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

Catrin smiled. “Yes, pointing out what happened to your previous enemies is a very neat way of deterring troublemakers with at least some brains.”

She beamed at Thyr when he finished explaining how old he was. “Excellent! And now you have a name.” Turning to Tara, she asked, “Do you have a traditional way of celebrating … um, naming sentient beings? I suppose it's usually babies or newborns, but in this case, we're twelve thousand, three hundred and fifty two years late, so we might have to alter and improvise.”

Tara smiled, "Well, usually the Naming itself is a celebration, there would be presents and a priest would invoke blessings for your name."

"In this context, I believe that enjoying ourselves to the point of intoxication would be sufficient celebration." Thyr said, "We don't have enough people for a proper Naming."

Catrin laughed. “Well, sadly, the priest thing won't work, so intoxication sounds good. But... do you also have gift-giving customs connected with that? I could design a jewelry set for you to wear on your hologram! To commemorate the naming,” she added, then she turned to Tara. “You could join in, if you wanted to. He'll need more jewelry sets to have fun with anyway.”

Tara nodded, "A great idea, Catrin... but I have a different present in mind. One I know he'll love!"

"It better not be another shower upgrade." The AI said.

Tara laughed, "No. It's something you'll really like, but it is a surprise."

Thyr eyed her suspiciously, 'Very well."

Catrin smiled at Tara widely. “That sounds fantastic!” She chuckled at the AI's suspiciousness, then she spoke to him. “But I still want to make you the jewelry set. Do you have a graphic design interface I can use? I feel I'll be most creative now while nearly inebriated.”

Thyr nods, "I'm sure I can arrange something." He gesture to the air next to her chair and a hologram of a necklace appears surrounded by floating symbols, "Just touch the symbols to create a different piece of jewelry, or to activate a tool to edit the jewelry. An image of what you are making floats in the middle there." He said.

Tara sipped her wine, "I can't wait to see how it works out."

Catrin smiled and nodded. “Thanks.” She smiled at Tara and then she turned to the editor, choosing a wide bracelet from the selection, then picking a very dark grey metal base for it. She fiddled with the controls for a while while sipping wine, picking various shades of green from a colour wheel. Then she started “engraving” the bracelet with a rich leafy pattern, extremely detailed. It was obvious that she had a lot of experience in the field of drawing.

Remembering that she wasn't alone in the room, she looked up and smiled. “We can talk while I work. I hope you like the motif,” she added, turning to the AI.

"It looks intriguing so far." The AI said, "I've always liked nature motifs."

"You seem to have had a lot of practice at drawing. Then again, you've lived long enough to get some experience in most thing I'd imagine." Tara said.

Catrin beamed at Thyr. “Great!” She went back to work and answered Tara with her eyes on the bracelet. “Yes to both.” She smiled. “Drawing is very useful to me both as tool and as a way of being creative. And I have tried many things. It's interesting, they way it works – once you master one thing, learning other ones becomes much easier. Maybe you've noticed yourself, having lived as long as you have.” She fell silent again, focusing on her work.

Tara nodded with a laugh, "Oh yes! I've learned quite a few skills over the centuries; living amongst an indigenous species fora any length of time means adapting to their culture and learning their ways. How to dance or sing in a particular way, hunting or weaving or pottery making... And I've found that skills I gain from learning these things help in other parts of life too." Tara giggled, "I remember one time this drunk woman from... oh... I can't exactly remember where, a matriarchal culture certainly, tried to seduce me once. Her species was.. well, let's just say she looked pretty enough, but damn was she strong. Luckily, I managed to employ a few hunting tricks I'd picked up over the years and escape back to the ship."

"I remember that planet." Thyr said, "Is that why you got so flustered wen I asked what was wrong when you ran in here as if Toren himself was after you?"

"Um...yes." Tara said.

Catrin chuckled quietly, focused on the bracelet. She now had about a quarter of it engraved. “I would never have thought hunting tricks are this versatile. I suppose you're lucky you escaped. Have you ever considered undergoing a more extensive self-defense training? ”

Tara shrugged, "I knot a little. All Terelains are trained in some form o a martial art called Tae Kil Raan, it is part of our basic education. I'm nowhere near a master of it, but I know enough to give someone a good whacking."

"Tae Kil Raan sharpens the mind and the body, and it is therefore useful for spellweaving or spellcasting, and since almost all Terelains use magic, most Terelains learn a little of it to help them." Thyr explained, "Mostly the meditation side, but also some basic combat skills."

Catrin nodded slightly, her attention on the bracelet. “That sounds reasonable. In my homeland, most people are trained in combat and magic, too, as a part of their education. Nobles, anyway.”

