Move 11 (Chapter 1.11)

[yhlee]

Year 361, Month Three, Day Sixteen (Sunday), evening
Station Moongray

On the Station, at The Bar on Level Three: Virmad

[lleullawgyffes, it's up to you whether you want to say that Virmad gets caught up with Teo and/or matters on station overnight, or whether he will take care of matters with Teo quickly enough to join the others at the "Bumblebee" below.]

Per this thread, Teo has just greeted Virmad in the bar. To recap for your convenience:

The Bar on Level Three really is on Level Three. There are helpful directories pointing the way, but the fact that a number of people are heading there, and the cheerful clamor of people talking, and music, would have made it easy to find regardless.

The bartender is a trim woman with her hair hanging about her face in fantastic coils; the combs and hairpins look like they're about to escape. She's pouring a drink for a slouching Nirai technician when Virmad arrives. "You're new here," she says. "What can I get you?"

Kel Teo is sitting at a seat where he has a clear view of all exits. (Very Kel.) He's had a chance to change out of his uniform; he's wearing a sleek suit in shades of deep brown, and he's also embellished himself with gold-and-amber jewelry. He waves when he spots Virmad, smiling.

Teo adds that he's happy to pay for Virmad's drink--the first one, anyway, and some of the local grub. "I recommend the fried pork fritters with barbecue sauce," Teo says, "But maybe that's not ascetic enough fare for a Rahal?" (He's teasing.)


On the Station, on the "Bumblebee": Sulen, Sasha, Iawa, Alaric
Also probably: Ashari?, Mikodez?

Recap:
Remi has explained, at Sasha's insistence, that the baby moths were hatched in captivity from eggs stolen from the parents by a heptarchate expedition, and that the parents are likely dead. He claims that this all happened before he himself arrived on the station, and that he's been advocating for humane treatment of the baby moths.

Alaric has just explained that he discovered the Wasp's "moth" is a sentient starfaring being and has been communicating with it using pictures [Move 10].

Moving on:
Remi's response to this is to stare at Alaric in horror. "Do you seriously want me to believe that you were using a living being as your spaceship and didn't even check for sapience? I thought that was basic protocol...unless," and his expression sours, "it was convenient for people to hush it up?" He stares at Alaric. "Well, I can't blame it for wanting to adopt the young of its kind, but that's a high-security enclosure..."

[Remi might well be responsive to helping them kidnap the baby moths, assuming the whole conversation doesn't blow up in a completely different direction, but he's not going to offer unless someone else brings it up. There's plenty of opportunity for people to opine on what should be done about the baby moths, whether Alaric has been behaving appropriately, who Sasha should have notified, etc. If you need help brainstorming on your action, please let me know and I'll get back to you when I can; others players might also have thoughts.]


[GM suggests that Ashari and Mikodez could either have returned to the ship for the meeting with Remi, or else could teleconference in.

smokedetective: Ashari probably wants to be present in some form for the discussion, not least for possible/likely pending confrontation with Sasha per zuhrovet's notes. If teleconferencing, Istradez will be happy to cover for them with any pesky people.

pengwern: If Mikodez prefers not to be involved in this discussion, he could plausibly be investigating the nonresponsiveness of the Kel at the moment after they helped Sulen stow Gerae, or assigned to keep an eye on Gerae, who might be feeling confessional while everyone else is occupied.]

---

Active in Move 10: Sulen, Virmad, Sasha, Iawa, Alaric, Mikodez, Ashari

Inactive: Yehan, Ankat, Kaliyan

Comments

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[venndaai]

"Rii is in charge, yes," Sulen says, sharply, to cut through the Andan bullshit. They fold their arms and glare at everyone but especially Ashari, who is suddenly much less endearing when they're on a mission Sulen actually cares about.

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[zuhrovet]

Well, at least only one of the pretty people wants to call Sasha a liar. So far today, anyhow; she's not sure where Imsayed is lurking.

