Eschton [mature] IC - Calling Arabesu

Voidrazor · Jan 30, 2007

Avalon® said:
Onboard the vessel known only as Slavemaker came the sounds of steel ringing as it hit steel and grunts and groans. The scent of blood and sweat permeated the air. In the massive arena that took up most of the space on the ship stood one man surrounded by three hulking green-skinned brutes and five winged beauties that (as one man schooled in the classical arts once put it) looked like the Greek Furies themselves were put to shame.

The man that they surrounded, however, looked like Adonis himself personified. Clad in an ornately designed silk shirt that opened at the front that accentuated his herculean physique, he tenses as he begins his attack.

He dodges the blows that come at him from all sides. Parrying the flailing claws of one of the brutes, he slips under the guard of one of the winged women and slashes her thigh with a fine-edged curved dagger that seemed to move like a blur to the naked eye.

To be continued...

The Valkyrie snarls as the blade sinks into her leg with lightning speed. But the fury in her eyes turns to amusement as one of her sisters flies over the sparring mob and abruptly drops, rolling like a great boulder, attempting to overrun Karnak from above.

OOC - Karnak gets an AoO against the flying Valkyrie, but must either move to the only open spot amidst the surrounding combatants or risk being knocked prone. Moving would trigger a bunch of AoO's but would at least prevent one of the trolls from full attacking next round. None of the followers blows are likely to hit but one or more could always get lucky.

Avalon® · Jan 31, 2007

ooc: This is intended to be just a sparring match. Ok?

Voidrazor · Jan 31, 2007

[sblock=OOC reply to Avalon]

Avalon® said:
ooc: This is intended to be just a sparring match. Ok?

I figured Karnak's sparring matches would be pretty no holds barred. You can write both sides of the fight if you want. Just thought you might enjoy doing it in actual combat turns. LMK[/sblock]

Vertexx69 · Jan 31, 2007

Serraphina thinking
Serraphina talking
Jenner speaking

Voidrazor said:
snip...
Just then, a T’lkt’n speaker-drone flies over the crowd to hover in front of Serraphina's face. The roach-like bioengineered insect vibrates its abdomen creating a noise that perfectly emulates spoken word, doubtless psionically guided in its movements by T’lkt’n hive queen. “A fortunate coincidence running into you here Citizen. I need to warn you about the Faransi slander you will no doubt hear in the coming days.”

[sblock=OOC]Serraphina can communicate telepathically at will anyway but when theres 90 decibles blaring around you its hard to concentrate

[/sblock]
"And what, prey tell are the faransi going to be telling me...my little highness?" - That you are conspiring against me yet again?...

-After that conversation is over -

Serraphina's mellow being harshed almost puts her a snit. "You knew they would be contacting you as soon as they had come to a descision miss." Taking a breath she stalkes over toward an unoccupied, large white-noise chamber. Sliding between the press of the masses, lingering here and there against particularly attractive and sweaty dancers. Engaging the field, she was plunged into utter silence. Even the vognarian moaning of the couple tangled against the outside of the fogged glass were muted. A flash of envy momentarily dances in her eyes as she glances over, thinking to herself - The council couldn't have waited just a few hours? - She sits down on an overstuffed white sofa and taps her sub-con. "Citizen DeLecort here Inquisitor Qebehsenuef, it's a great honor to here from such a distinguished individual. How can Tran'sa 'Kuul be of service to the high council during this glorious night?"

Voidrazor · Jan 31, 2007

OOC - Vertexx69 oops, yes speaker-drones work two ways. T'lkt'n queens are the sole sentient members of their race. The others are all telepathicly controlled drones that can relay all their sense information back to their queen.

Also, the psi-web establishes a mind link, so noise cancelling chambers aren't necessary to have a private conversation. Serraphina might want to use a white-noise chamber to get rid of distrations though.

Nephtys · Jan 31, 2007

ooc: Voidrazor, I realise I've given you quite a lot of work but there's no need for you to go into too much detail unless you want to (except to flesh out the conversations a tad). It's not really necessary to know exactly what she finds out in her information-gatherings about peripheral NPCs, it's enough to know wether she found anything useful. I'll be doing a lot of intelligence-work initially and don't want it to burden you too much.

Voidrazor · Feb 1, 2007

Nephtys said:
ooc: Btw, does Direspirit's world have a name?

OOC - Not yet officially. For now you can call it Atropos after the world-spirit of his planet.

Voidrazor said:
There are 36 planets total in the Ixylyr-Alaeon-Otajan system, but only one, Kal'e'zant, is considered to be a Core world. It is governed by Argus Oloriel Starzaeon a legendary Sirian Erudite. Being a Core world, Starzaeon's governance entails only implementing policy set by direct democracy, with executive decisions veto-able by certain committees.
[snip]
Argus Oloriel Starzaeon has invited you to some sort of party.

