Star Trek: Starbase 777

[D] So, he did end up crying in the #butterfly-house after all. It was a whole combination of emotions, all swirling around in his brain before finally colliding into one another and causing an absolute explosion of emotion in his head that was unbearable, even for him. There was something to be said about the feeling of comfort one could find while sitting alone and having a good cry under the large, evergreen leaves of some plant Allan didn't know the name of, as butterflies of all different shapes, sizes, and colors flew around him in what always seemed to be random patterns. After that, though, he went back to his quarters, did a little bit of editing, and uploaded the Spacegram photos to usual acclaim, but that was a very usual process for him. Rinse and repeat. He was still in his quarters - or, his third quarters of the 5 months he'd been here. It was sort of a mentally taxing task to unpack everything for the third time, especially since he had only added more things since he'd first arrived at the starbase - but it was what it was, and he wondered, once he had gotten everything set up in an aesthetically pleasing manner once again, what the next time he'd have to move would be. Still, though, he was pleased enough with the results. The fruits his family sent him on the shared kitchen table, the soundproofing of the quarters walls, all his various computer equipment, the instruments, the lights he put around the room, the little mini garden he kept secret... all the little things that made the place feel more like home. x_divider

17:32

He was now sitting in one of the chairs in the living space, trying to figure out what else he needed to do in this shared part of the quarters. Fruit was on the center table, his workstation was all set up, some warm orange string-lights were hung across the ceiling... it seemed fine for now, at least until he got some more input from his roommate on what they wanted the vibes to be like in here. The engineer laid back in the chair and took out his PADD, scrolling through various messages and notifications before noticing something just a bit odd. He hadn't gotten an error message. That didn't sound weird out of context, after all, normally one wouldn't expect an error message, but an error message is what Allan expected every time after he went and visited the butterfly house, had an emotionally healing moment, and then messaged T'alea's old contact on his PADD. He'd always gotten an error message. It wasn't like how phone numbers worked in the 21st century, the contact couldn't have been reassigned - the messages he'd sent previously had always returned an error message saying that the message could not be delivered. Sometimes it'd taken a day or two to get back, lag times and maybe the system put an extra effort in sometimes to find the recipient - but it had been more than a few days, it'd been about a week. In fact, it had been almost exactly two weeks since he'd sent the message. "So why..." Allan said out loud in a whisper to himself, trying to make sure that his PADD was functioning correctly. The connection was working just fine, all his other messages were going through as normal... maybe the error message had been disabled for some strange reason? x_divider

17:32

He went into the code of the PADD's messaging program - nothing that he could mess with, just the open-source aspect that was available - and looked through the various send and fetch requests, all of his messages with Eshen clouding up a good chunk of the messages which he had to scroll through but eventually he reached the point he was looking for.

SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is "250-DM3PR10CA0023

Allan didn't care much for the string of numbers and letters afterwards. What was of note was the number 250, the indication that the message was successfully delivered. But to who? But to what? It didn't make sense. Sighing, he turned his PADD screen off and laid back further in the chair, holding a hand to his head as he thought about whatever the fuck this meant. It was getting late in the day at this point. He'd just have to sleep on it or something, make a nice breakfast in the morning and get on with his day. Maybe stop by the coffee shop, even. Getting up, he turned the lights out in the main room as he went into his bedroom and got ready for bed. The next morning, after his usual morning routine he put on his usual altered uniform with the short shorts and the long boots, slinging his bag over his shoulder and heading out to go get some coffee at the coffee shop. It was probably needed for the day after he had a bit of trouble sleeping the previous night. (edited)

It was a wonderful time of year, and Allan had been laying in bed for the last few hours. Awake. It was a bit of a shame. He'd had excellent sleep for a while now since the last time he’d had trouble with sleeping, but for some reason, tonight he had gone to sleep at 10pm and woke up at 2am — that was a decent 4 hours of sleep right there, and he planned on getting back to sleep and getting another decent 4 hours, but the universe seemed to have other plans for the engineer. He’d actually tried going right back to sleep, but was soon awoken by a fast and quick nightmare in which the feelings he’d felt about a month ago all came back to haunt him, in literal manifestations, colliding together in his brain once again and causing a literal explosion this time, one that he observed from a third-person perspective as he also watched the… banana tree, apparently, that he had been sitting underneath go up in flames, and then the flames started to envelop the surrounding landscape until he, too, from his third-person perspective was also caught up in them. So… he was back awake at 2:39am, and was alone with his thoughts, which was usually fine, except now. He fully understood why he couldn’t spend every night with Eshen (the man had other partners to split his nights between, after all), but there were always a few lonely nights every now and then when he wished that, somehow, he could spend every night with someone he cared about again. The comforting feeling that you weren’t alone when he had such a nightmare, that he could just go back to sleep and everything was safe and fine and depending on how deep of a sleeper they were, he could give them a little hug and a kiss on the forehead before he went back to sleep — the feeling when, in the morning, he could wake up and make them their favorite coffee and just lay there with them for a few minutes before they eventually decided to get up and ready, the… divider

22:35

Ugh, he really could just think about this for hours, couldn’t he? But no, he probably only spent about a half hour or so thinking about that before he started thinking about the reason he couldn’t do that. Or, he supposed, the reason they still never figured out. The reason that was still lost in the universe somewhere, the reason that… But he was here now, right? Lt. Cmdr. Avarak and Lt. Abrams back at the shipyards had helped him get through this, get out of that environment, and now he was here, on Starbase 777, for the past 7 months, with the most supportive and friendly crew he’d ever been around. Or was he? No, he definitely was. The way every single one of his friends could make him smile on any given day, the way Alizati had supported him from Day 1 and changed the way Allan saw Starfleet and its leadership structure, and the way that the Captain and Alizati both tolerated his antics while still guiding him in a better direction was… it meant a lot to him, in a way he couldn’t find words to explain it. Maybe he would whenever his year-long anniversary here came up, or something. He reached over at 5am to grab his PADD, and sent a sappy little message in the chatroom, wishing everyone a good night when he knew he wouldn’t really be getting one — double-checking the grammar on it before… yeah, sent. He would have gone to sleep, but… Somehow, he was reminded of the message he’d sent to T’alea’s contact about a month ago, and he sent another message.

[PADD] To: T’Alea From: Allan This is a test message.

He then went back into the code he’d gone into before, looking for that…

SMTP -> get_lines(): $str is "250-DM3PR10CA2739404

And, there it was again. A confirmation that the message had been successfully delivered, to a PADD that by all means should not be in operation any longer, to a contact that had been returning error messages for the past year and a half. divider

22:36

Why was anyone’s guess at this point, and as if the universe were just trying to give him more things to think about in this moment, Allan received a call on his PADD at 6am from none other than his mother. With a sigh, he set the PADD against his pillows and answered the call. “Mamiii, es demasiado temprano para-” [Translation: Mommm, it’s way too early to-]

The woman on the video call, curly black hair tied back into a ponytail, shook her head as she seemed to be adjusting her own PADD to stay still on some sort of surface, her green eyes looking away from the screen. “Sí, lo sé, lo sé, pero — lo sé, pero tengo trabajo pronto, solo quería llamarte y decirte que te amo [Yes, I know, I know, but — I know, but I have to work soon, I just wanted to call you and tell you that I love you],” she looked back to the screen, which was no longer shaking around, and smiled, seemingly satisfied with herself. “Te ves tan cansada, mi [You look so tired, my-]...”

Allan blinked slowly at the screen, his mom always talked fast, right now it felt like he could hardly keep up. “Porque lo soy? También te amo, mami, tanto, tanto, pero… [Because I am? I love you too, Mom, so, so much, but…]” he sighed, finally sitting up and moving to his desk so he, too, could set his PADD on a decent, still surface and talk to his mom properly, turning a small lamp on that provided some warm light to the room. “Son las seis de la mañana pa mí, y yo [It’s six in the morning for me, and I] -”

The woman’s eyes widened, leaning her face closer to the screen as she looked at her son in the better lighting, frowning. “Seis!? Mijo, por qué estás despierto tan temprano? ¿Has estado llorando? Tus ojos están … ay bendito, mijo, estás bien? [Six!? My son (endearment term), why are you up so early? Have you been crying? Your eyes are… OMG, mijo, are you okay?]”

22:37

“Sí, sí, mamá, solo... tenía problemas para dormir, una pesadilla, tu sabes como es eso, pero… voy a estar bien, te lo prometo. [Yes, yes, mom, I just had trouble sleeping, a nightmare, you know how that goes, but… I’m going to be okay, I promise you.]” He gave her a reassuring smile.

“Tienes muchos amigos allí, ¿verdad? Sigues hablando con ese chico, el muy alto, dijiste que era vulcano? No, klingon? [You have lots of friends there, right? Are you still talking to that boy, the very tall one, you said he was Vulcan? No, Klingon?]

“Sí, sí, mi jevo, Eshen — él es ambos, mamá, es esencialmente de la misma altura que yo, [Yes, yes, my boyfriend, Eshen — he’s both, mom, he’s also practically the same height as me],” he laughed, he wasn’t sure where she’d gotten the idea that he was taller than him from. They were literally one inch apart!

“¡Ay, eso es correcto! Ahora recuerdo, estoy tan orgulloso de ti, mi querido,” [Ay, that’s right! I remember now, I’m so proud of you, my dear/darling,]

Was she trying to make him cry again? Because his eyes maybe started to water a little when she said she was proud of him. “Ma-”

“Yo sé que estarás bien, por favor — oh, no sabes cuánto te extraño and cuánto desearía poder abrazarte en este instante, por favor, si necesitas algo, llámame, y los frutos deberían estar allí pronto, también enviamos algunos adornos navideños, ellos deberían haber llegado hoy! [I know you will be okay, please — oh, you don't know how much I miss you and how much I wish I could hug you right now, please, if you need anything, call me, and the fruits should be there soon, we also sent some Christmas decorations, they should have arrived today!]” She was rambling a bit at this point, but like mother like son, no?

22:37

“Sí, sí,” Allan turned his PADD to face a pile of boxes in the corner of his room. “De casualidad, me llegaron ayer, debería engancharlos pronto [I got them yesterday, actually, I should put them up soon].”

"¡Sí, deberías! Se que no vienes en Navidades este año, así que quiero sacar un tiempito luego durante este mes, yo y tú y tu papi y todos los demás deberíamos hacer una llamada en grupo y pasar un ratito juntos. ¡Yo creo que estaría chevere! ¿De casualidad me pregunto, sacaste el Día de Reyes libre para que vengas y visites?” [You should! I know you are not coming for Christmas this year, so I want to schedule a time later this month, me and you and your papi and the rest of us should have a group call and hang out, I think it could be fun! Did you get 3 Kings’ Day off to come visit, I wonder?]

“Sí, lo saque, cogí todos los días libres después de Año Nuevo y el día después de Los Reyes, para que pueda bajar más temprano y pueda quedarme aquí un ratito más largo,” [“Si, I did, I took all the days off after new year’s and the day after 3 Kings’ Day, so I can come down sooner and stay a little longer,”]

“¡Ah, pues bien! Le digo a tu papi cuando llegue a casa, oh, Allan, mijo. ¡Estoy tan contenta de verte otra vez! Te extrañamos tanto. ¡Deberías traer a tu novio también!” [Good! I’ll tell your papi when he gets home, oh, Allan, mijo, I’m so happy to see you again! We miss you so much, you should bring your boyfriend too!]

(edited)

22:38

And then they talked for an hour or so more, about their lives and all that, his mom somehow convincing him to try and bring Eshen to Puerto Rico for 3 Kings’ Day. It was a good call, although despite his mom telling him to sleep after it, he couldn’t really go back to sleep still, so he just went into the main area of his quarters in his pajamas (which, in all reality right now were just a pair of comfortable floral-printed shorts with lace at the bottom). He made a small cup of coffee and after checking the counter for any used mugs and the time — 7:05 — boiled some water, and after that was done started steeping some Deka tea for whenever Comet woke up. Usually they woke up before him and he walked in to them already drinking the tea, but — this seemed like a rare instance in which he had woken up first! Soon enough after realizing A Person was awake, Coggs had stormed through the little doggy door into the main quarters, nearly causing Allan to drop his coffee when she jumped up onto his legs, but he laughed and kept the mug in his hands steady as he reached down with his other hand to pet the dog. “G’morning, Coggs,” he yawned, and then walked over to the couch and set his mug down on a coaster, looking around for… ah, there it was, under one of the throw pillows that had ended up on the floor was a little rope in the engineering colors that he picked up and waved around until Coggs latched onto it with her teeth. Then, of course, he pulled right back, playing tug-of-war with the husky mix until she got worn out — which wouldn’t be for a while, probably. She certainly was almost an adult height, but she still very much had that puppy energy still in her. Speaking of energy, actually, now that he thought about it, he might have had a question for Comet when they woke up - unrelated to Coggs. divider

[D] Comet woke up naturally to the sound of exited barking from the main room. Groaning and sitting up slowly, they yawned and glanced at the chronometer on their bedside table, sweeping a hand through vibrant orange hair. They'd got it cut recently, actually! Don't mind that the roleplayer stopped typing this midway through to make a picrew that reflected that. The old look was so pre-Jack's hiatus. At this point, it was around...7:21 AM, which was a bit late by Comet's standards, but still within the Okay Wake Up Time Zone™️. It was an autism thing. They slowly, lethargically swung their legs over the bed and scratched at their shoulder, nudging a tank top strap over just slightly. Coggs was awake, by the sound of things. "Shit- Coggs, did you bother Allan...?" they asked an empty room, grabbing a pair of shorts off their desk chair and stepping into them. They already had socks on, since they had passed out last night after an intense argument over shuttle makes and models on an Engineering chatroom called Tritanium Lounge last night. It was serious. They'd seriously thought that Andorian shuttle designs were more efficient than Cardassian ones. No chance. Comet smirked as they remembered how pettily they'd ended the argument- the one they had hands down won:

DilitiumEater: fine. youre right. whatever

ShootingStarz777: I absolutely am. And, I'm so sorry to inform you, but, unfortunately, I had sex with your mother.

Owned. They stepped out of the room and blinked a couple times. The lights were on. That made sense. That was a thing lights did. "Good morning, Allan- I hope Coggs didn't bother you-" There was a benefit to being bilingual. "Oh. Nevermind! Good morning to you too, Coggs!"

The lights were on, but they were sort of dim - some warm white lights with some golden and silver bits of tinsel near and intertwined with them, the bits Allan had hung up a few days ago when December first started. Still, though, it was a nice 7 am vibe. "Morning, Comet," he did that little wave that one did when they had a mug or a cup in their hand and so could only lift a few fingers to wave, otherwise he'd drop the mug of coffee and it would be absolutely disastrous, "tea should be hot still, I left it steeping on the counter." He set his own mug down and kind of just gestured in that general direction, still tugging Coggs to and fro with the rope in his other hand. The puppy really knew how to dig her paws into the ground to keep a grip on this thing, that was for sure. "Oh, also, my parents sent me in some decorations yesterday, I was thinking I'd probably put them up today." He looked up at the ceiling at the decorations and lights that were already there, very minimalistic but still nice. "Obviously... I'll sort of be a little strategic where I hang 'em from, but we're -- we figured we're the exact same height, right? So I'll just make sure they're fine for me and you just have to make sure not to wear any crazy top hats, yeah?" Or run the risk of running into Christmas lantern #4.

