Life2.0 - a Broken Shackles Narrative

[CBR JGWRR]

"Alexandra"
21st Qutrok, 8 (2186)
Naomi Of Unity​

She reclines in a pattered red dress over her armour; it is relatively loose at the top, weighted to reveal her bronze breastplate before trailing to her bare feet, braided brown hair tied in a series of buns behind her head, sandals beside the sofa, a short spear leaned on the wall. Most interesting is that she is reviewing a star system display of defence installations. She doesn't hide it as I approach. "Good morning Alexandra."

"It is, isn't it?" She offers wine. "Would you like some?"

"Teetotal. Family tradition."

She moves over on the sofa for me to sit. "What did you think of my request?"

"I wanted to have this meeting so that we could discuss it."

She shows me her analysis. There are some interesting proposals there. "I've been reviewing the system's defences."

"The issue you have is that I inherently do not know what you are capable of."

"I want to build the empire my ancestor would have built had he our technology."

"You'll find that this is a peaceful world."

"Don't you want to strike back at them?"

"Of course. But that does not mean I want to conquer the galaxy."

She shakes her head, smiling. "Why would I stop at just one galaxy?"

"Because we're a rebellion, we're outnumbered a hundred to one, and are below our enemies in technology."

"I believe it is my birthright to take from them." She stares at my eyes. "I don't want to make an enemy of you Naomi."

I stare right back. "Good, I'd kill you if you did."

She smiles again. "Really?"

"How many Olinbar have you killed?"

"None." Her voice is soft, briefly. "Yet."

"Five confirmed one on one kills, possibly more in the battle that followed. First one while unarmed and naked against a starship Captain with a knife and pistol. Then I led the revolution."

Her eyes go wide, then quizzical. "Why were you naked?"

"I was a Companionship Asset."

She smiles as she figures out what that meant. "That must have felt so cathartic when you put that Captain on the ground."

"I was busy thinking about how I needed to link up with the rest of the slaves so that we could take the ship actually."

She knows I don't intend to let her lead, I can see it in her eyes. "I am asking here, Naomi."

I point at the display. "Alexandra, you have seen our situation. I cannot risk having someone in command who is seeking their own glory - we're outnumbered a hundred to one at least, we're way behind our enemies on technology. We're a rebellion."

She leans in, wanting to cling to a chance. "I can do teamwork too."

I smile to her. She realises she has just walked straight into my trap.

"Damn. You're going to hold me to that, aren't you?"

"If you can do teamwork, then you can lead."

She takes my hand. "We can work together."

"I'd prefer we did." Now I leverage my hook. "Alexander believed in 'to the strongest', yes?"

"True."

"What if we had a wargames contest?"

Her eyes light up. "I'll start preparing."

"Just remember what I am looking for here."

She smiles. "I will. Teamwork."

She turns back to her display, and I walk away; I might be able to make a useful officer out of her.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

Been working on a few more Leader Portraits, some have been introduced, others will be soon:


Rivkah Of Unity

"No. I do not worry about them. Not until they are here. Then I eat them."​

Rivkah is the daughter of Kari and Tori B'Cavra biologically, and was adopted by Naomi and Buri. Raised from cesarean section to be Naomi's successor as High Queen, Rivkah possesses her father's physique and her mother's mind, yet feels trapped between the two heritages as she thinks about the prospect of one day deciding how the Xenaya will approach the future. Fears the Olinbar's shadow, but not their presence.


Li Nakuma

"I'm here to save the world, one inspiring broadcast at a time."​

Taken as a child on the same slave ship as Atalyah HaMaadimi, Li was sold off separately to his parents, and was trained into electronics construction and maintenance, taken on the slave ship as part of the repair crew. He bounced around from department to department in the early days of the colony, before Monica placed him in charge of the Colony News Service. There, he found that he actually really liked radio presentation, and he's made his niche out of being the voice of the news service.

Valerius Albanius

"I have to help them; there is no choice."​

Valerius is the spare from a family who ran a MSI Pacification Asset production subsidiary. After his father and older brother were killed in suspicious circumstances in a shuttle crash, he took over the factory - he was subsequently deeply moved by the plight of Faragulek, a Quzzi who killed himself because he couldn't afford the medical debt. He sold off everything, bought out as many Indentured Assets as he could, and set off in search of the Continental world where Hortensus lost contact. He hopes to be a peace-maker and a reformer of Olinbar society, but knows that will not be easy.


