Mar 07 20:43:26 105 PA
From Chronicles
Weather at Sat Mar 07 20:43:26 105 PA (0.23C, 32.41F):
The stables teem with life, activity, yet surprisingly not so much noise as one would expect. Handlers move quietly and animals that dislike one another are kept far apart, leading to an efficient and expensive-appearing machine for the storage of animals. In the wing closest the landing strip, where the noise is the highest, several animals are housed in the tiniest of stalls with little more care than padlocks and guards. One such stall is open, with Sebastien sitting on a stool brushing out the coat of a beautiful horse. Brown with a white cap and boots, it stands an easy 16 hands tall -- only a head shorter than Sebastien himself! Built powerfully, the horse would look at home pulling a sleigh or in full barding; oviousl a pack or war animal. Balanced on his hip Sebastien has a small digital device with a text readout, which he reads from time to time and chuckles.
The strange Asian woman appears in the stable, with a cap that tells she serves in the staff here. Katsumi, as she called herself at the gym, foldes her hands around her chest, glancing at the animal. After a second she aims her way to the horse, ignoring the man - perhaps unintentionally. She strokes the horse - and it seems that the animal reacts her very well. The woman seems to be talented in the language of the horses. "Calm down." she whispers. "I will care for you, until your master comes back." she offers to the horse.
The strange Asian woman appears in the stable, with a cap that tells she serves in the staff here. Katsumi, as she called herself at the gym, foldes her hands around her chest, glancing at the animal. After a second she aims her way to the horse, ignoring the man - perhaps unintentionally. She strokes the horse - but soon she draws back her hand. "She is a fake." she comments. "My services is not needed here." she comments and starts her way out. (repose)
A bob of shirt fuzzy hair pokes over the clydesdale, and then a pair of eyes. "Katsumi?" Sebastien asks, resting a forearm on the back of the animal, brush in hand. The horse rolls her head to peer back at Sebastien, earning a scritch behind the ear and a quietly spoken, "Calm down Sara," which appears to instantly mollify the animal. Instead it turns its head to peer at the newcomer, watching her raptly. "So this is where they hide you when you are not hunting at the gym, eh?" Oh, he caught the predatory vibe. He just has no idea how deeply it goes.
The Asian woman turns back, glancing up at the tall man. "Yes, I do a work here. I love animals you know, but I was mistaken by your... erm... horse-machine." she puts her hands into the pockets of her jacket. "Hunting on the gym?" she licks her lips, wondering her eyes on Sebastien now. "Well i just wanted to taste you. Is it something so bad?" she asks ditantly. For a brief second, Sebastien would feel a slight danger, something very distant, fading very soon.
"A raised eyebrow. Ho-kay. "You ah, caught me off guard," Sebastien replies with a bemused look. He'd pay real money for someone who could detect evil right about now. "Sara here," he speaks affectionately, patting the horse's shoulder, "is the property of one Sir Lucas Barber. Second-generation cyberknight. She is, for the moment, in my care." The horse is still staring at Katsumi. "How well do you ride?" he asks her with a smile, still stroking Sara's neck.
Katsumi blushes as a reply. "I can't ride. The animals just like me. I never learned how to deal with horses, especially not with machines." now it is her turn to be off guard, speaking clearly defensive. "Cyberknight? I've heard about them, but I never known that they really exist. You told me before that your family line is also traditionally cyberknights." she comments, keeping her eyes at the horse-thing. Why should someone built such thing if there are real horses?
Sebastien corrects, "I told you before that my family line was from Ironheart, and traditionally members of the Coalition." He grins and nods. "Small difference. It is nuanced." Big difference, really. Human supremacists compared to complete egalitarians. Cyberknights being the good guys. Patting Sara, Sebastienclimbs off of his stool and walks around before her, rubbing the horse's muzzle. "When may you leave your shift? You could hold on, try a ride. Sara would not try to throw you, I think."
Katsumi shrugs and smiles faintly. "I served the Coalition before." the woman comments. "I am ready to leave, I was just checking the stables before I leave. Obviously your 'horse' doesn't need any food or care." she seems not to accept the fact that Sebastien treats the machine as a living being.
"So," Sebastien leads, not entirely sure why Katsumi is being so dismissive now. "I tell you what. Gather your things. Perhaps lose the hat..." he ponders. "Or keep it, up to you. There is a 5-mile clean zone around town that the patrols keep free of dinosaurs. We can have a picnic. I brought," he glances at his bag. "Well. Perhaps enough for two."
Katsumi seems to hesitates quite long, but in the end she nods, keeping her head down. "Hai!" she replies in a strange language, puting her hat into the fence. She aims her way to the man, very languidly. The woman seems much more exhausted then her enter.
Gathering up his bridle and saddle, Sebastien begins expertly seating the horse. The saddle isn't exactly meant for two, but the cantle is small enough to allow a second rider, though perhaps not comfortably. Once all is affixed, Sebastien places the stool where it will do Katsumi some good and hops up onto Sara with little trouble, offering the woman a hand down.
The woman accepts the help, settling before the man. She feels much safer there. You will never know what those thinking machines do, the horses are predictable - at least for the woman. Katsumi is as distant as before, she doesn't seem to enjoy the situation as some would expect after the scenery of the gym. She grabs a safe point in her seat, trying to hold her balance.
The road north is vast, dark, and mildly foreboding. Well, really it just looks like a dusty weather-beaten dirt and gravel road with the occasional strip of asphalt, but perspective makes it a monster in its own right. Sebastien's careful to not go far, trotting out beyond the sight of Kingsdale and around a bend, down a shirt hill to a tiny stream. "This will do," he decides, slowing Sara. Rubbing a hand up and down Katsumi's back, he notes, "This is our stop, I think," with an audible smile, and leans forward to whisper in Sara's ear, "Keep an eye out Sara, let me know if you see anything suspicious." The horse nods. the wonders of technology.
The horrors of technology. In Katsumi eyes at least. Why someone would make a machine that responses as a human being instead to learn to feel the animal own expressions? There is a shiver in her body from the rub of Sebastien hand in her back. She gladly steps down from the horse-thing to feel the safe ground. Tiny stream. Perfect, in such a weather. The woman is sad and perhaps annoyed, but she has surely some reason to be here. She crosses her arms defensively around her chest, glancing at the man. "Now what?"
Dropping from the horse, Sebastien eyes Katsumi a moment. "Now, ah, we eat?" he offers, waving at his saddlebags. "As I said it will be slim for two, but ah, I was thinking perhaps I could learn more of you?" Reaching for his bag, he draws free an apple and offers it at the woman, arm stretched, head down to view her through his lashes pensively. "You seem awefuly comfortable outside the city walls," he notes, not greatly affected himself.
Katsumi grabs the apple, but instead of starting to eat it, she just hold in her hand. "Awefuly comfortable? Could be." she wonders, watching the streams now. "I am raised in an urban landscape, and to be honest it is a bit cold here now." but if she is so distant, why is she here? "At least your horse-machine doesn't feel cold." she comments dryly.
The young man nods, digging more food-like items from his pack. "Well, this is not precisely true. Sara knows the temperature around us better than you or I. She simply does not care. Myself, well." He thumps a hand against his chest, met by a muffled 'thud thud.' "Layers." And some light armor, one would presume. He pulls a green cloak from his pack, shaking it out and eyeing the ground. Not quite a picnic blanket. He tosses it at Katsumi. "You were in the Coalition?" he wonders, laying out the halves of sandwich and fruit he has available. A big meal for one makes slim pickings for two. Peeling an orange, he looks up at the road. "Where?"
"Chi-town." Katsumi replies, occupying a seat in the cloak. Well she just crouches at the near, restling her weight on her feet. "I was a soldier in the military before I left it a couple of moths ago." she tells it with a faint smile, aiming a bite in the apple. Well quite tasty - from the woman face - but she soon restless her hand with the food in her side. "What did your parents do in the Coalition?"
"RSGS," he speaks with a grin. Biting into his half sandwich, Sebastien meanders down near the stream and finds a crook of a tree to sit on, leaning back. He's completely relaxed there, in the wild. Perhaps only because it's not really the wild, being so close to town. And yet even here, no one could hear you scream. "They watched over the Devil's Gate, perhaps a hundred miles..." Sebastien's eyes narrow, as he peers left and right. Seeking something that can't really be seen. Pointing with his whole arm, he directs East. "That way. Super nexus point. One of the largest in the world. Perhaps the most stable rift anywhere. I grew up within walking distance of a hole in time. Perhaps this is what made me what I am today." He shrugs, and turns his back on Katsumi to duck his head, showing his neck. Back there lies the CS barcode for a registered psychic. "Seen these?" he wonders.
"RSGS?" Katsumi tastes the anagram and nods. "I've heard about them, but I don't know to much about that unit. I was served in the police mostly." the woman stares at the distant, where the nexus lies. "So my answer is yes, I know about the barcode, I have one as well. Do you have your chip still in you?" she asks with a sad tone in her voice, but her distant attitude seems to broken.
