098: Bullets and Boards – Thirteen
The final day of their vacation dawned as bright and warm as all the others, though no one on the Pelekys saw the sunrise. After coming home late last night, they'd all indulged with an extra hour or so of sleeping in.
Packing up took no time at all, their purchases already having been sent to the Pelekys itself rather than their rooms. Their checkout time was set for the evening, but all of them were eager to get back to their lives among the stars.
"So I was thinking that we could do a bit of a planning day," Rhea suggested as they gathered in the sitting room for the final time, "Since we've got the time right now, and aren't under threat from any kind of existential forces while here on the ground and everything."
"I would be more than alright with that," Pryseia said, looking around to see if anyone was against the idea, "Now that we've found all our Storlayacas, we need to decide on our future, on as well as off the camera."
Finding a breakfast spot took no time at all. Like many of the restaurants in Departir, it ended up serving a multicultural menu, and so they were all able to get another little taste of home before they headed off back into space, and a menu of mostly fabricated food.
After that, it was only a short stroll to a nearby cafe, where Rhea got an alarmingly large coffee, and everyone else chose more reasonably sized beverages. Seated outside on the cafe's patio, with enough tables pushed together to seat them all, they set about on planning their fictional future.
"So I suppose the big thing is what are we going to do about that threat from beyond the edge of death or wherever that actually was," Elytra asked, going straight for the heaviest question lingering at the edges of all their thoughts, "I suppose we should also figure out what we're going to call this thing too. It seemed to be represented by a hand in all the stuff we were shown, but we've already got a Hand, so it would need a different title, just for the sake of making things less confusing for out audience, if nothing else."
Smiling down at Malakh, currently tucked into her side while going through files on her data pad, Rhea said, "Yeah, there's only one Hand that I want anywhere near me."
Bobbing around while tapping her fingers together, Viatrix said, "I've been thinking about that, actually. To match with the almost comically edgy vibe we have going on with our Kith personas, I was thinking that this thing should have an equally edgy name, like the Shadow, or the Darkness!"
Nevara let out a a quiet laugh at that. "I can agree with that line of thought. Perhaps something like the End? Maybe the Last? Or perhaps that's a bit too broad. The Climax?"
Rhea let out a cackle at that. "The Cummer! The Cummer that's a bummer!"
"Wow," Malakh drawled, smacking Rhea with her data pad, "What are you, a child?"
"Only at heart," Rhea replied, tugging Malakh closer to plant a noisy kiss between her ears, "Decades of having to be a consummate professional all day, every day, left me pent up in more ways than one!"
"Innuendo aside, I do like that line of thought for the name of this thing, something to emphasize that this threat relates to the destruction of the Hyttan," Pryseia said, bringing something up on her own data pad, "Perhaps, given the fact that this is tied in to the Leviathan in some way, we lean into the mythos of those monstrosities and name our antagonist the Omega?"
That was met with noises of interest.
"Alright, the Omega! Anyone against that?" Elytra asked, but no one had anything to say against the suggestion.
"We can start sprinkling stuff about that in our videos as we go - we can probably use Augury's visions to do that," Rhea said with a nod over to Elytra, "But that's not really anything we can build to on any kind of schedule, with how we have no idea when this thing is actually going to show up. Unless that was something that came part and parcel with your upgrades?"
She gave Viatrix a curious look, but the drone just shrugged. "Not as far as I know. There's a vague sort of existential dread within me at the thought of this thing, but I think that's just my own feelings, because it doesn't feel separate the way the compulsion to find the Storlayacas did."
"Compulsion," V'tala said thoughtfully, looking off into the distance briefly, "I think I felt that. An itch, an urge. It sat at the back of my mind from the moment I first sat in Enaruli's cockpit, but my dryhten's will suppressed everything within me, including that. It's gone now."
"That's because we found each other," Elytra smiled over at her, "The Storlayacas drew us together."
"That's another thing we should be looking into," Pryseia hummed, "Communion with the Storlayacas."
"Unless it's absolutely vital, I don't think any of us should attempt a deeper commune like you did," Rhea said, nudging Malakh, "It did a number on your nervous system - physically fried it - and I'm not sure if that would be mitigated or exacerbated in individuals with a psionic system. And I'm not keen to do any experimentation on that regard."
She levelled a stern glance over at Elytra and V'tala at that, making it very clear that she didn't want either of them to make an attempt.
