Moving in on Game Night

Posted on Sat Mar 14th, 2026 @ 6:05pm by Ensign Eekit Drol & Ensign Kaelira Tamsin & Ensign Mei Ratthi & Lieutenant JG Kestrel
Edited on on Sat Mar 14th, 2026 @ 6:06pm

Mission: Port of Call
Location: Junior Officer's Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 14 at 2120

[Deck 5]
[Junior Officers' Quarters]
[2120]

“No!” Eekit's exclamation was mostly laugh, her severe, ridged features crinkling up with amusement, “Meeei, you can't play the puffidoodle until I've rolled!” By this point in the game, Eekit obviously felt this should have been obvious, but the fact that Mei was willing to make such a play in and of itself nearly sent her into uncontrollable fits of giggles.

“Just wait,” she implored, taking the small token shaped like a quadraped of some description and tumbling it between her cupped palms. Though it looked like a gamepiece, it was in fact used similarly to a die, and when she spilled it out across the low table, Eekit watched intently to see how it would land, its form weighted just so it would tumble a few times, very dice-like. Eventually it rolled to a stop standing on all four of its legs, its little mouth opened wide in a roar. “Yes!” Eekit crowed, punching her fists into the air. The game was spread out on their low table, the three of them seated around it, cups and empty food plates scattered around them. The Cardassian shuffled her cards carefully and drew one out, placing it face down in her area of the board and trying not to look smug. “Now you can go,” she said with a toothy grin at Mei, carefully not staring too long at her. Keep it light, she reminded herself.

From her spot at the table, Kestrel watched this exchange with no small degree of amusement. She knew Eeekit well enough. At least well enough in a work capacity and from a little bit of off duty hang out time when they security officers had gotten a meal together or something like that. But living with the Cardassian woman was new and only a few days in the Argelian was already appreciative of this new perspective.

Eekit's enthusiasm was infectious, however Kestrel's grasp of the game had clearly not caught up. "Wait," she said with a half formed idea that she was missing a step. "Shouldn't I have a card down too?" She eyed the board, the small four legged dice figure, and the card that Eekit had just laid before looking between the other two women.

She offered Mei a look that spoke to the comraderies of two people engaged in an activity for which they were clearly still learning and for whom the teacher was an enthusiast. Mei held a different kind of newness for her. She and the dark haired scientist had been pulled into the orbit of Irynya and her parties on a few occasions, so Mei wasn't an entire unknown. Still, Kestrel was aware of how little she'd actually gotten to know the woman during those group gatherings.

Mei's brow scrunched in confusion. "But didn't I play the puffidoodle before you rolled last time? I thought I had, anyway. But then there was that whole bit with the cards, so maybe I'm just misremembering. Or maybe not?" She stared down at the board and its smattering of pieces, cards, and puffidoodles like she'd never seen any of it before. "Now I don't remember what I did last turn. You could be changing the rules on me every go around, and I'd never know it." She looked up at Eekit, though the stern look on her face was marred by the smile she couldn't quite hold back. "You're not doing that, are you?"

Eekit's toothy grin widened, and in her ridged face it was hard to see it as anything but menacing until she managed to wrestle her features into some semblance of innocence. It was actually a good imitation; avoiding beatings was good incentive to learn the expression. "Mei," she said, voice full of wounded integrity, "Would I do that?" She reached out one gray hand and nudged the strange die toward Mei. "Now you can roll, or you can play the puffidoodle. Not both... wait. No wait. Kestrel, you're right. Why didn't you play a card last turn?" All artifice had dropped off her face, now she simply looked puzzled. Huffing out a sigh, she waved a dismissive hand. "No mind, just play two next round. Mei?" She looked expectantly at the anthropologist, all innocence once again.

The absolute panoply of expressions that Eekit had provided them throughout the course of the game made Kestrel's fingers itch for her pencils. She wasn't sure if Cardassians liked being drawn or even cared much for art. But she would have loved to capture the attempted innocent expression that the other woman had just offered to Mei. It was such a fabulous and immediately adjustment. And then it dropped and Kestrel found herself evaluating the cards in her hand for the twentieth time. She had her fingers on a particular card when the instruction to simply play two the next time round was given and with a small resigned sigh she released it, eyes now scanning the hand for two such cards.

There was something in Eekit's voice as she spoke Mei's name with a practiced, but yet somehow still anticipatory, calm that made the Argelian look up and scan the board. There were the puffidoodles. And the cards and... No... Her eyes darted to Mei and held. Surely she saw it too.

If Mei saw what Kestrel had seen, she didn't show it. She was examining the board with its curious pieces with such an intent expression one might have thought she was going to be taking a test on it later. "I think you would do that. You get more than a little devious when you play board games. We could be playing tic tac toe or something like that, and you'd find a way to bend the rules in your favor. I also think I will–" she broke off and scrunched her nose. "No, maybe not."

She looked up at Kestrel. "I think I'll play the puffidoodle?" She did not sound confident about her intended move. "Or maybe that will set me back another five spaces. Again."

--

Kaelira had finally been cleared to board the Sojourner after it had docked and had already gotten her security clearances and her room assignment and had taken her time to explore the ship a little bit while she made her way to her new quarters. Apparently she was going to be sharing with three other people, but she didn't mind in the slightest. The more, the merrier.

If there was anyone in the shared quarters, she didn’t want to just swipe her access card and walk right in and shock them with someone they didn't know. That would've been the best way to getting off on the wrong foot with everyone for sure.

Standing outside the quarters she was designated, Kaelira felt happy, calm and confident that she would be received well when someone answered as she put down her bags and pressed the chime before standing back to wait patiently.

--

Anything Eekit might have said in response to Mei's less-than-confident move was interrupted by the door chime which immediately wiped any expression from the Cardassian's face. She glanced across the table at the other two, head cocked slightly to the side in the silent question always asked at times like these: Were you expecting someone?

Mei looked up from the puffidoodle she was still unsure of and shrugged. "I'm not expecting anyone. I don't think I am, anyway. With everything, my brain's still a little fried. But I don't think I invited anyone. I feel like I would have mentioned that." She glanced over at Kestrel. "Are you expecting anyone?"

Kestrel shook her head, confirming that she, too, wasn't expecting a guest. And although there really wasn't any significant reason for concern, she was the first to move. Unfolding herself from her seat she stretched and moved for the door. It wasn't expressly necessary to do so, but there had been so much change--much of it due to crisis and loss--that she felt better stepping up to the door.

With a quick glance back over her shoulder to the other two women she spoke to the middle distance. "Come," she said trying to infuse some warmth into the invitation that, effectively, unlocked the door.

Eekit fidgeted, looking like she wanted to stand as well. She had no idea why she felt that way; the chances of whomever was at the door being a threat were vanishingly low. Still, she was tense, the cords of her scaled neck tightening as she glanced first at Mei again, and then back to the door as it slid open.

Kaelira put on her easiest going smile as the door opened and she stepped inside, instantly spotting her three new roommates sitting around a board game. Immediately she felt like she had interrupted something but started to talk anyway. "Hey," she said slowly with a slightly warmed smile, "I don't mean to interrupt your game or anything, but I'm one of the new nurses on board, Kaelira Tamsin, and my orders are saying I've been assigned to this room, so it looks like I'll be your new room-mate."

Eekit eased her cards face down onto the table to leave her hands empty, the tension in her posture solidifying as the woman stepped into the room. Her expression closed as well, becoming as forbidding as her father's scariest mien. She muttered something that might, if one squinted at it right, have been a welcome, but the words were too quiet to be clearly discerned across the common room to the door.

If Eekit's response was closed, Kestrel's was a near opposite. Her face lit with a warm and welcoming smile and she stood to the side, gesturing for the new arrival to come in. "Hi," she said. "I'm Kestrel, uh," she glanced back at the other two, "I think we're bunking together." With a flourish she indicated the door to her room where the unused bunk was found. "We haven't seen any Dots yet--didn't realize it had been assigned."

As if that was somehow an invitation the beep of a Dot making itself known arose, and the small robot entered the room, making for Kestrel's--and now Kaelira's--room. Kestrel's face screwed up with amusement. "Right on schedule then," she said with a chuckle and then, realizing she was a bit late, she added, "Welcome."

"Hi!" Mei smiled up at their new roommate and waved, nearly knocking the puffidoodle off the board. "Oops. Now I'm messing up the game." She glanced over at Eekit and, noticing her dark look, gently touched the Cardassian's arm as if to say, 'it's alright, we're all safe'. "I'm Mei, the anthropologist on board. I'd stand up and shake your hand or whatever, but I've already upset the board enough. If I move anymore, I'll probably knock the whole thing over and we'd have to start from the beginning, and then Eekit would be really annoyed with me. She likes her weird board games."

Kaelira was slightly taken back at the Cardassians expression and wondered what she'd done to get hostility in the few moments of being there. The other two, however, were lovely and warm in their greetings as she stepped in and it made Kaelira suddenly miss her friend Sato. "The last thing needed is to upset the board game, so I understand. But thank you for the welcome," she nodded to the game as she put her bag down, "What kind of game is this?"

Eekit looked down at Mei's hand, staring at it like it had started to sprout horns. Fortunately, the contact was enough to make her bite back her snarky rejoinder and instead she schooled her expression to neutrality. Unfortunately, on her Cardassian features, this only served to make her look dour. "It's got a little skill, a little luck, and at least one puffidoodle," she said, explaining nothing. There wasn't any venom in the words, but nor were they particularly inviting. She didn't look at the newcomer, choosing instead to track the Dot across the room. As it disappeared into Kestrel's room, Eekit dragged her attention back to Kaelira, managing to thaw enough to smirk, "It's a good thing you walked in, you just saved us all from losing to Mei." At this, she placed her cards face down on the table, shrugging Mei's comforting touch away.

"Whaaaat?" Mei's eyes went wide, and she stared down at the board in disbelief. "There is no possible way I'm winning. I have zero beginner's luck with games, and I have no idea what I'm doing. You could tell me I need to throw the puffidoodle at the wall or something, and I'd be like 'sure, sounds reasonable'. Seriously. I can't possibly be winning at–" she picked up the box, squinted at the text, then turned the box around and squinted at it again. "I can't be winning at whatever this is called." She held the box up for the newcomer to see, despite the Cardassian text emblazoned across its surface.

Mei, Kestrel decided, was the lynch pin of peace in their quarters. Or something close to it anyway. She wished she knew both women well enough to inquire after Eekit's reaction to the newcomer, but as it was she was a bit of an interloper herself. It wasn't lost on her that she was inhabiting a room that had previously bren the home of two other women who had been killed during Subrek's boarding and kidnapping efforts. She hadn't gotten the nerve to inquire which side of the room had been occupied by whom. Maybe it was better not to know.

"So," she said, curiosity lighting ger eyes, if Mei is winning... How am I doing?" She asked, resuming her spot and indicating Kaelira was welcome to the spot next to her. To her new bunkmate she asked. "Have you had dinner yet? The replicator has some decent recipes."

Kaelira had noticed the shrugging away of the hand and studied the box Mei was holding but didn't recognise a single line of text on it, so her guess was as good as anyone's to what the game was called, but it would've been easier if the Cardassian, Eekit, actually told her what it was? Turning to Kestrel, she shook her head, "I haven't had any dinner, but I'm not overly hungry at this stage, thank you. I think I've had enough caffeine to give a horse a heart attack, so that's going to tide me over for a bit, I think."

Eekit shot Mei a smirk that could have been interpreted as, 'haha, got you fooled,' or, 'didn't know you were winning, did you?' Before Mei could do any interpretation however, Eekit said, "I told you: it's a game of skill and luck. You don't have to be a beginner to get some. Wasn't it some human that said, 'I'd rather be lucky than skilled?'" Sliding her gaze to Kestrel, she waggled her browridges at the Argelian. "You don't want to know," she promised, struggling to keep a straight face. She still didn't bother explaining the name of the game; none of them would be able to pronounce it properly anyway. "The dot should be done soon," Eekit said, without looking at Kaelira. She didn't elaborate, but expectation laced her words.

