And Elsewhere in Space... (TGram for Entry)

[Dyelli Beybi]

Vrak Station - In orbit over the planet of the same name...

'Dyelli Beybi' was probably best described as an Alliance. Years ago the people now referred to as the 'Shael' had tried to build an empire from the capital city of Cyro, though the larger it got the more unstable it became. 'Dyelli Beybi' had almost become a synonym for 'civil war'. The whole house of cards would probably have all come tumbling down were it not for a particularly aggressive neighbour who had frightened the fractious Dyellians into actually cooperating with one another. Sort of. The current 'United Holy Realms' was a very loose-knit confederation of 40 independent states, though they did cooperate when it came to foreign policy. Kind of.

Vrak Station, in orbit over the planet 'Vrak' (which, just to be confusing, was named after one of the most powerful of the Homeworld Dyellian states) was the largest station in Dyellian space, a colossal disc shaped construct, just over 21 kilometres in diameter. It acted as the main commercial gateway between the core worlds and the more sparsely populated outer colonies and had never been intended as a military installation. As some of the outer colonies has risen in prominence, Vrak station had expanded, bit by bit, into an orbital city of 9.4 million people (under the sovereignty of the 'United Prefectures of Outremere'). It was here that the delegation from the Ferret Civilization had been invited to meet with their Dyellian counterparts.

A number of Outremerian warships floated passively in the system, modestly sized saucer-shaped vessels that seemed to be there to keep an eye on the steady stream of massive cargo vessels passing through. Raw materials going towards the core and processed goods passing back towards the colonies. Goods were gathered at Vrak station, unloaded and then redistributed to other freighters heading to their end destinations while spacers who had spent weeks shut up on cargo ships stretched their legs then disappeared into the back alleys of the station to spend their money on alcohol, cigarettes and other vices... not that the delegates would be exposed to the seedier side of the station. They had been directed to a private pylon where they would be able to escape the bustle of the station.

[Ferret Civilization]

Coadunate Space

It had been a long time since the state of Ferret Civilization had been bothered to partake in the field of foreign affairs, with the term foreign being rather vague at this time. While officially withdrawing from the two supranational organizations that it was a part of a lost military group underwent their own operation to bring another species into their fold. That allowed the nation to go forward calling the problems that came from that internal affairs to continue on being staunch isolationists shunning dealing with the other powers that be in the galaxy. As things were set up to establish relations between the Ferrets and their new fellow nationals, it seemed that the state of Ferret Civilization headed down its own path of confederation to tie up the big happy family and keep the bickering to a minimum. To throw a wrench into things it would turn out that the two species would be joined by another less advanced species leading to the original two to take them in under special conditions to be carried out by a joint military effort. As things currently stood Ferret Civilization was now bound to a bunch of other states through what they called a coadunate, a fancy word that amounted to confederation that was really only tied together by fully integrating each others economic systems fiscal and monetary wise along with a bunch of military treaties. The news species were then bound by a commonality which did not involve the Ferrets since that was their own individual state affairs that they still had control over. Going up a polity level three species found themselves bound supranational wise to what they were calling salmagundi, the best word to represent just how much of a mess and mix things were turning out to be.

One Ferret to recognize the irony coming out of all of this happened to once to the diplomat or ambassador to the one organization that came across them some long time ago. Pacifico was now the head of the Ferret state to just rub it in some more, however now that the nation was fully going into this he knew of one state that he could hopefully probably learn from. That place was none other than that of the United Holy Realms, a polity that was let down by the previously mentioned organization that also involved the Ferrets keeping their backs turned to the once ally’s call for help. While they had their excuses just like every other polity that was involved in not getting involved it still did not make it right and it sat heavily with Pacifico since that incident had passed. However it seemed that enough time had passed for the Ferret to get into a better place to try and patch that over as well as try to start something new, and it seemed that the Dyellians were willing to try to start something new as well. It would be tricky to work anything out at first glance, two almost confederate entities going for anything would be confusing, but one could hope that if everything fell into place just right there could be something there to work with. It would be a great test case at the very least and give their fellow nationals a better look into the cultural galaxy that they were now somewhat a part of.

