Ping and Pong

Posted on 30 Apr 2015 @ 12:49am by Lieutenant JG Emmarie (E'Ma'ri)
Edited on on 30 Apr 2015 @ 5:30pm

2,545 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo, Deck 7, Gym
Timeline: MD2 1500 hours

ON:

Emmarie had an hour to spare before her duty shift, so she'd headed down to the gym to run off a bit of aggravation. There was nothing wrong with her at the moment, but she'd always seemed to have present up energy and aggression to work out. The room was nearly empty, save two other individuals. One was at the treadmill furthest from the door. He clearly had no interest in socialization, so Emmarie wrote him off. The other seemed to have just recently arrived, and Emmarie walked over to him.

"Good afternoon," Emmarie said in greeting.

"Hello," Tyrion replied, breaking his stride to turn and face her. His eyes traveled across the woman, studying her without seeming to stare. "Come here often? I don't think I've seen you here before."

"I'm new," Emmarie explained. "I have only been aboard for a couple days now." Realizing that she was being rude, she added, "My name's Emmarie. I work in Operations." She removed the towel that was draped over her shoulders and glanced over to the various equipment. "Care to join me?"

"Tyrion," he replied as he nodded, "I'm intel. What'd you have in mind? Weights? Or maybe a sport that requires two?"

Emmarie grinned. She was certainly the competitive sort. "I like the idea of a two player sport, what's your poison?" She loved table tennis, but some men found that to be a feminine sport, so she wasn't about to suggest it. Fighting was always a good option too, but again, a controversial one.

"Nothing specific...I've never been for the team sports but I'm willing to give it ago. What's yours?" The Betazoid smiled invitingly, though his interest was clearly on the competition, and not the woman.

"Well... I can fight, and I can play ping pong," she said. Somehow, she knew exactly how Tyrion was going to go. After all, he was an Intelligence officer. They had at least some combat skills. She doubted they taught ping pong...

"Ping...pong?" Unlike most though, Tyrion was a desk jockey, not a fighter. While he was physically reasonably strong - though not as strong as his new lover - he wasn't a fighter. "What is ping pong?"

"It's also called table tennis. It's like tennis, but the ball is smaller, and you play it on a large table. Less running about, and such," she explained. Tennis was a popular elective at the Academy, so she hoped Tyrion would be familiar with it.

"I know tennis, but on a table?" The Betazoid shook his head. "Show me?"

"Sure thing." She walked a few paces away, making sure to be away from the walls or walkways. "Computer, create ping pong table with assorted supplies, regulation dimensions." A moment later, a ping pong table was in the center of the area, and Emmarie quickly tested the tension of it's net. She folded up one end of the table for single player play then looked over to Tyrion. "Normally both sections stay down, but I wanted to show you the basics." She went through a serve, and a couple different ways of returning, before handing him one of the paddles.

"Any questions?"

Taking the paddle in his left hand, he studdied it, tapping it against his other hand a few times. "Just knock the ball to the other end?"

"Past me," she explained. "We'll give it a go first. It'll make a lot more sense once you've played through a little bit. We won't count the score until you say so. She walked over and dropped the other side of the table down. "Try a serve, and we'll try a few back and forths."

A little clumsily, Tyrion gave serving a go but failed the first few attempts. His sixth try actually was lucky and the ball went over the net. "Hey I got it!" he cheered.

"There you go!" Emmarie cheered as she lightly tapped the ball with her own paddle, sending it back in Tyrion's direction. "You're learning very fast, nice work." She enjoyed teaching people new skills, and the prospect of having someone she could play with aboard Galileo was an enticing one.

Moving to catch it, Tyrion caught the ball with his paddle. Just, as he tapped it back to the other side. "And yet I feel I'm doing something wrong," he said as he watched her move.

"Well, we're just going slow right now," Emmarie explained. "The strategy is to try and hit it hard and fast so that your partner can't hit it." That didn't sound quite right, but she raced on, "But you have to be careful because if you hit it hard and I return it, it comes back at you hard as well."

"Where's the fun in that?" Tyrion questioned as he continued to gently tap the ball back to her side. "Or is this intended as a work out?"

"It is a workout," Emmarie said, hitting the ball back with a bit more force. "But it's also strategy. The harder you make it on your opponent, the harder it becomes for you, so you have to gauge when they are off-balance as that's he time to strike."

"Show me?" He watched her closely now, following her with his eyes as he stood ready to -hopefully- catch the ball.

Emmarie was fortunate, in that there was a ball already heading near the corner of the table. At first, it seemed as though she was going to ignore it, but at the last possible moment she leapt over, striking it hard with her paddle. The ball went flying diagonally across the table, bouncing once on her opponent's side before continuing it's flight off the table.

In reflex, Tyrion shielded his face with the paddle, then stared at her with wide eyes. "Wow..... that was... fast!" he exclaimed as he went to retrieve the ball. "Is that hard to learn?"

"It'll take you a bit of time, but it's not too hard," Emmarie said. "And if you're looking for someone to practice with, I'm always willing to help you out. Truth be told, it'd be nice to have someone on the ship to practice with."

"Oh...I'd like to learn, gives me something new to do, and to show off to ah..." He hesitated briefly, then grinned. "To my partner. He's all about going to the gym and he's so strong...would be nice to tell him there's something I'm getting good at too besides hacking computer systems."

Emmarie laughed. She grabbed another ball and bounced it twice on the table. "Well, I'm more than willing to help you surprise him," she said with a grin. "How long have you two been together?" Just because she wasn't ready for a relationship didn't mean that she didn't like talking to other people about theirs.

"Uhm..." Tyrion hesitated a second time. "We uhm...spent the night together after the mess, but we met days ago. I do love him, so maybe...together seriously? A few hours." He smiled sheepishly as he watched her bounce the ball. "Didn't make much sense did it? but I'm really looking forward to seeing him again tonight."

"Well, if the two of you make one another happy, that's all that really matters," Emmarie said. "It sounds cheesy, but it's true. In another era money or standing in society might have mattered, but you're fortunately lucky enough to live after that," Emmarie said. She waited until Tyrion was paying a bit more attention, then served the ball towards him. She returned to going easy on him, because she wanted him to learn, not to get discouraged.

"I don't even know where he stands on family...if we discussed it it must've slipped my mind. My family isn't talking to me, I tried reaching out again but I get no response. I haven't been home since I was 17, when I left and didn't look back." He returned the ball, trying to get a feel for it. "I'm going to be sore, aren't I?"

"Maybe a little," Emmarie said. "It's usually not too bad, though." She thought back to family. "I'm adopted. Sometimes family isn't just the people who share genes with you. Sometimes those people suck and you need other people to become your surrogate family."

"I guess that's a bit difficult then," Tyrion mused, "I've been on my own since I was 17, had very few friends if any at all until I came here. I think I can say that my roommate is my best friend, and my first. And now there's Grayson...." His eyes took on an odd spark as he said the engineer's name, a dreamy smile playing around his mouth. "I suppose, if all turns out right, he's family?"

"That's the best part, when it works out like that. And if you're looking for friends... you can count me as one. I know we're not super close or anything yet, but if you every want to come whack a ball around with someone, I'm your lady," Emmarie said.

"I'd like that," the Betazoid replied, then waved his paddle at her. "So...adopted huh? Do you get along with your adopted family? Any siblings? Husband? Wife?"

"Three sisters from my adopted family, and one brother. We get along... ok." She sighed, debating how best to explain this. "As a kid, it was easy. When I hit puberty, well... they realized that I was an Orion, you know? Men and women came sniffing around all the time. Hasn't been the same since."

"I had a fiance too, but we just... monogamy isn't really something I excel at. Or maybe I haven't met the right person. Who knows."

"Possibly the latter," Tyrion offered, "and what do you mean....sniffing around? You mean the pheromones?" He took an experimental sniff of the air, though he kept smiling. "I don't smell anything...then again, it might not work on someone who falls on his own gender? I don't know... what do you think?"

"In Starfleet we have to have pheromone suppressants," Emmarie explained. "I've heard that it still works on some gay men, but it depends how set their orientation is. I've never lived without the shots, so I don't know." She shrugged.

"And I mean sniffing around like getting in my business. Snooping. That sort of thing. You know, nosy neighbors who are interested in all the gossip and can't mind their own business?"

"Be glad you didn't grow up on Betazed," Tyrion chuckled. "I had my sisters into my business all the time. And I have three, and they though they could commandeer me around you know, and decide who I can or can't marry. I left as soon as I could, I wasn't going to let anyone dictate how I was going to live my life. But now that I find I do need my family, of course it's their turn to want nothing of me instead." He shrugged. "Such is life right?"

Tyrion steadied himself at his side of the table. "Was it your serve or mine?"

"Yours," Emmarie said, though she wasn't quite certain. The ball wasn't in her hand, but that didn't mean much. "Betazoid, eh? How can you stand to be around me?" Like many of her kind, Emmarie had only one sort of emotions: powerful ones. Several Betazoids over the course of her life had expressed aggravation, as Emmarie was apparently difficult to ignore.

"What do you mean?" Like usual, he had made an effort not to read her, like he did with everyone else. He bounced the ball on the table a few times before giving her a soft serve. "I don't read people if I can help it."

"Ahh," Emmarie said, nodding. "I don't care too much. But I guess I'm real easy to read or something." She shrugged. "Is it hard for you? Not using your Betazoid gifts, I mean." She wagered that they had something in common. "I know it's hard to have a part of myself that I need to suppress to be here, I wager you'd feel the same?"

"Yes it's hard, and I fight for control every day, but I don't want to read people and most times I wish I wasn't a telepath. My only benefit of it now, is that I can still sense Grayson somehow. Almost as if he's right here, and yet not quite. What is it like for you? Do you ever get to release?"

Emmarie shook her head. "No. It's not really safe. And... I dunno, I'd feel bad doing that to someone. I'm not going to lie, part of me gets off on knowing that I can seduce people, but I don't want it to be part of some pheromone. I like there being some sort of skill involved, you know?"

"I don't mean to someone, I mean like on a holodeck. Just be yourself. But I understand what you mean I think. You want love to be love, and not because of something you emit. I get it. And I want people to like me because I'm me, and I want to get to know people the normal way, not because of what I sense. If not for the black eyes, I could pass for a Human you know."

"Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I know exactly how you feel. It's hard, it really is. And I can't pass as human, not without a lot of makeup, and even still." She paused for a moment, wondering what she would look like as a human. Would she be pale? Have a tan? Would she be attractive without all the stigma wrapped up in her skin? "I've never really thought about how it would be if I wasn't green, but now I'm almost curious, you know?"

"We could always give you a make-over just for the fun of it and see how people react," Tyrion suggested, casting her an impish grin.

"Like... seriously?" Emmarie said, and she almost seemed like she was into the idea. "I mean, I think that could be a lot of fun, though potentially a lot of work, too."

"Why not? Yes it'd be a bit of work but you know, for the sake of science or simple curiosity..." Tyrion grinned. "After the wargames we might have some time...maybe Oren would like to help? Or someone else?"

"Oooh, that's a great idea!" Emmarie said. "Even if all we do is hang out in the bar or do something on the holodeck, I think it would be a lot of fun." Plus, it would be neat to see how people perceived her when she wasn't... well... green.

"Hanging out sounds like fun." The Betazoid kept smiling. "Just as long as my ah...boyfriend don't get jealous."

Emmarie grinned, "I'm sure he won't. I mean, it's not like I have the right equipment or anything. Besides, he's more than welcome to join us!"

"I'll ask him." He gestured towards the table. "Shall we practice some more?"

"Of course," Emmarie said, raising her paddle with a mischievous grin.

OFF:

CPO Tyrion Faye
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

Lieutenant JG Emmarie
Assistant Chief of Operations
USS Galileo

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