Punching Above Their Weight (TBD)

Posted on Fri Jan 3rd, 2025 @ 1:46am by Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus & Ensign Rilaxa Moxx

1,135 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Shore Leave & Ship Repairs
Location: Gymnasium

It'd been a long, long while since Rilaxa had visited the ship's gym proper, what with the repairs needed over the past few days. Now that the Astrea was docked and she'd been let off from duties, though, she'd decided that there was no better time to work up a sweat.

Dressed in form-hugging workout attire, the Bolian puffed as she jogged on a treadmill, alone in the so far empty gym. Honestly, though she was a social creature and thrived in the company of others, sometimes being alone was pretty nice, too.

A few minutes passed giving her some alone time before the doors slid open and a man with dark hair, one side longer than the other stepped into the room. He was only around 5' 6" tall and from her perspective he looked rail thin. He was wearing a pair of blue shorts and a tight-fitting white tee shirt. He removed it and laid it on a bench and started doing planks Without his shirt she could tell there was some definition through the thinness.

Looking toward her he smiled and said, "Good morning."

Rilaxa took a moment to wind down the speed of the treadmill - she didn't want to fly off the treadmill, of course - and smiled a pearly smile at the stranger. He was good-looking, certainly, if a little thin. Did this guy not eat much at all, she wondered. "Good morning to you, too. Don't let me bother you," By the tone of her voice there may have been a 'too much' left unsaid at the end of her sentence - Rilaxa did really love to play around like that. "Call me Rilaxa. What should I call you?"

"By my name preferably," the stranger replied with a deadpan expression before continuing. "I'm Osirin. It's good to meet you."

If he recognized her potential flirting, he did not reveal it. "Are you an Andorian? I thought they had antennae."

"Okay, Osirin," Rilaxa replied with a cheerful giggle. "No, I'm not an Andorian, I'm a Bolian. I assume you've not seen very many of us," She remarked. She knew of very, very few people who had no idea what exactly she was. Bolians were everywhere, after all!

"Ah, my bad," the shirtless man said, "I observed that you were blue. I knew that Andorians were blue. So tell me more about Bolians."

"Well, my people have been in the Federation for a long time now..." Rilaxa hummed thoughtfully. "We're nothing that special, really. It's mostly just the baldness and the blue skin," She commented playfully. "And the acidic insides - but of course, most people don't find that out for a while. I assume you've not seen a lot of us? We're normally all over Starfleet, too."

"Well, that does explain things a bit. I am new to the Federation. I've met a few people from there, well here now I guess, but never a Bolian, nor an Andorian. This is my first assignment, I'm actually an exchange officer."

Then as some of her other words sank in, he added, "Are you flirting with me?"

"Hm? No, not really." Rilaxa replied with a snicker. "Unless you want me to. So you're an exchange, huh! From where?"

"It's hard to tell with someone from a culture I'm unfamiliar with. The whole acidic insides threw me off a bit."

"I'm from Akadia. As far as the flirting is concerned. Well, let's just say I am interested in learning more about your culture. Whatever you make of that is up to you."

"Ask, and I will educate." Rilaxa said as she stepped off the treadmill to take a sip of water. She smiled a dazzling pearly smile at the newcomer. "Ooh, sorry. Name's Rilaxa." She held out a hand for him to shake as she sipped from her water bottle. "Ask away! I'm a pretty open book."

Osirin took hold of her hand and shook it. It wasn't the first time he'd shaken someone's hand, but it wasn't something he did on a regular basis. It felt strange to him. Not wrong or off putting, just strange. Especially when the other hand was blue.

"So tell me more about your people," he said.

"Well." Rilaxa capped her bottle and put it aside. "You can call us a pretty versatile people. We're pretty open about things overall. Some of us co-marry. Some don't. We have tons of great food." Rilaxa smiled a pearly white smile. "Though whether you'd be able to eat it is a totally different question. Some of it is pretty intense."

"Many Akadians don't bother to marry, it's not as important to us as it is to most species in the Federation. Bonding on the other hand is very important to us, though that doesn't apply to everyone. Some go through their whole life without doing so."


"By the way, what do you mean your food is intense?"

"Very, very strongly flavored. Our taste organs are quite a bit more durable than most species', though I'm not entirely sure how you'll handle it. When I fed Bolian soufflé to my boyfriend at the Academy, he almost fainted from the sourness." Rilaxa giggled. "You wanna give it a shot sometime? It's really quite nice - though I suppose I might be a little biased,"

"I'm not especially fond of sour, but I am an adventurous kind of guy and I'm willing to try just about anything. Do you have any other suggestions?"

"There's also the really, really spicy stuff. Though it's pretty flavorful." Rilaxa quipped. "I hear the heat's pretty painful for some, but I don't know about you. What's your spice tolerance like?"

"Well, Akadian food can be quite spicy, but I'm not sure if it comes close to Bolin cuisine. I am willing to give it a try."

"Join me for dinner later, then, if you dare." Rilaxa smirked at him and turned away to lift weights. "So what do you do for fun, then? Apart from gym and so on?"

"I have many talents and interests and I must say, I do like a good thrill."

"Man of many talents and interests. Okay then." Rilaxa smiled. "But what, exactly? And what do you mean by 'a good thrill', huh? Like a good horror movie? Or 'nearly fall off a cliff'? It varies, as far as I know."

"I'm not a fan of horror, it doesn't scare me in the right way Almost falling off a cliff on the other hand does. Why, did you have something in mind."

"No, not at all. Promise." Rilaxa smiles mischievously. "Is that a yes to dinner, then?"

"It is." Osirin agreed. "It's a date."


Ensign Rilaxa Moxx
Engineering Officer
USS Astrea

Sub-Lieutenant Osirin Acainus
Counselor
USS Astrea

RSS Feed