V886 Cetauri: Stop Over At The Blue Fox pt 2- The Way Of The 'Witch Warrior'
12 Feb 2018Count Iblis
Reece, stopped over at the Blue Fox bar on Tanner City was thinking fondly of reunions at other bars...By far Reeces most favoured place was a bar/casino/Inn called 'The Night Hawk' in the Artemis system on Freeholm base. It was situated within a hollowed our asteroid and quite grandiose in its décor. It looked retro and futuristic at the same time and had many mechanical innerworkings and mechanical elements exposed but executed and finished to perfection to give an exquisite appearance.
It was here that Reece would do annual meet ups with his inner circle of old friends (and some 'friends' who had tagged along or latched onto someone). Reece would always look forward to catching up with his old friends and close compatriots at this incredible place every May.
Unfortunately one of the folks who latched onto the meet up tradition at Freeholm base was Britta. She latched on by getting entangled onto Reece and being incredibly persistent and tenacious.
Britta was part of the neo pagan faith or church of MAW or Modern Age Wicca.
The Modern Age Wicca claimed to be a reincarnation and integration of a set of beliefs that not only practiced witchcraft but a long dead indigenous civilization of spiritual warriors from their home world. The assertions of the MAW being derived and evolved from the spiritual indigenous race was dubious at best and there was evidence to contradict that. As a result Reece would call her Witch Warrior or plastic Witch Warrior. It was banter and mainly a sign of playful affection but Britta would invariably take it personally and seem to be deeply offended. Reece had to remind himself that the galaxies appreciation of the various spectrum of humour was sketchy at best. Britta was tall slim and quite curvy. She had red hair and very fair skin. Her features were sharp and she had a pointed nose and chin- which some said, combined with her height, gave her a harsh foreboding appearance but her voice was gentle, warm and soft and her green eyes inviting.
Her faith believed in a hierarchy which gave kudos to those females with longer hair. She had long red hair down to her lower back. It was straight but a bit stringy in some places.
Reece recalled how he got involved in her; He was going through the termination of marriage preceeding (which is a long and drawn out process) with his ex- one that he was betrothed to on his home world of Myrbat and Britta was there for him , listened and her fighting spirit tenaciously backed Reece up. Reece found that in times like that even having a moral compass and someone to stand in your corner can be invaluable.
Betrothals became common on the world of Myrbat where Reece was born. This occurred when the number of marriages dropped off significantly. The way Myrbat society and law had become- there was little real benefit to marriage, and a staggering 70% ended up in divorce. The lack of marriages, was leading to lack off offspring, alienation of the sexs, and a low birth replenishment rate. Naturally the dictatorship government laid down draconian measures to address this, rather than give a tax advantage for those married they penalized males for staying single and pushed betrothals and arranged marriages from a young age as part of the college curriculum.
Reece and his ex were paired by income ratio, political and spiritual belief alignment and other very cold and hard metrics. It was all executed very coldly by a matriarchy state sponsored edict. As a result Reece was in a marriage based totally on the needs of his wife draining his income. There was no give and take, just take and take. There was no warmth , no 'fun' and camaraderie. Thinking about it- all of Reeces early relationships with women had been that way. Passionless. With all that Reece and his ex had in common, the marriage still bombed spectacularly. As did relationships before that.
When Britta entered the picture, she was a friend, she was warm, playful, fun but feisty and vivacious. They had nothing in common. But there was an instant attraction. It made Reece realise that people and relationships were complex and there was a great deal more to do with 'chemistry' and the genetic disposition of the brain and its effect on our behavior than only likes, interests, values and views. After their first encounter she was attentive, warm and very tactile. She would flirt and seemed to show genuine concern.
They would drink together, find bars and then sing and Reece was able to kick back and really be himself with her. Unlike with his ex- where she frowned on him if he displayed 'wrong emotion' and there was this pressure to keep things 'upbeat' and pretty much fake, Britta and Reece would fight. A lot. The fighting was full of fury and passion, with yelling and physical contact, some light hitting, then laughing and this inevitably led to passionate kissing, love making and sex. It was unlike anything he'd had before.
She grew on Reece- and was unconventionally attractive. She also had an open vulnerability to her that was alluring.
It was her that pushed hard for physical gratification between the two of them which ultimately led to consummation even though Reece was guarded and tried to keep her at arms length as much as possible. It was obvious some part of him needed this though.
As with most relationships- it was only later that this beautifully vivacious red heads absent minded flakeyness and dizziness surfaced. Perhaps before Reece had selective focus and didn't see it, or, more likely, she was on 'best behaviour'.
Britta was a habitual drinker, she didn't know when to stop. She was trying to escape from persecution as a child. She would get mean and personally abusive as well as violent. Reece could hold her at bay quite easily, but she was unpredictable. She would get personal and verbally abusive and later deny doing it. There was a total lack of ownership for her problems and things she did. She would not turn up to pre -arranged dates or appointments. Often arranged for her benefit. Later she would deny the arrangement even happened trying to gas light Reece. More over this lack of ownership, was a continual theme in her life, she was a perpetual victim. She hadn't worked a full time job in years and it was always someone elses fault or 'the system'. She was delightfully positive in most other ways. Reece tried to help her but realized it was futile if she refused to acknowledge there was a problem. Ocasionally when she'd get drunk she would admit she had a problem and she felt like a failure and Reece thought he could build from this to help her but it never worked. Unfortunately she also started to 'mess around' with other guys and make a point of mentioning it to Reece to make him jealous. There was no formal commitment but Reece realized how attached he was becoming to her and didn't like games. He was a straight forward sort of guy. It was a shame but he realized that he had to go his own way and leave her behind before she dragged him down.
What surprised him was just HOW attached he had become to her despite all her games, drama and parasitic victim like tendencies. It drove home to Reece that he was either lonely inside and needed some form of companionship, or, at some level he enjoyed the drama or he had become addicted to the turbulent highs and lows with her. By comparison he had no problems getting over his ex-wife.
Reece could be quite stubborn when his mind was made up and he was now resolved to move forward and cut her out.
By the time of the next annual re-union at the Nighthawk- it wouldn't matter if Britta the warrior witch turned up because she wouldn't be able to effect him.