redlightgreenlight: (Over shoulder 2)
Valdis ([personal profile] redlightgreenlight) wrote in [community profile] come_sailaway2022-11-01 02:32 pm

I Was Looking for a Breath of Life

Who: Valdis and Open!
What: New Arrival tries to cope with being dropped into a new place after a massive bloodbath
When: November
Where: All over
Warnings: Headaches, grumpiness, will warn if it gets worse than that.




1) Arrival: Her head screamed at her, sharp pain cutting into her vision with every breath. Eyes closed tightly, Valdis does her best to breathe. The heavy death in the air, filled with lingering desperation and trauma tightened her chest. Of all the times to fall into a new world, it would be just after a massacre. With her head in her hands, her black hair hiding her face, she leaned against the railing of the walkway, trying to drown out the pain. This was definitely where it all happened. The pain was worse here.
"Haven't felt this bad since the last war," she muttered. "How many people died?"


2) Revelations: Valdis worked her way through the ship, avoiding her cabin as much as possible, seeking to memorize the layout of the ship and maximize her ability to move quickly should it be necessary. The Void is silent, a fact she should be grateful for, and in some ways, very much is. But now the silence is simply silence, and the feeling that the dead are around every corner sits in her gut. She can’t see them, except maybe flitting out of the corner of her eyes from time to time, but she can sense that they aren’t alone. Footsteps sounded from behind her, she’d been so focused on the dead that she hadn’t paid attention to the living. She turns around, hand on the hilt of the rather impressive sword hanging on her hip.

"Hello?"

3)Buffet: Without the ability to draw on the dead, Valdis must find something to soothe the very human feeling of hunger. She’d known the feeling from home, before her memories had begun to return, but now she found it highly annoying.

“What’s the best thing here?”

Second Week of November and Onwards

4) Library: Valdis has finally taken Erin's advice and found the black binder in the library. She is not thrilled with what she's reading and the tension is visible in her usually elegant jawline and the glowing red in her eyes. Fear isn't found anywhere in her demeanor or soul, but rather a thoughtful, yet tense, aura radiates from where she sits. She's so focused that almost anyone not touched by death could approach without her noticing. If they are touched by death, she may react poorly, so tread carefully.

5) Hurikane: She can't get drunk, but she sure is trying her best with pure vodka and whatever else she can find that's strong. She's not even really trying to taste it, just downing it as fast as the invisible bartender can deliver, and exhausting her healing abilities as she goes. It's still not enough to even give her a buzz though. Disappointing.

6)Wildcard round: Your turn!
astrogator: (pic#15819314)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-17 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
[That can't be the only difference. Valdis has hit upon a difficult subject here. Ari's intelligent, analytical by nature, and that's an asset on the Tradelines so long as you don't turn it towards finding fault with the law and custom of the organisation itself. She was told in training that she just didn't have the seniority to criticise certain things, that it was arrogant to think she knew better than people who had been doing this far longer than her - and Ari wanted to achieve her ambitions so badly, she went along with it all.

She's not bad at immediate analysis to defend the Tradelines, though.]


Nations. Your homeworld must have had a lot of internal conflict for all these alliances and offers of aid to occur. Civil war on the colony worlds of my sector is rare.

And then governments. The Tradelines aren't allied with any particular government, no. That's what a planetary militia is for. Internal matters. Imagine the alternative! Siduri has a dispute with Lorentzen Delta, and before you know it there's a little Siduri fleet at war with a little Lorentzen fleet, and not only would you have a much greater casualty rate on those two worlds, anyone further out towards the frontier than them would have their supply lines cut, because no independent civvy trader is going to ship goods through a warzone to get to them. That could mean starvation, or even atmospheric failure, out on a frontier world. Catastrophic loss of life.

Under our system, those worlds are both insured, so they get Tradeline mediation. A panel of senior captains investigating the dispute and deciding where fault lies - according to code and citizens' essential rights, not their own whims - while their ships make sure there are no further hostilities and that the lines of trade and travel stay open, for both other Tradeline ships and the independents.

