LTJG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen - A Hair Cut
Lhandon Nilsen
((OOC: This takes place before the awards and JOPA but after the trial. Hence his old rank. I needed just a little bit longer to write this))
((Nilsen’s Quarters, Cabin, 602, Deck 4, USS Octavia E Butler))
Lhandon stood in front of the mirror in his quarters, his reflection showing eyes that looked back at him wearily, even though his body was willing to head back to work, his mind wasn't. He felt his chest heavy, the weight of Port Coray on his heart and the final moment of said trial... the noise Sa phto made as the beam disintegrated him and turned the one who had framed Lhandon into nothing more than a smouldering pile of ash.
His hand went for an electric trimmer that was resting on the side of the sink, and his finger went back and forth over the switch. Lhandon put his hand through his hair, considering for a moment if he was going to go through with this idea.
This idea didn't seem to have a singular source or a singular moment.
The trimmer buzzed, its low hum filling the small bathroom as he switched it on. He looked at it for a moment more and then started to trim his hair.
The curly locks that had almost been his signature dropped from his head and landed in the sink as if Lhandon was shedding an old skin, and perhaps, shedding some kind of emotional burden.
Soon he was done and he cleared away the now-cut hair, leaving the sink as immaculate as he had found it. He looked up at the mirror and stared for a moment before twisting his head slightly to get a better look.
He stripped soon after and got into the shower. When he was done, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror again and had to do a double take to recognize his new self. He noticed his muscles had trimmed down, a side effect of the radiation and the following medication. He was still his usual toned self however and a trip to the gym was on the cards that day.
But he saw himself again, towel around his lower half, tattoos on show and now short-haired Lhandon. o0 I don't hate it 0o
After drying himself and his hair, Lhandon got dressed in a white vest which sat under a casual blue button shirt which he left open.
His terminal on his desk had an article about Transcendimensionalism something he was still getting his head around but was helping to at least give him some context to what actually happened to him on Alpha Brenkelvi when his consciousness was removed from his body. Next to this terminal was a PADD with a plan
He had called the next JOPA meeting and had concocted the idea of a Bridgerton theme. He had found a cheap program from Quark that looked like it would do the job; he hadn't had the time to make one himself.
He also in this moment attempted to make a promise. There were parts of him he didn't like...
Nilsen: To live each day…::pauses for words::…good? nah that’s needs work
Without intervention from the SCI team as well as half of the JOPA group, both current and former members, he would have been dead now
Every so often, he thought about the port, wondering if he could change that place for the better, and bring proper justice to them, not the sham that he went through. Yet as he had that thought, another more powerful feeling dominated: he never wanted to set foot there ever again.
He wanted different. He wanted to change the narrative. For both them and himself o0 new hair, new me I guess 0o He’ll make them proud.
He looked at the model of the USS Oumuamua that had been gifted to him by an unknown party. He thought about where he had come from, his life on that ship as an ensign…he thought about who he was then…and who is is now. Whoever planted that there, knew exactly what they were doing.
Lieutenant JG Lhandon Joseph Nilsen
Assistant Chief of Operations.
USS Octavia E Butler
O240007LN1
He/Him/His (Both player and character)