First thing the head of the Ferret state had to do was get permission from the coadunate military to use one of their vessels to go on a diplomatic mission. This was due to the Ferrets giving up their entire foreign sector of their military to assist with the creation of the growing joint military which would take up that roll for all the salmagundi nations and states. That request was the easiest part to get accepted, getting Pacifico the Homeward and its crew for however long that it was required for him to do what he had to do. Next up was extending an offer for the representative head of the coadunate, HappyBard, to join him on this mission which was also accepted. It might have seemed odd to have a head of state and the prolocutor for the confederation to go in person, but this was due to the holding out of the Ferret state to try and stay isolated while a proper foreign affairs arm for the commonality was just not there existing yet, something that could possibly end up changing upon seeing how the excursion into the UHR went. Once the time came Pacifico was finishing trying to brief HappyBard on everything that he knew about Dyelli Beybi, which was outdated and most likely incomplete, it was not like information just flowed freely everywhere during his time as ambassador dealing with other species that all seemed to have trust issues. On the flip side, the same thing could have been said about them as well, though now everyone’s information on Ferret Civilization was woefully out of date following the complete political and economical changes it had faced in a really short amount of time.

Vrak Station

Once the Homeward found itself in Outremerian space the crew gave a momentary celebration on that success, it kind of had a point since the first attempt at that resulted in the vessel going missing for a long period of time. The vessel itself was not big or imposing in any sense, and was probably still considered small for a craft of war by any other state but there was hope that they would never have to experience going to war because they would fail at it no matter what. Following the protocols that they were given everything went smoothly getting the Homeward to where it needed to get to, allowing Pacifico and HappyBard to take over from there. While the Dyelli intelligence community had to know about what a Ferret was and all the information on what they looked like HappyBard was probably going to be more of a temporary shock. Ferrets tended to call the species HappyBard was Wolftaur to sound scary, as they pretty much were to a Ferret. The Wolftaur, as part of the name implied, had a centauroid body, with the top half pretty much being an anthropomorphic Newfoundland dog with the bottom half also being a regular looking Newfoundland dog, however the bottom half was the size of a large draft horse. This meant that the front part of the Wolftaur stood at nearly nine feet tall and was nearly eight feet long, with the horizontal part of the back being around six feet off the ground. It might have been amazing that a small three foot Ferret would be working hard to joint make things with a species of that size but there they were trying to do it. The two of them were ready for the worse possible scenarios as they went through whatever the Dyelli security asked of them to meet whoever it was that had the task of meeting with them.

[Dyelli Beybi]

The delegation from the Ferret Civilisation were greeted by a number of people in military uniforms, which was not to say that the individuals were actually military. The Dyellian diplomatic service had grown out of the military wing of intelligence service which had grown out of the military. The uniforms had stuck, in part because they were a helpful way to identify who somebody was from across the room.

The tall blonde man in the black uniform with the polished black jackboots, that looked a little fascist, was from the Imperial Secretariat (central Government) while the small, ostensibly human female in the royal blue uniform with the brightly polished ornate pickelhaub under one arm was a representative of the Reichskommissariat (a political body that represented the twelve current states of the Dyellian homeworld). The guards in black uniforms and silver stahlhelms that could be seen around the room were Imperial Guard in dress uniform, part of the small body of troops the central government was actually in command of.

Neither of them batted an eyelid at the sight of the Wolftaur. While both of the pair sent to meet Pacifico and HappyBard were ostensibly human (the representative of the Reich was actually a 'Djel', a closely related species), there were plenty of strange and wonderful species that called Dyelli Beybi home including the strange insectoid Dukratians and the massive Wal-Vrak. The man held out a hand politely, "Welcome to Dyelli Beybi your eminence. I am Szymon Nawrocki, a representative of Her Imperial Majesty. May I also present Botschafter Holly Morgan of the Heiliges Klatchisches Reich." Nawrocki sounded like English wasn't his first language though he was definitely at ease speaking both it and the Germanic language he had dropped into a couple of times in his introduction of Morgan.

