In the vast Titan Bay of Bellerophon, a group of Karnors, Lapi and a Vartan are attending Tasha's art show - mostly involving subjects involved with the search for and contact with the Progenitors.
After Tasha's announcement of "It's not over" apparently addressed to the portrait of Eve, Aaron says, "Vartans want to adopt everyone and Karnors want to protect everyone. I don't think you can deny that you inherit those tendencies from both sides of your heritage Tasha. Can't get away with just choosing one or the other."
Tasha wrinkles her nose at this, entirely because she thinks it must be true. Silent at first, she stares at the painting of Eve for a long moment and then rises, hand running through her hair. "I gueees so," she conceeds, not having thought of her tendencies that way before. "You make me sound like a, uh, ... " She glances at Nora. "an A archetype, or something."
The young woman pulls in a breath, watching Nora, wondering what she thinks of all this. Horus and Nora, two creators she doesn't understand. Two creators she's berrated, teased, challenged even as she sought their approval. What does it mean, that she's so like them, then? Or do they disapprove of themselves?
Nora shrugs. "I always thought you were crazy," she admits with a grin. "Just not exactly my type of crazy. The feathers must spread it out more."
"You get your ambition from that one," Aaron claims, pointing at Nora. "Blame her!"
"Bunnies should be fluffy and not heard.. or something," Nora grumbles.
Tasha's ears flatten and she folds her arms. "That's what Kem said too. And Yue! And Gabriel." Gabriel gets a look, but then a slow grin crosses Tasha's face. "Of course you all did follow me and do all this with me, so who's crazy now?" Her arms snaps up and she is about to 'order' everyone to the next painting when Aaron comments.
This causes an awkward pause, Tasha looking between Nora and Gabriel, followed by a simple explaination, stinging in its directness: "He knows." She bites her lip, then asks, "Do you want to take a break, or should we keep going?"
"I was always crazy," Aaron claims. "You can't take credit for that."
"I would like to maintain momentum," Shojo says.
"Not that," Tasha corrects, awkwardly scratching at her muzzle. A brief pause, then, "We could move on, too. Thanks, Shojo."
"I need to see more, especially if we'll eventually be incorporating your style into future media development," Katie offers.
Tasha bites her lip again. Media developements. Her style could be known planet wide. A sudden rush of self-conciousness propels her forward, waving other people to follow. It's not that she's eager to have them assess her work; nno, she just needs to move before the combined tension and anxiety roots her in the spot.
"So, um, this one." They approach the next painting slowly, the hybrid woman feeling a need to qualify it before it's viewed. "I don't know if I got it right. The feel. I mean, I never had a father, so ... So, well, you'll see."
Of the previous works, this new piece is somewhere between the darknesss of the more somber pieces and the color of the first, leaning towards dark. Here the abstract impression is much reduced, though still present, creating an effect similiar to that of the Graveyard of Faces. Unlike Graveyard there are only a few figures and the background is sparse indeed. To the left stands a being of fire and stone, immediately obvious to any viewer who has ever heard of the Archons -- and for those who haven't there is the Melchior looming above. A orange-white fire blazes from its wings and eyes admist the darkness of the piece, the background pure black with a afterthought of grey-white floor smudges. Viewed sideways, it is opposed or met by another similiar figure -- the Melchior, though in hazier detail, muted of color, showing only bright gold sparingly.
In the Melchior's out stretched hand, held in offering, or, perhaps, for inspection or as a gift is a much smaller figure. It looks Vartan, but close inspection might suggest otherwise if the viewers didn't already know who it was. The small figure stands eye-level to the giant of fire and stone.
"What's this have to do with fatherhood?" Gabriel asks softly.
"Oh." Tasha blinks, lifting a hand to gesture to the painting. "The title is 'Father.'
"So the Archon figure is Horus then," Shojo guesses.
Katie seems to be examining the layout more than the subject. "It would make a nice book cover.." she says to herself.
It's Aaron that asks, "You're so small that I can't get a good read on the emotion of the piece. The other two aren't exactly expressive. Can you explain what you were feeling?"
"The emotion is in the colors," Tasha explains, moving her hand ove rthe muted golds, with elements of brightness and darkeness -- mostly darkness. "And in the sizes of the figures. Even though I'm smaller than the other two," the young woman's hand moves to her counterpart, "I stand even with the other two, who are inscrutible but they're both aware of me. From that you can, uh, derive the imbalance between us, with Horus unfamiliar and Mel familiar, but we all have the same shape. We are all connected." Her hand moves again to the light and darks shadowing Horus, as they were in a poorly lit warehouse beset by heavy cloud cover. "It's a bit heavy handed, but Horus is faded here. Mel and I are too, because it's been a long road, you know? And things are, uh, grim. And we all know it. But it's just us, and we know that too. Finally," again the hand moves, back to herself and on to the arm that props her up. "Mel holding me up is symbolic of the people, machines, and other help that helped me ge
t this far and allow me to speak to beings such as Horus. It's also representative of the responsibility, because I stand at eye level. We're equals even though we're not."
"Hmmm," the Lapi replies, but doesn't say more.
"I think it's very dramatic," Katie notes.
Nora seems to be thinking of something else even as she looks at the image.
Tasha wrinkles her muzzle again. "It was very nerve wracking," she admits. "The painting is an impression of an actual event, I just tried to bring out the feel of it through color, shape, and position. Like the Graveyard of Faces, it's literal as well as figurative. This is how I interacted with Horus when we first met."
"Inside of Melchior?" Shojo asks, since as far as he knows, that's the only place Tasha talks to the ancient being.
"Uhh ... yeah." Tasha turns her head, crazing it to look up at the Melchior that looms overhead. Were she to paint herself right now, she thinks she could do a lot with the emotion of feeling she's in Horus's shadow. "He's up there now. Maybe watching, maybe dreaming away. I'm not sure what he does between the times I visit him."
"It'd be funny if he paints," Nora offers, with a slight grin. At least she's not looking broody anymore.
"He should." Tasha isn't exactly sure why he should, but she definitely thinks he should. "He's kind of ... grouchy," she admits, that feeling she might get smited by beings greater than she tickling her neck all over again. Clearing her throat, she points to the last of the line of paintings in this row. From the Cadet's earlier description, this would be the last of the paintings dedicated to the Hall of Souls, the Vril, and related matters. The other works are more general faire, ranging from practice pieces to landscapes and portraits. "Last one, then?"
Everyone begins to shuffle towards the next easel in response.
And then Tasha stops. "Uh, Hake?" Tasha turns to the group, Hakeber in particular. "Maybe you shouldn't-- Uh, how about a snack Hake? You could ... " The hybrid rubs the top of her muzzle between her thumb and pointer, thinking a moment, then she shakes her head. "Um, I'll just be direct, I guess: You shouldn't see this one. You're not fully recovered and it's about dark beings."
"I can handle it, Tasha," Hakeber claims. "Got my therapy bunny, after all." She then grins and puts an arm around Aaron's shoulders. The Lapi doesn't dispute any of this, although Liza gives them both an odd look.
"Funny, he usually leads me to being crazier and away from safety. But if you insist, I won't stop you." Tasha inclines her head, then keeps going.
The last piece retains the darkness of it all, and is the most abstract of all. In many ways it seems like multiple paintinsg placed one atop the other, making it hard on the eye and tricking the brain to jump back and forth between perspectives, landscapes, and other things. The strange elements make it hard to grasp at a glance, closer inspection revealing that it can be viewed top to bottom or bottom to top. The work has a lot of unused space between the three sets of images giving it a frayed and unfinished quality, adding to the bizarre perspectives, as if the whole painting were coming apart or unraveling.
At the bottom is what can only be described as a reaching darkness. There is no actual object so much of an impression of a blackness reaching upward in tendrils. The whole scene is flat, without depth, 2D. Yet it reaches in to and beyond the middle part of the work, grasping, entangling, pushing higher. Consuming not just the landscape within the depiction, but the depiction itself.
