Remnants of the Earth
SPACE STATIONS => The Cancer => Topic started by: Anonymous on September 15, 2007, 07:55:55 pm
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There were times that people stop to think about the ups and downs of life. For Skah, tonight was one such time as he entered his favorite tavern on the station, the Taurus Watering Hole, a rather flashy-yet-comfortable tavern.. He brushed aside some of his silvery hair out of his face, showing that his silvery eyes were full of life. He was pondering the ups of his life, and he felt happy doing so. He didn't know why, but he felt that way. His silver wings ruffled against his back, eager to move after being folded in for so long. But he was only allowed to open them in certain areas of the ship, so he ignored that feeling as he entered the tavern.
As he walked over to the bar, he noticed two lovely women walking by, chatting idly amongst each other. He couldn't help but notice how lovely and cute they looked, what with their outfits revealing their cleavage and waists. He stared at the two in awe as he walked by...then he ran into one of the opulently decorated pillars, hurting his head some. He staggered back and eyed the pillar with discontent. "Why do I always run into that thing?" he wondered as he made it to the bar and snagged a seat in front of the bartender.
"That's gotta be the third time this week you ran into that pillar," the bartender said.
"Ah, shaddup," Skah said, his pale face flustering and smirking at the same time. "I'll have a shot of the Bullhorn draft." As the barkeep turned to ready the drink, Skah spun around on his barstool, eyeing all the women. Which one should he talk to today?
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Sitting alone at the end of the bar sat a young woman, dark brown hair, blue eyes. Her manner of dress was conservative, but it worked well for her. The white, button up blouse with the black, knee length skirt, black pantyhose and black pumps. She looked a little like a school teacher, especially with her hair pulled back into a bun, but no teacher could hold such a look of clueless innocence. She seemed a little nervous perhaps as she glanced around. She did after all, seem out of place in a bar in her attire. "May I have another please?" She asked the bar keep, gently touching the rim of her nearly empty glass.
The keep nodded, eventually bringing her the drink requested. Her's had no alcohol in it. She was nervous enough about being in this place alone without dimming her wits and making bait out of herself.
Her eye caught on the winged man with curiosity. She had seem some interesting things over time, but the man with wings was definately interesting. They looked soft, as if she could stroke them. A smile flickered over her mouth before she managed to shove the thought aside. What sort of nonsense was she about now?
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Skah's silver eyes caught sight of a promising companion for conversation sitting at one end of the bar. She looked like a school teacher, but that look of innocence made him think otherwise. Man, she's cute, he thought. When the bartender came with his drink, Skah thanked him, paid the ten credits for the drink, then stood and headed over to the woman. "You seem lonely. Mind if I sit here," he asked, a smile on his face.
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Katrina looked up in surprise, a smile spreading over her pleasant features. She wore only the tiniest touch of make up, improving her natural features, but not embelishing them. "No, I don't mind" She said. Honestly, she was glad to have someone to talk to, and he didn't seem threatening-- but then again, she had never been the best judge of what was a threat and what was not. She had after all, stayed with Nik for a very long time, despite all the threats she had encountered because of her affilication. She brushed the thought aside, unsure why her mind insisted on lingering there. "I could do with some conversation." She set her drink down, daintily dried her hand on the napkin to remove the condensation from her hand, and then extended it to him "I'm Katrina" she said, her eyes tracing from his face to his wings. She had always had a love for soft things. Silk, satin, fur, feathers. She had grown up with a family that had such things on a daily basis, but she, now out of the fold, had learned to appriciate them in a way that her family never had. They had become common place in their eyes, while to Katrina, they had returned to a status of great luxury.
She let her eyes leave his wings and wander to his glass. She had learned about alcohol while staying with Nik and his friends. They definately liked their alcohol. She couldn't stand the taste of it, the smell. Wine of course, was the exception. Luxury she had grown up with, it had grown on her taste buds and somehow evaded the blanket alcohol hatred.
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Skah smiled and gently shook her hand. "Nice to meet you, Katrina. My name's Skah," he said, brushing some of his silver hair out of his silvery eyes. He sat down on the barstool next to her and downed his shot in a second. He always took it easy on the drinks, but for some strange reason, he never got drunk even if he drank a whole giant keg of whiskey. He figured it was part of his nature as a nephilim.
His silvery eyes lingered on Katrina, seeing that she wasn't overly sexy, nor was she unattractive...but she did seem cute. "So...do you come here often?" he asked.