"Oh, that was thoughtful, thanks!" Comet grinned, moving to the kitchenette and picking up the mug. It was just warm enough- not too hot that it would burn their hands off the second they picked it up, and not too cold that it would taste like winter rain water. They took a slow sip and watched Coggs and Allan with a fondness. They were so glad that they were able to find Trevor's puppies a good home. When Their brother had come to the station with nothing but a box of dogs, Comet had panicked a little- but the end results were good. They wondered where Trevor was now- who was he spending his holiday with? "Ooh, decorations! That sounds fun!" Comet said as they moved into the living room, taking a seat on the small couch the two of them shared. "Is there something wrong with my very tasteful generic hardware store brand Christmas lights?" They added jokingly, grinning. "Also- don't worry about that- I'm not a hat person, they make me look balding," Comet giggled. Allan felt like a hat person, though. They could be wrong. Oh! Thought! Imagine how cute Coggs would be in a little doggy hat! That could be a Christmas card!

"Oh, it's no problem, really, I was just surprised I woke up before you," Allan laughed, although his throat was still a little dry from crying earlier, the coffee was doing wonders for him right now. Plus playing with Coggs, that was just a great way to heal. However that worked - mostly psychological, probably. He gasped when Comet mentioned the generic hardware store brand Christmas lights, putting a hand to his mouth to make it seem more dramatic - that's just how he did it. "Whaaa? No, no, these actually look pretty nice! A little soft glow that doesn't blind you, it's just...." He was grinning now, too. Who knew talking about decorations could be such a way to bring up the mood. "...generic, that's a good word, yeah, but hey! It'll be fun, maybe we could even set up a little corner with a tree, and then like - oooo, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but back home we did these things called Christmas cards, basically you pose with your family and send them to everyone you know - we could pose with Coggs, maybe, and send that one out! Or like, we could get other people to take them too, and we'd put them on that bulletin board over by the quarters entrance or something?"

"I was just thinking about one of those!" Comet said, nearly spilling their drink with their excitement. "My mom did her best to teach us about Earth customs, growing up on Bajor. It was the only reason we celebrated Christmas, actually. My brother loved it, since he felt more...human than Bajoran, if that makes sense," They explained, their words punctuated by hand gestures. "Anyways- I was thinking about putting Coggs in a little hat! I think she'd look cute if we could get her to stay still for long enough!" "The bulletin board is a great idea, though! You know the Captain somewhat, right? Maybe you could message him about making it a semi-official thing so that we can get tons of people to do it!" They suggested. Their roommate really was a genius- they'd have to ask him about his opinion on shuttle makes and efficiencies. "By the way, where are the decorations, if I could have a peek at them?" From the sound of things, there were some low hanging decorations, possibly some lights, or some sort of...hanging...santa? Wait. No. That was not a very holly or jolly thought. Scratch that.

"You're kidding!!" Allan laughed, leaning against the arm of the couch they were on so he could face them directly as he talked, dropping the rope he was using to play with Coggs since eventually that puppy energy did actually wear out, and in approximately five minutes she'd probably hop up onto the couch to lick their faces or something. "Holy shit, absolutely, we should. It's actually sooo easy to get them to stay still for a picture, basically at home, I have a dog, uh, his name's Hamlet, we basically just held a little treat up near the camera and it somehow worked every year!" God, he couldn't wait to see that little dog again in January. "Oh shit, dude, you're so right, I could totally ask him! Hang on, I'll do that, like, right now-" he took out his PADD to message the Captain, but then was completely distracted by Comet's question. "Totally, lemme get the boxes out here -" he got up from the couch, leaving his PADD there in his place so Coggs wouldn't immediately take the spot and went back to his quarters, carrying a medium-sized and a much smaller box as he walked back into the living room, placing them next to where he was sitting on the floor so he could just open them up. "Soo, in this bigger one, we've got.." He opened the box, and in it seemed like just a LOT of tinsel and lights, at first. White, blue, green, red... all sorts of colors in this bitch. After he pulled some of those out and set them on his lap, there was an assortment of little ornaments. "A looot of tinsel and lights and little ornaments, and then- oh, this..." he pulled out one of the ornaments, a little angel but ... clearly a paper cut-out made by a child. "I made this when I was like, six? My papi always made light of the fact that it's got three arms, but I think that's just like, a cool robot arm or something."

"Oh my Prophets!" Comet gawked at the amount of boxes he had. "That's...a lot of stuff! Your parents must care very much about you," They grinned, hoping that didn't come off too I Have Mommy And Daddy Issues-y. This was a lighthearted conversation, no need to bring up their neglect. Besides, it barely affected them now. "By the way, just so you know, we're definitely putting up the paper angel you made when you were six," They grinned, kneeling to get a better look. "Also, Hamlet is an adorable dog name. I love theater," *Eco Comet, Theater Kid™️. Was that their only personality trait? No, but it's funnier if I pretend it is sometimes. *

"Oh, absolutely, we are. That one, and this one definitely all gotta go up," he pulled out another ornament, clearly meant to be circle but it was more of a deformed ellipse, and it had another deformed ellipse inside of it that had a slot for a photo - and the photo was of 13-year-old Allan and Hamlet, a small Pomerian with dark brown ears and lighter brown fur around the rest of his face. Both of them were sticking their tongues out. "Thanks, he, uh. This is gonna sound a little weird, but we re-named him that because uh, because I would always say goodnight to him when I went to sleep, and I kept making up all these little named to call him like 'amado príncipe' and shit, and apparently that was from Hamlet, so my mom just was like, yeah, sure, we'll name him Hamlet," he shrugged as he kept pulling out different ornaments, some of them actually very well made and intricate, like a little model of a red car made out of glass and a painted glass Puerto Rican flag. "If that makes sense like, at all."

"Oh, that's actually really cute! I love that," Comet grinned. "The photo is cute, too. It seems you weren't the best at arts and crafts as a kid," they said lightheartedly, snickering. "That circle looks more like...a mostly rounded tree trunk." They said after pondering it's shape for a moment. "In case you were curious, I named Coggs after an imaginary friend I had. Her name was Felicity Coggs the Third, and she and I were like this," They grinned and held up two fingers, crossed. When Trevor was swearing and screaming at their parents, Felicity would just hop up out of wherever in Comet's brain she lived and drag them on an adventure. She'd kept them sane during tests, guided them through their first days of school... "She was actually the first person I came out to. It was a big thing. In reality, she would've already known, since she was in my brain, but saying it allowed was a huge step," They shrugged. They'd spoken with Felicity far past the normal 'having imaginary friends' age. In fact, sometimes they still chatted, catching up like the old friends they definitely were. It was one-sided, technically, but they truly loved their brain-made bestie.

"Nooo, not at all," he snorted at the tree trunk comment, "I'm - listen, I'm not the best at them even now. I can make like, flower crowns and shit, sure, but like... I still don't know if I could draw very well. I still struggle a bit with drawing for blueprints, even," building shit was a lot easier than having to draw it out, but at least he had tools and such to trace when it came to that sort of thing. "The third? Oh, she sounds like an absolute chad," Allan laughed, smiling as Comet continued to talk about coming out to Felicity. "First person I came out to was, uh... Hamlet, funnily enough," he stood up again and started sorting the things from the box into little piles of what was what. "I don't even entirely remember, I just know the story my parents told me about how they overheard it, and so when I came out to them a few years later they'd already known." He moved his PADD out of the way to make room for a string of lights, and then wondered why he had his PADD out in the first place. Was it that ... no, but he needed to ask Comet about that, actually. "This is - so unrelated, but you work on shuttles, right? Like, you actually build them to go out into the void of space and all?"

"She was a chad," Comet giggled. They had no clue where the name had come from, but it had stuck with them since third grade. They nodded at Allan's explanation of his artistic ability- it made a lot of sense, actually. Technical drawing was a lot different than artistic drawing, but there were some similarities. The coming out story was adorable, and the fact that Allan's parents knew but waited for him to tell them was so sweet. "Your parents sound great," They commented, moving to help with the sorting of the things. Tinsel there, random ornaments here- Comet loved sorting, actually. It was soothing and relaxed the anxiety induced brain, a weird therapist they'd had once told them after psycho-analyzing them for two hours. "Uhm, yeah, I am! I don't normally build shuttles, but theoretically, I should be able to," They nodded when Allan asked about their field. "I almost built an entire shuttle out of shuttle wreckage once during an away mission- does that count?" Their ex, Sul, had been so worried after that mission. And then they'd broken up not a week later, and Comet had been promoted and reassigned. Funny how things work out.

"Ah, they are, yeah. Back at the shipyards I'd see them for the whole holiday season, actually, on a shore leave, but this year I'm just going after New Year's until after el .. uh, 3 Kings' Day," he smiled when they started helping him sort things, that way it'd get done a little faster. He opened up the second, smaller box, which seemed to just have some more fragile ornaments and then - "ohhh, no way, check this shit out!" He took out a small snowglobe that fit in the palm of his hand and held it up to Comet so they could see it better. Inside was a little town with colorful buildings, some small miniature people and pets alike playing in the snow, and at the top of the backdrop in the snowglobe was a starry sky. "I ... I've had this since I was so little, it's of ... my hometown, my parents had a local artist make it even though you know, it never ever snows there, and it's ... oh my God, Comet, I'm sorry-" he started tearing up a little for like, the third time this morning as he looked and saw that in the starry sky in the backdrop, somehow - he wasn't sure how snowglobes actually worked - but there was a little cut-out where someone had obviously photoshopped in a picture of Starbase 777. It was proportionally comically large, but the thought was still enough to make the engineer cry a little. "Look, it's, um - they put 777 in there, if you just - look at the top right, there." He had totally forgotten what he had asked them all over again. Shuttle wreckage... building... ah! Building shuttles! "Sorry, um, back on .. track, you.. you could ensure a shuttle would like, work correctly, though, right? Like uh, theoretically, if one of your friends wanted to um... take a shuttle to like, Vulcan or something, that shuttle wouldn't like... explode or anything, right?" He looked up at Comet's green eyes with his own, kinda hopeful as he wiped his face of tears. Silly little snowglobe from his parents making him cry and shit. Just the norm.

"Hey, you're fine, dude. That's really sweet of them, it's normal that you'd get emotional," Comet nodded sympathetically. They couldn't ever see their parents doing that for them, but they were glad Allan's would. They were glad that he had someone backing him with whatever he did. "We're in your snowglobe, Allan!" They grinned. "Well, I mean, it's kinda my job to make sure the shuttles don't explode," Comet said, nodding. "Depending on how far from Vulcan your friend was, they might need to stop for maintenance somewhere along the way, but as long as nothing was seriously defective, the trip should be smooth sailing. Shuttle accidents are pretty rare now, actually, thanks to improvements in shields, warp coils, and other factors." That was a little bit of a nerd moment, but Comet loved their job. And they hadn't yet caught on to the fact that this hypothetical might not be so hypothetical after all.

"We are," he sighed, smiling as he put the snowglobe down carefully amongst the rest of the decorations, in the corner of the couch so it wasn't near the edge or anything. "I mean... so... still theoretical, but let's say they left from 777, right?" This was sort of risky, telling Comet all this, but you know what? After a month or so of rooming with them they'd clicked pretty well. He trusted them with this information. "Shuttle accidents are... rare, yes, but - still entirely possible," very possible, in fact, but it was best that he didn't dwell on that part for long. Except he did, and he soon found himself sitting back down, on the floor next to Coggs, to give them a little pet for Mental Health Reasons. "But if... I mean, you're really good at what you do, I know that, just maybe like, a one-person, two-person shuttle... would that be hard? It could get to Vulcan, or um, wherever it ... needed to go."

"Hmm." And other various thinking noises. Comet crossed their legs, going into pondering mode. They liked to take hypotheticals seriously- it was fun to imagine and fully consider things sometimes. "777 to Vulcan is about one day flight time..." They thought aloud, nodding to themself. "That isn't very long at all. As long as you aren't using a faulty shuttle, then you should be able to get to wherever you're going just fine," They nodded. "Why, what are you planning?" They had come to the conclusion that their roommate was afraid of riding in shuttles. Which was fair, but there were far less shuttle accidents than when Stafleet first started using shuttlecrafts on all their vessels.

"Me? No, no, this is still for a hypothetical friend," he laughed, partly because saying this was still a hypothetical situation was a little ridiculous at this point and also because Coggs had started licking his hand. "Okaay, okay, um..." he set both his hands on his knees, taking in a deep breath and letting it right back out. "Okay, so... this is going to sound like... a little crazy, but there's this, um..." He looked back at the decorations, trying to figure out how to explain before he just decided he'd say it all at once, very fast. "If a PADD exploded in a shuttlecraft, that would take it offline. But for whatever reason, even though it's been returning error messages to me for almost two whole years, whatever PADD was in an exploded shuttlecraft is now receiving the messages I sent to it. Does that.. make any sense? I mean, I know it doesn't make sense, but does it make sense that it doesn't make sense?"

"Okay...so this is a real friend, then," Comet realized. "Well...I don't know much about PADDS, but I'm hearing what you're saying. Keep going, if there is more," They nodded, keeping their eyes on Allan, listening intently. Loosing a friend was traumatic. This was important to their roommate, and they had to help however they could.

"Yeah. Um. The real friend is me, yeah." He paused, taking his PADD off the sofa again and scrolling through it. "I think... if I triangulate the origin of whatever receiving signal I'm getting, I could pretty easily figure out where this is coming fr- hell, I did it with Section 31 earlier this year, surely this won't be as hard," he went into the code once again and started going actually further into it. It was kind of a complicated process for anyone who wasn't a self-proclaimed hacker, but for Allan, this was easy enough to do from just his PADD. All he had to do was track the route that the message took from the sender to the recipient. Analyzing the various "hops" that the message took across different servers and networks across the galaxy, to return to him that received SMTP ping. hen he'd just use some mapping software and algorithms, to pinpoint the location where the message was received. Analyzing the time it took for the message to reach different points along its route, and using this information to calculate the distance from each point to... "Y-yeah, it's, um. It's on Vulcan, alright. So I'd need.... a shuttle to Vulcan, if that makes sense. Is that.. allowed?"

