A Familiar Face. (Chocotastic Elastic!)

[Anonymous]

Satori just could not process this thing of Wulf being gone. This big giant gaping hole that was her. She had gotten so attached to him, and towards the end he was just...different. She understood why he was...where he was, she just wished it wasn't true. Aedolis had made the right choice like they normally did...but...well she didn't know what but it was that was constantly in her mind, but it just didn't seem to go away. She dropped her head in her hands.

The scorpion was in her apartment in the citadel, sitting on her couch staring at a bottle of whiskey that was sitting in front of her unopened. She couldn't seem to bring herself to get insanely drunk, puke, pass out, and in the process forget Wulf ever existed. Just thinking that she wanted to hurt herself. She looked at the bottle peeking over the edges of her fingers at it and grabbed it sucking down a shots worth. She made a face that said 'ugh' and set it back on the table.

Whiskey wasn't really working for her, running wasn't helping her clear her mind. It just gave her more time alone with herself than she though was healthy, more than she knew was healthy. Even spending some time in the brothels, which was her last choice of her vices, though the most fun, was doing no good for her. Just tiring her out and letting her crash into fitful dreams at night.

Luckily whiskey didn't make her think of Wulf it made her think of...Marshal! Wide eyed she looked at the whiskey bottle then whapped herself on the forehead lightly. He could always make her feel better some way or another. He was the only one she could be herself almost completely around. Not a million cheerful masks required to spend time with him. He was just there for her. It had grown beyond their friends with benefits relationship long ago. Never quite an actual relationship, but one she could count on to always be there.

A smile crossed her face for the first time in weeks. Though it wasn't very big it was still resting on her face, and it was real. It felt strange there, like it didn't belong anymore. She took a deep breath and stood up. Everything she did seemed to take so much more effort than it use to. She'd be tired by the time she was ready to go. This was the first time she thought she still might make it out of the apartment before she gave up.

The Pilot stood up and went to go change clothes. She slid the pj pants off that she had gotten on her shopping trip with Wulf and her wife beater. She let her hair down feeling it brush against her back. She was reminded of Wulf's touch for a moment then growled at herself. She seemed to constantly be trapped two emotions, all out rage and complete and total depression, the one where she found solace was just being numb.

She pulled on a pair of jeans, the pair she had gotten on that shopping trip. Then the shirt with the dragon on it she had gotten as well. It made her feel worse to wear things that reminded her of him. Though at the same time it gave this very hollow feeling of him still being here. She wasn't ready to let that go quite yet. Then of course the biggest reason, her wardrobe wasn't that big, a good chunk of her clothes were from that shopping trip.

Grabbing the whiskey she rushed out of the apartment. Locking it with her mind behind her. Sometimes it was so nice to be a Pilot, you never had to remember your keys. On the way to Marshal's she started thinking about him. He had probably been expecting her to show up ever since Wulf was gone. She felt an irrational anger towards him. She pushed it away. At this point she just wanted to blame anyone and everyone.

[Anonymous]

Marshal had always thought glasses would add a certain something to his look. He wasn’t the type of person to obsess over appearance, but he had considered a few times that when he got older, if his eyes deteriorated he might forgo the normal corrective surgery and wear glasses instead. Little half circle ones with copper frames.

Not that he’d thought on it much or anything.

Three piles of paper sat on Marshal’s large desk, not physically there but rather holographic projections representing files he had out. The first pile was intercepted gospel communiqués from the subnet, the second blueprints of various buildings that may house gospel hardware, and the dismally small pile was the potential gospels. There were maybe a dozen names, including Roman, Fala and Seiteki. All to be considered.

A mental flicker sent Seiteki’s file flying up, expanding and hovering in mid air. Damn computer, he must have set the psychic response setting too high.

Arms crossed he sat in his comfortable chair and looked at the translucent image of the pilot, her eyes casting a blue glow even from the recording. Her mouth was in a typical sneer, at least that’s how he saw it. Other might have just thought her bored.

With the collective memories of over five millennia crammed into the corners of his mind, Marshal had been trying his darndest to sift through them all determine if Seiteki Tora was traitor or not. Thus far the search had proved....enlighten ing, but fruitless in terms of the actual goal.

The file closed once he managed to stop thinking on it, reacting to his thoughts. The system was good, unless you thought of something you didn’t want others to see when you had company. It was an alone time system.

He checked the time, display springing up when he thought of it, and more importantly the date. Satori’s heart had been broken before, and Marshal had worked out the timing of the aftermath. Tomorrow, according to his timetable, she would come to him to be consoled, however she’d invested herself in Wulf more than usual so the timetable might have advanced further. Best to make ready just in case.

