yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx clock)
yhlee ([personal profile] yhlee) wrote in [community profile] hexarchate_rpg2017-09-19 09:02 pm
Entry tags:

Move 9 (Ch. 1.9)

Year 361, Month Three, Day Sixteen (Sunday), evening / day Seventeen (Monday), morning

On the station's carapace
The ammunition drone reports to whoever is listening that it has not exactly caught a spacegoing slime mold; rather, the slime mold has clogged up its legs and it's clinging rather precariously to the station's carapace. It is requesting, as forlornly as a nonsentient drone can, that somebody repair it. Until someone does something, it's...stuck.

On the station, during Mikodez and Iawa's science tour
Pavn, having noted Iawa's interest in the question of sonciousness, adds, "If you like, the researcher is probably busy at this hour, and he's in one of the classified labs, but I think that research assistant is currently off-shift. I could introduce you to her, if you like. She's always happy to talk about philosophical questions."

On the station, during Sasha, Yehan, and Alaric's science tour
Pavn looks quizzically at Yehan during the tour. "You remind me of some of the other visitors we've had recently," he says, in a friendly enough fashion. "You may have caught sight of their ship on the way in. Granted, phenotypes can be so misleading. Where did you say you were from?"

On the station, visitor's lounge, later
Sasha and Alaric are debating over carbon-fiber sculpture aesthetics when a ping comes in from the lokwor to indicate that Sasha's program has picked up more information on Remi. [Edit: sorry, hit post too soon.] He's not in his lab, but has signed out a spacesuit and has apparently gone for a walk outside the station. The lokwor has no idea why--it wasn't able to ferret out that information without Sasha's hacking guidance.

On the station, Rahal Gerae's office
Armed with an extra slate containing information about Rahal Gerae's known black market dealings, Sulen and Virmad head to Rahal Gerae's office. [Feel free to insert any preparations you may have wanted to make beforehand in a thread of its own.] The door is neatly labeled in a peculiarly Rahal style of calligraphy, recognizable despite the drift of time. There is a potted plant outside the door, its elongated flowers wilting.

More problematically, the door isn't locked. It appears to be stuck halfway open.

On the station, Nirai Alissa's dance studio
Before Ashari can say anything one way or the other to Alissa, a short man, dark-skinned, their shaven head covered with gold mesh-tattoos, stomps out of the office. He glares at Ashari. "I always knew you would be sucking up to any 'artists' who showed up on the station," he says. "Excuse me. I'm artist-designate Kwor, and I simply must demand that you authenticate yourself."

Alissa closes her eyes and looks pained. "Ah, yes," she says, "our resident artist-designate..." She leaves it at that.

[An artist-designate is basically the station's arts & entertainment coordinator, and in particular it means that Kwor is not an Andan but sort of secondary artist hired through the Andan, because a real Andan couldn't be arsed to come out to this posting.]

[Also note that Istradez is lurking in the background in this scene, if you need to borrow him.]

On the station, bubble tea stand 4:30 Monday morning
The bubble tea cafe is already open, or maybe always open, based on its sign. Mikodez and anyone else who decides to come here will notice several people sipping their bubble tea or coffee in a small area with seats and tables and decorative floating lanterns. There are many flavor shots offered, from mango to orange creme to root beer.

The barista frowns when she sees Mikodez. "Excuse me," she says. "Where are your parents?"



Character status
- Active characters as of last post: Sasha, Alaric, Yehan, Sulen, Virmad, Ashari, Mikodez, Iawa

- Currently inactive: Ankat, Kaliyan
Inactive players should feel free either to jump in wherever it feels logical, or to message me asking for an updated storyline so they can rejoin in a graceful fashion.
venndaai: (beehive)

paging virmad

[personal profile] venndaai 2017-09-20 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
[Are there any preparations we want to make? I think Sulen's ready to go straight there.]
zuhrovet: Sasha with a brimmed hat (hat)

Science tour: paging Yehan

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-20 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
It had been a favorite game among the Junior Mining Engineers to see how long you could spend telling Sasha she wasn't really Naxorian before she tried to hit you. By the age of 14 her record was around 35 minutes [more like 20 if you're not keeping hexarchate time]. "You look less Naxorian than this completely Kirrish person standing next to you" is new in Sasha's experience, though, and she's surprised how much it stings. She stares fixedly at the art display in front of her-- it's an infinite arrangement of circles, somewhere between bubbles and spiderwebs-- and hopes Yehan has a lie in readiness.
slybrarian: The Incomparable Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmare's Angel (Nightmare Scientist)

Witty Commentary

[personal profile] slybrarian 2017-09-20 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[Wow, look at that list of character locations. Don't you know, you never split the party. Clerics in the back, keep the fighters hale and hearty....]
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Re: Witty Commentary

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-21 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
[I was just contemplating the drama caused by the fact that Alaric has the highest CHA score on our science tour. Where's Istradez when you need him?]
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

more serious planning

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-21 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
[Looks to me as if, assuming they survive the tour, Sasha and Alaric need to head back to the ship shortly thereafter to investigate Remi and the errant drone. I'm assuming that leaving the ship again triggers another security scan, so somebody needs to sleep in the visitors' quarters with our cache of illegal weapons. Unless [personal profile] talifabian has a better idea, I'm thinking that means Ankat.

