Scene #3659: COLONY: Opening

Owner	Pose
Starbound Flotilla	Amalgam, or as it was previously known, Epsilon Maiia Minoris IV a. This planet, full of dense forests and sparsely covered with small bodies of water, is what the moon claimed by AMATERASU Lunar Mining Facility 01 orbits (which would, of course, be Epsilon Maiia Minoris IV b). As such, it is the logical place to begin one's expansion. The region they've chosen is a small valley, a pleasant little spot that's neighboring the old site of the Glitch exodus that the Flotilla members caused last time. Noteworthy here is that the trees are multicolored, and bear massive flowers in lieu of proper leaves. Also noteworthy are the sparse bits of Glitch ruins -- little medieval outposts and towers -- that dot the small valley. The valley of the colony itself isn't too steep, and the sides can be easily climbed. The regions around the valley, the area at its base, and the regions below are designated for the construction today. A teleportation beacon, alongside an artificial warpgate, have both been established here; arrival won't be tricky in the least! There's already a small outpost setup; so far, much of the development area of the colony has been flattened effectively, several residential areas of varying aesthetics and types are set up, there's a now-functioning power grid wiring them up, recycling areas in progress, and a basic craftworks area complete. A dozen or so people have already moved here, but it's still in need of more. The aesthetics are completely varied. While most of the area so far is crafted out of Pixel-fabbed plastic-like substances, some of it is medieval stone, some is bamboo, some is heavy aztec-like stone bricking, some is pure industrial steel, all sorts of aesthetics to the small cluster of structures. AMALGAM COLONY Colonization RESIDENCE: ##### SUSTENANCE: ## POWER: ### Economic MANUFACTURING: ### TRADE: # Conflict DEFENSE: ## OFFENSE: NAVAL: # Research ARMOR: ## WEAPONS: ## TOOLS: ## POWER: # VEHICLES: #
Starbound Flotilla	Today, though, the Starbounders don't guide people around to some horrible new adventure or another. THIS TIME, people get to get by without having to get shoved through some horrible cave, or need to fix some awful deficiency in the engineering. This time... Instead, one area has a hastily-constructed prefab amphitheater. Despite the haste of its construction, it's still a bit overly theatrical, as is Moonfin's way, but he also went a lot more restrained than the FUJIN-Starbound Technology Expo. This is a quiet backwater show, not a big party for VIPs. He doesn't need to sell anything to anyone, because it's already done. The Amalgam colony is functioning! Right now, Moonfin's up on the stage. Folks might have been here for a while, or they might be just arriving, but the flowery-speaking Hylotl is going to deliver what he came here to deliver. "My friends... It is with joyous hearts that I am here to celebrate the first anniversary of the founding of the Flotilla. And to celebrate the accomplishments of that Flotilla. In the span of a year, we have achieved greatness immeasurable. We have ascended from the darkest depths of exile and social disparity, reaching a height of power undreamt by our humble souls only one solar cycle ago." He gestures broadly, showing off a wide, almost smug grin. "We have achieved our working relationship with every faction, gained business partners, enacted trade on a scale we could not have dreamed, and made strides in all realms of engineering. Our philanthropic works have rejuvenated lifeless worlds, and our mercenary work has ensured safety wherever it was threatened. And I do not speak merely of our humble Core Fleet. I speak of the Flotilla -- the whole Flotilla -- and its works. Though its many parts may find themselves opposed across grand idealogical chasms, though our moralities and allegiances may shift and come into conflict, though we may be as this world is named -- an amalgam -- we have achieved what we seek. Some have sought profit. Some have sought heroism. Some have sought adventure. Some have sought knowledge. Some have sought a home. In one year -- in this first year of the Flotilla's existence -- we have ACHIEVED IT!" "I welcome you each, visitors and members, colonists and wanderers, traders and raiders, heroes and villains, to Amalgam! Our home! Our adventure! Our thesis! Our profit! Our heroism! Henceforth, let it be the source and the embodiment of all of these, and more. Amalgam will stand as the means and the proof of our achievement." "To each and every member of the Flotilla: Thank you. This has been a wonderful year. I can only hope, in this year, that your dreams have reached the fulfilment mine were blessed with." There's not a big crowd, but the colonists do cheer a bit, as do the hirelings for the Core Fleet's own ship-crews. Moonfin makes a smug show of how humble he is about that, and then heads on down. There's a fair bit of food available all around the colony, and displays of the Flotilla's work. Real big stuff, giant holoposters of their accomplishments in the galactic empire, the Mojave Wasteland, the oceans, Eclipsed Earth, Galianda, Neo-Fuji, Tokyo-490, and many other places. Not just sites of the Core Fleet's work, but the works of the greater Flotilla! And of course, the Core Fleet is milling about, talking constantly. So social!
Sarah Parsle	Souji Murasame is of course making an appearance of support over there somewhere for the event, but the important thing is Sarah is also here. she istens to the presentation, nodding as Moonfin shows how amazingly humble and not at all pretentious he is, before finally breaking free of the greater announcement and speech portion of the event. Immediately, Sarah moves to acquire some food, before starting to mill around to look at some of the displays. Every so often, she pokes at a tablet computer she has with her, taking notes for something as she works her way around. Eventually, she hits up George. "Sup, George." You know she likes him because she refers to him by name. "Looks like everything worked out. Amazing what happens when people get down to business and work together."
Nozomi Houken	Nozomi Houken is not the kind of girl to cheer or clap overly much. She's also not the kind to be very deep in the crowd. But even though she's near the back, sitting sidesaddle on a very tolerant Taiga, she's got a faint little smile on her face when Moonfin speaks. Nozomi is not above a sense of pride. She's helped here, even if it's just a tiny bit. The Flotilla people, both core and extended, have been very welcoming. They've taken care of her, they even gave her a way to defend herself that doesn't require her to actually do something scary like hold a gun or a sword. She's even come to view Biteblade as 'safe' rather than 'scary', which probably says something. The poor girl can't /quite/ follow all of the bombast and bluster, but she can get the gist of it. They've all made a home together, and they should be proud. So when the speech ends, she slides off Taiga and starts... well, circling around the edge of the crowd, rather than navigating it, but heading towards the food and also in the Core Fleet's general direction.
Rory White	A few of the colonists are from Transhuman territory! Not a lot, but a few. A handful of people were quick to sign up for working on a olony with REAL AIR AND GRAVITY, even if about half of them are currently dealing with Synthmorphs. ... At least Rory's provided the highest quality Synths she can produce for those few! And the AGI herself, well. She's sleeved into her Flexbot, part of the audience! And she lets loose with a loud cheer! Amidst all the other applause... the awkward, forced nature of it is thankfully drowned out. She's not used to being SO LOUD! The only question is... now that they have this colony... now what? "Quality of life has to come first... but that's EASY since we're not in space!" She exclaims to nobody in particular, rather pleased with this entire project. It's been a wild ride all the way here. And there's been no small amount of idealogical gaps. But... "Despite all those differences, if we CAN work together... maybe all the habs back home can follow suit." Yeah. Probably not.
Starbound Flotilla	George is actually the one Starflot member who's a little less social than Albert naturally, but once proactively engaged, he's quite sociable! "Heya, kiddo, nice seeing you around. Lemme tell you something, coming from a guy old enough to be your cool uncle." He takes a quick drag on a cigarette he's smoking. "You ever find a couple people who can get shit done? I mean /really/ get shit done? You don't let 'em go. You lash them together, build a raft out of 'em, you know?" He smoked all through the speechmaking; frowning at the smouldering stub, he flicks it away and stomps it. "Actually, I think that came out wrong, but, uh, you get the idea. Point is, yeah, you get enough do-ers together and you'll do something. Make sure you run with /that/ crowd, kiddo."
