STEAM LONDON: Realms of Aether Game Thread

[Nigel Wetherby]

"It was chaotic. Like being lost in a storybook where all the pages were put in the wrong order. I could see his memories, sporadic and chaotic. The memories scared the machine, which is why it locked the place down. It reminded me of a cornered animal."
He shuddered at the facts that he ahd given and mentally revisited. "Being inside the mind of a machine is a very different, and strangely fascinating thing.."

"We aren't...er...from here. Where we are from, we have no fur, except for the stuff on our heads anyways." He ruffled his black locks.

Madame Arachne simply chuckled knowingly. This young woman reminded her greatly of herself at that young age.
"A bit antsy are we, miss Nadya? Eying Sir dreyfuss eh?"
A smirk crossed her ruby lips as her stance suddenly changed dramaticaly, her insectile legs shifting quietly to give her an extra foot in stature.

[Stella Gaslight]

Helena looked thoughtful.  "Perhaps that insight could help us advance our thinking machines.  Do you ever worry about losing yourself in someone else?"  She had no idea how he did it but mind speech was fascinating.

"Don't you get cold?" Verona asked starring at Cain's hands and then back at her own thick paw like digits. "Your hands are little."   

Roman walked up shyly to Angel "You have wings like my sister were you born a hunter too?"

[Nigel Wetherby]

"It helps if I never think about it. The more you worry, the more vulnerable you are to losing yourself." He straightened his black trenchcoat.
"Helena, Were you worried about me?" He asked with a bit of a jovial grin.

"Well, me and Angel aren't really that succeptible to cold. Well at least I'm not. You see, unlike the rest of the crew, me and Angel are constructs. Artificial beings."
Cain pulled back a small bit of his skin where a bird-minder had nicked him, revealing the shining metal bones beneath the skin and artificial muscle.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss noticed the intriguing dance of Nadya's hands, and Madame Arachne's reaction to it; it almost seemed as if she had been trying to reach out to someone. To me? He wondered, especially when Madame spoke about reaching out to him. But they both stood, Nadya and Madame, as if the older of the two were an old hand, and the younger the eager, awkward recruit. odd--Suddenly, Emma crumpled "EMMA!" He shouted, and tried to catch her befoire she hit the floor.

[Stella Gaslight]

Helena blushed. "Of course I was.  I mean I have never seen anyone do anything like that before. For all I knew you were flinging yourself in to the abyss."

"Ohhh so you are like a moving house then." Verona said.  "Thank you for getting me and my brother out Mr Cain House."

"Yup." Angel said touching the soft down on the little boy's head.

"Someday my sister is going to grow up and hunt in the sky for the big birds and I am going to become a tech just like mommy."  Roman sounded very proud.

"I am fine Dreyfuss." Emma said but that was a lie he could feel the fever on her skin.  She coughed hard nearly doubling over but she tried to get back up like nothing happend.  "Let's go check on those techs."

[Nigel Wetherby]

"Your very much welcome." Cain said with a prideful smirk. 
"And it's just Cain, you don't need to add the 'house' part." He withdrew his deus blades, realizing he still had them extended. He felt terribly embarassed.

"Well, It's just a matter of keeping yourself level-headed. If you want to learn how...maybe I can teach you the secret of mind-walking." He slid off his trenchcoat, revealing strong, scarred arms. He flung his black coat over his shoulder.
"It's alot easier than you should think, though I may need to change the cirriculum, you full-humans arent exactly as sensetive to thoughts as most cold ones."
He tapped the side of his head and gave an aquard smile, hoping he didnt insult her inadvertedly.


"Nadya, sweety, I hope you realize though, that mister Dreyfuss is not your only option. I'm positively sure you could have anyone you wanted." Madame Arachne's voice seemed to hang in the air like the lilac perfume that gently wafted about her like an unseen aura.
"And I do mean anyone."

[Stella Gaslight]

"Did you come here in those flying things?  I saw them outside the windows."  Verona was starting to remind him of Angel with her constant questions.

"How about a trade?  Mind-walking lessons for science lessons.  I wanted to teach you about aetheric weaponry any way.  My father always says you should never use a gun you can't fix and from some of the descriptions I have gotten from Emma about her connections to George makes me wonder if this isn't just another form of aether manipulation."  She wondered what he would think of her own rather unique way of interacting with the aether.   

[MWBailey]

"Miss Emma, You really ought to at least stay here, and let someone get you something cool to drink." HE took out the watch, and squeezed off the message (Begin)Dreyfuss here(stop) Miss Emma very sick:fever, coughing, bodily weakness(stop) have Jock or Tolchoc go to Boheme and find Trip (stop) tell him about Miss Emma, and to get their quarters ready for her arrival(stop)says she is fine but she is obviously very sick(end).

