Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ceo-tr’kota﹢men

Alizati arrived in his quarters and as expected Men was at work so he had the whole place to himself. Well, him and the Furberus, who was enjoying a nice sleep at his console. As soon as the doors opened, the three headed creature slithered towards Alizati to welcome him home. All three heads squeaked and said, "Jolan tru, Alizati!" in unison. Alizati gave pets to each one of the three heads before walking over to his work station and sitting down. "I will be downloading a dictionary for you three. But," Alizati paused and lifted the three headed monstrosity onto his lap. "You must promise not to tell Men or anyone about what I am planning, alright? It is imperitive to Starfleet security that nothing I have done gets out," A little extreme, but he wanted to make sure the Furberus did not use their speaking powers to leak his dasterdly plans. Well not really, what he was planning was hardly illegal or suspicious. He grabbed a few cables and plugged each of them into the back of the Furberus' long necks. The creature shut down and the download started. With the download in progress, it was time for Alizati to do the second thing on his to-do list. He pulled up the Federation registry amendment form and applied for his name change. He was tired of people calling him Dzharok and to be honest he would rather not be associated with someone who committed such a serious crime. Not that 'Kota' was any better, in fact it was probably worse, but at least his work in Starfleet could help better the name. After finalising his application, he sent it off and then moved onto the 3rd thing on his list. Looking up Tolik pie recipes, his top secret, super undercover project.

Alizati arrived in his quarters and headed to the replicator to make himself a formal outfit. There were a number of appropriate outfits available, but he wanted something that would match Men if he should want to attend with him. Alizati ended up settling on a red and beige kimono with some geta sandals which... Made him look even taller as if he needed more height. The Furberus came slithering by and began to speak a little to Alizati. "Yes, I have contacted Lun about the plan. He has not arrived yet for some reason, I may ask Lalisa for help, but if I recall the files are in Lun's personal database in his office, only someone with security clearance could access them," Alizati thought aloud. The Furberus chirped and began to coil around Alizati's legs until their father realised what they were trying to say and knelt down. He affixed three ties to each of the heads and gave them top hats, colour coded of course. Red for Bir, blue for Ikki, and yellow for Yuch. He also combed their fur and sat them on their hoverchair. To dress up the chair a little, he tossesd a black tuxedo jacket on the back of it. "Shall we?" He said and with his hand on the hoverchair, headed out of the room.

[D] After the ball, Alizati returned to his quarters with Lun to discuss his secret project. His brother handed him a black unmarked box for said secret project. Then the two hung out with the Furberus for quite a long time before Lun had to go pick up Kianarix who was drunk on marshmallows at Surak Snacks. Once Lun left, Alizati began his work. To help out, the Furberus donned three pairs of aprons, one for each of the long necks. Bir and Ikki seemed excited to help but it seemed Yuch was not feeling too well so he just slithered behind his brothers. Alizati opened the box that Lun had given him to reveal some premade pie crust! With the crust in perfect condition it was time to mix up filling for the pie. Lucky for Alizati, he had quite a lot of retro gadgets, including an oven from earth, how convenient! The Furberus assisted in grabbing all of the bowls and utensils so that Alizati could mix the sweet berries with Vulcan redspice, nutmeg, and Romulan cinnamon. The cinnamon was the most important part as it was what gave the pie that Romulan flare. Anyway, Ikki was the one to take the spoon and mix the gooey fruits with the spices. He held the spoon in his little beak as his brothers help him balance as he gyrated around in a circle. What a helpful boy! Next, Alizati took the crust that Lun had so lovingly premade for him and placed it on top of the pie. He brushed the top with some egg and cut a vent in the top in the shape of a + sign. And then with literal 'machine precision' used a small knife to create ridges along the edges. Once that was all done, he carried the pie to his terran oven to cook. He had to do quite a lot to get the retro tech up and running, but it was fully functional! Once that was all once, he and the Furberus cleaned the room and awaited for Men...

[D] After a long day of working at Surak Snacks, a job he thoroughly enjoyed but one that left his hands sore sometimes (but, illogically, Alizati holding them made the pain go away), Men returned, ready to change from his uniform robes to his casual, chilling at home robes, which looked exactly the same to literally anyone who wasn't him. The door slid open as he entered, but he immediately paused, smelling the air. "Alizati? Have you been cooking?"

"Men," Alizati stood up to greet his wonderful fiance, hands clasped in front of him as he bowed. The Furberus slithered across the floor over to Men and chirped before Bir spoke, "Welcome home, Men," in the most sincere Vulcan. Yuch also tried to speak, but the sounds that came out of his mouth sounded more like retro TV static. Not coherent enough to be translated by any UT, but the enthusiasm was there. This was one of the few times Alizati actually felt nervous. He was going to debut his cooking to his very skilled chef fiance knowing very well that he was still a beginner. "Yes, I made Tolik Pie, it is a recipe from my Romulan father and passed down through generations," As Alizati spoke, the Furberus went to work on getting the pie out of the oven. It took a lot of skill, but the three headed monstrosity was doing their best to prepare a plate of pie for their other father. "Please sit down, the Furberus and I will prepare a slice for you."

Men, of course, was touched, and that wasn't an emotion he needed nor wanted to repress. He wasn't very expressive about it - responding with a simple nod and the barest hint of a smile - but Alizati, being a fellow Vulcan and someone who had long grown accustomed to reading his body language, would likely be able to tell how much he appreciated someone else cooking for him for once. "Thank you," he said, sitting down on the sofa, hands politely folded in his lap. "I am sure I will enjoy it."

