in the candlelight, "I will observe for now." For him, it was a polite way of saying 'No'. He was fine with Vita's politeness, appreciating that someone had some form of manners in this group, but Zeta's comment irked him slightly.

"I am no fool, I know how to use them, I just refrain from using them." He pointed upwards, waving his hand around slightly to indicate the ventilation ducts, "I prefer using them, you prefer using hallways. To each their own." He didn't spend any more time on that, turning his attention back to the game, where apparently something had happened.

He didn't understand what caused all the skeletons to be defeated, but assumed these 'dice' were the cause. It seemed strange to leave a life in the hands of chance, "So... does skill not matter here? One would think a skilled swordsman would succeed against... skeletons... every time." He had never fought a skeleton, so he couldn't actually relate to his statement.
 

To aru kagaku no railgun - Tea time!


Seiren eyed Enzo's fresh (If metaphorically slimy) dice, nudging them slightly.

"Huh. . . Well, no more plastics for me. . ." he said, picking them up. "But wow. Everybody seems a bit more optimized than that. But, it's all still fun."

Seiren's comments turned to the Gartagen nearby. "You won't make a perfect strike every time! There's always a chance to fail miserably, though skill influences it. That's why this is so fun! To see if you succeed or end up setting off an alarm alerting an entire castle to your presence."

Rebeka watched from above, Seiren settled on her thighs in seat of the watchful mother hen. Towering above, she stared down at the board, eyes scanning the board - slowly putting together the rules based on what exchanges she could make out between the players. Her uncanny stillness made her all but furniture until she spoke.

A little earlier, she'd asked: "Why do you keep throwing the little cubes?"

"They're representational of statistical probability. The pips on the faces of the, er, little cubes, represent numbers."

"You can't call a random number?"

"No. Most people like letting their probability out in the open. Visible and unbiased for all."

The inability to do struck her as quite alien. Even so, Rebeka gave a solumn nod and was silent for maybe five minutes before she spoke again:

"You've made rolls that aren't statistically concurrent" she said with a distain in her voice her face failed to represent.

"Who in the what now?"

"The odds of you rolling so many ones are somewhere around six hundred fifty seven thousand to one. The dice, as you say, are unlucky."

"That'd be the case if they were evenly balanced. According to our resident, er. . . criminal expert, they weren't balanced. So the odds of that are completely different."

"Would you mind if I examined them?"

Seiren fished the offending articles out of Enzo's pockets cringing as his hand brushed things he'd rather not know the truth about.

Rebeka soon took the small cubes, rolling them in her fingers for a moment, boading the pair before letting them settle, making a subtle swing of her wrist - gauging their weight with some visible irritation as if someone had smeared paint across a window.

She took one in each, a distinctive warmth eminating from her palms as she closed them tightly into fists -- rolling her wrist smoothly in contemplation. It took several minutes before she handed the two back, each of the dice still piping hot.

"I can't get it perfect given the inconsistencies in the material but you had more plastic toward one side than another. Are they supposed to have a bubble of air inside?"

"Uh. . . probably not? I mean, I've never SEEN the inside of a die, so I dunno. Just so long as the odds of rolling any particular face of the dice is one in six." the inventor said with a shrug.

"It is never actually one in six." Rebeka stated, becoming pedantic now. "The bubble should be closer to the middle."

"As close as possible then. I don't expect perfection from a bundle of moulded plastic.

Soon, Rebeka carefully slid out from beneath Seiren, looking the dice over again one more time before setting him back into his chair. Hooking a hand into one of the cross-bars in the ceiling - her back arched forward to avoid banging her head on the ceiling. Her eyes moved from Seiren, to the table, then the dice, then the table again. Gears began to turn.

A silence hung in the air before she finally spoke.

"You need a dice that doesn't make you frown before you see the numbers."

"That, Rebeka, is something that is simply impossible."

Her brows tightened, feeling an inconsistency somewhere.

"Not an impossibility, just a statistical uncertainty. Somewhere, a perfect die exists."

"Yes, but I'll always be worried about the results before they happen."

"You described the dice as unlucky."

Her looming in the room was becoming something awkward now. Her fingers drummed in the gap in the hull ribbing along the ceiling as she reached out for another gap with her free hand, both arms above her. She made a face Seiren had seen Allison make, a look of uncertainty, though she wore it the same way an action hero would wear a smile -- goofy.

"What exactly is luck?"

