hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 3.1: The party begins

yhlee posting in

EDIT: The base is sited in the year 951, in a very odd timeline that has NO h*archate. Supplies have to be brought in via rift from other timelines. Thread here.

Ashari's new base features variable layout, which has been put to use in creating an extravagant ballroom. Tables to one side boast a variety of foods, drinks both alcoholic and non-alcoholic, and the occasional euphoric drugs. Candlevines glow blue and violet, and flower arrangements interspersed with fantastic sculptures of lace-woven wire adorn the tables. The arrangements mean various sarcastic things, if you're familiar with the Andan petal language.

Music plays softly enough not to overwhelm conversation, loudly enough to set a mood complementing the low-key lighting.

Remi is one of the first arrivals from the Cantata, shepherding the mothlings. Because he's a Nirai, he has a slate and is taking notes, although he is happy enough to talk to anyone who approaches him.

The kitchen is currently adjacent to the ballroom. Ashari's voice can be heard, raised in some kind of argument with...a caterer?

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Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

venndaai

Sulen waits by the drinks table for the newcomers to arrive, and resists the urge to pocket some of the euphorics for later.

[Hello everyone! Sulen is, at least for the moment, the Cantata's XO, and will try to introduce themself to all new characters. They're a severe looking person who gives the impression of being taller than they actually are, has long hair pinned up, and their eyes frequently flicker slightly bronze from compulsively scrying people's signifiers. They're a very obvious ex-Rahal despite wearing plain black to this party instead of plain gray.

If you know your character's signifier, Sulen will be checking them out! We have a list of the signifiers that have so far come up here.]

From:

zuhrovet

"We had a short conversation and they gave me some disturbing news. Have they had a chance to brief you?" Sasha keeps her tone quiet and even. Probably too even.

From:

stormglass

Every day is a game of pretend.

Which becomes another game, one of telling herself that it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s one she’s played for a long, long time.
As if that isn’t pretending itself. As if this is the same as Before.

It’s a game she is very good at.

And for this round, she is going to a party. Which is a hell of a thing, all things considered. But. So. Xiulan goes to a party.

The room and the people already within it get a methodical visual scan as she enters that looks exactly like what it is; she doesn’t bother to disguise it. Theoretically, this isn’t a group that necessitates it.

She doesn’t recognize anyone yet within, but there is something eye-catching nevertheless: small floating bundles of tentacles with silvery...spot-somethings. Pausing and gazing up at them for a long moment, she then crosses the floor to the people standing closest [Remi and Ione, and Sulen if they’re nearby] and gestures upwards at the mothlings. “I think the briefing missed a thing or two.”

There’s a touch of tightness around her eyes, but she smiles as she speaks and it seems to ease a hair in favour of curiosity as the mothlings are studied.

“I’m Xiulan. You’re part of the Cantata crew?”

[First post so going to indulge in some gratuitous description time.

Xiulan is mixed ethnic Han Chinese/ethnic Mongolian on her mother’s side and North Germanic ethnicity (think Scandanavia) on her father’s. She takes most after her mother’s side appearance-wise, but there are some notes from her father. I’ve figured this means she largely looks to a hexarchate citizen like one of their major phenotypes, with a touch of something else. Hafn maybe?

She’s in excellent physical condition and fast (combat specialist). Black hair that falls a little past the top of her shoulders, hazel eyes, ivory complexion, sharp featured. Around 5’6”, 5’7”-ish in height. Hair is currently pulled up, some ‘decorative’ hair sticks in use. (They’re not actually what’s holding up her hair, they just look like they are:))

She’s wearing an outfit - jacket and slacks - that isn’t an outright military uniform but evokes it stylistically in a lot of ways. It’s well tailored to her and is predominantly black. At the neck of the jacket, there’s a span of a red shirt visible beneath it. Polished boots.

The only jewelry visible are dangling scrollwork style earrings of oxidized silver and a ring on one finger. She has eyeliner on and lipstick.

Uh, signifier! Will get back to Sulen on that one. She has a variable signifier, but I need to decide what’s predominant. There’s something Ninefox showing right now, since I believe it was said people not from the he*archate still map to the faction ranges.]

From:

venndaai

"I think they've been preoccupied," Sulen says. "Did they seem... how did they seem?"

From:

venndaai

Sulen wanders into the kitchen and enquires whether any of the dishes are vegan.

From:

bariolage

Ione nods; actually she nods her head twice, quickly, in short succession. "Camlin Ione, combat medic," she readjusts her name and title for the best way people in the h*archate and environs seem to understand it. Even if she looks more like a fashion doll than a combat medic at the moment.

She has a sociable smile on, bright eyed. "And you have never seen mothlings before, I'm guessing?" She probably had a similar expression the first time she did.

From:

hoardingpearls

I'll be right there.

Reshad appears quickly, a handful of hair ties fresh from the fabricator twined into one hand. She's not in party clothing, but the black cuffs of the bodysuit she'll wear beneath her robe peep from the sleeves of her blue shirt.

"Hello," she calls, before approaching on silent feet. "That dress is so bright! Would you like one braid to the back, or side, or...?" A gesture invites opinions.

For all the other worries, this party has been an excellent excuse to indulge in her hobby.

From:

zuhrovet

"Distracted." Ashari will take Sasha apart if they realize she has been so presumptuous as to criticize, but the truth is--"Brittle. Sulen, if what they told me is true, we shouldn't be having a party, we should be evacuating. Will you speak to them?"