Alizati did indeed notice his fiance's appreciation, even if it was subtle. He walked over to the Furberus so he could assist them in cutting the pie. Yuch lay on the floor whilst his brothers did the work, it seemed he was the least enthused about this endeavour, probably because he had a shorter neck so he didn't have as much mobility as the other two. Once the pie was cut, Alizati brought over the two plates to the table and set one in front of Men. "I cannot take full credit for this. The crust was pre-made by my brother, Lun. Him and his boyfriend Kianarix prepared it on Mol'Rihan with Romulan ingredients. The Tolik berries were handpicked by myself in the community garden for the filling. I hope you will enjoy it," Alizati said as he placed a small fork beside the plate for Men as he watched with anticipation. The pie was warm, fresh from the oven, but not too hot. The crust was crisp on the outside with a softness on the inside. The berries were sweet and a little tart, mixed with the cinnamon and red spice added a kick. It was like an apple spiced pie, just enough sweetness to bring out the complex flavours, but not too much to be overpowering. The crust had a nice yellow and brown colour to it and the edges were neatly sculpted with literal machine precision.

"Still, you put in the time and effort to organise the making of this pie, and so I will not discount you for receiving assistance. Tiravurik is often quite helpful in my kitchen endeavours," Men said, privately confused about Lun and Kianarix still dating. From what he'd seen of Linclaith, it seemed like they were doing... Something together, but perhaps Lun was taking on multiple conspirators like a Romulan? Or was his and Linclaith's relationship entirely physical? Couldn't be him. He gave his heart and body to one man only: Alizati. He picked up the fork and knife, cut off a small piece of the pie and then put it in his mouth, no crumbs, chewed and swallowed at a slow enough pace to appreciate the pie properly. After pausing for ~~dramatic effect~~ contemplation, he said, "It is very good, Alizati, well done. The crust is firm enough to hold the ingredients but easy to eat, the sweetness is present but not overpowering, and each ingredient enhances the flavour of the others. The taste is complex and harmonious. The presentation is also very neat and pleasant to look at." By Vulcan standards of expression, he was absolutely gushing with praise.

Alizati nodded, glaf to hear that Tiravurik helps out Men so much. With the growing popularity of Surak Snacks, he always worried that Men would not have enough help with the cooking, upkeep of the decorations, etc. But Tiravurik was kind even if he did show a little too much emotion for a Vulcan establishment sometimes. Alizati did not want to make Men feel nervous by staring at him so he glanced at the Furberus from time to time. All six eyeballs were fixed on Men though, they also wanted to know how he liked it. Yuch tried to speak again, but it was more static, at least it was soft static. The pause Men took before delivering the final verdict was painfully long. The suspense! The drama! "Thank you, Men. The Fuirberus also assisted with mixing the ingredients," As soon as he said that, the Furberus slithered over to Men and leaned towards the pie as if they were also asking to a bite. They could not eat, sadly,, but they were intrigued by the result of their labour. "This took me many tries to get right. I will also prepare pies for my friends, but I wanted you to be the first one to try it and give your opinions. I am open to critique if you have any?" Alizati said, wanting to know how Men would improve it.

Men gave the Furberus a pat on all three heads and told it it'd done a good job, then held up a slice of pie for it to snap one of its beaks at as though it was eating. Illogical, but it was fun to pretend. For the Furberus, anyway. "I have no critique. It is a very good pie. The one thing I will say is that the redspice may be too much for non-Vulcans not used to that kind of flavour so you might want to turn it down slightly for them." He certainly had to do it for human customers sometimes. "Who else are you making pies for? If you wish, I could assist."

The Furberus squeaked at the pats, happy for the recognition! They worked hard, especially having to keep the secret! As if they could tell anyone when they only just learned how to speak. Bir was the one to lean forward and snap his plastic beak in front of the pie, knowing very well that he couldn't eat it. Alizati was actually working on that. It was a lower priority feature as he really wanted his pet to speak first. "I will consider that feed back. I was unaware that red spice was not as well received with non-Vulcans," Alizati said with a nod, appreciating the feedback. "I want to make pies for all my friends. My trusted colleague and friend Allan, Elwyn, Saren, Lorin, Station commander Mo... That is already a lot of people," Alizati said, a bit surprised he had more friends than he originally thought. "How much red spice do you recommend? And is there another flavour that could replace it? I am concerned the pie may be too boring with less red spice."

Men shook his head, still patting the Furberus. "Don't replace it; its flavour is too unique to be replicated by any other. It is merely a matter of new customers needing to build a tolerance. Just minimise it when needed. I should warn you, however, that I've noticed when the Station Commander comes to my restaurant, he eats very small portions, so perhaps for him it would be best to make a smaller pie." He usually just ate soup, too. Actually, he was one of the people he had to tone down the Redspice for. Mo had very little tolerance for strong flavours. "You have many friends... Perhaps I should branch out more." He was very, very introverted, like most Vulcans were.

Each of the Furberus' heads made a soft squeak when they were pet, in different frequencies too! If someone was enterprising enough, they could play a three note composition by patting each of the three heads, unintentional, but Alizati thought it was an interesting feature. "I will keep that in mind and I was considering just making a pie and cutting it into smaller pieces. The oven can only fit one pie at a time. I will make sure to cut a smaller piece for Captain Mo," Alizati took a couple bites of pie, realising he hadn't actually tasted it yet. It did not taste exactly as Dzharok remembered it, but it was by no means subpar. "Next time I bring one of my friends to Snacks and you are around, perhaps I could introduce you if you are up to it? My friends are all very kind, I tell them good things about you."

