Apr 25 07:30:00 107 PA - A Trip to the Stables

From Chronicles

Heading down the stairs from the second floor comes Ash, raking fingers through his hair with both hands as if trying to keep the spiky blonde mass out of his face. His hair clings together a bit like it was damp still from a shower but otherwise the quick-flex looks practically identical to how he did the time they first met.

Lise has just stepped out of her apartmant. Her frizzy hair is untamed and she is pulling on her poncho. She is wearing far more casual clothes than she was at the club; a grey sweatshirt and jeans, but her bag is with her. She locks the door to an apartment behind her, then turns, almost bumping into Ash. Looking up, she stammers, "Um, sorry, sorry." Then, recognising that she's met the man before, she adds a "Hi, how are you?"

Ash quickly moves to avoid the bump with speed and grace that is completely and totally unnatural, as if instinct just said 'Incoming' and his body reacted at the speed of thought to get out of the way. He smiles wryly when he spots who it is though, turning to see the source of his movement. "It's ok Doctor, no harm, no foul." He does seem somewhat surprised though when she starts adding on more conversation, even the simple greeting. "Fine... yourself?" He asks somewhat lamely.

Lise shrugs, underneath the voluminous poncho. Reaching up, she pushes her glasses up her nose before saying, "I am good, yes. I was just going to exercise Ziggy. He is not at his best since being transported in plane." She shakes her head, adding, "I was hoping to ride, but I fear that he will not be ready for that for few days at least."

"Ziggy would be your... horse? I assume they have horses in the German Republic?" Ash asks curiously, "You have him at the stables?" One final hand is pushed through his hair and apparently that's enough for the quick-flex to be satisfied with his hair. "If you want, I can show you where the refugee camp is. For the refugee's from Tolkeen."

Giving the man a grin, she says, "We have horses, yes. We are not all giant robots and jet planes." With a nod, she says, "I would like that, yes, but I should see to Ziggy first. I do not want him to think that I am being neglectful. After I have fed him and taken him for walk, perhaps then I can put on proper clothes and tour camp with you?"

Ash looks over the woman's form and he shrugs, "No matter what you put on, you're likely going to be considered well dressed compared to them." He starts for the door, "Come on, I'll walk you to the stables at least. Not sure why so many people like horses so much, slow, messy, need food and water. Prefer my hovercycle..." He says conversationally, not in an insulting tone. "If you guys have jet planes and robots... why a horse?" He asks curiously. "Now if it was a robot horse, that'd be cool."

Consideringly, she says, "Why horse? Because horse does not need petrol or electricity. Horse can work as long as you have food for it. Besides, if you are in wilderness and horse dies, horse becomes food and keeps scavengers away little longer." She follows him to the door, then down the stairs, toward the street. As she walks, she adds, pensively, "I hear that in the Great Plains, you have robot horses. I am not sure that is better than real thing, though."

"People have them all over. Some people don't know how to drive cars or hovercycles but know how to ride horses, the robot horses respond in the same way as a real horse. But they have nuclear batteries that last probably 10 years or more, with no need for food, sleep, getting tired, and can stay awake and guard you at night while you sleep." Ash grins, "Robots are cool. Wish I knew how to fly and drive one. That would be wicked." He heads for the door, "But, you won't have to go all the way out west to find one. Probably a couple in town somewhere." He doesn't open the dront door all the way at first, just a crack and he peeks outside before he opens it enough to stick his head out briefly and take a look around. Only then does the paranoid quick-flex open the door enough to head out.

Lise laughs, following him through the streets. "The other reason that people keep horses is that it is hard to build robot horse, yes? And hard to build hovercar? Making new horses is easy." She pauses and then amends that thought to, "If you do not care too much about quality, making new horses is easy. Breeding selectively and getting high-quality animals, that is harder, but still not as hard, I do not think, as building a robot. I would not know, though. I did not have to spend my years working in a robot factory like so many."

Ash shrugs, "Don't know much about either of them... I mean I know a fair bit about computers and electronics, and I'm working on being able to tinker around with stuff but..." He shrugs once more. "An engineer I am not." He smiles wryly, "Might be a cool thing, to know how to do that, but you'd need some pretty specialized equipment I imagine, and lots of start up money for supplies." Once they're out on the street and in his element again Ash seems pretty relaxed. He keeps his strides short so that he doesn't outdistance the slightly shorter woman but his hand is never far from one of his pistols. "So why'd you come here? You said you wanted to get away from the war in the German Republic, but there is wars here too."

