"Mimi and I can make sure she's well fed. She'll keep her strength up." Mrs. Moss offered.

"Yes," Mimi chimed-in excitedly.
This message had punctuation tweaked by the GM at 12:27, Fri 28 July 2023.

Ah.  Well now.  That answered the other question.

Gwydion's Irina suggestion brought a grin and Brun went back after whatever had survived on his plate.  It's harder to laugh while eating.  The rest chiming in with offers to watch out for the Valkyrie slowly brought down the amusement for Brun.  He aimed for a good polite middle.  Yes, we are all very amused and supportive.   It's good that people have support systems and networks around them.  It's...so....  Great.  Yes.

Needing cover for darkening thoughts, Brun also chimed in, "And I offer my support as well.  Or, since that job seems so well covered, I can assist with getting into trouble.  Whatever the Lady Meara wishes.". There's that dashing smile again.

So much was going on, and Meara just wanted to enjoy the moment, but then it had to get ruined by reality.  And then she wasn't even given the proper time to mope about it!  Oh no, the conversation had to make Freyr speak the words they had both been avoiding, and then before Meara could do more than register them, everyone was talking about making sure Irina 'kept an eye on her', and then Sylvie said she would keep her fed, and then Mimi chimed in, and both Gwydion and Brun said they'd chip in as well...

All she could do in response is hug Irina and bury her face in the other woman's back to keep from crying.  She had always worn her heart on her sleeve, as it were, and now everyone was poking it.  Everyone.

A very faint, muffled, "Thank you," was heard, at least if people were not talking over it.  Her breath probably tickled Irina's back, at least.

Irina managed to turn herself enough to hug Meara. She put her arms around Meara's shoulders and her cheek against Meara's red hair."Of course. That's what friends are for you know. We'll take good care of you."

"Yes," Mimi exclaimed again.

Mrs. Moss gave a warm smile, "She's right, you know. How about we start with a piece of cake, hmm?"
This message was last edited by the player at 19:25, Fri 28 July 2023.

Well, if Meara was not flustered before, she was now, what with her face no longer being in Irina's back and now being in her boobs.  Well, at least she was going to die happy.

Except there is cake, so she can't die just yet.

Still, she cannot speak, but her face is nearly glowing red now.  She does have a silly smile on her face, though it is not exactly a maidenly smile.

Brun, having by now cleaned off his plate, gave Miss Moss all of his attention, "That sounds like a wonderful idea,  Everyone seemed to get very excited when you mentioned the sponge cake earlier..."

Gwydion's grin had to be covered so the escaping chuckle would have a hand to hide in. He decided to show his cousin some small mercy and redirect attention to Freyr for the moment.

"See, Freyr? Meara will be in good hands while you're shaping new Valkyries. Hopefully that won't be too terribly long. We'll miss you the entire time, but we'll be just one planetary jump away. Everything will be alright. You can count on us. Ooo, sponge cake~"

The cake did not disappoint. Light and airy, it was the perfect counterpart to the delicious casserole, which had been delightfully filling.

"Well, my dears, it's been a pleasure, but I'm afraid Mimi and I have to be going," Mrs. Moss announced eventually.

"Noooooooooooooo," Mimi lamented.

"Oh, yes, you still have schoolwork to finish, and don't you even think about getting Princess Meara to write you an excuse." Mrs. Moss rebutted and would brook no further argument.

Mimi pouted when she realized her ploy had been anticipated.

"There's no use in pouting. Go on now and say your goodbyes," Mimi's mother urged.

Mimi began to make her way around the table.

"Bye Miss Freyr. I hope you have a fun trip. Train lots of knights. I'm going to be a knight one day too." Mimi said as she hugged Freyr.

"Bye Mr. Lady Iliza's Sweetheart. Thanks for holding my sword. I hope you get lots of smooches from Lady Iliza." Mimi said as she gave Gwydion a hug.

"Bye Mr. Appetite man. You eat even more than my Dad." Mimi gave Brun a hug too.

When she reached Meara and Lady Irina she tried to hug them both as best she could. "Bye Lady Irina. Bye Princess Meara. Thanks for the cookie and the party. Oh! And sorry I poked you with my sword, Lady Irina," Mimi giggled. She was, clearly, not actually sorry.

Mimi and her mother soon departed leaving the rest gathered round Meara's table.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:06, Sat 29 July 2023.

Brun seemed surprised by the hug from Mimi, but returned the offered hug with a smile, "Thank you, my dear.  I do what I can."  He glanced up to Miss Sylvie Moss herself to add, "With food like this, the task is easy."