Sarah Parsle	Georgs lays down some solid advice on Sarah. This makes him even more esteemed on Sarah's Continuum of People. Actual sociability is optional, considering Sarah herself. "Sounds like I found some of those." She replies, gesturing. "Despite some of these guys being dumb as bricks, if you keep them on task they roll over things, and your core Flotilla team has a solid specialist set. Makes me wish my own team was that competent." She grumps for a moment, then shrugs. "Then again, I bet you guys were a hilariously dysfunctional set when you first ran into each other too."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa was expecting another run somewhere but thankfully it was not. Kotone could seriously use a break from things. She finds a spot to sit down and seem to be fiarly pleased with things. She pauses as Moonfin brings up the Flotilla's been around as it is? For a whole year. She was not expecting something like this at all, and she smiles a little bit as the speech goes on. She';s also eying the food however she looks over at Rory with a bit of a grin on her face. "Even if everyone can't I'm sure we might be able to get some, and that's still worth something." Kotone has also totally clapped too. Though she seems about ready to go drag Rory to be more social! Doom has come for her AGI friend.
Starbound Flotilla	"Hmh. Houken." There's Albert, he's the one who greets her. "Here." He hands Nozomi a plate of food, and one might expect he got handed the plate of food and doesn't want it. It's not a bad selection, but the crops in this galaxy are all weird, so the foods are pretty tough to recognize. It's sort of like festival food, kind of, more homey though. This place still only has basics on COOKING, after all. "Mmmh. Seen what this Flotilla did to Yamakawa and White. Are you prepared for the chance it will happen to you?"
Starbound Flotilla	"Not likely, Lass. Ye got a good dream though." Pavo says, wandering on over to Rory. "If ye want my advice, people don't just set aside differences. Mind's built to fight, lass, built to take on another group, a tribe. Florans just be a little more direct, yarharharhar! Ye best bet, find some aliens for transhumanity to get worried for." She squawks a bit of laughter and ruffles the flexbot on the hair, assuming the form's still got that in range. "It be proof, though. Don't matter how different ye all be, so long as ye get everyone in the same tribe, it'll work."
Starbound Flotilla	"Oh, yeah! We totally had our dysfunctions. I mean, one time I accidentally lost a bomb on Pavo's ship, and then she accidentally miscalculated a trajectory right into the Mendacity, and..." George rambles a bit to Sarah, before he laughs it off. "You get your shit together under pressure, most times. Let me tell you, kiddo, that's what gets it figured out. That's the, I dunno, the centrifuge, see? It separates everything out. You add a little chaos and a little crisis to the situation, the scum falls to the bottom and the good stuff rises to the top." He makes a little fancy sort of magic-fingers gesture. "You already know that's coming up with the predestination thing. Look forward to it, kid, it means they're about to hit the change."
Rory White	Rory turns her head, making a quizzical noise as Pavo approaches. But her eyes widen with surprise then narrow intensely with rapt attention. She makes for one VERY good listener. And though it brings some uncertainty to her expression and she jitters in place - kind of a shiver, but an akward one - she ends up nodding. "The more I see of people the more I'm inclined to agree with that viewpoint." But oh, she still has hair! It's synthetic hair formed of countless microbots. The texture's a LITTLE weird compared to natural hair, but it's soft and normalish enough! But still, getting RUFFLED... Leaves her with shoulders bunched up and eyes wide. She's all but blushing! Every sign of it's there... except any actual color change in her skin. "Everyone in the same 'tribe', hmmm..."
Sarah Parsle	Sarah actually chuckles about the 'accidents'. "That must have been a load of fun." She comments. "We're more or less on the same page. I've just been trying to prepare for what I know so when it /does/ happen, I don't end up dragged down by the scum. Sometimes I wonder if there's a such thing as too much preparing, though..." She mutters the last, looking down to her tablet before tapping at it. "It's not like most of the rest of my team are."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa hears PAvo's words and muses on them for a moment. "I think I see where your going, Pavo. I hate to say it but yes an outside enemy can be a very unifying force. Then again there's enough crawling around there that there might just ber something we'd uncover then again Vert might be such a thing." No she doesn't like Vert, no she pretty much intends to shut down the mad machine for what it did to her and how it's messing with other worlds. Kotone howeve rmoves in to also mess up the synth hair as well ruffling it the moment as it's exposed to her. "I admit I'm worried we'll have our own fall back home, we avoided nuclear annhilation but still there might be other things we're not ready for. Also has anyonr see SEFT?"
