Being Stupid Together

Posted on Sun Jul 27th, 2025 @ 10:55am by Dominic Lowell & Lieutenant JG Nayisa Wrea

Mission: Character Development
Location: Nayisa's Quarters
Timeline: BACKPOST - Some time before things went tits-up
3024 words - 6 OF Standard Post Measure

As promised, some rather convenient schedule changes and cashed-in favors resulted in a free evening, one that coincidentally aligned with availability in Nayisa's schedule. It was only after the invitation had been sent and he was at the door to her quarters, a bottle in one hand and Layla slung over his shoulder, that she realized he was getting exclusive access to a part of her life that not many had the privilege of. The space was as eccentric as her personality; some of the custom decorations she put up included rather frilly, soft pink curtains on the walls that made large arcs, a large snake plant with many leaves, a framed map of some mountain range on Earth, and a desk covered in various technical components. The door to the bedroom was closed, a silent but clear boundary that their evening would stay in the main living space.

As was becoming tradition with their hangouts, Nayisa had produced two glasses for the taste test of whatever top-shelf mystery drink Nic dug up from his inventory. Yeah, it was a little dodgy to have the real stuff in personal quarters, but if Kane could keep a secret stash of ale in his massively spacious-yet-horrifically-underused closet, then surely a tasting of unknown substance out of public eye wouldn't be too bad. Something something, don't ask, don't tell, right?

By now, it was clear that subtlety wasn't one of Nic's core strengths. Judging by his initial disposition, and the way he had leaned against the recently-closed doors with a sense of anticipation that hadn't quite been squashed by delayed observational skills, he had arrived expecting it to be the first leg of an onwards journey. Gradually, as a combination of the poured drinks and Nayisa's lack of leaving-the-room made him realise they were already at the final destination, there was a brief moment of awkward realisation and the unravelling of folded arms to accept the piquant liquor whilst trying to cover his surprise with hastily-prepared self-confidence. This included hitting himself in the back of his head with his own guitar as he attempted to swing it free to lean against the wall.

"What, no butler?" If his clumsiness had embarrassed Nic, it didn't show on his face and, with one jibe already fired, he very swiftly abandoned any notion of confusion to adapt quickly to changing expectations. "When was the last time you reminded them how important you are?"

Nayisa snorted as she picked up her own glass, now containing a sample taste of some purple, shimmery liquid. "You really think someone could stand to be my butler for more than a couple days?" Bringing the glass close, she took a sniff, noting the tartness. The back of her mind, her inner P'Rel as she was now calling it, reminded her to be cautious with an unknown beverage, but for crying out loud, if he really wanted to poison her he would have done it by now. Nic also drank with her, so unless he made himself resistant to many different kinds of poison, she placed her bets on it being safe. Giving a subtle shrug, she downed the sampler, giving him a nod of approval. It had a sharp tang without it being overpowering, and the carbonation sizzled on her tongue.

The expectant eagerness on the bartender's face might have qualified as further cause for paranoia had a person not spent any time in his company at all to know how common it was. Several knowing nods expressed approval at the reaction, which prompted the only reasonable assumption that Nic had already taste-tested the offering before bringing it. It was, as far as his exploration of hidden treasures went so far, quite considerably courteous.

"That technically counts as a cocktail," Nic informed his host, index finger pointing at her glass to emphasise his point. "Mostly because it's actually a mixture of two things I found and figured would probably taste okay together. We're almost done with the unmarked contraband though." He feigned a disappointed frown, mouth drooped at the sides. "Then I'll have to scramble for a new reason for you to keep me around."

His words made her pause before finishing the sampler. It didn't take much to come to the conclusion that he had already taste tested the drink. "You cheated on me??" Nayisa asked with mock surprise. "After all this time, I thought the taste testing of unlabelled contraband together meant we had a thing." The hand without a glass in it went to her chest, and she put on the sad doe eyes for effect. "I'm hurt."

As was becoming a customary stance, Nic held both hands up in supplication. "Hey, I just said I mixed the two, I didn't say a thing about tasting it. Can't spoil the surprise." With an exaggerated squint, he made a show of analysing the Intel officer's features with a scientist's curiosity and then seemed mildly disappointed by the conclusions drawn. "Doesn't look like you've grown anything extra yet."

Reaching out, he booped the end of her nose.

"Dabbling in the unknown isn't fun unless there's someone there to see you screw up. I wouldn't deny you the pleasure."

The finger gently tapping her nose made Nayisa blink, resisting her trained urge to defend herself. It was her turn to inspect him closely, then she crossed her arms to keep up the mock argument. "You know that some of the drinks don't smell how they taste. Besides..." Stepping closer, she unfolded her arms to lift a hand up to his face, not revealing any of her intentions. For a second, it looked like she was going to cup his cheek in her palm, but instead she took her thumb and wiped the corner of his mouth. Backing up a little, she showed him her thumb, which had a faintly purple shimmer to it. "You didn't hide your evidence well."

