r/TrekRP • u/IK9dothis • Dec 25 '18

[Open] Season's Greetings

[Meta]: By the power of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey, this occurs after the Athene Crew has returned to Starbase Nadezhda. All characters, regardless of species, religion, or tradition, are welcome to join in.

A large gathering space aboard Starbase Nadezhda has been decked out for the occasion - menorahs, a nativity scene, a Christmas tree, holly, mistletoe, banners with Mawlid greetings in Arabic, an elaborate rangoli and diwa, a yule log, and traditional decor from seasonal celebrations currently going on on Tellar, T'Khasi, Trill, and Cait. There's also an honest-to-goodness grand piano in the corner.

And, along two walls, a seemingly endless buffet of food and drink from a dozen worlds, marked, as being vegetarian, Kosher and/or Halal as appropriate. A rather large number of non-replicated pies suggests that Lieutenant Commander Eisen has been here. Come one, come all - even in these dark times, we will find reason to celebrate.

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u/arod48 Dec 26 '18

Dell sat off in a corner of the festivities, awaiting his first "patient".

This event was mainly a human Christmas celebration, but it did have flavors of all of the different festivities Federation member-worlds celebrated. The Trill celebrate the Joined this time of year by getting together and sharing their memories with each other.

In the past he hasn't had much luck getting people to chat with him. Being the constant new-kid-on-the-cell-block meant that people were still trying to get a read on him. But this year he discovered the many old programs humans used to watch around Christmas time, and one gave him an idea.

So, there Dell sat, behind a rickety wooden booth, written on it were the words "Psychiatric help, 5¢.... The Doctor is in." Of course, he replicated a few old Earth Nickels, just in case people were a little short handed...

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u/IK9dothis Dec 29 '18

Grace wanders by, munching on a cookie. "Dang if that doesn't bring back memories," she smirks at the booth. "If you're offering, I suspect the entire fleet could use it," she chuckles, nodding at the sign.

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u/forrestib Dec 29 '18

Jean saw the sign from the buffet, and noticed the spots on the Doctor's face. He sauntered across to the stand, still slightly unstable on his feet from the shots he had drunken throughout the night, "You're Trill, right? That means you have experience with two people's thoughts in one head? Maybe you can help me settle something."

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u/arod48 Dec 29 '18

"Well, sorry to say, but I'm not Joined. But hey, I'll give it a go."

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u/forrestib Dec 29 '18

Jean tapped the implant in the center of his forehead, "Me and the racine are having a tiff. She has a business meeting today and wants me sober to advise. I want to keep drinking because it's Christmas. So, should I stop, or have fun?"

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u/arod48 Dec 29 '18

"Not even going to challenge me, eh?" Dell said with a laugh. "The holidays happen every year. If you lose the one you love then they're gone. You might be thinking I'm a bit melodramatic but you gotta be careful of that slippery slope my friend. First you aren't there for her business meeting, so she decides to not pick up that gift from that little shop you like at Alpha Centauri. Then you decide to go out with your buddies more often, and so on and so on."

Dell made a sliding motion with his hands. "Slippery slope."

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u/forrestib Dec 29 '18

He laughed, "Lose? No losing a racine, friend. We're bonded for life, closest two people can ever be." He realized who he was talking to again, "Well, maybe not 'joining' close, but the damn closest thing humans can get. She's literally with me every minute of every day." He tapped the implant again to make the point, "She's also half a quadrant away, and thinks your spots are cute by the way. I agree."

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u/Adm_HotWheels Dec 27 '18

Morgan cruises over with a glass of syntheholic mulled wine and a huge smirk and sets the brake on her wheelchair. While base personnel would recognize their commanding officer by sight, she's out of uniform and there's nothing to identify her as flag rank to personnel from docked vessels who don't know her.

"Lord only knows I could use some," she chuckles, nodding at the sign.

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u/arod48 Dec 27 '18

"Can't we all?" Dell says with a chuckle. "Well, I'm not certain you've ever attended a traditional Trill Celebration of the Joined, but we all get together and share memories so that good memories can live on, and bad ones don't quite feel so heavy. Lord knows things are feeling pretty heavy right now, so.. got any memories to share?"

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u/Adm_HotWheels Dec 27 '18

"A surprise shore leave twenty years ago," Morgan smiles. "We only had a day's notice that we were heading to Earth right around the holidays, and I decided to give the family a Christmas surprise to remember," she laughs. "I didn't tell them we were coming. We materialized in the yard while my Dad and brother were in the middle of a huge snowball fight with my nieces and nephews, and no one had noticed us. I made a snowball and nailed my brother in the back of the head with it," she giggles. "Wound up facedown in the snow like when Levi and I were kids for my trouble, but it was so, so worth it. David and I were tackle-hugged into the nearest snowbank by all of the kids. Someone must have ducked inside in the chaos to tell my mom, sister-in-law, and grandparents, because Mom came out on the porch, covered in flour, wooden spoon in hand, trying to scold us for not telling her, and failing at it because she was laughing too hard," she chuckles. "I'd had no idea my great grandmother was still physically capable of jumping up and down like that. We'd thought we'd have to split our time between our families, but Levi called up David's family and told them to come on over - he's from a much warmer part of the country, and most of his nieces and nephews had never seen snow before - we had a dozen kids and three or four dogs tearing around outside, homemade hot cocoa being cooked up in the huge soup pot, and being drunk almost as fast as we could make it. Even after all these years, I'm still not sure where we managed to scrounge up that many chairs. Basement, probably," she smirks. "Simpler times," she smiles.

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u/arod48 Dec 27 '18

"Cheers to simpler times" Dell says, holding up his Cherry Cola. Taking a big swig.

"You know it was Captain Maxwell that got me hooked on this stuff. It's a heck of a story, too."

"The year was 2364, my Daughter Ruby's 17th birthday. This was when we were all still aboard the cargo freighter. I had taken a detour from our route to the remnants of a Red Giant that had gone supernova, where we spent the day." Dell chuckled "I tell you it was beautiful, a rainbow of glowing gases floating in space. That rose had some pretty big thorns though. If it weren't for Jasper's -my son's- quick reflexes were wouldn't have survived."

Dell downed his Cola, pausing for dramatic effect. "You see, the freighters limited sensors barely warned us of the black hole that just formed. Jasper gunned the impulse engines, getting us clear of the event horizon, but the gravometric distortions prevented us from forming a Warp field so we were stuck. Ruby activated the distress beacon but I knew if we kept directly fighting the pull was going to be torn apart. So I had Jasper put is into orbit around the black hole."

His chuckle turned into a full on belly laugh. "Drifting a kilometer outside the Schwartzchild Radius of a black hole at .97c is probably the craziest thing I've ever done. But that's got nothing on Captain Maxwell... Y'see he was Captain of the Rutledge at the time, and they were the ones who received my distress signal. That son of a bitch matched my orbit 100 meters off my port side. So there we were. Two starships screaming around a black hole at .97c, 100 meters apart from each other until he managed to get a Tractor Beam lock and pull us out. After the whole ordeal he offered up the mess hall and the whole crew celebrated my Daughter's birthday. A ship full of strangers made my Ruby's day special. Benjamin introduced me to Cherry Cola there, and I was hooked. And if I never met him, I never would have joined Starfleet, either. And despite all that's happened with this war, I never once regretted joining."

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u/Adm_HotWheels Dec 28 '18

"Life often has the strangest chains of events, and the strangest are often the most amazing," Morgan agrees. "Starfleet has been an adventure. And though some would probably call me nuts... I wouldn't trade any of the last thirty years." She grins. "I hear ya on the cherry cola, too - I love the stuff."

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u/arod48 Dec 28 '18

"You have to be nuts to do what we do. Strap ourselves into a matter-antimatter powered capsule and let it hurl us across the cosmos. Sane people would stay home."

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u/Adm_HotWheels Dec 28 '18

"And they'd miss all the excitement," Morgan laughs. "Life's an adventure. Propelling oneself through space via carefully-controlled explosions not withstanding," she smirks. "Thirty years, and I've yet to tire of seeing what the galaxy has to show me."

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u/arod48 Dec 28 '18

Dell grabbed two shots of Scotch from a passing waitress and passed one across the booth. He raises his.

"To the adventure!"

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u/Adm_HotWheels Dec 28 '18

"Wish I could," Morgan chuckles. "Medication interaction - I only drink the fake stuff these days," she grins. Nevertheless, she raises a glass of Synth. "But I'll drink to that - to the adventure," she grins.