"I don't think it damaged me when I was… well, talking at it. It could only seem to respond with feeling and suggestion like that, but it could communicate after a fashion." Malakh told them, "Though, to be fair, it wasn't that much clearer when I was in direct communion. It was a lot of imagery rather than actual words."
Tapping her metal fingers against the table, Pryseia murmured, "I believe I communed with them in a similar way - not the deep, cerebrally frying manner, mind you. But when we were beset by the dlegh, I did beseech Enaruli for aid. And I felt the attention of all the Storlayacas upon me when I did so. I'd thought it nothing more than the pressure of my own thoughts, at the time."
"That's probably going to be the safest method, then," Malakh said, "I had a look at Castore once I was out of the medbay, and it was finishing up its own self repairs when I did. Usually Hyttan tech is pretty quick when it comes to that kind of thing, so the fact that it was still in the middle of it after my own foray into getting fixed speaks to the damage it took to commune with me being real bad. Plus, even though I could feel it, I couldn't seem to get even a vague conversation going with it. It almost felt like it was unconscious itself."
Rhea made a worried noise in the back of her throat at that revelation. "Then for all our sakes, flesh and machine, that deeper communion is only for last resorts. Last thing we need is to kill ourselves trying to talk to one another!"
"We might be able to work that into our storyline," Elytra mused, though she frowned as she added, "But that begs the question, what are we going to be doing, Kithly speaking, now that we've gotten all our Storlayacas? Are we going to continue going on heists?"
"Considering that we have everything we need now, I don't see a reason for us to continue on that path," Nevara pointed out, "But should we require something else in the future, the option for thievery is still open to us."
"There's always the Leviathan, but fighting those all the time, despite the horrors of their appearance, might get a little boring if that's all we end up doing." Rhea pointed out.
"What else do the Kith do, then?" V'tala asked.
"Raid other ships - anything from heavily armoured military vessels to resource rich cargo haulers. Some do mercenary work, hiring their skills out to the highest bidders." Elytra explained, "Some people seek out patrons and work as their private security force, but the Kith also have the Avvisi system, which is basically a job posting board that clients of the Kith use to put up bounties that they need done without the need for a particular crew. That's where we got the bulk of our Leviathan bounties from."
"Kith crews themselves also post listings of their own on Avvisi," Pryseia added, turning to V'tala, "We answered one such posting and ended up collaborating with another crew, the Sudoxe, during our retrieval of Yarula."
"Yes, I did watch those recordings. Those on the discussion board seemed quite entertained by that collaboration."
"You've been looking into all that?" Elytra questioned, looking pleased. V'tala nodded in return.
Swirling the dregs of her drink with one hand, Pryseia pointed at V'tala with the other as she said, "I'd actually been thinking on that. On collaboration. As you said, it went over well, with us as much as our audience. I would be amenable to collaborating with another crew again."
"Avvisi always has something, so I'm sure we can find some crew on a mission that will benefit from our skill set," Elytra said, already bringing up Avvisi on one of her data pads, "I'm sure they're all gonna be way more professional than the Briddbragnan."
The name of that particular ship got everyone grumbling, and V'tala couldn't fault them for their low simmer of anger. They'd filled her in on what the first person she'd killed when stepping into this time had done to them, and even now she didn't feel anything close to remorse at her snap decision to execute the alien who had stood before her.
"So collaborations and Leviathan hunting, since I know we'd mentioned not having much of an interest in raiding and mercenary work when we first joined the Kith," Elytra said before turning to V'tala, "But if either of those sound up your alley, let us know."
V'tala let out a hum at that. "No, I don't think I want to do either of those. I've had enough of following someone else's orders, and with our skills and equipment, I can't see raiding as being anything other than boring."
"We're of one mind on that, then," Nevara scoffed, "We'd said much the same when those subjects were brought up before."
Clapping her hands together, Pryseia said, "Then collaborations and Leviathan hunts will be our purview, though if something else crosses our path that catches our fancy, I propose we seize it with full force."
"That definitely works for me!" Rhea said, taking a celebratory swig of her worryingly large coffee, "But since we're on the subject of the Kith, I did want to touch base with the rest of you when it came to the whole storyline of it all. Our characters were created pretty spur of the moment, and we left a lot of things about them implied and half formed, so we've got the pros and cons of a nebulous background for them that we can delve into if we feel the need for it. But I wanted to bring up the future of these characters. On a character arc kind of level, is there anything anyone wants to change? We're kinda in a period of transition as is, what with how we've got all the Storlayacas and all, so now's an opportune moment for that."
