(Untitled)

[lt_mcgivers]

Who: Marla McGivers and anyone who wants to run into her
Where: Mess hall
What: Marla's actually out and about. It's a miracle

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[ensign_singh]

Sanjay was starving, and sore, but that's because the antihistamine he took the previous night acted quicker than he expected and he fell asleep at his desk. Trying to work all around these tribbles was becoming beyond frustrating, and at this point he wouldn't mind if they contracted a virus and died.

He waited through the line, and scouted out a free table over in the corner and began heading towards that way when he noticed a girl with said creature on her shoulder along his path. "Y-you let him sit on you!?" He stopped mid-stride giving quite the dumbfounded look at Marla.

[lt_mcgivers]

Marla looked up, blinking, when Sanjay spoke, a little startled because she hadn't heard him approach. It took a moment for what he'd said to register, and she raised a hand to Odysseus, as if checking to make sure he was still there on her shoulder.

"Um... why wouldn't I? He's very sweet." In fact it was entirely possible that Marla let her tribbles sleep on her bed. She'd grown rather attached to the creatures.

[ensign_singh]

He was envious. Extremely envious and pissed off that it seemed like he was the only one on the entire ship allergic to these things.

"Well, errr... They're just..." He had dug himself a hole. Why couldn't he have stayed quiet and continued on his way to his table?

Might as well be truthful. "I'm sorry. It's just I'm allergic to the things and it's really frustrating."

[lt_mcgivers]

Marla took Odysseus from her shoulder and put him down in her lap, giving Sanjay an almost sympathetic look. "I'm sorry to hear that. Um. Have you talked to Medical about it?" She shifted a little uncomfortably, wondering she was supposed to ask this guy if he wanted to sit down, but... Well, she had Odysseus with her and he said he was allergic to tribbles.

And... she didn't want to be rude, but she was pretty certain she'd never talked to Sanjay before - or if she had, she didn't remember, and then she'd be embarrassed about not remembering if he remembered... After a longer pause than was strictly necessary, she asked, "Um... do you want to sit down? I mean, if being near Odysseus isn't going to cause any problems..."

[ensign_singh]

He really shouldn't accept her invitation, but seeing as how lame it'd look to be offered a seat and deny it just to sit alone... He promised himself he'd work on this social anxiety he had!

"It's alright. I got enough pills from Medical that I can just take one afterwards. But if I start sneezing or looks like I'm crying, I'll have to excuse myself."

When he sat down, he realized that he had never really talked to Marla before, and he held out his hand. "S-sorry! I should've introduced myself. I'm Ensign Sanjay Singh."

[lt_mcgivers]

Marla looked blankly at Sanjay's hand for a moment before reaching over to shake. Definitely a sign you need to get out more, Marla. "Lieutenant Marla McGivers," she replied, taking her hand back after shaking his briefly. Singh. Where had she heard that name before...?

Oh well. It didn't matter right now. "You... you're in Engineering, aren't you? I think I've seen you in the hull once or twice..." She didn't spend a lot of time down there herself, but she was pretty certain she'd seen Sanjay before, even if she hadn't spoken with him before.

It was a little weird, now that she thought about it, talking to someone who spoke in complete sentences. She'd grown rather used to hanging out with Keenser, and talking to someone human was... weird.

[ensign_singh]

"Once or twice?" He couldn't help but chuckle. Next to the Chief of Engineering, Sanjay was down there probably the 2nd most of the engineers, which was pathetic given his rank. But that was an entirely different story in itself.

"I'm there quite often, sadly so, I've been told." He poked around his salad before taking a bite. "I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure what you do... Other than enjoying a hopefully good book?"

[lt_mcgivers]

She blushed when Sanjay laughed. Really, how was she supposed to know that he was in Engineering all the time? "Oh. Um. I'm ship's historian, mostly." Mostly? That sounded stupid, Marla. She bit her lip, looking down at the tribble in her lap, and added, "Sometimes I monitor the ship's control systems, but usually I'm hidden away in my office, working in the archives."

Maybe she should try a joke? That would be good, right? Only it was easy to think up jokes around Keenser, but thinking up something funny or witty to say to someone she didn't know? Instead, she took refuge in talking about her book. "It's very interesting. Um. You probably wouldn't be interested, though, it's all history and I know a lot of people think history is really boring..."

[ensign_singh]

He nodded, and noticed that she was avoiding his gaze most of the time. Someone just as shy as he was, it seemed, and he couldn't help to smile briefly at that note.

"That's got to get lonely with all those files..." He mused out loud before she trailed off in her statement.

"I don't think history is boring, just alot to know! Tell me, what's your favorite part? I always thought the Eugenics Wars were interesting and some of the political stuff with the Klingons."

[lt_mcgivers]

"Oh, I don't mind it!" Marla replied, glancing up. "It's... quiet. I like quiet." It probably wasn't a good idea to tell one of the engineers how much she disliked the ship... although she'd told Keenser, and he hadn't seemed to mind. "It's... it helps me forget I'm stuck in space, sometimes."

Once again she turned her attention to the tribble in her lap. She didn't mean to ignore Sanjay; it was just easier to focus on Odysseus and maybe pretend that she was talking to someone she hadn't only met five minutes ago. "The Eugenics Wars are fascinating. But my focus is Classical Earth history. Really ancient stuff. Pre-space travel."

[ensign_singh]

Sanjay scratched his chin in thought, "Space can be lonesome sometimes, I agree." He actually knew pretty well until recently when he finally decided he needed to do something about that. "But lately I've been starting to meet more people...Here I am talking to you." He smiled.

"As for learning history in school, science classes were more interesting to me, I'm afraid."

Trying not to feel too awkward about the situation, he changed the topic, "What are you reading? Fiction? Nonfiction?"

[lt_mcgivers]

There was, in Marla's opinion, only one good thing that had come from her time in space so far, and that was her friendship with Keenser. The strange little alien was the unlikeliest person Marla could have found a friend in, and yet somehow, she had. She still wasn't entirely sure how.

But where talking to Keenser made her feel comfortable, talking to Sanjay was just... Well, to be honest, she was about as socially awkward as it was possible to be. Talking to Keenser was easy, because he was quiet, and didn't say much.

"Nonfiction. Um. Surprisingly enough, it's not history." She looked down at the book again, adding, "Um. It's a... a repair manual, actually."

[ensign_singh]

"R-really? A repair manual?" How had he overlooked that? It must've been the fact that he was too focused on being horrified by the tribble on her shoulder.

He swallowed, trying to quell his anxious excitement. "Are you... trying to fix anything in particular?" If she needed help, he was willing to offer some assistance, unless it was something he really had no clue about (to which he doubted).

Sanjay looked back to his plate, swirling the mashed potatoes with his fork, suddenly feeling no interested in his meal.

[lt_mcgivers]

"What? Oh... oh, um." Marla bit her lip, shaking her head quickly. "No, it's... Just a... a bit of light reading." In reality, she'd decided to take a look through it because she wanted to impress Keenser the next time he let her help him work on console repairs.

"I'm fine, really." She realized that that probably sounded horribly rude, like she was trying to completely blow him off, and amended hastily, "It's not that I don't appreciate your offer, really, um... Mr. Singh, did you say it was? It's just... I have a... a friend in engineering, and I've been learning about console repair, and..."

She trailed off, picking at her salad again, mentally cursing herself for sounding like an idiot.

[ensign_singh]

Scratching the back of his head, he couldn't help the grin on his face. She was so similar to him - reading manuals during free time? He thought he was the only one who read new studies and various reports on his free time.

"Your friend wouldn't happen to be Keenser, would it? He's typically the one who does alot of console repairs... D-do you really have an interest in it?"

[lt_mcgivers]

She'd really rather be reading a history text, but she'd promised herself that she'd at least make an effort to understand those blasted consoles.

"I... um. Yes, actually. I was. That is. Um. Keenser was showing me how to repair the consoles because I'd been scheduled down in engineering and I didn't really have anything else to do, so." So he'd shown her around the engine room. "And... well. It's actually a bit more complicated than I thought, so I thought that maybe next time if I knew a little bit more I could do more than just hand his wrench over when he needed it."