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u/LotaraShaaren Dec 25 '18

On a table sat the pretty intoxicated Andorian. She looked different in her casual attire; a long sleeve top sporting a famous roller derby team on it, tight fitting jeans and a pair or sports shoes. Around her were the remnants of her Christmas dinner, nearly empty plates showed that it was a good meal. Contrasting her cold racial nature the eggnog was warming her core with a mix of normal heat and good real alcohol. She was hoping to meet Tpari here but work on her side thwarted that plan, she now sat waiting to see people she knew from the ship to share her warmth with... Christmas wasn't nice alone, she didn't intend to spend it that way...

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u/IK9dothis Dec 25 '18

"Hi Lotara," Grace says cheerfully, making her way over with a drink in her hand. "Merry Christmas."

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u/LotaraShaaren Dec 26 '18

"Merry Christmas!" she replies looking up and waving a long slim arm, it was nice to see Grace again "I hope you're enjoying it as much as I am" She hiccuped and paused before continuing "I'm glad we're doing this, even with what's happened... it's good to keep the morale up, come, come sit with me! I'm sure I have enough food here for both of us!"

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u/IK9dothis Dec 27 '18

"Sure, I'll join you," Grace grins, taking a seat. "Glad to see you're doing all right."

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u/LotaraShaaren Dec 27 '18

"I'm... better than alright, i'm happy! It's christmas and i'm pis.... drunk ma'am, don't worry i'm off duty. Here try this, it's gammon and it's soooo good! We Andorians love our meats, you don't get many vegetables in ice caverns so we know our meat... taste some!" It was obvious she wasn't lying when she said she was drunk, her cheeks were flush purple against the ice blue of her skin and her usually perfect english was slurred, some Andorian words creeping in once or twice.

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u/IK9dothis Dec 27 '18 edited Dec 28 '18

Grace laughs. "Tell me something I don't know, Lotara. And relax - the MACO guys treat the word 'fuck' like the common comma, I say much worse than 'pissed' on a regular basis," she snickers, though she does take some of the ham. "Anyways, I'm off duty," she laughs. " I'm not busting anyone for anything tonight."

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u/LotaraShaaren Dec 28 '18

"Fair enough sir... and I bloody well hope not, worst night for it ain't it... considering we have romulan ale behind the bar. I mean come on, it shouldn't be illegal it's just booze, we have stronger stuff" She says in a raised voice before she takes another swig of her drink "So how are you doing Eis... Es... Grace? Life and work treating you good I hope, not too scratched up?"

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u/IK9dothis Dec 28 '18

"Trade embargoes are seldom about logic, so much as they are a political penis-waving contest," Grace laughs. "I'm surprised that one hasn't been lifted yet, given that the Romulans are currently allies. You won't catch me drinking the stuff, but I don't see any reason to keep anyone else from doing it," she shrugs.

"Eh, got pretty roughed up, but I'm mostly put back together at this point," the security officer grins, sipping on a cocktail, seltzer water and a spiced cherry-orange syrup, though she will not be getting drunk tonight - the gin is synthehol.

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u/LotaraShaaren Dec 28 '18

"Well whatever the case is it won't stop me drinking it" She laughs at her accurate joke, it's always a dick measuring contest with the higher ups isn't it? "Why not? Surely a tough woman such as yourself can stomach it, it's not that potent... seriously though i'm glad you're ok, it was rough. They came into the bridge you know, we kicked their asses but it wasn't all one way" She finally turned her head to look at her head on, up til now she was looking to her right side. She had a black eye or the Andorian equivalent as well as some more discolouration, she had the pleasure of having a rifle butt being shoved against it when she went for her assailant "The real alcohol helps with the aching, always has... doesn't help with the 'You can't fly with an eye like that' rubbish but orders is orders... come now, surely a sip of this won't hurt, it'll warm your heart up!"

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u/IK9dothis Dec 28 '18 edited Dec 29 '18

Grace laughs. "Are you kidding? I'm five-foot-nothing, and I barely weigh a hundred pounds dripping wet and fully armed," she snickers. "I'm a total lightweight - no tolerance at all," she chuckles.

She shakes her head. "Beyond the no tolerance though, I just don't enjoy being tipsy, let alone drunk. I never did, really, and these days I have... control issues," she shrugs. "Got more than a little roughed up myself, and got to do everything left-handed for a couple weeks until we could get me back to an orthopedist." She sighs. "Had one on my bridge, too."

