Arriving back in the VIP suite you'll find Choi waiting for you all.



Choi leads you back in the direction of the hall where the opening presentation was this morning, only now it's been reconfigured as a dining venue.

Tables have been arranged in a 'U' shape, with about 17 seats across the base of the 'U', which effectively becomes the 'head' of the table, and about 30 seats down each side of the 'U' (note this gives about 27 seats on the inside of the U, for a total capacity of 131).

The 'Top' of the table is occupied for the most part by Mizzurian Executives (14 of the 17 seats), with Cordelia in the Middle. Her bodyguard stands a little way behind her seat throughout the meal.

You are seated on the RH side of the U (as viewed from the head), about 2/3 of the way down the table from the head, 5 of you on each side of the table.

After seating you, Choi takes her seat, in the middle of the group up the table from yourselves. These all appear to be of mixed ages, although the majority would appear to be between their late teens and early 20's. Most of them are much less formally dressed than yourselves, and you would hazard a guess, that most of them are not used to this level of formality.

The top third of the LH side of the table appears to be a mix of early to late middle age males, with a few younger men in their mid to late 20's and 2 women who'd you'd probably put in their late 20's. The remainder of the table are a mix of ages, predominately men. Most of these are in suits (both men and women) and all have 'Mizzurian Logo' lapel badges with their names on. The remainder of the seats on your side of the table between yourselves and the bottom of the table, are also occupied by people in suits with Mizzurian logo lapel badges. Two of these people appear to be female twins of oriental descent. Note those with Mizzurian lapel badges are predominately a mix of 'White' and 'Asian' (most likely Chinese) descent, with a small portion of Hispanic's and African or Caribbean's thrown in.



The meal is a 3 course meal with  cheese board and coffee to follow. Red, White, and Rose wines are available, along with tonic, soda water, or similar for those who don't want wine.
All 3 courses come with a choice.

The starter is either Crab Pate, Thai spiced vegetable Soup, or Melon.
The main course is either Sirloin Steak or a Salmon Steak served with either fries or new potatoes and either salad or a vegetable selection, or Vegetable Risotto.
Dessert is Raspberry soufflé, Chocolate Crunch, or Fruit Salad.

Between the End of the Main Course and Dessert, Cordelia will make another speech thanking everyone for attending.
She will thank the You-Tubers and Twitch Streamers (indicating the group at the head of the table on her right) for their patience and hard work in putting their series together ready to go with the launch.
She will then thank the assembled Journalists (indicating the group at the head of the table on the left for attending and for their patience during what for them must have been a difficult period of not knowing whether the whole launch and Expo were an elaborate ruse or not,
and finally she will thank the assembled ranks of Mizzurian employees and their teams for all their hard work in ensuring that the launch of the DisJunction and the Black Shadow Console was a success and went without hitches.
She will then invite everyone to enjoy the remainder of their meals and the rest of the show.

All told "Lunch" will take about 2 hours, so it's 15:30 approx by the time you can get back to the Exhibition Hall.

Cathal secures himself a seat next to the other group.

He takes vegetable Soup, Salmon and Chocolate Crunch.

He does no say much during the lunch listen to the speeches and what the You-Tubers and Twitch Streamers discuss during lunch.

After lunch he gets back to the Exhibition Hall and talks with some of the exhibitors about environmental topics, curious how they handle it, their responsibility in this field.

The under-current among the You-Tubers is where is Daiyu and her posse, although you also get the impression some people know but aren't saying.

Ggiven that about 50% of the stands all relate to Disjunction and the BlackShadow consoles, and 25% relate to other Mizzurian Games, the only people you're going to be able to discuss anything elating to environmental issues with are the wholly owned subsidiaries Cyberworks, KLS, Micronet and  Cortalan.
All of them will tell you that there is a big drive coming down from the top relating to sustainability. The two England based companies, Micronet and  Cortalan, and much more willing to talk about things than the two US based corporations. From their perspective (the US Corporations) it's making their lives really difficult because they're having real difficulty getting their supply chain to but into this climate change and sustainability rubbish.

Rhiannon tool whatever seat in her designated area. While she just played the demo version of the game, she didn't know enough to engage in conversation about it and she suspected any discussion about Shadow or Trumps would invite some unanswerable questions should she be overheard. The safest option was to listen to the YouTube personalities wax on about whatever it was that animated them, while wondering why Cordelia wanted her and her cousins there. Surely the executives had to also be wondering who this group of disconnected strangers was. Maybe their role was to just be seen, to soften the impact of something later on.

Though she knew that this event was being held on her home shadow, Rhiannon neglected to bring her trumps. They were useless in Carnelian, but at any point she could have visited the university or even her home in Ireland. Neither of those really held any appeal, but she still wished to feel that cold tingle of her own handiwork.

After lunch, she followed along with Cathal. It was fun to walk around and see this whole ecosystem around Dysjunction and the console, but she had no particular stake in any of it. It was also entertaining to watch Cathal ask about the environmental concerns with company representatives that had nothing but frustration over the topic. She herself might have cared before she learned about her true heritage, but now it just seemed so meaningless. Especially because the fabric of reality itself was at risk, and the Mizzurians could at any time face something much worse than a few degrees of temperature rise.

