In the week since Kendal's grand announcement he has been busy.  Beyond the standard demands of his office, the Senate has been in an uproar and has begun work on creating a task force to create a committee that may suggest on whether or not to potentially revise the constitution.  Of course, since this has a LOT to do with Kendal, he has not been appointed to that task force.  Given that it's essentially a premeeting for a premeeting for a meeting, he can't be too annoyed.  It's another checkmark on a long list of boxes that he instinctively knows has to be done, and any of his own interference would just reflect negatively on him across the board.

That's not to say he doesn't have allies on the task force, after all.  There are nine on the task force.  He doesn't know three of them:  two humans and an elemental.  Another is someone he doesn't know personally but seems to be in his corner, a Wood Dragon-Blooded named Lowen, a senior member of the senate with pro-Exalted tendencies.  Two others are political rivals, Senator Chandragupta- a staunch baseline humanist- and Senator Grail, the god of a long-dead Gallic nation murdered by the Caesars.  Senator Grail is in particular his most vociferous opponent, no doubt because the gods are jealous of what power they have.  He personally knows two of them.  Senator Bassett, a dog-god who owes him a favor, has already privately voiced his support; his loyalty is a thing of legend.  Senator Clair Des Moines was evacuated from Earth by his sister, was elected at the same time he was, and the two of them served on a food management committee; Clair may give him a lot of shit but the two work VERY well together and he can't see her throwing him under the bus.  The last one is a bit of a wildcard, a token neomah by the name of Skena; normally he couldn't count on demonic help but his popularity among demons has skyrocketed lately.

All in all that puts 2 in the opposing team, 4 potentially in his corner, and 3 undecided.  Those are pretty good odds.  He knows that the task force will, no matter what, recommend the creation of a committee.  But the task force will set the tone of that committee.  All being said things are looking pretty decent.

But, for now, it's a different thing entirely.  Work has to continue despite drama, and the Senate clicks and hums like an arthritic man mumbling a long-forgotten song while he toils.  There's a lot to do on the human side, and the latest is one of Kendal's committees: tanker management.  He sits at a table with his four coworkers, Senators Trisk [Water Elemental], Addleby [Human], Emmentaler [Cheese God], and Faraday [Human].  Senator Trisk is the committee head.

As boring as looking at tables and numbers is, it's absolutely vital.  The Last Refuge consumes water like a desert.  Recycling only goes so far; much water is lost, vaporized forever to cool and power the Last Refuge's engines.  Water gods help, but even they've been stretched.  The water transports of the fleet roam out in the void, collecting frozen asteroids (and sometimes planets), purifying as much as they can for the thirsty worldship.  It's his job to help oversee their productivity and to make 'suggestions' to the Fleet and Pandora Bay.  It's also occasionally his job to deal with the Water Tanker Union (WTU).  Keeping the WTU happy is a vital thing.  Nobody likes working on the tankers.  Morale is perpetually low.

Water acquisition this month has been down.  A few transports had been ambushed out in the black by Dead raiding parties; Senator Faraday suggests a quick jaunt to Pandora Bay to commission some new replacements.  A strike on two ships, supported by the WTU, would normally require only cursory platitudes but these are two of the most productive ships in the fleet and require special attention- one Senator Emmentaler pledges to take over after the meeting.

The last bit of business is a bit different and maybe a reason for everyone to sit up and actually pay attention.  According to the report delivered to Senator Trisk, the Maple Leaf, composed mostly of Canadians, has pulled in to the Last Refuge missing almost all of its crew and 90% of its hull.  It's a miracle it even made it to the fleet.  "And the reason we bring this up instead of the other attacks,"  Senator Trisk informs them with his typical burbling-yet-dry voice, "Is because it was self-inflicted.  The lone survivor admits to sabotaging the ship.  He's currently being held by the Admiralty board."  His wet eyes pan over to Kendal, "Senator Raines, he's submitted a request to talk to a representative of the committee.  In particular you.  The Admiralty Board is claiming precedence in this matter but has agreed that this is quite unusual and is hoping to get to the bottom of this.  They've decided to delay the execution unless you defer to their judgment."

As everything else is going on, he tries to keep in touch with Torvald and Battles to stay up to speed with the Holftan situation as well.

And as he was the one who was asked the question about the Born King movement and such, he tries to get hold of other Exalted as well to hear their opinion to broaden his own point of view or if they even care.

As per the saboteur, the matter already piqued his interest by asking for him personally as he had little to no connection to the tanker stuff prior to this.
He replies to Trisk after a short pause "Any other info on the tanker or the route it took? It did encounter the Abyssal fleet before the sabotage took place, correct?"

He is ready to meet the fellow right away if possible, he had no reason to keep anyone waiting.

There's been little development from Torvald and Battles.  The former has fully recovered, though he now walks with a slumping gait.  Battles has reported to him every step so far:  namely that Holftan has disappeared, leaving his office in disarray and no tracks.  This is probably a job for his sister now.

So far there are few responses to his requests about the Born King movement.  What answers he does get are uniformly negative.  Kyle Weston, an Exodite Eclipse who spends most of his time piloting the Last Refuge, responds the most vehemently to the suggestion:  "Like asking Samuel for Saul".  Another Exalted 'luminary' to respond is Brahe, whose response boils down to 'That is the last thing we should ever want', but he's not exactly clear why; the seasoned politician in Kendal senses he's just sailed across deep waters and it may be a thing to follow up on later.  The Dragon-Blooded who respond are split across personal and cultural lines, but the majority of them actually support Exalted hegemony.  This makes sense:  it was what they were designed to do.

But, back to the saboteur.

"No.  The ship didn't come in contact with the Dead in any capacity.  If it did, it would've been destroyed.  No, the saboteur did all of that himself." Trisk tells him, "But he stopped short of destroying the ship; he brought it back.  Sanctuary's already slated it for utter destruction instead of trying to quarantine it.  The saboteur's being held in a quarantine-brig, void-iso, outer decks."

So he's being treated as a major prisoner.  He's not anywhere near Sanctuary, instead held in a box near the skin of the ship- the slightest problem will cause them to jettison his cell, then void it, killing him instantly far away from the Last Refuge.

But Kendal can't just go, no, he has to sit and wait for the rest of the meeting to finish.  Which it does, in another 15 minutes.  Then he's free to head to the isolation cube.

He takes a special train out to the brigs, where they keep Special Prisoners.  The Ilmorijo are here in force, full armed to the teeth and with specialized armor.  They give him the nod and escort him to a specific cell on a gantry, held up against an airlock.

Inside is a middle-aged man, white, with a full snowy beard and a scarred and weathered face.  Kendal has seen radiation scars before, this man must've worked on one of the old reactors before they started getting bound to gods.  His eyes are beginning to cloud, his feet and arms bound by chains.  He looks up wearily at Kendal when the Ilmorijo knock on the plexiglass with barely disguised disgust.

"'enator."
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:24, Mon 24 June 2019.

Kendal doesn't share the disgust the Ilmorijo have against this man, he is ready to give him a chance to share what he has to say at least with no bias.

He walks up next to the glass and keeps his hands behind his back. "Good day, as introductions go you already know who I am, but who do I have the pleasure of speaking with? And I presume you have something to tell me given you called me here by name."

"Gerald Trudeau,"  He says, his voice carrying a touch of Canadian English to it, "Chief engineer of the Maple Leaf."  He gives his guest a slight smile, "Voted for you in your last election... we saw your speech recently.  I was really impressed.  You look like a man that lives for, lives for justice."  He looks down at his feet, "Need it today."

Kendal returns the smile when Gerald says he voted for him, "Well thank you, every vote counts. I might not be standing here without people like you putting their faith in me."

"And yes, I consider myself as a man of justice among other things, but right now that justice is being held against you for what you did to that ship, or is there a reason you think this is unjust?" As he waits for a reply, kendal tries to get some reads on the man and his bearings, to see if he has a noodle for a spine or not.

