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Post by Rowan McKinley on Mar 31, 2009 19:40:30 GMT -5
[tag Trent]
Undoing her seatbelt, Rowan stretched her legs and settled further into her seat. She smiled as she glanced out the window at the clouds drifting past the plane. Despite the knowledge that they were simply masses of water vapour, she could never get over the childish notion that if she could just reach them, they would be as soft as a Persian kitten. It seemed strange to be in a plane again. She had only been in one once, when she had moved to Forks, and had barely been able to enjoy that flight, being too nervous about the new life ahead of her to revel in the new experience. Now, she crossed her ankles and pulled the magazine out of the pocket in the back of the seat ahead of her. Everything about the journey seemed new and novel to her, from the roar of the engines as the plane had taken off to the strange little headphone jacks in the seat arms.
She soon grew bored of flipping through the magazine and slid it back into place, instead unfolding the blanket the stewardess had given her and tucking it around herself. This trip was going to be wonderful. She and Trent had decided to take some time away from Forks and so had booked a weekend in a cabin just outside of Yellowstone Park. Not only was she going to get to visit one of the places she had always dreamed of seeing, a scientist’s paradise, but she was going to share the experience with her boyfriend. Turning to look up at him, towering over her as always even in the airplane seat, she beamed at him. “Here we go! Yellowstone, here we come!” she said brightly, tucking her arm through his and leaning against him, nestling her head against his shoulder. “You know” she said, closing her eyes and snuggling against him, the warmth of the blanket around her and him sitting beside her making her drowsy, “I have a good feeling about this trip.” Smiling, she sighed, looking forward to the cosy little cabin she had booked for them. They had barely started but she already couldn’t wait to see the place. It had looked so perfect in the brochure, two bedrooms, a huge window and wraparound deck for stargazing regardless of the weather, small, but well-equipped kitchen and living room, only 20 minutes from Yellowstone itself but isolated so that there was little or no light pollution. It was a dream come true and for the next couple of days, it would be all theirs.
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Trent Adams
New to Town
Human, Physics Teacher
Posts: 39
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Post by Trent Adams on Apr 1, 2009 21:03:43 GMT -5
Trent had managed to get through the whole procedure of getting through check in and airport security quite well. He’d only gotten distracted at security once, but apparently they didn’t like that kind of behaviour there, and then the whole frisking thing when he beeped at the security gate was a new one on him. Still, here they were, Trent and Rowan, sat on a plane like a normal couple. Well, for a long time the two of them had wandered along quite happily hand in hand without thought of what they actually meant to each other. He was happier now, though, now that it was all out in the open and admitted to; Trent wasn’t one for hiding emotions when he felt them and having Rowan realise she felt the same at the same time as he did made it easier.
Now that they were actually in the cabin, Trent’s eyes roved everything, he pulled his tortoise shell framed glasses out and threw them on to his face – a sure fire sign that he was intending to do something technical. He turned to beam at his girlfriend, inclining himself towards her as she rested her head against his shoulder. He bent his head down to kiss her on the side of her head, inhaling the scent of her shampoo as he did so. Pomegranate, an unusual choice for shampoo, but it had grown to become her point of uniqueness – one he could spot with his eyes opened or closed. He liked it.
“That’s because it’s going to be brilliant,” he told her, confidently and in a characteristic enthusiastic manner. He dropped his shoulder a little, slouching in an attempt to make her more comfortable against his bony form. He dipped his free hand into his jacket pocket – wearing his trademark skinny suit as usual – and pulled out a worn looking credit card. He glanced down at her. “Until then, there’s no point in wasting an opportunity is there?”
He then turned his attention to the window, slotting the plastic between the frame and the body of the plane. If he had assumed correctly, there should be a pressure panel directly underneath, they were say at an intersection of the plane and he was incredibly curious to find out what kind of system they had in place to regular cabin pressure and avoid blow outs.
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Post by Rowan McKinley on Apr 2, 2009 21:48:30 GMT -5
Squeezing Trent’s arm slightly as he kissed her head, Rowan’s smile broadened, the touch sending a wave of warmth over her. It had taken forever for them to realise just how much they cared about each other and now she couldn’t believe they hadn’t seen it sooner. Adjusting her head slightly as his shoulder shifted, she opened her eyes, reaching up to kiss him on the cheek before tucking her head back down. Despite his lanky appearance, he made a remarkably comfortable pillow, something she had found out recently and was quite glad of. It was so much more comfortable to lean against him than a cushion. “I think you’re right. It is going to be brilliant. I can’t wait” she agreed.
