RP [Tsenlan] Meetings

Airwin nodded slightly, "I actually called you here, Captain to hold you in honor. Your protection of Aelya has not gone unnoticed and I consider what you did a service to Tsenlan in protecting one of the few remaining members of the royal family. While I may not be entirely impressed with the actions of some of my Ysi at the funeral - it is not up to me the course of action in which they or anyone else take to grieve. However, in that same notion, I remind you both that people are grieving. They've lost not only their Empress but trillions of members of their Ysi. People have done far worse in the name of grief than what has occurred. At the same time, I thank you for looking out for Aelya," he said as he reached for his mug and took a sip.

He looked to Aelya and said clearly, "An appropriate punishment has been given to the soldier in question, and they have been removed from your sight." It was obvious that Airwin still had eyes on his Ysi. He opened the drawer and pulled out a square velvet box. He opened the box, and it had a single niranium pin with the crixa engraved into it. "Niranium is rare now, and my honor guard is being transformed into something fitting a civilian body. This pin is something that has been worn by members of the Shadowguard since the rule of my grandfather - those who have been charged with protecting the lives of members of my Ysi. It is yours Captain, as a thank you for protecting Aelya." he then pushed the box across the desk.



Just because he gave the Captain an award didn't mean he agreed with all of the behaviors that were presented by the Ysi members or him during the funeral, however, the soldier had been dealt with and there were hills not worth dying on. "Please also accept my apology for my daughter's involvement in this, Arina is here and I will talk to her after you leave. Tell me what is it you wish to discuss?" he asked, he wanted to get the meeting over with.

Airwin's Office​

Aelya remained sat in her seat with the utmost stoicism despite Alastair's shocking boldness. Not that she disagreed with anything he had said. She caught his glance towards her and nodded with a smile. Indeed there was a great deal they needed to talk about if she was to depart this place with Alastair. Truly she was curious to hear what her brother had to say on the matter.

The words of honor bestowed upon the Captain by her brother hit like a rock. She had an inkling that Alastair would not get in trouble for what had unfolded. Her hands rung together at the mention of the others. There is a difference between mourning and being ferally harmful. Only her respect and love for the Aestaesys kept her attitude in check at this moment.

Her gaze focused clearly on observing her brother when he noted what happened to the soldier. "Thank you, Aestaesys." she said solemnly to Airwin. "Brother, for what it is worth. I am sorry." she sent to Airwin via vesper along with feelings of care and sorrow. If she ever doubted how much he cared all thoughts left when he presented such a prestigious award to Alastair for saving her. For a moment her hearts stopped beating her eyes widening just a touch in surprise. Things returned to normal and she turned to watch Alastair's reaction to the award.

Rage quickly flowed back into her eyes, fired up at the mention of Arina causing Aelya to wring her hands more intensely. This was not the time or the place for a family dispute and she had already done enough damage. Eventually things would probably be patched up between them, but would it ever be the same? "We.." she paused looking over at the Captain relaxing her hands onto her lap. "We wish to discuss my going on the YSS Koun with the Shosa. It would give things here time to cool down without infringing upon your goals. Also, I think I could be useful in helping to educate the crew on Norian culture and needs. Maybe even help any of our people that serve with them to help integrate. It would be in a diplomat and cultural liasion position. With your blessing, that is." she said as she brought her hands to rest atop eachother.

Waiting Room One​

Naelui found her sister idly using her communicator to take her mind off of things. She turned it off exhaled all throughout her standing up. "That's a good idea." She smoothed out her dress and followed her through the lodge. Talking to her would at least pass some of the anxious waiting time, but even better it could distract her from her her own thoughts as much as anything else.

She made her way over to sit down, half-dumping herself into the seat as much as anything. "How are you settling in, anyway? I think half of my sleep was tossing and turning despite how exhausted I was. At least after this maybe I'll get through it if I don't think about before...we arrived in the sector." Arina had been part of the fighting, if one could call it that.

Airwin's Office​

Alastair walked over towards Airwin's desk. He took the box with the pin inside and looked it over. It was certainly a beautiful artifact. He closed the box and placed his hands behind his back. He looked to Aelya who laid out the idea they had discussed the day before. She was direct and to the point.

"Thank you Caeyara for the kind gesture and sharing the matter has been dealt with. The gift is beautiful as it is wonderful." He then looked back to Aelya with a smile on his face. "Though I need no reward to protect that which I hold dear. I can not explain it but I find myself drawn to learn more from Aelya." He then looked back towards Airwin. "So as stated by her we'd wish to be granted permission for her to be stationed on my ship, the YSS Koun, as a diplomat." He paused for a moment to let his words sink in before he continued. "I am not a very spiritual man but maybe I was sent to be her guardian angel. A parting gift from a loved one." He stepped away from the desk and took a seat next to Aelya to give Airwin time to consider the offer.

