LF Friends, Will Travel

Why we said yes - Parket

"No talking, drink first. Then our boring talk. But first, drink!"

Zantari looked down at the shot of alcohol that had been placed in front of them before staring across at the other diplomat, the brightly coloured red and yellow bird taking her own shot with the confidence of someone who had spent a lot of time downing drinks at diplomatic functions.

The Parket had a simple rule of diplomats, politicians, lawyers and all manner of 'boring' jobs. All of them were bastards who lied to get what they wanted, but it was way harder to lie through your beak when slightly drunk. Thus, anyone in any such position must legally start their work with a drink, and this was a requirement for all ambassadors regardless of species.

Zantari didn't know any of this, however. Zantari didn't know much about the Parket in general, since the avians were a very small player in the galaxy at large, having had no real major impact on anything outside of their small group of allies. Whatever the Ghirlinn had been expecting, it wasn't this.

Zantari had been inside a lot of diplomatic meeting rooms over the years, especially since their meetings with anyone outside of their own species was a major event for the other party: Being visited by someone with the technological ability to move planets was both a threat and an opportunity. Most locations followed the same pattern: Either trying to be as neutral and boring as possible, or a grandiose display of power and wealth to overstate their species' importance. This location was neither.

Miles of rolling coastline stretched out in front of them, waves forming on this spotless beach, a perfect, warm day that gave promises of sunbathing and ice cream. Hundreds of Parket could be seen, relaxing on the sands or swimming the ocean without a care in the world. A flock of tiny fledglings played and fought with each other not too far from Zantari's position, their squawks and chirps sounding out along the beach.

A small table lay in the sand, around which the Ghirlinn and Parket diplomats both sat, both sitting on perches as Zantari had taken the form of an avian once again. The sound of a beachside bar making drinks could be heard in the background, all while noisy birds shouted orders amidst the clatter of ice being shaken as a cocktail was made.

If the Ghirlinn didn't know any better, they could have sworn that the Parket diplomat had taken them to a beachside pub to have this very important meeting. Zantari looked down at the shot of alcohol placed in front of them, giving a shrug, before downing the entire thing in one go. A fruity taste, with a strong after burn that betrayed its very potent alcoholic content.

This seemed to make the Parket happy, who finally stopped ordering the next round of refreshments and began to focus on the meeting at hand, although not before pouring and drinking another shot from the bottle that stood in front of them.

"So, greetings Mr... I don't think we've met honestly, looking back at the records you guys last contacted us over 300 years ago. Not sure what you'd want to talk about since your technology is basically magic, I'd have thought you'd be too busy making black holes to chat."

The Parket diplomat shouted the words in an excited stream of consciousness, even this 'restrained' ambassador showing glimpses of the stereotypical chaos the avian species were well known for. It was one of the reasons the Parket weren't well situated within galactic politics, with a lot of species considering them 'annoying' and 'impossible to work with'.

"We are doing an audit of this area of the universe, and are interested in learning about this Terran alliance you have joined."

"Wait, you wanna know about the Terrans? Oh, thank god, I thought you wanted to talk about boring shit like trade deals or something! Yeah, I can tell you about the alliance, heck, telling you about the Terrans is even easier because they are the alliance, they are why we joined."