Star Trek: Starbase 777

The campsite was huge, surrounded by a thick tangle of trees at almost every angle, the most inward facing with branches twined in fairy lights. Three different paths split through them; to the lake, to the hiking trail, and to the cabins, which were closer to the lakeside. Dozens of tents circled around an unlit campfire. If those weren't to someone's liking, there were also a few hammocks strung up in the trees. Up above, a sky full of stars twinkled peacefully, absent of a moon but no less dazzling. (edited)

Phew! Essen wasn't at all prepared for this in terms of attire. But at the very least, she had everything she needed to spend some time out in the ol' wilderness! It was honestly really refreshing. She was excited to be doing something outside her comfort zone. Plus, she'd probably meet some new people here! That was always a plus. Aside from her normal attire, which consisted of a hoodie, leggings, and flip flops, Essen wore a backwards flat billed cap. In her hand was a moderately sized container - a container that had graham crackers, marshmallows, and several different kinds of chocolate, both normal and Vulcan-safe (shout-out to Melody Marshall for those!). Essen examined the area, seeing all of the tents and the unlit campfire. Hmm! This would be just like the real thing on Earth or other planets! Essen right away got even more excited -- excited to be taking a chill.

Luna had arrived to the campsite also. Noting the tents and cabins, and then seeing the hammocks. She was wearing a black T-shirt, flannel shirt over that, and denim jeans. The 'lumberjack' outfit, if you will. But she figured it appropriate, as it was what she saw a lot when people went camping in the TV shows she watched as a kid. Hm, where would she set up? She considered the hammocks, falling asleep under the stars, watching the night sky go by as she drifts off to sleep. That was something she loved about camping. But then again, she didn't really know the temperature it would be... Ah, what did it matter. She had brought a sleeping bag with her. So she walked over, and set her kit down beside a hammock, took out her sleeping bag and laid it out in the hammock, intent on sleeping outside under the stars. That sounded really nice. She had noticed a few other people arriving as well. A young looking Vulcan, in comfy looking clothing with some food with her. She wondered what the crackers were for...

Not too far behind both of them was Astrid, who was just as cheerful as ever, although, moreso in the dank Gen-Z way of being cheerful. Astrid was decked out in an OPS T-shirt, cargo pants, and Yeezys. This was her way of unwinding, although, she'd still be as chill and laid back as ever. She didn't even need to have her uniform to be in the best of moods. Astrid was just happy to be there. In her hands, Astrid had foodstuffs for making hot dogs! A small container of the uncooked sausages in one hand, and a bag of (bread) buns in the other. She didn't have enough room in the container to carry condiments, she hoped others would have them or she could run back out to get them. Either way, Astrid was here with a savory option as opposed to sweets that Essen had brought. Speaking of, Astrid approached both Essen and Luna, setting down the hot dog supplies. "Yoooo what's good mothafuckas!" She said. "Y'all stoked for this or what? I got shit for making hot dogs!" Astrid looked over to Essen. "Looks like we've got the s'mores stuff covered! Tha's dope, thanks Essen!" Astrid and Essen had previously met in the chatroom. Then, Astrid turned to Luna, and something clicked in her head as she slightly recognized Luna. "Ayyyee, you're one of the OPS officers, right? What's up, yo! I'm LT Commander Astrid, but y'all can call me Astrid!" (edited)

Luna had watched Astrid approach, and had walked closer herself after she finished setting up. Maybe she'd try and socialise. That is what campings for, Luna. She watched as Astrid spoke to Essen, very loudly and excitedly, and then turned to her. "Aha yeah...I'm Lt Junior Grade Harrowsmith..." she muttered. "But you can just call me Luna...It was nice to meet you." And there was all of Luna's socialising for the year. Lovely. She went find a place to sit down afterwards and watch people arrive.

Five was finishing up some last minute adjustments, humming a jovial tune under his breath. Rather than his usual cover-everything-and-pray routine, he'd opted for something appropriate for the environment, dressed in a pair of knee length shorts and a hat. He extended a hand to wave to the newcomers, hammering down the last corner of a tent.

She had arrived a bit later than she intended, but at least she was here! It was her first time doing something like this so she was a bit overprepared with a pack full of camping essentials that she had looked up before coming here. She felt a bit awkward, as most people here she had not met yet, but this was a good opportunity to express herself! She just needed to relax is all. Coda took this chance to sit at least somewhat close to Essen, since she had known her out of the group of people just arriving here. "Ah... Hi everyone. I may have slightly overpacked, but I'm excited about this! This is my first camping trip with so many other people." (edited)

Maggie let out a low whistle at the sight of the campsite, backpack slung over their shoulder and a walking stick replacing their usual cane. "Stars, this place is gorgeous," they hummed, tying their hair up and moving forward. To tell the truth, they were still debating between sleeping in the cabins and the tents... Regardless, they had their swimsuit under their shorts and too-big t-shirt, ready to freakin' party!

Vovvi, with Ivissa in tow, adjusted her heavy backpack and made a quick scan of the area. Lake, hiking trail, forest.... "Let's go pick out a tent, then we can see what you want to do first, alright?" she told the little Andorian, letting go of her hand to adjust the heavy backpack and to follow her to an unoccupied tent.

"I wanna go swim!" she chirped, swinging the skirt of her dress around. "Can I do without my floaties this time?"

She made a little face at the thought. "We'll see how you do," she sighed, shrugging off her backpack, "and decide from there. Does that sound fair?" She, for once, was immune to Ivissa's pout. "Safety first, dear."

Sinau walked to the campsite, a bit nervous with the large amount of people. Rubbing the back of her left hand, a duffel bag slung over the woman's shoulder with the various "essentials". A few books, some games to play, video and board, an extra pair of clothes, being a baggy pair of sweatpants as well as a hoodie, contrasting the gray shorts and band shirt she wore. And finally a few snacks and drinks she liked. The woman walked along, looking at everyone as she quietly sat on the edge of the clearing, unzipping her duffel bag and retrieving a book. Looking up from it every page to look at everybody.

After a little while longer, Paco quietly wandered into the campsite with a soft smile on his lip, dressed in a white 'go climb a rock' sweatshirt accompanied with the Starfleet Short Shorts ©️ and crocs. He happily took in the pretty night time scenery; it had been quite a while since he had gone camping after joining Starfleet, so this was a very nice change of pace. Aside from his backpack, he carried a probably overloaded box of Mangos, some smore making foodstuffs of both the normal and vulcan-safe varieties, soft drinks and water, and smaller containers of skewered marinated pork and chicken that he had prepared earlier and been looking forward to grilling up Filipino style for the retreat. He waddled his way over to the unlit campfire and placed his box nearby to where he assumed every one else had place and took out one of the mangos and brought it with him to a nearby tree where he sat under, casually peeling the skin and eating the beloved fruit as he watched the others arrive to camp and thought of what to do from here.

Phoenix followed in suit as he took his camping gear with him, he had to make a list for what to bring but found the experience slightly weird due to not experiencing a camping trip before. Though he thought this would be an interesting experience due to sharing the campsite with his colleagues. Tightly grasping his things as he crabbed walked into the grounds as he didn't want to drop anything in front of everyone. Phoenix dropped a few things as he had a tent kit that he was going to set up, quickly checking if he had everything accounted for. Using his fingers as a metric system as he tried to keep track of what he hadn't taken with him, but everything seemed to be accounted for so he was free to relax with the others. "Greetings, if anyone would like help with setting up tents. I can offer my services up to anyone who needs it once I get mine set up."

Essen noticed Coda and smiled when she sat down next to her. "Hey Coda! You having fun so far?" Essen asked her. "I know it's just started and all. This is going to be a fun one, I can tell - as you can see I am absolutely so over prepared." And of course, she gestured to her less than-prepared outfit with a sarcastic tone of voice when she mentioned it. Yeahhh... Essen probably was going to end up with a zillion bug bites. Oh well! It was comfy. Essen looked over at Phoenix, who seemed to be having difficulty with the tents, smiled. "Need a hand, Phoenix?" Essen called over to him. "There are a bunch of tents set up if it's easier, but I can lend you a hand if you want to set up your own!" (edited)

Astrid strolled over to Five with a smile. Welp - time to meet her other boss! She wanted to keep her distance slightly so as to not overwhelm Five, and to respect their space. And Five, from the looks of it -- and their chatroom name -- was also another liberated Borg! So she still was in her calm, laid back sense of behavior, while still having a big smile and an eager facial expression. Although, she was much, much quieter when speaking to her boss. In truth, others had been gentle with Astrid after her liberation too, so she'd give that courtesy to Five. "Heyyyy, I'm assuming you're the liberated Borg boss! Five, right? I'm Astrid! Wassup!! Yo, it's so good to finally meet you IRL!" She said to Five. "Honestly couldn't have picked a better place for us to meet! Super chill, nice open space, fresh air. Like I said, I've heard nothing but good things about you, LT Dagis and the whole station!" Ohhh, if Astrid knew the half of what happened on the station...

Fives hummed from fiddling with the fire, clearly half paying attention. "Ah, Astrid," he said, a little -- a lot -- confused by her use of lingo. "It's a pleasure to meet you as well, I'm sorry for being rather distracted at the moment." He smiled a little sheepishly, until he finally got a spark going and the fire started. "Oh, that's good...there we go."

Astrid's energy heightened when the fire finally sparked into life. It was amazing seeing the light reflecting off the logs, from the grass, and overall illuminating the area. It was truly a sight to see, a sight Astrid hadn't seen since her time in the collective. Heh... That wasn't a good memory. Thankfully, she didn't let it get to her. She herself was distracted for a moment before returning to the fire. "Ah, my bad, boss," Astrid said. "Didn't mean to distract you. Thanks for starting the fire! I brought hot dogs and buns for everyone! I hope I brought enough." Astrid looked over at the hot dogs and buns, counting them and mentally making a note of how many everyone could have. Of course the station had replicators, so it wasn't too big of a deal if she was short a few. "Need a hand with setting up anything before we feast, boss?"

Phoenix slightly took a step back as he stared at Essen for a few seconds. Doing his signature emotionless stare as he didn't know what to say, he had read up about camping rituals beforehand thinking that he would need to set up a set for himself. But perhaps he should've asked before going to all the trouble of procuring a waterproof tent that he didn't exactly know how to use. "I think I need a mallet, but I probably will use one of the pre-made ones that are around here. Am I able to choose which one I want and put my stuff in it?" He asked, not wanting to encroach on others tents in case they were pre-built for them.

Essen flip-flopped over to Phoenix, before taking a look at the waterproofing tent that he brought. Well, it was a nice tent, she had to admit. A nice tent indeed. From what she could see, Phoenix indeed would need a mallet to pound in the tent stakes. "Yeahhhh, you'd need a mallet and -- to be honest that's probably it," Essen admitted. "I'd think you should be able to choose which tent you have, yeah! None of them are labeled as far as I can see, so I'd say unless you're told otherwise, pick a tent and set up camp!"

Showing up a little while after everyone else who had already arrived was Elwyn, perfectly equipped for a cosy camping holiday. Wearing waterproof olive cargo trousers, a knitted night sky blue sweater covered in stars and planets , orange outdoorsy sneakers, and carrying a bright pink backpack with a unicorn's face on it on her back, the android looked around with an excited smile on her face as she entered the holodeck hosting the retreat, now with two arms once more. Attention initially focused on the stars above, before switching to the trees and pretty fairy lights, she soon found herself looking for a place to call home for the night as she gave her fellow campers a wave. "Hi everyone!" She greeted in a friendly tone, before eyeing up a comfy looking hammock and wandering over. Taking her bag off and putting it on her chosen sleeping place of choice, the Health and Safety Inspector was quick to unfasten it and pull out a cosy, snuggly blanket covered in little stars that glowed in the dark before gently placing it on her hammock. Her attention then turned to the other things she had brought, mainly a cute little tin covered in dragons and some tupperware. Bringing them over to the central area, she spoke again. "I didn't know what to bring at first, but then I thought 'why not bring some veggie skewers', they're great for cooking on a fire! I also brought some cookies! I made them all myself earlier so they're nice and fresh." (edited)

To be honest she had to laugh just a bit. It seemed she wasn't the only one who might of slightly overpacked for this outing. Turning her attention to Essen she responded to her earlier comment. "Yeah, I might have gone a bit overboard, but hey if you need anything I'll probably have a spare of it somewhere." The campsite was decently packed now, but people were still coming in, and there was so much to do. Coda was paralyzed a bit with indecision here. She would have gone to do something by herself, but this was a group bonding moment, and she will be damned if she fell back into her old solitude-like habits."Oh, I wouldn't mind a cookie! Man, everyone sure came prepared with the food here." (edited)

Five beamed gratefully. "I really hope everyone has a good time. I worked quite hard on the program... Everything's all set up and ready to go, though, so thank you for the offer. The fire was the last thing I needed!" He stood up, planting his hands on his hips.

Phoenix quickly looked around the ground for his own thermos as he forgot where he put it. Almost pouncing on top of his stuff as he rummaged around to find it, though lucky enough he managed to find it close by as he picked it up in his hands. Holding it up towards everyone as he offered it towards everyone before taking it for only himself. "Would anyone care for a personal brewed formula of tea? I've made it myself with a bit of help from the replicators." He said, quickly unscrewing the top so everyone could take some if they wanted to.

Smiling happily Elwyn put down the tupperware and brought the tin over to Coda, opening it up to offer her a cookie as the smell of freshly baked goods and vanilla escaped. Somehow, the cookies were still warm. "Help yourself! They're vanilla, and very chewy!" They said with a happy smile. Within the tin were well over twenty decently sized cookies for people to enjoy. Looking over at Phoenix as he offered some tea the android nodded with a smile in response. "Yes please!" (edited)

The smell of the freshly baked cookies brought back fond memories from her childhood. She gently took one of the cookies out of the tin, leaving it open in case anyone wanted to try one as well. The first bite was very good, and almost instinctively Coda hummed in delight, the taste of the cookies being better than any she had tried before. "Thank you so much for these, they taste great! If nobody else tries one I might eat these all myself." Coda smiled warmly and leaned back, enjoying the atmosphere of this place.

It'd be around this time that Vara'l entered the campsite, a sleeping kid perched on his shoulders with his head used as a pillow. Carefully carried over his shoulders as he'd entered could be found a kids backpack and a adult rucksack. The Romulan loaded down , wearing a off duty long sleeved Tactical dept shirt, black trousers and walking boots in what happened to be the closest to casual clothing he had considered himself comfortable with for this. His hair tied back in a ponytail secured by a clasp made to look like metal vines and otherwise untouched making up the final part of his overall camping retreat get up he'd selected. While he had happened to adopt a course directly to a cabin initially, Vara'l paused mid transit when he spotted Five. Paused briefly before he'd spotted that they happened to be mid conversation and had then resumed his transit toward a free tent. Once he'd then arrived at the tent, he'd then entered it and started to unpack. With his unpacking finished and everything situated, Vara'l then headed off with Telim still mid nap. Vara'l having elected to go and explore further, after all.. Telim had just elected to have a nap to recharge. He'd not have appreciated it if Vara'l had decided upon that being a end to the day and had therefore upended the routine he liked.

Unpacking and setting up takes its time but he had always been a night owl anyways, the smirking guy had a full set of camping clothes and a backpack. you can’t be a good botanist without a healthy willingness to enjoy the open air and the dirt in your boots, he hoped into one of one of the hammocks nearer to the campfires and made it swing while he looked around, he liked to do some people watching too, specially if the people we’re aliens he didn’t often see back home

Ceedar was wearing his best camping clothes; some grey cargo pants and a grey, unbuttoned Henley shirt with a light red and black plaid flannel thrown over it. Oh, and of course, some very high quality hiking boots. That was one of the essential items he'd brought here to the starbase, after all! Thus far, he'd just been using them in the environmental ring when he would go on a hike around the trails, but he was rather excited when he heard of a camping event being announced! When he walked in, he was absolutely stoked to see all of the tents already set up, all the lights, and - "Yoooo, the campfire's lit, dudes! I love this already!" He excitedly dropped down his bag near one of the hammocks and practically skipped over to the campfire, grinning. "Oh my God, bro, I love - I love the little, um, whatchya call 'em, um," he looked up at the trees and pointed up at the lights. "The pretty lights, like... berry lights? Nah, um.." Regardless of what the lights were called, he knew he was gonna have a fun time - it was his first social event on the station, after all!

It was far, far from Allan's first social event on the station. However, it was the first social event he'd gone to not from excitement or because he knew he'd have fun or any other reason besides the one that was actually why he was here: because he felt that he had to. He knew that he didn't actually have to be here, of course, but he had convinced himself - and others had let him know, including his therapist - that it would be good for him to go, especially now that his voice was back to a point where it was working way better again. The only thing he couldn't do - or was advised not to do now - was to shout or sing too loudly. Plus... he knew it would be good to see other people, especially the ones he hadn't kept in touch with during the last three weeks. In fact, this... was probably the first time he'd shown up in public again in actually recognizable attire, purposefully wanting to converse with people. Go figure. He figured a good person to approach first would be Five, by virtue of him being his duckling assistant chief buddy but also, more importantly, his friend. "...marshmallows, yeah..?" he said, attempting his best smile after he waved at the other and got one of the little marshmallow roasting stick things. Do they have a name, even? Surely. (edited)

This place was getting a little more packed than she was first comfortable with. So, she decided to quietly slip away while leaving her stuff at an empty tent and going off to explore the rest of the area

"You're welcome, and thank you!" The android replied happily to Coda, glad that she enjoyed their baking. Glancing over as Ceedar entered, followed by Allan, someone they hadn't seen since the away mission, Elwyn's happy smile remained firmly on their face as they decided to not instantly pounce on either of them and offer a cookie. After they were both sat at the fire the Ensign designed to wander on over and join the group, sitting down with their knees together as they put the open cookie tin next to their tupperware with the veggie skewers in it. Listening in briefly they were quick to chime in, in response to what the Tactical officer was saying. "Fairy lights! But I like berry lights! There are actually some that do look like berries!" They chirped with a happy smile before leaning out ever so slightly and looking over at the Engineer. "Hi Allan!" The Health and Safety Inspector greeted in their usual upbeat way. "If anyone would like a cookie or veggie skewer feel free to help yourselves!" They said, gesturing to the two containers located next to the other food as they did.

