yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx clock)
yhlee ([personal profile] yhlee) wrote in [community profile] hexarchate_rpg2017-07-08 04:41 pm
Entry tags:

Move 2 (Chapter 1.2)

Time: 702 (high calendar)
Place: a rebellion outpost near a stable rift

[GM's note: Elesa's player had to drop, so we'll just say that Crow tells you she's been called away to another last-minute mission better suited to her talents and move on.]

[Also, for your ease of reference, Mission information, mostly from Move 1 so far.]

The interior of the Wasp is more spacious than it looks. Crow, when asked, informs you that this is a precursor to variable layout technology. For the curious (and those from earlier eras), she explains that variable layout is a hexarchate-era technology that allows affected areas to be bigger inside than out, and for the "rooms" to be rearranged almost at will, or connected with internal teleporters. The Wasp's version isn't advanced enough for room-shuffling, but it does mean that the moth will easily accommodate all of you.

The Wasp contains, at minimum:
- a cockpit for a pilot and copilot
- a gunnery room (weapons/defenses can also be automated)
- an office for the commander [that's you, [personal profile] smokedetective]
- a small medical bay--the Wasp can suggest first aid treatments with an expert system, and there's room in "freezers" to put up to two people in a primitive form of stasis so they can be taken to a real hospital elsewhere if someone gets badly injured [this will only happen to your character with your permission, but could make for fun drama if you are so inclined]
- a combination galley and dining room
- a large common room suitable for entertaining (which begs the question of just what kind of entertaining pirates do), although its decor is rather lacking unless someone wants to play with the matter printer
- sufficient quarters for everyone to have a cabin of their own
- a capacious storage hold filled with strange liquors and other miscellaneous trade goods, as well as occasional miscellaneous supplies

You can address the Wasp's mothgrid from anywhere within it, or access it through slates that communicate with the computers.

Once you reach the rift, travel through it is as simple as pointing the Wasp at it and going through. Inside the rift, you won't be able to see anything but a shimmering blue haze, and it is highly, highly disrecommended that anything alive go extravehicular while in rift transit; there are robots (non-sentient) to take care of any repairs that might become necessary.

[Note to Alaric: if he's paying attention to this, he may notice that, interestingly, Mothra itself appears to be unharmed by the rift energies, thanks to some sort of innate resistance. Mothra may or may not have anything to say about this if he can figure out a way to communicate with it.]

[General notes and formatting: Since I'm going to have probably limited internet access over the next odd-week per this announcement, this is what I suggest:

Players should familiarize themselves with the Wasp and feel free to set out toward the rift in order to commence their mission with travel through the rift. I don't think one day = one move makes sense, especially during boring travel bits. Feel free to use different threads for different conversations that may take place during different times in the journey (one thread for day one, another for day two, etc.)--whether that means making further plans, or devising clever weapons using the matter printer, or getting to know each other, or looking up the briefing materials on heptarchate culture/tech in the target year 361, etc. Just to make thread navigation easier, I suggest that henceforth threads about major topics be titled to help people navigate. If there's a major topic change, or you need to flag an OOC query/discussion, change the comment title, e.g.

immolationfox: Weapons Inventory
Shuos Jedao happily goes through ALL the crates in the hold to check for any weapons, including knitting needles.

overlyloyalhawk: re: Weapons Inventory
Gized sighs and goes to keep an eye on Jedao help him count, since Jedao sucks at numbers.

immolationfox: [paging GM]
[Are there any small arms in here? Grenades? Also, whiskey?]

We don't need to be strict about this, but if we do this for major topics it'll probably help navigating threads.

Once I get back the week after Readercon, we'll see about moving the action forward on the other side of the rift!]
mercuryhatter: (Default)

Re: firewalls and matter printer shenanigans

[personal profile] mercuryhatter 2017-07-09 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Istradez joins Sasha at the matter printer, laughing at the champagne flutes-- colorful in more ways than one.

