The Leonine Games [Afternoon 1]

[Kannon]

Hadrian... was bored. So frikkin bored. Not one iota of this sort of thing appealed to him. He found himself wishing a seaweed cigar would manifest for him to smoke.

Still, to maintain his cover he cheered when appropriate. Booo'd when appropriate. And as long as grey eyes wasn't winning the former outnumbered the latter.

To the changrin of more than Hadrian, Pankratos was actually killing it. He was the first to change the latitude and took one full sub-equatorial lap before anyone could follow. On their balcony, only the slave of the Archon stood out as his supporter, however. Lady Salomea watched the man's advance with indifference that hid disgust.

[Kannon]

Emcas had no favorite or any affinity for the sport...He did not quite like lions either.

However if he had to choose he would choose one of his own people

That would be Dyrrachion or Ben Ghali, the man chasing after the glory he had lost or the man chasing after freedom he never had.

[Kannon]

"Oh, I don't blame the mass of humanity here. It's hard to recognize a cage you grew up in- I'm opposed to those who hold the keys and sit on them."

Despite herself, Laila found herself getting to... like the Bene Gesserit.

"But I also know none of these people would thank me for pointing out the things they do recognize. They're... like I was when I was drinking to forget."

"Today's people's heroes are tomorrow's entrenched elites. It is a martyr's only consolation that they don't live to see how their eulogists grow fat."

Cordana sighed when Pankratos had just whizzed by.

"You're right, this is a pain-washing libation, but pointing it out is pointless. It doesn't mean everything is pointless. Have you figured out what is truly going on here, before our eyes?"

[Nirilli]

Nirilli could swear her favourite smirked passing her by.

She gasped in surprise and cheered even louder. "Pankratos! Pankratos!"

She felt a certain kinship to Ben Ghali, as a fellow Zensunni, but he was not her friend. His victory would not make her Mistress smile. Was she jealous of those, like Bacri and Ben Ghali, who could achieve freedom? Who had a path? She felt a pang of uncertainty. Best to give it no thought. Stay in the present moment. Smile. Focus on what was delighting, so she could be delighting.

[Hadrian Martikova]

Nirilli could swear her favourite smirked passing her by.

She gasped in surprise and cheered even louder. "Pankratos! Pankratos!"

'Did he?' Hadrian thought, 'No... more likely, he was mocking Xanthe's mother. Going strictly off the atmosphere here.' Hadrian found himself staring thoughtfully at Nirilli. A small grin forming on the edge of his features.

[Cuyler Gray]

"Ben Ghali!" Cuyler cheered, as she felt the excitement of the crowd build.

[Kannon]

Pankratos was about to leap toward the tropical band when the trio beneath prevented it at the last moment by forcing their own ascent in short, unbreakable consecution. The champion veered off, losing some momentum, but was still way ahead, poised to succeed over the next lap.

The trio fought tooth and nail, moving almost parallel, their lions so close they started roaring at each other, not pouncing only because of the harness and the impetus, their golden manes moving like sea grass in a current. Nimais seemed to be baiting both men to take greater risks, to force collision. If that happened, lions would get hurt, and so would be their charioteers, and that thin line of restraint was visible in Dyrrachion's and Ghali's manoeuvring.

But experience was winning. Dyrrachion pulled off his trademark trick, making lions leap on the walls of the force field and then to bounce ahead. For that moment, the massive paws pressed themselves against the line of vision of the Balcony 179 West...

The tumult in the Oon was reaching the levels of a religious craze.

[Kannon]

"Ben Ghali!" Cuyler cheered, as she felt the excitement of the crowd build.

Xard shut up for a moment, reflecting on perhaps having said something wrong. Still, the paws brought him out of his self-consciousness quite quickly, though he didn't join the cheering. He was now not so sure his initial sympathies toward Nimais weren't ill-placed.

[Nirilli]

Nirilli kept her focus on Pankratos and missed the drama with the other three contestants until the lion's claws filled their view.

She flinched back instinctively. Oh!

It reminded her of the danger to all of the contestants and to all of the lions. She stopped to quietly pray for the safety of the athletes and the lions. Eyes briefly closed. Head briefly bowed.

[Emcas]

The part of his attention that was on the race mostly took in the play between racers and the meaning hidden there.

He also took in a measure of their personalities. Pankratos was has he had guessed. To that he could add that he was not currently interested in making the race tight...he only sought to establish his dominance. One had to wonder how he managed to be this good in such little amount of time.

The real interesting part of the race was the three others.

[Hadrian Martikova]

For a moment Hadrian's face filled with worry. Not because he's afraid of the lions naturally. More like he's afraid Laila will kill one to save him. Then where would they be? He turned to see what the guards were carrying. Even looked around for a possible advantage should the worst come to pass.