Connecting gaze with Seiren again and reading his surprise, the look soon drained from her expression as if he'd given some silent disapproval without speaking.

"Er. . . That's a topic for another time. That is a very, very long topic," he responded, biting his lip.

"Luca seems to rely on it, that's what he said..."

Her gaze lowered as she ran her fingers through her own thoughts, feeling for what she wanted to say.

"Luck is... Luck is complicated." the tall woman concluded, turning about and seeing herself out to contemplate this matter further, leaving Seiren and the others to their game muttering to herself as the door closed behind her.
 
Vitalia cleared her throat.

"I'm going to move forward four spaces and cast..." She leaned over the table, examining the character sheet that Echelon had made for her. "Greater Turning of Bone."

Tap tap tap. Tap.

She rolled dice - apparently, they were normal dice, because they came up to 19. The teenager checked her sheet again. "Um. OKay?"
 
Shayla's pleased grin faded as the remaining skeletons advanced on her character, leaning forward in her seat again to get a good look at the situation. She let out a grunt, shaking her head. "Figures, everyone hides behind the big guy in armor. At least this game is realistic! Don't worry, I'll keep 'em busy while the rest of you do your little tricks, wouldn't want anyone to get their pretty clothes mussed up." The giant Neko eyed Seiren across the table. Shayla's character had been taking a large chunk of the damage so far, since the others tended to stay back or simply dodge everything.

All she could do for the moment was block the enemies from moving into the middle of the party, her character swinging his sword and shield about to draw their attention. At this rate, the others - especially that thing Echelon was playing - would mop up the skeletons quick enough. Shayla idly sized up the alien that had reappeared, taking stock of the few stray people in the room that weren't there to play.
 
Crimson Kestrel, Lounge Room

Valve Studio Orchestra - Archimedes

Luca and Echelon were still making tactical evaluations on how to approach the SOS transmitting passenger ship - or cruiser liner - or flying 'Lifestyle Expo', whatever it would be called. He took a sip of Phoenix Energy! from a nearby can and placed it back down as he continued examining the deck plan and tracing his finger, looking for best routes and tactics.

"Hrm..." he mumbled as he traced a line through a convention floor room. He had no idea what to expect in there.

"H3Y, 1F 4LLY C0M3S 4L0NG, M4K3 SUR3 SH3 D03SN'T-"

"Deviate?" Luca finished Echelon's sentence. "Yeah, I've heard."

In the distance over by the kitchen, Aiesu could be seen pouring something into a bowl. Overhearing things, she soon came over, still in the borrowed uniform albiet somewhat dishevelled as she sat down next to Luca. Balancing the bowl on her lap, she split a pair of chopsticks and tried to get a better look at what was happening as she struggled to eat with them.

Luca heard that petite little 'pomf' on the couch behind him and looked over his shoulder, "Oh, hey Aiesu. Making yourself at home?"

"Seiren suggested I try ramen" she said with a mouthful. "What's all this?"

"Ech found an SOS signal," Luca said as he bought up an image of the vessel, a refitted Harvester Class. "Seems to be some sort of a, uh," he looked back at the screen to hide a blush, "civilian pleasure cruiser."

"V3RY." Echelon's voice could be heard over the communications. Luca's head swivelled to an intercom speaker in the corner of the room and he huffed, rolling his shoulders. He took another sip of energy drink. He needed those electrolytes and sugar.

An image appeared on screen of the advertisement for the convention that was happening on it. To say the least, it was libertine, saucy and showing a lot of skin. Aiesu could see Luca snapping to attention and gasping. "Ech!" he grumbled, eyebrow twitching.
"H3H3."

"S-So its that sort of ship" Aiesu stated, as matter of factly as she could manage.

"0N3 0F TH3 B3ST L1F3STYL3 C0NV3NT10NS 1N SP4C3," Echelon seemed to agree.

"And... That's we're -- you're going?" the L'manel said, unaware of the heat of the bowl burning her hands.

"An SOS is an SOS, Aiesu," Luca sighed, "gotta investigate it," he turned back around, then sat down on the couch, a person's worth of space between him and Aiesu. He tried to swipe his hand to dismiss the image, but found that it was 'stuck'. "Ech," he stated, aggrieved.

With a mouthful of ramen, Aiesu scented the air, eyes searching the room until she settled on Luca, swallowing a mouthful of sloppy noodles with an expression she wouldn't be able to place even if she saw it in a mirror. She scented again -- small pale hands lifting his arm for a moment. Her expression worsened as Luca looked at her incredulously.

