"I love machines," Katie says once she and Tasha have dismounted the motorcycle, which ticks as it cools. She sets her helmet on the seat and pats the vehicle with affection. "I like being in total control of all that power. But sometimes.. well, you'll see what I mean," the Karnor notes with a grin and gestures to the stables.
"'Total control of all that power?'" Tasha repeats, arching her eyebrows and wondering hwo deep the urge flows in Katherine Vesuvius. It's not an unfamiliar urge, either, but Tasha can't help but think her's and the starlet's brand of it are different somehow. The more she associates with the other woman, the more interesting quirks and dark facets she finds -- a exploration both intriguing and occassionally a bit alarming!
Especially when she might be one of those 'machines of power.'
Though inwardly Tasha knows she rather likes it, and perhaps that makes and is all the difference.
"Well, you know me, I'm always chasing dangerous things of power and going to scary places. How can I refuse now?" She remarks a second later, tagging along and letting Katherine lead the way.
While Tasha has seen horses before, and even seen Knights riding them.. she's never been up close. With Pteras and Drokars you know to avoid the biting parts, and even Dromodons can turn suddenly and snip things off with their beaks. But their eyes are always a bit cold and reptilian. The horses look at the women as the walk past the stalls, deliberately making eye contact, and sometimes making odd chuffy-snuffly sounds.
"Ah, here we go," Katherine says when they reach a stall with a white horse with speckles and a long black mane. "Sir Prancelot! Did you miss me?" she asks as she rubs the top of the beast's long face.
It is all very strange to Tasha, very very strange. Despite knowing the history behing Rhians, it's still bizarre to her to see their originators. She had heard such creatures existed in the wilds of Sinai -- somewhere in Nordica if she recalls correctly -- but until very recently had always taken them as tall sailors tales. Learning the truth was unsettling, but she never had to literally stare it in the face until now. And stare she does, a few steps behind Katherine and looking wary at that. "Do you think somewhere there are Pteras that walk on two feet?"
"I don't know.. how many do they normally have?" Katherine asks, as she waves for the stable boy. "Have you found a horse that you click with yet?"
"None, they're big snakes with wings. Squirming, bitey big things," Tasha explains. She eyes the horse again. She used to associate with a lot of Rhians, and other things. Very weird indeed. Her ears twitch as she struggles with the strangeness of life. "Click, you mean bond? Or am I supposed to break them to tack and leathers?"
"These are already broken to the saddle," Katie says. "So it's more looking for a bond. They're all fairly easy-going."
The stable boy arrives, and Katie requests a 'number 4' saddle for Sir Prancelot.
"Uh-huh," goes the hybrid woman, who sounds as dubious as she looks. Stepping away, she chews on her lip as she begins pacing up and down the stable, peering at each horse in turn and trying not to think too hard about anatomical similiarities.
Not all of the horses seem interested in going out, but those are generally the ones facing the other direction, as each stall has a door leading into the stable and one leading outside to a paddock. Like Rhians, the horses come in lots of different colors and markings, and the ones facing into the stable extend their heads to sniff at Tasha as she passes. It isn't until she gets to an all gray horse with a white mane that something stands out to her. It's the horse's black eye, watching her with something like curiosity and.. amusement? It reminds the Hybrid of the eye of Goddess Nukapai from the Whale Dream. The colors help as well.
And so Tasha halts, hands going behind her back and she leans forward and peers at clever seeming animal. "And what are you up to?" She asks it, wings extending and torso angling forward in the tried-and-true Ptera-drover style. 'Wings up! Lean forward. Eye contact, don't slouch by the Sisters what fool child has the old bird sent me?' She can still her old 'scar face's' voice, shrill as Eeee can be. But she remembered, and she learned. She wonders what clever tricks are going through the horse's mind.
The horse whuffles and.. grunts? Purrs? Grunt-purrs. Or mutters. Then it shakes out its mane and turns its head to look at Tasha through its other eye. The plaque above the stall names the horse as Oracle.
"She likes to play with Titan pilots," another stable-hand notes from close by, where he's propping himself up with a pitchfork handle.
