Rachel Sully (rachelsully) wrote in spinningcompass, @ 2014-07-10 23:13:00 |
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Rachel wasn’t nervous, even though it was a date. First dates could be weird, but she was surprisingly calm. She decided to doll it up since it was a date. She went with a black dress and heels, her hair up and light make up. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, grabbing a clutch for her phone and lipstick before heading out to meet Ty at the pub. --- Ty was nervous. The reason for it was hard to pinpoint. Strictly speaking, he was still married, even though he had given up on wearing the ring after a couple of days. Love had not driven him into the marriage and it wasn't the feeling that lingered. Then there was Dawn whom he had loved with all his heart. The woman he had nearly killed and could never ever be with. The woman he probably never ever see again. But time had passed. What had been an open wound had turned into a scar. He would learn from it. Be more careful. Like tonight. He already braced himself for being turned down. Ty usually was and who wanted to be with a living ice block? But he would at least try. Rachel seemed like a nice enough woman or had seemed like a nice enough bloke and he had loved talking to her. So he had slipped into a simple grey t-shirt and black pair of jeans before heading to the pub. The door fell shut behind him while his eyes glance around, looking for the female equivalent of Ray. What he saw was a stunning woman. “Wow. You look beautiful," he said greeting her. "Far better than Ray." --- Rachel blushed only slightly at the compliment. “Thank you.” She had decided on the way over to just trust her instincts and right then they told her to kiss his cheek. She frowned a little and reached up to rub his cheek. “You’re really cold….” She remembered him having cold hands when they met but she figured that was just the air conditioning. --- The kiss made his heart skip. But the question made the high a short one. "Uhm, yes. I'll explain that to you. But first, can I get you anything first?" If he couldn't buy her a drink he could at least get it for her. --- She nodded, dropping it at that moment. She wasn’t going to push for sure. “I’d love a beer, actually.” She had to remember to be the girl. Maybe he was a gentleman, that kind of thing. She was so used to people that knew her well enough to see the tomboy that sometimes she forgot about I an actual lady. --- “ Sure," he said. The walk over to the bar, the waiting for the ordered beers, it felt like he was sitting in a court awaiting his verdict. Tension had gripped his heart and he was sure the temperature around him had dropped a few degrees. "Uhm, here," Ty said, as he handed her the bottle. He said down and his heart beat as if it wanted to escape his chest. “ Right, explanation. I'm not exactly human. I - have powers. They mostly consist of making things cold. Sorry." --- Rachel had noticed that the temperature dropped a little but she just rubbed her arms and kept to herself. When he came back and explained, she nodded. “Oh okay.” She sipped her beer and smiled softly. “That’s actually kind of neat.” She was going to say “cool” but decided against the pun. At least for now. “Is that why you fix fridges?” She remembered him saying something about that when they’d talked. --- He breathed out in relief. “ I wouldn't call it neat. But that's why, yes. That and ice carving. The place I want to fix up is an ice rink." The tension dropped and he could feel himself relax. --- Rachel tilted her head. “I don’t even remember there being an ice rink around here.” She chuckled and sipped her beer. “Ice carving sounds pretty interesting. I’d love to see some of your work sometime. When you get things up and running.” --- “You will. I'm really excited to get it running. It's in the north. A few kilometres away from the apartments." Ty said, his voice carrying the excitement. --- Rachel couldn’t help but smile as he talked. It was really kind of adorable to see him excited like that. “I’ll have to go check it out. See if I can help get the power back on. I sort of have powers too, but I didn’t really pay that much attention when my mom was trying to teach me how to use them.” She bit her lip. “I’m what’s known as a technomage.” --- Ty's eyebrows raised. “ Neat," he said, mimicking her. "Actually a lot neater than making things cold. What kind of things you can do?" he asked with genuine curiosity. --- “Well, I...didn’t really pay attention.” She chuckled nervously. “I know that Sarah and my mom are really good at fixing