onepassingnight | [OPEN] Valentine's Mingle

Cortana had known about holidays the humans tended to celebrate but being on military bases or ships in space made it really difficult to see it first hand. She had heard some soldiers talking about how their women back home would normally send them treats or questionable pictures as gifts, but that was it. Love was an emotion she had been told she could never understand. Being a machine had that fault, but she wasn't so sure anymore.

Thankfully, Cortana had mastered the art of walking or else she probably wouldn't have gotten far inside the warehouse. She was looking inside bucket after bucket, still unsure whether she should grab at anything or not. She didn't want to be disappointed so instead she kept her hands at her sides as she moved around the warehouse reading a few hearts here and there. Sometimes, their words would make her stop and think. Why was she finding all the raunchy hearts?

"'Take me'. Seriously? That's not subtle at all?" She gave the bucket a disapproving look before peering into another. "'Come for me'. Well, I wonder what that means." She'll just move away from this general area. This is clearly the marine's section. The things that those men can come up with....

If she were honest, Mercury had to admit that Kunzite's so-obvious interest had been flattering, a balm to those feelings of being left behind and forgotten. She'd liked leading him forward, holding him off, being wanted and most of all, having it on her own terms. Knowing that in this, at least, she could deny and refuse him even as she was bound to the life he gave her in the Darkness.

There'd been a price. Over the years, and as she grown from a girl into an adult, she'd seen the amusement fade from his eyes and something dark take their place. The explicit hearts reminded her of it. She didn't like that. She looked away from them until she found an 'i want all of you' next to an 'undress me' in green. Hmm.

She nearly dropped on the floor in her haste to put them back where she'd found them as soon as she spotted Cortana: the same AI, she remembered, who'd called her a centerfold, and was now standing in front of the aforementioned explicit hearts, who could probably see the ones she'd read. Filthy-minded machine. (Or just curious. Mercury herself knew that curiosity all too well.)

"What a sentimental place." There was sarcasm there.

Edited 2013-02-16 02:34 (UTC)

"What are you talking about, these are completely classy come-on's in some part of the galaxy."

Sure, she didn't have any proof of this but it was totally a comedic thing to say. She grinned, moving about more buckets to look in the ones she had been inspecting. She reached for one.

"Too bad undressing me won't work. I don't think I was programmed with any clothes."

Mercury had several types of lingerie stored very privately on her teletia-S. ~~Cortana was missing out.~~

That wasn't the point here!

"Try dressing instead," she suggested mischievously. It was much less embarrassing to think about in terms of an AI. Besides, there was something faintly amusing about the idea of turning the entire concept on its head.

"An A.I. with clothing? As much as the idea strikes my interest, I doubt I could find something to match all of this blue. And lights."

She looked down at her body, the streams of data lines and raw information. She was such a light-bulb like this. It was different when she was small and literally pocket-sized. As human height, she was just... an inconvenience.

She had a mental image of Cortana in some normal, everyday dress.

The AI had a point. The blue, plenty of colors would probably complement. The light would become awkward, partly shaded by fabric.

"So you'll stay as you are," she observed. "So why are you looking through these types of messages?"

"I don't know why I dreamt this but I'm just curious." Really, she wouldn't question why her mind did things, she had been going crazy for a while now but at least she was dreaming about something.

"Not all of these hearts are bad, you know. Some are mildly romantic."

She was curious, though something inside her already - very vaguely - was close to the answer, just barely catching the scent of it.

"Is there someone you're thinking about when you say that?"

"Someone? You mean is there someone I would give these too?" Cortana found the question curious and amusing. She turned to Ami and thought about it.

"If I could, since being an A.I. technically means I don't have a solid body, I wouldn't be able to hold these to begin with, there probably could be someone I would hand them too."

The first person that came to mind was John. She would give him buckets full but what was the point. He wouldn't understand. She shouldn't even be feeling this way.

"It's nothing." Mercury dismissed the subject before hearing anything she'd have preferred not to.

"However, if it was me, and there was one I wanted to give, and I couldn't give it to that person myself, I'd just make him pick it up himself."

"I don't think you understand."

