trans_9 | GOLD PLANET

"It's like three feet of water, I don't think I'm going to worry about falling over and drowning," John says, Aeryn's hand warm in his as he helps her over the step and onto the little boat. It rocks slightly; he bets it's on a track, like Small World. Hopefully minus the creepy dolls. Don't get him started on creepy dolls these days, he's had far too many creepy dolls in his life recently. "It's easy. All we do is just relax here and...that's about it."

Boring, maybe. But it's probably the least tacky thing here and most importantly, it's quiet, and nice and away from the arcade. John settles back on his seat, aware of Aeryn sitting almost close enough to touch her leg to his; the lap of the water against the side of the boat; thinking about how the water's not drinkable if it's anything like Disneyland. How different this is from how his life was only a few days ago back on Moya. John's got to admit, he's not sure how to take it.

The boat goes through the prerequisite heart-shaped gate. John can't help glancing out the corner of his eye as a carnie's idea of "setting the mood" music starts to play through the speakers, checking for Aeryn's reaction to her very first Tunnel of Love.

Aeryn, meanwhile, is very studiously not looking at John. In fact, her posture's a little stiff. She forces herself to relax as much as possible. Trailing her hand in the water, trying to ignore how Crichton smells, listening to... could that be considered 'music'?

The silence is more awkward than talking, somehow. She sneaks a glance at Crichton, who's sitting there as comfortable and gawky as ever. Sometimes she hates him.

"Have you been on many of these 'boat rides'?" Aeryn asks, and then instantly regrets it.

It's nice and quiet in here, kinda humid, but they're so far in that he can't hear the ring of the bells back at the carnival. John glances over toward Aeryn's voice, able to only see a dim outline of her face as they go deeper into the Tunnel of Love, and it's one of those times he can't tell how much she can see what with the whole superior alien eyes she's got there.

"Uh," John starts intelligently. He bites his lip, thinking about it. He'd made out in Tunnels of Love enough to have a lot of fond memories there. "Not a lot. A few times. Mostly back when I was in high school." He realizes she probably wouldn't know much about that, so.. "High school. On Earth when you're older than a kid, you have to go through more instruction and - "

He almost goes on to add that sometimes you end up fooling around on the side or after skipping football practice, but he's not sure how Aeryn would take it. He gets Peacekeepers do "recreate", except making out isn't just bam, insert and go at it and mission complete, you get a gold star, etc. It's more about learning the ropes, making goofy mistakes like where your nose goes when you're kissing someone and Oh God, no one told me what I'm supposed to do with my hands kind of thing.

"Anyway, I'd found them fun back home. I haven't been to one in years though," John finishes. He can barely see Aeryn and normally these days, it'd make him real nervous to be in the dark with someone he can't see. Trigger finger, all that. Aeryn, though. He feels (mostly) safe with Aeryn.

Not a lot. Well, that's better than what she was assuming. Though it really doesn't matter, does it? It isn't as if she has any intent to experience 'love' with Crichton. Recreate... well, she wouldn't discount it right away. She's not above blowing off some steam. But she doubts Crichton would ever leave it at that.

"Fun?" Aeryn arches a brow, though Crichton probably can't see it. "What's so 'fun' about it?" Why no, she isn't above teasing him.

John will insist he's not the kind of guy to blush. So that's what he's not doing, not blushing at all or thinking that Aeryn picks some hard questions. "It's dark? Sets the mood? Parents probably aren't packed in the boat with you. Use your imagination, Aeryn."

He can't see her face or that tell-tale tiny quirk of the corner of his mouth to tell him that she's pulling his leg again. It's not often. And it's taken him a long time to figure out when she's getting smart with him. In a way, he's found it refreshing when she does it, that quiet way she can suddenly surprise him with it when he's not ready and it's hard to look at her and remember what it'd felt like when he was first getting to know her. John tries to focus on her face but again, all he sees is the outline of her cheek and that's about it.

John thinks she's being funny again. He breaks out into a grin.

