Won't You Be My Neighbor?

[electronichound]

Characters: Batou, Erol [Closed]
Location: Batou's cabin
Date: Present
Rating: [PG-13, because Erol's got a dirty mouth]

Won't You Be My Neighbor?The metal cage was strong, sturdy and reasonably spacious. It wasn't as if Batou needed a lot of room to stretch his legs, so he was fine with the idea of letting Erol's confinement take up a full third

Comments

[psychoticracer]

Blackness.

Then, just at the edges, a smidgen of - not light, but sensation. Fabric beneath him. Air moving through his lungs.

Awareness. The last thing he remembered was fighting, and it was oh so tempting to sit straight up and keep at it. But he knew better - evaluate your surroundings first.

Listening. The turn of a page; otherwise, nothing. Not alone.

Feeling. Seemed to be on a bed; he felt the sag of the mattress beneath his weight, covers smooth.

He cracked his eyelids. Sight. Yes, on a bed; and a room like any other. What the HELL was going on?

Now he sat up, fingers searching for his weapons. All gone, naturally. Wide, alert eyes scanned his surroundings for a better survey; bars walling him off from the rest of the room, and on the other side - Batou.

Erol got to his feet, paced towards the bars to glare at his captor.

"I suppose there's an incomparably good explanation for this."

[electronichound]

There was a lot of sensory data to be gained just by touching the other man. Batou could judge the surface conductivity of Erol's skin, his body fat percentage, internal temperature, partial chemical composition of the elf's sweat, weight and bone density. All of it was remarkably similar to a human's, but Batou's curiosity wasn't nearly slaked.

"I see," he said, turning Erol's arm this way and that gently in his hands. The cigarette burned, forgotten, in Batou's mouth and the red ember reflected vaguely in his silver eyes, the smoke the same colour as the cyborg's hair. "What exactly are you after, then?"

[psychoticracer]

Erol watched Batou warily, like a wild animal that's reasonably certain the human will stay put as it walks past, but isn't completely sure...

"I wouldn't... really know what to call it," he murmured. "Adrenaline is a bit closer. But not that either."

This was dangerous ground. Erol didn't tell this shit to anyone. Didn't think about it, didn't say it.

'Course, not many had ever asked. Christine had, more or less, but that was different, part of a game. She hadn't and wouldn't come close to digging this deep.

Erol wasn't certain he liked putting this out there, but he felt driven to try. To back out would be admitting defeat, the act of a coward. And that was one thing he would NEVER be.

"I get it when I'm racing. When I'm fighting or torturing or - having sex, as well. But mostly while racing."

When everything's going so fast I can't think of anything else but the next second.

[electronichound]

"Hm," said Batou, a frown twisting his mouth as he thought, but his hands continued their implacable and ceaseless moving over Erol's arm. He was gathering so much data right now that there was a temptation to just phase out and let it roll over his consciousness. Something Erol was saying twigged data deep inside Batou's memory, though, and with a force of will the cyborg dragged himself back to the present moment.

"I've heard of this sort of thing before," he said, tapping one thick index finger on the inside of Erol's elbow. Batou felt confident he could track this down, solve this problem; not for Erol's sake, but for his own curiosity's benefit. "In any case, let's see how this feels."

Batou's left hand suddenly popped its plates open, exposing the metal and hydraulics underneath and he pushed one of the wire contacts down onto Erol's skin over a pressure point. Batou ran electricity through.

[psychoticracer]

Erol blinked in mild surprise as the plates opened. He'd known the man was some sort of robot, but aside from the eyes, there had so far been little visible proof. So this was - interesting.

He'd used electricity derived from Blue Eco to torture before, and halfway expected it now, seeing the circuits and wires. But it was far too mild and he wasn't restrained. It wasn't pleasant, but then neither was pain, and that had never stopped Erol before. So he didn't follow his body's initial instinct to jerk away, though his muscles jumped and he hissed.

Reaching his other hand to the bars, he leaned on them for support, gritting his teeth as he fought to analyze the strange sensation. It was crawling, prickling, almost like the first edge of an adrenaline burst in his chest when it was raw and new and stung like a shock of Blue Eco, but all over his skin instead.

"N... not bad," he muttered through clenched teeth as the rush set in.

[electronichound]

"There's some interesting feedback from the rest of your system," observed Batou aloud, the electricity moving between the two men giving him even more information in regards to flesh density, water volume, chemical balances, fat content, and many other facts that the cyborg swiftly tucked away inside his cyberbrain for later perusal. "You have some other type of energy that's shorting out the electricity once it reaches the centre of your bodymass--also in your skull."

Batou cut the current and released Erol's arm. The plates on his hand hissed and then melded together, reforming the smooth, seamless skin of before. In his mouth, Batou realised that the cigarette was about to burn his lips, so he turned his head and spat it out.

"Any idea what that might be?"

[psychoticracer]

Erol shook his head to clear it, rubbing his arm and stepping back a pace. The nerves felt strange, raw. Somewhere between new and rubbed bloody. Then he realized the gesture was ambiguous

[electronichound]

"Tell me more about this eco," said Batou suddenly. "Everything you know and everything you've heard about it. Channelers, saturates, all of that. Perhaps I can figure out what's causing the break in the electrical current in your body that way."

Batou's mind was whirring with possibilities. Encountering new concepts and new ideas was a hobby of his, a please that he fed by reading voraciously and never being afraid to try new things. A whole new branch of science appealed greatly to the cyborg and he didn't step away from the bars.

"I want to try electricity on different contact points," he said. "You seemed to enjoy that last attempt. I'll make sure further ones are pleasurable to the same degree or higher. Let me try your foot."

[psychoticracer]

"I'm not an experimental animal or test subject," Erol growled, backing off another step and starting to pace again. "But very well. I'll tell you what I know about eco. You may get more out of Vin however; he's an expert. I just supervised the Dark Warrior Project

[electronichound]

"Interesting," said the cyborg, letting his cyberbrain record all of this. He stored it carefully in a new sub-directory and made a few redundant reference points, just to make sure that this subject wouldn't fail to catch his attention if he ever heard it again in conversation. "Do you know any more?"

He'd have to track 'Vin' down and see what information the scientist knew about eco. Batou turned and returned back to the desk and began to pull his jacket on. Things to do, things to do.

[psychoticracer]

"A bit. Mostly about Dark Eco. I pumped it into the boy for two years, I should hope I picked up a thing or two