Scene #8845: Voluspa: This Month of Ours

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Dysnomia	DAY TWO - THREE TERRAN HOURS AFTER RAN'S RISE For a while, it was something blissfully near to nothingness. Until treacherous sensation once more threatened to pull Madeline back to reality. "--hy can't I see her?" "It will slow down her recovery, Alkaline." "I'm not going to do anything!" "Just SEEING her will do something!" "How?!" "I told you, I don't kno--" The sound of voices fading in and out of ear lulled Madeleine from unconciousness. She was laying in a bed on sort of see-through capsule, (that opened easily on hinges at a touch) surrounding by beeping machinery. Something like a heart monitor flickered up and down against the glass, and what were all those other readings? A flickering blue hologram of a brain spun in a slow circle, lighting up in arbtirary location--all of which flickered off the moment that Madeleine's capsule pushed open. There was a window, through which Madeline could see more seaweed waving in the distance. Across from her, there was a holo-poster of a small cartoon cuttlefish with a message. STRENGTH OF MIND IS STRENGTH OF BODY! KEEP UP THE FIGHT! ^w^ There's a creak of a door, and through stepped an unfamiliar face. He had brown hair, wore a white coat, some kind of skin-tight suit, and his left leg was gone, replaced with what looked like a holographic copy. Still, it seemed to support his weight well enough. "Good, you're awake." He sighed, held out an arm to the side--Just in time for Kali to come running into it. "Mads! You're awake!" "Are you in condition to meet visitors," the medic said, giving Kali a pointed, impatient look.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine sits up halfway and winces in anticipation of a sharp pain which does not come. Whatever these doctors were giving her, it was good stuff. Left to her own devices she'd still probably be healed by now, but would be sore for a while yet. "I... yeah." She glances at Kali, then leans to see if there's anyone behind the pilot. "Yeah, they can come in. What's up, Kali? I mean. I think I know what's up," she says, touching the spot where a harpoon pierced her breast. "But like, what's new with you, I guess?" She winces, not in pain but in response to her own stilted conversation-starter.
Dysnomia	Oh, Madeleine could feel the captain alright. Like a snow-capped peak on the horizon, her presence crested above everything else. These were not senses that Madeleine--or any normal human, for that matter-had. But still, her presence faded into Madeleine's awareness the moment the extrusion's focus wandered to her. But it took a few more moments for her to realize it wasn't...DOING anything. Like a mountain on the horizon, it was looming and impressive. And also like that mountain, her presence simply...sat there. Implicitly, Madeleine understood that her focus was turned elsewhere. "I thought you were dead!" They cried. "You had a harpoon through your chest!" Kali seized at their shirt. "If I'd pulled you out sooner..." "I want to say you're lucky to be alive." The doctor looked over her with an assessing eye. "But...You should have been dead before you came to my office. And I'm suspecting that there's something nonstandard about how your body heals. I have never seen a patient who recovers FASTER without hands-on care." He lets the unstated question hang there, unasked, in the air between them. "Everyone went back through after we got you stable." Kali wrung their hands. "I figured if Odette had to debrief the Captain herself, she would have fainted? So I let her go...Are you really okay?" They looked on Madeleine like a living marvel. "Wow..." "Feel free to stay here under my supervison until you feel you've fully recovered." The doctor said, tapping away at a holographic screen. "When you feel you're up for it, the Captain wants to hear your part of the debrief." "I didn't...See what happened." Kali visually wilted a little at the reminder of not being able to take that burden away from Mads.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine keeps glancing at the door, as if she's expecting Captain Castilian to step through any moment. It probably seems to the others present like she's looking for an escape route. "I'm suspecting that there's something nonstandard about how your body heals." "There's something nonstandard about a lotta folks here," Madeleine grumbles, half to herself. "But yeah. I'm tougher than I look. Blame it on the chainmail I was wearing, if you need an excuse. Speaking of," She pauses to inspect her attire. Her jacket and armor have been removed, and her tank top is saturated with drying blood. "Can I get a change of clothes before I see the Captain?" "I figured if Odette had to debrief the Captain herself, she would have fainted?" "Good call." Madeleine tries not to think about her own first reaction to the Captain's psychic gravitas. Did Odette not experience the same, or would the EMT have fared even worse than Madeleine under the full pressure? "When you feel you're up for it, the Captain wants to hear your part of the debrief." Madeleine sighs. "May as well get that over with, I guess. Kali, think you could walk me over there? After I get changed."