[Laila Bridger]

"Today's people's heroes are tomorrow's entrenched elites. It is a martyr's only consolation that they don't live to see how their eulogists grow fat."

Cordana sighed when Pankratos had just whizzed by.

"You're right, this is a pain-washing libation, but pointing it out is pointless. It doesn't mean everything is pointless. Have you figured out what is truly going on here, before our eyes?"

Eyes, those FUCKING eyes.

Anything she might have appreciated about Pankratos was chewed up and spit out by the effect of his gaze.

"A Tleilaxu... creation is showing off, increasing his nominal patron's dependence upon him even as he advances her position in the short term."

This wasn't really a race, whatever three of the racers might have hoped- this was theater.
Even more so than the usual spectacle.

[Sister Shinah]

Fingers responded.

The favourite. High likelihood. Tleilaxu ghola. Strings out of sight.

If Shinah was surprised, she was too well trained to hide it.

More pieces were coming into play for her mind to work with. But more was needed.

When can we talk?

[Kannon]

When can we talk?

After. Salomea managed to sign.

[Kannon]

Eyes, those FUCKING eyes.

Anything she might have appreciated about Pankratos was chewed up and spit out by the effect of his gaze.

"A Tleilaxu... creation is showing off, increasing his nominal patron's dependence upon him even as he advances her position in the short term."

This wasn't really a race, whatever three of the racers might have hoped- this was theater.
Even more so than the usual spectacle.

Cordana managed to nod in confirmation.

[Kannon]

The real interesting part of the race was the three others.

It was true. As the competing trio struggled to pass one another for an advancing leap to the tropical band, they kept increasing the speed to the point where the lions were in frenzy. Dyrrachion had a narrow spit of a lead but not enough for a safe leap. When Nimais finally used her lightweight to dart out, to salvage his chance he did what he should not have done.

He tried the same trick the second time.

[Kannon]

For a moment Hadrian's face filled with worry. Not because he's afraid of the lions naturally. More like he's afraid Laila will kill one to save him. Then where would they be? He turned to see what the guards were carrying. Even looked around for a possible advantage should the worst come to pass.

Hadrian's instincts were almost too good. The guards were on the outer range, protecting the privileged balconies from potential provocateurs from below, standing with their backs to them, with their crowd control stunners. Their own emergency exit was via a small lift to the bay over their roof where the thopters had landed. To the left, it was the Strategos' control booth. To the right, a cascading flight of escalators leading to 178 W, 177 W, each packing smaller galleries for more people. And there was the way down, where no forcefield currently shimmered.

Hadrian was so focused on reading the environment that he noticed the effect before he realised the cause.

Two frenzied, unrestrained lions catapulted into 177 W.

[Kannon]

The others could watch the drama unfold if they didn't blink in that particular moment. During Dyrrachion's wall leap Ben Ghali came from behind Nimais, blocking his return to the path. Which the fading star of the leodrome forced anyway. The corpuses of both chariots collided at high speed, sending one into the boundary and another spiralling into the centre along with the lions.

The woman quite impossibly passed in between. She wouldn't have if Dyrrachion's chariot had bounced back into her path. But it didn't. Something strange had happened. It looked as if it had punctured the field, shorted it, and just flopped, with Dyrrachion's mangled body inside. But the lions' reins, whatever they invisibly had been, stopped binding them to the charioteer or to the vehicle, and they did tumble through, straight into the galleries, their rage amplified for human entertainment now unleashed for a more primal purpose.

[Kannon]

• This is a combat encounter. We enter structured time.
• However, Initiative needs to be rolled only by those who wish to confront the lions [Cool or Vigilance, your call]. Those who want to evacuate will have sufficient time to do so.
• If the lions aren't stopped in time with player involvement they will murder quite a lot of people before NPCs manage to take them down.
• If the players choose to sit out this encounter, which they might, Pankratos might receive all the glory for stopping the lions.
• If they are stopped through injury or death the justice of House Corrino will have to be meted out.
• Only defeating the lions through means that don't hurt them shall be considered heroic by people in the Oon and beyond, as the event is streamed into the Imperium.
• The political fallout from how the encounter is resolved shall be tremendous. This is as high-stakes as things can get on Harmonthep.
• At the start of the encounter, the lions are at Long from all players. Bands are calculated by degrees. Anything within the players' balcony is Short, 178W is Medium, 177W is Long, etc.

[Laila Bridger]

And now there were berserk lions loose in the stands.

Well then.

Good thing I have a shield and body armor.

[Laila's initiative- Laila's Lion-Taming Initiative- Now using Viiglance!: 3eA 1 success, 4 advantage
]