"Madame, could you stay here with Miss Emma? If she passes out before we get back, get someone to help you move her to the Boheme; I've called the St. Elmo to send Jock or the Sgt. to the Boheme to tell Trip to get their quarters ready for her arrival." Leiutenant, Miss Nadya, please come with me. Cain, could you come along as well?  I think I can get the message across in their lingo, but just in case..."

[Genevieve Ozuna]

Cocking and eyebrow and grinning slyly at the woman who was gradually beginning to seem less like "Madame" and more like "Arachne," Nadya paused. Then, she turned her body three-quarters towards the woman and looked up from beneath her eyelashes demurely, brushing her hand down the pale arm before her. "Perhaps we should explore a bit and see whether anyone in particular suits my fancy," she spoke softly, her voice tinkling with laughter. It seemed that the danger had passed, and the nigh-visible tension that had mere moments ago been permeating the air seemed to have dissipated. Nadya's attention was focused on Arachne until suddenly she noticed Emma's collapse and Dreyfuss' ensuing attempt to catch her.

Immediately she leaped to action, and in a flash she had caught the woman as she stumbled back again after the gentleman had righted her— forced back by her coughing fit. As she stood, she took part of the unwilling woman's weight by shifting Emma's arm over her shoulders. As she did so, she caught Dreyfuss' eyes and they remained caught for a moment, as what she could only describe as a spark— both figurative and literal— passed between them. It was over in an instant, and he immediately turned to request that Arachne say by Emma's side. Nadya could only nod, half-dazed, as she steered the ailing woman back to the gorgeous female she had just moments before been inviting into relations. She barely had eyes for her now though, as she passed Emma off and returned to Dreyfuss, brows furrowed in thought.

[Stella Gaslight]

"I am just a little tired, that is all." Emma protested weekly from Arachne's arms. 

"You are sick dear, accept it" She said with a chuckle.  Lysander brought her a glass of water, and she slowly, carefully made sure Emma drunk it.

Emma noticed the hand around the glass had strange reddish purple splotches on it, then she noticed that it was her hand. "Oh dear." She said dropping the glass and losing the fight against unconsciousness.  The glass never touched the ground, Lysander plucked it out of the air with a simple grace.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss reeled from the sudden Rapport that had occurred between himself and Miss Nadya, but he covered it by giving instruction sand taking control of teh situation. Duty FIRST you emotional milksop, he scolded himself. Emma's down, somebody has to take control; you're the next ranking individual here. Simple.

He chose Miss Nadya to accompany him upstairs to rescue the two Technicians, because, well, his head was still full of her at the moment. That was actually the same reason he chose the Leiutenant; he wanted a chaperone to keep him from doing anything inter-personally stupid, like trying to show her the letter, or getting physical, which for a moment there had seemed extremely possible. He was nearly old enough to be her father, after all. He had no business chasing after her. He chose Cain because it was true; he had figured out how to speak the Cat people's lingo, but he feared making a faux pas and causing the Technicians and himself to do something regrettable.

They rode a platform all the way to the top, And found the room the technicians were in, and convinced them that it was safe and permissible to stand down and exit the structure.

[Genevieve Ozuna]

On the platform, she maintained her distance, standing behind Dreyfuss, though facing him. She contemplated the odd experience, and attempted with some difficulty to uncover why the spark had seemed so familiar. It had been dazzlingly white, and sparked like a flame. Suddenly it hit her and it took all of her effort not to physically beat herself upside the head for not realizing sooner. Whitefire. Or at least, something like it. The instantaneous flash caught in her memory deeply resembled the stream of “magick” the older gentleman had demonstrated for her upon first introduction. ‘How odd,’ she mused silently.

As they exited the platform, she found herself studying his appearance. It was true, he was likely a good deal older than herself, but in all he was most appealing. There was a touch of grey at his temples, betraying his age to be just slightly higher than that of her potential father— in reality her own father had been in his mid to late fifties at the time of her birth, her being the youngest of five children— but he hardly seemed to be older than his thirties. ‘Sides, she’d always had a thing for older men. And her mother had been far younger than her father. And the apparent age gap wouldn't have been thought twice of back in her home dimension. Ah, but she shouldn’t even be thinking about that should she. She was a good gal now, and el Comodoro was already claimed.

“So, Cain was it? You are staying on the same ship with Miss Emma if I’m not mistaken. Has she been prone to these kinds of fainting spells and illness before? Or should the fact that she’s becoming woozy and ill be even more of a cause for worry than in any other?” she attempted to initiate conversation with the construct to distract herself.

