IC - Warbirds, Guild Aces

[Hemnon]

The accolades. The cheering. The Pride of becoming Guild Pilots. All of it in a culmination of Rookie-Showoff by the guild to all of the Guild Keys, every new Rookie's name was the buzz of every newspaper throughout Azure. To stand there, waving and having your first experience in the public limelight was something of an experience to every single new Rookie Pilot - A taste of things to come, and a stark reminder that your life from now on would become a series of reporters, fans, contracts and hopefully leisurely enjoyment.

But, for now, it was time for that rumored Trial By Fire. You all knew this and you'd all already been assigned your Squadron and grouped into Various Flights (usually 4-6 Pilots are in a Flight) within those Squadrons.
You lucky 5 had ended up together on a banged up old tub of a Drop-Carrier, the Darling Doris, under the command of the Skipper Damien Blake. Well, the Darling Doris was under the Skipper's command, and he would technically answer to all of you in terms of where to go to reach various contracts - albeit with some leeway on his end in terms of not accepting suicidal orders - Hence why the pilots were to usually just stay in the Pilot Quarters, visit the bridge when needed (and it was clear that Damien thought this was NOT needed), or perhaps go to the Flight-Deck and Golf off for a while... adding more golf balls to the Murk below.
Ongoing joke amongst every Guild Pilot (rookie or not) was that at least 20% of the Murk was made up of golf balls by now.

So, where had you all been sent? Why down to the lower islands! your Trial By Fire was to be done as part of a contract to a Mayan Federation Kingdom who just happened to want a few good Guild Pilots to support their own Fighters during this little skirmish against a Neighboring Kingdom:
The Horado Kingdom is fighting the Royal Gabor Nation, and it's King Horado that happens to have hired you Five on for a 3 Week spanning Air Combat Patrol basis in order to protect a small scouting army camp against incoming fighter-groups intent on attacking that camp-site.
For those of you that cared enough to listen to the reason why the war had broken out, apparently a princess from the Horado Kingdom had been turned down for marriage by the Royal Gabor Nation's Crown Prince. Hence the war in order to have the victor decide on if the marriage goes through anyways, or if some others war-repairations payments should happen. But that had nothing to do with any of you - you merely had to go to that Camp-site after arrival to Yucatan.... well, after you've met your Employer and gone through the normal shinanigans on how the Mayan does internal wars: Parties! Sort of. You all had a chance to experience it yourselves once you arrive. Which'd be in about another 14-ish hours.
It's about 100 kilometers per layer to traverse, and it's done safely, thus to do all 200 kilometers to reach the lower Islands for the Upper ones (where the Guild Keys are located; aka. starting destination). Once down there, it'll be some navigational time to reach Yucatan, relay airspace-entrance permission over radio, etc. etc. Hence about 14 more hours at minimum before you're all back on solid ground, at the Horado Kingdom's Palace, ready to meet that King-Employer of yours.

For now, it's casual relaxation time for all of the pilots.... aka. you Five.
(here's some free Roleplaying time to spend as you wish. There's The Mess to go to if you wish to eat anything or play darts or pool or whatever else may strike your fancy, like looking out for the Ship Mascot.
There's the Bridge if you need to speak to the Skipper or whatnot.
There's The Drop Deck where all the Warbirds are stored.... and every pilot are welcome there cuz the Crewmates enjoys letting the pilots loose their money in some cardgame gambling and whatnot, or you could ask for an 'off the books' upgrade to your warbird by the crew... if it can be afforded.
Beyond that, there's of yours each of your own quarters where your stuff is, where you can pray in peace, have a romantic time with someone you know.... or just sleep, etc.
As for the rest of the ship, like the gunnery turrets, the crew mess, crew cabin area, the Floatstone Core of the ship, etc. etc.... well you won't be welcome there, and any pilots noticed skulking around such places are viewed quite suspiciously. Except the upper Flight Decks where one can enjoy the open air. It's where people go if they need some fresh air, and it's where pilots enjoy going to shoot off a few golf balls into the murk below, or do other playful shooting games, like clay pidgeon shooting and such.)

[sandmote]

Mendel, being insufficiency sporty to enjoy golf, is plopped down in the middle of the Pilot's Quarters The Mess to read.

[RandomLunatic]

Heading into a warzone, even a ritualized one, made Morgan decide to brush up on his marksmanship. He was on the flight deck, punching rounds through a roll of butcher paper borrowed from the mess.

