Arbitrated
Well-Known Member
Ayenee
Outside Fort Miller
It was a wonderful day on Yanyee. A few white clouds were in the sky, which was turning red in the evening sun. Through this evening, Katsu had left the fort to get in some evening training. Wearing the Star Army training uniform and his dark goggles to see normally in the sun, he was visibly identifyable as one of those. However, he was lacking any boots since he preferred to run with his bare digitigrade paws while possible. Nevertheless, he had two straps going over his upper body to a knife sheath on his back. Maybe he simply didn't want to go completely unarmed out on this still possibly hostile planet. Or maybe he had another reason.
Arete, that new girl - the first native person of this universe to actually have joined the Army - was busy meditating just barely east of the cabins, her legs crossed as she floated nearly a meter off of the cround, and yet perfectly stationary. Dressed in a civilian outfit made of the classic shorts-and-T-shirt combination, the sage wasn't exactly hiding in any way while she was focused on something that could only be guessed at. Around her, almost like a suspension in chemistry class, floated a small disc-shaped cloud of dirt, like if someone had created a miniature, half-meter-radius galaxy around the woman. On the inside, Arete was nearly perfectly unaware of time - a meditating sage usually found themselves exploring the insides of atoms and the space between them, and in there time can be... Weird, subjectively.
After quite some light running, Katsu's route lead him back towards the cabins and right past a winged girl he knew as Arete, but as he saw her, he slowed down and took a good couple of deep breaths. With him being so much of an animal, he didn't sweat, but that meant he had to cool down by breathing. He used this time to watch her float there, with her little mini galaxy surrounding her, admiring the display. "Wow... that's really cool, and beautiful..." he said, probably pulling her out of her meditation.
"Hm-oh!" The little person and her dusty gathering flopped back down to the ground over about a second and a half as Arete was brought out of her focus. "What did you say, uhhh.... What was your name again? Sorry, I wasn't ah, paying attention..." Arete stood up as she dusted herself off, turning to face Katsu as she did.
As the amazing display stopped and dropped to the ground, together with the girl, Katsu meeped. Was it his fault that this show was destroyed? Anyway, Arete didn't seem to be too upset about him having broken her show. However, her asking for his name hurt a little bit. He thought that he had left enough of an impression to her... But he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Well, I'm Katsu. You know, the Shukaren Fox from that mission we were on. Anyway, what you just did looked really cool! You floated and your wings didn't even move. Looked beautiful. Like the stars and the universe. Hope I didn't disturb you."
Arete tilted her head to the side a little, her blonde hair gently waving as she did so. Internally she was trying to remember.... Ah right, when they were fighting the tar monsters. Or whatever the hell those things were. "Ah - sorry, I'm not very good with names, now I remember, heheh... Thank you, though! It's alright, I get interrupted a lot. Especially when I'm meditating, since apparently it's a bit distracting." There was a tiny bit of sarcasm to her voice there - she knew it was an odd thing to see a girl just casually floating around.
The fox boy smiled a bit and nodded. "No worries, I know people who are bad with names. Also, we never really met before that. So really, not a big deal." He stayed silent for a few moments as he looked at Arete, then smiled a bit. "So, want to get properly introduced to each other? To be fair, I only know that your name is Arete and that you have wings, and now I know you can float without armor. Or want me to make the start?"
"Well I don't see why not, really. I know your name is Katsu and your a fox-person, heheh."
He chuckled a bit and then turned around once to let her see him from all sides. His ears were raised high and as he turned around, his ears turned to keep facing the angel girl. His tail was swaying softly from side to side. Once he finished turning around completely, he smiled at her and said "Well... my full birth name is Vio'cera K'tsushira, Katsu is just the short version... And I'm from that other world where the Kaiyo is from. That other... dimension or something. My race is named Shukaren, and from those I'm of the Laibe subrace. You remember Nora? She's from the other subrace, the Daur. Those look much more like humans. We're from planets with really dark suns. Our eyes are used to nearly complete darkness and so we can see really well in any kind of darkness, but can't see in light. That's why I need to wear those goggles. And I've been a soldier all my life. Joined up military service as a kid. Now... that's a little summary, I think. Anything specific you'd like to know?"
