2020-05-04: Stalking is a Free Action
- Log: Stalking is a Free Action
- Cast: Seraph Amaranth, Talia, Seraph Harmaus
- Where: Kattelox City - Uptown
- Date: May 04, 2020
- Summary: Amaranth and Talia are on a night out together in Kattelox. Unfortunately, tonight is when Harmaus catches up with Amaranth.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
After a delicious lobster dinner at a fancy seafood restaurant, Amaranth has made good on her promise to go out and bring Talia to the boats; after a short conversation with Wily and some provided instructions, the two has gone out to Lake Jyun -- even at night, the rather popular romantic date spot is quite well lit with ambient electric lights, and their own vessel...
It's certainly one of the nicest small boats Amaranth has been on. With the controls set to some kind of automatic setting, with the little egg robot sitting ontop of it (for good luck), Katherine's free to lounge on the back of the boat on a reclining couch.
It's these kind of fine details that make the boating rental popular with couples.
"Ehe... it is nice, is it not? And-- I brought wine too," Katherine answers as she holds up an ice bucket.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"It is!" Talia answers, as she sits on the boat. One sleeved arm rests on the side, as she looks out over the lake -- eyes scanning it idly, without much of a care in the world, to say anything of being guarded. Her head tilts, before she looks sideways.
She is sitting on the reclining couch with Ammy, and her mouth opens for a second, before she grins at the wine bottle. "Ah! That looks delicious, no? And wine is the best for a boat trip!"
At least, a romantic boat trip like this.
"I think I like Kattelox more and more," the former assassin opines.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
They are not alone on the water. Another boat glides nearly silently across the waters, nearing their own at a steady speed. The lights on the boat are dimmed; but for the shadow that slides nearer to the couple, one might well mistake the lake for being otherwise nearly clear of traffic.
"Amaranth. It thinks it escapes us?"
The voice, at least, is familiar.
The form -- as familiar pale light flares up around the figure now standing in the bobbing little boat -- is not. Human, for certain. Middle-aged, male, otherwise nondescript as far as the typical perception of a Drifter might run.
"Even if it runs away to the Blue Star, we finds it, Amaranth."
Harmaus' expression is icy as he stares down the two in the boat.
"It answers not our questions!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Amaranth chuckles very quietly, leaning aside to Talia as she sighs rather relaxedly. "I do too. It is so rare, to see... mmm, places with the kind of hospitality business that lets us do this kind of thing, is it not?"
She smiles wider. "Even if it might only be for a moment... it makes me feel as if -- ah, we are magical, storybook princesses or something--"
Another boat glides through the waters. She doesn't pay attention to it immediately, but--
Amaranth. It thinks it escapes us?
There's about a long, three-second pause.
Then Katherine's face droops of all mirth, paling a little as her eyes widen with fear.
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia doesn't think much of the other boat at first. It's not the first that she has seen tonight. But, when she sees the boat glide up, she blinks a little. She looks sideways at it, and then she looks back pleasantly at Ammy. She smiles brightly, nodding her head.
"Mm-hm!" she agrees. But before she can say more, there is an interruption, and her eyes turn -- towards the shadowed figure. She blinks once at that figure, before her crimson eyes narrow.
She slides, a little, moving to put herself between Harmaus and Amaranth. "Ammy," she says, pleasantly. There is an edge to it. "Is this a friend of yours?"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
The boat continues on its slow and steady drift towards them. If something is not done soon, it will surely impact the other tiny craft; at this speed, such a collision would be undesirable, to say the least.
And yet this is still the course upon which Harmaus seems intently set.
"Ah. It has another?"
His magic is like starlight, like the aurora seen with the naked eye. Milky-white, with only the muted sense of violets and greens. It fills the air like fireflies, setting this patch of the lake dimly alight.
"Is human only. Matters us not, Amaranth," replies the strange man.
"We has questions, yet. It tells us its truths! It tells us what learned it of Malevolence's embrace!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
"N-no," Katherine whispers. She looks positively petrified -- she hasn't displayed this kind of fear since the Shadow Dragon cult caught up to her, which possibly quite speaks more clearly than anything she can say right now.
She rises to her feet, the fancy flamenco-style gown she's chosen realigning as she does so; she's not terribly fit for a fight right now.
"I have nothing to say to you... Harmaus," she speaks. She looks worriedly towards Talia. "Be careful... he is--" She chokes a little on her throat. "He is a Seraph."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia's eyes narrow a little more. She doesn't chance a glance over her shoulder, but she doesn't really have to look at Ammy to pick up on how guarded she is. She stands up straighter in the boat, still wearing the suit and tie ensemble.
She would like to say that she isn't ready for a fight, but old habit has her carrying a dagger, behind her back, hidden by her coat.
A Seraph, she thinks. One who knows things about Amaranth, clearly.
"The way you show up, making your demands... it is very rude, no?" she says. "I think you should apologize. And leave. But I will settle for leave."
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
"Jaeja," murmurs the Seraph-in-flesh, gazing cooly at Amaranth as she refuses to speak to him again. "Again with refusals. But we will have the truth!" he shouts at her, jabbing a finger at her.
"Even if we musts tear it from it. We -- I! -- will have it!" Even in this light the look in his eyes is strange, like a man -- Seraph -- driven by some higher purpose, some greater calling.
Talia, unknown to him until now, addresses him.