"We are honored you have deigned to join us," she tells Ashari, slowly. "Were you to provide specific details of your safety concerns, I would be overjoyed to assist, inasmuch as my minor expertise in security engineering permits." Whereas you would cheerfully sell me to the Rosemallow if you thought it made you look good.

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[smokedetective]

Ashari eyes Sulen. Their straightforwardness would be cute if it didn’t interfere with their, well, little game.

They nod slightly to Sasha. A divided front never looks good, Instead of the dozen things they could do, they sit down next to Sasha and put a well-manicured hand on her shoulder, looking at her with an affection they usually reserved for new clothes, poisons, cats, and Sulen.

“Thank you for taking initiative, darling. You’re always so responsible,” they purr, and look up at Remi. “Before we agree to take anything on, I would like to hear more of a plan of action from you. Simply and clearly, now.”

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[yhlee]

"If you want to evacuate the mothlings without having to return for them," Remi says, "I'll need to go back to the station. I can trigger a carapace breach in my lab, which will necessitate its evacuation, and maybe jinx the security systems using admin access. The problem is getting the mothlings out of their habitat. They can survive in deep space, but they don't fly with any speed. If I just release them from the habitat, the station will be free to shoot them down. I'd really rather that not happen. I think it'll be safer if we manage to detach the habitat and take it with us. Your adult moth should have enough engine power to do that, if you can get it out of the dock to swing by for pickup without arousing suspicion."

Remi shrugs. "I'm open to suggestions. I'm a scientist, not special ops. This kind of thing is not exactly my area of specialty."

[Sasha should be able to see from her map that the habitat is about half the size of the "Bumblebee," but it should be able to haul it with some jury-rigging.]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[venndaai]

[This'll be interesting without any active Kel players.]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[yhlee]

[Yeah, GM suggests perhaps someone suggesting an alternative that doesn't involve potential military action!]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[venndaai]

Sulen's glad they have decades of experience keeping a poker face because otherwise they'd be redfaced and steaming. They can't decide whether they're more angry with Sasha or Ashari- probably Ashari, what, do they think they can make Sulen jealous? But they manage to get their thoughts back on track enough to say, "What if the station was... very distracted?"

plotting escape - paging Ashari

[zuhrovet]

Sasha sits very still.

"We can handle the security systems. We may even be able to activate the carapace breach somewhere else, and make the habitat release look like collateral damage. But there are two ships between us and the rift. If we leave precipitously, the Butterfly may pursue. I don't know how the other ship will react, though I might be able to slow it down." She turns her head toward Ashari, and adds, "So we need a political explanation for our departure. Or a station disaster bad enough that it makes sense to run away. I await your guidance."

Re: plotting escape - paging Ashari

[vass]

"Our honored guest is a scientist," Iawa points out. "Could he requisition the baby moths for an expedition to study the effects of... rift energy on them? Maybe their behavior changes as they get closer to the rift. Or something."

Re: Plotting Escape - Ashari's petting Sasha's hair like a James Bond villain pets a cat

[smokedetective]

Ashari lightly stroked an uneven tuft of Sasha's hair with one well-manicured finger.

"You know," they say, "if all of my art projects were destroyed in the trip over to the station, we would have to go out to the rift. For reference and inspiration. And perhaps, if it was the station's fault, they would be amenable to, hm, lend both our lovely guest and the... mothlings? To us. For the in depth knowledge of expertise. That would combine some I'm assuming necessary research with simple good manners. We could compare notes, chat, work on the pieces and research... And if we got, oh, accidentally sucked into the rift, that would be no one's fault except the pilot's."

They blinked slowly, almost lovingly, at Sasha. "Of course, if anyone has any other suggestions, I would love to hear them."

Re: Plotting Escape - Ashari's petting Sasha's hair like a James Bond villain pets a cat

[zuhrovet]

Every muscle in Sasha's body locks.

This isn't Naxarat. Ashari doesn't own her, not to any greater degree than they did three minutes ago. They're not invoking the obedience clause of the standard fucking marriage contract.

"Please," she manages to say. "I don't understand."

