Post by EmperorMyric on Mar 22, 2021 16:17:39 GMT
As Margheriti moved swiftly into the kitchen, uncovering the pasta he had made earlier for the two visiting diplomats, he blinked and looked over to Amastacia, talking to her through the slit between the countertop and the panties above "So, just wondering, do they have pasta where you come from? It's like an egg noodle that you boil in water until it's soft, then garnish it with herbs, sauce and spices?" Inside, he hoped she'd say yes, or that at the very least she was interested, he'd really hate to lug the pasta all the way back to his ship for his XO to devour when he had his back turned.
She smiled and said "Oh, yes. They do exist in our faction. However, we prefer to eat bread itself." She then sighed as she sat close by him and said "I can eat pasta for you if you like. It will be my first time. Do you have ground meat and some sauce? Preferably red."
He gave a chuckle "I've been told by my great grandmother that this recipe is a time-honored tradition, to what time I cannot say, but I try to hide it from my XO and he simply can't get enough of it." He scooped her some noodles on a plate, then paused at the sauce "Uhh, how much sauce and meat do you like on your pasta?"
She said "A lot of meat and sauce please. I prefer to be filled up with meat. I have a distaste for vegetables at times. I am however in favor of onions...and if you have any carrots~?"
He smirked widely at her comment "Alas, there are no carrots in this pasta, but there are onions. And I'll give your plate a heaping amount of the toppings." He fixed her plate up, grabbing the wine from their previous encounter and made them two glasses, setting them down on the table all together, his hands contorted and his fingers in different angles as he did so.
Then he made his own plate, a little less of the sauce and meat on his plate, then gathering bread and Fettunta to place onto the table. The wine, bread, Fettunta and pasta where all very formal and fancy, as Margheriti looks up with a smile to Amastacia "Buon appetito!"
She smiled at all of this and said to him as well "Buon appetito!" As best as she could before she started to eat her pasta like a monster. She started shoveling the pasta into her mouth and then the toppings, chewing them quickly and quietly before she swallowed and did it again.
To say he was slightly impressed, well, yes he was. She hasn't really broken any of his personal table rules yet, even with her ravaging the plate and eating whole mouthfuls, it was like an appreciation to his cooking. He took a few bites from his plate as well, taking some bread and pressing it into the sauce before eating a corner, placing it back down on the plate and quietly eating his meal, glancing up to Amastacia every now and then.
She had to stop when she noticed Mergheriti glancing at her and smiled. She had sauce all over her lips and she licked them up and leaned forward, whispering
"Thanks, hot stuff~"
He chuckled softly, still half of his plate remaining, as he lent forward and dabbed her mouth with a napkin, cleaning the remaining sauce from her lips "So, I take that you enjoy my cooking hmm?" he moved his fork in a swirl, collecting the pasta and then eating the contents in one go, not slurping the pasta into his mouth. "Perhaps I should make some dessert for us later as well."
She nodded and thanked him quietly for wiping her lips clean. She then suggested, raising a finger as her lips parted to let her speak
"Well, for one, I suggest tulips~ I love them."
"I think Cannoli will be just fine, never heard of eating tulips, but I suppose they might be different for your kind." He scraped up some more pasta, eating it until soon enough, there was nought but bread left, we cleaned his plate free of the sauce with a few pieces of bread, before sipping slowly on his wine "Go on, you can have those last pieces. I suppose you'd like to watch some tense and action-filled Dectrothian movies while where here? Or would you rather go out on the town?"
She liked the offer, smiling at him and saying
"Well, I would love to see some movies. No war movies though. I have had enough experience against the rebels to know war. And perhaps you too? Have you been to war before?"
His gaze slowly glossed over "Yeah, back in the Third War, I was sent out on a 'Sweep and Clear' mission against the Meralis forces in the Kairn system. Make no mistake, the fancy term just means 'Search and Destroy'. Back then the war over Kairn was heating to it's boiling point, and our Leader had even shown to lead the forces on a march across the planet. Even Fleet Commanders, as I was at the time, where rolled into the ISF's sweeping control, even though I was specialized in Exploration, the others told me that that would mean I'd be good at picking out Meralis strongholds."
He took a slow, heavy breath "Suffice to say, I found one, out on the coast of one of the sectors, was a hardened submarine base.." He circled his finger around some imaginary map, lost in his own memory "Now, the Tyberous Agreement meant my ship wouldn't personally fire down on the installation, but I watched those who did. A surgical airstrike was dropped on them, and in the following explosions, a large explosion rocked the surrounding area, with the telltale signs of nuclear detonation. You see, that base held the only Nuclear-capable submarines on Kairn, and they had been armed and ready to go. My find caught them in the middle of their final preparations." He shifted a little.
"The Empire awarded me a promotion and a Conquest of Kairn medal for my great contribution to the successful takeover of the planet. I was just happy it was over so I can go back to the vast nothingness of space, where there are no submarine bases or sudden nuclear detonations." He sighed long and hard, before picking himself back up visibly, pushing the thoughts out "So, no war movies for us, I got a few thriller, action and mystery movies, if you wish."
She listened to him say these things quite well and without a word from her own lips. Afterwards, she simply nodded and said "Yes, that would be wonderful. Maybe some mystery? I'd like to ponder over things that excite me but not too much that it would cause me anxiety. Like war."
She took a breath and started to tell him her own story.
"I was not a Junior Admiral for nothing, my dear Mergheriti. Back then I was a simple navy woman. I fought in the battles for Satembi. It was...to say the least....not our finest moment but it was also a time of greatness for our navy. A time for it to learn, to gain experience, to make better.
I was in command of a Destroyer. Her name was Sinner. I was evacuating civilians from Satembi when the first rebellion began. It was incredibly bloody. I hated it.
It didn't help that I had to leave some behind. I can still remember how my crew was constantly begging me not to leave some behind, how people held on to the ramps as they slowly closed, the rebels shelling the city we were evacuating the civilians from as my ship was taking damage because our shields were down. How my crew was trying their best to shoot back even though there were buildings in the way."
She looked at the table with eyes that seemed disturbed and unable to focus on life as she said
"Many nights after that, my decision kept on haunting me when I got news that the rebels did monstrous things to the civilians we left behind. Even when we returned and took our revenge upon those murderers....I...never felt any comfort for that."
"This can be the reason why I probably went ahead into the exploration corps rather than stay in the combat corps. And why I did so much better here than there, in Satembi. I may be a ferocious woman if not tough and authoritative but I have soft heartstrings for civilians."
He kept his silence, respectfully, and once she had finished, found a movie with some properties of mystery, but with a noir feel to it. It was inspired by a true story where an old cop found new life when he picks up a cold case, and slowly but surely pieces everything together to find the culprit. He flashed the movie at her "So, perhaps you may like 'A Long Night in Morine'?" He gave her the quick details without spoiling the plot, and wiggled the small stick in his hand.
She nodded to it and then said "Very well! I'd like that. I am often interested in the work of the police and criminals. I never got a chance to be a police officer when I was a young girl, you know?" She giggled and tracking the stick with her eyes, she tried to take it from him playfully.
He deftly kept it from her grasp "Well now, hold on, I need to put it in first!" With a fluid motion, the stick slid into the node set in the wall, a display appearing and configuring itself to Margheriti's preferences, as he quietly and mentally adapted them so that Amastacia would have no issues watching it as well, turning off the privacy settings to do so and configuring it for xeno supported play. Soon enough, the movie began with a long, booming orchestra, as the opening credits rolled over shifting views of a rainy, gloomy city. He sat down next to Amastacia, and ordered the drone to bring them some post-dinner snacks.
Amastacia was...an interesting audience. She quietly settled down with him, actually reaching out to wrap an arm around his own as she fixed her eyes on the movie and just that, awaiting for the action to start when she asked him "So this is how your movies start?"
He gave a short nod, whispering a little "Well, this one anyway, it's a classic noir mystery, so it has to set up the mood. It's a gloomy kind of feel, the rain for most species means a sad or down-trodden scene, as it pans over the busy street to the protagonist." As he explained, the movie went along with it, the main character of the story standing against a building, seeking cover from the dark rain as a drag from his cigarette lit up his face, his eyes looked grim, as if older than he was. He looked down at the pavement, and snuffed out his cigarette. The protagonist's deep voice soon began to narrate the story, speaking of the older days, and those leading up to the assignment of the cold case. It went on like this for some time until Margheriti slowly, but surely, pulled Amastacia closer to him on the couch, as if affirming to her earlier move on him.
She knew it. She then followed up with a tighter grasp around his arm, brushing her cheek against his body as she watched the movie. She said as the protagonist started to finish his monologue,
"I'm getting interested in the story. Say, do spoil me. Does he suffer at the end of his case? Does his career end horribly for him?"
She turned her eyes away to look at his, trying to attract him to her and to get an answer out of his human lips.
