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

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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. :)]

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Ruff rolled her eyes "Logic pft. What has logic ever done for anyone?"

Sometimes you really had to wonder about how much she was kidding when she said things like that.

"Ready to go then?" She stood up shaking her head to admire her braid.

"Well living is definitely good," Mindy said, punching her arm. "You need logic in everything you do. You might call it something different, like instinct or viking...I dunno, knowability or some shit, but either way its logic."

Even Mindy was never sure, hence why she tended to clarify these things.

"Yeah, Sensoriums," she said without hesitation. "I'm still from New York, so hiking is really not a thing there. I'm gonna have to depend on your memory."

Ruffnut let this one go, she usually did. Mindy had her opinions and she was so much better at arguing them the Ruffnut was.

It wasn't a long walk to the Sensorium. As it happened Ruffnut's tower was near one of the edges of the city. The minute they stepped into the sensorium it was Berk once more. The crisp Ocean air, the scent of some kind of meat being cooked over a fire. Sweaty musclebound men and women lumbering about working on houses or doing chores.

Ruffnut sighed and there was a visible change in her. Whenever she was in a place she felt comfortable like her tower or Berk she was more confident. She walked with a spring in her step and a smile on her face a little wider then usual.

She never broke stride and led Mindy through the town. Some of the locals were staring at them walking hand in hand like...well girlfriends.

It was fine for Mindy: all she wanted was to make sure that Ruffnut started to use her head a little more, so if a fight like that DID break out, she would be ready. No point in thinking that stuff about fights now though: they were trying to enjoy themselves.

Mindy wondered how well she concealed it, but she always did like coming to Ruffnut's perception of Berk. It was her idea of a place you might vacation on New York as a summer home, minus all the ritzy assholes and obnoxious tourist crap. She loved the smells, the people, the overall feeling that the place would last so long as its inhabitants were willing to try and save it.

Of course, she hadn't actually come to Berk in quite the way that she was now: dressed down, no thought of fighting, holding hands with her girlfriend. Despite knowing they weren't real, sghe still found herself reddening slightly.

Ruffnut was oblivious to most of it till about halfway through town. Then she caught the blush out of the corner of her eye and grinned wickedly.

Without warning she turned sharply and locked lips with Mindy grinding all the activity in Berk to a dead stop.

Really Ruffnut? Then again, Mindy was usually the aggressor in most things, so this was a rather sharp turn of events. True, Mindy WAS getting older now, and therefore looking a less like jailbait, but this was still pretty mortifying.

Not that she didn't kiss back. She wasn't a dead fish, after all.

And because this was Ruffnut's imagination, the vikings applauded and cheered like the girls were long lost war heroes come home. Which they sort of were.

Ruffnut smirked into the kiss and when it broke tried to resume her walk through town playing it cool.

"Dude, that would never have happened if we were at Berk for real," Mindy said, apparently over being shy once they were fairly out of earshot. "I'm not an expert on viking tradition, but even I know that would have been far different than the reaction of 'hey, Ruffnut's back with that weird girl that dresses funny.'"

She was shaking her head, but she hadn't let go of the viking's hand.

"You think too much." Ruffnut teased with a crooked grin tugging her along leading the smaller girl through the trees and along a seemingly random path. "If they had a problem with it we'd just show them how badass you were."

"Kinda my job," Mindy protested, but walked with Ruffnut nonetheless. Heck, she was sure that she would have been itching to show vikings she was up to their level.

She was glad she chose the boots: going around Burk with her shoes would have just been a mistake. "So where exactly does this lead?"

"I unno, wherever we want I guess." Apparently she hadn't been planning their route. This wasn't terribly surprising for Ruffnut all things considered, and there really wasn't much of a path at this point. Thick trees began to block their view of the village behind them.

"What do people do in your world for dating?"

"Figures," Mindy said, but then they WERE hiking, and it wasn't as if that really had any set path, right? So it wasn't a big deal that they didn't know where they were going. She just hoped that Ruffnut's memory of Berk was fairly complete.

