Writing Prompts

[Werra]

So...what is meters in trade? Asking for a friend.

[Krulle]

I would've expected that on this page: http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/wandm_scales.html

But, no lenghts here....


http://well-of-souls.com/outsider/loroi ... xicon.html contains two words:
sizas (meaning short, of little length)
sosa (meaning long, of much length)

So, sorry, no help from me for you.... Consider asking in the "Loroi questions" thread...

[dragoongfa]

Mannal means pace.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pace_(length)

So about 76,2 centimeters

[Warringrose]

SpoilerShow

Preeeeetty sure that stealing information from Alex's mind via Beryl's mind forces humans to join the Umiak. Should probably steer away from this... it also makes Alex worthless to them since his shield can be breached so easily. No nation would tolerate this treatment towards their ambassadors.

All of this petty cruelty toward Alex (and even other Loroi!) is also going to cause a lot of dissension in the ranks, for the troops to see an alien behaving with such courage and honor be treated worse than a beast, like a drone is going to cause unrest... unless that is what your going for?

[Werra]

SpoilerShow

Diplomat A allows Diplomat B to memorise his diary.
Diplomat B gets debriefed by his government on this.
Diplomat A now joins the war on Diplomat Cs side.

Alex should have kept it in his pants. He was told that Beryl has an eidetic memory and that his own thoughts leak out super easily.

[dragoongfa]

Alright, hate to break someone's dreams but Alex doesn't know anything classified, he is an Ensign second class; the only things he knows are how to operate equipment and basic stuff that an allied nation is supposed to know. Hell, he has already pointed out where TCA territory is relative to the Loroi and that was by far the most important tidbit that the Loroi needed if they wanted to annihilate humanity.

The issue with forcibly mind probing him is the fact that he is a recognized diplomat, a representative of his state; mistreating/torturing/killing a diplomat has always been a legitimate Casus Belli.

EDIT: @Werra, meant to write mannal, not manna, sorry.

[Siber]

This isn't Halo, the coordinates for earth aren't a jealously guarded game-changing secret.

[Werra]

Alex still knows the precise number of human ships in the TCA and can tell the Loroi a lot about which government has the most means to fight them.
He can also tell the Loroi where approximately human sciences are right now.
He should also know a good deal about system security, human communications and such stuff.

All things he wouldn't really give up or be expected to tell the Loroo.

[dragoongfa]

The Loroi already have a very good idea of the human tech level with the wreckage of the Bellarmine, they know that they are far ahead technologically.
Alex knowing the precise number of ships is debatable but still not important information to divulge, if the TCA works like any modern military then the number and type of ships is publicly available information and can be easily discerned by getting access to TCA space and intercept some up to date data caches.
He shouldn't know much about system security, he is literally the last wheel of the carriage not a security specialist. What he should know is how human communication protocols work but still that's basic stuff that is easily discernible by some basic signal warfare.

All in all what Alex does know is stuff that any allied state is bound to be informed about anyway once a treaty is signed.

[Werra]

See, it's not so much about what Alex can tell the Lorio as it is about what he doesn't want to tell them. Every question has a diplomatic answer, a truthful answer and an answer that reveals any and all info about the topic (the mindprobe).

Imagine what Alex would answer to these questions and what the Loroi could get by mindprobing him.

Q: Where are the jump vectors that could be used to flee?

Q: What officers are most important for the leadership of the TCA? Do they have families we can abduct?

Q: How do we make sure there are no survivors?

Q: Where can we find the top scientists to ab...employ for our needs?

Even amongst friends, some of these questions are a big no-no.

Plus, you know, as far as I am aware, the Loroi don't actually know that he's the most junior pleb. They should definitely have a high interest in finding out anything they can from him.

[novius]

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Alex already has serious trust issues with the Loroi at a whole because of such a stunt being pulled. Tempo got to feel it firsthand. It would be a particular dumb idea to try it again, unless they'd plan to dispose of Alex sooner or later. And that wouldn't go over quite easily with several Loroi as well.

[Werra]

Why are we even talking about mindprobing Alex, btw?

Surely nobody minds if the Loroi get Beryl to share the intel she has currently? Wasn't the impossibility of that not the whole reason why Alex Lotai even activated?

[entity2636]

Guys, why are we even having the discussion about TCA fleet strength and location of human territory? Alex himself, in canon, realised that the entire TCA navy plus Scout Corps have about as many ships as ONE SG51. Only the TCS Victory and a couple of the newest destroyers have spine mounted particle cannons, and even a loroi battleship has 3...4 times the engine output of the fastest TCA scout. Plus loroi have shields. All this renders any thoughts about any military confrontation with the Union moot. Also in canon at least 3 loroi already know the location of Arcturus and Aldebaran, it would be a matter of a few weeks for loroi scouts to find Sol from there.

So, if Stillstorm wanted, she could single handedly annihilate humanity and noone could do anything about it, she certainly has enough firepower at her disposal to do so.

It is not a question of hiding or overpowering the Union, or what intel to release and what to hide as it is all ultimately irrelevant, rather of convincing the Union that they NEED humanity as an independent ally to win the Umiak war.

