Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in Genesis Lounge

Posted by Captain Calvin Marius (Captain) in Genesis Lounge

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in Genesis Lounge
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
(SNIP)
A thought popped into his head. “What is the most sexual thing you every sent over a wireless transmission system?” That should take a little steam out of her.

Vanessa let out another laugh and smiled as she nodded picking up her beer. “Am I out drinking the tough and burly ex-Marine because you Sir,” she let the honorific deliberately slide off her tongue as she looked him in the eye with a mischievous smile, “forgot the rules of the game? “It should have been Vanessa,” she let her voice drop some trying to get him to crack a smile at her very bad but very obvious attempt to imitate him, “never have I ever send something sexual over a wireless transmission system?” She did not let her teasing last too long. She wanted him to see it as encouraging down a path. She also decided that before the night was up, she would find a way to get a genuine smile out of Calvin Marius.

He groaned, she was right. He didn’t do the format of the question right. If this was jeopardy he would have lost his turn. Perhaps not so in almost drunk never have I ever.... btw what every happened to the Caitain they started the conversation with .

“The answer is a three-parter,” she took a sip of her drink. “Part one of my answer is wireless transmissions are the hot sauce on the plate of a relationship. It keeps things interesting and spicy. Looking at me you see a peach but take a bite and you find a ghost pepper. Part two is who hasn’t when you are in a relationship. Part three you don’t jump for thirty-year-old grenades or did I get that part wrong?” Her question was loaded. She did not get it wrong so on one hand she was playing coy. On the other hand, however, they were both consenting adults and command staff. Her rank might be lower than his but her options were just as limited. Being the counselor meant she knew about most people’s dirty laundry and flaws. Most people didn’t want to date someone they just confessed to about cheating on partners or parent issues.

Marius didn’t answer the first part of the ‘answer/question’ she had to use a question for that. “Virtually everyone thinks they are spicy, that’s like asking someone if they have a sensor of humor. They all say they do, but not everyone does.”

“True but we are in public and need to have a bit of decorum. It is why I leaned toward the shy and reserved but,” she took a drink. “We both know I am anything but shy and reserved… unlike you.” She winked at him taking a sip of her drink.

Marius looked confused for a moment, the responded with a single chuckle, “Didn’t say that exactly. I said I’m sure someone would jump on that hand grenade, I never said if I would or would not be that person.”

If we weren’t sitting in this lounge and wearing these clothes, we would have been gone thirty minutes ago and wearing no clothes, she thought but replied with a more neutral comment of, “fair enough.”

“Never have I ever had a friend with benefits…friend,” she asked her question taking a drink at the same time. Following the rules of the game, Vanessa’s drinking proved she had. She had also given Marius the leeway to answer one or both of her open-ended questions. Leaning back she picked up a french fry and waited to see if her skipper was confident enough to be just Calvin or if he would retreat behind his rank and answer as Captain Marius.

Vanessa Slade

Well that required a drink, Marius took a sip. “Well, I don’t know if there is much of a story behind it… I’ve had a couple of non-committed sexual things.” He looked upward and the right. “I don’t like confusion.” Marius tapped a glass, “So I would always sit down pretty early.” He refilled his glass. “It can be a short conversation or a long one.”

He smiled as a memory came to him, “I remember a young marine who I had some adult recreation events with. After the first night we were drinking some beers at the mess and I hit her shoulders, this was the conversation word for word.”

“Hey last night,”
“Yeah,”
“You cool?”
“Cool. You?”
“Great…”
“Its nothing serious.”
“Roger - wilco, want to knock one out tonight.”
“Bet.”

“And that was the whole conversation. We were ‘not’ together for about six months and there sporadically hooked up twice as year.” This conversation had turned a little spicy. He had no one to blame but himself as he might not have started the ball rolling, but he definitely gave it a push after it started moving. “Are you going to eat that French fry or wait for someone to take a picture?”
Marius

“A picture. I am so photogenic,” she smiled and posed with the fry like the latest short-order cook in holomericials about how good MacDonald’s fries were.

Vanessa Slade CNS

“You are very symmetrical.” Calvin responded honestly.

