Entanglement

[Draconaes]

>Tyr: Go and examine cell 13. Tiamat may have overlooked something while locked in there...

You just returned from checking cells 13 and 14 again. You hate feeling useless, and had decided to check for anything you might have missed.
Unfortunately, failing to find anything did not help your feelings of uselessness. You hope Tiamat has found some way for you to advance.

>Tyr: Read that last message.

Syn is useful (also a role model).

> Tyr: stay loyal to Nyx.

> Best not to complicate the matter; the details in the original message are obsolete anyway. Curiosity will only get in the way at the moment.

Your thoughts turn back to which of your friends you will betray. This doesn't help your feelings of uselessness either.

How are you supposed to decide who to follow in this situation? Maybe if you listed the pros and cons...

Nyx

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High Instructor in charge of Foreign Relations
Pros:
-Favors you
-Amazing, wonderful person that is almost a messiah-like figure to many of your people
-Has successfully led the Alliance so far
-Eccentric
-Gave you the name Tyr (it's cool, okay?)
-Idealistic
-...very large wings
-Sterile (phew)

Cons:
-Aether (he hates you for some reason)
-Eccentric
-Blind (potential liability in combat)
-Idealistic
-Aether
-Losing Syn

Syn:

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High Instructor in charge of Defense
Pros:
-Your mentor and direct superior
-Has not let you down before
-Likes humans
-Has a point about Nyx's leadership: the Alliance could easily crumble with the right circumstances.
-Skilled warrior
-Decent tactician (especially when not comparing to Aether)
-You get to work with Tiamat (There's something you like about her. Maybe it's her decisiveness, when she's not playing imbecilic jokes.)
-You get to oppose Aether

Cons:
-You have to oppose Nyx
-Admittedly cruel
-Likes humans
-Overconfident
-Underestimates Aether (you know from experience not to do this)
-Very, very unlikely, but she might pursue you as a mate
-Losing Nyx

That didn't make it that much easier for you...

Admittedly, you aren't sure whether some of these count as pros or cons or both, and you don't know Tiamat's role in all this.
She admitted to being forced into helping Syn, but she seemed to hold no special love for the Alliance as it is, either.
You have a feeling that you won't be able to predict what side she might take at any given time without knowing more about her.

...Might wanna keep [that message] around so you can read it later, though.

Even if you can't decide yet whether to follow Syn's orders regarding that message, or even which side you should take, you decide it can't hurt to keep the message for now.
Sure, you are technically disobeying Syn's orders, but it would be easy enough to complete them by just deleting it without reading it.

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Hey guys, I accidentally discovered how to make straight lines in Gimp!

Anyway, It seems we need to convince Tyr to choose a side. You can make arguments to try and convince him one way or the other, or you can ask him for information/opinions/etc. that might help you convince him. I want to give everyone who wants to weigh in a chance to influence Tyr, so I won't update with Tyr's decision right away. The story will focus on Tiamat while Tyr's decision gets resolved.

[tmissis]

Tyr> examine your feelings for humans. Is it really a con that Syn likes them?

Tyr> do you really think Nyx will ever reciprocate your feelings?

[Jetroid]

>Read that message. It's not a betrayal if you pretend you didn't. No-one has to know. It may help you decide.

[Draconaes]

Tyr> examine your feelings for humans. Is it really a con that Syn likes them?

You aren't really sure. You don't like to admit it, but you often struggle with supremacy.
You question whether your own race is really so inherently superior to everyone else.
You'd like to think you are better than others through your own efforts, at the very least.

Syn liking them is an advantage for dealing with them, but you are afraid it might influence her decisions when dealing with the Solar Empire.
You are pretty much at war with them, after all.

Syn's a little odd, in that, while she embraces supremacist attitudes, she actually likes a fair number of other races anyway. Humans are one of her recent favorites.
She likes their art and languages. She was actually the one that introduced Nyx to human mythologies, during one of their friendlier periods.
Nyx liked the symbolism of taking on names of human gods. She chose one the had something to do with the night, while Syn picked hers mostly for the sake of pissing Nyx off with a subtle jab.

Nyx liked the idea of naming you after a god of combat and glory, despite those being somewhat outside of your standard portfolio.
Now that you think about it, you remember Syn mentioning some story about Tyr sacrificing his hand for some other gods...

Void...

Was the whole hand thing just a subtle insult to Nyx? Granted she doesn't know about it yet, but your sure Syn will use this somehow.

Tyr> do you really think Nyx will ever reciprocate your feelings?