Morgan offered a pleasant smile, bobbing her head politely, "A pleasure." She, on the other hand sounded like a first language speaker and had a pleasant, lilting accent, "It is our pleasure and our honour to host you on this station. Prime Minister Walpole of Outremere will be here to join you later, however, at this point we are here to show you to your accommodation and make sure any specific needs you might have are met. We have never hosted either of your species before, so I apologise in advance if anything is not quite right."

[Ferret Civilization]

Pacifico and everyone else seemed to have quite an easy time holding their stoic composure upon first seeing each other, HappyBard on the other hand was different. Not being used to hiding behind some kind of diplomatic face he very obviously took in everything that there was to, from looking at all the other people to the room itself. He was not trying to be rude in any way, hopefully that shone in his eyes, as this experience was a first for him and sadly he was the best professional that they could send. All the black would stand in some contrast with what the coadunate pair’s color of clothing which was tan, meant to make the brown Ferret look brighter and the white Wolftaur look darker while being a natural color between them. Pacifico was rather happy that things moved along quickly enough to get them to the people that they needed to see with minimal delay.

“Well that is just too kind,” Pacifico replied to the ‘your eminence’ part after the two had finished introducing themselves. “Likewise, it is a pleasure to meet you. You are probably already aware that I am Pacifico and my colleague here is HappyBard. First name basis is about as professional as you have to be around us, so pardon any formal slip ups on our part.” While the Ferret did the talking in the best English a snouted species could possibly muster HappyBard was, much like his name implied, more than happy to take the offer to shake hands with Szymon. There was going to be a roadblock eventually as Pacifico soon realized, while he knew universal English his partner however did not, and the entire exchange had flown over his head. Unlike many other states theirs did not employ automatic translators that seemed to be a boon to other nations that dealt with many foreigners, and unless the Dyellians did use them this was going to look like quite the problem when it came time to get down to more official talking.

“I would be amazed if you had.” Pacifico replied to Morgan this time, “No need to apologize about it however, we can make do with whatever accommodations that are easily providable.” With that it seemed that the two members of the coadunate were ready to continue along, “Though I will have to ask, on the off chance, do you have any access to my native language Ferrune?” Pacifico hoped that the polity would hold onto any foreign information it receives through its past alliances, and the language of the Ferrets was something that was given freely at that time for translators. If they did manage to hold onto that information then it would make things a lot easier for the Wolftaur that was present to be able to speak directly to whatever could translate that, while Pacifico could translate on the other end to keep HappyBard in the loop of what was going on. It was something that could hopefully be answered and accounted for before any serious conversations took place.

[Dyelli Beybi]

The Dyellian pair exchanged a glance, then shook Nawrocki shook his head apologetically, "Sadly translator technology is not in widespread use in the UHR. Without boring you with the details its early use met with a number of legal challenges and the preference is now for the use of interpreters when a matter is of legal significance."

He paused for a moment before adding, "Sadly I don't speak Ferrune, however, you are a former allied state from GESO and I would be highly surprised if the collective Departments of Xeno-Linguistics on New Vrak don't have someone who can act as a translator for us. I will put in to see if we can hire someone to assist with the talks once we are concluded here. We will definitely not leave your colleague out of the loop!"

"Is there anything else you need at this moment? Otherwise I will show you to your quarters while Szymon is looking into that." Morgan put in.

[Ferret Civilization]

It was a roadblock that Pacifico was hoping not to deal with suddenly having to be dealt with, the Ferret already knew all the languages to keep things moving along however that would slow things down a little. Though this did give some insight into what they were going to be dealing with and since this was probably not going to be an isolated event there would be calls to increase education into learning more lingua franca languages if their states were to continue back on the international side of dealings. After Szymon had finished Pacifico started, “No need to express sorrow over this rather minor inconvenience. That should have been something that we on our side of things should have worked out instead of placing the burden on your side of things. If there is no one able to take up the task of being a translator it should not be much of a bother for me as long as that is not considered a conflict of any laws or customs.”

