Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in Genesis Lounge

Posted by Captain Calvin Marius (Captain) in Genesis Lounge

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Vanessa Slade (CNS) in Genesis Lounge
Posted by… suppressed (16) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Marius was not a particularly social man, but almost in a reverse of norms. He decided that as a Captain he needed to be more accessible not less. A typical person socialized with his peers, got drunk, talked about relationships, Marius did none of that as a junior officer, less as a department head and XO and now… well… every number was larger than zero.

He sat at a conspicuously large table, a bottle of whiskey at his left hand and a rocks glass with a single ice cube and three fingers of whiskey at his right. Before him he shuffled cards that didn’t resemble the normal deck. They were covered in pictures of strange animals and covered with numbers and words.

Marius

Vanessa strolled into the lounge and did a mental lap of the room. It looked like most of the other lounges on every starship she had been on. The one difference was the CO sitting at a table with a bottle of whiskey and some cards. She wondered if this was a typical thing with the CO and if all the empty chairs would soon be filled with pips so bright she would have to wear shades. The problem was this bar was not like home where everyone knew your name but she had no other place to go. Sliding into the stool at the bar, Vanessa ordered her first synthahol Sam Adams. Screwing up her nose, she swallowed the sip. The Ferengi were the Starmart of the galaxy: manufacturing goods at a low price but producing a cheap, low quality product.

Kesh had once been a particularly social Caitian. She had even earned the nickname ‘The Fruitbasket Lady’ during her time as chief Botany Officer aboard the USS Athene many years ago. Then came her promotion to Science Chief that had made her workload too heavy to continue the trend of giving every new officer a customized fruit basket, and then came the incident and her demotion that had made it difficult to trust so easily, and then came the Dominion War that made it even harder, and then everything that followed that led to her resigning.

Much had changed since then, not the least of which was her return to Starfleet, driven by a genuine desire to seek that state of being where she had been ‘The Fruitbasket Lady’ so long ago. Sure, being an Engineer made it a little more difficult to shower crewmates with edible gifts, but the department was quite a bit more social than Sciences had been, thanks to so many hours spent lodged in small spaces with few crewmates, fixing what-have-you.

Sure, she wasn’t yet quite confident enough to actively stand out, but she did, at least, feel compelled to be a little bold.

“Is that Kwel’jak’tegaf?” The felinoid was in her usual uniform, taking a break from her duties in the lounge, and after getting her mug of hot drink, figured it was worth a shot to wander over by the seated captain to strike up at least some kind of conversation. She could tell right away that the cards Captain Marius had were not part of that odd Grizelian card game, but she’d learned that sometimes being deliberately wrong was a good conversation starter.

-> Kesh, Engineering

Marius chuckled slightly. “I can’t say that it is, literally. I have no idea how to say what you said.” Marius didn’t wait for a request nor did he offer an invitation. He stopped shuffling and poured two fingers of whiskey into a glass and pushed it before the seat in from of where Kesh stood.

“Its a game called Magic… this version is the gathering. I’m not that great at it, but theres a lot of luck connected to what cards you get randomly. Or in some cases people trade or purchase particularly good ones creating an, in my mind, an unfair advantage.”

Marius

For whatever the reason, Kesh’s tongue has never quite found the right ring to speak the human common tongue just right, hence the various soft slurs and rolling utterances that emerge in her speech. However, the Vulcan, Grizzelian, and Tellerian languages were almost natural for her. So, that coarse, growling vocal tone of the Grizzelians rolled out quite smoothly, despite how much it sounds like an attempt at clearing her throat.

The captain’s response to her evokes a firm blink that lasts for a couple of seconds, while her head bobbles side to side slightly and just vigorously enough to make the tufts of fur on her cheeks and forehead to fray slightly, standing out in the rays of light coming down from the lounge’s overhead illumination. Her tufted ear flex forward as her eyes shift down to the glass when it is pushed out toward her. Oof. Well, it is not the captain’s duty to fully understand the biological reactions of various species to various chemicals, and it was not as if alcohol was actually harmful, she just hoped that only the one would be offered as she certainly was not going to turn it down.

