ten_fwd | [open] For science! ... or something like that.

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minoru

[open] For science! ... or something like that.

Between daily workouts in the holodeck, sparring sessions with Kaylin and teaching chakra classes, Minoru finally resumed his studies on everything snakelike. A handful of very patient ensigns helped him set up his own workstation in one of the astrobiology labs, taught him how to use the instruments and the computer, etc. His 'science' is crude at best, so a lab partner (especially someone who might actually know what they're doing) is always welcome!

[option A - cataloging]

Focusing a particular amount of chakra, pricking his finger and tracing a thin line of blood over the tribal tattoo on his wrist is all that Minoru has to do to summon a snake. He's going through his summons, one at a time, milking them, letting the computer analyze them and their venom. For him, it was a new way of thinking about things, but for the computer, it was one easy match after another. Until he'd summoned something the computer couldn't identify.

The snake is small and white, its scales giving off an almost crystalline appearance. He knows this snake well, remembers its fiery bite fondly and the Sage Mode transformation it produced. But no one here has ever made a record of it before.

Are you the curious sort? What could be learned from this?

[option B - new species]

For all the snakes he'd come in contact with, there were many entries listed for species he'd never worked with. Draxxan cloud vipers, arboreal needle snakes, fire snakes... the list went on and on! When you walk in, Minoru has a living specimen of some kind on the table - a dangerous one at that - and he's handling it without any kind of protection.

Do you dare approach? And if it bites, what will you do?

[Option C - crazy chemistry]

Minoru is used to testing things on himself, on mixing substance A with substance B and observing things with the naked eye. But now, the computer can break venom down to its component parts. It could even simulate what would happen if he mixed and combined those.

He wants to know if he can create a venom that heals tissue rather than destroys it, whether he can breed snakes that produce it, and whether he can use the same serum on himself to boost the healing abilities he can channel through his Sage Mode.

Can you help Minoru answer these questions? Are you there to celebrate a lucky breakthrough? Or are you simply a witness to something going horribly wrong?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She gave him an odd look now, her gold eyes focusing on him. She gave a heavy sigh. "Fine," she said through her teeth. "But not today." She sipped her poison and sighed as she realized she had finished it. She wanted to vanish the cup but didn't quite dare. Which just reminded her how much she hated males in general, Theiorn in particular, at the moment.

Minoru shrugged. "Sounds fair."

He wasn't sure what hour of the night it was. Not having a sun really did mess with one's sense of time.

"Where can I find you?"

She wanted to say he couldn't, that she'd find him if she felt like it. Theiorn, the traitor, spoke before she could. He gave him their room number. Ailyshia really wished for the moment that she was the kind to gut a male for being annoying. Unfortunately the High Lord had gotten to her while she was still malleable enough. That meant she had a code of honor. A inconvenient one at that.

Minoru grinned, looking forward to future meetings with the pair.. "Thank you very much!"

Those with a Sage's power or discipline were few and far between, in any world. This was a fantastic opportunity to learn and further his understanding of the mysteies of life!

[did you want to fast forward to one of these meetings? Or is there a thread somewhere in existence I should tag into?]

(we can fast forward, or I can make a new thread, or you can, whatever you wish!)

She gave him such an odd look.

Theiorn grinned. "I can honestly say, I am looking forward to this." With that, he stepped aside.

Ailyshia, given an escape route, took it.

He followed, bemused.

Minoru decided to give Ailyshia a few days. She looked a bit under the weather when they'd first met, and he didn't want to disturb her if she wasn't feeling well.

But eventually, he came knocking on their door. He was eager to hear whatever she had to say on the topic of poisons. Maybe, he could discover a few more ways he could heal instead of harm.

Theiorn opened the door, his gold eyes narrowed, a long pole arm in his hand. When he saw who it was, however, the weapon vanished, and he grinned. "Welcome. Come in." he stepped aside to let him in. This... was going to be amusing.

He had no idea what to expect, so he simply grinned back. "I've been looking forward to it!"

He walked inside, and looked around.

"Trust me, brother. I have as well." Very much so. He gestured to the sofa in the sitting area. Have a seat." He flicked a mental message to Ailyshia, and to see if Minoru could hear it, left it open enough that if he could communicate psychically, he'd pick it up. *Someone is here to see you.*

Her reply matched his, automatically. *If it is a male, you can go sit on a spear. I'm busy.*

*Lady, your presence is requested in the front room.* He was eyeing the door as he sent this, a slightly mulish look on his face, with just a hint of smugness. There was a slash of heat, actual HEAT from behind her closed door, there, then contained. With it, his smugness grew.

She stalked into the main room, her skirt moving about her ankles in a counterpoint to the fury in her gold eyes. She wore a long blue dress that managed to be modest and feminine at the same time, minimizing her figure, but bringing out her beauty. Her necklaces were over the dress, and the purple jewel flashed with inner fire.

"Prince," she snarled at Theiorn.

Theiorn was either stupid or brave. He actually reached out and took her by the shoulders to turn her to face Minoru. Her elbow was in his gut before he could finish the turn, and he danced back. Her eyes blazed with fury, and there was another slash of heat, then she faced Minoru and... Well... her expression could have been called dark or ominous or venomous... if it hadn't come on the heels of the much worse anger she had just been expressing. In this context it almost looked welcoming. Almost.

"Prince," she said, tightly.

While both of his parents may have excelled in genjutsu, able to fight entire battles inside someone's mind, Minoru inherited none of that. Not the special sharingan eyes, and especially not the aptitude. He didn't hear anything that Theiorn said psychically.

Of course, one didn't need to be psychic to feel the Ailyshia's presence before she arrived in the main room. There was energy there, chakra strong enough to be palpable even outside of Sage Mode. Theiorn hardly seemed bothered by it, so Minoru wasn't either. He simply rocked back and forth on his heels as he waited.

When she appeared in the doorway, Minoru smiled and waved. He wasn't enticed by beauty or bothered by danger. He was simply here to learn - about her energy, her power, her poisons, her way of life.

"No time like the present, right?"

Oh the look she gave him, then she squared her shoulders "As you wish." She moved to the table and sat at it. He could sit across from her or not, as that was the only other chair at the table. She was not sitting beside an unknown male. That was not going to happen.

Once she was seated, smoothing her skirts under her neatly, she lifted a hand and a bottle of brandy appeared there, two glasses appeared on the table. "A drink?"

He sat down across from her, and politely accepted the drink. It wasn't something he normally consumed, but resistance to poisons had proved helpful in the past. The way the bottle appeared out of thin air didn't faze him either. He was used to summoning jutsu and retrieving items sealed in scrolls.

"What is it like being a Black Widow, Lady Widow?" he asked, adding the formal designation as a show of reapect. "What abilities do you train to develop? And how do you use them in your world?"

"Lady is a sufficient form of address," she informed him as she poured the drinks and sipped her own, floating his glass to him.

"And I don't have the first clue how to answer that question," she said flatly, over her drink. She was pretty sure she didn't have enough to get tipsy. One of the draw backs to a darker Jewel. She took another sip. "It would be as if I took leave of my senses and asked you what it was like being male," she drawled. "You need to be more specific, Prince."

He had to think about that, but unfortunately, he wasn't sure exactly what words to use. "A Snake Sage dedicates their life to the study of life, death and rebirth. What are your domains?"

"Domains?" she arched her brows. Well, that was a rather odd way to put it. "A Black Widow specializes in poisons and visions. Illusions. If she happens to also be a healer, there is a focus on healing the damage done by poison. If she is also a Queen, there tends to be a focus on the plants used in poisons. I am a Queen, but not a healer."

So many different words for the same concepts. The more dimensions and worlds Minoru travels through, the less he knows how to explain anything...

"A queen..." He thought aloud. There must have been a lot more Black Widows than there were Dragons. In his entire lifetime, he'd only met a handful, and none from his world of origin. "I guess that makes me more a healer than a Prince. I'd love to learn more about plants, though. Outside of growing food, obviously, or a few basic herbs, I haven't had much experience with them."

One thing at a time. Visions and illusions could be addressed later.

....................................................................

She gave him a look, as though he were particularly slow in an obvious and irritating way. When she spoke it was as one might speak to an idiot who has the potential to be dangerous, but not the capacity to realize the speaker sees him tht way, "Healer is a female caste."

He blinked a little. "The Great Snake Lord Elders never defined anything as a male or female role. I followed my dreams and they just supported me."

It was the truth. Perhaps, in a time where there were more of them, rules and roles might have been more defined. But the few Snake Sages Minoru had met were men (he didn't assume all of them were; he'd only had the chance to meet a few.) and they did a lot of medical ninjutsu before and after they trained with the snakes. Minoru's art of healing was solely from the snakes.

"In my world, I don't think there's anything men and women can't both do."

