Long Game 101: The Edge of Empire

[CadCom he/him]

At least I'll die proud knowing that even though I wasn't completely sure, I had pegged the elims by the end. 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

I dunno I kinda wanna accept the duel

Edit: But I won't if TUO doesn't want to, elim bros before dueling

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

4 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

I dunno I kinda wanna accept the duel

Edit: But I won't if TUO doesn't want to, elim bros before dueling

You're fine to, I just don't have time to RP 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

58 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

I dunno I kinda wanna accept the duel

Edit: But I won't if TUO doesn't want to, elim bros before dueling

Quote

I will post my first move here. If you accept the duel, so be it. If not... well, I suppose it is your right.

Jacks cursed himself. Then he cursed himself again. How could he have been so blind? The answer had been staring him right in the face the whole time. Cofi hadn't killed herself, certainly, but he hadn't paid enough attention to how she hadn't killed herself. Or rather, how someone had killed her. No blood? Blue lips? It had been poison, and there was only one person on the Fourth Bridge who could have done it. A person who Cofi had trusted, at least for long enough to accept a drink from them.

A person who he had just left alone, unguarded, in the brig.

Storm it all to Damnation, he thought as he ran, feeling the weight of his failures pulling him to despair. Storm it all.

@DrakeMarshall

 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Alright let's do it

If we die I take full responsibility for being a dummy but I can't resist a good duel

---

Relve took a step back and beheld his handiwork. He was wearing an orange suit that marked him an escaped prisoner, an obviously stolen ID card was pinned to his shirt, and he was clutching a dirty rag. The tables were clean, the gaudy collection of multihued Rosharan wines and spirits was on display, the blinking sign flashed OPEN again and again next to a rather poor rendition of a cocktail glass in neon lights. The station's only bar was at last open for business.

"Hello," Relve's voice carried over the station's intercomm amidst crackles of static. "Things have been... tense, lately, haven't they? We've fought and bled. We've all lost friends in the past few days, and nobody's squeaky clean anymore. Everyone's got someone's blood on their hands."

"Aren't you tired of fighting?"

"We can't sustain it. I'm sure the captain or the command staff would tell you to fight on until the bitter end, but I think we both know that's not the human interest talking. Those are the needs of politicians, always posturing and worrying about the balance of power. Is it really worth dying for? Anyways, the heads of the station are never the ones bloody well getting thrown out of airlocks, are they? Whatever they tell you, you have a choice."

"We can't ignore our differences, but we can at least check them at the door. Talk things out for a bit."

"I'm calling a truce. Take a minute to breathe. Bar's open. Drinks are on the house."

Edited July 28, 2024 by DrakeMarshall

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Jacks stopped at the entrance to the bar. Strangely enough, in all the time he'd served, he'd never stepped foot in here. Never'd really been much for drink, or for socializing. He'd been happy where he was, alone at his post, with only the silent expanse of stars out the window. When he'd been feeling fanciful, he'd even imagined them speaking. Some bridgemen said every person who died out here joined the chorus of brilliant lights, guiding the way of those who remained.

Were they out there now, the ones he'd failed?

He took a deep breath and pushed the door open to confront Relve.

"You," he said simply. 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

4 hours ago, xinoehp512 said:

 

Quote

How many charges did you get btw?

 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

52 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

Jacks stopped at the entrance to the bar. Strangely enough, in all the time he'd served, he'd never stepped foot in here. Never'd really been much for drink, or for socializing. He'd been happy where he was, alone at his post, with only the silent expanse of stars out the window. When he'd been feeling fanciful, he'd even imagined them speaking. Some bridgemen said every person who died out here joined the chorus of brilliant lights, guiding the way of those who remained.

Were they out there now, the ones he'd failed?

He took a deep breath and pushed the door open to confront Relve.

"You," he said simply. 

"Yes hello it's me, long time no see," Relve answered.

