Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ice-like-andor

It'd been a long day, despite a work day only lasting six hours, and Lente just wanted something sweet before she went home to take a nap. Luckily the new ice cream parlour just opened up, and she wanted to see if they did lactose free banana milkshakes, because of course her lactase pills were at home and not in her work bag where she should have put them. Luckily for her, they did do lactose free milkshakes, including banana flavoured ones, and satisfied with her milkshake in her hand, she sat at one of the small tables right outside of the parlour, overlooking the rest of the promenade.

Yaveru loved ice cream, infact she liked anything sweet and diary despite her intolerance. Ah well, her stomach be damned. She quietly made her way to the ice cream shop, one she hadn’t seem before. Seemed pleasant, and so she entered, grabbing her consistent pick, a bowl of vanilla. A childish glee overwhelmed her as she grabbed her treat. It had been so long, too long. She looked at it as if it was as precious as Latium, walking outside of the store as she did.

Lente was sitting in front of the store just people-watching as she noticed a somewhat familiar face exiting Ice Like Andor. "Hey," she called out to Yaveru, "Engineering, right? Wanna sit with me?" she asked, sipping her banana milkshake. She was pretty sure that Yaveru was engineering and also half-Trill, but she had to admit that faces sometimes blurred together. Still, she waved, hoping to catch her fellow engineer's attention, the rest of her focussed on not drinking too quickly before she got into a coughing fit. For all her 25 years of life she had not yet learned how to responsibly consume cold food and drinks.

It took her a second to realize someone was calling her, but she took up the offer as soon as she did. “Oh, sure!” She said with a reserved glee. She looked towards Summer, a brief expression of familiarity on her face as-well. “Say, have we met before?”

"I don't think so? Not formally, anyway. We might have met in passing before, but I don't remember. You just have a really recognisable face," Lente explained, taking a sip of her milkshake. "I'm Lente, though, Lente Summer. And you are... wait, don't say it, it's on the tip of my tongue," she said, even though it was pretty clear that she was not, in fact, going to get it... she was terrible with names even on the best of days.

"I guess I do." She shrugged, not really agreeing with that statement. Yaveru chuckled, placing her ice cream down to shake her hand "Nice to meet you! Im- oh?" She was caught off guard by Lente's attempt to guess her name, but she wasn't going to stop her. The whole situation was amusing, a little smile forming as she patiently waited.

"You are..." Lente really was thinking hard, but she'd been thinking hard for the past six hours, and it really wasn't going well for her anymore. "No, I'm sorry, I'm not going to get it. I'm going to feel really dumb once you tell me, though," she admitted freely.

“I’m Yaveru.” She said, that little grin on her face ever more apparent. She glanced over that Lente’s milkshake, an expression of intrigue growing. “Say, what flavor did you go for? I don’t recognize them by heart sadly.”

"Yaveru... ah, shit, Zh'hraas, right? I'm so sorry. Nice to officially meet you, though!" Lente couldn't remember whether or not Andorians accepted handshakes, so she didn't offer. Whatever cultural anthropology classes she'd had to take in the Academy had done little for her. "It's banana! One of the fruits I'm not allergic to, and I picked coconut milk for the milk replacement." Note to self: put those fucking lactase pills in her bag next time.

“Ah! Banana. Y’know, I haven’t really eaten much of that vegetable-I-mean-fruit. Umm… what foods are you allergic too?” She asked, her antenna oddly static. Yaveru was a biiiittt awkward when it came to conversations but she needed practice, and if there was one thing she was good at, it was pushing herself to do something. Well, usually.

Lente was just about the worlds most half-baked conversationalist herself, and certainly didn't know enough about Andorian antenna body language to pick up on the awkwardness. "Banana's good! I love a banana milkshake, but just a banana on its own is great for a quick energy boost too," she responded easily. "I can't really have dairy products, or chocolate or coffee, or nuts, or strawberries or apples or mangoes. Which is sad, because I love all of those things." All hail the inventor of antihistamines, but still. Those only went so far before you still ended up with a major stomachache.

