Welcome to Avalon

[Errhile]

No, it isn't an actual play-by-forum game - these are notes from a game I’ve been participating in recently.

It was heavily inspired by Girls und Panzer anime concept, but with “big robots” instead of tanks. Both GM and player being Infinity fans, we decided to use this universe for the game.

I want to share the story with you to show you the potential that can be used to role-play in the Infinity universe without resorting to military black ops theme / pure combat based RPG (or hack'n'slash and the like).

That’s how it is:

Almost 30 years have passed since the end of war with Evolved Intelligence. EI managed to unexpectedly Transcend (GM’s comment: I haven’t talked about this yet, I think, but it’s supposed to be because the Combined agents located and cracked open the Penny Arcade, acquiring the Digester), effectively vanishing from the conflict in a matter of seconds, its Aspect bodies becoming lifeless statues. Its subordinate races were therefore left out in the cold, so Human / Tohaa alliance was able to drive them back through the wormhole and end the war.

A couple of years after the war, a new sport, eventually second only to Aristeia in popularity, emerged - the TAG-soft (that’s a temporary name until we come up with a better one). It uses outdated, manned (this is a basic requirement) TAGs to play wargames, much resembling paintball and the like. Weapons fire non-penetrating ammunition (equivalent to rubber bullets, and non-explosive warheads on launcher-type ordnance), allowing for quite realistic ballistics, and computers take care of determining the effects of a hit. All this makes the sport showy, yet very safe: barring collisions with terrain / other players, there’s basically no way for a pilot to be actually harmed (pilots are prohibited from leaving their cockpits outside of the hangar, and escape / ejection systems must be disabled).

Both professional and amateur teams exist, though high cost of maintaining obsolete TAGs means they are not very numerous.
Teams are often partially sponsored / supported by TAG manufacturers, who supply them with replacement parts (on-demand / custom made for these obsolete, sometimes downright antique machines), much like a car manufacturer could support a racing team using their cars. Performance and armaments can be upgraded as per league rules, but every change must be represented by real alterations to a machine and registered with the game organiser.

A typical team consists of 8 TAGs - while rules allow for bigger teams, these are uncommon due to procurement and maintenance requirements (and the bigger, the more rare). While smaller teams are easier on the budget, they also suffer from being outnumbered in the field.

In military service, manned TAGs have been already long replaced with Remote Presence units. Only some second-grade Ariadnan units and underfunded mercenary outfits still field actual TAGs with pilots inside.


The place:

Planet Avalon, a PanOceanian colony world. One of the handful of new planets discovered and settled after the war.

Avalon is mostly covered in water (however, nowhere close to Varuna), with two large landmasses, Merlin (Australia-sized) and Morgana (South America-sized) in the southern hemisphere’s temperate zone) and a number of islands. The soil is fertile and supports extensive vegetation, luckily not as aggressive as on Paradiso. Most of the land fauna is arachnid - some species get as big as a small dog, quite furry and very colourful (GM’s comment: in my mind, they’re based on earther jumping spiders). They are not aggressive toward humans, and in fact some species are considered cute enough to be kept as pets (being roughly as domesticated as cats, that is - don’t bothering themselves with humans most of the time).

Many of the settlers, at least on Merlin, are Spanish / Portugese speakers, and dominant cultural trail seems South American.

There is one professional TAG-soft team on Avalon, the Knights of the Round Table, based in planetary capital, Port Arthur (on Morgana). One amateur team did existed, but was disbanded about 5 years ago due to piss-poor performance and lack of interest.

Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy is an large combined school (i.e. one institution covering elementary, junior high and senior high education), located in the city of Belo Horizonte, continental capital on Merlin. It is also a pretty expensive school, meaning it is attended by most of the local elite’s children.
The school’s motto is “Facere aut non facere, non experiri”.

The principal, Ms. Guinevra Chennault, had recently decided to reactivate the school’s TAG-soft team, taking advantage from the fact the equipment wasn’t actually sold, but mothballed. Trying to keep the costs manageable, it was decided to employ a coach from outside of the typical circle (being a professional sport, TAG-soft has a cadre of professional coaches now, usually ex-players themselves).


The protagonist:
Warrant officer Diego “Diablo” Ibarrez, CJC (retired). Diego is a veteran of the Paradiso conflict (as a Gecko pilot), and once a hero. After the war, he was for many years an instructor in the CJC’s TAG school (finally - the chief instructor) but became obsolete once the last manned TAGs were phased out of Nomad military. He was later posted in logistics, but couldn’t really stand it, and finally retired about 2 years ago.
Having worked meaningless jobs since then, he’s bored and ready to take a chance to once again do what he really liked: train TAG pilots, even if for a game only.

He is well-known for his multilingual cursing, likes spicy food, good beer and a number of other good things in life (though these aren’t usually too sophisticated - Diego is a man of rather simple pleasures). Also, quite a ladies’ man, pretty handsome to that. However, he can take a “no” for a “no” (on Corregidor those who can’t, end with broken arms…), and claims that he doesn’t get his sights on sixteen-years-old girls since he was about twenty himself.

Note about age: Diego looks almost forty years old. Biologically, he’s almost fifty (thanks to high-quality medical care of this era… also, a quality body), but technically almost sixty - he was KIA during the Paradiso operations and later resurrected. Which actually is the reason for him not seeking a combat position in a merc outfit: being dead sucks, and he knows it for fact from his personal, first-hand experience.

Diego is motivated primarily by boredom: given the quality of his body and the typical available medical care, it can be assumed he’ll live for another 50, maybe 60 years, most of it being active, productive time. Simply too much time to spend it watching holos all day long. Secondary motivation is financial - CJC retirement pension ain’t all that great, and he’d prefer to raise his retirement fund than to deplete it.
While it is obvious that the school does offer him significantly lower wages than a local / PanO coach would claim, it is still good money and allowing for a pretty comfortable life in Belo Horizonte.


The story

Diego got an offer from Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy to become their TAG-soft team’s coach. The team was inactive for 5 years, as the previous attempt proved disastrously unsuccessful. While not becoming a teacher himself (in a formal sense) he’ll be assisted by the PE teacher.

To the school’s great surprise - he decided almost immediately. Well, the school was mid-term already, and didn’t intended to start the team sooner than beginning of the next term. After an uneventful journey, Diego lands in the Belo Horizonte Astroport on Friday, September 20th, where he’s greeted by Yuni Iskandar, an attractive (if you’re into seriously athletic types. Also, her looks suggest Polynesian/Pacific islands descent (GM’s intention was Malaysian, exactly) young woman who appears to be the PE teacher designated to assisting Diego regarding the team. She’s a motorcycle enthusiast (riding an imported Diryat Fatih bike, pet-named “Beast”... and riding it way too fast). She is currently single, though threatens to break Diego’s arms should he try anything on the pupils. She, however, gladly accepts his response that “breaking hearts of sixteen-years-olds was something he considered OK, but only until he hit about twenty years of age himself”. Not that Yuni herself goes around unnoticed by the teenage students
Since the landing, Diego congratulates himself for keeping the Nomad military-issue programming on his comlog: while it is outdated by military standards now, it provides him with pretty effective spam filters and ad-blocks!

The next meeting is at the school - the principal, Ms. Guinevra Chennault, wants to be sure Mr. Ibarrez understands his role. She’s a tiny, old, dry and strict lady, who reminds Diego that he should behave “properly”, and conduct the team’s training in a way that she wouldn’t get complaints from the parents. She also states that the fate of the project relies on the results Diego will be able to produce. Which he replies to “ma’am, if you want results, then I can’t be running no sunday school there”. The principal accepts it - memorabilia in her office (and the way she behaves) imply that she was once a front-line officer of the Bagh-Mari Regiment.
Yuni later informs Diego that Ms. Chennault currently teaches literature, and that she is in the school longer than herself, but still not long enough to remember the previous TAG-soft attempt.

The next visit is the teachers’ room, where Diego is welcomed rather indifferently, save for father Loyola (teacher on religious studies and a Christian priest) who is clearly antipathic towards him, and a history teacher, Gerhard Oobleck who’s openly enthusiastic on meeting “a real war hero”, and invites Diego to be a guest in the classes he’ll be teaching on the EI conflict. Ibarrez agrees reluctantly - he considers it all to be events of the past, and he isn’t exactly enthusiastic about getting back to them.

Next stop - the TAG hangar, where chief mechanic Eric Wana and his assistants are trying to restore the team’s equipment into working condition. Mr. Wana seems to be a pedantic, perfectionist type - which isn’t the worst kind of guy to be in charge of a workshop!
The motor pool consists of a Gecko, an Iguana, two Anacondas, Szalamandra and a trio of Lizards. All the machines (save for one Anaconda) are, as Eric says, going to be ready for use by Monday, which is the good news. Bad news is that all these TAGs are in their original, stock configuration (instead of the “Praxis refit” standard Diego was used to in Nomad military, and that is familiar to the Infinity the Game players), making them clearly inferior to any other TAG they could meet on the playfield.

The final stop is the meeting with potential team members. Despite the school’s size, there’s only 8 of them, including only one boy (who, seeing the rest of the team and their intended coach, quickly storms away). Of the girls, six are genuine volunteers, the seventh was actually forced into the team by her teachers - she’s a problem kid, school bully and also one neglecting on her PE classes. Diego immediately begins to think of her as “the (bad) apple”.
All the students are first or second-class Senior High-grade students (i.e. no third / final-year ones).
Diego orders a first training session for the next day (Saturday) - he contacts a Laser Tag facility in the local mall to use it for orientation training and show the girls the basics of infantry combat (hey, you have to walk before you can run).

After the meeting ends, he’s ready to hit the town with a list of places where he could rent a living place, passed to him by Yuni. He actually makes use of one of these, and, having now an accommodation, begins to familiarize with the neighbourhood. He ends his evening dining at Silva’s, a small local diner / cafeteria (specializing in Brazilian cuisine, and having it’s own micro-brewery), run by elderly gentleman named Esteban Silva. The owner is assisted by a teenage waitress, Dominque, who is seemingly an Atek.
The cafeteria is typically frequented by local regulars - some of them being a trio of elderly NeoColonial War vets, and offers an “old-fashioned, human-touch service”: it uses almost no augmented reality stuff, and the orders are taken personally by the staff instead of being placed via comlog.
Having finished his dinner, Diego enjoys a tankard of in-house beer when a chance customer, seemingly a not-so-local idiot who thinks he can get away with it, gets ballistic over the fact he was pinging the staff on his comlog for five minutes already and hadn’t yet been served. He’s naturally impervious to persuasion, and obviously looking for a brawl, calling the waitress (who remains perfectly civil) an Atek scum. As Diego intervenes, the waitress notices that the things are soon to get really ugly for the bully, and tries to defuse the situation once more - to no effect. The bully would’ve beaten her up, but that’s the moment for Diego to show him how a fair fight looks like by Corregidorian standards: the offender gets subdued in a quick, brutal and inelegant manner (which, however, doesn’t allow it to turn into a slugfest and demolish the cafeteria) then promptly removed from Silva’s, to everyone’s (save for the guy) relief.

Day two, Saturday, September 21st.
Diego meets the team (and Yuni) at the laser tag facility to let the girls learn the ropes - and to assess his players.
After a warm-up first round, the team gets divided into two squads of four (Yuni filling the odd place) and set up against each other, with elements of instruction being introduced each round. Diego watches it all from a refree’s station, doing his best to enforce teamwork and trying various pairings.

The resulting observations are like this:
Mako, a basketball player (she decided to take up TAG-soft, while still playing on the basketball team, and apparently follows some other activities too - making her a very busy person). Very sporty, very active player. Does well in teamwork, and uses terrain extensively. Excellent prospects.
Minuette, a cheerleader (she gave up the perspective of being head cheerleader - once the current one graduates at the end of this year - to enter TAG-soft team) and self-proclaimed “morale officer”- things can get ugly if one day she’s forced down from her sugar-induced high). Does well in teamwork, and is physically fit. Sometimes not the quickest mind in the team, definitely. Prospectively a good, solid player.
Patricia, a DJ. She does always come with Octavia in tow. Nondescript as a player (though pretty laid back), prospectively an average team member. Notable feature - she’s never seen without headphones (though she switched to low-profile ones for laser tag practice - usually these are huge external headphones! Somehow, they don’t seem to affect hear hearing. (at least Deigo didn’t notice it happening yet…)
Octavia, a cello player. Close (almost inseparable) friends with Patricia. Shy and apparently insecure, tends to hide behind her friend. First thing Diego did was to place them in opposite teams. In combat, Octavia tends to panic (luckily this results not in running away, but in screaming and firing full auto at whatever scared her - though her accuracy is terrible). Seems to be doing very poor if forced to act on her own. Interesting fact - says to be way better checkers player than Patricia. Poorest prospects as of now, will require extensive work to make her into an effective team member. Diego notes down to contact her music teacher on whether she could possibly be given more solo performance.
Evangeline, “the princess”. Proper language, proper behaviour, proper everything - that kind of girl. It took a while to persuade her to crawl on the floor when under fire. She likes the affairs she takes part in to be organised and well-managed, resulting in an urge to command other team members (that’s not bossing them around, she simply feels a need for the effort to be coordinated, and since nobody else is going to do that…). Prospective team leader, though she will require a lot of work to make her develop a tactical sense necessary in the field.
Morgan, the sleepy one. Seems to totally lack interest in anything, and is apparently capable of sleeping all day, anywhere, anytime. Despite this, she’s precise, methodical and controlled combatant. Prospectively a valuable team member.
Alex, “the (bad) apple”. Aggressive and reckless, she tends to rush enemy positions guns’a’blazin’. While she’s able to intimidate the opponents in the laser tag facility, this will be of little use once the team mounts their TAGs. Diego is not a fan of the shock and awe tactics - Alex has a good entry point, but a lot of work will be required to teach her some really useful behaviour.

After the allotted training time is up and the team is told to show up on Monday (after classes) for their first TAG practice (Mako runs off in hurry, she’s always tight on time with various activities), and the vid recordings from the laser tag practice gets mailed to the principal. She wants results - she should be glad to know that Mr. Ibarrez got right into the work!
Diego asks Yuni whether she’s like to wash the “battle dust” down her throat - which results in both of them ending up at Silva’s for a dinner. The veterans and staff greet Diego as a regular already.
The meal is good, the beer excellent (though Yuni has to limit herself - she’s driving!), and the chat pleasant.

Which makes for a fine ending of a day.

[Section9]

Dear lord, I can see the anime already! (this is NOT a bad thing, mind you...)

[Errhile]

Well, hard to avoid that, given both the subject and the inspiration

But I have a gut feeling it was intended to feel like one from the very beginning. Still, why not...?

[Claudius Sol]

Absolutely no reason why not.

Sounds like a good premise and fun way to tell a story.

[Errhile]

Chronicles of Avalon, entry #2

Dramatis personae:
Note - 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).

The Team:
Alex Narahari - (2. class, 17y) Indian. “Bad apple”, school’s bully assigned to the team as a method of correcting her ways. Her father tends to solve any problems (including those caused by Alex) by throwing money at them.
Evangeline Neve - (1. class, 16y) Italian. “Princess”, the wealthiest kid in school. Craves for proper behaviour and organized affairs. Prospective team’s captain.
Mako Joyo - (1. class, 15y) Micronesian. School sportsgirl. Very sporty, very active - and thus extremely busy person.
Minuette Diane Chryse - (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.
Morgan Lai - (2. class, 17y) Polynesian. “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player.
Octavia Moina - (1. class, 16y) Brazilian. Successful and gifted musician (cello), but shy and prone to panic when not currently playing. Patricia’s best mate.
Patricia Summers (1. class, 16y) North American. DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate.

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:
Diego “Diablo” Ibarrez - (~60y, looks ~40) Latinoamerican. The protagonist - TAG Soft team’s coach, retired CJC TAG combat instructor and once a war hero.
Eric Wana - (~35y) Polynesian. TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious).
Gerhard Oobleck - (~40y), German. Teaches history. Enthusiastic about the perspective of having a real war veteran (Diego) in his classes.
Ginevra Chennault - (~90y) Polynesian. School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. Strict and to-the-point. Teaches literature.
Yuni Iskandar - (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.

Other characters in Belo Horizonte:
Senores Anzamble, Ral and Trowa (~80y) Central American (various). Veterans of the First NeoColonial War (Fusiliers), now elderly retirees and regular guests at “Silva’s”.
“Bolo” (in his late 20s). Chief of the “Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders”, one of the local paintball teams.
Dominique Torres - (16y) Argentinian. Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”.
Esteban Silva (~80y) Brazilian. Owner, cook and host at “Silva’s”, old-fashioned eatery with human touch (and spicy South American cuisine).
Roger Smith - Evangeline’s chauffeur (Officially. In reality, he’s a high-end bodyguard).
“Scythe” (in her mid-late 20s) - member and field commander of the “Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders” paintball team.


Sunday, September 22nd
Diego spends most of the day digging through various data on his comlog - team members extensive school files (he’s glad to find all of them are healthy, so no need to worry about any one of them passing away during practice - also, that Morgan is not narcoleptic, just lazy), league rules, local biology information (once you’ve been to Paradiso, you know better to check and memorize what the heck lives in the local woods!) and a ton of other stuff.

He also plans Wenesday’s training in the practice ground owned by the school - left basically unattended since the previous team was disbanded. Thanks to Avalon’s active biology, it is heavily overgrown by now, but that doesn’t concern him.

He manages to do it while walking the neighborhood to get himself familiar with the layout.


Monday, September 23rd
Diego manages to buy himself an inexpensive car to get around, and heads to school. He mails the fine arts club teacher asking for a school-wide contest to be ran: he needs a color scheme for his team. The one used by the previous team is apparently too stained to be worth to rescue it. He attaches silhouette drawings of the TAGs the team uses (and pilot’s jumpsuit). His idea is to have the primary school kids do the colouring, and junior high school ones vote the coolest variant, thus allowing the younger kids to feel enrolled in the team too.

Eric, as he promised, made all the TAGs save for one Anaconda good to go. He becomes a little frustrated with that last TAG, as there’s something glitchy with its movement system. Hardware was triple-checked already, and Eric begins to consider smoking some incense for it. And praying. Diego suggests it might be a glitchy driver in need of an update, though, as he comments, incense and a prayer might help or not, but definitely won’t do any harm, so he’s absolutely for it if Eric feels such a need.
Just make sure the incense won’t trigger the fire alarm, please.

Yuni comes in about 2 PM, just in time to be presented with the TAGs being ready for use. When she expresses her curiosity about what it feels to drive one, Diego offers her a chance to walk the Szalamandra out of the hangar (and once that is done, all the other TAGs too).

The girls show up after 3 PM, and are promptly sent to the changing room to get into their jumpsuits (one can pilot a TAG in “civvies”, but a pilot’s jumpsuit provides better cushioning and interfacing. It also allows the pilot to use TAG’s built-in toilette, a perspective that makes the team very uneasy. Still, Diego points out that when you’re 4th day on an operation, it really isn’t very practical to get out of your armor every time you want to visit the loo…). They feel a bit odd in the jumpsuits, though Evangeline mentions it isn’t half-bad, as these aren’t partially transparent like the Bakunin pilot suits (a reference to the Lizard Pilot Bootleg Model). Diego replies that luckily for them, the suits didn’t come with ports for a tail, either (a reference to the initial meeting, where Minuette, having learned that their coach is a Nomad, immediately asked what he has done with his tail). The vision turns out to be pretty shocking…
Eric then goes over with an instruction on safety rules when driving a TAG. Much to Alex’ regret, they aren’t going to be given guns any time soon.

After that, Diego leads the outside and assigns them to their TAGs. Alex gets the Anaconda, Evangeline - Iguana, Mako - Gecko, Morgan - Szalamandra, Minuette, Patricia and Octavia - Lizards. They are to get up, walk, trot and eventually run in the adjacent yard (and warned not to stray into the school’s car park!).
Surprisingly, Octavia does excellent, apparently being a natural talent [GM’s note: And develops a moderate case of seemingly out-of-character maniacal laughter when she realizes it], while Mako tends to fall on her face more often than anyone. Yes, they all make their quota of falls and slides, but that was to be expected (and the yard in front of the hangar will be in need of some serious maintenance after the practice). Minuette even manages to pull some acrobatics in her Lizard, though back vaulting from a handstand (and a couple other tricks) result in spectacular crashes into the dirt. As Diego comments, the designer didn’t expected the armors to be used for that kind of activity, and there simply isn’t enough flexibility in the spine.
Patricia is all over the interface from the moment she gets into the TAG, luckily it proves too well-protected to allow her to do any serious hacking form the inside (at least for now). Diego warns her that getting hacked in a TAG is a very, very nasty affair (“Chica, just think what happens when the hacker gets to flush your toilet the other way…” - “Eeeck. Once Eva is done with her brain bleach, I’d ask for some, too….!”). She also confides to Diego (over a private channel) that it was actually Octavia’s idea to enroll in TAG-Soft, and Patricia herself was dragged in to keep her company - not, as it could be initially thought, the other way around.
The day’s practice ends with girls playing throw and catch with an empty supplies box (which Eric wrote down as collateral damage. Well, they didn’t have a TAG-sized ball for them…).

Diego suggests Eric to re-check the gyroscope on the Gecko. While Mako learned how to maintain balance in her TAG, she is not a sure-footed and fluid in her movements as Diego expected her to be - apparently, there’s something strange going on there. Well, perhaps her movement pattern is different enough from standard so the armour’s interface needs some more time to learn it...

The next practice is set for Wednesday. Mondays and Wednesdays are appointed as after-school practice days, and Saturdays as off-school practice days. Diego also announces that he’ll be handing out “homework” “to keep you chicas from getting bored”. The perspective of homework is taken with shock and disbelief… He also mentions that he intends to have a school-wide competition for a colour scheme for the team. The girls themselves intend to come up with a name for the team, but on the spot, they get no ideas.


Wednesday, September 25th
The team (accompanied by Diego in the spare Anaconda, now finally operational) moves to the school’s training ground, for mobility and navigation exercise. After all, TAGs react to various terrain types different than humans, and trying to negotiate a steep and slippery slope will likely end in what the girls aptly called “the rototiller incident”.

Alex is definitely unlucky - first, a big spider (which is - medium dog-sized) lands on her Anaconda’s head (she is not arachnophobic, but seeing such an animal suddenly just in front of your eyes…) and gets immediately squashed as she instinctively swats it with the TAG’s hand. Then she miscalculates a jump when the team fords a stream, and gets stuck in the mud. So, when Morgan and Evangeline try to pull her out, she deliberately flips the Iguana so that it gets stuck too - just in this case, head down (opening a private channel to Evangeline allows Diego to learn that “the princess” does actually know quite a lot of dirty words, just doesn’t use them when someone can hear her).
Once the TAGs are safely on the other bank, Diablo says on the common channel “I’m really curious, Alex, how do you mean to survive the first five seconds of a game, given your attitude…”. Alex takes a moment to catch up: “Uh, what do you mean?” to which one of the girls (probably Morgan) explains “A bullet to your back, moron”.
“I didn’t know the rules allowed for friendly fire…”
“Remember, chicas - there’s nothing friendly in a “friendly fire”...”

Evangeline does her best to fit in the role of team commander, but she’s apparently overwhelmed with the amount of data she has to process. This also makes her become somewhat ham-fisted in her approach to other team members, and Diego has to intervene over PM, telling Evangeline to at least hear other girls’ suggestions and ideas, even if she’s not going to use them.

As he explains to the girls, they cannot hope to outgun any opposing team - which is going to beat them in general experience, and most likely in terms of equipment quality (unmodified Reptiles are basically the weakest TAGs available, no one uses stuff as antique as RM-100s). Therefore they have to be able to outsmart and outmaneuver their opponents - and the ability to read the map, navigate and use the terrain for their advantage is going to be crucial to them.

During the exercise Diego notes that Mako still performs worse than he expected, though Eric swears by the gyro of her Gecko.

The team heads back to the hangar, and the chief mechanic looks pretty desperate, watching “his TAGs” coming back covered head to toe in mud (in some cases, like Evangeline’s iguana, literally). Diego orders the team to wash their machines clean with water hoses - which promptly erupts into a free-for-all water battle between the girls (though somehow Alex gets targeted more often than anybody else). After a few moments Diego spoils the fun, saying that they don’t have a “Miss wet t-shirt competition” on schedule for the day. [GM’s note: Yuni would win anyway. ^_^] The team gets to the changing room.

Before going home, the girls get informed that on Saturday, a day in the paintball field is in order. The team is to assembly at the hangar in the morning, and go shopping for equipment before the game itself.
Alex seems delighted - she’ll be finally able to shoot people (she attempted to join the school’s shooting club once, but they refused, and - as the GM depicts it - “dug in, deployed razor wire and landmines, and swore to defend till the bitter end”)!

One last thought strikes him, though, and Ibarrez asks Mako to stay a little longer - try riding in the Anaconda he was using himself (and is perfectly sure it has properly calibrated gyros). She still has the same kind of problems as in the Gecko. Diego and Eric can but scratch their heads… then bring a motion-capture-capable camera and ask Mako to do some general gymnastics in front of it. They can’t tell if her way of moving is atypical, but computer analysis will sort that out - maybe the girl needs a customized movement software.

Diego then heads to “Silva’s” for a dinner. It is a good thing in this day and age that you don’t have to sit over actual papers when doing your paperwork (and running a team is pretty a lot of it, including some teacher’s paperwork). He also secured a “realistic” computer game (FPS-type with good multiplayer option… not necessarily with the best VR, but definitely one that represents a TAG battlefield very well) and is all over the mission editor, preparing “homework” for his team.
You can’t really train your TAG operation in a game, but for tactics and teamwork, it will do!

Senores Anzamble, Ral and Trowa can be seen at their regular table, discussing some long-gone battle - and Dominique peeks above their shoulders from time to time, pointing out various bits: she seems to be pretty into military history.
At some point they become interested in the simulation scenario Diego is constructing “for his pupils as homework”. Dominique expresses her fascination with TAGs - she dreams about driving a TAG for a moment one day, and even more so about getting to take one apart - and it turns out she’s making very detailed (and fully articulated) scale models of TAGs herself. [GM’s note: Think modern Japanese Gunpla toys] While the blueprints for such models are readily downloadable, she upgrades these to fit her own requirements for detail (basically, she stops at the detail limit of the 3-d printers she’s able to rent time on). Diego is pretty impressed, and asks for a download of her work (which gets promptly sent to Eric with a request for his professional opinion as TAG mechanic). He also joins the conversation with the three elderly Fusiliers (though not all of their suggestions are fit for a TAG-only tactical scenario, of course).

He also secures Saturday game time with the “Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders” at their game field.


Saturday, 28th September

The team gather at the hangar in the morning. Diego decided that it will be more fun to use one of the team’s own vehicles rather than put on request for a school’s bus. Well definitely there’s fun, as Yuni drives out one of the two TAG transporter rigs (think Dragon Wagon) - well, only the tractor, the trailer (capable of carrying 5 TAGs and assorted supplies) won’t be needed this time. With a soft spot in her heart for big, noisy and powerful machines, she immediately starts to like the massive truck which gets aptly nicknamed “Monster”. [GM’s note: Yeah, I think we went a little overkill with the truck. A mobile storage & maintenance bay for five TAGs, even fully loaded with 5 of the heaviest machines, like Salamandras or Jotums, still won’t weigh anywhere near what an M1 Abrams does, which is what this truck can haul. An ordinary 18-wheeler would be enough. But damn if it isn’t cool. ^_^]

A mallplex where Diego had located a paintball store is the next stop. The Monster gets parked on the outside (as it doesn’t fit into the underground parking lot), causing quite a sensation.

