I will smile, show kindness, and be grateful 愛 Open

[companioning]

Who: Inara and OTA
What: Inara reading, exploring the ship or even attempting to use the holodeck.
Where: all over the ship
When: Recently
Status: Open and Ongoing.
Rating: PG-13, just to be safe

Inara hadn't expected to find any sort of peace on the ship, not with knowing what she had waiting for her back home, if she was ever sent back. But there was peace; it was just there beneath her veins, and she had somehow managed to not be quite so skittish and most importantly, she wasn't so wary of those around her. She might have also found a bit of hope, and that was probably due to Kaylee and Simon, showing her that regardless of everything that there was still something out there for each of them.

Still, she's kept herself a little distanced from those around her but she's more relaxed. It shows in the way she carries herself, and the bit of tension that has left her brows and her hands that are loose and not drawn into fists that were ready at a moments notice to protect herself if needed.

She's spent a lot of her time reading in Ten Forward, trying to catch herself up with a history that was vastly different than her own. Sure, there were similarities but the Enterprise's Earth hadn't been used up and its inhabitants forced to flee. Instead they'd managed to almost wipe out humanity with a nuclear and genocidal war and then with the help of Zefram Cochran, managed to initiate first contact with an alien race. She'd made she she read all about that, along with books of politics and poems and wars. She read like a woman starved but she was reading to keep her sanity.

When Inara wasn't doing that, she walked, exploring the parts of the ship was permitted and if anyone talked to her, she was quick to reply with a smile and a greeting. She might also be found trying to figure out how to program something for the holosuite, something that reminded her of Sihnon but well, that wasn't exactly something she understood.

Comments

[madman_inabox]

Eleven was getting bored wandering the ship for hours on end and really needed to start meeting some of the arrivals he hadn't talked to yet. On his way back from his usual daily visit to the TARDIS, he decided to take a detour toward the holodecks. He hadn't spent much time working with them, but maybe a little tinkering and he could manage to produce a satisfactory TARDIS Interior.

He missed his ship.

When he saw someone else trying her best to get the thing to do what she wanted, he figured he'd try to help with that first, test run and all of that.

"Hello, need some help?"

[companioning]

Inara was quite certain that she'd never quite understand the technology that the Enterprise had, and standing in front of the holosuite, well it just made that fact all the clearer to her. She sighed and her lips pressed together in frustration.

She might have even hit the control panel had she not heard a man's voice behind her. She froze for a moment and then was quick to school her features before turning and looking at him.

"With this? I think I need more help than I likely know. Do you actually know how to use it?"

[madman_inabox]

"I know how to use things like it."

Strictly speaking, virtual reality technology like the holodeck wasn't all that hard to work with if you were from a species that mastered traveling through time and space.

"What are you trying to get it to do?"

[companioning]

"I thought that it was suppose to be easy." Apparently only easy for the people from that time frame because she couldn't for the life of her figure out how to get it to do what she wanted.

She looked over at him and then shrugged her shoulders a bit.

"I was trying to get it to create a program based on the planet I come from... To be more precise, my training house and the surrounding mountain side. I thought it might make being here a bit more bearable if I was able to at least have something like that."

[ltcolonel]

Over the course of a week, John bumps into Inara at least once a day, on his own wanders around the ship. He always says hello but keeps moving on his own path. As a man used to action, and a constant sense of danger, he's like a caged animal, pacing out his confines. Eventually, he realises he's not being exactly friendly and the next time he sees her, he stops and smiles.

"We've got to stop meeting like this. I'm John."

[companioning]

She'd seen John every day on her wanders but neither had done more than say hello. That normally wasn't how Inara socialized but he hadn't seemed to be wanting to do more than that hello and Inara hadn't pressed. So the next time she saw him and when he stopped, her eyebrows lifted a little but after a moment, she flashed him a warm smile. She soothed her hands over the front of her dress, chuckling softly.

"I suppose we do. It's lovely to actually meet you, John. I'm Inara." She hesitated for a moment before continuing on. "Would you care to walk with me?"

[ltcolonel]

John holds out his arm companionably, "I'd love to." There is something courtly about her ways, and he can't help but responding. He was raised right, before he ran away and joined the military. "So, do your walks take you anywhere in particular?"

[companioning]

She flashed him a bright smile, obviously pleased with his manners. Sliding up beside him, she tucked her hand into the crook of his elbow. "No, not truly. I mostly don't pay much mind to where I'm going, if I'm being honest. Mostly I just walk and think." She shrugged her shoulders a bit. "And you?"

[ltcolonel]

"I walk and watch," John says tilting his head in her direction while they walk. "That's after I counted out exactly how much space we have to walk around." It is plenty, but John still feels a little caged up, waiting for something to happen.

"It's interesting to watch how they run this place."

[companioning]

Her eyebrows lifted in interest. Though she couldn't say that she was surprised that he did either of those things. She should have been doing something similar though she'd been trying almost desperately to find anything resembling peace for the longest time. She doesn't even feel caged up, mainly because she'd lived on Serenity and the Enterprise was much larger than the Firefly class cargo ship. Truthfully, she found the Enterprise to be almost too big.

"And how is it they run this ship?"

[themerlin]

Someone reading that intensely draws attention, the attention, perhaps, of someone who values information, and passion, and life. The attention of Merlin. But Merlin was never normal, so perhaps you would forgive, dear lady, when an entire formal tea set settled to the table at the same time as a man settled opposite her, the fragrant smell of wolfberries and raspberries floating upward from a steaming pot.

Merlin was dressed in a simple white robe, and a staff stood straight up, and seemingly on it's own, next to him. He smiled to her, his eyes a whirl of gold, red, and black, and nodded. "Greetings, milady, and welcome."

[companioning]

She was so absorbed in her reading that she didn't even realize that Merlin had settled down across from her until she smelled the fragrance of the tea. Her gaze lifted from her PADD and she flashed him an almost sheepish smile as she sat a little straighter. She lowered the PADD before quickly setting it off to the side.

"I'm sorry, I was reading and didn't realize you were there." Her smile warms though. "And please, cal me Inara."

[themerlin]

"No worries, milady Inara." His eyes danced, and yes, he knew what she meant, and was having a wee bit of fun with her.

"You have much to learn, as do we all, stuck in this strange realm. Tell me, how are things with you, my friend?" He considered her such, yes, for she was kind, smart, and skilled in her way, and walked her own path. He rather thought her inspiring.

[companioning]

"I suppose we all do." She took a deep breath and then sighed. "It's just odd thinking that despite the different realities, this time is much further behind than my own and yet so much more advanced." And the history itself was so different.

But she managed a smile. "I'm very well thank you. Better now that I have some company. How have you been?"

[themerlin]

"So it seems to be with most of those here. Some things are more advanced, others, not so much." He shook his head. "Perhaps these universes are neighbors, at least, or cousins in a large family tree."

Hiss eyes danced as he smiled to her. "I am well, dear lady, and glad indeed to once more make thy acquaintance. Have you been enjoying this place, despite the gilded bars?"

[osirian_doctor]

"Inara."

They hadn't spent as much time together as he might have expected, but that was almost normal for the two of them. He'd always been friendly with her on Serenity, but he'd also rarely gone out of his way to seek out the company of others of the crew, beyond River and Kaylee. And here, he'd been busy with Kaylee and with his work.

That didn't make him any less happy to see her, so when he saw her sitting a table in the lounge, he got a pot of tea from the replicator and brought it over to her.

"May I?"

[companioning]

She glanced up, a pleased smile forming on her lips. "Hello, Simon." She was happy to see him as they really hadn't had much of a chance to talk since she'd arrived on the ship - though in truth, she had no one to blame but herself. She could have sought him out but she'd chosen not to. She'd been reeling and had needed to anchor herself before she attempted to be more social with those around her.

But now, she was feeling a bit better and she had missed his company.

"Of course, please, sit." She set her padd down before resting her hands on the table. "How have you been? Busy as always, I imagine."

[osirian_doctor]

No, they hadn't seen much of each other since she'd arrived, but he hadn't minded, or taken it personally. Perhaps she could have sought him out, but equally, he could have gone to find her. But Simon's always been more comfortable in his own domain and perfectly content with his own company. Inara knew him well enough to be aware of that.

They were still friends, even if their time together hadn't been frequent since she got here. Between time with Kaylee and his shifts in the infirmary, both scheduled and unscheduled, he'd had little time for much else other than the reading and research that were still a constant part of his schedule here.

He set the tea down in front of her, with two cups. (He'd missed tea with Inara on the occasions when he'd run into her in the kitchen on Serenity.)

"Ah, yes. I suppose that's not much of a surprise. I'm working in the infirmary, so there's always plenty to do. I should ask how you've been doing. This place, uh, takes some getting used to."