Difference between revisions of "2020-09-22 - The Continuing Adventures"

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Please be as detailed as possible with your answers.
 
Please be as detailed as possible with your answers.
 
   
 
   
Name:
+
Name:<br />
Date of Birth:
+
Date of Birth:<br />
Universe of Origin:
+
Universe of Origin:<br />
 
   
 
   
 
If you cannot provide a name or designation for your Universe of Origin, please consider what might be unique about your history so that we can properly narrow down which reality you call home. For the sake of multiversal harmony, please refrain from descriptors such as "Universe One" or "Universe Prime". While it is completely normal to refer to one's own home as the "original", it does not make it easy for everyone else to catalogue. Exceptions have been made in the case of the universe containing superheroes such as "Superman" as the literal nature of their reality exists as fragments of a primary universe with additional universes which splinter off from it. (See database entry 12-011274-DC for more information about this universe)
 
If you cannot provide a name or designation for your Universe of Origin, please consider what might be unique about your history so that we can properly narrow down which reality you call home. For the sake of multiversal harmony, please refrain from descriptors such as "Universe One" or "Universe Prime". While it is completely normal to refer to one's own home as the "original", it does not make it easy for everyone else to catalogue. Exceptions have been made in the case of the universe containing superheroes such as "Superman" as the literal nature of their reality exists as fragments of a primary universe with additional universes which splinter off from it. (See database entry 12-011274-DC for more information about this universe)
 
   
 
   
Century you hail from:
+
Century you hail from:<br />
Largest Active Governmental Power:
+
Largest Active Governmental Power:<br />
Most recent technological discovery:
+
Most recent technological discovery:<br />
 
Force of Local Gravity:</code>
 
Force of Local Gravity:</code>
  

Revision as of 08:50, 28 September 2020


The Continuing Adventures

Summary: Yoiko Hax finally resurfaces proper since heading off into space. Time for a tour of the upcoming space area with a few surprises.



Who: Liyara, Yoiko Hax
When: September 22nd, 2020
Where: Outpost 17


Liyara-icon.gifYoiko Hax-icon.gif

The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC).
This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved.

Questions should be directed to staff.


Space. The Final Frontier. These are the voyages of someone else. Commander Yoiko Hax stares at the transporter terminal in front of her. A solid black console covered with lights edged in a deep red metal. For the past few months she's done almost nothing but work and now that things are nearly complete she wanted to reach out to the last friend she'd made before leaving Twisted, and maybe if she was lucky it'd become something more than that. The engineer bites her lip, reminding herself that she was effectively drunk for the chemical imbalance of being inside SEH-01 and those feelings might be nothing more than a side effect. Still.

Of course the next problem was that she had no way of contacting Liyara. She should probably beam down herself and offer to bring her up but nervous anxiety has kept her staring at the console for the past few minutes. There's only one life sign putting out a signature that could possibly be Dragonic at the moment. That must be her, right?

Oh, wait! What about beaming down a communicator?


As is her way, Liyara is spending her day deep in contemplation of life, the universe, and food. Truthfully, it's mostly the last one right now - she finally got down to the P section in the Usual Restaurant's menu, and they told her she would have to take her Plesiosaurus Ribs to go. She was, at first, offended, but when they explained it simply wouldn't fit in the dining area, she was elated and took it to the park.

She's downed three ribs so far. Today is a good day.

She's just reaching for one of her rings, when a small, unfamiliar device appears beside her. She blinks at it for a moment - and then recognizes it from the research she did after Yoiko left. Most people she meets on Twisted are very hard to dig up information on, but there is no universe where Trekkies are not a thing, apparently. She stares at the communicator like it is a foreign object. "But I *gave her* a sending fork." Liyara's tail twitches, and then she blinks and has a realization. She drives her palm into her forehead with a sigh, and then cleans herself up, which amounts to literally just incinerating all foreign debris from her body in a blazing ball of flame. Poor grass.

"*Booweep*... ... How do they do it again... ... ... Oh. It's on? *Ahem* Liyara to Hax. Go ahead." Smooth.


While there's no video on the standard issue communicator, Liyara can probably see the shock on her face from the reaction to that greeting. The Trill woman stumbles over her words trying to get back what little cool she'd managed to build. (In her own head at least)

"Um. Wow. Uh, y-yeah. How are you?" Luckily no one can see how much she just cringed from that. She waits a moment before continuing.

"So, uh. I promised a tour of the station once we got things mostly in order. How'd you like to see my world for a change? I could beam you up right now if that's alright with you." She pauses again to ponder, what if she said no? Yoiko rubs her eyes, cursing herself inwardly. This is not her finest hour.


There's a brief pause as Liyara hears the response, and then shrugs. Well, it's not like she was entirely non-plussed to see an object teleport nearby, she can forgive Miss Starfleet for being surprised to get a quick response. "A tour?" She thinks on that for a heartbeat, and then looks down at her (perfect) dress. Well, this won't do in that strangely repressed-yet-sexualized workplace she saw on the internet. Too sexy and yet somehow not enough leg.

With but a gesture, Liyara's dress transforms into a very close approximation of the female medical officer uniforms she saw when she was watching what the fans dubbed "TOS" earlier. She twirls about, checking herself out in the sort of way that only narcissists and perfect 10s do, and then debates for a moment before deciding to go with the single golden braid to indicate a lieutenant. She had thought about going Commodore, but even Liyara has limits to which she'll push propriety for a joke. "...That sounds lovely. What is it you starfleet folk say?" She thinks for a moment, and then grins just a bit, deciding that maybe she should push it just a bit further.

She cricks her neck, and folds her wings in along her back before curling her tail up around one leg. She stretches her arms out, and a golden flash envelops her. When it subsides, her tail and wings are missing, and her horns are hidden by an up-do that is positively retro; and exactly appropriate for the era of the show she's seen. "...Ah yes. Beam me up." One perfectly normal human with perhaps insanely vibrant green eyes to beam up, please.

This will end well.


