come_sailaway | Freedom's the answer, what is the question?

Entry tags:

Freedom's the answer, what is the question?

Who: Arilanna Tayrey + You (plus closed prompts for CR)
What: Astrophysics, plotting, swimming
Where: Various places
When: Early/mid February

i. Gifts from home (Closed to Crichton)

[Ari Tayrey has had some interesting packages from Sundries before, but none that meant as much to her as the latest arrivals. It's doubtful that anyone has ever been so excited over astrophysics textbooks as the young astrogator was when she unwrapped them. There's only one problem. She's knowledgeable. She could certainly pass an advanced degree on Earth in the subject, despite her age - but Ari has her limits, and in what is a rare occurrence for her, she's struggling to understand the very advanced material she has been given.

There's only one person she thinks might be able to help. She seeks out Crichton, in the lounge. There's a large, spiral-bound book under her arm. Its pages are thin plastic, not paper.]

Commander Crichton? I have something from home. I have quite a lot from home, really - [She's smiling broadly at this] - but I want to ask your help with this. If you don't mind.

ii. The beginnings of an idea (Closed to CR)

[[This is for existing CR who Ari is certain support her efforts to escape from the ship and won't betray plans to the Captain or his supporters. If she likes you but isn't sure, you're not invited. If you're an acquaintance but she is sure, you are. Characters will have been invited via text.

See starter in top comment below. I'm going to try doing this as a single conversation thread, no tag order, but if it naturally breaks into separate conversations at some point that's fine.]]

iii. Friendly competition (Open)

[When she came aboard the ship, Ari didn't know how to swim. She's now a strong, confident swimmer, having put plenty of effort into practicing. She's also slightly more at ease with being seen in her Tommy Bahama swimwear. It still feels a little like standing about in her underwear, but others wear less, and nobody seems to care about any of it.

Always looking for a challenge, she has moved onto diving - in particular, retrieving objects from the bottom of the pool. Often she's alone, but today there's someone else there, and they've noticed what she's up to. An idea occurs to her, and she waves in their direction.]

You interested in a competition? I've got a handful of coins here. Say I throw them in and we see who can pick the most up? One at a time, swim over and put it on the side before we go for the next.

iv. A disappointment (Open, February 9)

[When the fair visit had been announced, Ari had expected they would be travelling by tender, and that between them, she and the other would-be escapees would be able to carry out the necessary recon to make their escape possible on the next trip. Alas, it was not to be.

Here she is, standing and staring at the metal detector as if it's some alien object - which, to her, it may well be. She's seen a person step through and simply disappear. Ari's hand goes to the energy weapon at her belt, as if for security.]

Well. I'm not going near that.

[The words are addressed to whomever happens to be nearby.]

v. Fun with printers (Open)

[Are you passing by Ari's cabin at the end of the corridor? You may hear a loud sound. It's not entirely unlike this.

The door is ajar, so she might not mind a visitor. The door also looks to have a little sign on it. It's made of a thin plastic, and has Lieutenant Arilanna Tayrey printed on it in solid letters. Want your own door sign? Or anything else printed? She may be able to help...]

x. Wildcard! (Open)

[Find Ari in any of her usual places. She's had deliveries from home and is wearing a new lapis lazuli bracelet and may offer you a cinnamon biscuit. She's also now training with a practice sword. Other ideas are welcome - PM, message on Plurk, or just throw up a surprise starter!]

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[He vanishes. Ari stares again at the metal machine, hoping she hasn't just sent Nobunaga to something terrible.

Even if he dies, he'll come back, she reminds herself. But it's still not a very comforting thought.]

[Nobunaga absolutely spends about five minutes on the other side in a ball of pain from the headache cursing invisible assassination attacks and being chuuni as fuck, ranting about the power about to be unleashed if he can't hold it back. But after that, the desire to explore: always topmost in his priority hierarchy, even more than survival, overcomes the pain and he looks around at the tents, and the basic start of it. Yup, looks like a festival.]

[Returning doesn't make the headache disappear, but he grits his teeth to bear it, refusing to let his Hideyoshi 2.0 see him in pain.]

