PNPC Ensign Dunamis: Delving Ever Deeper

[Haukea-Willow]

@Kaijin445

I wanted to post this sim of yours here for a few reasons. 1. I just love how much of a gentleman Dune is towards Sheila/in general. He is really the perfect sort of man in my opinion. 2. I also love the descriptions you provided on Dune's background. It definitely helped me get a deeper understanding of the type of person Dune is. I can't wait to see where the scene goes from here. ❤️  

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((Sheila’s Quarters, Starbase 118))

Well, the good doctor did seem happy to be talking to him, at any rate, which he was pleased with. The reddening of her cheeks, the smile that seemed to never stop growing across her face and making it positively glow – all good signs, he took them as. Perhaps she didn’t often get visitors and he was a rare exception to that norm; in which case he was still glad to provide her the company she wanted.

Dune: ::blushing lightly:: Well, I suppose. I did earn the top score of the cadet’s command and control course at Starfleet Academy – but book learning does not substitute for actual empirical experience, does it? Holodeck simulations are quite close but they still cannot compare to the unpredictability of real-life circumstance, can it.

Then she seemed to stumble and fall, even in the lowish gravity that they were currently floating in – in response to which he surged forward, catching her in his arms and providing support. He must’ve felt like a tree, strong, tall and sturdy as most of his people tended to be. The perfect steadying pillar.

Bailey: You could say that again. ::Sheila gave a low laugh, relating her current experience to Dune’s statement::

Dune: Does this happen often?

Bailey: Oh, no. I don’t fall often but it’s not unusual. My left hip is weaker and it must have had a twinge suddenly. ::Here Sheila blushed not out of fondness but embarrassment for her fall as well as her rambling::

Dune: That’s alright. Does this affect you badly?

Bailey: Well I’m not sure if you have experienced this but being a minority species comes with certain disadvantages within Federation space and Starfleet.

That gave him pause. He too was of a minority species, in fact, a species that’d only just come into the Federation – and he felt the pressures all the same. He’d scared children his age for looking different and felt daily the pressure to represent the best of his people, to perform in the best arenas possible and show that there was plenty the Kelpien race had to offer.

Dune: As a matter of fact… I have, somewhat. ::glancing towards the sofa:: Would you like me to help you back to your seat? I can handle our drinks if you’d like.

Bailey: Oh, that would be great thanks. ::Though she sounded less enthusiastic than when she had replied to his opinion on the gravity situation::

Gripping her hand he floated over, gently easing her into a sitting position upon the presumably much more comfortable sofa, and off he went again towards the kitchen counter. He’d been scalded a few times in his life from careless hot water handling and poured many, many drinks; he could presumably handle himself around two cups of tea.

He could sense the drop in enthusiasm in her voice, however. It was plain to see: the doctor valued her autonomy greatly and offering to take this simple task from her likely made her feel a little worse than she let on. Nonetheless she’d accepted, perhaps feeling that it’d be best that she not ruin their talk by spilling boiling hot liquid on herself, and so he would gladly offer his assistance, but he’d have to keep that in mind from now on.

Dune: Growing up on a Federation vessel of humanoid children was not easy. I was a scrawny, hoof-footed bald boy with large yellow eyes at age six and you can imagine how my class of humanoid, hairy-headed peers felt about that. It is easier for young humanoids to accept other young humanoids, I feel, ignoring even the color of one’s skin, extra bodily features and so on. So I did not have very many friends and continued to do despite my parents’ best efforts.

Bailey: ?

Dune: I had some very persistent friends who took my hand and ran the journey in part with me.

Indeed Qltlha and Julien had helped in spades; the former was adamant about dragging him from the cosy confines of his textbook and dorm room to attend the wild party that cadet Strauss three doors down sometimes held; not for the purpose of partying, but to get him to mix with people. It was a life skill, she’d said with utmost certainty, to be able to at the utter least be able to spend time in crowds and seem less like a shut-in, especially for someone with the ambitions that he held. Oh, it’d been nerve-wracking at first and he bemoaned silently each and every time, but slowly but surely he’d learned.

Julien was a different story. The human took it upon himself to hone his crush’s person to person skill; behind many of their interactions (yes, including the badly veiled attempts to win his affections) was a lesson to be learned about the nuances of face to face relations. Again it had not been easy for the then much younger man that Dunamis had been then; making eye contact, reading body language, catching tone and so on was a supremely difficult affair for someone who’d been deprived of it for a great portion of his life. But he’d learned. Slowly but surely. He in fact continued to attribute his success in the Academy’s command modules to Julien’s efforts back then and this he did without a single sliver of shame.  

But that being said this conversation was not about himself. This conversation, this visit in its entirety, was about Sheila, and his purpose in seeing her was to offer her support, be it the starbase’s – or his own. He brought the steaming cups of tea over, placing them delicately on the table between them.

Bailey: ?

Dune: Would you be comfortable in sharing with me how you feel in that regard?

Bailey: ?

 

Ensign Dunamis

Tactical Officer
as simmed by

 

Ensign Drevas Matthel
Security Officer

Starbase 118 - USS Narendra
O239706DM0