Bull Horns

Time passed like a swift wind in the Seratone. Some swear that the inner workings of the Primus have naturally warped the air inside, making it seem like one could fight and debate forever and still end up relenting their cause. There have been many protests that started out as hard knock revolutions and somehow managed to fade into a public compromise. The issue normally would not be resolved and as such another protest group would start up, hoping to go further than those before them. Yet the Primus is eerily intelligent and wrought with eidos. And while they may not be able to always steer the mind of every protest speaker, a good majority of the crowd can always be swayed. As long as there were close-minded and obedient Roshoqans, there was room for control.
Lav smelled the air and remembered the dark hallway that led to the arena, he thought the grand space would be just as imposing and constrictive as the hall, but everything here was exposed uncomfortably with a bright sheen of the watchful eyes that governed the building itself.

“The Primus has spoken, the Atmoscreens are a tool to better protect the people. These allegations of it diminishing channeling potency is completely false and unfounded. The Department of Channels has run extensive testing on the screens, they are no more harmful to you than the sweet air we breathe. Until you provide evidence approved by the Department, there is no reason to stop installation.”

“And what do you have to say about the chemical trails in the sky recently? What exactly is going into this sweet air you speak of?”

Fisto bared his teeth slightly as the debate continued. He wanted to shake his head. He was hitting a brick wall and the constant stalling made by the Primus was infuriating. How could anything get done when every issue that needed immediate attention was held for months or even years, it was worse than trudging through a field of bureaucratic cow-pies. In your bare feet.

Lav, who was but a tiny fish in the sea of politics stood amongst the others on the ground level. He was listening to the second speaker’s debate when he was shoved from behind by someone snaking through the crowd.

Next thing he knew, wayfarers surfaced from the crowd and created a gate right above their heads.

The stench and stupor of liquor hung heavily on Lavrentios as he stood within the crowd. It was only early evening yet the drifter had already indulged quite heavily in two to nine glasses of whiskey. Flushed cheeks and glassy eyes readily betrayed the man's inebriation. Though Lav clearly relinquished all possibility of discretion when he pulled a flask from his button down shirt. It was not as if the casual observer would rule this state out of the possibility, for Lav was not the most civilized individual. His gray button down and torn up jeans were far removed from the extravagance and pomp of Roshoq.

Fuck it.

By this point Lav was consumed in his thoughts, and the crowd was nothing more than a dull roar in his ears. Some protest against the man gazing down from the Seratone, the drifter neither knew nor cared. A vibrant light burst forth from the sky, shocking Lav from his musings. He looked up to see a brilliant bluish screen materialize in the sky, an exceedingly strange occurrence for the circumstances. Puzzled, Lav stared at the gate with muffled intensity. The nature of the light became apparent immediately, for he himself was a wayfarer. Yet something was not right...

Lavrentios cast his gaze about the crowd, spotting a strange looking AI nearby. Tripping over to the robot he saw it had an interesting screen where certain parts should be. Lav was not sure what parts those were, precisely. Regardless he tapped the AI on its shoulder, one of his gentler impositions. "Pardon me sir, might I ask you who scheduled the gate to... Be here." Lav paused for a moment, pondering his phrasing.

A ship rose above the Seratone, whisking through the opened gate. However Lav's glass eyes fell upon a little leech hugging the back of the big ship. Scratching his head, he wondered why Traax's ship had just passed through that gate. Both vessels vanished beyond the veil, and for a brief instant the Seratone was bathed in the light of a star. The next instant it vanished, leaving nothing but the red sky of dusk. Lav stared.

Oh. Personal business...

The AI, an odd looking model, wore a look of exclamation. His screen where his head should be lit up, flashing a bright red "!"

This single character was promptly erased, replaced by an almost bashful error code, witch was promptly erased.

However, soon text flooded the screen in a multitude of languages. The message seemed to be the same in all of the languages.

"Question: What is a gate? What is a schedule? What is the Primus? What makes an Atmoscreen? What are You?"

The AI looked at the man before him with what could be considered anticipation, either ignoring or not noticing how drunk he was. The odd AI also seemed to ignore everyone else in the crowd, seeming to have taken a particular interest in this one fellow.

"Additionally, where are we and may I Designate you "Friend"?"

The world bobbed and swayed like a boxer as the AI before him spoke. Instead of a face it had a screen, and large computer screen. It flashed various messages to Nim, before asking him a myriad of questions. The wanderer's eyes narrowed as he attempted to scrutinize the AI, for it was as bizarre as any he'd seen.

He opened his mouth to speak, but the answers to the million queries stuck in his throat. His voice came out slow, "Well... I don't really know do I? Oh, well, I'm Nim you can call me that. You can call me friend too I guess." The man seemed to swell a bit as he prattled on, and it did not appear that he understood what he was saying. Rather, he took pride in the fact that he could form language at all.

Nim stepped near the translator bot as his hand rubbed the shadow on his chin. He was deeply seated in whatever idea he'd managed to grasp. "Okay... So I propose we go to ask... Err, I guess we should find an employee."

With his grand strategy unveiled, Nim beckoned the AI to follow. He weaved through the crowds like a snake in the grass, unseen and dangerous. Of course he was not threatening in the murderous sense, the concern was more to the state of civility. Nim turned, making sure his "friend" was following. "Hey, you. What do I call you?"