At the store the girls get wild - Yuni shoos Diego away (“Have a nice conversation with the shop assistant, Diego - I’ll take care of the girls. Ladies, we’re goin’ shopping!” - “Yuni, why do I feel like I just entrusted a fox with custody over a henhouse…?” - “Because perhaps you did… >:3 ”). Somehow, the team manages to agree on a common camouflage pattern. Diego persuades Alex out of getting herself a gattling cannon (basically on the grounds of how heavy and unwieldy it is), but feels resigned once she gets adamant about taking a revolver-fed grenade launcher. Morgan gets herself a sniper rifle and a bush rag. Octavia turns herself into a pretty convincing Nisse, complete with the 6-visor helmet… (“Diego, I think we’ve created a monster” - “My exact thoughts, Yuni…”) [GM’s note: Well, Patricia helped - she suggested the fully enclosed helmet, which does seem to make some crucial psychological difference for the normally meek Octavia…] And Evangeline is a pretty, pretty Fusilier princess, complete with a cute little beret and a pleated mini skirt. It’s a combat-camo-printed and utility-pocketed pleated mini skirt, but still, Diego’s despair is palpable. Diego orders those who insisted on shorts / t-shirts / tank tops to take spare trousers and jackets to wear once they change their minds about skirmishing with loads of bare skin… [GM’s note: The whole dress-up thing may possibly be my poke at some Infinity female models… But if it is, it’s a small, loving one. ^_^]

Diego intended to pay for the equipment with the team funds (paintball training is way cheaper than using TAGs - which is why he went for it. The other reason is that there are several paintball teams and fields in and around Belo Horizonte, while the only other TAG Soft team on Avalon is the professional one and located on the other continent), but Evangeline gets really stubborn - she wants to pay for all of it herself, “to do something for the team”. Well, the total costs comes out to be a small fortune, but as she says (albeit through a rather rictus grin) “after all, it is my pocket money and I can spend it however I like”.

Needless to say that the impression the Monster made in the parking lot is immediately dwarfed by the team marching through the mall in full combat kit (though Yuni and Diego make them at least pack their paintball guns as not to flash them in public…). Next stop - “Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders’” paintball field!

The opposition is naturally impressed by the kind of vehicle the team arrives with, and bewildered by team itself: seven teenage girls… They agree to play it TAG-Soft like, i.e. with a combat controller outside of the field in addition to field commander. Also, despite being more numerous (9 players) they agree to have two of them sit out to even the numbers. The “Spiders” are not a pro competition team, but they are all seasoned veterans of this hobby.

Diego points this fact to his team, expressing he doesn’t expect his team to win. They’re complete noobs, the opposition is vet. Expecting a win would be completely unrealistic.
Instead, he expects that the girls will make the “Spiders” sweat for their victory - and the more they will make them sweat, the more will he be satisfied.

A kill-out game proceeds. Despite being noobs, the girls (under Evangeline’s command, and Diego doing the combat control part) manage to stop the Spiders’ initial rush, and swing into offensive a number of times. Minuette becomes the first casualty, then the team manages to score their only kill in the game, with Octavia eliminating Scythe (and effectively putting the Spiders into LoL). Although the team maneuvers vigorously and very effectively, they prove to be too lousy shots to make any use of this, and this advantage is wasted.
Evangeline is completely trampled with data she has to manage as field commander, not to mention she has to shoot, too!
Morgan changes positions like an expert, though her sniper rifle fails to score any hits.
Alex soon learns that a grenade launcher doesn’t work well as a primary weapon, especially if you like to shoot a lot (Diego made up his mind about her: “burned hand teaches best”, if she doesn’t take advice, let her do it her way and fail, then explain why she failed). She eventually swaps it for Evangeline’s Combirifle.
Octavia does like a marvel (despite being just as lousy shot as the rest of them).
Still, it takes the Spiders half of an hour of fighting to cripple the team to the point where they can’t fight back. Mako and Patricia are the last ones to go down.

Definitely, the girls made them sweat!

A number of games follow, with roughly similar results. The team reacts quick, and isn’t afraid to maneuver, but their weapons skills aren’t worth a damn.

The Spiders bid them goodbye, hoping for some games in the future - it was a good sporting fun for them, and not such one-sided as they first expected.
The Monster takes the team back to school, half-conscious with exhaustion. Morgan is, for the first time ever, seen not to doze off because of boredom, but actually fall asleep. Several members get dropped at convenient points en route. A limo awaits for Evangeline at school, and her chauffeur, Roger, looks pretty alarmed seeing his charge in full camo gear, with twigs in her hair, dead on her feet (and yes, dragging the damn grenade launcher behind her). Mako, knowing that there will be a lot of muscle pain in the morning, manages to trot away - but she’s the only one with that much power of will.
Yuni parks the Monster and agrees for a late dinner at Silva’s with Diego (not to mention she can leave her Beast in the parking lot at school this time, and have more than one beer!).

On the way they start wondering how many of the girls will just throw themselves on their beds as they were… and how many will fall asleep in the shower.

At this late hour, “Silva’s” is completely empty (save for senhor Silva and Dominique, who herself is sweeping the floor and singing - thanks to headphones, she doesn’t notice Diego and Yuni for quite a while). The owner reminds her that her shift is ending soon, and she should be getting home. And to be careful on the way - he really seems to care about the kid. Her reply “Sure, grandpa Esteban” seems to really move the old man. After a few minutes, he asks if he could join Yuni and Diego.

Senhor Silva is in a mood to tell his story this evening - as it appears, he lost his family during the EI Conflict - both his children on Paradiso (in a way that sounds like combat losses, Diego doesn’t ask for details), his daughter-in-law and grandchildren during the Bombing of Accontaciemento. Diego acknowledges - it was a nasty war, and yes, he fought in it. Esteban expresses his hope that Diego got some of those alien bastards, to which reply is “Yeah, I got some of them. And then one of them got me.”

Which is the time for him to raise his tankard: “To the absent friends”, and Silva joins him in the toast.

Dominique’s story is revealed, too. She’s a bright, hard-working kid who dreams to be an engineer - just like her mother dreamt. Her mother, however, had her when she was 18, (which sent her educational plans down the gutter) and since then does make ends meet working as a low-grade technician at a local drone factory. Not bad for an Atek (or “economically unprivileged”, as the politically correct term goes), apparently, but still not a place from which one could aspire to anything.
Dominique tried to get one of the precious few scholarship grants the Roberto Rocha Academy (the best school in the region, also, the most expensive…) sets up every year, but she failed, and failed in the most painful way: she scored just after the last person accepted. While she intends to try again next year, it will be more difficult to get it as she gets older.
In the meanwhile, she got herself a place in a public school, one of the, sadly rather low-quality, charity-funded institutions ran by the Church, and works as a waitress for Silva. As he says, he’s paying her the maximum legally allowed for an underage, unskilled worker. He could manage the joint all by his own (with some robotic help), but he appreciates the kid who spends most of her income on extra study (save for the bit she spends on her hobby).

Hearing all that makes Yuni go bitching about the education system - but Diego stops her. “Yuni, enough of it. I didn’t come here to criticise how your nation handles itself, including the education. And believe me, I’d really have a few words I’d just love to say on that…” She also starts wondering whether it would be possible to get Dominique a sports scholarship.
Diego replies that he’s not going to promise anything and to anyone, but he had taken the blueprints Dominique was making, and sent them to Eric for a review.
“We can’t change the world all by ourselves. And the rest remains to be seen.”


Which, generally, makes for an end to this entry (though my GM threw me a cliffhanger that there will be 2 mails getting into Diego’s mailbox on Sunday morning. One from Eric, the other from Loyian N’dele).

Who’s Loyian N’dele? Oh, let me have some cliffhanger on you, too

[Claudius Sol]

Damn. That was a rather enjoyable read.

[Errhile]

Thank you

I really like how this tale goes - yes, it is animey, but on the other hand, it is - in my eyes - beliveable, and not overacted. Light-hearted (mostly), but not silly.

If it was an anime series, I'd love to watch it.

[Claudius Sol]

Eh, it's enjoyable as a slice-of-life little thing. I just like the small details that kind of bring the characters a bit more life. Like Dominique's Gunpla hobby, Alex's grenade launcher fascination (and subsequent dislike), etc.

Gives them a rather tangible persona.

[Errhile]

Entry #3
Stone Angels

Dramatis personae:
Note - 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).

The Team:
Alex Narahari - (2. class, 17y) Indian. “Bad apple”, school’s bully assigned to the team as a method of correcting her ways. Her father tends to solve any problems (including those caused by Alex) by throwing money at them.
Evangeline (or Eva) Neve - (1. class, 16y) Italian. “Princess”, the wealthiest kid in school. Craves for proper behaviour and organized affairs. Prospective team’s captain.
Mako Joyo - (1. class, 15y) Micronesian. School sportsgirl. Very sporty, very active - and thus extremely busy person.
Minuette (or Minnie) Diane Chryse - (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. The only team member to have siblings (three in fact).
Morgan Lai - (2. class, 17y) Polynesian. “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player.
Octavia (Octy) Moina - (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.
Patricia (Patty) Summers (1. class, 16y) North American. DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate.

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:
Amar Lal (1. class, 16y) Indian. The only boy who was interested in joining the TAG Soft team, but stormed out of the initial meeting, immediately gaining Diego’s antipathy.
Diego “Diablo” Ibarrez - (~60y, looks ~40) Latinoamerican. The protagonist - TAG Soft team’s coach, retired CJC TAG combat instructor and once a war hero.
Eric Wana - (~35y) Polynesian. TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
Gerhard Oobleck - (~40y), German. Teaches history. Enthusiastic about the perspective of having a real war veteran (Diego) in his classes.
Ginevra Chennault - (~90y) Polynesian. School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. Strict and to-the-point. Teaches literature.
Ken Kamehameha (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 - (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.

Other characters in Belo Horizonte:
Senores Anzamble, Ral and Trowa (~80y) Central American (various). Veterans of the First NeoColonial War (Fusiliers), now elderly retirees and regular guests at “Silva’s”.
“Bolo” (in his late 20s). Chief of the “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.
Dominique (‘Nique) Torres - (16y) Argentinian. Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”, student of St. John’s High School (a Church-run school for the poor). She is fascinated with TAGs and does “gunpla” kits of them in her free time.
Esteban Silva (~80y) Brazilian. Owner, cook and host at “Silva’s”, old-fashioned eatery with human touch (and spicy South American cuisine).
Roger Smith - Evangeline’s chauffeur… Officially. In reality, he’s a high-end bodyguard.
“Scythe” (in her mid-late 20s) - member and field commander of the “Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders” paintball team. [GMs note: 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
Lt. Loyian N’dele (29y), Maasai. Once Diego’s favourite student (and attempted romantic interest, but she turned him down. Very gracefully in fact: they still are friends) in one of his last TAG classes. She was re-trained for remote TAGs, and remains in active service (CJC).


Sunday, September 29th

In the morning, Diego - getting to deal with the team-related paperwork - finds two e-mails in his mailbox, one having been delivered through Arachne from his long-time friend Loyian N’dele - she’s worrying about him, as the rumor service has brought her news that “Diablo” sold out to pilot a TAG in some combat zone. As she knows his past (and the fact he’s not willing to enter a battlefield anymore), does that mean something went really wrong for him…
Diego is quick to assure her that this is not the case - he went into TAG Soft as a coach of a high-school team on Avalon. Nothing to worry about here.

The other mail cames from Eric, who has checked on the blueprints and holos Diego sent him (Dominique’s works) and is pretty impressed. While, as he points, there are superior quality kits on the market, these would be the high-end ones. What Dominique makes is obviously using some massively outdated design software (Eric had to first identify the formats to open them at all), but she gets every last gram of performance and functionality out of these. Also, there are details on the models that had to be hand-made, as they are obviously below the resolution of the 3-d printer used. All in all, these toys would be worth some serious Oceana to collectors, should their creator be willing to sell them.

Also, Eric is pleased to inform that he had most likely solved the problem with Mako’s Gecko. Being the bare-bones, stock configuration 3.0 Gecko, the poor old Reptile’s driver was unable to cope with high-performance user like Mako, effectively lagging in reactions behind her and thus tripping her up. He gutted the program and made her a new one that should be able to react quick enough.

Diego e-mails Mako that he’d like her to be earlier for Monday practice, as her Gecko requires a test run.


Monday, 30th September.

The last week of the first semester begins, and the school is going to be a little crazed over competition tests / exams / qualifications, you name it. It will be followed by a week-long break.

The results of the graphics competition get into Diego’s mailbox in the morning, so the team will be getting their colours today.

He does, however, begin the day having a talk with Eric about Dominique. Long story short, while her designs are merely toys, she clearly has potential for mechanics, and Eric is positive when Diego suggests they could give the girl a tour of the team’s hangar - perhaps on Wednesday?

Mako shows up early, just as requested, and takes her Gecko out of the hangar to test the new driver. It does indeed make a difference, immediately noticeable to everybody as the rest of the team slowly gathers up.

Diego informs them about the colour scheme contest - which is a big surprise for the girls as none of them - except for Minuette - followed the elementary-grade section of the schools bulletin. They’re shocked to hear their colours have been designed by minors, and as Alex expresses it, they expect awful pastel designs with lots of flowers on them - totally unacceptable. Diego replies that, specially for Alex, he’ll be adding extra butterflies to her Anaconda’s paintjob. Jokes aside, he switches Mako’s (who’s still testing her driver in front of the hangar) Gecko into the team’s new paint scheme: a really minimalistic, two tone grayish graphite black and basalt dark grey design, with glowing neon blue accents.
It is definitely a positive surprise, and the team finds it hard to believe it is a work of an elementary school student - though, as it gets explained, it was the junior high school who was voting over the projects.

Having the colours, the team goes back to arguing about a name. There’s some strong opposition against a “girly” name - despite the team being all female now, the current players will be in for no longer than a little over 2,5 years, and it cannot be expected that it will always be a girls’-only team.
Finally, Minuette comes up with an idea all the team members find acceptable: Anjos de Rocha (Portugese: Stone Angels) [GM: I prefer the more poetic-sounding “Angels of Stone” ^_^], which is both fitting the colour scheme and being a reference to the school’s patron. Patricia, as the resident computer expert, is tasked with finding an appropriate stylized angel and turning it into team’s emblem.

And, to Diego’s relief, not very likely to irritate padre Loyola (too much).

Quickly, two more TAGs are walked out of the hangar, and the team (plus staff) forms in front of them to have a group photo taken (by Reksio) in their new colours.

The practice of the day is dedicated to target practice with TAGs - Octavia is clearly doing best of the team. Alex, while very enthusiastic (the girl just loves to shoot!) is not very successful.
Diego asks Patricia (over Private Mode) to help the girls with personalizing their interface displays, and especially teach Evangeline on how to deal with it. While her Iguana is best suited to being a command vehicle, Eva herself suffers from a bad case of information overload in combat (especially given her tendency to micromanage her troops).
Morgan is asked whether she enjoys her role of a sniper - perhaps she would like to reconsider her position in the team and swap her Szalamandra for a lighter, more mobile TAG? She says she’ll think about it, also, she would like to try the grenade launcher next time they go paintball.
Evangeline (who’s not doing too well regarding shooting) is suggested to set up some targets in her backyard and practice at home. She’s somewhat shocked she didn’t got that idea herself, but immediately catches on it, thinking loudly she could perhaps ask Roger for some advice on that.

Yuni asks Diego if he would be willing to assist her this week during PE tests - while the scores required to get a passing grade are set at minimum, as PE is the least important subject in the curriculum, she’s going to have it done properly, and that means a lot of work - and a hard workout for the kids! She could definitely use a hand.
Diego agrees immediately (well, he doesn’t have much else to do anyway), making Yuni pretty enthusiastic about the fact she was able to secure his assistance earlier than Gerhard (the history teacher).


Tuesday, October 1st.

Having dusted off his field uniform, Diego shows up to assist Yuni, putting on his best impression of a drill sergeant (well, as far as he can without breaking rules of conduct at school!), terrifying a lot of kids, causing some shock and loathing… as well as gaining about as many sympathizers among the students! “No, he doesn’t bite - he swallows them whole!”
He also enters into - and loses - a push-ups competition against Yuni. While his result is still impressive by school standards, he cannot match her in this field. As he comments - well, he got out of shape, time to do something about that!
Diablo also jumps at the opportunity to get onto Amar Lal, the lad who stormed out of the initial meeting of the TAG-Soft team candidates. “Ah, Mr. Lal. I’m glad to see you” followed with the best obstacle course style hurrying - “Slower! Even slower! Maybe you’d better lie down, huh? Perhaps Mr. Lal would care to crawl backwards?”

Naturally, the handsome-veteran-turned-TAG-soft coach showing up to assist Miss Iskandar in PE exams doesn’t doesn’t go unnoticed by the student community, and the rumour mill gets a spin. Though, as Diego points out to Yuni half-jokingly, this could actually lower the number of accidents that happen among male students: he still remembers that goldilocks who walked into a lamp post on the day of Diego’s arrival, because he was gazing at Yuni...

After school he drops for a dinner at Silva’s, and asks Dominique what time she ends her classes on Wednesday, as his chief mechanic would like to see her. She’s, however, torn between one of her dreams coming true (she’s been invited to visit a hangar with real TAGs) and her duty - she has agreed to help senhor Silva after her classes. However, Esteban assures her he’ll manage on his own, and that she should take the opportunity.


Wednesday, October 2nd.

Dominique shows up at the school’s gates just after midday, and, after checking her visit with Diego, Ken Kamehameha sends her in (accompanied by one of his subordinates for guidance: while there are augmented-reality signs with directions on the campus, Ken is bright enough to understand Diablo’s suggestion about a print-out map for the girl, who can’t access them).

While she’s initially shy and a bit overwhelmed by the presence of a real TAG mechanic and true machines, Dominique soon forgets her troubles and - having shown great knowledge about the machines (she’s able to identify the variant used without VR assistance, something Eric admits he couldn’t easily do himself) - is allowed to get elbows-deep into the mechanisms of the “spare” Anaconda, eventually assisted only by Reksio, while Eric is conferring with Diego.

In his opinion, the girl has great talent, and an already extensive body of knowledge, doubly impressive because of her reduced education opportunities, and it would be a criminal waste not to have her properly educated in mechanics. However, it is beyond his reach do actually do anything about it, and he cannot take her in as a trainee due to legal restrictions…

Once the Anaconda is fully assembled again, Diego asks whether Dominique would like to drive it out of the hangar.

She’s still testing the TAG (and taking her share of slides and collapses) as the girls gather for the Wednesday practice. Diego informs them they have a guest today, and that they should hurry up to the dressing room - it is time to get them for a field maneuvers. Also, he’d like to know what their plans are for the next week break - are they in town, or is anybody leaving for holiday?
In any case, he’ll be available on site should anyone want to take individual lessons, and he will consider giving them some extra homework (nota bene, the girls are not having easy time with Diego’s virtual combat scenarios, but they perform acceptably).

It is agreed to run Monday practice as normal, though Wednesday one is revoked - Patricia has a gig to DJ. Diego immediately asks whether he could come, though Patricia warns him she’s not sure he’ll like the music.

Inquired whether the guest is going to be the eighth team member, Diego replies that he’d like to have it that way, but as Dominique is not a student of the Academy, this is currently impossible.

The team suits up and moves out, this time accompanied by Diablo only via comms. Field exercise goes without any noteworthy events, though Dominique is doing pretty well (on her first exercise, she’s performing a bit above the team’s average).

After the practice, the girls exit their TAGs, getting first chance to see Dominique face-to-face (and, in some cases, to see her at all - not everyone has yet mastered the interface and is aware of the internal camera’s option). They want to know which school she’s in - and it takes them quite a while to recall (or search through their comlogs?) that there indeed is one St. John’s High School in Belo Horizonte. Then they realize what it means, and Evangeline is the one most shocked by the revelation that today’s guest, one who Diego would like to have on the team, is an Atek.
Curiously enough, the “princess” gets immediately laid into by Patricia for (assumed) judging people’s worth by the thickness of their wallets, and asked how much money does one need to have to qualify as a human being in her eyes - Minuette being called in as an example (she’s the least well-off of the team members - and that’s because her parents own a chain of popular restaurants!). Patty for some reason seems to be really personally offended on Dominique’s behalf by Eva’s reaction, threatening the other girl with “a kick up that “hoity-toity’ ass strong enough that they’re gonna need to call in a proctologist so Patty can get her sneaker back afterwards”.
Alex, the “bad apple”, just shrugs: “She’s doing okay in the TAG, so I’m OK with her, Atek or not!”.
Diego point out that Dominique is “just a human being. Look, two, legs, two arms, one head”, to which Minuette quickly adds “and no tail...” - which quickly derails the dispute into Minuette being obsessed with folks having tails, and Diego suggesting they should find her a boyfriend.
As it turns out, Minnie already has a boyfriend (a star player on the football team, and the tallest guy in school) - and gets scolded by the other girls for snuggling with him all the time in public .
The issue of Dominique being an Atek gets abandoned due to the more pressing issues of Minuette’s private life (Minnie’s pretty surprised anyone noticed… Morgan’s reply: “He’s so huge he’s impossible to miss, and you, no offense, have about the subtlety of a weasel on acid. Even I noticed.”) and the team eventually leaves for home, though an uncomfortable silence still lingers between Patricia and Evangeline.

On their way out they pass the principal, who’s coming to see Diego about some matters.
As Ms. Chennault informs the coach, she’s satisfied with his work so far - in fact, she’s pretty impressed by the pace on which he’s making the team up. However, the school’s board is already complaining about the costs of the program (mere two weeks into it), and have to be shown some results. She’s aware that going against another school-level team would require a trip off-planet (or at least inviting an off-planet team to Belo Horizonte), so definitely not a trifle problem, but should an opportunity arise, it cannot be missed.

She’s also pleased to observe that miss Narahari had not added anything to her rap sheet in the previous two weeks, which is something of an achievement for her, and while mr Lal’s parents were complaining about the way their son was treated by Diego during PE classes, she - having checked the video records - is pleased to find these complaints groundless.

Mr Ibarrez also raises the issue of the prospective 8th player, Dominique Torres. While the principal recognizes the person - in fact is still impressed by the Atek who not only tried to get into the academy, but almost succeeded in getting a scholarship - she points out that the scholarships have been awarded already, and there are simply no more this year that could be assigned to miss Torres.

However, Diego recalls that Dominique was going for a scholarship for academic merits: indeed, a very limited amount of these are being set up by the school board as to comply with the regulations (a matter of giving a chance to the talented kids from lower social classes… though hardly anyone from below the middle class ever goes for them). Yuin had mentioned about sports scholarships…

Indeed, Ms. Chennault agrees that there should be a scholarship, at least one per sports program being ran at school. However, the TAG-soft starting at the end of a term, there was no scholarship being set up for the team. Still, as there actually is a team now, they are entitled to get one. She leaves the issue in Diego’s hands - and for the first time, he’s grateful to have a crapload of paperwork to do (the principal, being the old front line officer, shares Diego’s hate and contempt toward quartermasters and other kinds of bean-counters).

He also raises the idea of the school starting a paintball team, which the principal agrees to take into consideration in the future. She also recalls Bolo (of the “Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders”) as a former student.

As Ms Chennault comments “I guess we’re going to make a teacher off you yet, mr Ibarrez!”

...and she manages to scare the living shit out of Diego’s pet digital devil!*

* Diego has a “desktop animal” custom-programmed for him back in the CJC days that can be seen in Enhanced Reality either around him, or - emitting from an ER sticker - near to his “office” in the back of the hangar. A cheerful, animated devil with a cauldron of boiling tar, a pitchfork and other paraphernalia, making faces, rude gestures, jumping, whistling or boiling some students in the cauldron. It reacts to the surroundings, and can also behave according to Diego’s mood.

As soon as she’s gone, Diablo begins to fill the papers to get himself four sports scholarships for the TAG-soft team, assuming that if he requests four and pesters the board vigorously enough, they might consider giving him one just to get rid of him…


Thursday, October 3rd and Friday, 4th

Diego keeps assisting Yuni in PE exams.
She also asks him whether he would consider it a problem if she went alongside the girls into the paintball field on Saturday. She had bought herself all the gear anyway, and it would be a pity to have it gathering dust. Still, she knows he uses the game to train and assess the team…
Nope, that’s not a problem for Diego.
Besides, she considers getting into paintball herself apart from the TAG-soft team...


Saturday, October 5th

The team takes another visit to the Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders, and this time Yuni enters the field with the girls. Mako trades her sniper rifle and bush rag for the grenade launcher Evangeline got the last time. The team considers a shortage of shotguns, though the combi+flamethrower combo (originally used by Eva) partially helps the issue.

Since it is actually the second day the girls are playing paintball, and they had some time to practice, they manage to win this time! Sure, their accuracy is still lacking, and Evangeline can’t actually score any hits with the sniper rifle (it is later suggested she should keep something small - either a shotgun or an SMG for self-defense, hide under the bush rag and concentrate on commanding). Plus, especially in the initial part of the game, most of the advantage comes from Diego’s experienced guidance - he’s a professional soldier after all, and Bolo can’t really match him in the combat controller role. Still, the team comes out on top, with no loses and several kills to their accounts (Octavia scores three, Alex one, Minuette one, Patricia one, Yuni one. Last of the Spiders, Scythe, opts to surrender when she finds she’s all alone against a full team).

Diego makes a note to himself that he’ll need to look for a more demanding opponent for his team. The Spiders are a fun bunch to fight, but once his chicas get their shit right, they won’t be much of a challenge any longer. An occasional meeting to blow off some steam is OK, but for training, the Spiders aren’t going to offer much.

The gaming day ends earlier than the one the week before, and both teams sit at a campfire frying sausages (though Eva is deeply shocked by the idea of frying a sausage for herself, just like that, on a pointy stick… and then eating it with no plate, nor fork and knife… the rest of the team, especially Patricia and Alex, take a lot of pleasure in “breaking the princess bad” ). Unfortunately, as Diego learns, drinking age on Avalon is 18 years, so even if he had known before there’s a campfire party planned, the beer would be out of question (still, he wonders if he could get a crate or two of alcohol-free beer slide by…).

Both teams engage in some laid back small talk, and even engage in a burping contest (won by a surprising late entry by Minuette, though Yuni was a strong contender)…

Back in town, Diego asks Yuni on her plans for the next week (it is school break, after all) and agrees upon doing some PE together. He feels out of shape, and has to work on it (and well, a chance to work on Yuni wouldn’t be something to overlook either!).


Sunday, October 6th

Diego gets another e-mail from Loyian. She’s relieved to hear Diego wasn’t desperate enough and isn’t anywhere near of a front line - and coaching a TAG-soft team seems to be as close to his favourite job as possible. Also, a curious thing, her nephew (Loyian’s older sister married off to Bakunin) is playing on a school TAG-soft team too. She’s quick to notice that Bakunin will be in the Avalon system on October 17th and 18th, changing a Circular (on their way to Human Edge). It will be a perfect opportunity to get a game in against the “Human Revolution”, the team of the high school where Loyian’s nephew is playing.

