A Visitor to the Future - 87 - Resiliency Pitch
At Sarkona's recommendation, the housewarming invites had included an open invitation to stay the night - it was apparently an Earth housewarming tradition, some collective habit invented over the past few hundred years. There was an strange feeling to the process - in my time, crashing at a friend's house after a party generally only happened when you'd had too much to drink. I found it odd that in the world of the Consortium, where transports were not only unmanned but extremely comfortable to sleep in, that the opposite seemed to be the case - it was presumed that everyone would stay the night.
There was an informal sort of organization to the whole process too - some rooms were stocked with pillows and blankets for those who wanted to sleep or meditate, while the sleepless considerately chatted in others.
But as it came to morning time, the house quickly began to clear out. Almost everyone wanted to say goodbye, a lengthy process which meant that it was at least ten o'clock before we started to make breakfast. The mid-morning sun rose gently, framed by the wide kitchen window as we went about making food for our remaining guests - mostly my friends and Sarkona's mother, Malati, who chatted throughout the rest of the room.
"I'm not really sure how the staying over tradition started," said Sarkona as they chopped slices of vat-grown meat, "Malati? Any ideas?"
Something I'd noticed in my time in the Consortium was that it was fairly common to use the actual names of your own parents when addressing them, as opposed to father, mother, or similar. Malati turned from her conversation with Alexandra, and smiled as she leaned forward on the kitchen counter.
"Ideas, yes! Definitive answer, no!" replied Sarkona's mother, "Sleepovers for adults? Part of the increase in international travel for housewarming parties accommodating for different timezones? Making sure the house isn't haunted?"
Sarkona snorted a laugh out and rolled their eyes. "I used to think ghosts were real as a young child," Sarkona explained, "And Malati won't let me forget it!"
"That is what parents do!" said Malati, turning back to her conversation with a wink.
We served the breakfast food to our remaining human guests. Blaise, Sasha and Alexandra were still here, though Regolith had left a short while ago. Blaise's blonde hair was a mess, indicating he'd probably spent a long time in the pool last night. Gatecrash, Tungsten, and Antonia were wrapped up in conversation together, Dela laying at their feet where they sat at the table. Malati seemed to comfortably mingle with both groups, like a sort of social ping-pong ball.
As we finished up our food, Blaise seemed to address the room. "Hey, I don't suppose that any of you might be interested in learning some Resiliency?"
Sarkona looked up suddenly from their food, a dawning expression of excitement forming. "Wait, like, actual Resiliency? You know some teams?"
Blaise shook his head, "Nah, I was talking with that guy - Malcolm - last night before he left, and he was telling me that there's an upcoming amateur tournament on Earth. I had no idea!"
Antonia spoke up, "Is Resiliency a sport? I've never heard of it."
"Yeah!" replied Blaise, glad to have captured some interest, "A good one, too! I think it'll be mainstream popular within the next ten years."
"Oh, I think it's already mainstream with the older kids," interjected Gatecrash, "And some of the younger ones are quickly catching on. Calypso Outriggers shirts, shoes - dashing off to watch the tournaments after classes. I've seen many hot trends in my time, and I think Resiliency is definitely is getting there."
"Good to know!" said Blaise, "I'm a little out of touch with the younger generations. But yeah, we were thinking about putting a team together - we've got slots for six. Regolith isn't much interested."
"What exactly is Resiliency?" I asked.
"Oh, mate, it's great. So the basics are this, right, you have three Proxies controlled by three pilots on both sides. They fight it out, generally without weapons, and the last team standing moves to the next round," Blaise jumped up to squat on his chair with excitement, "But that's not all, right - because unlike some of the other Proxy games, you don't get to have the Consortium repair your damage after each round - you have a team of three engineers who have to do that."
"So three pilots, three engineers?" asked Tungsten, intrigued.
"Yeah, and three diplomats too!" replied Blaise, "They're responsible for gathering intelligence on your opponents, trading favours, that sort of thing."
"The sort of thing an ex-CEO would be too good at," said Sasha, playfully nudging Alexandra with one elbow. A momentary flinch and a large smirk at Sasha was Alexandra's only response.
"So it's a test of skill for not only the pilots, but for the engineers and diplomats too? Interesting," said Tungsten, considering it momentarily, "I'm in! I may know of another person who'd be interested, too!"
"Nice!" said Blaise, "Anyone else?"
Gatecrash and Antonia were nodding, and Sarkona was staring at me with a smile and raised eyebrows. It was the sort of look that said this looks like it could be fun. "I've been meaning to try it out for a while!" they said, "Count me in!"
My hand practically raised itself. It sounded interesting, at the very least.