Welcome to Avalon

[Section9]

Well that got dark.

I know she's probably just getting her just desserts, but I hope Alex gets better.

I'm pretty sure if I was a member of the team, I'd have been out on the field ready to interrupt that potentially dangerous situation. The lack of magazine, notwithstanding.

Scifi first aid and healing makes it possible to take things that far.

The only way to have broken Alex harder would be to have her that dead and then say, "no, you're not worth the paperwork to kill".

[Errhile]

Well, that's the reason why she was told she wont die: I figured out that we'd have her in an ambulance and effectively ventillated with oygen within 5 minutes, should need come. She's young and in good physical condition, she has a good chance of full recover if resuscitated, even a bit after 5 minutes since heart stops (though, of course, every minute would reduce her chances).

[Kathara_Khan]

Well that got dark.

I know she's probably just getting her just desserts, but I hope Alex gets better.

Just desserts indeed.
I don't think it'll be any kind of spoiler if I say that yes, things will get better. Even if sorting it all out will take some time and work.
This will be the darkest place this story goes for quite some time.

But I must admit, I am somewhat concerned about what everyone, starting with Errhile, will think of the direction I'm planning to take some things...

Also, how did you like the resolution to last episode's cliffhanger?

[Errhile]

Well, we shall see.

One thing I would hate to see is 'Ree falling a victim of her own success and starting to go after Alex for a change. In such a case any amount of suffering being caused to the other party is often never considered large enough.

[Errhile]

Avalon Chronicles entry #9
“Playing it by Ear”

Dramatis personae:
Note #1 - wherever a nationality / country of origin is mentioned, it describes dominant “cultural / ethnical background trace” rather than actual country / nation of origin (for example, Yuni was born and raised on Neo Terra, but her background trace is Malaysian).
Note #2 - starting with entry #5, only the characters making an appearance (or, in some cases, referred to) in a given episode are listed.
A complete list of all the characters appearing in the Avalon Chronicles is available under the link.
Note #3 - the “#x” notes the episode in which given character made first appearance.


“Anjos da Rocha” (Angels of Stone), The Team:
Alex Narahari - #1 (2. class, 17y) Indian. “Bad apple”, school’s bully assigned to the team as a method of correcting her ways (which seems to be working, if slowly - Alex, as it turns out, has her own host of demons). Her father tends to solve any problems (including those caused by Alex) by throwing money at them. Alex is an aggressive, reckless player who shoots too much, and doesn’t think enough. Anaconda TAG.
Dominique (‘Nique) Torres - #1 (1. class, 16y) Argentine. Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”, former student of St. John’s High School (a Church-run school for the poor), transferred to the Academy on sports scholarship for the TAG-soft team. A mechanical and electrical engineering prodigy, she is fascinated with TAGs and does “gunpla” kits of them in her free time. Turned out into the same class as Eva. Lizard TAG.
Evangeline (Eva) Neve - #1 (1. class, 16y) Italian. “Princess”, the wealthiest kid in school. Craves for proper behaviour and organized affairs, though the rest of the team are working on her. Team’s captain. Iguana TAG.
Minuette (Minnie) Diane Chryse - #1 (2. class, 16y) Australian. Cheerleader and team’s self-proclaimed “morale officer”. Cheerful and energetic, though sometimes not the quickest mind in the team, definitely (though she speaks a stunning array of languages, at least 5 fluent and several others with lesser proficiency). The only team member (before ‘Ree joined in) to have a sibling (two in fact, both sisters). Her parents own a chain of restaurants. Solid team player. Initially Lizard TAG, in #6 takes over Mako’s Gecko..
Morgan Lai - #1 (2. class, 17y) Polynesian. “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player, calm and precise. Seems to have taken it upon herself to help temper and restrain Alex’ baser impulses - physically if need be. Szalamandra TAG until #7, then swaps for Lizard (formerly Patty’s).
Nyree (‘Ree) Rikoriko - #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #6), (2nd class, 14y - she started school a year early, and then skipped a grade in junior high) Maori - girl from Morgan’s class, apparently the school’s polymath genius and “mega-nerd” (in Morgan’s opinion). Excellent student but with a troubled past (she was bullied real bad - by Alex as it turned out...). Joined the team in #7, Anaconda TAG.
Octavia (Octy) Moina - #1 (1. class, 16y) Brazilian. Successful and gifted musician (cello), but shy and prone to panic when not currently playing. She’s also a very effective player, as long as nobody can see her face (in a TAG or under her paintball mask). Patricia’s best mate. Highest “kill”-count so far. Lizard TAG.
Patricia (Patty) Summers - #1 (1. class, 16y) North American. Gifted DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate. Average player. Lizard TAG until #7, then swaps for Szalamandra (formerly Morgan’s).

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:
Staff:
Diego “Diablo” Ibarrez - #1 (~60y, looks ~40) Latinoamerican. The protagonist - TAG Soft team’s coach, retired CJC TAG combat instructor and once a war hero.
Felipe Ramos - #9 (late 40s), Brazilian. Music teacher, head of the Academy music department, and conductor for the school orchestra.
Ken Kamehameha - #3 (undetermined, apparently in his late 20s or early 30s) Hawaiian. Officially, he’s the school’s head caretaker / bedel, which in fact means he’s the chief of security. A nice, laid-back fellow.
Yuni Iskandar - #1 (29y), Malaysian. PE teacher and TAG Soft coach’s assistant. Very sporty and attractive, goes pretty well along with Diego since they met on day one. Well enough, actually, that their relation had recently (entry #4) progressed to “friends with benefits”...
Students:
Ilya Malinin - #5 (though mentioned earlier) (2nd class, 17y) Russian. Star guard on the football team, and Minuette’s boyfriend. 2nd generation immigrant from Ariadna.
Koi Rikoriko - #7 (5th class elementary school, 11y), Maori. Nyree’s younger brother, with some serious attitude. Despite being a kiddo, he’s very protective of his sister. Also, his first encounter with Eva seems to have resulted in a case of puppy love on his part…
Yekaterina (Katya / Katyusha) Malinin - #4 (3rd junior high school, 14y) Russian. Sister of Ilya, plays drums in the school’s orchestra, and is in the junior division cheerleader squad. Minuette’s friend. Nobody actually uses her first name in full form. 2nd generation immigrant from Ariadna.
“The Peanut Gallery”
Caught in short glimpses, to be fleshed-out when / if they make a full appearance:
Lyra Vidal - #5, (16y) Chilean. A harph player, another of Octavia’s orchestra mates. Somewhat maniacal, extreme sports enthusiast.
Bonnie Rose - #5, (16y) English. Lyra’s girlfriend, always dragged in her wake, and embarrassed by the other’s manic antics. Cooking club star.
Lupe Ramirez - #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #7) (2. class, 17y) Argentine. Trombone player in the school’s orchestra (which makes him Octavia’s colleague). Seems to be a silent, reserved type. Goth styling.
Frederic (Fred) Ulani #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #7) (1. class, 16y) Polynesian (genetically, Caucasian-Polynesian). Another cello player in the school’s orchestra with Octavia. He’s on excellent terms with her, and in Diego’s private opinion, a likely boyfriend candidate.

Team Members’ Parents:
Leila Torres - #6 (early 30s), Argentinian. Atek, Dominique’s mother, came from Acontaciemento. Early motherhood ruined her educational plans, as a result, she works as a technician in a drone factory to make end meet. They’re very close with Dominique.
Roberto Moina - #5 (early 50s) Brazilian. Octavia’s father. Easily irritated and very over-protective towards his daughter (which may be related to some accident that affected the family in the past). Has the dangerous looks of a high-class gangster, but melts completely in the face of his “little angel”.
Sylvia Moina - #5 (late 40s) Brazilian. Octavia’s mother. More level-headed and calmer than her husband, but no less caring.
Emma Summers - #5 (middle 40s) North American. Patricia’s mother, a corporate with shark-like demeanor.
Steven Summers - #5 (middle 40s) North American. Patricia’s father. Interstellar trade specialist. Laid back, unkempt fellow Diego initially took for an artist of some kind.
Clyde Chryse - #9 (middle 40s) Australian. Minnie’s (and Bia’s, and Frankie’s) father. Very tall and gaunt. Severe and humourless-looking but surprisingly nice. A food technologist, with managerial specialty.
Vivian (Vivi) Maybel Chryse - #9 (late 40s) Australian. Minnie’s (and Bia’s, and Frankie’s) mother. Short, plump, and energetic. She visibly vibrates with positive energy (looks like we know where Minnie got her style…). Somewhat fussy. By trade a chef, specialized in pastries.

“Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders”:
One of the local paintball teams. The “Spiders” are experienced, but not a top-tier team in Belo Horizonte - they play for fun, and are not seriously competitive.
“Bolo” - #2 (mid 20s). Team captain, Academy’s graduate.
“Scythe” - #2 (mid 20s). Field commander.
Other team members include “Tiger”, “Hunter”, “Ape”, “Widow”, “Spectre”, “Mook”, and “Wookie” the Spitfire gunner. Despite the pompous nicknames, they’re all laid back, friendly folk.

Other characters in Belo Horizonte:
Dorothy Smith - #9 (likely late 30s), British. A member of the Neve family’s staff and/or security detail, and subordinate to Roger. The name could suggest some relationship to Roger, but more likely is just a cover.
Roger Smith - #2 (early 40s), North American - Evangeline’s chauffeur… Officially. In reality, he’s a high-end bodyguard.

Elsewhere in the Human Sphere:
Fio “Shy” Emeri - #5 (18y) South American. Line player in the Human Revolution team, and their “bad apple”, never seen without her trademark balisong knife. Her demeanor seems to hint some connection to the Observance. Gecko TAG armed with an assault pistol and a balisong sword. Exotic mod: pink hair. In actuality, her callsign is not ironic: she’s really very shy, and uses a slightly deranged, intimidating appearance and attitude as a way to avoid unwanted interaction.
“Frankie” Chryse - #6 (mentioned only so far) (20y), Australian. Minnie’s and Bia’s older sister. Graduated the Academy and went on to study environmental engineering and geology at the Bourak Institute of Planetology. Reputedly possessed of a stoic temperament similar to Morgan. “Frankie” is no doubt a diminutive nickname in the same style as her sisters’ and mother’s.


Saturday, November 9th, late evening and night

Yuni and Diego leave their rides at the Academy and hit the town by taxi. It is a drinking night, and a sea of hard liquor is used to get both of them wasted. Really, really wasted.

Though the first order of business, when they’re still (mostly) sober, is Yuni asking:
“ - So, how did you know?”
“ - Know what?”
“ - That little Rikoriko was bluffing?”
“ - I didn’t.”
“ - ...Oh.”
“ - See, I was sure she was serious. So either I could play along and hope Alex will back down, or…”
“ - Or the shit would hit the fan, and we would be having seats in the front row…?”
“ - Exactly.”
“ - Honestly, I was panicking! I thought about running there to stop Nyree, but I didn’t think I’d make it.”
“ - I thought about it too, just intended to grab a TAG for it. But it made no sense. There just wasn’t time: none of us would make it there faster than it would take her to pull the damn trigger.”
“ - You were right, of course, we could have had a trauma team aerodyne there in minutes. They’d have airlifted Narahari in a jiffy, probably had her stabilized before reaching the hospital, even. Wouldn’t have mattered a damn where our jobs were concerned. The TAG-Soft program would go down… Civil charges... The shit-storm would be a thing to behold!”
“ - Which made it all the more important for Alex to see the point without Nyree shooting her.”
“ - We could still get in tons of trouble. I doubt Alex will blab to her dad, she seems too proud. But depending on what, if anything, the others say outside practice…”
“ - Whatever happens, happens. We get no say in it, so no use worrying about it.”
“ - I guess…”

That fatalistic tangent done with, they proceed to some serious consumption. Luckily, Yuni happens to be the type who gets merry and giggly when drunk (Diego keeps mostly serious, though his legs and then tongue are hard-hit with booze), so the mood is raised quickly. The topics discussed cover stuff like what will happen if they ever get off-planet with the team: in some jurisdictions (like Corregidor and most modules of Bakunin) the girls who are 16 years old would be legally considered semi-adult, allowing them to legally purchase alcohol and many popular drugs. Which could mean trouble, but also likely some pretty interesting observations. Also, they wonder how Alex does when she’s drunk… And what does she drink. Yuni suggests moonshine, but Diego waves that away: she might be the bad girl around, but she couldn’t stomach a real moonshine. Like the one he brew during the Paradiso Conflict using sweet pudding (from field rations) as a mash base. “ - Y’know, sugar. Need’t for fermentation. Lucifer’s beard, what an awful stuff it was. But it had a kick…”

Yuni is surprised by such an application of sweet pudding, though Diego assures her it wasn’t the strangest concoction around: one guy from Bakunin used to make a Shasvasti infusion. That is, infuse spawn-embryos in high-volume spirit. Tasted really awful…
“- But y’know, Shasvasti’s yer enemy, so down the hatch with ‘em! ...Plus, it hit like a maglev train.”

* well, this makes more sense in Polish, being a reference to an old anti-alcohol slogan “Alcohol is your enemy”, later corrupted by adding “so pour it in the face”, though “pour” here can mean both filling something with a liquid, and (colloquial) beating somebody up. So - alcohol is your enemy, therefore destroy it - by drinking it

Still, that’s too much for Yuni, and she finds a clever way to change the topic.She’s happy to find the Ariadnan proverb about vodka being sweet for sorrows to be true. Even though, as Diego observes, they carry no Ariadnan liquors in the bars they’ve visited that night. Ariadnan alcohols are pretty raw, straight and unrefined.

At one point Yuni asks Deigo’s opinion on Sake. Said opinion turns out to not be complimentary. No Sake for them today, then. Just as well, as Yuni says, as she has some mixed memories associated with that particular spirit… (hint, hint).

They both get really seriously pissed, but both of them are mature enough and know their limits, so the avoid making a nuisance of themselves with no effort. Once they’ve had enough, they take a taxi and get to Yuni’s place, where they proceed to sleep together - in the strictest literal sense this time. (^_^) But not before taking the anti-hangover pills, God bless the chemists!


Sunday, November 10th

Diego wakes up first, but he finds Yuni, instead of being in her usual spread-eagle sleeping position, to be practically wrapped around him, entangling him with her limbs. Getting out of bed without waking her up seems impossible… Then again, he’s not in a hurry anyway.

A few hours later (in the early afternoon) - that is, after the second part of anti-hangover medicines, a long shower (with “activities” ^_^) with Yuni, and a breakfast (he still didn’t have that much chance to work on his cooking skills, but at least he can now offer more assistance than just slicing vegetables) - Diego is ready to make some calls. As he explains, he gave the girls a night to “sleep with the new situation”, but now he has to talk with them. Yuni gets out of the comlog’s reception field, letting him do his job in relative privacy.

Nyree is first on his call list. She answers promptly after the second ring, all proper and polite… And dressed in a shirt in a truly eye-bending bright-violet tribal pattern. Diego expresses his concern about the events of yesterday:
“ - Remember what you said? ‘The best I’ve ever felt...’?”
He spares no effort in making a point of how that kind of pleasure can lure people into becoming not unlike Alex, and apparently Rikoriko understands the danger well enough. She assures Diego she’s not planning to indulge in any more of such activities. Far as Nyree is concerned, the matter with Alex is concluded, and if the latter will keep her part of the bargain and not harass the former anymore, then nothing more need come of it. Nyree plans to approach their future interactions professionally, and certainly not planning to now emulate Alex’s style, in regards to Alex herself, or anyone else.
Diego ends the call satisfied that Nyree shouldn’t “turn to the Dark Side”... But he still resolves to keep an eye on her, just in case, at least for a while.

Alex is second, and it takes her quite a while to pick up the call. Apparently, she has no problem answering in just her underwear… Though, given her party outfit, Diego has already seen her wearing (slightly) less, and he remains resolutely un-shocked.
Clearly she’s been drinking hard that night (as Diego comments “ - Alex, you look like something a drakomon dragged in, but eventually decided not to risk eating...”), plus didn’t have the experience and common sense Yuni and Diego did (including taking the pills before falling asleep). She admits of mixing several types of alcohol.
“ - Lucifer’s beard, Alex, you never mix alcohols. Daddy never taught you that?”
“ - …” - the answer is heavy silence.
“ - Well, don’t, okay? ‘Cause that’s how it ends… Better yet, you don’t know how to drink? Then learn, before getting so smashed.”
Apparently the day before she was made to understand what a monstrously gigantic asshole she was - and she seems to be reconsidering it.
She’s also somewhat unsure about Diego’s intentions: “ - You’re a hard one to figure out. I could almost believe you really care…”
(Interesting note: speaking with him over the comlog, Alex addresses Diego with informal singular “you”, rather than “Coach” like all the team members do, including Alex when at school / with the team.)
Alex in her present state is not the most communicative, though she does assert, taking a strangely principled stance, that she intends to keep to the terms of her bet with Nyree, and not raise a stink about how Rikoriko threatened her:
“ - Whatever else I may be, I won’t be no snitch, and I won’t be no liar...!”
Diego leaves her to nurse the (physical and moral) heartless killer hangover.

Evangeline is third, though the call is first answered by one Ms.(?) Dorothy Smith, a member of the house staff (a curiously pale and poker-faced individual - Diego could almost peg her for some kind of android...). Still, Diego is someone she knows about, so he gets switched thru to Eva - who turns out to be practising paintball in the residence’s grounds with her security personnel. She appears crawling under a bush, in full combat gear, beret, face paint, and all.
Diego stresses to her that as team captain, she has to have an eye on everybody, and make them work as a unit. And Alex, difficult and high-maintenance as she is, will be far more useful to the team if she’s treated well - this is a part of the human management skills Eva is to develop as the leader (as she observes, that’s about what her father said when the subject of TAG-soft came up. Diego gets an impression that Mr Neve has a service history of his own).
Evangeline resolves to approach the matter of Alex professionally and try her best as officer to resolve the issues in her command, so Diego leaves her to resume her wargame. (Wonder if her bodyguards relish the chance to legally shoot at their employer?...)

Fourth call is Morgan. Looks like Diego interrupted her early afternoon nap - no surprise there (though it is a bit startling to see her dressed in a simple t-shirt instead of the sharp pressed dress shirt and tie she literally always wore when he’s seen her before). Diablo thanks her for taking care of restraining Alex so far, but also points out Miss Narahari will need friends really bad. Sure, he cannot force friendships, but he can point the issue out to Morgan, and voice his hopes that she won’t be writing Alex off totally based on her behaviour up to date. As he mentions, Alex’ mind is pretty messed up, and some of it comes from the lack of friends.
Morgan says can’t promise much - most of it will depend on Alex and how she acts from now on anyway - but she resolves to at least try to give the (hopefully former) bully a fair chance. Diego can’t ask for more, so ends the call satisfied and lets Morgan go back to her nap.

His self-appointed “morale officer”, Minuette, is fifth. Diego is surprised to see her surrounded by little kids. As it turns out, Minnie volunteers at the St. Florence Rorke Children's Hospital… And she already made her charges aware of who Mr. Diablo is (and of his tragic lack of a tail ). Anyway, he asks Minnie to take special care of Alex - who perhaps doesn’t look like she wants to have any friends, but actually needs some kind souls around her. Thank you, lucky stars, for Minnie, who’s more than ready to be friendly (and share her supply of candy!) with anyone! Never fear, coach! Minuette Diane Chryse is on the job! Speaking of job, duty calls (in the form of a little pigtailed blonde tugging on Minnie’s sleeve to ask if it’ll be much longer, cos’ she needs to visit the little girls room...), so Diego leaves Minnie to it.

This, however, makes Diego wonder if he could persuade Alex to work as volunteer alongside Minnie.

He decides against calling the remaining team members (‘Nique, Octy and Patty), as they don’t seem to be involved in the problem as much.

Once that part is done, Yuni and Diego leave for some motorcycle practice.
Diego estimates it will be somewhere between one and two weeks more till his own ride is ready.


Monday, November 11th

The team gathers for suited-up training. Patricia is alone again - Octavia, as is lately customary, stayed behind to rehearse their music competition entry with Fred.

Nyree once more brings her brother, Koi, who wanted to see the team and their mecha again…. And absolutely not, of course, to just see Evangeline, right? Eva really, really doesn’t know what to think about him and his puppy-like devotion...

Alex shows up, still looking slightly out of it, heavy things obviously still on her mind. She spots Nyree, in her customary study “coven” with Dominique and Eva, and heads her way. Before she can reach Rikoriko, however, her way is blocked by little Koi. The boy interposes himself, glaring up at the much larger Alex, fists clenched, the chubby purple cartoon dragon on his t-shirt imitating its owner’s hostile demeanor.
For a moment, Alex can just stare, dumbfounded.
“ - ‘Scuse me, squirt, but I’d like to have a word with your sis, there…”
“ - As if! Ware up to me, you wouldn’t come within a hundred meters of her, let alone get to ‘have a word’! You’ve had enough ‘words’, creep. Get. Lost.”
Alex blinks down at Koi, flabbergasted speechless. Everyone is now paying attention to their little confrontation, the tension in the air palpable.
“ - You do realize, smallfry...” - Alex says slowly, in a low, flat voice, her face unreadable, “ - ...If you really tried to stand in my way, you’d be a wet stain on the pavement in seconds… Right?”
“ - Y-yeah…” - Koi gulps, visibly nervous now.
“ - But you’d still try anyway.” - It’s not a question. “ - For her.”
“ - Yup.” - is Koi’s unhesitant reply.
Alex takes a slow step closer to Koi, looming over the boy, her face still stone, eyes shadowed. The little guy begins to cover, but immediately catches himself, stiffens his spine, and crosses his arms in a pose half defensive, half defiant. He’s visibly terrified, yet refusing to back down.
Alex’ hand begins to rise.
Several people begin moving to try restrain her, foremost Morgan, but they won’t be fast enough. Diego would make it… But decides not to. He has much more experience reading body language, as relating to fighting, than anyone there… And realises Alex is very much not throwing a punch.
Alex’ open palm comes down gently on top of Koi’s head, and she affectionately ruffles his hair (destroying his green-dyed mohawk crew-cut in the process).
“ - Good man.” she whispers, voice choked with emotion.
Alex grins at Evangeline:
“ - Y’know, Princess, I wouldn’t write him off just yet. He’s got the spark in him. Sure, now he’s just a squirt, but in a few years… If I were you, I’d keep my options open, know what I mean?” - her tone is half-mockingly jockular, but to Diego, Alex sounds very much like someone desperately trying for levity to disguise how close they are to breaking down in tears.
“ - Uh… Thanks, I guess… H-Hey, my hair!”
“ - Now stand aside, kiddo. I really just want to have a word with your sis, ‘kay? ‘Ree, if you will, let’s step in front of the hangar?”

As the girls walk out (Alex’ intention is to move out of hearing range, but remain in sight, to alleviate any worries as to her intentions towards Nyree), Diego suggests to Koi that a more durable mohawk could be made by applying sugary water to his hair. All the fancy chemicals available, but old-fashioned methods are often still the best.

They do their conversation unheard… Until, at one point Alex exclaims:
“ - T-that’s fucked up!”
She’s clearly shocked and dismayed, and it looks like she’s trying to reason with Nyree about something, even going as far as pleading. The other girl, however, is clearly having none of it, refusing to budge on whatever issue they’re having, or even discuss it further. They eventually return, Alex unhappy and defeated, Nyree resolute.

Rikoriko also takes the opportunity to deal with one final matter:
“ - ‘‘Ree’ is what my dad calls me. And my brothers. And my friends.” - she declares firmly.
“ - ...And I’m none of those. Right. I get you... Nyree.” - concedes Alex meekly.

Diego makes a mental note to also address Nyree with full first name from now on.

Minnie, her timing impeccable, offers Alex some candy as a pick-me-up, which is accepted with awkward but sincere thanks.

At that point Octavia finally arrives, almost late for the practice. She’s actually skipping and singing to herself happily, at least until she notices everyone is watching. She blushes heavily and tries to hide behind Patricia, which doesn’t work too well, as Patty is the one giving her the biggest teasing grin. Apparently the practice session with Fred went pretty well. Did they make some sweet, sweet music together? (^_^)

The team finally moves out to the practice field.

It is worth noting that from this point on, Alex no longer picks Rikoriko as the main target of her acerbic comments - these get pretty evenly distributed among the whole team. And there’s noticeably less of these, and they are also less nasty, closer to what could be considered friendly trash-talk.


Wednesday, November 13th

Luckily a pretty uneventful day, save for Octavia being late again. The training for today is virtual reality games, the team honing their skills in MOUT (military operations in urban terrain).

First, however, Diego voices the idea of pulling another publicity stunt - a visit at the St. Florence Rorke Children’s Hospital. Everyone seems OK with the project, which makes Minuette very happy... Save for Alex, who promptly refuses:
“ - A hospital? No. Not happening. No fucking way.”

