A Beach Feast (IC)

[New Visayan Islands]

Gerald Vicente
At the Stall

"Ah, so another merchant in training," Gerald said. "Let me guess: following your father's footsteps?" While he didn't--his father was a banker--he could understand that; one of the classmates he saved during the Riots was the daughter of a physician, and last he heard, she became a physician in her own right.

"Also...'Riverwood's Mounted Crossbows?'"

[Polish Prussian Commonwealth]

Yven Barriall of the Tribe of Monaghan.
I nodded.
"We were less...", I was silent for a moment about a right term, "...symbolic in our treatment of the enemy. The wounded were treated, the dead were buried in a mass grave - and exhumed a few years ago for repatriation - and the prisoners of war were marched to Scuab and held there until the fighting was over. They themselves were rather surprised about how well they were treated."
I shrugged.
"Then again, there are enough tales of Marcach cutting off the head of Christian Knights during the Crusade, so...", I said and shrugged, "I guess, that we all have times in our histories, when there was a need to be symbolic, to drive a few points home."

Casey had a sudden mood change as they suddenly became friendly with him. Apparently, the two girls were close. And, Marie's grin was...kind of cute, especially with the utility suit. She seemed...so reliable. "Oh, I'm from America!" the newcomer answered with an excited smile, clasping his hands, "Specifically from the Great State of Pennsylvania." His face was bright and cheery, and it seemed genuine. It really was. "Though, I'm not exactly good at carrying things. I don't know if I would be of much help," Pickett sighed, looking down at the sand. At 4'10" and with a slender frame, he probably couldn't lift anything heavy at all.

Caoimhe Barriall of the Tribe of Monaghan.
I smiled, shook my head.
"Do the best you can, then no one can hold anything against you.", I told Cassey, handing her a bag with a bit of stuff, something not too heavy and something, which could not break that easily. "That's what Milady Macha always says." I smiled at my two new friends and then, my own things in my arms, motioned for them to follow me. "Come! Ilia will be expecting these!"

Marie
Marie raised an eyebrow. "Ah, you're a Yankee. I see."
Truth be told, Prussia-Poland had little love for outsiders. Even allies got a lukewarm reception, and Americans were the worst of the lot...at least, that was what the airfield-towns said. Those hosting American footsloggers generally had a slightly more generous view of the Americans. And, of course, the cool reception(combined with the slight bitterness at them being '70 years late') was still nothing compared to their opinions on the Germans. Signs reading 'No dogs or Germans' were a common sight in many small towns(most of which, ironically, were written in German), although recently they had been steadily disappearing in order to, if nothing else, capitalize on the fat pocketbooks of gullible tourists.

As for the Russians...Let's not talk about them. Or the Ukrainians. Or the Austrians, Romanians, or Turks. Or, worst of all, Bayerland.

Marie told "Cass" nothing of this, of course. Her old smile soon returned. "Penn State, eh? I had a friend who lived there for awhile working as a plumber. He says it's just like Silesia, all steel plants and foundries...oh! I'm from Prussia-Poland, by the way. But people sometimes just call us 'The Commonwealth'."
She picked up her rucksack from the ground, and turned around.
"Miss Adelheid! Let's drop our things off, aye?"

---

Adelheid

Adelheid turned. "Alright, Marie! Give me a second!"

She picked up her own bag and turned back to Yven. "Aye, aye, I suppose...although one can say that Japan's little stunt with Nanjing could also be them 'making a point'...I do get where you're coming from, though. On a lighter note, I need to drop off my things for now...mind coming with us, Yven?"

[Hanoverian Great Britain]

"Smart and witty", complimented Alexandra in a yet another sly, teasing-like tone. As the pair reached a spot close enough to the band, she brought them to a steady halt and finally closed in on their distance, her body directly brushing his. Upon forcing Fintan's other arm to circulate her back at chest-level, she quickly did hers as her right arm closes in around his back while her left arm rested on Fintan's opposite shoulders, with all 10 of her fingers lightly caressing his back area.

Upon resting her head on Fintan's right shoulder, Alexandra's eyes scanned her surroundings for anyone who might be looking on their "dance" with much interest. "So tell me, I wish to inquire on the age of such a charming man, with black hair and a matching black pair of eyes I'm dancing with and I do love to know about your genuine thoughts if you're an open person.", asked her in an innocent tone, as she soundly nuzzled his right shoulder and the right side of his neck. Additionally, she quickly reached for his hand on her side, placing it onto the back of her neck, waiting for him to softly brush her around the area.

[Aurora Confederacy]

Brenda Iarnród of the Tribe of Louth.
"Oh, we have enough of those ourselves.", I said with a bit of pride in our own country, "Areas for hiking and riding, areas for survival and areas, where it'll be very likely, that you won't survive."
Ribin nodded. "If ya join the main group later...", she advised, "...look for Macha and Lyra Cúnamh, they're Children of the Great Woods. They'll be more then happy to tell stories about the dark woods, which they call their home."
I gave an agreeing hum and clicked my tongue to get Marvin's attention and him eventually back to us.

Jason nodded, "oh we'll will be joining the main group later on, and I can tell, The free lands are quite stunning. But has to be said, you should really visit the three volcanoes nation park, now that mount Sulu'm'buru has calmed again. She's gone back into a state of slumber but have made a contrast to the pure white landscape back home"

Marvin however was quite happy being petted by Karen, his ears twitched at the strangers call but, in typical feline fashion ignored them , part of why he is ignoring the calls, Karen has a bag of kittybites.

"The castles here are interesting too" comments Karen, "and after the party, what are you guys going to be doing? Another assignment or taking time off?" She asks

As Karen talks, hints of a stud in her tongue are visible, but she doesn't make a point of flaunting it.

[Mediama]

While Marion was listening to what she had to say, she had also observed Nia’s ear movement, it was so adorable that it gave her an urge to want to scratch behind her ears to make her feel better. Further observations of her white hair made the origins of the nickname apparent, but there were other important matters for her to address aside from her little girl crush on the Spiorad.

Like the possibility that she was thousands of years old and was possibly immortal.

“Ah... I see, that would explain how you’re familiar with this.” Marion fixed her skirt. Though scores of more questions popped into her mind, she can’t help but smile a little at some of the implications, “Goodness, I can’t imagine being able to see this kind of fashion at its prime, while I could make drawings come to life, it’s completely different to see so many people wear that similar fashion in person.” after having a careful look at Nia, she added with a darker blush, “And might I dare say this kind of wear may look pretty on you Miss Nia.”

Nia Sneachtúil, of Cefnffordd Descent.
I smiled at her enthusiasm - it was not a mocking smile, but an honest, happy smile. While the times, when people wore these clothes, were not exactly my happiest times, it was still a good time. And seeing someone being so interested, so enthusiastic about the times I actually saw...
It made me happy.
I did not notice the crush Marion was developing.
And I even had a nice, handy, little excuse: There were two girls, both twelve Springs of age, one with golden eyes and silver hair, which she wore in twin pigtails, the other with black hair and blue eyes, which shone like sapphires as she spotted me. In the spirit of the beach party, both wore swimsuits, cute and girly ones with lots of frills and in bright colours.
They both called out: "Colceatrar Nia!"
I had to smile at Marion. "One moment, please.", I asked of her and then received both girls into a little hug. They had been away for a few minutes, using the portable toilets, and not on a circumnavigation of the world. A few moments later, both stood in front of Marion, grinned. "Marion, if I may introduce? My cousins, Tea and Meava."
At the name Tea, the silver-haired girl bowed her head politely, while Meava was the black-haired one.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Marion.", Meava said with a strong Selkie-Accent, rolling Rs and dropped vowels, and smiled, "Your swimsuit looks cute!"

“Awww thank you, it’s an old design though. It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.” Marion replied back. She had to admit, Tea and Meava were cute as buttons, and for them to say that her swimsuit was equally as cute, she felt a little twinge of pride that her handiwork was still good.

Speaking of handiwork, she took a cursory glance at the handiwork of the swimwear they were both wearing. In advance of the party, she had done a little research on Bicini industry’s designs, and was trying to see if the works she saw before here were that of the company’s. Whether or not they were didn’t matter for her next reply, “I have to say, your swimsuits look nice as well.”

[Minroz]

Isla Stiúrthóir of the Tribe of Fingal.
I smiled, sure that Fiete and Lykke would be happy to give out any sort of non-alcoholic drink they had on stock, without any issues - or asking for money, either. The unwritten rule of Selkie-Parties.
"Alright, no pork.", I said with a smile and knew, which ones I would give them. As I piled them up, I smiled at the woman, adding: "And it is no issue. Your husband, I mean." You had him quite well under control, my dear., I though to myself. "I look forward to the party as well, it promises to be a nice evening, with good music, better musicians, the best food and, most importantly for a single like myself, many strapping young men in swimming clothes!"
I winked at Roksana - who said, that only men were allowed to admire the female physique and not the other way around?
I was finished with the first plate around that time and placed it in front of her, using the spoon to indicate to three of the salads: "A potato salad, after me Mam's recipe. It has potatoes, butter and a dressing of mayonaise.", I explained the first, then moved on to the second, "Cál ceannann or White Headed Salad. It's made of potatoes, unsalted butter, milk, onions, leek, kale, cabbage and a few herbs. We usually give it as a side to meat-meals, but it works fine on its own, too." Better not mention, that I had this recipe from a magazine..., I thought, as I moved on to the third. "And this is a salad made from local fruits, freshly bought this morning. Mangoes are a huge part of it."
I let a beat pass, smiling at Roksana: "Your husband will get three different ones. I hope you don't mind that..."
I had eight different kinds of salads here, two of them included pigs' meat in some form or the other, and it was, in my opinion, impossible to give meaningful portions of all six on one large plate.

“Yum~. That sounds delicious. And healthy too~.” Roksana chirped upon hearing the salads’ description. When she listened to Isla’s reasoning, the redhead woman laughed, “It’s alright, friend. We’ll manage somehow. I’ll wait for him till he comes back with the drinks. But thank you for telling me~.”

She then stretched out her arms in boredom whilst enjoying the beach atmosphere. “I must say this island is a beautiful place, haha~. Are you a local here?”

Meanwhile with Nasrollah Afshar, he approached the bar where Fiete and Lykke manned.

“Excuse me ma’ams, sorry to be bit of bother, would you happened to be serving non-alcoholic drinks?” Nasrollah asked the girls politely.

[The Selkie]

Aonas Folracht of the Tribe of Wicklow.
Iliane nodded, and I knew, what she was thinking: Yes, not many would care for the history of the UIS, yet not many would care for the history of Nouvelle-Dunkerque, either. So, why not start with caring for each other's history now?
She was a curious girl, to be honest...
"I like tea, too.", she replied, "Though, from the images, the two seem to have more in common then just their love for the sea and for ships and for tea. Otherwise, half of my school's Boating Club would have a good chance with either of them." She shook her head. "No, on the few images, where they are together, one sees, how much they fit together." She let a beat pass. "My Mother has long suspected, that under the hard shell of a Kyrenaian Princess, Aurelia hides a very soft core, a wounded girl, ripped out of her known world to her father's side in order to become a Princess of a land, which's language she didn't even speak... her finding healing with Marcella... it's very romantic."
Dad and I looked at each other - neither of us were men, who could work with the category of 'romantic'...

"Ahah yes a good point, romance goes deeper than a few common interests but it's that spark that starts a fire after all!" She winked with a smile. Her description of Aurelia's persona seemed interesting. Actually, Ayla hadn't met Aurelia as of yet. She was curious to be certain about the young Princess who caught the Duchess's heart and just what she was like in person. She could only speculate what about her was so captivating to Marcella. Islanders were described generally as being romantics, all loved a really solid love affair. "Quite romantic I would agree. Marcella speaks of her openly in the UIS Press and she's always glowing in her ravings for her." Another note for later, try to meet the Princess next time she was in the UIS or if Ayla found her way to the Sultanate sometime. One day Aurelia could be the Duchess Consort and if worse came to worse, Aurelia could be the Regent Duchess of the UIS but by the grace of Goddesses she hoped that wouldn't happen. In the meantime she liked this young lady who was before her, and speaking more of romance it was seeming like she found a lover of her own, with the fine lad who she'd been chatting with. She'd also have to get to know this lady, maybe offer wisdom? Then again was Ayla THAT wise?

Aonas Folracht of the Tribe of Wicklow.
Iliane smiled with a sad note.
"Aurelia speaks often about Marcella in the press, too.", she says, "Mostly in the more boulevart-oriented press, though, as the more political press wants other things from her." She looked, if one asked me, beautiful, even with that sad smile, or maybe because of it? "The nature of her relationship, being a woman in love with another woman, found a strange mixture of adoration, derision and approval in Kyrenaia... while such a relationship is no problem in some parts of the world and at least accepted in others, it is a huge upheaval in the Sultanate."
She shook her head.
"I don't envy either of them.", she added.
Silence, for a moment.
"Well, who would envy a girl such as her?", Dad suddenly said in his booming voice, "With all of the respects a Selkie can pay to a kinswoman and to Duchess Marcella, the two are in a tough spot - not to mention their parents." He shook his head. "I, personally, much rather prefer my own situation. I have a beautiful daughter, a good son and wonderful company!"
He grinned at both Iliane and Ayla, the former of which blushed. Was it me or were our hands a bit closer together?

