hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 3.1: The party begins

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moves: chapter 3

Chapter 3.1: The party begins

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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[The base is on a planetoid; assume the planetoid is not movable.]

[In the interests of my not having to invent and keep track of yet more NPCs, let's say the other two moths are indeed run by Ankat and Kaliyan.

Also, GM fiat, Ashari is eventually going to be evacuating on one of the other two moths, instead of the one the PCs are on, so plan accordingly.]

"It is approximately 80% grain ethanol by volume," Sasha says, with a grin for Deyna that means Green saint, I am too sober for this.

Green saint, it feels good to be solving a well-defined problem, even a huge one. "We have some weaponry, but it's limited. I'll forward you the specs. As far as the crew goes, Sulen is my second. They like keeping things organized. Aymad is good with operational planning, but we're losing him to Kaliyan's team--we should still be able to draw on him for analysis, though. Reshad is useful if you want someone to"--fuck, what's the idiom for 'smooth the rustling of the grasses'?--"pour oil on troubled waters. Jedao has extensive military experience, but none of the former Kel will be comfortable working with him directly, and in all honesty we're still debriefing him."

[

yhlee, what sort of weapons do we have? I assume they're in the range of things one might equip to fend off casual piracy.]

[That displays a stunning lack of hubris.]

[♥ ♥ ♥]

[Bwah. Like I trust you lot with a planetoid. ;) ]

[Y'all are going to have some standard missiles and lasers, and probably some sort of basic point defense system.

Please keep in mind that the GM has zero logistical experience for anything larger than "hustling up supplies for a high school math classroom" so I'm faking it here. :p ]

Alaric sighs deeply. "I assume you've run into the tendency of people calling their planets things that translate into variations of 'ground' or 'dirt'? You are looking at a proud native of 'World', which orbits 'The Sun'. Supposedly there's a valid calendrical reasons, to implant the idea in people that it's the only place that really matters, but frankly I've looked through the math and I think it's more likely that justification was created out of embarrassment over how deeply unimaginative the original colonists were."

"No," Deyna says after a slight pause. "I wouldn't mind something alcoholic, but I don't think I need to get drunk. Just not sober." She sets her plates down. "But if you can't find any booze, don't worry. I don't need it that bad."

With that, she turns her attention to setting out Dar's ingredient lists. "Meat skewers," she mumbles, sorting through the slips, and lets Shess leave at their leisure.

[life happens! I'm glad you took care of yourself and didn't force this.]

A genuine smile breaks over Deyna's face. "That sounds perfect," she says, accepting the glass Sasha offers. "This isn't exactly my usual speed, if you couldn't tell," she adds, forcing a self-deprecating chuckle. "I'm more of a meat and potatoes kind of person, less of the orders. Hors d'oevres."

She pauses. "Shess, if you want to stay sober, you can take the tray around while we drink? Or I can do it, after I have some of this --" she cuts herself off, sniffs the alcohol again "-- what kind of grain is this?" she asks Sasha. "Or I can do it," she repeats, returning her gaze to Shess.

Jedao's eyes crinkle in amusement. "There's a joke on Eshpatan that the name of the planet means 'Very Very Big Rock.' Because just 'Big Rock' wasn't good enough." He tries the cake, just a small bite. "Too sweet," he remarks, "but I suppose that's the nature of cake."

[The cake is a perfectly good cake, but Jedao isn't particularly into sweets. Although he might be weak for funnel cake.]

"Yeah, I have no idea what the fuck a potato is. This is long-grain rice from some planet with an elaborate network of cultivated traditional wetlands. At least, that's what the label says. To the rebellion?"

Sasha raises her glass and knocks it back. The liquor is smooth and soft. You could almost think you weren't drinking.

[In the real world I deeply hate event planning! So many tiny decisions...]

[Oh yeah, me too. There's a reason our wedding was a picnic at the park. It cost a few hundred dollars because we were broke grad students. My mom yelled at me for getting married in a $40 rust paisley skirt I found in the discount bin at some department store, instead of a Proper Wedding Dress, but since she didn't attend too bad for her.]

"You mean, how will we remove the harnesses in the first place? I don't think human presence is required. The Cantata has been practicing, with a proof of concept."

Sasha will still need to get inside the warmoth grids--all of the grids. But she has all of time to work that out.

Mafyyil's peonies have always been quite lovely to Ione, and she can't help but smile at them whenever it seems to come up. Plant-people are so interesting, after all, even if she's getting the impression that the Hafn are ... a little strange.

Nobody is going to bring up the kangaroo.

"Metaphor can be fun. And yes," This is for Xiulan again, "I'm not the expert, that's Remi, and then Alaric and Sasha are also quite good with them, but I like them a lot -- music is part of how they communicate. I think the vacillating may also be ... not linguistic exactly, but communicative kind of like a dog's tail."

Do these people know what dogs are, Ione is suddenly not sure. She hasn't seen a hexarchate space dog.

[I really have no excuse to crash this thread, but Ione has actually been to Texas and would make a Texas joke here and it's so sad that she can't. Her Texas is very different, but they would absolutely also be joked about how everything is bigger there.]

“I’m happy to talk about moths with whoever knows something, particularly the experts,” Xiulan replies to Reshad and Ione, flashing a smile at Remi as she says it. It’s very clear he’s regarded as said expert by his colleagues. And after a thoughtful pause, asks, “The mothlings here...are they the offspring of the Cantata’s moth?”

