Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ╰romulan-exhibit

As the hall started to fill up with people, sense of buzzing anxiety came right in with them, moving with the crowd's flow and eventually reaching the Romulan exhibit. Saren, who was dressed in a black sleeveless shirt with a tall neck and his House robe worn on top of it for a blend of a casual and exhibition appropriate style, felt it well. He hadn't been in the role of a presenter for a long time. Last time was all the way back, in previous spring, something he chose not to think too much about. He took a moment to walk out and stand in front of the station, looking over it to check if everything was alright and not crooked and well placed, his hands hidden in the pockets of his pants just to stop his fidgeting. Unfortunately, Saren didn't find anything to fix. There was handmade silk and cloth draped elegantly all over the station, representing a variety of regions. In a massive glass case, a vast array of daggers were displayed, those from his own collection placed under his House's coat of arms, their polished teeth basking in the light, equally intimidating as they were majestic. A wide variety of smaller items were displayed on the tables, lovingly lended for the exhibition from the Mol'Rihan Cultural and Historical Association. Figurines made from metal and wood, dice and games (including a variety of pixmit cards), trinkets and useful everyday items, all having replicas available for purchase. There was also a shelf for books. Stories, encyclopedias, field books both for the long gone Romulus and Mol'Rihan, and a variety of posters, mostly of flora and fauna. One of the books, titled "A Collection of Stories From the Colony of Llaiir Prime", was displayed with a few flower branches put around it. divider

20:22

Saren sighed, standing to the side. Arguably, this was his favorite part of the display - for there were bones. An yimn'irrhae skull was mounted so that it could be opened, displaying the movement of the creature's jaw. A variety of animals bones were displayed in a way for the people to see the engravings on them. Above the rorse was a massive skull of an ox-like creature, sodain'nomaes - its horns looking like they were holding up the hall's ceiling if out looked at them from below. Near the bull's jaw, indents of teeth could be spotted. There were also wet displays of smaller critters from both Romulus and Mol'Rihan, and skulls of the mogai and warrigul and many other animals. For those who enjoy the flora, there were also several herbariums and preserved specimens, available for close inspection. Finally, to the side of the bone display, stood a saddle mount with a iymn'irrhae saddle on top of it - made out of purplish-black marbled leather, it was decorated with the drawings of hunting scenes and alien constellations - only recognizable to those who lived under the Romulus' skies... (edited)

Vara'l slipped onto the exhibition and started to quietly look around. As he looked around, he subconsciously started to slip something from hand to a trouser pocket. His house ring, a small version of a house broach the symbol of the house Vara’l tr’Hara was a part of. A symbol he’d worked into a ring during a period of downtime he only half remembered..barely remembered. Was it even appropriate for him to wear it here? He didn’t know. perhaps it should be pocketed. He'd then paused, it was his ring..his to wear and changed his mind. He returned it to his finger.. Instead, Vara'l continued to quietly look around the exhibition. He paused at several of the exhibitions areas, especially around the section that contained blades. Said section looked over with a professional eye as he considered their shape and construction and worried with his one ringed and one borged hand. Considered what it would have taken to make them and the history they entailed, considered the differences in how things had been to how they were. "Hmm." He had softly hummed then as he'd considered it...before he'd then moved on...and stopped before the constellations exhibit. Paused and stood there. Stood there as his mind turned to a ..previous mission. To memories of other worlds, all quietly mulled over and considered as he looked at the constellations section with grey hued hard to read eyes. (edited)

There were a lot of things that ran around practically rent free at this point in Paco's mind at the moment. The only part which probably comforted Paco the most was that the very very hard parts were finally over, logistics, all the behind the scenes chaos, and just generally getting the event off the damn ground. Now it is time to step back a little bit and see all that he and his fellow organizers have worked so hard to make. Of course, one of the very first things in his mind in that regard would be Saren's exhibit, very much surprised to even receive a message from him in the first place. In all honesty, Paco couldn't really recall having many interactions with Saren beyond probably the Science Fair in some sense, even during Paco's very short stint as ACSO. It was just one of those kinds of things at the workplace, he thought. But regardless, Paco was very much excited to pop over to see Saren and his exhibit, curious to have a look on what he had prepared and also just happy to see Saren there in general. "Jolan tru, Saren!" The anthropologist greeted as he walked over to the Romulan Exhibit and looked over at the various displays. "I hope you've been enjoying the festival so far."

