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Owner	Pose
Arthur Lowell	> ==>     The boat's been just fine. Good signal. Good food. Good living, not even too cramped with the bigger-on-the-inside cabins. The DFA Noir's Relief has been rushing through space. More accurately, it has been doing something slightly different from moving, through a problem that looks very similar to space but technically-speaking is not. They aren't in hyperspace, some alternate dimension, and they aren't 'moving' in the sense of translating coordinates. What's technically happening is that Arthur is performing a very high number of operations of math on a reserve of technically-impossible angular and distance numbers derived from impossibilities produced during an experiment with Lilian, and once this is solved, they will arrive at their destination.     That's why what they're passing by seem to be various stars, planets rogue and otherwise, vast rings, asteroids, comets, and other landmarks of space, with a far greater sense of density than would actually make sense. This is because that's the way this bubble of stable three-dimensional space is able to structure the surroundings (which are, to be clear, not actual space) into a way that physical matter can perceive and interact with.
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: Explain things     "ANYWAY ALL THAT IS WHY," Arthur says, finally finishing up his sweeping on the deck. "It was the RIGHT DECISION to plot a course where we DRIVE THROUGH THE GAS GIANT. Look, there's HELLA NUMBERS about it. We had to go THROUGH THE RING for BONUS POINTS." He plants the broom on the deck and wipes his brow.
Xion	Xion was vaguely used to the living situation though it was certainly more stimulating than her usual white-on-white geometry abode. She had been broadly around, taking a vacation from the incessant buzz of notifications and alerts and Pro Quest Opportunities to hang out on the ship. The vague living-travel-mission engagement of the situation made her more likely to hang out, despite the length of the journey and vaguely party atmosphere of things. There was slightly too much sweeping up for it to be a party, and so, tentatively, Xion explored the area and hung out and did chores if she could find them and idled when otherwise not occupied. The travel being relative didn't bother her. If anything, changing relational state was smoother for her than Gummishipping it up. Imagine all the space tornados to fight! This was easier. ... Being EXPLAINED TO, Xion's bright blues droop as she leans forward on the Kingdom Key, arms crossed. The length seems longer, and bends under her forward weight, but posed like this as an idle animation means she's been here for long enough her motion's gone entirely into Sleep Mode and she is barely there. "So it's... not because you want something to sweep?" She asks, looking down at the brooming mage, then eepily looking back up. "Every time we go through a ring a film of stuff gets all over. Is the bonus points broom experience? Are you broommaxxing on us?" The noirette asks, incredulous.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "God no, I put this in my STRIFE SPECIBUS in order to CLEAR MY INVENTORY way back when I was ESCAPING THE APOCALYPSE."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell flicks it away into his inventory. Card, slot, folder, lots of UI about it. "I don't got BROOM ATTACHMENTS."
Petra Soroka	"Yeah. Obviously." Petra says, from the cushion on the floor of the space ship that has a 0 ping connection back to Earth to play Mario Kart. "It makes you go faster."     Theoretically, with everything practical being taken care of by everyone else, the greatest threat to Petra aboard this ship would be boredom, but here on this space-yacht that is not the case. Because, of course, the nature of her company, and the fact that she volunteered herself as entertainment for the trip. Existing around Ash, Lilian, and Tamamo in close quarters, with Nika and Sakura only a screen away, means that not only can Petra not get bored, she can also not catch a break.     What has happened recently is that-- at Nika's suggestion-- the on-and-off Mario Kart gaming has been imbued with very serious stakes on winning and losing. The winner may get something, but most relevantly, the loser was required to put on specifically Petra's maid dress. This obviously restricts the pool of losers to those actually aboard the ship, which never becomes an issue because it's impossible for Nika to lose.     It also, practically, reduces the pool of losers to Petra alone, because anyone else who could be required to do that would kill her instead. The inevitable result of this is that Petra, by no fault of her own except actually following through with it, lost and then had to equip the costume.     Her other role besides being a sort of punishment jester is, as promised before, cleaning. "I mean, we'd have to sweep the outside. I feel like that can wait until, like, after."
Xion	"This guy is cleaning right now! The deck!" Xion protests mildly, extending a hand out from keyblade-hilt to gesture and come-on-mannn pose towards the Mage. "This guy is aura farming being broomhumble on us! He's broommaxing *and* broomhumble." She argues, to get Petra on her side.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "I'm not gonna make people CHILL OUT on some DIRT-ASS BOAT DECK! And I DIDN'T BRING any of the FREAKS THAT WORSHIP ME to do it either, or throw THE WHOLE THING at THE BURDENED," He jabs his finger at Petra in a way that somehow emphasizes the outfit. "That'd make the mood HELLA WEIRD."
