hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 3.2: Old and new friends, old and new enemies

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moves: chapter 3

Chapter 3.2: Old and new friends, old and new enemies

Sasha has distributed flutes of sparkling water and small glasses filled with a clear liquor. She finds a clear place to stand near the edge of the party--Jedao and Alaric are to her left, the cluster of people around the mothlings falls at about 3π/8--and signals the grid to adjust the light so that she is highlighted and the other partygoers are very slightly in shadow. She asks the grid for a ringing sound and waits for people to quiet. Her voice slightly amplified by the grid, she says, "Welcome, everyone. We have a unique combination of expertise, on the Cantata. I'm glad that you are here." (It's a formal situation, so she uses the plural 'you'.) "While we are gathered, let us toast to the success of the rebellion."

Sasha waits for an answering murmur, then raises her own glass and knocks it back. The liquor tastes like snow and homesickness; but these are her people now. A slight gesture of her left hand makes illumination linger on Jedao for a moment, before the room lights return to normal.

Sasha sees Remi trying to explain that shot glasses are not for mothlings, and grins in genuine amusement.

[We have some really fascinating conversations running in the previous move. I don't want to cut them off, but please put new threads here!

Also, an out-of-character public service announcement: Remi is a youthful, apparently non-sociopathic version of Kujen, plucked from an earlier timeline. He has not yet interacted with Jedao.]

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[But Dar won't know that unless someone tells her.]

"We had cats, back home," says Dar. 'They had a job, they kept the vermin out of the food storage. But training them is kind of ... not worth it, most times? I guess we did train them to keep off the work table. Hah. At least, when we were in the room."

Stones on a board, the pattern not yet complete. The territory not yet enclosed; time, then, for the pieces within to intercept. To break the line, before the terrain shifts and it becomes impossible. But thoughts of what Quill might be doing can be saved for another time.

"What happens, then, if we are both right? If Remi is a person who could become our enemy, but is now our ally?"

The same situation as Jedao: holding on to someone whose capacity for threat is well beyond estimate. "Then, we may need to know what sort of a person he could become." The words are dry; her tone is concerned, and she's looking with worry at Jedao. "It may not have to be tonight - unless you assess the danger to be urgent."

[Sorry, I'm having trouble juggling where Reshad is in timeline! I can have her drop by after the impromptu conversation with Sasha?]

"If I thought it were so urgent as to endanger you [1] immediately"--Jedao's eyes are inscrutable--"I would have dealt with the matter myself, despite the cost. You're asking whether to extend to him the courtesy you did to me, given what I did in my future. Short-term strategy I'd say get rid of him. Longer-term he might well be an asset, and given Kujen's skill at mathematics and technology, he's a more important one than I'll ever be. Tacticians are as common as flowers in the field, after all. Even the version of him that I knew, I judged a useful ally, although a perilous one." Brief pause, then: "If this is before he gains the ability to jump into new bodies when he's killed, then it wouldn't be that difficult to kill him if he does prove treacherous. The Kujen I knew was, not to put too fine a point on it, terrible at combat."

[1: NOTE: When Jedao says "you," the fact that the high language doesn't inflect for number makes it ambiguous as to whether he means "all of y'all" or "you, Sasha specifically."]

Jedao's eyebrows raise at Xiulan's last remark. "Sasha did say she anticipated going up against another version of me," he says. "I'm almost looking forward to the experience. How much do versions of people diverge, does anyone know?"

[He nods fractionally, acknowledging Xiulan's signal.]

"I'm sure duty will be glad to have you back." Reshad puts a note of personal warmth into her voice; someone around here might be taking care of people, and that's a hopeful sign if true.

She has the good grace to look abashed at the bitter tone. Likeness and name collide, and suddenly she's wondering how common names ending in 'dez can be.

"Just the once." She makes a self-effacing wave of the hand, body remembering the lines of obeisance. "But that's hardly party material. What sort of thing do you like to do, when you're on station?"

She's been watching Sasha, and now as the small woman walks out of her field of vision, she makes a moue. "I'm sorry, I might have to go and work. Hopefully, we can chat more later on."

"There's a translation program," Remi agrees, "mostly Alaric's work. The little ones sometimes babble, but they're quite intelligent considering how young they are. They do seem social--that tracks with observations of wild moths--and I would hazard that in some ways their society is not so different than that of the Vraselian pseudo-dragons that we also have onboard. They like music very much...I admit I don't know how much energy they'll require to grow, or how fast they'll grow. This was precisely what the research program was hoping to find out before we absconded with the little ones."

