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SATURN, EPISODE TWO: "i'm so getting laid"/JOYRIDE KILLJOY II
Day 2 and Celestial Mechanics has advanced already! Like the bio said, there's no reason we can't both flirt and evolve.
Speaking of which, let's check out the comms and mails for today.
quote:
I'm logging off, bye.
I was not fooled for even one second that this would be useful.
really? not even for a second?
I no longer experience hope as a concept.
You've freed me from it.
aw stop I'm blushing
What do you want from me Saturn?
do you know any discreet places to make out in on ares
GOODBYE, SATURN
also here's the test output to date
SATURN:
GOODBYE
arent you gonna read me the data analysis
If it is indeed data you are sending this time and not just NUDES.
thats rude I always ask before I send them to you
I don't mind acting as the official art director of Saturn's Nudes since you need it so badly and it's substantially less tedious than data analysis.
But if you were as punctual about sending data as cockpit selfies I would have a lot more data to report!
why are you soooooo incredulous all the time
You stole the prototype, might I remind you?????
You can't just continue the field testing as if NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!
why not
Because WHY would you do ANYTHING you didn't want to do?
...
;>
What are you planning?
;;;;;;;;;;;;;>
UGH FINE
They've been dying for it, anyway.
cool how'd I do
...
...
?
Ugh this is...
Not bad. It's pretty useful.
he typed through tears
DONT rub it in.
I can't believe your Ship-Self's expanded so much already, what have you been doing with it?
i think i have been hinting very clearly what
I instantly regret this question.
You're supposed to test the prototype in combat.
same difference
i cant believe we invented a ship designed to get into trouble and didnt think
'oh saturn is the obvious choice for this'
We both know why.
you were an even more obvious choice than me
fuck Iapetus for throwing us both out like trash
come on arent you a little happy to see a little havoc in his perfect garden
Day 2 mail:
"-M: Why. You work with me.
If I absolutely promise neither I nor anyone else will do anything at all to stop you from being exactly who you want, or from whatever changes you need, will you at least answer my questions?
M: Sometimes. Maybe.
Okay, that's good enough for me. We're just curious if it's a side effect of life in space. Or the educational programming of Dr. Nix. Or, in reference to the behavior of Iapetus--
M: No, that's backwards.
M: Everyone else seemed to get to do whatever they want without limits in space.
M: Why is it weird when I do it?
We want to test for the effects of space alone, so self-induced changes have to be controlled for.
M: Don't ask what's in my endocrine system. It's my endocrine system.
...
M: Fine. It's testosterone, and I put it there, because I wanted it there. Is that enough.
Well. I guess that is what I needed to know.
M: If you promise not to ask me about it again, I'll give you all the data I catalogued about the changes.
...okay. I get it.
M: You're starting to get it.
M: Stop treating me like a girl, and I'll know you've really got it."
Mercury is the first explicitly trans character we've come across, but if you're good at reading between lines, not the only one implied. The big one is Luna-Terra.
Time for us to see the other side of the JOYRIDE KILLJOY mission. The bulk of the mission is the same for each of the Luna-Terra ones we've seen before, an understandable necessity given that the devs had like one person doing all the writing. But the briefings are still different, and those are sometimes the best parts.
>LAUNCH
"Until they start sending someone interesting after me, Mercury."
"The whole FLEET would be after you if you hadn't damaged the entire launch hangar when you STOLE that."
"Could they even take me out while I'm flying this thing?"
"...No. But it won't stop him from trying."
"And let me stress this info packet is gift purely to prevent your Ship-Self from falling into enemy hands not an indication of any sort of forgiveness."
"Let me worry about Iapetus, Mercury."
"He's gonna be a lot less grumpy when I clear the way for us and Celestial Mechanics to return to the Native Sphere."
"I've got it all figured out."
"'Ace Memorial Foundation pilot Luna-Terra in hot pursuit with escorts... planned an attack on the lab, arrived after you escaped... do not engage under any circumstances...' Boring!"
"But this part was good: 'I don't expect you to control your impulses, but even given that you're just Like That she is the last person you should be trying to fight on purpose.'"
"Sounds like I should definitely fight her on purpose, right?"
"I hate you."
"Aw come on! The carrier is never going to make it out of the system if I don't."
"You don't know how to pilot your ship, and she's a veteran since the Cold War. You're going to get yourself captured and humiliated, and the ship trashed."
