A Call to... Arms - Page 127

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entity2636
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Re: A Call to... {Spoilers} - Page 127

Post by entity2636 »

icekatze wrote:I think Stillstorm clearly has some blind spots in her reasoning, in terms of things she's not willing to consider. Not really unreasonable, but still there. Time will tell if that ends up coming back to bite her or not.

---
Honestly, I half expected the Umiak to drive on Azimol rather than Enedd.

But then again, I don't know what prime, juicy targets are at Enedd or beyond.
If Stillstorm has what appears to be blind spots in her reasoning to us, it is because she appears to only have limited information on the situation in general and has literally been caught with her pants down. As Beryl pointed out earlier, there are supposed to be multiple checkpoints and listening posts beyond Rallis that should warn the loroi fleet of enemy movements, but no warnings came through and noone was aware of the attack. Probably because the loroi rely mostly on their farseers and the umiak, now invisible to them, have managed to overrun and destroy said early warning stations. So far we see her simply reacting to what is going on in her immediate field of view and, to be honest, we can't really blame her. At least she's not outright panicking and hopefully won't pull some sort of glorious "It's a good day to die" kind of stunt.

As for why the bulk of the umiak fleet not flying toward Azimol, I think is because there is another task force which we do not yet know about headed for Azimol through Gora which is accessible from Rallis via, if I read it right, Eze and Barrol (see map on Page 121). At least I would pretty much expect there being such a task force given what we know so far.

It is curious what the actual objective of the umiak invasion is though... Still feels kind of too small to be a full "D-day" kind of invasion to end the war, no? Attempt to take the Azimol base and Enedd and kick the loroi out of this sector? Kikitik-27's somewhat personal campaign against Admiral 'Storm-witch' Stillstorm and/or to secure/destroy the Terran artifacts she's carrying?

Vyrnie
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Re: A Call to... {Spoilers} - Page 127

Post by Vyrnie »

entity2636 wrote:It is curious what the actual objective of the umiak invasion is though... Still feels kind of too small to be a full "D-day" kind of invasion to end the war, no? Attempt to take the Azimol base and Enedd and kick the loroi out of this sector? Kikitik-27's somewhat personal campaign against Admiral 'Storm-witch' Stillstorm and/or to secure/destroy the Terran artifacts she's carrying?
The supposition that the Umiak's primary goal is to wipe out the Loroi's knowledge of humans, and more specifically the human invulnerability to Loroi telepathy & farseers would explain the following:

- Why is the invasion force so small?

Because they don't want to tip the Loroi off they have the ability to evade farseers just yet. Everytime they commit a group of farseer-invisible Umiak they have to wipe out *all* Loroi engaged - every single one - or intelligence of the new Umiak development would make it back to Loroi command. Protecting intelligence by way of killing everyone that sees it is a valid strategy in this universe because intelligence only travels at the speed of ships - not light. We know that this has worked in multiple engagements so far because they passed through multiple farseer checkpoints and still got an ambush off, so not a single ship from earlier farseer systems made it over to the next one.

So their objective isn't "full-scale invasion of Loroi strongholds" its simply "kill the humans and turn them and their stuff into dust so no other Loroi can even find out they exist"

- How did Umiaks "suddenly" (as far we/Loroi know anyway) become farseer-invisible?

They vivisected the other group of scouts and figured out the mechanism that lets humans be farseer-invisible. Alternatively, they've always had this ability (through convergent evolution, which seems to be a theme in this story... hello sexually compatible space babes light-years away) but up till now they've successfully kept it under wraps.

- Why are the Umiaks attacking now specifically?

Seems too big a coincidence that humans show up with weird interactions with Loroi telepathy and the Umiak suddenly surprise the Loroi with a similar new found ability at the 11th hour after however many years the war has already been playing out. Either they just got it, or they came across a reason to think the Loroi might figure out they've always had it to whatever extent.

- Why is Kikitik-27 so much more competent than other Umiak? Or at least why is Kikitik-27 focused so much more on staying alive than other Umiak?

Because his mission is to safeguard knowledge of the Umiak access to farseer-invisibility, more strategically important mission objective gets more competent commander assigned. Or at least whatever commander does get assigned it has objectives other than "Well, we make Umiaks and Umiak-bullets faster than they make Loroi and Loroi-bullets... throw the kitchen sink at them and then ram them or something!"

