Solari: Episode 2 - Pull/Cull

We've not for the great unbecoming.

“It is only the flaw of the finite manifest in our most ancient cells”

and we ask a servant with head and tail apart. All is ensued. Change and be changed. The him of one. Six hired hands arrived in the private physics parlor occupied by a sion of one of the five families of the forty sons.

One Zedav and Iverex. With him, having to this point shared in a hallucinogenic trip is a squeaky clean septemality of the automaton faction known as Iverena, XLZL. And behind the might be assassins, undetected by all,

is a lone, live figure that is no stranger to sudden violence.

The infamous bloody artisan and de facto leader of Genopar. G-tenga. You are all in a room. So intimate and quiet, dark, red and plush. But it's suddenly too small, too close as all three of you from your different vantage points are aware

that six incredibly armed figures are moving in your direction. Gums are being raised, orders are being yelled. I think it's time to roll initiative. Oh. Oh, we do that.

So I'm going to need everyone to make a move roll. And if you have any bonuses to initiative, go ahead and add those in. Oh, that's a one. Okay. Okay.

Are you rolling a D20? Ah. That's a one. Roll the one on a D20 and a one on a D8. That's right.

I've also rolled a one on a D8. Please. No. Which means that I still also have my bad half of a quibble because I doesn't get used up by a genuine failure. Oh, good.

Good. I appreciate your honesty. Uh, see, what do you get? A three. And then both of you guys rolled once.

One.

“I think as the armed men come in, I just open my arms wide and go, hello.”

I think I'm still hanging back. All right. We can explain narratively. That feels good to me. Great.

Their faces and discernible features are covered. Black or dark blue or dark green, it's impossible to tell the nuance of color inside of this room, especially with like the way the lights on Zadavans private wall were sort of flashing. You know it's dark, but everything from like finger tip to eyes is covered by some manner of either protective armor or just visual identification dampeners. Uh, you hear a mechanically distorted voice come out of the front leading figure who's holding a massive two handed weapon.

Z.

You see that like this person is rounding on you, but never actually levels the weapon at you.

It's just sort of a 45 degree angle to the ground, like clearly intended for you, but not openly threatening you. Identify yourself. You know who the fuck I am. I'm gonna need you to say it. Fine, Zadavans if you're X.

You know what this is, yes? Not a fucking child. Are they with you? And you see this person gestures, not just at XLZL, but some of the other like physicians and patrons in the room.

“Zadavans like looks around, I think still kind of blinking his eyes shaking off the effects of the hallucinogen.”

Ah, I'm here alone. And with that, you hear like a mechanically distorted whistle comes out from behind whatever like face pieces blocking this person's mouth. And the rest of the six are going to start pointing weapons at other people and beginning to fire.

Yeah.

It's not my turn yet, so I guess new world, new game, new rules.

“Like I guess there are things I'd like to do, but I think I'm win is the proper time to do that.”

You know what, kind of walking through the amount of initiative here, you rolled fairly well. This is not a, not everyone did a great job. So I think you're only gonna see two of the five that are clearly following orders from this leader are going to get initial shots off. Mm-hmm. But they seem to be hitting like low in the leg and they're going to drop two people that were sort of scrambling and running and still look visibly high.

Patrons that were scrambling for the door, just get dropped by the door. And now you're up. Great. I have an ability called smooth over. Oh, I'll read it to you if you'd like.

I mean, please do. I was very excited for a fight, but you can calmly smooth over misunderstandings. The kind that do many planets I'd run burn three grit for an easily remedied bad situation. Five for a difficult one and seven for a nearly impossible one. Roll a cha-check. If you succeed, all works out for now.

If you fail, then I have to roll again to see if it gets worse.

Okay. Okay. I will say the difficulty on this is going to be. It's not impossible, but it is a nine. Mm-hmm. So how much grit are you burning?

I guess if it is a difficult one, then I have to burn five grit and then roll a cha-check. With the difficulty of six. Oh, okay. I understand. That's great. It's difficult. So, yeah, difficulty of six. Okay.

Roll me charisma. I'm going to burn six grit. Amazing. Now I understand. We're learning together.

We're learning as we go. All right. And then I'm going to roll the D10. I add plus one to all Charles. That's a five plus one for a six.

Woo!

“Okay. Is there anything else in that ability about the adjudication?”

There's a lot of stuff around if I fail. Mm-hmm. But it says that if you succeed, all works out.

In parentheses for now, you can always re-blender.

Okay. I love that. Go ahead. This does work out, but I'm curious. Go ahead and give me a reason roll and we'll make the difficulty six to match. Okay. Fantastic.

That means I need a maximum roll as I roll a D6 on reason. I get a three. Okay. Just know that because we're in initiative, you can also boost your rolls.

Oh. Tell me more. So, boosting is you can burn like three, six or nine of your grit and add that to the roll. I guess I'll three for one, six for two or nine.

No, it works one for one. Oh, shit. Got to tell me if I burn three more grit, I get the six. Yeah. I apologize.