See? No disintegration. You should come test whether the headache is just an untrained person flung through L-Space, or affects even you. There's a festival on the other side. Tents, games, American foods, plushies, toys, rides, I think your lander might be there too. And a lot of gun games.

[He offers a hand, but this time it's just an offer, obviously.]

We have traveling troupes who perform dances and puppet shows like this, even in Hell. I can't be seen at them however. I'm abysmal at disguises. So Mitsuhide can disguise, or Hideyoshi can inspect them. They usually have performing animals. If I recall correctly, Uri, Hide's pet monkey wound up in a strange romance with one of the traveling performer monkeys.

[He mentions this so she additionally understands he's missing them without saying it out loud.]

That sounds remarkably similar to what Moya can do with her starburst maneuver. But she can only do that for short periods of time. How long can a ship like yours stay in L-space before it has to re-emerge?

I'm impressed. I didn't start learning this level of physics until my doctorate program.

[He looks again at the exact equation she's pointing out.]

Yes. I know this. But... this is about wormholes. Why are you studying this?

[She can't help but feel pride at the compliment, even if it's not really earned. Ari's good at physics because of her genetics and her Cardalek education and Savitskaya pushing her to excel.]

Thank you! I had a stack of these arrive, all on astrophysics.

[Why wormholes, though? Crichton isn't going to believe 'because it's the first chapter I haven't studied' or some other flimsy excuse. She's fairly sure he's the person Nobunaga was talking to her about, the one who might share wormhole knowledge with her if he considered her worthy.

She's going to be honest.]

I'm studying wormholes because I think they might potentially be a way of getting me home someday.

Theoretically? Indefinitely, although the longer you're in, the higher the probability of something going wrong. Practically we don't do any longer than twelve hours at a time per astrogator, and even that's exhausting. A lot of the crew have to be sedated for the transition, so we spend as much time in normal space as we can.

How long does Moya stay in for?

[There's undisguised relief on her face when he reappears. She listens to his description and is about to protest that it sounds like entertainment for small children when she realises that half of it is likely appealing to Nobunaga himself.

Ari is... probably never going to get used to that.]

None of that sounds very productive.

[She does step forward and take his hand, but it's to give it a little squeeze. She clearly has no intention of going any further. That's the end of it, unless he wants to risk her wrath again - proving the danger of hand-holding by dragging her through.]

What do you mean, headache? Are you unwell? [She's looking him over carefully - in particular checking to see if his tattoo or any other markings have vanished.]

[Ari's still amused by his assertion that women make better spacers than men - but it's flattering, so she's hardly going to complain. She grins when he dives into the water.]

Let me try.

[She dives down, taps the bottom of the pool, and then comes back up. As she breaks the surface again, she tries to copy Nobunaga's whistle - but of course it's even further from correct than his was. Ari laughs.]

Maybe it takes practice! We'll have that in our competition. And if you can't remember the poem, maybe you can write one yourself someday.

[Yes, that's a look of alarm on Ari's face, at least momentarily. That is a terrifyingly large needle. However, Ari's trying not to overreact. She swims to the side, clambers out, and wraps herself up in an oversized white Mohonk robe. It's warm, yes. It's also where she keeps her weapons while she's swimming, just in case.]

I don't believe we've met. [She speaks up as she approaches the stranger.] Peace and prosperity to you.

[That's not just his own idea, Cesar and Crichton told him that!]

My love is
As seaweed reaped by fisher-girls,
Ever tangled, and
Not a moment dry
Have the weeds beneath the waves…

[Not his own, but one he remembered finally. And another dive! A better whistle attempt when he comes back too.]

[Yeah. He 100% is into the childishness of it.]

[He won't drag her! She's clear about her misconceptions so he can either dispel her fears, or fail trying.]

It is the demon in me threatening to unleash and go on a rampage. [He says with a half smile. Clearly it's not that big a deal. It mostly just means he wants to run around playing the games and eating candy.]