“Wh-wow. That sure is a lot. I think I’m allergic to some things but I don’t really remember what. It’s… probably unwise that I forgot. Erm- Anyways, what do you specialize in?” She took a bite of her ice cream, crossing her legs and swinging them a little, her head leaning on her outstretched hand.

"Eh, they'll probably have it on file somewhere, so you could ask a medical officer if you're worried," Lente said, shrugging. She only knew her own allergies so well because she kept consuming things that aggravated them. "I'm a biomedical engineer! I have a mechanical engineering degree from Starfleet Academy too, so I can do most routine work, but my usual job involves medical devices." Not to brag or anything, but she had two useful degrees in closely related fields when normal people only had one. "And yourself?"

“Ah, regular ol’ infrastructure engineer. I handle computer parts and network protocols, more so than code. Servers, modems, security, and that jazz.” She didn’t have much to say, but plenty to show. Despite her relative lack of detail, the expression of joy on her face as she talked about it clearly encapsulated how she felt about her line of work. “I don’t have one, in hindsight… I probably should’ve stayed longer. Might’ve skipped the war if I did.” She chuckled, although slightly uneasily. “Say, when did you graduate? I was the class of 2405.”

"That's important too! You guys have saved my ass more than once, not just here on the station." Let's not talk about her time at Starfleet Academy, okay. It's what she got for hanging out exclusively with Autumn and other people who were one year ahead of her. "Nah, you have a degree if you graduated the academy. They just don't tell you what for, since you're just going to work for Starfleet anyway. Probably Infrastructure Engineering!" Listen, she was a nerd, okay, she researched these things before she applied to the Academy. "I'm the class of 2413, so I just graduated last year."

“2413? God, I feel old.” She chuckled, had it really been that long? Sure didn’t feel like to her. “Which planet do you come from by the way?” She asked. Yaveru didn’t really ask that question, and hadn’t visited a large variety of other worlds before, aside from Earth and New Romulus being the notable two. She knew most Federation worlds were very different to her home, but each was different in their own ways.

"Naw, I'm 25, I just went to Starfleet Academy a bit later than everybody else. You'd be, what, maybe 30 now? You're fiiiine." Autumn was like two years younger than her, and they graduated earlier too. "I'm from Trill! Grew up there, my mum moved there for her Master's degree, and never left. I actually first visited Earth when I went to the Academy. Went to see some family in Europe during the summers, since that's where my mum is from."

“30?- Uh- hey, I’m still in my 20’s!” She smiled, letting out a soft giggle. “Ah, Trill. How is it like? My father is Trill, but I’ve never seen it. I’ve only been to Andoria.” She usually was never overtly curious over her Trill heritage, but once in a while it did pop up.

"But was I close?" Lente asked, grinning cheekily a bit as she took another sip. "Trill's... Trill. The weather where I'm from is nice, I don't really know what else to say? What do you want to know?" It's like, when you live by the beach, the beach is unremarkable to you. But when you're from way inland, from the mountains or something, the first time you see the beach you lose your mind. Trill was just home to her, she didn't ever really think about it beyond that.

“Uh- erm- yeah…” She smirked, a look of slight embarrassment on her face. Lente’s question made her think. She paused for a moment. What would she ask? What would be different? “Is there any fog? What about nature and plants? Are there a lot of those? Um, what about roads?”

"We get fog over the lake when the night was cool, it's very spooky, going outside when the sun is only barely coming up and you can't see fifty feet in front of you. And I lived a little ways outside of the big city, so we had a lot of grassland. Mostly that, local farmers tended to let their cattle herds run out there. My dad likes plants though, so his garden is pretty nice. That's also where he keeps all his rescue animals." Lente knew fuck-all about plants, if she were honest, at least nothing beyond what you were taught in biology classes. And she knew even less about roads. "Roads are... roads? Just paved ones, like usual. I'm not far enough outside of the city for unpaved dirt roads, I think."