After the Moss' exit, Brun stood, "And...  I should be off as well...  My Lady waits and the King commands."  To each, he adds sincerely, "This was...lovely...  You were very kind to allow this vagabond a seat.  I do believe I needed it."  A polite bow, "When chance permits, I hope to be able to return the favor."  Straightening again, his brows knit at some passing thought while he awaited being politely dismissed back to his work and back to Euryleia again.

Gwydion happily returned Mimi's hug. He seemed to like her nickname for him.

"Thank you, Miss Mimi. You're quite welcome, and I'll let her know you said so." Adorable. And then he tried not to laugh too much when Mimi addressed Brun as "Mr. Appetite Man". When it was Brun's turn to begin his goodbyes, Gwydion's smile turned much less silly and more simply warm.

"Hardly a vagabond, Sir Brun. You've become one of my uncle's most trusted. Any table would be lucky to have you present. We should talk more often. Though times are busy, I should like to get to know you better than we've had a chance to."

Having managed to regain enough composure to finish the meal and enjoy some sponge cake (once again, 'sho goob~'), Meara had nearly forgotten she had an incredibly lovely lady on her lap.  At least, until Mimi hugged them both so they pressed into one another again.  With a blush still on her face (although much more faint than it was at the beginning of the meal), she smiled and wordlessly gave Mimi and Sylvie a wave farewell.  Once they had left, she looked at Gwydion, then at Brun, before asking, "Ah... I know this is a bit awkward to ask after sharing such a lovely meal, but... Sir Brun, may I ask why you came to visit?"

There was not a hint of body language asking Irina to stand up, despite there being an open seat next to Meara now, and on the same side Irina was sitting on her lap, no less.

Brun shifted his look from Meara to Gwydion and back again as he answered, "You both seemed...distracted... At the council.  And not in the way I expected, given the news.  After all that happened at Callisto and the extra time spent together on Arthur's... other project... Well, I found that I was very concerned about you both.  I thought, perhaps, to see if I could help in some way." He seemed almost apologetic to have considered offering any kind of assistance to Lady Meara of Chonaill and Prince Gwydion of Avaluna.  Presumptuous to think, /they/ could possible need help from /him/.  He smiled a wan smile, with a small shrug and started to say something....then his eyes suddenly got bigger.  He straightened, "Time!  Damn my eyes!"  Without considering the rudeness, he pulled out his dataslate and began furiously tapping away on it.  It only took a moment to realize the calculations were really beyond his Armoury skills, if only...  Brun's head snapped up and around, "Irina!  You're here!  It's not where...  It's WHEN.  The coordinates??"  The fevered shot sentences of someone who's mind raced ahead of their words.  He looked to Irina with a desperate hope that his ravings might make something "click" for her as well.  At least he would not be alone in his madness then.

OOC:  There.  That should ruin whatever Bossman had written.  Sorry!

Gwydion looks down to the table as Brun mentioned his distraction, nodding gently. He turned another sad smile to Brun, but was stunned out of it when the Knight came to his sudden realization. Irina got a quick glance, as the prince was suddenly well out of his element.

Intrigued by Brun's outburst and eager to see what's on his dataslate, Irina tried to stand from Meara's lap but found herself secured by the Princesses arm around her waist.

"Meara, I need to see what Sir Brun is working on. I think it's important," she said gently as she delicately tried to uncoil Meara's arm from around her. The blush of her cheeks was still apparent, but her eyes conveyed the importance of her request.

Once Irina could see the contents of Brun's dataslate, she stared at it hard for several moments in complete silence. "Oh. Oh! Sir Brun, you're a genius. I would have never thought to conceive of the coordinates that way. But if we treat what we thought were spacial coordinates as a measure of gravitational distortion...and then we think about this all in five dimensions rather than four we get...42 days, 6 hours, 3 minutes, 7 seconds...5 years, 4 months, 11 days, 8 hours, 39 minutes, 10 seconds...and 15 years, 1 month, 4 days, 2 hours, 51 minutes. Roughly speaking. From now. But...why? I mean that's interesting math, but how does it help us find what we're looking for? And why in five dimensions...I don't understand." Irina sat back in Meara's lap absent-mindedly, completely perplexed by the new problem.

Freyr watched the whole situation carefully. Clearly something was going on of which she had no understanding.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:05, Mon 31 July 2023.

Brun was happily impressed at Irina's acceptance of his flash of inspiration and quick calculations.  He was also more than a little relieved.  Many things today had made him feel he might be going mad.  It was nice to have company on at least one.  As to her questions, Brun could only offer a shrug for the moment, "Quantum physics is a bit outside my engineering experience....  But, time as a concept does fit MerLN's dream river....  But it sounds like we have 42 days, 6 hours and.... That'll just keep changing ...". Brun quickly set up timers to track her calculations I'm his slate.