Vanessa looked at him and thought about his comment. “You know facial symmetry is universally associated with beauty and attractiveness in both sexes and in sexual and non-sexual contexts across most cultures. The most accepted theory for this is that biological beings subconsciously equate symmetry with good genes and physical health so thank you,” she replied with a smile. “Although it would have been far simpler to just say I am very pretty,” she winked at him. Fishing her back pocket she tossed a few coins on the table. No one on the ship tipped the bartender. It would be like tipping the quartermaster staff for getting your belongs to your room when you transferred to a new ship. She and Tony had a long talk about it a few weeks ago. People might wonder but let them.

“I am familiar with that theory, and it would have been simpler saying that, but it also could be misconstrued.” Calvin said cautiously. Being a Captain had a lot of advantages but it did have a number of very dangerous disadvantages. Perhaps he was fishing for something as well.

Dropping the fry to her plate, she brushed off her hands and stood up. “Let’s get out of here. I wanna show you something.” Vanessa had no idea if Marius was the type of guy that needed a play-by-play before doing something or would go where his curiosity might lead him.

He watched as the fry hit the plate. “Just as I suspected, the carbs were a ruse all along, you don’t look the way you do by eating them.” He stood in a reserved manner. “I think it might be hard to show me something on this ship that I haven’t seen before.” It was said with an amused tone without challenge. He couldn’t seem too excited, their conversation was conspicuous enough already.

Marius

“You skipper need to book an appointment with the ship’s ophthalmologist because you completely missed the fact I ate a burger, plate of pickle nickles, and loaded fries. Carbs and me are like this,” she crossed her fingers and held them up to him. “One day we will have a proper dinner and trust me it won’t be me eating a dainty little salad. No great story ever started around two people eating salad.” As to his other comment, Vanessa didn’t respond. People’s views of interesting or novel differed. Firewalking bordered on the mystic and spiritual unless your community practiced it. Then it was as common as eating a baloney sandwich in the middle of an elementary school cafeteria. “Tony I need a bucket to go,” she hollered over her shoulder.

Marius nodded, but he was unconvinced. Even with the food replicators set to reduce calories in foods, Marius routinely cut carbs so he could keep his ‘figure’. It hard to show definition when there was a layer of fat on his body. Not that he worked out of appearance, He worked out for strength, combat ability, and emotional regulation. But since he had to do that anyway, he just added the appearance part to his regimen because it was a simple enough addition to everything else he had to do.

Leaving the lounge, Vanessa didn’t look back but grabbed the tin pail at the end of the bar Tony set there. Inside were a couple of beers and a bottle of whiskey on some ice. She assumed Marius was following her. Tapping the console on the turbo the door slide open effortlessly as they stepped inside. Hitting the desired floor for she leaned against the wall. Tapping her fingertips on the wall behind her as the numbers descended she hummed a little tune that was clearly the standard elevator music often heard in offices everywhere. “For the record I don’t think I am different or in any way unique. We are all just trying to make our way through each day and not letting our freak flag get past half mast most of the time.”

“And to do that you require bar garbage?” Despite his efforts not to stand out when they left the lounge there were factors that conspired against them. Vanessa was new and cute, and Marius was large and the Captain to name two. He had seen at least four pairs of eyes noting their departure. More than enough to start the rumor mill, but not enough to let it get out of control if nothing else added to the fire. He could always explain it away with the right counter rumor.

She let out a chuckle at his comment. “Things are not always the way they look, skipper. You’ll see.”

“You couldn’t handle it, if I let my freak flag get to half mast.” He wasn’t certain that was true. In fact he suspected her willingness to be overt with whatever she considered freaky was way higher than his public willingness, but it might be interesting to call her bet and see where she would go - he could always fold later.

“I have a sneaky suspicion that your freak flag is more of a pennant but I am sure I could handle a full-sized eight by twelve if you got one all furled up somewhere. You have no idea how many sick tickets come strolling through our doors that never make the fleet,” she confessed. It was not like she was breaking any confidentiality. The small concrete path leading from the recruitment center to the main street was nicknamed wash-out row for a reason.