things. It’s like they just know what’s wrong and how to fix it. I’m like that with motorcycles. Give me a bike and I can have it up and running in less than a day. But that’s all I’m really good at.” She sipped her beer. --- “The only thing I can really repair are fridges. Any other thing I'm useless with. So... Do you do it a lot... biking?" -- “I had a motorcycle when I was younger. And it came back with me the second time I got sent back in time. It was still here the third time but this fourth time, I can’t find it anywhere.” She sighed, making a face. “I’ve been looking all over the island for it but it’s not here and that’s kind of making me mad.” --- “ What does it look like?" he asked and made a mental note. He knew what to look for on his next run. --- “It’s very purple.” She chuckled. “I posted a picture of it on the network trying to get people to help me look for it. I really miss it and I want to get it back. I’m afraid I might have to start from scratch and just build another one.” She shrugged. “I can but it takes a while if I don’t know where all the parts are.” --- “ I'll see if I can find it," Ty said with a smile. “ I go running a lot. It takes me around the city a bit." He would have to search for the picture on the network. But he doubted that there were a lot of purple bikes around. --- Rachel smiled. "So that's why you're so fit, huh?" She reached over and touched his arm. His very nice arm. She didn't even realize that she was licking her lips as she did. --- Ty gave a laugh that turned into a smile. “ Those don't come from running, no," he said with a chuckle. "I tend to use my legs for it." His tone was completely good naturedly with a hint of teasing. She was straightforward and he couldn't even believe that she was actually interested in him. --- Rachel cleared her throat and blushed again. "Sorry." She did smile before sipping her beer. "Though I'm sure your legs are just as nice." She chuckled. She looked up at his face this time. "So...tell me something interesting about yourself...well, something else interesting." She corrected. --- She had a beautiful blush. Ty couldn't help but notice. "I- is this the right moment to tell you I'm married?" he asked. He hoped his tone was light-hearted enough to not scare her. - - - She just stared at him for a moment. Mentally she was cursing herself for being an idiot but she hoped it wouldn't show on her face. "You'r married?" She wanted to ask why he'dbothered to ask her out but she kept that to herself. --- He should have left it for another time. Too much for one evening. But it had felt more honest and morals meant a lot to Ty. "Yes," he sat up straight. "Back home. But it's a good thing she's not here. The marriage was never built on love. There was a contract between her and my family. My younger brother - he should have gotten married to her. But there was a loophole in the contract and I was able to do it instead. Anders - he's from my future. He already informed me that the marriage didn't last very long." He didn't want to go into the details of how it ended. ----- She made a face as she listened. "So...from Anders' timeline you're single?" She picked at an imaginary spot on her dress. "Did you marry her to protect your brother?" --- “ Yes and yes," Ty said. It wasn't the whole truth. But it was hard going into detail without mentioning what he actually was and that was something he wanted to avoid. He already regretted that Sookie knew. Mike had preached again and again that humans got hurt when they became aware of gods. Ty just hoped they weren't human enough for it. --- "Oh okay." She nodded. "I was really hoping you weren't a dick. I'm glad you're not." She smiled a little. "How many brothers do you have?" --- Ty smiled at her. If he had one thing going for himself, then it was morals and a good heart - no matter how cold it was. “I’m really not. Anders already claimed the spot as the family arsehole. And we are four in total. There’s Mike, my oldest brother. Then there’s Anders. Then there would be me and Axl is the youngest. And you had a whole bunch of sibilings, didn’t you?” --- Rachel chuckled softly. "That'sa bit of an understatement." She finished off her beer. "At last count I am the oldest of fourteen. The youngest being two years old." She shook her head. --- So far Ty had abandoned his beer and just recently remembered its existence. Something that nearly proved itself fatal. The laugh mixed with the beer and turned into a cough. "Four-" Cough. "Sorry. Fourteen children? Your parents really enjoy having them, eh?" --- “It’s not so much that they enjoy having