"It sounds like we have that long before our first opportunity presents itself", finished Brun as he activated his dataslate's voice input, "MerLN, could your river be time?  And does that make any more sense with five dimensions?  ". He paused and looked to Meara and Freyr, "Would you mind terribly one more visitor?"

When Irina first tried to stand up, Meara reflexively held her in her lap, but quickly blushed and gently released Irina when the princess realized what she was doing.  She then found herself admiring Irina as Irina shifted into 'work-mode', not even trying to hide the smile on her face as she watched.

Before she could say anything, or even stand up, however, Irina sat back in her lap, much to her delighted (and flustered) surprise.  At least it stopped Meara from blurting out the subject matter itself to Freyr as she slipped her arms around Irina's waist again.

"F-far be it from me to keep MerLN or His Royal Majesty from visiting upon such a discovery," Meara replied to Brun before Freyr could properly grasp what might be going on.

Poor Freyr was now even more confused.

For his part, Gwydion mostly just watched and listened. The math was well beyond him, but the results were at least something he could follow.

"That isn't long before the first counter arrives, and it looks like we'll only get three chances to understand what it means and take action. We were told that Sir Sawyer first found the chip because a ghost led him to it. Iliza let me know she experienced something similar, a ghost leading her to the station's vault during the attack and the vault just opening to her. I feel like we would have a lot more insight if we could identify this ghost."

"Would you be surprised to know that those two tales are not the only two times that I have heard of travellers encountering a ghostly woman in the Solar System," MerLN asked the assembled group as he appeared in the room. The wizened gray wizard turned to Meara and bowed, "I humbly accept your invitation, Princess."

"As for your question, Sir Brun, yes. Time could make sense in that context. As for the Fifth Dimension it represents"

"Entanglement," Irina said reflexively as she curled her fingers through Meara's own fingers at her waist. She didn't even seem to realize it.

"Precisely," MerLN said encouragingly. "That mechanism of physics which your ancestors called 'spooky action at a distance.' The fifth dimension is a micro-dimension that is the key to a unifying theory of physics as we understand it. Even the Breach which you enter when traveling via the Wyrmgates is made possible by the..." MerLN stopped suddenly and cleared his throat. "I suppose that lecture should be saved for another time.

MerLn reached out a hand and the data from Brun's datapad swirled in the air for all to see. "What matters now is that Sir Brun has made our first major breakthrough since deciphering the data chip. A series of breadcrumbs through space-time itself leading us to the G.R.A.I.L. Fascinating. Sir Brun, how were you able to make such a remarkable discovery?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:43, Mon 31 July 2023.

Meara wanted dearly to contribute to the conversation in a productive fashion.  She truly did.  But she also knew that this was all way over her head and oh goddesses those are Irina's fingers intertwining with her own-

No!  You have to focus, Meara!  Stop thinking about how absolutely gorgeous she is when she's talking about... math stuff!

So, with as much subtlety as she could muster (which was impressive that she could summon any at all), Meara motioned for Freyr to come over so she could speak to her quietly without interrupting the conversation at hand, knowing full well that MerLN would probably hear her anyway.

"Should we send a message to Auntie Val and King John to invite them to the discussion, or do you think MerLN has already told them?  I figure we should at least send the invitation so it is less awkward when they inevitably arrive, what with this breakthrough about the G.R.A.I.L."

Brun's brows lifted slowly in surprise as he turned towards Gwydion.  Who had just explained that the chip was found with the help of a ghost...twice...  So, now ghosts exist?  It has been a /day/.  MerLN materializing somehow did not seem strange or surprising, even with the ghostly context.  That's MerLN.  That's /different/.

MerLN's confirmation of the reports of ghosts was much more concerning.  Thankfully, the holographic intelligence did not stay on that topic but began a small lecture on quantum mechanics and the fifth dimension.  It raised questions for Brun and he wanted to know more, this not being familiar ground for him at all.  Before he could ask though, the lecture was prematurely stopped and credit was given to him for his flash of insight.

A happy moment of pride as he watched the system map float into being.

Brun stepped into the holographic data display to study the points shown by MerLN.  The question of his discovery was answered absently, "It just...came to me...  Earlier today?"  A pause. "Yesterday?"  Brun took another pause looking a bit concerned that he can't say for certain which, "I had brought Euryleia's neurocore online..."  A smile. "She asked me a question and it just came to me...  Then I..." The smile grew a bit more and wistful, "Got distracted.  Then the council.  Then I was concerned about Price Gwydion and Lady Meara.  Then Miss Moss brought dinner...  Then I remembered..."  Brun paused his recitation of his timeline, rubbing his hands over his face, "I apologize.  I've not been sleeping well...  Or eating. Apparently..."

"Brun, I am absolutely ensuring you eat food from this point forward. What do you mean she asked you a question? You mean your Armour?"

Brun looked a bit chastened by Gwydion's notion of making sure he eats.  But, he really has no defense having just admitted as much.  The prince's question gets a bit of a confused, almost offended look, "Euryleia.  Yes.  Asked me a question."

MerLN seemed to overhear the conversation between Meara and Freyr. "I thought it best to wait until we had something concrete to give them. We've made progress, but we aren't at a solution just yet."

Irina nodded and raised her hand to gesture at the floating data. Meara's hand went with it. She noticed their fingers for the first time. Her eyes went wide. Her blush reintensified. "Eeep!" Irina was clearly surprised, but the task at hand was important. She gently put Meara's hand back in her lap and completed the gesture she entended. A map of the Solar System appeared with the data. With Irina's input it split into threes.

"MerLN's right. These are the coordinates. Mars in six weeks. Saturn in five years. And the Kuiper belt in fifteen years. That last trip is a worry. The Wyrmgate at Saturn is the furthest out. Neptune, Uranus, and anything out that far is beyond the gate network. Assuming we send someone from the Saturnine gate, that's a two year trip, each way, at best. But that's not the worst of it...."

"These are five dimensional coordinates. Normally we're dealing with relativistic physics in four dimensions. The spatial dimension descriptors length, width, and height traditionally associated with three-dimensional Euclidean Space and, of course, time. We're still within the realm of our everyday existence. It's deterministic. But the fifth dimension complicates things. It's not deterministic. It's probabilistic. This isn't like someone asking you to meet at cargo pad three at 15:00 hours. It's like asking you to meet at cargo pad three at 15:00 hours, but they will only be there if you're wearing the right shirt. And you don't have any idea which shirt that is or even that the shirt is a stipulation in the first place. Even if we are at these places at the right time we've no guarantee we'll encounter whatever it is that these coordinates indicate." Irina, deliberately this time, took Meara's hand. She wasn't sure what was happening. Or even that this wasn't a dream. Now that she thought about it, it probably was. Theoretical physics on the lap of the Princess she'd had a crush on since they'd met and the fate of Humanity might rest in the balance? Definitely a dream. Too bad she couldn't tell if dream Meara was into her at all. Nah, probably not. That tended to be an entirely different sort of dream. No, Irina. Physics. Physics!

"A fairly succinct summation," MerLN agreed. "Metaphor is never perfect, but I take it you all understand the point..."

"No, this is great. Now we know what kind of information we're missing. That's a huge leap from where we were just moments ago. First good news I've heard all day honestly... Do you know if there's a way to determine what's necessary, or are we just going to have hope we get lucky?"
This message was last edited by the player at 12:06, Tue 01 Aug 2023.

Meara's face fell a bit as Irina let go of her hand, but it brightened up again when it was placed in Irina's lap instead.  She genuinely paid attention to what Irina was saying, and actually understood as well, for probably the first time in awhile.  The princess really, really wanted to contribute to the conversation, but before she could speak, Irina took her hand again, then Gwydion mentioned getting lucky, and the one thought she had fled the room.  It was all she could do to gently squeeze the hand that was holding hers again.  She gave a very, very fleeting glance at Freyr.

Help!
Are you seriously too gay to function right now?
YES
Oh my goddess, I should have expected this.
Freyrrrrrrrrrrrr
Nope.  I can't help you in this one.
Buuuuuuuuuu~

It's amazing what two people can say without speaking with just a momentary glance and a grin in reply.

Without backup, from her own brain or from Freyr (who they both knew wouldn't have anything to add yet either until MerLN or Irina replies), all Meara could do is fight to stay focused on the subject at hand.

But then, suddenly, a flash of insight!

"The fifth dimensional coordinates would relate to possibilities, but we will need more context to figure those out, I think.  But why would the encryption have these coordinates if they did not want the G.R.A.I.L. found?  Lady Iliza and Sir Sawyer both claimed they were led to the coordinates, so perhaps...?  No, they were not seeking it, so that cannot be it.  What is the common thread between them?  There has to be something there!" she thought aloud, her face furrowed in thought.

Fate point spent to activate "See? I was listening!" to Succeed on a Lore Overcome action.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:28, Tue 01 Aug 2023.