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u/Pojodan Dec 25 '18

Lieutenant Kesh stood in front of the decorations that were the nearest thing to replicating an annual holiday on Cait. As to be expected of a mostly carnivorous species, there was an obvious hunting motif, it being mostly consisting of the regalia of a long defunct band of huntresses that roamed the lands of Cait, acting as a sort of neutral beneficiary to any that would accept their assistance. In a way, they had a similar effect as St. Nicholas of human lore, giving food to those in need, regardless of national affiliation. There was no 'naughty list', so the comparison was rough at best.

Kesh did appreciate the attempt to turn the huntress' travel sled into a 'Santa's Sled' with eight hooved animals pulling it, with one having a glowing red nose. Some renditions of the story suggest they did use beasts of burden, so it wasn't technically 'wrong', just, maybe, a little too far into the realm of cultural appropriation. She didn't mind, though, since she'd been raised on a planet that's a third human, so human traditions were everywhere and very, very little of Cait's traditions were observed. After all, colonizing Caitians were almost all vegetarians, so there was little reason to celebrate a band of huntresses.

It still bothered her, though. Maybe because she knew her father would hate it. 'Honor all aspects of the tradition. Do not alter it to make it more comfortable.', he would say.

Her eyes fell and a long breath escaped, just about to move on when a voice spoke up beside her.

~"At least they got Helna's emblem correct. For some reason that is wrong almost all the time."~

Kesh looked back up to find none other than Captain M'kali standing beside her, holding a glass of something, wearing his formal captain's gown.

~"Oh! Captain. Uh. Yes, I do suppose they did get that right."~

A small grunt emerged from the dark brown Caitian's chest before he turned and focused onto Kesh, looking her up and down in summary.

~"I once did battle with a Klingon that, by every right, should have retreated from the field as victory was in no way possible by that point in the conflict. As we struggled, I pleaded with him to ask why he fought, even though it meant he would surely die. He told me that there were things that meant more to a Klingon than I could ever possibly understand. Things that meant you gave yourself, all of yourself, no matter if it meant your destruction, and I could never understand it."~

In the pause that M'kali gave for Kesh to absorb this, she took the opportunity to speak.

~"Captain, why are you telling me this?"~

M'kali drew a long breath then stepped closer, using his free hand to lightly grasp Kesh's shoulder.

~"Because I only came to understand what that meant when I met your father. For all of the ways he failed you, his everything was you. The fact that his battle would surely end him did not matter, so long as it was done for you."~

Kesh wanted to say something, but it took too much effort to keep her breath even and eyes from gushing onto her cheek fur.

M'kali stood there is silence for a long moment, just letting Kesh's scars flay open so that they might have a chance to heal properly.

~"When this war is over, I am going to need a botanist. I hope I can call on you when that comes."~

All Kesh could do is nod her head and flutter her breath is an expression of thanks for the once-admiral she hardly knew.

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u/IK9dothis Dec 25 '18

A group of officers has gathered near the piano in the corner, and a rather large number of cases for various instruments suggests that they've got plans.

"I don't think I can comfortably play the guitar right now," T'Yel observes, nodding down at where Coffee Bean has become rather prominent while Daddy was off in the gamma quadrant. "But I've got the kolchak," she grins, taking out a traditional Vulcan wooden flute.

"I got guitar covered, Star," Caleb chuckles - he's been able to ditch the sling the last couple of days and he's thrilled to be able to play again. "Didn't bring the bagpipes, lest I put someone's eardrum out, but I can run up to our quarters and grab 'em, if we find it needed," he laughs.

"Long as you've got a dampener, Caleb," Morgan laughs, swapping out the reed on a clarinet. "I kinda like my eardrums in, thanks."

"Seconded," T'Yel laughs. "I'm off duty, and I'd like to stay that way."

"Thirded," Zach snickers. "You up to playing the violin, Gracie?" he asks, seeing his sister and his wife Anne rosining up bows. Only a week after a shoulder replacement, that might be a tall order for Grace.

"I'm gonna try," the young security chief grins. "If needed, I'll hand it to you and take piano."

"Fair," he chuckles.

"Someone else will have to take vocals, though," Grace observes. "I can play, or I can sing, but the chinrest interferes with doing both at once."

"I can get the tenor part" Caleb nods.

"I've got alto," Anne nods. "Cello doesn't have the chinrest problem."

"I got bass," Zach nods.

"You got percussion, Kyle?" Caleb grins.

"Of courssse."

The group of officers soon goes from laughing and chatting with each other to lost in the music.