"Chip?" He frowns. Did they..? "Well," he replies. "I am still a citizen. My parents, they are still at the Gate. I would imagine so." Sebastien shrugs, turning back to face the woman. "I would imagine returning there now might be, ah, awkward." That's one word for it. He'd have to go through reeducation at the very least, after all his time spent in the wild! After devouring his orange and half of sandwich, Sebastien cups his hand and tastes the top of the flowing water, nodding once and taking a deeper gulp. "Not hungry?" he asks, perhaps a bit disappointed. "Well."
Katsumi blushes and glances down at her apple. "It is very tasty but it's too much to me to handle." she barely eat the half of it. "I will eat it a bit later, ok?" she offers with a smile. "And yes, there is a chip. It helped us police officers to track down any potential danger. And several offices had a sensor to sign if you enter in a location. The chip is the signer, but sadly I don't know where they implant those."
Sebastien shrugs, not especially bothered by the idea. "Makes crime rather difficult, non? If one may so easily see who entered the robbed store?" He leans forward then, resting elbows on knees. "But ah, you wanted to be a stablemaster rather than a policewoman?" Sebastien eyes the sky, and calls at Sara, "All clear?" At Sara's affirmative he reaches under his shirt, beginning to unbuckle the breastplate.
Katsumi laughs lightly "No, I offered my help to the police first." the woman shakes her head. "But they obviously don't ned someone who was a Coalition officer. So I thought that for an animal is it equal." she bites one more from the fruit. "I miss my work though. I loved to work with groups." she speaks calmly, slowly dissolves for the present.
Sebastien lifts the plate over his head, taking the white silk shirt with it. Under it all he has that dark green turtleneck, touched slightly with sweat from the ride over and the armor above. Shaking his head and shivering slightly, Sebastien laughs. "You were not joking! It is damned cold out here."
Katsumi replies with continuing the laugh. "I will catch a cold, and it would be your fault." she tells to him. "Perhaps we should go back, or search for some blanket for me. I will freeze, and I don't want to be a statue."
Did she not... Huh. She didn't take up the cloak he tossed at her. Rising from his wooden throne, Sebastien scoops up the forest green woolen wrap and steps up to the tall asian lass, shaking it out and whipping it around her shoulders. Then, with an eyebrow raised, he rubs hands up and down her shoulders, around her back, and all over really. Building up some heat, breathing not a word. Sara watches on.
The Asian woman shivers either from the cold or the touch of the man. Or perhaps both. She enjoys the caress for minutes, if the man has the patience to do so. But after it she starts to glance at the horse-thing. "It is kind of creepy. It watching us." she comments nervously.
"Sara," Sebastien calls. "Why do you not take a quick walk? Radius, fifty meters? Come back if you see something suspicious." He never even looks up. As the caress continues his hands grow more bold, traveling for a moment here and there below the small of her back, or to the front of Katsumi's shoulders. All covered by the cloak, of course. The brush rustles as the horse meanders away, alert eyes and ears making sure nothing wanders in. Presently one of Sebastien's hands raises to caress Katsumi's cheek, eyes alight and his own mischievous smile touching his lips as Sebastien steps close, leaning in for a kiss.
Katsumi accepts the caress and the kiss. With the raise of arousment the sense of danger has appears once more in Sebastien mind. The Asian woman first took a passive role, but with the danger she also takes an active role, pushing the man's back to the ground, embracing his back. She doesn't say any word, her lips are occupied.
Sebastien's eyes open as that tingle returns, eyes darting left and right even as he's pressed to the ground. Leaves and loamy soil part beneath them noisily, and eventually Sebastien gulps for air. Panting, he looks left and right, distracted only a moment before looking up again to stroke Katsumi's back, parting that cloak a bit so that it falls over the both of them. Warming, at least, his front. His kisses trail a damp path over her cheek and neck, hands tightening behind her, growing increasingly distracted by that fear. And yet, somehow. Sara sees nothing. So deliberately, consciously, he begins to relax.
Her lips don't left the man's to wonder into her neck. She pushes back his head with continuing kisses, until there is a sudden shock of danger and soon a bite in Sebastien lower lip. It's bleeding. Katsumi raises, holding the man's head in her hands, carefully. "I am sorry." she says and closes her eyes letting her own head falls back from the joy of feeding. Indeed, Sebastien feels incredible exhausted after a second.
Sebastien yelps at the bite, wipe-eyed as he peers up at the ... oddly younger-looking woman above him. "Hey," he speaks quietly, flopping a hand up against Katsumi, to no great effect. He closes his eyes a moment, seeking ... something. An inner calm that just won't come. He's trying to draw on his last reserve of ISP, pulling, pulling, as if it were being drawn up from the bottom of a deep well.