Lilian Rook	This trip has been the longest single period of contiguous time that all four Blooms have spent together. Ever. Even counting the fact that two are still on Earth, brought piped into the ship by Eggpack and various holoscreens, it exceeds the usual by multiple orders of magnitude on a country mile. So there's been lots of learning, and lots of adjusting.     Lilian has insisted on her room being far away from everyone but Petra's at most, because it is 'her room' in the sense of 'a married couple's room', and Ash has insultingly insisted on it first, starting a petty standoff. Nika has figured out on the first day how to wire up a persistent connection that doesn't require active maintaining from her, which has resulted in a Discussion between her and Sakura about camera etiquette after the cameras caught Sakura passing out on the sofa and talking in her sleep.     The stupid-ass Mario Kart tourney has resulted in Ash insisting that Petra was 'bitten by a radioactive degenerate', which Nika found hilarious and which Sakura took upon herself to explain some things about Word Choice while Ash pretended not to hear but actually couldn't get away from the speaker system on-board. Lilian stoically refusing to play for unclear yet emotionally intense reasons has resulted in Nika being frosty about it until Lilian worked out that the problem was 'appearing to hold contempt for videogaming on an important mission', prompting her to drag out her-- VR set?
Angela	Roland's been relaxing and enjoying himself. This is the best work week of his life. He's treating it as a vacation. It might not be a vacation when they get there but by god, right now he gets to eat, chill, and NOT answer the beck and whim of Angela's every call. It's the best! rBut sometimes he doesh elp out with cleaning, or preparing a meal, just because these are things that he enjoys doing. He does this even if meals are already prepared and the space is already clean. He's doing it for the love of the game. "Rings give bonus points, erverybody knows that." Roland says, whistling.
Tamamo	Tamamo doesn't need to find things to take up her time, because there are always so many things. She can't take care of her gardening from here, of course, but she's sent back some messages to those in Dragon's Garden to check on her peppers, potted near the beach, once a day. She's checked weather reports, too, coming in through systems in the Garden, and incidentally (but not really coincidentally) very useful for her lower-G garden.     Mario Kart is something she'd rather watch than play. It's a little hard to understand, and she's regularly asking things like, "But why do you move faster while going sideways?" and "Why is leaving the track here permitted, but not there?"     There's another thing she wanted to get to, just because Nika is there. "It had come into conversation a bit ago, the topic of 'virtual worlds.' Are you familiar with these, Nika? I do not mean the general notion of a world of fiction into which one may feel immersion, but the specific sense of a game that is experienced with all of one's senses at once. It had me considering the differences between such a thing and the villages of the game worlds of which we had previously spoken."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell rambles continuously as he heads belowdecks to rec area, jabbing a finger at Roland. "EXACTLY. It's BONUS POINTS. HEY," He hollers, grinning wide at Lilian. "You a big SECOND LIFE SHOPAHOLIC or are we gonna see some SICK E-SWORD MOVES sometime?"
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "I ever tell you about the time I got STABBED TO DEATH by a VRMMO GM?" He has told this story maybe three times, at least once on this trip itself.
Tamamo	Tamamo listens to Xion, and looks between Petra and Arthur. "Sweeping the outside of the ship would be possible, no? It is not as if you will be swept away by the wind, so long as it is not done while passing through a storm." A Jovian-style storm, for example.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "Yeah, I got HELLA O2 topside. Just, you know, NO JUMPING OVERBOARD and it's all FINE."
Angela	Roland fingerguns at Arthur, shoots at him with it imaginaringly, and then blows the smoke from his fingertip. He gets back to sweeping. It's like Mario Kart but in real life and instead of throwing shells at karts you swing broom at dust.
Lilian Rook	Now, on the big stupid space yacht deck, Lilian is lounging in a chair that is definitely actually meant for the pool, using the headset she commissioned for the Bladecraft: Connect crisis on 'augmented overlay' mode so she can perceive the world outside and move around, though she's only really using her hands and the back of her knee, and only for slow and gentle gestures.     Nika is perving in on the session, and has, without actually telling Lilian, spliced a window-in-window feed into one of the big screens to view a first-person perspective of a digitally tranquil garden surrounding an open air workshop with artisanal flagstones and combed sand near a water fixture, within which Lilian appears to be digitally restoring and maintaining an entire half-shed of various swords, which Nika is diligently attempting to reverse engineer the mechanics and scoring system of by watching and noting it down.     Sakura has just recently nodded off due to the peaceful ambiance of the videogame being piped into the rec room on the ground, and just woken upon again halfway through Arthur's explanation, perhaps activating somewhat at the mention of cleaning after having already seen Petra lose and be forced into her own cosplay outfit. As the first time on this trip, you see that the first thing she does after waking up is immediately check a clock and a calendar; the Petra issue has been replaced with the Paladins charity one.     Ash has just returned from a tour of the ship where they'd drawn a surprisingly accurate map on physical paper, handmade with rustic tools, using an obviously stolen fountain pen, which they began by putting on hiking books; which may have been habit, or may have actually involved tromping around outside. The next order of activity appears to be impressionably inspired by Nika's attention to Lilian's activity, given that it is carving a(n also stolen) cruxite dowel with a ka-bar as if woodworking.
