Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)
- Thread starter LordSunhawk
- Start date
edofthesquid
Well-known member
[X] This would be a wonderful gesture of support for a small community on the planet and show that we don’t hold the madness of Kurita against our own citizens of Japanese descent and culture.
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[x] This would be a wonderful gesture of support for a small community on the planet and show that we don’t hold the madness of Kurita against our own citizens of Japanese descent and culture.
[X] This would be a wonderful gesture of support for a small community on the planet and show that we don’t hold the madness of Kurita against our own citizens of Japanese descent and culture.
Turn 10 Fluff and Story
Turn 10 Fluff and Story
You fear that your palmprint is going to be permanently etched into your face at this rate. The year-long series of parties, festivals, and celebrations for your decennial celebration had started with a bang, literally.
One of the largest fireworks displays in planetary history according to the organizers.
It went incredibly well, then the next day the festival fairgrounds had opened. And that is when the trouble started.
Evidently it was a previously unknown part of the party platform for the People’s Front for Griffin’s Roost’s People that bouncy play castles were tools of… you check your notes… Capitalist Exploitist Anarcho-Authoritiarian Socialist Genderist Oppression. So they showed up in the children’s play area of the fairgrounds and proceeded to picket the bouncy play castles. By swarming in and all bouncing in them… ignoring the rules about taking off their shoes because that evidently would unduly restrict their freedom of religion. And now where the bouncy play castles once stood were deflated piles of ex-bouncy play castles in which dozens of PFGRP members were trapped.
An apparent splinter faction of the PFGRP, calling themselves the Real Front of the People’s Front for Griffin’s Roost’s People’s Front, had split off from the bouncy castle takedown to protest the swings. Evidently these too were the oppressive tool of an overpowered state warping the minds of young children by exposing them to… you check your notes again… excessively transient binary verticality of motion thus suppressing fluidic horizontality and thus discriminating against the diagonally oppressed elements of geometric progressions.
You think you’ve got that right, their signs were extremely confusing being as how they’d somehow managed to misspell every single word on them.
You check again with Professor Chapman and she insists that this isn’t some political bag job from her department. You check with Juanita and she swears that she has had nothing to do with this. Janet is too busy running around preparing her wedding to pin down, but when you do (and she AGAIN extracts a promise from you to be her Maid of Honor) she also swears that she has absolutely nothing to do with this, but points out that she has a good idea who does…
So you go and confront Dr Palmer, and she points out that the leadership of the group is a mix of the Periphery Studies and Drama departments at the University, and she is honestly flummoxed as to how they have managed to agree on whether or not water is wet, let alone gotten this far in forming a political group.
Periphery Studies is where the University stashes scholars who are simply too out there in la-la-land to be trusted with using anything sharper than a big plastic spoon to eat with.
This explains SO much about your erstwhile opposition party.
So after the erstwhile protesters are freed from their confinement in durance… bouncy… you roll your eyes, shake your head, and once they’ve been ushered off to jail for destruction or property and the bouncy play castles are repaired and back in service, you take your kids out to play in them.
Your boys all love the bouncy play castles. You hold your daughter on your hip as you watch them joyfully bouncing around with an eclectic mix of noble and commoner children their age, all having an absolute ball. You’d decided years ago not to stand on ceremony and pretence, so you comfortably chat with other mother’s about their kids and your own, enjoying an extremely beautiful January day. Being semi-tropical, this means that the temperature has dropped to a blisteringly cold 26 degrees during the day.
After bouncing around for a while, your boys discover the joys of the ball pit, and much laughter, giggling, and merriment is had by all.
To your bemusement you quickly notice that Jeremy seems to naturally gravitate towards leading the play of all the kids around his age. Of course, Willis seems to consider this natural as, after all, he IS his son. You, and all the other mother’s present, promptly give your husband the patented look perfected by wives and mothers throughout history whenever paternal units make unwarranted claims of responsibility for the good aspects of their children.
Normally this is super effective at puncturing an overinflated male ego.
Willis is a fighter pilot.
And a Lee.
He’s immune.
You love him anyways.
A few weeks later you visit the local Shinto shrine dedicated to Hachiman. Having carefully read all the briefing material you manage to make a nice, positive impression by actually doing the visit properly, in a way that has the head priest of the shrine positively beaming in pleasure.
You are quite pleased by this reception. But then… you discover that the rat bastard has planned to hold a proper formal tea ceremony to welcome and honor you.
You wish he wasn’t quite so welcoming and honoring…
You’d READ about it, of course, and sort of knew the proper etiquette, but… after the first 30 minutes of kneeling in seiza your legs had gone numb. By hour four? You were convinced you no longer had legs. You somehow kept a smile on your face and made the appropriate noises, but standing back up again after being in seiza for so long is pure torture.
You thought this was the end of it.
You were wrong.
Now, you have absolutely nothing against theater. You loved going to plays as a girl and even now you still occasionally managed to catch a performance here and there.
You’d never been to a Noh play. Even with the explanations printed on the card you were given you are still not very sure about what happened, only that it happened very slowly and in a language you didn’t understand. Then it happened too quickly for you to have any hope of following along on the card… in a language you didn’t understand… then went back to being very very slow (which did allow you to read ahead on the card, not that it helped.) In a language you didn’t understand.
You are told that this was a traditional Noh play, and you manage to make all the appropriate noises of appreciation afterwards, although you aren’t too sure you’ve managed to fully conceal the fact that you were completely lost from the start.
A day later you get news that severely undermines your arguments against keeping Grifftigers as pets. Evidently baby Grifftigers imprint on humans and are just as tame as dogs, without the millennia of evolution that had led to the proper taming of dogs. According to the zoologists, Grifftigers seem to range between the absolute top end of dogs and the low end of dolphins in terms of intelligence, are pack hunters like wolves but seem to also be more than intelligent enough to bond with humans without much bother. From what they tell you, the massive cats evidently are able to recognize that we’re ‘like them’ in terms of intelligence and have decided that cooperating with us would be advantageous to them.
Research teams near the railroad corroborate these findings, as even working with sub-adults has shown that they are willing to cooperate with humans and now that they recognize us they are quite friendly beasties indeed.
Of course the video of a completely oblivious guard making his rounds while a Grifftiger paced right behind him without ever being noticed is making the rounds. The expression on the guards face when he turned around and promptly got a great big slobbery full body lick… to the howling laughter of his buddies.
You completely deny having watched that video a few dozen times, and swear that it was not the cause of your coffee-through-the-nose eruption and subsequent falling off of the chair in howling laughter.
Sergeant-Major Ngô is a lying liar who lies…
The video of an incident in the zoo where a little girl fell into the Grifftiger exhibit, landing in the moat that surrounded the ‘island’ where the felines lived… the poor kid couldn’t swim and was going under when the Grifftiger who was out at the time jumped into the water, maneuvered herself underneath the child, and got her safely out of the water before carrying her over to the enclosure entrance for the keepers before nosing her over to them… and bestowing a big slobbery lick on her face to the cheers of the crowd...
So when your kids besiege you once more with begging for a kitten of their own…
[] Yes, they are obviously friendly to humans, good with kids, and what better companion for my kids than a giant cat that will grow to be as big as a locomotive and probably live as long as they will. Couldn’t really ask for a better bodyguard!
[] Are you NUTS? They are giant CATS the size of locomotives!
[] Write-in
You fear that your palmprint is going to be permanently etched into your face at this rate. The year-long series of parties, festivals, and celebrations for your decennial celebration had started with a bang, literally.
One of the largest fireworks displays in planetary history according to the organizers.
It went incredibly well, then the next day the festival fairgrounds had opened. And that is when the trouble started.
Evidently it was a previously unknown part of the party platform for the People’s Front for Griffin’s Roost’s People that bouncy play castles were tools of… you check your notes… Capitalist Exploitist Anarcho-Authoritiarian Socialist Genderist Oppression. So they showed up in the children’s play area of the fairgrounds and proceeded to picket the bouncy play castles. By swarming in and all bouncing in them… ignoring the rules about taking off their shoes because that evidently would unduly restrict their freedom of religion. And now where the bouncy play castles once stood were deflated piles of ex-bouncy play castles in which dozens of PFGRP members were trapped.
An apparent splinter faction of the PFGRP, calling themselves the Real Front of the People’s Front for Griffin’s Roost’s People’s Front, had split off from the bouncy castle takedown to protest the swings. Evidently these too were the oppressive tool of an overpowered state warping the minds of young children by exposing them to… you check your notes again… excessively transient binary verticality of motion thus suppressing fluidic horizontality and thus discriminating against the diagonally oppressed elements of geometric progressions.
You think you’ve got that right, their signs were extremely confusing being as how they’d somehow managed to misspell every single word on them.
You check again with Professor Chapman and she insists that this isn’t some political bag job from her department. You check with Juanita and she swears that she has had nothing to do with this. Janet is too busy running around preparing her wedding to pin down, but when you do (and she AGAIN extracts a promise from you to be her Maid of Honor) she also swears that she has absolutely nothing to do with this, but points out that she has a good idea who does…
So you go and confront Dr Palmer, and she points out that the leadership of the group is a mix of the Periphery Studies and Drama departments at the University, and she is honestly flummoxed as to how they have managed to agree on whether or not water is wet, let alone gotten this far in forming a political group.
Periphery Studies is where the University stashes scholars who are simply too out there in la-la-land to be trusted with using anything sharper than a big plastic spoon to eat with.
This explains SO much about your erstwhile opposition party.
So after the erstwhile protesters are freed from their confinement in durance… bouncy… you roll your eyes, shake your head, and once they’ve been ushered off to jail for destruction or property and the bouncy play castles are repaired and back in service, you take your kids out to play in them.
Your boys all love the bouncy play castles. You hold your daughter on your hip as you watch them joyfully bouncing around with an eclectic mix of noble and commoner children their age, all having an absolute ball. You’d decided years ago not to stand on ceremony and pretence, so you comfortably chat with other mother’s about their kids and your own, enjoying an extremely beautiful January day. Being semi-tropical, this means that the temperature has dropped to a blisteringly cold 26 degrees during the day.
After bouncing around for a while, your boys discover the joys of the ball pit, and much laughter, giggling, and merriment is had by all.
To your bemusement you quickly notice that Jeremy seems to naturally gravitate towards leading the play of all the kids around his age. Of course, Willis seems to consider this natural as, after all, he IS his son. You, and all the other mother’s present, promptly give your husband the patented look perfected by wives and mothers throughout history whenever paternal units make unwarranted claims of responsibility for the good aspects of their children.
Normally this is super effective at puncturing an overinflated male ego.
Willis is a fighter pilot.
And a Lee.
He’s immune.
You love him anyways.
A few weeks later you visit the local Shinto shrine dedicated to Hachiman. Having carefully read all the briefing material you manage to make a nice, positive impression by actually doing the visit properly, in a way that has the head priest of the shrine positively beaming in pleasure.
You are quite pleased by this reception. But then… you discover that the rat bastard has planned to hold a proper formal tea ceremony to welcome and honor you.
You wish he wasn’t quite so welcoming and honoring…
You’d READ about it, of course, and sort of knew the proper etiquette, but… after the first 30 minutes of kneeling in seiza your legs had gone numb. By hour four? You were convinced you no longer had legs. You somehow kept a smile on your face and made the appropriate noises, but standing back up again after being in seiza for so long is pure torture.
You thought this was the end of it.
You were wrong.
Now, you have absolutely nothing against theater. You loved going to plays as a girl and even now you still occasionally managed to catch a performance here and there.
You’d never been to a Noh play. Even with the explanations printed on the card you were given you are still not very sure about what happened, only that it happened very slowly and in a language you didn’t understand. Then it happened too quickly for you to have any hope of following along on the card… in a language you didn’t understand… then went back to being very very slow (which did allow you to read ahead on the card, not that it helped.) In a language you didn’t understand.
You are told that this was a traditional Noh play, and you manage to make all the appropriate noises of appreciation afterwards, although you aren’t too sure you’ve managed to fully conceal the fact that you were completely lost from the start.
A day later you get news that severely undermines your arguments against keeping Grifftigers as pets. Evidently baby Grifftigers imprint on humans and are just as tame as dogs, without the millennia of evolution that had led to the proper taming of dogs. According to the zoologists, Grifftigers seem to range between the absolute top end of dogs and the low end of dolphins in terms of intelligence, are pack hunters like wolves but seem to also be more than intelligent enough to bond with humans without much bother. From what they tell you, the massive cats evidently are able to recognize that we’re ‘like them’ in terms of intelligence and have decided that cooperating with us would be advantageous to them.
Research teams near the railroad corroborate these findings, as even working with sub-adults has shown that they are willing to cooperate with humans and now that they recognize us they are quite friendly beasties indeed.
Of course the video of a completely oblivious guard making his rounds while a Grifftiger paced right behind him without ever being noticed is making the rounds. The expression on the guards face when he turned around and promptly got a great big slobbery full body lick… to the howling laughter of his buddies.
You completely deny having watched that video a few dozen times, and swear that it was not the cause of your coffee-through-the-nose eruption and subsequent falling off of the chair in howling laughter.
Sergeant-Major Ngô is a lying liar who lies…
The video of an incident in the zoo where a little girl fell into the Grifftiger exhibit, landing in the moat that surrounded the ‘island’ where the felines lived… the poor kid couldn’t swim and was going under when the Grifftiger who was out at the time jumped into the water, maneuvered herself underneath the child, and got her safely out of the water before carrying her over to the enclosure entrance for the keepers before nosing her over to them… and bestowing a big slobbery lick on her face to the cheers of the crowd...
So when your kids besiege you once more with begging for a kitten of their own…
[] Yes, they are obviously friendly to humans, good with kids, and what better companion for my kids than a giant cat that will grow to be as big as a locomotive and probably live as long as they will. Couldn’t really ask for a better bodyguard!
[] Are you NUTS? They are giant CATS the size of locomotives!
[] Write-in
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
[X] Yes, they are obviously friendly to humans, good with kids, and what better companion for my kids than a giant cat that will grow to be as big as a locomotive and probably live as long as they will. Couldn’t really ask for a better bodyguard!
The cats are intelligent. More intelligent than I give them credit for. I would almost call them Sapient with the way they act. except that's not possible. Isn't it? We need to research this. but for now I am okay with getting a couple of kittens for the kids.
