ten_fwd_ooc | Test Drive #7 - Ten Forward and Captain's Yacht

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test drives

Test Drive #7 - Ten Forward and Captain's Yacht

Option 01. Ten Forward: The first thing you see is a bar. A large, lively bar filled with many different faces and many different smells, sights and sounds. This is Ten Forward, the Enterprise's off-duty lounge; feel free to get acquainted with your fellow travelers and try to find somebody who's in charge: this is your new home now, after all...

Option 02. The Captain's Yacht: Oooh, you sneaky stowaway! You've found yourself in a very exclusive part of the ship: Captain Picard's personal craft, used for short jaunts when a shuttle just won't do. (One must retain some decorum, after all.) It may not be as large as the Enterprise itself, but there are sure to be some surprises aboard once people start snooping.

[OOC: The Captain's Yacht is located at the very base of the Enterprise's saucer portion, so if you put someone in there you can also play them trying to get back to somewhere they know!]

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Merlin glanced toward her. "Milady? Methinks thou dost mistake me for another. Or to say it like they used to down in Philly, 'I'm not the man you're looking for, ma'am'." But he turned to her and swept a bow, in full court style.

"Greetings and salutations, milady. I am named Merlin, first of my name, and it is a very true pleasure to meet thee." He rose to his feet fully once more, eyes dancing, gold to red to black, and back to a simple soft brown.

She blinked, quite startled. Never afore had she heard someone speak thus. Never afore ....speak thus..... apparently hearing it made her think that way. Peculiar.

She offered her hands out, palms up, clearly as some sort of greeting. "An honor to meet you, Prince Merlin," she said softly, still studying him, perplexed. She had seem him use craft, right? why then did he not smell like the Blood? She used Prince as a default greeting, but... Mother Night she had no clue what to make of this man.

Theorin frowned darkly from behind her, a warming in his golden eyes, warning the other man not to harm the Queen. Didn't matter she hadn't been his Queen before. She was now, at least until she had a full court around her. May the darkness have mercy on him, the only Warlord Prince to a Black Widow Queen.

Merlin gladly took her hands in his own, and nodded to her. "I know not this form of greeting, but I'll gladly meet it so." He smiled to her. "Just Merlin, please. I am no Prince, not in any land or time that I know of." He avoided royalty, thank you. Except the few... dozen times, he had played kingmaker. Ahem.

"Are you as new here as I am? I sense the parting of many worlds and veils here." He glanced around, eyes dancing with that shifting of colors. He was amused, yes indeed.

The air chilled slightly when he took her hands, and she slashed a glare back at Theiorn. The air warmed again but his eyes were partially glazed, he did not look pleased. She turned her focus back to Merlin, trying to figure out what to do with this... this... male who had grasped her hands...

She forced her own tempter, and the urge to show her nails, down. No way to keep Theiorn leashed if she slipped the leas herself. Besides, the male in front of her, this Merlin, had said that he was unaware of the protocol of a greeting, so it was probably not an aggressive move to grab her thus. Still, perhaps she should refrain from greeting unknown people here....

"We are new here," she agreed cautiously. He spoke now as a black widow might, but there were were only ever two males who could see the webs of visions, and he was neither Saetan, nor his spawn.

Merlin didn't miss that, and slowly withdrew his hands so. Hmm, intriguing.

"Then welcome. I hear this place is called the Enterprise, and many seem to be drawn here." He grinned and then offered his hand to her as one would for a normal handshake might. "This is how the people of my world generally greet. It comes from an ancient custom of warriors gripping arms to show they met without weapons. Now people grasp hands."

He nodded to her. "However, if it offends you, or your ways, feel free to say so. I have a feeling there will be much growing of learning here, before we all are without giving of offense. And if I have given thee such, then I ask that you will forgive. it was not done in any intent to do so."

Merlin reached out into nothing, into what was and what would be, and pulled back his hand, and held three brass cups, with them hanging from his fingers by their handles, the energy lines swirling for a moment, invisible to the normal eye. In his other hand, a large sealed bottle appeared. "Shall we drink to new meetings, milady, sir?" His eyes flicked to the man behind her, curious, then back to her again. What strange peoples, and yet, somewhat like the Fae.

"A handshake of that sort," she said, nodding to his offered hand, or where it had been before the drinks had appeared that was, "is usually used to signify an agreement at the end of a deal, among our people," she said simply. "Among the Blood, a greeting is hands atop hands, wrists exposed to fingernails, a sign of trust and good will." Especially when one of the people was a Black Widow, but no reason to discuss that little detail. Not just yet.

"We would share a drink," she said, eying the cups. Had they been chalices, she would have been sure he was playing games with them, as they were handled cups, his offer of companionship might well be genuine. Even if he was male.

"Yabarah?" Theoirn asked, knowing there was no way it would be. They had to have theirs imported by the grace of Witch from Kaleeer.

