Posted by Lieutenant Zoi Haven (Chief of Security) in SB 157: The Boiler Room Cafe: Meeting with XO

Posted by Commander Dira Myqian (Executive Officer) in SB 157: The Boiler Room Cafe: Meeting with XO

(snip)

The tightness of her smile allowed both the slight embarrassment and amusement to creep through.” Depends on the day? But truly, it’s mostly just scattered items or things I push to one side to deal with later. My days are usually long and I’ve been effectively on call every day for twenty years.” Dira shrugged slightly. “It could be a lot worse. But a partner of mine used to tease me relentlessly about it. She couldn’t believe that someone who helped others organize everything in their heads could be so terrible about organizing their physical space. I stand by it being the one place where I can be messy and not have it be criticized.” While it was all light and in good fun, there was an element to the critique that for Dira always felt like she could never present as less than in control and orderly, lest her patients and her crew in general lost trust in her.

Myqian braced her chin on her hand again. “What about you? What labels do you claim as your own?”

Commander Myqian, XO

Though Zoi knew the question might be offered to her, she had not prepared an answer as she listened to Dira’s explanations. Zoi’s mind often worked on multiple levels, but if she was interested, she worked to actively be involved in the conversation. So now, she sat back. Her hand coming to her neck almost in a protective gesture, but softer as her hand trailed over the skin of her neck and collarbone as she thought. She let her mind fish for those labels with which she applied to herself, her blue eyes not really focusing on anything in particular. “Hmmm, well, daughter, care taker, security conscious, mildly telepathic, non spiritual, on the femme side of androgynous. I would say bisexual, meaning attraction to my gender and other genders. And because gender is a part of my attraction, I can’t really claim pansexuality.”

Dira nodded. As with all lables the exact definition of any one of them depended entirely on the person who claimed them. But even as she acknowledged that she found her eyes tracing the motions fo Zoi’s fingers and it was rather hypnotic. She mentally shook herself out of it and refocused her attention on what Haven was saying.

“I am quite a neat person, but other’s being messy never bother me much. I had a roommate in the Academy that quickly cured me of that. Lets see, passionate, disciplined, dedicated, loyal, athletic, gardener, calm.” She finally nodded to these labels, and told herself to face the person opposite her. It was a measure of vulnerability to explain yourself to others and Zoi had not been vulnerable with other people in a long time. “I suppose that is good enough for now.” she said with a half laugh of bemusement.

Haven, CoS

Interesting. She had actively addressed Dira’s flaw with something that would reassure her, as if she either didn’t want Dira to feel judged or wanted their compatibility to be more clear. Stop it! she chided herself. She was analyzing again and not only was this not the time or place, but she also knew her personal feelings were starting to make themselves known to her. And there was a real danger here that Zoi might not even be aware of. But the question became: did it matter? Zoi was perceptive and Dira could read people, even when they shielded themselves. She had too much experience with body language and tone. But just because it was becoming more clear that there was a certain level of attraction between them, did not mean they had to do anything about it. Nor was it even a good idea.

Inhaling slowly, Dira smiled genuinely. “Well, it was certainly a lot more than I expected when we set up this meeting.” Meeting. What a terrible word for what this was. It was supposed to be a meeting between the new first officer and the security chief, but this is not what this was anymore and Myqian wasn’t sure what, if anything, should be done about it. What were the boundaries here? Damned if she knew, but she did know she had a lot of self-reflection to do after this. For everyone’s sake.

Commander Myqian, XO