on the nature of oaths

[zuhrovet]

[In the current move, Sasha has just accepted an oath of service from Jedao, a relationship Reshad believes is coercive. I'm not sure whether this properly counts as character rp or a new half-move, but I think we all need some new space to deal with the fallout!]

Sasha is waiting outside the antechamber. She has tied her scarf again, and looks as put-together as she ever does. "Are we having this conversation in my office?" she asks Reshad. "Or over tea, with everyone?"

Comments

belated xo reaction

[venndaai]

[You guys have been going pretty fast lately, so I just wanted to let everyone know this is a busy time for me and I'll only be posting every other day.]

After Sasha steps out of the airlock, Sulen says into her ear, "Well, that's not how I intended this to go, but it seems to have been productive."

Re: belated xo reaction

[zuhrovet]

"I hope so," Sasha tells them. "I think I had to, but I don't think Reshad saw it."

The momentum of the ceremony is wearing off, and she's uncomfortably aware of how much sleep she hasn't had in the last twenty-five hours. She fishes in her jacket pocket for her scarf.

Hallway Conversation

[hoardingpearls]

"Let's debrief with everyone." Surely, surely she is not the only one with questions, or responses, or... Something.

"But first -" Reshad steps close. She looks up into Sasha's face, expression unflinching, and her voice drops to a biting, private tone. "Do not assume you know anything about Temuy culture."

She steps past Sasha and calls back: "I'll be there in five."

Re: Hallway Conversation

[zuhrovet]

Sasha braces automatically as the taller woman steps toward her--Reshad could slam her head into the wall, it's the obvious attack--and then relaxes, very slightly, as she speaks. It's easier, somehow, when they're not pretending to be friends. "Understood."

Sasha should know something about Temuy--'do not bargain without data' is a lesson that was fucking ground into her--but the fault is not entirely hers. "In return, do not pretend you comprehend a binding, when you do not. What you just said to him was cruel, even if you cannot feel it."

[Is Temuy an ethnicity, or a place, or both?]

Re: Hallway Conversation

[hoardingpearls]

That flinch - telling. Sasha fears her, fears her physically, despite this being the first true hostility Reshad has shown.

She has a brief, spinning moment of wondering if this is what it takes. If aggression in response to aggression is the answer. Distasteful, but - this is not home. This is no assignment, where she can afford to assume and shuck identities like an out-of-fashion robe. Learn faster.

Reshad steps back, trusting her point to be made. "Would you care to explain, then." It's flat, less invitation than statement; the flare of anger is not yet gone, although a bladed protectiveness has risen in its place. "How offering hope that things are different in the rebellion than the Heptaechate is cruel; how undercutting it is not."

[Temuy is a culture, one of many on Aiwui before its fall, about which more soon. Reshad is Temuy.]

target practice is the same thing as processing your feelings, right?

[kese_seyli]

Seyli ignores everyone and everything to make their way to the range and arm themselves for the first time during this whole fiasco. They set up to their preferred specifications, make sure the range is secure, and begin unloading their feelings into a target. It's almost like meditation, the whole of their focus on hitting the target, letting the world and their mind narrow down to nothing more than aim and ammunition.

Re: target practice is the same thing as processing your feelings, right?

[mafyyil]

Mafyyil, still unsure what she's supposed to think of kidnapping a saint's - friend? - had just decided to deal with her general confusion in the most appropriate way: shoot some things. Arriving at the range, however, she sees that it's already occupied, and that Seyli seems to need to blow off some steam. She wonders if it's a good idea to offer Seyli some tea and muffins or not. Purely out of habit, she offers a somewhat strainedly-cheerful "Hellooooo!"

Re: target practice is the same thing as processing your feelings, right?

[kese_seyli]

Seyli's finger slides off the trigger immediately when they hear another voice and realize it's the strange Hafn girl. They flip the safety on their gun and holster it, trying not to be annoyed at the interruption. At some point, they'd tugged their gloves off and tossed their uniform jacket off, feeling ridiculous in it again. "Hello, Mafyyil," they say, voice just strained without any sign of cheerfulness in it.

tea and dragons improve all sorts of moods - paging everyone, especially Ione, Reshad, and Alaric

[zuhrovet]

[I think the debriefing conversation will be more interesting if we make it really cross-cultural, so do please join in!]

Having attained the common room, Sasha liberates a clean teapot. She asks Reshad, "Do you like black tea, or green? Or I suppose there's coffee?"

One of the blue hatchlings crawls out of the nest, presumably curious about the noise; another hatchling is poking its nose out. Sasha's first instinct is to shush them, but she knows it's doomed. Hatchlings need socialization, and she is the available adult. Instead she whistles softly and looks for an appropriately squashy banana.

Re: tea and dragons improve all sorts of moods - paging everyone, especially Ione, Reshad, and Alari

[hoardingpearls]

Reshad is moving about tidying the sitting area when Sasha, to her surprise, asks about tea preference. "Green would be nice, thank you." She offers a small smile, a measure of peace.