Istradez can tell exactly when the realization hits. That's right, he thinks, Miki has family. But that's an old quarrel, and not one he should burden a stranger with.

"Most of my skills are infiltration-adjacent," he says, "but medical limitations make that more difficult. I can do some analysis and administration work when I have to; it's friendlier to my health issues. As for recreation," and this time he smiles, "I like eating food that is not sweet. The more savory the better. Given the efforts of the new quartermaster-cook, I have high hopes."

He waves at Reshad when she makes her excuses. "Don't let me keep you from work! It's been a pleasure."

And now she's watching Sasha.

Clearly, Jedao and this Nirai are capable of working together; just as clearly, it might be a bargain with an event horizon.

"Is there a way to tell? Aside from the obvious." Killing people, even experimentally, is an extreme resort.

Jedao eyes Reshad, and for a moment his eyes are flat, dark, a killer's eyes. "Not that I'm aware. I found out the obvious way. I didn't see any point in repeating the experiment, because he threatened to jump into me next. I didn't want to find out if it was a bluff."

[Of course! Whatever works for you. I only have the one main thread to keep track of, so I'm mostly good with whatever. [g] ]

Deyna sees Sulen approach with some trepidation. She's still on edge from her manners slip in the kitchen; hopefully Sulen won't hold it against her too long.

"Of course," she says. "But Dar's the one who did everything, I was just another set of hands." She pauses, long enough to dart a quick glance at Sulen before returning her eyes to the rest of the group. "It's a nice party. A bit fancier than I'm usually going to, but it's very nice."

Sasha has no gift appropriate for the saint of vines. Not that it's useful to give presents to abstract principles, just, where the fuck does one go for guidance on an undying ghost, if not to the three-faced saint?

"Remi is not sworn to me, but I am responsible for him." Silver and copper, twisted up together. And Jedao will fucking owe her, if he hurts him. "This Kujen, he is immortal because he takes many bodies, each in turn? What happens to the other minds? And is there a limit, in how far he can jump?"

Seyli keeps absently playing with any of the Mothlings that come near enough to be petted. "At least we don't have to train these guys to stay off the work table," they say with a grin at Dar. "I'm no scientist, but if you ever need help working with them, Remi, I'm more than willing to pitch in." Seyli makes a note to talk to Alaric to see if they can learn something about that program.

Family as double? Shuos have certainly done worse in their time, and she's willing to chalk it up to eccentricity. Her mental file gets an underline for the statement "Istradez is not Mikodez," which he nicely confirms in his next breath.

Infiltration-adjacent has a nice ring to it, and Reshad nods. "It's the analysis and administration that makes the stars go 'round," she says.

"I've had just a bit of the food. It's phenomenal." This statement is entirely sincere, providing a benchmark. "Did you try the things with the curry in them yet?"

"It has been a pleasure." This smile, too, is entirely sincere. Reshad finds herself hoping that this won't all go to pot; that maybe she can talk with Istradez more, some time.

Jedao's face changes in a chilling pattern, and Reshad nods slowly, once. Yes; she knows what he did. And that he's willing to sacrifice his own, does he think it necessary. To kill this questionable ally for the purpose of an experiment - well, it saves her asking where some of the knowledge came from.

She is not one to point fingers, or recoil in horror. Not when her own hands were sullied well before Sasha and Quill and a rebellion with ideas about moths, if not to the catastrophic extent that his have been.

Not when all her guesses about Jedao's relationship with authority point to horrors.

"No, that's a risk best avoided." Possession by erstwhile ally - how strange, to think of that as something outside the realm of fiction. (He could be lying; he has no reason to lie to them.)

Sasha's question strikes her as remarkably cold-blooded; not what she'd expect, if what she's considering is a remote, unwarned death. That seems unusual, and so Reshad refrains from comment or even reaction to the thought. The quieter you are, the more you are able to hear.

"Is there a ...backup?" The question feels foolish, when asking about a living being. Or an unliving one, like something from a horror-tale, but it's exactly those tales that inspire the question: somewhere, for all she knows, is a goose egg hidden in a turtle, hidden in a pond.

Edited (forgot TWO important bits) 2020-01-30 00:39 (UTC)

“I don’t know; I haven’t even heard if there’s been a confirmed instance of two different versions of a person encountering one another.”

Xiulan looks to Hana questioningly, in case she’s learned something additional on that front.