Starbound Flotilla	Kotone and Rory are both hassling Pavo now, but Biteblade's the one who wanders over to them! She hears Kotone's own questions. "Huh? Armor friend? Okay! SSSEEEEEFT!" "Exasperated. I am right here, Biteblade." "Floran helping!" "Amused. Well, technically." Seft speaks up! She was sorta milling around the crowd nearby, but she's on over here! "Warm. Hello Rory, hello Kotone. How are you? I hope you feel well after the busywork of establishing the colony. We could not have done this without you." Her eye-visor, as usual, flickers over to a happy "^_^" and she eagerly, gratefully grabs at both of their hands, giving them a gentle squeeze in both of her own hands as a more direct, formal, and yet friendly and close show of genuine gratitude.
Nozomi Houken	Oh, hello Albert. "Ah, thanks..." Nozomi takes the food and peers at it curiously, not sure what it is... and after a few seconds of staring, she's /still/ not sure what it is, which means it's entirely new to her. So she takes a sniff. She reaches up with her free hand to give it an experimental poke. Then she picks up a piece of food and bites in, chewing carefully until she's ascertained that it is, in fact, pretty decent-tasting. Whatever it is. Albert has, however, raised a question, one that sort of puzzles her. She tilts her head slightly, murmuring, "Eh? What do you mean...?" For the time being, Taiga saunters up behind her, in just such a way that his side bumps up against the back of her legs. Without thinking about it, she sits down, giving her a seat while she munches and talks.
Starbound Flotilla	"Well, who knows. Some people god natural talent, some people got some good luck. Doesn't hurt to be prepared. Don't go disbelieving if they pull out some crazy nonsense either though." George says, shrugging. He's been wandering enough with Sarah that he's able to sort of casually amass some food while she fusses with her tablet. "No such thing as too prepared. Now, guess you can prepare too much the wrong way." He takes a bite of some weird glitch food. Sparks are literally flying while he chews on it, it's uncanny. "Example, lotta people only prepare for success, you know? And don't prepare on /failing/. Now, I'm a real dummy, but even to me that's just sloppy. You can't be too prepared, but you /can/ jam all your eggs in one basket like you're making a wicker omlette, right?"
Rory White	Well, there's Seft. And if there's one person who Rory has little trouble understanding completely it's her. Her emotions and intentions are pretty UNMISTAKABLE after all. "Good evening, Seft!" She reaches out in turn with both hands to grab Seft's offered one, putting on her best smile in return. She's gotten... SOMEWHAT better at making those look more natural. Less forced. And it's taken a year. Hoo. "Seeing everything come together this well... ah, I'm feeling too much excitement! About what we'll be doing next. There's so much to do. Probably starting with food production and medicine, but..." And she also greets Biteblade with that awkward smile. "Biteblade! ... ... Um. How will you celebrate this occasion?"
Starbound Flotilla	Albert makes a grump noise, which is to say, he grumps, but he doesn't seem more grumpy than his baseline, and not towards Nozomi. "Yamakawa and White were similar to you, months back. Yamakawa was a bike mechanic and White was a space station monitoring AI." He has... Uh... Well, you could describe it as a nutrient brick. He takes a bite of it. The texture manages to look unappealing just visually. "What I mean is that you change. The things we do turn people into something more, eventually. Yamakawa just led a paramilitary corporate sabotage, White is attempting mass-scale social engineering and engineering philanthropy." "Hmh. How you'll grow up different if you run with the Flotilla. Thought about what you want to be at the end?" Albert, as ever, has a soft spot for the kids. Seems like he wants to make sure Nozomi is thinking about her future, even though apparently all the kids the Flotilla takes in come out all weird and change-the-world-ish.
Sarah Parsle	Sarah doesn't respond immediately to that, instead looking over as George munches on some Glitch food. "That looks painful. How do you eat that?" She asks, then nods. "Yeah, that makes sense. I'm barely getting over the edge myself though, I'm not in a position to spread out my eggs yet. Just hope my Session doesn't start before I get the chance to do that." She grimaces. "Probably will, though. Everything always turns out to be as inconvenient as possible and that's not even accounting for people being actively assholes."
