Incommunicado – Lost in the Scent
by Lieutenant JG Petro & Commander Rakka
Post Details
The Promenade was a bustle of people, which was nothing if not normal. As soon as they stepped off the lift, Petro and Rakka were caught up in a storm of people. Without thinking of it, Petro reached out and took Rakka’s hand. The Nausicaan didn’t stand much chance of getting lost in the crowd, but Petro – well, she’d been run over before. Literally.
Rakka looked down, surprised, as Petro took her hand. ~In public?~ While shocked, she didn't pull away. In fact, she held her just a little bit tighter. It was as if her hand cradled all of Petro, like a little bird under its mother's wing. This was a good feeling, that sense of protectiveness. Wistfully she wished she could be bodyguard to Petro full-time--what a pleasant occupation. The physical connection felt almost like an electric current connecting the two. For several long moments Rakka forgot they were restaurant-hunting and just enjoyed wandering aimlessly; even the crowd around them seemed to disappear. If there were any curious stares pointed in the pair's direction she did not notice them despite her usual self-consciousness. Rakka felt strangely weightless, as if swimming in a warm pool. She had very few pleasant memories--among them being rescued from her people by humans, her first taste of chocolate, her first glimpse of an ocean, and the lullaby sung to her by her Terran foster mother, who always smelled of sweet vanilla. This moment somehow trumped them all. She looked down at Petro again, her heart feeling about to burst. Oh god, if only she could smile! The only hint of her emotions stirred in her eyes, and Petro, mercifully, was one of the only people who took the time to look for it.
"I can't believe how much this place has grown." Petro said above the din of conversations.
Rakka slipped two fingers below Petro's thumb so that her hand encased the little J'naii's hand and wrist. The intimacy was exhilarating. "Mm-hmm..." she mumbled absently.
It felt like forever before they managed to get through the crowds that were shuffling from shop to shop. When the two of them made it to the restuarant area the crowd had disippated considerably. "I guess we timed it nearly right." Petro said, raising her head to both look at Rakka and to inhale the scents coming from the food court. "What are you smiling about?" she asked, half curious and half teasing.
"I'm not smiling," Rakka said quickly. "I don't know how. I mean, I can't."
Petro looked at her and stifled a laugh. "You smile with your eyes, silly." She turned her head. "I smell something good coming from there." She turned and pulled Rakka with her.
Rakka allowed herself to be dragged along, her eyes perhaps smiling even harder. She did smell something delicious, and a growl from her stomach reminded her that she was hungry. "It does smell good," she agreed.
The pair made their way through the much smaller crowd and found themselves inside an establishment where flare ups of six foot flames could be seen around the room. The sign at the front said "Bar-B-Que Roasted Four You". Petro turned to Rakka. "Ever have barbeque before?"
"Oh--yes!" Rakka exclaimed, excited by the smells of meat and fire. "My human foster parents used to barbeque. Very good... very good."
"Alright. Let's find a seat." Petro worked her way through the crowd, not realizing that Rakka was still holding her hand. It felt natural. Normal enough for her to know its absence but be comfortable with its presence.
"Hello" a large burly human greeted them as they chose an open table. "Looks like the two of you could put away some meat. We have everything you can imagine. What does your gut desire?"
Rakka looked to Petro, and then back to the waiter. "Well... I would very much like a couple of your freshest, largest porterhouse steaks--very rare, just a lick of flame on each side, at body temperature. And if you have targ, a rack of ribs would do nicely, very spicy."
Petro smiled. "I think I'd like a rack of ribs, a salad and some of those strips of meat that you put in a flat shell thing."
"Fajita?" the man clarified.
"Yeah, that."
"And what about to drink?"
"A large chocolate shake." Petro answered then looked to Rakka.
Rakka met her eyes. "You just read my mind." Looking to the waiter: "I'll have the same." She returned her gaze to Petro with a sigh once the waiter had left. She still held Petro's hand across the table. Her heart pounded. "I never answered your question before," she said softly. "I was... I mean... I'm feeling happy, because... I'm with you. That's all."
Petro smiled. "I'm glad that you're happy. It looks good on you." She looked at their hands clasped together, an odd looking pair. "I've had some people offer to help me with some, well to kind of get me used to...I'm really not sure how to explain it."
Rakka cocked her head, curious and slightly suspicious. "What people? What kind of help?" With an unpleasant twinge she remembered Rianni touching Petro's hair in the meeting room. She could have strangled the woman for that. Perhaps a number of such manipulative persons had tried to drag Petro deep into the humanoid female stereotype--how presumptuous!
Petro just shrugged her shoulders, leaned back and made a display motion with her hands, starting at her shoulders and moving downward. "With this."
Rakka swallowed, her throat dry. "Do you... need... help? With... that?"
Petro regressed to her shy self, the one she was most comfortable with and a time like now called for it. "I'm not sure..."
"Here we are ladies." The waiter set several platters on the table in front of them, snapped his fingers and was responded to by a bountiful woman carrying their drinks. "If there is anything else you would like, simply snap" and he made a show of snapping, "and someone will come to your aid."
Petro waited until the servers left before leaning forward. "I'm not sure what they're for."
Rakka reluctantly let go of Petro's hand so that they could eat. "Honestly? Me neither," she said in a hushed voice. "You could have had mine, had I known you were... 'in the market'... as it were. They just sort of... get in my way."
"It's not like I went shopping for them." Petro said, a little hurt by Rakka's comment. "But now I have them and it seems that they serve no purpose." She took a bite of her food, suddenly not feeling very hungry. "Maybe I should talk to a doctor."
Rakka looked down at her milkshake, regretting her words. She had been making a halfhearted attempt at humor to make her friend smile, but clearly she had failed miserably. She reminded herself not to try humor again as she apparently hadn't grasped the concept adequately. "They serve a purpose," she finally said, stirring her shake with a big spoon. "You made a very courageous decision to identify as female... and now you can show it instead of having those... embarrassing situations... when people fluster over whether to call you he or she. And actually... they look good on you."
Rakka swallowed hard, unsure what her friend would make of that last comment, and rather unsure what she made of it herself, so she pressed on so as not to make it more awkward: "The thing is, Petro... there aren't J'naii females. Just you. And that gives you the freedom to define... what it is to be female... on your own terms. So don't let anyone... even me... try to tell you how to go about it. I'm suspicious of anyone who wants to 'help' you with all of this. If my experience is any indication, a man who wants to help you be a woman probably just wants to take advantage of you, and a woman who offers help probably wants to make you some kind of... pet project... you know, mold you in her own image. But being female is different for every race. So... it's all your choice. You should... follow what your heart says. I mean... if all that... makes any sense."
Petro took a sip of her drink. "It's all so confusing. I'm not a puppet or a toy but sometimes I think that's the way people look at me. 'there goes that J'Naii bagatelle'. She looked at Rakka and in a straight face asked, "What is making love?"
Rakka choked suddenly on her milkshake, coughing out splatters of melted ice cream all over the table. Embarrassed, she quickly mopped up the mess with a handful of napkins. She swallowed hard, wishing she could pretend she didn't know the answer to her friend's question, but she couldn't lie to Petro. On one of her last assignments she had known a human woman who desperately wanted to be her friend and told her far more than she ever wanted to know about her romantic life... so yes, she knew what making love was, among other things.
"Why... why?" she managed, delaying for as long as possible. "Where did you hear such a term?"
The J'Naii shrugged. "Someone whispered behind me while I was walking through the promenade. He said, I'd take you back to my quarters and make sweet love with you all night long. Is making love some kind of desert or decoration?"
Rakka pressed both hands to her face for a moment, feeling simultaneously embarrassed and enraged. "Ohhh gods..." she groaned. She cleared her throat, fidgeted, and cleared her throat again. "Um.... that's what... humans call... the, uh... physical, uh... act of... well, mating. What a... a shameless thing to say to you! I'd like to know who this person was. You would have been well within your right to... to smack him!"
Petro was still confused. "I don't know who it was," she admitted. As far as mating goes there is very little interaction in that process. In many cases the parent doesn't even come into physical contact with the other parent. Based on that, making love sound very...distant..."
