[open] we could strike the chord

[headinjuries]

CHARACTERS: Anyone who wanted to go to the vigil!
WHERE: Royal Street Gaming Parlor.
WHEN: DAY :031
SUMMARY: Concordia honors the dead. Hosts honor the dead, or maybe just do a little 007ing. As in snooping, not macking on hot ladies. We hope.
WARNINGS: TBA.

This is here for any and all of your mingling needs. Start your own top-levels, harass each other, etc etc.

Here is what we know is happening, courtesy of our fearless mods:

The hosts will be few in a throng of relatively peaceful people. Most people in attendance are younger (30s and below) and a proportionally large number of them have some kind of physical modification, though most are relatively low-profile mods. There's also a small contingent of androids in attendance.

A low platform has been erected in front of the Royal Street Gaming Parlor and the speakers for the vigil either stand on it or, as is the case with some more high profile appearances, they speak across an extranet connection via a holoscreen projected onto the Parlor itself. For the most part the speakers are small time: a few workers from a small local chapter of Mind Life (accompanied by a few skittish looking androids), a beta block councilwoman, a Mother and Sister from a nearby Church of Lirinity. Most of them have nothing more than words of support and condolence.

Somewhere close to the middle of the vigil, Seong-Hye Ngazi, the Public Security Commissioner for Concordia, speaks via extranet connection. She seems somber, competent, but also confident, and speaks about condolences for the losses, regret for the circumstances of the attack, and Public Security's dedication to finding the party responsible for the attack.

Otherwise: it's your fairly standard memorial gathering. Poems are read, some tears are shed, there are some people with signs and a small contingent of rabble rousers on the fringe of the gathering that quickly get chased off by Public Security, etc. You're welcome to create and interact with your own NPCs if you feel so inclined!

Comments

[headinjuries]

[ He feels it before he sees her - and there's just a tinge of relief when he does, because Sam's control is horrible and he's been feeling at least a little self-conscious about radiating angry, frustrated teenage angst all over the Nest. But if someone else is doing it, then hey - makes him look a little better right?

Or at least a little less bad.

A moment later, he's able to pick her out, and...well, maybe that's a subtle signal to break off so they can talk and maybe it isn't, but he's glad for any excuse to get out of the crowd anyway, because Seong-Hye Ngazi's speech is giving him that same weird seasick feeling that he's been coming to realize means his bullshit detector is kicking into high gear.

(B-movies and comic books never warned him that the weird alien slug in your head might make you want to puke every time someone around you lies. He would really have liked to know about that part up front.)

So he starts picking his way through, muttering a few apologies under his breath when he steps on people's toes, ducking under tall people's arms, until he's at the edge of the crowd. ]

[snaphiss]

[Good, the kid's subtle. If these are to be her allies through this... whatever this is supposed to be, at least they're not all complete incompetents. Mara follows after waiting a few seconds, intending to make their exit a little less obvious.]

[She sends a quick message through the mental link, though it's like stretching a muscle she doesn't like having. Just similar enough to the Force to confuse her senses and make her training worthless. So the message she sends is scrambled and messy, sending a spike of her annoyance, and her approval of Sam's tactics.]

( By that awful green gazebo. )

[He'll find her waiting there, pretending to check a datapad.]

[headinjuries]

[ Subtle is usually the last word most people would apply to Sam, but he's not incapable of it even if he much prefers the direct and flashy approach. Being undercover for a few weeks, he's already about ready to burst at the seams with the desire to just go out into space and shoot at something instead of all this cloak and dagger stuff.

But if he's learned anything in his short life, it's that nobody really gives a crap about what you want. ]

( "Awful" is too good a word for that. )

[ Not the most distasteful thing he's found here, but man, it's up there.

He meanders over like he's just looking for a place to chill out - which isn't entirely inaccurate, really, because somewhere to sit that isn't listening to the Public Security Commission droning on is sounding pretty good right now - and backs up to the gazebo, grabbing the railing and hoisting himself up to sit on it. ]

Wow. Ugly and uncomfortable.

[snaphiss]

[Mara grins. If you have nothing nice to say, come sit by her.] Concordians are known for many things, [she says airily,] and architecture is none of them.

[Which marks them as people from out of town, not offworlders. Neat enough.]

I don't think we've met. I'm new in town.

[headinjuries]

I haven't been around too long myself.

[ Just about three weeks now, was it? Not that any of them have been around all that long.

It seems like they've gotten a lot of new arrivals lately, though. Like they're hatching overtime to make up for the two weeks of nothing after Sam woke up. ]

I'm Sam.

[snaphiss]

[Mara commits it to memory, and wonders idly if he told her his real name or the alias he was given. Regardless, she's not about to share her name and potentially break her cover. Yes, it's unlikely anyone who knows her alias is within hearing distance, but she's not taking any chances. It only takes one slip before she has to start all over again from the ground up.]

[So, naturally, she gives her alias.] I'm Frey. [She gestures to the crowd.] What do you think of all this?

[headinjuries]

[ If pressed, Sam would justify using his real name with the fact that if they're so far out of his corner of the galaxy that nobody's even heard of the Nova Corps, there's definitely no way anyone's heard of Sam Alexander, so as long as the name doesn't sound weird to local ears, it'll blend in just fine.

