Star Trek: Starbase 777 - lt-jg-katjiary﹢lt-jg-savek

Stepping into his quarters, Nokkul quickly made his way to his bedroom, dropping off his bags on the bed and let out a long exhale, taking in the starscape out the window. He made quick work of putting up his things and decorating, before deciding that a nap would be nice after a long shift and moving.

He had gotten back from a long shift getting acquainted with the Eventide’s helm controls, and exactly what he’d be doing for work when not flying the ship, something that he had found truly exhausted him. Wandering further into the common space of his quarters, he made his way up to the replicator, in desperate need of a drink and a hot meal. With a few presses of the control panel, Nokkul gave his order. “A pint of Romulan Ale, cold, and a plate of veenereen, hot.” He said, before the computer beeped twice and his meal materialized in the replicator. He grabbed the tray and made his way over to the table nestled in the corner of the common space and dug into his meal, reading over the chatroom messages on his PADD.

Savek had also come back from his shift, mostly labeling samples that had come to him. Tomorrow he’d have the fun task of identifying all of them, something he was looking forward to. But for now he just had a cup of lemon ginger tea he was relaxing on the nearby couch and drinking. He waved to Nokkul, hoping to talk to him. “Hello, Nokkul.”

Having been off in his own world, he had completely failed to notice the presence of his roommate when he had walked in and gotten his meal. At the sound of the Vulcan's voice, Nokkul let out a yelp and jumped out of his chair, eyes wide in shock, before resting a hand on his chest and letting out a burble of nervous laughter. "Oh my elements! I didn't see you there! I was super zoned out I guess!" He exclaimed with another bark of laughter.

“Yes, you were. Fair warning, I do that too. I don’t really notice anything unless it’s right in my face.” Unless that thing was geology-related or he was underwater. Those were the only times he had that laser focus. Other times, a fire could break out right next to him and he wouldn’t bat an eyelid until the alarm went off. But he had something to ask Nokkul. “Now that we are talking, ah, would you mind if I got a Tribble. I have always wanted one but I wanted to know if you were okay with me having animals here.”

He chuckled at Savek’s comment, absolutely understanding a healthy amount of obliviousness, he himself having that happen to him often enough. “Good to know!” He said, before turning and grabbing his drink, taking a generous pull from it now that he had calmed down. He lit up with a wide smile at Savek’s query and nodded emphatically, absolutely elated at the prospect of a little furry friend around their shared quarters. “Oh I’d be more than fine with it! In fact, my Conspirator actually has a tribble themself! I love the little fluffball! And really any animal too!”

“Also I am extremely sensitive to noise, so if you don’t mind, when you and I are both here in the common area could you keep things somewhat quiet? Thank you. It doesn’t have to be completely silent, but please nothing overly noisy. Thanks.” He asked that with every roommate he had. Sometimes they listened, sometimes they didn’t, but he hoped for the best with everyone. He understood he had a lot of needs, but he didn’t like having to wear ear protection in his quarters even if he was in the common area. “Thank you. Oh, I know Sakkath and their tribble T’Kath. I also love animals, especially tribbles. Also epohhs but I am unsure if an epohh would be okay with a tribble. I would not want either to get hurt.”

At Savek’s request, Nokkul’s jovial demeanor shifted to a much colder, professional one, losing the easy going smile, with a tight-lipped nod in its stead. It was almost as if the normally happy-go-lucky version of himself had been replaced by the quiet, intense Romulan he was raised as. “I am very infrequently in the commonspace of any quarters I occupy, typically only here to sleep and shower. The quarters will be as quiet, if not more than you request or require. I do hope that is acceptable.” Nokkul said in the cold, flat tone he had reserved for strangers or those he was unsure of his standing with, his thick Rihannsu accent barely able to be filtered out through the UT. Continuing on in that same vein, Nokkul simply nodded, before responding with little-to-no expression or tone in his voice. “As long as the animal does not pose a direct threat to myself or the orderliness of our quarters, I do not mind whatever animal you decide to adopt.” He said, before downing the rest of his ale.

“Uhh.. what’s with the change of tone? If I said anything bad I am so sorry.” Oh shit did he do something wrong? Savek’s mind was back at going a mile of minute thinking of all the ways he could have fucked up. He was just trying to save himself a noise-induced shutdown later on, not.. whatever this was. He asked to not be extremely loud, not to act like his wife. No offense, T’Asha. “Uhh.. thanks.” He took another sip of tea, staring off into space.

Nokkul tilted his head in slight confusion, unsure if he had come off as anything other than genuine. "I apologize, I was trying to convey the seriousness of which I take the honoring of your request. I wish for our living arrangement to be as comfortable as possible for you." He said delicately, consciously lightening his tone and facial expression, having forgotten how intimidating he could be sometimes, even if it was unintentional.