[Bowerbird]

Eddy slaps her third losing hand down and glares at the smiling face of the engineer opposite as he sweeps up the pile of hex nuts and other makeshift pokerchips, "Trichez-vous putain? You cheating me, salaud? I find out and it's into the Murk with you! I play a little golf, vous putain savez?" Her loud grumbling by this point almost expected of her down here, the crew had discovered that she is both a poor winner and a sore loser, though knew by now that to her it was all in good spirits despite the colourful language. "I should quit while I'm ahead with you putain requins, go to mess and manger un morceau, go eat, non? Before you end up owning my précieux La Petite Mort." Sliding her remaining "chips" over to the side and cashing out.

[Tyrann]

"And you go.. there.. and.." From the pilot mess, an upbeat clarinet song starts echoing around the ship.

"Presto!" Olivia smiles contently at her freshly installed phonograph, then begins neatly filing her records in the closet underneath. "What do you think, Mendle? Sounds pretty nice, right? Considering the vibrations of the ship." Then smiles at and nods at her fellow medic's book. "What are you reading, by the way?"

[sandmote]

Mendle looks up and smiles. "Good tune," he notes, putting the books down, "its a catalog of Yucatan remedies, for dealing with colds, wounds, and the like. Not that I'd take it over a doctor's advice, but advancements have to come from somewhere and not everyone can afford the best." He gestures to the phonograph. "Do you play at all?"

[Arayl]

George is in the middle of a pool game when the faint notes of a song being played from a phonograph reach his ears causing him to scratch the felt and let one of the people he was playing against to take a go at sinking the 5-ball that he'd missed.

[Tyrann]

"Oh, I'm convinced that there is a lot more to plant medicine than we currently know." She nods in agreement.
"Plants can't outrun a predator, after all. So they have to have evolved some unique ways to keep from being eating all at once. Like altering the physiology of who- or whatever eats them.
You wouldn't want to affect yourself to the extremes some plants might go to for self defense. But only take a bit.."

She shrugs "And then some are probably just old wives' tales. Takes a keen mind to tell the difference." Then, with a smile, she adds, "And then a brave one to tell the old wives the difference. So I'm glad you're doing it.

And oh I wish." She runs a finger along a record sleeve to wipe off a spec of dust, before filing it along with the others. "But no, only the phonograph, I'm afraid. How about you?"

[sandmote]

"Never took to it much," Mendel admits. "Mostly ruined the tuning on the violin a few times."

[Bowerbird]

"Impressionnante! We got some music now? C'est beaucoup mieux comme ça! Nice job!" Eddy claps Olivia on the back as she wanders past into the mess, looking for something to eat, swaying a little to the music as she walks by.

Spoiler

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Impressionnante! = Awesome!
C'est beaucoup mieux comme ça! = This is a little more like it!

[Tyrann]

"I'm glad you approve, Eddy!" Olivia smiles back. "Oh, incidentally, you have some mechanical skills, right? Have you attempted any custom modifications on your warbird yet? Since we have 14 hours anyway.."

Then turns to Mendle "My vice would be singing. And I'm quite good.. at getting people to tell me I'm horrible."

[Bowerbird]

"Oui, I tinker a bit with things. The principal problème being that we need pièces, er, parts for that, non?" She relaxes into one of the chairs, "The crew, I think they have the pièces, but they are not free. I try to beat them at cartes, a little poker? Putain requins, I win sometimes but they are very good so far." She rolls her shoulders and stretches, "Plus the 'Birds they are machines complexes, very advanced, I would not try without their aider, some help, non? One wrong step and badaboum! No more us."

[Tyrann]

"True, fair enough." Olivia shrugs. "Maybe after we get more parts, or better luck, we could give it a try."

Spoiler: ooc

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Is there anything else we should be doing? If not I think Olivia will just go study medical books.

[Bowerbird]

Eddy shrugs, "Oui, or perhaps someone more beau parleur, a bit more of a talker than me, non? Still, one day..."

Spoiler

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beau parleur = smooth talking

[sandmote]

Mendle chortles at the joke, "Part of the reason I wasn't taught to play any more."

As the conversation turns to mechanics, he's clearly a bit lost, returning to the book just long enough to mark his place.

[Hemnon]

Time will fly by when having fun. (this pun has been brought to you by a badly-punny Game Master).

As the hours tick by, and a lot of clay pidgeons gets shot into fractured bits by Morgan up on the upper flightdeck (thus adding other stuff to that golfball littered Murk below), and as the Drop-Carrier descends down through the Island Layers, you can all feel both a slight change in the air pressure (although only about the difference between being on the 20th floor in an LA Appartment building, and then slowly going down to ocean level) and more noticibly the weather temperatures.
The upper islands, as always, held tropically warm climates, where as as you went further and further downwards, the temperatures went more towards the Temperate, which is what both Tagesta and Yucatan had for a climate, being the bottom-hangers of all the known islands in all of Azure.

