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

"Nah. Generally I bring them back to life. And my father is a god, not a king," Theo smirks back at her with a lift of his coffee cup. He's just starting cup number three so he's made his way into civil, if slightly snarky. At the end of three cups (four on a bad day) he's generally a fairly decent person to interact with.

((ooc: I tend to go with: Does it fit that world's definition of Undead? If yes, he can definitely sense it and know things about it, if not but could be something similar, it makes his 'necromancer' sense tingle, but he can't put his finger on it exactly. I don't remember what demon-dead is?))

(short - the demon dead are people who died, but had the magical and mental strength to go on. They need blood daily to sustain themselves, cannot go out in sun, can not be healed. They are dead bodies that don't lay down and stop. They serve Saetan even if they also serve a Queen. Theiorn is demon dead, and wears the invisible ring. Ailyisha is NOT *his* queen, but as the only blood male present, he has invoked protocol to claim his right to serve and protect until her court appears. As she has no court and has issues with males... she is not over-thrilled.)

"God?" she asked. "King?" Yes, she knew what H**** was, but not heaven, Demons, but not angels, Saetan, but not God, Princes and Queens, but has never heard of kings.

((Gotcha. I'd throw that under the "feels like some sort of vampire" bus for Theo. There's enough similarities there for him to pick that up, but not the fine details like the bits about the ring and serving whomever.))

That earns a bit of an eyebrow raise from Theo, and since he's only at the start of coffee cup number three he says, "I'd say I'm not sure you could understand it if, I explained it, but I can give it a shot."

The funny thing is, there are no demons or angels or any of that in Theo's world. He only has a base understand of such things from having been in the City for over a year.

"My father is a god of the dead. He's an immortal being that takes care of the people who worship's him's souls after they die. He judges them and sends them down one river or another depending on how they acted in life. To their reward or punishment. He's sort of the essence of ... that. He must do that much like fire must burn. It's who and what he is, what he was made to be." Theo says. It's hard for him to explain because he knows there's something more, but what he's not sure because he's only half a god and the rest hasn't been opened to him yet.

"As for kings? They're rulers of lands... generally have queens for wives and princes and princesses for children."

She stared at him, horrified for a moment, pulling back, physically and mentally. "You're...from Terrelle aren't you?" she hissed. Where else could so twisted a society exist?

The psychic scent of her horror and revulsion reached Theoirn. He vanished the drinks he was carrying and called in a long knife as he raced to her side, triple shielding himself. "Someone bothering you, my Queen?" he asked, tightly.

She didn't bother to correct him as the air chilled around them both.

Theo doesn't blink. He's seen scarier people pull knives on him. His wife for instance.

Also, the new guy is interesting now that Theo can get a better 'sense' from him. Theoirn gets Theo's full silver-eyed attention now but it's more of a 'what makes you tick' attention. Rats get that look from scientists.

"Actually, I'm from London. I've never heard of Terrelle before," he says absently, still focusing on the sort of maybe undead creature before him. "And I was just answering your lady's question. She wanted to know what a god and a king was. And you are quite interesting. Not a vampire, are you?"

His gold eyes glared into silver. He had never seen such a color, but could not begin to care. "And how so did you answer it to so upset the Lady?" he asked, a snarl in his voice.

He repeats exactly what he told Ailyisha, carefully watching the gold eyed man. Then he adds, "And there was no way for me to know it would upset her any more than she would know what would upset me."

Currently that would be getting attacked before finishing his coffee.

"A world where the men who marries Queens are the ones who rule?" He asked, kind of floorred and more than a little horrified.

"Almost. Two of my friends are princes; their mother, a commoner, married the king and became queen. But she doesn't rule, mostly because her idea of diplomacy involves punching someone who annoys her in the face. However, in England, where I grew up, the queen's father was king and ruled and she inherited the throne and is now queen and she rules," Theo says, relaxing a little since he's not being attacked

"However, I'm thinking the word 'queen' means something different for me than for you."

"In Kaleer Queens rule," Theiorn said simply, "males are allowed to serve. The tool used to try and break us as a people was the belief that males should rule and women should serve them instead, that women should be broken into service," he said with a snarl, anger in his eyes, and the cold increased.

"What about the idea of equal partnership? Men and women in a relationship where neither rules or serves the other and no one breaks anyone. My wife and I are good examples of that." He holds up his left hand with a wedding ring on it.

"Oh well, marriage, marriage is different in any realm," Theiorn said with a hint of a grin, though Ailyisha looked away, not quickly enough to hide the pain and disgust on his face. "Blood society is an intricate dance, but at the center is always a Queen. And for us over all, for all our people, there is Witch, The Queen. Serving under her, there can be instances of equality, of course, but all are ultimately serving under Witch."