"Is that you? Its you, isn't it?"

"I was doing some exercise in my room," he said.

She stared up at him, seemingly unconvinced, still holding his arm. Her fingers tensed, feeling a bicep. Admittedly, she tried not to laugh, still holding that steely expression.

"Stomach crunches," he said, pointing at his t-shirt as his arm tensed in Aiesu's little grip. "What're you giggling at?"

"I'm not. You're disgusting" she stated, discarding his arm before settling further into her chair, refusing to move. It was almost like bravado. "A man your age should know better."

Luca rolled his eyes at her and groaned. "Yep," he said, "Maybe the guys, girls and whoever else on this ship are worse than me." Of course, there was a cue about Lorath that he didn't know relating to Body Odour - to have some around someone was a display, perhaps of love. Unfortunately, there was no chemistry here, just mixed messages. But the way she hadn't budged would say flattery was involved on some level, at least.

"A pleasure ship. I can feel the consortium's money here is well spent."

Luca groaned again. The image on screen eventually dismissed itself and he stood up off of the couch. "Two shuttles full of pirates, maybe armed with power armour, yeah, I'll make every bullet count," he said as he walked back to his room.

The L'manel sat making another strange face. Not exactly crestfallen but still simmering to herself on some level. She couldn't place his behavior though.

"He seems upset."

"Y0U'R3 T3LL1NG M3. USU4LLY H3'D T4K3 TH1S S0RT4 TH1NG L1K3 4 H0L1D4Y - W1TH GUNS," Echelon seemed to agree with the small-sized L'manel, "1 M34N, TH1S 1S R1P3 F0R H1M T0 BR34K TH3 N3W B0DY 1N." Her tone of voice seemed disappointed too.

Sipping at her bowl, Aiesu gave a quiet nod. "Uncoincidently, do you know where the laundry is done here? I don't sweat myself ordinarily but Rebeka has been asking. Seems I'm not the only one offended."

"D0WN TH3 H4LL, N3XT T0 TH3 H34D 4ND B3TW33N TH3 C4B1NS," Ech replied. "C4N'T M1SS 1T."

Luca meanwhile disappeared into his personal quarters.

"Do all Nepleslians smell like that? I mean, I don't know if you actually have a sense of smell but this seems something you'd probably know about with all these two legged buckets of slush walking the halls."

Echelon seemed to pause for a moment. "B4S3D 0N WH4T 1'V3 C4T4L0GU3D, Y34H, 1T'S B3C4US3 0F C0RD1T3 BU1LDUP 1N TH31R SK1N FR0M 4LL TH3 GUNS TH3Y US3. BUT," Echelon bought up an advertisement for the Minkan Body. "LUC4 H4SN'T F1R3D 4 GUN 1N TH1S N3W B0DY Y3T. S0 1 GU3SS H3 SM3LLS L1K3 H1MS3LF."

The image on the screen tilted a little. "S4Y... D0 Y0U... L1K3 1T?"

"I grew up in a commune consisting entirely of women and now I'm living in an all-girl's dorm. This is the closest I think I've ever actually been to a male, let alone a foreigner." An awkward pause hung between them. "No, I don't like it. Its disgusting."

The image on the screen self righted, then swiped away to a blank screen with a red circle in the middle, an analogue for Echelon's face. "HM, TH4T 3XPL41NS 4 B1T." She then paused for a moment, searching for something. "Y0UD H4T3 N3PL3SL14 TH3N. 1T'S 4LL SM3LLS TH3R3 4ND TH3N S0M3."

"Ugh... The entire planet is a sausage-fest, isn't it?"

"S4Y N0TH1NG 0F S4RG4SS0, H3H3! TH3 0C34N TH3R3 SM3LLS D34D 4ND R0TT3N."

"What does he see in it? If i lived there, I'd at least try turning it into something better, like a farming operation or something -- but the water's too dirty for fish."

"B4CT3R14 C0L0N13S 4R3 R1CH 1N TH4T 0C34N, 3V3N B3F0R3 TH3 N3PS T0UCH3D D0WN 0N 1T. C0ULD F4RM TH4T," the eye on screen bobbed and shook around as she was explaining.

"Actually not a bad idea."

"DUNN0 1F TH3 R3S1D3NTS R34L1SE BUT TH3Y C0ULD T0T4LLY G3T TH4T DUMP M0V1NG 4G41N 1F TH3Y TR13D."

