Animal Magnetism || Tatiana

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

Oct. 3, 2000 hours

It wasn't every often that it could be said Lieutenant Gilyov needed someone... but tonight, that was the truth. Tonight, her heart was scrambled, as was her mind, and she needed a friend that she could trust with everything. Lieutenant Gilyov wasn't exactly emotionally cathartic. She dealt with things in her own mind, or she didn't, but either way, she was a very stand-alone type of person. Tonight, she couldn't do it again. She needed guidance... and the only person she trusted enough was possibly the last person she should have been asking about matters of the heart.

Finding Tatiana wasn't a chore, between the men lamenting being on duty when she was off and the red-faced privates heading back to their quarters standing more at attention than they had in basic. There was no other way around it: Tatiana made a splash, wherever she decided to hole up for the night. Lieutenant Gilyov honestly hoped she'd disappeared somewhere on deck with some nameless marine, rather than giving her an opening to have this conversation with her. Vik was uniform, as composed as always, having avoided their quarters to search out Tatiana instead.

Lieutenant Gilyov, call sign Fox, found herself looking at a group of more experienced men – the type Tatiana tended to go along with. One of them would be her lucky John tonight. Perhaps more than one. John, Jack, James, and Jimmy. Their names didn't matter to her anymore than they did to Tatiana.

”Exile.” Fox unceremoniously interrupted whatever sordid story was being told to call to her squad mate. She got a few hateful looks, as well as a few hopeful looks, as she was being sized up to join in a sequel to whatever... just, whatever. What they thought didn't matter; their blood was no where near their brains if they had a heterosexual bone in their bodies with Tati around.

”Exile, can I borrow you for a bit?”

She heard the grumbling, the party's over, the cows came home look. She wouldn't have interrupted Tatiana in her pleasure-seeking if something hadn't been weighing on her heavily... and even now, she felt like saying Nevermind and running out as quickly as she could. The truth was, she was pulling a Tatiana. She couldn't be alone right now... and she couldn't be with anyone else.

[Tatiana Wisla]

The quarters were empty and Tatiana had sent off her letter to Row. She was nervous about it and what he would think if it, how he would handle it, if he would be upset. She felt alone, insecure and alone. As soon as she was done working for the day she was off on her hunt to not have a moment to be alone. She couldn't take the thought of being alone. It wasn't that she needed to frak it just meant she would be able to find some place to hid with them, give them what they want and they would fall asleep and she would be able to lay there till she felt ready to go her way. She would slip free of their grip and go back to her bunk.

She was just in the middle of charming one of the marine, one lieutenant.. well his name didn't matter. Lieutenant six-foot-four-tall-dark-and-handsome when she heard something she hadn't expected. Fox had called her name. She leaned in and kissed him like she wasn't going to let him go. "Sorry handsome, but the lady gets my time first." She said in a whisper to the marine. he was easily ten years her senior, but she didn't care much about age just size or personality really.

She jumped up off his lap pushing past a few of the other guys that were around talking to each other and walked over to Fox. "You can barrow me any time you need Fox." She said to her as she walked her toward the door of the room. She wasn't sure what it was but when Fox needed something from her it was not something she was going to say no to. Fox had been there for her every time she needed someone, which was quiet regularly, and Tatian wasn't going to tell her no. Just as they crested the door Tatiana stuck her head back around and shouted out to them. "Sorry boys, ladies first but keep your motor running I might be back."

Then the pair walked out in to the hall. Tati wasted no time getting own to business, she reach over and grabbed Vik's arm just above her hand and smiled at her. "What's going on Fox?"

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

Tatiana kissed her marine-of-choice (at least Fox assumed so) a brief goodbye, and Vik held her peace. Even as Tati excused herself for the other woman, she left sexual insinuations behind her. You can borrow me any time you need, Fox. It didn't bother Fox – she was used to it. The whistles and grins that followed didn't phase her, either. If one didn't want to hear them, one simply didn't approach Tatiana when she was hunting. By the looks of it, she had plenty of contenders willing to wear out a mattress or table with her, leave dents in the hull of the ship... but the one she kissed was the biggest one. Just as Vik had expected.

She held her peace, but she wanted to blurt it out. She was quiet and composed, ignoring the guttural rumblings of insinuations about what Fox and Exile would be doing in the hallway. It was nothing like that. The marines had that brotherhood with each other, but Exile and Fox had something of an exclusive sisterhood. They were the outcasts, Exile by being far, far too open with her legs and everything else... Vik, by being her polar opposite... closed like a sealed vault, emotionally, sexually, and in every other respect. Well, that was until recently.

When Exile grasped her arm and led her away, when they were away from the crowd, when her friend was smiling at her warmly... lovingly... that's when she couldn't hold her peace anymore... if peace was what one could call whatever she had right now.

”I frakked Striker.”

She blurted it out, admitted something that had been eating at her since the very act, without ceremony or warning. She didn't feel a weight lifted... she just ran her fingers into her hair and pulled it lightly, disheveling her own strands. She looked... like she was in shock that she'd said it... and like she might hyperventilate.

”Last night – just... We were in the Sims. He loaded my Snakebite scenario on Aerilon again... and this time he helped me save him. And it was incredibly sweet.. And he offered me drinks to celebrate, and said he was going to lay off me... and he...”