“Oh, ah, thank you. It means a lot. If there is anything I can do to make our living arrangement more comfortable for you, please tell me, or else I will probably never notice.” He wasn’t great at picking up that sort of thing. He was a very honest man, most Vulcans were very honest. That was a benefit for him, he was awful at telling if someone was lying.

He nodded, before giving the Vulcan a soft apologetic grin. "Of course, you as well." He said, before moving to recycle the remainder of his meal, letting out a soft yawn as he did. "If you'll excuse me, I think it is time I retire." He said, before giving Savek a small wave and making his way into his room, ready for a night's sleep in a bed that he was slowly starting to notice that was significantly too small for his large frame.

Savek was just chilling on the couch, with his acoustic guitar. He had a cup of tea on the table near him, and generally was quite chill. It was silent except for him quietly playing and singing. He was playing Cast the Bronze by Raynes. His voice was quiet but somewhat high for a man and pleasant. He was happy to just he in the zone after a day of dealing with people.

Mirrim entered, a bag slung over her shoulder and her PADD in hand. She was reading a medical paper that wasn’t wildly outside her expertise. Nodding at Savek in greeting, so she wouldn’t interrupt his singing, she placed her bag on the table and took out a box full of snacks. The bag (now snackless) was stored in her room, before she returned to the table, where she continued to read. She waited for Savek to stop singing, before she addressed him. “That was nice, your singing voice is lovely. Would you like some of these?” She pulled her legs up onto the chair she was sitting on and nodded towards the snacks.

Savek didn’t notice Mirrim’s nod, he was in the zone and wasn’t exactly famous for noticing people. He wasn’t very easily distracted when he was focused on something he liked. But eventually he stopped singing and put his guitar down, and that was when he heard Mirrim. He did look up at her but didn’t make eye contact, in fact he didn’t look at her face too much. That sort of stuff made him uncomfortable. He’d much rather look elsewhere, like at his guitar. Or at the strange box of snacks. He was a bit hungry, but these were unfamiliar to him and so it was a toss-up between whether a new snack would become his favorite or whether it would throw him into sensory hell. “Hello, Mirrim. Thank you, I’ve been practicing. I am a bit hungry but I’ve never had any of those before.” He gestured to the snacks.

Mirrim unpacked the different snacks and put them in different glass bowls that she got from the kitchen. She was humming under her breath. It wasn’t a song, just random notes that came to her mind. “Hmm, you can tell me about what sort of snacks you usually like. I might be able to recommend some and tell you to avoid others. Of course if you don’t want to eat anything or want to eat something you’re familiar with you're still free to join me at the table. We can talk, or not, whatever you’d prefer.” *Her day had been uneventful and even though it was hard to find her in a bad mood, today her mood seemed to be especially good.

“Hm. Mainly I will eat anything this is not sticky or chewy. I enjoy anything spicy.” Savek didn’t exactly describe himself as low maintenance. He could take care of himself but if people wanted to interact with him they had to know he couldn’t do everything they did. But he did want to talk today. He did like interacting with people, plus he had the energy for it today. “I think I would like to talk.”

“Hmmm let me think.” Mirrim rearranged some of the bowls in a seemingly nonsensical way, before she picked up two and placed them in front of Savek. One contained some sort of tiny crackers that had a lilac color and the other was a mix of different nuts. Then she * “Try these, if you don't like them I can find you something else. Would you like chopsticks or something else to eat with?” *She reached into the bag she’d taken the snacks out of and placed a rather culturally diverse and very messy assortment of cutlery in front of him on the table. Once she’d also picked out some snacks for herself, she leaned back in her chair and tilted her head. “Well then, how has your day been so far?”

“Thank you. I’ve only ever used chopsticks a few times before, we will see how this goes.” He took one of the chopsticks, trying to use them to pick up a nut. He succeeded, both in picking up the nut and actually eating it with the chopsticks, the man had talent. But really he just had good hand-eye coordination. He actually did like it, both the taste and the texture, which was a rarity for him when it came to new things. “My day has gone well- mostly I was in the geology lab identifying rock samples from a nearby planet. So far the bedrock from the area the samples were taken is mostly sandstone. The whole area was once covered by an ocean, so the bedrock being sandstone is accurate. I also just returned from shore leave with my wife, we were on Mol’Rihan. Well, technically it was shore leave- but she turned out camping trip into her new biochemistry project quite quickly.“

Snatching a few snacks from her own bowls, Mirrim leaned back in her chair. She listened and tried to chew as silently as possible so she wouldn’t interrupt. “I can’t say I know too much about geology, but sandstone with a planet that was covered in oceans does seem right… is there anything particularly interesting about this planet that resulted in it being investigated, or is it a standard procedure?” This definitely wasn’t her field of expertise, but it was nice hearing about something else from time to time too, so her interest was genuine. “Oh your vacation sounds lovely. I hope you two had a good time? What was the weather like? I went to visit family. You always forget how fast children grow when you’re not around to see.”