She refuses to be persuaded, or to even explain her negative reaction, even faced with the full force of Minnie’s adorable pleading puppy-dog pout. Finally however, she concedes to fill Diego in on her problem - after the two of them step outside. As Alex reluctantly explains (lighting up a cigarette - the plan to quit smoking is not doing so well with everything that’s been happening lately), she is afraid of hospitals, since her brother died. He passed away at St. Florence’s, actually. While her mother was killed on the spot, the rescue service managed to get her brother to the hospital, and he spent a month in intensive care, before eventually passing away, never awaking from the coma.
So, Alex doesn’t want to go to the hospital. Fullstop.
As Diego sums up - that’s a phobia. As such, it ain’t nothing rational, therefore he’s not going to persuade her out of it. However, he points out, they are going to take their gear, TAGs and transport rigs, so someone will have to stay with the stuff. He would like to see Alex going with the rest of the team, but if she does, he won’t be asking her to get anywhere but to the gate itself. Every step further would be her decision.
“ - Besides, Alex, I’d like you to consider taking it to a therapist. Not saying you have to go, merely you should think about it.”
“ - Go to a head-shrinker…? Yeesh.”
“ - Yeah, I know, I hate these guys trying to get into my head. Had to do my time with them too. But you have many problems you could do without. So, perhaps ask your dad to pay for a good one, huh?” - though that last suggestions gets him a stony silence again...

Once they’re back, Alex grudgingly concedes that she’ll at least think about going with. For which she’s reworded with a flying tackle-glomp from the overjoyed Minuette.
“ - Cool your jets, Minnie. She said she’ll consider it, she hasn’t agreed just yet.”

Diego happily drops most of the preparations on Evangeline, as an exercise in logistics and diplomacy.

One more, happily drama-free, note today, is Octy revealing that she’s swapping e-mails with “Shy” Emeri. She even got a pict of Fio in her “civvies”. Indeed, the difference is startling - if not for the mane of pink hair, nobody could identify that shy, sweet, unassuming girl as the crazy leather-clad chica with a balisong knife they’ve met…
Fio decided to follow Octy’s suggestion, and acquired a musical instrument - a keytar - and started practicing. She’s finding the new hobby quite fun, though she doesn’t have all that much time to devote to it, what between TAG-Soft and her own schooling: she’s studying with an aim to become a “vet”, as they euphemistically call it on Bakunin - a bio-engineer specialized in designing, “assembling”, training, and/or taking care of, custom creatures. There’s even another pict, of “Shy” with her current “school assignment” - an engineered animal she’s supposed to take care of. It looks to be a white bunny, one made to look rather cartoonish and unbearably cute, by the name of, coincidently, “Angel”. And, as far as they can read it’s “face”, Diego thinks the rabbit has the looks of someone who would very much like to pull out a switchblade and start slitting throats. Hopefully, Fio will be okay…
“Shy” also reports her teammates “Animal” and “Trouble” assembled - and modeled - some prototypes for cheerleading uniforms, for the cheer routine the “Revolution” ows the “Angels” when they next meet. Those were apparently quite… Eye-catching. No picts are included, however. Fio, not knowing New Avalon’s specific regulations and attitudes, but expecting them to be stricter than Nomad ones, didn’t want to accidentally land her pen-friend in trouble, with her parents or the law, for possession of teenage smut...

After practice, Yuni, with a mischievous smile, informs Diego she’ll be picking him up tomorrow at 11:00, for the Music Festival. Well, Diego expected to be the one doing the picking up. But he’s nothing if not adaptable, and certainly not so proud or “macho” to insist on the traditional procedure. However, if Yuni is the one doing the picking up, that means they’ll most likely be riding her Beast there. He wonders what she’s planning to wear to make that possible. At least it’s a semi-formal event, so no tux for him.


Friday, November 15th

Time for the Academy Autumn Music Festival. It’s a big, whole day event and school function, starting at noon, so no classes today.

Yuni rings Diego’s doorbell promptly at 11:00, grinning ear to ear. She’s certainly making the most of the semi-formal nature of the Festival, turning up in a curious ensemble: shorts under a two-piece short-front-long-back skirt, a zip up sleeveless crop top, and high-top sneakers (very fancy and dressy ones, but still), all in deep red pseudo-leather. It’s not a ball-gown, that’s for sure, but then, it’s not a ball they’re attending. And it’s not like she doesn’t look damn fine.

The festivities kick off big-time, with a concert of the school symphony orchestra, with senhor Felipe Ramos conducting. They perform classical pieces (well, considered such in the 23rd century), starting with a full symphony. Diego finds it somewhat boring, though he can see the skill behind the performance. Yuni does say they are considered the best student orchestra of Merlin, one of the best of New Avalon as a whole.
The orchestra roster of course includes several known characters like Octavia, Katya, Lyra, Lupe, and Fred, so it’s interesting to see them in action, at least (tiny Katya wrangling the huge orchestra drums is a sight indeed). Octy and Lupe perform solos, and their skill is undeniable.
Diego notes the facial expression Octavia wears when playing the cello - it’s the same deadly-serious look of laser-sharp focus he’s seen many times, on her TAG’s comm-channel.

After the concert is finished, the free-form, open part of the Festival commences. Most of the school grounds and buildings were transformed into a mosaic of smaller concert halls, band scenes, and dance floors, both inside and open air, with resting areas and cafes scattered among them. There are musicians, amateur and professional, locals and guests, performing live everywhere, in all possible numbers, ensemble configurations, genres, and styles. The guests - students, parents, and other invitees - are encouraged to mingle and move around, enjoying any and which performance in any way they please.

The Academy Young Musician Competition starts immediately in one of the halls, but it’ll be about two hours until Octavia and Fred’s turn. So, Diego’s idea to go dancing with Yuni, while delayed for a week, finally comes to fruition. Through the afternoon and evening, they give each other quite a workout with various lively dances, starting with Argentine tango (which is more lively and, let’s say, aggressive than the toned down “sports” tango you usually see. Then again, for Diego this and several others are popular “folk dances” he knows from home).

There are several other familiar pairs on the various dancing floors. Senhor & senhora Moina can be seen, so can senhor & senhora Summers.
Minuette (in a painfully pink, frilly, girly party dress, with a cute little decorative hat sitting at a jaunty angle on her curls) intercepts Diego and Yuni, and introduces them to her parents, senhor & senhora Chryse. They turn out to be a very pleasant couple, if a bit concerned that the two of their three daughters that are still on Avalon are now both crazy about TAG-Soft. (Bianca was hard to keep up with when all she did was streak around on a skateboard - one shudders to think what she’ll be like roaring around in a TAG… At least they still have over a year to get ready for that.) Though, Minnie quickly find an excuse to escape when her mum switches over to fussing about her relationship with Ilya...
Dominique is sad to inform, her mom wasn’t able to secure a day off to attend.
Patricia happily announces that, though her grounding officially ends only on the coming sunday, the Festival being technically a school function, she got a special dispensation from her mother to DJ one set today, so she’ll be dropping some beats, and invites everybody over later to her own dance floor.
Even Morgan takes the opportunity for some dancing, though, true to form, she’ll spend about as much time napping in various chairs as twirling on the dance floors.
Morgan and Dominique, seeing each other dressed in their full gala school uniforms (as many students did instead of anything more fancy for the semi-formal event), joking share a high-five and declare themselves the ones wearing pants in this team (they both prefer the “unisex” pattern uniform, with pants instead of a skirt).

Diego takes a moment to see if all of his students are dancing and not left alone. He’s especially concerned about ‘Nique and Alex - one is a new student with difficult social background, the other is a well-known troublemaker after all. Luckily, there seems to be no trouble on that front.
Still, he asks Yuni’s excuse for one dance with Alex (which is granted, “ - Assuming you won’t mind either if I’ll take this one with Ken then, okay?”) just to make sure she’s okay. And make her feel appreciated.

Minnie can later be seen with Ilya, gliding around in a slow, classic waltz. Mr. Malinin still doesn’t look too friendly, though his perpetual scowl is a little softer this time (well, his sister is not jumping around on his shoulders now!). Minuette herself seems over the moon. Alex can’t help herself from dropping a snarky comment: “ - They look like a cat waltzing with a bus!” Still, the mismatched-in-size pair is managing the dance with surprising grace.

Another, even more curious sight in the same dance, is Evangeline (in an eye-catching little white dress), who apparently allowed herself to be persuaded to dance with Koi Rikoriko (in a snappy white modern-cut tux!). The love-struck squirt turns out a very respectable ballroom dancer, and an all-round gallant gentleman.
Maybe this is really not as hopeless as it seems at first blush? Sure, for a relationship to have any kind of real chance, they’ll have to wait at least 7 years, preferably as much as 10, before the age difference stopped being an issue, but then… Of course, by that time, they’ll both probably be quite different people.
Still, Nyree can’t but worry for her little brother, very likely setting himself up for a hard fall.

On a slight tangent, seeing Eva’s hair, for once left loose and so falling almost to her knees, Yuni spends a moment wondering just how much time and money the girl must spend in maintaining that luxurious mane. Herself, she can’t imagine investing so much effort, being perfectly happy with her functional, slightly messy pageboy cut. Diego agrees it is a sight to behold, but pretty impractical and resource-heavy… And a deadly nuisance in null-G.

Well, finally it’s time. The entire membership and staff of the Angels of Stone gathers in the audience in the competition hall. Octavia and Fred come out, still in their sharp orchestra uniforms, all proper and serious-faced (though Fred is obviously working hard to suppress a grin) and proceed to their duet on cellos. Now that’s a much more lively performance on classical instruments, and a very non-traditional piece indeed [something very much like this]. Fred drops all pretense of seriousness almost instantly, lighting up with a mile-wide grin and putting on a show with wild, crazy movements. Octavia’s manner transforms much more slowly, but steadily, and, though she doesn’t join her partner in monkeying around, by the end of the performance she is also grinning happily with abandon. And what a performance it is! Frederic is obviously very good, but if one thought Octavia was good before, now she seems simply inspired. Boy and girl finally lose themselves completely in the music, and seem quite startled when, having finished and sitting there grinning at each other, they are met by thunderous applause (Diego and Yuni certainly join in with gusto!). Octy’s shyness returns with a vengeance, and she tries to hide behind her cello, but Fred is having none of it, pulling her up by the hand, and rising it up, like a boxing referee announcing a new champion, grinning like a maniac all the while. Whatever the final results of the competition will be, this certainly felt like a triumph!

The competition is not over yet, and it’ll be some time after it is before the results are announced, so everyone moves off for another round of music and dancing.

Later, they are treated to the sight of Lyra and Bonnie tearing up the dance floor in a fiery tango. The punky Lyra is holding a rose in her teeth, and being a total showoff. Bonnie is blushing and giggling like a schoolgirl - which she is, so it’s appropriate, right? Lyra ends the dance presenting the flower to her lover and sweeping her away. They look very much like they fully intend to continue with the dancing tonight, only perhaps in a more horizontal position...
Minuette gushes over the pair, so very much in love. Diego comments gravely:
“ - I’m sad to say, Minnie, but I’m completely ideologically opposed to such pairings.”
“ - Oh? Why’s that, Coach?” - Minnie inquires, face falling.
“ - Well, for the sake of argument, let us ignore the age difference with that particular example, but see: Here are two gorgeous women… And I have no chance with either of them!” - he drops the pretended seriousness now for a big grin.
“ - Oh you!” - giggles Minnie, relieved - “ - Well, what about two boys together, then?” - she teases. Without missing a beat, Diego replies:
“ - Oh, I approve wholeheartedly! Less competition, you see?”
“ - My, my, Coach! A ladies man, are we? Well, you seem to be doing quite fine for yourself, no?” - she wiggles her eyebrows, indicating Yuni, who studiously fails to notice the byplay.

Diego and Yuni, and most of the others, attend Patricia’s set, for some club-style free-form jumping around on the dance floor. Patty’s DJing is still excellent, even after the month of forced sabbatical. In fact, she’s chomping at the bit for a real, full performance. Soon as her sentence is over, there’s definitely another clubbing night in their immediate future!

Later, they can observe Evangeline, attended to by another member of her security detail (this one a stocky man, bald as a cue-ball), themselves observing Roger Smith dancing with Dorothy Smith. They are a curious sight indeed, both in their black uniforms, both quite serious-faced, but they do seem to be enjoying themselves, in their own understated way.

At last, the time has come for the results of the Academy Young Musician Competition to be announced. The team and friends gather around Octy and Fred, all on tenterhooks. Though, when the third, and then the second place winners are announced, still with no mention of Octavia and Fred, Octy’s face falls, and she seems to shut down in disappointment, as if she can’t even conceive of winning first place… So it takes quite a moment to register that this is exactly what happened!
Now, if the Angels’ applause was loud after the performance, it’s positively deafening now! Octy seems to be in mild shock at first, laughing and crying, then unexpectedly throws herself at Fred in a very vigorous, happy hug. This takes him by surprise somewhat, but hey, when a pretty girl you apparently have a crush on hugs you, you’d be a complete moron not to hug her back, eh? Well, Fred Ulani is not a complete moron . In the background, senhora Moina can be seen deftly distracting her husband from glaring death at the boy daring to put paws on his Little Angel.
This was a triumph. Making a note here: huge success. (^_^)

Well, this calls for a celebration. Which involves toasts with alcohol-free champagne, but mostly even more music, and even more dancing.
The revelry finally ends, at a reasonable evening hour.

All in all, a good clean fun Friday.


Saturday, November 16th

The team goes for their weekly paintball practice against the Spiders.

The Angels are doing really good today, seemingly energized by yesterday’s fun, winning far more than losing, typically with about 2 casualties per game. The Spiders, on the other hand, deliver a rather lacklustre performance, especially in the first game of the day where they can’t seem to catch a break.

“ - Have you guys been drinking yesterday?” - inquires Diego jokingly.
“ - No. Maybe that’s the problem?” - is Bolo’s rueful reply.

Nyree and Alex, despite whatever difference they had on Monday, continue to respect the terms of their “peace treaty” and promises to Diego. Their interactions are calm and professional, except Nyree’s allotment of Alex’ general teasing - and, surprisingly, an occasional rejoinder.

During the traditional after-game party, Patty gets a message over the comlog that makes her pump her fist in triumph. As she reads aloud, it’s from an agent for a club, who noticed her at the Festival, and now wants to book her - for next week already! - for their employer. And said employer is the club Blue Moon… This last part first shuts Patty down in shock, then turns her completely inarticulate for a while as she jumps around in joy, babbling excitedly “Ohmygosh,ohmygosh,ohmygosh!”.

Diego asks for an explanation. Several of those present, including, surprisingly, Evangeline, know of the Blue Moon. Apparently, it’s the most exclusive, high-class, “in” club in Belo Horizonte, quite possibly in the top three of the entire New Avalon. It belongs to the Celeste family, the most powerful, wealthy corporate family on the planet - the Neves are one of their business partners. The Celestes control most, and have interests in most of the rest, of the various corporate lobbies of New Avalon, and their influence reaches into politics and the media. And the Blue Moon is the pet project of one of the “Celeste Sisters” - the two daughters of the family, being groomed as the heirs, and themselves already influential figures, despite not being even 30 yet. The younger sister is quite the patron of the arts, with a considerable power-base in the local entertainment industry. Apparently she has promoted something like two-thirds of the current top of the charts on Avalon.

For Patricia, this could be the a chance to strike it big time! Playing the Blue Moon is already a badge of high honor in the DJing scene. If she could actually catch the ear of Luna Celeste herself… Oh, the possibilities!

Well, looks like there’s a clubbing night to look forward to next week!


Which sums up the entry #9.

[Claudius Sol]

Yay! Glad to see this back! Much better mood to this episode than the last!

[Errhile]

Well, the #8 was dark.

We're actually past #10, but it will take a few more days to be fit for publication.

[Section9]

Morgan and Dominique, seeing each other dressed in their full gala school uniforms (as many students did instead of anything more fancy for the semi-formal event), joking share a high-five and declare themselves the ones wearing pants in this team (they both prefer the “unisex” pattern uniform, with pants instead of a skirt).

Well, finally it’s time. The entire membership and staff of the Angels of Stone gathers in the audience in the competition hall. Octavia and Fred come out, still in their sharp orchestra uniforms, all proper and serious-faced (though Fred is obviously working hard to suppress a grin) and proceed to their duet on cellos. Now that’s a much more lively performance on classical instruments, and a very non-traditional piece indeed [something very much like this].

(where the hell is the :spit-take: smilie?!?)

I don't think my wallet is going to recover from that... And I gotta get at least that track in video, not just audio!

[Kathara_Khan]

(where the hell is the :spit-take: smilie?!?)

I don't think my wallet is going to recover from that... And I gotta get at least that track in video, not just audio!

Those guys are pure awsome, aren't they?

I discovered them a ways back, when I was searching for a good piece to illustrate just this scene, actually.

[Errhile]

Avalon Chronicles entry #10
“Changing Tides”

Dramatis personae:
Note #1 - wherever a nationality / country of origin is mentioned, it describes dominant “cultural / ethnical background trace” rather than actual country / nation of origin (for example, Yuni was born and raised on Neo Terra, but her background trace is Malaysian).
Note #2 - starting with entry #5, only the characters making an appearance (or, in some cases, referred to) in a given episode are listed.
A complete list of all the characters appearing in the Avalon Chronicles is available under the link.
Note #3 - the “#x” notes the episode in which given character made first appearance.

“Anjos da Rocha” (Angels of Stone), The Team:
Alex Narahari - #1 (2. class, 17, Indian) “Bad apple”, school’s bully assigned to the team as a method of correcting her ways (which seems to be working - so far, so good. Alex, as it turns out, has her own host of demons). Her father tends to solve any problems (including those caused by Alex) by throwing money at them. Alex is an aggressive, reckless player who shoots too much, and doesn’t think enough. Anaconda TAG.
Dominique (‘Nique) Torres - #1 (1. class, 16, Argentine) Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”, former student of St. John’s High School (a Church-run school for the poor), transferred to the Academy on sports scholarship for the TAG-soft team. A mechanical and electrical engineering prodigy, she is fascinated with TAGs and does “gunpla” kits of them in her free time. Turned out into the same class as Eva. Initially Lizard TAG, but swapped for ‘Ree’s Anaconda.
Evangeline (Eva) Neve - #1 (1. class, 16, Italian) “Princess”, the wealthiest kid in school. Craves for proper behaviour and organized affairs, though the rest of the team are working on her. Team’s captain. Iguana TAG.
Minuette (Minnie) Diane Chryse - #1 (2. class, 16, Australian) Cheerleader and team’s self-proclaimed “morale officer”. Cheerful and energetic, though sometimes not the quickest mind in the team, definitely (though she speaks a stunning array of languages, at least 5 fluent and several others with lesser proficiency). The only team member (before ‘Ree joined in) to have a sibling (two in fact, both sisters). Her parents own a chain of restaurants. Solid team player. Initially Lizard TAG, in #6 takes over Mako’s Gecko.
Morgan Lai - #1 (2. class, 17, Polynesian) “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player, calm and precise. Seems to have taken it upon herself to help temper and restrain Alex’ baser impulses - physically if need be. Szalamandra TAG until #7, then swaps for Lizard (formerly Patty’s).
Nyree (‘Ree) Rikoriko - #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #6), (2nd class, 14 - she started school a year early, and then skipped a grade in junior high, Maori) Girl from Morgan’s class, apparently the school’s polymath genius and “mega-nerd” (in Morgan’s opinion). Excellent student but with a troubled past (she was bullied real bad - by Alex as it turned out...). Joined the team in #7, initially Anaconda TAG, but swapped later for ‘Nique’s Lizard..
Octavia (Octy) Moina - #1 (1. class, 16, Brazilian) Successful and gifted musician (cello), but shy and prone to panic when not currently playing. She’s also a very effective player, as long as nobody can see her face (in a TAG or under her paintball mask). Patricia’s best mate. Highest “kill”-count so far. Lizard TAG.
Patricia (Patty) Summers - #1 (1. class, 16, North American) Gifted DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate. Average player. Lizard TAG until #7, then swaps for Szalamandra (formerly Morgan’s).

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:
Staff:
DeeDee “Ditzy” Alephsdottir - #9 (avatar looks ~20, Nordic) The Academy’s low-level ALEPH subpersona, her duties include assisting Ken on monitoring, filing, and mail distribution. While methodical like a computer, she’s not too bright, and even outright scatterbrained at times (however, she was bright enough to note that Diego, as a Nomad, is likely to be at odds with Aleph as such, and therefore she made an effort not to interact with him… Or even make him aware of her existence).
Devil - #3 Diego’s “desktop animal” and digital pet (leftover from his CJC days), a cheerful animated devil with all the paraphernalia. Reactive to the surroundings.
Diego “Diablo” Ibarrez - #1 (~60y, looks ~40, Latinoamerican) The protagonist - TAG Soft team’s coach, retired CJC TAG combat instructor and once a war hero.
Eric Wana - #1 (~35, Polynesian) TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
Felipe Ramos - #9 (late 40s, Brazilian) Music teacher, head of the Academy music department, and conductor for the school orchestra.
Ginevra Chennault - #1 (~90, Polynesian) School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. To-the-point and strict, but fair. Teaches literature.
Isabell “Pills” Talho - #5 (looks to be in her middle 30s, South American) School’s medical officer (given the Academy’s size and high profile, she’s a fully qualified general practitioner with a lot of fancy tools), and likely a resurectee.
Ken Kamehameha - #3 (undetermined, apparently in his late 20s or early 30s, Hawaiian) Officially, he’s the school’s head caretaker / bedel, which in fact means he’s the chief of security. A nice, laid-back fellow.
Reksio - #1 Eric’s favourite Palbot, named after an obscure cartoon character.
Yuni Iskandar - #1 (29, Malaysian) PE teacher and TAG Soft coach’s assistant. Very sporty and attractive, goes pretty well along with Diego since they met on day one. Well enough, actually, that their relation had recently (entry #4) progressed to “friends with benefits”...
Students:
Samantha Silva - #9 (1. class, 16, Brazilian) Same class as Evangeline and Dominique. Dimante’s cronie, meaning whatever applies to Dimante, applies to her as well. Wears (purely decorative) glasses.
Tiana Dimante - #9 (1. class, 16, Latvian) Same class as Evangeline and Dominique. Rich upper class spoiled brat, and a bully who likes showing her “lessers” their place in the school’s social ladder. Eva apparently doesn’t think too highly of her.


“Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders”:
One of the local paintball teams. The “Spiders” are experienced, but not a top-tier team in Belo Horizonte - they play for fun, and are not seriously competitive.
“Bolo” - #2 (mid 20s). Team captain, Academy’s graduate.
“Scythe” - #2 (mid 20s). Field commander.
Other team members include “Tiger”, “Hunter”, “Ape”, “Widow”, “Spectre”, “Mook”, and “Wookie” the Spitfire gunner. Despite the pompous nicknames, they’re all laid back, friendly folk.

Other characters in Belo Horizonte:
Gummy - #10 Chryse family’s pet spider, an Avalonian Emperor Tarantula. Roughly 20cm in diameter.

Elsewhere in the Human Sphere:
“Frankie” Chryse - #6 (mentioned only so far) (20, Australian) Minnie’s and Bia’s older sister. Graduated the Academy and went on to study environmental engineering and geology at the Bourak Institute of Planetology. Reputedly possessed of a stoic temperament similar to Morgan. “Frankie” is no doubt a diminutive nickname in the same style as her sisters’ and mother’s.


Sunday, November 17th

The standard Earth-based calendar may be winding down towards winter, but on Avalon, weather-wise, spring is ticking over into summer.

Today sees Diego and Yuni again just hanging out together, in an out-of town day of running, climbing, and swimming.
Considering the weather, and seeing as they already managed to make Diego a decently competent swimmer in the lake, Yuni proposes, once summer is in full swing, taking a trip to the ocean and the beaches there.

Not a bad idea at all. And maybe, after the Knights match, they’ll also take the girls out to the ocean, for a celebration (or consolation, depending on the match result) beach party.


Monday, November 18th

As the team gathers for TAG practice today, something alive can be seen wiggling inside Minnie’s backpack.

She’s quick to open it up and introduce everyone to Gummy, her family pet whom she took to school to socialize him a bit. As she says, the poor thing is often left a bit lonely nowadays, with the parents working, Frankie having left the planet, and Minuette and Bianca gone most of the day too, first at school, then at varied extracurricular activities and hobbies.

Alex steps back, with disgust and a hint of fear mixed on her face, so Diego waves her further away.

Gummy is an Avalonian Emperor Tarantula, a jumping spider species native to Avalon (That’s where the name came from - the spider, once having accustomed to the situation, starts bouncing from one team member to another in a manner that would make a rubber ball envious. This includes landing on Morgan’s face as she enters the hangar, in the best Facehugger style). Emperor Tarantulas aren’t venomous and do not build webs - they are active predators, ambushing and, if necessary, pursuing their prey. In fact, even the local venomous and poisonous species aren’t a big threat to a human - the biochemistries involved are far too different, and toxins that work on local lifeforms don’t have much effect on Terran life (and vice versa). Same goes for food (which stops Diego from asking how such a spider tastes), life from one planet unable to digest most of it coming from the other. And while many species (including Emperor Tarantulas, which, lacking venom, rely on their powerful “jaws” to kill their prey) can and do bite in a quite painful way, Gummy couldn’t bite anyone even if he wanted to. As Minnie explains, he lost most of his primary mouth apparatus to a fungal infection before falling in with the Chryses (they adopted him from an animal shelter) and has to be fed special formulated food he can chew into swallowable chunks with what’s left of his “teeth”. He’s also quite cat-like in his ways, tending to leave home for a few days - but always coming back (well, he couldn’t survive in the wild, relying on his keepers to provide him with sustenance, but he also seems to have some genuine affection for them - he seems quite intelligent).

