How Do I...
After tremendous events, stressful encounters and narrow escapes, Claudia's crew finally managed to find something of a downtime to get to relax, recover and get to know their newest crew member. Freed from Sidewinder's clutches in a magical experimentation lab, "Specimen Eleven", a prodigy of magical strength and yet unknowing of the world outside her scientific prison, now resided with them aboard their ship. At least, that was the plan, until such a time as they could locate her original home, or family, or even just a way to keep her safe.
Yet soon, they all found themselves an invite waiting for them. One that stemmed from the Marid star system, within only two jumps of their current location. One addressed from one Duke Midnight Haze, a stallion and young noble that Tami had been getting a little closer to in the recent months.
Naturally, Hair Trigger wasted no time in making that their next destination, much to the sudden and embarrassed fright of a certain hippogriff...
How Do I...?
* * *
Carefully now…
Carefully...
Tami knew every inch of Claudia's bridge by now. Every rivet. Every weld. Every panel and wire and socket. She knew their time until maintenance, before she had to go bashfully ask Kerfuffle to come fix something. She knew the warm spots, and the exact line on the deck beyond which the half hour diagnostic chime became too loud to sleep with.
But right now? Now, she was using her knowledge of the deck panels and bulkheads to know which ones would flex and make a slight sound when someone else on the ship opened or closed a door. She had studied this extensively by now, and at this point knew exactly which sound meant which door was opening.
With her face tense and her heart thumping she moved one step at a time, working out the route in her head. She crossed to the door and peered out into the main street.
Nothing. No-one.
At the end, she could see the engineering bay door sitting open, the reactor core visible even from this end of the ship.
Nothing. No-one.
Leaning out, she peeked down the stairs into the common area.
Nothing. No-one.
Bringing up her multiband, she keyed into the crew's current activity on the ship's internal network. Admin level access was useful at a time like this.
The other three crew members were in their own rooms, active on their terminals. The two guest accounts with them were much the same. No-one could exit a room and walk up the stairs without her knowing.
Slowly, she let out her breath and eased the bridge door shut. She moved back to the pilot's chair, heart in her mouth. Her nerves were growing tense again, and her muscles felt like they were making miniature cramps all over her body. Not anxiety; it didn't have the sickly growl in her stomach for that. No, this was simple, raw apprehension.
Tami almost got to her chair before she scampered back again, looking around a third time. Everyone in their rooms. All main compartments deserted. Then for the third time, she came back to the chair and settled into it. Leaning down, she picked up an elaborate box bound by a ribbon. Gulping deeply, she looked behind herself and listened.
Nothing.
Slowly, she let out her held breath, and with shaking claws opened the originally unasked for package in her lap. She had her suspicions who gave her it, but didn’t know for sure. Pushing aside the unnamed gift tag, she unfolded the top.
The aroma hit her the moment she did. Rich, sweet, and smooth. It promised the most delicious, the most exquisite taste. The perfect, chilled brittleness, with the more velvety gentle centre made her sigh, and she felt a tingle run under her skin down her back.
A cocoa-based treat made fit for a princess.
That is, it would be, had this upper crust brand of chocolate not been shaped like it was.
Tami could feel her cheeks turning burning red the moment she lifted it from the box and the treat's shape and 'form' became clear. She held it in claw tips and sucked her bottom lip, this masterpiece of a snickering chocolatier letting its own tip point back at her.
Of all the shapes, it had to be this?
And why did white chocolate have to be her favourite?
Trembling, she gulped and quickly turned her head to the closed door again, listening. Nothing.
Retracting her head, making a gentle squeak in her throat, she started to raise it. Swallowing tightly, she licked and opened her trembling lips while trying not to look at it. Her shoulders hunched and she leaned forward, the end of the treat wobbling, until her teeth held it between top and bottom, and she gingerly began to bite dow-
The sound of the door closing behind her slammed through the bridge.
“Starting with the teeth? Oh Tam, you and I have got to have a little mare-to-mare chat about technique one of these days.”
Tami squealed, her hands blurring in a frantic motion of luxury chocolate item repackaging. She spun in the chair to see her captain smugly trotting over toward her, a freshly steaming mug of coffee held in her magic.
Stuffing the covered box down below her pilot’s display panel, a furiously red faced Tami scrambled to reassert her position at the helm. Babbling madly, she turned right and then left again to find Hair Trigger had moved to the central panel, leaning on it with raised, knowing eyebrows.
Tami gulped. “Captain! I...I-you scared me! It's...wait, wait! I didn't hear you coming upstairs and, hang on a sec and-”
The scruffy unicorn leaned a foreleg on the centre console, rested her cheek against it, and gave her a wink. Then, she glanced at the box below the pilot's legs.
“I wouldn't be a very good captain if I didn't know when a crew member needed some help now, would I? Practising for when we arrive at Marid?”
Hair Trigger gave a wide, eager grin, and Tami simply groaned in response, slumping in the pilot's chair, hiding her burning face behind her clenching hands. “Caaaaptaaaain...”
Said captain only took a loud sip of her coffee, and then chuckled to herself. Reaching over, she gave the hippogriff a firm pat on the shoulder before getting up to move to her own chair. “You do know the longer you put off just eating that thing rather than trying to make it quietly disappear, the more amusing it gets, right?”
“Urgh...” Tami just groaned in response, hands sliding down her face to drop heavily on her thighs with a soft, dejected clap. She stared at the ceiling, eyes sliding over to the side. “How did you even get up here so quietly anyway?”
Her captain didn't even pause from wiping a hoof over her console's touchscreen to bring up the pilot logs and nav-data. “Captain's instincts, I guess. I have to know these things. How long till we arrive?”
Tami screwed up her face, her rounded cheeks squeezing out as her eyelids shrunk down at the evasion of the question. Sighing, her heart finally starting to slow down, she looked back at her own screen and unlocked it. The bountifully smiling golden retriever wallpaper slid away to let her active bridge apps pop up.
Along with one word document. One she sharply drew in air at seeing, and hurriedly tried to minimise. Unfortunately, 'Captain's Instincts' were a thing of bleeding edge beauty in their ability to sense and act.
