The Leonine Games [Afternoon 1]

[Laila Bridger]

"Agreed, but to update you both before we meet. The lady shifted her bodyguard on to us to act as a shadow. Otherwise she's letting us be for now. The thing is, despite my bluster, I shouldn't be on the list. Figuring out how and who put me there is a clue. I just need to figure out how and where it happened."

Laila didn't com the next bit, speaking only to Hadrian.

"Have you considered that the guy who sent us might have arranged that?"

[Nirilli]

[Emcas] would therefore be one of the first to get to the balcony, where Nirilli was still waiting and Shinah was... being Bene Gesserit.

...

There was no obvious break to the conversation even though Nirilli could be sure she has been noticed. The two Bene Gesserit moved to the corner of the balcony. She could make an interesting observation, however. She became sure that the alien language of two women wasn't actually a language, at least not any more, but gibberish, a torn, distorted and incomprehensible crescendo of sounds unlike any human speech.

Cuyler and Xard were on the cusp of arriving too. The higher they were getting inside the majestic Oon, the fewer people impeded their progress.

For some reason, force-fields on various levels, from equator to the northern polar circle, were being tested in consecution, shimmering at some joints as if they could form an upward spiral.

Nirilli gave a bow to Emcas when he arrived. A friendly acknowledgement of a familiar face.

She remained patient, waiting, listening. She knew her place and her duty.

This gibberish between the senior Bene Gesserit and Lady Salomea. Was it like a song? Like birdsong? Beyond words, but still conveying meaning of a kind? She studied it, to the extent she could, fascinated.

[Emcas]

Emcas gave the zensunni woman a polite gestual greeting and glanced towards the unknowable Bene Gesserit. There was no need to insert himself in whatever they were talking about since if they wanted him to he was sure they'd leave him no choice.

For the moment he stood in quiet contemplation, eyes weary of dance the forcefields made

[Sister Shinah]

Breaking away from her contemplations, Shinah turned away from the crowd and approached Emcas and Nirilli.

"The Reverend Mother is occupied at present." Shinah stated the obvious with the imperiousness only a Bene Gesserit telling you something you already - or would very shortly discover - knew was true could muster. Must be something they taught at the Mother School. Blessedly, for now anyway, the mouth sounds this Bene Gesserit was making were comprehensible.

Shinah left it at that. No dismissal, but no invitation either. A gap, inviting the two to explain themselves.

[Kannon]

The Oon was filling up quickly; throngs of viewers were spreading everywhere from southern polar latitudes up to the equator, from where meridional elevators were bringing the elite even higher, above the central plane, for a better panorama. At this point there may already have been a hundred thousand inside the sphere, and the queues at ingresses didn't seem to be thinning, with late-comers becoming desperate to get past security checks. The Archon could arrive any moment to commence the race.

[Kannon]

Emcas gave the zensunni woman a polite gestual greeting and glanced towards the unknowable Bene Gesserit. There was no need to insert himself in whatever they were talking about since if they wanted him to he was sure they'd leave him no choice.

For the moment he stood in quiet contemplation, eyes weary of dance the forcefields made

Xanthe was nowhere to be seen. But then again, she kept skipping sporting fetes whenever she could get away with it, even without additional reasons she had now. Her rationale had always been the same: since her father was focused on overseeing the mass event logistics and security, someone had to hold the fort at Xenion. It looked like she wasn't about to make an exception. This of course meant that Emcas had seen those events live infrequently in the past, so in some way observing it now was new.

But he knew how it was supposed to play out. Chariot laps along decreasing circumferences all the way up, with only a narrow opening in each lap to coax the lions to leap up to the higher ring. It required speed, timing, and control over the felines to make it, things not easy to align. The overarching rule was nothing you did could hurt the lions, else you would suffer proportional consequences as if you had done harm to House Corrino. Those who failed to move up the latitude had to repeat the lap, effectively risking staying in a lower tier.

