hexarchate_rpg | Move 4 (Chapter 1.4)

yhlee posting in

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

[GM's note: I know several characters/players are still resolving matters from Move 3. That's fine! You may continue posting to Move 3 to resolve those threads or shift threads over to Move 4 to reflect the changed state of affairs, whichever you feel more comfortable with. Ashari and the rest probably ought to settle the matter of who's going where.]

A few new things happen.

Presumably Sasha has some kind of alert set up on the virus. She notices that it's trying to wriggle its way out into the wider grid, specifically so it can listen in on conversations and send back recordings to its unknown master.

[Since the grid responds to voice address, it's a fair bet that some form of sensors are always active within the Wasp.]

Meanwhile, Kaliyan, who is monitoring Scan from the Wasp's cockpit/command center, gets an alert from the Wasp's automated functions. While the "welcome message" from Station Moongray is still droning on repeat, what looks like the research moth Butterfly Lens is starting to move in the Wasp's direction.

What's more, a basic query of Scan will reveal that a second spacecraft has come out from the Scan shadow of a large nearby planetoid, and is also converging on the Wasp's location. While this second spacecraft isn't making any (more) effort to hide itself, any check on Scan will reveal that, unlike the Butterfly Lens, this second moth has some armaments. It's not a full-fledged warship--and it's almost certainly not Kel, since the Kel avoid traveling alone if they can help it--but it's probably intended for local defense.

[EDITED TO ADD: Sorry, I glitched and forgot]
If Yehan gets a good luck at the second ship on visuals, she'll notice with some surprise that it looks like a ship out of the past--there are markings on it that look Naxorian, but weirdly distorted, like it's from another dialect or related symbology.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

zuhrovet

"Kaliyan," Sasha says through the comm, "Please kill non-essential power, now. If we're going to fake a grid crash, that needs to happen stat."

She goes ahead and wipes the virus while she's waiting. She thinks she has enough to fake a single report, and she really doesn't like the wriggling. An air-gapped mini-grid is getting higher on her mental shopping list by the second.

[What would Sasha make of the second ship's markings? Past, future, hometown dialect, alternate universe?]

From:

yhlee

[Sasha suspects future or alternate universe. In particular, it seems to be praising a House line that, in the world Sasha knew, was crushed during her childhood, and that no one seriously thought would return to power. Details are up to you, unless you want me to generate them.]

From:

zuhrovet

[Call it Rosemallow House? I did some pondering of the nature of Naxorian Houses over in the worldbuilding post.]

From:

yhlee

[Rosemallow House it is!

I'll respond over on the worldbuilding post too, but the Naxorian worldbuilding looks fine to me.]

From:

pengwern

Mikodez wanders out of his room when the light dims on his room walls, but off towards the engines rather than the gunnery.

From:

zuhrovet

[But WILL the lights dim?]

From:

yhlee

[Maybe only in Mikodez's room!]

From:

venndaai

Sulen would like an explanation of what's going on but is afraid that distracting any essential personnel might cause disaster. Mikodez doesn't look very essential or purposeful though, so they catch up to him and tap his shoulder.

"I noticed we've dropped out of warp. Do you know of a way to find out what's happening besides distracting the people flying the ship?" There's no reason to think that he does, except that he has an extremely suspicious signifier and one of the times they briefly scried it they got definite hints of subterfuge (the other time they got some things they ended up interpreting as "unfocused, distract with shiny things.") More importantly he's the only person in the corridor for Sulen to try and intimidate.

Actually, it's a little hypocritical to call Avrayen unfocused, Sulen thinks, trying to shake mental images of sprinting to where Kaliyan is, pushing her out of her seat, and randomly pressing buttons.

From:

pengwern

Mikodez looks grave and more in earnest than he's ever been on the Wasp, like he’s finally rattled by the mission about to start. “Saw my lights flicker and would rather not be stuck in my room with whatever the hell that rift was doing to our moth, thanks. I couldn’t see a single thing since I can’t reach Scan, so unless you can, we might as well check in with the pilot and make sure communications isn't having a problem.”

If Ashari’s confidante observed the shift, then something probably did happen beyond Zhurovet fucking with his room lights again. Unless this is him being tested by the trusted lieutenant, of course. But he can handle a wolf nosing at a deviation from routine, if not a full interrogation, and this isn't that.