“That sounds lovely. We didn’t have that many gardens back then, still don’t I think… Farms too for that matter.” She paused for a moment, tapping her hands together as it they were talking to each other. “Have you lived anywhere else? I take that 777 is your first positing right? Do you prefer ships or starbases?”

"I've only really been on ships on training exercises, so I don't have too much experience... Only other place I've really been is earth, but that was basically just Trill but really warm. They say you get a lot less space on a ship though, while right now I just share quarters with my best friend, so I might have to vote for starbases. You served on ships before?" Lente was honestly quite comfortable here, coming up on a year of service not too far in the future, she didn't think she'd want to be sent to a ship if she got the choice.

It was a mostly quiet day. Terahl didn't have anything particularly interesting to do (he didn't know about the whole situation on Hamar IV last week, as the files had yet to be declassified). Oh well. Leisure time never killed anyone. His poison for today was a cherry vanilla milkshake with a chocolate drizzle. Normally, he was a big fan of having his ice cream so freezing he could only dig it out with those spoons that warm up when you hold them, but something a little less labor intensive would do for now. Besides, it came with a cute little curly straw. Why not! Terahl had a seat with his sweet (haha) and surveyed the area, looking for any potential conversation. Where was the fun in sitting by yourself in an ice cream shop, after all?

Teno, spending a day off work wandering about the Starbase, had found himself happily walking into the ice cream shop. He hadn't had real ice cream in a long time! He was very excited to try something new, and had decided on a pistachio ice cream mostly because it was green, and also because he enjoys a little crunch in his ice cream. Teno scanned the room for open seats, finding that the ice cream shop was very busy! If he was going to sit anywhere, he was going to have to sit at a table with another person because they were all sat-in already. Teno hummed as he looked, holding his now slightly-drippy pistachio waffle cone in his left hand, and his eyes settled on an Andorian with fluffy white hair and cool sunglasses. Teno wondered if he'd ever met the man before, wasn't sure, but maybe he'd seen him around? Maybe he'd be fun to talk to! Teno was always interested in making friends. So, with that, he licked the little drip and walked over to where Terahl was sat and paused at a reasonable distance. "Hi, um, I'm Teno. And I don't think we've met but can I sit with you?" He smiled happily, holding his cone, and looking like a puppy, but if a puppy was a dark haired Bajoran man with blue eyes.

Oh? A challenger? No, but Terahl was lucky the stranger approached first, because he was certainly the one that drew his eye out of the crowded parlor. He sat up a little straighter, put on a pleasant smile with both hands at the base of his cup, one finger taptaptapping idly at the glass. "Well, aren't I lucky? It's not every day somebody pretty wants to sit with me." His voice was silky smooth, light with playfulness. "Yeah, of course, take a seat!" He gestured vaguely to the one across from him, resting his arm along the back of his seat. He surveyed the stranger with an air of curiosity, from his bright eyes to a smile just about as sweet as the ice cream he was holding. Which. Granted. Terahl didn't know if it was sweet, or what kind of ice cream it was. He didn't like green desserts. But! "Terahl. It's nice to meet you, Teno. I don't think we've crossed paths before, but.. you're in Science, right? I keep a close eye on the crew roster." He leant forward, crossing his arms on the table in front of him. "That, uh. Sounds a little creepy without context, doesn't it. Sorry. I'm a journalist, so I like to keep up on names and faces in your ranks. Don't worry, this doesn't count as an interview!" Wow!!! Way to fuck up your first interaction with a cute guy and immediately chase him off, Terahl!!! Jesus!!! Cursing inwardly at himself, his antennae twitched, and he played it off with a chuckle. Had his social skills degraded that much in his few months of solitude?..