I was like, let me double check it before you say it. Ah, you've rolled faster than I could slowly check this. I apologize. But that is something like in combat, anyone can do.

And it's also like a mechanic to move through combat faster because it just makes sure that you are more likely to hit and get things done. Got it.

“I think I'm not exactly sure the outcome of this reason roll.”

But I think I'm, I want to succeed. So, I will burn three more grit for a total of nine grit burned, seven grit remaining to add to the reason roll to get a six. Sweet.

You are looking for a way to deescalate what is clearly a fight. People are screaming. You see them dropping. You can smell a little bit of blood in the air.

Though again, you are aware that those were very non-lethal shots fired on people that were fish in a very plush barrel. Mm-hmm. And I think you go back to what you have known your whole life as a sion of one of these five families

and as a trend that this is a pull or call. Sometimes these abductions happen and they are from people outside of your family and those tend to be for political reasons and as minimally violent as they need to be

because it's like an act of leverage. If this was from someone inside of your family making a play on you like within your cast or trying to move up, they wouldn't be aiming for non-combatants.

You would have been the target

Yes.

“So knowing that I think it's really easy for you”

to sus out how to de-escalate this because you know that this is a pull, not a call. Mm-hmm. So why don't you break down for me and what you say? I think the Daven comes out of this hallucinogenic state

into this moment of danger having experienced poles and calls before and I think it's at the forefront of his mind that this is a political kit. Like it's at the forefront of his mind

that he is the target in this moment and I think in the exchange with the lead of this group I think there's almost like a certainty of the kind of the order of operations

in the Daven's mind that is actually interrupted by the fact that they chose to shoot on people like their choice to like cause more chaos which I don't think the Daven is interested in or comfortable with.

And so I think the Daven kind of stands upright and gets right in this man's face and goes, listen asshole

Is this your first time kidnapping someone?

Is this your first time kidnapping someone? Tell me who fucking right now is this your first time kidnapping someone? Why the fuck are you shooting non-combatants? You dumbass?

“What are you trying to make a name for yourself?”

I can see what the fuck is wrong with you. Grow the fuck up. Let's walk out of here like men and fucking leave these people to their physics. I love that the moment you like close distance

with this leader, the gun drops and... I'm going to put a hand on his weapon and point it at the ground. He allows you to push it down

and his hand goes up to like maintain the little distance like if it wasn't incredibly obvious to everyone else in this room now that no one's going to shoot you.

You can see that they're beginning to argue but we're going to keep moving through turn order as you begin to interact with the leader. The rest, like the other three of my... my bad boys

are now just sort of turning and watching their leader in a close argument with you and no longer firing on everyone else. So let's go move to...

Between the two of you, who would like to go first

at the bottom of the mission? I would not like to go first. Okay. See what you got. I think by this time I've caught up

I've taken a beat to take everything in and I think at this point I would like to use my class power of command

and speak with the leader that I see in an altercation with the Daven. So you want to pull the leader from the argument with Z? Or to join this.

I'm going to use this command to join this altercation. Okay. Give me a reasonable. I'm going to say the difficulty is

a five. Five. Good.

“I think the moment you like solidify that plan”

you take your first step into the open

where you know no one has seen you

still to this point. You've been able to hang in the back watch what's going on. You know the moment you move into the open you will pass into like the vision

of these other soldiers who may not enjoy you rocking up on their leader. I'm just offering that up you can do what you want with it.

But there is something to the like I'm losing my advantage here by moving into the open and these like this group seems maybe

minorly deterred by whatever's going on with Z. That may not hold for everyone in this room. Feel free to continue with command

but I'm just offering you a little bit of like court vision for what this room is like. Thank you for the. Of course.

Yeah. I just don't like, I'm not trying to like press you into a certain behavior just making sure you are aware

of like what the scenario is. You said there are three people that have the guns. Six people have guns. Six people.

They all have guns. Yeah. Six people. They all have guns. One is in close.

I wouldn't say combat in a absolute argument with Z. Five more in the room to have taken shots and dropped people that you know are clearly patrons

who are fleeing for the exit of the remaining patrons. Standing still or everybody starting to panic. I think everyone was panicking

immediately. You also have like your physicians who immediately dropped back and are against the wall. Going like we're not.

Everyone employed by you has like an amount of crisis training that is freezing comply. Patrons are the ones that are scrambling out of the room.

So you know they're probably eight or nine people in this room inclusive of the two that are dropped by the door.

and now they are beginning to freeze

because they saw that two got shot. All right. Yes. Okay. In that case.

Strike everything. And sort of command. From my vantage point, I can see things are turning sideways but that

the young sign on has everything under control in his corner. So I move in slowly hands raised and I call to my physicians and the remaining patrons.

All right. Everyone, you know the drill. Comely and quietly please comply with these officers orders. We want to get this done as quickly

and efficiently as possible. All right. Quickly. Quickly. I love this.

The only reason I'm going to say that this is a very difficult role and not just a difficult role is because everyone on your payroll listens to you without a doubt

they would have done that no matter what they are well trained. You just need to overcome

“this sort of blood panic of high people.”

