Star Trek: Starbase 777 - turbolift-one

"No way, a thousand? That's got to be a joke," He looked at Mephis as they entered the turbolift and realized that the other wasn't joking. "Like, actually, a thousand. Wow, they really fucked that shit up, then. Imagine if you could have a thousand different types of apples! And I don't even like apples that much, but maybe that's because I haven't, I dunno, had the seven-hundred-and-sixty-ninth apple type, right? Or maybe it's the six-hundred-and-ninetieth apple that's gonna get me, actually. Or, well, would have gotten me, if they didn't fuck that shit up, I guess." Sometimes he just had to wonder where he would have been if his ancestors (assumedly, he wasn't actually sure who the fuck they were) hadn't been part of the fucking-up of the planet, but the more he'd been around Mephis, the less he cared. The moments in the present with him were far better than any sort of theoretical past shit he could ever dwell on. "How much can you even differ with just an apple, anyways? Surely there's possibly even more than a thousand - oh shit, M- my DaiMon," his favorite way of correcting slipping up and calling Mephis, Mephis in public, "do you think... just possibly, that there's some rich asshole who hoarded some of these rare apples and is genetically breeding them off somewhere, making even more apples and selling them for a fortune? Because, um..." he had a silly little grin on his face that he often did when he had ideas like these. "I think if there is, we should pay them a visit."

"Or the four hundred twentieth." Something they'd probably connected on in the past was that neither of them knew who their human parents were... And they didn't need to. They didn't need family - only one another. And also a crew. And lots of money. "So - let me get this straight: you want us to rob a theoretical guy of his theoretical apples?" Again, he laughed. "My rose, you are so very good at makin' me laugh. But actually, it ain't a bad idea. The crew might find it kinda fun, and as long as there's profit to be made, who am I to say no?" He bet they didn't do anything like that in the other factions; too criminal for the Commonwealth, too fun for the other two. "'Sides, guy like that would have a whole bunch of latinum hidden somewhere. You thinkin' space highway robbery or a stealthy heist? Science module." The lift started moving. Whirrrrrrr.

"Mm, that one too." He nodded, 420th apple was probably a good one! Who knew what apple was the ones the replicators put in the recipes calling for apple. What apple was in apple pie? They'd never know. It was just Apple. "I mean..." Allan looked down at Mephis with a hand on his hip, using the other to gesture about. "Yeah, that's the idea, I-" he stopped for a second, "thank you, I do my best, and yes, it is fun, isn't it? I'm just saying, like. It's all theoretical, of course, but - oh, you're so right." He watched as the lift started moving and leaned against the edge of it, folding his arms over his chest. "I was thinking more somewhere in the middle, actually. Like, we pretend at first to just be sooooo into his apples, right? Like, 'oh my God, wow, you're sooo cool, your apples are huge and I know your brain is too' kinda deal, right, and then when he thinks we're actually interested in his while shtick, the crew comes in and gets the latinum while I'm, I dunno, sucking on some apple juice or something." Foolproof plan, obviously.

Sucking on some... Apple juice. He snickered at that. "Oh shit, good idea. The latinum and half his seed vault. And then we can grow the apples," Mo said, standing in front of Allan, leaning backwards on him and closing his eyes. It made him look a little too vulnerable, but they were in the turbolift, so displays of affection like that were fine. Anyway, basically, making money off rare plants was okay if they were doing it. Hell, maybe the Commonwealth would be interested in these theoretical apples. Might actually do some good with them. The turbolift arrived and he stood up properly, exiting into #science-module-corridor .

[D] So, there was a guy in the public chatroom, PolarNight - well, Solait tr'Torre'vnau, ACOO on the station, as he'd said in the chatroom and Allan had, of course, looked up to confirm. A bit more of searching led him to find out that Solait had also served in the Terran Empire for a period of time - not that Allan would be bringing that up as a common point between them for many reasons, but it was still interesting to find out nonetheless. Primarily, really, he was just here to meet this epohh. He'd never met an epohh in real life, much less one that was not only combat-trained, but knew how to blow bubbles out of all things. That seemed impressive. So, he was here in the turbolift, waiting for the Lieutenant, wearing some of the shortest shorts that existed in the galaxy and high boots with a cropped leather jacket, leaning against the wall of the lift as he wondered what an epohh sounded like. He actually didn't know.

