Walkin' the dog--er, mage. [Mia and anyone else!]

[Rhi-Rhi]

"Come along now, Eve," Luka called over his shoulder to the blue-haired girl that was his mage. It was a rather nice day out and though he was off duty for the day, he still felt it'd be a good time to take his mage out for some fresh air. He figured she deserved it. She was a friendly mage even though she hadn't been born into servitude and she completed her tasks well. She didn't give him much of a hastle or much lip, and Luka was always a believer in giving rewards and priviledges where they were deserved and earned. Of course, he was also a believer in discipline where that was also deserved.

Mage or no mage, he liked to be fair. Fairness bred more effective and happy workers, after all, and he couldn't help but shake his head at those Mordecai who were a bit too unreasonably hard on their mages. It seemed irresponsible to him, though he also understood having a bad day. He wasn't without fault; he'd snapped at his own mages before out of anger. That was his own problem, though, and he tried to rein himself in because that certainly didn't reflect well upon himself. If he couldn't keep himself under control, how could he keep his mage in line? Control always began with the master, and if the master could not control himself, then that put the slave in control.

After a few minutes of walking, Luka paused beside a fountain and turned to regard his mage with a pleasant smile on his youthful face. "So, is there anywhere you wanna go today, Eve? I thought it'd just be nice to just get out, you must be going stir crazy. You eat yet?" he asked lightly, absently brushing some messy brown bangs out of his eyes. Some other Mordecai might think he was too lenient by giving her this much leeway, but he didn't care. His methods had worked so far, and he had didn't mind buying her a few things, either, if it would keep her happy. Besides, wasn't like he had anything else planned for today.

Because it was his day off, he wasn't in uniform and was instead dressed in a pair of casual, loose-fitting, dark blue jeans and a simple shirt, and he had allowed her to wear whatever she wanted, as well. Still, there would be no mistaking them for what they were--her silver headband, and his matching one, kind of gave them away.

[Anonymous]

Eve had been surprised when Luka suggested they go out somewhere. This was a rare occurrence, but then again he wasn’t a bad Mordecai. Some of the others were far worse; they would be mean to their mages for no reason at all. She was a lucky one. Luka had even let her wear what she wanted, but since she owned very few clothes, she was just wearing a simple white dress and boots and of the course her silver head band. Once you got used to it, it wasn’t really that bad. It was just embarrassing that people kept staring at it.

     Eve shook her head at Luka’s question, “No, I haven’t eaten yet.â€?

     She had been happy when he had asked her if there was anywhere she wanted to go too, but the truth was she was just happy to be outside. It didn’t matter where they went. Eve had never been one for extravagant or material things. She liked nature, flowers, animals those sorts of things. A simple life was all she wanted.

     Sadly her life was far from simple. Still it was nice to have the occasional ‘day off’.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Luka raised his eyebrows at her. "No? It's almost noon..." he said, frowning and furrowing his brow in slight irritation. Had no one fed her? Rrgh. He'd have to have a talk with the people responsible for serving meals to the mages when he returned her to the Biological Containment Facility because if that was the case, that wasn't right. She needed to be in top condition, and still frowning he looked her over, top to bottom, studying her for signs of malnourishment even though that was rare in mages--unless they refused meals, as some of the stubborn new ones sometimes did. She looked fine, though, but it was still an annoyance.

"No one fed you? Huh. Alright, c'mon, we'll grab some lunch, then. Dunno 'bout you, but I'm starved." But then he paused, turning to look at her again. "By the way, feel free to talk freely around me, Eve. It's an off day. You don't gotta be so quiet or anything, alright?"

He didn't know if that would actually make a difference, or make her more comfortable, but he figured he'd throw that out there anyway. After all, he rather liked to talk, and mage or not, they were still people and silence was still awkward. Hell, he'd even had something of a friendship with his last one, a guy that had been close to his age...they'd practically grown up together.

In the last few months, however, Eve had replaced him, and even if Luka would never admit it, he was still shaken by his death.

Oh well.

