Issue 1 Downtime

Rachel was sitting on a bench, her eyes closed and an intent expression on her face.

Depending on how focused she was, she might be able to hear him coming, despite his efforts to be quiet. Or, she might not. And depending on how focused she was, she might sense him... or she might not.

Either way, Ryan walked up behind the bench, intent on leaning down and kissing her cheek before she noticed him. Or, well, trying to, at least.

"Hi!" Rachel said, jumping a little as he kissed her.

Ryan grinned, leaning down over the back of the bench to take one of her hands. "And here I thought that you were going to know I was coming for sure," he said, teasingly.

"I was paying attention to the building, not what was around me." Rachel said "Seriously, its making me nuts."

Ryan frowned a little. "What's making you nuts?" he asked, looking up at the buildings to see if he could see what... well, she was seeing.

"Its the Manor House." Rachel said "When I close my eyes, its like....its surrounded by a web, and then a piece of it goes off to the ruins. Where the lighthouse used to be. Its...I don't even know how to describe it."

Ryan frowned a little. And he closed his eyes. And of course, he saw nothing. "Must be a psychic thing? I don't see anything. I know there's supposed to be weird shit here."

"Yeah, no doubt." Rachel said "I was just trying to see if I could figure anything out."

"Making sense of any of it?" Ryan asked, now pulling her hand up to him and kissing it.

"Just that everything is connected." Rachel said "I just can't figure out why, if the lighthouse isn't there any more."

"Yeah, that is weird," Ryan admitted. "Have you asked anyone about it?"

"I haven't." Rachel said "I probably should, though."

Ryan smiled playfully, leaning back down against the back of the bench again. "So do you see anything different when you close your eyes and look at me?" he asked, half-teasing.

"That depends." Rachel said, smiling at him.

"You have my overly-curious attention," Ryan said.

"Well, if I'm looking using my power, I kind of....see how your body fits together."

Ryan grinned. "And do you like how I fit together?" he teased.

"Oh, yes." Rachel said "Its very elegant. And the wings are interesting, the way that they fit in with the rest of the systems, and that sounds really creepy."

Ryan grinned. "Sooner or later you're going to get that I'm not going to be creeped out by anything you say," he said. "Besides, I know alllll about the 'seeing things that might be creepy' thing."

"How's that?" Rachel asked "Don't tell me....X-ray vision, right?"

"Damn, that would be nice, but no," Ryan said, smirking. "I don't know... can you see what I'm seeing? I don't know if that's one of your tricks or not..."

"Maybe." Rachel said "It'll take some trying, but if you're ok with letting me into your mind like that, I'll give it a shot."

Ryan smiled, walking around the bench to crouch down in front of her, still comfortably reaching for her hands. "Go for it," he said.

"Ok." Rachel said, reaching into his mind, looking for his vision centers, trying to see what he saw.

Rachel would feel no resistance from Ryan's mind as he waited for her to find the right spot to touch to get what he was seeing. There wasn't anything special yet about what she'd find, since he was waiting, but then again, Ryan didn't mind taking the opportunity to sit there looking at her while she made contact.

"Ok, I don't see anything weird so far." Rachel said, the only odd thing was looking at herself from someone else's point of view.

"Well, I wanted to give you a minute to get in there, first," Ryan said, closing his eyes. For a moment, there was nothing, just the usual blackness when you closed your eyes. Then she was looking at a ghostly image of herself, all in white, though only of her body, and lacking much detail, as if he was seeing JUST beneath her skin for the cloudy image. Parts of her were brighter than others, most noticeably where her heart and her brain were, but nothing that really gave any hint to the shape of her insides as he sensed the life inside her. There were other things he could see, the little pinpricks of the blades of grass and ghostly trees around her, little motes that were insects or larger ones that were animals, but mostly he was focused on her.

"What are you seeing?" Rachel asked, "It looks cool, but...what is it?"

"That's been the question for a while now. I think that that's everything's lifeforce. Or chi, or whatever the hell you want to call it, I've heard just about all of it. But that's how I can see anything that's alive. Now... watch this." And not one to pass up an opportunity like this... he pushed himself up and kissed her.

Rachel saw herself flushing with pleasure, somehow, she was more...more alive when he was kissing her.

Ryan lingered for a few moments more than he necessarily had to... but on the other hand, when did he ever want to stop? "So," he said, catching his breath. "That's what I see."

"Not weird at all." Rachel said, returning to her own mind "Its really cool."

"Of course... it gets trippier watching if I do this," he said, touching her neck, and feeding a ripple of energy into her. Unlike when he'd used his power on her before, this felt warm, and vaguely felt like the rush of alertness you get from suddenly taking a big drink of something with caffeine in it.

"Whoa." Rachel said "That is...you could get very addictive."

"I'm sort of counting on that," Ryan said with a wicked smile, leaning in and kissing her again.

"Almost as addictive as this." Rachel said, as she sent him a (very small) jolt of pleasure.

Ryan shuddered, then kissed her again, harder this time. "Yes. That. Definitely," he agreed, trying to clear his mind.

"I think we should slow down." Rachel whispered

Ryan's eyes stayed fixed on hers. "Why," he said in a low voice.