hexarchate_rpg | toasting and debriefing

"You remember I don't drink on duty." Seyli takes the offered of sparkling water and gives Sasha a tentative smile in return. It does nothing to wipe away the tension in their face and eyes, but it's something. They don't wait for anyone else to speak before they blurt out their concerns.

"I don't like any of this, you all know that. I don't trust him farther than I can throw him. I know I'm not the smartest person on this ship, but I am...was...Kel, and think I've earned my fear of him." Enough of a fear that he doesn't even get a name.

Sasha nods to Seyli. Their concern makes perfect sense, but they haven't thought through the implications of inaction.

"Here is what we are going to do," she tells the assembled group. "We are going to toast to a successful enterprise, because we have achieved our objective smoothly, and learned even more than we had hoped, due to your coordinated action. Next we are going to discuss the strategic recommendations we will make to Ashari, regarding our guest. In particular, will we tell him about the moths, or will we wait until we can consult with them?" Sasha doesn't look at Sulen. She assumes they will report on the level of authority she claims; but Sasha can claim as much responsibility as she likes, if she is willing to pay for it, and she has no doubt that Ashari will extract payment. "Finally, we will address Seyli's specific question, about the security restrictions to place on Jedao, once our strategic plan is clear."

Reshad takes the arak with both hands, mirroring Sasha's gesture exactly, and holds it, waiting for her cue. The alcohol scent rising from it is warning enough if its potency.

Seyli's obvious fear gets her attention, and she nods as they speak. "I want to discuss this," she murmurs, but the agenda seems already set.

[Remind me, they know they're under way now?]

[Yes, Sasha notified everyone of departure, though there's no obvious sense of motion.

This arak is about soju strength.]

Sulen receives the shot glass with a reciprocal level of formality, and watches Sasha carefully for cues, hoping to make up for the last misunderstanding with Sasha by successfully participating in whatever ritual she has planned.

Once everyone Sasha expects is present, she waits for a lull in cross-conversations and declares, "So. To a successful enterprise!" She knocks her own shot back (the taste is light, simple, with just an edge of herbs), and lets the glass clink once, twice on the table before her.

Gerae raises his glass [or whatever you pour a shot into, I am not an alcohol person] and takes a cautious sip. He's fidgeting, a bit, as he looks toward Sulen.

[As it happens, Sasha printed a bunch of glasses for toasting on the original matter printer. If you look closely, the glass has judgmental comments on the nature of color.]

[

zuhrovet, remind me which NPCs if any are present for this? Gerae may eventually have an observation, if he's there; otherwise not.]

[Everyone is invited!]

[Got it, thanks! Gerae is present, then. Remi is mothlingsitting but will answer questions via lokwor if addressed. Fluffy is too busy attending her nest to show up. ;) ]

"Those of you who spoke directly to Jedao," Sasha asks, "what is your assessment?" He sounded more forthcoming than she expected, but she is certain there are implications she has missed.

Normally Ione waits to let someone else talk first, so it's notable enough that Ione is the first to speak up. The fact that she's also been a bit paler than normal is also telling.

"I did very little speaking," she admits, "but a lot of feeling, and most of it was very unpleasant but I don't think --" She stops talking and takes a deep breath, trying again with authority instead of not being committed to what she's saying and using hedging words everywhere. "He wasn't throwing strong, viscerally negative feelings to hurt me or put me off my game. He didn't know what I was sensing, though he may have picked up on something at this point. But, I mean, I can tell when people are faking disruptive emotions in order to put me on the wrong path or get me out of a room and this wasn't that."

Ione knows the majority are inclined to just not trust Shuos Jedao, so the preamble seemed necessary because of what she's going to say next.

"I wasn't probing because I need skin-to-skin contact for that, so what I've got is choppy, but he mentioned being blackmailed, and that person sounds like a much bigger concern than Jedao himself. I mean, verbally we picked up on that but also emotionally, I thought I was going to be sick for a second, without skin contact. He seemed more as if he wanted us to be, hopes that we are the answer to an impossible problem, and maybe we are. Which means he'll be much more inclined to work with us than against us, especially if ... I caught almost a fear of something that might happen, not something that had happened. So my educated guess is if we can help him out of a path he might otherwise be stuck taking, he'll help us as well."

Oh, fuck the Prophet's luggage, are Ione's non-touch powers documented anywhere? (And is it fair of Sasha to complain, when she hasn't tested what she can affect herself, not in any systematic way?)

"Ione, can you give us some background on the emotions you can detect without touching someone?" Sasha asks. "Is there some baseline required intensity? How do you deal with conflicting impulses, or layers? How much contextual information do you need for interpretation?"

Oops, was that news? Ione would feel really bad if she knew that was news. Someone knew, but maybe it was just possibly-shady Quill.

"Anything I'd notice without touching someone has to be overpowering for that person," she explains with the tone of someone who's used these exact words many times before. "Of course my usual comparison is angry telekinetics, which doesn't help here -- if it's bothering me without being deliberately looked for it needs to be pretty much the only thing that person's feeling. Blinding rage, primal fear, that kind of thing? I have very strong shields that even I can't deactivate, so it takes intense and focused emotion to get through them. Emotions alone are junk data; it's only because we were in the same room," she's pretty sure she'd still have been feeling all that down the hall, "and I was hearing the conversation that I had any clue what the reaction was to. But -- if something's got layers to it it probably isn't strong enough. Conflicting impulses just overlay each other so it's not hard to separate them out; a conflicting impulse by itself is a relatively strong feeling? Usually not strong enough though. It's because of the nature of the situation that I think Jedao projected so much. More than I was prepared for or expecting. I'd have worried it was intentionally amplified for me to sway me to his side if I had any reason to believe he knew anything at all about me."

Sasha curls her fingers on "angry telekinetics," instructing the grid to mark that phrase for later. "So Jedao is terrified of this contact whose name he didn't give us," she summarizes. "Sulen, Virmad, Gerae--does that match your reading?"