Five perked up, glancing sideways at Allan as he picked up a skewer (????). "Evening, Allan," he greeted cheerfully, though gently, pulling his marshmallows from the fire. Perfect golden-brown crisp... He'd perfected the art of marshmallow toasting! "If you don't want to wait, you can have one of mine. I can make you a s'more, too," he said, waving his own stick with three marshmallows on it-- oops, make that two, as one slipped off the end and fell on the ground. Much to Five's dismay, as he was stunned silent for a full twenty seconds before shaking his head with a sad sigh. "Ah... How unfortunate. My offer still stands all the same." It was good to see Allan. He'd missed his presence terribly. Didn't want to pry about what caused it, rather, wanted to be a warm presence for him.

After a brief nap in their tent to recharge, Maggie poked their head out, running their fingers through their hair to sort out the fluffy mess it'd become. "Cookies?" the magician mused sleepily, rubbing their eyes and reluctantly crawling out, standing up (oh man, they really should've brought their actual cane instead of this damn walking stick) to search out the source. "Hey, would it be okay if I had one?"

Drall smelled the air and turned to look at the campfire’s direction, He licked his lips and jumped off the hammock, he wasn’t above inviting himself over for some free food, besides one’s gotta break the ice enjoy life “I believe anyone includes me” He served himself a rather big portion of skewer and a cookie by the time he made it closer it was too late to object, ⅓ of it was gone “At Least salads are universally good”

"Oh, you d-" he attempted to catch the falling marshmallow with his own skewer, which clearly did not work, and so then he sort of stared in the silence with Five, although his own silence was moreso an act of remaining calm. He'd been told that - reminded, really - that he was not a bad luck charm and people could be clumsy or make mistakes all the time in his presence and it wasn't because of him, and that, theoretically, was supposed to apply to larger scale events as well, but also the larger scale events - no, he could not start a thought spiral. Not about that, and not now. Not in front of a fucking campfire and marshmallows. "Yeah, uh, you still have two," he said, looking around for the graham cracker box or wherever they were lying around. "Enough for each of us, and - hey Elwyn," he heard their voice, didn't turn to see them yet, but a cookie sounded... tempting.

"Ohhhh! Ferry lights... yeah, that makes sense, like little ferries on the water at night, makes total sense, dude!" He grinned up at the pretty lights, yeah, he could see it, and then he looked back down at the person with the cookie tin and tupperware with veggie skewers. They seemed pretty well loaded up! "Berries too though.. hm, oh - yo, what kind of cookies you got?" He asked sitting down by the campfire next to them.

Turning to look at Maggie upon hearing the cookies enquiry, Elwyn gave them a friendly smile as they held out the cookie tin for them to take one. "Of course!" The android said with a grin. Once the magician had presumably taken one, they turned back to Ceedar, giggling a little at the mention of boats instead of pixies. It was close enough, and a really cute thought! "They're vanilla, vegan-friendly and freshly baked using real ingredients! Not to toot my own horn or anything, of course." They said happily, looking between the Tactical officer and civilian as they explained what kind of cookies they were. Oh, and they were still somehow warm.

Five was much better at assembling the s'mores than he was holding onto them, a careful precision that ended in two gooey sandwiches of sugar-packed deliciousness. One was passed to Allan with a soft warning not to burn his hands or his mouth. "It was falling anyway, I just wasn't paying attention. If it wasn't the ground, it would've been the fire," he reassured, carefully scooping the gelatinous goop up and into the fire with a little grimace. Such a perfect marshmallow too, how sad.. Oh well, he couldn't afford to linger on it. "So," Five posed somewhat tentatively, "what do you think of everything? It's been a bit of a passion project for a little while, I really hope everyone enjoys it." He smiled sheepishly, gesturing around to everything. He'd worked hard on the safety precautions especially, knowing what some of his co-workers could get up to. He just hoped everything worked and looked okay.

Was busy with another mouthful, okay atleast no one had to ask him about the food, he just raised a thumb up and took a second cookie, after a few minutes of chewing then swallowing he flashed his usual toothy green, now with some greens in between “You got the biome, almost believable” He stated plainly “But we could all use more mosquitos and a bear or two i’m sure” He grinned wider

Allan nodded, watching him scoop up the little goop and toss it back into the fire. "It's..." he did that thing again, where he spoke as if answering a question before he actually had an answer, and so there was a bit of a pause as he looked up and around at everything, and then back at Five. "It's.. really nice, honestly. It reminds me of when I'd go camping, and... and yet it doesn't, because it's something new, and I.. I really like that?" He smiled, just a bit, genuinely at Five and then his eyes widened some when he heard a voice behind him suggest for more mosquitoes. "Oh, hell no, I'm sorry, we do not want more mosquitoes. Unless you want that? A bear, though, I mean - there's a few officers.."

Five winced just a little at 'almost', but still offered a polite smile. "Thank you, but programming mosquitos sounds like a nightmare. But the bears, someone would probably try to wrestle it or something..." He shook his head and cleared his throat, wiping a mess of chocolate and marshmallow from his lips with a quick swipe of his tongue. "I'm glad, because I've never actually been camping before. I did a lot of research to get this just right. I-- to be honest, I spent like a week perfecting my marshmallow roasting technique," he laughed, lowering his head a little.

[Yur] “Bah don’t be so mopey” He said this in an aggravating intentionally high voice “You obviously worked your ass off to make this program, I wouldn't be ruining it by worrying if i was you. Else you’re gonna end up being the one not having fun and getting sad, Then we would deal with your feelings ew.”The cardassian went for another cookie and offered it to the ex-drone (edited)

"Vanilla! Classssic, bro, you know what's up!" He grinned, taking a cookie and trying a bite, oh shit, it was warm!! And tasted warm! And good! And all that! "Brooo, this shit is bangin', yo! Get these away from me, whoa, these are - dude, you did a really good job, thank you!" He was tempted to take another cookie. Very tempted. "Oh, by the way, name's Ceedar Forest! What 'bout you?"

"Oh, geez, yeah, the presence of mosquitoes is one thing, programming them.. yeah, I mean, there's definitely something on the cloud you could borrow, but.. actually, sorry, that sounds cool to me, from like, a programming perspective, but um, nightmare, yeah, definitely..." what was he doing, agreeing even though he didn't agree? What kind of shit was that? Not Allan shit, really. "Oh, you've never.. okay, wait, that changes things, this is insane work for someone who'd never been camping. Wow." He tasted the smore he'd been ever so lovingly given. "Mm, yea, that's-" he finished it, because if he took more than two bites to eat a smore, that'd be odd, "dude, it paid the fuck off, this is great."

As Ceedar reacted positively to their baking Elwyn's grin grew, feeling very glad and happy that he liked the cookie. The 'get these away from me' friendly confused the android, almost taking it literally and being concerned they had done something wrong until they realised from what was said next and the general context that it wasn't a negative comment at all. "Aww, thank you! I'm glad you like it! I'm Elwyn! Elwyn Preston! They replied cheerfully.

Five rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of how to respond. "I'll pass, I'm content with marshmallows, thank you," he nodded politely. Too many sweets would make him ache for sure. He hummed idly, finishing off his own s'more and brushing crumbs off his shirt. "If I ever need to program mosquitos for some sort of...torture program, I'll let you know," he nodded to Allan. He beamed at the compliment, though. His hard work on everything had paid off!! "I have vague memories of falling asleep outside, but that doesn't quite count as camping for me. I like these things. Getting to spend time with different people, friends and making them... I've missed you, y'know," he said, lightly bumping Allan's shoulder with his.

"Torture program, video game boss... either one works," he said, glad to see him happy with the compliment. That was... a good thing, really. Positive impact. Wow. "Yeah, falling asleep outside is uh, way different, if my experience is anything to go off of," he laughed, remembering times waking up on the beach after a long night or waking up in a dumpster after a crazy night - and all sorts of things in between. As he remembered them, he hardly catched the end of Five's phrase, but he did - and the shoulder bump made him instinctively bump a little right back. "Yeah..? I, um. I missed you, too," he smiled over at him as he grabbed another marshmallow to put on the skewer and back over the fire, "really. I'm, um.. sorry I was gone for so long, I should.. I should probably be getting back to things... soon. Sooner than later."

