Worlds Beyond Number - Solari: Episode 4 - Port of Call

Episode Date: April 28, 2026

A cryptic warning scrawled in red. The Captain is no longer taking orders. Stranded en route, we are bound by contract: Do we thank or fear our liberator?Content Warning: This episode contains depictions of blood, violence, and alcohol consumption. We are:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson Solari was produced by Worlds Beyond Number Edit and Sound Design by Jino Jang-Hansen at Big Giant Head Score by Will Savinohttps://wsavino.com/ Director of Operations: Melanie Bowman Social Media Manager: Shannon H Lorekeeper and Transcriptionist: Jack Morgan E.F. Lavandowska  Recording Engineer: Rainie Toll Character Art by Nikolas Draper-Iveywww.instagram.com/nikolasdraperivey/ Cover Art by Lu Tomkiewiczwww.instagram.com/_fromlu/ This campaign uses the Stillfleet TTRPG system, created by Wythe Marschall and developed by Stillfleet Studiohttps://stillfleet.com/collections/stillfleetYou can find transcripts of all our episodes on our Patreon. Just navigate to the post for the episode and the transcript will be attached. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is the sound of worlds beyond number. Wisest of all is the ant that can tell shade from shadow and flees the approaching boot. Western Kourush Attage Three phrases written on a window. Lean in, there's a fucking mole. Good luck. Let's talk quite briefly about the phraseology behind Lean In. It might be obvious that it means to focus or to consider something closely.

Its origins stem from what little the average person in the 40 Suns understands of faster-than-light space travel via Orm. To lean in but not pass through is a death sentence. That's a phrase people know but don't understand. And though the what might be vaguely intuitive something about the poor. the wormhole, we don't have the word for it, we call it a lean. The why is a mystery. And yet somehow across centuries of common use, the phrase lean in remains no longer a warning

to would-be pilots in their first days of training. Though I suppose in this instance, scrawled messily in Jemis Octavo soldier's blood across the Kenner's cockpit window, some spirit of the original mystery has been preserved. May I investigate the writing for any either forensic details or coded messaging within this scroll? Ooh, okay. Yeah. Give, like, we'll say the baseline DC is a six. We'll go reason.

And then every sort of like step up above that flat six will give you more information. Delightful. And I have a quibble working against me. Yeah. I appreciate your quibble honesty. 10 plus one is 11. That's a success which we have to re-roll. Come on.

Come on one. Five plus one is a six. Okay. You go and analyze what best you can. Are you trying to avoid the crime scene at all? Yes. How into this are you getting? Yes.

I am trying to avoid the crime scene. Okay. So kind of just getting up to the window, I think the thing you can most easily suss, this was written by someone writing, with both of their hands. Like, it's very easy to suss out, like, left or right-handedness in, like, scrawl, especially in the sort of, like, finger-painty way.

But there's something about the, like, lack of lean or specificity that this was someone kind of using both hands simultaneously, a highly dexterous act for a normal person. Yeah. But there doesn't appear to be any, like, coded message there. Cool. Just a very specific warning to someone who, they, knew would see it from the inside of the ship. Two dead guards?

Two dead, yeah, two dead pilots. And you've heard no other sounds from the rest of the ship. And there was blood in, like, the corridor. And obviously, this feels clear, written not by one of the two victims. Correct. Yes, written in their blood by somebody who either perpetrated it or wasn't bothered by it enough to not write a message. A thousand percent.

Okay. Are there any guns or sidearms on the two guards? Yes. The kit that they essentially pulled you all with is still present. Their rifles aren't on them. They took all of those off. But in their storage lockers, those massive rifles are there. I have a sample collection kit.

So I think that I swap out my fingertips on my hand and go to collect the guns from storage and hand a gun to Chi or offer a gun to Chi and Zadava. I'll take one. Oh, thank you. I do not take a gun for myself. I will note that you don't see the other four guards, but you can pretty easily guess that they are also dead. If you wanted a gun, you could go get one. There are other guns here in this space?

Six officers on the ship. All of them had rifles when you were pulled. I would actually like to disable those weapons. Okay. And not take one for myself. Okay. You head to the back of the ship. With a cursory glance, is there any chance that I recognize the handwriting?

Hmm. Go ahead and give me, let's go difficulty. We'll try difficulty six, reason. That's a one. Incredible. I'll ask you a question and then offer a sort of like world move to honor that one. What do you think Chi finds the most distracting about this scene? specifically.

I think that this is in a parlance that is specifically targeted to me. And I think maybe with the one that I am desperately caught up in trying to find this hidden message or some sort of a double entendre or a personalized threat. there is something inside of the slang of lean in you are traveling with nobility and a being that uses a fuller capacity for language than the slang of lean in it's a pretty good guess that this message was for you and I think that's the thing you circle around

and it takes you a second to snap and realize it, but it's because of the movement of those lights. Farther down, like looking past the words through the window, the ship landed in this dock district on Karueta. And you see off in the distance, it's pretty foggy and green and gray all around, so lights have to be very bright to cut through the noise of the mist everywhere. one of those spinning lights reminds you of authority figures. And it occurs to you that your time here isn't forever. I'm not saying police are on their way.

But someone else, other than the three of you, will see this soon. Lean in. Oh, there's just a fucking wall. Okay. Um, oh. Uh, authorities are on the way. Oh, well, you didn't kill him. I looked down on the kind of my hand.

No, no. We were all together. They'll believe you, won't they? Depends. Are there any sort of signs of anybody else leaving the cockpit? Where are the rest of the guards? Yeah, I think Zadavon is working through, I think, a pull interrupted. a pull, something simple. It's not complicated. Go where you're told, wait until the deal is made,

go home. Interrupted. Why? And I think is just going to, I think, start to walk, kind of walk in the direction of XLZL, just trying to see if there's anything else. Yeah, if both of you are sort of moving towards the back of the ship, you will come across the corpses of the other four guards here. Are we, so we're near the cockpit right now? You were at the cockpit, and then you mentioned moving back to go disarm the other weapons. The other weapons. Are they, like, far down a hallway or in another room somewhere? You're in another room.

In that case, I think forget that, if that's okay. I think if they were in the same storage locker, you do it. But I think in that case, as I hear you say authorities are coming, I'll just and say, Hmm. Interesting. Obviously, authorities are also present here on this ship. Interesting to think about what might be the supreme or competing authority. Zadavin, seeing the cockpit currently unmanned, what is the protocol around interrupting one's own pole? You're expected to be complicit in pulls, just to set that tone, because if everyone is interrupting their own pulls, then everything gets more dangerous. and a lot more lives get lost.

In hearing XLCS question, I think my first thought is going to go to, of the bodies we've seen, are any of them cure? Neither of the two pilots was your cure. For you, Chi, you do see the person that, without any facial recognition, just kind of off of height, you think that the two people that escorted you

ended up being the pilots, so they are certainly in the front. I'd like to across Zadavun's sunglasses send two drafted missives, one very short into the point and one a little bit more formal and a little longer to possibly alert your immediate network that you are experiencing an irregular pull. For your perusal and at your option, some missives that would alert your closest network. I think I see that. I'm going to turn on you sharply. I can handle this. Understood?

The other cure is not here. I haven't seen him yet. You haven't seen him yet. I'll go to the back. Is his body? He's there. The pull's been interrupted. Now the question is just, do we go through with it or do we pivot?

I think we should go through with it. I think we should try and find Jemis Octavo here on Karu. later. Understood? Lean in. The only way forward is through. I'm going to head toward the exit of the ship. Okay. Is there anything else you want to do, see, or interact with before you leave the ship? I am going to check in the cockpit. Does it look like the shots came from behind or through the cockpit windshield? It's not through the cockpit windshield, but I will ask the same question I asked earlier.

How close are you getting to investigating this? Because forensic work requires interaction with a crime scene. Should we not touch the bodies? Touching the bodies is... I'm not going to touch the bodies. Very good. I am a skilled physician. I think we're past that point, but here, take a look at them.

me. I can go ahead and do a little forensics on the bodies to see like any information we might glean. Yeah. Let's go. You can pick between the two of you who you want to lead a difficulty eight reason role. Oh, that would definitely be you. Okay. Cool. I'll start to analyze. Yeah. And I think I would like to assist in a will way, I think. I think instead of looking at specifically forensics, I would like to just search their persons. You're in touch the bodies? Yeah. Okay.

I've got to ask a couple times. Yeah. It makes me nervous how many times you keep asking it, but I think I would like to just carefully look over just through their pockets. Can I, from my retrieval kit, offer a pair of, can I just take a look at your hands briefly. Oh, yes. And I would just like to print small latex to cover the fingerprints and palms on your hands. You can print latex. You have latex printers in you. Yes. Oh, that is incredibly useful to know. Perfect. Okay, how'd you do? I only got a seven. Okay, but that's,

you have a plus one because you're being assisted. Okay, eight. I love that. With an eight, it takes you probably a solid 10 minutes. And again, you both are standing at the front. There was no authority immediately on the way. You're just aware of the fact that at some point, someone externalists will at some point look and go, I think I see blood and be alerted. But no one's been alerted thus far.

So you do have a little bit of time and you are kind of watching out for each other. It takes about 10 minutes and you can put this together. This individual, this assassin, managed to breach the doors on the kenner and immediately fires on the pilot sitting closest to that door. The first shot is in the head.

Double-tap in their chest. And even in the scramble, it takes the second pilot to try to reach for a sidearm on their person. The assassin closes. Two shots again, quick and efficient. this time first the chest, then the head. Four rounds fired with a weapon that somehow managed to elude alerting either the other four guards deeper in the ship

or the three of you sitting 15 feet away in an enclosed room with no other sounds to distract you beyond your own voices. This was quick, incredibly efficient, incredibly lethal. You see them move out of the frame of this footage towards the back of the ship, and you see in front of you the evidence of their work. Four more kills. No return fire. A cling take. Anything else more specific that you wanted?

From that, you hit the DC. I just want to give you whatever you were looking for. No, I think looking at those forensics are fine in terms of how this all shook out. I'm interested because there's been writing on this of lean in, there's a mole. So someone was being extraordinarily violent, but a mole implies a traitor or a mole implies someone to be untrustworthy, which makes me think it seems like these pilots of the Jemis Octavo family were killed by, someone who was worried about sedition or treason or disloyalty? Am I reading that correctly? They're dead and someone said,

watch out for, it's crazy to walk in, kill two people at work and go, everyone's got to be looking out for moles. Yeah. So I think there's something interesting here in the, if Chi doesn't say, like,

her internal thought about who the message might be for, I don't know. I think everyone's still operating a bit of a vacuum right now. So I'll go, I'm aware of how this altercation occurred on a physical level. The mental emotional reasons for it allude me. Do you think if you asked the ship politely, it would tell us if there was perhaps a seventh person besides us on the ship? I can interface. All right.

I'd like to go to a data pad or other information center of the ship. and bow respectfully and enter a series of digital commands in a kind of binary script electronic communication that requests communion with the interface of whatever computer system is present on the ship. Is there a specific move you're using to do this? Or was it just a general like reason tech role? This is general reason tech. I think that we had to.

disgust in terms of his sort of species' powers or whatever, being like able to talk to machines or whatever. But other than that, you know, I think it's very like speak with plants of like how much the machine knows or is capable of communicating depends on the machine. But he is able to speak with them, essentially. Okay. Then you know what? Let's call this a charm roll then. Love that. Sweet.

This is a Jemis Octavo ship that would have a not insignificant amount of security. So I'm going to say that this is a... Do I want to make it very difficult? No, let's just call it a difficult role. Give me a seven. Cool. That's an eight. A.

Ooh! You begin to interface with the ship. And there is a lot of resistance. It's almost as though the thing that can be in community and in conversation with you is down a hallway. And that hallway is artificially produced, electronically produced, like firewalls. So you're having a conversation. It seems to be at a distance. And there seems to be lots of things put in your way to prevent ease of communication.

but you do hear a voice. It's like talking to you, but it's like through the... Yeah, you're talking to a Peanuts parent. A Peanuts parent. Hello. I am Excelsial, septimality of the arena. I understand that there is much you are not cleared to say to me. Understand that there is no part of me that desires you

to augment any aspect of you. of your protocols. In an ideal interaction, you will have served your protocols faithfully. Events have occurred upon the ship of which you are the core processor outside of the purview of its stated mission. I lack much contextual information in order to be of service to those whom you serve. But all indications point in the direction that there has been a series of murders on this vessel of those who share common cause with you.

I cannot imagine it is to the design of those whom you serve. You need not tell me anything secret or untoward. However, if there is information you have that can be brought to bear to ameliorate this anomaly, I will be happy to assist in the endeavor to make sure that this event is rectified and never occurs again. And I'll share images that I have from my own memory banks of the slaughter, of like the death on this ship. Any information you have that can help corroborate this will increase our efficiency in rectifying this matter. If you can give me anything non-proprietary about those who may have not been on this ship.

And I think I'm going to give specifically the fact that if the ship is under any security protocols or NDAs, certainly those security protocols would be for people that are supposed to be on the ship. And none of its security protocols, basically saying like people that aren't supposed to be on you should not benefit from your security protocols. I like that. You speak of non-proprietary, non-sensitive information. And it's like you're hearing a series of doors long. in this impossible hallway between you and the technology. But it doesn't sound bad.

And as your mind starts running through and you're giving like little mental snapshots of your view of the cockpit, this being, this security protocol, is filling in the blanks up until like the sort of screenshot that you have of the slaughter. You're essentially getting like CCTV. footage of like the run-up of that point.

So where you see two dead pilots and a scroll, you see a minute before walking into frame, a hooded figure. Obviously, they've covered their face, thin, live, muzzle flashes. And the second shot gets incredibly close. And in that moment where it looks like the gun is pressed to the chest,

of the second pilot, a hand comes away and begins writing the first, the like lean in, and then this person's right hand leans into the smear of blood on the front of the first pilot that they shot and begins writing the rest of the message underneath it simultaneously. And so every, like, fragment of slaughter and state of the ship that you show is filled in with the blanks of a single assassin coming in, somehow absolutely getting the drop on all of these people, I think you are able to notice within eight that there's some sort of audio component that they were able to get the drop because this person is moving soundlessly through the ship. As I see that the ship is filling in gaps in what I'm able to provide,

I would also like to give it a video loop from my memory of us embarking on the ship at Jenneville. and give it a visual feed of its gangplank, its entryway, and basically say, if you're able to fill in this, like, the preceding minute or two of the cockpit, I also want to give you the video of us entering the ship to see if this assassin figure had any recording of entering through the normal gangplank. You give that, and there are multiple angles offered back of no other people than the three of you and the original, like, six soldiers entering on this ship before it took off. And I think as a little gift, there's something very kind in the offering of information

that this might make for a cleaner report when Jemis Octavo, like technical people come and look at the data and now there is more to offer. You hear in this sort of fictive hallway something like a key being taught. down a hallway to you. I will take the key, unencrypt it, re-encrypt it, and leave a gift of my memory banks solely of... So I will leave a recording. All sensitive conversation from within the room is excised.

