NationStates Jolt Archive

In the sky, above Liberty-City

Gooooood morning, Allanea! This is Boris Prevedin, talking to you live from the ANN traffic and security helicopter!

The ancient Apache hovered over the highway leading into the city, and the newscaster continued to speak:

Those of you who have a TV or a computer can view our camera display, and you can see – for yourself – that the Rudyard Kipling Highway is jammed – yes, eight lanes jammed, if you can believe that! - all the way from TrekTown and down to the Convention Hall, there's just that many people flooding there! Holy mother of God, I'm luck I'm already AT work and I don't have to drive there!

The helicopter began to move, taking the reporter towards a bigger highway, one spanning ten lanes in each direction, and he blinked. Jesus Christ, people, this is freaking amazing, I'm over the Airport Highway, that's the one that takes people from LCAX and into the city, and while it's not totally jammed – possibly because there's also a train line, other highways, and helicopters - but there's like three times the traffic then there usually is! And we don't have just Allaneans here! Our sources tell me that people from Magnus Valerius, Bazalonia, Cyberutopia, Theao, The Resurgent Dream, and all over the Greater Prussian Empire are going to be at the great new AllaneaKon! That's the first AllaneaKon since before the One Day War! And you know what's REALLY great? Yours truly will be there, too! See, my show is ending in five minutes, and already, the helicopter is taking me to the landing pads of Liberty City Convention Center!

At the Convention Center

The Center itself was immense - a complex of buildings, glittering with glass and steel, surrounding a huge white dome that would make Speer himself gasp. The buildings, too, were something special – the tallest streaking out to one hundred seventy-five floors, the smallest at only sixty, they extended for dozens of levels underground as well. The complex took years to design, two years to build, and was the pride of a nation whose entire culture was centered around events like this.

As of now, the convention was not yet open – a strip of ribbon was barring the entrance to the hall, and legions of fans were pushing against a line of CBSF personnel – polite, well-dressed personnel, who kept their ties clean, and their weapons in their holsters and at their backs.

And behind them, a surprising person approached the strip.

It was Richard Rabbit, the CEO of CBBC.

He spoke:

Friends!

I am not good at public speaking. I am a simple man. But let me thank you all. I am proud to be here, at the opening of the convention, and I am proud to be so honored to cut the ribbon on it. This convention is the very symbol of human liberty – of it's variety, of it's creativeness, of it's power – of how many different, strange, beautiful things people create when left to their own devices. And it is not created by me, or the Allanean government. This all is created by fans like you. Let me say it once more: This Kon, and others like it, are the symbol of freedom.

And now, since you all surely want to start having fun, I will end my speech.

Have fun, y'all!

And he cut the ribbon.

Please use the OOC thread here for all comments and unique plot ideas. While this is an open RP, I would PREFER if you posted there first. (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=488385)

at the back of the croud stood a man that had a big coat and leaning agenst the wall.

he started ttalking with his hand upon his ear.

"ok im here....you sure?.....ok then...starting mission"

as he leand off the wall and walked into the crowed.

OOC: Care to telegram me about your intent, Mr. Kingdom Force? To OOC hash tihs out would be best.

OOC: Care to telegram me about your intent, Mr. Kingdom Force? To OOC hash tihs out would be best.


OOC: Sorry but this is a RP is it not? My apologies to your self and your nation if i have seemed cause any offence, anger and confusion.

My intent is to see what is going on in more detail and playing out my part in the rp. i still wish to take place if it is ok?

Once again I am sorry.

OOC: It is one, but I would like to keep things mildly cooperative and coordinated, so as not to have people doing things like OMG TERRAIST EXPLOSIONS or attacks on the convention or such, so it'd be nice if you telegrammed me.

...the Rudyard Kipling Highway is jammed...