Diego responds that he’s grateful, and definitely willing to jump at the opportunity. He promptly notifies the principal of Roberto Rocha’s Preparatory Academy, and goes to check the data on the Stone Angel’s first opponent. Like for the first time with the Spiders, a victory can not be expected. Victor Stone, their coach and combat controller, is a veteran of at least Diablo’s prowess, and the team, while not top-tier, is an experienced league squad.


Which sums the Avalon Chronicles entry #3.

[Section9]

Love it!!!

And that's soooo true when it comes to combat soldiers and paperwork. The only time they will happily do paperwork is when it's for one of "their kids/guys".

Any other time and the paperwork gets delegated down to the lowest ranker to do, the boss just signs it!

[Claudius Sol]

I do so enjoy these little stories.

[gamefreak180]

i enjoys these too since its anime inspired im seeing a lot of ookami and her seven companions, full metal panic, and assassination classroom when i see it in my head.
also making me itch to get some roleplaying in

[Errhile]

Entry #4
A moment of pause

Dramatis personae:
Note - 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).

The Team:
Alex Narahari - (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 - so far, so good). 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.

Evangeline (or Eva) Neve - (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.

Mako Joyo - (1. class, 15y) Micronesian. School sportsgirl. Very sporty, very active - and thus extremely busy person. Excellent team player. Prospective 2IC of the team. Gecko TAG.

Minuette (or Minnie) Diane Chryse - (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. The only team member to have siblings (three in fact). Solid team player. Lizard TAG.

Morgan Lai - (2. class, 17y) Polynesian. “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player, calm and precise. Szalamandra TAG.

Octavia (Octy) Moina - (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. class, 16y) North American. DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate. Average player. Lizard TAG.


Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:

Amar Lal (1. class, 16y) Indian. The only boy who was interested in joining the TAG Soft team, but stormed out of the initial meeting, immediately gaining Diego’s antipathy.

Devil - 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 - (~60y, looks ~40) Latinoamerican. The protagonist - TAG Soft team’s coach, retired CJC TAG combat instructor and once a war hero.

Eric Wana - (~35y) Polynesian. TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.

father Loyola (undetermined / unknown) - school’s chaplain and teacher on religious studies. Uptight and boring, he’s has shown clear antipathy towards Diego.

Gerhard Oobleck - (~40y), German. Teaches history. Enthusiastic about the perspective of having a real war veteran (Diego) in his classes.

Ginevra Chennault - (~90y) Polynesian. School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. Strict and to-the-point. Teaches literature.

Ilya Malinin (2nd class, 17y) Russian. Star guard on the football team, and Minuette’s boyfriend.

Yekaterina (Katya / Katyusha) Malinin (3rd class, junior high school, 14y) Russian. Sister of Ilya, plays drums in the school’s orchestra. Minuette’s friend. Nobody actually uses her first name in full form.

Ken Kamehameha (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 - (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.


Other characters in Belo Horizonte:

Senores Anzamble, Ral and Trowa (~80y) Central American (various). Veterans of the First NeoColonial War (Fusiliers), now elderly retirees and regular guests at “Silva’s”.

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

Dominique (‘Nique) Torres - (16y) Argentinian. Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”, student of St. John’s High School (a Church-run school for the poor). She is fascinated with TAGs and does “gunpla” kits of them in her free time. Prospective team member.

Esteban Silva (~80y) Brazilian. Owner, cook and host at “Silva’s”, old-fashioned eatery with human touch (and spicy South American cuisine).

Roger Smith - Evangeline’s chauffeur… Officially. In reality, he’s a high-end bodyguard.

“Scythe” (in her mid-late 20s) - member and field commander of the “Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders” paintball team. [GMs note: 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

Lt. Loyian N’dele (29y), Maasai. Once Diego’s favourite student (and attempted romantic interest, but she turned him down. Very gracefully in fact: they still are friends) in one of his last TAG classes. She was re-trained for remote TAGs, and remains in active service (CJC).

Victor “Cinderblock” Stone (undetermined). Coach and combat controller of the Human Revolution TAG-soft team, retired Bakunin Jurisdictional Command TAG pilot and former Morlock.


Note - these are all characters who made appearance so far. Starting with the entry #5, I’ll be trimming the list down to those who actually were present or at least referred to in a given entry.


Sunday, October 7th

Yuni calls Diego after he has done his morning workout (old habits die hard, you know - Diego still wakes up early and does his gymnastics) and is pleased to hear she didn’t wake him (even if she has to wait a few moments before he gets from the shower). As she reminds him, he wanted to do some PE with her, right?

Less than 3 minutes later, Diego is in front of the house, ready to do some running.

Having finished the workout, they do some calinestics for cooldown. Yuni is pleased to inform Diego he’s not as much out of shape as he claimed back when she had beaten him in the pushup contest at school. And also, that he had not turned into a couch potato despite being long removed from active duty.

They agree to take a trip out of town on the next day and do some exercising in a more natural environment (well, that isn’t exactly what Diego had in mind saying Yuni should try orienteering, but hey, it still works for him).

Diego spends the rest of the morning checking up the data he dug on the Human Revolution team. While not top-notch, they are experienced and well equipped. A pair of Geckos, a Szalamandra, two Anacondas and a trio of Lizards (all of them being Praxis refits, which puts them head and shoulders above the Angels’ TAGs), all geared for close distance combat.
They prefer to hit hard and fast, favouring either frontal assault or hit and run tactics to get close & personal with their opponents.

Later in the day he shows up for the practice. Before that, he’s approached by Eric, who got an idea of running the same procedure they used for Mako on the rest of the team: film them in motion capture, and use the data gained this way to make custom driver programs for every one of the girls. If they start today, Eric says, these should be ready for the game next week. While the performance increase will be not as visible as it was with Mako, it will definitely be there.
Diego gives him a green light on that immediately.

Today, the team is going to try TAG on TAG combat for the first time - Yuni jumps into the spare Anaconda to provide the 8th player, and Diego divides the team - squad #1 will be made of Eva, Alex, Patty and Yuni, combat-controlled by Eric (who objects strongly - he’s a mechanic, not TAG combat controller, and can’t match with Diego in that department - but is finally persuaded) against squad #2 led by Mako (which makes her quite apprehensive), and including Morgan, Minuette and Octavia. One of the reason for this breakup is to prepare Mako for the role of backup leader, as to limit the effects of Loss of Lieutenant in case of Eva getting shot (Mako was chosen for this role as the best team-player, and being pretty smart to that).

Alex is delighted being finally allowed to shoot the big guns (the only fly in the ointment being the fact she’s teamed up with Eva, so she can’t shoot the “princess”).

Diego’s devil, happily whistling, puts some extra firewood under his cauldron.

The initial skirmish sees Patty going down first under #2’s flanking attack, and then the squad #2 presses on head on, forcing Eva to withdraw. The withdrawal, however, is executed flawlessly, and Eva is able to consolidate her unit. Then something goes wrong, as #1 tries a frontal assault (perhaps it has something to do with Alex running forward, yelling on top of her lungs, and gun blazin’). They are met with accurate and effective fire - Alex goes down instantly, and on top of that, gets mercilessly scolded by Diego.

Well, he makes sure she will remember not to let her emotions get better of her in combat!

With Alex still cursing on the comms, Eva and Yuni try to employ hit & run tactics again. Either Eva is lucky, or she knows the coach well enough already to anticipate his movements. Nevertheless, #2 sets up their ambush flawlessly, eliminating both Eva and Yuni momentarily.

Eva watches the VR bullet holes on her Iguana’s breastplate - just at the height of her own face - with an unhealthy fascination…

Well, as Diego puts it, now they know how it feels. When being told his leadership meant the #2 outclassed #1 by far, he mentions that they won’t be getting a fair treatment in the oncoming match.

Uh… yes, he somehow didn’t tell them yet that they’re going against Human Revolution, a Bakunin team, next Thursday. The team wants to know about their opponents, and is pretty disheartened to learn they are going to be outclassed in both experience and equipment. However, as Diego points out, that was exactly what he was telling them since the day one: whoever they will go against, will be more experienced and better equipped. His answer? The same as always: outmaneuver them!

Still, the news make the girls nervous (especially Octavia - “Uh, a real game? That is, with the whole school watching?” though Diego tries to reason with that - “Hey, chica, so what? When you play your cello, there’s a lot of audience, too, and here, you’ll have the team around you, kinda like an orchestra, right?”). They are going to miss the Wednesday practice due to the gig being thrown by Patricia (they’re all invited, and all of them intend to show up). After some schedule-checking (especially in case of Mako, as the sports clubs she belongs to intend to put the break to some good use!) an additional practice is agreed upon for Friday.

And as Diablo points out again, he doesn’t expect the Angels to win their first game. He will be fully satisfied to see them make the opposition sweat for their victory. And while Eva is at least skeptical about that, he reminds the girls that the first time they faced the Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders, they got a sound beating (yet still made the other team sweat for it). And the second time, the Angles owned the Spiders - lock, stock and barrel.

Eva still prefers to downplay their success - “but it was only luck…”

Diego dismisses the team, expressing his hope they’ll have a good time at the party.


Tuesday, October 8th

Yuni takes Diego out of the city for some outdoor activities, which allows them for quite a bit of chatting on the way (even on the Beast and with Yuni driving recklessly fast, it is still almost an hour in transit). She quickly gets on the topic of her past relationships, which were all apparently short-lived due to the men not being able to keep pace with her (and one guy, who seemed a good pick initially, turned out to be relying on chemical augmentation of his performance. Diego is left to wonder whether Yuni means sports performance, the bedroom one, or both. He choses not to inquire). [GM note - Some confusion here. What she said is really two things: One, she likes it when a man can “keep up” with her. Or, if he can’t, he’s man enough to admit it without whining, or worse, throwing a fit and demanding she slow down for him. Two, all her serious relationships didn’t work out for various reasons, sadly usually because, sooner or later, her partner turned out to be some species of asshole. Like the one who introduced her to motorcycles, but couldn’t stomach her wanting to be an equal riding partner with her own bike, instead of being an “ornament” for his machine.] She, however, notices Diego is in pretty good shape, and apparently not relying on drugs - though, as she says, she’ll have to take a look on his diet!

She does also point out that she’s happy to see what they’ve determined on the day one - that Diego doesn’t mind riding in the back seat of the Beast (apparently, some of her former boyfriends had issues with that).

The plan initially includes cross-country running (Diego does just fine there), then Yuni gets the idea to try swimming. Diablo is not too cocky about it, as his swimming experience covers mostly swimming pools, rather than lakes! Still, he can cope with it. Besides, Yuni swimming is a sight to behold, both on the grounds of skills and stunning looks He turns down the offer of climbing activities, however. Definitely not something he’s used to, sorry. Yuni just shrugs - fine, maybe another day.

Apart from that, Yuni is pretty surprised Diego isn’t much into swimming - she thought that, being three-dimensional movement, it will be something very natural to a Nomad, you know. Well, perhaps it is - but if one is a dolphin, as Diego explains (or maybe when diving, with a ballast vest). Yuni admits she had heard something about Nomad cetaceans, but asks Diego to explain it in details. As he says, many Nomad ships have dolphin pilots, who really find the three-dimensional space something natural. Still, he’s damn glad there isn’t one swimming with them, as it would soon end in the cetacean getting overtly flirtatious (or just as well making sexual propositions) to either one of them. Or both, damn those pea-brained phallic symbols… besides, they still cannot be persuaded on the topic of dental hygiene, and as the result, their breath stinks of fish!

They’re back to Belo Horizonte by mid-afternoon, and Diego suggests a dinner at Silva’s (actually, way earlier than his usual dining time, but they’ve burned a lot of energy out of town) - which is gladly accepted. After all, senhor Silva’s beer is not a bad way to replenish electrolytes, is it?
Even if Yuni has to limit herself to a single tankard (she’s driving…).

They’re pretty surprised to see Patricia coming into the restaurant, though Diego is quite sure he knows the reason for her visit. She asks to join Yuni and Diego at the table, sipping something adequate to her age and local legal restrictions (which she purchases being very polite and respectful to senhor Silva, going as far as to pull off her headphones when talking to him) - Diego is sorry to say, but until senhor Silva brews some alcohol-free beer, he cannot offer Patty a tankard. She shrugs with a mischievous smirk - it’s really no problem for me to get myself a beer, coach - to which he replies he doesn’t have a problem with that: experience everything, as long as it’s in moderation. Plus, he adds, he’d be grateful if she kept from drinking in situations where he could see her, and wouldn’t be able to turn a blind eye. Which, as far as Patty is concerned, sounds like a fair deal.

Indeed, Patricia is there to meet with Dominique - a “friendly digital bird had told her” where to find ‘Nique (plus, she isn’t actually surprised to see Diego and Yuni there). Diego’s devil momentarily produces a slingshot, and begins to look for the bird, so Patty produces one, and the devil goes hunting, shooting stones into the air as enthusiastically, as inaccurately.

Patricia intends to present Dominique an invitation for the Wednesday gig. Since the event is to be held in a really popular spot (and an expensive one to boot!), ‘Nique is reluctant to accept it, and Patty has to spend quite a while persuading her to accept it, and not think it charity or pity (besides, as she points out, being the star DJ running the event has its privileges, including a stash of invitations to be handed out however she sees fit). After all, she says, the team (even the “princess”, as Patty says - she had a few words with Eva, and “corrected her view on things”) accepts her and wants her to be one of the Angels - and, as her friendly little digital bird has told her, the wheels have been put in motion to make that happen. As far as she knows the coach, she says, the thing is, therefore, as good as done. Patty also confesses to some admiration for ‘Nique, for her attempt to break out of her socio-economic box: “With all the cards stacked against you, you still took up the fight, stood up for yourself, and just barely missed blooding The System’s nose!” With her own anti-authoritarian streak, this is something Patricia can get behind and respect.

...and the devil shoots down the little yellow bird with his slingshot, then proceeds - with a vengeful grin - to pluck it before boiling it in his cauldron-of-tar!

“- But… but I don’t have anything to wear!” - Dominique, flustered, grasps at straws, but Patricia gives her everyday wear a quick glance determines that it will do - “This kind of old-school casual is back in fashion these days, just add some neon-glow plastic jewellery and it will work just fine. Well, provided you’ll be able to locate any neon-glow plastic stuff after Minuette hits the shops…” - after which she manages to finally persuade ‘Nique into accepting a VR invitation, which - to the later’s surprise - includes full-access to the club’s VR suite (apparently, being an Atek doesn’t mean you don’t have a comlog, just that you aren’t able to cover the expenses of using it in any reasonable capacity). As Patty says, she’s into the Augmented Reality special effects, and would feel the performance incomplete if the audience wouldn’t be able to experience these.

A few moments later she bids Dominique, Yuni ad Diego good-bye, and leaves Silva’s, her trademark headphones pumping some kind of noise into her ears on high output.

Which leaves Yuni and Diego wondering how should they dress as not to stand out (at least, not too much). For Yuni, Diego says with a tongue-in-cheek, doing her hair into pigtails would do to make her look no older than graduation-class student…
He, however, takes some addresses from her - at his age, blending into a teenage crowd is not going to be easy…


Wednesday, October 9th, and Thursday October 10th early in the morning.

The morning PT with Yuni is pretty uneventful, and later Diego hits the shops to hunt himself a suitable outfit for the evening gig. Unable to hide the fact he’s way older than the expected clientele, he decides to go for biker’s leathers (including his trademark devil applied on the back of the jacket).

Diego manages to do some paperwork on the matter of school’s board and sports scholarship: they’ve decided that four scholarships are definitely too many. since that’s exactly what Diego expected them to do, he agrees and keep pestering them for three.

He also swaps a few e-mails with “Cinderblock”, who is pretty surprised to hear that a fellow Nomad (and a TAG instructor he had heard about back in the military - after all, about half of the Nomad TAG pilots in the recent years took some classes ran by Diablo) is running a school team on Avalon. Stone quickly agrees for a game, though it is going to be a tight fit in the logistics - the Human Revolution has to get off Bakunin, down the gravity well, move to the gaming field, play a game, then get back into deep space to catch up with the mothership before it leaves with a Circular to the Human Edge. Doable, but they won’t be staying overnight, though.

Late in the afternoon, at the club - the “Love of Noise”, Diego and Yuni are among the first to arrive. Indeed, he’s definitely the oldest person around - luckily, the intimidating effect of black leather biker’s outfit keeps everyone else from asking stupid questions (and provides Diego with extra bar width / personal space), and accompanied by Yuni (dressed tight-fit in fashionably tattered jeans and a skimpy t-shirt - she does, in fact, look like she could well be a college student) he doesn’t seem so totally out of place. Patricia is on-site already, and she has secured a booth for the team. The girls show up, too, one after another - and dressed for the occasion. As Diego observes, most (or at least, a significant and eye-catching part) of the female participants are adhering to the teenage principle of competing at “who will dare to wear a skimpier outfit” - miniskirts little wider than an Algulacle’s utility belt and skimpy tops are the norm. Still, not all of them - among the team, several styles can be observed. Obviously, Alex wears the most provocative, revealing costume (basically, a tiny bikini, with combat boots, and some jewelry made from gun ammo), while Octy had chosen a stylish black set which looks quite conservative in comparison (well, most anything would look prudish next to Alex, really). Significantly, Octavia’s outfit also includes a pair of tinted shades, continuing the thread of her beating her shyness by concealing her face. Minuette indeed had to raid the city for glowstick-like bracelets, inserts, and a pair of glowstick earrings to go with her sporty-like outfit - which actually comes very handy once Dominique shows up in her casual clothes, and Minnie doesn’t mind sharing some of the glowing goods with her (her image doesn’t become noticeably less glowy despite that).

Dominique is actually enthusiastically greeted by most of the team, lead by Patricia - “So, you’re here, great! See, gals? As coach Diablo said, ‘Nique, just a normal human being - two arms, two legs, one head, what more can you ask for?” Naturally, Alex wouldn’t be herself if she hadn’t dropped something mean into it “ - Yeah, and ANTs!” (“Uh, Yuni? I’m not up to date with youth slang…”) - however, Alex won’t let Yuni spoil it, and explains herself: “- Absolutely No Tits!”
Diego replies quickly - “Well, it is not like you have that much ‘lung capacity’ either, chica!”, which results in quite a shock: while Dominique isn’t well-developed in this department, and furthermore doesn’t dress to accent it (in her sweater and leather jacket she’s showing even less skin than Octavia(!), being the only one around with a covered midriff), Alex is indeed well-endowed - and presenting her charms with absolutely no qualms or reservations. Only the presence of Yuni (an object of ill-concealed jealousy among female students regarding her figure) gives this argument enough credibility to slide by... Though how much the girls are going to believe the next one in this situation, is really uncertain “ - And take a man’s word on it, chicas: the world doesn’t start with tits, nor does it end with them. Seriously.”

The uneasy moment is broken by the appearance of a girl who is just as cheerful and even more energetic (if at all possible!) who jumps on Minuette with a hug - she’s introduced as Katya Malinin, sister of Minnie’s boyfriend Ilya (who, himself, is absent, apparently not being into this type of entertainment. “And hey, if he started to jump around in here, the ceiling would come down! Though, some people might think that a great end to a good party...“). Diego is, in fact, surprised to observe no male presence around the team members - of the seven of them, only one - Minnie - seems to have a boyfriend. Sure, Mako is perhaps too busy for that, Morgan too disinterested in anything, Alex too much of a troublemaker, Octavia perhaps too shy, and Evangeline too prissy, but still...). Also, as Minnie chats animatedly with her friend, “Katyusha”, they switch languages, and it becomes apparent she can speak Russian - maybe not quite fluently, but enough to communicate effectively enough. That makes the third language Minuette knows, after the common English, and Portuguese (she’s the one who came up with the team’s name in that last one).

Evangeline comes last, with the team wondering whether she’s going to show up at all or - as Diego suspects - just planning to be fashionably late. Still, her dress makes Patty shake her head in disbelief - “I told you, casual dress. Eva, this is a rave, not a cocktail party for the board member’s families!”. The protesting Evangeline is quickly dragged away to Patricia’s changing room, and - apparently much to her shock - swaps her fancy (and expensive) shoes for a pair of Patty’s sneakers, gets her (equally fancy) smooth jacket thoroughly crumpled and tied around her waist, her elaborately pinned hair let loose and mussed, and the overall attire liberally supplemented with glowstick goodies from the seemingly endless stash hung on Minuette, before the end result is considered acceptable.

Other familiar faces on the dancing floor include most of Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders and Eric’s technical assistants (Eric himself - despite being invited - didn’t show up, presumably he’s buried in re-writing the drivers for team’s TAGs).

The gig goes on smoothly - Patricia (or, apparently, DJ Scratch, as she’s introduced) definitely knows her trade, and has a real knack for reading the crowd’s mood - and Diego spends the time on the dancing floor with Yuni. Still, he notes to himself he has to send Patty some songs and styles that were popular on Corregidor in his youth.

Since the party is attended mainly by high school-aged kids, and the place is really high-end, there is no problem with drunk kids (no alcohol is served, period), though apparently some other kinds of recreational substances did make their way to the club. Still, as far as Diego can tell, it ain’t anything really problematic, no reason to call the cops.

Late in the night, the team members start to make their goodbyes - they want to catch some sleep and “wake up early enough to make it for the practice tomorrow!” Mako, with her busy sports schedule, is the first one to go.
Dominique goes home soon after, having admitted she really liked the party.
Morgan, having, despite initial laziness-borne reluctance, gotten very much into the fun, marks the second occasion of being sleepy because of tiredness instead of boredom.
Octavia slips away with a tired but satisfied smile. Apparently, this was the first time she dared attend one of Patty’s performances, and it looks like she enjoyed herself.
Eva is tired enough to forget her expensive shoes and go home in Patricia’s sneakers (Patricia notices that once she’s ready to go herself ).
The gig managed to wear down Minnie’s seemingly endless energy, too.

Alex, however, is still in excellent condition, with her eyes curiously shiny - she’s high on something, though apparently nothing hard (yet she’s clearly testing the coach - and Yuni - who again doesn’t see a reason to call the cops). She gets the same line Patty got about beer the day before - though Diego explicitly stresses his hope she’ll be careful and will not harm herself with some bad shit. She, too, considers these to be acceptable terms.

Patty is the last one to go - she switches the DJ’s set to autoplay to keep the remaining few guests happy, and visits the booth to say goodbye. She’s dead-tired, but happy: it was a good night, and a good gig.
Even if Eva went home in her sneakers, and left her those fancy (and ridiculously expensive) shoes… [GM’s note: It’s not like Patty’s left with no shoes to go home in, but those Converse were her favourite everyday pair…]

Once all the team members are gone, Yuni and Diego make ready to leave the party too. They decide to skip the morning workout, though at some point Yuni concludes “Well, okay - we’ve done a night’s worth of dancing in the vertical position already...” - she trails off suggestively, to which Diego replies quickly “Well then, there’s only one question left - your place or mine?”
“Just let me think which one’s closer! Jump on the bike!”

...and then Yuni and Diego leave to spend the rest of the night (and, presumably, a good part of Thursday) together.

Which sums up the Avalon Chronicles entry #4.

[Errhile]

Caution:


Entry #5
Say You Want a Revolution!

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 this entry, 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 - so far, so good). 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.
Evangeline (or 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.
Mako Joyo - #1 (1. class, 15y) Micronesian. School sportsgirl. Very sporty, very active - and thus extremely busy person. Very ambitious, and seems to take the school motto very seriously… Excellent team player. Considered as prospective 2IC of the team. Gecko TAG.
Minuette (or 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). The only team member to have a sibling (two in fact, both sisters). Her parents own a chain of restaurants. Solid team player. Lizard TAG.
Morgan Lai - #1 (2. class, 17y) Polynesian. “Sleepy”. Chronically asleep, pathologically lazy and way laid back person. Still, a solid player, calm and precise. Szalamandra 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. DJ and known hacker (of a school caliber, like upgrading her grades and the like). Octavia’s best mate. Average player. Lizard TAG.

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:

Devil - #2 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 (~35y) Polynesian. TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
father Loyola - #1 (undetermined / unknown) - school’s chaplain and teacher on religious studies. Uptight and boring, he’s has shown clear antipathy towards Diego.
Gerhard Oobleck - #1 (~40y), German. Teaches history. Enthusiastic about the perspective of having a real war veteran (Diego) in his classes.
Ginevra Chennault - #1 (~90y) Polynesian. School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. To-the-point and strict, but fair. Teaches literature.
Ilya Malinin - #5 (mentioned in #3) (2nd class, 17y) Russian. Star guard on the football team, and Minuette’s boyfriend. 2nd generation immigrant from Ariadna.
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.
Yekaterina (Katya / Katyusha) Malinin - #4 (3rd junior high school, 14y) Russian. Sister of Ilya, plays drums in the school’s orchestra. Minuette’s friend. Nobody actually uses her first name in full form. 2nd generation immigrant from Ariadna.
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, gets along pretty well with Diego since they met on day one. Well enough, actually, that their relation had recently (entry #4) progressed to “friends with benefits”...

“The Peanut Gallery”
Caught in short glimpses (these characters are to be fleshed-out should they make a full appearance):
Lyra #5 (girl, strings, somewhat maniacal, extreme sports enthusiast), Fred #5 (boy, strings, his name’s Frederic, but everybody calls him Fred), and Lupe #5 (boy, brass) - Octavia’s orchestra mates.
Bonnie - #5 Lyra’s girlfriend, always dragged in her wake, and embarrassed by the other’s manic antics. Cooking club star.
Kim #5 (red-head, captain), Tara #5 (blonde), Amanda #5 (blonde), Clarissa #5 (brunette) - Minnie’s cheer-squad friends (maybe not so much in Clarissa’s case - she’s very happy Minnie quit, as that gives her a shot at team captaincy next year).
Rikoriko (last name) - #5 girl from Morgan’s class, apparently the school polymath genius and “mega-nerd”.

Team Members’ Parents:
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.

“Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders”:
(All #2) 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” (mid 20s) - Team captain, Academy’s graduate.
“Scythe” (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:
Dominique (‘Nique) Torres - #1 (16y) Argentine. Atek and waitress as “Silva’s”, student of St. John’s High School (a Church-run school for the poor). She is fascinated with TAGs and does “gunpla” kits of them in her free time. Prospective team member.
Gabriel Navarro - #5 (late 50s) Argentine. League-certified TAG-soft referee. A solid, calm, to-the-point man.
Roger Smith - 2# (early 40s), North American - Evangeline’s chauffeur… Officially. In reality, he’s a high-end bodyguard,

Elsewhere in the Human Sphere
Lt. Loyian N’dele #3 (29y), Maasai. Once Diego’s favourite student (and attempted romantic interest, but she turned him down. Very gracefully in fact: they still are friends) in one of his last TAG classes. She was re-trained for remote TAGs, and remains in active service (CJC).

“Human Revolution”:
Bakunin-based high-school TAG-soft team.
Victor “Cinderblock” Stone #4 (mid 50s), USA - Coach and combat controller of the “Human Revolution” TAG-soft team, retired Bakunin Jurisdictional Command TAG pilot and former Morlock. Exotic mod: charcoal, stone-like skin, silver wire-like hair, and burning orange eyes. A self-assured, cocky, but quite friendly fellow.
Glynda “Fairy” Fairgood #5 (late 40s), African - Human Revolution’s chief mechanic, and pretty inventive at that. Has an obviously cybernetic right arm (equipped with a full tool suite). Has a definite air of a mad scientist about her.

