Ensign Jania Nis - One big joined Trill
Jania Nis
(( Senior Officers Mess Hall, Deck 2, USS Octavia E Butler ))
Lahl: I see, makes sense. New question for the group, what is everyone’s family situations? If you’re willing to share. I have one brother.
Nis: Is he joined?
Lahl: Response
Nis: My brothers aren't--they're kind of jealous, but usually in a playful way. They've always been playful, like that time they locked me in the basement for three hours. Very playful. :: She glanced at the table, resentful at the memory of slamming her fists against the basement door while they flickered the lights and shouted about ghosts down there :: Anyway, we're pretty middle class. Nis has had a couple of hosts who were, like, really rich, but not us. We're normal.
Caras: My sister and I haven’t spoken since I graduated from the academy. She’s also very dodgy with wherever she is. She’s probably getting into trouble somewhere in the alpha quadrant.Our situation was abnormal, but I believe as far as siblings go, we’re pretty normal.
Nis: Oh, we didn't mean other situations are, like, ab-- uh . . . :: Eats some more cheese. :: Right.
Caras: My sister and I did get into a lot of trouble together. Mostly trouble our parents put us up to, but my sister Z’Mat was always the one that was in charge when we’d be on a ship. She took care of me when our parents wouldn’t. She’s the one that set up a lot of my training and education.
Promontory: I have a brother and a sister. (beat) Well, had a brother. Officially, he and his ship are MIA after a mission to perform routine scans of a possible anomaly. But that was all before I was born, so I never knew him. (beat) I did inherit his collection of superhero holoprograms though, so there’s that.
Jania felt sad to hear this. Her brothers were troublemakers, sure, but it was mostly harmless. The worst that had ever happened was one of her brothers had gotten arrested for graffiting Mak’ala’s for losers on the side of a government building. The idea of losing one of them was painful, even in theory.
Lahl: Response
Caras: I suppose that isn’t too strange in the grand scheme of things. Older siblings are often like that and younger siblings make it more difficult.
Avander gave a wistful half-smile. She recognized the wistfulness. One strange thing about having a symbiont was she had many memories of loss and death, but these were the losses of strangers--mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, lovers, children--all that she had never really known. In this way, she could relate to Avander’s loss, and she felt much the same way when she thought of these distant losses.
Avander spun the lazy-Susan in the table’s center and reached for one of the Kendarian deviled eggs.
Nis: Oh, we love those!
Her stomach roiled in disagreement with this comment, and she hoped Lahl wouldn't judge her for deviled eggs. It certainly wasn't something Timorzin would have prepared, but then again Kimonzi didn't seem to have the same dietary elitism Nis remembered Timorzin having.
Lahl: Response
Caras: My sister made me take ::pauses looking for phrasing:: special engineering courses and made me join the seekers guild back where I’m from.
Nis: Seekers guild? Do they, like, seek out special engineering problems?
oO He’s an Orion, dummy. He’s talking about sex.Oo
Jania had a sudden memory of Gaz Nis, a soldier who had traveled with Trill diplomats in the earlier days of spacefaring, when the Trill still wanted to punch every Vulcan they met. Gaz had known an Orion. Their memories of their time together were … spicy.
Caras: Ah the seekers guild is short for the pleasure seekers and it’s a very Orion oriented guild that may be… not appropriate for dinner conversation.
Promontory: (judiciously) Perhaps another time.
Nis: Yeah, but, you know, any time you’d like to get it off your chest, you just let us know.
Lahl: Response
Avander grabbed a parfait and slowly scooped out the contents while he talked.
Promontory: Alright, final ‘official’ question: where do you want to end up in your careers with Starfleet.
Nis: Certainly retiring, one day. Preferably with all our limbs, and not insane or partially phased like the people from the Dow or assimilated or ... :: Jania scratched her head. She wasn’t a very ambitious person, and Nis was old for a symbiont. Assuming Jania lived a lengthy Trill life like the majority of its previous hosts, it wouldn’t take another host after her. It mostly wanted to return to Trill and swim in an underground pond for the rest of its days. :: It would be nice to do something like Lt. Toz. But we don’t exactly imagine ourselves as a captain. That sounds really stressful.
Lahl/Caras: Response
Promontory: I guess I’m as good a person as any to talk about that; let’s schedule some time later to discuss in more detail.
Nis was nervous. Was it bad that she wasn’t that ambitious? She just wanted to help people. But the others’ plans all seemed so wonderful and exciting. What must Avander be thinking? This little soiree was going terribly, wasn’t it? Avander was probably disappointed with her answer.
Lahl: Response
Nis: We love the idea of Starfleet. It’s like one big joined Trill, right? All these people working together for a common goal.
Caras: Response
Promontory: Well, we have this mess hall booked all night, but at some point I should probably finish up some PADDwork. (wryly) I understand a junior officer shot their superior officer and, well, now I have forms to fill out!
He looked at Ensign Lahl for a beat before cracking a grin. This batch could be fun to tease.
Nis: What?! A junior officer shot a superior officer? That’s terrible! We hope they’ve been suitably punished.
Lahl/Caras: Response
Nis: Ohhhh. Uh . . . sorry.
Embarrassed, Nis ate the closest thing to her, which happened to be a little white root that had a brownish sauce next to it. She did not dip it in the sauce, but bit into it. As soon as she did, she realized what it was--K’tlom, a juicy Klingon tuber. The juice was almost pure capsaicin, and it sprayed into her mouth. The sauce was to mellow out the juice, but without it she was left with a mouthful of fire.
She opened her mouth and breathed slowly, her eyes filling with tears.
Promontory/Lahl/Caras: Response
Nis: One thing we’d like to know--what’s next for the ship? Will we stay in Gamma Quadrant? It’s a very interesting place.
Promontory/Lahl/Caras: Response
Ensign Jania Nis
Medical Officer
USS Octavia E. Butler NCC-82850
O240108JN2