hexarchate_rpg | Move 9 (Ch. 1.9)

yhlee posting in

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

venndaai

[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.

From:

yhlee

Sulen and Virmad hear a scuffling sound, like someone is shifting things around--boxes? files? It's quiet, but not so quiet that it seems like whoever's doing it is trying to make a secret of their activities. After all, if they'd wanted to be covert about it, they probably wouldn't have left the door open?

From:

lleullawgyffes

Virmad raises an eyebrow and whispers, “Preparing to move Gerae’s things elsewhere? Strange that the Administrator didn’t mention anything...”

From:

yhlee

The scuffling continues, followed by a muffled thump and a spate of curses. Whoever's in there definitely isn't trying to be...covert.

From:

venndaai

[Sorry for the delayed response!]

Sulen pushes the door open quickly, with considerable force and without knocking first.

From:

yhlee

There's a startled squawk and then another curse that sounds suspiciously like "My foot!" After a moment: "Sorry!" a man's voice calls from within. "I know, I know, I promised, but I had to...anyway, I'll be right out."

From:

lleullawgyffes

Virmad’s eyebrows still haven’t descended from before; loud enough to be audible and in his best Rahal voice he says, “The Administrator indicated to us that this office’s occupant was...indisposed at the moment.”

From:

yhlee

"Don't shoot," the voice calls out, sounding both sheepish and alarmed at the same time. "Just--I didn't think the Administrator was going to be sympathetic about my losing, oh, OUCH! There you are, you rascal!--Hold on a sec, I think I spotted Fluffy--"

There's now a skittering sound and the sound of more rummaging. The man inside doesn't seem inclined to come out yet.

From:

venndaai

Sulen steps into the office. But cautiously, arms slightly raised in case they have to fend off a vicious animal.

From:

lleullawgyffes

(Virmad follows Sulen’s lead.)

From:

yhlee

There's a loud rattling hiss as something that resembles a lizard with wings flutter-skitters for the door, then flaps up to the top of an otherwise orderly bookcase. A man wearing Rahal gray-and-bronze is going after it with a net. The winged lizard makes a doleful crooning sound and refuses to budge. The man, less fortunately, barely avoids colliding into the two of you.

"Oh, botheration," he says, eyes widening, when he sees your uniforms. "I was really hoping to get Fluffy out of here before anyone arrived..."

From:

vass

[Does Fluffy have a FlightRising alter ego yet?]

From:

yhlee

[Fluffy is definitely a coatl...!]

From:

lleullawgyffes

Virmad lowers his eyebrows so he can pointedly raise them again. “‘Fluffy’?” He lets his eyes flash gold as he scries the man’s signifier, although he has some ideas already what it might be. “I believe I speak for my colleague as well when I say: who are you?”

In anticipation of the man’s answer he takes a moment to scan the bookshelf.

[some questions besides "what's his signifier" and "is there any poetry on the bookshelf": how tall is the bookshelf — i.e., could Virmad reach something, say a small animal, sitting on top of it — and how dangerous does Fluffy look — i.e., could Virmad just grab Fluffy and hand them to the man?

also what color is the lizard? I'm imagining, for the record, a firelizard from the Pern books.]

From:

yhlee

The man's signifier is Wolf Wandering, indicating an independent temperament--not really favored in Rahal, and probably why he's at a not-exactly-desirable posting in the first place. "I'm Magistrate Rahal Gerae," he says, shoulders drooping. "I didn't mean any harm by breaking house arrest. Just--Fluffy has a nervous temperament." The winged lizard chirrups at the sound of her name. "Given that I'm not exactly in...good graces at the moment, I didn't want to risk anything happening to her. She hasn't done anything wrong."

There is indeed poetry on the bookshelf, mostly of an orthodox bent, peppered with the occasional volume of lyrical poetry by well-known non-faction poets. The bookshelf is not too tall and Virmad could reach Fluffy if he stretched. Fluffy herself doesn't look particularly dangerous--the size of a small cat, maybe eight pounds, and her small talons look to have been tipped so they won't be sharp.

Let's say Fluffy is an iridescent peacock green, with violet highlights on her wings.