"Hhhhhuuuuuh..." The smol one dragged her response out as she tried to process the information. "Sooo... What you are saying is, your whole species is kind of like, well, you, but there's another part that isn't. And also you live on a place with.. .What, a white dwarf probably? Kind of an interesting place for life to come from really." She shrugged, "So did you get to sign up to come to this place or something, or were you ordered or what?"
"Don't know about our home planet. My race had to leave it because of a war... but the planet I grew up on had a dark red sun. And yes, both Nora and I are from the same race, called Shukaren, which has two subraces. Us Laibe are more animal like though, obviously. And many of our race say that Nora's subrace are lesser beings and there's a lot of division..." He paused for a bit and apparently looked sad, his ears going down against his head, before he continued again. "I don't really know how I got here. My guess is that I just followed orders."
"Huh. Sounds like you had some problems back then." She shrugged, though she frowned a little. "Well so far it seems the Star Army guys don't do that. I mean, you're not getting into fights with other people I think here so far due to their race, heheh..." She cleared her throat with a soft a-hem before continuing, "Well, I guess I should talk a little bit about myself, too... So, I was actually born in the capital city here, lived there most of my life."
He slowly nodded and simply said "I can tell you about the problems I had sometime..." before he fully went into listening to her talk. "Ah yes, you're actually from here. That really helped us. How was it to grow up here? You get to see such tar monsters often? Or do you all stay away from all forests as much as possible?"
"It was pretty nice, really. It's not quite as... Exciting as that expedition was, but then again most of the time we do stay away from the forests. I'm guessing because of those tar things... Though I can't remember what they're actually called. They at least stay away from the roads and such, though!" The sage took a deep breath. "It might sound weird to you, but I've never actually left this planet before!" She adjusted her glasses, pausing for a few moments.
He listened to her talking, but as she said that she had never left the planet before, he tilted his head slightly. "Never? Never ever?" he asked, then smiled. "How about we go, get our Mindys, and fly up into higher orbit? Don't worry, I'm a trained pilot, I'll help you with flying in zero gravity. How does that sound?"
"Nonono, I did go through training already! And besides..." Katsu suddenly felt... Lighter, and yet Arete seemed to only be staring at him. She continued, "I have a bit of experience with gravity!" She smiled cheerfully, before the odd sensation of light-weightedness faded.
Katsu nodded slowly, but started blinking as he felt lighter. Before he could try anything though, the feeling was gone again. "So... you got magic? You can manipulate gravity?" he asked, seemingly with quite some interest. "Can you make me float?"
"The short answer is yes, yes I can. I wouldn't exactly say that being a sage makes me magical, though. I don't need to do any weird incantations or chanting or whatever wizards do. Though I guess..." She tapped her chin a couple of times. "I do still read books a lot. But it's more stuff about y'know, physics and atoms and stuff. Not demons and other planes of existance. But yes, I can manipulate gravity a little bit, which has been rather helpful sometimes!"
He listened in carefully and smiled widely. "That sounds so cool," he said with a bright smile. "I've learned about physics too, but only what I need as a soldier." He kind of realised what he had just said and the implications of that. "Well, I never really learned anything I didn't need in the field. I didn't even learn how to cook..." He reached up with a hand and scratched the back of his head. "What you are doing sounds pretty cool. Is there any chance that I can learn that stuff too?"
Arete giggled a little bit, brining her hand up to her face to readjust the glasses framing her emerald-green eyes. "Well I'm sure that the chefs have been making up for that stuff! Not everyone needs to cook, after all! Though..." She thought for a few moments before speaking again, "I doubt you'd be a sage, though. You would have probably found out years ago, if you were - and even if you were, well... I on't think I could help ya much. I mean, my father's got the ability to shape metal at will, and I'm running around making gravity wells! Learning is... Kinda tough to do between us because we're all so different..."