By now the hum and light show of a transporter beam is engraved in our collective subconscious, but for the sake of mental imagery a shower of light comes pouring down from above Liyara. Brilliant specks of light that fall and hum, passing through her limbs but not quite coming in contact with the ground itself. Each one is electrifying sending tiny little pleasant tingles across her flesh and deep down into her very soul itself. It only takes seconds before her vision will be completely filled with the waterfall of light and only a few seconds more it'll fade away leaving Liyara standing on the other side of the mirror. If she did her homework she'll feel right at home, except instead of cheap plaster everything is metal or an approximation of concrete. The colors are spot on though. Everything is primary colors. Red, blue, yellow

Yoiko Hax stands at the transporter console with her head tilted to the side and a brow raised at the clothes Liyara has chosen to wear. The Commander herself is wearing a red tunic with a badge that resembles a starburst with the black silhouette of the station in the center. Despite her first thought she chose to wear black work pants instead of a skirt. Really it was up to a coin flip.

"Welcome aboard" She shakes her head slowly, "Lieutenant." The spotted woman crosses her arms, and tries her best to hide her smirk, "I see you served on the Enterprise." Everyone always assumes that badge is just the default, don't they? Luckily Yoiko's delt with a Trekkie or two on Twisted herself. "Good job on the uniform though. Just don't go trying to pretend you work here or the Station Commander will absolutely find a place for you."


[H17] Transporter Room

Situated in a D shaped room is a large platform with six glowing disks with large lights hanging down over said disks. New arrivals will find themselves arriving in a swirling cascade of light atop these disks. The rest of the platform is carpeted in a functional soft red with a large reflective screen on the curved wall behind it. Across from the platform is a console where a red shirted officer is generally stationed. It's trimmed in red gleaming metal and on the operator's side is dozens of shiny buttons of multiple colors over solid black panels. The wall behind it, the curved part of the D shape, has two doors. One easily accessible from this side and another visible through a glass covered observation room on the right.


"..." Liyara looks around at the transporter room as the cascading tresses of light fall away, and then she glances down at herself, doing some mental calculus - the elemental equivalent of a crc check - to ensure that her soul and the rest of her did in fact make it. They may be intelligent humans, but they don't believe in magic so who knows what they could have overlooked in the interest of expediency? Once satisfied, she nods to herself and looks over to Yoiko. She offers a tiny smirk, herself as she's called out, and shrugs. "...Spur of the moment decision." She spins around slowly, showing off the lack of tail and wings, and then grins broadly as she comes back around.

"Tempting though the idea may be to play pretend, I save that for cons and trysts." She lets the space of a single heartbeat fill the air before she continues. "And this isn't a con, at the very least." She'll just float that implication in the air, no problem, but she breezes out of the teleporter pad quickly - not entirely comfortable with the device in spite of how effectively it worked. Not that she'd ever admit discomfort. She's royalty. They don't GET uncomfortable. They have people to do that for them.

Well. She did, anyway. Before that bardic tart and her banishment.

Focus, Liyara. "So... is this already in wi-- in space?" She gives a tiny hop once she's off the pad, testing the gravity.


The gravity should be almost the same as on Twisted. It would be exactly the same if she hadn't trusted the calibrating to Ensign MacGregor but that's a story for another time. She's not going to be his boss for much longer anyways, she'll just outrank him by a significant margin. Anyways, Yoiko can't help but grin at the question which she answers by stepping out of the doorway and into the hallway outside, assuming Liyara will follow.

The view was built for travelers on purpose as the outer wall of the hall is simply a massive window looking out on the weirdly broken space that is the Hideki Sector. Her arms still crossed, Yoiko simply leans against the wall by the door and lets the view speak for itself. At least for a minute or two.

"Normally space isn't quite so artsy, but is anything normal when it comes to Twisted?" Clouds of purple and blue swirl amidst the stars and strange striped planets can be seen in the far distance. At random intervals jagged blackness seems to be ripped out of the fabric of space itself but in reality that's normal space behind the effect of the disturbance. Eventually the Commander will motion for her friend to follow and walk around to the far side of the deck where a swirling darkness spins slowly beyond the windows seeming to engulf everything around it.

"Looks a bit different from this side, doesn't it?"


[H17] Deck 8

Welcome to Outpost 17 - Hideki Station. Deck 8 is the first place travelers who find themselves here will see. A circular hallway surrounds the main rooms on this deck while three long docking platforms extend out like spokes for ships to connect and walk on board. The inside of the deck features three doors spaced evenly along the circular hall. One is clearly labeled 'Transporter Room' while another beside it is marked 'Observation Room' which allows for people to stand and see people beaming in and out without being in the way. On the opposite side of the deck is a door marked 'Security'. Its purpose should be fairly obvious. Directly across from both the security room and the transporter room are two doors on the outside of the deck which open to the two turbolifts that take travelers up and down to other decks.


Without any further comment, Liyara follows Yoiko out of the transporter room, preparing to press her luck with some more teasing commentary. This desire mostly gets lost in the view, which provokes quite a reaction from Liyara. Visually, anyway. All that comes out of her mouth is "Oh." But the fact that she's staring and not mouthing off is a pretty potent side effect; in fact, has she ever shut up before?

The answer is actually no. For the curious.

A full, solid minute passes before Liyara remembers that she is, in fact, dignified and important. "Interesting..." Liyara attempts to snatch her composure back from the void, and returns her gaze to Yoiko after letting it wander for just a moment longer on the magnificence that lies outside - and her eyes lid as she turns some of that smoldering intensity on the Trill. It's fun! And she's hopeful it might still work on Yoiko; that ... ornery... doctor had implied that the Trill woman had been drunk for going on a year straight. It's hard to tell how much of their original encounter was chemistry versus... well... *Chemistry*.

"...I expected a naked singularity, if I'm being honest - this view is MUCH prettier." And no phlogiston in sight! She could actually go out there! ...Well, probably not RIGHT there.

Of course, she was looking at Yoiko when she said that, so it would be pretty easy to misinterpret - and Liyara wouldn't know anything about that, nope.

Not.

At.

All.