"I'm unarmed, as you can see, but in the interests of disclosure, I do keep a gun under the counter." Relve gestured in the general direction across the room. "I won't be able to reach for it quick enough that you won't have plenty of warning, but I will defend myself if you try and pull something."

Relve smiled tightly.

"So, what can I get for you? I've got ALL the colors of the wine rainbow, I've got a secret stash of Scadrian whiskey in the back, there's milk, there's juice, there's tea... No coffee, though. Coffee's gone off," Relve frowned. "But anything else is on the table. I can do a mixed drink, I don't often get to do one of those!" Relve suggested. "I figure if there's ever a time to enjoy the station's amenities, it's now."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Jacks scowled. "What makes you think I'll drink anything you serve?" He took a step closer. "You've been slipping plenty into drinks already. Such as Cofi's."

Quote

Wouldn't you like to know

But I guess it doesn't exactly matter now. I had three charges.

 

Edited July 28, 2024 by xinoehp512

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Xino responding to TUO, colorized:

Spoiler

 

4 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

Jacks scowled. "What makes you think I'll drink anything you serve?" He took a step closer. "You've been slipping plenty into drinks already. Such as Cofi's."

Relve sighed. "I'm the Steward. I prepare all the food and drink around here. If I wanted to poison you, I could've already done it. Rusts, you wouldn't even necessarily know. Cofi forced my hand, but not every poison is so obvious and fast-acting."

He shrugged.

"It's a little too late to start worrying about all that now, yeah? Might as well sit down and share a drink with me. We've probably got things to talk about."

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

18 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

Jacks scowled. "What makes you think I'll drink anything you serve?" He took a step closer. "You've been slipping plenty into drinks already. Such as Cofi's."

 

Quote

Was really hoping you would say 2 cause I tracked you n1.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

17 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

Xino responding to TUO, colorized:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Relve sighed. "I'm the Steward. I prepare all the food and drink around here. If I wanted to poison you, I could've already done it. Rusts, you wouldn't even necessarily know. Cofi forced my hand, but not every poison is so obvious and fast-acting."

He shrugged.

"It's a little too late to start worrying about all that now, yeah? Might as well sit down and share a drink with me. We've probably got things to talk about."

Jacks took a deep breath in, then a deep breath out. Focus. He wasn't dead yet. But he was in over his head, badly, and- as recent events had shown- not nearly as knowledgeable about the situation as he needed to be.

"Fine," he said. "I'll take a drink. Tea. But you have to tell me why. Why the Fourth Bridge? What do we have that you can't get anywhere else?"

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

56 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

Jacks took a deep breath in, then a deep breath out. Focus. He wasn't dead yet. But he was in over his head, badly, and- as recent events had shown- not nearly as knowledgeable about the situation as he needed to be.

"Fine," he said. "I'll take a drink. Tea. But you have to tell me why. Why the Fourth Bridge? What do we have that you can't get anywhere else?"

"Tea, good choice," Relve approved. "Black or green? I've got tea leaves from a number of different worlds, here." Relve privately thought that Rosharan vinebud tea was an unfortunate invention, but he would keep that to himself.

He set about preparing a large kettle of boiling water and a pot of tea with rote efficiency.

"Why are we here, on the Fourth Bridge, in the Teneb Cluster of all places? Well, that's the question, isn't it? That's what my superiors wanted to know, too," Relve shook his head ruefully. "A big installation crammed with sensors parked right on the outskirts of your back yard? It's enough to make a fellow a bit antsy."

"And yeah, there was definitely some spycraft happening, unless you believe the official record that Etanem was just a regular security officer," Relve snorted. The official record that contained no information about Etanem's past, the specific duties of his posting on the security force, or why such an ostensibly low-ranking officer would need such a high access level on the station.

"Anyways, that'd probably be reason enough, but it's not all."

"The thing you guys have been digging out of those asteroids and conducting 'metallurgy research' on? I reckon it's actually a god metal. One we've never even seen before. I'd never have even noticed it, except that after Etanem was out of the way, I took the liberty of breaking into the station's file system and doing some light reading. Your own scientists have apparently theorized that the unknown Invested substance came from the Shard of Ambition, torn off in an ancient interstellar battle that passed through this sector briefly. Granted, the metal's only there in trace amounts, often mixed with other things, but..."

"I'm still quite certain that Scadrial will take an interest. There's still a lot of asteroid field that hasn't been explored by anyone, and remember, this is contested space."

Steam started to rise from the kettle. Relve got out a pair of ceramic mugs and set them on the table.

"But see, the smarter folks on both sides understand that it's important to maintain the polite fiction that Roshar and Scadrial aren't screwing each other at every opportunity. Because if we were openly doing that? Why, that sounds uncomfortably like war. And nobody really wants that, you know?"

"Which circles back to why we're here, in this bar, talking instead of killing each other. I suppose."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

"Black," Jacks answered.

 

Jacks frowned. "You think what you're doing here won't lead to war? Contested space or not, this is a civilian vessel."

Quote

To speed things up, here's a potential response/path for the conversation. 

"Enough," Jacks said. "We aren't here to talk about war. You want something."

He kept a careful watch on his emotions as he spoke. He'd experienced the manipulations of an Allomancer first hand before; they were subtle, but not impossible to detect.

Edited July 29, 2024 by xinoehp512

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

49 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

"Black," Jacks answered.

 

Jacks frowned. "You think what you're doing here won't lead to war? Contested space or not, this is a civilian vessel."

"Enough," Jacks said. "We aren't here to talk about war. You want something."

He kept a careful watch on his emotions as he spoke. He'd experienced the manipulations of an Allomancer first hand before; they were subtle, but not impossible to detect.

"Ah, true enough," Relve admitted easily. "I do want something."

He poured two cups of black tea, and set out a pitcher of milk and a bowl of sugar. The quantity of each that went into a man's tea was a deeply personal decision.

"But you know, I think you're mistaken about something. It won't lead to war if you won't be telling anyone that the Scadrians sabotaged the Fourth Bridge."

Relve smiled between sips of tea.

"All kinds of accidents can happen in space, you know? Plenty of mundane things that don't involve convoluted plots and Scadrian sabotage, but which still can royally screw up a space station. Space stations are delicate objects. If the circumstances seem a bit suspicious to some people, well." He chuckled. "Not any more suspicious than the Rosharans setting up a civilian outpost that just happened to be doing heavy surveillance in Scadrian space must have seemed to us, I suppose. Everyone'll just have to deal."

Relve shrugged.

"The cosmere keeps on turning, somehow."

 

"I'd be more worried about where you fit into that narrative, honestly. Because an obvious solution to all of this would just be to kill you and throw you out the airlock."

"But see, I think it works out better for both of us if we avoid trying to murder each other."

Relve dropped a disk on the table with a clink. It was quite clearly Scadrian tech, mostly copper, but there were intricate inlays of many other metals too.

"Regrettably, this only works if you do it willingly. Touch the disk and relinquish claim over all your memories from the past few days. You'll come to on an escape pod with a couple of important particulars missing. But, importantly, you'll still be alive."

The device was fairly simple feruchemy, really. Not that he expected Jacks to understand the principles. The most sophisticated part was verifying that the correct memories were relinquished to fill the empty coppermind.

"Or you can refuse. In that case, I'm afraid our truce will be over."

"That means we'll fight to the death," Relve helpfully clarified.

[Kasimir he/him]

Interrupting the very nice RP to let you all know that I will not consider any premature resolution to the cycle until/unless I get acknowledgement of a lock-in from any relevant party to the duel.

Edited to add:

I could RP this too but I'm tired man

Drake escaping the brig got this energy:

Spoiler

 

Edited July 29, 2024 by Kasimir

[xinoehp512 he/him]

14 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

"Ah, true enough," Relve admitted easily. "I do want something."