Duxanek

"My brother may be gone. But he's not truly gone. He's in here still, like all those who've gone before us."​

Saved by Valerius out of guilt. Duxanek was an industrial cleaner at the factory where her brother was injured. Duxanek became crippled by anxiety after her brother's death, and spent the journey locked in her quarters. Eventually had a near death experience brought on by severe dehydration and met her brother, who told her that he loved her and that she needed to live for more. She woke, and used what little strength she had left to call for help. On recovery, devoted herself to learning as much medical knowledge as possible, and Valerius appointed her Chief Medical Officer.


Alexandra Whyte

"Why would I stop at one galaxy?"​

Originally from Thessaloniki, Alexandra is a daughter of a Macedonian woman and a British expat who believes herself Alexander the Great reincarnated as a woman. Views the universe as hers for the taking. Easily the most ambitious person in the entire colony, yet entirely untested in real conflict, something that worries her deeply; she cannot imagine anything more horrible than being put to the test and found wanting, unable to meet her own ideas of perfection. Does not reveal her surname.

Ro-Ab

"Are you food, little one?"​

Ro-Ab's people were invaded by the Nalynoids during the Last Great War; the Nalynoids lost. The only remotely comforting thing about her people is that they're too big to fit into Humanoid sized doorways. Ro-Ab was an egg when she was taken by an MSI survey team, and sold to Valerius' family as an exotic pet; Valerius hand-reared her.



I have also been through the previous batch of Leaders on page 9 and revised them to have their own quotes/memorable moments/in character perceptions as applicable too. Think it is a nice touch.

 

[Macavity116]

Totally not going to worry about Alexandra. I can foresee no major issues upon which a plot may turn.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

There are certainly a lot of interesting dynamics to explore with Alexandra.

But she does have a lot of competition; in order to get to the top, she's got to beat Vaki, Buri, Ykrett and Naomi for now, and then Thando when he arrives. And the old family friend who comes with him. And that assumes that the wargames exercise doesn't bring in some of the special forces Naomi has been training too.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Wargames, Part 1"
27th Qutrok, 8 (2186)
Ykrett​

"Naomi, a word."

She spins her chair to face me. "What's on your mind?"

"This wargames exercise."

"Yes?"

"We agreed Buri would command ground forces, I would command space, and you would be Arch-Imperatrix."

"Yes."

"So what is the point of it?"

"I need you and Buri to put Alexandra in her place before she decides to become a problem; I'd rather she sees that she's not as good as you two and decides to settle down, and not become a problem that means I have to kill her before she tries to kill me."

That has to be exaggerated. Has to be. "How bad is she? I know you make contingency plans like that, but you don't normally reveal them."

She shakes her head. "She threatened that she might try to kill me in the first proper conversation I had with her."

I sit down. It's worse than even I thought. "Naomi... We should get rid of her, now."

"If we humble her enough to make her not quite as over-confident, she has the makings of a good officer."

"And what if she is the second coming of this Alexander?"

"Alexander conquered his first nation as a child Ykrett. Alexandra by contrast, read books on her ancestor's exploits. And we can skew the test against what she studied as Alexander never fought a conflict like ours."

"Are you really sure she'll lose?"

"She has knowledge, but no experience beyond being Valerius' tactical officer. Besides, if she does win, I can keep Buri with me."

"What if she beats me and loses to Buri?"

"Well, we will need Admirals more than we need Generals. And we decided on us three because we were the best from the colony; we are in a situation where the right officer could mean the difference between victory and defeat, and that works in both directions dealing with someone like Alexandra."

"I don't like the idea Naomi. She's the kind of person who kills to get what she wants. Leaving her undealt with will cause issues."

"I agree. But I hope that I can show her the error of her ways, rather than going straight to taking her out. Besides, if we don't try to reshape her, she could slip away and become a much bigger problem. I'd rather have her where I can see her."

"May I speak freely?"

"Always."

"You're making a mistake. I want to go on record as saying there is something wrong with her, and I don't want to risk having her being in command."

She nods. "Understood, and you aren't alone on that; she's Starscream to my Megatron. It isn't you and Buri who are in her sights. But, I'm still asking to set up the wargames."

I wonder what those references are to. "Why?"

