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

zuhrovet posting in

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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

yhlee

"In a way," Remi adds reluctantly, "knowing what shape the calendar took in later years and other timelines simplifies the research problem considerably. But the math is nontrivial, and we may deduce from the fact that we don't seem to be overrun by immortals of this type that there is some kind of restriction on the associated technology, which puts further bounds on the system."

[Uh. ACTUAL MATH PEOPLE PLEASE FORGIVE ME FOR THE TECHNOBABBLE; IT'S NOT LIKE ANY OF THIS IS REAL SCIENCE ANYWAY AND I REALLY DON'T WANT TO HAVE TO GET A PHD TO RUN A GAME.]

In response to Sasha's question, Remi meets her eyes and says, still stiff, "I'm sure this sounds trite to you, but I wanted to make life better for refugees and children. I've seen my share of horror. I wasn't sure what would be the best way toward stability--I did some work in psych surgery, thinking I might volunteer to work with traumatized patients. But it was--" He turns his head away, flushing. "It was very upsetting work, and my supervisor recommended that I try something less apt to burn me out." He tilts his head back up again, almost defiantly. "So that's how I wound up in moth research."

[Scrying info will be available on request when indicated.--the GM]

From:

zuhrovet

[I mean, I have a PhD involving number theory associated to extradimensional physics, but tragically it has not conferred an expertise in SPACE MAGIC.]

Green saint, he is so soft. The Nirai do not exist to help people, nor does any other faction; they are made to sustain power, and to channel it. And if you channel power in a righteous cause--that will not absolve you, when your people break. Sasha knows this, it is the trap she could not escape save by leaving Naxarat.

Remi hasn't fucking got people. He has the mothlings; and he has her. In another universe, perhaps, he had no one at all.

"Sulen, we will want confirmation here." She waits for the telltale changing of their eyes--she doesn't look at Ione, it isn't safe--before she says, "Remi, we have information about another of your selves, in another future. We are going to ask about similarities to, or contact with, that person. Based on the information that we have thus far, I judge that you are not the same."

That, or he is the best liar she has ever encountered; but if so, it harms nothing, to appear to be fooled.

From:

bariolage

[Biostatistics doesn't do much for that either. But it has probably come up with Remi in discussion in a lab at least once that Ione came from a war-torn world and was working as a doctor in places that were literally exploding, so she really is being genuinely sympathetic here!]

Ione, also one of those people -- a researcher of many things, a naive and gentle soul who wants to use science purely to aid, who has been burned by this utterly more than once and become bitter -- has been silent, because she has been trying to balance listening and feeling.

When psych surgery comes up, just those words have her moving a hand to the top of her head; a slightly trembling hand, so it's very good that no one is looking at her. The quasi-immortal, really just very long lived, competent adult who was once a little girl whose brain had to be shielded and tinkered with a little bit. But the hand lowers, and she bites the edge of her lip, watching.

Dropping the listening a little bit, raising the feeling, but she doesn't offer to remove a glove. If they need her and not just Sulen, someone else will know, someone less emotional. But she's got enough control of her concentration and expression to be giving Remi a sympathetic look. One that's understanding, to some extent. The idea of contact with another version of oneself is something she's trying to not think about.

From:

stormglass

Xiulan has taken a seat off to Remi’s left side, looking toward him, able to move quickly if she needs to. So far, there has been no need and she watches instead, soaking in information and studying reactions.

And she thinks, of the conversation with Jedao and Hana, and of how differently people respond to trauma. Of how fragile a balance it is between one way off the mountain versus another. They are uncomfortably close thoughts, scrubbing over her mind like rough pumice on skin. But ghosts are not so easily sloughed off as that.

She isn’t surprised when Sasha bluntly announces the real point. Both what the others have said and Remi’s own conduct have illustrated his intelligence. The combination of the questions he has been asked thus far have almost certainly pointed him in this direction.

She continues watching, a floating awareness applied to his expression and body language, the set of his legs and hands.

From:

yhlee

Remi looks down at his hands, then up at Sasha again. He's quite deliberately trying to avoid glancing at anyone else, although he stiffens even more when Sulen's eyes shift. "Ask your questions, then," he says, wretched. "Just--just promise me you will keep the mothlings safe, whatever you do with me."

[Remi continues to look upset, but as the implications sink in there's also an undercurrent of fear.]

From:

bariolage

The way Ione glances back at Remi, it's clear she has a question -- but she doesn't feel like the right one to be asking one, because the only thing on the tip of her tongue is What are you so afraid of, and odds are high she's going to find out.

Instead she crosses her arms behind her back, trying to hold still and remain unassuming. And quiet.

From:

zuhrovet

Stars and wires, does he think that they will hold him to account for the choices of some other self? Has he noticed that Jedao is alive and walking?

"The mothlings are in my care." Sasha looks to Reshad, in lieu of adding, "Pull yourself the fuck together."

From:

hoardingpearls

"That doesn't sound trite to me," Reshad says to Remi. More slowly, she adds: "It's very clear how much you care for the mothlings. I'm sorry for upsetting you." His offense is a confirmation, and the shift of her balance shows relief.

Fox to the last, she's leery of hearing exactly what she wants to hear - but if he's manipulating her, manipulating them all, he's enough of a master that she will have something to learn from it.

"I judge you are not the same."

And there's the sting in the tail: he can read the air well enough to hear the implicit threat. And Sasha is looking at her.

