trans_9 | What is Love? [Valentine's Date Event]

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. :)]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"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.

"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.

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

"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."

"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.

"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?

"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."

"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.

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?"

"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?'

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?"

"Not as much as I'd like... But it's something right?" He shrugged.

"People like me... can't really escape everything I've done. What's been done to me, and what I'll do. All I can do is do my best to never lose myself..." Which was why his recent fuck up had hurt so much. Not that he'd ever admit to it.

What is Love? [Valentine's Date Event]

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