Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ╭performing-arts-hall

The 2nd largest room in the festival, you are met with a large stage where various bands and performers can showcase their best talents for all eyes to see! Interested in learning Klingon martial arts? Vulcan Meditation? How about the ice sports in Andoria? Alongside the stage you can also see a line of state of the art Holosimulator Pods ready with programs where you can immerse yourselves into the cultures of various worlds and learn more about each species.

Leading the pack through the door to the arts hall, Snake carried with him a small cart, with a Marshall DSL40CR Amplifier, and a leather bound guitar case with an Epiphone Korina Explorer inside. Snake was one to want to be authentic and haul his own gear into the gig, no need to beam anything over or have it preset. Snake was definitely one who wanted to appear more macho than he actually was. As he set down the amp and the guitar on the stage, he looked back towards the door. "Alright, we're up first! Let's load in, quickly!"

Copia wasn't far behind Snake. Strapped on her back was a gig bag with a bass guitar inside - one she had specially replicated. But the reveal of the bass guitar would come once she set up her Fender bass amplifier she carted around with her. It was a good thing that this wasn't too far of a walk, given the amp was a bit heavy, but Copia didn't really feel too much pain or strain. What she appreciated more was the fact that the curtain was closed, so she didn't risk having a bunch of eyeballs just staring at them as they set up. Copia finally set down her amp before she unstrapped her gig bag, unzipped it and revealed a custom Fender Bass - outfitted with silver glitter, and a silhouette of Papa Emeritus IV! "I'm almost set, Snake, I just need to plug in the amp and the bass."

Alongside Melody was Alyssa, who, as they both entered backstage to enter onstage, carried any extra equipment, such as her drumsticks, the in-ear monitor systems, and a keyboard stand, not needing to load in her drums as they had been pre-loaded onto the stage. Instead, Alyssa set up the keyboard stand right next to the drums, before she set down the in-ear monitors and placed her drumsticks on the snare drum. She quickly scurried back to help Melody with the last bit of the equipment. "You alright babe? You got it? Easy does it. Let's get this keyboard hooked up."

The caboose of the group was Melody, carrying her portable keyboard and some spare XLR and instrument cables as she approached the center of the stage. She hadn't really carried too many instruments around with her, but she surmised this would not be the last time she did so. Still, Melody was eager to play, so that distracted her from fixating too much on the weight of the keyboard, which she didn't mind. "Yeah, I'm good! I got it, one sec... There we go," she said as she set the keyboard onto the stand. "Already ahead of you," Melody replied, and hooked an XLR cable from her keyboard into the sound system. A monitor at the side of the stage let her test the audio levels without sending the sound into the performing arts hall. "We have the keyboard dialed in!"

Alyssa sat her drums, taking her drumsticks from the snare drum, before she put on her in-ear monitors. With only a few hits onto her drums, a quick sick rock beat, her eyes darted as she listened to the mixing of each of the drums. "Drums are dialed in!"

Copia scurried to set up her and Melody's microphones, with Melody's microphone on a stand reaching over her keyboard, and Copia's own microphone on a regular stand at the front of the stage next to Snake's. Once that was done, Copia plugged in her bass guitar, plucking a few notes to check the levels. Yep - that sounded good! "Bass guitar is dialed in!"

Finally, Snake fixed up his own and Alyssa's microphone. The XLR cables went from the microphones into the sound system, and alongside Snake's guitar, Snake did a mic check. "Check check check. One two. Check check," Snake said, as he played some powerful, evil thrash metal riffs. "Alright, Mic one is dialed in, guitar is dialed in. Mic checks?"

Copia stepped up to her mic. "Check check. Mic two is set!"

Alyssa did the same. "Check, one two. Mic three is go!"

And finally, Melody. "Check, one two! Mic Four is ready!"

Snake looked to everyone. "Alright, levels are good? You can hear each other fine? All instruments?" As he waited for a nod from each. "Alright. We go on in fifteen. Let's just hang here. Quietly practice anything you need to work on, any problem points. Get a drink of water, whatever you need. We got this. We all do. Let's kick some ass."

