Don't Ask, Won't Tell

[rassafraggin]

While dreamers may start off in their own special corners, there barely seems time enough to check their fabulous dream hairstyles, before the tide rolls in and there is a boundless blue horizon which beckons. Should they lack the means or inclination of their own seagoing vessel, one comes along for them in due time as though drawn to them by an unerring sense of familiarity. A fantastical pirate ship with its Corsair rigging cleverly restyled in bronze shielding awaits the boarding of fellow adventurers in search of a dangerous quarry; in part a dimensional entity as well as the answers she possesses.

Melina looks at the ship for a moment as if unsure what to make of the thing, but only takes a moment or so to glean what or whom the peculiar conglomeration signifies and she steps aboard even as she makes the customary call "Permission to come aboard?'

"Ah Goldie, I should know that melodious tone anywhere by now." The pirate waves her aboard with a flourish of a brocade-clad forearm. He conceals his puzzlement over her arrival with an easy grin and regard, though it sticks several moments longer than it ought. "What news from the... waking world?" he manages to force out, apparently unaccustomed to deliberately breaking that figurative Fourth Wall of his own awareness of reality.

Melina shrugs "Well enough i suppose. we have some lingering questions about her godling tot and her papa. It was Captain flame's idea though. I just can't help but being curious. Part of my nature I guess. Chantris curiosity plus Lyonne stubborness"

The Wave Dancer's outline, etherial and ghostly, hoves into view off the starboard bow. Maggie, dressed in a Captain's coat and hat, red hair trailing behind her in all of it's former length and glory, stands on the bowsprit. Her hands are clasped behind her and her gaze searches the sea. Rather than being etherial, she is solid, whole and vibrantly there. Spotting the ship sailed by the brothers, a smile begins to light her expression. As the distance between the two ships closes, she turns forward and begins to run along the narrowing feature. As it bows downward, she reaches the end and leaps. The bowsprit springs back into place, giving her a boost of energy and momentum. When she sails clear, the Wave Dancer turns away, sailing off into the vagueness of another's dream. Maggie lifts her arms as she nears the deck, legs extending. Her landing is graceful, arms lowering with her as she extends one leg to the right as one hand makes contact with the deck. Rising, she looks around at the far more solid ship and the people already here, "Hello."

Sorensen emerges from the short spiral stairwell that joins the deck to the raised enclosure of the control deck. It seems the brothers have resolved the pesky issue of the tether that had chained them together by their mirror cuffs in previous dreamings. "Hullo, Lady Melina," he looks inquiring between her and Lirre. In his hands is a nebulously formed flotsam or driftwood or something or other... he hasn't decided quite what, it would appear. Listening to the explanation, he nods in thought. He looks down at his occupied hands. "I see... then, this must be something to do-..."

Lirre breaks in with a hearty scoff, turning to gaze over the rail... and he is not disappointed. "Huntress Ho!" he calls, tracking the other dream ship's trajectory, and then the arc of Maggie's bold aerial entry. He offers a whistle of amused appreciation for her confidence in showy dream physics. "Speak of the very devil.... Flame." He glances quickly at Sorensen, then watches her with wary expectation, poised for her next move.

Rising from her anime-esque landing, Maggie brushes her coat back into place. She checks her sword, then adjusts her hat, the bravely trailing red feather curling down into her hair. Stepping forward, she extends a hand to each of the brothers, her smile warm and sparkling. "It is wonderful to see you both." Nodding then to the Lady Chantris, she adds, "Melina. It is good to see you here." In dreams, at least, Maggie can be as vibrantly alive and filled with energy as she wants to be. Inhaling the scent of salt and sea, she notices the whatsis that Sorensen carries and her smile pauses though does not fade. Curiosity tugs at her gaze and she looks back to Melina, silently checking to see if her eyes are seeing truly in dream.