Sasha's set of heretical superstitions includes "you shouldn't drink by yourself" and, at a higher level of difficulty, "you shouldn't pour your own alcohol"; getting a shot of whiskey is becoming its own minor quest.]
lleullawgyffes: a wolf looking at the camera (Default)

Re: paging virmad

[personal profile] lleullawgyffes 2017-09-22 01:35 am (UTC)(link)
[Virmad wants to talk about the meeting Teo thing, but he's probably as happy if not happier to do that in the magistrate's office.]
yehan: Headshot of a brown-skinned, dark-haired woman with alien handwriting next to her face (Default)

Re: Science tour: paging Yehan

[personal profile] yehan 2017-09-22 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
Yehan's heart stops for only a tiny moment when Pavn addresses her. She hasn't been out in the field for way too long, she thinks ruefully, but knowing of the Rosemallow ship's presence beforehand she'd already had time to think about how to answer this question. She names a small, heavily populated planet on the other side of the hexarchate from Naxarat, one she spent some time on during her research on minority linguistics. Even if Pavn happens to be familiar with it, her feigned accent fits the story well enough. "I didn't recognize the ship you mentioned, though," she adds, hoping that ends the line of questioning.

The whole interaction makes her uneasy. Naxorians and Kirrish folk aren't easily mistaken for one another. Are there Kirrish people on board the Rosemallow ship? And--this is what makes her particularly anxious--in what kind of capacity? All these time jumps and alternate timelines are confusing, but she doesn't trust a Naxorian from any time or place too much. Some times and places, though, are notoriously worse to be Kirrish than others.
venndaai: (beehive)

Re: paging virmad

[personal profile] venndaai 2017-09-22 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
[onwards, then.]

Sulen comes to a stop six feet from the office, when they see that the door's open. They stand very still, trying to hear if there's anyone inside. They gesture at Virmad to go around to the other side of the door.
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Re: Science tour: paging Yehan

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-23 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
Bind me to the eighth hell, thinks Sasha. I got so excited about breaking the Rosemallow encryption, I forgot to check their crew list.

This is definitely her fault; she's just lucky Yehan has some covert ops training.
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Back on the ship: paging Yehan and Alaric

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-24 12:57 pm (UTC)(link)
That evening, Sasha drags Alaric and Yehan back to the ship, and Yehan at least up to the galley. She puts whatever image she can glean of Remi's space walk on a monitor, and makes a mug of very sweet tea.

"Yehan, would you mind alerting Ashari and the Kel of Remi's movements? And I'm going to pull the Rosemallow crew list and cargo for you. I didn't hear them talking about any Kirrish on board, but there's something weird happening, definitely. Really, let me know whenever you want data? You're the actual intelligence analyst, here."

Sasha does as promised and then starts trying to figure out what Remi is doing: can she guess where he is going? Does she have any way to get a message to his suit without alerting the station?
lleullawgyffes: a wolf looking at the camera (Default)

Re: paging virmad

[personal profile] lleullawgyffes 2017-09-24 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Virmad raises an eyebrow and whispers, “Preparing to move Gerae’s things elsewhere? Strange that the Administrator didn’t mention anything...”
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Re: Back on the ship: paging Yehan and Alaric

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-24 07:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hey, Alaric, looks like Remi's heading for some instrumentation. Can you figure out what it does? And why he can't just take readings from inside the station? I think you made more sense of his papers than I did."

[[personal profile] slybrarian, I'm wondering if Remi's trying to get a reading on our moth? Can you see a way to persuade it to modulate its humming, or something?

GM questions: where is the instrumentation in relation to the Wasp? And where is it in relation to our stuck drone? Do we have other drones handy? Does Sasha/the station have a visual feed from Remi's helmet?]
zuhrovet: Photo of a Soviet bas-relief sculpture showing a kneeling woman releasing Sputnik (sputnik)

Worldbuilding: crew list categories

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-24 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[I'm starting to suspect that the Rosemallow crew list won't follow a pattern Sasha knows at all. But here are the categories of House associates she'd expect to see on a crew list:


  • House shareholders
  • House employees
  • House-supported. This includes children, as well as anyone else receiving room, board, and clothing but not drawing a formal salary. Much of Sasha's parents' household fell into this category.
  • Indentured servants.


There's a fifth category, for individuals whose financial or moral debt was so great it could only be discharged by the sacrifice of legal personhood; such people would be on the cargo list, which is why Sasha's grabbing both.

Sasha would only describe people in the fifth category as slaves; I'm assuming that Yehan, and for that matter the Kirrish Liberation Front in Sasha's day, would draw the line differently. (Sasha takes a lot of awful things for granted; if this starts becoming stressful in out-of-character ways, or if you want an excuse to take her to task in-character, do let me know.)]
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Re: what Remi is up to outside the station

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-24 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[Do we by any chance have a drone with an external text display?]

While waiting for Alaric to respond, Sasha checks the grid for information on spacegoing slime molds, and best practices for cleaning them out of filters.
venndaai: (beehive)

Re: paging virmad

[personal profile] venndaai 2017-09-24 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[Sorry for the delayed response!]

Sulen pushes the door open quickly, with considerable force and without knocking first.
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

mold control

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-24 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Sasha tries to determine whether there is a standard technique for using the cleanser when not in atmosphere, and where she can acquire some.
zuhrovet: Close-up photo of a black-and-white moth in the grass (moth)

sending a drone to talk to Remi? - paging everyone, especially command

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-09-24 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[Sasha's about to send a drone to blink, "Mango! Mango! Mango!" at Remi. I'm going to pause here for 24 hours real-time just in case somebody wants to weigh in on this plan.]

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