It's by now around an hour until arrival at Yucatan, and you can all see the island further beneath, if you were to look out from for example the upper Flight Deck, or the Bridge for that matter. Yucatan holds no tropical rainforest of course, that stuff had vanished in the early years after the Great Storm due to both the damages of the storm, but mostly it was due to the radical shift in climate, going from heavy tropical climate, to full on temperate. The main vegetation had rotted away or died off, and instead it now just holds more open area or temperate forests.

(Let me know where you all are, what you're doing there, if you're doing something very specific, etc. etc. As said, you're about an hour away and it's always a good idea to spend that hour preparing for going off-ship, since once the ship's reached harbor, you won't have time to dawdle around, especially since you have an image to live up to, both as Guild Pilots, but also as members of the Grey Falcons Squadron.)

[sandmote]

Mendle has checked his equipment more times than strictly necessary, and is finishing up some stretches to avoid health problems once he's strapped into the warbird for an extended period. Anyone pointing out it can't stay in the air for as long as he was reading gets told, "If I've already been sedentary that long I'd rather be safe than sorry."

[Tyrann]

Olivia goes to her room and spends the better part of the hour making herself look presentable for the party.

[RandomLunatic]

Seeing their destination draw near, Morgan headed down below to shower up and make himself presentable before landing, a process which included a full gallon of mustache wax.

[Bowerbird]

Eddy sits in a darkened corner of the Drop Deck, fully dressed for the mission, apart from the busy crews working on prepping the Warbirds for launch. Doing a decent job of appearing to be relaxed and ready for her first mission as a Warbird Pilot, spinning a wrench idly in one hand. Watching the crew working on her plane, she almost misses her catch when one of the crew stumbles in their work, but manages to pull it off. All the things that could go wrong playing through her head, the thought of having to potentially kill other pilots, the other squadron members relying on her to be part of the team. All these things play through her head now, like they always would before a race but more intense, so that she can safely leave them behind and operate in the moment.

"D'accord, être putain le meilleur, Eddy." She hisses to herself, suddenly snatching the wrench out of the air and levering herself to her feet, she meanders closer to where the crew are doing the final checks on her plane, her face having resumed her usual air of bravado, "Hey, putain de salauds! You take care of ma petite fille, oui? Ne m'oblige pas à te botter les putain fesses!"

Spoiler

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"D'accord, être putain le meilleur, Eddy." = "Alright, be the ****ing best, Eddy."

"putain de salauds!" = swearing/insults.

"You take care of ma petite fille, oui? Ne m'oblige pas à te botter les putain fesses!" = You take care of my baby girl, yeah? Don't making me kick your ****ing asses!"

[Arayl]

George was on the upper Flight Decks watching as their destination got closer and closer, hoping to stave off any nervousness by straining his eyes to see what the land looked like and as more detail came into view he would try to memorize them in case he needed a landmark or two to navigate by.

[Hemnon]

You all arrive at The Horado Kingdom (it's main City of Inuctai) within the Mayan Federation, your Drop-Carrier gets moored up safely and it's time to disembark and meet both the Mayan populace as a whole, along with the nobility.
Being considered warriors, you'll all be received as honored guests and be seen as part of the Warrior Caste (which is a big deal, cuz only the nobility/priesthood is above the warrior caste). Add on top the fact you are outsiders, that means you'll be even treated with slightly more 'panache' and 'flair' than the regular Warrior Caste members does.

Down the boarding ramp from your Drop-Carrier, you can see the wider landscape up close, and it's rather a stark image - Since there's a lot of pre-storm mayan structures dotted around, with more modernized buildings meshed into the mixture. It's clear that the Mayans regard the remnants of their old civilization quite highly. It's even known that the great Pyramid of Chichen Itza is still around and is located in the Capital City of the same name (In the whole Mayan Federation).
All of it gives a feeling of Traditionalistic mindset meeting Pragmatic newthinking in a way that just seems to work very well.

There's of course no jungle or other such Tropical-foliage due to the big shift in the island's climate after the Great Storm.
So instead there's a lot of grassy landscape, Temperate-climate trees outside the city limits, etc. And there's around 20 big sinkholes throughout of Yucatan due to how porous the ground is on the Island.