But as she looks up, a cheeping sound, a whistle - Sasha has a banana in hand, unexpected - and a tiny blue nose, not belonging to Fluffy, makes an appearance in Fluffy's nest.

Moving softly, she comes up beside Sasha. "What's this?"

The color and movement resolves itself as she approaches, into what have to be hatchlings. Reshad's mouth makes an 'o' and her eyes go wide. "Oh! You're as cute as a mothling," she informs the baby. Her hands go behind her back, an instant response to the desire to touch.

Re: tea and dragons improve all sorts of moods - paging everyone, especially Ione, Reshad, and Alari

[zuhrovet]

"I know I'm terrible at this shit, but I wasn't actually raised by wolverines." Sasha isn't quite smiling, but her eyes crinkle at the corners.

Though she doesn't usually drink green tea, there's a setting for it on the hot-water dispenser, and the grid will time the steeping. She mashes the banana into a bowl with the back of a spoon. "Chahle, baby frog, who's your friend?--You can go ahead and pick one up. It's good for them, to get used to humans."

[I'm not actually sure whether the Cantata's cutlery collection favors chopsticks or forks! Though Sasha's from a knives-spoons-fingers culture anyhow.]

Crockery and Cautions

[hoardingpearls]

Reshad pays careful attention to Ione's explanation. Her eyes widen at the mention of a ...device... keeping this ability in check - or, as Ione herself explains, a disability. "There are unique vulnerabilities, then." Her tone takes what could be a cold, clinical statement and makes it concerned. "So long as Sasha or I can move you away from danger or call for help in time, we should be all right." She eyes Ione in a more assessing manner, this time trying to figure out how likely it is she could drag her if the need be.

Very well; this exotic is double-edged, as so many are. How in seven stars are things like this functioning under the current calendar? Alas, she is no Nirai, nor even a hobby mathematician. She has her share of dangerous tastes, but that is not among them.

Distraction reappears as the hatchling meeps, apparently voracious; she moves slowly, carefully, swaying in unconscious rhythm, to get more of the food paste.

"And as much information about Jedao himself - including what he understands his oath to be. And whether it's a means for harm to come to him." At this, she turns to Sasha.

"Do you think it likely he's had a chance to study Naxorian customs?" Again, her tone is careful: this time curious, without a hint of judgement.

Re: Crockery and Cautions

[zuhrovet]

"We could check what sections of the grid he has accessed in the last few minutes," Sasha says, with friendly sarcasm. "I told you, I studied the faction oaths, in my own time. They are comprehensive in a way that--there's not a precise Naxorian analogue. Certain adoptions or very formal types of marriage, maybe, but the closest match I know is the military braid. I'm not trained as a soldier, and in case you hadn't noticed, I am not a heptarch. So we're making this up as we go along, on both sides."

Re: Crockery and Cautions

[bariolage]

"We have something close, I think, based on how it felt," Ione can't help but make that 'vague uncertainty' handwave gesture again. "I mean, my grandmother's home planet does. Fealty oaths like that. Calling them intense is to put it mildly, but I got the same vibe."

The silver hatchling is trying to get at Ione's tea, and is carefully removed before actually making contact between tea and tongue.

literal manipulators - paging Alaric and the Cantata

[zuhrovet]

Sasha goes to the engine room. The grid has informed her that Alaric is nearby, but she doesn't immediately see him--he's probably in the middle of something arcane. She shrugs and says, instead, "Cantata? You mentioned earlier that you can talk to nearby moths. How much can you perceive about what is happening on those ships? Can you sense individual humans, or tell how the furniture is laid out?"

Re: literal manipulators - paging Alaric and the Cantata

[yhlee]

"Of course I can," Cantata says, with an air of Sasha asking something that it's always taken for granted, "but it would be the height of rudeness to tell you without the other moths' permission."

Re: literal manipulators - paging Alaric and the Cantata

[zuhrovet]

Prophet's steel-toed boots, that's a military advantage. There are no moths in station cores, or for that matter planetary cores, at least as far as Sasha knows.

She has a different application in mind, though. "What if you could change something yourself? Would it be rude for you to open a door on another ship, or move a piece of furniture?"

[for whoever is monitoring Jedao]

[yhlee]

Jedao has completed an extremely thorough review of the orientation materials (including as much timeline stuff as he has the accesses for). Currently he has requested a needle, thimble, a set of buttons, scissors, and two spools of thread in a color matching the clothes that Seyli gave him. While he waits for those to show up (or the request to be denied), he's doing some kind of calisthenics routine.

[Please feel free to fill in the details of the calisthenics routine for the GM, who is extremely out of shape and ignorant about Exercise 101. I assume Jedao would know how to stay fit for assassin-y things; I only know warm-ups for fencing, which is not quite the same.]

Re: [for whoever is monitoring Jedao]

[lleullawgyffes]

[coincidentally I also only know warm-ups for fencing, so I'm not even going to try.]

Virmad arrives at the door, sewing kit in hand. “Grid, could you show me what Jedao’s doing inside?”