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"No, it's my first time here" She admitted "Thought maybe I'd see what all the fuss was about and get a little change of scene" Maybe she needed a scene to stay the same for awhile seeing as she had been on the move for a while now, but choosing to go someplace was nice too. "You?" She returned the question, carefully crossing her legs, her hands resting on her knees. Some habits died harder than others. The ones trained into her at a young age seemed to be impossible to shake-- but of course those were the ones she didn't notice and so never bothered to attempt to rid herself of them.
Her eyes were drawn to his wings again and her hand twitched against her knee. Sometimes, less training in ways of polite society on earth hundreds of years ago would make her life easier. Much less stressful anyway.
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Skah smiled again. "I like this place. I come here any time I need to think or cool my head off," he said. True, he had been coming here for almost a year now, and he had gotten familiar with some of the faces he'd seen there. Some he knew very well, others he had met for the first time...like Katrina.
His wings yearned in protest to stretch out; he hadn't been flying for over a month now since the biosphere was under maintenance. He just needed to give them a little air. But what about Katrina? Would she be surprised about the fact that he had wings?
But that thought changed when he noticed her glancing at his wings. He smiked. "I guess you've noticed my wings, huh?" he asked.
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Katrina dropped her eyes, a pink blush flooding her cheeks. "Yes, sorry...they're....well, they're beautiful and they caught my attention" She said, tripping over her words now that she'd been caught staring-- a capitol offense in her house while growing up. "I've never met anyone with wings." She commented, sipping at her drink, but not looking up yet. "But I had no cause to stare, and I apologize." She set her drink down again and returned her hands to her lap, but now they fidgeted with each other rather than lay still, politely keeping her skirt down against her knee.
She glanced up as the door open and a couple people with tentacles walked in. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise before she jerked her eyes down to her glass and left them there, watching the carbonation release bubbles from the surface of the liquid.
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Skah smiled. "Don't worry about it," he said. "I've had people stare at me and my wings for some time, so I'm used to it." He hoped these words would convince her.
He then noticed Katrina's jaw drop, then her eyes darted back to her drink. Skah looked to where she had been looking, and he, too, noticed the people with tentacles. Needless to say, he was kind of creeped out. He turned to Katrina. "Who are they?" he asked.
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"I haven't the foggiest clue, I'd just never seen a th-- someone who looked quite like that." She stated, finally bringing her eyes up to him once the blush had faded. "I"m not used to things that don't look human yet." She said softly "I'd never even known they existed until I left my parent's house for boarding school...." it wasn't at boarding school she had seen them, but only after she'd been kicked out of the house for her choice of boyfriend and he had taken her to live with him and his friends when the school closed down.
"I suppose they could be just as nice as anyone, but they look rather formidable in my opinion." She smiled slightly "Do you like having wings?" She wasn't sure why she asked, maybe because she wondered what it was to be something other than human and she had never spoken to one upclose aside from brief business transactions.
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Skah smiled again, glad that she changed the topic. "Well...I do like having wings...I love flying, but sometimes having wings is a real inconvience," he said, ruffling his wings a little. "Like I have to cut holes in all of my shirts for them to fit through...and I have to sleep with them. But still, I like having wings." The hollow bones and muscles in his wings ached to be stretched, and Skah couldn't bear that feeling anymore. He needed to stretch his wings out just for a few minutes.
"You don't mind if I stretch them out for a little while, do you? Cuz I haven't opened them in a while, and they really cramp up if I don't give them air."
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She shook her head "No, why should I mind?" She asked easily. She was actually a little excited to see them extended, but her facial expression didn't change aside from the grin that hung on the corners of her mouth. "why do you feel you need to keep them bunched up like that?" It was her typical solution for when she didn't understand something: ask questions. Potentually tons of questions. That was one lesson that had never quite sunk in. Children should be seen and not heard, that she got, but as soon as she had the chance, the questions poured from her in a seemingly endless stream of words that her mother tolerated far better than her father did.
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Skah blushed a little. "Well...I'm afraid I might get in trouble if I open them in certain areas of the ship," he admitted sheepishly. "But I guess it wouldn't hurt if I stretch them out a little." He then unfolded his wings slowly. Each one was covered in silver feathers that were velvety to the touch. When they reached their full wingspan of about fifteen feet, he smiled in content. "Man, that feels so much better!" he exclaimed as he partially folded them in.
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A look of admiration and wonder eclipsed her smile as she watched them unfold. She hadn't expected them to be quite so...big. One hand left her knee and reached forward just a little before detouring to tuck a non-existant whisp of hair behind her ear. "Have you always had them?" She asked, the hand by her ear now tracing shapes in the condensation on her glass.
