Move 16 (Chapter 1.16)

[yhlee]

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~04:00-04:50

Assumptions, just to get everyone more or less on the same time track again:

- Mikodez ignored messages from the other PCs for a couple hours while he collected a DNA sample from unconscious!Istradez, screwed around with his gun, and entertained baby Crowned-with-Eyes the mothling and Fluffy the Vraselian pseudo-dragon. The notebooks that Mikodez abstracted from Remi's lab appear to be a Space Bullet Journal about life on a war-torn technologically backwards planet. [The heptarchate is evil, but as long as you're not a heretic, the standard of living is actually quite high, with good social/medical services &c.]

Also, at some point Mikodez will have noticed that someone (Sasha) has cut off his access from the lokwor into the station grid.

At 4:50, Mikodez runs into Vana looking for Remi at the bubble tea shop. We can pick up from there. As per zuhrovet's suggestion, I advise that Mikodez is looking for Remi in order to get much-needed information on mothling care, although it may occur to him that he can possibly wheedle that info out of Vana as well.

- After the meeting between Sasha, Sulen, Virmad, and Ashari:

I presume that Sulen has either gone off to practice with the airgun in the interim (or lied to Sasha that they were going to, to get her off their back; your choice!). How good is Sulen with firearms? Ankat (running as NPC) will volunteer to show Sulen the basics, largely out of Kel paranoia that someone is going to screw up Gun 101.

Around 4:00, Teo has messaged Virmad saying that a Safety worker has discovered Istradez (running as NPC) in one of the guest rooms. He says that Istradez has been given first aid but do they want to send someone from the Bumblebee to retrieve him, or will they authorize sending Istradez to Station Medical? If Vass wants, they could go to Istradez and perhaps supervise any additional care that the medics give him.

Sasha will have overheard this presumably. In the intervening hours, it appears that the owner of the wriggly virus suspects that it has been detected. It has gone quiescent and/or deleted most traces of itself, presumably in the hopes of lying low until Sasha's suspicions die down.

Kaliyan (running as NPC) shows up in the newly made mothling bay to inform Alaric that she thinks that the modifications to the ship have screwed up something in life support--not critical now while they're docked at a space station, but kind a problem later.

Ashari, investigating Gerae's lockpicks more closely in some spare moment (maybe because they're having trouble sleeping?), discovers that some of them include hidden poison needle units. This isn't just a matter of a hobby of picking pockets, Gerae was prepared for Serious Business.

NOTE: If inactive players wish to return to active status, message me or leave a comment or email me (yoon at yoonhalee dot com), and we'll work something out.

Comments

does Sasha know where Mikodez and Fluffy are?

[zuhrovet]

[Did Sasha's cautious attempts to locate Mikodez through station surveillance bear any fruit? Also, is Fluffy with Istradez, or hanging around the tea shop with Mikodez?]

Re: does Sasha know where Mikodez and Fluffy are?

[yhlee]

[Station surveillance has, in fact, reported on Mikodez's movements to Sasha, just to simplify things.

Fluffy is with Mikodez, presumably in a contrived pet carrier of some sort.]

Re: does Sasha know where Mikodez and Fluffy are?

[pengwern]

[I have questions! What was...in those angry messages. Terse, generic 'get your idiot self back here' stuff, or "you brought station security on us, what are you doing", "you got the kel on us are you a traitor to the resistance", "your brother's got a concussion and had to be taken to the hospital"...? And from whom - Sasha, or Sulen/Virmad, Iawa, Ashari, etc.]

Re: does Sasha know where Mikodez and Fluffy are?

[zuhrovet]

[I have updated the timeline with appropriate guesses. Sasha's message read "where are you and where is fluffy".]

Iawa's going back to the station

[vass]

In the interim [did I really skip two moves? Fuck, I'm so sorry!] between 2:00 and 4:00, Iawa took another brief, uneasy nap (fifteen minutes. Enough to refresh her without getting groggy from going into REM without completing a cycle) assembled some first aid and field medical checklists and flowcharts and printed them on gridpaper and assembled them into a neat little booklet to take with her, since the tablet is staying in a foil-lined box for the foreseeable future. She spent some time reading the manuals that came with the first two first aid kits, and also inventoried them and replaced the painkillers and stimulants already used. Then she checked on the Kels.

Now (4:00) she heads over to check on the others, and hears from Virmad about Ismayed [Istradez].

"Yes, I'll go," she says. "He should have one of us with him." She doesn't think she knows better than the medics how to treat Imsayed, but without knowing who attacked him, how can they be sure the medics are safe? For that matter... "Has anyone talked to Avrayen yet?"

[Iawa means, if someone's attacked Imsayed when he was minding Avrayen [Mikodez], maybe Avrayen is in danger too. She doesn't know about the hacking. But if maximum confusion sounds like fun, Virmad (or anyone else who wants to be present for this conversation) could misunderstand that, and think Iawa means has anyone reprimanded or apprehended Avrayen yet.]

[OT: we can all be nice to ourselves]

[yhlee]

[Your GM is TWO FULL {heptarchate?!} WEEKS late producing this move. No worries! :) ]

04:05 - message from Sasha to Iawa

[zuhrovet]

When she sees Teo's new message, Sasha quickly checks her collection of surveillance images. She's got Mishka leaving the guest quarters, and the Safety worker entering them a short while later, which means Mishka saw whatever state his cousin was in and didn't report it. Sasha's too close to finishing her project to waste a break on shouting about Mishka, but she won't be able to concentrate until she deals with it somehow, so she sends Iawa a message:

you were right, i should have checked on avrayen for real. fuck. ~S.

Re: 04:05 - message from Sasha to Iawa

[vass]

Iawa sends back "I'm going back to check on Imsayed. Probably can't leave him to go looking, but if I see Avrayen I can pass on a message?"

Re: Iawa's going back to the station

[venndaai]

(Sulen did in fact practice but is back in the communications room now.)

"We have not," Sulen says. "Though I have sent him three messages in the last half hour. Station Security caught him hacking into Moongray systems about one hundred and forty minutes ago, though it seems he's getting off with a warning for now. We don't know what Avrayen is doing, what his motives are, or how dangerous he is, so be careful." They fret for a moment more before adding, "Actually, I'll come with you. Just in case."

Re: Iawa's going back to the station

[vass]

Iawa frowns. She doesn't see Avrayen as dangerous, as such. She can definitely imagine him hacking into the station, though. And if he's not responding to messages and Imsayed's been attacked, it's not hard at all to imagine that he's gotten into some sort of trouble he can't get out of. He definitely needs a competent adult to go look for him, and Iawa really does need to focus on Imsayed. Also she is aware that she... might not strictly qualify as a competent adult herself.

"Yes, I think that would be best. Thank you."

04:50 - Sasha attempts to delegate Alaric - definitely paging Alaric

[zuhrovet]

Sasha finishes altering Remi and Gerae's files and erasing the signs of her presence, takes a deep breath, and messages Sulen and Virmad to let them know she's done. At least one thing has gone smoothly tonight.

Mishka hasn't answered his messages, but she's got images showing him at a cafe, with a bulging backpack and some sort of carrier. Maybe that's Fluffy, and Mishka has only fucked up 99.3% of the things he could possibly fuck up. Sasha does not understand how any individual human could be this careless. But his files say not to kill him, and he certainly can't be marooned on the station, pleasant as it is to envision him working for a living. So somebody has to retrieve the eightfold-damned teenager. She checks the grid to see who else is awake. Looks like Alaric is talking to Kaliyan; one of them can probably force Mishka into compliance.