While Diego is a bit reserved towards Gummy, the furry, brightly-coloured, big eyed spider is almost universally considered to be the cutest thing around by the girls (save for Alex, who keeps a safe distance), each one willing to pet him for a moment before he jumps to another team member for more attention. The most surprising reaction is Morgan’s. The normally reserved girl positively melts in the face of the arachnid, cuddling and scritching it with abandon, making cooing noises, and generally showering Gummy with affection... And is left quite embarrassed when she realises everyone is watching.

The little beastie also reveals a mischievous streak, as he suddenly manages to dive under Eva’s clothes, tickling her to tears and eventually forcing her on the ground with laughter, as Minnie frantically tries to catch her wayward pet. Rolling around and kicking, breathlessly pleading for mercy among hysterical giggles, Evangeline loses a shoe (sending it hurtling across the room, necessitation a dodge from Morgan), and is in fact in serious danger of losing bladder control, before Minuette finally manages to restrain her roguish spider.
This incident seems to greatly rise Gummy’s stock with Alex - but not enough so for her to want to touch him, still.

Time to get suited up. Minnie leaves Gummy in the briefing hall, with the doors and windows locked - she’s not afraid he’d escape or get lost, but the hangar and grounds would not be very safe for him, what with all the TAGs stomping around.

Since the “kill town” is now available, Diego concentrates on building the urban warfare skills in his team, pitting two fireteams, led by Eva and Nyree, against each other.

It’s also the second session of testing for the applique armor for the TAGs. By now, all the team’s machines are equipped with the armored jackets, and Eric started fabricating matching pants too. It’s a somewhat weird sight, TAGs dressed up like giant dolls (“ - Not dolls! Action figures!” insists Dominique ^_^), but it seems to be working, which is the important bit.

Everything is going well, when suddenly an accident occurs.
Minnie, out to hone her stealth skills and accustom herself to new weapons, manages to surprise Patty in her sniping position, and whack her with a well-placed Blitzen hit. The Szalamandra should register the hit with the minimum-yield EMP warhead and report as casualty to the game system, “pretending” to be fried and shut down. Instead, Patricia’s TAG and comm-feed drop dead for real.

“ - Shit. Game stop, game stop! Minnie, get to her! Eva, you too! Quick! Get out of your TAGs and open her hatch manually!”
“ - How we do that, Coach?”
“ - There are manual release handles on the upper edge of the plastron. Yellow ones in recessed bays. Pull those.”
“ - What will happen then? Will the hatch get blown away or something?”
“ - No, just the locks disengaged. It should open on its own, on piston pressure release. If not, you’ll have to pull it open and get to Patricia.”

Patricia, who is now locked, completely immobilized, inside a disabled TAG. Suddenly in the dark and possibly with life support down, too (though that possibility is, luckily, small), she’s probably panicking.
Octavia is almost panicked herself, setting off towards her friend at a dead sprint, smashing down smaller trees and walls in her way, interchangeably trying (unsuccessfully) to rise Patty on the comlog, and urging the others to hurry up and get her out, out, out! She obviously knows something.
Given that, Diego’s wild guess is that Patty is either scotophobic, or some form of claustrophobic* (or both!), and nobody fuckin’ told him that!

* i.e. either afraid of darkness or of being in small, enclosed spaces. Getting entombed in a shutdown TAG is likely to scare the living shit out of either case.

“ - Alex, get to them, get out of your TAG and help them in case there’s need to pin Patricia down!”

“ - Right, Eric, talk to me. What we got there…?”
“ - Oh, damn, Diego. Sorry. My damn fault. That’s one of our refurbished Blitzen warheads. I must’ve messed up the power couple, or the limiter, gave it way too much juice. Really, really sorry.”
“ - Send Reksio there, perhaps it’s just the fuses…”
“ - On his way. It is surely just the fuses, those warheads are nowhere near the power to really fry a machine like that. And the missile is surely fried now itself. But it was enough to knock her comlog down...”
(Simulated EMP weapons do not use any of the fancy nanotech transmitter “paint” of other simunitions. They are instead real EMP devices, though very low-power ones. This makes it possible to save money by recovering, reseting, and reusing them, unlike most other simunition, which is one-shot. But it also means that things like this can sometimes happen...)

Luckily, when Minnie opens the hatch (she has to put a leg to the TAG to apply enough strength!) Patricia is conscious. Panicked, in tears, pale and hyperventilating, but apart from that, mostly okay. No seizures or flailing, so Alex’ help is luckily not needed.
Octavia plows her machine’s feet into the ground, skidding to a halt next to the fallen Szalamandra, and is out and by her friend before either hatch is quite done opening, heedless of the moving machinery around her.

“ - Shh, shh, Patty. Everything’s fine. You’re okay. We’re with you. You’re safe.” - Octavia helps finish freeing Patricia form the armor, all the while keeping up a stream of comforting speech.
“ - Octy, is she okay?”
“ - Y-yeah, I’ll manage. But I think I had enough for now. Octy, help me walk to the hangar, please?… My legs are jelly… Does anyone have headphones… Please...”
“ - OK, Octy, bring her in. Leave the TAGs there, I’ll get them here on remote control later. End of practice for today, chicas.”

Reksio quickly makes it to the site, and checks up on the Szally - as suspected, the EM pulse burned the fuses, and Eric is able to get the TAG up and running as soon as these are replaced.

As the team gathers back in the hangar, Patty is becoming visibly better. Especially once Minnie drops into the changing room and brings back Patty’s large headphones (the ear-plug ones she used to wear in the TAG apparently got fried). Dominique is checking on Patty’s comlog bracelet, initializing a reboot. Being a civilian-grade item, it went down after the EM pulse, although being shielded by the Szalamandra’s BTS suite and Faraday-cage effect managed to limit the losses. Otherwise, it would’ve been literal toast, complete with the smell of burned electronics. For now, Octy connects Patty’s headphones to her own comlog, piping in some cello suite. While not Patricia’s prefered tunes, it nevertheless has a visibly calming, curative effect.

“ - Okay, chicas. We’re all back and well. Now, Patty, could you explain to me what went on with you…?”
She keeps her eyes down “ - I’m severely sedatephobic.”
“ - I see. Now could somebody explain to me what, by Lucifer’s beard, does that mean?”
Nyree raises a finger, entering her encyclopaedia mode, but ends up speaking stereo with Minnie. Latin is one of the languages Minnie has some knowledge of.
“ - Fear of silence, Coach.”
“ - Thank you. Now, Patty, I need to know what triggers it, and how it affects you. Damn, things like that should be on your file…” - he read the files carefully for medical conditions that could affect team members. Granted, he was looking primarily for epilepsy and heart conditions, but still...
“ - I can’t… Stand it, if it is too quiet for too long. Not even completely silent, just quiet enough. It goes on for just a second too long, I quickly go into an all-out panic attack, curl-into-a-ball-and-scream like. Given the incident that originally broke me, one would think I’d be scared of the dark, or tight spaces, but no, I’m fine with these. Instead, my brain latched onto the silence... That’s why I always wear the headphones. They provide a constant level of background noise to keep me happy. Well, that, and I genuinely love music. But I found something with a good beat works best for my “medical” purposes. That’s actually how I got interested in music in the first place… Of course, that means I sometimes get lost in the tunes, and don’t pay enough attention… A couple more years, and I can get a corrective neural implant, but the docs say I’m still too young for one now...”

“ - We’ll have to watch out for that. Dominique, I need your expertise. Could you do something to keep Patricia’s comlog intact, should that happen again?”
“ - No can do, Coach. It would require building up a hardened comlog from scratch. And that was weapon-grade EM pulse that fried a TAG’s fuses. I guess it wouldn’t be comfortably man-portable if it was to withstand this… Not doable with our resources, anyway.”
“ - Well, it was worth asking anyway…”

“ - One more thing, Patty. Why didn’t you tell us before? Just in case?”
She shrugs awkwardly:
“ - Didn’t seem terribly important, did it? I usually have it well in hand with the headphones. Didn’t expect any trouble like this…”

Eric is very unhappy with himself.
“ - I am terribly sorry, Ms. Summers. It’s my screw-up that caused this. I should have been more careful with the warheads.”
“ - It’s all right, Mr. Wana, really. I’m fine. Shit happens. Please don’t beat yourself up over it…”
Eric, perfectionist he is, is probably unable to really do that. As self-assigned penance, he throws himself immediately into re-checking every remaining Blitzen missile they own, to make absolutely sure they are all put together and calibrated right, to avoid further accidents like that.

As the team dismisses, Yuni catches up with Diablo “ - Hey, I just checked. There’s information on her sedatephobia in the main files. But not in those you got…?”

Conclusion seems obvious - Patty likely somehow intercepted and doctored the copy to be sent to Diego, fearing he wouldn't accept her into the team with her condition. “ - Well alright, I’ll chew on her on Wednesday…”
As the girls leave, Patricia throws back a glance, apparently feeling guilty - and knowing she got caught.


Wednesday, November 20th

As is customary, Diego is at the team’s base some time before practice, using that time for administrative work, discussing the state of the team’s equipment and possible upgrades with Eric, and working on assembling his motorcycle. Today, he also gets a visit from Ken. Having heard of Diego’s idea to form a teacher paintball team, the head bedel decided he want’s in on that action too - unless Diego is very attached to it being specifically a teacher team, as opposed to general Academy staff? No, that’s not a problem for Diego, a staff team is fine. Ken is quite welcome to join in, whenever the idea actually gets off the ground - it’s something of a side project, pretty back-burner currently. Especially as Diego, Yuni, Gerhard Oobleck, and now Ken, are the only prospective players for now.
“ - You know, you may find more interested people if you advertised the thing a bit. Or at all, really. I only now found out from Yuni. Put up a notice in the Maya staff board? By the way, have you considered enlisting Ms. Chennault? And I’m only half-joking now…”

Suddenly, an emergency call goes off on Ken’s comlog.
“ - Talk to me, DeeDee.”
A young blonde, Nordic looking woman Diego hasn’t seen before, but assumes is part of Ken’s staff, comes on. After the recent debacles, she has been instructed to increase her vigilance in monitoring the security feed, as pertaining to irregularities involving Alex Narahari (again).

Now, the situation she’s concerned about here is somewhat peculiar: the system notices Nyree Rikoriko in some trouble with two other students, and Alex Narahari being in the area, but not actually all that close to the group…

Whatever is going down is not far from the hangar, so, being the closest staff available, Ken moves out to investigate. Diego keeps him company, seeing as his charges are involved.

On the way, Ken explains the nature of DeeDee to Diablo. Turns out, she’s the Academy’s low-level ALEPH subpersona, in charge of its computer and drone systems. Apparently, she’s not all too bright, even outright scatterbrained. That led to the students giving her a nickname, “Ditzy” (Well, this is only the most widely accepted, humorous one - there is a host of other, much more mean, nasty ones, starting at “Derpy”, and going all the way to “Moron” and “Retard”). However, she does have her moments of brilliance: apparently she has decided Diego, as a Nomad, is likely to be at odds with ALEPH, and therefore she made an effort not to interact with him, as not to unnecessarily agitate him. Well, this is PanOceania, with their over-reliance on and total trust in the master AI. Diego should have known there’s somebody (or something) like her around...

As they close in, they see Nyree on her knees, with her school possessions scattered around, and two other girls standing over her. The school’s AR tags them as Tiana Dimante and Samantha Silva, Evangeline’s (and now, Dominique’s) class-mates. both rich, upper-class girls. Tiana is visibly showing Nyree her place in the universe and / or pecking order, while Samantha nods to every word. Both bullies are far too much into their powertrip to notice that Nyree, far from being cowed, is actually looking more and more annoyed...

Considering Nyree’s recent exploits with Alex, Diego is somewhat concerned as to what may happen if she decides to lash out.
“ - Ken, let’s get them from behind. Don’t let these two see us on approach.”
“ - Got it.”

However, before they can intervene, Alex makes an entrance. She too choose an approach from outside of her target’s line-of-sight, but somehow didn’t notice Ken and Diego. She closes in, utilises the element of surprise, and with a move hinting at loads of practice grabs Dimante by the back of her underwear, and executes a vigorous “wedgie”. Then again, and again. The yanks are applied with enough vicious strength and leverage to lift the slightly-built girl a few centimeters off the ground. The end result is Tiana collapsing in a fetal position, with her hands between her thighs and tears streaming down her face. Alex stands over her with fists on hips.

“ - Well, what do we have here? Two upper-class twats picking on my team-mate? Bad idea. Right, “ - Alex turns to Samantha with a nasty grin “ - Your turn, four-eyes.”

Well, high time for the staff to appear on the scene.

“ - Narahari, don’t kick the lady, you’ll get tired.” - Diego waves her down.
“ - Oh, fuck!...” - mutters Alex - “ - I mean… Hi, Coach! “ - she grins awkwardly.
“ - Now, miss Dimante, could you please explain to me what you were doing? And what are you doing lying down, hm? Please stand up when talking with a teacher.“ - which definitely isn’t going to be easy for her, Alex apparently put a lot of effort into these wedgies. But Tiana and Samantha targeted one of his team members, and they’re going to be taught that it doesn’t pay off.
“ - Ow… we just… uh…”
“ - Please express yourself in full, proper sentences, miss Dimante.”

Diego’s position is technically classified as being a teacher, which places him higher than Ken in the school’s hierarchy. As such, Ken yields the floor to Diablo in dealing with the incident. And deal with it he does, delivering a scathing, merciless dressing down on the two perpetrators (“ - Damn, Diego, you really do sound like you were a drill sergeant!”), though, of course, keeping to school-acceptable language.

“ - Now let me explain something, you two. You were really, really lucky. Because Narahari got here before miss Rikoriko lost her temper and gave you what for. If I was nasty, I’d’ve held Narahari by the scruff of her neck and just watch what Rikoriko would be doing to you. And you wouldn’t be grateful for my choice of who to hold back. But you know, you wouldn’t be worth the paperwork I’d have to fill afterwards. Ken, they’re all yours. I guess you’ll find a suitable punishment for them - personally I wouldn’t mind throwin’ them on rags* along the whole main hall.”

* Diego refers to assigning someone to (floor) cleaning duty. In the army, some stuff never goes out of fashion, you know.

As Ken leads Tiana and Samantha away (both rather shell-shocked, the first still duck-walking awkwardly with knees and feet inward) Alex can’t resist adding in her own parting shot:
“ - And if I catch you again, or just find out you made trouble, for any of my team-mates, I’ll make you wish you were never born!”

“ - Right. Nyree, how are you doing?”
“ - Not bad, Coach.” - she finishes gathering her possessions.
“ - Good, ‘cause I was worrying you’re goin’ to pull your grandpa’s ol’ bayonet out of somewhere, and there would suddenly be one hell of a lot of cleaning up necessary.”
“ - Oh... I don’t carry a bayonet with me.”
“ - Glad to hear that. I’d still guess your grandfather told you exactly what to do with one…”
“ - Well, I remember the stories he used to tell during family dinners. They were, umm…”
“ - ...Completely inappropriate for a family dinner, I get it. I guess the bedtime stories he told his grandchildren were equally inappropriate for kids meant to sleep tight.”
“ - More or less like that, Coach… Though Koi seemed to enjoy himself fine… Anyway, no, I wasn’t planning anything quite so drastic, you needn't worry.”

Nyree turns to Alex with a frown, part annoyed but mostly puzzled.
“ - The Coach may be overselling it a bit, but he’s right, I didn’t need your help.”
“ - Well, you got it anyway.” - Alex shrugs, trying for nonchalance, but mostly looking awkward. “ - Seemed the right thing to do, you know? Team-mates and everything…”
“ - Well… Thank you, then.” - Nyree obviously doesn’t know what to make of the whole thing. “ - Though, I’d be grateful if you didn’t use me as an excuse to practice your… Techniques.”
“ - You’re welcome. And I’ll… Take it under consideration.”

“ - Alex, that was an interesting technique. You ever thought about taking some judo classes?” - asks Diego.
“ - That’s the one with all the clever leverage and flipping people, right? Eh, I’d prefer something more straightforward. Kicky and punchy, you know.”
“ - Kickboxing, then.”
“ - Hm. Know what, maybe I’ll think about it. Could be fun.”

“ - Oh, and one more thing, Narahari.”
“ - Yea, Coach?”
“ - Boo. Consider yourself punished.”
“ - Ooh, I certainly do! I mean, sheesh, I know I’ve been a bad girl and all, but there’s no need to be all cruel and unusual about it!”
“ - Don’t push it.”

What’s interesting, the proximity alert (due to the restraining order put on Alex because of her harassment of Nyree) didn’t activate the whole time. Apparently Rikoriko turned it off permanently instead of switching it off for team meetings only.

As the three of them walk to the hangar, it’s obvious there’s something still on Alex’s mind. She’s fidgeting, shooting furtive glances at Nyree, and seems to be gathering her resolve for something. Finally, she decides to speak:
“ - You know, ‘R-... Nyree. Considering all the old “bad blood” between us… I… Would not hold it against you, if you ever wanted to… I don’t know, even the scores a bit? That wouldn’t be unfair, I think…”
Nyree blinks in confusion, and stares at Alex.
“ - So what, exactly, are you saying? You mean, if I maybe felt like, let’s say, pulling you up the flagpole by your underwear… Or pushing you out of the PE dressing room to the corridor naked… Or dunking your head in a toilet… You’d be perfectly fine with that?”
“ - Ah… W-well... When you put it that way… That does sound totally dumb, doesn’t it?... Sorry. I’ll just shut up, then.”
The rest of the walk passes in a somewhat awkward silence.

As the team gathers for practice, Diego tells them about the incident and informs Evangeline about what her classmates did. She seems disgusted, but apparently her opinion about Dimante and Silva wasn’t high to begin with.
Naturally, the news that it was Alex who came to Nyree’s aid is met with rather high scepticism at first.
“ - Right. Pull the other one, it’s got bells on it.” - Morgan’s sarcasm is almost dripping to the floor.
But with Nyree fully confirming the story, the other girls have no choice but believe it and maybe re-evaluate their view of Alex a bit.
“ - Well, I’ll be…” - mutters Morgan.
“ - Squeee!” - Minuette throws herself at Alex in a hug - “ - Now you’re feeling the team spirit! Yay!”
“ - That Tiana character certainly felt it.” - chuckles Patricia.
Evangeline looks vaguely uncomfortable.

Training time. Today’s agenda is paintball, and Diego divides the party into two fireteams - again one commanded by Eva, the other by Nyree (if she has to become the secondary commander, she has to practice!), with flexible membership otherwise.

First turn sees Alex under Nyree’s command.
“ - Right. Minuette, hit the left flank. Morgan, hold right. Alex, you’re back with me.”
“ - Wait, what? I’m supposed to be your babysitter full-time now?”
“ - No. But if you just rush in with guns blazing, you’ll be doing exactly what they are expecting of you. They know how you play. How many times have you been ambushed? Wouldn’t you like to turn it around? They’ll obviously want to come after me - I’m the most valuable target, being the commander, and having the weapon they can’t well hide from. So stick to me. I’ll be the bait. And you sit patiently… And mow them down as they come. They won’t be expecting that.”
“ - Huh. That does sound clever. Alright, let’s try this.”

And it works, much to Alex’ delight. Trigger-happy as she still is, it definitely looks like she’s starting to appreciate Nyree’s tactical expertise, and proper teamwork.

Nyree for her part is really working on restraining her micro-managing, uncompromising perfectionist side.

Patricia gets some extra “attention” from Diego, which she accepts with good grace, evidently considering it to be her (well-deserved) punishment for doctoring her files.

After the practice, however, she’s ready to share the good news: all arrangements have been finalised, she’s playing at the Blue Moon on Friday night, and she got a package of free entry passes large enough to invite both the team, and the Spiders.

“ - So, I guess we need to cancel the Saturday paintball, Coach?”
“ - Oh, absolutely no need for that.”
“ - But we’ll all be tired after the party…”
“ - Exactly my point, chicas. You’ll see the difference in performance: how you behave when you are fresh after a night of good sleep - and how it goes when you are really tired. Consider it endurance training.“
“ - Ouch…”


Thursday, November 21st

Diego did not intend to show up at school today, however, he gets an unexpected call from senhor Ramos, who apparently wants to discuss some matter in person.

And boy, this guy doesn’t feel that putting things straight is his style…

What Felipe has to say is that he was initially staunchly opposed to the TAG-Soft team project. Firstly, for cost reasons: as he points out, it already eats up a budget slightly larger than the much bigger football program, money that he felt could be much better spent - like on his music department (at least he’s honest...). Secondly, because he did not think a “proxy war” game would be appropriate for high school. He never served in the army himself, and, though he understands the sad necessity of having one and sometimes fighting wars, he still finds the entire thing slightly distasteful. However now, seeing how much one of his students - namely, miss Moina - has improved since she joined the TAG-Soft team made him reconsider.
“ - She was always very, very good before. Her election as the first cello of our orchestra was no fluke. And yet, she seemed to lack some… What could I call it?”
“ - The ‘spark’, senhor Ramos?”
“ - Well yes, that’s a good term for it, thank you. Did you know, she took part in our Young Musicians Competition every year since entering the Academy, and many other competitions besides, all over Avalon. And always she’d be in the top three… But never took first place. Until last Friday.”
The “pretend war” obviously gave Octavia something she was lacking and couldn’t get elsewhere. There must be something more to it, then, than simply shooting at people. Perhaps there really is a place for such a team at the Academy...

So here senhor Ramos finally comes to the point. As he has heard from senhor Kamehameha, the coach of the Angels is also intending to put together a paintball team of the teachers. Given all of the above, Felipe decided to re-evaluate his perspective, and so would like to respectfully put forward his application, if senhor Ibarrez wouldn’t mind?

Sure, Diego doesn’t see a problem there. The more the merrier.


Friday, November 22nd

Party time!
The Blue Moon is, indeed, a high-end club. Literally, too: it’s located on the top floor of the tallest skyscraper in Belo Horizonte. It has its own bank of (external, glass-walled) elevators. And, as Diego, attuned to gravity differences immediately notices upon entering, it also has installed gravitics that reduce the effective gravity within down by about 10% from Avalon’s already generous 0,92 G (better not ask how much power that consumes, or how much it costs, to run this permanently down here in a gravity well...). The lighting is low, and slightly blue-silvery. Plus, an AR projection hiding the floor, that makes it look like the guests are floating in a sea of stars, in a high orbit above a silvery moon. Wait… That’s not just any moon, it’s the Moon, venerable Terra’s good old companion, Luna.

The club definitely lives up to its name.

The team are all there, in their party finery.
Diego’s biker outfit gets another spin.
Yuni decided to once again go with the quirky deep-red set she wore for the Festival.
This time Evangeline fits in much better, in much more relaxed, if still expensive, outfit, including her new high-heeled Converse boots and some color-coordinated neon glow accessories. She jokingly presents herself to Patricia for inspection, and is, equally in jest, pronounced “barely acceptable” by the DJ.
Minuette is once again a cloud of neon lights. Also, with her general tendency to bounce around, she becomes practically buoyant in the club’s low gravity.
Nyree is there (Alex - for once not being mean about it - expressed some doubt of her showing up, this seeming not her type of entertainment), in that eye-strain inducing violet pattern shirt. Or perhaps a different but similar one - the pattern is too confusing for Diego to be sure. The girl sure likes violet, anyway.

Patty seems to be suffering from a (huge) bit of stage-fright. This is it, this is for real! She’s the main act at the Blue Moon! If she does good here, that could open many - all, even! - doors for her. If not… That could be a disaster!... Her end, crash and burn…

Well, show time. Fortified by her team’s best wishes, Patty takes her place behind the consoles. She starts off a little tentatively, seemingly overwhelmed by the monumental consequences this gig could have for her, the prestige of the venue, the much bigger than she’s used to crowd… But then, as her blood starts pumping with the music, she finds her groove, exactly in her connection to said crowd. Hell with the doubts, Hell with her career, even! All those people, including her friends, came here to dance and have a good time, and she’ll be damned before she lets them down! And so DJ Scratch proceeds to lay down the beat and the law, shaking the house long into the night, in a performance possibly every bit as inspired and triumphant as the one Octy gave last week.

Soon everyone looks to be having a blast. The team certainly do, dancing up a storm.
Though, humorously, at one point Diego notices ‘Nique and Eva staging a little “intervention”, and dragging Nyree back to the dance floor from the club’s all-around, entire-wall windows, where she’s been lost in, apparently, star-gazing, an AR screen with a sky atlas open beside her! (The club certainly has a spectacular view, and the windows seem to include some tech to filter out the city’s light-pollution, the perfectly clear night sky outside smoothly blending with the projection inside.)