[Er, I think I anticipated an action before it happened. Call it a mysterious rift effect? And that the messages aren’t being broadcasted all over the ship.]

From:

after_almsivi

For a second, Kaliyan thinks she has conjured an extra spacecraft by staring at the monitor for too long, and she has to blinks twice to make sure it's actually there.

"Boss. Scan's picked up a new ship. Looks like Butterfly had an armed friend playing hide-and-seek.”

“Both ships are moving to intercept. We need to speed up, else we'll be within firing ran-”
Sasha's voice interrupts her mid-sentence. Kaliyan pauses for a second.

“We got guns heading our way and you want us to be both motionless and defenseless ?”

She takes a deep breath, and starts typing the command anyway, ready to jump if Ashari tells her to.

Edited Date: 2017-07-27 02:05 pm (UTC)

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha copies the view on scan to her terminal.

[Whether she has time to analyze the markings on the Rosemallow ship will depend on how quickly Ashari reacts.]

From:

slybrarian

Down in engineering, Alaric perks up as he hears what's going on through an open comm channel with the bridge. He's finished bolting together a false bulkhead to cover up the door leading from the main engine control room to the space containing a horrible space-twisting monstrosity.

"Are we shutting down?" he says into the comm, calling up some macros of his own. There is a large, red GO button. "No, wait, am I supposed to say something like 'bridge, engine room' first? Um. Over?"

Edited Date: 2017-07-28 01:47 am (UTC)

From:

smokedetective

Ashari closes their eyes for a second. "Is there anything we can do to get ready while we're faking the grid crash? We still haven't sent out a response message. Sasha, what exactly are you planning?"

From:

talifabian

Ankat's voice echoes through the grid to Ashari

"Should I go ahead and prepare a reception party for any guests, sir? I can plan contingencies for either welcome or unwelcome ones. Or is there something else you would prefer for me to do?"

[Sorry for being out of contact for a while, didn't have anything to say for a few days then got caught up in some other work]

From:

smokedetective

"I'd appreciate it," says Ashari. "In the meantime, we should get a message to the local authorities up, once our grids go online again.

I'm afraid I'll have to leave this to those of you with more military training than me."

Despite the statement, Ashari hangs around, keeping close track of the proceedings.

[Sorry I haven't been very active, either. My summer semester is coming to a close and there's a lot of last minute stuff for it that's been piling up :')) ]

From:

talifabian

Ankat queries the grid as he heads towards the airlock, paging those members of the crew not otherwise occupied with a message reading "We may have guests in the immediate term. Come to the airlock to throw a welcome party for any Nirai that want to come aboard. Iawa or Sulen, bring some snacks and a few whiskey glasses from the galley for the friendly customs inspectors? Istradez and Avrayen, I have party favors in case they're less friendly."

He's carrying several holstered handguns in harnesses slung over one shoulder, and a bag filled with sufficient ammunition to outfit a platoon. Or at least a platoon at half-strength, he thinks to himself. In one hand he's carrying a bottle of Scadrian whiskey from one of the crates in the cargo hold, on the working theory that any excessively nosy Nirai will be easily diverted with sufficient quantities of alcohol. Plus if we do end up in a gunfight, no need to go all the way to the galley to celebrate afterwards.

From:

vass

[

smokedetective unless you have other ideas, I'm gonna assume that Iawa showed up at Ashari's office for the meeting at the same time as the events of Move 4 started, therefore Ashari wasn't there and has not yet spoken to Iawa about staying behind. Is that okay?

Iawa's doesn't know whether the private interview was going to be a scolding or a special mission or what, and has that "summoned to the principal's office but the principal wasn't there" feel.]

Iawa, sulking in his room, pulls himself to his feet when he hears the page. He tidies his clothes and ties up his back hair before hurrying to the galley for provisions. He isn't totally sure if Ankat's joking or not about the snacks and whiskey glasses, not being experienced with customs inspections.

But he grew up in the Palace of Glass district. Politely entertaining visitors is well within his wheelhouse. He adds a tea set to the tray with the snacks and glasses. The customs inspectors might take offense at being asked to drink on duty.

The tray he locates is surprisingly heavy and solid. It almost looks like a shield.

From:

smokedetective

[That's good with me! Sorry I forgot to answer. I'm gonna have Ashari rush in and quickly address it in the galley.

