Move 17 (Chapter 1.17)

[yhlee]

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~05:00

Mikodez finds himself treed by Alaric (bearing "sleep aids") in the corridor outside Medical. In whatever confrontation happens, the much-adorned mothling known (among other things) as Crowned-with-Eyes (henceforth CWE) wriggles free of the Andan cloth and flutters straight into one of the nearest examination rooms, humming joyously. Several medics can be heard exclaiming in fear and/or annoyance at the intruder. One of them squeaks, "Is that another of Magistrate Gerae's pets?"

(...pets?)

Alaric, EDIT: Iawa, and Sulen can take advantage of the distraction to get by Mikodez and into Medical. The triage nurse will recognize them as the recent visitors and direct them toward a pallet where "Imsayed" (Istradez) is lying; he is apparently now sleeping rather than knocked out, but has yet to wake from his ordeal.

Sasha is in the midst of oxygen recycler diagnostics and reading through the maintenance logs. Around this time, Yehan (running as NPC), who has actually gotten some sleep, stops in and asks if Sasha could use some breakfast and/or assistance.

Ashari is enjoying a restful sleep in preparation for what's to come. They can, if they choose to get up early, check in on the others, or determine what to do with Gerae of the mysteriously weaponizable lockpicks. [NOTE: If smokedetective doesn't respond to this move, I'm going to put Ashari on inactive status and run as NPC as necessary to move forward.] Virmad is a likely candidate to either volunteer or be asked to look in on Gerae. Among other things, Gerae is still awake and is (if anyone checks on him, whether through camera surveillance or by persuading Sasha to open the room) scratching messages onto the wall with a stylus that was left in the room.

===

CURRENTLY INACTIVE, running as NPCs: Ankat, Kaliyan, Yehan, Istradez

Comments

[pengwern]

Mikodez is a prudent youth, wise and possessed of great sensitivity to the atmosphere, and he does not actually say 'You're unsatisfactory.' Sulen isn't being subtle about scrying. He'll lie only about the convenient things.

"You wanted me to stop everything I'm doing, which was sleeping, so I'm up. Do you not want Rahal Gerae's pet either? And yes, about Imsayed," he says sharply, with a glance between the three of them. "Because my cousin." Mikodez pauses, "He had a second concussion, and they won't let me in with the cage. Were you aware of any previous injuries during your time with him?"

[Mikodez's signifier remains Ninefox Smiling. If Sulen can scry for specific intentions, they might see that Mikodez wants to talk to Imsayed desperately. If only for mood, then lashings of mistrust, a garnish of lingering fury, wrapped in bright interest like cookie dough over M&Ms.

(whoops I, also forgot what Sulen's cover position was. Mikodez was an assistant of some sort, I think. Has Sulen been informed about his background?)]

note to Sulen re: Istradez

[yhlee]

[If Sulen has been in Ashari's confidence, it's entirely plausible that Ashari notified them that Istradez apparently has some history of head trauma, so the current picklement can't be doing him any additional good.]

Re: note to Sulen re: Istradez

[venndaai]

[I’m going to decide that Ashari shared the information from the files once Sulen got around to asking. There’s some awkwardness between them over past deceptions so Ashari would probably be eager to seem more transparent. But uh, pretend Sulen called Mikodez... whatever the space version is of Junior Junior Able Seaman instead of Cadet?]

Re: note to Sulen re: Istradez

[yhlee]

[Sure, we'll say that Sulen called Mikodez that. :) ]

[slybrarian]

It's about then that Alaric comes around a corner, carrying a tray with four large disposable cups and a pile of some sort of crispy baked deserts. He's not sure what they even are, but the smelled delicious. That was pretty much the main factor in his choice of caffeinated beverages, too. He'd gotten four, one to put a crushed sleepy pill in and three for himself. He's been carefully keeping track of which was which, because falling asleep would be unhelpful. He'd grabbed the sober-ups Sasha had mentioned too, but who knew how any of that would actually work.

"Ah, Avrayen, there you are. Sasha said you might need some company," he says cheerfully. Then he notices Sulen and his smile slowly droops. "Uh... hi? Here for the same reason?"

