Is That Your Final Answer?
Chandra struggles with the words for a moment, trying to rationalize why he isn't just screaming 'yes, absolutely' like he wants to. It takes him a moment, but eventually he works himself through the logic train. The slow, annoying fact that it's not just him making this decision. "I'd love to," says Chandra, "But I need to talk to Abhas and Harmeet about it, it's...not fair to just spring it on them, I think."
"It's cool," says Yashar, leaning back on her chair, "Bring them in here, I'll sell them on it. I wanna see my new house mates before they show up, yeah." Chandra smiles, gets up and turns to leave before Yashar interrupts him, "You forgot your glasses. And wipe your eyes."
"Thanks," says Chandra. He slides his glasses on and takes a moment to compose himself before entering the hall. He finds Harmeet and Abhas in the living room. Abhas is wearing his oddly organic suit of power armor, doing some sort of maintenance on it. Harmeet is parked on the worn armrest of a green-and-gold couch, slowly eating a bowl of dal while watching the news.
"Finished your call?" she asks.
"Not quite," says Chandra, surreptitiously adjusting his glasses, "She's offered to host us if we leave the planet, and we decided it was best if you guys talked to her before we made a decision."
"And who is our mysterious benefactor?" asks Abhas, one eyebrow cocked.
"She?" asks Harmeet, grinning the grin of someone who absolutely knows they will be milking this for weeks.
"Harmeet, no" says Chandra, almost reflexively. He tries to reassure himself that no, there wasn't a note of pleading to his tone, no way.
He fails.
"Oh, yeah, your mysterious lady friend you've never introduced us to is totes platonic," says Hameet. He is almost certain that no one of her age should be able to grin like that. Clearly she has learned things from Ravana and Indrajit.
All the wrong things.
He decides to ignore the jibe, and instead wrangles the pair into the transmission room.
By the time he gets them into the room and sat down, Yashar has somehow acquired another fruity cocktail and a pair of sunglasses. Chandra would really, really like to assume she got them with the consent of their previous owner, but he's not hopeful.
"So this is your new kid, huh?" Yashar tips her glass towards the screen in acknowledgement. "My condolences."
Chandra frowns. "Harmeet isn't a..."
"No, I was talking to her," she interrupts. Harmeet enters a sudden and not very convincing coughing fit. "So, there are a few house rules that we should probably go over regarding things like tidying up your own mess and not doing alchemical experiments in the crew quarters, but they seem okay, and if you're vouching for them then..."
"Where the hell did you get that sword?" interrupts Abhas in the tone of voice of someone who already knows what the answer is, and exactly how much they don't like it.
"What, Zom?," says Yashar, patting her sword, "Well, you know. I just picked it up after the previous owner accidentally brutally decapitated himself and his entire retinue while shaving." Yashar pauses and takes a long sip of her drink. "I helped," she adds with a faux-modest shrug.
"You're not even going to pretend you didn't kill them?" asks Abhas.
"Look, we both already knew the answer," said Yashar, "I dance around it, sure, it'd be fun, but you're crashing at my place anyways, so it's not like I need to needle you at every opportunity, right? I've got time."
"And why are you still under the assumption that I'm going to agree to 'crash at your place'?" asks Abhas.
"Because I'm your only option you high-bred idiot," says Yashar, "Freelancing's not going to work, you can't stay there and you haven't got jack of shit for other options out here. Who else're you going to crash with? Your old employers?"
Abhas' eyes narrow. "You know about them?" he asks.
"I know enough about The Iris to know that you can't just hide out with her lot," replies Yashar, "Nevermind the-Nevermind Harmeet, they work slow, and they aren't going to hide you for free. Indrajit doesn't have half a decade, and I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you quit the first time for a reason."
Abhas practically snarls, fingers drumming against the console. It takes a moment, but eventually he forces a, "Fine. You win." and unceremoniously leaves the room.
"Well," says Yashar, "That was pleasant. How about you, kid? You in?"
Harmeet doesn't even hesitate. "Yeah," she says, "I'm in." There's a short pause. "Uh, do I need to go or stay in here or what?"
"Your choice, kid" says Yashar, "But if I were you, I'd start packing. And get the grump to start too. Big day tomorrow."
Harmeet leaves the room and Yashar knocks back the rest of her drink in one swig. "So," she says, "I think that that went well."
What will you do before you leave Za-Vant tomorrow?
[ ] Tell Abhas and Harmeet about your powers. And talk about Yashar being, uh, herself at them. (If you don't do this now, you're not going to get around to it for a while.)
[ ] You need resources. Find someone who deserves it, rob them blind, feel guilty later.
->[ ] Spies 5: Abhas' guys can feed you a truly loaded target. And he probably deserves it too! Mostly. (This means that you can pay off the Shady Contact or Pirates instead of paying their associated cost. You'll also have three Resource dots for later, though still no income stream.)
[ ] Go to ground, your primary concern is making sure there isn't a trail after you when you leave the planet tomorrow. (This will result in a reduced chance of people following you)
[ ] You can't use your contacts and shit when you're off-world anyways, and you know some guys Indrajit worked with. Reformers and revolutionaries in the area, you should go distribute the information and Chandra's old racer to them.
->[ ] And also some weapons. (Lose a dot of Arsenal in addition to the above)
How are you going to leave Za-Vant?
[ ] Abhas has a friend who knows a guy who met a dude who, uh, generally doesn't contact the local authorities when they do this sort of thing. (Feel free to define the contact. Insufficiently shady contacts will be made shadier. This will cost you a dot of Arsenal, as you don't have Resources to pay them off with. You can only bring the Mahout. These guys aren't murderous pirates.)
[ ] Iris Contact Available: Abhas says that Iris is fucking amazing at this sort of thing, so she's probably a good bet if you need to get the hell out of the area really, really quickly. (You can't bring any ships along. Tagging along with the siddies will A) play hell on your memory and B) almost certainly have consequences)
[ ] Yashar's Mysterious Pirate Friends. (This will mean that Yashar has to pay the pirates. You can bring one ship of your choice along. The pirates are racing fans.)
