trans_9 | Playtime [so open it hurts + bendytimed to after holiday plot]

Entry tags:

Playtime [so open it hurts + bendytimed to after holiday plot]

"A dog is one of the remaining reasons why some people can be persuaded to go for a walk."

The Sensoriums are being used; this in and of itself is not news to anyone, as the ship has a multitude of active crewmembers now and any of them can be seen in the cavernous VR room at any moment.

No, the oddness doesn't register until you actually walk in to the current user projection. If you're human, that is.

A vast expanse of grass stretches as far as the eye can see. A huge meadow, held in by trees and peppered with flowers like tulips, devil's paintbrush and broom shrub; in the distance, a small pond, bordered by stones and overseen by a twisted old oak. The eye, however, seems not to catch much. The blades of grass are oddly hazy; only when they move, whistling lightly in the wind, do they suddenly become incredibly crisp, each individual strand as striking as the next. The entire field is like this; each time the branches creak the movement is incredibly sharp, and each bee and butterfly alighting on each flowerbud is in clear relief. Rabbits hide in the grass, their quivering bodies pulsing with each heartbeat.

Wonder of wonders, no matter where you go or how you carry yourself--the grass always seems to be at chest level. How odd.

There is no red to be seen, not in the tulips or the paintbrushes; the yellow of the broom flowers in tinged with green. The grass is ludicrously green, the sky and the water both ridiculously blue. No orange in the brown rabbit fur; only a bluish grey. The tree bark is as grey as slate, and the clouds are white and diaphanous.

But the smells. The scents are nothing you could experience from an ordinary human nose. Some people with lighter stomach may find themselves overwhelmed. The cloying scent of flowers, the honey smell of bees, the dusty, bloody scent of the rabbits; every stone, every tree, every strand of grass has its own taste, its own smell.

If you hustle around in this wierd world for a minute, you can find Bandit, dozing lightly in a sunny patch of grass.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sherry had gone to find "her" (just who Bandit belonged to was up in the air - and generally speaking, Bandit belonged to himself - but she liked to think of him as hers) dog. She peeked in the room he shared with her father, looked in among the statuary (dogs liked statues, right?) and finally ended up in the sensory-overloaded scene that the sensoriums opened up to.

She staggered back for a second and clapped a hand over her nose to filter the smells. Well, if her puppy wasn't in here, something else interesting might be. And then she'd go right back to looking for Bandit. Taking another overpowering breath of air, Sherry moved her hand and whistled sharply. "Bandit? Bandit! Are you in here?"

Bandit's ear perked at the sound of his name, followed by the whole head and pretty soon, the entire dog. He shook the sleepiness off and bounded over to 'his' (generally speaking, Bandit considered half the ship as 'his family' so they were even, really) girl and affectionately pressed his warm nose against her hip.

SHERRY. He greeted, tail wagging. MAKE FIELD. ?SEE? He took a few steps back, twisting a bit as if to demonstrate the grandness of the field and the sun and the pond.

"Good boy, Bandit," Sherry smiled. She patted his side affectionately and plopped down in the bright green grass with a sigh. "It's a very nice field. Very.... Green." Very, very green. Was this how he saw?

"Do you want to play?" she asked. Truthfully, Sherry knew she'd been very hard at work with studying and hadn't been paying nearly as much attention to Bandit that she used to. He probably needed a good round of play.

This was indeed how Bandit percieved the world: nose first, then with his ears, and finally with his eyes, which were actually much less use than a human's. He was happy that she liked his handiwork, though, and let her know by licking her hand. When she mentionned play, he wagged his tail energetically. Bandit was always up for play, even though he was also comprehensive when his humans couldn't give him time.

!!PLAY!! He cried, leaping up and down. They could play chase, or swim, or fetch! The options were endless!

Sherry laughed. It was a shy sound, like she wasn't entirely sure if she was doing it right, but bright and childish. She stood up and patted the dirt off her jeans, looking for a ball, or a stick, or something with which to entertain her puppy.

"Fetch? Do you want to play fetch?" Aha, there was a tennis ball not too far off (probably kindly provided by the sensoriums) that begged for grabbing. Sherry scratched under his chin affectionately and scurried over to get the ball. She waved it at Bandit. "Ready?"

Sherry clearly needed to laugh more often. The sound made Bandit happy. s he saw her moving around for a projectile, he happily materialized one.