"Oh... I guess with your people it is... different...." Rakka stammered. She gazed at Petro, and her heart wanted to burst--she was so vulnerable. "Many species enjoy a... physical act that they, uh... enjoy together. When they are... very close. Um... I honestly am... not the best person to ask about this. About... sex. I mean... some people enjoy it, and... some people just... abuse it. For my people, it is just... violence and... humiliation. But humans, and many humanoid species... it is... very important to them for some reason. But... yet... they, too, can be... violent. So you must... really... be careful. You may want to call me if someone says something like that to you again--they might want to hurt you! Maybe you want to ask the computer... if you are still confused...?"
Petro nodded and continued to eat. She was very confused by the whole matter but she could tell that Rakka was uncomfortable with it as well. Maybe she knew more than the was telling her. If that were true if could only be because she was trying to protect her. "How do humans mate?" she asked after several moments of silence. "I heard a little girl say that you can get pregnant by kissing. I've never kissed anyone so I guess I'm safe." She chewed on a piece of meat. "Can I even get pregnant?" she asked, mostly to herself.
Rakka shook her head slowly, helplessly. She stared down at the beautiful slabs of meat on her platter that she had been craving so much, and now her throat just felt choked. "It has NOTHING to do with kissing," she blurted out, her voice unintentionally edged with venom. She looked up at Petro's innocent face, regretting instantly speaking so harshly. She groped for some excuse. Looking back at her shake, and stirring it slowly, she said very quietly, after a long pause: "One time... I was pregnant."
"Oh." Petro said, shied away by the quick change in Rakka's voice and demeanor.
The Nausicaan set her forehead in her hands, miserably, carefully hiding the tears that were suddenly flowing. "I just can't... talk about these things," she breathed. "I'm... sorry."
"I can respect that." Petro said, though she didn't understood it. She wouldn't press her friend if it was uncomfortable for her. "Maybe we should do something fun," she suggested. "To get our minds off of this stuff."
"Like what? What's fun for you?" Rakka wondered, taking a moment before grabbing up some more napkins to swiftly wipe her face. She spooned some milkshake into her mouth, and it helped clear away the burning lump in her throat. She realized how hungry she was then and started in on her steaks.
"I don't know. Maybe we should eat and then decide." Petro said, likewise allowing her appetite to take over.
OFF:
Lieutenant JG Petro
Communications Officer
Cdr. Rakka
Security Consultant/Trainer
by Lieutenant JG Petro & Commander Rakka
Post Details
| Title | Lost in the Scent | |
| Mission | Incommunicado | |
| Author(s) | Lieutenant JG Petro & Commander Rakka | |
| Posted | Fri Jul 27, 2012 @ 5:44am | |
| Timeline | SD58, 1300h |
Rakka looked down, surprised, as Petro took her hand. ~In public?~ While shocked, she didn't pull away. In fact, she held her just a little bit tighter. It was as if her hand cradled all of Petro, like a little bird under its mother's wing. This was a good feeling, that sense of protectiveness. Wistfully she wished she could be bodyguard to Petro full-time--what a pleasant occupation. The physical connection felt almost like an electric current connecting the two. For several long moments Rakka forgot they were restaurant-hunting and just enjoyed wandering aimlessly; even the crowd around them seemed to disappear. If there were any curious stares pointed in the pair's direction she did not notice them despite her usual self-consciousness. Rakka felt strangely weightless, as if swimming in a warm pool. She had very few pleasant memories--among them being rescued from her people by humans, her first taste of chocolate, her first glimpse of an ocean, and the lullaby sung to her by her Terran foster mother, who always smelled of sweet vanilla. This moment somehow trumped them all. She looked down at Petro again, her heart feeling about to burst. Oh god, if only she could smile! The only hint of her emotions stirred in her eyes, and Petro, mercifully, was one of the only people who took the time to look for it.
"I can't believe how much this place has grown." Petro said above the din of conversations.
Rakka slipped two fingers below Petro's thumb so that her hand encased the little J'naii's hand and wrist. The intimacy was exhilarating. "Mm-hmm..." she mumbled absently.
It felt like forever before they managed to get through the crowds that were shuffling from shop to shop. When the two of them made it to the restuarant area the crowd had disippated considerably. "I guess we timed it nearly right." Petro said, raising her head to both look at Rakka and to inhale the scents coming from the food court. "What are you smiling about?" she asked, half curious and half teasing.
"I'm not smiling," Rakka said quickly. "I don't know how. I mean, I can't."
Petro looked at her and stifled a laugh. "You smile with your eyes, silly." She turned her head. "I smell something good coming from there." She turned and pulled Rakka with her.
Rakka allowed herself to be dragged along, her eyes perhaps smiling even harder. She did smell something delicious, and a growl from her stomach reminded her that she was hungry. "It does smell good," she agreed.
The pair made their way through the much smaller crowd and found themselves inside an establishment where flare ups of six foot flames could be seen around the room. The sign at the front said "Bar-B-Que Roasted Four You". Petro turned to Rakka. "Ever have barbeque before?"
"Oh--yes!" Rakka exclaimed, excited by the smells of meat and fire. "My human foster parents used to barbeque. Very good... very good."
"Alright. Let's find a seat." Petro worked her way through the crowd, not realizing that Rakka was still holding her hand. It felt natural. Normal enough for her to know its absence but be comfortable with its presence.
"Hello" a large burly human greeted them as they chose an open table. "Looks like the two of you could put away some meat. We have everything you can imagine. What does your gut desire?"
Rakka looked to Petro, and then back to the waiter. "Well... I would very much like a couple of your freshest, largest porterhouse steaks--very rare, just a lick of flame on each side, at body temperature. And if you have targ, a rack of ribs would do nicely, very spicy."
Petro smiled. "I think I'd like a rack of ribs, a salad and some of those strips of meat that you put in a flat shell thing."
"Fajita?" the man clarified.
"Yeah, that."
"And what about to drink?"
"A large chocolate shake." Petro answered then looked to Rakka.
Rakka met her eyes. "You just read my mind." Looking to the waiter: "I'll have the same." She returned her gaze to Petro with a sigh once the waiter had left. She still held Petro's hand across the table. Her heart pounded. "I never answered your question before," she said softly. "I was... I mean... I'm feeling happy, because... I'm with you. That's all."
Petro smiled. "I'm glad that you're happy. It looks good on you." She looked at their hands clasped together, an odd looking pair. "I've had some people offer to help me with some, well to kind of get me used to...I'm really not sure how to explain it."
Rakka cocked her head, curious and slightly suspicious. "What people? What kind of help?" With an unpleasant twinge she remembered Rianni touching Petro's hair in the meeting room. She could have strangled the woman for that. Perhaps a number of such manipulative persons had tried to drag Petro deep into the humanoid female stereotype--how presumptuous!
Petro just shrugged her shoulders, leaned back and made a display motion with her hands, starting at her shoulders and moving downward. "With this."
Rakka swallowed, her throat dry. "Do you... need... help? With... that?"
Petro regressed to her shy self, the one she was most comfortable with and a time like now called for it. "I'm not sure..."
"Here we are ladies." The waiter set several platters on the table in front of them, snapped his fingers and was responded to by a bountiful woman carrying their drinks. "If there is anything else you would like, simply snap" and he made a show of snapping, "and someone will come to your aid."
Petro waited until the servers left before leaning forward. "I'm not sure what they're for."
Rakka reluctantly let go of Petro's hand so that they could eat. "Honestly? Me neither," she said in a hushed voice. "You could have had mine, had I known you were... 'in the market'... as it were. They just sort of... get in my way."
"It's not like I went shopping for them." Petro said, a little hurt by Rakka's comment. "But now I have them and it seems that they serve no purpose." She took a bite of her food, suddenly not feeling very hungry. "Maybe I should talk to a doctor."
Rakka looked down at her milkshake, regretting her words. She had been making a halfhearted attempt at humor to make her friend smile, but clearly she had failed miserably. She reminded herself not to try humor again as she apparently hadn't grasped the concept adequately. "They serve a purpose," she finally said, stirring her shake with a big spoon. "You made a very courageous decision to identify as female... and now you can show it instead of having those... embarrassing situations... when people fluster over whether to call you he or she. And actually... they look good on you."
Rakka swallowed hard, unsure what her friend would make of that last comment, and rather unsure what she made of it herself, so she pressed on so as not to make it more awkward: "The thing is, Petro... there aren't J'naii females. Just you. And that gives you the freedom to define... what it is to be female... on your own terms. So don't let anyone... even me... try to tell you how to go about it. I'm suspicious of anyone who wants to 'help' you with all of this. If my experience is any indication, a man who wants to help you be a woman probably just wants to take advantage of you, and a woman who offers help probably wants to make you some kind of... pet project... you know, mold you in her own image. But being female is different for every race. So... it's all your choice. You should... follow what your heart says. I mean... if all that... makes any sense."