But really, Sam just hates the cloak and dagger stuff. Going undercover with a different name is just one more thing for him to forget and mess up. ]

They did a nice job putting this together? Everyone seems really genuine.

[ But he follows that up on the mental link, trying to keep it clear and concise, since her messages seem...rough, somehow. ]

( Except the Public Safety Commissioner. Something's weird about her. )

[snaphiss]

[From a lifetime of experience, Mara is deeply suspicious of figures of public authority. On the other hand, she's a naturally curious person from a universe without the phrase 'out of the mouths of babes'.]

( What makes you think that? )

[Mara follows back through the link Sam made, imagining it like some kind of radio transmission. She's using his frequencies. The result is a clearer message, though it's still a little cluttered with the feeling of cold and darkness.]

[headinjuries]

[ He's probably going to have to explain this a lot, isn't he? But it always sounds kind of stupid to him when he tries to put it into words, like "so lately every time somebody lies around me I have this sudden sense of bullshit and also I really feel like I'm gonna hurl."

So, he settles on - ]

( Gut feeling. )

[ But some of what he does feel comes across with that thought - a deep-rooted conviction that what he's heard is false, and a wave of nausea that goes hand-in-hand with it. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara isn't usually one to take hunches at face value, but she feels that conviction, that wave of unease, and she's reminded of all the times her hunches have saved her life.]

[So, hesitantly, she listens.]

( Is there any way of turning that hunch into a lead? ) [The link still fizzes with emotions crowding around the borders, impatience and curiosity, but it's less, now. Like having your foot run over by a shopping cart, rather than being hit by a minivan.] ( What's 'weird' about her? )

[headinjuries]

( Maybe. I dunno. )

[ It's nothing precise, after all, but - ]

( It sounded okay at first? Like every other sad speech somebody's made today. But when she started talking about the investigation and finding who was responsible...that part just feels like bullcrap. )

[snaphiss]

[Mara's eyes widen, and the mental link crackles with intense interest as she starts going hurriedly through her notes. She hands the datapad to the boy.]

( Highlight everything you remember feeling off. )

[headinjuries]

( Okay. )

[ It doesn't take him long; the feeling was mostly just centered around "this entire topic" instead of "these individual statements," so everything important is clustered together. When he passes back the datapad, aside from highlighting, he's also circled the whole section dealing with the investigation and added a note: "attitude = wtf???" ]

[snaphiss]

[Sadly, Mara comes from a universe with internet culture created in the mid eighties, she looks over the notes, taps the acronym, and looks at Sam with a blithely questioning expression.]

[Kids these days, with their superpowers and their slang.]

[headinjuries]

[ Oh.

Right. ]

( "What the fuck." )

[snaphiss]

Helpful, [She mutters dryly, and looks over the notes in their completed form. It's... not much to go on, but it's a start. This Ngazi is clearly obstructing the investigation in some way, and while there are hundreds of reasons why, a lead is a lead. She intends to follow this one through.]

( You've done well, ) [She says, because it's what others always said to her.] ( Do you have any plans for following this up? )

[Mara does, but either out of cruelty or curiosity, she'd rather assess this boy first.]

[headinjuries]

[ Plans? God. He's barely finished with the "wow, there is a problem" stage of dealing with things, and with suppressing his usual first instinct in these kinds of problems - which is to go straight in, metaphorical (but occasionally literal) guns blazing, and try to deal with things in the most direct manner possible. ]

( I don't want to just leave it? But I'm pretty sure I'm going to screw things up if I just go straight over to knock on her door and go, hey, you're full of crap and I want to know what's going on. )

[ Sam very much likes the direct approach. ]

( ...so I'm not sure yet. )

[snaphiss]

[So Mara can quickly surmise that, while the kid's clearly got some kind of preternatural knack for it, he might not have a lot of experience. She tucks the datapad away, and crosses her arms in front of her, thinking.]

( There are more ways to handle it than the one you're thinking of. You haven't done this sort of work before, have you? )

[headinjuries]

( Uh. I snuck into Oblitus once? But it was only really sneaking to get from the docking bay to the guy's room, and then we just went back to shooting and threats. )

[ Going after anyone who owed Rocket Raccoon money was inevitably going to end in shooting, anyway. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara... doesn't know what that means, but she gets the general idea.]

( Have you considered a gentler approach? Maybe one without explosions? )

[headinjuries]

( Sometimes. Kinda. But I'm a lot better at the explosions. )

[ The Nova Force was not a particularly subtle superpower. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara gives in to the deeply diplomatic urge to roll her eyes.]

[But everyone can be useful, if their part is played correctly.]

( I'll keep an eye on her, and send you my copy of the speech. In the meanwhile, you should trail her, research her, look for any more bad information. Does this hunch work with recordings? )

[headinjuries]

( Not sure. I'll give it a shot and get back to you on that one? )

[ Watching sports hasn't been the optimal ground for testing it out, really. ]

[snaphiss]

[Mara cocks her head to one side, and then another. Were he older, she'd just leave him, but something about the idea of a child failing missions sits poorly with her. A child on her team, who has benefited her investigation.]

[She owes him.]

( You should contact me if you have questions. I've done this sort of work before. )

[headinjuries]

[ That...doesn't seem too surprising, really. She's jumped right into making a plan like she knows how this stuff works.

Sam, on the other hand... ]

( Cool. I'll probably have like a million, because I haven't. )