Dogs seen powerfully in the green-yellow spectrum, so that ball? Is practically glowing like a nuke. In movement? It's going to be about twenty times more clear. Small wonder dogs like tennis balls so much.

He dances away from her, leaping up with his tail wagging hard.

!!BALL!! GUD PLAY BALL!

Sherry tucked her new locket into her shirt for safe keeping, and also so she wouldn't get whacked in the chin with a bit of gold, then stretched her arm. No doubt Kelly would give her the most disapproving look to end all looks if she said she hurt her arm while throwing a ball.

And that, dear sweet Bandit, would be the epitome of stupid. Sherry laughed again and threw the ball as hard as she could across the field. The ball didn't go very far (she was twelve and the closest thing to normal of all her family members), and rolled into the grass some distance off.

Sherry hurting anything was bad news. That said, could just throw the ball already?!

Bandit was practically keening with excitement, sitting ramrod-straight and looking right at her.

She hadn't even finished her pitch that he was already off like a shot, and with the short distance of her throw he completely overshot the distance; stopping a few dozen feet away from the point of landing, he looked around confusedly before turning around, spotting it, and throwing himself upon it with gusto.

He obediently returned it Sherry, looking quite proud. It was the Retriever in him, it's couldn't be silenced.

"Good dog!" Sherry praised him and scritched his ears. She tugged playfully on the ball. "I'll try to throw it further next time, okay?"

But for the moment, Puppeh vs Sherry tug of war. ~~y/y?~~

YES. MORE FAR, Bandit agreed, chewing lightly on the ball.

When she pulled, he tugged back, making a little growling noise. His tail wagged, and he play-bowed. He would give it her when she asked for it, but he could tell she wanted to play tug-tug. He was very good at tug-tug! He'd show her.

Sherry pulled back, and giggled, pulling the ball side-to-side. The tennis ball was gooey with dog drool (eewwww) and it made it a little hard to hang on to as much as she'd like, but Sherry was determined to win.

Even if Bandit was technically winning by grace of having drooled on the ball to begin with and she was still touching it. "Should've gotten a rope instead..." she grunted and held on.

Nanoha had been on her way to train in the Sensoriums... but upon entering, the surreal nature of the place made her stop in her tracks, looking around cautiously, not quite sure what to expect.

She couldn't see anyone, but... "Hello?" She called.

Bandit smelled Nanoha enter his playground and perked up. For a moment, only the two ears, up and alert, peeked over the grass, followed by Bandit's head.

At Nanoha's call, he bounded over to greet her, stopping short to politely sniff. HELLO.

At the sight of the dog, Nanoha's face lit up - and if she were surprised to hear him talk, she didn't show it. Hanging around Arf and Zafira got one used to that, anyway.

The girl crouched down to the ground, extending a friendly hand out for him to sniff. "Well hi there! I'm sorry, was I interrupting you?"

Bandit wagged his tail lightly. He liked her calm, friendly energy. He sniffed her hand, picking up a variety of info, like places she'd been to recently, people she'd met, how old she was; once that was done, he sat down.

BANDIT SLEEP. WARM IN SUN NOT-SUN. He looked up at the 'sun' he had made, then back at her. MAKE. FIELD. WATER. TREE.

Her hand slid a bit closer to him to gently and playfully scratch the top of his muzzle, and she smiled. "This must be how you see the world, huh? It's really interesting to look at everything like this!"

"I'm Nanoha. It's nice to meet you, Bandit."

He tilted his head at her, curious.

SEE...'WORLD'. SEE...? He is confused. He can't grasp that humans see diferently. He just can't percieve reds! All he knows is that they have weak noses. A part of him gets, in a very real sense, that humans are a whole different thing and that they should recieve special treatment because of it, but he simply doesn't have the kind of brainpower it requires to imagine what life must be like as one. Luckily, her next statement lets him fall back on much more familair terrain.

NICE 2 MEET U, NAN-O-HA. He greets politely, wagging his tail. He rolls over and presents his belly for scratches.

Nanoha was only too happy to oblige, scooching in a bit closer to kneel in the grass by him, reaching out to scratch his belly, moving up and down rhythmically. "Aw, you're a good boy, aren't you, Bandit?"

Bandit made a happy noise as she rubbed. His hind leg kicked a little.

IS GUD DOG. HELP BOSS. HELP MAN. IS GUD.

"Yep! You're a good dog," Nanoha giggled a bit to herself, scratching a bit faster, and now adding her other hand. "Do you have any friends?"