This kind of race wasn't thrown every day. For Pankratos, it would only be the second, and yet after his last showing he was the favourite, especially the Archon's favourite, and all his other sporting exploits indicated that it wasn't a fluke. The Strategos, however, kept supporting the prior top racer, Dyrrachion, a man of Zensunni stock who adopted the identity of their masters after manumission. Nevertheless, Dyrrachion's symbol was Notos, the Southern Wind, the one symbolically coming from the swampsea.

There were political stakes here, Emcas knew. The last race had been mired by an incident that reflected poorly on House Ptolemaios, especially on the Strategos. During that race, a humiliating inflatable effigy of Shaddam IV had been released from the bottom audiences and had floated all the way up to the equator before it had been taken down. The live feeds had spread across the Imperium nonetheless and the Padishah Emperor was furious. It may have taken several executions, a visit of the Emperor's top adviser and some Bene Gesserit mediation to ameliorate the Emperor's outrage and redirect it to the later-revealed mastermind of the provocation, Jaxson Aru, the self-proclaimed leader of the so-called Noble Commonwealth.

It was in the Philadelphos' best interest for this run to go through without incident. Paradoxically, a clean and fast win for Pankratos could even be considered a blessing...

[Kannon]

Breaking away from her contemplations, Shinah turned away from the crowd and approached Emcas and Nirilli.

"The Reverend Mother is occupied at present." Shinah stated the obvious with the imperiousness only a Bene Gesserit telling you something you already - or would very shortly discover - knew was true could muster. Must be something they taught at the Mother School. Blessedly, for now anyway, the mouth sounds this Bene Gesserit was making were comprehensible.

Shinah left it at that. No dismissal, but no invitation either. A gap, inviting the two to explain themselves.

Shinah was vaguely aware of the prior events on Harmonthep that had angered the Throne, and so also could surmise the stakes of the event unfolding before her. Even without knowing, she could guesstimate that mollification must have been assisted by her Order, and Cordana and her's visit at this particular time may have had more than one goal. Sifting through possible computational trajectories of vectors which may have led to this appeasing outcome, Count Hasimir Fenring and his wife Lady Margot were very likely to have been involved. As usual, the Strategos' long-standing concubine must have been playing the necessary liaison role. That would in turn explain some of Xanthe's irritation - her apparent affection to her father was hard to reconcile with deep awareness that he was indebted to and therefore leveraged by the Sisterhood. Even if within branches of House Hagal, as she knew well from Buzzell, it was Tuesday.

The gibberish was of course the product of a cone of silence. Apparently, Lady Salomea had seen to getting one installed in the balcony for situations like this, when secrecy of elaborate communication had to coincide with being present. Yet another way to obscure in plain sight, leaving more confusion than if they were using some ancient tongue, or hands. Hands she could read. And possibly Xanthe as well, if she was around.

[Kannon]

Nirilli gave a bow to Emcas when he arrived. A friendly acknowledgement of a familiar face.

She remained patient, waiting, listening. She knew her place and her duty.

This gibberish between the senior Bene Gesserit and Lady Salomea. Was it like a song? Like birdsong? Beyond words, but still conveying meaning of a kind? She studied it, to the extent she could, fascinated.

Alas, the weirding ways of the Bene Gesserit were hard to make sense of without any kind of key to what was witnessed. All Nirilli could credibly derive from this is these two women had secrets they absolutely didn't want to share with anyone else in the balcony, including her, the Archon's ear.

For Nirilli, it wasn't the first time in the Oon, but she had never attended a major, momentous event like this one. She could only guess how it was supposed to play out. All she knew is that at some point Pankratos in his lion-pulled chariot would emerge out of the Apex above them on a suspensor platform, in a slow decent to the equator, and it wouldn't happen before her mistress wasn't already seated in her grandstand on the opposite side of the Oon.

[Kannon]

[If other players would like to come to the Oon with any piece of knowledge already posted above, they can select a thing they could credibly know and I will assign a roll. If it's something Corrino- or Imperium-related, Xard can provide a Boost.]

[Nirilli]

Breaking away from her contemplations, Shinah turned away from the crowd and approached Emcas and Nirilli.

