STEAM LONDON: Realms of Aether Game Thread

[Nigel Wetherby]

Brian gave a weak smile to leyton and Shai, who seemed rooted to his side, her pale, slip opf a hand wrapping around his bruised, dirt-coated digits. Despite all that, she held his hand to her cheek, tears of joy at his being alright and anger at these who did this to him strickled down her cheek.
"Try to be gentle...Mister Leyton...i've little fondness for needles...and I am allergic to pennicilin." Brian rasped, his throat raw from his screams.

Cain held Angel's hand, feeling terribly piturbed at the darkness of this place. All he knew and loved was twisted here, and it frustrated and saddened him to no end.
"Miss Emma, Mister george...they're both evil...what about my brother? What iof he's some terrible, murderous psychopath? I hate it here!"
Sigmund turned to Cain, shaking his head. "When you accept what you cannot change, you learn to change what you cannot accept."

[Stella Gaslight]

"We are going to go home Cain but we can come back someday and make everything better I promise."  Angel kissed him gently she was feeling better the further they got from that twisted city.

"Sigmund are you going to be alright?  I mean that was a bad homecoming not that you could have a good one there but still."  Helena was babbling a bit out of the adrenaline rush of escape.

Emma's voice filtered upp from all over the ship. "Get ready everyone we are going to be jumping in just a moment. Dreyfuss please enter 35879 in to your console and tell me when you are ready."

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss walked in to Sickbay, adn witnessed teh tender scene at Brian's bedside. Warily, because he so well remembered the other Brian, Dreyfuss knocked on the doorjamb and held up a reassuring hand when Shai snapped her head toward him.

"Easy, Miss Shai, I'm not going to hurt you or Mr. Brian , there." He addressed Leyton, Mr. Leyton, how is our patient? Leytoin answered that he seemed to be getting on well and shoul drecover relatively quickly. "thank you, Mr. Leyton, and thank you again, for your medical know-how."

Ladies and GEnts, It is my duty to inform you that the St. Elmo amd the Boheme are about to leave this dimension and return to our own, in what will probably be about five minutes time. The Journey will be very rough, or at least, it was rough getting here. If you want to stay in this world, I suggest that you say so now. We will be returning here to aid your rebellion in relatively short order, but for now, we must go and retrieve the rest of the pieces of our former compatriot, who was blasted into several separate dimensions during a rather titanic battle with the Cold One Queen in our own world, which we won. "

"Can anyone tell me where Mr. Taylor has gotten to? Well, in any case, I suggest that all of you strap yourselves to the beds here in teh sickbay; you will be much ssafer that way. I apologize for not doing that with you earlier today, Mr. Leyton, but as I said, I did not expect our transit to be so rough." Mr. Leyton, I will get you a better or at least more effective weapn than just a pistol as soon as we get back home, or at least as soon as we finish the impending jump.

"Gentlemen and ladies, please strap yourselves in now."

Teh Capn's voice came ove rthe tube in the sickbay, and said, "Commodore, she preempted us! I'm entering the code, please grab whatever you can hang onto and WHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA...."
Teh whole balls-of-lightning and wild piloting antics happened all over again, adn Dreyfuss wished he had strapped himself into a bed like the others had done, just in time. still, Brian screamed, Shai yelled in surprise, Leyton cursed liek a stableboy, and from somewhere he heard trip shouting something about someone having relations with something nonhuman. That Ten nassee' an could be so oddly colorful at times....

[Nigel Wetherby]

Cain kissed Angel's cheek, feeling the pressire within his chest alleviate, though something still felt terribly off, as if something very familiar was present, like an old friend. "When we do, i'm sure this world will be much happier for it..."

"I suppose I should be used to having no-one miss me. I'm just a soldier, we're expendaple. We pound an enemy force until we're all gone, then they shovel more of us in, like coals into a furnace." He seemed resigned to this face, an attempt at a smile crossed his pale face, wishing the geture of facial muscles would sweep away the sadness.

