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

A silent alert (Paging Jedao, Eddox,and other sign speakers)

[hoardingpearls]

Reshad has a shot of the anonymous liquor, and a discreet sniff has revealed it to be both strong and delicious. She drinks in time with the rest, the cold flavor a reminder: new place. New people. New role, relatively speaking.

Habit sends her eyes sweeping the group, noting reactions and faces, who stands together and who apart. The subtlety of the lighting is not lost, and she spares a smile for it, drawing the gaze to Sasha and Jedao. She herself is in shadow, as suits.

Jedao's face blanches as if he's seen a ghost. Reshad uses her glass, pretty bright crystal as it is, to glint what little light there is, trying to gain his attention. Her free hand shivers in Shuos sign.

Status? She inflects it with the twist of worry.

Re: A silent alert (Paging Jedao, Eddox,and other sign speakers)

[yhlee]

see response to Reshad here, in the interests of consolidating the thread.

Re: A silent alert (Paging Jedao, Eddox,and other sign speakers)

[venndaai]

Sulen, who's been periodically switching their attention back to Jedao, notices his alarm, and approaches Reshad. "Is everything all right?" they ask quietly, meaning, is the person I'm still half convinced is a ticking time bomb about to go off?

Re: A silent alert (Paging Jedao, Eddox,and other sign speakers)

[stormglass]

An interesting lighting choice, she thinks while swallowing clear liquor. It says more about the Cantata’s crew as a whole than an entire heap of words might have.

So does what happens next, but the translation on this one is thus far more opaque.

Jedao reacts to something - about Remi? Others in turn move in apparent reaction. No one makes any sudden motions however and one of the former Kel, Seyli, is nearby. Xiulan frees her hands up by leaving her glass on a table and drifts to a better vantage point, noting Sasha and Sulen’s locations in particular.

Re: A silent alert (Paging Jedao, Eddox,and other sign speakers)

[hoardingpearls]

People in a room: a constellation of danger. Some nodes in that matrix hold less mayhem than others, and Reshad must once again consider that someone's threat assessment is badly awry. (Could be hers. Could be not.) Xiulan, the new woman with the air of military competence, seems to be readying, too.

"I don't think we're in any imminent danger," she says to Sulen. Her tone is not the glib reassurance it could be. Rather, it has an air of careful consideration.

Then again, Jedao's military career is one of plans nobody saw coming, and the dramas are torn on whether he took time to generate them. She thinks of black swans, and tilts her head so the feather ornament in her hair bobs. "You were here before me," she notes, as an opening to a shift. "Remi came aboard very early in the timeline, did he not?"

Re: A silent alert (Paging Jedao, Eddox,and other sign speakers)

[venndaai]

Sulen’s brow creases. “Yes. Very early. But I’m from the same time as Jedao,” or close enough, “and I am not aware of any historical figure with Remi’s name, appearance or background. Personally, I had assumed he originally died or faded into obscurity without our intervention. He is not the kind of person who rises high in the heptarchate.”

Even a fox with a variable signifier and a reputation for trickery couldn’t fake the alarm Sulen is seeing when they scry him- could they?