Move 3 (Chapter 1.3)

[yhlee]

Time: 361 (high calendar)
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray

[Edited to add: NOTE: I'm flying back home tomorrow but will be keeping an eye on this move or any questions you might have. I should be able to resume normal GMing activities starting Wednesday. Sorry about that!--YHL]

[GM's note: feel free to continue to wrap up any last business in Move 2.]

Whoever is monitoring the Wasp notes that there are no major issues emerging from the rift into the target place and time. The visuals show strange energies crackling around the moth as it passes back into normal space-time. For days afterward, the energies' patterns haunt your dreams, as though conveying a coded message in a language you knew before your birth.

It doesn't take long for someone to notice your arrival. A transmission arrives from the direction of Station Moongray. The Wasp's mothgrid asks for your attention, and plays it. The message is given first in the high language, then repeated several times in other "low" languages: "Greetings, travelers. This is Station Moongray of the heptarchate, under the command of Administrator Nirai Paerani. Do you require an escort to the station?" It is accompanied by a local starmap giving coordinates to the station and the identifying information of a proposed escort, a non-combat research moth called the Butterfly Lens that has been patrolling the rift. The transmission goes on to offer succor in exchange for information about the other side of the rift.

[Players should feel free to discuss their response then, possibly, open communications with the station. The administrator will repeat the greeting message until someone responds or the Wasp attempts to approach the station.

Yehan will notice that someone has taken the task of translation very seriously--the heptarchate doesn't have the greatest track record in this area, but the low language translations are extremely competent, fairly polite, and convey a sense of eagerness for contact with people who can bring the station information about other times and places.

The Wasp's more advanced scan functions can verify the presence of the Butterfly Lens about a half day away and whoever queries scan will be almost certain that it only has the kind of light armaments that you'd use to defend against local debris.]

Comments

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[lleullawgyffes]

First Virmad points at the date. “Month 2, Day 14 — so it’ll be the Cold Sun remembrance in three days. An execution, probably; Station Moonray’s just big enough for it.” Then he pulls up the Rahal magistrate story, shifting out of the way so Sulen can read it unobstructed. “And then there’s this.”

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[zuhrovet]

[On 2/14, Americans celebrate a martyr who was supposedly beaten with clubs and then beheaded by eating chocolate. Just in case you thought the hexarchate was weird.]

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[vass]

Iawa, hanging back during the technical parts, inches forward at the mention of a remembrance.

They start to say something when Virmad says the words Cold Sun, then subside, nodding, at the mention of execution.

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[venndaai]

Sulen grimaces in disgust. Rebel or not, they're still appalled by a display of such petty corruption from a magistrate. "I know that sort of thing did happen, even in our time," they say, deciding to ignore the few decades separating their time from Virmad's, "but I do wonder if there weren't some benefits to how strict our training was. And to get caught right before a remembrance-"

They stop, and turn to look at Virmad. "I wonder if anyone on that station is calculating adjustments to allow for the scandal causing a shift in public opinion," they say, raising an eyebrow.

Re: temporality [time is fake]

[lleullawgyffes]

“With Nirai, I’d assume someone has done some calculations,” Virmad says. “The question is whether they’ll have bothered to put anything into practice without clear Rahal leadership.” He looks at Sulen, and notices Iawa listening in. “If anyone in the station hierarchy has any sense, they might be led to be very grateful for the two of us showing up when we did.”