Risian Boys

Posted on 27 Feb 2015 @ 12:45am by Ensign Arandon Khnailmnae Ph.D. & Petty Officer 3rd Class Ellsworth Hudson
Edited on on 27 Feb 2015 @ 4:12am

6,245 words; about a 31 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: USS Galileo - Holodeck 1
Timeline: MD 45 - 1554 hrs

ON:

Arandon lay soaking up what excuse this holodeck had for a sun, the better part of his body exposed to it. It wouldn't burn him or tan his skin, which in a certain context was a good thing. Still, it was part of the experience back home, the two suns constantly on you, fueling your passions. It was a source of limitless energy, which fed Risa's limitless pleasures. Normally Arandon wasn't one to use the holodeck but the last few days had been... stressful to say the least. An hour in the holodeck, away from Mott, away from the rest of the crew, it gave him time to think. The different questions he had been asked in his first few days weighed on him, and now he could finally sit and consider them, or just put them out of his mind completely.

Ellsworth slipped into the holodeck with a bit of a grin on his face. He'd promised himself he'd relax after his shift but neglected to schedule the holodeck for himself. He'd been disappointed beyond belief to find it already occupied but intrigued nonetheless by the Risian program running under the credentials of one of the ship's newest officers, Ensign Khnailmnae. He recalled the personnel file crossing his desk only because he'd had to assign the poor fool as Dr. Mott's roommate; otherwise, he'd rubber-stamped everything else and passed it along in the rush that was pre-departure.

He'd hoped there would be other people begin generated by the simulation as he knew his way around Risa well enough to be able to "blend" in with the holograms. It wasn't strictly ethical, but so long as the ensign didn't find out until after the program was deactivated then what harm would it do? None...mostly, he reasoned and slipped into one of the beach's bathing houses to change into a shamelessly skimpy pair of swim briefs. The warm sand felt wonderful beneath his toes and the sun on his skin was even better. It conjured up happy memories and with every step he felt like the beach leached away his contemporary cares and concerns.

"This seat taken?" Ellsworth asked, smiling down at the man as his shadow fell across him. Maybe it was Ensign Khnailmnae, maybe it wasn't. That was irrelevant; the only thing that mattered at that moment was snagging a beach chair in a prime spot.

An intruder, of course. Opening his eyes and peering over his sunglasses at the preppy young man in front of him, Arandon sighed. "All that is ours is yours," he said with a heavy sigh and with a clear disdain in his voice, today was not the day he wanted to be quoting the Risian mantra. By the Goddess he couldn't get away from anyone on this ship could he? The man was Betazoid, he could feel the telepathic ebb and flow of his mind, radiating from him. If Arandon was capable of sexual thoughts at the moment he would have admired the man's physique and attire, but that was not what he was here for.

Ellsworth smirked as he laid his towel out across the chair and situated himself on it. In the moment of quiet, when he wasn't focusing on his own thoughts or fiddling with the chair, he decided it was the ensign after all. Either that or another sentient intruder. From the tone of voice and pervasive feeling of annoyance, he guessed he'd walked in on a private moment, but he took the lack of "get the hell out" as an open invitation.

"You know, they usually say that with a little more pep," Ellsworth grinned, laying back and turning his face to the sun.

Arandon nodded with a sigh. "Yes, we normally do, perhaps my hybrid nature and the fact this is a very poor imitation of the real thing are to blame." He was being unusually gruff with the young man. And that was unworthy of him, if he was Risian or not. "Omara," he said in his native tongue. "I'm Arandon, and you are?" He asked, not opening his eyes or shifting his basking position in the rays of the sun.

"Ellsworth," came the reply. "'We'? You're part Risian?"

"Yup," Arandon said with a sigh, stretching himself out along the chair. He gave no notice or weight to the 'part Risian' quip, it had been his own fault for inviting such a question, but he skirted around it. Plus with his ears covered he didn't mind so much being known as a 'half-breed'. "Born and raised in Suraya Bay." He said, the alliteration not escaping his small sense of humor.

Ellsworth cracked an eye to watch him stretch, but kept his admiration to himself. "Oh, I've been there. I worked in Ambanivato for a couple of years." He stretched, put his hands behind his head, and pressed on before the inevitable question about the nature of his work could be asked. "And you're right, this is a very poor imitation. It doesn't even have birds. Or boardwalk vendors. Or noise... Did you turn it all off?"

