Session 88: You say it's your birthday

Play date: May 6, 2016

In-game date: March 13, EY219

Location: McNeely Station, orbiting the planet of Limbaugh, Providence system

Previous events: Sneaked out of Vishnu

While everyone else heads to the apartment Bishop decides to play it safe and avoid any interaction with Emily Varnsen. She seemed less creepy last time but why take chances? Besides, he has things to do. The refuelling of the Steel Hummingbird includes food, but that's all frozen, freeze-dried, and canned items that will last forever. It's always nice to start off with fresh ingredients for the first several days at least. Although McNeely's central section has a reputation for being filled with nothing but tourist traps and overly expensive stores he's been here often enough to know places where the locals find good, inexpensive groceries and besides, he can always make a deal...

He's got another goal, too. Tomorrow is Volkova's birthday and the crew's decided that they want to go to a spa, followed by some shopping for new clothing, dinner at a good Walküren restaurant, and then some dancing. Sheema knows a good Walküren day spa and suggests a swing dance club to finish off the evening. She doesn't know any good Walküren restaurants, though, so that's something that Bishop will locate while on his own.

Meanwhile, on the subway, Sheema suddenly remembers that she abandoned Azar here back in December. In her defence she was pretty distracted by finding her Nikoo again but she really should find her partner in crime busting. Azar should have been able to stay in their suite in the Queen Elizabeth hotel until the end of January, but that's as far as Sheema had paid up. She'll go to the apartment with Jillian and meet Gabi, then go check up on Azar.

At the apartment in Little Piccadilly Jillian and Sheema reunite with Malcolm and Volkova and they knock on the door. Emily, Gabi, and John are all home and there are introductions and hugs. Looking around the flat it's apparent that Gabi's thieving has been going well. The household items are even nicer than last time. Emily wonders where Bishop is and is relived to hear that he's safe: the crew were heading off into phenomenal danger the last time anyone here knew! The update on the situation in Vishnu is grim, though it's good to hear that at least some people were rescued and that the D'vor aren't indestructible. Jillian's also sure to skip over the Black Rose encounters -- that's all kind of complicated.

It doesn't take Bishop too long to get the food sorted away and have a delivery to the Steel Hummingbird arranged for two days from now. He's also found a good restaurant for the festivities tomorrow. He's got some time before meeting up with everyone else and sits down in a café to write an overdue letter to Warden Whang. He's promised to tell her everything and so he does, not skipping anything. He really feels that he's growing as a person. He's not that superficial womanizer anymore! Well, not unless they're really hot...

When he's done with the letter he finds that he's still got lots of time and decides to visit the House of Dreams. He's heard of it, a place on the station where uBuntans go to indulge in their home culture and Dream. It's a subway ride to Minuit hub and once he's there he feels like he's home. Inside what looks like a normal brick building the place has been set up to look like iLangan architecture, full of his people and food like back home that he doesn't have to cook himself. They even have Dreaming rooms here and he decides to take advantage of the opportunity. His Dream comes to him easily but it's a bizarre one without any visuals: everything's black and there is a wordless song. It's very catchy... but not his song. What is his song? [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_LN3XEcnw] He's not sure, but he knows that this isn't it. He's a little shaken once it's over though it wasn't overtly menacing.

Back in Little Piccadilly the rest of the crew says goodbye to Gabi and her roommates. Malcolm goes to top up his tea supplies -- this is the neighbourhood for it, after all -- and Jillian, Sheema, and Volkova walk over to the Queen Elizabeth hotel. Malcolm will come by later and get a suite for all of them when he's done with his shopping.

It's no surprise that Azar couldn't afford to stay at such a swanky hotel once she had to pay for it herself. She did leave a message for Sheema that reads a bit passive-aggressive about being abandoned and gives an address in the Zenger hub, a lower-class place that's also where the Electric Eliminators are headquartered. Volkova offers to come along with them to keep them safe; she half-wishes she hadn't given away her Electric Eliminators jacket to Vasava, her opponent in the pit fight on Crapworld. He deserved it, though, and who knows? Maybe she can pick up another one on this trip...

Azar's place is in a bad neighbourhood in a bad part of town and Jillian's happy to have Volkova with her. The building that Sheema lives in looks like it should be condemned, with some of the windows boarded up and others with bedsheets crudely nailed up as blinds. The entryway smells not very subtly of pee and there's no answer when they buzz her flat. It might be that she's not home or the button might not work. The main entry door is closed but doesn't actually lock, so they trudge up the stairs through dingy lighting and the stale smell of a a thousand fried meals to Azar's door. She doesn't answer when they knock on the door and although it would be easy for Volkova to simply lean against the door and pop the lock they decide to leave a note for her, slid under the door, with the Steel Hummingbird's mail address on the station.

Back at the Queen Elizabeth Malcolm's got the four-bedroom suite that he usually gets, the Marylebone. Everyone gets their own bedroom except for Jillian, who will have to share with Sheema. Tough luck there.

