i saw mommy kissin santa claus

[mansionstaff]

Who: YOU
What: KISSLETOES
When: December 15th - January 1st
Where: Everywhere
Warnings: Sloppy makeouts.

SUDDENLY, AND WITHOUT WARNING...



The entire school has become covered in mistletoe overnight. It grows out of the walls! The ceilings! Everywhere you least expect it? HOW CAN THIS BE??

It's probably best not to think about it. Attempts to uproot the plants or burn them away only makes the plants grow back faster. For the time being, it seems the school must live with it.

The astute might find an unassuming note pinned the bulletin board in the main office. WHAT COULD IT POSSIBLY MEAN??



[OOC INSTRUCTIONS:
+ Post dudes, get kisses!
+ Some (NOT ALL) plants are cursed. If you manage to step under a cursed plant, you are glued to the spot until you receive a kiss OR tell a secret--characters, of course, logically will not know about the secret option to start! The IC clue is the mysterious note.
+ PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE TAG YOUR CHARACTERS
+ That's it, we love you.]

Comments

[forgetbeam]

So far, nobody's been able to find a way to get rid of them! Pulling them only lasts for about an hour before it manages to regrow!

[Okay he was just gonna. Put his hands up to be totally ready to keep her from falling this time.]

All I know is that they will go away on their own, if this is at all like last year's infestation.

[thereyouare]

[ AND SHE LEAPS INTO HIS ARMS

But last year...

The chairs wobble a bit as she feels the bite of something lost in her head, but she manages to stay on them. She gives a little huff. ]

Last year... [ This didn't feel good. She was thinking of the scarf, her clothes, and all these items that surrounded her without meaning or origin. Had they just always been there? ]

[forgetbeam]

[CARRIES HER BRIDAL STYLE BACK TO HIS DORM]

Right! Last year around this time, the same thing happened!

[It has not hit him yet that this is probably unwise to pursue this topic any further.]

From the sound of things, it's happened since long before that!

[thereyouare]

[ She begins to climb back down, though when she wobbles, her first instinct is to latch her nails into his hair to maintain balance. ]

Partner, have you been here - [ The chairs shook as she crept lower. ] a long time?

[forgetbeam]

[His hands automatically go to her sides to steady her, though he flinches a little at the nails against his scalp.]

I have been here for more than a year. I suspect I will remain for a while to come!

[Not by choice. He's tried to find a way back to Japan, but...]

ISHIMAAAAAAAMAAAAAA

[thereyouare]

[ WOULD HE ABANDON HER THOUGH yes

Vivian smiles a little as he helps her down, relinquishing his hair as she properly landed on the floor. She looks up at him with furrowed eyebrows. ]

... How long have I been here? Do you know?

[forgetbeam]

[Uh oh. The more... correct thing to do is to lie here, isn't it? He hates doing that, but considering the alternative, he'll have to just suck it up.]

We met... late this summer, didn't we? So it only makes sense that you've been here since that time!

[YEAH. Hopefully she does not notice his nervous sweating or anything.]

[thereyouare]

[ She's watching him carefully, desperately searching for something to fill these gaps in her mind, to fix these lapses with a simple explanation!

...but his words bring a lot more disappointment to her face than she might be aware she's revealing. If that was the truth and the only truth, then she should be fine, right? ]

Aah. [ What more could she really say if that was how it is? ] But -

[ No. She stops and disregards the sudden need to argue, as if he had challenged her logic. ]

... Thank you, partner. [ Could she sound any smaller saying that? ]

[forgetbeam]

[Then there's no satisfaction to be found anywhere in this answer. His gaze lightens up a little on the intensity as he looks over her face, wondering for a moment if it's possible even for an AI to struggle with memories that were stolen from her.

It's a feeling he couldn't even begin to explain how much he can sympathize with.]

What makes you ask such a thing in the first place?

[thereyouare]

[ A good question with an important answer, one she immediately began to struggle to find the words for. However she decides to give him more of a list rather than what she is feeling, since it finds itself a more available option. ]

There's items in my room. People know me. I don't know them. [ Oh boy. ]

[forgetbeam]

[CRAP... What is he supposed to do? It's not like there's a standard procedure for how to handle a reprogrammed turret, and even if there was, it doesn't seem like anyone's been following it with any kind of consistency. Even if he keeps up his part of the lie, someone else might tell her later anyway.

The truth might hurt, but it's not like she'd go wild with trigger happy havoc HA HA I DID IT the second she finds out about it...]

Forgive me! I don't know the best way to put this, but... The you that exists now... I have only known since summer.

[thereyouare]

[ YOU DID IT YOU'RE DISMISSED DROP THE GAME

Something in her chest grips. It's fleeting, a hiccup could compare, but she doesn't know what to make of the physical response. Her eyes look hollow and broken for a moment, as if the truth had shut her system down, but she's back in a second's time and looking right into his eyes. ]

The summer... The Doctor helped me in the summer.

[ She was suddenly beginning to realize... ]

... He helped me in the summer... [ Why did he help her? What happened? She was free, wasn't she?

From what? ]

[forgetbeam]

[Robotnik shouldn't have been the one who was allowed to help. Kiyotaka remains firm on this stance, though he does have to admit that Vivian's renewal has gone a lot better than he was expecting. Until this point, as he's staring her right in the eye, feeling trapped and helpless to escape where this is going because there's no clear right or wrong and he hates it.

He has to even break eye contact.]

What did he tell you? What's the earliest thing that you remember?

[thereyouare]

[ The levels at which Vivian feels unsettled are beginning to show through more of her human nature, one still in development and unable to properly conceal the panic she's feeling. Her eyes are down, darting left and right, searching for the answers behind her eyes. ]

Free... I'm free. [ What was happening? Her body was doing something? Overdrive? Overheating, maybe? ] Unknown.. error... [ What did that even mean to her now? ]

[forgetbeam]

Free...

[Somewhere in the back of his mind he realizes it's not a feeling he's ever been able to truly experience, because if he's not bound by actual physical barriers then it's by obligation after obligation, duty always obscuring any selfish desires before he allows himself to entertain them. For a second... he envies her for being able to say that, but his sense of responsibility quickly rises up to overshadow it once more.

He grabs her shoulders tightly, looking pained.]

That's right! Whatever happened before that... You're free of it now! You are much better off as you are now!

[thereyouare]

Whatever happened?

[ She looks into his eyes, trying to keep her lungs going. She felt responsible for keeping every organ functioning. ]

Better.. now?

Partner? [ Normally reasonably calm, she's mildly shaking under the weight of his grip - his words. ]

[forgetbeam]

Vivian...

[His grip tightens, matching her trembling.]

As you are now... would you ever kill somebody?

[thereyouare]

No!

[ Immediate. Despite the question being seemingly out of no where, she answers it without hesitation. ]

Violence is unnecessary!

[ She frowns. ] I yelled. Sorry.

[forgetbeam]

[He can't even get on her case for shouting. It's reliving to hear her put that much passion behind her views.]

Then... trust me. You do not want to remember anything from the past! If I can be certain of anything, it's...

[That all those months of getting to know her, teaching her, helping her, all meant nothing-]

It's that, so...!

bABES

[thereyouare]

But... there is a... [ How could she describe this? ] previous version?

[ This wasn't sitting right. So there really was something she was missing. Parts of her memory... ]

But why? [ What, you think a child wouldn't ask why? ] Partner? Why can't I remember?

NOOO

[forgetbeam]

Your memories were taken as...

[He grits his teeth, disgusted with himself. With everything. He could have prevented everything if he'd tried something else.]

...a way of preventing a mistake to be repeated. You were reprogrammed.

[There. It's out in the open, now. It's almost funny, how their situations are so similar and yet couldn't be more different. Her memories taken to prevent her from killing again, his taken with the hopes that he would start.]

I QUIT. HAVE ALL THE HARD QUESTIONS, KITTY

[thereyouare]

[ What...?

Vivian can't help but just stare. ]

Reprogrammed?

[ Her lips tighten for a moment. ]

Was I broken?

i deserve this pain for not proofreading anything

[forgetbeam]

No! No, you weren't! But your programming was wrong, and we couldn't overcome it...

[He bows his head in frustration.]

But you are free of that now! You said so yourself! It's alright!

[Then, so soft it may as well be his equivalent of a whisper:]

It's alright.

I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU FUCKED UP

[thereyouare]

[ It might not make much sense to him, but to a machine, programming was all it had. If that was wrong, they were wrong. They were considered defective and were destroyed. That was it. It was simple and to the point.

A foot steps back, then forward, a shuffle with no where to go, much like the thoughts whirling violently through her head. ]

I was wrong. [ But she couldn't remember why. What if she did it again?

Vivian now starts to try and rip her figure from his hands, stumbling back a bit to get away. ]

I DO AND I'M BOTHERED

[forgetbeam]

[He lets her back away, one hand dropping to his side, but the other still outstretched in a pleading gesture. Don't run away.]

It was my fault! I failed you as a partner... It's just as I said! Nothing I do keeps these things from happening... so... this was a last resort, but it truly is the best way!