them as it is a side effect of a wish that my mom made before Sarah and I were even conceived. They basically just have to think about having sex and mom gets pregnant. But these last two were the last ones, I think.” She shrugged. “I know I overheard Daddy talking about a vasectomy. But he’d done that a few times before too.” She chuckled. --- “That is… inconvenient,” he commented, chuckling softly at her choice of words. “So… was it a wish granted from Isabel?” Sookie hadn’t told him of any side effects. The more knowledge he could gain, the better he could make a decision if it was a solution to his problem. --- She nodded. “Yeah. Isabel’s wishes always have a side effect. Like with me.” She started to pick at the label on the beer bottle. “Daddy just wanted me to be healthy and he pretty much made me immortal. Except that I still scar.” She frowned. She hadn’t yet told him about Dave’s attempt on her life. “And like with Uncle Jake. I just wished that he was healthy and happy and now he’s big and blue always. That kind of thing.” She shrugged. “If you don’t word it exactly right then something could go wrong. But even if you do word it right, something could still go wrong.” --- “But things can go right?” he asked. “Do you know about a case where things just worked out?” He had laid hope on that option. Getting rid of Hod was a prospect he was looking forward to like someone else to their wedding or the birth of their child. Then again, it would mean that most people on the island would forget him. Sookie and now Rachel. It left a bitter aftertaste. --- Rachel took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to think. “There’s always going to be a side effect. But, sometimes the side effects aren’t so bad. I mean, when you think about it, being practically immortal isn’t such a bad side effect.” She smiled. “If daddy hadn’t made his wish I’d be dead now so I’m really okay with it.” She tried to get someone’s attention for another beer. --- “Dead?” he asked and couldn’t keep the shock from his voice. “What happened?” He didn’t even notice the barkeeper until he was standing right next to their table. “Guess you want another one,” the man said with a smile and set it beer in front of her. --- “Yeah, thanks.” She nodded and took a sip of the beer before looking at Ty. “I um...was attacked. Stabbed….” She thought for a moment. “Seventeen times and left in the woods to die. If it wasn’t for the wish my dad made I would have bled to death.” It was definitely heavy for a first date but she felt it best to get things out in the open right away, give him a chance to change his mind if he was going to. --- “Stabbed? Seventeen times?” He felt his emotions rise. His world so focused on her that he didn’t even notice the bartender leaving. “What kind of monster did that?” No decent person would ever do that to someone like her. No decent person would do that at all. He hoped the man hadn’t survived it. --- Rachel shivered a little as the temperature dropped. She cleared her throat and looked down for a second before looking back up at Ty. “It was actually my brother-in-law.” She cleared her throat. “He...had a serious problem with me. Drove a wedge between Sarah and me. Just….I never thought he’d try to kill me.” She set her beer down and started to rub her arms. --- Ty’s eyes widened at the story. Then he noticed her discomfort. Guilt crept into him. He did not want to cause her to feel any worse than she was already feeling. He wanted to do the opposite. “I - sorry. It just - it happens when I get angry. And hearing that-” He nodded. “It definitely makes me angry. Is he still here?” --- “It’s okay.” She smiled, reaching over to touch his hand. It was very sweet, really. “He um….actually hasn’t arrived yet.” She made a face. “I’m not even going to be born until next month. I got sent back here from the year 2043.” She bit her lip. “Dave stabbing me happened in….2038. Or I guess will happen? I really don’t know how to say it. It makes my head hurt sometimes.” --- He smiled when her hand touched his. It was a numb sensation. No warmth got through his skin. But the pressure was there. And it was enough - had to be. “Right - the time travel. That is new to me as well. So his name is Dave?” He made a mental note. If he ever turned up, he wanted to be prepared. No one like him should walk around as a free man on the island. --- “Yeah. We all thought he was this great guy, except that he had a serious problem with my relationship with my sister. I’ll never understand what it was.” She sighed. She didn’t move her hand from his, instead she wrapped her