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?

[zuhrovet]

"Well. Our only path to gate space is our moth. Would you like to explain exactly what the high security consists of?"

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[venndaai]

[Sulen is angrily shotgunning coffee, and thinking longingly about the whiskey. Also, beginning to imagine a horrible future where Remi and Sasha release Mothra into the wild and strand everyone here. And seriously wishing Ashari were here, or really anyone else.]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[smokedetective]

Ashari leans against the doorway for a couple of moments, quietly watching the scene unfold. The problem with a cover as an artist was that it had the unforyunate side effect of them getting a little too into it. And now this. For someone who made a living managing other people’s time tables, they should really get better at managing their own.

This whole deal with the moths was.... news. Not necessarily good news. But they couldn’t afford to act like they had been out of the loop.

“Barter your expertise?” they say finally, trying to put as much amusement as they could into those three words.

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[yhlee]

Remi meets Ashari's eyes, not even making a point of it; his expression is distant, as if he's looking back into another world. "It's no worse," he says, "than some of the other things I've had to barter in my former life. Pardon me, you must be Andan Rii. Are you the one in charge?"

who needs a tablet when you have a coffee table?

[zuhrovet]

Eight spheres of hell, thinks Sasha. Can we skip the competition for most awful childhood, and go back to talking about the mothlings? They probably win anyway.

She hits the switch under the coffee table, and whistles a few bright notes. The cloudy glass resolves into an image of a mountain. She swipes her hand across, and replaces the mountain with a map of the station.

[Does Sasha have surveillance images of the room where the baby moths live? Or of Remi's lab space more generally?]

Re: who needs a tablet when you have a coffee table?

[yhlee]

[Sasha doesn't have direct surveillance of either, but she does have a view of the exterior of the station corresponding to what she suspects is the mothling nursery.]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[smokedetective]

“I’m just a humble artist with passage on board this little ship here.” Ashari’s grin turns sharklike as they cast a glance at Sasha. “If I was in charge, I’d be here for the... negotiations, don’t you think?”

They float over to pour themself a cup of tea. “From what I understand, you have a, hm, reservation here, too. Frankly, with all this talk of extra cargo, extra security, I don’t know if I feel safe.”

[Hey y’all is this the time to poison the teapot of what lmao?? About 75% joking.]

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?

[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: 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.]

poisoning people

[zuhrovet]

[Go for the jam, Sasha's putting it in her tea and I don't think anybody else likes it ;)

Also we have it on the record that Remi is drinking our coffee. Just in case.]

Re: poisoning people

[vass]

[Mood music]

Re: poisoning people

[smokedetective]

[If Ashari's poisoning anyone, they're poisoning everyone, their own dumb ass included, so I'm gonna hold off for now. :P]

Re: poisoning people

[zuhrovet]

[Pity, really. Sasha would find spending a couple of hours throwing up rather relaxing right about now.]

Re: poisoning people

[venndaai]

[This personality mix is working great. I’m predicting an upcoming fight over who gets to get blackout drunk in the cargo bay after this meeting.]

Re: poisoning people

[zuhrovet]

[Sasha's going to do something normal and healthy, like spend six hours on the firing range. Assuming, of course, we have decent soundproofing.]

Re: what was Remi even thinking?

[vass]

[Iawa has a brand new first aid kit and would love an excuse to use it, just saying.]