Airwin's Office​

Airwin contemplated what the two had requested. The easy answer would have been to deny it, of course, Aelya would go anyway if he did that. Airwin cared deeply about the future of his people but this decision would cause a shuffle to occur in terms of intended roles. He smiled and said, "Aelya is a capable diplomat, and I'm sure she will be a good addition to your crew." Who was he to interrupt the proceedings of love, after all, it was the connection that laid behind this offer he was neither blind nor ignorant of it. "So, I'm going to give my approval on this, of course so long as it is to the satisfaction of your superior's Shosa." He said to Alastair, granting the go-ahead for their request. He then turned his attention to Aelya, "I have faith you will represent Tsenlan in this role, I will have you listed as a diplomat officially so that Star Army Command and the Empress are aware that I authorized the diplomat part, the rest will be up to the Shosa in terms of the approval of his Taisho.

"Is there anything else?" he questioned.

Lobby Area​

Naeliu sat down beside her sister, "Alright, part of me wishes I was on that ship leaving with Siethennin and Lithia. Father thinks it is a suicide mission that one ship can't make a difference." She mentioned in reference to the meeting that had proceeded with the current set. "I'm sure I will adjust though, I know Father wants to put together a proposal to the Star Army to send some ships to get our seed vaults. So one thing at a time..." She looked towards the office door that was still shut, "I suspect Aelya will be leaving, she seems infatuated with this Star Army Captain, go figure - seems romance between our kind and theirs is happening quicker than expected," she gave a sheepish smile to her sister as she looked back to her, "Who knows maybe you will fall in love with some hunk or babe from the Star Army." Naeliu giggled at her own suggestion.

Lobby Area - Arina​

The other Norian felt a bit heartened to get time with Naeliu, and she nodded along slowly while she spoke to just soak in her mannerisms and the sound of her voice. "I feel as though there are many of us that would try to go if we could." She poured Naeilu tea first, then herself. Arina was quick to get a sip in as she considered the very drink they had, "Those plants are a heritage, I hope they get them soon. As much as people will feel more at ease with a few familiar comforts of home." The other matter though made the snow princess cough on her drink and turn her head, a little pinker for it. "Perhaps both, or some mix? I don't really think it's contaminating anything, hopefully everyone will come around given our new home? Oh! Romantic...yes. I do not know if I will hold out hope, things have been a little hard." From the way her voice dipped it sounded like she was understating things.

"The rest had it worse, they would not want to hear me complaining."

-Aelya fades out-

Airwin finished up with the Captain and the Tal'Cel rather quickly, so he vesper whispered to Naeliu to inform her that he was ready to talk to Arina. He had determined through the previous meeting that his originally intended discussion would his daughter was going to be different. There was no need to further beat the topic of what had happened like a dead horse. It was time to move on with other things.

Naeliu and Arina​

"I don't think I would be able to stand father without a supply of chacelle, so I'd prefer they recover them as well," she made a bit of a giggle as she referred to their father's disposition and the fact at times it required a cooldown, and chacelle was the perfect wine for the job. "People will come around, they always do. At least Yamatai offers them the freedom to pursue something other than War, even though peace never lasts - the reality of any universe, I suppose," she said with a huff.

She made a bit of a face about the romantic part and didn't comment further as the call from their father came, "Well I guess he is ready to see us now. I think you've dodged the bullet because he asked for both of us and not just you," she said as she stood up and led Arina down the hallway towards their father's office. "If he was upset, he wouldn't want me in there," she noted.

Airwin's Office​

The look that her sister gave her made Arina chafe a little though she also was trying to parse exactly what it meant, "I mean, I'll see how things turn out. If you wish to talk more, you know where to find me." She even squeezed her wrist lightly as they got to the door, the thought of overflowing chacelle wine dancing about in her head as much as the ever-present dread lingering around in her mind. When they stepped inside, she gave her best formal greeting and moved to sit down. The former agent landed a little hard, making a comical sound from the chair's cushion as she sank into it, feeling even more in trouble even with her sister's reassurance everything would be all right. It was nice to hear her take on their father, she forced herself to calm by clenching and releasing her toes. It was one of a few ways they taught her to cope when she was in intelligence.

There was little chance he did not read her report on the situation, but writing it out had given her another spoonful of aching pain and frustration.

