hexarchate_rpg | Move 7 (Chapter 1.7)

Time: 361
Place: Station Moongray, at last!

[GM's note: If your characters wanted to make any preparations or do any interactions in between Move 6 and Move 7, that's totally fine--just start a thread here with an appropriate subject header so everyone knows. If it's more in the nature of character RP than plot-related RP, it's also fine to start a separate character RP post.]

The Wasp
The Wasp is securely docked under Kaliyan's guidance in one of Moongray's bays--pretty roomy, but Moongray must be used to receiving shipments of raw materials for any fabrication, plus any specialty equipment they can't make or replace with what they have on-station.

In response to Alaric's last communication with the Wasp [Move 6], it responds with a box containing the Wasp, a bag-of-water human figure, and the Rebellion's logo and a "1." Then it pauses and sends two juxtaposed illustrations, one of a moth inside a box with a specifically Nirai voidmoth logo, and one of three moths outside the box.

The welcome on-station
When anyone who's coming on-station emerges, Andan Bokali and Nirai Pavn lead the way.

The group is greeted by Station Administrator Nirai Paerani Shan--who watches them from behind a translucent partition. Shan is a short, stumpy woman whose every inch of visible skin is covered with tattoos and/or implants. The lenses covering her eyes combined with the colorful, shimmering shawl she's wearing makes her resemble a butterfly. "So what's this I hear about trade goods?" she says through an intercom system that distorts her voice.

A rather harried looking group of security workers appears at another door that is blocked by yet another translucent partition. Interestingly (and this was not mentioned in the briefing materials), their leader appears to be a broad, muscular lieutenant seconded from the Kel--the Nirai uniform looks like it only barely fits him, and the golden Kel ashhawk at his breast gleams in the lights of the docking bay.

"Before we start negotiating," the lieutenant says after an inscrutable look in Shan's direction, as if he's used to her jumping the gun (so to speak), "I will have to ask you all to submit to a security and medical scan, for everyone's safety. It might tickle if you have any implants." He holds up a handheld scanner.

Bokali looks bemused. "I always do love being the guinea pig for any bored diseases, but I don't even feel so much as a sniffle coming on."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sasha gets an only moderately extortionate quote on the ad buy with the specified parameters, which she is welcome to try to haggle down. The system also helpfully suggests cross-listing to dating services--apparently romance-minded Nirai like taking their dates to performances as much as anyone else.

The pseudo-Naxorian virus has turned up not only duty schedules but some rather harried notes on overtime and equipment time-sharing squabbles. Nirai Remi's name turns up twice in that latter context; apparently he has a certain amount of authority over one of the detectors and had to intervene before things got heated.

A variant of the wriggly virus is in almost all the station cameras except the ones around the main detector, which appear to be clean.

[Ah, Eberron! Those were the days. *g* I played an Eberron bard once in a live tabletop campaign.]

Under the pretext of haggling, Sasha tries to extract details on art-patron demographics: how many 20-25-year-old Nirai dancers might her ad expect to reach? 40-45-year-old Shuos gallery visitors? and so on through the combinations.

She forwards the duty schedule information to Ashari and the Kel, along with the notes on Remi. She also checks her maps: can she tell where Remi's detector is, or is that inside a secure area? Then she sends the Naxorian virus after information on security and maintenance workers. She's interested in both rough numbers (how many people might notice, if they start messing with the drones?) and purchasing records that might tell her what protocols are in place.

The gap in wriggly-virus presence is almost as interesting as the coverage. Sasha tries to work out where the data it gathers is going.

[Can Sasha get images out of the station cameras? How good is the resolution (for example, can she start reading people's passphrases)? How prevalent is the coverage (will literally everything we do on station be visible, or are there obvious blank spots?)]

The haggling goes well as far as information-gathering goes. It looks like most 20-25-year-old Nirai dancers, for instance, are involved with the local arts community. There is a fair amount of interest in the arts, mainly as an entertainment outlet.

Remi's detector is inside a secure area, but given that there are only so many secure areas on the station, she can narrow it down to one of three levels. It probably won't even be that hard to find out where the detector is--it's the kind of information someone might let slip over drinks.

There are not as many security workers as you might think, with a lot of defenses automated, but a fair number of maintenance workers who are largely lower-level Nirai (grad students?).

Wriggly-virus data appears to be reporting to...the seconded Kel lieutenant's office. Kel Teo.

[Sasha can indeed get images out of station cameras, although the resolution is not good enough for passphrases. There are blank spots in coverage so if she maps them and passes them on to the team, they can be assured of some privacy. It looks like the cameras are mainly concerned with making sure no one randomly sabotages the equipment.]

Memo: Sasha to Iawa and Avrayen: Map update

Have updated maps for your lokwors. Please visit comms room prior to debarkation.

The lokwors don't have a full grid interface-- it's a security feature!-- so Sasha can't just push data to them.
She adds the information about places to avoid cameras to the other lokwors before handing them out, applying the veneer of a lightly gamified fitness app, with gold stars in different areas of the station and exhortations about how walking is good for spacers. One advantage of not being Shuos is not having to worry about whether your games are any good.

Memo: Sasha to Yehan and Iawa: Graphic design

Want to make an ad for Ashari's show, target at Remi's demographic, track attention. Either of you up for visual design? Else will just play music.

[If anybody wants to describe the details of the near-future meme Sasha's trying to introduce to station, that would be neat!]

[Before, or after Sasha discovers the box in her room? Consider Mikodez duly present.]

[Probably before-- I'm guessing Sasha went back to her room shortly before leaving the ship.]

Sasha starts running code to pull data from carefully chosen station cameras, look for images of Remi, and collate those sightings with his duty schedule. It's a slow process, made slower by her desire to avoid setting off alarms within the station's grid. She briefly considers staying on the Wasp to babysit her projects, but the alternative is visiting a space station in the future, so there's no real contest.

...huh. Remi is really good at keeping to his duty schedule, excepting those times when the detector he's responsible for goes down and he has to stay up for longer hours. So predicting where he'll be shouldn't be difficult.

In fact, she can go back far enough to determine that he's become more punctual since contacting the Rebellion, as if trying to make extraction easier.

[Any glimpses of Remi outside work and the dance studio? Always at the same bar on a Tuesday, that kind of thing?]

[Let's say he's always at the same bar on a Tuesday, sure, and that there's a cafe specializing in bubble tea where he picks up a drink every morning before going in to work.

...I can't remember what h*archate days of the week were called although it's probably in my notes, but for ease of play let's just go with the standard Sunday through Saturday during the heptarchate era.]

[What day and time are we arriving? And how quickly does Sasha extract this information? I can have her set an alarm if the Remi information will come through after clearing security. (Apologies for enforcing a local calendar!)]

[Let's say you're arriving in Month Three, Day Sixteen, 3 p.m.-ish. The station keeps high calendar time without the kinds of fiddly local timezone adjustments that would be necessary on a planet or moon.

The Remi information will come through shortly after Sasha clears security.]

[On a Sunday?]

[I am weapons-grade bad at calendars in real life, which is hilarious, I know. Sure?]

[Did I ever mention the time I lost my keys . . . inside the pocket of the coat I was wearing?

Anyway, yay, we know where to find Remi in two days if we need to!]

Move 7 (Chapter 1.7)

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking - command, take note?

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking - command, take note?

Memos: Sasha to Iawa and Avrayen, Sasha to Yehan and Iawa

Re: Memos: Sasha to Iawa and Avrayen, Sasha to Yehan and Iawa

Re: Memos: Sasha to Iawa and Avrayen, Sasha to Yehan and Iawa

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking - command, take note?

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking - command, take note?

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking - command, take note?

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking - command, take note?

Re: a little bit of flashback hacking - command, take note?

[arrival information]

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