Savek was silently thanking Mirrim for her quiet chewing. It made his life so much easier, chewing noises were absolutely awful for him. Well there weren’t too many noises he actually liked, so it didn’t exactly take much to annoy him in that regard. He wasn’t exactly the best at not letting things get to him. “It’s really and interesting field. I think more people should learn about it if they want to. But yeah. We’re investigating this planet because they want to build near the area we’re investigating, so we have to make sure everything is stable and safe for them to build. If we don’t check and it’s not safe, bad things happen.” He picked up another nut with his chopsticks, and he actually succeeded. He was proud of himself for that. He was glad that Mirrim was genuinely interested! He was always happy to infodump. “The weather was somewhat warm actually considering we were in the mountains. What is your family like, did you enjoy your time there?”

While listening she would nod ever so often to signal she was paying attention and continued to eat. “Oh yeah, that seems sensible. Is the planet prone to earthquakes? That’s a thing you have to check for to make sure you know how to build, right?” Mirrim had been to a few planets in her lifetime and before that she’d been fairly well travelled as well. The way different cultures had adapted their housing to the conditions on different planets was a topic she’d not thought about particularly often, but she was certain there was a multitude of nuances to the topic that she had never even begun to consider. “Oh it’s nice that you had warmish weather. For me it rained most of the time. I’m not complaining, mind you, rain can be quite nice and soothing, especially when you’re inside and have something warm to eat or drink, I just hadn’t quite expected it.” Tilting her head from side to side she thought about how best to convey her happiness at seeing the people she’d seen, but also the sadness meeting them inevitably came with, because they reminded her of those she’d long since left behind. “My stepsister’s son will be seventeen soon, which I knew, but it still took me off guard. I used to babysit him.” She smiled, eyes fixed on the wall. “Spending time with them was a bit nostalgic and I dwelled a little too much on what ifs, but ultimately It was lovely and I am happy I was able to see them.*

“There has been four earthquakes reported in different areas of the planet across three years, none in the area they want to build on though. I think it will be safe, though. But we still have more scans to run before we can be sure. I did find a big cave opening from one of the surface scans, it has no effect on anything, but I am a caver and I want to explore it anyways. Hopefully I can make time to go to the surface to do that.” If you knew Savek for more than a couple seconds, you’d learn that he would stop at nothing to get to explore caves. Especially unmapped ones. He didn’t fear death and he was flexible, not too tall, and almost too thin, he was the guy for job. “I don’t really like the rain. It spoils my plans and I have to follow through with whatever I planned as closely as I can if I want to have a good time. Of course I can carry an umbrella if my plan is to go out in a city or something, but rain can make some of my preferred activities extremely unsafe. Like caving, if it rains too much the cave can flood while you are inside and drown you.” A little bit of a morbid explanation, but effective. He wasn’t the greatest at knowing what other people might consider “too much” or “too dark”. He just spoke the truth. He wasn’t even sure if it was the autism or being Vulcan that made him uncomfortable with lying. “Time passes by quickly, I understand. It catches me off guard too sometimes. I am glad that you had a good time with them.” He also loved his family. They were good people, and they loved him. They had fought for him to be treated with respect all his life and he returned it by being someone they could be proud of. As best as he could.

“Oh? How do you think the cave came to be? Do you have reason to expect something particularly interesting there or do you just want to explore it for the sake of it?” Mirrim shook her head and chuckled. “Either way I hope you get to take a look at them and that the weather will be nice. I get that rain can be annoying if you’ve had something planned that you can’t do because of it, but I’ve found that a lot of the time things can be rescheduled and sometimes the rain can serve as an important reminder to take a break. Then again we work on a starbase, so we really don’t have to worry about rain all too much.” Trying to find the silver linings, although not always a good thing to do, was a habit that helped a lot whenever something was annoying, but in the end not all that terrible, like rain. “You’re right, time perception is really weird, one moment everything is fine and then realisation hits you crash landed a ship into a planet without hitting any breaks. Which also just happened to me when I looked at the clock. I should probably head to bed in a bit.”

“The cave was formed by the dissolution of limestone most likely, most caves are formed that way. There is likely nothing of note in the cave, I am hoping for an underwater section though. That way I can dive it.” He always took the chance to cave dive. He’d have to take his wife with him, he wasn’t about to let T’Asha miss out. He loved her too much for that. She did way too much for him, he would do this for her. Or it could be a dry cave, and he’d still probably bring T’Asha with him to explore it anyhow.” “Hm, that may be a good thing for some people. Being autistic though, I prefer my plans to remain exactly intact to save myself as much stress as possible.” *Savek wasn’t exactly closed-off about being autistic. It was a major part of him and impacted everything he did, after all. “I will probably stay up a little later. I have a research paper I wanted to read, my wife sent me it.”