“'Ways to make it go well'?” Trigger momentarily peered over and read the title aloud. She waggled her eyebrows. “Looks like an empty list. Sure you weren't getting in a warm up to figure out what to add? Maybe a top ten? What of? Need any suggestions? I got safe, uncommon, adventurous...”
“Agh! Captain! No! It-” Tami exasperatedly groaned, haphazardly opening the wrong display for antenna control instead of the nav-unit readout with her jumping hands. “It's not that! It's just...uh...for ideas on how to approach this! And him! Because I've never been in this situation where I'm going to him first! So I was trying to write down what I'm supposed to remember and do because, really, I want it to be memorable. And make sure he enjoys it too rather than always taking care of me worrying.”
Hair Trigger heard her out and then softly nodded, putting down her coffee. Slowly, she got up and walked around the chairs, coming to behind Tami's, and laid both her hooves on her pilot's shoulders, each of them slowly pushing over onto Tami's upper arms.
“Well then, Tam...”
Tami blinked, and looked up at the unicorn's broad smile and bright eyes. Trigger's voice was low as she tilted her head around the back of the chair.
“...if it's 'advice' on making it 'memorable' for him you want?”
Tami made a strangled sound and frantically twisted in her seat.
“Oh-look-at-that-I-have-to-meet-Kiffie-sorry!”
She dropped down, scrambled off her chair and near-ran past the smirking form of Hair Trigger, spreading her wings to rapidly evacuate the bridge. As she hurried into the main street, she heard the voice calling out playfully behind her.
“You can always come to me, Tam!”
Hair Trigger laughed quietly and leaned on the pilot's chair. Watching the blushing hippogriff frantically flapping away, she floated her mug over to take another deep drink.
“I'll be waiting.”
* * *
“-and because I've met him before it makes this feel even weirder! The first time we just stumbled on each other, and the second time he never knew! So this is like th-the first time, intentionally! And it makes it feel so awkward and like I suddenly feel lost because I dunno what this place is like, or who'll be there, or what it is he is expecting! Or-”
Tammani continued her now approaching six minute ramble, her hands actively animating her every worry as much as a Zebrahan street-circus mime, as she lay on her back atop the reactor core in Claudia's engineering section.
If the big griffon working on the hydraulic fluid reservoir tank's outlet valve below her minded the incessant, high pitched, often repeating and occasionally unintelligible narration over his shift, he didn't give any indication of it. In fact, Kerfuffle had quietly swapped from the power tool that would achieve this job in twenty seconds for the hand-crank that would take over twenty minutes precisely so he didn't drown her out.
“-and even Vebs tried to give me the same talk that I know is right but that just made me wonder if I can even do that correctly, because I never have like this and-urgh...”
Exhausted, she lay down, and fell draped on her back over the thick frame holding the blinking core of their hyperdrive upright, her head hanging off the edge upside down to look at Kerfuffle.
The calico griffon patiently moved the crank to the next slot on the valve and gave it a sudden, strong ratchet around. Content it was at minimum safe tightness now, he paused and looked upward at the young pilot strewn over Claudia's core-frame.
“That's a whole lotta' worries there, Miss.” His voice was gentle as he scratched the side of his head, claws disappearing under a layer of feathers. “'Fraid I don't rightly got a lot of, er, knowledge on all that. But Mister Haze seemed a nice sort. I'm sure he'd hear you out if you're worried about it. Jus' gotta 'splain it all to him the way you did me, then he'll know how you feel.”
The sheer, innocent simplicity of it actually made Tami laugh. The tired, chest convulsing laugh of someone who clearly wished that could just be it. “I wish it were that easy...”
Kerfuffle sat down beside the core and scratched the other side of his head. “Why's it not? Mama always said that communication was the best skill of them all when it comes to meeting others. S'why Papa always knew when it was his turn to clean the hab-unit after bringing some work home with him.”
Tami looked down, seeing the honest smile on his face at offering the example of a happily married couple. She wanted to sigh, knowing it wasn't relevant, but looking at that face she just -well- couldn't. Instead she turned and hopped cleanly off the core. Seconds later, as expected, she felt strong arms and soft feathers catch her without much announcement and safely deposit her on the deck. Walking across its anti-slip metal covering, feeling the mesh panels above miles of wires and piping flex gently below her, she turned and looked up at the big engineer.
“Kiffie, I tried making a list. Of things I could do to make this not an embarrassment. But I just couldn't think of anything, and all the websites were just flat out useless 'cos they all assume we're in a club or have a city's worth of stuff to do. The only 'on a ship' ones I found were really lame fictional stories. Well, except one, but it's too long...and I don't think he has clones of himself. Anyway!”
She drew a long breath, and knew she was stalling. Groaning, Tami sat down in front of him so she could spread her arms, palms upturned. Time to just ask.
“Do...you have any advice?” She winced and made a slow, awkward shrug. “From a male perspective?”
There was a long silence.
Kerfuffle's gentle eyes stared at her, then his head raised, gazing over her own to the far wall. Into the void beyond. Glacially, they began to widen.
So this was how Papa felt, he thought, when Galena had grown old enough to figure out that not all baby griffons came from mineshafts and then ask where. 'Ask your mother' wouldn't do it.
A waving hand in front of his face made him blink and reassert himself. “Kiffie?”
He blinked.
“Kiffie? You okay?”
Kerfuffle shook his head, then shook it again, then nodded. “Sorry, Miss. Had one of them, er, 'existential moments of leave', my teachers used to call it. I, er, well...”
His talon moved from its common scratching of his cheek to the back of his head.
“I don't got much experience there an' all but, 'Lena once asked Mama what she was 'sposed to do to make her end of education cycle-years party go good for another griffin she wanted to dance with.”
Tami's eyes brightened, finally sensing some good, mature advice to be passed along! “Yes?”
Kerfuffle brought his scratching hand down and looked at the ceiling. Absent-mindedly, he picked up the hand crank and wedged it into the valve seal again, starting to pull as he thought. “And she sat 'Lena down and told her all 'bout it. I remember it. Was somethin' like...”