It's been a long day, and when everyone's gotten together they have a simple meal in the restaurant downstairs and go to bed.

March 14, EY219

It's Volkova's birthday. She's up before everyone else and giddy with excitement. Forty-five years old! A good number, she decides. Divisible by five is always good. So are triangular and hexagonal numbers. Ooh, and it's a Størmer number, too! This is going to be a good year.

When the others finally wake up Jillian checks their various postboxes and answering services. Azar's left them a message with a phone number and instructions to "ask for Azar". More exciting are various messages from the Resplendent Dragon, which must have made it to Beck while the Steel Hummingbird slept.

Xao has left a message to the entire crew reading "We're staying in Skousen with the Labryssians. Contact the military to get a message back to us -- it's complicated. Sigh." Olivia wrote to Malcolm, saying "Your family's on Beck! Skousen! Come come come!" She's also sent a message to Volkova: "Hi! Just wanted you to get some mail! And to say happy birthday! See you on Beck? Sabine's driving me bonkers: let's talk." Xao has also written to Volkova: "Hello Valentina, and happy birthday from the whole crew of the Resplendent Dragon. Many happy returns."

Volkova never thought that she'd get so much mail! She feels very loved, and more so when her crew tells her the plans for the day. It all sounds wonderful.

Sheema calls the number that Azar left: it's the number for a restaurant called Neerob, where Azar apparently is working as a cook. It's not far from where Azar lives and Sheema remembers reading a review of the place. It's got a definite greasy spoon vibe but serves amazing Vishnan food and is a current favourite on the station, with long lineups. She arranges for Azar to meet them in the Queen Elizabeth late the next morning for one of the hotel's famous buffets.

The rest of the day is a mass noun of wonderfulness. Malcolm's rented a limousine to chauffeur them from spot to spot, though he insists on being the one to drive. The spa, Strom, is exactly what Volkova needed. Everyone else has to ask the staff to tone things down a bit -- especially when the willow switches come out -- but once the masseuses get a feel for how much everyone can take it's several hours of pure relaxation. Jillian, always the fragile one, gets a slightly blistered back but nothing unbearable.

After the spa it's time to get new outfits for everyone. Bishop gets a new white suit, of course. Jillian gets a white dress with a delicate black lacy pattern on it, Malcolm gets a dashing set of lederhosen, Sheema a lovely if pricey dress, and Volkova gets a dirndl that looks absolutely smashing on her.

Dinner at Wolfgang's Alpenhaus is lovely. Volkova gets a schnitzel dish that's heavy on the mushroom cream sauce. There's a lot of alcohol -- kirschwaßer, schnapps, and vodka show up in round after round -- but the heavy food prevents anyone from getting too drunk. Bishop of course abstains completely and Sheema's influence keeps Jillian from getting trashed. The dinner ends with the staff bringing out a becandled Black Forest cake and singing "happy birthday" to a beaming Volkova.

The next stop is Café Heinze in Minuit hub. It's a swing dance club that Sheema found out about while staying here and everyone's game to try it out. Sheema loves swing dancing and it shows; she manages to get Jillian up in the air and the two dance well together. It's a Saturday night and Bishop and Malcolm don't have any trouble finding partners to show them the ropes of how to perform the moves but it's really Volkova's night. She's never done swing dancing before in her life but throwing people into the air? She can do that, even two at a time! She ends up being the centre of the action throughout the night. After all the horror, fear, and death of the past few months the whole crew lets loose and their energy and joy at being alive is infectious: when the club finally closes and kicks everyone out none of the crew goes home alone. It's a tight fit in the limo. Jillian and Sheema end up in their room at the hotel together, of course, but Bishop gets a pair of chicks to come back to the suite with him and Malcolm gets a woman to accompany him, too. Volkova gets lucky with one of each, and no one gets much sleep at all that night. It's the best day any of them have had in a long, long time. March 15, EY219The sun doesn't really come up on a space station that orbits a planet every seventy minutes but McNeely does angle itself to provide a sort of daylight cycle and the station's lights also work to provide a day and night as best they can. No matter: everyone wakes up long after the sun has come up. The suite is very much a full house, with ten people in its four bedrooms, and the bathrooms get very heavy use. Volkova gets her playmates' addresses so that she can send them postcards from her travels. Bishop and Malcolm don't bother. When last night's strays have been sent home and everyone's washed and dressed they head down to the hotel's famously good buffet. Azar meets them there, dressed up fairly well for someone who lives in a crap part of town. The feature that jumps out is the scar that runs from the right side of her lip almost to her eye, something she didn't have the last time Jillian saw her. She's of average height but painfully thin, even skinnier than Neet. She's got the darker skin tone, eyes, and hair that Jillian and Sheema have but her short hair's been bleached, with dark roots starting to show. Her half-length sleeves show a shoddy skull tattoo on her right forearm. She's not the friendliest person the group has met, nor the most tactful: she points out Jillian's seen better days almost immediately after sullenly greeting her for the first time in over a decade. When Jillian mentions Rashid Azar's arm makes a fleeting gesture to her scar: that explains where that came from.