The door's to Luca's quarters could be heard opening again, and his footsteps sounded heavier. He was wearing his combat boots, and the sound of his accumulated gear could be heard jingling and jangling. His hair was wet too, drying out and flat on his forehead.

"Had the sense to have a shower, I see?"

Luca shrugged back at the L'manel and made a noncommital grunt of indifference before sitting back down, this time next to Aiesu. He was about to raise his hand to do some motion gestures, but paused in mid air.

Snf. Snf.

He wondered if he'd missed a spot.

Aiesu blinked, taking another sip of her ramen broth.

After burying his nose between both of his armpits and finding that he was A-okay for scents, he put his nose over Aiesu's hair and sniffed.

Her eyes widened, nearly dropping the bowl, an elbow almost clipping his chin.

"Cor, blimey," he said.

"Q-Quourr bri...brimeruy?" she tried to copy the sounds he was making, mashing it horribly through her Lorath accent. "What are you doing?"

"You need a shower, Ms. Kalopsia!" he said, looking at her.

"C-Constructs don't sweat, I thought I told you this..."

He peered at her chest and towards the arm pit, taking one of her delicate hands in his and lifting her arm as she had his lifting it up into the air- looking at a dark wetness beneath and pointing this out. "Ye-yes you do!" he was just as surprised as she was, "You were telling me a porky!"

"A-A-...U-Uh..." She was beginning to see red now, giving Echelon a rather harsh glare as she began to connect the dots with a self-diagnostic. After a long awkward silence and trying to wrestle her arm back down on strength alone, she snatched her hand back, handed Luca the bowl and after exchanging a sour look and repressing the urge to share a headbutt either of them (one she'd come off worse from).

"D0WN TH3 H4LL, B3TW33N TH3 H34D 4ND TH3 C4B1NS! C4N'T M1SS 1T!"

She dismissed herself, door slamming behind herself.

Luca looked back at Echelon, whose face merely smiled back at him, clearly amused by the powerplay between the two, and a trill "3H3H3H3H3H3H3H3~" could be heard in the undertone.

At least Luca got something to eat out of it. No sense in wasting good ramen. Pork, no less. "You get a kick out of that, don't you?" Luca asked Echelon.

"Y3P."

"Why?"

"LULZ. SH3 4SK3D WH3R3 TH3 L4UNDRY W4S."

He tapped his temples with the two chopsticks. "What's the deal with you two anyway?"

"PR4NKS M0STLY, H4RML3SS-L1K3."

"Thaaaaaat's not what she tells me..." he said, remembering some of the things that Aiesu alleged the Type 5 Freespacer had done to her. In Echelon's defence, they were pretty funny.

"1T W4S JUST S0M3 .1N1 F1L3 0UT 1N TH3 0P3N, K1D 1N 4 C4NDYST0R3, Y'KN0W."

"A... dot ee-nee file?" he asked.

Echelon seemed to sigh. "N3V3RM1ND~"
 
Makari had kept mostly to himself after the Kestrel left Yamatai. He needed time to detox from all the cleanliness and false utopian greatness that was Yamatai. As such he was chowing down on greasy foods, taking large swigs of cheap rum, and watching reruns of his favorite Neplesilian TV shows. All was right the the tiny world of Makari Aeron which spanned from wall to wall to wall to door. And while he yearned for adventure like that of his crewmates' tabletop game, he wanted to experience it in the real world, not via virtual dice. He hoped something would come their way soon.
 
Crimson Kestrel, Mess Hall
Like a ghost (or spectre, or astral projection, or... something), Cassandra glided through the Lounge. She was still in her black dress, all dressed up for a black tie event. Of course, 'black tie' was a word incompatible with the Phoenix.
She was looking for something, apparently. Examining this, examining that, trying not to look like too much of a child invited into someone's house and ran around touching everything. Or butt into conversations. So she settled for... looking at whatever they were playing. It had dice, but it wasn't any sort of gambling game she'd seen before.

John was trying to keep a lid on everything going on with the game, trying to dictate actions, especially Vita's character's Greater Turning of Bone spell. Now, given that skeletons were made of bone (even fictional ones) and this spell forced anything made of bone that didn't have enough hit dice to shatter into fragments, or be pushed away.

