[commentlog] Talia ~politely~ pokes around brains. :3thequeensownOctober 3 2010, 00:04:14 UTC
[Talia listens with interest, her own nerves gently eased with the assistance of the alcohol seated between the two of them. He wasn't one of the most receptive to her gentle mental coaxing and she thought she might need to prod a bit harder. First, though, she would do what she knew she did well enough .. talk. She keeps her mind open to him, though, continuing the mental coaxing of 'it's okay, things will be fine' as she looks upward at the sky.]
It is .. perturbing .. to say the least. That not only the stars were gone, but the .. other things. [Being an empath certainly led to picking up strange things after the starless night began. The voices that some had heard .. She shivers, glad that she had not experienced it herself. On the other hand, she almost wished that she had experienced it.]
The lack of answers .. it is never easy to deal with such, no matter what it is you are questioning. When you add the fact that it's happening on this ship .. it can be a bit .. frustrating. It seems we often have more questions than answers here.
[Her gaze drops from the sky and moves to him again and she tilts her head slightly to one side.]
It seems an awfully big boat to offer so little .. [She muses this and then moves to something he mentioned.] What do you study?
The whispers are what worry me the most. What they came from, what they meant and how they knew what to say. It has to mean something, and I doubt its something good.
*He's pessimistic enough about the ship and the events on it to resist the 'things will be fine' coaxing while on the subject. Things were not 'fine' with Jennifer, and even after she was recaged trouble still remained. They should have just left well enough alone but...He still feels guilty about that. Too many things he could have done differently between finding the necklace and letting Sully stick the coin in the corkboard outside the theater. At least they were able to end it, even if it took so long. That proved that the passengers weren't entirely helpless.*
It offers so much and so little. Its frustrating.
*He sighs again and takes another swig from the bottle, then lets his mind move onto other things. It was easier than it would be without her coaxing, but he didn't fully recognize that.*
Languages. I was studying coding, but I've moved on to the languages I hear on the ship sometimes. You can use the comms to translate things, but that doesn't help if someone's not talking over the network. Mostly, though, it gives me something to do.
*He started because he wanted to learn Anna's language, really. Hers was a complicated mix of many, however, which made learning it harder. For now he was working on studying the components one at a time. Shifting subjects made him feel a bit less depressed, and he stopped pushing against the 'its okay' feeling he kept getting. Not everything was okay, of course, but maybe enough was. It was calm for now, and while fully relaxing wasn't the best of ideas, staying constantly on edge was probably doing more harm than good. He just wasn't sure how to relax anymore. The alcohol was what he usually used for that. His friends to a lesser extent, but with the possible trouble coming up that didn't always work. He worried about them.*
[commentlog]thequeensownOctober 3 2010, 01:53:14 UTC
[Talia mentally sighs with relief as Marco finally moves away from the topic of the negative things on the ship. She knows it's hard enough to do so, but with all the prompting she's been doing, it's no small success. She feels as his emotions shift and he finally accepts the gentle prodding, a soft smile touching her lips.
His thoughts warm as he begins talking about learning other languages and she encourages it silently.]
I think it a perfectly worthwhile endeavor, truthfully. To be knowledgeable in other languages on a vessel that has so many would be a great help. I think you would find that new arrivals would be more than a little grateful for such.
[And there was that extra trace of warmth when he spoke about languages and Talia wondered whom it was he was thinking about. She could feel him relax, though, and that was the important part. She continues the gentle coaxing on the lines of 'today's okay .. one day at a time' and 'I'm helping .. maybe she's right' .. a gentle sort of mental guidance.]
What language are you becoming the most adept at?
[Hey, if she sounds genuinely interested, it's because she is. She is also intent on helping him lose interest in the alcohol for the evening.]
I guess they would be. Some people have a lot of trouble adjusting when almost no one speaks their language.
*Though he was really only learning them for personal benefit. The 'i'm helping' coaxing for that, then, fell on deaf ears...so to speak. Aside from wanting to learn Anna's language, it was pure selfishness that prompted him to not have to translate things to text or to want to understand people in the halls speaking other languages. The other line of coaxing was working a bit better. He wasn't cheering up all that much, but he was moving to a more even keel instead of being depressed.*
I'm studying German right now. I'm not very good at it yet.
