Aug 02 19:25:41 108 PA - Things Get Weirder All the Time
From Chronicles
Aug 02 19:25:41 108 PA.
PLAZA PARK
Dirai is once again with her guitar, playing something in a deeper, more soulful tone. A woman, rather pretty, if odd, is beside her where she sits on the bench. The other woman, with a cybernetic lower half converted to tanktreads, and a cybernetic eyepiece is singing in rather touching counterpoint. As usual, Dirai is showing her love of pre-Rifts covers while the other woman provides vocals,"Listen as the wind blows from across the great divide. Voices trapped in yearning, memories trapped in time. The night is my companion and solitude my guide. Would I spend forever here, and not be satisfied? Through this world I've stumbled, so many times betrayed. Trying to find an honest word, to find the truth enslaved."
Gabriel comes into the Park off of Main Street, whistling to himself as he often does. Also talking to someone next to him as he walks, someone who doesn't appear to be there. He seems happy enough, with all of his everyday self-defense materials slung across his body, with his metal briefcase in his left hand. Acoustic guitar music is always nice to hear though, particularly at this time of day. Plus, amorphous singing blobs and a cyclopean woman with tank treads generally catches the eye. He swerves his path slowly in that direction.
Dirai doesn't have a face, so it's hard to tell, but one familiar with her might assume her attention is fully focused on the other woman. And eventually, when the song winds down, she painstakingly forms fingers to link with the other woman's. When she notices Gabriel, she starts up again, this time with a jaunty,"Strumming my pain with his fingers, singing my life with his words, killing me softly with his song..."
As the older man approaches the two, he stops talking to the invisible person beside him, and attempts to carry a tune. Very poorly. "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away; Now it looks as though they're here to stay; Oh, I believe in yesterday." He smirks at himself. "Of course, by my watch, yesterday was 1959, so that's a long time to try to remember. How're you doing, Dirai?" He stops politely to address the mechano woman with a short bow. "I'm Gabriel, you must be Maria?"
Dirai sets aside her guitar and throws an arm around Maria's shoulder,"That's her, my better half." Maria gives a playful shove to Dirai, then smiles, offering one be-wired hand to Gabriel,"You must be Dirai's new friend she talks so much about." Dirai just shrugs,"What? You're not boring."
"Nice to meet you, ma'am, Gabriel says, extending a hand in greeting." He looks around and sniffs at the air. "It's a good day, no matter what the calendar says. Never really figured that I'd see the two of you together, at least, not outside of your shop." The older man smirks at himself and says, "Of course the closest that I've ever come to being in a shop like that was the Enhancement Center, and that was extremely minor surgery."
Dirai nods emphatically,"Getting some last minute touch-ups? Bringing you up to speed on injections and modern health-type stuff? Or minor limb replacement? Let me guess... bionic eye-replacement?" Yes, she considers that extremely minor surgery. Then again, by today's standards... probably. "Well, generally she never leaves, but sometimes..." Maria finishes the sentence,"I like to get out a bit. Dirai and I have a... unique relationship. But it works for us. As you can imagine, the physical is not of particularly high concern to either of us. Very cerebral, you know? I still keep her picture close." She reaches into her pocket, pulling out a portable LCD frame. It's got a picture of a young woman, small and underweight in something of a glass coffin with implants, wires, and such all over her body. Someone has taken painstaking care to dress the body in a nice sundress (carefully tailored around the implants).
Gabriel quirks an eyebrow. "Two women in a relation? Again?" The last word is spoken quietly and ironically. "I'm starting to wonder if the human race won't go extinct through simple lack of reproduction. But my surgery was only implanting a gyroscope. Like I said, very minor. It's here, under my collarbone." He taps his left shoulder, below bone and above pectoral muscle. "Otherwise no, I don't plan on getting any replacements. No headjacks, no bionic eyes, no super hearing... in fact - and many people laugh at this - if I lose a limb, I'll learn to use a pirate hook or a peg-leg." Shrug.
Dirai wiggles a tendril at Gabriel,"Neither one of us has sexual organs or physical desires and urges. I'm not sure it counts, Gabe." She shrugs, though, and offers,"Bionics don't have to be enhancements. Just life-like prosthetics. They're cheaper that way."
Gabriel shrugs. "Like I said, a pirate hook or peg-leg. It's more natural that way. If it looks like a limb, that's fine. But appearance is all that I can ever see myself going for. No offense to either of you." He looks at his military wristwatch - an ancient 1950s style wristwatch - and says, "Fuckall, I have to go. Idiot woman wants my report. I should find another job. Take care, you two." He's then running off toward Main.
