hexarchate_rpg | Chapter 3.2: Old and new friends, old and new enemies

zuhrovet posting in

Sasha has distributed flutes of sparkling water and small glasses filled with a clear liquor. She finds a clear place to stand near the edge of the party--Jedao and Alaric are to her left, the cluster of people around the mothlings falls at about 3π/8--and signals the grid to adjust the light so that she is highlighted and the other partygoers are very slightly in shadow. She asks the grid for a ringing sound and waits for people to quiet. Her voice slightly amplified by the grid, she says, "Welcome, everyone. We have a unique combination of expertise, on the Cantata. I'm glad that you are here." (It's a formal situation, so she uses the plural 'you'.) "While we are gathered, let us toast to the success of the rebellion."

Sasha waits for an answering murmur, then raises her own glass and knocks it back. The liquor tastes like snow and homesickness; but these are her people now. A slight gesture of her left hand makes illumination linger on Jedao for a moment, before the room lights return to normal.

Sasha sees Remi trying to explain that shot glasses are not for mothlings, and grins in genuine amusement.

[We have some really fascinating conversations running in the previous move. I don't want to cut them off, but please put new threads here!

Also, an out-of-character public service announcement: Remi is a youthful, apparently non-sociopathic version of Kujen, plucked from an earlier timeline. He has not yet interacted with Jedao.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

yhlee

Jedao finally sees not just Remi's face, but Remi gesturing with a shot glass. He freezes for a fraction of a second, then drains his entire glass of liquor. His face has gone white as he watches, making no secret of his interest. Remi, preoccupied with the mothlings, hasn't noticed.

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli's still watching Jedao, never getting in his way, never lingering in his space, but always watchful. When the light hits his face from Sasha's toast, they don't look away, not caring if Jedao sees them staring. So they catch that moment of ...panic? With no sense of subtly (not that you can ever be subtle in a sequined dress) they approach the fox. "Problem with someone?" It doesn't quite come out casual, but at the very least Seyli keeps from sounding defensive.

Edited Date: 2020-01-19 07:48 pm (UTC)

From:

yhlee

"Pardon me," Jedao says to Seyli. He is quite formal--almost overly so. "I need to report to Sasha when she is not occupied." He glances back towards her, then to Seyli. "May I ask the name of your scientist with the mothlings?"

To Reshad, he signs, An old friend, with an ironic inflection, but does not elaborate.

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli doesn't like the formal address, it doesn't sit well. "You don't have to talk like that to me," they say, first, before they absorb the rest of the question. "Remi?" Seyli looks over at scientist, who they'd classified as 'odd, smarter than you, engage with caution'. "Nirai Remi, he's been here since before I joined. Why do you want to know?"

From:

yhlee

"I'll remember that," Jedao says. "Remi?" He frowns slightly, also looking over at Remi before returning his attention to Seyli. "How long has he been with the rebellion, do you know? Or is this a question I should address to someone else?"

From:

kese_seyli

"Without a doubt." They frown at Jedao, hand on on their hip. They don't like him getting interested in anyone in the crew, especially not someone who makes him go pale like that. Seyli opens their mouth to say more, but nothing comes out but a disgusted sound. "Sasha, Sulen, Rashad, they were around when he came aboard." And they should know Jedao's interested, anyway. They don't add that they're going to be watching him, because of course they will be now.

From:

slybrarian

"We semi-kidnapped him from - no, wait, I'm thinking of the other one," Alaric says after swallowing an oversized mouthful of pork ribs that he'd obtained after deciding some protein was in order. "Our first mission, we were sent to retrieve him. He was doing research on the mothlings, which is why we've got that half of our menagerie. He was very concerned about making sure we brought them along."

From:

kese_seyli

Seyli practically chokes when Alaric speaks, trying not to laugh inappropriately. "I think Jedao knows we kidnapped him, yes."

From:

yhlee

"You 'liberated' me," Jedao quips. "Lean into the propaganda." But his eyes don't leave Remi.

From:

slybrarian

"No, I'm referring to Gerae, who I'm pretty sure we also took from that station and stuffed in a cell for a while." Alaric says with a shake of his head. "I'll admit I'm a bit unclear about the exact circumstances; I was busy trying to drug and kidnap our own baby fox at the time and only met him after I recovered Fluffy for him. That entire mission didn't really go as planned."

From:

kese_seyli

"Have any of our missions gone according to plan?" They ask this while side-eyeing Jedao.

From:

hoardingpearls

The little knot of people suddenly around Jedao does a few things: it cuts the lines of sight behind Seyli's glimmering figure and gives Reshad time to think through her response.