*He returns to the alcohol, though, taking another swig. The habit of doing so was so ingrained by now, it may take conscious effort to stop with an open bottle just right there.*
[commentlog]thequeensownOctober 3 2010, 19:08:24 UTC
[She 'mms' softly, nodding once.]
Not everyone takes to languages as well as others, it's true. Whether we want to be grateful or not, it's a good thing the communicators translate as much as they do.
[She felt the depression ease in his mind as her own blanket of calm helped, feeling him far more receptive to those thoughts than the idea of helping. She wouldn't make him accept the thoughts, though she'd been capable of such things in her own world. She had only ever done so to a man that needed a punishment equal to his crime, locking him into a loop of emotions directly taken from the mind of his victim. Though this would be a helpful alternative to the punishment, she still did not prefer to force thoughts on anyone.]
German? I can't say I know it at all, so you are already far more versed in it than I.
[She offers him a smile at that, taking the bottle again as he finishes his swig. It doesn't burn anymore going down, and now there is a steady warmth having spread through her body. She knew why people turned to alcohol for relief, and had seen more than her fair share of it in the past; whether other Heralds or citizens of Valdemar. It was risky business, trying to halt someone from drinking, particularly when she had just gotten him calmed down enough to talk. She wasn't sure what he was like when he drank, so it was best to play it safe.
On the positive side, the bottle was on its way to being finished; by both of them. In the end, she would stay sober enough to bring him back to his room if needed. ]
It is. It makes things a lot easier for everyone...well. Everyone who can read.
Mm...I hear it on the network with some regularity, so I figured I'd try it. I'm not sure how long it will take me to get it down.
*He takes another swig from the bottle then rests his head against the railing. He was calming down, so he was starting to get sleepy again. But the idea of sleeping sent another wave of fear, and thus another wave of depression, through him. He sighed, trying to move his train of thought onto something more pleasant.*
Yeah. Nice to meet you. You're...Vanyel's friend? Or from his world?
[commentlog] I R FAILthequeensownOctober 6 2010, 17:30:07 UTC
[Talia nods as she listens to him speak, glad that he has finally begun to really relax. She feels the drowsiness moving through his mind as he leans his head against the rail and then the surprising jolt of fear/depression. She frowns ever so slightly, shifting her own thoughts to ease and brush at the fear. She soothes over it once more, pressing the thought that he is not alone right now and there is no sense fearing the unknown until it is known. She continues her calm supportive thoughts as he responds to her inquiry, nodding once with a gentle smile.]
Yes, I am .. and we are, though at different points in its history. It was .. interesting .. meeting him in person when I've only ever read of him in history texts.
[commentlog] pfft. you're finentjstapwnOctober 6 2010, 18:59:21 UTC
*Its not fearing the unknown; he knows he will have nightmares. That he'll wake up wondering if he's been dreaming the past few weeks and he's still 'sick,' or that he died and returned after all and, yes, this time his eyes have gone black. Marco really does not want to sleep, but sometimes just passing out keeps the dreams away. He sits up and takes another swig of the alcohol, calming a bit but perhaps not how she had intended.*
I bet it must be. No one from my world is here, but some of the settings--hell, this whole place, really--are similar to ones I'd find in fiction back home.
[commentlog]thequeensownOctober 7 2010, 20:59:36 UTC
[She can feel his almost physical pushing away of the drowsiness and is able to make the correlation to sleep, although she doesn't understand the connection. In truth, unless she probed deeply, she would not be able to know the connection. That would be the only way she could tap into any of the memories that have been altered or locked away.
However, unless his life was at risk she would do no such thing without permission. Not everyone took kindly to empaths or their ability to do things to the mind. In truth, very few people were at all accepting of those with such Gifts.
She nods, though, a smile quirking her lips before falling back into a neutral expression.]
What sort of a world do you come from? [Her tone is curious as she looks at him. She is not meaning to spiral him into a depression again, but is merely curious. She hopes that it's a broad enough range that he feels free to speak about anything he chooses and not cornered to speak about what he doesn't.]
