Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Brigette Marshall (Chief Engineer (CE)) in Post Sim: Getting some exercise

Posted by Lieutenant Mwezi (Weapons Officer) in Post Sim: Getting some exercise

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Brigette Marshall (Chief Engineer (CE)) in Post Sim: Getting some exercise

SNIP

“I supposed as much. I have smelled your scent from him,” he commented, starting to stretch. He crouched, knees and ankles bending so that the whole of his foot touched the ground, then he leaned back, crossed his arms, and started to do sit-ups while he spoke.

“He is my Captain. I believe he sees more in the relationship than I do, but my job on this vessel has always been two-sided. Protect the ship and her captain, and learn about the Federation and her people. Staying near to the Captain served both those purposes, especially as… Socializing in other ways is not easy for me. You humans take one look and think… Werewolf. Even beings of other planets have similar myths,” he said, thinking back to the mission they had been on last week.

“I am intimidating,” he concluded, stopping his sit-ups and looking at her. He bared his teeth, then relaxed himself and laid back onto the mat. His feet stuck up. “It does not help that all you Federation people are like rocks to my Enne. Learning to read emotions by way of visual signs was not easy, and I still am not sure I have figured it out…”

“Being the Captain’s bodyguard… It gives me a purpose. Something small, but I am able to observe his human behaviour while also doing my Starfleet duties. I have grown fond of him. Protective. It is hard to assume a personal relationship out of it, however. I do not spend much time with the Captain outside of my Security shifts. I am… unsure what exactly his thoughts on our closeness is.” He shrugged, staring up at the ceiling. The room was still chilly, but under his fur he was getting a little toasty. He envied humans and Hatriku, a bit, for their lack of fur.

• Mwezi

Bridie couldn’t help it, she looked up with wide eyes and a child like grin of absolute surprise. “Wait… you’re an intimidating werewolf?” She smiled brighter and laughed as she winked. “I wouldn’t have pegged you. I just don’t see it.” She kept smiling as she cocked her head from side to side like she just couldn’t picture it.

Laughing she shook her head. “I’m not like most, as you will find. And since I don’t know any werewolves, I have, honestly, nothing to compare you to. You are a unique creature, that I admit intrigues me. But not in a morbid fascination kind of way. But in a way like everyone interesting I meet, intrigues me.” Like the Doctor her mind whispered.

She leaned on the wall, her hand wiping the sweat from her temples. “I have discovered, in the last few years in deep space, that most of what we grow up with and told are stories. Nothing more. Sure, maybe, once…long ago, there was a thread of truth to some of them. But out here,” she motioned beyond the ship into space, “there are things vastly more interesting. And they are REAL.” She slid to the floor, pulled her knees up and wrapped her arms around them.

“Although, reading my emotions, unless I am upset,” she laughed, “aren’t easy. But then, to be honest, half the time I don’t know them either. I think that may be the problem with reading humans. Some species I have met, don’t understand the turmoil and lies we humans tell ourselves in a given situation, that muddles the mind so the real emotions aren’t actually what we feel.” She looked at her hands and fiddled with her fingers. “If that makes any sense.”

Bridie
CE

Mwezi looked at her with surprise. “Walking wolf-man. Even our dear Captain called me one when we were on that planet,” he commented, reaching up to scratch his ear.

When she started talking about emotions, lies, and such, he nodded. “You are so… Strange that way. All these lies you tell yourselves and others? What is the benefit of such deceit?” He finally got up, standing and walking over to the bench where his things were. “Things like your feelings. In the time I have been here, I have seen so many people with bottled emotions. Anger, joy, love, sadness. You keep it all inside and fear to share it with your community. It is… So very different where I come from. Emotions are shared. Joy is passed among everyone. Sexuality is not… So hidden away. That may have to do with our sense of smell,” he tapped his nose.

“That is something I am curious about. On Galdor, when someone is attracted to someone, we share it through our Enne. But you do not have that. And, as far as I’ve been able to tell, just telling someone you want to ‘sleep with’ them is not particularly socially acceptable…?”

• Mwezi

She smiled slightly realizing he hadn’t caught her joke about him. “Apologies… Walking wolf man.” She look at him and smiled. “It is a fitting description. Far better than a were beast.”

Bridie took a deep breath and sighed. “I wish it was so easy for humans. But we lie to ourselves to make us feel better. We don’t admit we care for someone because we fear hurting someone else. And when we are scared, we feign anger because we are brought up that fear is a weakness. In our minds we know it’s wrong. But our brains do it anyway.” She laughed and shook her head, wiping the other side of her temple as sweat beaded there.

She shook her head. “If we could just be honest, the world would be a mess, to be honest. And we are, supposedly, monogamous creatures. I don’t believe it. But we are brought up that way. So just going with feeling and being with whomever, whenever, goes against the societal norm. So we fight it, or hide it, and ignore it when it rises.”

“A millennia of bad genetics I guess.” She smiled and looked up at him.

Bridie
CE

“And every single member of your species gets to deal with all these emotions,” Mwezi reflected quietly. “I do not envy you. I suppose the idea of monogamism is not really something my culture bothered with.” He leaned against the wall she was leaning on, and took another deep drink from his large water-bottle. After a moment of silence, he spoke again, changing the subject.

“The Captain. You care for him?” he asked, reaching over to grab his uniform shirt and pull it on. He had a slightly furrowed brow as he asked, his head tilting slightly.

• Mwezi

She hardly took a breath before responding. “Yes…” she looked at him, her own brow furrowing at what she saw. “What’s wrong? You disapprove?”

He still almost towered over her, even sitting. She let her legs slide down to ease the tension, bouncing her knees slightly to ease the bite of pain.