"Any of us could have future selves who've done terrible things. Some of them, we know about." Jedao. Kujen. She's carefully not thinking about what she could become, driven to desperation. "Is this any different?"

"We work to give ourselves more choices, no? Ourselves, and refugees and orphans and mothlings alike."

From:

yhlee

"I'm aware that I'm not," Remi says, picking his words with care, "in charge of mission planning, or in charge of guiding research, for that matter. And it wouldn't be the first time a scientist's scruples were overridden because of--external constraints." Then: "I'll answer to the best of my ability, if you think I know something more that could help you."

From:

venndaai

Sulen remembers the last time they scried a Knife-Winged Moth signifier. A relatively high level Nirai had been caught making minute adjustments to a master clock; Sulen's hept had been called to determine whether the motivation had been heretical or financial. The man had believed himself too clever to fail in his schemes. The hept had disabused him of this notion over three hours.

They wish this situation felt more different.

But it is a benefit, to be familiar with this signifier and all its tells and possible fluctuations. They watch for signs of the arrogance of someone who thinks he's fooling his intellectual inferiors.

From:

yhlee

[What Sulen sees: Remi has decided that cooperation is the best way to protect the creatures he cares about. He feels he owes allegiance to Sasha and the group only insofar as they treat the mothlings and the Cantata well, and no further; this interrogation has damaged his goodwill, even if he understands the need for it intellectually.]

From:

stormglass

One corner of Xiulan’s mouth shifts to hear Reshad propagate an echo further. Divergence points. Her mind spins bits of data like puzzle pieces, trying them against each other at different angles.

Quill has colluded with enemies of the rebellion. She apparently wanted Jedao dead, prior to a significant event in history. Jedao has an enemy named Kujen. Kujen, who sounds like a Significant Historical Event himself, is a version of Remi. And whether the Remi before them is a variance that does not lead to that, or is....

Pattern recognition can falsely trigger on coincidences, yes. But you have to dig in to determine it.

“Maybe everyone else already knows this. But how did you initially become involved in the rebellion?” she asks Remi. “Who was involved and how did they approach and engage you?”

A swift glance flicks itself in Sasha’s direction. “And are any of those people known to be associated with Quill somehow?”

From:

zuhrovet

"Prior to the Cantata's arrival?" Sasha clarifies.

From:

stormglass

Xiulan smiles a little at that, given the Cantata crew does have some tie to Quill.

“Yes - provided the Cantata wasn’t the first association you’d had with the rebellion?” This to Remi again. “I’m also curious if there’s anything in particular that stood out to you about the interactions. For instance, if you ever got the sense that there was particular interest in you directly and not just what you could do for them.”

Having only met Remi a short time ago, she doesn’t the level of conflict others in the room might. Nevertheless, her manner remains professional and is not brusque or demanding. That could change, certainly. But for now...well, points of divergence. She could be in this same situation herself.

From:

yhlee

"It was one of Quill's agents, I believe," Remi says, brow furrowing. "Their name in the rebellion was Vulture, and they answered to someone named Crow." [Mentioned early on under Mission Information] "I only spoke with them twice after putting out feelers. I was not sanguine about the research station's plans for the mothlings, and the rebellion seemed like as good a way to get them out of there as any other. I would have sworn that Vulture was only interested in my research on the rifts, not in any...historical implications."

[sorry for the delay]

From:

zuhrovet

"Crow seemed competent," Sasha observes. "In my limited acquaintance. Remi, I gave you a collection of correspondence, between Jedao and an unnamed Nirai. What did you make of it?"

From:

yhlee

"The unnamed Nirai's style of discourse," Remi says with careful precision, "had some of my turns of phrase. If it were a version of me that was much more senior, with the attendant experience in administration, and a great deal more power. As for the content, it did have clues as to calendrical revolution, if you chose to interpret them that way."

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha raises her eyebrows at Remi's analysis of style, but keeps her expression mild. "Revolution in which direction? Or is this something where the reader will see whatever he wishes to see?"

From:

yhlee

"This is something where the reader will see whatever he wishes to see," Remi says, "not least because I think Jedao was intended to do so."

From:

zuhrovet

"Of course."

Sasha lays her hands open upon the table, and relaxes her gaze and her posture. She makes the mistake of noticing that Ione's speckles continue from her neck down past her shoulders, and shuffles that information away again, along with all the other information that can only cause pain. "Remi, please understand, I ask this question only to establish facts, and not as a threat or statement of intention. If we were to kill your body, here and now, would your self die?"

From:

yhlee

Remi meets Sasha's eyes. Strangely, this question seems to upset him less than some of the previous ones. "Of course I would die," he says. "People generally do when you kill them. I am unaware of any exceptions from my timeline. To be honest, I never thought I would make it to the age I am now."

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha smiles with friendly irony. "I think we lost typical causes and effects, a couple of universes back."

"Sulen"--fuck knows what those metallic eyes see, as they shift to her--"has Remi answered fully and accurately?"

From:

yhlee

[Note to

venndaai: Remi did his best, although he is not all that secretly resigned to a terrible fate.]

From:

venndaai

Sulen nods. "As far as I can see, he has." To Remi, "Thank you for your honesty."

They will not try to reassure him. Doubtless all of them are bound for terrible fates eventually.

From:

zuhrovet

"Thank you, Sulen." Sasha sips her water. It still tastes good.

"Remi, what are your questions for us?" She speaks with certainty that he will have them.