“Yes, yes!?” Tami was on her tippy hooves and tippy claws, wings outstretched behind her, teeth showing.
The valve sprung and Kerfuffle muscled it around to lock down the next of the steps. Pulling the crank out again, he paused and turned back to her with a content nod and smile. It all came back to him.
“Call me every half hour, be back home before ten, and don't walk there or back unless your big brother's with you.”
Patting the heavy crank into his other hand, Kerfuffle smiled and settled down on all fours to be level with the oddly dull faced hippogriff.
“I was so proud walkin' her, she looked just like you do now.” He flushed underneath his feathers. “I, er, wouldn't mind walkin' you there and back again if you felt it'd help, Miss.”
Tami's hand had been sitting near her multiband's touchscreen keyboard, ready to take notes. Slowly, it retracted, closed the application, and she pushed a slow, wide smile onto her face.
“Oh. I think I will be...fine! Yes! Anything...else?” she awkwardly forced out.
The griffon thought for a moment, turning the hand crank over again and again in his huge claws, before he suddenly seemed to grasp something, tightened his grip, and straightened his back with pride.
“Er, an' remember to flare your malfunctioning engine to attract attention!”
Tami gently coughed in the musty heat of the drive room, and angled her head. “What?”
Kerfuffle reached out, took her hand, and gently rotated her on the spot so she had to turn under herself, like a slow danc-
“OH!” she yelped, suddenly remembering, and half jumping back around again to face him, the gantry below her clanking under her step. “The dancing!”
“That's right, Miss!” Kerfuffle slowly but firmly stated, “That worked.”
She couldn't help but laugh, then blush, then chuckle, and then finally sigh gently. She smiled up at him and patted his chest. Opening the program on her multiband again she gingerly added 'Dance with him again?' to it.
“I...guess that maybe helps...”
“Sorry if I'm not a big help, Miss.” He shrugged, before wandering around to the back of the hydraulic reservoir again. “But 'Lena got that dance too in the end, and we know you can dance.”
The young pilot began trotting to the heavy bulkhead door that separated the engineering bay from the main street and gave a small smile. “I suppose. Sorta. Thanks, I'll, um...bear that all in mind.”
She stepped out.
“Miss!”
Pausing, Tami looked back, seeing Kerfuffle digging out the power tool again now that she was leaving.
“I'll have my multiband on so if you need to call me every half hour too. If that makes it better, then you can do that.”
Tammani, in all her fairly intelligent mind, hadn't a clue whether laughing, blushing, or just staring open mouthed was the answer. As a result, she coughed and choked as she almost tried to perform all three.
“Th-thanks, Kiffie, I...guess!” she muttered, returned his wave, and stepped over the frame of the door to wander through the intersecting passageway between engineering and the main street.
“Good luck, Miss!”
“Mm. Guess I'll see who else is...y'know...around to help.”
Then, just as the ambience and noise of engineering began to fade, she turned away from the big mechanic...and froze, her eyes widening.
Standing ahead of her, leaning against the side of the lockers at the far end, stood Hair Trigger. The unicorn looked up as though just seeing her, but the smirk had already been there.
For five whole seconds, Tami blanched and slowly shrunk back as she saw Hair Trigger mimic holding something Tami didn’t want to think much about in her hooves and start to draw breath.
Tami interrupted, speaking overly loudly. “Oh, sure, Kerfuffle! I. Will. Go. Get. That. For. You!”
Not waiting, she dove head first down the nearest ladder to the cargo hold, a very confused griffon peering out from behind where she'd been, wondering with surprised happiness how she'd known he needed a plasma-socketer.
* * *
“So, you're just not sure how to approach him when he's already invited you?”
Relieved, Tami breathed out with a long sigh and nodded her head in answer.
Volatility Smile was currently pretzeled on her work mat on the deck of the cargo hold, stretching one hindleg over the other and curling her back. With a gentle grunt she released the tension and sat upright, grabbing a nearby towel to wipe the sweat from her face and shoulders. Craning her neck to the left, then to the right, she rolled her shoulders once and then shifted her position to face the hippogriff standing by her.
“Well that shouldn't be too difficult to help you with, should it? You aren't stumbling across him unexpectedly or surprisingly; you have time to breathe, and you have time to prepare.”
Her voice was smooth, calm, and confident, and it made Tami's tension drop significantly. Smile had experience in relationships; she would know the answers like she would know how to ace an interview.
Tami nodded and brought up her list again, readying one hand to type. “Yes, yes, I guess. So...what do I do?”
Standing up, Smile grabbed her water bottle from her bag and took a deep slug of the recycled fluid. With a long breath, she sat on the edge of the lifting bench to push out her hindlegs and lean over them, her head held up to let her sparkling eyes stay in contact. “What parts are you worried about?”
Tami drew a deep breath.
“One example only,” Smile quickly and firmly interrupted, “For now.”
The hippogriff closed her mouth and thought for a moment. Of all the lists she was struggling with, this may have been the longest existing. Counting fingers, then feathers, she grabbed one at random and tugged down the edge of her blouse. Under it, the shortened, regrowing hair of her coat was still entirely visible around a pinkish healing mark on her neck. When she spoke it was with a gulping, anxious worry.
“I'm hurt. In a few places. Visibly. Unavoidably. And I don't want it to make it awkward when I meet him and he asks about what happened.”
There was a brief wince on Smile's face. Tami thought she knew why, and still wished she'd found time to approach about that. But for now, she let the crystal pony think.
“Well...” Smile began, and then she let a small smile grow. “Thankfully, I know the solution to that.”
“Really!?”
“Of course! It's a classic: the initial meet! With that, it all comes down to knowing what you're going to say, how you say it, and then practising it!”
Tami sat down, talons tapping their tips warily. “You mean like, I get a mirror?”
Smile grinned, shook her head, and stood up sharply, moving over to grab Tami's shoulders and get her up standing with a burst of energy. “Of course not, that's the realm of pre-teens figuring out how to ask for a social dancing class partner. Here's what we'll do.”
“We?”
