The First Meeting of Lady Marian & Darcy Lewis

[queenofmay]

It's a large ship. Larger than she has any idea how to consider. Especially given that they are still packed away into small amounts of space on it. Seeing people come and go from Ten Forward. More new faces all the time. Their officers, and their families. Even in the Sickbay. Enough that it always feels like a surprise, but, also, only like the steady early drip of rain starting. Holding back an endless cloud. The unknown. Outside of these spaces.

Today, at the least, they've been given room assignments outside of the place they'd all be keeping together as one mass of dislocated persons. Handed out a list. Perhaps, Marian could admit, to herself, if no one else, she was a touch envious her two friends had found themselves together. All she knew of the person whose room she had newly been granted to was a name: Darcy Lewis.






Which was how she founds herself, following a blinking line of lights on a black wall, computer, that talked and was leading her toward that room, which was all still quite strange thank you, with Caspian at her side.

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[the_seafarer]

Caspian ought to be pleased with his room assignment.

He is not.




Then, perhaps, that is not entirely accurate: he is deeply grateful for his own arrangement, and deeply mistrustful of the one Marian was given. "I'm certain Kate would be delighted to switch," he says. If it sounds like a sentence he has said in various, only slightly edited versions multiple times, that's because it is. "Truly, my lady, it would be my pleasure."

[queenofmay]

"My Lord Caspian," Marian mirrored back a title for a title, with something far closer to patient, maybe even fondly edged, resignation nearing almost a smile, than any gilded annoyance. Because she would have neither of them give up their lot for her. They'd done enough. Before; and since. "I will be fine. Even if it isn't Amy's seventeenth best room."

Even if Ambergeldar seemed as far away as Nottingham, Sherwood and Earth at the moment. But there were still a store of hopes that they would be finding a way back to Milliways, and all the other worlds that bore their hearts and their loads from there.

She singled him with a side glance as they walked, and the line on the wall continued to blink in the same direction, choosing something both more logical and light by her tone. "Unless you mean to imply that I would not be able to take care of myself should the need arise."

[the_seafarer]

"It would be folly to suggest," he says, smiling back, over his shoulder as they walk, "and though my days of foolishness are mayhaps not yet fully run, still, I hope to avoid any such obvious misapprehensions."

Marian can take care of herself, and anyone else who might need assistance. She is a skilled swordswoman and archer, and as quick-witted as she is with a blade or bow. Her survival in Nottingham and Sherwood long depended on both.

And though he is uneasy at the thought of a stranger, a potential threat, here in this strange, if not yet threatening, place, it is her room, and her choice, and so he turns his attention instead to the lights which run along the glass set into the bulkheads. It may be a poor distraction, but it serves well enough for the moment. "I wonder how large this ship truly is. She seems near the size of a great city, to me."

[queenofmay]

She might be down a bow, and access to a sword, but if she's made clever use of surroundings before. From weapons to hiding places. If it has been the part of a passing half year since she's had any circumstance that was as needful of such skills as the months and years prior to those.

"One of the others said there were several dozens of-" Marian paused looking for the right word again. "-decks."

Which seemed to be the same as floors. In a normal building, or Milliways. Or like a ship, even though she still only thought of the top level as that. But the less she thought about any ships, and the endless, aching, ever lasting, never not rocking, time spent within them, that were not Caspian's current posting, the better honestly. Even if she would assimilate their words and their ideas as fast as she could.

The better to understand these people. Ask them questions they understood, and to help work toward amiable goals while stuck.

[the_seafarer]

"Not quite like the decks I know."

He trails his fingers along the cold metal bulkhead -- wall, really -- while crooking a half-smile that's more memory than amusement. "Or stars."

He looks back over at her, Marian, always composed and lovely, graceful even under strain and stress. "I thought I'd seen all there was to see of the world and the others outside it. I'm glad I was mistaken -- though I might have preferred some small warning beforehand."

[queenofmay]

"It can be your first order of business when we find out who has done this."