"Rude? Rude," the Seraph echoes, before belting out a laugh that seems to rise from the belly. "It calls us rude! Rude, is the one that runs without answering questions. Rude, is the one that hides and hides and forces us chasing! We are rude ones not! But it that answers not, ah..."
A collision is nearly unavoidable at this point; more than likely both small crafts will be given to a fierce jostling from the impact.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Katherine breathes thinly, palpably her heart is beating fast; she nods towards Talia and says, "Y-yes, I think you should leave."
But Harmaus shouts at her, and she withers and grimaces further with every line he says.
"There is no light to be gathered from that truth, Harmaus. I told-- I told you this last time."
Her eyes widen as the boat starts to draw, and she exclaims, "H-hold on!" as she seizes one side of the railing and the two vessels collide. "Ngh!"
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
"She doesn't owe you any answers! That should be obvi--"
The boats collid, and Talia's footing slips. She almost falls over, but training gets her to throw her foot back and catch herself. She stays upright, breathing heavily, and then looks up at Harmaus, with a sharp scowl.
"You don't know when to leave well enough alone, no?" she snaps. "She said she doesn't want to get into it. If you have to find your answers, find them from someone else."
She steps back, a little closer to Ammy, and then chances the glance over her shoulder.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
'There is no light to be gathered from that truth, Harmaus'.
Harmaus hisses out a breath. "Tcha. Over and over."
His gaze zeroes in on Amaranth. "I determines that," Harmaus avows, the lights about him intensifying. "Not it, dancer of shadows and all dark places! Or, perhaps I says it plain and proper... Hexennacht!"
Just as Talia shouts that Amaranth owes him nothing, the boats collide. Harmaus, standing still and not nearly as nimble in this form as others, is sent stumbling backwards; an errant wave makes the boat buck at the wrong moment and unbalances him to land heavily in the boat, which spins about on the rebound away from their own.
But still he rises.
"We searches others. Lands, people. All things. We are finished not. Yet, it knows already what I seeks," he says to Talia, those ghostly echoes of stars flickering still about him. He walks the boat, even as it bobs in protest, sinking lower in the water as he nearly stands atop the prow itself.
His boat drifts nonetheless, floating further and further from the one in which Amaranth and Talia stand.
"Is finished not, Amaranth. Till we find what we seeks."
One single 'star' of the cloud that surrounds him glows brighter than the rest.
"For Amaranth, a reminder, yet," he says.
"Darkness always, always, gives way to light."
That single 'star' flares forth, a dart like a miniature shooting star set for the both of them.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
Katherine isn't having a good time, that much's for certain; "Talia!" she exclaims in the chaos of the rocking boats. The Seraph was fully expecting Harmaus to leap onto their boat and for a messy, ugly melee to occur, but it doesn't--
She takes this opportunity to throw herself in the direction of the controls, breathing harrowedly as she commandeers the wheel. "I will drive us out of here! Talia, could you distract him--"
Her voice stops dead as Harmaus mentions a certain night. "Stop it!" she screams. She shakes her head, trying to shake it off; the boat begins driving, but not fast enough to avoid the dart coming their way!
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Hexxenacht? Talia blinks -- surprise registering for a moment, as she hasn't heard of that before. Her mouth closes, though, and her jaw sets. She can ask Amaranth about it later. She straightens her back up, and then glances back at Ammy, when she starts screaming at him.
"You most certainly are finished," Talia says. "Leave her alone! I don't know who you are or what you want, but you aren't--"
She spots that glow around him, and her eyes widen. She puts herself between Amaranth and Harmaus, and then holds a hand out. A shield of ice appears, floating out in front of her, and ready to intercept that star of light.
"You can find that light somewhere else!"
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Harmaus has posed.
The boat isn't fast enough.
Talia, on the other hand, is; her arte catches the flung dart of a falling star; its light unfolds across the icy shield as if it were attempting to envelope it -- or her.
But the light soon fades -- first mere embers then the ghost of the same. Then nothing.
"We," Harmaus says, with all the weight of a vow, when Talia tells him -- again! -- that he's not about to get what he wants from Amaranth, "will cease not, till the world's truth's in our hands." The prow upon which he stands dips perilously; he doesn't seem to notice or care.
"Till shadows all burn away."
His boat isn't moving anymore. Is it sinking?
"We returns and we asks it again. It does well to answer next time," he says, as their boat continues to sail away from his.
<Pose Tracker> Seraph Amaranth has posed.
The shield of ice clatters against the star of light; the impact is enough to rock their boat, but not enough to tip it over -- and Amaranth's steering seems steady enough for them to pull away and gain speed;
Harmaus' words are not taken lightly, though.
Each and every word seems to prickle at her, her fingers are trembling even as she steers; even as they arrive at the docks, and hurry on out before they can be followed.
"... I am sorry..." Amaranth tells Talia. "I had no idea. I had no idea he was here, or even knew where I was."
<Pose Tracker> Talia has posed.
Talia scowls at Harmaus, her expression furious -- but she stays silent, as the boat moves away from his. Talia keeps watching until he recedes into the darkness with his boat, and a little after beside. She lets out a sigh, then.
Their boat docks, and then she steps off. Her eyes turn, to meet Ammy's, and she hesitates a second. Then, she shakes her head.
"It is okay, no?" she says. She puts an arm around Amaranth, then lets out a sigh. "We can get back," she says. "I don't think he is following."