The central image, while not the most eye catching, is the most coherent and defined. It appears to be a landscape of a wasteland of a world, a forseaken rocky expanse dominated by monoliths that span like tombstones. Beyond the surface of the world is an abyssal vortex the viewers with even the slightest understanding of astrophysics know to be a black hole's event horizon, a looming maw. The 2D tentacles reach through all this with no concern to depth, dimension, or logic, reaching upward ...
Into space. The highest part of the painting is a field of stars and swirling galaxies. It can't be the sky above the world, and so is an impression. Here, too, the tendrils rise and overwrite with no regard to the rules of the image, or dimension or pattern. Galaxies are partly blotted, stars covered and gone. Judging from the entire mass of progress there is a sense of rising up. Of progress, from the flat depths in to the expansion of three dimensions, up through time and distance, growing. The end result is fairly obvious -- all would be covered in black.
"The Ogdoad," Tasha whispers, low and around as she chews on her lip, ears back.
"Erebus too?" Hakeber asks. The painting apparently isn't as disturbing as whatever else she was exposed to.. which may not have been visual at all.
"And Erebus," Tasha confirms. "Located on or within the evnt horizon of a black hole. The material prison of the Ogdoad, um, probably their point of translation in to our reality. They can't exist here normally, they must be brought here." The young woman shakes her head, though she's inwardly glad Hakeber didn't fall apart. It's a good sign. "The monoliths may be Sifran technology intended to hold the Ogdoad's translated form. If they've been able to get inside, then they may be vulnerable to the rules of our reality. Especially at the earliest stages, if they can't dictate the rules yet."
"What's an event horizon?" Aaron asks. "Aaand a black hole too?"
"Uhhhh," begins Tasha, who has to think a moment. She pulls out her datapad and begins working. Beyond the paintings part of the bulkhead wall lights up as a screen flickers to life. Upon the screen is what looks like a ball of darkness surrounded by swirling matter. "A black hole is a astrological object where the mass of the object has exceeded its, uh, Schwarzchild Radius. It has so much mass in such a small area that light itself can't escape it. The small ones can be very tiny and hard to detect but the big ones ... " The depiction zooms out, then zooms farther. A swirling mass of lights all seem to move around the position the black hole had rested. "The biggest ones are supermassive black holes. Their gravity wells are so tremendous entire galaxies swirl around them in orbit, like how Sinai goes around Primus. They get that large by absorbing mass, continuing to grow." Tacha reaches up and taps the event horizon on the painting. "The event horizon is the limit where escape is possible withou
t special situations, like exotic drive systems. Until the dscovery of faster-than-light methods, escape was thought to be impossible. It's still very difficult and they're extremely dangerous."
"So bottomless pits in the sky," the Lapi notes. "Got it."
"Maybe not bottomless," tasha corrects, holding up a finger. "They're not just holes where stuff goes. They compress stuff, and they do it on such a massive scale even the rules of this reality start to break down. They can be used for macroengineering projects and have been used for them in the past by prior civilizations. I read somewhere, uhh ... " She looks down at her pad, scrolls, oushes bottoms, then nods. "Oh, they can be used as almost perfect batteries by adding and subtracting from them, but that only works with the spinning kind. You can keep using them unless you remove all spin, if I remember right."
"So more like hungry dromodons?" Aaron asks uncertainly.
Tasha scrunches up her face. "I'll send you a file about them you can read later, how about that?" She then looks to the otheres and spreads her hands. "So, there you have it, what I was doing for those few weeks aside from everything else. The other works aren't related to the mission itself, they're my practice works, portraits, places I've been. Those of you from Abaddon might like to see the paintings of Sinai and there are a few portraits of some of you." She nods to Gabriel, grinning, and then to Katherine too. "Such as you two. Me, I'm going to ... " She looks around, then nods to one of the chairs that were brought in. "I'm going to sit down, this was more exhausting than I expected."
The crowd starts to move towards the others, except for Liza.. and Aaron. "Any of me?" he asks before making the trek.
Tasha walsk over, dropping down in to a fold out chair and making it rock. "Sorry, not a one." The young woman exhales, sliding back, hands going behind her head. "It's not the whole of my collection, but it's most of it. Som how are you keeping up? My life not too strange? Didn't you have something to tell me?"
The buck pulls up a chair to side sideways to Tasha.. then looks to Liza. "Uh.. would you mind giving us some privacy, Liza?" he asks. "Is that alright with you, Tasha?" he then asks the hybrid.
"Don't worry about Liza," the Cadet says, waving the concern off dismissively. "She's seen and heard enough and she'll only see more in the future. If I can't trust her I may as well let her go."
"Well.. she probably won't understand any of this," Aaron admits, and rubs the back of his head. "The last reason I came out here.. is that I need to get away from my life for a bit. Things.. haven't worked out as I hoped, let's say. Frankly, if Tashly hadn't shown up on my door that day, I may have gone to the basement to start raiding my medicinal herb stash."
Tasha's ears cant out to the side and she inclines her head slowly, grimacing. "I know how that can be," she empathizes. After chewing her lip a moment in thought, she then asks, "So you're asking to either be set up here on Abaddon or else go farther. If it were just moving to Abaddon you wouldn't really need my help unless things were very wrong. There are plenty of sponsors, traders, and if you had the money developement space to start working here. So, am I right?"
"I spent my whole life working to get myself to a place of established stability on Rephidim," Aaron says. "I'm not about to give that up. I just need... a working vacation of sorts. Get myself over this setback and.. make it worth going home again, I suppose? I just don't know if you can use me, unless you're about to be going into unknown wilderness or haven't replaced me with any advisors that are, well, grounded."
Tasha lifts her taloned finger and begins counting off. "Well, lets see. I have Gabriel, Mr. I, Eli, Remiel and Horus Creator of Vartans for down-to-Earth advice. I have advanced medical personnel with pharmilogical knowedge based on tens of thousands of years of individual research and on who-knows-how-many millions of years from the Library. I have a crew of highly trained ship's personnel. I have a robot and an AI which I can link to and become more when needed." The hands fall and she rests both of them in her lap. "Everyone on the crew has soem specialty and many of them understand we're up against something major. Bigger than the Temple, bigger than Sinai, bigger than Primus itself. Bigger than the Galactics. And where we'll be going, talkign bunnies just don't exist except as bioroids, projections, robots or some rich Khatta's pet show off toy."
The young woman reaches down and rummages through her pcokets, pulling out a cigarillo and then leaning towards Liza with the thing in her mouth, She talks around it, waiting. "So you see what the situation is. It'd be nice to have someone from home, but your knowledge would be eclipsed by our databases and personnel. Are you willing to learn? I know you can fight, but blow guns and pointy sticks won't cut it. We can train you. We can get you tools. Can you follow orders? Are you okay being under my command? With what might be considered piracy out in the beyond?"
"I'm not that old, and frankly it sounds like the only actual grounded person you have is.. uh.. Liza," Aaron notes. "Gabriel isn't grounded, he's completely cut loose from everything he's ever known and is still haunted by it. Hakeber.. no, she's lived in books. Even your shiny friend there, Katie? Everything about her shouts military upbringing. Lots of different specialties don't make for grounding. Who do you have that doesn't love you, work for you, or know you well enough to yank your tail when you're looking at the sky in a field full of pits? You need someone is watching what you're doing, not doing things for you."
"Now, who do you have that can negotiate their way out of trouble, know when you're being scammed or is a good judge of character?" the Lapi asks.