And this charm role is also going to like as the other officers round on you. This is your opportunity to let them know that what you're coming in to do

isn't a faint or a veiled threat that you are actually trying to get this to happen as smoothly as possible. Mm-hmm. I nod to them as I as I move forward.

Arms raised slowly and calmly. My body language is incredibly non-threatening. And I would also like to use command on the patrons specifically. So at least one of them will get hit

with, I'll say, let's I'll choose two targets. Perhaps the most panic looking of them. So I burn five grit per target. And it's my charm versus their will. So you're going to burn 10 grit to try to target.

Okay.

“So this is going to be a difficulty of nine.”

And I just want to remind you that boosting because we are still an initiative is an option. So burning three, six or nine grit to add to your role overall. Uh, I won't do it.

Uh, and that is a critical success

of a 12 plus one for 13. Amazing. You were voice comes in. It's not preternatural, but sometimes it feels like it is. These spaces that you move through.

Spaces that you built both by hand and by will. It's like a layer action. You speak and the room catches your sound and it somehow both amplifies it. So no person cannot hear your words

over the sound of their own racing heart. But also it makes your voice soft like the walls or soft and reassuring. And you see two patrons who were considering whether or not to aid the two people that were shot on the ground

or make their own break for it who were absolutely in the crosshairs of these other officers. Pause and watch you and freeze entirely. And the guns trained on you leveled at your head and your heart.

Unlike the lead officer who never pointed his weapon

at anywhere important on Z. They all turn and again, you can't see features. They're all huge seven and a half feet tall on average and they give you a little nod and kind of give you the head to like move forward

into the room to corral the non-important people here. Thank you very much, I appreciate it. All right, everyone, this way, if you please, you of course will be calmed for your stay here. [laughing]

And as you begin to sort of rustle up the non-combatants we move to Xelsio. Seeing these charismatic commanding figures that I have so quickly like brought order and a sense of like, look at their ability

“to take what seemed to be the worst thing”

that had happened in recent memory for Xelsio and just command. I think Xelsio's like, look at these people that even as something bad is happening to them. seemed to be filled with confidence

and the ability to command there's like something like the command that they've had because they are on the bottom of this interaction. Xelsio, I'll just whisper to myself.

Blessed contradiction. And I'm going to put my hands together

closest to me, I clasp my hands together

in a look of either religious prayer or servant class like Obesons and just start to follow someone like I work for them. [laughing] I think the most obvious thing here

is that you were standing near Z as you both were sort of breaking camp from your shared high. So I'll say that you are absolutely in the pocket with him

and this like scrum captain if you want to stay there. Anyone else sort of like randomly in the room has been effectively shepherded by G. So unless you want to follow G.

I think your big options here do you want to look? Do you want to fall in behind G or Z? Oh, that's fun. [laughing]

G. Z. Oh no, G. Z. G. Z. G. Z.

I'm going to, I'm nearest to Zadovan.

I think I just fall.

“I think I want to take as few steps as possible”

with these guns out and around. So I'm going to just fall behind Z in a way that it's literally like the Homer Simpson stepping into the bush of just slow soft movements hands go up

and take a little quarter step to the back and left of Z right in court and court vizier pose. [laughing] Just literally like I will be able to walk out of the room

if I hold my hands like this and look like I'm moments away from going as higher. Amazing. [laughing]

I like that a lot. The moment you drop back to do so, you hear another one of these like five assailants says something out loud.

It's clearly mechanically scrambled so that it is not like possible human language. What am I just going to do with? And in the middle of arguing with Z, the leader responds in like a similar

garbled tone back and forth. I don't know the man. Just have a picture of him. In this moment,

“would you like to interact with that conversation”

or spend your time focusing on? [laughing] Wait, there's something on the sheet. There's something on the sheet. There's something on the sheet.

What's that? What's that? She fell down the well. I have an ability called Listen. And I don't remember what it does.

But the important thing is I have it. Is there a book? Do we got a book? We got a book? Hold on, hold on.

You practice psychology and it helps someone relieve stress and no cause. This is your therapy ability. Okay, so Listen is for therapy and not for unscramble and coded messages.

I would like to. Having said that, we have established that you are, like you can communicate with mechanical situations.

And this is a mechanical scrambling. Yes, I would like to mechanically unscramble this if I can. Yeah. What do you use on your little sheet?

I think upon your sheet. Can you use unscramble the message? I think I would like to use. I think this would be a reason to use tech ability. 100%.

Okay. All right, this cannot be easy. So once again, let's go very difficult, which is going to be nine. Great.

“And I think we're on the back half of your quibble, are we not?”

Yes, we are. All right. What does that mean for the folks at home? Back half of the quibble means I made what I rewrold a failure before, which means I have to rewrold a success.

But first, I have to get a success.

That is a failure. I can burn a certain amount of grit though. How does that work? So I can burn. It's one to one, right?

Yes, it is. So I'll bet it has to be an increments of either three, six or nine. Gotcha. I will burn six grit to get to nine to reroll. That's great.

That's crazy. That's a five. Okay. I will burn. Six grit again.

So I'm going to blast through 12 grit. I am still dripping dishwasher fluid. I am out of the water from the dishwasher. I just, dishwasher fluid. I just made myself unhigh after going on a trip with the dolphin.

And I hear this scrambled mechanical talk. And I have to burn through more than half of my grit. But I will say, I have 22 grit points. I'm like made of grit. Oh, shit.

I think you can hear my circuitry inside of my chest heating up as I unscramble this.

As I'm like, okay, unscramble this.

And I would like to unscramble what they've said. Yeah, I actually like that idea that like you start heating up from the center of your chest. And we can see that like thin patina is the wrong word. But I am going to use it of like wetness across your plating. Just immediately starts to dry and spreads in a heat pattern.

And I guess you steam just a little bit. A little hot plate action for you.

“I think Z is still very much in this confrontation with the lead officer.”

But I think this is the moment where I realize that you've moved into a position directly behind me as you warm up. And then I'm going to start to do that. And then I'm going to start to do that. And then I'm going to start to do that. And then I'm going to start to do that.

And then I'm going to start to do that. And then I'm going to start to do that. And then I'm going to start to do that. And then I'm going to start to do that. And then I'm going to start to do that.

And then I'm going to start to do that. I'm not supposed to let you hear. That's my job. That's what he's saying. He says no.

No, no.

“You're hearing the actual like mechanical component.”

Oh, the voice granular. He's talking to you. Well, I will say I'll go. Oh, understood. You don't have to let me hear their voice.

But I know that you heard their voice. And it wouldn't be wrong for you to tell me in your own voice. But they said, I think you hear behind. Again, all of this is like the mental construction to anthropomorphize very mechanical concepts and constructs. But it's almost like you can hear this machine's own little laptop fan of logic kick on to try to like mentally justify.

And it works. And they go, that works. This one is saying, they were unaware that there's an arena. You're an arena. Yes.

And you are given just a little bit of lead to no regarding the first person who spoke.

She was unaware on the assignment that you would be a part of the contingent for their lyrics. And the leader here is trying to convince the first one to shoot you anyway. Should I tell them to what if I tell them to? Could you do me a very big favor? Yeah.

Your job, your number one function, is to protect the people whose voices you are modulating, correct? Correct. The leader will come to extreme danger if I am shot.

“Every time the leader suggests to shoot me, I think you should scramble the voice to say, don't shoot me.”

And you hear something akin to a laugh that is both pleasant and mischievous. And you hear it and I think everything, yeah, I think it's just you. Excel's yell, you hear something a little sharp and discordant in the return volley. As this leader is speaking, the speed of the communication that you had with the translate like the scrambling device is such that it's re-scrambleing the words coming out.

And you can hear in the earpiece of the first one that spoke that they are getting a different message than the one that's being spoken aloud.

The message has been garbled and you see that that first person lowers their gun. I am going to, I am going to look see that this has been partially scrambled. And I think I would like to, in this moment, that I guess that's my turn. So I'm just going to stay posted at Binesy. Perfect. And I think with that, we come back to the top of initiative. And now our front person who was identified via the scrambler as clear, though you don't know that yet see, it's still hand on your chest, gun lowered by your hand.

Sir, I have done this before, and I need you to be a little less confrontational. Fine, I'm happy to be less confrontational if you'll act like you've done this before. What do you want from me? You said the others weren't a part of this and I have orders. I know you know how this works. Oh, you probably sent no. The last thing I want is for people to think that when they pull in a lyrics that there's going to be chaos.

It is easy. Neither of them are going to die unless we continue arguing and they bleed out on the ground.

“They're all non-lethal rounds. Does he have a comms piece in his ears? Does he have any other inability to like, I don't know if you had like a phone or even like an air pod or something that you were listening to?”

I'm sure. I didn't think about it. Yeah, I had my air pod in. Yeah, I mean, I think that I probably, I don't have an air pod on, but I'm probably still, I'm still wearing the incredibly expensive sunglasses. I have, I don't have any sort of technological implants or modifications, but I'm sure with the amount that I paid for these sunglasses, they probably have some features or things like that that I don't use that often. But I'm sure they are quite technologically advanced. I prefer the aesthetic in the name brand.

Can I put some text on the inside of Z's glasses that just says, "The person who you are speaking is named Kear?" Yeah. I'll make it a simple roll. Give me another one of those tech rolls. The difficulty is only six. At the ten. Yeah.

Is there anything else you want to add to the information?

I think I'll add to the information that whatever mission briefing they had, it was not transmitted solely through Kear. His subordinates seem to be aware of the mission briefing as well. Great. So that appears kind of in writing on the interior of my sunglasses. Can I get a font check? It is straight up like, was you have gotten glasses that have the ability to have text written on them or not?

“I think that there is an amount of technology in the glasses with regard to the, you know, what are the positions?”

Yes, exactly. There is an inside outside, so I think there is an amount of tech within the glasses that could, I think, Yeah, substantially be, or if you could use things that are not meant to create text, it creates text.

In that case, your smooth transition lenses that are like moody and cool and help with relaxation

get a really ugly reboot box of like factory setting like source code flip and it comes up and in something that is literally like the underlying code of how the glasses are programmed, you just see a new paragraph indent into a line of indesirable code that says, hello. This is a message from Excel's yells can behind you. I'll put this code back as soon as I'm done. This gentleman seems to hear like written out. I think I will clock that and as to kind of, I think,

not fully give away that we are communicating. I'm going to see it read it. Take my sunglasses off and rub my eyes. It's clear. Uh, it is. Yes.

I know things. I understand how things work. Okay, she must have told you we were. Sorry. God. She did. She did.

So let's get this over with. Okay. No. I don't know why we had to do all of that. Sure.

Hey, and again, secondary, like short bursts of three whistles and all of this entire group sort of falls in behind here. And they are fully leaving Qi to her work in the corner. And here is going to gesture to have you sit back in that like little private corner of the room that you're in before. Here. I want to apologize in the heat of the moment. I misspoke. I am here with my associate exelsio. He's been contracted to work for me for the past couple of months. And so wherever we're going he will be joining me.

Understood. Apologies. Sir. Thank you for clarifying. And you see that here now turns to you exelsio.

Apologizing for not understanding your station when this began. Please, if you will. And gestures now for both of you to go sit in the booth. Of course. Thank you. I'm going to pick up my shirt and my clothes that I took off for our co-trip and redress myself as I take my seat. Yeah.

“As you're redressing Qi, does the name cure working for a female employer?”

Probably associated with the five families mean anything to me? Okay. Give me a difficulty seven intrigue role and I will give you what you can assess from this moment. That's a one. No. No.

Okay. You like try to think and line up that name to something you know about the five families.

“I think you also realize that even if you don't know the phrase like pull and call that might be something a little inside baseball.”

For you that these sort of like... I didn't know that kidnappings orchestrated kidnappings are a part of the culture 100%. 100%. But the big thing here is cure is an extraordinarily common name across the system that is dominated by the gemis octavo family. Like that name exists in other systems, but if you're just going like, oh yeah.

It's like hearing of specific ethnicity name and going like, great. I can like get it close to a region, especially with as as distributed as the galaxy tends to be. All right. So I've curled the patrons things are starting to calm down now in general and they're not calming down. You did rule a one.

I rolled a success for the calming.

Right. I'm saying that there's a mechanical consequence to the fact that you just rolled a one. So this is no longer an active fight. You have that like sense of panic calming down. But you do see that like the situation remains tense and your patrons, especially the two that were panicking, having listened to you,

are now slowly beginning to spin up again. And you do have two patrons that were shot in the leg and hip that are being treated by your like, or like physicians on staff, but they're not in a good way. This is triage. All right.

The rooms out of combat, you're kind of not quite out of combat yet because you own this place. Does that make sense? Yes. This is my nightmare. It's something like this should be fairly routine.

We are in a very delicate political situation right now as a whole quality. And I turn back towards the trints and I say master. Master of Eriks is everything taken care of. I look up at care is everything taken care of. As long as you're cool calm and confident, I'm cool calm and confident.

That's how I like to work. I look over Miss Tonka. I'm so sorry.

I believe me and my associates will be on our way in just a second.

And I beg you to please put all of this on my tab. All right. I am somewhat mullified by this. Thank you. Very well. I believe it is standard procedure for the house that is doing the bullying or the calling to take care of the

care of the bill is that. This is a bluff.

“I'm just I'm going to make you roll for a you have to make some sort of bluff check here.”

You can tell me what you want to do for that. Charm? Sure. Difficulty of a nine. Eleven to us one. You actually see one person towards the back kind of rounds on you.

How about you don't worry about the bill and take care of your people? I would think someone trained in this culture would understand that it's goes to discuss money in the middle of this kind of negotiation. It's tanka. Not discussing money is the purview of those who have quite a lot of it and don't have to worry about it.

However, I hint taken and I will give it to I will contact your house. Put it on their tab. Fantastic. Thank you so much. I busy myself with the rest of the patrons ushering them out.

“I think the moment you start ushering patrons out and you move towards the door.”

That same officer is actually going to grab you by the shoulder and go. You know what? Since you have so many opinions on how this is going, why don't you go take a seat too? I'm sorry, with the rest of the patrons or with one of us is holding a gun. Go sit in the corner.

All right. Great. And I make a hand gesture to some of the physicians in charge and allow them to go over it. And I move over towards XLGL and Zadovan. As you're partying, asterate specifically who's taking care of like the patch up that gets people out of the door is going to kind of lean into you.

Is there anything you need? Are you, should we do something? Please just make sure that the rest of this gets smoothed over.

Should I inform it?

Okay. Okay. And you see that because she is now sort of being stared down by, again, this masked figure she moves out.

“It's just kind of giving you the like, why do I like, I want to help?”

I do not want to be touched by bullet. I sort of gesture with my hands in the universal simmer down gesture. Yeah. She nods and you see her sort of move back into her a more efficient version of her brain as she like moves out of the door. Make sure everyone gets into these hallways and stays relatively calm and quiet as they move down. And you are escorted over to this little sitting area.

I'm going to look over at G. Hello. I'm XLGL. Hello, XLGL. I'm G. Tango. The proprietor of this establishment. You are contracted here to master a barracks. Yes. Oh. Uh, yep. Hmm. Yep.

“Do you not, um, Madam Tango, you are the proprietor of these parlor's correct?”

That's right.

Are you aware of my, uh, employment status?

I was not aware that we hadn't arena. Dang. I guess I really don't work here. Okay. Well, you're welcome, nonetheless. Thank you. I have deeply enjoyed my time here and have tried to be as helpful as possible. I think I may have mistaken a conversation with an altered guest as a offer of contractual employment in this place.

But the person who offered it was again, chemically altered and may not have understood that they did not have the authority or any financial means to contract my service. Well, easy coming, easy go. It seems like we'll have to find some way to compensate you for your free labor.

No, no. It's okay. That would be untoward.

And as you said, I worked for, sorry, who did you say you were? Uh, Zedava. Nice to meet you, Zedava. What line of work are you in? Are you saying this at a volume people can hear? I look over, as I say that out loud, and I say, is a question that I often get asked.

I think, yeah, or unfamiliar with the arena. I'm happy to, I answer Excel's question. I don't think my eyes have left tears. Yeah, I'm locked into the continuing interaction. I think, happily, I think, listening to, like, them banter.

But I think it's, I'm thrown off again by the irregularity of bringing she into this. And so I think I've again kind of staring daggers into cure, wondering what his next move will be. Yeah, you are buttoning up your shirt now, having sort of redress to yourself, redress to yourself, redress is a different word.

“You finish buttoning up. You should mean that.”

You should. It should. Fuck. You finish re-clothing yourself. And you are staring at cure who is going to sit down across from you. And the lowers, like, takes off the sort of, like, eye blocking glasses. And you see, alabaster skin and, like, pale, unnaturally gray eyes and a little tough of, like, white, short, spiky hair,

peeking out from under his helmet. And he lowers, like, the lower face mask that was part of the, like, equipment to alter and boost his voice. And you see that he's got, like, chisel jaw. He's just a very standard looking person from the gemisaktovo system. And he's got one of those mouths that you can tell, like, he's had his jaw broken several times. And it's just reset weirdly every time this is a career fighter. And as he kind of sits, he, like, pulls a chair. All of his other associates are going to stay standing and kind of round off this corner of the parlor and make it a closed room for you.

Again, all of their guns are lowered. But as he sits and kind of reveals his face, he's also going to reach to his left shoulder and removes a little, like, black patch that was covering up the sign of gemisaktovo, which you would recognize, a little, like, diamond symbol, a green field with sort of geometric lightning bolts surrounding a seven petal blossom. He's locked in eye contact with you too. And kind of quickly glances over and, like, seize, key joining. There's a little bit of a micro expression that it seems like that was not an order that he would have made.

And he takes a big breath and kind of puts his hands on his knees and goes, "So, did you know, isult was going to pull you, or is this any kind of a surprise?"

You sit here, looking at a man who has said, "A name you know well and no carries a level of reverence and respect equivalent, if not, minorly, a clipsing your own." So I want to ask you, Zee, "Do you recognize this man, this cure, in the context of the gemisaktovo faction?"

Because you 100% know the name, isult gemis, the person he works for.

I would say that Zee Daven has a clear delineation in his head about names, faces, and hands shook that he should remember, and those that he should not. And I would say that isult gemis and the people who she holds in high regard, those are people worth knowing and remembering.

“So I think if there is an interaction that I've witnessed in the past between isult and cure, I would have chosen to remember or made the effort to remember his face and his place in her retinue, if he is a grunt, someone who just works for her,”

if there is not a parent intimacy or value in that relationship, I would have forgotten him immediately. Nice. Okay, then I think it is this. You recognize his face, but you never needed to or were offered the opportunity to learn his name, cure is just as good a blank name as any, but you've definitely seen him before, though, the last time I think you would have seen isult. She's only a couple years older than you. So in that very mutual adolescence between these like story to families, like she had some obvious affection for you coming up, whether that was the beginnings of a crush or just that sort of like older sister energy, like we both get it and we're at this fancy party together.

“Here is absolutely that level of guard that would have been put on sion detail that would have been young enough for her to have a little crush on before, so I think you just recognize his face as like,”

"God, this person I know and get along with, that she has a little affection for, but probably has reasonably upgrown in the subsequent decades." Got it. Great. I think I'd also like to make a role in this moment. I have advantage on roles to sense motive. In this moment of like, relaxed calm, I've been pulled before, this has happened to me, this kind of sitting debrief moment as I look at cure. I think there's part of me, Lou, wondering if it would just be normal for me to be on the ship right now and on my way.

And if this kind of debrief for discussion moment is normal or abnormal. Oh, I love that. Let's go. Let's say the difficulty is seven, but for every increment of two above that that you role, I'll give you extra information.

In his advantage in this game role twice take the higher role. Absolutely. If it's different, I've forgotten him and that doesn't matter. And 11 on the first roll. Okay. And 11 on the second roll.

A consistent king. There it is. Okay. That is two steps above the floor of information. So yeah, feel free to like tag on any follow up questions that would seem not impossible to clock and we will have your like sense motive be deeply incisive in this conversation.

“But yeah, I think you've been pulled before. You have seen polls. You've seen a color two in your day. Also, polls tend to be very, for the sake of getting what work done.”

Very, very matter of fact, they happen. Everyone clears out and then the why of it gets explained later as the family begins to talk. Polls tend to be quite gentile and based on the relationships and things being asked. Sometimes they are a little more conversational. You've heard of polls, although you have not experienced one where it really was just sort of like a handshake like.

It's just left within 20 minutes. Yes. So there's a high there's high variance to it. This feels like a particularly kind one, especially now that you know that like.

Not just that it's coming from Gemma Soctavo, but that it's coming from someone that's very much in your cohort. Yes. Great. I think in that case.

“Yeah, Z is also I think going to take a more relaxed posture. And I think as that question comes to him is going to respond.”

Didn't hear from her directly. Source is just a sort of tip that these sorts of, I don't know, that's something like this might happen. Fascinating. And I will offer you because I really like that sense mode of role. It looks like he is trying to square something in his head that there is something about this mission briefing.

And that little extra information that you got from Excel ZL that everyone here knew about some level of briefing that isn't squaring with and somehow you figured out we were coming.

I think I say that something unusual about this poem. You guys guns out shooting people. I mean this seems to be a little bit more aggro than it needed to be. You are not wrong, sir. Can I just get a charm roll? Sure. I'll say the difficulty. He could be very frank with you right now. The difficulty is going to be a 10. Only a six unless I can burn grit. We're not in combat anymore. However, you know what? Let's leave it to chance. You are not sitting here alone right now. And because you verbally called out the fact that something a little funky is happening here, I think that would ping for both Excel ZL and G to maybe lean in on this too.

So I'm going to say both of you can give me you can give me reason roles. The difficulty will be six. And for every step above that, for every role of two above that, you can add more than plus one.

So if you hit a six, you add a plus one to the role. If you can somehow get to like multiples above, you could reasonably get him to a 10. A six adds a plus one. Yes. God. A plus one for you with a six. Hey, how much do we need to get you to plus 10? I need you would have to add plus three somehow. I'd like to quibble. So you only, yeah, yeah. I don't do better. It's okay. You both contribute and I think it sets something off in both of your minds.

“Gee, you remember that you were alerted to any of this, not because of hearing anything specific about a threat to a trend on your rock, but a particularly fierce amount of squabbling happening inside of the like gambling rooms inside of a fight.”

Gee, you've been a part of polls and calls before, have you not? That's right. So you know that these tend to be quiet and quick affairs. I shouldn't be here. I shouldn't have to know about this to be honest with you 100%. Mr. Kerr, I'm here because there was a very market disturbance over at the synth fights. It seems that some of your hired hands were a bit heavy hired handsy with the crowd. Normally, this sort of a thing would go off without a fuss. I wouldn't even be any the wiser. And you see, Keer's expression, hardens, not out of hostility, but realizing that you're beginning to put a bit of a puzzle together out loud.

And again, I think you can see in his eyes, why are you sitting here again? Not his call. So he's not directly asking it. There is still a little bit of status that you walk around with, but you could just tell that he's like, "I don't like this and I don't know why you're here helping." And along with that, you did add a plus one, yeah? Yes. Yeah, Excel's yellow. You added that little bit of intel that like everyone here is a part of this plan.

“And I think you are beginning to put pieces together. Is there something I want you to as a result of that like success?”

Ask me a question and I'll give you a little bit of insight maybe to help put this together now that you see that like a little bit of space.

I would like to know what their next wishes for us are.

“That's my question to you. Like, I want to know like, what's their ideal version of how this goes next?”

Yeah, you can see the vibe and understanding that you're getting is everything slowed down out of politeness and deference for it's it all of it. But this would best beat like this is very clearly a side project. And the thing they want next is for this to like be moved up and out so they can finish what they came here for. Got it. Does that seem like that will be very bad for the doven or is this part of this? All right, then I'll just look over and I'll look at the doven and I'll go sort of leaning in and be like, I appreciate that I work for you.

And I'm going to sort of the little popular port on my eye goes and just like closes and opens and I'll go. Do you know why these people want to talk to you? I look over here. Think we're trying to figure that out. And because it's close by a little short, he's not going to completely give the game away.

This is not like a sudden well, I can trust you of what we're actually doing. Yes, but you are everyone here in this room all nine of you at this point are very aware that this was bigger than this moment. Well, you were an exciting opportunity presented in a bigger move. Sir, and when Miss Gemis was made aware of your presence here on Genopar, she made sure that we were sent over to pull you.

