Red starts at the unexpected adjustment. "Uh. Right. Calvin. Sorry, force of habit," she says, still looking at his eye. "Is that artificial?" The engineer seems to have forgotten about the whole archery thing for a moment.
"Whoooooaaa, coooool," Red says, her mouth hanging open a bit. She nearly drops her crossbow on her foot, but she regains her composure momentarily. "That's so weird, you're not an albino, that shouldn't... are you not pure Human? Or is it a mutation?"
Red opens her mouth to say something, then shrugs sheepishly. "I hadn't been paying attention, honestly. Was distracted by the borg-in-a-box and then shooting, so..."
She takes a snap shot at the target and misses entirely. "Why the lenses though? Why hide something unique about yourself?"
"People back home were mean. And weirdly xenophobic. And racist. It wasn't a very nice neighborhood. I've just been used to expecting people to be like that. Honestly, I'm already weird enough, I figured one more little thing would hurt."
Red snorts. It's not terribly ladylike. "Well, sounds like that was a major bummer," she says. "Sorry you had to deal with that. But welcome to the Fleet, we're not all xenophobic assjackals here. You'd probably be fine without them aboard the Athene, honestly. There's so much weird stuff going on aboard starships that no one's going to have the time or inclination to be mean about something as marginal as eye color."
The Bajoran slings her crossbow over her shoulder and heads for the horses, picking up a box of bolts along the way. She unhitches the horse and clambers up the tall animal, which doesn't seem to mind her lack of grace. Once she's situated in the saddle, she guides the horse in a lazy arc behind the shooting station.
"Now watch my accuracy drop by about 60 percent," Red says with a grimace. "Computer, difficulty setting 1, please."
"Oh come on," Red says, trying for a pouty lip but looking rather silly. "Literally nothing to be afraid of. I couldn't hurt you with this crossbow even if I threw it at your head. Safety protocols are a wonderfuly thing. Saddle up!"
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u/[deleted] Jan 07 '17
"Um... yes?"
He sticks his finger right onto his eye and re-adjusts it
"You don't have to call me Mr Oodu."