Ensign Roy Bancroft - A Better Kind of Nourishment
Carter Schimpff
((Holodeck 4, Deck 3, USS Artemis-A))
Bancroft: ::smiling again:: You don’t have to carry this alone. If you ever want someone to sit with you – just to breathe, not to fix – I’m here.
The offer had left his mouth before he could overthink it. That was something new.
Normally he’d have wrapped it up in a joke, some wry deflection, anything to keep the moment from settling too close to the bone. But this didn’t feel like a moment to dodge. It felt like one to show up for.
Storm: I don’t know if you were on your way to do something important…
As if on cue, his stomach growled – long and dramatic, like it had been waiting for her to deliver that line.
Shh, he thought at it. Too late. And naturally, he knew, the Betazoid beside him caught both the growl and the thought. If ever there was a moment to be heckled by your own biology, this was apparently it.
Bancroft: ::shaking his head:: Just dinner. Calories aren’t exactly a critical mission. ::beat, warmer:: This… is a better kind of nourishment.
She didn’t answer right away. Her mouth twitched like she was holding something back – not a smile, not quite. A thought, maybe. Something with sharp edges or soft corners, he couldn’t tell.
Storm: If you will stay with me for just a little while, I promise you that I will search to find a sliver of peace in the beauty of the evening and in the company of … a friend.
She said it gently – but deliberately. That word. Friend.
He remembered asking, half in jest, whether he counted. Whether she saw him that way. And now she was handing him an answer like it had cost her something dear to give. That meant more than she probably realized.
Bancroft: ::smiling lightly:: You know, I usually don’t earn that moniker this fast. ::beat:: Normally takes more than a few awkward exchanges and at least one minor diplomatic incident.
He leaned back against the cliff face, settling in, gaze drifting toward the horizon.
Bancroft: This moonrise needs company – and we seem like the right friends for the job.
A long silence settled between them as the sun slipped fully away and the stars brightened. It wasn’t awkward – it was companionable. It was the kind of silence that didn’t need filling.
Beside them, the waterfall kept roaring – all volume, no urgency – like an old soul that had long since stopped caring if anyone was listening.
Storm: ::To the computer:: Computer: Turn ambient waterfall noise down by another seventy-five percent.
Computer: Ambient waterfall noise decreased by seventy-five percent.
The roar receded like a tide, leaving behind a hush that rang in Roy’s ears – a quiet so sudden it felt like the air itself was recalibrating. Then, slowly, the world returned.
A bird called out to its roostmates, low and somnolent.
Insects sang in layered rhythms, an ancient percussion that belied their fleeting lifespans.
Somewhere in the distance, a solitary canid lifted its voice – not to threaten or to warn, but simply to be heard.
Storm: I guess it’s time to fess up. ::Alex wrinkled her nose:: I really didn’t want to hear a lecture earlier, so I didn’t turn the noise down. And anyway, selective deafness is a highly rated tool amongst Lieutenants and above. You can even find it in the Lieutenant’s handbook section 2 subsection 5a - Ways to handle annoying officers of a lower rank.
She cast a tentative sidelong glance at him.
Bancroft: ::faux gasp:: The Lieutenant’s Handbook? That thing’s real? I was assured it was a myth – like seeing Captain MacKenzie smile… or getting decent smoked ribs out of a replicator.
The night had fallen in full now, wrapping the two officers in a blanket of starlight and stillness. It asked for nothing more than presence – the kind not found in silence alone, but in the willingness to share it.
And beneath it all – beneath the weight of longing, of exhaustion, of everything said and unsaid – two people sat side by side on a cliff’s edge.
Not to fix. Not to fill the silence. Just to be.
End Scene for Bancroft and Storm
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(OOC: End scene for both PCs okayed by Karen :)
Ensign Roy Bancroft
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240205RB1