[D] Speaking of one of Alizati's friends, here was one that regularly frequented Snacks already, Allan H. H. Allen himself! In his Christmas fit, which you've all seen by now, and a tote bag on his shoulder that he was holding the straps of with both his hands, knocking at the door with his elbow because he was Not Risking Dropping The Bag. Because in the bag were very fragile gifts and if they broke, well, that'd be it for him! He'd be banned from Surak Snacks and fired, surely, if he broke the gifts (he would not be, and he knew that, yet he still held the bag tightly to his shoulder).

"Introduce us?" Men took a moment to consider, then nodded. The people Alizati was friends with would probably not be too much for him to deal with. Speaking of his friends, his ear twitched when he heard a knock on the door. "Computer, open door," he said, making no move to approach Allan and greet him. "Jolan tru, Allan" *he said, not even looking at him, knowing who he was by the sound of his steps. If you wish to come in, you may sit with us."

Men had beaten Alizati to opening the door, which was welcomed because Alizati was actually still munching his pie. The Furberus quickly slithered over to the doorway to greet their favourite guy named Allan! "jolan tru, Allan!" They repeated Men's words to the man standing before them-- all in unison. Except Yuch who was still having vocal issues and thus made sounds akin to that of old television static. Alizati looked at Men and then at Allan, surprised that his fiance knew immediately who was at the door without looking. Alizati put his fork down and stood up, walking over to greet his friend and help him with the bag. "Allan," Was all he said, holding his hands out as an offer to help. "It is nice to see you. You look.. Festive. May I take the bag? And would you like some pie that the Furberus and I have made?" Alizati said followed by the echos of 'PIE' 'PIE!!' From the two speech capable Furby heads Bir and Ikki.

"Oh, hey! Both of you here, cool, perfect timing, and - oh, yes, I'd very much appreciate that, thank you, just be careful, it's a bit fragile," he handed the bag to Alizati gently, and then turned back around on his heel to look back at the door. "Oh! There were also some other boxes outside, here, lemme just grab those-" He grabbed the two boxes from the doorway and placed them near the sofa. Their contents would be described shortly. "They look like gifts, which, funnily enough, I have also brought, Feliz Navidad 'n all that, y'know? And aww, yes!" He bent down to pet the Furberus's three heads one at a time, laughing at their chants of pie. "I'd love a slice of pie if you're offering! You're saying you and the Furberus made this, huh?" The idea of the Furberus cooking anything would have seemed terrifying to him a few months ago.

"Yes, he and the Furberus. They did very well, too. Sit, eat." He was just being blunt, but it sounded like a command. "One of those must be a secret santa, I assume. I admit I thought the cocnept was frivolous at first, but I actually enjoyed the challenge of attempting to think of a gift for a randomly-selected inhabitant of the station." He looked in Alizati's direction. "While you are up, Alizati, would you replicate us some spice tea to have with the pie? And whatever Allan might want."

Alizati took the bag from Allan, able to carry it with ease and sat it down on the sofa. He then watched his friend grab some boxes from outside the doorway, surprised at how much Allan had brought. He really didn't need to prepare so many gifts! The Furberus chirped when they were pet before slithering towards the replicator. "Spice tea!" Bir said to the replicator. "What would you like, Allan?" Ikki chirped in his slightly higher voice, squeaky and very happy tone! Whilst the Furberus did that, Alizati walked over to cut Allan a slice of pie and set it down on the table along with a fork to eat it with. "My brother, Lun, and his boyfriend Kianarix also helped pre-make the pie crust. It is a family recipe from the Kota House," Alizati walked towards the replicator, knowing that the Furberus probably could not carry the drinks on their own, they did not have much strength or balance.

"Yeah, they both are Secret Santa gifts for you both, I think, one's addressed to each of you, so I can only assume," he said with a shrug as he sat down as Men so instructed him, ready to try some pie! "Yeah, I found it pretty fun, too. I like the whole secret part, even if I'll probably end up tellin 'em anyways later on." He watched as the Furberus went over to the replicator and then his eyes lit up when they spoke! He'd heard them speak a little in training during weekly Kal-toh but they were so good at it now, he looked like a proud father even though he was not at all the father, he was more like their uncle or cool older cousin or something. "Oh, spice tea is perfect, thank you, I just had coquitos with rum back at Maggie's sooo anything without alcohol's good for me," he looked at the pie, "this looks amazing, what the fuck? You guys did amazing, wow, and - it smells great, too, I'm sure it tastes even better," and then he tried a bite! Meanwhile, Narrator post to describe the secret santa gifts.

The gift for Men contained:

Vulcan Mollusk, recently packed so it is still warm. It came with a Japanese style lunchbox made of wood, with a note attached, “Unfortunately I couldn’t present this to you in person, but I do hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas.”

06:32

The gift for Alizati was a somewhat sizable box neatly wrapped in stone based paper that was covered by a great number of thin black lines and tiny dots. Upon closer inspection the gift was wrapped in a surprisingly accurate hand drawn star map of the station’s ‘closer’ surroundings. Inside the box there were:

Three smaller boxes, among a sea of packaging material. They were wrapped in the same paper as the big box had been, with the notable difference that these were mostly empty, except for small notes written onto them in Vulcan. “I am uncertain whether this is of interest to you, if it is not, I apologise.” This box was clearly the part of the present that warranted the somewhat excessive amount of packaging material. Inside, wrapped in another two layers of a slightly squishy material was a solid-state hybrid drive that seemed to have been part of an old human computer. “I have been...informed that this is an appropriate article of clothing to give to people as a Christmas present.” The second one contained a somewhat oversized, very soft pullover with green and red stripes that looked a lot like someone had looked up a tutorial on how to make a pullover and then made a nice, but clearly not professionally made article of clothing. "I do not take photographs, so I had to look elsewhere." The last and smallest of them contained a digital poetry book that was to about 80% not filled with poetry at all, rather it contained pictures of Vulcan. There was a bookmark about halfway through the book, it marked a section that displayed pictures of desert landscapes (big shock, I know) and in particular a picture that showed a sunset. There was a shrub on a few rocks in front of a large plain of red sand that the setting sun had turned into millions of tiny glowing embers.... There was a note as well. “It is only a picture, but it is a relatively decent one. The poetry and the other pictures are decent as well. Have a pleasant wintertime celebration. -