Airwin's Office​

Naeliu closed the door behind herself and Arina and took a seat in front of their father's desk. She couldn't help but think about those trips he had made to Vespa Lakara during the war to visit her. Most felt overwhelmed by him but she was at home, as most of his children should be. She gave a smile to Arina, "I'm sure we will have plenty of chances to talk, even if you go ahead with your plans to join the Star Army - we can correspond," she then turned her attention to their father.

Airwin exhaled deeply as the door shut and his daughters sat down, "Oh you're joining the Star Army still Arina?" he questioned. It was good Naeliu was there to set a more cheery tone than the previous issues that had crossed his desk. "Any idea when you will head out? Or where you're going?" he asked, genuinely interested in what she had to say. His own calendar was quickly filling up, he had a bill he planned to work on as well for the Senate. The previous meetings had not gone as planned, but at least the matters were settled. There were plenty of other things that needed discussion, so their visit at least would not go wasted.

He silently acknowledged a notification that Siethennin (Nira) and Lithia and their ship had departed.

Airwin's Office​

"That makes me feel a bit better, thank you." Arina replied to her sister. She raised her hand from the arm of her chair to wiggle her fingers at her father in a greeting that probably suited her personality more. "I told them my old rank and qualified for flight status. They offered me a commission as chewy...chui." She repeated with more precision. "I was going to take it if nothing else came up, was I not supposed to? I guess I felt a little useless when we got here, even if I know I was in the right place at the time." All thoughts went to Rin for a moment. She smiled anyway, her aunt was doing better, all things considered.

"It seemed like a good way to meet people I have not, and explore. Or at least pilot ships." A smirk crossed her face finally. There was always entering their intelligence group but she decided that she had enough of that years ago. "It's a very big army I won't end up somewhere troublesome. Probably." That statement sounded more like a question than anything else.

"How are you faring?" Arina purposefully asked an open-ended question in case Airwin had something on his mind.

Airwin gave an emotionally levied glance at his daughter, "Not supposed to? No, it would always be your choice Arina. I want what is best for you and what is best for you now is to choose a destiny. Consider this though as you step into a new career in the Star Army. No matter which occupation path you follow you as a Caeyara represent this Ysi and Tsenlan itself, be our eyes and ears in terms of what products Lo'ken can produce to enrich the lives of our people who serve and even things that you think the Star Army itself could benefit. We've made promises ones I fully intend to deliver upon, like to begin to unlock the more clandestine reaches of our Leviathan genetics and other more unique developments." He had not said much to his own Ysi about what would happen after the first steps were made and Tsenlan was established. "I truly want the best for our people and Yamatai itself, I want all of us no matter where we are headed to give ourselves completely to this. We need this, and they deserve the best of us," he encouraged her. "I still need to put together the proposal to get them to authorize a mission back to get our seed vaults, maybe even collect data from IDE storage. It would be a true gift to us all to restore more of our population if they can be recovered," he shared with his daughters his hopes.

He gave a heavy sigh as Arina asked of him though, "I find myself drowning in the need to explore and understand the people we've joined and try and find some sense of what we are to become. I find myself weary and unable to get the time I need to grieve," a look of emotion held his face as he outwardly showed emotion, it was somewhat unlike him, and maybe a sign that comfort was good. "I am tired, and I miss your mother. I'd be lost without Gemetzels counsel, I just wish that things could have moved a little slower." He took a deep breath and said to her, "What about you?" he asked, and glanced briefly at Naelui who was very quiet at his mention of his grief, she had her own and it showed up on her face so much so that he could see it.

Naelui's ears dipped back against the threads of her hair, it was far more than the sadness; rage lurked within that petite feminine form that desired to be unleashed. It was time for another training session or another workout. She needed to feel something give beneath her fists, she exhaled sharply as she awaited her sister to answer their father's inquiry as well as awaited her own time to speak. She could already feel the knot in her throat. She wanted so badly to choose her own path, something she had not done. The Star Army, her father, the company, none of it felt right yet. Nothing felt right, it was just those few moments she spent curled in bed, dreaming that her mother had survived and that this was a nightmare and not reality.

The one thing Arina had not been prepared for is to be told to just do what she thought was best. She was not aware of the fact that she usually thought of what the people needed more, as much as she chafed sometimes. This took on a new extreme when the last war began, and it had been all she thought of until they got to Yamatai, and in her subconscious since if one were to be honest.

It is always easier to see someone else's problems.

"I'll accept then, but if you need me for anything and I'm not neck deep in...whatever they are going to have me do, I'll be wherever you need." She assured him, and since there was no way to reach across the table, she took Naelui's hand between both of hers on her lap to comfort her. "I'd love to help with the vaults but I don't think I have a total choice over my assignment. It's important we preserve our botanical heritage as quickly as possible." It was something she said before, but she still meant it. The vaults had been on her mind as other things more or less settled.