[Ari's calm and measured about all this, doing her best to convince Valdis.] Mercenaries are much less organised than we are, without our structure and our code. Security companies are mercenary; there are plenty of those around, and they operate where it's profitable for them. [If the sticking point is government backing, though, the Tradelines won't ever qualify. Governments out in Ari's sector range from direct democracy to shareholder vote to appointed council, but one characteristic they share is that they're all very small.]
astrogator: (pic#15928551)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-17 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[She doesn't dismiss what Valdis is saying. It might not be poetic language, not from someone immortal.]

Nothing lasts forever, but that's no reason not to try to preserve what we value. I'm not responsible for the important decisions right now, but when I make captain, I might be - and sometimes there's no perfect decision, just a heap of competing priorities that you have to use your best judgement with. Difficult choices. If it comes to it, making those choices will be my duty. [As will living with the consequences. Ari's come a long way from the girl who sobbed the first time she got her virtual crew killed in a command simulation, and was told without sympathy to go right back, try again, and do better. She thinks she understands what Valdis means, at any rate.

A moment later, she asks:]


How many nations are there on your homeworld?
astrogator: (pic#15928588)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-17 11:12 pm (UTC)(link)
That figures. I'm human. [Ari's getting the impression that it's not the humans on Valdis' homeworld who think themselves superior, and she doesn't like it much.] Why, what would a non-human say about those difficult choices?

[One hundred ninety-five isn't a solar system. That's more subdivisions of one planet than there are inhabited planets in Ari's entire sector, and 'subject to change' only makes it worse. She signals for another drink of her own. One more won't hurt.]
astrogator: (pic#15819318)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-18 09:15 am (UTC)(link)
[Is Valdis finally getting drunk? Much of this makes as much sense to Ari as the ramblings of a drunk person - although this has much more to do with Ari's view on souls than on Valdis herself. She decides to focus on what she can.]

I don't know about any of that. I don't have a soul, so I can't say anything about them, really. You don't seem like a monster to me. Will you do something for me, though? I'll accept what you say about the humans on your homeworld, but my people are galaxies away, at the very least. Don't judge us by them? If you get to know me and find I have all the same bloodthirsty faults as them, then you'll have a right to, but at least give us a chance?

[She's used to being aware that people here will judge the Tradelines by her example, as she's their only representative. Representing the entire population of her sector? Just a little extra pressure to behave herself. No problem, right?]
astrogator: (pic#15928572)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-18 04:55 pm (UTC)(link)
[Deal? Ari looks at her in bemusement, because there was no contract there. She just doesn't want to be negatively judged because of things done by humans who were very far removed from her and her people.

Maybe it's a figure of speech. Most people don't think like Tradeliners. She lets it go, focuses on the rest.]


If every living thing has a soul, and by soul you mean life force, then you couldn't have been without one. You'd have died, or at least not had the consciousness to observe your own qualities without a soul. [Seems logical enough to her. All the same, she doesn't want to be unkind.]

Look, I respect your right to have any sort of spiritual beliefs that are important to you. I have no problem with that. I just don't share them. [And she's not interested in evangelism, of any flavor.]
astrogator: (pic#15928586)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-18 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[This just sounds like more figurative talk to Ari. Valdis had acted amorally - perhaps immorally - and denied her emotions. Something traumatic had likely occurred to provoke it. It's an odd thing to confess to a new acquaintance, but Ari won't pass judgement without detail. The soul talk still sounds like a flowery excuse for negative behavior to Ari, but she can accept that Valdis believes in it sincerely.

She nods.]


Please, show me whatever you'd like to. Where is it?
astrogator: (pic#15928561)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-18 10:45 pm (UTC)(link)
What?! [Ari's eyes go wide with shock, and she slides down from her bar stool, ready to make a quick exit if things get worse.]

