Difference between revisions of "Vek's Journal on Randal"

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(On Randal)
(Visiting)
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=='''Visiting'''==
 
=='''Visiting'''==
I spent a couple days in Tentar watching the races and setting up the garage.
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I spent a couple days in Tentar watching the races and setting up the garage. I turned the small conference room/private office into a residence.  Fridge. Hammock.  Replicator.  Keg. 
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 +
By the third day my riding leathers had arrived. My painted bikes arrived.  I mounted the race bike and loked it over, tearing it down piece by piece till it was scattered around the garage.  Re assembling it I had a fairly good idea of its strength and weaknesses.  Putting it up on the blocks I figured my job was done.
 +
 
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It was time to take a ride.  Having picked ip appropriate travel bags i mounted them and

Revision as of 18:25, 13 July 2019

Randal in the Vulsara Galaxy

There is something to be said about the disorientation a shadow-walker finds over time. Whenever I arrive on a new planet I look up at the stars, whatever form the sky takes, and try and find my place among them.

Kindof

I'm speaking into the journal book I picked up in a shadow called C23. Its part of a shadow system based on a road that travels back and forward in time. Sadly only the time of the realms its spreads through, yet the road travelers can go back and change things in a side road and suddenly a nearby shadow where those events occurred is included in the Roadway shadows. Its like a growing root system where the leaves are travelers.

Still, in Century 23 of the Road shadows is a brilliantly efficient technological epoch. They take paper books, reinforce the pages to be indestructible to nearly anything except dragon fire. They install a thin computer in the cover of the book. Its as powerfully useful computer that come stocked with an AI personality. The book I used was the great “Kind of Blue-Our Tour” Few books in shadow compare to the stories, the music, and the legends of the 10 year tour of the Miles Davis, Bill Evens and John Coltrane sextet. Four studio albums including the first “Kind of Blue”, a couple dozen solo albums and works from sextet members, twelve concert albums including the infamous March 1961 “Havana Nights” album that includes the gunfight and assassination of Fidel Castro by Lansky hit men as background music while Bill Even ran the keys before everyone realized what was happening. The cover picture of Castro dead on the piano with Bill Evens smoking a cig at the keys in the moment he looks up as the dead dictator lands and slams the lid down is a classic. The book calls its self “Kindof” even though I usually call it blue.

On Randal

I came to Randal about a week ago at the call of my cousins Arloxedra and Carissa. Its always nice to see family. Even better to meet them for the first time. They needed some information on a race of creatures in millions of realms out near chaos and I was happy to provide it.

Afterwards I went and looked the place over. I set Kindof down on a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Vulsar Galaxy, if you can believe it. I've seen versions of that in a lot of realms, most notably a few places in the King Random's Deck. I visited those. Now, I was born in Chaos and even I thought those were weird places. Im inclined to do a commentary on the deck from the point of view of a family outsider.

So that brings me here.

The Guide told me about the city of Tentar, the center of the racing world. It spoke of the vehicles, the betting, the celebrities. It spoke of the nightlife. Its the nightlife that interested me.

First off I paid for an All -Access Spectator ticket and came in the C gate of the Tentar A Arena. Its a huge place. According to the program it has 23 different tracks. Mostly small venues. My ticket gave me access for all the venues but not the field.

I found vendors by the entrance. I purchased A Arena pants, and few randomly selected team jerseys. I let Kindof steal a copy of the download program and analyze the races.. It seemed delighted and took it upon itself to send a ream into the planet's data net and start filtering information. In time it gave me the odds and projections. I was wearing a sporty hat with some kind of animal tail, a wildly colorful large goody bag with tigers and vehicles, a colorful and light jersey that had a very chaosian-looking Fire Angel as the team mascot, pants with A Arena logos in purple a green. I was a shockingly cacophonous display of colors, shapes, and team slogans. I'd have made a Dufiro of Color turn its head. Here though, I blended in.

I watched early morning races, learned the nomenclature. Sitting in the stands it seems it was bring you own provender. I brought out a tall bottle of Bajas rum and shared it with those around me, making many friends. I found an arcade among the vendors and spent a while in a VR chair learning how to ride the low slung bikes favored here. From there I went to one of the unused tracks where classes were given for a nominal fee. After an hour in the seat the instructor told me I was a natural. I told her they were not greatly different then the motorcycles I was used to. She said she would love to see what I was used to. I had been in the world only a few hours and I already had a date.

I found a dealership in one of the high priced concourses. My All-Access pass gave me access to the concourse and its high priced vendors just not the luxury seating with the fancy views and the good champagne. I looked over the bikes and let a salesman try and pitch his woo at me. I found a nice street model with a variety of bells and whistles. During his sales pitch he showed me the similarity of the street bike to the race bikes listed in the registry. He explained to me that the rules stated that all bikes had to be within a certain few degrees nearly identical. “Stock” I was familiar with the concept.

I asked him to show me the Terror's Trio team bikes on the registry. Pointing out Carissa's bike I said I wanted the street version of that one. He said I surprised him for being a fan of such a newcomer but that she had a great future. It was curious though. Three such newcomers showing up on the circuits, not having grown in the ranks of the sport. He suggested she must come from Star Fleet. it wan't my place to tell him the truth. I ordered a race version and asked if he how I got registered to race. Chuckling he took be over to his desk, kicked up his feet, and said that wasn't hard to arrange if I knew the right people and could pay the price. I poured a collection of gems on his desk and set a tall bottle of Bajas whiskey next to them. he became very cooperative.

In advanced societies it amazing how quick one can gain credibility with a small pile of gemstones.

After the salesman and his manager, and their accountant, and a friend from the bank examined the stones they established me an account and gave me access. For a fee of course. Once it was clear how their monetary system worked I took the time to drop two more piles of stones on the account. I was flush as far as Randal was concerned.

I ordered a paint job for the street bike and ordered the racing bike put painted and put on hold till i acquired a garage.

Renting a small garage unit, 326-BW, in one of the smaller areas of the arena I figured my work was done. The BW block was tight, and dirty, rented by the season by riders young enough or poor enough to barely be able to afford a garage in the A Arena far reaches.

The garage had an office, a bathroom and a small meeting room. It was accessible 28 hours a day if one had the proper keycard for the gate. The leasing agent thought I was crazy to lease it for 400 years. But being a rich eccentric excuses a lot of madness. So does being a Chaosian or an Amberite. It had tight floor space and benches for working. Looking around it I was delighted. I now had lodgings. The leasing agent would have thought me even more mad had he not left before I sat down in the middle of the space and began drawing a trump.

Visiting

I spent a couple days in Tentar watching the races and setting up the garage. I turned the small conference room/private office into a residence. Fridge. Hammock. Replicator. Keg.

By the third day my riding leathers had arrived. My painted bikes arrived. I mounted the race bike and loked it over, tearing it down piece by piece till it was scattered around the garage. Re assembling it I had a fairly good idea of its strength and weaknesses. Putting it up on the blocks I figured my job was done.

It was time to take a ride. Having picked ip appropriate travel bags i mounted them and