Exchanges

Posted on Fri Jan 28th, 2022 @ 11:56pm by Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai & Lieutenant Sharrina Blackstone

Mission: Starbase Shoreleave
Location: Holodeck
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 0000

[Holodeck]
[One week out from Starbase 2 prior to Shoreleave]
[0830 Hours]

Sharrina knew she was odd for a Klingon. Most Klingons, if you said you were going to trade techniques of warfare, they were all in. But such esoteric ideas as she and Emni had agreed to trade were more likely to send most Klingons looking for the nearest bar where they could become inebriated and embellish stories of feats they never even observed much less took part in, though they would say that they had. But Sharrina was different. She valued this part of her nature as much as any other, and she looked forward to learning from Emni.

They had agreed to use the holodeck since it could produce any environment they needed or wanted in order to enhance the experience. Emni had told Sharrina that she was not particular as to the environment, so Sharrina had set the holodeck to display a scene from one of the many worlds she had been to with her mother. The location she had chosen was a lush forest — she had set them up in a clearing. There was a river nearby, and Sharrina could hear it whispering to itself as it continued its trek from the mountains off to the east toward the ocean to the west. She had a small campfire going, and she sat cross-legged just outside of the circle of stones that surrounded the fire and its kindling. Her eyes were closed, but she was not meditating yet. Currently, she was just absorbing the information her senses were presenting to her and waiting.

Emni sat across the fire from Sharrina, legs crossed in a lotus and arms propped loosely on her knees at the wrists while her hands dangled in front of her knees. She wore a loose, flowing, tunic over top of fitted leggings that made the position easy to hold. The small bundle of objects she used for meditation laid out on a rough cloth in front of her, not yet in use. Unlike Sharrina her eyes were open, taking in the program that the other woman had chosen for their exchange of techniques. With much of the crew on shore leave her defenses were low, Sharrina one of the few emotional signatures lighting her mental landscape.

She was focused on her breathing as she took in the details of the program. She slowed it progressively until it resembled the light manufactured breeze of the holodeck.

Sharrina opened her eyes, her own breathing slow and steady. Her voice was soft and pitched into a light modulation that was designed to further draw the other woman into the altered state. "Excellent, now take in more of the aspects of the place," she encouraged. "Close your eyes and observe the sounds, the smells, the ambiance. Let the forest whisper to you."

The Romulan woman did as directed, letting her eyes shutter and continuing the cyclical breathing. The sound of her own breath began to melt into the sound of the breeze and other sounds began to elevate in her senses. Birdsong stood out first, trilling melodies passed back and forth amongst the trees. A percussive soft swishing could be heard as leaves shifted against each other and the crackling of the fire broke through them all, combining simulated heat with sound. For a moment Emni appreciated the realism of the smells the holodeck produced, fresh greenery against dusky underbrush and the acrid warmth of campfire smoke.

Her eyes fluttered open, meeting Sharrina's gaze across the fire. "Is this someplace you have visited?" she asked, curious about the woman's choice of program.

Sharrina did not move, save to nod once. "Yes. This is a place on a world called Vendarys where my father took me camping, hunting, and taught me much of his people before technology and advancement took over their culture," she answered. "In places like this, he said, we could go back to the old ways, to being in harmony with nature and respecting it and the bounty it has to offer us."

Emni nodded, eyes shutting again as she continued to filter the different senses, taking a sort of 3D mental picture of the space around her. Her breathing slowed further and she felt the slide toward memory that she often did when she was this relaxed. With a stuttering half breath, she pulled herself back, eyes opening again, expression calm, though her eyes were stormy.

"This place evokes a memory, then," she commented quietly. "A positive one, I assume, if you find it helpful to focus on meditation in this space." She was quiet then, neither pressing for more information nor closing herself off from the opportunity for Sharrina to elaborate.

Sharrina's eyes had closed as Emni's did, and she had begun to slowly command her muscles, one by one, to relax. The statement made her open her eyes and meet those of the other woman. She could see the storm in Emni's eyes, but the fact that Emni had modulated her voice to that calm tone indicated that she shouldn't ask, so she didn't -- sometimes those answers came anyway in the course of conversation. Instead, she answered the question asked.

"Yes, it does." She cast her own eyes around them for a moment before looking back at Emni. "It reminds me of peaceful times in my life, of warmth and love, of my father and his gentle, calm presence. In this place," she motioned slightly, taking in the whole of the simulation, "I can almost feel him beside me again." She smiled almost wistfully, but definitely nostalgically.

She did realize that she was sort of chasing that two-headed rabbit down a three-headed trail and forced herself back to the here and now. "But if this is not as conducive to your reaching a meditative state, we can change it."

