Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in So… This Is It

Posted by Ensign Dradvia (Medical Officer) in So… This Is It

Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in So… This Is It
Posted by… suppressed (36) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
~ Zoi

Dradvia flushed furiously. Was he flirting with her? “I thought Betazoids believed in the Great Fire? Isn’t hell all fire and sulfer? Not the kind that involves cold winter nights and blankets?” She was rambling slightly.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Well, I do, but I’ve been away from home a long, long time.” He shrugged. “And, yeah, it is supposed to be that.” He had to take his glasses off, they did nothing but fog up. He set them on the edge of the hot tub. “I can’t see anyway, they just fog up.”

~ Zoi

Deadvia took them, “Be right back,” and left the room. He could hear the replicator working and then she returned. “I didn’t think about it. I added anti-fog and anti glare to them.” She slipped them back onto his head gently. “Better?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil did not like her leaving him alone when he was essentially blind, not to mention physically vulnerable. But he could sense her close by and hear the replicator, so it wasn’t like she’d abandoned him. Then she came back and he relaxed. He let her slip the glasses on and he looked at her through them. “They’re still trying to fog, but yeah, that’s better.”

~ Zoi

“Good. If you prefer them off I can set them on the counter.” Even if Dradvia wasn’t in the room with him, she would have stayed in the quarters. “Is it helping? The water?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

He handed them to her so she could set them down. “It is,” he said, and she could tell by his voice he was relaxing. “I haven’t had a bath like this in years.... Not since Vash joined our crew.”

~ Zoi

No matter how many times he reassured her, Dradvia always felt a twinge of jealousy over the mysterious woman. “Oh?” Dradvia asked too casually.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil was amused by her jealousy. “Her father was a rich man, who hired us for an important job. Successful business is well celebrated in the Syndicate,” Sisnil said. “We were rewarded with luxury suites and services. Our reward for the job was the ownership of Vash’s slave contract.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia was glad he couldn’t see her face. She knew all about celebrating successful business in the Syndicate and services provided. She truly felt bad for Vash. “How awful to actually have a family to just be given away like a piece of jewelry.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I never would have accepted if I weren’t positive it was what Vash wanted.” Sisnil said. “We asked her privately, telepathically. She had her own reasons for wanting to leave home and we were her best bet at doing that.”

~ Zoi

She nodded, her gaze softening. Of course he would make sure. “Still, even if she wanted to leave…” Dradvia wasn’t sure what was worse, having no family, or a family that treated you as a commodity. “How long has she been with you?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Two years,” Sisnil said. “She’s eighteen this year, isn’t she?” He chuckled, “Lucky her.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia sat up, shocked, “She’s just a child!”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded, amusement gone from his face. “Yeah. She was sixteen when she came aboard.” Then he smiled again, “She’s lucky because Noril told her he wouldn’t sleep with a child. At eighteen, she’s got a chance to get what she wants.”

~ Zoi

That was crazy! “She… she wanted… I mean she liked Noril that much then?” Dradvia couldn’t imagine. “I mean … um I’m sure Noril is attractive, I mean just as charming… ummm I mean …” What had she meant?

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil laughed. “Yes, she was quite attracted to us. But she was drawn intently to his personality.” Sisnil told her. “She never wanted me as much as she wanted him.” He shrugged, “I was never into her that way, anyway, though.”

~ Zoi

As much as just kept running on repeat through her head. So she had, but… would she be angry at Dradvia? Not that they would ever meet.

“Ummm so you think Noril will uh change his mind now?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Vash is a trained courtesan, a companion. If she turns her full charms on, no one can resist her,” Sisnil chuckled. “It won’t take much convincing.”

~ Zoi

Her brows drew together, “But Noril has, and … you as well.” It shouldn’t sound like a question, he’d told her and she believed him. “I mean she’s been on your ship. How… ummm did he avoid her?” Dradvia had seen fully trained Orion courtesans. She knew what they were capable of, and why they carried such high respect within Orion Society. Poor girl, subjected to such things.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“She’s half deltan as well, allowing her to manipulate one’s feelings via touch,” Sisnil told her. “She swore she wouldn’t use any of her skills or abilities on us unless we wanted her to.”

~ Zoi

Well there was a whole lot of questions Dradvia didn’t want answers to. “So,” she swallowed down her racing mind, “You think she will now? Even if Noril doesn’t want her to?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisil shook his head, “She might turn the charm on, but she won’t manipulate him. She knows doing so would only put her at risk.” He grinned and glanced at her, “Are you sure you want to talk about this?”

~ Zoi

Dradvia blinked twice momentarily still. How had they got on thus topic? Oh… “Umm you started it, Sisnil, talking about taking a bath with Vash. I was just,” jealous of his life before her. Trying not to stare at him. “Contributing to the conversation. What do you want to talk about?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I said I took a bath the day we met her, not that I took a bath with her, jeez, Dee,” Sisnil said, shaking his head, but he was smiling. He looked her up and down with one of those looks of his.

“Well… no you didn’t, but it wasn’t a far jump to think… you said you were celebrating successful business. You were given suites and services.” Dradvia flushed all the way from her toes at the look he was giving her.

“We were. We didn’t accept those services.” Sisnil said. “I’m not....well, let’s just say I’d rather they want to be with me.”

Well he’d said Vash wanted to. That thought ran out of her head as he spoke again.

“There are no secrets from me, Dee. I’m not shy. I like you looking.”

~ Zoi

“I’m not keeping secrets!” She blurted in a near strangled whisper, even as her eyes darted everywhere but at him.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil looked over, clearly amused. “Relax, Dee, it’s fine. It’s flattering that even though I am… How I am right now you’re still that into me.” He shrugged. There would be minimal scarring from his stab wound, though currently the mostly healed line was still visible. And the poison’s damage was internal, on a cellular level, so of course, besides the fading angry red lines emanating from the wound, there were no scars from the poisoning. Some accounts said sometimes, for some reason, those marks would never completely fade.