“Alright…so…you’re going to triangulate the position of your dead friend, with your ‘hacking’ skills or whatever, and then you want me to secure you a shuttle, since I have access to the shuttle bay? Is that right?” Comet said in an attempt to reword everything Allan had just told them. It was a lot for 7:46 in the morning. They took a slow drink of tea and thought over it. The specification that he didn’t want his shuttle to explode was odd- but it was possible it was just paranoia after what happened to whoever whatever it was happened. What? That made no sense. English is a funny language. “I mean- I’m not 100% sure. You’d have to get clearance from Alizati- or Mo, or someone. I actually think it might just be a senior staff officer- I’m not sure, though. I’m just the guy that fixes everything after the pilots are done,” Comet shrugged, feeling quite a bit useless with their friend’s questions. “Speaking of pilots- do you have any experience? With piloting? Because you definitely need someone who can fly a shuttle if not. And you’ve got me curious- if you’d let me, I could come along to troubleshoot any possible problems in the shuttlecraft system. I also recommend taking the Icarus- it’s an awful name for a spacecraft, but it’s a good shuttle. I spend a lot of time working on improving it.” (edited)

"...yeah," Allan said simply, not really paying attention to the latter half of those questions because yes, it wasn't even 8 in the morning, and English was a funny language, and also because he was triangulating the position of the PADD that received his message as they asked the questions. He put the PADD down though after he realized he hadn't quite processed the end of those questions. "Well - you don't have to get me the clearance, or secure me the shuttle, I guess I just wanted to know, um, if you knew which one was best to take. The one least likely to... well, have any mishaps." "You're just the guy that fixes everything after the pilots are done, but that means you know like, everything about these shuttles, so..." he stood up, deciding to go sorting the decorations again. It didn't take long, and so now he had a string of tinsel in his arms, deciding where to put it as he looked up at the ceiling. "Well, the reason I'm asking you so much about the likelihood of mishaps and all is because I used to work on shuttlecrafts a lot, that was - my last posting, I worked on them for only about 2 years, though, and piloting... honestly, I might have done more piloting than I have working on them, 'cause for the longest time in the Academy I thought I wanted to go down that route, dunno why, I literally love hacking so much, but... it was so much that I even piloted a little shuttle to Mol'Rihan every summer by myself, well- Brokuk and Chadrix like, rode with me, but..." He laughed, shaking his head. "Are you serious, Icarus? Well, I mean- damn, I'm putting a lot of trust in you and that shuttle, aren't I?" He looked at them, though, and they at least seemed serious. "I mean..." he took a deep breath. "Icarus. Okay, sure. So that's the best one we've got here?" (edited)

“Okay,” Comet nodded, listening carefully to Allan’s explanation. It was clear their friend had put a good deal of thought into this entire ordeal, into who he needed to talk to, what he needed to know, and how to figure out where he needed to go. It was impressive, but…worrying. After all, he still hadn’t explained who his friend was or why he needed to go to Vulcan. “Icarus is the best shuttle in my opinion. It’s never failed for anyone before,” They assured their friend. They had read the Terran myth, and found they related to Icarus a lot. If they were given freedom and the ability to fly, they’d royally fuck up, too. “It’s not going to explode. If you take it, I’ll give it every diagnostic I know before you leave,”

Why it was Vulcan was because the triangulation of the PADD message came to be on Vulcan. He wasn't sure the exact point on the planet yet, but wherever it was, it was just obvious that the messages Allan was sending were being received by a PADD or some other device on the hot planet. As far as to who it was... he wasn't sure if that needed explanation, at least not now - he really didn't want to cry for a fourth time this morning, that would have been a little absurd. "If you say so," he smiled the very specific 'it's never failed for anyone before' and 'it's not going to explode' were strangely comforting lines to him in this situation. "I..." he was currently walking backwards to the front of the room with the line of silver-and-red tinsel in his arms, reaching up to hold one end up to the ceiling before realizing he hadn't brought anything with him to hang it up with. "Genuinely, Comet, that's... that would be really amazing of you to do, I." Maybe they could even run him through it a bit ahead of time, too. "Don't even really know the words right now to explain how much that means, actually. And.. do you think you could hold the other end up of this like... at the opposite end, over there," he gestured to the other end of the room, "like, would that look okay?"

“I’m just helping a friend,” Comet shrugged, picking at the cuticles of their fingernails. They didn’t want any sort of thanks for this when Allan clearly needed this for closure or something. It was traumatizing to lose a friend. They’d already said this, but it was true. They’d almost lost their brother before, they would know at least somewhat how Allan was feeling. The shift in conversation was surprising, but not unexpected. It was natural that Allan would want to move to a more lighthearted topic before both of them had to get ready to go on shift. Comet sat up and took the tinsel. “I think so, yeah. Maybe we could even hang a couple ornaments from the tinsel, if we want to be fancy,” they suggested. Their family had done that a couple times while they’d been growing up.

Allan grinned. He knew the basics of friends helping friends, but like, he was just super appreciative of all his friends and everything they did for him in general. He was the worst with words sometimes, but he still loved to show and tell his friends that they were appreciated and loved, even for little things like this. Because, one, just because it was true, and two, well, you never knew when they'd be gone. "Oh, please, that's the plan for sure," he said with a chuckle, "someone's gotta be fancy, after all." Maybe they could even have a little decor contest amongst the crew quarters. That might be fun. [D] And so the rest of the morning before they got ready in Starfleet uniforms instead of pajamas was, of course, spent decorating the main quarters room with a bunch of the decorations, laughing and talking about the most random shit while doing it, from puppy stories about Coggs and Hamlet to random holiday stories to what kind of things they wanted for Christmas because, you know, that was always good to know. They ended up saving some for getting a little tree in the corner, although there was the question about whether Coggs would knock any of the more fancy ornaments down if they got a tree. Ultimately they decided if the fancy ornaments were towards the top that would be fine. Now all that was left was getting the tree, of course. And - eventually, probably after the holidays - a shuttlecraft named Icarus to Vulcan.

To: Allan Allen From: Jericho Giles Allan, My sincerest apologies in the delay in replying to your message - I only saw it now. Your message completely confused me with the talk of promotions, but when I checked my own file it seems to have been changed to Lieutenant. I'm not sure of the details but thank you very much for the congratulations and also for the birthday wishes. You really didn't have to get me anything, but I will admit that I could never decline the offer of cake. Thank you for your message, it really was lovely to see (and to hear from you in general, of course!) Best, Giles.

[PADD] From: Nalas To: Allan Hey Allan! I met another Allen! I said you guys should meet up!! Can i give him your comms code?

To: Allan Allen From: Jericho Giles I don't think I have one particular favourite colour, but pastel colours are nice. Light blues or yellows or pinks and the likes. You have me intrigued now!

[D] Coming up to Allan's quarters, Renakir was clad in.. A forest green Christmas sweater but no sleeves because well, sweaters were hot af and long sleeves made them worse. On the sweater was the Romulan Republic logo and a couple of warbirds in white, and on the back of the sweater was a picture of an epohh silhouette. He wore dark red trousers, tight af of course and on his feet he had a pair of blue epohh thongs with antennae with little red bows! Beside Renakir was Kali-fal in a matching sweater and with red ribbons tied around her antennae. Renakir held a tiny box in his hands, red and green wrappings, no larger than a sheet of paper. Also beside him was a retro boombox, Romulan in make of course. It was made of grungy green metal with the Romulan Empire logo scratched off of the surface, replaced with a few stickers of epohhs and random other things like warbirds, planets, and highly stylised depictions of what could only be Romulan mythical creatures and characters. Renakir chimed the bell and waited for his friend to reply.

Allan was still in his "Santa's Favorite Ho" sweater and matching shorts and socks and all with the reindeer headband, and quickly opened the door to his friend and... "Kali-fal!! And Renakir, you both look so cute, come on in-" he was absolutely beaming with happiness right now as he looked down at the epohh to see that she was in a matching fucking sweater, wasn't that just the cutest thing! When he looked down and saw Renakir had a retro boombox, he gasped, and dramatically put a hand to his mouth. "Oh, Rennie, don't tell me we're forming a - Rennieeee, are we doing a parranda?" He had such a hopeful look in his eyes when he asked that. After all, parrandas -were- a spontaneous musical event that took place on Christmas...! He'd never thought about doing one on the station, but he might if Renakir was down! (edited)

Allen's reaction made Renakir smile with all his pointy teeth showing. "Thank you! You too, I like to ho pun," One would think a very Romulan Romulan like Renakir would not know much about Earth traditions, but he was also French and they loved Christmas and wintery holidays in general over there. The rebuilt Eiffle Tower was always decked out in lights, people kissed each other more than usual (oh France) and most importantly tasty baguettes for all. Renakir handed the small box to Allan, proud as ever. "I am not sure what Parranda is," He said, pronuncing the foreign word perfectly. "However I am your secret santa and I have brought a gift! Well, open up that one first and then-- there is something else that me and Kali-fal have prepared." It was going to be cringe central, hold onto your trousers. Inside the tiny box was an audio casette tape with the words 'MIXTAPE FOR ALLAN - MC TENAKRUVEK'. The tape was not too different from its terran counterpart, but with all the green and silver it was undoubtedly Romulan in make. It had three holes in a triangle shape where the prongs of the boombox could spin the physical tape. Sadly it would not be compatible with a terran boombox without some modification, but... Who says Allan would need to modify a terran boombox? On top of the tape was a card that read: x_divider

04:01

"To Allan, Thank you for supporting me and twerking with me. You have been a wonderful friend. I am always blown away by your kindness and I look forward to the future of our friendship. I love your shenanigans and this gift is from me, Cerrub, Tiravurik, and the rest of my Reman family. They spent a long time sourcing everything so I could make this mixtape for you. All of the tracks are old recordings of real Romulan (and Reman) rappers straight outta Rator III. The second tape (which is in the boombox) has real authentic instrumentals of the beats on the tape. I figured you are already very familiar with retro Terran tech so I thought some retro Romulan and Reman tech would be exciting a new. Your Reman bros Chadrix and Brokuk probably know all these artists btw."

Allan couldn't help but also smile when Renakir did, he really loved to see the man smile. "Thankss, a parranda is like... where I'm from, you get a group of friends and sneak up to a person's house, play them Christmas songs, and then you party in their house for an hour or two before they also join you and you go on to the next house? It's like, kind of crazy, but hey, it's tradition," he laughed, and then gasping yet again when Renakir explained he was his Secret Santa! "Waiit, really? Oh my God, Rennie-" he took the small box, raising an eyebrow at the mention of Kali-fal being involved in the preparation of the next gift, but he opened the small box anyways. "Holy shit, dude, this is-" he turned it over in his hands, looking it over. "A fucking cassette tape, oh my fucking... these things are old," like, literal centuries old, they had started phasing out in the early 21st century, and it was a miracle how any of them had been revived into the 25th. A whole mixtape? For him? "Also, usually, um, giving someone a mixtape is a sort of love confession or solicitation, but-" He took a moment to read the card. At first he chuckled when he read the line 'thank you for supporting me and twerking with me,' but then as he read on his tear ducts betrayed him a little and made his eyes a little watery. From his entire fucking family? Not only Renakir liked him this much to make him a mixtape, but -his family-? Nah, that alone made him tear up. "Renakir, I-" he wiped his eyes to not Actually Cry, holding the tape and the card in the other hand. "I-I love it, thank you dude, I'm sorry, you- your family and you, I-" he sighed, smiling as he looked between Kali-fal and Renakir. "Can I hug you right now?"

"OH! I mean, I'm not sneaking up or anything and I don't think this is very Christmas-themed but yeah similar!" Renakir loved hearing about different holiday traditions from around the galaxy. He had been cooped up on Rator III for so long, living in France was a breath of fresh air. Sure it was hard being an alien in a strange land, but he embraeced all the differences. A parranda sounded fun, maybe he'd need to see about getting to Allan's hometown for Christmas one year? Wasn't it always hot? Well no worries because hand fans existed. "Yeah, even older since Romulans became warp capable way before humans. I think this tech has been around since the 15th century, earth timeline," Renakir explained, enjoying the shocked look on Allan's face. "You know, it was really hard to get the equipment that was compatible with this, but there's a Romulan-Reman history museum on Mol'Rihan that just opened up with tons of this stuff," He nodded and watched as Allan read the card. The tears of joy were also making Renakir cry-- he was equally happy and his tears were beginning to fog up his sunglasses. "Yes! You can hug me, I gotta perform the second part of your gift after though," He said as he held his arms out, ready to give Allan the firmest and most loving hug imaginable. Kali-fal also stood at Allan's feet, waiting her turn for hugs after he hugged Renakir.

"Ohhhh, I mean like, we'd be the ones forming a trulla and then we'd sneak up on someone else's room, but yeah, it's uh, kind of wild still. We can have coquitos at least, maybe!" A special little Christmas drink. He really missed home right now since it was his first Christmas not at home, but hey, if this experience with Renakir already was was anything to go by, he was enjoying Christmas @ 777 so very much already, and it would definitely be something to call home about. "Whaaaat, really? The 15th fucking century!?" He was just absolutely floored by this shit, really. And for the first gift of the day!? This was absolutely amazing. "That's insane, dude, you... you got this equipment from a museum? For me?" There was simply no way, museum equipment had to be like, super expensive or something. Not to mention rare! If Renakir's family not only cared about him so much but also got shit from a museum just for him? Yeah... that'd be crazy. "Yeah dude, I think I will, um, thank you- Like, so much, thank you... wait," he was really about to go in for the hug then stopped, "you're going to perform? No, no, you should do that first! We can hug after," he grinned, he was totally just so excited to see Renakir (and Kali-fal!)'s performance that the hug could simply wait, after all he didn't want to cut a hug short either out of anticipation for the performance! Which he definitely was in, now standing back and looking at Renakir like an excited puppy.

Renakir laughed when Allan proposed them sneaking up on their friends with a musical performance. Thankfully most of their friends seemed like the type to take that kindly. Well-- Saren may be spooked at first, but he thought his dinam would be okay with some merriment. Renakir, the merriest man. "Yeah yeah, the boombox is a restoration job of a later model but it's still old, and oh the boombox is for you by the way. So you can play the tape. I also have some specifications you can put into a replicator so you can make your own jams since all of the recording equipment had to stay on Mol'Rihan," Renakir said as he put his arms down and stepped back from Allan so he could prepare for his performance. Kali-fal followed Renakir, taking her spot right in front of him. Renakir leaned down to pat his epohh on the head and then press a button on the boombox so the beat would play. x_divider

07:51

"Uhh.. Yeah... Let's go, MC Tenakruvek featuring Kali-fal Madeleine--" Renakir said, opening up his to be very cringe rap.

"MC Tenakruvek, straight outta Remus, been chilling like Cena, call me a genius, Hey, Jolan tru, it's time for part two, This time I made a rap just for you, My homeboy Allan, this is long overdue, But I wanna tell you that you always come through, Riding with me no matter what, thank you, Take it away Kali-fal!"

And at the conclusion of the rap he pointed to Kali-fal who then began to just... Stand there, smiling at Allan with a goofy smile, her antennae bobbing about. Renakir began to beatbox over the pre-recorded beat in hopes of inspiring his daughter to do the dance they had planned. She did not, in fact, do the dance. She just smiled, bouncing to the beat. After a couple seconds of no action, Renakir decided to take things into his own hands and stopped beatboxing and got down on the ground and began to breakdance. Dam he had moves, doing a couple spins handstands. At the conclusion of the performance he stood back up and turned off the music. "Merry Christmas Allan!"

"No way," Allan laughed happily and shook his head when Renakir said the boombox was for him too, "weeeepaaaa ["wow"], Rennie, I don't have anything more to say," he smiled, watching as Renakir stepped back to do the performance and smiled even more when he saw Kali-fal take her spot in front of him and get a little head pat. "Oh shit, featuring Kali-fal Madeleine, let's fucking go-" he'd said and then his friend started rapping. He nodded along to the beat, hyping his friend up as he always did when he rapped, sort of making hand motions along with him like throwing up a '2' when Renakir said two, and throwing the occasional "eyyy" in there, it was fun! He started blushing when Renakir said those nice things about him -in rap form-, putting a little hand up to his chin with a smile before expectantly looking at Kali-fal when Renakir pointed at her. "Yeaaah!!!" He said to her, just plain laughing as he saw her just stand there with her little antennae bobbing about. It may not have been what was planned but hey, she looked cute, she was doing her part even if not the original one. And then- "H-holy shiit, dude," he watched Renakir breakdance and what the fuck he DID have moves!! Who knew!?! "Fuck it upp, oh my God, dude," he said as Renakir was literally doing fucking spinning handstands, something he'd tried to do for years but couldn't ever quite get right. "Dude, you have got to teach me how to do that, wow," he smiled and shook his head in disbelief when Renakir stopped the music. His eyes may have been no longer wet, but the look he had in his eyes was like but with a smile and he was just way too happy right now. "Feliz Navidad, Renakir, I have a gift for you too but - first-" he held out his arms for that hug!

Renakir was living for Allan's cheers, even when Kali-fal did nothing. Even if Allan was just one guy, he felt like he had a whole stadium cheering for him. The hand motions, the interaction as he rapped, it was something he didn't get even on the streets of Rator III. He had a feeling his epohh would clown him during this magical time, but at least Allan was impressed by his moves. He brushed off some dust and readjusted his Christmas sleeveless sweater (yes Rennie out here bare arms on christmas) and walked right to Allan to give him a strong hug. "Allan!" He said, knowing very well this was so scandalous, but he loved his friends and the embrace was warm. "Joyeux Noël, I will definitely teach you my moves, you deserve all the happiness," Renakir felt tears streaming down his cheeks again, soaking Allan's silly Ho sweater. His breath hitched and he began to mumble a series of sounds that were not coherent enough for even the UT to catch. Although some words distinctly sounded like 'love you' or 'blessed', but with Renakir's French accent they could have easily been French words too. "Allan... Je t’aime jusqu’à la terre et le retour (I love you to the earth and back)."