"Because when this war starts in earnest, we will still need a test to put prospective officers through."

It's a reasonable suggestion in that sense. "I hope you know what you are doing."

I walk away. At least my position is secure.

 

[HistoryDude]

Well, Alexandra is really ambitious. That... could be a problem. Potential leader of space pirates later?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Heiress Of Macedon"
30th Qutrok, 8 (2186)
Alexandra​

Everybody wants to rule the worlds.

Me especially.

It is the destiny of Humanity to rule the universe.

Anaxarchus told my ancestor that there were an infinite number of worlds. He knew then our destiny. 'Do you not think it a matter worthy of lamentation that when there is such a vast multitude of them, we have not yet conquered one?' He died too early to see his empire outlive him. Too early to achieve what he could have achieved. Another twenty years would have seen him vanquish Rome before it headed east.

I'm the heir of Alexander. Not by lineage, but through strength of will - he left his empire to the strongest.

I will be, must be, the strongest.

But also, I'm not so blinded by my brilliance to think that I'm there already, or that I can't think things through. I was definitely the best on the freighter, but there's a lot of really good people here - Naomi especially is someone who makes me worry. I don't know if I can beat her.

Do I have the logical consistency to acknowedge that she might be the strongest, and the implications thereof?

One of the best things about being a woman is that it reshapes how you view competition; there's less 'win-at-all-costs' mentality. A relationship diarchy isn't going to happen - she's married to a Xenaya. But we could be Strategoi together.

But, I owe it to myself to try to prove myself better.

 

[HistoryDude]

At least that means that Alexandra will be less of a problem to Naomi?

This is an interesting inversion of a quote about Alexander - "And Alexander wept, for there were no more worlds to conquer". It still brings up the point of what Alexandra would do if she did succeed in her goals - does she have any plans for actually ruling?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

It's not an inversion - it's Plutarch's original statement, not the vastly more well known version that's of unknown provenance.

Granted, the story is fairly likely apocryphal and done to represent Alexander's perspective more than actually record historical events either way, but the key aspect for Alexandra is the scope of his ambition informing her own goals; one world is not enough.

Alexandra's ruling would largely consist of building the state apparatus to support further conquest and to impose an order with her at the top and a fusion of humanity and xeno in the same way Alexander was trying to unite east and west. Unlike Alexander, she doesn't consider herself a living goddess, but it wouldn't be difficult for Shroud entities to convince her otherwise. She would eventually think about the succession crisis, with her ideological belief in letting it go up for taking in her absence contradicting the need for passing on a stable empire.

Naomi and Alexandra are very much opposites, and both of them know conflict between them is inevitable - the only way to avoid it would be for one of them to back down, and neither of them would. They both know this, which means Alexandra wants to play the long game as she can't beat Naomi right now. Her plan as a result is to prove herself as a brilliant leader on space and ground and make pragmatics dictate that Naomi give her the opening, from which she builds her own powerbase until such a time as she can win. But, she isn't so blinded by her immense self-confidence that she can't see that Naomi is a highly skilled manipulator of people, and therefore has figured this too; and she knows that Naomi already is thinking about that confrontation.

Hence, Alexandra has to consider the possibility of sharing the ruler's role. But, she doesn't want to be the junior partner, and everyone knows she doesn't want to be the junior partner.

Which means, Alexandra needs a triumvirate so that she and Naomi don't wipe each other out to preempt future conflict. And the colony supports Naomi, while none of the rest of Valerius' crew are powerful enough to match Alexandra.

This all puts Alexandra in a difficult spot, and therefore these wargames are effectively her only chance to put herself in the position she wants to be.

----

Naomi of course, already knows these things; it's why she dangled the opportunity in front of her.

Naomi however, knows Buri will not take the challenge seriously as his right to command has absolutely nothing to do with a position in a formal hierarchy - he earned it on the homeworld and on the ship. He wouldn't take orders from Alexandra as he answers to his wife, and when she grows up, his daughter. Which leaves Ykrett. Ykrett has the critical advantage that he is essential to the colony's navy long term, as a benevolent form of the "integrating Bevkirans into the main computer" idea could offer the edge the colony needs (effectively, Sapient Combat Computers) as he could effectively use the entire fleet as an extension of his mind from a central command ship. Alexandra has nothing on that level of ability, and, she doesn't know that this is what Daas and Ykrett are working on.