Cel grinned a bit stupidly, as they moved on, but Chris cared about that as little as she did. They were reunited, after all, and they would proceed to see awesome things in here, happier than any couple north of Kuronami, south of the Northern Islands, west of Fenchuikuo and east of Wanne-Eickel. Maybe even beyond these points. No, most certainly beyond these points. Nothing under the sun could prevent them from roaming around, united und the carefully watching eyes of Freyja and Rhiannon, together, unseperably. Nothing could do that.
"Cel! Chris! Can we have a moment?"
Well, almost nothing.
Chris immediately recognized the Leathchúpla-Sisters, the Twins, Patty and Nora, and their older sister Felicia. While Chris had nothing particular against the Twins, and their brother Raidri, the famous NASJAR pilot and Jet Racer, had been very polite back then ... there was Felicia, who wasn't only a letter and an accent away from the name of a classic, old pop song, but also had little to do with the meaning of that name - at least, if one asked Chris or Cel.
Her image surely wouldn't only be a target for Arrowmaidens, if Cel were one (Daggermaidens and Pikegirls had little to do with arrows, though), but also would improve the skills of any target shooter at a Lillorainian gun range.
Chris was aware, that Cel's mood would just as quickly perform a 180 degree flip as his own did, and her tone said it all. Then again, Felicia didn't exactly seem to be delighted at this meeting, either.
"Yeah, sure" - he said, frowning, and that was the end of story. The fewer words he made, the sooner this moment would be brought behind them.

Of course, everyone was aware about the most important rule of Selkie-Parties - everything brought here was for free. As this was known, this would, of course, also include the Lillorainian Beer, the Shamsiyyan Raki, the Wiedheimer Äbbelwoi and whatever the others had brought. While this principle could vary in Lillorainen, there was one important rule back home as well - once everything got declared for free, it stayed for free. There was no way back.
And of course, they would leave every spot in here just the way they expected to find it.
In front of one of the coolers, which Amy headed towards, as Lykke and Fiete were a tiny bit too busy at the 'bar', they spotted a lassie well-known to them. Princess Alya bint-Sarah, a Princess of Kyrenaia, daughter of Sarah (who would have guessed?), Ilkhana of Kyrene, known for her deep voice (especially when singing) and for having gotten through the Al'Arz Terrorist Attack luckily only slightly wounded.
She once would be a powerful woman, without a doubt ... being a Kyrenaian Ilkhana wasn't exactly the same as being Mayor of Laerdonk (despite this city had some sad history of accidentally electing some guys who felt as if they were on the top of a Kyrenaian Ilkhanate) or being 'Miss Theenhagen-Nerlich 2019' (same here), not even close to being on the top of a Lillorainian State or Shikonjimanese Fiefdom. This wasn't exactly something which would encourage many lads to approach her right now ...
But Amy, knowing her as a fellow model for BI, didn't have this problem. And BI models, as well as their non-BI companies, were quite accustomed to meeting people who were, or would be at some point, at a powerful position. Dragan remembered having met Khana Amina bint-Karim of Sheliak back in Dumhach, and he was sure to already have spotted her in here as well (not that a person of her size would be hard to overlook).
Amy motioned towards her. Dragan, Kira, and Leo followed.

Amy Laoch of the Tribe of Dundalk.
Alya looked up as we approached, her eyes suddenly widening, as did her smile.
One could still see the scar, which a piece of shrapnel had left on the side of her stomach, a scar, that would most likely stay with her - and which she insisted would stay on any image it was visible on. Our photographers told her, that this was their intent.
Anyway, the young woman, who might be the next Ilkhana of Kyrene, smiled and set down her bottle before rising.
"Amy!", she greeted with a smile, hugged me, then looked to Dragan, "Friends! Come, join me!"
"That was our intent, at least for one drink!", I said with a smile, before I introduced: "Those are Leo and Kira and Dragan."
Alya bowed her head lightly to each of them before she stopped when Dragan was mentioned. "Oh?", she said and looked at him, "The Dragan Bandera?"

Celina Treoraí of the Tribe of Louth.
Chris also agreed and here we were.
An awkward silence descended, before Felicia finally said: "I'm sorry for what happened in Dumhach.", she said and it sounded as if she meant it, "I was stupid to try anything with your lad and I can't even blame anyone."
A small twitch in Nora's eyebrow told me, that this was not the reply she expected.
Silence from our part.
I glanced to Chris - if he decided to accept the apology or not was his decision now.

Kazuo nodded. Finding a demo of Fushigi no Jidai in English, or any language other than Shikonjimanese, for that matter, had, so far, not been a thing to easily succeed in, probably because video game companies back home had little to no tradition of making demos available abroad. Which, again, was probably because few games were actually made for foreign markets - a thing that was about to change slowly, but surely.
"Yeah, pre-release demos are a tiny bit less common in Shikonjima than abroad" - he explained, "especially foreign-language versions thereof. I hope, that this is about to change soon, for I personally think, that keeping one's secrets even as late as a couple of months before the release, and only showing some previews on one's own channels, is not the wisest decision, if one wishes to reach international audience ..." He let a beat pass. "But as far as I'm informed, it will be made available outside Shikonjima on its release date. At least, the previews I've seen suggest, that there are several language versions understood on a more international scale, including, but not limited to German, English, French, Spanish, and Russian - so no worries, as soon as it's released, you will be able to play it without learning our language first. And I would be surprised to not find a campaign dealing with the Crusades, given the time."
He took another sip of lemonade.
"As for Rúid! - the 17th,18th, and early 19th century are absolutely an interesting era to deal with in Shikonjimanese history as well - considering, that within that span of time, the Clan Wars occured and got ended, cementing the rule of the current Royal House and its related lineages as well as the modern feudal system we still have in place; the Shikonjimanese Empire got founded, and with it, the ISA and ISN, both of which have still been a thing for the better part of the last century. The vast majority of all colonies we've ever had in history were conquered and founded within that particular time. Almost no year of that time has passed without any event in history involving the Shikonjimanese military in some way or the other. I hope, we don't come too short!"
Yelda nodded, grinning. "It was an interesting time, absolutely - even if it was pretty much the end of the glorious days for us Sharulsi. Despite the Sharulsi Empire getting smaller and smaller, there were still important wars we've fought - and won. It was the time where the Khaganate became less of a tribal federation happening to hold a huge territory and more of the consistent body politic we now know as the modern Sharulsi Khanate. Speaking of military, the Mangudai still played a vital role - but with the number of different nations we've interacted with during that time, the Khan's Army didn't only adopt more modern means of warfare, like gunpowder weapons, but also improved them, in order to become more light weapons easier to transport from A to B - a crucial bonus in a steppe empire with a long tradition of making advantage of mobility and flexibility, and, as I would assume, also a huge bonus in any RTS featuring us. So, even though, objectively spoken, the Sharulsi Empire ceased to exist in the form everyone knows about, the devolution thereof was the founding base for a number of states that exist now - and it's not any less interesting when it comes to military history."
While Setsuko was still listening to her friends' explanations, she also noticed, that they had lost Faye fairly soon in this conversation once it had evolved into a shoptalking about videogames, and while it was distinctly more focussed on history right now, she still decided to get back to the topic they had come from - without wanting to disrupt the gaming talk. Thus, she lowered her voice and asked Faye, "By the way, what I'm a bit curious about right now - since your Reathaí is fairly old and has switched its owner a few times until it ultimately became yours, how common is it to use decommissioned and demilitarized old SDF ships as private boats in here? Just to know, if it's more or less widespread than where I'm from ...?"

Raidri Gormchló of the Tribe of Fingal.
My son and I were listening, with great interest - the news, that the game would be available in English and a few other languages was awesome, for it meant, that we would be able to play it.
And the discussion shifted more towards history.
"For us, these centuries from circa 1615 to 1850, were the times of us being explorers, traders and mercenaries - and of our Second Golden Age. Chances are, that ancestor's of Áed here..." My boy grinned. "...fought for Shikonjima or her enemies for Silver. There was hardly a war of that time, where Selkie Light Cavalry didn't make a mark."
"I know, that Lillorainen, Shikonjima, Shamsiyya and the Khanate are planned as playable civilizations for the next Add-on, so...", Áed said and grinned with a bit of savagery, "...Mangudai versus Marcach - all a question of the Micro!"

Faye Donn of the Tribe of Wexford.
I thought for a moment.
"Depends on the size of the boat, really.", I told Setsu, "Some old freighters were sold off for further use, sure, but the majority of the larger vessels is decommissioned and scrapped. Smaller vessels, like torpedo boats and buoy tenders and such vessels, are frequently sold off to private owners for modification." I gave a small shrug. "I guess, it helps financing the next warships..."

Gerald Vicente
At the Stall

"Ah, so another merchant in training," Gerald said. "Let me guess: following your father's footsteps?" While he didn't--his father was a banker--he could understand that; one of the classmates he saved during the Riots was the daughter of a physician, and last he heard, she became a physician in her own right.

"Also...'Riverwood's Mounted Crossbows?'"

Isla Saighead of the Tribe of Westmeath.
I was confused for a moment - Mister Vicente was surely aware of the Younger Militia and... ah, right, VS-SB was in Traverse!
"Yep, Riverwood's Mounted Crossbows.", I said with a nod, "My High School raises, among others, two Banners of Mounted Crossbow Girls as part of our obligations with the Younger Militias of Riverwood. Sure, outside of sports competitions, really big festivals and state receptions, no one expects us to ride against an enemy under arms, but we still take it very serious." I smiled. "I am a good shot with the crossbow, too."
Amy smiled. "I was with the Shella Slingers in Elementary School, then at the Droichid Island BSC for Middle and High.", she explained, "During High, I was with the Music Section, drumming the march."
I had to resist the urge to giggle - drummer seemed to be exactly what Amy would do!

Marie
Marie raised an eyebrow. "Ah, you're a Yankee. I see."
Truth be told, Prussia-Poland had little love for outsiders. Even allies got a lukewarm reception, and Americans were the worst of the lot...at least, that was what the airfield-towns said. Those hosting American footsloggers generally had a slightly more generous view of the Americans. And, of course, the cool reception(combined with the slight bitterness at them being '70 years late') was still nothing compared to their opinions on the Germans. Signs reading 'No dogs or Germans' were a common sight in many small towns(most of which, ironically, were written in German), although recently they had been steadily disappearing in order to, if nothing else, capitalize on the fat pocketbooks of gullible tourists.

As for the Russians...Let's not talk about them. Or the Ukrainians. Or the Austrians, Romanians, or Turks. Or, worst of all, Bayerland.

Marie told "Cass" nothing of this, of course. Her old smile soon returned. "Penn State, eh? I had a friend who lived there for awhile working as a plumber. He says it's just like Silesia, all steel plants and foundries...oh! I'm from Prussia-Poland, by the way. But people sometimes just call us 'The Commonwealth'."
She picked up her rucksack from the ground, and turned around.
"Miss Adelheid! Let's drop our things off, aye?"

---

Adelheid

Adelheid turned. "Alright, Marie! Give me a second!"

She picked up her own bag and turned back to Yven. "Aye, aye, I suppose...although one can say that Japan's little stunt with Nanjing could also be them 'making a point'...I do get where you're coming from, though. On a lighter note, I need to drop off my things for now...mind coming with us, Yven?"

Yven Barriall of the Tribe of Monaghan.
I nodded.
"Sure, I'll come. Give me something to carry, though!", I said into the round and as soon as we were ready to depart, we went.
It was not far, Ilia looking up to us with a smile. He was a dark-skinned boy of twelve, thirteen years, white hair and red eyes. Thanks to him only wearing swimming trunks, one could see, that he was very well in form.
"Hey, Ilia!", Cao greeted and he smiled a bit nervously.
...ah, yes, puberty...
Even when being the adopted son of the heads of a fashion label, thus being surrounded by beautiful women whenever he came over, which was quite often, it was still difficult!

"Smart and witty", complimented Alexandra in a yet another sly, teasing-like tone. As the pair reached a spot close enough to the band, she brought them to a steady halt and finally closed in on their distance, her body directly brushing his. Upon forcing Fintan's other arm to circulate her back at chest-level, she quickly did hers as her right arm closes in around his back while her left arm rested on Fintan's opposite shoulders, with all 10 of her fingers lightly caressing his back area.

Upon resting her head on Fintan's right shoulder, Alexandra's eyes scanned her surroundings for anyone who might be looking on their "dance" with much interest. "So tell me, I wish to inquire on the age of such a charming man, with black hair and a matching black pair of eyes I'm dancing with and I do love to know about your genuine thoughts if you're an open person.", asked her in an innocent tone, as she soundly nuzzled his right shoulder and the right side of his neck. Additionally, she quickly reached for his hand on her side, placing it onto the back of her neck, waiting for him to softly brush her around the area.

Fintan Muc of the Tribe of Cork.
When we arrived closely by the band, my heart nearly stopped as Alexandra not only closed the distance, but also brought her close enough to rest her head on my shoulder, began nuzzling said shoulder and that side of my neck, her teasing not abating, but I did not mind.
Her caressing my back, I didn't mind it either... though, something in the back of my head felt, that Alexandra might get the wrong idea, when she noticed the, uh, way a certain part of my body expressed its attraction to her...
My arms were slung around her back at chest-level, while my head was near her right shoulder, then one hand was relocated to her neck, where I began to softly brush along.
I could smell her. It was a nice smell and a nice feeling.
Her question made me smile: "I'm of eighteen Springs, Alexandra.", I whispered into her ear, despite looking a bit younger then that - I was glad about the compliments. "And I would call myself very open..."
And single, for that matter...

