gynvael | abraxas:: INBOX

The message he receives from Nadine arrives only a few days after he's left with Sam. They're still on the main roads, not far from the outpost. He waits until the afternoon, when the heat is more than he prefers to travel in, and sends a message back: he'll be there in an hour.

Nadine almost never reaches out to him to meet in the Horizon. Not especially since she's moved to Cadens. It has him curious.

He walks to where he remembers her small town is. Now and again, it occurs to him he could probably arrive, willingly, at another's place, but something about walking there feels more suited. The shops are the same, the play horses remain, but the snow is gone. Flowers spring along the paths and open gardens.

And in the midst of the bright blooms, that. He knows enough to recognize it as a vehicle, between the sleek metal and thick black wheels. Things he's glimpsed before, but never stopped to examine. Other than Dean's car.

He stops a foot away from the steps. Peers at the machine, then at Nadine. "That's new."

"That's what I wanted to show you."

Nadine stands when Geralt approaches. The oppressive feeling that's permeated her domain for so many months is finally gone, and she's glad of it. It's nothing she consciously controls, it just seems to flux with her own mood and state of mind. Which is considerably improved these days.

"Remember I tried to explain what a motorcycle was? This is a motorcycle. I've been thinking about it and I realized...I kind of missed having a motorcycle."

She approaches it and rests one hand on the front, eager to show it off to Geralt. She really thinks it's a machine he can appreciate.

He does recall. A horse, but with wheels and a motor is what she told him. She'd ridden it across the desert. The resemblance is there, he can admit. It does look rather like humans saw a horse and a car, and asked what could be done to meld the two things together.

"I rode in a car once." He runs his fingers curiously over the saddle. Seat? It's leather, unlike the rest of the machine's body. "Wasn't bad, but I can't say I'd enjoy travelling long inside a box."

He also dislikes trips in carriages and wagons. Given half the chance, Geralt will always prefer being under an open sky. This is, on other words, an appealing alternative. The spark of interest is visible in his eyes. Look—perhaps he can admit, he had liked the...joyride. In the Impala. The feeling of it, anyway. The fact of the matter is, nothing in his world can ever possibly move at that speed. It's entirely new to him. The car had been too confined, too different from anything he's seen, for him to ever consider using one himself. But the shape of the motorcycle is much more familiar.

"Motorbikes are a lot more fun than cars."

Nadine has no issue with cars, she's been riding in them or driving them her whole life. But she can understand someone like Geralt, with both his nature and the world he comes from, not being too inclined to them.

"These go just as fast, too. We can go for a ride, if you want. I'm still not great on a horse, but I do know what I'm doing with one of these."

And it would be nice to attach some new memories to the idea of zipping around on a motorcycle. To just ride without a destination, not going to something but just...going.

And it's the Horizon. They don't even need helmets.

Truthfully? He needn't be convinced much. He's already plenty curious about what it might be like. The Horizon affords an easier space to experiment—and for him to be less concerned about the fragility of the human body combined with a machine that sends the world into a blur.

(One day, he will learn about rollercoasters.)

Besides, Nadine seems eager. Lighter. Between their encounter with the snakes and this, there's a side of her he's only recently caught snatches of. Buried under the heavy weight of the world, perhaps, but it's there. He'd like to see more of it. They could certainly both use a distraction.

"All right." He steps around to the other side of the motorbike to join her. "Show me."

Nadine has been doing better lately. Time is an amazing balm, and it's been over half of a year since certain influences were present in her life. Replaced with far more positive ones.

"Alright!"

Excited, Nadine pulls a pair of sport style dark glasses out of her jacket and puts them on, before offering a second - slightly larger - pair to Geralt.

"The speed can irritate the eyes if they're not protected. Usually people wear helmets with visors on them, but since we're not really in any actual danger of having an accident, we don't need to go that far." But physics do exist in Nadine's domain, and eye protection will make for a much more pleasant ride.

With a familiar ease, Nadine swings a leg over the bike and settles herself in the seat, hands on the handlebars.

"Just hop up behind me and hold on."

He studies the tinted eyeglasses. Instinct prefers he not darken his vision deliberately, but there's no danger here. He puts them on. Squints a little as he gets used to it. They don't obscure his sight near as much as they look like they would.

Once she's on, he follows. It's different, being the passenger. He's always been the rider on his horse. Can't recall the last time he wasn't. Or the last time he was fully conscious for it, at least. There was the day Jaskier dragged him onto a horse and rode back, after the portal spat him out in the middle of the desert.

The machine is hefty. Sitting on it alone, he can feel the strength of it. His feet automatically find where they should rest. Then he holds on.

"Ready."

It's a little bit weird, when Geralt climbs on behind her. Nadine's never done this with a passenger before. And that it's him...somehow that makes it even stranger.

But she puts that out of her mind and turns the key, and the bike begins to come to life, the lights flashing on with a small click. She squeezes the clutch until the engine rumbles to life. The seat beneath them shudders rhythmically as power flows into the machine.

"Here we go."

Up goes the kickstand, the choke is released, the throttle engaged. There's a moment for the bike to warm and then they're off with a roar of the engine, gaining speed rapidly as Nadine turns them neatly onto the empty streets of her little town.

The thundering growl catches him off guard every time, even when he knows it's coming. It rumbles beneath him—louder, more intense than being in the seat of a car.

She takes off, and the wind rushes. He's at least experienced the speed before, if not exactly accustomed to it. There's a moment as he adjusts, filtering out the noises from each other over the sounds he isn't used to hearing.

In a sense, he's beginning to understand: it does feel alive, in its own way. It's the difference from sitting inside a vehicle and riding atop one, maybe. Something about it carries just enough of the edges of familiarity that he finds himself settling into the motion—how it swerves and leans as Nadine brings them around the corner of her town.