Also I'm gonna assume Ashari had some time to change appearances a bit.]

Ashari sweeps in, hair white and robes black and severe. They slow to a stop when they see Iawa and nod.

"Wonderful, you have everything," they say. "Ready to make tedious small talk with our guests?"

From:

vass

[No worries.]

Iawa steadies the tray against his chest. "Ready as I can be," he says. "Hopefully tedious small talk hasn't changed too much over the centuries."

From:

smokedetective

Ashari tilts their head. "Should be easier to stomach, too."

From:

pengwern

Ankat was giving him explosives! This was better than getting to put ashhawk emblazoned booties on Yisrain.

Ankat, giving explosives specifically to him and the scary ersatz kinsman.

Mikodez knows he was nothing special at the one training session that he attended. He runs down the list of other crew. Aside from Ashari, Kaliyan, and maybe Yehan in the cockpit, Alaric in engineering, Sasha wherever she is, that still leaves out one other - the scholarly, precise Virmad, with his Tlen-Gwa research. But that meant nothing. He could still be a Shuos agent, like everyone else on the moth. (At some point he really had to decide if the Shuos were capable of a plan as baroque as conjuring up a fake rebellion team of twelve separate identities, body-modding one of them, finding an antique moth, and faking complex natural phenomena, just for one second year cadet, and he was afraid of the answer might be.)

It will take a few moments for Mikodez to reread the precise wording in his message and to remember that ‘party favors’ might mean nothing special in Kel slang from Ankat’s time.

[Mikodez is kind of still stuck on the would-be-double agent shtick, thanks to my glacial rate of replies, so Sulen can decide on where they’re going after this?]

From:

venndaai

"Well," Sulen says, "that answers my questions about what's going on. I can't see myself as a convincing Andan server, can you? But perhaps Iawa could use assistance carrying something. I'll see you in a minute."

But instead of immediately moving off, they lean in.

"I don't know what your game is," they say. "Maybe you're exactly what you seem to be. But I doubt it. I'm not an Inquisitor any more, so it isn't my business. But if you betray us, I will hunt you down. And if anything happens to Ashari because of you, you'll find out exactly what it's like to have all your secrets stripped from you."

They lean back. "Nothing personal. I'll be giving that speech to that guy who looks like your cousin and that technologically inclined foreigner, too."

From:

pengwern

Mikodez says, very flat, “Try anything with my cousin and I’ll show you nothing personal on a pyre fit for Kel.”

He spends the next three seconds wishing for a door to slam like a teenager while he figures out why he’s this touchy over someone he avoided talking to all trip. But since he’s started, he might as well dig himself in some more. “You and Ashari both,” he says, dredging up his sister’s impressions of her first girlfriend’s parents.

[Have a good trip!]

Edited Date: 2017-08-01 06:05 am (UTC)

From:

pengwern

[Sorry, I nearly forgot -- one question each to talifabian and yhlee: Can I assume that Ankat wrote Imsayed, Istradez's alias in this message? Or if you did mean Istradez, that's fine too.
And do names get repeated in the Vauhan family (ie is there any plausible deniability once Mikodez/Istradez sees the other's names?) I've been assuming that even homophones get avoided across generations, hence Mikodez's alias, but I probably...shouldn't....]

From:

yhlee

[Names might get repeated after a few generations, but repetitions are avoided while any of the names' original bearers are still alive. So if Istradez and Mikodez see each other's real names, the game is probably up unless they mistake each other for ancestors. :p ]

From:

zuhrovet

"So that's a go?" asks Sasha. "We're shutting down, now? Or are we skipping the pseudo-crash and going straight to a clueless welcome message?"

She's toggling between the Rosemallow scan images and schematics for the Wasp's fire-suppression system. She hasn't got a pistol, but she knows sprinklers and spray foam in a confined space are terrifying.

From:

zuhrovet

"Take two to four minutes down, come back up, dump thirty seconds of babble about the crash fix into a fake virus report. Look sad and smile at the Butterfly. We could add the cover story about where and when we came from, in our report. But the longer we dawdle, the less likely a crash sounds."

Sasha fidgets with the angle on her screens, and adds, "Prophet's Hat! Yehan, does that look like the Rosemallow logo to you?"

She dumps the relevant icon to Yehan's screen.