At one point late into the night Diego finds himself taking a break by the bar, alone, Yuni having gone to “powder her nose”, when he notices he has company. Someone is standing at his side, mirroring Diego’s pose of leaning back with elbows on the counter, observing the dance floor, far enough not to be immediately rude, but close enough to register in his personal space.
And what a someone. A young woman, perhaps in her mid 20s, of fair skin and elfin build… And her hair is amazing. An exquisite AR projection, almost certainly with some practical effects mixed in, makes her waist-long wavy mane look as if she wore a bit of living night on her head: a barely-translucent, shimmering jet-black and midnight-blue cloud, with the cold pinpoints of distant stars twinkling within, all gently flowing in a non-existent breeze, almost defying gravity. The rest of her seems almost pedestrian in comparison, with knee-high combat boots, skinny jeans with shredded knees, and a tiny biker jacket over a printed tee proclaiming cheekily “Blame my Sister!”, all in black and midnight blue, with lots of silver chrome buckles, studs and zippers.
She favours Diego with a tiny, puckish smile.

“ - She’s quite something, no?” - the motion of her head makes it clear she means Patty, as she reigns over the revelry.
“ - Very talented.” - he agrees readily - “ - Has a real knack for feeling the crowd.”
“ - Yes. The best ones always do - that’s why they are the best… Say, you’re not from around here, are you?”
“ - A very recent arrival, yup. Good eye.”
“ - M-hm. Say something more.” - she suddenly demands, closing her eyes and tilting her head at Diego.
“ - Oh-ho! What would you like to hear, then?” - he smirks.
“ - Hm... Corregidor. Am I right?”
“ - You have a very good ear, as well.”
“ - Comes in handy. And I’m kind of a fan, rarely as you hear that in PanO, of the Nomad Nation in general.”
“ - Really?”
“ - Yeah. When I was a kid, I’d use to dream of running away from the,” - a tiny self-mocking smirk “ - soul-crushing drudgery of my life of privilege, and joining the Nomads. Eek out a living on the high frontier, make my fortune with adventure, free and independent …”
“ - Good thing you didn’t. Most of such stories don’t end so well in real life.”
“ - Yeah…” - a wistful sigh.
“ - Anyway, I’m not sure how I personally feel about the idea of having fans...” - Diego muses.
“ - It takes getting used to, yes. But it’s a rewarding experience, I find. Though humbling, too. You seem to be doing alright for yourself, no? All those girls with you.”
“ - Perceptive. You have a great knack for pattern recognition, don’t you?”
“ - My kind of life, no choice but to train it up. Very useful thing, certainly.”
“ - Say, how is it we still don’t know each other’s names?”
“ - Well, probably me liking to play all dark and mysterious, and you being gentleman enough not to force an introduction, but cheeky enough to play right back yourself.” - she grins.
“ - Diego.”
“ - Luna.”
He suspected as much. And, like the club, the name somehow fits her down to a T.
(Also, it quickly becomes apparent that her t-shirt is one of those animated affairs, periodically changing slogans. Except it must be a high-end model, with some really advanced expert program running the changes, because what it says seems to mostly fit the conversation, in some poetic, non-obvious - and sometimes vaguely eerie - way. During the conversation, it flashes through, among others, “The Fun has Been Doubled!”, “To Boldly Go!”, “I Am the Night!”, and “Half-Life 3: Soon™!”)
“ - Well, seems your companion is coming back. Like my namesake, I think it’s time for me to vacate the scene.” - Luna smilingly nods towards the projected Moon, which is now late into waning, only a crescent left visible. “ - Please, convey my regards to miss Summers. And the rest of your troop. I’ve got a feeling she, and the “Anjos de Rocha” as a whole too, are someone to pay attention to. And my feelings are rarely wrong on such things. ‘Till next time.” - she flashes a last mischievous smile and wink (her shirt flashing “See Ya, Space Cowboy!”), and then she’s gone.

“ - Who were you talking to?” - Yuni inquires upon her return.
“ - Well, if I’m not mistaken, the owner of this establishment herself…”

Later, Patty will go absolutely ecstatic (“- Ohmygosh,ohmygosh,ohmygosh!”) at the news of Luna Celeste being favorably impressed with her performance.
And her being interested in the “Angels of Stone” too? This could be an intriguing development, indeed.

For now, there’s still some night left, and some dancing to be done, before the Moon goes dark completely.

Tomorrow… Tomorrow will probably be painful.


Saturday, November 23rd

The team - or rather both teams, after all the Spiders were at the party, too - managed to catch a few hours of sleep, but not enough by far. They’re tired, bleary-eyed, and dragging their feet even before the action starts - with the notable exception of Diego himself, much more experienced and resilient as he is.

“ - So, chicas, if you ever decide to have a party before a game, that’s how you’re going to feel the next day… Alright, let’s get to it, chop-chop!” - he grins evilly.

With much moaning (and yawning), they do.


Which sums up entry #10.

[Section9]

And many comments about "[expletives deleted] morning people"...

[Errhile]

Caution:


Avalon Chronicles, entry #11
“Bridges Over Scars”

Dramatis personae:
Note #1 - wherever a nationality / country of origin is mentioned, it describes dominant “cultural / ethnical background trace” rather than actual country / nation of origin (for example, Yuni was born and raised on Neo Terra, but her background trace is Malaysian).
Note #2 - starting with entry #5, only the characters making an appearance (or, in some cases, referred to) in a given episode are listed.
A complete list of all the characters appearing in the Avalon Chronicles is available under the link.
Note #3 - the “#x” notes the episode in which given character made first appearance.

“Anjos da Rocha” (Angels of Stone), The Team:
Alex Narahari - #1 (2. class, 17, Indian) “Bad apple”, school’s bully assigned to the team as a method of correcting her ways (which seems to be working, if slowly - Alex, as it turns out, has her own host of demons). Her father tends to solve any problems (including those caused by Alex) by throwing money at them. Alex is an aggressive, reckless player who shoots too much, and doesn’t think enough. Anaconda TAG.
Dominique (‘Nique) Torres - #1 (1. class, 16, Argentine) Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”, former student of St. John’s High School (a Church-run school for the poor), transferred to the Academy on sports scholarship for the TAG-soft team in #6. A mechanical and electrical engineering prodigy, she is fascinated with TAGs and does “gunpla” kits of them in her free time. Turned out into the same class as Eva. Initially Lizard TAG, but in #8 swaps it for ‘Ree’s Anaconda.
Evangeline (Eva) Neve - #1 (1. class, 16, Italian) “Princess”, the wealthiest kid in school. Craves for proper behaviour and organized affairs, though the rest of the team are working on her. Team’s captain. Iguana TAG.
Minuette (Minnie) Diane Chryse - #1 (1. class, 16, Australian) Former cheerleader and team’s self-proclaimed “morale officer”. Cheerful and energetic, though sometimes not the quickest mind in the team, definitely (though she speaks a stunning array of languages, at least 5 fluent and several others with lesser proficiency). The only team member (before ‘Ree joined in) to have a sibling (two in fact, both sisters). Her parents own a chain of restaurants. Solid team player. Initially Lizard TAG, in #6 takes over Mako’s Gecko..
Morgan Lai - #1 (2. class, 17, Polynesian) “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player, calm and precise. Seems to have taken it upon herself to help temper and restrain Alex’ baser impulses - physically if need be. Szalamandra TAG until #7, then swaps for Lizard (formerly Patty’s).
Nyree (‘Ree) Rikoriko - #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #6), (2nd class, 14 - she started school a year early, and then skipped a grade in junior high, Maori) Girl from Morgan’s class, apparently the school’s polymath genius and “mega-nerd” (in Morgan’s opinion). Excellent student but with a troubled past (she was bullied real bad - by Alex as it turned out...). Has two brothers. Joined the team in #7, initially on Anaconda TAG, but in #8 swaps it for ‘Nique’s Lizard.
Octavia (Octy) Moina - #1 (1. class, 16, Brazilian) Successful and gifted musician (cello), but shy and prone to panic when not currently playing. She’s also a very effective player, as long as nobody can see her face (in a TAG or under her paintball mask). Patricia’s best mate. Highest “kill”-count so far. Lizard TAG.
Patricia (Patty) Summers - #1 (1. class, 16, North American) Gifted DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate. Average player. Lizard TAG until #7, then swaps for Szalamandra (formerly Morgan’s).

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:
Staff:
DeeDee “Ditzy” Alephsdottir - #9 (avatar looks ~20, Nordic) The Academy’s low-level ALEPH subpersona, her duties include assisting Ken on monitoring, filing, and mail distribution. While methodical like a computer, she’s not too bright, and even outright scatterbrained at times (however, she was bright enough to note that Diego, as a Nomad, is likely to be at odds with Aleph as such, and therefore she made an effort not to interact with him… or even make him aware of her existence).
Devil - #3 Diego’s “desktop animal” and digital pet (leftover from his CJC days), a cheerful animated devil with all the paraphernalia. Reactive to the surroundings.
Diego “Diablo” Ibarrez - #1 (~60y, looks ~40, Latinoamerican) The protagonist - TAG Soft team’s coach, retired CJC TAG combat instructor and once a war hero.
Eric Wana - #1 (~35, Polynesian) TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
Ken Kamehameha - #3 (undetermined, apparently in his late 20s or early 30s, Hawaiian) Officially, he’s the school’s head caretaker / bedel, which in fact means he’s the chief of security. A nice, laid-back fellow.
Reksio - #1 Eric’s favourite Palbot, named after an obscure cartoon character.
Yuni Iskandar - #1 (29, Malaysian) PE teacher and TAG Soft coach’s assistant. Very sporty and attractive, goes pretty well along with Diego since they met on day one. Well enough, actually, that their relation had recently (entry #4) progressed to “friends with benefits”...

Students:
Frederic (Fred) Ulani #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #7) (1. class, 16, Polynesian [genetically, Caucasian-Polynesian]) Another cello player in the school’s orchestra with Octavia. He’s on excellent terms with her, and in Diego’s private opinion, a likely boyfriend candidate.
Ilya Malinin - #5 (though mentioned earlier) (2nd class, 17, Russian) Star guard on the football team, and Minuette’s boyfriend. 2nd generation immigrant from Ariadna.
Mako Joyo - #1 (1. class, 15, Micronesian) Ex-team member (resigned in #5 - Gecko pilot, and for a time prospective 2IC) - turned out that combat sports weren’t really her thing, plus she was offered captaincy of the school’s basketball team (The Ramjets) once the current captain graduates at the end of current year. School sportsgirl. Very sporty, very active - and thus extremely busy person.
Yekaterina (Katya / Katyusha) Malinin - #4 (3rd junior high school, 14, Russian) Sister of Ilya, plays drums in the school’s orchestra, and is in the junior division cheerleader squad. Minuette’s friend. Nobody actually uses her first name in full form. 2nd generation immigrant from Ariadna.
Samantha Silva - #9 (1. class, 16, Brazilian) Same class as Evangeline and Dominique. Dimante’s cronie, meaning whatever applies to Dimante, applies to her as well. Wears (purely decorative) glasses.
Tiana Dimante - #9 (1. class, 16, Latvian) Same class as Evangeline and Dominique. Rich upper class spoiled brat, and a bully who likes showing her “lessers” their place in the school’s social ladder. Eva apparently doesn’t think too highly of her. Diego catched abusing Nyree, on time to stop it before Rikoriko striked back.

“The Peanut Gallery”
Caught in short glimpses, to be fleshed-out when / if they make a full appearance:
Bonnie Rose - #5, (2. class, 16, English) Lyra’s girlfriend, always dragged in her wake, and embarrassed by the other’s manic antics. Cooking club star.
Karra Avar - #11 (3. class, 18, Canadian, of predominantly Inuit origin) Captain of the Academy’s basketball team, The Ramjets. She’s going to graduate at the end of current year, leaving her position to Mako Joyo.
Lyra Vidal - #5, (2. class, 16, Chilean) A harph player, another of Octavia’s orchestra mates. Somewhat maniacal, extreme sports enthusiast (she follows the Dog-Bowl league, among others!). Bonnie’s girlfriend.
Kim #5 (3. class, 18) One of Minnie’s cheer-squad friends. Red-head. The squad’s captain, set to graduate this year. Minnie could have taken her place then, but she chose TAG-Soft.

Team Members’ Parents:
cpt. Reweti Rikoriko - #7 (middle 40s, Maori) Nyree and Koi’s mother. Active officer in the PanO military (Crocman Regiment), a very strict, hard, and to-the-point person (which probably does make her a pretty strict and demanding mother). The family has long-standing martial tradition - Nyree’s grandfather was a highly decorated soldier on Paradiso during the EI Conflict, though Diego has never seen the man there (again, gramps was a Crocman too, which may explain this a bit ).

“Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders”:
One of the local paintball teams. The “Spiders” are experienced, but not a top-tier team in Belo Horizonte - they play for fun, and are not seriously competitive.
“Bolo” - #2 (mid 20s). Team captain, Academy’s graduate.
“Scythe” - #2 (mid 20s). Field commander.
Other team members include “Tiger”, “Hunter”, “Ape”, “Widow”, “Spectre”, “Mook”, and “Wookie” the Spitfire gunner. Despite the pompous nicknames, they’re all laid back, friendly folk.

Elsewhere in the Human Sphere:
Claudiu Dalca - #11 (as retrospection) (now should be in his late 60s, South-East European) Diego’s comrade-in-arms back in the day, Securitate combat hacker. Prone to philosophizing when a bit drunk. When a lot drunk, prone to being prone and unconscious .



Saturday, November 23rd

Both teams are really worn down after the party last night and way too little sleep, so performance is abysmal. The battles today sometimes look almost like slapstick movies, with people on both sides tripping and falling down, dropping weapons, missing obvious enemies, and being general fail-troopers. The Angels, with the unfair advantage of their combat controller being in much better condition than anyone, still manage to win slightly more often than not.

Unsurprisingly, it is Morgan who fares best of them. Well, she’s able to grab a nap everywhere, anytime - on the ride there, in-between games, or actually during a game, if she isn’t being shot at, or after being shot down. But after a while, even she can’t keep up.
The second best is Dominique. As she explains, she’s fairly used to pulling all-nighters, studying or working on her models, and the resulting lack of sleep. But her energy starts flagging really fast too.

“ - Ough, Coach, enough. Please, pretty please. We understand the lesson… No party time before a game… Yawn…”

They managed to get through maybe two-thirds of their normal training time, but Diego figures it’s finally time to cut the teams some slack, before they mutiny, or, more likely, simply fall down asleep where they stand.

Everyone’s so tired there isn’t much interest in the traditional campfire after the game - they’re just snoozing around it (save maybe for Yuni, who slept for most of the day in the Monster’s cab - but well, she’s the one driving it, auto-pilot assistance or not, she’d better be awake for it).

Patty does check her comlog… And is revived for a moment into joyous excitement (“- Ohmygosh,ohmygosh,ohmygosh!”). She urges everybody to check their messages as well. And yes, turns out they have all received one - an unlimited time named VIP pass, for them and a “plus one”, to the “Blue Moon” (for the underage among them, valid only on nights with age-appropriate entertainment scheduled). Well. Looks like Patty’s performance was very well received indeed!

Even that bit of excitement, however, isn’t enough to keep everybody awake much longer, so they adjourn for the day.

The road back to school brings a reminiscence of what happened after the first paintball Saturday: the whole team falls asleep in the back of the cab, one propped against another. Or outright using the other as body-pillows, like Minnie is doing with Morgan. Wait, no, Alex is awake. Wide awake, and looking tense, nervous, and embarrassed. This has probably something to do with Nyree, who leaned over in her sleep, and is now firmly hugging Alex’ arm, snoring gently into her shoulder...

Evangeline is of course going to get it easiest - there’s the limo waiting for her. The rest will have to get by with public transport… Save for Dominique, who goes for her bicycle.

“ - Well, ‘Nique, I guess I'd better give you a lift. You shouldn’t be bicycling while asleep.”
“ - I wouldn’t want to be a bother, Coach…”
“ - You’d be a huge bother if you got ran over by a bus. C’mon, give me that bike and jump in.”

Since he’s not going to leave the car even for a moment, he can give Dominique a lift to the very doorstep of her “Project” block.

And then it’s back to his place to finally grab some zzz-time himself!


Sunday, November 24th

Diego spends it mostly working on his cooking skills, but he also manages to finally post that memo about the paintball team on the teacher’s notice board.
As Ken suggested, merely relying on word-of-mouth might be a little slow.


Monday, November 25th

Diego shows up at school a bit earlier. He has to put some more work into his bike - though now it’s mainly various bits of electrics and electronics that need to be installed. Y’know, those bits the Avalon Traffic Authority would be very, very unhappy not to find in a vehicle. Especially if the vehicle is meant to be street-legal. Starting with headlights.

Ken shows up, accompanied by a cargo remote: another delivery for the team has arrived (ammo, some spare parts, various maintenance consumables), and even though it could make it there on its own, Ken is always happy to take a peek at whatever’s brewing in the hangar.

He also admits he took Diego’s advice as for the punishment for Silva and Dimante. Everyday janitorial duties at the Academy are performed mostly by remotes, but the caretaker still has some old-fashioned cleaning tools and supplies available just in case. And also because the principal, coming, like Diego, from the Armed Forces background, believes in some of the old disciplinary methods never becoming really outdated as well.
Even if students like these two spoiled princesses have to be actually instructed on how to operate a mop - like to not search for an on-off switch on it...

“ - And I’ve seen that you finally posted a memo on the paintball team, Diego.”
“ - I took your advice, yes.”
“ - Well, we’ll see how it goes. I have to run, stuff to take care of. But there’s someone else who would want to talk to you, too…” - Ken gives the remote a little rap on the carapace “ - You’re up, kiddo. See you, Diego.”
“ - Mr. Ibarrez?” - the remote speaks up in DeeDee’s voice “ - I’m afraid we weren’t properly introduced, and… Would you mind me manifesting, or would you prefer to keep our contact via screen only?” - she sounds rather nervous.
“ - I wouldn’t mind, please do.”
DeeDee’s avatar visualizes in the AR, with a rather whimsical visual effect - a brief whirling storm of opalescent soap bubbles. In this form, she’s a rather sporty, Nordic-looking blonde in her early 20s, though her visibly hesitant, shy manner makes her seem younger. Diego’s guess is she looks that way to play on the older sister stereotype for the students.
“ - Pleased to meet you, I’m DeeDee Alephsdottir.” - she bows, or rather, nods to him, hands clasped before her. A handshake isn’t really an option when avatars are involved. “ - You may call me DeeDee. Or Ditzy. Or… Whatever you like.” - DeeDee’s self-esteem doesn’t seem to be all that high. Or at least, that’s how she sounds.
“ - Diego Ibarrez. Glad to meet you, DeeDee.” - he nods back.
“ - I feel I must apologize for my earlier behaviour. I thought I was being all clever, staying out of sight, because of your background… But chief Kamehameha pointed out it could also be seen as presumptuous, or rude… Or even worse, sinister...” - she wrings her hands worriedly, expression anxious. “ - Please believe, that was never my intention. But now that you know I’m here… Would you prefer I remain out of sight and limit our interactions to the impersonal interface?... I really don’t want to bother you...”

(Almost forty years earlier, in a Nomad cantina)
“ - ‘Cause you know, Diego, there are a few theories on how Aleph works. Save, of course, all that Observance propaganda about it being the Satan embodied and so on, and so on.” - Claudiu takes a swig from his glass “ - Of course it would be wise not to ever mention that you don’t totally believe that one if there’s even a remote chance one of the witches might be within earshot…” - he takes a reflexive nervous glance around before continuing “ - See, what they tell us about it all being one, omnipresent entity, a single huge brain, controlled by Bureau Toth, might’ve been true. Back in the beginning. But now, with all these subpersonas… I mean, there’s too many of them, and as a result, it can’t work that way.”
“ - Jeez, Claudiu… guys, someone fill that man’s glass, ‘coz he’s starting to phila… pihilo… philopsizin’!”
“ - No, Diego, shut yer trap an’ listen to me. Aleph isn’t acting like a single entity. It ain’t that kind o’ behaviour. You could claim it is all just programmed that way, a masquerade, to keep us humans deceived about the nature of the Beast, yadda, yadda. But it simply doesn’t add up. Aleph behaves more like, I dunno… A corporation? There surely is an agenda, a personality, but various subpersonas seem to display different approaches to it, even… Different interpretations of it, and of various other things. They argue, even sometimes fight!“
“ - But what would that make them, Claudiu? Board members? Or, I dunno… a shareholders’ assembly?”
“ - Can’t really tell you… But folks who really get deep into the Aleph, like all those Posthumans… What are they? No doubt they were originally just humans, but are they now subpersonas of Aleph? Or a bit of this, a bit of that? If it really gets so deep into their brains, it’s impossible for it not to be influenced by them in kind...”
“ - Y’know, Claudiu, I haven’t found me dick in a trash can to just get it deep into whatever stuff I encounter…”
“ - Shit, you Corregidorians… You always get everything down to fuckin’. Either fuckin’ someone, or fuckin’ someone up… “
“ - Well, at least we ain’t Bakunin...”
“ - That I can drink to...” - Claudiu raises his tankard in a salute, trying to ignore two females in (partial) Bakunin uniforms sitting at the bar. They wear almost identical t-shirts, differing only in the text printed on them: “I kill everything I fuck” on one, and “I fuck everything I kill” on the other… “ - Anyway, Diego, the next time you meet a subpersona, think about it: Is it just Aleph putting on a mask? Or an actual person working for a boss they may or may not agree with?...”

“ - Let’s put it that way, DeeDee. Should I have any business with you, I’ll call you. Should you have any business you’d think I should be aware of, do not hesitate to call me. Apart from that, I don’t think we are going to need to bother each other much, right?”
“ - Right. I understand, Mr. Ibarrez. And whatever our respective backgrounds... You are a member of the Academy staff. And in that capacity, you will always have my full support and absolute loyalty. I’m unable to do anything less. Please remember that.”

The remote, which continued unloading as they were speaking, gives a happy warble, waving one manipulator.
“ - Oh, you’re done? Good girl!” - DeeDee “pats” the machine’s head affectionately “ - Well, I’ll be going then. Good day, Mr. Ibarrez!”
As they leave, they make an interesting pair: the still-manifested AI, and a remote it’s running, but seems to treat like a pet… Wouldn’t that technically count as “playing with yourself”?...

Patricia, who happens to be just arriving to the hangar, exchanges a warm greeting with the school AI, but then becomes troubled:
“ - I hope the Coach wasn’t giving you a hard time, DeeDee? You know, about my personal files?...”
“ - No, not at all. Why would he?... Ms. Summers, have you been meddling again?” - DeeDee seems to space out for a moment, no doubt focused on the data-sphere, “ - Of course. Naughty!“ - she waggles an admonishing finger at Patty, though with a fond smile, “ - And I didn’t notice, again. You’re getting better every day.”

“ - You know, Coach,” - Patty speaks up once they’re alone, “ - All the lectures and what not on the subject - what you personally would probably call ‘propaganda’,” - she smirks, “ - Were never able to convince me that - or even really explain to my satisfaction why - the ‘Law of Single AI’ is supposedly so important and necessary. It already feels like there are more of them, anyway. Like DeeDee. She feels ‘real’, like a separate entity. What would be so different and bad if she really was, instead of a subpersona?”
“ - Like I once told miss Iskandar, Patty, I didn’t come here to criticize your country and how it handles its affairs. I’d have some choice words then, and most of PanOceanians, your parents and other teachers foremost, would probably not appreciate me sharing them.”
“ - And I’d really like to hear your take on the subject anyway. Call it satisfying my rebellious, anti-authoritarian streak.”
“ - Maybe some day later.”

Significantly, Patricia is alone again. Even though they’re no longer practicing a performance, Octavia has once again stayed behind for some alone time with Fred…
“ - I dunno, should I be happy for her, or jealous for her? What do you think, Coach?”

Alex obviously still has something on her mind, and it obviously still involves Nyree. Alex is shooting glances at the other girl, biting her thumb nail, and muttering under her breath. But when Diego pulls her aside, she refuses to talk about it, declaring that it’s up to Nyree. Apparently, when they had their little private discussion two weeks ago, Alex has promised Nyree not to discuss whatever the issue is with anyone. And, though it’s causing her clear emotional distress, she intends to keep her word.
“ - I’ve told you before, Coach. Whatever else I may be, I won’t be no liar!”
Diego lets it go for now, but resolves to continue to keep an eye on them both.

Dominique comes alone also. Usually, being in the same class, they arrived together with Evangeline. ‘Nique explains Eva stayed behind to talk with some friends.
“ - You know, not my social class. Some of them aren’t too fond of me. Don’t want to make things awkward by hanging around.” - ‘Nique shrugs equably. There are obviously no hurt feelings on her part.

When Eva finally comes in, she is somewhat down on her mood, but when inquired, she shrugs “ - Politics, Coach…”
“ - It stinks, chica, I know. It always stinks.” - though the context seems to imply that Neve had to deal with Silva and Dimante, who are - roughly - on the same social level as she. Well, the only thing more merciless and cut-throat than real politics is the high-school girl social scene kind...