"I'm... not sure."  Gerald admits, his smile falling like a rock.  "I can't ever be sure what I deserve..." He looks up at Kendal, his eyes looking even more clouded.  Can the man even see?  "I killed... so many people.  But it had to be done." His face starts twitching by his eyes, "He would've tried to kill us all... kill you all.  It wasn't right, what was happening to him, I could feel it, like... like biting into a rotten steak and tasting the rot like metal on my tongue... you spit it out, into the trash, throw it out, you don't swallow and smile..."

As much as Kendal likes the pronoun game he starts to question the sanity of the man before him, it seems a more direct approach is in order, "Who? Who would've tried to kill us? Speak, good man, I'm not a mind reader."

"First Mate Raishen,"  The man tells him dully, "He was- I could tell- he Exalted."  He explains, "He was keeping it... keeping it quiet.  Why wouldn't he tell us?"  Gerald begins to shudder, "Had to... something was wrong with him, really wrong, you don't hide moonlight and expect it to be good..."  The man begins rocking back and forth on his seat, "His skin was turning green.  Nobody wanted to talk about it... nobody wanted to do what had to be done... nobody wanted to think about what it meant."

((Roll Wu Wei to calm Gerald down
9, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2 & 2.

22 + 10 + 10 = 42 against 30, success!))

The man is either already mad or going mad, anyway the best idea now to get any idea of what he is saying is calming him down so Kendal starts speaking with a more calming manner, "Gerald, slow down, you are letting your dark thoughts to take the better of you. Take your time, nothing is bothering us while I'm here, I just need to hear the whole story."

((Crit success, no less...))

With a sudden start Kendal realizes that the man has the spark of something in him.  This happens, occasionally; blood of the divine, perhaps a god or the descendant of an Exalt.  The man's clouded eyes see things others may not, and what he saw must have broken him.  But it does seem to bring back an element of sanity.  "I..."  He takes a deep breath, "First Mate Raishen.  Senator, he Exalted, by the grace of dead Luna... and when he did he was wrong.  Something changed in him.  Nobody could see he Exalted.  He started twisted.  Nobody, um... knew.  Or cared.  But I did.  He... he needed to get on the ship.  To do... wrong.  He didn't know, or care, that I knew.  So I rigged up the auxiliary engines.  And some explosive charges, to be sure.  And some oxygen tanks... and then I organized a birthday party.  I volunteered to watch the engines.  And then triggered them..."

"So, a massacre to target one person, can't argue the reasoning when targeting exalts to blow up half a ship to do so." A resourceful person to be sure, sadly his genius is really misplaced in his deeds.

"This First Mate Raishen, what more can you tell about him? Was he liked? Does he have friends on the Last Refuge and so on."
This message was last edited by the player at 19:49, Thu 27 June 2019.

"I had to guarantee he'd be there," Gerald says with haunted cloudy eyes, "If I spared anyone else he'd notice it.  I had to take refuge in the audacity of it all, I had to... I had to surprise him that I would be willing to make that kind of sacrifice."

The man shakes his head, "He was first mate to a hard captain, so of course he was loved.  He had.. a whole family here, wife, five children.  Very, um.  Fertile.  Maybe more... serial cheater.  Liked hitting up the brothels whenever he came to port... he was not an inhibited man.  It's, how I knew things started going bad first, how dos a man like him suddenly clam up, hide in his room, hide in his room matching to a lunar cycle when there's no more moon..."

Kendal was not very fond of cheaters, but who is he to judge since he had no long lasting relationships after college.

"Hmmm..." He strokes his chin as he thinks, "Ok, breath deep again, I don't want to lose your trail of thought again, but when did you notice these things started happening? Also you mentioned no one wanted to talk about this, was it just faking ignorance or did you feel any outside influence was involved in this?"

Didn't the command or someone have a way of knowing when an exaltation happened? Or know if there was something off with it without seeing him? This needs proper investigation as a corrupted Lunar is a bad sounding thing.

Gerald takes several deep breaths, almost like gulps of air.  "It first happened with a water coolant break.  Some of the- the machines operate, very caustic substances.  Good for dissolving away some material on the- the frozen things.  Multiple processes to distill the water safely and also mine for other rare stuff for the fleet.  There had been an accident, the ship, he scrambled.  Kept it together.  And he should have died.  He survived, unscathed... should have had the skin burned from him, like a screaming apple, but... he was fine.  We had a small party afterwards, but from there he was wrong."

There are more deep gulps of air.

"For the others.  I... don't know.  Maybe I had the eyes to see and they didn't.  Or maybe it was, it was an abominable thought.  Do not say the words, and it does not exist."

Kendal remembers that he had to contact Command first- they didn't contact him.  Of course their phone number appeared on his phone.  He knows very little about the mechanism of Exaltation or how much Command knows.  Scuttlebutt was that they could only predict their own kind.

"Well, I did see something special in you just now, you just may have an eye for these things by birth or blessing, who knows."

He gestures a nearby Ilmorijo to give him a datapad or something so he can look up the survivors list, just to make sure if Gerald succeeded or not.

"So, a premeditated mass murder is absolutely unforgivable by any standard... But..." He pauses as he looks at him, "It's not too rare to see a man forgiven for the killing of many if he managed to save many more, but right now we have only your word for it, but I'm inclined to believe there is weight in your words as you specifically managed to get back and share this story as you turned yourself in." Killing innocents is unforgivable, sometimes unavoidable and at worst times, necessary. But if there was a corrupt lunar or something of the sort would it have still been worth it?

"I'll send a word to postpone your execution as this new information presented might be of major importance and requires further inspection before the only one who knows what happened is laid to rest. So you keep yourself sane for a bit longer. No promises, but I wont let the innocent lives lost count for naught in the fleets records."

The Ilmorijo gives him the pad.  He checks the crew complement.  Sure enough... only one survivor.  Everyone else was in the rec room while he manned the engines; all that are left are a few frozen corpses.  Most were blown out into the void.

"Thank you, Senator," Gerald says with a loud sigh and closed eyes, "May I ask a question for you to consider?  If I did such a thing... why would I come back and not... not take it to the Enemy?" He says, "They offer... much.  For such a thing.  And you should consider what that means."

He clams up and signals to the guard.  The Ilmorijo sneers at him but presses a button, separating the two behind steel walls.

He watches calmly as the walls close down with a heavy clank and murmurs to himself, "The dead offer nothing but suffering and oblivion, but weak men just fool themselves to believe these to be good things..."

He turns around to face the ilmorijo and keeps looking through the info on the pad, "How are the remains of the ship? Do you have information on any recordings or logs surviving? Also one thing, just a suggestion, but you maybe should lay it easier on him. A mans true worth is measured how he treats those he doesn't need to treat well, maybe reflect on that."
He doesn't sound judging or even want them to feel anything positive about what Gerald did and at the same time he doesn't want any soldier to lose their way because of resentment.

"The interior is more or less freeze-dried.  We sweeped it for ghosts almost immediately, Sanctuary deferred to us for a change.  The rest has been drydocked for forensic research later, but this is... very recent.  So it should be all intact."  The guard scowls, "If he admits he is guilty, I see no reason to treat him as innocent."

The other guard nods vigorously, with a quick "Hut hut" affirmative.

"Access to the ship will be restricted by Command and Core, you understand.  What do you intend to do even if his words are true?"

The Ilmorijo clearly missed his point, oh well, it wasn't Kendals job to be the morality police.

"Oh, did you miss the point where he said there could be a corrupted Lunar? It means there could be more, so it's essential to know not if Gerald is innocent or not, but what lead to this whole thing to happen and how can we prevent it in the future. The situation surrounding the exaltation, possible outside influence, corruption, premeditated betrayal or extortion etc."

He lets out a heavy sigh, "So, I guess I have to ring up Command to gain access to the files and the ship? This is not really not my expertise but... oh well..."

"Begging your pardon, Senator, but he murdered an entire ship by his won admission.  Won't be the first time someone's said something outlandish to avoid an execution.
 Say what you want about innocence but I just see a lot of dead people no matter what."