But for the most part, he looked the same as ever. There wasn’t much of a different to change her opinion about him.

~ Zoi

Of course that drew her eyes right to him. “There is…” Dradvia swallowed a few times trying to relieve the sudden dryness in her mouth. “There is nothing different about you.” She really shouldn’t stare. “You must think me shallow if being sick or having a scar would,” she swallowed again, “change my opinion of you.” And he had a few noticeable scars.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Well, no, not shallow…” He shrugged, almost uncomfortably. “I’m a telepath, Dee. Lots of things change people’s opinions, in lots of ways.” He looked at her. “But no… Not you.”

~ Zoi

“Of course that happens, but each person is different, right?” Dradvia’s opinion had not changes, but it had gotten stronger. She had always felt that Sisnil was strong and brave. This just proved it. She had nursed others who screamed and begged and wailed in pain at the first touch of the poison. That asked for death, tried to take their own to escape it. Sisnil didn’t do any of that. And now, even with all the damage, he wasn’t depressed. At least not acting like it. Impatient maybe, but that wasn’t new.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Was he depressed? No, not now. Not until there really was no hope. If Dee ran her scans and said this was how he would be, forever? Well, then perhaps he’d go there. But the one thing his life had taught him was there was always something to fight for as long as there was hope. He smiled and nodded. “Every single one of ‘em.”

~ Zoi

“Does it ever… get confusing? I mean sometimes my own thoughts and feelings confuse me. Not to mention when someone else tries to go and explain something to me in a way that I can’t follow.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Sometimes? I’m empathic too, so I generally understand intent along with thought, which helps,” Sisnil explained. “But it can happen? I don’t know, that’s a confusing question.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia grinned, a bubble of mirth tickled through her. “See, I just demonstrated what I meant without trying. Now we’re both confused.” She laughed softly.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil smiled. “Well, there you go then, I guess that answers that.” He took a deep breath and leaned back in the water. “This is really nice.” He said.

~ Zoi

“I’m glad it’s helping.” Dradvia slid down to the floor and sat with her back against the wall. “So we have no VIPs schedule to come on board, so you can come down here and do your PT whatever time you want and then soak after. Eventually you will have to go the holosuite because you will need equipment that is too big to replicate.”

Dradvia closed her eyes, letting her head fall back slightly. The muscles in her neck and shoulders were still carrying all the stress of Sisnil getting hurt, and trying to stay awake so he could sleep and heal. She had to keep reminding herself that he was right there and he was okay, he was going to stay that way.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“You should replicate a bathing suite and get in, Dee. It’ll help your muscles.” He smiled, “You can replicate a really modest one and change in the other room, if that’ll make it easier.”

~ Zoi

Sisnil couldn’t see the expression on her face as she slowly lifted her head and stared wide-eyed at him. He could feel the deer-in-the-headlights feeling though. She wasn’t sure what was more nerve wracking - getting in the hot tub with him (and she could already feel the heat eating away the knots) or the fact she was considering it. “Umm… well this is supposed to be to help you get better.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“There is more than enough space in here. You won’t even have to touch me me if you don’t want to,” Sisnil said, shrugging, “You don’t have to, I just.... I could sense your tenseness. It would help.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia tugged her lower lip between her teeth. It sounded great to her. She hadn’t had a bath since she was a kid. Well that wasn’t true, but what came after she didn’t count. It would be nice to replace those bad memories with a good one with Sisnil for later when he was gone. But… “I’d like to, Sisnil, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. I… I don’t want you,” her voice dropped off as she kept talking, her stomach churning and she flushed in embarrassment, “I don’t want to give you the wrong idea.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil looked truly confused. “The wrong idea?” He asked, and then he seemed to realize, from her thoughts, and shook his head. “What? Dee, no, I didn’t mean.... Sharing a bath tub in swim suits… Trust me, I wasn’t thinking about that.”

~ Zoi

“No. No, I… I didn’t think you were…” Why was she like this? She stood slowly and went into the other room. She sat on a chair and held her face in her hands. She took a few moments to just breathe.

She did get a suit and changed. She supposed it was comically modest since at the moment Sisnil couldn’t see her well. She sighed at the mirror and went back to the replicator for a very long t-shirt. The suit hid everything, especially what she wanted to hide from Sisnil, but the shirt made her feel a little better.

She sat on the edge of the tub with just her legs in the water when she returned. She hadn’t expected the water to be quite so hot, but it felt good. “Sorry, I know you didn’t want to be alone.” She slid down on the far side of the water, knees pulled up, urging the heat to help her relax before she imploded from awkwardness.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

He shook his head. “I said you could go get changed, Dee. It’s no big deal.” He smiled and shrugged, “I can’t really see you anyway. You’re kind of a person-sized weird blob moving around other variously sized blobs, most of which I can’t really tell apart.”

~ Zoi

“I can’t imagine how frustrating that is. I’ll check your levels 2 times a day until they return to normal. We’ll figure it out.” Dradvia sank a little farther into the water and swallowed a moan as the heat hit between her shoulders.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil grinned. “It’s helping, isn’t it?” He said. To her prior comment he shrugged. “It is what it is.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia sighed and let out a little groan, “Yesss.” It was what it was, but there was still a lot that could be done. She would try everything. She just hoped she didn’t make it worse. She sank lower in the water and closed her eyes.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“You won’t make it worse. Have faith in yourself,” Sisnil said. He leaned back and sank into the water until just his head was above water.

~ Zoi

Dradvia laughed nervously. “Aye, Cap’n.” How could she argue with an order backed by all that confidence?

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer