[OTA] Looking for answers

[astrogator]

Who: Arilanna Tayrey and OPEN - meet the newbie!
What: Looking for logic on an illogical ship
When: Late October
Where: Various places (general catch-all intro post)



i. O my fair North Star (outside, on deck)

[Accustomed to second-shift as she is, Lieutenant Tayrey works best at night. She's up on deck, starboard side, and a fair amount of her time is spent pacing back and forth, back and forth, as if she owns the place. She's thinking. She's trying to puzzle all this out. When she's not pacing, she's tapping at her slate computer, or leaning over the side, holding out a black rectangular box. Or she's making marks on paper, some sort of chart. Once or twice, she seems to be using a genuine, old-fashioned sextant, wherever she managed to get hold of that.

She's not interested in the sea, or where the ship is headed. No, the way she'll get her bearings is by charting the stars - but no matter what method she tries, there's something decidedly odd about them.

Do come and join her, but try not to disrupt her concentration! She might not be too happy if you do.]

ii. A little bit stronger (the gym)

[Ari might not be too happy with the state of the stars, or indeed the state of the ship, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to appreciate about her new (and temporary, she reminds herself. Very temporary if she has it her way) home. Every other day, she's in the gym, and this girl lifts heavy.

There she is, squatting down with an impressive amount of weight on her back, and when she finishes the set, she turns around with a tired smile for any nearby fellow gym-goers]

iii. Lost in space and time (Spirit Halloween)

[This store can only be infinite, thinks Ari, if there's a loop in the programming. She might have to walk a very long way before she finds the loop, but it has to be there.

It's not what she's planning to do today, however, because it might be a very large loop, and it's best to be prepared, treat it like an expedition. No, what Ari Tayrey is looking for today is much simpler. Basic clothing. Plain white shirts. Socks. She arrived on this ship with only one set of clothes, and she's been doing her best - laundry in the sink in her cabin every night, making sure that uniform of hers stays fresh and clean - but there comes a point where enough is enough. She's found a way to justify it as not-theft, even by the exacting standards of the Tradelines. She'll take what she wants.

She's utterly dismayed to find only row upon row of ridiculous costumes. No. No. She has some dignity; any amount of laundry is better than this. Still, her frustration spills over.]

This is ridiculous. Completely ridiculous! If I could file a complaint, I'd...file it!

iv. Wildcard!

[Want to find her somewhere else on the ship? In her initial explorations, she could end up in any (public) place. PM me to plot, or just start something and I'll roll with it :) ]

Comments

[mooninthewater]

[ It’s always refreshing in a weird sort of way to listen to a new person’s reaction to the weird going-ons of the ship. Mizuki has tended to avoid this store back when it was a Tommy Bahama, but now he’s actually got what looks like a witch’s cauldron full of various decorations that he’s toting around. Don’t mind the bloody arm poking out. He promises it’s not real! ]

I mean, theoretically, you could go complain to the Captain if you really wanted to? I’m just not so sure anything would actually be done about it. The equivalence of having a garbage can labeled as a complaint box, maybe.

Are these things not to your liking?

[astrogator]

[Ari turns at the sound of his voice, and she takes a long, careful look - first at him, and then at that strangely misshapen bucket he's carrying. What could all that possibly be for?]

Not to my liking? You could say that. I have never seen such a large storeroom with so few useful items in it.

[She sighs, quietly.] I understand that the Captain [She doesn't think he's worthy of the name, really. Ari has strong feelings about captains.] isn't the most helpful of people, and besides, I heard that he wouldn't see me. I'd be as well to shout down a garbage chute, you're right.

[mooninthewater]

Oh, there's a couple useful items, I think~! Much better than the store that used to be here, anyway.

[ He's not sure if this store is staying for the duration of this month, or for forever, but in the meantime, he is absolutely squirreling away the interesting items he can get his hands on. He has a lot of things from the kitchen section specifically that he's toting around. ]

But I understand that none of it probably seems useful for, um… getting away from here. That's understandable. That said, I'm pretty sure the store this used to be was made because someone had put in a complaint to Miss Friday? So, um, maybe you could try that??

[astrogator]

What was it before?

[Maybe Ari shouldn't be asking this question, but she supposes there's an issue of relative utility here. It's always possible that the previous store was worse.]

I'd ask Citizen Friday if she could send for my luggage from home, but if it's impossible to send me back, that has to be impossible too. I think I ought to bide my time and only put in a complaint when it's really needed. [Otherwise she'd end up doing it all the time, and people who did that just ended up ignored.]