It was great that Renakir felt like he had a whole stadium cheering for him, because that's exactly how Allan wanted Renakir to feel when he hyped him up like this. Hyping someone up no matter how cringe they were being was an essential part of being a good friend, and it took, like, no extra effort to bring a whole lot of joy to someone. It was a no-brainer, really, and Allan loved those. He hugged Renakir right back, resting his head on the other's shoulder. "Aw, you do too, I'll make sure to teach you something back," he said, he didn't really have any outstanding dance moves, he was just mostly decent at most of them, but he could maybe teach Renakir something else like how to make a beat or play guitar or something. The engineer didn't mind at all that his friend seemed to be soaking his silly sweater, it' dry quickly, but he did tear up again when he realized it was happening, because God, seeing someone else cry was just sort of contagious in some way. "R-Renakir.." he mumbled in response, hugging his friend a little tighter. He actually understood the French phrase, simply because of how similar it was to the Spanish. And if he was wrong, well, he'd say this anyways. "Te tambien a la tierra y de regreso (I also love you to the earth and back)," he whispered, still not wanting to let go from the hug just yet, but... he had to give Kali-fal a hug, too! So he did, giving Renakir another squeeze and - perhaps a light kiss on the cheek - the French did that casually, right? - before he leaned down and gave Kali-fal a big hug, too.

Oh and cringe he was, but he was free. Renakir would probably be awkward for the rest of his life, but his awkwardness was what made him Renakir. The most French Romulan in existance, move aside P'rre ir-Mersailles tr'Dupont. He was so happy to hug Allan, he was grateful for all hugs actually! He wa slowly opening up, but unfortunately these moments were still rare. "I-I would like that, anything," Renakir said in response to Allan offering to teach him something. There were so many things he wanted to learn, maybe he could get more twerking lessons? Or Allan could teach him Spanish? "Always, Allan," He said as more tears fell down his cheeks when he heard his friend speak Spanish. He may not have known the language, but romance languages sure were similar. He squeezed Allan and blushed when the other kissed his cheek. Kali-fal was as excited as ever to get attention now, immediately jumping up into Allan's arms and squeaking. "Silly girl, you didn't do anything," Renakir teased his epohh as he watched her snuggled into Allan's arms. He loved Kali-fal so much, even if she refused to show off her tricks in front of his friends. She was a smart girl, but also a sassy girl and he wouldn't have her any other way. "I'm... Oh, I'm sorry I'm crying so much," He noticed that his chin and the collar of his sweater were soaked with tears. This was embarrassing, but still not as embarrassing as getting your tongue stuck on an ice sculpture in the middle of the lakes and ponds area.

"Excuse me, she did sooo much, did you not see her bobbing her head to the beat?" He laughed, hugging her tight and then giving her a few head pats as he let her go. Such an interesting little creature, she reminded him of a mix between a Terran cat and dog if he had to compare epohhs to anything on Earth, but they were truly their own special little animals and he loved that. "Also, don't apologize for crying, this is an emotional moment! I've been tearing up a bit too, you're fine, really," he smiled at his friend, he really did mean that genuinely. He stood up again, and gestured for Renakir to come inside further into the room. "Sooo, about your present, I've got-" he walked over to the Christmas tree in the corner of the room, taking 4 boxes from it and stacking them on top of eachother as he carefully took them over to the coffee table, patting the seat of the sofa for Renakir to sit. "You should probably open hers first, and then the rest," he pulled a medium-sized box from the pile and handed it to Renakir, which contained a variety of epohh toys, from feathers on sticks to squeaky toys to whatever else he thought would be fun for Kali-fal, including a little top hat like he'd seen the Furberus wear that was small enough to avoid her antennae. The other three boxes had: a vintage red swiss army knife, one of the more complex ones with 33 different tools, a set of two 'bowls' (a geode cut in half, but it was smoothed on the outside to be perfectly round like a bowl) of bismuth, and a red calcite cluster that looked exactly like a chicken tender.

"She had a whole choreography planned," Renakir chuckled, watching his epohh snuggle up to Allan. She really was a friendly girl, she got along with biosci lab trio too. It was a shame she couldn't come to work with him, but she ran around the station enough on his time off anyway. "Thank you Allan, uh you're fine too," Renakir knew what his friend meant but he had to throw out the little flirty compliment paired with an eyebrow raise like to say 'yes I think you're real fine'. Anyway, awkward flirty Renakir aside, he grabbed the boombox and follow Allan further into his room with Kali-fal following closely behind. Despite the tears that were obscuring his vision, Renakir caught sight of the Christmas tree in the corner. It reminded him of his winters in France. The first time he even found out what "Christmas" was (along with all the other wintery holidays, but French people loved Christmas specifically). "Oh Allan, you really didn't have to get me so many things," Renakir was stunned that his friend got him gifts too! He plopped his lil grey butt on the sofa, Kali-fal quickly followed, hopping onto her father's lap. Slowly he began to open the first box and before he could even take the items out, Kali-fal stuck her head inside and pulled out one of the squeaky toys. She was clearly overjoyed, biting it and making squeaking noises of her own. "Oh Tenakruvek! This is so nice of you! I see Kali-fal also likes the gift," Renakir set the box on the floor so Kali-fal could play with the toys as he opened ths other boxes. He opened each of the three boxes one by one, the surprise on his face unwavering the whole time. x_divider

06:51

"ALLAN! Holy shit, this is all so cool! I love this knife," Renakir said as he swooshed out the bottle opener twisty tool. "Wow imagine stabbing your enemies with this," Naturally he though about ways to fight his enemies. Not that he had any. Well, not that he knew of. "And the rocks, oh-- there's no way I can eat these, they're too pretty!" Renakir grabbed the chicken tender one, absolutely mesmorised by the orange and white rocks. "And the bowls!! Where.. Where did you get these? Earth?"

"Whaaat, really? Well, if you ever catch it on video, make sure to send it, I need to see that," he laughed, he couldn't even imagine Kali-fal having an entire choreography planned! What other pet animal could do that? Surely none. Kali-fal Madeleine was the only one who possessed these talents, of course. He smirked when Renakir called him fine in the flirty way, how had he not thought of doing it like that? "You too, Renakir - by the way, you still need to give me the replicator code or let me know where you got that Winter Ball outfit - even - no, especially the sword, like," he smiled and raised his eyebrows, looking at Renakir as if he had a mischievous plan in mind. "What if we like, both wore it on the same day? Do you think Eshen would, like, die, or -" he shook his head, watching as Renakir opened the box and Kali-fal dove right into it. "Please, of course I did, also that entire box isn't even for you, it's for her," he chuckled as he gestured to Kali-fal who was still chomping down on the squeaky toy and throwing it all around the room. "I meann, you have a lot of options to stab them with, that's for sure, the fish scaler? The metal saw? Corkscrew? Probably not the corkscrew, that's a bit brutal... it's got a little note with all the different things you can do with each part, it's pretty neat, actually, but I don't think stabbing is an explicitly specified use." He sure hoped Renakir wouldn't be using it to stab anyone, but it was interesting to think about. Theoretically. divider

18:26

"Yeah, from Earth! And why do you think I got you two?" Allan gave the other a suggestive look, he was glad Renakir thought they were so pretty but he also got rocks that looked very delicious on purpose. "So you can eat one and keep the other, if you want, cause - I mean, at least to me, bismuth's one of my favorite rocks, it just looks so... tech-like? I'm glad you like them, though, and hey, if you ever want to visit where I got 'em, just let me know. I'm sure I can pull some strings and get you a tour of the mines." Earth mines that were full of hobbyists looking for fun rocks.

"Oh yeah, I'll put the video on SpaceTube!" He said with a light chuckle as he debated actually making a channel for his daughter. Surely she would be popular because she's so cute. He watched as Kali-fal chewed on one of the toys from the box with her sharp teeth. That was something she and him had it common. Both pointy teeth friends! "Ah yea I'll give you the code. Eshen wouldn't know what to do with both of us dressed like that though. The sword is fake, plastic but it looks realistic. Realistic enough to scare the shit out of my poor brother," He cackled, loving to torment his brother with a Christmas bag of threats. It was all in good fun and that's how Romulans showed affection. Anyway he raised and eyebrow at Allan when is friend mentioned many ways to stab people. Oh he loved his friend so much, he understood what Renakir was about. "It's good for self defense. I'll use it well," He said with a wink as he put the knife back in the box. In reality he was probably going to store it in a display case, there was no way he could actually use it. Not when they had phasers that were significantly less gruesome and could stun. "Oh they're for eating too?? Oh I can't wait! I'll share with my dad whenever I see him again," Renakir said as if he wasn't the elusive one, constantly avoiding Snacks and his poor dad who had gone through all that trouble to be closer to him. "I would like that. Maybe next time I visit earth? Wait, are epohhs allowed on earth? I want Kali-fal to try a real baguette."

Allan would absolutely be the first subscriber to Kali-fal Madeleine's SpaceTube channel if Renakir were to make one. Not only would he be the first subscriber, actually, but he'd probably end up showing the video on a late-night stream and get his followers to subscribe, too. Anything to support a friend! "Thanks! Annd, well, I feel like he could come up with a few things to do with us, actually, but.." he laughed, a smirk on his face as he then gasped realizing the sword wasn't real. "Really? Holy, yeah, that was convincing, enough for me to think it was hot enough to want myself in your brother's place in the moment," he wouldn't have quite thought that if he knew it was plastic! He nodded as Renakir put the knife back into the box. "Well, less for self defense and more for all the tools you can have on it, like, if you forget some scissors or a pen or a screwdriver or a bottle opener or a ruler - well, you get the idea. They're all in this tiny little thing. Pretty neat," it honestly only had a few knives when you thought about it, it was actually more tools than knives! Maybe that's why Scotty had used one way back in the day. "Please share them with your dad, and let me know what he thinks," after all, he wanted Renakir to share his gifts with his family after knowing his family had contributed to the gift Renakir had given him. That was still such a sweet thought. "You can visit Earth anytime on a shuttle if you have the time off, I think! I've got the 2nd to the 8th-ish off this coming year, if you want to come visit during that time at all! I'm gonna be with my family for ... I think Three Kings' Day is the translation? It's sort of like Christmas part 2, kinda. But for real, you can come anytime, and I think the epohh should be okay, right? She's definitely not more harmful than like, a dog or anything, and people on Earth lovvve dogs."

Renakir suddenly became very flustered when Allan said Eshen would-- want to do a few things with them. It was either salacious things or murder. Renakir wanted to believe it was the former. His friend would never! "Wishing you were in my brother's place? Oh Allan you would not want to get your tongue stuck to the ice sculpture in the lakes and ponds area," He was with a loud and deep belly laugh. He then shook his head and waved his hand. "But I know what you mean-- wait stop, you want to be threatened by me? I didn't know humans liked that too! It's how Romulans express affection," He explained as he watched his daughter jump ikto the box with the epohh toys and snuggle inside. It was epohh sized, kinda! "Humans have quite a lot of useful tools," Renakir always liked hearing about ancient history. He had obviously learned tons about Vulcanoids, but other societies were alien to him. He wished Romulan education taught non-Romulan things, but alas 'no point in teaching about an inferior species'. Terrible. "I'll let you know what he thinks. I.. Really need to visit him more often," Renakir looked at Kali-fal who was now nibbling the side of the box for some reason. "Oh really? Would we have time off? Also Three kings? Sounds like two too many kings," Renakir said with a slight head tilt and then a chuckle. "Oh yes, Kali- fal is well behaved, Kali-fal Madeleine, H'tah-fvienn," Renakir stood up so Kali-fal could rush to the sofa and jump up whilst he began to pack up the rocks back in the boxes. "Oh and maybe try not to use the boombox outside, I told the rest of OPS I'd remind you to only play it in your quarters or the recreational area," And as he said that, Kali-fal began to wiggled on the sofa. Hopping up and down and then-- doing the little dance routine. Standing on her hind legs and spinning, hopping again, doing a little roll!! Wow of course it was right when they were about to leave! And to no music no less!

It was absolutely salacious things that Allan had meant. He hadn't murdered anyone, and didn't plan on doing so, especially not to one of his best friends! "Wait wait wait, he did what!?" He laughed too, hands up in the air in disbelief that Renakir's brother had done that, "no way, I thought you were joking in the chatroom, I - wow, okay," he shook his head and then looked at Renakir, very serious as he spoke. "Oh, yeah, humans - I mean, fuck, I can't speak for all humans, but I for one of them would absolutely love that, just to uh, fully assure you of that," you know, in case Renakir ever wanted to think about it. "And you should, he's always bringing up how proud of you he is, it's really sweet," honestly, sometimes it took up the entirety of their speaking time that he had with the others' dad, but Allan was more than okay with that, because he enjoyed talking about how proud he was of Renakir, too. "I had to ask for the time off specifically from my boss, so that's probably how it would for you, too. Back at the shipyards we got a whole winter shore leave, but this time I had to take the specific time off, it's just different," he shrugged, laughing at the comment Renakir made about too many kings. He was fine with the change, and being able to spend Christmas with friends like Renakir was a new experience, but a really good one. "Oh, yeah, don't worry, my quarters are sound-proofed so do not worry at all about.." but all of a sudden, all of the engineer's attention was drawn to the epohh who was now dancing on her fucking hind legs!!! Spinning, hopping, rolling - she was really doing it all! "Oh my God??? Is this...?" He asked excitedly, just. Pointing at her in disbelief and amazement of this whole dance routine! "No wayyy, Kali-fal Madeleine busting it down? Right here? I'm amazed and honored to be a witness to this," he laughed, genuinely meaning every word - this was an amazing moment and he was glad to be here for it!

"Nope, yep, he did! He had a bread moment in the lakes and ponds. I told him it was a plot orchestrated by me to embarrass him--- and he bought it!!!" Renakir let out a loud cackle, mouth wide to show every pointy tooth he had. He then smirked and gave Allan a mischievous grin. "I'll tell him gullible is written on the ceiling next," He said in his best super villain voice with the exaggerated French accent. French super villain era? "I.. I will think of ominous threats for you, maybe I'll even pull out my nunchucks for it, wah-cha!" Renakir said with his terrible Bruce Lee impersonation but whatever he was cringe but he was free. "He is? O-Oh now I feel bad," Renakir said as he finished stacking the empty boxes. "I'll see about asking for time off. Terran Lunar new year is the 22nd, it would be nice to hang around earth before the holiday. My Reman family was gonna visit 777 at the end of next month so as long as I'm back before then I think i could go," He thought about how he would plan it all out in his mind. Renakir busted out laughing again when his epohh began to dance. Now she danced? "Kali-fal!!!! Thank you for the moves but we need to head back home," He said as he shuffled his feet to try and get his epohh's attention. Kali-fal did one final spin before leaping off the sofa and trotting over to Renakir's feet. "I am glad you got to see her dance! Ughh, if only she had done that literally ten minutes earlier! Well, I'll make sure to film it and put it up on SpaceTube. Kali-fal Madeleine's first video on SpaceTube!"

