What is Love? [Valentine's Date Event]

[fabricaketions]

It's shaping up to be another average day on the Transmigration 9. Crew members are going about their business as usual and all is (to most appearances, at least) about as "well" as things ever are on the ship.

Some crew members are going to be stopped out of the blue by impact with a force field.

"Attention Crewmen: You have been chosen to participate in an experiment!" GLaDOS's voice informs. They're not alone, someone else that was nearby is also caught within the same narrow radius. "Participation is mandatory. Please try to relax and enjoy the experience, as this will improve the quality of the test results."

Clearly this is going to be a wonderful day for science.

"You and your new scientific partner are now on a date," GLaDOS goes on. "As it would be detrimental to our study of the date experience if you were to be separated, you must remain close to your partner for the duration of the experiment. This will be enforced with the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field. Prolonged exposure to the Transmigration 9 Crewman Containment Field may have unexpected side-effects. While any side-effects encountered will be documented and your desire to offer yourself to science is commendable, it is not a necessary part of this experiment."

"You will be informed when the test has been completed. We would like to thank you in advance for your full cooperation in the experiment and failure to attempt to foil it in any way."

"The experiment has begun, so you may begin dating."

[OOC: The exact details of your characters' confinement are up to players' discretion. Being trapped in a sensorium or other stationary place is a possibility, as is being stuck in a sort of roving invisible force field hamster ball that only affects the two of you. How far partners can move apart is probably subject to whatever's fun but they ideally shouldn't be able to sit on opposite sides of a room ignoring one another the whole time.

ICly the "test" lasts for a few hours and you are free to godmode GLaDOS telling them the experiment is finished.

If you would like a few tags from GLaDOS herself in your thread, ping me on this account or plurk or AIM or whatever is most convenient for you. :)]

Comments

Kerrigan/Splicer

[aboutthatevac]

...

"What." Kerrigan pressed her fists against the forcefield. "I've been your guinea pig for long enough. Now you've crossed the line. Remove this shield immediately."

She didn't even look at Splicer.

"I said LET ME OUT!"

[expendable_mind]

Splicer on the other hand simply sighed and looked around the area to try and sense out any weaknesses on the shield. Failing to do so, he relaxed back and pulled out a cigarette. Then simply placed it on his ear as he thought that it'd be a bad idea if it was a completely sealed shield.

"Chillax Sarah, you should know better than to argue with that psycho AI."

[aboutthatevac]

Kerrigan tried to make a telekinetic shield of her own to bring down against the force field but her powers weren't what they used to be and this wasn't a fight against the Ohm.

Kerrigan turned to Splicer. Her face was still contorted in her anger. She reached for one of her knives and moved toward him, only to stop herself and turn away.

"I hope for your sake that this experiment of hers will be short."

[expendable_mind]

Splicer didn't flinch but rubbed the back of his head awkwardly and grinned. "Yeah, no kidding, last time I was almost skinned by one of your kidlets, it wasn't very pleasant. Hydras hurt man."

Sure he had intended it as a joke, but who knows what state the Queen of blades was ever in these days.

He simply relaxed against the forcefield wall and crossed his arms, pushing his shades higher up the bridge of his nose and sighing.

"So... haven't heard from you in a while. How goes?"

[aboutthatevac]

At the joke Splicer would be able to feel a surge of anger in Kerrigan, accompanied by a sense of self loathing that she was quick to mask.

"Better than you, for a change."

[expendable_mind]

"Yeah? Well, considering recent developments, I'm pretty sure ninety-nine percent of this forsaken ship is doing better." He hadn't meant for the bitterness in his voice to show, he had always been good at masking his emotions, but the Queen of Blades remark had left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Guess we'll just have to wait it out then and I can be off your hair Kerrigan. That, or you can free me from the existence that we suffer." he replied without any emotion or feeling behind his words. Taking the cigarette to his mouth and lighting it in a blaze that consumed it in one drag, making the smoke vanish afterwards.

[aboutthatevac]

She paused and looked back at him. The anger wasn't gone but buried again.

"I won't kill you. You're not my enemy." Not that her word meant much.

The truth was Splicer was the only person on this ship who knew what Kerrigan was capable of. He was also the only one who had any idea what she'd gone through. He wasn't a friend. She doubted she could have those anymore but he was the closest she had.

[expendable_mind]

"Well, guess that at least sets my mind at ease. Not that anyone could really stop you if you really wanted to." he replied as he looked up in thought.

"You know, this ain't too bad really. Get stuck with a good looking and powerful gal who could easily turn me into flayed hum-- well whatever I am anymore." he chuckled before running a hand through his hair and looking back towards her.

If only she knew how much he valued her presence on the ship, and the fact that she had even bothered speaking with him in the first place. They were... similar kin in more ways than one. If the spliced in zerg DNA didn't give him away, just the similar backgrounds and knowing what each of them had gone through was enough to stir a sense of closeness for him as far as the Queen of Blades went.

[aboutthatevac]

Mostly human, just like her.

Kerrigan's gaze turned sharp at the good looking comment.