The eye switching feels very Vartan to Tasha, immediately causing her to relax a little in the presence of apparent familiarity. She studies teh name and the barks a laugh. "Oracle. Of course." And tehn she straightens. "And she plays with Titan pilots, too? I think I've found my buddy." Tenatively she then steps forward, hand extending, fingers still, recalling the time she wiggled her fingers at a Ptera and regretted it. "So what do you say?"
She gets a big nose in her palm and a lick. At least the tongue isn't very damp. "She likes you, I think," the stable-hand says. "What's your saddle type?"
"Uhh," goes Tasha. Saddles were never something she had to deal with. Pteras aren't for riding, as anyone with any sense knows, and saddles themselves were expensive luxury items on Sinai. "I don't know. I havne't used very many of them and they were picked out for me." She tilts her head just slightly, still petting the horse, one eye on the stable boy. "So it looks like you're up."
The human stable-hand looks Tasha up and down. "Vartan.. petite," he says. "That should work. You can wait with your friend out in the yard," he notes, pointing to the open area in front of the stables where are there some long lists.
Tasha inclines her head, pulling away ehr hand and stuffing her hands in to her coat's pockets. "I will. Thank you for your help." She then veers off, making her way on out, expecting Katherine to already be waiting given her familiarty with the process.
Katie is indeed waiting, leaning on one of the list rails. She also tosses an apple to Tasha. "Hang on to that for later," she says.
Tasha yansk her hands out of her pockets to catch the apple the fruit thumping against her chest. "And here I thought Liza roped you in to making sure I ate enough," she remarks, then laughs as she stuffs the apple and her hands right back in her pocket. From there she wanders to the list rail, in no great hurry, glad to be not rushing somewhere for a change.
"The apples are for the horses," Katie notes with a wink.
Sir Prancelot is led out first, and the stable hand secures each rein to a list post. "Watch how I mount," Katie tells Tasha, then steps one foot into a stirrup and swings her other leg over the back of the horse to sit in the saddle. It's a graceful move.. but Tasha's legs are built quite differently from the Karnor's.
Oracle is led out next. Her saddle is subtly different from Katie's, riding a little higher in the middle with steeper sides. Instead of stirrups there are hoof-cups.
"I'm half a horse, doesn't that count?" The younger woman isn't sure if she is half a horse -- or half a coincidence or galactic joke. As she reaches the rail, her taloned hand emerges to rest on the barrier, head coming down atop it as she watches the mounting. "Katie, you've seen my legs, haven't you? If I do that we'll have to call Remiel."
"You just need to fold you leg up, miss," Oracle's handler explains as he gets the mare secured. He then comes to the side, and holds the foot-cup-stirrup steady for Tasha.
Tasha edges around the railing, approaching the Oracle at an easy walk. She stops beside the horse, gives her a thumbs up, and says, "Don't throw me. Be nice, okay? Here we go." Then she steps forward, securing her one hoof before pushing off and throwing her leg over, wings flapping and shifting like great balance poles until she drops herself in to the saddle with an, "Oof."
The reins are then giving to Tasha. "Oracle knows what she's doing, so don't worry," the stable-hand tells her.
Katie is already out of the list, Sir Prancelot 'dancing' from hoof to hoof while he waits for Tasha and Oracle.
"I always appreciate when my rides are smarter than me and know what's going on. It'll be usual!" The reigns are accepted, but Tasha leans over to pat her mare first. "Show me how smart you are." And then she holds the reigns proper and tries moving forward.
Orace trots forward, bouncing Tasha in the saddle a bit. Katie then leads them towards one of the paths that goes out onto the flood plain, where thinks are dry and flat.
Once onto the flats, Katie calls for Tasha to hunker down towards the neck.
Tasha does so, finding it easy to fall in to doing as the older woman directs now that she's taking a break from leadership. It lets her mentally inwind and just be one more woman out for an day of recreation.
That's when the horses break from trotting into galloping. It's very bouncy and jarring until Tasha gets her 'air legs' and is able to counter it. She didn't do anything to instruct Oracle to run, the mare just did it when Katie urged Sir Prancelot into it.
Autopilot, got to love it, Tasha thinks, grinning as they race forward. She isn't sure where they're going, but she's glad to be taken there.