If anyone. Marian's arrival in Milliways wasn't too unlike this. But nearly everything since it had been more to form. While nothing here was to form. Save Caspian, and Kate. A thing she could at least be grateful for in one hand, while she was considering the rest of this. "Maybe we'll get to--"

"You have arrived at your destination." The computer spoke out, from the wall or ceiling or the floor, or wherever it jarred suddenly forth from every time, cutting her off and leaving her staring at a door to their side. That was it, then. The door to her room, and the room of one Darcy Lewis. Marian looked at Caspian, and approached the door, waiting for it to slide open.

[tased_lightning]

Darcy's got the heads-up (visitors! Presumably her new roommate) and is headed to the door as it opens.

The room looks pretty much like how it was when she got here, with the addition of a bunch of colorful coffee mugs, and blankets and throw pillows. Darcy's a big believer in blankets and throw pillows. Her room's more altered, but she didn't want to do too much and be That Roommate.

"Hi," she says as the door slides open, and slides forward the last few feet before extending her hand to Marian.

Then she sees Caspian, and her smile freezes slightly, glancing him over, and back to Marian. Boyfriend? Brother? Bodyguard? Pretty much the only one of those that bodes okay for Darcy for the next who knows how long is brother. Brother who is not unexpectedly crashing her man-less room gig.

"I'm Darcy Lewis. I'm guessing you're Marian?"

[queenofmay]

The splashes of color and signs of life are, actually, a bit relieving. So much more than random articles throw in the common area of the quarantine sleeping quarters, or the even less personable Medical Bay and Ten Forward. They didn't look bad, as such. Just official. Professional. Busy. Impersonal.

"Yes." Marian extended her hand, along with a nod and a gentle smile. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Then, because she is at least polite. "This is Lord Caspian." Who gets a slightly amused shot of a look, because, see, Darcy looks perfectly harmless, Caspian. Even if Marian knows perfectly harmless people can be both anything but and incredibly surprising in all manner of other ways. She's pretty sure she does not constitute any further belief in a threat.

At least not without some indicative proof to the contrary. Which is why she, also, adds. "He was just walking me here."

Because Marian chooses hope, and she's not entirely adverse to the idea of something brand new. Someone brand new.

[the_seafarer]

The look from Marian gets only a studied innocence from Caspian -- although looking harmless and being harmless are two entirely separate things -- before he turns his attention to Darcy with a slight bow that's mostly a simple inclination of his head. "Miss Lewis."

The room itself looks cheery enough, though all these quarters have the faintly anonymous feel of mass production: cozy and homey are near impossible to create within what is essentially a large metal box. Still, Darcy has clearly been attempting to warm it up a bit, and Caspian must say he approves.

He turns back to Marian, knowing his duty is done but finding himself reluctant to turn back to his own quarters, just down the passage. "And it seems my services are no longer required. Ladies, I wish you both a very pleasant evening." He looks to Darcy, a faint smile shading his lips. "Miss Lewis, a delight."

[tased_lightning]

Darcy shakes Marian's hand, warmly, before tucking her hands into her back jean pockets.

The 'Lord Caspian' gets a slightly raised eyebrow, and the minimal bow just makes it stick. Right. Either he's a super rude lord (Darcy is full and aware she deserves a real bow from nobility; Fandral's made an impression), or 'Lord' is euphemism for 'totally royalty'.

Look, she knows people.

She relaxes, on the explanation, and her expression warms slightly into an almost smile -- but Caspian speaks before she can.

"Yeah, you too" she says to him, politely enough, with a half-wave.

"Uh, so," Darcy says to Marian. "This is the room. It's kind of terrible, let's be real, but I figure we can do something about that. Do you have anything you want me to grab?"

[queenofmay]

"Thank you, again." Caspian's retreat, reluctant or not, had to come eventually. It gets just enough of a nod, with curve of a smile, and very few words. She knows, because of Amy and Ambergeldar, never to be beat out by Caspian simply being Caspian, that she'll be seeing him soon enough again.

It's easier than she expects, turning back to Darcy and the odd room. With no windows. She almost minds that part more than anything else about the boxes in spaces. "Alas, I have nothing more than what you see before you now." And a very small handful of weapons she couldn't. But the point held true. Nothing else had come with her.

