Melia entered the SEC office to speak with Roy

Roy was only moments behind her, and didn't waste any time on formalities, aside from almost reverently draping his uniform jacket over his chair and moving around to lean on the front of his desk.

"Last time I saw you that stone-faced, Melia, a couple of guys died a deservedly gruesome death.  I understood the look then...what's got you roiled up now?" he said without any preamble.  He barely paused before adding, "Whatever gets said in here stays in here, unless I have to act on it for the safety of the ship, so speak freely, please..."

While the words were blunt and forthright, there was genuine concern in his voice, and his body language was relaxed, not showing any sign of alarm or being on guard.

"That time, was... I was not in control... I hated them to the core of my being... today I..." she struggles for words and pauses.

 "I don't really know... It's that.... I'm not familiar... I felt a cold weight in my gut... like a deep ache... pain I'd never felt before..." her voice kinda drifted from the more crisp explaining as she tried to piece things together.

"It started when... when I learned... that Zob and Lizzy were dating?" her tone is almost pure confusion.

"Though I did't no I still don't understand why... I didn't know how to handle the hurt and confusion so i boxed it up... pushed it away... she looks at Roy uncertain and more than a little uncomfortable still grappling with how to handle everything.

Justin wonders into the Sec area looks around then leans against the wall. After three minutes he leaves.

Roy listened, nodding.  "Not good to keep emotions bottled up too long, I know...but it was probably wise to not open the floodgates out there.  There was already a lot going on and there's a good chance that something would be misinterpreted...if it wasn't already..."

He put a hand to his cheek, rubbing absently at it as he thought.  In a thought-filled, almost distracted tone, he continued, "I'm hardly the best choice for a relationship counselor...the Corps has been my life for the past twenty-some-odd years, and the only relationship worth speaking about that I had in that time ended with a lot of awkward distance, and I'm not sure why.  So take anything I say with a hefty grain of salt, here, because I may be talking out of my ass and not know any better..."  He shrugged.

"Seems to me, though, the biggest thing is to figure out why you had that particular reaction to that news..."  He snorted softly, adding, "The confusion, I understand...I mean, Zob's been on this boat for years, and while he's been sociable enough for most of the time, he hasn't really shown any inclination toward that kind of a social life.  The hurt, though...that's the puzzle."  While he hadn't had any sort of relationship counseling training, he had occasion in his past to talk young Marines through various moral and social quandaries...so he defaulted to taking a tactical view of things.

"Anything in your past caused anything remotely similar?"  Without really waiting for an answer, he added, "Anything about hearing they were dating that should cause you any sort of pain, resentment...jealousy...?"  He was struggling to think of emotions that he'd ever heard described as that combination of pain and cold, sinking feelings...but his emotional lexicon was pretty limited.

Nikki came in to the SEC and approached the desk area "Heya" her southern drawl ever present, she smiled at the person on desk duty "Lt Morrow said you might be able to help me....I am looking for someone who might have come from Fuji as a colonist to Bura.  on One of the ships that came with us" What was the worst the person would say? 'no', or 'bugger off'  she would still be in the same spot she was now.

   Ellen, one of the newer   SEC    pulled up a  screen and starte d to Type.. she  gave ut a low whistle...

   14  ships  across   all 4   sections of the  fleet...there.....are.......2486 Fuji sign ups..that aren't  military?.. You have  names? 'Cause  it will take a good  damn while to go through  ID  Pics...

"Lets try McGaha" she smiled "Maybe we can pare it down by looking for pairs." she tried to think if Beth gave her a name for the woman.  "He was with a woman on the 'watch list'."

   Ellan  studied the  lists   as he  put in the filter...  name s    vanished  rapidly  until only two remained.

 ..well?  here's a McGaha.... he's  with a  woman....  the currant name is   Bala  Noss... she is indeed on the watch list..... as  is  this McGaha  guy.. seems  he  had  a run in with ESN  dock  folks when they tried to    check his luggage.. they found some EDT flyers  and  two  angel steel pulse    pistols.. they  let him go...but tagged him.

"Is he on Bura now?" she asked....She committed the name Bala Noss to memory.  She now had a name to the bitch.  And if as she suspected Haleys dad had turned into a major jackass...she was going to burn him alive to die like his wife and children did.  She owed it to Haley to make sure though, and she would.

  Ellen    bite  a lip as she   filters  some more things...Beth would find out... I can only get that he was on.... the....Argus... some ships  have been sending  thier colonists  down  as we speak.. to save thier shuttle s for   shore leave  folks  later.

In reply to Roy Spencer (msg # 282):

"That was my fear that addressing the feeling would cause more problems." Melia agrees with Roy's assessment.

"As far as hurting, I'm not sure why I felt hurt. I don't know, the only thing I can really remember is my capture and how my captors played with my emotions using hope and fear.... Why would I feel resentment? or even jealousy..."

She considers for a moment then, "I mean I've gotten closer to Zob, he's helped me a lot... recently... especially with managing my anger... but I don't understand why I'd be jealous... or resentful of the attention he's giving her..." She says some of the feelings unconsciously slipping through her filters, and barriers.