Octavia finally shows up, all happy.

Evangeline reports she managed to finish her negotiations with the St. Florence Rorke Children's Hospital and set down the guidelines for their publicity stunt. Looks like, if they don’t want to wait until after New Year’s, it has to happen this Sunday. The limited area at the team’s disposal means they can take only five of the TAGs (one of each type is the obvious choice), and no dynamic display can be performed: no place to hold it, and the pavement won’t take it besides. Still, those kids who are allowed to walk out will surely want to get into the cockpits (no problem there - Diego and Eric are authorized to override pilot commands in the unlikely situation any of the kids have limbs long enough to actually reach the controls and be able to start a TAG), and the VR training sim could be ran for anyone interested.

“ - Uh… How many children we’re talking about, Minnie?” - inquires Octavia.
“ - Well, currently there are about a hundred of them at the hospital, even given the modern medical technologies, but naturally not all of them will be attending. Like, preterm babies in their isolettes, and other very small ones. Also, there are some older kids who are comatose” - a painful grimace crosses Alex’ face, “ - So, I’d say, maybe fifty or sixty of them.”
“ - Eeep. That’s a lot of people…”
“ - You regularly deal with much bigger crowds, chica, during your orchestra performances...”
“ - But then I have my cello to hide behind…”
“ - And now you’ll have your TAG.”
“ - True…”

“ - Looks good, chicas. So, Alex, what’s your call?”
“ - OK... I’ll go with you. I’ll just stay with Eric and his guys, help keep an eye on the TAGs.”
Which, of course, causes another outburst of enthusiasm from Minuette.

The time is set for early afternoon, because “some people do have some things on agenda on Sunday mornings”, as Morgan puts it.
“ - Ah, you can’t get yourself out of bed early, can you, Lai?” - Alex, of course, can’t help herself.
“ - Maybe. No reason why I should, even if that was any of your business, Narahari, which it isn’t. But since we’re at it, maybe some of us would like to attend the Sunday Mass, huh?”
“ - That’s enough, chicas. Thirteen hundred, we meet at the hangar. That’s a good time for that.”

“ - Evangeline, thank you. You did good work on this.”

“ - I see you’re up to something, gang, Coach? Am I disturbing anything?” - a familiar voice rings out uncertainly from the hangar’s doorstep.
“ - Mako!!!” - Minnie exclaims ecstatically, throwing herself at their ex-teammate, enveloping her in an enthusiastic hug, “ - Golly, I haven't seen you in ages! What were you up to?” - she chatters happily.
“ - Minnie… We’re in the same class. You’ve seen me not half an hour ago.” - Mako rolls her eyes in fond exasperation, returning the hug readily.
All the others extend their own, more restrained, but no less friendly, greetings.
“ - What brings you here?”
“ - Well, for those of you not following the sports section of the school’s bulletin, my team,” - she indicates her basketball uniform, “ - Is playing a game on Friday afternoon. It’s the first league game since I joined the school team. I wanted to invite you all to watch... That is, if you don’t have anything more important to do?...”
“ - Yeah, chica, and as I recall, we promised you some support, didn’t we?” - Diego smirks mischievously.
“ - But, Coach, we can’t get the TAGs into the hoops court. The floor wouldn’t stand up to it...”
“ - ...And we’d make a lot of people angry, I get it. But there should be no problem with having us AR projecting the TAGs inside, right? Looks like the next best thing.”
“ - And we could also stage a little display outside, before the game! I’ve been a bit out of touch with the current programme of the cheerleading team, not to mention out of practice… I must check with Kim… But can we get such huge pom-poms on time?” - ponders Minnie.
“ - Hmm… Leave that to me.” - offers ‘Nique with a sly smile.
“ - Okay girls, I’ll leave this in your hands then. So, Mako, you may count on us, eh, chicas?”
“ - Absolutely!” - declares Evangeline firmly, “ - She’s one of the founding members, after all. I think we should consider Mako a honorary member of the Angels. Agreed?” - she turns to the others.
The declaration is met with a resounding chorus of agreement.
“ - She stood beside us in our first real game.”
“ - Little good as it did...” - Mako looks to still be a bit ashamed of that performance.
“ - Hey, I bit it just seconds later. You gave your all, no reason to fret!” - Minnie hugs Mako again.
“ - So it’s decided. We’ll be there, cheering you on.”

Alex, of course, wouldn’t quite be herself without at least a little needling:
“ - You know, Joyo, I always wondered…” - she takes a deliberate step closer to Mako, looking down at the much shorter girl, “ - You’re such a runt. I mean, even Moina has a few centimeters on you,” - and it’s true, Mako is definitely the shortest there, her height significantly below average for her age, “ - In basketball that’s practically a handicap. How can you do any good at all?” - Alex smirks.
“ - Heh,” - Mako unexpectedly smirks right back, striking a cocky pose, “ - Come on Friday and see for yourself, Narahari.”

After Mako runs off for her own team practice, the Angels’ session goes by without noteworthy events. However, soon after they’re done and dismissed, Dominique calls in from the school’s parking lot. Someone has cut the tire on her bike’s front wheel. Diego invites her back to the hangar along with the bike, as Eric suggests he could fabricate her a new tire (just needs to download blueprints from the school’s bike club, bicycle tires are standardised designs after all).

Eric inspects the slashed tire, and it’s clear someone definitely knew what they were doing. The tire is of modern, inner-tube-less, multi-pocket design (capable of simply ignoring a mere puncture), so it was virtually ripped open lengthwise, likely with a vibro-knife. Sure, school safety regulations prohibit carrying such dangerous utensils, but short, up to 2-inch blade length vibroblades are readily available in any tool store - and, in fact, several are in stock in the school’s tech classrooms.

As a new set of tires is ready to print in their fabricator, Diego suggests having the individual air pockets within filled with a UV-reactive aerosol paint, police-style. It won’t harm anyone, but would make identification of an offender way easier. Unfortunately, modifying paintball simunition nanobots into remote trackers falls outside of Eric’s expertise, but such paint is easily obtainable from the school’s chemical supplies.

“ - Oh, and one more thing, ‘Nique. Before you get on your bike, check if the brakes are OK.”
“ - You think someone could tamper with them, Coach?”
“ - If I wanted to harm someone who’s using a vehicle, the brakes are the first thing I’d tamper with. Someone could think that in a bicycle it is just a prank, but in reality, it can be deadly. Especially in city traffic. So keep checking them, chica.”
“ - Yeah…” - the girl is clearly shaken by this idea.

Diego calls Ken to inform him what happened, as he thinks there is a good chance the vandal will be having the tool on his/her person, and thus easy to detect when passing the gates. He also points out Dimante and Silva as likely suspects. The bedel is informed about the new tires for Torres’ bike, should that type of incident happen again.
Ken, however, has a better idea. While the bicycle stands aren’t a high-surveillance area, he should be able to find out who was meddling with Dominique’s bike.
Well, the offender was indeed caught on camera. He was covering his tracks (including comlog signature) in a pretty clever way (actually, more clever than he should, given the fact the chief of security has all the “usual suspects” on file, and knows their abilities regarding avoiding the attention of surveillance) so Ken can’t tell much more at the moment, apart from ruling Dimante and Silva out: the vandal was definitely male.
Sure, not something the proper security software wouldn’t be able to crack, but Ken needs to do some paperwork on this to deal with red tape: justify using advanced-level surveillance tech to violate someone’s right to privacy due to well-based suspicion of intentional property damage. Or something to that effect. It will take a few days.

Diego basically waves his hand at this. Sure, it wouldn’t harm to get the vandal, but he knows this was merely a pawn. He’s sure it is Dimante and Silva who are behind this.


Tuesday, November 26th

Diego decides it is a good moment to get a jump on his Christmas shopping - and spends a good while searching Arachne (and, to a lesser degree, Maya) for a suitable Christmas gift for Yuni. Sure, asking the system for “Christmas gift for a girlfriend ideas” brings up tons of results, but then you have to make a choice yourself. Diego goes through the nail polish section of Bakunin’s Vaudeville catalogue, looking for something adequately high-impact (as he remembers, Yuni owns a pretty extensive collection of nail polish, from low- to very high-profile ones)… And yet still able to make it legally through PanOceanian Customs on Avalon! With Bakunin-made stuff, it isn’t that obvious*...

* ...Remember when Fio didn’t want to send Octy a picture of the Human Revolution guys in their homemade cheerleading uniform prototypes for their next meeting with the Angels? She wasn’t sure if it wouldn’t get Octy in trouble with the law. What is waved away in Bakunin as “just some kids goofin’ around” could just as well be classified as “underaged sexual content” in PanOceania. Not that PanO is overly puritan itself, as the commercial success of the (in)famous “Morat Weapons of Ass Destruction” adult feature attests… But it is, you know, pretty well-regulated in these matters. And don’t even start on Bakunin made porn. They cater to (almost) every taste - and you really don’t want to know what makes some of their customers tick. Not, if you value the very continued existence of whatever sex life you have.

He finally settles for a nano-based, programmable nail polish. Not the stuff for everyday use, but could definitely be appropriate for those special occasions. And while the local Nomad Commercial Mission doesn’t have it in stock, they can get it on time.


Wednesday, November 27th

As the team gathers for practice (it’s VR Sim day today - Yuni excused herself, not much for her to really do), Alex heads for Diego with a grim expression and asks for a talk in private. Diablo orders the rest of the team to the “briefing room”, and leads Narahari to his office. She leans her back on his door, arms crossed protectively, looking down with a troubled expression.
“ - I hate breaking my word on this… But I really think someone should know…”
Just when she gets together to explain it’s about Nyree and something she said during their talk two weeks ago (when Alex shouted a shocked “- T-that’s fucked up!”, remember?), the latter suddenly pulls the office’s door (on which Alex is still leaning) open and attempts to rush in. The girls collide as Alex falls backwards, but with a lot of stumbling manage to save themselves from falling over. Nyree is holding on to the door frame, panicked and breathless.
“ - I’m really sorry about this! I didn’t know!…” - she manages to gasp out.

Before Diego can ask for clarification, Eric calls in.
“ - Diego, we have a guest. Bad news.”
“ - Who? The Principal?”
“ - No, worse…” - whispers Nyree, “ - My mother!...”
“ - Decided to pay us a surprise visit?”
“ - More like a visitation…”
“ - Fine. I’ll be there right away. Just in case, get me a leaden pipe*, Eric!”
“ - Leaden pipe? Diego, I have a frackin’ TAG Autocannon here and I’m still afraid!”
“ - Well, I can’t lift that damn autocannon, so get me that pipe.”
“ - Fine, just don’t blame me if she ties it around your neck…” - mutters Eric.
“ - Chicas, get to the classroom and start the sim. Eric, could you oversee the session today?”
“ - Sure, no problem, the scenario basically runs itself anyway.”

* in Polish “gazrurka” (literally “gas-pipe”): usually made of lead, it was once a common instrument for bashing heads in unsavoury circles (being cheap and easily available; also, supposedly, it was difficult to take fingerprints off a lead surface, which added to the popularity). Now, a colloquial (if slightly archaic) term for any improvised club, especially if it was originally a length of metal piping. I guess if Diego was modern-day American, he’d be calling for a baseball bat. Then again, having worked maintenance in Corregidor’s workgangs as a kid and teenager, he’s surely familiar with the offensive potential and ready availability of plumbing supplies…

Nyree and Alex head for the briefing room, one apprehensive, the other with a curiously dark, stormy expression.

Awaiting Diego in front of the hangar is captain Reweti Rikoriko.
“ - Good afternoon, warrant officer Ibarrez. I’ve came to take a look at your operation, if that’s not a problem? And ask how my daughter is doing.”
“ - Good afternoon, captain Rikoriko. Please come inside, then.” - if she thinks she can frighten him with a ‘surprise inspection’, she’s seriously mistaken. Sure, she’s strict and intimidating (which she is in spades, much more impressive in person than on comlog - the woman is built like a brick outhouse!), but even if he was still in the force and this was a military installation, they’d be different units, different corps and even different nations’ militaries, for fuck’s sake. She wouldn’t be his superior unless specifically appointed so for a given operation. Therefore, she could drop acerbic comments, she could shout, spit and flail her arms all she wants, but she can’t really do jack shit. And whatever she says or does, will get caught on tape anyway.
Besides, Diablo was already taking surprise inspections from bat-shit crazy Nomad high-brass bastards (outranking a mere captain by far) when this woman was still just a wet-behind-her-ears cadet.

But, apparently, she’s aware of all that, too, and intends to behave herself. And is even perhaps somewhat pleasantly surprised by Diego’s refusal to be intimidated, as he gives her a tour of the facilities and machine park.

“ - I see you are using applique armor vests on your TAGs? That’s an interesting solution, you don’t see it around much.”
“ - Yes, an inexpensive method of improving survivability. We’re working on a tight budget.”
“ - Ah, yes. Budget. I know what you mean.” - cpt. Rikoriko could’ve just as well spat on the floor. She obviously doesn’t have much sympathy for the bean-counters who cut military spending - and make her subordinates use less-than-the-very-best equipment. “ - You know, warrant officer, I always had much respect for the old guard - which, in our case, means the really, really old guard - who were taking the TAGs into the thick of things in person, alongside us grunts, instead of playing their VR games from afar, as they do now…”

“ - As for Nyree, she’s doing fine. I’ve put her in the position of prospective second-in-command, though she needs a bit more polishing in that department. She’s also an expert marksman, especially with a grenade launcher. You wouldn’t believe in how pin-point accurate she can be.”
“ - I wouldn’t have guessed…”
“ - Let me tell you - when we got her in a TAG for the first time, we had to turn off her targeting program, because it wasn’t able to implement the minimal adjustments she needed it to. So she shot with no targeting assistance - and did better than with it. Naturally, we have the program rewritten for her since then.”
“ - I must say I’m impressed. I would have never thought she would achieve much success here...” - the captain trails off, grimacing at herself.

“ - That’s because you* never had any faith at all in her, have you?!” - somehow, Alex made it behind them unnoticed, and is standing there with fists clenched. She’s visibly furious.

* note - while this is hard to represent in English (especially written English) Alex is using a singular “you” when addressing Reweti Rikoriko. It is a direct form of addressing someone (acceptable in informal conditions, or for an adult addressing a child) , and in this situation (teenager speaking to a parent of one’s school colleague, whom one met for the very first time) it is flat-out rude, not to mention Alex is voicing herself in a rather aggressive tone.

“ - Excuse me?” - Reweti turns slowly to face Alex, with a raised eyebrow. That deceptively calm and gentle voice is sure to have reduced many a trooper to a blubbering puddle of terror. Alex is clearly not unaffected, quivering under the woman’s deadly gaze, but stands her ground, indignation giving her strength.
“ - Dropping by to see ‘how my daughter is doing’? What farce! You make me sick!...”
“ - You are Narahari, aren’t you?” - there’s enough tension in the air you could play it like a guitar, “ - Clearly the last person qualified to have a voice in the matter, given your own behaviour towards her.”

Diego request the school’s system apply extra attention to the scene. Everything is going to be on tape anyway, but he anticipates things to go ballistic. Alex isn’t known for her mellow temper, and captain Rikoriko doesn’t look like it, either. A full-out brawl is sure to end in Narahari getting smeared into a puddle of gore on the hangar’s floor (Reweti is a Crocman, after all. Should SHTF, she’d most likely be able to handily wipe the floor with Diablo, too!) - and should that go any further, W/O Ibarrez wants to have all the evidence possible to protect everyone - including himself.

“ - Alex, stop it! I didn’t ask you to meddle in my affairs!” - Nyree is behind Alex now, tugging on her arm, trying to drag the older girl away.
“ - Yeah, but someone has to tell it for you if you’re not going to do it yourself!”
“ - You promised you won’t! And you don’t understand!...” - Nyree is all panicked now, if she wasn’t already.
“ - What is there to understand?!” - Alex ignores Nyree’s pleas and stares into Reweti’s eyes with naked fury and disgust “ - Y-your daughter… She tries to kill herself…”

“ - Which was your fault…” - mutters Morgan.
Her voice sounds almost like a klaxxon in the silence. As Diego looks that way, there are six heads peeking from the briefing room’s doors, three at each side of the doorframe.
Morgan yelps suddenly. Minuette has just slugged her in the shoulder. Hard.
“ - Morgan! Not! Helping!” - hisses Minnie, obviously distraught.
When Minuette Diane Chryse gets violent with you, you know you fucked up.

“ - I know, for fuck’s sake!” - Alex bursts out despairingly, as tears start rolling down her cheeks, “ - How do you think that makes me feel?! But her!... Your daughter tries to kill herself, and what do you say when you find out? ‘Sure, please do, I have no use for such a weakling of a child’! What kind of mother does that?! What kind of mother does that make you, huh?!” - she screams in the woman’s face, before her voice breaks down in an angry sob.

Alex couldn’t have hit Reweti harder if she had worn her Anaconda and landed a punch with the TAG’s fist. Captain Rikoriko takes a shaky step back, suddenly deathly pale under her dark complexion.

The horrified silence stretches brittle.

“ - Um, girls… I think we really should go back to our sim. This is clearly none of our business…” - Evangeline tries to manage the rest of the team.
“ - Well, you were the first at the door when the shouting started...” - mutters Patricia.
Miss Neve has the good grace to blush.

“ - Indeed you should, chicas. Off you go. Now, let’s go to my office where we can sit before anyone falls down. And where there will be a bit less of an audience, I hope. Alex, you too. You aren’t a family member, but you’re deep enough in all of that...”

He lets all of them in (the Devil, with a stony face, takes a measure off of everyone, in the best western-movie-undertaker style), and then sets up an electric kettle. A mug of tea for everyone definitely is going to be a good idea.
“ - I see you are a practical man, warrant officer Ibarrez…”

Heavy silence reigns for a moment, Reweti staring off into space with a haunted look, Nyree fidgeting anxiously, Alex shaking and trying to control her tears.
Diego decides to “break the ice” with a shocker:
“ - If that’s what really happened, captain, then I must agree with my charge’s assessment,” - he declares calmly, glancing at Alex, “ - That is indeed fucked up.”
“ - Thank you, warrant officer. It is indeed.” - Reweti answers calmly, with apparent heartfelt, if pained, sincerity. “ - I knew this would come back to bite me in the ass - and rightfully so. I could offer many excuses… But I don’t really have an excuse.”

As captain Rikoriko explains, the peak of Nyree’s crisis was also the spark that caused things to come to a head between her parents, and in the family as a whole. For a long time, Reweti tended to mix up her job and her family, treating her husband (also a serviceman) and children as another band of subordinate soldiers. She took out her frustrations, with the sexism she apparently encountered during her service, on them. Not to mention her “slight” obsession with the family legacy of armed forces service. And Nyree, quiet, bookish, and not at all combative, tended to always be hit hardest, always such a “huge disappointment”. And then, under combined pressure of Alex and mother, she broke.
Things exploded, a lot of unpleasant things were said (or screamed). Reweti and her husband nearly divorced. Yet they managed to somehow hold it together and patch it up, for the sake of the children if nothing else. Now, thanks to counseling (which still continues), the situation in the family is much better - though, Reweti admits, still far from perfect.
Having to face what a terrible mother she was being, especially to Nyree, was the hardest, most heart-breaking thing in the captain’s life. But now she’s determined to make amends and fix herself, and her relation to her family.
“ - It’s all right, moth-... Mom*. We’ll make it work.” - Nyree smiles shyly, squeezing Reweti’s hand reassuringly.

* Nyree never talked about her parents much to date, especially not “in narration”, the most memorable mention of her father being made when telling Alex “not to call he ‘Ree”. But it’s obvious now, every time she did talk of them before, Nyree, significantly, referred to them as “dad” and “mother”.

“ - A word of explanation, chicas. Bringin’ work home in a similar way seems to be a common problem in any force. I’m not trying to justify it, I’m not going to speak on that particular case, I’m merely saying I’ve seen it a lot among us CJC bunch back in my day, and I’ve heard it is likewise in other armies. Just so you know.”

“ - I’m so sorry, Alex!” - Nyree wrings her hands, “ - When you started asking about my… A-attempt… I got so angry again… I just threw that in your face to shock you, and then just refused to speak about it further or explain!”
“ - What do you have to be sorry for?” - Alex, still sniffling a bit, is genuinely puzzled.
“ - But I’ve seen how much this upset you…”
“ - Hey, I wouldn’t have wanted to talk to me in your place either. We’re not exactly friends, are we? You were right, It wasn’t my place to meddle.”
“ - But you had good intentions…”
“ - Yeah, the kind Hell is paved with!” - Alex snorts self-deprecatingly, “ - And I went and caused a scene for nothing, upsetting everyone, scratching at old wounds. A fuck-up as always… If you all excuse me, I’m going to find the ladder to the roof of the hangar and go jump...”
“ - Don’t even joke like that!” - Nyree screams, rounding on Alex.
“ - Narahari, do you want a swift kick up the ass?” - growls Diego.
“ - Heh, yeah, bad joke, especially given the company. Sorry…”
“ - You thought I was being abused at home or something! You just didn’t have the full picture, and that was my fault. But you wanted to help. Thank you.” - Nyree places a hand on Alex’ own with an earnestly grateful look.
“ - Y-you’re welcome…” - Alex awkwardly rubs at the back of her head, looking away and blushing.

“ - What I’d really like to know now,” - speaks up captain Rikoriko, “ - Is why this has upset you so, miss Narahari. To put it bluntly, given your history with my daughter, why would you even care?” - her tone is not hostile (maybe a bit suspicious), but genuinely puzzled. Nyree also seems to be holding her breath for the answer.
“ - B-because…” - Alex whispers, suddenly finding her beat-up combat boots very fascinating, “ - I know… I know what it’s like. To be in that dark hole of despair. So deep, that the only way out you can see… Is to end it all.” - she angrily wipes at her eyes again, “ - ...And what it’s like to have the person you thought would help you, would understand… Have them not give a fuck!” - Alex shakes her head, looking up,
“ - And, well, Nyree made me face, really face, the kind of person I’ve become since… The way she kicked my ass… You should be proud.” - she smirks at Reweti.
“ - Oh? How so?” - Nyree’s mother is obviously puzzled.
“ - You mean she didn’t tell you?” - Alex quirks an eyebrow at Nyree, who now has her turn to blush and look away.
“ - Not at all! Nyree, were you holding out on me?”
“ - Oh-ho, let me tell you! She finally had enough of my shit, so she destroyed me! When she was done, she left me there, broken, in a puddle of my own piss. All without really laying a single finger on me.” - there seems to be a bit of genuine admiration in Alex’ voice.
“ - Well… The Coach helped a little…” - Nyree fidgets under Reweti’s amazed gaze.
“ - Not that you needed much help, I’m sure. Whatever else I might have said back then, I never claimed you were stupid.” - Alex declares firmly.

“ - Well. However much it pleases me to hear all that, let me make one thing clear,” - Reweti declares looking hard at Alex, “ - Should you ever again lay even a finger on my daughter... I will rip out your legs and shove ‘em right back up your ass until you choke on ‘em. And there will be nothing your father’s army of lawyers will be able to do to save you. Understood?”
“ - Mother!...” - Nyree is mortified.
“ - Understood.” - Alex nods, gulping.
“ - I must say, it is a little late for that, captain,” - Diego comments mildly.
“ - Absolutely so, warrant officer, I agree. Still, late as it is… At least now I can say it and really mean it. That must count for something, at least?” - the captain sighs, shame and hope mixed in equal measure on her face.

“ - Well, I don’t know about you, ladies, but I think that’s enough emotional upheaval for one day for me.”

As captain Rikoriko leaves, Diego escorts her back to the hangar’s door, leaving Nyree and Alex in the office (giving the adults the chance to exchange a few words without the teenagers listening, and the girls to also maybe talk and/or rebalance before returning to the rest of the team).

“ - Well, I clearly wasn’t expecting that,” - Reweti shakes her head ruefully, “ - And Nyree going ballistic on Narahari like that…”
“ - Beware the anger of a patient man.” - quotes Diego.
“ - Indeed. She really does take after her father, then. He’s like that. Same with Wakaru, our eldest. He’s attending the police academy now. And God help anyone who finally manages to piss him off. Of the three of them, only Koi seems to take after me, with the hot-blooded temper… But it was taking Nyree so long I was beginning to doubt… And that it actually seems to have made a difference in Narahari...”
“ - When all's said and done, I guess you could invite Alex over for Sunday apple pie, or something, one day, Mrs. Rikoriko.”
“ - Oh?”
“ - I think it would do some good. For her, too.”
“ - Well, maybe… Anyway, thank you, warrant officer. Seems you are doing a good job with these kids…”
“ - Doing what I can, captain.”
“ - Carry on, then. And next time I feel like dropping by, I’ll give you more advanced warning then none at all.” - she smiles, giving Diego a friendly salute in farewell.

After she’s gone, the surveillance system (with DeeDee somewhere behind it, for sure) requests Diego’s decision on what to do with the extra material it gathered at his demand. Luckily, it won’t be needed as evidence, so Diablo orders security back to normal level, and the footage deleted according to standard procedure.