"Yes I came here to relax, not to be harassed by the tourists. I came here for the sun and the beauty of home, not the legions of..." For now on, all Arandon could picture when he thought of loud, touristy types, was the image of Mott in a muumuu. Goddess it was going to haunt his dreams for weeks, if not months or years. "Well I came here to relax."

"Me, too," Ellsworth replied. He watched him for a few minutes, satisfying his inner voyeur, and then laid back flat again with a wry smile. He seemed a little grumpy, and it was cute on someone so young. He'd always taken it as a sort of personal challenge to try to cheer the person up, pull them out of their brooding and into a sunnier disposition. "So... Mott driving you crazy, yet?"

Arandon exhaled slightly. "A bit, he's not a bad man, there's... well..." he didn't know how to finish that sentence. The Doctor was bombastic and loud and he snored like a hurricane, but strip away everything that was annoying or irking about him and you would have his heart of gold. Granted that would be like digging for a single diamond in a very large cave.

"You've got me to blame for that," Ellsworth said, trying to keep the grin out of his voice. It felt good to grin given the events of the past couple days, so he held on to it with no small amount of desperation. "I'm the quartermaster, room assignments and all that. There was nowhere else to put you, sorry. I heard he's kinda...flamboyant." After a slight pause, he sat up abruptly and opened his eyes. "Give me your foot, you're stressing me out."

"I'm sorry?" Arandon said, peering over his sunglasses.

"I said gimme your foot, you're stressing me out. You're like a ball of tension all knotted up over there. And you said you wanted to relax," Ellsworth said, drawing his brows together in consternation before giving a playful smile. "Or do you think only Risians can do mengurut? Don't worry, I'm licensed."

Learning the finer points of Risian massage techniques had been, up until Starfleet, the highlight of his academic career. The instructors were demanding and rigorous, and he nearly dropped out of the program a half dozen times. It took incredible hand strength and endurance, not to mention remembering what seemed like thousands of tiny pressure points unique to all manner of different species. But those were in his early days on the pleasure planet, back when he was eager and determined to learn and broaden his portfolio of "services."

Well he had enthusiasm, but Arandon could only guess if that was a bad thing or not. Mengurut was a Risian technique that Nuvians, with their twelve fingers, easily mastered. For a more baseline humanoid, even a Risian, it was incredibly hard. Part of Arandon wondered if the Betazoid man could actually do it, and his 'tense' muscles agreed with him. Or perhaps another part of his body was ruling his emotions. "O-okay."

"Just stay relaxed and don't resist, or you'll hurt your flexor tendons and have to see Mott in Sickbay," Ellsworth said. He grinned broadly at first, pleased at his own humor, but allowed it to fade into a more demure smile the longer he looked at him. Eventually, he broke eye contact and turned his attention to the foot he'd taken into his hands while balancing himself precariously on the end of his beach chair. "So, you must miss home. Or maybe just the beach."

Arandon leaned his head back into the chair and stretched his arm out over his head, flexing his chest with the rhythm of Ellsworth's hands. Part of the massage was relaxing that made Arandon want to go to sleep, part of it was a sensuous pleasure he had known before. Ellsworth wasn't Risian, but he was close, perhaps all Betazoid were. And in that, way Arandon felt he could talk to the man. "Yes, parts of it. The sun, the perpetual bliss. Just being able to curl up on the beach..." his voice trailed off.

"Mmm," Ellsworth said from his throat, recalling the sun, the bliss, and the beach himself. His hands continued to work easily, though he limited himself to just the foot and up to the broadest portion of the soleus muscle. Any higher and he was likely to get himself worked up; for once, he felt like this was neither the time nor the place for that.

The technique was a little clumsy in places from lack of practice, but for the most part he was pleased as muscle memory took over. "I miss the wind. There's no wind on the ship, and it's so quiet. You don't hear the palm fronds or the waves or the birds or the people or nothin'. Just a low hum, maybe that's the warp core or somethin'. I dunno. It's annoying, whatever it is. It's so...technical. It's not organic or fluid or lively. There's nothing sensual about this ship, except maybe the curve of the bow. It's all sharp edges and crisp beeps, man-made composites and gray tones."

They did indeed think a like. "That's why I don't like holodecks. You can't smell the wind..." What an unusual coincidence it was. "The shuffle on the carpet, the same paneling on the walls, sitting below an air filter that pumps in recycled air. Eating programed matter out of a hole in the wall. It's just as you said, clinical. Nothing vibrant, nothing awesome, it's cramped and odd and... indelicate," Arandon said with a sensuous sigh, his emotions being released as Ellsworth continued to work.

"Indelicate, I like that."

The manipulative part of Ellsworth moved his hands against different pressure points in Arandon's foot and ankle, watching the expressions on his face with fascination. He'd always enjoyed watching people; feeling what they were feeling was all well and good, but something about seeing the effect you had on others was much more satisfying. It heightened the little rush you got from the small power you could exert over another person, and something about the environment was pushing him back into the sensual, silken embrace of those games of power, pleasure, and control he'd enjoyed in Ambanivato.

"Still, I'd take the holodeck and a Risian companion over a PADD and my roommate any day. It might be an illusion, but at least it's a pretty one, right?"

Arandon spoke without thinking, his head still pushing against the chair. "A very pretty one."

Ellsworth seemed particularly pleased with that answer and responded in kind, sliding a hand up along Arandon's leg to cradle the soleus. It was a move completely outside the realm of any Risian massage technique, prompted more by the sheer pleasure of the sensation of a strong muscle beneath his finger tips than seeking to release any tension. He kept his hand there and flexed his fingers to move them ever so slightly along the skin, back and forth, while using the other hand to continue the massage.

"Why did you decide to join Starfleet?" he asked, sounding as genuinely curious as he was. It seemed like hardly anyone ever left Risa, especially for Starfleet. If you were born into society on a pleasure planet, it seemed like military service couldn't possibly hold much appeal.

It was certainly a valid question. Was it just something Arandon chose? Something he blindly pointed at and said 'I want that'? Doctor Shere had helped him in his perhaps childish pursuit of the Academy, but perhaps Arandon didn't think of what Starfleet itself would be like. Arandon had thought little of what his life would be like as well. Yes, Aradnon had done little in the way of thinking about the future, his future specifically. His ambitions, his motivations, were a mystery to all, including himself. Goddess not even here could he escape the endless existential questions from his peers.

"I don't know if I could give you a satisfactory answer on that one." Arandon mussed. "Why did you? Your technique is one of the Companions of Ambanivato, how did an... escort, wind up in Starfleet?"

Ellsworth blushed deeply and his thumb slipped. He winced a little at that and wondered why the mention of it tripped him up, especially given his company. If there was one person on the ship who was likely not to judge him for his past it was the single Risian crewmember. In fact, he'd felt at times to be a vital and well-respected part of the Risian economy, so why blush about it?

"What, Starfleet officers don't need Companions, too?" Ellsworth asked, hoping to cover up his slip by being flippant. He let the question hang in the air so long it seemed like he wasn't going to answer it at all, but finally spoke up. His voice was a little raspy and sounded far-distant, like he might have been a little lost in his own thoughts. "I guess I decided that wasn't the right life for me. I like to serve others, and I enjoyed the work. But... I don't know. It didn't feel right, like it was the wrong purpose for me. Plus, the recruiter totally told me I was going to get to see the galaxy, except so far all I've seen is one really ugly planet from the observation lounge and a big starbase. Also, I keep getting in trouble making dumb mistakes and these fraternization regulations are stupid, so I dunno if this is the right purpose either."

Arandon gave a small huff of a laugh. "Yes Humans are rather... uptight about sex aren't they? It's odd, among ou..." Arandon almost said 'our', as if momentarily forgetting that Ellsworth was Betazoid. Yes, perhaps subconsciously he had pegged him as an equal, a peer. "...people..." he said, not finishing or correcting the pronoun. "...I'm a prude, and to them, I'm a slut." Arandon almost laughed at the notion. "They see sex as purely physical, they don't know the other dimensions of pleasure."

Ellsworth continued working at the foot, eventually exchanging it for the other one, while he thought over what Arandon said. No one on Risa had ever said a word about his private activities, but his proclivities had been judged and commented upon more than once just since he'd joined the ship. Pennington had lorded it over him as a weapon of control, threatening him with exposure to the captain. He hated to make such a sweeping judgement against an entire species, but they did seem pretty uptight, some more than others.

