031015samiseriad

 -- arcaneArtisan2 [AA] began pestering carewornAstro1ogist [CA] at 21:16 --

 [09:17] AA: Sami is walking down the halls of the base.

 [09:19] CA: Seriad is probably doing the same thing, considering there isn't really anywhere to set up camp.

 [09:20] AA: Sami spots Seriad and waves her down, then approaches. "Hey Seriad! What's up? How did LOBAB go? I heard it was a bit of a mess."

 [09:22] CA: "Hi Sami! It... Was kind of a mess actually. We saw the Herald. And then he kind of destroyed everything. And then Jack appeared! And some other stuff, we came back to the base and then suddenly Fate is dead."

 [09:22] AA: "Which Jack?"

 [09:23] AA: "And yeah, I heard about Fate. Someone kissed her back, right? I know Nate sounded like she would be okay, but I haven't heard an update on that situation."

 [09:24] CA: "Uh, bald evil one."

 [09:25] CA: "Heheh. Bald evil... And yes I'm pretty sure someone smooched her corpse. But it wasn't any of us I'm pretty sure."

 [09:36] AA: "What was your impression of your team? Like do you think they knew what they were doing?

 [09:37] CA: "Uh... No? No. The Dani kid is like a super rebel. The Merrow one is a HUUUUUGE DORK. And Fate is nice! And us veterans aren't really helping all that much? I mean Rilset did shank Dani like, as soon as we got to the planet."

 [09:38] AA: "Right....Merrow is....Maenam's kid, right? And Dani....I'm not sure about Dani."

 [09:38] AA: "Wait, Rilset SHANKED her?!"

 [09:38] CA: She shrugs, "Something about plants. I totally took care of it though."

 [09:39] AA: "Still, we're here to HELP these kids, not stab them!"

