[b]Solarel[/b] Ivy tilts her head to think, towards the cybernetic side. This could just be a habit from her childhood, perhaps mimicking a pet. Or perhaps it’s a subconscious shift towards the digital side of herself, taking advantage of the powers of memory and categorization where an implant like hers most excels. After a few moments, she nods, more to herself than to you. “This has been a most enlightening experience. Thank you for receiving me, Solarel. As a representative of the boatmen, please consider your request for forgiveness of your debt granted.” She makes a few notes on the lawsuit demand letter near the top, explaining their offer. No extra pay to you, but also no intent on their part to pursue any further engagements against you. If that’s acceptable, you can sign it as well and file the papers and it will conclude the matter as far as any TC court is concerned. “Hmm, I think I can follow up in two days on this. Please do try and be around to receive us.” In two days time, there will be an arrival at your hangar. A Zaldarian priestess will be presenting herself (or letting herself in if you’ve chosen to be absent), wearing formal robes indicating that she’s from an advance outpost associated with Zathar. Zathar, you would recall, is one of the direct jumps from Zaldaria, but the route goes through several more or less empty star systems before getting to anything other than Styx and the Boatmen have presented themselves as both non-threatening offensively and dangerous to prod too hard, so it has become something of a backwater compared to the routes leading towards the Cerulean Belt or Hybrasil. You might call it a neglected part of the empire. If the empress wished, she could pay it close attention, but neither of the last two has had such a wish, so they’ve mostly been left to themselves to pursue their own goals. The priestess will be accompanied by two crews. One will be a small contingent of three Zaldarians, her personal retinue from the looks of them, sporting various shades of bronze and rust in their coloration. The other will be a larger crew of ten Styx Boatmen, most with various level of cyborg implants and accompanied by Ivy in an observational role. How will you greet them, either upon their arrival or whenever you return to find them there? *** [b]Dolly[/b] When you do get inside the shuttle, the Banders laugh and cheer. There are five of them. Erys is not present. But you’ve got Valynia, the Terenian, and three other Hybrasilians. Before you have any chance to “brain” anybody, you’re shoved roughly against the shuttle walls and then buckled in by Valynia. She then wraps a short corded rope around the belt latch a few times and knots it, to make tampering with it impossible without being very obvious. “Thank you for being such a good girl for us, priestess.” She smiles and the others laugh. “I should thank you, too, for such a good fight. Erys has right of first refusal among our little band, but since she didn’t actually win her match, she got knocked out of the running and I got to pick you up. And I’m so very happy about that.” She leans in close and gives your ear a nip with her sharp teeth. If you wanted, you could take a moment here, much as Angela did with you earlier. Swing the purse up, get in one solid hit. Of course, you’re also completely confident that she’ll punish you for it devastatingly afterwards. It might even reduce your odds of future escape if she takes away all your upper body mobility. But as a show of defiance, it’s absolutely possible. However that part ends up going, you find yourself arriving in the pirate base after a short ride. There was no hyperjump, so this isn’t THE pirate base, but you can’t really tell where in the system you’re located since you couldn’t remark on the shuttle route while strapped inside. This makes sense if you think about it. Rumors are that the main station of the Red Band is inside the Alastar Nebula (In Hybrasilian, it’s called the River of Night), entirely out of reach of sensor scans unless somebody went into the right system and knew where to look. Where you are is a small space station. It’s not hidden, exactly, just a bit off the main hyperlane entrance and exit routes. If you were to learn its name and look it up, you’d find that it’s simply registered as an observation station for solar sciences. A classic Hybrasilian activity, and one of several small private stations in a system that rapidly became populated in the last few years. It does have some of those nice Red Band touches though. As you come out of the airlock, you find yourself greeted by a small jeering crowd, probably twenty or so, most of them Hybrasilian with a few more Terenians mixed in. No Zaldarians, the Red Band operates on the wrong side of the galaxy for them. The interior is luxurious. The shuttle bay isn’t large, but it’s got good equipment, the latest from Hybrasilian shipping, in fact. And once you’re pulled into the interior, there are real woven tapestries made of wool on some of the walls. Thefts most likely from Terenian shipping, the figures look generally Terenian and not Hybrasilian. Brazen to bring them all the way to this forward base, but then that’s entirely the point. Valynia and her crew will march you in, down a corridor, and into a more normal room with a fairly large bed (though this is not custom, just a large bunk built into the wall. Once you’re there and strapped to the bed (more securely if you were defiant earlier), they’ll leave you with Valynia. “You know, this ended up more like the cheap novels than I originally planned. I think that’s your goddess’s fault, all that threatening to steal souls. People take that seriously you know, it took us forever to do up the [Fist of Dishai] for that fight, but Erys absolutely insisted. Still it worked, didn’t it? She was fool enough to give you an opening for a winning strike and you didn’t take it, which let her get the draw. And now your, mm, your goddess can’t manifest in the world for the moment and you’re here with me. It would be a shame if you missed your next match, too, perhaps forfeited out of the tournament and let the Red Band advance instead. But we really would like to expand you know, Jacinta thinks it will be a grand adventure to found her own little dictatorship. And I think you would look perfect displayed as my bride for all the guests, instead of for your silly little goddess.” She’s playing with you, enjoying the time together. She runs claws delicately along your leg, your arm, your exposed neck and up around the head as she’s speaking, taking every advantage of having you at her mercy. [b]Jade[/b] Diagnostic information first. You know it instantly, sensors are all online. The state of your idol is good but not great. The right arm, which was mangled by Dishai, has been detached for repairs. There’s also still surface scouring and burn marks, dirt, debris. But overall the rest of the chassis is intact and power systems have been restored. Your cult properly prioritized bringing your consciousness back into the idol ahead of physical repairs and cosmetics. When you look for Dolly, you will find very quickly that she’s not on-planet. Your link travels at lightspeed, so it will take you several panicked minutes to first reach her and anything you send will likewise be significantly delayed in time. She’s in the system, but somewhere far away from you. If you ask the crew, they’ll tell you that she went shopping, but if you check your link, it will not line up with the known locations of Akar Prime or Akar II based on the current timestamp. What do you do? [Please give Mirror her next prompt] *** [b]Isabelle[/b] Quar does not call you during the night. She does at breakfast though. At first, there doesn’t appear to be an obvious reason, she just seems like she wants to eat with you. Or maybe that is the reason? That she expected to eat with her captor and was uncomfortable when brought food alone and while still bound. She’d clearly like you to unbind her hands, which might also allow her to sign to you. Of course, you do need to consider that if you completely free her, she might escape unless you take precautions. Or maybe you don’t? It’s so hard to tell with her. But at any rate she gestures with her chin that she’d like to eat together, so you’ve got to decide how to handle that. If you can read Zaldarian faces at all, you might even notice that she looks a little concerned for you. Is it that obvious how tired you look?