Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 2, 2009 15:15:15 GMT -5
Chaste and brief that kiss may be, but Holi is easy to overwhelm with displays of affection. Especially from Clipper. The instant her lips meet his cheek, he flushes with heat from head to toe – warm enough that his face glows faintly red – and he can't help gibbering nonsense for a second or two, or the way he almost drunkenly staggers after Clipper, imaginary hearts floating over his head. It's just the sort of loop she knocks him for nearly every time she decides to be sweet on him.
"Fuh… forward observation lounge," he mumbles while he works on recovering his composure. He's trying not to think about that whole date thing he screwed up by coming here.
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Post by Clipper on Aug 2, 2009 18:20:17 GMT -5
Maybe by the time Holi finds his balance again and manages to catch up with Clipper, she'll have finally suppressed that smug grin she's been wearing since Holi had started gibbering. Probably not, though. That grin certainly doesn't last, however, beyond opening the wide doors into that forward observation lounge and being confronted with huge bay screens and windows filled with nothing but the yawning blackness of space.
Clipper gives a little "eep," as she freezes in place, startled by the sudden feeling of agoraphobia at being confronted by all that unfamiliar, intimidating abyss. She gropes for Holi's support as she stands motionless in the doorway.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 2, 2009 23:52:05 GMT -5
Holi's barely through the door before he finds Clipper latching onto his hand while she stares at the screens and if it wasn't for that wide-eyed look on her face, he'd probably just dissolve into blushing stupidity again. Instead, he tightens his fingers around hers reassuringly.
"It's okay," he says. He remembers the first time he went into space and dared to look outside; it was so different from seeing the stars from Micro's surface. He wasn't the only member of his team who got a frightful case of vertigo for a while. But he had Laster and Blacker there to advise him and the others, and Star Saber there to remind them they were safe. Now it's Holi's turn. He adds quietly, tone even and calm, "It's better if you just look at small parts of it at a time."
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Post by Clipper on Aug 3, 2009 14:05:49 GMT -5
It should look the same. It should! How many times had she stretched out on the ground staring up into the night sky, wondering which tiny bright spot Holi was orbiting? How many times staring upwards with nothing but that huge field of stars overhead? Why doesn't it look the same here? She can see the ship around her, and yet, space seems so much bigger here than when she had not even caught a glimpse of so much as a building from the corners of her optics!
But on Micro, she had the planet under her, solid ground pressing up into her back and under her hands and feet. Somehow, she always knew that in the back of her mind, while here... Here, she is quite suddenly aware that there is only a ship around her, a relatively tiny, fragile bubble in a very forbidding environment. Holi's hand is very reassuring in her own.
"It's... different," she breathes, fingers tightening around his hand. "W-was it... Did you... W-when you first, I mean..." It's hard to ask what she wants to know, to admit how much the sight of all that darkness has shaken her.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 4, 2009 0:12:43 GMT -5
"It took me a little while to get used to it," Holi admits, making a guess at Clipper's meaning and opting for honesty, and looks down at their hands for a moment. There's a wistful twist to his mouth that quickly passes. "Don't worry," he adds when he finally looks up again. "Soon enough, you won't even think about it. You'll be too busy running around performing your duties!" Holi speaks from experience.
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Post by Clipper on Aug 4, 2009 0:25:09 GMT -5
Bravery isn't not being afraid - or shaken - but continuing to act in spite of that fear. Even more than that, though, Clipper appreciates Holi's honesty. More than appreciates it. Adores him for it, really.
He could have taken the opportunity to play up his calm, cool, in-control bravado. He could have tried to pretend that he'd never been bothered by it and that he had always been a cool cucumber in the face of the newness.
In short, he could have belittled her reaction without ever intending to.
Instead, he is honest, even though that may make him look just a little less "cool". He sacrifices that little potential shred of so-called dignity to tell Clipper that she isn't foolish for feeling this way out here, even if he doesn't even know that's what he's telling her.
Holi, Captain of the vaunted Rescue Patrol, had had to get used to all that space out there, too. Suddenly, Clipper doesn't feel so silly or useless or weak, and it's all thanks to Holi.
"R-r-really?" That's not intimidation making her stammer, now. Not unless intimidation has the power to turn her cheeks that brilliant shade of flushed red as she glances sidelong at him and refuses to let go of his hand.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 5, 2009 9:48:13 GMT -5
Holi just nods, abashedly rubbing the back of his neck and smiling. For some reason, Clipper looking at him like that makes his core feel funnier than usual. She's never blushed at him before. Definitely never because of him. But she isn't upset or calling him foolish or ignoring him, so he's going to assume this is a good thing.
He sure hopes he's right.
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Post by Clipper on Aug 6, 2009 14:31:49 GMT -5
It's a good thing. For some reason, though, seeing Holi's reaction only makes Clipper blush even harder for a long minute until she finally realizes that they're still just standing there by the door, awkwardly.