The cats are intelligent. More intelligent than I give them credit for. I would almost call them Sapient with the way they act. except that's not possible. Isn't it? We need to research this. but for now I am okay with getting a couple of kittens for the kids.
Lightwhispers
Well-known member
[X] Yes, they are obviously friendly to humans, good with kids, and what better companion for my kids than a giant cat that will grow to be as big as a locomotive and probably live as long as they will. Couldn’t really ask for a better bodyguard!
This is manifestly the Best Plan Ever. Of course, the boys will have responsibility for litterbox detail, and such.
This is manifestly the Best Plan Ever. Of course, the boys will have responsibility for litterbox detail, and such.
Jarow
Well-known member
[X] Yes, they are obviously friendly to humans, good with kids, and what better companion for my kids than a giant cat that will grow to be as big as a locomotive and probably live as long as they will. Couldn’t really ask for a better bodyguard!
Smart and friendly: excellent pets.
Smart and friendly: excellent pets.
edofthesquid
Well-known member
[X] Yes, they are obviously friendly to humans, good with kids, and what better companion for my kids than a giant cat that will grow to be as big as a locomotive and probably live as long as they will. Couldn’t really ask for a better bodyguard!
.... Just one?
.... Just one?
[X] Yes, they are obviously friendly to humans, good with kids, and what better companion for my kids than a giant cat that will grow to be as big as a locomotive and probably live as long as they will. Couldn’t really ask for a better bodyguard!
[X] Actually, I totally want a kitten for me too! Maybe one for Willis if he's good. Wait, what am I saying? He'snever always never good. Insufferable man. And quietly reserve one as a wedding gift for Janet.
[X] Dire Penguin Deterrent: Low-cost sprayer modification on patrol icebreakers and all other vessels travelling to or through penguin-infested waters, as described in prior post.
[X] Inform the RRF that if they don't clean up their act, we *really will* rename them the Royal Comedy Force. And after that, I'm sure we can find new ways to motivate them.
[X] Actually, I totally want a kitten for me too! Maybe one for Willis if he's good. Wait, what am I saying? He's
[X] Dire Penguin Deterrent: Low-cost sprayer modification on patrol icebreakers and all other vessels travelling to or through penguin-infested waters, as described in prior post.
[X] Inform the RRF that if they don't clean up their act, we *really will* rename them the Royal Comedy Force. And after that, I'm sure we can find new ways to motivate them.
Last edited:
[X] Going with ShadowArxxy's Plan.
Turn 10 Advisors
Turn 10 Advisor Actions
It’s a week after the Bouncy Castle affair that you finally find out the missing bit of information that suddenly makes all of this make sense. And you face-palm some more at it.
The Chairman of the Periphery Studies Department of Griffin’s Roost University is not what you expected.
Dr Henry Waddleston doesn’t look like he’s completely detached from reality, is your initial impression. Then the discussion begins.
“Your great-grandfather realized that the constant fighting to reunify the planet was leaving a small but significant number of his people mentally… damaged. It used to be called shell shock, or combat fatigue, or PTSD, but it was a real issue. As the fighting became more brutal, it became more of an issue.” he begins, after introductions were made.
“At the same time, he was well aware of the stigma of mental health services. One of the major issues facing any mental health professional is that many of the people who most critically need our help do not think they require any help at all, moreover that those on the margins are afraid that admitting they need help would harm them more than their mental issues would. So he got creative.” the slender bespectacled old man explained.
“When the university was established, he also directed the creation of the Department of Peripheral Studies. I’ll get into why it changed to ‘Periphery’ in a moment. Such was the prestige of academia that it was relatively easy to set things up in that way. The administrative staff of the department were the mental health professionals, the ‘students’ and ‘faculty’ were the marginally functional and the completely detached individuals respectively that we were serving.”
“One of the guiding principles of the department has always been to never challenge the worldviews of the patients, to accept them, to permit them the validation that allows us to gain their trust, so when, for example, it’s time for them to take their pills, we can get them to do so without them fighting it.” he smiles slightly at that. “Of course it takes a special sort of person to pull that off, or at least a special sort of training. We’ve had a relationship with the School of Performing Arts since near the beginning, with our staff receiving drama and acting lessons in order to further this principle of ours.”
You listen, frowning a bit. “So in other words it’s a hidden asylum of some sorts?”
“Pretty much. For the ‘students’ it’s a transitory thing, they get the mental health counseling and assistance they need to transition back into regular affairs, and as far as anybody knows they simply took classes from a college department with an eccentric reputation.” he grins a little “In some cases I’m told it serves as a bit of a resume enhancer, in that they ‘survived’ taking classes in our department, which means they must be able to handle stressful shit.”
You laugh at that, realizing the truth of the statement.
“In terms of their latest obsession, well these happen in waves and there’s no real predicting them. The patients have evidently decided that they are all brave heroic political activists fighting against all the bogeymen and only they can convince others to see the light.”
