Move 2.5 Recap

After the briefing: Reshad, Sasha, Seyli, and Sulen

Sulen tells Seyli, Reshad and Sasha, "I understand the security concerns in letting one person do this alone, but I would still advocate for Reshad to release Jedao and make him comfortable by herself. She has the best chance of forming a bond with him. If Seyli was on standby right outside, would that be acceptable?" Sulen says they can wait in the antechamber, but they "should be the one to unbind him, in case he tries anything. I'll step out after." Sulen concurs, "The effect should still work. I will be watching, and I'll let you know immediately if I believe Reshad requires assistance." Reshad promises to do her best: "If we can get the beginnings of trust, that will allow us a chance at more."

Sasha asks Reshad if she wants grid permission to change the room configuration: "The standard routines will create a desk, or a padded bench." Seyli says, "A standard Kel jail cell should be fine enough for him. I can do that if granted permissions." Sasha asks what the standard entails. Reshad asks, with a curious tone, "Is a jail cell truly appropriate? If we're trying to make an ally, we may wish to supply more comfort." She conceals her frustration with the team's reluctance to build cooperation. Sulen observes, "I would rather he be kept somewhat uncomfortable, and I suspect he would distrust excessive comfort in any case, but he should have something padded to sleep on." They reflect that this is more comfort than a standard Kel or Rahal cell would provide. Sasha clarifies that "any of" Reshad, Seyli, and Sulen can make this change: "It's in the grid as Basic One, along with a bench, a low wall, and some hygiene provisions." Seyli says, "I defer to you all." Sasha tells them to go ahead when they and Reshad are ready.

Ione and Sasha

Sasha prints a jeng-zai deck, then finds Ione. She asks her, "Could you tell me more about what you mentioned in the meeting, about telekinetics?" Ione realizes Sasha is referencing her description of "angry telekinetics": "In my younger mother's origin world, it's not uncommon for telekinetics with little training to lose their tempers and end up breaking things with their minds. Usually how a child finds out they're a telekinetic, too." She explains that though it's not something with which she has direct experience, she has heard her brother describe it as "brain fireworks." Sasha asks, "Do you feel anything when your empathy is active, besides the emotions themselves? And what kinds of things break?" She reflects that although she does not remember breaking things herself, she was punished for accidents in the kitchen when her brother was not.

Ione explains that the breakage often involves glass or porcelain: "Anything breakable by nature if you dropped it physically, so it tends to be plates or drinking glasses or ornaments, or ... windows, once? They were not reinforced windows." She twists her hair nervously, and explains that she grew up on her "younger mother's" and "grandmother's" world, "one that everyone from this one would find painfully backward, but they're a lot more understanding of little psionic things like telekinesis and empathy. I grew up weird because we moved worlds so many times, so I apologize if I make the discussion even weirder by being -- me." She explains that when her empathy is active, she usually feels "a little more alive, but I think that's just because of breaking through the filters; they aren't my filters, by origin, I don't remember if I said that. Someone else put them in, so I'm not feeling everything all the time. When I was a lot younger, as protection, and now it's mostly to avoid being rude and accidentally feeling things. I think if I hadn't had the filter, Jedao might have pushed me to unconsciousness." Sasha sees Ione touching her hair, and realizes that she is attracted to her. She assumes that Ione would respond with disinterested compassion, and hopes that instead she hasn't noticed.

Sasha explains that she started the conversation because of "a thing that happens." Holding out the deck she printed, she explains, "They're still more or less in order. You'll want to shuffle at least nine times." Curious, Ione shuffles thirteen times, a number that is important on one of the worlds she came from. Sasha predicts, correctly, that the card she draws will be the Mathematician: "This happens nearly every time. Not almost always, but a lot. We can keep trying, if you want to test. Or you can look for tricks--but I promise, I'm not wasting your time with sleight-of-hand."