He waited for a pause, the sound of rain and a door chime filling the room as the protagonist entered a small shop for some coffee, looking wet and gruff as he sat on a worn chair. "Now, now, it's rude to spoil the plot of the movie, but he does experience hardship later on, just keep a close eye on the newspad he picks up." The protagonist, revealing himself as a detective in the narration, picked up the newspad, the title boldly declaring Two Men Killed! Police Have No Leads! with a picture included below of the covered bodies laying in the street, the detective lit up another cigarette, and took a long drag from it, as Margheriti allowed his head to lean towards the other's, taking things slowly.
She did as he suggested. But as she watched the movie, she slowly started to let her own guard down, allowing him to get closer to her, his head leaning towards hers. In response, she reached slowly but surely for the hand of the other.
As the movie progressed, Margheriti slowly lowered his guard, the air in the room developing a pleasant smell, at least to him. His cheeks darkened a grey color, a byproduct of the nanites in his bloodstream, and a small example of blushing, for the Dectrose at least.
On screen, a car chase winded through the narrow alleyways of the main city, trash being flung this way and that, and the detective leaning out of his window to try and take some pot-shots at the suspect's car, as a dramatic angle taking full advantage of the rising steam from some primitive sewer grate to obscure the vehicles until they came barrelling through.
Out of the corner of his eye, the optical implants had detected the other's hand inching it's way towards his, and playing along with the game, he inched his towards her. He knew full well there where articles in the ISF Handbook about xeno relations, at least an inch tall in physical format, and quite a read when in a personal database, but there wasn't much cause for concern, as long as things didn't accelerate too quickly.
Things wouldn't. She, for now, stopped. That was enough. Not to tease him into doing more.
Amastacia allowed herself to giggle just a little as she watched the action unfold. Then an alien purr, a gentle drone that could probably soothe anyone close to her, came out of her lips. They parted only a little bit, allowing the purr to escape with needed tension to be audible. Very audible.
His hand finally touching, then taking into his grasp her hand, he smiled a slight bit at the purring, as they enjoyed the movie and the night together. Though he knew the next few days would be busy, and he'd need to do some work and file some reports. But at least now he had something to look forward to, a far cry from their first encounter, where she caused him to undergo his greatest fear, and now those fears where gone, melting away like the alien in his arms was.
It wasn't enough for Amastacia.
She slowly lifted herself away from him. She looked at him and smiled as she leaned forward towards him. Then at last, she forced her lips upon his, crashing upon his human touch as she wrapped her arms around him and dared to make love even if he would reject her.
She fell for him then.
She smiled and said "Oh, yes. They do exist in our faction. However, we prefer to eat bread itself." She then sighed as she sat close by him and said "I can eat pasta for you if you like. It will be my first time. Do you have ground meat and some sauce? Preferably red."
He gave a chuckle "I've been told by my great grandmother that this recipe is a time-honored tradition, to what time I cannot say, but I try to hide it from my XO and he simply can't get enough of it." He scooped her some noodles on a plate, then paused at the sauce "Uhh, how much sauce and meat do you like on your pasta?"
She said "A lot of meat and sauce please. I prefer to be filled up with meat. I have a distaste for vegetables at times. I am however in favor of onions...and if you have any carrots~?"
He smirked widely at her comment "Alas, there are no carrots in this pasta, but there are onions. And I'll give your plate a heaping amount of the toppings." He fixed her plate up, grabbing the wine from their previous encounter and made them two glasses, setting them down on the table all together, his hands contorted and his fingers in different angles as he did so.
Then he made his own plate, a little less of the sauce and meat on his plate, then gathering bread and Fettunta to place onto the table. The wine, bread, Fettunta and pasta where all very formal and fancy, as Margheriti looks up with a smile to Amastacia "Buon appetito!"
She smiled at all of this and said to him as well "Buon appetito!" As best as she could before she started to eat her pasta like a monster. She started shoveling the pasta into her mouth and then the toppings, chewing them quickly and quietly before she swallowed and did it again.
To say he was slightly impressed, well, yes he was. She hasn't really broken any of his personal table rules yet, even with her ravaging the plate and eating whole mouthfuls, it was like an appreciation to his cooking. He took a few bites from his plate as well, taking some bread and pressing it into the sauce before eating a corner, placing it back down on the plate and quietly eating his meal, glancing up to Amastacia every now and then.