"Yo, cool beans, bro! Nice to meet ya, Elwyn!" There was a lonnng stare at those cookies again before his green eyes lit up in realization of something that was either going to be a very good or very bad idea. No chance of it being mediocre. One or the other. "Dude, do you think we could like... make smores from the cookies? Like, if we like, took the cookies instead of graham crackers and put the marshmallow and chocolate in between them?"

After a while of fiddling around in the background, Phoenix had finally put his waterproof tent together without having to rely on taking one of the prebuilt tents. Though he wasn't paying much attention to his surroundings as he made his way over to look at what the rest of them were doing. Though there were a few faces he had never met before, quickly surveying them for a few seconds as he tried to study what they were actually doing. "Sorry the distraction, I didn't mean to totally blank you all for an hour. I just set up my tent since the camping research says that the best way to have a camping experience is to build a tent for yourself." Phoenix tried his best to fit in within the squad, clutching at his thermos as he had it on standby to offer anyone some tea.

Having scanned the environmental settings, The half-Andorian had determined that the temperature didn’t warrant the faff that came with a tent. They entered the simulation equipped with just a small selection of things - A T-shirt brandishing “777” at its centre, plain sandals, a bucket hat with holes for his antennae, a sleeping bag and a trusty pink pair of swimming trunks. He walked through the trail towards the campsite, admiring the simulation. They thought of if one of his past hosts, Terjon, had been put in charge of the simulation. How he would’ve spent hours perfecting the plant life down to the hex colours of leaves. He chuckled, beginning to hear the voices of those that lay ahead. Of the few acquaintances of his on 777, he recognised Phoenix, whom he gave a nod of recognition before turning to the group. “Hello, everyone!” He noticed the array of food the crowd of officers and civilians alike seemed to be enjoying. “Goodness, I would’ve brought some Trill treats, but i’m afraid the replicators are yet to get them quite right. Wouldn’t want to skew your impressions.” They said with a smile and a bit of a tilt to his head, setting down the sleeping bag.

Smiling happily, as Ceedar suggested making s'mores with their cookies Elwyn's eyes practically lit up as a huge grin spread across their face. "Ooooh, that might taste really nice! We should try that!" They replied excitedly. About to begin the s'more making process, they were immediately curious about the newcomer, looking over and giving the hybrid a friendly wave. "Hi! Wanna join us? We're about to make s'mores with my cookies! We also have veggie skewers if savoury is more your style!" The android chirped happily.

The Lieutenant smiled, nodding and taking a seat, delighted by Elwyn’s excitement. “I’ve gone both ways on the vegetarianism, but in this life i’m indifferent.” He said with a laugh. “Sounds like you’re going through a culinary experiment, though! Exciting. Perhaps i’ll be one of the first to sample a new Federation staple.” He said with a grin. He’d had cookies before, that was a given on Earth, although s’mores was something new. He wanted to dive in and get to know those around the fire, although it seemed they were all separately focused - whether it be chats with friends or sticking cookies in crackers. He’d be patient, and meanwhile intrigued.

"Hey, there's no rush. Take your time. Only come back when you're absolutely ready -- we'll be happy to have you then, y'know," Five promised with a solemn nod, squeezing his legs to his chest. After all, if Allan pushed himself too quickly, he'd be much worse off than if he'd rested and recuperated properly. Five was quiet for a long while, looking into the flickering flames while everyone laughed and joked around them. It made him smile, too; the thought of everyone connecting as a result of their efforts.. "Thanks for being here," he said, tilting his head a little to beam at the engineer, adding a soft little "everyone." so as not to disturb the conversation around him.

Around this time, having gotten her stuff situated in her quarters before this point and also completed part of a shift, Twelve arrived at the camping retreat. The Liberated Borg El-Aurian dressed in a long sleeved hiking shirt and trousers, hair covered by a purple fabric rap. Conscious that they happened to be extremely new to the station, the Liberated Borg moved swiftly, having elected to beeline for one of the free tents a brief scan of the area had spotted. Once there, they'd slipped partly into the tent and unpacked her bag.

Ironically enough, given how much Mountain Dew she had drank before coming here, Astrid thought she'd have enough energy to be active in this whole campsite thing. Ironically, however, that had the opposite effect, as she had completely crashed and fell asleep in a catnap (pun intended) after settling down for a minute. It was as if she just shut her eyes and all energy drained out of her in a nanosecond. At the moment, she was snoring peacefully, almost like a purring sound, which was barely audible unless one was practically right next to her. However, one moment to the next, Astrid immediately jolted awake, before she stretched, and she let out a silent, but wide, cat yawn, followed by her eyes doing their best to stay open after just having woken up. "Whoa....whaddafuck did I miss...?"

Having failed to notice the other Liberated Borg, Twelve twitched in surprise as the other yawned and then proceeded to speak. "..We're unaware, just arrived here after the completion of o-..my first shift." The Liberated Borg El-Aurian responded simply as she watched the other Lieutenant Commander carefully or a moment as she'd finished up unpacking. A process that, once completed, she stood up after as she had then stepped out of the tent she'd chosen and zipped it up.

It took a moment for Astrid to be aware of her surroundings, as the blurriness of her sleepy eyes began to sharpen into a more crystal clear path. And right as her eyes began to adjust, Astrid caught sight of the source of the voice. She looked up to notice the Liberated Borg that stood outside the tent she'd chosen. Right away, Astrid perked up, but didn't leave the ground. It was comfy after all. So, she stayed put and called out to the Liberated Borg. "Ayyeee, come on over, bruh," Astrid said, still keeping her voice somewhat quiet. "Fellow liberated Borg! We got like a million on this starbase! I'm LT Commander Astrid but you can just call me Astrid! What's good, yo?" Right away Astrid felt even better knowing that she had a few of her former connected Borg colleagues with her on the starbase - well, maybe not colleagues, but that's all she knew how to describe it as.

Ever so slightly surprised by the sheer.. energy of the other as they perked up and proceeded to speak like that, Twelve took a moment before they responded. The moments pause spent in an attempted stab at understanding all that they'd said. An attempt they'd elected to give up on after the realisation that they happened to not really know what 'what's good' exactly meant. No, it was just something they happened to be able to make.. assumptions about and that's what they decided upon doing in the end. * "We were only aware of one other Liberated Borg on the starbase, who was referred to by a person I came to visit." *She responded. "Its.. good in a way to know that there are more its good to meet you Astrid, we are Lieutenant Commander Twelve of Twenty, transferred over here from the Cooperative, formerly an exchange officer on the USS Perseus." The El-Aurian had then paused for a moment. "..As for..'what is good'.. the days been pleasant, how are you?"

Astrid sat back and kept herself close to the fire, it was a nice sight to see, really. It made it feel a lot more homey than anything. But even more homey was the fact that she had so many liberated Borg around her - both right at the moment and in the entire starbase. It was reassuring, knowing that she could connect intrinsically with those around her. "Ayyeeee, it's good to meet you too, Twelve!" Astrid replied. "It's good to have ya! I've been chillin, getting ready for this camping retreat. It's been fuckin' dope! Yooo, I didn't even think camping was still a thing nowadays, I was so hyped seeing this shit pop up!" With that, Astrid leaned up finally but stayed seated on the ground. "We got hot dogs and s'mores over here if you want some! Tha's the good shit bruh!"

"Oh, man, I'm so glad you think it'd be dope, too! This is soooo lit, man!" The grin on his face only grew wider as he took a skewer and put as many marshmallows he could fit on it so everyone else could have one if they wanted. He smiled up at Ethaab too, gesturing to the marshmallows. "Federation staple, I like the sound of that! Yeah, I've got enough marshmallows uh, for pretty much everyone here, bro! I'm like, a total pro, too-" as long as he kept his eyes on the marshmallows, so he then turned his attention back to them because otherwise, they would absolutely catch on fire.

As if Astrid felt a disturbance in the atmosphere, Astrid's head turned to the direction of the bro. Right away, Astrid scooted over towards the bro. "Bro?" Astrid asked, as if she had just found her people. "Broooo! What's up! I thought I was the only bro-sayer on the starbase! Yooo it's so good to meet you bro! I'm LT Commander Astrid but you can just call me Astrid! What's good bro?" Astrid eagerly took a skewer as she was late to the party and didn't want to snag any reserved marshmallows. She put a new marshmallow on the end of her skewer and raised it over the fire. (edited)

Allan smiled, what Five had said was very similar to what others had said, and it still meant a lot when he said it. It was a good reminder to have - both that he could and should take his time without any negative impact, but also that it was a good thing to come back. It was a good thing to be okay enough again, whenever that may be. "Thanks, I.. appreciate that. You, too. As in, um, I appreciate you, too. A lot," he said, mirroring their action of drawing his knees into his chest as he decided to take another marshmallow and hold it near the fire, for some reason, cooking them was almost more pleasing than eating them. Something visually appealing about it, maybe. "Thank you for being here," he replied softly, turning the marshmallow around to get the other side of it.