[And he holds his hand up to explain that without grand metaphors:] Likely an untrained person trying to adjust to the jump of one universe going into another. That said, I do not know enough about future medicine to say for certain it isn't something more sinister. [The other reason he won't try to drag her.]

Eleanor blinks at the unfamiliar greeting but quickly recovers, "To you as well miss. Sorry to startle you, I am afraid they are attached to the suit." She flicks the tip of the needle, smiling wanly. "Eleanor Lamb, miss, my pleasure."

[It's good she didn't try to fib to him. This is one area he's especially wary of.

He blows a long sigh out of his nose and brings his thumb to his lip, biting it while he thinks over what he wants to say or do. If she really doesn't understand this material, she might not ever manage to make it to the dangerous parts. But she's tenacious. Crichton knows he isn't the only one here who could explain this text to her. Cesar could probably be convinced.]

Listen... I get where you're coming from. But wormholes are not the answer you think they are. You have no idea what can of worms you might be opening with this.

Not long at all. Minutes, not hours. It takes too much energy, and Leviathans can't exactly plot a course through it either. That's why we only ever used it for emergencies. You point the nose, pop the cork and watch her go. Where she stops, no one knows.

It's that imprecise? [Concern registers on Ari's face - but she's also intrigued by the concept.]

I wonder if it really is L-space that she's travelling through. Do you experience perceptual distortions during those minutes?

[Two spacers getting sidetracked from the plan, here, but Ari can't help her curiosity.]

[Ari watches him, her fingers tapping on the table. She wonders what he's thinking. Maybe he doesn't trust her yet. Maybe she can't blame him. What does he know of her - that she got desperate and rushed out into the snow with half a plan? If he thinks she'd act like that with wormholes, he's not going to reveal anything to her. She speaks slowly.]

I know that it's going to take a lot of difficult study. Patience. I'm capable of that. I know that they're dangerous, and I want to do this properly. They're not an easy answer, but they may be our way out. [She's earnest. Looking for his approval. His help.]

Lieutenant Arilanna Tayrey of the Tradelines. [She smiles, because she doesn't believe the other young woman means her any harm.] I suppose I should welcome you, Citizen Lamb. To this ship, such as it is.

[She looks over the suit again.] It's certainly... striking. Meant for deep sea exploration? But what are the needles for?

[She knows him well enough now to have absolutely no concerns at the prospect of his demonic rampage. It's going to be harmless and probably involve lots of silly games.]

I wish I could help, but I'm no medic, and the equipment here... well, maybe Ensign Tendi could give you a brain scan, if you're worried. If it's some kind of inter-universe space sickness, then I'd probably be fine. [There's a slight temptation to prove it, but Ari holds back.]

You know what this is going to be, Oda? Harmless games and fun until the slaughter starts. That's how it works here.

[He has a point! Given the Tradeline fixation on supplies and weight allowances, having smaller, lighter spacers would certainly be an advantage in some ways - but Ari's always had to deal with equipment designed for someone larger, so she hasn't seen it that way.]

I like that! I've never been in a real sea.#

[She grins at him.] Ready for the contest? I'll throw the coins in, we dive in, and pick them up one at a time. You take yours to that side - [She points to the left side of the pool] - and I'll take the other, and we'll see who has the most at the end.

[If he doesn't object, she'll do just that.]

Ah shit. The 'ah shit' expression is in fact on Eleanor's face; she's not practiced at lying, is the thing, so getting an awkward question still hits her sideways like a loose hot dog cart. One hand goes to the needle on the other arm, holding it loosely. "...They were designed to extract fluids from large life forms, to be examined and processed later."

Of course, Tayrey is an attentive kinda spacer. It may occur to her that the tubes extending from those needles don't go to the tank on the suit's back (which is labeled as an oxygen canister in any event); they vanish inside the suit.

[100%!]

That's my theory. That it's the kind of thing you're immune, or at least well-adjusted, to. And if not, that would be a helpful indicator to the exact mechanics behind us being brought and tied here beyond the "soul" label.

[A blank stare.] That sounds like a good reason for you to join, not avoid it. Are you scared?