The grid obliges and Virmad spends a solid minute getting distracted watching Jedao do calisthenics. He finally manages to collect himself and — after a moment’s internal debate as to whether he should ring the door chime or just interrupt — decides with a sigh to use the door chime. You know what he’s like, anyway, he says to himself. It wouldn’t work. Still, though.

“Jedao,” he says, through the Grid, “it’s me, Rahal — Eshegen Virmad. I brought the sewing kit you asked for. May I come in?”

At a table, after hours

[hoardingpearls]

After the various discussions, after she's taken enough time in her quarters to shake off the tension, Reshad finds herself wanting to be sociable.

She's long since shed her jumpsuit, instead favoring a long shirt in muted green and simple cream trousers. Here and there, gold thread peeps. Both earrings are back in place.

Despite reading on her tablet, she's laid a deck of jeng-zai cards out in a decorative fan. It's a very Shuos sort of invitation.

Re: At a table, after hours

[bariolage]

Ione still does not actually entirely understand jeng-zai, but Sulen taught her the basics and let's face it, she is fascinated by the cards themselves. The artwork; the possible meanings. Since things seem to be calm, it's Ione bait.

She doesn't say anything, that cultural norm of hers still clashing against the others -- just a surprise, hey, she's here in your space! -- but is leaning over the cards and looking at them curiously. And wearing a silver pseudo-dragon draped over her shoulder again.

a day or two later - paging Reshad

[zuhrovet]

Sasha still isn't sure what Reshad wanted to know about Ashari, earlier. In a logically designed world, she could just fucking ask. But it's a sign of weakness, and if Reshad is hunting for vulnerabilities, there's no reason to hand her this one.

If. The bigger problem is, Sasha has no idea what Reshad wants. She might be committed to a role as staff, and her uneasiness with promises might be ordinary cultural reticence. She might be cataloguing all of Sasha's faults, in preparation for some grand attack that will make all Sasha's promises irrelevant. Or she might be perfectly happy with oaths, as long as they are made to her--in which case she will probably triangulate with Ashari to back Sasha into a corner.

There's a fourth possibility (four for balance), which is that Reshad only wants room to work on her own projects. Letting Reshad pursue her own missions might have worked, even a few days ago. But now there is Jedao. The one thing Sasha knows for sure about Reshad is that she is interested in Jedao. And, Prophet guide her, Sasha cannot give Jedao up. If that's Reshad's priority, then their goals are all tangled up together.

So. Spin the web, find the scissors. Sasha needs a way to work with Reshad, unless and until Reshad disclaims allegiance. She needs, in particular, a way to signal that she appreciates Reshad's skills. And while she's gaming out what everyone might do, and specifically what ways Ashari might respond, given past behavior--there's a specific, stupid problem Sasha will soon have, whose solution is precisely in Reshad's domain.

If Reshad doesn't lie to her. But there are ways to check that. One strand at a time.

Feeling, already, completely like an idiot, Sasha heads down the corridor and knocks on Reshad's door.

Re: a day or two later - paging Reshad

[hoardingpearls]

The grid informs Reshad she has a visitor in a timely enough manner that she lays down her hairpins before going to answer the door. Of course, she queries who stands outside; the grid informs her of Sasha's presence. That gets a quick, silent moment of consideration, and then she goes to the door. Her smile is curious, not showing the guarded way she feels in truth. But if she intended trouble, likely she'd have brought more than herself.

"Good afternoon, Sasha. Come in, if you like." A careless wave of the hand indicates the room beyond the threshold. She treats this as entirely ordinary; indeed, it has to be less awkward than conversing in the hall.

Cantata's quarters are not extraordinarily large, and this particular room has been subdivided further. Since Sulen's visit, Reshad has added a hinged screen holding plain paper. The screen marks off an area that must be tight, even for a ship's narrow bunk - a narrow strip of private space, made distinct from the semi-public area around her table. The walls hold one decoration only: a mask, deep green fabric stretched over something carved. Its feathery cut would frame the wearer's eyes while exposing the lips and chin, were it not on a wall hanger.

A bench has been made by fixing fabbed cushions onto a storage chest, and that is where she must have been been, pinning ornaments to a mannequin's head to test their fall. The table's lone chair sits at an inviting angle, and the tablet, left open, shows fashions reminiscent of those seen at the trade show.

in the gym - paging Seyli

[zuhrovet]

After she finishes debriefing with the others, and has a real cup of tea, Sasha changes her shirt and heads to the gym. She is dressed as if she's about to bang out a couple of sets with the free weights, and maybe she'll even get a chance to do so, but she has to talk to Seyli before she actually relaxes. She slips into the room quietly and waits for Seyli to finish what they're doing and acknowledge her.

Re: in the gym - paging Seyli

[kese_seyli]

Seyli's finishing up a series of squats and slowly rises to their feet when Sasha walks into the room. "Sasha," they say with a little nod as she comes into the space. "You've caught me mid work out, will you be joining me? There is room for both of us, after all." They're less tense here than Sasha might have seen them since the interlude with Jedao and the oathgiving.