Working Out a Friendship

Posted on Sat Feb 11th, 2023 @ 11:52am by Ensign Avis Larant & Ensign Syaffia

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Bar, USS Midway

Now that she'd gotten all unpacked Syaffia was more than ready to explore and meet some of her new colleagues. The first logical place was the ship's lounge, and as such she'd changed out of her cadet uniform into a red dress that left little of her assets to the imagination and heels - ideal bargoing attire - and made her way there. She could definitely feel gazes on her as she walked through the door and sat down; she was used to it by now. She then proceeded to order an ice cold tranya, one of her favorite drinks, and sip at it as she watched the crowd.

Avis had just finished a shift which had involved her being on her feet the entire eight hours. Not that she was worn out, far from it as she was young and in top shape. But it would be nice to get off her feet for a bit. So she made her way into the lounge. A sit down and a quick drink. That was be nice.

She took a seat next to.......someone she did not know but that wasn't surprising given the size of the Midway crew plus they had recently received a batch of replacements needed after the Orion incident. Something which still bugged the hell out of her.

The bartender asked about what she'd like and she ordered a Altebaran whiskey, she'd heard good things about it and wanted to try it, "On the rocks, please."

Company at last! The blonde would receive a dazzling pearly smile and a nod from the attractive Argelian. "Hi there! Nice to meet you. Syaffia's the name. I'm new on board." She held out a hand for the other to shake. "How about you?"

Avis blinked in surprise. This one sure was bubbly.

"Hello. I'm Avis.....not new on board. Although our most recent mission was my first one"

Avis then extended her hand for a shake, since she couldn't tell by uniform since the woman was in civvie garb, she decided to ask, "What department have you been assigned?"

"I'm a cadet, actually. Helmswoman to be!" Syaffia shook her hand firmly, squeezed once and let go. "And boy, am I excited to get things going. How about you? Which department are you assigned to? Maybe we'll be working together!"


"I'm a senior cadet, yes. Helmswoman then? You'll be right on the bridge where all the big decisions are made," Avis replied.

Avis frowned, "I'm security. You can't tell by my red uniform, cadet? Don't let the top officers find out you haven't learned the uniform distinctions yet."

"You know a red uniform could also mean you're in Engineering, right? That's why I asked." Syaffia laughed and gently nudged her in the shoulder. "Looks like you're not a hundred percent clear on the uniform either, are you?" She teased. "Kidding. Kidding. So, Avis, whaddaya do for fun? Or hobbies? Don't tell me all you do is study or work."

ooc: Oh, good one, you got me there on the unis.

IC: "Yeah, right...good point. I was trying to give you a hard time but that blew up in my face, didn't it?" Avis smiled and sipped her drink

"Being in security, I try to keep in good shape. Running, swimming, martial arts, that sort of thing. And actually I try to study as little as possible," Avis grinned.

"And you?" seemed only fair to turn the question back at the other woman.

Syaffia raised an eyebrow and grinned at the reply given to her. Looks like this rather uptight girl wasn't exactly the pinnacle of cadethood as she seemed to want to potray herself to be!

"I work out a lot. A girl's gotta keep looking hot somehow, especially one who's gonna be sitting at the helm for most of the day, don't you agree?" The tone to Syaffia's limbs and stomach certainly indicated as such.

Avis grinned, "Oh yeah, physically demanding, all that sitting pushing buttons and reading screens."

"Otherwise? I pretty much do anything I think I'll like. Try new things. You'll see me at the bar pretty often drinking or partying if I have the time. I take the occasional guy - or girl - back too, but that's not important." There was a gleam of amusement in the girl's green eyes at that.

"I'm only into guys if that was a subtle invite, sorry," Avis felt compelled to point out.

"Favorite part of the ship so far?" She asked.

"Hadn't thought about it," Avis paused to consider options then replied, "Oh, either the gym or that new holodeck. They tell me they are still working the bugs out of the thing but my boyfriend and I went and tried it. We went swimming in a warm ocean next to a sunny sandy beach. It felt so damn real."

"No. Way. There are holodecks on this ship? I gotta try me one of those. Go swimming, maybe take a friend or two. Practise in the cockpit of a shuttle. Shop in Paris on Earth. Whatever I wanna do! It sounds great to me!" Syaffia remarked cheerfully. "It's good to hear that it worked out for you and your boyfriend, though! I sure hope it works for me."

"It did. If you mean the holodeck, yes," grinned Avis, "As for the boyfriend thing so far so good. We'll see how long it lasts.

"Oh I know one of the helm people, Thraxina. We met by fighting in the gym and got arrested for it. It was no big deal though really."

"Oh? I'm assigned to her as a mentee, actually! You know, flight instructor and all that. I've heard one or two things about her." Syaffia commented, leaning in with a conspiratorial look on her face. "But you fought with her? Over what?"

"She wanted to scrimmage with me, like a fight for competition not because we were mad at each other. We got going pretty intensely. Then someone in the gym called security and we got marched to the security office. Fortunately my department head heard our explanation and understood. Just a big misunderstanding," Avis explained then.

"Oh. So she just wanted to spar." Syaffia reasoned. "But why you? Were you the only one in the gym at the time? Did she just, like, pick the first one she saw?"

"Yes, spar...another word for it," Avis nodded, "I don't know why me. That would be a question for her, wouldn't it? But there were other people in the gym, no one sparring though. She just walked up to me and asked right off if I wanted to fight her. Thraxina - as you will find out - can be a bit blunt and this coming from a person who admittedly is also quite blunt."

"Blunt is good in the right contexts, I guess. But sometimes too blunt is too much. I guess I'll find out when I meet her in a couple of days." Syaffia shrugged. "Maybe she just picked you to spar with because you were the only option available to her, and all she wanted was an opponent." The Argelian shrugged. "I don't know. I can't read minds."

"Neither can I - which is why I suggested you ask Thraxina. Not that it matters at this point - we were released, we had ourselves a very hard fought sparring session, and no hard feelings between us," Avis pointed out.

"That's good." Syaffia remarked happily. "As long as you both left feeling happy. Speaking of leaving..." She stifled a soft yawn. "I think I should be going myself. It's getting kind of late, and I wanna go see my roomie. Catch you around?"

"Fair enough, nice meeting you. And yes, I'm confident we shall catch each other around - it is a ship after all, not a planet," Avis smiled.

And with that they parted.

 

RSS Feed