That was something that would only require a brief yes or no answer and after that everything was set to move along. “Will just need a moment.” Pacifico replied to Morgan, trying to make it clear that he had to bring HappyBard up to speed on what was going to be happening that required him to talk in his native tongue. It would not end up taking that long for them to get the most needed points across to each other, and even not being able to understand the English being spoken around him it did not seem to hamper the Wolftaur’s mood. Once the two finished their short exchange Pacifico switched back to English to address Morgan again, “All should be good now, lead on.” The coadunate pair definitely did not hide the curiosity to see just what Dyellian architecture and accommodations were going to be like.

[Dyelli Beybi]

"No problem." Nawrocki chuckled, motioning for the pair to follow him, continuing as he led the way through the closed terminal towards a waiting vehicle, "We Dyellians tend to be a bit inward looking. Because of nature of the UHR, with all of the Dyellian states acting as independent entities, we tend to spend most of our diplomatic effort on one another. The legal language of diplomacy in the UHR is English. It is actually a large part of why translators are frowned upon; some of the minority language speakers didn't like the idea of losing the ability to go into a corner and gabble away in their native language without the rest of us understanding. I have taken advantage of that myself, being a native Letigallian."

"The Reich is technically bilingual, with Beybirian and English having equal standing." Morgan put in, "Though I suspect that that was done to establish a point of difference with the enemy state we share the homeworld with. Within the Reich states, generally nobody outside of the Djel Valley actually speaks Beybirian."

At the front of the terminal a stretched limousine of sorts was waiting. It was a somewhat unusual vehicle, hooked up onto overhead wires like an old fashioned trolleybus. Nawrocki opened the door. Perhaps surprisingly, it had a huge , elongated bench seat that took up half of the back row, thrusting forward into the well in the middle that was clearly designed for a quadrupedal creature, though one that was a little larger than HappyBard. The remaining seats seemed to be designed for bipeds. As if expecting a question on the vehicle design, Nawrocki motioned upwards, towards the visible ceiling of the station, high above the street level, "We try not to produce any emissions in here. There isn't that much atmosphere to go around, so we can't go polluting it."

The Architecture in the station mostly seemed to be functional, square-sided buildings rising out of the floor of the station. Glass and metal seemed to be the order of the day, though there were also parks and the civic buildings and the houses of worship that dotted the place were designed differently - classical architecture with plenty of low domes. Someone had shipped in quite a lot of pale stone to build these. It was the Outremerian style, a testament to the State that had built the Station.

[Ferret Civilization]

Pacifico followed without much hesitation while HappyBard took the last moments to fail at trying to read the guards expression about what was going on but was still quick to tag along. “Sounds like some group is getting the bad end of that deal if they only have English has their native language to fall back on for privacy.” Pacifico commented about what Szymon had said, figuring that it was probably a human group since they were the ones to typically be speaking that tongue and it had to come from somewhere to have everyone else have to speak it in the political realm. Though to give some credit that expectations had already been somewhat subverted during the greeting, there was another human language involved and while the Ferret did not understand those individual words he was aware of that being a thing through the World Assembly affairs.

Following up with what Morgan put in, “Does that put you in a bind when dealing with other nations that speak languages no one knows or have things been lucky enough to always find other English speaking places?” It was a question that Pacifico was interested in hearing an answer about that since it seemed like that lingua franca for a lot of human states and other places had auto translators and strong intelligence for individuals to never notice if they were speaking a different language from those they knew. As of right then their own state would have been in the lucky category but then they were not out there doing the international game for as long as anyone else.

