Posted by Lieutenant Siennadye Nox (Counselor) in Alt. Universe: Runabout In Space - Operation Bedlam

Posted by Captain Johann Dvorak (CO) in Alt. Universe: Runabout In Space - Operation Bedlam

Posted by Lieutenant Siennadye Nox (Counselor) in Alt. Universe: Runabout In Space - Operation Bedlam
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻

SNIP

“Yes,” he said, turning in his chair to look at her. “I gave one of those standard ‘it’s nice to be working with you all’ type speeches too. I figured that’s the most I should do right now… you know, because I think technically you’re the one in charge? I mean it’s your crew anyway.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

She grinned as did the other crew. “That I am, Johann. That I am.” She turned her seat to look at her console. “We have about two days before we reach the area of space we are traveling to. I figure during that time, we will make sure we have everything we need and get to know one another a bit. Obviously, I have worked with these three before, but none of us have actually worked with you. Mind if we ask you some questions Johann?”

Everyone seemed relaxed and mildly interested in the conversation.

Nox, CNS

“Sure,” he said simply. It was a very casual way to start an operation, but it made perfect sense considering that he was the odd man out on this one.

“Ask away.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

She nodded and finished approving the course set. Their pilot began navigating them through stellar traffic and she turned from the console to look at Johann. “Favorite color, preference for food, motivation for being here?” Sienna seemed serious and completely unphased by the random line of questions. She figured Johann could roll with them well enough. While she was pretty sure she knew the answer to all three, it would be good for the others to know him too.

Nox, CNS

Just like school, he thought. Still, he would just roll with it. He might even have fun with it - he wasn’t in charge, and that let him feel like he could be a bit more free with his responses than usual.

“Green, Italian, Roaring-Rampage-of-Revenge to rescue my wife from another dimension.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

Roz laughed heartily and smacked Elwood’s arm with the back of her hand. He simply nodded. Baxter smiled softly and shook her head, deciding to call out the elephant in the room. “The one that looks, acts, and basically is identical to our Siennadye?” She asked, pointing to Nox.

Johann did an awkward sort of nod to this. It was an obvious elephant to call out.

Sienna pressed her lips together for a moment and looked back at her console. Italian food was a favorite for both Siennas to cook. When they had spent the year together in her dimension, they had bonded over that particular thing, cooking with each other and expanding their skills together. “Not quite identical but we both make a mean lasagna.” She said with chagrin.

“Hell yeah you do… or rather, I know you can from personal experience… I don’t know about the other Sienna. Please tell me you brought some with you Captain? I could go for some of your Italian about now. It has been months and I am wasting away.”

Nox, CNS
Lt. Rizzo Roz, Lt . Zain Elwood, and Lt. Commander Thea Baxter

“Um, no I didn’t bring any; this op was thrown together in about an hour. Besides, I haven’t had any for um… multiple years now. It’s kind of the problem we’re trying to solve here.”

Sienna blinked, realizing that the request had been for her, not Johann, but that he had taken it as asking if he had brought Italian.

He was able to joke about it outwardly, but under the surface there was seething that Sienna would immediately register. Not like anything she ever knew her old captain to feel.

– Johann Dvorak, CO

Roz pouted, not caring who had answered or at least smart enough to know she had hit some kind of button. Boisterous by nature and sometimes over the line, Roz was always late to shutting up. Sienna sighed. She could feel the anger from Johann. “I brought some. Everything is locked in. How about you all go get some and leave me at the other Captain to our plans? Hmm?”

“Oh, right…” Johann muttered. He wasn’t used to being “the other Captain.” He wasn’t used to Sienna being a Captain. He wasn’t used to Sienna.

Roz grimaced and was the first to leave, knowing she stepped in it. Zain and Thea followed whooping, slightly oblivious either on purpose or by nature. They left the two Captains and Sienna turned to Johann. She looked at him for a long time, reading the emotions cascading from him, both like and unlike her friend. She propped her left elbow on the console and placed her hand to hold onto her head at the temple. Her eyes, identical to his wife’s never left him. Finally she sighed. “I don’t know how to handle you.” She admitted softly and with a great deal of compassion.

Nox, CNS

“There’s no right answer,” Johann said plainly. “We are in a situation that is completely absurd. All I can think to do is openly acknowledge that.”

She nodded against her hand and sighed. Absurd? He could not have chosen a better word for it. Even if she went back now, she was irrevocably changed by her interactions in this universe and the man before her. She had never let herself entertain feeling anything for her friend Johann other than friendship, especially after he and Vora became an item. Now she contemplated it a lot. The Johann she knew had never been so brazen as this one. Her cheeks flushed a bit thinking of the kiss earlier.

The contemplation of the situation prompted a burst of laughter from him as he considered the deeper consequences of what he had just said. “Is that nihilism? I think it is. I think this is nihilism. I never thought I’d go all the way to nihilism. No, wait… I already did. That was before I met you. You, not my wife. Which is a distinction with some difference. Objectively, you aren’t the same. Subjectively, you are if it seems to you, or to me, like you are. Nihilistically, it’s meaningless.”

Sienna shook her head, not being able to help the grin that came to her face at his explanation.

There’s hope, he thought noting her grin. Hope for what, he had not fully thought through; it was a reflex.

Bemusement gave way to embarrassment. “I’m sorry if this is selfish,” he said as his ocular implants met her black eyes. “You’ve been through worse than I have. I don’t talk about it often, so I tend to descend into ranting when I do.”

— Johann Dvorak, CO

Sienna met his gaze and bit her lip, contemplating. “I think.... I think it would help if we do consider me and her to be two different people who know each other and I am helping you and her reunite and me to get back to my friends… hopefully. Yes I look insanely like her and have a lot of similarities, but if we keep concerning ourselves with am I or am I not, or how different is different, we will go crazy. I fully intend to take you up on the offer from earlier and I cannot imagine it working well any other way.”

“Wait, which offer?”

“And yes, I have been through a lot, but out of the three most impacted people of this situation, I think you and your wife have suffered the most. I lost my friends, but I didn’t lose my spouse. Your wife missed you a great deal and it pained her to be away from you, but I don’t want to compete with her memory in your mind.”

Nox, CNS

“Yeah I don’t think that is what’ll happen. I dunno. I don’t know what I actually feel, because I spend a lot of time trying not to feel it. I miss my wife. You are not her. I think I only raise the question of it because it’s less like cheating that way. Even though I doubt she would regard it cheating, maybe just… cheating-adjacent.”

She grimaced, not liking that concept at all. The idea that she was willing to engage in any kind of relationship with a married man, albeit a married man who’s wife has been unable to get back to this universe in 5 years and so far with no hope of returning looming, was enough to tug at her guilt hard.

He stopped. He was thinking about this now more than he usually would. “I guess I would be less bothered if she slept with him instead of someone else. It’s hard to imagine because I wouldn’t ordinarily expect it.”

– Johann Dvorak, CO

“I don’t know how she would view it, only how I would view it. I think it is less about the person my husband would be with and more about the time that has passed. I would not wish my husband to remain miserable and alone after 5 years of waiting.” She bit her lip and looked at the man who resembled her friend so much. The attraction she had hit hard now, especially after their kiss. She wanted to go to him, to kneel before him and ..... Sienna sighed wistfully. “I want a slice of happiness Johann. I want to lose myself for a while in the arms of someone I find very attractive and have respect for. I have no expectations and I honestly don’t think I could even contemplate what an expectation in this situation could be.”

She paused and bit her lip again before asking a very important question. “What do you want?”

Nox, CNS

bump