"Did you bring all of this with you?" This being all the the colorful things in the room already.

[tased_lightning]

"Well," Darcy says. "From my room in Quarantine, yeah. I've been here a couple weeks. When'd you get in?"

She perches on the sofa, crossing her arms on her knees. "And where from? I'm from Earth, circa the 2000s. London, I guess, but I'm a New Mexican girl by heart and general background."

[queenofmay]

"Only a few days now," Marian answered, stepping inside and looking back at the door swishing closed. That was still new. Even if magic and suddenly far flung parts of space and time weren't. Doors didn't open and close themselves in any of the places she'd ended up. At least not in that way.

"Currently," Marian started without any oddly hesitant way to putting it. "I live in Ambergeldar."

Personal guest to the Royal Family of Ambergeldar. Most notably, the Queen and her brother, who'd just walked away.

"But." She rested a hand on the back of the chair, and chose her words unflinching. Aware of where they went every time, and choosing rather to start flat, fully truthful, than wait for it find its way out later. "Originally, I was from Earth. England. I was born and raised in Nottinghamshire, in specific, during the time of our Lord God and The Lionheart's 12th Century."

[tased_lightning]

"Huh," Darcy says, after a moment. "You seem to be taking this pretty calmly."

She doesn't know where Ambergeldar is, but if she was from pre-sci fi times, she thinks she'd handle this...

Not so great.

[queenofmay]

"It's not the first time something like this has happened to me. Well--" Marian equivocated with slightly graceful move of her hand gesturing to the room around them. "This. This is brand new. I've been on one other space ship, for a very short time, but it was much, much smaller than this one."

"But this kind of situation. I've been in other situations of its like. While putting my father's new horse through his paces on the edge of Sherwood five years ago, I leapt a hedge into a place called Milliways. It--" How was she even supposed to put into words what it did to her. How she perceived the world. Or herself. Life, and Death. "--makes all of this a little easier to put into a greater context than I once had."

[tased_lightning]

"Huh," Darcy says. "We have -- portals to other places. At home. But it's not the sort of thing humans pass through, not usually. We don't have the technology."

Pause.

"So, Sherwood. Richard the Lionheart. Know any guys named Robin?"

[queenofmay]

Marian had almost thought when she named her home and nothing came next, maybe she'd found another person from another world where the legend didn't exist. It's harder to say if that's a relief or not ever. Especially nod. It's a singular way that she nods this time, gentile and singular.

"Aye." It's not a name spoken near her often now. It's not one Caspian would have born very easily hear or for her to hear if he'd stayed. "Robert, Lord of Locksley and Earl of Huntingdon. Exiled from peerage and the realm. The outlaw and thief, the man who would become a lasting fairytale, Robin Hood."

It's not really the imagination either that her fingers might be whiter from pressing into the top of the chair, though the rest of her posture hasn't changed. She remembers him, their whole childhood, betrothal, being abandoned for the war and The Lionheart, his return, their fight for their England, all the last words. Say the words then, handsome and Robin of Locksley, Master of the Bow, Champion of the Poor, and Lord of my Heart.

"He was my husband." Even if they were vows said while Guy of Gisborne's sword was run through her and death was coming for her. One that was stave off by Milliways, again. Giving her the rest of her life, and taking from her all she held dear.

[tased_lightning]

"Hey," Darcy says, instantly sympathetic. "I'm sorry, dude. Do you want to see if the replicator'll make us cocktails, or make a checklist of things we'll need to make this place livable, or something?"

[queenofmay]

"It's alright," Marian says. Soft. But there's a steel in it, too. It already happened. It can't be undone. She's had a handful of months to come to terms with that. With being okay with not being okay, but being alive regardless. With. Well. The sword. The words. The fact she died to that world. That Robin swore, but he moved on. Twice. They all did. And they died shortly after, too. All of them.

"Yes," comes a second later, with some obvious relief though. "All of the above. But could I, perhaps, have a cup of tea with mine?"
She wouldn't mind the additive of something in it, but she'd rather tea. Also, that it not be tequila, but she isn't too picky.