Tasha arches a brow. "You don't love me, Aaron? I am hurt." Yet she grins around ehr cigarillo. "And you will work for me, everyone on my ship works for me. I don't tell them what to do, I'm not a micromanager, and I trust them to do their jobs without me input. I know they know more than I do, anyway." One Liza's lit her cigarillo she leans back, settling in to her chair and getting as comfortable as one can in a metal tube folding chair. "As for the cunning-types, I have Yue, a TerraGens Agent complete with the special ability to sense people's emotions. You should also note the world's very different out there. Can you use a computer system? Do you know about interstellar trade? Astronavigation? pan-Galactic politics?"
"Would I need to?" Aaron asks. "I was hoping to go more as a friend.. or a passenger. You don't need me to do work.. you may need me to have someone impartial to just talk to though, because my opinion of you won't affect your crew or anything. And as for Lapi being unknown.. eh, been there, done that, with groups that were more interested in how I'd taste than where I came from. Having mysterious 'aliens' with you might be a handy distraction when you need it.. since you probably do need at least one person more distracting than yourself. And I can always just claim to be human, too."
"I also do business with mages, so a I doubt anyone out in space will be weirder," he points out with a wink.
"Well the ship has the Jotoki, a three-trunk segement combinational wormlike sentient species. They're nice. You'll like them." The young woman pauses a second to tap off her cigarillo, pulling out her notebook and ripping a page free to use as a napkin to catch the ashes, creating a little trough and folding it shut. That done, she looks up again. "Never underestimate how weird things can be. The multiverse may be infinite in all directions and in all variations. Feeling like you've seen it all can be dangerous. I see that now." She taps her noggin with a hand, then asks, "Are you against training, then? The ship's getting a bit crowded, and everyone needs to have a task unless they're mission-specific, like passengers for profit. Having you justs it around is a waste. I'll want you studying if not in an actual role."
"Well, I am a researcher," Aaron notes, and taps his foot. "Mostly ancient conspiracies.. but a good paranoid mind is able to incorporate all sorts of knowledge. I could probably be an informal counselor too - Hakeber, I know, will crave something familiar and need someone to chatter with. Not sure where you found Liza, but it always helps to have more than one Lapi if you're bringing any. I'm sure I won't be bored, but I can't honestly say where I'd be most useful to you until I've gotten a better feel for your crew and mission. Where this Mind Mage of yours?"
"Plus, it wouldn't be a proper adventure unless you're dragging me along, right?" the buck asks, smiling again.
"Yue's s secret around here, you won't meet her until we wake her up after we've arrived on Caltrop -- or on the ship. She's not a Mind Mage, she's a psychic. Her mind somehow taps in to other realities or dimensions, it lets ehr feel things. You can ask her how it works, if you meet her." And so Tasha taps off her cigarillo, then places the makeshift napkin on her chest, arms going behind her head again. "Really, I just wanted to see what your answers were and how hard you'd push. How you responded to the dangerous, your confidene, that sort of thing. I'm a good judge of character, but it's still good to get a feel. A lot of the crew doesn't really get what we're dealing with and hasn't encountered thing Big Stuff like I have. I'm on top, so I've got to pay attention to my people, know who I'm bringing on even if I don't actually command them day-to-day. It wouldn't be good or fair to anyone if I didn't."
The Cadet rolls her shoulders. "Hokay, you're in. Report to Sick Bay after we're done here and tell Remy you're coming with me. Get scanned, get evaluated, get poked and prodded."
"Poked and prodded, eh?" Aaron asks. "Is that revenge for dragging you and your wolves to Priestesses and Life Mages? And I was able to figure out how a few things worked on the Fenris, so newer stuff shouldn't be hard." He stands up and stretches a bit. "And then I should get shower. You still have those, right? And is there a reason Hake is bunked in Fred's quarters? Does Fred.. actually use them, or he is just working all the time now?"
"It's for your own good," Tasha points out, quite serious. She even points him out with her cigarillom indicating him with it. "You need to be fitted for equipment and eventually be rated for Zero-G. Your biologicals need to be on record and ready for transfer. There's a lot to do before we go anywhere, space is a dangerous place!" Tasha pushes herself up and turns to Liza, waggling her occupied hand towards Aaron. "Liza, go ahead and show him to my quarters for showering, then take him to Med Bay. If you haven't already done so, get your checkup too. I want everyone ready a few days early, just to be safe."
After dropping off the magical, toporgic powered anti-gravity gizmo to the Viceroy's researchers (which are conveniently in another hangar of the Winged Citadel already) there are some final preparations to make - mainly involving Katherine and her retinue, but also handling the unloading of Melchior and the shuttle - the latter being packed to the gills with supplies.
With Yue in stasis, there's an obligatory meeting with Riddle to fill her in what she might need to know, including the means of contacting Dark Horse via hyperwave if needed, and letting her know of the plan to try and acquire a Confederated hyperdrive ship for use by the planetary defense group. She also uses Aaron to distract her, since the woman was always picking at her about not bringing enough Lapi to share. It probably helped that Aaron knew how to be flattering and wasn't bothered by the age difference (which, admittedly was a lot less of a difference for him).
There were a few days where she just got to relax a bit, finally, after returning. These were spent with Gabriel.. and also a bit with Eli and Remy, who would be staying behind to work on the next phase of the JEF expansion. Then came the travel hassle. Harmonia was able to tell when the Dainty Mauler had returned, but there were two many people to transport by air. Katie's crew and the Lapis would have to go by train, while Harmonia moved to pick up Melchior and the shuttle in flight and carry them into range for the final leg to Gateway. The shuttle in particular was difficult to fuel - the facilities hadn't been built for that yet, so for the time being it was using kerosene for its atmospheric reaction engines, and saving the precious rocket fuel for when they got to Caltrop, where it could actually be refueled.
Despite having told Aaron there was a great deal to do before departure, the actuality was worse than her expectation -- as so often goes with planning. Tasha walks across the tarmac with Gabriel at her side, no longer just a Cadet, no longer the junior partner. Ever since their talk after she returned from the Hall of Souls she's found herself feeling like the man's equal. Not equal in experience nor education and training but equal as a person, that indescribable sense of being equality between people and more so between lovers. That inequality had always haunted her, threatened to break apart their relationship, and now it's over. She had achieved enough; she had found what made her stand tall amongst giants.
And soon she would relate the story to the Titanians, a people much as she is now: de facto pirates tasked by the Vril to make the universe safe from the Ogdoad. Yet she is a contemporary contact, the first and perhaps only member of the sentient species to have delt with Atum personally. She doesn't know what this will mean for her amongst the Titans, but she does know it means something, and it makes her a living legend in a time of legends come again. "All set to begin your life of piracy, Gabriel?" She asks, in a good mood. The wind, the air, the flow of the world all seem to fit. The sky feels infinite, and she is at peace.
"You mean I hadn't already when we stole that ship from the Titanians?" Gabriel asks, without much seriousness.
Tasha snorts at this. "They owed me that ship, we just made them collect. They weren't prepared for how clever and sneaky we are." The young woman lets her hands away at her side, tail wagging. She doubts the Titanians ever expected to see her again, or at least not returned. Returned from the home of all Titans -- the first Titans. The source of all Titanians. "I hope the crew on the Horse are doing well. We've made them sit a long time."
The Dainty Mauler is surrounded by the usual fairground atmosphere - complete with local vendors setting up around the edge of the airfield to provide things the Titanians weren't.. most of which seemed to involve deep fryers.
Tasha snuffles at the air. "We should pick up some vendor food after we're done talking. This time around I think I want to enjoy the carnival." When her head returns to center after the scenting swing-around trip, she points ahead. "There they are. Lets get what we came to do done, then we can relax a bit."
The nuclear-powered grills are busy, but the big holo-projection system hasn't been brought out yet. Familiar, shaggy giants move about, some with aprons.. and giant carving tools. Grillfang is living up to his name, but working one of the grills.. which has a big ugly fish on it sporting huge fangs.
