| PHD #335: Relationship Vectors |
| Summary: | Rose pops in on Shiner in the Cerberus' Library and gives him a congratulatory gift. Relationships, science, and sex are discussed. Rose is embarrassed (as usual). |
| Date: | 27 Jan 2042 AE |
| Related Logs: | Shiner's Nugget logs |
| Players: |
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| Ships Library - Deck 9 - Battlestar Cerberus |
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| Racks of books extend deep into this room, nearly darkening the overhead lights towards the back. The shelves are neatly labeled to each category with nearly everything represented here. Fiction, Sci-Fi, Romance, and everything down to comic books has been loaded up onto the shelves. A smaller research area at the back has a large table for maps to be opened-up. Nearer the door is a small library of movies that covers some of the most recent blockbusters and flows through some of the more campy movies from about two decades before. Next to the door, a Petty Officer can usually be found at a desk to help someone checkout their selections. |
| Post-Holocaust Day: #335 |
Shiner sits over in a corner of the library with a heavy looking book on airframes held open in front of him. He doesn't appear too perturbed by the serious subject matter, instead staring blankly at the page with a half grin on his face.
Rose peeks into the library. Well, actually, it's more like a stage-peek, as she rather dramatically (but quietly) steps inside and slowly peers around a tall book shelf with a mischevious grin on her face. Still bundled up in a woolen longcoat from her trip from the Elips, she begins quietly stepping towards Shiner with one arm behind her back. It's clear she's hiding something. Once within library-acceptable conversation distance, she says to him, "I hear congratulations are in order?"
Shiner looks up guiltily from his book, hurriedly closing it. "Uh… wha… Hey, Ms Ibbhanas!" He half grins, raising an eyebrow. "You heard, huh? Yeah, I'm meeting her at seven tonight, soon as she gets off shift."
Rose stops short, coy smile fleeing, replaced with a tilt of her head and a confused look. "Er, I was referring to your promotion. To Midshipman? You're officially a pilot trainee, aren't you?" She unslings her battered soft leather attache and drops it into a chair across from Shiner, still hiding whatever she has behind her back.
Shiner ahhs, fingering the pins on his collar and giving a firm nod. "Oh, right! Yeah, I am! I bet that's why that hot marine chick's agreed to go out with me, too." He beams, offering her his hand to shake. "And it's totally thanks to you, too. The appointment to Midshipman, I mean. Not the hot date with the marine chick. I'm getting the hang of all this book stuff, thanks to you. I totally owe you one. You know I even did my first landing this week and nobody died? It was awesome!"
Rose takes his hand, and her smile returns. Maybe even a little red rising to her cheeks. "Well, Mr. Wright, the ability is all you. I'm just helping you realize that you are an intelligent person, and you can accomplish anything you set your mind to." And that's when her surprise comes into view: something small, wrapped in brown paper. She offers it to him. "A little something that ma… er… help you in your future endeavors. So who's the lucky woman?"
Shiner whews as he unwraps it, tilting the bottle up to have a look. "Shiiit, that must have cost you a few cubits." He looks up at her with a genuine smile. "Wow, thanks, Ms Ibbhanas." He unscrews the lid, leaning in for a tentative sniff, then holds it up for her to do likewise. "Oh, she's just this marine chick I was talking to, and we got on to how I've got this great tongue and stuff, and she says okay so we're meeting at seven." A pause. "And her and Lieutenant Vandenberg totally got into a scrap over who gets to screw me first," he adds, still with a certain amount of wonder in his tone. "And the LT's pretty hot, too. Like way old, but still hot."
Rose blinks in disbelief, several times. "I don't believe you, or they were taking the piss," she says with a wry grin. "I think you're being set up again, Mr. Wright. Do you mind if I sit?" She points to an empty chair. "And I'm glad you like it. It was misplaced in a general lot of hygiene supplies for the civilian population, and I grabbed it, thinking it would be a nice gift for… someone." She tsks lightly. "You seem to think the female gender has an expiration date. That's not very mature of you."
"They did!" Shiner protests, sniffing at the cologne again. "And trust me, I'm just as shocked as you. But I guess maybe I'm more charming and handsome and stuff now I'm a proper pilot trainee and everything. Even older chicks can see it." He nods to the seat, nudging it out for her, then squints. "I'm not taking the Chief's aftershave, am I?"
"If it was meant for Andreas then I would've given it to him," Rose says curtly as she slips into the seat, unbuttoning the overcoat as she does. Her smile fades again at the brief discussion of Damon, but she quickly finds something else to talk about. "Besides, I'm sure if you're 'punching upward', as it were, you'll need all the help you can get." This gets a wink and a small grin.