Well, Command is a good choice; he's not likely to get Core anytime soon.  Odd that the Admiralty Board isn't an option, but then again, who the hell knows about the politics in THAT department right about now.

Battles is a good choice, as is Secrets.  He has access to both.

Sending a message to Battles is his best choice and proceeds to send one to ask permission to see any clues surrounding the possible corrupted lunar and ask Battles if he had anything like this happening before.

He just nods to the Ilmorijo and says, "Yes yes, keep up the good work." And decides to wait for a minute for a reply from Battles and call him instead if there is no reply.

Surprised you heard about the ship but very disturbed
Hadnt heard anything about a lunar
def nothing corrupted
v concerning
could ask one of our assets
who told you this?

The texts come fast and furious.  Kendal can sense the frustration.

r u ok

He texts back.

The only survivor/the one who did it asked for me and told me this.
Just wanted to make sure if there was merit to his words or not.

Current condition OK.

He sits down somewhere and keeps looking at any information he has available on the ship itself on the tablet.

fuck
ship is clean
u have permission
pw to enter is syrup983!╨
u will need enviro suit
u need req anything?

Well, Battles is certainly being useful.

I need 2 things:
That enviro suit
& someone/something to dig the files I need because I'm not a techy.

He types as it's his second nature as he looks at the guards when he types and says to them, "I'll be heading off for now, if the prisoner has anything more to say i'll be expecting to hear from it."

"We'll add a recorder just in case,"  The guard says.  The other one gives the senator a thin, stretched smile.  Kendal knows rage when he sees it, but the Ilmorijo are well-famed for their discipline.

can get u both
got some1 in mind
u have prob with DB
any issues w/voyagers

Battles no doubt is asking about one of the few Dragon-Blooded that operate as a member of the Voyagers, the weird motorcycle-cult that lives on the skin of the Last Refuge.  Though most of them are individualistic a few have gotten into politics and are often very difficult to get along with.  He's sure at some point he might've passed something that would make the Voyagers frown but it's just as likely he's somehow gotten on their good side.  To be frank they're a political wildcard.

((Up to you about your status with the Voyagers; if they like you, dislike you, etc.

http://chronovertex.pbworks.co...61301/The%20Voyagers

If you have no prference, Good Relations / Neutral / Bad Relations will be determined via a 1d3 dice roll))

He gives a well mannered nod to the Ilmorijo before he leaves.

He personally had nothing against the Voyagers, but he didn't believe himself being someone they voted for. So relations between them weren't bad by any means, there just were no real previous relations, making their current standing more or less neutral.

No probs.
Just tell me where to go.

quarterdock2
will send techie 4 u w/suit
her name is Heather Wu
csn "Fletch"
wood aspect
compsci major
archery minor
married 2 her suit srsly
dont ask to ride bike
likes beer

Hmm, a primer to understanding a DB.  That must mean she's a particularly tough customer to deal with, or at least not willing to suffer through small talk.

Going there now.
btw about callsigns,
how does Archon sound to you?
good/bad?

He proceeds to move to the designed location, thinking to himself that liking beer is just as vague as saying 'i like wine' like what kind? Whatever, if she doesn't care about small talk it might not make any difference.

Get in a fight first
bad luck to decide b4
gotta be blooded
at least its not satan

It takes a quick train to get to the Quarterdocks - a docking section that can be detached from the Last Refuge in case of a major accident.  It also helps cut down on the time spent doing tricky navigation to dock inside the ship.  As a result it's a 50/50 chance the damn thing is directly attached to the ship or if he'd need a ferry.

Today is a ferry day.  He takes the ferry to the Quarterdeck Station, a bustling terminal where it's hard even moving without bumping shoulders with someone.  By Last Refuge standards it's cramped beyond belief.

Quarterdock 2 is guarded by four bored-looking security guards and, wonder of wonders, a guard dog.  The dog, some kinda mutt, looks alertly at him as he approaches.

He walks up to the guards, paying the doggo no mind as of yet. Assuming they are actually guarding the gate as to not let anyone through without checking them he greets them,

"Hello, I'm looking for passage to the Quarterdocks, you need to check permissions? One other thing, I'm also looking for Heather Wu, seen her around?"

"Yeah, give the password," The dog growls at him, "Password first then information."

"That would be our "superior", God King of the Guarded Portal Gibbles.  And he is a very very good boy."

"Piss off, Frank!"  The dog barks back at him.

"Ah, bite me, GKGPG Gibbles."  Frank replies, "Sorry, mister, we gotta check your credentials.  Passcode, please."

Even though surprised, he doesn't let it show on his face.

"Password to enter is..." He watches his phone to double check, "syrup 9-8-3 exclamation mark, box drawings up double and horizontal single. I'm Kendal Raines, Battles gave permission to enter,do you need to see ID?"

"Not with THAT one,"  The other guard says with a deep New York Brooklyn drawl once he taps it into his computer, "Plus I recognize ya.  I voted against ya, ya bum, but damned if I ain't glad you're there anyway."

He opens up the door for him, leading to an empty airlock.

"Mizz Wu gotta be on her way, she ain't checked in here."

Gibbles sniffs at Kendal's legs. "Sounds like this is deeper than we thought, minions, if Battles is involved."

"Then I want no part of it." Frank replies, "Senator Raines, did he give us any additional orders?  That's a hell of an unlock code."

"Well, it wouldn't be politics if we all agreed on everything, right?" He says to the first guard, "At least i'm a well dressed bum."

He nods to the guards as he walks to the airlock, but before he goes in he says to Gibbles, "He got involved when I asked him, this is something I'm doing from my own initiative so there is no need to get alarmed just yet, i just asked the PW from him. Anyway, thank you gentlemen."

"You said it pal, twice." Brooklyn remarks to him.

"No worries.  Welcome in," Gibbles says, "Frank, open the doors to him."

The airlock should be bare, bereft of a suit.  Instead once it cycle he sees a severe young asian woman, almost corpse-pale, with hair that's growing wilting leaves and with an unfortunate pinched expression on her face.  A small goatlike eye grows from her cheek.  She's wearing a heavy-looking suit, but it's likely she won't need it.  There's an empty suit next to her.

"Hey, that's not allowed!"

"Took... long way in."  Heather Wu tells them, "From the outside."

"You need to check in!"

"Not that way."  She looks to Kendal, "Suit up.  There's a... void gap.  Between the airlock and the Royet.  I'll need to... pull you in.  Take it you haven't done much voidwalking."

The small extra eye catches his attention, but it fades as he has seen more strangers things recently. He starts putting the suit on, should be simple enough.

"If the political theater doesn't count, then no." He replies to Heather Wu, "Would you be so kind and brief me what it means and what to do?"

It IS pretty simple; it's designed for just about any moron to throw it on and latch down to save themselves rapidly.

"We don't have... a direct connection,"  She tells him as she watches him dress critically, "So... when the air is cycled out... we have to push off.  Into an open port."  She explains- "A void gap.  Normally not... a big deal.  But you can die.  Always.  Hit it wrong.  Spiral off into space.  Get hit by a freighter... three times this month."

"Would be an embarrassing end for me, to misjudge a jump and spiral off into space... I'll follow your lead, Miss Wu."

This is the moment he wonders if Battles wound him a ship yet or not, could prove useful in times like these to have one perhaps.

"Relax.  Not very far... only a meter."  She tells him, "Just enough distance... to keep things honest."  She checks his seals, makes sure his helmet is on tight, and taps the top.  "Communicator on.  Test test.  Do you read.  Are you prepared.  Are you armed."

"Read you loud and clear. Yes and yes, I'm ready and armed. Ladies first." He gestures to the airlock.

"Good."

The airlock cycles, the precious air pumping back out into the station.  Kendal is left in the absolute cold silence of vacuum, only his breath filling his ears.  Then the airlock opens, revealing a meter-long void gap between them and the wreckage of the Maple Leaf.  The meter-long distance is short, almost too impossible to fuck up.

Heather tells him "Watch" and pushes off the wall, sailing neatly into the open airlock of the Maple Leaf.