"Uh, the usual places I guess? It really depends on the people and what they're into, you know? Restaurants, amusement parks, whole, like, romantic outings: it depends. What do you figure we're like?"

"Lots of cursing." That was the first idea. She stepped up onto a tall rock and pulled Mindy up after her "And loud noises. And you live in places like the city but taller and less dead looking." Because she'd only gotten a few glimpses into what Mindy's world looked like in previous sensorium trips.

"Definitely taller," she said, taking Ruffnut's hand and climbing up, making sure to watch her footing. "But there are also plenty of places to hit in the city too. The Village, St. Mark's, Rockefeller Center...there's always plenty of stuff to do. But this is really cool too: I always liked the way Berk looks."

"It ain't much, but it's home." Ruff smiled warmly. "But it wouldn't be without you...so I guess home is wherever you are." It was a weird thing to say but sweet in it's own way. Ruff wasn't sure though so she just smiled and plodded on up a steeper slope.

Mindy stopped a moment, taking that moment in. Many people would have claimed that Ruffnut wasn't the smartest person in the world, but she showed her emotions without restraint. She tightened her grip on the older girl's hand, smiling.

"You're so corny," she said, her eyes saying something different. She was still having trouble doing that herself, but she was trying. "But you're right anyway. Even if we're enemies later, its still a world I want you in, or not one worth that much."

Cresting a curve on the trail that Ruff was carving she paused considering where they were going. "I don't think we're ever really gonna be enemies. Haven't we kinda blown past that by now?" She blushed thinking back to all the things they had been through together.

"Dude, we'll be competing Overlords," she said, "have you ever heard of creatures with that much power being able to mutually hold power over people? Even if we don't really want to be enemies, it'll still have to look that way, so we don't get attacked by other demon overlords. The whole point in what we'll do then is having the element of surprise."

That puzzled Ruffnut clearly, "Wait so we have to pretend to be enemies so that the other overlords don't realize we're united? Wouldn't they just stay back if they realized we were? Because you know...twice as much power and all that? If Zetta's right Overlords don't get friendly so...the two of us being together would probably blow their minds."

"Yeah, or they could be so threatened by two overlords gathering together they try to take us down. Dude, if you and I want to cap on this Overlord thing, we have to make them respect us by our own rights. When they fear us as individuals, we'll be awesome enough, but the less they understand about what we do, the more we have the element of surprise."

She thought a LOT about this.

Clearly.

Ruffnut may have given Mindy a hard time in the past about her overthinking things or having little obsessions but she respected her opinion and nodded, "Alright I'll kick your ass so people know we're the really deal in public." That part was still teasing.

Mindy grinned. "Hey, I expect you to get tons better, because if you don't give me a good enough fight I'm going to have to take all your territory away from you!"

She was joking-mostly. "Anyway, that's not going to be for awhile, so who cares? Let's enjoy this time, you and me."

Mindy was already hiking up a few hills pretty easily, dirty and smudged but grinning all the way.

"Pft You wish. My Territory is gonna be THREE TIMES as big as yours." She declared proudly.

They reached the top of the hill and could gazed out over the ocean with viking ships dotting the dark blue world spread out below.

"Everything seems so much smaller after ya know...space." Ruffnut mused thoughtfully.

"For however long I let you hold onto it!" Mindy shot back, grinning. Yes, girlfriends they were, but Mindy's competitive streak and need to push things always had a way of showing itself. In this case, she wanted to see how the two of them would fare against each other as Overlords.

Once they were on top of the hill though, there was very little need for postering. In fact, as Ruffnut mused, Mindy put an arm around her waist and laid her head on her shoulder a moment.

"That's the risk you take, when you go to see the world," she said. "You get to see exactly how big it is."

"Just means we gotta get bigger I guess." She spoke idly, like even she wasn't sure what she meant by it. But it sounded good. And having Mindy right there felt good. it felt great actually.

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