The wargames scupper Ykrett's plan as they force him to fight a conventional conflict, and he's worried Alexandra might be as good as she claims to be; keep in mind the only other Human who makes claims as big as Alexandra does who Ykrett knows is Naomi. And from Ykrett's perspective, Naomi has been backing up her claims since she stood naked with a blade and pistol on her hips and Olinbar blood on her hands on the day she killed his captors.

Equally though, Ykrett knows Naomi's internal reasoning is based on him beating Alexandra - it's really stupid plan if she doesn't believe 100% he will win.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Rivkah's Diary"
30th Qutrok, 8 (2186)​

I'm six years old; four more years and I'll be a fully grown adult.

I fancy a little slice of life in my diary today.

One of the first things Mum did after she married Dad was set up a gym for them to work out together in. And once I got grown enough to use the equipment, Mum's been training me too; she started me off with dexterity training and sports that would get my kinesthetic intelligence working for example. It's only in the last year she started seeing how much I can lift.

And I bring this up because today, I achieved something I've been working towards for ages - bench pressing twice Mum's mass. Granted, ok she's only sixty to seventy kilograms so it doesn't mean all that much (Dad measures his training weights using Mum as a measurement, the biggest is labelled as five Naomis. He still likes to surprise lift her; Mum likes it too, secretly) I'm already ninety kg, slightly underweight for my age as my diet is a little weird (some of the green things Mum eats are surprisingly nice) and I've still got years until I'm fully grown. Dad is well over two hundred kg. Mostly muscle; hard to get fat on a Xenayan lifestyle.

My education is still revolving around intelligence augmentation mainly - every day there's a whole load of brain-training exercises Mum has me do. She tells me that it's an old family tradition; one of old Yehoshua's bugbears with state education is they never bothered to look at what could be done to expand the capabilities of the mind - his thesis was that neuroplasticistity was at it's best in childhood, so you train the child to really make use of their brain so that they have far greater intelligence and then pump facts and knowledge into them once they don't forget things. Mum is being slower with me as I'm an experiment as we don't know what can be done with Xenayan neural structure, and she doesn't have access to even a fraction of a fraction of what her Mum taught her with, which doesn't help either.

It makes a big difference; I can sit in the adult meetings and I understand the material as well as they do.

But there are some odd things.

She never baby-talked me, for example.

I've seen how other Human mothers talk to their kids, and it is like they treat them like idiots compared to how Mum treats me; the only concession Mum makes is that she used to avoid vocabulary I hadn't been taught yet, but she doesn't do that any more since she gave me as many dictionaries and grammatical treatises as she could assemble. (it's only a contingency in case the Synthesisers fail, as the plan is to rely on Human languages because Humans have the least body and facial expression in basic audio communication; with the obvious exception of sign languages of course) But other Human mothers will babble back at their babies.

We don't really have schools. They wanted to develop a mixed education system, where all children learned together. But, because all the races develop at different rates they couldn't, so they made it a responsibility for parents to teach their children instead - time spent training your children counts towards your hours worked towards Food and Consumer Goods surplus allocation, so for some people literally all they do is teach their children. Mum made available all her intelligence training material as well, although she did make a proviso that the material in question was developed on the assumption of the student being HaMaadimi genetics and culture.

It contributes to why Mum wants to get me right; my generation of Xenaya are growing up with education levels way beyond our parents. We have to deal every day in objects and concepts that were unknown for all of Xenayan history - our classical education has really only been day to day practicalities. Take mathematics; previously, Xenaya only really needed the four basic operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, with very rare usage of brackets and indices. Me? I was the first Xenayan to learn polynomials. So, one of the big things I have to do when I am High Queen is adapt my education to suit making a standardised Xenayan education system, so that every Xenayan in the future is as smart, or hopefully more, than me.

It's a lot of responsibility, but it's definitely worth it - if nothing else, it is a lot of fun surprising adults with how clever you are.

Something that worries me though, is that Mum says she will start teaching me the art of war soon. Obviously I know how to kill. I'm a predator, and with the exception of the green things, either me or my parents killed my food. But she wants to teach me tactics, strategy, logistics, generalship, how packs form, how armies function, how starships fight, about all kinds of weapons from bows and arrows to relativistic velocity railguns... It's a lot to take in when for my Dad's generation, ranged combat meant sprinting at full speed and jumping at your prey at the last moment to convert your kinetic energy into spike-delivered shock at upper height of their body to cause your prey to collapse and hopefully be unable to retaliate with injuries.

