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

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

[slybrarian]

"Almost certainly rhetorical, at least until the mothlings get here," Alaric agreed, handing his tablet. "And as a not-rhetorical question - don't let him, as in talk him down so he comes willingly, or don't let him, as in use force if necessary to insure he is not on the station when we leave?"

For once, there is no sign that he is being anything but entirely serious.

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

[zuhrovet]

Sasha's voice is dull and even, because the alternative is screaming. "If I had been half as careless as Avrayen has been, when I was his age, my mother would have broken both my arms. But. His file says it's imperative he not be killed. I don't know why he's special, but he is. So. Talk him down if you can, pick him up and carry him if you have to. Leaving him behind, that probably counts as killing him."

She installs the game. It really does only take a minute.

[Would Alaric recognize the name of the Shuos hexarch c. 1250?

Sasha's got a specific trace on Mikodez' location as of this thread and will forward updates to Alaric as long as it lasts.]

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

[slybrarian]

Alaric nods. "Do we have anything in the medical bay that could be slipped into his drink or otherwise used to drug him? Picking up a drunk shipmate seems like a plausible excuse for hauling an unconscious body back here."

[Hmmm. Let's say it would definitely sound familiar but he might not twig immediately.]

[medical bay contents]

[yhlee]

[There should definitely be some sort of suitable drug in the medical bay. For specifics, Iawa is the most likely to know specifics. Y'all feel free to make up details.]

Re: [medical bay contents]

[zuhrovet]

[Would the sleeping pill that Sasha already begged from Iawa be suitably fast-acting?]

Re: [medical bay contents]

[yhlee]

[Let's say it is. :) ]

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

[zuhrovet]

"I have a couple of things that might be useful?" Sasha digs two pills out of her pockets, a tiny round red one in a square plastic bubble and a light green oblong one. "The red one is a sleeping pill. It's the kind you dissolve on your tongue. I begged it from Iawa in case I had a hard time coming down from stims, but at this rate I'm not sleeping till we're safely in the rift anyhow. They said not to mix it with alcohol unless you like sleep paralysis. There should be a jar of sober-ups in the galley, if you want to bring one just in case. Ashari gave me the green pill. It's supposed to imitate an unpleasant allergic reaction, lots of sniffles."

She adds, "If you want something that's less obviously a medication to give Mishka, I mean Avrayen, Ashari might know. They know a lot about poisons, anyway. But I think they might be resting."

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

[slybrarian]

"I won't bother Ashari. If I can't manage with these, I doubt anything else will do better. Sleep paralysis seems like a perfectly useful side-effect for an abduction anyway."

Alaric pockets the two pills, then causally adds, "I don't suppose you know why this is even an issue?"

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

[zuhrovet]

Sasha scrubs at her cheek with her hand and immediately regrets it. "The station found Imsayed, and took him to the medical center. I have an image of Avrayen leaving that room, a few minutes earlier. So he knew Imsayed was in trouble. Maybe he panicked. Maybe he's playing some fucking Shuos game, I don't know. That's a problem for Ashari and the Rahal. We just need to find him."

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[vass]

[Wow, Alaric is vicious. Or unaware of what sleep paralysis refers to. This could be fun. (For a value of fun where if Alaric does know and did that deliberately, he's going to fall foul of Iawa's number one deal-breaker: no torturing people. Which is also the case for Mikodez's interrogation of Istradez, when they find out.)

For reference, in case it becomes relevant and since Iawa's not here to infodump: the sleeping pills on their own will paralyse Mikodez anyway, by making him fall asleep. If he combines them with alcohol, though, Mikodez will get the paralysing effects of sleep without the sleep part - i.e. he'll still be awake and overhearing whatever Alaric says. With a bonus side effect of overwhelming fear and the feeling of something horrible sitting on his chest - night hag, shadow people, alien abduction, etc. Which since he's already convinced all of this is a simulation, should be just great for convincing him it isn't.

And yeah, that's what they taught Iawa in the academy about how to use this particular made-up sleeping pill. :( In the real world it lasts on average three minutes, but with hexarchate medications who knows.]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[zuhrovet]

[How does the hexarchate punish non-heretical criminals, anyway?]

[non-heretical criminals]

[yhlee]

[Depending on the severity of the crime, anything from fines to community service (this could be anything from "help out at the local library" to "you are now an early colonist on this hardscrabble new world in the process of being terraformed, congrats!" to thoroughgoing ostracism.]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[pengwern]

[So is the plan right now to intercept Mikodez as he lurks outside Medical and to threaten him until he takes those pills, and, if they're washed down with alcohol, to have the negative effects convince him that it's not a simulation, since (handwave simulations can't manage that much mental state alteration?)]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[yhlee]

[Yeah, I was hoping this would work for you? Let me know either way and I'll include it in the setup for the next move tonight.]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[pengwern]

[Yeah, sure! And since I've had the alice in wonderland definition of 'suppressed' on the mind - plz to remember the poor mothling :<<<]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[yhlee]

[Roger wilco! Should I officially refer to it as Crowned-with-Eyes or what? *g*]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[vass]

[I don't know what Alaric and Sasha are planning (is he more like a cat or a dog, pilling-wise?) but when I said it should be just great for convincing Mikodez he's not in a simulation, I was being sarcastic. I forgot about the tone not coming through in text thing again, sorry.]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[pengwern]

[ahhh no, it'd be good to resolve that thread.
And CAT, absolutely. Hence the need for a sack to trap him in and sit on.
Re hatchling, what spy cadets with an excess of poster making/scrapbooking supplies may or may not have committed in the wee hours of the morning isn’t my concern at all @—@]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[vass]

[Poor Alaric. Then I'm afraid "Hi Avrayen, we're really angry with you, so we brought you a snack" isn't gonna cut it.

Re spy cadet with scrapbooking supplies, you're his player! If you're not babysitting him, who IS making sure he doesn't glue googly eyes to the eldritch abomination's butt?


(source)]

[OT: googly-eyed mothlings]

[yhlee]

[HA HA HA HA HA

That is all.]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[slybrarian]

[Popping in here to say that Alaric's entire plan was pretty much to hand Mikodez a roofied coffee, wait for him to fall asleep (sleep paralysis just means it works better, right?), and then haul him back to the ship like he's just had too much to drink. I do not claim it is a good plan, even without the other complications that have turned up.]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[yhlee]

[I can't speak for your fellow players, of course, but sometimes bad plans lead to more fun RP! ;) ]

Re: 04:50 - [sleep paralysis and torture plot hooks]

[vass]

[I like this plan. It might not work, but I like it. It has a lot of potential for ridiculousness built in.]