The television blared in a certain hotel room occupied by a young Valerian man from the mining countryside of the Northern Reaches of Magnus Valerius. Bogumil Lunyov stood over the sink, shirtless, as he shaved off his beard. "Finally, away from Magnus Valerius and the so-called traditions," he thought to himself. Often, Valerian aristocrats or Valerians in the Northern Reaches grow beards as a sign of pride or status. Now, within the different realm of Allanea, Bogumil decided to shave the vestige of Valerian heritage away for his stay in the country.

Even though he was heading to AllaneaKon, he was definitely not the typical "geek" or nerd with large glasses, lanky character, and bookish attitude. Bogumil played in lacrosse, basketball, and soccer teams when he was a youngster at school, and was the star player of his high school's basketball team. Bogumil thus had an athletic build, and many girls would consider him handsome. (OOC: By the way, Bogumil's hair is brown with golden highlights, and he has hazel eyes. He has an olive complexion due to his athletic pursuits.) His first and so far only girlfriend was a young girl who left him for the capital city of the Grand Empire. Isangrad was a gargantuan city, the capital of Magnus Valerius, and Bogumil had only been there once. Liberty-City perhaps surpasses the size of Isangrad, which has Bogumil wondering about all the various attractions to be found around in the city.

Bogumil's uncle, Victor Khabarovok, was a retired explorer in service of the Valerian Empire. Victor explored the deep jungles along the Alain River in the colony of Shorehaven, founded the city of Hiromoto, and took Bogumil on his many worldly travels with his own children. Bogumil came across a pasttime that would endure with him like basketball, lacrosse, and soccer. In Ulge, the capital city of the Khanate of Kalmykstan (a nation north of the Grand Empire), he came across the Cross-Kuric Convention, a convention for video games across the Kuric Continent. All sort of peoples from the empires of the Kuric Continent competed for various prizes, and that is where Bogumil fell in love with Counter-Strike. CS 1.6 was like a match made in heaven, and Bogumil became skilled really quickly, participating in high-stakes scrimmages with other Valerians in various local Counter-Strike Cups. When the Valerian International Counter-Strike Cup opened in Isangrad, Bogumil swept the competition and took the top prize with his teammates. Of course, he came across a new rival, a Kalmyk by the name of Umur Ulya-Beg. He wondered if Umur will show up in Allanea.

Bogumil peered out of the bathroom and watched the traffic report. He came a few days early to reserve a room and to find out where the convention center was. It was about time for Bogumil to head out. He dressed himself in a striped grey and white polo and jeans before leaving behind his hotel room. He took the train to the convention and melded into the crowd and watched as some local Allanean entrepreneur or dignitary made a short speech and cut the ribbon to the convention center. Bogumil approached the impressive convention center, and thought how the Vedus Convention Center in Isangrad could not compare to the Allanean center's sophistication.

Maria woke with a yawn as she cheeked her clock. Getting up, she headed to the bathroom where she had a shower before pulling her brown hair back in a loose ponytail and put on a black t-shirts, with a logo (http://store.sluggy.com/detailed-kitten.html)from one of her favorite comics.

Heading down to the resturant, attached to the hotel, to order breakfast, she looked at the wall clock and just about had a heart attack as she realized she'd forgotten to change the time on her clock. Ordering a blueberry muffin, she dashed out to catch a bus to get her to the convention. She hoped she wasn't going to miss the opening.

Arriving at the convention she realized she was only slightly late as the multitudes of fellow geeks, and occasionally geekets were beginning to enter the center. With a sigh, she got in line for admittance behind a brown hair guy in a white and grey shirt.

Thousands of Geekoid Bazalonians flocked to AllaneaKon. It was a haven for geeks and all geek sub-cultures. That's why it was so popular... Most of the Geeks where delayed in traffic but there where two specific geeks. Bazalonia's CS Championship Cup holder, Joseph Trian and Bazalonian Soccer superstar, Peter Hobble that managed to get there early.