The curtain was closed, as lights illuminated the front of it, as well as a DJ gobo with The Energizers logo showing on the curtain. Amanda approached the front of the stage, keeping her eye out as she was the main house manager for the performing arts hall. But she was excited to see the Energizers - her friends, taking the stage, and rocking out! Seven minutes to go!

And when the time came, Amanda approached the stage, and took an extra handheld mic. "Starbase 777, please welcome to the stage... THE ENERGIZERS!!!"

The curtain rose to reveal all four band members, at this time playing an opening chord to be able to spend enough time for the curtain to rise fully. "Starbase 777!" Snake called out to the crowd. "How the fuck we doin'?! Are you ready to fuckin' dance?!" Snake said. Before he played some intro riffs to the song Dance Macabre by Ghost! Accompanied by some bass drum hits by Alyssa, Snake's intro riff sounded strong and powerful.

Melody's keyboard rung into the mix when all four instruments played together. But she wasn't the one who was going to be singing this song...

It was COPIA! Yes, she actually stepped up to the microphone as she played her bass guitar, while hearing the kick drum helped ground her and keep her playing in the exact speed she needed to. But soon, she sang...

"You'll soon be hearing the chime close to midnight If I could turn back the time, I'd make all right How could it end like this? There's a sting in the way you kiss me Something within your eyes said it could be the last time 'Fore it's over Just wanna be, wanna bewitch you in the moonlight Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you all night It keeps on giving me chills, but I know now I feel the closer we get to the last bow I don't wanna end like this But the sting in the way you kiss me Something within your eyes said it could be the last time 'Fore it's over Just wanna be, wanna bewitch you in the moonlight Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you all night Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you one last time with me tonight Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you all night Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you in the moonlight Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you all night Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you in the moonlight Just wanna be, I wanna bewitch you all night All right Woah, woah, woah, woah"

Alyssa kept her pace up and steady during the whole song, adding fills where she could, before they all ended on an epic flourish at the end of the first song, with a combination of cymbal hits and a descending tom fill, and one final hit to end the song.

Rolling right into the next song, Snake played the intro chords to What I Like About You by The Romantics, before he stepped up to his microphone!

"Hey, uh-huh-huh Hey, uh-huh-huh What I like about you, you hold me tight Tell me I'm the only one Wanna come over tonight, yeah Keep on whispering in my ear Tell me all the things that I wanna hear 'Cause it's true That's what I like about you What I like about you, you really know how to dance When you go up, down, jump around Think about true romance, yeah Keep on whispering in my ear Tell me all the things that I wanna hear 'Cause it's true That's what I like about you That's what I like about you That's what I like about you Woo Hey What I like about you, you keep me warm at night Never wanna let you go, know you make me feel alright, yeah Keep on whispering in my ear Tell me all the things that I wanna hear 'Cause it's true That's what I like about you That's what I like about you That's what I like about you That's what I like about you That's what I like about you That's what I like about you That's what I like about you Hey, uh-huh-huh, hey hey hey Hey, uh-huh-huh, brr Hey, uh-huh-huh, hey!"

Mels sang backup while playing keyboards alongside Alyssa and Copia.

"Aaaah! Aaaah! That's what I like! That's what I like about you! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!"

Trilling up and down her keyboard when it came time for her little keyboard solo, and then ending off the song with everyone else!

"Aaaah! Aaah! That's what I like! That's what I like about you! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!"

(edited)

Snake took a second to let the rest of the band get a drink of water in between the last song. "How the fuck we doing, Arts and Cultural Festival?!" Before he waited for the crowd to react! "Let's fuckin go! We are the Energizers, give it up for Lt. Copia on bass guitar and vocals! Miss Melody Marshall on keyboards and vocals. Lt. Cdr. Alyssa Hayes on drums and vocals! And I'm Snake on rhythm guitar and vocals, thanks so much for having us! Shout-out to Amanda, Ki'ana and Paco for setting us up. We got one more song for you. Melody's got this one."

Melody changed a few of her settings on her keyboard, before she stepped up to her microphone. "This is called... Bohemian Rhapsody." And with that, she activated a vocoder which multiplied her voice into four different voices, each controlled by the keys. Snake, Copia and Alyssa still backed her up, though.

"Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide No escape from reality Open your eyes Look up to the skies and see I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy Because I'm easy come, easy go Little high, little low Any way the wind blows Doesn't really matter to me, to me Mama, just killed a man Put a gun against his head Pulled my trigger, now he's dead Mama, life had just begun But now I've gone and thrown it all away Mama, ooh, didn't mean to make you cry If I'm not back again this time tomorrow Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters Too late, my time has come Sends shivers down my spine Body's aching all the time Goodbye, everybody, I've got to go Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth Mama, ooh, I don't wanna die I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all I see a little silhouetto of a man Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango? Thunderbolt and lightning very, very frightening me Galileo, Galileo, Galileo Figaro Magnifico-o-o-o-o I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me! Easy come, easy go, will you let me go? Let him go! Let him go! Let me go! Let me go! Never, never, never, never let me go-o-o-oh! No, no, no, no, no, no, no Oh, mamma mia, mamma mia, mamma mia let me go! Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me-e-e-e-e-e-e! So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye? So you think you can love me and leave me to die? Oh, baby, can't do this to me, baby Just gotta get out, just gotta get right outta here Ooh, ooh yeah, ooh yeah Nothing really matters Anyone can see Nothing really matters Nothing really matters to me Any way the wind blows"

Alyssa kept the beat going and, like Snake and Copia, joined in on backing vocals where necessary.

"He's just a poor boy from a poor family Spare him his life from this monstrosity!"

Until they reached the end of the song...

...and the curtain began to fall. "We are The Energizers..." Before all four of them, at the same time, shouted together -- "Good night!" And the curtain hit the floor, masking off the band members. The band packed everything back up, taking care not to break any of the sound equipment, and unloaded from the stage, leaving it empty for the next band!

7

5

Copia had asked her to come watch, and so she did. Vara hummed as the song wrapped up, that was nice. She gave Copes a wave and a wink as she stepped off stage before adjusting her (fake) fur jacket around her body and heading to the most important section of the festival. The baked goods. “Mhm, hungry.”

As Copia made her way from backstage to examine the rest of the performing arts hall, she looked out for any familiar faces in the crowd - and when her eyes landed on a familiar Andorian junior grade lieutenant waving and smiling at her, Copia's smile grew ten times. "VARA!" Copia said, before she practically sprinted towards Vara. She didn't run into Vara, she slowed down to meet her, and opened her arms for a hug.

Vara laughed slightly as she moved to hug Copia, giving a small nod of her head as she stood there for the hug. “Copes! You did great out there girl.” She said with a smile. “How you been?”

Copia took Vara in her arms, staring with a newfound warm fuzzy feeling as she gazed into Vara's eyes... her muscles loosened as she embraced with Vara, and a smile appeared back on her face. "Hehehehehe... thanks girlie... I've been doing... honestly the best. Things have never been better. I feel so much healthier than I ever have. So much stronger."

It was at or around this time that Kii decided to wander over to the stage area; she'd spent the morning showing people around the event space and making sure people didn't get lost in the multitude of stalls and booths. She didn't seem bothered at all as she approached Kii and Vara - she seemed quite relaxed, actually, with her PADD in hand. "Copes! Vara! Hiii~!" She beamed at both of them. "The music was lovely, by the way. I could hear it from across the hall."

1

Vara hummed as she looked towards Copia. “That’s great Copes, truly I’m so happy for you. You deserve to feel good.” She said as she lightly broke from the hug. “Heya googles, and yeah! Didn’t know Copes here was such a musical genius.”

Copia wasn't expecting to see Kii approaching, but when she did, she immediately jolted. "Ah-!" Copia realized - as she was now in between her two loves. Or at least, what she surmised in her head were her two loves... Kii, her girlfriend... Vara, her first love... Copia's mind reeled as she saw both of them near each other, and close to her. "I....uh...er....um..." But then she realized Vara called Kii googles. "You... two know each other? Vara...Kii? You... met?" (edited)

"I have a name, Vara, and you got the nickname you gave me wrong." Kii retorted playfully as she hugged them both at the same time. "And yes, we've met. I went swimming without goggles this one time and Vara here was on the sidelines calling me goggles girl. Imagine that." She glanced between the two of them with an eyebrow raised. "And I imagine the same goes for the two of you?"