She blurted it all out, but nearly gasped for air when she had enough choked out to let Tati make sense of it. She'd told Tati about the scenario Striker had put her through. Tati... was possibly the only one she'd shared Snakebite with. They'd discussed their men, Snakebite and Row, although Vik's relationship with Snakebite had been entirely platonic. Her relationship with Striker had been entirely volatile. Then he'd stuck her like a frakking pin in a balloon, and she just didn't know how to deal with it.

She also omitting the number of -times- they'd went at it. It wasn't relevant. Everything that was relevant was now on the table.

[Tatiana Wisla]

They had cleared the crowed area and made it somewhere they could talk when Fox stopped her and began with letting it all out in one hit. It was a dropping a hammer really. Tatiana was surprised at what she said. Not because of the subject matter, no there was little subject matter that actually got to Tatiana, or even surprised her at all. She may have been young but that didn't mean she hadn't tried a little bit of everything already, so there were few surprises to her.

What was surprising was the name attached to her actions. Vik was in a relationship with Atlas, and she had loyally stayed with him all this time. Not only had she betrayed him which was a surprise in itself but it was with Striker of all people. Tatiana never had an issues with Striker, in fact they got along pretty well. Fox on the other hand had a hades of a time with Chris. Chris was always pushing her, berating her and pulling her aside to talk to her about her performance. Tatiana had felt bad for Fox and the situation she was always in with Wilson.

There had been more then one occasion she had told him to go easy on her with only mild success for a few hours at a time. "What happened? How?" Tatiana watched as she ran her fingers threw her hair, she could tell it was causing her stress.

All the things she was saying to describe how it happened even seemed out of character for the two of them. Tatiana knew Chris pretty well. They were friends, they got along and she knew Chris was a sweet guy. His only issue was the way he treated Fox. If he could get that part fixed then he really would be a perfect squad leader.

Tatiana took Fox's hand a squeezed it gently as it to offer her sympathy, as if it was the passing of a family member or something. It wasn't though, it honestly wasn't that big a deal at all. In fact to Tatiana it wasn't an issue at all, just another night really. Tatiana face slowly shifted in to a toothy smile. "I think you needed a good frak, Striker or not. If it was good where's the issue?" Tatiana knew it wasn't what she was wanting to hear but it was a good question. Fox needed to not worry about it and just enjoy herself. She was a wonderful person and had done tons for Tatiana. This was her chance to return the favor to Fox.

"Could be worse Fox. Think about it, he is being nice and you are getting laid. Its a win win." She would give her a minute to react before she herself continued on with the positives of frakking Captain Chris "Striker" Wilson. It wasn't like the thought hadn't crossed her own mind a time or two.

[Viktoriya Gilyov]

When the now-disheveled Vik finally stopped, it was with both hands cupped over her mouth waiting for her friend's judgment. She hadn't really expected it to be along the lines of a supply and demand conversation about how Striker had just sort of been a suppler of much needed sex for Viktoriya. At least, that's kind of how it sounded. It was Striker. She knew that very few beyond her could see the scaly skin and forked tongue of the captain, the occasional saurian eyelid blinking beneath his human one, but could the disconnect really be that bad? For Vik, Striker was a source of misery, more or less. The ability of misery to cause orgasm was irrelevant; he was still the horrible, face-your-penguins-due-north, embodiment of misery.

It felt a little like explaining accidental baby consumption to a cannibal... how could accidental baby consumption even happen?... but either way, the nonchalant response was the same. That had been why Tatiana was an excellent choice to confess her sins to. It was really no big deal to the woman. Tatiana was the equivalent of a succubus, a sexual creature more than capable of dealing death – not that she had to any of her numerous partners, granted, but she was formidable when she was in her Viper.

”I'm not getting laid. I got laid. The once. It's not an ongoing process.”

She said it weakly, then hid her face in her palms for a moment. The implication that she was in need of fraks was one thing, but the idea that Striker become a steady source of them... it blew a fuse in the Lieutenant's mind. Quality of goods was not the issue. The issue was that Striker was frakkin' evil. In a world where most people were basically just neutral, Striker was basically evil without being someone they shot at.

”He is being nice, though.”

She admitted that more quietly. This was never how academia taught them to deal with childhood bullies. Frak, they were really getting somewhere. Social experiment, to Hades with teenage pregnancy. Everybody's self esteem would go up.

”I feel like everybody knows now. Like...” There was no way to describe it, really... like somehow her entire life experience and conscious thought process were somehow narrated and available for the public to read should it so desire. But that was just a silly thought.

[Tatiana Wisla]

Tatiana smiled as her friend spoke about her 'problem'. It finally brought her to the point of letting out a loud bellowing laugh. She tried not to but she could not stop herself. For Tatiana she didn't care if her life was public, in fact she made no effort to hide the fact of what her life was like. On the surface at least it was open for everyone, but that was only to keep the truth of what lie underneath.

Tatiana calmed her laughs and placed a hand on her shoulder. "No one knows a thing, Had the word even started to get around I would have heard it. Viktoriya, I am here for you no matter what you decide to do, but I still think you could use a good time from time to time. She wouldn't say a word about it to anyone. Tatiana may have been able to find out most secrets about people but she was never the type to give out anyone else's secrets. She could understand the need for keeping ones secrets safe, she had plenty of her own.

"Stop stressing over it and just take some time to yourself to decide what you want to do and just enjoy life. The good thing is that there is no wrong answer." Tatiana truly believed that. There was no wrong answer, just the path you decided to take in life.