Jason nodded, "oh we'll will be joining the main group later on, and I can tell, The free lands are quite stunning. But has to be said, you should really visit the three volcanoes nation park, now that mount Sulu'm'buru has calmed again. She's gone back into a state of slumber but have made a contrast to the pure white landscape back home"

Marvin however was quite happy being petted by Karen, his ears twitched at the strangers call but, in typical feline fashion ignored them , part of why he is ignoring the calls, Karen has a bag of kittybites.

"The castles here are interesting too" comments Karen, "and after the party, what are you guys going to be doing? Another assignment or taking time off?" She asks

As Karen talks, hints of a stud in her tongue are visible, but she doesn't make a point of flaunting it.

Brenda Iarnród of the Tribe of Louth.
"Time off.", I said with a small bit of frustration, as Marvin didn't move from his comfortable spot, and a bit of disgust at Karen's stud. Better focus on something else. "BI and the resort invited us to stay for another week an' we'll be happy to oblige."
Ribin nodded, not giving up on Marvin. "We soak in rays, they get a bit of publicity, everyone wins!", she said.
I nodded.

“Awww thank you, it’s an old design though. It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.” Marion replied back. She had to admit, Tea and Meava were cute as buttons, and for them to say that her swimsuit was equally as cute, she felt a little twinge of pride that her handiwork was still good.

Speaking of handiwork, she took a cursory glance at the handiwork of the swimwear they were both wearing. In advance of the party, she had done a little research on Bicini industry’s designs, and was trying to see if the works she saw before here were that of the company’s. Whether or not they were didn’t matter for her next reply, “I have to say, your swimsuits look nice as well.”

Nia Sneachtúil, of Cefnffordd Descent.
The swimsuits of the two girls, who looked at each other in grinning pride as such a beautiful lady called them nice-looking, were indeed of BI, the girliest swimsuits they had on offer, currently.
Neither of them seemed to mind.
While they were factory-produced, it was clear, that good materials went into it, worked by well-maintained machines and worn with great care, as well as enthusiasm.
"Thank you, Miss Marion!", Meava said and looked to me for a moment. I nodded. Both girls sat down to either side of us, Meava to Marion's right, Tea to my left. "If I may ask, where are you from?"

Isla Stiúrthóir of the Tribe of Fingal.
I smiled, sure that Fiete and Lykke would be happy to give out any sort of non-alcoholic drink they had on stock, without any issues - or asking for money, either. The unwritten rule of Selkie-Parties.
"Alright, no pork.", I said with a smile and knew, which ones I would give them. As I piled them up, I smiled at the woman, adding: "And it is no issue. Your husband, I mean." You had him quite well under control, my dear., I though to myself. "I look forward to the party as well, it promises to be a nice evening, with good music, better musicians, the best food and, most importantly for a single like myself, many strapping young men in swimming clothes!"
I winked at Roksana - who said, that only men were allowed to admire the female physique and not the other way around?
I was finished with the first plate around that time and placed it in front of her, using the spoon to indicate to three of the salads: "A potato salad, after me Mam's recipe. It has potatoes, butter and a dressing of mayonaise.", I explained the first, then moved on to the second, "Cál ceannann or White Headed Salad. It's made of potatoes, unsalted butter, milk, onions, leek, kale, cabbage and a few herbs. We usually give it as a side to meat-meals, but it works fine on its own, too." Better not mention, that I had this recipe from a magazine..., I thought, as I moved on to the third. "And this is a salad made from local fruits, freshly bought this morning. Mangoes are a huge part of it."
I let a beat pass, smiling at Roksana: "Your husband will get three different ones. I hope you don't mind that..."
I had eight different kinds of salads here, two of them included pigs' meat in some form or the other, and it was, in my opinion, impossible to give meaningful portions of all six on one large plate.

“Yum~. That sounds delicious. And healthy too~.” Roksana chirped upon hearing the salads’ description. When she listened to Isla’s reasoning, the redhead woman laughed, “It’s alright, friend. We’ll manage somehow. I’ll wait for him till he comes back with the drinks. But thank you for telling me~.”

She then stretched out her arms in boredom whilst enjoying the beach atmosphere. “I must say this island is a beautiful place, haha~. Are you a local here?”

Meanwhile with Nasrollah Afshar, he approached the bar where Fiete and Lykke manned.

“Excuse me ma’ams, sorry to be bit of bother, would you happened to be serving non-alcoholic drinks?” Nasrollah asked the girls politely.

Isla Stiúrthóir of the Tribe of Fingal.
I must admit, if her stretch was our of boredom or out of desire to show off or because she wanted to relieve muscle tension, it did show me, that I knew quite a few young men, and a few young women, who would make a pass at her - at least until they found out, that she was married.
"It indeed is a beautiful place, but I am not from here.", I said as I piled up onto the other plate, "I am from Fortham, on the shores of Lake Mór in the Mainland... that's eight thousand kilometers in this..." I motioned into the direction, which I think was the North-West. "...direction." I let a beat pass. "Say, if I may ask, where are you from?"

Fiete Kumma.
I gave the man a smile.
"Sure, one moment!", I said and pulled out four bottles of water for a few other lads, handing them a bottle opener as well before I turned to the new arrival. Lykke was occupied behind me. I smiled at Nasrollah, although I did not know his name. "Alright, we have iced tea, lemonade, both in the I-hate-my-teeth-variant and in the normal variant, water and of course ginger ale, which is, despite its name, not an ale. Alcohol is out once the kids are in bed."
I awaited his order while grabbing a bottle opener.

[Aurora Confederacy]

Brenda Iarnród of the Tribe of Louth.
"Time off.", I said with a small bit of frustration, as Marvin didn't move from his comfortable spot, and a bit of disgust at Karen's stud. Better focus on something else. "BI and the resort invited us to stay for another week an' we'll be happy to oblige."
Ribin nodded, not giving up on Marvin. "We soak in rays, they get a bit of publicity, everyone wins!", she said.
I nodded.

"sounds a good deal" comments Jason, clicking his fingers by Marvin. Marv turns to face Jason momentarily before turning to face Karen, he knows she has a bag of kittybites near by, and he wants some so lets out a soft meow before tapping her with his front paw.

Karen reaches behind her and picks up the bag and unseals it, handing the girls a small cube of solid cat-biscuit, THAT has Marvin's attention,
"Even I have started to get a bit of a tan" comments Karen, although she, because she is not the type to walkaround bare breasted, her clothing has left a destinct pale patch which i the shape of her usual clothing, however her arms are nicely tanned from 6 inches below the shoulders.

"well when we get back home, we're back in the office, Jason has a few interviews to do and some DPs to deal with, as well as dealing with some snarky shippers who dont understand that alkthough a container can carry X amount, we can't due to legal parameters" says Karen.

"oh and yes thanks for reminding me!" jokes Jason in a faked foul mood

[Hanoverian Great Britain]

Alexandra, still enjoying the passion, especially the calm and soft strokes on her neck looked a bit surprised at the mention of the young man's age. Luckily, Fintan could not see her eyes widening at that moment and later retracting to its original size when he described about his openness. "You're surely the luckiest 18 year old in the world", murmured her in a sense of accomplishment. As she stole a glance over his shoulder towards the bar, she could clearly see that his 2 friends are still occupied and were clearly "unlucky" when compared to her dance partner.

As the two continued to slowly sway from side to side while maintaining their posture, Alexandra could not help but finally choosing "to up the ante" between them. As she quickly retracts her head and all from his shoulder, they turned straight to face Fintan's, eye to eye. As she maintained one arm around his back, the other quickly coiled around his neck, voluntarily pushing his head forward into a kiss while at the same time slowly stroking his hair, as Alexandra closed her eyes and landed her scarlet red lips on his.

As she showed no signs of letting it go or letting him to freely respond, yet, her arm that circulated his back, in a sudden dropped lower down Fintan's body. Taking note of her superior height compared to his, Alexandra effortlessly used the said arm to lift him up from the bottom, keeping it there afterwards as a support while affectionately embracing him in mid-air as she had his legs locked around her body in order to allow him to cling on to her. Additionally, she decided to give her durability and strength a test by carrying him around in said position, all the while keeping him occupied with her kiss.

[Lillorainen]

Amy Laoch of the Tribe of Dundalk.
Alya looked up as we approached, her eyes suddenly widening, as did her smile.
One could still see the scar, which a piece of shrapnel had left on the side of her stomach, a scar, that would most likely stay with her - and which she insisted would stay on any image it was visible on. Our photographers told her, that this was their intent.
Anyway, the young woman, who might be the next Ilkhana of Kyrene, smiled and set down her bottle before rising.
"Amy!", she greeted with a smile, hugged me, then looked to Dragan, "Friends! Come, join me!"
"That was our intent, at least for one drink!", I said with a smile, before I introduced: "Those are Leo and Kira and Dragan."
Alya bowed her head lightly to each of them before she stopped when Dragan was mentioned. "Oh?", she said and looked at him, "The Dragan Bandera?"

Celina Treoraí of the Tribe of Louth.
Chris also agreed and here we were.
An awkward silence descended, before Felicia finally said: "I'm sorry for what happened in Dumhach.", she said and it sounded as if she meant it, "I was stupid to try anything with your lad and I can't even blame anyone."
A small twitch in Nora's eyebrow told me, that this was not the reply she expected.
Silence from our part.
I glanced to Chris - if he decided to accept the apology or not was his decision now.

A long moment of awkward silence passed, until, finally, Felicia's apology followed - a pretty straightforward one, perhaps one she had though about in thousands of various ways how to formulate it, but shrugged all of them off for numerous reasons and decided to just damn the torpedoes and go full ahead on as a result.
Chris had stopped frowning without noticing, raising his eyebrows a bit - and while he didn't look at Cel for long, he was aware, that his type was demanded now, making a final decision on how to deal with this.
At first, his inner voice suggested him to tell her, Yeah, wonderful - so may I kindly ask you to fuck off now? Thank you very much.
And considering the way he, Cel, Janina, Dragan, and many others who had been around in Dumhach back then had felt and thought about the incident in Coiléan Inn, it would even have been a fairly reasonable and logical way to go with. And while he was sure to remember, that Cel had told him about some previous apology from Felicia already some time ago, he also was aware of how little it had ultimately helped to remove the bad blood between them.
On the other hand, much had happened since then, even if Chris and Cel had only met periodically every three months, a lot had changed in the time being, not only amongst Chris and Cel (in regards to their relationship having manifested), but surely also with the Leathchúpla-Sisters. He hadn't seen Felicia again ever since then until now (not that he had missed her, quite on the contrary), so she hadn't been given the opportunity to apologize - and now as she did, it sounded as if she meant it. Her admission, that she couldn't even blame anyone, obviously came unexpected for Nora, given the Twins' role in it. Chris hadn't even held that against them back then, even if they had sort of initiated the whole crap, but even if so - they had counted fifteen Springs by that date, thus would see their seventeenth one in March, so they had arguably been at an age where people rarely tended to think about the consequences of their own actions. This was likely to have changed a bit since then.
Another long moment of silence passed ... of course, that action of hers had been considerably hard to forgive, barely possible even, that was for sure ... but then, Chris was a Lillo, and not just your average Frings, Pütz, or Lindholm, but also a Riescheid - and as such, in both roles, forgiving was well within his capabilities. Forgetting, however, was not.
Decisions ...
"I'm glad to hear about this insight of yours" - he heard himself say. "So I'll accept your apology."
He spoke these words much in the tone of a newsreader - in a serious manner, and with the same steeled facial expression as Cel. It would get clear, that he meant what he said, but it also made clear, that they wouldn't magically become best friends on earth because of this. It made clear, that in his opinion, both he and Felicia would now consider this issue sorted out and call it a day, each of them now going whatever way the Gods may path for each of them in the future. Nothing more, nothing less.
And Chris assumed, that Cel would get behind this line of thought.

Now, on to something happier!
The Princess with the well-known scar from a well-known incident was visibly glad to finally see someone who looked, at least, potentially interested in joining her in this, immediately rising, greeting Amy in the manner one would greet any good friend one had known for a time, and directly expressing her relief by telling Amy and her friends to come and join her.
Amy expressed her willingness to do so, at least for one drink, then introduced her friends in the Ladies First order. All three bowed their heads lightly in the same manner Alya had at each name. Dragan's name immediately rang a bell with the lassie who might become Ilkhana of Kyrene someday - and she even recalled his last name.
This didn't surprise Dragan a lot, considering how Amy's friends had heard about him as much as Dragan's friends had heard about her.
Well, this, and probably the fact, that his name, being of Serbian origin and meaning 'the beloved one', certainly wasn't exactly common in Kyrenaia, and not really more so in the Free Lands (except for the Cavalry Regiments with that name, but that was a coincidence) ...
He grinned and shrugged. "Well, considering how few of my sort are around, I'll most certainly be the Dragan Bandera!" - he said. He struggled to interpret Alya's surprise as either positive or negative, and in either case, for what reason in particular, but since this would possibly be answered in a few seconds, he just was as he naturally was. "Nice to meet you!"

