Naetilia Bolanis: More Than Just A Pretty Face
Aug 20, 2017 17:37:32 GMT -6
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Post by Naetilia Bolanis on Aug 20, 2017 17:37:32 GMT -6
TIME: Shortly after the events of Chapter 17
PLACE: Ilium
“Jimmy!”
Naetilia barely heard the voice cut through the fog of her pain.
It had been two weeks wince the destruction of the Valiant, and this was her first time getting out of bed since then. Before waking up on Ilium in a private hospital, the last thing she remembered was trying to escape the ship after it had come under attack by the Collectors.
She was not alone. Her mech was there, along with perhaps the second most unexpected person from the team to be there: Fischer. Only if it had been Karn would she have been more surprised.
The doctors there had explained the severity of her injuries and that had it not been for Fischer she would have most certainly died. Looking at the scans of her body both before and after the surgery to fix her, she agreed with their assessment.
She had been in bed for ten days, allowing her body to recover from the massive trauma it had suffered, before considering leaving it.
Fischer had insisted they go out, claiming it would do her some good, but she strongly suspected he was looking for an excuse to leave. He was a man of action, simply sitting around waiting for events completely outside his control to unfold was difficult for him.
Getting out of the bed and getting dressed was almost too much for her. Her injuries were primarily to her midsection, and anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of biology knew that part of the body was involved in virtually every movement made.
She was tempted to use medication to dull the pain, but decided against it; she needed to know how much her body still needed to heal.
Leaning heavily on Fischer, they moved slowly down the hallway—very slowly.
*****
They had reached the lobby—which she thanked the spirits for being only a short distance from her room—when the call reached her ears.
She looked around and saw no one else in the lobby aside from an attendant sitting behind a desk and an old human woman hobbling towards them with the use of a cane.
“Jimmy!” the woman called out again. “It’s about time you came to visit your mother. I was about to send out search and rescue for you!”
Fischer smiled at her.
“Sorry, Mom,” he said. “I kept asking for ‘the greatest mom ever’ at the front desk and they had no idea who I was talking about.”
The woman glared at him for a moment before breaking into a grin.
“You always were such a smooth talker, Jimmy,” she said.
Her eyes flicked over to Naetilia.
“Is this your girlfriend?” she said, sizing up the turian. “She needs to put some meat on her bones. And how can she provide me with any grandchildren with such narrow hips?”
“Don’t you worry, Mom,” he said. “Soon this place will be overrun with them.”
The attendant chose that time to interrupt, gently steering the woman away from them.
*****
In basic training she was taught ways to ignore pain so that she could continue to fight and not fail her fellow soldiers, men and women who were just as willing to die for her as she was for them.
She was still within sight of the hospital before all of those techniques failed her.
Sitting down at a nearby café—thank the spirits—and after catching her breath, she said, “I hope you did not mean what you said to that old woman. To be honest, I find your race as a whole to be quite unattractive.”
“You mean I should cancel the wedding invitations I sent the day after we first met?” he said. “Relax, Doc, I was just telling the woman what she wanted to hear.”
“So you lied,” she said.
“Her mind is gone,” he said. “She’s probably already forgotten meeting me. But for those few minutes when her ‘son’ showed up, I made her day.”
“And what if she realizes your deception?”
“Look Doc, I save my planning and ‘what ifs’ for a fight,” he said. “Off the battlefield, I’m much more instinctive. I go with my gut. If something feels right, I do it.”
“Instincts are not always correct,” she said.
“And neither is planning something within an inch of its life,” he retorted. “Look, Doc, you remember your first fight where your life was on the line? Were you planning out each and every move before you did it? I’ll bet you ten credits you weren’t. You fell back on instinct, whether it was raw or honed through hours and hours of practice.
“Besides, with all the combat I’ve seen, you learn to appreciate just how short and unpredictable life can be,” he continued. “I’ve never been one for long-term plans because I probably won’t be around to see them. If I somehow achieve the miracle of dying at an old age, I don’t want to be lying in my bed regretting not doing something when I had the chance.