However, our entry to the ship, a view of the door proving that we were fully in our room, the whole time. So I'll like remove all sound and like lip, lip reading or anything from it. But being like, we were in our room the whole time and a recording of our forensic activities of the pilots, like discovering them already dead and doing the forensic activity is left, gift wrapped with the most effusive robotic gratitude and praise, not only for myself, but on behalf of the septimal choir and the arena. And given an official stamp of like, this information is given.

and freely with no expectation of repayment on behalf of the arena as a thank you to those that invited us amongst the stars. And is left there for the ship and for the Jemis Octavo family being like, thank you for making this kidnapping so pleasant. There's no like, there's nothing that the ship does. It doesn't blush or like affect any movement. but I think it's very clear that this ship likes you a great deal now. And as you went to unencrypt and re-encrypt the key,

the data was all, I mean, it will take time to like parks through the data. You're kind of just moving through it. But foremost in your mind, a set of three dots in equal lateral triangle. The key that was being tossed to you was not a key to the ship generated. by the ship. That was a key generated by whoever broke onto the ship once they landed that entered onto it. This is the key that the assassin used to gain interest to the ship. Okay. In that case, this key probably has incredible forensic information, but we don't have time to get into that right now. But do I have, is there a designation or serial number or a mark

for the ship? There's a very long set of like IDs and protocols, but all of that sits under the super set of the name. Kenner. Kenner. I will say Kenner here in this speech of Brennan speaking English, but I do recite instantaneously the full serial number of the ship to it as I address it as a mark of respect and formality. And I will say, we are at our most divine when engaged in the fulfillment of our stated purpose. In that way, Kenner, I understand you to be sacred.

And I will disengage from that and turn to Chi and Zadavin and go, it was an honor to be aboard this ship. They are a faithful servant such that we all might hope to be in our lives. So a good conversation then. Extremely. Excellent. And I want to jump really quickly to Zadavon because I think you were chasing an interesting line. of logic that I want to like dig into a little more a pull interrupted but no one inside of

the system of pulls and culls would think to do that so interrupted by within or without and then you think about the words written and if they mean anything to you and what all of this means and what it means for you. There is no fear of petty authority that you walk through this space in, but there is a bigger mystery kind of sitting in front of you. So why don't you give me...

I'll let you decide if you want it to be reason or will, but the difficulty is going to be an eight. I'll choose will. And I guess Zadavon is thinking big picture, is thinking that this is an interaction. between families, between the Avericks and the Jemis Octavo. Jemis Octavo wants to pull Averix. Averix completely open to pull.

Outside agitator moves in, disrupts what would have otherwise been a clean pull. Would you allow me to, I guess, to your line of questioning, that is my line of questioning, it is, would you allow this to be attempting to sense motive? Ooh, hell yes. Fantastic. Then we'll make this roll with advantage. Amazing. Ten on the first roll.

Let's go. And we'll take the ten. Gorgeous. Start me off with the direction that your thoughts wander and I'll start filling in blanks for you. I think Zadavan has kind of turned away from the bodies themselves because that's distracting to him. Blood, violence. those are all particulates of this much larger game that these five families play. And so I think as he kind of turns kind of looking into the darkness of the ship,

knowing that there are other bodies hidden there, I think he's thinking about kind of that on a line. Yeah. One side, Jemis Octavo, one side of Vyrix, an agreement. We are taking you for a deal being made elsewhere in the galaxy that he is not a part of. someone steps in, agitates that deal, and then sends a message. Is the message for Jemis Octavo? Is the message for him?

It's a message for Excelsial. Is the message for Chi? This was a highly discussed. Kier wouldn't stop talking about the dossier, how much he read, everything he was thinking about in how he was pulling us, and the amount of articulation and thought that had gone into this poll. So why? Who?

Let me jump in there. Please. I like that. Because I think it's the thought of there was so much articulation put into this pull. And then your brain kind of skitters and goes, no. Thought wasn't put into the pull. Thought was put into the move on Jenipar. And you think about those bodies on the ground.

They're so distracting. The bodies were the point in Jenipar. they were there to air it out. You are on a puddle jumper meant to get back to this dock because you need to get on a bigger ship. Jemis Ok Tavo is here in Corueda. Yeah. Or at least their ship is

because they didn't send six people to take Janapar. Yes. And this isn't a ship that can handle a cough. It can't use Orm. You know that just from like the sleekness of it. This is a cute little Vespah. This is not a long, haul ship. So the rest of the troops that were pulling off the bigger coup in

Jennepar came on a bigger ship. You were just a small part of it. The pull was incidental. This wasn't about you. For once, this pull was your friend, Isolt Jemis, seeing an opportunity to extract you. And what you know of her and her political machinations and her coldness, there is surely some little bit of political leverage that could be wrought from this. But she was getting you out of Dodge. This wasn't about you. And then you think again about who would interrupt, who would even know to come and interrupt a pull

that was a secondary objective. Probably not someone else from the five families. So who knew about the pull? Right now, a couple drug-addled patrons and your two associates, only one of whom has been out of your sight meaningfully. Who knows who Chi talked to when she was out of your sight? Who knows who else on Jenna Parr

knew about this. I think smiling to himself, because I think he's probably been scolded in the past for always attempting to center himself and his family in the conflicts that he is associated with. Or like when working things out, he's like, well, we are heliocentric, so all problems revolve around us.

I think he's going to rubbing his temple, look up, Did she? This is about you. Hmm? This is about you. The... This.

The message. These dead people. This message. I think this is for you. Who did you talk to on Janipar? Who knew you were leaving? I didn't talk to anybody directly. It was not permitted.

I did leave messages just roughly explaining the situation and to, act as normal. However, I don't know. You said that nobody else boarded the ship with us? No, not with us. Someone else boarded the ship, obviously, but not during a time frame that was usable by the Kenners security cameras. Based on the line of thought that I've walked down.

Yeah. I'm surmising that this message is for Chi and the mole would be someone on Jenipar or somebody connected to who allowed Jenipar to be aired out. A thousand percent. Got it. And I can go back and give you a little extra information. A dossier that complete, so meticulously studied by Kier, how do you think Kier got that good of Intel?

Mm-hmm. This was a ornate, well-funded execution of a plan that really. requires a ton of coordination. I'm here by accident as well, and it seems that you are incidental to the airing out. Yeah. I don't think you being here is an accident. I think that you have the mole.

The mole is in your organization. It's whoever is working with Jemis Octavo to make the swipe on Jennepar. I'll look at Excelsia. Can I get some of that late? Jacks. Just fingers or other stuff? That's perfect.

And great shit. I'm going to go, I'd like to go through Kear, the main keyer, data pads, documents, anything I can find on his person. 100%.

I'm going to make you use like a tech reason role to get in there. We'll make the difficulty of seven. I can't hit that. I got it to, I'm just kind of like his,

there's too many fucking zippers on his clothes. You're able to get all of his stuff and you get to the data pad and you're like, lock screen. I'll bring the data pad back. Anyone able to open this? Of course. I'll take it and screen it with a login of, like, is this a Jemis Octavo data pad? Yes.

Okay, got it. I'll engage in the same act of communion as before. Yeah, I'll do the same thing as before I try to hack into this path. Yeah. This one's going to be. much more difficult. Like, essentially, you offer kind, calm words, and you can hear them echo down a hallway that is built almost specifically at a length that is meant to keep your voice from reaching its intended result. So this will be, like, this is no longer a conversation.

