Forums » Sci-Fi Roleplay » Travellers (Semi-Open RP between Tara and Catrin)

Catrin's ears positioned themself a little backwards while she was listening to Tara. In the end, she nodded. "This certainly does sound like it was you or them. Interesting. Why would any Terelains help with the annihilation of their own race?" It was a rhetorical question. Catrin shrugged. "Thank you for the explanation, I appreciate it. I suppose I wouldn't have got such a calm answer if I had brought it up with someone else. Also, not a very good topic for a wine-tasting party!" she said with a smirk.

"My apologies for letting my curiosity override the potential fun. At least I've had enough time to process the rudimentary poisons from the Shadowwater, though, and can now engage in a drinking competition with you," she said with a wink.

Tara nodded, "It might be ancient history.. but for some it is still a deeply painful subject, and I would suggest that you be careful who you speak to about it... and for the love of the Younger Gods, don't openly sympathize with the Gillorians. We might regret some of what we did; the repression, the genocide... but we still stand by it as a necessary evil, to ensure our survival. Many do not hold you views, and it would do you no favours if they became known."

"Indeed. Though a great many of the individuals who lived during the end of the Third Era have no died, vanished or Ascended, there are still enough of them left that it would be dangerous if they should hear of what you say. Not the least of which includes former Monarchs of our Kingdom." The AI said.

Tar shook her head, "But this is too gloomy a topic to dwell on. We're supposed to be drinking wine and having fun!" She took a drink of her wine and smile, "And I intend to drink copious amounts of wine."

Catrin nodded, not wishing to linger on the subject. She got up and walked to the food processor, managing to get a glass the same way Tara did. "Where can I get the wine?" she asked Tara. "I'm quite sure I would choose the wrong kind."

Tara got up and walked over to the machine, tapping a few floating symbols, "There. That's the wine list." In front of Tara appeared a holographic list written in Terelain glyphs, "The finest wines come from Amra on Aerin, but many good wines come from all corners of the Kingdom; thirty thousand worlds."

The list was, in fact, quite long, s the AI said, "I'll shortlist some of the best ones for you." A moment later the list was shortened to about a dozen different wines.

Catrin smiled at Tara. "Thank you." Then she thanked the AI, took a look at the shorter list and picked one she felt she might like. Then she smiled at Tara while her glass was being filled. "Okay, what do you do at parties for fun? Apart from possibly teaching people obscene gestures," she joked with a wink. "Tell each other stories? Play social games? Drink silently and stare into walls?"

"Stories are often told." Tara said, "In fact story-telling, singing and plays are some of the oldest and most loved ways we communicate in. Ou histories were songs and plays long before they were written down, and most Terelains still prefer to hear a story told than to simply read it."

"It's their linguistic system." The AI said, "Terelain language is highly complex, subtle and nuanced, and though their writing systems reflects this as much as possible, inevitably something gets lost when it is written."

"There's also drinking games, and various activities we do." Tara said, "I was never one for partying, but I know how to have fun regardless."

A wine glass, full of a sparkling white wine, appeared in the holograms hand, he sipped it and said, "I may as well join in on the fun. I might actually be capable of ingesting alcohol, but I can maintain appearances, and even simulate the appearance of light intoxication if I wanted, whilst leaving most of programs and runtimes intact and capable of looking after the ship."

Catrin smiled. "That sounds lovely." She could sing a song or two. She nodded when the AI provided the information about the language, and chuckled when Tara said she knows how to have fun.

She took her own glass of wine, now ready, from the food processor, only to be surprised upon turning back by the AI now holding a glass of his own. She laughed when he made his suggestion. "That sounds like fun. Will it be a first for you? And what would you like to do? I'm sure you have a number of stories available."

The AI shrugged, "I have never simulated intoxication before, so it will be a novel experience... and I suppose I've picked up a tale or two, some of them heroic."

Tara rolled her eyes, "You mean your old war stories?"

The hologram drew himself up to his full height and took on a proud, dignified expression, "Need I remind you, Tara, that I was a part of the Grand Fleet? I participated in the Battle of Alaera IV, I witnessed the Fall of Tahlarhi and I watched as the Singing Forests of Ba'hela burned and I was there when the Gillorian Armada struck Aera itself and the skies of Aerin were filled with flame and thunder for a dozen days... I watched the Gillorians break and flee from us; the ending of the Second Great War!"

"Not to mention the Battle of Eriae." She said.

He winced, "Yes, well... not one of the most glorious moments in our history."

"Still, I doubt Catrin wants to listen to you ramble on about your glory days." Tara said, "Not when we have seen so many wonders together, with very little violence involved."

"Hmph, you're forgetting that warlord that wanted to marry you and chased you for seventeen parsecs until I vapourized his ship with stellar dust." The AI said.

Catrin laughed. "Oh, I meant going to a party. I suppose Tara doesn't hold them here often, but still. Who knows. Hey, maybe a suitor got on board?” she asked, inspired by the warlord, bright-eyed. She seemed to be having great fun.

"No one gets on this ship without me knowing." The AI said, "And I have elaborate security measues in place to prevent unauthorised access."

"You mean... rendering the ship's hull inert so no one an get in?" Tara asked with amusement.

"... No." The AI said, "I... have other methods too."

"Such as?" She asked, her tail flicking into the Terelain equivalent of a raised eyebrow.

"The ship has a cloaking device." He pointed out, "And I could just move it."

"Hm... not all that elaborate, or impressive." Tara said.

"Maybe not, but it seems to be working. You've never brought a male back here"

"Not back here, no." Tara said with a smirk.

"Wait, what!?" The AI asked in shock.

"Nothing." Tara said innocently.

