Clematis - Blue With Composure

Posted on Sat Aug 14th, 2021 @ 10:59am by Lieutenant Percival Bálor Ph.D & Lieutenant JG Elizabeth Stone

1,719 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Out of Time
Location: USS Ontario | Deck 15 | Secondary Lounge

The half-Tellarite destroyer of naive hearts had sought some personal time down on deck fifteen because he was unlikely to find anyone down there that would be problematic. Yiv was more of a deck eight Maple Leaf Lounge sort, it was larger and considered the primary lounge aboard the starship. Likewise, Amanda was not known to frequent the lower deck lounge.

Percy pulled up a stool at the bar which of course served synthetic ales and the like. It was not like he could drown himself in booze aboard a starship unless he popped open some contraband, not that he openly confirmed or denied that he had anything tucked away aboard the starship.

"Rose and lemon spritzer," he said to the bartender who was tending to the patrons lined up along the bar, seated in their stools. The stools to either side of Percy had emptied, and he was not expecting company. His pale pinkish fizzy beverage did not take very long to make and it was in front of him before he could get too lost in thought.

Siren walked up beside Percy and flicked him in the ear. "Buy me a salad and I won't kick your ass."

"A little dainty for you isn't it?" Percy replied at the thought of Siren chowing down on a salad. He nodded and waived a server dressed in a greenish color of garb. "Salad on me for my lady friend here," he added.

"Nothing wrong with salad."

He looked at Siren. "You have that I'm going to kick your ass anyways look...what did you hear?"

"To be honest, I'm not entirely sure, there were tears involved, and ice cream, and popcorn, and a rom com. A rom com! Hense the salad. I don't want to be involved, I just needed payback for the aforementioned rom com."

Percy cringed "Oh my GAG," replied Percy who needed a much heavier drink which was not a possibility. He looked at Siren. "Seriously? Really...she came to you and put you through THAT. And all you want is a salad?"

Siren shrugged. "Ummm yes. Are you ok? Because I don't think I can handle any crying two days in a row."

"Oh please," He waved dismissively. "You won't find me crying in the sonic shower with a pint of ice cream," he added shaking his head. "Siren, I am fine. I tried to make peace with Counselor Rose, but she is sort of a 'If I cannot have it, nobody can' sort of person."


"Don't know, don't want to know." She grabbed the salad as it was placed on the bar and stabbed at it. "This ship is like being in grade school again." She shoved the bite she'd stabbed into her mouth.

Percy raised his glass. "Amen to that. This damn starship is worse than grade school, Siren." He shook his head. "Why can't I just have my damn man and ride off into the sunset without all this fuss just because she was pussyfooting around between the Captain, Yiv, and who knows who else...and who the hell cares. She needs to just suck it up."

Siren poked at her salad, and chomped. "You all need to suck it up. That, and get some standards. The wannabee Kirk or, what is Yiv anyway? Efrosian right?"

"No no no, don't get that in your head," replied Percy. "The Captain is a wannabe Kirk. Yiv? Not at all. That man is 100% pure Adonis and he's sweet and obnoxiously unaware."

"Oh gods, I'm going to gag on this salad." Siren complained dramatically.
"You three are on your own in whatever love triangle thing is going on. I've already proven that I'm incredibly bad at love advice. I just want to never watch another romantic comedy...ever." She glared at her salad as if it had personally offended her, but poked another bite into her mouth.

Percy shrugged. "You know that is the stupid thing about this whole thing. If Yiv wants to date Amanda as much as I question his sanity and taste, should he want, I would not mind. I could share him with her, but the world is not enough for that one."

"Share? A person? What, you take him Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I get Tuesday Thursday Saturday, and we give him a day of rest?" Siren chuckled. "I even know that doesn't work. Well not for humans anyway."

"Well....I'm not entirely Human," Percy replied. "Yiv is Efrosian and sex does not mean the same for Efrosians as it does for some other species. Not that Yiv and I...yeah, don't think about that."

"Well, I wasn't...but now I am." She waggled her brows playfully. "It's Amanda who I don't see going for it. She seems high maintenance." Siren took the last bite of her salad and practically shoved the bowl back on the bar. "Enough relationship talk though. I need a poker game, or something. Surely you know people..."