Well, that was both a true and untrue statement. It was not something he was about to explain. He just tilted his head.

As if on cue a twang country song began to play from Vanessa’s personal communicator in her back pocket. The melody was a classic toe tapping tune with a couple of violings and steady drum beat keeping in pace with the lyrics that soon filled the small enclosed space.

Hey, they call me the fireman, that’s my name
Makin’ my rounds all over town
Puttin’ out old flames
Hey, well, everybody’d like to have what I’ve got
I can cool ‘em down when they’re smolderin’ hot
I’m the fireman, that’s my name

“Classic country....” Marius squinted. “That has to be at least 300 years old.”

“Well there are not a lot of songs about fireman and the vibrate feature just made people wonder what was in my pocket going off all the time,” she replied.

In a single motion, Vanessa handed the tin pail to Marius and fished the communicator out of her pocket answering in immediately.

“Now I’m holding your garbage.” Marius was feeling like the men who sat on the guy bench outside of clothing stores with their wives or girlfriends holding their purses as they shopped un-encumbered.

One second, she held up a finger and mouthed the words before giving him a thumbs up with a smile in response to his comment.

“What do you want. I am wawking.” As typical her accent came through the second she started to talk to her family from back home.

“Sounds like you ah drinking,” the voice broke out in a laugh, “and who wawks at 4 am.” There was a hint of suspicion in the tone as silence fell between them before Vanessa spoke.

“Life of an officah. what do you need?”

“Faw you to call Mah,” Daniel Slade’s thick Bostonian growl seemed to echo in the small space. It was clear he was annoyed and this wasn’t exactly a social call. “She said she has been calling you faw like fouh houhs and you have not picked up. She is going down the rabbit hole that the bawg attacked and you have been assimilated oh some crap like that. She is riding ah asses so if you dawnt want hah showing up on Deneva call hah.”

Vanessa groaned and rubbed her forehead. Other people might had have felt a need to explain why a grown woman was getting a call to report to her mother. For Vanessa it was just a Tuesday night. Hopefully Marius missed the comment about Daniel thinking she was serving on Deneva instead of millions of light years from there and on a star ship. It was time to end the call before anything else came out. “Okay okay fine. Gawtta go,” she snapped into the communicator and let out a breath she was holding. “Family…if you kill them then you don’t have someone to help hide the bodies so you are stuck with them.”

Vanessa Slade

Marius chuckled, “That’s why you join the marines, all of them will help you hide the bodies. It’s literally in the job description.”

“Well we are technically short one person then. There are typically thirteen in a squad,” she asked?

“There are twelve of us Slades unless you count my Grandma’s which makes it fourteen.”

“Your family’s from Earth? Because whatever language you were speaking kept almost activating the universal translator.” Marius recognized it after the third or fourth back and forth as New England area… probably Boston… that group of people leaned into their accents hard when they wanted to. “Country Music, Boston accent… you’re a little bit of a contradiction aren’t you.”

“If you ask anyone that knows me for more than a week they call me a hot mess, with a side of disaster all covered with a thick sauce of chaos.” She let out a laugh and pulled her hair up into a pony tail. It made her look slightly younger on some level. “However you called me symmetrical earlier so doesn’t that mean I am on some level I am easy to read because symmetrical things tend to be the same pattern on each side.”

He squinted and looked her up and down closely… “You said you were 29 didn’t you. I’m sure you’re a lieutenant, I see the uniform. The rest of you seems mature.” He gestured indiscriminately at her body. He pursed his lips pausing as he now stared at her face. “I’m wondering how many 29 year olds have to answer a call from their mother’s within 4 hours or they start freaking out. This kind of blows up your image as wild party girl if your leash is so short. Or did you mean your ‘wild’” He air quoted lifting the pail as if it were weightless, “parties include a mother chaperone? Does she sit between you and your date at movies, measure the distance between your knee and the hem of your skirt or be sure there is enough room ‘for Jesus’ between you and your partner when you dance?”

