2010-01-29 - The Neo-Terminator

The Neo-Terminator is one of the seminal classics of action movies, released in NCA 94 to rave reviews. It is, unsurprisingly, about a killer robot from the future sent to hunt down Neo-Sarah Connor and kill her so she can't give birth to the future leader of the Neo-Resistance.

Mercifully, Leo Stenbuck does not explicitly explain his implication that Fiona Gureden is some sort of assassin from the future, instead merely giving Latooni a pointed look as Neo-Kyle Reese spouts exposition about the plot of the film to Neo-Sarah Connor.

It is unclear how, exactly, but Leo has converted his office aboard the Giga-Float into a private theater of sorts, bringing in a couch from somewhere and setting up a projector to display the film on one of the office walls. He has also procured a large bowl full of popcorn, which has spent the night sitting atop his lap and almost entirely untouched... at least by him.

In fact, despite appearances, Leo has barely been paying attention to the movie itself, which is just now ending the second 'act' as Neo-Kyle Reese professes his love for Neo-Sarah Connor in a motel while hiding from the Neo-Terminator. Leo has, in fact, spent most of the movie stealing furtive glances at Latooni, ensuring that he is sitting what counts as 'next to her' on the couch by means of subtle, repeated scoots, and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.

And now, it seems, that time has come. Courage bolstered by the on-screen romance, Leo suddenly breaks out into a cavernous yawn, stretching his arms above his head. When he brings them back down, the left one drops to his side again, but the right one moves to drape across Latooni's shoulders.

/egads/

In what is for Latooni a remarkable effort at being casual, she did not even show up in a uniform. She showed up in a short-sleeved top and skirt, after consulting with first Garnet and then someone whose idea of a proper skirt length was not 'barely' and whose idea of a shirt includes 'has a front that closes'.

Sorry, Leo. At least it's not /too/ conservative.

Having had little honest interest in the movie, Latooni applied herself to it with the same kind of attention she usually reserves for uninteresting parts of her work; she eats little popcorn (although she tries some, to be polite). She isn't entirely sure how Leo got permission to convert an office and can't shake the annoying feeling that she is going to get in trouble. But at least she was watching, and despite herself, she doesn't hate it. She either did not notice or did not care about Leo getting closer.

Latooni turned her head slightly when Leo, to her ears, rather overdramatically yawns. She had been about to say something to him, perhaps, until - surprise armrest!

Latooni's reaction to physical contact by males has gotten better lately. That does not mean it is good. She still flinches when Leo touches her, and it's accompanied with a mildly undignified (although very quiet) sound that sounds more like a squeak than anything else.

Leo, for his part, is in jeans and an old black t-shirt that is too big for him and has the Titans emblem on the breast. He has not bothered to conceal the emblem, but it's not like he's going to the mall in it, right?

The boy's shoulders stiffen when Latooni squeaks, but immediately resolves not to move his arm unless she actually complains. He fixes the advice Excellen Browning gave him firmly in his mind's eye, and concentrates on it; he, like certain other people who shall not be named, mustn't run away.

"Sorry," Leo says over another, smaller yawn, shooting a glance at Latooni. "Were you, uh, gonna say something?" He figures now's as good a time as any to speak, while the movie launches into a sex scene... if a surprisingly tasteful one, considering that you could totally see Neo-Ahnuld's junk near the beginning of the movie if you squinted.

He makes no mention of the fact that he has his arm around Latooni, and indeed does his best to keep the arm perfectly still save for a slight shift to rest his hand palm-down on her shoulder. He's just doing his best to act casual; and, in fact, succeeding, so much so that he extends all the way into overcasual, which is so casual it becomes sort of conspicuous.

Latooni Subota seems a little tense. Some of that might be, well, Leo being /right there/. But she is not moving for similar reasons to Leo, although it wasn't entirely Excellen's fault this time; Garnet was also involved, and maybe a few others. And maybe the fact that she actually likes Leo has something to do with it.

Another part of it may be embarassment at the sex scene, which Latooni is doing a very determined job of not looking at even if it /is/ relatively tasteful. This means Leo gets a lot more attention than otherwise he might.

On the plus side for him, Latooni doesn't read people very well, and 'awkward but casual' and 'overcasual' look pretty much the same to her.

"I thought you were tired," Latooni eventually says, once she doesn't feel like she's going to jump or say something she shouldn't, and she even sounds calm. "Sorry. Ah, it was nothing..."