Shai clung to Brian as gravity became well aquanted with the ship, pinning the two to the matress and floor of the ship as it screamed through dimensions like a bullet from a gun.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss felt his feet actually settle to the floor, as his body caught up with the ship, he relaxed somewhat, but warned teh others, "don't relax too much, the decelleration last time was just as bad as the accelleration." He had just finished saying this, when suddenly he became very glad he had held onto the emergency handrail, as the ship suddenly began decellerating, and his feet lifted up in the othe rdirection. Teh others screamed or cursed, variably, once more, and then the ship appeared to be at rest. Dreyfuss excused himself and made his way to the Steering Room.

He aethered the Boheme, "This is Dreyfuss. All hands well amd unhurt. No shipboard equipment damage That I am aware of. Emma, I have to tell you before we get much farther that the identities of our two otherworlders are Shai, and Brian O'Landry, Now, don't get EXCITED," he said, raising his voice, as he sensed the emotions on the other ship spiking like an aether experiment gone wrong; he was sure he could feel it, that it wasn't just his imagination.

"BOTH are good-siders, and Brian was being tortured by Emma2 and her compatriots; Shai2 had apparently come to rescue Brian2, and Trip apparently happened in on them and got swept up in the escape. In any case, they are here now with us. Brian2 is in sickbay, and Shai is with him; he's in pretty bad shape, but Leyton, whom it turns out has some medical skill, says he will be alright in time. Shai appears to be involved with Brian in some manner. That's all I know at present. Dreyfuss Out."

HE grabbed the Ship Address Tube, and hollered into it, "TRIP! if you can hear my voice, come to the steering room immediately! just head for the forecastle, it takes up the whole top inner deck of it." Dreyfuss suddenly remembered that Trip didnt know the "shave and a haircut" tattoo tradition, and went down to meet him, drumming his own feet both for himself, and for Trip, when He appeared, getting the "bonk-Bonk" both times. Dreyfuss explained, "That bit of silliness lets both the engine room and us know that both sides of teh hatch yonder are not in enemy hands. it sounds silly, I know, but it works. If I hadn't done that, it's very likely Jock would have popped up just as you walked by and blasted you from behind with his volley gun."

[Stella Gaslight]

Cain and Angel held each other as the others were forced to the floor. Helena spoke as they laid side by side on the floor. "But I would miss you if you were gone.  I may have only known you for a short while but I think I can honestly say you are not expendable."  She reached her hand out in a slow creep and held his.  The ship stopped with a loud bang, they were all quiet for a moment as they rejoiced to be home. Angel burst in to song finally feeling better and a warm breeze caressed the ships like the earth itself was glad to have them back.

Emma had decided she really was going to have to make some sort of captain's chair she could belt herself in to, the force of the d hopper made her feel almost violently ill. "Dreyfuss will they allow me to take care of them?  I feel like it is my responsibility, that monster with my face has cause so much damage."  Emma said letting the auto pilot take them in while she stood at the rail and enjoyed feeling the sun on her back. She would give them everything they could want because she felt horrible guilt and anger at the the other her. 

[MWBailey]

Dreyfss entered the steering room with Trip in tow just as Emma aethered concerning Shai and Brian. HE aethered back, "I honestly don't know, Emma; it might be better to send one of our less- vulnerable people over first (say, Cain or Maybe Angel), and get them to explain things to them; if you came yourself, I'd be afraid of whatthey might do to you not realizing you weren't Commodore Emma.

[Stella Gaslight]

"All right I will send them over as soon as was land." There was a pause followed by a less assured sounding Emma.  "I hope they can forgive me.  I know I would have a had time doing that if I had see what they had."

[MWBailey]

"understood, Emma, but what they saw wasn't actually you, but a facsimile of the other-dimensional you. Teh two don't necessarily jibe. Even if both of you had all of teh same tendencies, which I doubt,  both of you would probably have matured and developed in completely different ways, because you are both in different worlds. things woul dprobably have happened differently in both worlds regardless, thus shaping teh people differently in each different dimension. TEh re ar eprobably constants, sure, but at this point it seems a bit early to awssign universals without a great deal more data." Tehn came the cynical side of Dreyfuss, taking up the credulous slack of things,"Boy Howdy, listen to me, I sound just like one o' them oxford theory pro-fessers, Haaaa!"

[Nigel Wetherby]

Sigmund smiled towards helena, wrapping his hand around hers for but a fleeting moment.
"Well, it's good to know at least one person cares if I die." He spoke as if it were the greatest luxury in the world. His tentacles immediately straightened themselves, folding themselves back into a rather distinguised ponytail, which was a subconcious attempt at making himself look better for Helena.

[Stella Gaslight]

"Sigmund I am sure more than just me would be just me would be sad if you died, you are selling yourself short.  Would you like to go out with me this evening?  There is a new exhibit at the hall if science all about the use of aether in entertainment and the arts that looks interesting."   Angel as grinning at them as they laid on the floor.  Maybe Cain was right, maybe they could save the butterfly and make it happy.

As the docked Emma stepped out on deck. "Cain, Angel I would like to ask you a favor.  Dreyfuss saved two hurt and frighted people and I would like you to go tell them that we will be taking care of them.  One of them looks like Shai and the other looks like Brian but don't hold that against them.  The other Emma was hurting them so we have to make it better, Understand?"

[Nigel Wetherby]

Cain nodded, understanding that he would need to once more face himself. He extended both deus blades just in case things went south, as they often did wth oractitioners of dark magicks. The look on Angel's face made him retract the blades with a sigh.

Sigmund though the idea over for a grand total of a millisecond. "That sounds like an excellent idea!" He said with a sincere smile, something of rare value. "I have yet to really experience this worlds culture..."

[Stella Gaslight]

Angel could smell blood as soon as they boarded the St. Elmo and it got worse the closer they got to the sickbay.  Angel knocked on the door and cheerfully called out.  "Hello people from the other world can we come in?"  Dreyfuss opened the door and Angel found herself being wearily stared at by her older sister and a badly been looking young man.  "Hi my name is Angel and this is Cain and we have been sent here by our friend to make sure you know that we are going to take care of you.  She is really nice and you will always have plenty of clothes and food.  We can give you jobs if you want, a place to stay and I promise there are no bad cold ones here."  She gave them one of he best smiles and hoped they would be happy.

"You know I don't think I experience enough of that myself.  I think you will like the hall I know I was quite impressed with it the first time I went.  We can go after Emma gives us a briefing."  Helena smiled knowing she should get up from the deck but the feeling of the sun on her skin was so very pleasant.

[Duellist]

Leyton considered his patient, his first patient in all honesty.

"I would suggest finding a surgeon, or at least a doctor, for this gentleman.  I have done the best I can, but I would not be confident that he is entirely out of danger."

He had given a small amount of laudanum to his patient, enough to dull the pain a little, but not enough to make things too interesting.  Most of his work had involved splints and bandages, but he was proud of the neat stitching that held the worst of the wounds closed.

"If this is to be considered a 'normal' voyage, I suspect that a... ship's surgeon may be warranted."  Leyton was certain that 'ship' was correct, but still hesitated to call the cramped vessel a 'ship'.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss did the tattoo, and then knocked on the hatchway, causing Jock to open it up. "let's leave this open until we get ready to go off again, Jock."
"Aye Sir. Sir, would a bit of shore leave be alright?"
"Hmmm. I honestly don't know how long Miss Emma will let us stay here at home this time, Jock; I'd say six to twelve hours would be all I could spare you for. I could do the conning and the engine room, or at least thats how I set the ship up originally, but these days, I don't know. No, I think twelve hours is all I can muster for free time right now. will that be sufficient?"
"Yes Sir. Er, sir, how many people would ye be willing to take on as new crew?"
"probably no more than five or ten, Jock. We have to go by weight as well as numbers; if we get too fat, we can't fly!" HE said, chuckling slightly, which Jock apparently echoed sincerely.

"Also, I don't particularly care whether they are male or female, as long as they pull their share, have some military experience (but new folk are welcome as well), and can stand being part of a shore party to handle whatever we come up against -- and I do mean 'whatever,' Jock.
Jock smiled, "Aye sir, I do understand, and I might be able to find three or five that'll be all ye ask for."
"Well, by all means, bring them along if you find 'em. If we get those marines they keep making noises about, we might actually get a full crew complement! Also, bring anybody who wants to join the Boheme, they could probably use some regular crew as well, adn both ships can accept people who've never flown or fought before, although a couple of veterans, at least, would be nice."
"Aye, Commodore, sir." well, I'll gather me things and change into me good uniform, and be off, then."
"As you will, Jock. Oh, if you see Miss Angel or Mr. Cain coming on board, tell them how to get to Sickbay, will you? They're going to explain this world to a couple of passengers we rescued, 'back there.' And, good hunting, Jock."
"Aye, Commodore."

Dreyfuss continued through the gundeck, and arrived at sickbay to find Leyton cleaning up and Shai sitting on the edge of Brian's bed, holding hands. The two certainly seemed enamored of one another.

"Good Show, Leyton." Dreyfuss said to the Tall fellow. by the way, your suspicions are probably correct. I'm a Whitefire Technomant; now, don't scoff," he said, warningly, "there's a school for young folks with a talent like mine, run by Professor Patrick O'Landry, a former Boheme crewmember and a comrade-in-arms of mine, and Professor Jennifer Sheehan-O'Landry, his newlywed wife, also a practitioner -- and both sanctioned by the Catholic church, which also funds their school; one of my nieces is a first-year student there." he said proudly.

"Unlike many of the 'Talented,' so to speak, people you'll meet around London, Mr. Leyton, I'm not ashamed of my ability, being Texian; The non-British holdings in America tend to be that way; My Uncle Caractacus was a Magicus Practus in Louisiana and Provincia Tejas before relations got so strained between the two just before the Texian revolution. Got pretty wealthy doing it too. What I need from you, Mr. Leyton, is just what you've been doing, here, and also the benefit of your scientific outlook and experience, as well as your experience and knowledge of the Thaumaturgical -- including that trick you did with the doctor's bag, from what I hear."

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to debrief and warn our guests before the arrival of a couple of our more magical organizational members. You might want to be a fly on the wall, so to speak, as well; it may open your eyes a bit more to what's actually the magical reality hereabouts."

HE turned to the bed where Brian lay, and strolled over, making a conscious effort to be as nonthreatening as possible.

Mr. O'Landry, Miss Shai, a couple of people are going to be coming over in just a few minutes from the other ship, The Boheme. I must warn you beforehand that they may seem very familiar by sight, but I assure you, they are not of your world; those are the reasons, in fact, why they were chosen for the impending meeting.

"How can I put this...We all, apparently, have what that cable cutting bastard Captain Bl--!" he sighed. "Your pardon, my friends. Captain Black, or rather the one from this world, and I, have some unfinished business; he's dead here, but not by my hand, which rankles somewhat, since he shot down my first command, whilst I was thrown clear. I'll explain all of that later, if you like. Anyway. We all have doppelgangers in other dimensions, and these are a couple of such."

"One looks like your Cordelia, and one, well, lets say he looks , but also doesn't look, like you, Brian. I hope my telling you this doesn't cause you undue grief, but the you of this dimension was a very evil, very resilient, and very cruel dark magic user; he was, in fact, what many call a "blood magus"; that is, he used blood in his magic, consumed blood and took from the consumed blood the spirits of the people from whom he drank the blood, to add to his army of souls, whose lives he used, and used up, in battle and in his daily life --er, that is, if I understand the whole thing properly, which I often feel is not something I want to do," he said, with a sour twist of his mouth.

"That is all pertinent, because Cain (that's the person's name, by the way), is-- well, actually, he's a construct; a being who inhabits a mechanical body built by the other Brian's younger brother, Patrick O'Landry, -- who in fact is a very good, definitely NOT evil, and Benevolent person-- in any case, built by Patrick as a vessel to hold all of the good things of his brother when he became ill, and rejected and pushed those things out of his soul.

Cain is, therefore, a very righteous and very noble person -- and while I doubt that he initially hated the other Brian (he's just too inherently good for that), he did learn to hate him for what Brian kept trying to do to him, and for what Brian did to people that he knew, or that he half-remembered, from the few memories that passed along in the process of the "pushing out." well, that's about all there is to tell. Ah, there they are now!" he said, as he heard Angel knock and call out as only she could do. He opened the door for them, and stood by, in case anything untoward might happen upon the event of Cain meeting Brian2.

[Duellist]

Leyton picked up his coat from the couch and brushed it off.  There was no visible dust, but he was piqued enough that he needed to keep his hands busy to keep from showing his irritation.

"Thaumaturgical indeed..." he muttered, "Man has no need of miracles..."

He was tired of the mysticism of his kind, ashamed of the power he wielded and still somewhat disoriented by the recent dimensional travel.  In all, it did not work to break his dark mood.  Least of all did he need the assurances of a 'Texian' that magic, as the Commodore named it, was anything but the preserve of the low-born.

[MWBailey]

The Chief Engineer Changed out of his dirty onboard clothing, washed his upper half, shaved, and did his toilette, and then dressed in a clean undershirt, a white broadcloth shirt, pressed and the collar starched board-stiff; the standard issue shorts, the bib-front uniform pants, suspenders, black waistcoat over suspenders, clean, watered white silk sash, and the big blue Greatcoat with it's multitude of stripes and hashmarks and High collar with the CPO insignia embroidered on it and a double row of buff piping on the collar's edges, topped with the Pillbox visored cap for enlisted men.

He put his Goggles around the band of the cap, stuck his dagger in the left side of the sash, and his peppermill pistol in the right half, buttoned the bottom button of teh double-breasted greatcoat, adn stomped into his deerskin-and-black-leather buckleboots and fastened all of the buckles. He then strode out of his stateroom, through the Engine Room, up the gangway, through the gundeck, up to the aftercastle, and out the Em De port, and off of the ship.

Jock made his way down the Dock, dodging tehnicians conducting spot-checks of the D Hopper equipment, cablemonkeys checking rigging, and stevedores with stores and supplies, stopping once to give instructions to the stevedores who were carrying replacement rockets and other ammunition to teh Boheme and to the St Elmo -- apparentlyCommodore Dreyfuss or Miss Emma had put in a request for such -- and then continued up the dock, stopping to tell Miss Helena, who had Mr. Sigmund in tow, What he was going out to do, and to see if she could think of anything he might need to pick up on the way there or back; he wrote down in his blank chapbook the things she requested.

He then continued on out the close and down Tinkers Row, to the corner, where there had, in the last couple of years, opened a small pub. Called the Wrench and Hammer, it had become the place where the whole lot of the personnel of the Tinkers Row research facility went for libations, and sociality with the locals on occasion; some of the folk from Madame Arachne's also showed up frequently, and in the last two years many of the old and new airshipfolk had gotten into the habit of doing their recruiting or jobseeking there, as well.

He went and greeted the Publican and owner, Malcolm Harcourt Creedlowe (often called "Creeds" for short), who was as always behind the bar and doing a brisk business.

"AHA! Welcome to ye, Jock! Give me a minute and I'll be right wid ye!"

"That's fine, Mr. Creedlowe," Jock said. He looked around the room and saw it about normally peopled for the time of day, which was about five-thirty in the evening.

Creedlowe finished with the patron he had been serving, and then strode over and stood behind the bar at Jock's place, and shook his hand. "How's teh St. Elmo tonite, Jock? I 'eard you lot went on a jaunt today; some was sayin, earlier, how both you folk and the Boheme came back just a few minutes ago. What's up, since you're here so soon?"

"Well, yeah, we did go out for a bit and come back, but that sall I can say about that," Jock said, laying his finger alongside his nose and rubbing the flesh there, in the age-old gesture for secret matters. "What i can say is that I've been given permission by the commodore to com eseeking five or so hands for the St. Elmo, and maybe acouple or three for teh Boheme -- no, now, don' be worryin', we didnt lose anybody; in fact, we seem to have gained a couple, but thats neither here nor there right now."

Creedlowe asked, "Do ye want an announcement, then?"
"Aye, that'd be fine if ye would, Creeds!"

"Alright then!" Creeedlowe took up a battered old washtub from under the bar, and big, cast-silver ladle, and began to beat on it for attention. "LISTEN UP, LADS AND LASSES! ST. ELMO AND BOHEME ARE SEEKIN' what, what was it, Jock, five or eight? right! ARE SEEKIN' FIVE OR EIGHT CREWFOLK!

"Jock chuckled, and said, thanks be to ye, Creeds."
"Any time, Jock, Any time."

"Right! " Jock moved to a table, and shouted for the attention of the room, "All applicants come over here to this table! smart and orderly! We'll Interview ye before we sign!"

[Nigel Wetherby]

Cain at first lept back in his bed, before being  laid down by Shai, whe examined the two carefully.
"It's Cordelia!" Brian rasped, though the painkillers had taken their toll on his grip on reality. Shai on the other hand, greeted the two, specifically Angel.
"You must be Angel. I'm guessing then that Emma didn't name you. Who did?"
It was here Angel wrapped her arms around Cain, a cheerful smile on her face. "My Cain did!" She chirped in a voice that was much more breezy and lyrical than the operatic voice of Cordelia, even though the two looked almost exactly alike, their songs were entirely different...
"Well, My name is Shai, this is Brian.."
"We've met..." Cain interjected, a suspicious glare in his eyes assured he did not entirey trust this young man, though he was bruised and beaten.
"Not this one you haven't." Brian submitted, a bruised smile crossing his lips. This version of brian seemed much less...homocidal than the one he had come to known, plus this one smiled!
"I feel like I know you already." Brian chuckled weakly.
"We've been battling the queen ever since we both were young. That bloated old bitch took my brother and made him into a monster. I've been battling them since i was 13, I originally wanted to kill them all with blood-magick until I met shai who told me the dark secrets of what it does to people, so she's been teaching me Meladomancy. The magic of the song. If this beauty hadn't stopped me then, god knows what i'd have become."
Shai blushed furiously and looked away. "Brian..." She whispered, her tone somewhere in between scolding and amorous.
"So, what are your stories?" Brian asked.


"Alright then. Though I suppose I can guess the gist of her breifing. We shall probably find ourselves hopping from dimension to dimension. looking for shards of George. He must have been a very good man for everyone to want to chase him across the universe." He stroked his chin, remembering Patrick mention a series of penny dreadfuls, starring chinese doctor "Hoo" he thought the name was, who had crafted a very small shuttle which he used to cross through worlds and travel from dimension to dimension and even back in time.  He began to wonder if they, too would face off against irate trash cans armed with egg-beaters.

[MWBailey]

Dreyfuss figured that Cain and Angel had the situation well in hand, and went to check on Leyton, before  issuing him a more permanent weapon, and before deciding whether to invite him to come along and meet Miss Emma, the head of the Research operation. He overheard Leyton's muttered "man has no need of miracles, and realized that here he had a person who felt put upon; he also realized that a change of plan was called for.

"Mr. Leyton, may I call you Christian? For the nonce, at least, you can call me 'Jaisen'  when belowdecks, and 'Dreyfuss' or 'commodore' everywhere else. its not a pride issue; I personally detest the term "commodore," but that's what the rank's called, and that's that. I meant to set these matters straight when I first came back to the Officer's Mess, but events sort of ran away with us all, and I didnt get around to it. Lets you and I go next door, here, the cabin's unoccupied, and will offer us a deal of privacy.

They went, Leyton rather moodily, and Dreyfuss closed the door.
Now, first of all, I want you to know that I intend no violence toward you. I trust and hope you intend none toward me, mainly because if you do, I'll have to respond in kind, and something tells me that I know a deal more about that kind of thing than you do. I don't enjoy hurting or killing people, usually, but I'm pretty good at it, or good enough to do it for a living."

Now, I eill have to tell you, Christian, that at our first mneeting, I though t by your bearing that you must be rather an 'All right' sort of chap. I still think you are, under whatever exterior you've decided that society expects of you, but I'll have to tell you that your behavior, from the moment I extended my hand in greeting and intended civility, until you had finished your little tirade or whatever it was -- well, it nettled me. You seemed then, and still seem, now, to be making the rather grievous error of assuming that you are in regular society. You are not. You are, in fact, on board a vessel which, despite the preceding few hours' evidence,  is primarily engaged in the regulation and in som ecases extermination of thaumaturgical and supernatural threats. Your views on how necessary "miracles," or "thaumaturgy" are to man, therefore, have little validity in light of reality. Magical reality is somewhat like a bumblebee, Mr. Christian Leyton, in that it is proclaimed by so-called "science" to be impossioble and unworkable, and yet, it "flies," if you will forgive the forced analogy, despite all evidenc ethat it should not be able to."

Ok, I've had my preamble, so to speak. Now, you may have yours; speak freely, get it all "off your chest," as we used to say back home.

[Duellist]

Leyton sighed, realising that there was nothing to gain from holding onto his anger.

"You may call me Christian when we are being so informal, if it pleases you, though I fear that it is merely my name.  I long ago lost the faith of my childhood, though not for the love of science.  When titles matter, I am The Honourable Christian Leyton.  If my father succeeds in his quest to drink himself to death, you might have the chance to know me as Lord Leyton, Baron of no place in particuar.  As I beg you to understand, I meant my remark about titles to be a matter of self-deprecation more than an attack on your seniority; I suppose I had heard so much about the egalitarianism of your culture that I wanted to seem less formal and stuffy."

Here, Leyton became visibly uncomfortable.

"As to the matter which you call magic, I am afraid that we must differ on two counts.  Nothing I do is magic to my mind, just science beyond the textbooks of schoolboys.  I can light a cigar, but this is no more than the practical application of Boyle's Law.  I can reach through a theoretical fourth dimension, but this is simply post-euclidean geometry.  On the second count, I am afraid that magic is taboo in my culture.  You would no more convince me that magic is an acceptable pastime for a gentleman than I would convince you that your beloved Texas should be a British colony.  Not that I believe the latter; I simply use it as an example of a deeply-held cultural belief."

Leyton tossed a coin into the air, laying his left hand prone and his right supine.  As the coin landed in his right palm, so too did it fall from his left.

"As to my unconventional science; I would teach it to you if you asked it of me.  It is a gift that you either have or have not, so I can show you and see if you have the capacity to follow.  As a science, I must warn you, I consider it a tool and exempt from morality; as the bard said - 'There is nothing good nor evil, but thinking makes it so'.  This is possibly one of the reasons why I was forced to tour the east for the past few years while other Hellfire Club members are left in peace."

[Stella Gaslight]

"My Cain found me in the temple where I was born.  My legs had been hurt and I couldn't walk so he took me to his brother who fixed me up good as new.  He took me home with him and we traveled all around the world learning things and fighting monsters. We wrote a book all about it if you want to see it sometime."  Angel smiled glad they could save such nice people from that bad world.


Emma's voice filtered over the aetheric communication system that linked the two ships. "Dreyfuss may I come over?  I would like to gather everyone together and speak to everyone at once."

Angel noticed the look on Brian and Shai's faces.   "Don't be mad at Emma lady.  She isn't bad at all I promise, She wants to help your world after we gather up Mr George." 

[MWBailey]

The Ships address tube in the Sickbay whistled once, and then again; Cain walked over to it and looked at it; he had seen Dreyfuss pull the whistling plug out of one such when he had visited once before, so he mimicked the action, and said "Hello?" into the bell-shaped mouthpiece.

"Hello? who is this? Is that Mr Leyton?" Captain Ishmael's voice echoed through the tube.
"No, Captain Ishmael, this is Cain, we are visiting the two refugees from the other world."
"ah, I see. do you know where The Commodore is, Mr. Cain?"
"Yes, I do; he is next door, talking to Mr. Leyton, in the room towards the front of the ship."
"ah! thank you, Mr. Cain, you have been most helpful."
"you're welcome." Cain plugged the tube agian, and slid it back into it's sconce on the railing that ran around all of the rooms on this ship.

"the whistle sounded in the cabin where Dreyfuss and Leyton were discussing basic matters between them, and Dreyfuss picked it up, uncorked it, and said "Dreyfuss here. report."
"Sir, Miss Emmaline is on the Aether," Ishmael's voice said, "asking to come over and gather everyone up and talk to them all at once. what should I tell her?"
"Tell her to come ahead, and tell her what I'm doing."
Aye, sir. Ishmael out."
Dreyfuss replaced the hose, and looked Leyton in the eye.

"Well, Mr-- aha, hmm. Christian, I mean. It sounds to me as though we both believe much the same thing, but express it in diffeent ways, and for slightly different reasons. I don't approach the whitefire as necessarily "magic," it's more of a "Psychic" type of thing for me, and as far as "Thaumaturgy" is concerned, it appears that my use of the word as a catch-all is what is causing a large part of your discomfiture."

"As for what I can do, it really isn't much; I have been shown quite a few things by Patrick O'Landry, but in the main, it all still amounts mainly to control and manipulation of objects or machines, and if I am angry, scared, or excited enough, actual temporary modification of function or design to fit my needs. That, basically, is technomancy."