Following him toward the outskirts of town, she says, "No no. War in Republic was over, or cooled at least. Was thinking about settling down, working as farm veterinarian, but news told me of Coalition War of Aggression, of thousands of refugees fleeing Tolkeen and I knew that I had to follow the vows I took as doctor." With a shrug, she adds, "And many people in Republic, they are at least familiar with working on robots and weapons. Working on them is one of jobs that every young man must do, for defence of state and production."

Ash huhs, "All young men, or just humans?" He asks as they walk down the street, towards one of the gaps betwee the brighter parts of town and the rest of the Dregs. Turning to the left he heads towards Steel Street as they walk. "Well, here, every day is a war of survival unless you're rich. People struggle to get food, or shelter. Out in the wilderness it's even worse. Between the skulls and the monsters, it's not exactly safe. It's why I stay here," He gestures around, "If I thought for even a moment that Tolkeen would be able to beat the skulls, I'd have headed north to fight."

Lise shakes her head slowly behind him before saying, "Republic is almost all human. Only place in Europe that is. Around them are kingdoms of other creatures." She walks a little faster to catch up with him, gesturing. "South, there is Gargoyle Kingdoms. They were warring with Republic until just few years ago. East, there is giants, west there is forest with druids and demons and worse. Republic is island in middle of Europe."

"Island for humans maybe. Someone like me would be kicked out to the demons I bet." Ash says without even bothering to hide the touch of bitterness and resentment in his voice. He continues to lead her west and onto Steel Street and out of the Dregs proper. "The Refugee's are down that way." He points to the south, "That's where the camp is. Stable is this way." He gestures to the north. "You do have him at the stable right?"

Lise considers his words, unsure before finally saying, "Republic is not perfect, no. People who are not from Republic are not completely trusted." She adds, quickly, "My parents were not from Republic - they were from very far away - because of that, they were not trusted and found it hard there. But it is not like Coalition. People from far away are not shot by soldiers for being different. Soldiers have bigger worries than that."

Ash shrugs, "It's just a different kind of death sentence." He says simply, "Not welcome here, means food for the monsters." He again looks towards the refugee camp and then turns to the north, "Don't visit the stables very much. Think they're this way. Should be close to the gates regardless." He starts to walk down the street heading away from the camp and towards the north.

Lise shakes her head slowly, saying, "Republic is no Lazlo, no. But my parents were from far away, brought through rift and they found a home in Republic. Far safer home than the place to which they were brought." Pointing, she says, "Stables are north, by gates to town and airfield. Bit further yet."

Ash nods, "Over by the landing strip." He shrugs, "No offense Lise, but it just sort of proves my point though doesn't it. When humans get to much power, to many of them get together, they're rather cruel and uncaring about any other form of intelligent life. Lazlo is ruled by a Dragon after all, maybe that's why it's so open to other D-Bee's. Free Quebec, The Coalition flat out kill people like me on sight, your German Republic pushes them away from safety and into the wilderness where giants, demons, and demonic races are constant threats with no protection. I guess it helps them sleep better at night knowing that -they- didn't pull the trigger at least." He continues on towards the north, looking for a branching street over towards mainstreet as they get closer.

Lise adds, thoughtfully, "But that is not limited to human persecution of Dee-Bees. In the Days Before, humans did the same to other humans, and in my parents' home, they were even less well-liked than they were in Republic." She sighs, a little wistfully, before saying, "Lazlo is the exception, yes? And I fear that, if my parents had found way to flee to Coalition, they would have been killed for being Auslander."

"That makes it right somehow?" Ash asks, he gestures around with one hand. "If they did it to their own before hand, just goes to show that humans as a group tend to be violent and racist. Even to those that mean them no harm just because they're 'different'." He shakes his head, then stops, "We shoulda taken that street back there, this is the industrial section." He then turns to head back the way they came.

Shaking her head sadly, Lise follows him back to the south. She walks in silence for a while before finally saying, "That is not all humans, though, nor is it trait limited to humans. Elfs and faeries do not trust those outside species, and I hear that life in Federation is hard for people who do not do magic." She sighs, saying, "Perhaps this world is fated to become like my parents' homeland. Many small kingdoms, most of which are one species or another and distrust those outside."