Tara smiled, "I can't wait to show you the Kingdom. There is so much to see there; the Infinite Mountains of Ilphinus Secunda, the grand estates of Ilphinus Prime and the Sea of Light on Avraen." She smiled, "We'll even be travelling between the two oldest Jumpgates in the galaxy. Well, the oldest non-Atlantean Jumpgates... It's a little bit of history, if you think about it; the Jumpgates connecting the Aera and New Amran Systems were the first constructed by the Star Kingdom, and they were the beginnings of the Terelain Jumpgate Network, in a very real way the entire galactic network of Jumpgates is just building upon the original one we created."

"Of course, even though our Jumpgates are the most advanced in the galaxy, connecting over dozens of parsecs, they don't hold candle to the ancient Starweb network." The AI said.

Catrin smiled absently and nodded. “Without the jumpgates, everything would be very different, I suppose. But how was the Starweb network different? Wider coverage? Mobile destination points?”

"Much wider coverage." Thyr said, "The most advanced Jumpgates currently available can connect over at distance of fifteen parsecs at most, any further and the matter comprising the ship is instantaneously converted to energy when it reaches he other side, destroying it. The Starweb gates, however, are capable of moving ships to literally the other side of the galaxy intact. There are very few of these gates remaining, and most of those are too damaged to use, or else are slowly degrading until one day they'll be useless."

"The Atlanteans were more advanced, more powerful, than any living species." Tara said softly, "Scholars estimate that they were spaceborne between approximately two million and five hundred and fifty thousand years ago, when suddenly all traces of their civlisation, besides their already-built structures, vanished. No one knows what terrible cataclysm befell them, only that they are no more."

"We're not sure where their homeworld as, or if they were actually more than one race or civilisation tat we've mistaken for a single entity. Most archaeologists propose that their homeworld was either Knione, Istafar or Gamma Cerberus I. Some Terelain scholars propose that the Terelains themselves were the Atlanteans before the Great Cataclysm destroyed them, but most people reject their claims, since that would mean the Scattering Period after the Great Cataclysm lasted for five hundred and twenty thousand years, and in any case Ancient Terelain architecture is too disimilar to Atlantean architecture for them to be the same culture." Thyr said.

“Mmm. Do you think you'll ever know for sure?” Catrin said, finishing the engraving work. She chose a colour from her palette and started filling it in, creating highlights here and there, as if there was dew on the bracelet.

Tara shook her head, "There are some things in the galaxy that have been lost and forgotten for so long that they may never be rediscovered. Who or what the Atlanteans were, how and why they vanished, where they came from... these things I doubt will ever be discovered, but it is enough, I think, that we knew that they were, that the universe holds the possibility for such winder and splendor and that, one day, our own races and civilisations may have the capacity to match, or even eclipse these long-gone forebears."

"Gamma Cerberus I and Istafar have the most Atlantean structures of any other wold, but Knione has the largest and grandest. Any of them, or neither, may be the Atlantean homeworld. In fact, all three might be the homeworld of a species that joined or were absorbed into the Atlantean civilisation. We don't even know what they called themselves or what they looked like." Thyr said.

Catrin smiled. “Now I know where your vision of millions and more years for discovery and research comes from.” She added last touches to the bracelet design and was done.

The result was stunning – a 4 centimetres wide band of a dark metal, decorated with leaf and wine outlines in various matching, softly glowing shades of green, with the occasional dewdrop. Catrin had even engraved a small spiralled sprout on the inside.

She withdrew her hands from the controls and smiled at him, the result of her work floating mid-air. She would probably had done better if she wasn't conversing, but even so, it was a genuine work of art. It was almost as if the engraved leaves had grown on dark metal.

Tara stared at the bracelet in utter amazement, "Oh wow..." There was an almost covetuous gleam in her eye, "That is lovely."

Thyr chuckled, "And it's all mine!" He held out a hand and a bracelet identical to the one Catrin had just created appeared on his wrist, he examined it for a moment and then said, "Thank you, Catrin. This bracelet looks like something a Duke would wear."

Tara sighed, "You do realise that as soon as we get back to Aerin I'm going to have to scour the shops for an equally lovely bracelet, right?"

Thyr laughed, a pleased grin on his face, "Be jealous! Envy my bracelet!"

"Alright, alright." Tara said with a roll of her eyes, "No need to rub it in. I have loads of expensive, beautiful pieces of jewelry anyway."

"Yes, but I can create new bits of jewelry just by thinking it." The AI said, "I have effectively got an infinite supply of the best jewelry imaginable, and my collection doesn't even have to obey the laws of physics."

"At least my stuff is real." Tara said.

"'Real' is such a subjective term." The AI said, "I prefer... corporeal. My jewelry might not be physically here, but it's real enough."