It's Kendal's turn.

He feels the pull.

It wants him to jump through, but not into the Maple Leaf.

The void calls to him.

((Wu Wei attack on Kendal.  Defend with Wu Wei.  You can channel Chi to boost your roll as if it's an Internal Kung Fu technique at +5 / Chi, max 5.  Failure at any level- including a result of 0- means you miss the airlock.

Stealth roll is to see how Kendal interprets it.  Fail by 10+ and you won't realize it was an attack; succeed by 10+ and you will realize it as a deliberate, serious attack instead of low-level malevolence.  Defend against the Stealth component with Confidence or Wu Wei.
10, 9, 9, 9, 7, 6, 6, 6, 3 & 1
*Attack 39 + Wu Wei 20 + AB 10 = 66
*Stealth 36 + Stealth 20 + AB 10 = 66))

((Roll not to die: 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 5 & 4.

Defend against Wu Wei attack
*5 chi: Boost own Wu Wei for +25
25 + 10 + 10 + 25 = 70 Without a set Kendal would have spiraled into space >_>

No chance to see through the stealth.))

Without knowing what happened or why he makes the jump despite the ominous feeling that the Void is calling, maybe it was just something everyone feels the first time they go out? He doesn't say anything, just nods to Heather when he reaches the other side.

She gives him a nod too.

Does she look haunted?  Because even though she's pale- a side effect of having bonded to a perroneles- she looks a little more stressed than she probably should be.

She grabs him and pulls him in, then closes the airlock behind them.  It's an empty gesture.  After all, there's no air in the ship.  But it does make them feel better all the same.  She pushes open the other airlock and they enter.

The ship is a wreck.  Little pieces of shrapnel float everywhere, from slivers of hull metal to the bric-a-brac of daily life.  A broken mug "UNIVERSES BEST DAD" hangs in the air just in front of the galley.

"So I'm here.  What... do you need." She asks him, "We're activating... the logs right?"

While looking around he tries his best not to hit anything that might puncture a hole in his suit and answers to her, "Correct, I need to see the logs. Actually best case scenario is we find nothing and we can all go home... But we are trying to find out what the first mate was up to..."

Then he actually turns to Heather and sees her a bit more stressed out than normal, "Everything OK? did you see or sense something?"

There's plenty in here that could puncture their environmental suit, so long as it's thrown or hit with sufficient bullet-level velocity.  In other words, he's very unlikely to puncture his suit unless he flings himself on a handy pointy surface.  The debris floating in the air bounces off of him ineffectually.

"I have... a battery pack.  Will need it... to boot up the computers.  Reactor's dead,"  She informs him.  "Miracle... it came back at all."  She looks around, "We may have... to check the reactor room first."

She pauses at the senator's question.

"Space has... not been kind lately.  We... are starting to dread it."

Kendal looks at the emptiness of the void and frowns, you better stay away you... darkness.

"Well, I just stated the objective and asked you to help, so since you are the driver in this bandwagon you decide the route we take. Just tell me if something seems... Off."

"Everything... does."

She leads them through the dead ship.  Everywhere he can see the evidence of the violence of the explosion.  Though the bodies are long gone, he can see strange indentations, splashes of blood that never quite fully boiled away, here and there a shard of bone embedded into the ship.  Little bits of everything continue to bounce off of them as they move towards the reactor, which takes them a good ten minutes.

He hasn't been on many ships but he knows a dead reactor when he sees it.  One part nuclear furnace, one part God, they're designed to run with little interference and in hard vacuum if necessary.

"Here," Heather whispers.

Ah.  A femur.  Someone's femur bone has apparently speared the command console.

"Will need to... hook up battery," She holds up a small box, "Very bad luck... a perfect shot to the ysal crystal.  Holds the god.  Kills the god if broken.  Very... very bad luck."

He rolls his eyes, of course there was a femur missile aimed at a god, obviously. "So, it's gone for good?" He says to her.

He takes a look at the small box, not really looking for anything, just pondering on the chances of that happening.

"Anyway I'm kind of a dead weight until I can get something out of the logs, just say of you need help with anything."

"Definitely... dead," Heather pronounces, "About as dead... as a god can be."

The chances are pretty fucking slim, especially since the rest of the reactor is in good shape.  Heather starts plugging the box into some cable ports at the bottom of the reactor.  It takes a while, and he starts to itch in his suit, but eventually a trickle of power courses through the ship.  This means mostly emergency lights go on, dim and tepid.

"There." She whispers, "... All done."

There's limited gravity, too.  He can feel it pulling on him.  He still weighs very little but at least he's not going to go flying off in a random direction if he hits something funny.

"Power is... mostly at the terminals," Heather tells him.

One of the terminals blinks nearby.  It's just started a reset.  Now it blinks, asking for the access code.

Assuming there is something to type with and this is not one of those "jack yourself with a cable to your brain" kind of engineering computers, he types the access code, assuming it was the one Battles gave earlier.

"Lets see here.."

Those sorts of computers are rare, and usually reserved for people like... well, Core.  Not many people want to do that.

The code works!

[ACCESSING]
The screen starts to waver as it starts pumping out lines of text.  Several options are displayed on screen for him.
[DAILYLOGS]
[CHIEFENGINEER:LOG]
[CHIEFENGINEER:MANUALS]
[CHIEFENGINEER:TEMPLATES]
[CHIEFENGINEER:BUDGET]
[ENGINEER:LOG]
[ENGINEER:MANUALS]
[ENGINEER:TIMESHEETS]

Well, this hopefully is able to provide at least some information, or information on where to find the actual information. He starts to scour through files in search of anything related to what Gerald said. Starting with the logs.

"Ok, so what we actually are hoping for is that I find absolutely nothing of interest, we can sign that old man as crazy and we can all go home early today..." He thinks out loud.

Very unlikely to find any video footage here to look for the assumed corrupted lunar or his doings. Well, they have time until oxygen runs out so there is no rush.

The [DAILYLOGS] are pretty unremarkable.  Kendal can no doubt feel his eyes glaze over as he goes over the minutiae of running a transport reactor.  This isn't a personal diary, it's more of a listing of the reactor's gauges, problems fixed, parts that need selecting, etc.

The Chief Engineer log, on the other hand, is more interesting.  Especially since, as Kendal might remember, Gerald was the Chief Engineer.  The last log reads as follows:

[He was in here today.

He touched the control panel, just over the Ysal crystal, while talking to Kennedy.  He always was sweet on her.  The steel blackened, just a bit.  Lemon juice and oil cleaned it off with the help of some steel wool.  Kennedy asked what was wrong.  I told her it was just rust.  Not to worry.  It's best if she doesn't worry.

I feel awful.

If anyone reads this afterwards I am so sorry.]

A previous log before that:

[He leaned against the wall during last night's lunch.  I saw the crack in the hull.  This ship will shake apart the longer he's alive.]

And a log before that:

[His skin is green.  Nobody sees it but me.  I asked Captain Borgnine if he noticed anything funny and the Captain told me he noticed I wasn't tending to the reactor.

This is day 6 of him in his room.  Why hasn't he been on deck?  Why is the Captain worrying more about me and not about him?  Everyone else thinks I'm a crackpot.]

Well, that isn't very useful in and of itself, this is basically the same rambling he said earlier. Better yet all of these people he is referencing are in no condition to give testimonies.

Kendal thinks he needs someone else's log, maybe the captains or better yet, Raishen's own if he had one. Without anything new added to this story there is not much to base any assumptions on, only one half-crazed murderers word to push the blame on someone else.

Unless there is something else of interest in the computer he turns to Heather, "Well, this alone wont mean much, any chance to find the first mates or captains logs? Like, is there a black box or something that could have survived." He shakes his head. "If this is the only thing we have this little trip is over really quick... If this space walk would turn into detective work it will be my time to bail."

"It... does mean something," Wu tells him from behind his shoulder, "... Though maybe not... what he thinks."  She points at the bone embedded in the Ysal crystal, "... Somehow it was... marked.  Before... the explosion.  Don't think he could have just... placed the bone there?"