The two just happened to meet each other and where great fans of each other, Hobble for his prowess with a round ball and Trian for his Prowess with a mouse. Peter Hobble was quite fit due to his soccer playing and Jospeh Trian seemed fit but his loose fitting T-Shirt never let on just how fit he actually was. Joseph needed glasses for his computer work but Hobble's eye sight was perfect, it seemed that Hobble was an outdoor geek where things interested him but it didn't consume his life. He could keep up with the jargon and participate in many technological discussions particulary which Video card was better... EVideo or BTI. Hobble was a BTI through and through though Joseph was an EVideo man.

The two went in and hanged about talking about tech, getting into heated EVideo vs BTI arguments but those where self calmed, and generally having a good time and "Oooing" and "Ahhhing" at many of the technological advances and graphics that where being shown.

Pwn3d, byatch!

Lyudmila Gretzkova laughed as the M240 on the screen flared to life, clearing the hallway of the last two 'terrorists'. Then, on the screen, a glowing inscription appeared:

SPECIAL FORCES TEAM WINS.

The people around her cheered as she folded her laptop and got up. "That's enough PWNage for one day boys," she sneered.

Gretzova was a typical Allanean highschooler – except of course for what her classmates termed the 'l337 skillz' in Counterstrike. Right now, she was wearing a light-grey T-shirt with the Battle Royale logo and a picture of Takeshi Kitano on the back, a pair of pale jeans (with the obligatory holes of course), and a pare of jeans-patterned Teen Dream autopistols that she got for her 16th birthday.

And now, she was going to see her favorite stand – belonging to the Allanean Arms Computer Division – AACD. This was festooned with a variety of novelty computer items – laser keyboards, inflatable computer mice, and ten different Linux distros, as well as a PC tower box that looked like a Tux carrying twin gattling guns with an Allanean Arms logo on its belly.

It was there where she bumped into Bogumil. "Oh. Umm, sorry."

And, a second later: "You're not local, are you?"

Bogumil thought that he would not meet anyone in particular in the crowd. For once, it was an amorphous mass of human beings, with everyone trying to shove this "greater being", composed of geeks, into the convention center. Bogumil spotted some other fellow Valerians, sporting their pompous beards amongst the thick-rimmed glasses of the Kalmykstani whom they seemed to associate themselves with. This particular group of Valerians and Kalmykstani Mongols were dressed up as a squad of Terrans from the old Valerian PC favorite, StarCraft.

Hmm... maybe I should play some StarCraft too. It's been awhile, but I bet I could still kick ass.

As Bogumil was paced up slowly in line, he heard some hurried footsteps and a sigh come from behind him. Normally, he would think of it as nothing in this big crowd, but curious to see who it was, Bogumil turned slightly, to get a full view of the person. It was a girl in a black shirt with a bloodied kitten on it. Bogumil smirked at the image and the girl too. Just before he could turn around or introduce himself to the girl behind him, a person bumped into him.

"Oh. Umm, sorry...You're not local, are you?"

Bogumil was a little bewildered as to his run-in with this young Allanean girl. He responded quickly in response, "It's okay."

Then, he pondered, how did she know he wasn't local? Maybe it was his different facial features that set him apart from typical Allaneans or maybe it was because of the number of non-Allaneans flooding the convention floor.

"Yeah, I am not Allanean," Bogumil smirked. "I'm from... uh, The Grand Empire of Magnus Valerius. In short, I am a Valerian. I assume you are Allanean, eh?"

Peter Hobble went to check up on the latest video cards while Joseph Trian had a Counter Strike game to play... He was early, very early and the previously scheduled game was still going on.. so he decided to spectate, going by the nickname Train. A simple variation of his name but effective. He had been known "to go through the Terrorists like a Steam Train".

He liked watching the strategies of other players and came across a Counter Terrorist going by the name <Gretel>. Joseph watched <Gretel> and was quite impressed with his or her, you could never be certain with nicks, performance.

