Move 20 (Chapter 1.20)

[yhlee]

[Sorry for the delay!]

EDITED ONE MORE TIME: the escape plan, for easy reference.

Move 20

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~05:75

Just outside of Medical
The mothling Crowned-with-Eyes is continuing to purr rapturously from within Mikodez's pack, which is in Alaric's possession. Fluffy has finally piped down--maybe napping, who knows what her sleep cycles are? Mikodez is currently under Alaric's watch (so to speak). [The GM strongly suggests that players cooperate to keep Mikodez from escaping yet again as I'd like to get y'all off this station! *g* ]

Sulen gets to check their lokwor, which contains an updated message from Ashari reiterating that everyone should return to the Wasp ASAP. Ashari adds, rather ominously, that they authorize Sulen to "use any necessary force" to round up crew members; they would like Sulen and Virmad to contact the administrator from the Wasp once the two of them are on the moth again.

A thoroughly exasperated-looking male nurse (the one Alaric spoke to earlier) wheels Istradez (NPC) out on a float chair, accompanied by Iawa, whom the nurse has entrusted with further instructions for Istradez's care. Istradez looks like he's seen better days, and Iawa notices that his mind seems to be wandering again--a lingering concussion effect? It's too bad that the nurse seems thoroughly determined to get rid of them all and heads back into Medical at the first opportunity.

Sasha, accompanied by Ankat (NPC), can meet our merry adventurers just outside Medical, if she likes.

"Bumblebee" status
Kaliyan (NPC) is manning the cockpit. Ashari (NPC) has left the office [edit, continuity, sorry about that]. Yehan (NPC) is currently manning comms as well. The Wasp itself is currently quiescent, no doubt chewing away on magic squares (which Sasha gave it to think about in Move 19). Gerae is contained (for the moment) in his makeshift cell; video surveillance will reveal that he is slowly drinking his Space Nescafe, making everything last and looking as if it's the best coffee he's ever had.

After giving orders to crew members on the station, Ashari seeks out Virmad in the galley and tells him that they expect him and Sulen to prepare to call the administrator on the station so they can get the hell out of here as per the plan as soon as Sulen and the rest of the crew is back. Ashari suggests that Virmad draft the communication for Sulen's approval and adds, "Did you find out anything useful from Teo? Don't be shy, darling, every little bit helps."

Comments

back on the Wasp: who gets to debrief Mishka? - paging Iawa, Mikodez, Alaric, GM

[zuhrovet]

Once the airlock closes, Sasha says, "Grid. Please inform Ashari that we've retrieved Avrayen and Imsayed, and ask whether we should bring Avrayen to them."

She moves to the side of the room, to check the airlock scan.

[How many lockpicks are hidden in Fluffy's cage? Anything else of interest there? And is there enough lingering radiation from the mothling to show up on scan?

pengwern: Which authority figure would you like to inflict on Mishka? According to our org chart, this is a problem for an NPC, Ashari or Ankat. Ashari could delegate to the Rahal, which would be logical but means we'd have to find something for Mikodez to do besides staring at a blank wall until Sulen and Virmad get back, or to Sasha, since his trespasses on the station's grid are her domain.

vass: Sasha's angst about corporal punishment seems like a possible hook for interactions with Iawa. Let me know if you want to go this direction.

slybrarian: How does Alaric feel about very small dragons? I don't know what your plans are, but I confess I'm very curious about what a conversation between Alaric and Gerae would look like. (Sasha can give Alaric temporary access.)]

Re: back on the Wasp: who gets to debrief Mishka? - paging Iawa, Mikodez, Alaric, GM

[slybrarian]

[Alaric would be delighted to observe and interact with small dragons.]

"You know," Alaric says to the group, not really to anyone in particular, "I honestly can't decide if we're not very good at this, or if we're actually really good at it since we're basically on schedule despite all these distractions we keep getting involved with. I'm leaning towards 'really good' though."

here is a tiny dragon for you!