Motioning to Eve with his hand, he began to walk again, leading the way toward a cheap fast food place he frequented on his off days. He trusted she would follow, though he didn't take his attention off of her completely and not to mention he paid close attention to the mental link between them, gauging her location in relation to him. It wasn't much of a walk before they reached their destination, a little hole in the wall place on the street corner that had a couple tables and chairs set up outside, and you didn't even have to go inside to order. There was a window so you could take care of that outside, as well as a touch screen for a menu. Huh. Come to think of it, Luka had never actually been inside the place...he'd always been in too much of a hurry. Ah well, that wasn't going to change today.

Glancing over at Eve, he slipped his wallet out of his pocket, took out his card, and swiped it through the card reader before stepping out of the way and putting it away. "Go ahead and get what you want, just get it to go. Dunno about you, but I kinda wanna get out of the city for a bit."

The stares from other people, much as he hated to admit it, were a little awkward. He couldn't help but wonder what those other people thought--if he was the mage or she was. They both wore the headbands, after all, even if his wasn't bolted on. Then again, he supposed it was pretty obvious who the Mordecai was since he weilded the cash.

[Anonymous]

Eve wasn’t sure what to order, she hadn’t had fast food since she had been little. And usually she wasn’t allowed to eat such fatty food; it wasn’t good for mages to be overweight. As for suggesting she talk, she didn’t really know anything he didn’t. Unless he wanted to know about her home which she doubted. Her last Mordecai hadn’t. He hadn’t seemed to care about her at all; she was just a weapon, like a gun or a fighter craft. Luka wasn’t like that but still she wasn’t going to bore him.

     Eve couldn’t help but notice that people were staring at the pair. Whenever people did that she never knew when people stared at her whether it was because of her head band or her blue hair. Both were unusual. She guessed this time it was because of her headband because they were staring at Luka as well.

[Rhi-Rhi]

Luka waited a few moments for Eve to choose what she wanted, smiling patiently, but when she didn't and just remained completely silent, the smile slowly faded. Hrm. "Or...don't get what you want. Alright. That's fine by me. I'll just, er, order for you," he said, blinking and feeling a bit awkward, like he'd just been talking to a wall for the last few minutes.

Turning back to the screen, he entered in he and Eve's order, confirmed it, then waited until the window opened with their neatly packaged food all wrapped up and ready to--in recyclable packaging, of course. Luka gathered it up and handed Eve her wrapped up portion of the meal. "Cheeseburger," he explained. He figured it was pretty neutral, who didn't like that? Well...except for vegetarians and vegans, but he doubted any mages were allowed to be that, anyway. They didn't get to make moral decisions like that, they did as they were told and that was that. Besides, they needed the protein, and it wasn't like many animals needed to actually be killed for the meat, anyway. Mostly, the stuff was cloned and grown in laboratories.

No huge farms, no environmental hazards, cheaper, and ethical, too!

Once you got used to being disturbed over the fact that the stuff was cloned and grown in a lab.

"Anyway...hmm, let's get away from here for now, yeah?" he said, turning and heading away from the eatery. There was a nice grove not too far away and it was pretty quiet. Maybe she was just playing shy because of all the people around? It was true that he didn't know her very well as he hadn't actually gotten to talk to her much at all; there had been a few missions and assignments, but those were for working, not socializing. However, he liked to get to know all his mages. You could learn valuable things about them that way, hidden strengths, flaws and phobias that might pose a problem unexpectedly, things like that.

As they walked, he glanced over at her. "Tell me about yourself, Eve. I don't think we've ever gotten a chance to discuss that."

[Anonymous]

“There isn’t much to tell really,� Eve replied, “I’ve been on Edanith since I was seven, before that I lived on Lanaes.�

     It was true; she had been so young when she had brought to Edanith that not very much had happened in her life before that. And anything after that Luka would already know because it was in her file.

     Eve had never really understood why it was made a fuss of that she was a Lanaerian mage, everyone on Lanaes could use magic, it wasn’t like she was special or anything. She had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

     That was in the past though and there was no sense in dwelling on it, her life was on Edanith now and she was used to it. Some of the people were nice and the other mages who weren’t always wallowing in self-pity were friendly too.