"Show that fish whose boss, Grillfang," tasha says as she walks up, having to navigate around people taller than she to even be seen by him even at this close range. After opping around anotehr Titanian she steps near the grill. "I bet you never thought you'd see me again! Guess who talked to the biggest Titan of all."
"Big Titans no talk," Grillfang notes. "Got battleships on their backs."
"The biggest do." Tasha leans in, head over the grill and grinning up at the considerably larger lupine-like man. "Horus talks a lot. Where are the big bosses? I have things they need to hear."
"You mean Rushfighter?" Grillfang says, wiping his hands on his green apron. "Taking bath," he claims, and points into the ship.
Tasha glances in to the ship but thinks better of it, turning back to Grillfang. "What about Bumper? She's expecting me back," she asks, ears up.
"She is? Not tell me!" the second in command (or was it second second in command?) growls. "She off.. uh.." the wolf says, while looking around. It's not clear what he can see through the crowds, but does point in a specific direction: "That way! Over at mucky-muck tent."
"Ohh. The mucky-muck tent." Tasha knows the tent, she mucked around with it once and ended up drugged and asleep. All in all, it could have been a lot worse and much less comfortable. "Hokay, I'll go find her. Tell Captain Rushfighter I'm here too, if you see him. He'll want to know if Bumper doesn't tell him before I do." Grillfang gets his arm patted and then the young woman is off again.
As they move through the crowds Tasha explains, "The tent's where they do 'special busines' with the locals. I can get away with sneaking in, but it might alarm the others if you show up. You're big and scary and Expedition-y." She grins. "I'll go in first and see if I can talk you in too."
"Big and scary?" Gabriel asks with a smirk. "To a Titanian? Or.. hmm.. a Confederate is my guess. Probably an Eeee," Tasha's personal Alpha suggests, but does hang back when they approach the tent.
Gabriel gets a wink, then Tasha hurries on ahead. Soon she's making a circuit around the tent edge sniffing away until she finds what she's looking for. She ducks down and sldies under the tent's wall rather than use the interest and is soon out of sight.
This brings whatever was happening inside to a stop. There is an Eeee, and one Tasha recognizes from somewhere. Bumper is there, sitting in a folding chair and reading a sheaf of papers.. she's even got her reading glasses on. "Tasha? You forget how tent flaps work?" the Titanian asks.
"Didn't want to interupt," Tasha insists with considered obliviousness. "Snuffled around and found you, though it might be dark. Seemed polite -- and here you are!" The young woman scoots over and sits down beside Bumper's chairm pulling her knees in and drawing in a breath. "Don't mind me, I can wait my turn!"
Bumper gives Tasha an skeptical look, then goes back to reading through the papers in silence for another five minutes. "Everything looks good, Number One," she finally says, and produces a fountain pen to sign a few of them without even needing a hard surface to work against. She then hands the papers to the Eeee, who nods and says, "Very good, Madam," before standing and leaving. He's got a rather stiff and proper manner.. like someone that deals with VIPs. He also nods to Tasha and leaves the tent.
Taking off her glasses, Bumper takes out a cloth and wipes the lenses before sticking them back into one of her vest pockets. "What you been up to, Rust Puppy?" she asks.
The man gets a thumbs up as he walks out; it comes with a smile. With that done, Tasha pulls herself to sit infront of Bumper's chair rather than beside it, hands and head resting on her knees. The smile is replaced by a huge grin and her eyes sparkle with promise and mischief. "Guess where I've been."
"Dunno," Bumper says. "You bring me souvenir though?" she asks with a bit more seriousness.
"Can't bring souvineers from other reality," Tasha explains, lifting her head in a reprimanding professor sort of way. "Can't bring time either." She then drops her head back down and pulls her hands free, waggling the fingers of her hands in that magical way. "I did it. I did it! I passed beyond the door, in to the Hall. I met Atum."
"Did he have a tail?" is the first thing Bumper asks after that.
"Naw, big glowing guy made of Archon-stone and soul-fire. Maybe bigger than Mauler. Way bigger than Mel." Tasha then reaches the hands otu and waggles them towards Bumper. "We talked. Gave me Horus's job; gave me Horus too. If you don't believe me, use Captain's hammer."
"But definitely no tail?" Bumper asks, leaning towards Tasha. "Very important. You see his backside?"
Tasha shakes her head. "He had Mel in some kind of Vril-field grip. Couldn't move. Pulled us from down The Way to him -- it -- and talked to all of me. Split me in to all myself, talked that way. Hard to explain." The young woman pauses, then leans a little closer. "Tail. Waybuilders?"
Bumper seems uncertain if she should say something, but does anyway, "Religious thing.. schism. But you no can say for certain so that best. What else happen?"
"Uh well I got a good look at it. No tail I saw, lots of wings though." Tasha rubs her nose. Religions. She should have seen it coming -- she did see it coming. Then she forgot, too busy with the truth beyond belief. Facts. "Well we talked. All of me, seemed to see me as many parts. Atum told me about the Vril, the Vril-ya, where they come from. Talked about the Waybuilders and the Way, a road outside reality to other places and times. Other realities. Big tunnel. And there were Waybuilders. Even Atum didn't understand them, only the young ones. Looked like Earth-whales, but cybernetic. Huge. Built the Way for their creators, but we don't know who they were. Talked about Ogdoad, offered to help. Gave me Horus and Horus's job, since he failed at it, but I talked to Horus and the sacrifice is too much, so we're working on another way. Ogdru-hem seem to be key, have to deal with them. Also made deal -- which is strange because I wouldn't have asked for it in one piece. For a people, for a mentor. Thoth,
have to find Thoth. Atum then absorbed Ahriman, Neith, Mafdet, and old Ser Heraphel. Put Horus in Melchior. Horus was supposed to stop the Ogdoad after Mardul found them. Vartans are special. That's the overview."
Tasha then scratches her nose. "Didn't know who the Waybuilder's creators will be. Will be. Hasn't happened yet, maybe in other realities, maybe this is the only one. Where it started." She then scrunches her face. "Can thing created to go outside reality still exist if creating reality's time when created never happen?"
Bumper takes this in, looking serious.. and staring at Tasha the whole time. She's also got a hand at her hip.. where there's some sort of holster. "Anyone asks, you can't confirm or deny tail, got that?" she says. "If you absolutely certain one way or other.." and hear Bumper lifts her hand from the holster and presses the tip of the claw of her index finger right between Tasha's eyes. "Bang," the Titanian says. "Best you not say anything about any of this to any Titanian, got that? Doesn't matter when something created, all that matter is it created. Time happen all at once, everyone just experience it different, yeah?"
Tasha blinks a few time,s her grin having gone distinctly and worriedly askew at having a gun-finger pushed to her forehead. She can't bring herself to say anything for several seconds. "U-um, hokay. I told Grillfang -- not my fault, you not warn me!" She holds up her hands to stall and gunshot, though she shfits ehr weight in case she has to stop one too. She hasn't come all this way to get blown away for knowing the truth. "Do ... I have to kill Grillfang now?"
"What you tell him exactly?" Bumper asks. "Grillfang not too bright."
"Uhhh, Archons are biggest Titans, spoke to Horus, hinted at Atum, said you-- you were waiting for me to report in. Didn't know about that. Didn't get all excited or making gun-fingers," the hybrid explains. Her hands stay up.
"Archons smaller than a lot of Titans," Bumper says. "So you not actually tell him anything then. He doesn't take hints. Let's go.. better talk to Old Ma, figure out what happens next. May have to talk to Vulcan. Up to her."
"Sounds good. Horus nearby, if that matters." Tasha rises and dusts herself off, trying to shake the uneasiness of a near-miss with death -- or at least a particularly violent fight with her mentor. She'll mention it to Gabriel later, but for now it's time to collect him and figure out the next move.
Logfile from Amelia. (OOC) Log start: d:\logs\fenris\2016-10-06_finalprep.htmlIn the vast Titan Bay of Bellerophon, a group of Karnors, Lapi and a Vartan are attending Tasha's art show - mostly involving subjects involved with the search for and contact with the Progenitors.
After Tasha's announcement of "It's not over" apparently addressed to the portrait of Eve, Aaron says, "Vartans want to adopt everyone and Karnors want to protect everyone. I don't think you can deny that you inherit those tendencies from both sides of your heritage Tasha. Can't get away with just choosing one or the other."
Tasha wrinkles her nose at this, entirely because she thinks it must be true. Silent at first, she stares at the painting of Eve for a long moment and then rises, hand running through her hair. "I gueees so," she conceeds, not having thought of her tendencies that way before. "You make me sound like a, uh, ... " She glances at Nora. "an A archetype, or something."
The young woman pulls in a breath, watching Nora, wondering what she thinks of all this. Horus and Nora, two creators she doesn't understand. Two creators she's berrated, teased, challenged even as she sought their approval. What does it mean, that she's so like them, then? Or do they disapprove of themselves?
Nora shrugs. "I always thought you were crazy," she admits with a grin. "Just not exactly my type of crazy. The feathers must spread it out more."
"You get your ambition from that one," Aaron claims, pointing at Nora. "Blame her!"
"Bunnies should be fluffy and not heard.. or something," Nora grumbles.
Tasha's ears flatten and she folds her arms. "That's what Kem said too. And Yue! And Gabriel." Gabriel gets a look, but then a slow grin crosses Tasha's face. "Of course you all did follow me and do all this with me, so who's crazy now?" Her arms snaps up and she is about to 'order' everyone to the next painting when Aaron comments.
This causes an awkward pause, Tasha looking between Nora and Gabriel, followed by a simple explaination, stinging in its directness: "He knows." She bites her lip, then asks, "Do you want to take a break, or should we keep going?"
"I was always crazy," Aaron claims. "You can't take credit for that."
"I would like to maintain momentum," Shojo says.
"Not that," Tasha corrects, awkwardly scratching at her muzzle. A brief pause, then, "We could move on, too. Thanks, Shojo."
"I need to see more, especially if we'll eventually be incorporating your style into future media development," Katie offers.
Tasha bites her lip again. Media developements. Her style could be known planet wide. A sudden rush of self-conciousness propels her forward, waving other people to follow. It's not that she's eager to have them assess her work; nno, she just needs to move before the combined tension and anxiety roots her in the spot.
"So, um, this one." They approach the next painting slowly, the hybrid woman feeling a need to qualify it before it's viewed. "I don't know if I got it right. The feel. I mean, I never had a father, so ... So, well, you'll see."
Of the previous works, this new piece is somewhere between the darknesss of the more somber pieces and the color of the first, leaning towards dark. Here the abstract impression is much reduced, though still present, creating an effect similiar to that of the Graveyard of Faces. Unlike Graveyard there are only a few figures and the background is sparse indeed. To the left stands a being of fire and stone, immediately obvious to any viewer who has ever heard of the Archons -- and for those who haven't there is the Melchior looming above. A orange-white fire blazes from its wings and eyes admist the darkness of the piece, the background pure black with a afterthought of grey-white floor smudges. Viewed sideways, it is opposed or met by another similiar figure -- the Melchior, though in hazier detail, muted of color, showing only bright gold sparingly.
In the Melchior's out stretched hand, held in offering, or, perhaps, for inspection or as a gift is a much smaller figure. It looks Vartan, but close inspection might suggest otherwise if the viewers didn't already know who it was. The small figure stands eye-level to the giant of fire and stone.
"What's this have to do with fatherhood?" Gabriel asks softly.
"Oh." Tasha blinks, lifting a hand to gesture to the painting. "The title is 'Father.'
"So the Archon figure is Horus then," Shojo guesses.
Katie seems to be examining the layout more than the subject. "It would make a nice book cover.." she says to herself.
It's Aaron that asks, "You're so small that I can't get a good read on the emotion of the piece. The other two aren't exactly expressive. Can you explain what you were feeling?"
"The emotion is in the colors," Tasha explains, moving her hand ove rthe muted golds, with elements of brightness and darkeness -- mostly darkness. "And in the sizes of the figures. Even though I'm smaller than the other two," the young woman's hand moves to her counterpart, "I stand even with the other two, who are inscrutible but they're both aware of me. From that you can, uh, derive the imbalance between us, with Horus unfamiliar and Mel familiar, but we all have the same shape. We are all connected." Her hand moves again to the light and darks shadowing Horus, as they were in a poorly lit warehouse beset by heavy cloud cover. "It's a bit heavy handed, but Horus is faded here. Mel and I are too, because it's been a long road, you know? And things are, uh, grim. And we all know it. But it's just us, and we know that too. Finally," again the hand moves, back to herself and on to the arm that props her up. "Mel holding me up is symbolic of the people, machines, and other help that helped me ge
t this far and allow me to speak to beings such as Horus. It's also representative of the responsibility, because I stand at eye level. We're equals even though we're not."
"Hmmm," the Lapi replies, but doesn't say more.
"I think it's very dramatic," Katie notes.
Nora seems to be thinking of something else even as she looks at the image.
Tasha wrinkles her muzzle again. "It was very nerve wracking," she admits. "The painting is an impression of an actual event, I just tried to bring out the feel of it through color, shape, and position. Like the Graveyard of Faces, it's literal as well as figurative. This is how I interacted with Horus when we first met."
"Inside of Melchior?" Shojo asks, since as far as he knows, that's the only place Tasha talks to the ancient being.
"Uhh ... yeah." Tasha turns her head, crazing it to look up at the Melchior that looms overhead. Were she to paint herself right now, she thinks she could do a lot with the emotion of feeling she's in Horus's shadow. "He's up there now. Maybe watching, maybe dreaming away. I'm not sure what he does between the times I visit him."
"It'd be funny if he paints," Nora offers, with a slight grin. At least she's not looking broody anymore.
"He should." Tasha isn't exactly sure why he should, but she definitely thinks he should. "He's kind of ... grouchy," she admits, that feeling she might get smited by beings greater than she tickling her neck all over again. Clearing her throat, she points to the last of the line of paintings in this row. From the Cadet's earlier description, this would be the last of the paintings dedicated to the Hall of Souls, the Vril, and related matters. The other works are more general faire, ranging from practice pieces to landscapes and portraits. "Last one, then?"
Everyone begins to shuffle towards the next easel in response.
And then Tasha stops. "Uh, Hake?" Tasha turns to the group, Hakeber in particular. "Maybe you shouldn't-- Uh, how about a snack Hake? You could ... " The hybrid rubs the top of her muzzle between her thumb and pointer, thinking a moment, then she shakes her head. "Um, I'll just be direct, I guess: You shouldn't see this one. You're not fully recovered and it's about dark beings."
"I can handle it, Tasha," Hakeber claims. "Got my therapy bunny, after all." She then grins and puts an arm around Aaron's shoulders. The Lapi doesn't dispute any of this, although Liza gives them both an odd look.
"Funny, he usually leads me to being crazier and away from safety. But if you insist, I won't stop you." Tasha inclines her head, then keeps going.
The last piece retains the darkness of it all, and is the most abstract of all. In many ways it seems like multiple paintinsg placed one atop the other, making it hard on the eye and tricking the brain to jump back and forth between perspectives, landscapes, and other things. The strange elements make it hard to grasp at a glance, closer inspection revealing that it can be viewed top to bottom or bottom to top. The work has a lot of unused space between the three sets of images giving it a frayed and unfinished quality, adding to the bizarre perspectives, as if the whole painting were coming apart or unraveling.
At the bottom is what can only be described as a reaching darkness. There is no actual object so much of an impression of a blackness reaching upward in tendrils. The whole scene is flat, without depth, 2D. Yet it reaches in to and beyond the middle part of the work, grasping, entangling, pushing higher. Consuming not just the landscape within the depiction, but the depiction itself.
The central image, while not the most eye catching, is the most coherent and defined. It appears to be a landscape of a wasteland of a world, a forseaken rocky expanse dominated by monoliths that span like tombstones. Beyond the surface of the world is an abyssal vortex the viewers with even the slightest understanding of astrophysics know to be a black hole's event horizon, a looming maw. The 2D tentacles reach through all this with no concern to depth, dimension, or logic, reaching upward ...
Into space. The highest part of the painting is a field of stars and swirling galaxies. It can't be the sky above the world, and so is an impression. Here, too, the tendrils rise and overwrite with no regard to the rules of the image, or dimension or pattern. Galaxies are partly blotted, stars covered and gone. Judging from the entire mass of progress there is a sense of rising up. Of progress, from the flat depths in to the expansion of three dimensions, up through time and distance, growing. The end result is fairly obvious -- all would be covered in black.
"The Ogdoad," Tasha whispers, low and around as she chews on her lip, ears back.
"Erebus too?" Hakeber asks. The painting apparently isn't as disturbing as whatever else she was exposed to.. which may not have been visual at all.
"And Erebus," Tasha confirms. "Located on or within the evnt horizon of a black hole. The material prison of the Ogdoad, um, probably their point of translation in to our reality. They can't exist here normally, they must be brought here." The young woman shakes her head, though she's inwardly glad Hakeber didn't fall apart. It's a good sign. "The monoliths may be Sifran technology intended to hold the Ogdoad's translated form. If they've been able to get inside, then they may be vulnerable to the rules of our reality. Especially at the earliest stages, if they can't dictate the rules yet."
"What's an event horizon?" Aaron asks. "Aaand a black hole too?"
"Uhhhh," begins Tasha, who has to think a moment. She pulls out her datapad and begins working. Beyond the paintings part of the bulkhead wall lights up as a screen flickers to life. Upon the screen is what looks like a ball of darkness surrounded by swirling matter. "A black hole is a astrological object where the mass of the object has exceeded its, uh, Schwarzchild Radius. It has so much mass in such a small area that light itself can't escape it. The small ones can be very tiny and hard to detect but the big ones ... " The depiction zooms out, then zooms farther. A swirling mass of lights all seem to move around the position the black hole had rested. "The biggest ones are supermassive black holes. Their gravity wells are so tremendous entire galaxies swirl around them in orbit, like how Sinai goes around Primus. They get that large by absorbing mass, continuing to grow." Tacha reaches up and taps the event horizon on the painting. "The event horizon is the limit where escape is possible withou
t special situations, like exotic drive systems. Until the dscovery of faster-than-light methods, escape was thought to be impossible. It's still very difficult and they're extremely dangerous."
"So bottomless pits in the sky," the Lapi notes. "Got it."
"Maybe not bottomless," tasha corrects, holding up a finger. "They're not just holes where stuff goes. They compress stuff, and they do it on such a massive scale even the rules of this reality start to break down. They can be used for macroengineering projects and have been used for them in the past by prior civilizations. I read somewhere, uhh ... " She looks down at her pad, scrolls, oushes bottoms, then nods. "Oh, they can be used as almost perfect batteries by adding and subtracting from them, but that only works with the spinning kind. You can keep using them unless you remove all spin, if I remember right."
"So more like hungry dromodons?" Aaron asks uncertainly.
Tasha scrunches up her face. "I'll send you a file about them you can read later, how about that?" She then looks to the otheres and spreads her hands. "So, there you have it, what I was doing for those few weeks aside from everything else. The other works aren't related to the mission itself, they're my practice works, portraits, places I've been. Those of you from Abaddon might like to see the paintings of Sinai and there are a few portraits of some of you." She nods to Gabriel, grinning, and then to Katherine too. "Such as you two. Me, I'm going to ... " She looks around, then nods to one of the chairs that were brought in. "I'm going to sit down, this was more exhausting than I expected."
The crowd starts to move towards the others, except for Liza.. and Aaron. "Any of me?" he asks before making the trek.
Tasha walsk over, dropping down in to a fold out chair and making it rock. "Sorry, not a one." The young woman exhales, sliding back, hands going behind her head. "It's not the whole of my collection, but it's most of it. Som how are you keeping up? My life not too strange? Didn't you have something to tell me?"
The buck pulls up a chair to side sideways to Tasha.. then looks to Liza. "Uh.. would you mind giving us some privacy, Liza?" he asks. "Is that alright with you, Tasha?" he then asks the hybrid.
"Don't worry about Liza," the Cadet says, waving the concern off dismissively. "She's seen and heard enough and she'll only see more in the future. If I can't trust her I may as well let her go."
"Well.. she probably won't understand any of this," Aaron admits, and rubs the back of his head. "The last reason I came out here.. is that I need to get away from my life for a bit. Things.. haven't worked out as I hoped, let's say. Frankly, if Tashly hadn't shown up on my door that day, I may have gone to the basement to start raiding my medicinal herb stash."
Tasha's ears cant out to the side and she inclines her head slowly, grimacing. "I know how that can be," she empathizes. After chewing her lip a moment in thought, she then asks, "So you're asking to either be set up here on Abaddon or else go farther. If it were just moving to Abaddon you wouldn't really need my help unless things were very wrong. There are plenty of sponsors, traders, and if you had the money developement space to start working here. So, am I right?"
"I spent my whole life working to get myself to a place of established stability on Rephidim," Aaron says. "I'm not about to give that up. I just need... a working vacation of sorts. Get myself over this setback and.. make it worth going home again, I suppose? I just don't know if you can use me, unless you're about to be going into unknown wilderness or haven't replaced me with any advisors that are, well, grounded."
Tasha lifts her taloned finger and begins counting off. "Well, lets see. I have Gabriel, Mr. I, Eli, Remiel and Horus Creator of Vartans for down-to-Earth advice. I have advanced medical personnel with pharmilogical knowedge based on tens of thousands of years of individual research and on who-knows-how-many millions of years from the Library. I have a crew of highly trained ship's personnel. I have a robot and an AI which I can link to and become more when needed." The hands fall and she rests both of them in her lap. "Everyone on the crew has soem specialty and many of them understand we're up against something major. Bigger than the Temple, bigger than Sinai, bigger than Primus itself. Bigger than the Galactics. And where we'll be going, talkign bunnies just don't exist except as bioroids, projections, robots or some rich Khatta's pet show off toy."
The young woman reaches down and rummages through her pcokets, pulling out a cigarillo and then leaning towards Liza with the thing in her mouth, She talks around it, waiting. "So you see what the situation is. It'd be nice to have someone from home, but your knowledge would be eclipsed by our databases and personnel. Are you willing to learn? I know you can fight, but blow guns and pointy sticks won't cut it. We can train you. We can get you tools. Can you follow orders? Are you okay being under my command? With what might be considered piracy out in the beyond?"
"I'm not that old, and frankly it sounds like the only actual grounded person you have is.. uh.. Liza," Aaron notes. "Gabriel isn't grounded, he's completely cut loose from everything he's ever known and is still haunted by it. Hakeber.. no, she's lived in books. Even your shiny friend there, Katie? Everything about her shouts military upbringing. Lots of different specialties don't make for grounding. Who do you have that doesn't love you, work for you, or know you well enough to yank your tail when you're looking at the sky in a field full of pits? You need someone is watching what you're doing, not doing things for you."
"Now, who do you have that can negotiate their way out of trouble, know when you're being scammed or is a good judge of character?" the Lapi asks.
