Mat

Anders raised a hand, keeping his cool. "We seem to have misunderstood each other. I merely mention the worth of the durralium to point out the difficulty of the decision you've asked me to make. I don't think it would be fair for you to want me to make a rash choice, don't you think?" He gestured towards the Council Hall, though it was out of sight. "The rest of our leaders are just over there-- it would only take a moment. I'll even do the talking for you so you don't have to repeat yourself. But also, if you don't mind waiting, I'd be happy to go alone and then come get back to you."

Hey Alpha

Anders was at a loss for words. He had expected... he didn't know what, but not this. His first instinct was to accept the offer. He was naturally power hungry, and the Tentaculum were offering nigh-unstoppable power. But that power wouldn't be controlled by Anders, or even the Council. To freely give such potential to an already well-decorated war nation for merely the promise of protection and alliance would be more than foolhardy. He began to regret his decision to leave the Council out of this. They would have many opinions on the matter, and for once Anders wanted them. And the mech. It was a gross imitation at best. With durralium, it had potential, but in its current state the Tentaculum might as well have hefted a rotting corpse. "What a generous proposal!" Anders began, even though it wasn't. "That would be a big step for us. Our durralium is our most prized and valuable resource, as I'm sure you know. We wouldn't give it out lightly." He purposely avoided mentioning the mechs, whether his own or the Tentaculum approximation. "While initially I thought I needn't bother the Council with this trade, I'm realizing this is bigger than one man," Anders said smoothly. Best the Tentaculum didn't detect any separation between the ruling bodies of Astor. "Why don't we move this conversation there, where we can have more minds to discuss the matter?"

Anders held his ground, determined not to be intimidated. He cleared his throat. "Yes. You are here as a trading delegation. I welcome this with open arms, but not without conditions."

I tried and just got the time zone conversion wrong ;-; ;-;

District III was the closest to the castle, which was in a sector of its own, but as was with the eventful meeting he had just attended, Anders wanted a bit of subterfuge. He'd cleared the Tentaculum ship personally, answering no questions from the security workers, and left without a word towards the mountain. He didn't really think he could hold this meeting without the Council knowing, especially Tiana, but he didn't really mind. A negotiation on his own terms was a statement in and of itself. Plus, he doubted the Council wanted to bother themselves with a people so... specially regarded as the Tentaculum. Anders himself almost was nervous. Nervous enough to bring a full castle guard squadron, and arm himself as well. He and his guard arrived early, and had barely settled when the shadow of the approaching ship past overhead. Good, he thought. It's never smart to arrive at a meeting on your own turf late.

Ayyyy how’s it going Nice to see you back!

Anders raised a hand. "I agree with the statement you put forth. Of course, I put myself in an awkward position in doing so, as we have publicly allied with some who fled the scene just now. But it is, at least, worth upping galactic-wide defenses."

~~Earlier that week~~ Anders Durral looked left, then right. And because he was a rigget of no fear-- or at least no fear of any potential consequence in this instance-- that was all the precautions he took before entering the hanger. The ship he had his eyes on was a standard Astor Cruiser, the kind used by the Council and the rich. He could have taken his own private jet, but he wanted to appear more... aligned with the Council than he truthfully was. Anders had seen the message about the galactic meet-up before anyone else had, and had been quick to block access to it. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to leap far ahead of Tiana and the others. His shortsightedness did not pay off. As soon as he attempted to enter the cruiser, the door panel buzzed, denying his access, and he knew that someone would be alerted of his presence. He sighed, inventing a story he could sell to whichever bumbling security guard was on shift at the moment. Instead, Tiana Clarian, the Head of the Council of Astor, strode into the room. Anders tried to hide his shock, and didn't miss Tiana having to do the same. The limber fingers of her mech tightened upon seeing him of all people standing there. Anders had always thought her choice of mech was strange and silly. Wasn't it better to have an extension that was strong and capable, rather than lithe and... breakable? All pretenses of a made-up excuse vanished. "Tiana," Anders said. "What brings you here?" "Don't play dumb with me," she snapped. "I know where you're going. You didn't really think you were a skilled enough coder to completely remove an important galactic message from our servers, did you?" Ah, Anders thought. Brilliant. "Yes, actually, I did. Come to stop me?" "Actually, no. You could be useful. I'm here to join you." Tiana strode up to the cruiser and unlocked it with a touch, a casual flaunt of power that Anders didn't appreciate. "You better get in. We'll be late if you don't." Anders wordlessly obeyed, the reprimand he had been expecting nowhere in sight. It would probably come later, in a more public setting. Something to look forward to. They blasted off right as a security guard ran into the room, ready to apprehend a non-existent would-be thief.

(I will note for the incoming players who have never played an SE game before-- this may not end up being the best introduction xD Being a non-Sanderson limited player no rules and/or rails game, that is) (I think the next LG will be pretty soon, though? Of course don't let me tell you what to do, you're obviously welcome to play if you want to)

I’m uncultured enough to not know the world to this game either (outside of the old Disney movie) but if I could play KKC I’ll prooooobably be fine here :D. In!

Anders Durral plans to attend in person, provided it doesn’t clash with former plans.

That’s the mission in my area :0 Wit, if you don’t mind, what’s your brother’s name? You can PM if you’d rather. Or it’s fine if you’d just rather not. And I’ll definitely keep an eye out for Elder Beck!

Anders Durral sighed as he strode towards the communication panel, cloak billowing behind him. Of course, he didn't stride so much as his symbiotic mech strode, but it was basically the same thing. Because of the connection he had with the suit, when he thought about striding, the mech strode. Just the same as if he were outside of it, but oh so much more efficient. The cloak would have billowed regardless. Because that's just what cloaks do. He'd just finished up a rather annoying session with the Council, where his father might as well have been sleeping for all he participated. Luckily, Anders had the drive to take his stead in steering Astor to a brighter future. Today, he'd pushed to accept the alliance with the Min'oTaar people (@Unintelligenius) which had been surprisingly difficult. Not because the majority of the Council didn't want to, but because one particular member of the Council didn't want to. Stars forsake you, Tiana, Anders thought. In the end, though, the right had prevailed. And they'd moved on to discuss weighier matters-- such as the incoming Tentaculum ship. The armada had worried the Council, but not Anders. He wasn't afraid of them, especially on his own home turf. The Council had not come to a decision on what to do about the ship, but Anders had. Hence the communication panel. Sure, the Council would be furious when they found out he was making contact with the Great House of Blood. But what could they really do about it? He was the Crown Prince of Astor, and they were just some elected officials. All of their power came from the belief that it existed. Anders' actually did. Encrypting his message slightly, Anders sent a blip out into space.

…Yeah, I was the most useless deepwolf in the history of ever Which was kind of fun. Kind of. @The Known Novel I relayed everything exactly the first two times, and then nothing after that. By the point you made the code I was far enough in and the game was far enough lost that I didn’t see a point in trying to mess with anything. But I fizzled out. @Ashbringer, @|TJ|, thanks for being great teammates! You guys stuck with it for a good long while. Pity we effectively were a three man team :P. Any admission anything would be cool to see in the writeup :thumbs-up: Thanks for running such a huge game, wilson, El, Devo. Edit: Devo looks like she had fun in the dead doc Would loooove to know what this is referring to >>

House Durral: Priority Rankings: Resources Intelligence Transportation Cohesion Military House Durral is ready to go.

Heyo Steel died finally