With a sigh he rose, the fake leather of his chair letting out a sigh of its own as he did. Sweeping past the kitchen a pair of tumblers flew out, hopping along behind Marshal in an awkward aerial dance. That was about the limit of his telekinetic powers really, anything heavier was beyond him.

Snatching the glasses from the air and setting them down on his solid oak coffee table, Marshal began gathering things to put there. Oak was extremely rare, so he didn’t like to keep clutter there, but to properly heal Satori’s wounds he needed distractions.

For Marshal, distractions came in the form of work, so he set up a little holo-projector on the table. She’d want food, so he put an unopened bag of her favourite chips in a bowl and set it beside the glasses. She always brought whiskey.

Not really expecting her until tomorrow the seeker sat himself down on his single couch and pulled the files over to the coffee table. He wasn’t one to entertain much, so there wasn’t much seating.

[Anonymous]

She made her way down the hall clutching the whiskey bottle like it was a lifeline. She got to the door and stopped in front of it for just a moment. Satori was weighing the possibility of just going back to her apartment. She didn't like people to see her raw or weak. Though with Marshal, he had seen the worst and best of her through the Candidate program and life after. No matter what he was to anyone else, he was the closest friend she had.

That decided it, no use hiding anything from him, he already knew anyway. Time to stop moping by herself...and mope with other people. At least she wouldn't  be completely alone. She knocked on his door balancing the whiskey in her other hand. An old tradition of theirs. She tried to tell herself several times that she wouldn't cry while she was here.

Satori still hadn't been out much since Wulf had disappeared. She refused to think of it as the true reason he was gone. Experiment...just the word made her want to break down. Hearing anything about TRIM made her want to twitch. He was the last person who deserved something like that to happen to him. Though she knew very few people deserved it she could think of a few she wished were there.

She knocked on the door again biting her lip. What if he wasn't here for some reason? Or Fala was here? She looked back down the hallway sighing to herself. No telling how her mood would plummet if he wasn't here. Just the idea made her sick to her stomach.

[Anonymous]

Were it not for the thousands of whisper thin tendrils that constantly extended from Marshal’s mind, informing him of the presence of those around him, he might have been surprised when there was knocking at the door. As it were he merely flicked slowly through his files, pausing when Fala’s shapely features appeared. She was a suspect, simply by the merit that getting in close with him would be a perfect way to try and avoid detection and more importantly warn any gospels he identified.

Other than that there was no real evidence pointing to her, or Roman, who was on his list for the same reason. Satori only escaped because he knew her too well, having trained her. Marshal knew Satori’s mind and body inside and out, there were no traitorous notions in there.

The second knock snapped him, blinking, out of his thoughts. He should probably answer that, she seemed to be fretting.

With a mental sweep he cleared the files, holograms flying back into their neat piles on his desk as he stood up, teetering a little as his own couch surprised him by having sunk him down further than he’d expected. It always did that.

The door slid open smoothly, revealing Satori standing there looking flighty, like a deer deciding if it wanted to run or not.

Without pause he stepped forward, wrapping his arms under hers and around her waist, pulling her into a tight hug. He held her there for a while, hands gripping her upper back in a silent gesture of comfort.

Once he was sure enough was enough he let go and half turned, giving her room to get past him while leaving one hand on her back. It helped that when he turned sideways Marshal occupied very little space.

“Come on in,” he said with a small smile, gesturing her inside.

[Anonymous]

The Pilot didn't quite recover her facial expression when Marshal opened the door. She tried a weak smile when she saw him standing there. She was so use to putting up a front, a show. She sometimes forgot that doing such a thing was useless around Marshal. Even besides his tremendous psychic power he would know something was wrong with her. It didn't take a genius to figure it out right now anyway.

Then his arms were around her. Satori lifted her arms to a familiar place on his shoulders and squeezed onto him her face on his shoulder as well. She held tight onto the whiskey bottle with one of her hands. She felt tears pricking at her eyes. Whenever she was with him her guard just went down. The Pilot was just hoping to hold herself together somewhat. Marshal to her was a best friend, a lover in a different sort of way, and someone who she could confess anything to. Satori pushed the tears back though one did fall down her face. She wiped it on his shoulder then she released him as he did the same.

She slid past him with a tiny smile. Her voice was equally small like it was lost somewhere inside her as she spoke.

"Thanks Marshy." She walked in seeing the her favorite snack on the table along with glasses. Inevitably for the whiskey in her hand. She shook her head. Sometimes it was so odd that he had everything ready for her when she showed up. Right now the place just felt like home, even more than her very empty feeling apartment. She let her eyes roam around the room. It had been a little while since she had been here. It seemed the same as it always had.

"I didn't interrupt you working did I?" She asked her voice a little closer to normal level. She was pointing at the files on his desk, guessing full well that she had caught him in the middle or working, after all he rarely wasn't.