Ione says, "Oh," and wishes she shared the family skill of detecting psychic phenomena. Tapping her gloved fingers against her thumb, she goes on, "No, I believe you. Unless you'd feel better to keep showing me. You don't know what's telling you?" Sasha imagines touching Ione's hand, but her answer is matter-of-fact: "I don't know what it means. That I'm a fuck of a lot better at math than the Nirai thought I was? But I don't believe the divination is the point--it's just easier to see an effect, when outcomes are constrained." She explains that when something "could move in many ways" her luck is "more extreme than it should be." She lists wonderful or awful jeng-zai hands, marksmanship, and darts as evidence, and reflects that Ashari's dagger displayed similar behavior.

Ione says, "I was going to guess you might be warping probability, but ... that usually goes in one way or the other. Not both. You can't control it, though? So it might be a probability warping ... aura, or something along those lines. I am absolutely the wrong kind of doctor for this, but if you trust me ..." Tense, Sasha reflects that although she believes Ione will do what she thinks is right, she can't guess what that might be. She says carefully, "I can increase the effect, sometimes, with certain stories, or by inducing certain frames of mind. I had hoped you might guess how to turn it off. Could you tell me, please, what you have in mind?" Ione says that she can work out how to turn the effect off once she understands it, "which means a lot of questions" to determine whether the effect is "an aura" outside Sasha or "something innate," followed by "boring, time consuming data collection" and probability testing: "If it can be figured out it would probably be a boon to the rebellion." Enthusiastic, she goes on, "Trying to see what things you can do and how you can influence them, from -- say a game of cards to a race to a duel. Those are the sorts of things I could do here. Even just having you draw cards from that deck while hooked up to an electroencephalogram might provide some fascinating data." She points out that "Remi would probably immediately notice" experiments with an electroencephalogram, and adds that the people she knows who could disable such an effect are "inconveniently not present."

Sasha had both feared and anticipated a direct use of Ione's powers. Relieved, she says, "There's not much else to do while we're in transit. I can give you an hour a day until we're back at Autumn Pyre, maybe more. Make a list of what you want to try, and we'll set up some meetings?" Ione agrees, with the unspoken caveat that she's not an expert, and the spoken warning, "If we ... have the equipment I'm expecting, anyway. I doubt the printer can produce an EEG." Sasha tells her that building "detectors for subtle calendrical variations" would require input from Remi or Alaric, but "An EEG? That's ancient tech. The difficult parts are software, not hardware, and if I can't dig some relevant code out of the moth's libraries, I'm giving back my fucking rebellion card." She bounces in her chair, looking forward to the hunt. Surprised by the "ancient" characterization, Ione says, "I wasn't sure it would have a pattern for it. I have software on my personal tablet, I'm just not sure if it'll function or not, since the whole teleportation aspect of it oh so conveniently does not." Sasha notes, "I expect it will be easier for you to learn new software than for me to hook yours up to our hardware. Our library has weapons, armour, and medical devices at a whole range of tech levels--you never know what weird invariant stuff you'll have to fall back on."

Gerae and Sulen

Sulen checks on Gerae, who is scratching Fluffy. He asks Sulen, "Do you know who set out the calcium snacks for Fluffy? It's such a good idea. I'm afraid I didn't know what to do in case of pseudo-dragon pregnancy. No wonder she was so hungry all the time." They promise to find out, adding, "Is there anything else you're in need of?" They offer Fluffy a hand to sniff. Gerae suggests a heating pad: "The nestlings will want warmth, and if they have a nice heating pad to share, Fluffy can spend more time foraging for them. Even if we provide her all her food, she's going to be looking for extra snacks anyway." Fluffy licks Sulen's hand with a long, pink tongue.