Still, the groggy and achy state she was soon to experience, without any of the pleasant buzz that humans had, made her tail twitch stiffly as she sat down, accepted the glass, and tossed it into her mouth without any other visible hesitation. Hopefully, her then setting the glass back down upside down at the edge of the table was the correct way to say ‘that’s enough for me’, while hopefully the rolling trill emerging from her throat was understood as a statement of thanks.

Marius’ eyes opened widely for a moment, “Umm, you generally sip whiskey.” He noted the glass being upside down, which he watched for a moment, “Not need to be official with me. Are you sure you don’t want another?” Calvin suspected, wrongly in this case, that crew members would be reluctant to drink in front of him.

Felid maw opens slightly, dangles for a moment while those golden eyes stare blank for a second or two, before all shuts with a small bodily twitch and audible swish-thunk of her tail against the base of the chair, “Oh! Mmp. It looked like… ah…” and that’s when the coughing starts, which takes a few seconds more to subside, with the help of a couple of soft thumps of one hand to her chest. “Yes.” Was that meant to be her stating she understands now, or a reply to the question? Possibly both. Either way, she clears her throat and then leans forward to stare at the cards, trying to let that mild embarrassment slip past.

“Ah! Oh course. Rrrnth. Ehhrrr. Which edition?” Kesh was well aware of MTG, thanks to her personal love of Dungeons and Dragons, since the two influenced each other quite a lot in the 20th and 21st centuries, but she could not recall if it was MTG, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Halo: Battlecards that had been translated and adapted by other species such as to have numerous editions outside of the original version. Then again, maybe it is only D&D that has numerous editions. Human entertainment history is a lifetime study of its own.

“Umm,” He turned the deck over… “There are editions?” looking for a label or some other identifier. He then looked down at a box under the table. “It says Core Set.” He looked back up. “I just ordered the game from the relipicator. Frankly I remember one of the kids playing it one my colony world… God’s it must be over 35 years ago. He said it was tons of fun, so I decided to give it a try.” He pushed the deck towards Kesh. “Maybe you understand it better than me.”

Those bright golden cat eyes meet the captain’s gaze with a look of what seems genuine curiosity.

->Kesh Engineering

Marius

And then the cards were pushed her way. Oh dear.

“Ah. Uh… ah. Hmm.”

The brief moment of panic wasn’t missed, and in many ways gratified Calvin. He had been staring at the game for a good twenty minutes and had made almost no progress.

Kesh goes about picking up several of the cards, turning them over to consider their text and names and pictures and… symbols.

”.. hm. Ah! Uh…” She leans forward as if suddenly confident, only to then not be, leaning right back upright.

After another moment that swish and thump is heard via tail motion unseen, upon which she delicately folds the cards back down atop the deck.

“I know of a holodeck program for this! Rrrnth. ‘Gygax’s Guides.’ I spent most of the time I should have been studying at the academy learning every detail of all of the Dungeons and Dragons editions through them. MMmmnnrr.” One ear twists out then forward again before she blinks firmly in that friendly, Catiain way at the captain. “Mayhap we could attend one for this game sometime, ah.. if that interests you, sir.” Sudden swing into formality.

-> Kesh, Engineering

“I’ve played D and D years ago, but I don’t think I have the time for that kind of game. The card games are more situational and can be played sporadically. Not quite the recreational selling point I was going for, but you can only do what you can do.” He nodded at the Caitian.

Marius

OOC: Fixing Split

“Ehrrr, yes. Mmm, yes. That is true.” Kesh bobbed her head once after that bit of additional stammering, her focus then turned to her drink, which she spends an extended moment to gather her focus while also picking up a couple of the cards and giving each a more thorough study.