On the other hand, by the end of his time there, he'd started to think Risians couldn't even communicate properly without involving sex in some form or fashion. He didn't mind most of the time, but occasionally it could be really exhausting. Most of his friends ended up being those like Arandon, that refused to wear the Ja'risia, outsiders and misfits. He had to wonder if perhaps that was another reason he was compelled to leave - was he, too, a 'prude' by Risian standards? Maybe, despite his unorthodox upbringing, he was too Betazoid to be as free as a Risian and too Betazoid to be as confined as a Human.

"It's difficult to find your own way in the universe," Ellsworth said cryptically. It was the sort of statement that annoyed him when he was on the receiving end, so he was quick to follow up. "I just mean being caught between two worlds, you know. Or three. Or four. Whatever." He rolled his eyes, recalling his conversations with Van Zyl on conduct unbecoming and how one should and should not conduct one's self while on and off duty. "Apparently I have a 'reputation' here, so you've got a lot of work to put in if you're gonna be the ship's slut."

"We all have 'reputations' by the virtue of being Risian," Arandon said quickly and with an unusual coldness in his voice. "They decry us for being decadent, allegedly 'soft', in opposition to their 'virtues', and yet who do they call? Who do they visit? When they need... a release?" His tone was not precisely bitter, but it was quite a dramatic statement for a man who liked to rarely speak at all.

"Good thing you've got those broad shoulders to carry around the burden," Ellsworth grinned. He let his hand ease further up Arandon's leg in an affectionate manner to convey the mirth in the statement; it really was something of a burden, and he knew it. It was almost absurd the number of people that had dragged themselves into his bedchamber only to be found at a later date vilifying him. After a moment of suppressing his curiosity, he cleared his throat. "So, uh, what makes you so prudish? I've never met a Risian prude... I don't even know how to judge that."

"At certain times, neither do I." Arandon looked down at the man working his feet. "I would say that I'm no less inclined to engage in sexual activity, but I don't actively pursue it." It was a statement Arandon had tried to put into words for a while now, and he was never entirely sure if he had colored his perceptions of himself by using Human terminology. It might evoke the wrong idea or image of himself, in comparison to what he actually was, and what he was all about in comparison to the rest of his people.

"Oh, yeah," Ellsworth said, rolling his eyes like he understood exactly what Arandon meant. "They did that to me, too. Some of the other...well, most of the other...Companions were Risians, y'know, and...ugh. I would have been exhausted if I tried to keep up with them. We just didn't have the same mentality. They'd even imply I wasn't good at what we did because I didn't have that mentality. I'm very good at it." He wrinkled up his nose in offense. "As open a society as you'll find on Risa, sometimes it just felt so..." He cut his eyes to look at Arandon and slipped his hands from his feet. "Sorry. I didn't mean anything by it. It was just... It's different if you live there, as opposed to visiting. That's all I meant."

Arandon sat up in the chair, folding his legs and leaning towards Ellsworth. He took off his sunglasses and tried to convey that he was trying to level with the man. "Yeah, I know. Pleasure's an odd pursuit to dedicate an entire society to." He said softly, sympathetically.

Ellsworth drew his brow together and looked at the 'paradise' surrounding him. If he let it, he was sure it would churn up some unpleasant memories, so he just closed his eyes. "I think like a lot of pretty things, it's not always very pretty on the inside." It was a simple way of phrasing a profound truth, but something about the way he said it made it seem like he was very intimately acquainted with the concept. Before he could fall off into depression, he opened his eyes, smiled, and winked. "I promise not to judge your slutiness if you promise not to judge mine."

Arandon gave a grin and a nod of his head. "I'm not the judgmental type Ellsworth." He continued to smile for a moment before resuming some of his soft, honest look. "Don't let them get to you, and know that you're not the only one on the ship who is a son of Risa. We should stick together." He said, the last part staring off into the distance towards the ocean where the twin suns would eventually set in a few hours. Turning back to Ellsworth he looked him over for a bit, top to bottom, taking in his body. "Did you ever master Jamaharon?" He asked point blank.

Ellsworth made a show of looking around Arandon, on either side of his chair and beneath it, as if searching for a horga'hn. "I guess that depends on your definition of 'master.' Ask a Risian, and I'm sure they'd say no. Ask a former client, and I'm sure they'd say they didn't mind the loss of any subtleties." He smiled a little shyly. "But if I didn't master it, it wasn't from lack of trying. With the right person it's..." He inhaled sharply and leaned his head back a little bit before locking eyes with Arandon. "Well. You know. The ultimate in stress relief."