You don't think it's really a matter of reciprocity. Does hero worship require reciprocity, for example?
"Love" would not be an entirely inaccurate description of your feelings for Nyx, nor for Nyx's feelings toward you.
They aren't the same love though, and neither kind is the kind of an equal relationship.
Mother and son, maybe. Or a strange, two-way celebrity crush.
It's a distant relationship, either way, based on loyalty. The affection is a side deal.

You aren't sure if you'd want a more companionable relationship with Nyx, and if you did, you'd have to deal with Aether.
Aether is already jealous of Nyx's affection for you: your missing limbs are a testament to that.
Nyx and Aether are beholden to one another. There's a twisted kind of antagonistic "love" between them.
Aether is very defensive of her, though. You know little of Nyx's past; only enough that Aether's behavior isn't too nonsensical.

>Read that message. It's not a betrayal if you pretend you didn't. No-one has to know. It may help you decide.

Yes. You decide this is really too important to ignore.
One of Syn's criticisms against Nyx is her lack of transparency, after all.

Message Log:

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TO: unregistered FROM: <H.I.> [SYN] SUBJECT: Critical: mission details

Fellow Hunters and Allies,

This message is being sent to all agents of the Spring Re-appropriation Movement (Spring is our home, you damned humans. Enough with your wisecracks, I'm not changing the name the name to Death, no matter how funny you find it. We don't consider our planet our home, anyway. I especially don't care that it's easier for you to say D.R.A.M. than it is to say S.R.A.M.)

Yes, there are some Solar goons working with us now. For whatever reason, they seem to agree with my policy of not obliterating their empire. Shocking. As notice to our new members, and a reminder to the rest, I will not be providing information on this channel that could jeopardize the Alliance. You may have agreed to help me stop Nyx, but I know many of you have no love for the rest of us. I'm not about to trust any of you outsiders more than I absolutely must.

I have just set in motion certain events that will mark the beginning of more direct actions against Nyx. High Instructor Syn remains unaware. Tyr has just been acquired by a Solar battleship (no I won't tell you which one), and has been reported as K.I.A. to the High Instruction. We need to be sure to use his now hidden status effectively. He must not know that he is not receiving orders from Syn at any time.

I request that my Sle'enthae allies keep an eye on their sector: Nyx's fleet is currently in that region, and Tyr's death may influence her course of action.

Canopy 'tween Void and home, Spring comfort your weary wings.
Strong winds to carry you on your flight, and fresh blood on your claws.

The Knight's Shield

...

Okay, this is a little weird.

You know that it was Syn that ripped your hand off, and she's been talking to you about revolution for years...
Perhaps she doesn't want her other allies to know? Or perhaps there really is someone impersonating her?

The writer's attitude toward humans matches Syn's as far as you can tell, but you don't know why you would have received this message.
"The Knight's Shield" also seems to be a reference to Syn, given her name and position.

Did she send it to your comm unit by mistake last week? And why did she not just tell you about this then?
She's often terse when correcting errors, but does she trust you so fully, and assume your trust in return, that she did not think you would question this?

And if there is someone impersonating her, this will cause problems for her own revolution.
You think you need to talk to her.

This has only made things more confusing, and seems almost irrelevant to deciding what side you should be on anyway!

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Ah, world building. I'm too eager to world build; I end up using every other story component to shoehorn world building into my stories. Addiction is a powerful thing.
Anyway, quick note about the comparison to a mother/son relationship: this is in terms of his own species' familial relationships, not humans'.

[Draconaes]

Just noting that the latest update has been appended to my last post, so don't overlook it.

[Jetroid]

>Choose not to decide for now as you don't know what's going on at all.

>Opt instead to trying to fix this mess.

[Fwee]

Hmmm... this is getting a bit more complicated...
Also, I remember the hand-thing from when I looked the names up. Fenrir... I have some ideas about who/what the Fenrir of this story is, if you meant to include it, I mean. I'm still attempting to link Tiamat to anyone else, though, as she is of a whole seperate mythology. Anyway, I suppose I should give my command.
>Tyr: Trust 'Syn' for now. If there is someone impersonating Syn, then it would most likely be with her consent, as she is very skilled. In the meantime, go back to where you first woke up and re-read that clipboard. What is 'dest' and 'class'? Perhaps you can decipher this information.
>Tiamat: Attempt to locate a rope of some sort. If you cannot, go down a floor and cut a hole through the elevator doors with your claw.

[Armok]

> wing size wins out

[Draconaes]

>Tiamat: Keep the collar with you, it might have some useful information that you've overlooked.

You decide to keep the collar with you so that you can explore the rest of the ship without jeopardizing your wireless connection to it.
Your comm unit is still trying to translate the map data to an acceptable format. This is taking longer than you would like.

You decide to explore deck 8 for any more useful items/information.
It's odd that you haven't found any Solar crew members yet.
Then again, the ship did apparently crash land.