She meanders toward the buffet table to set her empty glass down on a tray, liquor still warm in her throat from the last few sips. Awareness of where people are is rarely so useful as when communication relies on vision, and she makes sure to block her signing hand from Remi's sight with her body. Imminent danger? It's a known risk that someone else might catch her signing, but she'd rather hide the conversation from the object of the discussion.

Especially when it could be as simple as mistaken identity. Jedao and Remi occupy two different places on the timeline she's memorized. So: how? She doesn't think he's lying, not unless he's an actor to rival any dramatist. A mistake is possible. Also possible: there is something afoot she does not understand, and the way to address that is investigation.

While she idly chooses dumplings to ballast the shot, she keeps his free hand in sight. That course brings her closer to the lights.

From:

yhlee

I require clarification, Jedao signs back, on a point of identity.

Jedao palms one of the euphorics, making no secret of doing so, and ingests the whole thing in one go. He does not look as though he expects it to bring him much relief.

From:

hoardingpearls

"He is not the kind of person who rises high in the heptarchate.”

Reshad nods to Sulen. "That's good. I'm hoping what we have is a case of mistaken identity." Serious enough, as it goes; she'd wager a favor on that reaction being real.

His response does leave some amount of uncertainty - perhaps Jedao isn't sure about Remi's identity, either.

Accepted, Reshad signs. He's an early timeline moth scientist. What's target identity?

And as a follow-up, she signs: Extract? Perhaps it'll help to get him out of the current situation, out of Seyli's line of fire and Sulen's.

"I'm going to try and pull him out of-" A gesture at the little knot of people surrounding Jedao- "that. See if it helps to make this a non-incident." And snagging a pastry that proves to be warm and surprisingly heavy, she drifts purposefully around Seyli.

"Jedao," she calls, as if she hasn't seen him taking a euphoric. "Have you met Xiulan and Hana yet? Since we're all doing the rounds."

Reshad gestures with her empty hand, indicating the conversation furthest from Remi and his mothlings.

From:

yhlee

Jedao signs to Reshad, Request opportunity to deliver full report to you and Sasha in a less crowded setting. Please extract.

As though they weren't just conversing, Jedao replies to Reshad, "I don't believe I've had the pleasure." He drifts in the direction indicated.

From:

hoardingpearls

"Well, then, now's your opportunity." With a wave over her shoulder, she subvocalizes. Between her augment and Sasha's very probable connection to the grid ...well, she can hope.

Something is up. Jedao requests report. Soonest is probably best.

And in sign: Requested. Retreat to the moth if you need.

Waiting for Sasha's response, she smiles at Xiulan and Hana. "I wasn't sure if you'd met our other new team member," she says, gesturing to Jedao, now with her back to Remi.

Damn; whatever Xiulan is, she isn't Shuos, probably. Which means she can't use sign. But- fieldwork. Instead, Reshad makes a significant dart of her eyes, indicating Jedao, and hopes her posture and face adequately ask, keep him safe.

[At this point, she'll head over to Istradez. Nothing is wrong here no sir-]

From:

stormglass

Well now. She still doesn’t know what caused Jedao’s reaction in Remi’s direction, but maybe someone does. Either way, Reshad has collected the former and is leading him toward she and Hana. Significant Looks are being dealt.

“I hadn’t.” She smiles at Jedao. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Xiulan. Sasha was just telling me you’re the one to talk to about some questions I had. But.” She gives an exaggerated look of solemnity. “I’m remembering we’re at a party and some people have strong feelings about shop talk at parties.”

In light of Reshad’s protective air - and isn’t that interesting? - and the fact the other woman heads off, she lifts her brows subtly at Jedao in query. Difficult to guess what may be needed here, but she’s attentive and keeps herself positioned where she can see Remi and the mothlings.

[If he heads over toward Sasha, she’ll tag along in case...something! happens. She’d have no reason to guess Jedao hadn’t seen someone who was on the same moth, so she’s even more baffled than the others *L*

Does he seem impaired by the euphoric?]

From:

yhlee

[Jedao does not appear to be particularly impaired by the euphoric--he has a strong tolerance for most recreational drugs, possibly a product of a misspent youth. His pupils are slightly dilated but that's about it at the moment.

He notices the raised eyebrows and also notices that Xiulan isn't signing to him.]

"On the contrary," Jedao says, "parties are the best place for shop talk. But I recognize this is a minority opinion. One of the games we used to play in my academy days was to see just how incriminating conversations we could have at parties without getting called on it. What's it like where you're from?"

[He will stay put until Sasha collects him.]

Re: less than subtle hawk hovering (paging Sasha, Hana, and Xiulan)

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stormglass - Date: 2020-01-25 06:01 pm (UTC) - Expand

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yhlee - Date: 2020-01-25 07:39 pm (UTC) - Expand

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sageling - Date: 2020-01-26 08:25 pm (UTC) - Expand

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yhlee - Date: 2020-01-27 01:18 am (UTC) - Expand

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stormglass - Date: 2020-01-27 08:39 pm (UTC) - Expand

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yhlee - Date: 2020-01-28 04:06 am (UTC) - Expand

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stormglass - Date: 2020-01-30 02:02 am (UTC) - Expand

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yhlee - Date: 2020-01-30 02:26 am (UTC) - Expand

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sageling - Date: 2020-02-02 02:48 am (UTC) - Expand

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yhlee - Date: 2020-02-02 06:18 pm (UTC) - Expand

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yhlee - Date: 2020-02-03 12:41 am (UTC) - Expand

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stormglass - Date: 2020-02-03 01:13 am (UTC) - Expand

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zuhrovet - Date: 2020-02-03 01:24 am (UTC) - Expand

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yhlee - Date: 2020-02-03 01:35 am (UTC) - Expand

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zuhrovet - Date: 2020-02-03 02:04 am (UTC) - Expand

she gets it, folks (paging xiulan)

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sageling - Date: 2020-02-03 02:53 am (UTC) - Expand

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stormglass - Date: 2020-02-03 05:44 pm (UTC) - Expand

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sageling - Date: 2020-02-05 01:33 am (UTC) - Expand

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stormglass - Date: 2020-02-08 07:50 am (UTC) - Expand

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sageling - Date: 2020-02-09 10:51 am (UTC) - Expand

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stormglass - Date: 2020-02-10 11:54 pm (UTC) - Expand

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sageling - Date: 2020-02-11 02:13 am (UTC) - Expand

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stormglass - Date: 2020-02-18 04:11 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha twists her fingers and the grid transmits, "Acknowledged." She begins to move in Jedao's direction. She snags a spiced roll at random on the way, because she's not an utter wolverine, but her focus is on the quiet stream of verbal commands (in Naxorian) that she's giving the grid.

At the side of the room, a door appears. It wasn't there a minute ago.

From:

hoardingpearls

Reshad has a shot of the anonymous liquor, and a discreet sniff has revealed it to be both strong and delicious. She drinks in time with the rest, the cold flavor a reminder: new place. New people. New role, relatively speaking.

Habit sends her eyes sweeping the group, noting reactions and faces, who stands together and who apart. The subtlety of the lighting is not lost, and she spares a smile for it, drawing the gaze to Sasha and Jedao. She herself is in shadow, as suits.

Jedao's face blanches as if he's seen a ghost. Reshad uses her glass, pretty bright crystal as it is, to glint what little light there is, trying to gain his attention. Her free hand shivers in Shuos sign.

Status? She inflects it with the twist of worry.

From:

yhlee

see response to Reshad here, in the interests of consolidating the thread.

From:

venndaai

Sulen, who's been periodically switching their attention back to Jedao, notices his alarm, and approaches Reshad. "Is everything all right?" they ask quietly, meaning, is the person I'm still half convinced is a ticking time bomb about to go off?

From:

stormglass

An interesting lighting choice, she thinks while swallowing clear liquor. It says more about the Cantata’s crew as a whole than an entire heap of words might have.

So does what happens next, but the translation on this one is thus far more opaque.

Jedao reacts to something - about Remi? Others in turn move in apparent reaction. No one makes any sudden motions however and one of the former Kel, Seyli, is nearby. Xiulan frees her hands up by leaving her glass on a table and drifts to a better vantage point, noting Sasha and Sulen’s locations in particular.

From:

hoardingpearls

People in a room: a constellation of danger. Some nodes in that matrix hold less mayhem than others, and Reshad must once again consider that someone's threat assessment is badly awry. (Could be hers. Could be not.) Xiulan, the new woman with the air of military competence, seems to be readying, too.

"I don't think we're in any imminent danger," she says to Sulen. Her tone is not the glib reassurance it could be. Rather, it has an air of careful consideration.

Then again, Jedao's military career is one of plans nobody saw coming, and the dramas are torn on whether he took time to generate them. She thinks of black swans, and tilts her head so the feather ornament in her hair bobs. "You were here before me," she notes, as an opening to a shift. "Remi came aboard very early in the timeline, did he not?"

From:

venndaai

Sulen’s brow creases. “Yes. Very early. But I’m from the same time as Jedao,” or close enough, “and I am not aware of any historical figure with Remi’s name, appearance or background. Personally, I had assumed he originally died or faded into obscurity without our intervention. He is not the kind of person who rises high in the heptarchate.”

Even a fox with a variable signifier and a reputation for trickery couldn’t fake the alarm Sulen is seeing when they scry him- could they?