Hovering over to her, Viatrix said, "I was thinking of making the Program a little more of a team player. There's been some anti-organic sentiment from her, and a lot of that did come from the fact that I thought it was cool at the time. But now that I've done it for a bit, I find that I don't actually like being antagonistic towards you all! I do find it kinda fun still, but I think I want to be nicer to you, and then still play up being mean to others."
"There's your whole mission that you've alluded to," Elytra pointed out, "With whatever connection the Program has to the Storlayacas. Maybe we could have it so that, since the rest of us have been accepted by the Storlayacas, and have proven ourselves to you, we could have that be the reason you soften up?"
"Yeah, that can definitely work!" Viatrix chirped.
"Speaking of proving, there was the narrative we started where you had been in stasis in order to test those who would be chosen by the Storlayacas to see that they were actually worthy of the role," Pryseia said with a nod to V'tala, "Due to extenuating circumstances, you've not had the opportunity to interact with the rest of the crew, in terms of for the audience, at least. I was thinking that we could have a series of shorts where you would confront each of us in order to render judgement?"
Humming to buy herself some time while she thought on that, V'tala eventually said, "I would be willing to do that."
"I also had a suggestion in regards to you Knight costume?" Pryseia added, and V'tala nodded for her to continue, "Your helmet, there's the decorative spikes along the back of it that serve the practical purpose of housing your horns. My suggestion is that you continue the horns the entire way around to complete the imagery of a crown."
Raising an eyebrow, V'tala asked, "You're dead set on portraying me as your peer, even fictionally."
"That's because you are." Was Pryseia's firm reply.
"And since we're on the subject of cosmetic things, if anyone has any alterations they want to make to their costume, let me know and I can get that fabricated." Malakh told them.
"I have some thoughts, but I'll have to get back to you on that." Nevara said.
Letting out a quiet laugh, Rhea said, "There's also the official hard launch for… what is our relay called again? Midas Touch? How do you wanna do that?"
"That I'm honestly not sure about," Malakh said before turning to Elytra, "How do you think we should play it? Do we drop it to the rest of our fictionalized crew? Keep it to ourselves? What would go over best with the audience, do you think?"
Surprising them all, it was V'tala who answered, "I'd suggest teasing it out for a bit longer. They seem to be losing their minds enough with the crumbs you've given them, I fear delivering too much too soon will tax what the boards can handle."
"You're on the relay boards too?" Elytra beamed.
"It seemed prudent." V'tala told her.
Chuckling, Rhea agreed, "Teasing a little more sounds fun. Oh! Maybe we can do a dramatic reveal down the line? Like have either the Hand or Bathory throw themselves in front of an attack meant for the other so that they can cradle the other and go, 'You can't die on me, I love you!' on it all?"
"I'd be down for that." Malakh said fondly.
Finishing up her tea, Nevara turned to Elytra and said, "There was the short where Augury dropped her twitching facade while threatening the Program. Would that be something you would do full time, or shall she continue on as is?"
"I was thinking of switching things up, though I'm not quite sure how at the moment," Elytra said as she brought up a text file on one of her data pads, "For what she is, I was thinking that instead of her being Hyttan, she'd be an agent for them, like the Knight is. Not sure if or how it would come up in the narrative, but I was thinking of having her be an artificial construct, which could then tie in some more to how the Program basically called them kin. And her powers, it's pretty implied that they come from the Hyttan, and since the Hyttan wanted to test her like any of the other pilots, they kept the existence of the Knight hidden from her."
Frowning thoughtfully, Rhea said, "I'm sure we can brainstorm how to work that into a script. Another thing I think we need to work in is the how and the why both Bathory and the Hand sought out Kaizoku."
Pointing at her, Elytra said, "Bathory's easy - she had that piece of Yarula, and since she was its chosen pilot, it could have compelled her to seek out Kaizoku, who was the one in the process of gathering both the people and equipment to get that search underway."
"I was thinking of having it so that the Hand lost everything she had at some Hyttan ruins," Malakh said over the rim of her cup, "And she brushed up against something that maybe gave her a vision, or the compulsion itself, and this is what led her to Kaizoku, since Kaizoku had Zaanlaa already. Her instead of Augury, because Kaizoku was a free agent, while Augury was in captivity."