The woman halts, considering her next words.

"... There is, in the bridge."  She murmurs for a second, "... It should be accessible.  But not everyone... keeps a diary.  Cameras, perhaps."

Kendal looks at her and back at the bone and crystal again, "It's not my style to ponder the meaning of puzzles before having all the pieces." he says to her.

He runs his hand on the bone and to the crystal, poor bastards didn't deserve such a fate.

"So, the bridge, how long for us to get there?" he asks.

"A few... minutes."

The two make their way through the ghost-ship.  Long, blasted corridors, desiccated signs of what was once life.  For a few ghastly moments he feels like he and Heather are the only living things in existence.

The bridge, however, still seems alive.  Though the air is gone it was still intact, and there's a lot of evidence that Gerald lived in there for days after the act.  Littered food boxes and half-eaten crumbs float through the air, some with signs of rot and mold.

"Power... good,"  Heather tells him, tapping the console.  It's his first time near a captain's chair.  Cracked leather and deformed foam suggest it's a very well-used chair.  A dreamcatcher hangs over the top of the console, the threads inside cut.

The computer has the following logs:

[DAILYLOGS]
[CHIEFENGINEER/ACTINGCAPTAIN:LOG]
[CHIEFENGINEER:MANUALS]
[CHIEFENGINEER:TEMPLATES]
[CHIEFENGINEER:BUDGET]
[CAPTAIN:LOG]
[CAPTAIN:MANUALS]
[CAPTAIN:MASTERTIMESHEETS]
[NAVIGATOR:LOG]
[NAVIGATOR:CHARTS]
[FIRSTMATE:LOG]
[FIRSTMATE:MANUALS]
[FIRSTMATE:TIMESHEET]
[FIRSTMATE:EXTRALOG]

All this data feels a bit too much to scour through wearing a space suit. "I'll just download all of this and look through it in my office, not like we could find any other physical evidence of what we hope to find... or hope to not find." He says.

Plugging the HD in and starting the transfer, it shouldn't take too long.

Then he turns back to Heather, "You wouldn't happen to be one of those dragonblooded who have a talent in finding things? Finding anything related to the first mate could prove beneficial later on." he asks.

"We could... still find his quarters," She remarks, "I... have a talent for finding my way around things.  This is not... necessarily finding things."  She looks at the dreamcatcher and frowns, "... This ship bothers me."

She touches it.

"The... evil eye.  Not the... talisman so popular for tourists.  Shuns... evil.  protective.  Why was... it cut?"

The files download quite quickly and happily.  They're automatically sandboxed, quarantined.  CORE goes through great lengths to make sure necrocompinomiconiphages don't affect the ship.

((Roll learning  to know stuff
9, 7, 5, 4, 4, 2 & 1

24 + 10 + 5 = 39 vs 40, nope!))

The look on Kendall's face when the gears in his head slowly turn as he tries to remember anything even slightly related to that talisman to sound smart, but coming up empty he is pretty disappointed in himself.

"You tell me. My knowledge on the matter is purely guesswork." he replied.

A thought he doesn't say out is in the lines of 'why am I even here? there must be someone else better suited for this' But then again he is a Solar so of course he will end up doing stuff like this... or does he? What did this have to do with anything again? He gets the feeling he would have more important stuff to do than running around playing Sherlock... That would make Heather Watson... Lets just hope she doesn't get lost.

"They're used... to do more than catch... bad dreams.  Some of them.  Hm." She whispers under her breath, "Some of the transport pilots... they believe they turn... away evil.  They're wards."  She tries to explain, "Each part is... important.  The strings are... important.  Cut the strings, cut the ward, protects against... low-grade evil.  Or so it's sad.  I am not... a thaumaturgist."

She touches the dreamcatcher.

"This feels... bone deep.  The darkness here." She looks at him through the helmet, "... You're impatient.  You can't... feel it?"

He breaths in deep the cold dry air circulating in the spacesuit and crosses his arms, "My apologies, my levels of discomfort and impatience are quite on the same level right now. And unfortunately no, I haven't felt anything so far."

He tries to 'feel' what she is talking about. Not really knowing what to do practically.

"Would make sense for a place that witnessed a lot of death to hold lots of feelings of dread and terror of the recently deceased. Again, purely guesswork." He ponders out loud.

"It's a... talent, but can be... improved," She tells him, "You haven't... felt essence long enough.  Lived... the life of the Enlightened.  You're like a bird... diving into water and learning... how to swim."

Heather shrugs.

"I can... keep looking through here.  If you want.  Forward you... anything I find."

"That is a nice way to put it, never was a fan of drowning..." He sighs, gaining back some enthusiasm.

"Right, so if you could map me a way to get to his room and you stay here and look for anything you can find, any connection to the dead or corruption are our main bets. Or were you instructed to stick to me like your googly friend?" He jokes. He really doesn't know much about the relationship of her and the symbiote... it was a demon right? Can't remember much about the eye ball. Sure hope it's not a taboo to them to joke about it.

"I was only instructed... to do whatever... you needed me to do."  Heather Wu tells him blankly.  "I can't... stick to you closer... than my partner.  It's... impossible."

Another eyeball erupts from her cheek and blinks.

"He also says... you're welcome... for helping translate.  I don't speak... much English.  Or often."

"Well, on a second thought, maybe it's best not to split up. We have time so there is no need to rush either, so take your time here and then we will move to the first mates quarters afterwards." He states while walking across the room.

He taps the pocket he keeps the HD in, "We got the files, so anything from this point forward is a bonus. Tell you what, if you find something juicy i'll treat you some quality beer."

"I don't... drink alcohol.  Dehydrates.  Juice."  She says as she starts poking around the console.  She kneels down with some difficulty, looking under one console.

"Ah."

She pulls out a small round metal object and flips it over to the Senator.

It's a coin, about the size of a bottlecap- at least he thinks it is.  It's tarnished to the point that it's practically black.  A small blinking red diode with a battery is attached to one side and there's a symbol scratched on to the other, ten lines jaggedly reaching one perpendicular line.

"Another old... superstition.  A medallion... mounted on the dash somehow.  Should be pure silver.  Electronics to... connect to the god.  Maybe not... worth a juice."

Strange, Battles said she liked beer and he didn't have a reason to lie did he? What ever, it's not that important.

He looks at the... item... "Well, maybe a small juice." He puts it in his pocket and continues towards what ever is left of the doorway, "We better get going then, if you please."

"Alright,"

Heather Wu walks out, a hand tapping repeatedly on her hip.  "His... quarters should not have been... totally destroyed.  First mate's is one of the most... armored.  On the ship."

It's not far from the captain's quarters- in fact it's right across the hall.  There's a faded smiley-face decal on the front of the door.  Heather taps the console and the door fails to open.

"Hm. Locked.  Should be open... hold on.  Will... hotwire."

((Feel free to make a Lake roll for Awareness.  This is targeting Heather Wu.))

((Awareness to watch Heather(s ass if this fails)
8, 5, 5, 5, 3, 3 & 1.

*35 + 10 + 5 = 50
*float 3 - 3))

Right now Kendall is just readying himself for some boogeyman to jump out or something else equally inconvenient to happen.

Suddenly he realizes that there's an eye watching him from Heather's neck, never really looking away, and that she's scared of him.  Or whatever he represents.

She works with jerky motions, picking away at the lock before letting out a low 'aha'.  She takes a step away as the door snaps open.

It looks like it should smell foul.  There's no air inside but there's dried mold and moss on the walls, covering posters of scantily-clad women and his small desk and bed.  The blankets even look fuzzy with the dehydrated, freeze-dried filth.

There's a hand drawn on the wall with two fingers bent out at angles, and a big eye on the palm.  The eye has a big X painted over it.

((https://ctl.s6img.com/society6...of-fatima-prints.jpg))

Kendall steps inside, glancing over everything and start taking pictures first and samples next. He stops at the drawing after taking a picture, "I don't recognize this, do you? Protection against evil again, but defiled?" He asks Heather.