He poured two cups of black tea, and set out a pitcher of milk and a bowl of sugar. The quantity of each that went into a man's tea was a deeply personal decision.

"But you know, I think you're mistaken about something. It won't lead to war if you won't be telling anyone that the Scadrians sabotaged the Fourth Bridge."

Relve smiled between sips of tea.

"All kinds of accidents can happen in space, you know? Plenty of mundane things that don't involve convoluted plots and Scadrian sabotage, but which still can royally screw up a space station. Space stations are delicate objects. If the circumstances seem a bit suspicious to some people, well." He chuckled. "Not any more suspicious than the Rosharans setting up a civilian outpost that just happened to be doing heavy surveillance in Scadrian space must have seemed to us, I suppose. Everyone'll just have to deal."

Relve shrugged.

"The cosmere keeps on turning, somehow."

 

"I'd be more worried about where you fit into that narrative, honestly. Because an obvious solution to all of this would just be to kill you and throw you out the airlock."

"But see, I think it works out better for both of us if we avoid trying to murder each other."

Relve dropped a disk on the table with a clink. It was quite clearly Scadrian tech, mostly copper, but there were intricate inlays of many other metals too.

"Regrettably, this only works if you do it willingly. Touch the disk and relinquish claim over all your memories from the past few days. You'll come to on an escape pod with a couple of important particulars missing. But, importantly, you'll still be alive."

The device was fairly simple feruchemy, really. Not that he expected Jacks to understand the principles. The most sophisticated part was verifying that the correct memories were relinquished to fill the empty coppermind.

"Or you can refuse. In that case, I'm afraid our truce will be over."

"That means we'll fight to the death," Relve helpfully clarified.

Jacks stared at the disc. A way out. A path to live another day. And... a way to forget his failures in protecting the crew of the Fourth Bridge. 

With this, it could all be over.

"What about the rest of the crew?" he heard himself asking. "Do they all get the same ultimatum?"

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

13 minutes ago, Kasimir said:

Drake escaping the brig got this energy:

  Hide contents

 

Spoiler

 

 

Just now, xinoehp512 said:

Jacks stared at the disc. A way out. A path to live another day. And... a way to forget his failures in protecting the crew of the Fourth Bridge. 

With this, it could all be over.

"What about the rest of the crew?" he heard himself asking. "Do they all get the same ultimatum?"

"Yes, they all get the same ultimatum," Relve said.

"In exactly one case, it will be a lie," he admitted. "For reasons that I'm afraid I can't disclose even here and now, one more person needs to die."

"But that's it. Everybody else will live."

It's the best I can offer.

"So what'll it be?"

[xinoehp512 he/him]

7 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

"Yes, they all get the same ultimatum," Relve said.

"In exactly one case, it will be a lie," he admitted. "For reasons that I'm afraid I can't disclose even here and now, one more person needs to die."

"But that's it. Everybody else will live."

It's the best I can offer.

"So what'll it be?"

One death. 

One death, and Jacks would be free of everything. A small price to pay, for some. 

But he had made an oath. 

"You've killed my people," Jacks said quietly. "And Damnation take me if I let you kill any more."

 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

28 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

One death. 

One death, and Jacks would be free of everything. A small price to pay, for some. 

But he had made an oath. 

"You've killed my people," Jacks said quietly. "And Damnation take me if I let you kill any more."

 

Relve sighed.

"One damnation coming right up, then."

 

It was true, what he'd said back then in the hydropanics room. Scadrian life forms couldn't naturally absorb Stormlight, unlike the most basic life on Roshar. But they had their own tricks. He flared pewter, and lunged for the counter in one unnaturally swift bound, ducking his shoulder to roll across the table onto the other side. Getting to cover, and a weapon.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

9 minutes ago, DrakeMarshall said:

Relve sighed.

"One damnation coming right up, then."