“Mm! Ah yes. This is the one.. ah.. Enter Gee, or something like that. You have a deck of these cards and, ah… you draw a hand of seven or eight, I think. Then you take turns, and ah… yes, there are resource cards that you have to play first, then flip them over when you want to use them, and each one has a type, which is what these symbols at the top signify. You can then attack or defend with them. Mm.” Kesh plucks up a couple more cards up to look at them, too.”

“Hm. Yes, ah… I would need to look at one of those guides to know the exact rules.”

Marius snorted, picked up a pamphlet out of the box that rested on the floor. “Good Luck to that.” He slid the manual over. He had read it a couple of times. He kind of made the determination you had to play it a couple of times to know what the rules you didn’t understand.

Kesh sets the cards back down, folds that arm on the table, and carefully sips her drink while focusing on the captain’s face, eyes blinking firmly in a friendly, Caitian gesture.

“It could be in Klingon for all I understand it.”

“I play Dungeons and Dragons solo quite often.”

-> Kesh, Engineering
“Or we could go down to the holodeck, dress up in some LARPing wear, and call it team building,” Vanessa said spinning around on her barstool. “Please excuse me for interrupting and I mean that in the absolutely most sincere and excited way about playing D and D. For the record I have no idea how to play but I have been on this ship a week and the only entertainment I have found is being a barfly drinking non-alcoholic alcohol. You know this is the first time in my life I don’t have a roommate. I am going out of my mind. If someone suggested we all go into the hangar and play dodgeball I would be the first person in line and I sucked at dodgeball. I think I have an old Tinkerbell costume from Halloween. I could rip off the wings, skip the pixie dust and probably make a half-decent wizardly magy person.” Vanessa hoped she didn’t offend either of them. This was the second time she had run into Kesh in a social setting and each time, Vanessa found something new and amazing about the engineer. The skipper was still a mystery to her. The best way to get to know people was in social situations so maybe learning this game of theirs would help Vanessa get to know the crew. That was if they let her join.

Vanessa Slade

The unexpected interjection by another voice made Kesh jump slightly in her seat and quickly turn eyes and ears toward the source. A little grunt of surprise follows as she recognizes the counselor from having met her in the holodeck recently. This releif turns toward some degree of wariness as she briefly flirted with the idea that she was being ‘trailed’, but that was ridiculous, so she just rattled her head slightly to dispell the thought, giving Marius the opening to speak first.

“Well first of all,” Marius looked at her. “You want to be in this conversation, you need to join us at the table… and drink this.” He poured a two finger whiskey drink for her and placed it in front of an empty seat.

Kesh turned gaze toward the captain then back at Vanessa, opening her maw to remark, “Yes, ah, do join us.”

Vanessa slid off her barstool with a chuckle and moved to the table. Setting her beer down she picked up the whiskey and sniffed it raising an eyebrow with a smirk. “Sam is my boy but I have been known to hang out with Jim and Jack from time to time.” Vanessa wasn’t sure if it was Jim Beam or Jack Daniels in her glass but both were gonna slap her arse and bite her back the second she drank it. Still, it wasn’t like she hadn’t touched the hard stuff before and if the Captain was pouring she wasn’t gonna say no. Bringing it up to her lips she stopped as Calvin continued to talk.

“Jack, and this is the real stuff, so remember if you want to run with the big dogs you have to learn how to piss in the tall grass. I don’t want to hear about a hang over tomorrow..” During his marine years Calvin’s tolerance was the stuff of legends. It wasn’t as if he didn’t get drunk but drunk Calvin was pretty much the same as sober Calvin.

Marius

Kesh simply watched Vanessa approach, eyes shifting down and up breifly in fresh contemplation of her, ears tiping and turning to listen to the two converse, without any attempt to inject for the moment.