Getting outside of the place of entrance did give quite the impression, the Ferret noted how the Dyellians had done things being a little surprised that they left unusable dead space in some areas like nearing the ceiling. That could have been for reasons that he had not considered yet given that this was a mult-species place that probably had needs for needing more space than what would have been given if their state was charged with making a space station. But that could be a good reason for dealing with other places, one can get solutions to problems that they did not know about. “Interesting. Is there a reason for using that air up there where no one is?” Pacifico asked as they moved into the vehicle.

HappyBard was surprised to see that the Dyellians did design stuff to accommodate a species as large as he was, Pacifico was a little surprised by that as well since that could lead to a lot more answers to problems they were having. The Wolftaur actually commented on that in his own language talking to the Ferret about just that, getting the reply in the same language about how yes there were an unimaginable number of crazy species everywhere and it probably should not have been surprising that the Dyellians had to deal with large species before. Without much of a choice HappyBard took the place that seemed to be made just for him with a luxurious amount of spare space. Pacifico would let Morgan and Szymon sit first and then if there was no designated spots for him he would try to sit as comfortably as possible nearest to his colleague.

[Dyelli Beybi]

"Indeed." Nawrocki nodded in agreement, "Some states do have the better in such negotiations. Of course, that is not how we would phrase things... were I to be arguing the case against translators I would say that a mechanical aid is less capable of understanding the nuances of another language. For a true understanding one must be immersed in the culture of the language, not merely learn a phrase book. For a machine to be capable of understanding a culture it would be coming close to sentience, at which point we might as well simply employ an automaton as a translator."

The vehicle rocked forward as it took off through the city as he dropped that particular fact about Dyellian society, though in case Pacifico hadn't understood what he was saying, Morgan laid it out a bit more bluntly, "Not all citizens of Dyelli Beybi are biological. I suppose we do tend to be slower when it comes to developing a relationship with newly discovered species than many other polities in the galaxy, but as Nawrocki said, we tend to direct most of our energy towards internal diplomacy. We are open to foreigners visiting the UHR, but the States don't tend to want anything from them. There are, of course, some private citizens with an interest in alien contact and they tend to help build an understanding of other-world languages. I'm assuming the situation would be similar for you?"

As she asked the question the limousine pulled up in front of a tall glass building, weaving through a chicane guarded by more troopers in stahlhelms (though these ones wore a grey uniform); these ones were local Outremerian troops. A well dressed man stepped out to open the door for them, "Ah... here we are." Nawrocki commented, "Not too far from the docking pylon."

[Ferret Civilization]

Pacifico nodded back in agreement when it came to Szymon saying that was not how they would phrase things. Morgan added the answer to his other question and by then their little trip in the vehicle was almost done with. “I do agree with your points,” Pacifico started by acknowledging the first part of what he was told by Szymon. “It is rather similar, though for us in the exception of him,” The Ferret referred to the one that accompanied him on this mission, “We have practically gotten by on just learning basic English since meeting other species happened on their terms and not ours given them the advantage of learning our language for translation purposes.”

With that the conversation seemed like it would be taking place on foot from here, HappyBard noted the change in colored uniforms better than Pacifico did who was more focused on the talking going on. Though HappyBard did bring it up to him, Pacifico dismissed it since they already knew some things about the UHR and something like that really should not have been much of a surprise since the Wolftaur came from a place that was similar in having different borders all over the place making things complicated. “Quite the display of force.” Pacifico did end up commenting in English, even if it was not to the Dyellians to be this deep into supposedly friendly territory this would be quite the show in a Ferret’s eyes.

[Dyelli Beybi]

"Not an intentional display of force." Morgan chipped in, "You are important visitors, but you are important visitors to a number of different agencies so you get a number of different groups who all want to send some honour guards along. Plus, while he Dyellian states tend to be safe, law abiding places, it always helps for our visitors to feel safe. We could ask the Outremerians to scale it back if you would prefer?"

The pair were shown up to rooms on the top floor with a view out over one of the station's parks. HappyBard's room was designed for a quadruped (a sentient walrus, if one wanted to be specific, which also probably explained why there was a huge hot tub in the middle of the room), while Pacifico's was designed for visitors of a more standard body shape. The Dyellians had isolated the entire floor and, predictably, there were more guards, posted at all entries and exits to keep curious members of the public away, "Not too much is it?" Morgan asked, seeming a little embarrassed by the military turnout, "Like I said, we can ask them to scale back."

