hexarchate_rpg | new player welcome post

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new player welcome post

[Hello, new players! This post is for new and old players to get acquainted with each other in-character (IC) and out-of-character (OOC). I will be updating the character roster shortly for easy reference. Characters from the first arc who are still wrapping things up in Move 24, feel free to continue; I'll get to y'all shortly.

In the meantime, feel free to introduce yourself in OOC threads, including any information you want other players to have about you (including pronouns if relevant, or what time zones you're usually on, that kind of thing.]

[IC]
Ashari has just recruited a number of newcomers to the team in the hopes of shoring up its weaknesses and is, in classic Andan fashion, throwing a party on the Cantata (the moth ship formerly known as the Wasp and/or Bumblebee) so that folks can meet-and-greet. There are canapés, and Ashari promised Sulen that there are no recreational substances other than the alcohol if anyone wants it; Ashari is currently in the galley mixing drinks for anyone who asks. The public spaces of the interior have been decorated with somewhat lopsided and overly colorful artificial flowers (the matter printer was feeling cranky) as well as plush moths. There are in addition six friendly levitating baby moths, all wriggly tentacles and eyes, who will gravitate toward anyone who sings to them, and who like to be petted.

For the purposes of this post, "public areas" include the galley, the common room, and the storage hold, which has been temporarily pressed into service as a place where people can hang out. People are also welcome to hold private conversations elsewhere. For the moment, however, the cockpit, engine room, commander's office, and communications room/gunnery are off-limits.

[See this wiki entry on the Cantata-Wasp for more details on its layout.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"They have a function?" Sulen asks in surprise. They lean a little closer to peer at the nearest blossom. There's something odd about these flowers. They seem far more real than anything an Andan would wear, down to streaks of dirt and patches of discoloration. But maybe that's fashionable to foreigners. It's certainly impressive, how organic they look.

A foreigner, Virmad realizes, and relaxes. “And what civilization — if I may be so bold as to ask — would that be?”

Mafyyil doesn't quite understand the question: surely there's only one civilization, although it doesn't surprise her this Barbarian hasn't heard of it. So she only gives Virmad a blank look.

Virmad raises an eyebrow expectantly, then clarifies, “I mean, where are you from?”

Mafyyil smiles proudly. "I'm a citizen of the Hafn empire!"

[Note to Sulen and Virmad: the Hafn did exist back in their time and they may well have heard something about them, although people with flowers/whatever growing out of them is new to Cheris's time, so that bit will be unfamiliar. If y'all think that Sulen and Virmad have heard scurrilous and outrageously inaccurate intel on the Hafn, that too would make sense--your call.

I leave you with this bluebonnet, because.]

[*cackles in Virmad* just you wait]

“A Hafn?” Virmad abruptly takes a step back, torn between horror and morbid fascination. “I’d heard about the bioengineered human bodies, but I didn’t know they’d be so lifelike. Did it — does it —” He pauses, trying to organize his thoughts. “I’m sorry, I suppose I shouldn’t pry into — what matters is that you’re not a Shuos agent. It’s just that it’s not every day you meet a sentient carnivorous plant.”

Sulen, who has heard absolutely nothing about the Hafn, stares at both of them.

Mafyyil is surprised: what's a Shuos, and why would this Barbarian think she was one? Very confusing! And while she certainly is plant now, and occasionally eats meat too, she doesn't understand why that would be an issue: some of the canapés offered at this party also contained meat, so surely not all Hexarchate persons are vegetarian? And this thing about bioengineering is just downright offensive.

"Excuse me", she says. "There's no reason to be so rude - I'm not bioengineered! That's an offensive term!"

"Did someone say sapient carnivorous plant?" Alaric says, meandering over with a plate for of baked deserts. Half of them are the wrong color, because his 'fix' for the the matter printer's color sensors hadn't been as easy to undo as expected. It hasn't stopped him from eating them. "And what's wrong with bioengineering? Very respectable field, bio-engineering, insofar as bio-anything can really be considered respectable."

Appalled, Mafyyil stares at Alaric. That remark was in really poor taste, and she's now almost convinced these people are trying to bully her. How mean! Still, she decides to give the Barbarian the benefit of the doubt even if she cannot bring herself to actually answer that. It was probably just a rhetorical question, anyway. So she suppresses a sniffle and decides to change the topic. "I see you've been at the matter printer", she remarks instead. "Do you happen to know if there's a manual for these color settings?" She's hoping for one of these nice ones that come in twenty languages and with some instructive pictograms on top. The way the matter printer has been behaving, she'll need it!

"Oh, there's a manual, sure, but that part's utterly useless. Some previous owner, or possibly someone at the manufacturer, had ideas about appropriate colors for anything child-related, and equally odd ideas about what might be for children. Attempts to change that have been... dubiously successful."

