Lady Dowsabel Encarnacion Acacia Marais (ladyacacia) wrote in magitechnica, @ 2017-01-10 10:08:00 |
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War was pretty happy when the switch out occurred. Being arrested was one thing, but having to spend more time with Brother McCreepypants wasn’t on his list of favorite activities. But he could most certainly handle a little alone time with the Lady. If absolutely nothing else she was very easy on the eyes, and he was guessing his view wasn’t going to be all that great when he was thrown into a dungeon. If his surroundings were any indication, he was forced to assume that he was going to be accommodated in a dank, dark cell like he’d seen in movies. When she got in, he smiled at her, and gave her a nod. “My Lady,” he greeted, as if he weren’t clinking with irons around his wrists. Like he wasn’t being arrested, and carted off to who knew where to be interrogated for answers he was happy to give but was pretty positive no one was really going to understand. He barely understood it. “You’re rather positive,” Acacia observed, twitching her skirts into place from long practice although she looked a little wide-eyed at being unceremoniously hustled into the carriage once they had dropped off the Brother. She had been eager to get to talk to Warren, but now they were alone without a street full of people observing them and putting their interactions practically on a stage. She laced her fingers together in her lap, willing them to be still. What did she have to worry about? Guards were driving the carriage, and Warren bore manacles over his wrists. At the reminder, her eyes dropped to the restraints and she winced, her demeanor changing. “I am sorry about the manacles,” she offered, more kindly than before. “You have to know that the Princess must keep up appearances, and….you did take out several rooftops and injured townspeople. They don’t usually find it in themselves to be friendly when that occurs.” “It's a gift,” Warren told her to the being positive thing. He smiled. “Takes a lot to bring me down,” he admitted. Now that he was thinking more clearly and wasn't suffering from a concussion, he was able to focus better on her, which turned out to be a very nice view. Not that that was the only thing he noted about her. Just a little eye candy in the face of everything going on wasn't anything to be upset about. He chuckled. “Not your fault, Cass,” he told her. “You didn't slap them on me. And yeah, I know. I had actually figured I'd be facing down arrest before any of you guys did. Not my first rodeo, sadly. Seems only fair that I'd get pinched for breaking the city and hurting people. I'm just glad no one died.” And that was true. For all his amused demeanor, he was genuinely glad that no one had died, that everyone was tended to with apparently magic, so they should all be fine. He wouldn't have dealt spectacularly well if anyone had actually gone down with his pod's unfortunate trajectory. “So what's your story?” he asked, speaking to her like he wasn't being carted off to a dungeon. They could have met at a bar for the tone he was using and the relaxed posture he was adopting. Listening, Acacia seemed to be studying him as much as taking in his words, weighing the way he spoke. “You sound so….strange,” she admitted, then one side of her mouth quirked up in a smile. “You must be rather powerful where you come from, because most people wouldn’t immediately devolve to calling me ‘Cass’ as if we were old friends. You are taking a chance being so informal. I would caution you not to do the same with the Princess…..or just about anyone else who comes to question you.” It was sound advice, although she didn’t seem overly bothered at the nickname, just perplexed. “My story? I assure you, it’s quite boring.” That was said with a small roll of her eyes, before she sat a bit forward, perching on the edge of the seat. “Besides, what does that matter? I want to know where you come from. What metal was that pod made out of? I’ve never seen it’s like. And your crew? What’s an ‘engine room’? Or...or a ‘rodeo’?” she added, as she sifted through his words. “What part of Terociel do you come from? I’ve not been across the sea, myself. It must be wondrous…” She tried to stem the flow of words but it was near impossible. Now that they weren’t in front of a crowd, she felt more relaxed, felt as if she could find out more about him. He was quite handsome, and he looked human, like herself, although more fair than she was, more like the royal family. Was he a royal where he’d come from? Somehow that seemed impertinent to ask. Warren gave her an entirely untrustworthy grin for a second. “I just like nicknaming people,” he told her. “Means I have something with someone that other people don't,” he admitted. Which was actually why he enjoyed the practice. It was just a small thing and subtle, but it did give a little extra layer of familiarity between himself and others. “See, I have the same reason to want to know all your details,” he told her. “I'm a space traveler, who landed somewhere he shouldn't be, so yeah, your story is interesting to me.” That was truthful. He was less interested in a full history lesson of the world than he was in history lessons on individuals. But then Warren had always been like that. He always focused on people around him, as opposed to worrying so much about the bigger picture. As he answered, he ticked things off on his fingers. “A planet far far away, I'm guessing the name wouldn't mean anything to you. I have no idea what the pod is made out of, that's not my department. My crew – I was on a ship. One that flies around up there,” he said, gesturing to the sky. “Among the stars,” he added, so there wasn't more confusion there than there had to be. “So, the people on it were my crew. Or, not mine, it's not like I'm a captain. I was just part of the security team.” He had to smile at her and her curiosity. It was kind of adorable, and thus he didn't actually mind answering it all. “An engine room is where they keep the engine, which is what keeps the ship in the sky. A rodeo – it's a custom where people attempt to ride untamed livestock. It's weird don't worry about it,” he said. “Now, if you'll indulge me with your story?” he asked. “I'll even say pretty please if you want.” Raising one eyebrow, Acacia replied, “Are you purposefully mocking me? A ship that flies among the stars?” She almost looked…..disappointed, like she had expected a truth and instead had been lied to. “I realize I am just a lady in Her Highness’ court, but I’m not an idiot, Warren.” Just like everyone else….underestimating her because she was young, giving her pet names, talking down to her. How could one travel among the stars themselves? She’d studied astronomy, just as any noble child did, and could even navigate to a degree, but he was going too far. “How could a ship fly through the sky, much less the stars? You are speaking of magic. If you think we don’t understand that much, then you are wrong. Perhaps I don’t study it, but we do use magic quite extensively here. If you are from a place past the elven lands, you could simply say so.” She moved back, a little more primly now, feeling somewhat diminished by his glib answer. Perhaps he didn’t want to tell her the truth. She owed it to her princess to try, but it pricked at her a little. “I don’t think I should give you any of my story until you are more direct with me, Warren.” Warren shook his head. “I'm not mocking you,” he told her first. “And also fuck the archaic world view that women are second class citizens, or that you're 'just' anything. I don't think you're an idiot, in fact, I'd wager that you're a hell of a lot smarter than people assume you are. And they're dicks who don't deserve your time,” he continued. He paused, lining his thoughts back up in a different order, so he could get this out there hopefully in a way she understood as truth instead of assuming he was lying. “Okay I'll get to the real basics. I'm not from here. I'm from another planet. Now, I get that that isn't something that happens here. Magic is something that doesn't happen where I'm from. Magic seems like total fiction to me. But I just saw some work, so I have to at least take it on some faith that here, the rules I knew to be true in my life aren't true here. All I ask is you do the same. Just because you don't know something is possible doesn't mean it isn't.” Warren kept his eyes on her for a long, long moment. “Okay, do me a favor and think about the night sky,” he prompted. “Think of all of those stars out there. Do you, logically speaking, taking all fantastical elements out of it, believe that, even with just a numbers game, that there's zero life out there on other planets? It's a statistical impossibility that your planet is the only one that's developed life. So, suspend your disbelief for a moment. If there's life, why can't there be other planets out there that developed different technology than you did? You guys have magic, we have science. To be totally honest with you, to me they seem a lot like the same thing.” He leaned forward, propping his forearms on his thighs, ducking his head to capture eye contact. “I'm not lying to you. I have no reason to. Hell, right now? It's in my best interest to tell the truth, I've already been arrested. I'm positive that your goal is to get information out of me to tell the Princess about later.” Acacia had opened her mouth to protest, mostly about his opinion on magic (his language didn’t even register), but she closed it again so she could listen, truly listen. As he mentioned the night sky, she nodded slightly, keeping as open a mind as possible. She had