"You told him you-- Renakir!!!" He jokingly shoved the other, placing his hand on the others's shoulder, laughing so very hard at the fact that Renakir had told his brother he orchestrated it all. "Dooon't, oh my God, Rennie, you baad boy, tsktsk," he shook his head, still laughing and putting a hand on his knee, grinning. However, his grip on the others' shoulder tightened when Renakir suggested he'd come up with ominous threats for him, and stopped laughing, regaining his composure as he looked up at Renakir with a smirk yet again. "Please, I would - I would love that, actually. Throw whatever you've got at me, as long as you're comfortable knowing I'd absolutely be into it." He watched Renakir stack the boxes, standing up and putting his hands back at his side, adjusting his sweater. "Oh, don't feel bad- feel glad that he'll be very happy to see you when you go! It means he cherishes every moment he has with you, as do I," he smiled and blew the other a little kiss. "Just let me know when and I'll be there with ya! Kali-fal, well, you can't get mad at her, she just runs on her own schedule, it seems," he chuckled and bent down to pat her head again. "She did so good! I'll definitely be her first subscriber - oh, and I could get my subscribers to subscribe too, it'll be great, the most popular epohh on SpaceTube," he picked her up to give her a parting hug again, before reaching over to Renakir and giving him another hug as well. "I'll see you both on New Years', or at least you," he looked at Renakir as he set Kali-fal down. "Let me know what you think of the rocks if you try 'em before then, though! Love ya," and with that, he gave Renakir another little air-kiss before the other left!

In a box labelled 'for Eco Comet', there were some paw-shaped dog treats in a small mason jar - enough to last a month - a piece of paper with a recipe on it, and a small device that was basically a trek USB stick. There was also a note in handwriting so neat you'd think it was printed by a computer, but with just enough inconsistency to confirm it was just written by a ridiculously neat person.

"Hello. After doing some research I learned that you enjoy old earth musicals. Unfortunately, I do not know anything about them. However, I did some research, and I found a holoprogram that claims to include 'all the classics', such as 'Beetlejuice' and 'Hamilton'; within the space of this program, you may watch the musicals as though you are having the full theatre experience. I know the latter is an Earth president but I am confused about why there is a musical about the juice of a beetle; it is a popular ingredient on Ferenginar, so was beetle juice a popular ingredient on Earth? No, I feel I would have known about it. Additionally, I have cooked some dog-safe peanut butter treats for Coggs and included the recipe. Live long and prosper."

Allan stuck the candy cane that he'd been using to stir his coquito after he finished the drink into his mouth, putting away the glass and then moving over to the Romulan boombox he'd gotten from Renakir, putting in the mixtape and just rocking the fuck out to it, dancing around the room as he got ready for two things: going over to Mo's to deliver some gifts and then going to dinner with his boyfriend and boyfriend and girlfriend in-law. Renakir sure knew how to put some tunes together, damn. He put on a cute little top underneath his sweater just in case it got too hot later on in the night, and changed out his red-and-green sneakers and socks for some red-and-white thigh-highs, also doing a bit of silver-and-red makeup around his eyes. As he was about to head out the door to head to Mo's quarters, he saw a box outside the door addressed to Comet. He took the box and placed it under the Christmas tree for them to open, along with his own gift for them, which had in it: A squeaky toy shaped like a shuttlecraft, a new rope for Coggs to tug on in the engineering colors since the other one was starting to wear out a bit, and some printed photos of Comet, him, and Coggs when they were trying to take that Christmas card photo - including one in a frame of Comet and Coggs when Allan had been adjusting the camera. There were several photos of just the shuttlecraft engineer and their beloved dog, actually, that Allan had taken while both trying to set up the camera and trying to get Coggs to be still for the camera, so many of them were rather humorous with Coggs's whole nose in the camera lens and stuff like that. The last thing in the box was a collection of Bajoran teas and a little note that said: "Feliz Navidad, Comet! Thanks for being the best roommate of 2412 ✨️ and an even better friend!" Yes, he'd drawn on the sparkle emoji. After that and a bit more of spinning around the room to the music, he opened the door again, only to see...

...Station Commander Mephistopheles Mo himself, holding one or possibly more gifts depending on how many his roleplayer can think of! He was in a thick black sweater with a big white bird skull on the chest, a white scarf bundled around his neck and face, so big you couldn't see his mouth and the bottom of his nose, and it muffled his speech slightly, his hand held up like he was about to knock. "Oh, hello, didn't expect you to just, uh, walk right out."

"Oh! Hey Cap, I was just, uh," he laughed, keeping the door open by just leaning in the doorway, looking down at Mephistopheles with a warm smile. "Funnily enough, I was just about to go see you, wish you a happy birthday and Feliz Navidad and all that, but-" he tapped his bag which had the gifts in it, and then motioned for the other to follow him inside, "here's fine, too! Have a seat, annd can I interest you in a drink at all? Warm, cold, I've been making them both all day-" a mix between ponche navideño and coquitos - "looove the sweater, by the way. Looks great on ya."

"Fleece Navidad," he said, pronouncing the first word as one syllable for some reason, and going super hard on the v, even though he'd literally just heard Allan say it. He walked in, looking for somewhere to put his gift/s and eventually plopping them on a coffee table. "Wouldn't mind a coffee." Obviously. "Thanks, I thought it would be, y'know, Christmas but goth, you know? Gothmas. Wait, that's Halloween." Next year they should do a Halloween party.

Allan chuckled as he heard Mephistopheles's mispronunciation of the Spanish phrase, shaking his head and repeating it again- "Yes, Feliz Navidad and happy birthday, Mephistopheles, I can- I can get you a coffee, do you have any interest in a warm fruit punch as well?" It was the best way he knew how to describe ponche navideño, which he already had a whole bowl of that he was bringing to dinner, but he went over to make a coffee nonetheless. "Gothmas! No, no, Halloween is something different. I like Gothmas, that's fun. Different, annnd I think I actually did that when I was fourteen, but here you are pulling it off in 2412. Amazing. I could try it next year, for sure!"

Hmmm. He usually avoided drinking, and especially avoided bars, but he supposed he could have one drink with Allan around, for the holidays. "Felice naffy dad. Honestly, I think it would be fun to do it now, even just the two of us, somehow. Sure, I'll -" He was interrupted while about to accept Allan's drink offer by a thought. "Hold on," he said, replicating a pen and paper and scribbling down his best depiction of Goth Santa - black and white clothes, black beard with an edgy streak of red, kohl eyeliner, piercings in his ears, riding a chariot pulled by skeletal reindeer. It was a messy sketch, but it got the point across. "He gives the nice people coal in their stockings and the naughty people evil gifts, like..." He furrowed his brow, trying to think of something. "...A knife-wielding robot. Although I actually have one of those in my room. I built it because..." He stared blankly. "...Anyway, yeah, I could go for warm fruit punch.*

Better pronunciation that time. He'd take it, sure. Until later. "Somehow is the key word there, mi amigo, because I don't quite have many things that could make this any more Gothmas.." Allan replicated a coffee in a mug and poured a ponche navideño for himself while he waited to see if Mephistopheles wanted one of his own. Carrying both drinks, he peered over at what Mephistopheles was drawing. "Yoo, no way," he chuckled and leaned against the other's shoulder just a little to get a better view. "I love that, actually? Like, and not to brag or anything, but I think he'd like me, I could match him on the vibes, probably." He was also still wearing a sweater that said Santa's Favorite Ho, and, in his opinion, that included Goth Santa. "The skeletal reindeer are fucking metal as hell, too." He tilted his chin down to the side and raised his eyebrows as Mephistopheles mentioned a knife wielding robot, smiling. "Waiiit, really?" He asked excitedly, leaning back away from him. "No way, I, uhhh, not to say I do anything nefarious with them but like, I do have ... a few of those... in here... possibly!" He went back to wherever the punch bowl was - some counter or table or something - excitedly when the other said he wanted a warm fruit punch too, to pour another. "It's got some fruits you might've never tried in there, so if you don't like it, I can drink it, no worries- you want some tequila in it?" The tequila was always optional! After pouring a little tequila or not into it depending on what the other said, he paused and then decided to ask, "why'd you build your knife-wielding robot?"

Oh, so punch didn't always come with alcohol? Maybe that was a Ferengi thing. "Tequila is fine." He was small and skinny, but he used to drink a lot, so those factors balanced out so that he was not lightweight or heavyweight drinker but a third secret thing. Midweight. Anyway, point was, one shot of tequila wasn't going to bowl him over... Though it had been a while since he'd had alcohol of literally any kind since he went stone cold sober ten years ago. "Maybe we could put Goth Santa in the Isopod game as an Easter egg... I think there was a Christmas-themed gamejam going on, too, but I think we're a bit late for it, honestly." He took the coffee and the fruit punch from Allan, carrying his drawing and the pen under his arm, walked over to the sofa and sat down, putting the drinks on the coffee table in front of him. Then he took off his white scarf, not wanting to accidentally get a dark coffee stain on it. Also, the temperature in here was too hot for scarves. He was just wearing it for the aesthetic. He started sipping the coffee first, before it got cold. "I built the knife-wielding robot for a very good reason. The same reason I built the coffee machine and the arcade machine, in fact. A grand reason. A profound reason. A reason that may change the trajectory of society itself. And that reason is..." One long, dramatic coffee sip - "I was very bored." Absolute deadpan.

Tequila it was, then. "We could! Holy shit, lemme write that down.." he brought the other drink over to the coffee table and sat down next to Mephistopheles, shoulder-to-shoulder with him, grabbing his bag and then pulling a pen and paper pad out of it, scribbling something down and speaking as he did so. "'Goth Santa... Easter egg' - and, really? Next year, next year. Maybe we can focus on uhhh.. Valentine's Day gamejam?" he asked as he then drew a box around the words and drew a line up to the top, where the words 'Isopod Game' were. On the same page were dozens of little scribbled notes in pretty much unreadable handwriting. The whole time Mephistopheles explained why he built the knife-wielding robot, Allan simply nodded along, taking sips of his punch in-between all the 'reasons' and saying things like 'mhmm' and 'ahhh' in-between each one as well. That was, of course, before Mephistopheles met his eyes with that absolute deadpan after the dramatic coffee sip and he tried to hold an equally neutral look for a few seconds - which only could last so long, and eventually he had bursted out into laughter. "Ha! Oh, man, that's - honestly? Honestly? That's the reason I do half the shit I do, too. Definitely the reason I've also got a knife-wielding robot, that's for sure." Well, he had more than one, but. The reason he built those was to fight the others, not boredom. "I'd say it's not the reason that needs to be grand or profound, it's the product, y'know?" He didn't know what the word profound meant, but he hoped the context was helping him get somewhere with it.

Mephis couldn't help but smile when Allan laughed; that he'd been the one to make Allan so amused was giving him a ludicrous amount of seratonin. He wondered if they were sitting so close if it was okay to just lean his shoulder on Allan's arm, but chickened out of it. "Yeah, I just sorta make things for practical reasons or 'cause I enjoy it. I respect that art can say grand things but mostly all I'm sayin' is 'look, I did this'. Where I grew up, if something wasn't bein' done for profit it had to be done for a damn good reason, not just for fun, so it was kinda rebellious to make shit for no reason. And gifts? Man, gifts are... Honestly a pretty bold declaration of affection back there, to put time and money into giving somethin' to someone without expectin' somethin' in return, so the first time I got one I was honestly like wow, this is a bit forward, innit?" Speaking of - he sipped his coffee and handed Allan a large rectangular box. There were small isopods on the wrapping, and a other wrapped thing that came with it that looked vaguely triangular. He also gave Allan another hefty box-shaped item. Upon unwrapping, the first gift was an old ps2 with transparent casing and a matching controller, and the second was an old record player. "I ported our game onto there, and some classics, obviously. Some of 'em are multiplayer, so... Y'know. Anyway, the second one is actually a collab with Eshen. I put some songs on some vinyls for 'im... You'll have to go find 'im to see what they are."

Well, since he had ludicrous amounts of serotonin right now, Allan was leaning his arm against Mephistopheles's shoulder unintentionally. "Ohhh, so you were a rebel, then? That's... not surprising at all, but still, that's awesome. I kinda was too? But in a teenager kind of way, like. I mean, you know how I got here, but all that started from building shit from scraps for no reason." Scraps he'd get legally and in a non-rebellious way for the most part, but the things he built with them were often seen as rebellious, somehow. He paused as the Captain said gifts were a bold declaration of affection, and then proceeded to give him some gifts. For some reason, Allan just shrugged, taking another sip of his punch as he also got out his gifts for Mephistopheles. "If you want it to be," he murmured, handing the boxes he was holding to Mephistopheles and taking the ones the other gave to him. A little exchange, really. "Aw, is this isopod wrapping paper?" He said with a smile, oh man, if even the wrapping paper was good, the rest definitely had to be good, and he was right. Inside the boxes he gave to Mephistopheles were an assortment of Things, put shortly. There was a webcam overlay (it fit around the webcam circle) that looked like a little devil in ruby and gold, that had horns that could be folded down to make it just a little circle in case you didn't want to appear so devious to all your friends when they came in. There was a hand-crank radio, in all black aside from its silver antenna, and a small USB stick that appeared to be made of real gold, in the shape of a gold bar. divider

19:18

"Wha- holy fucking shit, dude, there's no way on Ear- no way you got this, where- how- oh my God, I love it, thank you," and then he like, inhaled and made a sound that was best described as a quiet squeal. Definitely not freaking out about this at all. And then Mephistopheles explained the gifts, and he was even -more- thrilled - if his eyes could literally sparkle, they absolutely would be. "Oh fuck yeah, we can play games together on this! I fucking love the transparency, like, it's like, so cool to see the ancient-ass microchips in here and everything, like, even the wires?" He turned over the controller, just so excited as he looked over at it all. "And a collab? With my boyfriend? Oh, Mephistopheles, you shouldn't have. Except, like, you should have, this is amazing," he never understood that phrase. Why would you respond to a good thing by saying they shouldn't have done it? Weird phrase.* "I love it so much, holy shit, and I'll be seeing him tonight, so like- oh, man." Like, he was already excited for the Christmas dinner with Eshen and Nalas and Aella, but now he was like, even more excited! And out of all this excitement, he asked, "Can I hug you?" (edited)

As Allan leaned against his shoulder subconsciously, he leaned in a little more consciously. 'If you want it to be'? Immediately after giving him a gift? What did that mean? He put that in the hyperanalysation files for later. He wondered what exactly about himself made Allan not be surprised he was a rebel. Maybe the leather jacket? Oh, well. He decided to concentrate on the presents for now. He held up the little webcam overlay, surprised that Allan had clued in to him liking devilish imagery, though maybe not surprised because all you'd have to do to clue in was do a Spoogle search of what his name meant. Still, it put a smile on his face, and so did the hand-crank radio, a novelty that made him remember that club in the Academy he forgot the name of, and the gold bar USB stick. "I dunno how you got so attuned to my aesthetic, but I'm glad you did. These are all... You're really fuckin' good at this, you know that?" As Allan fucking squealed, which was a funny noise but also a fantastic noise to hear when you've given someone a gift, he distracted himself from the oddly warm feeling in his chest by drinking the punch, not wincing at all at sharp hit of alcohol. When Allan asked for a hug, he didn't hesitate at all before saying, "Of course," before doing that sort of awkward little side-lean and pulling Allan in close. There was something he thought about asking Allan if he could do, but he hadn't had enough tequila for that; instead, he just murmered, "Thanks for, uh, all this, and, y'know... Bein' you."

Allan simply had assumed Mephistopheles was a rebel because he was really into goth shit, and most people who were into goth shit had some sort of rebel phase from his own anecdotal evidence. And also the leather jacket, yeah, that was a thing. He had gifted the hand-crank radio after seeing the others' interest in the one he had given Zero when Zero had left the station, but- "Aw, thanks, it, um - well, the radio is actually a really old one my family has had, but we don't really need as many anymore, and um-" he laughed, shrugging with his shoulders as he looked back towards the counter, and then back at Mephistopheles. "You're welcome, but thank you also," he said as he turned to actually not be doing a little side hug but just full on hug the man, trying to not squeeze him too hard but he also was really happy right now and so he might have, but he let go soon enough and grinned. "I'm really glad you're you, too, and that you've made it another year in this crazy universe, and I-" he stood up, practically dashing over to the counter and pouring himself some more punch. "Do you want any more punch? Also, close your eyes, I've got, like, one more thing to give ya, but it's not wrapped."