Yoiko might not give the reaction Liyara was hoping for, but internally it worked perfectly. Instead though she gives a cat-like grin that lasts only a moment before fading away with a glance out the window at the monster vortex devouring the universe outside. "I'll be honest, it scares the hell out of me sometimes." She shivers slightly, her arms still crossed almost like she's hugging herself. "To think my baby was trapped in the maw that beast while I ran around playing." She refers to her ship of course, not that it shouldn't have been obvious. "So get this. My Captain is now in charge of this station, meaning the Vesuvius's first officer is now her new captain." There's that grin again. Her eyes fall back on the dragon woman, "Soon as the station is 100% operational it'll be Captain Yoiko Hax." Obviously there's pride in her words. "I don't think I'll look as good in yellow as I do in red though." This time she's just fishing for a compliment. She's nervous but she's excited.


"Well..." Liyara glances back outside when Yoiko practically prompts her to. "...It *is* slowly swallowing all time and space, yes? You're allowed a little fear." She turns back to the blonde woman with a grin and a playful tone to her words. "...But I'm here now, so you're safe." Sure - a reality-devouring half-shattered black hole is scary - but there's a dragon now, so things are just hunky-dory! That's how that works, right?

Liyara stretches her arms out behind her, and one can almost *feel* her sense of emptiness as no wings stretch out with them. She glances back over her shoulder at where they would be with some sadness visible on her features. Even her vivid green eyes seem to dim a bit, going from practically-glowing to 'only' brilliant.

"...I expected a half-dragon surprisingly stalking your corridors might not be well-received." The red-haired totally-not-a-lizard offers a smile after the words leave her mouth, so they're probably not intended as an insult against the Federation or anything like that. "...Plus you can't twirl and be decent in these skirts if you have a tail." And twirling is a priority - apparently.


Finally Yoiko lets out a laugh at that, "You think we'd set up a station like this and invite people to come up if they didn't expect them to look different?" That makes her remember something and abruptly she winces, "Crap." Since they're already on the opposite side of the deck she gestures for the woman to wait and darts inside a door marked 'Security'. A moment later she comes back with a black slate with a glowing screen on it and offers the hulking thing and what resembles a pen to Liyara. "Sorry, I forgot this is a thing we're going to have to do now." On the screen is a display that resembles papers with far too much text on it.

Greetings and welcome aboard Deep Space Outpost 17. An extension of the United Federation of Planets, Outpost 17, has been relocated to the Hideki Sector to help facilitate intelligent beings who have found themselves relocated due to the unique properties of this region of space. Whether your stay is temporary or extended we would like to take this opportunity to learn about your culture and species to better accommodate your time here and to create a record of your visit so that you are free to travel beyond this sector should you decide to explore our shared universe.

Please be as detailed as possible with your answers.

Name:
Date of Birth:
Universe of Origin:

If you cannot provide a name or designation for your Universe of Origin, please consider what might be unique about your history so that we can properly narrow down which reality you call home. For the sake of multiversal harmony, please refrain from descriptors such as "Universe One" or "Universe Prime". While it is completely normal to refer to one's own home as the "original", it does not make it easy for everyone else to catalogue. Exceptions have been made in the case of the universe containing superheroes such as "Superman" as the literal nature of their reality exists as fragments of a primary universe with additional universes which splinter off from it. (See database entry 12-011274-DC for more information about this universe)

Century you hail from:
Largest Active Governmental Power:
Most recent technological discovery:
Force of Local Gravity:

...and so on. "Like I was saying, we're expecting to meet new races. There's just a bit of paperwork that comes with it." She smiles apologetically. "We can do this later if you'd prefer. Maybe somewhere more comfortable?" Why wouldn't a hallway with a giant window looking out over a cataclysmic singularity be comfortable?


One might expect someone as self-important and overbearing as Liyara to huff in irritation when presented with *paperwork*, but she actually flashes a positively radiant smile when she sees the paperwork, as if privy to a lovely joke. "...Ah. The hallmarks of human civilization at last." She's about to launch into a litany of remarks detailing how bad humans are at things like naming and civilization, perhaps let Yoiko hear a bit of the "they named their planet 'dirt'!" diatribe she's come to be known for.

Thankfully for them both, Liyara remembers that she likes Yoiko, and decides to let it pass. Instead, she focuses on the woman's words. "You have places MORE comfortable than this?" Liyara turns back and starts walking towards the window-wall at quite a clip. "...I'd be inclined to disbelieve you, were it coming from anyone else." Oh, so she trusts Yoiko some, does she? Good to know. Say, is she going to slow down? That window is really well-cleaned, but it IS rather soli--

There's a tiny flash of golden fire, and Liyara is standing on the other side of the window. That is to say, she's just floating in space. She probably should have examined some readings somewhere to make sure the area outside the window isn't so massively gravitated as to crush a sun - but if it is she can take it at least long enough to bamf back in sheepishly. More important than that... SPACE! Oh... she has missed actual space. She stretches her arms wide again and appears to be taking in a breath, though she obviously couldn't be. There's nothing out there. She's insane! ... ... ... And not dead. Neat.


Yoiko was ABOUT to make a comment about going to her temporary quarters but before she can get out "Well..." Liyara is gone. It takes her a moment to look out the window because WHO THE FUCK WOULD JUST JUMP OUT INTO SPACE LIKE THAT?! And the look on her face pretty much resembles that remark the moment she notices. Her jaw hangs open as she stares but the moment she realizes Liyara is fine her expression changes to amusement and then the dawning of an idea crosses her mind. With a devilish grin she knocks on the glass and points down before rushing down the hallway and out of sight. Below them is a large hangar for ships with an open doorway protected by a shimmering forcefield of light.

Yoiko meanwhile, darts into a turbolift and rushes down to the hangar deck, bumping a few working redshirts forcing her to jog backwards to yell out an apology or two before running to the edge of the forcefield herself and motioning for the living contradiction of their sciences to come down and join her. Needless to say more than a few people start to slowly make their way over to see what all the commotion is about and at least one silver-shirted cadet drops the tool in their hand to stare blankly.


[H17] Hangar Deck

The Hangar Deck is a large open area for small craft to enter and dock and usually at least a few ships are already here. Many are being worked on by crews but generally as long as they have permission to be here no one messes with anything they shouldn't. Instead of a door for the ships to come and go, a large shimmering forcefield protects people from decompression.