Plucking vaguely at the point of her jacket collar and then dropping her hand, she rolls the idea around further in her head. It has the heft of ball bearings clanging into one another. Points of divergence of self: there are chilling implications personally, in some directions. In others...no percentage in dwelling on that right now.

“I’d think they could diverge quite a lot...but. Thinking about time travel implications spins up a hundred other questions pretty quickly. Including impact to—“ An understated flourish calls out the room, the rebellion itself. “—all of this.”

“So, sounds like we should ask for a primer on what’s known. And then figure out how to fill in the gaps.”

"I look forward to your analysis once our leadership briefs us," Jedao says, inclining his head to Xiulan. He looks at Hana and makes a hand-open gesture: "I bet there are a lot of obnoxious ex-boyfriend-alikes out there, which could be distressing..."

Jedao's attention goes back to Sasha when she mentions that Remi is hers: "Understood. Kujen told me once that most people whom he possessed went mad in short order, and he kept a 'supply' of compatible 'bodies.' He was powerful enough to arrange that, I suppose. I don't know the specifics. Sometimes he shared a body with someone long-term. As for the range, short of an empirical test I don't know."

A pause after Reshad's question, then: "I'm not sure what kind of backup you mean. I will say that it's not impossible Kujen wasn't the only one with the ability, but he guarded his secrets jealously. It was actually one of the reasons I negotiated with him, after he showed up and accused me of high treason in person."

"I must try the curried things next," IStradez declares, "since you recommend them."

That didn't go so badly, he thinks as he watches Reshad leave for her meeting. He's had his share of bad run-ins with foxes, but this might be doable after all.

"I'd welcome that," Remi says as the mothlings cuddle up to Seyli. "I often find that a non-scientist sees things that I don't--it's a matter of perspective."

"It is," Sulen agrees. "The person who organized it is very good at their job. But we are still a group of loosely organized, underfunded rebels. I would not worry too much about correct etiquette."

[adsfs sorry for my absence. hopefully the absences won't continue; combo of busyness and anxiety. :/ darn anxiety. And even though the thing about Remi got me ...excited, too.]

After the toast, Shess, feeling suddenly unoccupied, has been standing near the exit towards the kitchen, trepedations about this whole rebellion venture returning, unfavorable thoughts about parties with strangers circling in their head. They barely noticed that someone Sasha took aside [i.e. Jedao] seemed to be involved in some argument or something with this scientist fellow (did someone just call him Remi?). In fact, they almost returned to the kitchen but thought better of it, realizing everything was in fact out, dithered over whether to return to Deyna, and have finally wandered over to this group, drawn by the moth interactions.

After watching for a few minutes, they say, a little timidly, "I think I keep expecting them to act more like chickens," at a break in the conversation.

Only then do they explain, "Oh. Hello. I'm Kandoir Shess. I'm...one of the new people." They certainly recognize Dar, and know a little about her (the sort of things a few hours in proximity will tell you), and they encountered Sulen earlier, but Seyli and Remi they don't know.

Remi seems to find this statement extremely interesting. "Hello, Shess--do you have experience with livestock? During my childhood, all the chickens were gone...the only time anyone got meat was hunting in the countryside. I still remember the first time someone let me have a whole drumstick all to myself."

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Page 5 of 13

Chapter 3.2: Old and new friends, old and new enemies

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!) [spork of om nom nom]

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!) [spork of om nom nom]

Re: a quiet room - paging Jedao and Reshad

Re: watching from the edges [paging anyone else who's anxious about this]

Re: a quiet room - paging Jedao and Reshad

Re: less than subtle hawk hovering (paging Sasha, Hana, and Xiulan)

Re: Moar fox!

talking to moths - paging Alaric

Re: Moar fox!

Re: a quiet room - paging Jedao and Reshad

Re: a quiet room - paging Jedao and Reshad

Re: watching from the edges [paging anyone else who's anxious about this]

Re: watching from the edges [paging anyone else who's anxious about this]

Re: a quiet room - paging Jedao and Reshad

Re: talking to moths - paging Alaric

Re: Moar fox!

Re: a quiet room - paging Jedao and Reshad

Re: less than subtle hawk hovering (paging Sasha, Hana, and Xiulan)

Re: less than subtle hawk hovering (paging Sasha, Hana, and Xiulan)

Re: a quiet room - paging Jedao and Reshad

Re: Moar fox!

Re: talking to moths - paging Alaric

Re: watching from the edges [paging anyone else who's anxious about this]

Re: talking to moths - paging Alaric

Re: talking to moths - paging Alaric