trans_9 | Aim to Win [Closed, pre Beyond the Sea Plot]

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Aim to Win [Closed, pre Beyond the Sea Plot]

The excitement of the poddrop had died down after a few days and Lash found herself back to her usual routine on the ship. It was rather amazing how much she could manage to do each 'day', from working in the labs, to shop management to training in the sensoriums. Truthfully, everything served to keep her occupied, which was an excellent thing--if Lash ever got bored anywhere it was a sure setup for a disaster of terrible repercussions. Probably explosive ones. Speaking of which...

"Fire! Fire!"

One of the ship's sensoriums was now being taken by her as she played it wisely and used it to tested out various prototypes before building them. They'd come out with a lot of robot parts to build thanks to SHODAN's rampage, and she was going to make the most use of what she'd gotten. With a typical Lash twist and flare, of course.

The soldier obeyed and fired the first cannon with a button press, the cannonball flying out and landing far away. Lash kept tabs using a CO pad, analyzing how the prototype fared. Upon landing, the cannonball opened itself up amongst the surprised enemy soldiers and turned into a small robot with turrets built on each side.

"Tee hee! It works, it works! Now, if I adjust the energy here, I should be able to build a small army, and that would be useful to aid during away missions..."

As she was about to approve it, the robot exploded. Soldiers, trees, dirt and burnt robot pieces flew into the air, landing close by.

"Oh oops! Hmmm...better not put that much energy into that one. The crew could lose a few arms and legs like that!" She said it with such a calm voice too, even if she was speaking to no one but herself and the nearby soldiers. With a small flick, she brushed off a piece of cracked robot, and began another prototype test.

Just another typical day for a wunderkind.

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"I see nothing wrong with destroying everything, especially when there are prinny pyramids involved." She paused, thinking about his last words very carefully.

"It's kinda weird, actually. I thought it would change a lot of things but...uh, here we are." What exactly had she expected to happen, she wasn't sure anymore. "dunno, Black Hole made it such a big deal that I half expected to spontaneously combust or something."

"Oh yeah?" Zetta said maliciously, as he turned to put his arms around her entirely, drawing her in to look down at her with a smile. "Spontaneously combust, huh?"

"Yeah! Actually I used to get in trouble because they said I had attitude problems." Lash still had no idea Zetta had witnessed some of them. "But no one really said anything because I invented a lot of things and they were too afraid of me once I became a Commanding Officer. Being invaluable to Black Hole did have its perks, which is probably why it all went really wrong once Kindle and Von Bolt took over. Then again..." she shrugged. "The ship certainly turned a lot of things I thought as fact around."

It was also strange how just talking was calming. Like, usually stuff like this? She'd easily get bored. Now she didn't mind if they stood like this for a while. Even the war she had started still raging around them wasn't even bothering her.

Oh Lash. Once you started talking, you just loved to keep going, didn't you? But Zetta liked that. Even if he didn't listen to everything she said, exactly, she was fun to watch when she got animated and energetic about things.

"You're not gonna get all stupid and distracted in the middle of a combat, because you know I can take care of myself," he told her. "So no worries on that score. I'm guessing that's why they tried to discourage it."

"It was great for controlling too," she added continuing to talk a lot. "Allegiance to Black Hole first and foremost. Maybe it was just because no one would ever date Von Bolt, tee hee hee! Although I bet Sturm had his legion of fangirls, but the guy was interested in war and nothing else...What about you guys? I guess its just seen as something you don't do, right?"

"Exactly. Love, friendship... you've heard me talk about this all the damn time." He smiled a little awkwardly; justifying this change in position was gonna be pretty difficult after all the insistences he'd made. "Demons don't do that crap and all."

"Except when they do," she teased back, surprised how quick she was to do it. "Well, what happens if they find out anyway? You're the Greatest Badass Overlord. I'm pretty sure you could do whatever you want and no one could really complain about it."

That was a pretty good compliment, as far as Lash was concerned.

"'Sides, rules are made to be broken, as far as I'm concerned." Not that there were rules to this, but she was going to justify it this way. Somehow.

"That was pretty much what I was thinking, in the end, there," he said. She might have been too busy with her own thoughts to have heard his.

"Still... now what, for us? I don't want things to really... you know, change. But..."

"Really? I must have missed that." Yeah, she really was stuck in them. Which gave her just enough time to drop the smile for a bit.

"Well uh..." she searched her words again. "I don't see how it has to be different. No one's keeping a record of that type of info on the ship, no one really seems to care about that stuff and it's not like we'll stop doing anything no, right?" SPoken like a true confused wunderkind.

"That's obvious. Though people might point and laugh." And then get blasted. "Are you okay with everything being the same? Even in our rare private moments together?"

"They wouldn't laugh for long with a broken arm or two," she answered. "Well that depends what you think. I hate to say it, but you have a lot more experience on these matters than I do." She fidgeted her hands a little. "Besides, I do like the rare private moments we get together. Unless you mean you'd want more of them?"