The more she thinks about the overall situation and implications, the more questions gather. But. It’s a party. She tries to keep that in mind. Make a list for later.

”But I have some experience beyond this team. And you?"

“I’ve never seen mothlings before today,” she deadpans, then give a small grin. “But experiences other than that, yes. You could call it fieldwork as well. Largely a combination of intelligence and special forces type ops combined.” One hand waves at the floor as general indicator of the base. “As for this base, I’ve only been here for a week. Nothing much going on. Yet.”

She nods to what Ione says about dog tails, clearly not at all confused by reference to dogs themselves.

”Where I'm from, movement of vessels in space is driven by the human striving for perfection by adding other aspects of nature.”

The earlier revelation about moths hadn’t hit as hard, but it certainly paved the way for this admission to spread in her skull like an electric jolt. Her expression goes immobile, a counterpoint fighting to constrain an emotional ricochet inside. She thinks of being very small and not understanding and—

Focus.

“Ah. I really do have a lot to learn about the Hafn.”

A few more moments, an adequate conversational lull. A last pat to the mothling that has continued to orbit vaguely in her area. “Good meeting everyone. I look forward to those future conversations. But I should go continue with the introductions I guess.”

With a smile and a gesture to the rest of the room, Xiulan withdraws from the little group. She doesn’t actually immediately proceed toward another of the crew though, but weaves her way around various conversations to arrive at where drinks are laid out. After a moment of debate, she picks up a glass of water, peering down at the top.

[Heh, an unsuspecting shot right in the backstory! Nice aim, Mafyyil;)

In case there was a Rahal scrying at the time: her signifier went from Ninefox Eyes in the Dark to Ashhawk Banked and wanders its way back to the original as she’s at the drinks table.]

Being called 'sir' makes Sulen feel like a Kel, but it's not a bad feeling. Dar seems both straightforward and helpful, two qualities Sulen had given up on finding together in anyone again. "It sounds like you have very useful knowledge and experience. Is there anything you need? Any assistance I can provide?"

Sulen themself has not had a lot of success with cooking in the past, but at this point they'd do anything to feel like they're having a positive effect.

[EDIT: pls ignore the first version of this comment I got confused and didn't realize Dar was officially the cook]

Edited 2020-01-18 02:42 (UTC)

Ah. This could be awkward, but the current team had been surprisingly nonchalant once Sulen's background had finally come up, and, well, a former Vidona is unlikely to be in a good position to judge.

"The year 835 of the heptarchate calendar," they say. "There are a large number of rifts in that year. I was part of a hept assigned to seeking out members of the rebellion. They had good reason not to trust me, when I betrayed my faction and came to them."

They still have a drink in their hand, and if everyone else is partaking, perhaps it's only sensible to follow suit.

The warning is delivered. Their duty discharged. They are free to extricate themself from this... mortifying situation, now.

They are going to do that. At any moment.

"Of course."

They're going to turn and leave now.

"I like the flowers."

Ugh.

To Xiulan, Remi says, "The mothlings were 'liberated' from their adult parents as part of a heptarchate research project. My role was to rescue them from a research station in my timeline. The Cantata is not related to them--it comes from an entirely different timeline--but it has adopted them, and in my limited observation, moths are social and care very much for their young. I'm happy to answer any other questions you have, of course, although if it relates to the mothdrives, Alaric is the expert, and Sasha knows more about the grid interlinkages."

Eddox smiles and their eyes roll to the top left, as if they are considering how much to explain. “Yeah, lets go with large ocean mammals.”

They put a hand on Sulen’s arm and lean in, because they still can’t help using it as an excuse to flirt. “How do you communicate with the moths? Do you have an appointed translator? A human representative? Who should I be speaking to?”

[ I’m not exactly sure where I should be going here because I haven’t had Eddox talk to Sasha yet and I’ve missed a couple days of RP, but I’m about to talk to Sasha and ask about more mission info. Feel free to direct me or Eddox or just keep flirting with them. ]

[No worries - yeah, official cook. I said I'd play whatever the party needed, a cook was suggested, I was like, hell, yeah, I can do that!]

She smiles, a real smile this time, her eyes much warmer. "Thanks, sir. If I'm gong to be setting up food and stuff for the trip, it'd be good to get a first-hand look at where it all goes. Looked at the plans on the grid, but haven't set foot on the ship yet."

[I'll be mostly out of pocket tomorrow - family obligations.]

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Page 9 of 12

Chapter 3.1: The party begins

Re: Some GM Questions re: the base

Re: Some GM Questions re: the base

Re: at the drinks table with Shess and Deyna

Re: I hope you weren't planning to enjoy this party - Xiulan and Sasha

Re: Some GM Questions re: the base

Re: Some GM Questions re: the base

Re: Some GM Questions re: the base

Re: I hope you weren't planning to enjoy this party - Xiulan and Sasha

Re: Wallflowers

Re: Food deliveries and drinks (catch-up)

Re: at the drinks table with Shess and Deyna

Re: Wallflowers

Re: at the drinks table with Shess and Deyna

Re: I hope you weren't planning to enjoy this party - Xiulan and Sasha

Re: I hope you weren't planning to enjoy this party - Xiulan and Sasha

Re: Here mothling! Here, uh, gender neutral void!

Re: Legume poetry

Re: Wallflowers

Re: Legume poetry

Re: Sulen, scrying

Re: Sulen, scrying

Re: [GM query]

Re: Legume poetry

Re: Sulen, scrying

Re: Sulen, scrying