She had to stop when she noticed Mergheriti glancing at her and smiled. She had sauce all over her lips and she licked them up and leaned forward, whispering
"Thanks, hot stuff~"
He chuckled softly, still half of his plate remaining, as he lent forward and dabbed her mouth with a napkin, cleaning the remaining sauce from her lips "So, I take that you enjoy my cooking hmm?" he moved his fork in a swirl, collecting the pasta and then eating the contents in one go, not slurping the pasta into his mouth. "Perhaps I should make some dessert for us later as well."
She nodded and thanked him quietly for wiping her lips clean. She then suggested, raising a finger as her lips parted to let her speak
"Well, for one, I suggest tulips~ I love them."
"I think Cannoli will be just fine, never heard of eating tulips, but I suppose they might be different for your kind." He scraped up some more pasta, eating it until soon enough, there was nought but bread left, we cleaned his plate free of the sauce with a few pieces of bread, before sipping slowly on his wine "Go on, you can have those last pieces. I suppose you'd like to watch some tense and action-filled Dectrothian movies while where here? Or would you rather go out on the town?"
She liked the offer, smiling at him and saying
"Well, I would love to see some movies. No war movies though. I have had enough experience against the rebels to know war. And perhaps you too? Have you been to war before?"
His gaze slowly glossed over "Yeah, back in the Third War, I was sent out on a 'Sweep and Clear' mission against the Meralis forces in the Kairn system. Make no mistake, the fancy term just means 'Search and Destroy'. Back then the war over Kairn was heating to it's boiling point, and our Leader had even shown to lead the forces on a march across the planet. Even Fleet Commanders, as I was at the time, where rolled into the ISF's sweeping control, even though I was specialized in Exploration, the others told me that that would mean I'd be good at picking out Meralis strongholds."
He took a slow, heavy breath "Suffice to say, I found one, out on the coast of one of the sectors, was a hardened submarine base.." He circled his finger around some imaginary map, lost in his own memory "Now, the Tyberous Agreement meant my ship wouldn't personally fire down on the installation, but I watched those who did. A surgical airstrike was dropped on them, and in the following explosions, a large explosion rocked the surrounding area, with the telltale signs of nuclear detonation. You see, that base held the only Nuclear-capable submarines on Kairn, and they had been armed and ready to go. My find caught them in the middle of their final preparations." He shifted a little.
"The Empire awarded me a promotion and a Conquest of Kairn medal for my great contribution to the successful takeover of the planet. I was just happy it was over so I can go back to the vast nothingness of space, where there are no submarine bases or sudden nuclear detonations." He sighed long and hard, before picking himself back up visibly, pushing the thoughts out "So, no war movies for us, I got a few thriller, action and mystery movies, if you wish."
She listened to him say these things quite well and without a word from her own lips. Afterwards, she simply nodded and said "Yes, that would be wonderful. Maybe some mystery? I'd like to ponder over things that excite me but not too much that it would cause me anxiety. Like war."
She took a breath and started to tell him her own story.
"I was not a Junior Admiral for nothing, my dear Mergheriti. Back then I was a simple navy woman. I fought in the battles for Satembi. It was...to say the least....not our finest moment but it was also a time of greatness for our navy. A time for it to learn, to gain experience, to make better.
I was in command of a Destroyer. Her name was Sinner. I was evacuating civilians from Satembi when the first rebellion began. It was incredibly bloody. I hated it.
It didn't help that I had to leave some behind. I can still remember how my crew was constantly begging me not to leave some behind, how people held on to the ramps as they slowly closed, the rebels shelling the city we were evacuating the civilians from as my ship was taking damage because our shields were down. How my crew was trying their best to shoot back even though there were buildings in the way."
She looked at the table with eyes that seemed disturbed and unable to focus on life as she said
"Many nights after that, my decision kept on haunting me when I got news that the rebels did monstrous things to the civilians we left behind. Even when we returned and took our revenge upon those murderers....I...never felt any comfort for that."
"This can be the reason why I probably went ahead into the exploration corps rather than stay in the combat corps. And why I did so much better here than there, in Satembi. I may be a ferocious woman if not tough and authoritative but I have soft heartstrings for civilians."
He kept his silence, respectfully, and once she had finished, found a movie with some properties of mystery, but with a noir feel to it. It was inspired by a true story where an old cop found new life when he picks up a cold case, and slowly but surely pieces everything together to find the culprit. He flashed the movie at her "So, perhaps you may like 'A Long Night in Morine'?" He gave her the quick details without spoiling the plot, and wiggled the small stick in his hand.
She nodded to it and then said "Very well! I'd like that. I am often interested in the work of the police and criminals. I never got a chance to be a police officer when I was a young girl, you know?" She giggled and tracking the stick with her eyes, she tried to take it from him playfully.
He deftly kept it from her grasp "Well now, hold on, I need to put it in first!" With a fluid motion, the stick slid into the node set in the wall, a display appearing and configuring itself to Margheriti's preferences, as he quietly and mentally adapted them so that Amastacia would have no issues watching it as well, turning off the privacy settings to do so and configuring it for xeno supported play. Soon enough, the movie began with a long, booming orchestra, as the opening credits rolled over shifting views of a rainy, gloomy city. He sat down next to Amastacia, and ordered the drone to bring them some post-dinner snacks.
Amastacia was...an interesting audience. She quietly settled down with him, actually reaching out to wrap an arm around his own as she fixed her eyes on the movie and just that, awaiting for the action to start when she asked him "So this is how your movies start?"
He gave a short nod, whispering a little "Well, this one anyway, it's a classic noir mystery, so it has to set up the mood. It's a gloomy kind of feel, the rain for most species means a sad or down-trodden scene, as it pans over the busy street to the protagonist." As he explained, the movie went along with it, the main character of the story standing against a building, seeking cover from the dark rain as a drag from his cigarette lit up his face, his eyes looked grim, as if older than he was. He looked down at the pavement, and snuffed out his cigarette. The protagonist's deep voice soon began to narrate the story, speaking of the older days, and those leading up to the assignment of the cold case. It went on like this for some time until Margheriti slowly, but surely, pulled Amastacia closer to him on the couch, as if affirming to her earlier move on him.
She knew it. She then followed up with a tighter grasp around his arm, brushing her cheek against his body as she watched the movie. She said as the protagonist started to finish his monologue,
"I'm getting interested in the story. Say, do spoil me. Does he suffer at the end of his case? Does his career end horribly for him?"
She turned her eyes away to look at his, trying to attract him to her and to get an answer out of his human lips.
He waited for a pause, the sound of rain and a door chime filling the room as the protagonist entered a small shop for some coffee, looking wet and gruff as he sat on a worn chair. "Now, now, it's rude to spoil the plot of the movie, but he does experience hardship later on, just keep a close eye on the newspad he picks up." The protagonist, revealing himself as a detective in the narration, picked up the newspad, the title boldly declaring Two Men Killed! Police Have No Leads! with a picture included below of the covered bodies laying in the street, the detective lit up another cigarette, and took a long drag from it, as Margheriti allowed his head to lean towards the other's, taking things slowly.
She did as he suggested. But as she watched the movie, she slowly started to let her own guard down, allowing him to get closer to her, his head leaning towards hers. In response, she reached slowly but surely for the hand of the other.
As the movie progressed, Margheriti slowly lowered his guard, the air in the room developing a pleasant smell, at least to him. His cheeks darkened a grey color, a byproduct of the nanites in his bloodstream, and a small example of blushing, for the Dectrose at least.
On screen, a car chase winded through the narrow alleyways of the main city, trash being flung this way and that, and the detective leaning out of his window to try and take some pot-shots at the suspect's car, as a dramatic angle taking full advantage of the rising steam from some primitive sewer grate to obscure the vehicles until they came barrelling through.
Out of the corner of his eye, the optical implants had detected the other's hand inching it's way towards his, and playing along with the game, he inched his towards her. He knew full well there where articles in the ISF Handbook about xeno relations, at least an inch tall in physical format, and quite a read when in a personal database, but there wasn't much cause for concern, as long as things didn't accelerate too quickly.
Things wouldn't. She, for now, stopped. That was enough. Not to tease him into doing more.
Amastacia allowed herself to giggle just a little as she watched the action unfold. Then an alien purr, a gentle drone that could probably soothe anyone close to her, came out of her lips. They parted only a little bit, allowing the purr to escape with needed tension to be audible. Very audible.
His hand finally touching, then taking into his grasp her hand, he smiled a slight bit at the purring, as they enjoyed the movie and the night together. Though he knew the next few days would be busy, and he'd need to do some work and file some reports. But at least now he had something to look forward to, a far cry from their first encounter, where she caused him to undergo his greatest fear, and now those fears where gone, melting away like the alien in his arms was.
It wasn't enough for Amastacia.
She slowly lifted herself away from him. She looked at him and smiled as she leaned forward towards him. Then at last, she forced her lips upon his, crashing upon his human touch as she wrapped her arms around him and dared to make love even if he would reject her.
She fell for him then.