Move 15 (Chapter 1.15)

[yhlee]

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

[I'm trying desperately to get Mikodez caught up, I promise! If the rest of y'all want to take a bit of a break, that's fine--or if you want to settle logistics, that's fine too. So sorry...]

Mikodez and Istradez [NPC] on Moongray Station, plus HATCHED EGG, ca. 20:50

[continuing from this comment by pengwern]

"I have no idea what would happen if you fouled up the stock market," Istradez says. His eyes are starting to look glassy. "And I'm just as married to the fucking job as you are." He gives forth a sigh and appears to be dropping into semi-slumber when Mikodez's last words penetrate. "We need you as hexarch. Just...maybe less of a psychopathic one? But you don't know about that 'training incident,' either..."

Hmm. Istradez's pulse is becoming too slow for comfort. Better do something about that.

---

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen, ass o' clock Monday

on the Bumblebee/Wasp/Monthra

around 1:00, in the hold of the Wasp

Remi and Alaric have made excellent progress on the conversion of the "Bumblebee"'s hold space into a mothling habitat. Remi has lapsed into a brooding silence, considering Alaric's revelations about what life is like outside of the heptarchate. At this point, however, the moth starts to hum again. It doesn't seem to want to shut up, but at least its humming is quieter--maybe the station hasn't noticed.

Remi looks interested. "Your moth is very talkative--is that usual?" His expression turns sad. "They never talked much in captivity with us. I suppose it's understandable."

around Monday 2:50

Gerae asks Ashari and Sasha, "Should I go back into my room now? I promise I'll stay out of the way. And you have all my lockpicks, so it's not like I can finagle my way out." He glances sidelong at Virmad and Sulen, then adds, "Fluffy especially likes cookies, but she shouldn't have too many of them. She also likes honey-dipped locusts, if you can get any. Some of the food vendors on the station carry them sometimes, but I have to request them special, and they confiscated my supply."

NOTE: For anyone who is not otherwise occupied, it would be a great time to get some rest, or alternately, ask Iawa for stims in anticipation of the morning's activities.

Comments

[pengwern]

"Hey, stay awake. Who's going to feed me lies about my brilliant future career if you die?"

There’s a way of checking the health of interrogation targets and boosting it through the augment until you’re done questioning them. Mikodez has used it before, and he tries loading it now. If this was real Istradez, he could tickle her, or drop an entire scallion pancake on her face, but there aren’t any kitchens nearby except in the visitor quarters. They could, however, be cleared of bugs.

As he continues in that direction, Mikodez abandons the notion. He didn't want to test what a hexarch's body double was trained in. It’d be counterproductive to apply the hatchling to Fake Istradez’s person, anyway, given the apparent effects.

His augment wasn’t responding to the command, though it seems to be working fine for everything else. There’s Remi, heading to the Wasp, and really, why won’t this open? Mikodez flicks experimentally at where the augment implants lie on his skull. In the meantime, he starts the questions again, but this time they’re more along the lines of basic knowledge like Istradez’s favorite color, the first sixty digits of pi, the sequence of remembrances in the Month of Pyres, who dropped their pet ferret into their older sister’s candle-making setup…(Not that they ever had a pet ferret.)

The augment still hasn’t activated.

[to GM - sorry! I can leave Istradez to (die) rest in the quarters for the rest of the night, if the hatchling is still around?]

[yhlee]

[It's okay! But maybe we should leave poor Istradez to a bit of rest, while Mikodez reconnects with the rest of the group at whatever point of the timeline seems to make sense?]

"If I were going to lie to you about your future career," Istradez mumbles, "I'd guide you toward being a pastry chef so you can stop making poor Zehun a nervous wreck about your sugar consumption."

Istradez is answering all the questions correctly except the first sixty digits of pi. In particular, the mention of the pet ferret rouses him enough to snort quietly. "Please, Miki. We all know you're the only ferret in the family."

[pengwern]

"Spending lots of time with Zehun would be nerve-wracking," agrees Mikodez. Are you watching, instructors? By the time they get to visitor quarters, the hatchling is invisible in the pile of boxes surrounding Istradez on the cart. Mikodez settles mock-Istradez on a convenient couch, and for good measure gets a sticky-sweet fidget spinner in Shuos colors (ginger and strawberry) and shoves it between his teeth.

In a last ditch attempt, he recites the phrase that should boot him from simulations in emergencies, then the ones he used first year. The world stays resolutely solid.

Mikodez looks back at Istradez. Shooting a suspicious whatever that is while he lies unconscious - was that an immolat-y, Kel choice, or a sensible foxish precaution? There had to be gene scanners around a Nirai station somewhere.
[Has the mothling stayed by Mikodez all this time?]

[OT: GM delay]

[yhlee]

[Hey, apologies for not responding. I've had a migraine for four days and change and my ability to write coherent stuff is not the greatest right now...]

Re: [OT: GM delay]

[pengwern]

[Hope you feel better! I saw this fun overly ocularized shirt which seemed appropriately DIY for the Shuos (and committed this stick figure Miki-n-Istra.)]

[yhlee]

[Okay, sorry for the delay. Headache broke after seven days, trip to Urgent Care, trip to the ER, and muscle relaxants. :p Of course, the side effect was loopiness/drowsiness...]

The mothling appears to have imprinted on Mikodez, alarmingly enough, and is continuing to purr and stay pretty much wherever he puts it. If he lets it, it will rub up against his arm.

Istradez mutters something incoherent and slides out of consciousness.

[Feel free to wrap this thread up and then fast-forward, if you like.]

[venndaai]

[Augh! Glad to hear you're doing better.]

[OT: chitchat :) ]

[yhlee]

[Thanks, appreciated.]

Time to teach the voidmoth named for Jedao tricks!

[pengwern]

[oh no, please get all the rest you need!]

Mikodez spends the next several hours erasing his tracks from the Station's monitoring systems as best he can, after setting one of his tape recorders cunningly beneath the couch that Istradez is lying on, and another less cunningly, right on his forehead. Attached is a cheery note saying, "Back soon, off to get food!" with several stacks of blobs labelled 'sweets', towering over a smiling stick figure.

After he gets back to the room, the rest of the time is used to pry delicately at whatever files Ashari/the Kel/Sasha have access to, plus the Station's records of other visitors (for the last time). He only spends ninety (90) minutes playing tag with the hatchling, now firmly named, variously, 'Baby', 'Crowned-With-Eyes', 'Pompom', 'Noodles'. He's in the middle of shoving it firmly away from the bare skin on his face (he's having fun, not suicidal) when he receives a message from Sasha. He types back, "where," and starts [searching in a non-obvious way] the station grid for information on Magistrate Gerae.

[No idea what Sasha's been doing, but it's up to you as to what he finds? This is the 'hours of in-game time to kill' that was mentioned earlier.]

01:00-ish: Sasha & Mikodez, messaging away

[zuhrovet]

Sasha sends the map coordinates for the magistrate's house, and a picture of Fluffy eating cookies.

[Trying to get into the command files via lokwor access from the station sounds like a doomed endeavor. Mikodez keeps opening files only to find cheery pop music from c. 225.]

Re: 01:00-ish: Mikodez on Fluffy theft

[pengwern]

At least the coordinates agree with the station's grid, but what's this note here, about "suspended from duty"? [The wider station grid brings up details about Gerae's corruption from Space internet.] So, a threat to dismember this Fluffy in front of Gerae until they secure his compliance. Or it could be recruitment. This is a heretic operation, and depending on how lax the rebellion gets about these things, which in Mikodez's experience so far is very, they should probably be saving heretics from nasty ends out of something silly like ethics.

He throws an ambivalent glance at Istradez, restive on the couch. Does he stir, even when Mikodez takes a space gold marker to the skin over his jugular with a message coded in Kel drum code? Does he hell. ​

Mikodez nips out again with dear, sweet Crowned-With-Eyes into his pack, wrapped in the wad of Andan fabric. [And his lockpicks, the small explosive, bits and ends from the exhibit, some more candy spinners.] He takes a long, circuitous route to Gerae's room to avoid security patrols.

[I'm assuming the Kel drum code is like morse code for the present! All the message says is "rest well", with overtones of genial camaraderie (also murder deferred.)]

Re: 01:00-ish: Mikodez on Fluffy theft

[yhlee]

Istradez doesn't stir, and is now snoring very slightly.

There are no security patrols on the way, but there's a pair of bored-looking guards by Gerae's room. There is also, bemusingly, the shrill sound of a teakettle boiling over.

[The teakettle sound is Fluffy, who is overdue for her midnight snack and is trying to get attention. The guards know about this trick of hers and are not responding to her.

Yup, Kel drum code is Space Morse Code. =) ]

Re: 01:00-ish: Mikodez on Fluffy theft

[pengwern]

[ASSUMING Mikodez is now sufficiently familiar with how Station surveillance works.]

