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

[zuhrovet]

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.]

Comments

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[yhlee]

Remi and his entourage of mothlings makes his way over to the food. "Pardon me," Remi says cautiously to Seyli. He's looking around for the cook. "Do you think anyone will mind if I feed the mothlings some of this repast? They seem to be hungry..."

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[kese_seyli]

"I...doubt it? They're part of the crew after all, aren't they?" Seyli assumes, anyway, that Remi would include them as a part of the crew. They're already offering one of the mothlings a filled bun off their own plate.

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[zuhrovet]

Sasha sends Seyli a message, via their augment:

pls keep an eye on Remi, thx, S.

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[chomiji]

Dar watches this with seeming good-humored interest: "Is that good for them - grain flour and meat? What do they eat for usual?"

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[kese_seyli]

To Sasha: "Noted? Anything in specific."

"I'm pretty sure one of them ...ate a shrimp thing earlier." They hold the bun flat in their hand out to the mothling. "And Remi is the resident expert in our tentacular friends."

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[yhlee]

The mothling settles over the bun and in short order reduces it to a shriveled husk, just like with the shrimp thing. A few other mothlings drift closer, attracted by the prospect of food.

Remi blinks. "I wonder how they control the effect? Since clearly your hand hasn't been...drained in the same fashion." He hastily offers a small plate of buns to the rest of the mothlings.

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[kese_seyli]

"You mean you don't know?" But that doesn't stop them from feeding another one to the mothling, staring in fascination as it reduces the bun to a husk. "That's only mildly terrifying, aren't you suppose to know everything as a Nirai?" This is mostly teasing. Mostly.

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[yhlee]

Remi waves his slate at Seyli with a rare smile. "I'm recording data even as we speak. They haven't shown any signs of harming people yet and I'm hoping that trend only continues. Besides," and his eyes go soft, "they're little yet."

Re: Cruising the buffet - paging Dar (or anyone else Seyli hasn't met yet!)

[chomiji]

Dar can't help but laugh. "Hah! Question is, what do they eat when they can't get duck buns and shrimp chips, Nirai sir?"

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

[yhlee]

Remi inclines his head to Dar. "You're the cook, yes? Amazing work." He nabs one of the buns for himself. "I haven't had as much chance as I'd like to sample the food, what with ushering the mothlings around. But as far as we ever knew, they normally subsist on energy sources. One of the initial contact team had a report of a captive moth draining a battery."

[biology experts please don't hurt me, I don't know anything about bio and am making stuff up]

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

[chomiji]

[Lordy, Yoon, they're your critters! I'm not going to poke holes in the ideas.]

Dar gives a little smile and a bow at the praise. "We might need the batteries," she says. "Maybe set up some kind of little power plant, for a feeder for them?"

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

[yhlee]

"It's a good idea," Remi says seriously, "I just don't know how to teach them what an acceptable feeder is, as opposed to them latching on to our power sources. Cantata might help there."

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

[kese_seyli]

“I don’t suppose we can train them like puppies? Show them where their food is and teach them to only eat from certain places?” Seyli makes the suggestion hesitantly, afraid of sounding stupid in front of a scientist.

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

[yhlee]

"It's definitely worth a try," Remi says. "I'll be honest--I asked to work on moth research and was accepted for it because of certain mathematical and physics implications about gate-space, but I don't have a lot of practical experience in fields like first contact or training animals or childrearing. Have you raised puppies or other animals?"

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

[kese_seyli]

"Well, not really. A Kel moth isn't really the place for it, but I've listened to several books on the subject. It's always something I've wanted to do if I made it to retirement." They reach out to feed another mothling a treat, giving it a little pet like it was a puppy. "And these little ones seem way smarter than dogs, you said they could communicate though a program of some kind, or did I mishear that?"

Animal training and waiting for something bad to happen - paging Sasha

[venndaai]

Sulen joins them, still holding their empty glass. "Raising dogs would certainly be easier if they could be communicated with using more than simple commands. How food motivated are the creatures, would you guess?" The mothlings don't seem anything like dogs to them, and they're still uncomfortable being so close to them, but it seems like a good idea to be close to Remi right now.

They're watching the door Sasha and Jedao disappeared through. They sent Sasha a message a moment ago. Anything I should know?

Re: Animal training and waiting for something bad to happen - message for Seyli and Sulen

[zuhrovet]

Sasha's message goes to both Seyli and Sulen:

Jedao may know an older Remi. Will interview R next.

talking to moths - paging Alaric

[yhlee]

"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."

Re: talking to moths - paging Alaric

[kese_seyli]

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.

Re: talking to moths - paging Alaric

[yhlee]

"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."

Re: talking to moths - paging Alaric

[rugessnome]

[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.

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

[chomiji]

"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."

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

[zuhrovet]

[They have a carefully shielded radioactive source food, currently!]

[moths eating energy]

[yhlee]

[I clearly missed the chance to have Cheris feed Jedao Two a bunch of delicious Duracells in "Glass Cannon."]

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

[chomiji]

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