When he was hugged, he returned the gesture with gusto, squeezing Allan's waist; now that he knew hugging was going to be a benefit of their friendship he was going to take full advantage of it. He kind of wished he could just climb onto Allan's lap and wrap his arms around him properly and just lie there for a while, but he hadn't had enough tequila for that, either. Speaking of - "Yeah, I'll..." He looked down at his glass, which still had some punch left, then picked it up and downed it so that they could reuse the glass, putting it back on the table. "Yeah, I could go for it. Not wrapped? Hmmm... Okay." He sat up straight on the sofa and closed his eyes.

"Okay!" Allan went back over to the table, putting his own refilled glass back down and taking Mephistopheles's to fill up again. "I'm really glad you like it, actually. Okay, so... just a bit -" he set the one he filled up for the other back down, too, in front of him before skipping off to his quarters, the sound of the door opening and closing could be heard before a small sigh. Oh, well, though. This was fine. The next sound could be heard was that of a chair, or a table, or a small vehicle or some kind of large object on wheels being rolled across the floor, the door opening and shutting again as he rolled the object in front of Mephistopheles. After that, he took two wrapped boxes that he'd somehow forgotten (one he had left on his desk after completing it, and the other hadn't shipped in until a few days ago) and just set them on top of the object he'd rolled out. "Okayy, open your eyes. So I kinda forgot these two were still in my room-" he handed the two boxes to Mephistopheles, one was very small and the other was short but wide, "but this is what I went to get." He gestured behind him at what was a small black table, with four small dials/buttons at each corner and- most importantly- a large, clear semisphere bubble over the center of the table. "So uhhh, it kinda just looks like an orb table, but I guess I can... explain after you open those other too, sorry I forgot again, I was like, working on the smaller one at my desk until the last minute," he laughed nervously, hoping it had turned out okay. It definitely had, though. "And like, the second one I kinda found on the same site I ordered one of Alizati's gifts from and I thought you might like it so I went ahead and got them, you know?" divider

15:00

So in the smaller box was a small (like, small, miniature, fits in the palm of your hand) transparent computer retro mouse with a retractable USB cord, in the shape of an isopod but somehow still comfortable. Well, transparent except for the front of the mouse which was mostly transparent but also slightly tinted yellow. In the second box were like, 2 different Tetris-themed button-up Hawaiian shirts. As Mephistopheles opened them, Allan drank some of his punch with one hand and then squatted down and felt underneath the table - which was actually a little more of a podium, since it only stood a few inches above the floor - to rest his hand on a switch, not clicking it on just yet.

Mo kept his eyes closed and listened to Allan moving stuff around in his room, feeling like he was going to pull a giant wooden horse out of there or something, then opened his eyes when Allan told him to. Oh, three extra gifts? He opened them, looking at the little computer mouse and smiling, because it was really fucking cute. Then he did that thing where a dude pulls their shirt, or in his case his jumper, up over their head, and it makes the shirt underneath ride up a bit so you get a slight peek of tummy, and then he put the hawaiian shirt. Then he looked at Allan with his hand underneath the table. "Wait, stop," he said, gulping down his punch. He definitely appreciated the gifts, but he was also a little overwhelmed, since Allan was once again beating a record - this time, most gifts given to Mephis over the last few years, maybe longer. "I'm glad you, um, thought of me so much, unless you give everyone this many gifts, which is pretty believable for you, but I'm struggling to mentally digest it all for a second, so... Give me a minute? And another punch, if you don't mind."

When Allan glanced over to look at Mephistopheles, it happened to be during the very convienient timing of seeing his shirt ride up a bit, and then smiled as the other put the shirt on. "Heyy, it's actually cute on ya," he chuckled, going back to drink his punch, "I'm glad. If you find yourself wanting more, that site had like, 50 thousand others. I'm exaggerating, but like, there were a lot of options." He was in fact about to flip the switch when Mephistopheles told him to stop, which of course he did, just. Sitting down on the floor next to the table and putting his hands on his knees. "Hm? Oh, uh-" Honestly, the way Allan gave gifts was he just made a list of everyone he wanted to give gifts to, and then put them all of the home screen of his computer in different sticky notes, and then as the days went by if he had any ideas, he stuck them on there as well and got started. He'd never thought too much about the amount, he just made or got whatever came to mind. Maybe that did mean that he thought about the person more? Or maybe he just thought about what they liked more? But he really didn't consciously think about it. Unless he did actually want to think about them more. Sometimes he started gifts that were so complex to make it had to wait until the next year or so to be gifted. And sometimes, of course, it was another occasion. "Well, it's also your birthday, Mephistopheles! Right? But yeah, I don't mind at all, take your time," He said with a smile, getting up and grabbing the empty mugs they both had and filling them right up again. He had a lot of time, in fact, because he had initially planned to go to the other's quarters and then take him back to his own to see this last thing, so. Yeah, he had time. "Here ya go, Cap'n," he said gingerly as he handed him the full-again mug of punch, sitting down on the couch next to him to drink his own.

"Oh yeah, my birthday." Honestly, he'd barely celebrated it over the last few years so he often completely forgot until two days after Christmas. He sipped his punch, now also having to digest Allan's compliment, something he was slowly getting used to. "Thanks. You'd look... Cute, is the word? In a shirt like this, too... I really shoulda got you one but with like, uh..." Hmmm. What were some patterns Allan would like? "...Well, I guess you'll find out. Maybe give me the name of that site, though." As he sipped, his mind began filling with Thoughts, of Allan being so close to him, and that he hadn't felt so relaxed in another's presence since... His ex, which was a very interesting comparison for his brain to make. He had several other thoughts, which then made him come to the conclusion if he was thinking things like that, this was probably enough tequila. Not that he was drunk - barely tipsy, or anything - but he had to be careful to stop early lest he stop too late. Putting the empty mug on the table, he said, "Aight, show me the, mysterious orb."

"Aw, thanks, yeah, I actually have one from the same site with some red circuit board patterns, but they have all kinds of shit. It's a vintage reselling site, but I think the brand specifically is Geek Tropical or something like that?" He shrugged, noting to himself to look it up later and actually send the link via PADD. He finished the rest of his - what was this, his fourth drink today? Fifth? He wasn't counting, and he was about to be having a lot more. Yeah, that'd be his last one, too, he thought as he set the empty mug on the table while they sat there in comfortable silence. "The mysterious orb! Yeah, that's a name. This doesn't actually... really have a name, but. I'm honestly surprised I finished it so quickly. Sometimes I like, start projects for gifts for people and then don't finish them till the next year, but this one actually - I guess I kind of just got really into it? Anyways, it's..." he stood up again and then paused, looking over at Mephistopheles as he remembered something else. "Hey, wait, uhh-" he put a hand on the back of his neck and looked at the table, then back to the other, "you wouldn't be more overwhelmed or nothin' if I told you about another gift, right? Or should I uhh, wait to tell you about it...?"

Mephis raised an eyebrow, then shook his head and laughed. "Allan, you - you realise by askin' me that you've basically already told me, right?" He said. Truth be told it was still a little much, especially considering what he'd said about the meaning of gifts on Ferenginar. He was trying really, really hard not to read into this, but some part of him just kept thinking 'hey, maybe he likes you as much as you like him'? And hope like that was very dangerous. "Uh... Let's just... Space it out a bit more, yeah? One thing at a time." First, the Orb.

"Yeah, I guess I did, huh, uhhh," he laughed too, he supposed he did sort of... already tell him about it, but it was... well, yeah. "Sounds like a plan. The orb, so um..." Suddenly, he was doubting himself and the orb but he'd worked on it for so long, it was truly now or never. He took a breath as he bent down again to turn it on, and immediately the corner dials had neon green, red, blue and yellow rings around their bases, and inside the orb itself was a holographic screen that read exactly like the original 1989 Tetris screen, up to the "PUSH START". "So... I know you have an arcade machine already, and you probably have a hundred favorite holosimulations of this already, but... it's this 21st century thing I saw, so um, not to ramble too much, but I have this programming group I talk in sometimes, you know, and someone posted this really interesting article from like, the very early 21st century, back before they had pretty much anything holographic at all. It was this company that basically made a ... pseudo-hologram? They made this," he gestured to the orb again. divider

04:13

"Basically, it's synchronizing about 4k frames per second via a projector into a bunch of slices, and the slices are constantly being sliced and re-sliced and stacked on top of each other at exactly the right locations so that your eyes can't track the motion and things appear like they're floating, at a hologram video refresh rate at just 30 frames per second, but... that's what they had back then, right? And, get this- to constantly do all the slicing and re-slicing of a moving, 3-dimensional space and synchonize it all to deal with things like projector beam divergence, multiple color projections, and all like - shit, a bunch of issues, really, for them at the time - they said, and this is why it was posted in the group, um, they said they needed the 'world's best programmer' at the time to pull it all off, which they had, fortunately! But then they just didn't get the funding, but-" He pressed 'start', and the not-actually-holographic holograms began appearing on the screen in the classic style Tetris game. "I decided to pay uh, tribute to it, I guess, since someone pinged me and said hey, you're the world's best programmer now, right? And I laughed and said no, I'm probably not, but." He scrolled through with the dial to place some pieces, then exited the game and switched to another version of Tetris - that was completely 3D. "I said hey, I know a guy who might like this. So it's..." he moved the pieces around, then gestured for Mephistopheles to try moving the dial around. "Got a whole bunch of ways you can play, but you can give it a shot whenever you're ready."

Mo was absolutely enchanted by Allan and the explanation of how this machine worked. He'd read about this technology a few times before, but he couldn't believe he hadn't thought to build it himself, and with tetris of all things. It felt - and it was a very good feeling - like him and Allan were on a very similar wavelength right now. It actually took him a moment of playing around with the device before he exhaled slowly and said, "...Holy fuck, Allan, you're really cool. Listenin' to you talk about tech stuff is just - you may as well be recitin' poetry to me. World's best programmer indeed." He laughed, low and raspy, not because he was dehydrated (he'd had more than enough punch) but because his voice was just like that a(and he used to smoke). "You made a new and yet retro way to play tetris? Or, well, re... Made? You know what I mean. Goddamn. You realise what a terrible mistake this is, right? After work, nobody's gonna be seein' me tomorrow, 'cause I'm gonna be gettin' the high score on this thing." Forget alcohol addiction, he needed to be careful with his tetris addiction. "Do you have the blueprints?" The only thing that would've been better than receiving this as a gift would be building it together, but they could always just do that anyway.

05:46

"I'll play it in a minute, I just -" Yeah, he was overwhelmed again. "Seriously, I could k - goddamn." Now his eyes were hot, too. He blinked a few times. "Uh, I really want to..." Cry? Hug? K - "Can I... Uh..." He ran a hand through his red hair, which matched the colour of his cheeks right now, then held a fist in front of his mouth as he cleared his throat. "Can I hug you again?" And if Allan said yes, he approached him and wrapped his arms around him like somehow he could convey all his feelings this way, like a Vulcan could through touch telepathy, sniffling a bit. Allan was setting yet another record for making the most stoic men on 777 cry. Only a little bit - he was still holding himself back, not wanting to just start bawling into Allan's shirt.

"Really? You think I'm cool? Poetry? I'm-" Allan grinned, stepping away from the table, shaking his head. He was actually really touched by that. Also, if Mephistopheles thought it was like reciting poetry, how did Eshen feel? Much to consider about that. "I'm not sure about the best, but thank you," even if multiple people had probably told him that over the course of his life, it felt... selfish, somehow, to accept it as a title when he personally was just a 26-year-old doing his best. He laughed when Mephistopheles suggested he wouldn't be seen while trying to get the high score, though. "Yeah, it felt like they had a cool idea and it just didn't get made on a wide-scale, because of, like, aftermath of wars and whatnot, but... they did, whether they knew it or not before they went, set the stage for holographic technology, actually, to exist, so that's... very cool. I also put a few other things in there just for fun. Like little creatures and stuff that you can look it or through in 3D," he shifted it out of the game and to a little 3D isopod, which was like the spider posted in the media channel but like, a big isopod. And then he closed out of it altogether. "Hey, nothin' wrong with some dedication to the game, right? And oh, of course I have the blueprints, Mephistopheles, what kind of engineer would I be if I didn't?" He chuckled and then shuffled through a few papers on the coffee table before finding, yes, the blueprints, handing them to the other man. divider

19:56

And then he said he could kiss him. Almost. Wait, what? Not to say it was completely out of left field, but it did feel that way. Well- no, the only other option was kill or uh, kick? Knit? None of those others really made sense here. It had to be kiss, right? Right. Had their friendship really advanced that far? Was Mephistopheles assuming he was okay with that kind of contact even if they were complete strangers (he usually was)? Or did Mephistopheles actually have feelings for him that made him want to kiss him? Too vague to say, since he hadn't even actually said it, Allan thought, and so he just tilted his head to the side and raised his eyebrow slightly with a soft but knowing smile. "Yeah, of course," he said once the blushing Captain had finally decided on what to ask for. He hugged back, wrapping his arms around the other and running one hand through his hair as he usually did when they hugged.

'I could kiss you right now' was a phrase he'd seen people say on television when they were overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for something another person had done, or sometimes any good news - a phrase he hadn't meant to say, but tequila brain had let it slip. Not information he'd wanted Allan to know, at least so soon, considering he still wasn't entirely sure if he had feelings for Allan (besides physical feelings, which were definitely present) or if he was lonely and desperate and pathetic and reading into Allan's generosity and kindness. Though the tequila was doing a good job keeping such thoughts at bay, his insecurity itched at the back of his mind, questioning what he could possibly bring to the table either way when Allan was already dating someone in his own league. ...Those thoughts didn't last long when Allan ran his hands through his hair, though. It was one of those tender gestures that reduced one's brain cells and increased seratonin at the same time. He held on a bit longer and then pulled away just enough that he could look up at Allan, his dark eyes shining with unshed tears. "What was the, uh... Last thing? I'll try not to get too overwhelmed this time, I swear."

Right, the last thing he had to say. What was the last thing he had to say? Oh, right. "Yeah, uh-" while still holding Mephistopheles, he moved his hands to hold his shoulders, smiling and looking into those dark eyes while he also effortlessly switched off the glowing machine with his shoe, "speaking of poetry, actually. Basically, and I swear this is the last thing, things?" he took one hand off Mephistopheles's shoulder to use it to talk, like always. "Last thing. I was sort of your Secret Santa? Well, I guess not sort of. I was, like, debating on whether or not to keep it secret because, well, but I kind of did tell you, uh. Just now." Allan brushed some of his bangs away from Mephistopheles's face, and then as if to justify him doing that, wiped some bangs away from his own face as well. "That's all, though, I swear! As far as like, gifts, I mean, um- unless, and I mean, I guess the best gifts of all are us, right, that's what my mom always said, so if you think about it that way, I guess we're each others' gifts, in a way, too, but um- yeah! Sorry, didn't mean to say that when I said that'd be the last thing but ummm," he looked at Mephistopheles, unsure of what to say next, really, "I'm just really glad you're here, honestly." Was that what he meant to say? Sure.