“If I see a pretty girl, I’m going to talk to her,” he said. “If I’m in a bar and the special is something I’ve never heard of that may cause me to go blind, I’ll drink it. If I’m going somewhere and I have to walk across a rickety bridge with no handrails and it’s a hundred-foot drop to the ground, I’m crossing it. The worst thing in life is regret, Doc, trust me on this.”
“So you will not regret lying to that woman?” she asked.
“Another thing my job taught me, Doc, is that there’s a lot of darkness and misery in the galaxy,” he said. “I don’t go looking for trouble, it usually finds me, and when it does, I’ll drop a fucking nuke on it if I have to. But if all I have to do to bring a little light and joy to someone’s day is tell a little lie, I’ll do that too.”
“While your methods may be questionable, Fischer, I cannot fault your motives,” she said.
He shrugged.
“Hi!”
She turned to see a human female approaching them. She had long brown hair, was wearing a pink dress and carried a flower basket.
“A flower for your girlfriend?” she asked Fischer.
“We are not romantically involved,” Naetilia said.
“Oh,” the woman said, her smile dropping for a second but then returning. “Have a nice day anyway then!”
“You didn’t have to shut her down so hard, Doc,” Fischer said, watching the woman as she walked away.
“Both my tone and my words were civil,” she said.
He just shook his head, got up and went after the woman.
*****
By the time he caught up with her, they were out of earshot, so she could not hear what they said, but whatever he did say made the woman happy. He passed her a credit chit, she gave him all of the flowers and he returned to the table.
“You do recall I said that we are not romantically involved and I found your race unattractive, yes?” she said.
“Jeez, Doc, get over yourself already, they’re not for you,” he said. “Nice girl by the way. Her name is Ayris and she lives with her mother, who works two jobs and still they’re barely getting by, so I told her I wanted fresh flowers every day that we’re here. Ready to go back?”
*****
She made it to the lobby before the pain became unbearable. Fischer eased her into one of the chairs and then, still holding to the flowers, went up to the front desk and began talking with the attendant, an asari.
After a few minutes, he turned back to Naetilia, gestured for her to wait and then walked off.
*****
About fifteen minutes later he returned without the flowers.
“Visited the old lady and gave her the flowers,” he said by way of explanation. “Ready to start your physical therapy?”
PLACE: Ilium
“Jimmy!”
Naetilia barely heard the voice cut through the fog of her pain.
It had been two weeks wince the destruction of the Valiant, and this was her first time getting out of bed since then. Before waking up on Ilium in a private hospital, the last thing she remembered was trying to escape the ship after it had come under attack by the Collectors.
She was not alone. Her mech was there, along with perhaps the second most unexpected person from the team to be there: Fischer. Only if it had been Karn would she have been more surprised.
The doctors there had explained the severity of her injuries and that had it not been for Fischer she would have most certainly died. Looking at the scans of her body both before and after the surgery to fix her, she agreed with their assessment.
She had been in bed for ten days, allowing her body to recover from the massive trauma it had suffered, before considering leaving it.
Fischer had insisted they go out, claiming it would do her some good, but she strongly suspected he was looking for an excuse to leave. He was a man of action, simply sitting around waiting for events completely outside his control to unfold was difficult for him.
Getting out of the bed and getting dressed was almost too much for her. Her injuries were primarily to her midsection, and anyone with even the most rudimentary knowledge of biology knew that part of the body was involved in virtually every movement made.
She was tempted to use medication to dull the pain, but decided against it; she needed to know how much her body still needed to heal.
Leaning heavily on Fischer, they moved slowly down the hallway—very slowly.
*****
They had reached the lobby—which she thanked the spirits for being only a short distance from her room—when the call reached her ears.
She looked around and saw no one else in the lobby aside from an attendant sitting behind a desk and an old human woman hobbling towards them with the use of a cane.
“Jimmy!” the woman called out again. “It’s about time you came to visit your mother. I was about to send out search and rescue for you!”
Fischer smiled at her.
“Sorry, Mom,” he said. “I kept asking for ‘the greatest mom ever’ at the front desk and they had no idea who I was talking about.”
The woman glared at him for a moment before breaking into a grin.
“You always were such a smooth talker, Jimmy,” she said.