[Can we guess whether the Rosemallow ship is heptarchate-affiliated? Something like a band of calligraphy about the future prophet, or decorative 12340 12340, would be unsurprising if they've kept up their heretical ways.]

From:

yhlee

[The Rosemallow ship looks like it's not heptarchate-affiliated from the decorations--let's say the calligraphy--but on the other hand, the Butterfly doesn't seem to be reacting to it in any hostile way, either.]

From:

yehan

Yehan's eyebrows shoot up. "It sure does look like that, doesn't it. Except..." She tries to zoom in, squints at the screen. "Something's off about this. It's not right for this time period, I don't think. Rosemallow House was destroyed sometime in the century before this one, and the markings aren't quite right. Besides, why would a heptarchate ship have a companion praising a heretical organization? I'm not so sure these two are affiliated."

From:

lleullawgyffes

[this is entirely unrelated but every time I see "Naxorian" my brain tries its darnedest to make me read it as "Nestorian"]

From:

yhlee

[Heh! I won't lie; I had to Google that, but I was raised by Korean atheists. ^_^ ]

From:

lleullawgyffes

[to be honest so did I — I knew it was a Christian theology thing but could not have told you what it actually meant, lol]

From:

zuhrovet

[Heh, that could have been subconscious convergence on my part.

Want to invent a religious heresy for Rosemallow House? They did other nefarious things, including illegally diverting tax-farming proceeds from the military to their own security forces, but I'm sure religion was involved.

I didn't do this on purpose either, but the Naxorian state religion emphasizes cyclic divine revelations in a way somewhat similar to Baha'i.]

From:

lleullawgyffes

[well, as everyone knows, all Christological doctrine that isn't Arianism or at least compliant with Arianism is erroneous and heretical, so imo if there's a heresy involved should be based on Nicene Trinitarianism somehow.]

From:

zuhrovet

[But why stop at three? The Rosemallow adhere to a sect that holds there are five aspects of the divine. Counting mod five then follows naturally, and they await the Zeroth Prophet.]

From:

yhlee

[ <3

I have pretty much forgotten all my abstract algebra at this point, even the Chinese Remainder Theorem, which at one point was my favorite theorem, but. =) ]

From:

zuhrovet

It has been 97 seconds since Ashari talked to Ankat, and Ashari hasn't said anything definitive. The ships look like they're approaching leisurely on scan, but that's an artifact of the hugeness of space. Sasha checked the velocity relative to the station while she was thinking about reasons for the grid to glitch, and thus she's keenly aware that everyone is moving at a non-negligible fraction of the speed of light.

"Ashari," she says, "This isn't a committee meeting. You need to give an order."

[Out of character, I'm enjoying the delicious narrative tension.]

From:

zuhrovet

134 seconds. Ashari is pondering something, with an ineffable Andan expression. Virmad looks as if he's mentally computing isomorphisms of even lattices¹, though presumably that's not what he's working on.

They still haven't communicated with the outside. Sasha's not willing to leak information to the virus without a good explanation for why the leak would end (such as the grid coming back online). She could just send the message that Ashari already authorized, though?

Sasha drafts it in her very best formal high language. Might sound a little bit antique, but with luck that will be taken as eccentricity:

From distinguished artist Andan Rii, greetings. We are delighted to accept escort from the Butterfly Lens for our Bumblebee.

She copies the message to Yehan's and Ashari's screens, just in case they want to make a last-minute grammar critique, and sets it to send in forty seconds.

[¹ A math kind of lattice, not the Space Internet kind of lattice.]

Edited Date: 2017-08-03 11:36 am (UTC)

From:

smokedetective

"As long as we have the power on and weapons at the ready," says Ashari, abruptly standing up from where they were sitting. "There's not much else we can do. I need at least another person with Kaliyan and Ankat, in case everything goes to shit, and someone here to keep track of any incoming... issues."

"Sasha, this looks good but. Hm. Yehan, what do you think of changing 'distinguished' to 'humble'? Or does that power play simply not translate into this time?"

"I'll have to go change to greet the guests, but before that... One more thing. Sasha, Yehan... Send something to the incoming ship. Greet them as fellow travelers. Ask what year it is or something about the local system or something equally affable. Try a couple of languages, if you can, to make it look like we're truly just curious travelers."