While Starfleet itself doesn't have the technology to create a forcefield that doesn't have to be dropped before ships can enter, they do have enough friends in this region of space to have one built for them. (Luckily for the sake of RP this is the easier option.) A set of stairs goes up around the rear wall of the hangar to a smaller second floor that has a large control room and observation window to oversee craft coming and going. At the rear of that room is the turbolift entrance that allows people to visit the rest of the station.

For the record, only one turbolift can actually go all the way down to the Hangar Deck, but because turbolifts can move sideways as well as up and down it's entirely possible for either of them to come down here by switching shafts in the engineering deck. For the speed they travel at this takes a lot of fancy math people are probably better off not asking about.


Liyara completely misses Yoiko's dumbfounded expression, as the redhead is staring into space. And why wouldn't she? It's gorgeous, absolutely stunning in every way. She's dimly aware that humans generally can't join here out here, but it didn't really click as anything that would surprise or startle them to her; sometimes it's easy to lose perspective, especially if it's not YOUR perspective.

She turns back in time to see Yoiko thunking on the glass, which is good, because there is no air out here to carry the sound, and this form doesn't have any of the senses that would let her 'hear'. When she realizes this, she looks puzzled, but then notices Yoiko point below them before running off. She glances down, and tilts her head for a moment. Well, she hadn't intended to *fly* out here, but if she's going to, she might as well go big.

Scaled, golden wings stretch out behind the 'medical officer', beautiful things each almost half as large as she is. She actually shivers very slightly - not at anything as mundanely cold as a vacuum, but at the wonderful feeling of having something close to her actual wings again. It's positively...

Focus.

Right.

Liyara gives those wings a solid flap, and they send her traveling down along the hull of the station. She floats down into view of the entire hangar deck, where all the crews can see a fairly stunning red-haired 'lieutenant' descending towards the force-field at an acute angle that lets her face all of them without risking her modesty. As she sees Yoiko heading towards the forcefield, Liyara moves towards it a bit faster with another flap of those wings, and she folds them behind her as she reaches the field, where they promptly disappear. Neat trick.

The redhead slows as she approaches Yoiko's position, and places her hand on the forcefield, waiting for Yoiko's hand to join her on the other side. The fact that she could push through the field doesn't even occur to her - that's not how it works, right? She's seen Star Trek!(tm)


A few people clap as the future Captain takes her hand and pulls her onto the deck. More notably they pretty quickly get back to work as though nothing had happened. Save for the silver shirt wearing cadet who hasn't stopped staring and likely won't until someone yells at him for it.

Yoiko lets out a laugh once Liyara is safely on board again, "See?! Told you no one would care about the wings." She gives the deck a once over pausing to give the cadet 'The Look' before turning her attention back. At least one of her past lives had kids, after all. "I wish you'd have warned me though. I have some tech I would have loved to try out that might have let me tag along without a clunky space suit." It's no lie, inside she's actually pretty bummed about the idea. Things for them to try later, maybe.

"That's probably not a trick you can teach me, is it?"


"Ah!" It's Liyara's turn to be surprised as she's pulled straight through the forcefield and into pressurized space again. She calls out in surprise for a half second before landing on her feet properly, as if gravity were simply a function of which side of the field she was on. She lifts both eyebrows in surprise, her mouth hanging ever-so-slightly open, before she clears her throat. Before Yoiko can look back, Liyara's eyes are lidded, and she's giving the soon-to-be Captain a much more intent stare than before.

"...Sometimes I forget myself." She averts her eyes after a moment, and looks around to see everyone else has mostly moved on, except that embarrassed cadet. She trades a wink with him with just after Yoiko gives him a stern look. Truly, she is a terrible influence.

"As to teaching you, no, some inherent abilities are beyond the scope of my curriculum. Though I'd be happy to teach you some other things." She is wearing an easy grin that would just seem properly friendly if not for the slightly lidded eyes and the way she cocks her hips to one side. Flirt.


Yoiko flashes back a grin of her own as she tilts her head a second to gesture moving elsewhere. "I was going to offer the office in my quarters before you took off on your own so you could fill out that form. I didn't want you to be uncomfortable after all. I'm sure any lessons you teach me would be better off private?" Her bravado lasts long enough for her to catch a pair of raised brows from a lieutenant working on one of the shuttles causing her to laugh. "C'mon, let me actually show you around. I don't think you'd find the Engineering deck very interesting, so tell me. What sort of stuff WOULD interest you? There's a park on deck 5 in the middle of a mall, but most of it isn't opened up yet. The bar should be stocked though. I'd offer to take you up to the command deck but I'd rather avoid Jonathon right now if it's all the same. At least until I have to give my next report on the station status." She shrugs as she ponders more, "If you're hungry I know a few places?"


Both of Liyara's eyebrows shoot up when Yoiko suggests their lessons would be better off private, and she bites at her lip in a look that could be approval or amusement, but is probably both. She gives a rich laugh, and nods. "Offering to take a girl to your engineering deck, how scandalous." Except really not, around here. Seems like they defused that situation. Liyara pauses for a moment, and then furrows her brows and glances back at the ground where her tail should be swishing. "..." Human expression is so very limited. Oh well. She looks back to Yoiko.

"One thing I was never clear on - do you simply not have libraries?" Oh, one should probably keep her away from anything remotely resembling a library. Then again...

"And..." She lowers her voice conspiratorially, so that others cannot hear. "...I do believe you owe me dinner." Her green eyes pulse mischievously, actually and properly glowing for just a moment.


Yoiko lets out another laugh and motions for Liyara to follow her again, "I guess we're going to my quarters after all." Wait, what does that mean? Up a set of stairs that seems slightly out of place and down another hallway, she leads her friend to the double doors of a turbolift and steps inside. She grabs one of several grips along the walls and motions for her to do the same before speaking, "Deck 4." A hum resonates from the machinery but there's barely a sensation of movement before the humming stops and the doors slide open revealing a different location.

