"Well if news gets around, and it most likely does, it would be safe to assume a mutual acquaintance of all three parties, former and current." Rayjay said about as nondescript as humanly possible. "But there's only one way to find out, so then the question becomes how to confirm subtly."
This message was last edited by the player at 16:58, Thu 02 Mar 2023.

“A subtle glance, making eye contact, and a nod would probably be enough,” Ghent suggested, “but let’s be sure we can meet the terms. And right now, we’re not certain what those are, but I’m not the one on the hook if Ted says yes.”

"I can't agree if I don't know what it is, I need to be told what it is he wants, I am not a telepath. Zhouth?" he says very quietly.

Zhouth's ears tilted askew, and his free arm tilted up and out and-over-here style as he threw Theodore a consternated look.  "Testing and training takes months, you know? Even if you have the potential in the first place. It's not like I can just wave a little widget in front of your eyes and suddenly you're a telepathic superhero to just sit there reading his thoughts!" The look of consternation deepened. "Even if we could do that, it seems seems like a remarkably bad thing to try with everyone's attention on us."

Recovering somewhat from Theodore's surprise suggestion, he drew his hand back in and swirled it vertically in front of himself as his ears resumed their usual vantages. "Or if you mean me being subtle? Okay, I know that you haven't been there every time, but I tend toward the up front, direct approach known as blurting things out. That may count as subtlety in some cultures, but I don't think that it does here."

"Also!" Suddenly he was holding his hand up before him with finger raised in his traditional now-listen-here pose. "One of the things that I learned from Vanejen is that trying to communicate complicated ideas back and forth by way of subtle signalling is very likely to begin an inadvertent comedy routine as the actual meanings get increasingly misunderstood by everyone involved. Sure, it will also confound anyone else who is trying to figure out what's going on, but it won't do much good to later discover that, by an improbable chain of misreadings, we've gone and shot down the customized transport vessel of some Imperial Count's favorite pet cat, when actually all he wanted was for us to help him to move some specialized laboratory equipment later today."

Zhouth let his hand down and took a sip of wine. Only partway through that did he apparently realize something, and barely avoided an inadvertent spit take as he held his hand up again, palm out, with a look of quiet alarm and a hushed and rapid whisper to match. "Not that anything exactly like that ever happened in my personal experience with those spook guys! I was just speaking hypothetically!"

Teddy giggled at Zhouth, "Okay, we do it my way then, we just walk over and ask, since you can't read minds anymore than I can, and getting it wrong would be bad. Should I ask myself, or should we go over together as a group?"

"I would recommend you and Miss Sigar at most, to at least put on a play at subtly." Rayjay answered as he lamented Zhouth's uncharacteristic wisdom for once. Oh, he did so enjoy a good comedy of errors, though ideally not with him amidst one.

"Uhh, I think that us all getting up and walking toward his table would be taken the wrong way, for precisely the reason that it looks very un-subtle," Zhouth's held up, palm out hand waved side to side a couple of times. "Maybe I can handle this another way? Hold on."

He set down the wine glass and tapped away at his comm for a few moments, then put the comm away as he took a slow, deep breath before smiling cheerfully once again. "Okay. Go back to enjoying things and we'll give it a few minutes to see."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:14, Thu 02 Mar 2023.

Ghent’s eyes narrowed dangerously at the suggestion of getting up and outright asking. He was about to raise his concerns when  Zhouth started tapping what he thought to be morse code. His eyes suddenly lit up in approval. “Oh, nicely done,” he said as he burried his smile into his own wine glass.

In reply to Ghent Bel-Andis (msg # 101):

"You want to tap out the code so he hears it, or do you want me and Ingrid to thank him personally and ask him?"

"Just sit here and enjoy yourselves and we'll see whether the arrangement works," Zhouth repeated, never breaking his bright smile.

Rayjay couldn't help but chuckle at the confusion. "Texting, really? How gauche." He said finishing his glass as they waited to see what came of Zhouth's digital communique.

Less than a minute later, a robo-server delivers a bottle of wine to the Admiral's table indicating that Zhouth had probably just ordered a 'thank you' gift (on behalf of the Captain) to the Admiral.

Zhouth's smile only broke for brief moments when he took a sip from his glass. "It's more subtle than shouting for service, you know? Now, no more business talk for a while unless it comes to us, okay?"

As the meal is finishing up, Teddy receives a text message from Viridian: Congratulations! is all it says.

"Varca has won, Viridian says congratulations." Teddy quietly told the others.

Zhouth quietly set his glass down. "Are you suggesting that we leave now?"

"We can stay for awhile if you'd like, no hurry, just a notification of congratulations!" he said with a big grin!

"Indeed, though after we leave perhaps, we could prepare some supplies to throw a celebration for the successful operation? After all while we were wining and dining, they were working hard to grow the fleet." Rayjay suggested with a genuine smile.

Judging by the way Ghent finished his glass of wine in one large gulp, he seemed eager to get going. When he noticed that everyone else seemed to be keeping things casual, he simply shrugged and attempted to steal a bite from the cake Ted and Ingrid had received before it was all gone.

"Maybe it's time to reassign bunks on the ship then?" he added with a grin.

Ingrid continued to enjoy herself; all the work she had done on ships had made her really miss this kind of comfort. "Oh, I'm sure I can make a cake or something if we'd like to celebrate them."

"It's tempting from the standpoint of making room for more crew, but I don't think that we should change stateroom arrangements away from the one-for-one approach except in cases where we need to double berth people as an emergency measure." Zhouth left his glass on the table as he spoke, twirling both hands in a couple of small circles, in the same direction for one loop and then opposite each other for another. "It also avoids creating problems when people start deciding to re-enact those silly personal drama vids in their real lives, which I hope doesn't actually happen but would still rather not take chances on!"

"I think what he's insinuating is that we may need to transfer trustworthy crew from one ship to the other. So, if anything some of us may be getting more room to ourselves." Rayjay added his interpretation, either case happy to welcome a little more elbow room.

“Do you think they’ll need a 2IC on the ship,” Ghent asked, suddenly interested in the prospect. “I was a second officer in the Merchant Marines, I’m sure my skills could be put to your advantage. I didn’t realize you were going to expand the fleet, when I bumped into Viridian. Wasn’t sure how I’d… fit in, so to speak.”

Zhouth picked up his wine glass again and raised it to his lips, but just before taking a sip he stated in a low voice with a weary-looking expression, "We really shouldn't be talking about these things in public, you know?"

Eventually, of course, the dinner party breaks up well after midnight not because the restaurant closes--it never does if you want to pay for it such as a marathon fizbin game, but you need to rendezvous with the Vultan. Once you leave the Blue Diamond, you have about 30 minutes before the ship touches down at the starport.

It's not scheduled to depart planet/system till 10:20 in the morning, however, in case there's anything else anyone else wants to do.

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