Re: [commentlog]ntjstapwnOctober 8 2010, 00:13:04 UTC
Mm...the technology level there was similar to parts of the ship. Nothing like deck 20, but elevators and tvs and the sort of things you find in the kitchens and library.
*Talk about home was odd. It was still 'normal' to him, so he was at a loss to explain it. It did manage to distract him from the issue of sleeping, though. As long as he didn't go into (parts of) his life, this subject was fine. Not happy, but not sad.*
No magic...or none as far as I knew. I'm not so sure anymore.
[commentlog]thequeensownOctober 8 2010, 16:27:15 UTC
[Talia smiled a bit wryly as Marco went on to describe the technological things about his world, marveling at it.]
We had no such things on my world as all of that .. these 'electrical' objects are a marvel to be reckoned with. I had never seen such before coming here and have scarcely figured out how to use most of them.
There are days I might think that having the option to trade for your technology would be most .. enlightening.
Magic was everywhere on my world, although it was weaker than it had been in the past. It was always there if you knew where to look and how to use it, and even if you were not so Gifted, there were those that were. Perhaps there was latent magic on your world that was yet to be tapped into?
*Its not really out of niceness that he offers this. It gives him something to do, and the possibility of making allies (or having someone owe him a favour) was always useful to Marco.*
Its possible. There were some weird things, but I don't know if any where magic or not. I'm not really sure what here's magic unless people tell me. The stuff here we don't have could just be technology we don't have at home yet...or it could be magic. The things that seem like technology to me might be magic as well.
*He shrugs. There were so many questions this place brought up. It was beyond frustrating.*
[commentlog]thequeensownOctober 8 2010, 19:17:17 UTC
[Talia makes a soft noise of ascension, nodding once.] That would be quite helpful, actually .. I am afraid I might start a fire even this ship cannot handle by doing something incorrectly.
[She's not literal in that, as she's smiling at the end, but she is afraid of doing things wrong. Electronics seemed so terribly involved next to magic and the simpler things of her world. She listens to him as he describes magic versus technology and nods once, lifting the bottle a final time to her lips. She swallows slowly, a rather fluid like warmth settled throughout her body by this point.]
It's true that this place makes it all the more difficult to discern the difference between what is magical and what is not. Things are far more advanced here than they ever were in my world, so, to a degree a civilian might think it all magical. I certainly was .. not expecting that creature in the medical bay. The AMU, I believe? [She shakes her head, her expression matching her tone. No, she didn't care for that thing at all, thanks very much.]
I don't think you can damage the ship itself much, so you shouldn't need to worry about that.
*He figures she isn't being fully literal, but he wanted to add that in too. Marco's not certain the ship is indestructible, but the fact that its still around seems to say it might be. When she puts the bottle down and picks it up and finishes it off, then drops the empty bottle down to the 'ocean.'*
We don't have anything like AMU where I'm from either. Doctors use some technology, but its still people doing it. But I think most people are shocked by that thing somehow.
[commentlog]thequeensownOctober 9 2010, 15:41:14 UTC
[She listens with interest about damaging the ship, though she's half smiling. She hadn't been entirely literal, though she was concerned about doing damage to the appliances.]
Well, that's a relief anyway.
[She watches him as he polishes off the last of the bottle before tossing its empty shell into the ocean they ride atop. She shivers as he talks about AMU, shaking her head once.]
It was .. surprising .. to say the very least. We have healers on my world .. and basic medical attention for the field and such .. but no. Nothing like that.
We had some things like it in fiction, but we weren't anywhere close to making them in real life. Its a good enough doctor...but I don't know if making a lot of them would be a good idea.
It is .. perturbing .. to say the least. That not only the stars were gone, but the .. other things. [Being an empath certainly led to picking up strange things after the starless night began. The voices that some had heard .. She shivers, glad that she had not experienced it herself. On the other hand, she almost wished that she had experienced it.]
The lack of answers .. it is never easy to deal with such, no matter what it is you are questioning. When you add the fact that it's happening on this ship .. it can be a bit .. frustrating. It seems we often have more questions than answers here.
