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

Re: facts about moths

[yhlee]

Ashari's mind is on another matter entirely: "How well do the moths understand human notions of hierarchy, in your estimation?" they ask Alaric and Sasha.

[Ashari isn't a contact specialist, but they'd be familiar with the general concerns of "OMG is my enthrallment going to work on these aliens/foreigners/etc.?"]

Re: facts about moths

[zuhrovet]

Sasha sets her mug down and tries to keep her hands relaxed. "We're not entirely sure, but one of the first things the moth asked Alaric is whether we belonged to a faction, so they do know something about the heptarchate."

Re: facts about moths

[yhlee]

Ashari's mouth twitches. "Given that they're apparently sentient, and omnipresent at that, I suppose that's not surprising."

Remi, for his part, looks perturbed. "How young are moths when they're fitted with harnesses?" His voice is tense.

[slybrarian, moths are generally fitted with harnesses once they reach maturity/full growth, unless they're going to be used for breeding--harnessed moths are pretty apathetic about the whole breeding thing. It's up to you how much Alaric knows about this.]

Re: facts about moths

[venndaai]

Sulen, who's been quiet and contemplative for the last few minutes, breaks their silence to ask, "Do we know what time this ship comes from? I had been assuming year 702 of the high calendar, but... is there any way to know for certain? Would the moth understand, if you asked it?"

Re: facts about moths

[lleullawgyffes]

Virmad is still reeling from this revelation. “I knew they were alive, but I always thought it was, you know,” he gestures vaguely, “biotechnology. Not literally sentient life forms that we were...are...” He hesitates, but there’s only one appropriate word: “Enslaving. Does — the moth — have a name of its own? Does it want to be carrying us?”

Re: facts about moths

[zuhrovet]

"I already asked Alaric whether he knows the moth's name. I don't. And what they want to do is to look after the mothlings. They were very firm about that."

Virmad's surely not the only one who wants to ask a question that Sasha has already asked. She activates a screen at the side of the room and displays the list of questions from the recent conversation, to avoid going round in circles.

Re: facts about moths

[slybrarian]

"I'm pretty sure they have some sort of name equivalent, but I don't think we know it yet, no. Or if we do I missed it in among all the other information it was trying to convey, but I think that's highly unlikely," Alaric says. To Sulen, he adds, "And I can ask the moth to verify its origin date, too. Now that you mention it, I can see why we can't trust the ship's own logs. It was definitely designed for the heptarchate-era calendar, though."

Re: facts about moths

[zuhrovet]

"Can you ask them now? About the name, and the time?" Sasha says. "Just for clarity."

Re: facts about moths

[yhlee]

[So Alaric and anyone else conversing with a moth will discover that their language is music-based and their names are too. For simplicity's sake, we're just going to random-assedly name them after music terms. So the Wasp will respond that its name is Cantata, that the babies don't yet have names of their own, and that it does come from what it understands to be the year 702. Also for simplicity's sake, I can't remember specifying the number of baby moths...let's say six unless anyone digs up evidence to the contrary, and players are welcome to suggest musical names for them.]

Re: facts about moths

[zuhrovet]

[I could have sworn that there were twelve mothlings plus the one from the EGG, but apparently this was a mental analogy between mothlings in canisters and the Hobbit's dwarves in barrels, and has no basis in the text.]

Re: facts about moths

[yhlee]

[Yeah, I did a cursory search because I could've sworn there was more than six but couldn't find any comment/post in which the number was nailed down! Also, that's a lot of mothlings. XD ]

Re: facts about moths

[zuhrovet]

[I turned up the comment where the number of mothlings was first mentioned (13, perhaps in addition to the former EGG) this afternoon, when I was trying to remember what the deal was with mothlings and radiation. It's here, in Move 11. Should we assume there are six going forward?]

Re: facts about moths

[yhlee]

[Yeah, let's go with six, sorry about the continuity glitch.]

Re: facts about moths

[slybrarian]

Alaric takes a minute to relay the question, and then to figure out what the reply actually meant in human terms. "The name's not really pronounceable, unless you're a small orchestra. I think the closest equivalent might be... a particular music style. Let's go with 'Cantata'. The babies don't have ones yet, which I hope is just moth tradition and not just another way we've already traumatized them psychologically. Well, not 'we' of course."

Re: facts about moths

[yhlee]

[The moth will, if asked, confirmed that most moths pick their own names when they feel ready, and will go by nicknames bestowed by the community until then. This should be a good opening for any players to suggest nicknames-of-convenience for the six babies, like Crowned-With-Eyes. This also means their names may change after a big life event or whatever. Or if a moth is feeling particularly Chaotic Neutral.]

Re: facts about moths

[zuhrovet]

Sasha can tell that the moth is doing something clever that compresses the music of its name. She would like to look at the details, but the meeting's still in progress.

"What about the year?" she asks Alaric. "And you haven't said what will happen with the harness when we exit the rift, yet."

[slybrarian, how would you feel about starting a new thread, so the comments get less compressed?]