to ignore the chiding voice at the back of her mind warning her that he was little more than a charlatan, preying on an impressionable girl. That pod wasn’t something one sees every day, she reminded herself, firmly. Finally, she admitted, carefully, “I….serve the Princess, so yes, I will be telling her everything. But…” Much of what he described made sense, if she accepted the near impossible-sounding nature of it. Acacia let her gaze drop to his clothes, examining each detail now in frank clarity, a very forward activity that she wouldn’t have dared before. It was an open perusal, but not salacious….she cataloged all the differences, the unusual weave, the foreign nature of it, before she looked back up to his face. “If….if you are from so far away, what made you travel? Why do your people journey among the stars? What happened to your home?” She owed it to the princess and the royal family to remain suspicious, to treat everything carefully because their safety was paramount. But she was possessed of such large curiosity. She wanted to know more about Warren and his people, and….she couldn’t believe she was thinking this, but about the kind of people who were magical enough to go among the stars themselves. He let her take in the details of him without comment, not rushing her, because it definitely helped strengthen his argument. The only thing he could have done that he didn't was show her his communicator and how it worked. That was sort of his only ace in the hole at the moment. He didn't want to give it away because he didn't want to get it taken off of him. “Everyone's got their own reasons,” he said. “Some people wanted to see distant places, some people hate where they're from, me? I was sort of not given that much of a choice in the matter. Got into a spot of trouble back home and it was get on the first ship that would take me, or probably a nice shiny casket. But we're not all from the same place. Or, I guess in the grand scheme of things, we were. But we're from different planets, colonized by one main one that we most definitely fucked up. I'm from one of the colonized places. But...yeah. Why does anyone travel? Everyone has their own motives. Can't answer for anyone but myself.” He smiled at her. “What's it like having to answer to the men wandering around that seem to look down their nose at you like you aren't intelligent enough to not only get exactly what they're saying, but run circles around them mentally?” he asked. “Unless I'm wrong about that, and it was just that slime ball back at the crash site...” At least his reasoning she easily understood. How did it differ from those she knew in her own life, who longed to escape drudgery, or wished to escape prison, or simply wanted to see the world? She thought of Corran and Cerdric, who were endlessly exploring the lands outside Nova Sanco (and entirely ignoring that perhaps people missed them), and how Calpurnia ached to do much the same, if only because she had no outlets of her own. Or Ulric, who would hate doing so but might jump on any ship if it kept him from the guards and their manacles….quite honestly, Acacia expected that if any of them had the opportunity, they would certainly walk onto a ship bound for the stars. And unexpectedly, it caused sadness to swirl through her heart, a small pang. She didn’t like being bound to Nova Sanco all the time, but she loved Terociel, and the people, and everything that went along with it. She wasn’t sure that she would leave, given the chance. “That ‘slime ball’,” she responded, tucking away the first part of his response, “is Brother Anatoleas Vaste.” Her lips twitched in what might have been a small smile, although she tried to school it. “He’s a cleric at the High Temple, and he has been teaching Her Highness for some time now. He’s quite adept; he did heal you, after all,” she added, pointedly. “And it is the nature of men, in my experience.” This time, the look she gave him was rather arch. “Can you tell me it’s not the same where you come from? Honestly, some of that is because I serve in the royal household.” Still, Acacia had to admit, uncomfortably, that most males in her acquaintance did treat even Calpurnia that way, although the princess went out of her way to cultivate a lazy and lackadaisical appearance to further it. “And truly, what does that have to do with your falling from the sky?” Nothing, other than satisfy his curiosity about her. At the same time, she could not ignore what he’d told her. He had gotten into a spot of trouble. Reluctantly, she said, “Warren, I don’t mind answering these questions myself, but as I said before, I serve Her Highness. You…..if you are a criminal in your world, and you pose any danger to her…” It was not a look that promised retribution. It was instead, a look that said, she didn’t wish for this to be the case. (in progress) |