[zuhrovet]

Sasha taps her foot four times, and then hopes nobody noticed. "Could you save the assessment till we're actually finished?"

She chirps reassuringly at Fluffy. Ankat's half-dragging, half-carrying Mishka, who looks to be more asleep than not, Iawa's hovering by Imsayed, and if she's not mistaken Ashari wants to see her and the teenager in person. So. That leaves Alaric to deal with Fluffy and Gerae. Maybe the magistrate will find him charming?

"Look," she tells Alaric. "Somebody needs to let the pseudo-dragon out of her cage near a toilet, before she makes a mess, and then take her to Gerae. Would you mind? He's in the room without a door-- I'll give you temporary access-- and you shouldn't give him the cage, it's got at least two lockpicks I can see on scan right now. Fluffy seems pretty docile, but you can always feed her cookies."

Re: here is a tiny dragon for you!

[slybrarian]

"Well, okay, fine, we'll skip the midterm evaluation and just go with just a pass/fail final," Alaric replied. He picks up Fluffy's cage and the mothling's bag. "I'll see our other new pet to their habitat too, since I'm playing dog walker."

He doesn't really mind, since the dragon is legitimately both adorable and scientifically fascinating, but he doesn't want to get stuck emptying draconic litter boxes if that's a thing.

He stops by the toilet first, opening the cage once the door is safely shut to prevent shenanigans, then proceeds to Gerae's technically-not-a-cell.

"Good morning, magistrate!" he says cheerfully. "I've brought a friend to keep you company."

Re: here is a tiny dragon for you!

[zuhrovet]

[It's not a huge deal, but for the sake of continuity, it's worth noting Sulen kept the mothling as evidence of heresy.]

Re: here is a tiny dragon for you!

[yhlee]

Fluffy does her business and even knows how to flush the toilet herself. Someone was very conscientious about toilet-training her! Fluffy apparently knows better than to attempt shenanigans in a bathroom.

Gerae was napping on the floor when Alaric arrives. He looks up and rubs his eyes, then brightens when he notices Fluffy. "You took care of her!" he cries. "Thank you, er--" He pauses and waits for a name. Then he looks around. "Will I be in here for much longer?"

Fluffy trills joyfully upon seeing him. That, or she's expecting a snack.

Re: here is a tiny dragon for you!

[slybrarian]

"I'm Alaric. Nice to meet you!" Maybe he should have used his fake name, but he was pretty sure that the magistrate was going nowhere, which was probably for the best for him. Presumably no one would have bothered collecting a pet if he was going somewhere, since at this point 'somewhere' would likely be the wrong side of an airlock.

"That's an interesting question, but I'm afraid I don't have an exact answer. To be honest, we're all kind of terrible at communicating with anyone except the mothlings." He gives the bag a pat and whistles a little. "I doubt it will be much longer, though, since we seem to be wrapping up our visit. Is there anything you need to make yourself more comfortable?"

Re: here is a tiny dragon for you!

[yhlee]

"Pleased to meet you, Alaric," Gerae says, with evident sincerity. "I've been seen to, thank you." He peers at Alaric. "That's a foreign name, isn't it? We don't see many visitors in the heptarchate, ordinarily."

[GM note: the Rahal have the mothling, so I'll disregard that bit about the bag.]

Re: here is a tiny dragon for you!

[slybrarian]

"Indeed I am," Alaric says. "And yes, I've increasingly gotten that impression, even beyond the usual difficulties that can impede travel between calendrical regimes. It's not exactly a terribly tourism-friendly government. There's plenty of very friendly people at the individual level, but the systematic torture, murder, and torturous murder is a bit off-putting."

Remembering he was talking with a magistrate, although apparently not a very good one, he added, "No offense intended."

(Sorry, I misunderstood that.)

Re: here is a tiny dragon for you!