Glancing up at him, she felt a slight sense of worry as she noticed the glasses on his nose, watching as he pulled the credit card from his pocket. “Opportunity? What do you mean?” she asked nervously. The two together couldn’t possibly bode well and she watched with her mouth open as he began fiddling with the window.
“Uhhh, Trent? Are you sure you should be doing that? I’m not aeronautical engineer, and I don’t claim to know the first thing about the internal structure of a plane, but I’m fairly certain the frame is supposed to stay where it is” she said, her voice wavering slightly with worry. Raising her head, she looked around in case there were any cabin crew nearby, heaving a sigh of relief when she saw that the aisles were clear. “Especially when we’re thousands of feet in the air.” Biting her lip, she untucked the blanket from around her, busying herself with arranging it over both their knees, anything to keep herself from thinking about the possibility that at any moment they could lose cabin pressure or, if worst didn’t come to worst, a stewardess might see what he was doing.
Finally, smoothing the last wrinkle from the fabric, her nerves still on edge, she tucked her arm through his again, shaking it slightly in an attempt to draw his attention away from the window. “Trent? Wouldn’t you rather do something else? Something less...dismantley?” she asked as she pulled the blanket back up to her chin, her brow creased with concern. Of all the times for him to decide to take things apart, now was possibly one of the worst.
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Trent Adams
New to Town
Human, Physics Teacher
Posts: 39
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Post by Trent Adams on May 11, 2009 21:20:52 GMT -5
His mind now deeply focused on the panel casing that he was prying at, Trent almost completely forgot about the redhead at his side and so when she raised her voice in question to his activities he momentarily lost his bearings. He paused in his motions for a moment, frowning a little at the casing, but his mind was now entirely consumed with the problem in hand and his curiosity would not be sated until he had seen whether his internal workings tallied with the physical mechanism. Thus, he ‘hmmed’ a little in response to his girlfriend’s questions and doubts, safe in the knowledge that he would not cause the cabin to lose pressure and that even if he did, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, or them.
“Aha!” he called out, loudly, loud enough to evoke a gasp of shock from the poor old woman sat in front of him. There was a smooth click as the casing under the window slid out of its housing without being too strained or cracking. Then he really got into the mechanics of it, first pushing his glasses up his nose where they had begun to droop, and then leaning as close to the technology as he could whilst still being able to see it. He brought the credit card up to his mouth and bit at one of the corners, which had suffered from being shoved into many tight spots in its life, and the pushed tentatively against the protective film that obscured the inner workings from view.
“Brilliant!” he announced, his voice pitching up in his happy enthusiasm. Oh yes, this was the child that disembowelled his clockwork mouse, that used his easy bake oven to compare melting points (not that it was hot enough to even melt chocolate) and that finally drove his mother to distraction by dismantling the television, and the microwave… and the VCR. True, he always managed to put them together, and even stopped the VCR from chewing up tape every third video it played, but it didn’t half cause some consternation to those around him, which he was always oblivious to.
It was at this point that he suddenly remembered his fidgeting companion, who had chosen the moment to address him once more about her doubts. However, continuing to be ignorant of this, he turned to her with an enormous grin and put his credit card into his breast pocket, which he would no doubt forget in a few hours time when he needed it. “It’s… it’s just… brilliant – look!”
He leaned back against his seat so that the redhead could see the cabin’s pressurisation mechanism in all its technical glory. As he waited for her to get a good look at it, the burning desire to explain began to grow within his chest, almost to the point where it wanted to puff out and expel just why it was so magnificent to the person that he cared most about.
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Post by Rowan McKinley on May 17, 2009 18:46:17 GMT -5
Rowan had just begun to relax slightly, keeping one eye on the casing that was stubbornly resisting Trent’s attempts to remove it, when there was a sudden exclamation from her travelling companion. Squeaking in surprise, she watched, horrified, as the casing slid away from its seating. “Trent!” she scolded in a stage whisper, “You’re going to get in trouble if someone catches you doing that!” Staring over his shoulder in terror, she watched the credit card get to work again, prodding at the mechanism she was positive was supposed to remain covered and well and truly sealed, her heartbeat beginning to race further as he marvelled at the workings he was examining.