"I wonder, Cathal, what other events we are meant to attend at this expo. I feel like we're here for a reason, but we just don't know what it is."

"That is the same what I feel, but I fail to see what it is."

"If we were just in for training and family reunion, a stay in Carnelian would be sufficient."

"We are seen." He signs around. "Here and at lunch as VIP Guest."

"Which also means that we are now on the radar of the investigative authorities that keep an eye on Mizzurian and Cordelia."

"I wouldn't worry about any of them. I don't think I've seen our names on anything, so they likely have no more idea about who we are than we do about those sat further up the table than us."

"As to what we're doing here, both Cordelia and Siobhan have said we need to get used to our new status. I think they might have mentioned at some point about Ambassadors and State functions. How many of you have ever been in that sort of formal lunch setting before, and I'm not talking University Graduation dinner, I'm talking Political Fundraiser or Charity Gala dinner?"

"Like giving the ducklings time to learn to swim in a shallow pond before releasing them into a deep lake." Cathal replies. "With some hungry catfishes in it."

"Yes. For instance why does she always have her sword with her where ever she goes if there aren't any threats out there. And I bet that the armour her body guard is wearing is just a functional as it is ceremonial, even its completely at odds with this setting, and whilst on the subject why does she even need one?"

"She is either very safety-conscious or there is something she has not told us yet." Cathal ponders.

Cassandra sighed at that "I understand getting used to things but by god do I hate rich people, you have to follow so many rules"



She raises an eyebrow "Well you don't tend to stick a whole bunch of wealthy people wearing expensive things in one room, announce the whole thing and not have beefy security" She then turns her head to look at Edward "Why not have one? Sure Cordelia is powerful and more than capable, but she also has to keep appearances, how many people here do you think actually know her strength?"

"We are not talking about local Security company, not LAC security. We talking about a Software Concern having its own Secrity force." Cathal replies.

"When they first turned up in town, they had military gunships as escorts for the transport helo, and even that was of the type the military use.
The convoy which then delivered a lot of the other hardware also had some form of APC with heavy weaponry as escorts. When the heavy lifting helos that brought the wind turbine unit and communications unit, they were also escorted by the same gunships. All had Mizzurian logos. "
"Once they got started on securing the hydro plants, all the security personnel wore Mizzurian Uniforms and most of them had military, as US Marines or similar, levels of weaponry and body armour, and a lot of it I didn't recognise."
"Security Company? I think they've got their own private army."

"So definitely something we should add to our question list." Cathal continues.

"We can do a kind of whiteboard with all the information and the question we have.

Are you all firm enough with the use of the tech we have in Carnelian then we can do it online."

"How do you mean? We can call each other from either one of the small screens or by asking Zou Yan to do so, and that includes multiple people at the same time, and people can also go into the shopping mall at the same time and talk and shop together there."
"We could also ask Zou Yan what he knows if you've not tried. I don't think our assistants would know."

"Sure, but also consider how many pies Cordelia's got her fingers in, I would be more surprised if she doesn't have her own personal army. To me, it's logical considering her titles and position but perhaps I'm just paranoid" Sure having your own security force was a bit excessive but Cassandra didn't see why it was a concern considering what they had learned about Cordeilas position so far. Cassandra tapped a nail on the table considering her answer to Cathal's question "No, but I'm sure it won't be too hard to learn. But it perhaps would be a good idea to ask about the capabilities of the software as Natsuki said "

"Well I'm not sure I will asks Zou Yan if there is a kind of  forum function or blog where all can write in." Cathal replies.


This message was last edited by the GM at 15:36, Mon 31 July 2023.

Whilst the Expo "closes" at 6pm, the main hall is still substantively full of gamers. If you haven't returned to the VIP suite or the Mansion by this point then a couple of the Security staff will actively hunt for you and suggest you return to the VIP suite.
Choi, having entered the VIP suite at about 18:15, will spend about 10 minutes reminding any of the You-Tubers/Twitchers present that the Expo is closing and they should be making their way back to their hotels. She will then head for the gate, gathering any of you present, so arriving at the gate just before 18:30. For reference 18:30 on Earth is 12 Juvax 45 17:20 in Carnelian.

After hours of wandering around, talking to booth people and striking up idle conversation over the coffee stands, Rhiannon made her way back to the VIP suite about twenty minutes before six PM. She assumed that everyone would gather there and Choi would guide them to the portal back to Carnelian. While she waited she drank coffee and sketched on a conference notepad with a pen she picked up from a vendor.

Cathal will be back in time to VIP suite after his discussion with the different subsidiaries.

Cassandra spent most of her remaining time at the expo people watching although she does make some conversation with a few of the other attendees. At about 20 to 6 she sees Rhiannon leave and decides to follow suit, as such Cassandra arrives at the VIP suite a couple of minutes after her.