It's not quite like flying, since Tasha has to hold on and keep her wings furled. The run lasts for nearly a quarter of a mile before the horses slow down to a trot again. Katie steers them towards the hills, where Vartan vision can see marker flags lining a set path. Oracle turns her head slightly to look back at Tasha, as if checking that she's still there.
"I haven't fallen off," Tasha assures the horse, petting her again now that she doesn't have to hold on as tightly, "Holding in when things get rough is my speciality."
Things get rough. The trail they follow isn't smooth like the plain at all. The horses pick their way through it with good speed though, likely having taken this route dozens of times before. It makes for random jolts in the otherwise rolling gates, which Tasha has to conpensate for to keep her balance. It's actually quite a workout!
And here Tasha had expected an easy ride. She isn't sure what to think of all the effort, her idea of a vaction had mainly been haunting the Overlook and occassionally flying in to the city to buy things, see people, and just walk around taking in the sites before normalcy is thrown out the window. Now and then she even forgets about what she about to do and the enormity of it, the knowledge returning like a blow to the gut. "So," she whispers, laying back down on the mare's back, rubbing her side as she rests, " ... you're an Oracle, what it going to be? Think it'll all be okay, that great big ol' god won't mind a visit? Think I'm crazy for going?"
Oracle doesn't respond in any obvious way, but her tail does flip up and swat at Tasha's tail. Up ahead, Katie calls back, "How're you doing? We're getting to the trees!" That last bit is said in a tone of excitement.
"I think that means, 'Don't worry.'" The horse is patted, then Tasha pushes herself up and waves at Katherine. "I'm fine! We were having an important Nohbahkim-to-horse discussion, top secret." She then turns her head and regards the approcahing treeline, having seen many like it but never on Abaddon. She never thought that trees, of all things, would be a rarity. "It's so weird to see them on Abaddon. I feel like they're like me, still wondering how they got here!"
The trees bring shade and dappled sunlight. It feels familiar to Tasha, who's trekked through the forest of Himar before. But there are differences. The tree bark looks different, redder somehow. Even the leaves have reddish edges to them. The trail is full of encroaching tree roots as well, so the horses move slower. "It's like a fantasy world in here," Katie says, looking at the trees in awe.
"Um, it sure is!" Tasha pushes herself to enthuse, hoping she sounded sincere or at the very least interested -- and she is interested, if not dazzled. Red trees are a novelty; there aren't any trees like these on Sinai, that she knows of. What really moves her, however, is seeing trees at all. Trees mean progress towards increased greenery and production, a sign the Pit has come so far that even luxury and experimental efforts such as these are possible. The real wonder for Tasha, then, is the wonder of progress. A sense life is getting better here, however slightly. "You've never seen so many trees, Katie?"
"There are parks in New Zion, but those maybe have two or three trees, since they're so expensive to maintain just for decoration," the Karnor claims. "But we have to have some of them, because.. well, because Terrans need them to stay sane, really. The Expedition ships even had parks in them." She nudges Sir Prancelot, and soon they're going off-path and deeper into the trees.
With her horse on autopilot, Tasha busies herself with talk and looking around, half expecting to spot reddish, iron-sheened birds amidst the branches. "I remember the park on the Orpheus. It wasn't looking so good after six thousand or so years, but it still managed to be green abd you could see how it might have once looked. Maybe I should consider a few trees on the Dark Horse. I've even been considering finding, acquiring, or seizing a larger hull and expanding the ship that way -- that's allow for a lot more internal space."
Katie leads them through trees that are even rustier than the ones near the path. They're close enough together that there's no longer any undergrowth, but at least the limbs are high enough that they don't need to duck. Finally the horses stop. "We're here!" the Karnor says, and swings down off of Sir Prancelot to lead him on foot.
Dismounting was not discussed and Tasha well knows her petite status as a Vartan. She eyes the ground, trying to rememebr the details of how Katherine swung off and deciding she'd like to try things without asking for help. "Going down, don't shrug me off!" She pushes herself up out of the saddle with a hand, dislodges one hoof, then very carefully swings her leg over and drops to the ground, hunching from the landing before rising back up. "Ow," she utters, rubbing at her knee as she straightenings. "So, where's here?"