Katsumi rests her full weight of the man, embracing her fondly. "I am sorry. You are kind." she strokes his hair. "I was hungry." she whispers in her deep voice. "I am a stalker, eating of energy." she explains. "And it is after all a picnic." she laughs a litte before she raises once more to look into the man's eyes. "I am sorry, really."
A sort of sparkle grows over Sebastien's aura, pulsing through his veins. He's using a psychic power of some sort, though he remains prone on the earth. Maybe it's there to make him taste bad. His cross skitters across the earth, unguided by touch, to slap against Katsumi's neck to no obvious effect while Sebastien watches, and he lets his head loll back. "Well. I am not to be undead then."
Katsumi shakes her head and gives away a heartly laugh. "I am not a vampire in that short." she raises once more. "I should have to tell you, but I it happened so soon. I mean I didn't intended to bite you, but you are so tempting." she confesses with a quiet deep voice. "You will be fine." she starts to caress the man. "I hope so."
"Good," Sebastien replies with a yawn, turning his head and raising one knee. "I would not want to have to kill you." Murmured with half the strength of a newborn kitten. He turns his head into that hand, closing his eyes another brief moment, and raises arms to wrap around Katsumi, holding her surprisingly tightly given his condition. "So all of this then, was a rouse?" He eyes her closely, falling strangely silent as he works something out in his head.
The woman shakes her head, with a blush. "I have a mate already Sebastien." Katsumi explains, but her body tells that there was a rouse. "I like him, even that he is a bit... well... depressive and hard to live in his side." she seems deeply sad now, glancing down at the ground, folding her arms around the man.
Sebastien's eyes harden a moment before he explodes, fighting with more strength than he ought to have. Rolling first, kneeing into Katsumi, he wrestles to gain some purchase, legs beneath him. That psychic flare she saw earlier quadruples, and from his hand springs a shaft of pure light, two feet long and blueish white, with arcs of violet that whip down its length. If she doesn't get off him quickly the blade may well cut her in half!
Katsumi seems to react earlier than Sebastien would thought, she sensed the coming danger. She rolls away, ending in a crouching position, glancing at the man with a narrow eyes. She touches the cold ground with one of her hand to balance herself. She keeps a safe distance, seeming dedicate to defend herself.
Sebastien takes two unsteady steps, stumbling then as he plunges that shaft of light easily into the loamy soil. No cane there! It winks to nothing, leaving a burning afterimage in Katsumi's eyes while Sebastien falls into a nearby tree, panting. "Come here," he pants, "and kneel," pant, "or I will kill you." pant, "Do you understand?" he gulps and eyes the asian woman, scar gaining prominence as he clings there, every line of weariness etched into his face.
The Asian woman doesn't responses, just her eyes round from the tenseness or fear, instead of closing she jumps away ten feet easily into the right side, trying to raise the distance between her and the man. Yet she doesn't run furter, waiting on the man's response.
Sebastien's lips narrow into a hard line, and he concentrates, breathing hard for several long moments. Nothing happens for several beats, and Katsumi might feel a force tugging her upwards. Something not nearly strong enough to lift her, or even throw her off balance. "Sara," he calls softly, waving at the air. "Sara!" The horse begins crashing through the woods, his emotions leaking from beyond that shell. Arousal, frustration, and rage.
Katsumi raises up and takes up her hand. "Fine. You will catch me in time." she speaks dryly. "You could kill me if you want, but I don't want to kneel down just because you are angry." she continues.
"No wonder," he pants, "you couldn't be a cop. You do not ask. You hunt." He swallows, his breath returning. Sebastien should have collapsed long ago. Something's buoying him up. "You did not try to kill me," he speaks softly, "So I will not have Sara run you down. But the next time we meet, there will be a reckoning." He eyes her again, anger dissipating into a warm, fiery glow. In the end it's not rage that holds him, but a sense of betrayal. Maybe, in those scant moments, he'd let himself hope that someone was looking past the scar that mars his face, and loved what they'd seen in him.
"Don't get me wrong." Katsumi arms fall down. "I do like you. I just promised to be in someone else side." she explains with a slowly raising frustration of her own. "And how would I tell you, that sorry, I have an instinct to kill you, because I would like to eat you? I was a cop, a psi-stalker. We took down the 'enemies' of the state." she tells coldly, before her voice turns to be warmer to add. "I am sorry, I don't want to cheat my mate, but I was tempted to do that. Really."
And now he's tearing up a marriage. "A reckoning," Sebastien promises, and leans to scoop up his armor. Sara obligingly kneels, allowing Sebastien to almost roll on before being lifted high into the air. The francophone leans over to whisper into his horse's ear, and the pair slowly climb the hill towards the road, building speed as they hit even terrain.