"Don't look at me! I've spent 35,000 years denying love in all its forms! If you take it proportionally I've got way freaking less than you do!" But Zetta laughed, leaning in a little to touch his head against hers. Despite all reason and logic, the afro and the flaming-bat hair did not combine in such a way as to end the universe.

"We kinda suck at this."

And thus the universe lived another day. Surprisingly. She grinned back again, and closed her eyes while she talked.

"Maybe. But does it really matter? I wouldn't want to do it the 'normal' way anyway. Normal doesn't include having dinners on top of towers and then throwing giant rocks at flying demons and dragons." Or maybe they had been doing it well, they were just in constant denial.

"Hey, we're going to be doing this our own way no matter what!" Even if they knew another way to do it, neither of them would, or COULD, be anything less than themselves. Again, something he liked about her. "But on the other hand, there's this holding-each-other stuff and so forth. You know. Intimacy." He approached the word cautiously, it being completely unfamiliar to him.

"Uhhh not really actually," she admitted. "The ship was actually the first time I got to do a lot of things on my own. Showers were communal in Black Hole, or we just took a dip in a cold lake of fighting somewhere. I never really had any privacy before coming here."

No privacy yet no physical touch. She lived a good life--wait.

"So wait people seriously expect us to hold hands or something?" That's what he meant, right?

"I don't care what anyone EXPECTS! I'm asking what YOU want!" he said. She could be forgiven for misinterpreting, because, seriously, when did Zetta ever care about the wants of others?

Well when you put her in the spotlight like that...

"I dunno! I was happy with how we were going, I didn't realize that it would change everything! You don't know much about it, I don't know either, so I say we just go where it takes us?" It was more half-statement, half-question at this point. "I'm just happy being...here!"

"Well, okay! I just wanted to know if it DID change anything. Admitting that sort of thing..." He rubbed the back of his head. It had been a big step, something epic, for both of them. For things to remain the same afterwards seemed kind of odd. But then, he didn't know how it ought to change... or if it really should.

He was confused!

"Pfffft!" she left out with a grin, before poking at his nose. "What did you expect to happen? Unless you really wanted me to spontaneously combust for real!" She looked a bit towards the battle, which was still raging on, even if there was no sound (almost as if she had pushed a mute button).

"I think as long as we're together, it won't matter what happens. Like I said, we'll beat up anyone that tells us otherwise, and I'm not gonna start asking you to hold my hand around." She would have made a comment about the fact he normally didn't have hands outside the sensoriums, but bit her lip in the nick of time. "Granted...that's about as much as I know about that kind of stuff." She was still surprised it had happened at all, even if, right now, it felt completely right with everything.

It was just very confusing.

He wrinkled his nose when she poked it, which looked as funny as it sounded. "I'm not exactly huge on hand-holding myself, but... I like having you close," he admitted. As should be obvious, the way he was (in the Sensorium, at least) inclined to pick her up or pull her near or whatever.

So funny that she burst out laughing from it, before leaning on him.

"Yeah I...really like that part too." Who knew how different her world might have been if she had had more physical contact in her life. But on the other hand, it made her a lot more appreciative of what Zetta was done. "You know," she continued, thinking just as they witnessed a nuclear explosion from the small war before them. Why was it always nuclear explosions? It was Lash, that's why.

"We never did finish that pirate battle, did we?"

Don't make Zetta think about Lash having physical contact prior to knowing him. He'd seen dreams. Dreams that made him bitter and jealous... though despite their new openness, he would never admit to any of that. Not even to himself.

"No. We didn't." He hesitated a moment. "And I don't remember just how far we'd gotten in it. I remember I'd been cutting clothing off of you, but now how much... except that I hadn't seen anything good yet."

"What, so I'm not good enough on the eyes as-is?" Zetta be thankful she was slowly becoming better at this otherwise she probably would have just punched him. It was getting easier to take these comments as compliments, in Zetta's own way.

"I think I was winning," she added, good-naturedly. "You were going to fall off that log."

"Duh. You're a hot girl," Zetta said, utterly matter-of-fact. "I've never said otherwise. Doesn't mean I don't want to get your clothes off."

Points off for bluntness, but some for honesty, maybe?

"I was NOT about to fall off the log, damn it! I knew you'd try to claim I was doing worse than I was!"

Maybe a little too far blunt as now Lash did punch him, not that it did much good considering who Zetta was. Her cheeks took on an interesting shade of red.

Don't lay it all bare on her Zetta (haha did you see what I did there okay no, that's terrible). She took a few seconds before answering instead of just merrily tossing something right back at him.

"N-nuh uh! You so were sooo gonna fall off!" Talk about being completely knocked off guard from that comment. This was probably the worst argument she'd said in a while.

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