Copia approached her next words very carefully. She didn't want to mess anything up between her and Vara, or her and Kii, or her and both of them. This was a delicate thing. And Copia had to speak now. "Y-yes, e-er... I met Vara on one of our away missions. The Undine one I told you about. She was one to disobey orders which naturally led me to communicate with her about discipline. Ever since, we've been great friends. Really... really great friends..."

Vara shrugged mid hug as she looked at her. “Uh-huh, goggles.” Vara raised an eyebrow at Copia. “You good Copes? You’re trailing off a lot.”

Copia's eyes darted back and forth between Kii, and Vara, and Kii, and Vara, Kii, Vara, Kii, Vara--- it was getting to be overwhelming. She felt like she had to make a decision, but she didn't want to. She was pinned - and she had to tell the truth. "Vara, Kii and I met a little bit back in the environmental ring. She saw me in a time of need... we started talking... and Kii gave me my---my first kiss. Ever since, we've been dating..." And she gave a look both lovingly and apologetically to Kii.

Vara blushed lightly. “Right, right.” She said with a small breath, oh boy. Her feelings were never something she was great at dealing with, so this would be fun. “That’s uh, fine! Yeah, super. I’m happy for both of you, truly.”

In a moment of pure panic, Copia's mind completely began reeling. She didn't know what else to say or do - she had no words to say to either Vara or Kii, she was scared. Terrified, even... she didn't want to say anything wrong. So she didn't say anything at all. Instead her body began to tremble, as she looked indecisively between Kii and Vara, Kii and Vara, over and over again. "Uhhh...uhhhh...uhhhh...uhhhh..."

Kii glanced between the two of them again with an eyebrow raised. There was something about the way both of them were acting that felt a teensy bit off to her. She'd never seen Vara this nervous, for one, or Copia for that matter (except when worrying if she was being a good girlfriend, really). "Copes. It's okay. I don't mind if you have friends of any gender. You can relax." She said with a wide smile. "Unless your feelings are more than that? Is that what this is? If so..." She snickered and smacked her arm. "You can tell me. I really don't mind if so..."

Copia finally mustered the strength to control her trembling, the control which took so much more concentration than it usually did, the control which made her now absolutely terrified about what she would say next. "Relationships are...built on trust." Copia began. "The truth is... Kii, I want you. But Vara... I want you. But Kii, I want you! But Vara, I want you!" As tears formed in her eyes. She knew that it was a hopeless cause... as her body began to noticeably shake now.

Oh boy! This was fun! “Copes it’s uh, fine! Honestly, i’m not gonna be mad or anything depending on what you want. It is completely and utterly up to you.” She said with a breath. “Take a second, calm down girl.”

"Copes. Copia. Hey. Calm down..." Kii grabbed her hand and began tracing little circles into her palm. Slow, steady and calming, just the way she liked them. "You know you don't really have to choose, right? You can have both of us? It's called a throuple..."

The trembling and shaking was about to head out of control, before Kii came in at the right time and drew perfect circles into Copia's palms - right away, Copia felt the familiar shape enter her mind, and her eyes rolled back briefly into her head before they returned to looking out normally. "Precise... circles...five centimeter...diameter... calm...relax..." Copia almost seemed to chant before she loosened up fully, and was back to feeling calm. "I... do not have to choose? But... according to my memory banks there can only be two people in a relationship..." But then, she looked at both of them at the same time. "Well... I am no longer connected to the Starbase mainframe... perhaps I do not have accurate up-to-date information on -- throuples? I... can have both of you?" Copia said. "Do...do you two feel attraction towards each other as well?"

Vara blushed and shrugged. “I mean like, uh, yeah! I’d like to spend a bit more time with Goggles alone before totally making that call, but I’m not against it!” She said with an awkward rub of her head. “And you uh, might wanna do a firmware update there Copes.” She said with a laugh.

Copia blinked a few times, checking for a firmware update-- "Ah! Version 3.0.21.37. Updating." And after another blink, she looked at both Vara and Kii, this time, with no fear or doubt whatsoever. "I... I can have you both! Kii... I love you... so much... Vara, I love you so much... will you both share a kiss with me in turn?" (edited)

Kii was the first to lean in for a kiss, pressing her lips firmly to Copia's and hugging her tightly for a moment before pulling away with a content sigh. "You can just update your internal software like that? Huh. I wish I could do that. It'd make my job a lot easier." She joked.