06:32

Evoras”

Maggie's? Was that some kind of new bar? He hadn't heard of it, and he practically lived in the food court. He picked up the lunchbox, which was a pretty nice gift in itself, and opened it, and the smell of presumably steamed molluscs wafted out. Seemed he would be having something savoury with his pie today. When Alizati brought them all the spice tea, he took turns eating his pie, the molluscs, and the sipping his tea, not wanting any of it to get too hot. Salty, sweet spicy; an interesting cycle of flavours. He did all this with his eyes closed except when he occasionally opened them slightly to pick something up, though sometimes he seemed to be able to operate just fine even without seeing the food, focusing on his other senses - a picture, a painting of tranquility, and as a stroke on the canvas, as the other two talked, he said absolutely nothing.

Secret Santa, Alizati had nearly forgotten about it as he had submitted his gift to OPS nearly a week earlier. He noticed the way Allan's eyes lit up when the Furberus spoke, that was a good reaction. He was happy that his friends were enjoying the Furberus' new vocal abilities. It was still not perfectly (like Yuch who still couldn't speak), but they were learning fast. He raised an eyebrow at Allan when he mentioned the coquitos and rum. Alizati was of course, unaffected by any mind altering substances, but Allan was not and he hoped his friend was drinking responsibly. Anyway, he sat down on the sofa beside Men so he could open his gift. To his surprise, the gift was actually quite intrcicate. A series of boxes inside of boxes. The first box contained what appeared to be a solid state drive, retro tech how nice! Alizati glanced at Men and then at Allan as if he was about to do something very scandalous. Not scandalous, but he closed his eyes and held the drive in his hands, humming softly to try and figure out the frequency of the device. It was quite convenient having his connectors in his finger tips, it allowed him to 'feel' electronics easier. After that was done, he put the item back in the box and examined the other two gifts. A sweater, handmade, how lovely. He pulled it on over his festive hawaiin shirt. Next was the photos that he looked through briefly, showing them to the Furberus as well. "These gifts are lovely, I will have to send a thank you to Evoras," Alizati said as he placed the photos back into the box. Out of the corner of his eyes he noticed Men had been eating with his eyes closed this whole time?! Impressive! Alizati was trying not to stare, but Men looked so beautiful whenever he did anything. But Allan was here, no scandalous hand holding thoughts when they had a guest. Alizati look at Allan. "Thank you for delivering these. May I ask what your gift was?"

Allan smiled as he watched Alizati hum as he tried to figure out the frequency of the device, and then pulled the holiday sweater over his Hawaiian shirt. It all was, of course, just the little things about Alizati that everyone loved. He chuckled a little as he looked at how silly Alizati looked yet - it was a suprisingly adorable look, really, that he managed to pull off. "Oh, yeah-" he pulled two boxes out of the bag Alizati had set down for him, setting them in front of both of the other men. "By the way, pie is amazing, I've never had an apple pie with redspice in it... it's incredible, actually. You and the Furberus did great." Alizati's box was wrapped in green wrapping paper with a red bow, and Men's box was wrapped in the inverse - red wrapping paper and a green bow. Inside Men's gift was a large and heavy clay base, made perfectly for a Kal-toh game to be set on top of. Sculpted and painted into one side of the base was a detailed depiction of a simple Vulcan landscape with reddish dunes, and those reddish dunes flowed seamlessly into the other side of the base, which turned into, on one half of the other half (a quarter), a scene set inside Surak Snacks. The dunes set themselves inside a wall and a potted desert rose and various other succulents, along with a table with two silhouettes sat at it, a steaming bowl in between them. In the last quarter, the dunes in the wall of the restaurant turned into lines that became outlines of the starbase itself in space. There was also a note left in the box that said: "Men, you've spent countless times handmaking dishes that made me feel at home, soooo I wanted to make an attempt at doing the same. I mean, this isn't a dish, it's a Kal-toh base, but you could probably use it as a bowl if you wanted to. - Allan". divider

20:41

In Alizati's gift were a few things. There were five Hawaiian/button-up shirts, three of which had the same circuit-board pattern but in different colors: green on black, white on light blue, and deep purple on black. Another had a pattern with old-school laptops, computers, memory boards, disk drives, wrenches, keyboards, etc. all across, and another was a classic Hawaiian shirt with flowers and leaves but with some Tetris pieces hidden among them. The other object inside was what looked exactly like the Furberus with their little top hats he'd seen them wear once, but a smaller, flatter recreation done in rubber-like material. If one took the hats off, it was actually a flash drive of sorts. divider

20:41

There also was a little card that had a note written inside:

"These are vintage (from the 21st century, allegedly) but I thought you'd like the retro tech stuff in the first one and fun little circuit board patterns in the rest but I wasn't sure what color, so enjoy it in all of them. I have a red one, so we could totally coordinate a day to match or something! Oh, and if you didn't know already, the Tetris one is one you should wear around the Station Commander if you ever have a meeting with him. Just trust me on that one. And then the Furberus Drive ™️, well, it's actually an interesting mix of technology I decided to blend. Basically, each of their top hats can be removed to be a fully function USB drive - each has different centuries' tech. Bir's hat has an old SSD drive from the 21st century, Ikki's has a 23rd century data card, and Yuch's has an up-to-date drive that I designed myself to be pretty resistant to, like, anything. They each have a storage capacity of an exaquad of data, which should be 3 exaquads in total when you add it all up, which should be... well, more than enough for literally most things. And soooo basicallyyy you can plug in the hats to any device that works with it, and then once you plug it back into their heads, it shares it with a cloud storage of your choice so that you can sort of have it all across and shit. Hope that makes sense, if it doesn't let me know! I tried writing a super heartfelt thing here at the end but it didn't really work out, so I just wanna say uhh, you're literally the best boss I've ever had, your support means the world to me, and I love you so much as a trusted friend - daelhen - as well, and there's just really not words to describe how much you mean to me and how I feel when we spend time together. Just, um. Thank you for being here, and looking forward to the new year. - Allan" divider

20:41

After handing the gifts out, he also looked at the Furberus. "You have one too, you know," he said with a light chuckle, gesturing for them to come closer as he held a much smaller little box.

By Surak! A clay base for Kal-Toh? What a creative and thoughtful idea! Not that much of his enthusiasm would shine through his monotone. He did give Allan the sliiightest eye-squint, the Vulcan and cat equivalent of a smile. "This is a very practical gift. I enjoy the illustrations; they will suit my restaurant well when I host Kal-Toh nights there." He wondered if Allan drew them himself or got them commissioned. "I find it intriguing that my dishes make you feel at home considering they are based on my home, but I suppose good food always reminds oneself of such nostalgic things, especially if it contains redspice." There was something about redspice that triggered nostalgia in people, like that one scene from that rat chef film he'd never seen in his life. He observed Alizati pull the sweater over his hawaiian shirt. Hot weather clothing underneath cold weather clothing, very illogical - and yet, Alizati looked very handsome in the combination. "You are very good at coming up with gifts. I apologise that I did not think to get you anything; I am not used to such a holiday, and so it did not occur to me to get gifts for either of you, even though I did the 'secret santa' thing. Perhaps I shall endeavour to think of something over the next few days." He wasn't ever late to things, so he was quite miffed with himself.

Alizati watched Men's reaction to Allan's gift. The change in expression was subtle, but he could tell his boyfriend appreciated it. As soon as they heard the word 'Kal-toh', the Furberus made soft squeaking noises. Clearly that got their attention, it was their favourite game after all. Alizati was equally curious about the art on the Kal-toh base. Not just because the drawings were well done, but also he wondered if he could commission the artist to draw something? Was it Allan? Alizati appreciated art but he was not an artist. "It is alright, Men. Gift giving is also new to me. Your greatest gift is your presence in my life, I love you, Men," A little scandalous to say in front of Allan, but he knew they were in love and was not going to judge. "You are very thoughtful, Allan, I am curious about the artist of the base," As Alizati spoke he was pulling out the shirts. Memory chips, computer parts-- and tetris pieces? He was actually familiar with the retro earth game, surprisingly enough his father Sorn was the one to introduce it to him. Just like Men, Alizati provided very little visible reaction aside from locking eyes with Allan and giving an appreciative nod. As soon as he opened the next gift, the Furberus slithered over to give the mini-Furberus nose boops. They seemed to think the tiny Furberus was sentient? But it was not. Alizati placed the shirts and drive back in the box before reading the accompanying note. "This is very thoughtful, Allan. I will be sure to wear the tetris shirt around the Captain if we ever meet off duty," Alizati was very baffled by that, but he trusted Allan. Reading the last few sentences of the note made Alizati tear up, so much so that he had to blink a couple times and lean his head back so the liquid would drain back into his head. It was an android thing, definitely, but he looked silly. When Allan mentioned a gift for the Furberus, the creature slithered over to the tiny box and squeaked.

"Thanks!" Allan grinned when Men said he enjoyed the illustrations and that they'd suit the restaurant well during Kal-toh nights. Exactly what he was thinking! "Yeah, it's like, the redspice for sure, but also just great food in general 'cause some of the flavors just feel so good, you know? Annnd also, a lot of things, well, like - home isn't just where I came from, you know? It's also where I feel at home, like, and the people who make me feel at home, so it's like.. a lot of... people who mean a whole lot to me, have made me the things you serve," Like T'alea, Brokuk, and Chadrix, "and so then you, also, mean a lot to me, so like - it all goes together," he explained, hoping it made sense. divider

(edited)

03:28

"He's right, yeah, you don't gotta worry about gifts back or anything, just seeing you guys happy is enough for me," he still had a grin on his face, and how couldn't he? The good vibes in this room were off the charts! "Oh, the artist is me! So like, I've always been, like, okay with technical drawing, like the starbase and the table and getting things into perspective weren't too hard, but boy, landscapes? Those are harder than I thought, so I actually spent like, a whole month watching these tutorials on SpaceTube from this Vulcan painter named Bross, who was apparently inspired by an Earth guy? After I got the whole pottery thing down, which was a lot easier than I thought it'd be, but the drawing... the painting... yeah, so anyways, if you ever need spare Kal-toh bases for any reason that look a little funny, I can give you a few, 'cause I went throuuugh a lot of tries before this one, to say the least." Like, a lot. At first he had made them too short for the drawings to fit, then he'd had trouble with the drawing itself, and of course after the clay dried there wasn't much he could fix, and then a bunch of painting mishaps as he learned how to paint without using a shitton too much of paint and having it look clunky. Art was very hard! "Yeah, of course Alizati! Guy loves Tetris, so you totally should," he finished his pie as he got out the gift for the Furberus, which was in a bag so the Furberus could just pull the tissue paper out with their beaks. Inside the bag were a small bowtie for each of them, with a finished Kal-toh sphere print in the center of the bowtie, and a bag of what looked like Kal-toh pieces. "Soo, the Kal-toh pieces, I was experimenting with 'em a little, and basically you can just say a color, since you're learning to talk still, and they'll change color to that. They should be able to fit in the Kal-toh compartment in the hoverchair, too, with the original set."