Twelve, after Astrid proceeded to speak, smiled a bit and responded. "Thank you..and happy to hear you're enjoying it." They then paused a moment before they'd asked softly. "S'mores?" She declined to follow that question up with anything further as the other turned away and proceeded to talk with other individuals. Individuals she happened to not know, a fact that caused her to decide to not try and join the conversation as she instead turned away and mulled over potential places to explore as she'd watched the simulated world around her.

Thankfully, Astrid did hear Twelve ask about smore's. She didn't want Twelve to feel left out, especially as she had just joined the starbase. So, Astrid did double duty in keeping up with both Ceedar and Twelve. "Oh yeah! Come on over, want to try one?" Astrid said to Twelve. Soon, the marshmallow was ready, and she took it off the fire to show Twelve. Grabbing a graham cracker and some chocolate, Astrid made a s'more for Twelve. She had meant it originally to be for herself, but since Twelve asked, Astrid went out of her way to help Twelve out. "It's a little sandwich-type of food," Astrid explained. "Graham crackers on the top and bottom, marshmallow and chocolate in the middle. Here! Want to try it?"

The gil finally cleaned his plate and ate the third cookie five didn’t want, he proceeded to look between astrid and ceedar and pulled a small flask of vodka from his boot, he better start getting drunk for this.Let's see hotdogs… very much welcomed, he grabbed one and answered twelve between munching “S’mores is one of humanities better inventions, but back home we would catched letian lizards. We took their eggs and covered them with the insides, delicious and easy” He took another hotdog and impaled it weirdly in a stick to put it over the fire “Y'all are so weird, unlike people back home” He said that last part with a giant grin

"We'd...like that, sure." Twelve responded before she headed over to Astrid. As she arrived next to them and then glanced to the Gil and briefly listened to what they had to say. "...That..sounds different." The Liberated Borg observed briefly, the weird comment left without response as she turned to Astrid and the S'more. "..It is quite the spectacular looking sandwich type food, we think." She mused before she'd proceeded to extend a hand as she accepted the offer. "We'd be game for trying one aye, they look..very very interesting."

The hybrid had been quite content to sit and listen to everyone as they spoke around the campfire, accepting a s’more and enjoying it gratefully. Though it wasn’t the best of Earths delicacies, he thought had he really been out camping, and not on a holodeck, he’d have understood why it was enjoyed twicefold. Thinking of if there was anyone they could convince to do it for real, his first thought was none other than a mechanical Gorn. In time, he thought, smiling to himself. He looked up, leaving his mind and listening to the Cardassian’s thoughts. “I’ll have to try a Letian lizard egg sometime, I must’ve missed them last time I was on Cardassia.” They said with a chuckle. “Then again, that trip might’ve preceded the tradition.” He alluded, showing their age a little.

Coming to the party fashionably late as always, Rai tried to side step around the campsite area. It was hard to really sneak around when one was literally seven feet tall with a very large build, but Rai liked to think he was quick on his toes. He was dressed for camping that day! Some black lettings with a fanny pack that held all his essentials; extra lip gloss, face glitter, and some oil blotting papers. He wore an equally skin tight tank top with a light wind breaker over it. Just because this was a holographic camping trip didn't mean there still wouldn't be 'wind'! Most noteably though was Rai's change in hair colour. He had reverted his hair back to his natural brown colour. He wasn't fully allergic, but being licked constantly by his brother's epohh did irritate his skin. Having blue hair made him look like a giant epohh to Kali-fal and whilst he enjoyed the affections of the blue girl, his immune system was not.

Maggie picked up their walking stick and a little messenger-type bag to carry a pretty sizable water bottle in, intent on taking a hike. Their eyes moved across the campgrounds, spotting a non-blue Rai-- who they hadn't really spoken to in person since the drag competition, but they recognized from his promises to visit their show! They whistled between two fingers to get his attention. "Hey! Wanna go for a hike?" they called out, pointing to the trail climbing the small mountain.

Rai perked up when they heard a familiar voice. It was Maggie, the nice magician from the drag show! He also remembered his promise to see them perform and quickly shuffled over to where they were. "I would like to go hiking," Rai loved any sort of outdoor activity, he loved to exercise and essentially anything that would get his body moving. Rai had wondered if he should wait for his brother, but if he recalled Renakir was picking Kali-fal up from the epohh groomers and he usually took her for a walk after that. Maybe it would be ok if he went on ahead.

Unlike Serin, who had a valid reason for being late (something for work), Noid simply hadn't been bothered to show up 'til now. He'd arrived around the same time as Serin, but the two had struggled to connect along the way - Serin was enthusiastic about the idea of sleeping in among the stars, while Noid was more excited about just sleeping. Noid almost contemplated quitting and going back home to bed, but Serin had convinced him that at least if he was lazing around here, he could socialise at the same time, which was probably good for him.

Serin was much more enthusiastic. Though he was more of a machines and metal guy than nature, he did appreciate it once in a while, and many engineering innovations had come from observing nature. He had a pep in his step as he entered through the archway, stopping for a moment to glance up at the stars. "Marvellous, wouldn't you say?"

Noid shrugged. "If I want to see stars, I can just go to the observatory. We're, like, literally in space."

"You're truly a font of whimsy," he said, approaching the campfire. "Have we started the campfire rituals yet?" He was referring to roasting marshmallows, but it sounded like he wanted to burn something as sacrifice to summon an elder god. Maybe he did.

"Yeah, bro! Astrid, I totally dig that - I'm Ceedar! Just uh, toasting some marshmallows," Ceedar had said in response to Astrid, and Ceedar also had, luckily, kept an eye on his six marshmallows or however many he'd been roasting at this point. It would have been quite disastrous if he hadn't. "Yeah, man! We're making cookie smores! But you're totalllly right, we could have more rituals.." oh shit, he looked away for a bit too long. Only one caught on fire though, luckily! He quickly blew it out and put it on his own cookie-smore. Burnt marshmallows were pretty good, anyways. Underrated.

"We are supposed to be doing rituals? I do not have anything to sacrifice," Rai, the Romulan, repsonded to the cool blue haired individual. It was a different blue than his hair was before, but no less beautiful. Rai also liked the sunglasses. He also waved to the purple haired person, vaguely remembering their face but not entirely sure their name.

Maggie beamed at Rai's quick reply, waving him over until he was at their side. "Awesome! Just so you know, I'm pretty slow on these sorts of things, my leg isn't the greatest, so...um. Forgive me," they giggled nervously. Soon after, they spotted the newcomers and stood up on their tiptoes to get a better look. "Oh, hold on-- Hey, Seeeeerin!!" they called out, waving enthusiastically. Hopefully he'd recognize them without their mask on!

He did! It was the tone of voice and pink hair that did it. He waved them over. "Have you partaken in the rituals yet? Don't worry, er, noble giant," he said, referring to Rai, who was about two full feet taller than him, "I didn't bring any sacrifices either. We'll have to make do with the marshmallows."

"You guys got hot chocolate? Marshmallows in hot chocolate is baller. Hey bro, chuck me a 'mallow." He held out his hand for Ceedar to toss one at him, though he hadn't bothered looking around to see if there were any left or if the marshmallows were anywhere near where Ceedar was or if he wanted to share them or - he was being a bit rude, basically.

"I am a noble giant? My name is Rai tr'Torre'vnau, I am the CO of the Eventide. I would not call myself noble, but I have been told I am giant," Rai introducecd himself to the two strangers and waved his hands again. "I would enjoy some hot chocolate, I am Romulan so it is safe," Rai liked hot drinks and chocolate was something not very plentiful in his house on Mol'Rihan so he wanted to take advantage of its abundance during his exchange.

"Oh, yes, actually. If you don't mind heating up water instead of milk, I didn't want to risk it going bad..." Five made a little face, pushing Noid their little snack bag with most of the necessary items inside -- free of marshmallows, as he was expecting one from Ceedar specifically.

Maggie rocked back and forth on their heels, arms behind their back. "Seeeeerin," they chirped -- his name was just so fun to say! "We were about to venture on a quest up the mountain. No treasure awaits that I know of, but I bet it'd be really pretty up there!" The magician broke into their usual dazzling grin. "If you wanna stay and engage in, um, marshmallow sacrifice, that's okay too!"

"Yeah bro, I got you! I didn't put like, a bunch of marshmallows to cook on here for just me," he said, which was true, he put a whole bunch on to share with his friends! "Do you want it on the cookie or like, just the toasted 'mallow?" As he asked that, he looked across at everyone else gathered around. "Anyone of you guys want some too?" He grinned when Five offered the hot chocolate components. "Duuude, this is the best! Hot chocolate and cookie smores? Literally can't get cooler than this."

Allan just heard the words 'marshmallow sacrifice' and looked down at the ground where the marshmallow from earlier had fallen, even if Five had put it back into the fire, it was still... a memory. And it was a memory that made him laugh a little as he looked down.