"Oh, no," Leo says, glancing sidelong at Latooni again. "Just... uh, lazy day, I guess." And that, it seems, is that, at least as far as Leo's concerned; he turns his attention fully back to the movie, regardless of how embarrassing the sex scene may or may not be. Not that it /is/ embarrassing, of course, not to a teenage boy; perhaps it is a little, watching it with Latooni, but mostly it's just sort of... disappointing.

The actress isn't even very hot. She's so... 90's.

But that's okay. It just means he has more attention to dedicate towards working up to his next move. It is... intimidating, to say the least. But he's been driven on by more than one person, and even at least one cat. That has to count for something, right?

He wonders, briefly, why he thinks more of this than of flying into a mobile suit battle where he could be killed instantly by beamfire or one of any number of ridiculous super robot weapons systems.

Then he coughs nonchalantly and shifts in his seat, presumably to get more comfortable. As he's shifting, his right hand shifts forwards off of Latooni's shoulder; when it sets down again, it does so on her right breast.

Leo, for his part, never even looks away from the screen... but he does appear to be holding his breath.

Latooni Subota is good at not watching things she doesn't want to see. She just sort of spaces out, letting the scene finish before she actually starts paying attention again. It's just like rooming next to Garnet and Giado!

Rather depressingly so, actually; Latooni doesn't follow that train of thought very far. She has a similar thought to Leo's: why is this so worrying? It's not even like it's actually a date or anything -

Leo's hand moves.

It takes Latooni an incredible amount of time (for her) to realize that yes, Leo actually /has/ just done that; already off-balance just by having him there, this doesn't throw her for about two seconds. And then she very definitely quashes the urge to reach up and break a finger or something, which is what Adler's training would like her to do. He's not authorized for that!

"Leo," she says, "your hand - um - can you move - "

Ah, hell. Okay. Okay. Play it cool.

"Huh?" Leo asks innocently, turning to look at Latooni, his brow furrowed in faux confusion. It takes him a beat to 'notice' where his hand is, and he widens his eyes in put-on surprise. "O-oh!" Thankfully, he does not have to fake blushing... but the fact that he was already blushing when he turns his head does do a bit to tip his hand.

"S-sorry," he mutters, averting his eyes and lifting his hand back to Latooni's shoulder. "It... must have slipped." It's a lame excuse, but it'll have to do, and Leo does his best to move on by staring intently at the unfolding events of The Neo-Terminator.

It does not do a lot to help his case that, despite his attempt to 'play it cool', he is still radiating waves of embarrassment. Or that it does not take very long for 'embarrassed' to become 'sullen'.

Latooni Subota is pretty much equally as red. Leo may not ever have seen her do that before; normally her embarassment is a little more private than that. She elects not to comment on where Leo has left his hand now, as it is not particularly offensive or embarassing, even if it puts her on edge.

She is unsure why she feels guilty now, though. Possibly for being rude about it, even though she really wasn't. Latooni makes a resolution to analyze her own feelings later, because like hell is she going to be able to work them all out right here and right now.

Instead, Latooni watches the video for about five minutes before she opens her mouth again. "It's, uh, all right. That you slipped. I mean - I forgove it - " Why did it sound better in her /head/?

Leo spends those five minutes half sullenly watching the action-filled climax of the movie and half burning what he /did/ manage to feel into his memory.

He is also caught totally off guard when Latooni speaks again, and the moment she starts to speak his brain kicks into overdrive and begins coming up with excuses. It takes him about a second to come to the decision to blame Masaki - who he considers less likely to enact revenge on him than any of his other options - when he actually parses what Latooni is saying, and his suddenly rigid posture relaxes again.

"T-thanks," Leo mumbles, without averting his eyes from the movie. "I'll, uh, be more careful. It won't happen again." Even as he says it, he is trying to convince himself otherwise mentally. Next time, he thinks, it'll just go better!

He's been in a good mood since last night; his pride and confidence are damaged, but they are not ground to dust. Not yet, at least.

It probably wasn't too bad, even if Latooni is more prone to wearing a bra than, say, Garnet. For some reason.

Latooni spends the next portion of the movie working through exactly what she feels. This takes longer than she thought it would. She likes Leo. Under other circumstances she might not even have complained. He /is/ pretty much the only one who pays attention to her as a girl.

She edges a little closer to him by the end of the movie. It's not a lot, but it is a big step for her. Apparently she bought the excuse well enough to not go after him for it... although she does wonder, for a couple seconds at least, what this means about Rei. FUCK MARSY  Leo Stenbuck [E] has posed.

It may not be a lot, but it definitely does not go unnoticed, and it does a lot to give the cloud over Leo's pride a silver lining. Okay, maybe she wasn't cool with him getting handsy, but... she seems to dig this, right? That's something!