Mephis glanced at Allan's hand gesturing, one of those quirks that made Allan who he was being that he was one of those people who just had to talk with their hands, and then when Allan brushed his hair from his face... It was subtle, but from up close it was easy to see Mephis had tilted his head towards Allan's hand when he moved it away, like he didn't want it to leave. Then Allan said more nice things. Step 1: don't get overwhelmed again. Failed step one. He opened his mouth like he was going to say something and then decided against it, resting his forehead on Allan's chest so he couldn't see his face. "I... I'm glad you're here too," he mumbled. "I did suspect the person who sent me those gifts knew me pretty darn well. Really, the biggest gift for me is that you knew and cared enough about me to be able to do all this, even though I know you know a lot of people and care about them, too." Allan probably had a lot of close friends. And casual friends, too. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to keep up with that many people, honestly. He looked up at Allan again and cleared his throat. "Speaking of, you've got other people to get to, yeah?" It had been a nice little time, but he didn't want to hold up Allan from getting to any of his other friends. (edited)

Allan set his hand back on Mephistopheles's shoulder again, no longer needing it to talk because, well, he wasn't talking anymore. For now. He tilted his head to the side and raised an eyebrow when the other looked like he was going to say something, but soon enough he watched as he put his forehead against his chest in lieu of anything to say, hugging him again when he did. Except Mephistopheles did say something, and it was an reciprocation to what he'd said, which was all he could have hoped for. "Yeah, I... strangely enough am not really one for poetry, but that Poe guy has some good stuff, and I think I liked it a lot when I was in school mostly 'cause his middle name's the same spelling as my first, but uh..." he felt a little guilty for rambling again, and stopped, taking a moment to think about his words before talking again. "I'm just glad I've gotten the opportunity to know and care you," oh, that was a bit of a word fumble, but it was okay. "I actually... don't have anyone to get to before dinner in like.. 3 hours, I kinda gave myself a lot of time to prepare? And, uh, I... anticipated? Um, maybe that's the right word, I dunno really actually what the right word... would be, but I guess I blocked out half my day for you specifically, is what I mean," saving the best for last? Sort of? With the exception of his boyfriend and boyfriend and girlfriend in-law's planned-upon dinner. "If that makes any sense. Um, personally, I'm done with the tequila for now, but we can have more punch or I can stir up a coquito without the rum or uh, some classic eggnog without the rum? Or just some snacks, and we could set up the PS2 or something, or..." divider

05:46

The redhead paused and looked down at the man he was still hugging, or the top of his head, really, and just smiled. "Or just sit around and drink hot chocolate. Or whatever, really, I... all that to say, I've got nobody to get to right now but you, so." He put his hand at the top of Mephistopheles's head and ran it down through his hair, it was... he hoped it was as comforting to the other as it was to him. "Whatever you'd like."

Ha. Trust Allan to have liked a poet almost solely because they had a name in common. Though it was nice that maybe they could discuss the poetry together now - perhaps they could even include Eshen. He didn't know the man super well, but he knew he liked poetry and he would probably have read Poe as well. That could be a nice offscreen interaction. And then Allan said he was glad he'd gotten to 'know and care' him and that he'd blocked out half his day specifically for him, which were both just incredibly endearing of him, and made his heart hurt in a sort of good way. It was as comforting. Incredibly so, in fact. He didn't want it to stop. "I do wanna set up the ps2 and play it with some drinks, the coquito sounds fun, but..." He said softly, then swallowed thickly, wondering if he'd had enough tequila to ask Allan for this. The answer was yes, he did; Allan had said he was okay with him asking for physical hugs and stuff like that before, after all. "I also just want you to... Hold me like this for a while, if that's okay? But maybe not standing up, that'll kill m'knees."

Yeah, it took a lot and also somehow very little reason to capture Allan's interest when it came to literature as a teen. He was almost one of those teenagers who absolutely refused to read fiction at all, but fortunately certain authors - such as Poe - captivated his interest, no matter how silly the initial reason. It was actually really lovely to discuss it, because he often didn't understand the "deeper meanings", but when discussions happened it was always really cool to see it all - and to get to know someone's brain just a little better by knowing how they thought. And so, of course he was glad to know how Mephistopheles thought, and had blocked out time for him, and was just glad to be here in this moment and do whatever the hell the other'd like - the man was more than worth it, after all. And so, what the other man wanted was for Allan to.. hold him like this? But not standing up. Okay, easy. "Yeah, sure, uh- I can pick you up?" And if Mephistopheles said yes, he simply lifted him up, still hugging him, although now he was actually at his height or perhaps a few inches taller. He was absolutely strong enough for it - and Mephistopheles, light enough. It was actually pretty comfortable, all things considered. And was it necessary? No, not at all. But was it done, much like the whole hair dye situation, simply because it was the first thing to come to Allan's brain? Yes, yes it was.

When Mephis nodded and said Allan could pick him up, he hadn't quite been prepared for what the experienced would actually be like: fun, disorienting, and a little bit silly all at once. He'd never seen Allan up this close at this angle before. "Oh, you're pretty... Pretty strong, I mean." He quickly wrapped his arms around Allan's shoulders, legs around his waist, clinging to him like a koala. "A-Allan - I know I'm light, but you can't seriously be intendin' on holdin' me up like this for long, right?" Was Allan way stronger than he thought? "You gotta sit down or somethin'." Not lie down because then Mo would be on top of him and that... Was kind of a nice idea, in theory. Like, in Mo's brain. But not reality. Right? Right. (edited)

Allan giggled as Mephistopheles called him 'pretty... pretty strong', followed by the other man clinging to him like a koala. In fact, he actually spun him around a little as he laughed, not too fast as to make the other dizzy but just a little spin-of-joy, really. It was a little bit silly, but he was enjoying it a lot. "Yeah? Thanks, annnd maybe I am~" he laughed and spun them around a little again, realizing though that yes, as light as Mephistopheles was, holding him up at the waist was not very practical long term, but fortunately he knew of a solution that -was- a little longer-term (as in, a few minutes rather than a minute, but still) due to experience. "'Cause you are pretty light, but it's also a little easier if I.." He then proceeded to... jump, a little bit, which lifted Mephistopheles up a good bit higher in turn as the redhead moved his hands to hold him up by his thighs and not his waist. "Like this? I can actually do it with just one arm like this, probably, but obviously two's more sustainable. Oh, and you're taller than me now! So that's another plus, maybe." He laughed and looked up, yes, up at Mephistopheles with a smile. It was nice to see him from this angle, actually, too.

As Allan spun them twice he'd clung to him with his head buried in his shoulder, and then when Allan held him up with his hands on his thighs, Mo was stunned for a second. "Allan, you're..." He laughed and pressed his forehead against Allan's. "You're ridiculous." And even prettier from even higher up, he thought, as he moved his head back. Their faces were so close. It would be so easy... "This ain't what I meant at all, but... It's fun. I ain't never been this tall before," he said, looking around the room and then back to Allan. "View's nice from up here. By which I mean, um..." No. He didn't want to keep accidentally giving Allan compliments and taking them back like they weren't true. He was an honest man, and even more honest on four shots of tequila. "...By which I mean you're pretty. For real this time. 'Specially up close like this. Sorry if that's weird to say or somethin', but, I mean, I reckon you probably get it a lot, right? And it's gettin' -" He swallowed thickly and then laughed nervously, his face tinged red. "It's gettin' real hard not to notice." (edited)

As Mephistopheles presses his forehead against his, Allan also couldn't help but think the same line of thought. It really would be so easy, wouldn't it? But alas, this was already probably more than the man had done in however many years he'd said when he was dying his hair (it was six; seven this year, he recalled as he thought about it), so he found himself laughing with the other man, so tempted to one-arm this just so he could put his hand in his hair and- but he didn't, because he'd sort of just said how using both arms here was key. "I know," he smiled, he knew he was ridiculous and damn, if he didn't continue to be so what fun would life be? So he kept on being ridiculous, walking them both over to the full-size mid-20th century fridge he had in his quarters (because of course he did). "You know there used to be a joke, my family had one of these - well, a more modern one, but still the full size, and when my dad visited my mother's parents once, and he'd said something about the top of the fridge being real dusty, problem was both my mother's parents annnd of course, my mother, were too short to even see the top of the fridge, so they handed him a rag and said, uh, to clean it himself if he cared so much about it," he laughed, not exactly sure why that was the first thing that came to mind or why he took the time to mention it, but something about being with Mephistopheles made him feel more comfortable to just... talk, about whatever. Reminded him of the whole anchor conversation they had, somehow. "But uh, now you're tall enough to see it. So. And-" he looked back at Mephistopheles and blushed when he said the view was nice from up there because he was pretty. divider

19:18

"I do, but..." he leaned his own back against the fridge, which made carrying Mephistopheles easier when he did, in fact, fall into the temptation to put his hand in his black hair - it was hard not to. "'t means something different each time, especially depending on who's saying it." He took a moment as he swept some of Mephistopheles's hair back behind his ear - since the other was now leaning forwards above him, somewhat, and dropped his voice to a whisper, even though literally nobody else was here. "For the record, the view from down here's pretty nice, too."

As Allan gave that sweet little anecdote about his home life, Mephis tried to think of something similar, but struggled. His childhood hadn't been entirely empty of those moments, but they were certainly harder to remember between all the work he did. Childhood? More like child labour. Instead, he laughed and said, "Cute story, but now I gotta see if the top o' this fridge is clean." He and Eshen had in common that they were both neat freaks. He peeked over Allan's head at the fridge and yep, a lil dusty, so he pulled a handkerchief from his sleeve like a magician (he could also do it with coins!) and wiped the dust off the top, sneezed like a kitten into his elbow because allergies, then threw the handkerchief to the nearest laundry basket or whatever and missed spectacularly. Sarcastically, he said, "Wow. Bingo. Or goal, or score, I forget what they say in sports." Then Allan said That. Whispered it, even, which was way worse, in the best way, the kind of way that sent a shiver up his spine. Holding on tighter with one arm, he put one hand on top of the hand Allan had in his hair after he was done sweeping. "I... Ain't had someone say anything like that to me in six years, neither," he said, his voice just as low and gentle as Allan's. "Seven this year. It's stuff like that which makes me wanna..."

21:15

Then he sighed. He wanted so badly to just come out and say it - to at least make his intentions clear and know how Allan would feel about his feelings, but the six years comment reminded him of how much trouble he was having untangling those feelings of longing for Allan with longing for companionship of any kind he could get. But at the same time, it was Christmas, it was his birthday, Allan was holding him in a way he'd never thought would leave his fantasies, and he was blushing, and Mephis wanted to make him blush more, and wasn't the moment just damn well perfect? "Allan... I gotta tell you somethin'. Truth is, um... I really want to..." Why was this so hard? Man, if only there was some kind of station-wide crisis he could deal with, like a hostage situation wherein he had to negotiate with the villain at phaserpoint. That would be much less nerve-wracking than asking a hot boy to kiss him. "Sorry, I'm so fuckin' bad at this. Um..." He glanced at Allan's lips and then looked away, taking a moment to collect himself. "The thing is, I really want to k - to -" He cleared his throat. "To ki..." Oh my God. This was excruciating. Allan probably knew what he wanted to say already but he just couldn't get the words out. "I want - oh, fuck it." He moved the hand that was on top of Allan's to tangle it in the other man's hair, leaned in just slowly and hesitantly enough that Allan could object or push him away if he wanted to, and kissed him gently for a few moments before pulling away. "It's hard to tell if I want to do it because I like you or because I'm lonely... But I really, really want to kiss you like that again. A lot." And a lot less gently.

"It should be, but I've sort of neglected it a little recently making all these g-" Allan had started to say, and then he watched Mephistopheles pull a fucking handkerchief out of his sleeve just like that. He laughed, shaking his head as he watched the other man throw it and miss and then - fuck, now he sort of knew a little how Eshen felt when he messed up words, because hearing Mephistopheles mess up over 'what they say in sports' was amazingly adorable. "Fuck, you just - and you say I'm ridiculous." He was about to continue on in the line of ridiculousness, say something even cheesier about the view from down there being nice, but then Mephistopheles placed his hand over Allan's and let him know that that compliment, too, was part of things he hadn't experienced in six to seven years. His goofy little smirk softened as he continued to hold the side of the other's face, trying to read him a little when he'd sighed. That made him want to...? He really wanted to...? The engineer continued to listen patiently as Mephistopheles kept trying to say what he wanted to say, not saying anything except for perhaps a small 'hm?' in response. His green eyes followed Mephistopheles's glance right down to - oh. The realization came as soon as he picked up on both that and the stuttered 'k-' again, but he was ready to give Mephistopheles some more time here, as much as he needed for a moment, and then- And then he heard the words 'fuck it', felt the others' hand move from his own hand to his hair, and felt Mephistopheles's lips on his own. "Right," he breathed after they broke away from the kiss, looking up into the Captain's eyes as he smiled and moved his hand from his hair to his cheek, cupping the other's face gently. Hard to tell if he liked him or if he was just lonely - "Could be a bit of both," he whispered after thinking about it for a second, which also bought him some time to think about the rest of it all- "But I..."

18:17

He leaned forwards, pulling Mephistopheles down into a hug and leaning his chin on the other's shoulder. "I want that too," he said, holding him close. "And I'm not sure if it's because I like you or because I just want to carry on this beat where I hold you and kiss you and make sure you feel loved, but I-" he moved his face back to be face to face with the other and looked at those black eyes again. Was what he had just said sort of just the definition of liking him? He wasn't sure, but he was sure of at least one thing in this situation. "But I do want to kiss you again, that's for sure. And again. Annd again, and again, and maybe, get this, Mephistopheles - again," that soft yet silly smirk of his was back again, and as he put his hand in the others' hair again, all of a sudden Allan wanted nothing more than to have Mephistopheles feel more alive than he had in six - seven on the new year - years however he could. "If that's alright with you, of course." And if it was, he leaned in to kiss Mephistopheles again, pulling him down closer against him.

A bit of both... That sounded likely. When Allan cupped his bony cheek he turned his head and kissed his palm, and when he hugged him and rested his chin on his shoulder, Mephis put his hand back on Allan's head and carded his fingers through his hair absent-mindedly, like he'd probably do every time Allan ever wanted to embrace him like this if he wasn't on the receiving end. He still couldn't get over how healing it felt to be this close to someone, to feel their warmth and hear their voice so close. And then that final confirmation that Allan wanted it too - that was the icing on the cake, really. With every 'again' Meph turned a new, previously imperceptible shade of red until Allan asked if that was alright with him, to which he could only nod enthusiastically and then dive right in: he let himself be pulled, making a small, muffled noise when their lips connected again, tilting his head and with one arm around Allan's shoulders and the other one tangled in his hair again, kissed Allan gently at first, then with an escalating intensity he didn't know he had in him. There was a beast inside him that wanted to kiss Allan until his lips were bruised and neither of them could breathe.

21:01

It was hard to tell for how long exactly he did that - it felt like eons, but also not like nearly enough time. Eventually he did relent to the beast, somewhat, in that by the time he pulled away he was breathless and panting and had to lean on Allan's shoulder. "Fuck me, I didn't know I had that in me. Is it hot in here?" He'd been a tad chilly earlier, wearing a scarf and all, but now the shirt he was wearing felt absolutely sweltering. "Must be the tequila gettin' to me." Yeah, sure, blame the tequila. In an effort to cool himself, he started using one hand to unbutton his hawaiian shirt (with some difficulty), before he realised that doing that in this context sort of implied he wanted to go a bit further than kissing. "Oh, sorry, I'm not - I'm just doin' this because you're hot. I mean, I'm hot. I mean, you are also hot, in a non-temperature way, but that's not why - what I'm tryin' to say is, I don't know if I wanna go further than kissin' - I mean... I don't know, maybe I do? But not straight-up... Canoodlin', either. Uh, I don't know. What's between those? Ugh, fuck me. I mean, that's an exclamation, don't -" He sighed. "Give me a moment." He buried his head in Allan's shoulder and took a few moments to get his thoughts in order and remember how to use his lungs. "Sorry, I just... I get nervous when it comes to these things. Do you want to... Is it okay if we, uh, just, see how far we can go and then play video games for a bit afterwards...?"

