Move 5 (Chapter 1.5)
Aug. 6th, 2017 04:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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hexarchate_rpgTime: 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: Nirai scientist snobbery
Date: 2017-08-09 02:42 pm (UTC)[Iawa has no idea how scientific progress works.]
Re: Nirai scientist snobbery
Date: 2017-08-09 05:47 pm (UTC)"I should make sure to mention that some of this cargo is in fact, available for purchase; I'll point out specifically that we have several more cases of this lovely Scadrian whiskey, made at the Distillery of Flowering Rains in 564, a real bargain for the discerning alcoholic."
whiskey!
Date: 2017-08-10 10:49 pm (UTC)Ankat's offer snags Bokali's attention. "Oh, that's...very good," Bokali says. "I adore a good whiskey."
"And some of the bad ones, too," Pavn says dryly.
"No whiskey is completely awful," Bokali says. It sounds like an old argument. They turn back to Ankat, smiling. "Tell me, do you use standard heptarchate marks, or do you prefer barter? Given the difficulties with currency across different times and places..."
Re: whiskey!
Date: 2017-08-12 06:22 am (UTC)[currency issues]
Date: 2017-08-13 07:21 pm (UTC)Re: [currency issues]
Date: 2017-08-14 12:59 am (UTC)I suspect that a cryptocurrency that maintained a complete timestamped record of every transaction would also cause problems with the high calendar. So let's assume that we've got a heavily anonymized cryptocurrency that tracks approximate location and relative date: associated with any given mark is information about approximately where it was last spent, and how long ago. (We'll leave the details of exactly how this works to the computer scientists of the future.) I'll call this currency the mark, though it could be an alternative to the official hexarchate currency if you know that works some other way.
You can check up on validity of transactions made with marks in approximately the same star system using the markchain; for more spatially distant transactions you're relying on information saved in the marks themselves. The computation you do to validate a mark supports baseline functions of the high calendar. It can't be anything too sophisticated, because if every adjustment of the high calendar affected the currency system there'd be political chaos, but probably it helps ansibles run or something. This means forging marks is a heresy.
Bitcoin has a difficulty level that affects the rate at which new bitcoins can be "mined". If the mark is the *-archate's official currency, they probably have some equivalent of the US Fed that sets the difficulty. I'm imagining this as a panel of economists, one from each faction, who use a lightweight version of the Kel command mindmeld to achieve consensus. I don't think the other factions would want to leave this to the Andan, and indeed, Andan control of high finance might be part of why this cash-like system gained popularity in the first place.
The Space Internet runs on microtransactions. Every time you download something, you pay a tiny fraction of a mark, part of which ultimately goes to the creators of the content. If you watch ads, they offset the cost of your Space Internet use. One advantage of the lokwors is that when you're using them you don't have to pay Space Internet postage.]
Re: [currency issues]
Date: 2017-08-14 08:48 pm (UTC)Literally all I know canonically about h*archate currency is that they have a "high" currency (the "mark") and then local systems, space stations, etc. may have local currencies, and there are exchange rate shenanigans from time to time. Beyond that, who knows...I never planned on going it into detail.]
[EDIT: Do you mind if I put your material on currency into the game wiki for future reference? (Unless you want to do it yourself, or object to it going in there.)]
Re: [currency issues]
Date: 2017-08-14 09:02 pm (UTC)[Sure, the wiki sounds like a good place for this!
The NPR One app decided I really like economics podcasts, and I did a lot of driving last week...]
Re: Nirai scientist snobbery
Date: 2017-08-10 12:08 am (UTC)Pavn catches himself, then adds, "But you don't care about the minutiae, I'm sure. The short version is that we're trying to figure out if it's a natural phenomenon, or the intervention of an advanced civilization. We can't rule anything out."
[The GM may be making up bafflegab based on how the LIGO gravity wave observatory works, since the GM is not a scientist either...]
Re: Nirai scientist snobbery
Date: 2017-08-11 06:25 am (UTC)When Pavn sums up his research, though, Iawa's interest is no longer just politeness. An advanced civilization. Just for a moment, the part of Iawa who joined the Vidona out of a genuine conviction that the heptarchate's system of government was worth upholding starts panicking about outside attackers. Then he remembers. And has some questions for Crow, when he sees her next. If they all survive this mission, of course.
"Of course it's too early for any definite conclusion," he says mildly. "But what is your opinion so far? Natural phenomenon or intervention?"
[I decided that Nirai, and people with Nirai training, like Ton, use carved wooden beetles for their rubber duck debugging.]
Re: Nirai scientist snobbery
Date: 2017-08-12 02:42 am (UTC)[I had not heard of rubber duck debugging but suddenly I am convinced that that is the reason I sucked so much at debugging during the two years I did CS in undergrad.
I wonder if Jedao tried it with a rubber goose.]
Re: Nirai scientist snobbery
Date: 2017-08-12 03:57 pm (UTC)[From what I've heard, it's not uncommon for programmers to lose their tempers and perpetrate violence on the rubber ducks. So if Jedao did that to a rubber goose, he would not be alone.]