- But what about Kikitik-27 past run-ins with Stillstorm & Friends?

The better explanation would be that Kikitik-27 was a naturally rising star in the Umiak military command, and his past run-ins with Stillstorm were what got him assigned the unit of farseer-invisible people (after Umiak command found the other human group) for the objective of protecting the new-found Umiak secret.

The weaker explanation would be that Kikitik-27 has always had the objective of protecting the Umiak secret (that they've always had) but hes a hot-headed idiot that likes getting into skirmishes to pass the time instead of laying low and conserving strength for his primary task. He only revealed the unit of farseer-invisible Umiak hes always had now because he was passing time before and now hes serious.

Note: I haven't actually read through Arioch's posts/clarifications on the forums yet, and its been... some time since I read the earlier parts of the story. So this really is just a supposition, don't shiv me if I'm wrong... also my tinfoil hat is really tight.

raistlin34
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by raistlin34 »

orion1836 wrote:
Arioch wrote:
WalexB wrote:Well as to the presumed future avoidance of "romantic" developments that is a bit unrealistic but whatever.
I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it. I do recall saying something to the effect that those expecting to see graphic depictions of sexual activity are going to be disappointed, but that's not the same thing.

I'll just leave this here. :mrgreen:

Image

Aaaahh...how sweet. And the style is very similar to the original.
(I still ship Alex with Talon)

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sunphoenix
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by sunphoenix »

orion1836 wrote:
Arioch wrote:
WalexB wrote:Well as to the presumed future avoidance of "romantic" developments that is a bit unrealistic but whatever.
I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it. I do recall saying something to the effect that those expecting to see graphic depictions of sexual activity are going to be disappointed, but that's not the same thing.

I'll just leave this here. :mrgreen:

Image
Hey, just out of curiosity... who/what site do you use for your third-party hosting for pictures? I'm looking for a free service... if possible.

And yes..very sweet.. but there ARE two versions of this.. same picture but one is in a lighter hue than the other.
PbP:
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boldilocks
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by boldilocks »

sunphoenix wrote: Hey, just out of curiosity... who/what site do you use for your third-party hosting for pictures? I'm looking for a free service... if possible.

And yes..very sweet.. but there ARE two versions of this.. same picture but one is in a lighter hue than the other.
https://imgur.com/ is the one I've used.

boldilocks
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by boldilocks »

Arioch wrote:I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it.
Batten down the hatches boys, we're gonna be getting some hardcore full frontal romance by the end of this chapter, says word of god!

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sunphoenix
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by sunphoenix »

Arioch wrote:
WalexB wrote:Well as to the presumed future avoidance of "romantic" developments that is a bit unrealistic but whatever.
I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it. I do recall saying something to the effect that those expecting to see graphic depictions of sexual activity are going to be disappointed, but that's not the same thing.
lol.. its JFK all over again...soon they'll be making conspiracy theories about the artist/writer in the grassy knoll.

Remember ~ 'Back and to the side...', there MUST be two artist/writers~ Arioch and Arioch 'Alleged {but still unproven}'... {snicker}!

I'm sure Arioch you will keep it all in good taste after all what is a good space opera without a little romance?

Outsider Opening - Low

{sigh}... someday.
PbP:
[IC] Deep Strike 'Lt' Kamielle Lynn
[IC] Cydonia Rising/Tempest Sonnidezi Stormrage
[IC] Incursion Maiannon Golden Hair
[IC] TdSmR Athen Rourke

"...you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is Kill him."

D1ff3r3nt
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by D1ff3r3nt »

sunphoenix wrote:
Arioch wrote:
WalexB wrote:Well as to the presumed future avoidance of "romantic" developments that is a bit unrealistic but whatever.
I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it. I do recall saying something to the effect that those expecting to see graphic depictions of sexual activity are going to be disappointed, but that's not the same thing.
lol.. its JFK all over again...soon they'll be making conspiracy theories about the artist/writer in the grassy knoll.

Remember ~ 'Back and to the side...', there MUST be two artist/writers~ Arioch and Arioch 'Alleged {but still unproven}'... {snicker}!

I'm sure Arioch you will keep it all in good taste after all what is a good space opera without a little romance?

Outsider Opening - Low

{sigh}... someday.
One day, honestly with what we have it still is better than Continuum and Discovery.

