Welcome to Gaia! ::

The structure was at a state of completion that allowed them to comfortably sleep within its walls, but it was nowhere near finished. It was lacking in some furniture, and still needed more decorating, and required preventative measures to keep their house as safe as it possibly could be for them. Mimsy was not as concerned about the shadowlings and other FEAR-based creatures as she was about other Hunters, who always seemed to be unnervingly invasive in the worst ways, but she could concede to the fact that it was best to be prepared for anything and everything.

It was nothing like the house that she'd grown up in. That house had been needlessly large and elaborate and excessive, filled with things that had absolutely no function aside from boastful visions of pride. She never understood it, and assumed it had something to do with her mother, because daddy seemed too practical for all of those things.

It was nothing like the house of her childhood, and that was a pretty good indicator that it was going to be perfect.

On the first morning that they both felt that they had recovered from their fall, she got dressed, brushed and re-braided her hair, then crawled back into bed again, intending to watch Robert until he woke up.

Except she wasn't feeling especially patient. The anxious energy bottled up within her prevented her from staying still, and she shifted and wiggled and elbowed him a few too many times, eager to get back to working on their home.

Despite Mimsy's incessant state of motion, she did not escape Robert's attack in time, failed by her body's abysmal reflexes.

"Good mo--ohhh, no!" That was not what she had expected in the slightest. She tried to bring her arms up to cover her face, but found that they had been very efficiently pinned beneath him, so she settled for tightly closing her eyes and scrunching her nose up instead. "No, nooo, no no no! Sit, beast! Sit! Heel!"

The commands might have taken some effort to follow, as she found herself helplessly laughing through at least half of them. When she finally managed some leverage to hide herself, she allowed the laughter to fizzle out and spoke more clearly to him.

"I am not actually made of candy. That was only a theoretical universe! Additionally, if you eat me...who will help you finish the process of making a home?" Stretching, she stared at him upside-down and sideways, glasses sliding up her nose. "We are so close, and it would be a pity to stall or indefinitely postpone our goal. Or your goal, should you choose to eat me."

Her expression instantaneously turned completely serious, followed by a very exaggerated frown.

"Because I would be dead," she clarified, in case that was not already apparent.

To be fair, the lack of specificity in her commands probably meant that she deserved that. Knowing as much didn't make it any more comfortable, however, so Mimsy squeaked and tried to save herself. It resulted in absolutely no change, except that Robert was patting her. Then licking her cheek.

"I find that difficult to believe. What is the flavor of my flesh, in that case? I am not even a prime candidate for cannibalizing." She elbowed him again, saving both of them the trouble of thirty minutes of explaining just why she would not be delicious upon consumption. Far too bony to be worth the trouble, and probably bitter all the way through.

"And no, we are not done! It is important to see an undertaking to completion, especially when it is one of such significance. We need a perfect home." If he was being bratty now, she was being sulky right back. She shoved at his arm, which hardly even moved it, and let out a loud groan. "You promised!"

There was no argument to combat the 'you, me, and a bed' statement - just a scoff, a snort, and more laughter.

When Mimsy asked a question, she had always inquired in hopes of receiving an actual answer. It both sated her curiosity and provided her with information that she might not have otherwise gained, as long as the source could be considered trustworthy. In this case, she did get her answer, but Robert was kind enough to give her a demonstration to go along with it, which severely hindered the amount of information that she ultimately absorbed as new knowledge.

"All right--I...I concede. All right!" Through squirming and nearly kneeing him in the face multiple times, the cracked utterance of a concession came a little too late to prevent themselves from getting caught up in what was decidedly not the most effective method of moving furniture.

As her fingers twined themselves into his hair, firmly taking root there, she fell back onto the pillows and sighed.

"Promise amended to 'after' the beast has been fed," she agreed, words kept as succinct as possible to prevent an unanticipated noise or two from slipping in among them. There was only so much she could do to remain serious and composed when he was blowing raspberries on the skin alongside her hip bone.

'After' found them mid-morning, despite the initial attempt to begin work slightly after dawn. She got dressed (again), brushed and re-braided her hair (again), and very pointedly did not crawl back into bed this time.

