Move 18 (Chapter 1.18)

[yhlee]

(Thanks to zuhrovet for keeping the Station Moongray Timeline updated for everyone's ease of reference.)

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~0515

Iawa is with Istradez in Medical. The chart indicates that Istradez (CORRECTION: "Imsayed") has mild concussion that is apparently aggravating a pre-existing head injury. Istradez moans, then his eyes open. He blinks blearily before focusing on Iawa. "This isn't the ship," he says intelligently, sounding hazy.

Next thing Iawa knows, Istradez seems to come fully alert and attempts to sit up too quickly. "My brother--!" He seems apt to scramble out of bed and after Mikodez unless prevented.

Mikodez, just outside Medical, is bearing both Fluffy the Vraselian pseudo-dragon and Crowned With Eyes (CWE for short) the newly hatched mothling. He is being confronted by Alaric, who brought four caffeinated drinks, one additionally dosed with a sleeping drug, and who is hinting strongly to Mikodez that CWE needs to be united with the adult moth on the Bumblebee. Sulen has, by chance, grabbed the sleeping-drug-enabled drink, and was not prepared for Alaric also showing up to deal with Mikodez--a command-and-control snafu, apparently; Sulen has not yet drunk the drugged beverage, although it's not clear that they have understood Alaric's attempts to warn them from doing so.

The last response in that thread, an exchange between Mikodez and Alaric:

"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."

Just on cue, CWE the mothling hums happily and launches itself out of the pack, followed by an angrily whistling Fluffy, who seems to think the mothling is escaping property.

Virmad has received permission from Ashari to check on Gerae. The camera has revealed that Gerae is agitated and pacing the room. He does not appear to have any weapons, although given his talent for legerdemain, this is not an absolute certainty. If Virmad enters, Gerae will prostrate himself in a frankly embarrassing fashion and beg for an update on Fluffy's status, and oh by the way is Virmad's leader Ashari really going to slit Gerae's throat and leave him for the fishes?

Sasha overhears Gerae's plaints as she makes it to environmental. Her first inspection reveals that the filters are, indeed, poorly seated. Judging from the cruft around them, they were probably messed up even before Alaric and Remi started banging around the Bumblebee making modifications. While she's busy with that, Yehan [running as NPC] messages her and says that she's done with her meeting with Ashari and is now overseeing comms.

Comments

[venndaai]

Sulen drops the drink to grab haphazardly at the mothling.

[yhlee]

The drink splatters and sloshes on the floor. The mothling's hum intensifies in apparent delight as it dodges around Sulen, then flutters its tendrils as though inviting participation in the BEST game ever, tag!

[pengwern]

Since Sulen has Crowned-with-Eyes well in hand (or not), Mikodez lunges for Fluffy, holding on as gently as possible, no matter how it scratches. As he wrestles it back into its cage, he continues his conversation with Alaric as though his arms aren't full of angry Vraselian psuedo-dragon.

"I wouldn't have thought our dinky little moth to have such specialised equipment on board. Do you know if they're dangerous?" He was aware of just how thin the weird Andan fabric was as protective equipment, but maybe the mothling doesn't always inject venom. He heard the Nirai medics through his bugs, but just because no mention was made of any moth related injuries doesn't necessarily mean that they hadn't identified moth-inflicted wounds.

[Mini Moth Madness]

[slybrarian]

Eyes wide, Alaric momentarily flares out his null field, accompanied by the slightest of visual distortion. It's an instinctive reaction to seeing something strange and glowing coming right for him. He gets it back under control almost immediately, remembering that moths fly around fine under invariant conditions and that now is not the time to be causing calendrical mayhem.

"It's an eldritch creature that lives outside normal space-time, what do you think?" he hisses back at Mikodez. Alaric is pretty sure that the maintenance manual says not to touch the moth with your skin, but that could be because it'd purr in happiness or something and make the engineers realize that they are enslaving a beautiful living creature. Or it could dissolve flesh.

Re: [Mini Moth Madness]

[pengwern]

"That's unfortunate, it's collided with my face a couple of times already." Would Alaric do that weird thing again?
With one hand, Mikodez tugs the rest of the Andan fabric out, and offers it to him. "It didn't mind when I used this to secure it."

Re: [Mini Moth Madness]

[venndaai]

Sulen grabs the fabric out of his hands. “Shoo it towards me!” they command.

Re: [Mini Moth Madness]

[yhlee]

Crowned-With-Eyes the mothling flutters in apparent delight and accelerates directly into the fabric, as though Sulen is some kind of toreador. A puff of glitter materializes from nowhere and drifts to the floor.

proofreading note

[zuhrovet]

[Istradez' pseudonym is Imsayed. He doesn't have a separate one for this mission; perhaps he told Sasha it was already a fake name when she was printing ID.]

Re: proofreading note

[yhlee]

[Whoops, thanks for the catch! *facepalm* You'd think I'd know to double-check against the table of pseudonyms.]

Re: proofreading note

[pengwern]

[if you knew how much I wanted to give Mikodez another pseudonym for the station >o< (I didn't because one layer was confusing enough, but this way it's so glaringly obvious that the Vauhans are using false names already.)]

Gerae and Virmad

[yhlee]

[continuing from this response in Move 17]

“Magistrate — Gerae,” Virmad says. “I just wanted to tell you that we’ve recovered Fluffy; she should be on her way to the ship as we speak.” He lets some of his actual sympathy show: “How are you holding up?”

Gerae sags in relief. "Thank you," he says, sounding numb. "I'm so sorry to put you to all this trouble. It's just--it's Fluffy. She's been a good and loyal Vraselian pseudo-dragon all this time, and she doesn't deserve to be punished for my sins."