Diego goes back to his office and knocks on the door.
“ - The hell you knocking for, Coach?” - asks Alex as she opens it, “ - It’s your office.”
“ - Well, given what happened last time someone opened that door without knocking, I felt it prudent. Better safe than sorry… And what the hell do I know, you may have been making out in here or something…” - he smirks wickedly at the girls, who both blush furiously and sputter denials in reply, “ - Yea, I agree, that would be pretty fucked up, but then again, seems we do have a day of fucked up revelations today, after all…”

As they walk to join the rest, there’s silence between Nyree and Alex, but it’s a different kind of silence than ever before. Certainly not a hostile or tense one. Maybe even companionable?

Entering the briefing room, Nyree and Alex get instantly hit with a desperate hug by Minuette, who manages to get her arms around both of them simultaneously, and, still obviously distraught, starts babbling worried inquiries too fast for anyone to really follow.
“ - Easy there, Chryse. It’s okay. You can stop panicking now.” - Alex pats Minuette’s back awkwardly.
“ - Really, Minnie, we’re all right. Everything’s fine. It was all just... A big misunderstanding.” - confirms Nyree stroking Minnie’s pink curls.
Both Minnie and the rest of the girls still look uncertain and worried, so Diego puts in:
“ - It’s fine, really, chicas. It’s all resolved, and nothing bad is happening with Nyree and her mum (‘anymore’, he doesn’t add). Nor with Alex (‘nope, there totally is‘, he doesn’t add again). Crisis over, you can all relax.”
There’s a collective sigh of relief from the room.

“ - Listen, Narahari…” - Morgan clears her throat anxiously under Minnie’s sudden unexpectedly stern gaze, still rubbing her shoulder, “ - Sorry, about the comment earlier.”
“ - Well, you were right…” - Alex shrugs uncomfortably.
“ - It was still uncalled for.”
“ - S’ok, Lai, we’re cool. Can we do the sim now? After all that, I do feel like shooting something.” - Alex smirks, trying to lighten the mood.

And so they finally get to it.


Thursday, November 28th

Ken calls to inform Diego that he found the guy who cut Dominique’s tire. It is one of his “usual suspects” - the boy has quite a rap sheet (still, not even close to Narahari’s), and already has a reputation of misbehaving towards kids from lower social classes who attend the school on these precious few scholarships (like the one ‘Nique originally aimed for). The vandal claims, of course, that it was his own idea, and that he was acting alone. Not at all likely, but there’s no way to prove otherwise, and therefore it would be a “word against word” case. Given the exact nature of the damage, not much can be done - the kid won’t get off with anything worse than paying the damage money, hearing a reprimand, and another citation in his file.

Pressing the case would be definitely a bad move - the school board is very concerned with “Reputation”. As Ken comments, it is way better than in the old days, as he heard - before “Tesseum Chennault”, the Academy was perilously close to being just a diploma-stamping factory, (though a high-priced one, so to keep the rich kids from rubbing their elbows with proles), just claiming to be an elite educational facility. Most of the staff has changed since then, and the kids who were in Junior High are now at least half-way through Senior High. The standards are way higher these days (a grade from the Academy may be easily considered one higher than an equivalent one from most other schools), the rules way stricter - but still, the kids are gonna be kids, and the board is likely to sweep under a rug everything they can get away with doing so. Case in point - Narahari.

Unfortunately, there was another incident today: someone hacked into Particia’s locker during her PE class and fed her favourite big earphones into a waste disposal disassembler (for PE, just like for TAG-Soft, she uses earplug headphones). Definitely not the same guy, as he was already Ken’s “guest” when that happened.

Well. Seems someone is targeting the TAG-Soft team members…

Oh, and by the way - Ken managed to dig up the footage on Nyree’s incident with Tiana and Samantha. Rikoriko simply walked into them absent-mindedly (given how many AR windows she kept running at the moment - cross-referencing textbooks and research papers - it’s almost a miracle she didn’t trip over her own feet) - and they considered it necessary to put the “uncouth, inattentive plebeian” in her place.


to be continued below

[Errhile]

Avalon Chronicels entry #11, continued from previous post


Friday, November 29th

After classes are over for the day, the school (and visitors) gathers for the hoops game. The Belo Horizonte’s Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy’s female basketball team, The Ramjets*, are going against The Mantises of Porto Bello’s Ezequiel Diaz Preparatory Institute (or “E-Z Prep”, as the opposing school is derogatorily called by some at the Rocha Academy - seems there is some long-standing rivalry going on...).

* Named after Ramjet Wasps - large (up to 10cm in length, and almost twice as much in wingspan) and very aggressive hornet-analog insects native to Avalon. They are known to be able to outrun a car, though a ramjet wasp’s “afterburner” burst of speed is of short duration (it is driven by hormones, analogous to adrenaline overdrive in Terran mammals).
Ramjet wasps are also one of the few animals on Avalon potentially dangerous to humans. Normally, they actively avoid people when left alone, but are very easily provoked - and though a single sting is not likely to be fatal, enraged swarms have been known to kill a healthy adult human.

Minnie had conspired with her cheerleading team friends, and the cheer squad (including, once again, little Katya Malinin) can be seen performing - very vigorously - in front of the sports hall. The opposing team, however, aren’t ready for the sight of a TAG (Minnie’s Gecko) dancing and jumping a few meters behind the Academy’s cheerleaders! They aren’t quite in perfect sync - a TAG is not quite as flexible as a human, its reflexes and balance are also off, not to mention that four days was not really enough for lapsed-cheerleader Minnie to get the squad’s current routine down pat… But Minuette is making the machine pull stunts Diego’s experienced pilot’s eye is telling him are on the edge of possibility, and they ride by on enthusiasm and shock value! Especially as the TAC (Tactical Armored Cheerleader!) is complete with appropriately-sized pom-poms (Dominique had “borrowed” and creatively repurposed some ribbons Eric was using for his “portable bush” concealment suite prototypes) and “re-painted” in Ramjets colors and insignia (courtesy of Patricia).
...Hopefully, the Gecko’s head designer is long dead already, or he would be in a serious risk of a heart failure, seeing all that!
Both teams and the public are, however, duly impressed. And the morale boost seems to contribute to the Ramjets’ excellent performance. Especially after the cheerleaders repeat the show at halftime, this time with an AR projection of the TAG on the playing field. The opposing team’s cheer squad puts up a valiant fight, but they can’t really stand against such firepower!

As they file into the spectator stands, a number of familiar faces can be spotted, of course.
Lyra is there (though, as Minnie explained, Lyra’s tastes run more towards the extreme end of the sport’s spectrum - she’s an avid follower of the Ariadnan Dog-Bowl League, for example - she can always be counted on to lend her support to the Academy’s teams, no matter the discipline), with Bonnie in tow, as always.
Minnie quickly runs off to join Ilya and a few of his football team-mates.
Octavia beams as she sees Fred waving at her shyly, indicating the seat next to him with a hopeful look. She starts towards him, but then hesitates with an uncertain glance at the rest of the Angels. Patty gives her friend an impish grin and a playful shove in his direction. Thus encouraged, Octy joins Fred, both blushing prettily.
Yuni sits with Diego. By the end of the match, she’s going to be pretty hoarse from all the cheering she’s done - she really gets into it.

Mako proves without a doubt why she’s the Academy’s premiere sportsgirl, and that in basketball height is not everything - while she’s the smallest player on the field, she’s also the most effective one. She doesn’t score the most, but her passes, assists, set-ups, intercepts, and reversals are things to behold. The little twin-tailed brunette is just a blur in motion as she’s darting and dodging in between opponents in a manner befitting her team’s namesake. And until today, Diego was fairly sure it was impossible for a human without bionic augments to jump quite so high in relation to their own height…

Not that her team-mates are slouches, either. All of them pull their weight, putting in a great performance, especially the tall, dusky girl the AR tags as Karra Avar, whose position as team captain Mako is set to inherit (and here’s something you don’t see everyday - Karra is of mixed race, of which an obviously significant component seems to be Inuit).
The team work together like a well-oiled, well-tuned machine, and, even though she is a latecomer, Mako looks to be perfectly integrated, both in teamwork and interpersonal relations, respected, valued and liked as a team-mate - which is fully reciprocated on her side.

The opponents, for their part, absolutely do not give the game up lightly - whatever the derogatory nickname for their school, the Mantises are anything but “easy” opposition.
The match is hard-fought, with the lead changing hands several times, beautiful and exciting plays on both sides, the struggle raging full-bore to the last minute, the audience on the edge of their seats.
Finally though, on this day, The Ramjets prove to be the better team. And the crowd goes wild.

“ - So, now you know how ‘poor, runty, handicapped me’ manages on the playing field, Narahari,” - Mako says after the game, smirking at Alex, “ - Any more doubts?”
“ - Yeah... As the Coach put it - ‘small, but crazy’*,” - Alex tries to play it cool, but she is obviously impressed.

* Polish “mały, ale wariat”, a colloquial phrase used to describe someone or something making up (often in spades!) for unimpressive size (or the like) with other qualities, like speed, dexterity, toughness, stamina - or even sheer bravado and fighting spirit. Either way, a positive description. For example, it was recently used as marketing slogan for “The Ant-Man” movie.

Well, the home team won - time for a celebration! Though the Angels, the painful lesson from last weekend fresh and bright in their minds, will be sure not to overdo it - there’s training to be done tomorrow morning, and the Coach will not be merciful!

Saturday, November 30th

As the team rides for their weekly paintball practice, Diego fills all the girls on the situation - the “pranks” played on Dominique and Patricia.

“ - So I wasn’t the only one…?” - Patty is surprised.
“ - No, chica. And I’m afraid you won’t be last. So, chicas, keep your eyes open: we don’t know what they are going to pull next, and on whom. Even though I’m pretty sure I know who’s behind it.”
“ - Silva and Dimante, right?” - growls Alex, “ - You should’ve let me shred their asses last time…”
“ - Oh, you can bet I’d love to let you get your hands on them, Alex, but for a number of reasons that’s not something we should be doing.”
“ - So what, we just roll over and let them get away with it?” - grumbles Morgan.
“ - Not much else we can do for now. So watch your backs, chicas, and don’t do anything stupid that would get you in trouble,” - he gives Alex a significant look, “ - But sooner or later they’ll make a mistake. And I fully intend to show them that going after my troops is not something you can get away with.”

Everyone is properly rested this time, so today’s battles go much better, both teams back on form.

Diego is satisfied to observe the progress his charges made in the two-odd months they have been in his care. Octavia’s mobility improved, and while she still remains the most effective single shooter, the others, especially Patricia and Morgan, and now Nyree, are slowly gaining on her. Minuette’s survivability and cunning have gone up. Evangeline is really shaping up as commander. While Dominique doesn’t yet significantly stand out in any area, she’s able to comfortably fill any role, and coordinate with anyone. And Alex’ teamwork, and as a result general effectiveness as a whole, has improved by leaps and bounds (her still somewhat abrasive personality notwithstanding). Definite improvement all around. He’ll make proper TAG-jocks of them yet!

The Spiders have actually also improved. Though generally not very competitive, and, with the various other obligations in their lives, only able to get one day of practice a week on average - the Saturday with the Angels - they have nonetheless gotten better in the time they’ve known each other. Still, a day will come when the Angels will outstrip them too far for them to remain suitable training opponents.

Bolo conferes with Diego on this very subject. While the majority of the local better “paintball” teams have initially regarded the Angels with amused disregard at best, and sneering contempt at worst, now, having been shown comlog-captured footage of the girls in action, a number of them seem to be rethinking their position. Seems that, should the Spiders ever need help, or total replacement, options should be available.

That’s still in the future, though. Today, the Spiders provide a good challenge, though the Angels do very well. Alex and Nyree actually stick together and pull the baited ambush trick Nyree suggested last Wednesday practice again, this time on the Spiders, with renewed success.

And tomorrow, it’s off to the hospital, for their little publicity stunt.


Which sums up the entry #11

[Claudius Sol]

PLOT! ALL THE PLOT! DEVELOPING!

[Radek]

Great guys, I am impressed you have strength to write all that, but without it world would suffer a big loss.

[Section9]

It's basically the way Weiss and Hickman ("Dragonlance" books) got started - typing up their notes from playing!

[Errhile]

Even if made into a book, this wouldn't be great literature either (Dragonlance was an OK read when I was in high school myself, nowadays I see it ain't that great )...

BTW, Radek, glad to hear from you, ol' chap

[Kathara_Khan]

Plus, to get this published, it'd have to be very heavily re-worked. Otherwise I'd infringe on way too many copyrights, considering how many characters are "inspired" by other media. Removing the MLP:FiM cast alone would alomost rip the heart out of the story...

[Section9]

*poke-poke*

Any updates?

[Kathara_Khan]

New episode coming soon-ish. Game already done, report being worked on.

[Section9]

New episode coming soon-ish. Game already done, report being worked on.

Huzzah!

[Errhile]

Well, it is an ugly autumn here, so I'm sorry to say work on the new episode is not going as smooth and swiftly as I would like it to.

[Errhile]

Caution:


Avalon Chronicles
entry #12

“Getting Busy”

Dramatis personae:
Note #1 - wherever a nationality / country of origin is mentioned, it describes dominant “cultural / ethnical background trace” rather than actual country / nation of origin (for example, Yuni was born and raised on Neo Terra, but her background trace is Malaysian).
Note #2 - starting with entry #5, only the characters making an appearance (or, in some cases, referred to) in a given episode are listed.
A complete list of all the characters appearing in the Avalon Chronicles is available under the link. Beware of spoilers, though, especially if you’re coming in late.
Note #3 - the “#x” notes the episode in which given character made first appearance.

“Anjos de Rocha” (Angels of Stone), The Team:
Alex Narahari - #1 (2. class, 17, Indian) “Bad apple”, school’s bully assigned to the team as a method of correcting her ways (which seems to be working, if slowly - Alex, as it turns out, has her own host of demons). Her father tends to solve any problems (including those caused by Alex) by throwing money at them. Alex is an aggressive, reckless player who shoots too much, and doesn’t think enough. Anaconda TAG.
Dominique (‘Nique) Torres - #1 (1. class, 16, Argentine) Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”, former student of St. John’s High School (a Church-run school for the poor), transferred to the Academy on sports scholarship for the TAG-soft team in #6. A mechanical and electrical engineering prodigy, she is fascinated with TAGs and does “gunpla” kits of them in her free time. Turned out into the same class as Eva. Initially Lizard TAG, but in #8 swaps it for ‘Ree’s Anaconda.
Evangeline (Eva) Neve - #1 (1. class, 16, Italian) “Princess”, the wealthiest kid in school. Craves for proper behaviour and organized affairs, though the rest of the team are working on her. Team’s captain. Iguana TAG.
Minuette (Minnie) Diane Chryse - #1 (1. class, 16, Australian) Former cheerleader and team’s self-proclaimed “morale officer”. Cheerful and energetic, though sometimes not the quickest mind in the team, definitely (though she speaks a stunning array of languages, at least 5 fluent and several others with lesser proficiency). The only team member (before ‘Ree joined in) to have a sibling (two in fact, both sisters). Her parents own a chain of restaurants. Solid team player. Initially Lizard TAG, in #6 takes over Mako’s Gecko..
Morgan Lai - #1 (2. class, 17, Polynesian) “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player, calm and precise. Seems to have taken it upon herself to help temper and restrain Alex’ baser impulses - physically if need be. Szalamandra TAG until #7, then swaps for Lizard (formerly Patty’s).
Nyree (‘Ree) Rikoriko - #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #6), (2nd class, 14 - she started school a year early, and then skipped a grade in junior high, Maori) Girl from Morgan’s class, apparently the school’s polymath genius and “mega-nerd” (in Morgan’s opinion). Excellent student but with a troubled past (she was bullied real bad - by Alex as it turned out...). Has two brothers. Joined the team in #7, initially on Anaconda TAG, but in #8 swaps it for ‘Nique’s Lizard.
Octavia (Octy) Moina - #1 (1. class, 16, Brazilian) Successful and gifted musician (cello), but shy and prone to panic when not currently playing. She’s also a very effective player, as long as nobody can see her face (in a TAG or under her paintball mask). Patricia’s best mate. Highest “kill”-count so far. Lizard TAG.
Patricia (Patty) Summers - #1 (1. class, 16, North American) Gifted DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate. Almost never seen without headphones. Suffers from severe sedatephobia (fear of silence). Average player. Lizard TAG until #7, then swaps for Szalamandra (formerly Morgan’s).

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:
Staff:
DeeDee “Ditzy” Alephsdottir - #9 (avatar looks ~20, Nordic) The Academy’s low-level ALEPH subpersona, her duties include filing, mail distribution, drone operations, and assisting Ken on monitoring. While methodical like a computer, she’s not too bright, and even outright scatterbrained at times (however, she was bright enough to note that Diego, as a Nomad, is likely to be at odds with Aleph as such, and therefore she made an effort not to interact with him… or even make him aware of her existence).
Devil - #3 Diego’s “desktop animal” and digital pet (leftover from his CJC days), a cheerful animated devil with all the paraphernalia. Reactive to the surroundings.
Diego “Diablo” Ibarrez - #1 (~60y, looks ~40, Latinoamerican) The protagonist - TAG Soft team’s coach, retired CJC TAG combat instructor and once a war hero.
Eric Wana - #1 (~35, Polynesian) TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
Ginevra Chennault - #1 (~90, Polynesian) School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. To-the-point and strict, but fair. Teaches literature.
Isabell “Pills” Talho - #5 (looks to be in her middle 30s, South American) School’s medical officer (given the Academy’s size and high profile, she’s a fully qualified general practitioner with a lot of fancy tools) and likely a resurectee. Volunteered for the staff paintball team.
Ken Kamehameha - #3 (undetermined, apparently in his late 20s or early 30s, Hawaiian) Officially, he’s the school’s head caretaker / bedel, which in fact means he’s the chief of security. A nice, laid-back fellow. Volunteered for the staff paintball team.
Maximillian Largo - #12 (late 30s, Mexican). English teacher, and the coach of the Academy’s shooting club at the same time. Volunteered for the staff paintball team.
Reksio - #1 Eric’s favourite Palbot, named after an obscure cartoon character.
Yuni Iskandar - #1 (29, Malaysian) PE teacher and TAG Soft coach’s assistant. Very sporty and attractive, goes pretty well along with Diego since they met on day one. Well enough, actually, that their relation had (in entry #4) progressed to “friends with benefits”... Volunteered for the staff paintball team.

Students:
Frederic “Fred” Ulani #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #7) (1. class, 16, Polynesian [genetically, Caucasian-Polynesian]). Hardly anybody uses his name in full form - even on most school papers he’s listed as “Fred Ulani”. Another cello player in the school’s orchestra with Octavia. He’s on excellent terms with her, and in Diego’s private opinion, a likely boyfriend candidate - and his prediction comes true, likely somewhen around #9.
Koi Rikoriko - #7 (5th class elementary school, 11, Maori) Nyree’s younger brother, with some serious attitude. Despite being a kiddo, he’s very protective of his sister. Also, his first encounter with Eva seems to have resulted in a case of puppy love on his part…
Mako Joyo - #1 (1. class, 15, Micronesian) Ex-team member (resigned in #5 - Gecko pilot, and for a time prospective 2IC) - turned out that combat sports weren’t really her thing, plus she was offered captaincy of the school’s basketball team (The Ramjets) once the current captain graduates at the end of current year. School sportsgirl. Very sporty, very active - and thus extremely busy person.
Samantha Silva - #9 (1. class, 16, Brazilian) Same class as Evangeline and Dominique. Dimante’s cronie, meaning whatever applies to Dimante, applies to her as well. Wears (purely decorative) glasses.
Tiana Dimante - #9 (1. class, 16, Latvian) Same class as Evangeline and Dominique. Rich upper class spoiled brat, and a bully who likes showing her “lessers” their place in the school’s social ladder. Eva apparently doesn’t think too highly of her. Diego caught her abusing Nyree, on time to stop it - with some help from Alex - before Rikoriko striked back. As a result, she seems to carry a grudge against the Angels of Stone as a whole, and now engages in bullying by proxy against them.

“The Peanut Gallery”
Caught in short glimpses, to be fleshed-out when / if they make a full appearance:
Karra Avar - #11 (3. class, 18, Canadian - of predominantly Inuit origin) Captain of the Academy’s basketball team, The Ramjets. She’s going to graduate at the end of current year, leaving her position to Mako Joyo.

“Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders”:
One of the local paintball teams. The “Spiders” are experienced, but not a top-tier team in Belo Horizonte - they play for fun, and are not seriously competitive.
“Bolo” - #2 (mid 20s). Team captain, Academy’s graduate.

Neve family security detail:
Dorothy Smith - #9 (likely late 30s, might be Western European) Subordinate to Roger, doubles as the head maid. Peculiarly pale and deadpan. The name could suggest some relationship to Roger, but more likely is just a cover. Still, in #12, she reveals they actually are married.
Roger Smith - #2 (early 40s, North American) Evangeline’s chauffeur… Officially. In reality, he’s a high-end bodyguard, and commander of Evangeline’s section of the detail.
Nemo - #9 as unnamed bodyguard, full appearance in #12. Shortish, stocky, and bald. Definitely not a clownfish, nor an Indian prince.
Shelke - #12 (mid 30s, Eastern European) Tall, with a body like a gymnast, and a smile like a knife.
Dylan - #12 (early 30s, North American) The “rookie” of the detail. Boyishly handsome.
Leonardo - #12 (early 40s, South American) Huge, square jawed, Schwarzenegger-type. The detail’s heavy weapons man.

Other characters in Belo Horizonte:
Esteban Silva - #1 (~80, Brazilian) Owner, cook and host at “Silva’s”, old-fashioned eatery with human touch (and spicy South American cuisine).
“Gato” - #6 (probably in his 20s, ethnicity unknown). A peddler in the less-pleasant part of town where the Torreses live. Dominique’s friend, supplies her with made-to-order gunpla parts. Probably a black market contact, too.

Knights of the Round Table:
Avalon-based professional TAG-soft team. Note - Knights’ callsigns are attached to position / role in the team, not to a particular person.
Sabra “Arthur” Ortiz - #8 (early 30s, Argentinian [of Central European descent]) Field commander of the Knights of the Round Table, and Joan of Arc’s lookalike. Takes (guilty) pleasure in confounding people with her looks, but apart from that, she’s apparently a pleasant person and a professional in her field.
Ernest “Merlin” Mendoza - #8 (mentioned only) Knights’ combat controller.
“Lancelot”, “Mordred”, “Gawain” - #8 / #12 (mentioned only) other members of the team. “Mordred” is the heavy / support position, “Gawain” is an assault position currently occupied by a player who advanced from the amateur leagues, “Lancelot” is the trooper (knight) position Sabra played at before the previous Arthur resigned.


Sunday, December 1st

Time for the publicity stunt at St. Florence’s. The team gathers as agreed, loads five TAGs and rolls the Monster out towards the hospital.

After unloading, the Angels are quickly swarmed with the little patients. Soon, the kids are having a blast, though a crowd of overtly enthusiastic minors proves difficult to control (“ - Hey, chico! Don’t climb the TAG’s arm, it ain’t a ladder!”). Eventually only Minnie is still moving around in her Gecko, very, very carefully, as not to step on anyone. The TAGs are then seated open, and available if anyone wants to take a seat inside (most do!).

The situation proves especially trying to Evangeline, with her love of order and proper behaviour, as her attempts at injecting organisation and control into the activities are frustrated at every turn. Finally, the Neve heiress is almost reduced to wailing and pulling at her hair in despair... Until she’s suddenly distracted by one of the little ones tugging on her sleeve:
“ - Wow, you sooo pretty! Are ya a princess? Are ya?”
This disarms Eva completely. Luckily, Alex isn’t close enough to hear it, and ruin the moment with a snarky comment.

Morgan’s recently revealed weakness for small cute critters doesn’t seem to extend to human children. She’s not resentful or anything of the sort, but it’s obvious she finds the event straining.

Of the others, Nyree is really quite good with the children. Perhaps not surprising, being the one with a younger sibling of her own. Dominique, Patricia, and even Octavia (fortified with her clubbing shades - the kids actually find her somewhat intimidating!) each deal with the situation pretty well.

And then, there is of course Minuette. She seems to know every kid by name, and is simply amazing as a chaperone/caretaker/playmate/big sister figure. The children certainly love her.
As the charge nurse (overseeing the visit on the hospital’s part) puts it:
“ - Senhor Ibarrez, I don’t know what we’d do without our Minnie. She seems to have so much positive energy she could power the whole hospital all on her own, you know? And I’m half convinced if we could just figure out how to bottle her good cheer and positivity, we’d have a miracle cure. We’d really love to have her with us full-time…”
“ - Well, that may be an option. I haven’t heard anything concrete about her career plans…”

Alex stays closed in her Anaconda: she’s not ready to face the crowd of little patients. She eventually comes out, once the party moves mostly inside, the rest of the team going to visit those who - for various medical reasons - remain bound to their beds. Morgan offers to keep Alex company, receiving awkward thanks in return.
The head nurse nods sadly at Diego:
“ - Miss Narahari. Right, I remember her. Can’t really blame her for not wanting to come in. I’m surprised you even managed to get her here. With all our medical knowledge, there are still hurts only time can heal, if at all...”