"Why are you doing this to me."
"And she's 6'1" huh? Your attention to detail is so useful sometimes."
"You're using me to CRUISE?"
"Your taste is so awful ugh I hate you."
--
"Having fun dismantling my escorts?"
"Oh, she's a hacker, too? How amusing. There's nothing too interesting on this comm frequency."
"Aw, you flatter me."
"But hey, what did that mean, exactly? The part about the girls who can't control themselves? I REALLY want to hear more."
"It means back up that talk first."
"Or can you land a hit off the comms?"
"Good thing you don't win by looking cool."
"No mercy for newbies?"
"No."
It doesn't hurt at all. The ship's metals begin molding and reforming around the wound immediately. A ridiculous, unfair advantage. Saturn has no right to complain, but she still wants to.
But she is trying to be cool. Everyone wants to, when in the quiet gleam of that always-bleeding ship.
"Either you're fighting just for fun, because you're that reckless."
"Or you're caught in your own containment wrapper and can't escape orbit yet."
"And you'd beat me for sure if I played around."
"I'm not done yet."
That's not true; it's actually very difficult to move with a solid light bullet in your leg. But she's not going to let that stop her.
Saturn is suddenly closer than she logically could be, claws bubbling, but Luna-Terra effortlessly slips away and kicks Saturn's ship directly in the chest.
"Yeah, you're done."
"The containment wrapper is still stuck to you. So your movement's off. Doesn't seem to have stopped you that much."
"It seems cruel to take it away when you're having so much fun with it."
"Same as you, right?"
"? Do I know you?"
"Everyone knows Memorial Foundation's perfect ace."
"But do I know you?"
"..."
"So I do, don't I."
"Let me out of this thing and I'll tell you."
"Ahaha. Why should I?"
"Can you promise it'll go different?"
"I can promise it'll be more fun."
"You are asking for me to totally abandon my duty to bring you back and do that instead?"
"What, you won't?"
"The legendary pilot who defected from Memorial Foundation then double-crossed the rebels she abandoned them for can't be opposed to a little fooling around with the enemy."
"..."
"I guess you do know me."
"Want to trust each other?"
"Or is it more fun if we don't?"
So, I was planning to just pick the opposite choices from what we did the first run, so we can see all the possible outcomes. (Thus, the new choice here would be 'It's more fun if they don't, and Luna-Terra gets owned'.) That would also set us up for a good gravity distribution between the factions to allow us to pick the ending we want, especially if we keep picking Loyal options for the Saturn-Pluto missions. I mainly stopped here since this is the flow of posting I've gotten used to.
But, feel free to vote or discuss alternatives anyway! I'm open to mixing things up! And more posts means less images to load on a single page.
--
EPISODE TWO CONCLUSION
Last time we trusted each other, so what happens if we don’t?
Music - Plastic to Plastic
"It's not like you can hurt it. So there's nothing to be nervous about, is there?"
"That's true."
"But you're so new to this, I thought your brain would be overriding the information from the ship."
"Maybe I'm not new to this."
"Oh? You were a candidate, so I think that might be true."
"But you're also trembling, so I think it's not completely true."
"I'm still very dangerous, you know, Luna-Terra."
"I believe that for sure."
"You wouldn't be trembling if you were in my shoes?"
"Less so."
"People tremble for a lot of reasons though."
"Ah. Well if you're fearless, what is it then?"
"It could be anticipation, couldn't it?"
"..."
"This is very foolish of me."
"It really is."
"I have you right where I want you, remember."
"That might mean I have you, too."
"Your claws are twitching."
"I thought we promised not to trust each other?"
"I still don't."
"Then you must really like living dangerously if you're still helping me."
"I can tell."
"If you wanna know so bad, that's why I didn't like you."
"Because you were a test pilot, and never got to fly before the end of the Cold War, while idiots like me got to? Ah. I thought so. That's enough. Hold still."
"Everyone let you have as much fun as you wanted. You were a real huge jerk."
"I was always jealous of that."
"Everyone who let me get away with it regrets it now."
"There. Done."
"For all your hard work, I should leave you something to remember me by."
"Oh? Ready to fight for real?"
"I sorta already did."
"How's that? I finally DID get a hit in on you!"
"Ha! Good job."
They break away, rocketing.
"Just a little love bite!"
"Pay me back for it next time!"
--