fingers around his and closed her eyes for just a moment. She shook her head and smiled at him. “But, that’s in the past. He’s not in my life or my sister’s life anymore. That’s what matters.” --- He caught his hand with his thumb, letting it stroke softly over hers. “It is. It won’t happen again like that. How are you dealing with it?” By now, his emotions had calmed down. The anger had a tête-à-tête with concern but the piercing cold of it was gone. --- “The scars still bother me a bit but that’s about it at this point. For me it happened nearly five years ago. I had time to handle it.” She nodded. She didn’t see a need to share that she still had nightmares about it sometimes. That could wait. --- She had to be strong if she brushed it off like that. “As long as they are only physical…” he trailed off, leaving it to her to pick it up again. He just wanted to make sure she was okay. If she didn’t bite, then he would switch to something else. --- He was so sweet to be concerned. And he really was a nice guy. She took a long drink of her beer before sighing. "I still have nightmares every now and then. I haven't told anyone about it." She closed her eyes. "I just....I've kept that part to myself since I got back here. Not even really sure why." --- This time it was him who fully cupped her hand. He laid his other hand upon hers. "I am sorry that you had to go through all of that." It felt like a honour that she chose to tell him though he wished that it was another secret. --- She nodded and sipped her beer. Right then she didn't care that his hand was cold, she liked the comfort. "Thanks." She smiled softly before clearing her throat. "So, um....what else should we talk about?" --- "What are your plans for the future?" he asked. He wanted to know everything about her and share his own life and thoughts. --- “I’m going to help out with the school when it finally opens. Teach all the kids everything I learned about the Na’vi. Language, culture all of that. I...don’t have a normal religion like Catholic or anything like that. I was raised with the Na’vi beliefs and that’s what I hold to. It just makes more sense to me.” She nodded. “And I was thinking about looking for a space to open up a motorcycle shop. I can build them for people, customize them. That kind of thing. I’ve got to run some things past people that know more than I do about that sort of thing but I want to try to make an engine that doesn’t run on gasoline but doesn’t require magic to do it.” --- “ Like electric cars?" he asked. It was the first thing he was able to think about. There were so many questions left. He didn't know anything about Na'vi belief and religions were tricky when you were the essence of one. --- “Something like that, only motorcycles.” She nodded. “Mine actually runs on gas but I managed to always find some when I was using it. Through doors or whatever.” She shrugged. “It’d be nice to not have to worry about that. I’d love to get a reactor powered engine. That way I wouldn’t have to worry about charging it or anything. That’d be so amazing.” She sighed. “Haven’t had a chance to talk to Tony about it yet, though.” --- Ty saw her enthusiasm. “It sounds good. I could use something like that myself for my car." It had taken a whole day to find one and he rarely used. Petrol was one of the reasons why. He let go of her hand in order to sip his beer. Then another thought occurred to him. “I just realised... You never had to do a driver's license, did you?" --- Rachel shook her head and laughed. “Nope. I did learn how to drive but we don’t have a DMV here on the island. Also, there’s not really an age limit on when we learn to drive. I’ve been riding a motorcycle of some kind since I was 13 years old. Didn’t get the real bike until I was 16, though. That was kind of a birthday present. Sarah and I built our bikes together and were always running around on them.” She sighed, missing her friend a bit. It really killed her that she couldn’t spend time with Steve and Peggy anymore. They’d been like second parents to her growing up. She shook that thought away, though, and just smiled at Ty. --- “ Nothing you missed there," Ty said with a smile. "Not that the tests are actually hard to pass. When I had mine, the guy just took me for a quick drive around the block and told me I could drive. And those were my tests." --- “I had about four different teachers.” She chuckled. “Mitchell taught me how to drive on the left side of the road. That’s one of the reasons I like my bike. Doesn’t matter where in the road I am.” She chuckled. “Daddy was a very patient teacher, though. Never