2020-01-25: Managing Expectations
- Log: Managing Expectations
- Cast: Loren Voss, Anaitis Sura
- Where: Damzena Desert
- Date: January 25, 2020
- Summary: Loren works up the nerve to ask Anaitis to hang out.
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's a fair toss-up as to which line of thought running through his head is the worst:
The one that's wondering why he's even going to try to do this.
Or the one that's criticizing the fact that he's taking so long to work up the nerve to do this.
He even spent fifteen minutes debating whether he should keep or ditch the glasses, before ultimately settling on leaving them, because taking them off... honestly doesn't improve things that much. Taking one last review of himself -- new (blue) shirt and everything -- he finally draws his courage to the sticking point and heads off, to the Gear hangar.
It's his first day off in a little while, and, he'd decided, he's going to do it. He's going to do it even if it does end in a disaster.
Maybe, he thinks distantly, desperately (because he's catastrophizing and offering up a speculative 'worst' as a sacrificial lamb is better than contemplating his actual worst-case-scenarios) if Anat isn't interested they can at least be friends.
Think on the bright side, he reminds himself.
It's in the midst of this haze of rumination that he heads through the hangar, searching for the engineer. If they also had a day off and went to do... whatever it is that they do on a day off, or just aren't here, or whatever--
Well, he's going to feel really dumb about getting worked up. That's for certain.
<Pose Tracker> Anaitis Sura has posed.
It's not, technically, a day off for Anaitis.
Service on the Gears continue; as it turns out, the Damzena Desert poses a very obvious challenge of extra overhead on maintenance because of its rather difficult conditions. Sand does tend to get everywhere, even with filters, doesn't it?
They are sitting cross-legged over a large bucket and humming as they take a delicate artisan's brush and scrub what looks like a filter.
"Oh?"
They perk up and give a little wave with a big smile. "Oh, hello, Captain. How may I assist you?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
There are prices paid, as Loren has learned first hand, for using a disguised base like Assyria. This is one of them. It had been suggested he get some additional desert-proofing put in on the Schiehallion when he arrived. ...He still hasn't put in to have it done, he is reminded, as he watches Anaitis work for a moment on the filter.
Before the engineer perks up and smiles at him. At him. His heart feels like it's skipped a beat.
Don't get ahead of yourself, that more critical part of himself reminds. He stands up a little more straight, shifts his shoulders, and heads over towards Anaitis.
"Is this a bad time?" he asks, his gaze drifting to the filter (and, let's be honest, Anat's hands).
"I wanted to ask you..."
Don't say 'out'. Don't say 'out'.
"A, er, quick question. ...If you're not busy."
He resists the urge to mess with his hair, or glasses, or anything. Just stay cool and... don't screw this up too much.
He has certain expectations for his own abilities, here.
<Pose Tracker> Anaitis Sura has posed.
Mysteriously, Anaitis' hands are free of callouses and the other kinds of hard-worn chiseling one might expect of someone who has dealt so much with Gears. It's also adorned with a quite beautiful blue-and-purple marble stripe, using fake nails as a length boost this time around.
"A quick question? Certainly," Anaitis' melodious voice seems to just naturally sing out. "I was working on dear Schee's servo filters today, but that is not exactly high-demand work."
A pause, and then they add, "You look lovely today, Captain. Is that a new shirt?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
It's very mysterious.
(Loren assumes they use gloves. Particularly when it comes to the nails.)
"Ah," Loren starts, clearing his throat. He's already practiced what he was going to say--
"Oh. You did? Hope it wasn't anything too bad," he says, knocked a little off kilter when the unexpected comment about the Gear comes. He really needs to do more practice, but lately he keeps...
Making up excuses not to use it, if he's being honest.
"Well, I--"
Forget being knocked off kilter. He's knocked entirely off the path he attempting to walk when Anaitis says he looks lovely.
"I-- er," he stammers, flushing.
But not displeased, in spite of his own self-criticism. Some things even his internal voice can't (immediately) tear to shreds.
It takes him a moment to regain some semblence of mental bearing. Then--
"S-so, er, I wanted to ask... if you had time off coming up?" he asks, and just about kicks himself for phrasing that as a question, particularly after he'd practiced for ages voicing that far more confidently than... that.
"I mean-- er, if you wanted to, I don't know, go somewhere together. I've got some time banked, and... and, it's a good idea to get to know other people... on the team... better," he finishes, somehow managing to hold firm in spite of thinking that was the dumbest way he could have phrased that short of 'actually asking Anat out point-blank'.
<Pose Tracker> Anaitis Sura has posed.
One would imagine that fingerless gloves are very much in vogue with Anaitis, yes. Then again, their fashion style when it comes to their hand and feet usually are describable as 'airy' -- strappy sandals, perhaps a nice wrap around a bracelet or somesuch, but no heavier than that.
"I hope you do not mind. I gave Schiehallion a nickname. It tells me things, like when it's wounded or fatigued," they chuckle.
That is perhaps not literal.
Maybe.
But Loren's flusteredness is cute! Anaitis seems pleased to just let Loren recover on his own time, raising their eyebrows.
"Time off? Oh yes, I was scheduled for a break for the next three days. They said that I had been working many shifts."
They don't look the least bit overworked or exhausted...
Anat places a finger to their lip. "Go... somewhere? My, I would be happy. The last time I travelled with you on that Dig was an experience, but this would be for leisure?"
<Pose Tracker> Loren Voss has posed.
They're very ethereal. Enough, in fact, that Loren had almost thought them a First Class citizen when first he'd seen them. But Anat is Second through and through...
He'd checked, and managed to feel a little guilty, digging around in someone else's files like some sort of creep.
"Oh-- oh, I see. I didn't, er, uh, it does?" He might look a little poleaxed, but he doesn't so much think that Anaitis, for sure, can talk to machines, as much as he's puzzled by the clear (clear?) poetic turn of phrase.
"I never, well, really thought of a Gear doing things like that..."
What would it think of him if it could think? Would it think he was a monster? Or a coward? Or...
Anaitis gives him space, which is one thing that, on reflection, he'll wonder a little bit about. More than a little bit about.
But in the moment he's just grateful.
"The next three... okay." He pauses, considering his options. "Would you like to go to Meria? You know. Hang out? Yeah. Just for leisure."
It's not a date.
(he wants it to be a date)
But he has deniability this way.
Just in case.
"...You know," he says, something in his demeanor sharpening, "you do need to take time off. It's bad for your health if you don't rest. If you get sick, then you'd end up being my responsibility--"
He takes a moment to think about what he's just said.
"...er, well, you know. My... team's responsibility."
That was wretched, he thinks.
(even if... he wouldn't mind it, truth be told.)
<Pose Tracker> Anaitis Sura has posed.
There is a most delicate smile, from Anaitis. Certainly many of their mannerisms do remind one of a First Class Citizen -- ethereal, almost... detached of responsibility, the way the upper crust tend to just while their days away in parks and little games of nothing-doing, never having had a single day where they had to struggle.
And yet they work a lot, do they not? It is almost contradictory.
"I will," Anat promises. "Some of my colleagues expressed worry, and I would not want them to. Much less you, Captain."
They smile wider. "Meria... Meria." They don't sound terribly familiar with it. "If that is a place to... 'hang out', then I am sure it is pleasant, and with you too."
They chuckle more richly.
"I shall look forward to our time together," answers Anat, looking rather pleased.