Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Paying for Our Sins

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Paying for Our Sins

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Paying for Our Sins
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻
It had been several days since Rand had discovered the lies of omission. She was still upset and her anxiety seemed was worse than usual. She focused on her work, but there wasn’t enough to do. Elbbirt still refused to put her back on full duty, and so she had hours every day to just dwell on it. Randy was depressed. Rand wouldn’t talk to him, at all. Not even for work. She was really angry at him and she was making him pay. He didn’t think she was being vindictive, Rand just avoided, expertly, anything that made her nervous and anxious and upset. And Randy had done that in spades.

So it was that he appeared in the gym on Roman’s regular day and time. If it would get Rand to talk to him again he’d do whatever. Even stand there and let Roman use him as a punching bag if he had to.

Randy

Roman was struggling, like always lately, but like Rand promised, upset or no she was there for him. And he had promised, so he’d have to teach Randy, no matter how much he didn’t want to. But he had not yet organized a time. When Randy showed up to the gym, at Roman’s usual time, he was there already, in his exercise clothes, giving Mr Dummy a beatdown for the ages, not sport style, but as if Mr Dummy were an enemy attacker.

It was when he stopped for a rest period, breathing hard, that he looked up and saw Randy. “Decided to get it started already?” It would take more than one session to teach him anything meaningful. He’d worked with Rand for weeks before he was satisfied and he still would make her practice, once she was healed.

~ Roman

Randy was slumped shouldered, wearing workout clothes. “She refuses to talk to me, to even be in the same room with me. She’s there and then she disappears. If I have to stand here and take the target dummy’s place then so be it. It’s horrible.”

Randy

Roman looked at him. “It’s just a sibling feud, isn’t it? She’ll talk to you again.” He shrugged. He glanced at the target dummy and then Randy and shook his head. “She doesn’t want me to beat you to a pulp, she wants me to teach you.” He waved Randy over, “We’ll start with fundamentals. Besides, if I did use you as a target dummy when you have no training besides Starfleet’s required, you would be visiting sickbay.”

~ Roman

Randy moved towards him and nodded. Then his comment about Starfleet’s required training wouldn’t be enough and then grinned and pointed at him, “HA! That’s why she insisted it be you. Not just to make this horribly awkward for us both.” He clapped and rubbed his hands together. “Alright, oh wise one, teach me. That way next time Rand decides to tackle me and use me as a punching target it I can take it with out too much complaint.”

Randy

Roman smiled faintly and shrugged. “I insisted on training Rand myself, she must have wanted the same for you.” He gave Randy a look up and down as if sizing him up, “You could be a decent fighter, given the effort into training.” He glanced at Randy at his comment, as if Randy had said something he didn’t expect. His tone was suddenly less playful, “Don’t make yourself the target of assassin murderers and she won’t use you as her personal Mr Dummy.”

Randy didn’t miss the change in Roman’s voice and held up both hands, “You’re right, point taken. I will add that to the list…” Again returned the sassy grin, “along with not teasing her about her pajama wear.”

Roman glanced up at him, partly wondering exactly which pajamas Randy meant. Then he refocused on what they were doing.

As they began to work through fundamental poses and moves, Roman seemed a bit cold, almost detached, yet strict, correcting every mistake as if Randy’s life imminently depended on it. He seemed to barely look at Randy or at least not his face, merely taking in form and correcting.

~ Roman

Randy listened and was quite studious. He didn’t want to get seriously hurt or hurt Roman like Rand had. However, Rand was used to taking direction on how and where to stand, how to move, etc from picky directors and choreographers. Randy was not. So though he tried and listened he didn’t pick up on it as well as Rand had.

Randy

Roman, though strict, was patient and helpful, giving tips when he saw the same mistakes being made. Randy did not learn as quickly as Rand but he was still, to Roman, a fast learner and before long he was, like with Rand, letting him try out some of the things he had been teaching on Roman, while Roman defended and blocked himself.

~ Roman

Randy worked hard, but any time he really got something wrong he would laugh at himself, and then try harder. It was his way, to laugh and make light of mistakes, to enjoy the process rather than getting extremely serious and then becoming frustrated at himself. Once they started trying things out Randy proved to be a bit quicker than Rand. with practice and patience and clear steps to follow Rand did very well, but in the moment adapting was a bit problematic for Rand. Her clumsiness showed. She knew in her head what to do for this exact scenario but any slight variation threw her off until she was much more skilled. Randy on the other hand just went with it and attempted to adapt. He adapted and adjusted on the fly, where as Rand had to think it all through first. This meant that when Roman defended and blocked Randy didn’t just stop and reset but continued, trying something different. This meant he was learning faster through trial and error, but that the exchanged went a bit further than maybe they should have.

Randy

Randy did not require the reassurance Rand had when Roman worked with her. Each mistake Randy would laugh off, or say something sassy or funny. Occasionally, there would be a quick grin from Roman, but then he would suddenly tense and turn serious. Whereas Rand struggled if Roman deviated even a little from a given scenario, Randy adapted quickly. Instead of simply trying one move, stopping, and trying again, they grew into basic sparring matches. During their last match, Roman smiled and laughed, joked and ribbed Randy like Randy had never seen him do with anyone. But then, before it was over he stopped and turned serious, turning his face away as if he might cry. The memories were too much, memories of someone else. Roman didn’t know why, it wasn’t like this when he taught Rand.

~ Roman