[Werra]

I don't get it. Why is Stillstorm so angry? Finding out the limitations and triggers of Alex abilities should be top priority. If I understand it correctly, the Loroi have only once before encountered similar. If tricking Alex into thinking Beryl/Fblade are in danger gives them a tool to deal with his Lotai in emergencies that does not involve killing him, he should understand.

SpoilerShow

Is this Alex subconsciously influencing Stillstorms mind?

[Razor One]

I'm kind of scratching my head a bit on Brightshields recent characterisation in Beacons. She's transitioned from grateful ally to treacherous villain for apparently no reason.

Unless I've missed something, which is entirely possible, the only logical reason I can think of would be...

SpoilerShow

That Brightshield is playing a very dangerous game. That the report she filed with Stillstorm was meant for Duskcrown's eyes and that she's playing at appearing to be a a valuable asset for her in case Duskcrown wants to try something, the better to head that attempt off or at least tip off the central cast if Duskcrown should try something untoward.

[novius]

Brightshield may be young, overzealous and overreaching, and definitely envious because Beryl and Fireblade got an easy rapport with him - and she doesn't.

Stillstorm's anger is definitely understandable, since Brightshield's suggestion would burn a unique and irreplaceable asset. For starters, no one else can detect the invisible Shell divisions, so the risk of squandering such an opportunity due to a harebrained experiment is idiotic at best. In addition, the knowledge gained from this experiment would be negligible. She already learned of his range, and that experiment would only prove that his Lotai activates under duress. Well, the Tempest is already aware of that.

For Alex's Lotai to be active, he must perceive a threat as real - as long as he has reason to think it's a simulation, the purpose of the test is defeated. To do that, both Fireblade and Beryl would need to be unawares of the nature of this test and need to perceive the threat as real, too. And if (or better: when) he later learns it has been another Mizol trick, he'd turn out to be far less cooperative. Compare that to the situation where someone holds your wife at gunpoint and then later says "it was just a test to see how you react to a threatening situation" - it would NOT go over well. Two out of two Mizols would be quite a stellar track record.

But, as Stillstorm pointed it out, the real motivation of Brightshield's suggestion might be 'just' to separate them to have an easier inroads to Alex - and while Alex at least tries to have his personal feelings not influence his professional conduct towards, say, Stillstorm, an example like what Stillstorm thinks of Brightshield would definitely cross the line as she's jeopardizing her position as his liaison.

Yep, it could be (why not? See spoiler) time for her to fess up and maybe ask for apologies. Because even if that missive reaches the eyes of ANY of these three, she could kiss her chances to EVER reach out to Alex goodbye - and it would be dark times if a hardliner and traditionalist like Stillstorm shows more political acumen than those who are supposed to be trained in diplomacy.

SpoilerShow

Brightshield attempting at a spy vs. spy game would still be a plausible scenario. In fact, getting chewed out by Stillstorm and actually having Stillstorm believe it was a honest proposal might make her claims towards Duskcrown's ilk even more believable. Stillstorm would surely never mention it again, perhaps going so far to delete the message from her inbox. But we all know that backups are quite persistent buggers. But yes, she'd be playing with a very hot, very large fire and barrels of oil. Any misstep and Stillstorm's wrath might be the least of her worries.

[orion1836]

SpoilerShow

The beginning of New Frontiers mentions that the leadership of the Diral may contact the Elders in three circumstances only: “Do not use the communicator unless the entire diral is threatened, an initiate dies, or we contact you.”

I can only imagine the Elders contacting the Diral after noticing half the forest is on fire, rather than the Diral having to contact them. The Diral is under threat aspect is more tricky and could be a cause of drama because it is linked with an after the fact assessment of Argent’s leadership.

The way I imagined it when I wrote that was Argent being creative in how she applied the rules.

Finding someone like Nathan is definitely a situation where you call for help, but because the elders were strict in their interpretation of when they should help a diral, she is taking advantage of their strict interpretation so as to claim ignorance in a reasonable way when Nathan is finally found out.

She also has a little bit of her own pride entering the equation. As leader, she does not want to have to rely on the elders for help or be forced to reach out for them. The story moved a little more quickly than I had planned. I had figured that while initially she would have put off calling for help because she wanted to first understand the situation, as the group grew to understand Nathan better, they would want to continue keeping the elders in the dark because summoning them would take Nathan away.

While a pit fire to keep the attacking beasts away would be bright, I don't think it would nearly be bright enough to summon outside attention given how far away they are. Now, if they started a massive wildfire that would be a different story, but I just don't see that happening.

[Zarya]

Now, if they started a massive wildfire that would be a different story, but I just don't see that happening.

hold my beer...

[Razor One]

Now, if they started a massive wildfire that would be a different story, but I just don't see that happening.

hold my beer...

"...so as it turned out, the entire reason that any humans found were to be brought to the emperor as cargo was because they were concerned about humanity's great love of setting things on fire, as demonstrated by the continent-scale wildfire on Ginazaigo..."

[dragoongfa]

Bear in mind that starting a wildfire will mean the end of the Diral stage prematurely, it has already been set up in Beacons that the Diral was 'picked' up on the alloted for time; it wasn't extracted as an emergency. This will also significantly cut off any development of the relationship between Nathan and the Diral.