He continued to watch and smiled as he or her took out the last 2 remaining terrorists on the map in short time. The move was fairly risky but it was very well executed and they didn't end up getting a real shot in. Joseph smiled as he saw he execute this move. It was like one move that he did In Real Life. But then again that area of his life was behind him and now he uses the things he learnt to win the "Bazalonian CS Cup". A number of minutes later his match was up. It was a protect the ViP map and Joseph was the ViP. He hated playing defense, he'd prefered to be up fighting against the Terrorists but that was the role he had been given. Not that he was bad at defense it was just... it just brought back other memories... memories he'd rather forget.

In the end he managed to keep himself alive... no thanks to his teamn mates who made a number of bad defensive blunders nearly getting everyone killed but they recovered and he barely got himself through the map.

'Right this way sir, right this way! We're so excited to have you here!' said a scrawny Allanean show coordinator as he ushered in a tall, muscular, man whose posture indicated a very distinct military character. He walked like a Shock Trooper. He spoke like a leader.

He was Sheikh Navarrone. Live at AllaneaKon III.

Navarrone didn't appreciate being herded around by some geek in a t-shirt three times too big for him, so he completely ignored him. Choosing to stand in-line like everyone else to buy his own damned ticket...after all, he could afford one with what he'd been paid to show up and talk about his book.

A pair of shining silver aviators were perched on the bridge of his nose, reflecting the immensity of the line up before him. Navarrone must've spent a half an hour waiting before the que slowly crawled to the ticket box. Sheikh bought his ticket without saying a word and passed through the metal detectors fairly quickly. Several Allanean teenagers had their handguns confiscated, nothing unexpected. When a guard noticed Sheikh Navarrone was wearing the ceremonial Aumanii warblade, Tolst, he tried to remove it...a harsh stare through mirrored shades held the guard off long enough for the coordinator to tap him on the shoulder and whisper a few curt, cracked, words into his ear. Sheikh walked passed the guard without a word and entered the massive forum of the Liberty City Convention Center. It was awash with nerds and enthusiasts of all varieties. From your loathsome computer geek to your respectable hunting and fishing experts and amateurs.

The dim lighting was pretty much uniform throughout the entire place, except the main stage where a series of speakers and musicians were set to play. Sheikh noticed his name on an event list for the day and adjusted his sunglasses to better conceal his face. He was starting to sweat as the mass of people wreaked havoc with the airconditioners, creating an atmosphere of oppressive humidity caused by human persperation.

The sound of gunfire filled Sheikh's ears.

'BOOM! HEADSHOT!'

Sheikh snapped his head quickly to the side to see what the commotion was...it was only teenagers playing videogames.

A scantily clad, female, vendor walked by him...

'Cigarettes, comic books, bourbon?' she said softly, yet loud enough to be heard over the crowd. Navarrone walked upto the woman smoothly and said casually 'How much for the bourbon, lady?'. Navarrone's thick, course, Aumanii accent nearly gave him away to the woman. Navarrone was a regular on Allanean TV back when he sat in the Martian Duma.

'Twelve dollars.' said the Girl. Sheikh handed her a twenty and started drinking...the portion was miniscule, but good enough for now.

Sheikh sauntered into "The Pit" just in front of the mainstage and listened to the feavered rantings of some backwoods publisher from just outside of Heston City. Several of the people in the crowd boo'd him...the speaker was a Federalist. After a few more minutes of the man's spirited dialogue the Heston City soap box derbyman left and was replaced by a short, fat, pimply, geek. Several questions were asked of him before he had a chance to even introduce himself.

'Is it true that in episode seventeen that Captain Monroy escaped the Tesseract Box by outwitting the AI containing him? Because me and my STUPID friend have been disagreeing...He says that Monroy seduced her, because it was a female AI. I say it's impossible because AI are sexless creatures...' droned some non-descript geek.

The man on stage was the writer of a popular, Allanean, Science Fiction epic, Space Voyagers, quickly returned...