"Think of it like an Earth tradition. Like SNL, but the other way around: it gets better as it goes." It's an invitation, Crichton-style.

She sneaks another glance at him, resisting the urge to remind Crichton that she never knew her parents. That would definitely break the 'mood' he's going on about. Wouldn't it?

"Does it?" Aeryn shifts a bit, just enough to let her knee casually graze against his. "I can think of better places to recreate." She leans back with folded arms, letting him know that she knows exactly what's going on here. And she isn't bothered by it at all. Not at all.

John's eyes flick down to the touch, even if he can't really see it with how dark it is in the tunnel. The water laps against the sides of the boat.

"I'm open to suggestions," John says, brushing his knee back against hers. It's more of a test than anything else, see how far he can get - it's always like that with Aeryn, where it's complicated and messy or not-messy-enough and every time he thinks he's gotten close, he's left feeling like he stuck his head inside a jet engine when she suddenly turns all-business on him.

All he knows is he feels anchored around her. Or he used to. These days it's been harder than usual to get that grounded feeling, even with Aeryn there, but he's not yet at the point he can admit to her how bad it's gotten. John leans in closer, still giving Aeryn space to back out if she wants.

"Well, first of all," Aeryn begins, uncrossing her arms and leaning in ever-so-slightly herself, "Someplace not quite as... wet." Frell, he smells good. The showers on Stacy are far more thorough than those on Moya. Actually. She doesn't quite want to think about why that is. Gives her a wood-- no, the willies. Gives her the 'willies'. Whatever those are.

"Someplace that doesn't smell like the bottom of a lake," she continues, her face tantalizingly close to John's. "And... someplace with a bit more... stability." She grips the edge of the boat and gives it a hard rock.

Aeryn Sun. Ex-officer Aeryn Sun. You are the queen of mixed signals. John thinks he should be exercising some better judgement, knows full well how weird it's gotten with them in the past and he thinks at the same time, frell that, he's not doing so well on the good judgment front anyway so what's the point of bothering now?

"Wet's another ballpark entirely. Skinny dipping. Art form where I come from," John's close enough in the dark to feel her filling that space only inches away. "Trust me, you'll get used to the smell."

He starts to reach up to cup where he thinks her face is only for the boat to suddenly dip out under him. John tries to catch himself and ends up getting an armful of Aeryn before he can get his balance. Human's sense of balance - not exactly on par with a Sebacean, much less an amped up one like Aeryn, and that was on his good days. John takes the opportunity to scoot in closer, reaching up with a hand to brush her hair away from her shoulder. He nuzzles closer, close enough to kiss her gently on her cheek.

Aeryn laughs as Crichton struggles to regain his balance, only to have that laugh abruptly cut off as the rocking boat only brings him closer to her. Suddenly it's like all the air has gone out, something that makes little sense considering they're outdoors. She freezes when he touches her hair. Kisses her on the cheek.

"John." It's a hesitation. A warning. But she's not pulling away.

John's breath tickles against Aeryn's ear. "Yeah?"

Maybe he's reading her wrong. He didn't make up that fake Earth, that time right before they nearly creamed themselves on the Flax. Granted, life-or-death situations tend to do that to you (or maybe it's him. And Aeryn), but there's all those other times where Aeryn's given him that look or that smile and like he said, mixed signals. Makes a guy wonder how it goes on a Command Carrier. She's told him a bit about it. The whole "recreating" thing. No attachments. Like Jedi through the looking glass. But John still has trouble wrapping his head around it and he has to remind himself that the stuff you could pull on Earth might not get the same reaction with Aeryn. He pulls back slightly in the dark.

His hand, though, remains on her cheek as his thumb gently brushes against her skin. Maybe he can't see her, but he can sense her perfectly fine.

The boat rocks gently, slowing to a gentle sway as Aeryn leans slightly into the caress. There's nothing wrong with this, she tells herself. They've both done these things before with many partners. It might even be a good idea, to relieve tension. It doesn't have to mean anything. Even if the ride is called "The Tunnel of Love".

She reaches behind his neck, pulls him back to her for a less tentative, more deliberate kiss. That's all it is, after all. Just a kiss. If Crichton thinks any differently, that's his problem.

At this point John wants to say he’s learned better than to expect it to be anything but business between them, only suddenly Aeryn’s crushing her lips to his and any rational thoughts he has go right out the window. Aeryn doesn’t kiss like anyone back on Earth. He’ll give her that. It’s both in his face, blunt, no-nonsense and at the same time it’s something else. It’s…well, it’s Aeryn. That’s about the only thing he can say and it’s still not enough.

Hey, in his defense, it wasn’t like he’d majored in poetry or creative writing or whatever.

He kisses back. John has to say he likes Aeryn a lot better when she’s like this and not waving guns in his face (which, at this point, he really thinks he should be used to. By now he’s had a lot of guns in his face, to the point he’s stopped having nightmares about it). Sometimes he’s so used to seeing her GI Jane-ing up the place that he almost forgets that time on Earth. Bizarro Earth. Now it’s all coming back. John brushes the hair out of her face – please God don’t let him accidentally poke out her eye – and then leans around to kiss her around her jaw, working his way up.

Aeryn allows her eyes to drift closed, her fingers exploring the hair at the nape of Crichton's neck before falling to his collar and tugging restlessly at it. To her this is just business, in a way. This is about satisfying an urge. And though the environment is not ideal, she's sure they can make the best of it.

"How much longer is this tunnel, do you think?" she whispers in his ear.

Give John a second to remember where they are. Since he hasn't found the Off switch on the creepy plantsuits yet, the collar only gives slightly under Aeryn's touch but doesn't get much further than that, John making one of those odd human noises of frustration of his. Of all the times -

"Hold on, lemme -- ," he tries to reach up to have a go at the collar himself. "Probably a bit, who knows? Unless our ride conveniently breaks down."

Only can only hope. John's in danger of being distracted by the problem of his plantsuit being in the way. Don't even ask him how they're expected to piss in these things. The fact he hasn't had the urge is disturbing enough. He tries to aim a "Aeryn, help a guy out here" look, but the effect is probably lost in the dark. Clearly he didn't think this entirely through.

Edited 2011-11-10 19:46 (UTC)

"Good idea." Aeryn's done with thinking, herself. There must be some way to get these frelling suits off. She runs her hands expertly over Crichton's body, looking for some sort of zipper or fastener with superior focus... all right, maybe she's getting a bit distracted by some parts.

Somewhere in all that groping she suddenly realizes that there's more of a breeze than usual.

"Are we out of the tunnel?" Aeryn pokes her head up, getting her bearings... and realizes that she's the only one feeling that particular breeze. Seeing as she no longer has any clothes on.

"Huh?" John's not got his thinking hat on right now as he's busy nuzzling against Aeryn's neck. In his defense, he's a guy and Aeryn's one hell of a woman who's doing a pretty damn good job handling his bits through the plantsuit and that seems like the kind of thing he'd rather focus on than how much time they've got to fool around, so...yeah, Aeryn is probably asking more of him than he's capable of right now.

He blinks, finally noticing that one, he can almost see her face now and two, it's getting drafty in here and - oh. Well. That explains things.

Aeryn's suddenly naked. And whatever she did, it's not helped when she brushes up against him and before he can have time to register it, the plantsuit's gone and he's sitting shivering on a bench that's still wet. John immediately tries to cross his legs together. Fun was one thing. Suddenly losing your duds and not knowing how to get them back? Toeing that line of This Is Too Frelling Weird for him.

"What'd you do?" John's voice rises up a pitch. Aeryn might not care about being naked but he's not her. John casts about for something to cover himself before they come out the other side.

She pulls back abruptly. "What'd Ido?" Aeryn thinks she has a right to be defensive. After all, wasn't this entire situation Crichton's doing? "Isn't this what you--"

It's then that she notices the increasing light level. Instantly she rummages around the boat in a frantic yet futile search for their suits.

"The tunnel! We're almost out of the frelling tunnel!"

Aeryn may not mind nudity as much as John, but this is a time where she'd prefer to be wearing something.

Talk about a buzzkill. John joins her in the wild searching for clothes, which is pretty hard when you didn't even jump in the boat wearing a real set of pants in the first place. What'd she even push? Something had to have gotten pushed on the plantsuits. Like some power button or whatever.

He isn't sure why Aeryn's upset about it considering how casual she was about sex, but he figures exposing herself and the fact she isn't exactly armed to the teeth with guns might have something to do with it. Probably something about not showing all your cards to potential hostiles. Something military like that. The whole weapons disadvantage thing. Him? Hell, he just didn't want to be waving his junk for all the world to see.

John glances over the side of the boat to see if there's a way to stop it and looks up in time to see that it's too late -- they're already out the other side and there's...what he thinks is a family of squid just staring at them. What look like eyes are blinking and glittering at them, John staring back like a deer. Maybe he's just a lowly human, but that whole thing about not walking around naked never did go away, no matter how many months he spent on Moya.

"Hi," John says, feeling his ears burning. He tries to go for bold. "We're just testing the boat. It's sturdy. A-okay." Here, alien tourists: have a Crichton Thumbs Up.

Edited 2011-11-24 06:32 (UTC)

Aeryn stares the squid family down as well, but less like a deer and more like a tiger. Not that she'd know what a tiger is. But the look in her eyes clearly says, 'You wanna make something of it'?

"Seen enough?" she calls over to them, and they quickly scurry away, gun or no gun. Aeryn turns back to Crichton.

"It must have been something we triggered," she reasons. "Something... oh frell, what's that on your wrist?"

He just got checked out by a bunch of squid. John can strike that off his bucket list. Weirdly enough, he never thought that would’ve ever been on there in the first place until now. Bizarre universe.

His cheeks still red, John turns his attention back to Aeryn. She’s charming as always, looking anything but embarrassed despite full on flashing some super evolved sea monkeys today and he has to remind himself to stop glancing down at her breasts despite himself. Lady Godiva, she isn’t. He finds his eyes wandering. Okay, John Crichton, now seriously isn’t the time. He frowns as she points out his wrist, glancing down as if he expects another alien critter to be attached to him and dreading what he’ll find. What he sees is so tame that he almost laughs. Just a bracelet with this gem thing, no facehugger working its way up his arm. Thank God.

“It’s the same color as the plantsuit,” John reaches out to touch the red jem. He nearly jumps a foot when it suddenly expands, the plantsuit flooding up his arm and his body almost faster than he can register. “Holy - !”

Aeryn really does laugh, looking down to confirm she also has the strange bracelet on her wrist and pressing on it without hesitation. And then, once she's clothed, she presses it again experimentally. And then again.

After a few microts of magically disappearing and reappearing clothing, Aeryn appears satisfied and relaxes back in the boat with a smile of relief and amusement. And maybe pride. She's figured something out.

"Want to go through again?"

Aeryn Sun, what kind of guy would say no to that? Not even kidding -- John couldn't think of a single guy who would look at what she said and not take it the way he's taking it.

That or she really digs boat rides but he catches one of those rare, almost sly Aeryn grins of hers, the ones that she doesn't dish out like candy because she's not that kind of person and finds that he starts to grin himself. Who knew all you needed for the perfect non-date was dysfunctional clothes and an alien Tunnel of Love?

"I'm game," John says, as the boat starts to go back to the start of the tunnel.

GOLD PLANET

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...l-lol head canon time is a go, damn you fuzzy Crichton history :P

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LOL I have no idea where I'm going with it :P ENJOY

I DON'T THINK THEY KNOW EITHER

/rolls with it like Oregon Trail but with less river fording

ARE YOU SURE ABOUT THAT

SURE

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You know, I think Aeryn should discover the plant suits can shrink ;D

Aye-aye, cap'n o7

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omg I am tense failing

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might be a good place to end it, yeah?