Excitingly bad communication strikes again

[venndaai]

Sulen inwardly sighs a little. It was too much to expect that Sasha could provide both Sulen and Alaric with relevant information, they suppose. Also they're annoyed because they'd hoped to have Avrayen under control by the time Alaric turned up.

"Indeed," they say. The smell of the caffeinated beverages is reminding them that they haven't slept in quite some time. They grab one from the tray at random.

[exciting encounters with drugs]

[yhlee]

[Do you want Sulen to be knocked out by accident? Inquiring GMs want to know.]

Re: [exciting encounters with drugs]

[venndaai]

[Only If Alaric isn’t fast enough ;) They haven’t taken a sip yet.]

Re: [exciting encounters with drugs]

[slybrarian]

Alaric's eyes go a little wide, as Sulen reaches forward. What are the odds that he would pick the right one? Only one in four, which really isn't all that bad when you think - and there it went into his hand.

"Actually that one's for him," Alaric said, trying very hard not to say it loud enough for his voice to carry. "Sasha said he might need a little special pick-me-up, if you get what I mean?"

He really hopes Sulen gets the idea; if not, there is a going to be a terribly tragic bout of clumsiness that will probably get stains stains everywhere.

[Heh heh. I leave it to you to decide whether attempts to stop him from drinking succeed.]

Re: [exciting encounters with drugs]

[pengwern]

Mikodez's eyes go wide despite himself. For Alaric to say that right in front of him - they were that confident. He probably couldn't hope for carelessness. Under the guise of shifting Fluffy's cage to his other hand, he unlatches the cage lock and holds it ready.

[Ooc: lip...reading...? Augments? Smart baby ninefoxes get terribly Unblinking in tense situations?]

[weaponized pets: clarification?]

[yhlee]

[Clarification desired: he hasn't yet opened the cage, just is preparing to fling a weaponzied Vraselian pseudo-dragon and mothling if things go south?]

Re: [weaponized pets: clarification?]

[pengwern]

[Preparing to nudge Fluffy out onto a slow moving rampage through the station! What worked once, etc. (I was thinking the mothling could hear the yearning chirps of its new friend and slither out from Mikodez's pack.)]

Re: [exciting encounters with drugs]

[venndaai]

[it's they/theirs, not he/his, btw]

Sulen stops, and gives Alaric an annoyed stare. "I hardly think he'll benefit from more energy," the say disdainfully. They eye the drink. They've done more than their share of experimentation with substances, but not when they didn't have a complete ingredients list and print-outs of possible side effects on hand. Just thinking about drinking something unknown is making their hand itch.

If Alaric gives the tray to Avrayen, he'll have his hands full, which might make him easier to deal with- or it might just give him a weapon.

"Dzeri went to check on Imsayed," they tell Alaric. "Whether he's fit to travel or not, I'm going to be escorting Avrayen back to the Bumblebee."

They don't put the drink down, vaguely planning to hold onto it long enough to angrily wave it in Sasha's face.

[re: pronouns]

[yhlee]

[venndaai, would you like me to make a note of Sulen's pronouns on the wiki character list for easy reference for everyone? Signed, a writer who sometimes screws their own characters' pronouns up.

(The short version is that I swapped both Zehun and Khiruev's genders from what they were in the rough draft of Raven Stratagem, and the resulting pronoun hilarity almost killed the copyeditor I paid to check--we missed a couple even so...) ]

[Re: more pronouns]

[zuhrovet]

[I was also wondering whether I should add pronouns to the chart of character pseudonyms.]

Re: [Re: more pronouns]

[yhlee]

[I think it would be good to have. For example, I know that slybrarian's character has only very rarely interacted with Sulen previously, so I imagine that was behind the slip.]

Re: [Re: more pronouns]

[zuhrovet]

[Probably wouldn't hurt to add pronouns in both places; I'm sure we'll all forget the preferences of an NPC sooner or later (we're definitely inconsistent about pronouns for our moth, but that's almost a plot point). Anyway, I updated the pseudonyms table.]