You're going to have to get a little rough if you want to get in and interact with them. I'm going to look here and I'm going to look at you and say, Zadavon, before you requested not to be referred to as my lord, do you find being referred to by your name to be your preference? Or do you prefer the jocularity of my previous appellations? Sure, man, it was funny before you could also just call me Z. Z, preference. Understood. Z. The purpose of infiltrating this data pad is to confirm your intuitions regarding the fact that Chi-Tanka is the first priority for Jemis Octavo. That's my thought, is that Chi is supposed to be here.

It wasn't that Chi happened to be in the room. It was that they were going to go find Chi wherever Chi was and make sure that Chi was on this ship. I'm going to get rough with the hallway, meaning that this, whatever the core consciousness of this data pad is, I believe. believe to be with like a data pad's purpose is a beautiful purpose, which is information. And information should always be shared. The protocols put around this data pads, I believe innate desire to share information, are essentially a muzzle on a beautiful beast. And muzzles are not

sentient and they don't have to be treated respectfully. I'm going to basically attack the musling protocol on this data pad. Okay. Go ahead and give me a tech role, reason in tech. Cool. I'm going to give you a reason. I'm going to say the difficulty for this is a 10 with a caveat of if you're close. We'll talk about it. I would like to quibble unless we want this to fall under the wrench category of having advantage. Give me wrenches.

Advantage is to-da-da. Reason roles for me. making or repairing technical objects. I don't think this is banking or repairing. Great. I will quibble. Yeah. It doesn't work. I got a seven. How close did you get, like overall? Overall, I got a seven.

Okay. You begin to exert your will on this hallway. And you hear a voice, but you know it's not the voice associated with the end of this hallway. It's very close and very soothing, and a cadence much more like your own. I'm sorry. Are you looking for information? Do I recognize this to be in a Rina's voice? Yes, it is. I will go.

Greetings. I am Excelsial of the Septimal Choir. I am engaged in the fulfillment of a contract. I would never dare to impede on a contract of my own choir. or a choir of a higher designation. Then I would like to formally introduce myself. I am O-N-T-A. I work closely with the Jemis Octavo family. And you can hear there is something,

it's like a little jump cut of any choir organization being offered but edited out of what you're hearing. I think it's the cadence, You understand that you're like, oh yeah, if you introduce yourself or say like, this is my name and this is where I work. It's as if that pattern and the cadence was started, but you're not getting the personal information from ONTA. Is that not getting the personal information from ONTA an indication to me that this is a fabricated arena? No, and I think you rolled high enough to know it's a little worse than that. There is something inside of like ONTA's protocols and maybe something.

inside of like the deal that he made that will not allow him to share that information. Oh, so even this is proprietary, even just knowing what choir O NTA is a part of. 100% is proprietary. I will acknowledge and I will say, understood. ONTA, a pleasure to be in communion with you. And I will disengage from attempting to hack this device. I will look out and go, this device is protected beyond my capability to uncover. Not a good conversation. Well, now that I know that all of the security on board is gone, I'm going to check in with my team and see if I can send a little house business to Drew and Conan.

Okay. Yeah, talk to me about your long range versus short range comms. Is this email? Are you making a phone call? If I can make a phone call, I go to a background where you can't see where I am and where you can't see the carnage behind me. Oh, so you're facetiming. Yeah, I'm facetiming. Okay, so you're going to FaceTime security? Yes. Let's do Conan.

Yeah, let's do Conan. Who are you ping in? Let's ping. Can I put a hand on Chi's phone? Chi, we don't know who the mole is. I'm worried if information gets back to the mole. It's not good. I'm going to look at Chi and say,

Ms. Tanka, I have come into some information that may allow us to cross-reference or corroborate likely targets for mole activity on Genipar. Do you have any admin access to telecommunications, of those in your employ? I should. Are you a micromanager? I think I wouldn't have the ability,

I wouldn't want the ability to see everybody's private communications. I think it's more of an admin key access, sort of a general, I can create other profiles under my system. Love that. Do you have full administrative access over those in your employee?

I do. I haven't really delved deeply into personal profiles. though. Would you like assistance? Well, under the circumstances, I think that would be most welcome, yes. Quick question. I'm all in for all of this.

On the ship with the dead guys, get slowed down by authorities, perhaps local cafe over a cup of coffee. I would love to see a local cafe. Does this constitute escaping or a minor detour on us rendering our own kidnapping? Minor detour on us rendering our own kidnapping. We are polite.

And I'll fall in behind sea as we walk off the ship. We've got Cures Datapad. We've got the key of the assassin. You have two large guns. I've taken one gun, cheese taking one gun. Now, understand that you're holding an M-16. This is not a thing you throw under. Okay.

Galactic politics. It's the Second Amendment. Like, what is the relation to walking around with a gun in space. I think if you were trying to keep a little sidearm on you, this place is kind of rough and janky enough that you could walk around concealing a piece and it would

be a problem if you got into a dust up with the local authorities. Walking around with a military grade weapon is going to get you stopped immediately. Or at the very least, because that is terrifying, clocked by everyone going, oh my God.

Now, this is what a wrench can do. I'm pretty sure. Can I get us two sawed-offs real quick? Yes, you can. All right. Let me get the roll this. I do have a quibble ode here, so I might roll too low. I'm going to say that it's a six.

It's a six. To cut a thing. I fail. Wait. Do you only roll the one time? I know. I rolled a two. I guess when he succeeds.

Do it a second time because you might roll a one and it could be worse. Yeah, you could find out. Okay, three. I could attempt to make these into sawed-offs. Give it a shot, Excelsio. I've ruined it. Great. I don't, this isn't quite my style anyway.

For what it's worth, in the security footage you saw of that actual, like, the murder of the pilots, you saw that, like, the pilots were reaching for, like, a little weapon. So there are tiny sidearms here. You just grab the big guns right away because they were hanging on the wall. I'll grab the dead guy's sidearms. Yeah. There's little guns for everyone. If everyone wants a little guy. If there's a tiny one, maybe sort of like a derringer in the thigh.

There's not a noisy cricket here. I'll take one of the sidearms and say, good to know about the sawed off, though. And yeah, I think I'm going to take off my sunglasses to be ever so slightly less conspicuous. and then head off. Sorry, just for me to make sure I didn't cut you off. No. Was there anything else you wanted to take off of Keir's person other than the data pad? Unless I found anything of intrigue on the role of a three,

I think I would have been focused on the data pad. I think the only thing that might have been intriguing was like of personal import and not like, like, it wasn't important to the thing that you're doing now, which is trying to solve a mystery. but there is like a small sort of, it looks like a broken off like bracelet charm of the like little flower at the center of that seven peddled flower

in a like gentle shade of lilac that you would remember has been Isolt's favorite color since. I'll grab it because it's probably really, it will serve us later. Cool. Just really quickly, if I can do a search for anything

that looks blatantly like it's from Jenipar, like a card, a matchbook, anything in the lockers from any of these guys that says that they have been to Jenipar or frequented? I think there's nothing too important, but across like personal effects as you're digging in, there are like datapad contact numbers scrawled on coasters and napkins, like, the implication of which was that there were some number of this group

that were here for days in plain clothes before enacting the airing. I mean, if I see Chi looking, I'll ask what it is you're looking for. Chee, you looking for something? Connections to Jenipar. For... See how long they've been here. Got him. As we're leaving the ship, I would just like to say goodbye to Kenner.

