May 03 18:59:01 105 PA
From Chronicles
The current game time is: Sun May 03 18:59:01 105 PA.
Despite the feirce winds today, the day finds the juicer Hayate in the park, apparently training with his blade. A short straight blade, jet black in color and honed to a razor's edge, then supplemented with the Vibro field, is in his expert hands and he moves about a small area of the park, his weapon at the ready. He moves slowly and cautiously, then with near unnatural speed and power, he spins and his sword lashes out, but he seems to miss the wooden pole embedded in the ground. He holds his pose and when another gust comes by, the top four inches of the pole topples off and rolls away.
Dr. Kelley, enjoying the highly unusual sunny day, walks happily into the park, whistling as he goes, and watching the songbirds attempt to flit about in the wind, and mostly fail. His cloak blows about him, enveloping him in a sleeve of chaos that he doesn't attempt to control. "Nice shot," he says easily. "I prefer to take it out from two kilometers, myself."
Hayate turns as he hears you. "I find guns to be loud and messy. This is quiet and clean.. Far better, but each to thier own. " He says skipping to the side and reversing the blade back along his forearm and flicking the blade back to sever another pole, lopping off two inches off the top. "To what do I owe the pleasure Dr. Kelley?"
"Oh, just happenstance, Hayate. Just happenstance. It's usually so rainy here in Kingsdale that I thought I'd best get out while the getting was good, eh?" The man smiles to the much shorter man. "What brings you out here to train on such a beautiful day? Shouldn't you just be enjoying it?"
Hayate grins at your words. "What do you mean? I am enjoying it." He says, spinning away to a third pole, and drawing two cuts down across it, making an X in the wood. Then he spins past it and smacks the pole above the cuts with the blunt end of the pommel. A sharp cracking report sounds out and the top falls away, rushed inward by the blow. "I enjoy training outside.. What about you? Do you ever train for the things you love?"
"I train in the library, the NewTech Compound, Happy Days Inn, or preferably, so my work isn't either spied on or blown away, the comfort of my own home. I'm excellent at lifting and carrying things, but that's about it, as far as physical training goes, so why bother do more than keep myself in shape?" Kelley asks rhetorically. "Why should I bust myself with a few karate moves when I take things out from, well - two kilometers?"
"Because it's far more satisfying to take your foes with your own hands, or an extension of them. Killing from a distance is just that.. Killing. Up close and personal puts you at risk as well, so make the act far more personal. You get to know the life you take, if only for the breif last moments." He says almost poetically.
"Well... I suppose that's beautiful sentiment.. or at least sentiment of some kind.. but I have no desire to meet those whom I kill. In fact, the less I know about my enemy - from an emotional standpoint - the better. I'll still get to know him tactically, strategically, but not personally. I don't see a need for that. But to each his own." Kelley shrugs. "What do you when you're not out here in the park.. having fun?"
Hayate shakes his head in disaggreement. "You need not know his innermost thoughts.. but to know the life you take, take part of his mind into your own will remind you of what you have done, teach you respect of the people you kill, because one day thier blade might be faster than your own, and you are the one who is slain. Killing without knowing them is brutal.. senseless." He says then turns to you, having just sliced the crushed pole off at the midpoint, with a flourish and a crouch. He stands and looks at you. "Not very much. My upbringing didn't leave room for indulging in fun.. we are trained to complete our missions.. then await the next one."
"In that case, you should really get out, more, Hayate. Life is for the living - and worth living. Just smell that. It smells of life. It smells of joy. You have to have some simply joy in your life, or else you'll become just a killing machine, and I don't think that even a Juicer wants that, does he?" Kelley asks. "I would think, even," the man states, "that with your shortened life span, you might wish to live it to its fullest, no?"
Hayate smiles and spins the sword in his palm once, then sheathes the blade on the matching black sheath on his back. "For what? I have attempted to ... get out more.. with Desmond and the other feline Kesslan. I have tried the.. dating phenomenon with Lucy, and tried to socialize in the Moe's tavern on several occasions. All have been awkward and acheived nothing. I became a juicer for the power, pure and simple. The power to help those who cannot help themselves. My family and country chief among them. My life is of little consequence until I detox or die.. whichever comes first." He says smiling sadly at you.
Kelley looks at the man with the sad eyes you might reserve for a child. "I'm sorry to hear that, Hayate. That's one of the worst things that I've heard in a long while. Why does your socializing go so poorly? Maybe you only need a little more practice with Mr. Desmond or Mr. Kesslan? Miss Lucy is *very* friendly, I understand. Certainly she would not turn you away?"
Hayate shrugs, then crosses his deceptively powerful arms. "It goes poorly because we have nothing to relate to. Everyone else has lead full lives filled with other beings and socializing and sex and everything most people experience. I have been isolation for the past seventeen years.. the only people I talked to were my instuctors and myself when alone. Desmond and Kesslan are find.. and Lucy is overly freindly, but I'd rather not purchase her attentions as she seems to want." He says, starting to frown a bit.
Kelley laughs and says, "I seriously doubt that she wants you to purchase her intentions, but that's really neither here nor there. If you *have* been in isolation for so many years, than my professional psychological result - free of charge - is that you need to get out more. Force yourself into situations where you are uncomfortable, and over time, you'll become accustomed to them, and even find them enjoyable. It's a gradual process that I understand a Juicer may not be accustomed to - but certainly your ninja training, or whatever it is, would have set you up for patience?"
Hayate eyes you dubiously for a moment then smiles slightly. "My prowess as a ninja goes a very long way to keeping me mellow and calm during everyday activities.. otherwise I'd be as jumpy and off the wall as every other Juicer walkign the streets. My training provided me with patience, true.. but it's normally patience when waiting on a target to arrive.. or waiting for a guard to walk away from the vent you need to enter. Things of that nature. I've never been taught to interact with other people.. For infiltration missions, The Techs were sent. Juicers and cyborgs are one man armies unto themselves.. sent only on the top missions, one where nothing else would work."
"So that means that you can't grow?" asks Kelley. "If you learned patience for martial skills, certainly you could try to apply the same philosophies to social activities? Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to force you into something that you just flat out don't want to do - but the fact that you *have* tried it tells me that you *do* want succeed. I think that you're capable of that. Just try to keep the jumpiness intact, and you should be fine. Be sure to give people room to make mistakes with you. If Lucy's coming on a little strong, tell her that. If Mr. Desmond and Mr. Kesslan aren't being forthcoming enough, try buying them a beer." Kelley shrugs, only offering his psych knowledge.
Hayate sighs and looks at you as you advise him. "You do realize that me learning to socialize and actually break my training and mental self isolation would be like me teaching you the skills I've attained being what I am. It would take several decades, and I'm not exagerating in the least.. what you ask borders on the impossible.. At least for me." He says sounding defeated.. an odd tone of voice for a jucier.
"Nothing is impossible, especially in the world that we live in today," Kelley says. "I'm not going to say anything more about it, but I believe that you could do it, and in a short time. It's simply psychology." Turning to spot the woman and her, presumably, giant polar bear, Kelley gives a short wave.
Quietly... or at least, as quietly as possible for such an unlikely pairing as the small Inuit woman and her polar bear guardian happen to make, the duo enters into the park. It's somewhere that they often go, somewhere they can often be found, and usually at strange hours as well. The great white bear gives a gentle grumbling sort of sound as he reaches out to lightly touch Monique's shoulder with his black leathery nose, and he pauses briefly to shake himself from head to tail. A moment is taken by him then, to cast his attention across the park, no doubt taking note of those within it. Monique glances towards Tornaq as he finishes that shake, and a smile curls at the corners of her lips before she lifts a hand to lightly run her fingers through her hair. Catching a hint of motion out of the corner of her eye, her dark-eyed gaze turns to settle on Dr. Kelley, and she lifts a hand to give a wave in return, inclining her head slightly and smiling at him.
Hayate turns his head, biting off the rest of his conversation. The bear is taken into account and Hayate has the blade on his back halfway outof the sheath before he realizes that Kelley is waving the the girl is walking with the bear, not being chased by it. Slowly he relaxes, returning the blade to it's sheath, and giving a stiff bow to the Inuit Girl and her bear as the approach.