How could she make John pick up one of these hearts? Maybe it was a metaphor, sort of like dropping a hint. These hearts were meant to convey a message, one of romance. If she could do someow shthing similar in her own way and let John know how she felt-

Wait. Stop. No. That wasn't a good thing at all. How could it be? She was a machine. John had been engineered to be incapable of these things to begin with, even if he had somehow recovered from his hormonal changes what he had been stripped of, she was still not good enough for him. She couldn't even touch him, how could she be so selfish and want to keep him all to herself?

...why not? She protected him, she helped him, she SAVED him. She did EVERYTHING for him and she would do ANYTHING. So why couldn't she keep him?

"... I'll make him love me...." she said low and vicious. There came her rampancy.

Back in junior high, Ami had once solved the problem of loneliness by brainwashing her entire school class to adore her. So she wasn't particularly in a position to lecture about this basic concept, even if she'd eventually grown away from it. She certainly still knew the feeling of wanting someone all to herself, looking only at her. What else had everything towards Usagi truly been about? (What else would prompt her, across dreams and the multiverse, to take John before Halsey could, or to keep him at Mariner Castle, no matter how she'd insist it was for his own good?)

However, if Cortana ever hurt John, Mercury would not hesitate to end her. John was the more important. Mercury needed that calm assurance, and that goodness that fascinated her as much as it confused her. She needed them more than anyone.]

And who else could Cortana mean? It could no longer be ignored.

"Could it be you mean John?" she asked bluntly. "I won't let you harm him in the meanwhile." A flat, definite statement. There were certain things this rampant AI had better get clear from the start.

Ami's words started several uncomfortable thoughts in her head. It made something snap. She was just like Halsey, telling her what she could and couldn't do. What did they know, they didn't care about John the way she did, they only wanted him because they needed them for whatever stupid psychotic issue they had. Halsey was a bitch, Ami was no different. Condescending bitch.

"John is mine, no one cares about him the way I do. I just want to help him, why can't I keep him? I do everything for him! Everything! And what do I get? I go mad! I'm going to die while he- while he-"

Her body changes glow and something snaps, red tendrils spreading around the nearby buckets breaking them. The hearts spread all over the floor as she knelt down grabbing her head.

"I'm sorry." Her voice echoed. "I-I didn't mean that." Yes. Yes I did.

What struck Mercury wasn't the words at all. It was that Cortana was so able to say everything that still lurked inside Mercury. She'd wanted people all to herself in exactly the way Cortana was talking about John.

She was the one who did everything: agreed with Usagi every time, in every argument among the group, always supporting any word that came out of Usagi's mouth. She was the one who was a soldier with Usagi; Osaka Naru wasn't. She was the one there from the beginning; the other sailor senshi weren't. And yet, Usagi had never once looked at her. She remembered all that. Usagi had never once looked at her until everything changed and they'd become enemies.

It was almost worth it, for that. Just to see Usagi finally have to look at her, to be able to demand it.

More importantly, Cortana had to be brought under control, one way or another. This wanton.. destruction... could not continue. Mercury eyed the spilled hearts coldly before looking back at the AI with scant pity.

"Someone," she does not talk about her father, or the time when she still had a family, by name to Cortana, "once taught me ways to focus my concentration. He said chess and swimming were good for that."

Not perfectly, but they did help when her own mind took those downward spirals sometimes.

Cortana knew Chess. Cortana knew all about chess. War was like chess and she had seen so much of it. It was hurt duty to be a part of it. She had played chess a few times, mostly with Halsey, and those periods hadn't really gone well. Why was this girl reminding her of such terrible thoughts?

"I have never been swimming." She spoke truthfully. "Obviously. What does that feel like?"

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For a long time, Spartans barely even knew of Valentine's day. It took five years of being thrown into situations that forced him to adapt -to evolve- when he realized what it was. And for a long time, he didn't even pay attention to it.

Now? He is left confused as soon as he hears Cortana -along those words-. And once he sees her blue figure in here, he hesitates.

She's here. In dreams.

"How...?"

"What do you mean how?"

The concept of walking around buckets was definitely odd but she hadn't quite yet realized that he could be there too. Hearing John's voice wasn't rare, they were always together, weren't they? His deep calm voice did wonders to her mood. He was always so held together, all that training had done that she knew, but it was one of the many reasons why he needed it. She didn't bother turning around, she figured his voice was just a ghost.

"I know everything and I would gladly explain but there's just some things not worth mentioning between friends. I'm not having 'the talk' with you."

Edited 2013-02-16 14:38 (UTC)

He doesn't react to her teases, as he rarely does. But even hearing her is enough to feel happy. The change in his voice is noticeable.

What he meant was something entirely different. He walks towards her. One hand extends to try to hold hers.

"You're here. In dreams."

He didn't know this was possible for A.I.s. And yet she's here.

"Crazy, right?"

Things didn't become real until she felt something solid in her hand. She looked down to see the black mesh of Chief's armor and her body froze, whatever she had for a heart beat faster and it was clear on her body as the data streams flow sped up. She glowed a little brighter. She turned around hopefully catching sight of that tall green armored soldier and stared right at that visor.

"Chief." She hadn't dreamt about him yet, at least not awake, but it was bound to happen, wasn't it? Her fingers tightened around his, the thrill of touching him making those data streams pulse. "Who else would I dream of if it wasn't you?"

"Electric sheep?"

He dreamed of the people he couldn't save too many times. Until Ami brought his Cortana from the brink of rampancy, she had been the most common image haunting him. Wishing she could accompany him once again.

And here she was.

"But thanks."

His voice is low. Even beneath his armor, this dream lets him feel her touch -- what he imagined her touch would be like. He held both hands as he walked closer, wanting to hold her.

Spartan discipline, and five years away from her coming in conflict.

Cortana didn't have her moment with the spartan on her final days, she still hadn't quite left the world of the 'living' and of course she hadn't touched John yet. He was far away from her as far as she knew, frozen in that cryo-pod.

Her eyes went wide as he approached her unfamiliar to the reactions but it didn't take her long to realize what could happen with her body being solid and bigger than the display she always seemed to be and him. He was trying to hold her, to touch her.

"Missed me, chief?" Because she sure as hell did.

She took a few steps closer to him slipping in between those arms. The girl was small in comparison to the spartan, but really everything was inevitably smaller than him. She had been waiting for him to wake, for him to greet her. For him to say her name. Her voice was a little shy. Finally, she could hold him.

"It's about time you showed up."

He doesn't take notice of the armor in the time he spends holding her. It's almost as if he didn't have it. In his mind, it resembles the times he would be out of armor as a favor for a trusted someone... and the times they'd hold him, as well.

This feels different. Unique.

"Yeah." He missed her for too long. It had been too long without getting to see her.

He leans his head forward, lowering his body for her. The cyan lines of his HUD remain present as he lets his head hold her... but again, it feels different. He doesn't feel the helmet. He feels his hair close to hers.

Her body tensed as she felt something marginally soft touch her sides. She looked down to spy those strong arms actually taking a hold of her. She was hesitant, unsure as to what he should be expecting, if this was actually what it felt like to be held.

Whatever it was, Cortana liked it and she closed her eyes pressing herself against this new-found solid body in front of him. Her hands trailed up his shoulders and were lost in strands of... hair?

"Your armor." She commented, lifting her gaze up to try and catch a glimpse of his face. "It's gone, chief."

He blinks. His eyes still see the markings of his HUD, but feeling the air run over his face and hair, and the outer plating removed to leave his black undersuit, he takes stock of himself.

He slowly steps back, but he doesn't let go of Cortana's hands.

"It's dreams." He looked to his side, berating himself for the wordless outburst. "It's how things run around here."

Even the slightest memory and emotion can change them.

Cortana was silent, her eyes were looking at his arms around the exact areas where that black body suit was closest to his skin. He wasn't a heap of rectangular armor anymore, he was defined and curved. She pressed a hand against his chest and felt warmth and pressure, his fit muscles were hard underneath that flesh. This was definitely a dream. How else would she be able to get this lucky?

"Lucky me." She responded, voice tender as she pulled her hand back in shyness. "I must be the only machine in the world who can dream."

Unless she wasn't a machine. But Cortana was trying very hard not to over-think. There was something very important and huge standing in front of him.