Party To Treason 2: Valdragon's Coup

[PointMaid]

Victoria's eyes narrow, eyeing Valdragon. Like I said, we're in the middle of a coup, I hardly think it's time to quibble about alcohol regulations.

Then she slides a Gin and Tonic to Romeo. It's not a large one, though, surely not enough for him to get drunk.

[TenOfSwords13]

thank you thank you thank you so much you're the heckin' best!

He's now enjoying his Gin and Tonic. He probably won't get drunk.

[PointMaid]

Victoria returns a smile. Don't mention it.

[Florien]

Cpt. Mac Cumhaill's Prison Plan

• With a dramatic and just-so-story toss, you hurl stones into the ocean. Surprisingly, they don't just sink to the bottom and get lost forever, they do form a serviceable bridge, which you walk across.
  
• A goblet with golden coins is certainly a bribe. Gold in its own right is not enormously valuable, but it still somewhat valuable, and the coins are forever associated with treasure chests and are seen as more valuable than in truth they really are. You arrive without incident and give someone your money goblet.
  
• You tear part of the roof off. Captain Breakspear doesn't actually see you do this, but he did see a giant guy who looked fearsomely strong walk through the bar, and then immediately after the property destruction started. He's definitely going to report your property destruction.
  
• Oh. Oh there's the problem. The prisoners have seen your bridge and are viciously rioting. You cut your way through the crowd, but they've breached the gates as you've successfully turned an island prison into something rather less secure, and they pour onto the landing station. You get out, and are in huge trouble with the Alliance for needing to get the situation under control. To save face, Valdragon demotes you, but not so far you're not directly under him. Congratulations, Lt. Mac Cumhaill.
  

Cat. Lucky's Prison Plan

• You try to float across the sea in a bucket. You do have a bucket and a mouse, but the ocean currents are... not optimal for carrying you between the two islands, and instead you're thrown wildly off course and proceed to discover all kinds of things. Drifting ship husks, burned almost through and riding low in the water. Ancient refinery spires from previous groups who tried to refine the acid and eventually abandoned the planet for some reason. Land is a distant memory (thirty minutes distant) as you sail the seas in your bucket on a wild adventure. Thirty minutes turns into several hours, then multiple days. You narrowly avoid the near daily storms that hit the islands (you are thankfully still lucky) but still are adrift. Eventually, somehow, by the luck of ocean circulation, you wash up on the correct beach (well, extremely unpleasant mud shore) before you starve, and straggle into the prison.
  
• Your plan is very smart, you look at the antennas and dishes and figure out that they probably connect somewhere in the middle to save on wiring costs. This easily lets you find the post quickly enough to snap pictures of the documents. You're a very smart cat.
  
• Breakspear is petting you, even braving the deadly tummy trap wherein you will bite sometimes and not others. It's all very well and good, until he notices the camera on your collar. He's weirdly not aware about the Cat Captain, but he is paying attention enough to recognize that as an unauthorized camera. He quickly crushes it between his fingers. You've lost the documents.
  
• You end up hiding high up and under an acid silo while the prisoners fight and kill. Eventually some guards fire on the prisoners, and butchery aside, the situation calms down. You stroll through the carnage, unperturbed and still very hungry. The bar did not have anything that you might find edible, and you haven't eaten properly for days.
  

 
Well well well. We have a winner. And a loser.

Captain Beck! I've already made a Major. However, I do have an unoccupied Captainship that no one's been in for years. Traditionally it's been folded in under Aquangrad or Allfield... but I think it'll suit you excellently. You're now also Captain of Prinaska Agriculture Station, and entitled to double voting power this next election. Your plan worked well enough... apart from the first part where you nearly died. You showed intelligence by using the strength of gold leaf against acid, and nearly as importantly, you showed that you're not so intelligent you might be a threat by your baking soda plan.

His passive aggressive attack aside, the Colonel shuffles some papers and looks through them for a moment.

Before we get to the election, I'm going to tell you each what I think is wrong with your ideas in general now.

Captain Frakenstein. Your ideas are serviceable, in principle, but you rely on deception and your cleverness to get through places where you could use brute force just as effectively. This is a sign of weakness and potentially disloyalty.

Captain Columbo. Your schemes rely entirely on you having cash. You're very quickly going to run out of cash, and what then? You'll die, that's what. You have effectively unlimited money, but there's much more money than cash. Further, your spending is flagrant, excessive, and obvious. As I'm sure you found out, when you're so obvious about what cards you have, you're not going to keep them long. You are no threat to anyone despite your strength and wealth, because you are incapable of making sound bribery decisions.

Captain Banks. You're noncommittal to the point of dubiousness. Many of your plans have a fallback, and the fallbacks make the original plan blatantly suspicious in retrospect. Talk to people, then run if questioned. Say you're inspecting things, then claim to be lost if questioned in particular. You can have fallbacks, but they can't make the original plan fail even harder, and I don't think you understand that.

Major Harrier, You rely heavily on the law to protect you. For now, this will help you, but the moment we're in a field where the law cannot hold anyone down, you're going to be torn apart.

Lieutenant Mac Cumhaill. You're over-reliant on your strength, and are prone to making huge displays. Show some subtlety once in a while, you attract far more negative attention than you need to, and could get us all killed. The world is bigger and stronger than even you, and it will crush you if you give it the chance.

Captain Sony and Captain Microsoft. You, on the other hand, are neither cautious nor aggressive, you are simply passive. You simply hope the world comes to you without attempting anything specific. While I approve of your passivity in regards to opposing me, I expect you to take at least SOME initiative in the field. Use force, cause problems, come up with ideas, don't simply walk forward and hope things work out.