Both of them were giving him mildly horrified looks at the moment. The thought chilled Ailyshia to the core. Dorethea's attempt to break down the Caste system, to rule as a Priestess rekindled the embers of war from when Hekatabah had tried to do the same, fifty thousand years ago. The realms were still reeling from the loss of life, and trying to rebuild. Kaleer didn't take as much damage as H*** and Tereille, but whole districts were gutted as the taint was removed, especially Litter Terrelle and Glacia.

"Caste decides much," she finally said, firmly, "and the caste you are born into is linked to your gender. Males might learn some healing Craft, but they can not be Healers. I know some basic healing Craft, but I am not a Healer. Could never be."

Minoru did not advocate that his way was any more right than her's. Both of them were brought up in their own worlds, with its own rules. Each was valid, at least from Minoru's point of view.

"I was born into a ninja clan within a ninja village, so I trained at the Academy in the art of ninjutsu."

Their caste system, he explained, was one based on rank, not gender. And rank was determined by how well an individual uses their unique talents to perform within their four-man cell. If one excelled at weapons, that became their focus. If one excelled at medical ninjutsu, that was where they earned their rank. He did admit, a bit sheepishly, that he stepped outside of that system with his Sage training.

"It does decide a lot." He agreed. "I may be accepted in my birth village as a citizen - meaning I didn't get marked for assassination when I left - but I technically don't hold any rank. I can't accept missions or earn money. Kind of the price to pay for the path I chose."

He accepted it, embraced it. He even smiled.

"

"Your caste disallows you to earn money?" she asked, startled, and horrified. "How do you survive?" She might not be an aristo like the High Lord, but she understood the need for money, and appreciated the comforts of a warm home.

Theiron watching, smiled. In her shock she had forgotten to hate Minoru on principal. This was going well.

Technically, Minoru saw himself as outside the caste system, but that could be considered a caste, he supposed. He essentially had the same rights as a civilian. Or, at best, an Academy student.

"Just on missions, which is pretty much what my birth village's entire economy is based on. But I can do odd jobs like some of the other civilians." And if he was there for any length of time, he wound up doing that regardless. People were appreciative of his help, and he never asked for money. "Usually, I just do what I do whenever I travel through different worlds. I trade work for food!"

His 'home' was not his birth village, though, but rather Ryuuchi Cave, where he trained with the Great Snake Lord Elders. There, he had a small plot of land he had farmed and foraged over the years, which took care of his most basic need. Shelter was either a cave or a hammock, depending on the rainy season. Warmth was a given, since giant snakes don't take well to cold temperatures. That, oddly enough, was the comforts of home.

She gave him such a bewildered look that it was almost comical. "There is more to life, more needs than simply food," she said, startled. At least in a place like this, there was plenty, and little was asked of them, but what of where he wound up after. The Territory Queen should have been looking after her people.

Minoru laughed. "Of course there is!"

Food just happened to be the most tradable, and one of the needs that was difficult to come by when he hopped from world to world, dimension to dimension, on a very regular basis. He also happened to have quite an appetite, so it easily topped the list.

"There's hope! There's health, peace, security, companionship, resourcefulness..." The list of the intangible needs could go on and on, and these, to Minoru, were crucial. "That's what I'm really trading when I'm out there. That's what being a Snake Sage means to me."

Whether it's a hard day's work helping a village repair houses after a storm, protecting a traveler from bandits, performing a show in a traveling circus, healing the sick or standing vigil over the dying, Minoru did whatever he was asked to do as he traveled and studied the ways of the Great Snake Lord Elders. His concept of needs, wants and what brings fulfillment to his life were a bit different from most people's.

"As a Black Widow Queen, what do you use your powers for?"

That sounded quite nieve and childish for her, but she did not say as much.

"As a Queen, my powers are used to help the Land and the people in the Territory of the Queens I serve. If I were a ruling Queen, my word would be law within my own borders, and I would be answerable to the Queens above me, my people, and my court. I am not generally a ruling Queen and seek no control over the lives of the people, and no desire to form a court."

That.... was not entirely true. There was an instinctive pull, but it was like the pull someone might feel if they became a vegetarian for moral reasons, but still liked the taste of meat. She told herself she craved it not, and worked hard to that end. That a Court required a first circle of males, and she hated males, this was perhaps easier for her than it might be for others.

"I serve Queens who rule in their courts, and aid with seeing to the land and whatever tasks I am assigned."

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[continues in this thread for sake of convenience.]

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