"Honestly, I just hate standing around somewhere where people can eavesdrop." Turning down yet another curved hallway, Yoiko walks a few doors down before one simply opens for her and she steps inside.

"Okay, so to answer your first question, yes we have libraries. But they're mostly stored digitally." She walks over to a small desk and turns a computer screen around for Liyara to see. Picking up a small yellow disk, she plugs it into a slot in the desk itself and the screen flashes up a logo that reads LIBRARY DATABASE. The Commander sits on the edge of the desk and presses a button along a strip built into the side of it. "Computer? Display information about the USS Vesuvius. NCC-1172." The screen comes to life rapidly showing off pages and pages of text before scrolling back to the first page and pausing. "We don't often use printed text these days so we don't need an actual room to store books. Anything you want to know about?"


Liyara is easily led, and she looks a bit surprised, mostly because she was starting to get the impression her charms weren't working until Yoiko confirmed they were heading to her quarters. Perhaps Trill are just really good at sending mixed signals? She actually didn't see anything about them anywhere, and found that uniquely frustrating - given that she had been able to look up incredibly obscure details. She knows what temperature and frequency plasma Verterium Cortenide needs to generate a warp field, but not so much as what a Trill actually is. How inanely frustrating.

But at least it allows Yoiko to provide her with a mystery - most things just open unto Liyara's perception with but a glance. Everyone gives in at first blush and trusts far too easy, and is remarkably shallow, bland, or unintelligent. Some of them are all three. Since arriving on Twisted she can count on one hand the number of people who don't fall into one of these categories. Maybe two if she counts the fire lions as people - which in her mind is a disservice to the pair.

By the time her thoughts finish mulling over, they enter Yoiko's quarters, and she looks around, nodding her understanding at the woman's reasoning. Not her incredible Charisma after all, then. Ah, well. The game was fun while it lasted. She looks to the screen as Yoiko calls up information about the Vesuvius, and when multiple pages scroll by at rapid-speed, she's watching. And apparently that's enough. "Named after an old Naval Vessel and a *Volcano*?" She raises an eyebrow. "...That's an interesting combination."

That information was solidly near the end of that rapidly scrolling wall of text. Did she tell Yoiko she can read that fast? Well. She knows now.

"What do I want to know about? Everything, I suppose, but I confess I wouldn't really know where to start." Ambitious!


Luckily for the sake of mystery the specific location of that information doesn't catch Yoiko's attention. Odds are she's never read the database entry for her ship after all, and why should she? She'd rather be working on her, not reading what someone else had to say about her.

"There's been a few ships named Vesuvius. It used to be an old Earth sailing vessel too. Humans really like carrying on names." Sometimes it might seem like she only separates herself from other species to remind people she's not one of them, but really it's just because no one else is around at the moment to hear it.

"If you decide to stick around for a while I can make sure you get one of the VIP suites on Deck 4, but really you can access the station's library from any terminal. Alternatively..." Yanking out the library disk, she walks over to a wall, pressing a concealed button and revealing a yellow door with slots underneath it. Inserting the disk into the slot she holds down a button and states, "Advanced Warp Field Mechanics Second Edition." A noise similar to the transporter resonates out of the wall a moment and as soon as it drops off she opens the door revealing a physical text book which she hands over to Liyara. "...we've got a fabrication lab which can replicate anything in the computer's library within reason. Normally we just use it for food preparation or clothing but sometimes it's just nice to hold a book in your hands."


"Yes, they do have odd habits regarding nomenclature!" Liyara chimes in, like Yoiko just mentioned they loved the same band or had the same favorite movie. "Bahamut's breath, I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one who noticed." Fortunately for her dignity and Yoiko's patience, she is cut off by the demonstration of what appears to be a spontaneously fabricated book. There's an actual laugh from her.

"Delightful!" She breezes over to Yoiko, the scent of smoke and cinnamon drifting on the air as she moves well into the commander's personal space, excited to look the book over. "Your machines can emulate 'fabricate'? I must have missed that detail." Well, they only had food and clothing synthesizers in what she saw - much less impressive than actual creation like this, according to her spell hierarchy.

The half-dragon starts flipping through pages without bothering to remove the book from Yoiko's hands, looking over each page with delight, but only spending enough time on each page for it to rest without motion before she moves on to the next. "Ah... it's a spatial distortion. Based on..." She flips through pages. "...Subspace displacement." Flip. Flip. Flip. "...So you ride a sort of tunnel at superluminal speeds, creating it ahead of you and collapsing it behind you." She picked up on that pretty quickly. She flips through a few more pages, but furrows her brow. "...How does this account for intertial mass?"

Asks the dragon.


The Engineer can't help but snicker at how fast Liyara picks up on information. "I wish my ensigns would catch on half as quick as you." She means that too. "We create a sort of bubble around the craft that keeps it stable and move along the contents of that bubble to keep everything inside stable. The benefit is that not only does it remove the need to worry about the integrity of the craft but it also reduces the amount of energy you need to push it along at whatever speed you're aiming for. The drawback is that your speed is directly proportionate to your energy use since if the warp field isn't stable it collapses around the ship and could rip it apart at the seams." Since her focus is now on the book in her hands, Yoiko takes out the library diskette and takes out a box of other data tapes. "Are you actually hungry or where you just reminding me I owe you a dinner?" She takes out a green one and puts it into the slot under the yellow door. "Cola." There's that sound again and then she pulls out a beverage out of the door and sips it. "It's not as good as the real thing but you get used to it."


"Magic brain." Liyara says simply, continuing to flip through pages until Yoiko leaves and Liyara has to actually hold the book properly. She practically stumbles, that's how focused she was on it. "So inertia isn't really a factor?" She pauses, and then taps her fingers on the book cover for a moment before closing it. "Hmm." She looks thoughtful.

Before explaining her thought process, Liyara takes a step back, stretching her arms out behind her and making a low, rumbling sound as two golden-scaled wings unfold from nowhere. They're the tiny ones she had when Yoiko first met her. "Ah. Even a short separation was too long. Welcome back, little ones." Both wings seem to flap in response, though realistically she's just testing them out. She looks pleased with herself, and gestures towards her outfit, which seems to melt back into the outfit she normally wears. Goodbye exposed thighs, hello cleavage. Somehow this is *more* sexual to these people - she will never understand them.