Nephtys said:

The invitation interrupts her concentrated work and she nearly makes the inexcusable faux-pas of ignoring it for the moment. There was much more work to be done, scores of gates to be set up and hundreds of deals to make, endless hours of information-gathering, but her work would have to wait. She replies Gracefully, intimating a little something about a mutually beneficial arrangement while shopping online for an appropriate and slightly ironic (though not in the least insulting or hurtful) gift that would impress him with both her wit, knowlege and good judgement while not seeming ingratiating. She'll spend the appropriate amount, but not get too extravagant.

Click to expand...

The Sirian Governor's mental voice has a pleasant, almost mesmerizing, crystalline tone to it. "Thank you for taking the time to answer my call. I'm certain you must be extremely busy. I shall be hosting a gala event shortly, and would be delighted if you could attend either in person or via telepresence. And because you time is precious, I'll be working with a chronomancer to ensure that the party itself takes no objective time whatsoever."

[sblock=Nephtys]

Nephtys said:
She welcomes the Glietsel warmly, and asks to hear their offer while presenting them with pleasing mental images.

"Citizen Melanoce, I am F[ti􀀀1;ti]=Ti(F[ai;bi]) and this is my partner F=[iTi(F[i; i])])].
We are to understand that you provide discreet transport."

Nephtys said:

Melanoce establishes a minor branch of her reputable financial-services corporation Vermilion Capital Ventures* on Seraphina's world to facilitate the financial markets on that world, exploit the inefficiencies to the gretest possible extent, and make a few CuBs along the way. She takes a direct and personal hand in managing its initial operations. Her aim is both making enormous sums of money and establishing a powerful financial influence on Tran'sa Kuul.

ooc: I'll deduct up to 60000 gold from her funds to make it happen, if she believes there's a good profit to be made. The financial services would off course involve lending and borrowing huge amounts of money among other things so the 60000 is just the base of the operation, but the karmic dept incurred should be cancelled out by the karmic credit simultaneously extended to others (otherwise speculation is impossible).

*Though Vermilion Capital Ventures is relatively well renowned for what's in the greater scheme of things a very minor company her ownership of the company has always been a well kept secret.

Also, she takes a deeper look into the committes involving themselves in her and her neigbours affairs. She makes quite an effort to uncover useful information that could be used to influence their work, both to deter them from her business and to sic them on her rivals. While doing that she takes a deeper look into the corporations on Seraphina's world to find any particularly juicy weaknesses to exploit. She scans the screen eagerly, smiling beautifully.

Click to expand...

The more you look into it, the more of a problem the committees appear to be. The Committee on Corporate Power consists of millions of members using specialized functions of the Psi-web to communicate at a vastly accelerated pace. They are adamantly opposed to corporate secrecy and are likely to revoke the charter of any firm that does not demonstrably benefit the local Autarkis. The only good news there is that they have a lot on their plate so it could take a while for them to get to you.

There is a more local IAO System Trade Committee that has only 379 members. They are a bit more lax on policy, but would still probably red flag Vermillion if it startd doing business on Tran'sa Kuul without first jumping through their hoops. They will probably ask some of the same questions the larger comittee would ask (i.e. who are the principals of the company, how will it help the local Autarkis), but their research to verify your claims would be less exacting. Bribery doesn't seem to be a workable plan, their lifestyles are already quite luxurious and the punishment for corruption is severe (mindwipe & forced reincarnation). Blackmail would be difficult and a bit dangerous, but within the realm of possibility. You can find dirt on about 90 members and might be able to place enough of the rest in compromising situations. But if just one of the members bit the bullet, and it got traced back to you ... well the punishment for corruption is severe. Perhaps the best bet is to manufacture information which would satisfy the local committee and make sure that Vermillion does actually benefit the populace and have a reputable board before Corporate Power shuts it down. Suppling false information would not be considered corruption, but getting caught at it could have a nasty impact on business
[/sblock]

Shayuri · Feb 1, 2007

(OOC - not to be impatient, but did you see my reply up above?

)

Nephtys · Feb 1, 2007

Voidrazor said:
The Sirian Governor's mental voice has a pleasant, almost mesmerizing, crystalline tone to it. "Thank you for taking the time to answer my call. I'm certain you must be extremely busy. I shall be hosting a gala event shortly, and would be delighted if you could attend either in person or via telepresence. And because you time is precious, I'll be working with a chronomancer to ensure that the party itself takes no objective time whatsoever."

Melanoce replies in a smooth but warm tone, evoking images of complex and pleasing aesthetics.
"You honour me, Citizen, and I thank you. My real-time is never too precious to devote to you and the esteemed Citizens of our system, but your consideration is delightful. I will gladly attend in person."
She would need to construct a public persona for herself, impressions being the cornerstone of politics. A gala event would be an excellent opportunity to introduce herself into the public awareness off Otajan.