“Arf, arf, Arrrrooooh,” Vanessa let out her best dog bark to reply to his big dog comment before throwing it back. Once it hit her mouth she did not casually set the glass back on the table with a smug look that said please sir may I have another. It was what Vanessa intended to do but life never turned out the way one intended it to. While not intending to continue the dog theme, the bite of the booze caused her to stick her tongue out several times as her lips pulled back in a tight grimace. She let out a groan as she squinted one eye up and looked at Marius with the other. “Oh yeah,” she squeaked out shaking her head once before flicking the glass towards him with fingers. “That hit the spot. Please sir can I have another. Woof, woof, woof.” Her voice held a strained quality as if she was talking from her throat and not her lips. “It usually goes down far better with three and four than one and two,” she hit her chest with her fist and let out a laugh.

Marius shook his head slightly with a slight upturn of one corner of his mouth. He had a bunch of people start strong but only few ended strong. “We’ll see.” He refilled her glass with slightly more than two fingers this time…

“At least that is what Ralph always proclaims from the local watering hole back home when we played quarters,” Vanessa admitted. “For the record,” she looked at her boss, “I always caught the quarter in my teeth and,” she drummed the table with both hands, “I always showed up for work the next day.”

Looking at Kesh, Vanessa added. “Quarters is a drinking game where you try to bounce the quarter into the glass. If you get it in the glass, you pass the glass to anyone at the table, and that person must then chug the drink and catch the quarter in their teeth. You then pass the plat to the person on your left. It’s a staple of college parties and I have used it in therapy a few times.”

Vanessa Slade CNS

A slight head-tilt showed Kesh’s wonderment over this ‘quarters’ talk, which was not a term she’d heard during any of her times spent at the academy or during her prior comission in Starfleet. Humans sure to have a lot of… culture.

“Ah! That would explain it. Ah, rrr… Alcohol does not treat me well.” Some caitians seem able to handle it, but not be default. “Sounds.. ah… like a reason to drink a lot.” Breath puffs in a light blast of amusement, though one ear twists outward then back as the other sinks slightly. Drug abuse is not a happy conversation for her.

“It was a good way to give young people a reason to drink.” Marius shrugged. “I don’t need reasons, or whatever disease you get by sucking quarters that have been in other people’s mouths.”

Marius

“Eghf.” Kesh’s scrunched snout showed her distaste for the idea of sucking on communal currency.

-> Kesh, Engineering

“Oooooh tough crowd,” Vanessa winced and grimaced playfully. “Guess that means bobbing for apples is off the tables for the Ghosts and Gourds Get Together this October.” The overly pronounced purse of her lips and tone of her voice showed she did not take offense at the comments or reaction of Marius or Kesh.

“People still do that?” Marius questioned. “I thought that only occurred in the old movies. How do you even get the friction necessary to bite into the apple.” He ask rhetorically.

“Only the fun ones,” she teased. Vanessa looked at the Captain and wondered what he was like off duty. Even sitting here in the lounge, the man had a presence about him. It was probably because as a captain you were never really off duty Still she wondered if he did the random things like sing in the shower, talk to his plants, spill chips on the couch while watching an intense sporting event, or call his mom once a week.

“As to the mechanics, you shove your head down all the way into the barrel so you pin the apple to the bottom of the barrel,” she said and then let out a laugh. Looking at Kesh and Marius she rolled her eyes with a grin. “That was rhetorical I think.”

Picking up the third shot Marius poured for her, Vanessa held it between her fingers and ran her index finger around the edge in a slow lazy circle. Her comment was playful but the Genesis was a tough crowd. The ship was close-knit which was good. It inspired loyalty and trust because the crew knew they always had their back covered in sticky spots. The bad news was that Genesis was like a small town. It was hard to break in. Throwing back the shot, Vanessa let out a little guttural grunt and tapped the table. “Yeah, maybe I am gonna need to adjust my assumption that four is not going to make me look like I am stroking out.” Reaching up she raised a finger and yelled out, “Tony, I need bacon cheeseburger with the works, loaded fries, and a plate of pickle nickles.” The man behind the bar raised his chin in acknowledgment as he continued to serve drinks to those sitting where Vanessa sat ten minutes earlier.

“You don’t have to out drink the table,” Marius found people always wanted to drink as fast as he did. That was usually an exercise in futility. He weighed over 200 pounds, had an impressive metabolism, and probably was the only person on the ship who drank actual alcohol on a fairly regular basis.