[Shikonjima]

Raidri Gormchló of the Tribe of Fingal.
My son and I were listening, with great interest - the news, that the game would be available in English and a few other languages was awesome, for it meant, that we would be able to play it.
And the discussion shifted more towards history.
"For us, these centuries from circa 1615 to 1850, were the times of us being explorers, traders and mercenaries - and of our Second Golden Age. Chances are, that ancestor's of Áed here..." My boy grinned. "...fought for Shikonjima or her enemies for Silver. There was hardly a war of that time, where Selkie Light Cavalry didn't make a mark."
"I know, that Lillorainen, Shikonjima, Shamsiyya and the Khanate are planned as playable civilizations for the next Add-on, so...", Áed said and grinned with a bit of savagery, "...Mangudai versus Marcach - all a question of the Micro!"

Faye Donn of the Tribe of Wexford.
I thought for a moment.
"Depends on the size of the boat, really.", I told Setsu, "Some old freighters were sold off for further use, sure, but the majority of the larger vessels is decommissioned and scrapped. Smaller vessels, like torpedo boats and buoy tenders and such vessels, are frequently sold off to private owners for modification." I gave a small shrug. "I guess, it helps financing the next warships..."

Both Kazuo and Yelda had to grin, as Raidri explained how his, and consequently, Áed's ancestors had been fairly likely to have fought for silver in some place or the other, depending on who could come up with more silver, either for Shikonjima, or against it. During the era in question, both Selkie and Shikonjimanese had quite had a habit of always being present at some place in the world or the other, even though one with a regular army, and one rather with mercenaries.
Both had to smile when Áed named their respective home countries as new civilizations in an Add-on - not only because it would honor their countries, but also because it would certainly also add a lot of spice to the game, which already sounded promising in itself.
Both would have to admit, that their knowledge on Shamsiyyan and Lillorainian military history was rather vague, but they knew the essentials - the people they commonly perceived as a lovely bunch of sun-worshippers today had some tradition of relying on Cannoneers, especially light ones, with the Qaranisa being the mounted ones (as the Qaranisa had been militias of different sorts and with different roles throughout history, with their current one being in the hands of the cantons, replacing conscription service) and the common Janissary being an unmounted unit. Both units had cooperated in various different formations in that era - but at the end of the day, these were fairly easy to implement into a strategy game (especially since the Janissaries were already used by the Turks in AoE II).
Lillorainen, or rather the bunch of maritime and peasant republics as well as petty kingdoms it had been back then, with the Congress of Cities being their closest equivalent to their current Federal Government, had developed their modern, for those days, warfare based on their old Viking equipment - they had still used their Longboats, but had gone with the times and put light cannons on them, making them fast and flexible; on the other hand, they had still used their Berserk tactics, which, however, had remained quite efficient, with Elite Swordfighters set on drugs in order to not feel any pain anymore. They remembered to have heard, that this practice had still been common during the 1970s Civil War, even though the soldiers had, of course, been armed with guns, and the term 'Berserk' had rather only been colloquial back then. They weren't sure as to how common this practice would be today, though. Be it as it may - both were easy things to implement, too, combined with bonuses on roadbuilding and the capacity of trade ships.
Speaking of trade ships - out of the nine states the United Confederacy consisted of nowadays, Carlotina would have been a solid option, too, at least when it came to boosting their economy, as they hadn't been exactly poor at resources.
Yelda grinned back in a similar way. "Well, make an educated guess as to what my ancestors were doing in that time!" - she sad. "So you'll surely know what I'm most likely going to focus on."
"I could even imagine, that the new civilizations would have some nice bonuses which complement each other well!" - Kazuo said. "With one another, as well as with the ones already in the game. Is there already any projected release date for the Add-on?"
Meanwhile, Setsuko nodded. So, the practice of selling old vessels out was about as common in these parts as it was in Shikonjima. "Indeed, there will be some cash flowing in from the sales, so it's a fairly logical thing to do." She let a beat pass. "I think, the largest ship ever sold out was the ISN Harue, a Juuhime-class Heavy Destroyer built in 1927. They operated until 1965, and only a few years later, Hideharu Rembutsu, a rich guy running a logistics company, bought the ship - he wanted to have it by all means, and no one still has an idea why, for it only served as a freighter for a couple of years." She shrugged. "But since we Shikonjimanese have a habit of using the same ship and ship class names over and over again, maybe someone of Rembutsu's progeny might also buy the RSN Harue that is currently shipping around in our Seas. And if it's only to stay consistent."

[Minroz]

Isla Stiúrthóir of the Tribe of Fingal.
I must admit, if her stretch was our of boredom or out of desire to show off or because she wanted to relieve muscle tension, it did show me, that I knew quite a few young men, and a few young women, who would make a pass at her - at least until they found out, that she was married.
"It indeed is a beautiful place, but I am not from here.", I said as I piled up onto the other plate, "I am from Fortham, on the shores of Lake Mór in the Mainland... that's eight thousand kilometers in this..." I motioned into the direction, which I think was the North-West. "...direction." I let a beat pass. "Say, if I may ask, where are you from?"

Roksana Esfahani

“Oh?” The redhead woman quizzed with intrigued. “Well friend, I’m from quite a land faraway and I’m afraid you haven’t heard of it but since you kindly asked, I’m from the country called Aryan. I hailed from the city of Teheran~.”

While Roksana is a boisterous warrior-gal, she have taken pride in her country’s heritage as a very ancient empire like many Aryanians, a nation which influenced the civilizations of Yuropa and Yazhou, she doesn’t like to boast out her country’s superiority over others because she’s a kind-hearted woman. Still, it doesn’t stop her from being proud of her nation.

Fiete Kumma.
I gave the man a smile.
"Sure, one moment!", I said and pulled out four bottles of water for a few other lads, handing them a bottle opener as well before I turned to the new arrival. Lykke was occupied behind me. I smiled at Nasrollah, although I did not know his name. "Alright, we have iced tea, lemonade, both in the I-hate-my-teeth-variant and in the normal variant, water and of course ginger ale, which is, despite its name, not an ale. Alcohol is out once the kids are in bed."
I awaited his order while grabbing a bottle opener.

Nasrollah Afshar

“Ah, I see…” The Aryanian scratched his cheek, deep in thought. “That’s quite reasonable, hmm…Can I have two lemonades? It would nice if it’s squeeze-fresh if you have any.”

While Aryan is Muslim-majority nation and strongly influenced by Islamic laws historically, alcohol isn’t banned by law. Nasrollah doesn’t mind too much if anyone drinks alcohol in front of him, he has friends and relatives who drank the alcoholic beverages. Nonetheless, many Aryanians still reveres the teachings of Quran and Islam and Aryan is considered one of the most religious nations in the world of Iclamia.

[Polish Prussian Commonwealth]

Yven Barriall of the Tribe of Monaghan.
I nodded.
"Sure, I'll come. Give me something to carry, though!", I said into the round and as soon as we were ready to depart, we went.
It was not far, Ilia looking up to us with a smile. He was a dark-skinned boy of twelve, thirteen years, white hair and red eyes. Thanks to him only wearing swimming trunks, one could see, that he was very well in form.
"Hey, Ilia!", Cao greeted and he smiled a bit nervously.
...ah, yes, puberty...
Even when being the adopted son of the heads of a fashion label, thus being surrounded by beautiful women whenever he came over, which was quite often, it was still difficult!

Adelheid would hand Yven a small, brown, and slightly heavy bag. If he felt like peeking, he would see a medium-sized bottle of Prussia-Poland's national toxic swill.
"Don't drink it without dilution. You'll ruin your liver." warned Adelheid.
Upon arrival, Adelheid smiled at Ilia, and knelt down to his height, before offering her hand for a handshake.
"Hello," she said, with a smile. "Your name is Illia?"
Marie stayed in the back, for now, gauging the boy, seeing what sort of 'stuff' he was made of.

[New Visayan Islands]

Gerald Vicente
At the Stall

"Ah, I see, so it's more or less like the military aspect of Citizenship Advancement Training?" Gerald then asked. "We have an analogous program in the Confederation; the military aspect is open to Visayan students by Grade 11, while the civil aspect is part of the Grade 12 curriculum. I was one of those who volunteered for the military aspect as soon as the opportunity came; Holy Name University's Senior High School CAT Program raised two companies of cadets prior to the Tagbilaran Riots of 2003, but after the Riots the program saw anywhere between four to eight companies. Batch 2007--my Batch--saw five companies raised by the program, enough to fill an entire battalion; we had a total of 600 cadets in my batch across all two years and four strands in the university's Senior High School Program.

"I'm starting to wander off, am I not?" Gerald chuckled while taking a gulp of his drink.

[AHSCA]

Aonas Folracht of the Tribe of Wicklow.
Iliane smiled with a sad note.
"Aurelia speaks often about Marcella in the press, too.", she says, "Mostly in the more boulevart-oriented press, though, as the more political press wants other things from her." She looked, if one asked me, beautiful, even with that sad smile, or maybe because of it? "The nature of her relationship, being a woman in love with another woman, found a strange mixture of adoration, derision and approval in Kyrenaia... while such a relationship is no problem in some parts of the world and at least accepted in others, it is a huge upheaval in the Sultanate."
She shook her head.
"I don't envy either of them.", she added.
Silence, for a moment.
"Well, who would envy a girl such as her?", Dad suddenly said in his booming voice, "With all of the respects a Selkie can pay to a kinswoman and to Duchess Marcella, the two are in a tough spot - not to mention their parents." He shook his head. "I, personally, much rather prefer my own situation. I have a beautiful daughter, a good son and wonderful company!"
He grinned at both Iliane and Ayla, the former of which blushed. Was it me or were our hands a bit closer together?

Ayla lowered her eyes in sadness, that politics can be such a harsh mistress sometimes it has to interfere with matters of the heart. Maybe sometimes that was for the best but why would so many care that two women wanted to be together? As such she couldn't really speak more on the subject but yes, she'd for sure have to meet and have a friendly gathering with the good Princess. "Well you are a blessed man, I can't deny that, good sir."

[Kuronami]

Galen Lannaire of the Tribe of Louth.
Kean and I smiled at each other at being called 'skilled horsemen', who probably put their own countrymen to shame despite the horse being their national animal. It were slight understatements, in our opinion, as horsemanship was so deeply ingrained into our culture, that there were a lot of kids, who learned how to ride a horse before they learned how to write their own names (myself and Kean included).
Their joy and enthusiasm was not lost on me and neither was it on Kean, though.
Isabel, behind me, looked a bit scared, but that quickly subsided, while Bianca seemed to have huge dreams of becoming a horsewoman herself.
"I wish you luck.", Kean told Bianca, smiling softly, "Horses are wonderful animals, no matter what wind and rain, no matter how much sun or dust, they will always carry you safely." At that, he petted the side of his own steed's throat, smiling and nodding to Bianca, inviting her to do the same. "Take good care of them and they'll take good care of you, as my Dad always says."
I nodded, turned and led us a bit downstream, where a small bridge, nothing too fancy, would allow us to cross without any daring deeds of aerial time, and smiled.
"Many people can ride, but not all of them are horsemen.", I said, "Becoming a horseman requires not only skill, but also dedication and a lot of time, isn't that right?"
I smiled at my horse, who snorted - either in agreement or derision... or because a few grains of sand had come into her nose.
Either of the three.

She nodded with a big smile, "Yes take care of them they will take care of you! For sure! Yup it takes lot to learn how to properly mount, ride and saddle a horse. Shoes, grooming, there's always so much to do. But that's why I got my folks and my big brother to teach me. But I'm 8 so I still have lots of time to learn more."

[Quen Minh]

Branwen Blaidd, of Tralee Descent.
I blushed lightly.
"Please, call me Branwen. I'm not that old yet!", I said and pulled them along, towards the tree line and past the supply carts, which were getting even more empty by the second, the line making good progress. Ritu seemed quite bemused by me pulling her along like a kid pulling her parents along.
Or a puppy its master.
Let's not go there.
Anyway, we passed them and the tree line, suddenly being surrounded by either side by what might as well be called jungle, a paved road under out feet.
I greeted a straggler, who led his horse past us, the heavy saddle bags empty, he bowed his head to us, we passed each other.
I led us a bit down the street, then onto a small beaten path, which went through the thicket for a moment or two, then opened up into a small clearing. Around a little water fountain, a total of fifteen portable toilets were erected. They were not pretty, but they did their job and that was something.
A few lads and lassies were sitting on the benches nearby, waiting for friends, who were apparently taking a moment or two. Cousin Nia, with her snow white hair, looked over as she heard our steps, waved - I resolved to park my rear next to her in a minute.
"Here we are!", I said and let go.
Ritu immediately darted for one of the toilets.

Hyùnh and Loan let go of their hands as they glanced at the rather dismaying portable toilets, prompting them to share looks with each other. Shrugging, they thanked Branwen for the detour and they both went in, taking note, of course, of Ritu, who sprinted like a tiger towards one of the toilets.

Moments passed by, and Loan was the first one to exit to display her beach glamour: a purple bikini with her back hair tied up in a quick and messy ponytail.

"Finally, something that fits the atmosphere," Loan replied.

Afterwards, the toilet door next to Loan's opened to reveal Hyùnh in a more chic and stylish fashion: a black and red bathing suit with sunglasses and a sun hat of similar colors to fit well with her double twisted ponytail.

"Well, what do you think, girls," Hyùnh smirked with delight as she posed like a model.

Loan scoffed in disbelief.