[yhlee]

[No worries! It's a lot of threads going on right now and I'm sorry I didn't clarify that earlier. We're about to roll over into a new move anyhow.]

Gerae bites his lip. "That's not the whole of who we are," he says, very earnest. "I mean--yes. There are things that aren't pleasant. Fatally not pleasant. But the Liozh provide us guidelines and we do try to take care of our citizens." He flushes suddenly. "Even if I'm not the best model of behavior myself. No offense taken, in any case."

[As far as Alaric can tell, Gerae is pretty sincere about the "our society has a few warts but has its benefits overall" stance despite the fact that his niece ran afoul of a heresy charge; see also this reference.]

Re: back on the Wasp: who gets to debrief Mishka? - paging Iawa, Mikodez, Alaric, GM

[yhlee]

Ashari responds with almost distressing promptness.

Yes. Tech Bayan, please bring the child back to me. I need to give him a spanking.

[EDIT: Ashari intends to deal with Mikodez unless pengwern would really prefer Ankat, and may be annoyed enough to threaten enthrallment if not actually use it, which could be fun. Ashari will dump Mikodez on Sasha once they're back at the Bumblebee/Wasp. Ashari will also note in passing, "That vicious streak of yours ought to serve you well in dealing with him, but don't break him, he's important."]

There are two lockpicks hidden in Fluffy's cage: one in the base and one that serves as a removable cage "bar." Fluffy is emitting some cries of distress, though: from Sasha's knowledge of Vraselian pseudo-dragons, she realizes that Fluffy needs to use a litter box or toilet soon. (They can be trained to use regular human toilets.)

The mothling doesn't show up on scan anymore, radiation-wise.

[Please let me know if I missed anything that needs catching up on--I've been a little scattered and I apologize.]

Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[zuhrovet]

Sasha stands very still and looks Ashari straight in the eyes, which if the vids are accurate is a stupid idea, except that Ashari knows quicker ways to hurt her. "I will speak to Avrayen. But you're the one who's standing in for his parents."

She turns to Ankat, then, who's supporting the still-mostly-asleep Mishka and exuding an aura of "not my problem" that's probably visible from the rift. "Let's dump him in my room, until he wakes up. I don't think there's anything in there he can break."

Once Mishka's settled on top of the blankets on her bed and Ankat has stomped out, Sasha locks the door, stuffs her clothes and a handful of items from her desk drawer back into her duffle, and sets the bag by the exit. She erases nearly all of Mishka's grid privileges, though she leaves him the ability to dictate messages to her, and to Ashari. Then she settles in to sift through the security footage: she wants to know how Mishka ended up with a mothling, and when Imsayed got hurt.

[No worries! Thank you for feeding us delicious plot.

Mikodez was making some attempt to avoid security cameras, but I assume Sasha will at least find a note from the guard who talked to him outside Remi's lab. Let me know if there's anything particularly damning. Otherwise, Sasha will head to Medical in a little while, and hope to catch Imsayed/Istradez awake (and, OOC, find a reason to read his files).

I think we're all curious about what almost-enthrallment looks like, so if Ashari wants to come critique Sasha's work in a while, that could be fun.]

one more question about hacking stuff

[zuhrovet]

[Does the administrator's computer have Sasha's Clowder Purring virus? If there's a way for Ashari to listen in to the Rahal's conversation with her, without trusting to possibly-compromised lokki audio, that would presumably take priority over chastising Mishka.]

Re: one more question about hacking stuff

[yhlee]

[It does in fact have Clowder Purring virus. That virus has legs.]

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[yhlee]

Ashari's smile is less toothy than usual. "Listen," they say to Sasha, their voice almost gentle. "We've got to take care of the kid." (They don't, of course, mention Avrayen's secret future identity.) "I'll put a good scare into him, but that's all."

Ankat has that stoic "I'm too former-Kel to show how weird I find this situation" expression.