As he sat back in his seat, her panicked eyes followed his face, completely in awe of his calm as he gradually took apart the only thing keeping them safely in the air. True, it was only some kind of minor mechanism, or at least she hoped it was minor, but who knew where it would end? First one panel, then the seats, then he was liable to try and find out how the toilets worked by taking them apart, and then...She gulped in terror as she pictured the plane coming apart one small piece at a time. She suddenly found herself wondering if perhaps they would have been better staying within Washington. At least that way, wherever they had decided to go, they would have remained safely on the ground instead of risking crashing toward it.
Following his instruction, she looked back at the now bare panel, seeing less of a piece of ‘brilliant’ machinery than the weapon that may be instrumental in bringing about their imminent doom. “Trent, I’m really not sure you should be doing that. It’s covered for a reason, and I’m relatively certain that reason involves it not being uncovered” she said, her voice raising slightly in worry as she caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, his keen gaze watching her face in delight at his discovery as one hand once more began to search for the credit card he had only just secreted into his coat pocket.
Instinctively, she reached out a hand, swatting at the hand that was seeking the credit card, the sharp sound as her fingers connected with the back of his hand drawing her glance back to him. Smiling apologetically, she sank back in her seat, unsure what had come over her to scold him in the manner her mother would have used to correct her for touching her father’s telescope. She began to wonder if the slap would have any effect or whether she would have to resort to more drastic measures to get him to stop taking apart the plane. A second later, she was presented with a problem as she was forced to try to think of what those desperate measures might be. She could hardly drag him away from the source of temptation, the entire structure in which they were seated was one massive science experiment to Trent’s way of thinking. The only thing she could think of that would shock him enough would be... Amazed at the ideas her brain was capable of inventing when the situation called for it, and grateful that at least it was her boyfriend that was seated beside her, she quickly grasped the lapels of his coat and pulled him toward her and pressing her lips to his in a sudden kiss infused with all the passion she could muster, though admittedly that was very little, given the situation. She could only hope it would be enough to shock him out of his current train of thought.
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Trent Adams
New to Town
Human, Physics Teacher
Posts: 39
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Post by Trent Adams on May 20, 2009 19:36:51 GMT -5
Trent’s head swerved from the fascinating panel that lay open in front of him to Rowan as he heard her sharp reprimand. It was very much like the one that his mother used to use on him when he was a teenager and had decided to take his father’s car’s engine apart one Sunday evening. He hadn’t the time to study every individual bit of the engine before he had to go to bed, so he had left it in pieces in the garage for the next morning – he had forgotten that his father would need the car the next morning. His expression to Rowan just then was pretty much a replica of his fifteen year old face, a slightly alarmed look of perplexity. The words and the tone told him that he had done wrong, but he couldn’t quite understand why his action were wrong. He knew that he could rebuild the panel if need be and he also knew that he could almost definitely fix anything that went wrong.
“That’s alright,” he told her, confidently, turning his attention back to the panel. He knew that if he could make her see that he knew what he was doing with the panel, and that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the intricate inner workings of a masterful system at work, then she would be alright with it. How could she not be? He was completely ignorant at his girlfriend’s apprehension and considered her reprimand a challenge to get her understand enough to enjoy it as much as he.
However, as he heard Rowan’s comment about the machinery he was so desperately trying to show off to her, Trent’s goofy grin feel and the confused look re-emerged on his face. “Yeah, but… not from me,” he offered, half smiling, testing the waters a little to see if he was doing right. He still really didn’t get this whole thing, compromising on something for the sake of the other partner, nor did he really understand the signs when she wasn’t enjoying something. He patted his breast pocket, trying to remember if that’s where he put his credit card so that he could experiment with some of these dials.
“What’s that for?” he asked, incredulously, his other hand automatically moving to massage the top of his other hand, which she had slapped. He looked over at Rowan, his brown eyes about as wide as they could go and a completely baffled expression accompanied them. However, even at this point his fingers had secured the credit card once more and though he wasn’t looking at the panel at that moment, his hand was impatiently turning the card over in his fingers. A small smile appeared on his face as he once again viewed the reprimand as a challenge and he nudged towards her with his shoulder whilst his eye slid over to the panel again. “I could take this apart and put it back together again in my sleep, there’s nothing to worry about!”
As he turned to face the panel once more, his long fingers itching to get back to work, he suddenly found himself whirling back around and before he knew what was happening he had a Rowan on his face. his lips pursed to receive the kiss almost automatically, which was good, because his arms were a little slow on the upshot. The hand that had been closest to the window, which clutched the credit card, had rounded now so it was stuck out awkwardly into the space between them and his right arm was lost somewhere… to his right. However, as the kiss continued he found, quite impossibly, that his burning desire to get back to the open panel next to him dissipating. His awkwardly placed arms hesitantly encircled her, the credit card becoming dislodged and falling down behind Rowan somewhere. He pulled back after a moment though, looking at his girlfriend with puppy-like eyes, full of confused innocence. “Wha-What?” Then, after a moment’s pause. “I’m not allowed to touch the panel, am I?”
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Post by Rowan McKinley on May 21, 2009 13:16:06 GMT -5
Rowan’s heart sank in shame as she saw the look of confused shock on Trent’s face, realising suddenly just how much the reprimand and slap had upset him. Science was his life, just as comics and astronomy were hers. Even if it was frightening her to see him experimenting at such an inappropriate time, she had no right to curtail his enthusiasm so harshly. “Trent” she began gently, once more resorting to using her mother’s influence in her manner, hoping to explain exactly why she was telling him off so sharply. “It’s not that I don’t know you can fix anything you take apart.” Sighing softly, she took the hand she had slapped, planting a light kiss on the already reddening skin, as though hoping to kiss the injury better. “I know you can, it’s just that I’m not used to flying. I’m already nervous as it is and seeing how easy it is to take apart the thing that’s keeping us in the air, well, it’s not exactly filling me with confidence in our safety.”
She wasn’t sure what surprised her more as Trent pulled away from the kiss, the fact that she had done what she had in the first place, the fact that he had responded to it at all or the fact that it actually seemed to have had the desired effect. She had heard the credit card fall, feeling it hit her back as it had dropped to the seat behind her, and she had to fight back a sense of smug satisfaction at the knowledge that she had been able to successfully stop his attempts at dismantling the plane, if only for a moment or two. The smugness was soon replaced, however, by a sharp awareness of the situation and she glanced down at her hands where they still gripped the fabric of his jacket. Clearing her throat faintly, she deliberately released the lapels, smoothing the pinstriped fabric with her fingers and keeping her eyes focused carefully on her task. A moment later, she felt the flood of warmth in her face as she turned beet red, her forehead lowering with a thud against his chest as she began to giggle in embarrassment.
It took a moment to overcome the fit of laughter and she looked up at him, smiling fondly at him as he spoke. Raising a hand to rest on his cheek, she shook her head slowly, her mind whizzing through ways of compromising on the issue. “I’d really rather you didn’t, not today. But I’ll tell you what, on the way back, I’ll try and make sure we’re sitting near one again and you can do it then, okay? At least then, I’ll have had time to prepare and I’ll have one more flight under my belt to know it’s safe. And while we’re at Yellowstone, you can take apart anything you like in the cottage, and I’ll even make you a banana cream pie when we get there to say thank you. How does that sound?” she finished, hoping that appealing both to his love of the quirky fruit and his scientific nature, as well as promising to allow the forbidden experiment on their return journey would ease the current disappointment.
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Trent Adams
New to Town
Human, Physics Teacher
Posts: 39
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Post by Trent Adams on Jun 3, 2009 17:49:50 GMT -5
Trent allowed Rowan to take his struck hand without resistance as his brown eyes searched her face for the explanation. A small smile appeared on his face as she explained that she knew he could fix anything that he dismantled and it grew a little as she placed a small kiss on his hand. This was something that had already begun to develop and grow within him – a few weeks ago he would have given his girlfriend a puzzled look at the gesture, but now he appreciated it properly. He nodded a little as she went on to describe her nervousness at flying and his smile grew in an instant, his eyebrows shot up and he took his hand back from her grasp. Sitting up a little, his face became more animated. “Ooh,” he exclaimed, raising a hand and sweeping back his brush of hair, which just bounced forward again as if nothing had moved it. He gestured back to the bared panel with a grin. “This doesn’t keep us in the air; this just keeps the pressure even. Stops our ears from popping… altitude sickness… or, well… hypoxia,” he paused and frowned a little. “But I wouldn’t let it go that far – OH! And it’ll make the little oxygen masks fall down. It’d be good to see that they work…”
Confused brown eyes flicked from Rowan’s face, after he had pulled away from their unexpected kiss, and then slid down to her hands, which were busy smoothing down his lapels. He found that he liked the contact, even if they weren’t kissing anymore and even if he was bemused by what had just happened. A small smile played on his lips as the redhead giggled and collapsed inwards to his chest. His arms, which still lay in a very loose circle around his girlfriend, lifted and he wrapped them lightly around her, his right thumb stroking her back lightly in a comforting manner, though now he was confused as to why she had collapsed into a fit of embarrassment as well as why she kissed him so unexpectedly in the first place.
“Okay… I suppose I can compromise,” he said, his arms having loosened around Rowan when she had sat back up to talk to him. A grin grew on his face as she mentioned a banana cream pie and his brown eyes shone with an innocent excitement. “And how about a daiquiri or two to go with it?” he asked, good naturedly. He leaned forward suddenly as he finished speaking, his face fast approaching Rowan’s, but just before it met her head on, he turned his own face and carried on leaning, threading his arms around her as their faces lay side to side. After a moment he began to grope behind her, reaching down to retrieve the credit card. As he pulled away again, he turned his head and pecked her on the cheek, taking the lead from her own kiss on his hand before.
“Don’t worry, I won’t play anymore,” he said, casting a happy grin at her as he swung around again to pop the casing back to its closed position. He then turned so that his back was to the panel and faced Rowan properly. “The meal will be here soon – they’re always worth scientific investigation before consumption!”
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Post by Rowan McKinley on Sept 14, 2009 15:19:07 GMT -5
Rowan’s eyes widened and she gave a faint whimper as Trent described the actual purpose of the workings he had just uncovered, gradually realizing just how glad she was she had managed to stop his ventures into aeronautic engineering. She couldn’t be sure but she didn’t think she preferred altitude sickness or popped ears much over certain death. Not only that, but she was almost positive that the airline would likely ban them if they found out that the entire planeload of passengers had been panicked for the sake of Trent’s insatiable curiosity. “I’m sure they check all the mechanisms before takeoff. I doubt they need to be checked mid-flight” she said softly against his chest, glad that at least he wasn’t interrogating her about her actions. She had no idea how to explain them to herself, let alone put them into a context that would make sense to a scientist.
The hug Trent gave her surprised her almost as much as she was sure her kiss had surprised him and she wondered for a moment if she had imagined the change in position before she felt the motion of his thumb on her back. Sighing happily, she thanked her lucky stars that he was gradually becoming more comfortable with such overt gestures of affection, even if they were miniscule. The tiny action was, from Trent, just as comforting to her as anyone else setting her on their knee and telling her everything would be alright. The contact was brief but nonetheless soothing and she found herself smiling genuinely at his response to the suggestion of the promised dessert and giving an enthusiastic nod. “Naturally. Trent, do you honestly think I would ask you to eat a banana cream pie without banana daiquiris? That would be like asking someone to describe Jupiter without mentioning the Red Spot, it’s simply impossible” she replied, hoping her rambling covered her bizarre nervousness as he approached her suddenly. It was so unlike Trent to do something so...affectionate without being cued to do so and it took her a moment to recover from the surprise. By the time she had done so, she realised the ulterior motive behind the action and she rolled her eyes goodnaturedly as his hands sought out the credit card, though her face once again turned bright red when his hand, in search of the piece of plastic, brushed a little lower on her back than she was used to and she jumped in her seat.
The little yelp of surprise was quickly silenced and her eyes widened in shock when he sat back, the light kiss on her cheek taking her thoroughly by surprise. Her amazement only grew as she watched him in stunned silence. Not only was he replacing the panel and promising not to experiment any further, but he had actually turned his back to the source of interest, almost as though preventing himself from being tempted. Rowan stared at him for a moment before the facts sank in and she slumped back against her seat, sighing with relief. “Is airplane food really that bad? Or is it just more unusual than normal food?”
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