After exploring the environmental ring, Solait had a 'date' with a faction-less guy who he could only assume was drop dead gorgeous because well-- everyone on the base was hot and someone who was factionless? Hot and bold af, Solait's favourite combo. The turbolift doors opened and in stepped Solait in his Commonwealth uniform with his epohh daughter in his arms. Dark greys mixed with a nice gold to signify his division. He was tall with a lean build, broad shoulders, Vulcanoid, definitely, and light silver eyes that seemed to shine under the bright lights. "Jolan tru," He greeted the person he assumed was Rosardiente. The man was not wearing a uniform, but he did have quite the fit. "I assume you are the one who wanted to meet my epohh?" Laf'ilak was a bright azurite blue with six beady little eyes and wiggly antennae! She looked around the lift and then at the strange man with the red hair and short shorts. The epohh let out a soft concerned squeak, not quite sure what to make of the sitaution.

The first thing Allan did was look this man up and down. For practical safety purposes, yes, but also because... he'd never been a fan of the Commonwealth uniform, but this man seemed to make it look good somehow. He kicked himself off the wall and walked over to the other, keeping his distance but staying on... the very edge of it, really. "Greetings," he said in reply, his attention quickly turning to the epohh as Solait mentioned it. "Yes, that would be... oh, fuck, Solait, that's the cutest thing I've ever seen," he laughed, looked back at the other and tilted his head. "Could I... pet them, maybe? Or.. do they like treats?" He had never really been one to like pets, but after becoming part of Mephis's crew, meeting, and subsequently often taking care of Bandit, he'd learned to really like cute fluffy animals such as this. Although, Bandit couldn't blow bubbles - yet.

Solait was actually very calm about Allan approaching him and his epohh. This man was factionless and definitely not looking to stab him. If there was any stabbing going on here, it would be him-- or Laf'ilak. The epohh knew how to wield a knife. "Yea sure you can pet her! She likes treats too, I feed her those earth breads like... The fuck umm... Same name as my brother, Rai, but the bread, I forgot the name," Solait chuckled, a little bit of awkwardness coming forth in his tone as he struggled with some of the words in Standard. The epohh in his arms let out another soft squeak with her antennae wiggling about as she poked her head forward to try and get a couple sniffs of the stranger. "What did you said your name was? I know you know me. Oh and also nice shorts, you're hot," Solait was just going to rely on the UT for the rest and his tone returned back to be confident and bold. He looked the man up and down once again, a little jealous that he couldn't be just as bold with his fashion. Solait had to be professional though, no booty shorts or cute boots.

"Earth breads like..." Allan said as he tried to remember if he knew of any sort of bread that sounded like the name Solait had just said. Rai bread? Wasn't it just the same name? But maybe he had grown up calling it something else. "Isn't it just.. called Rai bread?" He asked, a little confused as he looked in his bag and lo and behold, he did not have any Rai bread. "Does she like... cat treats, maybe? This one's, uh, salmon, I think?" At least, that's what the label said. Regardless, he stepped forward and held a hand out to the epohh like he would to a cat before petting her, letting her sniff his hand. "Oh, it's Allan, and- thank you, I could say the same for yourself," he said with a small smile towards the Lieutenant. "Shorts are custom made, although - the fabric of these particular ones is straight from a stolen Empire uniform, to be completely candid with you."

"Wait the bread is straight up Rai? Oh I gotta tell him that," Solait laughed, causing his chest to vibrate slightly, but enough to cause his epohh to start to wiggle to attempt to bread free of his grasp. "No idea what cat or stale men are, but I think she'd like that," Laf'ilak seemed to calm down when Allan began to pet her. Even in the mirror universe she loved pets! The little epohh suddenly gave a strong kick to her father's chest and hopped down, trotting over to Allan's feet and looking up at him. She blinked all six of her eyes as she peered at him with a goofy smile. Renakir gave a soft 'oof' as his daughter jumped out of his arms. She was clearly done being held and now wanted to explore, well it wouldn't be the first time, at least the lift was quiet and it's not like she could go anywhere. "Stolen from the Empire uniform? Wow Allan," Solait laughed as he rubbed the part of his chest Laf'ilak had kicked. She had hard hoofs, it was painful! "Care to tell me how you got the Empire uniform? I won't hold it against you if it's murder, we're all guilty of that around here. Especially the Commonwealth dudes."

