hexarchate_rpg | Move 21 [fixed numbering error] (at long last) (chapter 1.21)

yhlee posting in

Move 21

[GM note: PROFUSE apologies for how late this move is. The month of May got eaten by non-negotiable writing commitments and then health issues. So sorry!]

For easy reference:
- Move 20 Recap [wiki]
- the escape plan [wiki];
- Station Moongray timeline [wiki].

(Thanks to

zuhrovet for keeping this stuff updated for everyone's convenience.)

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~07:25

Confrontation at Administrator Nirai Paerani Shan's Office
Sulen and Virmad are facing off against Administrator Shan, having dumped a (friendly!) baby mothling (Crowned-With-Eyes) and faked evidence of Remi's "heresy" onto her desk, as per this thread from Move 19.

Shan makes a brief show of checking the faked datacube for the evidence, but she's clearly feeling pressured with two Rahal standing right there and it doesn't appear she finds anything out of order in the "evidence." "All right," Shan says. She pulls up an appropriate form on one of her data slates and signs over Remi and the mothlings to Sulen and Virmad's custody, then outputs it to a data cube and hands it to them. "Do you require assistance locating Nirai Remi? Or would you prefer to handle that yourselves?" Her expression is resigned.

On the "Bumblebee"

- Mikodez is in Sasha's bedroom, following this thread from Move 19. He is currently alone, trapped, and recuperating, apparently having dozed off.

- Sasha and Iawa have made preparations to talk to Mikodez (see above) as per this thread from Move 19. They have agreed to meet outside Sasha's bedroom and confront Mikodez together.

- Alaric is still currently closeted with Gerae (and Fluffy), continuing this thread from Move 19. Gerae looks abashed at Alaric's critique of heptarchate social control methods and says, "You're obviously very knowledgeable about us and our methods. Are you a scholar? I hadn't realized your team did research." (He's clearly fishing for more information about the Merry Crew he has fallen in with.) Meanwhile, Fluffy curls up on his forearm and appears to doze.

NPCs:
- Ashari is in their office.

- Kaliyan is still manning the cockpit in preparation for escape.

- Yehan graciously thanks Sasha for the box of Remy's journals and begins scanning them into the grid for further analysis; this is a process that can largely be automated so she has set the grid up to alert her if anything looks like it requires her immediate attention, and goes to get some more tea.

- Ankat is keeping an eye on Istradez, who is still woozy and concussed, as per this thread from Move 19. He is available if anyone needs an extra pair of hands.

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

pengwern

Mikodez flops over and rests his chin on folded knuckles, and speaks from behind Sasha's back. So focused on Ashari, the both of them!

"And...?" He draws out the word. "Keep going. I don't know everything on my augment either."

From:

zuhrovet

White stars of hell, the child is a good liar. Sasha keeps her mouth shut and concentrates on freeing her hands.

[What would people think of starting a new thread? We're past the edge of my laptop screen, now.]

From:

vass

[Good idea.]

From:

lleullawgyffes

Virmad gives Remi his best steely Rahal stare, then turns to Teo. “I wish —” he starts to say, but checks himself. No need to make himself look even more absurdly unprofessional than he already has. Instead, sighing inwardly, he says, “Thank you for your assistance, Lieutenant.”

He bows slightly, which is more deference than the situation would normally call for, but not beyond plausibility for an inquisitor acknowledging an enforcement officer’s job well done. It’s the only appropriate thing he can think of that can come close to expressing this — stupid, he thinks, a little harshly — tangle of emotions.

[edit: sorry!!! I’ve been doing basically nothing but read the last two weeks and hadn’t thought about this at all.]

Edited Date: 2018-06-18 06:50 pm (UTC)

From:

zuhrovet

Ashari's brooding feels like a thunderstorm about to break. But Sasha's already soaking wet, which is backwards. She frees her hands and celebrates by arranging the blanket around her shoulders like a shawl.

"I think the backup should be finished by now. May I go ahead and wipe the foxling's augment?" she asks Ashari.

From:

zuhrovet

[Picking up again here.]

From:

yhlee

"If you can back it up to somewhere where its contents won't wriggle free and doom us all, yes," Ashari says. "Whatever's hidden there might give us some interesting leverage for the future." Ashari cocks an eyebrow at Mikodez. "You are remarkably calm for someone in a world of trouble."

To Iawa, Ashari says: "How did the floor get wet, anyway? Or do I not want to know?"

From:

zuhrovet

"The water is my fault," Sasha says. "Automatic security measure."

She stands, carefully, walks over to the chair, sits down again, and reopens her terminal. The copy is indeed finished, so she enters the reset command.

From:

yhlee

Gerae is all too happy to talk about Fluffy. "Fluffy is a bit stubborn about experimentation, but theoretically they can learn simple words and phrases. They're tricky to train because they want to be entertained, you know how it is."