'Ok, obviously none of you fags actually watched the show. Monroy shot the AI and figured his way out on his own. AI suck. Next question.'

The crowd laughed at that remark, Sheikh agreeing with the man chuckled to himself.

Another nerd went on to ask a question, and so on and so forth...Sheikh mostly tuned them out, idly sipping at the raunch Allanean liquor, until something caught his ear...

'I've been lead to believe that Sheikh Navarrone served as your inspiration for Admiral Hennessey...'

Sheikh looked around for the speaker, but failed.

'His rough and open attitude towards his political opponents is more than enough proof of this...Hennessey once punched out a Tarkalian ambassador when he threatened war over...'

More droning. Finally the writer said...'Well, I won't say anything for sure. But as Sheikh Navarrone would say..."Fucked if I know!"'

Navarrone's face contorted with a look that suggested he didn't know what the man was talking about.

'I've never said that...' said Navarrone.

A beefheaded geek standing next to Navarrone heard what he said and looked at him, recognizing him...He was a member of the Sheikh Navarrone fanclub, he was even wearing a stark white t-shirt with an outline of a man supposed to be Sheikh Navarrone throwing an immaculate roundhouse kick that flatly stated "Proud Member of the Sheikh Navarrone fanclub" on it. The fan said nothing, instead he motioned other members of the fanclub to him and quietly had them form a perimeter around Navarrone, pushing other convention goers away from him until a very noticable gulf surrounded the apparent celebrity.

Soon, Navarrone himself noticed the bodyguard which protected his life better than any of his past entourages. Soon the questions stopped and the writer of Space Voyagers was left practically begging for questions. Whispers travelled around the pit as nerds considered whether it was truly Sheikh Navarrone standing amongst them...Uncaring, Sheikh non-chalantly drank some bourbon.

'Holy shit...' said the Writer on stage, '...Is that Sheikh Navarrone?'

Sheikh suddenly realized he was caught and looked around, feigning shock, wiping whisky from his lips...

Maria had headed throught the convention, stopping off at a snack stand to get a bite to eat. After finishing, she spotted a section for gamers, where a CS 'tournament' was going on, where anyone could show up and play, as long as they won or had sufficiant kills, of course. As a girl in a world of biased world of geeks, she was assigned to the team with the highest turnover rate.

As she played, she chuckled as she repeatedly fragged some of the top players, all by seeming accident. She was having fun as her character almost danced across the terrain to remove a particularly annoying player, at least till he re-spawned.

ATTENTION, ATTENTION TO ALL! The Starcraft LAN party is now open, in sections 460-C through 460-H, and it will continue for the next eight hours straight, so just get your stuff geek asses over there! At Floor 4 of the nearby Wonder Tower, there's also a Warcraft II LAN party, hosted for you by the Warcraft Union of Allanea! Section 200-D is hosting the newest WarDagger 50k Golden Demon Competition, and exposition of the newest models and conversions! Go on, go on, there isn't nearly enough time for it all!

* * *
There's many things you can do when you really – but really – but really – like your favorite TV show. With advanced technology, electronics, implants, a mere cosplay suit could change your entire personality – or eliminate it altogether. Navaronne was now about to witness that as five gamers, bedecked in a variety of electronics, approached him from five directions. Over the clumsy bodies hung XXL Navarrone fan club shirts, and they shambled – just like zombies.

"We are Borg. Resistance is futile. Give us your autograph or be assimilated."

Above them, on a huge 42-inch LCD screen, in a re-run of an old Space Voyagers series, admiral Hennesey was just mowing down some particularly annoying communist aliens. "What? Do you commies think you can handle me? WRONG?! F*** you! DIE! SUCK ON THIS! – and more of the same sort emanated for the screen as Hennesey continued his odyssey. It was clear why this was popular…

In the meanwhile, the previous speaker raised his hand first. "Well, Mr. Navarrone - you heard people here ask whether I based my character on you. What do you think, Mr. Navarrone? Does Admiral Hennesey remind you of yourself? At least, of your younger days, Mr. Navarrone?"