"Come see," Katie says. Whatever might be ahead is blocked by Sir Prancelot though.
Tasha takes the reigns to guide her horse along after her, familiar with at least the 'bring animal to place' connection between horses and pteras. She picks her way along, one more set of hooves in the dirt. "'You're not going to kill me, are you'?" She quotes in her best approximation of Riddle's voice, remembering another adventure in to the Pit's countryside.
"Well, I almost died when I found this place," Katie says, and finally turns away so the path ahead is clear. At first, Tasha is dazzled in the way only a Vartan can be, because light is flickering and reflecting all over the place. Beyond that though is a pond.
Tasha's free hand goes but and she squints behind her hands, staring at what she sees. Trees and water! She's lived on Abaddon to know just how much of a luxury the location is, how rare. "A pond! And a forest. I never saw this from the air, I always thought this area was dedicated to creating trees for luxury uses and would be as orderly as the rest." She steps forward to get a better look, wondering whose secret project she's stumbled in to.
While the trees are clearly full of iron contamination, the water looks very clear and pure. There's no dirt at the bottom of the pond either, just intertwining tree roots. "I tested the water, and it's almost 90% pure," Katie says, as she lets Sir Prancelot drink while taking off her own boots. "The trees are absorbing the toxins!"
"Really?" Tasha stops beside the pool, afraid to disturb this oasis of purity in a dry, barren land. She can almost see her reflection; she certainly catches every flicker and dazzle. "So they're not just luxury goods, they're probably an experiment or even a precursor to a large scale effort. This really is something." And then a thought occurs to her. She glances over. "Are we supposed to be here, Katie?"
"This isn't an experiment," Katie says she keeps removing clothing. "There are other pools too, just like it. It's just how the trees are. On Sinai they didn't have water contaminated by metals, so you'd never know the trees could do this."
"I didn't know that." Tasha turns to regard the trees again, momentarily astounded by how the simplest, everyday things end up havign layers of complexity. It brings her to think on the task ahead of her -- did the Progenitors know of every detail? Did they chose their uplifts based on some provided metric, or did they base it on asthetics or impulse? Even emotion? She then thinks on why she has chosen the Progenitors -- the Vril-ya she reminds herself. Is there some metric to her trust, to why she picked them over the dark beings or an entity like the Niss? She finds herself sitting down half without realizing it, staring at the tree with her head propped on a hand, seated on half-bured boulder.
While Tasha ruminated, Katie goes skinny-dipping. She finally tries to splash Tasha. "Hey, are you coming in or not?" the Karnor asks.
"Wha-- hey!" Tasha ducks, albiet too late, when splashed. She shields herself with a wing, turning half around and hiding behind her limb. "S-sorry!" She offers, holding her hand out to forestall any further splashing; she doesn't want to tempt Liza's future wrath in returning with a ruined jacket. "Are you naked? Why didn't you say so?" And then the jacket's coming off.
"You didn't notice me stripping?" Katie asks with an exaggerated look of shock. "I suppose you were just too dazzled by the shiny water!"
"I was thinking. I know, don't be shocked." Tasha's down to her pants now, her clothing a far sight more involved these days than in previous years. "I wasn't ignoring you! I was just thinking about the trees." Then she's on one leg, balancing with her wings as she pulls off her pants. "Just give me ... a ... moment!" They go in to a neat pile with the rest. No upsetting Liza. Perhaps to Katherine's suprise, she isn't wearing her undersuit today, but actual underwear of the goldish-yellow and lacy variety. These join the pile.
"Wow, you've been clothes shopping?" Katie asks at the sight of the normal (to her) underwear.
Tasha picks up her undies and looks at them at the edge of the water, giving them a moment of thought, too. "I've had these for a while, from back when I was student at the Citadel. I bought others, too, but I havn't had much of a chance to wera them since I've either been far away or concerned I might need to fight at a moment's notice. It's nice to be able to wear them, makes me feel, I don't know, better I suppose?" She twirls tehm on a finger as she turns back to Katie, then tosses them back on the pile before setpping in to the water.
The water is cool, but not cold, and is deep enough near the center to tread water. It also smells different than Tasha is familiar with, but that's likely due to a higher sulfur content.