He shrugs eloquently, a sort of ‘what can you do’ gesture. “And at least it’s not as bad as their last mass delusion.”
He smirks, leaning forward. “It would have made a wonderful movie, if we’d ever been able to release it. This started during your grandfather’s reign and was the longest lasting of their mass delusions. It began when a few of them decided that they were actually the exiled survivors of the Star League Defense Force that had somehow been driven from the Inner Sphere into the Periphery…”
You are howling with helpless laughter by the end of the tale, involving airguns firing foam rubber bullets in ritual combat over who got to use the coffee pot in elaborate ‘trials of possession’, totem animals, making up their own language, and other silliness. OK, the wanna be political activism was a doddle after that.
You also find out how the department changed from ‘Peripheral Studies’ to ‘Periphery Studies’, evidently the clerk who transcribed the pronouncement had made a typo, and nobody noticed until all the business cards, signs, and paperwork had been finalized. So your great-grandfather laughingly agreed to change the name.
You aren’t laughing quite as much when word comes down that there was a ‘complication’ with obtaining a grifftiger cub for your kids. The zoology people aren’t more specific than that… and you find out rather quickly what this complication was.
Evidently the sub-adults are sexually mature enough to mate, because what comes off the cargo ship isn’t a cage with a single grifftiger cub. It’s a sub-adult griff-tiger carrying a cub on her back. Mama grifftiger didn’t seem to mind her cub going with the humans, she evidently simply wanted to come along. And when 20 tons of muscle, sinew, bone, and very very sharp teeth decides it wants to do something…
It’s more evidence of just how smart these beasties are, that when the collection crew showed up they didn’t have to go looking. The big one simply walked up to them with her cub at her side, bestowed a slobbering lick on the head of the expedition, and that was that. The team leader is describing it as Rite Of Lick, which has you chuckling a little.
Of course, being face to face with such a massive beast, and knowing that she’ll get far more massive as time goes by, is an experience. The moment is made a bit more perfect when the cub gets rambunctious only to be brought back into line with a negligent sweep of that mighty tail, much like how you’d absently pick up one of your kids when they get over enthusiastic. The comparison is too much and you find yourself laughing before stepping forward and giving the grifftiger a good scritching along the jawline.
So evidently there will be two grifftiger’s at the Palace, one for you, and one for your kids.
[] Write-in name for mama grifftiger
[] Write-in name for baby grifftiger
((QM reserves the right to veto any stupid names))
Holding meetings while absently scritching the most lethal land predator yet known on the planet is an interesting experience. Many briefers seem far more disconcerted by the GIANT KILLY TIGER next to their queen than by you, which is a novel experience to be sure. Your advisors are completely unintimidated.
General Wolf is still looking smug over getting you promoted, and even being licked by a tiger hasn’t seemed to dampened his smugness. Damn it.
“We’re still conducting exercises and such. However this doesn’t reduce the need for us to expand our forces. As it stands we have a few battalions worth of troops, mostly infantry, to secure and defend two continents. We need to strengthen that, badly. This year I recommend purchasing a full battalion, 9 platoons worth, of Foxhound hovertanks, and a flight of Roc assault fighters. Alternately, 6 flights of Falcon interceptors to have a second squadron available.” he looks at you seriously. “In the near future we’ll want to expand our infantry as well, massively. A mix of foot and motorized troops simply to provide us with the numbers to take best advantage of our fortifications.”
Tyler is not only completely unphased by the grifftiger in the room, he bounds right up to her and proceeds to give her a right proper scritching, knowing from listening to his great-grandkids babble just where the best spots are and thus earning instant acceptance from the traitorous creature. She was so hoping for an ally in the never-ending battle against Tylerness.
“We’re almost done with the drop ports and the river survey is departing as we speak. But something crossed my desk that might be either a truly wonderful idea, or a total waste of time. I confess I’m not sure which.”
He slides a datapad over to you and you read it over. A start-up here in the capital is raising funds for a… luxury airship service? The promotional artwork is extremely impressive, to say the least. Massive solar-powered helium-filled airships plying the skies in stately majesty, with luxury cabins with all the amenities imaginable for the wealthy or simply those who save up for an experience of a lifetime enjoying a trip.
They are asking for an investment from the Crown and a Royal Charter.
You promise to think about it and the conversation changes to less important things, all with the background noise of a rumbling purr as a certain black striped cat is getting what it wants…
You get a few memos from Dr Young about progress in establishing the Ministry of Culture as well as a recommendation to form a working group in order to be prepared for when it comes time to establish or host proper embassies. There would be a small up front cost, but after that nothing until embassies are exchanged.
