Move 24 (Chapter 1.24)

[yhlee]

[GM note: This is a wrap-up move to close off the Station Moongray arc. Well done, everyone!]

[IMPORTANT: There is a roll call thread in this move. Please respond if you intend to continue as an active player for the next arc. Otherwise I will move you off the active list and to the NPC/inactive list.]

Year 361, Month Three, Day Seventeen (Monday), ~0900

Kaliyan (NPC) successfully guides the Wasp to the rift without complications or interference. She reports that the Rosemallow ship has veered away and chosen not to pursue or harass them further--at least in this timeline. The ship will be spending the next five to seven days in rift travel.

In the Rift:

Ashari orders everyone to catch up on sleep in shifts. After this has happened, they call a meeting that includes Sulen, Virmad, Sasha, Iawa, Alaric, and Mikodez [if pengwern is available], with Gerae (NPC) and Remi (NPC) as guests. The Wasp (NPC) may also venture opinions through Alaric and Sasha as interpreters. Kaliyan (NPC), Ankat (NPC), and Yehan (NPC) oversee the ship in case of emergency, but can be called via the ship's grid if anyone has questions for them specifically.

Tentative agenda as per this thread [Move 23]: (a) addressing problems in teamwork during the Station Moongray mission, (b) how to rectify those issues, and (c) next steps, including any recruitment.

[GM notes: Players are welcome to suggest plot hooks for what they'd like to explore in the next arc. Going after Quill? Rabble-rousing? Crashing the heptarchate's stock market?

Also, I'd really prefer the team leader to be a currently active PC rather than an NPC. If someone would like to volunteer their character for the job, I can move Ashari (NPC) to more of a background/support position, or maybe "shadowy boss who doesn't get involved in the day to day decision-making that much."

For recruitment, I still think the team would benefit from a couple of more fighty/meat shield type characters, and I'm thinking of opening up applications so we can recruit two more PCs. Thoughts on this are welcome, either IC or OOC. I'm personally not opposed to opening up mothlings as adoptable PCs, although they're not really meat shields yet...]

Comments

ROLL CALL THREAD

[yhlee]

Please respond here (just saying "here" is fine) if you intend to remain an active player in the next arc. Otherwise you/your character will be moved to the inactive/NPC list.

Re: ROLL CALL THREAD

[zuhrovet]

[I am definitely here!

I am officially volunteering Sasha for team lead. My thought for how to do this was to send the not-currently-active PCs off on other missions, and then observe that Sasha has the greatest seniority in the rebellion of the characters remaining. She would respond by panicking and reading the command manual.]

Re: ROLL CALL THREAD

[vass]

Here. Sorry I've been so absent.

Re: ROLL CALL THREAD

[slybrarian]

CRRRRROOOOOOOW! (I'm different!)

Re: ROLL CALL THREAD

[venndaai]

Here!

Re: ROLL CALL THREAD

[lleullawgyffes]

I'm here, my erratic participation notwithstanding!

Re: ROLL CALL THREAD

[pengwern]

Here! Sorry for putting this in the wrong thread - Mikodez is here and ready to be a well behaved cocoon at the meeting.

paging Iawa

[zuhrovet]

At some point, after she manages to sleep (wrapped up in a sleeping bag in Environmental, listening to the moth hum) but before the big meeting, Sasha goes looking for Iawa, bringing the emergency blanket with her.

Re: paging Iawa

[vass]

[I will catch up tomorrow and answer this then, promise.]

Re: paging Iawa

[vass]

Iawa scuttles back to quarters and showers, changes, and grabs a few hours of sleep. When Sasha catches up with them, they're grabbing some food (fermented bean broth and rice with whatever vegetables are around dumped in.)

"Oh, hello," they say awkwardly. They don't know the appropriate social greeting for "someone you've just forcibly sedated."

[venndaai]

Before sleeping, Sulen puts a few hours into making Mikodez's quarters as secure as they can manage, and then unshackles him. If he's in a talkative mood they might have a chat; if not Sulen will leave him and head off to attempt sleep.

[pengwern]

Playing dead has its benefits, like not combusting on the spot from self-disgust. Mikodez concentrates on being as floppy as a drunken weasel. While Sulen binds him in their outdated Rahal fashion, he palms two pieces of tape onto their person, one inside their sleeve and the other onto their shoe sole.