"I'm like, 90% sure about it. Dunno how your brother spells his name, and I'm shit with spelling, so that part might be different, but... pretty sure it's said the same, yeah." He smiled as he pet the epohh, stepping back some when she hopped down. After learning that this wasn't part of her superior combat training to kill him, though, he bent down and gave her some more pets. "What's her name?" He opened the salmon treat and held it out to the epohh, and briefly wondered how Bandit was doing. She was probably fine - she was last time they'd checked up on her. "Oh, thissss one? Solait, I probably couldn't tell you." He chuckled, still kneeling down beside the epohh. "These specific ones... could've been murder, could've been just plain stolen from a closet, could've been..." he shrugged, "anything, really."

"Oh I'll make sure to tell him," Solait made a mental note to tell his brother that he was terran bread. Not that Rai didn't already know, actually come to think of it, Rai knew more about Earth than Solait did. "Her name is Laf'ilak, it's just Kali-fal spelled backwards. Kali-fal is a type of Romulan ale, I'm not really a fan of alcohol, but she is a nice blue colour so the name fit," Solait, unlike his primeverse counterpart, was not a drinker. Truly this was a darker reality. The Commonwealth officer disliked any mind-altering substance as he had seen many officers in the past fall after having their senses numbed by alcohol. Laf'ilak trotted over to the silly looking red haired man and began to nip at his fingers to get the salmon. She to enjoy the treat, wrapping her long tongue around the human's fingers as she munched. She nipped at his fingers a few more times, she had sharp teeth, but she didn't bite down hard enough to break skin. "Oh mysterious," Solait said with a light chuckle as he watched his daughter eat the snack. "So how did you come to be factionless? And what is your business here? Just visiting or something?"

"Laf'ilak," he said slowly, wanting to make sure he pronounced the little epohh's name correctly. "That's kinda fun, she really is that same blue color," he said with a smile, laughing when Laf'ilak wrapped her tongue around his fingers and kept on munching. "You really don't know what a cat is, though? Salmon I get, but... a cat? I think it's probably one of the galaxy's most popular pets, right?" He asked that question as if he thought Solait would agree, even though he already knew Solait didn't know of cats. "Ah, very mysterious," he said with a grin as he stood back up again, giving Laf'ilak another pet after she had finished the treat. "I think I might remain that way, though. I mean, there's a... few things I can tell you, probably, I came to be factionless because I got plain tired of... being allegiant to bastards, annnd..." And then he'd become allegiant to someone else, but that wasn't super important for this guy to know. "My business here is just visiting, yeah, kinda seeing what the landscape's like, ya know? Oh- speaking of the landscape, how are the tubes here?" He looked at the other with a glint of excitement in his eyes and a smirk.

Solait nodded when Allan repeated his daughter's name. Laf'ilak seemed happy to accept treats from the stranger. She was a curious girl, even in the mirror universe, but the one thing she had over her primeverse counterpart was her combat training. "I don't, no. I'm Romulan... And a little Reman," Solait said, purposefully downplaying his Reman heritage. Not because he was ashamed to be Reman, but because he didn't want to be associated with his Reman family. "To no surprise we don't really have pets, not the ones that can't be used for combat, it's sorta a way for life for us," He replied, nervously scratched the back of his neck. "Eyy, I can get behind that. Besides, you're too hot to take orders from people who won't treat you right," Solait said with a flirt eyebrow wiggle and a light green blush across his face. "Landscape? Oh what you wanna know about the tubes?" The mention of the tubes by anyone else would have sent off a flurry of red flags but Allan was factionless so even if he did want to sabotage the station he would be doing it for his motives, not the Empire or the Alliance's. "What do you wanna do in there? For obvious reasons we need to keep all non-Commonwealth officers out of there."

