mental link | day :034

[ophidia]

[The mental impression that comes with the connection is clean, precise. Confident in reaching like this, touching so many minds at once. If anything there's a desire, simmering beneath, to press and push even further than one simple stated request.]

( I need everything we have on the Carpathans. )

[And he sounds like he expects to get it.]

Comments

[ryohji]

[ another self-starter, another workhorse, probably armed with ideas on how to shift through the confusion until the truth reveals itself to them like a gold nugget in the dirt. everyone wants to feel useful. and no wonder, when they've been used as distraction while rhan and lyr engage in real recon from behind the curtain.

he thinks the last thing they need is such unbridled confidence. ]

( They have gripes with their bosses, too. )

[ophidia]

( Watercooler gossip or bring a gun to the office gripes? )

[ryohji]

( There's wanting something done, and there's having the means to do it. ) [ he's not really talking about the carpathans, anymore. but he doesn't expect richard to catch on. ] ( Who are you rooting for? )

[perroquet]

[ Everything? Well alright- ]

( Their music is rather woodwind heavy when they actually bother to play. There's a wonderful flautist they've brought who stands out among them, though I heard he's blowing more than a few Hyrypian horns now. )

[ His own string of mental music plays along behind his words, merrily and unceasing. ]

[ophidia]

[Richard had called this trip a luxury cruise two days after landing in it, but hearing any of the envoys had brought musicians is still mildly surprising. But he had asked for everything.]

( How are the rest of them feeling about that? )

[perroquet]

( Afraid even their few musicians are as cold and tight-lipped as ever. If if they think anything of it, it is properly kept to themselves. )

[ As it should be, quite honestly - with the exception of this nestmate having asked. Gildor has made good relationships with the various Rabadocean musicians by now, but has little reason to believe any of them are more than what they appear. ]

( Who is this asking? Your mind rings vaguely familiar. ) [ Like brood, yet not at all. His own mind is an open pool of black that swirls curiously around, feeling along the sharp edges of the other's consciousness. All the while, gentle music continues to play behind it's dark veils. ]

[sistershoggoth]

( They're sketchy assholes. Were accruing some blood debt bullshit, sneaking around behind their own backs. That's how those two idiots got their shit kicked in. )

[ophidia]

( What kind of blood debt? )

[Because the definition he knows isn't something you really accrue.]

[sistershoggoth]

( Like literally. Like blood in a bowl kind of blood debt. )

[wille]

[ It's impressive, how clean and precise he has honed his mind to become, and she makes her sentiment equally clear: appreciation for the sureness of his request, an answer on the tip of her tongue. But first: ]

( Why? )

[ophidia]

[She might appreciate his surety, but he doesn't appreciate her question, and there's a fairly heavy roll of judgement for her even asking.]

( Because, despite the fact we're all on this so-called "mission", the only centrally available information is still the cute cultural handbook we got on the trip down here. Now if I need to know anything, I have to ask, and I have to hope someone's done the work to be able to answer. )

[wille]

( Really? )

[ The same judgment rolls off her back easily, because she doesn't know who he is, hasn't yet assigned the requisite weight to him. Soon, soon. ]

( Since it's sooo hard to ask and hope for things to fall onto your lap, you'd better appreciate me asking what for? What do you wanna do with the Carpathans? )

[deployed]

[ Bellamy's answer comes as an echo of Misato's; the why? is unspoken but present, weighting his answering question in suspicion. ]

( What are you doing with the Carpathans? )

[ophidia]

( Are you asking what I'm directly doing with them, or is this more of a query about if I'm trying to do some real fucking work on this job? )

[deployed]

[ honestly, the latter, but— ]

( What are you doing with them? )

[ the thought is clipped, skepticism growing as bellamy absorbs the brusqueness of richie's reply. ]

[erbier]

[ His mind draws her attention more than his question. She has not been among the Rabadoceans long enough to have much to say at all, besides the old wive's tales about the garstall that she has gathered from the weavers on the beach. Nothing she thinks is immediately useful, not yet. He, however, strikes her as useful. Someone to be aware of, and who should become aware of her.