For all her boniness Azar packs away food at a rate that rivals a teenage boy. Not like someone who's starving but someone who truly appreciates food. They all talk for a while and find out a bit more about her. Of particular interest is her skill at cooking and the fact that she can handle herself in a fight: she knows her way around knives and firearms. She doesn't have anything useful to contribute to the running of the ship but having someone along who adds some metaphorical muscle in a combat would be good. Right now only Malcolm and Volkova are useful in a fight and it's good if at least half the crew can step up if things go pear-shaped. Bishop uses his social wherewithal to make a friend out of her despite her best efforts and when they ask her to come along with them she agrees. It's not as if she really has any great plans or connections on the station anyway. Besides, thinks Jillian, Azar's always been easy to lead about. Malcolm takes her back to her place on his motorcycle to pick up her things while everyone else heads to the Steel Hummingbird.

When Jillian leads most of her ever-growing crew back to the Steel Hummingbird they're stopped in the hangar bay by a beefy man in a suit and ten goons (whose black outfits with red trim identify them as the Boyle Street Runners) who hide their clubs and knives badly. There is also a frightened-looking deliveryman with a van of produce cowering by the ship's cargo door. Bishop, Jillian, and Volkova recognize the man in the suit. Called Asjadi, he works for the Black Rose and the last time they saw him was on the Telushkin when Jillian had just lost her eye. He was also Jillian's bodyguard in days gone by. Everyone braces for a fight -- Volkova in particular eyes up Asjadi and is certain that she could take him. He's evaluating her too but his eyes keep darting to Jillian. And Sheema.

The standoff doesn't have time to get awkward before Jillian walks up to Asjadi and gives him a hug. Then it gets awkward. She offers to talk about whatever is going on over tea on her ship. He bites his lip and furrows his brow for a moment before agreeing and telling his confused thugs to stay outside. They mill about, unsure of what's going on. He is in charge, and he can take care of himself, though, so they stay outside while everyone else boards the Hummingbird. Bishop takes the order from the deliveryman, who is happy to leave as quickly as he can.

Inside, they make tea that's not up to Malcolm's standards but still quite drinkable. Not surprisingly, Asjadi mentions that Venla Inberg is looking for them and isn't happy that they didn't deliver Mi Kyong Choi to her as agreed. They went all the way to Crapworld and then never even bothered to report in when they came back. Jillian explains that Choi was taken by the military -- not true but he hopefully won't see she's lying -- and mentions being distracted by meeting Sheema (and Azar). The main thrust of the conversation, though, is the D'vor invasion, not whatever betrayal the Steel Hummingbird's carried out. The Black Rose know that aliens are around and that something's happened in Vishnu, but don't know much beyond that and they've sent ships to find out exactly what occurred. Jillian fills him in with the details of what they know and asks her crewmembers to make copies of the information they have on the D'vor. Soon Sheema is typing up a storm in the captain's office to duplicate her report and copies of data on magnetic wire is provided to Asjadi.

Outside, the thugs are in disarray, not sure what to do, and huddling to see if they should storm the ship when Malcolm rumbles up on his motorcycle, Azar sitting behind him. Not sure himself about the goons' presence, he uses the intercom on the outside of the ship and talks to Jillian about the gang. When he finds out that things are going well he brings in the motorcycle and he and Azar go up to the crew deck. Asjadi's not too surprised to see Azar here at this point. Malcolm has a sip of the tea, makes a face, and starts up a new batch. When he's done serving everyone in the room he makes another ten cups and brings them down to the goons outside. They're surprised and a little suspicious but in the end accept the tea and are appreciative. This has been a very strange gig so far but they don't really have any complaints. Maybe it's not as good as getting to beat people up, but still pretty good.

The Hummingbird's crew make the point to Asjadi that there are bigger things going on and that they all need to work together to deal with the D'vor instead of working against each other. Asjadi seems convinced, perhaps because of the soft side he's got for Jillian, but he still has to bring the information to Venla and let her make the final decision -- communications will happen through the post office here on McNeely Station. He and Jillian hug again and he leaves with a bag of data wires and hardcopy and a serious look on his face. Malcolm, not really trusting Asjadi, watches out the window as the big man gathers his goons and walks off.

Everything seems as under control as it can be. They carry out a flight check and leave McNeely Station for Beck.

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Bishop's Bedpost Notch Count: 2 (running total: 22)

Jillian's Bedpost Notch Count: 2 (running total: 3)

Malcolm's Bedpost Notch Count: 1 (running total: 13)

Volkova's Bedpost Notch Count: 2 (running total: 6)