The Ctan
13-08-2004, 22:30
To: Emperor Mephet`ran
From: Galadriël
My dearest friend,
Your invitation to attend the official inauguration and launch ceremony of the First Imperial Patrol Group, is most kind. I would have loved to attend and I do hope to see more of the Ctan in the future.
Unfortunately, grave matters of state keep me from leaving my lands to visit you again. With my country on the brink of war I cannot leave as my presence is most required. My heart yearns for the moment where the stars are set for us to meet once again but this moment has not yet come.
All my love,
Lady Galadriël Táralóm nos Círdan
To; Lady Galadriël Táralóm nos Círdan
From; Emperor Mephet’ran
My dearest Galadriël,
Your recent decision not to visit me was of course, received. It strikes me that as you are unable to leave the nation due to duty, I could perhaps instead visit yourself again, as I would rather like to see you once more, and I can perhaps be of some use in discussing the current situation with you, as well as the potential to improve future relations between our two nations.
With my love,
Mephet'ran
The Ctan
13-08-2004, 22:57
It was unfortunate that there was no one really there to see the Reaper drop out of hyperspeed at anything like close range. It was effectively like, when watching it from above or below, seeing a blur, short, speed out of nowhere, lengthening every fraction of a second, relativistic contraction fading every fraction of a second as the kinetic energy of the ship bled away harmlessly to an alternate dimension used only for that task. The ship travelled with escort, as usual. Five of the ships known as Jackal class raiders, appearing along with the vast battleship, each of them were the size of some nations battleships. The flotilla began to accelerate at a leisurely pace towards the third planet and the nation of Knootoss.
The ship sent a transmission toward its destination.
“Dearest Gala,
As you wish, here is the note you wanted, I am currently en-route, and shall arrive in about four hours. I wonder if you’d care to pay a visit to my ship instead, I had intended to give you a tour of one, and I doubt your previous experience with my ships gives a completely fair and balanced opinion of them. And of course, I would love to sample more of your cooking.
With love,
Mephet”
Knootoss
18-09-2004, 22:27
The Hague, Knootoss
Mephet`ran is, for his part, playing with his usual antics for visiting her, and with a sharp pop, he is suddenly in the palace where the Knootian Prime Minister is holding residence. Lady Galadriël Táralóm nos Círdan is just leaving the palace kitchen, where her cookies were getting nice and warm, when the Emperor suddenly appeared before her. Slightly startled, she flinches but then a smile breaks on her face.
"Mepeth!", she cries out. "There you are. Welcome again."
Mephet`ran grins, she seems very happy with herself. He strides over as Galadriël stretches out her arms and wraps his arms around her waist, picking her up and spinning her around a bit. The elf giggles as this happens, and spins happily. Mephet`ran sets her down, and quickly plants a kiss on her lips, in a largely friendly, rather than intimate manner, "How's my favourite Knootian?"
The elf blushes, taken aback for a moment. "I'm... I'm fine thank you." She dares not return the inquiry, but instead just gazes in Mephet`rans eyes. He meets her gaze, a little smile turning up the corner of his lips, his eyes seeming to be bluer than sapphires. The stare definitely lasts longer then normal, neither side breaking it, but Galadriël cannot help breaking into laughter; a high ringing giggle, like little bells. "But I'm sure you know all about that already."
Mephet`rangrins, he passes a languid gaze down to her feet, and then back up, "You do seem in perfect health, yes."
She radiates, and does a small curtsy. "Thank you! I do try to do some exercise now and then in-between the plotting and the cutting of ribbons... I cannot just shapeshift into form you know..." she pauses for a moment to admire the Ctan. "And you look as good as ever."
Mephet`ran steps closer, to her side and passes an arm around her waist, pulling her against him a little, "It's remarkably liberating," he says, "and I'm glad you keep yourself in shape..."
Galadriël grabs Mephet`rans hand. But then a light burning stench penetrates her nostrils. It is coming from the adjoining kitchen. Her eyes widen a bit. "I.. uh... will be right back." She lets loose the hand and stumbles into the palace kitchen.
Mephet`ran resists the urge to laugh, and watches her go. Strange sounds come from the kitchen, and Mephet`ran picks up some curses in Quenya followed by the clapping sound of an oven door opening. A small cloud of black smoke comes through the doorway that the elf had just come from.
"No damnit", she goes on in Dutch. "Stupid thing was never cleaned. Dirty Knootians."