From:

lleullawgyffes

Virmad looks at Fluffy, blinking slowly, since he knows for some animals that helps establish trust — it worked with Ejad’s cat, at least. “Hello, Fluffy. I am Rahal Virmad.” It’s rude to introduce himself to an animal before introducing himself to the magistrate, but if it helps throw the magistrate off-guard, so much the better. “You are a majestic creature, aren’t you.”

He extends his arm slowly towards Fluffy, pausing when his hand is within reach of her face so that she can investigate it if she’s so inclined.

He turns briefly to look at Gerae. “The Administrator put you under house arrest and didn’t leave you under guard? I suppose one can’t expect Nirai to understand this sort of thing. Law enforcement isn’t their” — he emphasizes the word slightly, hopefully making it clear to Gerae that they know the details of his situation — “job.”

[if Fluffy seems unperturbed, Virmad will try to grab her, but I’ll wait and see what her reaction is.]

From:

yhlee

Fluffy blinks slowly back, then calmly and regally sniffs Virmad's arm, her little pink tongue flickering in and out. She submits to being grabbed, blunt talons digging into his arms.

Gerae's expression is a curious mixture of delight and resignation. "The Administrator instructed there to be guards," he says, hands flapping as he tries to explain the situation, "but the guards were conscripted by one of the researchers because they had a minor emergency and needed more hands--something to do with a recalcitrant centrifuge. I am afraid that Nirai are fairly terrible at being guards. But in the commotion when I went out to look, Fluffy escaped, and she's so used to my office, and I couldn't leave her wandering about. I heard about what happened the last time someone's pet got attacked with a splutter."

Gerae straightens his shoulders, although he can't quite look either of you in the eye. "But you're not here for any of that. I'm ready."

From:

lleullawgyffes

[not to be a shameless flirt but the thought occurred to me and now I have a burning need to know: what does Gerae look like, about how old is he, and is he attractive?

I'm going to poke venndaai about responding before Virmad says more, probably.]

From:

yhlee

Gerae is probably in his late thirties, and is mildly attractive in a bookwormish way, if one swings that way. :) Slim physique, a bit pallid from a life spent on space stations, and just slightly hunched shoulders, but a surprisingly friendly face with large gray eyes. Well, friendly modulo the fact that he startles guiltily whenever you look at him.

From:

venndaai

[OH NO, HE'S CUTE.]

From:

zuhrovet

[But if you kill him, we can keep Fluffy!

... This set of priorities may explain Sasha's signal lack of romantic success.]

From:

slybrarian

[Well, we could always kidnap them both. We're already wildly exceeding our mission parameters as it is!]

Re: a description of Rahal Gerae

From:

vass - Date: 2017-10-06 10:32 am (UTC) - Expand

[adoptable NPCs]

From:

yhlee - Date: 2017-10-06 12:53 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: a description of Rahal Gerae

From:

yhlee - Date: 2017-10-06 01:05 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: a description of Rahal Gerae

From:

zuhrovet - Date: 2017-10-06 11:08 am (UTC) - Expand

Re: a description of Rahal Gerae

From:

lleullawgyffes - Date: 2017-10-06 04:05 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: a description of Rahal Gerae

From:

zuhrovet - Date: 2017-10-06 04:45 pm (UTC) - Expand

Re: a description of Rahal Gerae

From:

yhlee - Date: 2017-10-06 04:46 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

venndaai

[Sorry for the disappearance!]

Sulen watches Virmad approach Fluffy with horror that transmutes to stiff disapproval when he doesn't get his face clawed off. Then they turn to Gerae. "What do you think we're here for, then?"

From:

yhlee

"The matter of my corruption, of course," Gerae says, eyes downcast. "I'm corrupt, not stupid." There's a tremor in his voice. "You may as well get on with it. And"--this to Virmad--"thank you for being patient with Fluffy. She's harmless, I promise, as long as you feed her in the mornings first thing."

From:

lleullawgyffes

[to clarify: what would he be expecting us to do? a team effort scrying, rendering summary judgment, or...?

in any case (@venndaai), I assume we're going to say something like "actually we just came to look around your files; we're not from this time and so have no official mandate but we offered to help the Administrator navigate the situation you've created"? i.e., stalling until we've had time to "investigate" the situation.]