Move 19 (Chapter 1.19)

[yhlee]

(Thanks to zuhrovet for keeping the Station Moongray Timeline on the game wiki updated.)

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~0550

Just outside of Medical

Sulen has just been abandoned by Mikodez, who has headed into the reception area of Medical. They can hear Fluffy chirruping now that she's finished gobbling down the treats that Mikodez has fed her. Would it be best to go after Mikodez and try to contain the damage, or stand guard outside with the voidcreature? Baby Crowned-With-Eyes is wriggling very alarmingly in the sack and making ridiculously cheerful humming noises--and the spilled coffee still hasn't been cleaned up, and is probably a slipping hazard.

In Medical: antechamber

A triage nurse gives Mikodez a distinctly unfriendly look as he approaches with a caged Fluffy in tow. "You've had enough warnings," he says. "I don't care if you're Andan Bokali's special guests, you're disturbing our legitimate patients." He reaches over to a desk and pushes a red call button marked SECURITY.

In Medical: the actual patient

Istradez is, despite being awfully cavalier about his own condition, smiling reluctantly at Iawa for their solicitousness. Meanwhile, although Alaric has instructed Mikodez to fetch a nurse with float chair and discharge paperwork, he hears the triage nurse shooing Mikodez out. If they want a float chair, they're going to have to wrangle on themselves; it's clear that relying on Mikodez is not...the best idea considering how annoyed Medical is with him.

[Assuming that Alaric has called the "Bumblebee," Ashari (running as NPC) responds via lokwor.]

Ashari sounds very concerned about Istradez's status. "Bad enough to need a float chair? I'll dispatch one of the Kel to prep Medical," they tell Alaric.

on the "Bumblebee": the thieving Rahal

Gerae, taking Virmad's silence as a license to spill all his emotional upsets, will continue babbling about what a stressful year he's had unless Virmad interrupts him. If Virmad doesn't bring up the topic himself, Gerae will add plaintively that he could use some coffee (or stronger stimulant) and that he hasn't had food for a full day and could they get an early breakfast?

on the "Bumblebee": "xeno"mathematics the Cartesian way

The moth ponders Sasha's symbols and graphs for several minutes, then returns a graph with y = log₁₀x, y = x, y = x², and y = 10^x. Its humming has definitely quieted--perhaps the math is distracting it, or is taking more of its concentration.

[It's too bad I don't remember any LaTeX...?!]

Comms to EVERYONE, marching orders from Ashari

Ashari (running as NPC) calls everyone via lokwor, sounding grim, and instructs that they would like everyone to be on the "Bumblebee" and prepared to make a run for it within the hour. This means that Ashari expects Sulen and Virmad to prepare for a (remote) confrontation with the station administrator as per the plan.

Comments

[pengwern]

Mikodez can't check his lokwor! Muffled gleeping is coming from Fluffy's cage, and this time it probably isn't a fascinating example of vocalisations in Vraselian fauna.

He tells the nurse, "Look, I'll be in the visitor quarters if anything changes," and edges away to see if there's intent to pursue him.

This also puts him in sight of Sulen, but he doesn't understand stern eyebrow-waggling any more than how there could be Rahal who don't love paperwork. Why don't you have the soul of a bureaucrat, Sulen. Wasn't that the goal of Rahal academy. (It hasn't occurred to him that nine-stepped paperwork chicanery should be explained to potential accomplices.) With a look of wide-eyed confusion, Mikodez steps close enough for Sulen to grab, if they can manage it around Fluffy and dearest trilling Crowned-with-Eyes.

[venndaai]

Sulen manages to get Crowned-with-Eyes bundled mostly under one arm, and reaches out with the other to snag Mikodez's sleeve.

"Give me the cage," they say, "and clean up that spilled drink." That should hopefully keep him occupied for a minute until Alaric or Iawa gets back to them with a situation update. If he tries to run for it maybe they'll take a page from his book and throw the creatures at him, see how he likes it.

oh no brer wolf please don't throw the moth baby at him

[pengwern]

Mikodez uses one of Fluffy's piercing shrills to stumble into Sulen's other arm, hopefully hard enough to propel Crowned-with-Eyes out of the pack again. He wants it back, damn it, and he's practiced convincing falls enough times at the academy. (He also wants a look at Sulen's lokwor messages, which is bound to be more interesting than his.)

Mikodez you're a fox not a rabbit

[venndaai]

After a moment of horribly tricky balancing, Sulen lets go of Mikodez's sleeve and grabs him by the neck instead. "Fine,"they hiss, "we'll just stand right here then." Fang and claw, they hope the others return before Sulen has to murder this child/teen-shaped monster.

it will be a good learning experience

[pengwern]

"Sorry! But that nurse did just call for security." Sulen's grip is strong enough that it would take effort to break, so Mikodez settles in place with Fluffy's cage between them. He turns up the guileless blinking and nods towards where the message tone on Sulen's lokwor is coming from, and where a similar noise is interrupted by small crunches in the cage. "I don't want to open it up, or the pet dragon might escape again." Can he see if Sulen is armed? "How come Sasha gets to bring a souvenir from the station, anyway? I want to keep a Nirai pet too."

Re: it will be a good learning experience

[venndaai]

"Do you ever stop talking?" Sulen asks despairingly.

sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[pengwern]

Probably won't shoot him if he doesn't. Mikodez hesitates, then asks, "Is Alaric's chore a priority? I'd prefer to be away when security arrives."

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[yhlee]

[OT: LOL, if someone wanted to run Jedao I'd let them. XD Especially since I still think it would be good to recruit one or two fighter/soldier/tank types to round out the party if we can ever get y'all off this station ;) ]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[pengwern]

[If Mikodez hasn't been whipped off to mothspace, and depending on when Jedao is from, that could make for a very fun (or very short) experience!]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[venndaai]

[Jedao would give Sulen a very bad headache.]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[yhlee]

[Sulen would get an even worse headache from baby!Jedao + baby!Mikodez; the two have...a distressing number of personality traits in common.

I still think Miles Vorkosigan is more terrifying than the two of them combined, though. XD My personal rule is to be a full galaxy away from Miles Vorkosigan at all times. Great character, terrifying personality. XD ]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[pengwern]

[wow, turns out crowned-with-eyes has had a hidden significance of 'being REAL grating to one specific rahal inquisitor in the year 835' all along.

(The thing to do is to pick one of them and give the other two to him to wrangle \o/ Then you flee in the other direction before the inevitable detonations/trade blockades take effect.)]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[vass]

[Okay, so, new game plan:

1. Escape from Station Moongray.
2. Con some new people into playing (young) Jedao and Miles.
3. Give them to Mikodez to wrangle.
4. ?????
5. Profit

Step four possibly involves Sulen and a painkiller tablet so big they can crawl into it to hide.]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[vass]

[You don't think he'd find a way to charm them? :D ]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[venndaai]

[He would, and that'd just make it worse!]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[zuhrovet]

[And here I was thinking "Sulen doesn't have younger siblings"!]

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[venndaai]

Sulen narrows their eyes at him, though he can't see that given their current positions. "Why would security arrive?"

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[pengwern]

It's embarrassing enough to admit to calling security down on all of them twice, let alone a third time, and for the sake of -- someone that you’d expect to cause this reaction. But Sulen had already sussed out Mikodez's susceptibility to this gambit, and they had at least one moment together with him and Ashari on the Wasp. If 'Istradez' had a line in with Sulen, it would be beneficial to feign concern for him.

Wasn't it always a good idea to be ostentatiously interested in one thing you don't give a fuck about?

"I -- may have annoyed the nurses on duty when I tried to get in to see my cousin with Fluffy here. And honestly, if Sasha didn't want it so badly..."

Re: sulen clearly needs to meet jedao :D

[slybrarian]

"Don't worry," Alaric says, coming up behind them. "I implied to the nurse that you're all tipsy tourists or spacers that I'm going to shepherd back to the ship, or at least out of their hair. Please tell me that there's no other reason that we can't go straight there as soon as we strap Imsayed into a float chair, and more importantly, that there's not going to be any more fuss until we're somewhere private."

[Okay, so I missed a couple days due to a bad cold, and I think this is the closest thing going on in time and location to where I was. So I'm going to butt in unless told otherwise.]

MOTH BABIES

[pengwern]

Mikodez twitches around to face him with his neck still in Sulen's grip, and points urgently at the pack, where Crowned-With-Eyes is purring like a friendly patch of void.

Re: MOTH BABIES

[slybrarian]

With not inconsiderable reluctance, Alaric kneels down beside the pack and opens it up just enough to peek inside, trying not to disturb Crowned-With-Eyes more than necessary. He wishes he could say he was surprised to find a firearm inside, but he's pretty sure that this was part of the long-ago-decided plan and he'd just forgotten about it in the meantime. He wasn't really alone in forgetting the plan, though, so he wasn't going to blame himself for that. Indeed, any blame could be firmly leveled at the person responsible for its safekeeping and not alerting security.

"Well, that is certainly a thing," he says, standing back up. "I don't suppose any fox-like individuals around here would know whether it would be safer to transport certain metal objects back through dock security, or to dump it into the nearest waste disposal and hope it gets recycled or otherwise remains unnoticed until we're long gone."

Re: MOTH BABIES

[venndaai]

It's really lucky the Rahal exotic ability is scrying and not laser death beam eyes, or Mikodez would be ash on the station carpet.

Sulen takes a deep breath, holds it and releases it, and then wishes they hadn't, because now they're hyper aware of their own breathing. "You should go ahead with Imsayed and Dzeri," they say, "I'll... deal with this." They hold the mothling bag out to Alaric. "But first, could you hold this for a second so I can check my messages?"

[next action to take]

[pengwern]

[Also, sorry, I....really don't remember what the matter-printed gun is made of. I assumed it could be picked up on scan, but that it wasn't metal? And do you still want to go pick up the mothlings right now?]

OT: cold sympathies

[zuhrovet]

[Ugh, if the cold that's been chewing on you is any relation to the one that's been chewing on me (and destroying my ability to count the number of hells to swear by) you have my deepest sympathies.]

[OT: health wishes]

[yhlee]

[Oh man, feel better soonest!]