>Tia: Explore the rest of deck 8 cautiously, there may still be security in place.

Oh, there's some now...

Speech:

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Tiamat: ... aheh, Fellow hunter?

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[Draconaes]

Hmmm... this is getting a bit more complicated...
Also, I remember the hand-thing from when I looked the names up. Fenrir... I have some ideas about who/what the Fenrir of this story is, if you meant to include it, I mean. I'm still attempting to link Tiamat to anyone else, though, as she is of a whole seperate mythology.

I don't really want to discourage you from speculating or trying to come up with connections and theories, but I'm not planning on going too deep with symbolic connections to their namesakes. Not intentionally at least. The biggest thing that the names might reveal is the personality of whoever picked the name, since I primarily assigned the names based on what the character was likely to desire for their name based on a cursory analysis of the god. For example, Syn is in charge of defense, wanted to be closer to Tyr, reference-wise, and liked being synonymous with "denial" or "refusal" or w/e in order to highlight her adversarial attitude toward Nyx's policies, so she named herself after Syn, a Norse goddess of defensive refusal

Aside from not wanting to do a ton of research to make sure I'm getting the symbolism right, I'm also no Andrew Hussie: I can't write a good story that also has 30 different kinds of symbolism behind every single name etc.
Still, feel free to come up with theories or speculate about symbolism or links between characters. No doubt some interesting connections will arise anyway, and I'm interested in seeing what others come up with.

[Fwee]

Awww... okay... v\\\v
I can understand that. Tiamat's was fairly obvious; the draconic figure. I actually kind of remembered it from this old D&D boom I read once. I sometimes get too into stories and start plotting out ginormous maps, detailing even the smallest intricacies/possibilities. It provides me with a pastime.
Anyway, enough rambling.
>Tiamat: KILL. MURDER. DESTROY. END. MUTILATE. ASSASSINATE. FROLIC. LOBOTIMIZE. DECAPITATE. SLAUGHTER.

[causticlyOptimitious]

Awww... okay... v\\\v
>Tiamat: KILL. MURDER. DESTROY. END. MUTILATE. ASSASSINATE. FROLIC. LOBOTIMIZE. DECAPITATE. SLAUGHTER.

> No dont do that. Didn't you learn from last time? Attempt to establish rapport. Also, this probably counts as an interesing development, so let Tyr know.

[Friggle_Dex]

>Tia: Quickly equip collar and pretend to be a drone.

[Draconaes]

>Tia: Quickly equip collar and pretend to be a drone.

Yeah, these guys probably aren't gonna fall for that.

>Tiamat: KILL. MURDER. DESTROY. END. MUTILATE. ASSASSINATE. FROLIC. LOBOTIMIZE. DECAPITATE. SLAUGHTER.

Yes, sounds good. Well, it sounds insane, but the sentiment sounds good. Two less threats and you get to loot them! You aim your gun at them. They respond in kind.

...

You forgot to take into account that they are better armed than you...

> No dont do that. Didn't you learn from last time? Attempt to establish rapport. Also, this probably counts as an interesing development, so let Tyr know.

You figure diplomacy is most likely to save your skin in this situation. Just in case, you set your comm unit to broadcast to your last link, which was Tyr's unregistered unit.
You hope your translator is working...

Speech:

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Tiamat: <Alright, since think not any of us are eager for death, I am dropping my weapon.>

Speech:

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Tiamat: <So now we can talk like civilized beings, yes?>
???(Soldier): <That's rich.>
???(Officer): <Shh!>
???(Officer): <Well, you're being awfully cooperative for an escaped prisoner. Where's the ambush?>
Tiamat: <The ship is crashed, yes? Do you really have things controlled so such that it is purposeful to keep me locked up?>
Tiamat: <And in the interest of nurturing trust, my ally is trapped several decks down, unarmed. You need fear no ambush from him.>
???(Soldier): <So we need to fear an ambush from someone else?>
Tiamat: <Haha! You are clever! But I am no politician. I am referred by Tiamat.>
???(Officer): <Reynolds, and this is Kelly.>
Kelly(Soldier: <Hey Kat why don't I get a last name intro?>
Kat(Officer): <Shut it.>
Tiamat: <Fellow Hunter, Renault and Kaylee.>
Kat: <... Is your... translator or whatever working correctly?>
Tiamat: <I hope it is not failing me! If your concern roots from the names, then I am merely pronouncing your strange grunts wrong, and it is misreading them.>
Tiamat: <Names are a weakness of the software>
Kelly: Well, the translations are sometimes of imperfect qualities, but in generality your intentions are borne through.
Tiamat: But... you...
Tiamat: Very impressive. I'm going to assume you're a scholar of some sort, to know any of our language.
Tiamat: Rudimentary and sloppy though it may be.
Kat: <Dammit, Kelly, stop flirting with it and start speaking English again!>
Kelly: Jealousy is a blunt claw.
Tiamat: You're almost adorably bad at this...

The one human is almost cute in it's attempts to speak your language.
You want to keep it.

Comms:

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Incoming: <F.A.> [TIA]
Outgoing: <NULL> []
TIA: Alright, none of us are seeking death, so I'm dropping my weapon.
TIA: So can we talk without fighting now?
TIA: The ship is crashed? Or do you have everything under control except for making sure I'm in my cell?
TIA: For the record, my ally is trapped a number of decks below us without weapons. He won't ambush you.
TIA: Haha! Cunning! But I am no wordsmith. I'm Tiamat.
TIA: Fellow hunter, Ren Ohlt and Kee Lee.
TIA: I hope it's not causing problems. If you ask because of the names, then It's only that I cannot reproduce your strange noises correctly and the translator misreads them.
TIA: Names are a problem for the software.
TIA: But... you...
TIA: Very impressive. I'm going to assume you're a scholar of some sort, to know any of our language.
TIA: Rudimentary and sloppy though it may be.
TIA: You're almost adorably bad at this...

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[Absol]

>Keep the cute one!

[Fwee]

>Tiamat: Coo at the cute one.
>Tyr: Wonder what the hell Tiamat is doing.

[tmissis]

Tyr > Realize Tiamat is hopelessly incompetent and has gotten herself captured. Wonder who actually enlisted her to rescue you, Syn or the imposter?
Tiamat > Try to manipulate/persuade the humans to help retrieve Tyr.
Kat > Kill the alien. You don't have time for this complication.
Kelly > Feel confused about your sudden attraction to this lovely, um er, oddly entrancing, wait no, vile scum alien prisoner! Yeah that's it.

[simon.clarkstone]

> Tiamat: Nose around in any computing devices they may have.
> Tiamat: Show them the card and say that you don't know where the owner is.
> Tyr: Show messages to Tiamat for advice.

[Friggle_Dex]

>Tia: Inquire about the gray object on the ground.

[Draconaes]

>Keep the cute one!

You always wanted a pet. Maybe you can convince the human to stick with you.

>Tia: Inquire about the gray object on the ground.

They don't seem to be shooting you, which counts as diplomatic victory as far as you're concerned.
You might as well find out what they're doing, and whether you can be helpful to each other.
You disconnect from Tyr first. He's been notified and he doesn't need to know your every plot.

Speech:

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Tiamat: <I suffer curiosity about your current objectives. What is that gray slab?>
Kelly: Try fewer idioms. Your translator ill handles them.
Kat: <I'm guessing it's the missing piece of ceiling from that hole we saw earlier. I'm not sure why it's over here though.>
Kat: <As for our mission... Uh...>
Kelly: <Escape.>
Kat: <...>
Kelly: <Right now we're trying to escape this ship. It's crashed, remember? How about this:>
Kelly: <We work together to escape. We have a live map of the ship, which will help us bypass obstacles.>
Kelly: <You and your friend can help us. An extra blade would be helpful.>
Kat: <What? But->
Kelly: <Or we could just kill her?>
Kat: ...
Kat: <Fine.>
Kat: <Does this sound like a good deal to you, Flit?>
Kelly: Pardon her, please. She's in a poor mood.
Tiamat: You are offering a lot of trust. You're lucky that I like you.
Tiamat: <Very well. We shall->

Speech:

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Kat: <The hells was that?>

This probably isn't good...

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[Jetroid]

>Tyr, Tia, Kat and Kelly: Team up and Investigate.

[Absol]

>Noise: BE A DRAGON.

[tmissis]

Kelly > don't forget that it's quite strange the ceiling panel shouldn't be there. Try to stop finding the alien intriguing.
Kat > Decide to kill alien first chance you get.
Tia > Ponder abandoning Tyr. After all, this cute human is very intriguing. Also, realize the misplaced panel means something. But what?

[Friggle_Dex]

>Tyr: Go find out what that shaking was.
>Tia: Inform Tyr of the humans, he has a right to know!

[Fwee]

>Tiamat: Realize that you should probably ask if these guys know about Tyr, and if they know where his wings are. If not, ask for a rope. Tyr is kind of useless while he's stuck on one floor. Also ask about the hole.
>Tyr: Attempt to locate the ventilation system; humans need oxygen, so there must be a method of getting it around.
>Kelly: Be manly!
>Kat: Meow.

Why was cell 14 highlighted? Is there REALLY nothing in there?