Dysnomia	I'm tougher than I look. Blame it on the chainmail I was wearing, if you need an excuse. The medic arced an eyebrow. But let it pass. "Of course. We've got some clothes prepared. You'll excuse s if it doesn't fit your sensibilities; we're not a fashion fabricator." Idly, he touched a hand to a small table, with folded-up cloth. "Alkaline will take you to the captain." They blinked, turning to look at the doctor. "I will?" "You will." "I--Okay! I will!" The clothes Madeleine is given are plain, if a little strange. Perhaps designed to work well in zero g, there wasn't a lot of give, with fasteners in place to tighten it around her body. "You'll get to prefab your own later. But in until then, you'll make do." After leaving to change, it's just Kali who is waiting for her out in the halls, pushing her index fingers together. "You're ready! This way..." Voluspa looked different, when it wasn't under high alert. Madeleine can see a couple children playing some kind of game atop soft algae that could have passed for grass, tossing around a strange ball that floated under its own power. A couple of workers with gloves were busy tended fields, covered with alien plants. Some industrous teenagers were trying their hand at a mural of a skyline on the settlement's inner wall. "So, I already told her about the dragon?" It shouldn't have been a question, but the way their voice lilted was almost like they were seeking approval, or permission. "And I think she knows more about it than me. I mean, I guess she would--um." They cleared their throat. "You know, they call her a dragonslayer. Not a lot of psychics can keep up with them on their own, without plugging into something...But, she's something else." They stopped before what must have been the nose of the ship, with the name of the ship across its side. Metal stairs clanked underfoot, as they ascended toward a door. "Um. It'll be fine...! Probably." "Do you need anything before I go...?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine takes her time getting dressed. She pauses to examine her reflection in one of the medical bay's mirrors, specifically the wound on her chest. Not bad. It'd leave a cool scar, on someone without her regeneration ability. But then, if she kept a scar from every injury it'd be hard to see over all the others... Once she's wriggled into the jumpsuit prepared for her and tightened the straps, she steps out into the hall and follows Kali along the length of the ship. "A dragonslayer, huh. I've fought a dragon or three in my time, but they aren't like your kind of dragons. Do you think that still counts for something?" "Do you need anything before I go...?" "No, I'll..." Madeleine suppresses a shiver as she nears the Captain. "I think I'm alright. Maybe..." As if on cue, Madeleine's stomach growls. "Maybe we can grab a meal after? If you're hungry." Then Madeleine nervously glances around, as if to check if anyone's watching, and slips in through the door.