"Yeah, I'm sure the military cooks are glad I can't cook and therefore not complain too much." he said, smiling a bit as he heard her giggling, looking at her through his dark goggles. He then listened in to her explaination though, trying to take all of it in. "So... your father can shape metal? With his mind? That's so cool... I mean, controlling gravity is cool too! You get what I mean." He said, waiting a bit in silence and just looking at the angel in front of him. "So... Arete? Talking about food... do you know a good restaurant and can we go there together?" He smiled at her softly, thinking that if he was looking like a nice guy she'd be more inclined to say yes.
The little sage chuckled as Katsu seemed to be thoroughly amazed. "Well it's not something new to me, ehehe..." She took a dep breath, stretching one of her arms out a little bit idly. "Well, I know of a couple places but ah, I already had some plans this evening, heheh... Maybe another time I could take you around town? Seems that a lot of you guys need to learn their way around anyways!" Another light chuckle, playful and soft.
The fox boy was still throughly amazed at her powers, so much that he didn't frown as she said that she had no time for today. He smiled a bit and said "Well, probably for the best if we don't go today, then we can both finish our training. What about tomorrow though?" He smiled at her and hoped that she would agree, slowly stepping from one paw to the other, shifting his weight just a little bit.
"Maybe tomorrow, then." The sage turned her eyes starward for a time. "It's funny, how to you guys this is probably normal. The whole, moving around thing."
He blinks a bit and tilts his head. "You mean... walking?"
"No, no, I know how to walk!" She giggled as she spoke, "I meant more going between planets in space and such!"
He thought about it for a moment, but then smiled and says "How about we talk about this tomorrow during a nice dinner? I'm happy to share stories."
"Sure!"
He smiles at the angel. "Cool. I'll pick you up tomorrow. You'll pick the restaurant. See you then!" he said and walked off.
"Bye!" Arete waved to Katsu as he walked off, before taking a look at her watch. Not more than a few minutes, the angel began to slip into meditation again, hovering slightly above the grass in a sitting-down position.
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The Next Day, Mid-Afternoon
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Katsu's next day was filled with excitement, and as the time passed, nervousness mixed into his feelings as well. Could this be called a date? How would this date go? What would happen? Then after duty, he showered using a nice smelling shampoo and then moved to his room and wanted to dress up nicely. As he stood there though, he saw that the only non-military clothings were what he had when he was still working as a guard for traders, which meant that it didn't look nice or anything. So in the end, he had to simply dress up in his uniform, even though it was a fresh set of clothings. He went somewhat casual though, meaning that he wasn't wearing some feetwrappings that doubled as boots, but instead stayed with his natural digitigrade legs. And of course he had his black goggles in addition to the uniform. Clad like this, he moved to Arete's cabin and breathed in heavily once more as he stood there, then slowly raised his hand, formed it into a fist, and knocked against the door. The teenage fox was still a bit nervous, his tail wrapped around his hips, but his ears stayed pointed up and turned forward.
It was several tense, palpable seconds before the doorway swung outwards slowly, the angel within wearing significantly more... casual clothing. Her hair was curled into tiny spirals near the front of her face, while the back stayed as it normally was - straight to her shoulders. A jacket donned her shoulders, the cottony material parted at the front where a T-shirt sported a symbol made of hexagons adjacent to each other in radial symmetry. Probably a band or something. She smiled a little bit, "Someone's all dressed up! We're not heading to a five-star place y'know, heheh. Neither of us can afford it." She chuckled a bit.
Katsu toook a moment to just look at the angel in front of him, admiring her beauty, before he smiled a little bit helplessly and reached up with a hand to scratch his neck. He could still feel the metal there underneath his fur, the implant still a bit unused for him. "Heh... I... kind of forgot to pack much civilian clothings when I got here." he admitted, slowly lowering his hand again. "You look good... Shall we?" The last words were spoken with a bit of hesitation, but as he spoke them, he held out his hand and in extension his arm, allowing Arete to either take his hand or hook her arm with his and walk like that.
"Let's!" Gently grasping Katsu's hand... Is 'forepaw' a more accurate term? ...Arete took the lead, leading the fox-man towards the city proper.
Katsu smiled as she took his hand and lead him away. He was amazed at how soft her skin felt. Sure, he has touched skin before, but hers just felt even softer. At least, judging by what he could feel through his own short, but soft hand-fur. As they walked to the city, he smiled and stayed right next to Arete as much as possible. "Got any plans on where you are leading me to?"
"Oh, just a neat place my family goes to a lot of the time. A small little chain, I'm sure you'll like it - what are your thoughts on like, noodles and pasta?" She took a clear, deep breath of the Ayenee air.
"I like them!" he replied with a cheerful smile. "At least as long as there are forks for me to use. But I'm sure you have those here. Do they have sauce with meat in it?" Couldn't deny it, after all he was still a carnivore. "What is your family like? Do you have brothers or sisters?"
She chuckled, "Seems you're excited! Ahah, yes they have forks, and meat sauce. I've always been a fan of the cheese sauces, myself- I have a younger brother, he's still in school right now. He's a bit too young to really be looking at the workforce yet, eheheh!" She giggled a bit more after she spoke; as the two of them approached and entered the city proper, a crowd formed and moulded around them; the couple meandered through the streets and people as they chatted. "What about you?"
The fox boy kept smiling as they entered the city, though he did seem a little bit confused as he saw how people gathered around them as they moved. "I am excited! This is kind of my first date..." While the first few words were spoken normally, the last ones he merely whispered before he quickly continued to another topic. "I don't have brothers or sisters that I know of. When I was thirteen, I left the Neshaten Kingdom and since then I haven't been in contact with my family anymore." He paused for a little bit and just let that information sink in, before he whispered "Why is everyone looking?"
"Looking?" The angel glanced about cautiously for a few moments. A handful of people were watching the couple with varying degrees of curiosity, probably for a myriad of reasons. "I think it might be just people not used to the uniform yet, eheh. I'm sure you've been to cities and such before, but proooooobably ones where the Army was already pretty present?" Her voice gently floated through the air in an almost relaxing way; she idn't seem to particularly mind the attention, at least.
Katsu nodded slowly, still holding the hand of the angel girl and making sure that he stayed right by herside. He wasn't really scared or afraid, but he sure didn't want to get lost in the city here all on his own. "Yeah, I was in cities before..." he said, almost whispering, before he continued to whisper "You know... I don't have any of that local currency..." His ears laid back, flat against his head, as he said that, hoping she wouldn't be angry.
She chuckled, "I'm not really surprised, eheheh! Don't worry, I can handle it. I think Shosa Eden was working on organizing a conversion buuuuut I can't say for sure how far along it's coming..." The little winged woman squeezed his hand gently. "Besides this is a little treat for everyone being really nice in general so far to me!"
She seemed to stop all of a sudden, gently tugging on Katsu to indicate for him to turn. As he did so, he nothiced - or more accurately, couldn't not notice - what seemed to be a restaurant, its frontal glass windows offering a clear view into its well-lit interior. Many tables with chairs arranged evenly around them took the bulk of the floor space, and along the edges of the room were booths; at a glance the place looked to be a little over half full.
The fox let out a bit of a relieved sigh. But still, from all that he knew, on a date the man was supposed to be paying. As such he made a mental note to just pay the next date, if there was one. "Thank you..." he whispered, looking over to her with a smile.
As they suddenly stopped, he was confused for a moment. He thought that they had gotten lost in the city, or that Arete recognized the area as a gang area and they had to be careful. For a moment his heart rate increased. For a moment he started looking around and wished he had all his weapons with him. But in the next moment when he saw the restaurant, he relaxed again. "It looks nice. Is this the place?"
She laughed softly, her voice floating above the murmur of the crown around them like one of the feathers on her back. "Yup, this is the place!" Walking forward, Arete opened the door outwards, an orchestra of amazing, mouthwatering smells pouring out like the water from a dam from within. Sliding in a little bit sideways, the smol one held the door for Katsu to start walking through while holding up her index and middle finger, indicating the need for a table for two.