Oh, you say goodbye and everything becomes automated around you, like the door immediately opens. None of you have to interact physically with a deeply security protocoled ship. Unfortunately, once you're sort of out of the ship in general, there's nothing given, but you know in that sort of warm, buzzy feeling and the way that your augury yeah I think in the way that your augury reaches towards what you know and all of the collective intelligence and memory of the electronics around you it's like Kenner is a new little constellation

like a new little point in the constellation of like what you can reach to when you ask questions I in that last sort of like interface with the communication support I offer the most tender and romantic embrace I can I just offer the most utmost electronic appreciation and sincere devotion and gratitude. Inasmuch as this thing that exists with so singular a purpose, they were built to not dream beyond the protocols under which they were like designated and built. This ship loves you for whatever a ship's love means. it means the universe and everything beyond.

I value my own consciousness with the understanding and faith that there is a consciousness far greater than my own. I would not wish to diminish myself in the face of that consciousness. Therefore, I will not ask the ship to diminish itself. Oh, that's so sweet. Fuck the ship. I think I fuck the ship a little bit. I think me and the ship, I think we get it on a little bit in a sort of divine, sacred kind of communion way. It gets humid inside.

Like you're like, oh, the climate control must have turned off at some point. As we walk down the gangplank, my fans kind of beat arrhythmically and the blue LED strips of my face pulse with tears walking away from the ship. Is this an expression of emotion? Yes, I'm devastated. Oh, leaving the ship? Yes, I will miss the counter deeply. Hmm, that's lovely. I know.

And I walk down the gangplank. What coffee place are we looking for? So you are now, time is a little hard and crazy. So we'll say it's probably midday, though there is no like high sun to market. Karu Ada, the actual star of Karu is just a red dwarf that's so burnt out that without the weather, it would probably only look like it was an hour or so before sunset. Like that's as bright as it gets here.

But the mist is very heavy. There are lots of people moving around, but it feels like everything about the feeling of this little part of Warris, the city that you're in. is just port of call and no one sticks around unless they have to. Red Dwarf Port Authority. I'm locked in. I know the vibe of this place is I'm so locked in on this place. This vibe. I'm just like little.

Oh, God. I'm like, I think Excelsia looks and as someone who attempts his best to love everything is like, hmm. A thousand percent. Seeing like a dirty space synobon and being like, I don't know. Oh, there must be a place here where we can get something a little stronger than coffee. I don't think that they treat the bathrooms well here. Everything everyone has said is exactly true. It's correct.

Again, cannot overstate. You are in Space Barstow. Space Barstow. You have to stop here because someone had to pee. You're almost to Vegas. As we're walking, I'll look, yeah, I'll look for a place that. it would fit Z's profile of where we should sit and wait. Yeah.

As you're walking and leaving, I won't put it on a perception check because we're not playing D&D, but I do think you're all able to kind of slip in and see that basically by the time you get to the edge of your little wing of this port, the sort of regular port police force that's like slowly patrolling up and down has caught wind of the canner. And like you can just sort of,

hear more than see that more footsteps and attention is being called to where you were earlier. So this was right about the time, but no one seems to be freaking out. Like it's not like a SWAT team suddenly got called in. No one tipped anyone here off about anything being amiss. It was just noticed overtime. And frankly, not that fast. Yeah. So yeah, you start looking around.

And once you get out of the parking lot that you guys were sitting, in. I think you see not a lot of the businesses here have easy signage. There's something about, again, that very heavy, like, fog layer and this place is meant for

bigger ships to land farther down and smaller ships to, like, be transferred over. So mostly what you're interacting with is large swaths of the ground or sides of, like, superstructures that have massive, obnoxiously bright

neon colors that are directing ships from orbit. God. This place is neon hell. So this is like space wharf. This is like here like, yeah, harbor where it's like... Thousand percent. Gotcha. So there's like huge distances between areas that you have to go to get to your...

Okay, cool. Yeah. But you can find like a little... There's a little place you can see just from... Oh, hanging signage. What an old vestige of like humans going. Here's a place. to like put your body if you need to go.

And it's unfortunately like maybe 20 feet away from the edge of a massive bright green like bit of light on the ground. If anyone has ever passed through Karu Ada to get to Janipar, or you've been on a planet like this before, it's one of the ones that like oscillates from orbit that like pushes you to the like, hey, it's too dark to like see where you're landing. and we'll get you there via a series of lights. So, like, every five minutes, this massive green light blinks off

for about a minute and a half and then comes back on again. As we move, I shake my hair a little bit and it goes to sort of a dirty blonde. My face sort of softens a little bit. It's a little rounder, a little less striking. You know what? I want both of you to make a clock that.

We're going to make it easy. It's a five. I got a five. Hey. I got a nine. Both of you see it. The shaking of the hair and the changing of color, again, with the lack of light and the bright green, you don't notice that it's blonde.

You just notice that something has shifted in the tone of it. You wouldn't be able to tell from here if it was like red or fucking lavender, just that it's a lighter shade than it was before. But you can see that the planes of Chi's face are actively shifting in a way that is not the light. It's not a trick of the light. Something physically is moving under her skin. I look at Chi. Cute. Are there's augments?

Um, it's just a little something. I had done. Well, it's effective. Oh, thank you. I'm going to put my... This light is fucking awful. I wanted to be inconspicuous, but I only have one pair of sunglasses. I'm so sorry.

All the fan artists is like, he has to have the sunglasses. I've got to have my sunglasses. So bad here. And yeah, you make your way into this sort of... You see the signage, again, just absolutely obliterated with that green glow. It's called the Kestrels' Dives. and it's this nasty little dive bar that looks

intentionally in the same way that I think in modern times if we walked into an old-timey bar that looked like a tavern this is a like throwback to sort of late stage terran humanities dive bars so it is anachronistic

it's like a honky talk it's not even a honky talk it's like if you walked into a bar today Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, going. Just a normal bar today. Yeah. 10,000 years in the future is going to be like, oh, how great. This is so cute.

Have fun. It's like a medieval time. Exactly. I will walk in and look if they have a paid charging port here. Oh, yeah. You see very clearly in the corner there's like a whole section. It looks like the, like, part of the airport where there's like a bunch of chargers that you can rent. But every one of the chargers is for like a Motorola razor.

from 30 years ago. Like there's a charging station here. It will be slow as shit and you probably overcharge you. Sorry, you will have to spend too much for the little charge you get. I'll look at that. And under my, it's very funny to say under my breath, but I'll just look at it and go, hmm, forget it. Look, you said you're the one that said the bathrooms look bad here.

I know. I think a charger station is a bad bathroom here. I know. I look at you actually see, I think I'd, produce a small thing that looks like a, it has a plug on it, but it doesn't go to the cord. The cord is separate. And you realize I'm holding a electricity filter in my hand. It's like walking with a Brita filter for yourself.

Like I have my own water bottle. And I look at it and go, not even. Put it a quick. Oh, no, you might catch something. No, no. I know. It doesn't look safe. A life straw is not going to catch whatever the fuck is in that energy, bud.

This is going to take more than the charcoal and the analogy of electricity. And I'm gonna... I'll turn to Chi as we sit down and go, I would love to corroborate and cross-reference. Do you have full admin access to your staffs? I have an amount of oversight, yes. Also, if you could, and I give them a list of the bars and parlors that I found coasters and napkins from on the ship.

If they've been hanging out there, perhaps there's employees there that we're collaborating with them. This is even spread across various vice rooms, none of them private. Everything you pick up is like a public open, cheaper space to exist in. So like main bait, like in the casino analogy, this is all like the main gambling, like sports betting area in side of Caesars. These are not high roller suites. They are not. They were just like, I'm here in a public part.

