trans_9 | Que tengo hacer para tener... [closed]

"En mis labios esos tus labecitos bonitos
Que tengo que hacer para tener
De tu sabor un poquito..."

Boy, it had been a long time since Luis had heard that song. Boy, it had been a long time since he had been in this club-- a rather low-key location compared to some of the places he'd been with his friends from the university. The nightlife in Madrid was not exactly for the faint of heart. But this was one of his favorite places, so he figured it would be a good spot for a date. Besides, if Mei Ling didn't like it he could just change it.

He had stepped outside for a moment to have a cigarette. It was virtual, but goddamn it had been a long time since he got to smoke, and thinking he was smoking was far better than the sad reality. It occurred to him it was stupid to step outside to fake smoke as he was snuffing out his fake cigarette and throwing a fake piece of gum in his mouth so he wouldn't fake stink like smoke when Mei Ling arrived. Oh well. Extra points for realism. Hopefully she'd be around soon.

If he got fake stood up on his fake date he'd have to go inside and have a couple of fake drinks.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mei Ling wouldn't dare stand Luis up on their fake date of partaking in fake drinks (though Mei Ling would be partaking with fake soda, even if she was of legal drinking age in fake Europe). She walked along cheerily, looking for her "date."

Once spotted, looking bubbly as ever, she waved at him. She greeted him with a happy "Hello."

Luis' expression brightened as soon as he saw her. "Hey, señorita! Glad you could make it. I thought I'd take you to somewhere I know..." He gestured at the strange digital city around them, a perfect recollection of Madrid, Spain-- just blocks away from Universidad de Complutense, where Luis had spent the better part of a decade splitting time between the bars and the laboratory.

"Of course, the memory and the pleasure are both all mine this evening," he said.

She laughed a bit at his compliment. Flattery gets you everywhere. "I can't say I've ever been somewhere quite like this. It really is lovely. So what are we doing tonight?"

"I was going to leave it up to you. Ladies' choice, you know," he replied. "But I did pick a pretty quiet club. I'd love to hear about your communication project, if you don't mind talking shop."

Yes, he legitimately wanted to hear about that on a date.

"Not at all!" Actually, there probably wasn't anything she'd rather do than talk tech. "That sounds fun. Shall we go then?"

"Absolutely." He offered her his arm and just before turning to lead her inside the club, he turned around and gestured at a rooftop across the city horizon.

"That building there is the university where I work...ed," Luis told her. "I used to come to this place all the time. Some of the best years of my life."

They probably were the best years of his life, considering that he spent the other 17 or so in Pueblo.

Inside the door, he ordered another fake drink from the fake bartender. "Can I procure you a virtual drink, baby?"

"A virtual soda is fine," Mei Ling wasn't so accustomed to drinking. Even if they were in a fake bar and be drinking fake drinks, she'd rather stick to something she was a bit more comfortable with.

He complied and brought her a soda, keeping his own drink in his other hand. He handed it to her and had a seat at a booth near the door.

"So, tell me all about yourself and your work," he prodded. "I'm dying to know."

"I work as an image and data processing specialist for the military, mostly dealing with radar and communication systems. It's not glamorous, but a wise man once said 'find a job you love and you'll never work a day in your life.'"

She paused to think about that job. She used to wonder if she'd still have that job after the incident at Shadow Moses; she got pulled onto Stacy at a rather odd time in her life. Well, she really didn't have to wonder about that anymore...

She chased any depressing thoughts out of her mind, she looked at Luis with a smile and asked, "What is your work like?"

"What a fantastic proverb. I couldn't agree more," Luis said, trying on one of those charming smiles the Spanish were so famous for. "I came to the city for university and became a biologist. I do all sorts of things... studying samples, experimental observations, testing drugs and treatments, research reports..." There was a sincere dazzle in his eyes as he waxed poetic about filling out paperwork all day.

"Honestly, it must sound incredibly boring but I couldn't dream of a better career."

Those charming smiles were getting to her, Luis. She can't help but keep smiling back at him. She listened to him jabber on about his job but she was genuinely interested. It was rare to find someone who shared the same dedication to their work.

"I understand completely. You seem quite passionate about your job."

"I grew up in this tiny little town in Spain. And when I say tiny, I mean tiny. Three hundred people, tops, in a good year," he elaborated. "Science was the only possible way to make that place interesting. The river, the animals, the plants, the weather, anything you could study to take your mind off the fact that you lived there. So I've been interested in science since I was a kid, and it only got worse from there."

He tipped back the rest of his drink and set it alongside. "But it's like you said. Every day's exciting when you love your job." Especially now that he was a science officer on a big cool spaceship and not accidentally assisting in a world domination plot.

"Sounds beautiful, though," Mei Ling's thoughts drifted away constructing the charming landscape in her mind. It was the opposite of her home. Cold, concrete, crowded. The city was a tough place to live sometimes. Not that Mei Ling ever concerned herself with what was going on around her. She was so focused on school as a child that she was oblivious to everything around her.

"It's nice to have something..." She searched for the right word, "Familiar on this ship. It's nice to be able to do basically my same job."

She offered a soft smile. She found comfort in small things.

If he could see her mental picture of Pueblo, he would have advised her to make it grayer. And browner. Stuffier people. More cows. Stinkier. And much more boring.

"I know what you mean," he agreed. "Any little bit of normalcy you can have, sí? Then at least there's something that goes according to plan and routine, so you don't have to worry about it."

She nodded, "It seems a bit silly, but I love that I can do the same thing and maybe be useful to the rest of the crew."

Luis smiled at that and recovered his mostly empty drink. "Here's to being useful, señorita."

Through the magic of digital hologram, he had another drink all of a sudden. "So, we're both workaholics, obviously. But what do you like to do when you're not at work?"

Que tengo hacer para tener... [closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject