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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 14, 2016 8:41:16 GMT
Want to start on this Tom, work out how the conversation would unfold after the Octopus suggests that Sou take a break after everything.
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 14, 2016 11:11:40 GMT
Good thinking bucko. Where shall we set it? Face to face, over holofac, over text comms, maybe on a planet? Opportunity for some world-building here...
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 14, 2016 12:14:48 GMT
How about in one of IPEC's newly captured Stations? Sou's just finished a meeting with the Octopus in her new, palatial office in Dashiell and has wondered off to find Al. Strangely he isn't in a bar, but is in one of the exhibition halls where an amount of Trav-sol history is being taken down and replaced by something suitably Imperial. Al seems to be taking interest in a portrait of Arissa and doesn't notice Sou entering at first.
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 14, 2016 12:47:56 GMT
Nice. I like it. Would be good to give the stations a bit more life than just being big spinning docking windows.
Will this be one of Al's logs?
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 14, 2016 12:51:07 GMT
I think this one makes sense to be Sou's you've just led IPEC to winning the system & 3 stations, had a tiff with Vex and had a meeting with the Octopus suggesting you take some time off to explore, alien hunt and take me with you. So the conversation seen through the eyes of Sou in that mind-frame would make for best and most interesting reading I think.
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 14, 2016 13:12:39 GMT
Righto.
Ok. To set the scene - Sou has just walked in to the TravSol Exhibition Hall in the upmarket district of Dashiell Orbital, which is being emptied of TravSol's artistic treasures. They are being taken to be loaded on to transports and taken to Nourse Dock. It is incongruous that Al is here. Sou has been looking for him for an hour, having just come from a meeting with the Octopus.
-----
Trigger! There you are. I was told you were here - implausible though that seemed. Didn't have you down as an art critic.
(Stops mid-bluster, noticing the portrait Al has been looking at).
Gripped by patriotic fervour, all of a sudden?
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 14, 2016 14:17:09 GMT
Al is seemingly in his own world, staring at the newly hung painting, doesn't seem to notice Sou enter.
"After all these years, they still can never capture her eyes correctly."
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 14, 2016 14:50:47 GMT
What? The Emperor's?
(Looks from the painting to Al and back again, quizzically)
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 14, 2016 14:57:08 GMT
(Slight jump) "Oh? What?! Oh sorry Sou, didn't hear you enter."
(relaxes a little, possibly a slight flush but then sounds like his usual self again)
"What are you doing up here? I thought you were in for a meeting with the giant squid?"
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 14, 2016 18:02:01 GMT
I was. Our mutual cephalopod was in particularly high spirits. Wrapping her tentacles around her new offices of state and the like.
(Puts hands in pockets).
She's given me a new mission. All very hush-hush, putting the 'expeditionary' back into IPEC, sort of thing. Tried to spin it as a holiday to begin with. Clever minx.
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 15, 2016 6:30:28 GMT
A holiday?
(Perks up)
I didn't realise those were part of the contract. You mean the sort with sandy beaches and cocktails with the little straw umbrellas in?
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 15, 2016 11:41:14 GMT
That'd be good, wouldn't it? Sadly not - more the kind with a high risk of a lonely, airless death far beyond the Frontier. Fewer straw umbrellas.
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 15, 2016 11:53:24 GMT
I'm not so sure, last time you suggested something like this I ran into those angry protesters at Mayo.
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 15, 2016 16:14:56 GMT
Oh, you want to come?
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 16, 2016 7:46:04 GMT
Maybe, depends how long they take with the free drinks here, I was promised opening night drinks.
Where are Dex and Konnie anyway? Don't they want to come along?
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 16, 2016 8:36:33 GMT
They met her before I did. I actually have no idea where they are. She's got Ronnie involved in something, but neither of them will talk about it. She's sent Dexter off on a recon mission somewhere. To gauge the threat posed by some pirate lord, or somesuch.
(Muses)
It's almost as though she knows that having four guns-for-hire around with nothing to shoot at is a recipe for trouble...
(Smiles slightly)
Anyway. She wants you and I to take a different tack. Those new life forms discovered in the Pleiades are spreading. We need intel on them. Believe it or not, you and I are the most accomplished explorers on the Company's books. We need to go deep into barely-charted space and see what there is to see.
You are of course free to say no. But I'm going, and would appreciate the company.
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 16, 2016 8:53:52 GMT
At least that should be more interesting for Dex than sitting on that old ice moon of his. Curious about Konnie though, I wonder what she's been sent to do?
Alright then, it promises to be a fun jaunt and gets me away from these paintings.
(glances, for a bit longer than necessary at the portrait of ALD)
Tell me, what should I pack for such a trip? Do you have any room in your ship for my spare drinks cabinet?
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 16, 2016 12:27:42 GMT
Yes. Yes I do. In fact, I have all the room. I'll show you later.
Best go to one of the chop shops here and get them to swap out some of your heavier modules. You'll want a planetary vehicle lander, the best scanners you can afford, a little bit of cargo space and the largest fuel scoop you can fit. What are you flying?
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 16, 2016 13:01:58 GMT
I'm flying a spaceship.
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 16, 2016 13:15:28 GMT
Ideal.
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 16, 2016 13:21:05 GMT
Excellent! I'll go and get those things you said.
Oh and these life forms, are they dangerous?
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 16, 2016 21:20:27 GMT
Ah. See, Trig, here's the rub - we're the canary down the mineshaft here. If we end up dead, we'll know the answer is 'yes'.
The Barnacles aren't dangerous, in the same way that sheep aren't dangerous. Sheepdogs, on the other hand, have teeth. Therein lies the mystery. Nobody knows who put those things there. Fancy finding out?
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 17, 2016 6:56:57 GMT
"Yet, across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us"
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 17, 2016 9:57:54 GMT
(Claps his hand on Al's shoulder)
Fingers crossed not, old chap. Anyway, you sound like ol' Halsey.
(Looks thoughtful)
What do you say to a quick drink? I'll show you my planned route.
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 17, 2016 10:59:20 GMT
I say that sounds like a fantastic idea. They said there would be drinks here, I guess I'm too early.
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 17, 2016 19:00:13 GMT
[should we end here? Or discuss the routes, aliens etc in a bit more depth?]
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Post by Tanith Low on Jun 18, 2016 7:44:45 GMT
If I could suggest?
Leave it there and do it as a story of someone watching the security feed in the art gallery. Have it so that they've been watching Al as he's been coming in for a while and only ever goes to that portrait. They're worried he casing the joint.
Just a thought.
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 18, 2016 9:01:59 GMT
I love that idea. Great thinking. What do you reckon, Al?
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Post by Al-pocalypse on Jun 20, 2016 7:12:23 GMT
Yep, I am happy to go with that :-)
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Post by Souvarine on Jun 20, 2016 7:29:55 GMT
I'll draft up the setting of it in the next few days.
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