Now that her outfit is back, Liyara's tail drops onto the ground behind her, and she lets out a happy little sigh. "If I'm being honest, I am both hungry AND interested in reminding you. I don't encounter..." Her tail cricks and pops before swishing left and right. "...someone who holds my interest very often. Let alone who pulls me out of a black hole."

Well, let's be clear, how many times has she had to be pulled out of a black hole?

Serious question.


Pausing mid sip, Yoiko watches intently as Liyara shifts back to her usual attire and appearance. She almost forgets to swallow and coughs as she nearly inhales her drink literally. "Sorry." Yes, she's apologizing for nearly choking. That's what she does. Coughing once more, the woman leans back against the wall. "Well, do you want replicated food or the real thing? I'm pretty sure we could get better food in the promenade if you don't mind being around other people. Personally I'm fine here away from prying eyes." She gives a sly grin but then being secretive is actually just a part of who she is. There's a nervous glance at the door mid-sentence that would be easy to dismiss which illustrates this point well. But then again who would want to go into space just to stare at an ugly gray bulkhead?

"You're the one visiting so it's your call. Don't ask me to choose or I'll just keep you here for myself." Any slyness is lost as her brain connects food to forks and forks to well... Behind her desk mounted to the wall is a small safe which she opens from another series of nearly concealed buttons, taking out the tuning fork she was given when she left Twisted.

"Was this supposed to do something? All it seems to do is just give me a headache."


In a rare moment of perceptiveness, Liyara actually catches Yoiko staring, and her eyes blaze green for just a moment as if to say 'caught you!', but she doesn't drag that moment out any further. "While I'm sure your universe's 'other people' are quite nice, they're not the ones giving me the tour." She grins, and raises both eyebrows knowingly for just a moment.

"Besides - I wanted to ask you." She watches as Yoiko heads over to the desk, and from there to the wall. "The equations in that book seemed off to me," the dragon-woman begins, lifting a hand to her own chin and stroking it idly as she watches Yoiko reach inside the safe, "did it never occur to anyone to treat space as the thing that was moving?"

The question likely gets lost in what happens next, because it happens loud.

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Redmagetiny.png Oh Thank The D20, I Was Wondering If You Two Would Ever Stop Flirting And Get To Forking.

A young man's voice reverberates up the length of the tuning fork, through Yoiko's arm and into her ear drum, audible like normal speech to her, but not carried on the air like regular sound.

Liyara doesn't seem to notice. She shifts a little in her posture, though, and looks a bit uncomfortable. "Yes, sorry. It's ... like a communicator. You can use it to send messages to someone in another plane or dimension." She actually shifts from uncomfortable to plainly embarrassed. "I thought you'd figure it out. Sorry."


The blonde Trill woman visibly cringes at the intrusion into her thoughts, even if that term isn't exactly accurate. She looks down at the tuning fork, shaking it as if to cool something hot, and sets it down on the desk, pushing it slightly away. "So what? Anyone can just jump in and start being obnoxious?" She coughs lightly, still getting the sensation of her drink out of her lungs.

"Sorry, but something like that probably should have come with a manual." She shakes her head as if to clear away the intruding voice. "I wish I HAD known what it was." A blush creeps across her features, "At least then I wouldn't have felt so…" Somehow that blush deepens. "S-sorry. Just, it would have been nice to talk to someone who wasn't," Yoiko gestures around herself, "y-you know."


"No - it's a Tuning Fork of Far Sending; it just allows you to send messages to whomever you want, wherever they are." Liyara shifts a bit and adjusts her dress slightly. She's fidgety and embarrassed, which isn't like her, but then, she doesn't usually admit to making a mistake either. "They can respond, but otherwise, it's not like anyone can just send you messages whenever they want. You have to talk to them first." That sounds well and good, but then why did some guy just barge in on them?

Liyara heads over towards the desk, leaning against it for a moment, but she doesn't pick the fork up just yet. She's a bit too busy trying to look casual and elegant and dignified and pretty much everything BUT embarrassed. She manages well enough now, but hardly well enough to wipe away the last few seconds. "I come from a place so steeped in magic, anyone can figure it out after poking at it for a bit." She shrugs and averts her eyes, trying to now make it seem like it was a perfectly thought-out plan, and not some spur of the moment attempt to get Yoiko to stay in touch. "...I couldn't have known." She could've figured it out, had she been thinking.

The half-dragon sneaks a glance back up at Yoiko, noting the blush. "...Who wasn't...?" She trails off leadingly, and allows the hint of a smirk to retrace its way back onto her features.


Yoiko lets a mostly playful look of outrage play on her face, "HEY. I'm entirely from a society that believes that magic is just another version of science. If I'd known there was anything special about it, I would have figured it out sooner or later!" She crosses her arms, trying to look indignant but fails.

She starts to grin again until her words are reflected back at her, then that blush begins to creep back. "'Who wasn't,' y'know, -here-." She gestures towards the door with one hand. "This has been my life for so long and then it suddenly wasn't. Now that I'm back in the middle of it all again it's just" Yoiko turns and flops back into the bucket-chair behind her desk. "it's overwhelming."

The woman brushes her bangs out of her face and runs her fingers through her hair. "It used to be that everything was in its own little box. Then I get this symbiont inside me and life got complicated in ways I couldn't imagine, but I adapted. It might have cost me my best friend" She pouts a little, "my girlfriend" But a sigh and a shrug and she's back to her rant, "but that's just how things go." Picking her drink back up, Yoiko takes a hearty gulp. "And once I get my life back in order again, well. heeeere's Twisted."

She sets back down her drink on her desk again so she can cross her arms and let her head droop. Her blush returns beneath the falling of her hair over her features again. "It's just nice to connect to someone again who's not a part of everything."


Liyara's hands come up a hint defensively when Yoiko says she would have got it eventually. "I promise I had complete faith in you." And she did! It wasn't, you know, well-founded... but noone is perfect!