By the time the Neo-Terminator has been destroyed by a giant hydraulic press and the credits begin to roll, Leo is not quite so sullen. He pointedly makes no move to get up, despite the fact that the movie is now officially over. (Rei never even crosses Leo's mind; but, undoubtedly, he realizes on some level that that will be a 'fun' conversation if it ever happens.)

"I hear 2 is even better," he offers, a few seconds after the credits start. "Maybe, uh, next time you have a day off...?"

Latooni Subota doesn't make any move to rise either, even though she is vaguely aware that she /probably/ should. It's over. Someone is going to need to turn it off eventually.

Meh. It's not /her/ office.

"I have a few days coming up soon," Latooni says, although until now she didn't. But with Warden winning her some short leave time, and the fact that she rarely actually takes the days off she is entitled to - well, she can make time. She enjoyed the movie a lot more than she thought she would have, aside from the odd places she didn't and a lingering desire to nitpick the science in it. She always gets those, though; she's used to them.

"Yeah?" Leo asks, brightening. He's obviously a little surprised, but it is the good kind of surprise... and it doesn't last very long.

"I'm super busy for the next, like, two weeks, though," he continues after a pause, a little morosely. "'cuz of Gibraltar and the officer training backlog and stuff..."

"Um, I'll keep you updated, though, yeah?" he adds, finally glancing away from the credits, grinning awkwardly at Latooni, and giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze. "Hopefully by, like... the middle of February...?"

He still makes no move to get up. It /is/ his office; he just doesn't really care.

That long? Latooni thinks. Well, it is a busy time. She's not an officer herself, but she knows how much how much work they do. It's times like that she's glad she's not one - when she's not busy wishing she /was/ one because she clearly knows more than half the officer corps.

"Okay," Latooni says, just accepting it. "But if you get time before then, let me know. Maybe we can go somewhere. Chibodee said that I should go to Neo America sometime - I have never been."

She corrects herself a moment later: "Well, once. BUt it was on business."

Leo almost - /almost/ - asks for clarification if such a trip would be, officially, a date. But then he /does/ think of Rei, and very quickly decides that he is not prepared to have That Talk.

So he settles for just deciding that, for him, it /is/ officially a date. "I've never been, like, for real, either," Leo admits. "I think I've been once or twice but I've never, uh... 'visited', you know?"

"So... it'd be cool to do that," he summarizes, after an awkward pause. "I'll see what I can do about getting a day earlier. I mean... there's only so often they can deny me, right? I wasn't even getting leave credit anymore until today. It had, like, capped out."

It's an awkward question. Fortunately, it is not one that Latooni is going to ask either; if the answer was yes, then a) she would have just prepared her first date, which is strange, and b) she would have to find a way for Arado /not/ to find out, because big brothers are overprotective.

But it may or may not be one, so she may or may not have to.

"They're not allowed to keep telling you no indefinitely unless we are actively under attack," Latooni says, "and therefore in a state of emergency. Right now we aren't, we are only at war. So if they try it again, tell me." She knows lawyers. Shine's lawyers.

"Yeah," Leo says simply, with a sigh. He's heard it before; he just doesn't want to cause trouble, he supposes, by clamoring for a leave day while the DC stuff Spain at both ends.

Of a more pressing concern, however, is the fact that he is rapidly running out of excuses not to remove his arm from Latooni's shoulder. For a few moments of awkward silence, he digs through his head trying to find one... and, eventually, decides he can't.

"So... I guess I should walk you to the door, or something," Leo begrudgingly admits, turning to look at the office door. The fact that it is something like four steps away does not seem to dampen the spirit of his statement, at least not for him.

People aren't good fighters if they're mentally dead. Latooni knows this. Presumably some officer, somewhere deep in the system, knows this too and will approve it. Or at least, that's what Latooni can dream, and does every time she puts in for her own.

"I can get out myself," Latooni says, standing up rather suddenly. "But, um, thank you. I still don't think the movie was scientifically accurate," she adds, before realizing that she may have just shot what mood there was. "But it was interesting. So we can, um, watch the sequel later."

She does turn to head to the door. There is, at least, the consolation prize that she is wearing a skirt.

Some part of Leo attempts to rise to the challenge, and argue that The Neo-Terminator could /totally/ happen for reals, but he smashes it down with an almost panicky mental fervor. He instead settles for a noncommittal, "Yeah," which he immediately follows with, "I had fun. So... uh, see you later. Have a safe trip back."

He has the combination of sense and courtesy to wait until Latooni's back is fully turned before he starts ogling her legs.

Latooni Subota fails to notice that, because she doesn't realize they're oglable.

Good work, champ.