got too angry with me, even when I hit a pole.” She blushed a little at that admission. --- “It’s good that you know how to drive on the left. I can take you to New Zealand then. I’ve never driven on the right I think,” he said. --- “I’ve seen some pictures of New Zealand. It’s so beautiful. I’d really love to actually go.” She smiled at him. She sipped her beer as she tried to think of something to ask him. “I’ve gotten to go to some interesting places because of various doors. Have you gotten to go through any yet?” --- “Uhm, no, not yet. I was busy with being overwhelmed and slightly freaking out about the whole getting snatched from my world thing. But I guess the episodes are far enough apart from each other by now to squeeze in a visit,” he said, smiling at her. “What kind of doors are open at the moment?” --- "I keep forgetting that people have that reaction. Being born here it's easy to just adjust and go on. Sometimes." She chuckled as she patted his arm. "Right now it's just one to Dantooine. Have you heard of it?" --- “From what I grasped. It's from Star Wars?" he asked. Ty was not sure and even that deduction would bring him as far as 'it's a planet'. He knew no specifics. --- "It's from that universe but it's a few thousand years before the movies." She chuckled. "That's about all I can say for sure. I went through with Seddrinth. She really enjoyed it. Got her flying again which is good." She smiled. --- “Who is Seddrinth?” Or maybe ‘what’ would have been the better question. He took another sip, curious for her answer. --- "Seddrinth is my dragon." She smiled. "She's a little bigger than a large horse. I could take you flying when she's up for passengers." --- “A dragon," Ty said with surprise. "And for a moment I harboured the idea that people still had budgies as pets here." Anders still had his fish. ” But yes, dragons. I should have seen that coming." He scratched his forehead. A smile still on his face. "A ride sounds good. I could cross off riding a dragon on. my to-do list then." He wasn't sure how good it really sounds and he didn't allow himself to think about it. --- "Who doesn't he ride a dragon on their bucket list, right?" She chuckled. "Seddrinth is very sweet but she's also very protective. Especially lately." She sipped her beer. --- He tipped his bottle into her direction in a manner to say 'exactly'. "Because of all the things that's been happening?” There was the underlying question of whether there was more to the story and her life than he knew. --- "She was hurt not too long ago. And then I disappeared for a couple of days here. It was five years for me. She's been very protective since I got back. Afraid I'll disappear again. Little Jake is the same way." She nodded. "But I had Tony put a tracker chip in and he's got an app on his phone so he can find me anywhere at any time." She smiled. --- Ty smiled. " That sounds like a wonderful family," he said. "I think Anders would care if I vanished. But I'm not sure if he would show it." --- “They’re pretty good.” She nodded. “I’ve got my twin sister here too but she’s not talking to me at the moment.” She made a face. “But I don’t want to talk about that.” She sipped her beer. “How about we talk about you some more?” --- Another mental note was left in Ty’s mind. “What else is there? Oh yes, I like sports. Both watching and playing. I'm quite a good cook and baker. What about you? Any other hobby than motorbikes and dragon riding?" --- "Not really." She shrugged. "I'm kind of boring when you get down to it." She chuckled. "What kind of sports do you like?" --- “Besides running... rugby, cricket, basketball. Guess I'm a stereotypical Kiwi," he said with a shrug and a smile. “ And don't tell me you are boring. I do yet have to see someone who can beat dragon riding." --- “I do some rock climbing, and tree climbing.” She shrugged. “My uncle taught me a lot of stuff.” --- “That would be Jake?” he asked, still trying to get the family relations right. He took another sip. The image of her climbing trees with the main character from Avatar. --- She nodded. "Yeah. He would take me flying sometimes when I was little. We rigged up a special harness so I wouldn't all off. That's when my love of flying started. And now I have Seddrinth so I can go whenever I want." She smiled. "Aunt Neytiri taught me a lot of things too. Hunting rituals and stuff like that. I guess back where you're on I'd be called a tree hugger." She chuckled. (OOC: The night ended with him walking her home and attempting a good night kiss but getting her cheek instead. But another date was discussed. ) |