[Her gaze drops from the sky and moves to him again and she tilts her head slightly to one side.]
It seems an awfully big boat to offer so little .. [She muses this and then moves to something he mentioned.] What do you study?
Reply
*He's pessimistic enough about the ship and the events on it to resist the 'things will be fine' coaxing while on the subject. Things were not 'fine' with Jennifer, and even after she was recaged trouble still remained. They should have just left well enough alone but...He still feels guilty about that. Too many things he could have done differently between finding the necklace and letting Sully stick the coin in the corkboard outside the theater. At least they were able to end it, even if it took so long. That proved that the passengers weren't entirely helpless.*
It offers so much and so little. Its frustrating.
*He sighs again and takes another swig from the bottle, then lets his mind move onto other things. It was easier than it would be without her coaxing, but he didn't fully recognize that.*
Languages. I was studying coding, but I've moved on to the languages I hear on the ship sometimes. You can use the comms to translate things, but that doesn't help if someone's not talking over the network.
Mostly, though, it gives me something to do.
*He started because he wanted to learn Anna's language, really. Hers was a complicated mix of many, however, which made learning it harder. For now he was working on studying the components one at a time.
Shifting subjects made him feel a bit less depressed, and he stopped pushing against the 'its okay' feeling he kept getting. Not everything was okay, of course, but maybe enough was. It was calm for now, and while fully relaxing wasn't the best of ideas, staying constantly on edge was probably doing more harm than good.
He just wasn't sure how to relax anymore. The alcohol was what he usually used for that. His friends to a lesser extent, but with the possible trouble coming up that didn't always work. He worried about them.*
Reply
His thoughts warm as he begins talking about learning other languages and she encourages it silently.]
I think it a perfectly worthwhile endeavor, truthfully. To be knowledgeable in other languages on a vessel that has so many would be a great help. I think you would find that new arrivals would be more than a little grateful for such.
[And there was that extra trace of warmth when he spoke about languages and Talia wondered whom it was he was thinking about. She could feel him relax, though, and that was the important part. She continues the gentle coaxing on the lines of 'today's okay .. one day at a time' and 'I'm helping .. maybe she's right' .. a gentle sort of mental guidance.]
What language are you becoming the most adept at?
[Hey, if she sounds genuinely interested, it's because she is. She is also intent on helping him lose interest in the alcohol for the evening.]
Reply
*Though he was really only learning them for personal benefit. The 'i'm helping' coaxing for that, then, fell on deaf ears...so to speak. Aside from wanting to learn Anna's language, it was pure selfishness that prompted him to not have to translate things to text or to want to understand people in the halls speaking other languages.
The other line of coaxing was working a bit better. He wasn't cheering up all that much, but he was moving to a more even keel instead of being depressed.*
I'm studying German right now. I'm not very good at it yet.
*He returns to the alcohol, though, taking another swig. The habit of doing so was so ingrained by now, it may take conscious effort to stop with an open bottle just right there.*
Reply
Not everyone takes to languages as well as others, it's true. Whether we want to be grateful or not, it's a good thing the communicators translate as much as they do.
[She felt the depression ease in his mind as her own blanket of calm helped, feeling him far more receptive to those thoughts than the idea of helping. She wouldn't make him accept the thoughts, though she'd been capable of such things in her own world. She had only ever done so to a man that needed a punishment equal to his crime, locking him into a loop of emotions directly taken from the mind of his victim. Though this would be a helpful alternative to the punishment, she still did not prefer to force thoughts on anyone.]
German? I can't say I know it at all, so you are already far more versed in it than I.
[She offers him a smile at that, taking the bottle again as he finishes his swig. It doesn't burn anymore going down, and now there is a steady warmth having spread through her body. She knew why people turned to alcohol for relief, and had seen more than her fair share of it in the past; whether other Heralds or citizens of Valdemar. It was risky business, trying to halt someone from drinking, particularly when she had just gotten him calmed down enough to talk. She wasn't sure what he was like when he drank, so it was best to play it safe.
On the positive side, the bottle was on its way to being finished; by both of them. In the end, she would stay sober enough to bring him back to his room if needed. ]
I'm Talia. You're ... Marco, yes?