"Don't try anything, Splicer." She didn't elaborate on what exactly that should be self evident. "I can always change my mind."

[expendable_mind]

"I would never, not unless I really wanted to leave this world early. And frankly, I'm sure the Dominion stopped trying that a long time ago themselves." he grinned, a bit bittersweetly.

[aboutthatevac]

"That's not what I meant." She doubted Splicer was stupid enough to attack her, at least not while she was alert.

Hitting on her, however...

[expendable_mind]

"Yeah, yeah I know the stories, heard em enough times about poor dudes who kept forgetting you were a ghost." Surface thoughts were fun though!

Splicer sighed and crossed his arms, relaxing against the forcefield that kept them close.

[aboutthatevac]

"Then I don't need to remind you." Kerrigan didn't relax. She glanced around.

If GLaDOS answered to the Daligig and they just so happened to drop by...

Paranoid? Perhaps, but the fear was justified.

[expendable_mind]

Splicer raised a brow behind his shades and lowered his head out of habit to get a better view. Technically he could be physically blind and still be able to see three-hundred and sixty degrees around him and a very long distance due to his psionics.

"You alright there Kerrigan? You know, if you want to talk... I'm all ears, or thoughts if you wanted to keep it private."

[aboutthatevac]

"I don't want to talk." Thoughts, however, were harder to hide. The last time someone had used a forcefield on her it had not ended well. Her bones took weeks to heal.

[expendable_mind]

"Fine, just asking you know. It's really a bitch to stay next to someone in silence yeah? But if you'll be alright, then guess it's time to wait it out."

Splicer shrugged and crossed his arms, leaning back against the force shield and closing his eyes. There wasn't much else he could do and he wasn't about to invade her private thoughts.

[aboutthatevac]

"If you hate it so much then you talk." Kerrigan, for her part, was content to stay quiet for now.

[expendable_mind]

"What? I didn't say I hated it, I just said that it sometimes made people uncomfortable and whatever, but hey, if you're all for the 'let's wait till shit happens' then that's alright by me."

[aboutthatevac]

"I see no other option. Unless you have a burning desire to talk about a particular subject. The only one I have can't be discussed in- mixed company." As in GLaDOS or any other AI.

[expendable_mind]

"Yeah, I know what you mean. You'd swear we were back with the Overmind... Well, before we knew what we know now." Or at least he thinks Kerrigan remembers at least that part.

Wasn't that something? He thought. During the entire war he was led to believe that the Overmind was a mindless evil bent on complete destruction. Lo and behold many years later still fighting and after it was dead, they find out the blasted thing had been trying to help us all along.

Ain't life a bitch yeah?

[aboutthatevac]

"Do you have a death wish?"

Whatever Kerrigan knew about the Overmind she tried to forget. But that was hard when she lived in a humid, living spaceship that talked to her telepathically. Any revelations about the Overmind's motives didn't change how she felt about it. It didn't change what it had done to her. And it didn't change the memories of belonging that haunted her.

"Don't talk to me about that."

[expendable_mind]

"Kerrigan... I've had a deathwish since the moment the Dominion eggheads forgot and kept failing to mind wipe my memories. So you might say I do. And secondly, yeah, I guess I should keep that topic out of the way yeah?" He shrugged and looked up, closing his eyes.

For whatever it was worth, at least she had been taken and transformed for a greater purpose, not that he'd ever wish her that fate.... that tormented and tortured existence that she now had to live with, but somehow he felt that he'd have rather been picked and toyed with for that sort of purpose rather than to simply be a number on a experimentation sheet to satisfy the egghead's curiosity and aspirations of grandeur.

[aboutthatevac]

In the end, it didn't matter why she'd been turned into a monster. The only thing that mattered was revenge.

"That would be best for both of us."

There was a long moment when she didn't say anything when suddenly she spoke, her voice quiet but still tense. "What do you do to forget those memories?"

[expendable_mind]

"I play." he said simply. "I play, do what I please when not on a mission. I drink, I smoke, I write, I play. Anything to keep me from remembering. I listen to music, I dance, I go out on my Wraith... whatever it takes to not... to not have to relive a single second of any of that. And on a mission? All my focus is on the target... I have a higher risk of remembering during those. Which is why I make it my top priority to get in, get out and get back to my illusion of a life."

He shrugged, giving her a lopsided smile as if to say, 'life sucks, but what are ya gonna do?'

[aboutthatevac]

Kerrigan frowned. Her life had revolved around killing, even before the zerg infested her. She had been an assassin, first against her will and then voluntarily on behalf of the Sons of Korhal. And as the second in command she didn't have free time to find a hobby, at least that was what she told herself.

It had been easier to deal with the memories of death then. They still haunted her but any time she remembered what the Confederacy had made her do it fed her need for vengeance. It gave her work with the Sons of Korhal purpose.

But her reign as the Queen of Blades was meaningless. There was nothing she could take from it. It didn't drive her forward it pulled her behind. She didn't remember much but it would come to her in flashes without warning. She couldn't escape it.

"Does it work?"