“No one needs a reas’n to drink. You eithah do it oh you don’t. It’s a social experience as lawng as its in moderation,” Vanessa shrugged before pretending to take off a hat and turning it backward. The last thing she wanted to do was get into the why’s people drink and what the ramifications were when people drank. That was a counseling session and right now, Vanessa was looking to be just one of the crew.

“Is that an Irish accent?”

“Bite youh tawngue. It’s south Bawst’n oh as we call it Southie,” she winked back and got a slightly far off look as she mentally debated how thick her accent was slipping out. Normally it only came out when she was drunk or pissed off. Right now she definitely wasn’t the latter and didn’t think she was drunk enough to sound like she was still a local back home.

“In case you guys can’t translate that,” Tony said approaching the table with Vanessa’s order along with another Sam Adams, “Lucy here is miming that she is off duty and not going to wear her counseling hat so it is a safe zone. Oh, and skipper, she is about two shots away from you needing a translator.” Tony the bartender’s grin was wide and the way he laughed showed he had served Vanessa before at the bar.

“I can still say pahk, drawah, and cah,” Vanessa looked at Tony with a wide-eyed expression. Anyone that spent enough time around Vanessa would know that when she got drunk, her Boston twang slipped out in full force.

“Sure you can,” Tony laughed before making his way back to the bar.

Picking up her burger, Vanessa took a huge bite swiping off the grease from her fingers as she chewed and then swallowed. “So is this card game you have going like poker D and D?” Moving the food out so it was clear she was offering anyone at the table access to the fries and pickle nickles, Vanessa took another bite of her burger. Long ago she learned never to drink on an empty stomach. It would help soak up the booze and help her maintain the buzz from the alcohol.

Vanessa Slade

“I just asked the computer for a card game that was popular in the past and out it spat. I thought it might be fun. It looked interesting enough.”

Marius

“I am not so good at anything past Uno but if it’s okay I would love to eat my burger and watch you guys. Pickle Nickle,” she moved the plate slightly. “They are a vegetarian dish so I thought you might be able to eat them if you want,” Vanessa looked at Kesh. She knew from the day they spent together at the clam bake the engineer didn’t eat meat or didn’t eat it typically. Maybe Kesh would like them. As for Marius, Vanessa didn’t know if the man was relaxed enough around his crew to share snacks. As for Vanessa, she never had a time in her life when someone wasn’t foraging off her plate or she off one of her family’s. With nine brother’s there was no such thing as your own meal. It was crazy how sometimes the biggest things you missed from home were the smallest things.

Vanessa Slade.

“I think you are a step ahead.” Marius looked at the huge clutch of cards. “I don’t think we are at the playing stage. We are basically are at the reading stage. We could go left to the playing or right, to the throwing the cards back into the replicator.” he shook his head a the cards.

“You are pretty new, here, what would you like to try?”

Marius

“I’m up for anything that doesn’t involve me sitting on that barstool or going back to my room and staring at four walls. I think the crew is thinking I am either casing the place trying to secretly evaluate them or have a crush on the bartender and I can assure you neither is true.” Looking around the room, Vanessa took another bite of her burger before polishing off the last shot. She shook her head swallowing the shot and wiped her fingertips with the napkin. “You are right though. I am pretty new here. What do you guys do to kick back and relax besides cards? Karyoke? Darts? Pool? There is still the LARPing option. I have never done it but if we do I can add it to the Never Have I Ever game.” Vanessa had no idea what the crew did for fun. She assumed they hung out in the holodeck when they had it reserved. This being her first real assignment to a starship, she really wasn’t sure what people did except seem to work or sit in their quarters.

“What do you do for fun…skipper,” she asked Marius. Not knowing the man well, it felt too familiar to call him Marius and too official to call him Captain. Calling him Skipper felt like it was the best way to address Marius.