"Like a diva."

"Shall we move on? And also, Branwen, as you would like to be called, is there a place where we can put our bags to save us the trouble of going back to the hotel?"

[Mediama]

“Awww thank you, it’s an old design though. It’s a pleasure to meet you, too.” Marion replied back. She had to admit, Tea and Meava were cute as buttons, and for them to say that her swimsuit was equally as cute, she felt a little twinge of pride that her handiwork was still good.

Speaking of handiwork, she took a cursory glance at the handiwork of the swimwear they were both wearing. In advance of the party, she had done a little research on Bicini industry’s designs, and was trying to see if the works she saw before here were that of the company’s. Whether or not they were didn’t matter for her next reply, “I have to say, your swimsuits look nice as well.”

Nia Sneachtúil, of Cefnffordd Descent.
The swimsuits of the two girls, who looked at each other in grinning pride as such a beautiful lady called them nice-looking, were indeed of BI, the girliest swimsuits they had on offer, currently.
Neither of them seemed to mind.
While they were factory-produced, it was clear, that good materials went into it, worked by well-maintained machines and worn with great care, as well as enthusiasm.
"Thank you, Miss Marion!", Meava said and looked to me for a moment. I nodded. Both girls sat down to either side of us, Meava to Marion's right, Tea to my left. "If I may ask, where are you from?"

Marion pursed her lips for a moment in an attempt to figure out how best to explain this to a child. While she admired the handiwork of BI’s products, she had more immediate questions to answer,“I’m from New London, a large city with millions of people, in a country called Mediama, a country that’s across the Atlantic Ocean to the North of the United States.”

She leaned in conspiratorially, “We’re far up north enough to have polar bears.” She said with a playful smile. She leaned back “In fact, when I left to go here, it was still snowing and freezing.”

She then listened briefly to their reactions before she asked a question of her own, “And where do you young ladies come from?”

[Mervay]

Enya Cíochach of the Tribe of Navan.
Ida smiled and Kiah nodded at the question, if the three of them could join us, I grinned and nodded with good cheer, handing them their bottles. "Sure, go ahead!"
The two introduced themselves and their "cute little friend", an estimation I wholeheartedly agreed with, their names were Lise and Lucas - and Lucas was good looking. On the other hand, I had a boyfriend, Ida had an It's-complicated and Kiah had a cat, who was quite possessive, so he held some interest, but not romantic.
"It's alright.", Ida said with a smile, taking over talking as the oldest sister, "I'm Ida, those are my younger sisters Kiah and Enya!"
Kiah waved and gave a friendly "Hi!", while I showed more enthusiasm.
"Hi!", I almost gushed, "It's nice to meet you! Dilly is cute!"
I offered him my hand to smell.
"I always thought, that the Cleanóiril was endemic to the Free Lands.", Ida said with a smile, "Where's he from?"

Leonard Rualacha of the Tribe of Wicklow.
I nodded.
"Indeed, I am a model for Bicíní Industries.", I said as if it was the most normal thing in the world. I had a small blush on my cheeks at the very nice smile. She was also quite attractive, to be honest. "I also freshly graduated school, am a swimmer and a Marcach, a man of the blade - though, I must admit, that I am the latter only semi-professionally. I will most likely never measure up to the best of the League, but that should not stop me from trying!"
I grinned at the last.
"What are you doing, Athena?", I asked.

Aurora Alce.
We had quickly left Finn's, Jerald's, Evelyn's and Kiana's conversation - of course we knew Kiana, and the company she worked for, and while we partially served the same market, we were not direct competitors. It was complicated.
The LCN had many ventures and so did the CCVF.
Mangaire only had one.
When Mateo/Vladimir - I neither knew his real name, nor his cover name - approached us, we were free to talk, my boss using a bottle opener to open a bottle of lemonade for both him and me as I handed him a third bottle.
I smiled at him.
"Sciao!", I greeted him with a smile and good cheer, using the Lutetiian Greeting, "Would you like to join us for a lemonade?"

Lisolette Devienne and Lucas Walker
Gladly the girls seemed to be up to the idea of the couple joining them and, them handed their bottles said it clearly that they were welcomed.

"Merci." Lucas smiled gently as his girlfriend and her grabbed their bottles. They both seemed to drink a bit of their lemonades, sighing in relief as they enjoyed it.
They sat on the sand as Lise closed her umbrella, mostly since it wasn't those that could be attached to the sand.
Meanwhile Lucas placed his bag on the sand too, close to his girlfriend's umbrella. He looked at Dilly being close to Enya, when she let her smell her hand he did so gladly as the couple chuckled.

"Seems you already like him." Lise giggled at such sight of her friend already liking Enya, it reminds her of that same time back in Launceston where that mini-maid, Rona it was her name, that let him smell her hand.
Out of that they heard their names and saw who was who with Ida being the older sister and Kiah and Enya being the young ones.

"Nice to meet you all girls. Once again thank you for letting us join you." The couple bowed at them and gave a warm smile at the sisters for letting them join as so it seemed it did their little friend with happy eyes.

"Related to the issue of where did I found him, Cuán. I don't remember exactly where I stayed but as you all know, Black Foxes are seen as pests and well, just because he wanted something to eat desperately they wanted to kill him so I stepped and took care of it. Being forced to abandon where I would be staying and trying to see what I should do and luckily a group of friends helped me to take care and taught me how to deal with a black fox too, I also have to import all what he needs from Cuán all the way to Mervay once per week, But that's of less, what matters is that now I have a loyal friend with me."

As soon as Lise ended she motioned Dilly to move to her arms and caressed him and teasingly tickled him, with the fox enjoying it and loving it.

Athena Freezis

So a model, freshly graduated guy, swimmer and a Marcach, a man of the sword, archery, fencing, swordancing, horseriding and horsearchery. Now that was interesting, clearly interesting; she was impressed about that, combined with her noticing him blushing a bit too it made the violet eyed woman blush even harder as she braided her hair.

"That's spirit, it takes time and patience to do it, as so hard work so I guess you are doing great in trying." She kept her warm smile at him as her thoughts were then directed on his question.

"Well relax, have a great time and be away of work. Ever since we joined SEA I have been working like crazy to get into the SEA Nations markets and trust me, it's a hard work... That is without counting our movements to other nations such as Kyrenaia, Nouvelle-Dunkerque, Teressien, Shamsiyya and Shikonjima..." Clearly she sighed there, knowing it was quite the work, well that's what she gets being the head of one of Mervay's most important corporations and families, the entire Freezis Family and Group was led by this young women of 24 years.

"The Freezis Group has been and will keep trying to expand their markets and trust me, in home we aren't the only ones with the Dileva's, the other big, medium and small corporations doing their moves to find more success out of Europa and Bolgiano." She let a beat pass as she looked at the sea and then Leo once again.

"I think that does explain a bit my reason right??" She asked adding in thought for herself then Adding the fact of finding that someone of course

Mateo Alfonso Crucitti or Vladimir Toschya... Or whatever other name he has...

And... Bingo. It seems lady luck was on his side after finding Alce and Esecutore. The warm smile and recivement was very good as he grinned at both Aurora and Silvio.

"Would be a pleasure to Ma'am." He grinned at them as he decided to present himself.

"Vladimir Toschya at your services Ma'am. I hope my appeareance didn't interrupted something..."

[The Selkie]

"sounds a good deal" comments Jason, clicking his fingers by Marvin. Marv turns to face Jason momentarily before turning to face Karen, he knows she has a bag of kittybites near by, and he wants some so lets out a soft meow before tapping her with his front paw.

Karen reaches behind her and picks up the bag and unseals it, handing the girls a small cube of solid cat-biscuit, THAT has Marvin's attention,
"Even I have started to get a bit of a tan" comments Karen, although she, because she is not the type to walkaround bare breasted, her clothing has left a destinct pale patch which i the shape of her usual clothing, however her arms are nicely tanned from 6 inches below the shoulders.

"well when we get back home, we're back in the office, Jason has a few interviews to do and some DPs to deal with, as well as dealing with some snarky shippers who dont understand that alkthough a container can carry X amount, we can't due to legal parameters" says Karen.

"oh and yes thanks for reminding me!" jokes Jason in a faked foul mood

Brenda Iarnród of the Tribe of Louth.
We both declined the cat biscuits - we didn't want to lure him in with such cheap tricks, not even when we were getting desperate. So, Ribin motioned to me, that she had an idea as as she went to her bike, I knew, what it was: Making a sound, that would awake his curiosity, lure him over that way.
Not much better, but a bit!
I, instead, looked at Jason: "Don't worry, you aren't the only one, who has to suffer from unreasonable customers... Dad has, too.", I said and explained: "Ya see, me Dad's Duncan Iarnród of the Tribe of Louth - as in the CEO of Ironcastle Ironworks." Well, there we were... let's see, how they would react to that tidbit. "He sells a lot of steel of highest qualities for various purposes to customers within and outside of the Free Lands. Let's just leave it at military customers being quite unreasonable when it comes to their toys of steel... and perverts, too..."

Alexandra, still enjoying the passion, especially the calm and soft strokes on her neck looked a bit surprised at the mention of the young man's age. Luckily, Fintan could not see her eyes widening at that moment and later retracting to its original size when he described about his openness. "You're surely the luckiest 18 year old in the world", murmured her in a sense of accomplishment. As she stole a glance over his shoulder towards the bar, she could clearly see that his 2 friends are still occupied and were clearly "unlucky" when compared to her dance partner.

As the two continued to slowly sway from side to side while maintaining their posture, Alexandra could not help but finally choosing "to up the ante" between them. As she quickly retracts her head and all from his shoulder, they turned straight to face Fintan's, eye to eye. As she maintained one arm around his back, the other quickly coiled around his neck, voluntarily pushing his head forward into a kiss while at the same time slowly stroking his hair, as Alexandra closed her eyes and landed her scarlet red lips on his.

As she showed no signs of letting it go or letting him to freely respond, yet, her arm that circulated his back, in a sudden dropped lower down Fintan's body. Taking note of her superior height compared to his, Alexandra effortlessly used the said arm to lift him up from the bottom, keeping it there afterwards as a support while affectionately embracing him in mid-air as she had his legs locked around her body in order to allow him to cling on to her. Additionally, she decided to give her durability and strength by moving him around in said position, all the while keeping him occupied with her kiss.

Fintan Muc of the Tribe of Cork.
"You're surely the luckiest 18 year old in the world...", she told me in a murmur and I was inclined to agree - very much agree!
I was dancing with a beautiful woman, stroking her neck while she was stroking my back, close enough to smell her scent and...
...and then things took a slight turn.
She took her head off of my shoulders, looked me into the eyes for a moment, then brought our lips together with a hand at the back of my head - I was about to panic, but her soft strokes kept that at bay as she restricted my ability to move and did so on purpose.
She then lifted me up, to which I coiled my legs around her by reflex, embracing me mid-air while still kissing me and still swaying to the music.
One had to give the Saraighs one thing: They did not stop despite us being in clear sight. A few onlookers were a bit surprised, but quite honestly, so was I...
And to be honest, this was the third time I kissed a girl, so... I might have been very bad at it. I still put effort into it, after I had a moment to recover.
And as our lips parted, I was speechless, willing to suggest to take this elsewhere, but... Fintan.exe was currently not responding.
Please reboot.

A long moment of awkward silence passed, until, finally, Felicia's apology followed - a pretty straightforward one, perhaps one she had though about in thousands of various ways how to formulate it, but shrugged all of them off for numerous reasons and decided to just damn the torpedoes and go full ahead on as a result.
Chris had stopped frowning without noticing, raising his eyebrows a bit - and while he didn't look at Cel for long, he was aware, that his type was demanded now, making a final decision on how to deal with this.
At first, his inner voice suggested him to tell her, Yeah, wonderful - so may I kindly ask you to fuck off now? Thank you very much.
And considering the way he, Cel, Janina, Dragan, and many others who had been around in Dumhach back then had felt and thought about the incident in Coiléan Inn, it would even have been a fairly reasonable and logical way to go with. And while he was sure to remember, that Cel had told him about some previous apology from Felicia already some time ago, he also was aware of how little it had ultimately helped to remove the bad blood between them.
On the other hand, much had happened since then, even if Chris and Cel had only met periodically every three months, a lot had changed in the time being, not only amongst Chris and Cel (in regards to their relationship having manifested), but surely also with the Leathchúpla-Sisters. He hadn't seen Felicia again ever since then until now (not that he had missed her, quite on the contrary), so she hadn't been given the opportunity to apologize - and now as she did, it sounded as if she meant it. Her admission, that she couldn't even blame anyone, obviously came unexpected for Nora, given the Twins' role in it. Chris hadn't even held that against them back then, even if they had sort of initiated the whole crap, but even if so - they had counted fifteen Springs by that date, thus would see their seventeenth one in March, so they had arguably been at an age where people rarely tended to think about the consequences of their own actions. This was likely to have changed a bit since then.
Another long moment of silence passed ... of course, that action of hers had been considerably hard to forgive, barely possible even, that was for sure ... but then, Chris was a Lillo, and not just your average Frings, Pütz, or Lindholm, but also a Riescheid - and as such, in both roles, forgiving was well within his capabilities. Forgetting, however, was not.
Decisions ...
"I'm glad to hear about this insight of yours" - he heard himself say. "So I'll accept your apology."
He spoke these words much in the tone of a newsreader - in a serious manner, and with the same steeled facial expression as Cel. It would get clear, that he meant what he said, but it also made clear, that they wouldn't magically become best friends on earth because of this. It made clear, that in his opinion, both he and Felicia would now consider this issue sorted out and call it a day, each of them now going whatever way the Gods may path for each of them in the future. Nothing more, nothing less.
And Chris assumed, that Cel would get behind this line of thought.