"I've never heard it called 'punching upward' before," Shiner notes with a grin, replacing the lid and carefully setting the bottle down beside his book. "You and him had a falling out, have you?" he asks casually, glancing up at her. "I mean, I know it's totally none of my business and all, but, y'know. He's a good guy."
Rose clears her throat, raising a hand to cover her mouth as she does so. It's a gesture of being mildly uncomfortable and embarrassed. "Well, no. I've not seen him, really. In about a month. Things were quite busy around here, I'm sure you know." She pushes some errant locks of hair behind her ears, frowning slightly. "I'm sure… he's just busy."
"It was stupid busy," Shiner admits, rubbing at the scar on the back of his neck. "I mean, I even turned down sex at one point because I was too knackered. Me! Turning it down! I know, right! But we're… they're… slacking off again now. Go see him, Ms Ibbhanas." He shrugs. "Oh! You want to see what Sof got me for my birthday? It's like old porn or something!" He flips through his airframes book again, opening it to where a thinner book have been inserted. Sneaky Shiner is sneaky, and the 'old porn' refers to several actually quite tasteful burlesque portraits. "Look!"
Rose cranes her neck to look at the pages. "Old porn, Mr. Wright? You really have a strange, simple view of the world," she mutters, chuckling lightly. "These are actually rather tasteful. Perhaps Ms. Wolfe is sending you a subtle hint? I'm sure she finds these photos to have some allure as well." She grimaces slightly, lips pressed together, as she glances up at him. "I'll… That's good advice, of course. But I think I'll continue to wait for him to come to me. I'm probably just… overreacting."
"I'll have a word and see what's up," Shiner promises, shrugging. He wrinkles his nose as he considers the pictures. "I don't get it, though. How come some pictures of birds with their knockers out are tasteful, and some aren't? Knockers are knockers, right?"
Rose's eyes go wide, perhaps from both topics. "Oh, no… no, no, that's quite all right," she protests, shaking her head. "Please, Mr. Wright, don't. Just… let it be, all right? It will sort itself out. I've prayed for strength and patience in these times, and if I can last out radiation sickness and being blinded by my ordeal, I can wait for my boyfriend. Please, just, keep this between you and me?" The horror of confrontation seems to have made her forget about the burlesque magazine.
"You trust me, right?" Shiner queries, offering his most reassuring smile. "Make sure he knows you're still interested, is all. He's like, totally a gentleman and all that crap, so he'll be sitting there not wanting to pressure you and shit." He tilts his head, turning the magazine a little. "If it was me, I'd just sneak you away to a storage cupboard and bang your brains out, but that's why he's a gentleman, and I'm not."
Rose's mouth hangs open at Shiner's words. "Mr. Wright!" Comes her exclamation, "Perhaps I don't trust you. Why I would trust a man whom is so blatantly lewd…" Wide eyes almost glare at Shiner. Almost.
Shiner shrugs, admitting, "Hey, at least I'm honest, right?" Cue his best, winning smile. "We could all die tomorrow, right? So frak it, let's live today. Hence my hot date with the bootneck bird."
"You are incorrigible," Rose mutters, not being able to help at grin at his brusqueness. But the smile begins to fade just as soon as it appears. "Some things are simple in this life. Some things aren't. Perhaps, if our roles were reversed, you'd see it my way." She licks her lips, glancing away briefly. Change of topic, quick! "Do we, ah, need to schedule any study sessions, in the near future? I'm sure your studies have doubled now that you're an airman."
Shiner's brows draw together as he moves his 'old porn' aside and taps the heavy book underneath. "If you've got time, Ms Ibbhanas, yeah. I've got this to study, then there's this whole pamphlet on wardroom etiquette and shit to deal with as well. Apparently I can't fly until I know which frakking spoon you use for what. Bullshit, isn't it?"
Rose shrugs lightly. "I'm not one for military etiquette. I don't understand the military life and I want no part in it. But, if there's simple rote memorization and etiquette to be learned, I can't help with that. Is there any mathematics or science that you're struggling with? I mean, if not, that's great!"
Shiner lifts the airframes book, smirking. "All of this. Sorry. It's like it's all written for scientists in some kind of lab somewhere. I mean, seriously, what the FRAK is this even saying?" he asks, running a finger along a line of the open page of the book as he reads aloud in a careful monotone, very slowly, and stumbling on a few words rather as a six year old might when asked to read aloud. "The force F is placed on the left side of the equation, assuming it acts with the flow moving in a left-to-right direction. Depending on the other properties of the flow, the resulting force could be negative which means it acts in the opposite direction."