Ash “Dash” Vivian #5 (17y), West-European - forward operation / assault specialist. Anaconda TAG, with akimbo SMGs and jump-jets (i.e. Super Jump-capable - a surprise upgrade the “Revolution” tested in their match with the “Angels”). Exotic mod: rainbow-coloured hair. A brash, boisterous tomboy with an ego at least 20% bigger than anybody else’s.
Fio “Shy” Emeri #5 (18y) South American - line player, 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.
Garfield “Animal” Logan #5 (16y), North American - line player. Anaconda TAG, armed with a boarding shotgun. Exotic mod: green skin, pointy ears and protruding canines. Practical joker, some hacking skills. Sociable and excitable. A huge chowhound. “Trouble’s” best mate.
Lucas “Jaws” Romero #5 (17y) Central American - team sharpshooter. Lizard TAG, with marksman rifle. Exotic mod: shark-like, zig-zag toothline. Distanced, cynical and acerbic, with a dark sense of humour. Meryl’s longtime boyfriend - they seem to argue constantly, but he’s really completely under her heel.
Meryl “Firestarter” Santos #5 (17y) South American - heavy weapon’s specialist. Szalamandra TAG, armed with HRL and flamethrower. Exotic mod: devil-like - red skin, smooth, pointed tail and short horns. For someone nicknamed “Firestarter”, possessed of a very cool, even temper. Lucas’ longtime girlfriend.
Petra “Claw” Kovalyova #5 (15y) Russian - scout and skirmisher. Gecko TAG armed with a boarding shotgun. Exotic mod: cat-like eyes, ears and tail (and retractable claws). Qite cat-like in character also.
Simon “Heartbreak” Ross #5 (16y) North American - team’s captain. Lizard TAG, with combi rifle/light shotgun. An Emo pretty-boy, with several piercings. The “smooth” ladies-man - tried his luck with Evangeline.
Tendaji “Trouble” Okoro #5 (15y) Maasai - Loyian N’dele’s nephew. Close support and explosives specialist. Lizard TAG, with rifle and a copious supply of (TAG-scaled) grenades. “Animal’s” best mate. Loves a good “boom”, and in general likes things loud, at work and at play.


Thursday, October 10th.

Yuni and Diego have ended up at Yuni’s place - and did quite a bit of “horizontal dancing” before finally falling asleep. Turns out, Yuni has absolutely no problem with occupying all of her queen-sized bed by herself! Diego on the other hand is well-adjusted to narrow bunks found on Corregidor, where space is somewhat at premium, so he has no problem with her “expansiveness”. The morning workout for Thursday is definitely done!

He wakes first, in the early afternoon, and is relieved to find Yuni has a pretty big (by Nomad standards) and comfy flat all for herself (he didn’t exclude the possibility of her having a flatmate). It is quite a while since their last meal, so he has a vague idea of making breakfast for both of them, but apparently Yuni’s fridge contains only raw, fresh products. He might’ve learned a thing or two about food preparation, but in 23rd century cooking from raw supplies isn’t a common skill. Especially if you’re a Nomad.
He’s still somewhat stunned when Yuni finds him. Hardly a surprise for her. Still, as she comments, if you want to eat properly, you should know what’s in your food. And there’s no better way to achieve that than preparing it yourself!
Yuni takes charge of breakfast preparations, demoting Diego to vegetable chopping duty (“- You can work a knife, at least, right?”, “- Sure, passably. Who you need shanked?”, “- Those tomatoes first.” “- ...Ah.”).

After breakfast (Diego takes a note - he should download some interactive cooking handbook for beginners), they take a shower together (- I don’t think it will be faster that way, Diego. - Definitely not, but I really think it will be more fun!) which costs them another hour.

When dressing after the shower, Diego is somewhat surprised to find Yuni painting her finger- and toe-nails. He realises now she actually had her nails painted every time he’d seen her before. Turns out, Yuni owns quite an impressive collection of nail polish in a stunning assortment of colours, choosing a different one almost everyday. She calls it “her one girly trait”.

Yuni decides she’s in the mood to go riding today. She then gets an idea to put Diego’s biker outfit to some practical use, and proposes to teach him how to ride a motorcycle (he can handle a car, but never had any need for a bike). Although her Beast is obviously off-limits, she manages to borrow a rather standard bike for him.
While he manages to get his quota of falls and badly executed maneuvers, Diablo learns quickly. After years in a TAG’s cockpit, he has an affinity for machines, and besides - a modern motorcycle, with all the electronic helper gizmos and gyroscopic stabilizers, isn’t all that difficult to handle.

In the evening, Diego and Yuni go out to dinner (in a restaurant other than Silva’s, just for a change of pace) and then finally decide to call it a day. By mutual agreement, they decide to take things slow, and just see how it goes. Neither of them is really in any hurry… Though Yuni comments jokingly that “proposing to take it slow must sound funny from a girl who dragged him to bed after barely three weeks of acquaintance...”. Diego brightly replies that he sees absolutely nothing wrong with three weeks. If it was three days, then he’d worry (and, while he doesn’t express that, these are standards he keeps for PanOceanians. Among Nomads, three days are a plenty of time, and three hours aren’t unheard of. Still, if it goes down to three minutes, and you aren’t in a war zone… in actual war or other high-stress environment, anything goes! [GM note: As they say: In love and in war… ^_^]).


Friday, October 11th.

After a morning run with Yuni (which becomes daily routine), Diego swaps a few more e-mails with Cinderblock - and the Board of Education, who make him trim his request down to two sports scholarships for the TAG-soft team - then moves out to school for the planned practice session. This day they’ll have to keep to a VR training scenario, as all the TAGs are gutted out for the driver upgrade Eric has proposed.

Eric himself… well, what can be seen of him are mainly the soles of his shoes, as he had thrown himself head-first into upgrading. He does also have some other upgrade ideas, though Diego vetoes the one that would result in burning out 80% of the main processors. It is a desperate proposition, and would leave the team financially crippled. For the first game, he says, the upgraded drivers will have to do.

As the assistants confess to Diablo, if they didn’t knew Eric well enough already, they would think he’s holding them leaving him alone at the workshop and going to the rave on Wednesday against them...

Principal Chennault calls Diablo to inform him that Miss Narahari’s behaviour improvement wasn’t permanent. Somewhen on Thursday morning she was arrested for brawling, disorderly conduct, and being under the influence of a number of recreational substances that she wasn’t legally allowed to use (either due to general bans, or at least age restrictions). She’s out of custody (as Ms. Chennault says, “her father has thrown a bundle of banknotes thick enough to have that solved”), but still - nothing to be happy about.

As the girls show up for practice, traces of the brawl can be seen on Alex’s face (thanks to modern medical science, they’re mostly healed already, and some make-up would cover them completely, but Alex declined to apply any - she actually looks to be pretty proud of the marks, wearing them like battle scars). From what Diego manages to get out of her, some guy didn’t catch on that “no” means “no” (or, to be more precise, that “enough” means “enough”), so she kicked his ass - and other assorted pieces of anatomy. What Alex mumbles indicates clearly that the fella really needed to see a doctor after she was done with him.
The context isn’t clear, but it might’ve been either some random one-night-stand, or Alex’s regular boyfriend (quite likely her already-ex-boyfriend now!).
While he understands the situation (and makes that clear, besides, back in his youth on Corregidor, Diego wasn’t the nicest kid around either), he’s also clear about not approving of the way Alex settles her matters. “- Sure, Coach, yeah, whatever…” - Diego’s disapproval clearly doesn’t impress Alex much… Though his mention of her having “a reputation to uphold” causes some shadow to flit through her face, gone so fast Diego is not exactly sure he hasn’t imagined it...

Eva and Patty swap their shoes back. Eva can be seen wearing a curious crossover between high-heeled boots and sneakers today - as she comments, she liked Patty’s Converse well enough to check her own wardrobe, and was surprised she had no sporty footwear apart from dedicated gym shoes…
Patty can only shake her head: “Only you would call high-heels <<sporty>>...”

The team is generally happy with the Wednesday party - they say they had a great time. Morgan notices a hickey on Diego’s throat, and points it out. Minnie seems delighted: “ - Oh, and some girl got lucky with our Coach!” “- Well, or the Coach got lucky, Minnie, it all depends on your point of view” - replies Diego. Yuni might be standing next to him, and it is likely that nothing can be hidden from the kids for long, but he intends to stay discreet about it. He’s not 15 any longer, to brag about such things! Yuni likely doesn’t help when she “nonchalantly” comments “- And whoever the girl is, I’m sure she feels very lucky indeed!” while performing a luxurious stretch...

They are less happy to learn all the TAGs are out of service today, and they have to content with VR scenario. And he has a few really difficult ones for them today. Diego proceeds to run his Angels through simulated battles against opponents modeled on the stats of the Human Revolution, to give them a taste of how difficult the coming match is likely to be - which is quite a bit!

For the Saturday, another paintball session against Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders is planned, and Eric says the TAGs will be operational again in time for the Monday practice.

As the team leaves home, Diego asks Minuette for a moment in private. He has been somewhat puzzled to learn that of the seven teenage girls in the team, only one - Minnie herself - has a sweetheart (of any gender, this is not an issue for him). Is everything okay? As he mentions, if there was a group of seven roughly-sixteen-year-old gals on Corregidor, and six of them didn’t have anyone, it would most certainly be a cause of much “crying and gnashing of teeth” - and mean big problems on the horizon. Minnie assures him that it is just a coincidence that most of them are going single at the moment (Octy, for example, as she says, might be a little shy to have her eyes on anyone, but it doesn’t mean it works the same the other way! And… well, she’s been told to work on her discretion recently, so, Coach, sorry, can’t tell you more. But rest assured, everything’s shiny, not to fret! [GM note: (^_^)]).


Saturday, October 12th.

It became almost a tradition for the team to ride the Monster to the paintball field on Saturday mornings.

The practice this day is, again, exhausting - a full day in the playing field, and the Spiders got their stuff together after the defeats last week. Plus, to prepare the Angels for the game against Human Revolution, the Spiders make use of their superior numbers. This, generally, evens the odds between the teams, and the fight gets pretty heated, resulting in a couple of narrow defeats and even some draws by mutual destruction. The last, big one, is a result of Morgan single-handedly wiping out two remaining Spiders, while getting taken down herself. Before the match, the normally pretty indifferent and unflappable Morgan got into an argument with Alex (it was a second long, hard day in a row, with the big game looming, as can be expected tempers are somewhat frayed). It was over which of them is “worse” - Alex, with her solitary gung-ho routine, which usually gets her “killed” without accomplishing anything, or Morgan, with her chronic sloth and putting in the barest minimum required effort, which means she usually doesn’t accomplish much of note herself in battle (though, Diego is happy to know, she is much more awake during TAG-soft than in any other class). With that last performance, Morgan seems to have won that one...

Diego also notices that Mako is underperforming - though she has excellent teamwork, she’s usually the first to get taken out, shoots very poorly, and is still not quite as fast and nimble as could be expected (with no excuse of uncooperative TAG to deal with here) - and he now sees it has already started some time ago and is getting worse. Later, Yuni informs him that she also thinks something is wrong with the kid - and also, that the other coaches of the various sports clubs Mako belongs to have already noticed. After initially blaming each other over an increase of work-load, they are now likely to form a coalition against Diego, whose team seems to be the “one too many”, making the girl overworked. They were initially generally indifferent to Diego, but now decided the upstart newest club, and also one ran by a bloody dirty Nomad, can’t be allowed to interfere with their star!

Diablo appoints Mako for a checkup with Pills on Monday.

After that’s done, both teams sit down around a campfire (this time, Eva is no longer shocked by the idea of sausage-on-a-stick) - Diego brings in two crates of (alcohol-free) beer he had conveniently stashed in the Monster. While the Spiders would’ve preferred normal beer, they gracefully accept what is offered, in the spirit of camaraderie, given their opposition is not of legal age for a cold one (and as Yuni later confesses to Diego, they have it easy here anyway - on Avalon, legal drinking age is 18, while on NeoTerra it’s 21. “Gosh, how happy I was when I got outta there! My first month in college was pretty much a non-stop bender!”).


Monday, October 13th

Final minutia of the game arrangements for Thursday are being agreed upon - the Revolution is to land at the Belo Horizonte spaceport mid-afternoon on Thursday, and they have to be away before midnight to catch up with Bakunin.

Meanwhile, Mako undergoes a medical checkup. As dr. Talho informs Diego, the girl has overextended herself (well, he was suspecting that already). Too much physical exertion, not enough nutrition, not enough rest. It is not malnutrition or exhaustion yet, but going that way. Also, while Mako was never an exceptional student (except in sports), her grades are going bad because of this, too.

Before practice, Minuette approaches Diego, unusually subdued. Turns out, she’s also worried about Mako. Though it’s not quite completely obvious yet, as Mako’s oldest friend, Minnie can see there’s something wrong. Like, the tomboyish Mako never had much use for make-up, but she’s wearing some now, and Minnie’s pretty sure it’s to hide the bags under her eyes...

Well, sad news. Once the team is suited up, Diego opens a private comms channel to Mako to confront her. She’s both relieved and ashamed - she admits she felt stretched thin - “Not enough hours in a day, Coach” but “I’ve always managed with all of that before, really...”. As Diego points out, that was before she picked up TAG-soft. And, as he says, it clearly is too much. She’ll have to choose some activity to drop. “And, chica, I’m going to be blunt about it. If you won’t make the choice, I’ll make it for you - by kicking you out of the TAG-soft team, for your own good. It will be hard for the team, but we aren’t playing for anything really serious - your health is way more important.”
As it turns out, Mako is relieved to hear that. The basketball team had asked her to take the vice-captain’s position (which will most likely mean captaincy once the current team captain graduates next year), which, with her talent, is very likely to lead to a professional career in the continental representation down the road. Which is a future she finds very appealing. Also, as she confesses, she found that combat sports and the aggression associated with them are just not her thing. She can jump and dodge in a TAG or in the paintball field all day long, but once it comes to shooting someone, she just can’t stomach it. She didn’t want to abandon the Angels, but TAG-soft doesn’t appeal like she initially thought.
Given the prospects in basketball, and associated increase in work-load there, she intends to write off the Aikido club, too.

She, however, plans to stay long enough to take part in the game against Human Revolution - she doesn’t want to leave the other girls hanging right before the big moment, and make the fight even more difficult by increasing the Angels’ numerical disadvantage. Though, she self-deprecatingly notes, she doubts she’ll be of much use anyway... Mako intends to inform the rest of the team of her resignation after the game. She also decides to skip her wednesday basketball practice to go home early and get properly rested before the match on thursday. She thinks it’s the least she can do, and she can afford it - no way the basketball coach will make trouble for her now, he wants her on his team too much! She refuses Diego’s offer on informing her basketball coach of this (well. He hoped to do it himself, as a way of playing in the petty world of school sports’ politics…).


Wednesday, October 15th

Eric reports that the TAGs are operational again, and Diego asks him to send Reksio out and do some photo sampling of the game area. While TAGs can alter their paint scheme into any camouflage pattern, Diego wants any edge he can have against the Revolution - and a camo pattern exactly matching the environment is one of these he can actually get.

The preparations for the game are made - the school intends to try and raise some money on their expensive newest sports club by making the transmission available as pay-per-view (which is pretty standard method of dealing with any interesting event in PanOceania). Also, a league referee - senhor Gabriel Navarro - shows up to inspect the Team’s TAGs.

The practice Diego orders for the day is relatively light - more of a refresher course before the big day tomorrow. After some discussion with the girls, it is also decided that the entire team should head out to the spaceport the next day to greet the Human Revolution as they arrive, to show themselves gracious hosts.


Thursday, October 16th

While he doesn’t expect his team to win that particular game, Diego wants to be ready even for such an unlikely course of events: he obtains a bottle of alcohol-free “champagne” and stores it at the warehouse.

The team shows up early in the afternoon, more or less grudgingly released by their respective teachers for the upcoming game (Morgan seemingly had the least of fuss, as she was taking a history class with the enthusiastic senhor Oobleck), swap their clothes for team jumpsuits (Diego managed to procure one for himself, too) and roll out in the Monster. Diego makes a show of inspecting “his troops”, with the Devil performing a parade-drill “goose step”, carrying the pitchfork like it was a rifle, stopping sharply and doing some stunning “weapon drill” maneuvers - before he drops the pitchfork onto his hoof and starts to jump around on the other leg, cursing visibly and nursing the hurt leg...

They are in the spaceport in time to see the Revolution’s arrival - Victor apparently had to call in some favours, and his team comes to Avalon in style. They arrive in a (surplus) assault landing ship (which had left it’s interplanetary tender in orbit), and by the civilian standards, drop into LZ fast and hard. Diego has enough combat landings behind his belt to guesstimate the passengers are pretty likely to be meeting their breakfast again… though it still isn’t a real combat drop.
However, being a surplus craft, the lander touches down with a lot of flames and smoke from its rocket engines - all the gravitics on such an old vessel are likely devoted to keep the cargo (mostly) intact.

Then, the ramp drops, and two heavy transport rigs - Revolution’s equivalents of the Angel’s Monster - roll out for the terminal.

Victor is first through the Customs, followed closely by “Fairy”, the team’s chief engineer - who keeps grumbling that those pesky Customs officials almost wanted to remove and impound her (cybernetic) arm. “Well, what I can do about the fact I really like to keep my tools handy, eh?” - and given her “mad scientist” manner, one could only wonder what kind of stuff she does call “tools”...

“ - So, what made an old dog like you come to a place like this, Diablo?”
“ - Well, they happen to brew good beer around here, you know.” - which “Cinderblock” considers to be a fair reason. Still, in his eyes, the Angels look way like “a bunch of PanO girlie scouts…”

The Revolution team members gradually come to the hall too - one of them does initially look like the landing was indeed too much for his stomach (though it is corrected a moment later - “Animal” does indeed have an exotic modification to his skin. He’s green all the time). Reactions they cause among the Angels are somewhat mixed:

Patricia compliments “Dash” on her rainbow-colored wolf-cut hairstyle. Ash preens “- Thanks! Yours isn’t half-bad either... Though mine is definitely at least 20% cooler!” It quickly becomes apparent the rainbow-haired girl is pretty full of herself. Though, taking their cue from their coach, none of the Revolution kids seem all that impressed with the Angels, at least as a TAG-soft team, most of them are at least somewhat graceful about it. Ash on the other hand is openly dismissive and self-aggrandizing. “With that opposition, the match will be over in twenty minutes flat, at most!” By the end of the little gathering, Patty’s very sure she doesn’t like the braggart girl.

Minnie goes completely bananas about “Claw’s“ cat-like exotic mod, asking whether the tail is real (“Sure it is. Do I have to take off my pants to prove it?”), and if she could touch those grooooovy ears… Petra pretends to make a big deal of it, but finally agrees - and has to forcibly keep herself from purring once Minnie starts scratching her behind the cat ears…

“Shy” comes out of Customs playing with her trademark balisong knife, all grumbling that it is the only one she managed to smuggle through (she lost three other knives to the Customs inspection). Her demeanor is found too scary by everyone (even Alex gives “the crazy bitch” a lot of extra space!), though after a few moments Fio is tentatively approached by Octavia (that’s quite a surprise!) asking whether “Shy” plays any musical instruments, perhaps? “With your long, slim fingers and dexterous hands, you definitely should!...” Well, Fio is, in turn, pretty shocked herself…

“Heartbreak” goes right after Eva, trying to win her over in Italian. She doesn’t notice that he is using translation software on his comlog, and virtually reading pre-generated text… and does pretty well (well, he is sly!) for a long while, until Evangeline blushes crimson, slaps him in the face and storms away, leaving Simon with a stunned look, asking aloud “But… But what did I say…?” only to see “Jaws”, “Animal” and “Trouble” laughing out loud (“Animal” hacked into his translation software and made a tiny, little alteration he considered funny). Minnie reacts with “- Oh, poor thing, you don’t know?” “- Well, I was asking her out for a dinner…” “ - No, you asked her to go to bed with you…” “ - Garfield, I’ll kill you…! Why you do this to me man?!” This quickly turns into asking Minuette how many languages she can actually speak - and she admits to a really formidable array of these: she’s fluent in English, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese, can manage communication in German, Russian, Hindi, and Arabic, and knows some bits of Mandarin, Japanese, Maori, and Latin. When everyone expresses their amazement at her incredible linguistic talent, Minnie just shrugs, smiling modestly: “It’s a gift.”

“Animal” and “Jaws” gaze at Yuni (swapping comments silently) with such intensity (and admiration) that Diego feel the urge to declare “Sorry lads, the lady is already busy”. He manages to refrain from that, however (besides, Yuni is well-accustomed to this kind of attention from that kind of boys, and apparently considers not noticing it to be the best tactic). Though they soon turn their attention onto “Heartbreak” trying his charm on Eva. And Jaws is pretty quickly “adjusted” by his girlfriend, “Firestarter”.

“Trouble” instantly (and loudly) recognizes Diablo as “the fella who tried to put the moves on my auntie Loyian”, though doesn’t seem to hold it against Diego - “means you have good taste, mister!”


While they could’ve spent more time getting to know each other, it is time to roll back to school and prepare for a game. The convoy goes through Belo Horizonte, definitely making a statement - three huge trucks, and two of them towing big rigs.

On-site, the Revolution’s TAGs have to undergo the referee's inspection, while the Angels have a moment to relax before jumping into their machines. This is, however, not gonna happen, as a man with the looks of a South-American gangster storms into the hangar, followed by a trio of other adults (and Ken Kamehameha closing the procession). The school’s AR tags them as senhor and senhora Moina, as well as senhor and senhora Summers - Octavia and Patricia’s parents. Senhor Moina is furious about the idea of “his little angel” participating in something as dangerous and un-girly as TAG-soft. Apparently, his daughter hadn’t told him about this - and what’s worse, the (mandatory) permission slip from one’s parents for participating in this activity she presented was forged (which, of course, falls on Patricia - who confesses to doing it on Octy’s request...).
Roberto Moina unleashes a verbal onslaught on the Summerses, (though Diablo gets some flak, too), blaming Patricia for “always dragging his daughter into trouble”, and declaring there’s no way he’ll allow this foolishness to continue endangering his “delicate little angel”. Senhor Moina cannot be reasoned with, neither by his wife who tries to calm him down, or by Mrs. Summers who mounts a icily calm - and biting- defense - to the point where Ken assures Diego he has a rubber-bullet gun and a teargas dispenser at hand. Octy’s daddy just refuses to hear or believe any arguments, including from the rest of the team, who wander over, drawn by the noise, and try to tell him his “delicate little angel” is, in fact, pretty much the most dangerous fighter on the team. He is so mad he doesn’t even notice that his “little angel” slipped away and into her Lizard.

The sound of sealing armor and starting engines doesn’t however get unnoticed by Diego, who quickly opens up a private channel to Octavia. While close to tears, she looks determined, not someone to be talked out of her mind “- Yes, Coach?, - Apply moderation, chica. Just don’t go over the top, okay?, - Understood.”
Meanwhile, Patty starts frantically typing something into her comlog...

As senhor Moina is about to find out, it is pretty difficult to negotiate with his teenage daughter, when she’s determined like that… And clad in 1,5 tons-worth of armored exoskeleton.

[GM note:Here’s the (half-joking) musical cue for this scene. ^_^]
“Papa.” – Octavia strides forward and gets her father’s attention through her Lizard’s external loudspeakers, an unusual edge of steel in her voice.
Roberto Moina can only stare – when a 3,5 meter powered armor looms over you, you shut up and listen!
“Papa, Mama. I’m sorry for deceiving you. But I just knew you’d never agree… And I wanted to tell you before the match, really, but there was so much to do, and there was never a good time… I’m sorry. But I won’t let you take me away. I wanted this. Patty didn’t drag me anywhere – it’s me who dragged her here, really. And I still want this. For a long time now, there was a part of me… Feelings in me… Anger, and aggression, and resentment… That I didn’t know how to deal with, because of my shyness. But that I also didn’t want to let you see, because they didn’t fit the picture of the “little angel” you see me as. I don’t blame you for anything, I know you always wanted only to protect me, especially after the accident. But I just can’t be your “little angel” anymore. Not only that. This… This is also what I want to be.”
“But… But what about the orchestra?… Your music?…” – the stunned Moinas grasp at straws.
“Nothing’s changed there. I adore music, I love playing the cello. I want to continue doing that, probably make a career out of it. But as long as the two don’t conflict, I want to also play TAG-Soft with the girls… I’m really sorry. But this “little angel”… Wants to be an “Angel of Stone” too.”
Octavia strikes a dramatic, determined pose… Just as Patricia strikes the last key and pumps her fist triumphantly… And, with a sound halfway between a church organ fanfare and a thousand drawn swords, an AR projection of a pair of enormous mechanical angelic wings unfold out of Octy’s TAG’s back!

Diego finds this a moment to chime in “ - And we have no way of getting her out of this armor now if she doesn’t want out, senhor Moina. Not without a combat hacker, and we’re plump out of those. You’ll have to deal with this…” (this is not at all true - Diego or Eric could easily override Octavia’s controls and get her out of the TAG. But they don’t advertise that!).
“ - Yeah,” - Steven Summers adds his bit “ - and that’ll be a tough bargain. Just like with those damn Haqqislamites, I know what I’m talkin’ about…”

This finally does the trick. While senhor Moina still can not understand what is going on, at least he came to the point where he can accept that. All of the parents are escorted out of the hangar by Ken. Diego asks whether he may consider Octavia to have a valid permission to participate in the activities, which is (grudgingly) confirmed. This also means nobody is going to press charges against Patty on the ground of Octavia’s forged permission - though senhora Summers leaves with a meaningful “ - We’ll sort it out back home, young lady!”
Her husband follows her after affectionately mussing up Patty’s spiky blue hair “ - But we are proud of you for wanting to help your friend.” - he stresses the “we” part with a lopsided grin.

Once the parents are gone, Patricia lets out a huge breath “ - Phew! Looks like I should get out of this with just a month or so of being grounded… And Octy gets to play! Could’ve been worse!”
Diego replies “ - Think, chica, think. The best way to not get punished is not letting them stick anything on you. The best way to achieve that is not getting caught. Well, naturally, the best way to not get caught is not to do questionable stuff in the first place…”
Patty grins “- That’s just what my mom says, too!”

“ - Okay girls, suit up! Time to get that going!”

“ - Alex?”
“ - Yes, Coach?”
“ - I want you to take down that crazy chica with the knife.”
“ - Uh… why?”
“ - ‘Cause I’ve seen you can’t stand her.”
“ - Sure. Shouldn’t be hard. All she’s got is a knife and a pea-shooter.”