"We have quite a few elves here, they get along fine." Ash says as he turns to take the street to the west and onto main street. "But, even as big as we are, we're small compared to a real city.... maybe 100,000 of us here, tops. Maybe not even that." He shrugs, "And that's counting every intelligent and not so intelligent race." He then looks over at her, "Can you blame anyone for feeling that? When met with destruction at the hands of the Coalition and Free Quebec? Can you blame anyone for not wanting much to do with humans in general?" As they walk into the brighter side of Kingsdale, "It's the same even here, just, not race. Here, it's rich and poor. If you're rich you live where there's good power, shelter, food... if you're poor, you live in the dregs where the cops don't even try to go."

Lise nods slowly, tucking her hands within her poncho as she walks beside him. "I will not try to defend Coalition. I may be naif, but I am not that innocent. However, I have met good humans and bad humans, ones who welcomed us to their villages and offered us work and ones who drove us out." Quietly, she adds, "World is far from ideal, but all I can do is my little part to heal corner of it and try to ease some of hurt."

Ash shrugs, "I'm not trying to say all humans are bad. There's more than a few humans stuck in the Dregs too." He turns and heads to the north then, walking with her towards the gates. "But, it's mob mentality. I've seen it happen. An individual can be smart, wise, well mannered and well reasoned. You get a group of people together though, and they get all, reactionary, knee jerk, instinctive. It's like when they come together they devolve mentally..." He looks over at Lise with a wry smile, "Nah I'm not rascist per se... I actually find humans rather attractive, even if your noses are big and your eyes to small and close together."

Giving Ash a grin, Lise walks along beside him to the north. "But is that not true for any group? More of them that are together, less sensible decisions made?" As an afterthought, she adds, "And then there are those who, even as individuals, are unlikely to be kind to anyone. Slavers and demons, they are intelligent, but they are even less welcoming than worst of humanity." She sighs, adding with a little chagrin, "This is, maybe, why I like animals. A cow, she does not judge. She just moos."

"Couldn't say." Ash says with a shrug, "I'm not a scientist, never done studies. I just seen remarkably intelligent and good people turn into slavering lunatics when there's a mob around. It's like, an infectious psychic disease or something. Most people are followers, so they follow, even if it's stupid." He continues on towards the north, walking with Lise down the street. "So if you like animals so much, why the change to people? I would think being able to take care of livestock would be important, you know, so people didn't have to eat other people."

Lise shakes her head again, saying, "Maybe, when people are not suffering, I go back to animals. I am trained as veterinarian originally, but I moved to medicine because people were suffering and dying around me and I needed to help." She pauses, weighing her words, then continues, "It is not even as simple as that; I hear it when people are hurt, I hear it when animals are hurt. Since I was very small, I have had this. My mother called it 'knack', but it is what made me want to be vet. Animals, they have hard time telling us what is wrong, where they hurt."

"There's always someone suffering Lise." Ash says with a shrug, "You try to help everyone, you'll just end up burning out. You can't possibly help them all." Seems he's not quite the pragmatist (to put it lightly) that Lise is. Instead he continues walking to the north with the woman heading down mainstreet towards their destination. "I just try to stay alive, sometimes I help those who I can... but most people... most don't do anything to help themselves. If they're not willing to help themselves, why should I be?"

Lise sighs sadly, nodding slowly as she does. "I know. That is risk, yes. It is risk that any doctor who is not looking for money faces. But if I do not try to help, it is that I am doing nothing to stop hurt. I would not have chosen to hear pain, but it is who I am. My legacy, my 'knack'. I cannot help everyone, no, but I must try to help those I can." That last is said with a firm tone of conviction, something that she knows, deeply, to be true.

Ash rolls his shoulders, "Well, we all bear burdens." He says simply as he looks around, looking down towards river walk for a moment but then he continues on towards the north. "Why come here? If there is such a war going on in the German Republic, why come so far?" He then asks, "How did you get over here anyways? Did you have someone make a Rift over there to over here?"

Lise shakes her head, saying, "War has cooled. Cooled just as this one began to heat up." With a grin, she continues, "And no, nothing so fancy as that. There is trade, there are planes which fly across ocean. I looked until I found plane travelling to Federation and flew that way. Landed in city east of here... Merctown. From there, travelled west." She pauses to wipe raindrops off of her glasses, then catches up to him, asking, "But now you know much about me and I know very little of you. Where do you come from, Ash?"