You didn't say anything about a blood pact. [She's not letting Valdis cut her hand the way she just did her own. No. Not without a whole lot more explanation first. Digging in one of her pockets, she pulls out a folded square of fabric.] Let me wrap that? I'll take you to the infirmary.
astrogator: (pic#15928576)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-18 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
[Her civilization? Ari wasn't the one who had just sliced her own palm open. Valdis' blood was still dripping onto the bar.

Despite everything, though, Ari's curious. Besides, there's a logical reason to go along with this. The sooner Valdis shows her whatever she intends to, the sooner she'll agree to get medical help.

There's no contract. On the Tradelines you couldn't trick someone into contract, unknowing, so she's certain about that. Ari takes a deep breath, then steps closer again, holding out her left hand to Valdis.]


Alright. Show me. [Boldly said, no trace of fear.]
astrogator: (pic#15819314)

hope this is okay, happy to edit if not right :)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-19 01:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[At first, Arilanna doesn't feel anything unusual. The sensation, when it begins, is a peculiar one. A tightness in her chest, a quickening of breath that under other circumstances would have been a warning to her to get whatever anxious feeling was troubling her under control.

This isn't unwanted nerves. There's none of the heightened awareness, the spike of adrenaline that accompanies them. Instead, Ari feels weary. As if she could easily fall asleep, right there by the bar.

It's an uncomfortable enough combination that she would have - quite possibly should have - pulled her hand away, under other circumstances. Why doesn't she? Even with the blood partially obscuring her view, Ari can see Valdis' wound closing up. She's far too fascinated by the process to want to stop it, even though it's taking a toll on her.

When the process is finished, Ari sits back down. An acknowledgement that she's no longer worried about what Valdis might do? Maybe. Or perhaps she's simply still a little unsteady on her feet.]


That's incredible. [Yes, she may be slightly in awe of it.] I felt physical effects - couldn't you say that you were taking the energy of my body, and using it to heal yours? [No need to get metaphysical about it at all.]
astrogator: (pic#15819313)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-20 02:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[She accepts very calmly the knowledge that in extremis this talent Valdis possessed could lead to death. She'd agreed to let her do it, after all, and-]

Don't worry. If it had started to feel dangerous to me, I'd have pulled away. [Presuming that Ari's danger point came before the energy drain made her too weak to do so, of course. But this doesn't occur to her, and Valdis has no reason to try to kill her, so she's unconcerned at present.

Then Valdis is telling her she's not in her galaxy and things are different, and Ari has to bite back a sarcastic oh really, I hadn't noticed. She focuses on Valdis' ability again instead.]


If you were wounded severely, could you draw from multiple people at once to heal yourself, instead of risking the life of a single person?
astrogator: (pic#15819314)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-22 02:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ari nods, although the concept of storing the energy is another strange one to her.] It's almost like a power cell, then. Keeping the energy for when you need it.

[The process had been uncomfortable for Ari, but not frightening. A few possibilities occur to her.]

I have a little lingering fatigue - do you know how long that's likely to last? And what's the shift? [None of them have work shifts here; it can't be that.]
astrogator: (pic#15928594)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-23 02:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I think that if you tell me something like that in this place, and it's untrue, it reflects badly on you, not on me for accepting it. [Overly honest? Possibly. Ari already knows there's a man who can transform into a - kipterya - cougar, and that he's dangerous for it. So she won't immediately dismiss Valdis' claim, but she won't be quick to believe it, either.]

I'll monitor it, then. I need to keep myself in good physical condition for the obvious reasons. If the effects are minor and clear up quickly? We might be able to come up with some arrangement. If you'd be interested.

[Not out of the kindness of Ari's heart, not for free, but 'running on empty' doesn't sound pleasant, and she'll help if she can.]
astrogator: (pic#15819321)

[personal profile] astrogator 2022-11-23 10:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought that I might be able to call on you at need. To fight for me. It's good to have support, in this place.

[It's casually said. No need to alarm Valdis if she hasn't yet heard all the stories that Ari has.]

I'd insist on signed contract, for any arrangement. People have to know where they stand, and what to expect from one another.

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[personal profile] astrogator - 2022-11-25 08:41 (UTC) - Expand