Mikodez retreats with measured steps as soon as he sees the guards, and opens the exercise game map that Sasha had installed for him. Then he goes around to a few corridors away, where he noticed a safety cabinet containing a mix of flammable materials earlier, right on the other side of the wall, drops his [small-scale late hexarchate invariant] explosive by the join of the wall panels, and continues jogging away.

Then he circles back to Gerae's apartment to approach the guards with slightly rumpled hair, like he just woke up, and cuts them off before they can say anything. "Good evening. I'm here to get Rahal Gerae's files." Here he breaks off for an enormous yawn. "And his - domesticated animal?"

Re: 01:00-ish: Mikodez on Fluffy theft

[yhlee]

"Oh good," the taller guard says, perking up at Mikodez's appearance. "Maybe that will shut the damnable beast up, it's been going on and on with those kettle noises all night. Just let me call the Administrator's office for authorization."

[Going to distract the guards with a fire, is that the plan?]

Re: 01:00-ish: Mikodez on Fluffy theft

[pengwern]

"Is it aggressive?" asks Mikodez, looking cautiously at the room. "I was asked by the Rahal who arrived here with Andan Rii, Magistrates Dar Chresh and Virmad. If...if they didn't go through station administration, I can always leave and come back later."

[Only if the guards are recalcitrant! (on the subject of rogue centrifuges (which was last mentioned as why the guards left) we had a centrifuge that kept trying to decapitate us :< and worse, it'd close on samples and spill them :(((]

Re: 01:00-ish: Mikodez on Fluffy theft

[yhlee]

Shorter Guard says to Taller Guard, "I don't know that Shan wants us to bother her at this hour. Especially about something as trivial as a pet."

Taller Guard looks like they're wavering. "It's true that all the whistling is giving me a headache..."

[Mikodez gets the sense that they just want to seize on a plausible-sounding excuse to get rid of Fluffy. If he suggests something reasonable-sounding, they'll probably go along with it. And get chewed out by Teo later, but that's not Mikodez's problem. *g*]

Re: 01:00-ish: Mikodez on Fluffy theft

[pengwern]

Mikodez huffs out a breath. "I'm up already, so -- I can bring it and the files over tonight, and if Nirai Shan wants it back I'll return it here bright and early tomorrow." He rubs at his eyes and says, "Seriously, though, is it dangerous? A mix of machine and pet or something? I don't want to carry it the whole way..."

ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[yhlee]

The grid informs Virmad that he has a pending call from Kel Teo, and could he please pick up.

Re: ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[lleullawgyffes]

Virmad heads to his quarters, in the interest of establishing at least modicum of privacy, attempts — with minimal success — to push his hair back into some kind of order, and answers the call.

[good thing Virmad didn't, in fact, suggest putting Gerae in his room, lol.]

Re: ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[yhlee]

Teo, on the other end, is distressingly spry-looking. "Hello," he says. "That teenager in your group? I'm embarrassed to bring it up, but he's been very busy screwing around hacking the station. I don't suppose one of you could bring him to heel before he lands in real trouble?"

Re: ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[lleullawgyffes]

Virmad blinks. Teenager...? Then it clicks: the Shuos cadet. Whatever his name is. What in the Heptarchate is he up to? He feels a twinge of regret for having been out of contact with the rest of the crew, quickly assuaged by the memory of Teo.

“I’m not sure who’ll be able to, but I’m sure someone will be able to manage. I’ll see to it now. Sorry to have had to run out on you earlier,” he adds. “But I see you’ve gotten called back to work, too, so I suppose it would have happened sooner or later in any case.”

Re: ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[zuhrovet]

Sasha displays a message on Virmad's screen: "Tell them to cut off his guest access to the station grid."

Re: ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[lleullawgyffes]

“In the meantime,” Virmad adds, a little belatedly, frowning slightly as he sees Sasha’s message and registers what it implies, “I might suggest you cut off his guest access to the station grid, if you haven’t already done so. Although I suppose if he already thinks he’s hacking it might just encourage him — but maybe if he realizes someone has noticed, it will give him pause until I can get someone to have a word with him directly.” Whoever that might be. Sasha, maybe.

Re: ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[yhlee]

"Yes, that's on the agenda," Teo says drolly. "I wanted to see how good he was, but...I've toyed with him long enough, I think. And it would be dreadfully irresponsible of me not to alert his keepers. Thanks for looking into the matter for me." He winks, then signs out.

Re: ca. 2:60: paging Virmad

[lleullawgyffes]

Virmad lets out a deep sigh and stares up at the ceiling, for a moment. I wonder if there’s a camera there. Probably.

With a wistful look at his bed — No more sleep tonight, I guess — he leaves his room and heads towards the communications room.