"You have presented a formidable argument regarding the minimalist life that you have proposed, but I still insist." There was a smile across her lips that directly conflicted with the very serious look in her eyes, but only one was purposeful, and the other wouldn't seem to go away. She took one of his hands in two of hers, and pulled on him as hard as she could as she began to speak again. "Come along! You promised to show me how to make a home!"

Success.

"Thank you." A little pat on the back for praise, then Mimsy watched him set off to do what he'd promised. There was a distinct lack of clothing on his body, which she didn't comment about; a moment later, he returned to change that regardless.

She hid a smile behind her hand, though he wasn't in the room to see it anymore.

After clearing her throat and regaining the composure to take this seriously, she followed his path into the living room, but stopped instead of going outside. As she was, with no help from tools engineered by physics, she would only get in the way - there was no reason to pretend that she could be of any use when heavy lifting was involved, when he could be finished with it before she even considered it.

"Be careful. Don't injure yourself," she called, leaning against the frame of the open front door. "As long as you are well when we finish, we have the remainder of the day to spend together here, rather than the infirmary." The sun was out, seabreeze carrying cool winds across the island to them, and it was an especially 'nice' day, by general standards. A bit too sunny by hers, yet she still lingered to watch him. Just in case, she told herself.

No other reasons.

It was easy to forget the marvels of humanity when she'd paid so little attention to anything other than herself and the cosmos, but Robert served well to remind her. They were certainly a versatile species - while Mimsy could barely lift more than the weight of a child (or a Shu), even with help from Svensyl, he could carry an entire couch without any trouble at all.

She stared as he brought the couch past her, and stared as he set it down, and continued to stare as he congratulated himself.

"Congratulations! I am very proud," she replied, paired with a brief moment of soft applause, just in time for him to pop back out to fetch another crucial ingredient for home. The room looked progressively less empty, despite the fact that much of its contents were in boxes, and it was reaching the limits of pleasantly full by the time he brought in the last of it.

Her gaze was locked on the largest of the boxes, containing a very large bookshelf, as she pulled her scissors out of her pocket. The tape gave way with very little effort, and she dragged the blade down the length of it until the bookshelf's cardboard cocoon could be pulled away from it. She didn't move to take it off yet, however; she just held the scissors at her side and turned to look at Robert.

"Are you still interested in training to become a super astronaut?" she slowly asked, head tilted with the weight of curiosity.

Watching Robert unpack their belongings was enjoyable, albeit somewhat enviable. There was plenty of undiscovered territory to be found within the house and the process of making it a home, but there were still things that she couldn't quite get excited over. They weren't necessarily actions that had grown dull over time, and some of the new was even comparably lackluster, so it remained an inexplicable mystery for the time being. He could have enough fun for both of them this time, anyway.

The smile prompted by his unpacking faltered at his answer, but returned a second later. It wasn't fair to fault him for her own failures. Especially not now, when they shared the exact same opportunity.

She smiled a little wider and tightened her fingers around the handle of the scissors. Their blue runic glow faintly illuminated her fingertips in a way that made them seem almost translucent and ethereal, as if she had begun to slip away into another world.

"No." She shook her head and turned away to remove the cardboard from the shelf. Once she had, she wiped her palms on her shirt and took a deep breath. "We will be training to land on an asteroid orbiting the moon. While we are there, we will train to go to Mars. We will be the first to set foot there. We can colonize."

That was a fair summary of their mission, she decided. With that, she climbed into the box, peered at him over the edge, and lowered her voice to speak in a whisper.

"Come to space with me, Commander Morris."

There was never really any doubt that he would play this game with her, but Mimsy visibly brightened when he slipped easily into the role that she had presented to him. The bubble wrap was a nice touch, and she sort of regretted her lack of proper attire. To make up for her failed foresight, she reached for a woven basket in one of the boxes nearby, and put it on like some sort of helmet, handle tucked neatly under her chin.

It was sufficient. Mostly.

"What was that, Commander? You are one giant leap from being eaten? Goodness! By what? Abort spacewalk! Return to the shuttle immediately!" In a display of necessary panic, she gripped the side of the box so hard that it bent beneath her fingers. "Stat, Commander! We can't get home without you!"

Her grip loosened, and she sat back on her heels.

"Home isn't home without you," she added, firmly nodding along with this imperative fact.