Now, on to something happier!
The Princess with the well-known scar from a well-known incident was visibly glad to finally see someone who looked, at least, potentially interested in joining her in this, immediately rising, greeting Amy in the manner one would greet any good friend one had known for a time, and directly expressing her relief by telling Amy and her friends to come and join her.
Amy expressed her willingness to do so, at least for one drink, then introduced her friends in the Ladies First order. All three bowed their heads lightly in the same manner Alya had at each name. Dragan's name immediately rang a bell with the lassie who might become Ilkhana of Kyrene someday - and she even recalled his last name.
This didn't surprise Dragan a lot, considering how Amy's friends had heard about him as much as Dragan's friends had heard about her.
Well, this, and probably the fact, that his name, being of Serbian origin and meaning 'the beloved one', certainly wasn't exactly common in Kyrenaia, and not really more so in the Free Lands (except for the Cavalry Regiments with that name, but that was a coincidence) ...
He grinned and shrugged. "Well, considering how few of my sort are around, I'll most certainly be the Dragan Bandera!" - he said. He struggled to interpret Alya's surprise as either positive or negative, and in either case, for what reason in particular, but since this would possibly be answered in a few seconds, he just was as he naturally was. "Nice to meet you!"

Amy Laoch of the Tribe of Dundalk.
After shaking hands with Dragan, Alya looked to me, smiled slightly as we sat down.
"You know, that she never lost a bad word about you, right?", she asked and nodded into my direction. I took this as the sign for me to distribute drinks, which I did. Kyrenaian Iced Tea, as I noted, Na'na, mint tea. "So, now that you are free again, you'll have a lot of dances tonight as everyone here has a high opinion of you... myself included."
She bowed her head in gratitude as she got her bottle, myself grinning as she spoke.
"Although, I'll leave it at a dance, don't worry.", she added with a smile, shrugged, "You're not my type."
It wasn't exactly gentle, but it was clear - and, to be honest, there were no signs of romantic interest, so better to make clear fronts before anyone could get a wrong idea.
And wrong ideas, in the case of a Kyrenaian Princess, could be devastating.

Celina Treoraí of the Tribe of Louth.
Felicia received Chris' acceptance of her apology with a grateful bow of her head, then glanced to me.
I knew, what Chris had thought and ultimately, it left out one thing: The fact, that Chris' and mine bond came out stronger then ever. Sure, we had a few kinks to work out and the dance immediately after that had been with someone else, but, ultimately, we came out stronger and closer together.
I let a few more beats pass.
Aside from Patty and Nora, we had a few more onlookers, who were waiting for my answer.
"Patty and Nora told me long ago, what had happened.", I said in a cold tone, that make the Northern Islands look like tropics, and shook my head, "I accept your apology, Felicia, and I forgive you."
But I won't forget it., although unsaid, went along and was heard.
And Felicia's expression said as much. She bowed her head, maybe a bit deeper then necessary, but I did not care.
"I'll leave you, then.", she said and was off, Patty following her.
Nora remained a moment, looked at us. "Thanks.", she said with honesty in her eyes and followed the two, her pace more sedate.
Did she want us to follow her, and ultimately Felicia, to maybe talk a bit more?
I did not know, but I knew, that if she had worn a jacket, she would have now pulled up the hood and shoved her hands into the pockets.

Both Kazuo and Yelda had to grin, as Raidri explained how his, and consequently, Áed's ancestors had been fairly likely to have fought for silver in some place or the other, depending on who could come up with more silver, either for Shikonjima, or against it. During the era in question, both Selkie and Shikonjimanese had quite had a habit of always being present at some place in the world or the other, even though one with a regular army, and one rather with mercenaries.
Both had to smile when Áed named their respective home countries as new civilizations in an Add-on - not only because it would honor their countries, but also because it would certainly also add a lot of spice to the game, which already sounded promising in itself.
Both would have to admit, that their knowledge on Shamsiyyan and Lillorainian military history was rather vague, but they knew the essentials - the people they commonly perceived as a lovely bunch of sun-worshippers today had some tradition of relying on Cannoneers, especially light ones, with the Qaranisa being the mounted ones (as the Qaranisa had been militias of different sorts and with different roles throughout history, with their current one being in the hands of the cantons, replacing conscription service) and the common Janissary being an unmounted unit. Both units had cooperated in various different formations in that era - but at the end of the day, these were fairly easy to implement into a strategie game (especially since the Janissaries were already used by the Turks in AoE II).
Lillorainen, or rather the bunch of maritime and peasant republics as well as petty kingdoms it had been back then, with the Congress of Cities being their closest equivalent to their current Federal Government, had developed their modern, for those days, warfare based on their old Viking equipment - they had still used their Longboats, but had gone with the times and put light cannons on them, making them fast and flexible; on the other hand, they had still used their Berserk tactics, which, however, had remained quite efficient, with Elite Swordfighters set on drugs in order to not feel any pain anymore. They remembered to have heard, that this practice had still been common during the 1970s Civil War, even though the soldiers had, of course, been armed with guns, and the term 'Berserk' had rather only been colloquial back then. They weren't sure as to how common this practice would be today, though. Be it as it may - both were easy things to implement, too, combined with bonuses on roadbuilding and the capacity of trade ships.
Speaking of trade ships - out of the nine states the United Confederacy consisted of nowadays, Carlotina would have been a solid option, too, at least when it came to boosting their economy, as they hadn't been exactly poor at resources.
Yelda grinned back in a similar way. "Well, make an educated guess as to what my ancestors were doing in that time!" - she sad. "So you'll surely know what I'm most likely going to focus on."
"I could even imagine, that the new civilizations would have some nice bonuses which complement each other well!" - Kazuo said. "With one another, as well as with the ones already in the game. Is there already any projected release date for the Add-on?"
Meanwhile, Setsuko nodded. So, the practice of selling old vessels out was about as common in these parts as it was in Shikonjima. "Indeed, there will be some cash flowing in from the sales, so it's a fairly logical thing to do." She let a beat pass. "I think, the largest ship ever sold out was the ISN Harue, a Juuhime-class Heavy Destroyer built in 1927. They operated until 1965, and only a few years later, Hideharu Rembutsu, a rich guy running a logistics company, bought the ship - he wanted to have it by all means, and no one still has an idea why, for it only served as a freighter for a couple of years." She shrugged. "But since we Shikonjimanese have a habit of using the same ship and ship class names over and over again, maybe someone of Rembutsu's progeny might also buy the RSN Harue that is currently shipping around in our Seas. And if it's only to stay consistent."

Raidri Gormchló of the Tribe of Fingal.
"Well, I know, that Zaijia is finally going to get a bloody nerf.", I said with a vicious smile, "Sure, it's fun to have Canons on Earthworks with grapeshot and see their hordes run up to you, but at some point, the horde is going to break through no matter what, simply overwhelming you!"
"Zaijia-Players are noobs.", Áed said with a self-assurance, that bordered on sagely words - only that he was a lad and not an Elder. "Though, the amount of micro necessary for Horai is absolutely insane... few, very effective units, the direct opposite!"

Faye Donn of the Tribe of Wexford.
I nodded, quite amused by the closing statement.
"I did hear, that SDY is planning to adapt some of their Missile Boats and Fast Attack Craft into designs for yachts.", I told her, "And then built them from keel-up." I shrugged. "I am no engineer, so you'll have to ask Raidri how far that is coming along, but it sounds like a fun idea. Especially since the Faolchu-II can make 45 knots!"

Isla Stiúrthóir of the Tribe of Fingal.
I must admit, if her stretch was our of boredom or out of desire to show off or because she wanted to relieve muscle tension, it did show me, that I knew quite a few young men, and a few young women, who would make a pass at her - at least until they found out, that she was married.
"It indeed is a beautiful place, but I am not from here.", I said as I piled up onto the other plate, "I am from Fortham, on the shores of Lake Mór in the Mainland... that's eight thousand kilometers in this..." I motioned into the direction, which I think was the North-West. "...direction." I let a beat pass. "Say, if I may ask, where are you from?"

Roksana Esfahani

“Oh?” The redhead woman quizzed with intrigued. “Well friend, I’m from quite a land faraway and I’m afraid you haven’t heard of it but since you kindly asked, I’m from the country called Aryan. I hailed from the city of Teheran~.”

While Roksana is a boisterous warrior-gal, she have taken pride in her country’s heritage as a very ancient empire like many Aryanians, a nation which influenced the civilizations of Yuropa and Yazhou, she doesn’t like to boast out her country’s superiority over others because she’s a kind-hearted woman. Still, it doesn’t stop her from being proud of her nation.

Fiete Kumma.
I gave the man a smile.
"Sure, one moment!", I said and pulled out four bottles of water for a few other lads, handing them a bottle opener as well before I turned to the new arrival. Lykke was occupied behind me. I smiled at Nasrollah, although I did not know his name. "Alright, we have iced tea, lemonade, both in the I-hate-my-teeth-variant and in the normal variant, water and of course ginger ale, which is, despite its name, not an ale. Alcohol is out once the kids are in bed."
I awaited his order while grabbing a bottle opener.

Nasrollah Afshar

“Ah, I see…” The Aryanian scratched his cheek, deep in thought. “That’s quite reasonable, hmm…Can I have two lemonades? It would nice if it’s squeeze-fresh if you have any.”

While Aryan is Muslim-majority nation and strongly influenced by Islamic laws historically, alcohol isn’t banned by law. Nasrollah doesn’t mind too much if anyone drinks alcohol in front of him, he has friends and relatives who drank the alcoholic beverages. Nonetheless, many Aryanians still reveres the teachings of Quran and Islam and Aryan is considered one of the most religious nations in the world of Iclamia.

Isla Stiúrthóir of the Tribe of Fingal.
She was right - I had never heard of Aryan.
However, I saw, that there was more to her national pride then just pride - or at least I interpreted it. I still smiled as I put the second plate in front of her.
"Sounds like an interesting place.", I said, "Though, you are right, I never heard of it..." I smiled as we began to wait for her husband. "Though, that begs the question of how you found your way to our shores?"
I would consider myself an educated woman, thank you very much!

Fiete Kumma.
I got him two bottles from the cooler.
"Sorry, no such luck...", I said and gave him the bottle opener along with both bottles, "...there ya go! Have fun!"
And with that, I was off to the next customer, quite a cute girl, a white haired, pale girl with ruby-red eyes, asking me for a total of five lemonades - she stood right next to Nasrollah.

Adelheid would hand Yven a small, brown, and slightly heavy bag. If he felt like peeking, he would see a medium-sized bottle of Prussia-Poland's national toxic swill.
"Don't drink it without dilution. You'll ruin your liver." warned Adelheid.
Upon arrival, Adelheid smiled at Ilia, and knelt down to his height, before offering her hand for a handshake.
"Hello," she said, with a smile. "Your name is Illia?"
Marie stayed in the back, for now, gauging the boy, seeing what sort of 'stuff' he was made of.

Yven Barriall of the Tribe of Monaghan.
I did take a peek and upon Heidi's warning, I smiled: This stuff was like Kyrenaian Doggy Arragh. Better not drink it without diluting it a bit...
Ilia was not exactly a tall boy, but he was a lad, who would grow into being one - at least Macha said so. Anyway, he looked from the Adelheit kneeling in front of him to me and Cao, both of us nodded.
"Yep, that'd be me.", he said and suddenly grinned, "Ya two are friends of Yven and Cao?"

Gerald Vicente
At the Stall

"Ah, I see, so it's more or less like the military aspect of Citizenship Advancement Training?" Gerald then asked. "We have an analogous program in the Confederation; the military aspect is open to Visayan students by Grade 11, while the civil aspect is part of the Grade 12 curriculum. I was one of those who volunteered for the military aspect as soon as the opportunity came; Holy Name University's Senior High School CAT Program raised two companies of cadets prior to the Tagbilaran Riots of 2003, but after the Riots the program saw anywhere between four to eight companies. Batch 2007--my Batch--saw five companies raised by the program, enough to fill an entire battalion; we had a total of 600 cadets in my batch across all two years and four strands in the university's Senior High School Program.

"I'm starting to wander off, am I not?" Gerald chuckled while taking a gulp of his drink.

Isla Saighead of the Tribe of Westmeath.
"A bit.", Amy said with a smile, "But it's interesting wandering off, so do continue!"
I nodded with a smile. "Though, for us, it starts a bit sooner and it is mandatory.", I said, then added: "An ancient law states, that all children learning 'the Arts of Numbers and Signs', to read, write and calculate, have to learn how to defend their cities, towns and villages. That law is still in place and while the role of the Younger Militias has changed considerably, as did the training we receive, we still do our training."
Amy nodded. "Yep, nowadays, the Younger Militias are mostly ceremonial and additional hands for disaster relief.", she said, "With how often Mainland-Selkie groan about having to shovel snow, there really seems to be a demand..."
I nodded with a weak smile.