Teno's eyes widened a smidge at Terahl's compliment and he could feel a warm blush creep into his light cheeks. Terahl was certainly attractive himself, though Teno was usually pretty reserved about complimenting strangers. But maybe he would be able to slip into a relaxed banter with this man before him. He seemed to be enjoying himself already, it could make for a good friendship! "Oh, thank you! It's my pleasure, Terahl!" Teno said, and slid himself into the chair across from Terahl. "Hmm, oh, yeah!" Teno hummed, a bit of a puzzled expression on his face when Terahl identified him as a Science Officer. "Fascinating, so you just know everyone's face and division? That's....there must be hundreds of people on this starbase. That is quite a feat!" Teno was impressed, and surprisingly not very weirded out. He had been in Starfleet long enough to know that the crew roster was usually public and that basically anyone could look at it, and generally that just meant they knew his name, face, and division - nothing more nothing less. Teno chuckled at Terahl's anxious explanation, just a bit. "Oh no, don't worry, it's really okay." He smiled warmly at Terahl. "I'm not sure it would be a fun interview anyway, I'm a botanist and not very many people want to know what exactly we're doing with all the plants in the environmental ring." He chuckled and took a lick from his pistachio icecream. "But, if it was an interview," he said with a curious eyebrow raised, "what's the first question you usually ask your interviewees?"

Ah, good— his compliment was well received, and Terahl's sharp smile widened just a little at Teno blushing. "Oh, it's something like that. I have a really good memory, that's all. It's nothing incredibly impressive! It's just part of my job." Remembering names and faces, history attached to them, professions... While he always had to double- and triple-check his sources, his memory had proved to be very reliable over the years. "I know you officers have something similar, but I do my own thing." An immediate question about his profession? Terahl was pleasantly surprised, sitting up straighter than he was a moment earlier. "Well, let's see..." It was a question often asked, but it always varied from person to person. He studied Teno for a moment, tending to his milkshake for a moment while he thought it over. "Nonsense," he said, waving a hand dismissively, "The environmental ring is gorgeous, you all must work so hard on it. It's incredible, really. Starbases can get so stuffy without so much life around. It feels uncomfortable. Clunky. I don't think you give yourself enough credit for how much you're doing for the good of everybody on board, you know?" "My rambling aside..." He drummed his fingers against his arm, thinking quietly. "It varies from person to person. I get to know their profession, and I dig in from there. Like, for you, I would ask.. something you would love to introduce to the environmental ring, but for whatever reason, you can't? Like, you can't simulate the proper environment, it doesn't get along with the plants, or anything else." He pushed up his sunglasses.

Teno continued smiling. He had a smile on his face more often than not, so this was natural for him anyway. “Mhmm, a good memory is a blessing.” Teno mused. He had a pretty good memory too but would be interested to know what kinds of things Terahl could remember! “I don’t know, I think remembering the names, faces, and divisions of so many people on the Starbase is quite impressive. No need to downplay your skills, you know.” He was still smiling as he said this and Terahl would be able to tell from his open expression that he was being earnest. “Oh,” Teno said, a bit sheepish at the compliment. People rarely talked to him about the Environmental Ring like that. Not many people went out of their way to compliment the work of botanists in Starfleet either. They were an important part of the Science Division but generally less in the public view than say astrometrics or physics or medical. And Terahl was right - the Environmental Ring on 777 was a beautiful gift to the occupants of the Starbase and the region! “Well I can’t deny that, really. I wasn’t sure where I would end up serving as a botanist in the fleet but having been stationed here most recently has been a huge boon to me, I think. I’ve learned so much tending to the plants here, especially about some that are from this region of space!” divider

21:30

“Hmm,” Teno hummed, musing over the question and tending to his ice cream as he thought. “Oh I don’t know! I don’t think I would really change anything about the environmental ring here. It has everything folks could want and more. We have all we need to conduct experiments. It’s been very good these past few months. But something I would like to institute that I just don’t know if there’s capacity for or interest would be a cultural component… if I could maybe partner with a few Anthropologists and some representatives from the Khitomer Alliance Factions on the Starbase to facilitate more intentional prioritization of plants indigenous to this region, especially plants that hold cultural significance. And then maybe we could have guest lectures or community discussions for people to share knowledge and stories. That’s something I really would love to see.” His eyes sparkled and as he talked he became more animated. Clearly he had thought a lot about this in the past few months.