As his jaw worked back and forth, indecisive about whether to leave his mouth open or closed, Nic slowly descended into sheepish admission, though not without a final rally. "Technically," he countered, turning his head to rub his chin against his shoulder, "that was a reflex move because I tried to carbonate it the first time." The tingle where her finger had left a trail refused his best efforts to subdue it and, after several more scratches, Nic let his shoulders slump. "Or, over-carbonate it, I guess would be more accurate." A pair of raised eyebrows pleaded innocence. "Word of advice; don't do that."

For a couple seconds, Nayisa imagined Nic furiously trying to contain a fountain of carbonated beverage by covering the bottle's opening with his mouth. The imagery of the glittery purple drink shooting out his nose as he lost the containment battle made her chuckle. "I suppose I can forgive you," she said with amusement. Just in case, she inspected his hair for glittery remnants to see how correct she might have been. "It's good, though. It's got just enough tang to keep it interesting."

"Sounds like someone I know."

The waggle of Nic's eyebrows prided itself on being rakish, though the effect was somewhat impeded by a general lack of coordination. At the very effort, the strain to make it appear like one was hitched slightly higher than the other left the man looking more constipated than anything else, a fate he saved himself from eventually by craning his head around to admire the room.

"So, this is where the magic happens, huh?"

The comment --perhaps even a compliment?-- made Nayisa pause for a couple seconds. Nic was one of the few people she found difficult to read, and this instance was no different, as his eyebrow wiggle contrasted any potential hidden meaning behind his words. That barely-present tease of his cologne only served to further confuse her interpretation. Seeing his shift toward the rest of her quarters, she shrugged, partly to dismiss her own thoughts and partly to try and one-up his quirky mannerisms. "If by 'magic' you mean movie marathons, then yeah. It's not much but it does the job."

"Tagline to my life really."

To the suspicious mind, of which there may have been at least one in the room, the nonchalance of that dig at himself might have seemed a little overdone. Nevertheless, the admiration in Nic's distraction as he scanned the interior within eyeshot conveyed itself as genuine, along with the familiar half-grin that prided itself a little too much on being charming. At some point, his expression shifted very slightly to betray a hint of private confirmation and then he was back, full attention forward, hands outstretched and clasped together out of eagerness to get started.

"Is that what the plan is then? Drink ourselves stupid and watch trashy sci-fi, because I am 1000% on board and only kind of disappointed I didn't bring my pyjamas."

The conversation over fries hadn't left her memory. Nayisa finished the sample before refilling, the alcohol shimmering faintly from the lights in her quarters. While she had possession of the bottle, she gave Nic a generous amount too. "Trashy sci-fi sounds great. Maybe a more thorough introduction to Layla if the night permits."

As if to take an unvoiced hint, Nic finally swung the instrument off his shoulder and reached out to lean it against the wall closest to the door. A paternal pat against the case matched the somewhat goofy affection plastered across his face, which an eventual confession might one day reveal had only grown in potency since Nayisa had mistaken the guitar for an old woman. The misunderstanding had been partially-orchestrated but the fact that it had worked was a point of pride now that Nic knew exactly what the odds against it were likely to be.

"She usually sounds better after a few drinks." The mischief of a quick wink was then lost to the presumption of Nic helping himself to the food replicator to coax the computer into accurately interpreting what a 'shitload of popcorn' actually was. In between several unhelpful attempts to rephrase, he threw out suggestions.

"Are we doing spooky sci-fi or funny sci-fi or spooky-funny sci-fi? I have some personal favourites but open to new experiences."

In final possession of a successfully impressive amount of popcorn, Nic wandered over to present it as if to making an offering. "Moolti-pass."

Nayisa smirked at the attempt to get the correct amount of popcorn. Accepting a couple pieces of popcorn, she responded with a chuckle, "haven't seen The Fifth Element in like six years. An impressive classic for its time. Come on, Dallas."

A satisfied grin held fast, interrupted only by the momentary surprise, and subsequent admiration, as a piece of popcorn tossed at Nayisa's face was expertly caught in her mouth mid-air.

---

A couple of hours later, the floor was littered by numerous failed attempts to match the woman's skill. It wasn't without want of trying that Nic had struggled to catch entire handfuls on his tongue by the time the pair were sick to death of making a dent in the copious amounts of popcorn. The carnage remained the only lingering proof, the contest otherwise forgotten in favour of plucking a series of meandering chords on the guitar rescued from her case. Nic had started out simply trying to coax the strings to hold tune, and had drifted towards providing ambient accompaniment for the current point of contention, which he was very definitely on the verge of winning.

"I'm just saying, if I were carrying around a bunch of magical stones in my stomach, I'd probably be a famous opera singer too. How'd she even eat with all that crammed inside her?"

Nayisa snorted. While she knew how to hold her liquor, Nic's latest offering definitely put her into the realm of tipsy. She could feel the continuous warmth of her cheeks, and they had a giggle fit earlier when she sent popcorn into her eye instead of her mouth. She sat on the opposite end of the couch, one arm draped over the back and the other draped across the armrest. The leg she chose to tuck under herself was about three minutes away from going numb, but she was comfortable. "But what do the magical stones even have to do with opera singing??"

"It's a heck of a raw deal, when you think about it." Unlike Nayisa, who had made a profession out of remaining composed even under duress, Nic was transparently merry and was at just the right stage of intoxication to be quite proud of the fact. "Intergalactic superstar but you're pregnant with the geological equivalent of a get-out-of-jail-free card." Several chords followed in reflective silence before he added, "Do you think she was expected to just poop them out when things got a bit iffy?"

A quiet 'hmm' came from Nayisa as she tilted her head back, staring up at the ceiling in an effort to at least seem like she was giving it deep thought. "Maybe that's the real message of the movie. When all else fails, go into the opera singing industry. They probably have good benefits... dental... paid stone removal..."

"Inconvenient assassination attempts," Nic pointed out, though his attention was diverted once again to the placement of his fingers, and the minor irritation of a chord that just refused to sit right. As rustic as Layla appeared, there was appeal to her tone, and of even more surprise was the fact that Nic wasn't actually half bad at getting a decent sound out of her. There was a rather long list of slowly amassing proof that he was all boast and limited on the results front, but so far his affection for the instrument seemed to translate into passable skill.

"Shame the love angle is the least realistic part of the story though." The remark came after a moment had passed, and did seem a strange observation indeed about a movie where alien stones were humanity's only hope of escaping annihilation. With his attention still cast downwards, Nic added, with just enough distraction to make it difficult to tell if the comparison to the way they'd met was intentional, "Happily ever after just falling out of the sky? Who'd buy that?"

Nayisa let a low set of giggles escape her as she continued to look up at the ceiling, completely missing his moment of reflection. "Hear me out: having happily ever after fall from the sky might be more reliable than normal dating. It's a unique icebreaker, and you know they're committed enough to risk a game of chicken against gravity."

It was the closest thing to an actual compliment Nic had ever heard her make, which was admittedly due to the fact he was reasonably sure Nayisa hadn't realised she was making one. A sideways glance sized up his odds, the calculation of a slightly elevated eyebrow rendering him ostentatiously thoughtful before the interruption of a failed chord transition distracted him long enough to frown down at the guitar in his hands. Like most women, Layla cooperated when it suited her.

He'd have to talk about them seeing other people if she kept this up.

"I guess it is pretty heroic," he conceded nonchalantly. "And probably not nearly as suspicious as it looks. Just a victim of bad timing really."

Tilting her head forward, Nayisa gave Nic a look of intoxicated disbelief, which really just looked like an exaggerated raising of her eyebrows. "Not nearly as suspicious?? What idiot would put themselves into such a position in the first place??"

"Extenuating circumstances." The convenience of pausing to retune provided Nic with ample distraction, and a completely plausible reason to focus his gaze elsewhere. "Sometimes falling is your only option."

"Yeah, right. Want another?" Nayisa asked, holding up her glass. As she did so, she stood from the couch, teetering slightly as feeling slowly came back into her leg.

"Didn't we flatten it yet?"

In an impressive show of restraint and probably chivalry, Nic wasn't too wasted. In fact, he'd passed up the last round in favour of providing the ambience and hadn't really been keeping count. There was no obvious indication that he'd noticed Nayisa's unsteadiness, though the ever-present twinkle in his eyes deserved some measure of accusation as he looked up and winked.

"Surprise me."

The answer to his question was a shrug. It took precisely one step to realise that Nayisa's leg hadn't fully woken up, sending a bunch of pins and needles through her nerves. The lack of proper motor function sent her forward in a rather ungraceful fall, arms flailing to catch something. She was sure she hit Nic's leg on the way down, but she found herself splayed awkwardly between the couch and the coffee table.

There was a rustle of movement, the quiet 'bonk' of a guitar not quite making it past the arm of the chair whilst being put to the side, and then the slide of fabric against fabric that culminated in Nic's face ending up peered at an awkward angle right next to Nayisa's.

"I meant a drink, you know. I mean, we can work with this if you really want but I'm kind of crap at Twister."

Nayisa's wide eyes stared at him for a couple seconds, then the grunt of barely contained giggles transitioned into full blown laughter. The topic of love falling out of the sky, then stumbling over her own tingling foot and tangling into her guest? What was next in the cheesy hypothetical, they kiss??

The thud of soft impact against the back of her head suggested another alternative.

"Direct hit, you're it!"

Beginner's advantage got Nic halfway around the couch before the first retaliation landed. It was the next three that sent him to the ground. By the time the fourth cushion struck, he was laughing too hard to stand, sprawled out on the floor with no hope of recovery.

So this was what death felt like.

He'd had worse.