Xion	"Dirt ass boat? Ar-thur!" Xion protests, now awake because she is both handsing openly at him while looking to Petra ('the Burdened'). "Define Bonus Points! Explain your scorekeeping system that somehow forces you to sweep! What are you getting, that isn't more time spending sweeping!?" Xion has been stuck on this because it's both slightly fun and also she's been captured by Arthur doing *space* chores while the tournament had gone on. "It would be messed up to bring your cult to clean the bonus points off the deck, that's true, but why aren't you letting the bonus points stack up? Do you get less space dust experience? Does it reduce your math efficiency? Are you just ringshotting us because you need this?" Xion pauses. "Am I being insensitive?"
Lilian Rook	'It had come into conversation a bit ago, the topic of 'virtual worlds.' Are you familiar with these, Nika?'     Nika, distracted briefly from perving on what appears to be something like powerwash simulator for zen sword philosophy histographers, says "Oh yeah. ¶They/the Old World¶ didn't have those but I got to try it out once we all ¶moved in¶." Which would put that shortly after Operation Winter Hazel, almost immediately after becoming aware of the Multiverse at all.     "I keep kinda wanting to try it out again but the first time I did the game was a huge pain; like it had a right to be your second job you know?" says a girl who doesn't have a first job. "And everyone was so melodramatic and grouchy and as soon as I got through the ¶Plot¶ the servers shut down. So I'm grumpy about it."     She perks up at game worlds, at about the usual level for anyone finding out those are real. "What's the difference?"
Lilian Rook	'Sweeping the outside of the ship would be possible, no?'     "Yeah, just tie Petra's ass to a big ol' palm tree so she doesn't get lost and send her out there. Test how long she can hold her breath." Ash says, then using gesture to indicate a 'big ol' palm tree' snapping Petra back through the window when she goes too far. "Are we even passing through anything though? I kinda dissociated through Nerd Alert's whole thing and started thinking about how stupid asteroid mining is."
Lilian Rook	'You a big SECOND LIFE SHOPAHOLIC or are we gonna see some SICK E-SWORD MOVES sometime?'     "What on Earth are you talking about?" Lilian says, obliviously, as if she were in the middle of getting a sun tan and some rambunctious twelve year old in his swim trunks had just run up to insist that she's the dolphin queen now. "One life is already enough. And I shop a responsible amount. Everyone always says that I work too much, so I can't be shopping too much either." The upper half of her face can't be conveniently seen, but she seems to have decided 'e-sword' means a lightsaber, and frowns.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell is back up topside now that there's chatter there. "FIRST OFF," He points at the Cruxite Dowel. "I'm ALCHEMIZING THAT LATER and we're gonna find out something TERRIBLE." Then it's finally getting a seat up top, settling on a deck chair and observing Lilian's motions for a short while. "Do they SIMULATE your fuckin' ZWEIHANDER WEIGHT on that or are you doin'," Vague gesture. "ACTIVITIES?"
James Bond	James Bond swivels around in his chair, one leg crossed over the other as All That Shit goes on outside. "Why bother having me at the helm if you're just going to spin us around and scream numbers at us?" he asks flatly.
Tamamo	Tamamo gets an odd expression when 'Sakura' and 'camera etiquette' are brought up together that she shares with Lilian and then never explains.     To Nika, "There are worlds that appear to be a game that was made elsewhere, just as there worlds within some books, and those created by fairytales. There was a great deal of fuss, I am told, about a particular VR world before my present time, and I did participate in one that used headsets, in which people were, for a time, trapped. It was shut down, as well. Ah, but... I wonder..."     Nodding along, the gesture picked up by this being a video call, she continues, "A 'second job,' and petty dramatics... it is a bit like a royal court, no?"     She thinks on how to explain that, and then shakes her head, continuing to talk about nothing particularly important but potentially satisfying Nika's curiosity, instead. "In other cases, there are gatways that connect to a virtual world, and it can there be visited in the flesh. Oh, come to think of it, I did visit the world of an unfinished game, once. That was quite a strange case. It had 'characters,' but no 'players.' I did a little bit of work to try and complete it, but there was only so much that could be done on my own."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell yammers at Xion, "'Course I'm gonna keep the POINTS. But POINTS ain't GASGIANT DIRT." He gestures at the sky, which, if you looked from the correct angle, would be a nitro meter. "POINTS IS POINTS. THE INTANGIBLE WISDOM OF THE UNIVERSE that you get for SICK GRINDS sometimes." Bond has a grind coming up on a comet tail.