Professor Chapman drops by, bringing an oversized cat treat with her as an offering and getting the Lick Of Approval in return. “Well, the nutcases are back in the asylum, but now a serious political opposition is forming. They are insisting on their loyalty to the crown, merely saying that they feel there needs to be more perspectives presented to the throne than simply those of the advisors. They are far more… cautious in their wording, and it is obvious that these people are serious, both in terms of their convictions but also because they appear to feel that a proper loyal opposition is needed for the health of the state. There’s nothing really to be done about it at this time, they are still organizing, but once they do it might be helpful if you were to invite them to an official meeting and give your blessing to their efforts. A truly loyal party in opposition would be very helpful in both the short and long term in sanity checking situations and giving a broader base of advice.”
You promise to consider that. It seems like a good idea, if you only ever heard from those who already support you you might miss important details.
Dr Palmer shows up with a broad grin on her face. “OK, this is two in a row, the expedition we sent into the ruins just contacted me. They’re wrapping up as we speak, but initial reports are that they found a mostly intact example of a Star League era set of Target Acquisition Gear. Once we have it back in the lab we’ll be able to get started in reverse engineering it. I must caution you, since we’re having to reverse-engineer it rather than finding the research data in a datacore. It will take a long time and be very expensive.”
Juanita sends you a memo with a general situation briefing, recommending no change to Intelligence operations at this time.
Janet bounces in, gives the big cat a cheerful scratch… then leans in and actually licks the beastie before the beastie could lick her, to the grifftigers evident bemusement, then bounces over to the desk, slaps down a folder…
“First, thanks for coming to the wedding! Congratulations, you’re going to be a godmother. Now, while I’m absolutely certain that the big kitties can take care of themselves, there might well be other wee critters that can’t. My staff and I have come up with this as a solution, a National Forest Police, based on Wow to start with, to protect against poaching, smuggling, that sort of stuff. I think it’s a great idea myself!”
It’s a week after the Bouncy Castle affair that you finally find out the missing bit of information that suddenly makes all of this make sense. And you face-palm some more at it.
The Chairman of the Periphery Studies Department of Griffin’s Roost University is not what you expected.
Dr Henry Waddleston doesn’t look like he’s completely detached from reality, is your initial impression. Then the discussion begins.
“Your great-grandfather realized that the constant fighting to reunify the planet was leaving a small but significant number of his people mentally… damaged. It used to be called shell shock, or combat fatigue, or PTSD, but it was a real issue. As the fighting became more brutal, it became more of an issue.” he begins, after introductions were made.
“At the same time, he was well aware of the stigma of mental health services. One of the major issues facing any mental health professional is that many of the people who most critically need our help do not think they require any help at all, moreover that those on the margins are afraid that admitting they need help would harm them more than their mental issues would. So he got creative.” the slender bespectacled old man explained.
“When the university was established, he also directed the creation of the Department of Peripheral Studies. I’ll get into why it changed to ‘Periphery’ in a moment. Such was the prestige of academia that it was relatively easy to set things up in that way. The administrative staff of the department were the mental health professionals, the ‘students’ and ‘faculty’ were the marginally functional and the completely detached individuals respectively that we were serving.”
“One of the guiding principles of the department has always been to never challenge the worldviews of the patients, to accept them, to permit them the validation that allows us to gain their trust, so when, for example, it’s time for them to take their pills, we can get them to do so without them fighting it.” he smiles slightly at that. “Of course it takes a special sort of person to pull that off, or at least a special sort of training. We’ve had a relationship with the School of Performing Arts since near the beginning, with our staff receiving drama and acting lessons in order to further this principle of ours.”
You listen, frowning a bit. “So in other words it’s a hidden asylum of some sorts?”
“Pretty much. For the ‘students’ it’s a transitory thing, they get the mental health counseling and assistance they need to transition back into regular affairs, and as far as anybody knows they simply took classes from a college department with an eccentric reputation.” he grins a little “In some cases I’m told it serves as a bit of a resume enhancer, in that they ‘survived’ taking classes in our department, which means they must be able to handle stressful shit.”
You laugh at that, realizing the truth of the statement.
“In terms of their latest obsession, well these happen in waves and there’s no real predicting them. The patients have evidently decided that they are all brave heroic political activists fighting against all the bogeymen and only they can convince others to see the light.”
He shrugs eloquently, a sort of ‘what can you do’ gesture. “And at least it’s not as bad as their last mass delusion.”
He smirks, leaning forward. “It would have made a wonderful movie, if we’d ever been able to release it. This started during your grandfather’s reign and was the longest lasting of their mass delusions. It began when a few of them decided that they were actually the exiled survivors of the Star League Defense Force that had somehow been driven from the Inner Sphere into the Periphery…”
You are howling with helpless laughter by the end of the tale, involving airguns firing foam rubber bullets in ritual combat over who got to use the coffee pot in elaborate ‘trials of possession’, totem animals, making up their own language, and other silliness. OK, the wanna be political activism was a doddle after that.