Captain Walson, you have done precisely nothing and I have already filed for your execution. As soon as I find a suitable replacement, you will face a firing squad.

Captain Beck... I already addressed you earlier, but to be clear, you are smart and chaotic. You are also decidedly unsubtle, and sometimes your ideas fly in the face of all good sense. For now, I will tolerate it.

Captain Blixbo. Your plans fall short. You take small actions when you could take large ones, and take minor actions that could only work as major ones or not at all. Case in point, throwing a little acid at prisoners for no particular reason. Your touch is too soft, ironically for a creature with a hard outside.

Captain Lucky. I'm sure you can understand me, at least slightly. You're all too willing to coast by on your being a cat, but you should know, cats draw eyes. You haven't gotten me in trouble yet, but you very well could if someone makes the connection... or as we saw, even if they don't with you losing your copy of the documents.

I am disappointed in all of you, in one way or another. It is clear the only reason you have all come so far is me and my mercy towards people such as you. But, the key thing is that these documents, I have looked through them. They are indeed vitally important, and you may encounter an operation later to ACT on what we've uncovered here.

---

Now. It is time for the consensus building exercise. My Aide is now Captain Juniper Banks. Make your choice, Captain.

[Kennifer]

"And here I thought having a fallback was generally a good idea, although maybe I should focus on things going right instead of planning for if they go wrong."

"At any rate, I'll hear everyone out, if you've something to say then do so now, and then I'll make my choice."

[PointMaid]

Where I could use brute force just as effectively... hmph... why should I risk ruining my manicure if I don't have to?, Victoria (F.) mutters

[PointMaid]

In any case, I think my actions speak for themselves.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Of course, Ms. Frankenstein. GWC pours a glass of his expensive wine then slide it over to Victoria F. It's a shame some people can't enjoy the best things such as this wine. Reminds me of an argument I had once with a vampire who had such a great love for wine. But she seemed more content in drinking Walmart-brand wine than this stuff. Why not just drink dishwater while you're at it.

GWC heeds the criticisms of Valdragon. And his ego is bruised once again. Especially since he thought as long as he had the money, he'll be fine. But it appears it doesn't work out here. Not as well as he was hoping, especially since he was bled dry. I... I understand, Bossman. Now onto important matters. While I won't push for myself trying again at Liason just yet, I will state that my first run at it was doomed from the get go as I could only approve Loyalist operations. But being the Aide, I made sure the Coup would succeed by passing along both Coup-based operations to Blixbo. Now, I do wonder about my time as Liason. Perhaps I got dealt a bad hand. But I'm not ruling out the possibility that this could also be foul play. I will be on the lookout.

[wingedcatgirl]

Lucky is batting at a catnip mouse. It's unclear what the Alliance's drug laws say about this. Or rather it's definitely clear to someone, but not to Lucky, who can't read.

He is very adorable.

Presumably this somehow has anything to do with attempting to overthrow the government, but hell if I know what.

[PointMaid]

Thank you, Mr. Columbo. Frankie takes the glass of wine. She only takes one sip now, but she does make a point of taking all the flavor in.

...As you say, I am aware that the hand we were dealt did not help us prove our worth in this enterprise. Whether you all believe me or not, it was a full hand of Loyalist operations. I am attempting to show through my other choices, however, that I am as eager for this overthrow as any other.

[TenOfSwords13]

hmmm... i think we need to pick someone we don't know much about as liaison. it's still the early stages of the coup, after all! the more we know about everyone, the less likely it is that we'll accidentaly have any ne'er-do-wells frick us over.

[PointMaid]

Do you have anyone in mind, in that case?

[TenOfSwords13]

nope! there are, what, ten? eleven of us? there's plenty of people to test.

[LavenderDream]

Why don't we test some of the more "quiet" Captains, like Sony and Microsoft, or Lucky, just to name a few.

[Kennifer]

"That could work well as a plan, yes. Are there any preferences anyone has between them, or would one like to speak up? Or I guess do something exceptionally clever and cute in the case of the cat."

[wingedcatgirl]

Lucky hops up onto Juniper's shoulder and observes the crowd regally.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

That sounds like a plan. But which of them would be the most suitable for the job?

[Kennifer]

"A good question."

Juniper gives the shoulder-mounted kity a scritch under his chin.

[noodlesnook]

“Sony and Microsoft are, as Valdragon says, too passive. The cat may be, well, a cat, but at least he's got  more…” 
Fionn pauses, gesturing with his hands.
“You know.”

[Oggy123]

"Who do you think should be the Liaison?"

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

Real good initiative there. I'm sure the land you rule is in good hands with weak-willed leaders such as yourself,, GWC sarcastically said to Sony and Microsoft. And you don't even like alcohol. Really, now? You're such bores and I think you just cemented for me you may not have the drive to be Liaisons. Rather give it to the cat. Can't do much worse, I'm sure.

[Kennifer]

"It could certainly be interesting to choose the cat..."

Juniper nods slightly, scratching Lucky's ears a bit.

"All right, I've made my choice, I'll pick Lucky. Let's hope he lives up to his name, shall we?"

[wingedcatgirl]

Lucky purrpurrs at the earscritchies and stands up tall and proud. It's probably completely coincidental, but let's all pretend he's indicating assent anyway.

[Mr. Lee Hammer]

So be it. I'll vote aye.

[Oggy123]

"Why would you want a cat to be the Liaison? It's not like a cat could even talk."

"It looks kinda cute, though."