Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: The Report Dilemma

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in Side sim: The Report Dilemma

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in Side sim: The Report Dilemma
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Rand didn’t move, not right away. She wasn’t sure what had encouraged her to tell him, except that she simply wanted to be honest with Roman in their conversation. She meant to tell him she believed him, that he wouldn’t talk about it to anyone else, but instead, again with her softly muffled voice, she said, “I trust you.” Because she both trusted him to be able to tell him and for him to keep her confidence.

After several long moments she did let go. Not because she wanted to, but leaned over in the seat against him, she was perched precariously on the edge of her chair, and was beginning to feel like she might fall. And she’d done enough of that in front of him. She sat up carefully, gently, reluctantly, but found his hand again as she did. She didn’t want to end the evening just yet though, so she searched for some question or topic. “What is your favorite piece to play?”

Rand

Roman took her hand when she found his. Her statement of trust made him really happy. He thought about her question for a moment and said, “I like to play the classics. Some old pop songs have good melody to them. And sometimes I just improvise.” He used to like the classics more, but these days, he preferred making his own music.

~ Roman

Classics were difficult and complex and required great skill, keeping adherence to rules and technique. That’s why they were classics and survived over the years. But improve was something totally different. It required letting go of the rules, bending techniques, telling the ‘masters’ you know better, moving away from tradition and being rebellious. So Roman, the strict adherer to protocol, following precisely the scientific method, regulation perfect uniforms every day, had a rebellious streak. That made her grin. Of course she had no idea about his family and how accurate that was. “I bet your own pieces are wonderful.” She would love to hear him play eventually, but she didn’t ask because she knew how personal such things were, and sometimes they were just for yourself.

Rand

Roman shrugged. “They’re alright.” He wouldn’t claim to be great at it, but he thought his work sounded pretty good. “I haven’t played for anyone since secondary school,” he said. He liked to play for himself, usually here, in his quarters. But perhaps sometime, he’d show her. He’d played since he was very young, back in his days of school he’d done music as an extracurricular for school. But after he went to college, he never did performances. It just wasn’t what he wanted to focus on in life. A hobby, nothing more.

~ Roman

“That’s okay. Even if others are around you should only play for yourself. If you play for others, for what they like, then you never get to play what you like. And you loose your passion for it that way.” She turned her gaze to look up at him briefly and turned a little pink. “Sometimes, when I’m alone, I still read new scripts and run lines from them, in my quarters.” She enjoyed it, acting out the parts and the monologues. Just for fun. She had thought maybe one day she could try voice acting again, bit not anytime soon. Maybe when people forgot her name.

Rand

Roman smiled. “Alone? Or… with Randy?” He asked, teasing her. He considered what she said, he really did only play for himself. He didn’t particularly care what others thought of it, nor did he feel the need to show anyone. It was a way to let off steam, something creative to do.

~ Roman

Rand shook her head with a grin, “Alone. Randy would but it’s too much like studying for him. Besides I think watching me ‘read’ them makes him sad and then frustrated. I love Randy and he would spend all his extra time with me if I asked, but he likes being around people. I hate that he gives so much up to help me. So that’s my private indulgence, my own little hobby and I can make him go away and leave me alone for awhile, and he gets to be Randy instead of my big brother.”

Rand

Roman nodded. He still didn’t really understand, even when he was young his family never got along like that. It made him… jealous, in a way. A lot of things would have been a lot easier if his family hadn’t been as… difficult as it was. He was lucky Jay’s family had been kind enough to take him in that least year, or he may not have had the means to make it into Starfleet Academy. “It’s nice of him. That he does so much,” Roman said.

~ Roman

“I’m very lucky.” Something seemed…off but she didn’t know what. She knew Roman and Randy didn’t get a long, maybe he didn’t like her talking about him? But he’s the one who mentioned Randy, and he was her brother. Or maybe he was starting to realize, after her confession, that she was not the type of person he really wanted to be around. Maybe it would be better to talk about work? “What will you study after the Altaria III animals?”

Rand

Roman nodded again, slightly. It wasn’t anything like that, in fact as much as he couldn’t stand Randy, he’d gained more respect for the man than he’d already had. Rand must’ve thought the subject bothered him for some reason, because she changes the topic back to work. She didn’t seem uncomfortable, though perhaps Roman wasn’t as good as telling as he thought he was. “I don’t know yet,” he answered her. “These animals aren’t the only thing about that planet I plan to study, in fact my previous project took considerably longer.”

~ Roman

Rand thought maybe she’d said something to upset him, but oddly enough she wasn’t uncomfortable with Roman, even if he did decide he didn’t want to have another date with her. “Oh, I thought that…that you only studied the animals.” Oh that sounded idiotic. She squeezed his hand firmly. “I mean…um…I know biologists study anything living, but you only mentioned the animals. I thought maybe the other things were being studied by someone else. You know…because I…I never saw anything on the reports....” She knew he didn’t like talking about his work with Jay so she didn’t comment on that.

Rand

Roman did want to have another date with Rand. If he had known she thought he might not be interested he’d have said something. But he didn’t want to seem pushy, this was only their first date. “Everything I study related to animals. When I finish with these ones, I’ll either pick more to study, or something more theoretical, like how certain animals might evolve.”

~ Roman

“Can you really do that?” That sounded incredible to Rand. “I mean we could make wild inaccurate speculations, but can you really make solid scientific hypotheticals on how animals or plants will evolve? Doesn’t evolution take thousands of years? Where would you even begin to make a conjecture?” It wasn’t that Rand hadn’t enjoyed science in school, but she’d never had the aptitude for the higher level classes. Then she realized that she was running on about his work. She blushed, and the corner of her mouth twitched, and she squeezed his hand quickly. “Sorry. No work right?…Umm…how old were you when you started to play the violin?”

Rand

“They aren’t guaranteed to be accurate, but it’s an attempt, especially on uninhabited planets, to decide which species might evolve intelligence, or how the ecosystem might shift overtime,” Roman explained after her questions. Then she changed the topic again and squeezed his hand and he smiled. “I was four.”

~ Roman