'You also mean a lot to me'. Hmmm. Maybe he should make more of an effort to socialise with Allan outside of work; he still needed to go through his Become Less of a Hermit arc, anyway. When Alizati said 'I love you' right in front of Allan, he blushed a little, but didn't mind. "I love you too," he said, hesitating for a moment before giving Alizati a gentle kiss on the cheek. Hey, it's not like they were touching fingers or anything. Then he folded his hands in his lap and turned back to Allan as though nothing had happened. "I am impressed that you acquired such technical skill in such a short amount of time, though I know you to be a skilled person in general," he said. Allan may be a little silly sometimes, but Men had never thought of him as stupid. It was illogical to think anyone was stupid; people's brains were just geared towards different things. "I do not particularly need any spare Kal-Toh bases, but I would be interested in seeing them to observe your process." He observed the Furberus unwrap the little bow-ties and the colour-changing Kal-Toh board, which were actually pretty great presents. He'd wear a bigger bow tie like that. When Alizati looked like he was about to cry, he wrapped an arm around his waist for comfort.

Upon hearing Men's review of the artwork, Alizati nodded in agreement. What he did not expect was the 'I love you' back and the kiss! His cheeks turned bright green at the sudden contact and then when Men wrapped an arm around his waist-- he felt like he really was going to cry. Alizati rubbed his eyes to try and disable his tear ducts, but the tears ended up falling and he leaned closer to Men. It was certainly scandalous to do all of this in front of Allan, but it wasn't like Allan didn't know how they felt about each other. Alizati was not one for superfluous words or conversation, so whenever he heard Allan speak so passionately it was quite refreshing. Allan was a man full of passion, even if that included tangents and some enthusiastic hand gestures. Alizati looked at Allan, admiration evident in his eyes even between the shaking it was clear he appreciated his friend's effort. "You made it? I am impressed," Alizati managed to say despite looking quite emotional. It was a compliment given with his typical dry monotone, but for a Vulcan his words were much more than what was on the surface. "The captain loves Tetris? I will keep that in mind," Alizati was not sure when said information would come in handy, but he took note of it. He turned his attention to the Furberus as their little beaks tugged at the tissue paper to reveal the items inside. Bowties and some Kal-toh pieces? Yet again Alizati was stunned by Allan's gift giving sense. The Furberus all chirped in unison, Yuch let out some eldritch horror noises to show his excitement. "Your gifts are very thoughtful, Allan. I wish I had something more than pie to offer you," He said as he looked down at the empty plate in front of Allan. The Furberus slithered over to Allan's feet and rubbed their long necks against his ankles. "Thank you! We love you Allan!" They all said in unison.

Aw, that was a really cute interaction. Love was always, well, lovely to see. "Right!? I was super impressed, too, like, with myself, but like, SpaceTube tutorials make it so easy sometimes, you know? Now, uh, ask me to paint trees or something? I probably couldn't, but uhh, I just kinda laser-focused on this and it turned out well enough, kinda like when I was in high school and I tried to learn how to do hoverboard tricks, it was just like, all I focused on for monnths, and I learned a decent bit," he said, indeed going off on tangents and using enthusiastic hand gestures. "And now I can still do some of it! So like, that's cool and all, annnd yeah I can show 'em to you, as long as like, you don't judge the super early prototypes," not that he thought he would, but he just wanted to put it out there. Just in case. He laughed as the Furberus slithered around his ankles, it was kind of ticklish. "Aww, I love you too, guys! You're very welcome," he said, leaning down and patting each one of their heads. "And what? No, no, the pie was like, amazingly perfect, don't worry - do you happen to have the recipe, though? If you're okay with sharing, of course, I promise I'll give you and the Furberus credit." And maybe he could start making it for his friends! Spreading the cheer of redspiced apple pie.

By Surak, was he crying? Had he really provoked such intense emotions? He just so happened to have a Surak Snacks™ brand napkin in his pockets, so he used it to wipe Alizati's tears away. In the back of his mind, he mused that he had once been in an environment wherein one could get socially ostracised for crying like this and now he was in one in which Alizati could cry without judgement. It made him tear up a little himself. Just a little. It didn't help that the bow ties were incredibly cute. "I'm sure we can offer him something more than a single pie," he said. "For example... More pie. Or the recipe, as he asked." He turned to Allan. "I could offer you a discount as well. And perhaps... My valuable art critique." On any of Allan's further pottery shenanigans. "You have a surprisingly disciplined mind. Sometimes."

Men really came prepared and Alizati was thankful he was. Somehow feeling his fiancé's delicate touch as he wiped away his tears made him want to cry more. These were tears of joy, happy that Allan was so kind to them, happy that his tears were not met with judgement or stares. There was a part of him that wanted to do some scandalous finger touching, but not in front of Allan (or the Furberus, they were young and impressionable, although they were fingerless). "Men is right. You have. A disciplined mind and Vulcans are not easily impressed," Alizati sat up, tears all dried, speaking in his same monotone as if nothing had happened. "I can offer the recipe. I believe the junior officers would say it is a.. 'hit tweet' or something like that. Perhaps the Furberus can also offer you something to show their gratitude," Alizati said, looking at the three headed creature at Allan's feet. Bir lifted his head up, repeating the word 'gratitude' followed by Ikki also echoing his brother. Yuch was last, but yet again came the retro television static noises. He was trying! "I would be interested in seeing some of your other art, Allan. Although I am unsure if my critique would be as thorough as Men's. Do you have any pieces in the making?"

"I mean, if there's leftover pie, I won't say no, buuut.." he blinked as Men turned to him and suggested offering him a discount and his art critique, an offer that was followed by saying he had a surprisingly disciplined mind, sometimes, which he would absolutely be taking as a compliment. Because as Alizati followed up with, Vulcans were absolutely not easily impressed. He'd learned that lesson quite easily with T'Alea's parents. "Thanks- I mean, you don't gotta, but if you would like to, I'd gratefully accept," he laughed, though, when Alizati said the words 'hit tweet' which was something he did not ever expect to hear from the man, and he had to cover his mouth to avoid laughing too loudly in front of the two men. "Oh- Oh, Alizati, I ... I dunno if they'd say 'hit tweet', unless - unless I'm getting too old? I'd say it slaps, maybe, but usually hit tweet is just to uh, talk about hit tweets? I think?" Oh no, was he getting old? Was 26 old now? "Woww, 'gratitude''s a pretty big word, though, I'm proud of you guys," he pet Yuch's head specifically. He was very proud of them for trying! "I don't have anything in the works right now, honestly, I feel like most of my 'art' is just stuff I build, this was... all very new, but... I can let you know if I try something again! How's that?"

Men had lost track of the slang stuff at this point and was privately confused about how exactly one would hit the sound of a bird, but also wasn't really that invested in knowing the answer. "Yes, that would be acceptable. I can also provide such critique at the pottery classes at my restaurant." Subtly promoting his restaurant? Wouldn't be Men if he didn't do that any chance he got. One might almost think he had a little Ferengi in him. Hey, profit was very logical to enjoy - number go up generally meant good things. Unless that number was 'amount of explosions near you' or something.

"Oh? Then it slaps. Although I, personally, would not advise slapping a pie. It seems like that would only result in a messy hand and a ruined pie," Alizati said with a perfectly straight face, unsure where half of the Standard slang came from. It was strange how violent it was. Slap, hit, slay, how could all those words be positive? Anyway, he watched as Allan pet the Furberus' head. It was nice to see him praising Yuch even if Yuch still couldn't speak. "Yes, please do. Also I will be attending the next pottery class. The Furberus enjoys arts as well, but we are still working on building up coordination to make works," As soon as he said that, the Ferberus echoed his words, 'make works!' 'Works!'. With that, Alizati gave Men a kiss on the cheek before slowly getting up to get Allan the last piece of pie that was left. "I will be offering this pie to my other friends too. Men had suggested I tone down the red spice, what do you think, Allan?" He said, placing the plate in front of Allan before heading back to Men and sitting next to him on the sofa. He so desperately wanted to hold Men's hand but that was.. Scandalous. So he only glanced at the man's hands and then at Allan.

"Of course not, you wouldn't actually want to, no," Allan laughed, shaking his head as he too imagined how it would kind of suck to actually slap a pie. A true waste of resources, absolutely! It was sort of strange how many Standard slang words were oddly violent but meant good things, but such was language. "Ooh, yes, I mean - if you're teaching," he looked at Men, and then to Alizati, "and you're going... I have, like, two more reasons to go, so. Yeah, sure, I'll be there too, 's soon as I'm back from holiday." He smiled as the Furberus echoed the words like that retro game with the animals he couldn't remember the name of. "Aww, that'd be cute if you could make works, yeah," he said to them, looking back over at Alizati when he asked if he should tone down the red spice. "Tone it down? I mean, you know your friends better than I do, I guess, but I fuckin' love the stuff - oh, thank you," so he did get another piece! Amazing! "But I also... eat spicier foods in general, so maybe you should?"

Men nodded, reacting to Alizati's kiss only with a slight blush at the tips of his ears, and then when Alizati sat back down again and he saw his glance, he held one of his own hands with his other and rubbed his thumb in wide movements over his palm from the centre to the edges, as though just coincidentally happening to be giving himself a impromptu hand massage, right in front of Allan's pie. He knew damn well Allan could see this too and may well be familiar enough with Vulcan body language to catch that he was subtly flirting with his own fiancé right in front of him, but he also knew Allan just about well enough that he probably wouldn't mind. "The idea is to cater the redspice to the tolerance of individuals. Some people can only tolerate a little spice, some a reasonable amount, and others will barely taste the redspice unless we add more than usual. Of course, it is not always easy to tell, and, though illogical, sometimes one just has to follow an... Instinct, of sorts, to tell what a person might like, though often I'll ask about their spice tolerance as well."

Oh Men was so bold, Alizati thought as his eyes caught sight at what the other was doing. Right in front of Allan's pie? Right in front of the Furberus? Well, it wouldn't be the first flirtatous act that happened in front of them. The three headed bundle of joy was not fazed in the slightest and slithered back to the gift box to grab the bowties and attempt to put them on by themselves. "I do not plan to slap any pies," Alizati said as if that wasn't obvious. His gaze was momentarily distracted by the Furberus and he leaned down to help them with their bowties. "That is right, you will be leaving for holiday soon. I wish you luck on your trip, please show me photos of your home when you return. What do you plan to do there? Is there a special event happening?" Alizati was a bit disappointed in himself for not travelling around earth more when he lived there. As property of the Daystrom Institute he was not permitted to leave the premises, but when he was a cadet surely he had time to leave, but he had chosen not to because he thought 'holidays' were illogical to him at the time. "Pehaps I could give people a choice? I will think about it."

