notthatkindoforion

By the time Lucy has emerged from the bathroom, having gone second to wash up and change into her PJs, she's already shivering. The idea of trying to tough it out under a pile of blankets feels...

...well, it feels like she's not going to get a lot of sleep.

"Um. How are you feeling, Tendi?"

There's a tiny bit of a stutter as her teeth chatter.

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Tendi still sleeps in her uniform, out of habit. A fresh, clean uniform, of course, but Starfleet officers were generally expected to be ready to go at any moment, even from bed, so casual wear was usually reserved for leave. And she hasn't really had the occasion to break the habit, here on the Barge.

She looks up with concern. She's in better shape than Lucy, partially due to her habit of being touchy with people to begin with, and partially due to going out of her way to warm up anyone looking too frosty. But she knows she'll be cold by morning, sleeping alone. And that it'll take a while to really warm up in the morning.

But even if she wasn't affected at all, she's not about to leave her friend like that. She put down the book she'd been reading and comes over, wrapping an arm around her. "It's getting kind of nippy, now that you mention it? Do you, I dunno, think we should share a bed? Or- or we could just cuddle for a bit before sleeping!" In case that was too weird. But it's not like they don't hug and cuddle under normal circumstances, so it shouldn't be too weird? It's practical.

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"I was thinking we could move the nightstand and push our beds together?" Lucy suggests, incredibly grateful to Tendi for floating the idea. "Then we've still got plenty of space if we want it, but if it gets too cold to sleep, then..."

Easy cuddling resources are right there!

She does not seriously interrogate the thought that this will be the first time she's actually shared a bed with somebody. Like, literally slept with them.

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"Oh! That could work. I'm, um, a bit of a clinger though, so fair warning?" It'snot the first time Tendi's shared a bed with someone, after all. Though maybe the first time it's been platonic. And not just sleeping next to her friends on away missions, that wasn't really the same kind of thing.

"You can always wake me up if you get too warm, I won't mind."

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"Oh - no, that's okay," Lucy says, with a smile. She steps between the beds to go about moving the bedside cabinet between them. "I, ah, I don't know! Whether or not I cling. But you already know I don't sleepwalk or anything like that, so."

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Tendi hurries to help her move the nightstand. After all, lifting on cold muscles isn't a good idea, and she doesn't want Lucy to hurt herself!

"Well, the worst that can happen is we try it, it doesn't work for us, and we put things back the way they were tomorrow, right?" It wasn't that big a deal or anything. This was just to try to keep them both a little more comfortable during this flood, not some big commitment.

Although... she'd like if it worked out. It'd be really nice to have someone to cuddle in this cold and just... nice in general, to spend more time close to Lucy. Which is silly, really, there's only a couple feet between their beds normally. Well, however it worked out, she'd find a way to be happy with it.

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"Exactly!"

Getting the furniture rearranged is the work of a few moments. It's nice, now, being in here. The new bedroom is its own room, away from the rest of the apartment, with big windows looking out onto the space outside. It even has the star projector Tendi asked for.

It's cozy and private and it isn't drenched in the memories of everything that came before. It feels like it's hers.

Lucy pulls back the blankets and slides under, more out of habit than anything since they're not really helping to keep her warm.

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It is nice to have a more private space, one they both helped decide on, even if Tendi let Lucy take the lead on a lot of things. It feels... more permanent. Less like she's just crashing at a friend's place.

Tendi joins her, climbing in and pulling the blankets back up and around them both. Maybe they don't do much right now, but they feel cozy. She reaches over, putting an arm around Lucy. "Is this comfortable?"

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"Yeah - yeah, that's much better." She snuggles a little bit closer in, their legs pressing together. "This feels...really nice, actually."

Warm and safe, yes, but also just...nice? Being close to Tendi feels uncomplicatedly good, and safe, and easy. What if the flood ended and they just kept the beds like this?

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Tendi wraps her arms around her tighter, feeling the warmth spread through her from everywhere they touched. Faster than a simple hug does, too. She smiles into Lucy's hair, taking a deep breath. It's still not weird to like the way your friend smells, right? She always thought Rutherford smelled nice, too.

Maybe she's missed this more than she realized. Just having someone to hold at night, someone to be there. She'd given it up when she'd decided it was easier to avoid sex while she was focusing on her Starfleet career, but maybe she didn't have to completely give up this part? Besides it was... nicer with someone she cared about, then just another hookup.

Not that this was a sex thing. Nope. Just cuddling for warmth.

"Yeah. This is a lot better." Even if it's just for the week, because... well, people don't usually share a bed long-term unless they're dating or something, right? So Lucy's probably expecting things to go back to normal after.

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Lucy reaches up to turn out the light. It's not entirely pitch black, and she can still make out a few silhouettes in the dark.

"Wake me up if I fall asleep on your arm or something, okay?"

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Tendi laughs, snuggling down into her pillow. "Okay. Wake me up if you need more space." But really? She has no intention of waking Lucy up for anything, unless something starts actively hurting. She needs her sleep. "So... good night, I guess?" She gives her friend another little, affectionate squeeze.

Maybe she just... won't mention moving the beds back, after the flood's open.

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Good day, Tendi.

I have two questions when you are at liberty to discuss them: one professional, one personal.

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Um, sure! Of course. What's up, Thrawn?

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Thank you.

I am in the process of gathering a warden consensus on placing a fabrication lab in the Maintenance bay - primarily for the recycling of waste products and refurbishing them into other uses. Wood, plastics, and metals chiefly. We could construct a modeling and build screen that could be made easily accessible to the rest of the ship.

Would this be of any use to you as the head warden in Cybernetic Maintenance?

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Sooo a replicator? It could be potentially useful. How complex are the things it can make? Are we talking prefabbed parts or raw materials? Something in between? I know Starfleet replicators can't handle complex materials like Dilithium crystals, but it can do most parts we need for starship repair and maintenance purposes.

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Ship repair is precisely my aim for this replicator. The complexity would be up to the specifications on the Admiral request, but I anticipate nothing much larger than about the size of one of our garbage bins here, and nothing so complex that a 1/16th drill bit could not handle.

I am also asking because I do not know the rate at which your department and others are throwing away otherwise useful material that can be recycled and put back to work.

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Mmmm, so no electronic parts then? [Takes a bit more than a screwdriver to put together a motor or motherboard.]

I make sure we strip everything we can use if we have to scrap a project or break down a prototype once it's outlived its usefulness. Unless it's something that needs to be disposed of as biomedical waste, of course. [Which happens sometimes, when you're dealing with machines and computers connected to living tissue.]

So our waste output isn't huge, but we still wind up with scrap and burnt-out components and the like. We'd contribute what we can?

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Adding electronics may require more expertise than I am currently available to give. But if you wish to contribute, I am certain the Admiral can make it happen.

Would you have use for it as a tool as well?

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If he's willing to consider technology from my world while building it, he could make it programmable. Then, theoretically, anyone with enough comprehensive knowledge on how an object is constructed could program it to produce that object. It would... have to be something that inmates wouldn't have easy, unsupervised access to for obvious reasons.

[Being an inmate doesn't preclude someone from knowing how to program a weapon, for example.]

But even if it's only able to make simpler objects, it could certainly be useful! I'm thinking structural elements, casings, synthetic skins for prosthetics, that kind of thing!

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I was planning on placing it in the Maintenance bay and allowing it to be accessible via warden key.

All very good ideas.

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Let me know if you need any details about replicators or anything like that? I'm sure I can dig up some technical documents.

You, um, said there was something personal, too?

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Thank you. I will take whatever you can gather.

Yes.

[he hesitates. It's part of an assignment from Florian, but the whole idea of asking is frustratingly opaque and awful]

Do you find me odd?

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Um [Tendi's not sure what she'd expected the question to be, but it wasn't that.]

I... guess that depends on what you mean by "odd"? Keeping my eye that I don't know any other- [that awkward moment when she remembers she doesn't even know what Thrawn's race is called] -people from your culture, so I can't judge by that metric.

So, um, I guess I'd have to ask in what context?

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