Mephet`ran can't help it now, that gets a laugh. As she re-enters the adjoining room, her snow-white face is covered with small spots of black from the oven. With her hands wrapped in Pink Bunny Cola oven mittens, she presents a large baking plate with black round thingies and chocolate that vaguely resemble cookies. She looks rather disappointed. Mephet`ran smiles regardless, and dutifully takes one and eats it. Even if it is rather burnt. The cookie tastes awful, but Galadriël still takes one out of politeness. The baking plate is put on one of the French tables along with the mittens, to be cleaned up by someone else.
"So...", she asks, "you wanted to show me a ship?"
Mephet`ran smiles a little, and steps into the kitchen, a moment later, he comes back with something of a damp cloth and grabs her by the waist again, pulling her against him a little, and removing the assorted black marks on her face with near surgical precision. Galadriël struggles at first, surprised, but she keeps firm as soon as she realises what he is doing.
"Thank you, I suppose", she stutters bewildered after he is done with the cloth.
Mephet`ran smiles, and throws the cloth onto the tray. He smiles playfully, and kisses her again. This time, Galadriël answers the kiss by pressing her lips against his and letting her arms fall helplessly to her side. She closes her eyes to savour the moment. Mephet`ran leans back and looks into her eyes, "Yes," he says, and a moment later, this time without the noise, the pair are in a fairly large room with silver walls, and a large window dominating one side of it.
"Reaper of Light - Part the Second."
Galadriël looks around. As se is still in a haze from the kiss she barely seems aware of her surroundings. It takes her a full five seconds to comment . Slowly, she turns to look back in Mephet`rans eyes. "This is your ship?", she whispers. "I think its beautiful."
Mephet`ran smiles, leading her over to the window, somehow getting her to feel completely helpless as he does so. It shows her own homeland below the ship. "It's a part of it."
Galadriëls jaw drops. Seeing your homeworld from space is truly a majestic experience. "Its so... small", she says softly.
Mephet`ran smiles a little, "Haven't you ever been up here before?"
"Only once. But that was different. Inauguration of some foreign space station in earth orbit. I never got to see... this."
Mephet`ran smiles, "Oh, in that case," he closes his eyes, sending a little command to the ship "I'll turn the gravity off for a bit," he says, and gives her a playful little push, sending her up into the air. "oooh", she exclaims. "What is this!" But soon she gets the hang of it and she spreads her arms like they are a birds wings. In that position, she tries to float back to Mephet`ran without much success. "Its dizzying", she says with a giggle. Mephet`ran casually jumps off the floor, and rebounds from the ceiling, catching the elf in midair and bringing them to a stop by kicking one of the walls. Galadriël lets out small exited shrieks and allows herself to be swept away by gravity. When Mephet`ran eventually brings them down onto the floor and has the gravity restored, she still pants from the excitement.
"That was wonderful", the elf exclaims. "What other wonders does this silver ship have to show?"
Mephet`ran smiles, again physically leading her along, seemingly having perfected the art of making elves feel completely helpless when he's around. At some point. Helpless as she may be, Galadriël feels comfortable, secure. For her, it is a complete change of roles. Back in the DDR she was always the ambitious one, the leader, the driver. But now, at the hands of this strange god-like creature, she is like wax.
He leads her down few a few corridors. Their colour scheme is much the same: silver, with some metallic turquoise here and there. After a few moments, he leads her into another room, this one containing a vast hologram of the area below, in rather surprising detail, it looks more like a model that someone would have worked a lifetime on than a tactical projection. Again she's shepherded around, he seems rather pleased with her reaction.
The elf gives small appreciative nods, and draws breath for a small gasp as she sees the tactical projection. "Shiny", she mutters.
Mephet`ran smiles, "Would you like one?" he asks, drawing her near to the side of the thing.
The eyes of the elf begin to sparkle, reflecting a golden haze of part of the projection. "Oh, yes", she mutters. "Absolutely." She reaches her hand out to it, to touch it. It provides a little resistance, but she is still able to pass her hand through it.
"wonderful", she says as she withdraws her hand. "this beats our 2D tactical projections by a mile."
Mephet`ran grins, and resets it to show Tanah Burung, having the suspicion that she might want to see that. Somehow, the eyes of her elf glimmer more now then they did before. "Tanah Burung", she spells out. "Can it show our units?", she wonders. Mephet`ran smiles, and after a moment it begins to pick out the Knootian ships and ground units it can locate.
"Very nice", she comments. "Very nice indeed." She watches the third division advance along the maglev, and naval groups A and B closing around the gap to the north and south of Tiga Burung. They watch as it adds, in two dimensional, glowing letters, details on how long it would take to eliminate them. He's rather glad she can't read necrontyr.
Galadriël turns to face Mephet`ran. "So tell me", she asks "what do you think of our advance so far?"