Petra Soroka	"bitten by a radioactive degenerate"     Petra's first protest is, implicitly to Lilian's defense, that she was actually always like this. Her second is that she didn't ask for this at all, which is profoundly unconvincing when coming from a girl with her hand on her hip wearing a maid outfit she brought aboard a spaceship (which there are explanations for as to why, but stacking up too many convenient explanations makes it worse!) "Sweeping the outside of the ship would be possible, no?"     "Ah... but... breathing." Tamamo already knows Petra has ways of getting around this. If she didn't, then she could just hold her breath anyways. " or throw THE WHOLE THING at THE BURDENED,"     THE BURDENED looks a little down at this assignment but doesn't really argue. "I feel like we're all focusing too much on this. Maybe if anyone else packed stupid outfits we'd have a more balanced, like, game." > Lilian VR     It's not technically perving in if Nika did it first. Petra scoots close to also watch the first person view, and Lilian at the same time, sitting 'next to' Nika in the screen. Watching Lilian as a group while she's, like, basically blindfolded by a VR headset rapidly becomes evil, so Petra jumps in on Tamamo's topic to chatter with Nika also.     "I've really barely played any VR games at all either. Er--" Lilian knows about Sterling, but Tamamo..... Well, now that she's said anything at all, awkwardly avoiding the topic would make it very clear to Lilian that she's *hiding secrets* from Tamamo, which isn't allowed, so Petra just has to forge onwards. "Like an MMO. MMOs are always trying to be jobs that you live inside, so the VR part is kind of just, the natural progression."     "But-- god, there's actually a *bunch* of game worlds. Either digital or just designed that way because of an evil goddess."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell points the ice-ball they're approaching out to James Bond. "You're good at STUNTS. How'm I gonna do my MATH without some MULTIPLIERS and PRECISE FLAT-BONUSES." He explains, as if it's somehow obvious. "ACHIEVE MY COMBOS, COMBO-ACHIEVER."
Angela	Roland, despite cleaning, is just wearing his normal suit. He thinks James Bond has a point, or he thinks he does, he barely understands what Arthur is saying most of the time so he tends to latch onto something Arthur says that he does understand and stick with that. "Points is points." Roland says. "True, true." He bobs his head like he said something incredibly insightful. "Combos add to points, so do multipliers. True that." He nods some more.
James Bond	James Bond turns back acround in the chair and sullenly uses the ship's three-dimensional movement apparatus he installed earlier to grind on the comet's tail at the last possible moment. "I hope there are women on this planet."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell yammers at Petra, "Every outfit I wear is COOL AS HELL. I could make CLOWN look good. BEAT MY SNAKE TECHS! Find the SECRET."
Petra Soroka	"Test how long she can hold her breath.""     Petra's hesitance at going outside is immediately challenged by her scoffing and stancing up in a way that's entirely normal for her but way more fucked up in the maid outfit. "Long, leave me alone." f"There was a great deal of fuss, I am told, about a particular VR world before my present time, and I did participate in one that used headsets, in which people were, for a time, trapped."     Petra nods enthusiastically and loredumps for Nika's benefit. "Oh, that was SAO, I think. Sword Art Online. They call that kinda shit 'death games' now, where your whole body gets linked up through the headset so you can't log out and you die if you die in the game. Well, there's variations, because SAO did get shut down, like, obviously, and no one went off and made 'SAO 2: the death game again'-- but Bladecraft was pretty similar?"     Petra wiggles her fingers, ghost story style. "No one ever even figured out why. With SAO, it was a whole mystery-- I wasn't there, but it was really big in the news at the time. Video game Satanic panic type shit. Like razor blades in apples, parents were saying that all video game devs were trying to psychically murder your children."
Lilian Rook	'FIRST OFF, I'm ALCHEMIZING THAT LATER and we're gonna find out something TERRIBLE.'     "Sick." Ash says, narrowing their eyes and redoubling their focus on the dowel. "I hope it fucking sucks. I hope it sucks so good."     'Do they SIMULATE your fuckin' ZWEIHANDER WEIGHT on that or are you doin''     Lilian turns her head to look directly at Arthur, then sits up straight, then opens her mouth partway, uncertain whether or not this is meant to be offensive, and then decides it definitely is by his gestures. "I'm doing nothing that's any of your business." she says. "And I'll appreciate you saying nothing at all about my weight."     Sakura, on the holoscreen, shuffles upright, yawns, opens her eyes wider, gets up on her knees on the sofa, and folds her arms over Nika's head so she can stare at Arthur past her. Inscrutably. Like she's waiting for his dialogue wheel moral choice, perhaps.
Tamamo	'Test how long she can hold her breath.'     "Long enough for her to clean the deck, surely." Tamamo doesn't quite say that like she has or is about to test Petra's limits. Softly implied, at most.     She knows, anyway.     'MMOs are always trying to be jobs that you live inside, so the VR part is kind of just, the natural progression.'     "They are a sort of... attempt to create another world to which to run away, no? Or else, to rule." She's more or less thinking that through as she talks, with her limited experience. "That one boy takes his game avatar out everywhere he goes, I noticed. Just as one can walk into a game world, if the gateway is so aligned, those of the game can walk out."     'Oh, that was SAO, I think. Sword Art Online.'     "Yes, that was the one."     'Like razor blades in apples...'     "What?"