Ellsworth's eyes roamed around a little wildly, as if he were suddenly distracted by internal thoughts. Just saying the word 'stress' seemed to summon a weight on his chest; cautiously, he reached out with his mind and found K'os where he thought he would be. The weight grew heavier, and he actually looked for like he had trouble breathing for a moment.

Arandon felt the tempo of Ellsworth's thoughts increase, and he could of sworn he could actually hear his heartbeat at this distance. "Are you all right Ellsworth?"

"Huh?" Ellsworth said, jerking his head back to look at Arandon. He blinked and narrowed his eyes just a little bit, as if seeing some kind of apparition or being disoriented after waking from a dream. Eventually the muscles in his face relaxed, and he gave a half-hearted smiled. "Dumb boy trouble. I'm not just a total slut; sometimes I fall in love with another telepath and they leave the ship without a trace and their step-mother calls you with some crazy story about Vulcan pon farr - whatever the hell that is - and then they get transferred back on to the ship. So you find yourself sitting around talking about jamaharon with your new Risian friend while your stupid imzadi wanders around..." He paused, reaching out with his mind. "...the Ops office like he hasn't been gone for weeks at all."

'Friend', well now that did seem to be a popular label with Arandon now a days. Mott, Jonah and now Ellsworth. Perhaps he was becoming the patron saint of the horny members of the Galileo's crew, befriending them rather than sleeping with them. Maybe his Horga'hn was out of alignment on its altar, or he had been mispronouncing his prayers. "Imzadi, Pon Farr, those are powerful terms of sexuality Ellsworth, I take it you were more than close?" He asked in a somewhat caring tone.

He looked like he was loathe to admit it, but Ellsworth nodded. "Yeah. Way more. We bonded, in our minds. It was like being a half-full vessel all your life and then you were filled with the coolest, most silken liquid until it reached the brim. But they just kept pouring until you thought it was going to spill over and it took your breath away." He looked at Arandon and blushed, suddenly very aware of himself and the other man. He scratched at his hair and frowned a little. "Sorry, that's dumb. I just meant it was really special. Or...it is very special. I'm not sure, yet. I'm afraid to see him cuz there's someone else, and... I don't really know what to do. I'm not good at this stuff. I'm a lot better at foot massage an' making lonely men feel better for a little bit."

"I'm sure that's not true." Usually it was a platitude but Arandon hoped he made it sound convincing. He wasn't merely 'good' at sex as well, and yet he was a Botanist, and a Starfleet researcher. Surely Ellsworth had other talents as well.

Ellsworth just shrugged. It didn't really matter whether it was true or not, he guessed, not here in the holodeck with someone he barely knew. The conversation had gotten more than a little maudlin, so he sat up straight and forced a smile. "What about you?" He leaned over and jabbed the nearest part of Arandon, grinning. "Did you ever master jamaharon? I heard a rumor that some of you are pretty awful at it."

Arandon stared with a slightly stern look in his eyes. "And it's just that, a rumor, most likely concocted by those who found their particular experience to be less physical than they would live. Jamaharon isn't just physical sexuality, it's a gateway to an entire realm of pleasure." Arandon said with a cold, and yet sultry tone in his voice.

Ellsworth stared at him for a minute before rolling his eyes and grinning. "Oh my goodness, you sound so Risian right now." He flopped back against the chair, draped his arms and legs over the side of it, and swung his head to the side to look at Arandon. "I'll just assume you're a master, until I can get my hands on a Horga'hn. I only sought it out once... It felt so touristy."

Arandon put his sunglasses on and smiled. "Yes they are so traditional and yet so touristy. I have a ritual one in my quarters and Mott thought it was a sex toy." He said it with a small laugh.

"Really?" Ellsworth asked, laughing. He tried to say something, but broke into laughter again. "I guess if you don't know what it's for then your imagination might run wild... I can't imagine what anyone could actually-" He burst into laughter again and covered his face, gasping into his hands. "Oh, it's just so awkward! Maybe you should show him what it's for, huh? I think some of the officers on the ship could really use a little rest and relaxation. Uh, no offense..."

Arandon gave a bit of a smirk. "None taken, I know what you mean. Some of those officers are a bit weighty though and pained, I'd prefer not to have sobbing bedmates." He said it in an almost haughty way.

"Oh, c'mon, sometimes the criers are really sweet. You get to cradle them and hush them and pet their hair," Ellsworth said with a smirk. He turned his face back to the sun, shaded his eyes with an arm draped across his face, and sighed in contentment. "Except when they crank up in the middle. Then it's just awkward. It's like, 'Should I keep going? Are you in pain? What's going on here?'"

"Perhaps I lack your patience," Arandon said looking off into the distance. "Though I sincerely doubt that." He said, the corners of his mouth turning up. Ellsworth had an air about him that just forced people to let his hair down, Arandon liked it.

Ellsworth laughed so hard his back left the chair as he doubled over in place. "Patient? Oh... Oh, man. You are hilarious. No one has ever called me patient. Although I am willing to play the long game to get what I want, but that's different. That's not like regular patience. That's fun patience, cuz there's a delicious reward at the end. With muscles and dark hair and a pretty smile. Or sometimes really pale and skinny and eager. Even a little belly and a nice hairy chest once in awhile." He grinned to himself, like a kid in a candy shop. "That's my kind of patience. Everything else? Forget it."

"Well you sure do have eclectic tastes." Arandon stated, innocuously enough. he wasn't judging, merely observing. He had similar tastes in men, or lack thereof.

Ellsworth grinned from behind his shaded eyes. "Eclectic taste? I prefer to say I just have taste. Not eclectic. Simply...taste."

"I suppose." Arandon nodded slightly. "So tell me about this, K'os, was it?" He was actually somewhat curious.

Ellsworth's face fell immediately, and he didn't say a word. He didn't even appear to be breathing. He'd gone from being happy and joyful, laughing and joking, to wanting to bury himself in the sand in only a few microseconds. Ugh, K'os. Stupid name. Stupid man. Stupid boy. Whatever. With his... Muscles. And dimpled smile. Grr, and that dumb laugh where he threw his head back. The intensity of his eyes in the night and the shortness of his breath and the excitement in his mind.

"He's... Complicated. And wonderful. He's strong and silly and beautiful and... Sometimes very frustrating. And he's telepathic, the only telepath I've ever really been with. It's...like a new level of existence. Jamaharon times two or something."

"Yes telepathic and physical contact concurring at the same time is quite something isn't it? Sensations register and pop into your head and transfer to the other's. It's like you're in two places at once, in two people..." Arandon mumbled towards the end. He didn't get the chance often enough but he did prefer telepathic bedmates if possible. It was such a unique set of feelings, sensations. "It's the only way I know how to truly know a person."

"This is different," Ellsworth asserted, sitting up. He crossed his legs and hunched over, facing Arandon while he spoke. "I've been with Betazoids and stuff before, you know, clients... But none of them were ever like this. It doesn't really go away when we're apart. If I want, I can reach out and touch it, and it's there again. And when we're together..." He closed his eyes for a moment to recall the sensation; the moment of clarity caused him to go back and reflect on Arandon's words. "The only way to truly know a person? Are you...not all Risan? You're telepathic?"

Arandon shifted around on the chair for a moment and pulled his knees to his chest. He bit his bottom lip for a moment and made a contemplative face, not a preoccupied one and one that he knew looked more than a little enticing. "No?" It wasn't precisely a question, but it wasn't a statement either. For most of his life, Arandon had known only one culture and didn't really consider himself anything else but Risian.

Ellsworth rolled his eyes and then grinned. "What are you, part Ferengi then? Do I have to pay you to hear the story?"

Arandon gave a smile but it was more of a put off one. He really didn't like discussing his heritage. Even during his talk with Delon he skirted over it, revealing himself to be Romulan but little else, perhaps due to the boy's rather evasive and quintessentially childlike manner. And his physical with Doctor Warraquim and Doctor Voutilainen brought it up only briefly. "It's nothing much all right." He said, a bit defensive, but his soft, mumbly voice masked the true intent and desire to not discuss his mixed parentage.

"Oh-ho, now all the sudden you don't want to talk, hm?" Ellsworth adjusted his voice to an approximation of Arandon and carried on, mimicking him, "Tell me about Starfleet, tell me about Ambanivato, tell me about K'os. Oh, what? Me? No, I don't wanna talk about that." He held his hands up in surrender, smirked, and shifted back into his own speaking voice. "Fine, fine. No problem. Stay mysterious."

Arandon sighed heavily and turned his head on his left side and brushed a hand up over his ears, holding the hair to reveal his Vulcanoid ears. "Satisfied." Arandon quipped, letting his hair fall back after a moment. He said it with a bitterness but the sign that he revealed his heritage so relatively easily perhaps reflected something else, at least sub-consciously.

"Partially," Ellsworth quipped, remaining in his seated position staring intently at Arandon. "I like them." He gave a demure smile and averted his eyes, not wanting to make him feel too much on the spot. "I won't pry, though. Well, too much. I guess I technically already pried. And I totally could have just found out myself..." He reached up and touched his temple, as if suggesting his telepathy might have provided him with an answer. "Anyway, yeah. I like them. They're very...Vulcanoid. They look good on you."

Arandon brushed his hair aside and with a superior look on his face his mumbled. "Sure." The haughty, crystalline aspects of his accent seemed to multiply exponentially.

Ellsworth smiled politely enough, but inwardly he was having a much different reaction to Arandon's attitude. He'd seen that smug look often enough in his life, and something about the cavalier tone of his voice only stoked the fire. His downtrodden upbringing and lack of education had meant he was the butt of many jokes, the sort of jokes made at his expense by arrogant people like Arandon. It was an impulse he had been working to control but his first instinct nonetheless remained asserting some authority and control over the other person, wiping that smirk off their face, through vigorous sex that somehow - in his mind - leveled the playing field.

His knuckles turned white from the grip he had on the chair while working out a different solution. "Sorry, it was none of my business, I guess."

"That was more than a bit unworthy of me I apologize," Arandon said, retreating and regaining on his previous words, though his tone remained the same. "I did invite inquiries into my past by asking after yours, and divulging my heritage out of hand earlier." He recalled, his tone still crystal clear, and yet distant and removed. "I was never made to feel out of place as a hybrid or half... well," Arandon still didn't like being known as a 'Romulan'. "At least not explicity." He hoped that his break and recovery in the conversation would be interpreted not as a skirting around his personal identification, but a musing on his past experiences. "I supposed I more than otherized myself, believing and knowing myself to be different, if not physically than mentally. I suppose I then latched on to those differences and associated them with my heritage." Arandon was never one to terribly over think things but he was keenly self aware of his motivations.

Ellsworth's brow drew together as he tried to make sense of the words, finding them to be in a style and tone that took him a moment to puzzle out. Finally, he smiled and extended a foot to playfully kick Arandon's chair. "It's okay. Sometimes people don't like to talk about themselves, I get it. And being different is great." He grinned a little, spun on the chair, extended his body and then draped his head over the edge of it so that he was viewing Arandon upside-down, as if to emphasize his own 'otherness.' "We have to stick together, right? We Risian boys, we otherseses...."

Arandon smirked. "How very eloquent." Yes Ellsworth was one of the few people he could level with and represented one side of him, the better half in most definitions of the word. Looking out of the corner of his sunglasses he saw Ellsworth's continuing and seemingly indomitable smile. Leaning back Arandon closed his eyes and felt the continuing heat of the artificial sun warm his skin. He wasn't sure if he liked it on this ship, but at least he had more than a few people to talk to now. "Let's... do this again sometime." He said aloud, though there was still more than a half hour left in the time he had scheduled. And with so many people gone for the exercises, perhaps there would be very few people on the holodecks for the next few days. "After... we finish here I mean." Arandon said in a low mumble, not wanting it to seem like he was putting Ellsworth off.

Ellsworth stretched his arms out in an undeniable show of flexibility and dug his hands into the sand, lifting his legs and feet into the air slightly to keep himself balanced. The sand was warm, and he closed his eyes to enjoy the sensation more. "Okay, I'd like that."

Sitting, or headstanding on the beach, the two men watched as the two suns of Risa, or what passed for them, grow smaller on the horizon, not setting, but gradually coming nearer to it.

OFF:

PO3 Ellsworth Hudson
Quartermaster
USS Galileo
[ PNPC - Mott ]

Ensign Arandon Khnailmnae, Ph.D.
Botanist
USS Galileo

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