hexarchate_rpg | on the nature of oaths

zuhrovet posting in

[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?"

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From:

zuhrovet

Bright stars, Seyli literally did not read the memo. "I am in command; Sulen is my second; I report to Ashari. But my background is information security. You should take the emphasis on security, there: my job is to identify and assess threats, of different types and across different timescales."

She leans forward, gripping the edge of the bench. "You're stuck on the short-term threat right now. That makes sense; it's your role. But I need you to understand that Jedao is not the greatest danger to us."

From:

kese_seyli

It's not that they didn't read the memo, it's that it'd been confusing once they settled into the team to see how the flow of power really worked. Even more so with Reshad taking a position that seemed closer to second that Sulen. It's that it's nothing nearly as strict as what Seyli is used to, and they don't like it. When they agreed to be a part of the rebellion, they expected something that wasn't quite as fast and loose.

As Sasha talks security, they stretch. Not ignoring her, but needing to do something with their body. "Just because he's not the biggest threat doesn't mean he isn't still a serious one."

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha can recognize a question with Reshad's name on it hanging in the air--it's not as if she hasn't generated her own share--but this is a sequencing problem, and Jedao has an irritating habit of appearing at the start of any sequence. She watches Seyli stretch for a moment and then asks, with as much mildness and openness as she can generate, "What specific attacks do you fear?"

From:

hoardingpearls

"Black on black is fine. Might even be a statement in itself." Hm, does she change her own ornaments? It's worth considering.

She smiles at the question. "Depends. Do you want to signal being in his command as much as he's in yours? If you don't, it might be good to avoid gold details entirely." Kel colors. "Or military silhouettes. In your shoes, if I wanted to make a claim of his loyalty, I would have him wearing your symbol - then make it very obvious it's yours."

[Does Sasha's wardrobe have much in the way of military cuts or different texture?]

From:

zuhrovet

"Next time I take an oath from an infamous murderer, I'll hire a graphic designer first." Sasha smiles, rather sideways. "I don't have a symbol of my own--I cut and pasted that feather from the rebellion logo. I can't exactly claim Fountain House, here."

[Sasha's complete current wardrobe consists of a floppy and generally execrable hat, a couple of scarves, some underwear, four gray shirts (one hacked short, one with part of a circuit board printed on the back), two pairs of baggy pants with lots of pockets, a black jacket with a stand collar (hers probably doesn't have the zippers), two workout tanks made from some high-tech sweat-wicking fabric (these are surprisingly flattering & show off her shoulder muscles), a pair of leggings of the same material, some shoes equivalent to sneakers, the hairpins seen earlier, and some ribbon. She left the hiking gear and all of her Naxorian clothes behind in the 200s.]

From:

kese_seyli

"From him or in general?" They lean back on their arms and look up at Sasha. "In general that this whole operation seems to be dubiously put together, that we're an unbalanced team and we might not be able to function well in a combat situation. I'm not expecting or fearing any specific attack. As for Jeado, he's unstable, he murdered his own crew in one timeline, and who the fuck knows what else he did in others?"

From:

zuhrovet

"Good, you noticed it's a clusterfuck." Seyli's awfully confident of their own behavior, in all those other timelines. Sasha hasn't killed anyone, in this one. But there must be lives where she stayed on Naxarat.

"The thing is, we are not coincidentally fucked. There is someone in Personnel who is carving out a private fiefdom. We came here to find out what she wants. We learned two things: that Jedao is a danger to her plans specifically, and that a Nirai is maneuvering him into killing his people. Do you want to bet that these facts are unrelated?"

From:

kese_seyli

"I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but it's not hard to see this is a clusterfuck." They don't think of their alternate selves, so many of them never made it this far, anyway. They do, however, sit up straight at the information that there is someone playing against them. "The person who sent us here to collect Jedao? They intended us to fail?" Seyli asks, unable to remember the name, but they recall the conversations.

From:

zuhrovet

"Flute didn't give a fuck if we survived, but I don't think she intended us to fail. The person I am worried about goes by the name of Quill. She chose the group of us who retrieved Remi, and she is, secretly, the source of Flute's orders. If it was just the failures in Personnel--some people survive, in any organization, by making sure they look better than everyone around them. But on our first mission Quill gave us a baby fox whose augment was still running Shuos code. He supposedly grows up to be a heptarch--by then, I guess, a hexarch. And this mission has been stranger."

[The information about Quill's interactions with Flute, and the subsequent meeting, is recapped here--I just dug it out.]

From:

hoardingpearls

"You've got to make sure your priorities are correct," Reshad says, amused. One hand makes a flippant sort of gesture to the side: what else could they possibly be? There's an Andan joke there if one so much as scratches the surface.

