ic contact

[14thcommander]

It's Hange, Hange, Hange! Were you looking for me? I'll get back to you posthaste. Or when it's convenient.

[ communicator & actionspam it's all good ]

Comments

[14thcommander]

[God this is a lot of information and it all sounds like... such a mess.

Hange feels easier hearing it though. At least this man, who's made it to wardenhood now, wasn't Bill Cipher's qualmless ally. It all still sounds so, so precarious, but it's better than Ford wanting to help him, or simply not caring about the fates of the vulnerable mortals in whatever universe they'd pop out in.

Scouts like Hange are team players by training and necessity though. You couldn't have looped some discrete wardens in, Ford...?

What's done is done, anyway.]

At least you admit to the errors in judgment you made. [Hange sounds... calmed.] I can see the situation must have been complex. [Also the level of Bill-related anxiety indicated by the idea of Bill waiting the barge out, over the course of thousands of years... that's a Big Fear. Yikes.]

Who are the authority? I'm curious about them but hardly anyone seems to have been around here when this tub ran into them. I heard the Admiral made off with the boat...

[Bill told her this actually, and Hange has been wondering pretty much since they talked about it if he just wound her up and sent her off to info-gather. It seemed very plausible, and more plausible now; it's all made worse by the fact that Hange is genuinely very interested in the Authority and who they are and what they can do and what the whole thing implies about the actual superstructure of the universe that most people never get to see or poke at.]

[mothmansplaining]

[Right? Bill waiting for an entire generation to die off so that he can begin his plans again is terrifying, and something Bill has absolutely done before.]

I spoke with them, when we went to the Bargeyard. The Admiral had waited too long to bring the Barge in for maintenance, so they hauled us in for repairs. It was an interesting place, an intersection of people and places from all sorts of universes, and all around the docks, there were Barges of every kind.

We received a note inviting us to come to a place called the Officer's Lounge to discuss our experiences under the current Admiral. In exchange, the Authority said, they would answer one question -- anything we wanted to know.

They put on a real show getting us there. Enormous doors, cavernous hallways, creeping unstoppable sense of dread -- until finally I was alone inside a great big room, surrounded by distant, shadowy figures. I could feel that they were looking inside of my head, that anything I thought or felt, they would know.

So, I said my piece, I asked my question, and I was out. They didn't seem that impressive to me -- they were surprised by what I asked and had to confer among themselves, which means we're dealing with more than one -- but they did seem extraplanar. That place was their seat of power, somewhere they could do whatever they liked.

I don't know much else about them for sure. But I do know that when Bill spoke with them, they made a reference to a piece of Earth media. So, either they're fans of universes based on my planet, or they're from one.

[He'd thought it was the second, when he and Bill tunneled out of the ship. But now?]

I'm leaning toward the first one. Frankly, I think they're fans of us.

[14thcommander]

[This is a major paradigm-shattering idea right here.]

Fans of us - what does that mean?

[She doesn’t really... grasp it, not yet. But she understands that it’s important.]

[mothmansplaining]

I don't think the Barge is for us, Ms. Hange.

I think we're picked because someone, most likely the Authority, wants to see what each of us will do on a ship like this.

And I think that whoever it is is watching us.

[14thcommander]

[Hange rubs her forehead, pours more tea for herself.]

Do they make good on deals anyway? — And it’s just Hange, by the way. Sectioner, if you must use a title.

[mothmansplaining]

[Hange, got it.]

Oh, the deals are good -- if the Admiral was honest with you. He lets wardens sign on sometimes in exchange for things that were going to happen in the future anyway, without his interference. It's like a game show prize: he has to have something you want to get you to play.

[14thcommander]

I don’t think that’ll be the case for my deal.

[Hange stares at the waves.]

Whether we’re watched or not, I can’t pass this opportunity up.

[mothmansplaining]

I understand that.

It's a complicated situation. Some wardens really don't have another opportunity to make their deals happen. Others come from worlds so terrible that they can't go home without one. A few are here because they believe in helping the people on board, even though the Admiral's corrupt and incompetent. And, of course, there are the ones who are here because they think it's a good time.

[That last bit was said darkly, but Ford's tone is more level as he goes on.]

Idealists and vacationers aside, the Admiral finds people who desperately need something, something worth playing the game for. It's a neat system -- it means that anyone actually trying to change anything has to contend with every person on the Barge who needs it to stay the same.

[14thcommander]

[She does need it to stay the same. She needs to get a deal. She needs it to work. Her people are at stake, as are the rest of the people in her world if launching the titan attack against them somehow works and the Eldians aren’t crushed by mismatched technological might.

Well, fuck. A lot of things were bad about being part of an upstart fringe group of dreamers, political radicals, would-be heroes, and idealists, but the sense of righteousness that came from being part of that group battling against a superior power sure was nice.]

What did you ask the Authority?

[mothmansplaining]

I asked them why the Admiral was called an admiral when he clearly only had one ship.

[14thcommander]

[Hange

looks at him.]

You what?

[mothmansplaining]

He's clearly a captain or a skipper, not an admiral!

[14thcommander]

[Okay.

Okay Hange has done enough silly, frivolous things in her life and pursued enough nonsense that she can’t judge him... no, she can. She’s judging Ford a little.]

And you could have asked them anything?

[mothmansplaining]

It's important to have accurate rank designations if you're going to model your fantastical afterlife fleet after the Earth naval system!!

He just did it for the hat!

[14thcommander]

... Hahaha! Hahahahaha!

[mothmansplaining]

[Ford is going to sit here fuming until she's done laughing, because he still hates this inaccuracy very much.]

[14thcommander]

Hahaha...

[Okay, she trails off.]

It’s all made up anyhow.

[mothmansplaining]

Apparently so. When you're a group of insanely powerful extraplanar beings who can grant any wish you can imagine, I suppose you can call your officers whatever you want.

[if you want to be WRONG.]

[14thcommander]

[Doing it wrong is just inventing the new right way sometimes!]

Kick Betelgeuse out if he's too intolerable of a houseguest. He won't like it, but it's your quarters and you should feel comfortable and safe there and have privacy.

I think some of the people on this ship have done wrong by him, but he certainly does his part to instigate.

[mothmansplaining]

Oh, don't worry about that.

If he wants to stay in my house, then he has to behave. If it gets really bad, I'll kick him out and pretend he isn't there.

With demons like him, sometimes that's the only threat that works!

[14thcommander]

Hmmhmhm. [Just a lil swallowed chuckle.] Well, good. Thanks for being kind to him in spite of the inconvenience.

[mothmansplaining]

Hange, I've seen a lot of strange things in my time, and I've made the kinds of mistakes that people don't usually come back from. I've been given more second chances than I'll ever deserve.

You're never too old to change. Even if you're a trillion-year-old demon! I'm not going to trust him carelessly, but I'm willing to give him a chance.

....with precautions in place, of course. Do you know my coat is magic-proof? I also bleed helium.

[Ford why are you saying that so cheerfully.]

[14thcommander]

[She is totally distracted by that last point.]

How are you alive then?

[She's reaching out to poke him. Hmm. Feels solid. Doesn't feel like he's full of gas. Hmmm.]

[mothmansplaining]

Oh, it's still normal blood while it's in my body. But, as soon as it breaks contact, presto! Lighter-than-air gas. Impossible to use for blood-magic rituals.

The magic comes from an alchemical sigil I put on my socks. I've got another for ammonia, but that one's less practical, except for when I'm out of cleaning solution.

[14thcommander]

I wanna see the sigil.

[please. PLEASE show her the sigil.]