Merlin shook her hand, and then let go, smiled. "Ahhh! I apologize for misreading it. The grip of the warriors was much like that, in my world. Hands on wrists, gripping, so that what could be combat was instead friendship met." He nodded, eyes warm.

"Forgive me. I know not that drink. This is Ambrosia, the lesser kind, and thus safe to drink, by all. It was made in the hallowed halls of Atlantis, and there gifted with herbs that give it the property of the warrior. It will make you drunk if you wish it, and if then, you need to be sober, you merely need will it so, and all drunkenness will leave you."

Merlin canted his head to the man. "Tell me of that drink, though sir, soemtime, and I may be able to summon it."

He eyed him then called in a bottle himself, and it appeared in his hand. "We can exchange," he said, and there was a hint of amusement in his eyes.

Aiylisha's eyes widened slightly, but she chose to say nothing. Let the males have their p****** contest. better that than trying to kill each other. And besides, it might be amusing...

"Shall we sit, Merlin?" Theiorn asked him, nodding to a table.

"Theiorin," she warned sharply.

"He insists on no blood title, consider it me being polite," he said, gold eyes flashing slightly.

Clearly Aiylisha was displeased with Theiorn, but she said nothing further, fuming silently, which only seemed to amuse the male all the more.

Merlin glanced between the two, and his eyes narrowed, a touch of anger appearing thusly, and he sat, but he faced them both, and nodded. Only if you both will sit with me. Guests and new friends should treat fairly with one another."

For a moment, as he looked at the man, a darkness seemed to gather, and his eyes went a dead black, but he shook his head, and the anger vanished. His eyes returned to normal. In a careful voice, he spoke softly. "Be careful what games you start sir. I do not wish a feud, so newly arrived. Nor a war, so newly gone out of all such." His words were utterly bare of formality, and yet utterly absent of all emotion as he looked at them.

Then he smiled wider. "We have, it seems, much to discuss, and much to learn from one another."

They both sat, and oddly his temper, and the darkness seemed to relax them both. She was even smiling as she dropped into her chair, and leaned back, putting her feet against an empty one to be more comfortable.

"I would not offer anything I would not myself drink," Theiorn said with a twist of his lips. "Though I suppose it would be fair to tell that not all are brave enough to have a second sip of Yabarah. Though there are many foolish enough to have a first. I personally drink three goblets of it a day, however if you lack the courage, that is fine, I won't push," he said, challenge in his gold eyes.

"Males,"she muttered, rolling her eyes. She grabbed one of the offered glasses with her power and set it before her. "Shall I pour this wine while you bicker over that?"

Merlin sighed. He did his best not to laugh, truly he did, and in the end, he merely grinned. "I will gladly drink with you in fellowship, good sir, but I will not drink with you in challenge. "

Merlin nodded to him, and then smiled at her suggestion. "Pour, milady, and I ask thee, for what better way to deliberate and decide on such things than with a tonic of peace sliding between such debating minds?"

His eyes glinted. "I am curious to see what madness this place does bring. It has been many long years since I last beheld such. And that was utterly different."

She gestured at the bottle and it lifted, filling the first two mugs, but Theiorn shook his head and filled his own mug with Yabarah. It was called "the blood wine" for good reason, and the smell was heady as his bug lifted and rotated slightly in the air as a tongue of witch-flame heated it.

"Maddness?" she asked, alert suddenly, her attention sharp as the edge of a knife's blade.

Merlin lifted his mug to toast her. He paused at her question. "Strangeness. Crazy events? Or, well, true madness. Such times and places as this, milady, breed it, as sure as time breeds fools of us all." He nodded.

"There is nothing to do but look for it, and be ready." He stretched and nodded, closing his eyes for a moment. "I have been Watching for a very long time." He blinked, and for a moment as his eyes opened, they were the eyes of a very old man, old and tired, and then the look was gone and they were his eyes once more, youthful and full of sincerity.

She seemed preternaturally tense at the talk of madness, her fingers moving ever so slightly, her eyes slightly glazing, staring off into the distance. "The twisted kingdom is the perilous road, forever lost in the confusing twisting darkness and light," she said, her voice odd. She shook her head and studied the ring finger of her right hand pensively, or perhaps the jeweled ring thereon. "Speaking of madness is no idle thing among the Blood," she said simply.

"Especially not with a Black Widow," Theiorn said, vanishing the witch fire and claiming his goblet from the air to sip the heated wine.

"I see. I will avoid the term for thee then. Here, and in this time as well as many others in earth human history, it can mean insanity, but also just the wildness and unpredictability of events. Just so you know." He wanted them to be as prepared as they could be for those around them.

Merlin was perhaps, no, let's be honest. Merlin was definitively insane, and dangerous, but he also happened to be nice, sometimes, and kind others, and to be firmly dedicated to helping all humanity and all life survive. Mostly.

"What is a Black Widow, in your terms, and the Blood? From the way you say them, I take it they have specific connotations and meanings to you and your world."