The crowd began to part as the odd man, FRIEND, moved through them. Interesting, does a collection of these FRIENDs together become a liquid? This merits further study.

Oh, he is leaving through the crowd. The AI started his stride in his direction.

The AI's face lit up, and more text pored onto it.

"Answer: You may refer to me by my model number.

Clarification: My model number is ZE:5681-TA

Query: What is an employee? And where can we find one?"

With this, the AI followed his new FRIEND.

A notion began to dawn on Lav. It approached slowly at first, just a sliver of light on the horizon. Yet within a few moments it blinded him with its obviousness. People are panicking. All about him protesters were stampeding to evacuate the premise, driven into a frenzy by the gating ship. Lav wasn't sure why such a departure would cause such panic, but it might have had something to do with the kanaaj. He realized the likelihood of finding an employee willing to aid the pair was slim to none.

Bracing himself on the back of a reasonably attractive blond, Lav managed to keep his balance as he turned. "Eh, what's that you say? Zeta it is then I suppose. Y'know, I was born in Eiren. You were probably made there I think, they make a lot of your kind."

Somewhere a siren began to wail, its racket pounding through his head. Lav almost tumbled over as the woman he'd groped flitted away, though whether disgust or fear was on her mind he would never know. With great effort Lav regained his composure and walked beside Zeta. He turned to face the odd construct, peering intently. "You are quite strange. An employee is a person who works for someone else. As to the second part, I dont know to be honest... Are we allowed to leave? I haven't the slightest actually."

The panic in the room went unnoticed by the newly dubbed "Zeta". Zeta likely assumed this was typical FRIEND behavior.

The uproar in the room was almost deafening, it was fortunate Zeta communicated with a non-auditory system.

"Query: What is Work?

Correction: This inquiry may be answered at a later time, I suspect we have more important matters.

Response: I will make the presumption we are allowed to do whatever we are able.

Query: Would you like to leave?

Clarification: I am designed to enable this action."

With this, small metal disks left Zeta's frame, and hovered a slight way away. Zeta slowly began to hover, almost magically. Zeta beckoned the Friend, inviting him to join in an embrace.

"Quotation: Cowboy up."

An audible crunch kicked through the air as a large piece of debris fell the great distance from a balcony above that had been torn to shreds by the invading ship. The chunk of metal rebounded off of a smaller balcony before landing on the fringes of the panicking crowd. It killed a handful of people that were too trapped to escape it and the sound of crushed bone and flesh rang through everyone's ears.

The ship peeled out, sending more shards of metal down below without a thought, and then it was gone with a flash of light that pulsed to the back of everyone's eye sockets. Many people stumbled around in a stupor, their panicking diminished for a time to let the other blissful screams fill their head.

Lav could see very little of the exits, they were swarmed with bodies trying to break free of the imprisonment of their situation. They only met the impatience of the Militari guards who, though at first were overwhelmed by the onslaught of hands tugging at their armor, grew in numbers like insects emerging from the cracks in the floor boards. Militari seemed to flow out of every crevice and quickly fill the stadium with the force of a wildfire. Blockades were stationed in a ring around the crowd, finally backing them away from the tensed doors. If the stampede was released into the streets, more casualties were inevitable.

Zeta bobbed in place, floating with the energy of the crowd until Lav latched onto his body and hung on. They might have stuck out floating over head like this, but they went unnoticed compared to the people who were attempting to scale the balconies at great speeds, running from the chaos. They climbed and fell like overcrowded caterpillars, reduced to their survival instincts in order to stay alive. More than fifty people were killed, though none would know until the body count the next day.

Several groups of foreign representatives stood in awe at the scene, their faith in the Primus as a fair and stable government fading quickly. There was once a time when Roshoqans would never dream of angering their overlords. Things were changing at an uncomfortable pace.

In one of these balconies stood the beautiful and regal Elisande from Bran Vaal. Her protection herder her and the other representatives she was with into the corner of the balcony, fighting off the desperate people who attempted to climb inside with them. The Inadri are an intelligent and peaceful people, making these actions for survival disconcerting for all of them. Humans who gave into fear became dangerous killers, they'd rip them all apart just to exit the building if they thought that might secure them safety.

They would have left earlier, though behind the door that led to the hallway from the balcony, was a worm of people pushing through the tunnels to get to the ships that were parked along the exterior of the building. Stepping out into that crowd was a death wish waiting to be fulfilled.

"We're trapped m'lady" yelled one of the guards, he was sweating beneath his uniform and Elisande could tell he was dwindling on hope that they'd all get out safely.

Meanwhile, Lav and Zeta were climbing towards the top when a person hanging from one of the balconies leaped from their hold and clambered until they anchored themselves onto Lav's back. The three of them spun out of control, screaming and fighting off the leech as they spat across the space and were flung into Elisande's balcony. The tag along lost his grip during the crash landing and instead was bounced against the outer wall and fell into the crowd below, probably to his death if not the death of those who broke his fall.

"Get out!" bellowed the guards as they advanced to kick the pair off of the balcony.

Elisande planted a hand on the armoured chest of the guard to stop him and his head snapped to his leader in question. "This one is not in a state of panic. Anyone who is not yet driven mad could be of help to us." Her reasoning was sound. Apart from some slight huffing and puffing, Lav was incredibly cool and collected. But what could Lav and a strange droid do for an elite Inadri representative?