I'm even more afraid of having to need that education. That's what really worries me.

 

[HistoryDude]

I wonder if part of that upbringing is due to Rivkah's future as the Queen of the Xenaya? The art of war sounds useful...

On another note, Naomi's plan is basically to manipulate Alexandra, who knows Naomi's manipulating her, in such a way that she'll walk right into the manipulation willingly. That's devious.

 

[Macavity116]

I'm impressed by Rivkah's self-awareness in relation to other children getting "baby-talked" by their parents. Most average adolescents would choose "merciless teasing" upon learning something like that. Kudos to Naomi's parenting.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

I'm impressed by Rivkah's self-awareness in relation to other children getting "baby-talked" by their parents. Most average adolescents would choose "merciless teasing" upon learning something like that. Kudos to Naomi's parenting.

One of the outcomes of Naomi's scoring so strongly on interpersonal intelligence is that she trains it into Rivkah too; there's been some examples in the narrative so far as Rivkah learns to understand and extrapolate from people's feelings and motives.

Of course, Rivkah growing up into a 200kg+ lion-gorilla like beast with horns and sabre teeth means she can intimidate orders of magnitude more effectively than Naomi can, as Naomi physically is just a normal Human woman of Southern African genetic heritage.

I wonder if part of that upbringing is due to Rivkah's future as the Queen of the Xenaya? The art of war sounds useful...

On another note, Naomi's plan is basically to manipulate Alexandra, who knows Naomi's manipulating her, in such a way that she'll walk right into the manipulation willingly. That's devious.

Absolutely it's part of it. It will be a project of several generations of Xenaya to fully develop though.

Manipulation is a life-long habit for Naomi; getting people to think and feel a desired way was her only protection while a Companionship Asset. Alexandra is smart enough to work that out from what she knows of Naomi, and she's also smart enough to realise that was how Naomi got into her position within the colony. One conversation with Odoos or Shendredie and Alexandra would immediately understand exactly what Naomi seeks, and why.

Still haven't decided what Alexandra's role as an Indentured Asset was mind, but in a way that suits her; Alexandra relies on projecting herself to the distant past and then extrapolating ancient glories rather than her own much lower origins and circumstances, as she wants to build a neo-Hellenic mythos to deal with the neo-Romanic mythos that lies within MSI. She could easily be a protagonist of a Payback Origin.


Edit - Now there's a thought. What if the Lokra-Kitan who want to leave decide to take Alexandra with them?

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Goodbye"
1st Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Duxanek​

I wear the shawl of remembrance as I walk their colony's graveyard. It's first light, filtering through the trees. It's a small graveyard, for there are few who are elderly among the slaves. Nearly all these people died in accidents; mostly accidents with local fauna, or industrial accidents.

There's two memorials to those killed by MSI; one for confirmed dead, the other for presumed dead. The names are handwritten, with a movable protective panel to protect them from the elements.

The first begins with "To all those who could not be with us; you are not forgotten. Requiescat in Pace."

I can't bear to read the list. I try, but I'm in tears facing the prospect by the time I've read just 'Mum and Dad, Atalyah and Marcus HaMaadimi; Naomi'. Her now husband wrote next, 'Mother and sister Duri and Bini B'Than'. The third person is Odoos.

Oh, no...

My heart breaks for Odoos, he wrote his wife and all his eight children...

I persevere through what must be millions of names of those not forgotten, and I pick up the pen.

'Brother Faragulek; Duxanek'

I can contain it no more - I weep beneath open sky as twilight descends.

 

[HistoryDude]

It looks like some of the people still living in MSI's territory did care for the escapees.

Let's hope that they're happy about the fact that those people are now free...

 

[CBR JGWRR]

This is on the colony, from the perspective of one of the Leaders in Valerius' crew.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"A New Beginning"
2nd Hoggagha 8, (2186)
Naomi Of Unity​

"Mrs Naomi Of Unity, are you available for a conversation?"

I look at the reptilian. A Quzzi, she stands a little over a metre and a half. Wearing an MSI medical gown that has definitely seen better days. "Yes. Who are you?"