He smiles wanly at Virmad. "Thank you for checking in. I was starting to fear that I'd be left here to starve to death..." He draws in a deep breath. "It's been a harrowing few weeks. I honestly was starting to think my luck had plunged me from bad to worse."

[There is a pitcher of water in the room, now mostly empty, and it does open into a water closet.]

environmental, engineering

[zuhrovet]

This ship is a ball of allergens and sticky tape. The large-particulate filters could surely stand to be washed; better to do it now than to fret about remembering, later.

Sasha goes next door to engineering to unearth some shop rags. It's a mess; if the ship accelerates or decelerates suddenly, Alaric's going to be fucked. Sasha wonders if the moth can hear her rummaging around-- it's just on the other side of that bulkhead, right?-- and whether it can tell the difference between large humans and small ones.

Re: environmental, engineering

[yhlee]

Indeed, Sasha can hear an inquiring thrumming from the other side of the bulkhead, as if the moth has noticed her and is taking an interest.

[The moth can indeed tell humans apart--its mass-sensing capabilities are very fine-tuned.]

Re: environmental, engineering

[zuhrovet]

It's a silly idea, but Sasha's curious, and there aren't any humans around to hear her. She tries singing to the moth.

interspecies ethnomusicology ahoy!

[yhlee]

There is a (startled?) pause, then the moth starts humming back, a more or less in tune version of the song she's singing, albeit a couple octaves down.

Re: interspecies ethnomusicology ahoy!

[zuhrovet]

Oh, this is fun! Much more fun than whiny Rahal. Sasha switches her monitoring to transcript mode, and teaches the moth a song that she learned when she was very small:

"Hey, hey, hey, the wheel is on the axle,
la, la, la, the axle spins around.
Hey, heh, hey, the babies in the axle-cart,
La, la, la, they make a squeaking sound."

If the moth catches on fast enough, they can sing it as a round.

Re: interspecies ethnomusicology ahoy!

[yhlee]

Either all moths are musically inclined or this one is; it catches on pretty quickly and soon they're singing a round.

A few minutes later, Sasha intercepts a message from Ashari:

Alaric, can you get that creature to pipe down? Some of us need our beauty sleep.

OT: GM tithes

[yhlee]

P.S. The dice arrived safely! They are skewishly cool, thank you very much!

Medical

[vass]

Iawa hastily moves to stop Imsayed from getting up.
"Careful! You've had another knock to your head. No, we're not on the ship right now."

In first aid class, Iawa was taught three questions to ask a concussion patient. What is your full name? Do you know where we are right now? What's the date today?

She can't remember what name Imsayed's going under on the station. With everything that's happened it's only with a stretch that she can even remember what she's calling herself here: Jaghan, after a character in an obscure novel she liked as a child. At any rate, if 'Imsayed' is a pseudonym and he's confused enough to respond honestly, she shouldn't ask him his name. And if Imsayed is his real name, she definitely shouldn't ask him.

What's the date today, when asked by a Vidona, is the point where the patient gets combative if they're going to; or so a reminiscent instructor once told Iawa's first aid class. It'd be an even more stressful question for someone who's been through enough rifts in short succession. Better leave it.

And he's just said we're not on the ship. Maybe he thinks he's back home, wherever home is. With his family. "We're docked at the station," she offers. "Do you remember which station... no, wait. What's the last thing you remember?"

Re: Medical

[yhlee]

Imsayed subsides, frowning in confusion. "Station..." Then he focuses on the second question that Iawa asks. "My br--" He stops and gives Iawa a distinctly worried look. "I mean, the very junior member of our crew has been up to shenanigans and I had no luck dragging him back onto the, er, Bumblebee." Imsayed grimaces and clutches his head. "How long was I out?"

Re: Medical

[vass]

Avrayen's your brother? Why are you both pretending you don't know each other? Iawa has so many questions.

"Dar Chresh [Sulen] and Damion [Alaric] are talking to him right now. Station Security found you two hours ago, but they don't know how long you were out before that.[*] So you were trying to bring him back to the Bumblee, and that's the last thing you remember?"

That sounds bad. Good thing there are two people with Avrayen. Shit, Iawa didn't want to think of him as a threat. Avryen still might not be Imsayed's attacker. Memory works in funny ways. He might have lost hours after that. But it does look bad.

[* He was out for nine hours total, according to the timeline.]

"How are you feeling now?"

Re: Medical

[yhlee]

Imsayed rubs his eyes. "Yes, that sounds about right. Please tell me someone has the--kid in hand by now?" He gives Iawa a wry smile. "No, seriously, you can let me know--how long was I out? Did our, er, captain send you after me, or what?"

Re: Medical

[slybrarian]

"I have no idea, but it can't have been too long," Alaric says, popping into the room just in time to interrupt the conversation. "Can you walk? If not I can ask the nurses for a stretcher or wheelchair or whatever these people use. I'm pretty sure they'd give us whatever we need to get us out of here given how much noise we're making. Oh, hi, Ia- Jaghan."

Re: Medical

[vass]

"Hi, Damion," Iawa says. "Are Dar Chresh and the kid getting along all right?" Did you leave them in the middle of a confrontation, she doesn't say. She turns back to Imsayed. "I don't know how long you were out for, but two hours is bad enough. You should probably take the time to talk to a doctor here before you leave. Do you have a regular doctor you see when you're not traveling through rifts? Someone who's familiar with your history?"

Re: Medical

[pengwern]

[Alaric might hear Mishka shouting a question over the nurses about Istradez, although it's... increasingly clear that I don't know where the doors are here.

Incidentally, to GM, are there still gold marker streaks saying 'rest well' in Kel drum code on Istradez's neck? (I don't have a preference either way).]