As the team walks out of the hangar, they are greeted by cheers from the public - which includes some of Octavia’s orchestra mates (Lyra, the strings player with outrageous mint-green hair, is making a spectacle of herself, waving huge AR “fan-hands”, to the apparent embarrassment of her girlfriend) and Minnie’s cheerleader friends.
‘Nique didn’t made it in time to see them leaving the hangar, but managed to see the game on the vid screen in the auditorium: Patty slipped her a pass.
Diego also gets his first glimpse of Ilya Malinin, Minuette’s boyfriend. He really is just as huge as they said. He also doesn’t seem too friendly, sitting rigidly with his arms crossed and a stony scowl on his face - but that may have something to do with his little sister, Katya, literally standing astride his shoulders, waving her pom-poms and cheering her heart out. He at least waves back when Minnie waves at him...
Morgan is surprised to spot her studious classmate, Rikoriko, in the audience. “Didn’t think the mega-nerd would be interested…”

Victor contacts Diego, proposing a little friendly bet - “I bet your girl guides won’t stand twenty minutes against my team!”
“ - Right, what would you want in that case?”
“ - I recall you have some cheerleaders in the team… Next time we meet, your girls are going to do a cheerleading act for my team. How ‘bout it?”
“ - I accept. But if we hold these 20 minutes in the field, you’ll be doing cheerleading for us.”
“ - You got a deal, Diablo!”

The TAGs parade in front of the audience, with Angels brandishing AR wings programmed by Patricia (“I meant these as a surprise, but back in the hangar the occasion was too good to waste…”), and into the playing field. The spectators move to school’s auditorium to watch the game in AR or on big screens (as relayed by aerial drones). Eric mans the tech station, Yuni the medical station (to keep an eye on the team’s parameters), and Diego takes the combat controller’s seat.

He also promptly informs the team about the bet. Some of the girls are outraged (like Alex), but most take it calm - well, they were told not to expect a victory here, and cheerleading isn’t something they’d be really worried about.

“ - OK, chicas. Disengage dress colours, engage camouflage pattern. You are go.”

“ - Righ! Everyone ready?” asks Evangeline.
“ - Oh, oh, a moment, please! I need to pee!”
“ - Minnie?! Now?!”
“ - Yeah… ...Aaaaand I’m done, we can go!”
“ - God, Minnie! Really!?” Eva is deeply shocked and disgusted.
“ - Just don’t forget to wash your hands…” mumbles Morgan.

Based on the records of Revolution’s previous games and their cockiness back at the spaceport, Diego assumes the opponent will try to go for it, hard and fast. Well, the best way to not get hit is to not be where the blow lands, right? He sends the Angels to the left, outflanking the Revolution.

His prediction hits the mark, as the Angels execute a flank strike against the extended line of Human Revolution, stretched in frontal assault. However, no bullets find their targets (or at least, no TAG is considered eliminated by the game rules), though a frantic firefight ensues. Pressed from their right wing, Human Revolution falls back to left - apparently in panic, but in fact, this is a feigned flight. The Angels follow the Revolution, though Diego is wary, and advises caution. Nevertheless, caution is not enough, as the team walks into an ambush. “Dash” proves her nickname is accurate, executing a lightning-fast dash to charge her Anaconda right in between Mako and Minnie, taking both of them down simultaneously with her twin SMGs. (Mako takes it hard: “ - Ouch… I’m so sorry, girls…”. Minnie tries for drama: “Augh, I’m dead! Avenge me, friends!...”, but she ruins the patos by giggling.)

Angels fall back and flank to their left, while Revolution storms forward, hoping to wipe the opposition out. The time is running short on them - ten minutes are gone, ten more and they’ll be cheerleading for the Angels regardless of the game’s outcome. Victor has definitely told his team about the bet! The blow, however, misses. Even if it is a narrow miss - Angels barely avoid further casualties. Despite outmaneuvering the opposition, however, they are unable to take down any members of the Revolution.

Diablo throws the team into a frontal assault - the Revolution is unlikely to expect that! - and indeed catches them in a tight spot. Nevertheless, Fio (quickly, efficiently, and brutally) takes down Alex (so much about “taking down the crazy chica”...), but at the same time Octavia gets into a vicious firefight with Lucas - and wins!

And the game had already passed the 20 minutes mark. Angels might be unlikely to win the match, but the bet is won already (much to Alex’s relief).

Reduced to 4 players, Angles disengage and try hit and run tactics. Almost there… the Revolution was laying in ambush, with Ash set out as bait. Pressed hard, she uses her “secret weapon” - the mysterious pods on the backs of her Anaconda’s shoulders pop open, revealing thruster ports, and she leaps crazily away from the Angels’ gunfire, leaving them with jaws hanging (“ - Holy…! Wow! Is THAT even allowed?!”).

Revolution engages in another furious frontal assault, but the Angles are nowhere to be found: Diego takes advantage of the pretty unique feature of their gaming field, which contains a section of seashore. It is a masterful move: his team advances underwater, outflanking the Revolution again and surprising them completely (it is time for the opposing team to be surprised that the rules allow such a trick - TAG-soft arenas rarely contain open bodies of water other than maybe a small river, except perhaps on Varuna, and the Revolution are Nomads, making them even less used to such terrain features). Still, the Angels again fail to score any kills.

Angels need a moment to catch their breath, and Diego orders them to take a defensive position. Revolution approaches cautiously, and Meryl manages to take out Patty with a HRL hit. Angels fall back, covering their retreat. Still, they’re exhausted, and Eva’s medical readouts are going crazy - heartbeat and stress levels are up, and she’s panting heavily, biting her lip and squirming in her TAG.
“ - You need to calm down, Eva. Deep breath, chica, and have a sip of water.”
“ - I… don’t think that’s... the best idea, Coach.”
Yuni chimes in “- I think I know what’s going on, Diego. Better switch this to private mode.”
A private channel gets opened.
“ - Eva, don’t fret, your TAGs plumbing is OK. Nothing to fear, even if you had to do #2. Just relieve yourself and let’s get going!”
“ - But, uh, just like that? Into my suit?”
“ - Hey, chica, how do you think we dealt with it back in the army? When you’re three days in combat, you don’t jump out of your TAG to look for a privy! We’ve been over this.”
“ - But.. but everyone will know!”
Eric joins the conversation “ - No one will know you used the toilet facility of your TAG, apart from the fellow responsible for maintenance of the sanitary systems. Which is me. And trust me, miss - your secrets are as safe with a mechanic as they are with a priest.”
“ - But surely, they will smell it...”
“ - They will smell nothing. One of the few systems they don’t even touch in Praxis when doing a refit, is the air conditioning and hygiene. You’ll get out of the TAG cleaner than you got into it - better living through nanotechnology! See, of the 8 TAGs the team was using for practice, 5 had their toilets emptied already. Minuette advertised herself pretty loudly, but I’m not going to tell you which other ones - as I said, I keep my secrets. But fact is fact: 5 out of 8. Have you noticed anything?”
“ - No, I had no idea… Ugh… Ok… I’ll try...”
“ - OK, chica, I’ll close the connection now so you can have all the privacy we can get you at this moment. Do your thing and let’s be back to the game.”

A few moments later Evangeline’s medical readouts start moving toward normal…

Diego mutters under his nose “- Frack, I guess I should’ve showed them the apple juice trick…”

The Revolution apply their shock and awe tactics again, while Angles withdraw, covering their retreat with fire. Fio’s Gecko appears out of nowhere, avoids Octavia’s bullets, and throws her sword. The balisong unfolds in mid-air and embeds itself in Octy’s Lizard’s shoulder, disabling her gun arm. Octavia attempts to catch the rifle with her other hand, but isn’t fast enough - “Shy” finishes her with a double tap of her assault pistol, one bullet to the head, other to the chest…
At the same time, “Heartbreak” confronts Evangeline at close range. This day, the Angel’s captain is just a bit faster and more accurate - she puts a burst into his chest, eliminating the opposing captain. She then closes into point-blank range and viciously pumps another burst into Simon’s TAG - “just to be sure”.
Boy, the girl can surely hold a grudge!

The game has hit the 45-minute mark.

Angels (now down to two players - Morgan and Evangeline) move out sharply, as the Revolution attempts to set up a trap for them. Despite their opponent being disorganised (in LoL), the team fails to score any kills.

Diego is forced to go back to maneuver warfare - the game is basically lost, against three time as numerous opponents, but he’s not going to surrender it. The girls won’t hear of it either.

The match turns into a deadly cat-and-mouse game, as tense minutes tick by. Finally, the last two Angels attempt to hit and run attack - they even manage to surprise the Revolution a bit, and Morgan puts a full burst into Meryl’s Szalamandra, but the angle is bad and rifle bullets fail to penetrate the heavy armor. Moments later, Ash takes Morgan out with twin bursts of her SMGs.
“Trouble” uses the shock effect of his grenades to herd Eva in the desired direction - just where Petra is waiting with her shotgun.
This is the end…

Still, a few moments earlier, the clock marked the 60th minute of the game. The Angels held out three times longer than they were expected to!

The “destroyed” and “disabled” TAGs are allowed to get up and everyone walks back to the hangar.
The spectators’ mood is bowed (the home team lost) but unbroken (they still managed a good showing!), and the Angels of Stone are greeted back with applause (with Lyra and Katya pretty much having a competition for who can cheer the loudest).
As the team members leave their cockpits, Diego handles out bottles of sports drink, and promptly sends them away to shower and get back “in civvies”.

The plan is to take out the Revolution for a meal (though Yuni talks Diego out from the idea of visiting Silva’s with both gangs - officially, on the grounds that some would not be able to stomach the hot cuisine there!). the final choice is one of the places owned by the Chryse family - Minnie says she’s taking it on her: “ - Losers buy the dinner, that’s fair. Besides, Evangeline paid for our paintball gear already.”

Both teams load into their monster tractor trucks (Revolution leaves one rig and the other’s trailer at school) and hit the town.

The meal is pleasant - even the Bakunin kids appreciate it. And they doubly appreciate the dessert (Garfield shows a huge sweet tooth, munching down so many extra pieces of cake that no one is able - or in fact interested - in keeping track of!), plus engage in small talk.

Ash can’t stop gloating over her jump-jet trick (“ - I thought I’d kill myself pulling that! So awesome!”). However, her earlier dismissive and condescending attitude towards the Angels of Stone has changed. Not only does she not rub their nose in their loss, she openly and sincerely, if a little backhandedly, compliments the Avalon girls for their performance in the face of the much more powerful Human Revolution. In fact, the entire Bakunin team is quite impressed with the Angels’ resilience, perseverance, and “balls”. Petra sums it up best: “I’m still not sure about the <Angel> thing, but you got the <Stone> part down perfectly!”. Also, some of them less than others, but in general the Revolution kids don’t seem very bothered by losing their little bet - hey, the Angels won fair and square. “Trouble” and “Animal” actually look forward to the cheerleading - they think it”ll be hilarious!

There’s a lot going on during the dinner, with much friendly banter and socializing all around. Patty and Garfield talk shop and swap hacking tricks. Simon apologizes formally (and dramatically, falling on one knee and her mercy) to Evangeline, which she magnanimously accepts - well, she got to “kill” him already, no use holding the grudge further, right? Octavia and Fio seem to really connect (Octy will later confirm that the “crazy bitch” routine is just a mask “Shy” uses as a shield against her social anxieties). Minnie still fawns on Petra and her tail. And quite a bit more. Diego catches some of it, misses a lot.

Mako informs her team-mates that she’s quitting, which is greeted with much sadness. Well, Alex attempts jeering: “So <Mako Joyo - supergirl> couldn’t hack it after all…”, before Morgan administers a swift “attitude adjustment” in the form of a quick slap to the back of the head… Minuette on the other hand nearly bursts into tears.
“ - Hey, it is not like I’m moving to another planet! And I promise I’ll come to all your games to cheer on you!” consoles Mako.
“ - Well, and I’m sure the girls will be doing the same for you, chica. A TAG cheer-squad, that is sure to impress the opposing team!” - Diego chimes in with a malicious smile.

Eric will later admit that conversation with Glynda was pretty inspiring, though he’s not sure whether he’ll ever muster the courage to draw upon this inspiration!

Still, two hours pass away quickly, and soon it it the time to escort the Bakunin team back to their ship. Once the Human Revolution is away (with many good wishes and hopes of meeting again soon for a re-match) on the way to their mothership, Yuni drives the Monster back to school to offload the team. Naturally, a limousine - with Roger behind the wheel - awaits Evangeline. Patricia and Octavia leave hand-in-hand as always, with their parents this time. There’s no arguing going on - seems senhor Moina is coming to terms with his “little angel” wanting to also be an “Angel of Stone” (Diego manages to pull Roberto aside for a little chat. “ - You know - or maybe you don’t, I guess - how it is. You watch her go out into the world, but all you want to do is lock her up in a tower and stand guard day and night… - Yeah, the locking up part doesn’t really work out too good, for you or, most importantly, her. - Yes. My wife was trying to tell me for years. But I think I’ve finally realized that myself.“). Everyone else scatterers in their own way.

With the kids gone, Yuni and Diego go to Silva’s for a tankard or two - and happen to meet Dominique just before her shift ends. She asks to pass her greetings to the team - she wasn’t able to see them coming back (she was in hurry to get back to Silva’s - she’s in a middle of another gunpla project and needs to raise money for the parts).

They end the evening heading for Diego’s place (though he’s slightly worried that his bed might be a bit narrow for Yuni’s tastes. Also, with the game taking all his attention, he hadn’t managed to get that cooking manual yet). As Yuni comments “ - I’ve told you already, I have to take a look at your diet!” [GM note: Well, they’ll get to that - eventually (^_^).]


Which sums up the entry #5.

[Claudius Sol]

Interesting to hear the game being played out. As a GunPla-er, I hope things work out for Dominique. I know I'd kill for a shot to ride in a sports-team of mobile suits.

[Errhile]

Well... there's nothing she can do about it - it is only Diego wrestling against the red tape of Board of Education to get her a sports scholarship (remeber, he requested four of these for the sole purpose of getting a single one for 'Nique).

Plus, we need one more pilot, to fill the space left after Mako's resignation...

[Errhile]

A few things we assumed about LHosts for the purpose of “T.A.Gs of Avalon” game.

A typical fresh-from-the-vat LHost is, biologically, a fully grown human body in it’s prime. Which makes it equivalent to between 20 and 25 years of real age. “Younger” or “older” specimens may be specially ordered if needed or desired.

A basic LHost is essentially just a human clone, with no major cybernetic, bionic or genetic upgrades (though these can be ordered, too), although contraceptive implants are common enough to be considered a standard feature, and Cubes are a given. High-performance LHosts, like the Bodhisattwa class used by agents of Aleph, are a different thing, and far more expensive.

However, even the low-end LHosts are a result of careful genetic screening, making them as close to perfect specimens of Homo Sapiens as technically viable. Which means they are very healthy and with no defects (such LHosts are rejected by quality control procedures, when they happen. And they happen rarely). Thanks to that careful screening, they maintain excellent health, performance and looks significantly longer than it is average for natural-born humans, though within limits. There are known cases of people aging slower or keeping in good health, or living as long as it is typical for LHosts - just not that many of them.

As for looks, basic LHosts tend to cling to classic standards. One of the more popular models is Myron, designed along the lines of ancient Greek athletes, as presented in sculpt - proportionally and harmoniously built (skin tone and facial features are typically made to fit with client’s original look, or at least the same phenotype), though it doesn’t have the musculature of a bodybuilder. While not as flashy as the bodies-of-the-year, Mirons keep selling well, thanks to their evergreen design.

Diego Ibarrez uses a Myron-series LHost.

[Errhile]

Avalon Chronicles entry #6
“Load Up On Guns, Bring Your Friends”, (part 1)

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 - so far, so good). 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 (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 a 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.
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 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.
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.

Other characters at Roberto Rocha Preparatory Academy:
Bianca (Bia) Irene Chryse - #6 (2 class junior high, 13y), Australian. Minnie’s younger sister. Fiery red hair, uncouth mouth and a talent for getting on people’s nerves, which often gets her into trouble - as Diego said, “she’s as sweet as a candied chili pepper”. A total tomboy and skateboard riding thrill-junkie. Is quite fascinated with TAGs now, but has to wait till she gets to senior high before she can apply for the team.
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 (~35y) Polynesian. TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
Gerhard Oobleck - #1 (~40y), German. Teaches history. Enthusiastic about the perspective of having a real war veteran (Diego) in his classes. Very energetic and slightly manic, moves fast and talks even faster.
Ginevra Chennault - #1 (~90y) Polynesian. School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. To-the-point and strict, but fair. Teaches literature.
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.
Mako Joyo - #1 (1. class, 15y) Micronesian. Ex-team member (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 once the current captian graduates at the end of current year. School sportsgirl. Very sporty, very active - and thus extremely busy person.
Nyree Rikoriko - #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #6) (2nd class, 14y - she started school a year early, and 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).
Reksio - #1 Eric’s favourite Palbot, named after an obscure cartoon character.
Scott “Scoot” Lowe - #6, (2 class junior high, 14y), German. Another skater kid. Bia Chryse’s classmate, skating buddy, and “absolutely-not-boyfriend!”
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”...

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 ends meet. They’re very close with Dominique.

“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:
Senores Anzamble, Ral and Trowa - #1 (~80y) Central American (various). Veterans of the First NeoColonial War (Fusiliers), now elderly retirees and regular guests at “Silva’s”.
Esteban Silva - #1 (~80y) Brazilian. Owner, cook and host at “Silva’s”, old-fashioned eatery with human touch (and spicy South American cuisine).
“Gato” - #6 (in his late teens) Brazilian. A peddlar 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.

Elsewhere in the Human Sphere
Lt. Loyian N’dele - #3 (29y), Maasai. Once Diego’s favourite student (and attempted romantic interest, but she turned him down. Very gracefully in fact: they still are friends) in one of his last TAG classes. She was re-trained for remote TAGs, and remains in active service (CJC).


Friday, October 17th

Yuni and Diego spend a night together, at Diego’s place this time. While his bed is very spacious by Corregidor standards, it is still a single person one by PanO’s... And way too narrow for Yuni’s “active” sleeping habits, which end with her sleeping half-hanging over the edge (in a very cat-like way).

In the morning she manages to pull that inspection of Diego’s diet she was talking about (by inspecting his fridge), and considers it acceptable, though not advisable in the long run if he really wants to keep himself in the peak human condition his LHost makes possible. She also has to skip her morning training routine to get to school in time.

Yuni points out that the lack of news from the principal, Ms.Chennault, is good news in fact - if she was seriously irritated by the Team’s performance, she’d have Diego summoned to her office first thing in the morning. She’ll, however, want to see him on Monday, though.

Well, it’s time for Yuni to go to work!

Diego spends the day doing paperwork - the scholarship for ‘Nique (the Board of Education made him go down to one scholarship, and they’re now arguing over fine points of entry requirements), the ammo, fuel, and parts consumption reports from Eric, and other standard reports he has to do for the school.

He also manages to download an interactive “cooking for dummies” manual and - accessing a local Arachne node - locate an open-source, do-it-yourself-by-fabricator plan for a motorbike he actually likes, though downloading these plans will take some time (Arachne doesn’t work too well in PanO territories). The bike is, in fact, a reverse-engineered umpteenth generation descendant of an ancient design, Ural (probably with a bit of Ariadnan history, too) - a piece of early 20th century engineering remade, so a Nomad staying planetside could recreate it with an industrial-grade fabricator and a tiny bit of technical know-how.
Diego intends to ask Eric for technical assistance - he could probably do it all himself, but having a pro engineer helping him would make it way more effective, besides, Eric might like the very idea of such a project.

He also swaps a few e-mails with friendly banter with Loyian N’dele, who already got records of the game from her nephew.

Also, he gets an e-mail from Ms.Chennault just as predicted - she wants to see him on Monday morning.


Saturday, October 19th

The team, now six members strong, moves out for their traditional paintball practice with Bolo’s Barkin’ Spiders, where they are welcomed like heroes (the Spiders have watched their game against Human Revolution, too) - there are cheers and gun salvoes (dry)fired into the air - which leaves the Angels a little stunned. Evangeline is the first to recover, and, like the princess she is, proceeds to bask in the attention, and quite pompously “accept the due adoration of her fans”. Which of course causes much eye-rolling among the other girls (though it seems to Diego to be much more good-humored than truly annoyed, compared to what it would be a mere month ago).

At first, they try fighting full team vs. full team, so six Angels vs. eight Spiders. Even the advantage provided by Diego as the commander, though, is not enough, not today at least, and the first two matches end in bad losses for the Angels - especially the first one, a massacre in less than 15 minutes.

Thereafter, to even out the odds, the Spiders draw straws and have one of them sit out each round. Six Angels versus seven Spiders (with their respective combat controllers) seem to make the chances roughly equal.

During the, now traditional, after action campfire, Patricia casually informs them that, just as she expected, she’s been grounded for a month. No parties, either attended or DJ-ed, limited Maya privileges, best of behaviour and discipline, and at least “B”s for all grades (with at least “A”s in her advanced comp-sci) are the terms. She doesn’t seem very worried: “It’s no worse than any other I received to date. No sweat.” It also turns out Octavia has offered (quite adamantly insisted, actually) to share Patty’s punishment with her friend. This doesn’t seem very meaningful, as the terms of the grounding are things Octy would be inclined to do or not do anyway, but Patty sincerely appreciates the gesture all the same.


Sunday, October 20th

Having dealt with the morning mail, Diego calls Yuni and suggests they could go out of town again. They rent a bike for him, and go try climbing this time - Diego gets the ropes of this activity pretty quickly. They also take time to swim in the lake.

They spend a pleasant, active day together… And have enough self-control (barely!) to not also make it an unplanned night at Diego’s, for there’s work to do in the morning.


Monday, October 21st

First thing in the morning, Diego shows up for a meeting with Ms.Chennault. She has had a conference over the TAG-soft project with the school’s board, and so far, the project stays - though with no increases in the budget. While most of the board members were disappointed with the lack of victory, she had persuaded them by reminding them of the results of the previous Academy team, who got into action after two months of preparation (compared to the Angels’ one) and was completely annihilated in less than 20 minutes, causing no casualties for the opposing team. So, the Angles were doing - by comparison - very acceptably.

Ms.Chennault has only positive thing to say about the girls and their performance. She is not, however, impressed by Diego’s own performance in the game - she expected more of him! [GM: This is not unfair of her, I believe. When we played the match out, Diego was, in fact, cursed with a series of pretty bad die rolls, significantly below the average that could be expected from his character stats.]

She is aware of the technological gap between Angels and the Revolution, or any other potential opponent, and suggests Diego should now at least buy some extra armaments as far as the funds allow. She’d like to see his proposal for some firepower upgrades and their cost estimate as soon as possible.

Later in the day, Diego discusses the possible upgrades with Eric. They decide to get a disposable missile launcher (Panzerfaust or Blitzen - Diego favours the Blitzen, given the straight TAG-vs-TAG combat is the case, it gives better chances of a one-shot-kill than the more universal Panzerfaust) for the Gecko (assuming that the lightest TAG is the one most likely to go down first, there’s no much point in worrying about its limited ammunition). Getting the same upgrade for more TAGs would make ammuniton costs sky-rocket quickly.
Another TAG badly needing an upgrade is the Szalamandra. A heavy TAG predestined for the support role, but armed only with standard gun makes little sense. With Diego’s knowledge of the fine points of TAG warfare, and Eric’s technical expertise (and market knowledge), they decide to go for a cheap and often overseen weapon: a large autocannon, Ariadna style. Not as universal as a missile launcher or rapid-firing as HRMC, an autocannon still packs plenty of punch against a single, hard target, is very simple to maintain and (relatively) cheap to feed with ammo. Diego insists on giving the Szally some form of a sidearm for close-in work, where the autocannon would be impractical.

They also make appropriate adjustments in the “homework” training simulation, allowing the team to test out possible weapon configurations.

As the girls show up for the afternoon practice, they are ushered into firing range, for their accuracy still leaves much to be desired. Minnie “inherits” Mako’s Gecko, and immediately starts talking to it with affection (and petting it!), so the poor thing wouldn’t feel lonesome and abandoned after Mako left the team.
Naturally, this makes several other team members roll their eyes…

Minnie then goes all bananas testing her new TAG - being the most mobile team member, she well appreciates its nimbleness. As Diego comments “Well, the girl has just lost 500kg of weight, I guess every chica in this situation would be crazy with joy!”

While the girls are happily perforating AR targets, senhor Oobleck calls Diablo. He is going into the Paradiso conflict with his Senior High classes this week, and wants Diego as a guest star, say, on Thursday, hmm? Since this was in the air from the day one, Diego agrees, asking only how much into details he should go. Gerhard doesn’t, however, require him to make a lecture - besides, as Diego points out, all those big-brains writing history books tend to have all the data (including a lot of already declassified information) and hindsight he, being a soldier in the midst of action, never had.

In return, he asks Gerhard whether he’d be interested in some paintball, as Yuni and Diego are going to try it. As he says, a school’s paintball team is pretty likely to form at one moment or another, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a teacher’ team by that time. After all, it would be a good idea to kick their butts once in a while, and show those brats their teachers aren’t such fossils their pupils tend to take them for!
Senhor Oobleck says he never did such things, but he’d be happy to give it a try - as he had observed, Diego was using paintball as additional training method for his team, right? Gerhard also boasts he used to be very sporty in his school days, being quite the runner, and he’s still pretty quick on his feet. So he should at least “make a good distraction as a moving target!”.

Once the practice is over, Minnie stays for a moment to ask Diablo for a favour. Her younger sister, Bia, got pretty interested in TAG-soft after witnessing their match, and begs her for a visit to the hangar. Diego has nothing against it, but - having learned that Bianca is a junior high grade student - decides she won’t be allowed to pilot a TAG.
Minuette is allowed to bring her sister for the Wednesday practice.


Wednesday, October 23rd

In the morning, Diego receives an e-mail from the Board of Education - they’ve (grudgingly) agreed to assign a sports scholarship to the TAG-sof team of the Academy. Diego immediately sets the wheels in motion, regarding the school.

He makes sure the download form Arachne is complete, before forwarding the files to Eric. They’re soon at the hangar, fabricating first parts for Diego’s future bike.

The team gathers for practice, with Minnie bringing her sister (on a skateboard). Bianca is all over the place - she’s just as energetic and cheerful as her older sister, but, unlike Minnie, who doesn’t seem to have one mean bone in her body, Bia has a snarky, nasty streak a mile wide, and her acerbic comments step on the team’s toes. Well, mostly on Alex’ - “Ah yes, Narahari. The sad, lonely girl with a crushing inferiority complex, that makes her try to rise her self-esteem by trampling others. So sad...” Morgan, meanwhile, gets named as the second coming of their eldest sister: “The coloring is quite different, of course, but that look… And now with the raised eyebrow! That’s just classic Frankie!” The younger miss Chryse would be an obvious candidate for the team, but she isn’t old enough to be allowed in… as Morgan points out to Alex (after keeping her from strangling the annoying brat right now, right there), once that happens, they’ll be out of school.
“Unless, chica, you intend to book* an extra year or two, that is...” comments Diego.
Bia then points out that Patricia is a, supposedly pretty good, hacker, and asks whether she couldn’t maybe “persuade” the school systems that Bia was already in high school, so she could join the team? No dice. Patty says she must first serve out her current grounding before she can try earning another, and besides, “Such favours don’t come cheap, catch my drift, kiddo? How many grand is your allowance, hm?” Besides, comments Diego, does Bia really want to be two years older already? Girls usually like to have years taken off, not added on… Bia just pouts at the injustice of it all.

* the Polish slang term I used can mean either "do prison time" or "repeat a year in school", depending on context.

The girls would love to do some force-on-force practice, but with just 6 team members present, the result would be pretty bleak. Sure, with Yuni and Diego, that would make a full team. But whichever team would include Diego, would have an unfair advantage. Still, Diego says, if they really want it, they might try how long would take the team to take him down.

Yes, all of them, and with Bianca as their combat controller - we can’t have her in a cockpit, but she can surely get behind a command console.

If they really want to see how they really did it in CJC…

Diego jumps into a Lizard (ex-Minnie’s) and heads out. Being alone against six of his students, he decides to apply hit-and-run tactics. In some curious twist of fate - or intuition - Bia starts with a perfect answer, sending the whole team forward in a crushing all-out assault. Still, Diego skill is more than enough to counterbalance the team’s numerical superiority. Minnie, Alex, Octavia and Patty are down-and-out before he pulls out - unable to track him and laying down fire on the positions he already abandoned. Shocked, Eva and Morgan take a desperate last stand back to back, trying to cover the space around them. Diego takes them down in quick succession, never showing in their sights.
Putting an entire team out of game took him little more than 5 minutes…

“Damn, Coach, that was as incredible as it was scary…” - Morgan is pretty impressed.

“So, that’s how it looks for real…” - Eva is stunned.

“Not exactly, chica. It was clean TAG-on-TAG. No remotes, no hackers, no infantry support. But yeah, that’s roughly the level you’d have to expect in the field back in my days…”

As everyone is getting ready to leave, Bianca receives a comlog call from one Scott Lowe, innocently inquiring if she’s up for a late afternoon at the skate park. Bia is quite happy and eager to agree, and expedites her leave, streaking off on her skateboard - though not before receiving some affectionate teasing from Minnie over hurrying off to meet her sweetheart. “Scoot’s so not my boyfriend! Honestly, sis, not everyone is as crazy about eating face as you are with your man-mountain! Yuck!” Which would probably be more convincing if her ears weren't quite so red… “Ah, young love... So cute!” sighs Minnie.

Before the team disbands, Diego informs Morgan he was invited by senhor Oobleck to a history lesson, so they’ll see each other next day. As she comments, it’s gonna be pretty interesting, with all the military history buffs around...

After the practice, he heads out to Silva’s, to see Dominique. She’s pretty nervous when he says that “they have to talk”, and then can’t believe her ears when Diablo informs her that she’s changing schools, and if she can get the paperwork done, she can start in Academy on Monday: they got a sports scholarship for her! Somehow, the veteran Fusiliers nad senhor Silva catch on far quicker than ‘Nique herself…

When she finally does, she can’t resist the urge to lounge over the table and hug Diablo

Everyone present, regular customers all, cheer and raise a toast to Dominique’s great fortune, and another one to Diego, for being the person to grant the girl her fondest wish. The veterans then break into a celebratory song (some portuguese military equivalent of “For She’s a Jolly Good Fellow”). All this leaves ‘Nique quite flustered, though with a silly grin on her face.

“It’s going to get a little lonely here without you,” comments senhor Silva once the singing is over. This has Dominique quite alarmed.
“- Senhor Esteban! Are you… Are you firing me?...”
“- My dear child, I’d never dream of it! Weren’t for you, this wouldn’t be the place it is! You’ll always have a place here if you want it. However…”
Senhor Silva proceeds to explain that, with the school year so far along (it’s already two weeks into second term), even with her grades transferred from St. John’s, ‘Nique is going to have her work cut out for her if she wants to properly catch up and secure her place in the, much more demanding, Roberto Rocha Academy. Especially with the demands of the TAG-Soft team on top. Her most prudent course of action, then, would be to take a leave of absence from “Silva’s”, and focus on her studies.
“- Once your academic career is fully on track, after New Year’s perhaps, I’ll be delighted to have you back for a few afternoons a week. But even then, as now, school should be your most important focus. After all, you didn’t simply want to just attend the Academy, you wanted to really learn, right?”
Though leaving makes her sad, Dominique can’t but admit that “Grandpa” Esteban is quite right.

They agree to meet on Thursday afternoon at Silva, and head out to meet Dominique’s mother (who has to sign up some transfer-related papers). Diego also offers to visit St’ John’s (‘Nique’s current high school) and make things go smoothly there, too.


Thursday, October 24th

Diego sorts out the photos he intends to have on hand for the history lesson (and deciding against attending it in his old CJC uniform), and goes out to visit St. John’s High School. While he’s initially welcomed with some suspicion, things go smoothly as soon as his identity and documents are verified as genuine.

Mid-afternoon, he turns up for the history lesson, and is receives a pretty surprising call for help while walking through the Junior High Ward of the Academy’s main yard: Bia Chryse is hanging on a flag pole, about four meters above the ground - by her underwear! She, obviously, can’t get down on her own, even if she was ready to fall these four meters to the ground. She wasn’t attracting attention due to the fact there are classes in progress, and her comlog is still within school premises. She could, naturally, use it to call for help, but it would mean that everyone would know what happened to her…

“...and don’t swing around up there, we don’t know how much your bloomers can take.”

“They held out so far, right?”

“‘Cause that’s static tension. You start swinging around, you make it dynamic tension. That’s two different things. Learn your physics, chica, dammit!”

Diego gives the flag pole a quick look - the powered winch controls are damaged (or more likely, sabotaged) so while he’s authorized by the school’s system to lower a flag, he can’t do it. There’s a handle socket for manually cranking the winch, just in case, but of course there’s no such handle around! Luckily, Diego can call a friendly mechanic - Eric - to send in the tool along with a Palbot. Once Bia is safely on the ground (Eric is sure there’s a story behind this, and Diego promises he’ll tell him everything, on condition it won’t propagate any further), Reksio goes to repair the mechanism.

As for why Bianca ended up in the air, she’s pretty cryptic there - but apparently she stepped on someone’s toes, y’know… Diego is quick to put the facts together and sticks it on Alex, though, as he notes, he has to admit she made it unnoticed somehow. Which requires some talent. Sure, it could’ve ended ugly if young Chryse fell from that pole, but she didn’t, right?

(It is worth noting that Diego is unfamiliar with the idea of a “wedgie”. It is not that bullying doesn’t happen on Corregidor - in fact, it happens pretty often, sadly - but other “pranks” are used for that purpose).

All’s well that ends well, isn’t it?

Anyway, Bia is safely on the ground, sitting under the flag pole and trying to get some life into her legs that went completely numb, just before the bell rings, and her Junior High friends get out for a break. Bia is lucky those few who take notice of their little group are wholly absorbed with Reksio fixing the winch mechanism... And to spot Scoot before he spots her, which gives her a second to frantically stuff her stretched-out bloomers down the back of her uniform pants! Wouldn’t do for him to see her being so un-cool... Diego is able to leave Bianca in Scoot’s (“He’s not my boyfriend!”) care. Seeing him for the first time, Diego must agree with Minnie: the two do make a cute couple.

He’s still on time for the history lesson. Once Gerhard is done with his job - and he’s passionate about teaching history, a real master of his trade (even Morgan seems less sleepy in his lesson), the kids are allowed to ask questions of “a real witness of these events”. Most of these come from Nyree Rikoriko, the Maori girl Morgan pointed out as a “mega-nerd” back when the team was marching out to play against the Angels - she actually takes Diego into a virtual one-person crossfire of questions (her academic eagerness provoking some eye-rolling from her classmates, though it’s apparent they mostly regard it as par for the course). He can’t answer all of these - he wasn’t a commander or politician, but a grunt in the line of fire… Still, the last one comes in unexpected, and pretty creepy: “Sir, you are a resurectee, right? Could you tell us, please, how does it feel… To die?” She immediately notices she probably went too far, and frantically adds that if Diego doesn’t want to, he doesn’t have to answer... Plus there’s the bell ringing for the break already. But well, since she asked… Hey, he’s a guest, and doesn’t have to keep to school breaks too much.

“I can’t tell you much. I got it real easy myself: all I felt was an impact, and the next thing I remember was waking up in a new body. But others often didn’t get it that easy, and it took them a longer time to go. It was an ugly, messy affair…”

He pulls out a photo out of his made-ready folder and displays it in the classroom’s AR: a wrecked Gecko TAG lies in a corridor of the PNS Lazarus (it is an official WarCor photo, it carries labels of date and place), with a gaping head-sized hole melted through the plastron, and the back of the torso blown out.

“For all you military history buffs here: that’s how it looks when a light TAG gets hit with a shaped charge AP-EXP projectile.” - Diego notices that many of the students went suddenly pale and completely silent. A few are turning green. “I’m not going to show you the photos of the inside. As I said, a messy affair”.

Morgan sits in the back of the classroom, moving her hands in the air - trying to fit what she sees on the picture into the real dimensions (and pilot’s position inside) of a Gecko TAG. She has probably noticed the familiar smiling devil painted on its thigh armor. Yes, it was a miracle that Diego’s Cube was still salvageable after that hit!

“I hope that answers your question.”

“Well, yes, that’s it for today. You may go.” - Gerhard chimes in, and the students leave the classroom in a hurry “Diego, thank you. Could you wait for me for a moment? Miss Rikoriko, a word, if I may?…”

As it clearly means he should wait outside, Diablo walks out. After a few minutes Rikoriko walks out of the classroom, throws a shy, mumbled apology and goodbye to Diego, and pelts down the corridor, as if she had hell on her heels. As senhor Oobleck explains, the girl has a troubled past - a couple years ago, she was a victim of very serious bullying, and was badly traumatized. It was seemingly resolved happily and she received expert psychological counselling and made a very good recovery. Still, in light of her personal history, he felt alerted with her question, and was having a word with her to ensure she wasn’t having a slip back (or worse, being targeted again), and maybe going suicidal… Luckily, his worries proved unfounded - it seems the question was just a result of her typical tendency to let her thirst for knowledge override all other concerns - like basic courtesy and tact...

Next thing on his agenda is meeting with ‘Nique at Silva’s. They then drive into the seedier part of Belo Horizonte - until Dominique suggests it would be wiser to leave the car, if Diego wants to find it there once he comes back - and continue on foot. ‘Nique got some extra money as “holiday benefit” from “Grandpa” Esteban, and she intends to buy some extra groceries to celebrate her school change.

Diego watches the district with curiosity. It is not an outright slum (not that there are no slums in PanOceania, on Avalon, or in Belo-Horizonte itself), but definitely not a good neighbourhood. Sure, he had seen worse, but most of the time they were already half-covered in jungle… And some opinions were that Morats storming through them actually did a lot to improve the real estate worth!

Having done the shopping (‘Nique knows, and is known to, all the vendors by name, apparently the local community is pretty closely knit. A good sign.), they meet a young man with a head of huge hair, walking by a pair of crutches, who is apparently ‘Nique’s friend - Gato. While what they do might seem like a black market transaction on some heavy drugs, he has actually brought some freshly fabricated parts for Dominique’s current gunpla project. Its quickly obvious he and ‘Nique are very good friends. He’s overjoyed with the news, once she tells him she’s swapping schools, and drops his crutches (which alarms ‘Nique) to enfold her in a bear hug (which, tellingly, alarms her none, except when she needs to breathe again).
“- Good for you, Torres chica! Good for you. Grab your chance, get out of here while you can, and forget about us losers.”
“- I could never do that…” Dominique hides a small blush by turning away.
In the middle of all that, it takes Gato a while to notice Diego, whom ‘Nique (eager for a subject change) introduces as a Corregidor serviceman (Diablo feels it necessary to inform that he’s retired) and a coach at the Academy.
Gato says that in such case he has to tell “the boys” to keep their hands off the unfamiliar man in the neighbourhood (“unless they feel they have money to waste on hospital bills”). As the story goes, he was recently doing some job at the astroport, and some local lads “and freshly made berets” (which implies new Fusilier recruits) tried to teach some manners to a quintet of Corregidorians, probably off-duty from the local trade mission: “four ‘sheriffs’ and a fella they called a ‘foreman’, though I doubt they had a construction crew foreman in mind” - some details are lost in translation there, but Diego does catch on - four Algulaciles and an off-duty Mobile Brigada, and got their butts handed to them in a truly heinous fashion…

Well, this Gato character might be bringing gunpla parts for Dominique this time, but he looks way like a black marketeer to Diego. Not a high-profile one, just a local contact, but still a valuable one, should he ever need anything less-than-legal on Avalon. It is useful to know such people. They tend to know other people…

The Torreses live in a “project”, a tall block of flats, occupying something that is a little more than bachelor apartment - the main bed/day/dining-room, a tiny bedroom, and a tinier bathroom. It isn’t posh - definitely, the limited resources do show - but from what Diego can see, is it home.

He’s also introduced to Ms. Leila Torres, Dominique’s mother. Ms. Torres is a woman in her early thirties, though she’s been through a lot of hard times, and it shows. She must have been really stunning in the past, now, she’s still quite pretty, but also looks permanently tired.
Yes, she also barely believes the news (‘Nique hasn’t spilled the beans before!), but she’s as thrilled as her daughter - after she’s able to understand what ‘Nique, who’s quite literally vibrating with excitement, is even saying!
“- Little Spark, please! I’m really happy that you’re happy, but slow down, honey, ‘cause I can’t parse a word you’re saying!” she laughingly chides.
Once proper communication is established, there are a lot of happy exclamations, hugs and tears of joy. It’s a touching mother-daughter moment which leaves Diego feeling a little awkward. Leila and Dominique are obviously very close, and equally as much friends as mother and daughter (well, Leila is barely more than twice ‘Niques age).
Plus, Leila had already heard about Diego, who allowed ‘Nique to get elbows-deep in a real TAG. Though she gets a little flustered at their introduction: “...But you didn’t mention, that he was so… Ah… Never mind!...” Apparently, Diablo made some impression! Which doesn’t go entirely unnoticed by ‘Nique, who develops an impish grin and promptly finds an excuse to give mom some space.

Dominique disappears into the kitchen (well, takes it over, really, as it’s just an annex to the main room), going to upgrade the stew with extra ingredients she bought (and expressing hope that Diego will stay for dinner), while Diablo accompanies her mother on daily chores for a moment - he has a questionnaire on the family to complete…

As he learns, Ms.Torres came to Avalon about seventeen years old, already pregnant, and declares ‘Nique’s father to be “unknown”. Which obviously is far from the truth, but also implies she was running from something. Still, Diego considers this to be absolutely not his business, at least not a hair’s width more than is necessary to fill in the form. The kid is a natural talent in mechanics (her mother tends to specialize in software rather than hardware, and admits to “geeking out” over her technological obsessions as much as her daughter tends to), having done countless repairs and upgrades in the neighbourhood (including a pretty impressive rooftop greenhouse). Leila expresses hope that her daughter will have the chance she missed herself. Early motherhood has clearly turned her life plans upside down, spoiling her chance to drag herself out of Atek-dom, and apparently there are days when she wonders how it would’ve been if the events went the other way. Still, every time she looks at her daughter, she considers it was, in the end, worth it. Observing their interactions, from the first brilliant smile that literally lit up Leila’s face when she saw ‘Nique come home, it’s very clear to Diego that she speaks the truth. Dominique may have been an unplanned child, but she isn’t now, nor ever was, an unwanted or unloved one.

After the dinner (‘Nique’s cooking skills have been apparently carefully honed by esteban Silva, and she turns out to be a great cook - and the part of the food already prepared earlier by Leila is nothing to sneeze at either!), she also insists to show Diego her room - a small, cramped space barely enough for a bed, wardrobe, and desk, where her gunpla workshop is located: and excellent case of well-organized mayhem, plus a display cabinet. She’s currently working on a Szalamandra model, and decides to do it in standard Tunguzkan armament and colour scheme. Classics are classics, right?

On his way back home Diego gets a chance to think over the Narahari issue. Apparently she isn’t quite rid of her bullying ways, and this is going to get out - especially after that trick with Bia on the flag pole. He makes a note to contact Ken Kamehameha in the morning, and suggest to him to check vid records on the Junior High yard, then tell Diego whether he should get that reported to the principal or any other authorities. Of course, Ken might agree to help Diego handle this his way. The head bedel and an old training NCO make a dangerous combination if they decide to make someone’s life hell… And Eric probably won’t be above pulling a few pranks on Alex, too.

Even if covering a toilet seat with military-grade pepper spray is not on the menu.

Oh, and he should talk with Alex. Last chance, and all that.


Which sums up the entry #6

[Section9]

* the Polish slang term I used can mean either "do prison time" or "repeat a year in school", depending on context.

Heh. Not really surprising, and I've heard related comments in both English and Japanese.

Diego watches the district with curiosity. It is not an outright slum (not that there are no slums in PanOceania, on Avalon, or in Belo-Horizonte itself), but definitely not a good neighbourhood. Sure, he had seen worse, but most of the time they were already half-covered in jungle… And some opinions were that Morats storming through them actually did a lot to improve the real estate worth!

So, about like any center-of-government city, then.

On his way back home Diego gets a chance to think over the Narahari issue. Apparently she isn’t quite rid of her bullying ways, and this is going to get out - especially after that trick with Bia on the flag pole. He makes a note to contact Ken Kamehameha in the morning, and suggest to him to check vid records on the Junior High yard, then tell Diego whether he should get that reported to the principal or any other authorities. Of course, Ken might agree to help Diego handle this his way. The head bedel and an old training NCO make a dangerous combination if they decide to make someone’s life hell… And Eric probably won’t be above pulling a few pranks on Alex, too.

Even if covering a toilet seat with military-grade pepper spray is not on the menu.

Oh, and he should talk with Alex. Last chance, and all that.

You have well and truly managed to screw up when you make the Senior NCO put both his cigarette and coffee cup into his mouth at the same time. If you are really, really lucky, you might even survive the experience.

[Errhile]

Avalon Chronicles entry #7
“Load Up On Guns, Bring Your Friends”, part 2

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 - so far, so good). 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 (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). One of two team members 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). Has two brothers. 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:
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 (~35y) Polynesian. TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
Frederic (“Fred”) Ulani #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #7) (1. class, 16y) Polynesian (of mixed-Caucasian descent) Plays another cello in the school’s orchestra with Octavia. He’s on excellent terms with her, and in Diego’s private opinion, a likely boyfriend candidate.
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.
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…
Lupe Ramirez - #5 (as Peanut Gallery, full appearance in #7) (2. class, 17y) Argentine. Brass player in the school’s orchestra (which makes him Octavia’s colleague). Seems to be a silent, reserved type. Goth styling.
Reksio - #1 Eric’s favourite Palbot, named after an obscure cartoon character.
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”...

Team Members’ Parents:
cpt. Reweti Rikoriko - #7 (in her mid 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.

Other characters in Belo Horizonte:
Esteban Silva - #1 (~80y) Brazilian. Owner, cook and host at “Silva’s”, old-fashioned eatery with human touch (and spicy South American cuisine).

Elsewhere in the Human Sphere:
Glynda “Fairy” Fairgood - #5 (late 40s), African. Human Revolution’s chief mechanic, and pretty inventive at that. Has an obviously cybernetic right arm (equipped with a full tool suite). Has a definite air of a mad scientist about her.


Friday, October 25th

Diego calls on Ken and asks him to check the security records from the junior high’s front yard yesterday, early afternoon, then tell him what he thinks about it.
Ken is quick to find out what happened, and assures Diego that informing him was the best thing to do. If he didn’t, the thing has a chance of coming out on its own, and hitting Diego with the backblast for not reporting the incident. On the other hand, going with it to the principal wouldn’t change much (nothing would, unless Bianca would like to report the case against Alex… which isn’t likely).
Even then, Alex is unlikely to get anything worse than a disciplinary hearing with no real consequences. The school board tends to hush down incidents to keep a clean official record… Plus, unless Alex went after a really high-profile target, like Evangeline (which she’s too cunning to do), any serious actions against her would be quickly squashed by the army of lawyers her father has on payroll. All this much to the displeasure of director Chennault.

The chief of security also warns Diego against taking any direct action against Alex - as he says, if they were in Nomad army barracks, nay, any army barracks, a drill sergeant would be bringing all the hells on a perpetrator, and, given the case, everyone else would consider it the right course of events and turn a blind eye. Alas, this is a school, and regulations here are way more strict regarding what the staff might do to a troublesome pupil.
Though, as Diego puts it, in the army there are regulations too, and you can still fuck somebody up real bad, with a copy of the General Regulations Manual in your hand, as long as you know how to do it - and following it line by line, point by point…
Still, should he do something, it would be a huge problem for both Diego and Ken - one for doing, the other for knowing and not reporting it - and also probably for Yuni and Eric, if it even looked like they could have been his accomplices…

As it is, the school is dealing with Alex primarily by outwaiting her. Two more years, and she’ll graduate, becoming someone else’s problem. As long as no teacher is stupid enough to make her repeat a year!

Still, this brings up another question - was Alex always such a problem? Ken wasn’t around when she was starting the elementary school, but he quickly checks up on the disciplinary / security records, and finds out that she was a rather average kid until about 5 years ago. Then, pretty suddenly, all hell went loose.

Diego later catches Alex after her classes, and walks her to the school’s gates trying to reason with her. There’s much talking on his part, and little on her’s… He admits he can’t pin “little Chryse’s flag-duty incident” on Alex, though he is still able to “add two to two together to get four”. He also mentions he’s actually impressed by the fact it was done in a way that didn’t alerted the school’s security program*, which actually makes Alex visibly uneasy. Apart from that, she’s completely unimpressed, apparently she’s been through hundreds of such “moralising” speeches already.
Just before she leaves, Diego asks what happened to her five years ago. Alex, however, refuses to talk about it. “And it’s not as if you don’t have full access to the files, anyway. You can do your own damn research, Coach.”

* While the school grounds are constantly monitored with cameras, it is not practical to have all the the vid-feed under constant human observation, so a pseudo-intelligent image recognition software is used to alert the security when something suspicious or irregular is noticed. Alex managed to hang Bia on the flagpole without causing this system to react.

Later on, Diego goes to do some serious data-digging regarding Alex. And he soon learns that about five years ago, her mother and younger brother were reported among the victims of a passenger shuttle accident in the orbit of Avalon. Though evidence isn’t quite conclusive, the shuttle is said to have been sabotaged by a Shasvasti sleeper agent (a leftover from the EI Conflict that was “orphaned” by the Shasvasti Continuum). She was left only with her father. Cross-referencing the dates with her school records indicate that a few months after that her grades plummeted, and disciplinary problems arose.


On a brighter note, crossing the campus earlier, Diego’s attention is drawn to a group of familiar faces. The front of the pack of students is dominated by the colorful, loud, and boisterous presences of harpist Lyra Vidal, the Angels’ own Minuette, and little drummer Katya Malinin, with the dark and mostly silent but smiling figure of trombonist Lupe Ramirez providing a counterpoint (Minnie seems on excellent terms with Lyra and Lupe too - but then she seems on excellent terms with pretty much everyone). Behind them is an uncharacteristically animated Octavia - accompanied not by Patricia, but a similarly excited fellow cellist Fred Ulani. They are deep in spirited but hushed discussion, a constellation of AR screens displaying musical notation, audio-signal equalizers, and other arcane data filling the air all around them. Flushed, grinning, and bright-eyed, they don’t even seem to notice how close together they’re leaning... The rear is brought up by Patricia. She seems the picture of relaxed unconcern, head bobbing slightly to the beat pumping from her headphones… But Diego is pretty sure that behind her shades she’s watching the pair in front of her like a hawk.


Saturday, October 26th

The team gathers for weekly paintball practice, now including a new acquisition - Dominique. Diego planned to inform Eva she’ll have a new team member as a classmate, starting Monday, but somehow, in the midst of the trouble with Alex, he forgot to do that. Still, there she is, ready for their first paintball game… Until they notice that although there are enough paintball guns for everyone (especially given that Diego had already got one for himself - a replica of an old-styled Nomad-issue bullpup Combirifle), ‘Nique has no uniform (and no funds, the scholarship allowance doesn’t cover extracurricular activities like weekend paintball games!). Still, Eva offers to take her on a quick shopping tour and buy her an outfit to match the team’s camo pattern. ‘Nique, as is a running theme with her, is hesitant and flustered to accept “charity”, but Evangeline convinces her it’s a “matter of honor”. “I have already paid for the gear for all the other girls. It would simply not be fair at all if I didn’t do the same for you.” With that settled, Eva spirits ‘Nique away in her limo, instructing the others not to wait and begin without them - and naming Patricia replacement team captain in her absence, which leaves Patty a little panicked.

On the field, Yuni temporarily joins the team, as they go against the Spiders. She retires once Evangeline and Dominique arrive from their shopping trip (after only an hour or so, contrary to the fears of some of the others that, having unleashed Eva on a shopping mall, they would be gone for hours on end). Playing as a seven, the team manages to hold their own against eight Spiders about half the time.

Eva gives Diego a report on the weapon trials he set up in the team’s “homework”, and the girls do some rearranging of their paintball guns based on them. It looks like Patty would be the best candidate for the autocannon, as she’s the one to best make the sniper rifle work for her. Minnie shouldn’t have serious problems adapting to panzerfaust-style missiles, but turns out she’d do better with an SMG than a shotgun for her main weapon. Morgan on the other hand sees an increased performance when given a shotgun - seems the close assault role “gets her blood pumping” better. Also, it is decided they may actually have to give Alex a chance with a Spitfire. With her aggressive style, a light automatic weapon is likely to do well - now that she’s finally learning some restraint and real teamwork. For now she must make due with a combi rifle. The paintball light grenade launcher is taken up by ‘Nique for now. She’s not amazing with it, but can make it work reasonably. Eva herself takes up a shotgun, as a defense weapon mainly, as she’s mostly hanging back and commanding. Octy is perfectly fine with the flexibility of her rifle-flamer combi, no changes necessary.

On the return drive, as the team takes a nap in the back of the Monster’s cabin, Diego quietly discusses the Alex problem with Yuni. As she puts it, the best and simplest way would be to just bend Alex over one’s knee and give her a proper spanking. Diego replies that while the idea is tempting, and perhaps would even work, he guesses it wouldn’t be a widely accepted method of solving the situation...
...That is, unless Yuni was trying to give him a hint about something else…?
“What? No, Diego, I can’t say that would be my fancy, thank you. Though, if it is yours...?”
“Mine neither, but for a moment I thought you were telling me you are into that kind of stuff. As you know, I can adapt… Ah well, let’s cut it, we have a cab full of teenagers, we don’t want them to hear all that!”

“Oh, by all means, don’t mind me, you two...” - Morgan sits just behind them, and apparently isn’t asleep for once… Looks like the game is up...


Sunday, October 27th

Diego spends this Sunday with Yuni, out of town - just like they did a week ago.


Monday, October 28th

Diego shows up at school earlier than usual (he has some paperwork to do, plus he wants to work on his motorcycle), only to find that ‘Nique is already there - all over the team’s fabricator (just shy of rubbing herself all over it in gear-head ecstasy, actually). Being an industrial-grade machine, it outperforms the ones she was able to access before by an order of magnitude. Still, she says she’ll keep using her contacts and suppliers (apparently as a way of channeling some funds into the local economy), at least for projects that they can handle... Unlike the one she’s working on now - a major one she’s pretty secretive about. She offers to pay for the materials used for that from the team’s stocks, but Eric just waves that idea away: she’s not going to make a visible dent in their supply.
Still, Diego notes to himself he should buy a base block or two for the fabricator: his motorcycle is a far bigger project than some gunpla parts.