"The Reverend Mother is occupied at present." Shinah stated the obvious with the imperiousness only a Bene Gesserit telling you something you already - or would very shortly discover - knew was true could muster. Must be something they taught at the Mother School. Blessedly, for now anyway, the mouth sounds this Bene Gesserit was making were comprehensible.

Shinah left it at that. No dismissal, but no invitation either. A gap, inviting the two to explain themselves.

Nirilli bowed deeply to the younger Bene Gesserit woman.

She then quietly spoke her answer to her, not wishing to provide any distraction or interruption to the others.

"I understand. I do not wish to interrupt. I have a letter for Lady Salomea, when she is free. From the Archon. I am the Archon's slave Nirilli."

[Cuyler Gray]

As she and Xard found their destination, Cuyler took a long look at the venue and the still growing crowd of spectators. The scale was difficult to take in. Her skills were deployed in much smaller events, where she had a better sense of her surroundings and those in attendance. They were not in the swelling mass below, of course. But, it was still somewhat intimidating.

[Hadrian Martikova]

"Have you considered that the guy who sent us might have arranged that?"

Hadrian didn't answer right away. It's a possibility but he doubted it was Hawat. "Who knows, mentats work in obnoxious ways."

He nodded to Laila and started back towards the direction of their goal.

"When did we lose our shadow by the way? Or do you reckon he's watching us from a distance?"

[Emcas]

It seemed that the chef and the scientiste where the first of the quatuor to arrive.

Emcas gave a respectful bow when they entered

"Sir, Ma'am"

[Cuyler Gray]

She offered a friendly smile. "Good afternoon, are we expecting Lady Xanthe to join us?"

[Kannon]

The Bene Gesserit must have taken note of the new arrivals, but there was no indication in a move or break to the gibberish.

In the meantime, Laila and Hadrian would find their way into the Oon, though at its bottom. There was still a lot of riding escalators and lifts along the meridians to get to the spot they were supposed to reach. The security had cleared and directed them, however, before the immense space finally opened up to them, with droves of excited fans lining every southern parallel, round the globe.

[Laila Bridger]

"Our shadow, I believe, knows that if we miss our assignation he can bring the hammer down."

She took a cleansing breath, and tried not to be too overawed by the sights and sounds of this Ixian-made monstrosity.
She failed.

"This place is... huge."

And you get to repeat your lovely chat with Wanna when you get where you're going, don't forget that.

"Surprised anyone can find anything here."

And indeed, even with the directions, and with people on hand- slaves? How many people here were slaves? Was anybody just working a job?- more than her own reluctance slowed her ability to navigate toward their destination.

But navigate they did- mostly thanks to Hadrian having a better handle on this kind of scene.

[Emcas]

She offered a friendly smile. "Good afternoon, are we expecting Lady Xanthe to join us?"

''Under normal circumstances I would say no, Lady Gray. Lady Xanthe takes on the duties of her father, our esteemed strategos, when he joins the festivities.''

A light frown tainted his brow

''The circumstances are different but I am not sure it will change much.''

[Cuyler Gray]

''Under normal circumstances I would say no, Lady Gray. Lady Xanthe takes on the duties of her father, our esteemed strategos, when he joins the festivities.''

A light frown tainted his brow

''The circumstances are different but I am not sure it will change much.''

She glanced towards the Bene Gesserit. "I understand. She will be missed, but I admire her sense of duty."

[Nirilli]

While she waited for Sister Shinah's response to her words, Nirilli observed the newcomers arriving.

Had they come with the Bene Gesserit from their home planet?

They seemed known to Emcas.

And at least the one woman - a Lady Gray - seemed to know Lady Xanthe. But she had definitely not seen them before. Two women. Two men. Curious. But if one was a Lady, they were surely all far above her station.

[Emcas]

She glanced towards the Bene Gesserit. "I understand. She will be missed, but I admire her sense of duty."

''She is stalwart'' he agreed ''How do you find Harmonthep so far?''