The look is noticed, but not commented on. Theo puts it down as a lover's spat of some sort. Or perhaps Theiorn is carrying a torch for Ailyisha. Fortunately he's now drunken enough coffee to decide against being antagonistic and poking their beliefs. "So, I suppose in a way, a witch could be considered a god then. Or like bees, maybe."

"Still not understanding what this God is," Theiorn admitted.

"Gods. There's multiple gods. Each society has their own set of gods. And each god takes care of.. or personifies an aspect of life or nature. My uncle is the god of the moon. He has silver eyes like I do, but is pale white. His personality shifts depending on the position and phase of the moon. And the moon changes in its local appearance depending on his own mood. If he's angry it'll be a blood moon. A goddess of war, helps her people in fighting wars, giving them the gifts and skills to fight and win battles. A river or water goddess can influence the water, the tides... things like that."

Theo frowns. "Humans were created to serve gods. In return the gods protect and help their people. Humans may look like gods, but they're not. They only have a tiny aspect of a god's magic, magic that they wouldn't have if it weren't for the gods."

"The dragons created the Blood, gifting us craft, so that we would care for the landens and world," She said softly.

Theo physically winces at the mention of dragons. He doesn't like them. Mostly because they've kidnapped him and held him for ransom.

"What the landen?" he asks, trying to draw her into the conversation.

She huffed slightly, then looked at Theiorn, an unspoken command clear in her glance. The glasses he had been fetching appeared in his hands. She took hers and sniffed. "The coffee here is not fantastic," she said dryly, but sipped it anyway. She glanced at Theo again. "Landens are the people of each race who lack the Craft, lack magic."

Interesting trick, Theo continues to think. He smiles a bit. "It has caffeine. It's a wonderful thing. I once was struck with a curse that prevented me from having any caffeine whatsoever. No matter what I tried."

He presses his lips together. "So, there are multiple races? It's a strange idea, for me, the idea of individuals with no magic."

They were starring at him, stunned. It was a moment after he was done talking, before Aiylisha could form words. "No... coffee...?" she whispered, horrified, "for how long?" Yes, she did in fact grow up knowing Jaenelle...

"I have yet to see a witch that could," Theiorn started, then stopped when Aiylshia turned a golden eyed glare on him. "I say nothing," he said simply.

"I wish," she snorted.

"Two days. I almost murdered and raised a few people by the end of it. I mean, they were being completely unreasonable idiots. I said I didn't want my sandwich to have onions in it twice."

Clearly, to a caffeine deprived Theo this was justifiable murder. And besides, he was going to raise them!

They exchanged a look. Then she sighed. "Why are males ever males, no matter where I seem to find myself?" she asked grumpily.

"Universal constants, I imagine," Theo says with a grin. "Though, Adrienne can be similar at times. She once dumped a coffee pot ... by drop I mean smashed it... on a guy's head ... for trying to hit on her. He didn't even touch her."

"One of the few males who I don't hate, he taught his wife proficiency with a frying pan as her best weapon," she said simply, amused.

Theiorn suddenly needed to sit. he dropped into a chair beside her. "Yaslana..." he whispered. "Mother knight and may the darkness be merciful, you know YASLANA?!" he asked her. The air warmed as tempers faded.

"Yes," she said primly. "I helped his wife clean when when she was with child, though hearth-craft is not my specialty, and he helped me learn some basic self defense. So, Prince, ready to admit that I can protect myself and that your service is unneeded?" she asked, archly.

"If we are talking about the same Lucivar that I know," he shot back, "he teaches women how to defend themselves enough to hold until help comes, and to watch a male's back if he needs it."

Oh the fire in her gold eyes then, the hot anger. "That is a thing said for the pleasure of the women who feel it is not their place to learn," she snapped. Then those blazing gold eyes turned on Theo. "You would never be so foolish as to say that I could not defend myself, would you?" she asked in a dangerous voice that boded ill.

Very quickly, Theo realizes that there is definitely subtext going on that he will not be able to fathom unless he knows these two people for at least several months. But to the young woman's question he can answer that easily.

"Honestly? Some of the best fighters I know are women. I met my wife when she rescued me from a dragon. The leader of the Eire army is their queen and the king chose her - before she was queen, of course - out of all his knights to rescue the crown prince when he'd been kidnapped. Her youngest sister is considered to be one of the most formidable fighters alive. Some people have just up and surrendered when they hear she's coming." He grins. He might be exaggerating a little, but not by much. "I know enough to defend myself until Adrienne can come and help me."

Theo takes a drink of his coffee and then frowns as he's near the end of his cup.

"I've found it's more a matter of skill and will that makes someone a good fighter, not gender."

Certainly

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