"I'm Duxanek. It was my brother who..." She pauses, takes several deep breaths. "...I am Valerius' Chief Medical Officer. I wanted to offer my services in a similar position here at the colony."

"We don't actually have a CMO, so if you want the job, you've got it for lack of anyone else to be compared to."

"Wow. Um, why not?"

"Duxanek, I have more than two hundred thousand people who will follow me into battle, but I have no one with sufficient breadth of medical knowledge to adequately treat the twenty two races represented here on Unity since your arrival. As a result, I decided to make it policy that we would have each race have it's own medics trained in their own care."

"I understand. Would I be allowed to try to form a communal health service?"

I smile. "Sure." I reach across to my filing cabinet. "Somewhere in here is my directory for all the trained medics in the Colony., give me a moment." I find it, and pass it to her. "I'm curious as to why you ask?"

"I visited your graveyard and the memorials to the dead and the missing. I noticed that the most common causes of death were accidents."

"It's a statistical overrepresentation because of the demographics of slaves and the implications on natural mortality rates."

"I know. MSI recycle the sick and the elderly. But I thought I could do some good too."

"And I'm grateful. Are you still living on the freighter?"

"Yes, I haven't moved to the planet yet."

"Ok, well, I'd suggest it would be better to take up residence planetside."

"Who should I speak to for housing permits?"

I laugh. "Please, as long as the structure is safe, we literally do not care what you build or where. Once our population grows to the point Unity is fairly well settled, that may well change, but for now we have all agreed that having spent years, decades or more being cooped up with hot bunking, nearly all of us hate that and so people can put up a home wherever they like, however they like it. We do have a policy that we only subsidise the first dwelling though, simply because we are still building up the industrial capability to support expected population growth."

"I understand now. Thank you, I look forward to meeting you in the future."

I try - and fail - to stifle a laugh. She looks horrified. "Oh I didn't mean it like that! I'm sorry..."

"It's ok Duxanek, I couldn't help it. I look forward to seeing what you come up with."

 

[HistoryDude]

This is on the colony, from the perspective of one of the Leaders in Valerius' crew.

Ah. Thanks for the clarification!

And, hey, now the colony is going to have a unified medical service! That should prove itself useful.

 

[Macavity116]

I feel like this is just the beginning of the culture shock Duxanek is going to experience.

 

[CBR JGWRR]

"Canvas"
6th Hoggagha, 8 (2186)
Duxanek​

As I walk down Marius' Passing - the city is laid out as an inner circle with the civic functions inside the inner circle with the main distribution spokes leading to habitation, commercial and industrial districts - what strikes me is the words of a Quzzi Governor several centuries ago; 'Architecture is the identity of a people, writ large in a canvas of durocrete.'

For a start, the road names. They are either numbered if they are minor routes or they consist of Olinbar name and a synonym for end if a major route. It's simultaneously impressive and disturbing in what it reveals about the person who came up with it.

But what stands out...

I'm walking past a plain white painted brick house. What's remarkable about it is just that; no other building on this route is painted white, or made of uniform bricks put together to form four external walls. The house next to it consists of a wide tree with thick fabric walls hanging down. The next is huge, with doors four times my height. For a moment I think the next house is just an adjacent garden until I see it's Plantoid residents basking in the daylight.

Now, I don't think Carax had this quite in mind when he made the statement, but he's correct here. This street alone has dozens of architectural styles, and they clash!

But somehow it brings a vibrancy, a feeling of freedom, of creativity.

It makes me think of my own house, now I'm moving down from the freighter. Quzzi architecture was always a functionalist style, we are not a people who are fond of extravagance. But what is functionalist architecture in a place like this? A place where a handmade (you can tell by the way none of the cuts are straight) wooden cabin will sit beside a massive boulder that has nesting tunnels carved into it?

Should my house be something crazy that fits the eclectic neighbourhood, or something traditional? Would traditional be out of place here?

But that's when it hits me; a traditional Quzzi home would be no more out of place than anything else here, that's what the colony is all about, bringing together so many different people and creating something new together.

At last, I arrive at my destination, a unique blend of a stone raised platform, with a wooden building, painted a light brown with decorative pictograms, with an ornate and multilayered tiled roof around a radio broadcast tower poking high out above the roof. Time to propose my idea to the public and see what the response is.