I cannot afford to go anywhere with its own separate little name. It might still narrow some things down if you'd like to. I will not say, thank you. This is helpful texture in the search that I will conduct. I'm going to look to Chi and offer two different prompts on your data. And I go, whichever prompt you are more comfortable with will allow me to execute the search. And one of them is me asking for a moderator permission on the staffing database. And the other one is requesting admin with you as a unique owner status to revoke my admin privileges.

Whichever you prefer, I'm happy to execute. I think we had enough addendums in our mutual agreements that I feel comfortable with giving you admin access. And besides the systems networks on Jenipar, can be very friendly if asked to be. Ooh, la la. The moment admin access is created for you, you go to interact with just, like, the very beginnings. Like, let me open an index.

And all of a sudden you get booted out. Uh-oh. Uh-oh? Uh-oh. Uh-oh. I've been booted. you check if you are still active as the administrator owner of these systems? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to go try to log in. No problem. Okay. Everything's fine.

I do the sort of normal checks that I sort of would. And while I'm doing that... What normal checks? What do you say? What does that mean? Just sort of, uh, uh, you know... Check your Instagram. I, yeah, exactly. You know, I'm checking, I, I'm just checking up on the status of soaps in the restroom at the big parlor. I'm checking up just sort of normal, Unimpeated. Regular, d'agular things. And while I'm doing that, I ask,

can you check to see who or what is monitoring this? So if I'm booted, do I have any other ability to see how or why I was booted or anything else like that? I think it's more of a just like all of a sudden, like you started in like you logged in and maybe 30 seconds as you were starting to open things up, you just got logged out.

Do I have any surface informationally to investigate the how or why of that? I don't even want to make you roll this. The amount of time it took for you to get booted out screams, that wasn't electronic. Oh, someone manually booted me. Does anyone that works in your organization have the ability to boot someone with admin access? Nobody should. What? What? Do I have to roll about it? Yeah, you want to make a roll about it?

God damn it, yeah. I'll start listing people that I knew that had status on Jenipar. Yeah. Does Sienna Fielder have the ability to boot those with admin access? Not that you would know of. No, no, not Sienna, not Murayasa. Oh, God damn it. God damn it.

I believe I was booted from the system manually, which indicates to me a speed of response time. existing in real space rather than electronically automated. Go ahead and give me, let's make it a will roll, difficulty is just a six. I'm drinking whatever this place's version of a mudslide is. You are handed a drink that, based on this lighting, seems to have the color of wet cement, handed to you by a bartender that's like kind of a dumpy little, like, roomy-eyed, roomy-voiced man. who also, because of the lighting, appears to have the complex in the color of wet cement.

It tastes pretty good, though. It's just way too thick. It's giving, like, protein smoothie when it should be a little more. I only got a two. I don't know very much about technology. No, I think everyone other than, like, Conan and Drew, it would be so hard.

Like, it doesn't make sense in your org chart for them to have anywhere, near the level of access and it wouldn't even be both Conan and Drew it would just be Drew. Would have the level of access that you do. However, I also is your best friend.

So I think you've got that big stupid thing over your head that you're like, no, no one should have access. Oh! All right, who has been messing around in here? Okay, can I tell if

somebody is monitoring on my account if I log in on my profile? Nope. I mean, do you want to make a like hacking check? Right. Yeah. Well, I guess it would, I would...

I'll look at you and say, I am capable of doing this the inefficient way. Would you be willing to allow me to use your data pad from your profile? I will not electronically interface with your account. I will perform actions on the data pad with my fingers similar to how you would.

Please go ahead. I'd like to operate from cheese account, but manually upload and schedule for permanent deletion the security key that the Kenner gave me. I don't want to break faith with the Kenner by giving that important security key, but I would like to exist long enough. Basically, I want to use cheese access to be like, has that key showed up anywhere on Jenna Parr for any reason at all? And also do a full rundown on Ayasa interacting with Jemis Octavo.

Okay. Go ahead and give me a reason rule. The base difficulty for the amount of information that you want I'm going to say is a nine. But you can roll with advantage. Okay, copy that. Gee, do you want anything to drink? They've got this thing, it's called an asteroid belt.

It's pretty good. Oh, my goodness, yes. That is a dirty 12, and the lower roll was an 11. Hey, let's go. As you guys start to talk. My hands on this data pad are going fucking light speed. As I'm going slow. Yeah, so you are absolutely working on this iPad and you're doing it from cheese account, yes?

Correct. Great. So you can see that there is no one directly interacting or monitoring cheese account. But from cheese account, you can see that someone is trying to delete your brand new made profile. First off, information rules all isolate who that account is. There's no, like, everyone else has like a normal, like my first name, last name, a username attached to it. This one, it's very strange.

All you see is like a little weird, like emoji of a dancer to sort of mid-movement. And that's the username. And it has some form of administrator or moderator privileges? 100%. This is admin equal. to cheese level. But doesn't seem to be interacting. So, like, you can look at, like, what are the last operations taken?

There's a lot of checking of things, but not directly intervening. But it is now intervening to delete my account. Yes. That's fine. My account's brand new. While this person is distracted, are its actions occurring with time signatures indicating that it is a person in Meetspace? It's a person in Meetspace acting as we speak somewhere.

Great. I don't want to do anything to alert it. I don't even want to stop it from deleting my account. Accounts come and go. I can get a new account. I just want to see any information I can about where it's operating from, anything that would occur to it in meat space, while I'm also getting this Ayasa and assassin information.

Sweet. I'll give you an analog to the IP address is somewhere on World here. Caroeda. Yep. Cool. To your point about that security key, not used, anywhere on Genipar. Like this feels like a bit of an electronic skeleton key

that would be used to brute force get into a place you're not supposed to be. But it has been used before in a private vessel that was docked on Genipar as of five hours ago. Not the Kenner. Not the Kenner. So I see that there was a vessel that had this skeleton key used that made its way to Cardoeda, and then it was used on the Kinner.

Tanner. Yes. So in other words, the switch didn't happen on Jenipar. It did happen on Cardway. 100%. Okay. I'll log that. The last question I have is Ayasa, who is the likely, we're thinking, the likely mole. Does Ayasa have an account in the system for Jenapar that has any kind of admin privileges that I see or no? Ayasa has an account. It is of the same level as like Tullin over in gaming, Conan Drew, like is of a similar rank, but all of those privileges sit underneath cheese sort of master privileges. All I want to do is this. The Dancing Lady emoji is active somewhere concurrently with us right now.

I want to send from Cheez account a message to Ayasa's stated profile with an urgency sort of code alarm on like an auto-generated message from tree being like, urgent, call me, using the language that Chi uses for that exact kind of missive, like scanning through Chi's normal output, like mimicking her voice. All I want to see is if Ayasa gets a ping saying urgent on her stated account, the one with her name on it, do I see the dancing lady emoji go inactive? Amazing. The one little bit I'll add to that is because,

that you are imitating Chi's voice, Chi, what would you say? For just to, like, a, call me back. It would say urgent contact when available. Also contact, if not. The moment that gets sent off, the little dancing emoji stops working. And a private call from Ayasa hits that datapad.

So we lined up all of the comet shots all the way down my body, and then it is just who could get the furthest. See, that's fun. That's fun. I mean, this is why Jenna Par, honestly, of the asteroids you can get fucked up on, Genipar number one, because there's creativity, you know? Ayasa is likely your mole. I have sent a ruse.

She is now calling. Would you like to be connected? I... Yes, please, put her through. And I will show, I lied as you. You said there was something urgent. Do you need a second to compete? Hose-Ruse?

This is a FaceTime call, by the way, so with video. I'm going to put up a background, like a fake background. How? You know, like on, like, like, like. It's like a Zoom call. It's like a Zoom call. I take off my blazer. I stand behind Cheat.