[Between Remi's comments on barter and the no-seduction note in his file, I infer that he has very strong feelings about consent. I can only hope that he thinks Ashari's antics are too mild to register.

Also, Sasha's exotic powers tend to activate under stress...]

Re: Plotting Escape - Ashari’s the Worst

[smokedetective]

Ashari leans back and picks up their tea. Having Sasha unable to think just won’t do. That technique had never been... that effective. Usually, anyone in a power grab hits right back, hard. They haven’t even flashed their eyes. But. Sasha isn’t an Andan, so it’s best to give her the benefit of doubt for now.

When they speak again, their voice isn’t as lovey dovey, but it still has a soft edge to it.

“If you, and everybody else here, thinks this can be done, this being getting our lovely guest and the mothlings off the station and to the wormhole, I’m all ears. If you think it will work, don’t think it will work, or have any suggestions or ideas, or want to poke holes, I’m all ears. The more flaws we work out now, the more smoothly it will hopefully go later. Because I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not die on this little station, and I believe our time is rather limited.”

[To anyone watching closely, Ashari’s signifier has definitely shifted from Kniferose Unsheathed to Unblooming.]

Re: Plotting Escape - Ashari’s the Worst

[venndaai]

[Sulen is always watching closely, and now they are less angry but more stressed, which is probably not a net positive.]

Re: Plotting Escape - possibly constructive criticism

[zuhrovet]

Sasha takes three deep breaths. Order of operations, she tells herself. Ashari may have no shame and no sense of duty, but Sasha can wait until they're not entertaining a guest.

She thinks about taking her own sip of tea, but fails to persuade her hand to move. That's all right; she has a sufficiency of tea; obtaining more is an issue for another moment.

The problem at hand is social engineering. Because that's always the problem. "I... just... I don't see what moths have to do with the rifts. And I don't think the incentives are right for the station, Rii, in what you're proposing. They're not objecting to hosting your art, and it's gorgeous, but what they want from us is technology transfer. You can tell them anything you like about why you want to borrow Nirai Remi. But they'll only play along if they think they'll learn something about our ship."

She glances at Remi and adds, "Please, can you tell us, how big are the mothlings? What sort of support do they require? Do we definitely need to bring their habitat, or could we carry them in our hold if we figured out how to transfer them?"

Re: plotting escape - paging Ashari

[yhlee]

Remi nods at Iawa with more friendliness than he's shown most anyone else. "The problem is the scientific method," he says ruefully. "I'd never be able to get that past a station full of Nirai--they'd insist on half the mothlings staying behind as a control group. So at most we could smuggle out half that way, which isn't ideal."

Re: plotting escape - paging Ashari

[slybrarian]

"Less than ideal is right," Alaric agrees, "since our moth might not agree to leave without all of them. How are the mothlings observed? Is it just people peering at them through a pane of glass, or do they do it mainly by something we could hack like sensors and cameras?"

Re: plotting escape - paging Ashari

[yhlee]

"Sensors and cameras," Remi says. There is a portal for direct observation but almost no one looks at it anymore. If any of you is good at hacking..." He shrugs.

Re: plotting escape - paging Ashari

[zuhrovet]

Remi either missed the sarcasm dripping from "minor expertise in security engineering", or is trying to mess with Sasha. Probably the latter. "I should think you'd do all right yourself, judging from the station's footage of your recent excursion. Or lack thereof. But we can certainly simulate an occupied room for you, if you're willing to share your data."

[It's astonishing how hostile people get when you accuse them of murdering intelligent beings for professional advancement!]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[zuhrovet]

[If you want to break Sasha you should touch her hair. She cut it with her eyes shut earlier today in game time, so it's probably driving Ashari up the wall already.]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[venndaai]

[So Sulen counts as one of the pretty people, but twinky SebStan lookalike Alaric doesn't? Now I'm curious about Sasha's categorization methods.]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[zuhrovet]

[Sasha is in the classic nerd failure mode where you divide into nerds and cool kids. Sulen, Ashari, and Istradez are cool kids, Alaric and Yehan are nerds, the Kel are the Kel-- plus Kaliyan is really impressive in the weight room-- she's not quite sure what to make of Virmad or Iawa, and Mishka just needs quashing. I of course do not endorse this analysis. Have I forgotten anyone?]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[vass]

