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hexarchate_rpg2017-08-06 04:29 pm
yhlee) wrote in hexarchate_rpg2017-08-06 04:29 pm
Entry tags:
Move 5 (Chapter 1.5)
Time: 361
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray
The Wasp's cockpit/command center:
Kaliyan notes that the Butterfly Lens asks for a docking maneuver with the Wasp, and approaches slowly and politely on the assumption that this is approved. In the meantime, the second vessel, which Sasha and Yehan previously identified as some kind of Naxorian Rosemallow House starship, decelerates and holds position some distance from the Wasp, lingering without initiating communication.
The Wasp's Engineering room
Anyone in or near Engineering will notice what almost feels like a quaver from the Wasp at the second starship's approach, as though the Wasp is nervous.
[Skipping ahead a bit with the logistics--feel free to add any other preparations that the team would have made before the meeting proper.]
The Wasp's airlock, welcoming party
The ship-to-ship docking maneuver goes more or less smoothly--partly due to Kaliyan's vigilance, partly due to adroit piloting on the Butterfly's end. Two individuals emerge from the other ship. The first is a tall alt with long, rippling hair, their eyes wide and anxious. The alt is not wearing Nirai colors, but instead wears shades of desaturated blue with a blue-and-silver pin that declares that they are a Contact Specialist, Second Class. Their companion appears to be the alt's assistant, a tidy older man with his hair in braids, all wrapped up in a black coat with silver buttons, as if he's used to warmer temperatures. Neither of them resembles Nirai Remi.
Ankat doesn't spot any obvious weapons--it looks like the man could be hiding something beneath his coat, but he'd probably have difficulty getting it out before Ankat could react or call a warning. Probably.
"Ah, snacks!" the alt says, looking sharply at the edible fidget spinners. "You must be from one of those timelines, where the Liozh--" They flutter their hands. "You know."
"Manners, Contact Specialist," the man in the coat says. "You mustn't insult their way of living. We have special dispensation about...alternate orthodoxies, remember?"
"Indeed," the alt says. They will address themselves to the welcoming party in general, although it's clear that they're trying to identify Andan Rii. (As a Contact Specialist, they've probably learned not to make too many hasty assumptions.) "I'm Contact Specialist Andan Bokali, Second Class, and the Nirai have given me the honor of welcoming you and the rest of Bumblebee's crew to Station Moongray. [Referencing this message from Move 4.] This gentle here is my liaison on the station, Nirai Pavn." They smile, eyeing the fidget spinners again as though they suspect some of them are rigged to blow. "It is very good of you to provide refreshments. We were going to feed you back at the station, you know, but--" Andan Bokali smiles wryly. "The cooking there is not always the most festive." Their gaze drifts to Ankat's Scadrian whiskey, and their eyes brighten.
[Feel free to introduce yourselves to the NPCs, mingle with them, discuss terrible space snacks, ask them about the other ship, etc.]
[If you need clarification from me or from another PC, please don't hesitate to ask/message!]
Place: out-rift near Station Moongray
The Wasp's cockpit/command center:
Kaliyan notes that the Butterfly Lens asks for a docking maneuver with the Wasp, and approaches slowly and politely on the assumption that this is approved. In the meantime, the second vessel, which Sasha and Yehan previously identified as some kind of Naxorian Rosemallow House starship, decelerates and holds position some distance from the Wasp, lingering without initiating communication.
The Wasp's Engineering room
Anyone in or near Engineering will notice what almost feels like a quaver from the Wasp at the second starship's approach, as though the Wasp is nervous.
[Skipping ahead a bit with the logistics--feel free to add any other preparations that the team would have made before the meeting proper.]
The Wasp's airlock, welcoming party
The ship-to-ship docking maneuver goes more or less smoothly--partly due to Kaliyan's vigilance, partly due to adroit piloting on the Butterfly's end. Two individuals emerge from the other ship. The first is a tall alt with long, rippling hair, their eyes wide and anxious. The alt is not wearing Nirai colors, but instead wears shades of desaturated blue with a blue-and-silver pin that declares that they are a Contact Specialist, Second Class. Their companion appears to be the alt's assistant, a tidy older man with his hair in braids, all wrapped up in a black coat with silver buttons, as if he's used to warmer temperatures. Neither of them resembles Nirai Remi.
Ankat doesn't spot any obvious weapons--it looks like the man could be hiding something beneath his coat, but he'd probably have difficulty getting it out before Ankat could react or call a warning. Probably.
"Ah, snacks!" the alt says, looking sharply at the edible fidget spinners. "You must be from one of those timelines, where the Liozh--" They flutter their hands. "You know."
"Manners, Contact Specialist," the man in the coat says. "You mustn't insult their way of living. We have special dispensation about...alternate orthodoxies, remember?"
"Indeed," the alt says. They will address themselves to the welcoming party in general, although it's clear that they're trying to identify Andan Rii. (As a Contact Specialist, they've probably learned not to make too many hasty assumptions.) "I'm Contact Specialist Andan Bokali, Second Class, and the Nirai have given me the honor of welcoming you and the rest of Bumblebee's crew to Station Moongray. [Referencing this message from Move 4.] This gentle here is my liaison on the station, Nirai Pavn." They smile, eyeing the fidget spinners again as though they suspect some of them are rigged to blow. "It is very good of you to provide refreshments. We were going to feed you back at the station, you know, but--" Andan Bokali smiles wryly. "The cooking there is not always the most festive." Their gaze drifts to Ankat's Scadrian whiskey, and their eyes brighten.