Dysnomia	"Oh! Food! Right." They said, in the tone of someone who had forgotten that eating was a thing people had to do. "I can do that, I think!" They gave Mads two thumbs up. "It'll be fine!" Kali repeated, seemingly unaware of how repeating something could make it LESS believable. There wasn't any waiting. No 'get in line,' no 'grab your number.' There was a guard, holding one of those surreal, glowing weapons, but they seem to be expecting you. They open the door, and she's right there. The captain is sitting at a desk, her finger dancing about a screen. "Sit." She gestured to a chair. While the captain's desk stood like a fortress around her, Madeleine's seat left her exposed. "Now. Your pilot has informed me of some of what went on. But." She turned to face Madeleine, leaned forward, her hands clasping on her desk. "They did not have eyes on the ground." "Tell me. In your own words. Was Ratskin's guidance satisfactory? Were the agents she brought in reliable? Did she perform acceptably?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine smiles uneasily at Kali's reassurance and opens the door with only a little trepidation visible on her face. She sits at the Captain's behest, and folds her legs in vague discomfort. "Miss Raskins... I would not recommend her as a team leader. She is gregarious, and accommodating, in ways befitting a medic but not a commander. I would not describe her contributions as 'guidance', not when I was the best tracker of the bunch and the person who actually found the... thing." She pointedly isn't saying the word 'dragon' yet. "I wouldn't be on my feet and talking to you yet if she hadn't been there. But her first instinct on encountering the anomaly you detected was to throw a rock at it. I don't think I'd trust her to take the lead outside of crises." "Agents... you mean the other Elites? Honestly, I think you've got the best of them right in front of you, ah... Captain? Should I call you Captain, or..." Madeleine trails off, unsure how else to address a captain. "Captain- I mean the other Captain, the pirate, he was there for..." Was she really about to rat him out like this? "...Crime reasons." Yes, she apparently was. "And the Lobotomy Corp agents don't stray far from their overseers' directives." Madeleine taps her chin in thought. "I'm not sure about the rabbit. I could see her being useful." The huntress fidgets uncomfortably as her brain catches up to her mouth. Was she really so comfortable treating other Elites like instruments? It wouldn't do to hold anything helpful back so early in her time here, but even so... Captain Castilian doesn't have to be psychic to tell that Madeleine's suddenly made herself nervous (even more so than she already was), but being psychic probably makes it easier.
Dysnomia	"I shall take her allowing a known criminal to join an expedition into account." "You effectively took the lead in this investigation, then? Then I shall address the biggest of my questions to you." She stood up, SLAMMING her hands onto the table. Her voice grew more forceful, more sharp. But no louder. "How under the stars did this scouting mission end with one of MY PEOPLE impaled in one of MY SHUTTLES? On their first day of service no less!" "This is not a good start, Cadrasteia." Somehow, getting quieter made it more menacing, not less. "Explain to me why I should allow someone who was so promptly mangled, of their own volition, into the field again?" "And you'd better make it good."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine nods along with the Captain's remarks, then when Captain Castilian slams her hands on the table, the huntress is so startled (and had been so generally tense) that she nearly falls out of her chair. "We- I-" Then, in a very small voice, "I got better?" She turns her head slightly, instinctively avoiding eye contact despite her lack of visible eyes. "Listen, I- Listen. Okay. So I got impaled. But it was..." Madeleine cuts off before she says 'my fault', realizing that is hardly a redeeming direction to lead the conversation. But then her eyes narrow, her stare hardening into a frown. "It was the only way to get me out after I was inside the dragon's grave?" She carefully elides the fact that she did not, technically, want to leave the wound herself. "It left a... hole in the world. Something I've dealt with before, though not from the same source. I'm honestly kind of an expert on nonexistences?" A hint of indignation creeps into her voice. "Have you ever been able to send someone into those before? See what's inside? I mean, there's a whole lot of nothing, but that has to be new territory right? If we can-" Madeleine stops short before suggesting she return to the rift that so nearly consumed her. "There's got to be more data you could collect, now that someone's opened it up." She settles down, slightly. "That's something that could really put you on the map, right? Didn't seem like your people know very much about what dragons really are. B-besides," She stammmers, "I'm like, basically friends with one. There's a lot I could do for a research project on dragons."
