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Ah Spiral, telling things as they are!

And finally Tempo makes her appearance, going all doe-eyed on him.

Might be she just waited for the others to butter him up or to gauge the general mood before making her entrance.

Or is it possible that she is still "playing the game" with Alex in an attempt to get inside his head?

Murph wrote:Or is it possible that she is still "playing the game" with Alex in an attempt to get inside his head?

Of course. I wouldn't put it past her that every word or gesture is carefully calculated and weighted to maximum effect. She is a trained diplomat and spy/interrogator, after all.

And her current aim is to mollify and placate him, make him more relaxed (and thus possibly careless), and even her posture - slightly below his line of sight, looking "up" to him, in relation of their current orientation - might be a well thought out move.

I think that Spiral put it best in regards to Tempo's approach:

Smell like buttocks!

Remember that Stillstorm called her dishonest in regards to how she approached Alex, heavily implying that they saw more eye to eye than Tempo would like Alex to believe, Tempo is still on the side that considers Alex and Humanity a threat; she just wants to hang him from his own petard. Which puts her panels up to this point in a whole new light.

Oh yes... the Dark-Haired Goddess speaks... we have been waiting seems like forever to hear her melodious sweet voice of charm and persuasion...

dragoongfa wrote:I think that Spiral put it best in regards to Tempo's approach:

Smell like buttocks!

Remember that Stillstorm called her dishonest in regards to how she approached Alex, heavily implying that they saw more eye to eye than Tempo would like Alex to believe, Tempo is still on the side that considers Alex and Humanity a threat; she just wants to hang him from his own petard. Which puts her panels up to this point in a whole new light.

In that case keeping a historian tag-along a secret is turning out to be an increasingly bad idea. Perhaps even a trap?

And, as for Spiral's comment? I think she looks quite pleased about shoving that part of a Loroi female's anatomy into Alex's face, or a part of their anatomy close by. Even if it's done in a rather indirect way....

boldilocks wrote:

dragoongfa wrote:I think that Spiral put it best in regards to Tempo's approach:

Smell like buttocks!

Remember that Stillstorm called her dishonest in regards to how she approached Alex, heavily implying that they saw more eye to eye than Tempo would like Alex to believe, Tempo is still on the side that considers Alex and Humanity a threat; she just wants to hang him from his own petard. Which puts her panels up to this point in a whole new light.

In that case keeping a historian tag-along a secret is turning out to be an increasingly bad idea. Perhaps even a trap?

Bad idea, trap or ace in the hole, depending how the dices roll.

boldilocks wrote:In that case keeping a historian tag-along a secret is turning out to be an increasingly bad idea. Perhaps even a trap?

As I see it, for the pocket Historian to be a good idea it either has to:

1) Be of life/death value.
2) Be of diplomatic value.

And on top of either of those conditions, it has to both remain a secret, and provide that value without giving away that it or some Historian is advising him, because that could shatter Loroi trust and fundamentally alter the Loroi estimation of Humanity from shrewd/clever to gullible/pliant. Better to have quietly turned it over to the Loroi he's with and have the only outcome be that he winds up making the impression that Humans are trusting to a fault when it comes to their allies.

I think Tempo's eyes look more concerned than the typical bedroom eyes she has been giving during her other screen time. Like, Oh crap oh crap oh crap, I have a diplomat/potential shell spy on my hands and we are going to die!

Granted every pixel of her design screams sultry any given frame she is in, so it maybe hard to tell

SaintofM wrote:I think Tempo's eyes look more concerned than the typical bedroom eyes she has been giving during her other screen time. Like, Oh crap oh crap oh crap, I have a diplomat/potential shell spy on my hands and we are going to die!

Granted every pixel of her design screams sultry any given frame she is in, so it maybe hard to tell

So far Tempo had acted as the most collected, level headed character of the lot. Even Fireblade showed more emotion than Tempo, and that's not just the moment she tossed him into the wall. For Tempo to actually have an emotional response at this moment is a bit ... well, out of character for her. So it is more believable that what she says and does is yet another calculated move.