Mephet`ran smiles, "I don't know, from this you look like you're having some success."
"Yes...", her voice trails. "It would seem so." She sighs. "Intervention is what worries me at this point. A CACE fleet is inside the waters we blockade and a Vaadian battlegroup is on its way for purposes unknown. Both could seriously damage or sink our fleet. This war will be won by diplomacy", she continues. "Gaining control of a defenceless nation is... childs play."
Mephet`ran "CACE has a fleet?" he asks mockingly. "I'd have thought they'd find it difficult to run a sea-scout outing..."
"Galdagans", she mutters, not amused by the joke. "Quite adept at it. Unfortunately, the few who actually do have military capabilities can still turn cogs in my wheels. But they'll back down. I'll see to that. The Vaadians are the unpredictable factor. I have no idea what their military commander will do. My people are negotiating with them as we speak... but their logic is strange."
"I see," he says, not really doubting her abilities there, "strange, in what way?"
"Have you ever tried to reason with a Vaadian?", she asks bemused.
"No."
"Don't try to.", she shrugs and grabs Mepeths hand again. "But can you get me one of these?" She eyes the tactical projection for a moment before turning again to the man next to her.
Mephet`ran smiles once more, "Of course," he says, looking at her with a little amusement. She likes the "shinyness" clearly.
"We'll arrange it", she replies happily as she eyes one of the doors beyond the silvery walls.
Mephet`ran notices it. "Now, are you interested in the engines?"
"Engines?", she asks with curiosity. She does, however, wait for Mephet`ran to take the lead. He wraps his arm around her waist again, and walking, pulling her along in the same controlling manner. He leads her into a lift and then out onto a balcony overlooking a vast set of cylinders with all sorts of shiny, shimmering, glowy bits.
"Shiny!", is again the only thing Galadriël can say.
Mephet`ran smiles, "Like them?" he asks, knowing that she can only guess at the function of most of this stuff.
"They look... impressive", she says while indeed having no idea what any of it does. But they shimmer and glow, making the elf all weak and full of desire.
"I wonder. Where next..." he says, "You know, I have a fairly impressive bedroom..." this is of course, something of a proposition. He feels that in her current state of mind she won't really object.
"hmmmm", she hums appreciatively. She is still distracted, accepting in an overwhelmed state. Mephet`ran gently presses himself against her and hugs her again, kissing firmly, masterfully even. Galadriël keeps her eyes closed, opening herself up to the Emperors probing movements. This is better then any shiny toy. Mephet`ran leads her back into the lift, again the combination of her emotional state and his own actions makes her feel especially helpless and willing to comply and obey. He eventually leads her into what can only be described as a quite majestic bedroom. Another 'window' showing the view of the planet below dominates the wall beyond the head of the bed. Around the room there are assorted other items of furniture scattered around, and here and there a few old fashioned books.
Galadriël looks around, her eyes widen as they are drawn to the window, but eventually they move to the bed. There they rest for a while. She says nothing. Mephet`ran quietly walks behind Gala and lays his hands on her shoulders, "So," he asks, "do you like the view?” He may or may not be talking about the bed now.
"It looks nice, but I am not sure if I would want to take a closer look", she replies timidly.
He smiles, "And why is that?" he asks, taking a tone that doesn't sound frustrated, indeed, he sounds very patient and understanding.
Galadriël is confused. Mixed feelings pull on her. Her own, confident voice telling her not to, but another voice in her, almost alien, pulls her towards the Emperor. "It looks very... distant and improbable", she sighs. "A great unknown."
Mephet`ran smiles a little, "Have you been to such places before?" he asks with interest. Knowing where she's from he'd be stunned were she a virgin.
Galadriël "You...!". She does not answer. Instead, she takes a step away from Mephet`ran, but further into the room. He follows after a moment, intrigued.
"I...". She shudders, then continues more firmly. "I do not know if this is a good idea."
He smiles again, always smiling, "Neither do I."
The elf stands frozen on the spot. "Maybe we are going too fast. Maybe we..." Mephet`ransteps forward, takes hold of her upper arms and kisses her firmly, holding it for a few minutes. When the kiss is broken, Galadriël looks at him with desire in her eyes. Instead of saying something, she presses her lips back on his, returning his affections. He kisses back, and when he's done he looks into her eyes. "Tell me, have you ever wanted to be a queen?"
Galadriël smiles. Her eyes twinkle "A Queen?"
"Oh, yes Mephet. I have."
Mephet`ran gently runs his fingers through her hair, "I think that I may be able to make that happen for you..."
They kiss again, elf and god, their minds and hearts slowly coming together.