[Ferret Civilization]

“Hmm,” was all that Pacifico could muster at the idea of there being a thing as an unintentional display of force. Though taking into account that this was the accumulation of different groups it was probably more likely a cause showing just how big a bureaucracy could get. “If this is normal then there is really no need to try and change it up just to make things appear less safe to those in the know.” While saying that he took some moments to look at the guards, wondering what their thoughts would be on the matter if they were able to speak freely. He figured that they would end up just calling it their job that they want to do.

Though once they got to where they were going Pacifico had to adjust that line of thinking again, quite an unintentional show of force if there was no public relations facet to this. “I take it that the states have not hosted very many important visitors.” That was the answer to the first question while the Ferret thought about the second one again wondering if the same answer should apply here, “This is fine, as long as this is normal fare.” To take the focus off the guards HappyBard was more than able to switch to focusing on the rooms that they were given. Pacifico asked in his native language if the setup would do and was answered back that it would be great, from there relaying that to Morgan that the rooms were more than adequate for their needs and would be looking forward to getting down to business.

[Dyelli Beybi]

OOC: Apologies, I've had a bit of writer's block. Think I'm through it now. I hope. It's partly why this first bit is a bit vague.

The Following Day

Once Pacifico and HappyBard had had a night to recover from the journey through space, and had been given time for a leisurely breakfast, they were introduced to a slightly scruffy looking middle aged linguistics Professor named Evan Thomas who they were assured had studied Ferrune. He had, though when he spoke he still had a distinct Dyellian accent (Outremerian to be precise). He looked slightly nervous amongst the high flying dignitaries, tugging nervously at the patched sleeves of his tweed jacket. Despite his nervousness, Professor Thomas quickly proved his worth and, having provided HappyBard with an earpiece, set about translating what the Dyellians were saying in (almost) real time.

The first item on the agenda was a meet and greet with Prime Minister Robert Walpole of Outremere. Walpole was an older, avuncular looking individual in a tailored suit, which was probably somewhat refreshing given the Dyellian tendency to wear military uniforms around. He greeted the visiting pair warmly and enthusiastically though, perhaps surprisingly, did not stay for the summit. That was, it seemed, going to be Morgan and Nawrocki. Realising this was probably something of a surprise, Walpole explained his absence, "Currently there are over 30 states in the UHR. Not everyone gets along and not everyone's interests are always aligned. I would love to join you in the summit though it might look a little like I am trying to push my own agenda... and doubtless I would! It is the people of Outremere who have elected me after all!"

Pacifico and HappyBard had been provided with a meeting agenda prior to going into the meeting. It had three items on it:

1. Cultural Exchange
2. Economic Ties
3. Military Cooperation

A round wooden table dominated the conference room. There was bottled water on the table and what looked like a filter coffee machine on a side table. Morgan greeted them as they entered, rising from her seat alongside Nawrocki, "Gentlemen, I hope you slept well and enjoyed your breakfast? Now... which item would you like to start with?"

[Ferret Civilization]

OOC: No worries, take all the time you need.

It could have been a better night of sleep, Pacifico was used to not being in his native environment but it was a completely new experience for his counterpart. The first thing that was brought up over breakfast was this fact, “Well you know probably know how Pétur and the others felt.” Pacifico told HappyBard before they moved on to other things to talk about. The Ferret would end up being a little bit surprised when they were introduced to Evan seeing that Szymon was able to successfully get a solution for what could have ended up being an issue. He did not blame the professor for having an accent as his native language was primarily made up of sounds that came from the larynx while more human like languages used other places of articulation. When dealing with English Pacifico had to take a lot of time to conquer the whistling that accompanied consonant sounds made with the tongue.