Allan smiled as he felt Mephistopheles kiss his palm, even more when the other carded his fingers through his red hair. The feeling of being this close to someone was, surprisingly enough, truly healing for him as well, in a more different, and more regular manner - it was something he'd always had, yet something he felt like he couldn't go without. He also couldn't go without smirking more when the other's face got redder and redder - it was just so... cute to see, really, the effects he was creating here. And of course, that enthusiastic nod was all he needed to do as he said, to kiss Mephistopheles over and over and over again. He wasn't paying any attention to how long they were doing this for either, and the escalating intensity he was getting from Mephistopheles was equally matched, although he still made sure to have it be so that Mephistopheles was always the one leading in this dance, if one could call it that. He was so tempted to wrap his other arm around the others's shoulders while keeping the other hand in his hair, but then realized that he'd end up dropping the Captain that way because he was still holding him upright. Right. Perhaps... As they pulled away, Allan took a deep breath, holding his bony cheek again and staring into his eyes with a soft smile before the other leaned on his shoulder. "Fuck you? I mean-" he looked down at Mephis unbuttoning his shirt and raised an eyebrow, "because I'm hot..? Ohh, sorry- yeah," He nodded as he allowed the other to further explain himself, understanding, even if it meant trying really hard not to laugh at the term 'canoodlin'. "There's... actually a lot between those, actually, so-" divider

00:08

He gave Mephistopheles his moment, or all the moments he needed, really, putting his fingers through his hair again as he leaned on his shoulder, as if they'd ever really left. "Hey, no, don't... apologize for that sort of thing, it's... definitely the norm to get nervous, so yes, that's - that's definitely okay," he said, it was true, even - even he was nervous sometimes! And he would absolutely be if it had been six - seven by the new year - years since he'd done anything of the sort. "More than okay, really, I- do usually like to set a sort of uh, safe word beforehand, or you could just say stop or slap me, or whatever works for you, really, I just wanna make sure you're..." Oh, man, there were a thousand things he could say here and compared to the line he'd said earlier about wanting Mephistopheles to feel loved he had no clue whether he should say any of them. It really was just like Allan to not get nervous about any of this until he thought about the feelings involved. "...yeah, we can just go with the flow and see how far things go, yeah, totally, and uh- just to confirm, video games sound great afterwards, honestly, I- I love spending time with you no matter what we do, so... yeah. Yeah." Well, there went the thing about trying to put the feelings aside. No, there were feelings here. And that was okay. There always were. "We should... probably go to the couch, though, as much as I'd like to say I'm strong enough to hold you for that long, it... might be nice to go over there instead," he chuckled as he leaned away from the fridge and spun them around a little to start walking over there, "but... I wouldn't mind too much if you were still the one leaning over me, if you'd like." [D] And so, they went as far as Mephistopheles and Allan together wanted to go. What are you still reading this for? To watch the PS2 gameplay? Another time, maybe, but for now, it's just gay. (edited)

"From what I could recall, something in the control panel gave out, which made the turbolift shut off between decks. I don't know really." Paco said, feeling a slight chill run down his spine. "It was only for a few minutes since Rennie was there to fix it... I swear Turbolift two might actually be haunted or something." He joked, chuckling at the thought how long it had been since then and also the recent 'haunted' experience he had in one of the lifts, to which Paco looked behind him to see if some remnant of the HobusGhost ™️ was following him when Allan blanked out for a moment, flinching a little when Allan spoke again. "Ah yeah, glad I brought mine with me." Paco nodded as he reached into his gym bag to pull out his neatly folded pair of standard Starfleet trousers, having a peek inside the engineer's room and feeling the relatable chaotic vibes of the bunch of boxes and general disarray around the room as the door opened and he handed the pants over. "I'm basically studying how the Federation impacts the cultural development of its member worlds, and there could be many different ways on how to look at it." Paco said as he stepped in the room. "One point of interest was through the evolution of fashion and trends, since those are symbols which reflect identity, society, values, and status depending on contexts. Certain forces, like the Federation and Starfleet, could influence shifts in culture either directly or indirectly. Rennie compared it to the Ao Dai of Vietnam since the French played a role of influencing it... Then we got to a tangent about sexy starfleet uniforms, and so he told me about you and the short shorts." Paco explained, looking around curiously as to what Allan might be working on with all the boxes. "So... are the boxes related to any project you're working on?"

"Wow. Kinda terrifying, not gonna lie," Allan smiled when Paco said it was only for a few minutes though, that was... more comforting. "Ah, yeah. Rennie'll do that for ya, be your kni- wait, turbolift two? Haunted? Nahhh, I dunno why people say that, but uh- if you ask me, it's actually turbolift one. Haven't stepped foot in that one in quiiite a while," after all, that was clearly what made a turbolift haunted- the absence of people in one, right? That's why literally everyone went into turbolift two before the most recent away mission, surely, because it was Not Haunted. Duh. Logic. Totally. The engineer's eyes widened when Paco readily pulled out his neatly folded Starfleet uniform pants, as if he'd just had them there indefinitely, waiting for this moment to come. "Wha-" he laughed, and laughed, and - damn, he - absolutely grinning, he stopped laughing for a moment and waved his hand around as if trying to indicate an apology. "Sorry, I just- I can take them, yeah, you- you brought them - you just um, coming completely prepared like that, wasn't, ah," he breathed, shaking his head with a genuine smile at the other as he took the pants. "I didn't expect that. Came out of left field, as they say. Don't know why they say, but they say. Something about baseball I think?" divider

05:26

Looking around for a clear spot to sit, he took a bunch of folded clothes off the sofa and gestured for Paco to sit down as he sat down over at his desk, turning the shorts machine on as he listened to the science officer talk about his studies. "Huh. I never really.. thought about it much, but you probably got a pretty good thing going there, I mean - I feel it's probably a pretty two-way street, maybe, in some ways? But - it sounds really cool, I'd love to hear like, if you come out with a paper or something on it - wait, no, you did, right? At the uh, science fair." The science fair. "I didn't actually get a uh, chance to read about your project, but now that you're talking about it? Sounds like, ten times more interesting to me. Glad to see Rennie's advertising the sexy shorts initiative, though. You wanna sign the petition?" He said, handing over said petition. "If I have my numbers right, you'd be the six-hundred and uh, ninetieth signer? Yeah. 690." As he ran the pants through the machine and the machine did all the funky work that it did with all the cutting and hemming and whatnot, Allan turned back and looked at the boxes when Paco asked him about their presence. "A. A project? I mean... I guess you could call anything a project - actually, what the hell does that mean? Computer, define 'project'." And the computer probably came back with a definition similar to 'an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim', so.. "Uhh... I dunno particularly what 'enterprise' means either aside from you know, the ship of the same name, but... this is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim so, yes? Moving out - and moving in with someone I guess is... a project, yeah."

Everything was all fine and dandy in Paco's mind, briefly thinking about the bits of him being boldly princess carried by Rennie in the computer lab, that is until Allan dropped the notion that it might've been Turbolift 1 that could be haunted. It was the lift Paco was on with Nirral during the events of the Science Fair, so it was a scary lift. He could not really say much about the most recent mission though since, although his roleplayer never mentioned it, Paco had taken turbolift 3 during the time; so far that was the most pleasant turbolift experience he ever had despite the circumstances of the time. Regardless of which lift was haunted, or if there was actually something haunting them the scientist simply took a mental note to be more cautious when choosing lifts. "I-I mean, I just came back from the gym soooo.. uhhh. Yeah it was a bit of a curve ball I guess." Paco said as Allan finally got the pants, laughing along with him when he realized how casually ready he and especially his pants were for this moment before he shuffled over to the sofa and sat down. "Yeah I did! Honestly, I was surprised I even won the fair since a good chunk of it was crammed and revised last minute..." The scientist admitted whilst he looked over at the short shorts machine as it did its work, honestly surprised that there even was a machine to begin with. Paco sat quietly as he recalled the events of the fair, feeling a slight bittersweet taste as his mind began to drift for the briefest of moments before suddenly snapping back to the sight of the petition being handed over which made him hold in a laugh once he saw it before he began to sign it. "Holy shit... fuck yes! Ahh that sounds awesome!" The boxes and clutter began to make sense as the engineer spoke of his little 'project'. "Aw that's sweet, I'm sure they'll be glad to have you... do you need any help packing up?"

Yeah, it could have easily been a simple replicator recipe; Allan could have just taken people's measurements and made the shorts that way. But also... where was the fun in that? He was an engineer. Of -course- there was a machine. "Surprised? I mean, I would be too if I was an ensign who'd just arrived to the station a few months ago, and my project won alongside the CSO herself, so.. whatever you did, it was hella good, and I'm going to be reading it after this for sure." He looked over at the other with a smile when he saw him signing the petition. "Fuck yeah dude, 690, I'm like, so sure about that, and if not, well- we'll say you were anyways, the order isn't particularly important for most people." After putting the petition back up, Allan took the now-done shorts off the machine and held them out, walking over to Paco and handing them to the lieutenant. "Well, there's that- if you need any adjustments, you can bring 'em back or put 'em through the replicator, either will work just fine. As far as help, uh..." A brief glance around told him that, "yeah, that'd probably be good, honestly, if you're offering. Last thing I'd want is for the Captain to think I'm unorganized or something, soooo... probably best I have things in a relatively... neat arrangement when it's all packed up, yeah? Something like that, at least..." (edited)

"...It feels sooo weird to hear it when you put it that way to be honest," Paco said while laughing after giving himself a brief pause to process what Allen just said. "I dunno, it feels surreal that I somehow won, especially since I was barely functioning and I didn't prepare much presentation-wise. Plus there was a bunch of other cool projects as well, like someone brought a whole collection of old folktale books and antiques from various places, and I thought she would've won to be honest... I think there was also a thing called the 'Very Roode Cage', I thought that would fit in nicely with the CSO's project as well... so... yeah..." The scientist rambled on for a bit, combing his hair with his fingers for a little bit to help himself collect his thoughts better. "Plus I also got promoted after all the... 'stuff' happened in the science fair, so that was pretty sweet." As Allan took back the petition, Paco couldn't help but chuckle for a moment since it felt like such an honor to probably be the the 690th person to sign it, he could only imagine how the 69th and 420th persons felt when they signed it. Either way, it was another step of progress for what could be one of the greatest causes in Starfleet. When Allan came back with the newly made short shorts, Paco was amazed. "Woah this looks great man! Can't wait to put these on!" He looked up at him with an excited smile as he got the shorts. "Speaking of which, is it okay if I used your restroom real quick so I could try on the shorts for adjustments and probably also to change shirts 'cause gym? After that we could start packing and from the looks of i-- w-WAIT! are you moving in with the Captain??"

"Hey, man, whatever you did, it was great, wish I could've been there. Buuut for now, you've gotta send me that paper so I can read it later," Allan said with a smile, he totally understood being surprised when something went well with little preparation - but then again, that was life to a degree for the engineer. After chuckling at the sound of the 'very Roode cage' and being able to instantly know who had made it, he'd taken the petition back out of his bag since he'd forgotten to run the petition the same way he always had, through a quick scanner so that it could be preserved if anything were to ever happen to it, and then put it right back into his bag where it was always kept in case of Potential Petition Signers being present. "Totally! Go for it," Allan couldn't help but grin at the other's excitement about the shorts. "Sure, I really appreciate the he- yeah, who else?" he asked, as if it was common knowledge and as if there weren't a whole multitude of other people Allan could theoretically move in with. It most certainly, at this point, was not common knowledge - in a way, moving in with the Captain was probably the first way of making their... relationship, whatever it was at this point, public. "I started following uh... Mallory, I think? Mallory in the chatroom said something about organizing by function and then Elwyn suggested sorting by color and aesthetic, so... I've sort of started doing a bit of both, I think it's kind of fun, actually? In a weird sort of way." Never in his life would he ever have thought of organizing things as fun.

Paco looked at Allan with a very surprised expression as the other confirmed his question. He was dumbfounded on how casually he took it at first, but shrugged as the feeling of pleasant surprise settled in, smiling softly at the revelation. "It was either that, or the Captain is actually going to inspect our quarters. But either way, congrats to you both! How long have you two been together?" Paco said with a smile as he shuffled his way to the restroom with extra shirt, and his newly made short shorts, in hand. "I'll try to look into that actually, my room has been a mess, especially with how many times I've been reassigned quarters so far." the scientist said with a chuckle as he entered the restroom, picturing the typhoon-hit mess that is his own quarters as he changed. Indeed, organizing stuff is a fun past time. "Be honest with me..." Paco said softly as he finished changing after a few minutes, feeling both excitement and also some anxiety as he stepped out. "H-how does it look?" the scientist asked, coming out wearing a plain white sleeveless t-shirt with the words 'Go study a rock' printed on it to pair with the short shorts.

Allan blinked, unsure of how to answer the question when Paco asked him how long he and the Captain had been 'together'. "Uhhh... I'll get back to you on that," he looked down at his desk as the other entered the restroom to go change, pushing aside some various pieces of equipment and a book on transporter pad mechanics to look at the pile of different blueprints underneath it. The blueprints from the first drafts of the isopod platformer game, the isopod mouse, the blueprints from the little old-school hologram Tetris table he'd made, the blueprints from various things they'd worked on together since then until now, April, including a lot more isopod platformer game stuff - they still needed a title for that - and thought about at what point between all these blueprints you could consider the point at which they were 'together'. "I think maybe... a few months?" he'd said when he heard Paco exit the restroom. Since Christmas? Christmas couldn't be their anniversary, could it, because then it'd also be Christmas and Mephistopheles's birthday and that would be a hell of a lot of - "Well, actually, um - to be honest with you, I don't know for sure, it's one of those uhhh, we'll - I'll - get that straight soon, probably - well, not straight, you - you get what I mean." He laughed and put all the blueprints back into a neat stack and set the equipment and book back on top of it, looking back at Paco with a nervous smile of his own that quickly turned into one of amusement. divider

05:43

"Oh. Honestly?" Allan made a circling motion with his finger and if Paco picked up on that and turned around, he put a hand on his chin and nodded as if he were considering a very serious question, nodding slowly as he looked the other over and then smirked. "With a bit more confidence put into it? Perfect, really, they fit you really well," he said, looking down at the shorts again to make sure, "yeah, the fit's great. Looks a bit close on the thighs, but that's usually people's preference - if not, we can make it a bit looser there, no problem. And-" he tilted his head as he looked at the shirt the scientist was wearing, "tell me, does studying a planet count as a rock? Or is it like, a bunch of rocks?"

It took Paco a good minute before actually catching what Allan wanted him to do and actually turning around for him, albeit awkwardly shuffling with a soft chuckle as he gotten himself acquainted with the new feeling of wearing the short shorts. "Well... they make me feel a bit taller, that's a good start for confidence I guess... plus I kinda see why people like it this way for the thighs." He said with a light laugh, relieved that the new fit looked good on him as he rearranged his bag. The moment the engineer asked the question about the text on his shirt, Paco paused for a quick moment as he contemplated an answer. "Its... kind of a bit of both in all honestly, but I think a planet is more like a bunch of rocks combined and compressed together into a single rock. Imagine like a giant space croissant that has been folded against itself and then baked over millennia that you later chip away to find cooler rocks with fossils, artifacts, ores, and stuff... that's pretty much how my archeology classes went when I was studying." The scientist happily explained, rambling on as he took a good look around the room. "Alrighty, let's get started!" [D] And so duo went on with the process of organizing all of Allan's stuff in his quarters and helping him prep for his move-in day with the Captain, with the usual casual conversations about Science, Engineering, and the potential of the short shorts to become part of standard starfleet uniform at some wacky point in time. After all the organizing stuff was done, Paco gave Allan the traditional pack of dried mango slices as a gift and a thank you before he left, proudly strutting down the corridor with his new short shorts... that is until he recieved a notification from Ops that his quarters has been reassigned elsewhere.