Emni inclined her head lightly to the woman across the fire. "Not at all. It's lovely. I was mostly interested in how you came to select it for our... exchange..." She lifted one hand gesturing slowly to the space around them. "I can see how it would be easy to slow down and focus in a space like this."

Sharrina nodded, her expression going nostalgic again. She didn't immediately say anything, merely letting the memories flow over and around her, then flow away again. "The trick is more to not focus than to focus, but I do see your point," she said with a smile that was just warm now. "Would you select a different location?" Now her tone was curious. She was still completely relaxed, eyes fixed on Emni's.

The Romulan woman didn't flinch as she held her companion's eyes, Sharrina's curiosity flowing through her like a playful bit of a stream, burbling its way along the constraints of its banks. It was friendly and she appreciated it. Her head tilted slightly as she considered, thinking through the numerous places she would select to meditate. "To create an effect like this," she said, voice pensive, "I would consider recreating the shores along the Apnex Sea. The sand there is almost golden, and the waves of the sea are a gentle sound, never getting particularly worked up as they lap the shore. My partners and I used to visit there in the summers, taking a small cottage and enjoying a private beach. We'd spend hours simply taking in the warmth and the natural beauty of the place. It was an easy place to simply relax."

She realized she had gone off on a tangent and brought herself to a sudden halt. With a small shock of recognition, she realized she had mentioned Jori and Sulli in her explanation. Her eyes shifted back to the fire, the smallest of tells on her features giving away her uncertainty.

Sharrina listened quietly, watching the other woman as she spoke. Neither of her parents possessed any psionic talents, and so she did not either, but both had taught her to watch even the tiniest signs in the body that could cue her into what the other person was holding back, or what they were telling. So it was that she did not miss the small tell of uncertainty. She also saw no need to draw attention to it directly. "It sounds lovely," she commented softly, her voice then taking on a slightly uncertain tone of its own as she asked, "Your partners?" She could not be certain whether the use of the past tense meant that they were separated (either by distance or something else) or whether it meant that they had passed. She hoped she wasn't touching a subject she shouldn't, though.

Emni nodded slowly, a long breath leaving her. "Yes. Jori and Sulli," she said, voice echoing depths of emotion--longing, sadness, and resignation among them. "They passed some years ago," she said quietly. "During the supernova much of my family, Jori and Sulli among them, decided not to evacuate. It was... a source of great conflict." She sighed, resignation rolling through her. "And then they were gone and there was no one left to be in conflict with."

Sharrina was no empath, but one did not need to be in order to sense the emotions. They were in Emni's eyes, in her voice, in every line and curve of her. Part of Sharrina regretted asking since it was obviously a painful subject. But at the same time, she had learned more about the other woman, and that was always a good thing. "I'm sorry, Emni," she said in soft tones laden with compassion. "I didn't mean to bring up pain, but if you do want to tell me about them, I would welcome it. There are cultures who believe that no one is truly gone unless they are forgotten, and the more people who remember them, the more they live." Of course, there were other cultures who would say that such a thing meant that the ones being remembered aloud were not being allowed to rest. Shar was not sure which camp she was in. It changed periodically because she could see both sides, and each had their merits.

Emni offered the other woman a small sad smile. She was used to the pain by now, but it was typically compartmentalized. Tucked away and brought out to be looked at in the privacy of her room when she could meditate on them, bringing memory back to the surface as she did. And yet it was also somehow a relief to speak their names again.

"No apology is needed," she said, voice soft but even. "Pain reminds me that they existed and were important. But the edge of it has dulled over the years and it is less of a cut than it used to be." She paused, considering then what to share. "Jori and Sulli were the last people with whom I shared an experience like this. Empathic sense seems to be latent in my people, or at least in some, but it is rarely found and usually only in cases like my own where another race's genetic makeup is present. But it was having this sense that made courting easy. It was also having this sense that made marriage hard at times. So I taught them both how to shield their emotions. Much like the technique I have planned to share with you today."

Sharrina was actually flattered that the lady was sharing something that she had shared with her mates before. She was also honored that Emni would tell her about them. "Did they have this ability too? Or were they more like me, transmitters?" she asked, hoping the blunt way of the question would not come across as disrespectful; that was the farthest thing from her mind. But she was curious.

Emni chuckled softly at that. "Transmitters..." she said by way of answer. "Sulli was the louder of the two of them, but Jori's emotional fingerprint ran deeper. He was more naturally protective of his emotions, but he felt them deeply. Of course, without training, they were both easy to read."

She shook her head slightly. "Transmitting is easy. Everyone does it naturally. It's shielding that doesn't come as easily. The most basic shielding is misdirection. Instead of actually creating a shield you rely on a single thing to prevent the empath or telepath from seeing anything else. Would you like to try it?"

Sharrina had listened intently to Emni speak. She was no empath, but she could easily see the depth of the woman's love for them as she spoke of them. Sharrina hoped to one day find someone that touched her that deeply. She nodded in answer to the question, pushing the rest aside and focusing on the here and now. "Definitely. Because I assume you mean more than just fill your mind with one thought and keep thinking it over and over," she said with a smirk.

Emni's chuckle sounded again. "Correct. If it was that simple everyone would do it," she explained. She brought her hands up lacing her pinky, ring finger, and middle finger together and pressing her pointer fingers and thumbs together at the tips. "The key," she began to explain, "is to invoke a memory. Preferably one that involves a lot of emotion. For an empath like me, you need to practically make yourself feel the feelings you felt in the memory. For telepaths, you're aiming to recreate a scene. It's smoke and mirrors and any telepath intent on getting past it can, but at a high level scan it works well to misdirect."

Sharrina listened carefully then nodded. "So the intention here is to 'overwrite' what I really feel in the moment with what I felt at the time of the memory?" She frowned slightly, asking, "But how does that protect you as an empath from my emotions? That seems more to be substituting one for another." Her question was not meant as disrespect, only clarification. Unfortunately, her mother's genes meant that sometimes she approached things a tiny bit too bluntly.

Emni offered the other woman a smile before returning to the pensive expression she wore when explaining these types of things. "The intention is more to mask than to overwrite. You're not using this to protect the empath you're using this to prevent the empath from knowing something. Extreme emotions are more strongly felt and so they register more strongly. If you can focus on a stronger emotion than the one you want to hide you can misdirect the empath's attention. You aren't, in this case, preventing the empath from reading you so much as controlling what they can read." Emni's head tilted slightly, considering her words. "Think of it like shouting over someone talking. You can't make out the message of someone speaking more quietly if you shout while they speak."

Sharrina nodded, understanding now. "So it's a sort of empathic camouflage then. Got it." She closed her eyes and allowed her mind to drift back to when she was young and first coming into her adulthood. The image formed easily enough. She remembered it clearly, the tribal elders, the shaman, the ceremony, the fire, the dances. As it all played out for her again, she let herself truly 'relive' it, emotions and all. She had been excited, scared, elated, eager, and tired. Before the final ceremony had come the Spirit Walk, and those always took a lot out of her.

The Romulan woman's head tilted almost as though she were listening to something. After a moment a grin started to spread across her face as a kaleidoscope of emotions began to complete to the calm curiosity that she had felt from Sharrina before she closed her eyes. Fear and exhaustion were in the mix, like a dark outline of a cloud, but the center was bright with excitement and energy, the edge of something about to happen. The calm curiosity of Sharrina's meditation, though, still overpinned the rest. "See if can focus on the more energetic emotions you're feeling," she said quietly. "Your meditative calm is still the dominant emotion in your fingerprint."

Sharrina nodded slowly as if she was far away and her reactions were muted by the distance. Focusing more on the excitement and eagerness of the moment, allowing the fear and fatigue to fall away in her memory, the excitement, elation, and eagerness filling the space they had taken in her awareness.

Emni's grin widened as she felt the shift. It was like watching sun cut through clouds or the bubbling of water about to boil and as quickly as it happened the calm fell to the background. She knew it was there, but she also knew to look for it. She was guiding this exercise after all, but Sharrina clearly had a knack for this and the excitement and eagerness she exuded was bleeding over to the Romulan. "That's perfect," she breathed, excitement in her tone. "The calm is still there, but it's much less noticeable. Excitement. Eagerness.... Elation?" She asked to confirm her read was correct.

Sharrina grinned, not opening her eyes. "Yes! I knew what was coming. It was all I could do to not rush." Opening her eyes finally, she tried to hold the memory and its associated emotions foremost in her mind while being physically immersed in the environment she shared with Emni. That would be the real test, after all. Anyone could immerse themselves in memory as long as they shut out the real world. But could she hold onto that moment, emotions and all, while forced to see, hear, and feel the world around her? She felt as though she partially succeeded, but she definitely needed practice.

Emni watched Sharrina's reaction, appreciating the matching spike of self pride followed by a determination. She chuckled slightly as the woman's emotional make up shifted as she started to take in sensory input from the world around her. The determination built, a touch of stubborn insistence present as well and while the elation and eagerness remained the began to get quieter. "Your focus on... focusing... is taking over," she explained with a warm grin. "But you're doing quite well for a first time."

=/\= A Mission Post By =/\=

Lieutenant Emni t'Nai
Acting Executive Officer

Lieutenant Sharrina Blackstone
Assistant Chief of Security