As they spoke on, she got up and hugged her little sister from the side by leaning down. "I'm always a call away you know." She sent through Vesper. "Or a thought." Since they were alone (though it might not stop her otherwise) she made her way around the desk to hug Airwin from behind. "It's been hardest on you most of all, I know that. It is why it feels complicated and probably why I feel guilty doing anything that's not helping us in a very obvious way." Since so many had died and she had not, thinking of anything but the people felt almost like a betrayal, one she was having a difficult time getting over, much less in the shadow of her mother's death.

"I'm...trying. It's not been hard, as you might have noticed from this whole thing, though I can't even tell if I'd have done anything differently or not and that bothers me. I like to think no. I would like to see her smile one more time, at least. That's probably the hardest thing, I do miss her very mother personality that was very her. I did not get much sleep last night, I am sorry for rambling." The snowy-white haired woman tilted her head into his, smooshing her cheek into his temple.

Airwin nodded slowly as his daughter embraced him from behind the chair. There was something safe at that moment, the office deserted of those who had come to receive what they expected to be a punishment but ended up being just a quiet thank you. There had been sighs since the day he set foot on Yamatai to plea for their assistance that a moment like this was inevitable. The man who had to lead his people to safety had lost almost his entire universe, and the people just made a fraction of that. The remainder had been laid to rest the day before. An unfamiliar sound, a sharp breath exhumed from the depths of him and it was as if a wall had crumbled or a dam breached. Airwin felt as if he was falling through the floor, through the planet, through the sector as he came undone. Beneath where Arina's cheek met the side of his head, tears escaped from the poor attempt to seal them with his eyelids. The vesper links between him and his daughters surged with unfamiliar emotion from him as his sorrow poured forth like that which fell from his eyes. His body actually trembled as he felt the grief move through him like a snake coming uncoiled for the strike. What started as a breach became expulsion, tears evolved into a sobbed mess as he tried to bring the unfamiliar emotion he had tried to bury for so long. Regret was dangerous or so some claimed when it came to men like him, the moments he had buried himself in his work and the hours he had spent under the influence of his previous addictions to prevent something like this from ever happening caught up with him. He just ached with it, he had lost so much more than a woman who was his wife. Sinith had been everything, the only one he felt understood him and he had not had a moment to himself since it had happened.

They had run from extinction and run from the decisions of his father, but he could not unrun the guilt he felt; the loss that consumed him more than what had inhabited him during the darkest years of the Void Wars. He had the words to respond to Arina at least in his head, but he could verbalize nothing as he just came undone. Naeliu got up from her chair and joined her place beside her sister and wrapped one arm around her father and the other around her sister. In moments any facade that had given anyone the illusion of his invulnerability had fallen. It was something that the people could never know, just how deeply the wound was within him. Even as they had found peace, he still had to tame the tempest within. There were no words from him, just the sounds of his sobs as he remained in their grip. Everything else he had hoped to accomplish faded in those moments, he had to finally take a step back to breathe in his own way. No matter how much he desired to stop this explosion of emotions it just erupted in a more furious resolve. It was all unbearable and had they not been there and held him he probably would have torn the shelves from the walls and scattered the desk as he just found himself unable to choose between the flood of loss, grief, anger, and sorrow that flooded through him.

Dark images, the energies of those distraught emotions worked through the Vespers, they were there and they were part of his grief. His hands rose to embrace each of their arms as he struggled to regain his lost control.

The surge that came from her father caught Arina off guard. She suspected he was holding much in, because if she was, how could he be so calm? They were all grieving, positions of visibility made it harder, and the expectations of perceptions of others always levied against the soul of a Norian, especially the primary Ysi of all that was truly left of them with freedom. The terrible price was washing out through his Vesper and body. She slid her arm out to reach Naeliu to complete the circle they made, and leaned into Airwin so her free hand could work through his hair. It felt like the right thing to do, there was not much going through her mind than commiserating sadness. All of her crying had been in stolen moments, and no one really said anything about how she looked after. He was not so fortunate, no, none of them were, the void reached out and swallowed them and it was like cleansing, the tempestuous fury that bubbled out of Airwin and mixed with some escapes of her own.

It barely registered that it made her tears flow again, too, and she squeezed both of them a little more tightly while trying not to make a total mess out of her father's head, though she did a poor job of that. At least they had the time given to them right there, but she felt that anyone begrudging them of a moment to actually feel things, now that they were able to breathe again somewhat, was nowhere near them.

It is what it felt like to be a family in pieces. Still a family, somehow.