Well Tempo is likely the oldest of the group by a decade or so. So she's be more collected, and also skilled since she is a diplomat.

Tempo is actually more than twice as old as the second oldest, which is Fireblade at ~25.

Tempo is ~54, so yes, she is more than twice as old at Fireblade, old enough to be her... mom

But which way will Tempo jump in the long run? I look at Alex having two real allies: Beryl and Fireblade (as odd as that seems). Not that Fireblade would not terminate Alex if ordered to do so, or if she perceives a threat from Alex.

boldilocks wrote:In that case keeping a historian tag-along a secret is turning out to be an increasingly bad idea. Perhaps even a trap?

raistlin34 wrote:Bad idea, trap or ace in the hole, depending how the dices roll.

Oh yes, I agree that it's a trap but one that I'm still not sure directed to/at whom? Jardin? The Loroi on board the shuttle? Both the Loroi and humanity? There is still the issue of who fired on the Bellarmine and so far, only the Historians and the Umiaks possess plasma focus technology. The Loroi pulse cannons, while being plasma tech, are decidedly different.

Then there is the issue of the Loroi not trusting the Historians into their systems and this sudden emergence of the Umiak's ability to be invisible to the Loroi's farsensing devices. The same thing happened to the Bellarmine. If the fansensing 'cloaking' is tech-based, then only the Historians (via informed ability) would be the faction sophisticated enough to do so. Not to mention that they've been with the Loroi long enough to perhaps know how it works. Perhaps the Loroi have been suspecting treachery from the Historians all along? And now the Historian representative suddenly saying to Jardin that the Loroi are the enemy? Too convenient.

At the end of the day, it could be the equivalent of a 'trust fall' exercise due to the projector being conveniently stashed in the cargo hold but again, there are still unresolved questions.

CF2 wrote:As I see it, for the pocket Historian to be a good idea it either has to:

1) Be of life/death value.
2) Be of diplomatic value.

And on top of either of those conditions, it has to both remain a secret, and provide that value without giving away that it or some Historian is advising him, because that could shatter Loroi trust and fundamentally alter the Loroi estimation of Humanity from shrewd/clever to gullible/pliant. Better to have quietly turned it over to the Loroi he's with and have the only outcome be that he winds up making the impression that Humans are trusting to a fault when it comes to their allies.

Or inherently untrustworthy / backstabbing lot worthy of being lumped together with the Umiaks for extermination. Because at this moment, the Loroi are pressed into a corner and I can't blame them for being paranoid. Whether he realizes it or not, Jardin may well have the fate of humanity resting in his pocket at this moment.

Would any of you hand over the Historian and lose out on what might be the only chance for a non Loroi perspective?

Good question!

My gut feeling is to get rid of all instances of the historian, which would probably mean dump all computing devices that were recovered from the Bellarmine (which doesn’t seem a practical scenario because they would continue on the same trajectory as the Highland shuttle), or make certain the dustbin device and the compromised terrestrial computing devices cannot communicate with anything outside the shuttle, for example by placing them in a Faraday cage (or whatever works in the given circumstances).

hi hi

I'm pretty sure Alex knows that he's got Humanity's fate riding on his shoulders, if not in his pocket. If the mission to establish peaceful contact fails, humanity is going to be in an... unenviable position.

Werra wrote:Would any of you hand over the Historian and lose out on what might be the only chance for a non Loroi perspective?

I don't think my analysis of the situation has substantially changed since the historian made the suggestion to keep its presence a secret in the first place. The historian's claims seem suspect, and while I don't think I would tell them immediately about the pocket computer, I would ask them if its normal for the projector to randomly make noises and try to get their perspective on the Historians.

Of course, I probably wouldn't be selected for a mission like this in the first place.

Still, from my limited perspective, the Historian's stance sounds like a con. Alex's cooperation seems to provide no concrete benefits and only drawbacks.