"Here." Ash says, "Born and raised." He pauses, "Well not here, but the Dregs. Here is like a whole different city. All my life I've lived in the Dregs." He shrugs a bit, "Not really that much to know about me. Not in any gang, don't want to be. Do whatever it takes to survive. No family. No real friends cept maybe Sofi. Maybe." He smirks, "Last time I was attacked, one of the guys who was supposed to be helping shot me in the back. I don't trust people much." He shakes his head as he continues to the north.

As they arrive at the stables, she nods at him, saying, "Ah, you are American, then. I wondered if you, like my parents, remembered a world different from one on which we live." She walks to a stall, one of the smaller ones, and certainly not one of the heavy reinforced structures. Inside is a dapple gray horse, fifteen hands tall and a riding breed, rather than a workhorse. She reaches into the stall, stroking his nose, then says, "They have been treating you well, Zigueuner? There is nothing the matter?" As she asks, she closes her eyes, continuing to rest one hand on the horse's brow.

"No such thing as America anymore. Heard of some great American Empire that existed before the Rifts but..." Ash shrugs, "Nobody of my people remembers where we came from or what it was like. Guess we came through sometime in the dark ages." He pauses when she closes her eyes while addressing the horse, waiting until it seems she is finished communing with the animal. "I thought you were human, you know, from Earth."

Shaking her head, Lise opens the stall, leading the horse out into the yard. "I am Dee-Bee. Or at least, my parents were Dee-Bees." The horse is led around the yard at a slow walk. "They come from another place, where there are no robots, no automobiles. I am from Earth, yes, but they were captured by raiders, slavers, and brought here to serve against their wills. They escaped, many years ago, fleeing to Republic, where they were not welcomed with open arms, but neither were they turned away at gates."

"Lucky the had noses." Ash says as he moves to the side when the horse is lead out, instead of following around he hops up onto the railing of the stall with ease and sits, half leaning against the wall as he watches the horse be lead around. "So you didn't grow up around the more alien looking d-bee's then. I should introduce you to a grackle tooth I know... big scary lookin' guy, all scales, fangs, and claws. Strong as hell, I once got mad at him and shot him with my .45 and the bullet flattened against his scales and he laughed and thanked me for getting rid of an itch." He smiles faintly.

Giving him a faint smile as she leads the horse around the yard, moving a little more briskly now to keep the chill off as the light rain continues to fall. "Yes, Ash, we can pass. But yet there is little opportunity for people who are unfamiliar with even plants and animals of this world, let alone politics or robots. And, as I said earlier, had they, somehow, fled slavers and found themselves in Coalition, from everything I have heard, they would have found themselves shot as surely as any other alien."

"Depends on which ones they ran into." Ash says with a shrug, enjoying being out of the rain as he's still technically in the stable. He pushes his hands through his hair to squeeze water out of it and down the back of his armor and coat. "You look human, and telling of being slaves and captured by d-bee's would be just what they'd want to use, propaganda." He shrugs, "If it was a psi-stalker and dog boys, they would have sensed your little 'knack' and probably gunned you down yes."

Lise nods at that, leading the dapple grey toward the fence. "Yes, they might have made it through borders, but like in Republic, they still would have been travellers, still would have had no home for more than a few years at a time." Opening the gate, she leads the horse back toward the stables, adding, "At least in Europe, having skills as witch does not lead directly to firing squad." She pauses, then adds, ruefully, "Not yet. Perhaps if Republic were not beset on all sides, they would consider killing witches, but for now they leave those who do not cause trouble alone."

"Maybe." Ash says and he shrugs, "I still don't see this Europe as any better than here. Death by firing squad, death by monsters. It's all the same thing, dead." He folds his arms across his stomach, lightly tapping out a beat she might recognize from the music that was played last night at the Alibi. "Just, don't go thinking things are better here. Because they're not. If anything they're worse." He shrugs a bit then hops down off the railing, "Well, looks like your horse is ok. I'm going to go take off. You take care now."

Lise gives him a wave as she enters the stable, saying, "Zigeuner is well, yes. They are treating him fine, but I should muck his stall." As she turns away, stepping into the stable, he can hear her sing the words of the waltz played last night, her voice changing so that pitch and tone match the singer's voice exactly. "Now in Vienna, there's ten pretty women / There's a shoulder where death comes to cry / There's a lobby with 900 windows / There's a tree where the doves go to die."

Ash says over his shoulder, "Another good thing about robots, no having to muck out stalls." His tone light and amused but with that particular song also comes the associations of the night with it and if anything Ash's pace quickens and he stalks out of the stables and back onto the streets with a scowl.