You also find out how the department changed from ‘Peripheral Studies’ to ‘Periphery Studies’, evidently the clerk who transcribed the pronouncement had made a typo, and nobody noticed until all the business cards, signs, and paperwork had been finalized. So your great-grandfather laughingly agreed to change the name.
You aren’t laughing quite as much when word comes down that there was a ‘complication’ with obtaining a grifftiger cub for your kids. The zoology people aren’t more specific than that… and you find out rather quickly what this complication was.
Evidently the sub-adults are sexually mature enough to mate, because what comes off the cargo ship isn’t a cage with a single grifftiger cub. It’s a sub-adult griff-tiger carrying a cub on her back. Mama grifftiger didn’t seem to mind her cub going with the humans, she evidently simply wanted to come along. And when 20 tons of muscle, sinew, bone, and very very sharp teeth decides it wants to do something…
It’s more evidence of just how smart these beasties are, that when the collection crew showed up they didn’t have to go looking. The big one simply walked up to them with her cub at her side, bestowed a slobbering lick on the head of the expedition, and that was that. The team leader is describing it as Rite Of Lick, which has you chuckling a little.
Of course, being face to face with such a massive beast, and knowing that she’ll get far more massive as time goes by, is an experience. The moment is made a bit more perfect when the cub gets rambunctious only to be brought back into line with a negligent sweep of that mighty tail, much like how you’d absently pick up one of your kids when they get over enthusiastic. The comparison is too much and you find yourself laughing before stepping forward and giving the grifftiger a good scritching along the jawline.
So evidently there will be two grifftiger’s at the Palace, one for you, and one for your kids.
[] Write-in name for mama grifftiger
[] Write-in name for baby grifftiger
((QM reserves the right to veto any stupid names))
Holding meetings while absently scritching the most lethal land predator yet known on the planet is an interesting experience. Many briefers seem far more disconcerted by the GIANT KILLY TIGER next to their queen than by you, which is a novel experience to be sure. Your advisors are completely unintimidated.
General Wolf is still looking smug over getting you promoted, and even being licked by a tiger hasn’t seemed to dampened his smugness. Damn it.
“We’re still conducting exercises and such. However this doesn’t reduce the need for us to expand our forces. As it stands we have a few battalions worth of troops, mostly infantry, to secure and defend two continents. We need to strengthen that, badly. This year I recommend purchasing a full battalion, 9 platoons worth, of Foxhound hovertanks, and a flight of Roc assault fighters. Alternately, 6 flights of Falcon interceptors to have a second squadron available.” he looks at you seriously. “In the near future we’ll want to expand our infantry as well, massively. A mix of foot and motorized troops simply to provide us with the numbers to take best advantage of our fortifications.”
Tyler is not only completely unphased by the grifftiger in the room, he bounds right up to her and proceeds to give her a right proper scritching, knowing from listening to his great-grandkids babble just where the best spots are and thus earning instant acceptance from the traitorous creature. She was so hoping for an ally in the never-ending battle against Tylerness.
“We’re almost done with the drop ports and the river survey is departing as we speak. But something crossed my desk that might be either a truly wonderful idea, or a total waste of time. I confess I’m not sure which.”
He slides a datapad over to you and you read it over. A start-up here in the capital is raising funds for a… luxury airship service? The promotional artwork is extremely impressive, to say the least. Massive solar-powered helium-filled airships plying the skies in stately majesty, with luxury cabins with all the amenities imaginable for the wealthy or simply those who save up for an experience of a lifetime enjoying a trip.
They are asking for an investment from the Crown and a Royal Charter.
You promise to think about it and the conversation changes to less important things, all with the background noise of a rumbling purr as a certain black striped cat is getting what it wants…
You get a few memos from Dr Young about progress in establishing the Ministry of Culture as well as a recommendation to form a working group in order to be prepared for when it comes time to establish or host proper embassies. There would be a small up front cost, but after that nothing until embassies are exchanged.
Professor Chapman drops by, bringing an oversized cat treat with her as an offering and getting the Lick Of Approval in return. “Well, the nutcases are back in the asylum, but now a serious political opposition is forming. They are insisting on their loyalty to the crown, merely saying that they feel there needs to be more perspectives presented to the throne than simply those of the advisors. They are far more… cautious in their wording, and it is obvious that these people are serious, both in terms of their convictions but also because they appear to feel that a proper loyal opposition is needed for the health of the state. There’s nothing really to be done about it at this time, they are still organizing, but once they do it might be helpful if you were to invite them to an official meeting and give your blessing to their efforts. A truly loyal party in opposition would be very helpful in both the short and long term in sanity checking situations and giving a broader base of advice.”
You promise to consider that. It seems like a good idea, if you only ever heard from those who already support you you might miss important details.
Dr Palmer shows up with a broad grin on her face. “OK, this is two in a row, the expedition we sent into the ruins just contacted me. They’re wrapping up as we speak, but initial reports are that they found a mostly intact example of a Star League era set of Target Acquisition Gear. Once we have it back in the lab we’ll be able to get started in reverse engineering it. I must caution you, since we’re having to reverse-engineer it rather than finding the research data in a datacore. It will take a long time and be very expensive.”