"I'm really happy you're enjoying yourself," Five answered Ceedar with a polite smile, resigning themself to some water and a bag of grapes he'd brought with him. One s'more was enough for him. Way too sweet... (edited)

"I want to hike! I think I will cook the marshmellows when we return," And maybe by then his brother would have arrived. He looked towards Allan and Five, waving at both. It looked like they were having fun! Rai felt a little awkward being so tall in the crowd of normal-humanoid sized individuals, but maybe that meant he could help if people needed piggy-back rides or something.

Taking the bag from Five and thanking him, Noid replied to Ceedar, "Oh, if you've got some you made earlier, then hell yeah, dude. Do you want some hot chocolate too?" He would have preferred milk in his, but he couldn't be assed to fetch some from the replicator.

Serin nodded to Maggie. He was happy to see them, so he might have smiled if he was anyone else, but he wasn't expressive in that sort of way. Hopefully they could tell nonetheless. "No, I'll accompany you up the hiking trail. The sight will be its own treasure."

"And the friends we fucked along the way, or whatever it is."

Oh, he was being waved at! Five waved right back, flashing a thumbs up at the hiking team. "It really is a nice view from up there. Have fun, and I made plenty of rest stops along the way if you need them."

Rai looked at N01D with a scandalised look for a moment. What in the name of our lord and saviour Tenakruvek. Well, Rai wasn't going to question it at that moment, he just wanted to focus on hiking.

"Sweet, let's go!" They cheered, hopping up and heading off towards the trail. Maggie just hoped they wouldn't lag too far behind-- they really wanted to see the top, if Five's promise it'd be pretty was true. Maybe it'd make for a good bonding experience, too..!

"That was a lot... and i shouldn't have drank this entire bottle so fast before that" The cardassian trew the vodka flask to the side "At least ya'll aint boring"

"Please make sure to pick up after yourself," Five piped up. "I didn't make this simulation to be trashed, after all.."

"Now that's very fed of you... but fine" The cardassian did as asked "Anyways everyone brought something, so does anyone want one of my brownies?"

'Fed of me...not to want litter on my campsite...?' Five thought, a little bit confused, but shrugged it off, pulling a book from their bag. "I'll pass, thank you, though." Reading by campfire light probably wasn't too bad, right?.. Well, Crusade in Jeans wouldn't read itself.

"Brownies? Yes, please," Sakchai, who conveniently walked into the holodeck when the word 'brownies' was mentioned, chimed in. He raised his left hand, the one with the two fingers, and wiggled both of them. "Sorry to be late, I was looking at the massive Romulan sea bass in the aquarium." As evident from the 'All About the Bass' t-shirt he was wearing with a picture of the bass in question on it. He had some dad-like khaki's shorts and socks and sandals on too.

"A giant bass? nice now i wanna see it" Drall took a good look at the shirt since sea bass could be so different, specially if it was just a translator aproximation word "I have regular chocolate brownies and uh... i'm not sure if this breaks any regulations but i also have... special grass brownies ahem"

Wow another Cardassian! Sakchai smiled and shuffled over to his fellow countryman. "Yeah it's a new find. Apparently one of the families brought it over from Virinat colony and released it into the wild on Mol'Rihan. It was the only one of its species and the top of the food chain so it just kinda grew... And grew. People thought it was a sea monster, but nope. It's now sitting in our aquarium being super long, an absolute unit of a fish," Sakchai held his arms out to show just how long the fish was. "Special greass brownies? If you mean it has mind altering substances count me in, we're all of age!"

“I hope it didn’t wreck it’s old lakes ecosystem, well it was only one but if is as big as you say, it may be worth studying just to learn about the real limits of environment bound growth on aquatic lifeforms… ahem” He sounded awfully sober right there, but he honestly didn’t like showing his brainy side to new people, that was definitely thanks to the alcohol “Anyways yeah, weed brownies for the win, i personally grew the plant myself”

"I'm not sure exactly, but the bass is safe in captivity here for further study before it can be relocated to a safer area, preferably with more of its kind," Sakchai said as if he were the bass expert. He wasn't, he just read the informational placque about the fish's journey from Virinat to Mol'Rihan. "Woah you grew the plant? I had no idea we could grow something like that on-- ehh wait I don't want to assume you're from Cardassia. That's where I'm from and the climate is so humid, there's not a lot of alien plants that can survive," Sakchai said as he held his five-fingered hand out for the brownie.

“I’m actually from amleth prime, but i pride myself of being able to grow a risan orchid on qo’nos if i ever had to” Also his plants were his babies, not like he would ever say something so anti-cred out loud, he handed the other cardassian a brownie and eat one himself, vodka and weed what could go wrong “Although with the size you’re describing i imagine is the others of its species who may not be safe if it’s ever freed, oh well is a fish eat fish world”

"Never heard of that place, but it sounds like you have a... What do humans say... Oh my elements, a green ass? A green... nose? A... It means you're good at gardening," A green thumb, Sakchai was clearly not from earth nor had much experience with humans. He ate the brownie and chewed slowly. It didn't taste very differeny from a normal brownie, maybe a little earthier, but still good. "Mmm.. Fish eat fish world. Perhaps there's a colony the fish could flourish? Since it can't be returned to Virinat," Sakchai state, tilting his head slightly. "I assume you're... a botanist? Biologist?"

“I’m a exobiologist, which is like a biologist, but i didn’t fail miserably on learning about organisms outside my own planet” Is not that they were worse, he just was outstanding, okay maybe he should cut back on the ego, better not alienate the only other of his species he had met so far “Green thumb, humans have a lot of odd expressions, like liars having flammable pants” He looked at his hand, wait did he have thumbs?

Sakchai laughed when the other said he didn't fail miserably on learning about other planets' organisms. "I'm a Space Traffic Controller because I did fail miserably at piloting. I mean, not all STC are like me, that's just my story," Sakchai laughed more and shook his head. "Ohh thumb! I only have one," Sakchai raised both his hands, wiggling his two fingers he had on his left and his five on his right. "Flammable pants? I have never heard that one. Only if you lie? So if I tell the truth I can resist fire?" Sakchai said, drawing what he thought was a logical conclusion. "I do know in Standard, they love asses. Like phrases with asses," Sakchai made sure to clarify. "You have a dumb ass, smart ass, sexy ass, bitch ass, tough ass, piece of ass, half ass. It's like Romulans who have like 100 words for murder."

Having accepted a 'S'more' from Astrid with a nod and another. "Thank you." Twelve turned a bit and watched the conversations as they went on, idly observed the fact another Liberated Borg was present and briefly considered the Gil once more. They seemed like.. quite the character to the Liberated Borg, the Cardassian.One that seemed similar to a personality she had seen on the chatroom evidenced through someone's texts, not that she particularly intended to comment on it. Wasn't something she reckoned one should ever comment on, came the thought as she'd started to try the S'more. The taste something she smiled in appreciation at, her smile something that grew further as she heard the comment about standard and then tried and failed miserably to hide what she identified as her amusement at it.

Rehszan practically stumbled over his own two feet to make it, squeezing a duffel bag close to his chest. He had gotten so distracted with a study he was working on that he'd completely forgotten about the camping retreat.. He waved sheepishly, looking around the campsite with a quiet awe. He could see the flicker of fireflies in the forest (try saying that five times fast), hear the soft buzz of cicadas...!! How exciting! Rehszan sat down a bit further from the group, listening quietly, not wanting to intrude.

The already active campfire spot soon became even busier, with the arrival of three more people. All were Romulans, with Saren walking behind his cousin and uncle, idly listening to their chatter. He finished his shift a mere hour ago, and was immediately ambushed by Syrax suggesting to go grab Jin and hang out for a bit - and somehow Saren easily agreed, which was not something the introverted scientist did often. Perhaps it was the effect of his cousin. Perhaps it was a genuine smile that bloomed on Sy's face as soon as Saren agreed. Mesa's presence would've been nice, but the Reman politely refused - too many people, too much schoolwork. Go have fun and make sure dad behaves, she said, and that was that. Upon them approaching the campfire, Saren could feel the warm air lick at his face and arms, prompting him to unzip his jacket. He felt his anxiety slowly melt away, beinf replaced with odd, albeit melancholy calm. Pine trees seemed to have that effect on him, and the fire... The sensation of his jacket's sleeve being tugged at made Saren avert his gaze away from the fire, and look down.

"You good?" Rojin quietly asked, squatting in front of his bag and now looking up at his suddenly still nephew with a slight furrow to his eyebrows. There was a bouquet of metal skewers in one of his arms, while the other one was still holding the younger Lareth, from whom he received a confirming nod and a sheepish half-smile. Good. "Okay. Do give me back my bucket, though." Said container bucket was filled with marinade and meat. After getting his hands cleaned, Jin began the finicky process of skewering the pieces upon the metal stick.