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Skah looked at her with a smile. "I've been told that I had them inside me since I was born, but I had never used them until...I don't know, eighteen?" he said. Yes...that was the age when he lost his memories, and he still had no idea of his origins. "I was told that I was a nephilim...basicall y, an angel with a human soul."
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"Oh, that's very interesting. I'd never heard of one before." She admitted, taking a sip from her drink before placing it back on its napkin and resuming her tracing through the water drops. "Does it make things difficult for you?" She knew that being human didn't mean life was easy, but she'd realized that being certain things made life much harder than it might otherwise be. She drew a deep breath, preventing herself from allowing her bursting questions to escape all at once without any sense or order. She hardly knew him, she couldnt' very well question him to death after just meeting him. She didn't want to give him cause to dislike her.
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Skah's eyes lit up with curiosity. He had never really put much thought into that. Was his life harder than most other people's, because he was a nephilim? He didn't know, because he couldn't remember any events from beyond two years ago. He gave a smile. "Sometimes," he said, "but then again, I've never really thought about it to care whether or not my life was harder than some other's. What about you? Was your life hard?"
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She shrugged slightly "Growing up, I was pretty privileged actually. My biggest worry was that I'd offend someone or...use the wrong fork. Ridiculous things like that, maybe get a bad grade in school, be the subject of some cruel rumor." She laughed softly. "I went off to boarding school and I'm not sure why, but my parents sent me to a co-ed school, and I met a guy there. He was kind to me and helped me adjust to life outside of the fake world I had known. My dad didn't like him and essentially disowned me. Up until that point, my life was a piece of cake, though I hadn't thought so at the time of course." She fiddled with her glass for a moment. "After that, I had some interesting adventures with people who wanted to use me to get to him, and now, I'm here. So...I guess I would say it was a mixture of both. Now, life is a little hard. I don't know what I"m doing. Everything is new-- I've never had to do anything on my own before really." She shrugged again. "Not the simple answer you were looking for I'm guessing." She admitted a bit sheepishly.
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Skah looked at Katrina with interest as she spoke of her story, but he got lost somewhere in the middle. "Yeah...I don't really get it, but I got it," he said. "Me...I don't really know what's in my past."
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Katrina considered this a moment "So...it's kind of like you get to start completely fresh right?" That sounded nice in some ways actually. She wouldn't have to recall the things she'd been through, or the family that had disowned her. Her eyes at some point in her story had landed on his wings. Even she didn't know when they had gotten there. Those gorgeous wings were so distracting....
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Skah shrugged. "I don't think that's what I meant," he said. "It's weird...I don't remember anything in my past. I only remember being alone. My mother and father, my childhood...it's like they've never existed. My past is...I don't know, like a missing chapter from a book." His silvery eyes looked away from Katrina for a second, as if he was trying to recall anything that happened before becoming eighteen. But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't remember.
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"I know that wasn't what you meant. I was trying to find the bright side of it." She explained quietly as she fiddled with her nearly empty glass. She wasn't even sure why she did that: look for the bright side. It had always driven Nik crazy, but it still hadn't broken her of the incessant need to find light in every situation.
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Finding the bright side of things...that was a term Skah had become familiar with only a few days ago. To him, it meant finding humor in otherwise sticky situations. "Maybe that's why I come here...to think about the...bright sides in life." He hesitantly added the last part because he has yet to learn how to apply the term effectively. "Like some people say I'm stupid because I have...what was it called?...ame...amnee...am er?" He struggled for the word.
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"Amnesia?" She asked quietly. "I would hardly think a person stupid for something they can't control" What sort of people called a person with an ailment as serious as amnesia stupid? But then again, there were those that considered the mentally challeged to be stupid as well now that she thought about it. Really, people weren't so nice in the universe.
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Skah nodded. "Yeah, that's the word. They insult me cuz I can't remember things very well. But I've come to think that having...amnesia... isn't really a bad thing. It just means I get that fresh start that most others don't get. Just because I have anmesia doesn't mean I'm completely hopeless." Skah had been told that by an individual who pitied him, and since then, he kept that to heart.
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"No, you're not hopeless" Katrina assured with confidence. "You get a fresh start, and don't have to deal with the baggage of childhood most people carry around with them." Her eyes were drawn once again to his wings. "Can you fly?" She couldn't help it. She was a girl who'd been deprived of pretty things and now had one sitting right in front of her, mesmerising her at every turn.
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Skah looked at her incredulously, but with a smirk. "Isn't that what wings are for? Of course I can fly," he said, "but definitely not here and not now. Since the biosphere is closed for repairs, I haven't flown in over a month."
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She shrugged "Ostriches have wings and they can't fly, and neither can Penguins" She pointed out, eyes on her knees as her cheeks flamed red again. It had sounded like much stupider question after he had replied than it had when she thought it. She didn't quite understand the biosphere, but she certainly wasn't going to compound her stupidity by asking him about it now.
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Skah cocked his head to one side. "What are ostriches and penguins?" he said, a look of confusion. He really didn't know, so it was an innocent question.
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"Both are kinds of birds...from earth." She said as she considered best how to explain it. "The ostritch is very fast on land, long legs, but short wings. The penguin lives in the arctic, and they use their wings more as flippers to swim through the water." To be honest, she wasn't even sure if they had existed within her lifetime, but she had read about them in her grandparent's text books.
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Skah was still a bit confused at this, but he decided to lose the topic altogerther. "Oh...okay," he said. He had always wanted to visit this "earth"...that big rock orb that this station was orbiting about. "Say, Katrina, have you ever been there? To Earth?" he asked.
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Katrina nodded "That's where I grew up...but it was nicer then...or possibly my parents managed to preserve the part I saw growing up. They did some odd things in their lives." She commented. "Thinking of going?" Somehow, she didn't much like the idea of him going by himself. It seemed likely he would get himself confused and lost or in trouble.
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Skah nodded. "Yeah, I'm thinking about it...I've been on this ship for as long as I can remember, and I'm thinking of getting off it...but...I heard the earth is dying." His silver eyes had a look of sorrow in them.
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Katrina nodded, the sorrow in his eyes mirrored in her own. "It is" She admitted. "There's a lot of talk about it, but I don't think they'll actually be able to fix it. Still, if you wanted to see it while it's still there, I'd be willing to go with you. I've never seen it in its true state." She wasn't sure she wanted to see it, but still felt she needed the dose of reality seeing the earth as it really was, would provide.
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Skah smiled. "I'd like that," he said. Suddenly, he felt like an eager, innocent child inside. "How about we go right now?"
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Katrina smiled, gently running a finger under her eye to ensure that the tiny prickle of tears had not caused her mascara to run. "Sure, why not" She said, taking the last of her drink. "Do you have transportation? I don't." She wrinkled her nose just a little as memories of her recent travels came to mind. Unpleasant to say the least.
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Skah paused. Transportation? Oh yes, one of those starships he'd always see out of the window. "I don't have a starship, if that's what you mean," Skah admitted sheepishly. He then remembered something labeled "Escape Pod" embedded in the wall of his room. "But there is an...escape pod in my room. Maybe we could use that."
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"Well, I don't know anything about escape pods, but I suppose if it can be driven...or flown, then it could be used." She said thoughtfully. "Might as well try it. Ready?" She paid her tab to the barkeep, and turned the rest of her attention to Skah.
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Skah smiled a genuine, innocent smile. "Of course. Let me show you to my room," he said, folding in his wings tightly against his back and holding out a hand, waiting for Katrina to take it.
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Katrina took his hand in a dainty fashion, as if he were her escourt to dinner, or formal event. "I don't think I've ever seen earth as it really is" She said, her eyes shimmering with excitement. Skah gave her no cause for alarm, so even though he was escourting her to his room, she thought nothing of it. She was getting in a pod that might or mightnot run, and planning on traveling to a dying planet with a souled angel she had just met-- but none of it crossed her mind. She had company again.
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Skah smiled. "I wouldn't know, cuz I've never been there...at least, not that I can remember," he said as they walked down the corridors and into an elevator. The doors closed and Skah spoke, "Blue District," into the voice command, and the elevator made its trip.
((OOC--Mind if we continue this in the blue district, to keep up with the setting?--))
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(that's perfectly fine, go ahead and post there when you are ready)
Katrina glanced around the elevator. It'd been awhile since she'd ridden in one that she could recall. When she had been with Nik, most of the elevators she had run across had been out of order or otherwise not working, power outage, broken doors etc. "What's the blue district?" she asked.
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Skah shrugged. "From what I've been told, the Blue District is the area of the ship where the sick bay, docking bay, and residential areas are found. We just came out of the Red District, where all the shops, taverns, and parks are found," he said. Of course, he had been told all this on his first tour of the ship. The doors opened.
((OOC--continued in the Blue District.--))