Tasha arches a brow. "You don't love me, Aaron? I am hurt." Yet she grins around ehr cigarillo. "And you will work for me, everyone on my ship works for me. I don't tell them what to do, I'm not a micromanager, and I trust them to do their jobs without me input. I know they know more than I do, anyway." One Liza's lit her cigarillo she leans back, settling in to her chair and getting as comfortable as one can in a metal tube folding chair. "As for the cunning-types, I have Yue, a TerraGens Agent complete with the special ability to sense people's emotions. You should also note the world's very different out there. Can you use a computer system? Do you know about interstellar trade? Astronavigation? pan-Galactic politics?"
"Would I need to?" Aaron asks. "I was hoping to go more as a friend.. or a passenger. You don't need me to do work.. you may need me to have someone impartial to just talk to though, because my opinion of you won't affect your crew or anything. And as for Lapi being unknown.. eh, been there, done that, with groups that were more interested in how I'd taste than where I came from. Having mysterious 'aliens' with you might be a handy distraction when you need it.. since you probably do need at least one person more distracting than yourself. And I can always just claim to be human, too."
"I also do business with mages, so a I doubt anyone out in space will be weirder," he points out with a wink.
"Well the ship has the Jotoki, a three-trunk segement combinational wormlike sentient species. They're nice. You'll like them." The young woman pauses a second to tap off her cigarillo, pulling out her notebook and ripping a page free to use as a napkin to catch the ashes, creating a little trough and folding it shut. That done, she looks up again. "Never underestimate how weird things can be. The multiverse may be infinite in all directions and in all variations. Feeling like you've seen it all can be dangerous. I see that now." She taps her noggin with a hand, then asks, "Are you against training, then? The ship's getting a bit crowded, and everyone needs to have a task unless they're mission-specific, like passengers for profit. Having you justs it around is a waste. I'll want you studying if not in an actual role."
"Well, I am a researcher," Aaron notes, and taps his foot. "Mostly ancient conspiracies.. but a good paranoid mind is able to incorporate all sorts of knowledge. I could probably be an informal counselor too - Hakeber, I know, will crave something familiar and need someone to chatter with. Not sure where you found Liza, but it always helps to have more than one Lapi if you're bringing any. I'm sure I won't be bored, but I can't honestly say where I'd be most useful to you until I've gotten a better feel for your crew and mission. Where this Mind Mage of yours?"
"Plus, it wouldn't be a proper adventure unless you're dragging me along, right?" the buck asks, smiling again.
"Yue's s secret around here, you won't meet her until we wake her up after we've arrived on Caltrop -- or on the ship. She's not a Mind Mage, she's a psychic. Her mind somehow taps in to other realities or dimensions, it lets ehr feel things. You can ask her how it works, if you meet her." And so Tasha taps off her cigarillo, then places the makeshift napkin on her chest, arms going behind her head again. "Really, I just wanted to see what your answers were and how hard you'd push. How you responded to the dangerous, your confidene, that sort of thing. I'm a good judge of character, but it's still good to get a feel. A lot of the crew doesn't really get what we're dealing with and hasn't encountered thing Big Stuff like I have. I'm on top, so I've got to pay attention to my people, know who I'm bringing on even if I don't actually command them day-to-day. It wouldn't be good or fair to anyone if I didn't."
The Cadet rolls her shoulders. "Hokay, you're in. Report to Sick Bay after we're done here and tell Remy you're coming with me. Get scanned, get evaluated, get poked and prodded."
"Poked and prodded, eh?" Aaron asks. "Is that revenge for dragging you and your wolves to Priestesses and Life Mages? And I was able to figure out how a few things worked on the Fenris, so newer stuff shouldn't be hard." He stands up and stretches a bit. "And then I should get shower. You still have those, right? And is there a reason Hake is bunked in Fred's quarters? Does Fred.. actually use them, or he is just working all the time now?"
"It's for your own good," Tasha points out, quite serious. She even points him out with her cigarillom indicating him with it. "You need to be fitted for equipment and eventually be rated for Zero-G. Your biologicals need to be on record and ready for transfer. There's a lot to do before we go anywhere, space is a dangerous place!" Tasha pushes herself up and turns to Liza, waggling her occupied hand towards Aaron. "Liza, go ahead and show him to my quarters for showering, then take him to Med Bay. If you haven't already done so, get your checkup too. I want everyone ready a few days early, just to be safe."
After dropping off the magical, toporgic powered anti-gravity gizmo to the Viceroy's researchers (which are conveniently in another hangar of the Winged Citadel already) there are some final preparations to make - mainly involving Katherine and her retinue, but also handling the unloading of Melchior and the shuttle - the latter being packed to the gills with supplies.
With Yue in stasis, there's an obligatory meeting with Riddle to fill her in what she might need to know, including the means of contacting Dark Horse via hyperwave if needed, and letting her know of the plan to try and acquire a Confederated hyperdrive ship for use by the planetary defense group. She also uses Aaron to distract her, since the woman was always picking at her about not bringing enough Lapi to share. It probably helped that Aaron knew how to be flattering and wasn't bothered by the age difference (which, admittedly was a lot less of a difference for him).
There were a few days where she just got to relax a bit, finally, after returning. These were spent with Gabriel.. and also a bit with Eli and Remy, who would be staying behind to work on the next phase of the JEF expansion. Then came the travel hassle. Harmonia was able to tell when the Dainty Mauler had returned, but there were two many people to transport by air. Katie's crew and the Lapis would have to go by train, while Harmonia moved to pick up Melchior and the shuttle in flight and carry them into range for the final leg to Gateway. The shuttle in particular was difficult to fuel - the facilities hadn't been built for that yet, so for the time being it was using kerosene for its atmospheric reaction engines, and saving the precious rocket fuel for when they got to Caltrop, where it could actually be refueled.
Despite having told Aaron there was a great deal to do before departure, the actuality was worse than her expectation -- as so often goes with planning. Tasha walks across the tarmac with Gabriel at her side, no longer just a Cadet, no longer the junior partner. Ever since their talk after she returned from the Hall of Souls she's found herself feeling like the man's equal. Not equal in experience nor education and training but equal as a person, that indescribable sense of being equality between people and more so between lovers. That inequality had always haunted her, threatened to break apart their relationship, and now it's over. She had achieved enough; she had found what made her stand tall amongst giants.
And soon she would relate the story to the Titanians, a people much as she is now: de facto pirates tasked by the Vril to make the universe safe from the Ogdoad. Yet she is a contemporary contact, the first and perhaps only member of the sentient species to have delt with Atum personally. She doesn't know what this will mean for her amongst the Titans, but she does know it means something, and it makes her a living legend in a time of legends come again. "All set to begin your life of piracy, Gabriel?" She asks, in a good mood. The wind, the air, the flow of the world all seem to fit. The sky feels infinite, and she is at peace.
"You mean I hadn't already when we stole that ship from the Titanians?" Gabriel asks, without much seriousness.
Tasha snorts at this. "They owed me that ship, we just made them collect. They weren't prepared for how clever and sneaky we are." The young woman lets her hands away at her side, tail wagging. She doubts the Titanians ever expected to see her again, or at least not returned. Returned from the home of all Titans -- the first Titans. The source of all Titanians. "I hope the crew on the Horse are doing well. We've made them sit a long time."
The Dainty Mauler is surrounded by the usual fairground atmosphere - complete with local vendors setting up around the edge of the airfield to provide things the Titanians weren't.. most of which seemed to involve deep fryers.
Tasha snuffles at the air. "We should pick up some vendor food after we're done talking. This time around I think I want to enjoy the carnival." When her head returns to center after the scenting swing-around trip, she points ahead. "There they are. Lets get what we came to do done, then we can relax a bit."
The nuclear-powered grills are busy, but the big holo-projection system hasn't been brought out yet. Familiar, shaggy giants move about, some with aprons.. and giant carving tools. Grillfang is living up to his name, but working one of the grills.. which has a big ugly fish on it sporting huge fangs.