[mooninthewater]

Mmmh… hold on…

[ Mizuki pulls out his phone and takes a moment to pull up his pictures and show it to her he slowly scrolls through a couple of pictures of this previous story, Tommy Bahama, and all it’s very expensive and mediocre fashion. Or, at least the stuff that Mizuki deigned to take pictures of, at least. ]

Oh, Miss Friday can’t pull anything specific from your world, I think, but you could try talking to her to regardless. The Captain will sometimes receive things from our worlds to throw away, and sometimes Miss Friday holds onto them.

Even if she doesn’t have anything from there yet, you could try asking her to keep an eye out for certain things, I’m sure.

[ He hums, recalling all the nice things that Friday has sent him. And maybe some not so nice things, too, but… ]

Oh, I’ve kinda been here… a long time. So, you know, if you have any questions, I can help you with… some of them! Hopefully!

[astrogator]

[Ari looks at the pictures on the little electronic device, and shakes her head. It's debatable which is the less useful store, definitely.] I can see why some people might find this place more to their taste. [There. That's diplomatic, isn't it?]

I really don't want to trouble Citizen Friday too much. She seems awfully overworked. I did try to assist, but apparently passengers aren't encouraged to do that. Maybe when the ship seems less... busy, I'll ask.

[She has very many questions, but it seems equally wrong to throw them all at him, so she smiles encouragingly.] What's the name of your homeworld? And your own name? [She shouldn't forget to be mannerly, at the least.]

On Deck

[serialskiller]

[Ari sure has picked a time to show up!

For better or worse, Murderbot's currently in the habit of walking around the ship in full sci-fi plate armor, the faceplate of the helmet opaqued so it's a featureless black pane. The company logo on the front of the armor and the shoulders has been scratched out--though if it were one from her world, it might be recognizable? But it's just a red letter C inside a red circle. And the one wearing the armor is tall and broad, looks just like they stepped off the sci-fi soldier mook assembly line.]

That's not going to help you much. The stars are fake, and their position changes from night to night--as in randomizes, rather than moving like stars in a sky above a planet would.

Re: On Deck

[astrogator]

[Turning up looking like that certainly gets her attention. Ari looks up from her work as the heavily armored soldier approaches. It seems like excessive precaution to her. Ari's wearing her ordinary protective vest beneath her uniform, and her gun is clipped to her belt, as always. Clearly, some people have made other risk assessments. She does peer at that obscured logo. It's not Company, because she'd recognise one of their symbols anywhere, but that still left a whole lot of options.

Then it happens. The tall figure before her tells her that the stars aren't real, and Ari Tayrey wishes she did have a visored helmet to wear, because what flashes across her face is a momentary look of mingled frustration and absolute despair. How many hours had she spent trying to plot patterns, blaming her instruments or her own mind for all the impossible discrepancies?

And then it's gone, and the young lieutenant is all professionalism.] Well, that is exceptionally lazy programming, I have to say it. If we needed any more proof that this is some mad simulation, there it is.

[serialskiller]

Mm. A simulated reality, kind of. Not the sort of simulation you're likely picturing, I'm afraid.

[Murderbot steps up to the railing at the edge of the deck, rests its gauntleted hands on the wood.]

This reality was created by the Captain with magic. The ship's movement is an illusion. The ocean is not a real ocean. There are no fish in the water, no birds in the air, no satellites in space, because this reality only extends as far as the Captain makes it. He's really bad at alive things; I've only heard of one instance of him making an animal at all.

[astrogator]

[Ari slots her slate computer back into its pouch, because that's it, no more work tonight. Possibly no more charting work on this particular sky, ever. She walks over to stand beside her companion at the railing, her own, smaller hands taking hold of the top rail, too.]

I think there may be a translation fault. [She says this cautiously.] I'm hearing Sector Standard, which you're probably not speaking, but this reality was created by the Captain with code, I suppose. Or if it's not that type of simulation, and he's a powerful enough being, then through temporal or probabilistic hyperdimensional folding. [Not magic, which to rational Ari codes as a term for superstitious nonsense. She can't believe that someone with any reasonable level of technological and societal advancement would use the word in seriousness.]

[serialskiller]

I'm speaking Corporate Rim Tradespeak. But. The latter half of what you said is closer to correct than thinking of this, or any reality he creates, as having been coded. Closer, but not accurate.

[Murderbot understands having issues with the word 'magic'; the parts of its mind that are digital slide off the word a lot of the time, refusing to accept it as truth. But. You can only deny it for so long after meeting a walking skeleton and hearing about someone killing someone else with a moon.]

[astrogator]

[Sector Standard is her second language, a trading language, so she's intrigued by what she's not hearing. She decides that a proper introduction is in order. It's difficult to converse with someone as concealed as this person is, even when you're both staring out over an unreal sea.]

