onetwoboom | [VR] IC INBOX

On Valentine's Day morning, Gaige will wake up to find a vase filled with red and orange flowers, a pink box filled with one dozen cupcakes (chocolate, and frosted with decorative pokemon faces - Voltorb, Magnemite, Rotom, Aron, Beldum, Turtonator, Bronzor, Gastly, Drifloon, Pumpkaboo, Sableye, and Golett), and a convenient mini travel kit of wrenches and screwdrivers.

Also, Krieg made her a card. It features a printout of an anatomically correct human heart - stylized with a heavy black outline and dripping dramatic blood, carefully cut to shape and pasted to the front. It's super metal. There's a handwritten message inside written in blocky chicken scratch.

Bet you can't eat them all at once!!!

(the cupcakes not the wrenches)

-KRIEG

[Holy frag.

Had Gaige ever gotten a Valentine's gift before? Well - she might as well never have. Nothing could match up to THIS. Anything else just looks like crap in comparison.

The cupcakes, though they are far too precious to eat, are gradually gone over the course of the day. She doesn't leave her room for the majority of it, until it's no longer Valentine's day anymore.

At around 2am, February 15th, Gaige hits up Krieg's 'gear with a message.]

u up?

[There's maybe a two or three minute delay before he sends a response.]

i am now

cool.

give me 5-10 minutes.

[And then, after 5-10 minutes there's a knock at his door.]

ok

[And after 5-10 minutes when there's a knock at the door, he opens it expectantly. His PJ bottoms are red, and covered with little orange Growlithes. He's not wearing a shirt (obviously) or his mask (because only a weirdo would sleep in such a lumpy mask).]

[Who'd have known such a scary looking guy would wear such cute pajamas? But, that's not the point here.

Gaige hasn't actually changed out of her PJ's since waking up, she's got a fuzzy little pika kigu, 'cause you gotta be cosy if you're gonna be working. She's holding something behind her back, and hurriedly yells at Krieg.]

Quick - close your eyes!

Okay!

[He immediately shuts his eyes without question, and also brings up a hand to cover them too, just in case!

Then he just. You know. Waits expectantly. Knowing Gaige, he probably won't have to wait too long. Two or three seconds, tops.]

[As expected, Krieg doesn't have to wait long at all. Only a couple of seconds, and then she shouts.]

Open them!

[When he does so, he'll see Gaige holding something out to him. Small, mechanical, with a bloody-rusty look that could only be intentional. With the key in the side, it rather resembles a music box. However, it's not a capsule like most of those are; standing on a platform is a little metal torso, like a greek sculpture but...you know, tiny. And made of metal.

In a hurry to show it off, Gaige winds it up for him, and the tiny arms flex, and from those tiny metal nipples comes two short bursts of flame.

Seems kind of familiar, huh?]

Happy Valentine's day! ...What do you think?

[He uncovers his eyes when instructed to do so and blinks at the small clockwork sculpture in Gaige's hands. It takes a second or two to process what he's seeing, but it all comes together when the tiny, tiny flamethrowing nipples begin spouting fire. Once it all sort of clicks together, he throws his head back and roars with laughter.]

MnahahahAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

[Krieg, pls. There are other people in this hotel who are trying to sleep.]

I love it!

[Without his mask in place, Gaige gets a great view of his expression - a combination of utter delight and wonder. He's like a little kid on Christmas morning who got everything he asked for from Santa.]

[That's a rare sight, and a gift in its own right. Screw everyone else trying to sleep here, this psycho's joy is something they'll have to either appreciate or put up with.

She grins in turn, and would totally be hugging him if she had anywhere to put the gift. So she just continues to hold it out awkwardly.]

Good! 'Cause you know I'd have to fight you if you didn't.

[An awkward laugh.]

...Sorry that it's kinda late. Didn't realize we were gonna be doing the whole gift thing.

[Sorry for the awkward, Gaige, he's still a little slow on the uptake sometimes. BUT, it definitely occurs to him that right now is a very good time for a hug, so he'll just (carefully!) accept the proffered gift with one large hand and use his entire other arm to pull her up off her feet and into that hug.]

It's not late it's perfect!

[She'd be getting a noogie right now if his other hand were free. Hopefully she's aware of the reprieve. But, if not, it will be noogie time again sooner or later so it's not like she'll be missing out for long.]

Did you eat all the cupcakes?

[He must know if she accepted his bet!]

[She acknowledges the lack of noogies, and she damn well is appreciating this break.]

Of course! What- you think I'm some kind of coward?

[Pfffft. You wound her, Krieg.]

They were really good. Like, way too cute to eat, and it kind of felt like I was destroying something beautiful? But, damn, they were good cupcakes.

[Honestly, Venkman still isn't sure what to think of Gaige. Ray and Egon have both taken a shine to her, in their own ways, but Venkman's slow to trust people. Particularly teens who think replacing his legs with robotic ones is a good idea.

Still, his partners invited her along on this trip- so he's trying to play nice.

Right now, he's hanging around the campfire Ray built earlier in the night, drinking a cup of hot chocolate- from Egon's stash, of course. And if Gaige happens to wander over, he'll look up-]

There's more if you want some. Just don't let Egon know.

[Egon is, presumably, too busy examining mold somewhere to notice.]

[Gaige was honestly just feeling kind of restless. She wasn't used to peaceful nights of sleeping again, it's just weird not having the looming threat of death hovering over you at night. With that, and a whole bunch of other thoughts nagging at her when she tried to sleep, she gave up on it and decided to tinker with her arm instead. She just needed a reliable light source, and so she wandered over to the campfire, jabbing a screwdriver at her wrist.

And then there was Venkman, with an unmistakable mug of cocoa. Kind of brought back memories of a life she'd said goodbye to. Staying up late, working on Deathtrap, her dad bringing her fresh cocoa. Kind of hurt.]

You, uh - [She tries her best to sound normal, as if this fairly innocuous thing hadn't just winded her.] You make that?

[Venkman's eyes narrow ever so slightly- he caught that slight hesitation, but he doesn't press for now.]

Yeah. Ray showed me how to a while back- he dragged Egon and I camping one summer. The whole trip kinda turned into a mess, but at least I learned something from it.

[Tarantula, his Meowth, stirs a little in his lap. Venkman scratches her behind the ears idly as he takes another sip.]

Sounds like you guys have a great track record for this kind of thing.

[She sits herself down and, sliding the screwdriver into one of her many pockets, she holds out an expectant hand.]

Alright, I’ll take some. See if you really learnt anything. Think of it as a challenge.

Disaster-prone to a fault. At least that little trip was before we spent our time dealing with demons and spirits, so the comedy of errors was more along the lines of "getting rained out" and not "Ray gets possessed for the fifth time this week".

[The hot chocolate is fine- nothing extraordinary, but he didn't fuck up and dump mud into it, and it's the right temperature and all.]

How about you? Ever camped out before this dimension?

Why would you not want to take possession over getting rained on? [Pfft she goes with a shake of her head, pouring out some hot chocolate for herself.] Weird.

[She lets the mug warm her hands for a few moments before blowing on it several times prior to taking a sip. It's...well, it's okay. Drinkable. But not really on her Dad's level. Man, did he have a level? Kind of weird to think that maybe he was kind of pretty cool actually, in hindsight. Did she ever tell him that? He wasn't any Jack after all. ...Man she has got to stop thinking about this.]

I've had better. [She says, after drinking pretty much half the cup as she got lost on a train of thought.] It's not bad, but you've got a long way to go. And some tiny marshmallows to hunt down. Boy, I miss tiny marshmallows.

[She takes another sip before addressing his question.]

Nnnnnot...really? How loosely are we using the word 'camping' here? 'Cause, back on Eden-5, you know, I'm a nerd. Swapped the great outdoors for furthering the progress of science in the garage. But on Pandora is where it gets a liiiittle questionable. I mean, I guess its camping if you're just sleeping under bits of scrap under the stars, but it's less campfires and cocoa and more...skag meat, cover fire, and watch duty.

[Which would've sucked if she didn't have Deathtrap or Axton sitting in on her shifts with her.]

Way more hardcore in my opinion. Kinda makes regular camping look like crap.

...No offense.

Fair enough- at least when Ray gets possessed it usually doesn't take too long to shake him outta it.

Everybody's a critic, huh. [Venkman shakes his head and takes another sip from his own mug.] Egon's got marshmallows stashed away somewhere, but the bag hasn't been opened yet, and he'll get all huffy if he finds it open and realizes we've been draining his snack supplies.

No offense taken. Camping's not really my scene. ... What's a skag?

Then that's on him for not keeping them more guarded!

[You gotta make your secret snacks lootproof or you're just asking for trouble.]

Pandoran native wildlife. Mostly naked armor plated burrowing creatures with three jaws. TOTAL pain in the butt, if having to fend off bandits wasn't enough. [Ugh. She takes another sip, then straightens up with some pride.] ...But, still a piece of cake for a certified badass like yours truly.

It is, but Egon still gets that look in his eye that tells me I'm sleeping on the couch for the next couple days. Metaphorically, I mean. And it's not like we have a couch out here.

[They... still haven't outright mentioned they're all dating to Gaige. It doesn't occur to Venkman yet that that was a bit too unsubtle.]

Sounds like that could describe some demons we deal with. Never tried cooking and eating 'em, though. Not sure if that'd even work, since they're made of spectral energy or whatever.

Huh. [A pause.] He kind of struck me as the 'sleep is for the weak' type.

[She's maybe a touch disappointed at the concept.]

Eh, on Pandora you take what you can get. [A shrug.] Kind of forgot what actual food was like til I came here. [She laughs weakly. Sounds kind of sad when you say it out loud. Time to change the subject? Time to change the subject.] Hey - if you ate a demon, you think you'd get cool powers?

He only sleeps 14 minutes a day, so you're not wrong about that.

[Venkman shakes his head with a long-suffering sigh.

At the abrupt change of topic, Venkman narrows his eyes, but doesn't comment. He does, however, nudge a bag at his feet closer to Gaige. The bag in question contains the majority of Egon's snack stash. It may all be junk food, but it's still non-slag meat food. Go nuts.]

Probablyyy not? But I dunno. Please don't mention that theory to the boys.

Damn. You really gotta economize your cuddle time.

[She leans over to the bag and swipes a good handful of snacks. Obviously, it's all local, but some of it has a resemblance to stuff she remembers from back home. She missed the good stuff.]

Why not? You DON'T want them getting bad-ass demon powers?

[Said through a mouthful of twinkay.]

[He starts a little at the mention of cuddling as he realizes that, yep, she's hit the nail on the head. Venkman chooses his next words carefully, glancing over at her as he does so.]

Just because he doesn't need to sleep more than 14 minutes doesn't mean he doesn't lie in bed with his partners most of the night.

[Demon powers is a safer subject, and one he gratefully latches on to.]

That's the last thing either of them need. I already gotta keep them both from getting themselves killed as it is. Factor in, what, godlike strength or the ability to manifest stuff at will? And we're all screwed. They've already tried resurrecting a corpse once, and that's without demon powers. Place would be crawling with zombies... I'm not doing a good job of convincing you this is a bad idea, am I.

[VR] IC INBOX

Valentine's Day!

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