"I better ve careful, with all the iron in the water, I might end up red," the Cadet deadpans, arms and wings out for balance as she steps in deper. "I never thought I'd be stepping in to water -- outside, not full things trying to eat me -- on Abaddon." Once in she lowers herself by the edge, siting down, then laying back until her head is angled up. "Ahh, it's nice."
"Still some Sinaian insects out here, I'm sure," Katie says, and floats on her back towards Tasha. "I never thought about it before, since there really aren't any places to swim.. but can Vartan's swim? I know horses can, but they've got four legs."
"We can swim, we're just not very good at it. A know a lot of Vartans who don't like deep water. It's a lot of work for us to get anywhere, but I've heard of some of us who have learned to use their wings to paddle." As Katherine drifts close, Tasha leans over to pull her in until her head is resting against her chest, body floating free. "Did I ever tell you about the endles sky in space? I bet you won't believe me."
"I didn't think there was a sky in space," Katie says. "So go ahead and tell me! I'll believe it if you promise that it's true."
"I promise. I've been there after all. And if you don't believe me still, you can ask the Jotoki." Tasha didn't bring her datapad today; in fact she's bereft of any material related to her research and work, not a notepad, not even a pencil. Thus it comes down to words: "Out there," she points up to the sky beyond the canopy, " ... far away, so far it's hard to even wrap your head around, there's a sun. And around that sun is a ring, a ring of air. All the way around the system, on and on, a sky that never ends. And in that sky are asteroids. Planetoids, little rocks -- with life. It was there we met the Jotoki; aliens."
"A ring of air," Katie says, sounding unsure. "Where'd it come frome?"
"Who knows? It's probably not natural, I think it might have been engineered. Probably not by the Khattans. They're powerful, and they're advanced, but they're not biggest game in town. Not even close. They're probably-- Well it doesn't matter. I think it was a some grand scale engineering project by and Old or First One civilization, redicovered through some obscure part of the Library. Anyway, the Jotoki seemed to be shipwrecked there. We think otherwise, but I don't want to go in to plots and plans right now. The important part is that it's beautiful. Beautiful and amazing." Tasha holds her hands up wide, water dribbling in tiny splashes below. "A whole system. And I've seen the mechanical version, a ring world. A whole ring built around a sun. There are wonders out there, Katie. Like you said, a sense of awe. I feel like I can see them better now."
"A solid ring and an air ring?" Katie asks, looking up towards Tasha's chin as she rests her head on the hybrids floatation pillows. "What are the Jotoki like? What lives in these strange worlds?"
"The ancients technology was vast. They could reassemble whole solar systems, interfere with the fundamentals of reality. They created wonders." Tasha looks down, hands falling at first, but then going back up as she realizes she'll need them to explain the Jotoki. "Trinary beings," she begins, holding up her Vartan hand: Three fingers. "They're like three worms or snakes joined together at the head. They're born in to ponds, and once three of them merge, they become sentient. From there an older Jotoki will raise them, become their parent. I don't know if they're related by blood, but mayeb they're like us Vartans, and don't care either way. They can talk, though they're about the same place some of us on Sinai are, technology wise. Three are aboard the Dark Horse. They have kittens."
"Kittens are their infant form, or do you mean literal kittens?" Katie asks, swishing her tail in the water as her body bobs on the surface. "Terran kittens? It also sounds like everything ancient is big."
"Terran kittens, they're cute!" Tasha hopes oracle isn't listening, she realizes somewhat late how hypocritical her fondness for Terran cats is given her suspicion of Terran horses. "They love the Jotoki, but apparently hate Crazy Kaa. Poor Moka." Her hands lower, resting loosely around Katie in a hug. "The ancients could build big or small, it all depended on their cultures and what they thought they needed. Some, like the Niss, you can hold in your hand."
Maybe Oracle was listening, because Tasha feels a burst of breath against the back of her head, even though the mare isn't in the water (the root-covered bottom of the pool makes for dangerous footing). "And you're going to show me all of this, right?" Katie asks, looking up at Tasha.