Catrin started laughing, very much enjoying the look of shock on the AI's new face. She took her glass back to her chair and made herself comfortable, still giggling.

Despite the fact that his thoughts were thousands of times faster than any organic, it appeared that the AI couldn't quite use his words, "W-wait but you but ... your dad...oh Terel Sritar Morlan ...I mean...wait...uuuh..."

Tara burst out laughing holding her sides, this went on for some time, and when she finally calmed down she said, "Don't worry, heheh, my dad's not going to rip you apart, and Uncle Morlan isn't going to disintegrate you using one of his spare warships. I was joking, I never really..uh... sneaked off with some male."

"Oh thank Tia'Ren." The AI said with obvious relief."

"It was a woman." Tara said.

The AI did a double-take and if he'd have been an organic he'd have probably fainted. "W-w-w-what!?"

Tara burst into renewed laughter.

Catrin had just managed to calm down enough to take another sip of the wine – excellent wine, as far as she could tell – when Tara made her 'revelation'. The wine shot right through her nostrils all over her legs and she coughed a couple of times before going on laughing with diminished intensity.

The wine wasn't so excellent when it was spread all over her nasal cavities, but this was worth it.

Tara sat back and watched the chaos she had caused with satisfaction, laughing uproariously. The AI appeared to have had a slight meltdown as its basic assumptions about Tara had apparently been overturned. After a short time the AI just said, "That was a joke."

For some reason, Tara found that immensely funny and was sent into renewed laughter.

The AI fumed for a moment and then said, "If I didn't like you as much as I do Mistress, I'd have spaced you for that awful joke. I almost melted my processing substrate when you said that!"

"S-s-sorry!" Tara managed, between giggles.

The AI's fuming somehow made it even funnier for Catrin, who went on giggling with Tara before she calmed down enough to drain the rest of her wine and went to get some more. She selected the same one as before and waited for the glass to be filled in. In the meantime, she turned to Tara. “I have to admit I'm confused. What's wrong with sneaking off with males? Or females?” she asked in a very matter-of-fact tone, but with sparkles of glee in her eyes.

“If there are some taboos placed on sneaking off with them, is it more acceptable to do so with aliens? No way of getting pregnant, I suppose,” she continued, half-expecting the AI to get his equivalent to a heart attack.

Tara smiled, "Well, there's not exactly a taboo against it, but most would prefer that you kept dalliances discreet and only have children with a long-term partner, if not a life-bonded mate. Mating with aliens is discouraged primarily on the grounds that getting too attached can have... problems because of our lifespans, although I suppose some conservative people might take objection to any of Terel's Children mating with Younger Races, who some see as lesser than us, since we're the oldest extant species in the galaxy. Most don't hold such a view, not openly any way."

The AI, meanwhile, seemed to have been paralysed by shocked horror as he considered the consequences of what would happen if he turned up back home with a pregnant Tara. No doubt her mother would be happy to have grandchildren, her father would be outraged and her 'uncle' Morlan would be readying his ships to ether kill the AI or the father. Or both. The hologram's tail twitched spasmodically.

Tara glanced over and giggled, "Oops. We broke him."

Catrin took her glass of wine and looked at the AI without pity. “He's way too sensitive. Perhaps you should try bringing someone over from time to time to get him used to how life works. I mean, you do have birth control options, right?” She hesitated to ask Tara if she was still a virgin at her age.

Tara shrugged, fiddling with the tip of her tail, "There aren't any males - or females." She said archly, "That caught my attention like that, and I'm hardly one to go and seduce a random person just to teach him not to implode at the idea." She laughed, "As for birth control, yeah, there's a lot of options, but it's something... discouraged in my culture. We have children rarely as it is, wide-spread birth control over a prolonged period of time is something a lot of the higher-ups are afraid of. If we did that, then our population might start declining. As it is it looks stable, not growing or shrinking to the outsider eye, but it is in fact growing, just very slowly." She shook her head, "To be honest, it's only in the last thousand years or so that our population returned to the same levels as it was before the Second Great War."

Feeling that 'Well, in that case, the solution is obvious – women!' was an observation that might crash the ship, she didn't voice it and smiled at Tara instead. “Could you sing something? I noticed you have a lovely voice, it was quite something to listen to your chanting yesterday. Only if you'd have fun with it, of course.”

"Oh! Uh... really?" Tara looked slightly embarrassed, "I don't really sing much... but if you like it then... um... okay."

The AI seemed to have finally recovered and, in a slightly strained voice he said, "I would also enjoy listening to you sing, Mistress."

"Oh, well, that's settled then." Tara said. She took a sip of her wine then put it down and stood up, clearing her throat, "I don't know many songs, but, uh, here's a try."

Tara opened her mouth and began to sing in High Terelain. Terelain was a musical, song-like language anyway, but High Terelain was the poetic form, the one used for magic and poetry and hymns and royal decrees, as a written script it was elegant and flowed across the page, but as a language to be sung it was probably the closest a mortal could come to sounding like a true Angelic Choir.

The song she sang was soft and pure, telling of a girl who fell in love with her oldest friend, how they became lovers after her father's untimely death and how they were separated by a war for centuries, the sadness turned to elation as she sang of how the two former lovers were reunited and found that they loved each other still.

The last notes faded away and Tara opened her eyes. She'd closed them in the middle of the song, seeming to get carried away by her own voice and she'd only just returned to the real world when she stopped. She suddenly looked embarrassed and sat back down quickly.

"That was the Song of the Homecoming of the Exiles, wasn't it?" The AI said.

Tara nodded, "It...was one of my favourites."

"You did very well, Mistress." The AI said, "Nariel herself couldn't have sang that song better, and she wrote it."