As she lowers her hands, her smirk grows into a slightly bigger smile. "I can take you away from here any time you want." There's a heartbeat before she inwardly blanches. The woman just talked about losing her girlfriend, and you just blatantly make the 'I can show you the world' speech, Liyara? Have some decorum!

Outwardly, she doesn't let that smile slip for a second. "If you find yourself getting too overwhelmed, of course." Of course. "I can sympathize - losing someone you care about can really shake up your whole foundation." The woman steps away from the desk and paces off to one side of the room for a moment, gesticulating wildly at the air. "How are you supposed to deal with all the responsibilities of the world when half of you is gone?" She turns back to Yoiko, looking just a hint incensed, but quickly gets it under control.

Never been there before. Nope.

"People say to take it slow, but the world keeps on spinning whether you're prepared or not." A beat. A slight blush of her own. "I imagine the metaphor works better when not on a space station."


This emo phase of the woman in red is broken immediately by the sound of her laughing. "No, no, no. Nuh-uh." She takes a beat to push her hair out of her face again, "First off no one is dead and that was a few years ago." She pushes herself to her feet again and moves to close whatever distance there is between herself and Liyara. "Secondly I'm trying to beat you over the head about the idea that I'm lonely, not suicidal."

Close enough to hug now, Yoiko lightly taps the dragoness in the shoulder. Maybe she's not being direct enough? "I like you." She lets that blatant statement hang in the air before offering a second version of her intentions. "Even if things just stay where they are now, I'm fine with that. You're not like 'them'." Now she takes a step back shifting her weight onto one leg. "We're both flatterers, as dangerous as that truly is, and we both look at humanity from the outside in our respective communities." Then she half turns to pick the tuning fork back up, "Even if I didn't figure it out, -this- means a lot to me."


Liyara looks a bit stricken at Yoiko's laugh, but only just for a moment. Right. Trying to open up and establish common ground works better if you're sure the ground is, well, common. If she had started to turn pale for just a second, she stuffs it all down right away, and gives a mirthful, musical laugh. "You'll have to forgive me - it seems I ran away with myself for a moment." Liyara realizes she must be pretty lonely herself, if she was offering that particularly sharp memory up. And for what, to forge a connection with someone?

How petty of you, dragon.

A deep rational void drowns some of those potent, painful feelings in nothingness, and leaves her with just her warmth and the other elements of her mind that people enjoy interacting with. This is fine.

"I like you, too. Not because of where you're from, or how flattered I am by your attention, but because of your ravenous appetite for knowledge." The half-dragon lifts a hand to straighten her hair idly, and looks Yoiko over rather pointedly. "I feel like the uniform dampens your self expression, however. Does the federation not believe in... what was the term? Business Casual?" She knows it does not.

As Yoiko picks up the fork again, there's more vibration, and that young male voice comes through once more.

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Redmagetiny.png Fine, I'm Sorry My Pun Was Too Amazing For You. Don't Put The Fork Down. It Gives You A +9 Bonus To Meta-Knowledge. And Liyara Doesn't Talk To Me Anymore.


"Business Casual?" Yoiko scoffs, "Eh, when we're on duty we wear uniforms. It's a show of pride - for the Federation. For your work." She shrugs, placing a hand on her hip where a workbelt of some kind usually rests - something that is not part of the uniform. "We can have self-expression, but it's normally reserved for off-hours." We'll stretch the time between statements just enough for the sake of timing.

"Besides, if you don't like my uniform maybe you should remo-" And here's that timing that was mentioned! "It was a cheap pun and you should be ashamed." The woman shakes her head at the fork in her hand and ponders putting it down out of spite. "What? Are you jealous? Maybe you wish you were the other kind of fork so we'd put you in our mouths? You'd like that, wouldn't you?" She waves the tuning fork at Liyara and tsks. "This utensil is a pervert."


Since Yoiko stepped out of nose-tweaking range, Liyara attempts to re-establish herself as aloof and above it all by crossing her arms and leaning back against a nearby wall. She quirks her lips in amusement as Yoiko begins, readying a joke that specifically combines a suggestive innuendo with a (comparitively) classy segueway into what kind of dresses she thinks would look good on Yoiko. Rather presumptious, but Liyara isn't known for her caution.

She looks confused as the Trill interrupts herself, and then raises an eyebrow, now trying to keep her amusement from showing too clearly on her face. "...Who are you talking to on it?" A perverted Utensil. Hah.

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Redmagetiny.png Perverted? You're A Smoking Sci-Fi Engineer Flirting With A Sexy Dragon, But I'm Not Judging You. Also I'm Not A Fork. I'm A Bonafide Genius.

There is a pause, just long enough for Yoiko to properly process that, followed by another, shorter comment.

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Redmagetiny.png Says So On My Character Sheet.

Oh. Now it all makes sense. He's a crazy person.


'Who are you talking to on it?' It takes Yoiko a moment to really have those words sink in. She was just running with the assumption that it talked. It was magical after all. If it's not the tool's voice then who?

She looks down at the tuning fork incredulously. "Look, flattery will get you somewhere but not when you're burying it in spite." She looks up at Liyara with pleading eyes searching for answers she can't provide while mouthing 'I don't know.' "If you're so smart, why are you a fork?"

Her gaze drawn back to the tool in her hand she momentarily ponders both the literal and the metaphorical details of a tuning fork that allows communication. Barely missing a beat she draws out a communicator like the one that started this adventure and opens it on the desk behind her being careful not to set the fork down. She then grabs a pen-looking tool and begins to dismantle her electronic device.

"Obviously if you're really a genius you could have tried to communicate any of a million different ways, or does your ego manage to be so large you can't reach past it?" Ripping out the usually spinning dial from the center of her communicator, Yoiko places it on the tuning fork and begins to use the tool she has to seemingly solder it to the magical device.

If logic dictates that magic is truly a form of technology, and a tuning fork generally works off of vibrations, a receiver should be able to use it as an antennae just as easily as the grill that flips open and closed to allow subspace communication. "Look. I made a speaker phone with only one free hand. Some genius you are."


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Redmagetiny.png I'm Not The Fork, We Went Over This.

The voice continues, barely skipping a beat once Yoiko mouths to Liyara that she doesn't know who she's talking to.

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Redmagetiny.png Go Ahead. Tell Her You're Talking To Her Favorite Student. She'll Know Who You Mean. Should Get A Good Reaction.

The dragon woman, not aware she's being spoken of, tilts her head to one side. "But you can't be talking to anyone unless you sent them a message, first." Liyara seems confused by Yoiko's confusion, and the moves over to watch what the Trill is doing more closely. Is she going to graft technology onto a high-tier artifact? That's either sacrilegious or really sexy, and Liyara isn't sure which. Could it be both? She supposes that's possible.

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Redmagetiny.png What Do You Think All Those 'Pretty Sounds' Were, Starfleet? You Talked To Me First. You Just Didn't Attune To The Fork. Wait, What...

There's another brief pause.

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Redmagetiny.png You Can't Do That! You Didn't Even Reverse The Polarity Or Do Anything With The Deflector Dish.


With luck the last few comments should be broadcast for everyone in the room to hear - distorted maybe, but there. Frankly even if it doesn't it won't affect Yoiko's reaction too much as she'll continue to work on it even as she continues to bicker. "Yeah, yeah. I didn't bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish because that's the way we do things lad when we're making shit up as we wish." The communicator will whistle strangely as she tries to clean up the signal more. "So, apparently this is your 'favorite student' which I have to assume from his general attitude is simply dripping with sarcasm?"

After waiting a moment she'll look up to meet Liyara's glance with a wide smile on her face, "I told you I'd figure something out if you gave me enough time and warning." How well any of this works and how long it lasts are clearly not up to the person typing for our young Engineer so feel free to take this any way you wish.

"I spent some time researching myself and the state other worlds where in during my 'series' run, you know. Why ignore knowledge when it's right there for the taking?" She taps on the fork, scowling at it. "Feel free to roll for persuasion while you're at it."


The voice from the tuning fork isn't particularly clear, coming out like an auto-tuned robot at first. The words just draw a look of confusion from Liyara. "Sym? Are you talking to Sym?" She doesn't think that makes much sense.

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Redmagetiny.png Oh How Dare You. You Know Who I Am! I'm A Damn Hero! By All But The Strictest Definition Of The Word! More Or Less.

There's another pause as Yoiko fiddles with her tech, and then the voice comes through clearly.

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Redmagetiny.png ...Ish. The Point Is, Good Deeds Were Done, And I Was Nearby.

Liyara pales a little as she hears the voice. "...Bahamut's Blood, the curse got into the fork?"

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Redmagetiny.png I'm Not A Curse! No Matter What You, Black Mage, And Everyone In Neverwinter Says!

The voice does sound genuinely indignant, but then it continues.

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Redmagetiny.png I Barely Had Anything To Do With The Spellplague! In Fact, If You Remove My Poor Judgement From The Equation, Then I Did Nothing Wrong!

Liyara brings a hand up to her temple. "A particularly indignant Bard cursed me to hear my least favorite student in my head whenever it would be most stressful. Which is often."

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Redmagetiny.png No She Didn't, You Totally Passed That Saving Thr-- What Do You Mean Least Favorite?!


Yoiko simply listens with a smirk as she's feeling particularly proud of herself at the moment. Hearing the disembodied voice continue to get disrespected only adds to it. She ponders briefly if she still has to hold the tuning fork for it to pick things up but assumes it likely just feeds those vibrations into the holder so it should be fine.

Letting go of it finally, Yoiko rubs her temple with her now freed hand. "Well, that might explain the headaches I got from it." She considers the conversation a little more and where it might have gone without the interruption. Without another word she inches to stand beside Liyara, putting an arm on her shoulder to pull her closer conspiratorially. "Well you have no reason to be stressed now, and if you are maybe I can help with that."

Slightly worried she's gone too far Yoiko lets go. Lowering to one knee she looks at the communicator, holding a hand over the manual cutoff switch. "Plus now there's a clear off switch for ye olde bard." Instead of switching it off however, "Shouldn't you be singing? What kind of bard doesn't sing?"


"He's not the bard. He's not anything, he calls himself some made up type of mage." Liyara flicks her tail when Yoiko puts an arm around her, and is just getting ready to lean in when Yoiko lets go. Her tail flicks again and she looks skeptical. "What could you possibly have had to do with the Spellplague?" Liyara asks doubtfully, giving Yoiko an apologetic look. This is not the kind of thing she wants to discuss on a first date. Is it a date? Is it the first? Liyara was never very good at determining the specifics, so she'll just say it's a first date, because confidence creates reality. That's how she's always lived her life and it works well most of the time. Of course, that's only because she's smart and strong. As a counter-example, we have Red Mage on line one...

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Redmagetiny.png Look, It's Really BM's Fault Because He Keeps Listening To The Things I Say.

This just causes Liyara to drive her forehead into her open palm in frustration, and she gives a low growl. "...That's what I get for asking."

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Redmagetiny.png I Can Prove I'm Real. Trill Chick, Ask Me Something Liyara Couldn't Know. Think About It Hard So The Narrator Gives Me The Needed Exposition.
What?


Yoiko ponders that candy-like off switch once more. Okay, it does more than just turn it off but who here really wants a detailed description of the functions of a 2260 era communicator? "Oh, the Narrator, huh?" She pushes herself back to her feet. "He's really big on this role playing game metaphor, isn't he? Shouldn't that be the Dungeon Master or the Game Master or something else?"

Fuck it. Yoiko flicks the communicator off a moment. "This is obviously stressing you. He's obviously not going anywhere. Do you want to go get that bite to eat?" Her gaze goes back to the device she's put together. "I can see the value in eating elsewhere now that I've given it some thought."


Liyara is grinding her teeth a bit at that narrator comment, but she relaxes visibly when Yoiko flicks the communicator off. "My Hero." She flashes a weak grin, and then takes a deep breath and steadies herself. "Sorry. I thought the curse had finally run out. I wasn't ready for that." She closes her eyes as she stretches her arms and wings way out behind her, pausing a moment in the stretch to open one eye and see if she can catch Yoiko staring. "...Elsewhere sounds nice."



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