They roar about the square, Nadine leaning low over the front. Why has it taken her so long to make one of these? She'd forgotten how damn good it feels to just go on such a powerful machine. There's plenty of space even in her own domain to joyride, and there's all of the Horizon to make for a unique scenic ride.

She hopes Geralt is enjoying. She turns onto the road that goes out through the farms and into the woods, a long stretch flanked on either side by idyllic pastures and orchards in bloom and an old red barn here and there. The cows that eternally graze beyond the white wooden fences look up as they pass and resume their grazing with little other reaction.

Here she lets it go with a whoop of joy, increasing speed and tearing down the empty road, letting the wind and the roar and the speed clear her mind.

The noise is what takes him the longest to ease into. Once he does, once he can pick out his surroundings from beneath the roar of the machine, he lets himself relax into it.

She takes them through the long road that winds about her place. He's actually never explored her town in full, only visited parts of it: the shops, the church, the carousel. Little rows of flowers. The cows, he's never seen before. Not the orchards, either. They blur by. The wind carries every directly scent to him, from the grass to the fruits and a smell that he currently doesn't know to place as the exhaust fumes. It's different. It's been awhile since he's experienced anything so outside the realm of what he knows.

More than that, Nadine is obviously enjoying herself. He can't recall ever seeing her this thoroughly delighted. Hard not to absorb what she's feeling, too.

Nadine doesn't slow until they're in the trees and the road peters out to dirt, the shade coming over them and the edge of her domain in the near distance. She pulls the bike up neatly in the road, smoothly dropping the kickstand once they've stopped. The sound grows quieter and then stops as she cuts the engine.

She's breathing heavily but it's from the exhilaration. It's pleasant here in the trees, a gentle breeze rustling through the woods. Peaceful, certainly now without the scream of the bike's engine. Still breathing hard, she rakes back her hair and lifts her sunglasses.

When she turns to Geralt she's smiling brightly and there's a similar brightness in her eyes.

"What do you think?"

She's pretty sure she already knows.

They come to a stop underneath the hanging boughs. He drops his foot on instinct, even as she steadies the bike, letting go of her. In the Horizon, it's difficult to tell how far they've gone—but it is certainly much further and faster than any horse could dream of.

He lifts the tinted glasses, as well. His smile is softer, but it's there. "You may have given my horse competition."

He's joking—he could never let go of Roach—but this? This is not at all a poor alternative. Nadine once told him there aren't much by way of horses in her world, and between cars and motorcycles, he can understand why. It's strange to think about too deeply, though. A world where horses are almost entirely replaced by shiny steel.

He swings off, running his fingers thoughtfully over the handlebars. It has been, he thinks, a very long time since he's found a reason to pick up a new skill. Something completely different from what he knows. "Do you charge for lessons?"

"Not for you."

Nadine slides herself off the bike once Geralt is off and exploring the machine.

"It's not that hard, you'll probably pick it up easily." He'd already known how to move with it, needing no prompting on their little ride through idyllic New Hampshire. It's faster than a horse and more powerful and she thinks that has to appeal. Even to someone who loves his horse as much as he does.

"I think you'll mostly need to get used to the sequence of turning it on. But I'd be happy to teach you. It'd probably be fun to go visiting around the Horizon on one of these. After a few runs on this one, we can make you your own."

And some gear. He'd need proper motorcycle gear.

He imagines he won't have much trouble, either. A portion of it appears to be reflex and coordination, some balance, and those are things he has a head start upon.

Who the fuck knew he'd find new ways to apply being a Witcher.

Geralt glances up at Nadine. "I'll take you up on that. My turn to be the student."

Seeing as he's taught her and others how to swing a sword—he doesn't mind having his turn to learn something for once. Something which, he realizes, isn't to do with training or his work. Has he even done so before? Learned something for the hell of it? He actually doesn't know. Doesn't think so. Not deliberately. Most of the extraneous bullshit he knows, he's merely absorbed over the many years.

"That'll be a change." Nadine laughs a little at the thought of teaching Geralt anything. But it's exciting. Maybe for him, too. When was the last time a guy like that learned anything new?

"But I happen to be an excellent teacher, so you're in good hands. How about we set up a proper lesson 'schedule'." Loosely, of course. Schedules in Abraxas are subject to change at the drop of a hat.

"Next time I'll have the right gear for you and everything. I didn't bother this time, it was just a for-fun ride. I bet you'd look good in a biker jacket and boots."

In the Horizon, it's easier to make and keep appointments. They don't require him to be at a certain place at a certain time. So he tips his head in agreement.

"Midday or so." That's when he takes shelter from the blazing sun—if he enters the Horizon, it tends to be then. Makes him feel especially nocturnal these days, how often he travels by night, but even in the winter months, he much prefers the plunging temperatures than the heat of the day. Cold, he was made to live in.

He gives the faintest chuckle. He hasn't the first idea of what those things look like. "You'll have to show me."

At least he knows what the glasses are now.

"That sounds good. Give it a few weeks, you'll be zipping around just like me."

Nadine has no doubt of that. This...this is going to be fun. She enjoys spending time with Geralt anyhow, and she likes teaching people things. It may not be her profession anymore, but it's a part of who she is.

"And...thank you, for this. Today. I think I needed it."

His expression softens. He nods. "I think we both did."

Truthfully, he hadn't even realized it until Nadine asked him in here. He's been so focused on...problems. Things fucking happening. Maybe it was good, to take both their minds off the past few months.

For a moment, anyhow. He's still in the middle of the damn desert with Sam.

"I need to go back." Geralt straightens up. "Take care, Nadine."

abraxas:: INBOX

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