He also looks for any possible journals or a personal terminal, anything he could have used to write something on.

"... That's right,"  Heather remarks with a nod, "Almost certainly..."  She points at it, "Hand of Fatima.  Traditional... ward against evil.  Eye in the palm deflects... the negative.  Mold isn't normal..."  She gestures about the room.

She looks as he starts taking samples, "Suggest... full quarantine.  Burn suits after."

There's a desk terminal nearby, somewhat used, a little crusty with mold across the keyboard.

"Well, I do agree on the quarantine, can never bee too careful about these things. I'll just check this terminal and I think we are good to go." He states, starting to clear of the frozen mold off the keyboard and tries to access it.

The mold flakes off easily in the airless void, spinning past him.  The keys are still crusty and gross but at least he doesn't need to touch it with his bare hands.

The terminal blinks on, slowly, grudgingly, and asks for a password.

"We are... agreeing," She says as she starts checking for personal belongings, "This is... too... incomplete."

He types in the admin password and if that doesn't work, he makes his best guess and if that doesn't work, he just takes the terminal apart and takes the HD inside, he doesn't have the patience to fool around with this.

"Incomplete? How?" He replies.

Neither admin or his best guess works- he is forced to remove the hard drive, which comes away with a faint spark from its ports.

"Things are... missing.  The hard drives are... useful.  But it's a big bucket.  Of incomplete." She says, growing visibly antsy, "... A puzzle missing half pieces."

Kendall looks at the hard drive in his hand before putting it in a sealable plastic bag.

Letting out a long sigh, not really pleased with what they found but not having any enthusiasm to chase puzzle pieces that might be somewhere in the ship, better just go back and analyze what he already found.

"Lets head back, mind leading the way?"

"Absolutely." Heather Wu leads him out with undue haste, stopping only to recheck his seals before they jump across the void gap again.  Then she hits the QUARANTINE button on the airlock, first exposing them to the void, then flooding the room with essence-infused god-powder, and then spraying them down with some kind of foam.

She helps Kendal remove his suit, then chucks it into a 'to-burn' bin.  Then she begins her process.  "You can... leave. Call me... if you need."

And with that Kendal is back in the land of the living!  The Quarterdocks is bustling; another ship has come in, this one with some fresh food from a grain-production ship that just docked.

His phone chooses this moment to blow up with texts.  This is fairly common.  Most of it is junk; he gets the usual petitioners-who-somehow-got-his-number, a few boring status updates from his office, and a CORESNAP private video from Xene, which has all sorts of... implications.

Tempted by implications, he still chooses to look through the hard drives with due haste. He sends a text to Battles asking, "Yo, I got some Hard drives from the ship and need to look through them, got a place for this kind of stuff so I dont accidentally contaminate the refuge?"
And a text to Xene suggesting a meet up after work because why not.

If Battles answers he heads to wherever he suggests.

Several
on Refuge or off?
Off safer for Refuge
But on Refuge safer for us
the Cubit can fuck u up

The texts flurry back.  The Cubit?  Kendal's never heard of that one...

"Pref on Refuge, dont want to go out without a functional ship any time soon."

He texts back and sends another a few seconds later, "Oh, and add 'Cubit' to the list of things I have no idea what they are." If there is an emote for sarcasm that will be added.

Grab lunch on way
Address 50UP-110-COMP
will explain Cubit
congrats u got TWO CUBITS clearance now
with more power more responsibility

The texts come back in Battles' rapid-fire style.  He's referring to the 50th floor of the Upperdecks 110 Block, Computer department.

And lunch?  By his guesstimate it's about 7 PM.

To Kendall it was always weird how they still defaulted to the 12 hour clock and such since we are in space and earths rotation cycles shouldn't matter anymore, anyway he heads where Battles instructed, grabbing something healthy to eat on the way, whatever food place he happens to run into is fine.

It's a good thing he can keep himself cool or he would be a pile of sweat after that space hopping.

The best thing he finds along the way is an honest-to-god chicken wing stand.  But it's definitely not the healthiest:  for that he finds a travel-thermos of pho, deliciously flavored with fake beef and shirataki noodles.

By the time he gets there he is sweating, the pho is still pretty hot and it's hard to walk and sip soup, but at least it isn't something fried.  He has to make his way past some scary-looking guards, NOT Ilmorijo, instead serious-looking men and women with melee weapons and bulletproof vests.

He's apparently expected.  They push him into a white warren of offices and labs, heavily air-conditioned, with servers buzzing in the background.  110-COMP is a white room with an airlock, a single computer, and Battles sitting inside playing Minesweeper.

"Good to see you, Kendal,"  The sidereal says to him, "Welcome to the Low Technology Quarantine Lab, LOWTEQ.  We use this to process any data taken from Abyssal ships.  If anything goes wrong, the computer melts, and- uh, we melt with it.  No CORENET connection, of course."

"A pleasure as always." He nods to Battles, glancing behind himself at those pushy guards, personal space people.

"I got to admit, I got pulled into this, or rather I did't know better and now I'm doing stuff really outside of my area of expertise." He pulls out everything he found in the broken ship, "Like all this techy stuff, I went to real lengths to prove or disprove madmans ramblings." He continues.

"Then I'll spare you CUBIT,"  Battles tells him, taking the disk. "If this isn't your cup of tea have you considered delegation?  Don't you have any techies in your office?"  He asks, working it into the computer, "But you're a politician; that means tending to the health of your community.  Is he a part of your constituency?"

After handing over the disk he crosses his arms, "I have politicians, accountants and secretaries in my office." He states, "I did this one thing because I deliberately didn't want to bother anyone, but yet here I am."

He smirks at the latter part, "Well, yes. He did say he voted for me, but putting that aside..." He sighs, "The implication of a possible corrupted lunar in his story is what bothers me and makes me not be too vocal about this really. I want to check the sources before making anything out of it, also letting possible false news spread would cause more trouble, so yeah."

"Really this isn't my wheelhouse either.  Operational security and discovering issues like this is more of Secrets' job."  He plugs it in, "If this doesn't cause the computer to melt completely, I'll get her on it and free you up.  And yeah, don't say a peep about it to anyone else.  How's that sound?"

He starts hooking up the disk into the computer.

"One problem about being a politician, and why I never stepped into it, is because you're always going to be asked to deal with things like this.  So I guess your job will be learning where problems have to go.  Though getting shoved into this stuff is great training for when things really go off the tracks..." He presses the boot button and the screen flashes green, flashes red, and then turns off.

"... Hm.  Well, it didn't melt the computer, that's good... I think this is a Juno problem for now."

"Yeah, that sounds good to me." He replies with a sigh of relief.

Kendall does know how to make excel sheets and troubleshoot a PC, but anything beyond that he merrily leaves for others to deal with.

"Mhm, I guess guess you're right on that as well. I don't know how much you know about my quirks but I rarely delegate anything to anyone I don't know personally, I have been called a perfectionist and such, heck, I don't even know know you or Secrets, so this... feels awkward." He sits down, still arms crossed. "I do trust all the Sidereals, Solars and Infernals as what they are and what they stand for, but asking for help from people I don't know feels wrong. Maybe I should expand my contact list as soon as I'm able to."
He doesn't want to give the impression that Battles was his last resort and he was doing this reluctantly, instead he was one of the few people he could trust this information with and was happy to do so.

"If you want to be a perfectionist at everything you do- that's great, then start doing; if you can't or won't, then technically 0 is still perfect."  Battles tells him, "Why don't you take the rest of the day off. Go off and meet some Exalts you normally haven't.  I've got a list,"  He says, "You may actually have a decent time talking to Kyle, he's an Eclipse like you.  Or I can send you to another Sidereal.  Go ahead and make some contacts.  Be more comfortable with it.  Because honestly, the Living can't afford for you to have delegation hangups if you can't tackle every problem you hit."

He strokes his chin, "Oh yeah, it just occurred to me, maybe a new set of responsibilities and talents requires some getting used to." He facepalms, "This is basic stuff, how did I miss this? Oh well, no use whining about it, better to do something about it." He says with new enthusiasm.