Sulen scratches Fluffy behind the ears, recalling faint memories of a big orange cat. They agree to the heating pad, then ask Gerae, "What was your impression of General Jedao?" Thoughtful, Gerae asks, "Was--was Reshad's side conversation with the so-called Shuos sign language something you approved? I don't want to question your judgment, but I'm not convinced that cozying up to the general was the best idea. To be quite frank, he gives me the chills. I keep feeling that he got more information that he wanted from us than we got from him, never a good outcome for an interrogation." Sulen concurs: "I would much rather have done a full scrying than an interrogation, if we had four more Rahal to spare. Unfortunately, our objective is not to extract information, but to convert an ally." They promise to watch Jedao carefully, and ask Gerae to do the same as opportunity permits. To their surprise, they find themself adding to Fluffy, "You're a beautiful creature, aren't you?" She preens, appreciating the attention. Meanwhile, Gerae agrees to monitor Jedao: "At least I don't have to pretend not to be keeping an eye on him. I think he's pretty clear that we don't really trust him."

Reporting to Flute: Alaric and Reshad

Reshad intentionally ruffles her hair and smudges her makeup. She pages Alaric, telling him, "I'm going to get in touch with Flute. Will you come in when you have a moment, and remember we all lost our memory, and Jedao, when the gas hit." She then opens a connection to Flute: "Yes - this is Captain Vhi Eres, Symphony of Bees. I'm so sorry for the late report..." Flute greets her, composed: "I am very interested to hear your assessment of the situation back there."

Pretending to pull herself together, Reshad says, "That, if you'll pardon my saying so, was a complete embarrassment. Not only was there an unexpected attack - did you get Jedao?" Alaric arrives in the room with Reshad, but is careful to stay out of camera range. Meanwhile, Flute says she is quite aware of the embarrassment: "We don't have Jedao either. In fact, his Kel appear to be frantic looking for him, with rumors that he and others have vanished riftward. Do you have any light to shed on the situation?" In tones ranging from depressed through desperate to fatalistic, Reshad says, "I'm surprised. If you don't have him, and we don't have him, and the Kel don't have him... where in nine hells did he go? He must've figured out the danger. Dropped some new weapon on us. He's brilliant. It's the only explanation. Or--someone else is operating here. What others? In any case, I'll have to refund part of our fee. There's no way I can make it up to you, is there."

Flute observes, greatly sardonic, "The fuck-up was not entirely on your end, since even my worst-case disaster scenarios didn't allow for the hand-to-hand assassin also being an avid dueling card collector for real in addition to the cover story." She adds that even a Kel general should not have been able to persuade the station to allow a prototype weapon on board, and she hasn't "gotten any word of new local rifts, or I would suspect he'd used one to escape."

Sighing and mussing her hair, Reshad says, "I don't know that I ever even saw the assassin." She wonders aloud about "some secret Kel exotic," then dismisses the speculation, pretending to ask for information about the search. Instead, gazing intently, Flute tells her, "I will have to insist on a refund of 60%, however, given your people's lack of effectiveness. After all, revolutions don't fund themselves." Reshad beckons Alaric off camera, while spluttering, "60%! Oh, crane's teeth, that's... I don't..."

Regarding Reshad's speculations, Flute observes ominously that she dislikes "mysteries where my operations are concerned. Rest assured that my people are monitoring sources of information to try to tree the fox." She says she will insist on 60%, "unless you can offer me some other way of salvaging this mission, however partial." Alaric insists such a percentage is ridiculous: "I'm not sure we could even come up with that in liquid assets in a reasonable time frame." He describes investments in "equipment of long-term use to our future missions--which is to say the rebellion," in addition to "consumables" such as "raw materials for the matter printer, adjustments to the ship's hull to make us look less conspicuous, bribes." He then offers "salvage": "We collected a lot of data as part of our surveillance of the station and Jedao. Some of that's got to be of use against other targets: blackmail material against other officials, for example. Or direct financial gain to recuperate your losses, I wouldn't be surprised if we sucked up a lot of bank account logins. Bank fraud may not be glamorous but it can pay the bills." Apparently persuaded, Flute purrs, "Bank fraud. Do tell me more."

analysis

Ione wishing for other kinds of psychic powers, family, struggling without empathic assist, resources in another universe

Sulen's childhood memories & Fluffy, missing Ashari