unionjill30…I love your quote! It’s priceless! Is it yours? It sounds kinda familiar…that’s why I’m asking…Me Likes.
Grimaldi…Thank you. I’m stoked that you like Nine West. (did I just say stoked?) How very Coastal of me. ug
Mrs. Vertigo… Welcome Home! You were sorely missed, I tell you! On your Pacific Tides comment: I was going for that Hawaii 5-0 meets Dallas Prime Time P’opra Feel. On Nine West: Tara in leather a trend? (trying hard to think of which other one has her in leather…cuz I’m so bad with the memory thing.) I say again…welcome home!
Grimmy…Oh…what kind of world would it be without blatantly annoying dorks, melodrama, and the occasional unlocked door…eh?
Mollyig…You know me so well, Dearheart. Good looking girls on horseback are always a swell motivator.
Cindy Lou Who…Glad you liked this bit. Ill try to ease ya’ll into the future right now…Welcome to the future! See???
JewWitch18…Old West Parlance…thank you, Jenny! That was kind of you to say. Especially the Parlance part…I love that word. That…and Brouhaha…and Plethora….
DW…Did you see Practical Magic? You know…with the “yee haw” thing…It reminds me of that. Very scary…very funny…very cool….
Maud! …Lolo girl, you! Welcome to the thread! Missed ya kiddo! And here you are bearing a Cho quote! You are soooo my hero!
Dave V… I loved the Quick and the Dead. My friends all thought it was cheesy…but I had a place for it in my heart. That and Tombstone. So I thought I would toss the girls into chaps and dust and see what comes out of it. Heh.
TK…I am so glad you liked this. I am having such a hoot doing it. It’s so up my alley with all the tracks running at the same time in my head. Is that a sign of crazy? Hmmm….
And now….on with the show…
Channel Seven: The Futopia Channel
“Fear the Light”Episode 1 Part 4
Taryn opened and closed her mouth several times…attempting to put form to all of the questions that were swimming around in her head. She stared wondrously at the windshield that had crackled to life in front of her.
She was seeing the garage…everything was there…just as it had been…
But the world was now washed in muted colors. Everything in the garage looked to be based in a pale almost monochromous green…The door leading back into the work area was more of a hazy yellow green.
Winna pulled the car backward out of the garage before Taryn could register everything she was seeing.
As far as Taryn was concerned…the woman at the helm beside her was conducting the car blindly into oblivion.
“ I can see everything.” Winna said without prompting…as though she truly COULD see everything…including the concerned face her passenger was pulling.
Ryder leaned forward and put a reassuring hand on Taryn’s shoulder from behind.
“ She can actually see better than we can. Don’t worry.” She said.
“ I’m not worried.” Taryn lied. She slid her hand gingerly towards the handle on the door and took a serious death grip on it.
Winna steered the car like a driver on a professional racetrack. Fierce concentration…and a confidence that was uncanny. As the car pulled into an arc in the storage facility thoroughfare, and the garage door slid back down and into place…She watched Winna smile ever so slightly…pleased with herself.
Taryn stared at the strange new world in front of her. She knew she was looking at the kiosk where Astrid was standing…only everything within the scope of the windshield showed the world around Astrid lit in green…the immediate area around her fading into a light yellow…The booth seemed to glow a golden orange…but it was Astrid herself was made up of swirling colors. For the most part she was a fascinating blend of blues and reds…The colorful Astrid gave a blue-armed wave to the car…and motioned that they continue through the opening gate.
Heat signatures….the car runs on heat signatures…
Taryn turned to look out her own window. She could see a green world passing by her. She turned back to gawk through the windshield.
“ It’s a 360 infrared camera on top of the car. I designed it myself. It’s soft-wired to Winna’s headgear from home base…” Ryder said with more than a little pride.
“ That’s why I hired her…” Winna said simply.
“ No. You hired me because I’m the only genius you know who will work for next to nothing and a little bit of praise.” Ryder corrected her.
“ Amen to that.” Winna muttered. She took a turn with an easy turn of the wheel. The car responded as though its controls were linked directly to her thoughts. It held to the road so tightly that one could barely feel the turn from inside the car.
“ So this…what were seeing…is infrared.” Taryn said…more to herself than anyone.
“ The thermal imager on the roof of the car picks up all the available infrared energy around it. Everything lets off energy…even things that aren’t alive…and anything moving is pushing more than its share of energy around…therefore MORE feedback on the infrared sensors. The camera optics pick up the thermal signatures and the console behind the dash serves as a signal-processing system…which then relays the information to the monitors…and simultaneously to Winna’s glasses. ” Ryder caught the silence from the front seat. “Actually if you want to think of the car like an overly-expensive pair of night vision goggles on wheels…you can.” She said.
“ Watch it. That’s getting dangerously close to being insulting.” Winna warned. She patted the dash. “ She didn’t mean it, Sweetheart. She’s jealous…”
“ My bad…I mean…this gorgeous piece of machinery is what I like to call…a high-end…high-maintenance thermal imaging system.” Ryder drawled.
“ That’s better.” Winna said…taking another turn with a fluid motion.
“ I also programmed this little beauty with a customized Automatic VLM System. “ Ryder touted.
“ VLM?” Taryn half-turned in her seat to look at the young woman.
“ Visible Light Muting System.” Winna explained.
“ I like to say it stands for Vanguardian Light Muncher. Anything sending off wavelengths between 0.1 and 1.1 microns within a two hundred-yard radius gets ‘munched’ until we pass. Helps the infrared pick up a better signal…and you know…it’s better for…Winna.”
Taryn’s head was spinning. Sure she understood the basics of the whole thing…and it wasn’t the science of it that had her confused…it was something else…something bigger than some tech lexicon and a nice looking car…
( Why is all of this necessary?)
“ You have any other questions Detective?” Winna asked her. It was truly as though the woman could read her mind. It was discerning…and slightly flattering all in one.
(Yes…actually…I’d like to know what is wrong with your eyes…and why you live in a storage facility…and why you hang out with cyber junkies, retiring cops, and vampires…and why you sleep in a bed that’s as big as my apartment…and just WHO in the hell you ARE, Winna Gunn…)
Taryn stared out the window…contemplating how to put all of these things…She watched a little blue cat skitter across the street to find refuge behind a pale green garbage can through the glass.
“ No. I think you covered it.” She said. She felt, more than saw, Winna’s eyebrow go up in the dimly lit cabin of the car.
Ryder made a sudden and startling move in the back. She pulled Taryn back against the front seat and leaned her head between the side glass and the seat to whisper in her ear.
“ Nothing? Winna Gunn just gave you a backstage pass to ask her ANYTHING you want…and you’re blowing it. Even I don’t know half of what I’d like to…ask her SOMETHING for god’s sake…” She hissed in Taryn’s ear.
Ryder let her go with a tiny nudge.
Taryn took a deep breath and blurted the first thing that came to mind…the very first thing…
“ What…color…are your eyes?” She said…closing her own in obvious embarrassment as it came out.
She felt the car loose some of its speed as Winna’s foot came momentarily off the gas.
(Stupid…stupid…ugh…dumb-assed question….)
Taryn heard Ryder suck in her breath…and braced herself for the repercussions of such a jack-assed question.
Maybe she had crossed a line. Maybe it was something that would see her walking home in a few moments.
Winna put her foot gently back on the gas…the car picked up speed again. She reached up as if she meant to check the color of her own eyes with her hands...
“ I don’t remember. “ She said softly. “ I was four years old when the sun died.” She dropped her hand back to the wheel.
Then…as if shaken from a dream, she smiled a little. “ Green I think… We’re here.” She said…pulling the car to the curb.
“ Here?” Taryn said dazedly…glad that Winna didn’t have a secret ejector seat button on the wheel somewhere.
(Green…she said green..)
“ The Blender.” Winna said, pulling the parking brake. “ Open up Sweetie.” She said to the car, and the doors opened for them.
Taryn slipped out of the car and looked over the roof at the plain brick building on the street corner. A large man stood near the door, doing his job of looking forbidding and dangerous.
“ It doesn’t look like much from the outside.” Winna told Taryn over the car. “ I’m going to be asking the questions. Ryder your job is to watch my back.” She said.
“ What’s my job in all of this?” Taryn asked pointedly.
“ You’re my date.” She said with a Cheshire smile.
“ What???” Not that she was complaining…but this was the first time she had heard about this…. “ Are you saying I’m here to be your arm ornament?” She had to at least feign indignation for the record…though the thought of ornamenting Winna’s arm made her actually a little giddy.
“ Did I say date? I meant BAIT.” Winna said then…keeping that infernal Cheshire grin. She ran her fingers through her red hair once. “ Take a nap, Sweetheart.” She said into the remote in her hand. The car rumbled into silence.
“ Bait? What’s that supposed to mean???” Taryn yelped...coming around the car to stand face to face with her. Winna reached out and laced her fingers in Tara’s.
“ You’ll see.” She said…her dark glasses giving nothing away…but the smile and the hand holding hers was all it took to make Taryn’s stomach flutter and her will turn to putty.
Taryn caught Ryder wagging her brows at her boss as if to say (Smooth operation, Doctor Gunn…you need me to prepare a post-op room?)
They moved up the steps of the building.
“ Hey Bennington.” Winna said to the steam-shovel-faced doorman. He nodded grimly at Winna…and took and extra second to peruse Taryn …surprising her by taking her hand in his giant paw and turning it over…palm up. He bent down…and brought her palm to his face…smelling her fingers…her palm…her wrist…
Taryn was concerned that he would have just kept on going if Winna hadn’t put her own hand on her arm…stopping his olfactory progression.
“ Hey…you know better. Even a Newbie remembers a dirty sniff, Benny…so don’t cross any lines…” Winna said. Taryn looked at her in confusion…her brow creased.
(What was that supposed to mean? Newbie? )
Whatever it was…it worked. He jerked his head away so quickly she could have sworn he gave himself whiplash.
“ Sorry…I got….sorry…ma’am…sorry about this” He said, motioning to his face and dropping her hand back to her. She saw his yellow eyes…and the way he lisped his sorrys…as though talking through a maw of teeth…
Vampire.
Bennington the doorman was a vamp.
Taryn rubbed the skin on her arm…thankful it was still unmarred. Benny on the other hand…merely opened the door, and tried to keep his face hidden from her.
They stepped inside…but once in the door, Taryn pulled the redhead closer to her…so that her mouth was close to the woman’s ear.
“ What was THAT all about???” She asked…her heart was beating a mile a minute. She was about to do her best impression of one of those clingy Velcro-pawed stuffed monkeys on Winna.
“ I think that was about how sorry Benny was for scaring you like he did. He just…got a little carried away over you…” Winna pulled back enough to see Taryn’s expression. “ But it’s hard to blame him…” She said with an easy smile. They seemed to be coming in legions for her now…these smiles.
“ I have a bad feeling about this…and all of this flattery…and flirting is NOT making me feel any better.” Taryn insisted.
(A little swoony like a pubescent girl…and a little hot under the Nanotech Mylar collar…sure…but not BETTER…)
“ You need to calm down…one thing that is not a myth is that Vampires sense fear…Your body temperature is on the rise…any higher and every vamp in the whole place is going to want to go home with you tonight.” Winna said.
“ How would you kn…” Taryn started…but squelched her question when Winna tapped her shades.
“ You’re lit up like a Christmas tree. Just take a breath…and take my lead. The last thing you want to do…even in a human friendly establishment…is stand out.”
“ I’m afraid it’s a little too late for that.” A sultry voice said from the end of the hallway.
The three of them turned to the entrance into the main room.
A woman wearing a pair of black slacks, and a low-cut but elegant black blouse stood leaning against the wall.
“ I could smell this one five miles out.” She pushed off from the wall and walked towards them in long, easy strides…
Vampire…a predator’s sharp angles with a prey’s soft beauty combined. Taryn could do nothing but watch her advance on them…slow…nonchalant.
She was in no hurry…she had the advantage of an eternity on her side.
Commercial…
Stay tuned for The Living Woman Network.
“Women can't be gay. Because if men were gay and women were gay they'd cancel each other out.” – Danny on Soap
Wicca!!! What up, homey-dawg?? 
Or, uh... something. 
... And my absence has had nothing at all whatsoever to do with a certain picture of Trinity and my suggestive comments on "sleeping" a few pages back. Because it didn't. Ahem. Not at all. I don't even know how to be suggestive, y'know? Er... nevermind. 
+
=
fix ('cause those withdrawl symptoms were really starting to be a bitch). And *swoons* blessed is you for all the fic-y goodness that I found!!! And yeah, I know that was'nt an actual sentece or anything but I'm too swoony to be coherent. Deal with it 
. I'm totaly loving the Pacific Tides Television. It's like this mini-series thingy going on... in my head... which is awfuly nice. 
. The man was too drunk to notice anyway, heh. And if a lady and a man go into a room, wouldn't it be smart to bloody well lock the door hmmm ???
and destroy his evilness once and for all. you really do have a knack for the old-west parlance...humma humma!
. Oh My God! This is awesome! This is great!! 
This was an incredibly AWESOME update! I need to know, dog nebbit! LOL 
. 
(Winter Break got very, very boring...) Anyway, great update as usual, and I'm anxiously awaiting the next show! 