Upon meeting back up with Nawrocki and Morgan along with greeting Walpole, HappyBard almost made the mistake of trying to reintroduce with the two that had greeted them when they first arrived now being able to get more of a real time translation to understand what was going on around him. The two were indeed surprised that Walpole was not going to be staying around and that the joining them later summed up to be just saying hello. However with the explanation given the two could also understand just why it had to be this way, “I can understand what that must be like.” Pacifico said before the prime minister had to depart leaving it to be the original four plus one translator instead of five plus one.

With that out of the way it was finally time to get down to business which the Dyellians seemingly were willing to talk about a broad range of things. Cultural and militaristic ties were going to be politically easier to pursue since the coadunate was pretty much an alliance with nearly independent levels of freedom, however when it came to economics the union was tied up together requiring complete agreement within the dependent states. Then there was the matter of the past, while the Dyellians and the UHR may not have considered the failings of the last alliance beyond separation that the two party states had been a part of the Ferrets still had a rough time trying to figure out just where their stance was going to be with things military wise. Though while isolationism had its advantages in this galaxy filled with war it was considered that in the current state of affairs it would not be a disadvantage to try and reach out to certain actors on the galactic scene which brought things to where they are right now.

“We did indeed,” Pacifico answered Morgan, “Shall we start with the cultural exchange and work down the list from there. On our side of things are simple, the Ferret state has and will never have any barriers to entry and with the addition of the states comprised under HappyBard there are open border policies in place allowing for unrestricted travel. From the probably outdated information that I know the Dyellian states do not have the same kind of policy, which leaves it up to you to decide just how far things will become less restricted. In the worst case situation if you feel that your side would be unhappy with any kind of agreement I will make sure that our side of things stays open to public and private ventures in this field for educational purposes.”

[Dyelli Beybi]

Nawrocki nodded, "We are still, technically at war with Alcona and Hubris while their suzerain state, Ilek-Vaad, refuses to acknowledge the existence of the Dyellian States... effectively we have to treat them and their dependencies as warlike barbarians at the gate, refusing any form of diplomacy. This is turn means that many Dyellian States, particularly the Reich states -" he nodded to Morgan, "- are forced to adopt a more belligerent attitude than we might like."

"I might add that they are also illegally occupying Reich territory." Morgan added, "Though that is a matter I would encourage you to look into yourself. Obviously we Dyellians would be somewhat biased."

"We are willing to issue 6 month tourism visas on arrival, without fee, to citizens of the Ferret Civilization, provided that they are willing to declare that they have no ties to Ilek-Vaad, Alcona and Hubris, Port Olympus, Karmanyaka or any other Vaadian dependency or occupied state." Nawrocki continued, getting into the details of the Dyellian proposal, "As far as I am aware your state does not have any formal or informal ties to Ilek-Vaad, so I don't forsee that as problematic. We would like to suggest allocating funding to promote joint research projects between Dyellian and Ferret research institutions. We would also like to encourage the creation of an exchange programme allowing undergraduate students to attain some credit towards their degree while studying at one another's higher educational institutions."

"And finally," Morgan chipped in, "We would like to seek permission for Dyellian Government bodies to fund Dyellian cultural festivals in major Ferret Civilization cities. These would be the responsibility of the Dyellian State tourism boards rather than the Imperial Administration."

[Ferret Civilization]

Pacifico stiffened up a bit at the mention that the war was still going on in any sort, “That is a misfortune though given how the events had unfolded I can see why it has to be the case. If it is at all possible to send an apology to Collins about that mess in the past I would appreciate it.” Looking at Morgan he added, “Really does not matter at this point whether it was biased or not, at one time my state had sworn to come to the protection, regardless of reason, of yours and it had failed to do so. A wrong that I will try to make right soon.”

Though for the moment those talks were going to be coming along later, during the moment the two delegates for the coadunate listened to what the Dyellians had to offer. “Nothing to argue with about with your states being willing to open their doors to tourists even with some strings.” Pacifico answered the first part before looking to HappyBard to answer the part about possible funding since that was his domain.