"Sulen and Virmad, tread lightly, especially if you're going to go off onto the station alone and we're going to have visitors. You'll need to start playing at all this early."

"Iawa and the kid, you're on guest duty."

"I'm going to go change into something more appropriate and get to the airlock. Is there anything I missed?"

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha makes the change to "humble" and resets her forty-second timer.

"Ashari," she begins, "About that second ship--" But Ashari has already swept out of the room.

She opens a comm connection to Yehan, and starts speaking in Naxorian. "That Rosemallow ship is a press gang waiting to happen. You can't let them know you're Kirrish, and they'd never believe I'm Fountain House. If Ashari wants us to talk to them, can you pick a language from the other side of the heptarchate?"

From:

lleullawgyffes

[I'm confused — I've been struggling to follow the planning for the last while. are we still thinking we're meeting station officials, or are we now preparing to greet people from the second ship? this post is entirely detail-free since I'm not sure what's going on. >_>]

“Being obviously a Rahal tends not to invite many questions,” Virmad says, “thankfully. But we’ll be careful.”

From:

yhlee

[My understanding was that Sasha and Yehan were worried about the second ship, because it appears to be from a heretical version that ties into their background, and everyone else is preparing to deal with officials from the station from the first ship.

In particular, could Ashari confirm that this is what they have in mind, or correct me if I have misunderstood the situation? Any further clarification welcome.]

Edited Date: 2017-08-04 05:48 pm (UTC)

From:

smokedetective

[This is what Ashari had in mind. I'm sorry I've been on and off lately, that should stop after this week. The finals for my summer semester are on Wednesday and things have been a little hectic. :'))]

From:

pengwern

Mikodez, having ducked away from Sulen, jogs off for the galley to retrieve a plate of miniature edible fidget spinners snacks, made with precise chips of hard candy. Small flowers can be seen scattered in the blades from a jar of osmanthus honey that he dug up somewhere, reminiscent of one of Ashari’s refinements on the moth. The ground-up powder from the leftover nutrient block they offered him all those days ago is not distinguishable.

He jogs off for where Iawa and Ashari are, and offers one to Iawa while temptingly pressing the button on the middle.

[your move, person who wouldn’t so much as open his homemade organic pink fairy armadillo meme >:O (Still haven’t gotten my hands on a fidget spinner, but I did watch the cookie video with fascinated terror.) Maybe the tracker in that nutrient bar only activates upon hitting bacteria in the digestive system, so it hasn’t started to work yet?]

From:

vass

[Whoa, what'd I miss? I don't remember being sent a meme!]

Iawa smiles at the edible spinners with genuine appreciation. "Thank you," he says, freeing up a hand to take the snack and spin it around before nibbling on it.

The flavour is exactly right, a little taste of home. He hasn't had one since he left home for the Vidona. The number of spokes is wrong -- six, not seven, and colours are a jumble of all the different faction colours except the traditional edible gold and white, but the design is otherwise exactly the same as when they were a Liozh delicacy.

"This is great, Avrayen. I've missed honey spice gears so much." Maybe the kid isn't so bad after all.

[Mikodez may have succeeded in bugging Iawa in the sense of feeding him a tracker (did he do that?) but he failed to bug Iawa in the sense of annoying him, this time. And may be interested to know that this snack used to be associated with a faction considered heretical in his time period!

PS, for everyone else who was wondering: edible fidget spinner video.]

From:

pengwern

Iawa seems sincere, which is odd, but Mikodez makes a note and moves on to his next victim. He politely offers the plate to Ashari, while starting on a less perfect one himself from the bottom layer, careful to only damage the translucent blades. The amount in one spinner snack of whatever active ingredient the nutrient bar held was bound to be far lower than what he’d eaten then, and he hadn’t actually felt any effects over the last few days. But giving Ashari a taste of their own suspiciously heretical comestible was worth six hours of messing with the matter printer, pouring candy, spilling candy and having to chip it off the stove top, stealing coolant from the moth engine to speed things up, and eating the full bowl of leftover honey mixture until he made himself sick.

[oh no, I was trying to come up possible overtures that Mikodez might have made during the transit time. So nothing that Iawa received, probably! But I thought it might be useful next move if Mikodez runs away and Ashari attempted to use the tracker in the bar, only to find a tangle of trails from all the people [like the incoming boarders] who ate one? Mostly this was for the video’s sake.]