Juanita sends you a memo with a general situation briefing, recommending no change to Intelligence operations at this time.
Janet bounces in, gives the big cat a cheerful scratch… then leans in and actually licks the beastie before the beastie could lick her, to the grifftigers evident bemusement, then bounces over to the desk, slaps down a folder…
“First, thanks for coming to the wedding! Congratulations, you’re going to be a godmother. Now, while I’m absolutely certain that the big kitties can take care of themselves, there might well be other wee critters that can’t. My staff and I have come up with this as a solution, a National Forest Police, based on Wow to start with, to protect against poaching, smuggling, that sort of stuff. I think it’s a great idea myself!”
This particular group were mental patients being indulged by their caretakers, after sooooo many epic fail rolls on opposition competence I decided that it would be utterly ridiculous for them to be serious, so I came up with this as a way to dump this group out and revise my approach for the next set of opposition figures (for one thing, I changed how I am doing the dice rolls for them... and praying for no strings of critical failures)
Thors_Alumni
Well-known member
Escaped mental patients. Okay that takes the cake.
[X] Plan: Expand Upwards
[X] mama grifftiger - Bast
[X] baby grifftiger - Flame
[X] Plan: Expand Upwards
[X] mama grifftiger - Bast
[X] baby grifftiger - Flame
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Jarow
Well-known member
[X] Plan: Expand Upwards
-[X] Military 4
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank*
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Foot Infantry*
--[X] Purchase new Flight of Roc ASF
(Have wanted this, can afford now. However, can't afford other requests too)
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Tracked Missile Carrier
(Might be worth training artillery; relatively light military action)
-[X]Interior 4
--[X] Construct Drop Port outside Capital*
--[X] Construct Drop Port outside Huế mới*
--[X] Investigate Rivers*
--[X] Charter a luxury airship service between the capital and Huế mới
(Could get good stuff)
-[X] Diplomatic 3
--[X] Establish Ministry of Culture*
--[X] Setup hovercraft racing league
(Decreased event failure rate from improved stability)
--[X] Establish Protocols for Embassies
(Diplomacy prep)
-[X] Political 3
-[X] Research 3
--[X] Electronics lvl 1*
--[X] Organize Expedition to Ruins*
--[X] Orbital Infrastructure lvl 1
(We can finally afford it)
-[X] Intelligence 3
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance
(Lets make sure the choice to free them was safe)
Justice 2
--[X] Establish Forestry Police to protect wildlife in Wow
(event protection)
Combined, uses up most of our actions, in all areas where we have lots we want to take. Also uses about our full income, leaving enough for emergencies next turn.
As for names, unless I see something I like better, I'm fine with Thors_Alumni's suggestion:
[] mama grifftiger - Audrey
[X] baby grifftiger - Flame
Edit: new name idea is better
[X] mama grifftiger - Bast
-[X] Military 4
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Chasseur Hovertank*
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Foot Infantry*
--[X] Purchase new Flight of Roc ASF
(Have wanted this, can afford now. However, can't afford other requests too)
--[X] Initiate Training Exercise Tracked Missile Carrier
(Might be worth training artillery; relatively light military action)
-[X]Interior 4
--[X] Construct Drop Port outside Capital*
--[X] Construct Drop Port outside Huế mới*
--[X] Investigate Rivers*
--[X] Charter a luxury airship service between the capital and Huế mới
(Could get good stuff)
-[X] Diplomatic 3
--[X] Establish Ministry of Culture*
--[X] Setup hovercraft racing league
(Decreased event failure rate from improved stability)
--[X] Establish Protocols for Embassies
(Diplomacy prep)
-[X] Political 3
-[X] Research 3
--[X] Electronics lvl 1*
--[X] Organize Expedition to Ruins*
--[X] Orbital Infrastructure lvl 1
(We can finally afford it)
-[X] Intelligence 3
--[X] Counterintelligence Surveillance
(Lets make sure the choice to free them was safe)
Justice 2
--[X] Establish Forestry Police to protect wildlife in Wow
(event protection)
Combined, uses up most of our actions, in all areas where we have lots we want to take. Also uses about our full income, leaving enough for emergencies next turn.
As for names, unless I see something I like better, I'm fine with Thors_Alumni's suggestion:
[] mama grifftiger - Audrey
[X] baby grifftiger - Flame
Edit: new name idea is better
[X] mama grifftiger - Bast
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Lightwhispers
Well-known member
[X] mama grifftiger - Bast
Not sure about a name for the kitten.
Not sure about a name for the kitten.
PeaceMaker 03
Well-known member
[X] mama grifftiger - Radha
[X] baby grifftiger - M- Shiva F- Kali
[X] baby grifftiger - M- Shiva F- Kali