[Ari gives him an uncertain look. Is he trying to call her a coward?]

What's the reason to join a pointless fight we know nothing about except that we will make absolutely no difference? It's not strategically sound. I am not playing more twisted games. I refuse. I tried everything within my power last time, and gained nothing by it.

[She'd always been reluctant to involve herself. He'd convinced her last time, said he wanted her at his side. Not that it had helped, ultimately.]

You know I'm not afraid to die for a good reason. These games don't qualify.

[It's as close as she's come to admitting how much she'd been hurt by it all. She'd focused on others before - looking after them, or being angry with them. Either way, it made it easy to avoid personal reflection.]

Absolutely no difference? Do you really think that?

[Head tilt. Nobunaga would argue they had accomplished a LOT, and he'd have been utterly broken if she hadn't been there.]

[He thinks about it. He's still so bad at giving hugs except to think of it as an attack, but gently holds her in close and rests his head on top of hers.]

You didn't just save my life last time. You saved me. We learned even more about what the Captain fears and why, the ways in which he restricts himself. We overcame some of our own worst obstacles and uncovered our -- well my weaknesses. We know how things get corrupted, and what the Captain isn't capable of.

I won't push you. You were right about the voting thing, and you won our bet about karaoke, so far my track record is nil. But Sun Tzu, remember? [He pokes a finger to her forehead as if trying to touch the knowledge from inside her mind itself.] The largest part of war is just putting yourself into the best position to take advantage of the environment.

If you want, I will stand between you and anything you wish. We can map everything and then tomorrow stay in and play games. And day 3 I'll go see if the slaughter has started and the rides are all deathtraps.

I expect it will be more like the gameshow, we'll expect a shark filled pool and dagger throwing wheels of chance and they won't appear. But refusing to enjoy such things won't bother him, it would just make him think death and torture are stronger, because they last longer and people get traumatized beyond repair. I think the truly strongest thing to do is not attribute this to him at all. Nothing he can do is comparable to what i do to myself without even trying. [He manages to say with a smug smirk. This fucking lunatic.] Do what you want either way, no matter what he does. And if you have to stay here for that, so be it, but he'll just think you're scared that having fun would lessen your conviction, even though we both know that's impossible.

[Secretly, he thinks he needs a Mitsuhide after all. Hideyoshi wouldn't go for this either. At worst to stop Nobunaga and that's about it. Probably a personality thing, right? Ieyasu neither. Not for anything. Ranmaru would go without suggestion, but sure, Nobunaga knows Klaus will too. Still, he's told Teyrey to be as stubborn as she feels on things, so maybe this is that. He never can tell until it's tested out.]

[She's stubborn because it seems as if there's little to gain. Unlike Nobunaga, she doesn't often let her guard down enough to really have fun, and not much about this appeals. He'd have had a much better chance if he'd asked her to patrol the fairground looking for danger, she'd have seen that as a duty to attend to... but maybe that isn't what he wants.

Still, she does listen. It's rare that she doesn't take him seriously. And it's comforting that he holds her close. She stays there, with his arms around her.]

I'm not sure what Sun Tzu would say about territory literally created by someone else this morning. It seems like an automatic disadvantage to me. Our best position might be well clear of it all. The ship is familiar ground.

But Oda... I'm glad I was there for you. I just... I wish that we'd been able to change the outcome. I'm not afraid. I'm frustrated, at not having any real power. I worry because I don't know how much someone can lose before they really are damaged beyond repair, and if this is another stupid trap where people are killed and we can't save anyone, I'll be angry with myself for walking right into it, when there's nothing to gain by it.

It feels like we're being enticed. Aren't you at all suspicious?

Yes, it is. On purpose. Moya didn't have any weapons. If we got attacked, our best chance was to run. Starburst could get us away to safety on a trajectory no one would be able to predict or follow.

I don't know if it's L-space or not. I'd have to see the math. I do know it's one hell of a kick when it happens. Can knock you off your feet.

[Apologies to the rest of the people having to listen to these nerds.]

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Freedom's the answer, what is the question?

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