Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ┆botany-plantlife-exhibit

Booted feet tapped tapped on the floor as Vara'l smoothly strode into the Botany-Plantlife exhibited and started to look around. Stepping inside he slowed down slightly and smoothed out his walk as he worked to be as silent as possible as he looked around the exhibition. He wanted to just look around and to depart once he'd finished exploring the exhibition, he wanted to do so without having disturbed anyone else. *Eventually, the exhibition looked around, Vara'l moved onto the next exhibition he wanted to see. That being the #╰torre’vnau-rocks * (edited)

Teno stood smiling behind the tables full of plantlife from all over the galaxy, all specimens taken from the Habitat Ring with permission of course. There were plants of all colors, mostly green. Some blues and purples and even a few reds and yellows were mixed in! There were big leafy plants, tall but not-tree-sized saplings, Terran ferns, and flowers from multiple planets! There were even rocks with mosses on them and a terrarium or two. It really wasn't easy to tell that there were tables underneath all the plants, they were so packed into the exhibit. For anyone passing by, if they did not catch Teno or any friend who had decided to help, there would be signs at the base of each plant's pot describing the plant's name, what planet and system it was from, what its cultural significance was, an image description, if it was edible, and what its medicinal and cultural uses are. But if they happened to catch Teno, he would be more than happy to tell them all about the plants that were being exhibited. He wondered how many people would come by and when his friends would be there to help! Soon, he hoped, so he could talk their ears off. He was so excited to tell people about plants! And potentially learn about plants that were important to people!

Haru was here helping Teno with the booth. He had a lettuce clip on the top of his head and a lettuce cape! He looked ready to talk about plants! Under his lettuce dressings bad-dam-tss, Haru just wore his uniform because he was understandably not the best at knowing what looked good or bad and his uniform was easy to put on. "Wooo I AM the plant!" (edited)

Teno looked around the room for people to try to entice into listening to information about plants and sidled over to Haru. He tapped his fingers on the table so Haru knew where he was, and then said, "I wish someone would come over here and lettuce talk about plants." And then he broke out in uproarious laughter.

Haru turned his head when he heard the tapping on the table. In a very Haru -like way he laughed loudly at Teno's joke and followed it up with a joking, "Boooo!!! But also yeaaahhh i think one dude came up but he didn't stay," Haru frowned at the fact that he wasn't able to catch his superior office when he had visited. The thing was, even if people did approach, he wouldn't know to look or acknowledge them unless they addressed him first. He adjusted the lettuce on his head and did a little jump. "Maybe I should do like.. a plant dance. Would that entice people?"

"Fair, boo me all you want. But the fact that no one is talking to us is..." He paused for emphasis, then said, "unbeleafable." He cackled again and watched as Haru jumped around excitedly. He was so anxious for someone to stop by the table. Maybe Haru was right. Maybe a dancing lettuce man would get someone's attention. "Oh I didn't notice. They probably came by while I was setting up the plants. Hmmmm! Yeah, maybe a dance is in order. What kind of dance is a plant dance?" He was grinning. He had no idea how to dance.

"TENO! I have never heard so many bad puns in my life," Haru continued laughing at his friend's puns. They were bad, but he couldn't hide how amused he was. It was the little things that helped pass the time. Haru fluffed up his lettuce cape and shimmied his shoulders. "Mmm well, I can't say I have ever seen a plant dance or uh, any plants," Haru took a few steps to the side and opened his arms like he was some lettuce vampire spreading his cape. It worked well considering Haru already had pale skin and red eyes. "It is I. Lord of the lettuce, time to get down," And with that, Haru began is lettuce dance, spinning slowly in place and wiggling his hips. He was clearly no dancer, but he was also blind so it's not like he had any point of reference. Haru began to add his own background music, his own brand of scat singing like, "shooby doo whooop, wooo woo, now for the drop," Haru suddenly did a squat and then came up, pairing it with a 'edm-style drop', "Wub wub wubb zzuuu!!" Haru was also not particularly musically talented but it was the energy that sold it.

"What!? It was only two puns. And I may or may not have more in my arsenal. Who knows?" He smiled slyly. "Anyway, we better get to dancing because it's party thyme." Then he joined Haru in dancing. He threw his arms up above his head, bouncing his hands at his wrists, and shaking his butt back and forth to the rhythm of Haru's scat singing.

"Party THYME," Haru stopped singing for a moment to laugh at his friend's witty humour. All of his dancing was causing him to slooowy drift closer to Teno. He was unaware how close he was getting as he was just focusing on shaking his ass. "Woooo we jumping! We popping! WE JOPPING!" Haru sudden dropped to the ground and attempted to break dance but the only thing he was gonna break was the table and chairs at the booth, he was very loud.

Oh good, the one place Maxson was interested in visiting was where people were making noise. He took in a breath and huffed, straying away from the two to look at the plant life that was on display. He hadn’t seen a lot of plants that weren’t from the Alpha and Beta Quadrants, or the ones that were grown on the hydroponics farms of the ships he’d served aboard before. He held his hands behind his back, politely looking over the leaves and flowers as if he were in a museum.

"Oh! Haru!" Without thinking, he patted Haru on the shoulder quickly before focusing his attention on the person who showed up near the table and was looking at the plants. "Someone's here!" He quickly ran a hand through his hair and straightened up taller, putting on a more serious face, but still very excitable, and waved at the Lt. Commander. "Um, hi! My name is Lieutenant Zaru Teno, thank you for coming to the Arts and Cultural Festival! And this is the botany and plantlife exhibition. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have about the plants - I am one of the resident botanists of Starbase 777. And this is my friend Haru!" He gestured a hand toward Haru, dancing in his lettuce costume. "Also, feel free to touch the plants if you like! They have many different textures and they are all safe for touching." He beamed happily and tried to contain his excitement so he didn't scare them away.

Maxson lifted his gaze from whatever greenery he was looking at at that moment in time to meet Teno’s gaze, offering a nod in response to the wave given to him. His expression softened slightly, though it was still rather flat. He seemed like he was enjoying himself..? “Lieutenant.” He said matter-of-factly, looking over in the direction of Haru somewhat…dismissively, before returning his gaze to Teno, “Lieutenant Commander Maxson. Security. Thank you for the…introduction. I was not aware there were botanists aboard.” He glanced back at the plant he was looking at, “…I’ll…feel free.” (edited)

Haru stopped his dancing when his friend told him someone was there and stood up quickly. He nearly tugged his cape off, but he was ready to talk about plants! Haru saw the large green tinted blob in front of him which was probably the person in question. For most occassions, Haru's implants were in infrared mode so he knew which blobs were people and which were walls. Vulcanoid vision so hot things were green, cold things were red. "Jolan tru, lieutenant commander! I'm Haru tr’Khæthætreh, say that name ten times fast," Haru giggled in a very unprofessional way, but whtever this was off duty. "I'm an explosives expert, but rest assured none of these plants are explosive," Haru pushed his lettuce cape to the side so he could reach towards one of the plants in front of him. It took him a hot second to find the plant, but his hand soon brushed against the large leaf. "Teno knows the plants better than me, I'm just a plant enjoyer and lettuce mascot!" Haru swayed his hips from side to side, doing the lil plant dance.

Teno nodded at Lt. Cdr. Maxson. "Yes, there are a few others! We do not have very large department, but that just means there's much to do! I am never not busy, but I enjoy it. The Habitat Ring is our domain and we take caring for the plants and ecosystem there very seriously." He did look serious when he spoke about his job. Maybe not in the way that say a Security officer was serious, but it was clear that he cared a lot about what he did. Teno looked at Haru as he spoke and nodded again, excitedly. "Yeah, Haru knows some interesting uses for plants that I'd never considered." He chuckled. "But the one Haru is touching is a type of Cabbage!" He smiled happily.

"You could make a mean stink bomb outta like three of these. If you took the cabbage, fermented it then added.. oh maybe I shouldn't give the recipe out loud," Haru said with a chuckle, realising that they were standing before one of their superior officers who probably would not be pleased to hear Haru just rattling off bomb recipes. Stink bombs weren't exactly going to kill anyone, but he didn't think Maxson would be impressed.

“Jolan tru, tr’Khæthætreh.” He replied, though somewhat pointedly did not acknowledge the ‘say it ten times fast’ thing. Maxson wasn’t too keen on embarrassing himself in front of these two. Or anyone, really. Ever. He gave a sparing glance to the plants when Haru told him that none of them were explosive, “…I would hope not.” Maxson nodded to Teno when he picked back up the conversation. Certainly made sense that botanists were handling everything in the Habitat Ring. He didn’t think that all the trees just popped up out of nowhere. A few years of service aboard and he didn’t know all that much about things in other divisions…well, no time to dwell on that at the moment. He furrowed his brows when Haru began talking about making a stink bomb out of the cabbage, “Certainly an…interesting use,” He said gruffly. (edited)

Haru was surprised the guy could say his name with ease. It wasn't easy even for Romulans to say. He straightened his posture when he felt the other was not here to engage in silliness. Not a bad thing, but Haru felt a little too silly in that moment. He grabbed the ends of his lettuce cape and wrapped it tightly around his body so he looked like a lil Romulan lettuce wrap. "Look around and touch the plants, Teno knows a lot, you can ask him questions!"

Teno looked back and forth between Maxson and Haru, sort of concerned about the obvious conflict in their personalities. He made a soft humming noise and unconsciously scooted closer to Haru, wondering what he should do to diffuse the situation, but the conversation moved on so fast it wasn't really necessary. "Oh, yes, right, I know the plant things." He nodded, looking back at Lt. Commander Maxson. "There are also signs with information about each plant in various languages, with diagrams, and also braille! So, if you'd like you can go through the tables um, on your own! Whatever works best for you of course." He offered a small smile to the Lt. Cmdr.

To be perfectly honest, he didn’t mean to make an impact on the two of them with the way he was acting. Maxson was just always like this, and had little desire to relax and be excited like Teno and Haru. He was acting like he was on duty when he definitely wasn’t. The man had a serious case of being a tight-ass. “Hrm,” He said as Teno explained the signs with information on the plants, giving one of them a once-over before he looked back at the two officers, “I’ll take a look around. If I need some more information, I’ll be sure to let you know.” He started to stray away from them both before he paused and turned on his heel. He cleared his throat and kinda stumbled over his words as he said, “Your signs seem…thorough, however. Ah…enjoy the…rest of the festival, Lieutenant, tr’Khæthætreh.” (edited)

Haru stood there attempting to keep his eyes facing forward but they slooowly drifted in different directions as they often did when Haru was trying to focus on something. He knew he probably looked very unserious standing there with his eyes shaking and wandering in two different directions. "Thanks! You too," Haru responded with a polite bow. After that was done he hopped a little closer to Teno and gave him a playful lettuce wrap bump.

Teno smiled at Lt. Commander Maxson and waved as he walked away. He was happy someone came to visit the botany exhibit and to have spent some more time with his friend Haru, who was now bumping into him wrapped in a lettuce cape. The Bajoran laughed happily and bumped Haru back, smiling all the while. "This has been fun. Thanks for running the exhibit with me, Haru!"

"Yeah thanks for having me!" Haru unwrapped himself from his lettuce cape and reached over to touch some of the plants directly in front of him. He didn't know what they were, but they felt good! "Oh Teno, could we like... take a picture together? I can't see pictures, however I can turn them into like bas reliefs or whatever so i can feel them. Also I want to show my family," Haru said and then whipped out his PADD.

Teno grinned. "Of course, Haru. That sounds awesome!" He scooted toward the taller man, shoulder to shoulder, and posed for the photograph. He made a little wave with one hand, and a big toothy grin plastered across his face. His eyes were almost closed because his cheeks were so round from his smile. His dark, wavy hair poked out every which way, and his earring glinted in the light. "Peldor joi!" Sometimes he said the greeting from the Bajoran Gratitude Festival when he felt happiest. And he'd learned from Terran students at the Academy that people often say phrases to signify they were ready for a picture. So, that was his twist!

In true Haru fashion, he wasn't fully facing the camera, but he was smiling and posing! He repeated the word as soon as he heard his friend say it. He didn't know what it meant, but he assumed it was something good! Even not facing the camera, Haru looked excited and very happy to be there! "Woooo does the picture look good? Am I facing the right way?" Haru asked what he always asked. He wished he was better at finding the camera, but he was sure Teno would understand.