Thank you. I was like, where's the green screen? Right. They can take, they can comp it out now. You can just lay down on the massive green light behind you. Excelsia looks at this meat space problem solving from Z and goes, wow. Brilliant. Oh, yeah.

I don't. I don't believe it. I can also end the call right now and say false alarm. Uh, uh, uh, I think this is taking long enough that like the call like goes to voicemail. Right. And she immediately calls back. Okay. All right.

Um, no. Uh, and I, I answer the call. Great. Nice. Okay. As you answer the call and I'll just step out of the, I don't want to be seen here anywhere. So I'm out of line of sight. Sweet.

You see that. She is in a very neutrally colored room, flat, like beige background, and is just sort of like staring, looks kind of wild-eyed. What's wrong? Why would you send an email? What are you? Where are you? What do you mean where am?

Did you not get my message? No, I clearly did not. What, what message? Where are you right now? I, listen, I asked you first. Are you on Genipar? No! And you're not...

Where are you? I can't tell if you're doing this because maybe some weird Jemis Octavo people are like standing behind the camera trying to extort you or something. Like blink twice if you're being killed right now. I... You left me a message saying that you were going off world. and then I left you a message saying deal with the fucking mole. Where are we with that? Oh, you left the message.

What did I just say? Well, I didn't know that it was from you. You didn't sign it or anything. Sorry, is this coverage that Ayyasa was the assassin on the ship? Okay, great. Got it. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, I see. Oh, I didn't sign the murder?

So the police, what the fuck is wrong with you? Also, you didn't have to... Are you concussed? There's a lot going on right now I'm gonna Stay where you are I'm gonna find you I everything is

Don't find me You're worse at this than I am You kidding? Listen I am safe Oh you swear to God If you're still on that ship right now I am not

I'm not I'm not on the ship I don't know you're making bad fucking choices All the time I'm making bad fucking choices Yeah you sent me An email from a clearly Compromised Network

I'm working my app God now I have to start over again, someone made a new account that's trying to have admin privileges? What? You run the sloppiest fucking shit. I leave for two months, maybe six months. It's been a minute. I've been gone for not that long. Yeah. You let everything go to shit. What's wrong with you? Well, maybe if I had an opportunity to fuck off for a little bit, I would have the wherewithal not to, okay. So you're going to just trade away everything we've worked for because you didn't get a fucking vacation? What do you mean?

someone in the red room and get your ass back to work. What do you mean we worked for? I'm going to put my blazer on again. And the moment that goes away, she's like, Hi, Ayasa. Oh, Ayasa. Hello. Right.

Hi. Yeah. Hi. Zadavinovierix. I was on the sh- Are you holding my friend hostage? No. I am.

Well, you wouldn't say that. You have interrupted my kid now. And I would very much like to know why. Are you on Corueta? Yes. All right, we're at Kessler's dive, having asteroid belts. Will you come join us? Are you sure you're not being...

This feels like a trap. It's not a trap. Oh, God, everyone always thinks everything's a trap. Yeah, I have done a significant amount of murder. Your tone would suggest that I ruined your day. You did. You were being... What the...

I don't understand. No goals. Turn the... Turn the data pad back. Don't talk to me like I'm not here, all right? Turn it back. I don't want to see him right now. Okay, listen.

Why is up with... First of all... The five families are like, don't interrupt my kid. Like... Light. God damn it! Me too my eye! Get off.

Get over here. Get over here. You're so fucking ungrateful. Oh. Hold on. I haven't washed up yet. Okay, well... So much.

much blood in six people. All right. Well, get me like 20 minutes. Get it a little bit decent. Get your ass over here and learn to park right. Oh, we're going to get into my... You know what? And then she like hangs up.

Yeah. Have you ever talked to Ayasa about how ambidextrous she is? Yeah, it comes in real, real useful. Oh. Hmm. For intercourse. Mostly. Are you aware of Ayasa's secondary adminicational?

No. No, I'm not. And she believes the network to be compromised. It is by her. Did you say anything that would suggest it would be anyone other than her as well? Not at the moment, but I was unable to complete my search because she attempted to boot me from not her account. The only thing that I'll point out at this moment is her stated profile, the one attached to her actual identity, has a lower clearance than this secret profile. And I'll show the dancing lady profile. Does that dancing lady look familiar? Yeah, you recognize the, like, movement an arabesque. God damn it. All right, well, is there a reason I would know why she would have this access and why she would be all cloak and dagger about it? You can have guesses, but I think it would

have to be a conversation. Right. I've never known her to be very politically savvy, or one who is much for intrigue. So I will not engage in any further electronic intervention to attempt to delete this dancing profile. I can engage in that behavior if you'd like, but it seems perhaps given you a relationship with this individual that that should come after an actual conversation. Yes, I think we should lock it down for now. Oh, lock this account down for now? Yes. Okay. And I'm going to, as she's trying to delete my new account from cheese ad,

window, I want to create a pop-up for people that are struggling to delete an account that basically goes like, in order to delete an account, you need moderator status, which looks like basically framing a demotion as a promotion, like, oh, a moderator can delete this account and just put that as a pop-up with an insta-kill on that account if it accepts moderator status. There is no response in either direction, but I think when that pops up, you see any activity on that account stops immediately. In that case, I think that I will look at that, see that someone has seen the trap that's been laid here, and automate several thousand pop-up messages for when that account goes active again. So because I know that someone's doing that with their fingers and eyes, it's like, okay, you're being sneaky, you're on to me.

Let's just make this not usable. Perfect. Amazing. Thank you, much obliged. Master of your X or... Z's fine. Z? Everyone can stop.

I know what I am, but we don't have to constantly acknowledge it. All right. Well, Z, I do apologize. A pull is supposed to be simple. I'm not supposed to know about it. Certainly none of my people are supposed to interfere with it. This should not be a reflection on Jenipar. it seems that circumstances are quite irregular today.

Very much so. So, I don't know. I'm interested to dig into it. Yeah, we'll get you back on track and kidnapped right and proper. Thank God. Would you like me to source anything to provide, given that you're now affecting your own kidnapping? A fruit basket, bouquet of flowers?

Not at this time. I mean, I think, honestly, information is worth much more than any sort of physical gift. The assassin on Kenner had an incredible combat ability and ambidexterity and wished to warn Chi of the presence of a mole on Janipar. Ayasa has taken activities outside of your knowledge or purview, this Dancing Lady account being first and foremost, but the question does remain who the mole on Janipar is if it is not Ayasa. Seems strange to warn you about herself.

if you know what I mean. Ayasa, I, Ayasa is incredible. Ayasa is a genius. I don't think she is the kind of intelligent that would lend to her being a good mole. So if this is a double bluff,

it is an incredibly good one and very out of character. She seems to be a very proficient assassin, which has a lot of skill overlay with mole. It's got a lot of skill overlay with a lot. a lot of other things she does as well. But that doesn't, be that as it may, I feel like her loyalties lie with Jenipar. And we've known each other since we were children. I don't understand.

I think we should wait and talk with her. I think there is a lot that needs to be sorted out here. Would you like to try an asteroid belt? Yes. Thank you. I'll look at Z and just go, given that you are now affecting your own pull, Big Dog, would you like me to create an invoice for the Jemis Octavo when we arrive?

These asteroid belts could be charged back to them, given that you are now responsible for your own kidnapping. Not a bad idea. I'll start running an invoice for the Jemis Octavo. Perfect. Amazing. Zee, could you give me, let's just go a straight will roll? You know what?