Men would be completely right. Allan could see it, he was familiar enough to recognize the meaning of it, and yet he did not give a single fuck. Because he knew he did 5000 more scandalous things than that in front of everyone else and also that he was currently occupied enjoying this amazing pie, not even giving anything else a second glance. "Choice might be good," he nodded as he spoke, not really wanting to take a break from the pie-enjoying but such was life. He got back to eating the pie, and managed to finish it before answering Alizati's questions. "Oh you bet, I'll take lots of photos, don't worry. I'll be hanging out with my family! It's still very much Christmas season in Puerto Rico, and I'll actually be there for uh, Día de Reyes, it's like, also called 3 Kings' Day? It's like... Christmas the Finale. Christmas part two. Lots of partying and stuff, family celebration, all that. Oh, and Eshen is coming with! So that's actually even more exciting." His face definitely showed more excitement when he mentioned that, because how cool was it that Eshen had agreed to come meet his family!? Pretty cool. It meant they were like, Official Official. For Real. Neat stuff.

Taking Eshen on a holiday to Earth to meet his family? That gave him an idea. "Alizati, perhaps when everything with my wife is sorted..." That being his inevitable divorce, "I could bring you home to my village. It won't be for a while, and I do not know if my family will be speaking to me by that point, but... I would still like to show you the place important to me." He looked over to Allan. "The mural in my restaurant is of the desert near my hometown, and the illustration you did upon the Kal-Toh stand resembles its dunes, too. Did you look up pictures of the Iron Desert while you were watching it at all?"

"I will think about it," Alizati said in response to how he was to prepare the pies for his friends. He trusted the opinions of Allan and Men, on top of that his friends were all kind so even if they disliked the pie they would surely voice their opinion gently. "It does sound nice to have your partner join you in festivities, I will await your photos," Alizati was surprised to hear that Eshen was also going to make the trek to earth with Allan. Right before Alizati could think about how him and Men could do something similar, Men spoke up. Alizati possessed no telepathy and Men was only a touch telepath, but they sure seemed like they were reading each other's minds. "I would like that, I want to see the beautiful dunes from your mural, I want to see your beauty against the orange skies," Alizati spoke with a light green blush across his cheeks, his eyes filled with his affections the longer their gazes held. After what felt like a million years, but was actually a good ten seconds of him admiring Men, Alizati looked back at Allan for his answer to Men's question.

"Yeah! So it's funny, actually, Bross did a really great job on those Spacetube tutorials and he even had like, reference photos on the sides to look at, but I kinda noticed, actually, looked a lot like some pictures that I had from my visits, um, to Vulcan, and then I was like wow, what a weird coincidence, but then I actually, like, looked and I compared them and I was like, oh my God, this is the same place! Like, whoa. So, actually, I've been there - well, they were taken from a bit more of a distance, so maybe not exactly there, but yeah. Pretty neat stuff." He grinned when Alizati said he would look forward to seeing his photos, photography was honestly one of his hobbies (he had once done it professionally, but with the career change came that transition) that he enjoyed most still. It was just so fun to make different compositions with the real world and sort of position them in a way that looked amazing. He couldn't exactly describe it when talking to someone about it, but that was okay. Speaking of great compositions, though- "Not to like, be a third wheel or anything, buuuut as someone who's going to Vulcan sometime this year, I would love to... take some photos of you guys there if you wanted, because I'm sure they'd look great," he offered as he stood up - since he probably should get going soon - and then leaning back a little and doing a cheesy little hand motion to form a little square camera shape and do the little 'click' with his fingers as he got them both in 'frame.' Also, he was absolutely taking notes on that phrasing Alizati used. Very romantic. "Just let me know!"

Men also gazed at Alizati for an innumerable length of time, going through several absolute tooth-rotting replies in his head before deciding they shouldn't keep going back and forth like this in front of Allan or he'd be here all day. Instead, he said, "You are very sweet. We shall resume this exchange of words... Later tonight, together, I think," Then gave Alizati a small smile and turned back to Allan. *He stared blankly, not understanding what the hand gesture and the click meant. "I don't know why you would be a wheel, but if you are going to Vulcan, perhaps we could time the visit together? It would be sooner than expected, but perhaps it is best to get it over with." Plus, he may not know Allan well, but if he was there it would be a little more emotional support, which would be sorely needed considering his family was probably not going to react well.

"Yes, we will," A simple phrase paired with a simple nod followed, small movements, but they expressed all he wanted to in that moment. He listened to Allan give his riveting review on Bross, interesting in the content, but also the manner in which Allan delivered it. Although he never showed it on his face nor vocalised it, he found Allan's storytelling method to be quite exciting. The Furberus seemed to share his opinion as all three heads looked at Allan as he spoke. "I have the same question as Men, why would you become a wheel? Or are you speaking about a rickshaw? I am flattered, however I believe we could get around just fine in a scooter or on foot," Alizati responded, looking at Allan with a straight face as he said it, completely serious. "Thank you for your offer, that is very kind of you," Alizati nodded and then looked back at Men when he mentioned going to Vulcan with Allan. "We could discuss it tonight, I have no objections going to Vulcan with you," Alizati told Men, the literal gears in his mind turning as he realised how soon that would be. [D] The three talked a little longer and soon sent Allan off on his way with the left over pie. The Furberus received lots of love and attention and at the conclusion of the evening, Alizati put the little bow ties on them so Allan could see how they looked. It was a lovely evening overall!

[D] After work, Alizati returned to his quarters. He noticed that the station commander had messaged him for cat photos? He quickly snapped a quick photos of Bandit trying to swat at Yuch's head. The photo was blurry as hell, but you could distinctly see a cat-shaped blur and a Furberus shaped blur. After doing that, he headed to his bedroom to get changed into on of his classic Alizati outfits. He was planning on going to Surak Snacks that day so he dressed casually and got the Furberus into the bowties that Allan had got them for Christmas. With that done he headed out the door.