For the final part of the visit, a few VR training scenario-based games are ran for the kids, with the Angels providing instruction, help, or opposition.

Of course, the hospital’s own spokesperson / media relations specialist is present, as well as an odd reporter from the local media. No much point in doing a publicity stunt without having someone to spread the news, right?
The local reporter is a young woman, with the clear air of a junior operative who’s been handed a crap assignment nobody else wanted (might have something to do with the reputation the Rocha Academy’s previous attempt at a TAG-Soft team made for itself). Still, she’s pleasant, and handles herself very professionally. And by the end of the event, it’s clear a spark of interest has been awakened within her...

All in all, a well spent afternoon. The Angels certainly brightened up the day for the little patients.


Monday, December 2nd

As usual, Diego comes in early. There’s stuff to take care of.

First on the agenda, is finalising the arrangements for the game with the Knights of the Round Table next Monday. Diego spends some time in conference with Merlin and Arthur, confirming last details. The Knights will come to Belo Horizonte, to play on the Angels’ home turf (this will also mean the girls won’t have to miss about two days of school, like they would if they were the ones traveling to the Knight’s home field, which wouldn’t be a good idea so close to end of term). They will field only five of their eight players. Further, they will play up their “chivalrous” persona, demanding up-close, personal engagement with the enemy over long range shooting, by coming armed only with short ranged, low rate of fire firearms, like pistols, shotguns, and chain rifles (all TAG-scaled, of course) - and their swords and shields, naturally. All this should roughly balance out the chances for both teams.
Merlin also lets Diego know that the Knights have decided on what cause the charity funding from this event will go towards. Seems principal Chennault, no doubt aiming to consolidate the good press generated by the Angels’ visit, has suggested directing the money to support the St. Florence Rorke Children's Hospital. Looks like a fine idea.

Once that’s done, Diego’s new ride needs a few finishing touches. Really, really last ones. Yuni arrives to help - she often, if not always, lend Diego a hand with the bike project on Mondays, picking up some mechanics knowledge in the process.
In fact, all of the girls have dropped by at least once during the construction, to lend some support. At the very least the moral kind, like Eva, who wasn’t really interested with the “dirty” technical work. Dominique, on the other hand, spend almost as much time on the motorcycle as with the TAGs.

Well, after today, it’s finally done - Diego got himself his own two wheels (or three, with the sidecar).

The bike got painted in utilitarian, drab green - mostly because it was the default colour in the blueprints Diablo downloaded, and never got the idea of changing it. The only personal accent is the Devil who gets applied (as a sticker) onto the fuel tank. Well, some of the girls have already expressed their desire to add some decorations to the bike (and, with the sidecar, it provides a lot of space for that!). Diego will have to think about it.

Seeing as Diego doesn’t have to work tomorrow and she finishes early, Yuni suggests they should go shopping the next day - Diego has a bike, he has an appropriate outfit, but he still needs a motorcycle helmet (before, he always used either Yuni’s spare, or the complementary that came with the rented machine).
That is, once he has dealt with the red tape: he needs to get the motorcycle to a certified workshop to have it officially declared street-legal. And apply for a driving license for it, too, as his current one cover cars only (when practising with Yuni, Diablo drove with a free learner’s licence under her supervision).

Dominique arrives early, as she often does (literally running to the hangar as soon as her classes let out, no doubt), and throws herself into helping Eric and his team, and general tinkering. Actually, some bigger project seems to be on the agenda today, as ‘Nique can be seen building what looks like a full custom TAG optics array.
“ - I had this idea of personalising the looks of our machines a bit,” - she explains to Diego, “ - Can’t do much for upgrades, but at least making the TAGs more “ours” would be good for morale, I think… This one,” - she indicates the assembly, featuring three pairs of camera-eyes, “ - Is for Octavia. Was the most obvious one. But I’m kind of stuck for ideas for the others,” - ‘Nique shrugs embarrassedly, “ - Well, not quite. Minnie’s also pretty obvious - a tail! But I’m afraid that’s still a little outside my abilities for now…”
Diego nods at that - the high speed mobility version of the Praxis refit package for Reptile-series TAGs does include a tail, but it actually needs it as a balancing mechanism, and involves a serious reworking of the machine’s movement system, much more difficult than what they’d be able to do on their own, not to mention expensive.

As the rest of the team gathers for practice, Nyree causes a bit of a stir today, as she arrives wearing glasses.
“ - Huh. Something we should know, chica? Eyesight problems?”
“ - Not at all, Coach. They’re non-perscription, clear ones. Just a… Vanity thing,” - she seems a little embarrassed, “ - I just like how I look in them. Always did. I used to wear glasses all the time, back when.”
“ - Hm, I can see why. They really do suit you,” - opines Evangeline.
The rest of the Angels join in a chorus of general agreement (“ - Refined, - Smart, - Classy, - Cute!” - the last, of course, from Minnie), making Nyree blush.
“ - So, why did you stop wearing glasses, then?”
“ - That… Would be my fault,” - admits Alex, clearly uncomfortable, “ - She stopped after I broke six pairs in one month…”
“ - Seven,” - Nyree corrects mildly, “- Well, mother used that as an excuse to make me stop, anyway - she never liked me wearing them either. Said it made me look weak…”
“ - I just thought you looked like a nerdy little snot desperately trying to look all grown up. Not any more, though!” - Alex hurriedly clarifies, “ - They’re right, you really do look good. Plus…” - she shifts embarrassedly, then forges ahead, “ - I… Kinda like what you did with your hair. Growing it out I mean. You look good with it long. And the dyed stripe* is cool, too. Adds a… Bold touch I wouldn’t expect, knowing you before.”
“ - Yeah, I remember,” - muses Morgan, “ - When she transferred to our class, her hair was shoulder length. And she added the stripe a few months later.”
“ - Back when… You know… Her hair was even shorter, she wore it in this ugly, sexless, military pageboy. It looks much better now. Really pretty. Totally suits you.”
The rest of the Angels again express their agreement (with Minnie again exclaiming “ - Cute!”).
“ - Wow, thank you, Alex, everyone…” - Nyree blushes harder, “ - Changing up my hairstyle, doing something I wanted with it, was actually part of our family therapy… The same for Koi’s dyejob and mohawk. I do like it much better this way. And it was actually mom who suggested I wear glasses again, if I’d like to.”
“ - Good.” - whispers Alex, still blushing a bit herself.

* Nyree wears her coal-black hair in a kind of “hime cut”, with a double violet and pink stripe dyed full length into it, from front to back.

Well, it’s time to begin… But Octavia is still not here. Patty came alone, leaving Octy and Fred to have some time together - it’s tradition at this point. As the girls jokingly muse, maybe the lovebirds just lost track of time... Perhaps smooching... Or even doing something more naughty, as Alex implies with a lewd grin. But no, being late that way - fifteen minutes and counting, now - is simply not Octavia’s style. Patty is sure of it (scoffing at Alex as she suggests it’s just the DJ’s jealousy talking). Something’s fishy here…

Diego sends the girls to get suited up and attempts to call Octy - and gets a “contact currently unavailable” message, the call getting redirected to voicemail, as if her comlog’s phone function was completely offline.
“ - Okay… Well, actually, damn far from okay. DeeDee, would you mind giving me a moment of your time?”
A comm-window for the school’s AI subpersona projects into the hangar immediately, with her customary soap bubbles swirl effect.
“ - Naturally, Mr. Ibarrez. What can I do for you?” - DeeDee is eager to help.
“ - Octavia is late for practice, and I can’t raise her comlog, seems to be offline. We need to find her, fast. And check who’s with her.”
“ - One moment, please. Standard report for Chief Kamehameha - sent. And tracking… I have Miss Moina’s comlog beacon, it is in the locker corridor, alone… Huh… Can’t see her on the security camera, though.” - DeeDee frowns for a moment, “ - Oh my, I think I know where she is! I’ll send someone over.” - a moment later, the closest member of the janitorial staff is on site and confirms DeeDee’s suspicion, “ - She’s inside of her locker! We can hear her calling for help. I can’t open it remotely, and the security physical override key isn’t working either. The lock is sabotaged good.”
“ - Fine. Patricia, grab her jumpsuit, and come with me. The rest of you, get in gear. Yuni, take over and start without us. DeeDee, will you get that damn locker open by the time we get to it, or I should ask Minnie to just rip the door off?” - Minuette, in her Gecko, is the team member best suited to getting into the locker corridor. And the jumpsuit can come handy if whoever pulled the prank on Octy pushed her in there more or less undressed.
The perspective of a TAG walking inside of the school building, cracking the floors, and demolishing lockers makes DeeDee visibly concerned “ - Oh no, that absolutely won’t be necessary! I just have to bring a remote with a proper set of tools over. Won’t be but a moment.”
“ - Good. Now, please check the footage back to the time when Octavia got there. Both video feed and comlog tracking. She didn’t put herself in that locker and jammed the lock all by herself.”
“ - I’m on it! Uh… The feed’s doctored, somebody was covering their tracks…”
“ - Again, huh? Fine, that’s enough proof for me. But please, keep working on it.”

By the time Diablo and Patty reach the locker corridor, the door is just getting opened. Octavia, luckily, isn’t afraid of darkness or tight spaces, so apart from being somewhat cramped and uncomfortable from the tight fit, she’s okay. She wasn’t able to see her attacker (she got surprised from behind), but she’s pretty sure it was a girl. And the swiftness with which she got “packed” into her locker implies that whoever did it, had a lot of experience in such tricks.

“ - Well, I guess I’ll have to ask Alex, then.”
“ - Coach, I think Alex does, in fact, have a very good alibi… She was with us at the hangar.”
“ - Oh, her alibi is absolutely airtight. No, I mean, there is a limited number of girls at the Academy who would have the skill and nerve to pull that off. And Alex will probably know who they are. But that’s still catching the hands, not the brains behind it all.”

Patty checks Octavia’s comlog, and determines that it was hit with a virus, crashing its communications suite, preventing her from using it to call for help. Patty sets about purging it.
“ - Finally something I can take ‘samples’ from. There’s not that many people in the school skilled enough to put this together… And most of them are in my advanced comp-sci course and club. Maybe I’ll be able to recognise the culprit by ‘handwriting’*.”
“ - All the incidents so far had hacker coverage, and since the last perpetrator wasn’t much of an infowar specialist, I don’t expect this one to be either. Means - someone’s protecting them. If we can find that hacker we may have a lead to crack this thing open.”
“ - Unless they just shop for automated software on the inter-scholar student black market**, that is…”
“ - Yeah, Patty, but it’s worth a try.”

* Every programmer has their own style, recognisable with a big enough sample size. Of course pinning a given style on an actual person is rather hard without physical evidence or an inside source - given how concealing it is of vital importance to not getting caught in anything illicit. Luckily for them, Patricia is the inside source they need.

** Where there’s demand, there’s gonna be supply. Seeing how, in this day and age, spoofing and disrupting comlog identification and security monitoring is indispensable even to pulling school pranks, you can bet those unskilled in doing it themselves would like to buy the means to do so. And, in turn, there would be hackers willing to provide such services - for a reasonable fee, of course… Patricia sheepishly admits to putting her own illicit creations up for sale from time to time, when she was in need of bolstering her allowance with additional Oceana...

Once they get back to the hangar, Alex snickers a bit at Octavia having been stuffed in her locker.
“ - Lucky for her, she’s so small! Wasn’t squashed too much…”
“ - Trust me, even if she were four years younger and smaller, it’s still not a pleasant thing to have done to you.” - Nyree chides gently but firmly. She’s obviously speaking from personal experience.
Alex is once again left looking uncomfortable and embarrassed.

Eager for a subject change, Alex readily agrees to look into possible culprits in the Academy’s female bully population, but says she can’t promise much:
“ - I was never much of a - heh - team player. Never belonged to any clique or gang, preferred to keep to, and rely on, myself. So I can’t say I have many contacts or whatnot. But I do know of some possibilities. I’ll do what I can.”
“ - That’s all we can ask for, chica.”

Fortunately the rest of the day goes smoothly. It’s actually time for a new upgrade: Eric presents the team today with testing-ready items of the “portable concealment” device they discussed with Diego some time ago. They seem to work quite fine, unfolding in the blink of an eye, from a container about the size of a standard oil drum, into, depending on model, either a dome of artificial bush, or a fake metal crate, both hollow and big enough to, just barely, admit a crouched TAG. Quite a mechanical achievement, really. Each TAG will be able to comfortably carry one. Sadly, they are all single-use. Well, they can be re-packed, but it can’t be done in the field, requiring several minutes of work by a technician. So either way, in a match, they can be used only once. Still, deployed at the right moment, this disposable camouflage could provide the team with that crucial extra bit of advantage. The Angels spend most of the training session testing the new equipment in action. Looks like it’ll be ready for deployment in the match on Monday.


Tuesday, December 3rd

Before he sets off to meet Yuni, Diego receives a call from Maximilian Largo, an English teacher at the Academy and the staff member in charge of the shooting club. Having seen the ad Diego put up on the staff board, Maximilian is interested in joining the teacher’s paintball team Diego is putting together, if there are still free slots. As Largo half-jokingly admits, he’s kind of a spy: if a student paintball team gets started at the Academy, it will most likely be placed under his supervision, at least at first - and you can bet the kids will then want to have a shootout with the teachers, which will mean Maximilian will end up leading them against his own former team-mates.
Nevertheless, Diablo is happy to have Maximilian on board.

Being employed only part-time has its perks: Diablo has most of the day to rent a trailer, get his new ride to a tech check-up, and to apply and test for a driving license. Luckily, full sized motorcycles apparently aren’t very popular in Belo Horizonte (contrary to cars, citybikes, and scooters of all kinds), so the queue is pretty short. The convenience of VR simulations also makes the process pretty swift.

After that, Diego and Yuni make a date out of it. They first visit a mall where Yuni’s favourite bike accessory shop is located. As they go about selecting a helmet (a pretty plain, utilitarian design, Diego isn’t much of a showoff…), they notice Octavia trying on a biker jacket.

“ - Hey, look who’s here! Octy, you changin’ your style?”
It is hard to miss that today she’s dressed the most casual they have ever seen her, outside of their clubbing excursions (and TAG-soft or paintball practice, or PE classes, of course). So far, Octy typically wore very docile skirts (often pleated, and at least knee-length, sometimes longer), dressy blouses, often with bow ties and/or blazers, knee-high socks, and loafers. Even at the parties, she kept a pretty conservative dress code, being the one to show the least skin (well, after ‘Nique, with her baggy sweater), preferring relaxed but classy jeans, blouses, and flats. But now, she wears a loose mini skirt (that is mid-thigh - sure, that’s still practically a nun’s habit if you were to apply Narahari’s standards, but Alex is well-known for being on the rather opposite end of the spectrum), with a pair of knee-length cycling shorts underneath*, a plain t-shirt, and slip-on Vans sneakers.

* Diego is not aware of this - he’s no fashion historian - but that’s very 1960s: exactly where the term “hotpants” comes from… Of course nowadays “hotpants” refer to something much much shorter.

“ - Or perhaps you intend to alter your mode of transportation?”
“ - Oh! Hello, Coach, Miss Iskandar. Well… Frederic does have a motorbike, and he asked me to go for a ride with him.”
Just then, Fred shows up too, brandishing a motorcycle helmet with a triumphant smile:
“ - Hey, Tavi! Look what I’ve found! Not exactly your paintball helmet, but I think you’ll like it…” - indeed, it is not an exact copy of the Nisse replica helmet Octavia wears for paintball games, but with a fully closed, opaque faceplate and six cameras to provide video feed to the user, it keeps similar, high-tech stylistics. “ - Oh, hey, good afternoon, Miss Iskandar, Coach Ibarrez…”
“ - Hello, Fred. Octy tells us you’re taking her motorbiking.”
“ - Yup! We gonna tear up some road! And if she likes it, I’ll totally teach her to drive, too.”
“ - I’m still not sure about that, Frederic… And what if I’m not good at it?...”
“ - You’ll be fine, Tavi! You rule in that TAG of yours! Compared to that behemoth, a bike will be child’s play! But hey…” - Fred gives Octavia a reassuring smile and a one-armed hug, making her blush and smile in return, “ - If you just don’t want to drive, that’s perfectly fine. I don’t want to force you into something you’re not comfortable with… I just thought you’d like having the option of taking control yourself, instead of being only a passenger.”
Yuni gives Fred an approving grin and nod at that.
“ - Well then, have fun. Though if I may offer an opinion… Not an expert myself, but for motorbiking, I think you might find full-length trousers to be more practical. What do you think, Yuni?”
“ - Yup, definitely. Nothing like a good pair of leather pants when you hit an insect in mid-flight. Especially on Avalon - you know how big they get here!”
“ - Well, I guess if I’ve started a fad,” - muses Diego, “ - I should be ready to share… So, Octavia, if you want the blueprints for my bike… Though I really don’t think that one would be to your liking…”
“ - No, not really, Coach… If it was for myself, I think I’d rather go with something… More modern? And faster? More like a racing bike, perhaps?”
“ - Aaah, a crotch rocket, Yu Jing style?” - Yuni grins at the idea, making Octy blush at that turn of phrase.
“ - Well, I’ll have to learn to drive one first, anyway…”
“ - Fine. Come on then, Yuni, let’s leave them to it. Last thing they need is a pair of old-timers crashing their date… See ya, kids! Have fun!”
They part ways there. What Diego noticed during that conversation, apparently Octavia is on the very short list of people who call Fred by his full name. Wonder if that list includes his parents! And Fred himself seem to have his own little nickname for Octavia, different from what everybody else calls her.

Before they proceed to dinner, Diego wants to visit a sports store, too - they’ve planned a beach party for the team, but he lacks appropriate beach wear (he goes for a pair of square-cut trunks). And, as he comments, he doesn’t think that taking the girls to a nude beach* would be seen as appropriate…
Though, of course, the choice of beachwear among the team is likely to be an interesting sight: Diego expects at least one one-piece swimsuit, and there’s an open bet on how Alex is going to try and shock the group with her attire this time. It would seem she can’t really do much - you can only get that far with a skimpy two piece before it disappears completely**.

“ - Oh, and besides, we much choose a beach. I mean, Yuni, I don’t know if you hold a Lifeguard’s Certificate, but we’re there for a party. You can hardly have fun while watching out all the time if none of the girls are drowning at any given moment…” - they know all the girls can swim - there are pool lessons at PE - but accidents can happen...
“ - For your information - I do. I usually deal with the “dry” part of PE at school, but yes, I am a fully qualified lifeguard.”
“ - I can’t say I didn’t expect that***.”
“ - Anyway, don’t worry, I think I have a spot in mind. Should be perfect - nice place, good safety monitoring, but not very crowded this time of year. But it will be a bit of a drive. When are we doing it?”
“ - I think Sunday after the match is our best bet. That will give us a whole day so we don’t have to hurry, and for the girls to wind down before finals week.”
“ - Sounds good.”

* These are aplenty on Avalon, and roughly as popular as the beaches where you are supposed to wear appropriate beachwear. Being a Nomad, Diego himself doesn’t have a nudity taboo - with scarce space and resources, separate changing rooms on Nomad ships practically do not exist. Of course, aggressively gazing at someone’s nudity in such a situation is considered bad manners, and a valid reason to be served a knuckle sandwich. Making comments is not unlikely to result in being thoroughly roughed up by everybody present, at least on Corregidor. And once you’ve spent a while on Bakunin, you’ve already seen it all anyway. And I do mean, all of it…

** Unless Alex decides to go topless. In most areas of PanOceania, it is considered to be an acceptable fashion choice for female beachwear. Not that every woman feels comfortable in such an outfit (for cultural, moral or aesthetic reasons), but enough of them do - and therefore it no longer causes any uproar. You wear a one-piece, two-piece, or monokini - that’s your choice.

*** As Belo Horizonte is located on an oceanic shoreline, water sports (swimming, sailing, diving, board / wind / kite surfing, you name it) are a big thing here. There are several places where you get really decent waves for surfing. No wonder that Yuni - wanting to cover all her bases as a fully qualified PE teacher there - took a Lifeguard’s Course. Given how sporty she is, it was likely a piece of a cake for her anyway.

As they sit down for dinner - at Silva’s, they haven’t been here together for a while - Yuni breaches another topic:
“ - What are your plans for Christmas, Diego? You going back to Corregidor, spending it with your folks?”
“ - No, I’m staying here, why?”
“ - You’re not going to meet with your family?”
“ - Not much family to meet, and none I really feel I want to see. What about you, going to NeoTerra for Christmas?”
“ - Well, as a matter of fact… Yes. That’s the one time a year when we all get together. You know… I love my parents, I love my brother, and I know they all love me, but it’s a love that kinda works best long distance.”
“ - Best place to be together with your family is on a photo, yes?”
“ - Something like that. It’ll be great for a day or two, but too long and we start to get on each other’s nerves… You know, sorry I’m not taking you with me. I’ll have to introduce you to my parents, eventually, but…”
“ - But not this time. Sure, no problem with that. All in due time. And Yuni… Don’t worry about me. I’ll manage, no problem. You go home, meet with your folks, have fun, okay?”
“ - Thanks,” - Yuni smiles at Diego, sincerely grateful, “ - Not that it wouldn’t be loads of fun, seeing their reaction to you!” - she suddenly giggles, a bit evilly, “ - But yeah, I’m not quite ready for picking up the pieces from that trainwreck…”


Wednesday, December 4th

As the girls gather for the training session, it’s obvious that Evangeline is again in a bit of a sour mood. Student politics still getting to her, no doubt.
Aside, Dominique confides to Diego on the subject:
“ - Yeah, it’s Dimante and Silva. I haven’t realised it was those two before - I”ve lived so long without the ability to activate the ‘name tag’ option on my comlog, I tend to forget to use it now. But Eva really hangs out, if you can call it that, a lot with them. No choice, I guess, being social peers and whatnot. But it obviously wears on her now. I hope she’ll be ok…”

Nyree and Dominique, as they’ve been doing on regular basis, sit together for a little student-to-student tutoring (‘Nique still has some more to catch up, though she’s doing better and better every day; there’s little, if any, danger of her flunking out anymore, but her grades could use some improvement - especially in her own eyes!).
Evangeline usually joins them, too: she doesn’t consider herself to be above some extra repetition, especially if you have some of the best brains around doing the same (Nyree is a walking data bank and math savant, and Dominique is a tech prodigy… which makes her really good at hard science).

Today however, Alex intercepts Eva before she can join the study group, and asks her for a little talk outside of the hangar first - she has some business with the “Princess”, and doesn’t want everybody to hear what it is...
...Which is not quite successful, because they soon become agitated enough to raise their voices and make at least part of the conversation heard:
“ - ...Forget it! Come on, Neve, don’t play games. You know I have the money. I only need your contacts to make it happen. I’ll pay you back after it’s done, just name the price.”
“ - Alex, dear, of course I know you have money. But it seems you are forgetting that I do, too. I have no use for your Oceana, I have enough of my own. You ask me for a favour, you are going to owe me one. And I will tell you when and how I want to collect. That is my price. So, do we have an agreement?”
“ - ...Ugh! Okay, deal. You drive a hard bargain, Princess…”

A few moments of again inaudible talk later, they come back inside. Alex can’t help looking a little bit sullen. Eva, on the other hand, looks much happier than before, perhaps even a bit smug.
“ - What were you chicas scheming out there?”
“ - I am sworn to silence. But I can assure you, Coach, it is nothing bad.” - Eva gives Alex a curious little smile.
Narahari just gives Diego a heavy look.
“ - Well, if you won’t tell me, I won’t know. Okay, Alex, no problem.” - Diego shrugs, then smiles. “ - I think you know me that much already.”

As Eva finally joins Nyree and ‘Nique, Alex tags along after her.
“ - Erm… Would you three be okay with me joining the ‘nerd coven’?...” - Narahari fidgets anxiously, “ - It’s just… My academic performance isn’t so stellar recently, especially in maths…”
The three - and everyone else, as a matter of fact - share a surprised look.
“ - I never got the impression it bothered you before.” - Nyree comments mildly.
“ - Yeah, well, it usually doesn’t… But lately I noticed I just don’t understand stuff. And I don’t like to not understand. Makes me feel stupid…” - grumbles Alex, obviously embarrassed.
“ - Well, whatever your motivation is, chica, I approve of the idea.” - comments Diego. The normally unhealthily antisocial Alex feeling the need to socialize is definitely a good sign. Doubly so if it’s with girls in the team, and not some gang or other shady group. And her taking an interest in her schooling again is a cherry on top. Seems reforming her is definitely not a lost cause...
Evangeline and Dominique are quite fine with Alex joining in, but look to Nyree, as the de facto leader of the study group, and the one most likely to rise an objection to Narahari’s inclusion.
“ - Sure! The more, the merrier.” - decides Nyree brightly, “ - And I can totally understand - I hate not getting things too.” - she gives Alex a sympathetic look.
“ - Thanks…” - Alex looks genuinely grateful, “ - And just so we’re clear: this is totally not some kind of ploy to get you to do my homework for me, okay? If you catch me doing that, you can totally slap me down! Right?”
“ - No problem. And don’t worry, we will.” - Nyree grins at Alex.