It's only on sorensen's entrance that Melina parses she is seeing the brothers unattached and looks between them with clear consternation before she looks to Maggie hoping to read in her expression whether this is a positive development. Melina smiles "Glad to be along.. Puzzles to solve and all"

OOC> Merrisol says, "What do they think it is he's holding?"
OOC> Maggie thinks he is holding a mask.
OOC> Melina says, "i thought wreckage"

Ahhh, ever the diplomat, that Flame. Lirre's glimmering green gaze flicks to her hands then to his brother and the whatsit, and then he moves to claim her hand as his. "Junior's just a wee bit occupied with his oddity, as you can see," he points out.

Sorry had also looked up, just in time to observe Maggie's graceful landing on the deck. His distant, pensive expression warms into a smile of welcome, although that fades all too soon as the object of study makes itself known in his hands again, flexing into various dimensions of a disc or ovaline shape. After glancing to see if anyone else is as interested in its true nature as he, the scientist sibling resumes his focus lower.

Lirre too frowns slightly while looking at the thingy - is it a mask? or some detritus? - then looks around at Melina. "Puzzle... the godling tot? Hm. Ah, the sprout." He nods. "How was it we found her before... Some inane childish shanty." He hums a few experimental notes in baritone, but fails to capture the pitch and tone of the carefree melody which had reeled them all in before.

Melina smile broadly at lirre's attempts at singing and joins her own voice with his, doing a somewhat better job of capturing the tune, but both eyes are still on Sorenson, trying to discern just what he holds

Maggie's hand closes warmly over Lirre's and he wins a smile to match. Squeezing gently, she turns slowly to watch the doo-dad in Sorensen's hands. As it shifts, her brows lift in surprise. Tilting her head as Lirre begins to sing, then turning when Melina joins in, her delight in the harmony is clear. Maybe one day she will try singing in dreams. Might be nice since she can't carry a tune in a bucket in the waking world. Looking back to Sorensen, she gives him a warm smile as well, then nods to the thing, "What is it?"

Sorensen turns the blurred object around in his hands. "I wish I knew, Maggie," he professes. "This ship contains all sorts of useful odds and ends if one takes the time to look..." Melina's singing catches his attention for a few seconds and he nods in affirmation of the melody, while his gaze drops to notice the handholding. Just a flicker of a frown before he continues to Maggie, "Sometimes, not often, there's something like this lying around.."

"For which we have no need or use," Lirre puts in, having ceased his humming since Melina has got the song sorted out.

"Well since we don't know its function, we don't know if we do or not," Sorensen argues.

Raphaela doesn't manifest as such, although a crystalline pink of bunny shaped fluff bobs in the sea, pulsating somewhat organically with gleam, it kind of redelegates itself from the wake of Maggie's ship and clings into the swirls of brother's dream ship like a lazy spintop. After all the spinning only butt bobs up like a cutest little cupcake buoy.

Melina nods "Every bit of knowledge is of use sooner or later but object are not quite like ideas they take up space and sometimes must be discarded. However, you would know more about this realm than I Can we create more space on a whim or temporarily will it out of existence and back again when its function is made clear. Can I have a look though?

Maggie does note the cute, pink bunny-butt bouy near the ship. A smile twitches to her lips, though it fades when she refocuses on the subject in Sorenson's hands. Stepping a bit closer, hand still holding Lirre's, she considers Melina's thoughts as expressed, "Well. As this is dream, I think that thoughts and ideas can become manifest as objects. THough I've not seen anything behave that way before." She almost asks to be allowed to take the thing and examine it, but the Chantris gets there first! Inclining her head to Melina, she fades back again to avoid 'taking cuts' as it were. "Where did you find it?" Her eyes track from the thing to Sorensen's face. She does offer him one of her warm smiles, then shares it with his brother.

Sorensen pauses over Melina's question, before surrendering the indistinct item to her. He nods slightly, saying slowly, "Well... I would say yes, one might accomplish such feats with a great deal of lucidity... I say a great deal, since for ourselves, we do tend to consistently fall prey to simply living our lives... that is, until someone comes along to remind us that, well, this... isn't."

Lirre is watching over the rail, noting the churn of the waves and the subtle tilt of the deck as their ship begins to turn off its previous meandering course. He catches a glimpse of the buoy, but then looks around at Melina when she switches from singing to speaking, and watches impatiently while Sorensen addresses her question and hands over the indistinct doodad... then growls, "So are we fiddling around with nonsense then, because I *thought* we were on the trail of a volcano-blowing godspawn. Sing on, Goldie!"