Sasha heads to the new mothling habitat. She nods to Kaliyan (best not to test how far the silent treatment extends) and asks Alaric, "Are you willing to return to the station? Sulen wanted something printed-- I'll give you the specs-- but first someone needs to bring Avrayen back. He's in a cafe right now, and he's not answering his messages."

Re: 04:50 - Sasha attempts to delegate Alaric - definitely paging Alaric

[slybrarian]

"Uh... sure," Alaric says. He wipes some nonexistent sweat off his brow. "Actually, a cafe sounds wonderful right now. I should probably get some kind of stimulant before the next problem comes up."

He gestures around the bay. "This is pretty much done. I rigged up a monitor in the engine bay and it can be mirrored elsewhere on the ships. Green indicators are good, yellow will need attention eventually, and if anything turns red call me immediately. And maybe think about where the nearest emergency supply locker or escape pod is."

[So sorry again about not noticing the new move, everyone!]

[OT]

[yhlee]

[No worries! *insert bad calendrical rot joke here* Given my own delinquency, it's not surprising things are a bit discombobulated after winter break!]

Re: 04:50 - Sasha attempts to delegate Alaric - definitely paging Alaric

[zuhrovet]

"I know where the nearest escape pod is," Sasha begins hotly. "--Hells, that was rhetorical, wasn't it? Right, then. If you give me your tablet, I'll install the printer override. I disguised it as a game. That should only take a minute."

She tilts her face up a little, so she can properly look Alaric in the eyes. "Also, if Avrayen tries to persuade you he ought to stay on station, or attempts to slip off somewhere, don't let him. He is fucking up, badly. But we can't exactly leave him behind."

[In the interests of efficient problem-solving & the party not dying later, could Alaric or Kaliyan/yhlee fill Sasha in on the potential life-support issue? She's not that kind of engineer, but she probably reads up on space station ecologies in her spare time, so maybe she can at least start trouble-shooting.]

[DNA scanner go?]

[pengwern]

[To GM - Can Mikodez run out to find some kind of scanner, like the gene scanners mentioned in chapter 3 of RS? (and the corollary, would Mikodez have handwave copies from his immediate family to check against the new samples, even if that's...unwise at Shuos Academy.......)

And in Remi's journals, are there codes/encryptions that he might notice, if not break?]

Re: [DNA scanner go?]

[yhlee]

[Sure, a DNA scanner would be pretty standard kit on any station, but most especially a Nirai station. We can handwave that paranoid super-prepared Mikodez would have records of his immediate family's gene scans.

NOTE: Please do not ask the GM how DNA actually works, the GM last had biology in 9th grade and doesn't remember anything.

Remi's journals include things like math notes that Mikodez would recognize as calendrical something but at a level of difficulty such that he can't figure out quite what's going on (think advanced abstract algebra, I defer to zuhrovet for actual details because I never got as far as grad school math myself), plus a lot of obscure references that could be code or might just be references to life on a war-torn planet.

NOTE: I'm using "code" in the technical sense vs. "cipher" (Khan Academy article explaining the difference).]

[Mikodez, from 02:75 to 04:50]

[pengwern]

Mikodez hadn’t wanted to risk finding another deserted lab with a functional gene scanner, which was why he was stuck waiting for the thing to start when Sasha’s first message came in. He could hardly tell them he just needed to verify if his cousin was an imposter. Sulen at the very least would demand an estimate accurate to the minute.

None of the devices he had on him were secure enough for him to feel comfortable sending a message from a spot two floors above the visitor quarters, so he ignored it, just in time for the proximity alerts he’d set around Istradez to start buzzing. Two, then four people were in the room and...now they were searching the suite. What a good thing that Mikodez had artfully arranged the room before he left, stacking the exhibition equipment in one corner, hiding his visitor pass casually in a pile of clothes, and stuffing the eldritch hatchling blob into his pack. Fluffy was in its carrier, finally quiescent after the snacks.