Re: [Re: more pronouns]

[yhlee]

[The NPCs are likely to be forgiving simply because I'm lackadaisical about pronouns for complicated reasons--and anyway the high language's big distinction is between animates and inanimates, but then again, we're here gaming in English, so. In any case, thank you very much, it's appreciated.]

Re: [exciting encounters with drugs]

[slybrarian]

[So sorry about the mixup!]

Alaric tries not to be too obvious about staring at the cup Sulen's got, probably not too successfully, while trying to think of ways to convey to them that it'd be a bad idea to drink it without either causing a scene or alerting their potential runaway. It's extremely problematic; Alaric is not used to thinking in subtle terms.

Well, there's always the solution of just bumping into them. It works in the dramas, right?

"Yeessss, I think that may be the other reason Sasha sent me, to help make sure everyone gets home safely. You know, in case Imsayed or someone needs to be carried." Alaric glances over at Mikodez's cage. "Or something? Is that one of the baby... animals? The adult we're, ah, transporting is very keen to meet them."

[pengwern]

"The magistrate has had this pet for quite some time. What does this adult look like?" Mikodez says, his mind racing. Alaric might be working against the revolutionaries -- or just Sulen and Ashari. Even a foreigner could see (or should've been briefed) on how Rahal and Andan were regarded in society, and it had been easier to leave the crew to go along. Was that a warning about a pact with Sasha? Did they find more Nirai experiments?

Re: [exciting encounters with drugs]

[slybrarian]

"The magistrate? What does the magistrate have to do with it?" Alaric said. He was starting to think that he really needed to pay more attention to intra-ship communications, because while he was aware that there had been some form of skullduggery with the disgraced magistrate, he really didn't see where a pet fit into things. That, or the people who actually specialized in the secret infiltration part of the mission were being a bit too secretive.

Yes, that seemed more likely than Alaric making a mistake.

He stepped a little closer and tried to keep his voice down, knowing it might not help if they were being actively watched but at least a passing medic might not overhear. "I meant that baby versions of the big critter we have on the ship? Has anyone actually brought you up to date on that situation?"

[SOMEONE'S VOLUNTEERING INFO AT MIKODEZ]

[pengwern]

Mikodez takes what he thinks is a measured step back when Alaric approaches. "Well, I'd appreciate a further update. I didn't know we had -- I mean, this is a...Fluffy, and I didn't see bigger versions of her on the Bumbleebee."

Re: [SOMEONE'S VOLUNTEERING INFO AT MIKODEZ]

[slybrarian]

"The. Void. Moth," Alaric says slowly, wondering if Imsayed wasn't the only one who had taken a blow to the head. "It wants us to take all the young ones that Remi has, and conveniently he wants to bring them along too."

Then, remembering Mishka probably didn't get the word about the recent breakthrough in cross-species communications, he adds, "By the way, the moth is sapient and I basically invented an entire new field of xenolinguistics."

Re: [SOMEONE'S VOLUNTEERING INFO AT MIKODEZ]

[pengwern]

The incubator in Remi's lab. His research. And now, a alien critter with sapience.

Fox and hound, he needs to work on controlling his reactions. Mikodez attempts to recover from the openmouthed grin that seized across his face by saying, for the benefit of any listeners, "The Nirai Voidmoth is an important mythological symbol in high culture."

He shifts to face Alaric, away from Medical's doors and Sulen, but keeps them in his sight. "No-one tells me anything. So you were this voidmoth's keeper on the ...moth. Then we had a moth, on a moth! What does it look like?" He's already tugging at the Andan fabric in his pack. "Is it friendly?"

Re: [SOMEONE'S VOLUNTEERING INFO AT MIKODEZ]

[slybrarian]

"I know, right? I had no idea that the term was so literal either until it started chatting," Alaric said, happy both that Mikodez was being distracted and that someone else was actually enthusiastic about this. "I'm not sure exactly what it looks like because it's in its own compartment and we're communicating over a primitive text interface, but it does seem friendly enough. Mostly it wants to bring Remi's baby moths with it when we leave, and fortunately Remi wants to bring them too. So, one the one hand it's yet another bit of terrible behavior by the authorities, but on the other an exciting scientific opportunity."