Leaning towards Elytra, Rhea carried on, "And in that vein, I was thinking that, to reflect reality, Augury ended up in captivity on purpose, as she needed a way to get close enough to Lianshae to claim it, but then she could also foresee that by doing so in something as public as a mech fight, she would catch the attention of Bathory and Grim, who would then be able to bring her to Kaizoku."
"That works for me!" Elytra said, making a note of it before turning to Nevara, "And what of Grim, do you want to make any changes to her?"
"Just to her motivation," Nevara nodded, "I saw her as something of a free agent, more or less. Loyal to only her own goals. But to play more to the honourable military tactician, I wanted to have it so that, while that may have been her initial goal, it wouldn't be going forward. She's a general, honourable and disciplined, and through the mission that the Storlayacas have given her, she has a greater purpose than anything her own military could have given her. This would make her loyal to the group in a more permanent fashion."
"Oh yes, I like the sounds of that!" Rhea said before she made a not of that on her data pad. She then turned to Pryseia and asked, "What about Kaizoku? Anything you wanna switch up with her?"
Leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms, Pryseia told her, "I had been thinking of doing another flashback sequence, showing the events of her youth that led to her discovery of Zaanlaa within her family's holdings? Like with Castore and Yarula being held by the Zymeth and Necupole for quite some time beforehand, I was thinking that Zaanlaa could have been in the possession of Kaizoku's family for perhaps generations, but because it never responded to anyone's commands, it was deemed broken, and set aside to be used as a trade item rather than a tool. And Kaizoku stumbled upon it, whereupon it chose her as its pilot, and through potentially Zaanlaa itself, or some item held within it, it imparted the mission of acquisition in regards to all the pieces of Storlayacas, this being the driving factor for why she became the focal point of all this. But she was so caught up with the political intrigues of her family that she pushed this quest off to the side, and it wasn't until the coup forced her to flee for her life that she once again sought out the mech."
"And that does tie in with the short we did where the Hand convinced Kaizoku that the political bullshit wasn't as important as this mission." Malakh pointed out.
Grinning, Pryseia said, "The synergy of that did cross my mind."
"Oh this is giving me ideas for sure!" Rhea cackled as her fingers flew across her data pad, "I can probably get some scripts going pretty quick here, and I think we should start with the testing done by the Knight, so that at the end of all those trials, the Knight can delve into the true mission of the Storlayacas - the Omega. And given that we've left our audience kinda hanging since we found V'tala, just the one short where we showed the Storlayacas combining into one, I think we should get something out sooner than later in regards to all this new stuff."
"We are in agreement on that front." Pryseia said with a decisive nod, "Given all that we have accomplished here today, to say nothing of our time of rejuvenation, I find myself eager to return to our Kith activities."
Canting over to one side briefly as she scanned through her systems on the Pelekys, Viatrix said, "All our stuff is safely back on the ship, and our accounts here are all settled, so we're good to go as soon as we're done sightseeing here."
"Unless anyone has some last minute thing, I think we're good to go?" Malakh said, glancing around at everyone.
"I think it's just our bevs and that's it." Rhea replied, shaking her cup.
"Finish them at your leisure, then," Pryseia said with a fond smile, raising her glass, "And then to the stars we shall return."
Less than an hour later, the Pelekys soared out of Osatiawjo's atmosphere, Nevara guiding the ship to a patch of space empty enough for them to slip into subspace without ruining anyone's day.
While she was taking care of that, Rhea and Elytra had holed themselves up in the rec room, beginning the process of hashing out scripts. Malakh and Pryseia had made their way to the fabrication room, intent on getting a jump start on the modifications to everyone's Kith outfits. And Viatrix had parked her drone so that she could focus all her attention on the Pelekys itself, darting through its circuits as she charted the full extent of how the Hyttan upgrade had changed both her and the ship.
The others had invited V'tala along to join them in their endeavours, but the truth of the matter was that, still in the process of recovering from her extended stays in stasis, her stamina wasn't anywhere close to where she wanted it to be. And after all of the physical activities she'd gotten up to over the course of their vacation, she found herself spent.
Physically, at least. Her mind was a different matter.
After positioning her new furniture within her room, putting up the art pieces she'd purchased on Osatiawjo, V'tala retired to bed with her data pad in hand. There was still the rest of the discussion board to catch up on, as they'd be receiving new content to talk about in the coming days.
The new reactions she could experience in real time, when the time came. She was looking forward to that.