Angela	"That's true, you are making CLOWN look good." Roland tells Arthur. Tiphereth makes her way over, yawning a little. "How long are you gonna be sweeping?" "It's meditative. Calms the mind." "Right..." She looks to James Bond. "There's plenty here right now."
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: What is your comedy outfit?     Technically speaking it used to *also* be maid outfit, but after getting fumbled around with about Ash's pronouns, he went to twitter and searched, 'HOW TO BE A GOOD PERSON ABOUT WEIRD GENDER' and understood pretty much nothing except for a few key facts: - Freaking out continuously about the friends he had during Sburb who were constantly 'pretending' to be different genders might have been the wrong thing to do. - Something more complicated than he could really understand was happening about those people, which he shouldn't think about right now. - It's, probably, not moral for 'guy in a maid outfit' to be comedy? Maybe?     So he's been adjusting his Comedy Matrix, which has given him a bit of an unbeatable advantage in the precarious maid-outfit proximity, but not much real substantial personal growth.
Lilian Rook	'I am told, about a particular VR world before my present time, and I did participate in one that used headsets, in which people were, for a time, trapped. It was shut down, as well. Ah, but... I wonder...'     "Oh." Nika blinks. "You mean--" she blinks again, then starts doing math in her head. "Whoops! I almost goofed."     'A 'second job,' and petty dramatics... it is a bit like a royal court, no?'     "Now you're making it sound cool." Nika says, wilting just a tiny bit. "But I'd be so bad at a royal court because that's the ¶opposite/antichrist¶ to games. How hard you work and how much time you spend on it basically doesn't matter and the results are all-- Lilian what's the word that's like woobly and dumb?" "Asinine." "Thanks! It's too asinine to be like games!" Now she looks proud.     'Oh, come to think of it, I did visit the world of an unfinished game, once. That was quite a strange case. It had 'characters,' but no 'players.' I did a little bit of work to try and complete it, but there was only so much that could be done on my own.'     She jumps up, accidentally throwing Sakura off her with a "Wha--?!" that buries her in blankets. "You made a game?!"     'Maybe if anyone else packed stupid outfits we'd have a more balanced, like, game.'     "I'm afraid that Ash currently lacks so much choice in wear as to have anything 'stupid' amongst them, and Lilian doesn't own and outfit that isn't perfect." Sakura says, between tiny noises of exertion as she rolls herself back upright. "Yeah and Nerd Alert's dressed stupid all the fuckin' time. I think the Ikemen dies if he takes his suit off? And I think Bond dies of fucking cringe if his watch costs only three figures."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell rambles a bit, "That TRAPPED IN A VRMMO disaster, I was actually PART OF THAT! It was a WHOLE BIG SIDEQUEST and I DIED. My DENIZEN moved in at the FORTRESS-TOP actually, whole big QUEST everyone did." He scratches his cheek. "I think they patched her out later though. Not sure what that means for THE VAST MECHANISMS OF FATE."
Lilian Rook	'Like an MMO. MMOs are always trying to be jobs that you live inside, so the VR part is kind of just, the natural progression.'     Nika sighs again. Romantic-annoyed. Sakura reaches weakly towards the table, and Nika passes her a bag of panda's march. "MMOs are kind of the ¶romantic fantasy/manifest destiny/crowning achievement¶ of the ¶Old World¶. I dunno what I really expected but I think the one was enough for me for a while."     'Either digital or just designed that way because of an evil goddess.'     Lilian automatically launches into a hotly whispered "Freak. Loser. Creep. Embarrassment. Virgin. Virgin slut. Shower-allergic whore. Brainrotted smelly little scrolling-addicted femcel embarrassment." and then a little bit more, which lasts long enough for Ash's knife to droop and for the holder to slowly turn Lilian's way wearing an expression of faint awe.     'I hope there are women on this planet.'     "I hope there's a giant experience machine that makes you experience waking up at home like you never made any of your stupid decisions and your dad is proud of you and your wife gives you big sloppy kisses like your dead dog did." Ash says, out of nowhere, like a tangible threat. Sakura, finding something about that funny, for some deliriously cruel ADHD reason, says "I'm sorry Mister Bond, but you've departed the Planet of the Women on your Odyssey."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "SPACE has SO MANY WOMEN in it. But we're going somewhere where it RAINS IRON or some shit, so probably NO BABES."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, 'Babes,' somehow, like it's the first time he's ever said it.
Tamamo	'How hard you work and how much time you spend on it basically doesn't matter and the results are all--'     Tamamo has a good think on how to explain this. "It is as a player-versus-player game, in which you started late, and you are not to be told the rules--that is, the mechanics." She nods, also proud.     'You made a game?!'     Tamamo waves both hands in front of her. "A little bit, only! I may have added some recipes, which created foods to... ah, 'craft'? I may have also created a sun, which was necessary for the cycle of day and night. We were never able to truly finish it, because its 'main characters' wandered out into the multiverse, but I like to think that I left it a little more pleasant of a place to be than it was, before."     'I think the Ikemen dies if he takes his suit off? And I think Bond dies...'     Tamamo is confused for a minute about why Bond was listed twice, but she gets it eventually.
Lilian Rook	The words 'experience machine' also activate Lilian. She pauses in the midst of meticulous work on something called an 'edge geometry score' that has six meters and a radial double-orbit circle greeble involved to remark "Oh my god. The--" and only just barely doesn't blurt out 'the rat orgasm button' because of Petra.     "Yeah?"     "Oh it's an utterly fucked broadband thing."     "You jackboots don't get 'CUT THE CHATTER!' the second someone coughs?"     "No-- Well yes but-- I mean, it's an Elite broadband thing. Interfactional comms."     "Oh fuck! You've got socials with those clowns?!"     "Not by choice."     "You kidding?! I'd choose that in a second! If you don't want it, I'll take it!"     Lilian sighs, and decides she'll prove a point. Finding the communicator where she left it (on the side table (the least hideous she could find) after taking it off her ear to mount the headset), she patches it into the comms and broadcasts "" <B-anter> Regulus says, "So when's the constitution coming out?" <B-anter> Ember says, "Asking the real questions here."     She waves a hand like a punctuation mark. Sakura stares in dull shock. Nika isn't paying attention, for reasons. Ash jumps on it instantly and snatches it off the table. Lilian is too relaxed to want to get up for it.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell mutters with dread, "UH OH." He goes for his own smartphone. "Is it the MONARCHISM FIGHT again?"
Tamamo	'My DENIZEN moved in at the FORTRESS-TOP actually, whole big QUEST everyone did.'     "Your... denizen?"
Lilian Rook	'Oh, that was SAO, I think. Sword Art Online. They call that kinda shit 'death games' now, where your whole body gets linked up through the headset so you can't log out and you die if you die in the game.'     "Booooo! Bladecraft ripoff! That's so obvious!" Nika begins protesting, at the top of her lungs (which is not, admittedly, terribly loud), and looks like a cute little doll trying to throw a football hooligan tantrum on purpose. Up until--     'but Bladecraft was pretty similar?'     Nika rushes all the way up to Ruble, bonking the display by not slowing down fast enough and making the audio peak with the ensuing rattle and close-up enthusiastic squealing of "You played?! What's your username!!!"
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "Oh, I had a DESTINED FOE kind of situation. A DENIZEN! Like, it was my DESTINY to CONFRONT THE MOTHER OF MONSTERS. Y'ever hear of ECHIDNA? She was gonna KILL MY ASS."
James Bond	>Bond dies of cringe if his watch costs less than three figures.     "Surveillance software, grappling hooks, tranquilizer darts, breaching lasers and the salaries paid to research and development teams to implement them do tend to run up the cost, but the clothes make the man." >I hope there's a giant experience machine that makes you experience waking up at home like you never made any of your stupid decisions and your dad is proud of you and your wife gives you big sloppy kisses like your dead dog did.     "I hope there are women there," repeats Bond, unknowingly channeling 'I sleep in a bed with my wife' energy. >There's plenty here right now.     "I don't believe in too much of a good thing, Tiphereth." >You've got socials with those clowns?!      "Yes, and when I was considering suicide-by-job, that channel was one of the points in-favor-of."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "I managed to not get killed, by CONVINCING a GUY who wears an ALL BLACK TRENCHCOAT IN PUBLIC to let her LIVE IN HIS CASTLE."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell waves a finger casually, grinning. "She FILLED IT WITH MONSTERS, but it was OKAY."
Tamamo	"Oh, Nika? So, you did play that game, as well? I only remained invested in it so long as Lilian was playing, but it was rather interesting to use a sword, I felt."
Angela	''So when's the constitution coming out?'' Roland freezes like he's not entirely sure he's allowed to comment on this. Tiphereth, however, cannot be so easily controlled and she sighs. "These people." She says, looking back over to James Bond. "So you don't pop on there anymore?" She says, of suicidal ideation. "I bet there'll be women." Roland promises Bond. "If there's anybody." "Sometimes Angela puts Binah on the radio when she wants to punish the radio." Tiphereth confirms the long running Elite Theory.
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: Radio! "Is it the MONARCHISM FIGHT again?" <B-anter> Ember says, "No it's actually about Sarracenia writing a constitution for her people." "OH SICK. I hear HIGH CONSTITUTION is GOOD these days."
