Learning from the Dark Side

"... Nothing more to report, sir."

"Alright then. I expect something meatier in your next report. That girl better not be interfering with your mission."

"Understood, sir."

"Good. Over and out."

The gruff voice on the other end of the line sounded as annoyed as ever, seemingly displeased with anything and everything that Orion did. Granted, the commanding officer had a better reason this time for not being totally satisfied with Orion's latest report. But even if Orion did have something of substance to communicate back to the future, and his employers/makers, the officer would probably still have treated as Orion as a dog, or something else less than human. It was the way he had always treated Orion, and there was no expectation otherwise.

Orion had long grown used to the treatment, however. When he turned the communicator off, he simply sighed and and rubbed the bridge of his nose. What bothered him most was that the officer really should have sounded so impatient to receive the next report. In time travel, and specifically the awareness of time passing given two separate locations in space-time, waiting was pretty much a non-issue. Even if Orion took weeks to give his next report, he could just "call" his commanding officer at a time only a minute after his previous call. He was very surprised that the officer had not grasped that concept yet.

Then again, time travel was still a new thing even in his own time. So maybe the nuance and rules of etiquette of time travel had not been established yet.

"... Maybe I would have better luck gathering intel at the Academy. It might be time to stop avoiding that place, and just... go."

Until Bell started providing more potions for Orion to send back for analysis, or started educating herself more on her own world of magic, Orion's pool of knowledge was starting to dry up. He needed magical knowledge to send to his benefactors, and he could no longer just rely on one or two sources, especially when there was one huge resource on the island. Frankly, he had only been avoiding the place because he would have preferred not getting tangled up in a school life.

Out of habit, he rubbed the back of his neck. The gesture triggered a memory, and he suddenly remembered that he did have one other source of magical information: Delise.

"Huh. Never thought about her... Maybe..."

Orion had not realized it until that moment, but he had neither experienced the tingling pain of Delise's thrall nor consumed any of Bell's thrall-dampening potion in recent memory. Maybe it was a sign that he become used to both of them to the point that it did not register when neither were in his life anymore. They both did make mention that the thrall's power was mostly proportional to how frequently he indulged in Delise's delights. So it made sense that the thrall was pretty much over since he had been spending more of his time with Bell, even going as far as to admit his affection for her.

It made him think that, maybe, he had a chance to be on equal footing with Delise when she came around again. With the thrall seemingly gone, he would not longer be so easy to sway onto his back nor wrapped so tightly around her finger.

As luck would have it, Delise was coming over to his place again, unannounced as always. He spotted the young woman approaching while glancing out one of his windows. With a bit of a smile on his face, Orion donned his SAGE glove once more and went for the hatch.

He had to take a moment, however, to breathe and put himself back into character again. It had been so long since he had acted the fool, but he needed to do it if he was going to pop out of his dwelling, if only for a moment.

Orion tugged open the hatch and hung half of his body out the port hole and faced Delise's direction, waving enthusiastically.

"Hellooo~! It's been awhile, Delise! Got somethin' on your mind, or just lookin' to hang out again?"

Playing the fool for Delise was, essentially, a formality at this point in their relationship. The young woman had very clearly, intimately seen Orion's real self already. It might not have been the person that Bell was more familiar with, but there was little else to show Delise that she would conceivably care about. Putting on the smiles and and energetically bouncing about was for anyone else that might be watching him. Once Delise climbed the ladder he lowered for her, his facade quickly dropped.

He had forgotten the way Delise and moved, and the way her voice danced on ears. Bell might have been the woman for him (as far as he was familiar with the concept), but Delise still had the unmistakable air of the temptress that lured so many men throughout time to both bliss and doom.

"So... What have you been up to lately, honey?"

Once more, his saucy was a testament to just how un-normal Orion was when compared to the average male in the current time period. He had confessed his affection to Bell before, and he had been happy even when she made it clear that she was not ready to say the same for certain. But that did little to stop him from bringing up the flirt up again with Delise. Maybe it was his lack of social experience showing. He thought it was logical that, as long as his heart remained for Bell, he could still play with Delise. Within reason.

Still wearing that mischievous grin, Orion made no attempt to hide that he was tapping out a command or something on his computer console. Delise would not know it, but he was turning on recording devices. Then, he sauntered up to her and played the gentleman by leaning over and kissing her hand as he held it in his own.

"I hope it's nothing too bad..."

Bending over and giving Delise some overt, possibly unwarranted, attention tickled Orion's brain in a familiar way. Like tasting a nice dessert after a long fruitful diet, Orion was suddenly starting to remember why he liked doing that in the first place. The sensation of subservience, and the rush it brought him, was not one that was easily scrubbed completely from his memory. Bell was wonderful, beautiful, and made him happy in multiple ways. But Delise made him very happy in one specific way.

He raised an eyebrow when she called herself a witch, a term he was sure she had never referred to herself as before. Succubus? Definitely. Witch? No. It put her in roughly the same league as Bell, and Orion wondered if there was some interesting parallels to be found in their comparison.

"Some people just don't know how good they got it."

He sidled up close to Delise, offering himself to be eyed-up.

"I, on the other hand, can appreciate such a craft. In fact, I'd love to see a hex or two conjured by your hand. Would that be fun?"

Being an experiment himself, Orion was quite used to being treated as a guinea pig. It was far from the healthiest state of mind, and sometimes he actually wondered why he was still okay with it despite being smart enough to know better. Between constant treatment as a less-than-human and the minor rewards he got for playing the role, maybe it was less surprising from a psychological view. To make the situation seem less bleak, though, he chalked it up to eccentric curiosity.

Always the willing participant, Orion stepped back and allowed Delise whatever room she needed to perform whatever magic she in mind. He was in ready to assume the position and put his arms out to his side and put his feet apart so she could touch whatever was necessary. And the entire time, he wore an expectant smile and carefully watched her movements.

"Care to explain how you're performing this 'hex', as you call it?"

He wanted as much information out of her as he could while still indulging both of their... curiosities. There was no intention to trick it out of her, but it seemed like her not knowing she was being recorded was for the better.

At first, he felt nothing after being traced by her finger, other than the tingle it gave him. He assumed a hex would be more... flashy, perhaps involving a magic circle of some kind. But when he lowered his arms he found that his shirt had... dissolved or something. It was still whole, but his arms just slipped right out and he threatened to slip entirely through the widening collar of his shirt.

"Woah ho! Interesting! What do you call this? How does it work? IS it just my shirt or--"

His question was answered when, while he squirmed to look at his clothes, his pant started slipping like they were made of mist.