Everybody laughed.

Another man raised his hand. "Mr. Navarrone, what do you think of Allanea's current diplomatic representatives? Have they successfully lived up to your marvelous example?"

* * * *

<Someone> Fire! Fire, damn you! They have nearly lost!
<NozickFan467> I'm out of rockets, byatch!

The terrorist assault on the ViP has suffocated itself at the very verge of triumph as the man with the RPG-7 has run himself out of ammo, and now the ViP himself – some guy named <Train> took him down, as well as the other survivors.

"Goddamn!" – screamed Norris H. Norris, the Norwell Country Gamer of the Year, as he rolled his chair back and got up. "I can't believe this crap!"

The other players simply shrugged. "Bah, Nozickfan. It's not any of our fault the other guy was so tough."

"It was your fault you wasted the last rocket, isn't it?" - shrugged Norris and began to walk away – not that he was angry anymore, just bored, and he kind of wanted to see the shiny new video cards, too.
* * * *

Lyudmila smiled. "Valerian, eh? Well, hi. My name is Lyudmila Grezky, but you can just call me Gretel, that's what I use online."

She walked up to the booth. "Hi peeps."

"Hi Gretel!" – responded in unison the two vendors.

"People know me. Which," – she spoke to the Valerian in a slightly patronizing tone – "can sometimes get annoying." Then she turned her attention to the vendors. "I need a new graphics card. The AAGR-6000,, say."

One of them gulped, but handed her the card, without any discussion – or pay.

"I'm on an Allanean Arms YCS scholarship," – she explained – "that's a Young Computer Sportsman. That's of course because I pwn" – she actually used the word – "in Counterstrike. And once I plug this into the laptop, I will pwn even more."

* * * *

"Hehe, this game must really PWN," – said Republican Senator Natalia Kimchi as she gazed at the cover of the new sequel to "Land of Contrast". "I'm going to buy this… going to find a place in my RTS collection just between "The Road to Deriksburg" and "Red Alert", it is. Hold my purse, Simon."

Simon complied. It was not the first time the CREST-assigned bodyguard would have to do it today, nor would it be the last. He didn't mind – at least it was better then what some other representatives and their bodyguards were doing at the convention.


* * * *
In the meanwhile, elsewhere, more booths were opened, and the huge loudspeakers blared:

ATTENTION, ATTENTION TO ALL! The Gathering Card booth is now open, taking up all of section 467-G, 467-H, and 467-I, go there and get yourself some of those new Gold Edition cards, go there now! In Section 500-C, while we are at it, there's a new show – the famous Magic Friends strippers – an all-geek stripper band – will be stripping for Gathering-card money – yes, they do say it's what got them into the business! In sections 501-A through 501-F, the Furry Association of Allanea is holding a costume contest, and in section 579-K, the glorious, glorious, glorious filk band Hentai Vengeance is going to be singing again! My God, my God, so many things to do, so little time, so go for it my friends!

"Oooo... The AAGR-6000" said Peter Hobble as he came upon the booth that the Bogumil and Lyudmila Grezky aka Gretel where talking to each other.

"This is so new they haven't reach Bazalonia yet... then again it usually takes months for anything to reach Bazalonia." he said with a smile before paying the price for one. "That's why I love these sort of conventions." and he waited for the card and had the demeanor of a child trying to pick out his favourite sweet. There was of course no BTI's but he had read up on the AAGR-6000 before going and it outstripped anything that any Bazalonian firm had developed and was still 3 months to go before anything resembling the AAGR-6000 had been developed.

Of course these things where being developed independently the Bazalonian technology sector took it's cues from Allanea as the direction to head. There had been one all Bazalonian Developement in recent time the Physik chip. A dedicated Physics processing unit that took away processing of physical interactions from the main processor and handled it freeing the processor for other more important functions increasing the level of Physics realism in any supported game.

