Ensign Morro Caras - Hiding behind the root of the problem

[Lhandon_Nilsen]

Lhandon and Morro typically have quite a fun, almost comedic dynamic at times. The two of them are the biggest 'himbro-gymbros' and their scenes more often than not place them in the gym, working out, sharing perhaps a singular brain cell and "getting them gains bruv."

So what happens when we take this format and turn it on its head? We started this scene like we start any other gym scene, in the gym, except this time there was something off. Lhandon discovers that Morro is upset and goes to talk to him. This sim is a few rounds into the scene and Morro opens up to Lhandon, as he's just found out that he's been manipulated not just by a complete stranger in the mission, which is bad enough, but also by someone Morro should be able to trust implicitly.

This entire scene was Vio's idea and he's run with it to make a scene that's such an emotional gut punch. I have been thinking about this sim all day. Please do enjoy this brilliant piece of writing from @Morro Caras

Quote

(Gymnasium, Deck 5, USS Octavia E Butler)

The gym was like a second home for Caras. If he wasn’t on duty and he wasn’t sleeping, he was either here or the holodeck. Staying in top physical shape was important to him. It let him get to all the hard to reach places despite his size. Today, however, it was the place that he was attempting to work through his frustrations. He first tried working them out on the machines to no avail, but now Lhandon was here to spot him, to help him lift an emotional burden he wasn’t ready for.

Caras: It was more what it was. They were all caught in the cold war. We were in their main operations. It was Starfleet, but it had been fully militarized. It seemed like it was out of necessity.

Caras winced at that. It was pretty difficult to see Starfleet in that state. He hadn’t learned about the full extent of the dominion war until going to the academy, but he figured the temporal cold war wasn’t far off from the way Starfleet had to operate in the Dominion War.

Nilsen: And that doesn’t seem like the Starfleet we serve in right?

Caras nodded and continued. It was getting easier to talk. To put his thoughts together. Something up until now, he just wasn’t able to do. He was starting to realize that he was just no good alone.

Caras: It made me feel like everything we’re working towards now Is worthless. All the exploration, all the fun things we get to do. Stop. In order to help save the rest of existence. And for seemingly hundreds of years what starfleet is, is held back because of something we can’t fully beat. Then after that, Starfleet is seemingly nearly destroyed like everything else when warp isn't possible.

Caras had always thought that the wider universe was more hopeful. That after learning about the dominion war, and all that Starfleet had done, that he would never see the limits of Starfleet. Those hopes were seemingly dashed on his second mission

Nilsen: Yet, we survived, though that doesn’t sound like a great future.

Morro didn’t want to try and throw Lhando’s optimism out, but having a future that was a bleak inevitability didn’t sit right with him. He thought it might not sit right with Lhando either.

Caras: I feel like with the knowledge we have. We should be working to make sure that those things never happen. That those people never have to live in times like that. I would sacrifice everything I have to ensure that those people; One of them, my distant relative; don’t have to live in a world where their very existence changes when there is a bad day in the war. I want them to be able to see their families, to do what Starfleet was meant to do.

Nilsen: I get you, but maybe ::tapping unconsciously on the floor:: knowing about these potential futures gives us a chance to work towards preventing them

Caras: You think so? With Starfleet’s regulation about what we just went through, if we start acting on anything that we saw, We’ll probably get flagged. Even if it’s to do good. I just don’t know what to do.

Nilsen: Even so small actions now could create ripples that change that timeline entirely for the better.

Caras: Yeah, I think you’re right. It’s just… hard to watch sometimes.

Lhandon scooted over to Morro. Morro thought  It was nice having a friend he could lean on. Sometimes literally. Lhandon was one of the few people larger than him on the ship that he knew.

Nilsen: It really is, this isn't what we signed up for, right? We, even the most egotistical of us, want a better future.

Caras: That is… actually a very good assessment. I hadn’t thought about that. Even though they might look different to different people, In Starfleet it’s not that different.

That was true. Everyone in Starfleet didn’t always see eye to eye. Morro hadn’t seen the rest of the world in the future, just a small sliver of it. Maybe it was better than just the droll soul grinding future that the Temporal command was. Maybe the reason that they sacrificed so much to work at the Temporal Command was because they had a future that was worth preserving, and it wasn’t just about survival.

Nilsen: Here's another thought—Promo would be better at wording this than me, but that's just a future, not the future.

Caras: I don’t get it. I met and saw people in that future.

Nilsen: Well, the future is just that—the future. It hasn't happened yet. And maybe you just saw one future, a possible future, and we agree to make each action we do…I don’t know, better. I guess, try to not make war, always think of peace or something, I dunno. No more looking back, only looking forward.

That confused Morro for a second. The future he was concerned about WAS forward. Not backwards. But he had experienced it, and it was in the past. Well not the past, but his past. Morro’s past. That’s what Lhadon must have meant, no more looking at your own past look at the future. That was it.

Caras: Then if that’s the case, it’s my goal to live a life where we make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m not sure how far I can casually get into temporal research but I’d like to find a way to make sure that my descendent doesn’t have to live a life like that.

What Lhandon had said. It made a lot of sense that they could still change things. If the time quakes there could change Velaan into a completely different person with different ancestors, then it was’ written in Stone. Maybe just observing it was enough to change it in the long haul. It was a long way off in the timeline. Maybe that wasn’t what was actually bothering Morro. It did a little, but nothing compared to what he said next. After a long silence, Morro spoke…

Caras: There is something else however. Before the shattering of the time crystal.

Nilsen: response

Morro was still processing it. But he couldn’t hold it any longer. He’d never had to deal with something like this. He wasn’t sure what it was. A betrayal? He didn’t even know how to define what had happened to him. He had told Zi in the shuttle, but that was when the thought first crossed his mind. Now that it had been allowed to stew and the action had ceased, it was a wound that needed to be cleaned.

Caras: I’ve been trying to make sense of it ever since it happened. We met a mixed Species. She seemed like she was Orion and Betazoid. Sbadni, the person we were stealing the crystal with. She manipulated me with her pheromones.

That part might have not been surprising to anyone who knew anything about Orions. But Morro thought it was best to cover his bases.

Nilsen: response

Caras: Lots of humanoid species that respond to female Orion pheromones have the intended reaction to them. They turn favorable and are easily manipulated by the one excreting the pheromone. I had never been affected by it before. Every time I encountered another Orion female with the ability, they always seemed frustrated that they couldn’t control me.

Nilsen: response

Caras: I have no clue! I wish I knew why. I’m not a biologist. But I think it could be that I either became susceptible later in my adult years. Or, I was already overexposed and being controlled by the pheromones that were always around me. Those of my sister.

Morro was starting to get emotional again. I held back tears but hearing him say it outloud hurt. How could his sister, his protector, his coach, his advocate, also be his manipulator? Had she really been controlling him since her young teens, when she would have come into the pheromone ability? Was he her test subject?

Nilsen: response

Caras: Her name is Z’Mat. She’s my older sister by a few years. She was always looking out for me and I was always looking out for her. Our parents would use us in their schemes. We were pretty integral to their status in the syndicate. I’d seen my sister use the pheromones on others, and never thought anything of it. But now that I look at it… I always did what my sister said. I never argued with her. Her word was always law.

Morro hid his face in his hands as he tried to push past it. To face reality he didn’t want to believe. It would explain everything that had come between them. Why was she so surprised and mad when he wanted to leave to join Starfleet.

Nilsen: response

Tags/TBC

---

Ensign Morro Caras

Engineering Officer

USS Octavia E. Butler

O240106MC1

he/him/his (player/character)