zuhrovet: Woman with a hunting eagle (kel)
[personal profile] zuhrovet posting in [community profile] hexarchate_rpg
[In the current move, Sasha has just accepted an oath of service from Jedao, a relationship Reshad believes is coercive. I'm not sure whether this properly counts as character rp or a new half-move, but I think we all need some new space to deal with the fallout!]

Sasha is waiting outside the antechamber. She has tied her scarf again, and looks as put-together as she ever does. "Are we having this conversation in my office?" she asks Reshad. "Or over tea, with everyone?"
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"Of course I can," Cantata says, with an air of Sasha asking something that it's always taken for granted, "but it would be the height of rudeness to tell you without the other moths' permission."
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"I would only do that if we were about to mate," the Cantata says, then: "This is a highly improper conversation." The grid renders this in a somewhat huffy tone.

[edited for clarity]
Edited Date: 2019-11-26 02:01 am (UTC)
slybrarian: The Incomparable Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmare's Angel (Nightmare Scientist)
From: [personal profile] slybrarian
Alaric chooses that moment to shimmy his way out of a nearby access conduit, where he had been beating some recalcitrant circuits in the variable geometry mechanisms into behaving. "Really? That seems like a remarkable amount of precision to exert at a distance."
yhlee: red and black tentacle heart pendant (tentacle heart)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"Mating happens at a certain close range," the Cantata says, going back to sounding confused. "Do your people mate over large distances somehow?"
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
Cantata gets distracted by the first statement: "You have sex with the aid of machines? That might explain a lot, actually. Oh! I didn't mean to be crass, it's just that you are such interesting creatures."
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"If they wouldn't be offended," Cantata says, "I will message the Rahal about it. Is it improper to have a conversation with them at the same time that I'm having this conversation with you?"

On the harnesses: "Of course you may," Cantata says after a slight hesitation. "But aren't they an invention of your people? Surely you know more about them than I do."
slybrarian: The Incomparable Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmare's Angel (Nightmare Scientist)
From: [personal profile] slybrarian
"We have the technical readouts and operations manuals," Alaric explains, "but while they have plenty to say about using the harnesses, they're regrettably short on the subjective experiences of the moths under their control. It's possible there's studies locked away in Nihrai archives somewhere, but if so they're not public knowledge."
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"I could certainly talk about that," the Cantata says, a little doubtfully, "but it's so hard to remember specifics. It's like being in a regeneration dream, and everything's fuzzy once you wake up."
slybrarian: The Incomparable Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmare's Angel (Nightmare Scientist)
From: [personal profile] slybrarian
"Hah, no, that's a common misconception!" Alaric quickly says. "It's actually still data to say 'this product and/or service rendered me into a semi-conscious dream state'. Everything being fuzzy like a dream is different than being completely unconscious, or having your thoughts constrained into a particular path. Or, for example, being blackout drunk where you appear lucid at the time but the next morning you can't recall anything and have to reassemble everything from contradictory physical evidence and the Rashomon-like testimonies of your so-called friends."
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"The harnessed ones?" Cantata says. "They sound like they're dreaming and not aware of much of the outside world. We don't speak much when we're dreaming--it attracts predators. I'm very surprised that more of them haven't followed us from our home dimension, because we would be easy meat for them in this state. Perhaps the harnesses taste bad."
slybrarian: The Incomparable Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmare's Angel (Nightmare Scientist)
From: [personal profile] slybrarian
Alaric waves Sasha's question off distractedly. "First, it's possible that your behavior is sufficiently difference under harness that it doesn't attract attention. Or maybe ships occasionally go missing or have to fight off unknown attackers. We could check the stats on that. Second, predators? What sort of predators?"
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"That's true," Cantata replies thoughtfully. "Or maybe the predators think diseased meat will be bad for them. We're not really sure what they think. You didn't know about the predators? We're a prey species in our native dimension. There are a lot of predators, all bigger than we are. They have many teeth in many mouths. Why do you think we fly so fast?"
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"I heard from the older moths when I was a mothling, of course," Cantata says. "Before I was harnessed. They have some of the older more loosely harnessed to teach us how to fly."
yhlee: Alto clef and whole note (middle C). (hxx emblem Nirai)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
"Yes, I should like to try that," Cantata says, a bit hesitantly. "If the other moth wants the harness put back, we'll do that too, won't we? Even if it's a terrible idea."

side note on mothy manipulation - paging Alaric

Date: 2019-11-29 11:49 pm (UTC)
yhlee: M31 galaxy (M31)
From: [personal profile] yhlee
[[personal profile] slybrarian: Alaric will know that any shenanigans that the Cantata gets up to can be detected by other moths, or potentially other beings with gravitational wave detectors, at some distance from the Cantata itself. I leave the details in your hands.]
slybrarian: The Incomparable Leonardo de Montreal, Nightmare's Angel (Nightmare Scientist)
From: [personal profile] slybrarian
"Gravitational wave detectors would work, but I'm not sure we have anything that we could gram into a small enough remote. We'd probably want something close to a standard maintenance robot or servitor to keep it unnoticed. It'd probably be very obvious to other moths, even in a dream state, and that could cause agitation that the ships' engineers would notice." Alaric spreads his hands, almost apologetic. "That doesn't even get into sending a signal back. For now, the grid is our best bet, until we can rig up some sort of dedicated and stealthier comms system."

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The Intolerable Clock: A Non-Canon Hexarchate RPG

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