I'm Lieutenant Ari Tayrey, of the Tradelines. Peace and prosperity to you. You said Corporate Rim Tradespeak? By chance, you're not associated with a megacorporation out in your sector, are you?

Spirit Halloween

[konpeito_aji]

[Obviously Nobunaga is going to chuckle. He warned her, after all.] You could try, I'm just told he uses your frustration as fuel and thrives on your displeasure.

I've actually made some progress now, that it doesn't self-repair or whatever. [He assumes, mistakenly, that this is about the inability to discern the border of infinity. Costumes are awesome, he actually hopes it never goes back.]

Oh, and be careful of Siffleur's territory and the shambling clothing monster. Bahamanal. I guess it's just... the Halloween Spirit now? I don't know, that sounds less dramatic.

[astrogator]

Right, you said it. He's a sadist, if he could see me now he'd be delighted, all of that. [She sighs, heavily.] This is the most useless storeroom I've ever seen. Please tell me that there's another one, with less outrageous clothing?

[There's no way to win, Ari realises. If she pretends to be happy about all of this, just to deny this twisted captain the satisfaction of anything else, she may actually go mad.]

Help me, Oda. I don't know what a Siffleur or a Halloween or a Bananamal are. I really just wanted some socks.

[konpeito_aji]

He doesn't completely have to hear you, or be nearby to get the energy so, I'm sure your sacrifice isn't going amiss.

[Oh. Oh. Bad news about the normal clothes thing.]

[ALSO wow: he really likes hearing people ask him for help. That's NEW.]

[Usually all the farmers and denizens of his empire try to act like they have their shit together. And Crichton straight up failed to ask for help and died because of it.]

[Nobunaga bows!] Right this way lieutenant. [Literally a sharp right from the entrance.] They don't have a lot of tabi, but I put the shoes and feet things [Yes. Feet things. He has no word for stockings, or tights etc.] this way.

Siffleur is a cougar! [Nobunaga thinks this is very "cool and badass."] He says it's the closest to a forest he can get on the ship. He helped me find demon horns. [Which Nobunaga still needs to ask Eridan about to make sure he doesn't do something extremely offensive to the troll noble.] I will bring him extra offerings for your safe passage should you like. [Standard demon king things. Offer tributes to the spirits/denizens that haunt places. Even if you mean to hunt them later, it can also lure them into false security.] The Bahamanal is a giant clothing monster. Like a typhoon of clothes and chaos. A lesser demon given shape from the lost souls of those trapped here unable to find their way out and seeking others to join them. [.... he is almost 99% making that up! Or at minimum: HEAVILY over dramatizing the cryptid.]

[astrogator]

[Ari might argue that she was telling him to help, not asking, but it doesn't matter so long as he's happy. She has no trouble seeking out help for small, unimportant things, especially when not having help might lead to looking foolish. Important matters might be different. With a small smile, she follows after him - at a very brisk pace, given how large this storeroom appears to be on the inside.

Cougar translates well enough as a predatory planetsider animal, but at the mention of offerings, Ari reaches out to clutch at Nobunaga's arm.]

No. Tradeliners don't pay tribute in return for safety. It never ends well. I'll deal with the threat if I have to. [She's not frightened. She doesn't intend to spend more time in this place unless it's for infinity-based research. The clothing monster she dismisses as Nobunaga having credulously believed some wild tale, but she's too polite to say so.]

[konpeito_aji]

[Nobunaga has played tag with the monster. And it's why he began the tributes + trying to stabilize the chaos plan!]

Why? What happens? Okay, but don't shoot Siffleur. He's cool.

[astrogator]

I won't shoot anyone or anything unless they're attacking me. If they attack me, they deserve it. [If only everything was as straightforward as Ari's principles.]

As for what happens, think it through. Let's say I'm running some little clipper ship down the Keturah line, and some heavily armed nightmare flies out in-system and demands a tenth of the cargo in return for my safety. If I give it up, then the next system down there's going to be another one asking the same. Or the next time I'm on that line, the same one is going to demand an eighth. It never ends. So we don't do it. We evade the threats, or we arrive with sufficient force to fight them.

i

[ss_buttcrack]

[Crichton can tell, at a glance, what she's attempting to do. Yes, he actually does know how to use a sextant. Which is why he knows it's never going to work. Not that he can fault her for trying. He'd done much the same when he first got here. But someone is going to have to break the bad news to her, so it may as well be him.]

You can try to chart it every which way you want, but it's never going to make sense. Those stars aren't real. Neither is the water.

[Like some kind of poor consolation prize, he offers her his hand.]

Commander John Crichton. Nice to meet you. I'm guessing you just arrived?