"You'd be surprised.  It happens a lot," The sidereal tinkers at his machine, "Better, faster, stronger is easy to figure out, but it takes a lot of mental training to realize that you can change your own paradigm.  Take Lucifer, for instance.  He knows damn well what his strengths are but let me tell you, he's a very different exalt from when he started.  It took him a while to branch out.  And I certainly didn't think I'd end up being the new Exalt trainer.

So, flexibility?  It's something I try to drill into every new exalt I see.  One way or another, at any rate... but I think in your case you should start by doing a grand tour of Exalts."

"Hmmm, Yeah. That sounds good to me. Can I leave this thing here and wait for Juno to call me back before taking it further? I think the prisoner can wait in his cell for a bit." He says, starting to look through the list if he actually gets one.

"Yeah, absolutely you can.  I'll keep messing with it for a few more hours and confer with her.  You're free to do what you need to do."  Battles gives him a respectful nod, "List should be coming... now."

He's given the following names:
SMOKER - HUMAN, PRE-EXODITE [CONTACT POINT: LUCIFER]
KYLE WESTON - SOLAR ECLIPSE, PRE-EXODITE
RED QUEEN - INFERNAL SLAYER, PRE-EXODITE
SERENITY - SIDEREAL, PRE-EXODITE
JUNO - SIDEREAL, PRE-EXODITE
JOURNEYS - SIDEREAL, PRE-EXODITE
ILARI LIEVO - LUNAR CHANGING MOON, EXODITE
SHUN XIAO - INFERNAL SCOURGE, EXODITE
JULIUS CAESAR - LUNAR FULL MOON, EXODITE
WILLIAM MORGAN - DRAGON-BLOODED EARTH, PRE-EXODITE
SUMITHA CHANDRAGUPTA - DRAGON-BLOODED FIRE, EXODITE
LUZ BORREA - DRAGON-BLOODED WATER, PRE-EXODITE
MORRIGAN - DRAGON-BLOODED WOOD, PRE-EXODITE
GRUNT HOCKENBERRY - DRAGON-BLOODED AIR, EXODITE
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:36, Sat 04 Jan 2020.

Kendall is truly thankful, getting into contact with people is a pain without shared contacts.

"Thanks, it's good to get to know more people of this caliber. I'd hate to be a bother, but being helpless is even worse." He says to Battles before giving him a respectful nod and leaving.

He goes somewhere they serve good coffee to look at the contact list and relax as he starts from the top. "Hey, Kendall Raines here. As I'm quite new to this Exalting thing Battles was helping me getting into contact with new people, so if you have time and interest we could have an unofficial meeting of sorts. So nothing fancy, just me getting to now poeple." Says the message.

He indeed starts from the top and waits for a reply before moving to send a message to the next person as he drinks coffee. Not everyone is as fast to reply as Battles is so he takes his time.
Let's see what we find.

"Hey, no problem, man.  Warfare is all about communication and logistics in the end."

There's a few good coffee spots around the place.  He has no trouble leaving and getting to one.  This particular place, the Forbidden Stripe, gives away a cookie with every cup.

Smoker calls half a cup later.

"Mr. Raines,"  He says in between a puff of smoke, "Let me just ask you, are you calling for me, or are you calling for Lucifer?"

"Ah, it's definitely you I was trying to contact, I have chatted with Lucifer before, but I don't think I have met you in person?" He answers.

"To my understanding you are still one of the major players on this ship, so I figured i'd say hello."

"No, you haven't."  Smoker says calmly, "Gotta say I'm not what you might call the chatting type.  I'm the kind of person that if you give me a problem, you better not be venting, you better be asking me to fix it."

He exhales, "But I'm not unsympathetic, kid.  Feeling a bit over your head?  Got any questions for me?"

Kendall already likes this person.

Not wanting to keep Smoker from his duties with idle chit chat he goes straight to the point, "Well, I had Battles help with my current dilemma, so no imminent problems, just wanted to start establishing myself among the other influential people on board so if I am in a pinch I know there is people to rely on... or at least skip the introductions at that point." He replies, matching the level of calmness in his voice to his.

"I was about to ask about stuff you don't want or care to be bothered about, but you answered that at least partially already." He says, "Anyway, Lucifer and Bluefox have told great things about you, so I look forward to working with you."

"Networking's good,"  He remarks somewhat blandly, "And I never fully answered your first question.  Never ever ask me about what I did on Earth, got it?  I know you Eclipse types can be super persuasive but trust me when I say you don't wanna know.  It's best for everyone you don't know, ok?  Even your sister doesn't bother me about it."

He doesn't sound threatening, but resolute.

"So who's next on your list."

He looks at his list.
"I got this list from Battles and i started on top, you were first, then there are Kyle Weston and Red Queen Before rest of the sidereals."
He replies, giving a straightforward answer.

"Kyle's a good kid if a bit too quiet nowadays.  I worry about the Red Queen,"  Smoker admits, "Were you ever a fan of Jess Maraud's stuff?  Red Queen used to be her rival in the music business, but since she's gone she's not done a single concert.  I haven't been able to really talk to her myself.  She might talk to you.  Not saying talk to her first but if you do I want you to give me a call afterwards."

"Never had a chance to go to either of their concerts I'm afraid." He admits, he liked their stuff but not enough to take a day off for, "Maybe I'll call her first just to see what's up, as long as she picks up that is. After that I'll check on Kyle as well and yeah I'll give you a call if Red Queen picks up."

"I'm not sure if you should tell her that or not- that you've never really been a fan.  Might be a blow to the ego.  Good luck with that," Smoker exhales into the speaker, "I've got my hands full with one earth-shattering pre-exodite, you know what I mean?  And if you want more unwarranted advice?  Get a handler."

"Well, I do have her stuff on my playlist, just... whatever, I'll keep that in mind." The idea of getting on the bad side of a renowned infernal is not on the to-do list.

"That kind of advice is very welcome, I already have a secretary though and being a bit oblivious here I don't know the difference?" He admits, his first idea of a handler is about a dog handler and hopefully that is not what Smoker meant.

"Well, your secretary may be overworked- but it's not just secretarial work.  Think of it like a butler,"  Smoker drawls, "Except sometimes I gotta do things like make sure he eats and drinks enough, or keep a real close eye for psychological distress.  Your handler's job is to make sure you function, at all times, not just make sure you got your schedule in order.  So whoever you get to do this, you gotta really like or at least really respect."

"Overworked, yes definitely." He agrees. "Well, she does do parts of what you said, she just doesn't get paid for it. I'll look into it, thanks for the advice."

He is thankful for actual advice and has gained a respectful first impression about Smoker. Kendall is looking forward to possibly work with him in the future.

"Well, I don't think I had anything more on my mind, so I think it's time for me to try call Red Queen."

"Look into paying her then.  One way or another."  He sucks on his teeth, "Well, good luck.  Don't forget to let me know how it goes.  Don't have to call right away.  I got a lot on my plate for the next few hours."

After another 'Good luck' Smoker hangs up.

Red Queen's call, on the other hand, plays 30 seconds of heavy dubstep before it segues to a canned voicemail.  The voicemail is oddly depressing and flat after the music.

"This is Tara.  Leave a message."

((9, 7, 7, 6, 6, 4 & 1.

27 + 10 + 10 = 47 Inspire))

Honestly he is not surprised she didn't pick up, more so it is an unknown number to her after all. Anyway, he will leave a voicemail and wait for a bit if she happens to call back or not before moving on to the next one.

"Hey, Kendall Raines here, I hope you have heard of me at this point. Anyway was just calling to say hello and hopefully chat as I'm new to this exalted scene and all, making contacts and all that... Soooo if you have time and interest just call me back. Hopefully hear from you soon."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:40, Wed 19 Feb 2020.

((Confidence check:  46.  Nice.))