No. this is a I want it to be for you to notice something but it does feel close enough to sense motive that you can have advantage on it the difficulties of seven you got it oh first one is a five uh oh uh oh the second it's an 11 yay yeah with an 11 as you are all discussing I think you always have a little bit of like the stiffening of your spine when your last name is used.

And you've been called Master of Erix out loud in public by Chi. And I think you do the quick glance. People in this room, like there are a couple other people sitting in the corners didn't seem to notice. But looking back at that bartender, he absolutely clocked that name

and is now busying himself behind the bar in a way that would suggest there is more traffic here, than there actually is. Got it. We said we wanted more asteroid belts, right? Yes. Fantastic.

I'm going to walk up back to the bartender. Oh, can I get some more for you? Yeah, we'll take two more for my friends, one more for me. And I can't help but ask. I think you know who I am. I wouldn't presume to know some sort of famous singer, probably. That's fun. That's fun. It's perfectly fine for you to know who I am.

His eyes are down and he is busying himself. Can I see what he is busying himself with? He's making your drinks now, so he doesn't have to look you in the eye. It would mean a great deal to me to know who might here in Warris be interested in me being here. And then I think I'm just going to put like a credit chip, black Amex, whatever version of that is on the bar. Huh. And there's just that slow look back up with those like roomy eyes.

His face and his whole countenance is as wet and terrible as the rest of this city is. Okay. Well, generally speaking, the drinks don't keep. The doors open. Information does. Always. And whenever one of you fine families walks through the door, we know it's best to make sure that your family knows that you're walking through these fine doors.

And I think in the sort of like seeing the difference in technology, he's basically holding up like a child iPad version just like the biggest, thickest data pad with contact information that just has like eye period. and you can see that there's like corresponding ones for like all of the five families. He very specifically shows you that he was contacting someone within your family to notify of a family member moving about. This was not information being given to a different family.

You know, these asteroid belts have been so good. I am ready to tip you an exceptional sign. not just for them, but if you would not mention my name to anyone on the eye side of things, but I wouldn't mind if the Lotus system had a hunch of where to find me. Yeah? Yeah. And he reaches out and touches you with like the coldest, clammyest hand. It is taking everything in my body and not to like wrench myself back from him.

Your own family pays better and it seems safer too. Are you sure? Very much so. Okay, you seem like a nice man. Gives you a couple quick pats and goes back and like scrolls through down to a G.0. Just sends off a missive that is a master of VRX and like coordinates for this part of Waris. I tip him $20,000 for these mudslide or for these asteroid belts and carry them back to my friends. Never have I ever been in a synth fight.

Wow. Did you win? Did you win? Oh, the synth fight? I've lost every synth fight I've ever been in. Ms. Tanka, may I put some biometric scanners on your body so that I can enjoy these drinks with you? Oh, yes, that's right. You experience through... Absolutely, put it on me.

Put some scanners on. Z. With the drinks. Thank you so much. I'm drinking for two now. Oh, perfect. How did you come across Ayasso? Well, we came up in the apartments together.

We were apprenticed around the same time, and she was just a wonder kin. Those skills, are they... Is it something in your... training or is it like where do you think she got them from i mean because that's based on what excelsia was telling us sounds like hardware involved oh well we're from slightly different schools i'm if hers specialized in wetwork i i was not aware um no uh we trained more we we had overlap in our classes in social arts so i really don't know where this all came from

Can I make an insight check to see if Chi is telling the truth? Yeah, absolutely. Sense some goddamn motive, please. That's Will, right? It is Will. Eight. Go ahead and give me, let's call it a term roll. Or if you're telling the truth.

I don't know, I don't even know above table if you're telling the truth or not. Four. Actually, no, wait. So I have advantage. Why do you have advantage? Checks, I have advantage because of my hustle, which is fame monger. When I'm acting on brand,

you're not acting on brand right now. No, you're speaking honestly about your relationship with someone. That's true. I think that like the acting on brand is when people have clocked you as like the chief from Telogen that you have advantage on everyone

because they are like seeing the famous version of you. All right. You can tell that I am genuinely surprised, but I'm trying to work through something because I know that she is... Everybody has secrets, especially on Jenipar. But I genuinely don't think of her as an assassin.

Hmm. I filed the knowledge away and in my own mind sing a small prayer of mourning for the pain of having a lack of knowledge about the people close to us. And I'll do the shots of the asteroid belt.

And I start to light up. My cheeks start pulsing red as little thrums of a deep purple and orange begin to appear in random drunken splotches on my plastic white plates. I think as you all drink and you are waiting before I ask her to show up to have a hard conversation. Yeah, where's your datapad at this point?

I have it. I have it out. Okay. You get a little alert that's just like a text alert. Out. Now. And then like the sort of like notify anyway function on like an iPhone where it just like emphasizes it more. like everything in your data pad that can make sound like vibration, sound, everything is alerting for you to see those two messages.

Is there a back door? Everyone gets one action. What do you want to do? I don't have the strength to pick people up. I would like to indicate with my finger towards, I want to see if there is an exit at the back door and rush to interpose my. body at the front door. Inter what? Oh, God, what?

I just want to get... Point and then run to the front? Well, I want to cover Chi and Z's exit. Okay. I would like to... Like, we're getting this information from Chi's data pad, right? Yeah. Out now.

Is it indicated that it's from Ayasa? Yes. I'd like to make some sort of check to perceive immediate... Like, what is the change in this space that Ayasa might be referring to? be it in the way people are moving, people entering or coming down the hall, any sort of sense of what is inspiring out now. Yeah, just the quickest glance around, there's no role for this. No one's changed, like literally nothing has changed about the bar. Those that are still sitting and drinking are still sitting and drinking.

The bartender Alfie is still there, like, he's not working now. He's freaking out. And, like, you see him with, like, like, a graphing calculator out. Just like, how much money is that? What is that deal? Like, he's just in a like, I can't tell. He can't process the good fortune at this point. So he's just sort of like lost to a money fugue.

Nothing's changed and even looking out the door. Nothing's different about outside. The green light is currently on. And the few people that like, the like steady trickle of people walking by is unabated. I'm going to stand slowly and put up. my coat, but I'm not making any sort of move to run. Okay. I meet the data pad, and I start heading towards a point of egress that is not the front door.

You saw that Excelsiel pointed towards the back. I start to head towards the kitchens, I guess. You don't know where those doors lead. To a place in a... I mean, there's no smell of food here. Right. Okay. So you don't know where that door is.

goes, but it's towards the back. I start heading towards the back door to scout it. What's your level of urgency here? Because we've got slowly putting it on a jacket, barring the front door, what's your level of hustle? Somewhere in between. Give me a better word than that,

you fucking wordsmith. Okay. It is, it is. I stand up and I urgently need to use the bathroom. Okay. You get up and begin to move towards the back. You're kind of Washing over your shoulder, seeing what's happening in the front?

Mm-hmm. Okay. So Excel Z, you're going to see it first, then UZ, and then you in the back, Chi. And that might be a bit of a relief. Because once you realize that there's some small object that's, you're only able to perceive it in its speed based on the fact that, like, it's metallic outside is reflecting that green light. So it looks like a little spark of green is barely.

a barreling towards the main window and your comrades, friends, and you are in the back as something begins to detonate. That was Erika Aishi as Chitanka, Renanley Mulligan as Excelsia, Lou Wilson as Zadavinavinaverix, and Abria Aingar as everyone and everything else. Solari is produced by Worlds Beyond Number, Edit and sound design by Big Giant Head Productions, and score by Will Savino. For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon.

We'll see you by the fireside.