Vara'l,once he finished looking over parts of the exhibition, headed toward a exit. He then departed, though he resolved to pop back in later. After all,he hadnt finished the whole thing. Especially not the bits of it he found he hadnt remembered, a peculiar discovery to make..especially when he’d previously been informed he’d been taught all about Romulan culture. Yeah. He would be back later, he resolved as he headed out. Or well, he’d consider coming back later. That or he’d look some stuff up on the database. Such information had previously happened to be..irrelevant to him. But well. That was a opinion of his that had changed. Right now though, now he elected to find a snack. (edited)

Unsurprisingly, a lot of Romulans lingered by his station. A rather... impressive amount of them, now that he thought about it. Older generation, many of them runaways just like Saren himself, reaching out to him and lulling the young scientist into short yet pleasant conversations about the items, or the clothes, or trinkets. And maybe having one family leave with each of their kids holding the little animal figurines like something precious and their matriarch draped in one of the scarves that just reminded her of her own mother's work, made his heart feel full. There were also those who lingered. Saren watched as a familiar face walked around the station - he remembered seeing this man on the colony away team. The ACTO, right? Pretending that the way the man lingered by the knives didn't make him just a little bit uneasy, he instead turned his head towards a familiar voice, familiar enough for Saren to walk out behind the exhibit to it's front: "Jolan tru, Paco," he nodded a greeting, looking at the human and having to slightly angle his head to do that. Out of the corner of the eye, he watched Vara'l leave. Hm... "It's a lot of interacting and talking... but it's good, actually. Wholesome, even. So far, everything is going great. Thank you for organizing such an event, but I do hope you're not running yourself ragged over it? I have some water and a seat here, if you need that."

Xuan headed to the Romulan exhibit and once they arrived at the booth, they lifted their skitterer of the floor so he could also 'see' what was on display. With Xuan's overall calm demeanour, it was easy to mistake them for Vulcan as Vulcan-Trill would be a far more common combination than any other type of Vulcanoid. They held their skitterer in front of some of the items on display so he could 'see' the cool things. The skitterer was unsurprisingly unfazed by the sights, but his eyes did blink whenever Xuan stepped sideways to view the next thing on the displays. The trinkets were cool, especially the wooden figurines. Apparently some were available for purchase? Xuan's mother was an anthropologist who would probably be very interested in the booth. Xuan read the titles of some of the books on the shelf, a few they recognised as popular stories or some informational texts. The colony specific book caught their eye -- Llaiir Prime. They had never heard of the place, but the person behind the display was probably from there? Xuan and Thyroid were very intrigued by the bones, both showing their excitement in their own way. Thyroid wiggled his legs and Xuan just gave a very Vulcan-like nod and pensive stare at the skulls and horns. On second glance, they recognised the booth person as the ACSO himself, but he was currently engaged in conversation with someone else so Xuan and Thyroid enjoyed the bones in silence for now.

"I'm just glad that everything's kicked off so smoothly so far, and that you and the other Romulans around here are enjoying yourselves!" Paco said with a smile as he finished up whatever he was typing on his PADD, deciding to then shut it off for a moment to let himself enjoy the conversation. "Sorry... things have been... "a lot" lately. This whole thing was a lot bigger than I had expected, but thank the Prophets for our Morale Officers, Kii and Riley, this couldn't be possible without them." The anthropologist said with smile, although a bit frazzled and exhausted from pretty much being around and about since the early hours of the morning, and the past few days before hand. When the ACSO offered Paco a seat, he let out a relieved sigh and a nod as he approached the chair... something he had not seen up close for quite a while. "Thank you... I've been walking around in heels all day, so yes, thank you so much for the seat. Paco said with a soft chuckle as he finally sat down, sweet relief at last! " I never really expected myself to do something like this in the first place at all, well maybe when I was ACSO, but still it's been an overwhelming few days to say the least... either way, by the will of the Prophets, I managed, and probably will do this again because I have other events in mind, so I'll keep you updated on that."

There was that slight furrow of his slanted brows, telltale sign that the Romulan encountered something that displeased him and that needed to be fixed by him Right Now. This time it was Paco's clear exhaustion, so as soon as his fellow scientist sat down, Saren was by his side with a water bottle just... seemingly appearing out of thin air. In reality, it's been there on a well hidden shelf, and Saren was quick with his hands. "If there's three of you, you can certainly afford yourself a moment of sitting and doing nothing," he nodded, briefly checking the time. By then, there was a peculiar pair of a Vulcanoid and a.. skitterer, was it? checking out the nature showcase. Saren briefly nodded at them, before continuing: "You can sit here for however long you'd like, but soon-ish there will be some food available, if you are interested in that." He was definitely being a mother hen, but there was no Syrax to poke fun at that. The helmsman did not arrive yet - perhaps walking around the festival, getting distracted by alien ship models.