 [09:41] CA: "Heheheh. We are doing badly at both of those things."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:42] AA: "Yeah. Us too. The kids just ran off without us to go on some adventure with Jack where they killed the denizen of our world, and apparently Jack filled Acenia's primer while they were out."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:43] CA: "Wow uh... Poor Acenia? Oh god is she dead?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:45] AA: Sami's got a serious expression on her face. "Not yet. They seem to think Jack is 'protecting her.' So hopefully whatever ruse he's pulling on them, he'll keep up long enough for us to find a way to save her from him."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:46] CA: "They... they know Jack is super murdery evil right?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:46] AA: Sami shakes her head. "I don't know. They're nervous around him because of the things we've said, but I'm not sure they all really get it."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:47] AA: "I think maybe it all feels like a fairy tale to them since they haven't seen what he's like personally."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:49] CA: "I'm worried about them."She frowns, "Especially Mahtah! Speaking of, what are your shenanigan children like?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:51] AA: Sami smiles. "Jackjack is enthusiastic and brave, and Darmok is sweet and insightful." She frowns and sighs. "But this world's Balish did a number on him, and....he takes after me in some unfortunate ways."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:52] CA: ":? Does he have magical art powers too?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:52] AA: "I wish it were as simple as that. I can't really go into it....but I'm worried it's going to work out bad for him."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:53] AA: "I need to talk to the Seer of Doom about him, but Meouet said he's still got a long way to go before he'll be of much help."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:53] CA: Seriad frowns. "That's not good. Are you sure Meouet can't help? Don't... Don't all seers do the same thing?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:55] AA: "Meouet sees Rage and the paths it leads people down. The Seer of Doom would see the effects of death, of inescapable destiny, and in some sense, of the Rules and Laws of Paradox Space."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:55] CA: "Whoa."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:56] CA: "Deep."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:56] AA: "It's like how you can heal people by making them super lucky, while Kate heals them by rewinding their bodies to how they were before they were injured."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:56] AA: "Or by speeding up their body's natural healing processes."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:57] AA: "Which is why it hurts so much to get healed by Kate sometimes, but being healed by you doesn't for the most part."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:58] CA: "Aw."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:59] CA: "So tell me Sami, how are you? How is... Sami... Uh... Last name. What are your thoughts and internal emotions?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [09:59] AA: Sami chuckles. "Heston. Sami Heston. And actually, I've been a little anxious lately. About how things have been going down in this session, and about a bunch of other crud."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:00] AA: "I....think we're really suffering from a lack of leadership in our team."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:01] CA: "Well yeah! We've never really had a definite 'leader' at all really. I guess if you count the whole planet leader thing?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:02] AA: "Yeah. And I think it's part of why we've just sort of been drifting around without any idea of what we're doing."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:02] AA: "So....I've kind of been thinking of trying to take those reigns."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:02] CA: "We've all just sort of-- Yes."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:02] CA: "I'd be okay with that! You're knowledgeable enough!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:03] CA: "But how would you manage us all when we're all scattered all over the place?"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:04] AA: "Well, we would still need team leaders for the individual worlds. And I would still want the veterans to take a more active role in guiding the kids."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:04] AA: "I've also been thinking about rearranging the teams a little bit. Combine into two large teams instead of three medium sized ones."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:09] CA: "Sticking in larger groups usually results in less death! But then what if Jack or something kills half of us in one fell foul? fowl? Swoop."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:16] AA: "So far he hasn't shown himself willing to do that."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:16] AA: "But I don't think there's really any way to prepare for that."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:18] CA: "...True. What kind of TEAM DIVISIONS did you have in mind? If any...."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:18] AA: "Well, I was looking at it, and other than Doom I think we could make two teams that have at least one player to represent every Aspect."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:19] CA: "That is... oddly convienient."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:20] AA: "Not really, when you think about it. The game seems to try to distribute things easily."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:21] CA: "It does? I haven't noticed."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:22] AA: "Yeah. No overlap within species of class or aspect in either session.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:22] AA: One of each class, one of each aspect for trolls. No more than one of each for humans, though since there were only eight of us we were missing four aspects and four classes.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:22] AA: "And the post-scratch seems to have done the same thing."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:22] CA: "But were we really destined to end up here? Games can't plan that far ahead!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:24] AA: Sami shrugs. "I don't know. It doesn't really matter if it did or not though, since the lack of overlap within the session makes for similar redundancy when you combine the sessions." Sami decpatchalogs a binder full of little adhesive flags, and opens to a two-page spread which she shows to Seriad.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:25] AA: It looks like a hand-drawn spreadsheet with all sorts of details about the various players, such as class, aspect, world, prototypes, dreamself status, and things like that.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:25] AA: Although the prototype columns are empty for the post-scratch kids.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:25] CA: "W... when did you collect all of this information? By hand even."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:27] AA: "I compiled it from the stuff I knew about the pre-scratch players, and what the others have told me.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:28] AA: "It's not complete yet. I'm going to have to collect the info to fill it out from the post-scratch kids."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:28] AA: "But you saw that they had a packet they were giving one another before? That had a lot of useful stuff in it, too."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:28] AA: "And Libby had a chart of parents and children."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:28] CA: "Oh really? Wow. So productive. Very uniform and organized."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:29] AA: "Yeah, I'm trying really hard on this one. And I had to learn to do a lot of this stuff when I was studying for the last five years."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:31] CA: "I'm proud of you? I'm proud of you."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:31] AA: Sami smiles and blushes. "Thanks. it's been a long road to get to this point!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:32] AA: "I was so bad at this sort of thing before the game started."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:34] CA: "Well now you're not! And I fully support you becoming Team-Team-Leader!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:35] AA: Sami blushes a little and rubs the back of her neck. "Aww, thanks Seriad."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [10:38] CA: "Hehehehe."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:23] CA: "So is that it? If so I think I'm going to go find Kate. We haven't spoken in Ages!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:27] AA: "Me neither. If you find her, tell her she and I need to talk. I'm sure she can find the time." Sami rolls her eyes as she says this.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:27] CA: "Boooooooo."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:28] AA: "That wasn't a pun. I meant it literally. I figure she's probably going to live like five months in the next week or two while we decide what world to go to."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:28] AA: "You know how she is."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:29] CA: "O-Oh. Well. Her new handle is <Kate's new handle> if you didn't know!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:29] AA: "So THAT'S why she's never on!" Sami looks annoyed.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:30] CA: "Aw."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:33] AA: "It's fine." Sami's voice doesn't really sound like it's fine, though.

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [11:34] CA: Seriad frowns, "I'll tell her you were looking for her? If I can find her here. Heheh."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [12:17] AA: "All right, good luck. And thanks for the talk Seriad."

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [12:17] CA: "Yeah! No problem!"

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [12:17] CA: Seriad walks off to wherever

<p style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;"> [12:18] AA: Sami waves with a smile to Seriad as she walks off, then goes off in her own direction.