[sblock=Voidrazor]

Voidrazor said:
"Citizen Melanoce, I am F[ti&#56256;&#56320;1;ti]=Ti(F[ai;bi]) and this is my partner F=[iTi(F[i; i])])].
We are to understand that you provide discreet transport."

"Indeed, [insert honorific here], your understanding is correct. It is my function in this existence to provide harmonious exchanges of both goods and ideas. Supposing your proposal is not of less then perfect harmony with the beings of this dimension I will be able to provide the service at an affordable rate. Supposing it is, the payment required will be higher. Ah, but this is all standard practice. Now let us discuss specifics, and credentials."

Voidrazor said:

The more you look into it, the more of a problem the committees appear to be. The Committee on Corporate Power consists of millions of members using specialized functions of the Psi-web to communicate at a vastly accelerated pace. They are adamantly opposed to corporate secrecy and are likely to revoke the charter of any firm that does not demonstrably benefit the local Autarkis. The only good news there is that they have a lot on their plate so it could take a while for them to get to you.

There is a more local IAO System Trade Committee that has only 379 members. They are a bit more lax on policy, but would still probably red flag Vermillion if it startd doing business on Tran'sa Kuul without first jumping through their hoops. They will probably ask some of the same questions the larger comittee would ask (i.e. who are the principals of the company, how will it help the local Autarkis), but their research to verify your claims would be less exacting. Bribery doesn't seem to be a workable plan, their lifestyles are already quite luxurious and the punishment for corruption is severe (mindwipe & forced reincarnation). Blackmail would be difficult and a bit dangerous, but within the realm of possibility. You can find dirt on about 90 members and might be able to place enough of the rest in compromising situations. But if just one of the members bit the bullet, and it got traced back to you ... well the punishment for corruption is severe. Perhaps the best bet is to manufacture information which would satisfy the local committee and make sure that Vermillion does actually benefit the populace and have a reputable board before Corporate Power shuts it down. Suppling false information would not be considered corruption, but getting caught at it could have a nasty impact on business

Click to expand...

semiooc:
Is there some sort of organized counter-movement to all this communism? Some sort of liberal-conservative political block with corporate financial backing? Even though the Eschaton-wide democratic process is mostly handled by direct democracy (?) there must still be politicians and propagandists who tell people what to think. And there has to be some sort of democratic check on those committes, no?

Melanoce looks into it.

The committes could be handled, Melanoce was confident, she simply had to present an amicable facade. Setting up a local board of directors would be nearly effortless and demonstrating the benefits of Vermilion to the general local populace would be no difficulty at all. Her aim was after all to improve the efficiency of the financial system, and though that would drive some competitors out of business Tran'sa Kuul's economy would likely be better off in the end. That is, assuming she was allowed to complete the process... Melanoce smiles cruelly. There were safe-guards that could be taken to ensure that.

Melanoce attempts to arrange her operations on Tran'sa Kuul in such a way that the integrity of the financial system would depend on Vermilion's precense. So that if she was forced to withdraw her assets she would cause a collapse, or at least a recession. She attempts to do this in a way that neither appears deliberate nor easily detectable to any but the most skilled economists.

[/sblock]

Voidrazor · Feb 1, 2007

Shayuri said:
Finally her feet, now invisible under the glorious glamor, lifted off the floor....and she vanished in a puff of sparks. The audience chamber of the Great Hall was only a few such hops away, and by the time the redcap entered, she was ready, hovering above the grand throne, with great balefire torches blazing on either wall, encompassing the room, and her with light.

"Enter and speak," she bade the redcap. "What news have you?"

The clang of iron on the shimmering mosaic tiles of the floor proceeds the stooped and whiskered figure as it enters the Great Hall. His bloodshot stare about wildly beneath a cap that might seem jolly were it not caked in slowly drying gore. As he clanks across the huge chamber the creature absently makes frustrated gripping motions as if the hands themselves are completely unaccustomed to being unarmed.

It grumbles with a voice that sounds like a bear gargling nails, "Right. So me mates and me wuz havin' a stroll in the forest not causing a lick o' trouble. Then this light, bright as day 'pears outta thin air. Then the light gets all wobbly sorta like your floor here only moving like. Me mates freeze. And this horrible strange thing floats down. It was made of light and shaped like nothing I never seen. Me trusty axe done and broke when I hit the thing. I start kickin' and clawing it. An finally it flies off back to the big light. But me mates just kinda float up and away while I'm fightin' it off."

Yep saw it.

Eschton [mature] IC - Calling Arabesu

Voidrazor

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Avalon®

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Voidrazor

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Vertexx69

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Voidrazor

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Nephtys

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Voidrazor

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Shayuri

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Nephtys

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Voidrazor

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