Terahl was content to listen as Teno went on about his answer. This was his favorite part of any interaction — getting them to talk about their passion, watching their eyes light up as you ask the perfect question, the one that really gets them going. And go he did, talking about introducing more plants from different cultures, about all the research to do and the people he'd have to talk to. He listened, soaking up every word without needing the help of the pen and paper, only one clear thought really breaking through the stream of Teno's voice; "Cute!" And, of course, because he couldn't help himself, "That was really cute— sorry," he caught himself grinning, "it's just.. I love it when people actually get excited when they're telling me about things, you know? Usually people want to act cool and professional or something for an interview, but I like peeling away those layers to see all the love and passion they have poured into their work over the years. That's what I want to see. Excitement. That glow in your eyes, it's really contagious... It's hard not to love what I do when I get to see people like that." Even if his specialty was disasters, natural or handmade, massive history events that made the whole area around them tremble in their aftermath, people were where his charm and talent really started to shine, and where his love for social settings glowed. Maybe in another world he'd write exclusively for a shit gossip magazine or something. He swirled his straw around in the cup to make his milkshake a little more soupy. Yum.

04:33

"Alright, then, Teno," his name was almost sing-song-y now, as he'd quickly become the most interesting person Terahl had interacted with this month, and he was eager to know more, "Do you have any hobbies and interests besides your work? I dabble in a little bit of creative writing and fashion myself, and I've got a few weird collections. Those are secrets though." He punctuated that with a wink, swiping a bit of whipped cream off of the top of his milkshake. His antennae stood straight up now, as if he was fully alert and at attention— which, he was!

Teno's eyes widened a bit and a new flush came to his peachy cheeks, caught off guard by Terahl's compliments! He made a soft humming noise, and rubbed his thumb on the textured pattern of the waffle cone in his right hand, eyes averted from the man before him for just a moment before they returned. He listened as Terahl spoke, nodding happily. Bright blue eyes found a spot on Terahl's forehead and laser-focused, wanting the man to know he was paying attention but allowing himself not to meet the other's eyes - it was too intense. "Thank you," he said softly with a self-conscious little laugh. “That’s a really compassionate outlook you have. It makes sense, you know, for someone interested in telling stories to really want the more personal parts to come to the surface. I relate, really.” Teno sat there with his ice cream, now too focused on the conversation to really notice that the scoop was melting and dripping down the side of the cone. He wasn’t usually messy! Just a bit hyper focused on the man before him. “Hobbies? Well, sort of! I um,” he stammered for a moment. He hadn’t expected Terahl to be so interested in him personally. “I draw and write every day. It’s part of my research practice, really, but also my family’s original Djarra was artisan, before Bajor did away with its caste system. So my parents always encouraged me to be creative. They felt like it was part of the family history.” He hummed again, eyes now darting down to inspect his melting ice cream as the drips finally reached his hand. “Oops,” he said with a laugh and grabbed a napkin from the holder on the table and wiped the melted drip away and then took a lick to try to contain the river of green cream before the mess got even larger. “What about you, Terahl? How do you spend your free time?” He asked with a pleasant smile.

Compassionate, huh. Terahl had been called a lot of things, most of them unkind, so compassionate certainly wasn't on the list. Sneaky, slimy, maybe pretty if he'd been extra good, but... Terahl cracked an almost bashful smile, leaning into his hand, glowing under the momentary attention. He couldn't help himself; he always sat up a little taller when he received some sort of compliment, the genuine ones were so few and far between after all. "Well, aren't you sweet.." It was phrased more as a statement than a question. He inclined his head just a little, dark eyes sparkling with amusement, "You should keep a better eye on your ice cream, though. Sweetness doesn't stop it from melting. Maybe it makes it worse, I dunno, I'm not a scientist." He twirled a stray lock of hair behind his ear around his finger, thinking it over. "Let's see .. I dabble in fashion design, but unless it's basic outfit repairs, I can't sew for anything. I work with a friend of mine to make different outfits for the different events I attend. Be it for work or for pleasure. She's fantastic, really. Beyond that... hmm. I do like creative writing, like I said. I mostly lean towards crime dramas, horror, or romance," he ticked the three off on his fingers. "It's quite different genres, I know, but I consider myself pretty... Versatile, let's say. Always exploring and always trying something new. It's another reason I like what I do so much."

Teno had no reference for others calling Terahl such mean things! And he was definitely not the type to assume worst intentions. To him, Terahl was simply a journalist, a man interested in telling the stories of the station or society or something. And at this point, he'd been quite friendly and Teno was eager to make friends, if that was what Terahl wanted. "Oh," Teno said, the perpetual blush now plastered all over his cheeks. Terahl's words syrupy and sweet. "Yeah, I can get kind of carried away talking..." He said and wiped the stray drips of pistachio ice cream away with a napkin from the dispenser on the table, and a laugh at Terahl's 'I'm not a scientist,' comment. When he was done cleaning the ice cream off his hands and the table and had taken a lick for good measure, he turned his attention back to the handsome Andorian. "Oh, fashion design. What sort of outfits or pieces have you made? I actually enjoy coming up with designs myself, and I find the replicator can be programmed to make almost anything... I'd be curious to see some pieces you've had made!" He smiled happily, eager. "Mmm, yes absolutely. Flexibility can be quite useful!" He said with a laugh. "And all of those genres sound very interesting. I enjoy a good drama or romance, though I admit I'm a little hesitant to engage too much in horror." He chuckled and grimaced for a short moment, before it was replaced by a smile. "Have you published many of your stories? Or mostly just your news articles?" His voice and demeanor were curious and he awaited Terahl's reply excitedly!

Biting back a playful remark about just how 'flexible' he could be, Terahl flipped back a few pages in his notepad to get the messy sketch of the outfit he'd worn to the circus. The masquerade mask, the big-top carousel skirt, all of it there plain to see. "I have photos of the actual outfit itself, but I don't want to risk getting my PADD ice-cream-sticky." he mused, waving it off. "The skirt spun around when I moved, and lit up a little inside. I decided against the music because the circus was going to be loud enough. There are more, but I scattered them all in the billions of different notebooks I have, so who knows." Terahl shrugged, tucking his notepad back into his breast pocket. "Oh, I don't publish any of my personal stories. Just my news—" Terahl's PADD buzzed with a reminder (oops. He completely forgot that he actually had to, well, do something today. And he'd been so excited about just lazing around, too...) He outwardly cringed. Fuck. "You're going to hate me. I've got an appointment with my editor, and she'll kill me if I cancel again.. but!" He scribbled his comms code down onto his notepad, as well as a cute little doodle of himself, tearing it out to pass to Teno. "I'll give you this. We should do this again sometime. Or just, well, hang out in general."

Teno smiled warmly at Terahl, then looked down at the PADD, cradled by his expressive blue hands, and watched as Terahl shared the images of his outfit. He oohed and ahhed, very pleased with what he saw. "Wow, that was a creative design. Will you ever wear it again?" It was mostly a rhetorical question. If he did though, Teno hoped he could see it in person! The PADD pinged and Teno cocked his head to the side. Ah yes. Everyone had things to do. Teno nodded and smiled again, toothy grin and a tinge of blush on his round cheeks. "Of course," Teno said and took the doodle and comms code. "Yeah I'll message you sometime soon and we can do this again, or, well maybe something with like a different food or drink or an activity even. Have a good day. It was really pleasant meeting you, Terahl!" He said, and remained in his seat as the Andorian walked away to wherever it was he had to go!