Tasha untangles a hand to hold it placatingly back towards her horse even as she answers, "Of course I will. Well, maybe not the ring world since I need to ask the Titanians permission to get near that death trap -- it's defended by a system that fires the sun at things. Scary. I kind of want to see it in action though." She lowers her head nowm looking back in to Katherine's eyes. "But we'll return to the endless sky some day. And to go Varta. And to Terra. And on, and on. That is unless--" She stops, frowning, but shakes her head. "Even if things don't ... Don't work out, my ship will remain. It has a crew, and missions. But I'd like it better if I could show you myself."
"You're coming back," Katie claims, and crosses her arms over her chest, which causes her to sink a bit. "Promise me that you'll run away before dying or anything."
"That would 'impinge upon my honor as a Titan pilot,'" Tasha insists, her voice dropping several octaves, a quote of or misquite of someone or other. "But I don't have any honor, so of course I'll run away." She hugs on Katie tighter, then tigher still. In a quieter voice she adds, "It's just you wanted me to tell you where I was going and what might happen. "For the people left behind." I just don't want you to worry and wonder 'why' again."
"I don't want to have to wait for you to grow new parts again," Katie says, reaching up to hold a hand to Tasha's cheek. "I want you to still be you when you return too."
Tasha has to look away, both because it's a painful memory and because she can't bring herself face Katherine at the moment. She can't promise anything with any certainty and she won't lie. She doubts she could fool the other woman even if she wanted to. "I didn't want for that to happen. It was just the best choice, the best one I could think of because I didn't want to lose everyone. I almost threw that Titan off a cliff, with me in it, to stop it. Of course," and here her expression turns wry, ears canting back, brows narrowing, " ... I guess that was all kind of stupid of me in hindsight. Part of the plan. Well, I'll try not to be stupid this time. I'll do my best to come back. If I can't, I'll at least try to say so."
"The poem doesn't really say what's supposed to happen, does it?" Katherine asks, sounding a bit more subdued. "It's all about getting to the goal, but not what the goal actually is, right?"
Tasha spreads her hands; what can she do. "They're all vague about everything. It's like all the old species and all the godlike beings got together and decided to play a joke on the younger ones by not telling us anything directly. "Haha, they can't even manipulate priviledged channels or build a ring world, lets pull their tails, it'll be a fund million years between jobs."" her hands fall and shoulders shrug. "I really don't know. Artifacts come together, I get a navel-gazing stone. I know what He is and all His kin. The old poem is supposed to be about turnign lead into gold, but also about personal refinement or some-such. Mayeb it's not for me. It's for them. Like a recipe. The peom is the spoon, stirring me until they have what they wanted. Nobody tells the soup what it's for."
"Lunch, usually," Katie points out. "Do you have any lead in you?"
"If they eat me I'll make sure they get indigestion. Maybe I'll eat them first." The latter sounds more half-hearted than anything, and dubious. "Lead, what about lead?"
"Lead into gold," Katie says. "Could mean literal transmutation, but also symbolic. Dark into light. Primitive into advanced. Enlightment, transcendence.. just about anything really. Or worthless into priceless."
"I used to feel worthless, maybe Adam's going to really give me a pep talk? "Go get 'em Tasha, you're the best!"" Tasha holds her hands up, as if trying to forestall a lightning bolt from the sky, which isn't exactly wrong. "But maybe it's about that. Let me think." Her hands fall back around Katie, head tilting. "Dark. If it means literal dark, well, I'm touched by a being like Katha-hem. It did something to me; I'm different now. That's what I meant about gods, by the way: They change you. I knew that, so I was being cautious. But, hmm, dark. I used to be hateful. A liar, a cheat, I'd steal and hurt people. Love 'em and leave 'em. I was just a thug with a real job. It could be that."
Tasha's head goes the other way. "I'm obviously primitive, even by Abaddonian standards. I'm also unique, so they could want to claim me as a Client, if having a one person Client is useful at all. They could uplift me. I'm not sure what that would mean for me. Knowing the galaxy a little, it could mena any state of growth, from near-future to something like they are, to something like-- Well, a lot. Enlightenment? I don't know. They seem to have a religion, but we know little about it. I'm not sure what I'd transcend, maybe I can't know until I've done it, or they show me."