Rose smiles brightly. "Oh, that one's easy. Make believe you're the F. If the force is moving away from you, in front of your face, it's positive. If it's moving behind you, away from you, it's negative. See, the positioning of the notation helps you understand the directional component of the vector. Easy, hmm?"
Shiner just stares at her blankly. "Uh… not all that easy, if I'm honest with you. Which one's a vector again?"
"A vector has both a direction and a value," Rose explains, pushing another lock of hair behind her ear again. "If you say, 'I am traveling at fifty kilometers per hour,' it's also nice to know the direction, as well. Because fifty KPH away from you is different than fifty KPH towards you, etcetera. Make sense?"
Shiner rubs at his face with one hand. "Fifty kph is fifty kph, surely? It's doesn't matter where you're standing, if a car hits you at 50kph, it's going to hurt the same amount."
"You're missing the point. Okay, try this - " Rose shrugs out of her coat, as it's apparent that this is going to take a little bit of time. "Let's say you have two Raptors, side by side," she explains, sticking her hands out flat. Those are Raptors. She doesn't make the 'nyerrmmm' sound, though. "Now let's say each one moves fifty meters. Let's say they're going in the same direction." She moves her hands thusly. "That's the first example. The second example is, let's say they move fifty meters, but they're moving apart." And she moves her hands to demonstrate. "Fifty meters is fifty meters, but direction is as important as speed."
Shiner nods slowly to that. "That… kinda makes sense, actually. So, like, if they're going opposite ways, it's like one was going twice as fast, yeah? Sort of?"
Rose nods enthusiastically. "Exactly! Fifty KPH in opposite directions is like the one standing still and the other zooming away at one hundred. Same goes for collisions - if they both collide head-on at fifty, the sum of the impact is one hundred. Now!" She rubs her hands together - perhaps because she's always mildly chilly, but it's more due to the fact that she's about to link in a previous lession. "Remember all that work we did with trigonometry? Angles, sines, cosines, tangents? You can figure out relative speed of two objects travelling at any angle away from each other if you use trigonometry. It's brilliant!"
Shiner squints. "But surely if they're twice as fast when they're going away, they're only half as fast if they're going towards each other?" He pulls a face at the mention of trig. "All that hippopotamus and sinny and tanny stuff. Urgh. I don't have to try to /use/ that, do I?"
"No, but you may be required to in your flight training," Rose explains. "You'll need to be able to understand, on the fly, where two ships are going to be in relation to each other when you're in a cockpit."
"Oh, shit," Shiner breathes, wrinkling his nose. "There's no way I can do that while I'm flying. I've got to concentrate on flying! I can't do math at the same time."
Rose shakes her head. "Not do the math, but intrinsicly understand what's going on. You can eyeball angles by now, can't you?" She places her hands together, slightly apart. "Thirty degrees?" She moves them wider. "Sixty?"
Shiner nods more firmly. "Oh yeah, I'm pretty good at that. Thirty's like one o'clock an sixty's like two. You just add thirty every time you add an hour."
"So once you learn this information on vectors, and apply it to what you know from trigonometry, you'll understand why objects travel in relation to one another," Rose states as a conclusion, smiling triumphantly. "Science!"
"Science is pretty frakking hard," Shiner grumbles. "I should have stayed at the pool."
Rose hmphs lightly, putting her hands in her lap. "Science is easy. Relationships… those are difficult." She eyes Shiner dubiously, and then states, "Want to switch for a couple of months? I'll take your tests and you can deal with my relationship issues." She scoffs lifely. "Issues? Volumes."
"Relationships are only a problem when you start getting attached," Shiner informs her sagely. "Casual sex. It's the answer."
Again, Rose stares at Shiner with that astonished look, mouth agape. "I would comment on how easy it is for men to have that attitude, but I don't suppose that's very fair - I've known a few girls from school who were, erm, unattached. But where I come from, that's another word for 'loose'. And if I open up to someone and connect with them in a way that allows for intimacy… oh, gods! Why am I sitting here blabbering about…" At that point, she picks herself up out of her seat and takes up her coat, blushing furiously. "I should likely go," she mumbles.
Shiner snorts. "Look, I'm not sexist. I don't see any problem with girls putting out as much as they want. Anyone who complains about that is just a smallminded bigot. Life's way too short to care what bigots think."
"Mr. Wright, there are appropriate topics of conversation, and appropriate times for them," Rose intones, folding her coat over her arm. She's beating a hurried retreat but she's not embarrassed enough not to make some parting points. "Now, here, is not the time. Especially since I do not know you that well. And besides, it's not bigotry. It's just common sense values."
"Thanks for the aftershave!" Shiner calls after her, half grinning at her discomfort.