Vanessa Slade CNS

He took a sip of his whiskey and eyed her in an suspicious manner. “When I was a younger man. I played a game called ‘I never.’ Are you familiar with it?”

“Does a duck take to water,” she let out a laugh? The game was a staple in most bars, pubs, watering holes, alehouses, saloons, cocktail lounges, or whatever you termed the place to kick back and have a little fun. Since Vanessa knew Kesh wasn’t the imbibing type she expanded on Maruis’ question. “The rules of Never Have I Ever are simple,” she said off handledly to Kesh as she took a swig of her beer polishing it off. “We all will take turns listing potential experiences they’ve never had but if someone has done the action in question, they take a shot or a sip of whatever they are drinking or whatever other consequence we set in the rules. If no one has done the action in question, the person who posted the query takes a drink. Since you teetotaler,” Vanessa gestured to Kesh, “I say you just can’t pee as you keep drinking.”

Looking at Marius, Vanessa let out a half-laugh. “Women are just as sick and twisted as anyone else. You know how long the line is to the bathroom in most places. For the duty driver, we used to make them drink water or soda and not break the seal. It allowed them to play and have something to lose.” The three shots had definitely loosened up Vanessa. It was the only reason she had delved into the well-known but unspoken bathroom habits of women.

“To make it fun, instead of drink if you did the ‘I never’ you have to tell the story of the I never or whatever the truth behind the I never is?” Marius for the most part wasn’t ashamed of anything he did so he wasn’t too scared of any question. And back in the day he loved the game.

Marius.

“Fair enough but let’s make it optional,” Vanessa said not sure if she was disappointed or relieved that Marius added the caveat. Still, he didn’t outlaw the drinking clause. There was no way she was ever going to out-drink Marius nor did she want to do that. She could put away the booze but she always felt the booze. “Tony,” Vanessa made a swirling motion with her hand. “Another couple of Sam Adams and some fruit juice.” Vanessa didn’t order for Marius. He had his bottle and if he wanted a beer he could have one of hers.

OOC: The couple was for her? Okay Game on.

Marius didn’t particularly like or dislike Sam Adams, he wasn’t a beer drinker and found too much flavor in something you drank such a large volume of distracting.

“Okay so,” Vanessa smiled enough to show she was overly excited about the change of tone in the meet and greet session. Looking around the table, she sized up the two people at the table. “Never have I ever been arrested while on shore leave.” This was one of the few things she hadn’t done or been a part of simply because, in her tenure at Starfleet, she never had left Earth past a short few months stint in her residency. It helped to know the locals when you were trying to avoid jail. The two people however sitting with her had probably been to countless places and taken shore leave in countless places. Clasping her hands, Vanessa waited to see if Kesh or Marius surprised her the most first. Kesh was quiet but there was the saying about those that were the quietest were the wildest behind closed doors. Marius was a career man and not always a captain. The skipper probably had enough skeletons in his closet to be drunk in the next four rounds.

Vanessa (going first so she has better chance of not getting drunk in the next four rounds) Slade.

“Arrested?” Marius paused. He tilted his head back and forth for a moment… “Well, I’ve been ‘held’ for a few hours and once for a day. Mostly unremarkable bar fights. In fact the first time which was for a few hours I actually was in the fight, but I just happened to be too close to the argument and they like arresting the big guy. But I promised you a story to along with it.”

Marius took a sip of his whiskey. “I leave the boring preamble off… a young man who was stealing drinks was thrown out of the bar near closing, only to return about 20 minutes later with steel rod and a can of bear repellent. Unfortunately I was sitting right by the door. He sprayed the room with the repellent and then took a wild swing with the rod. Counter to his plans, because he led with the bear spray, this caused me to lean back, so he missed me with the rod. Picked up a good bit a understanding the effects of those ‘sprays’. I dove at him and not soon after that, the numbers in the bar overwhelmed him.” He tilted his head.

“A good lesson on not stealing, getting too drunk, or overestimating your skills. He ended up with a few broken fingers - and I got about four hours in holding as they were questioning me.”

Marius