Outside Fort Miller
It was a wonderful day on Yanyee. A few white clouds were in the sky, which was turning red in the evening sun. Through this evening, Katsu had left the fort to get in some evening training. Wearing the Star Army training uniform and his dark goggles to see normally in the sun, he was visibly identifyable as one of those. However, he was lacking any boots since he preferred to run with his bare digitigrade paws while possible. Nevertheless, he had two straps going over his upper body to a knife sheath on his back. Maybe he simply didn't want to go completely unarmed out on this still possibly hostile planet. Or maybe he had another reason.
Arete, that new girl - the first native person of this universe to actually have joined the Army - was busy meditating just barely east of the cabins, her legs crossed as she floated nearly a meter off of the cround, and yet perfectly stationary. Dressed in a civilian outfit made of the classic shorts-and-T-shirt combination, the sage wasn't exactly hiding in any way while she was focused on something that could only be guessed at. Around her, almost like a suspension in chemistry class, floated a small disc-shaped cloud of dirt, like if someone had created a miniature, half-meter-radius galaxy around the woman. On the inside, Arete was nearly perfectly unaware of time - a meditating sage usually found themselves exploring the insides of atoms and the space between them, and in there time can be... Weird, subjectively.
After quite some light running, Katsu's route lead him back towards the cabins and right past a winged girl he knew as Arete, but as he saw her, he slowed down and took a good couple of deep breaths. With him being so much of an animal, he didn't sweat, but that meant he had to cool down by breathing. He used this time to watch her float there, with her little mini galaxy surrounding her, admiring the display. "Wow... that's really cool, and beautiful..." he said, probably pulling her out of her meditation.
"Hm-oh!" The little person and her dusty gathering flopped back down to the ground over about a second and a half as Arete was brought out of her focus. "What did you say, uhhh.... What was your name again? Sorry, I wasn't ah, paying attention..." Arete stood up as she dusted herself off, turning to face Katsu as she did.
As the amazing display stopped and dropped to the ground, together with the girl, Katsu meeped. Was it his fault that this show was destroyed? Anyway, Arete didn't seem to be too upset about him having broken her show. However, her asking for his name hurt a little bit. He thought that he had left enough of an impression to her... But he just shrugged his shoulders and said "Well, I'm Katsu. You know, the Shukaren Fox from that mission we were on. Anyway, what you just did looked really cool! You floated and your wings didn't even move. Looked beautiful. Like the stars and the universe. Hope I didn't disturb you."
Arete tilted her head to the side a little, her blonde hair gently waving as she did so. Internally she was trying to remember.... Ah right, when they were fighting the tar monsters. Or whatever the hell those things were. "Ah - sorry, I'm not very good with names, now I remember, heheh... Thank you, though! It's alright, I get interrupted a lot. Especially when I'm meditating, since apparently it's a bit distracting." There was a tiny bit of sarcasm to her voice there - she knew it was an odd thing to see a girl just casually floating around.
The fox boy smiled a bit and nodded. "No worries, I know people who are bad with names. Also, we never really met before that. So really, not a big deal." He stayed silent for a few moments as he looked at Arete, then smiled a bit. "So, want to get properly introduced to each other? To be fair, I only know that your name is Arete and that you have wings, and now I know you can float without armor. Or want me to make the start?"
"Well I don't see why not, really. I know your name is Katsu and your a fox-person, heheh."
He chuckled a bit and then turned around once to let her see him from all sides. His ears were raised high and as he turned around, his ears turned to keep facing the angel girl. His tail was swaying softly from side to side. Once he finished turning around completely, he smiled at her and said "Well... my full birth name is Vio'cera K'tsushira, Katsu is just the short version... And I'm from that other world where the Kaiyo is from. That other... dimension or something. My race is named Shukaren, and from those I'm of the Laibe subrace. You remember Nora? She's from the other subrace, the Daur. Those look much more like humans. We're from planets with really dark suns. Our eyes are used to nearly complete darkness and so we can see really well in any kind of darkness, but can't see in light. That's why I need to wear those goggles. And I've been a soldier all my life. Joined up military service as a kid. Now... that's a little summary, I think. Anything specific you'd like to know?"
