Mar 31 06:44:34 108 PA - Knee-Jerk Impressions
From Chronicles
Mar 31 06:44:34 108 PA.
PLAZA PARK
Gabriel's eyes turn to little Bella. "Just enjoying the stars. If you study the constellations, you can navigate by them, and each one has a story behind it. Just kind of fun to remember, y'know? Don't know what Sebastien's problem is. Spring seems nice enough to me. Channel 5 weathergirl doesn't have a clue what she's talking about. I sure as hell don't see snow. Do you?" He grins at his unusual friend.
Bella shrugs again. She's good at that. "Don' seem bad ta me. Better cold 'steada wet though. Cold is dry most times." Her hood tips to look up. "Always had somethin closer 'n easier ta see ta go by. They're kinda pretty though. When they ain' borin. Don' do much 'n they're always there."
"That's right, they're always there. That's the point. I'm looking at the same stars my family looked at, whenever that was in the past. It's a connection. Plus, like I said - gets you around long distances." Gabriel finally turns to fully face the coat. "Miss Bella, what are *you* doing out in the Park right now? Grazing?" Alright, it's possible that feeding habits may continue to be a running joke between them. But everyone eventually has a running joke at their own expense, so it should be expected.
"Nah." Bella's smirk is probably big enough to see. Even with the hood. She already jabbed at him a little. "The bar's 're the best places ta find a drink. Everybody knows that." She waves a cuff around at the park. "Ain' a great place fer hookin' up 'n meetin' people."
Gabriel hooks a thumb in the direction of the two men who have at this point basically disappeared. "Them? What do you think of them? Just give it a first impression. Knee-jerk reaction, whaddya think of 'em?"
"Big guy's still big. Other sounds like he's gotta mean streak." Bella eyes Gabriel. "Why ya askin? Thought ya made yer own mind 'bout people?" Now she's a little curious.
The Kentuckian smiles and make a slow sweeping motion with his right arm. "Just curious. I have made up my mind about them. Not completely, because there's always room to learn, but mostly. The big guy, Taz, he just wants to kill and destroy. I don't know what his motivation is, just as long as he gets to kill and destroy." Gabriel turns a meaningful gaze on Bella. "I saw him pull out a chain sword and use it on an unarmed, un-armored man, and he didn't even have the soul to care that he almost killed him. Would have killed him, had he been the flesh-and-blood man that he thought he was. But at heart? He's scared. He's a tiny, scrawny boy from the 'Dregs who's taken it upon himself to die in six years for the chance at getting back at people who bullied him. The other man, his name is Sebastien, he's a cyber-knight. I know that they have some kind of Code, but he obviously follows it loosely. He likes to get right in the face of things - and kill them with swords. *Both* of them have huge egos, and I assume also massive inferiority complexes, due to their constant bragging and reminders to the rest of us about how tough and badass they are." Gabriel grins toothily. "I suppose that - for now - that's how I've made up my mind about them. Observation, really."
Bella grins right back. "Ones't talk the most 'bout 'em bein' badass 're the ones't think they ain'. If they're so good they wouldn' need ta tell people alla time. Makes 'em easy ta see. The quiet ones 're ones ya gotta watch."
Gabriel uses his hand in the finger-gun method that every child seems to somehow instinctively know. "Bingo. Can't imagine what it must be like to go through life like that. Particularly their apparent desire for really getting 'in the face' of the people they're killing." He looks to Bella for a moment, obviously looking for a proper phrase. "Please understand what I'm about to say, I'm not comparing it to you. You have no choice. I, they, have choice. Taking a man's life isn't an easy thing, even when it's a necessary thing. You lose a little bit of your own humanity every time you take a life. These people, people like them? The ones who boast about wanting to see their enemy's eyes when they die? I don't know how they have souls left. War is a terrible thing, even though evil things often must be done in the name of peace." He pats his own chest very gently. "But being excited to take a life? Excited to see the horror in another man's eyes when you deliberately rob him of the one and only thing he was born with? It's a horrible thing." The tone of the man's voice and the set of his face would suggest that he knows and has experience in what he's discussing.
"Ya get over it." All that big lecturning and he gets a shrug. Even if he's not meaning it about her, Bella's had a little practice with the whole dying thing. "Lotsa people that don' care. Kill ya 'n not blink. Only time they care's when ya ain' killin' same people they're killin. Or somebody they didn' want ya to."
The fellow from times long past gives a sad nod. "Yeah, it's sad that the world's come to this. Shitty place. I don't care what they call it, there's no civilization. It's the Dark Ages, or medieval times, at best. Just with fancier machines. But, changing subjects? I don't suppose you've learned anything about those guys over at Titan? In case you don't know and I've failed to mention it - their building is up by the Landing Strip."