She is pristine cool in reaching back in kind, a cleanliness that can only be as eyes meeting, unquestioningly. Although she lets nothing else through, no lust nor greed, she is an avatar of white, feminine and clear. ]

( Have you begun movements among the Carpathans? )

[ophidia]

[The absolute cleanliness she's projecting is probably fake. No one's that pure. It's also boring, and there's a sense he's already preparing to dismiss her even as he answers.]

( It'd be stupid to ask for anything on them after I'd made a move. )

[The implication that he isn't stupid is clear enough.]

[erbier]

( So there are none of among them who have alerted your curiosity, and have begun this inquiry at random. I see. )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

( I kinda think I should say 'I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours' here. ) [ He kind of is saying it, honestly, but... he's also not a fan of withholding information that should be readily available, especially not when someone asks for it. ]

( All right, two questions for you - someone tell you what's probably gonna happen if we blow our cover here, and do you want this the quick way or the old fashioned way? )

[ophidia]

[He doesn't respond to that, but some sharp annoyance makes itself known. He was already aware of the dysfunction of this group, but having it thrown in his face is stretching his patience.]

( Quick. And I got the brief. The robes stay on. )

[sizeofyourbaggage]

[ It's hard to get riled up at that annoyance when Sam gets it. But they're all a dysfunctional, suspicious group, and it seems to continue in a cycle of people wanting information but not wanting to share themselves.

It is what it is, and Sam doesn't push the cover thing.

It's on his mind as he widens their link a little to share what he knows of the Carpathans, though. There's a snippet of memory - Cathaway's terribly fixed attention as she says, The danger is more real in this than it was on the Waypoint or in Concordia. We can't afford to have our position compromised if it would mean they would follow you back to this place, and his own voice saying If we blow our cover, we're on our own. - but he pulls back from that.

He shares the same memory Annie had, though it's from him seeing it from her mind, and the follow up conversation from the Descendants about the two dead bodies. The rest of what he shares is more impressions and knowledge than direct memories: the rivalry between the Carpathans and Meradans, exploited during the hunt, and a guard potentially close to Black named Aamihan Lake mentioned as one of those in a discussion with Rhan. ]

( There's some weird shit that no one's been able to tie to any of the factions, far as I know, but that's all I've got on them. )

action.

[detestable]

Having fun?

[ Seth can afford to be amused because Richie's dealing with the brunt of the bullshit, and Seth's just spectating. He has a glass of sweet-smelling alien alcohol in hand as he takes the seat next to Richie in the barracks. ]

[ophidia]

[There's a headache brewing behind Richard's temples. He'd always taken the expression of a person (or persons) giving someone a headache to be metaphorical, but apparently he was wrong. It isn't a happy discovery, and it only adds to his irritation as he opens his eyes to glare at Seth.]

You could try helping me out. Find out how much.

[isorropia]

[A drop of water in a still, quiet place. The tang of small green things growing in the shadow of a taller, older tree. Lyr's mind reaches out:]

( Their society is a highly stratified one. Here on Hyrypia for example, we've seen some movement between classes, particularly among Seconds who may come from any social background so long as they have the ability to manipulate the planet's energy source. Family professions are often just that, but occasionally a farmer might become a merchant who might somehow become more well to do and so on. Not so for the Carpathans, it seems. Servants are servants for life; their children are nearly always the same. Court nobility is court nobility, soldiers and soldiers; what you are born, so you die. )

[ophidia]

[Richard has to wonder how many attempted rebellions they've had to deal with, a shitty set up like that.]

( Which means they probably don't like dealing with others who don't keep everything that nicely divided. )

[Was that why collusion with the Descendants was worth murdering over, rather than the nature of whatever they'd been working on together?]