'FRIENDS'? Bandit queried. ?WORD?

For the record, Bandit has tons, he just...doesn't use that word to refer to them. Also, please don't stop with the scratching. He likes scritches.

Oh, Nanoha isn't going to stop the scratching and petting and rubbing anytime soon - she loves animals. "You know, people you care about!"

Given that the last "talking animals" she knew were all either shapeshifting mages or familiars - who all understood and spoke human language perfectly - she might not be explaining herself to Bandit as well as possible.

Edited 2010-01-07 19:31 (UTC)

See, now this was why Steve always liked to see what other people made the sensoriums into. If you weren't a little curious you missed out on things like this.

He wandered, puzzled, out into the field until he caught sight of the person... dog who had likely made it. It took Steve a moment to realize who the dog was and where he had seen him last.

"You're the dog who saved us from the Tyrant," he said, mostly to himself. Bandit would more than likely notice him, of course.

Yes well, this is what the world looks like when you take out the entire red spectrum. The sunsets are kind of wierd, not to mention the haziness, but it's very livable. Plus the scents make up for it.

Bandit sniffs out Steve's approach and has is head up, at least, before Steve comes up to him. He tilts his head. TAI-RANT. ?WORD? He knows Steve though, the smell is familiar. MAN SICK. 2 SICK 4 RUN. BANDIT HELP MAN. IS GUD DOG. Bandit leans over to sniff Steve more. NO BAD SICK NOW.

That's right... this dog could talk, too. Steve leaned over next to Bandit and scratched him behind the ears. "Yeah, you are a good dog," he said. "And I'm not as sick as I was anymore, either."

He regarded the dog thoughtfully. "So your name's Bandit, huh? My name's Steve."

Ear scritchies, hell yes. Bandit leaned almost forcefully into Steve's hand, one leg beating the ground furiously. He was even being called a good dog! And he didn't even do anything! Scratchgasm!

NICE 2 MEET U, STEEV. He declared, the voice box on top of his head making little fuzz noises as his mind was preoccupied with scritches. IS GUD BOSS.

He kneeled down and kept up the scritchies. Steve had been wondering what the thing on the poor dog's head was. Not to mention where he got the battlesuit he'd been using when he blew a Tyrant's head off. He thought about asking him, but it struck him as something of a personal question.

He was also a dog and probably had no idea what counted as a personal question or how to interpret such a thing offensively, but Steve wanted to cover his bases, dammit. Maybe the dog had been an experiment, just like he had.

"So you made this field, didn't you, Bandit? It's pretty cool."

Steve would be right about Bandit not having a concept of 'personal space'; that said, he is trained not to divulge certain things, such as his missions, the use of his suit...that said, now that he wasn't in the lab, and Leon had more or less given him permission, he was more willing to talk.

BANDIT MAKE. SEE LIKE THIS. GO 2.

"I guess everybody likes to get away from reality sometimes," he said, mostly to himself, moving his hand down to scratch Bandit under the chin. He felt a little pang of homesickness and thought about his own dog. In any case, it was nice to pet a dog again.

"I almost didn't recognize you without your suit. Then again I wasn't looking so hot last time I saw you either." What with the red eyes and the twisting hand and the flaming blood and all. "We're both looking better now if you ask me."

This place almost reminded Fate of the dreams(old memories, not her memories) she had when she was a child. There were some differences, but the endless meadow, the patches of trees and flowers... it was close enough.

So curiosity had gotten the better of her, and she was currently wandering around. There was no set purpose in mind, she was just exploring.

Edited 2010-01-07 03:58 (UTC)

Bandit had based the simulation on a variety of locales he'd visited over the years he'd spent as a weapon. The flowers didn't match the type of grass, the trees were out of place, but as a whole it seemed to work.

Bandit watched her move about, without really looking up from his nap. He could smell her coming and going, in any case.

After a few more minutes of wandering, Fate finally finally found the field's creator... and instantly broke out in a wide smile. She loved dogs! She had been a dog person for as long as she could remember, ever since she saved a poor dying wolf cub and made her into her familiar, Arf.

"Hello there!" She said softly, crouching down a few feet away from Bandit.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Playtime [so open it hurts + bendytimed to after holiday plot]

no subject

no subject

no subject

that is a cute icon

two seconds after this, Leon makes her cry.

....ffffff Leon, what a faildad

no subject

puppeh needs more happy icons :/

Re: puppeh needs more happy icons :/

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject