Irell Starling

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

icicle said
Oh, I love time skips...they take the slice out of life. But I'd appreciate it if you don't close off the previous time zone to additions with any absolute actions or such when you move on.

Are you talking about when my character left the room or just in general?

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

I know you're not a fan of flash backs, are you okay with fast-forwards (time skips)?

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

“I don’t like him.” Ryen stated at her glass of water. Her eyes had barley left it since her confrontation with Lazlo. Just a few moments ago the other three has rushed out of the room, leaving her and Gunther alone to man the table.

”He’s a bit of an odd one, I’ll give you that,”the solider replied after giving himself a few moments to think, ”but I’m sure Quincy means well.”

Ryen scoffed, the short loud sound echoing in the nearly pristine room. ”I wasn’t talking about the doctor.” She shook her head in irritation. She hadn’t been on this ship for more than two hours and she was already having what could certifiably be called ‘a crisis of conscience’. If the captain had in fact mistreated Ellie, would she have done something? Or would she be doing exactly what she was doing now?

In her mind she could see Lazlo’s blue eyes boring into her. ”What are you trying to say?” There were a hundred things she had wanted to say and they had all stemmed from the same place. ”I’m afraid of you and I don’t trust you.” Not with Ellie. Not with herself. But of course she hadn’t said anything. She’d just quietly studied the water forming on the outside of her glass and said the names Federation controlled planets alphabetically in her head. It was a trick she’d learned as a child to calm her over active and occasionally over emotional mind. It was easy, mindless, and only kept her attention only until she got to the fifth and Quincy had come strolling through the doors.

”He’s nice to Ms. Ellie,” Gunther said interrupting the tense silence, ”Did you see how he carried her?” Ryen had and could almost classify Lazlo’s actions as gallant. If it had been Gunther who had done the carrying instead, Ryen would have filed the scene under heroic with just a dash of romance.

”It was nice of him.” Her emphasis on the third word made it clear she thought nothing of the sort.

The solider cracked a smile. ”Watch yourself, kid, you almost sound jealous.” His tone had been joking but the mechanic was having none of it.

“Jealousy would imply that I wanted to be liked.” The words fell from Ryen’s mouth almost automatically. They were from the screenplay “Ferdinando of Aceli” that one her second year linguist instructor had made the class read from. The plot line had been a little dull but the female lead had been amazing.

Luckily, or perhaps unluckily, the next moment Lazlo walked back through the door. Gunther immediately sprung to his feet to meet him and Ryen’s studied the fingerprint smudge on her glass. Within moments the captain was assuring them of Ellie’s recovery at sitting back at the table.

Ryen visibly stiffened when he addressed her. ”So… I would advise that you avoid all possible injury or you may find yourself at his disposal.”

The surface of Syrae was hardly a comparison to the chill that had crept in the room. Ryen picked up the glass and took a sip, allowing herself time to organize her words. A slight crease knit her brow as adrenaline funneled into her veins. Gunther was the first respond but hers was quickly on its heels.

”I find Quicy to be both trustworthy and competent-” Still she continued to stare at her glass. ”he already treated the arm you dislocated-” She had planned to stop there but torrent of anger and frustration continued to push her along. Fueled by the fears and frustration of the day it grew and grew. ”and it seems like on this ship, he has his work cut out for him… captain.” Only on the last word did she have enough will to look at him. Ice blue eyes narrowed with a mixture of anger and blame. She didn’t know what she found in his and she didn’t waste time finding out. Instead, she stood up and walked out the mess hall.

It wasn’t until her compartment door slid snugly closed behind her that Ryen allowed herself to cry. Flinging herself onto her bed she buried her face into a firm pillow that smelled of stale starch. Wet pink and green streaks from her Hopper’s Day make-up formed on its white surface, water colors of grief. Gingerly she brought it to her chest and curled into a ball. Outside her window the blackness of space went on and on.

As she cried her mind flitted around like a butterfly trapped under a glass jar. At first all she could think about was her father’s death and all the things should have said to him and then things she wished they’d done. Next came all the questions she’d wanted to ask and always had been too afraid of. Where had he come from? Why had he escaped to Syrae? Why had he installed a chip in her head? Had she always just been some experiment to him? Who was after him? Why? Where should she go? What should she do? Who should she trust? And would those people give up or would she have to keep running forever?

No matter how hard she tried, she knew she didn’t have any of the answers squirreled away in her brain. She’d started off the day so sure of herself and ever since she’ heard the news she felt like every single decision had been wrong. She should have just talked to the police. She should have looked for a different ship at the docks. She never should have joined Lazlo’s crew. She never should have said those things to him. ”I can get through this,” Ryen tried to console herself, ”Somehow.”

The Fourth Blight {Irell Starling x Reaper}

Understand. I hope everything goes well!

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

It's really not a problem. I wasn't really sure what to do with Ellie's "condition". Is she pregnant? Did some sort of encounter happen between her and the doctor? Is she on medication? Does she just get dizzy easily? I figured you had something in mind and decided to leave it for you.

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

Title of the Recording: Gone

What do I run from?
Where am I going?
There’s no point in guessing and no way of knowing.

There goes my life,
There goes my home,
And everything thing I thought I owned.

The city slithers through my grip,
No bigger than a fingertip…

And then it’s gone.

Ryen was practically on Lazlo’s heals as he headed out of the mess hall after the captain had announced his intentions to lift off. She hadn’t been the only one who seemed to be interested in their next destination, but much like before everyone took the news different. For herself, Ryen was happy that their first stop would be a Federation Stronghold. Even though Syrae was outside the Federation’s sphere of control, they had civil relationships and seeing Federation soldiers in the planet’s markets was common place. Perhaps if the people who were chasing her happened to catch up, the Federation would step in and grant her an asylum. There was another reason Ryen was happy that would be FS 700 would be their first stop. If Lazlo was willing to enter the operations base, then he had to be a least some-what legitimate. Any common thief or wanted criminal would know to stay well away.

”He can’t be that bad,” Ryen thought to herself as she slipped into her quarters, ”Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Maybe he was just as desperate to leave the planet as I was.” A picture of Lazlo firing into the crowd popped into her head again. Could she have done that if there was no other way to escape? She didn’t know and she was glad she didn’t have to. ”I guess in the end he really didn’t have to drag me along. He could have left me. The ship’s new enough that it really shouldn’t need a mechanic for a while.” Her thoughts echoed Quincy’s words earlier. ” Maybe I should thank him…”

”Launching in 5…”

Ryen reached out and grabbed her bed straps, quickly clicking them into place. They were designed to help protect the occupant in an event of a crash landing (assuming the landing wasn’t so intense it destroyed the entire ship, sleeping compartments and all). There were most likely a few places around the ship that had similar restraints, the cockpit being one of them, but Ryen wasn’t sure where else and their mini lift-off earlier out of the shipyard had taught her better than to stand around when their captain told them otherwise.

Less than a second after Lazlo’s voice stated “1”, Ryen’s body was being pressed firmly into her bed’s ergonomic padding. Her chest hurt as her lungs struggled against the G force the rapid lift off had created. Her stomach meanwhile did flip flops as her body’s equilibrium struggled to adjust itself.

Outside the ship the bubble shell of her city shimmered under the late afternoon light, a crystalline bubble in a merciless snow globe. Soon enough the view revealed that the ship had just breached the planet’s stratosphere. Nimbus clouds, heavy with snow that fell almost perpetually to the planet’s surface, spread out below like bunches of cotton down below. In almost no time their distinct shapes blended together forming a white blanket. The sky in the distance was still blue, but soon enough it would darken and take on the empty blackness of space.

Almost as quickly as it started, the intense force on her body ebbed and then disappeared entirely as the ship’s artificial gravity fully adjusted. Unstrapping herself, Ryen rolled over and dry heaved at the metallic floor thankful that she’d only had cracker and lox. Anything heavier might just have resurfaced.

Part of her wanted to hide away in her room and pour over her father’s notebook but she decided against it. She’d have time enough later in the evening and she desperately wanted to wash the out the taste that had manifested itself in the back of her throat.

Unsurprisingly, almost everyone else had made it back to the mess hall before her. Cracker pieces littered the floor here and there and the near empty container of lox was upside down in the corner but other than that the room was no worse for wear. Like most objects on the ship, the table and chairs were firmly bolted down to the floor.

Lazlo and Gunther were sitting back at the table, asking Eleanor a series of questions causing the woman to grow redder and redder. Almost automatically Ryen entered the code for water into the replicator. ”What’s going on?” she said, accusation dripping from her words, all thoughts of thanking Lazlo for dragging her onto the ship instantly gone.

”It’s not a big thing.” Ellie tittered, her face and body language clearly illustrated that it wasn’t.

”Did they do something to you?” Ryen snapped her fist uncontrollably balling into a fist. The lift off couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes. What could these two men have done to the poor technician in that short amount of time?

”Hey now,” Gunther said, his hands going up in the air, ”Don’t look at me like that. She was like this when I came in here.” Just as before, Eleanor insisted on waiting for the doctor to arrive. After retrieving the drink from the replicator, Ryen offered it to the technician but the other woman turned it down.

”The lift-off was a bit intense.” Ryen said, trying to fill the uncomfortable silence and the group waited for the doctor to arrive. ”Good one, Ryen,” she chided herself, ”And here I thought we decided to try to be nicer to the captain.” ”I mean I’m sure it would have been normal if the ship’s gravity was up and running to its full capacity.”

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

Confusing? Nope. It doesn't fully fit with what I wrote much earlier, but I'll copy/paste. :)

The Fourth Blight {Irell Starling x Reaper}

Kaitlyn tried to ignore the dwarf’s words and the disgusted look the Knight-Commander shot her. Lovers? They weren’t lovers were they? People had whispered the same thing about her and Wendell, even after he’d undergone the Rite of Tranquility. But still… this was different. Wendell had been her childhood friend but Thea was a complete stranger. And despite her irritation, Kaitlyn fully understood why her fellow Templar had looked at her that way. It was perfectly acceptable for members of their order to be in relationships and marry, and even if it was seen as strange for women to couple, it wasn’t unheard of. But a mage and a Templar? It was like an elf falling in love with a dwarf. Only trouble would come of such a coupling. ”Why does it matter what they think? Why does it matter if it’s true if I can’t stay and she can’t go?” Deep in her heart she felt a pang of loneliness at the thought. But was it because she had real feelings for Thea or because over the last day the mage had slipped into the place of her old friend? Kaitlyn couldn’t say and she didn’t have the luxury of time to dwell on the thought.

Dagna moved out into the corridor while the first enchanter and Knight-Commander backed away to give them space. ”Yes,” the Templar stated, breathing out a heavy sigh. She shouldn’t have been surprised that Thea had guessed the problem so quickly. Maybe she had known all along as well? ”It’s the corruption.” Why was this so hard? They barely knew each other. ”Back there in the woods… with Wendell. I’m not sure how it happened but…” Pictures of the fight flashed in her mind. Metal. Blood. Screams. ”…it did and no amount of Templar or elven magic could help.” Her eyes pleaded with the mage, not to blame herself for what happened.

Kaitlyn’s voice grew distant. ”I’m going with the Grey Wardens. It’s my only chance and if I make it through this I’ll join them in the fight against the Blight. Turns out I’m pretty good at hacking down darkspawn and this time I won’t have to worry about their corruption.” ”At least not for a while.” Rumor had it that eventually Grey Wardens died from the tainted blood, but that took a while but most didn’t live long enough for that to be a problem. It was similar to Templars and Lyrium or Mages and Daemons. Power of any kind had a price and sooner or later the Maker made you pay despite Adraste’s pleas.

”I wanted to say good-bye, Thea.” Kaitlyn said fumbling for words. Behind she could hear Dagna was becoming antsy. It was time. Now that the mage was done with the Harrowing, she’d be safe. She didn’t need a protector anymore. The mages here took take care of their own. Nevertheless, Kaitlyn still felt guilt over what she’d done. Would Thea ever learn to be happy or would she forever see the White Tower as a gilded cage? Perhaps she should have just left Thea with the Dalish. ”And let you know… that I’m sorry.”

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

I'm terribly confused. I though we were already flying off planet.

Escape from Syrae (Irell Starling)

Title of the Recording: Doctors 0738

“While you can't always judge a book by its cover, you can judge a doctor by their lab coat. After all was said and done, I knew I should have known better.”

Ryen let out a breath that she didn’t know she was holding as captain disappeared behind the sliding door of the mess hall, the technician shortly on his heels. Within a few seconds even their resident solider, Gunther ”Gun..ther? Ironic?”, was heading for the door although she noted that he turned in the opposite direction.

”I wonder what’s going on.” Ryen wondered out loud before bringing another lox covered cracker to her mouth. She was a little surprised that her hand didn’t shake. Meanwhile her mind was whirling with possibilities, and imagining the various conversations Lazlo was having with the Syrae patrol ship. Ryen reached and gracefully wiped off her hands with a nearby napkin. ”Maybe it’s a routine thing since we’re on a new ship.” Her hands folded neatly into her lap. ”Or maybe our gracious captain stepped on one too many feet. That wouldn’t be too surprising.” Through her lashes, Ryen noticed that the doctor was still looking at her. His gaze looked curious and remote at the same time, similar to the way her father would stare at a new mechanical model. It almost felt like Quincy was trying to somehow dissect her and made her feel discomforted and gross at the same time.

”What!?” Ryen snapped, her eyes suddenly meeting his.

”I was waiting for your response.”

Ryen pursed her lips. She didn’t need to ask ‘to what?’. She already knew. ”Yes. As in the Dr. Arleth who was found murdered this morning.” In her lap, her fingers slid back and forth across one another. Try as she might to hide her emotions, but the distress was plain to see. ”It was… quite a shock.”

The dam she had hid behind was starting to crack under the pressure, threatening to flood her with the emotions she’d avoided over the past hours. Her eyes began to glaze over, but she was holding the water at bay- at least for now.

”I’d imagine so. Where you close?”

The first image that popped into Ryen’s head was her father turned away, stopped over a workstation. This was quickly replaced by another image where her father was leaning in, looking at the paper in front of her. His face was blurred in her peripheral vision but she didn’t need to turn her head to see that he was frowning. ”Close enough. Why?”

Quincy shrugged nonchalantly. ”Maybe I just like to get to know people? Or maybe I just like to make sure that if I’m going to get stabbed in the middle of the night, I know who it was.”

It said it with such a lack of affect that it was difficult for Ryen to determine if he was being serious or being sarcastic. Maybe neither. Maybe a little of both.”

”If you’re dead, then why does it matter?” Ryen replied, trying to lighten the mood.

To that comment the doctor merely reached into his lab coat and pulled out a cigarette. Within seconds a line of smoke was spiraling towards the ceiling and he was leaning back in the chair. ”You know that things kill you, right?” Ryen suggested, her disgust evident.

”What!?” he said glancing at the cigarette in his hand. ”These things!? And here I thought they were the universal cure for common cold. I can’t believe I’ve been lied to for all these years!” his tone sounded almost genuinely surprised. ”I never would have suspected that they would be killing me the entire time, slowly leaching the very life…”

”Enough!” Ryen chuckled, ”I get it!”

”I’m glad.” Quincy said, taking another drag, ”And besides, if I had a choice, I’d rather die by cigarette than being murdered by you in the dark on night… wouldn’t you agree Gunther?”

At some point the solider had returned, slightly more armed than before. Currently he’d found his way over to the replicator. Ryen wondered how much of the conversation he had caught. He didn’t bother to turn around but continued to study the complicated machine in front of him. ”I’m not really a fan of being murdered, myself.”

Ryen snorted. ”Well that’s good. I’m not really a fan of murdering people.” As if on cue, that was the exact moment their captain walked back through mess room door. Something about his presence made her wish she could take back the comment. Fortunately it appeared he hadn’t heard.

”If you want a steak the code is… the recipe book is in the drawer under the replicator.”

There was something about Lazlo that made Ryen want to slump down into her chair a little more especially when the man took his seat at the head of the table. While Quincy might be modeling indifference, their captain seemed almost placid, like a clam lake with a sleeping kraken underneath that was waiting at any moment to appear and drag you down to it water depts. Sure he was sitting there, smiling away, friendly as could be… for now. Maybe you could afford to be friendly every now and again when you were an overpowering brute.

Gunther took the same seat he had occupied before, crackers now replaced by a steaming dish of steak and potatoes. The soldier looked like he’d gone to heaven and was certainly piling food into his mouth at a rate that made Ryen thin he’d end up there pretty soon if he didn’t stop to breath every now and again. Ryen glanced around the table. She wasn’t the only one showing interest in Gunther’s eating habits.

”Speaking of getting to know people, what did you do before being a member of this fine crew?” her question was directed at Quincy, but Gunther momentarily stopped shoveling food before realizing her words weren’t directed at him.

”Similar to what I’m doing now.” Ryen waited for him to continue but it became obvious he wouldn’t.

”So nothing much.” The vagueness of his reply along with his name and the subject of murder reminded her of an ancient game involving a candle stick and a billiard room.

Quincy chuckled at her retort. ”Et tu, mechanic, et tu. Although I’ll tell you what, if everyone does a good job, we won’t have much to worry about, will we?”

She couldn’t disagree with that. ”And you, Gunther?” Ryen asked right as the solider finished his last bite.

”Just keeping busy, miss.”

”Keeping busy and staying full.” This came from Quincy.

”Exactly.” Gunter gave them a thumbs up before depositing his dish into the repository.

Ryen turned her attention to their captain. ”So…” This ship was brand new and so was the crew and Ryen couldn’t help but have the feeling that good captain Caesar wasn’t everything he appeared to be. He fought like a solider, yelled like a tyrant, was strong enough to easily dislocate her arm, and was rich enough to purchase (or at least she was assuming he’d purchase) a brand new spaceship- the down payment alone for which was probably more than she could make in a few years. Who was this man? She was almost afraid to ask. ”So… I take it everything from before went well?” Again she tacked on the word “captain” a few seconds to late. ”May I ask where we’re headed… sir?”