["Iawa is a special case" Why's that? I would have guessed it's that they're clearly not a cool kid but not STEM-y enough to count as a nerd in Sasha's book, but Yehan's a linguist and still counts. "Have I forgotten anyone?" Yes, Ankat.]

philosophy, it's a thing

[zuhrovet]

[Ankat is Kel; the Kel are Kel. Sasha likes people who are competent, and the Kel have their own brand of competence. Also they have paranoia in common.

Iawa is a special case because, er, well. Sasha's character writeup says that her ideal relationship entails arguing about philosophy a lot and then somehow ending up dating. And we know how Iawa feels about philosophy. But there are certain obvious obstacles, like the thing where Sasha thinks she's mostly into women and Iawa's identity is more complicated, to say nothing of whatever drama awaits us with Iawa's tablet (my own tablet hit an infinite reboot loop on Saturday & I haven't had time to wipe it, which I suspect is Iawa's fault).

So this one is kind of up to you and what you want to do with it. I mean, there's a certain compelling logic to All Philosophy All The Time. But Sasha is doomed to be alone for twenty years according to Naxorian superstition and I'd be content with doing the grouchy nerd thing and looking askance at Virmad's life choices. Or just letting this blow up in our faces, if you're more interested in plot than happily ever after.]

Re: philosophy, it's a thing

[vass]

[Sorry about your tablet :(

*takes a few days to think this through*

Letting it blow up in our faces sounds good. Especially since Sasha's conveniently pre-doomed, relationship-wise. (Until she finds a rift leading 20 years after the current time period?)

Iawa's character write-up says they're prone to "get into a situation they overconfidently assume they can manage, discover they can't handle it after all, then panic and make it worse."

As you say, there's a certain compelling logic.

(I'd been thinking, once (if) we get back on the ship and are in the rift, of starting a thread where Iawa calls a meeting to discuss ends and means etc, using their authority as second-youngest and most useless crew member. That could make a good jumping off point for this.)

Other relevant factors:

- how old is Sasha? her writeup says "late 20s" but that might mean anything from 26 to 29. Iawa's 20, so 26 isn't too bad but 29 is iffier.

- how many different stressors DO you want to pile on your character at one time?]

Re: philosophy, it's a thing - wall of text

[zuhrovet]

[Turns out Google saved a lot of my tablet's data, so it was a lot better than it could've been. I think I lost all my KOTOR 2 saves, but I've played it before and I wasn't really interested in getting good at the racing minigame anyhow.

Sasha's 27. I edited the wiki approximately a thousand times fussing with this, due to some combination of feelings about numerical felicity and trying to figure out the age gap between Sasha and her little brother (for the record, Sasha does not have sibling angst, she has household angst, which is more feudal and applies to more people. In particular, it currently applies to Alaric, who is a ridiculous person to be trying to protect, not that he is helping to draw Ashari's fire). The age of majority on Naxarat in Sasha's time is 23. That's mostly an issue of when you can form legally binding contracts, but legally binding contracts are more of a big deal on Naxarat in Sasha's time than they are in other times and places.

Sasha's not going to lock in until she actually gets a chance to talk to Iawa about philosophy. But she does really want to know what "titanocracy" means.

My current plan is to have Sasha survive the meeting and then rescue the stuck drone. That means she will need Iawa's splutter and may possibly notice their tablet (which she had assumed they left on the ship, per instructions). Delaying on that latter front is better if Iawa wants a higher chance of keeping the tablet, but possibly worse on the party information-security front.

The fight with Ashari is probably going to get worse before it gets better, but this is all going to take a few moves to resolve.

Long term character planning-wise, I want Sasha to commit to the rebellion, and to take the XO leadership slot (since I'm reading all the notifications, might as well use my powers for good). That last would provide an excuse for one of them to be pointlessly noble and break things off, should an excuse be required.]