[b]Mirror and Solarel[/b]

There is a stillness that hangs in the air, but it is not the absence of movement. A silence that is not the absence of sound. 

Around you and above you there is the movement of peoples, the clink of glasses and the clatter of food. Music spins faintly from other rooms as dancers strike up. The murmur of chatter rumbles through the air, and from the hangar comes the occasional creaks and groans that are convergent with the fundamental nature of great edifices of dormant metal. 

Matty purrs, and Kirala makes a sort of hmmm noise as she considers, while Slate is perfectly quiet. But none of them pierce this moment. No eager conversationalists dare interrupt this intimacy, nor any grand games of politics demand your attention.

Not here, not yet. This moment is for you. 

Though, whenever you do get deeper into the temple, there’s some very…vivid…politics happening between the current and former empress of Zaldaria deeper inside. 

***

[b]Jade, Dolly, and entourage[/b]

You’re at the center of some interspecies politics. This is not your fault! Probably! There might be some debates about whether you were supposed to be reigning in Angela given her outfit. But mostly it’s not your fault!

You see, Angela made her way past the Hybrasilian delegation, who had quickly spread out for food and conversation anyway, especially to mingle with Terenians from the nearest planets. But Angela, boldly had gone up to talk with the current empress of the Zaldarians. She didn’t entirely know their sign language, but they’d been standing by themselves and so she had singled them out for conversation. A soft kindness to a people who found it particularly hard, with their religion, to effectively mingle with aliens. 

However, her conversation, which had dragged over a few hangers on as well, attracted the attention of Voctine, the former Empress. Though she had ensconced herself deep within the spiral, that gave her a front row seat to look [i]down[/i] on the current empress, Nialkai. And that meant that Voctine saw her hated rival not only not coming to her, but mingling in [i]obvious[/i] violation of the Zaldarian tenets. 

Thus, you find yourself about at the center of the party, and next to you are two Zaldarians and their entourages, all gesturing wildly and beginning to shout at one another in language you can understand. 

Actually, it’s pretty easy to understand: “Usurping bitch!” and “Fallen Queen” echo out from each other, and their retinues are milling uneasily. In fact, it looks for all the world like they’re going to start a fight here in the middle of the party and the fact that you’re all in the middle of them is being entirely ignored as Voctine flourishes her cape and Nialkai hikes up her wide dress menacingly!

***

[b]Isabelle[/b]

She comes to you. Falls into your arms in fact. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” It’s hard to tell who was talking, as the same phrase comes from Adriana, Marcina Villajero, and Asil at the same time. The latter because she assumed she was the one who bumped into Adriana, even though you had a front row seat that Asil Did Nothing Wrong.

But Adriana had managed to extract herself from Marcina’s supporting arms while the latter got a drink, only to swoon directly into you and bump Asil out of the way, the latter assuming that she’d simply been too clumsy of a dancer for even you to save from herself. The troubles of being a fish out of water.

It’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard of. Everything you’ve ever read about Adriana is that she’s a woman with complete physical control. She was the first Arena champion! Known for her extravagant flourishes and her talent as a dancer when not in a mecha. It’s utterly inconceivable that she’d be like this. She must be sick. Or terribly, terribly drunk in a way that implies the drinking had to have started long before arriving here. Though she doesn’t smell drunk. She smells like roses, her whole dress is covered with them, and the scent is heady and makes you want to swoon yourself as she draws near. 

“Isabelle Lozano!” she says, voice slurred and eyes misty, and if this is an act, she’s also the universe’s best dramatist and the entire Terenian movie industry will need to cry itself to sleep that she’s usually too busy with politics and business to appear in their works. “You know, I can’t make heads or tails of you, and I’ve half a mind to stop trying and give up on you entirely.”

There’s a sharpness to her words. It doesn’t change anything about the whole drunken stupor though. It’s more like, the intellect is just really deep in there and what you’re getting is the analysis without the filter about what might be polite to say or not. 

“I mean really, you’re a prodigy when it comes to the piloting, but you’ve got basically zero mental game. I thought maybe when you took that Quar, that Zaldarian knight, prisoner you had something, but I’ve got my sources and you basically let that go. You’ve done almost nothing with her! I mean come on, you’ve got a whole alien prisoner who’s choosing to be there out of a sense of honor and you, what, mostly stick to your daily routine like nothing’s changed and sneak a few meals with her? Give me a break, girl!” 

She starts dancing with you, leaning her head against your shoulder for support. Marcina shrugs helplessly like, what’s she going to do, cut into your dance? She goes over to reassure Asil instead and they start up a nice slow easy dance a little away from you.

“And then your other matches. The one against Smith, and the ‘win’ you had against Ksharta Talonna. (Oh and learn their names, too goddamn many Terenians who refuse to treat the other species like they’re actual people). Absolute despair on both sides of that one, don’t think I missed it! You’ve got no read on people. And let me tell you, if you want to reach the top, you need two things and it’s not the bullshit the climbers think it is. One…” She raises a finger, ticking it off against the side of your cheek. “...you’ve got to do something special. Not the same crap as everyone else who wants the job. The frauds are the ones who all try to fit in because they have no VISION. That will never get you ahead of the pack.

“Two…” and here she taps those fingers against your cheek a little harshly “you can’t make the kind of enemies who will do anything to stop you. Even self-sacrifice. If everyone you meet decides that keeping you down is more important than even their own benefit, you’ll get nowhere. The whole world will turn against you. Damn fool girl. If you waste the talents of one of the Terenius Consortium’s greatest pilots in the elimination round because you can’t see the idiocy past your own nose, you’ll have me as an enemy. And I’m usually a much better dancer than this.” 

So saying, she sways and almost topples the both of you over, relying on you to manage her weight.