"Can I keep one of these?" he asks. "I was coming to test the printer-- I see it lives up to expectations." He can't wait to see what it does with clothes or jewelry-- the image of trying to infiltrate a station wearing shirts embroidered with curse words makes him grin.
talifabian: (Default)

Ankat's Academy

[personal profile] talifabian 2017-07-09 11:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Since Kaliyan seems to have begun to assess the space-based options for the inevitable full frontal assault, Ankat begins to examine the resources he will have access to when off-moth.

He's specifically trying to determine the following:

- If anyone besides him possesses a personal sidearm of any sort
- If there are any small arms in the Kel surplus we have, especially concealable ones
- Which members of the crew have received sufficient training that they're more likely to hit the enemy than the friendlies, if trusted with a sidearm
- If the cargo-hold has sufficient space to set up a temporary firing range

From what Ankat has determined of the crew, he has little confidence in anyone other than Kaliyan when things go sideways (and he's known moth Kel to get behind on maintaining their certifications for small arms). Nonetheless, he'll go around the ship, asking persons to describe any combat training/experience they possess. [If the answer is no, no particular need to reply, unless you think the RP will be fun]

Lastly, he'll request introductory marksmanship training materials from the grid to familiarize himself with how one brings up to speed a bunch of nerds who decided for SOME reason to join a dangerous and volatile rebellion valued members of the crew .

zuhrovet: Photo of a Kazakh woman in a dark place, looking at the camera (sasha)

Re: firewalls and matter printer shenanigans

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-07-09 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Sasha trusts this man about as far as she can throw him, which is a nonzero but short distance. Maybe truthful but boring is the way to go?

"Right, if you like-- I was going to keep a couple for root cause analysis, and chuck the rest back into the hopper. Seems to work all right on big chunks of metal and physical mechanisms. Haven't tried integrated circuits yet."

Edited 2017-07-09 23:39 (UTC)
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Re: Ankat's Academy

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-07-10 12:30 am (UTC)(link)
[Sasha is the kind of person who would routinely carry a personal weapon (knife, at a guess) if she didn't think that would get her arrested. She's also the kind of person who would have gotten REALLY INTO marksmanship at some point in her teens, though she fell out of the habit when she moved offplanet. And she's in pretty good shape. But she's tiny, twitchy, and has serious issues with authority figures.]
pengwern: Ninefox Smiling (^U^)

Re: [Mikodez's signifier]

[personal profile] pengwern 2017-07-10 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
[Ninefox Smiling it is! Because of Mikodez I've been subtitling it as ninefox trolling. Mikodez in game has been smiling more than usual thanks to a passing remark -- he knows it's as likely to work as him turning blue from eating blueberries, but there's that Shuos paranoia kicking in. What IF his signifier depended on this.]
slybrarian: The Incomparable Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmare's Angel (Nightmare Scientist)

Re: Ankat's Academy

[personal profile] slybrarian 2017-07-10 03:08 am (UTC)(link)
"Combat training?" Alaric says when asked. "Well, I know a very great deal about combat. It would be exceptionally silly to go out into the great wide universe to examine exotic technologies if I didn't know anything about how they might be applied for defensive purposes. So of course military history and theory were on the required courses. I could tell you any number of things about the many and often terrible ways that exist to kill people."

"With that said, however, I will admit that the practical training was not as thorough as that received by those who majored in such things over at the College of War and Nightmare. There was a self-defense and P.E. component to my education, which I definitely paid attention to and only skipped on occasion. I'd like to think I got pretty handy with a sword, especially by the standards of my department."
talifabian: (Default)

Re: Ankat's Academy

[personal profile] talifabian 2017-07-10 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Before you go any further; when you say sword, you mean the exotic?"
The screaming inside Ankat's head has not stopped since Alaric began to talk.
Please, please, please do not tell me this civvie joined an active rebellion knowing how to wave a fucking sharpened metal stick at someone who tries to murder him.
yehan: Headshot of a brown-skinned, dark-haired woman with alien handwriting next to her face (Default)

Re: Interior Design

[personal profile] yehan 2017-07-10 04:14 am (UTC)(link)
Yehan breathes a small sigh of relief once she's finally able to shut the door to her quarters and be alone. She had no idea there would be so many people involved in this mission. After sitting on the bed quietly for a moment, just letting herself catch up with all the new information, she starts to unpack.

First come a perhaps surprising number of paperback and hardcover books--Yehan hadn't known what kind of grid access would be available going through the rifts and wasn't about to risk losing resources. The books have titles like The High Language: A Historical Linguistic Companion, Creolisation in the Early Heptarchate, and Papers of the 82nd Naxorian Linguistics Conference. Most she sets in a tall stack on the desk, but one very old and worn-looking book, Kirrish Folk Tales and Proverbs, she sets on the nightstand next to the bed.

She lights a stick of incense and sets it on the nightstand as well, though tucked carefully away from the book. On the bed she sets a brightly-colored woven blanket, stopping for a minute to let herself ball it up in her first and roll it around a bit. The texture soothes her.

After a trip to the matter printer, she adds one of the rainbow champagne flutes (more her style than shot glasses) and a few custom-printed lamps that match those she'd used at home. Standard lighting on moths always make her eyes hurt.
yehan: Headshot of a brown-skinned, dark-haired woman with alien handwriting next to her face (Default)

Re: firewalls and matter printer shenanigans

[personal profile] yehan 2017-07-10 04:47 am (UTC)(link)
On her way to print a few lamps for her room, Yehan wanders in to find she's late to the party. She bursts out laughing when she sees the initial test subjects. Pointing at the glittery swirls, she says, before anyone asks, "It's an obscure slang that was popular in a few marches back around the 200s--old even for this antique machine. Their subculture had...well, strong feelings about color theory, so they insulted each other by impugning each other's aesthetics. Not so far off from 'you're so ugly, you'd have to sneak up on your mirror' jokes. But, uh, think more risque."

She squinted at the glasses. "Whoever programmed this seems to have been an adherent, and not particularly impressed by by your choice of rainbow." Yehan, on the other hand, appreciates good kitsch, and makes sure to grab one on her way out.
talifabian: (Default)

Re: Ankat's Academy

[personal profile] talifabian 2017-07-10 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
Ankat ensures the weapons and ammunition are locked up safely (preferably with a mechanical lock, assuming there are appropriate lockers in the hold or gunnery stations); it'll at least stop that cadet (can't be into his second decade) from getting his hands on one and shooting himself in the foot.

With the permission of Kaliyan, he partitions off a corner of the cargo-bay and converts it into a makeshift firing range
mercuryhatter: (Default)

matter printer shenanigans: fashion edition

[personal profile] mercuryhatter 2017-07-10 05:42 am (UTC)(link)
Istradez looks even more pleased at the historical context, and makes a mental note to display the glass he takes prominently in his quarters.

"I was planning to test it on simpler things, but if this thing really is judging us all based on antique aesthetic opinions, textiles might turn out just as ornery," he says blandly to Sasha. Given how much time he has spent around the Shuos, he finds the collective paranoia of this group amusing for its sheer volume, but not surprising.

He calls up some fashion plates from his historical research and feeds the parameters to the matter printer, watching the output with genuine bright anticipation.
Edited 2017-07-10 06:31 (UTC)
venndaai: (windbreaker)

Re: Ankat's Academy

[personal profile] venndaai 2017-07-10 09:03 am (UTC)(link)
Sulen's taken regular self-defense classes over the last decade ever since getting a concussion and a broken arm from a particularly desperate suspect, but they've never learned how to use any weapons, and would deeply appreciate any lessons Ankat might have time for.

"It's not really something they teach at Rahal Academy. We let- they let the Vidona do the shooting."
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Re: matter printer shenanigans: fashion edition

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-07-10 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
Prophet's teeth, thinks Sasha, if it has to be Make Fun of Her Century day, couldn't the universe have picked a topic where she has some expertise?

She recognizes the logo on Istradez's fashion plates, though: the images come from one of the glossy magazines you can get from vending machines, the kind that sell iced tea and packs of seaweed crackers.