"You heard the gist of the song," remarks Sorensen with a steady sidegaze of subtle, amused challenge, "Do take up the tune while Lady Melina identifies this object." To Maggie he reiterates, "Just... here on the ship. Just a little while back.. I've been pondering it ever since."

The flat-ish round-ish vagarity begins to stiffen in Melina's hands, and becomes more decidedly, for all watching, a water-warped chip of wood off some ship or other.

"See..?" Lirre smirks, waggles his brows at Maggie, then disengages in order to get himself to the control deck. He whistles the song which Melina had demonstrated while centering the ship on her new heading.

Beyond this personal domain the chaotic immaterium of the dreamlands lurks. The vast sea of aether is shot through with other places and things. Some phenomena like skipping stones across the surface of innumerable ponds, unable to penetrate. Some like reefs, to be braved or avoided by the savvy dream-traveller. And some are like lighthouses themselves, though whether they be maintained by sirens or saviours could be a risky mystery to solve.

An answering sound comes in response to the singing and whistling. A whale with barnacles composed of gemstones is on an intercept course with the ship. It scintillates in the right reflected light, and its blowhole is ~hroo-hurooooo-ing~ along with the song. It's weird whale-maw is opened to grin its baleen...but it's got large gleaming dentures instead. Teeth that would better suit some Montevalno troupe leader or a merchant of the finest wares. Hanging onto the exposed fin is the young Simone, a grin which echoes the wondrous whale.

Melina hms as she takes the item in her hands and looks at for a long moment before handing it of to Maggie experimentally. She watches for a moment before attention is caught by the whale and the godling, who she greets with a wave. she really should be more careful here. It's not as if every experiece with gods has been a good one. One nearly killed her brother after all, but she can't resist viewing the child much like her own, unformed and hope for the future

Maggie releases Lirre when he moves away. She watches him go for a moment before focusing her attention on Sorensen, Melina and the wooden thing. She notes its transformation and her attention focuses on it. Tilting her head a bit, she accepts the wooden bit from Melina almost reflexively. Turning it over, she examines both sides with her Pathian senses as well as all of the mystical or blood-based magic she has at her disposal. Only once she is comfortable with what she might sense does she look up. She is in time to study Sorensen, then look out over the railing to the whale and whale rider. Spangled and bedazzled, the creature holds her wondering gaze until Simone hoves into full view, "Well... Speak of the godling and she arrives." Lifting one hand while she holds the wooden bit carefully with the other, she adds a wave of her own. Her voice rises, "Lirre? She found us."

Lirre nods through the windowed enclosure, halting the forward motion of the Eclipse Metasepia. He remains there to watch the manner of interaction, before coming back down the stairwell.

Sorensen is just getting over the consternation and disappointment of the mysterious whatsit finally taking on a dedicated form in Melina's care, watching it do nothing much else in Maggie's before he too looks over the rail. The big toothy human smile of the whale offends his sensibilities more than its bejeweled hide, but he manages to offer up a welcoming hail, "Good day, Little Miss Simone! Won't you join us on board?" He goes to indicate some brass rungs facing her from the hull. Of course they've always been there and it's all very convenient.

The young looking god is pulled up closer alongside the ship even as she's getting up to walk along the spine of the whale to the big tail of the cetacean. It raises her over towards them handy brass rungs. "Hello there!" A few seconds later the whale ~phooooots~ a long drawn out bass version of a hello with a twinkle in its half-lidded eyes. An aquatic Don Draper. Simone waves her hand back and forth like she was washing a window and then uses it to help her scamper on up to board the E.M. and the crew. She's wearing some touristy type attire easier to find in the far shadows, and the glasses perched atop her head help keep the hair pulled away from her face. She never blinks and her eyes never dilate. "I happened to have had my ears on and I heard something with them!"

