<snip>

“Captain, Commander,” she greeted the command team, removing her robe and dropping it on a bench along one wall with her towel. Her emerald green one piece shimmered in the light, the straps crossing just below her shoulder blades. “This,” she groaned as she sank in the bubbles, “was an excellent idea, Captain.”

Lt. Cmdr. Lofton - CNS

“Thank you, Commander,” Emmy responded politely, although the side-eye she gave Holmann spoke volumes to see if he was actually going to join them in the hot tub, particularly after the incident that had happened on the ship only a short time ago. Not to worry, though, if anyone asked, she had had a full maintenance cleaning and systems analysis completed before organizing the event.

Dael took a quick glance of the room. Rings of Betazed, I guess it wasn’t a communication fault. He was in full work uniform though his sleeves were rolled up and his collar open as he had been positive the ship’s communication grid had made a mistake when he had heard the Captain’s invitation over the comms. Rather than changing he had spent the whole time checking and triple checking every junction and relay in the system until finally he had to head this way or be late, malfunction or no. After the tribbles messing with the holodecks, he was sure he must have missed one in this other system.
He sheepishly looked around and noticed everyone else had taken it at face value and worn regular swimwear. He honestly preferred being in more clothing, despite his racial heritage. It helped keep eyes off him normally and the errant, uncontrolled stem of thoughts from undisciplined non-telepaths focusing his way. The irony however was not lost on him at being the most clothed at a public function and also a Betazoid. He made his way over to wear he saw some champagne and took a quick swig before making his way to where he saw the senior staff, thankfully seeing he wasn’t the only one not in the hot tub.
“Commander Holmman, Counselor Lofton.... Captain. This is....nice.” he said trying his best at small talk. Maybe if he could talk about some of the hot tubs systems and diagnostics that he had run, he might feel a bit more comfortable. Although remembering some incident in this room that happened right as he joined the ship, he might be out of luck with trying to start that conversation in present company.

Stan slowly walked off of the turbolift down the corridor towards the entrance of the hot tub room. He had to admit to feeling skeptical when he heard the announcement that the graduation celebration was going to be held there. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was some type of practical joke.

But as he got closer, to the room, he could see others entering. Well, if it’s a joke, at least I’m not the only one falling for it.

He tugged down the gray Starfleet Academy Ice Hockey team t-shirt that he wore along with his blue swim trunks. He smoothed out the towel that was draped over his left shoulder.

He arrived at the door to the hot tub room and took a deep breath. Okay, hot tub graduation celebration, here we go…

At least he knew where his towel was.

Cadet Wisniewski, Scientist

Henry’s 3rd consecutive glance in Ven Miya’s direction caught her quietly lounging around a bench against one of the room’s walls. Huh, he thought. It was at this point that he noticed the distinct lack of other Cadets present. His thoughts traveling swiftly back to one of his required Medical courses in the Academy, he remembered this feeling all too well.

The newly-minted Security Chief contemplated this, but as he moved to usher her over, another person arrived, and instead he just gestured vaguely at the hot tub, seemingly to no one.

~ Lt. Jr. Gr. Henry Rodier - CoS (newly appointed at this time)

Miya breathed a silent sigh of relief as another cadet arrived. Though he wasn’t in uniform - obviously - she thought she’d seen him in the mess hall, part of a group of other cadets; Noah had been there too, if she remembered correctly. She relaxed slightly and stepped away from the bench, catching the new security chief’s gesture out of the corner of her eye. Miya wasn’t sure if he was trying to communicate with her in particular, but she gave him a polite nod and a smile anyway.

She approached the new arrival, who judging by his T-shirt was a fellow sports fan, and whispered, “Hi! I’m Miya. I’m glad you’re here! Shall we get into the hot tub with the others? We need to take the plunge some time, I guess!” The silliness of the phrase struck her - who would ‘plunge’ into a shallow hot tub? - but she stifled her giggles, slipped off her robe and headed towards the bubbling water, flashing a shy smile at Lt Rodier as she perched on the edge next to him.

As the members of the crew joined her in the hot tub, Emmy took another long sip of her beverage and then used a finger nail to lightly clink on the glass to get everyone’s attention. She couldn’t help but cringe at the terrible sound that it made and immediately decided that was not something she planned to do again.

“Now that the staff has all arrived,” she began, with a slight look at the counselor, “let us begin. First, I would like to recognize Henry Rodier, who has been promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade and Chief of Security of the USS Challenger following his graduation from Starfleet Academy.” Thankfully, Rodier had already received his promotion before this, as one of the complications of the hot tub graduation ceremony was that it was very difficult to pass the traditional small box of pips to each graduate.

• Davis, CO

Miya applauded in the Bajoran style, clapping the back of one hand into her palm rather than the strange palms-together gesture favoured by humans, and grinned at her neighbour. “Congratulations, sir!” Maintaining the formalities of rank while wearing swimming costumes was unusual, to be sure, but Miya felt it was better to be cautious.

(OOC: Hey Stan - I got those references!) ;-)

[Cadet Ven Miya]

Vanessa stopped blowing bubbles in the water to applaud. “Congrats Stan!” she called out, a big smile on her face.

Lt. Cmdr. Lofton - CNS

Having fetched another glass of champagne, Dael set it down to applaud. “Congratulations Lieutenant!” he emphasized towards the newly appointed CSO with a grin. He only hoped the incident where the new Security Chief stumbled upon some tribbles was not habit forming. The last thing Dael needed was more of those fuzzballs mucking up the works.

-Lt. jg Dael Stadi, CE