Percy scoffed. "Of course I know people. That circle of crewmen over at table five. They are lower deckers. They don't bet high, but you could clean them out." Percy sighed. "Amanda drives me nuts, but I need to get my mind off her. I wanted to try to apologize and make things right, but maybe I should just ignore her."

Siren sighed. She was getting pulled into this whether she wanted it or not. Perhaps she should just embrace the grade school mentality. She inwardly chuckled to herself at the thought. "You can't very well ignore her, she's the counselor, but you don't have to engage with her outside of the professional. I definitely don't think you are going to win her over with an apology, well maybe if you had a dozen roses and a gallon of chocolate ice cream...." She changed her tune half way through, as she thought about it. "I don't know though, I don't understand her any more than you do." She eyed the table of crewmen briefly. As soon as she was free, she was going to go mop the floor with them, and if somebody was lucky, she might have a go at one of them.

"We have other counsellors aboard, she's just unfortunately the one in charge...somehow," Percy replied. "I don't mean to drag you into this sort of crap. I'm not going to cry on your shoulder or anything. You don't have to worry about that from me. I actually have a decent understanding of her, and that's what's frustrating and why she seems to dislike me aside from the whole Yiv thing. I've studied her."

Siren raised a brow. "Now that is interesting. What have you learned, and can it keep me out of her office? And, you don't really care if she likes you or not do you? " Siren paused, realizing that she might care, just a little bit mind you, if Amanda liked her or not, and wasn't that a slightly disturbing thought.

"Textbook case of avoidance," the Chief Science Officer replied. "She does not stay at any posting more than a couple of years. Approximately two years on the moon and about three on the Avenger. Now she's here," explained Percy.

He shrugged. "If the Ontario situation is anything to go off of, then clearly she had some guy problems. It's like she never settles into a posting or assignment, just always on the run. She wanted the Captain I think but also Yiv. I think her indecisiveness and inability to make move is what cost her. I suspect she's so afraid of being rejected or things nit working out that she just doesn't take chances then gets upset when they slip by her. She self-sabotages."

"Maybe you should take her job." Siren snickered "That wasn't a bad profile." She looked longingly over at the crewman's table again. "You want to help me clean them out? Might make you feel better." She offered.

"I'm not much of a poker player, but thank you." He chuckled at the comment about him taking Amanda's position. "People get so wrapped up in judging me because of my cover. They get distracted by my bad boy antics and my anarchy. It's sad. They miss out on the depth and complexity of my character. That I am very well-read, gave a strong grasp of Latin, and my whole thing is understanding lifeforms."

He shrugged. "Yes, I'm an asshole who studies plants and has grandiose schemes, but plants can tell you a lot about people."

"Modest too." She quipped with a smile. "Plants?" She looked over at the bar, where her empty salad bowl had yet to be picked up.

He shrugged "Plants are kind of my thing. Botany and such, but coincidentally and perhaps poetically, I'm not fond of roses. Especially the ones with thorns. They look pretty but their can be a real pain in the ass."

Siren's look of surprise was clear. "I don't like them either. Yes, they are pretty, but they frankly smell horrible. But what can plants tell you about people?" She asked curiously.

"A whole hell of a lot or a whole hell of nothing," he replied with a smirk. "There's a lot that goes into it. Flowers with symbolism, color psychology, sometimes certain people are drawn to certain flower, but right now I think you'd rather be cleaning those boys out at poker rather than listening to me lecture on about fracking flowers. I think you've had enough kumbaya with Amanda."

Siren chuckled. "Yeah? You don't mind?" She asked, not wanting to be a bad friend. She actually liked spending time with Percy, but he was correct. She did feel like emptying the crewman's pockets.

He nodded. Before she was gone though he did say one thing. "Blue clematis," escaped his lips. He took the last sip of his drink, the ice nearly melted.

Siren raised a brow, but decided she'd look it up later. She raised a brow at him, but then just waved and sauntered off to her conquest.

Percy smiled and watch Siren walk away. She wouldn't really find anything. He didn't think at least. It was an answer to something Grace had tried to crack playfully. What was Percy's 'spirit flower ' It was a blue clematis.

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