"I also am able to throw  the same whitefire that rules technomancy, quite a bit of it at once, if I am angry, excited or scared enough. I killed or at least very seriously wounded one commodore with  it, and as you will hear if you hear people talking about what was done to the Cold One Queen, I weakened her nearly to death with a gigantic roaring storm of flame that was fueled by my anger, despair, and grief at the apparent death of two comrades whom I had sworn to protect; I can't do that nine times out of ten, because I simply have too much control over my anger most of the time."

"I can, most of the time, do this:" And he shot a line of flame over to an unlit kerosene lamp on the table beside the unsheeted cot with its rolled up mattress. The lamp caught immediately, and the top of the table smoked. "as you can see, I need to learn or teach myself more control, although that, there, is often very sufficient to kill, say, a vampire, or severely wound a werewolf --and oh, yes, they do exist; I've fought both within the last two years."

Now, I must tell you that Miss Emma, our immediate leader on this current venture, is coming ove rand may already be on board, to gather us all up and talk to us together -- eithe ras a ship, or as the entire mission crew of both ships. Let's us go and greet her, shall we? its about time you met the Great Lady herself.

"Usually, either Fleet Captain Hargood Mondragon or Rear Admiral Norris Ashcroft , or HMSS are my immediate leaders, but th efirst two are off on a baltic tour -- thats sabre-rattling by another name -- and H.M.S.S., with whom I and teh St. Elmo are liaisoned, has assigned me to help Miss Emma in whatever way she deems fit until her purpose is accomplished. Oh, and I have one other ability. He concentrated on both Emma and on Leyton, and sent Come ahead, Emma, I think Cain and Angel have everything under control. "Pardon the intrusion," Dreyfuss said normally, "but it sounds so silly just talking about it..."

[Duellist]

Leyton allowed himself a small smirk of amusement.

"I know of werewolves and vampires, though the line between them is blurred somewhat at times, and I too have seen both.  I have even seen telepathy in action, though most displays of such 'power' are confidence artists and stagecraft.  I want you to understand me; just because I am a man of science does not imply that I deny all I see, simply that I reject the simplistic superstitions that are all too often thrown about.  If a thing lives, it can die.  If the manner of any action or force follows rules, then this is evidently science at work, even if we cannot understand why it follows those rules.  While effect must follow cause, there is logic and logic underpins science."

To illustrate, Leyton walked to the recently lit lamp and held his hand an inch away.  The flame flickered and died.

"Boyle's law in action once more.  Not as spectacular as your white fire, but I prefer to be understated in such matters."

[Nigel Wetherby]

Shai nodded, approving of this Emma, seeing as how their hospitality saved Brian's life.
"I beleive you, Angel." Shai said, rather liking that name over Cordelia. "I'd have liked it much more if you were my little sister in that world."
"Thank you, other Shai." Angel replied, a smile on her face.
Cain greatly preferred this world version of him, he was alot less of a satanic death machine.

[MWBailey]

"To each his own.' " Dreyfuss quoted, and then said, "shall we go?" I think Miss Emma either did not hear me, or she is waiting for an Aether response -- oh! I nearly forgiot: there is one othe rcrewmember on board; she adopted us, and we happen to like having her on board. She killed the last piratical intruder who sneaked aboard " With that, Dreyfuss gently pulled Cleo from under his shirt and unwound her six-foot length even more gently from around his neck. "Her name is Cleopatra, and she has very strong venom. Her mother's venom could kill large Cold Ones. Say hello, Cleo!" Cleo the Albino King Cobra slid out of his hands and stood nearly at Leyton's elbow-height, licking her tongue out and making an intrigued hiiisssspp!.
"She likes you! It's ok. she won't hurt or bite you. Now that she knows you, that is."

"It remains to be tested, of course, but I personally suspect that she's hyper-intelligent, just like her mother. She's only half-grown, in any case; her mother was nearly twelve feet."

"come along, you two, we have to go meet miss Emma." he said, opening the door and allowing them to follow him out.

HE heard Miss Emma's voice coming through the doorway to Sickbay, and said, "well, so much for me developing a gift of prophecy.