Diego is also surprised to see Nyree Rikoriko (accompanied by her kid brother, Koi) awaiting him. She’s somewhat afraid of Diablo (she goes on to apologise again for the question she asked at the history lesson last week), while the cheerfully cheeky Koi is one of Diego’s fans since he was assisting Yuni during the previous term’s PE tests.

Nyree is interested in joining the team, and Diego gladly accepts her in. There are two formal matters he has to see to later, though - first, while Nyree is in the 2nd year of the high school, she’s just 14 years old. Luckily, the regulations don’t specify the age, just school year, but he’ll have to consult that. Second, given her age (and the case of Octavia’s forged parental permit), he’ll have to verify whether her parents are really OK with Nyree joining the team.

As the team gathers - and learns about the new member - there are some interesting reactions. Minnie, of course, is overjoyed, and throws herself at Nyree in a hug to show that. Morgan is again surprised - the “mega-nerd” being interested in an academic sense is one thing, but actually wanting to join in? Eva welcomes the new team member with her usual tact and style - and completely unexpectedly becomes an object of Koi’s fascination. He’ll be following her with puppy-dog eyes for the rest of the meeting (which Diego finds completely surprising - sure, Evangeline is graceful and pretty, but, being 11 years old, Koi shouldn’t be getting interested in girls yet. Given the fact she’s 5 years older, she might just as well belong to a different species… Oh well. Not his business, after all).

The last and most significant reaction comes from Alex, who looks overjoyed and acts very familiar with “‘Ree”, calling her a “long time no see friend”, and happily reminiscences about the “fun times we’ve had together”. Something in her voice, her positively sharkish smile, as well as Nyree stiffening and stuttering in response, tells Diego that most likely it was Alex who bullied Nyree back in the day. That, plus Koi getting ready to get into a brawl with Alex (he wouldn’t have a snowball in hell’s chance against her, but apparently he won’t let that stop him).

“ - Alex, enough.”
“ - Hey, Coach, but I’m not doin’ anythin’, just hanging’ with me ol’ friend ‘Ree, eh?”
“ - Narahari, tell that to the horse marines!” [well, the actual expression used more like “I’m the one to fool others, not the one to be fooled”]

Which does the job of drawing the line. For now at least...

One more curiosity, is Patricia arriving alone, much earlier than Octavia. When asked what managed to break up the hitherto inseparable duo, Patty reports Octy stayed behind after music practice to “conspire” with Fred. The Academy’s yearly music exhibition is coming up, and this year, unlike all the previous times when she participated solo, Octavia decided to ask her fellow cellist to enter as a duet. Mr. Ulani was quite eager to agree. They’ve been at it, disappearing together to semi-secretly plan and practice their performance, for a few days now. Even Patty doesn’t know exactly what it is they’re preparing, but she’s suspecting it won’t exactly be a “traditional” cello piece...

The team changes into jumpsuits (there was one extra from the very beginning), and goes out for maneuver and mobility practice - both ‘Nique and Nyree need to get the basics of the Angels’ highly mobile style of combat, and more maneuver practice for the other girls won’t go amiss either. Rikoriko does fine for a beginner, though of course a custom-written driver program will improve it (as soon as Eric can make another one). She was asked to do some gymnastics for the motion capture software for that purpose.

Alex continues to try and get a few needles into ‘Ree. She is not completely unsuccessful, but the rest of the team (especially Morgan) endeavour to keep her more or less in line.

Dominique, when asked, says her first day at the new school went fine, though she really has a lot of catching up to do. Still, having full access to Maya, even if “just” for educational purposes, is a dream come true. Though, she needs to maybe ask her mom to write some better spam filter - now, when her comlog is on full access, the amount of advertisement spam she gets becomes hard to cope with. Patty offers to whip something up for ‘Nique on that front.

Once the girls are gone, Diego calls Nyree’s home, and makes short conversation with her mother, a line officer in the Crocman Regiment. She’s brief, to-the-point, and rather strict. In Diablo’s opinion, she doesn’t need much effort to be pretty intimidating. Even without making a Maori war face.
She (somewhat eagerly, really) confirms Nyree’s permit for joining the team, and is interested on how her daughter does there. As Diego replies, they’re after her first training session, and so far, she does better in cockpit than most of the players did on their first time (though Nyree was not significantly less likely to trip over her own feet than any of the other girls, once she got the basics down she is noticeably less likely to trip over or walk into obstacles - seems the girl has a very good sense for distances and dimensions).

Well, seems that getting into TAG-soft wasn’t Nyree’s own idea. Or at least, not entirely…

Diego does then check the school records, and isn’t at all surprised to find that it was indeed Alex who used to bully Rikoriko. In the aftermath, Nyree was transferred to another class, and there’s a restraining program put into effect on their comlogs, alerting the staff if the two of them get too close to each other’s location (Nyree - and only her - has the option to turn that off).


Tuesday, October 29th

Diego visits “Pills”, on topic of what he has learned about Alex. Dr. Talho is a general practitioner, not a specialist in psychology, but working as a school doc she must have a passable grasp on what goes in the kids’ heads. And certainly a better one than an ex-squaddie has.

There isn’t anything on the topic in school records (while Alex did received psychological help, it was handled outside of school). However, when presented with Diego’s observations, existing school records and hard data, she speculates that Alex’s behaviour might be a response to not getting enough attention (primarily from her family). As she observes, it’s pretty surprising, given that she’s the only child left, and theoretically her father should be spending more time with her.

That, however, is pure speculation.
But for Diego, that’s good enough.

Also, ‘Nique can be seen in the hangar, still working on her “secret project”.

Diego has seen her going to school on her bicycle, even though the scholarship includes an allowance to cover public transport. Dominique explains that she figured she’ll be able to keep the money (as it is simply given away, meant to pay for bus passes - but no receipts are even required to prove that) and just bike around (“Now with my comlog working on full capacity I can do it safely!”). A handy coincidence, as she had to take leave from working at Silva’s, and she needs cash for her modeling projects.
“Well, ‘Nique, all fine and dandy - until winter comes…”
“Hmph, right… But I guess I’ll be worrying about it once it comes.”

He also suggests she might try selling some of her gunpla - with many elements hand-made and real-life functionalities included, they are likely to command a reasonable price (and Eric said after just seeing the blueprints - these would be worth serious money on collectors’ market). However, Dominique turns down the idea on the grounds of the emotional value of her models.

Yuni visits the hangar, curious about Diego’s motorcycle project she caught a glimpse of on Monday (he intended to show it to her once it is ready, but didn’t made a real secret of its existence), so does Patty (who offers to help with the software for it - not that there’s much to be done there, as the only electronics are those required to make it street-legal: as Diego jokes, you could whack it with a Blitzen, and the only thing required to get it going again would be hitting the kickstarter).
Yuni actually offers to chip in some assembly work herself. She finds the concept of building a motorcycle from the ground up quite fascinating, and is eager to learn something new - she’s a bike enthusiast from the riding side of things, and hasn’t tried anything technical beyond simple maintenance. And as she says, it will be a fair reversal, Diego teaching her something this time.


Wednesday, October 30th

As the team gathers for practice, Ken shows up, accompanied by a freight drone that unloads a number of packages into the hangar. (“Ookay, Diego, that is a big one…” - “Off you go, Ken, not going to show you what’s inside. You’d think we’re compensating for something!” - ”Oh, are you?”): the autocannon and Blitzen, each with their ammo supply, have arrived. Still, a SMG-analog for Minnie wasn’t ordered in time, and will have to wait for the next delivery.

Alex is, of course, attracted to the autocannon, but Diego waves her away “ - Not your style, chica. Not enough bullets in the hopper, too low rate of fire…” “But it does pack an oomph, doesn’t it?” “Well, indeed…”

Since the maintenance drones have managed to clear a part of the training grounds, now there is a kill-town (let’s be honest, a kill-house doesn’t really work for TAGs!) available. Time to practice some MOUT tactics, as “urban” playfields are used for TAG-soft quite often. Of course, at least in the amateur league, the structures are single-level only, so nobody will get on top of them and get hurt accidentally falling.

Minnie tries to find a comfortable carry position for the Blitzen on her Gecko. Patty familiarizes herself with the autocannon (which kicks like a mule! And thus will require a few alterations to the targeting software). The entire team then engages in target practice. ‘Nique is doing fine, while Nyree is a curious bird here: she actually fights against her targeting program. Diego and Eric investigate, and are pretty stunned to learn that Rikoriko’s savant-level mathematical genius is an applied ability! She can - and does - calculate ballistics as quick as TAGs computer, but with superior accuracy (okay, it doesn’t show until umpteenth position after decimal, but with no doubt it is there!), and can actually feel minutes of angle differences in barrel position. Diablo has already seen a number of folks who were able to instinctively apply targeting corrections, but Nyree is the first case he has ever seen of a shooter actually calculating targeting solutions in their head - and doing it on the fly!

Another custom program will be needed - targeting software to match her skills. Also, Diego notes down to test her (in VR so far) with a grenade launcher: direct fire weapons are easy to correct, but, being able to do the same with an indirect fire one is likely to really make a difference. A pity her TAG won’t be able to load a heavy grenade launcher, but a light one is totally viable. Of course, she could always use a forward observer, but that can be done. First, by outfitting Minnie’s Gecko with an FO suite, and second, by getting some REMs for scout and target acquisition duty.

While REMs aren’t forbidden in TAG-soft, they are not popular for a number of reasons. First and foremost, they require a lot of supervision from the team - a surplus chassis is not difficult to obtain, but milspec control software allowing for reasonably competent semiautonomous operation in a battle is another kettle of fish. As a result, a player designated as REM controller can’t really concentrate too well on fighting with his or her TAG. Second, they are soft targets: in a game where guns are chosen with TAG-killing in mind, chances of a drone withstanding a hit are really low - they may be harder to hit than a TAG, but what would be a glancing blow for a TAG will put them down but good. And finally, many teams - especially in the amateur league - go for the show, and REMs aren’t showy.

Well, as long as Diego runs this team, however, he’s not going to mind whether something is showy, or not. If REMs are to give his Angels an edge, then REMs are good. Plus, team’s captain, Evangeline, isn’t much into fighting herself - therefore the plan is to outfit her Iguana with a shotgun for close defense work, and keep it primarily as a C&C TAG. She’ll be then able to concentrate on command duties, and should have enough attention potential left to manage the REMs. A Pathfinder Dronbot-equivalent REM would fit the bill.

In fact, Diego discusses several ideas with Eric on that day. Apparently the conversation Eric made with Fairy after the game against Human Revolution is going to bear some fruit. One of the ideas is applique armor, meant as a stop-gap measure until the team can send their TAGs for a refit. After all, if you have a humanoid figure, you could dress it in some over-sized flak vest, right…? Naturally, such armor would not be very durable, and thus, while not expensive per set, it would quickly add up to a serious expense. Still, the team should get a good several matches out of it before the cost of replacing the armor after each battle becomes unreasonable when compared to an armor refit. And by then they may finally get a better budget...

Diego would love to have some counter-detection gizmos on his machines, but TAG-sized camouflage suites are expensive, and maintenance heavy. An idea of a TAG-sized ghillie suit is dropped quickly - while, without a doubt, it would do well, breaking down the shape of an immobile TAG, it would surely be torn into rags when moving in a dynamic fashion.

Before the team dismisses, there’s a less-serious matter to discuss. The Friday, November 1st, is a day off, being a public holiday. In PanOceania, the Christian All Saints Day got pretty heavily mixed with Anglo-Saxon Halloween, Latin American Dia de los Muertos and several other traditions, all liberally sprinkled with commercial sauce. While Halloween-like trick-or-treat door-to-door routine is not observed (at least on Merlin), costumes and parties are celebrated.

While Diego already does have an idea for a costume, Yuni suggests for him to don a suit, an idea he takes a liking to.

The other girls speculate Evangeline will no doubt dress up as a princess. Eva does not deny it, which makes Alex comment: “Aw, come on! That’s just boring. You always look like a princess anyway, all graceful, and beautiful, and shit…” While Eva is stumped for a reaction to the rather back-handed compliment, Minnie adds in: “Yup, it doesn’t have to be any deep ‘show my true inside’ thing, but try to have fun with it! Do something you wouldn’t normally, just for kicks!” Eva is left with a speculative look on her face...

Patty intends to spend the holiday at home (she is still grounded) with Octy, watching horror movies. “And hiding under the blanket”, as Octavia adds, smirking - curiously enough, it is Patricia who’s getting frightened. Alex takes the opportunity to maliciously imply they are having a lesbian affair. Patty’s reply is: “Oh, eww! Hell no.” At Alex’ (rather pointed) questioning of her attitude towards “alternative sexualities”, Patty adamantly assures that: “I have no problem at all with girls liking girls, boys liking boys, or whatever other configuration somebody wants to do ‘It’ in. But with Octy we’ve been so close for so long that we’re practically like sisters. It would be like incest! C’mon, Alex, would you consider anything like this with your own sister? Or brother…?”

With a strange face, Alex shuts up. Given what Diego has learnt about her family, Patty must have hit her right where it hurts. Hopefully, it was unintended.

Also, despite Morgan catching Diego and Yuni “red handed”, more or less, the news still doesn’t seem to have spread. Morgan is not one for gossip, it looks like. But she does seem to be enjoying herself, wearing her ghost-of-a-smirk every time she sees them together… Which proves to be somewhat unfortunate for her. Minnie, having experience reading her own older sister (who is reportedly possessed of a stoic temperament very similar to Morgan’s) notices Morgan’s recent good humor… And completely misinterprets it, much to Morgan’s annoyance, as a sure sign the dark girl got herself a boyfriend! Morgan’s denials are just fuel to Minnie’s joyful fire, and it takes some work to dissuade her from pestering Morgan for the identity of the lucky guy...


Saturday, November 2nd.

The team gathers at the hangar to drive out for their weekly paintball game, they, however, come in their Halloween costumes. Diego himself wears a suit, which goes along well with red skin paint, fake beard and horns (some could say he dressed as himself… but he does make one hell of a devil! ).

Apparently Nyree is first on site, as a enchantress, complete with star-spangled cape and pointed hat, a wand, and a grimoire of magic… Until she enters the classroom / briefing hall and finds a fresh cadaver there. And the cadaver arises slowly, loudly demanding “...brainzzzz…” - well, Morgan did choose a costume that goes well with her tendency to sleep anywhere She’s not the only zombie around, as a number of these do infest the warehouse, under orders from Baron Samedi (Eric & his tech assistants). Still, her “zombie wakeup” surprised Nyree really bad.

Other character include a slasher gothic-lolita, complete with maniac laughter and blood-covered knife she loves to lick (“Raspberry syrup, Minnie?” “Yup, Coach ”), a somewhat too clean street punk / attempted hobo (Eva turns down the offer of making her attire “more realistic” with some old machine oil - still, her daring to dress down so much makes a big impression), a human-sized Squalo TAG (which apparently is the “secret project” ‘Nique was working on - for once her figure works to her advantage, letting her pull off the gangly look of the RP TAG quite well), two more girls who get initially ridiculed for not following the costume thing… Until someone notices that there’s something wrong about these two - there are Patricia Summers (Octy) and Octavia Moina (Patty), which actually makes for a pretty unnerving effect. A stone statue of an angel is also observed, though as soon as Minnie turns away from it for a moment, it transforms from a praying pose into one reaching for her with claw-like fingers, causing Minuette so scream, jump back and land on her butt.

“Whoa, Alex! Excellent job on that angel!” - Diego is quick to praise the girl. Which, again, makes her visibly confused.

As she explains, she recalled the remark about an old TV series that gave Minuette an idea for the team’s name, and dug it out. And she found the creatures (predators which were immobile statues while observed, but came to life and went after their prey if it so much as blinked) very appropriate for the occasion. She also found out that Minnie’s recollection was a bit faulty - the “Angels” in the series weren’t actually “Stone”, but “Weeping”. Still, the “wrong” name is a much better one for the team.

The company is completed by an Amazon Queen / Jungle Princess (take your pick…), complete with a spear and a leopard-skin bikini. Sure, Yuni fills the suit really well, but the bikini itself wouldn’t get noticed on a beach: for PanOceanian standards, it could be described as “mainstream and rather conservative”. Still, taken out of that context… well, it is a sight to behold!

A few more moments are given to admire each other’s costumes, then the team is off to the changing room: costumes won’t be practical as field uniforms for the paintball game! Still, Yuni and Diego are going to stay in theirs. Among the others, Morgan leaves her zombie makeup on, changing from a rotting schoolgirl into a rotting soldier, and Patty and Octy are continuing their charade and playing it to the hilt, having now switched paintball gear and uniforms as well.

Nyree has her own outfit (still with that new smell) and gun, which throws Eva off-balance a bit. Luckily, the uniform doesn’t match team’s camo pattern, so Eva will be able to get the stuff back in order by procuring a “proper” set of fatigues for Rikoriko.

At the paintball field, Yuni’s costume has a pretty disruptive effect on the opposition, as the male part of the Spiders finds it extremely difficult to take their eyes off Yuni, regardless of the female part hissing “Stop devouring her with your eyes, morons! She’s there to disrupt your cohesion, ever heard of psychological warfare…?!”. At this moment Diego chuckles, readjusts his tie, and speaks in the best deep, purring voice he can muster “Oh, but why so harsh, dear ladies? I’m sure we could negotiate an agreement you would consider perfectly satisfactory…” - which does the job of similarly stunning the female part of the opposing team. The Devil, naturally, produces a collection of parchments ready to be signed with blood…

Without further ado, the teams get out into the field. Being at equal strength, the Angels are able to win between 60% and 70% of the games, though with no doubt Diego being able to read Bolo’s movements like an open book (and Bolo, being unable to get his eyes away from Yuni, and therefore think straight, for the most of the time) does influence this a bit.

Still, what can be observed - Nyree tends to lose her head when under fire (pretty much like Octavia did, before she solved the problem with a mask). Also, she’ll need more experience, but that will come in time.

Alex is still an aggressive player, but she is no longer charging towards the enemy without any consideration - and therefore manages to survive till the end in a number of skirmishes. Once the games are finished, Diego loudly compliments her on that - and again, this makes Narahari uneasy and confounded.

After the team is dismissed, Diablo adds a note to her school files - Alex seems to be reacting well to praise. Likely, she suffers from not getting enough recognition and positive stimuli (well, at least that seems to ring with what “Pills” said), therefore - he suggests - she should be given tasks in which she can excel, and then praised when she does.


Sunday, November 3rd

Another outing with Yuni. This seems to have became a pleasant routine.


Monday, November 4th, in the morning

Diablo comes to his “office” to deal with some paperwork, and is pretty busy, when he hears knocking to his door. Absent mindedly, he just barks “Enter!” and continues filling the forms - just like he did back in CJC - waiting for whoever is there to specify their business.

It is the Devil that catches his attention - hiding behind an AR window with a terrified grin and poking a clawed finger towards the door. Diego finally looks up.

Now, they haven’t met before - haven’t even ever been within line-of-sight of each other. But every veteran of Paradiso would have recognised this figure and head of golden hair, even when dressed in civvies (some detached part of Diego’s brain notes the modest blouse and skirt she’s chosen instead of powered armor look quite fetching on her...).

Leaning against his door frame and looking down at W/O Ibarrez, is Jeanne d’Arc herself…

[GM: How’s that for a high-impact cliffhanger for you? ^_^]


Which sums up the entry #7.

[Claudius Sol]

Well then. That's certainly a high-profile guest.

[Errhile]

Yeah, I'm still half-curious what the hell might she want! This is a school, after all, and amateur league...

...the other half is: afraid...

[Kathara_Khan]

Maybe she's there to recruit Diego for the squad of ultimate badasses Aleph is putting together to save the galaxy...

[Section9]

Maybe she's there to recruit Diego for the squad of ultimate badasses Aleph is putting together to save the galaxy...

The Expendables 88?

Gotta admit, I'm rather scared of contemplating just what Saber is doing bothering a retired Nomad.

[Errhile]

Maybe she's there to recruit Diego for the squad of ultimate badasses Aleph is putting together to save the galaxy...

Uh-huh... from themselves...

[Kathara_Khan]

Yeah, I'm just messing with 'ya. I know you already have your hands full saving the galaxy in our other game. I promised no such shenanigans in this one, and I'll stand by my word. Still, seeing you squirm is entertaining...

[Errhile]

Well, another episode of Avalon Chronicles is in the works, and let me tell you... it has some really tense moments.
With luck, we'll be getting it published before the weekend.

[Errhile]

Avalon Chronicles entry #8
“Taking Care of Business”

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 - so far, so good). 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 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). 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:
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 (~35y) Polynesian. TAG Soft team’s chief mechanic. Pedantic and perfectionist (and, oddly enough, somewhat superstitious). Has a Palbot he calls Reksio.
Ginevra Chennault - #1 (~90y) Polynesian. School’s principal, once a Bagh Mari officer. To-the-point and strict, but fair. Teaches literature.
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”...

“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.

Knights of the Round Table:
Avalon-based professional TAG-Soft team. Note - Knights’ callsigns (drawn from Arthurian myth, of course) 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 - (mentioned only) Knights’ combat controller.
“Lancelot”, “Mordred” - (mentioned only) other members of the team. “Mordred” is the heavy / support position, “Lancelot” is the trooper (knight) position Sabra played at before the previous Arthur resigned.


Monday, November 4th

Well okay, there are a few beings Diego would be more surprised to see on his doorstep. An EI Avatar, for example (especially given the fact all the known ones were either torn down by R&D teams, or serve as museum pieces, after being totally gutted to make sure they won’t be moving again no matter what!). But the Maid of Orleans is still rather high on the list.

“ - Coach Ibarrez, I presume?”
“ - Well, yes indeed, miss Stanley…”

Her grin is half amused, half guilty: “ - I guess you’re wondering what Joan of Arc is doing in your office. Well, the answer would be: ‘Nothing’. You see, I’m not her. My name is Sabra Ortiz - or Arthur, if you prefer going by callsign”.

Now, when one gives the lady a closer look, indeed, she isn’t Joan. Her eyes are green rather than blue, and facial features and skin tone are all off a bit - this stunning blonde comes from South America, not Western Europe. Still, when they aren’t standing elbow to elbow, it is easy to mistake Arthur for Joan. They could have easily been sisters, even non-identical twins (Diego will later learn that Ms. Ortiz wasn’t actually altered to look that way - she’s as natural as they come, her look being considered a quirk of genetics. Maybe not exactly random, as no one - except ALEPH, you can bet - ever managed to trace back all the strands of DNA that made it into Joan’s genotype…).

“ - But you still managed to scare the hell out of my Devil, Arthur...”

She’s been around Merlin on other business, and decided to pay the other TAG-Soft team on the planet a visit. Also, to ask them for a game. As she explains, the Knights of the Round Table maintain a tradition of running an event around Christmas time - sometimes they play a regular match against themselves (four on four), sometimes it is a ‘knightly’ tournament, sometimes they invite some foreign team for a match - raising money for a charity chosen for that year, and also as a publicity stunt. This year they’d be delighted to do it with the Angels of Stone - perhaps as a friendly match, though, of course, it would require a serious handicap to even the odds.
She also mentions that it would be good to get to know the members of the Angels, should any of them want to go professional after graduation - an amateur team on the same planet is likely to produce some local talent. Especially given their performance in the game against Human Revolution (Diego gets complimented on his use of the terrain, particularly the trick he pulled moving Angels underwater “ - Well, the shoreline was just laying there, I thought it would be a shame to let it go to waste…”) - the previous TAG-Soft team the Academy ran wasn’t even close to being as interesting as the Angels are.
Not to mention that a few of the current Knights came from the amateur circle, yet some of them, after professional success, started looking down on amateurs. If the Angels put up a good fight, it will be a welcome reminder on their own humble beginnings!

Diablo wages it out - being a charity event, the game would not bring any direct revenue. However, as a publicity stunt, it would likely raise the Angels pretty high. Especially, if they manage to win against the Knights (appropriately weakened by a handicap - first thing Arthur mentioned was fielding only half of her team). Also, the Angels desperately need combat practice, and the Knights are, after all, the only other team on the planet.

So, as he informs Sabra, he likes the idea a lot, but he has to consult it “upstairs” to get an official acceptance. The term is loosely agreed as roughly two weeks before Christmas - since the last week is end-of-term and the Angels will have their schedules full with end-of-term exams. And Christmas time is likely to see both parties spending time with their families, or even travelling somewhere for “winter” holidays.

Which sounds fine, giving the Angels roughly a month to prepare.

After Arthur is gone (leaving contact info for herself and “Merlin”, the Knights’ coach and controler), Diego calls the principal with the news. She’s all for it. Even if they would have to play on the Knights’ field, it is still far cheaper to transport the team and equipment to the other continent, than off-planet - with their current budget, the Angels can’t afford that at all! And, being a beginner team on a backwater planet, the Angels aren’t going to get a lot of visitors. So it’s definitely a chance they can’t miss: a chance for some good publicity for both team and school, some practice, and, if they do well, for finally convincing the board of increasing the budget!
So, Ms. Chennault decides the project is a go.

Diablo is back to the paperwork he was doing since morning. There are order forms to be filled, and budget calculations to be made. He decides he has to cut the team’s practice down to one session in TAGs a week, the other will be done either “nude” (i.e. without TAGs), or in a virtual environment. After all, unless the budget gets a serious increase, running more than a single TAG session a week simply costs too much.
There is a grenade launcher to be bought for ‘Ree, and Diego has to agree with Eric here - a light one is a waste of effort. Still, Rikoriko’s Anaconda won’t be able to carry a heavy one, so the reasonable option is to swap her TAG for ‘Nique’s Lizard. Having a GL will also open access to specialist munition types, like smoke rounds.
Minnie needs a SMG analog for close-up work, she does with it better than with a shotgun (at least in sims). Also, two Forward Observer kits - one for Minnie, the other for ‘Nique (who, being the last non-specialized player, is the best candidate for it).
The recon REMs are scratched for the time being - they are simply too expensive and fall victim of the expense cuts by Diego.

He also discusses the new projects with Eric. The applique armor is in prototype stage. A TAG-sized ghillie suit was abandoned - while actually affordable, unlike a full built-in camo suite, it’d be too fragile, quickly getting torn to shreds on a moving TAG under fire. Still, Eric came up with another idea: a “one-use” immobile deployable camouflage. It could be carried by each machine in a compact equipment container, deployed for a given situation, and then abandoned on the playing field, to be collected and returned to compact position after the game. Diego likes the concept, asking Eric to run some virtual projects. of that type of cover, suggesting elastic rods as structural elements, allowing the device to be compact when carried, and able to self-deploy once required.
Eric worries that this type of camouflage would only really be practical in woodland areas, while most TAG-Soft arenas are, in fact, predominantly urban terrain. Diego replies, however, that this is not exactly a problem - you could use a deployable cover that imitates something common in an urban environment, for example a garbage container. Still, it would be a short-lived advantage - after a few first games the opposition would expect it, and likely have a database of the covers used so far in their visual recognition software!

They keep working on it till the afternoon practice.