Maria chuckled as she listened to the man grouse about being shot, if he only knew he'd been beaten by a girl, she was sure he'd have a fit.

Grinning she decided to yield her seat, to a new hopeful, and headed off to explore the convention. Wondering if they were traditional floozy types, fellow geekets, or the ladies' choice type strippers, she decided to head over to see the Magic Friends, and learn what the cards they were talking about were about.

“Hello.” - spoke Lyudmila. - “I'm one of their sponsored players. You should ask for a sponsorship like me, and you may just get it - then you can get all the new stuff, some cash money to boot, and so forth. All you need to do is be good at some nice game. And by good I mean really good, like me...” - she paused. - “WAIT! You're from Bazalonia? Do you know anything about the new Physic chip? That's SO cool! How much do they cost in Bazalonia? You people ROCK!”

"yeah, I'm from Bazalonia." started Peter "oh.. the Physik chip. Yeah, that's a good chip. It just got released and is usually around 435 Bazs... oh about 310 standard dollars. A bit expensive but it'll come down. Heh.. Thanks it's a pity our national soccer team isn't doing well but I have to admit out IT industry certainly does have flashes of brilliance. So what are you guys talking about?"

Bogumil grinned as Lyudmila introduced herself. "I am Bogumil Lunyov, although my online name is quite different. I am known as MountainGunner. A lot easier than my Valerian name, huh?" Bogumil was wondering if she were a Counter-Strike player. There's nothing like knowing new people with a LAN game of CS.

Bogumil followed Lyudmila up to the booth where she greeted the two vendors. Surprisingly, they knew her screenname and Lyudmila seemed to bask in such pride. Bogumil didn't have anyone around here who knew him really, except for the other Valerian CS players who faced off against him back in Isangrad. Lyudmila requisitioned a graphics card from the two vendors, and Bogumil thought it was odd for Lyudmila to receive it free of charge.

"An... AAGR-6000?" Bogumil asked, "How good is that card? I've never heard of such a brand back in the old Grand Empire. The biggest thing is the Valeririjk Zephyr 7900, and I heard that it is a little behind foreign brands." The Zephyr 7900 was decent and offered fast power, but it was likely to be four or more months behind what power the AAGR-6000 could produce.

Then, the moment of reckoning. Lyudmila blurted out two sweet sounding words, linked togther in a smooth word by a hyphen. Counter-Strike. Bogumil grinned and immediately began to think, "Whoa, she must be really good at CS if she has an Allanean Arms YCS scholarship for playing it from some Allanean organization!" Bogumil stepped a little closer and asked, trying to hide his excitement, "You play Counter-Strike? CS? I do too! And I'm really good... I am the champion of my region. Me and my team beat out a crazy team from Kalmykstan, and now some Kalmyk is miffed about it and has sworn to be my enemy in CS... but wait, you probably don't know where Kalmykstan is... Anyway I was---"

As Bogumil was about to get it on and set up a match between him, the Champion of the Kuric Continent, and Lyudmila, a "pwning" Allanean CS scholar, a Bazalonian hopped on over and admired Lyudmila's new graphics processor. Bogumil also overheard Lyudmila talking about sponsorships. Bogumil could really use one, so he wouldn't have to spend his saved up cash from overseeing some portion of his father's mining network.

The Bazalonian inquired on what Lyudmila and Bogumil had been discussing. The young Valerian spoke up first, with a benign smile, "We just met and we were discussing the, uh, AAGR-6000. I'm Bogumil, by the way... you play CS?"

"ohh.. I only dabble in CS. Most of the players here would so pwn me, but I actually know a pretty good player... goes by the name of Train. You might have heard of him or something."

"Woah." – smiled Lyudmila – "A regional champion. That's inhumanly cool, I'd say. How'd you find playing CS in Allanea?"