He's able to enjoy a nice cup of coffee before he realizes that she's not likely to answer his phone number anytime soon.  Maybe she's not going to-

There's a ring.  Instead of his normal cell phone ring, it's instead a brassy, aggressive digital beat that instantly turns some heads in the coffee shop.

"This is the Red Queen,"  She says, imperiousness in her voice cut by more than a hint of exhaustion, "It's been a long time since anyone called me on this line.  Who gave you this number?"

Well I'll be damned, she actually called back. Did she do it because she was concerned about how Kendall got this number or because she respected the request? Who knows.

"A pleasure to meet you." He replies politely, she already knows who she is calling. "I got this from none other than our old friend Smoker. Were you in the middle of something?" He asks.

"How did HE get this number?  I only gave it to one person..."  She trails off, "Never mind I don't want to know.  No.  I wasn't doing anything important.  Working on a song.  Maybe."  She sounds defensive, clearly on her back foot.  "Aren't you busy causing a constitutional crisis?"

He silently agrees not to address how Smoker gets his information, moving on.

"Yes, a workaholic like myself is always busy, but never too busy to contact fellow exalted." He tells her, "A song? Would be great to see you performing again to be honest, but anyway, I figured i'd ask how you are fairing but it would be quite an intimate question to ask a person i just met huh?" He tries not to be pushy, but since Smoker was concerned about her he makes an attempt to make her share her mind.

"Yeah, that's a pretty fucking intimate question,"  The Red Queen responds with obvious venom in her voice, "If you want some advice, I've got some for you.  Build a rival.  Hate them with all you've got, every fiber of your being, because that hate makes you awesome.  And then make sure they don't do something stupid like dying, because that ruins everything."

Well, she answered the question anyway. It's obvious she is still moping over her lost rival, but who is Kendall to say anything about it? She is not his friend and seems that she likely never will be if this toxicity continues.

"Sorry if I overstepped, wasn't my intention." He says, "I take that finding something new to hate is out of the question? Not many musical stars running around to build a rival out of."

"That's the problem, isn't it?  A proper rival takes a lot to invest in, Mr. Raines, and they should be your mirror in almost every way.  There's nobody around here that fits that bill."  She scoffs for a moment, "Except for that one guy down in the Underdecks and he doesn't know his guitars from his bass.  Hardly fitting.  Not worth my time.  Not many people worth my time here."

Can't tell if she called because she is actually lonely or if she is just being a bitch.

"Well, can't find a new one sitting home all day right? I don't know how else you spend your time, but going out once in a while might help clear your head and get those sweet notes rolling." He is not asking her out, just telling her to go out with her friends if she has any. "But if you want to vent frustration to a friend of a friend just let me know, hell, I think I need to go vent about the whole constitution fuckfest sooner or later." He takes a calmer tone to not raise any eyebrows, he is in a cafe after all.

Well, if she just to talk shit that's cool, but if not she is just more or less in need of a distraction. Now is not the time for a deep analysis.

"Have you considered you shouldn't have to vent about it at all?" She snorts, "It's high time they realize who's buttering their bread.  We're the ones keeping them alive, we're the ones operating the ship... I don't understand why we go through this pretense of caring what a bunch of Dragon-Blooded and self-important gods think.
 At least the humans and most of the demons know it.  We're being ruled by a bunch of angry middle managers."

"This sounds like a very fine topic of discussion face to face. Sharing worldviews is not something to be done over the phone." He remarks.

Her political views seem somewhat opposed to his, she did have some part in politics right? No idea what kind though.

As far as Kendal can remember, as a Pre-Exodite Exalt she only has that as political strength.  After all, he's the first Exalt to hold a political position.

"Fine, fair enough."  She answers abruptly, "If you'd like a meeting fine by me.  Might as well step out of my room for the first time in a few weeks..."

Honestly didn't expect her to agree.

"Nice, just name the place and time and I'll be there. Unless you want me to pick you up at your place." He responds. The latter part is not really a question, more of a statement. She will voice her opinion if she wants to be picked up or not.

"Meet me at the SunUp Amphitheater in two days," A popular venue, one of the many she'd been known to frequent; by anyone's guess it's likely booked solid, "There are some musicians I've been wanting to trash for a few months now playing that night.  Might as well be a good time to meet just before or after."

Then she sighs,

"Fuck it, earlier than that, they're not worth my effort.  Maybe, I dunno, meet me before the doors open.  You can get us in earlier right?  Right."

Well making them a call and name dropping a solar and an infernal should be more than enough to secure open doors, with Kendalls silver tongue at least.

"Its'a date then. Call me is something comes up." He says confidently. Booking the date on his own calendar to not forget or book something on top of it. If she doesn't have more input in the matter, Kendall will wish her a good afternoon, take a breather and proceed to with the list.

Next up is Kyle Weston.  Kendal, like most people on the Last Refuge, has seen some of the solar's work.  A skilled cinematographer and documentarian, Kyle has kind of dropped off over the past few years.  It's his job to control the Last Refuge's physical movement in times of trouble, and piloting the vast ship is something of a full-time job, even with Core.

But, it turns out he must be monitoring his phone carefully, because he picks up immediately.  His voice is cultured, bright, but a little hoarse and weathered.  This is the voice of someone who doesn't speak much.

"Hey,"  Kyle says aloud, "You're Senator Raines, right?"  He takes a sip of some sort of drink, "Newest Eclipse. Welcome to the fold, Kendal.  We're glad to have you on board."

"Hello, either you have good intuition, information or my phone number already and I don't know which option I like best." He jests

"Pleased to meet you by the way. Do you have a moment to chat? I was calling people to somewhat establish myself a little bit among other exalted in the fleet." He asks, he himself being glad to call a fellow Eclipse, them being the only ones to his knowledge. "Any life saving advise or snarky comments about exalted life?"

"I have probably the best CallerID system in the Last Refuge outside of Core and Command,"  Kyle informs him, "And I watch all of the news obsessively, so, I see a K. Raines calling and it's not hard to put things together!  Yeah, I'm totally free to talk right now- we're moving the fleets around a bit but the Last Refuge is staying put so I don't need to focus too much."  Another drink, "Best advice I can give you is- be a doer.  You know?  I found out pretty quick that you've gotta always have something actively going.  It's fine to have a few plates spinning at once but you've got to be kinetic."
This message was lightly edited by the GM at 17:14, Mon 27 Apr 2020.

"Hm, fair enough, where does one acquire such good tech?" He asks about the callerID.

He laughs a bit about the advice, "Heh, so there will be no problem there for me it seems, I always have more on my plate than I can chew, also as you know, now I have to convince lots of people it would be a good idea to allow a solar in the political circles."

"Supplied to me by Core and Command.  They really put me to work up here,"  He explains to Kendal, "I pilot all of the ship and also control the fleet around it.  It's a lot of work, like trying to kick a dozen balls at three dozen goals and somehow score four dozen points." He explains- then listens, "Well, is it really a good idea?  Not saying yes or no.  Sell me, Kendal."

He takes a deep breath, "The truth is, every single Exalted is already influencing politics in one way or another and to deny that is just plain ignorance. There are a number of Exalted pocketing politicians and everything we do divides opinions. I'm just going to do it openly.

"And if I would 'sell' this, it would be more on the side that why not? Our politics are already infested by corruption and people doing everything in their power to cause chaos, agents of the dead trying to infiltrate our ranks and to make everything worse, humans and demons are divided and squabbling among each other.

People worry that I... or other Exalted would steamroll the political scene, but I say it is in a dire need of us." He says with all the imposing coolness he can muster through a phone call.

"There is a difference between influencing and steering, though, is there not?"  Kyle asks, "We can influence laws just by existing, but we're not the ones defining them.  Which Exalted are pocketing which politicians?  Do you have any solid proof?  I'd be very interested to hear."

If Kyle is impressed by imposing coolness, he doesn't say.  But he does sound amused- though not necessarily at Kendal.

"Do you know why the Exalts aren't involved directly in politics?  Because we put it up to a vote."  He chuckles to himself, "A democratic vote, of course.  Gods, terrestrials, demons included."