The businessmare nodded and stepped back a few feet, shaking out her mane before tying it back in a bun. “So, pretend I am Midnight, and this is you just entering his ship. I'll greet you and then you just try out what you might say.”
Tami felt her wings droop on the spot, her mouth turning flat. “You have to be joking.”
“Perish the thought, I am not! This is a highly respected and time honoured method! Now, go behind that crate there and walk around it. I'll meet you back here. Go on. It will help make it easier when the time comes.”
She ushered the reluctant hippogriff away, and Tami felt her legs skittering over the deck as she was pushed and cajoled across the cargo hold. “Smile, really, I don't know-”
“Nonsense, sweetie.” Smile gave a dismissive wave of a hoof. “Just give it a try. We're all adults here. Now, let me see...”
She wandered away from Tami, muttering to herself. “Okay, Midnight...polite upbringing, rules based social awareness, slight touch of a roguish charmer if he's anything like his father...right.”
She disappeared back toward the bench, leaving Tami standing behind the large container in the hold. The pilot slumped her shoulders and bonked her forehead off the side of the metal box. With a sharp exhaling of air, she got back up after a good few seconds, and edged toward the other side to walk around. Then, she paused. Then she moved, then paused again. She groaned lightly. “Okay...urgh...”
Tami straightened up and walked around the container into view with a deep, regretful sigh.
“Tammani, welcome!” Smile immediately turned, a broad smile on her face as she hurried across to the hippogriff. “I didn't expect to see you here so soon.”
Tami's chest and throat felt like someone was using them for a knot tying competition. She let out her breath and awkwardly paced on the spot, unable to look Smile in the eye. “Urgh...uh-ah...hi! Uh...your majesty?”
The crystal pony made a soft tut, holding a hoof across her chest. “Tami, you know you don't need to call me that. Not between us.” She reached down and took Tami's hand, holding it between both her forelegs.
Oh come on, that's not fair! thought Tami, as she awkwardly looked anywhere but into her friend's all too well-acted face. She took a deep swallow. This was horrifically awkward in every way she could imagine. Her stomach was clenching. Her face glowing, she forced the words out.
“Sure, you-uh-Midnight. I'm-well-happy to see you too! It's nice. Being here. Seeing...you?”
Smile shot her a look similar to that of a director to her actress on stage on seeing the character finally emerge. Then, a look of concern came across her face and her hoof raised, gently moving Tami's blouse to see her neck.
“Tami...whatever happened out there? Are you all right?”
The hippogriff felt her teeth grinding as she tried to collapse her head into her own ribcage. “I got stabbed. Uh...in the neck?”
“No, no, Tami.”
Tami blinked, and saw Smile shake her head. “Not so bluntly. Be gentle about it. Embellish a little!”
“You want me to boast?”
“Of course!”
Tami groaned, looked away, took a deep breath, and reasserted herself with great reluctance, going back to her previous tone of voice. “I...”
She sucked in a deep breath and pushed the most uncertain grin onto her face she possibly could, trying her best to look like Hair Trigger and regretting every second.
“I got it while, um, saving someone from their robot guards?”
Duchess Midnight Smile made a sharp gasp and sat down, holding Tami by her upper arms. “Tami, I hadn't realised you and the crew were engaged in such heroic efforts out there. Are you okay?”
Tami could not cease feeling her own voice screaming inside her head and her every nerve contort until she was hunching just so she could force a wobbly looking smile onto her face. “I am, now you're here?”
Smile's mouth swept upwards, and Tami felt her lungs cry out from not breathing properly for over a minute now.
“Just...wish you didn't have to see it, Midnight?”
“Tami...” Smile fluttered her eyes and held the side of the hippogriff's flushed cheek. “It doesn't change anything while it's there. You look just as charmingly delightful as ever.”
The crystal pony winked, and Tami winced. She waited, and waited, until Smile whispered. “Don't leave him waiting!”
“For what!?” she hissed back.
“Take his hoof! Or accuse him of being devilishly forward. Put yourself back in control.” Smile patted the hoof on Tami's cheek, as though encouraging.
“Why...uh...” Tami began, and grabbed Smile's hoof to gently remove it. “...how, uh, cavalier of you to say, your majesty.”
Smile upturned the removed hoof, bringing Tami's hand closer, winking as she kissed the air near it. Then, she let go, and stood up straight sharply. “Excellent!”
“Really?”
“Mostly.” Smile chided. “Now, let's do it again. But notes! Let's try to get your answers on your wounds right off the bat, okay?”
Tami shrunk down, groaning, before dropping her arms and sighing with embarrassment. “I dunno...”
“And!” Smile trotted over the metal deck and whispered gently to her. “This time, when you inevitably call him 'your majesty', don't listen to him telling you not to...it'll get right into that thrill centre all stallions have to hear you insist on calling him tha-”
Tami shot up, wings flapping to lift her in the air as she looked at the wrong arm for her multiband. “OKAY! Time for lunch! Gotta goooo!” She landed and hurriedly cantered off with an overly loud laugh, leaving Smile to huff and cross her forelegs at the closing door.
“Her generation...hmph.” She blew a strand of her bun away from her face. “No respect for the fine arts.”
* * *
Vacuum packed sausages with herb and onion? No.
Two hundred calorie peanut flavoured protein block? Very no.
Sun dried tomato sandwich? Reserved.
Half a remaining whipped cream chocolate éclair?
“Why, thank you,” Tami giggled to herself as she reached into the common room fridge to retrieve the latter half of her snack. After today she could afford a little treat. Picking up the plate, she pulled it back.
And then almost dropped it as someone spoke over her shoulder.
“You don't need that.”
It was a sweet and young, but opinionated and declarative female voice, one that made Tami squeak and slam the fridge shut. The closing metal door revealed the bright pink of their newest ‘crew member's’ coat with a snowglobe cutie mark right behind it. She was holding a circuit board in her bare hooves and her big eyes were staring right at Tami.
Specimen Eleven. By designation. By name. It was a name Tami wished that 'Elly' would find a replacement for now that she was free from Sidewinder's lab experiments. It felt derogatory to Tami, to be nothing more than a number. Yet for now Eleven was sitting quietly and Tami suddenly realised that the blue haired pony had to have been watching her. She looked down at her éclair and gave a confused look to the unassuming unicorn.