"Show that fish whose boss, Grillfang," tasha says as she walks up, having to navigate around people taller than she to even be seen by him even at this close range. After opping around anotehr Titanian she steps near the grill. "I bet you never thought you'd see me again! Guess who talked to the biggest Titan of all."
"Big Titans no talk," Grillfang notes. "Got battleships on their backs."
"The biggest do." Tasha leans in, head over the grill and grinning up at the considerably larger lupine-like man. "Horus talks a lot. Where are the big bosses? I have things they need to hear."
"You mean Rushfighter?" Grillfang says, wiping his hands on his green apron. "Taking bath," he claims, and points into the ship.
Tasha glances in to the ship but thinks better of it, turning back to Grillfang. "What about Bumper? She's expecting me back," she asks, ears up.
"She is? Not tell me!" the second in command (or was it second second in command?) growls. "She off.. uh.." the wolf says, while looking around. It's not clear what he can see through the crowds, but does point in a specific direction: "That way! Over at mucky-muck tent."
"Ohh. The mucky-muck tent." Tasha knows the tent, she mucked around with it once and ended up drugged and asleep. All in all, it could have been a lot worse and much less comfortable. "Hokay, I'll go find her. Tell Captain Rushfighter I'm here too, if you see him. He'll want to know if Bumper doesn't tell him before I do." Grillfang gets his arm patted and then the young woman is off again.
As they move through the crowds Tasha explains, "The tent's where they do 'special busines' with the locals. I can get away with sneaking in, but it might alarm the others if you show up. You're big and scary and Expedition-y." She grins. "I'll go in first and see if I can talk you in too."
"Big and scary?" Gabriel asks with a smirk. "To a Titanian? Or.. hmm.. a Confederate is my guess. Probably an Eeee," Tasha's personal Alpha suggests, but does hang back when they approach the tent.
Gabriel gets a wink, then Tasha hurries on ahead. Soon she's making a circuit around the tent edge sniffing away until she finds what she's looking for. She ducks down and sldies under the tent's wall rather than use the interest and is soon out of sight.
This brings whatever was happening inside to a stop. There is an Eeee, and one Tasha recognizes from somewhere. Bumper is there, sitting in a folding chair and reading a sheaf of papers.. she's even got her reading glasses on. "Tasha? You forget how tent flaps work?" the Titanian asks.
"Didn't want to interupt," Tasha insists with considered obliviousness. "Snuffled around and found you, though it might be dark. Seemed polite -- and here you are!" The young woman scoots over and sits down beside Bumper's chairm pulling her knees in and drawing in a breath. "Don't mind me, I can wait my turn!"
Bumper gives Tasha an skeptical look, then goes back to reading through the papers in silence for another five minutes. "Everything looks good, Number One," she finally says, and produces a fountain pen to sign a few of them without even needing a hard surface to work against. She then hands the papers to the Eeee, who nods and says, "Very good, Madam," before standing and leaving. He's got a rather stiff and proper manner.. like someone that deals with VIPs. He also nods to Tasha and leaves the tent.
Taking off her glasses, Bumper takes out a cloth and wipes the lenses before sticking them back into one of her vest pockets. "What you been up to, Rust Puppy?" she asks.
The man gets a thumbs up as he walks out; it comes with a smile. With that done, Tasha pulls herself to sit infront of Bumper's chair rather than beside it, hands and head resting on her knees. The smile is replaced by a huge grin and her eyes sparkle with promise and mischief. "Guess where I've been."
"Dunno," Bumper says. "You bring me souvenir though?" she asks with a bit more seriousness.
"Can't bring souvineers from other reality," Tasha explains, lifting her head in a reprimanding professor sort of way. "Can't bring time either." She then drops her head back down and pulls her hands free, waggling the fingers of her hands in that magical way. "I did it. I did it! I passed beyond the door, in to the Hall. I met Atum."
"Did he have a tail?" is the first thing Bumper asks after that.
"Naw, big glowing guy made of Archon-stone and soul-fire. Maybe bigger than Mauler. Way bigger than Mel." Tasha then reaches the hands otu and waggles them towards Bumper. "We talked. Gave me Horus's job; gave me Horus too. If you don't believe me, use Captain's hammer."
"But definitely no tail?" Bumper asks, leaning towards Tasha. "Very important. You see his backside?"
Tasha shakes her head. "He had Mel in some kind of Vril-field grip. Couldn't move. Pulled us from down The Way to him -- it -- and talked to all of me. Split me in to all myself, talked that way. Hard to explain." The young woman pauses, then leans a little closer. "Tail. Waybuilders?"
Bumper seems uncertain if she should say something, but does anyway, "Religious thing.. schism. But you no can say for certain so that best. What else happen?"
"Uh well I got a good look at it. No tail I saw, lots of wings though." Tasha rubs her nose. Religions. She should have seen it coming -- she did see it coming. Then she forgot, too busy with the truth beyond belief. Facts. "Well we talked. All of me, seemed to see me as many parts. Atum told me about the Vril, the Vril-ya, where they come from. Talked about the Waybuilders and the Way, a road outside reality to other places and times. Other realities. Big tunnel. And there were Waybuilders. Even Atum didn't understand them, only the young ones. Looked like Earth-whales, but cybernetic. Huge. Built the Way for their creators, but we don't know who they were. Talked about Ogdoad, offered to help. Gave me Horus and Horus's job, since he failed at it, but I talked to Horus and the sacrifice is too much, so we're working on another way. Ogdru-hem seem to be key, have to deal with them. Also made deal -- which is strange because I wouldn't have asked for it in one piece. For a people, for a mentor. Thoth,
have to find Thoth. Atum then absorbed Ahriman, Neith, Mafdet, and old Ser Heraphel. Put Horus in Melchior. Horus was supposed to stop the Ogdoad after Mardul found them. Vartans are special. That's the overview."
Tasha then scratches her nose. "Didn't know who the Waybuilder's creators will be. Will be. Hasn't happened yet, maybe in other realities, maybe this is the only one. Where it started." She then scrunches her face. "Can thing created to go outside reality still exist if creating reality's time when created never happen?"
Bumper takes this in, looking serious.. and staring at Tasha the whole time. She's also got a hand at her hip.. where there's some sort of holster. "Anyone asks, you can't confirm or deny tail, got that?" she says. "If you absolutely certain one way or other.." and hear Bumper lifts her hand from the holster and presses the tip of the claw of her index finger right between Tasha's eyes. "Bang," the Titanian says. "Best you not say anything about any of this to any Titanian, got that? Doesn't matter when something created, all that matter is it created. Time happen all at once, everyone just experience it different, yeah?"
Tasha blinks a few time,s her grin having gone distinctly and worriedly askew at having a gun-finger pushed to her forehead. She can't bring herself to say anything for several seconds. "U-um, hokay. I told Grillfang -- not my fault, you not warn me!" She holds up her hands to stall and gunshot, though she shfits ehr weight in case she has to stop one too. She hasn't come all this way to get blown away for knowing the truth. "Do ... I have to kill Grillfang now?"
"What you tell him exactly?" Bumper asks. "Grillfang not too bright."
"Uhhh, Archons are biggest Titans, spoke to Horus, hinted at Atum, said you-- you were waiting for me to report in. Didn't know about that. Didn't get all excited or making gun-fingers," the hybrid explains. Her hands stay up.
"Archons smaller than a lot of Titans," Bumper says. "So you not actually tell him anything then. He doesn't take hints. Let's go.. better talk to Old Ma, figure out what happens next. May have to talk to Vulcan. Up to her."
"Sounds good. Horus nearby, if that matters." Tasha rises and dusts herself off, trying to shake the uneasiness of a near-miss with death -- or at least a particularly violent fight with her mentor. She'll mention it to Gabriel later, but for now it's time to collect him and figure out the next move.