[Nigel Wetherby]

"I think I would like that." Sigmund replied with an air of calm excitement.
"Just so long as nothing explodes in my face. We hybrids have a farly low tolerance from heat. A burn from a hot pan could cause major nerve damage."


"Not at all! If anything, i was worried that Miss Emma was in fact far too vigorous if such an ailment did exist. She would spend hours on end creating the D-hopper, I had to assure that she got proper amounts of sleep!"
Nervousness rang in Cain's voice, his weight shifted nervously from one foot to the other. But his apprehension tripled as Madame Arachne placed the nigh-unconcious Emma into his arms.

"Wh-what?" Cain seemed utterly terrified, it was as if he had been given Emma's own still-beating heart.

"I've never seen anything like this. There is no possible way she could have gotten this aboard the Boheme!"
Arachne's voice was icy and substantial, as if every letter slipped from her perfect lips as balls of steel.
She spotted the splotches on Lysander's hand, her voice dropped until she exhaled a low,
"Good lord!"

Immediately, Madame Arachne changed from a seductive nymph of a woman to an apostle of Hippocrates.

"I'm not sure what it is, but it certainly isn't anything I've seen. Cain, you'll need to transport her until I can get a good idea on what we're facing."
Arachne quickly turned to the rest of the crew.
"Alright people, I don't want anyone coming near Miss Emma until I say so. Cain, tell Lysander here that he will need to be my assistant, Though he may need to focus on mind-speak because I can't make out a bloody word he's saying."

As Cain translated, Madame Arachne mentally sighed, finding herself forced into duty rather than accompanying the Loveley miss Nadya. She couldn't help but suspect that Dreyfuss had picked her exclusively so he could get closer to Nadya.
But this was no longer about Nadya, she sobered herself with that thought.
This was about Emma, poor sweet Emma who only wanted to find her friend. Her duty became apparent as she lead Angel towards the Boheme.
"Sigmund, you and Helena had better go with Dreyf. I'll radio you once it's all okay. I can pilot an airship in a pinch in case something go awry, but someone may need to talk me through all this extradimension hoo-ha."
Madame Arachne took great pains to assure as few people were at risk as possible.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Don't worry I won't give you anything too volatile. After all I want to keep you around for some time yet." Helena smiled but that smile didn't stay on her face long when she watched Emma fall.  She tried to rush forward and take care of her mentor but Madame Arachne turned her away.   

Angel was sorry to say goodbye to the little kittens but with Emma being sick they just couldn't stay.  She hugged them both and petted their heads.  "Be good to each other." she said before going over to Cain's side.

Lysander looked rather confused as the young woman they gathered around..  "This looks like little spots, but only babies and children get that and it normally isn't anywhere near as severe as this."  Emma shivered with cold but she was sweating with fever.

[Nigel Wetherby]

Cain translated, and a look of dread crossed Arachne's face.
"Oh dear...If it's anything like the Chickenpox, she's going to need medical attention, fast! Lysander, come here!"
She motioned for the feline to follow her as she lead Cain with the unconcious Emma into the sickbay of the Boheme.
She lay down the ailing captain and turned to Lysander, an urgent look in her eyes.
"What is the usual treatment for the children who suffer this?" She asked, Cain translated.

Sigmund watched as Emma dissapeared into the lower deck of the airship. He sighed wistfully, wishing he might do something to ease Miss Emma's ailments.

[T.Taylor the Third]

Trip came out of his room steam poring out, he had removed his shirt  and shoes. his alllergys seamed to have cleared up .
Cain went rushing by with emma, "wha....cain?" he went after cain"whats wrong with emma?"

[Stella Gaslight]

"We use a soothing salve to help with the achy spots and bark tea to sooth pain and brake the fever but we have never found any other drug that can speed recovery.  Most of the time they just suggest lots of fluids and rest."  Lysander was starting to look worried.  "Should I find a healer?"

[Nigel Wetherby]

"I doubt bark tea will do much, but if it breaks her fever, i'm willing to try anything. Fetch her some tea and grab the best healer you can find."
She placed her palm on Emma's sweat-covered forehead.
"Oh lord, the poor girl is burning up! You had better move fast, lysander!"
Cain quickly translated, his voice high-strung with urgency.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss and Nadya came back just as the otherws were going to the Boheme; they handed off the Technicians to a subordinate of Lysander's named Nebuchad, and Hurried after the others, but were stopped at the hull door by Helena.

"What's going on, Helena? Is Madame with Miss Emma?