"I wish I'd had all this luck when I was taking my finals at the Academy. Would've helped," Mei muttered as she cast a doubtful look over the board, clearly still unsure of either skill or luck at the game. "Whether I'm winning or not, I'd like to play it out to the end. Maybe I'll finally figure out what I'm actually supposed to do with the puffidoodle."

Kestrel's eyes narrowed in Eekit's direction. She heard Mei's comment and recognized it as a bid toward normalcy, but she was also keenly aware of a not insignificant shifting in the social dynamic. If they let Eekit's silent implication stand then they were tacitly agreeing. "Eekit..." Kestrel's voice was soft, but firm. She put all of her discomfort and disagreement into the other woman's name, hoping that would be enough to signal a change without needing to go further. Without waiting to see how the Cardassian woman might respond she spun to Kaelira. "I'm completely lost here. Wanna weigh in on my hand?"

"Hmmm?" Eekit lifted her brows and shot Kestrel a bland, innocent look, almost a dare.

"Um, sure!" Kaelira had no idea, but why not. Hopefully this would carry some sort of favour with Eekit. "So what's a puffidoodle and how do you think you're going with this hand?"

Eekit's daring look at Kestrel was mercifully broken by Kaelira's approach however; the Cardassian watched her with a sharp gaze, tracking her every move like some kind of ambush predator. When she finally settled beside Kestrel, Eekit continued to stare at her for one long, uncomfortable moment, before finally softening enough to say, "That's the puffidoodle." She jerked her chin at the thin, spiky-edged card in front of Mei. Of course, this still didn't really explain anything. "And it's Mei's turn," she added, bumping her shoulder into Mei's and, her stare-down-the-new-girl out of the way, studiously avoiding looking at Kaelira.

Mei scrunched her nose at the puffidoodle, then looked up at Eekit. "As nebulous as the role of the puffidoodle is, I'm starting to think that it could do anything. Or that anything could be a puffidooodle. What, exactly, is the nature of the puffidoodle? It kind of reminds me of Cardassian mystery novels. Everyone is always guilty of something, no matter how incidental their appearance is in the story. I've always meant to look into that– what is it about a culture that inclines it to think that every character in a story is guilty of something just because they walked in at the wrong time or had a funny shirt on?" She raised an eyebrow at Eekit, then turned her attention back to the game, flicking the puffidoodle back onto the board, giving it a bit of spin, and though she'd tried to avoid hitting any other pieces it bounced funny and knocked the deck of cards into disarray. "I didn't mean to do that. With the cards, I mean. How it landed was entirely random. What does it even mean?"

Eekit looked up from her cards, favoring Mei with a blank look, as though the anthropologist had started speaking Ferengi. "Not because they had a funny shirt on," she said, looking deadly serious, "Because everyone is guilty of something."

To Mei, Kestrel added, "That's part of what makes Eekit a good security officer. She's always on alert for something off."

The implied critique about her culture, Eekit shelved for another time, unwilling to get into a row with Mei while they were playing board games. There would be plenty of time for that later. Eekit squinted at the puffidoodle and how it landed, absently reaching out to straighten the stack of card. With a disgusted sigh, she sat back. "It means, Mei, that you get a forfeit from both of us," she explained in an aggrieved tone, holding out her hand of cards fanned out face down.

Kestrel, still feeling unaccountably nervous about the stare down that seemed to have come to a draw, gaped at Eekit. "Forfeit?" she exclaimed in disbelief. "Doesn't a person have to... you know... understand the odds to forfeit?" She clutched her cards, fanned out in one hand as she glanced from one roommate to the other, landing on Kaelira last with a shrug of confusion.

Eekit's ridged brow creased with her own brand of confusion. "Wait, is that not the right word?" she asked, dark gaze pingponging between Kestrel and Mei, "When you give up something to someone else? Tell me I didn't get that wrong," she beseeched, and though she glanced once upward as though considering bringing the computer into the conversation, she ultimately decided instead to explain, "She just gets one of your cards, so shuffle 'em up good so she can't cheat."

Kestrel blinked, but she was already shuffling the small pile of cards that was her hand. "Yeah... forfeit means we all quit the game because Mei wins," she explained. "Umm... But it can also mean give up... forfeit... a card. You just have to specify what we're forfeiting then. Usually "a forfeit" means the whole game," she finished and then splayed out her hand in front of Mei face down for her to select the card she was, apparently, due.

"Yeah, you can forfeit individual things or entire games," Mei said. "You have to specify unless you're sure that everyone understands the context. And even then, you should probably specify. Human languages can be so imprecise like that, using the same word to mean different things that depend entirely on context. I mean, other languages are like that, too, but human ones can be especially vague." She picked a card and looked up at Eekit to see if she was making the right move, then regarded it with a frown. "Okay, what do I do with this? Do I have another turn, or did I just lose the whole game, or…?"

Kaelira interjected, both of her hands coming up, "How about to save any kinds of miscommunications, someone's feelings getting hurt, or possible arguments that may threaten to break out over the rules of this game, everyone agrees to stop playing, put it down to a no-win situation for tonight and pick up the rules at a later stage, hmm? Just a suggestion, really."

Frowning, Eekit shuffled through her cards, trying to determine which one Mei got. Before she could narrow it down, Kaelira made her suggestion and earned herself Eekit's full attention. Although nothing in her physiology actually changed, there was a subtle shift in her posture that gave the impression of hackles rising. Still, her expression remained deceptively pleasant. "Why don't you," she started, mimicking Kaelira's tone, but with a sickly-sweet undertone, "save your suggestions for a time when we might actually be interested in what you have to say?" Eekit fluttered her eyelashes at the newcomer, the implied sweetness jarring against the backdrop of her ridged features.

Without looking away from Kaelira, Eekit said to Mei, "You can save that for your next turn, and probably win the whole bloody thing then." In contrast to her harsh mockery of Kaelira, this was said without rancor, in a tone of kind resignation.

If it was Eekit's intention to get the usually calm and collected Kaelira's blood to boil, she was heading in the right direction. What was the issue against her? "Look..." Kaelira started in an even tone as she looked at Eekit, "I don't get what your problem is with me or what I've done to offend you, because I have done absolutely nothing to you except come to my assigned quarters, meet everyone, and offer up a suggestion. I'm sorry if that's offended you in some messed up way, but that was never the intention."

Kaelira huffed a breath out through her nose and looked to Mei and Kestrel, giving them an apologetic smile, "Thank you to you both for the welcome, but if anyone needs me, I'll be somewhere else." She turned on her heel and walked off toward the door she'd come in.

Once she'd gone, Mei sighed and set her game token on its side to resign, whether that was the correct move or not. "What was that all about?" she asked, giving Eekit a level look. "She's right. All she did was go to where she was assigned and say hello to her new roommates. Everything that led up to that assignment wasn't her fault. Jyl'Eel and Paisley– the people responsible for that are dead. You can't be mad at Kaelira for that. Unless you're mad that she interrupted the game, which honestly doesn't sound like you."

Kestrel was quiet, torn between worry about the way her new bunk mate had just left--and what that might mean for her own peace when she returned--and wanting to understand why Eekit had been so cold to the other woman. She, too, was an interloper if Paisley and Jyl-eel were at the core of things and there was nothing she could do to help on that front. She was, in many ways, more painfully aware that she'd recently taken a lost crewmate's bunk, than she had been when she'd moved her stuff in. She watched the exchange between Eekit and Mei, open expression worried, and waited to see what the Cardassian woman would say.

Eekit watched the woman depart with a mild expression on her face, neither chagrin nor triumph present. It was as though she were watching the most mundane thing in the world. When Mei spoke, that mildness sharpened into mockery. "Oh, I'm sorry, is that what just happened? 'All' she did was go where she was assigned? Did you miss the unsolicited opinions on a situation about which she has no idea?” With a huff she slid her cards face down onto the table, also clearly giving up on the game; the fun had abruptly soured. “I don't know what makes you think I'm angry at some new girl about the deaths of my crewmates. In fact, I'm not sure what makes you think I'm angry at all. She needed to be put in her place: I did it.” Eekit shrugged as if that settled the matter.

"Place? What place? Out in the hall?" Mei stopped herself and rubbed her eyes. "We're supposed to be roommates here, we're not competing for something. And what's wrong with offering an opinion? She's bound to have them." She raked her hair back from her face then glanced over and offered Kestrel a wan smile before looking back at Eekit. "What do we need to do to preserve the peace? We've all got to live together somehow, and I don't want to be walking around on eggshells. Is there something I can do here?"

Eekit's answering smile had definitely tipped into feral. "One of my favorite human sayings is the answer to your question, Mei. Opinions are like assholes: everyone has them. Just because you have one doesn't mean you need get it out in front of everyone. Anyway," she waved a dismissive hand, as if Kaelira's opinions were suddenly of no interest to her. Leaning forward, she began to gather up the pieces of the game. "I suggest you talk to the new girl," she said mildly, any venom totally gone from her manner. "It seems you've forgotten that the peace was absolutely fine until she arrived," she added as she organized the cards into their proper piles, stowing them neatly in their box.

"That's not fair," Kestrel said evenly, though her heart had started to race from the tension that seemed as if it would surely have to burst. "I agree with Mei. She didn't do anything inappropriate. And, frankly, I'm the one sharing a bedroom with her. So, yes, I'll talk with her, but it's not going to be to ask her to change her behavior." She, too, set down her cards, but with it she stood, frowning and flustered. She looked between the other two women as if she couldn't quite figure out what to say or do; frozen for the moment, and then she, too, made for the door.

Mei seemed like she was about to say something but stopped and retrieved a couple of wayward game pieces instead. She silently handed them over to Eekit, her gaze distant like she was lost in thought. "I'm trying to figure out the right thing to say, but I don't think I'll figure that out. I think I'm going to go read for a while. Maybe something will come to me, or maybe we'll all just get a little distance for tonight. I'm sorry game night didn't go as planned. It was fun, but also I don't think Kaelira did anything wrong. Maybe tomorrow we can all start over." She stood and grabbed her usual paperback and slid her feet back into her slippers. "Do you want any help putting things away before I go?"

Eekit forewent any sharp comebacks about fairness and instead shrugged Kestrel's direction, a careless movement that seemed to say, 'suit yourself.' To the keen observer, the shrug seemed too casual, almost forced. As she took the pieces from Mei, however, her shoulders rounded inward in a flinch. As the door closed behind Kestrel and Mei stood, and Eekit tracked her with her dark gaze, something flashing in her eyes at Mei's last question. She straightened her spine, a rebellious look settling over her ridged features. In fact, she looked on the verge of accepting the offer, despite knowing it was made out of politeness, but finally exhaled explosively and said only, “You don't have to leave. I can pretend to be sweet for the rest of the night.”

"I think we could both use a bit of space. Some room to breathe, you know? I probably won't be out long, anyway. I don't have very much of my book left." Mei gave Eekit a forced smile as she held up the paperback as though to show off the progress denoted by a bookmark. "I'm not mad. Not really. I'm– I don't know. Frustrated, I guess. By everything, and not just tonight. I want to get away from people for a bit. Away from emotions and all." Her next smile was more genuine, but tinged with sadness. "We'll be alright. We'll figure this out and find a way to all live together, okay?"

At this, Eekit's expression blanked, as though Mei's statement had taken a wild turn instead of the measured conciliation she'd shown all night. Eekit blinked up at the woman and with a matter-of-fact casualness said, “Of course we will.” After a beat, she added, as if in explanation, “We're crewmates.”

"Yeah," Mei said softly. She stood there awkwardly for a moment as though she couldn't figure out what to do with her hands, then clutched her book to her chest. "I'll be back in a while." It seemed like she might be about to say something else, then her shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice barely above a whisper. Then she turned and walked out the door.

The door slid shut behind her. Eekit stared at the closed portal for a long moment before turning back to the last of the game pieces. In the quiet, she cleared away the last of game night alone.

A post by:

Lieutenant (JG) Kestrel
Security Officer

Ensign Kaelira Tamsin
Nurse

Ensign Mei Ratthi
Anthropologist

Ensign Eekit Drol
Security Officer