“What? What's wrong with a snack?”
Eleven shook her head. “No, not that. That!”
She pointed with a hoof to the fridge and Tami took a few seconds to try and figure out what she meant. Eventually meeting nothing but failure, Eleven sighed.
“The light inside the fridge that turned on when you opened it. It’s so unnecessary!”
Tami scrunched her face, sitting down and picking up her éclair in one hand. “How? It lets us see.”
Eleven's eyes rolled to look at the ceiling, pointing at each end with very animated, pointed pokes. “You’d see anyway! The normal light in this room provides more than enough light! Lumens! Illumination! Whichever!”
“And if the room light's aren't on?” Tami spoke cautiously, but tersely.
“Well then why are you opening the fridge instead of turning them on?” Eleven spread her hooves, as if it were the strangest thing to ever have to consider that. Somehow Tami got the impression that a few hours later that light would somehow disappear into the growing mound of spare parts she knew was forming somewhere on board.
She sighed, and then smiled at Eleven. Strange thought she may act, it hardly mattered. The unicorn had been through horrors and was changed - probably forever - by Sidewinder trying to force their way into powers they shouldn't touch. That allowed Eleven a lot of leeway in Tami's mind.
Cautiously, as though awaiting another judgement for her actions, she opened her mouth and let herself bite into a much delayed sugary snack for the day. Light cream melted in her mouth as soft dough and sweet chocolate mixed. She couldn't help herself; she groaned a little.
It was always too good when they were just out the fridge, the slight firmness and the chill cream giving a perfect flavour rush, enough to push away the feeling of wanting to cringe and moan into a pillow when she remembered that chat with Smile.
She watched Eleven sit against the kitchen surface and start to fiddle with the platinum plated board, telekinesis making tiny circuit swaps and a little spark around their ends soldering them in place without even a tool. Instead just using that ominously powerful magic lurking in her. Eleven smiled at her work, looking relaxed and friendly; Tami had a thought.
A thought that made her almost grind her teeth and turn away.
No. She couldn't.
But what harm was it?
Edging over, Tami pressed her back against the cupboard below the sink front and settled down until she was sitting beside Eleven. Éclair for her, circuit-board for Eleven.
“So, Eleven...” she began, bringing up her multiband file. “You heard who Vebs and I were talking about right? How I'm going to meet someone? Midnight Haze? You, uh, well you know a lot of things. So...got any tips for me?”
Eleven didn't even look up. “Mhm.”
“You do?”
“Uh huh!”
Tami smiled, and took up the third number in her document, right below the 'make him sweat instead?' one from Smile's 'lesson'. “Well go on! Honestly, I need all the help I can right now.”
Eleven smiled that beautiful, innocent smile, and turned her head to look at Tami eye to eye. “Leave him!”
A sudden shimmer of a telekinetic field was all that stopped Eleven being sprayed with fancy baking. Tami coughed and hacked, trying to drive air into her malfunctioning lungs. “Ack! I-ah-WHAT?”
Eleven reached over and firmly patted Tami’s back. “Aren’t you twenty one?”
Almost choking in surprise, Tami managed to nod.
“Well, a hippogriff's average age for an effective reproductive cycle doesn't begin for at least another five years.” She sharply tapped her right hoof into her upturned left five times near the pilot. “You are being very hasty. I'm surprised you don't know this about your own species, Tami.”
Tami wiped her mouth and, hand on chest, looked at her in disbelief with her voice loud and bewildered. “I'm not looking to-to-THAT! I just want to have a fun day or two hanging out with him!”
Eleven made a neutral, somewhat denied sound, and got up. Her horn suddenly glowed and lifted a host of plastic cutlery from beside the sink, talking even as she seemed to inspect them, making them each move along like little soldiers in the air before her discerning eye. She pursed her lips. “So you just want to meet him?”
“Yes!”
“As friends?”
“Yes!”
“And not breed with him?”
“D-don't say it like that! But...yes!”
Eleven almost closed one eye, and wriggled a hoof up under her mane to scratch at the metallic implant running down her spine as she tried to choose between two seemingly identical forks. “Then I am confused.”
“How?” Tami asked quietly.
“Because I see you 'hang out' with all the crew here as friends every day with minimal issue. Why is this ‘Duke’ any different? It is the same broad activity.”
Tami paused. She blinked, and the immediate 'but that's wrong' response died in her throat as what Eleven was saying felt aggressively logical and almost, oh-so-almost, made complete sense?
She knocked the back of her head into the cupboard. “It's not that simple, Elly. It's...a bit more than just friends here, because-”
Eleven made a short 'aaah' sound. “It is because you MIGHT someday want to-”
Tami lowered her eyes. “If you say that word one more time I am leaving right now.”
The pink unicorn just shrugged, then suddenly grinned as she found the fork she wanted, and got up, taking her whole little project with her. Moving past, she stopped and turned. “Then this, well...I don't know what more I can say.”
Tami grunted as she got up, finding Eleven's magic helping to tug her along the way. She flushed, and stood before the teenage pony. True enough, Eleven had never had a lot of life experience being essentially kept in a lab since she was a foal.
Not that Tami felt bad for asking. No result didn't mean she didn't want to include her. And seeing her try was the important thing. “Thanks, Elly. Just, well, maybe Vebs and I can go over it all with you next time.”
Eleven nodded firmly. “Sociology isn't quite as interesting as applied sciences but well, okay. I wouldn’t mind it! You two were amusing. Strange, but amusing. But I'm going to find Kerfuffle. He’ll need this soon.” She shook the circuit board and turned. “Maybe the others might help you better.”
“Maybe...”
Eleven trotted off, and as she did, Tami's blood froze on the spot. Eleven's moving away from that spot revealed the part of the sofa her presence had hidden behind her. More particularly, revealed one Hair Trigger sitting on it, silently watching with a coffee mug held ready.
With an eager grin, Hair Trigger reached over and patted the sofa beside her.