[Stella Gaslight]

Lysander was off on all fours like a greased bolt while Emma started to wheeze and her eyes popped open.  Lysander let out a growl that spread through the crowd asking for Lady Ariel while she rushed in to the first aid station in the nearest building.    She came running back with one of their clever self heating teapots, a bag of ground willow bark and a silver haired woman that was carrying a large black bag.  

She looked worriedly at Dreyfuss. "Yes and Emma isn't doing well.  I think she wants to keep people away untill we know how contagious she is.  The last thing we need is an epidemic of some unknown illness."

[MWBailey]

"Hmm... Maybe we ought to stay here, in midair, until we can get Miss emma cured; I'd hate to have a diplomatic incident because our biodies make a new version of the disease and it wipes out a large part of the felinid population." He said. "Is it possible to speak with Madame here, or should we go to the St Elmo and Aether her?"

Dreyfuss had a sudden Idea, but was leery of just asking it of Nadya straight out; ahe seemed to not appreciate having her singular ability bandied about in conversation. So, he told Helena that they would Aether the Boheme from the St. Elmo in about twenty minutes. As He and Nadya walked to teh Boheme, Dreyfuss said to her, Miss Nadya, there are a couple or three things that I would like to say to, and discuss with you, and then I have a request pertaining to the Mission here and our Leader's current status.

"The first, I suppose I can risk saying here in public: I hold you in very high regard. Not merely as a potential operative, but also as..." He stopped, trying to think of a way to say it, then started walking again, saying, Let me start over, at least partly. Yesterday, I received a letter from Mariana, the Lady to whom I was to have become engaged, had I had the chance to ask her. I will not, now, ever have that chance, as while on a mission in Stuttgartt, she fell madly in love with and married a certain Austro-Hungarian Duke. What the fellow was doing in StuttGartt, I can only guess. The upshot is that I am no longer 'involved,' let us say, with anyone, unless it turns out that she married the fellow only as part of the mission, and it is annulled or proven never to have occurred on her return."

"Unfortunately, you and I are now a part of the crew of a military vessel; I am the vessel's Master and the de facto Commander of the St. Elmo. You are perhaps not a a regular officer, but as part of her crew you are at least ethically considered to be under my command, and are listed as equivalent to a Junior Grade Leiutenant."

Now, I can see on your face, and in your eyes, that you are becoming a bit angry with me. Please, bear with me, Nadya, I do not wish to hurt you," His voice became suddenly softer. "nor do I wish to lose you...."

[Stella Gaslight]

"I think it may be all right for you since you were touching her earlier but I know she wont let Sigmund or me anywhere near. If we go over to the St Elmo could you keep us updated on how she is?  I have never seen her so sick."  In fact she had never seen Emma sick with anything other than lack of food and sleep.  She had thought of the other woman as being indestructible like Cain and Angel.   

[Genevieve Ozuna]

Nadya stood awkwardly to the side while those who knew the woman considerably better took charge of her care. Finally it dawned on her, a way she could contribute that would be mighty difficult for anyone else to.

"Is there anyone I could retrieve?" she whispered with a suggestive eyebrow raise to Dreyfuss. Of anyone, he would understand what she meant. If there were someone from back home that needed fetching, she would simply have to explain herself to everyone else after the chaos had subsided.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss considered. "There are really only two other people in either world that I know of who can pilot the Boheme, besides myself and Emma. I know, Madame Arachne could probably do it, but i know from experience that she (The Boheme, not Madame Arachne) can be very difficult for one person to handle, even under perfect conditions; it would be a lot easier for Madame if we could get Elisha to come and help with the piloting of teh Boheme." Inwardly, he cursed; he hadn't finished what he wanted to say! Oh, well, maybe when she gets back, he told himself.

[Genevieve Ozuna]

As she eagerly flashed out to retrieve this Elisha fellow, it occurred to Nadya that it probably would have been wise to ask just where she might find him. Or what he looked like. Or how to prove she was a member of the crew. And not a random crazy kidnapping him to another world. Ah, well, she'd just have to cross those bridges when she came to them. Until then, she paused in the aether and focused on the name, not quiet a common one, silently praying she would land at least remotely close to the man apparently capable of piloting the Boheme during Emma's bout of illness.

Taking a steadying breath, she stepped through to the world she had originally landed in after leaving her home, and exited in an alley behind an inn. It seemed unfamiliar to her, but what would she know, she wasn't from here in the first place. Pulling open the rear door, she traversed a short hallway and found herself behind a small bar, dipping under the gate to reach the rest of the room, she surveyed the area. It was rather crowded, not to the point of hindering movement, but certainly enough to raise a bit of a din. She was beginning to feel anxious, but pushed it away, placing her hands on her hips as she shouted out in a confident— verging on cocky— tone, "Does anyone here know a fellow by the name of Elisha?"