Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jade's right eye twitches and he stops messing with his hair and straightens his legs before moving towards Nadia just that few extra inches. He does it almost without thinking it and does not have a command line in his coding to justify it. He ignores this, however, and continues speaking as his eyes flick back open, "Stronger than a normal friendship. I do not recall sending this image to you as I was compiling code and regenerating as many Units as I was able during my Regeneration Cycle. In fact, I do not believe I am capable of sending messages while I am compiling code, or taking any other actions."

He paused for a moment and his eyes flicked closed as another ripple of color passed through his body. When his eyes flicked open once more the brown coloration to his eyes had expanded slightly, moving inwards on his pupil. He continued as though nothing had happened, "My code does not allow action during my regeneration cycle, but it seems I have acted outside my base programming on at least several occasions. Do you suppose I am damaged, Nadia? There may be a memory leak active somewhere in my base programming, in which case I would need to alert the Keeper of Graves immediately for repair."

Jade took a few moments to process what she was saying and while he did so his eyes flicked closed. When he flicked them open to speak the brown seemed to have invaded one third of his pupil. His voice seemed to be slowly moving into one tone instead of three at once, "This seems to be an overcomplicated concept. This concept confuses and infuriates me. How can something be a disease but also grant individuals great power? If it is so powerful why must it be shrouded in such confusion and misdirection? This is not logical. This is irrational. This is not something I should be exposing myself to."

His eyes flicked closed as he paused for another few moments, giving the impression that the eyes were a sort of progress bar on a computer as they opened to reveal nearly one half of the pupil shaded in. His brief paused seemed to have given him quite a long duration to continue processing, "Though... you say it can be controlled. It must have some rational basis. Just how difficult is it to control the ma- ...fluctuations it generates within my personality? What is it that forges a stronger bond than mere friendship? What is it that draws me to you?" At the last he moved just that last little bit closer and let his forehead rest against hers, his body growing warm out from her touch against his head and hands.

Thoughts and processes raced in his mind and pulsed through every line of programming he had been given and then beyond into something new once more. Anger and frustration bled through his code as new strings began to create themselves from nowhere at all. His eyes flicked closed and his body temperature rose several degrees all across his flesh. He was no longer angry at the concept of love nor did his anger ever fall upon Nadia but it expanded and drew upon base programming that had been instilled in him before any other. That single name, Mindblaze, it ripped through him and only further complicated the concept he was trying to hard to understand.

His hands slipped from hers and even as they did she would feel his body temperature continue to rise as he stepped away. There were too many thoughts. Too much code. Too much new information. His head was expanding (though thankfully not literally) and the pressure from so much new data streaming in from both Nadia and this new personality was causing strain upon his systems. The room itself shook as Jade's body rippled and spikes of Jade ripped through his shoulders. She couldn't leave, he wouldn't let her. Images of Mindblaze and Terra tore through his mind, leaving fragments of code and a broken personality in its wake.

He stumbled back from Nadia and heat began to roll of his body as if he were a PC over-clocking without proper cooling systems. He had no outlet for his heat except all around him but even the environment could not be a release for the conflict in his duty and the crushing weight of what he had been designed to replace. If he was to replace such an utter failure, what if his own programming was flawed and this was his outlet to manifest it? What if Nadia was his way of defying his creators in a repeat all too similar to the damned Dominion? The massive weight of that flawed dynasty pounded down upon him and he began ripping at his chest. Chunks of heated green ooze slopped against the wall as he fought to purge the heat from his system. His mouth dropped open and out spilled a scream blazing with heat.

At first Jade though it was the pain from the heat that seared right through his body and tried to burn him alive. From that scream and the touch of her hands upon him came a moment of clarity as two things began to happen at once. His personal view of the world began to slow to the point where he could see Nadia's face as she cried out in pain and fell to the floor. Information poured through lines of code like a tidal wave, washing over everything that had been. This was due to the second occurrence, his base programing initiating emergency procedures to prevent catastrophic overload. His many processes were put on hold and his computer capacity routed through October to increase his power exponentially.

In an instant the room went from blazing hot to a mere fifty degrees with the ship itself screaming in pain at the sudden change. Her scream was accompanied by the shattering of dozens, if not hundreds, of figurines as they contracted all too quickly for the crystalline matrix to hold. His thoughts came in rapid bursts, even for his expanded mind. Nadia was injured. He had injured Nadia. Nadia had been a friend. He had a stronger bond with Nadia than friendship. Nadia compared their bond with that between Terra and the failure. He was not the failure. She was not Terra. It was the bond. The bond is irrational. The failure was irrational.

