Meeting of Minds [Zero/Gavin]

Zero Alpha wrote:

As she sat on the biobed, absentmindedly rubbing her ankle in small, slow circle, Zero seemed to have retreated behind her usual expression of bored indifference.  Or she had, until Gavin mentioned her dancing.  Her head snapped around to glare at him with open hostility.

"Do not dare mention my dancing in front of others, nor divulge the fact that I dance to anyone!" she snarled as quietly as she could.

His first instinct was to tell Zero exactly what to go do with herself.

However...Gavin knew that he'd have to fight that instinct quite a bit, if he was going to try and push for a...well...a something with the Augment. A friendship? Maybe. Did she even have friends?

"Look..." he softly said, holding his hands out in a placating gesture. "Of all the secrets we're trusting each other with, that is the one you worry the most about? Zero...you needn't be embarrassed by what you love to do. It's a hobby. An artistic expression. The dance makes you feel more complete, the same as smearing pigmented oil on a canvas does for someone else." He shrugged a little. "I fold origami. It's a part of who we are...and what helps make up a larger picture."

Zero thought about the various canvases she had recycled in the replicator during her (short) experimentation with painting. She hadn't progressed much beyond stick figures and rapidly lost patience with the hobby. She had tried her hand at many things, but her child-like mind had little patience for things that didn't provide instant gratification. Dancing? Especially the form of dance she had chosen?

It was difficult to explain what had attracted her to it in the first place. She knew that she was graceful. She had some of the finest genetics in the known reaches of the galaxy. And yet, when she had watched a holovid of a group of ballet dancers, she had been... jealous? Yes, jealous was about the right word. While Zero had natural grace, they had taken their movements to a whole new level. So she had gone to the holodeck and dug out a program to teach her how to dance like that. The burn in her muscles as she pushed herself into each move, striving to be better than others rather than just knowing it... It had been... exhilarating.

But she couldn't let anyone know about it. She was afraid that Jiseth might laugh at her choice of pastime, that others may look down on her for it. And then there was always:

"Every time I find something that I enjoy, Starfleet Medical will find a manner in which to prevent me from doing it."

Frowning, Gavin stroked his chin. "I...I guess I can understand that," he said, not really meaning it. Starfleet would take her dancing away from her? If their ultimate goal was integration and assimilation, why in the galaxy would they punish her for having a hobby? What was more normal that that?

"I know there's not a whole lot I can really do for you. Despite my dad's name...I honestly feel like I'm always on the cusp of disappointing him, so I probably can't beg a lot of help from there. But...if you ever just need someone to talk to, about any of this...I'm here. In a strange, convolutedly tangential way...we're family."

Gavin quirked his eyebrow at her ankle. "And make sure you do your proper warmups and stretches before. You cannot overestimate the importance of a warmup, and a cooldown. Your muscles will thank you for it," he grinned.

Zero raised one pale eyebrow at him, wondering what he meant by disappointing his father. She had never really had that kind of connecrion with Doctor Kincaede. She sometimes wondered what had happened to him. After the raid, she had never heard from him again.

"In a manner, you are the only famoly I have." she mused aloud, then sighed slightly. "Although Starfleet Medical say that they wish me to integrate into normal society, they have an agreement with Starfleet Command in that they will control my actions until I die."

She glared again at the mention of warming up and cooling down. "I do not require you to tell me how my body works," she replied cooly. "I do have a medical degree. And, if you must know, I only neglect such basic elements when I am not ib control of myself."

The only family you have? Boy...we're both screwed, then, Gavin thought, though he said nothing, giving only a nod. "Oh...I know you have a degree. You probably have ten of 'em, and make mine look like origami fodder," he chuckled. "I didn't assume Starfleet made you a doctor just because of your dazzling smile," he finished, an air of ironic amusement playing about his features.

He did have to frown a little at her last bit. "Not...having control of yourself? In what way?" Was she being literal? Would Starfleet have implanted something into her in order to gain control over her? It sounded silly...but, then again, maybe it didn't.

Although she didn't rise to the bait about having been given her position simply due to her looks, she looked a little embarrassed at the thought of explaining what she had meant by not being in control of herself. Apparently, Starfleet Medical hadn't given him a lot of information about her.

"I was born and raised in isolation," she explained quietly. "The only contact I had was with Doctor Kincaede. When Starfleet raided the facility... that was the first time I truly experienced emotion. You could say that I am as a child learning how to experience such feelings." She toyed with the ends of her white hair. "You learn how to do such things by mimicry and from your parents while still very young. To have to learn them alone as a teenager is far more difficult, and Medical have been doing everything that they can in order to create triggers for emotional outbursts so that they can claim that I am not yet mature enough to survive alone."

Gavin shook his head slightly as Zero explained the deplorable conditions of her 'childhood', as it was. To think that Medical, which was the living embodiment of 'first, do no harm', would actually keep a sentient being as a lab rat...it made him wonder just at how involved his family was in all of this. He didn't even know if there was someone to blow the whistle to. Complacence could go all the way to the Surgeon General himself, as far as Gav knew.

"I can understand why you might find things difficult," he quietly said, after a bit. "Being a teenager is hard enough as it usually is, and that comes with years of experience through childhood behind it." He smiled sadly. "Figuring out relationships, how you want to fit in with the world..." Gavin trailed off, giving a rueful shrug. "And we're never truly done learning it. Considering that my boyfriend just broke up with me, I suppose I've still got more learning to do."

Suddenly, Gavin decided to completely roll the dice. He reached out, touching Zero gently on the shoulder. It was a risk, he knew, and one that could result in god-knew-what...but some risks were worth taking. "Friendship, then, is what we'll work on. I'd like very much for us to be friends, Zero. If you'd want that."

Zero jumped as the hand touched her shoulder, turning her head to look at it fora moment as if she was considering shrugging it off, but did nothing. She was more confused by Gavin's declaration that he wanted to be friends. Did people really do that? Just announce that they were friends with another person and that made it true? It was a very strange thought, one she was going to have to research in more detail.

"I only have one friend," she said softly. "Jiseth is the only one who did not care where I came from, the only one not to treat me any different than she would anyone else."

Zero Alpha wrote:

Zero jumped as the hand touched her shoulder, turning her head to look at it fora moment as if she was considering shrugging it off, but did nothing.  She was more confused by Gavin's declaration that he wanted to be friends.  Did people really do that?  Just announce that they were friends with another person and that made it true?  It was a very strange thought, one she was going to have to research in more detail.

"I only have one friend," she said softly.  "Jiseth is the only one who did not care where I came from, the only one not to treat me any different than she would anyone else."

Well, she didn't punch him. Or literally bite his hand off to the bloody stump. So...that was something, right?

He took the hand back, awkwardly dropping both to his sides. "Um. Okay. We...we don't have to be friends, then. But...I don't want us to be adverserial, either. Despite the tenuous familial connection, I think the both of us would benefit more from an alliance than being at loggerheads. Y'know, like...lab partners!" Gavin frowned sharply, chastising himself internally. Of course she wouldn't know what a lab partner was. "Er. Poor choice of words, I know. It's something we did in science class, and...yeah. I'll shut up now. Totally shutting up, now."

Instead of reacting to Gavin's slip up of using an example that she was incapable of comprehending, Zero slipped off the biobed, wincing a little as she put weight on her repaired ankle. It was definitely tender.

"Let us continue our conversation in a more private environment. There is no need for me to be occupying a bed in my sickbay and, in any case, my nursing staff are beginning to take an interest as to what we are doing."

Zero Alpha wrote:

Instead of reacting to Gavin's slip up of using an example that she was incapable of comprehending, Zero slipped off the biobed, wincing a little as she put weight on her repaired ankle.  It was definitely tender.

"Let us continue our conversation in a more private environment.  There is no need for me to be occupying a bed in my sickbay and, in any case, my nursing staff are beginning to take an interest as to what we are doing."

Gavin winced right along with Zero as she stood on the ankle. He would have preferred she take it a bit easier, but...it seemed as if this girl wasn't one to take things too slowly.

He nodded as she mentioned taking the talk somewhere more private. She was right about one thing - a few of the nurses were trying to look like they weren't listening. If there was one universal constant, it was gossip on a starship. "Er, sure. We can go in your office. Orrrr..." he grinned, "we can go for coffee. Y'know. Like friends do."

Zero frowned in confusion as she looked at Gavin.  Go for... coffee?  A beverage that Jiseth usually drank in the morning in order to wake up?  Or was this some sort of social occasion?

"Do individuals truly do that?  I thought that it only occurred in fictional works..."

Zero Alpha wrote:

Zero frowned in confusion as she looked at Gavin.  Go for... coffee?  A beverage that Jiseth usually drank in the morning in order to wake up?  Or was this some sort of social occasion?

"Do individuals truly do that?  I thought that it only occurred in fictional works..."

"Yes ma'am," Gavin said, grinning widely. He shrugged, motioning for her to follow him out of Sickbay. "C'mon, then...let's go. It'll do us both good to get out of Sickbay. It seems like I might as well just lay out a cot and freaking sleep in here, half the time." He stopped in front of the bay doors, allowing the motion sensor to pick up his form, smiling as it slid open. "Ladies first, of course."