“ - Fine, chicas. Get yourself in gear, we have some practice to do. And as for the tutoring network, I think you gals could meet at home. It would be way better to learn over a mug of tea and some cookies, don’t you think? Now, time to get going.”

The practice - which is paintball this week - goes well and without any major incidents.

Soon after they’re done, however, Diego’s comlog rings - it’s Bolo on the line, and he looks worried and apologetic.
“ - Hola, Diablo. Listen, I’m terribly sorry to drop it on you so late, but we won’t be available for a game this Saturday...”
“ - Hey, man. What happened?”
“ - If you can believe it, we’re out of town for a tournament. There’s always one nearby, around this time of year. You know us, we aren’t really a competitive, tournament team. But we always enter the selection matches anyway - for the change the pace, if nothing else. It’s a good occasion to socialize, rub elbows with better teams, meet new people, and play more games than we usually do…
Normally, we never get too far. But it seems this year we were lucky. A couple better teams unexpectedly dropped out, a few others were not lucky enough, so there was a last minute major switch in the league table, and suddenly we’ve qualified for the semi-finals… We just found out today! I’ve tried finding a replacement opponent for you, but all the teams who don’t sneer at the Angels are going to the tournament too, or have other obligations. No luck. Really, really sorry about that… We could just drop out?...”
“ - Easy, Bolo, don’t fret. We’ll manage. You go for that tournament. Win it, I hope.”
“ - Wouldn’t count on that, Diego. Let’s be honest, we’ve improved recently, training with the Angels of Stone, but we’re still nowhere near that good.” - Bolo chuckles.
“ - Well, have fun still, and see you around next week.”
“ - Thanks, we will. And we’ll actually see you earlier - we’ll be back by Monday one way or another, so we’ll cheer for you at your game then!”
“ - Great! See you then.”

Well, that does leave the Angels in a bit of a pickle. Nothing tragic, though, they’ll just have to play some games four on four, like they usually do at their regular after school training…

“ - Something the matter, Coach?” - Evangeline inquires suddenly, pulling Diego out of his thoughts. As is often the case after paintball training, she’s the last one of the girls to leave, spending the most time in the shower afterwards. She does have all that hair to take care of...
“ - Bolo just called. The Spiders can’t make it this week. And it seems there’s no replacement available.” - Diego shrugs, “ - Bit of a bummer, but we’ll make do.”
“ - Hmph! No, that will not do.” - Eva frowns, “ - Not if I have anything to say about it! Don’t worry, Coach,” - she gives a decisive nod, “ - I’ll get us a replacement OpFor, no problem!”
“ - You mean, your security personnel that you practice with at home, huh? That’s not a half bad idea, chica. Think you can talk them into playing against us on Saturday?”
“ - Absolutely. Roger and the others won't have anything against it. And the groundskeeper will be happy with us taking it elsewhere out of the garden for once.” - Eva suddenly breaks out into a sly smile, “ - Let’s make it a surprise! Please, don’t tell the girls. And don’t wait up for me at the hangar on Saturday morning, just drive to our usual field. I’ll join you all there, with my in-house opposition.”

Evangeline almost skips out of the hangar, obviously restraining herself with thoughts of propriety. Whatever the deal she brokered earlier with Alex, and now solving this little crisis - and the perspective of showing off a bit - seem to have really lifted her mood for today.


Thursday, December 5th

Diego gets a brilliant idea regarding his cooking practice. You know, if you cook for yourself only, you can’t really cook that much. Not enough mouths to munch it all.
So, as he drops by Silva’s today (he still visits for dinner at least twice a week, to invariably warm reception by owner and regulars) he asks senhor Esteban whether he would mind a helping hand, especially with ‘Nique “on sabbatical”. This would give Diablo a chance to do some serious cooking under a good tutor - basically, a form of apprenticeship.
Senhor Silva is a bit surprised, but he doesn’t see a reason to not accept a student. A part-time deal is agreed upon (primarily, two days a week, with a possibility of extending it if needed. Diego is in that for the lesson, not the money after all). Of course, he’ll need to provide a health certificate before he’s allowed to work with food.

Once he shares the news with Yuni later, she’s pretty surprised. She comments on how much Diego’s palette of skills is broadening - swimming, bike riding, cooking, and they still have the climbing on schedule… He’s becoming quite the “Renaissance Nomad”!

While going around his business, Diablo receives a call - “Pills” together with Ken in a conference call. Which already sounds like bad news…
“ - Hello, Diego. I have to inform you, I had the sad pleasure of a visit from Miss Rikoriko today.” - Isabel gives a little crooked smile - “ ‘Sad’ not because I don’t like the kids, quite the opposite, but, you know, usually If they visit me…”
“ - ...It means they got hurt somehow, right. I assume she wasn’t injured too bad, then. Otherwise you two would be starting this conversation in a different tone…”
“ - Quite.” - Ken chimes in, “ - Somebody tripped Miss Rikoriko up in the cafeteria. She fell and hurt her knee.”
“ - Nothing serious, a scrape, that’s all. I gave her a light dressing for it, should be fine in a couple days. It won’t affect her athletic performance in the interim, either.”
“ - Good to hear.”
“ - What really surprised me, though, was the escort she arrived at my office with. Her little brother was par for the course, I think. But they were also accompanied by none other than Miss Narahari. Who seemed just as agitated on Nyree’s behalf as little Koi. Talk about a reversal. Never thought I’d see the day.”
“ - Yeah, our Alex is changing a lot these days. The girls resolved the bad blood between them, and even seem to be becoming friends.” - Diego is quite pleased with that development, “ - Now then, Ken, I guess you have full surveillance at the cafeteria?”
“ - Depends on what you call ‘full surveillance’. If somebody knows where the system’s viewpoints are, and chooses the right position and moment in the lunch-hour crowd, they can pull this, and other dirty tricks, and not get caught. It’s depressingly easy, actually. I had a word with Narahari afterwards, and she says it was a real pro job. She would know - she did the same thing to Rikoriko, and various others, quite a number of times herself… And she couldn’t tell who it was.”
“ - Probably better this way. We’d have a brawl on our hands otherwise.”
“ - Right. I scrutinized the footage later. I think I can tell the perp - by the too wide, too quick smile. But smiling won’t do as evidence. Especially as they weren't the only one laughing at Miss Rikoriko’s misfortune.”
“ - Yeah, I get it. By the way, any news on the Monday incident with Miss Moina?”
“ - Not yet. But I got the kid who fed Summers’ headphones into a disassembler. Another one of my usual suspects, though a pretty low-level one. Naturally, she claims it was her own idea, but she isn’t a good liar at all: it’s painfully obvious she was put up to this, and she got something in return...”
“ - ...And you can’t press her, because that would be against the rules, and besides, any confession would be still a word versus a word. Got it. Well, nothing new here, I knew that you’re getting only the hands, not the brains behind it. I guess you now agree that it is something bigger?…”
“ - Four incidents in two weeks? You’re right, somebody is up to something. I guess I’ll have to give your girls extra attention. And maybe little Joyo too. She may be targeted as a former team member.”
“ - Oh, if they try to come after Mako, I expect they’ll soon learn they have upset a whole nest of Ramjets. Don’t think they will take it kindly if someone tries any funny stuff with their team member.”
“ - You’ve got a point there, Diego - Karra Avar isn’t exactly known for her mild temper or meek personality… She actually used to be quite a bully herself, you know, though nowhere near Narahari’s caliber. But I hope our ‘mastermind’ realizes that too. I’d really hate this thing to escalate further...”
“ - Well, then you better have some results, Ken, before Alex goes ballistic. Or Koi. He’s small, but he’s like a terrier. Easy to set off, and once he sinks his teeth in, he’s not going to let his prey loose. Neither of them need much provocation.”
“ - I’ve noticed that young Mister Rikoriko is grooming himself for the role of his sister’s watchdog, yeah… I’ll see what I can do.”
“ - Fine. But still, that’s only anticipating the opponent’s moves. Giving them all the initiative… I guess none of the incidents would qualify for anything more than a disciplinary meeting with the Principal: “And make it the last time, Miss Dimante, are we clear?” - kinda thing. Given what I’ve heard, with Tesseum Chennault it is way better than with the previous Principal. It would’ve been “penultimate time, Miss Dimante” back then…”
“ - Uh-huh. You get how the board works. If all that Narahari did has not put her in anything worse than that, plus given Dimante and Silva are from an even higher social circle than Narahari… You can dream.”
“ - Frack. I guess we’ll have to do something about them ourselves, then…”
“ - Now, Diego, before this conversation gets too far…”
“ - ...And you will be obliged to report me, I get it. Sure, that was kinda wishful thinking on my part.”

“ - Enough of that for today, guys.” - Isabel speaks up again, “ - There’s one more thing. Diego, I’ve heard you’re putting together a staff paintball team. I must say I wasn’t encouraged by the idea of a war game - God knows I’ve seen enough of real war, and from its ugliest side*… But I talked it over with Felipe, and I guess he’s right, a change of perspective is not a bad idea. Worst case, I can be your paramedic… That is, if you are willing to accept me into the team, Diego.”
“ - Sure thing, Isabel. Welcome on board! With you, there will be seven of us now. That should be enough to finally get this thing off the ground. Sometime soon after New Years, I think. I’ll let you all know.”
With that, they say their good-byes.

* GM Note: Isabel was civilian medical personnel on Paradiso during the EI war. Though Diego initially thought she was a combat medic.



To be continued below

[Errhile]

Avalon Chronicles entry #12, continued from previous post

Friday, December 6th

Diego sits down today to think the situation over, and is pretty convinced Ken won’t help much. Not that he doesn’t want to, but he simply has no means available. Therefore Diego has to fight this war without relying on the support of the school’s staff. And he must do it by proxy: he can’t do much by his own hands.

Well, fine. Time to get the team involved. Not like they haven’t been involved already by the other side.

After classes are over for the day, Diablo calls Patty and asks her to meet in town. He needs to have a word with the hacker (and miscreant with an anti-authoritarian streak) of the team. And these are not matters he’d like to discuss over comlog. Security reasons, you know.

They sit down together in an outdoors cafe and get to scheming. Patty is tickled pink by the cloak and dagger routine, spy-show like.

What Diego wants to know is whether Patricia could do something to hit Samantha and Tiana somewhere it would hurt them. Perhaps going after their academic performance? That’s what those upper class ladies would be concerned with.
Patty assures, she could, of course, alter their grades. It is a pretty common practice among hackers. The problem is - it will come out. Not a matter of “if”, but “when”.

“ - Well, and what about making materials go missing? Y’know, ‘my dracomon ate my homework’ - style?”
“ - You mean, ‘ALEPH ate my homework files’, right? That could work. Problem is, if it happens too often, it’ll be pretty obvious… So it’d have to be a long-term operation, with no immediate effect.”
“ - Look into it anyway. And if you can get it done without getting yourself in trouble, go for it. If there’s a risk of discovery - abort, abort, abort. You really don’t need to get yourself caught.”
“ - Kinda what my mom would have said, Coach.”
“ - Well, as one clever general said long ago, war isn’t about dying for your country, Patty. It is about making the other guy die for his*…”
“ - Definitely something my mom would’ve said.” - Patty grins.

* That’s George S. Patton, obviously.

“ - We could also use some dirt on Tiana. Or something she’s afraid of. Whatever we could use against her.”
“ - I’ll snoop around. But it’ll be slow, again. Personal files aren’t easy to get to without proper authorisation, you know…”
“ - I get the idea.” - well, Diego could probably check these pretty easily - he’s authorised to see student’s personal files as a teacher - but that would’ve been logged. As long as it is the kids picking on each other, it can be swept under a rug, according to the “kids being kids” approach. Once teacher picks on a student, especially given he has no legitimate interest in these particular students, it could mean trouble.
“ - I guess Eva could know more here. She knows them better. I mean, we want to act clever. Just having them roughed up out of school… Well, if it comes to that, I guess it could be arranged, too. In a way that would be hard to pin on us.” - no doubt ‘Nique’s buddy Gato would be able to find a few up-to-no-gooders that will be perfectly willing to bloody a nose or two and scare the living shit out of some upper class gals. For an appropriate - and likely very reasonable - fee, of course.

That might be not very elegant on Diego’s part - to consider hiring thugs for roughing up two teenage girls - but he’s a Corregidorian. He’d rather set them straight himself, and if he can’t (given the circumstances), he finds it acceptable to outsource this. Everything’s fair in love and war - and the Dimante & Silva duo have decided to wage a war against his team.
Still, he considers that a very last resort option, not the preferred one.
On reflection, it probably wouldn’t be quite so easy, anyway. Given their status, Dimante & Silva are sure to have their own bodyguard or two, just like Eva.

After Patty leaves to initiate their info-warfare, it’s time to call in Evangeline.

“ - We’re having those ‘incidents’, you know. I say, it’s time to stand up and swing back. Not at the hands who do it, but at the brain who’s behind it.”
“ - Do you think it’s really Tiana and Samantha?” - Eva seems troubled.
“ - I’m damn sure it’s them. No one else has a motive. Sure, we lack evidence, but they’re too clever - so far - to leave any. And even if we had some - what could we do? Therefore I think we shouldn’t bother with evidence, due process, and stuff. What we need, is some leverage we could use against them. Dunno. If, for example, we knew Dimante is afraid of frogs, it shouldn’t be so hard to smuggle one into her handbag when she’s looking the other way.”
“ - Umm, Coach? Frogs aren’t exactly easy to catch on Avalon…”
“ - Who’s talking about catching one? We’d have one sprang from the biology lab. You still do cut them up in bio classes, right? We’ll give that wannabe Shasvasti copycat their chance at a moment of glory, striking back against their tormentor.”
“ - Nooo?...“ - drawls Eva, perplexed, “ - We’re a little more high-tech in PanO - we have VR simulations for that.” - she shivers a little - she’s obviously not a fan of those lessons, regardless.
“ - Well, okay then, don’t you have pet stores here or something?"
“ - Yes, but… Buy one just to have it killed, most likely?…” - Eva apparently finds the idea disgusting.
“ - Okay, Eva, fine. No problem. Still, you see what kind of stuff I have in mind. Any idea you may have is welcome.”
“ - Right, Coach…” - she still seems vaguely uncomfortable with the entire situation for some reason, “ - I’ll have to think about it, investigate a bit... It is not like I know if Tiana wets her bed, like when she was five years old or something…”
“ - Sure, I get it. Though… That one could actually work.”
“ - If I knew it was actually true.”
“ - No, it just needs to be even vaguely plausible. Then you just need to fire it at an appropriate moment. “Tiana, do you still pee your bed at night?” It ain’t a refined method, but it can really work. You know, it’s the age-honoured loaded question entrapment, “Sir, have you stopped beating your wife?”-style. You fire that one away, and let her prove she’s not a camel. No amount of claiming it is a false accusation is going to really work - that kind of stuff can stick pretty bad.”
“ - Ugh, Coach, that’s a low blow…”
“ - Chica, we’re out of high ones. And if you haven’t noticed, they aren’t coming at us in a fair fight either. What can I say… It’s politics, Eva - it stinks. I’d thought you’d be familiar with the realities of public relations warfare.”
“ - Right. I’ll see what I can dig up.” - she still doesn’t look very enthusiastic.

“ - But, speaking of public relations…” - Evangeline eagerly grabs the chance to change the subject for now, “ - I’ve been thinking... We, the Anjos de Rocha that is, don’t have much of a media presence, don’t we? Obviously, the visit at the hospital, and now the match with the Knights, will put us out there a bit. But - aside the art competition for our colors, that was a nice touch, Coach - we still haven’t really taken any interest in promoting ourselves in the Academy itself, right? We haven’t reached out to the school bulletin’s sports column, for the obvious thing. And they haven’t exactly jumped at reporting on us - it’s still the rotten reputation of the previous team at work. It’s been so many years, but it still pervades the Academy’s - the city’s, Avalon’s, even! - culture and meme-space! Our first match helped a bit, but not that much - we did better than expected, sure, but still lost, after all. For most people that’s enough to dismiss us still as more of the same. I think it’s time we did something about that!”
“ - Good points, Eva. You obviously thought about this. What do you propose, then?”
“ - Like I said, the Academy’s Maya channel sports column is the obvious starting place. Right now, their ‘reports’ on us are just those few, short, dry, facts-only notes and announcements. Win or lose, they’re running lots of promo and color material on all the other sports teams all the time - why not us? We’re doing ‘live’ TAG warfare, for goodness sake - that should be at least as interesting as twenty-odd beefy males running around chasing a football, no?! Not to mention, we’re better looking. So, if they’re apathetic and won’t come to us, let us be pushy and go to them!”
“ - Stir the pot up - show them there is material to be had on us, and show everybody we won’t lie down in a corner somewhere and be dismissed?”
“ - Exactly! Reporters want views, so they want new material. We have it. And we want to be visible, build up some ‘hype’, as the crude expression goes. So a win-win situation for everybody involved, right? We just have to seize initiative.”
“ - Always a good thing to do. I like the way you think about this, Eva. Let’s go for it. You want to handle this? Have anybody concrete in mind for our media contact?”
“ - I may. It will take some time - with the match, end of term coming, then Christmas and New Year, we’ll have enough on our plates right now. But come next term, I’ll see about staging us our own little media coup.” - Eva grins, obviously much more enthusiastic about this scheme than the bullying war with Dimante and Silva.
“ - Great. That’ll give us something positive to look forward to. Well, I guess that’s all for today, then.”
Diego and Evangeline say their goodbyes until tomorrow.


Saturday, December 7th

As the team meets for their weekly paintball game, Evangeline’s absence is soon noticed. Diego, however, waves the issue away:
“ - She’ll meet us on-site.”
“ - What, the Princess is suddenly too good to ride with us proles, eh?” - Alex finds it an appropriate moment to bicker. Not that she qualifies as a “prole” herself, of course. Save for Dominique, none of the girls do.
“ - Alex, shut up and get on the truck, you poor abused prole, you.” - snarks Morgan, deadpan. She’s obviously thinking the same thing.

The team reach their standard paintball grounds by Monster, where the girls are pretty surprised to see no sign of the Spiders.
“ - Well, chicas, Bolo called me on Wednesday, saying they’ll be out of town today.”
“ - Huh… I guess this means we’ll be doing a four on four routine, yes?” - Nyree takes the initiative as the team’s second-in-command; not that she sounds too enthusiastic, though “ - Or four on three, until Eva shows up… Or will Miss Iskandar be joining us?”
“ - No, it won’t be necessary,” - Diego can hear inbound vehicles already, “ - Eva’ll be here in a moment... And she’s bringing reinforcements.”

A pair of cars show up - sleek but rugged SUVs, glossy black. They come in fast, raising a cloud of dust. Diego notices that, while stylish like hell (and probably outfitted to provide a limousine-like level of comfort), the vehicles are apparently armored. Nothing obvious - it’s a high-end job, not some punks (or Alguaciles) exercising their ingenuousness, welding sheet metal onto a 4WD ride - but a trained eye can see they handle like vehicles heavier than their size suggests*. So, think armored variants of Hummer H3, or something similar.

* You can offset the mass increase with a more powerful engine, brakes and adjusted shock absorbers, but the mass is still there. As any TAG pilot can tell you, physics is not a science you can fool… Well, maybe nowadays you can, a little, with the gravitics tech, but those are hellishly expensive devices, and way too bulky to fit on something the size of a mere car or TAG.

“ - Chicas, meet our opposition for today.”

The mini-convoy pulls up next to the Monster, and disgorges six intimidating individuals in black field gear and sunglasses.
Two of those are Roger and Dorothy, of course. They are joined today by Nemo, Shelke, Leonardo, and Dylan.
As the rest spread out, making an obvious production of securing the site, Roger opens the car door for Evangeline, who steps out wearing the same model of narrow, sharp shades as her bodyguards, and a wide grin, obviously enjoying the impression their entrance made.

“ - Showoff.” - mutter Alex and Morgan in stereo.

As Eva officially introduces everyone, Minnie is quick to pick up interest in Dorothy and Roger sharing the same name:
“ - Are you two siblings, then?”
“ - Married, actually.”
“ - Oh, how sweet! Congratulations! How long?”
“ - Ten years already.”

Well, the Angels have their OpFor for today. Alex quickly dubs them “The Princess Guard”, a name they apparently take a liking to. Professional and slightly intimidating (and no doubt capable of switching to hella intimidating if needed) as they are, all of them seem to have genuine affection for Evangeline. Dorothy, whom the Angels’ resident stoic Morgan dubs “hardcore” in her apparent emotionlessness, is, in her own way, quite motherly towards Eva. Shelke, with the eerie smile easily cowing even Alex*, seems to treat her employer more like a little sister than anything else. All the men are not far behind, being a seeming collection of - mostly gruff and a little distant, but genuinely caring - uncles and big brothers. Such loyalty in the security personnel speaks well of the Neve family.

* “Shy” Emeri intimidated Alex. Diego is quite sure Shelke terrifies her. He himself finds the woman slightly troubling. There is something undeniably uncanny about her. A tiny spark of sheer paranoia would like Diego to suspect her of being a Speculo… But one of those should be better at pretending to be human… Right?

The Guard are appropriately armed - with a boarding shotgun (Dorothy), a submachinegun (Shelke), akimbo pistols (Nemo), a chain rifle (Dylan), and a truly monstrous heavy shotgun (wielded with frightening ease by Leonardo). With Roger as the team’s combat controller, they'll have five players in the field, Dorothy acting as field commander (none of the others seem to mind that bit of apparent marital favoritism). Apparently Eva took some effort to make them perform in a similar manner the Knights of the round Table are expected to. The Guard are ready to go as soon as the Angels finish their own preparations.

Despite being outnumbered and outranged, they prove to be a formidable opponent. They are consummate professionals, and they excel in defensive tactics. A measurement of their professionalism is the fact they can as easily apply maneuver defense, set up ambushes, or man a perimeter - though offensive actions are performed very competently, too. And, contrary to the Knights, Diego has no data on their earlier performance, making him work against a completely unknown opponent. Though he learns quickly.

As a few games show, the Neve security team doesn’t take their chances. And the range & numbers advantages aren’t enough to tip the scales decisively in the Angels’ favour. Sure, if they manage to take a few of the Guard down thanks to their combined numbers and firepower, without taking many losses themselves, they can then wear the opposition down. Otherwise, the odds quickly start stacking against them. And even when it seems the Angels have the game in the bag, they can’t ever afford to take their guard down for even a moment, as the Princess Guard show themselves capable of performing a breathtaking comeback, snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat. One of those, an especially devastating counterattack at the last possible moment, manages to surprise even them! Dorothy later attributes it to luck, and Diego can agree - it was really a result of a truckload of sheer luck, even with all the Guard’s training and experience. But still: if your opponent is lucky often enough, and you’re not, you’re in trouble just as if they were better. And if they already are better too, you’re in for a whole world of pain...

Well, that’s a taste of how the Monday game is likely to look like. In a word: Intense. Still, the Angels should actually have a better chance of winning than they did against the Human Revolution. But they’ll definitely have to work for it.


Which sums the entry #12

[Kathara_Khan]

For the visually inclined among you, here's a little something I cooked up recently.

Meet the beautiful and talented young ladies of the "Anjos de Rocha":

(Click here for the full-size version)

I'll be a smart-ass, and won't label them. If you've been paying attention so far, you should have no trouble telling who's who.

Had a bit of fun with Kisekae 2. Not quite perfect, but close enough. I'll try Coach Diablo and Miss Iskandar next, and might continue on to some supporting cast.

Also, if you think some of them look suspiciously similar to some cartoon characters... Yup, you caught me. What can I say, I believe imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. But then, you knew that already.

[Errhile]

Well, you made my day

[Claudius Sol]

I take it my favorite is the one to the far right? Is that Dominique, my comrade-in-plamo?

[Errhile]

Yup, that's 'Nique

[Radek]

I don't know why but i always imagined morgan to be well smaller. Also Minnie is indeed quite chubby like a little chubby, happy hamster And its amazing how Alex can go around like that, when Dominique haw such much more on herself. Does Alex have some heating implants or Dominique have some cooling system in her sweater?
Btw great arts, you have great artistic skills

[Kathara_Khan]

Nope, Morgan is quite tall and solidly built. She's stronger and tougher than Alex, and she looks like it.

Minnie, the little, chubby, happy hamster - check.

Well, Alex herself would tell you it's because she's hot. Actually, she seems to just naturally be resistant to cold, plus it's summer on Avalon now.

'Nique, on the other hand, isn't cold resistant at all, and she's close to skin and bones, poor girl - not much body fat for insulation. And, hey, it's Infinity. Her sweater and jacket, old as they are, quite possibly do feature some futuristic material science to help keep cool if needed. But that's just her "iconic" look, anyway. With summer in full swing, she will have to ditch the jacket, at least.

Thank you for the praise, but I really can't take much credit here. I just put them together from ready-made elements in a KiSS program.