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Writer's pictureLegacy

"Riannivision Ep. 1"

Updated: Mar 17, 2023

A visual log opens displaying a highly obscured and blurry image which judders alongside muffled knocking sounds as adjustments are made, "Is that... how do I...?" slowly a skewered image comes into focus revealing an extreme close up of Rianni's face. She peers closer and winces, "Oh that will never do..." The image judders more as she attempts to reposition the recording device, holding it further away to reveal a cleaner portrait - though it remains shaky. Rianni hrms as her brow furrows with dissatisfaction, "My arms just aren't long enough! What this needs is something to extend it further away; a stick or something so I can focus it better on myself..." more hrms, "...I wonder if anyone's ever thought of that before..." she quickly shakes head to remove the distracting thought, "Ok so I'm giving this a go - wow, this feels very strange - so over the recent holiday period I was informed I should sign up to a 'gift exchange'. Though the concept seems... odd, it was apparently a social convention here and so I complied. The gift I received was this most curious device to capture the details of my life and store them in a form of journal." she pauses and gives the shaky handheld selfiecam a funny look, "Now I know this is not what you are meant for, but bare with me ok; this is important"


She begins to pace around the room as she talks, inevitably causing yet more juddery and badly focused recording, "Before I continue, I should hold thought on the gift exchange; I found the whole experience very enlightening and observed a number of interesting reactions from people around the station - not to mention the unusual variety of gifts people dreamed up - like Rumi's - I mean... dinner with the Admiral? Whoever thinks of stuff like that? But I digress... the exercise also gave me an opportunity to try and figure out a gift for someone else of course. I was fortunate in the person who's name I drew being one of the few people around who I have actually met - and given recent events at the time it was actually very easy to find him the perfect gift! I've not seen him since the exchange though... maybe he has already used my gift and is now back at the Academy" she smiles thoughtfully, "...and Rumi said it seemed like a bad joke to give Captain Bishop a fresh application form so he could start over and try to get his ship back!" she scoffs triumphantly; the look quickly fading into one of further dissatisfaction as she focuses on the displayed image of her recording PADD, "There has to be a better way..." she mutters as one hand can be seen looming over the recording field of vision before it goes blank.


The image flickers back into life from a new perspective; it is low down now like it is sat on a desk and angled up towards Rianni who leans in over it - one hand still extended as she is presumably powering it on, "There!" she declares with more triumph, stepping back to resume a more coherent recording. As she lets go and steps away however, the recording suddenly blurs and shifts to one of the ceiling light - which causes a brief lens flare - as the device slides onto it's back. A displeased groan can be heard as Rianni swipes the PADD back of the desk, the screen again going blank before it can come back into focus.


A moment later the visual feed returns, again close up on Rianni's face as she is leaning into it, with both hands extended around the PADD - her tongue poking slightly from one side of her mouth as she carefully props it up, "Ok... how about... that..." she tentatively speaks as she slowly eases away. Her face appears satisfied as the PADD now shows a clear and crisp image, no long accompanied by the constant muffled shuffling of it being held in her hand. But then she stands up straight and the recording only shows the front of her skirt, "Oh for the love of...!" she exasperates, turning around to retrieve a chair which she promptly sits down on; head tilting slightly as she observes the image shown on the recording PADD - it is now of her chest. Rianni sighs and reaches down to one side to find the lever to lower the chair, and her face soon slides down into the field of view, wearing a victorious smile and a firm nod.


"Right! Where was I... Oh yeah, this logging business... So the reason I decided to do it this was is because I feel it is important to capture the things I have learned; there is a minefield of social niceties and expectations surrounding every species living on the station, and I have found it... troublesome, trying to maintain the correct procedures with each encounter. Fortunately my new friends have been most helpful in educating me!" she pauses, retrieving a mug of tea from the desk for a brief sip before continuing.


"So I guess the obvious place to start is with introductions; while I have encountered many different methods, there seems to be a lot more consistency when holding to the formality of rank than when in pure social settings. I have however managed to work out the most common format based on my observations; which logically must be the most likely to be correct" she glances away and clears her throat before turning back to the camera, "The name's Tierno; Rianni Tierno" she says in an almost comically sounding attempt at a cold voice. Rianni frowns, "I don't get it though, it seems so... harsh" her lip twists in thought, "...perhaps I will continue to observe on this matter..."


"But to continue the theme of introductions; I have learned definitively that different species hold to different social customs when greeting one another. I... remain uncertain as to which greeting format overrides which when two different species greet however. But there are already two distinct lessons I have learned in this aspect that must not be forgotten! The first of these is how to properly greet a Betazoid; apparently this is done by poking them in the ribs..." she shakes her head in disbelief, "...a most obscure tradition, but then, they apparently have naked weddings too so..." she shrugs, "The second custom is when greeting females of the same species. Apparently this is done by ruffling their hair! It still seems a little odd though, I mean... we spend so much time preening and fine tuning our appearance on a daily basis - even more than males! - so why would we greet each other in this fashion...?" she slumps back in the chair with her mug in hand as she considers this, "Could it be that the preening in itself is a favourable ritual? Yes, that would explain it! Ruffling each others hair must be done to encourage further visits to a mirror to engage in more preening!" she hrms, leaning forward to set the mug down, "Perhaps I should grow my hair longer so that it can be more ruffled..."


"Now what else is there... oh, I know! My recent interactions - they have revealed a lot of important things to me, like dogs! I always thought that - given how so many people talk of keeping them as fond pets and making them sound small and cute - that they were perhaps like tribbles. But no, definitely not tribbles! I can't thank Ceci enough for educating me there. I... would almost be afraid to meet one from the image research I uncovered" she leans forward and taps on the PADD, "There, record attached for future reference. These dogs are /not/ something I want to consider as a pet in my small quarters!"


"Something else I learned from Ceci is that apparently, Thursday is 'dye day' which means one should dye their hair every Thursday - at least from the context of our conversation at the time, though why do so few others do this..."


Rianni leans back again sipping from her mug as she thinks; a fingernail tapping quietly on the ceramic as she does, "Hmm... what else... ooh right, Zee! I like her - so friendly! I don't think I've ever met anyone who made me feel so... warm, and happy, with everything she said! She's the first Aenar I've met - and the first telepath - so maybe it's a species thing that they just instill happiness in those meet, or maybe some telepathic skill...?" she ponders, "More observation is indeed required to determine this, but what I have already discovered about Aenar is their differing sense of personal space. Most people I've met to date seem to have a strong sense of personal space - like an invisible bubble around them that nobody should intrude into without consent, though it seems that everyone is aware of everyone else's bubble since they never seem to intrude on one another's. Perhaps a visual detection system could be developed to identify all these bubbles..."


She shakes her head to again remove the distracting thought, "But Aenar are different - presumably from their inborn blindness - but I learned from Zee that they don't appear to have these bubbles at all! We spent of most of the night stood side by side at the bar and she didn't seem to care at all - not even that she snuggled so close that my hand rested against her thigh most of the evening. I do not think fellow Humans would accept this... As for my perception of it? Well, I guess I do have a bubble like everyone else, I must do right? But honestly, the only thing that was even slightly disconcerting about this close proximity of Zee was not that she was so close... but that every time I turned to face her as we spoke, I had a face full of her right breast!" she leans in like making an important point to close on as her hand reaches across the recording PADD, "Snuggly Aenar are also very tall"

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