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli's hair is rather long when it's not pulled back, coming just to the middle of their back, it's spilling over their shoulders at the moment and they give Reshad a slightly nervous smile. "I was thinking along the side," they gesture to an image they have on a display, were the braid is done along one edge of the undercut. "And thank you?" The dress is extremely bright, with color shifting sequins. It fits their body perfectly, displaying long toned legs, broad shoulders, and unlike the fake uniforms they usually wear, the neat tuck of their waist and flare of their hips. "I figure if it's an Andan party?" They shrug a little. They are still obviously not super comfortable with Reshad, but they are trying. And the price of beauty is, so they've been told, often discomfort.

From:

rugessnome

Shess looks at the arrangement of finished desserts in slight dismay, (square rose-almond-walnut arranged in a diamond, boat-shaped pistachio-sesame elderflower in an arrangement surprisingly but deniably similar to the Liozh emblem), then their eyes go back to remaining ingredients they haven't finished--circles of mochi just cut out, chopped cashews and pecans in a bowl, violet syrup, a container of honey.

"Oh, sorry, the ones I've finished contain honey, but I could probably make the violet ones without. That is, if you don't mind violet."

A timer goes off and Shess looks startled but pulls a pan of bars out of the oven. "Lucky for you I could only find coconut milk--these are red bean filling over a sorghum crust and, persimmons atop," As they set the pan on a folded dishtowel, they gesture with it briefly towards a pile of sliced persimmons.

"Dar!" they call, "There any eggs, milk, fish, or meat products in the mushroom buns? Honey? And the skewers and bean dip?"

[I hope I'm not stepping on toes by making another dessert]

[Also, Shess' signifier is probably Mirrorweb Reflecting Sky...when that's available]

From:

yhlee

[I'm mired in work right now but Y'ALL MAKE ME SO HUNGRY I may have some cookies later today XD ]

From:

stormglass

[I just had to break out some cookies I got yesterday after reading about all this delicious sounding food! Well, they were emergency cookies...this qualifies!]

From:

yhlee

[Somebody please publish a cookbook for this party, I WILL BUY IT.]

From:

yhlee

Cantata messages back, "I will stay alert! Will there be sprinting later? I like sprinting."

[I just realized that my characterizations of Arazi and Cantata are very adjacent. I think "giant sentient flying things" are all the same in my head.]

From:

rugessnome

[I'm already thinking I may try to make these things I've made up at some point, although there's ingredients I'd have to go get...]

From:

yhlee

Remi notices the others and smiles as he tucks his slate under his arm. "Nirai Remi, researcher," he says. "I thought it would be good to continue socializing the mothlings, although they're very friendly already." One of the mothlings has decided to decorate his hair, and makes a very fetching if tentacular hat.

From:

yhlee

Ashari, who is sipping one of the euphorics, looks at the cooks bustling about and shakes their head. "Well, I'm glad that's settled," they say. To Dar: "I suppose the pickles can wait after all."

Ashari then notices Sulen's entrance. They grin, all feral teeth, but Sulen will notice that their signifier is more unstable than usual. "How was the trip? Sasha told me you recruited the target. You'll have to tell me how that happened, sometime."

From:

rugessnome

[I think timeline-wise that this should be the absolute tail end of Liozh signifiers, if they're still available, but if there's NO hexarchate here ...how does that affect scrying? :O ]

From:

yhlee

[Assume there's a very local calendar specific to the base for scrying/exotic effect purposes.]

From:

sageling

[Is this base where Hana would have been living since escaping the Vidona's clutches in her own time? About how big is it (size and population), and are there places that would have been off limits, or that she couldn't get into? Has she had a 'keeper' or someone from the rebellion checking in with her, or has she been left to her own devices?]

From:

chomiji

[Well, I suppose if I'm terse I can answer via phone ... maybe.]

"Yeah, yeah, the mushroom buns are vegan-safe, the veg skewers are if you use the bean dip, so are the crispbreads and curry dip coming out later, and for sweets, the glutinous rice balls with jujube filling and the sorbet should be OK, likewise the grilled fruit skewers. I got ya covered, kids."

[Do non-faction plebeians have signifiers?]

From:

rugessnome

Shess is, by all appearances, pretty preoccupied, stirring together the violet syrup and nut mixture (sans honey) and portioning it out onto the mochi circles, but they cannot help noticing Ashari, and glance up at them a few times. Shess doesn't entirely know what Ashari is talking about, if they even overhear all of it, but their demeanor makes them wary. Is Ashari preoccupied with something worrying? Might it be best to avoid angering Ashari or showing vulnerabilities?

[Italic text=Shess' thoughts]

From:

stormglass

“Nice to meet you,” Xiulan responds to Ione and Remi, with an air of having said similar things at similar functions too many times to count. “As for my role going forward, well, you may find that out at the same time as I do.” There’s a glint to the quicksilver smile she gives then, there and gone.

“Mothlings? No, I haven’t.” A sharp look flicks up, back down. “As in, like the moths?” There’s a slight pause before she says ‘moths’. She’s not convinced they’re fully equivalent to what she knows as ships. But they also do not look like the bundles flying about the room.

The bundles that apparently need socializing.

“They’re sentient?” she asks Remi. Far from skeptical, she sounds extremely keen and lifts a hand like one might to a cat as a mothling goes fluttering past.

From:

yhlee

[Yes, this is the base where Hana has been living. It's got a population of maybe fifty (which fluctuates)--assume that the rest are rebellion support staff brought in by Ashari and their people. Uh, I'm ass at physical size so assume it can accommodate fifty people, their living quarters, plus a bunch of conference rooms, a ballroom, kitchens, a shooting range, a small manufactory with matter printers, etc. etc. comfortably. Ashari's offices and the manufactory are currently off-limits to the general population. One of the NPCs will have been assigned to keep an eye on her and be available for questions or orientation.]