Melina smiles at Simone "was hoping you might do that. We were just talking about you and wondering if you found whatever it was you lost and hoping your papa wasn't to upset with you

Maggie frowns slightly over one thing or another, her gaze flickering between Sorensen and Lirre for a moment or two longer before settling her attention on the godling. Watching the child, she can't help a faintly whistful smile though it settles into faint delight, "Hello, Simone. It is good to see you and your fabulous friend." Her gaze indicates the whale then. Nodding to Melina's greeting, she silently seconds the sentiment.

Sorensen gazes cautiously at the cartoonized whale a few moments longer, then returns his attention to the newly landed visitor in the midst of initial greetings. His bearing rises subtly as he declares, "Welcome aboard the Metasepia Eclipse. Do you remember us from the island, then, Simone? Ladies Maggie and Melina.. myself, Commander Sorensen Fflere, and my brother," he gestures to the man descending to the deck, "the Dread Pirate Lirre."

"Pirate Captain, if you would," says Lirre, baring his teeth in a bold Glint-Off with the whale as he approaches. "And on this ship Captain supersedes Commander."

Sorensen compresses a bemused smile and shrugs his eyebrows, humouring his sibling.

Simone finishes doing a little two-step hippity-hop, coming to a stop before the assembled dreamers. "Found some of the things I was missing, but not all of them. We can't stay too long in one place before the big Meet so I can't go back to that beach anyhow. I didn't tell Papa so he wouldn't be cross. And we can't stay long anyplace so why make him drop his voice even lower until ~he~ sounds like a whale. That's what I say. How did you know about me missing some of my masks?" She purses her lips and have a hard squint. "Oh right, you were back there back when. Sorry, all my figments of imagination or maybe-imagination all look the same sometimes." Simone squints, blinks and rubs at her eyes, in preparation for another hard look at everyone on deck. "I remember some of you, yes. Why, you haven't aged at all! That's great! Sometimes when I meet people later they're much later in ages. Like soooo wrinkly. But you're all still fresh!" A brief moment of pause. "Whatcha doin?"

Melina hms "Are the mask for the big meet? like a party" She queries. Us? We're trying to figure out what that's for?" she points to the debris in Maggie's hand "and I'm learning some new things about my friens " She nods to Sorenson "I had wondered how to address you properly, Commander" She looks to Maggie, noting the brief look of worry which renews her own, apparently taking cues from her on what passes for "normal" and "ok"

Maggie's frown vanishes in short order and it is replaced by a smile that holds faint mirth in answer to the brotherly banter. Simone and Melina are also offered a sunnier expression once things seem to have settled. Lifting the bit of wooden flotsom when it is mentioned, she shows it to Simone, "At the moment, it seems to be only a bit of wood. Perhaps it fell off of a ship." She half shrugs, "It seemed to be uncertain earlier." She tilts her head a bit, "Fresh?" Then understanding dawns, "Ah, right. Time is strange in Dream."

"So it is possible to age here..." muses Lirre, coming to a stop beside Maggie. "Or, were you just meeting older people who walked through Dream as their younger selves, Sprout? What's this about a party?" His gaze narrows as though puzzled over something that he can't quite define...

Sorensen catches on with a blink, "It was more masks you'd lost back then? The same as the one you'd put on the dog?" He looks at Maggie with a frown, before his gaze drops to the piece of debris in her hands, and so certain is he now of its true nature. It blurs into the flat oval shape of...

Lirre steps in front of Maggie with a full pivot to face her, the skirt of his justacorps flaring, and sweeps one of her hands up into his. "I'd love a party, myself.. but they are tricky to find on the open sea!" His eyes sparkle cunning down at her, his other arm goes close around the curve of her back, and he seeks to take his partner for a brief turn on the deck-turned-dancefloor. The object, caught between them, slips into his hand and from there to hers and then back, as they spin, in a lively game of Keep Away from Simone's line of sight. When the whirlwind is over, it remains nowhere in evidence, unless one looked behind Maggie's or Lirre's back.

Melina blinks as she notices the change " Ah one can always find a bit of fun if one tries hard enough" she notes "Though what happened to the dog doesn't sound like much fun