Dysnomia	"So the pain provided you an anchor." She wasn't happy, but at least the Captain seemed contemplative. "If you nearly fell through its grave, perhaps you are not too far an existence from these wyrms...Or at least, what they become." "Didn't seem like your people know very much about what dragons really are." "While your pilot has a certain fascination with them, they are not an expert on the subject. I, however, am." Wasting no time, she sought to prove it. "The greatest pioneer of psychic research once called the true essence of our art [The Delusion That Supersedes Truth]. That is to say, the triumph of the mental over the physical. The ego over reality. These etherwyrms, or 'dragons,' are a natural extension of this." "Their flesh gave out long ago, but their minds, through their psychic influence, persist, catalyzed into monstrous forms by the strange psionic emanations of our star." An exhale. "You see, Cadrasteia? Though it may seem marvelous to you, this is simply a greater manifestation of the Nine Moons' psychic sciences. What you would uncover is already known." "I'm like, basically friends with one. There's a lot I could do for a research project on dragons." "Are you now..." The captain's fingers drummed along her desk. "Understand this, Cadrasteia. As far as I am concerned, there are no great prizes to be found. No great secrets to unravel. And even less possibility of success. You do not have my permission to seek out this folly. But if you can find a reason, perhaps you will have Voluspa's support."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Perhaps you are not too far an existence from these wyrms..." "I mean, I've been- I was human, once," Madeleine says, before gesturing at her eyes, "and now I'm not. So that's one thing in common." She listens patiently to the Captain's explanation of dragons. "So they're... dead? Some kind of space ghost?" Madeleine snaps her eyes to the Captain's drumming fingers, visibly anxious as Captain Castilian explains the unimportance of the discovery. "A-alright, so maybe it's not the greatest idea. In which case yeah, I fucked that one up." She glances away and chews her lip nervously. "Sorry." "I'll stay away from dragon... whatevers, while I'm here. I do owe you a month and I mean to pay in full. But maybe I'd be better sent off to bag some space seafood rather than investigate anomalies on my own. Although..." She taps her chin in thought. "It wasn't actually clear if the whole gravity weirdness was tied to the dragon or not. So maybe there's more to find in that region. If you send more people out there, let me know. Wouldn't want anyone dying to... weird floating rocks... when I could've been there instead. It's not just Odette that kept me alive, there. I'm a tough cookie." She looks almost proud of herself, smiling faintly, but she does not meet the Captain's gaze.
Dysnomia	"The dragon's grave and its influence will fade in some years." She made a dismissive gesture. "In the meantime, the hostility and paranoia of that wyrm's final moments on this planet will surely chase away anything hostile that might nest there. We will study further when that is done. But you are unlikely to be here for that." She leaned forward. "Madeleine Cadrasteia. Look at me." That same focus fell on the once-human again, that same icy will. But it was less dense. Less sharp. Less subjugating. "While you serve here, you are one of mine. And I will not have you willfully endangering yourself. Do you understand?" Something flicked across the room, into her hand, which she sat down with a sharp sound. "My men will be having fresh shark, starting tomorrow, and on for a week." She flicked a small circular shape forward, across her desk, in Madeleine's reach. "If at the end of any of those days I hear report of a SINGLE wound, then you will spend the rest of your month here hoing the fields until you're too tired to think of leaving the walls." It was a small metal disc. A planet, orbited by three moons, with a dead snake curled around it. "Am I understood?"
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Madeleine Cadrasteia. Look at me." Madeleine looks up. The Captain's psychic presence surrounds her, but with less hostility this time. She manages to stay in her chair. "While you serve here, you are one of mine. And I will not have you willfully endangering yourself. Do you understand?" Madeleine nearly raises an eyebrow in surprise at the concern for her own well-being. "Yes, uh, Captain. I- I understand." She really doesn't. Isn't she a disposable asset? This is not how she was treated among the Excrucian Host, and it unsettles her. Not that the alternative would be exactly comforting; it is simply Madeleine's way to be vaguely uncomfortable with any sort of attention. Madeleine catches the badge on reflex, without taking her eyes off the Captain. She nods automatically at the Captain's directive... and manages to go even paler than usual at her threat. Working the fields! Who does she think Madeleine is? "Am I understood?" What the huntress thinks is a harsh 'I'll show you what I'm really worth.' What she says is "Yes, Captain." --- Madeleine steps out the door of Castilian's office and lets out a breath she'd probably been holding for the last minute, if not more. She looks down at the badge in her palm. She tosses it gently in the air, catches it with the same hand, and then she's smiling again, with relief and with anticipation for a good hunt.