Syrax, the instigator of this quite spontaneous family outing, soon sat down near Jin, using half of his skewers for chopped vegetables he brought along. Besides the unimpressed yet harmless side-eye from the older Romulan, whenever the man heard a very obvious crunch of a pepper or corn disappearing in the helmsman's mouth, they worked in a comfortable sort of silence, one that Sy, surprisingly, did not hate. And when his and Jin's conversation resumed, it was... also nice and comfortable. Syrax... could get used to that.

"Yeah, dude! I made these for anyone who wants one, for the cookie smores! I'll definitely take a hot chocolate, a sweet treat for another sweet treat!" He was excited that N01D wanted to try the new idea him and Elwyn had come up with, a clearly new idea that nobody had ever come up with before as he put together the cookie-smore for N01D and held it out to him. "There ya go, bro!"

Allan had given a wave back to Rai, before looking back at Five when he took out the bag of grapes. "...are those grapes?" He asked, as if the answer would be no. He didn't want to interrupt their book-reading much, but.. he did have to ask. And he tried so, sooo hard not to laugh when he overheard Sakchai talking about asses. And, at first, tried not to ask more questions before he eventually did, looking away from Saren (how long had he been looking at him..? Fuck), and instead looking back at the ... meat? That the other man sitting next to him was putting on the stick. "Hey, um, sorry," he really had to break the newfound habit of unnecessary apologies he'd picked up while Unwell, and the lack of a smile that paired with it, "what.. like, what are you cooking? If you um, don't mind me asking."

Rehszan perked up at the sight of Ethaab on the other side of the fire, though he seemed engrossed in conversation, so he didn't bother. The other person he spotted was just as interesting! Fellow science officer, wasn't he..? He scooted over a little to be a bit closer to the group, though kept a comfortable distance from Saren just in case he didn't want to talk. "I didn't expect there to be cicadas," he said, inclining his head a little to show he was speaking to him, "They're pretty. I have not heard them in a long time."

After popping into an empty cabin to get Ivissa into something warmer than a bathing suit (she hadn't even swam, but she was glad for the lack of sand on her clothes), Vovvi stepped back out, eyeing the group. It'd grown significantly since she stepped away. She said nothing, though, squeezing into a seat by the fire and going for the food she'd brought. "Ah ah-- I'll cook it for you, so you know what to do. Fire's not safe," she told Ivissa gently, skewering what she'd brought. "You can have a snack while you wait."

The little Andorian pouted, though kept an eye on the dancing flames with a quiet curiosity. It was a little bit scary, actually, maybe it was better Vovvi was making it for her.... She munched happily on some apple slices in the meantime.

Contended by simply watching from the side lines for abit,Twelve munched on her S'more and observed proceedings. The Ex-Borg curious as she watched about some things but not comfortable enough in this crowd as of yet to have ever queried anything. After all, she had just finished her first bit of work post transfer before she had arrived here. She only happened to know Astrids name,everyone else she'd noticed so far were strangers to her.

He's been aware of the human sitting near him for some time now, a quiet observer of both him and his nephew. Some habits just... never went away, staying guard somewhere on the backburner of his mind, despite the fact that Jin was feeling quite relaxed. Was it because of his experience, or the fact that his family was here, or even both of those factors, he wasn't quite sure. Whatever it was, at some point it made him expect the man to speak up, and as soon as he did, the older Romulan's head turned towards him, scarred cheek now facing the campfire as his artificial eye glinted something ominous, yet the face itself bearing familiar features, mismatched gaze analytical and calm. "Closest analogy would be veil," he replied after a small beat of silence, used by Rojin to think about his answer. He knew more about Earth cuisine than you would expect from him, yet that knowledge was still relatively new for him. "For this recipe it was cut into pieces and put into a mix of spices and herbs, both Rihan and Terran, cut onions, and pomegranate wine. Makes it soft and taste nice." Perhaps because of the wine his hands looked like a mini crime scene, covered in red liquid. "You don't have to apologize, by the way. We've barely talked."

Fire captivated him. He couldn't help it. As long as it was controlled, he found calmness and a sense of melancholy in those dancing reds and oranges, and the fact that he was surrounded by the imposing statures and the distinct smell of conifer trees, pulled him into the sinking hole of reminiscing further and further down. If he closed his eyes and let himself become distant, he could almost imagine himself being back on Llaiir Prime, so Saren didn't. The sensation of someone looking at him made the younger Romulan blink. Saren's eyes met Allan's as soon as he turned his head away from the fire, only to see the redheaded human lower his gaze and uncharacteristically carefully engaging Rojin. Saren's lips twitched up in an encouraging smile, before his attention was once again taken by someone else - and couldn't help himself but stare for a good moment, something akin to admiration in his expression as he looked up at the Gorn because big lizard people cool: "Yeah, I--" he paused, considering what he should say. One of those "blurting out before finishing building his sentence" moments, "I can't help but wonder which species it could be. I know some can be recognized by the sound, but admittedly, that is not one of my skills."

Well the conversation was getting more interesting, the gil finished eating a second brownie and joined in again “Well surely a North American species..” He tilted his head and listened for a moment as the hassle of the new arrivals died down a bit “50 credits that their diceroprocta vitripennis, and the romulan is right most species have very different songs”.

Rehszan hummed, closing his eyes with claws resting on his knees. His tail swished behind him as he listened to the cicada's calls. "Neotibicen pruinosus, I believe. Also known as the scissor grinder. It sounds almost like a...wee-ooo, wee-ooo..." He blinked, lowering his head in a sheepish embarrassment. "Sorry, I do not intend to come across as a show-off. I am quite fond of many different insects, and though I can't name every single species by song, there are a few that are my favorites. Entomology was my desired field, though it wasn't an option when I entered the academy, so I opted for a club instead." Sharp teeth bared in a wide smile, his head turned towards Saren -- it was hard to tell what he was looking at otherwise, with the faceted eyes of Gorn. "Rehszan, by the way. I recently transferred from another Starbase. It's a pleasure to meet you.*

"Never be embarassed about being capable, at least in cardassian we don't really pat people in the back for acting all humble like" He was not good at saying things in a... nice way, just not how he was even if he didn't mean to upset on purpose "And anyways that guy programmed it so he can just tell us who's correct" He motioned to fives

Five perked up a little, looking around just as sheepishly. He, uh, didn't remember. "I can pull the audio file up, one second...." He went for his PADD, searching through until he found the audio file that matched the call. "He's right," he said, dipping his head to Rehszan. "Scissor grinder sounds like the name of a metal band, though..."

Having finished part of the Smore and also having started to harbour even more of that..feeling that she happened to be in the middle of something she happened to not be a part of, the Liberated Borg proceeded to stand up fully. Once she'd done so, she looked to Astrid and proceeded to speak. "Thank you again for the S'More, we're going to.. go and explore now." *The comment uttered in the moment before the Liberated Borg then had proceeded to get up. She'd then started off after she'd picked a direction to go explore in. *

Despite it being such a small note on top of everything, the encouraging smile on Saren's face did everything to help him out, a smile coming to his face as well as he listened to Rojin explain the meat dish. "Ohhh, pomegranate wine, huh - that sounds pretty good, actually. Only time I've ever really had veal is um... in stews...?" He hoped the word guisada was translating correctly (it was). "We put it in spices and herbs and onions too, but I've never tried pomegranate wine, that's something else, for sure. Um.. we usually put it in like, a dark rum? Or some Don Q. Which, I mean, is also rum, but, uh, more specific, I guess, to where I grew up? What's the um.. like the name of the animal, is it... fuck, I'm forgetting the Havrannsu, um - I know I sure as hell don't know it in any other language though, sorry, it's - it starts with an s...? Maybe?"

He did not expect his question to be picked up an answered so quickly - he caught the attention of fellow scientists, it seemed. He stayed quiet, just looking between the two scaled individuals as they talked, curious. Especially as he noticed that the Gorn kind of, sort of, was not breathing. Huh... "What did you study, then?" he asked after the Lieutenant introduced himself, nodding his head a little bit. "Oh, and-- I'm Saren... tr'Lareth. There is a chance you've already seen my name on the roster. "

"Chemistry," Rehszan laughed. A booming, hearty sort of laugh, though was clipped short and sweet for now as he idly waved a clawed hand. "I have an interest in other fields of biology, but figured I would be most useful there...for some odd reason. I don't mind it, I'm passionate about all sorts of sciences. I've seen you on the roster, yes! I was hoping for a chance at some sort of conversation, I have been... far too excited to meet anyone else from the science division, at least non-formally. This seems a perfect environment for that sort of thing, no?"

With that, Twelve departed from the edge of the large group of people that talked and headed away. The direction she'd picked was toward the cabins and so, off she headed. If she wanted to meet new people, she'd do so how she preferred to do so, somewhere quieter and where there happened to be less in the way of people about.

He shoved the smore into his mouth, then was unable to reply to Ceedar - too busy chewing. Besides, he had to make the hot choccy. After a quick spoogle of how to make hot chocolate over a campfire, he swallowed his smore and said, "So, like, do we have to use a saucepan for this? Do we have a saucepan?"