Nineteen on the roll, with only a handful of skeletons left, and John cleared his throat, "Your Greater Turning of Bone spell causes the two skeletons closest to you to disintegrate into bone meal before your eyes! The three others here, here and here,"

He leaned over to remove the two skeleton miniatures closest to Vita's character from the board while pushing three others over and putting them a few squares away from her, "are pushed onto their backs and slide across the ground. They still haven't stopped screaming, boy is it annoying."

The Paladin meanwhile had moved to intercept and block, using the reach of their weapon and their hefty armour class and marking abilities to ensure that the Skeletons, if they did dare to attack anyone other than her, suffered negatives to hit.

Then Echelon's character was up next.

Cass's eyebrows rose a little. So it was a boardgame, but she'd never seen a board game that didn't have a board. Or sheets to write on, for that matter. Or... spells.

So she drifted a little closer. "I hope I'm not disrupting everyone's game, but what are you people playing?" A slight, apologetic tone to her voice - after all, no one liked someone butting in on a game. She'd know from endless observations at casinos, legitimate or otherwise.

"Ogres and Oubliettes," John said as he was looking at something behind his Oubliette Master's screen, "smash the door down, kill the monsters, take their stuff," he nodded, reciting the game's tagline.

He looked back down to the table, and it was full of plastic miniatures, elaborate board setups from tiles put together and the occasional bit of whiteboard marker, and lots of paper, a leaf of sheets for each player's character. "Ech, your turn,"

Echelon's big, robotic body clapped its hands together with a clank. "1'M G0NN4 W1P3 TH3 B04RD, JUST 4 S3C." John seemed to frown at them.

"Sounds... violent." She'd heard of that name before, but as something nerds played. But she wasn't another stuck-up daddy's girl with her hands in her parents' pockets and got mad at people for liking a different hobby.

"How do you play?" She has no idea just how complex it would get, either. And she fancied herself good at Poker, too.

"L1K3 TH1S!" Echelon said as she held up a handful of oddly-shaped, many-sided dice and rolled them across the table. She had a habit of rolling her attack dice and her damage dice together to speed things up. In addition to the eight six sided dice that were coming up with a few sixes, there that Cass was familiar with, there was a weird one with ... twenty sides, and it came up as a 16.

"1 TH1NK TH4T'S G33 G33," Echelon shrugged, flippant and dismissive as she crunched the numbers for John, and removed the remaining skeletons from the board. John seemed to mumble as he realised that her calculations, even though she skipped telling him the arithmetic, was probably correct. Allison threw up her hands - she didn't get her turn!

"Yeah, that's them killed," he sighed as he removed the remaining skeletons from the board. The board was now bone free. "That's battle over, you all get-"

"XP 4ND L00T C4N W41T. C4N 1 G3T Y0U 4LL T0 H34D T0 TH3 L0UNG3?" she asked, interrupting John, "LUC4'S G0T N3WS F0R US."

The dice got a slight look of confusion. Not TOO confused, of course - a lady didn't go around making silly faces at everything. But still, she'd never seen these sort of dice before. Fuzzy dice, dice with certain naughty words on it, and dice encrusted with gems, sure. But dice with more than six sides was like seeing someone with two heads. (Okay, maybe more than five.)

"And what do you use them for?"

"Determining the outcome of things, they're signifiers of random chance, like whether you hit an ogre with a sword, or whether your fireball merely singes everyone's eybrows off or roasts them. Its all make-believe," he John said as he stood up and blew out the candles by his privacy screen, "now, what does Luca want?"

"S0S S1GN4L," Echelon replied. "W3'R3 G0NN4 B3 B1G D4MN H3R03S - 4G41N."

"Right," John said. Allison stood up and started moving too, taking her cup of fizzy drink with her as she went.

Over the intercom, Echelon's voice could be heard through the ship, "H3Y 3V3RY0N3, LUC4 W4NTS T0 T4LK T0 Y0U 4LL 1N TH3 L0UNG3. W3 G0T 4 M1SS10N!"

"Sounds like it relies too much on luck." Kind of like real life. And she'd prefer to win something substantial if it did boil down to games of chance. Cass straightens up when she hears something about an SOS. Well, at least she wouldn't have to go far.
 
Seiren sighed at the board wipe and subsequent delay of the loot.

"But the loot is the best part!" he complained, gathering his few sheets and dice. He pocketed the both of them, folding up the former. With a shrug, he bounded out of the lounge and onwards towards more relevant prospects. Such as what sort of mission they'd have out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere of SPACE.

Exciting prospects, indeed.
 
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