"Hhhhhuuuuuh..." The smol one dragged her response out as she tried to process the information. "Sooo... What you are saying is, your whole species is kind of like, well, you, but there's another part that isn't. And also you live on a place with.. .What, a white dwarf probably? Kind of an interesting place for life to come from really." She shrugged, "So did you get to sign up to come to this place or something, or were you ordered or what?"
"Don't know about our home planet. My race had to leave it because of a war... but the planet I grew up on had a dark red sun. And yes, both Nora and I are from the same race, called Shukaren, which has two subraces. Us Laibe are more animal like though, obviously. And many of our race say that Nora's subrace are lesser beings and there's a lot of division..." He paused for a bit and apparently looked sad, his ears going down against his head, before he continued again. "I don't really know how I got here. My guess is that I just followed orders."
"Huh. Sounds like you had some problems back then." She shrugged, though she frowned a little. "Well so far it seems the Star Army guys don't do that. I mean, you're not getting into fights with other people I think here so far due to their race, heheh..." She cleared her throat with a soft a-hem before continuing, "Well, I guess I should talk a little bit about myself, too... So, I was actually born in the capital city here, lived there most of my life."
He slowly nodded and simply said "I can tell you about the problems I had sometime..." before he fully went into listening to her talk. "Ah yes, you're actually from here. That really helped us. How was it to grow up here? You get to see such tar monsters often? Or do you all stay away from all forests as much as possible?"
"It was pretty nice, really. It's not quite as... Exciting as that expedition was, but then again most of the time we do stay away from the forests. I'm guessing because of those tar things... Though I can't remember what they're actually called. They at least stay away from the roads and such, though!" The sage took a deep breath. "It might sound weird to you, but I've never actually left this planet before!" She adjusted her glasses, pausing for a few moments.
He listened to her talking, but as she said that she had never left the planet before, he tilted his head slightly. "Never? Never ever?" he asked, then smiled. "How about we go, get our Mindys, and fly up into higher orbit? Don't worry, I'm a trained pilot, I'll help you with flying in zero gravity. How does that sound?"
"Nonono, I did go through training already! And besides..." Katsu suddenly felt... Lighter, and yet Arete seemed to only be staring at him. She continued, "I have a bit of experience with gravity!" She smiled cheerfully, before the odd sensation of light-weightedness faded.
Katsu nodded slowly, but started blinking as he felt lighter. Before he could try anything though, the feeling was gone again. "So... you got magic? You can manipulate gravity?" he asked, seemingly with quite some interest. "Can you make me float?"
"The short answer is yes, yes I can. I wouldn't exactly say that being a sage makes me magical, though. I don't need to do any weird incantations or chanting or whatever wizards do. Though I guess..." She tapped her chin a couple of times. "I do still read books a lot. But it's more stuff about y'know, physics and atoms and stuff. Not demons and other planes of existance. But yes, I can manipulate gravity a little bit, which has been rather helpful sometimes!"
He listened in carefully and smiled widely. "That sounds so cool," he said with a bright smile. "I've learned about physics too, but only what I need as a soldier." He kind of realised what he had just said and the implications of that. "Well, I never really learned anything I didn't need in the field. I didn't even learn how to cook..." He reached up with a hand and scratched the back of his head. "What you are doing sounds pretty cool. Is there any chance that I can learn that stuff too?"
Arete giggled a little bit, brining her hand up to her face to readjust the glasses framing her emerald-green eyes. "Well I'm sure that the chefs have been making up for that stuff! Not everyone needs to cook, after all! Though..." She thought for a few moments before speaking again, "I doubt you'd be a sage, though. You would have probably found out years ago, if you were - and even if you were, well... I on't think I could help ya much. I mean, my father's got the ability to shape metal at will, and I'm running around making gravity wells! Learning is... Kinda tough to do between us because we're all so different..."
"Yeah, I'm sure the military cooks are glad I can't cook and therefore not complain too much." he said, smiling a bit as he heard her giggling, looking at her through his dark goggles. He then listened in to her explaination though, trying to take all of it in. "So... your father can shape metal? With his mind? That's so cool... I mean, controlling gravity is cool too! You get what I mean." He said, waiting a bit in silence and just looking at the angel in front of him. "So... Arete? Talking about food... do you know a good restaurant and can we go there together?" He smiled at her softly, thinking that if he was looking like a nice guy she'd be more inclined to say yes.
The little sage chuckled as Katsu seemed to be thoroughly amazed. "Well it's not something new to me, ehehe..." She took a dep breath, stretching one of her arms out a little bit idly. "Well, I know of a couple places but ah, I already had some plans this evening, heheh... Maybe another time I could take you around town? Seems that a lot of you guys need to learn their way around anyways!" Another light chuckle, playful and soft.
The fox boy was still throughly amazed at her powers, so much that he didn't frown as she said that she had no time for today. He smiled a bit and said "Well, probably for the best if we don't go today, then we can both finish our training. What about tomorrow though?" He smiled at her and hoped that she would agree, slowly stepping from one paw to the other, shifting his weight just a little bit.
"Maybe tomorrow, then." The sage turned her eyes starward for a time. "It's funny, how to you guys this is probably normal. The whole, moving around thing."
He blinks a bit and tilts his head. "You mean... walking?"
"No, no, I know how to walk!" She giggled as she spoke, "I meant more going between planets in space and such!"
He thought about it for a moment, but then smiled and says "How about we talk about this tomorrow during a nice dinner? I'm happy to share stories."
"Sure!"
He smiles at the angel. "Cool. I'll pick you up tomorrow. You'll pick the restaurant. See you then!" he said and walked off.
"Bye!" Arete waved to Katsu as he walked off, before taking a look at her watch. Not more than a few minutes, the angel began to slip into meditation again, hovering slightly above the grass in a sitting-down position.
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The Next Day, Mid-Afternoon
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Katsu's next day was filled with excitement, and as the time passed, nervousness mixed into his feelings as well. Could this be called a date? How would this date go? What would happen? Then after duty, he showered using a nice smelling shampoo and then moved to his room and wanted to dress up nicely. As he stood there though, he saw that the only non-military clothings were what he had when he was still working as a guard for traders, which meant that it didn't look nice or anything. So in the end, he had to simply dress up in his uniform, even though it was a fresh set of clothings. He went somewhat casual though, meaning that he wasn't wearing some feetwrappings that doubled as boots, but instead stayed with his natural digitigrade legs. And of course he had his black goggles in addition to the uniform. Clad like this, he moved to Arete's cabin and breathed in heavily once more as he stood there, then slowly raised his hand, formed it into a fist, and knocked against the door. The teenage fox was still a bit nervous, his tail wrapped around his hips, but his ears stayed pointed up and turned forward.
It was several tense, palpable seconds before the doorway swung outwards slowly, the angel within wearing significantly more... casual clothing. Her hair was curled into tiny spirals near the front of her face, while the back stayed as it normally was - straight to her shoulders. A jacket donned her shoulders, the cottony material parted at the front where a T-shirt sported a symbol made of hexagons adjacent to each other in radial symmetry. Probably a band or something. She smiled a little bit, "Someone's all dressed up! We're not heading to a five-star place y'know, heheh. Neither of us can afford it." She chuckled a bit.
Katsu toook a moment to just look at the angel in front of him, admiring her beauty, before he smiled a little bit helplessly and reached up with a hand to scratch his neck. He could still feel the metal there underneath his fur, the implant still a bit unused for him. "Heh... I... kind of forgot to pack much civilian clothings when I got here." he admitted, slowly lowering his hand again. "You look good... Shall we?" The last words were spoken with a bit of hesitation, but as he spoke them, he held out his hand and in extension his arm, allowing Arete to either take his hand or hook her arm with his and walk like that.
"Let's!" Gently grasping Katsu's hand... Is 'forepaw' a more accurate term? ...Arete took the lead, leading the fox-man towards the city proper.
Katsu smiled as she took his hand and lead him away. He was amazed at how soft her skin felt. Sure, he has touched skin before, but hers just felt even softer. At least, judging by what he could feel through his own short, but soft hand-fur. As they walked to the city, he smiled and stayed right next to Arete as much as possible. "Got any plans on where you are leading me to?"
"Oh, just a neat place my family goes to a lot of the time. A small little chain, I'm sure you'll like it - what are your thoughts on like, noodles and pasta?" She took a clear, deep breath of the Ayenee air.
"I like them!" he replied with a cheerful smile. "At least as long as there are forks for me to use. But I'm sure you have those here. Do they have sauce with meat in it?" Couldn't deny it, after all he was still a carnivore. "What is your family like? Do you have brothers or sisters?"
She chuckled, "Seems you're excited! Ahah, yes they have forks, and meat sauce. I've always been a fan of the cheese sauces, myself- I have a younger brother, he's still in school right now. He's a bit too young to really be looking at the workforce yet, eheheh!" She giggled a bit more after she spoke; as the two of them approached and entered the city proper, a crowd formed and moulded around them; the couple meandered through the streets and people as they chatted. "What about you?"
The fox boy kept smiling as they entered the city, though he did seem a little bit confused as he saw how people gathered around them as they moved. "I am excited! This is kind of my first date..." While the first few words were spoken normally, the last ones he merely whispered before he quickly continued to another topic. "I don't have brothers or sisters that I know of. When I was thirteen, I left the Neshaten Kingdom and since then I haven't been in contact with my family anymore." He paused for a little bit and just let that information sink in, before he whispered "Why is everyone looking?"
"Looking?" The angel glanced about cautiously for a few moments. A handful of people were watching the couple with varying degrees of curiosity, probably for a myriad of reasons. "I think it might be just people not used to the uniform yet, eheh. I'm sure you've been to cities and such before, but proooooobably ones where the Army was already pretty present?" Her voice gently floated through the air in an almost relaxing way; she idn't seem to particularly mind the attention, at least.
Katsu nodded slowly, still holding the hand of the angel girl and making sure that he stayed right by herside. He wasn't really scared or afraid, but he sure didn't want to get lost in the city here all on his own. "Yeah, I was in cities before..." he said, almost whispering, before he continued to whisper "You know... I don't have any of that local currency..." His ears laid back, flat against his head, as he said that, hoping she wouldn't be angry.
She chuckled, "I'm not really surprised, eheheh! Don't worry, I can handle it. I think Shosa Eden was working on organizing a conversion buuuuut I can't say for sure how far along it's coming..." The little winged woman squeezed his hand gently. "Besides this is a little treat for everyone being really nice in general so far to me!"
She seemed to stop all of a sudden, gently tugging on Katsu to indicate for him to turn. As he did so, he nothiced - or more accurately, couldn't not notice - what seemed to be a restaurant, its frontal glass windows offering a clear view into its well-lit interior. Many tables with chairs arranged evenly around them took the bulk of the floor space, and along the edges of the room were booths; at a glance the place looked to be a little over half full.
The fox let out a bit of a relieved sigh. But still, from all that he knew, on a date the man was supposed to be paying. As such he made a mental note to just pay the next date, if there was one. "Thank you..." he whispered, looking over to her with a smile.
As they suddenly stopped, he was confused for a moment. He thought that they had gotten lost in the city, or that Arete recognized the area as a gang area and they had to be careful. For a moment his heart rate increased. For a moment he started looking around and wished he had all his weapons with him. But in the next moment when he saw the restaurant, he relaxed again. "It looks nice. Is this the place?"
She laughed softly, her voice floating above the murmur of the crown around them like one of the feathers on her back. "Yup, this is the place!" Walking forward, Arete opened the door outwards, an orchestra of amazing, mouthwatering smells pouring out like the water from a dam from within. Sliding in a little bit sideways, the smol one held the door for Katsu to start walking through while holding up her index and middle finger, indicating the need for a table for two.