From:

yhlee

[No worries!]

Teo's own bow is a little deeper than the situation calls for, as well; it seems likely that he holds no ill will against Virmad for the situation. "Let me know if there's anything else I can do to assist," he says.

Remi's shoulders twitch, but he remains otherwise subdued.

[Virmad and Sulen will encounter no obstacles on the way back, so you can consider this thread complete. It will transpire once Virmad checks in that Teo has had a package forwarded to Virmad care of the Bumblebee, which according to Ankat has passed security scan and poses no threat--it's a book of poetry, which Virmad can explore at his leisure.]

From:

lleullawgyffes

[I LOVE KEL TEO]

From:

yhlee

[TEO MAY HAVE LEFT SOME ANNOTATIONS IN THE BOOK FOR VIRMAD'S PLEASURE ;) ]

From:

yhlee

"Well," Ashari says judiciously, "considering the trouble a certain fox kit has caused us all, I don't blame you for erring on the side of paranoia." Their grin is not entirely reassuring. To Iawa, they add, "I appreciate you calling me in before matters got...even more out of hand."

From:

zuhrovet

Fuck you, Ashari, I messaged you first. But Ashari hasn't added "bringing Iawa into this situation at all" to the list of Sasha's errors, so she's ahead of the game.

Sasha turns to watch Mishka. It appears that he's not going to produce some poisoned Shuos weapon and kill everyone. She wonders what he'll do instead.

From:

venndaai

[So, can Sulen, Virmad, CWE and Remi just appear on the Wasp? (Sulen having managed to dispose of their gun on the way out- they'd gotten rid of the bullets earlier but hopefully Sasha never finds that out.)]

From:

yhlee

[Yep! Feel free. I'm going to be flying out to Seattle tomorrow and teaching a workshop so I'm going to be a little slow to respond for the next couple days, just so you know. If there's a Dire Emergency somehow, feel free to email directly at yoon at yoonhalee dot com--I will check email when I get the opportunity.]

From:

venndaai

Sulen is messaging both of them: In common room w delivery, where r you?

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha hears the vibration from her terminal, reads the message, uses the grid to confirm that Remi is on board, and replies all:

in my room w/ ashari, iawa, & the fucking baby fox. R's suitcases r in the room at end of other hall.

Ashari's tablet plays a different sound after Sasha replies; that means she doesn't need to tell them that the first message was from Sulen.

From:

venndaai

"Your things are in the room at the end of that hall," Sulen says to Remi. "Could I ask you to keep the creature in there while I check if our temporary habitat is ready?" That will also get him out of the way while they check in with the others.

Edited Date: 2018-06-25 12:25 am (UTC)

From:

yhlee

Remi inclines his head. "Thank you, I can certainly keep the mothling entertai--"

There is a faint vibration from the Wasp as the bigger moth hums ever-so-quietly to the baby mothling.

The mothling wriggles in delight and hums back, not really in tune.

That settled, Remi heads off, mothling in tow.

From:

yhlee

Ashari is still looking at Mikodez with an expression of infinite patience slowly, inexorably growing less infinite. To Sulen, Ashari replies,

I could use the threat of scrying on this fox-child.

To Sasha: "Can you let Sulen in without giving the fox kit an opportunity to escape?" Ashari's eyes are almost entirely blue, although they are not meeting anyone's gaze--yet. And to Iawa: "Be ready to sedate the boy again if he twitches wrong."

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha tells Ashari, "Yes."

She messages Sulen:

my doors blocked off. go into the bathroom off alarics room & ill let u in that way.

She directs the grid to erase the door to the bathroom in her room, and then to create a new door between her bathroom and Alaric's, which is adjacent. She then unlocks Alaric's door, if it isn't already open, and monitors Sulen's movements through the grid.

From:

venndaai

Sulen sends another message to both:

Where is the door?

[edit: pretend this is above Sasha's response...]

Edited Date: 2018-06-25 01:08 am (UTC)

From:

venndaai

Sulen turns to Virmad. "I am going to check in with Ashari and Sasha on the Avrayen situation, and have Sasha check what progress the station's made in detaching the moth environment. You could come with me, or check on Gerae. I promised him he would get a chance to return to the station if he wished." Virmad will understand the importance of giving your word.

From:

slybrarian

"I think we can definitely give her plenty of entertaining sounds, along with more room to play and some companionship. She was playing with a mothling when I took custody of her from one of my more dubious shipmates - its a very long story and makes no sense, so probably best not to waste time explaining - and they seemed to be getting along quite well for creatures from entirely different biospheres."

That reminded Alaric he should probably check on the other guest. The one that they were supposed to be liberating, not the one they were apparently kidnapping-slash-rescuing because he was cute or stumbled across their secret plan or something.

[Possibly an opening to either segue into the 'On the Moth' thread, or bring Virmad here?]