Her eyes flicked over to Naetilia.
“Is this your girlfriend?” she said, sizing up the turian. “She needs to put some meat on her bones. And how can she provide me with any grandchildren with such narrow hips?”
“Don’t you worry, Mom,” he said. “Soon this place will be overrun with them.”
The attendant chose that time to interrupt, gently steering the woman away from them.
*****
In basic training she was taught ways to ignore pain so that she could continue to fight and not fail her fellow soldiers, men and women who were just as willing to die for her as she was for them.
She was still within sight of the hospital before all of those techniques failed her.
Sitting down at a nearby café—thank the spirits—and after catching her breath, she said, “I hope you did not mean what you said to that old woman. To be honest, I find your race as a whole to be quite unattractive.”
“You mean I should cancel the wedding invitations I sent the day after we first met?” he said. “Relax, Doc, I was just telling the woman what she wanted to hear.”
“So you lied,” she said.
“Her mind is gone,” he said. “She’s probably already forgotten meeting me. But for those few minutes when her ‘son’ showed up, I made her day.”
“And what if she realizes your deception?”
“Look Doc, I save my planning and ‘what ifs’ for a fight,” he said. “Off the battlefield, I’m much more instinctive. I go with my gut. If something feels right, I do it.”
“Instincts are not always correct,” she said.
“And neither is planning something within an inch of its life,” he retorted. “Look, Doc, you remember your first fight where your life was on the line? Were you planning out each and every move before you did it? I’ll bet you ten credits you weren’t. You fell back on instinct, whether it was raw or honed through hours and hours of practice.
“Besides, with all the combat I’ve seen, you learn to appreciate just how short and unpredictable life can be,” he continued. “I’ve never been one for long-term plans because I probably won’t be around to see them. If I somehow achieve the miracle of dying at an old age, I don’t want to be lying in my bed regretting not doing something when I had the chance.
“If I see a pretty girl, I’m going to talk to her,” he said. “If I’m in a bar and the special is something I’ve never heard of that may cause me to go blind, I’ll drink it. If I’m going somewhere and I have to walk across a rickety bridge with no handrails and it’s a hundred-foot drop to the ground, I’m crossing it. The worst thing in life is regret, Doc, trust me on this.”
“So you will not regret lying to that woman?” she asked.
“Another thing my job taught me, Doc, is that there’s a lot of darkness and misery in the galaxy,” he said. “I don’t go looking for trouble, it usually finds me, and when it does, I’ll drop a fucking nuke on it if I have to. But if all I have to do to bring a little light and joy to someone’s day is tell a little lie, I’ll do that too.”
“While your methods may be questionable, Fischer, I cannot fault your motives,” she said.
He shrugged.
“Hi!”
She turned to see a human female approaching them. She had long brown hair, was wearing a pink dress and carried a flower basket.
“A flower for your girlfriend?” she asked Fischer.
“We are not romantically involved,” Naetilia said.
“Oh,” the woman said, her smile dropping for a second but then returning. “Have a nice day anyway then!”
“You didn’t have to shut her down so hard, Doc,” Fischer said, watching the woman as she walked away.
“Both my tone and my words were civil,” she said.
He just shook his head, got up and went after the woman.
*****
By the time he caught up with her, they were out of earshot, so she could not hear what they said, but whatever he did say made the woman happy. He passed her a credit chit, she gave him all of the flowers and he returned to the table.
“You do recall I said that we are not romantically involved and I found your race unattractive, yes?” she said.
“Jeez, Doc, get over yourself already, they’re not for you,” he said. “Nice girl by the way. Her name is Ayris and she lives with her mother, who works two jobs and still they’re barely getting by, so I told her I wanted fresh flowers every day that we’re here. Ready to go back?”
*****
She made it to the lobby before the pain became unbearable. Fischer eased her into one of the chairs and then, still holding to the flowers, went up to the front desk and began talking with the attendant, an asari.
After a few minutes, he turned back to Naetilia, gestured for her to wait and then walked off.
*****
About fifteen minutes later he returned without the flowers.
“Visited the old lady and gave her the flowers,” he said by way of explanation. “Ready to start your physical therapy?”