Aonas Folracht of the Tribe of Wicklow.
Iliane smiled with a sad note.
"Aurelia speaks often about Marcella in the press, too.", she says, "Mostly in the more boulevart-oriented press, though, as the more political press wants other things from her." She looked, if one asked me, beautiful, even with that sad smile, or maybe because of it? "The nature of her relationship, being a woman in love with another woman, found a strange mixture of adoration, derision and approval in Kyrenaia... while such a relationship is no problem in some parts of the world and at least accepted in others, it is a huge upheaval in the Sultanate."
She shook her head.
"I don't envy either of them.", she added.
Silence, for a moment.
"Well, who would envy a girl such as her?", Dad suddenly said in his booming voice, "With all of the respects a Selkie can pay to a kinswoman and to Duchess Marcella, the two are in a tough spot - not to mention their parents." He shook his head. "I, personally, much rather prefer my own situation. I have a beautiful daughter, a good son and wonderful company!"
He grinned at both Iliane and Ayla, the former of which blushed. Was it me or were our hands a bit closer together?

Ayla lowered her eyes in sadness, that politics can be such a harsh mistress sometimes it has to interfere with matters of the heart. Maybe sometimes that was for the best but why would so many care that two women wanted to be together? As such she couldn't really speak more on the subject but yes, she'd for sure have to meet and have a friendly gathering with the good Princess. "Well you are a blessed man, I can't deny that, good sir."

Aonas Folracht of the Tribe of Wicklow.
Dad laughed his loud and booming laugh and I had to grin, too.
My hand took Iliane's softly, the young woman from Nouvelle-Dunkerque seemed not too displeased with that development, although her face grew red.
Dad grinned, turned to Ayla. "Say, Ayla, if I remember correctly, the UIS are a bit more south then the Archipelago, not sub-tropics like here, but actual tropics - how do you think, that the two compare?", he asked, then raised a massive hand, "Though do not worry, Aonas and I are from the Northern Islands - tropics and sub-tropics mean warm weather to us!"
I grinned and nodded.

She nodded with a big smile, "Yes take care of them they will take care of you! For sure! Yup it takes lot to learn how to properly mount, ride and saddle a horse. Shoes, grooming, there's always so much to do. But that's why I got my folks and my big brother to teach me. But I'm 8 so I still have lots of time to learn more."

Galen Lannaire of the Tribe of Louth.
I smiled.
"Eight years old...", I said and nodded, "You could have fooled me - I thought you to be of nine Springs!"
Although it was a joke, it was also a bit of truth behind it, with that truth being, that she was quite mature for her age, at least in my mind. Kean nodded.
"When I was of eight Springs, I began as a logrider.", Kean told us, "During the weekends, I would ride out with my father and his men on the back of my horse..." He petted his steed's side of the neck for emphasis. "...and when they felled trees and removed the branches, they tied it to us and we dragged it out of the forest to the lumbercamp. It was nice pocket money - a Gil a day!"
I whistled with respect - that was indeed very much money.

Hyùnh and Loan let go of their hands as they glanced at the rather dismaying portable toilets, prompting them to share looks with each other. Shrugging, they thanked Branwen for the detour and they both went in, taking note, of course, of Ritu, who sprinted like a tiger towards one of the toilets.

Moments passed by, and Loan was the first one to exit to display her beach glamour: a purple bikini with her back hair tied up in a quick and messy ponytail.

"Finally, something that fits the atmosphere," Loan replied.

Afterwards, the toilet door next to Loan's opened to reveal Hyùnh in a more chic and stylish fashion: a black and red bathing suit with sunglasses and a sun hat of similar colors to fit well with her double twisted ponytail.

"Well, what do you think, girls," Hyùnh smirked with delight as she posed like a model.

Loan scoffed in disbelief.

"Like a diva."

"Shall we move on? And also, Branwen, as you would like to be called, is there a place where we can put our bags to save us the trouble of going back to the hotel?"

Branwen Blaidd, of Tralee Descent.
I only had to wait for a few moments before the two reemerged.
Loan did cut a nice figure, her purple bikini with slight frills giving it a bit of an innocent, girly charm, while emphasizing, that her form was anything but girly, but that of a mature woman - I was sure, that some of the lads would ask her for a dance later.
Hyùnh's swimsuit was a one-piece, a casual one, black and red, with a sun hat and sunglasses, which looked quite good on her, but as Loan noted - Hyùnh's posture was a bit diva-like. Still, she, too, could expect some offers for dances.
"You both look wonderful!", I said and I meant it, then nodded at the other question, "One moment, we just need to wait for... ah, there she is!"
Indeed, Ritu joined our side again a moment later, having washed her hands and making the last adjustments to her simple, black, highleg one piece. She looked at both Hyùnh and Loan and nodded. "You two look good.", she said, then added more as a joke: "When her boss comes, though, be aware, that he might shanghai you for BI!"
I giggled, then motioned for them to follow me. "Come, I know, where we can deposit our stuff for the time being!", I said and extended my hands again, so that no one would get lost.

Marion pursed her lips for a moment in an attempt to figure out how best to explain this to a child. While she admired the handiwork of BI’s products, she had more immediate questions to answer,“I’m from New London, a large city with millions of people, in a country called Mediama, a country that’s across the Atlantic Ocean to the North of the United States.”

She leaned in conspiratorially, “We’re far up north enough to have polar bears.” She said with a playful smile. She leaned back “In fact, when I left to go here, it was still snowing and freezing.”

She then listened briefly to their reactions before she asked a question of her own, “And where do you young ladies come from?”

Nia Sneachtúil, of Cefnffordd Descent.
I smiled, seeing (and knowing) the confusion about where Mediama was. For children these days, it was more important to know, where Lillorainen, Kyrenaia, Shamsiyya, Mervay, the Commonwealth and Avisronia were, but, in time, the two will learn, that Mediama was only a cat's jump away, if one wanted.
The glories of modern traveling...
Anyway, Tea replied: "We're from Bodmin, Miss!", she said and grinned, "From the shores of Lake Iasc, at the edge of the Baile!" I thought, that this might be telling Marion about as much as these United States said to Tea and Meave. "It's a beautiful town! They should have quite a lot of snow there right now, too!"
I nodded. "The Mainland is far more to the North.", I explained to Marion.

Lisolette Devienne and Lucas Walker
Gladly the girls seemed to be up to the idea of the couple joining them and, them handed their bottles said it clearly that they were welcomed.

"Merci." Lucas smiled gently as his girlfriend and her grabbed their bottles. They both seemed to drink a bit of their lemonades, sighing in relief as they enjoyed it.
They sat on the sand as Lise closed her umbrella, mostly since it wasn't those that could be attached to the sand.
Meanwhile Lucas placed his bag on the sand too, close to his girlfriend's umbrella. He looked at Dilly being close to Enya, when she let her smell her hand he did so gladly as the couple chuckled.

"Seems you already like him." Lise giggled at such sight of her friend already liking Enya, it reminds her of that same time back in Launceston where that mini-maid, Rona it was her name, that let him smell her hand.
Out of that they heard their names and saw who was who with Ida being the older sister and Kiah and Enya being the young ones.

"Nice to meet you all girls. Once again thank you for letting us join you." The couple bowed at them and gave a warm smile at the sisters for letting them join as so it seemed it did their little friend with happy eyes.

"Related to the issue of where did I found him, Cuán. I don't remember exactly where I stayed but as you all know, Black Foxes are seen as pests and well, just because he wanted something to eat desperately they wanted to kill him so I stepped and took care of it. Being forced to abandon where I would be staying and trying to see what I should do and luckily a group of friends helped me to take care and taught me how to deal with a black fox too, I also have to import all what he needs from Cuán all the way to Mervay once per week, But that's of less, what matters is that now I have a loyal friend with me."

As soon as Lise ended she motioned Dilly to move to her arms and caressed him and teasingly tickled him, with the fox enjoying it and loving it.

Athena Freezis

So a model, freshly graduated guy, swimmer and a Marcach, a man of the sword, archery, fencing, swordancing, horseriding and horsearchery. Now that was interesting, clearly interesting; she was impressed about that, combined with her noticing him blushing a bit too it made the violet eyed woman blush even harder as she braided her hair.

"That's spirit, it takes time and patience to do it, as so hard work so I guess you are doing great in trying." She kept her warm smile at him as her thoughts were then directed on his question.

"Well relax, have a great time and be away of work. Ever since we joined SEA I have been working like crazy to get into the SEA Nations markets and trust me, it's a hard work... That is without counting our movements to other nations such as Kyrenaia, Nouvelle-Dunkerque, Teressien, Shamsiyya and Shikonjima..." Clearly she sighed there, knowing it was quite the work, well that's what she gets being the head of one of Mervay's most important corporations and families, the entire Freezis Family and Group was led by this young women of 24 years.

"The Freezis Group has been and will keep trying to expand their markets and trust me, in home we aren't the only ones with the Dileva's, the other big, medium and small corporations doing their moves to find more success out of Europa and Bolgiano." She let a beat pass as she looked at the sea and then Leo once again.

"I think that does explain a bit my reason right??" She asked adding in thought for herself then Adding the fact of finding that someone of course

Mateo Alfonso Crucitti or Vladimir Toschya... Or whatever other name he has...

And... Bingo. It seems lady luck was on his side after finding Alce and Esecutore. The warm smile and recivement was very good as he grinned at both Aurora and Silvio.

"Would be a pleasure to Ma'am." He grinned at them as he decided to present himself.

"Vladimir Toschya at your services Ma'am. I hope my appeareance didn't interrupted something..."

Enya Cíochach of the Tribe of Navan.
We smiled gently.
"Yes, Cuan and the Lake Mór Region in general have a split relationship to the Black Foxes.", I said with a sad smile, "Luckily, there are enough people, who think differently, not as pests, but as companions... and when you say 'a group of friends' of Black Foxes in Cuan, we might have an idea as to who you mean..."
Kiah nodded. "Yes, Celina and her boss are nice people. When Pfote hurt himself during the Spring Festival, Mister Folaíochta immediately helped and he didn't even ask for something in return.", my older sister said and then shrugged. "I could get him to accept a hug and a thank-you-kiss."
I smiled. "He's cute, though.", I said, redirecting the conversation to Dilly and glanced to the bowl, where the ice cubes had melted. I smiled and placed the little bowl closer to the two. "And we would be delighted to have a drink or two with such a cute lad and his owners!"

Leonard Rualacha of the Tribe of Wicklow.
Oh, so she was a merchant of some sort? I had no idea about the scale...
"Indeed, it does.", I said and nodded, "You seem to have an awful lot on your plate..." I smiled. "I take, that you are from Mervay?" I smiled in a way, that assured her, that if she didn't want to answer, I would not hold it against you. And if she asked, how I knew that, or came to that conclusion, I would have to improvise, because this was a shot into the dark. "I was a part of the Escort during the Signing Ceremony - a huge honour to me. One of 150 men and women chosen by Marla Cróimiam Herself, from all corners of the Free Lands. I think, I even saw the Queen of Mervay from afar..."

Aurora Alce.
"Siore Toschya, it is a pleasure.", my boss said with a light bow of his head, "And no, you weren't interrupting anything. I am Silvio Esecutore, this is my apprentice and assistant, Aurora Alce."
I smiled and extended my hand. "It's a pleasure, Siore Toschya.", I said, "Please, call me Aurora."
"We work for the Casa di Commercio dei Viticoltori a Fortezza, CCVF for short, as well as a number of other casas.", he explained - he did not mention the LCN with one word. Those, who suspected, that we worked for them, would call us out on it. "If I may ask, where do you work?"

[Hanoverian Great Britain]

As their lips parted, Alexandra still found no need to let him down, yet. Instinctively, as her eyes still focused on to his, she was clearly thinking of something complex in her mind at the same time. "Well, that was a good kiss wasn't it Finny? I'm genuinely concerned if it isn't", inquired her in a posh English accent, as she brushed his hair. Aside from the short tease, it definitely seemed that she had came up with her own nickname for Fintan. As she tenderly brought him closer, Alexandra gave him a quick kiss on the lips before having his head rested on her left shoulder, and she wasted no time stroking his neck and hair, in a gesture of returning the favor as the two continued to sway slowly to the music's rhythm.

As she gave a quick glance towards Fintan who's seemingly rested well on her shoulder, enjoying her strokes, she could not resist from kissing him again, this time with a short one on the neck. At the same time, she could only reminisce on her past relationship, to which when compared to this was a quite different experience. Though she and her former lover rarely kissed, the two kept the other entertained and pleased with gifts, ranging from necklaces to cars, all of them costing no more than below $500 million. She could also clearly remember the times of her speaking fluent Arabic at gatherings, and parties that she attended, but it's all gone now when her significant other revealed his true self, a true self that she could not justify to adapt to or to love. As she continued to stare at his neck, she could only feel that her "dominant" ways in regards to this would be the better choice. Besides, it's only natural for her, a 23 year old lady to take charge in regards to her 18 year old dance partner.

"So sweetie, where do you want me to carry you next? We can get a nice mat and cuddle while looking at the stars, or we can go back to the bar and have a regular drink, go to a fancy restaurant somewhere around here, or...", as she listed her suggestions in a thoughtful manner, her words seemingly froze at the last sentence. "Or we can go play in the water there? Let's see who's more durable in the water, shall we? Surely your two friends wouldn't mind me stealing you", as she let out a small grin at the end, Alexandra's mind could not resist from quickly scrolling through the imaginations of them doing either one of those activities. Surely, she would never cross the "forbidden" limits but should the two have genuine feelings for each other, she could have the chance to make her stay here memorable, for both of them.