"Do you still have time to sit with me?" she asks, and she's proud that her voice manages not to be too breathy. "Or maybe, umm... didn't you say they had games here? I haven't played a game in a long time. Maybe you could show me how?"
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 7, 2009 21:05:25 GMT -5
"Plenty of time," Holi says brightly. "I'm… running ahead of schedule." Well, he is. And he wouldn't mind sitting and stargazing with her for a bit.
Or… she can ask about the games. They were supposed have a romantic moment! Now she wants to play video games! Has she been hanging out with Jan behind Holi's back or something? And he was so close, too! He smiles anyway. Games are good, too.
"I can–" He stops and blinks, then frowns thoughtfully. "I… I don't think I've played any of these games." He continues to mull it over for a moment, then snaps his fingers, looking up from his chest. That burst of nerve vanishes frightfully quickly as he suggests, "Maybe we could, er… learn… together?"
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Post by Clipper on Aug 7, 2009 21:31:45 GMT -5
Clipper smiles happily when he explains that he doesn't need to rush off, though it fades to thoughtfulness when he admits that he hasn't played these games yet. But he doesn't then make an excuse to cut their time together short, which pleases her just fine!
"Hmm... that sounds kinda time consuming, and I don't want to tie you up too much," she replies with a small shrug.
Ah, but don't despair Holi!
"Maybe we could schedule that for sometime later when you don't have other things to do?" You know, like a future date? "And go sit and look at the stars now? And maybe you can stay until I'm... you know... more used to it?"
Because she'd really rather just snugglesit quietly next to him and stargaze than let a video game distract her anyway. It's more romantic. Hopefully he won't realize that, too, and get all... squirrelly about it.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 8, 2009 22:45:27 GMT -5
And Clipper changes her mind again. Holi will never understand girls.
"Oh. Okay," he agrees, trying not to sound like his head is spinning from the abrupt reversals. "I… can do that. If you want." He just has to make sure he doesn't sound too excited about it; he'll just look immature and silly to her like that and then he's back to square one. "Um. We could… sit over there," he says, eyeing a couch that looks pretty cosy. And just big enough for three, so she can't accuse him – he hopes – of picking a seat that will have them sitting too close together. It even has a nice view of the screens.
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Post by Clipper on Aug 9, 2009 17:28:41 GMT -5
Hey, she'd just tried suggesting games because she'd thought that doing something might make Holi feel more comfortable and less... well... bashful. She would really rather just have some quiet time with him, and if she can get over the way her fuel pump seems to freeze up when she looks out the screens, the view really is quite romantic.
"Okay." Clipper has practice at sound cool and collected around Holi. She's rather thankful of that as she heads toward the couch, tugging him along behind her by the hand she still holds in her own. And if she happens to sit just a little bit shy of dead center in the seat, well...
Guess she won't have any grounds to accuse him of sitting too close when he doesn't have much choice in the matter.
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 13, 2009 4:02:01 GMT -5
Holi lets himself be tugged along without protest. Not even when he finds he'll have to squeeze in on either side of Clipper, unsure if he should ask her to scoot a little one way or the other and a little too bashful to ask. Finally, he just takes a seat on her right with a quickly mumbled, "Pardon me."
Then he just sits there, back ramrod-straight, hands in his lap. He almost starts twiddling his thumbs.
Well, he imagines Pipo chuckling and giving him an elbow in the side, now that you've got her alone, what're you going to do, Leader? Holi thinks about that for a moment. He thinks some more. Time passes and still he ponders his next course of action.
…He has no idea.
"The… stars are… er… pretty."
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Post by Clipper on Aug 20, 2009 15:09:07 GMT -5
At first, it's very nice having Holi to herself there, with him sitting so primly beside her and no Patrol to tease him - or her. But slowly, his nervousness seeps into her, and she becomes more and more aware of that huge screen of stars in front of her and no planet under her feet, and all that space just beyond the walls of the ship, just waiting to swallow her up at the slightest breech of the hull, and hulls aren't as sturdy as --
Stop. Deep breath. Unclench the fist on her thigh slowly.
"Holi?" she asks, her voice only wavering just a tiny bit. "They would be a lot prettier if you weren't so... tense."
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Holi
Major
Captain Can-Do
Posts: 672
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Post by Holi on Aug 23, 2009 20:08:41 GMT -5
"Huh?" Holi blinks out of his miniature fugue and looks curiously at Clipper. "Tense? I'm not tense, honest! I'm… uh…." Concentrating? Concentrating on what, exactly? That's a stupid thing to say. He sighs and slumps a little; Clipper has a very good point. He can't be helping her stay calm at all when he's on edge. "…Sorry," he mumbles.
Almost as abruptly as his mood plummeted, it perks again and he gives her an awkward but genuinely chipper smile.
"So!" he says. "Um." Conversation, Holi. Make conversation somehow. "…How do you like space travel? So far."
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