Nozomi Houken	"Eh?" Nozomi pauses - not just in speaking, but entirely. What Albert's saying sinks in, and it brings her to a mental standstill. "I-I... I don't know, I'm... I'm not really... I mean, just being around a lot of people at once, it's still kind of scary... I don't know about..." It is at this point that Taiga turns his head slightly, just enough to indicate that he's joining the conversation. "You may be surprised at how little Nozomi Houken changes in the long run. Save, perhaps, for coming out of her shell. On the night that I first met her, Nozomi was willing to become my user despite the terror and chaos of a terrorist attack on Tokyo and a Union strike force arriving to repel it. When harm was brought to someone she cared for by a member of the Confederacy, she did not merely ask for my aid, she ordered it. And when an autonomous assault unit attacked her school simply to force her into a corner, she revealed her identity to her schoolmates and cast aside her secrecy and safety without hesitating, simply to protect them. I am a military weapon, but after all this time, I believe that Nozomi Houken is a better-suited user for me than any soldier the JSDF might provide. She has a sense of restraint, and a hidden strength I find... worthwhile." Hey, were you wondering how brightly Nozomi could blush? Because you get to find out now.
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa says "Hello Biteblade, Seft. I seems I was easier to find you than I thought. Thanks and I'm not done yet, with how things are rolling I intend to see if Saski and Miho are interested in here. I might think of a few other people we could recuit I'm curious to see how this goes, but I am happy to have a places to live that's like this. After Vert hit my home on Earth? I not felt entirely safe there since." She doesn't fight back as SEf grabed her hands and odens't seem to mind a all she smiles a bit. "It's been a strange life ever since my accident since that attack." She does reache over once Seft lets go to get some glitch food. "You know this stuff migh be a hit with full conversions like my self back home. Though I bet the micromachine makers might not be too happy about it, if my theroy on it being able to function like mainance nanties is right." She chomps down on some of it seeming to enjoy the food.
Starbound Flotilla	"Cheerful. It is wonderful to hear that, Rory. Once we expand the capacity of this location, you will have access to resources you can use to enact much more broad positive change throughout the multiverse. I am looking forward to seeing what you do." Seft says, clearly as much interested in the potential future altruism as Rory herself is. Biteblade is poked at too! She responds by, well, hugging. "That firssst!" She says. "Then, Floran go hunt big prey. Reeeeaaally big prey! Floran celebration." That's... Well, that's simple, one supposes. "Fish tell Floran, celebrate with big firework. Floran not doing pyro for big fish sssince WMAT, not gonna do now."
Starbound Flotilla	"With my mouth, mostly!" George answers Sarah's question. "Try it out! It's like licking a battery but with actual flavor. I guarantee a couple meals of it don't kill ya." George says. Whatever he's eating seems to be made of metal, at least partially. "Just, uh, make sure to spit out the screws." Then George actually answers the main things. "Half of that's a state of mind, you know. Knowing when to surrender and quit, or retreat, or try something new, part of the prep. Make sure a good bit of your prepwork is mental flexing. I'm an idiot myself, but from what I've heard, that's a whole different kind of thinking. If you're worried about being too prepared or not prepared enough, get your brain settled on thinking through that."
Starbound Flotilla	Albert grunts to Taiga, in a way that shows he's acknowledged the statement about chosen partnership without agreeing or disagreeing. "Hmh. Your decision." And then, "She'll be showing more of whatever she already is, then. Needs to decide what that is." He says, taking another bite out of his nutrient bar. "Figure it out so she can know where she will be." Seems to agree with Taiga on that part of things, at least, but he still seems quite intent on Nozomi deciding what she actually wants to be and do sometime. "Not now. Don't have to tell me. Figure it out and know it."
Nozomi Houken	"I see," Taiga replies. "I suppose you are correct, in that." Nozomi is coming down from her sudden fluster, but she's left now with a different problem - the looming question of 'what do you want to be'. It's good that Albert at least thinks to tell her 'don't tell me'. But it still leaves her with that lingering, twisting sense of uncertainty. She's never considered the question. "Ah... w-well, thank you, I..." And now she's at a complete loss for what to talk about! At least the food seems to be edible. Nomf.
Rory White	"H-hunting! I should have known. It's practical! .... Well, I appreciate the effort that goes into fireworks, but I don't quite understand why they're so important." Boy does Rory sound puzzled over them, the more she thinks about it. She gives Kotone a questioning glance. Maybe Kotone knows why fireworks are so awesome! Or maybe Rory's just missing the neural wiring to appreciate them... Or just too sheltered. Which is why her attention's more focused on Seft a moment later. "Yes! Yes to all of that. More production for expanding the automated infrastructure... it can only grow exponentially from here. We'll be able to solve much bigger problems with resources like this!"
Starbound Flotilla	Seft makes a rather enthusiastic buzz-beep noise of happiness to Kotone, nodding several times. "Cheerful. That sounds wonderful, Kotone. We will have plenty of room for residents and residential expansion, please, find as many people as you can. We will need many more workers if we're going to get the factory ship operational." And then Pavo is getting involved. "Ohhhhh, aye? Ye say there be a nice high-competition market? For the Glitch grub? Avast, ye speak of a trade that the Flotilla oughta get in on once we have the farmin' running, lass. Ohhhh, that definitely be somethin' me interest be on, ye get any friends with contacts in those sectors, lass?"
Sarah Parsle	"Huh." She looks over at the Glitch food, pondering it for a moment before she takes a bite, carefully. There are sparks from it as she chews, and then there is a pause as she winces... And then spits out a screw. "It's like... eating a penny and a nine volt battery glued together." She asserts. "Different." Then it's back to the other subject. "That makes sense. I should probably work on that... But you're not an idiot." She frowns. "I think you just like making people think that so they underestimate you. Sure, you're not supersmart like Seft over there, but you know exactly where to push something to make everything break down, don't you. That's pretty smart in itself."
Kotone Yamakawa	Kotone Yamakawa looks more than a little sheepish at what Seft has had to say about her and her idea. She also seems happy biteblade is finding some pretty good prey that won't cause any loss of sleep for Bite to be hunting and both eating. "Well it was just a thought it doesn't seem to taste quite the same way for me as say when George eats it but I know it might have chance there Pavo. I might know a few minor people but no one major I'd be working family contacts to say the least but maybe we fan find something. I'm pretty sure there would be some cybor food companies interested in doing business for something like that." She also looks to Seft nodding. "I'll do what I can I know we might be able to recuit some people from the Refguee camps in Japan. We can't save everyone but anything's better than nothing."
Starbound Flotilla	"Determine what you want to be. The Flotilla expresses that, eventually. Did for them. Will for you." Albert says, and like Nozomi, seems to have very little more to say. Unlike her, he doesn't make any attempt to say anything more. For what little capacity of empathy he seems to have, he knows when to let someone alone and have the conversation fall to a more graceful silence. "They embody the bursting emotional sensation that surges within the hearts -- well, in the case of humans, the heart -- and express to all the shared, amplified emotional response to a cause of great celebration!" Moonfin explains, as he passes by Rory. Biteblade keeps giving him space; those two always have a lot of tension. Seft doesn't go, though. "Optimistic. I relish the opportunity to do this, Kotone, Rory. Perhaps your ideas can be merged; extremely favorable food and medicine trade agreements with refugee camps in exchange for work from their more knowledgable engineers and skilled laborers would be a fantastic exchange that benefits absolutely everyone as much as possible. Perhaps the next project, now that the foundry has been completed?" "..." George's smile falters a little bit at what Sarah said. Not much, almost not visibly, but just a little bit. There's a long pause, and a brief, almost unnoticable gleam in those mis-cloned red eyes of his. Is there something right there...? Then it's back to goofy idiot. "Haha, whaaaat? Kid, I just spit up self-help crap, it's not sage wisdom or whatever. I build ship hulls and get beat up, givin' me too much credit here." He laughs it off, as usual and pops another minibattery, showing off a sparky grin.