[Feel free to introduce yourselves to the NPCs, mingle with them, discuss terrible space snacks, ask them about the other ship, etc.]
[If you need clarification from me or from another PC, please don't hesitate to ask/message!]
Re: [moth maintenance]
"What kind of historical divergences?" Sulen asks, desperately curious, although aware that this may be a dangerous line of inquiry considering they have no idea who should be answering their guests' inevitable questions about their own timeline. "Calendar shifts, different interactions with foreigners, faction regime changes- ?" Of course, those other ships probably had almost as much incentive to lie as the crew of the Wasp do, but Sulen's suddenly realizing how intriguing the concept of alternate history is.
Re: [moth maintenance]
"The pentarchate ship, from what we can tell, was fleeing a violent and bloody merger of the Vidona and Kel, who had then turned on the Shuos...something like that. The extant factions were Liozh, Andan, Rahal, Vidona-Kel, and some kind of alliance between the Nirai and a foreign science cooperative. Very strange. And that's assuming they were telling the truth, but it's an inspired fable if so."
Re: [moth maintenance]
Sulen is getting extremely suspicious. It's hard to imagine anything more heretical than an alternate timeline with a different number of factions. If they were in charge of this station, they'd want to keep anything coming through the rifts isolated until it left again, or just destroy it to be safe. They definitely wouldn't want to expose a whole station to such visitors. But then, it sounds like the Rahal here are corrupt and incompetent, so maybe this friendliness is believable after all.
Re: [moth maintenance]
[Another possibility that may or may not occur to Sulen is that this whole "friendly waystation for alternate history travelers" shtick is an elaborate honeypot. That, or Bokali is genuinely more xenophilic than even the average Andan.]
Re: [moth maintenance]
The news about the pentarchate was unfortunate but not unexpected. Rhetoric from other factions after Hellspin fortress had not been restrained by any measure. While there were plenty of classified Shuos files analysing those threats, and yet more classified ones building on those that he hadn’t bothered to check, none of them could be as useful as actual testimony. Mikodez makes a note to find any interview records made during that moth’s visit, and refocuses on Nirai Pavn.
“So you could confirm that there is, in fact, more than one timeline? That's marvelous. Ah, I mean,” with a sideways glance at Sulen. “One should hope that stability can be achieved far into the future without unnecessary upheaval.” Like General Jedao. “But imagine if it was possible to find a different version of yourself, under different environmental conditions. No more need for twin tests. One of me could sleep in, while the other worked on fixing our grid -- oh.” He switches to a register several levels more formal, and says, “Honored Nirai, the crew would venerate you forever if the station could help us with lattice connection. We’ve been out of lattice access for the past thirty nine days, trying to find a specific planet with moonsables for our employer’s project, and I know Inquisitors Virmad and Sulen must be wanting to catch up with any general announcements or official dispensation documents from the Rahal and Liozh, now that we’re back in civilisation.”
Re: [moth maintenance]
Re: [moth maintenance]
Re: [moth maintenance]
Sasha didn't get a chance to stage the grid crash, and the visitors can tell the Wasp's lattice access is working, since one of them is cheerfully downloading figure skating through it. On the other hand, there would've been an unexpected pause in that download due to the firewall. If Mikodez complains about not being able to get downloads to work, it should be sort of plausible.]
Sasha invents a new nickname
Sasha emerges from her research half angry and half perplexed. Murdering Avrayen or Mishka or whatever-his-name-is-today is apparently counterindicated. She could invoke Ashari, but Ashari's at the reception and only listens to Sasha about one time in four on a good day. She'd love to talk to Kaliyan, who seems calm and good at threat assessment, but Kaliyan hasn't answered Sasha's note, which means she's probably doing some important pilot thing and won't welcome interruptions. That leaves Alaric.
Sasha asks the grid to stream a text version of the reception chatter to her antique tablet, and sets alarms in case her decryption routines bear fruit. She's not expecting much from the Butterfly, unless she's lucky enough to catch them making one of the classic implementation mistakes, but she has hopes that the Rosemallow ship will have messed up somewhere.
She already has a special alarm for messages from Kaliyan. Not, she tells herself, that she should expect to need it.
Re: Sasha invents a new nickname
The Rosemallow ship has indeed gotten sloppy with its encryption (helped by a fortuitously timed dose of Sasha's luck). They're speaking in almost grammatical high language to Moongray Station--at the moment they are arguing that they should be allowed access to the "latest visitors," and Moongray Station is trying to maintain its authority over the Wasp.
Re: Sasha invents a new nickname
Re: Sasha invents a new nickname
Re: [moth maintenance]
Re: [moth maintenance]
"Once we reach the station, our lattice engineers would be happy to talk to yours and set you up with whatever you need to update yourselves, make yourselves welcome, and so on."