[astrogator]

The stars... aren't real? [She echoes him, dismay in her voice. It sounds absurd, but it would explain so much. The errors that she'd attributed again and again to faulty tools, and to her own inexcusable miscalculations. A first-year apprentice spacer could keep simple charts from planetary perspective. Ari should have had no trouble with any of this. She turns towards him, and when he introduces himself, there's a certain recognition in her eyes, and then a hint of wonder. This man is supposed to be dead! Setting down her charting equipment, she briefly takes his offered hand Tradeline style, her right hand holding his, while her left clasps his forearm.]

I'm Lieutenant Arilanna Tayrey, second astrogator of the TS Prosperity, with Captain Kavarai. Peace and prosperity to you. [And then, formalities dispensed with-] Actually, I've been working on these charts by second-shift... I mean, nightly, [She didn't have duty shifts any longer; this was all on her.] for close to a week. I couldn't get them right, and astrogation's my job, so you can see why I kept at it.

[She pauses, briefly, and she's still staring at him. Hopefully it isn't too disconcerting.] What are they, if they aren't real?

[ss_buttcrack]

[He's not incredibly familiar with a handshake like that, but it's close to something the Luxans like D'Argo use, so he takes it in stride. He's not shy about touch in any way.]

I was flight commander of a solo missions for the International Aeronautics and Space Administration, of Earth. Civilian, experimental. [He's a scientist, not a soldier like so many assume, based on the pulse pistol he wears strapped to his right thigh.] But, and it's a long story, before I came here I was on a ship named Moya and her captain is Ka D'Argo. Still, uh, civilian. Sort of.

[He's wearing an apologetic smile, as if to say he's already sorry for how much of this is going to make no sense.]

And, yeah. The reason those charts are never going to line up for you is because all of this is a fabrication made by the Captain. And, he makes it up as he goes, from what I can tell. I know it's hard to give up old habits, but this one is an exercise in futility.

[astrogator]

I see! So you're a civvy spacer. [From some Tradeliners, this might have been a critical description, but Arilanna manages to make it sound almost affectionate.] Still, being in command isn't nothing. I was born on Cardalek. That's a Company-owned colony, but don't worry if you don't know it. Nobody else does - but I'd never heard of Earth before I got here, either, so that evens it out.

[She's not entirely sure how to deal with his next revelation, and there's a flicker of uncertainty in her eyes.] I know a lot of captains would like to think they control the stars, but - you're being literal, aren't you? It's part of this temporal bubble or simulation or whatever we're going to call this.

[She sighs, softly.] I'm used to being on duty twelve hours in twenty-four. I already don't know what to do with myself here. If this is futile, then...[she trails off. It's just one more difficulty.]

Commander? Can I ask you something difficult? [The worst he can do is say no, right?]

[ss_buttcrack]

I'm a scientist. Was a scientist.

[He has encountered less favorable reactions to his being a civilian before, so he might have a slight chip on his shoulder about it. He can keep up with a gunfight these days now, anyway. He's not that civvy anymore.]

None of my crew on Moya had heard of Earth before me either, so I'm used to it. Besides, we've got all kinds here.

Yeah. I'm being literal. Call it magic, call it an illusion, call it a simulation. Doesn't matter how you rationalize it. The important part is he's at the helm and we can't get out. We're at his mercy, and he hasn't got any to spare.

[She gets a sympathetic look after she explains her duty hours. Christ, she's going to have a hard transition.]

Go ahead and ask. Can't promise you will like the answer.

i.

[nyktifanis]

( sleeping is normally a luxury, and now with the extra energy that she has, she's able to venture out in the night more than usual. it's not that she comes to look up at the stars as she's been told by more than one person of their truth, but she can't help the way her head tilts up. if she could, she'd name each and every constellation as they're people she knows, and people she equally misses. though, she knows that the version of her back home will take care of them.

it's when she notices someone scribbling on a sheet of paper that she keeps quiet, patiently waiting until the female seems to be thinking and not writing. she wants to avoid ruining her train of thought if she was writing something important, but it does make her curious— especially as someone she hasn't seen before. )

Figure out anything interesting?

( she just seemed so focused on her work, it'd be hard not to ask. )

[astrogator]

[It's past the time in the evening when Ari usually sees other people on deck, so she's a little surprised by the other woman's presence when she speaks up. She doesn't seem bothered by it in the least, though - it's perfect timing, she's not holding any numbers or co-ordinates in her head. Of course, she doesn't realise just how calculated the timing is, but she'd be pleased by the consideration if she did.]

Not yet.

[It's a disappointing answer, she knows.]

Star charts are part of my job; it's not that I don't know what to do, but no matter what method I try, these ones won't come right. Maybe that's interesting in itself, but it's also - immensely frustrating, if I'm honest.