Jade fell to his knees in front of her with a wet slop as the last of the heat drained away from his body. Slowly the world began to return to a normal speed as his connection with the bioship was ended. It was not that Jade was failing anyone by any means, but that he was fulfilling one of his duties. He was intended to blend into a human society to find Sparks and give them Ascension. There was one major inequality that pulsed through his thoughts and bled into Nadia's HUD, Nadia=/=Star Shortly thereafter came another, Nadia=/=Terra And but one more, Jade=/=Mindblaze

These few messages scrolled upwards upon her HUD as Jade fell over her and allowed his mass to embrace her. The HUD flickered once as his weight spread over her back and down the sides though he did not press through against her skin. One message scrolled up through her field of vision that was so vivid she could almost hear herself repeat it, dangerous. He quivered before one last message scrolled into her field of vision, and was likely the most welcome of all,

When she attempted to sit up he slid off either side as easily as if he were water, which in this case he might as well have been from the lack of energy. His body pooled around her and climbed up over her legs with a soothing chill to his flesh that made his lack of weight all the better. His arms slowly regained their shape and rested lightly upon her shoulders as flecks of color ran across his bleached-green body. His head slowly rebuilt itself after running down her sides and when it formed his eyes were held shut.

It wasn't until they slowly opened to reveal the black orbs with an iris of jade and a lustrous brown pupil that she might notice how much he had changed. Even with the color lacking from most of his body he seemed to carry himself differently and he looked to even have detailed facial expression. His half smile was a somber one as he tried to meet her eyes, a solemn look tainting the brightness of his newly finished pools of color. His voice was soft but also seemed to have a slight accent behind it that was hard to place, "Nadya, ssssshhh. Its okay, I'm sorry. I- We're okay. I- ... I love you too. I understand now. I love you too."

His legs would indeed take their shape in what seemed to be a mostly comfortable position if Jade had been human. There were small differences to him that went beyond the alterations in his attitude and his facial expressions. They were minor but made a major impact on how Nadia would sit upon him for the simple fact that he seemed to have femurs! Not only that but anywhere else she might poke around he'd have what very closely resembled a human skeletal system, with the exception of a few ribs.

When she touched the backs of her fingers to his face he seemed to lean into it slightly and the worry in his smile began to fade as his eyes brightened at her touch. He hesitated for a moment and his eyes glanced down to her lips before he hid the colored pools behind lids that were still several shades too green. With one hand caressing the small of her back the other slipped up to mesh with her hair. He slowly leaned forward and... would probably get her nose at first.

He relished the feel of her lips pressing against his each time they connected and merely found each kiss to be but a half moment too short. He also found that the shape of his spine did not quite allow him to stay in contact with her quite as much as he would have preferred but at this point anything was more than enough. Even in the chill he could feel the warmth from her body and as opposed to the hated gouts of flame and the bursts of heat her warmth simply felt... right. His thoughts were slowly crowding with everything he was taking in, but with his attention focused solely on her there would be no danger. He listened intently and his lips even found their way to her neck, kissing lightly along the curve of her neck and up towards her each with his nose just within her hair.

When she asked him if she loved her he smiled against her skin and slowly pulled back so he could rest his quite solid forehead against hers. His eyes slid open only half way, but there was something in them he had not yet truly shown. It was joy. He once again kisses her on the nose, "I love you, Nadya. I love you now and will love you even after a thousand new faces. Between us we have what two humans ever truly need, yes? Though perhaps we could use a pair of gloves." The hand that had caressed his face would feel what seemed to be fingertips brushing against it before he held her just a little bit tighter.

Just a single kiss seemed to pass into infinity as he eagerly pressed her lips to hers, possibly even slightly too hard. He wanted to feel her against him, to know every inch of her lips, of her entire body as a human should know it, not merely as a mass of amorphous flesh invading every inch of her. His hands slid down her back to grab hold of the robe and pull it back and away from where it had bunched around them. The tie came loose and fell to hang at either side, revealing the whole of her body to him. His body temperature began to rise back to that of something that resembled a human condition as the cool air danced around them.

His eyes had been closed since the kiss began but as he held her against him his eyes slowly opened with a look of confusion and regret. He reluctantly broke their kiss and let her forehead rest against hers, "I- we can't. I want to do this right. I am not yet a man. We... we should go check on Josie. But... I don't want to move. I... I like this. We fit together."