hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 3.4: Breaking down the base

As the meeting ends, the team members move to their assigned tasks.

Dar, Deyna, Seyli and Sulen collect some heavy-duty servitors and begin transferring supplies to the Cantata.

Alaric, Reshad, Shess, and the Cantata's drone prepare to remove the harness from Ankat's moth, The Sedulous Eel.

Back on the Cantata, Sasha goes to her office and starts remotely wiping memory nodes on the base's grid. Jedao is in the Communications/Gunnery room, controlling the weapons. Xiulan acts as his backup. Remi has been instructed to look for patterns or causes of the missing interstellar signals.

Meanwhile, Hana and Eddox look after the mothlings, perhaps joined by Mafyyil, who for some reason has not received clear instructions. Gerae and Ione divide their attention between the mothlings and the nest of pseudo-dragons.

[Welcome to a new move!

I know that things are stressful and uncertain for all of us right now. Please don't fret if you suddenly find yourself with less or more free time than usual--we will adjust! If you would like to give your character a node of peace where they drink tea and admire baby aliens for the next while, this can be arranged. Conversely, if you want a plotty distraction, we will bring you one!

My own focus is unreliable of late, but I'll work on a recap of the previous move as I can.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hana smiles softly and holds very still, though she's going to wrinkle her nose once contact is made. "Hello, friend," she says quietly before offering her hand, palm flat, fingers out. "What's your name? Or do you even have a name?"

The mothling's tentacle is cool but velvety, almost like very fine cloth, and it attempts to shake her finger, although there is very little force. It warbles uncertainly for a second, then the Cantata interjects with a thrum of its own. The mothling hums a chord/series of notes of its own that might best be described as D Dominant.

Hana does her best to hum the notes back at the mothling, holding her hand still in case it wants to investigate. "That's a very pretty name." She thinks almost longingly for a moment about the small instruments she'd had tucked away in the back of her classroom. "I bet we sound funny trying to say your names. Most of us can only make one note at a time."

Hana talks to the mothling the way she talks to all children, which is to say, assuming that they're smart enough to understand her meaning as long as she doesn't use too advanced vocabulary. No baby talk from her, not even with actual babies. (Okay, maybe infants. Young infants. But definitely not once they can sit up of their own volition.)

The mothling feels around her finger, and seems to be very confused by the fact that the finger has a bone inside it, as opposed to being another tentacle.

It hums its name-chord to Hana, then, hesitantly, hums it back as an arpeggio, mostly one note at a time. It pauses, then does it again, ending in a quizzical hum.

((would Remy have told Hana anything at any point re: the mothlings?))

[He would have reiterated their ability to "sense" mass even through barriers and that he appreciates any observations she has, as a teacher, about their intelligence and emotional needs.]

Mafyyil, taking a break from shooting practice, decides to join Hana and the mothlings. She calls out a cheerful greeting to Hana and sits down on the floor. She hums an equally cheerful but slightly off-key greeting at the mothlings.

The mothlings thrum Mafyyil's greeting back at her, also slightly off-key themselves--whether deliberate or not. Several of them drift toward her within the confines of their enclosure. (D Dominant is the one that's outside right now.)

Chapter 3.4: Breaking down the base

Re: You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

Re: You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

Re: You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

Re: You're the only one who understands me, mothlings

((question))

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