 

It was true, what he'd said back then in the hydropanics room. Scadrian life forms couldn't naturally absorb Stormlight, unlike the most basic life on Roshar. But they had their own tricks. He flared pewter, and lunged for the counter in one unnaturally swift bound, ducking his shoulder to roll across the table onto the other side. Getting to cover, and a weapon.

Jacks pulled his lethal fabrial from his belt and followed Relve's movements with precise shots.

[Kasimir he/him]

Final interruption from me until end of cycle (hopefully):

I'm going to refuse lock-ins after all and let you all just continue to send me 42069 different orders (you know who you are >>) until end of cycle. This also means that in the event a successful block occurs, the game goes on, as the only reason I was initially going to agree to an early truncation of this cycle was the potential for the Elim team to end the game in this Turn.

Since the duel means that the game may go on, I think the rationale for truncation isn't there any longer.

Please continue your scheduled RP violence, thank you for putting all your damn RP at the end of the game instead of earlier >:P 

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

4 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

Jacks pulled his lethal fabrial from his belt and followed Relve's movements with precise shots.

Relve ducked under the counter, away from the bursts of divisive Stormlight that were eating away at whatever they made contact with. A stray shot shattered a bottle behind him. He grimaced and hurled a bottle of violet over the counter with all his strength.

At the same time, his other hand found the trigger of a gun. Nothing fancy, just a mass-produced aluminum-and-wood shotgun. It was loaded with scattershot, as this was deemed slightly less likely to cause a hull breach on a space station. This gun was loud, but he'd make the shots count.

He crawled down the counter to a different spot, poked his head up, and fired.

[xinoehp512 he/him]

Jacks inched across the room, moving from table to table as quietly as he could manage. Relve's shot thunked into the table beside him. He'd turned his deflector fabrial on, but -of course- it hadn't done anything. There seemed to be no end to how shots could be designed to get around protections.

Protections. Relve was hiding behind the counter. Could he be forced out somehow? 

Jacks eyed the spilled violet on the floor, an idea forming in his head. He reached into the mechanisms of his fabrial, slightly dislodging part of the metal cage. An acquaintance of his had once shown him a trick for temporarily modifying the nature of a division fabrial shot. It made it less physically disruptive- but much, much hotter.

The fabrial vibrated in Jacks hands, and just as it reached the point where it seemed ready to shake itself apart, he released the shot.

Directly into the cabinet of wines behind the counter.

Edited July 29, 2024 by xinoehp512

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

I'm visiting Ash what about you

28 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

Jacks inched across the room, moving from table to table as quietly as he could manage. Relve's shot thunked into the table beside him. He'd turned his deflector fabrial on, but -of course- it hadn't done anything. There seemed to be no end to how shots could be designed to get around protections.

Protections. Relve was hiding behind the counter. Could he be forced out somehow? 

Jacks eyed the spilled violet on the floor, an idea forming in his head. He reached into the mechanisms of his fabrial, slightly dislodging part of the metal cage. An acquaintance of his had once shown him a trick for temporarily modifying the nature of a division fabrial shot. It made it less physically disruptive- but much, much hotter.

The fabrial vibrated in Jacks hands, and just as it reached the point where it seemed ready to shake itself apart, he released the shot.

Directly into the cabinet of wines behind the counter.

Glass shattered, and a conflagration suddenly erupted behind the bar. Relve let out a string of vehement curses. The skin on the left side of his body was flash-seared and he was pretty sure he smelled burning hair, but the pewter took the edge off the pain. I'm gonna get that healed when I get back home, he promised himself. Better than brand new. Gold-driven healing was pretty expensive, but Scadrial took good care of its agents, especially those with successes under their belt.

He hit the emergency duraluminum medallion under his sleeve, and for a blessed moment, the pain was all but gone and he was brimming with overwhelming strength and energy. It demanded to be put to use, before all of the pewter burned up. With a roar of anger, he picked up the entire burning cabinet of liquors and hurled it at Jacks' position.