When the scanner finally finishes processing a full 108 minutes later, Mikodez is halfway to snapping his wrist display apart. Two more angry messages from Sulen, the station grid not working for him, and no way with two station workers in the rrom to continue interrogating someone who was APPRENTLY TELLING THE TRUTH -- Answering the messages would be a problem for future Mikodez. Was there anyone on the Wasp who he could take at face value?

He heads down to Remi’s favorite bubble tea stand instead. A background like the type one reads about in stock panegyrics to the Hexarchate’s benevolence, and Remi’s trying to make it to a rebellion. Mikodez really wants to hear his reasoning against this heptarchate, where it’s been two whole days without a single remembrance scheduled, not even in the coming seven-day week.

[Mikodez to Vana]

[pengwern]

[From this move]
Mikodez ignores the hatchling squirming inside his pack. It's wrapped in the Andan fabric, which has to be enough. "Of course," he says, tapping a few keys at his wrist. "They might not be awake, though -- most of them like their sleep. Any other spots your colleague frequent? Does he haunt the library much?"

Re: [Mikodez to Vana]

[yhlee]

Vana makes a face at Mikodez. "He does. He likes reading paper books. The station librarian keeps a stock of old novels on hand, can't imagine why, they're dusty and they breed bugs." (For some reason it doesn't seem to occur to her that mothlings are...really bug-like, except with bonus tentacles and extra eyes.) "I guess I can try the library next and--" She frowns. "Kid, why is your pack squirming?"

Re: [Mikodez to Vana]

[pengwern]

"Live food for someone's persnickety pet," Mikodez says unflinchingly. "Or that weird Andan fabric is finally working, but you'd have to ask someone else about it, not me. Andan Rii was planning an exhibit earlier."

He visibly gets back on track. "If any of my crew members have seen anything, I'll let you know. How can I contact you?"

paging Sasha: Kaliyan is concerned

[yhlee]

ca. 4:10

Kaliyan comes to find Sasha, yawning hugely; there are dark smudges under her eyes and she looks like she's nursing the remnants of a headache. "Say, could we have a word?" she says. "It looks like the modifications made to the ship to house the squiggly moth creatures have also fucked up something in life support. I tried telling Alaric about it, but I'm not sure he's taking me seriously. You're the next closest thing to an engineer, do you have any idea how to troubleshoot?"

Re: paging Sasha: Kaliyan is concerned

[zuhrovet]

Stars of hell, they were just adding shielding, weren't they? The Wasp can't be that sensitive to the balance in its hold. Has something gone weird with the oxygen levels? Air pressure?

"How badly is it fucked?" Sasha asks. "Which readouts should I be looking at? Do I have half an hour to finish this project for the Rahal, or do I need to do something right away?"

Re: paging Sasha: Kaliyan is concerned

[yhlee]

Kaliyan chews her lip. "I think they did something to some of the oxygen recyclers. We're fine as long as we're drawing on station air, but out in space...? I'm hoping it's just a case of banging on the right component until it starts working again, but with Nirai types getting creative who can tell?" She scrubs at her eyes. "I think you have your half-hour. I'd feel a lot better if someone who's more technically minded was on the problem, though."

Troubleshooting the oxygen recycling

[zuhrovet]

Sasha finds the manual for the life support system and starts the diagnostics for the oxygen recycling system. While she's waiting for the report, she checks the maintenance logs against the recommended schedule.

Re: Troubleshooting the oxygen recycling

[yhlee]

The diagnostics chug alive and will, after a delay of approximately half an hour, inform her that some of the filters are not correctly aligned. The maintenance logs show, dismayingly, that filters have been replaced on schedule for the past couple years, but whoever had this ship last was extremely lackadaisical about regular checks to make sure the filters were actually working correctly. To say nothing of the fact that whoever was responsible for maintaining the logs used them as a place to dump notes about the food options--hardly reassuring in what it implies about how diligently anyone ever read the suckers.