From her vantage point, the entire countryside opened up before the priestess Mercury. Mountainous terrain spread from there to the horizon, dotted by caves and carpeted with forest. The broad vista took in a pristine landscape.

The beauty of the scene was marred only by the keening and noising of what might be animals, They sounded thick, and primal, and not as distant as a traveler might have preferred. Mercury faced in the direction of the noise anyway, noting it carefully, before she turned to return to her camp. More distant still, too distant to be seen, was her destination.

There was a long way to go yet, and there were many obstacles between her and her goal. Yet she had taken on this journey and quest willingly. The sign that her plans were favored were her healing powers. She was confident, in this bright morning, of her path.

Who: Everyone! Open to All
What: Valentine's Day mingle logs
When: any time generally around the holiday
Where: awkward cupid / conversation hearts / repay the gesture

Love is in the air, from chocolated Japan to cherubic America, from Victorian times to the far-off future. There are dreams of romance, candy, timid (and bold!) love confessions, and hearts everywhere.

(ooc: This is a post to keep threads together for Valentine's Day. Separate posts or additional subthreads are also fine, and this one is optional. Since some of the affects have potential to force a character's reactions icly, it may be best to discuss between the players or note your preferences/anything you'd rather avoid.)

 When she closed her eyes and sleep claimed the corpse the soul of Madoka Kaname thus controlled, she dreamed of better days. 

What precisely? Anything one would think of: playing alongside her friends in a schoolyard, or even singing together in a too-small Karaoke box, the familiar sounds of badly-recorded J-Pop fluttering in the air. Madoka's heart often fluttered from event to event, grasping for the normalcy she'd left behind, and yet at the same time embracing the life she'd chosen to lead with no regrets. 

Tonight was no different. 

The school roof wasn't the most comfortable place to lie down, but Madoka cared little. She lied flat on her back, bentou long finished and neatly set aside. The sky was almost an endless expanse above her, with barely any clouds. 

The sun didn't even shine in her eyes.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes. It was so warm. She could just lie here for a while. Nobody would mind, she was sure...

"Hey." 

Nothing but a simple tombstone, engraved with nothing but a "Z", stared back at him. Not that X expected it could talk; a slab of stone under a large blossoming apple tree didn't make for good conversation, he wagered. Still, there was a comfort in small, silent things, from the simple grassy field that made up their meeting place to the hilt of the beam sabre that sat next to the bouquet of irises that lied down next to it. 

It wasn't meant to be an extravagant place full of pomp and ceremony: the clear sunny sky, endless grass (short of the single tree), and lack of any sort of building made that abundantly clear. 

"It's been a while since I've seen you...sorry about that. I've been busy and it's been hard to get away, even to sleep. You know how it is."

X chuckled, scratching his head. 

"But we're starting to home in on the last of the straggler groups still holding onto Sigma's ideals. We might even win the war soon, and then...well. Things will be peaceful again. Maybe I'll be able to go back to being a B-class, huh?"

Maybe. Maybe he'd even be able to wear his favorite human clothes, like he was wearing now: blue upon blue, with even more blue. Right now, he couldn't have even worn these around the base with as little free time as he had, but here, it was all right. In dreams, everything was safe, including prattling about at a gravestone in the middle of nowhere like he was a character in a human drama. 

Well. He was alone. 

There was no harm in creating a grave for an old friend that didn't exist in the real world, just as there was no harm in voicing his thoughts to him.

After all, it wasn't as though anyone could hear him.

Living in John's helmet wasn't always a bad thing. He knew how to take care of a girl, how to make her feel special. If she could choose a place out of all the locations she was consciously aware of(and for an A.I. those were many) she was sure that there was no other safer place than that little slot in the back of his head. She felt close to him when they were together, it was the most optimal way to securely ensure she was aiding him in everything he could possibly need.

When she wasn't analyzing enemy comm-links or checking his vitals, she was watching. Being an A.I. definitely had it's cons but what she lost with her inability to touch, she gained with her ability to see. Everything John had ever lived she had shared and sometimes she wondered what was beyond her confinements.

Perhaps it was why her dream had manifested into a world of color and sky. Despite the danger they always seemed to be in, these new worlds they explored were majestic. Chief had gone through jungles, mountains, flat lands, and he never stopped to watch. But she had, she remembered the way the jungles were stiffed with heat, how she had to overwork his armor to keep him in adequate homeostasis or how wind would blow and make all those leaves dance and shimmer in the sunlight. Cortana heaved a sigh as the wind seemed to pick up, some invisible force pushing her off her center and she stumbled forward blue locks coming over her eyes as she brought a hand up to brush them away in shock.

"What are you doing, Cortana." She could feel and for a girl who had never felt any sensation, this was very overwhelming. There was no control, she couldn't stop the wind even if she tried. She was exposed. "Look at you. Over thinking again. Analyzing all those definitions and descriptions and this is what you accomplish?" But why not? After all they've been through, "After everything I've suffered-"

"Stop. Just stop thinking."

The wind wasn't stopping, truth be told, she wasn't sure she liked it. It was pushing her, she could feel it. Her logic told her that this was caused by millions and millions of atoms that were pressing against her nude form and she couldn't do anything but grip her head and keep the voices under control. She had to stop thinking but it was useless and this overwhelming sensation was making her anxious.

"I-I can't...." Her voice quivered responding to her own voices as she dares lift up her eyes only to have the wind blow against them. She gives a shocked gasped as her hands came up to cover her face.

"S-stop it, Cortana!" Because clearly, this is all in her head and she's torturing herself.