Bridie

“No. I do not disapprove,” he stated, tilting his head again. “That you care about him reassures me.”

He was quiet for a while, holding his uniform bottoms in his lap and rubbing the material between his thumb and forefinger. “I should go. Enjoy your workout… Birdie,” he gave her a small smile, then gathered up the rest of his things, and pulled on his trousers. He stepped over to the thermostat and tapped it a few times to reset it to default temperature. Immediately the room began to warm up a bit.

• Mwezi

She frowned slightly. “I hope I am not driving you out before you are done, Mwezi,” the pronunciation starting to come more natural to her tongue. “You were here first.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to know why caring for Taggart reassured the wolf.

Bridie

“It is fine,” he reassured her. He just wanted to leave, especially after the discomfort he had clearly caused her. He didn’t like how intimidating he was on a personal level. People thought he was threatening them when he was just curious, for example. He didn’t like how he couldn’t send his emotions to them, how they couldn’t send emotions to him. Humans were too confusing. He stood in the doorway, despite just having said he was leaving, looking at Bridie with a slightly confused expression, unable to move until he had heard her response. He didn’t want to be rude.

• Mwezi

She couldn’t read emotions, but she knew people. And if she trusted her instincts about ‘confusing humans’ then the scowl on his face was evident. “Wait..Mwezi… please…”

She stood up, absently brushing the seat of her pants though it wasn’t necessary on the work out mat. “No, it’s not all right. What is it?” She had crossed the room and was an arm’s length from him. Well, his arm, anyway. She was looking up and him with a determination not to flinch till he answered her. “What is it?” She smiled and it was kind and soft. “And don’t go all human on me and say ‘nothing’.” She cocked her hip as she crossed her arms as if daring him to lie to her.

Bridie

Mwezi looked down at her. She was short. Then again, everyone on this ship was short. He sighed slightly, glancing out into the corridor with the expression of a wolf who just wanted to run but knew he couldn’t. “I made a mistake,” he said, not meeting her eyes. “I made you uncomfortable and I do not know how to remedy that. I am not good at… human interaction.”

He had come here to learn about humans, but he knew he wasn’t doing a particularly good job at it. He hoped his other Galdori colleagues were having a better time of it…

• Mwezi

She smiled and reached out to lightly touch his arm a moment. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable. I did that on my own.” She dropped her hand and motioned him to come back in the gym. She sat on the mat’s edge and nodded to the work bench, thinking he would be more comfortable there and on the floor. “Come, talk to me a moment. I will make you a deal. You can make me uncomfortable, angry, sad or just plain confused,” she laughed to ease the tension in the room. “And I promise I will do my best to explain what happens when it does. And I will even include, to the best of my ability anyway, the conflicts inside my head and heart.” She hadn’t meant to say heart and she swallowed slightly.

“You are free to learn with me with no care of upsetting or offsetting me. How’s that? But I will ask something in return.” She made a mischievous smile.

Bridie

Mwezi tilted his head, looking with a furrowed brow at her hand on his arm. She hopefully had realized at this point that his brow furrowing meant more confusion than anything else. Especially as his ears, pricked forward and facing her, conveyed interest, not aggression. Hesitantly, Mwezi followed her back into the room, then sat on the bench. His legs were splayed out in front of him, the bench being too short for him to really sit properly.

He listened to her proposition, tilting his head and blinking as he took in the information. When she was finished, he let the quiet moment stew for a little longer, then slowly nodded. “This seems like it would be helpful. I do not want to…” he trailed off, searching for the right word. “I do not want to be a nuisance to you. I would think such an activity would interrupt work…?”

“But I will listen to what you ask in return,” he appended hastily.

• Mwezi

She shook her head. “You said you are the Captain’s body guard. Does your species not teach something similar to our ‘know your enemy’ adage? If you are to understand humans and perceive, better, what they are expressing, then it is worth every moment I can spare to show you.” She then smiled brighter. “But the favor I ask, is help me be a better protector as well. To myself, the Captain and the crew.” She looked down at her hands, once more clasped in front of her bent knees. “I can’t fight, Mwezi. I was never good at it. And even the Academy shook its head and barely passed me. It’s the only low score in my entire career. I’ve learned over time, especially on Mars, that I need to know more. And I can’t afford to go thru official channels and seek a remedial trainer.”

She looked at him and wondered if she was both asking and offering too much of him.

Bridie

“I have not had a situation where I need to protect the Captain against humans. It is mostly threats that can be dealt with by use of claws and phasers. But You are correct in that knowing these things could potentially be beneficial…”

His brow furrowed a little again, and he looked at her as if sizing her up. “There are fighting styles suited to people of smaller stature. Using your smaller size to gain advantage against a larger opponent, for example. What you might describe as ‘dirty fighting.’ I think it is possible for me to teach you. I generally am at the gym at this time… but if another time is better for you I would not be opposed to it. As long as it does not interfere with our regular schedules,” Mwezi spoke, tilting his head and looking away from Bridie, but this time he was lost in thought instead of being awkward.

• Mwezi

She nodded. “This is close to my regular time as well. So it’s perfect. And if you teach me to fight dirty against bigger opponents, then anyone smaller will be easier.” She watched him a moment, her cheek resting on her knees.

After a moment, realizing he was far away, she spoke up, but it was soft, to not startle him. “Where are you, Zi?” She didn’t realize she had shortened his name. The words were soft and full of concern.

Bridie

Mwezi started slightly. “Ah, just thinking about… fighting styles, I suppose.” He stood up, stretching his arms out in front of himself. “Thank you for this opportunity, Birdie. It will be helpful, for both of us. I think I will be going. I need to rest. I’ve taken on an extra shift later and I would like to be well rested for it.”

• Mwezi