Re: [UCS Zenpyou] Prelude: Siren's Call- Mayer Station.
ON>>
As he tore into his food, slowing down as his stomach become more full, he listened intently to Aurora's service record. "Hotaru...?" he nodded knowingly while he finished swallowing. "I've only ever been there once, but I can't really imagine what it would be like to serve there. I only served on the Fifth for a little while, but then my ship was destroyed...apparently." It was a rather uncomfortable subject for him; having to think of Kiyoko again always managed to make him more than a little depressed. It didn't help with her being the Grand Peacekeeper and always having to hear about it...reminding him how forgotten he felt. He took another bite of his food to cover up any indication of sadness, since he hated inconveniencing others with his personal feelings.
"They held my ST data for a while, and when I was finally brought back after...I think...like...eight months or so, I joined the United Outer Colonies. I probably wouldn't have been in stasis so long, but I think Yamatai still had it and the UOC demanded they release the data for all fallen members of the Fifth. Something like that. I don't remember too many of the details...after I was resurrected that was when the voi--" Tesuro stopped himself before finishing his statement. She didn't need to know that he heard voices. He didn't want her to think he was crazy, after all.
He took a few more bites, leaving just a little food on his plate. "But umm...yeah...other than that there's not a whole lot to say about me. Tell me more about yourself, Aurora..."
Aurora pushed her fingers together unsure of what she could say about herself that was really interesting. “Well, I was a neko before the shift but I decided to keep the hair color when I switched to one of those new bodies. I kinda miss some of the little perks every now and then but I’m happy to be able to keep my thoughts to myself without someone else ‘accidentally’ listening in because I forgot to encode something…. Hmmm what else can I really say that’s not dull?”
She paused for a moment not quite looking at Tesuro but looking in his direction with unfocused eyes. “My shipmates tease me a lot for carrying my EMT bag everywhere. They think it’s a little paranoid to carry it around to every meal and function but I can’t help but think that we need to always be prepared! These days you never know when something will attack or something will blow-we’re using so much experimental tech and we’re not in an armistice with the rest of the universe outside of the Nepleslian Greens….”
“You can’t just help but want to stay a little paranoid when the universe is still watching you under a microscope, waiting for you to take a misstep as you learn how to walk- ya know?” Ellis blushed for a moment and laughed slightly at herself. “I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I’m not sure what else there is to tell really. We’d had a kinda off and on busy morning here with our mess detail. The other UCS Eos crew seem to have taken this detail a little more personally but really, it’s not like we’re a part of the PCIS! We’re one of the CDS ships… so we’re mostly only teaching.”
Tesuro watched Aurora intently as she spoke, at length, about herself and her position in the UOC. Since he did not have the best conversational skills and didn't have much experience in the field of meaningful conversation, he found speech patterns and subtle body movements most fascinating. At times it was almost difficult for him to keep focused on the actual subject matter of the conversation he was having, as he was distracted by the gentle movement of his compatriot's lips and the small gesticulations that came along in everyday conversation.
She's talking too much, why does she think any of this matters? But it's interesting...I like her.
He shuttered at the thought of somebody being able to listen in on what you were thinking. Needless to say it would prove more than awkward in many cases for himself. While she continued speaking, he finished up the remainder of his food and pushed it aside. Still listening, and watching, with full attention. He waved off his hand at her modest remarks, "Don't worry, you're not rambling. I think...it's...very interesting. I mean obviously it's a good thing you carry that thing around or else we wouldn't be talking right now!" Making an odd facial expression in response to himself, he stuttered to revise his statement so as to not sound too creepy. "Plus I mean, well you know, that I umm...I got hurt so it's a uhh...good thing you have it with you, right?" he said, ending with a forced chuckle.
Pushing his tray further off, he cleared his throat and looked down toward his lower abdominal area. "Speaking of which I guess we should get started then, huh?"
Aurora stood up with a nod as she grabbed her bag and placed it on the chair where she had been sitting. “Right! Please remain seated. I’m just going to conduct some cursory non-invasive procedures,” she said feeling more confident in the change of subject.
She reached into the black and gold EMT bag and pulled out 3 instruments. She placed one around her neck and clipped one of the others to her belt. She kept a single cylindrical object in her hands as she moved much closer to Tesuro.
“This shouldn’t take too long, I’m going to shine this penlight in your eyes to check the dilation response… now are you feeling any pain anywhere? If so, one a scale of 1 through 10, 1 being the least amount of pain you have ever experienced and 10 being the worst pain in your life,” she asked rather quickly but professionally as she lifted her little penlight up to his right eye. Her perfume was a soft scent of lilies and roses.
When Aurora moved closer to him, Tesuro had to stop himself from shifted back or away. He wasn't used to having his personal space so readily invaded, even during routine medical examinations and when he was yelled at in basic training when he joined the Yamataian military. Still he made no motions to suggest that he was uncomfortable. When she shone the light into his eye, he squinted a bit, but tried his hardest to keep them open enough for her to observe what she needed to. In his experience, the more he resisted these sorts of things the more the examiner probed him.
His pupils shifted rapidly between dilation and contracted before immediately settling upon contraction. They seemed somewhat lost and almost confused in some way. While he was temporarily blinded by the light, his voice shared another thought with him.
God she smells nice, doesn't she? Makes you just want to...eat her up. Doesn't it?
Shuddering a bit at the crude and inappropriate thought, he responded to her inquiry. "Umm...I guess about...a high four or a low five..."
Aurora nodded as she moved the penlight to Tesuro’s left eye to repeat the procedure. “Where does it hurt, Tesuro?” She asked rather simply as she felt rather pleased with the response time. She didn’t think he had hit his head in the scuffle but you could never be sure. She had recalled him hitting the counter and then the floor but she lost sight of him when he hit the deck.
“What sort of pain are you experiencing?” She continued, once she was satisfied by the eye dilation response she turned off her penlight and clipped it onto her belt, lifting up the stethoscope to her ears. “I need you to unzip your Peacekeeper jacket so I can listen to your heart,” the medic added with a slight hint of embarrassment.
Keep your cool, Aurora… it’s just a post fall check up, you’re not asking him to get naked. He should be wearing at least 1 t-shirt under that jacket…
He shook his head a little and blinked a few times after she put the penlight away in an attempt to restore his normal vision. After she asked him to part his jacket, he turned his head from side-to-side to see if there were an onlookers. A couple people here and there were looking at the two of them in a slightly confused manner, but most everyone else minded their own business. It was just as well though, he wasn't about to ask for her to go into a more private area as there was no serious damage and he felt awkward enough as it was without having to worry about what thoughts might run through his head if the two were alone.
So, begrudgingly, he zipped down his jacket all the way and unclipped it at the bottom. As she was expecting he was indeed wearing an undershirt, albeit a very tight one, but it was certainly better than being bare-chested in the middle of a cafeteria while being touched in various places by a pretty enlisted girl. "It's kind of a sharp pain around my pelvic region. Just above my...umm...groin. Yeah there's no pain there at all it's all above the waistline m'hm." he said in an attempt to keep his thoughts focused.
Aurora fought back a blush as she placed her stethoscope against Tesuro’s covered chest and clipped the small box-like device to it as she listened to his heartbeat. “I need you to take several slow, deep breaths. Is it a sharp, stabbing pain or a dull….throbbing pain? Is sitting causing you any discomfort?” She asked rather quickly.
This is going to get awkward really quick if I have to examine his abdomen… but it sounds like I have to see the condition of it… shoot, I can’t do that part of the exam in here. It’ll look like I’m molesting him or giving him head or something.. Her cheeks flushed a shade of pink, as the thought crossed her mind and she quickly tried to dismiss such thoughts.
Tesuro responded to her in between long, filling breaths. "I'd say it's a......sharp, stabbing pain......kind of like......I've been stabbed......just not as......severe." After he had taken five deep breaths, he responded to her second question normally, "It's not sitting down that hurts, it's just bending that area of my body that hurts. So I guess...while I'm going to sit down I get a pain."
Looking at her he noticed her cheeks blush a little, which in turn made him do the same. He didn't want to feel any kind of sexual tension with her, but it was difficult not to when a member of the opposite sex is a gently touching you in a compromising position.
Aurora pursed her lips together as she removed the stethoscope from Tesuro’s chest. She removed the box and checked the diagnostic read-outs and sighed. “It sounds like you might’ve bruised your abdominal muscles. I won’t know how badly unless I can perform a more thorough examination…”
She looked up at his face trying to regain some of her professionalism. “I…uh.. think we’re going to have to go to a more…private area to take a look at your stomach to see how bad the damage is. I’d completely understand if you wanted to go see the station’s doc now...everything else seems fairly normal,” she added in a hurry as her eyes flicked away from the officer as she refastened the little device to her belt again.
This shouldn’t be this hard to remain professional! I’ve done so many physicals of both sexes… this is just…work. Nothing special, just a cursory examination...
She has nice eyes too...or maybe it's just the way they're looking up at you. You wouldn't pass up this...golden opportunity now would you, Tesuro...? If you play your cards right she could be looking up at you from there a lot more.
Tesuro's heartbeat hit the ground running, unsure of what to say to her. On one hand it would be terribly inconvenient to have to go see an entirely separate doctor to re-examine him all over again, possibly making him miss important briefings and the like. But on the other hand he wasn't sure if being alone with this woman was the best idea in the world, especially since it would have to involve a little bit more nudity and a quite a bit more awkwardness. He didn't want her to know he had any questionable thoughts, and objecting too forwardly to it would make that quite obvious, since their glances and blushing weren't entirely unnoticed by one another. "W-well umm...it would be really inconvenient to have to go see another doctor...but I don't want to keep you away from your other duties. If you could figure out what's wrong that would be great...but...I don't know...what's your professional opinion...?"
“Um, well, from what I can tell, you bruised your stomach from falling into the metal railing in front of the serving line. You do not have a concussion, though I imagine she winded you…You could take some aspirin and apply some ice packs to help keep down any swelling and to help ease some of the discomfort,” Aurora replied with a small frown on her face. She took a deep breath as she refocused on Tesuro’s face.
“But without further examination, I’m not really able to determine the extent of the damage… but I guess, if the pain persists after taking some sort of mild pain killer, then I’d recommend a follow-up appointment with the Station Doc or your ship’s doc,” she toyed with the metal end of the stethoscope uncertain. “If you can, I’d recommend a warm bath with a mineral soak to help ease some of the tension in the rest of your body… but I don’t think it’ll really prevent you from too much physical activity. But that would be up to a Doc o give you light duty or not.”
Tesuro nodded slowly, taking in Aurora's advice. It seemed simple enough to take care of, and he was just glad that it wasn't going to keep him out of service and not be allowed to serve on the Zenpyou once it launched like the two whackjobs that caused the injury in the first place. Still, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at the lost opportunity, but at the same time he was relieved that he wouldn't need to be put into an awkward situation with her.
"I guess that's good news then...Aurora. I'll go pick up some ice packs and pain killers from the med bay a little later. It's not too terrible an injury...so...yeah, maybe by tomorrow it'll go away." he said as he began to zip up his jacket. "It's uh...too bad you're assigned to the Eos. It was nice talking to you, but I guess we probably won't get to again." he added, his voice a little sad as he finished.
Aurora frowned slightly. “Yeah… it’s how the cookie crumbles, I guess…unless of course, you wanted to be like… pen pals or something. Who knows, maybe after the UCS Eos launches, I’ll put in for a more exciting transfer,” she suggested with a more hopeful smile.
She seemed rather embarrassed by her suggestion. I most sound like a child… pen pal?! Was that really the best thing I could come up with? She thought rather critically of herself as she removed her stethoscope and put it back into her med kit. We both have leave until our ships give us something to do… we definitely could do lunch or something…. But that’d be too forward of me…
Tesuro was surprised by the suggestion. Not because it was uncalled for or undesirable, but because he was surprised that this woman actually enjoyed his company enough to want to at least speak with him again. Most of the time he ended up as an awkward mess causing most people to want to stay away from him save for a few notable examples in his lifetime. However he couldn't help but tell himself that he had too many problems to form any more meaningful relationships. What if he ended up hurting her somehow? But there was no denying the attraction--he had no desire to cut off contact with her right then and there, and it was certainly a rare occasion to have somebody actively wish to speak with him.
Maybe if we're just friends. Nothing else. I won't have to worry then. I can't get hurt and I can't hurt her if I cap off the relationship there... he thought, desperately convincing himself to take her up on the offer.
Tesuro smiled brightly, "Pen pals? I'd like that! I mean, I'm a little better at writing than I am talking, you know." He ended his comment with a quiet chuckle. "Yeah that would be um...that would be great!"
“It’s okay if you don’…” Aurora paused as it dawned on her that Tesuro had accepted her offer of being pen pals. “Really?!” She smiled brightly, beaming, “That’s great! What ship are you on again, so I can make it easier to send you messages?”
Yay! So maybe he doesn’t think I’m a complete loser. This will probably not go anywhere but at least people can stop teasing me about never trying..
“Ellis! Stop flirting and get back here! We still have a few more hours on this detail!” A male voice called from the direction of the kitchen. Aurora blushed again.
Tesuro looked suddenly to the source of the voice and laughed a little. "I guess you're needed back there...we've been at this a while, haven't we? Anyway I'm stationed aboard the UCS Zenpyou. I don't want to get you in any trouble Aurora...so...I'll definitely talk to you later, right?"
"Right, definitely!" Aurora said brightly as she resecured her med kit, and pulled it quickly off her chair. "Remember to take it easy!" She said with a cheerful wave before she jogged back towards the kitchen, her ponytail bouncing as she hurried back to work.
OFF