"Stews are a good food. Hearthy and warm," he offered with a nod. Also they were relatively easy to make and good for feeding lots of hungry, worn out soldiers when the cook himself was a hungry, worn out soldier, but those notes were something that the simple bartender didn't mention out loud. Instead he let Allan talk, turning his attention back to the skewers that were now situated above the fire, dripping juice and marinade into it with a satisfying sort of sizzle on the occasion they were turned. He picked up one of them, and used a spare skewer to slip the pieces off of it onto a clean tray: "Sodain'nomaes. Hook-head. Romulan bull. All three are applicable," said tray was then offered to Allan. "I am pretty sure Remans use the same name as us Romulans, so-- Syrax would you stop hoovering up the corn?.." The corn stealer let out an undignified sort of snort-laugh as the tall Morvar got poked in his side with the blunt handle of the skewer Jin was holding, followed by a muffled "sorry!" and an offering of the cooked vegetable skewers that were prepared by the helmsman. Those were put on the same tray as the meat. "Little brat," Jin commented with a lift of an eyebrow and zero heat or ire in his voice. "Anyways, I assume you are a frequent visitor to Mol'Rihan if you know of such things?"

"Ah-- it would be so," Saren nodded in agreement to that last sentence, awkwardly remembering that he was kind of, sort of, part of senior staff actually, or rather learning to be one, and sometimes it was a bit weird - at least, to him. But they were by a campfire in a pine forest, with his family members having a play fight a mere meter or two away from them, so maybe he could loosen up and threat this conversation as something, well... non-formal. "Though if there was something division-specific you would want me to ask, I am not averse to trying ands answering them. Bugs are also fine, though."

Meanwhile, Essen was busy picking and setting up her tent that she was going to sleep in. She obviously had a lot to choose from, so that didn't present too much of an issue. She didn't have to be picky. Essen had already made her bed and set aside her things, a bit on the messy side as she had just laid it all down on the tent floor but nothing too out of place. She wasn't THAT far gone that she knew at least a little bit of decorum when it came to keeping things neat. Once that was all over, Essen flip-flopped her way back to the campfire and the others around it. The campfire itself was pretty fucking cool, Essen had to admit. She loved the smell of the wood, the outdoorsy feeling of the smoke around her, the heat it radiated as the smoke drifted her way. Dare she say she needed to touch grass as she'd lately cooped up at her duties and needed a chance to unwind in the outdoors. So, she approached the nearest person she could, which just so happened to be N01D, while not getting in on his personal space. "Did I miss a bunch of foodstuffs?"

Extremely late, Rakim picked this time to enter and beelined directly for a free tent. Once there he unzipped the tent and quietly started to unpack. Everyone else appeared to be deep in conversation ,he was disinclined toward interrupting them as they all continued to chat. No, he just wanted to unpack then head off to explore and that was something that potentially showed in the amount of focus he'd devoted to the process of unpacking as he continued.

“Ohh, I'd like some stuff to roast, do I need to grab a stick?" Sakchai saw everyone roasting things and he was now regretting not brigning all the Bajoran shrimp! It would've been a great use for his surplus of the stuff, but alas he had completely forgotten about the box currently sitting in a containment field in his quarters to keep the smell in. "What's that they just ate? I want to try that," Sakchai pointed to N01D who had just eaten some gooey chocolate with some white fluff in a... cracker? He wanted it.

"There's a lot of stuff, hotdogs, salad, those s'mores and that thing" He pointed at the corn "I have no idea what that thing is, but it looks disgusting, kinda like velevian beetle eggs ew"

"Oh that's corn but-- Hot dogs?! Who Hot these Dogs?" Sakchai furrowed the sharp v-shaped Cardassian ridges on his forehead, completely serious with his statement.

Felt oh so tempted to stroke sakchai's confusion along, but he could tell he wasn't gonna be the most popular person with some of the other species... so he bite his viperin tongue and decided to be.. urgh.. nice "I'm pretty sure hotdogs are actually made of pig or targ"

Essen couldn't help but snicker at Sakchai's misunderstanding of the nomenclature for hot dogs. It was almost impossible not to laugh. Not at Sakchai, of course. But at the unknowing. "Nooo no no no no," Essen said. "Hot dogs are just a name. It's how you prepare and eat the meat." Heh. That's what she said.

"I guess it's like veggie dogs? A Bajoran food," Sakchai realised he had heard 'dog' used in food, but he had never heard the term 'hot dog'. "Oh, well can I have one of those then? Do I need to roast it on a stick? Wait I got one," Sakchai grabbed a stick with his two-fingered hand so he could grab a hot dog with his other hand. Any activity that required thumbs he made sure to do right handed.

Eiffel quietly approached the campfire to warm himself. “Greetings everyone” He picked up a marshmallow, some chocolate, and a graham cracker and squashed them all together. “Do you know if there are any more tents available?”

Rakim listened in as he unpacked his bag, half perched within the tent in which he was unpacking for a moment before he heard someone query if more tents were available. With that query heard, Rakim proceeded to poke his head out of the tent before he pointed toward a tent he'd noticed was not in use when he'd initially started looking for a tent. "That tents not being used, there are also probably a few other tents available, you may have to have a bit of a look around, I think you can also set up your own as well if you'd prefer."

Rehszan thought it over for a moment. "Hardly anything to ask, more things to discuss," he admitted, resting a clawed hand on the back of his scaly neck. "Are there any fields of study you find yourself interested in...? The Epohhs in the lab are primarily under your care, aren't they?" They were so cute, he just hoped he didn't scare them! "There is much more space than my last Starbase...the station as a whole is, of course, but. I don't mean to go on and on about an interest of mine and not return the attention to yourself. That wouldn't be fair. Regardless, I'm very interested in what you have to say!"

There were plenty of tents still available! A vast number hadn't even been filled yet, plenty of colors and sizes to choose from.

“Superb! Thank you, commander!” Eiffel walked over to the tent that Lieutenant Commander Rakim had pointed out. “This will do quite nicely!” Eiffel set his stuff in the tent and quickly set up so he could return to the fire briefly. He still hoped to go for a walk as well before bed, but his uncooked version of smores was quite tempting so he decided to grab one more really quick before his walk

"Epohh, epooooohh epoepo, hehe what a funny word i swear i once saw one with a bow" Those edibles started to hit good, well it helped that he had eaten like 7 by now "uhm would rehszan eating corn be cannibalism, gorn eating corn, wait what if we feed a pig corn then made it into a corndog would that be a gorn eating a corn corndog??"

"They make pans specifically for sauce..?" Ceedar asked, looking around for a pan, of the sauce variety or not, and eventually found one of a round shape, about a few or so inches deep, enough for hot chocolate, surely (it was in fact, a saucepan). "Uh, I found this pot, but it looks like it'd make hot chocolate just fine!" He said with a grin as he held it up to N01D.

"Yeah, easy to make, too - 'specially over a fire," he nodded right back, mesmerized though by the sight of the meat turning over on the fire and that equally as mesmerizing sizzle that was produced from said turn, reminding him very vaguely of a sound effect he'd used as part of a rhythm in a song before. "Ohh, yeah, that's it - it's the same, I think um, it's just pronounced differently," kind of a lot differently, depending on who said it - but that was just the differences between languages, he supposed. Most of the time, the two languages were not at all understandable to eachother, but it did help that most animal species tended to be quite similar. Due to what, Allan had no idea, as he was not any sort of linguist. He just knew that despite being able to speak a good bit of the Havrannsu language, reading it was... hard, to say the least, and writing it, for him, was impossible. "Yeah, I uhh, I think I've been going there every summer for.." he counted on his fingers, and then his eyes widened as he hit nine fingers. "Holy shit, this year will be my tenth. I'm so fucking old," he said, seemingly not taking into account the fact that he was sitting next to someone who was probably at least a decade older than him. But perhaps taking into account that a good life lived, Allan would only live to maybe about 150, they were somewhat similarly young? Who knew.

Eiffel grabbed another smore “One for the road! I am going for a walk!”

Sakchai was here loading up his stick with marshmallows. He clearly had never done this before because he was out here covering the entire stick with white fluffy sugar puffs. "Oh epohhs are so cute, I think I may be allergic though," Sakchai added as he struggled to find a good place to grip the stick. He settled on doing the good ol' two handed grip at the base as if he were wielding a two handed sword, but it was marshmallows. "Really tenth year? I only lived there a couple years, I hear my... ex sister in law is trying to buy a beach house, not sure why," Sakchai offered with a shrug. Like a true cardassian he always kept up with the latest gossip about everyone. It was in his nature to be nosy, especially when it came to Valleka. Maybe it was because he was secretly praying for her downfall and the sweet sweet schadenfreude that would come with it.

"Oh, yeah, saucepan... Sorry." Five went for one, passing it to the hot chocolate group. He had a few cooking utensils on hand. "There we go!"

Astrid, having felt a little stir crazy - well, not a ton, but enough still - to get up and stretch, felt curious and wandered in the direction of the #cabins.