Curiosity now blazed in his eyes, and he leaned forward, animated and almost bouncy. Food appeared on the table, as if by afterthought, small platters of bread, cheeses, and meats. Nothing fancy, really, mostly the sort of thing you could eat with your fingers. And it was all ignored by Merlin, who looked to them for answers.

She reached up and hooked a finger under the two necklace chains she wore. One held a Jewel whose stone matched the one in her ring (I'm still trying to sort out her rank - sorry!!!!). The other chain held a charm of an hourglass with gold dust, all of which was in the bottom chamber. "I am a Black Widow," she said simply, then let the necklaces fall. The one with the jewel vanished, the one with the hourglass remained.

"The Black Widows are the witches of the Hourglass covenant. How long of a lesson would you like?" she asked wryly, sharpening her nails to points with a thought then using one to stab and claim a piece of meat. She ate it neatly off her nail. She bore him no onus, but if he wanted to know of the hourglass, she would make sure he was well enough informed to be cautious. Especially if he ever met any of her sisters.

"Intriguing." Merlin chuckled, and he held up a hand. "I assume this signifies something more?" He chuckled. "I am a student of life and people, milady. I am curious, now." And before her eyes, his hand shimmered and changed, the nails growing longer, and turning a golden color, before settling back to his normal hands.

"Shapes are my specialty."

She leaned back after taking a piece of cheese, and considered. "Isn't this a pretty tangle?" she murmured. "No, the sharpening of nails is not a Black Widow thing," she said amused. "With a Black Widow only one claw really matters, but you wanted to know of the Twisted Kingdom and how we relate to the madness, did you not?"

"Aye, I do. Especially if we shall be sharing a ship, such as this one, I would know who you are, true, and what you bring to this place." His voice was forthright and perfectly calm, and he smiled a warm smile, but his eyes, they blazed golden.

"I am, as always, curious."

"I am a Black Widow, with luck you will never know all I know, all I am, or all I can do. Without luck... well, I hear there is much screaming involved and unimaginable pain, but I'm sure none of us want it to come to that."

"It won't," Theorin said sharply. "I will not let anyone harm you enough for you to need to do that."

"I do NOT need your protection, and I do not care what you have decided, you do NOT serve me!"

"It is my right as the only Warlord Prince here to serve and protect, Lady. Should your court arrive, I shall absent myself if that is your will. Until such a time, I do serve, and I do protect, Lady."

She looked fit to explode, then took a deep breath and faced Merlin again. "Black Widows weave tangled webs, we can sidestep into madness, carefully, to help us see what is, what will be, and what might be."

Merlin nodded to her. "I would never harm thee, if such is what sets it off, save in the defense of innocents." He smiled lopsidedly, but his eyes were serious.

He listened to their exchange, taking that all in, and nodding. Curious. Matriarchal, but not completely autonomous. Hmmm.

"Ah, then muchly like myself, in someways. My father gave me the sight of what was, and humanity gave me the sight of what is and what is not, and Jehovah, well, he gave the sight of what should and what might be, and what must never be." He bowed to her. "It seems we share some slight things, milady."

He settled back. "What or where do you rule, if I may ask?"

She ignored the question of where she ruled. The other was more immediate. "You claim you see the future?" she asked sharply. Only two males had ever EVER had that power.

"Sometimes, in a limited fashion, aye. I see what might be, and things that should not be let happen." Merlin's voice was matter of fact. "Let's see... yes, okay. For a moment, I can do this, milady."

And he let his eyes close for a moment, opening his mind to the song of the future for just a second, then shutting his mind as he opened his eyes.

He pointed blindly to the left. "The man at that table will start choking in a moment, and his friend will throw water in his face, causing him to cough up the item choking him. "

His hand swung in a different direction. "The lady at the bar is about to find out she has become pregnant, and become overjoyed at the fact, then rush off." His hand moved once more, pointing to a strange looking woman with all blue scaled skin and small fins. "Hir is asleep with hir eyes open, and will soon fall forward."

And as he lay his hand down, those events began to happen, exactly as spoken, exactly where he had pointed. He was slightly paler as he sat there, and he drew once more on his drink, quaffing it down, his mug refilling as he did.

"Mother night," she whispered.

"And may the darkness be merciful," Theorin added.

She gulped down her wine an gestured at the cask, refilling it. She swallowed hard. "You used no webs," she whispered, pale and shaken.

"Nay, I did not. I touched the song of life and time. It is... hard, but it uses only Deific magic. No webs are involved." He offered her a smile, one tired and showing it.

"I apologize if I startled you. I did not mean to. Merely to define my power. Some doubt, you see, and the future is not always easy to touch. What I can do one moment, i cannot another, and then can, stronger, another moment." He chuckled.

"We are perhaps at a tying of times, as we have crossed time and space to come here. Thus all the verses are strained and easier to touch."

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