"Or it's what the poet wanted to believe would happen," Katie says. "Seems like that lure would get the investors to dump more resources into the project."
"You see why this is such a problem for me, there are a thousand possible answers and no way to confirm any of them. Or, at least there wasn't until very recently -- and I meanin the big scale of galactic time. Whatever else is true, Ser Heraphel thinks the Marker reacting to save me means something. Becase it's nevere happened before." Tasha reaches over and taps her nose, twice. "Something protected me, or at least needed to use me. Old Yama set me up, but he's clearly trying to game something. Maybe the real answer is it's nothing at all what it appears to be. Maybe it's a big sham, and something else is going on, and I'm just a dupe. But I'm still going. This is still my project, and my plan, too. And I want to know. I want to know so much it hurts sometimes; like I said before, I'd go anyway."
"Addicted to mystery now?" Katie asks with a grin, then rolls over so she can sit up and face Tasha easier. "Or to discovery?"
This gives Tasha ample opportunity to pull Katie up and hug on to her, sinking herself lower in the water. She then mantles her wings, sparing Katherine the cool wind by covering her up. The young woman smiles, almost shyly. "Something has to replace all the alcohol, cigars and sex, doesn't it?" She winks, but her smile drops off a little and she takes on a more serious cast again. "But maybe it all comes back to Nora. I didn't learn about all this gradually, it was stuffed in my brain one day by a six thousand year old computer. In an hour I saw how we all fit in, I saw flashes of Terra, and I saw what I could be and could do. And maybe I never forgot it. Maybe it's still haunting me, that sense of immenseness, that height, and I'm chasing it. Trying to get to the top so everything makes sense again, or just dazzled by it. I don't really know. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, but I still haven't found the answer. Maybe it's just that: I want to solve the mystery and I want to disc
over. Maybe make a friend? Or find a mentor, way up top. Maybe not knowing, maybe that's it. The surprise."
"Hmmm, self-discovery is supposed to be good for you," Katie notes, and gives Tasha a quick kiss. "And you are probably still in your larval stage. No.. wait.. you already had a cocoon and came out with more Vartan parts, so probably not a larva anymore. But still not quite finished growing up either, so there are still plenty of things to figure out. Must be exciting at least!"
Tasha meets the kiss with one of her own; galactic disaster is no excuse to miss a kiss. She does make a mock-frown over being called a larva though. "You make me sound like old Raehab." Not that she doesn't like Raehab, it's the priciple of the thing. "And do you know how often I have to hear about how young I am? "You're still young Tasha, you have a lot of growing up to do,"" she quotes, it sounds a lot like Gabriel. ""Tasha, you're young. You have a lot to learn."" Katherine easily recognize the voice as Riddle. ""Tasha, you still young. Got lots to learn. I show you mebbe."" A gruff, growly voice the starlet doesn't recognize. ""Tash, you young, gotta learn things."" The last sounds distinctly Vartan. "Maybe the Vril-ya will save me form being young."
"I think only you can do that," Katie chuckles. "By learning! I'm not sure about Vartan brains, but Karnor and Human ones take almost 25 years to fully develop."
"I'm never growing up. Just to spite everyone. I'm going to remain young and a cadet forever." Tasha makes every effort to sounds as petulant as the words, then she folds her arms and sinks back further, making a mock-stern, pouty face. "Maybe I'll get injured and get a shiny new brain, too."
"Normal brains are already shiny," Katie points out. "Most of the stuff inside of you is wet and shiny." She then dunks Tasha's head for a moment. "Oh! I didn't bring any towels. We should ride back naked to dry off."
Tasha complains, largely by blurbling underwater until she comes back up and gasps. "Well there goes my hair. And look what you made me do, talk about work! I'll show you! I might be younger but I am stronger!" She then braces her feet, lifts Katherine right out of the water, picks her up, then tosses her in to the deep end!
There's another part of chasing the occult neither of them brought up, but Katherine knows well and Tasha feels in her heart: The hunt. The chase. The catch. Aren't all mysteries a hunt of a sort, and all discoveries? And so is throwing your girlfriend in to a pool -- especially when you leap in after her.
The hybrid dives in with a splash and a great deal of laughter.