“I believe that would be agreeable.” HappyBard started off short to allow Thomas to switch speaking roles, “The Ferret state is already working on joint ventures with its fellow states now. I am sure they would be willing to bring in other interested parties. The idea of an exchange programme can be added on with no extra fuss. Coadunate funds can be used to pay for the needed expenses on our end at the very least.”

Pacifico took back over from there with Morgan adding other ventures to the table, “Interesting, if the Dyellian states see merit in trying to go through with the effort I will get my state to be as accommodating as possible. I figure that they are looking to tap into the possible educational programs to allure people so if necessary they should be able to share some space with the more embassy like functions a place will have to provide for foreigners.”

“With that in mind, I suppose it went without saying that by agreeing to this a place to act as an embassy would be included? Not that we are asking for a lot of space given what is on the table right now, just something of an office space within the places that would be taking part in the exchange programs and research initiatives to help with political matters and home sickness. The same will be provided on our end to give something of a base for your tourism boards.”

[Dyelli Beybi]

Morgan grimaced, "The war is a typical Vaadian affair. In the past we have agreed to uneven treaties with them. They sabre rattled and deployed forces with an invasion footing, assuming we would back down and give them what they wanted: in this case, to abandon the States of Dukratus and Binak. The UHR is not the same entity as the old Dyellian Kingdom though and is not consumed by the same internal problems. We were ready for a war and deployed our own assets. The Alconans were outmanoeuvred and backed down, though they never formally signed anything."

Nawrocki looked surprised for a moment, at the talk on embassies, "Oh... our doors are always open to anyone who wishes to open an embassy. We have no particular concerns about the size of the property you would wish to use. Obviously if you decided to purchase 10,000 acres of prime farmland in the Djel River Valley it might raise a few eyebrows, but so long as you aren't taking the proverbial, there are no concerns from the perspective of the Reich or the UHR around the size of property you feel is appropriate. While we don't have many outside embassies, most Dyellian States operate High Commissions in most other States and most also host an office of the Reichskommissariat. I would advise establishing an Embassy to the Imperial Court in Cyro. In time you might consider consulates in either Peskovatka, the Acting Capital of the Reich, or the Capital cities of any major partner States. We would also be interested in opening an Embassy of our own. Do you have limitations on the size of premises or the number of diplomatic staff sent?"

[Ferret Civilization]

Pacifico nodded at what Morgan explained, taking it as a sign that while things were not perfect at least the whole affair did not end up turning out poorly. He also nodded at what Nawrocki explained, almost smiling at the idea of having a lot of land almost twice the size of the city state he represented here. “No, we will not require that much space, I was thinking of just having any kind of open office like space within some of the more major educational institutions within your states as that is where they would be most effective in assisting our people visiting or working here. If more space is required later on when things possibly expand then we can inquire about making things more official with actual embassies instead of consulates within capital cities, that is unless your best educational institutions are located in the capital cities themselves then that will be more convenient later on.”

There was a moment to think about the answer between Pacifico and HappyBard, “If you wish to establish one within the city state Ferret Civilization itself I would have to confine the premises to somewhere within the city proper. Space will be made out of already existing structures of which it would be up to you to decide how large of a space is required or if the states are willing to share a space that was provided to the Coadunate officials. How many individuals are needed to perform ambassador or tourism consultant roles are also up to your states to decide, however I must advise that those settling in will have to get adjusted to a more thin and oxygen deprived atmosphere if they are not used to those conditions already.”

HappyBard took over to cover what the states he represented would require, “Establishing an embassy within the larger Coadunate itself would need any official ambassadors to stick within a certain meeting grounds that have been set aside by all the smaller administrative divisions that I represent. Ferret Civilization would be the alternate doorway into all of the states if that is what would be preferable and more flexible. Though the embassy here would not be restricted in size or the number of staff that would be required and there would be no room to open any consulates in any other place unless agreed upon with the individual state that your state would be interested in exploring further options with.” With that out of the way hopefully things were one step closer to making things more official politically wise.