Reply
Mm...I hear it on the network with some regularity, so I figured I'd try it. I'm not sure how long it will take me to get it down.
*He takes another swig from the bottle then rests his head against the railing. He was calming down, so he was starting to get sleepy again. But the idea of sleeping sent another wave of fear, and thus another wave of depression, through him. He sighed, trying to move his train of thought onto something more pleasant.*
Yeah. Nice to meet you. You're...Vanyel's friend? Or from his world?
Reply
Yes, I am .. and we are, though at different points in its history. It was .. interesting .. meeting him in person when I've only ever read of him in history texts.
Reply
Marco really does not want to sleep, but sometimes just passing out keeps the dreams away. He sits up and takes another swig of the alcohol, calming a bit but perhaps not how she had intended.*
I bet it must be. No one from my world is here, but some of the settings--hell, this whole place, really--are similar to ones I'd find in fiction back home.
Reply
However, unless his life was at risk she would do no such thing without permission. Not everyone took kindly to empaths or their ability to do things to the mind. In truth, very few people were at all accepting of those with such Gifts.
She nods, though, a smile quirking her lips before falling back into a neutral expression.]
What sort of a world do you come from? [Her tone is curious as she looks at him. She is not meaning to spiral him into a depression again, but is merely curious. She hopes that it's a broad enough range that he feels free to speak about anything he chooses and not cornered to speak about what he doesn't.]
Reply
*Talk about home was odd. It was still 'normal' to him, so he was at a loss to explain it.
It did manage to distract him from the issue of sleeping, though. As long as he didn't go into (parts of) his life, this subject was fine. Not happy, but not sad.*
No magic...or none as far as I knew. I'm not so sure anymore.
Reply
We had no such things on my world as all of that .. these 'electrical' objects are a marvel to be reckoned with. I had never seen such before coming here and have scarcely figured out how to use most of them.
There are days I might think that having the option to trade for your technology would be most .. enlightening.
Magic was everywhere on my world, although it was weaker than it had been in the past. It was always there if you knew where to look and how to use it, and even if you were not so Gifted, there were those that were. Perhaps there was latent magic on your world that was yet to be tapped into?
Reply
*Its not really out of niceness that he offers this. It gives him something to do, and the possibility of making allies (or having someone owe him a favour) was always useful to Marco.*
Its possible. There were some weird things, but I don't know if any where magic or not. I'm not really sure what here's magic unless people tell me. The stuff here we don't have could just be technology we don't have at home yet...or it could be magic. The things that seem like technology to me might be magic as well.
*He shrugs. There were so many questions this place brought up. It was beyond frustrating.*
I don't know if we'll ever know.
Reply
[She's not literal in that, as she's smiling at the end, but she is afraid of doing things wrong. Electronics seemed so terribly involved next to magic and the simpler things of her world. She listens to him as he describes magic versus technology and nods once, lifting the bottle a final time to her lips. She swallows slowly, a rather fluid like warmth settled throughout her body by this point.]
It's true that this place makes it all the more difficult to discern the difference between what is magical and what is not. Things are far more advanced here than they ever were in my world, so, to a degree a civilian might think it all magical. I certainly was .. not expecting that creature in the medical bay. The AMU, I believe? [She shakes her head, her expression matching her tone. No, she didn't care for that thing at all, thanks very much.]
Reply
*He figures she isn't being fully literal, but he wanted to add that in too. Marco's not certain the ship is indestructible, but the fact that its still around seems to say it might be.
When she puts the bottle down and picks it up and finishes it off, then drops the empty bottle down to the 'ocean.'*
We don't have anything like AMU where I'm from either. Doctors use some technology, but its still people doing it. But I think most people are shocked by that thing somehow.
Reply
Well, that's a relief anyway.
[She watches him as he polishes off the last of the bottle before tossing its empty shell into the ocean they ride atop. She shivers as he talks about AMU, shaking her head once.]
It was .. surprising .. to say the very least. We have healers on my world .. and basic medical attention for the field and such .. but no. Nothing like that.
Reply
*He leans his head on the railing again.*
Did they heal with magic in your world?
Reply
Leave a comment