As they leave, he keeps his eyes closed and starts sorting through what was said earlier. Always listen to what the Rahal tell you. He's such a good citizen. Of course, he also noodles away at his augment. Sasha has redecorated her room one too many times out there in the open for him to not notice, and is it only his imagination, or has his augment started to work again with her away?

When Sulen returns, Mikodez is worrisomely relieved to see them and not somebody else. (Sasha.) Sulen, a Rahal Inquisitor! Sulen, with that striking rapport with Ashari. Sulen, who said something that sounded like they cared about what Imsayed-Istradez wants --

No.

He's decided to go along with the assumption everyone on the Wasp is what they appear to be. Mikodez discards the approaches that won't work on a trained Inquisitor, and settles on one he hopes will move a heretic.

"How's...how's the person-with-a-suspicious-familial-resemblance-to-me doing?"

[To GM: does Mikodez manage to sneak the doors open again?]

meeting prep

[zuhrovet]

[Will Sasha have a chance to check how much data on team conversations the Wasp's grid is storing before the meeting, or will that have to wait till afterward?]

Re: meeting prep

[yhlee]

[Sure, there's time no problem. She'll probably discover it's not doing anything extraordinary in that regard, but it is definitely storing data.]

shall we have this meeting?

[zuhrovet]

Sasha shows up to the common room early, makes herself a cup of tea, re-reads Ashari's meeting notice, and sends them a message reading:

plz add moth intelligence to the agenda

She hopes Ashari isn't going to chew her out in front of Remi and Gerae, but... on one hand, it would only be fair, and on the other hand, who the fuck knows why Ashari does anything.

Re: shall we have this meeting?

[yhlee]

Ashari's response is a succinct

Done, as item (d).

fiddly timeline question

[zuhrovet]

[yhlee, could you tell me about how many hours it took to get from the station to the rift? I'd like to update the timeline, but I'm vague on that point.]

Re: fiddly timeline question

[yhlee]

[Let's say it took about ten hours, how's that sound? And then time passage is...flexible within the rift. I don't want any PCs keeling over before they have a chance to catch up on sleep!]

Checking in on Istradez

[venndaai]

[So this takes place... before the meeting thread but after the Mikodez thread. Sorry for making the threads non-chronological!]

Sulen goes to see Istradez in the med bay. They consider trying to acquire rose tea, but decide against it- better not to get involved in fox games they're not confident of winning.

Re: Checking in on Istradez

[yhlee]

[No worries--some of this is inevitable in a forum game. Thanks for clarifying the chronology; I appreciate it!]

Istradez is up and alert. "Hello," he says, blinking slowly at Sulen. He has a meal tray, mainly rice porridge and fruit jellies, easily digestible stuff; Yehan has left a notation in the grid that she checked in on him and provided the food. Istradez grins sardonically. "You want any of this? It's edible but bland."

More Moth Facts, Continued

[slybrarian]

[Continuing from here.]

"It looks like it's from 702, as expected," Alaric replies to Sasha. "Someone asked about the harness - I think it should be possible to disable the parts that enslave the moth. I could implement a software hack immediately, and then get into the machinery to disable the actual hardware."

Re: More Moth Facts, Continued

[yhlee]

Ashari says, "I would like for you to impress upon the moth our willingness to work with it--with the goal of getting it to be willing to work with us." They glance at Sasha, then say, "At minimum, we need it to get us to alternate transportation instead of stranding us in the middle of gate-space. But it would be ideal if we could get it to agree to some kind of partnership."

Re: More Moth Facts, Continued

[lleullawgyffes]

“Yes,” Virmad says urgently. “Do that.” He looks actively distressed — expressing more emotion than anyone on the crew has seen him do yet, including when he was vexed at Sasha for eavesdropping.

Gerae + the rebellion

[lleullawgyffes]

After the moth stuff has been dealt with, Virmad nods at Gerae and Remi and, a little tentatively, asks, “What about our new friends? Or, more to the point, what about the rebellion? Do we just...go back now? If we have doubts — and I think we do — it seems to me we should resolve them now.”

He’s not sure the word “friend” applies to Remi yet, but there’s no polite way to differentiate between him and Gerae.

Re: Gerae + the rebellion

[venndaai]

"We don't know why our superiors put together such an ill-suited team, we don't know why they assigned us someone they probably knew was a spy, and we don't know what their intentions are towards the moth creatures... is that the full list?" Sulen is writing down notes.