Petro took a sip of her drink. "It's all so confusing. I'm not a puppet or a toy but sometimes I think that's the way people look at me. 'there goes that J'Naii bagatelle'. She looked at Rakka and in a straight face asked, "What is making love?"
Rakka choked suddenly on her milkshake, coughing out splatters of melted ice cream all over the table. Embarrassed, she quickly mopped up the mess with a handful of napkins. She swallowed hard, wishing she could pretend she didn't know the answer to her friend's question, but she couldn't lie to Petro. On one of her last assignments she had known a human woman who desperately wanted to be her friend and told her far more than she ever wanted to know about her romantic life... so yes, she knew what making love was, among other things.
"Why... why?" she managed, delaying for as long as possible. "Where did you hear such a term?"
The J'Naii shrugged. "Someone whispered behind me while I was walking through the promenade. He said, I'd take you back to my quarters and make sweet love with you all night long. Is making love some kind of desert or decoration?"
Rakka pressed both hands to her face for a moment, feeling simultaneously embarrassed and enraged. "Ohhh gods..." she groaned. She cleared her throat, fidgeted, and cleared her throat again. "Um.... that's what... humans call... the, uh... physical, uh... act of... well, mating. What a... a shameless thing to say to you! I'd like to know who this person was. You would have been well within your right to... to smack him!"
Petro was still confused. "I don't know who it was," she admitted. As far as mating goes there is very little interaction in that process. In many cases the parent doesn't even come into physical contact with the other parent. Based on that, making love sound very...distant..."
"Oh... I guess with your people it is... different...." Rakka stammered. She gazed at Petro, and her heart wanted to burst--she was so vulnerable. "Many species enjoy a... physical act that they, uh... enjoy together. When they are... very close. Um... I honestly am... not the best person to ask about this. About... sex. I mean... some people enjoy it, and... some people just... abuse it. For my people, it is just... violence and... humiliation. But humans, and many humanoid species... it is... very important to them for some reason. But... yet... they, too, can be... violent. So you must... really... be careful. You may want to call me if someone says something like that to you again--they might want to hurt you! Maybe you want to ask the computer... if you are still confused...?"
Petro nodded and continued to eat. She was very confused by the whole matter but she could tell that Rakka was uncomfortable with it as well. Maybe she knew more than the was telling her. If that were true if could only be because she was trying to protect her. "How do humans mate?" she asked after several moments of silence. "I heard a little girl say that you can get pregnant by kissing. I've never kissed anyone so I guess I'm safe." She chewed on a piece of meat. "Can I even get pregnant?" she asked, mostly to herself.
Rakka shook her head slowly, helplessly. She stared down at the beautiful slabs of meat on her platter that she had been craving so much, and now her throat just felt choked. "It has NOTHING to do with kissing," she blurted out, her voice unintentionally edged with venom. She looked up at Petro's innocent face, regretting instantly speaking so harshly. She groped for some excuse. Looking back at her shake, and stirring it slowly, she said very quietly, after a long pause: "One time... I was pregnant."
"Oh." Petro said, shied away by the quick change in Rakka's voice and demeanor.
The Nausicaan set her forehead in her hands, miserably, carefully hiding the tears that were suddenly flowing. "I just can't... talk about these things," she breathed. "I'm... sorry."
"I can respect that." Petro said, though she didn't understood it. She wouldn't press her friend if it was uncomfortable for her. "Maybe we should do something fun," she suggested. "To get our minds off of this stuff."
"Like what? What's fun for you?" Rakka wondered, taking a moment before grabbing up some more napkins to swiftly wipe her face. She spooned some milkshake into her mouth, and it helped clear away the burning lump in her throat. She realized how hungry she was then and started in on her steaks.
"I don't know. Maybe we should eat and then decide." Petro said, likewise allowing her appetite to take over.
OFF:
Lieutenant JG Petro
Communications Officer
Cdr. Rakka
Security Consultant/Trainer