Lilian Rook	'A little bit, only! I may have added some recipes, which created foods to... ah, 'craft'? I may have also created a sun, which was necessary for the cycle of day and night.'     "You're so cool!" Nika giddy-exclaims, vibrating on the spot. "You and Lilian should ¶conceive¶ a game together!"     'Surveillance software, grappling hooks, tranquilizer darts, breaching lasers and the salaries paid to research and development teams to implement them do tend to run up the cost, but the clothes make the man.'     "Fuck man. Blue one would have paid for the privilege of sucking your dick." Ash says.     'I hope there are women there'     "Why the fuck didn't we ask Dictum if they had women?" Lilian suddenly exasperates in Petra's direction.     'Yes, and when I was considering suicide-by-job, that channel was one of the points in-favor-of.'     "Human beings are literally always the argument in favour of suicide dude. Nobody ever commits suicide for reasons other than human beings."     'Oh, Nika? So, you did play that game, as well?'     "Yeah! I still have the ¶console/terminal¶ and the ¶save file/akashic record/annals of history¶. It must of been like three thousand hours on that save easy."
Tamamo	> Do you know Echidna?     "The same as wed Typhon? We have not met, though I know one of her ancestors has been incarnated rather recently. You might have met her, as well." > Do you know about black trenchcoat guys with castles?     No. "How strange. I wish them many years together."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell says, "Yooooo. What? Who? I gotta KNOW! I gotta PROVOKE ANTAGONISM in a DESTINED type way, or at least YELL ABOUT MONSTERMOM."
Arthur Lowell	> ==> <B-anter> Sarracenia happily, "Arthur!" before pausing. "Are you at a party?" Arthur calls out to the communicator, "BOAT RIDE! I gotta take the gang to THE MYSTERIOUS PLANET."
Arthur Lowell	> ==> <B-anter> ??? says, "Yeah girl! He's having the sickest wildest space orgy you can imagine times *ten*! It'd blow your skull open if you saw it! There's a space chocolate fountain and everything!" Arthur calls out again, hand aside his mouth, "I'm not at SPACE ORGY, I'm trying to NOT DIE." No explanation for how that follows.
Tamamo	'You're so cool!'     Tamamo takes a moment to bask in praise, until...     'You and Lilian should ¶conceive¶ a game together!'     "Hmm." Attempting to exchange a glance with Lilian and finding her visored, Tamamo has to squeeze her hand, instead.     'Yooooo. What? Who? I gotta KNOW!'     "Oh, it is--hm." Stopping and thinking about a potentially very sensitive topic, Tamamo decides to just leave out mentioning Echidna's father and paternal grandfather. This much is probably fine. "She is known as Medusa, and is aligned with the Paladins in her current life, as well. I believe she may be more famous than her granddaughter, in the current era."
Petra Soroka	"MMOs are kind of the ÷romantic fantasy/manifest destiny/crowning achievement÷ of the ÷Old World÷."     Nika had a *bad experience* with a *video game*! In the brief window of time before Petra was talking with her regularly! That means this is Petra's fault and she has to do something to make up for it!     "Well!! I mean, they're sort of like party games really! Or-- RPG-party games not party-party, but it's still the same vibe. Some of the game mechanic dopamine quota of the design is encoded into having other players there with you." "Freak. Loser. Creep. Embarrassment."     Petra gesticulates wildly in an inarticulable emotion. "I was so ÷relieved/exasperated/stare into the camera÷ when I finally actually learned that she *literally* made it video game style! For *months* I thought D just, like-- I don't know! I wasn't sure she knew about video games! What *actual* video game has your class progression based on unlocks from random garbage you eat with no indicator or weird racial achievements or things like that!" "I'm sorry Mister Bond, but you've departed the Planet of the Women on your Odyssey."     "No!!! Turn around! Turn around now!!" Petra jokingly lunges towards the steering console, trips over the ruffles of her own dress, and falls facefirst to the ground. "Booooo! Bladecraft ripoff!"     Petra peels herself off of the ground like that wasn't the single most embarrassing possible conclusion to that joke and spits her hair out of her face. "Well, more like the other way around, really. BCC was years after-- *wait*, huh?! *That* was the one you--?!"     What *was* Petra's username? What a logical but threatening question to follow up with! "Well I-- er, stopped, when I went to jail, 'cause they don't let you have VR headsets in there for some reason, but--" She's incapable of being dishonest about this. After just a little wince, she says, "Ssssssterling. My avatar was this adorable rat-type-- oh my god."     No one's ever actually *asked*, so now finally Petra pulls out Twopence and shoves him towards the camera. "That's why, by the way! Sterling, Pence, Twopence, Ruble, Franc-- the whole *bit* came from that! I dunno even why it gave me mouse ears." "Oh fuck! You've got socials with those clowns?!"     "Oh my god. Oh my god. *Ash*."
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell listens to the radio for a long, long while. Lots of it! Eventually he turns to Lilian and mutters vaguely at her, "MATILDA... That was her at the DISC INVESTIGATION? With the BODY-EXPLOSIONS?"
Petra Soroka	"Oh, yeah. So Sakura's probably seen her. She was the one with the blonde hair and the crystals," Petra says, as if that doesn't also describe her.
Arthur Lowell	Arthur Lowell scratches his head a bit. "TILLY and ASH on the SAME DEAL is scary. Those don't go in the same CONTAINER. Keep a BUCKET for the REMAINS." Back to the radio.
Lilian Rook	'Hmm.'     Lilian responds to hand-squeezing by walking her fingers up the back of Tamamo's hand. Nika raises an eyebrow that Lilian doesn't see.     'Some of the game mechanic dopamine quota of the design is encoded into having other players there with you.'     "I knowwww! That's why they're like ¶the Magnum Opus¶ now. No good internet."     'I wasn't sure she knew about video games! What *actual* video game has your class progression based on unlocks from random garbage you eat with no indicator or weird racial achievements or things like that!'     "I'm not certain she knows about anything. I think she was spawned from the darkness of ignorance like mold on bread."     Literally everybody laughs at Petra pratfalling on her face. None of them particularly politely. Nika's is the least malicious, with Ash coming in second, and somehow Sakura's is the most, despite also being the most demure about it.     '*That* was the one you--?!'     "Yeah!"     'Ssssss'     Lilian sighs, and finally flips up her headset.     'That's why, by the way! Sterling, Pence, Twopence, Ruble, Franc-- the whole *bit* came from that!     "Oh I just thought it was 'cuz you ¶appropriate/commandeer¶ everything and sleep in the woods so it's funny to name stuff after money."     'Oh my god. Oh my god. *Ash*.'     "Get your own!" says Ash, to someone who has her own, while stepping back to play keep away with Lilian's comm.     'Oh, yeah. So Sakura's probably seen her.'     "I've seen a great many things." Sakura says, intentionally threatening-cryptic-coy. "Of blonde women and otherwise."
Tamamo	'It must of been like three thousand hours on that save easy.'     "Oh, you must have far surpassed my own achievements, in that case."     Tamamo is so polite about Petra falling over that she doesn't laugh at all. She does, however, smile as others laugh.     She decides to skip over Ash provoking the jesters (and get her mind far away from Poseidon) by reengaging with Nika. "What sort of game do you imagine Lilian would make? Or... is it that you would like to see what she did?" The way she respositions is only moderately sneaky in how it conceals her playing with Lilian's fingers, as scandalous as some teen playing footsie. Her poker face is good, at least.
Petra Soroka	<B-anter> ?? says, weakly, "I was hoping that the conversation regarding your constitution would continue uninterrupted and the others would treat it merely as background noise . . ."     Petra scoots back away from the radio, inching along the ground on her butt with her feet like a worm, to get over to where Sakura is on the Eggpack screen. This doesn't actually let her talk aside privately to Sakura, due to the nature of how microphones work, and the microphone also doesn't really correlate to where Sakura's image is on the screen. So she just sort of has to talk normally, if quieter to not get picked up on the radio.     "Eh-- um, it is actually a lot better than it used to be. Like, the vibe of that radio band, I mean. So, like, it could probably actually settle down a bit if you'd prefer that it's not a whole thing."     The specific shape of Sakura's distress here eludes Petra, but she still tries very hard to pin it down. "But it's kind of just a funny place. I, like, ramble about my homework here, whenever I have a thought about some book or need to talk to focus, and it's where Lilian works out random impulsive thoughts and stuff too. So it's not all bad."
Lilian Rook	'Oh, you must have far surpassed my own achievements, in that case.'     "I dunno how far you got back but I ¶solved/cleaned up/finished¶ the ¶Plot¶ so I did okay I guess." Nika says.     'What sort of game do you imagine Lilian would make? Or... is it that you would like to see what she did?'     Nika starts wiggling back and forth in thought, which is inconvenient for Sakura, but she seems used to it. "I think mostly the second one? But that's also 'cause I think she would ¶conceive¶ something that's crazy filled with ¶thought/detail/verisimilitude/heart/TECHNOLOGY/sovl¶ y'know?"     'Eh-- um, it is actually a lot better than it used to be. Like, the vibe of that radio band, I mean. So, like, it could probably actually settle down a bit if you'd prefer that it's not a whole thing.'     Sakura leans at a wildly unnatural angle to try and somewhat establish eye contact with Petra through the absurd contrivance of multiple screens. "Between you and I, it's not unrewarding to see the others so enriched." she says, quiet, putting her chin in her hands. "I only wish that Miss Mesmer would not take this opportunity to . . ." she sighs, changing her tone to something euphemistically polite. "Call back."     'and it's where Lilian works out random impulsive thoughts and stuff too. So it's not all bad.'     Sakura glances up (north-east-forward-sideways) then back, then whispers (while Nika is in the midst of asking Mesmer if she is autistic and Ash is hooting and howling laughing about it) "And it's possible for anyone to use this?"