The first part of the outfit Istradez specified is a gauzy, drapey tunic. Sasha is pretty sure the fabric is coming out right-- at least, it's stretchy and floppy-- but it's printed with little squares, and what she suspects is a chemical formula.
vass: Purple Iawa (OC from The Intolerable Clock) (Iawa (purple background))

[personal profile] vass 2017-07-10 02:39 pm (UTC)(link)
[Is Istradez sure Avrayen is Mikodez? Last I saw, he had definite Suspicions but hadn't confirmed anything, and I'm wondering if I've missed an important thread.]
mercuryhatter: (Default)

[personal profile] mercuryhatter 2017-07-10 03:21 pm (UTC)(link)
[No, he isn't, but for ease of reference-- and because I super forgot the fake name Mikodez used when I was writing this-- he's been thinking of him as "that kid who really looks like time travel Mikodez." I'll edit for clarity using the fake name tho!]

[EDIT: Uhh, actually, no I won't, because I think the edit button is gone? does it leave after a certain amount of time? Either way, I'll be clearer in the future.]
Edited 2017-07-10 15:26 (UTC)
vass: Gold Iawa (OC from The Intolerable Clock) (Iawa (gold background))

Re: Interior Design: Iawa's quarters

[personal profile] vass 2017-07-10 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Iawa came through a very unstable rift. One moment it was open, the next it was gone and them with it. This had the disadvantage that when they emerged on the other side some hours or days later, they arrived with nothing but the clothes they were wearing (ceremonial vestments, discarded and replaced with an umber tunic and trousers at the earliest opportunity) and their grandparent's mirrorweight web piece (worn, as always, in a pouch just below their heart.)

To counterbalance this, the rift's instability conferred the advantage of removing Iawa from their former academy in time to save their life. They're sure they'll cope without their philosophy books (brought to their academy dormitory from home), practical religion and anatomy texts, and oversized hardcover The Art of Paper-Folding: A Vidona Guide, Complete With Step By Step Diagrams And Morally Instructive Anecdotes.

The spareness of their quarters is appealing. They always liked the idea of minimalism, but had somehow never quite managed to commit to it in practice. They decide to look on this as a new start. Like when they had to pack for Vidona academy and had to leave most of their library at home, even the grid-based ones (Vidona cadets being restricted to books on their academy grid.)

Their belongings are still back at home with their parents in the future. This is just a much bigger move than the last one, that's all. There's no reason to be upset. This is an opportunity to think carefully and deliberately about what they want to acquire.

Especially since they're sharing a single matter printer with ten other people. They should probably limit themselves to a few changes of clothing... all right, and a more comfortable set of sheets. Something that won't make them think of the Vidona dormitory. They should go print that now, probably.

Iawa stares thoughtfully at the unadorned eggshell wall opposite their bed and doesn't move for a while.
mercuryhatter: (Default)

Re: matter printer shenanigans: fashion edition

[personal profile] mercuryhatter 2017-07-10 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"Do you know what this is?" Istradez asks, running his fingers over the formula. "I think it's just chemistry, but I'm hoping it doesn't have some sort of offensive connotation or something." A headache is starting to gather behind his eyes from all the looking at screens, but it isn't bad yet, so he pulls up some jewelry ads from the same source as the clothing.

"You said you wanted to try integrated circuits. Do you think the printer is too glitchy to manage some aesthetically concealed surveillance devices? That may come in useful if we need to send a small infiltration team with the rest of the crew waiting behind for backup." Also, he just really loves the idea of a camera nose ring.
zuhrovet: A green frog (Default)

Re: Ankat's Academy

[personal profile] zuhrovet 2017-07-10 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)

"Hang on," says Sasha. "What are you actually GOOD at? Because you sound like me talking about Junior Mining Engineers, and they didn't shove me on this moth to blow dinky holes in hillsides."

mercuryhatter: (Default)

Re: [DW commenting/edits]

[personal profile] mercuryhatter 2017-07-10 03:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ah, that makes sense, thanks!]
vass: Gold Iawa (OC from The Intolerable Clock) (Iawa (gold background))

[personal profile] vass 2017-07-10 03:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[Good, glad I haven't missed that.]

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