trans_9 | It Was a Graveyard Smash! [OPENTASTIC]

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It Was a Graveyard Smash! [OPENTASTIC]

The Sensoriums are decorated like the most well-tended and enthusiastically holiday-oriented suburb Southern California could have created. Jack-O-Lanterns grin out from driveways and porches; smoke machines belch out onto the sidewalk; orange-tinted Christmas lights twinkle from the rooftops. A loop of Halloween-themed music, from the Monster Mash to Thriller, plays over the scene.

Eva knows there aren't many children on Stacy, but that doesn't mean that the ones here shouldn't have the occasional holiday. Just because they lack a calendar doesn't mean they lack a festive spirit. Besides, almost all kids like candy and she was able to purchase plenty at the theme park and in Geartopia.

Each house has some hologram families giving out candies and chocolates, as well as small toys and little origami animals. Every hologram is dressed up in a ridiculous costume of some sort.

She flits from house to house, imagining up little details to add, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit she finds unbearably humorous. After sending out a message on the channels, she waits for guests to arrive.

[OOC: Everybody, go forth and mingle, have fun with the setting, TP some houses, whatever! Please threadjack, start your own threads, and go wild. The Halloweentown mini-plot will be in this post later tonight with those players, but the rest of the post is open for everyone.]

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What? No! That wasn't supposed to happen!

As usual, Zetta forgot to actually filter his thoughts out of his mouth. "Hey!" he said, waving a fist in her in a gesture that was purely emphatic. Zetta actually didn't believe he could successfully threaten Lash even if he wanted to. "You're supposed to say you were sorry for leaving our pirate game mid-fight, damn it!"

Amazingly, the Overlord had finally arrived at the meat of his problem through virtue of sheer inability and ego.

She didn't even stop as she (slowly) flew away. "Black Hole members never apologize for anything!" she answered back, returning to pouting because being angry was certainly better than any other emotional or monotone speech response she could give right now. "Besides! I not only invited you to come with us, we could have continued when I returned! And why would this come back NOW of all the time? URGH!" she moved farther away to the first door.

In her mind she didn't have that much to be sorry about. If the Overlord had had Salome poddrop and done the same...she...probably would have reacted exactly like him. Of course she didn't tell herself that. She told herself she would have taken this in a much more rational manner.

Yes. Lash. Rational Manners.

If Salome had shown up, Zetta would have made a colossal show of ignoring the hell out of her, actually...

"We could NOT have continued! The mood was spoiled! And me walking around the ship with you two would have been awkward and weird!"

These may have been the most insightful points Zetta has ever made.

"Besides!" he continued, though his voice abruptly got a lot less angry and a lot more dull on his own terms. "With him back, how the hell was I supposed to know you even really would've come back, or wanted to keep going? The way you always talk him up, I wouldn't have been surprised if you... didn't have time for... that sort of thing." For me, he'd almost said.

Pretend he'd still been shouting all that instead of muttering it. He'd be grateful.

Lash assumed he would not have. She would have been pretty surprised at this. Or glad. Of course none of that had happened...but this had.

"I dunno," she replied, as the hovering got to an almost standstill, in the street next to where Zetta was standing. Just a bit more moving and she'd be right into an alley and away from his screaming...well more like muttering at this point speeches. But she didn't, and was frustrated at herself for not doing it and not sure why she wasn't doing it. "It was already plenty awkward with just me and Birdy. I had to poke him a few times to make sure he was really there."

She sighed again and finally gave him a look again. "I told you I'd come back," she added. "Black Hole members might be many things, but we've never been liars about anything. If we promise something, it's the truth." That was something strange about her world, actually. The most evil foes never lied about their intentions. Oh sure they'd cover up things, but Lash remembered the times she had promised a foe or two the times she'd like them pass if they won her game, despite her outnumbering them. And if Zetta remembered their conversation when she had returned, she had been surprised he had waited there for her at all, however. They were way too alike in many things that neither of them would admit.