"It's all so confusing, I don't remember ever feeling this way before."

she commed "Lt Morrow....He may be on the argus.  Can we get a check to see if he has left the  Argus?"
She was thinking if she had to borrow a shuttle to go down it might work to catch him
This message was last edited by the player at 21:32, Sat 10 Aug 2019.

Roy nodded, seeing some potential headway.  "You've gotten closer to him...and he's getting closer to someone else."  He looked at Melia to see if the explanation rang true for her.  While he waited, he added, "That's actually a pretty common situation...and reaction."

Melia's face displayed plainly the war she was having as her control slipped: surprise, confusion, and denial all waged their own mini-battles for control. "But, I thought that... Zob and I aren't together. That's no... Isn't that just the case when... like in the romance vids... I'd know if I was jealous of someone getting close... nine hells..." she  sputtered through reactions as her brain tried to both connect the dots and reject the conclusions. First off Zob was a teammate and a demon. Second he was a friend, and helping her. Third, she'd not felt this towards anyone else's relationships before, at least none that she could remember, so why start now. She wasn't some attention queen... they fought those types who flaunt all over the station with creds and status begging for attention....

Roy shrugged.  "Doesn't have to be a romantic connection.  I've heard a lot of stories about best friends falling out because one of them got jealous about the other getting new friends.  Sounds like you thought Zob was about as close to a friend as you allow anyone to get..."

He paused for a brief moment, shrugging apologetically.  "I get it, I used to be really slow to open up to anyone, and I didn't have anywhere near the kind of emotional trauma you did.  But you felt like you had a friend in Zob...then you find out he's got a girlfriend, and that makes you feel betrayed, on some level, like he didn't tell you that he needed more than your friendship..."  He shrugged, rapidly getting lost 8n his own explanation.

"The important thing is, it's a normal reaction...at least, as long as it doesn't drive you to things like burning Lizzy in effigy or stalking Zob, or something more homicidal.  It's a perfectly normal human response to the situation."  He put a slight emphasis on 'human'...her personnel files had hints about her psychological state after all the experiments the Demons had tried on her...he hoped that hearing this emotion wasn't a by-product of the experimentation would be some comfort.

 -------->>>>>> From Hanger Dec

 Lizzy would walk into SEC looking for Melia or Roy because she had a feeling it was Melia, Roy was meeting at his office when they talked on the field. She will look around she saw Nikki and she headed for the SM's Office.

  Simms  saw Lizzy, he  gave her a polite smile,..excuse me, Ensign?  The SM  has someone in  his offcie  now?... You might  want to have a seat..or..I Could  COM him and tell him you a re here?

 Lizzy smiles and says," Oh thank you very much, umm yes I will have a seat. Is he talking to Melia, I am really here to talk to her about a misunderstanding."

 Lizzy will then head over to the side and takes a seat waiting to talk to Melia the look she had when Zob said his joke. Lizzy knew exactly what that was, it was jealousy Lizzy had been there before, she had to clear this up she had just met Melia and wanted to be friends and not have a joke break up their friendship.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:32, Sun 11 Aug 2019.

Nikki was thinking about the situation.  A deep look of thought on her face "Thanks...I am going to see if I can get over to the Argus for a bit"

She smiled and walked out of the SEC.  She knew Beth could get a hold of her over the comms.

===> hangar dec

In reply to Roy Spencer (msg # 293):

 Melia listens carefully to what Roy says.  I'm not gonna do anything rash or harmful. she explains as he lays out his concerns and I guess it's good to know it's a normal thing.  I just didn't ever experience or expect to feel this way. I guess I need to decide if I'm going to let it have a negative impact on my friendship with Zob... I guess I need to think on things some more.

Thanks for talking with me I'll be honest I thought I'd somehow messed... I'll be on the observation deck if you need me SGT MAJ.

She says turning and leaving  Roy's office. Seeing Lizzy outside she nods to her.

 Lizzy stands up when she sees Melia walk out of Roy's office. Lizzy smiles and says," Hi Melia do you have a second I think we need to talk, there has been I misunderstanding I believe."

Roy nodded as Melia took her leave...there was more he could say, probably, but he didn't want her to feel like she was being bludgeoned with his ham-fisted approach to counseling.  She wasn't going to vivisect anybody, and she didn't appear to be any danger to herself, so he was satisfied.  He started to follow her out when he saw Lizzy, and paused.

Anything that needed to be said between them was best said without him hovering in the background. He stepped around Melia and went over to check on the progress being made on the captured intel from the last few missions.

In reply to Lizzy Maris (msg # 299):

Melia nods, um sure I was headed to the obs deck unless you want to talk here. she says uncertainly.

 Lizzy smiled at Melia and said," Sure we can go talk on the Obs deck, that would be fine Melia." Lizzy will smile and nod to Roy as he passed and she will follow Melia to the Obs Deck.

 Lizzy loved staring into the Black, the Obs Dec was where Lizzy made her feelings known for Harry and the start of there interesting relationship so far. Lizzy knew Harry was still her friend, she had to make sure not to loose Melia as a friend over this, Lizzy would straighten it out.

------->>>>>> To Obs Deck