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icekatze
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Re: A Call to... {Spoilers} - Page 127

Post by icekatze »

hi hi
entity2636 wrote:If Stillstorm has what appears to be blind spots in her reasoning to us, it is because she appears to only have limited information on the situation in general and has literally been caught with her pants down.

.. Still feels kind of too small to be a full "D-day" kind of invasion to end the war, no?
To say that someone has no biases or faults in their reasoning, being a perfectly logical and rational actor, would be an incredibly bold claim. Stillstorm is limited by a lack of information, sure, but if she was Laplace's Demon, she wouldn't need reasoning at all. Stillstorm seems to have a somewhat two dimensional (in the psychological sense), one or the other, perspective. That is honestly something that most humans do too, so it's not unreasonable. I imagine it would be more difficult to engage in lateral thinking when your worldview is defined by "true or false, honest or lies."

Perhaps if the Umiak can slip through the Loroi perimeter, they stand a good chance of laying waste to the Loroi's industrial capacity further inward?
Vyrnie wrote:The supposition that the Umiak's primary goal is to wipe out the Loroi's knowledge of humans, and more specifically the human invulnerability to Loroi telepathy & farseers would explain the following:

- Why is the invasion force so small?
I'm not sure that the invasion force is very small. If 6 divisions is enough to challenge the Tinza sector fleet in Sala-128, such that they need to call for reinforcements, then a total of 14 divisions between Sala-128, Sala-101, and Leido is a significant invasion force.

Furthermore, I am not sure the Umiak need to keep their farseer invisibility secret anymore. If they were worried about the secret getting out, they might well have thrown their entire space fleet into the action for a winner-take-all final showdown. However, that doesn't seem to be how the Umiak roll. As Clicky-27 said, without the farseers, the Loroi's defensive strategy is ruined. They could play the long game as they have been at this point, and if the Loroi don't develop a counter to the stealth tech, they've got a good chance of winning anyways.

However, a good reason to not send their entire fleet is that the Loroi are still likely to get the word out via couriers that the Umiak have this new advantage. From the Loroi perspective, having lost their farseer advantage, a full-scale all-or-nothing invasion of Umiak territory may now be unavoidable. And if the Loroi are forced into such a strategy, the Umiak can accept the move on their own turf where they have the supply line advantage. All they need to do is sufficiently scare the Loroi into going all in, or damage them enough in the opening move that they don't have the resources and end up getting whittled away.
Vyrnie wrote:- How did Umiaks "suddenly" (as far we/Loroi know anyway) become farseer-invisible?

They vivisected the other group of scouts and figured out the mechanism that lets humans be farseer-invisible. Alternatively, they've always had this ability (through convergent evolution, which seems to be a theme in this story...
Those are possibilities, but highly unlikely ones.

First, the Terran scouts were out there simultaneously. It would be a remarkable feat for the Umiak to capture a scout, figure out their telepathic resistance, develop a way to copy that resistance, apply it to multiple divisions worth of ships, send those ships on a circuitous route around the front-lines, all before the Bellarmine made first contact.

Second, I can't think of any reason why the Umiak would hide an ability to mask themselves from telepathy, if they had it. If they had such an ability, I would think that the Loroi would have lost the war during the First Siege of Seren.

entity2636
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Re: A Call to... {Spoilers} - Page 127

Post by entity2636 »

icekatze wrote:Furthermore, I am not sure the Umiak need to keep their farseer invisibility secret anymore. If they were worried about the secret getting out, they might well have thrown their entire space fleet into the action for a winner-take-all final showdown. However, that doesn't seem to be how the Umiak roll. As Clicky-27 said, without the farseers, the Loroi's defensive strategy is ruined. They could play the long game as they have been at this point, and if the Loroi don't develop a counter to the stealth tech, they've got a good chance of winning anyways.

However, a good reason to not send their entire fleet is that the Loroi are still likely to get the word out via couriers that the Umiak have this new advantage. From the Loroi perspective, having lost their farseer advantage, a full-scale all-or-nothing invasion of Umiak territory may now be unavoidable. And if the Loroi are forced into such a strategy, the Umiak can accept the move on their own turf where they have the supply line advantage. All they need to do is sufficiently scare the Loroi into going all in, or damage them enough in the opening move that they don't have the resources and end up getting whittled away.
Agreed, it would be nearly impossible for the umiaks to keep their "stealth" ability secret beyond the first contact with the loroi if the loroi wanted to spread this information. You just need to radio your nearest jump point courier to relay the new intel and it will spread at almost the speed of light, but such intel is sure to cause a massive panic.

I don't think the loroi are that stupid or desperate to launch an all-or-nothing counter invasion, especially now when they are not getting fresh intel on enemy strength and movements anymore. Semoset failed miserably even with all the farseeing and a much stronger loroi navy than they have now. IMO what they should be doing is dig in and start working on a solution to the intel problem.
Vyrnie wrote:- How did Umiaks "suddenly" (as far we/Loroi know anyway) become farseer-invisible?

They vivisected the other group of scouts and figured out the mechanism that lets humans be farseer-invisible. Alternatively, they've always had this ability
They didn't all "suddenly" become farseer invisible, from how I understand the story. SG51 first ran into an "invisible" umiak battle group in Naam. Then the Tinza fleet was jumped by another "invisible" battle goup in Sala-128 and now it turns out we have a third invisible group coming into Leido and God (Arioch) only knows how many more are out there.

As Icekatze said, it's not outside the realm of the possible, but highly unlikely the umiak have reverse engineered their stealth from the Terrans, given how little time has passed since the Terran First Contact Mission launched (3 months tops). I also don't believe that they always had this ability but chose not to use it. It's not how the umiak work.

Another in my opinion more likely scenario is that the umiaks have studied their loroi POWs until they figured out how their telepathy works and how to block it. Perhaps the umiak now have their own loroi farseers too and thus could get the jump on the Tinza fleet and catch SG51 docked at Leido...

WalexB
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Re: A Call to... {Spoilers} - Page 127

Post by WalexB »

icekatze wrote:I'm kind of a fan of Stillstorm. She does seem like a no-nonsense, "I'm here to kick Umiak butt any way I can," sort of person, and I don't think she's lived as long as she has by putting politics over a more pragmatic approach.
Not quite on a personal level, she is a deeply damaged person in two ways: as a survivor and veteran she had seen a lot of death, including practically all of her officers and troops several times over, and IIRC there was a mentions that she lost people she really was close to (family? mates?) in the attack that created the wastezone.
icekatze wrote:Honestly, I half expected the Umiak to drive on Azimol rather than Enedd.
Everything is up for grabs here. So far the story has been a stalemate: farseers and fast ship groups have allowed the Loroi to stop Umiak attacks, but there have been two major development: the Umiak have conquered several "Librarian" worlds in a side attack and the Umiak seem to be able to evade farseers presently. Also there have been several human missions sent out. Potentially some of the human expeditions have found the Umiaks and humans are being used to pilot ships that then get undetected by the farseers, or the Umiaks have found new tech on the Librarian worlds.

Then there is the ominous pending issue of which (presumably third) party destroyed Alex's ship, and the even more ominous long-term question of what exactly is the role of the "Well of Souls" blackhole in the story. Plus there is the obvious enormity that as shown by the shoes story the Loroi seem to be genetically modified humans like the other nearby "soia-lyron" blue specieses seem to have been genetically modified from other races, as the Barsam guy seems to have been impressed by, and which blow the theory that the Loroi are descended from the Soia (unless those were ancient humans).

Then there is the issue of what will happen when news reach Earth that there are many planets full of human-compatible elf females that have a 1-10/1-20 ratio to males, are permanently on the pill as far as humans are concerned, and nearly all those depicted so far are quite cute. Especially if they see the three "sexy fireblade" pictures in the "Pinups, Holiday Greetings, Wallpaper, etc." section of the "Insider" page :-)

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orion1836
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by orion1836 »

raistlin34 wrote: Aaaahh...how sweet. And the style is very similar to the original.
(I still ship Alex with Talon)
Image

Also, it is the original style, lol. Check the insider.
sunphoenix wrote:Hey, just out of curiosity... who/what site do you use for your third-party hosting for pictures? I'm looking for a free service... if possible.
Unfortunately, I don't have a recommendation. I hotlinked directly to Arioch's site.

WalexB
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by WalexB »

raistlin34 wrote: (I still ship Alex with Talon)
Well, the logo of the story is an image file called "fearsomefoursome14.jpg", and look at pages 72 where Alex is between Beryl and Fireblade, 104 (Beryl and Tempo), but also 116 (Alex, Beryl and Talon) and 123 (Alex, Beryl and Talon).
I understand that Loroi females are used to share males given the sex ratio, and only the richest or most powerful have a steady (and usually shared) relationship with one, most Loroi females have random temporary associations booked through agencies at least while in the military.

My expectation is that a story with one cute young human guy and loads of blue skinned space elf girls has not been setup to remain "strictly professional", and that poor Alex will have to find the stamina to have a steady relationship at least with some of the main trio, and then some other interested parties as they appear and disappear along the way (will the empress want a taste of the best the Scout Corps can offer? :->).
Part of the issue in the story is that Loroi military females, especially pilots, have a very high death rate. Talon and Spiral may not be with us for long, even if they have been sent on this mission away from the front lines to protect their experience so they can train new pilots.

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Re: A Call to... Arms - Page 127

Post by dragoongfa »

As amusing as the concept of a Loroi harem would be I seriously doubt that will be the case (and I say that as a guy that finds the Harem trope of certain ecchi anime fun). Now there is good, solid ground for a proper romantic situation; with a full blown genocidal war raging on and with frequent life and death situations it is natural for people to seek some physical intimate contact with someone of the opposite sex and word of God is that Alex has the 'attractive' trait in his still unreleased GURPS sheet.
Although I have 'shipping' ideas of my own I expect that any developing romantic situation(s) will be natural and well written enough to make sense for the characters involved. My only hope is that the Loroi part of the romantic relationship realize early that human males pair bond and are not reasonable when someone tries to take their chosen girl(s) from them. The bad romantic stories that the Loroi have revolve around a male and a female becoming too attached and obsessed with each other but that's how human romance works, with the two parts getting emotionally attached and connected to one an other.

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CrimsonFALKE
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by CrimsonFALKE »

orion1836 wrote:
Arioch wrote:
WalexB wrote:Well as to the presumed future avoidance of "romantic" developments that is a bit unrealistic but whatever.
I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it. I do recall saying something to the effect that those expecting to see graphic depictions of sexual activity are going to be disappointed, but that's not the same thing.

I'll just leave this here. :mrgreen:

Image
oh my!

Vyrnie
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Re: A Call to... {Spoilers} - Page 127

Post by Vyrnie »

icekatze wrote:However, a good reason to not send their entire fleet is that the Loroi are still likely to get the word out via couriers that the Umiak have this new advantage. From the Loroi perspective, having lost their farseer advantage, a full-scale all-or-nothing invasion of Umiak territory may now be unavoidable. And if the Loroi are forced into such a strategy, the Umiak can accept the move on their own turf where they have the supply line advantage. All they need to do is sufficiently scare the Loroi into going all in, or damage them enough in the opening move that they don't have the resources and end up getting whittled away.
This is plausible, but I don't like that human contact now becomes just a coincidence. I mean its not impossible, but who just leaves Chekov's gun chilling on the mantle piece?
icekatze wrote:First, the Terran scouts were out there simultaneously. It would be a remarkable feat for the Umiak to capture a scout, figure out their telepathic resistance, develop a way to copy that resistance, apply it to multiple divisions worth of ships, send those ships on a circuitous route around the front-lines, all before the Bellarmine made first contact.
Of course, but I'm not sure it would take the humans similar times to make contact with both groups. First off the Umiak have a greater industrial capacity (can't remember where I read this but this was the assumption I was working off of) so its more likely they have scouts further out to establish contact at an earlier date and unlike the Loroi they could've potentially avoided wasting any time with armed conflict and instead booked it to Umiak command immediately.

You're right though, it would be a stretch trying to account for telepathy-invisible Umiak being there at the moment of human-Loroi first contact already if this version was true. Probably not likely the Umiak got their stealth from humans directly then.
icekatze wrote:Second, I can't think of any reason why the Umiak would hide an ability to mask themselves from telepathy, if they had it. If they had such an ability, I would think that the Loroi would have lost the war during the First Siege of Seren.
Not necessarily, the telepathy-invisible Umiak could be expensive or otherwise naturally rare units that need to be used sparingly and with the benefit of surprise for best effect. As for why they would hide it, that's much more simple, same reason the Allies hid they could crack Enigma in WW2; ships/cities would be sacrificed if plausible orders couldn't be conjured up to move them out of harms way so the Germans never even suspected Enigma was broken.