“Mhm, homosexual firmware update, nice.” She said with a chuckle as she brought Copia in for a kiss. “Mhm, been waiting to do that for a minute.”

Copia's eyes shut as she leaned in for the kiss to Kii, now an expert on the craft, and feeling so much more secure about the throuple, even with Vara standing there. As she pulled away she giggled. "A fun little quirk! You can thank my father. Oh, er... you both should meet my father with me sometime. He would want to meet you." Before she turned to Vara, and with a genuine smile, brought Vara in, and pressed her lips to Vara's... and time stopped once again. The moment she shared with Vara, with Kii, was perfect... she loved them both, and would cherish them both... she made this promise as she leaned into the kiss more with Vara...

It was at an unfortunate point in time when Snake happened to walk through the hall with Melody and Alyssa, but he noticed Copia kiss both Kii and Vara, which made him pause. "How in the living fuck have you gotten a pair of girlfriends already when I'm open, single and ready to mingle?" Snake said to Copia, hinting to the other girls about his availability. "Aw, come on! Give a guy a break! Augh..." Before he surrendered, and simply carted his gear out of the performance hall.

In the middle of kissing Vara, Copia promplty flipped off Snake, not even breaking away from the kiss, before she pulled away from Vara. "Sorry about Snake. He can be a pest."

"Buh bye!" Kii smirked at the human as he walked away in frustration. "Serves him right. Maybe he'll get someone someday, when he's not complaining about things like that, huh?"

2

Copia giggled, wrapping her left arm around Kii's back, and her right arm around Vara's back. She gave Kii a kiss on her cheek, before she gave Vara a kiss on her cheek. "Let's go, lovelies, where are we off to now?" Copia had women on both sides of her! What a lucky gal!! (edited)

Vara hummed as she looked at Copes with a small hum, leaning over to give Kii a small kiss on the cheek before turning away. “Up to you two.”

2

"Well, we can take a walk round for a start. And I owe you dinner. So." Kii smirked at Vara. "Food first, walk later. How about it."

Vara smirked. “That you do Goggles, and I will be holding you to it.”

With a giddy giggle as she was sandwiched in between the two beautiful women, Copia's voice took on a confident stride. "Lead the way, beautifuls. Let's get some food. Elwyn has baked goods in her exhibit just next to this one."

Kii was the first to smile and pull the two of them onward, wondering if Elwyn by any chance had macarons.

Maya was the casual background observer who practically saw everything that had just occured while she was doing the usual engineer work around the stage after the previous performance to help leave it ready for the next. "...well that was gay." says the lesbian

5

Copia called back to Maya as she and her lovelies exited the door. "You can say that again!"

Maya blinked a couple times in confusion as Copes called back to her, not really quite catching what she said. "I- uh.. I said that shit was really gay! Congrats you three!" Maya shouted back before continuing on with her work. Once she had finished, she decided to make her way back to the expo, but not without a change of clothes first!

Maya had roamed around the festival for quite a while, dressed in a traditional Barong Tagalog around the festival to complete the cross dressing bit she had agreed to with her cousin... since he nabbed one of her old dresses in the process. It was a combination of Filipino pride, and an extreme amount of impulse coming from both her brain that brought her back to the performing arts hall. Her goal: to turn the stage, in typical Filipino Fashion, to a huge ass chaotic karaoke booth. And no one is going to stop her from doing it. Maya's roleplayer is too lazy to to copy paste the lyrics of the individual songs... because some of them are in Filipino and are hard to translate to English. So here's a mini discography of what Maya sang on stage for everyone to enjoy: Sayang na Sayang by Aegis Hahabol-Habol by Freddie Aguilar My Way by Frank Sinatra (no joke, this one's culturally significant for Filipinos) Pinoy Ako by Orange&Lemons The Greatest Song Ever by Mama Mo. "Okay everyone that's all from me! Enjoy the rest of the festival! Good night!" Maya said happily as she finished up her performance, dropped plooped the mic back into place, and stepped down from stage. It felt good to finally get all of that out of her chest. (edited)

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