[Lillorainen]

Amy Laoch of the Tribe of Dundalk.
After shaking hands with Dragan, Alya looked to me, smiled slightly as we sat down.
"You know, that she never lost a bad word about you, right?", she asked and nodded into my direction. I took this as the sign for me to distribute drinks, which I did. Kyrenaian Iced Tea, as I noted, Na'na, mint tea. "So, now that you are free again, you'll have a lot of dances tonight as everyone here has a high opinion of you... myself included."
She bowed her head in gratitude as she got her bottle, myself grinning as she spoke.
"Although, I'll leave it at a dance, don't worry.", she added with a smile, shrugged, "You're not my type."
It wasn't exactly gentle, but it was clear - and, to be honest, there were no signs of romantic interest, so better to make clear fronts before anyone could get a wrong idea.
And wrong ideas, in the case of a Kyrenaian Princess, could be devastating.

Celina Treoraí of the Tribe of Louth.
Felicia received Chris' acceptance of her apology with a grateful bow of her head, then glanced to me.
I knew, what Chris had thought and ultimately, it left out one thing: The fact, that Chris' and mine bond came out stronger then ever. Sure, we had a few kinks to work out and the dance immediately after that had been with someone else, but, ultimately, we came out stronger and closer together.
I let a few more beats pass.
Aside from Patty and Nora, we had a few more onlookers, who were waiting for my answer.
"Patty and Nora told me long ago, what had happened.", I said in a cold tone, that make the Northern Islands look like tropics, and shook my head, "I accept your apology, Felicia, and I forgive you."
But I won't forget it., although unsaid, went along and was heard.
And Felicia's expression said as much. She bowed her head, maybe a bit deeper then necessary, but I did not care.
"I'll leave you, then.", she said and was off, Patty following her.
Nora remained a moment, looked at us. "Thanks.", she said with honesty in her eyes and followed the two, her pace more sedate.
Did she want us to follow her, and ultimately Felicia, to maybe talk a bit more?
I did not know, but I knew, that if she had worn a jacket, she would have now pulled up the hood and shoved her hands into the pockets.

Chris received a grateful bow for his acceptance of Felicia's apology, and Cel, who was aware of what Chris had been thinking, decided to forgive her, too - but certainly wouldn't forget. As it appeared so often, they ended up along the same lines. With a relationship having manifested to the current degree, their bond indeed being stronger than ever, this was to expect.
Felicia bowed her head again, a bit too deep, but well. Then, she went off; Patty followed her. Nora thanked both of them - Chris nodded towards her in return -, and followed her sisters.
They obviously had understood what Chris had in mind - making peace with the past and letting this be the end of it.
Even though it seemed possible, that Nora was not going let this be the last word for today, given that she wasn't exactly as much in a hurry to leave as Felicia and Patty were ... but who could say for sure? Chris, in any case, couldn't, and even if he could have, he couldn't have said for sure, whether he would have been particularly keen on following them.
And he couldn't tell, whether or not Cel was.
He looked at her, kept standing, and said, shrugging and switching to Selkie again, "Well, that was that, I'd say."

After shaking heads and sitting down, Alya made Dragan aware of his reputation in here once again, confirming, that Amy had never lost any bad word about him, and likewise, he had never lost any bad word about her, and everyone was free to ask Kira for confirmation about this - for if there was anyone around who could tell, then her. Not only because she had an all but motherly intuition allowing her to predict romantic matches with people she knew (see Janina and Fenja), but also because out of all his friends he had talked to after his and Amy's (peaceful) breakup, Kira had been the one who had managed to get the most thoughts and feelings out of him. This was another advantage of her now being a citizen and permanent resident of the Federation - having a good listener and advisor around could never harm.
Although one particular point Alya mentioned caused Dragan having a remark on his tongue, he didn't speak it out. Although it would surely have been interesting to see Alya's reaction to the question, how she could be this sure, that he actually was free again and hadn't found a new relationship, or at least someone to be interested in starting one with in the meantime.
But truth was, and he surely wouldn't deny it even jokingly, that he hadn't shown any romantic interest whatsoever since he had become single again, and even though Kira still didn't want to dismiss that idea of trying to bring Dragan together with his Wiedheimer colleague together entirely, she also knew how vague this assumption was - too vague to consider another use of the magic hookah to be useful.
At least, she knew for sure, that wherever Dragan's next relationship would start off, it would definitely not be on this beach tonight. Dragan surely wouldn't reject dance offers tonight, but there wouldn't be much more than that. While he was a bit envious about Chris and Cel maintaining a relationship on distance this successfully, Dragan had learned, that this was nothing for him. If anyone was seriously interested in him, she'd better live within a reasonable travel distance away from Jillich in order to even be considered an option. He wasn't particularly keen on repeating history.
At least, that was the plan.
Therefore, he wasn't even remotely disappointed when Alya drew the line and made the fronts clear. Not only because this would prevent him from getting trapped in wrong ideas about a Kyrenaian Princess (arguably one of the less desirable situations to end up in on an occasion like this, or in general, for that matter), but also from getting himself into another relationship with the risk of living apart.
Of course, it wasn't gentle, but he didn't care.
While he took a sip of Na'na, ice-cold Kyrenaian mint tea, which he had received from Amy and nodded for thankfully, with his right hand, he made a dismissive hand gesture with his left one, swallowed his sip down, smiled, and said, "No worries about that! I'll surely be open for a dance or two, but that's about it."
He didn't specify whether this was only limited to Alya in particular, or would also include other lassies asking him, but the point was clear - Alya would have nothing to fear in that regard.

[Shikonjima]

Raidri Gormchló of the Tribe of Fingal.
"Well, I know, that Zaijia is finally going to get a bloody nerf.", I said with a vicious smile, "Sure, it's fun to have Canons on Earthworks with grapeshot and see their hordes run up to you, but at some point, the horde is going to break through no matter what, simply overwhelming you!"
"Zaijia-Players are noobs.", Áed said with a self-assurance, that bordered on sagely words - only that he was a lad and not an Elder. "Though, the amount of micro necessary for Horai is absolutely insane... few, very effective units, the direct opposite!"

Faye Donn of the Tribe of Wexford.
I nodded, quite amused by the closing statement.
"I did hear, that SDY is planning to adapt some of their Missile Boats and Fast Attack Craft into designs for yachts.", I told her, "And then built them from keel-up." I shrugged. "I am no engineer, so you'll have to ask Raidri how far that is coming along, but it sounds like a fun idea. Especially since the Faolchu-II can make 45 knots!"

Kazuo and Yelda nodded. Zaijia and Horai sounded like polar opposites when it came to the level of skill required to play - Horai would be the thing for the pros, with a solid intuition of how microing in the game worked, in order to get the units where they should be, and performing in any remotely satisfactory manner; whereas Zaijia seemed to be the nation designed for noobs, with (as for the current stance) pretty overpowered masses of trash units one only needed to spam enough of in order to simply overrun the opponent's base and units. It was to expect, that a slight nerf on the one hand, and adding new, strong counter-units like Mangudai and Janissaries on the other hand, would contribute to the game's balancing a lot.
With these comments, Yelda had to think of another Sharulsi expat in Lillorainen she knew of aside from Saran Kiyat - a guy named Iderbayar Oronar, a WhoTuber going by various channel names including IderKhanHD, IdreeLP, and Idergeddon, mostly focussed on commenting new games and other stuff related to gaming, and also making Let's Plays every now and then. While he was ethnically Sharulsi - not from the Khanate, though, but from the neighboring Free Republic of Fenchuikuo -, he had already been born in the Federation, living in Trinesholm in Rigesöer als the son of a marriage couple that had been tired of all the ethnic tensions back home after the independence of the Free Republic (finally a thing that couldn't be entirely blamed on the Shikonjimanese Colonial Empire!) and just jetted off to a place safer than that; he yet had to gain a broader audience, but with one of his channels being in English (which Yelda was happy about, considering her ... little trouble understanding Holsteinisch Platt), he would certainly do so very soon. Yelda made a note in her mind to see, if Idree might already have commented on Rúid! and the upcoming Add-on, or might be planning to do so.
(Plus, he had a nice voice, and, judging by his records using a facecam, he wasn't even too bad-looking, but that was another story.)
"Hm, sounds as if I need to reevaluate my stance on Wonder victories in AoE a bit" - Kazuo said. "At least, building a Wonder doesn't automatically result in a victory - one also needs the right type and amount of units to defend it. The possibility of winning for the opponent is still there, as well as the one of still fighting some epic, balanced battle. Not to mention, that they are likely to play an essential role in Fushigi no Jidai - even though as a normal objective for winning the game, not as an emergency solution. But in this case, Zaijia really sounds like a civilization people play, if they are truly committed to winning against a player they otherwise wouldn't be able to compete with."
Yelda nodded. Aside from Kazuo's usual, very polite way to call someone a noob, he did have a point - even though she still played by the motto, 'A dirty victory is still a victory!', she had at least needed to put some effort into achieving that back then.
"While I do think" - Kazuo continued, "that it is generally a reasonable thing to implement a civilization which is good at trash units and has some bonuses for these, plus has the advantage of being easily playable for beginners, I also think, it should be kept in moderation and not be hopelessly overpowered, in order to not spoil the fun for opponents. So, nerfing them a bit is a logical thing to do, for the sake of balancing."
"Horai, on the other hand, seems to be the civilization designed for the most experienced players" - Yelda added.
Meanwhile, Setsuko nodded. She would surely get to asking Raidri, as soon as they were done with their shoptalking about RTS games. But of course, she had heard about the plans SDY had, too - SDY's message of reorganization of their product offerings had reached many potential customers all over the planet.
"It does sound like a fun idea, indeed!" - she said. "And 45 knots is quite a number ... granted, I know, that there are speedboats which can go 80 knots or even faster, but these are mostly designed as speedboats, with the Navy having little to do with it - they are usually built by companies specialized on only that. I don't know if these are a thing in here, but with us, there is Isayama Naval Engineering Ltd. on Karishima Island, who are dedicated to precisely that. I also know of Kiuwong in the Yue Khanate and Staverup in Lillorainen, both doing the same. These are mostly sold to companies giving them out for rent, though, especially in tourist areas - for having some fun going insane speeds on the water. They are rarely sold to private persons, mostly due to security concerns."
She let a beat pass.
"As I said, former Navy ships often end up being repurposed and sold as yachts is common with us, too, though" - she continued. "As you've heard, the Nichibotsu-class Reconnaissance Ship - at least, the Nichibotsu I - has been widely popular as such during the time of its decommission, and still continues to be, provided they are still in an appropriate condition." She had to grin. "As you might have guessed, the Nichibotsu II will enjoy a similar popularity someday."

[Polish Prussian Commonwealth]

Yven Barriall of the Tribe of Monaghan.
I did take a peek and upon Heidi's warning, I smiled: This stuff was like Kyrenaian Doggy Arragh. Better not drink it without diluting it a bit...
Ilia was not exactly a tall boy, but he was a lad, who would grow into being one - at least Macha said so. Anyway, he looked from the Adelheit kneeling in front of him to me and Cao, both of us nodded.
"Yep, that'd be me.", he said and suddenly grinned, "Ya two are friends of Yven and Cao?"

Adelheid shrugged.
"Sorta. I just met them...Marie here, on the other hand..."
"We go a long way back." Marie finished. "Afternoon, Illia...Are your parents here?"

While Marie talked with Illia, Adelheid turned to Yven. "So...where exactly are we dumping the food again?"

[Minroz]

Isla Stiúrthóir of the Tribe of Fingal.
She was right - I had never heard of Aryan.
However, I saw, that there was more to her national pride then just pride - or at least I interpreted it. I still smiled as I put the second plate in front of her.
"Sounds like an interesting place.", I said, "Though, you are right, I never heard of it..." I smiled as we began to wait for her husband. "Though, that begs the question of how you found your way to our shores?"
I would consider myself an educated woman, thank you very much!

Roksana Esfahani

“Err…let’s just say a friend of ours who was the visitor to your homeland gave us some tickets to this beach.” Roksana replied, scratching her cheek sheepishly. “We just simply came through by air, ahaha~. It’s like we travel through dimensions, haha~.”

She isn’t sure if telling the Selkie about going through interdimensional travel by magical means is alright, but it’s not like Roksana is keeping secrets but she knew from experiences that outsiders didn’t react well to interdimensional travellers. At least, she’s not lying about part about given coupons for the party and arriving in the Free Lands through air travel. The redhead is just being flexible with the truth.

Fiete Kumma.
I got him two bottles from the cooler.
"Sorry, no such luck...", I said and gave him the bottle opener along with both bottles, "...there ya go! Have fun!"
And with that, I was off to the next customer, quite a cute girl, a white haired, pale girl with ruby-red eyes, asking me for a total of five lemonades - she stood right next to Nasrollah.

Nasrollah Afshar

“Thank you.” Nasrollah thanked Fiete as he grabbed the lemonades, holding each in both hands. As the Aryanian turned around, he has accidently bumped into the said white-haired, pale girl next to him.

“Ack!” He yelped in surprise. Nasrollah nearly spilled the lemonade on the girl. He’s quick to apologize, “Ya Allah! I’m so sorry, miss. I didn’t notice you’re here.”