“Not that was what my brothers did for fun,” she rolled her eyes but wore a smile. “My family is just…close. Maybe closer than some.” Right now she did not know Marius well enough to explain what the Jamaica Plains Battleship was. It probably would explain a few of his question but inevitably lead to a whole slew more of them. “And it is not completely out of the realm of Starfleet. Don’t you remember in the first year of the academy where they made you contact home once a week or to someone important to you. Psychologically it helps to build confidence to know you are doing something on your own but also establishes a connection when you need a pep talk. My mom just....well she is a mom.”

Marius historically feared neither brothers or fathers. Mother’s however were an ingrained degree of respect. “Not really,” Marius was an orphan. His adoptive parents and him were pretty estranged when he was younger. Actually he was on fairly good terms when he went to the academy but he was 30 by then and contact was far less frequent than weekly by then.

He did the math in his head, the delay was so long from Deneva to Earth that they would probably have to record conversations. “And as an aside, she’s going to notice that we are getting further and further away from her… might want to tell her you’re not on Deneva. Unless you’re afraid of your mommy.” He voice took on a notable child like tone when he said ‘your mommy.’

Marius

“Aw shhhh,” she started to speak before the turbo doors sprung open on the desired floor. It blurred the curse word long enough for Vanessa to utter it. Looking up at Marius she bit her lip. “I did not think the Deneva thing through,” she commented in a slow contemplated tone. Letting out a sigh she shook her head. That would be a problem to tackle tomorrow. Reaching the holodeck she keyed in a code and walked in.

“That doesn’t make it any better…” In fact it made it a little worse, “I know that’s a bad idea, but I’m on board.” He gave a huge thumbs up as a punctuation mark.

The room was a beach but not the lush tropical one most people seemed to replicate. This was more of a city beach. Replacing the palm trees was some tufts of beach grass. Instead of vast expanses of pure white sand touching aquarmine waves, they saw sand speckled with small pebbles bordering on darker water that obscured the depth of the water. The only man carrying drinks was Marius and not some man in a straw hat with pineapples filled with booze and little umbrella’s. Moving into the space, Vanessa immediately began to pull off her shoes as she talked.

“You know I left a half a bottle of ‘real’ whiskey in the lounge. You have to believe there are a bunch of ensigns trying to figure out if it worth it to steal my whiskey for the booze and the street cred, or return it for my gratitude.” He shook his head. “I’m never seeing that bottle again.” He could order the bar tender to pick it up. It likely hadn’t walked off yet.

“You can put that down there over by the rocks.” Dropping one shoe she then pulled off the other along with her socks dropping them in the sand. “When we get done,” she began to unbutton her jeans and continued to talk as she shimmed her hips out of them, “we can build a fire.” Dropping her jeans in the clothes pile she moved to the edge of the water and began to dig her toes in the sand.

He placed the pail in the location indicated. “You’re wearing a bathing suit under your..” He paused as he watched her gyrate out of her trousers. No… no she wasn’t. I couldn’t decide if women knew how sensual that body shimmy was. He was sure they knew it was but he doubted they knew who much. It was like an innocent striptease.
Marius waited and watched until she was done.

Looking at him she raised an eyebrow. “You know it is really hard to do this wearing your shoes. In fact I am pretty sure it is impossible to do this in shoes so what are you waiting for?”

Vanessa Slade CNS

“I was just trying to figure out how much you were going to take off. It could have been a nude ‘holographic’ beach for all I know.” He looked out, “Jersey Shore?” Marius guess trying to discern the location. I could have been Boston as well, but it was a little warm for that, but I could be set for any month or weather day the ever occurred and even a day that never occurred.

He wondered about the beach fixation are a recreation event. He thought it had to do with the comfortable weather, the lack of movement, the water, and the innate need to be scantily clad. Marius hated the sand as a general rule, it got everywhere. But the other things, he did enjoy. He paused looking up and down the beach for a moment as if there was going to be other people here. “Well, you asked for it.” Marius started stripping down. It was a far less sensual activity than Vanessa. He didn’t have the hips to sway… but the shirt removal might have been enjoyable. https://famewatcher.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/terry-crews-shirtless.jpg

He paused for a moment, “Pants too?” He grimaced slightly, “I’m wearing briefs, not boxers so…” he shrugged.

Marius