Kelley smiles. "Hi, Monique. Out for stroll on this beautiful day?" Indeed, it is, though with a warm, stiff wind blowing across the plains to the west. "How are you and Tornaq today?"
The stranger with Dr. Kelley swiftly gains not just Monique's attention but that of Tornaq as well, as the blade is half drawn. She stops, lifting her left hand to lightly touch the great white bear's shoulder, which is taller than her diminutive height, and the bear gives a low growl. The Inuit woman brings her dark gaze to the bear, regarding him for a brief moment as she moves her fingers almost idly through his fur, and after a moment the bear gives his head a shake and returns to his relatively sedate but highly protective stance. After being nudged with Tornaq's nose again, Monique's attention returns once more to Dr. Kelley, and she draws closer to the pair before stopping at a comfortable distance for conversation. "We have been wandering around the city, today. There are many people out on a day like this," she muses, her tone thoughtful and her words strongly accented. "We are both well, thank you... and for yourself, Dr. Kelley?" she asks softly, a smile curling at the corners of her lips. To the one she doesn't know, her gaze wanders, and she offers him a bow of greeting, though her attention returns to Dr. Kelley within a moment.
"Very well, thank you, Monique. My friend Hayate and I," Kelley indicates the Asian man, "have just been discussing philosophy and psychology. Let me ask you, Monique. Do you think that it's possible for someone firmly set in their ways to change? To accept something that they've not even considered before?"
Hayate turns to Kelley and glares at him, as he bring up personal issues with a complete stranger. "Good day to you Kelly." He says giveina cold bow, turning on his heels and leaving the area wo the girl, her bear and the rude one.
The small woman looks to Hayate as his name is mentioned, and she inclines her head slightly towards him, as though perhaps considering the fit of the name to the man who bears it. Her attention shifts back to Dr. Kelley, and she tilts her head a little to one side, her brow furrowing a touch as he speaks of the conversation which had been in progress before she happened by. Hayate's abrupt leave-taking brings her attention to him, and she blinks a little in surprise to it before giving a small nod to him, watching him as he leaves. "I like to believe that change is always possible, although... when a person is more set in their ways, it can be harder to cause a change to occur. Sometimes, to accept something which is... unfamiliar... a person needs some sort of reason, or some kind of proof, to shift their own beliefs," she says softly, her tone thoughtful in nature. "I am sorry, if I said something to make him leave... or if by my arrival, he felt he should," she says, a little quieter than her earlier words.
"No, no, Monique, Tornaq, you folks didn't do anything wrong. Not in his eyes, at least. I apparently annoyed him. He's easily annoyable, though, to coin a word," Kelley states. "The poor guy is just walling himself off from the rest of the world. All that's going to be left is some kind of brainless, thoughtless killing machine, and I hate to see that happen to anyone. He doesn't think that he's capable of socialization, even though he desires it. So sad." He shakes his head after the departing man. "But, enough about him, I'm enjoying the life of today. The birds are in the air - the birds are blowing horizontally across the sky, however, but at least it's a warm wind. I guess you're probably not used to this kind of weather, eh?"
Monique seems to brighten a little to hearing that she did nothing wrong to cause Hayate to leave, for she's still learning the ways of the people that she lives amongst now. "Oh... well, it is good to hear at least that Tornaq and myself did nothing wrong," she says softly. She glances back, in the direction that Hayate had left in, and then she brings her attention back to Dr. Kelley. "A person quick to annoy can be one who requires caution to be around, although I suppose it can serve some purposes," she muses, shifting a little to lean slightly against Tornaq, a familiar pose for both of them. "I believe a person can learn anything, if they but have the will to do so... inner strength can be greater and more powerful than physical strength. It is a good day, today. There is no rain to be had, and so neither of us are getting soaked through to the skin. And the song of the birds is pleasant to hear. I still am not used to that, for there are but few birds where I am from, and those are seasonal visitors, for the most part. The weather is something, too, that I am not used to... it is much warmer than I am used to, although that is not a bad thing. It means less worry over frostbite and other such ailments," she says softly, a smile touching her lips.