"Hawke's part of my old world and I know he'll be an invaluable part of the battles here because of the skills he has. Just like if anyone else had shown up. I talked about him because...because...he did save my life and he is the best example of Black Hole and being a perfect Commanding Officer that I know! I can't use examples from things I don't know!" She still didn't quite understand why Zetta was that jealous about Hawke and making a big deal about this, however.

Or maybe she did and didn't want to admit it.

"So I would not have done that!" Yeah that seemed like the perfect way to end this argument. She just stood there, confused about what she should be saying.

But at least she wasn't hovering away anymore and ignoring eye contact.

Edited 2011-12-02 22:56 (UTC)

"Lash," Zetta said, in one of the most serious tones he had ever used. "Why do we hang out together?"

They both knew the answer. He expected it immediately from her: because it was fun. Because they had fun together.

And that's what she did.

"Because we have fu--"

Almost. She paused mid-speech, and closed her mouth, wondering. After all he'd said and her own confusion she was beginning to worry that...

"--this isn't a trick question, is it? Cause I'm going to be so angry if it is!" Being angry was much easier than feeling anything else. She puffed her cheeks and crossed her arms up again,as humorous as it looked, she was being as serious as Zetta was being serious.

"Because we have fun," Zetta said, soft and dark, his arms crossed, his cape billowing dramatically behind him.

He let the words hand for a moment, then added in that same quiet tone, "And if fun was all that mattered, it wouldn't have been interrupted."

The problem wasn't that she had come back, after she was done with Hawke.

The problem was that, knowing the fun was ruined, knowing the game was over, she had come back anyway.

The problem was that they weren't having fun right now, and yet here they were... talking.

~~Sure, he was jealous~~ He wasn't jealous of Hawke at all, but his arrival had cracked their understanding, changed it.

"..." she started at him, trying to figure out what he was trying to get at, and got really confused. Unlike Zetta, she wasn't thinking about the entire picture. At least not yet.

"Are you saying...I should have stayed with you and not helped out Hawke in the ship?" She closed her eyes, trying to think if that was the right way to answer this at all. "No that can't be what you meant..." It sounded like jealousy but, something was nagging at her she was missing something, uncrossed her arms (she seemed to be doing a lot of the crossing and uncrossing that night) and idly pushed her two index fingers together, thinking about it. "Uhh I'm not sure I get what you mean actually..."

That was a pretty rare admittance of her not understanding, as whispered and barely audible as it was.

"Why did you even agree to come back, when the fun was already over, Lash?"

There. As naked and bare a question as he could make it, but one that had absolutely nothing to do with his feelings or emotions or any of that crap, so he could ask it safely.

"Because I promised you?" she asked back. "It would kinda suck ruining something and then just...I dunno. It doesn't sound like something I should be doing. Leaving and not coming back, that is." Why would she even do that? Zetta was fun but she also...uh....she shook her head. Nice wasn't a word she should be thinking of right now.

...so baring that, he was fun and this was totally a way of making sure he stayed being fun, right? If she had just left and not come back he never would have wanted to hang out with her again and that would ruin all the fun she had on the ship! It was all for the sake of fun and certainly nothing about emotions and all of that.

PROBLEM SOLVED (except not really).

Oh right she had been silent for a few seconds thinking all about that, better finish her anser.

"I came back because I..." Didn't want you to be upset? No that sounds lame... "...I didn't want you to think that I was just giving up on that battle and running away! I could have won it fair and square!"

It was a terrible answer.

Edited 2011-12-03 06:29 (UTC)

Zetta just gave her a look. "I know you weren't afraid and running away. And you know I know that. You didn't really think I was saying that stuff for any reason except to get you to stay, right?"

Not so easy, Lash. Unvoiced but acknowledged (though still plausibly deniable!) was the mutual respect the pair had for each other. A respect which Zetta made no effort to question, as holding respect for anyone, let alone a mere human girl, wasn't the Overlord's style, so thinking about it too deeply would be dangerous.

She was just...checking with the status quo! Or something. Yeaaaah denial of everything else.

"Uh...I guess not?" She asked confused where this was now all going. This was about as much the biggest emotional roller-coaster than she had had pretty much in her entire life. And yet confusion and anger where the two 'negative' emotional responses she tended to ~~deny everything else~~ ~~hide~~ fall back into. She wanted to mention the whole putting hand arm over her when Hawke was there but decided to ~~also ignore the feelings that came from that~~ it wasn't a good time to talk about that. "Either way, I doubt we'd get interrupted like that ever again."

"There's always something to interrupt the fun around here," Zetta said, continuing his streak of unusual insightfulness. "It can't always be fun and games. Why did you even agree to come back, when the fun was over? There'd always be more fun to have later, when things settled down."

"Because I said I would," she repeated again, as if this would somehow drive everything ELSE away as to why she had come back. "It's kinda not fair either, considering what...happened and everything. You'd done the same too, right? Come back if you had to leave?"

She would have waited too, even if she hated waiting.

"Sides, you're fun to talk with too. Doesn't just have to be the pirate fighting type of fun."

"Why did you say you would, even? Why not a 'catch you later, Zetta'?" he asked, sweeping the question of what he would have done aside. Of course he would have come back, but he wasn't on trial here!

Okay now even Lash had her limits when it came to answering a million questions. This almost reminded her like a...

"Why are you interrogating me like if I had something to hide?" She moved the broom a little bit to the left. "He showed up, we didn't expect it, I showed him around, I came back because I said I would! I don't think saying a 'catch you later Zetta' after all that had happened would have been all that fair." Yes, keep saying it, and you might believe it. And then just to unbalanced him, she added,

"So why did you suddenly put your hand over my elbow when he started to talk to me?"

"I was staking my claim, damn it!"

Well. At least he was being obvious. But what he meant (at least, what he said he meant) was in the 'Lash hangs out with me' sense. That was obvious, right?

Not when you're Lash's age and were trying to ignore your own feelings.

"WHAT." Well now that got her all flamed up again. "What the hell does that even mean?"

"It means he doesn't just get to show up and go, 'Hey, Lash is my soldier, taking her back now' and I'll just let him get away with it!"

Why was that so unreasonable?! Oh crap... oh crap! She WANTED to go back and be his soldier again, didn't she?! She was mad because he'd interfered with that!

Zetta went from angry to horrified in a moment, then went straight back to anger at allowing himself to show horror.

Oh she had totally seen that. Seen that and wondered what the heck it could all mean, accusations about what she was doing aside. In the end she couldn't find herself being angry anymore and just let out a sigh.

"Look...I wouldn't be doing all this if I didn't like it, ya'know? I'm not an easy chick to push around... I only do what I want to do."

Wow, why did this suddenly feel like a deja-vu?

"What, you think I don't know that?" Zetta said, briefly startled out of his anger in turn. "The message was for HIM, not for you!"

"I'm pretty sure that Hawke knows that too," she added. "Well the fact he couldn't really push me around if he wanted to. If anything you probably made him more suspicious than anything else." Lash knew Hawke pretty well, after all. Like how he thought he liked his coffee with half a tablespoon of sugar, when truthfully he simply hadn't refused a cup of coffee from her when he actually liked it purely black. LASH KNEW HIM SO WELL.

Edited 2011-12-04 04:45 (UTC)

"Yeah, but he doesn't know ME!" And he really ought to! That was the point!

"Actually his first reaction towards you was the fact he found you a bit obnoxious," she mentioned with a tiny grin sneaking on her lips, "and wondering just what was up the book thing. You didn't look like a book in the sensoriums, after all."

But nowhere did he tell her not to stop seeing him, so Zetta clearly had nothing to worry about!

NO ONE TOLD HIM THAT, LASH!

"Hmph," Zetta said, smirking. "He only found me obnoxious because I'm way more awesome and powerful than he can ever be!"

Lash, this was your cue to agree in some way, shape, or form. It could be teasing, or with attitude, or reluctant, or... anything Zetta had come to expect from her over the time they'd spent together. The important thing was that she agreed.

Just to set the record straight! He was not jealous!

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