Pulse of the Imperium

They had been circling way up in the sky since late night which had witnessed a brief thunderstorm, but so far they didn't seem to be having interest in the camouflaged thopter at the edge of the cliff.

So far, there had been no pre-dawn ambush by the mutilators of the Muadh either. The weather was refreshing, inspiring better moods.

[General pre-departure and/or central RP thread.]

Laila arose with her customary grace and polish, which means a few muffled curses, followed by a fairly extensive if swift stretching and warm-up routine punctuated by less-muffled curses now and then. Whoever had been on the last watch of the night had been quiet at least, there was some small mercy.

The last of the North Elacca Bridgers followed this up by taking a meditative spit before grabbing the carbine she'd acquired and heading for the small pit latrine she'd spent part of the previous evening helping dig out.

With THAT out of the way, she allowed herself a moment to notice that she didn't actually want a drink.

Just like old times.

He couldn't remember when his watch ended or when sleep began. But Hadrian was awake, eyes plastered open, and feeling like utter crap. "Grrrrr," he growled, "I need coffee."

Crawling over to the campfire he'd set up the previous night, he made short work of rekindling it. Then a good thirty minutes later the dour expression had been replaced with a much more pleasant one. "Mmmmmmmhmmm, coffee good." And while the coffee helped, his voice would still need a good hour to reset to its usual timbre. Until then his normally suave and debonair delivery is punctuated with grit and gravel.

Laila Bridger wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 31, 2024 8:01 am

Snippy

"Good morning Laila," he watched her mannerisms with wry amusement, "You know, you still look hot to me. Wanna check if I'm running a fever?"

Striding out of the forest with a large sack over her shoulder, Lydia walked through the middle of the camp. Coming to a stop near where the fire had been, she slammed down the sack that had been over her shoulder and without a word walked away to sit down. Cleaning her bloodied knife once she'd made herself comfortable.

(D1 night hunting/guarding. Strength through self reliance. Boost from knife, hunter.: 3eP+2eB+2eD 1 success, 2 advantage
)

Curious, Cuyler took a look at the bag's contents. She wasn't sure what it was, but it was likely edible. She didn't have the right spices for it, though. It ended up burnt and bland.

"I'm sorry." she sighed. "It should have been better."
---
Day 2| Morning | Easy Like a Manta Murder Morning, Cooking Whatever Lydia Brought Back, Average Education (Intellect): 3eP+2eD 1 failure, 2 advantage

Inside was a big red junglefowl. Likely pretty different to birds outside the jungle.

"It was the only thing drawn nearby that was edible" there was a shrug "I don't care what you do with it. The point is that not just humans are attracted to fire and noise."

"Thank you for watching over us." she smiled.

Hadrian Martikova wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 31, 2024 2:37 pm

"Good morning Laila," he watched her mannerisms with wry amusement, "You know, you still look hot to me. Wanna check if I'm running a fever?"

She quirked an eyebrow. "I mean, we might wanna check you for head trauma first, unless you're just into sweaty irritable armed types."

The tone was anything but irritable.

"Or maybe there's something in that coffee. I'd better check."

Laila Bridger wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 31, 2024 9:14 pm

"Or maybe there's something in that coffee. I'd better check."

He laughed and patted the ground next to him. "I think you should. And we'll just have to see what it does to you to make an objective determination."

He grinned ready to pour her a mug full.

No threat on horizon. If there was someone planning to launch a sneak attack on them, they were biding their time.

Hadrian Martikova wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2024 4:42 am

He grinned ready to pour her a mug full.

She held the cup from her mess tin out.

"I mean, if this stuff's a hallucinogen, you could probably make good money selling it... help erode the Ecazi stranglehold on the psychotropic market."

That sounded a bit wrong given the whole ailar situation and how it had made the Atreides be slandered as illicit drug dealers in some places in the Imperium, but perhaps no-one would take issue.

Cuyler Gray wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 31, 2024 8:49 pm

"Thank you for watching over us." she smiled.

There was narrowed eyes.

"I don't need thanks for doing what anyone could have done. Being on watch is the minimum that should be done when people try to draw attention to themselves in the middle of an unknown jungle."

Being content enough that her knife was as clean as she'd get it, she put it away and took her bag off. Going through it for some rations.

"Don't be thankful. Be better."

Laila Bridger wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2024 8:07 am

"I mean, if this stuff's a hallucinogen, you could probably make good money selling it... help erode the Ecazi stranglehold on the psychotropic market."

He poured, "I could, or we could keep it all to ourselves. I mean the way it's effecting me? I don't want this feeling to end."

He sipped the coffee grinning.

"So what have we got? Noticing anything different?

Razar approaches the group, sipping water from his canteen. He goes over the tasks they have to do today in his head, trying to sort everything out. "How's everyone feeling?"

Hadrian Martikova wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2024 1:26 pm

He sipped the coffee grinning.

"So what have we got? Noticing anything different?

Sip.

"Well. Despite the best efforts of the powers that be, this isn't a team. Almost zero cross-chat between the people in one thopter versus another. No real relationships that don't date from before we got assigned on this gig. A lot of prickly behavior based on different understandings of what's going on. A couple of people I wouldn't mind punching in the face, and I'm sure that's true of most everybody, just who they want to hit changes."

Sip.

"We're going to be carrying out multiple open-ended objectives in subunits cobbled up from a not-team, all without any link to outside authority, no way out, and finite supplies. So it's... bad. But I've come through worse."

Razar Lanville wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2024 6:40 pm

Razar approaches the group, sipping water from his canteen. He goes over the tasks they have to do today in his head, trying to sort everything out. "How's everyone feeling?"

"Alive, and thanks to Hadrian's coffee reasonably aware."

Hadrian chuckled at her assessment, "We'll be okay. We have one tie that binds, and that's a desire to get out of this. That'll be enough in the long run." He took a sip before running some mental math on how many mornings he had before it would be grouchy Hadrian until noon every day. Sufficed to say that finding the Muadh had become an imperative.

Razar Lanville wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 01, 2024 6:40 pm

"How's everyone feeling?"

Hadrian will nod at the boss. "Ready to get started."