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

[thewunderkind]

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.

Comments

[thewunderkind]

The laughter turned into gurgles as she SHOULD have expected that, but did not. Now her hair covered her eyes and she looked like a wet dog.

Comically, she spurt out water, coughing out the remains.

Now it wasn't just a bucket hovering over Zetta's head. It was TWO buckets It was an entire hovering sphere of water, that threatened to fall down the minute Lash wanted it to do so. Except for the fact she'd get wet too--not that she wasn't. With that in mind, and the fact she couldn't see anything anyway, she decided there wasn't much to loose. Zetta might have noticed how she suddenly took a sharp intake of breath before the water sphere come down, and both of them were completely drenched.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta had just enough time to... swap her shirt for a white one before the water hit.

But after all the water collapsed around them, leaving them dripping wet and soaked to the bone, he didn't look. It was a prank, something he'd point out if she didn't notice it. For now, he was content -- no, happy -- to simply laugh. And while doing so, he reached out to run his hands through her hair, at the one moment it was possible to appreciate it like that.

[thewunderkind]

She did not at first, as the water drenched her from head to toe. It reminded her of that time on the beach when she'd sent an entire wave at them, only this time it came from above.

But she was laughing as well once it was over, wanting to shaking some of the water out of her hair, but not since Zetta's hand was in it, giving him a hug in return. It was then that she noticed the switched shirt. You could see...the plant suit right under it. So close yet so far.

"Hey! What the--I don't remember wearing this!" White was so not her color. She looked at him, an eyebrow raised. "This is your fault, isn't it?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"...stupid plantsuit!" he grumbled. "You're ruining everything!"

[thewunderkind]

"I don't think the plantsuit can hear you, genius." She was teasing, however. She looked at the both of them, water still dripping everywhere. "This is really silly."

Not as silly as another nuclear explosion that started in the background. Most of the soldiers from her simulation were dead at this point.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"You started it," he said, poking her in the side. It was gentle... luckily, because he did have claws. "And apparently we both like water. Beaches... pirates..."

[thewunderkind]

"As long as it's not a real ocean!" she responded a little too quickly. "To be fair the only pirate I knew was Drake and he was big and fat. I didn't realize pirates could be this...fun."

But what was up with that ocean comment?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Yeah, what a weird thing to say! "Where would we get a real ocean around here, anyway? And to be honest, I'm pretty sure pirates didn't fire Prinnies at each other and duel on floating logs."

[thewunderkind]

"Well who knows if there's not one at the far end of the unexplored part of the city," she said thinking aloud before quickly changing the subject. "Tee hee! Yeah, they just fire cannons at each other, from the movies Mindy showed me. Also they don't like when you destroy all their rum."

Lash's 'knowledge' of pirates was resumed in three Hollywood movies.

"I do think a kraken would be pretty fun to have tho, tee hee!" She took this time to shake off some of the water from her hair and it sprung back in place.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Hey, maybe we should go look and see if there IS a big ocean in the City," Zetta said, having failed to notice that the topic had been changed. "Knowing this ship, there IS a kraken in it."

[thewunderkind]

"I'll take the kraken, but the ocean can...stay there or something." Yeah she sure showed the ocean what's its place. She paused, realize she might have to explain something, and chose her words carefully before speaking.

"Uuuh...it's not that I hate bodies of water that much. I just can't really swim that well." Saying it to Zetta was much easier than telling anyone else, in any case. But thinking about it, had you ever seen Lash really swim? They'd hung out at the beach mostly and she'd fallen into the water when Zetta had pretending to sink. And even during the pirate battle..."They never really bothered to teach us anything but the very basics and I'm just glad my CO powers are terrain based. Drake can keep all the salted water powers for himself and his undersized outfit if he wants."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta blinked at her in surprise.

"Why don't you learn?"

[thewunderkind]

"I uh...I was....really bad at it."

Lash admitting she was bad at something was really, really hard for her.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Don't give me that. You're not bad at ANYthing if you put your mind to it," he said sternly, crossing his arms to look down at her over them.

[thewunderkind]

"Well it's not like I really had time to practice since then," she ventured very carefully. "And it was forever ago...maybe I could do it now!"

Hint: No.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Just do it in the Sensoriums. That way, you know you can't drown because of the safeties, so even if you start to sink you don't have to panic."

Zetta actually had a good and helpful idea. (It was probably just an excuse to get her in a bikini.)

[thewunderkind]

"That was actually why I didn't mind doing beach parties and pirate fights here," she added. "I knew it wouldn't matter. Besides, I still think the ocean was made to put submarines and boats in it, not to swim!"

Although thinking back, Zetta's reaction to Lash just floating out of the water had she lost that battle would have probably clued him on. Speaking of which...

"How 'bout if we combine this with the battle you still have to lose against me?"

Pirates and bikinis! Piratenikis?

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"That'll be hard, since that battle doesn't exist, but I'll challenge you any time, Lash," he said with a grin. "Though, uh, I do think you ought to learn how to swim at some point. Otherwise you know that cosmic irony is gonna slap you, and someday you'll be on a mission where you were about to save the day but you fell into the swimming pool or something..."

[thewunderkind]

"What--hey! I can still float a bit!" she protested. "Like I know how to do the doggie paddle!"

Barely.

"Besides, what are the odds at getting that type of mission? Come on! I've been here long enough and nothing like that happened!" Just give it a few days, Lash you'd be stuck in one soon enough. Ooooh now she really wanted to beat him in the sword fight just to prove she could do it.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Pretty good. The cosmos has a sick sense of humor, you know," Zetta said.

[thewunderkind]

"...true."

She could only agree to that after Hawke had shown up the only time she had not gone the the poddrop. Her head turned at all of the blocks on the door and she gave a small sigh.

"Fiiiine. But it better be interesting! And no doggie paddling! It looked stupid and I hated it."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta knew how the cosmos worked. Even he, top of the heap, wasn't entirely immune to its shenanigans. Witness the fact that he was a book.

"Don't worry, doggie paddling IS stupid." He wasn't entirely aware that he seemed to have agreed to teach her.

[thewunderkind]

"Okay, good!" With that settled, she made the entire war scene disappear and they found themselves on the beach again. Teaching her or not, they had agreed to something involving bodies of water (she hoped) and there might as well be some of it in a fun, relaxing place. The place was more intimate than the beach party of before; but there was some food on top of tables. Lash hadn't heard the advice of not eating before swimming. Far off, there were two pirate boats, should they decide to just go for the whole fighting aspect and ignoring everything else.

The traps were still comically behind them, only this time Lash had added another perimeter around it, filled with man-eating sharks, and rows of spikes blocking the view from where they were. At this point if anyone got through they almost deserved to win a medal for it. You know, before the both of them shot them dead.

Now completely dry from the water episode, Lash wore something that was a sort of cross between a Pirate outfit and a swimsuit, covered by a coat and a hat (but no boots, boots were dumb to be wearing on the beach).

"How's that?" She meant the beach and the place, not herself.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"That's pretty freaking sweet!" Zetta said in sincere delight. Needless to say, he was looking absolutely nowhere but Lash. "You know, for someone who claims to be completely uninformed about things like sexiness and looking hot, you sure do manage to do some amazing things with your outfits."

[thewunderkind]

"Well I---Hey! I meant what you thought about the beach." Why was she still surprised after all the talk they had was anyone's guess. "B-besides. It wasn't on purpose."