Girl Talk

Posted on Wed Oct 8th, 2025 @ 1:23pm by Ensign Madelyn 'Madi' Moore & Ensign Mercy Mourne

Mission: Remnant
Location: Mercy’s quaters
Timeline: 410
1228 words - 2.5 OF Standard Post Measure

"Toot toot, tea delivery."

Having been back on board for all of about an hour, Madelyn had found herself initially a little lost for what to do with herself. Though she didn't deem it necessary, she had until the next day before returning to active duty and she wasn't entirely sure she had the headspace to deal with Finn's excitement over all of the new additions in any case. A long-overdue shower had taken up some of the time, it felt good to be clean again, but once an attempt to settle down with a book she'd reread countless times had failed to keep her attention, the young ensign had switched up plans. She'd been equal parts anticipating catching up properly with Mercy and dreading it, not because of anything the other woman might say or think but because saying anything out loud seemed a sure-fire way to jinx herself entirely. Still, their shuttle ride had been too short, too crowded, and if nothing else, Madi wanted to see how her friend was recovering.

Thus, it was with no small amount of triumph that she presented Mercy with a steaming cup, proximity to which revealed a highly-piquant zest of mint, or a close approximation of. "You were right, it brews up great."

Mercy perked up at her friends arrival, looking at the tea she was offered with some curiosity. Able to move far more easily now that Avira had fixed her ankle with the one device they had decided to leave behind she chuckled and stepped out of the way of the open door. Gesturing for Madi to come on inside.

“Thanks, this is nice. Uhm… what did I do to deserve a special delivery?” Taking the offered tea she moved to sit on her bed so that Madi could take the room’s one chair at the little desk. She had been working on fixing up some of the botanical sketches she had made on the planet’s surface of the plants they had collected. Each would need to refined and annotated before she finalised her reports.

“Not that I don't appreciate it, just rare people show up at my door with tea. Did something happen?”

For a split second, the question startled Madi and left her wondering if she'd overstepped. It was a flush of self-consciousness she pushed through, however, as soon as common-sense pointed out that there hadn't been any time for her to inadvertently upset her friend. Deciding to take the question, instead, at face value, Madelyn smiled and hunched her shoulders as if to shrug it off as anything remarkable. "The first batch of snap-drying seemed promising, I thought you should sample the blend that is entirely made from your theorising." Very briefly, Madi's brow flickered. "Plus, I wanted to see how you're doing."

“Yeah? Oh wow Mads, that’s really sweet of you. Thank you. Not sure I’ve ever been first to do anything.” Mercy glowed, utterly touched by her friend's consideration. “Thank you so much.” Mercy fussed a little before settling, making sure Madi was seated comfortably. Then she wrapped her hands around the offered mug, just taking a moment to draw in the warmth.

“Me? Oh I’m great thank you!” She wiggled her ankle for her friend. “All patched up. Maybe still a little embarrassed but the trip ended well at least. How are you?”

As usual, the other woman's enthusiasm was infectious. Mercy wasn't wrong; the mission had ended on a positive note, from the harvesting of more plant varieties to the more important discovery of a usable fuel source. It wasn't a permanent solution but it was enough to alleviate the current situation and Madelyn had already started down the path of trying not to look too far into the future when it came to contentment. Even falling into the temple ruins had served its purpose, more as a motivator than anything practical, but it was a start. And starts were important.

"I'm fine." It was honest, if perhaps a little understated. "Really good, actually." Much closer. "Kind of bummed we didn't have longer to explore but I guess there'll be other planets." Though her optimism was equally as genuine, Madi still felt the slight pang of frustration with herself because she knew it wasn't anywhere near the conversation her friend deserved. It just wasn't easy to know how to start it.

Except, starts were important.

"Um." Madi tucked her hands under her legs. "Is everything...else...okay?"

"Yeah... I'm uh... sorry about cutting the exploration a little short. Next time I will stick to less dangerous activities. Still, thank you again for rescuing me. I've uh... mentioned in my report everything you did. Hopefully it will only reflect well on you." Mercy then tilted her head. "Everything else?" She suddenly felt like her friend was expecting to talk about something specific, but Mercy wasn't skilled enough to sense what that might be.

Her mind quickly flashed to her awkward conversation with Darru, heart fluttering as she remembered they were going to have a date but she felt suddenly shy sharing the news. What if it went badly? She was sure people were already giving her strange looks after news had spread about the temple, the large penis gods and her accidental 'trip'.

"You were worried about how...people...would react to how you'd been behaving." Madi winced as the omission of names created a tiny little elephant in the room but she was genuinely attempting to be supportive without intruding too much. A gnawing sense of her own change in circumstance was ample empathy to know that Mercy just might not be ready to share. "I was just wondering if all that was okay now."

Mercy let out a sound that was suspiciously like a squeak. “Oh yeah… I uhm… I talked to Darru. We’re going… I mean obviously we are enjoy going anywhere, but we are going to see if… uhm…” Mercy stumbled to stop and drew in some much needed air to still the sudden surge of social anxiety. “We are going to try getting to know each other better. Like on a date.”

Large expressive eyes absorbed the information in a picture-perfect representation of a stunned mullet, but Madi's reaction wasn't entirely geared towards the opinion Mercy might have expected. She was still concerned for her friend, and found the Vulcan's presence intimidating, but part of coming to an understanding that they needed to plant a flag in the ground here and embrace the opportunities in front of them was coming to terms with the fact that connections amongst the crew were important. And if it made Mercy happy, who was she to protest?

And so, as a slowly-dawning accent to the sudden surge of empathy, Madi's features shifted to permit the spread of a huge grin and, without an intention to steal her friend's thunder, took the opportunity to match trust with reciprocation.

"I think I'm dating Duncan."

Several seconds later, she started laughing.

"This is so ridiculous. Was are we doing?" The pent-up energy released as if the banks of a river had finally given way and Madelyn, fully invested in their shared situation, clutched her tea in both hands as she sat forward. "What kind of date are you thinking of?"

TRUNCATED