Tami's mouth opened inconsistently, a gagging, stuttered choke emerging. “O-Oh look at the time! I'm almost late for my shower, ha-ha-haaaaaabye!”
She backed off, bumped into the side of the open door and stumbled her away into the bathroom to lock it sharply behind her.
* * *
Some twenty minutes and a mentally resetting hot shower later, a still somehow thoroughly unsettled hippogriff peeked out of the bathroom door. She cast her eyes warily to either side, leaning out to look into the blind spots. She'd made that mistake before.
She was alone.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Tami finally exited, and started making her way toward the bridge again. Flapping around the table, she typed mid-flight, adding 'Is it different?' to her list. Landing, she started up the stairs. But as she put weight on them, she stopped.
Instead, Tami found herself glancing briefly to her left. Then right back again, screwing her eyes shut. After a long breath, she opened them again, exhaled with a sigh of defeat, and turned away from the stairs. Moving past the sofa, she raised a hand, clenched in a loose fist.
“I can't believe I'm doing this...” she muttered, and knocked on the door nearest the sofa.
Immediately, she regretted it. But the deed was done.
Seconds longer than they ought to feel passed until finally there was a twist of the lock and the door swung open sharply. Gulping, Tami found herself face to face with a bleary eyed, sharp bodied rogue spy.
Whisper Step was quiet for a moment, looking down at her. Then, in a low voice, she spoke. “Tami? What's wrong?”
The words were to the point. Tami knew her quaking body had been seen and analysed right away. “Can I...come in a second? And talk?”
One of Whisper's thin eyebrows raised. There was a few seconds gap and then she quietly seemed to sigh, and nodded into her room, turning around. Hardly feeling any more settled, Tami wandered after her, thinking over and over how to word anything at this point.
Edging inside, she sat on one of her old cushions that still lay in the corner, while Whisper hopped back onto the bed, settling herself against a small mountain of pillows. Her tough-framed laptop sat there, and the agent grabbed it as she lay back, bringing it onto her thighs to start tapping away at with a precision cadence. Empty mugs sat beside her.
After logging in, Whisper's piercing eyes looked up. “Well? What is this about?”
She wasn't sounding impatient, or frustrated. Just focused, more sharply curious than anything. Tami took a long breath.
“So, there's this guy...”
Whisper's typing stopped immediately, those gold-yellow eyes narrowing as they raised up to look at the cringing hippogriff. “You have got to be kidding me.”
“...and-” Tami gulped. “-and he's invited me to-”
“Midnight, I know.”
“You do?”
“It's not exactly difficult to notice.”
Tami blinked, then blushed, then hid her face behind a wing with a small squeak. “Sorry, I just, I've never had such an 'invitation' in. And I don't know what to expect or how best to-I f-figured, y'know? You might know something? You know people, right? How they act? How to act right?”
Whisper sighed and started to type something rapidly, looking intently at her own work. Her voice sounded more like an aside comment as though she too couldn't believe she was even giving an answer. “Tami, if you're edging around asking me how to seduce someone...”
The pilot shook her head rapidly, waving her arms. “No! No, no! It's not that!”
“Wasn't it?”
Whisper turned over her laptop, bending it until it was a tablet like device, and started spinning what looked like floorplans around. The interruptions for her to work made the room feel so very thick with uncertain silence.
Tami groaned, slapping her palm into her face. “No, it's...I just don't know because I have all these worries like how I'm hurt or what I'm doing or how he's not seen me for me and like a dozen others and-and I just want to not make a mistake and ruin it and-”
“And you're coming to...me? For this? I-” Whisper paused and sighed, then cut herself off, not once looking up. “I suppose. All right. What do you want from him?”
“Huh?”
Whisper slowed down every word. “Romance? A close friend? A quick fling? Just sex?”
Tami gulped, partly from Whisper's bluntness, but partly because she honestly wasn't sure. The social class difference, the distance, the cloak and dagger element to it all? Was it more? Or just close? Or just indulgence? Thankfully, Whisper didn't force an answer from her.
“If you're going to get close to anyone, within their personal space, you need to know what you want from them first. Then figure out what they too want that would let you move in to attain your goal.” Whisper paused, then quickly added, “And his. Of course. Do you think he just wants you in his bed?”
Tami squeaked gently. “Uh, no? I...think he just wants someone in his life who doesn't pressure him like the rest of nobility.”
“He wants an escape then. That'd be easy.” Whisper spoke with an odd degree of satisfaction and cunning, looking up thoughtfully for a moment. To Tami, it was an unnerving tone.
“Whisper, did you just mentally prep how you'd case and entrap a stallion I like?”
“I haven't a clue what you're talking about, Tami.”
Tami narrowed her eyes. “You're smirking.”
Whisper made a dark chuckle, patting the tablet. “He's a Solar Empire noble. Call it a professional reflex.”
“Whisper...” Tami chided, only getting a sly grin in response. Biting one side of her cheek, Tami sucked on it and gulped. “So...”
Whisper looked up, and Tami delayed. After a long pause, she took what felt like an even longer breath to break the awkward cut, and continued.
“...should I take a gift? Or does that put him on the spot?”
And again, that still just as awkward silence.
“Or use that crystal mane shampoo?”
Whisper breathed out sharply through her nose and briefly shrugged, the loose shirt about her whipcord body only barely moving. Yet as she settled, she idly tapped the edge of her device, extending the silence. The dark earth pony settled back. “And I can't even pretend to get a call from my handler to escape any more.”
“Hey...”
Whisper looked back over at her, shaking a hoof as though to assure it was just in jest. “If you want to just talk with him. Or hug him. Kiss him. Bed him. Date him. Whatever? Figure that out first, I guess.”
Tami had started taking notes but then paused, seemingly unsure. “I...just want us to have fun? It's in two days. It all just feels so difficult to nail down. I can't be open about it, but I know he and I want, well, something? We spoke about just whenever we meet or...maybe even he isn't sure either. Maybe we're both just dancing around it not able to know.”
The tablet bleeped and Whisper turned it vertical. “That tends to be how it goes in some lines of work.”
Tami didn't think much of that response at first, but then she raised one eyebrow. It was a curious statement. “Speaking from experience?”