Dysnomia	These sharks, they were not easy prey. They were slippery, and fast. With three eyes, and strange holes in their wings that blasted propelling force, like jets. They moved with terrible precision through the forest of kelp, honing in on prey with eyes that could see the flicker of conciousness, the pressure of will, the searchlight of focus. It becomes quickly clear how difficult a hunt that Madeleine has been set on; a predator that is fast, strong, and aware even of Madeleine's own sense of awareness. "Are you sure you don't want to back out...?" The worry in Kali's voice is as deep as their doubt in Madeleine is maddening. "They don't just bite flesh, Mads. They'll dig into your mind too. It's how that doc lost his leg...And forgot his name." Every day, Alkaline would fly Madeleine to a forest of short kelp, the hunting ground, where the sharks swooped through to snatch bites at other fish--and anything else unlucky enough of flicker with sentience. "And...It's not just that. We're sapient; it's like giving someone pure sugar. They'll go mad looking for a bite." And what made it worse was the misdirection, the way that they turned Madeleine's own instincts against her, her own sense of being watched and hunted turned against her, all to get her turned in the wrong direction long enough for them to get a bite. It was a test worthy of only the greatest of huntresses.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"Kali," Madeleine says with a friendly smirk, "I'll trust you to fly and you trust me to hunt. Okay?" With Kali's assistance, Madeleine spends half of the first day high above the kelp forest, watching the movements of sharks. She picks out the lanes and avenues they follow through the kelp growths, informed by the lay of the land beneath. Where they like to hunt, where they hide to digest their meals, where they consort with their mates, where they spawn. When the huntress finally asks Kali to take her to ground, she's practically buzzing with excitement to begin. Her first move is to, curiously enough, ditch her spear by planting it point-up in the dirt. Her reason for this is clear enough to the sharks, though. On the psychic front, Madeleine knows she has a trump card: a forty-foot lindworm. Drogrung registers, telepathically, as a predator, and a BIG one at that. Even if its body cannot fully manifest in most 'real' spaces, its mental presence is undiminished. While it's on Madeleine's back, the sharks will steer well clear. And while it's planted in the earth, the sharks with any sense - a great majority, for creatures so cunning - will pick up the disturbance in the psychic fabric of the forest and avoid it like the plague. Drogrung, for its part, is happy to take the chance for a nap.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	This gives Madeleine two things: a safe point to which she can retreat, and a way to disrupt the shark's natural movements. She places Drogrung just right to divert a normal 'traffic' flow toward and along a cliff face, and sets out toward the cliff herself. Once she's within shouting distance, and the sharks are starting to notice her, she breathes out a puff of icy air which splits, and grows, and solidifies into a number of wolves shaped from blue ice, positioned on ledges up on the cliff. The wolves' minds are simple magical constructs. Without the usual electrical signals of a working brain they're completely unappetizing to the sharks, not to mention virtually-invisible to their psychic senses. A particularly enterprising shark peels off from the flock, veering towards Madeleine. Before it picks up too much speed, it finds a large, heavy, frigid canine crashing down on its back. The ice-wolf's body-slam, followed up with a bite to grab one of its fins, pulls the creature to ground level, where Madeleine is waiting with her knife. Hobbled by ice spreading from its unruly passenger, the beast is little match for the huntress. This process repeats, with Madeleine retreating into Drogrung's 'territory' when the sharks start working together, and relocating the spear to corral them elsewhere when they learn to avoid the cliff. The creatures are wily enough to be prepared for a lone hunter, but with a tremendous beast and a pack of psychically-invisible harriers backing her up? Not a chance. By day's end a half-dozen sharks have been slain and ferried back to the Voluspa by Kali's shuttle.
Dysnomia	When Kali's shuttle came back on the first day, with the fruits of the hunt in tow, the Captain was waiting at the dock. Her expression was neutral, while some of the citizens carried the corpses to the kitchens. "Pilot Alkaline." She said, without turning back. "Y-yes ma'am?" "Did your charge suffer any wounds today?" "Uh...No captain! I don't think so?" "Hm. You don't say." She turned back toward Madeleine, her mouth turned in what might have been a smile. "I do hope you've gotten your practice in, Huntress Cadrasteia. Because after this week is done, there's far more prey to chase than this." "I trust I can count on you."