"Oh, cats have been and can absolutely be used for combat, actually, but," he leaned against the wall of the turbolift again, bending one of his legs to further stabilize himself against the wall so he could talk more with his hands. "I get what you mean. You should hang out with a cat sometime, though, a lot of the time they're pretty cute, a lot like Laf'ilak actually, although I've yet to see a cat blow bubbles." He laughed, looking over at the other as he said... why was he blushing - oh. "Oh, for sure! And the fun thing is, I'm so hot I get to choose to have plenty of fun taking orders from people who do treat me right, so I'd say it's a pretty win-win situation." He said people plural, but he was just speaking in a very general sense just about none other than DaiMon Mephistopheles Mo, and if Solait looked closely, he could probably tell that Allan was also blushing. "Just the 'us, ya know, are the tubes good to climb around in for fuu... important duties and all that? Would love to have like, a tour if that's at all possible, I mean - surely if I'm under your watch, that'd be allowed, riiight?" (edited)

"I don't know about alien animals, you know, they have weird diseases like uhh rabies?" Solait frowned at the prospect of hanging out with a cat. He was not nearly as paranoid as his primeverse self, but he knew not to approach alien animals without knowing what sort of diseaseds he could get! Laf'ilak's little hoofs clicked against each other as she made her way to follow Allan, hoping the funny human had more treats. The epohh turned her head upwards, all six eyes on Allan. "Ayyye, sounds like a good plan, " Solait said with a cheeky grin as he gave Allan finger guns. It was a gesture he picked up in the Empire amongst some of the funny humans he worked with. He ended up stabbing them all, but the mannerisms remained. "Oh you want a tour of the tubes?" Solait raised an eyebrow, his light silver eyes picking up on the other man's blush. "Hmmm I think I can arrange that," Solait looked down at Laf'ilak and then at Allan. "Laf'ilak will have to come with us if you don't mind some company. She's queen the tubes," Solait stepped forward, prompting the doors to the turbolift to open.

"Nahh, not the domesticated cats, they don't have weird diseases like rabies. In fact, I haven't actually encountered a cat that had rabies, but I have encountered a man that claimed he had rabies when he bit me in a fight, so..." He laughed, shrugging and then looked back down at the epohh. That was some crazy guy, but hey, it'd been fun even still, and even more fun to tell the story to people later on. He unfortunately didn't have more treats for her, but he did have something in his bag, probably, he thought when he started to look through his bag. "Y'know it," he gave a cheeky grin and some finger guns right back just as he had pulled out a little feather on a stick, waving it around in the air to see if Laf'ilak would be interested in playing with such a thing. Bandit loved that shit, but he had no clue if epohhs were actually so similar to cats or not. "She can absolutely come, especially if she's 'queen of the tubes' as you say." What that meant, he had no clue. Maybe she was just really good at navigating them? Hopefully it wasn't because she was good at killing random factionless victims inside of them. Oh, dear, maybe it was both. He followed Solait out of the turbolift.

Mo entered the turbolift, told Allan to lean on a wall, and then leaned back on him as the doors closed and the lift moved. "D'you think Terrans keep cats? They originate from that planet, but I wonder if they see it as a sign o' weakness to tend to the needs of another being like that when all you're really gettin' out of it is psychological, an' they don't value the psychological benefits of things over there. Place is like one big torture machine. It feels weird to be grateful that pirates killed my biological parents 'cause it meant I didn't have to be part of all this, but, hey, now I'm the big cheese of those same pirates, so... Fate has a way of workin' things out, I guess?"

Allan leaned back against the wall as he was told, leaning at a bit of an angle so he could lean his head against Mephis's shoulder when he wrapped his arms around him in a hug. "I ... I think some of 'em do, maybe, or uh.." he tried to think about it, he really did. He'd never come across anyone in Imperial Starfleet who had a cat, but a Terran in general? Through the process of elimination over the years, Allan had determined he'd probably come from Earth. But his memories were still... very hazy from anything before the age of fourteen for whatever reason, and he wasn't sure if he'd ever find out why. "I think I remember a few, but I don't remember if people really keep 'em like we do." He chuckled when Mephis called himself 'the big cheese', which was... just a funny way of phrasing it, in his opinion, why did people say that? He didn't think he knew. "Yeah, guess it does," he agreed even though he didn't think Mephis was actually a big cheese but like, context clues led him to figure it out pretty well.

After his roleplayer had decision paralysis for 12 hours, they finally decided on the nature of this reply, which was just the two of them chilling in the turbolift together for now, as it zoomed up the shaft of the station. "Then again, the Terran urge to keep pets is... Strong. We pack bond with anything. There are some species that don't keep pets at all. Must be baffling to 'em." The turbolift opened and he led Allan into the #habitat-module-corridor by the hand.