It also seems like there's a minor festival going on, although what it's for is something none of you will have any idea of. You'd need a local to explain that. It might have something to do with some important event or something to do with the sun, moon or stars and their current position.... but that'd be about how much any of you'd be able to discern.
--------------------

Down the boarding ramp stands what looks like a collection of nobles, priests and what is most likely parts of the Royal Protector Guard of the Horado Royalty. King Impec Horado is amongst the procession.

Unless requested otherwise, your Guild Agent (Aduke Shaw) will remain on the Drop-Carrier since he is merely an administrative worker and thus below the Warrior Caste. If any of you wishes for him to come along, you'd have to convince the King to allow it.

[RandomLunatic]

Morgan blinked in surprise at seeing the king himself waiting for them at the bottom of the ramp. But it made more sense if you considered he was their employer too.

Not sure how much experience his flight mates had interacting with high society, and certain it was zero for at least some of them, he whispered, "Follow my lead and we'll make a smart first impression."

He minutely adjusted the collar of his guild pilot's jacket, squared his shoulders, and marched down the ramp. Stopping a couple pace short of the Mayan delegation, he bowed respectfully.

[Bowerbird]

Eddy pauses only a moment on seeing the royal welcome waiting at the bottom of the ramp, before her usual grin returns. "Je me prosterne face à votre grande expérience. Lead on." After a moments hesitation, she sketches a much sloppier bow, the motion plainly an unfamiliar one.

Spoiler

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Je me prosterne face à votre grande expérience = I bow to your greater experience.

[sandmote]

Mendle seems slightly more nervous coming down the ramp, and doesn't bow particularly far. He waits for the king to speak.

[Arayl]

George is a little surprised to see that their group was being met by the king but quickly recovers and bows before anyone sees that he hadn't bowed to the king immediately.

[Hemnon]

The fact that you all showed proper decorum came as a rather welcomed surprise. At least to everyone else but the king himself who held a neutral expression (so it was more or less impossible to discern his reaction). His advisory staff however were all shocked and seemed to be observing you all with a deeper intensity... and has none of you said anything either, they began to whisper and comment on things in their native mayan Dialect (none of which got translated.
A young (Around 16 or 18) woman took a step forward, gave a light bow and said in perfectly smooth english "Greetings to you all, Warriors of the Guild. I am Piná Tecotl, His excellence's high priestess and main interpreter.". She kept her head bowed forward, not looking at any of you. Visually speaking, she was quite stunning. Youthful but with a sense of maturity not usually found among so youthful of people. Her long headdress covering most of her hair (which seemed ot have a dark, chestnutty brown color), her intensely green eyes drawing in one's gaze extremely easily.
Then the king himself spoke in measured Mayan, firstly towards his still-chattering advisors with a stern look, and then looked to each of you, arms held out wide, palms up. He made this gesture and spoke his words (which Piná translated as a Royal Greeting to visiting dignitaries, along with a deeper respectful physical gesture only given to those of the Warrior Caste).
In essence the king was greeting each of you in turn with arms wide open, both as representative members of the Guild, but also as HIS warriors, using only the words normally reserved to visiting neighboring Kingdoms' messengers, royal dignitaries, etc. He was clearly intent on showing you all that he meant business, and that proper etiquette is extremely important here.

The king then turned and gestured towards a series of Mayan-style Palanquins (to some they are known as a litter), with servants standing ready to lift and carry them. There were enough for every one of you, the king and the young high priestess as well. Each of them were open-topped and was more or less a comfortable seat that was carried around by servants.
It was clear he was intent on inviting each of you to his palace... it was also very clear that this was not an OFFER, but a Demand.
-----------------------

You're all welcome to speak now, since the etiquette and such had been upheld and done with. If you wish to ask the king anything, or question the high priestess herself, feel free to do so. She'll be translating whatever the choice is, in any case.
The advisory staff will be walking along behind the Palanquins.

If you do not wish to do anything at all, just sit back and enjoy the ride that'll take about 20-25 minutes.

[RandomLunatic]

Morgan blinked, a bit surprised, but knew better than the even think of refusing the offer. "His Majesty sure knows how to make his guests feel welcome," he said to the king with a smile and gesture towards the the litters. Seeing the path of least resistance to the royal booze stockpile, he he sat himself down in one and started a few stretches to warm up his waving hand. He could already see where this was going-the king was going to parade his newest warriors to the people.

[Tyrann]

Olivia observes quietly, preferring others to speak in her stead when possible as her knowledge of the local customs isn't the best. When prompted she takes a seat on her litter and follows along.

[sandmote]

Mendel focuses on looking dignified, commenting to the squadron's employers "thank you for having us."