The athletic spy looked up and made a brief sound of mirth. “Maybe. Never know if you'll find someone nice on a mission.”
Tami couldn't resist a slightly curious smirk. “Pity there's none on this one, huh?”
Whisper stared for a long time. “...sure. Listen, I have a lot to do, Tami...”
“All right.” Tami breathed out and got up, feeling somewhat foolish for even broaching the subject. “Sorry, I was just-”
Whisper nodded slightly. She knew.
Tami turned, trotting her way to the door and opened it again. But as she did, she stopped at hearing her name.
“Tami?”
“Huh?”
Whisper looked up from behind her. “Remember to lock doors, use a proxy on your multiband to contact, and know his schedule. The nobility don't enjoy casual relationships outside their circles. Hang a towel over any keyholes in a room you're going to meet in. Scan for low-emitting wireless signals before you say anything incriminating, be wary of invisible servants nearby; they're good at that, don't wear lipstick, and always have an escape plan.”
Tami just blinked, staring at Whisper in rapt confusion. The earth pony just upturned a single hoof.
“It's what I'd do.”
“Thanks, Whisper.” Tami was tacit in her reply as she quietly moved to the door. “Sorry to bother you.”
Whisper just gave a dismissive shrug. A non-verbal 'no problem'. Tami gently closed the metal door and turned her back to it with a sigh. With an idle hand she added 'Have escape route?' and groaned aloud. Lethargically, she yanked herself up and started toddling to the stairs again.
That toddle quickly became a hurried push as she heard another door opening, and scrambled up even as she saw the green mane emerge from the Captain's quarters, mug floating out ahead of it. Hair Trigger looked up and made a teasing wink with a cheeky smile. She tilted her head, gesturing into her room with her eyes.
Tami squeaked and caught herself in the air before disappearing off upstairs. “Busy, sorry!”
Below, there was just a sip of caffeine, a giggle, and a slow closing of the door.
* * *
“And I just don't even know what to prepare, or think. I know they're all helping in their own way, I appreciate it, I really do! But even I don't know exactly how this is. Midnight and I only sorta vaguely alluded to it in letters, but never in person and I don't know if I can speak as easily then. Or will this place be too cramped and locked down with people we can't find time away? What if it's even worse because I'll be in overalls and I still can't get this oil out my tail from a few days ago. And will it spook him to see my wounds still? Or-or-or what if I make a mistake and get him in trouble? I just don't know what to prepare or think or so or...urgh.”
Tami lay back in her hammock, head flumping between her pillows, hands over her eyes. She sighed long and hard, and then turned her head.
“What do you think?”
“Relationship Counselling software module not installed. Please contact your supplier.”
Tami hummed gently. “So maybe if I send him a letter beforehand, we could work out and, uh, I could plan better?”
“Relationship Counselling software module not installed. Please contact your supplier.”
Her face dropped somewhat, and she stared back at the moon and star stickers on the overhead frame of the bridge, mentally picturing Claudia getting close, time running shorter. “Or maybe that'll just make things worse. Somehow. I don't even know how! Just somehow! I just want this to be a chance to...to relax. To be around someone I like. To let my mane down and forget all this horrible stuff lately for a day or two. Oh Patch, what am I supposed to do?”
The drone bleeped, a red light flickering.
“Relationship Counselling software module not installed. Please contact your supplier.”
Tami frowned and sat up, turning to hang over her hammock sideways, hindlegs hanging off the side near the wall, forelegs off the side near Patch. She thought for a moment and then tried a different approach.
“Patch, I'm nervous about getting a vaccine, but I know I have to go for one regardless. I'm scared of what might happen. What should I do?”
Rotors buzzing, Patch blooped.
“No required vaccine detected on file.”
“Theoretical.”
Again, the lights on his chassis blinked, and then his voice, a deep bass, resounded in the bridge as he began to hover away out to the main street.
“There is no requirement for fear in this scenario, Crew-member Tammani. You will only feel a little prick in your hindquarters and that is all.”
“Oh, thanks, Pat-wait WHAT did you just say!?”
Tami scrambled up, nearly tripping out her hammock to chase the medical robot.
“Are you trying to make fun of-”
She stopped as she reached the door, almost slamming into a pony coming the other way.
“Woah there, Tam. Where are you hurrying off to?”
Hair Trigger held her hooves up, stopping Tami in her path and holding her in the bridge. Moving above Trigger, Patch escaped retribution, floating away down the main street to his charger. Tami went white.
“Uh...I...was just-”
“Heading to the bridge to be 'busy', huh? Figured I'd join you.”
Hair Trigger pushed her chest gently, stepping inside by making Tami move backwards. Trigger's hoof kicked the door closed behind them. Her magic locked it. “Didn't get a chance to finish our 'chat' earlier. Seems you've been 'busy' since.”
Tami was sweating, blushing, backing away until she tripped and fell into her beanbag, Hair Trigger still advancing above her.
“So where were we? Ah...” Trigger raised her eyebrows, and leaned in. “How to make a cute young hippogriff's little private time with a handsome, strapping stallion leave you both-”
She switched to a whisper.
“-absolutely breathless.”
Suddenly, Trigger dove down, and landed beside her pilot on the beanbag, grabbing around Tami's shaking shoulders, her voice dropping as she leaned into Tami's ear. “And you know I'll give you only the full, absolutely raw details needed to blow his-
“C-Captain!”
“-mind. Ready?”
“N-no?”
“I want you...”
Trigger grinned, and reached over, pulling Tami's face to pull it close to hers. Tami squeaked, closing her eyes.
“...to just be yourself, Tam.”
Shivering, Tami waited, and waited as she heard the words. There was no follow up. When she opened her eyes, she saw nothing but her Captain, who would take any chance to make her blush, staring back at her, slowly letting go over her to sit back more normally.
“Huh?”
Hair Trigger smiled and hugged Tami into her side. “I want you to do what you always do around him. I want you to blush the moment you see him and never quite be able to get it off your face. I want you to stumble over your words when just trying to greet him because you can't get the words out right. I want you to end up rambling nervously on weird tangents until he has to smoothly laugh and interrupt you somehow. I want you to squeak and hunch up if he ever flatters or touches you, even though it's all happened before.”
She took Tami's hand in her hoof. Tami just stared, open mouthed.
“I want you to be that weird, heartwarming combination of endearing shyness and excitable energy that we know you for. Because it's unlike anyone he has to spend his life around with the stuffy upper crust. I swear to you that's probably what he's attracted to, and what he's most looking forward to seeing.”
Trigger poked Tami's nose.
“You.”
Cheeks bright red, Tami just blinked back.
“I-uh...”
Trigger laughed, and ruffled her mane. “Yeah, pretty much like that.”
Tami knew Hair Trigger was right. She knew it, because Trigger usually was when she spoke like that. She let herself be hugged in against the unicorn's side, blinking and thinking it all over. Somehow, with that mental reset of perspective on the whole thing, the rest of them suddenly made a lot more sense.
Kerfuffle hadn't been unaware. He'd just been telling her she'd already done it before and would know what to do, and that he'd be there right up until the time if she wanted.
Smile hadn't been trying to embarrass her. She'd been trying to make whatever actually happened nowhere near as awkward as what she'd play-acted already.
Eleven hadn't been clueless about it. If anything, she'd seen the clear logic right then and there. All she had to do was remember how she acted normally, and do that.
Whisper hadn't been trying to make her worry. She'd been just trying to make sure she was being safe and telling her how to quell her worries with practical steps.
Tami stared at the deck between the two of them, and felt her mouth slowly grow into a smile. The worries, the nerves, they were still there. Tami sighed in relief and nuzzled her cheek onto Trigger's shoulder. “Thanks...you're the best captain I ever had.”
Trigger snorted, amused. “Told you before, I'm the only captain you've ever had.”
“Still the best,” Tami whispered, and let out a long breath. “You realise I'm still gonna be worrying up until the moment, right?
“I'd be worried you'd been replaced if you didn't. Long as you're not about to implode from it. All good?”
Tami gently nodded, and settled down. “Yeah.”
“Good.”
Trigger sat up and pulled Tami up with her, activating her own multiband. As the lock screen faded, Tami saw that It had a paused video on it. One that made her eyes bulge out wide as she saw the title. Her face turned to one of utter shock as Hair Trigger reached forward and hit the ‘resume’ icon.
“What is tha-CAPTAIN!”
Trigger's foreleg grabbed around her tightly, trapping her on the beanbag before she could flee. Instead, Tami covered her shocked eyes and the smirk she couldn't hide at her captain's antics with both wings.
“So, next topic!" Trigger laughed. "Examples on how to not use your teeth and the best way to-”
* * *
Specimen Eleven
Image by Kalemon
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
998 users online
2,047,362 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
The entire time Tami was so overly cautious and nervous about eating that chocolate dong.
Smash it.
Just smash it and eat the pieces, silly birdhorse ^^
then again, it would have robbed the moment of Trigger.
"Vebs" is Volatility Smiles, right? (that name is such a mouthful)
10285187
You imply Tami is capable of ruining the presentation of a fancy treat, making her awkward or not, some artisan worked for hours on that! :p
Vebs is Verbena Mint, from Most Wonderful Time.
I read about Subject 11 in the summaries. How did she acclimate (well, begin to, I guess) to life on the Claudia?
...
She's mostly in her room reading books, isn't she?
as for a bit of negative feedback, as much as I love her, I got a bit of a creepy vibe from Trigger this time. The way she seemed to be almost stalking Tami, meeting her a total of five times and insisting to continue a conversation Tami clearly doesn't want to have. Heck, I knew she was gonna do what she eventually did, but it still felt too much like she was doing nothing but follow Tami all day.
10286689
Eleven is mostly involved in stripping parts from the ship it seems to build "stuff". Quite an unusual little mare.
I did figure it maaay come across like that for Trigger. Although her and Tami's relationship has always been a tad unique. Maybe I'll look into a couple lines here and there to shift away from that, but rest assured that she always has a good eye on Tami's genuine feelings. Had said scene gone on a little, it's almost certain she would have just been pulling her leg.
Edit - Shuffled up some wording in the ending, should make it a tad clearer. The next major one I have in mind should give a lot more of a detailed look into exactly how they both are.
Interesting chapter, but I would have really liked to see how it all was brought about. Keep it up I am looking forward to see more of this story again.
10289782
We don't actually know yet ourselves! Tami's visit to Midnight's ship only began just last weekend, after some shocking events occurred near the end of said journey to meet him. I'm sure the session summaries will be together to fill in that gap. This was something I was initially reluctant to post here as it's a lot more "game side", and its pay offs come more from the game than my side stories, but I saw no reason to deny the jokes from those who are following this.
Whew! Thanks for recommending the session summaries before! I only just managed to finish them before the next chapter was thrown up ^^
It was definitely a fun little chapter to read, I've not heard too much about Tami's relationship and where they are really at, so this does provide some insight, especially when it seems Tami doesn't quite know what that is. While not a unique situation, I definitely liked the solutions each crew member provided, that they all had a little something to contribute as opposed to the stereotypical sitcom-esque way of characters telling the main character at that time to do things they very much shouldn't do. It did get me to stop and think about how and why one should approach those situations too.
Also the part with Tami and Trigger on the couch had me burst out laughing.
It's been a while since the last update or comment here, so I just wanna say: I still love these characters, and I hope to see more of them at some point
10548551
Funny you asked! Goat and I are putting the final edits on another 88,000 words worth of story coming your way. :)
10548888
how do you do that? Thats practically a small novel XD
10549742
I wrote one, Goat wrote one. :)
Of course. Of all possible times, someone had to walk in right then.
Of all possible actions to walk into, it had to be that one.
And of all ponies, it had to have been Hair Trigger.
I shouldn't have expected anything less.
Well using the teeth would make it memorable. Whether or not that's a good thing is a later issue.Kerfuffle is far too good and precious for this galaxy.
11570267
Sometimes, writing for HT almost writes itself.
The rule is "If I have to ask myself if she would, the answer is yes."