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Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 4:43 pm
by Zakharra
This is also not a decision that a commander of a raiding group can make. Hence Stillstorm's decision to send Alex (the annoying alien she still thinks might be a Shell trick), Parat Tempo (the very annoying diplomatic/political officer) and Beryl (young and perky!) off to the sector governor and fleet commanders at Seren, the sector capital. That is where the real decision makers will make the decision to help this strange Loroi looking alien or not.

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 11:03 pm
by Krulle
And where they might have much better tools to check for any traps or trickery than a battle ship in the field...

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 11:27 pm
by CrimsonFALKE
Zakharra wrote:This is also not a decision that a commander of a raiding group can make. Hence Stillstorm's decision to send Alex (the annoying alien she still thinks might be a Shell trick), Parat Tempo (the very annoying diplomatic/political officer) and Beryl (young and perky!) off to the sector governor and fleet commanders at Seren, the sector capital. That is where the real decision makers will make the decision to help this strange Loroi looking alien or not.
that sounds about right

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 1:47 am
by Grayhome
Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 5:13 am
by Sweforce
Grayhome wrote:Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.
Or "promoted" to a deskjob. :mrgreen:

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 6:51 am
by Logannion
Grayhome wrote:Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.
That's very insightful. Though I have a feeling the Grand-niece in question wouldn't support it, wasn't the entire reason for her to join the fleet was to prove that she could stand on her own two legs? She might want the next in seniority to take command instead. That part about Tempo wanting Stillstorm in the doghouse though sounds very possible.

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 9:08 am
by Arioch
Grayhome wrote:Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.
How would Tempo (or any Loroi) know where the territory of Humanity is at this point?

If Greywind wanted to demote or replace Stillstorm, she could do so with a word, no excuses needed. But why would she wish to replace Stillstorm as a raider commander -- a low-status position considered to be an eventual death sentence -- with her own grand-niece? Stillstorm is exactly where Greywind wants her to be: killing Umiak and out of the way. The only reason that Ashrain is in a raider fleet at all is because she too is being punished -- in a fashion -- for refusing the Imperial Guard post that she was offered.

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 10:18 am
by Grayhome
Whut a twist!

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 10:39 am
by rewik
Hello, It's me again, with yet another complaint about the harness: one of the hip straps visible on page 105 (last panel) seems to have disappeared on page 106 (first panel).

With that out of the way...
Yay! A new page! :D

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 2:43 pm
by novius
Well, to clear things up, Beryl is indeed sitting in the seat left of Alex. Mostly off-camera, but in one of the panels one could see part of her face...

I thought about asking this since the last page; Beryl really seems to have little regards for personal space. The seating arrangement when watching the fight against the Umiak, her actually leaning into him on the way to the shuttle, now actually reaching over to help him belted up, where a spoken "this goes there" or "watch how I do it" could suffice... I would have thought that a telepathic species, especially when touch seems to enhance their abilities as suggested early on, may have some sense of propriety in that matter...

... Or could it be that they think his 'Lotai' needs conscious thought and she hopes to catch him off-guard with a seemingly innocent touch?

Once is a fluke. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern.

And then there is Tempo. All honeyed words, easy to believe, every one of her explanations rather conclusive. But we've already seen that they carefully guard his access to information.

Yes, she did say that they're very interested to learn about his species. And I wouldn't be too surprised to see that she actually knows how loaded that sentence could be. After all, the Loroi do have an idea how other species tick. They have extensive contact to alien species, where humans only have third hand knowledge via the Orgus.

But... One could easily learn much about a species when there's a specimen on the dissection table in a facility that is designed to conduct extensive xenobiological studies. Even this way, her words may technically be true.

All sweet words and an inarguably pretty, yet (or just because) alien face... All the reasons to be afraid. Very afraid. For life, limb and freedom. She does much to put up an aire of "trust me", without actually giving out much in return, and it stands to reason that this could be for some nefarious purpose.

Yet, Alex seems to catch on. Good for him.

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 6:45 pm
by Krulle
I think Beryl may unconsciously be flirting, thereis a male, and even a large male, right next to her!
While her conscious thoughts may decline anything, he subconscious may have been tricked....

And the dissection table: right when I read "very interested to learn" I was afraid of their actions possibly going in that direction, or something similar.
You can learn a lot about Humans without killing the only example you have.
Possibly they want to link even more strong telepaths to push through his lotai.
Possibly they just want to put him in their xenobiology exhibition.
Possibly they just want to have high-ranking diplomats talk to him. Possibly purposefully missing the rendezvous to give him a reason to tell where Earth actually is.

So many reasons....

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sat Oct 31, 2015 9:05 pm
by Sweforce
Krulle wrote:I think Beryl may unconsciously be flirting, thereis a male, and even a large male, right next to her!
While her conscious thoughts may decline anything, he subconscious may have been tricked....

And the dissection table: right when I read "very interested to learn" I was afraid of their actions possibly going in that direction, or something similar.
You can learn a lot about Humans without killing the only example you have.
Possibly they want to link even more strong telepaths to push through his lotai.
Possibly they just want to put him in their xenobiology exhibition.
Possibly they just want to have high-ranking diplomats talk to him. Possibly purposefully missing the rendezvous to give him a reason to tell where Earth actually is.

So many reasons....
There is no need to cut up Alex, according to Tempo (page 50) they have at least 57 bodies to work with already. It is also possible the salvage crew brought some extra with them when they retreated from the Bellermine wreck since 57 was a then current number that may have been increased since. Explosive decompression is a myth so the bodies should not have been damaged much by exposure to the vacuum of space.

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 12:17 am
by Siber
Well, I'd expect them to be swollen and freeze dried, so not perfect examples of humanity, plus lots of potential for trauma in how they became available too... but if all you've got is one live specimen, I don't think you'd want to turn that into a dead specimen until you learned everything possible. It's not exactly a reversible process!

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 3:24 am
by Arioch
rewik wrote:Hello, It's me again, with yet another complaint about the harness: one of the hip straps visible on page 105 (last panel) seems to have disappeared on page 106 (first panel).
Thanks for pointing that out. It has been fixed.

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 3:14 am
by CrimsonFALKE
Grayhome wrote:Or Tempo is taking this chance to hightail it back to Emperor Greywind to deliver the story of how Commander Stillstorm just ruined the diplomatic first contact with a new species whose territory lies exactly where the Alliance and the Hierarchy are both expanding into.

For the purpose of demoting commander Stillstorm and replacing her with the Emperor's grand niece who is also in the fleet.
Holy crap that sounds like a bad idea

Re: Page 106 discussion

Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 7:45 pm
by raistlin34
Hi! I´m new in forum. Nice to meet you all.
Krulle wrote:I think Beryl may unconsciously be flirting, thereis a male, and even a large male, right next to her!
While her conscious thoughts may decline anything, he subconscious may have been tricked....

And the dissection table: right when I read "very interested to learn" I was afraid of their actions possibly going in that direction, or something similar.
You can learn a lot about Humans without killing the only example you have.
Possibly they want to link even more strong telepaths to push through his lotai.
Possibly they just want to put him in their xenobiology exhibition.
Possibly they just want to have high-ranking diplomats talk to him. Possibly purposefully missing the rendezvous to give him a reason to tell where Earth actually is.

So many reasons....
We don´t know Loroi´s attitude and behaviour toward sex. For what I´ve read in the forum notes, they are not a very affective or family oriented specie.
In any case, Neither Beryl or the other Loroi seem to identify Jardin as one of their own in any fashion. Maybe Alex is a case of Uncanny Valley for them, reinforced by his Lotai toward telepathic abilities.