"I guess... couldn't argue with your logic there. I'm sure Kii and Amanda have things handled." Paco chuckled and nodded with agreement as he drank some water. There was a brief moment of time where the scientist was absolutely confused by how Saren actually managed to literally summon a bottle of water in his hand, but reminded himself that he was in a Romulan Exhibit with a Romulan, and so suddenly it was less of a surprise, but still to Paco's eyes, extremely impressive. Either way, Paco had some sense that the event could be fine without him for a while now that everything ran in full swing, and just needed the confirmation to not feed bad for it. * "Ooo! Most certainly, I would love that! Thanks!" *Paco said with a soft smile when Saren offered food for later, not only because Paco himself was quite the adventurous foodie ~~and professional throat goat~~, but also because he had missed a couple of meals earlier today. Personally, he couldn't blame Saren for the mother hen routine at this point due to the state he's currently in and was just took in the vibes as he occasionally stood up to look around the exhibit. "Hey Saren, do you mind if I read some of these encyclopedias and field books? I was always curious about what life was like in Romulus before the... Ooo! That's a cool skull!" There was a combination of genuinely being easily distracted by the yimn'irrhae skull, which he pointed to because pronouncing things is hard, and also Paco had caught himself about to bringup the Hobus Supernova. He was not sure how sensitive of a topic it was to Romulans in general, but he didn't want to risk it.

Still clad in his casual clothes and boots, the same decoration worn as he'd worn last time came Vara'l as he entered once more. This time with a young Romulan perched on his shoulders. One appeared to have just hugged him in a way that covered his eyes. After a brief bit of conversation that seemed marked by a good and healthy amount of chuckle accompanied smiles, Telim stopped that and Father and son smiled as they chatted more. Chatted about the exhibit and the different stuff the kid had already spotted as they'd entered. "That's a house crest Telim, like the one I showed you on Mol'Rihan a little bit ago, though that one was a Coran one, the one you pointed out over there belongs to a different house." Vara'l softly informed his son. As he continued to chat with his son, Vara'l started to slowly walk around the exhibit as he and his son looked over each bit and talked. While the two seemed to be engaged in conversation with each other a good bit of the time, Vara'l affected a rough and ready greeting bow when he spotted Saren. One angled with a mind to both showing respect while not seeing Telim pitched to the floor. After that bow, he continued to look around with his son, the fact the duo seemed to be in conversation something that he'd noted, he'd not wanted to interrupt that.

Telim listened as his father talked about house crests. The one he'd spotted, a 'crest' or 'coat of arms' seemed so different to the Haran one or the minor house one that the Cora had used. It'd fired his curiosity somewhat, that. It's why he'd asked his question. "Whats that?" He'd inquired then, the answered listened to closely before he'd nodded in understanding. He'd then chatted with his father for a bit, though when his father bowed in greeting like that, he'd paused and proceeded to wave in greeting at the Romulan and the other adult. Seconds time the charm..he hoped!

"Hallo!" Paco being the nice Paco that he is, waved back to Telim and greeted the boy with a soft smile. He was very much glad that the event had some appeal to younger kids, and personally, to him that was sort of the point of this whole thing. The more peeps are aware of both their own culture and that of others, the more inclined they would be to preserve it, or be more open and accepting of different peoples... and also this was essentially Comic-Con but for culture and the arts, so he wanted peeps of all ages to come around. "Enjoying the Romulan exhibit, bud?"

Vara'l smiled as his son was greeted by the other, their response to his sons wave quite a bit different than the Lieutenant and the Morale officers had been. Not that that was the main reason why he smiled, no. He smiled cause his son smiled, to him that made any day brighter.

Telim grinned happily when the officer greeted them like that, waved and smiled! He liked adults who did that, it kinda proved that they actually wanted to talk to you, instead of like those adults who were more subdued about talking to a kid and kinda oozed that 'I don't want to talk to a kid' energy. They were okay but he'd not quite grasped why people like that suffered the conversation..rather than just saying 'I don't wanna talk to you'. "Heya!" The kid responded initially with a grin. "I am yeah, dad's been telling me alot about the bits of Romulan culture he remembers a-and when we reach a bit he forgot we're learning about it together!" Telim declared before he then promptly hugged Vara'l again, this time careful to not cover their eyes with the hug as he hugged them. "Dad has taught me a bit about our culture before a-and I've learned about Reman culture from my uncle buttt its still fun to learn more!" Telim then added after a moment spent in consideration of one of the exhibit items he'd been briefly distracted by.