Upstairs in the Blue Moon was a semi-regular hangout for the Firefly analyst. After a long day of hitting the spreadsheets it was nice to unwind with a few games. You could meet a lot of people here too, which was good for building a community when you came from a very different place (i.e. deep space mining colony #173).

So after work he grabbed his things and set off for the fantasy flight stations. Katsutoshi was starting to feel a bit more confident in his deck building and was playing around with an MCA all-stars spirit spam deck. He spent a bit of time tinkering and looked around to see if anyone was interested in a game.

Senshuken is chiling in the arcade and she's always up for gaming, especially when it comes to fantasy flight!

"Yes, yes, let's play, Hotaru san! I am Bayushi Senshuken by the way." She introduces herself. "It's a new deck so please be merciful. She adds and smiles politely behind her mask.

"Oh great, thank you Bayushi-san! I am Hotaru Katsutoshi, pleased to make your acquaintance." He flashed a smile and connected up to her console.

"Mercy, of course! Well, 8m not that good. I only started playing when I got to World of Dreams, but it's a fun game. So many options." He waited for the console to decide which of them would get the first turn.

"I haven't been playing for long either. It's an imperial control deck I'm playtesting. What are you playing?" She asks.

"Oh, you're the first to go. Good luck." She inclines her head politely.

"Oh, that's a good one! I thought I'd try out MCA spirits. Uses a lot of Kitsune shugenja, for obvious reasons. Plus the animations are pretty fun!"

It was a pretty standard first turn. Some holdings, a Kitsune shugenja, an Usagi Yojimbo. A good set up for a strong turn 2.

"So are you from World of Dreams Bayushi-san, or do you hail from somewhere further afield?"

She opens the cards and only holdings for Senshuken. She doesn't seem disappointed, though.

"I hail from a nearby province, Seizou, and I kinda come and go to the city. I'm usually away for training and now back for the court. How about you?"

"Oh that sounds good Bayushi-sama! Easy to stay in touch with family and friends, but room to spread your wings." He smiled at her and then looked at his next draw, blinking in surprise. It was one of those hands you never drew when you really needed to...

"As for me? I got here about 6 months ago. Assigned to the MCA embassy of course." Why else would a Firefly be on World of Dreams? "So I'm getting to know the place a bit better and I really like it, now I'm used to the gravity. I mostly work on trade deals."

As Katsutoshi got his deck going there was a brief flurry as a bunch of small, and not so small, spirit creatures suddenly started to appear.


D1. EE. Fluffy Games: Fantasy Flight/ Intelligence roll!
Contested by friendly Bayushi Senshuken.
Will MCA spirit spam win? Place bets now! | 5k4 ⇒ 57 (TN: ?)

"Wow, your deck really works. It's faster than light itself!" She comments. Her own deck isn't going badly, but it's probably too slow and she can feel it that she's going to get stormed over. Two more holdings for the Bayushi and an Otomo bureaucrat that makes all humans in the game bow. If only the Hotaru wasn't playing with spirits.

"I was gone for two months and the city looks almost like a brand new place. You might be more local than myself at this point. Where are you from originally?"

/41

The Firefly laughed a little at the 'local' comment. "Originally? A small mining station in the middle of the section labeled as nowhere. We didn't get many visitors. But, aha, yeah I see what you mean. There are new buildings going up all the time here."

Obviously the Bayushi was a pretty pro player too, but it was hard to stop the onslaught of cute furry spirit animals. The game was already going well when Katsutoshi drew the character "Kitsune Sukune" who let you search your deck for a bear spirit and then bow him to give all your spirits a flame attack! Maybe it was overkill at that point.

"Honestly didn't expect it to work quite so well but everyone gets lucky." He gave a sheepish grin. "So anyway, yeah, I come from deep space I guess. Planets are nicer than I was expecting."

"Oh, my kami!" She exclaims. "Is your deck like that all the time?" She asks.

"Well, mining worlds might be, I don't know, not beautiful? But they are very important. I am hardly an expert when it comes to engineering but a course I had once taken in strength and resistance of materials was really enlightening." She laughs. "Let me not bore you with the best alloys for exhaust fumes in motorcycles, though. Fancy playing something else? Or another game of fantasy flight, perhaps?"

The aggressive army of cute animal spirits had really outdone itself. Katsutoshi looked pretty happy with how it had gone. "Thank you, and I have no idea in all sincerity Bayushi-sama! I think it will need testing against a few more decks from the local metagame..." He shrugged and accepted the win. "Very happy to play more, or maybe there are other games here that you would like to play?"

He gave her a polite smile at the motorcycle comment. "Honestly Bayushi-sama, I could talk about alloys all evening! Maybe another time though? Oh, and I was not clear, the station I grew up on is really in space. We Firefly only recently gained a homeworld you see, a planet named Amanosake. I hear it is rather nice!"

"Hmmm, how about a racing game?" She suggests. "And please, Hotaru san, don't stop talking about alloys." She says half jokingly, half seriously. "The truth is that I am hardly an expert, but engineering is within my interests and one that I really have to progress on for that matter."

"Really?! Well then you are in luck Bayushi-sama, because all Firefly are trained in Engineering. In fact, in my previous posting, I was an engineer on a mining vessel." There was a brief flash of something in his face before he moved on.

"Racing sounds good! You pick something, I haven't played any of them yet."

"I am a bike racer by trade so let's pick this one." She points to an Y-Wing space vessel from the previous century. "Games must be fair."

She sits on the cockpit, but doesn't throw a coin in yet. "Well, Hotaru san, my team is working on my bike for the next season. They found an alloy for the engine that makes the bike 7% lighter than it was last year. But the temperature in the cylinders raises above the safety point no matter what oil is being used. Anyways I read the report earlier today and I needed to share my frustration."

Katsutoshi gamely jumped in. "Cool, let's give it a go." He settled in as best he could and hoped that there wasn't a fiddly control near where his left hand should be.

"Sounds like you're a pretty pro racer then huh? Yeah. So you're operating on the top end of the performance spec. Could be there's a flaw in the alloy production process, or the manufacturing shop? If you've got a minor contaminant it could screw the whole thing. Alternatively you need a different fuel mix, but I don't know what the regulations are like. You're probably constrained." This was all pretty interesting.

"Well if you want another engineer's eyes on it feel free to let me know. Of course this does sound a little hush hush so you probably want to keep it in Clan." Not that the Firefly had a racing team but still.

"I'll have to either kill you or marry you to cousin of mine if you see the designs." She obviously jokes and makes it evident with a laughter of her own. "I appreciate your advice however. I will sent them an email with your estimation. The fuel mix is pretty standarized, but perhaps they could try getting the alloy from a different manufacturer and check whether the results of testing are different or not."

"Shall we?" She asks. "The Y Wing was famous for its friendly to use control system. It is said that the engineer that designed it had claimed that they can even train their cat to fly it if the need for cats to fly vessels arose."

Katsutoshi chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind Bayushi-sama! Okay, good luck and please do let me know how it all works out."

With that he took a closer look at the controls. "A cat you say? Hmm, I suppose you could smear some tuna on the most important controls..." A few more checks and he nodded. "Okay, let's play!"

It's a pretty standard game. You fly the vessel as fast as you can.

"So, Hotaru san. I will also be seeing you in court, I should assume?"