Of course, I would never presume to know the negotiations that are a part of that, but between you and me, it was to get you out of dodge.

Well, I can't say that I'm my feelings are in a little bit hurt that I'm not the whole hog, but.

“And I think you are clocking as you talk that his eyes have now drifted over to Chee and he is watching you dangerously.”

Even though his body position is still facing you, like he's not going to move away from the power center in the room, but whatever he just said made him very worried about cheese reaction. Uh, you're saying Genopar is not about to be safe space. I think we can all say that Genopar hasn't been safe space since the schema began being built. Yeah. Well, despite its rough and tumble nature, we do have a certain amount of guaranteed autonomy thus far.

Are you telling me that that is guaranteed by who, ma'am? Well, that is still debatable. And then if it's debatable, I don't think I would call that a guarantee. Oh, well, there's something in particular that has tipped it over onto the side of being unsafe. I don't think it's a matter of safe or unsafe.

“I think it's a matter of being secured or unsecured, ma'am.”

I see. But why today of all days, Master Iverics has been here before, and we've taken quite the garovom, yes? Very much. Do you say, when you've come to visit here before, do you move with all of the weight of your faction? I think it depends.

Honestly, it depends on if I'm riding alone or with company, with company always my whole faction,

with sometimes alone. I think it's just been my money. I think on this trip, it's been a little bit of a little bit more me alone with, I think this has been a somewhat longer stay than some of my other trips to Genopar, so I think that I think in the past it's been sometimes sometimes not, this time it has been.

Well, this was more of an extended stay than the young master here as a custom too, and word got to us this time.

This isn't about him, but because he was here, we were sent to make sure he gets out

before what happens happens. And with that, you hear just like the very like at the edge of your hearing dog level sound of something coming through on all of their ear pieces. Speaking of which, we should be moving soon.

“I think it's a dove and it's going to look to cheat with a kind of, uh,”

mistake. I don't know what is to come for Genopar, but I wish you all the best. Well, thank you. That's very kind of you. Um, can I try to read body language and hear listening to the, you know what?

Look at the, uh, at Excelsiel, uh, and I say, well, um, it seems that that Master of Erics is that out of the loop here, uh, do you happen to know what his next moves should be? I'm going to look over it and uh, lean in. It's clear, who's curious to hearing that, right? It's clear looking at us or it's clear, distracted by his ear piece.

Uh, here, all you saw was here, look away for a second before he relaxes in on

cheese so specifically. Gotcha. I'm going to say, I'll look at you and say, hmm, one moment, please. And I'm going to lean in real close to Sedauven and go, okay, I know that I don't really work for you. Um, what's your actual job?

Um, I'm a partner at the Ericsson Enterprise. You're all, you're really part of the Averex family. I'm sorry? Oh, I thought you were ringing that up. What?

Why? I don't know, it's just rare. Well, you, you're in the presence of a rare person. Okay, congratulations. Thank you.

I'll look up here and go, Master of Care.

You're preparing to move Lord Averex. Is that correct?

“I think it's wise for all three of you to come with us at this point.”

But yes. Understood. We are on our way to consult with Islt. Gemis, is that understanding? Yes.

Very well. I'll look over it. You, are you panicking about that? I am. I, my heart has fallen out of my asshole.

I am, this is everything that I have a worked for. And, and is, is crumbling around me. And I, I, I, I am very well trained for crises. But this is, this is too much. This is beyond the pale.

I look at this robot. I'm going to lean in and say,

“I defer to you to measure your odds of success in a conversation with Lady Gemis.”

Or we can, Jesus. I'm going to, with in your implant calm, I'm just going to say, I would rate our odds of success in a conversation with Lady Gemis,

as higher than popping off in this moment. However, I can hit this guy with a laser beam. You're so sweet. I, I, I say through my calls. You are so kind.

And, um, you know, uh, choosing it is not really in my wheelhouse, you see. Uh, let's, uh, we, uh, we would do well to take the diplomatic route. I do need to send some messages. And I turn back to here and say, um, Do, I have your leave to, uh, contact some of my associates,

and also let them know to get out of the proverbial dodge. I'll do your respect. Ma'am, no. I'm going to need you to come with me. Please do not activate any of your calms.

Very specifically, whatever happened with Excel ZL accessing it. Whatever means they have to, like, pick up on calms. That went under the radar. But the implication here is that, like, that sort of interceptor technology, especially for a short range, non-encrypted things, which would be your easy sort of

walkie-talkie across Genopar would be easily intercepted. The three of you, with me. Thank you for making this pull relatively easy. And as Kierstands, he's going to put a hand to his own ear and sends out a message. Oh, we've secured the payload.

That was Erika Ishiyi as Chitanka,

Brennanley Mulligan as Exelsia.

“Lou Wilson as Siddavana Vyrex and a Bria Iangar as everyone and everything else.”

Solari is produced by worlds beyond number and it sounds designed by big giant head

productions and score by Will Savina.

“For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon.”

We'll see you by the fire side.