Of course, this does somehow explain why the thing has so many blueprints for baby pacifiers. (It had been bleeping them out in various shapes and colors whenever Mafyyil, unaccustomed to its interface, had given a command the thing hadn't understood.) It's still not what she'd been expecting from fighters on a mission. These people are not only primitive and rude but also, as far as she can tell, quite unprofessional.

"For children?!?", Mafyyil asks incredulously. "Why do you keep a matter printer for children here? Do you have kids? Did you bring them?"

"What? No, of course not, we're not the Federal Space Fleet. The rebellion probably got the printer second-hand from a residential station or something. There's no children here," Alaric replied. "Even if I wonder about Mishka sometimes. Oh, and there are the mothinglings, but they're part of a package deal and live in space anyway. So technically yes we have a bunch of kids along."

"Of course!", Mafyyil blurts out without thinking. Is this Barbarian trying to imply her enhancements were useless? How offensive!

While trying to decide whether to snap at Sulen or to enlighten them, however, she realizes she cannot name the exact purpose of the flowers either. She's only been told the surgery would make her a more complete being (She is! She's plant-woman now instead of only woman!) and help her fulfill her purpose fighting the hexarchate... She hadn't asked any technical questions.

However, while she knows perfectly well she should be disappointed she's not plant-animal-woman, she's simultaneously quite relieved she doesn't have to carry the weight of a kangaroo all the time. She also has no idea just why the surgeon-priests thought this would help her fulfilling her task - whatever that may be - and why their work was so obviously shoddy. She is ashamed of that thought.

Since it seems she's embarassingly just as ignorant as Sulen, she can't really blame them for asking. "You see, they make me a more complete person."

"They're very pretty," interjects Ione the constant habitual eavesdropper. She's both in the room and on the team, so that means she can talk here, yes? "I'm sure they have more substantial reasons for existing than being pretty, but they do look good. I met someone else who wore living flowering vines on her all the time but they weren't actually part of her, so, you're much more impressive."

An odd comment, but this new person seems to mean well. "I'm very sorry to hear about your friend", Mafyyil answers. "I'm sure one day she'll have the honor of being enhanced, too!"

Although she's beginning to wonder - are the hexarchate people (definitely people; she mentally uses the word as often as possible to remind her of that) even able to do that?

Ione is even more foreign than Mafyyil and it's dubious whether that makes her more or less of a person.

"She's able to make them blink in time with her eyes -- did you say you lost some? Was that painful, because it sounds harrowing." Her voice is sympathetic, as opposed to gossipy, at least. "More like nails falling out than hair; I probably should know details since I might be the only medic here, but -- not now."

"Oh no, it didn't hurt at all, Mafyyil lies. After all, pain would probably imply she wasn't worthy of enhancement, so she decides to re-define what she's been feeling after she woke up. "I had a kangaroo here" - she points at her left foot - "and some ivy there" - she points at her stomach - "and some lilies..." She trails off awkwardly, realizing she probably shouldn't discuss in public just where she had those lilies. "Anyway, I've been unconscious most of the time." That much is true, at least.

"... A kangaroo?"

Mafyyil gets to get away with lying, because even if Ione supected it weren't super painless, she is not paying attention anymore because: she just said kangaroo.

"Like, the marsupial?"

"What's a marsupial?" Mafyyil looks confused. "I'm talking about this animal that jumps around when it's not, um, attached to my foot." She's not a biologist...

Oops. Ione actually is a biologist.

"That's a marsupial," she says, grinning. "A kangaroo is a kind of marsupial like a peony is a kind of flowering plant." The grin falters when Ione remembers again why she asked. "Why was a kangaroo attached to you? I don't ... think that would make you able to jump super high ..."

Mafyyil thinks privately that having a kangaroo on her foot would make her unable to jump at all, high or no. And clearly this stranger isn't educated enough to understand the significance of enhancing a person. She decides to explain it in simple words.

"It was to make me a more complete person so I'm worthy of my duty! Instead of being just a woman, I was supposed to become plant-animal-woman, except..." - at this point she's tempted to insert a rather scathing opinion on crooked stitches, ivy with a fungal infection, and those f*ing aphids but stops herself before anything slips out that might be construed as criticism - "I ended up plant-woman instead. I was clearly not meant to be animal as well." She should be a lot more disappointed about that than she is, she knows she should. The fault has to be hers, after all. "The surgeon-priests made the decision. I'm not entirely sure why they chose the kangaroo for me, but they know best, of course!"

Ione nods, processing that, and then says helpfully, "You already are one, I mean, people are animals. So you just weren't really set to be ... two animals; you've already got the categories covered!"

Also your leaders are probably insane doesn't come out of her mouth. How would a kangaroo attached to a person's foot not go horribly wrong?

new player welcome post

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[note on the Hafn for Sulen and Virmad]

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