Meanwhile, Sasha will indeed find a note from the guard who talked to Mikodez outside Remi's lab, and if she digs (which, this being Sasha, I'm sure she will), another note in the file from Nirai Vana from when she ran into Mikodez at the bubble tea shop--a security officer apparently talked to Vana about the exchange. There's nothing overtly damning, just "this annoying kid keeps popping up in places like the dance studio" (while dealing with Andan Rii's performance stuff, etc.).

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[zuhrovet]

[I don't think Ashari knows Mikodez' secret future identity as a hexarch? His personnel file was more mysterious.]

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[yhlee]

[Yeah, good point. Consider that line struck--it's not dialogue anyway. What I get for not double-checking that...]

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[pengwern]

Sasha can hear a small scuffling sound, then Mikodez at his most neutral. “Tech Bayan! Are we hiding from something?” His eyes are wide open, with gold sheening stripes. (Damn the mod for getting stuck.)

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[zuhrovet]

Sasha enters a few commands (record, convert "Mishka" to "Avrayen", send Ashari a link to the resulting file) and swivels her chair to face the bed. "We're back on the fucking ship, Mishka. If you plan to start apologizing, now would be the time."

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[pengwern]

This can’t be a scenario. The Shuos doesn’t have enough money to replicate the exact feel of eyeballs about to flop out while wrapped in liquefying stingray barbs. He decides against touching them until Sasha stops staring at him. What if she throws something?

Of course, she or anyone on board should have killed or drugged him while he was out. Mikodez does a brief self-check: still supremely disinclined to trust Sasha. Or Sulen. Ashari, the rest of the crew, Remi, Istradez —

“How did I get here?” He cocks his head. Wow, the room is even blurrier from this angle. “Did I go after everything you expected me to find? Was I supposed to believe Imsayed, just because he said so?”

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[zuhrovet]

Prophet's fucking coat, the kid got an amphibian mod and then forgot about hydration. "Ankat carried you. I take it we're skipping the apologies? When's the last time you drank a glass of water?"

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[pengwern]

This is too much. He's not taking water from someone who turned his applications into armadillos. Mikodez straightens abruptly and sways; using Ashari's granola bar in his recipe was a terrible idea.

"I apologize for running away because I suspected your intentions for wanting Fluffy, although those must have been Gerae's own photos. I think he had more than just the obvious problems if that's what he thought was a useful way to spend money. And did you see those sputters? We won't be here to see one of their slime mold races, but where did Iawa go with the one Pavn provided? Have you found any slime molds on the station shell yet, they're meant to be huge and I heard the nurses talk about the magistrate's pets, plural, so --"

(Mikodez also believes in casting doubt on his being a source of useful testimony as soon as possible.)

He rubs at his eyes, and one membrane unsticks. Now he's only running around with one sinister Shuos eye.

Re: Ashari's office, Sasha's bedroom - paging Mikodez

[zuhrovet]

"Mishka. You are being very boring."

Sasha locks her screen and digs a water bottle out of her bag. She fills the water bottle at the sink, caps it, and sets it on the desk near Mikodez, along with a ration bar. "What do you imagine is going to happen?"

How Do You Solve A Problem Like Mikodez?

[vass]

[I'm not sure exactly where you're going there with Sasha on corporal punishment, but Iawa definitely has objections to torture which could reasonably extend to corporal punishment, and also is worried about whether the resistance are actually good people, and is conflicted about Mikodez. In other words, Iawa is definitely going to be interested in how Sasha and Ashari deal with the little weasel.]

Re: How Do You Solve A Problem Like Mikodez?

[zuhrovet]

[Sasha's comment to Alaric here was completely literal; she has a deep commitment to not becoming her parents, but she also has no idea what an appropriate response would be to this situation. So Iawa has an opportunity to Turn Sasha Toward Good, should they be so inclined.

Also I think it would be interesting to have Iawa supervise.]