"That's fine. It makes a claim of both your loyalty to the rebellion." The rebellion logo and its inexplicable feathers.

"All right. How about this: wear your jacket, one of your tanks or a new shirt we can have fabbed in your dimensions. Have a pin to match his, and... maybe a black hat, to match?" She eyes the disreputable object on Sasha's head as if expecting that specific instance to be required, for Naxorian reasons.

From:

zuhrovet

But those are workout tanks. Even Sasha knows that's wrong. She studies Reshad for a moment, looking for signs of mockery. It would be a classic technique, to tell Sasha the clothes she already has are fine when they are not, and then blame her for ignorance. But Reshad is too professional to betray amusement out of turn, and perhaps above a game that simple.

"We can print a new shirt. And a new hat, for that matter. Just as long as my hair is covered."

From:

kese_seyli

.Seyli frowns as Sasha talks, taking it all in without really trying to figure out what it means. It's enough to know it isn't good, it's for people like Sasha to figure out what it means. "So in the grand scheme of things, you think Jedao's far less of a risk than anything else that's going on with the rebellion, or at least the part of it that's using us." That doesn't mean Jeado's still not a terrible idea in an already bad situation.

From:

zuhrovet

"It's worse than that. The man Jedao fears, the one who gave him threshold winnowers? I think he is working with Quill."

If Sasha were in Seyli's place, she would punch something now. Or someone. She watches them, bodyweight forward, ready to stand.

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli doesn't quite to rigid as that news slots into place in their mind, but it's close. Someone that Jedao is afraid of. In all of this it'd never registered to them that there was someone Jedao was afraid of, and they'd been there during that interrogation. Instead of swinging into terrified action, their face goes utterly blank.

From:

zuhrovet

It's out of sequence for her workout, but Sasha does another handful of pullups anyway, because the alternatives are staring at Seyli until their face starts moving and punching something herself. When she's done, she drops down next to Seyli and says, "So. The weirdest fucking thing of all? Right now, we're winning."

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli raises a skeptical eyebrow. "Because we took Jedao out from under their noses when they expected us to fuck up?" They ask. "Which makes him less than a terrible idea, because now he's our terrible idea instead of someone else's?"

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha's grinning with the joy of battle. "Because we know who they are."

She looks Seyli square in the eyes and continues, more soberly, "This Nirai--he wanted something like Hellspin to happen. He set it up. Think what someone like that could do, with the rebellion running errands for him. And then tell me how we would know he existed, if we didn't have Jedao."

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli flinches some at Sasha's last comment, but they're almost certain she's not being cruel with her words. It's a question without any hidden meaning. "Ah," they say, voice soft. "I see."

From:

zuhrovet

Bright wire, what was that?

At least they're listening.

Sasha holds her hands out, palm up. "Everything we do is dangerous. But the work we have--it matters. So we're going to figure it out."

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli's quiet for a while before they nod, once. "I am...sorry, I know I've been difficult." And it's not likely they'll get any more comfortable around Jedao, either. They rub their hands down their thighs and then push off the floor to their feet. "I'm not much more than a gun, and not a very smart one at that, but point me at what you need shot and I'll do my job."

From:

zuhrovet

The heptarchate can be uncomfortably sloppy about apologies, but Seyli's is fair and freely given, so Sasha says, simply, "Thank you. I will." Then, with a half-smile for the wrench to a new topic: "Could you spot me on the bench, before you go?"

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli nods and steps behind the bench, giving Sasha a half smile in return. "Anytime." Anyway, they're curious to watch Sasha workout, how she moves, how strong she is.

From:

zuhrovet

[Sasha is a giant weightlifting nerd! It's her biggest hobby, and she has spreadsheets and plans; she's meticulous about form. She's benching significantly more than her own body weight (though she's tiny, so the absolute number won't be huge). Her personal trainer, if she had one, would notice that she's neglecting cardio. Seyli probably also notices that she's a bit underweight: she's not eating quite enough to support her workout habit.]

From:

kese_seyli

[for the sake of brevity, unless you think this would be important to play out, Seyli might make the suggestion that she work on putting on some more weight if she does this on a regular basis. Makes a suggestion for a post-workout meal. They're impressed and would also offer Sasha to join them in the future.]

From:

hoardingpearls

There's no mockery apparent. It wouldn't be the best thing to wear to a party, but she's seen worse.

"Oh, good." There's some real relief there. "Then, it's pretty simple from there, no? Now - are you trying to bring in concealed weaponry?" The way she's phrased it, that's barely even a question. The more interesting query is /what./