by Lara Valera Ryn
91215.1730
After Last Man Standing
-=Sibalt=-
91215.1730
After Last Man Standing
-=Sibalt=-
Giving her body a once-over, Lara thought to herself, *I’m a bloody mess.*
Then, after checking her arms and legs, and finding no actual blood, she decided that, no, a cacophony of color was more accurate.
Between shooting her gun, being shot at, (sometimes by her own teammates), and traversing through paint and mud, she was a colorful mess.
But damn, it had been fun. In fact, Lara could not remember the last time she had had so much fun. Ruefully, she recognized that it was probably sometime before Ryn had entered her life.
But that was a somber thought for another day. For the moment, getting the paint and dirt off of her was her prime task. So, she headed out for a nearby stream that she had wandered across several times in the course of the game.
Standing at the edge of the water, she first tried to swipe away what paint she could from her body and clothing. That only resulted in getting paint stuck to her hands. Looking at the sticky mess that was now her hands, she mumbled, “Great.”
Next, she decided to kneel down at the edge of the water and wash her hands. There were still some remains of paint, especially in her nails and especially the blue paint, which seemed more resilient than the yellow and purple, but otherwise it was a good start.
Kneeling at this level gave Lara a chance to see her own reflection, which was disheveled and well, and covered in paint. She laughed at her reflection, wondering if any of the trillions of sentient beings who relied on Starfleet could see all of them now, what they would think of this intrepid and merry band.
She then shook her head and decided to dunk her entire face and head into the water. While submerged, she ran her hands through her hair and scrubbed her face as best as she could. The cold temperature of the water also served as a great way to cool down she noted, as she swung her head up out of the water.
Taking a deep breath, she remained in front of the stream, just taking a minute to herself. Then, as she was about to get up, she noticed something in the water. It was simply her reflection, but immediately she knew that something was not right. And when she released what it was, she started to laugh.
Hard.
Until her stomach hurt.
And then she stopped, that was, until she took a second look at herself in the water. Running her hands through her hair for a second time, Lara shrugged her shoulders and stood up. *It could have been worse,* she thought to herself.
She returned to base camp, watching the other people roam around in the aftermath of the last game. As she walked by one of the tents, a familiar voice commented, “Your hair is blue.”
Lara stopped and looked over at the speaker, Salvek.
From anyone else, it would have been said with an undertone of sarcasm, but from Salvek it came out as straight as possible, which in and of itself made it funny in its own way.
“Yeah. I decided to go for a change. I decided the Smurfette look might suit me.”
“Smurfette?”
Before Lara could reply, someone else spoke up from another part of the base camp. “Actually,” said Zander Blakeslee, “Smurfette had blue skin and yellow hair.”
Both Lara and Salvek looked over at Zander incredulously.
Blakeslee shrugged his shoulders. “The twins,” he nonchalantly replied.
Lara nodded and then said, “All I have to say is that I cannot wait until the others try to wash this stuff off.”
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Lt. Lara Valera Ryn
Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. Lara Valera Ryn
Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: Out of curiosity, to see if there were indeed “trillions” of people in the Federation, I looked it up. According to the Star Trek wiki, there are 9.85 trillion people living amongst the 155 Federation member worlds. That’s an average of 63.5 billion people on each world….. Granted there are colony planets and whatnot but still… overpopulated much? The current population density of earth is 34 people per square mile. To increase that 10-fold, it would be 340 per square mile… and that is taking advantage of ALL the land mass, including places no one wants to live, like Antarctica, the Sahara, and Canada (You know I’m just kidding, Counselor!) So the next time you are stuck in line at the grocery store behind three people while your Chunky Monkey ice cream is melting, just be glad you aren’t behind 30 people. (Of course if you had a replicator you wouldn’t need to grocery shop.)-Salvek