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

[yhlee]

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.

Comments

insufficient algorithms - paging Iawa and Mikodez

[zuhrovet]

Sasha asks the grid to create a door to her room, and lets Iawa enter first. She walks inside a moment later. The door makes a soft, whirring noise. Sasha wishes she could have slammed it. Instead she whistles to the grid, to make it disappear again.

Sasha has a method for dealing with Shuos dropouts: she demonstrates her technical superiority, then hands them an alternative win condition, at which point they either prove their usefulness by getting some work done or turn out to be utter flakes and get themselves fired. She has been pretending, to herself as much as to Mishka, that this is a stranger round of the usual game.

Knots and wires! Time to stop lying. Sasha counts to sixteen to steady herself, then says, "Avrayen. Sit up and pay attention."

[venndaai]

[Isn't it actually Move 21?]

"We'd appreciate your assistance in locating him, yes," Sulen says, hoping that Remi isn't up to anything that might make this more complicated. "And you should let the appropriate people know that we'll be removing the... flitterling environment."

Chatting with Gerae

[slybrarian]

"Indeed, where I come from I am a scholar of some renown," Alaric said. Certainly there's got to be someone somewhere who reknows him, at any rate. "And I think the official description of most of us would be... entourage? Hangers-on? Whatever the correct term is for the regular people the faction members bring along to look pretty, maintain the ship, and push them around in float chairs when someone falls over drunk. The research is more of a hobby for when the Andan and Rahal are off doing whatever high-society things they get up to."

He wishes he could tell Gerae about the moth and his discovery - well, okay, his and Sasha's, but he gets first credit on the paper or there will be hell to pay - about moth communication, but that will have to wait until they're safely away.

virtuously requesting permission from Ashari

[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.

[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.)]

On board the Wasp

[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.

[venndaai]

[I've currently got a bad cold and I think the edge of a fever, and I'm lying in bed trying to sleep it off so I can start my new job teaching video game design to kids tomorrow, and the punchline is I think I'm tapping into Mikodez's dreams. Remis and Asharis made out of pixels and I can't get their code to work.

...I think when I have a free week I'm going to make a little platformer where Mikodez runs around chased by cats and floating eyes.]

[pengwern]

[OOC: Hi, sorry for the falling off a cliff -- I'll start replying soon! (at most in another two weeks, home free but despairing.)]