When Diego finally leaves his office, the girls are all there already. They seem to be rather lazy today - save for Yuni and Minnie doing warm-ups in front of the hangar - probably because of the weather, which is getting really warm. Morgan looks to be (no surprise there) asleep on some supply crates. Alex is sitting on the ground in front of her, playing absentmindedly with an unlit cigarette, and looking to be in an exceptionally sour mood today for some reason. ‘Ree and ‘Nique doing some refresher course on science (Dominique still has to catch up with her school material, and Nyree is a walking databank after all), with Eva also participating. Octy & Patty are occupied with some of their musical stuff.
Though Minnie urges them to get up and get some exercise, they are too occupied to do so, or otherwise not interested. Alex does use the opportunity to make an acerbic remark on Minnie’s figure, and for her trouble receives another “adjusting” nudge (in the form of a gentle but firm kick) from Morgan, who apparently once again isn’t as asleep as she seems...
(Truth to be told, with the amount of sweets she constantly consumes, Minuette is definitely a bit on the plump side. Overactive, sporty, in excellent physical condition - but plump. The day she stops exercising so much will be the day she most likely starts a fast ride to being flat out fat*. The fact she dropped cheerleading for TAG-Soft doesn’t help, though the weekly paintball games seem to be making up the difference for now).

* Alex actually called Minnie “The biggest meatball around” (“meatball” - “pulpet” in Polish, a colloquial, derogatory term for an overweight person)

“ - Hola, chicas” - which makes some of the team members stand up “- guess who showed up today in my office!” - Diego produces a picture of Sabra Ortiz.

Dominique and Nyree jump to their feet, both trying to speak at the same time (‘Ree is a tiny bit quicker, and ‘Nique lets her to do the talking with a joking bow). “ - Ms. Sabra Ortiz, callsign ‘Arthur’, field commander of the ‘Knights of the Round Table’ TAG-Soft team…” - Diego stops her before she can start reciting all the league statistics.

“ - So that’s not Joan d’Arc, then…” - Morgan mumbles, relieved.
“ - Indeed not,” - Diego puts up a picture for comparison.

“ - Can’t mistake one for the other for more than one look,” - Patty shrugs “ - Unless the observer is a male and doesn’t see anything above the neck…”
“ - You sound like you’re talking from experience, chica…”
“ - Oh indeed, I do...”
“ - Whoa, Patty, I didn’t know you’re a resurectee too, but chosen a female body for a change!”
Which, basically, makes Patricia shut up on the topic.

“ - But what did the leader of the Knights want with you, Coach?”

“ - Well, is everybody seated? Then sit down,” - Diego waits till the team takes seats “ - They want to play a game with us.”

“ - I… Is that serious, Coach?” - Evangeline does have a pale complexion, but at this moment she could make Snow-White green with envy “ - And when? Last time you gave us just one week notice, Coach...” grumbles Morgan.

“ - When, when… why aren’t you chicas in your gear yet, huh?” - Diego winks “ - Now, Eva, what are you asking? Yes, seriously, you are going to play against the Knights. No, it’s not going to be a ‘serious’ game. When? We’re aiming at two weeks before Christmas. The Knights are running a charity event, and want us to play them as a part of it.”

“ - A publicity stunt! I see!” - one could almost see the gears turning in Miss Neve’s head. She might be a teenager, but given her origin, she must’ve been taught quite a bit about public relations work, “ - This is actually likely to work real well!”

“ - Yeah, and that’s why we have a month to prepare. So, off to the changing room, chicas. We have a training session to run. Oh, Alex, stay a moment, I want to have a word. Let’s step outside.”

“ - Uh-huh, Coach. What is it now?”
“ - First off, we’re out of camera view, so you can light up, if you want. I’ll ask Eric to put an empty can here for an ashtray.” - Alex accepts that invitation without hesitation. She must’ve been warned persuasively enough that smoking inside of the hangar is - for safety reasons - out of a question. “ - Apart from that, I wanted to ask what is troubling you.”
“ - Why do you think there’s anything ‘troubling me’, Coach?”
“ - We haven’t exactly met five minutes ago, Alex. I can see there’s definitely something eating you.”

Alex, however, remains stubbornly silent, though she gives Diego a long, hard, judging look, as if she may actually be considering his sincerity.

“ - Well, okay, chica. If you don’t want to tell me, I won’t know. In that case, join the rest once you’re done smoking.”

The training is a force-on-force, with two squads of four and Diego commanding both for a change - an interesting mental exercise. (He does jokingly complain later that he had lost against himself! “ - Well, it means you also defeated yourself, no?” is Yuni’s laughing answer). They make good use of the “urban” environment: Close Quarters Battle (or “black tactics”, as the pros tend to call it) is very, very different from fighting in a woodland terrain (or “green tactics”).

The girls are doing fine. Morgan, with a shotgun (and some hand grenades - Eric made some props / training ones for her until they can buy real ones) is on the front line where the action keeps her blood really pumping. Patty is still getting used to the autocannon, which she wields as a heavy sniper rifle. Even when she misses, the huge weapon has definite intimidation value! Dominique is doing very well, integrating smoothly as a solid universal trooper, a role not glamorous or flashy, but important as a binding core for any squad. Nyree, however, obviously trying really hard to be useful, puts herself into the role of Eva’s aide - and tends (though in a very respectful manner) to correct every decision Neve makes: adjust position by two meters, cover a sector ten degrees more narrow, etc. While she’s right (apparently her Crocman mother has taught her a lot!), it quickly becomes unbearable for Eva: that’s one hell of a backseat driver.

Once they’re done for the day, Diego calls both girls over. While Evangeline admits Nyree’s corrections were right, and she followed them (she had taken to heart the advice on listening to her subordinates), she’s visibly frustrated. Still, though obviously very grudgingly, she declares she’s ready to give up the team’s captaincy to ‘Ree, acknowledging her better tactical skill. Diablo, however, disagrees.
First, he points out, despite Rikoriko’s undisputed tactical expertise, her micromanaging style would be dangerous for the team: they would get used to having ‘Ree think for them, and stop thinking themselves. If such an unit loses their micromanaging leader, they’re as good as gone.
Second, constantly adjusting everything frustrates people - they might gain a few percent in effectiveness due to adjustment, but their frustration would negate that improvement, and then some. Nyree sheepishly acknowledges - she can get behind all that.

However, as Diablo puts it, since they have such a talent on the team it would be a shame to waste it. He suggests making ‘Ree a platoon sergeant, someone to take over should Eva get eliminated - or capable of taking command of an element, say, half of the force, and training the team to operate as two fireteams: few TAG-Soft teams are able to display such level of flexibility.

Which seems to satisfy both girls.

Diego also asks Yuni if she wouldn’t mind going dancing again on the weekend. Yuni’s in fact very agreeable to the idea of hitting a club together and quite eager for some dancing, both vertical, and horizontal after that, as she puts it. This Saturday after team paintball sounds good.

She also reminds Diego that the school Autumn Music Festival is on next week’s Friday, and they should be attending a team member’s performance - two in fact, as Octavia will both be playing in the school orchestra’s Autumn Concert, and then performing in the Young Musicians Competition. There will be some dancing at the Festival too, of a more formal type as well as party style, if he’s interested.


Wednesday, November 6th

The morning is rather uneventful, and the afternoon brings a TAG-less practice with paintball guns, force on force (with Eva and ‘Ree leading fireteams against each other). The weather, however, spoils halfway through - the rain is heavy and prolonged, and the wood-covered game area quickly turns into a muddy nightmare.

At one moment, Alex and Eva get into an argument as the first berates and ridicules the other for being afraid of taking a jump over a mud-filled ditch - and both promptly end up taking a dunk in it, accidentally pushed in by Minuette. For a moment, it’s hard to tell which of the mud-covered shapes is Alex and which is Eva, as both let loose an impressive string of invective.
“ - Well, what are you doing in there? It’s no time to be rolling around in mud, playing piggy!”
Minnie giggles looking down at them and extends her arms, intending to give them a hand up. Alex and Eva each take the offered hand, share a meaningful look, and, in the biggest display of agreement and cooperation to date, proceed to pull Minnie into the swamp with them.
A moment later they are joined in the improvised foxhole / mudbath by their fourth fireteam member, Dominique, who dives in on her own, as bullets start flying.
They forget to cover their rear, however, which allows Morgan to sneak close and hurl a grenade into the foxhole, eliminating all four of them.

As they climb out, Eva is really, really unhappy. It’s pretty likely that was the first time in her life she took a dive in mud, and now is deeply concerned about all the dirty, nasty things and germs there:

“- Hey, Eva, never had a mud facial mask applied in a spa?”
“ - But that’s high-quality, mineralized cosmetic mud, not this… This thing! Who knows what does it contain!”
“ - Well, does a bear shit in the woods?”
“ - Eeeek…!”
“ - Chicas, why nobody told me we have bears on Avalon?”
“ - Because we don’t*, Coach?”

* A “bear spider” exists, though, being one of the largest species on the planet, with about 80cm diameter on average.

Diego declared it the end for the day, and called the team to come back to the hangar (and showers!). Still, Alex manages to to “accidentally” trip Nyree into that mud-filled foxhole.
On the way back the girls (especially Evangeline) complain about the weather, which makes Diego jokingly promise that he’ll turn down any request for a game on Paradiso: what they’ve experienced today is not much by Paradiso standards. A Paradiso rainstorm is indeed a rainstorm worthy of that name.
Plus, the bugs. As he says, he really felt for those poor dudes in the infantry...

“ - Oh, right, Coach - a bug can’t get into a TAG, right?”
“ - Unless it came on board when you were getting in. Then good luck trying to get rid of it, chica!”
“ - Ouch… “

Since Eva is spending a lot of time under the shower (three times as usual, but you know - shampoo, conditioner, hair tonic, what-not: she is genuinely worried about her luxurious, hip-long, ash-blonde mane after that mud bath), Diego takes a chance to again try and get Alex talking (she’s still down on her mood), but she really doesn’t cooperate. She however admits she’s thinking about quitting smoking, which Diablo approves of (hardly surprising Alex, but hey).

Still, Diego’s behaviour seems to keep Alex a little off-balance, distracting her from tormenting Nyree - mostly…


Saturday, November 9th

As the team assembles before the weekly paintball game, Alex can be seen in much better mood (at least, more like herself) despite sporting a prominent black eye:
“ - But hey, you should have seen the other guy! I stomped his ass.
“ - Alex, out of curiosity, was that the same one as last time?”
“ - Wha? Nope, not that one. I don’t even remember what his name was, anyway, Coach…”

Minuette muses on the need to name the second transport rig - the one the team uses to ride to the paintball field was called “Monster”, and the name stuck, the other remains unused and nameless. “ - I’ll have to go and visit it, the poor thing must be feeling lonely and sad, abandoned like that!” Which makes the rest of the girls roll their eyes good naturedly at Minnie’s “machine whisperer” antics.

Dominique takes a moment to show off a mock-up of the applique TAG armor. Eric assures they should have field testing prototypes ready for the practice on Monday. It looks pretty much like a winter jacket, except made for a person some 3,5-meters tall… And possessed of two additional small arms on their chest. ‘Nique can’t resist putting it on, which, of course, ends up looking rather ridiculous.
“ - I guess even Minnie’s sweets stash wouldn’t be enough for her to gain enough weight to fill that get-up out…”
“ - I wouldn’t bet on that.”

As Yuni goes off to ready their ride, Eva takes some time to discuss the results of their most recent round of virtual “homework” with Diego. The projections are very promising: with a HGL and competent FOs, Nyree has the potential of becoming a holy terror, with her savant-level ballistics calculations, able to drop a round on anything, anywhere, anytime the team needs it… At least that what it looks like in the optimal conditions of the sims.

Minuette meanwhile begins to once more bother Morgan about the latter’s supposed relationship.
“ - C’mon, Morgan, you can tell me! Who’s the lucky guy?”
“ - For the last time, Chryse, there is no guy!”
“ - Ooo, so it’s a girl then?”
“ - No, not a girl either…”
“ - No way, so it’s two guys?! Wow, Morgan! I didn’t take you for the adventurous type!”
Morgan’s only reply is a facepalm and despairing groan...

Unfortunately, Alex takes the opportunity of everyone else being otherwise distracted, and proceeds to amuse herself by sticking new barbs into Nyree. She’s questioning ‘Ree’s abilities as a player, and generally aggressively undermining her self-esteem. Which, after all, is a very fragile thing for Rikoriko, given her history of being bullied by Narahari.

This time she gets more than she bargained for, however, as for the first time ever Nyree stands up to Alex, cutting her off with a harsh comeback, and for a moment Diego is convinced it’ll end up in a brawl. While Alex looks a bit like a cat that has cornered a mouse, and found it surprising that the mouse fights back, Diablo expects ‘Ree to throw the first punch. He’s actually waiting for it, ready to intervene - once the punch is thrown (first, he can’t allow a brawl, second, Alex is a well-experienced brawler, while Nyree is not). He figures that some folks have to learn some things the hard way - which in this case means Alex learning that Nyree is no longer a pushover.

However, this is apparently not the case. The gals aren’t going to solve the situation with fists. Nyree throws a different gauntlet down: they’ll settle it once and for all with paintball guns. One on one, two “kills” out of three. Here and now.

“ - And if I win, you get off of me, Narahari. For good.”
“ - Yea, ‘Ree, but what’s in it for me? Huh? What do I get if I win?”
Nyree goes silent, and it’s obvious she has to take a moment to gather up her courage and resolve, before she gets out, in a low, dead voice:
“ - If you win… We’ll… We can resume our relationship where we left off, two years ago…”
Alex’ mocking smirk morphs into a wide, nasty grin of sharkish delight:
“ - Ah, so you miss it after all? Whoa, ‘Ree, didn’t know you were a masochist! Well, works for me! If that’s what you want, I’d be more than happy to oblige!”

To be honest, Diego is disgusted to hear Alex say this. But things have reached a fragile moment: Nyree has mustered her strength to stand up and fight. Should he use his authority to cancel the duel, the matter will stay unresolved further. Which really won’t be healthy for anyone.

“ - Well, Yuni, seems like we’re going to have a showdown at high noon there...”

The rest of the team are shocked by the whole development, observing the going-ons mostly in uncomfortable silence. Minuette is most distressed:
“ - Must we really fight amongst ourselves? Please, girls, can’t you just get along?...” - she tearfully pleads.
“ - Sorry, Minnie. If we had it your way we’d have world peace. But this needs to be dealt with, I believe. No way around it I can see.” - answers Diego.

Alex takes her Spitfire and marches out, but Nyree needs to equip herself - she borrows Patty’s sniper rifle and accepts the Nisse greatcoat offered by Octavia, though she refuses a ghillie suit suggested by Diego. She then opens her comlog and starts flipping through documents.

“ - Hey, ‘Ree, come on, move your ass! What are you readin’ there, the user’s manual?”
“ - Yes. And safety procedures. Safety is… Important.”
“ - Pff, yeah! You have your safety, and you have your trigger, what more do you need? Let’s get this over with!”

Finally, Rikoriko marches out of the hangar and into the playing field. Aerocams are dispatched to follow the duel.
“ - Chica… Don’t mess this up…” - whispers Diego.

“ - You know, Yuni, I haven’t seen that one coming. I thought she was just going to bloody Alex’s nose. I intended to separate them once that happened.”
“ - After it happened?” - she gives him a knowing smirk.
“ - Sure. Some folks learn best when the knowledge is virtually beaten into them with a stick. Seems that Alex is of that type, too.”
“ - Looks that way, yeah.”
“ - Problem is, neither you nor me could’ve given her that lesson...”
“ - Yeah…”

“ - And Evangeline, you didn’t hear any of that, understood?”
“ - I am sorry, Coach, miss Iskandar? Have you said something?”
“ - One smart girl, keep it that way!”

Both girls are finally in position, and the showdown begins.

First round Alex rushes in, spraying wildly with her Spitfire. Under a hail of fire, Nyree panics and is quickly eliminated.

“ - So, one for me. One more and we’ll be back to good old times!”

Well, no-one said the game has to be honest, right? And Diego sure as hell he doesn’t want to see Alex win this one! He opens a comms channel to Rikoriko.

“ - Chica, enter the treeline where she can see you, then once out of sight turn to the side and take a well-covered position about thirty meters left of that point. Don’t let her know where you are. Don’t stick to a single sniping position.”
“ - Understood, Coach.”

Alex rushes in again, in her typical reckless manner. However, her target is nowhere to be seen, and certainly not where Narahari was expecting it. ‘Ree takes a few shots that miss, but they manage to throw Alex off-balance. Finally, as Alex decides she better find some cover after all, Nyree manages to put a paintball right between Narahari’s shoulderblades.

Only one round to go, and Diego keeps instructing Nyree:
“ - You shouldn’t be taking more than one shot from a single position. Well, in special cases, two shots. That’s not a rule set in stone, but only very few snipers I knew survived long without adhering to it. Shoot, then relocate. Have an alternate position chosen before you need to get to it, preferably two or three alternate positions, and two or three steps further. And evacuation routes from them, too.“
“ - Got it, Coach. Think a few steps ahead, plan in advance, relocate after each shot.”

Alex has noticed that reckless approach doesn’t work well any longer, and she is way more careful now. The game turns into a running battle: Nyree keeps moving after each shot, making Alex guess wildly for where the next one is going to come from - but she can’t score a hit. All the running has worked her stamina down, and she’s breathing heavily: that surely doesn’t help her accuracy. Still, her misses are close enough to keep Alex retreating again and again.
They finally move to the “urban kill-town” used for TAG practice. And it seems ‘Ree herded Alex there on purpose…

Alex takes cover in one of the buildings, covering the only door with her Spitfire. For a while, Rikoriko is nowhere to be seen, and Diego considers that she might be wanting to sit Alex out.

“ - Come and get me, ‘Ree. C’mon, if you don’t, the best you can get now is a draw. Well? Try it! Of course, I’m covering the only entrance!...”
“ - Idiot.”
“ - What!?”
“ - You’re an idiot. You still think like a civvie. You’re in a room with only one door, yes... But that doesn’t mean there’s only one entrance.”
“ - Shit!” - Alex spins to face the window behind her, just as a silhouette comes flying in through. She manages to bring her Spitfire to bear, peppering the wall with paintballs as she turns, and put a few shots in.
But that’s not Rikoriko. That’s just Octavia’s greatcoat, stuffed with vegetation and stones. These windows were way too high up for Nyree to pull that kind of stunt. Narahari, realising she’s been had, scrambles to face the door - and the sound of footsteps - again, but there isn’t enough time. ‘Ree bursts in, and puts the muzzle of her sniper rifle to Alex’ throat.

A hovering aerocam keeps watching the scene.

“ - Well, shit,” - Alex spits, disgusted and defeated, “ - Looks like you win after all, nerd.”
She goes to push the barrel away, but Nyree is having none of that, tightening her grip and thrusting the rifle firmly - and threateningly - at Alex.
“ - ‘Ree, the hell you doing?! I get it, you win, congratulations. Could you get this thing out of my face now?...” - Alex backs up a step, confused, and perhaps getting just a little bit worried...
Nyree follows, keeping the rifle at Alex’ neck, her own face calm and cold.
“ - You know, Narahari, we should really thank Eva for getting us such high-class equipment. At maximum power, this model of rifle can send it’s ‘paintball’ sim-round out up to three hundred meters. Care to guess how many Joules of energy that requires at barrel exit? I’ll give you a hint: it’s more than would be needed to, say, collapse a human throat. So, what do you think will happen if I pull the trigger now?...” - Nyree’s voice is low, serious, and deadly.

Oh shit.

“ - Now, of course, there are automatic safeguards against using it on full power at point-blank range. The user’s manual has instructions for disabling these. Not that I’d ever do such a thing, other than for maintenance, naturally. As I said, safety is important…”
Diego chimes in over comlog: “- ...But the safeties could be faulty. Equipment breaks down sometimes. A tragic accident...”
“ - You’re not serious, right? You’re both not serious!..” - Alex, beginning to see where this is all going, is really sweating now, her eyes darting between Nyree and the aerocam.
“ - Does that mean I have a witness, then, Coach?”
“ - More than that, we have a recording from the aerocam. But that’s not the point. Alex, if she pulls the trigger, you’re going to get a crushed windpipe. This won’t kill you, because we will get you to a hospital on time, promise. But on your way there you’ll be so busy almost dying you won’t believe that assurance at all… And you’ll spend some time in intensive care after that.”
“ - No way. No way! You’re bluffing, both of you!...” - Alex’ giggle is high and hysterical.
“ - Bluffing? Do you know, do you even realise what you put me through? ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me’? What utter bullshit. Whoever came up with that inane rhyme was obviously never a victim of true psychological abuse. And you didn’t stop at words anyway, didn’t you, Alex? All that you did and said… Did you know, because of you, I almost…! Almost... Tried to k-kill m-myself…!“ - Nyree’s voice breaks, and she needs a moment to collect herself again, but the rifle in her hands never waveres. “ - You like causing pain, don’t you? Well, here’s a taste of your own medicine.” - Nyree bores into Alex with ice-cold eyes.
“ - You won’t…” - Alex swallows heavily.
Nyree’s hand tightens on the grip.
“ - ‘Ree… ‘Ree, please, no...” - Alex, completely terrified now, openly begs for mercy...
… Which isn’t granted, as Nyree calmly pulls the trigger.
“ - God, please, no!...” - Alex shrieks, paralyzed with terror...
“ - Click!” goes the rifle.

Alex, deathly pale and trembling, half conscious with fear, collapses to her knees, reflexively clutching at her undamaged throat.

Rikoriko raises the rifle, presenting it to the camera - the magazine was missing the whole time, and as ‘Ree opens the action for inspection, it becomes clear that she pulled the whole operation with an unloaded weapon. Well, apparently Alex in her crib was being given chili peppers to chew on, but Nyree was given guns to play with. And these were no toy guns at all….

“ - Nyree, stand down and come back to base. Oh, and take the Spitfire with you, we don’t want it to be abandoned there.”
“ - Roger that, Coach.”

“ - ‘Ree?...” - whimpers Alex, looking up, eyes wide as saucers, at her once-victim.
“ - I almost can’t believe I was ever afraid of you…” - Nyree’s face holds only disdain.

As ‘Ree makes her way back, Diego turns his attention to Alex, who’s still crumpled on the ground, staring off into space that Nyree vacated.
“ - Alex, you okay?”
“ - Fuck, I pissed myself…” - mumbles the girl, cheeks burning with humiliation.
“ - Well, get yourself up and back to the hangar. Or should we send someone after you?”
“ - No, I’ll manage…”
As the defeated, shell-shocked bully drags herself to her feet, Diego can’t resist hammering the point home just a tiny bit more:
“ - And I hope you realise, Alex. If she really wanted to waste you, all she had to do was aim some 15-odd centimeters higher and push the barrel under your safety goggles… At this range, a sim-round through the eye and to the brain is as deadly as any real bullet.”

Nyree arrives at the hangar, exhausted and shaky, obviously crashing from an adrenaline high. The other girls surround her and offer their subdued congratulations and support.
“ - You all right?” worries Yuni.
“ - Me? I feel great! I think I’ve wet myself, just a little, and I’ll probably start hyperventilating any moment now, but I’m really great! Best I’ve ever felt since two years, at least!” - Nyree gives a trembling but sincere grin.

Once Alex arrives, she’s ordered to the showers “to sort herself up”, though Diego also asks Minnie to give her some sweets for “she looks like Death on vacation.” She definitely needs to raise her sugar level, and humbly accepts the candy Minnie offers her.

“ - Death on vacation, Coach? I wonder what he would do… Become a farmer, perhaps?”
“ - Wait, Minnie… “He”? La Muerte is a woman!”
“ - Really, Coach…? Are you sure?”
“ - PanOceanians, dammit…”
“ - That’s cultural differences for you. ”

As Alex shuffles past, Morgan captures her with a glare, eyes narrowed with menace rather than the usual boredom:
“ - And should you get any stupid ideas, Narahari, about maybe taking some revenge… You as much as touch her, and I’ll touch you. We clear?”
“ - Crystal.” - Alex nods weakly.
(Morgan seems to be the only team member capable of beating Alex in a brawl, and Alex knows this. Alex is a way more experienced fighter, but Morgan has the raw strength and toughness to balance it out. Diego guesses that their chances in a stand-up fight would be roughly equal - and bullies like Alex hate equal fights.)

Yuni checks her comlog’s watch: “ - Well, we’re late. Did anybody think of warning the Spiders?”
Patty rises her hand: “ - I called them, Miss Iskandar”.
“ - See, Diego… And we’re the ones supposed to be mature and responsible here…”
“ - Speak for yourself, Yuni ...I know, I know, men mature until seven years old, after that they only grow bigger. And swap their toys for more expensive ones…”

Once Alex gets out of the showers (which takes her quite a while), the team is ready to move out - they arrive for the game about a hour late.

The girls are pretty down on their spirits, which doesn’t go unnoticed by Bolo:
“ - Diablo, is there something going on with your team?”
“ - Well, we had a really bad furuncle there, Bolo. It had to be cut open, and we managed to do it today. For now, it hurts and drains, but I guess we’ll get better in the end. You know, there are things that need to be cleaned.”
“ - I see.”

They proceed to play, but the morose disposition makes the team lose more times than they win on that day.

Alex, still visibly pale and shaken, is on her best behaviour, obeying commands without question, playing carefully, staying mostly silent and wholly non-confrontational and non-acerbic, and demonstrably going out of her way to remain within arms’ reach of Morgan and away from Nyree.

The day at the field is concluded with the traditional campfire, but the gathering is brief: the Angels are obviously not in the mood today. They pack up and leave, but not before Diego can notice Alex sneaking looks at Nyree when she thinks nobody can see her. There’s a blush on her pale face when she does it, but weather it’s shame, rage, or something else entirely, Diego can’t tell, Alex’ face otherwise unreadable.

Back at the hangar, after the team dismisses, Diego finds Alex making use of her “smoking lounge” - apparently, the plan to quit smoking is currently on hold - with a clouded look.

“ - You okay, chica?”
“ - Well, Coach, you have access to all the school files, right? Tell me, did Rikoriko really make a suicidal attempt?”
“ - I can’t really tell you, Alex. School files cover only what happens at school, and that information isn’t in there. But from what I know, I believe she either actually has, or was very close to it…”
“ - Shit. I could really use a drink right now…”
“ - Well… I can only offer you that alcohol-free beer we had at the campfire…” - he gets a disgusted look “ - Yea, I know, it’s like having sex through a rubber, but it is the best we have at the moment…”

Once he’s done with Alex (who heads home… hopefully), Diego is ready to catch up with Yuni. They had plans to go dancing, but after today the mood is spoiled - regardless of the position the dancing would be done in.

“ - What I feel like now, is I’d like to get drunk today, Diego. You in for a few beers?”
“ - As they say on Tunguska, Yuni, ‘vino, ano na radost’ nam dano, vodka, ana na zalost’ jest’ sładka’...”
“ - I’m not Minuette, Diego. I can’t speak Russian…”
“ - Sorry. It’s ‘wine we were given for the joy, vodka, it is sweet for the sadness’... And I say, today is a day for vodka.”
“ - Yeah, no argument here. Let’s go and get wasted.”

Which they proceed to do.


Which sums the entry #8.

[Claudius Sol]

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.

[Errhile]

That was a problem. They were in the field, quite far away from the hangar where the rest of the team sat. Nobody has seen that coming...

I had this checked from a few angles already: the best I could do would be to fire up one of the TAGs (and that would need an emergency cold start, most likely) and run there like hell, hoping that 'Ree wasn't going to kill Alex after all (especially hearing Diego closing, a TAG running full-speed is hardly silent).

So far, I think Alex won't desert, or she'd be gone already. She may change, and hopefully for the better. Have to talk to her on Sunday.