Letting the Loroi think they have perfect "sensor" coverage is a pretty big advantage, even if the Umiak can only slip past with small numbers; production rate-limited by either biology (only 1 in x Umiak gets it) or industrial capacity (1 stealth crew costs ties up as much industrial capacity as y fodder crew.) The only alternate I can see is that the Umiak did just recently learn/acquire this ability, but completely independent of human first contact. And its just a coincidence that the first Umiak stealth force attacked the Loroi group carrying the human delegate, who just happens to represent a race with the same ability.

Leaning towards "they've always had it in small numbers, found humans ahead of Loroi, scrambled the closest commander - Kikitik-27 - to intercept human contact with Loroi so the Loroi continue to believe their sensor coverage is perfect"

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Re: A Call to... Arms - Page 127

Post by Krulle »

How would the Umiak find out who is in the telepathy-blind-spot, without having telepaths available?

On the other side of their empire there may have been another telepathic race, one they were able to subjugate.
But that would start adding coincidences...
Vote for Outsider on TWC: Image
charred steppes, borders of territories: page 59,
jump-map of local stars: page 121, larger map in Loroi: page 118,
System view Leido Crossroads: page 123, after the battle page 195

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sunphoenix
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Re: A Call to... - Page 127

Post by sunphoenix »

CrimsonFALKE wrote:
orion1836 wrote:
Arioch wrote: I've seen this sort of thing repeated a few times (that supposedly I said there will be no "romantic" relationship of any kind in the story), but I don't recall saying this and I can't find a record of my saying it. I do recall saying something to the effect that those expecting to see graphic depictions of sexual activity are going to be disappointed, but that's not the same thing.

I'll just leave this here. :mrgreen:

Image
oh my!
Hahaha... indeed ~ a 'rare' beauty! :lol:
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[IC] Cydonia Rising/Tempest Sonnidezi Stormrage
[IC] Incursion Maiannon Golden Hair
[IC] TdSmR Athen Rourke

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Re: A Call to... Arms - Page 127

Post by WalexB »

dragoongfa wrote:the Loroi part of the romantic relationship realize early that human males pair bond
As to the monogamous tendencies of hot human males, especially pilots/jocks, I guess you could ask any human female... As to the monogamous tendencies of human females there is the story of an USA nuclear submarine that a couple days after leaving for a 3 month mission had to go back to port and its crew returned to their homes, and 50% of the crew got divorced.

Not only Alex is hot, in his 20s, a pilot/jock, but also he has the difficult diplomatic task of setting up the best possible context between himself as ambassador of humanity and a species of hot young blue elves of which only 90-95% are women.
I guess he would be willing to make the strenuous effort to suppress his natural tendency to monogamy as a big sacrifice :-).
dragoongfa wrote:and are not reasonable when someone tries to take their chosen girl(s) from them.
That's quite different from having a harem (the stunning diplomat, the delightful "savant", the fiery soldier, the wild pilot, the funny copilot, ...) of maniacal blue elves devoted to them.
I guess that Alex could however be concerned that to have children his harem would have to be inseminated by blue elf males, but Alex surely can realize that his duty as ambassador for humanity might require him to be tolerant of the customs of aliens.

BTW there is an interesting detail that might have escaped (or perhaps not) our Arioch: sex with "sanzai" means that Loroi males get to know pretty much all the secrets of all the females they have sex with.
That's "pillow talk" to the Nth power. Which means that Loroi males who "service" powerful Loroi females are most likely the real powers in Loroi society, and that may be why high status Loroi females tend to reserve some males for themselves and I guess their allies. Because the set of Loroi females who share a male not only have their children from the same father, but are related indirectly via "sanzai" with him.

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cacambo43
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Re: A Call to... Arms - Page 127

Post by cacambo43 »

I don't care how you spin it, Alex having any relationship with a Loroi (female, presumably) risks way to much in terms of diplomatic relations with him specifically and with humanity in general. It is also massively unprofessional. I can see the *tension* being there, and an expression of feelings, but at this stage, any deeper relationship would risk a tremendous amount. In my opinion.

Also, if Beryl does harbor feelings for him, how likely is it she could or would keep that from others via sanzai? There is (or will be) tension amongst the crew and others around them for sure about what that means and what to do about it, surely?

CJSF

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