Star Trek: Starbase 777 - butterfly-house

The Butterfly House was open off to the side of the festivities, far enough away that folks who need a lower sensory experience could go to get some peace and quiet away from the crowds of loud people and reverberating music. The butterflies were everywhere, floating about comfortably in the warm air and bright sunlight. There were extra benches installed, and folks are welcome to stay there as long as they like so long as they keep their voices down and gentle as not to disturb the butterflies.

Shears peacefully wandered about the garden, not too attentive to the goings on around the station. It let its eyes follow the swarm of colors from all the various fluttering critters. It stuck its hands out, feeling their fellow insectoids.

Teno quietly walked in through the doorway, peeking into the pretty house with all the butterflies and smiling. He noticed Shears across the room and raised a hand to wave, before whispering, “Hey, happy pride. I’m Teno.”

Shears' antennae twitched, hearing the softspoken lieutenant enter the area and greet them. They raised a hand in return. "Hello, sir." They still were not too familiar with this celebration period, though it reasoned people would wish one another well. "Happy Pride. I am Shears."

T'Lane was sat in the butterfly house upon a bench. They were very still, so still in fact one could easily mistake them for a statue of some sort. This was a past time T'Lane enjoyed, being one with the butterflies. At least a dozen used T'Lane as a perch.

“Hello,” he said quietly to Shears. Teno was wearing comfortable looking blue denim like pants, leather boots, and a white shirt with the blue and green mlm flag across the chest in stripes that circled all the way around his torso. “Happy Pride to you too, Shears.” He paused for a moment and sat down on one of the benches, and positioned himself so that he would be comfortable for a while. “Are you enjoying yourself?” He hadn’t even realized T’Lane was in there!

To be perfectly transparent, it was a bit of a rarity to see a wild Paco around Pride-related events for longer than a couple of hours. This was mainly because most of them were every overstimulating for them and, like the enby goober he is, they would just glue themselves to the food carts and enjoy himself before taking a small hoard of his favorite snacks for himself and leaving to enjoy the rest of the Pride Month festivities inside their quarters accompanied by their Mycelium Tribble and a book related to the history of LGBTQ+ People in Starfleet or how other cultures see LGBTQ culture. Today, however, Paco was pulled into attending PRIDEFEST by his cousin Maya. She said she was "otw dw bud." on a reply after the wall of "where are you?" messages Paco sent. Despite of that, he was glad that the organizers arranged for a low sensory butterfly experience this year, safely some distance away from the dancefloor and bars which would have very quickly drained them of any will to socialize with people. Though he was still going to default on his plan on eating everything in the food cart area later, Paco's happy he could do the eating here instead of their quarters so they could feel like they have were included in PRIDEFEST as well! * *Paco wore a grey and purple flight jacket with air force roundel-style jacket patch on the of a WWII fighter plane over a Ace of Spades with the phrase "Aero Ace" on it. They wore that over a simple Yellow T-shirt paired with some light blue denim jeans and sneakers. He also had some wireless noise cancelling earbuds on as well to help them peacefully enjoy the butterflies. (edited)

Shears noticed a quiet-looking human enter the butterfly house without a hello. They looked rather small and scruffy. Shears decided she ought to greet the enby. After all, it was a social event. The hefty bug straightened her duty uniform and scuttled over to Paco. "Hello, sir." she greeted them, twitching her antennae chipperly. "I believe you say 'Happy Pride'?"

"Hallo!" Paco greeted warmly with a smile as he heard someone greet him, which broke off his focus from a cool beetle they found, but he didn't really mind. "Yeah! Happy Pride!" they happily greeted back, because it was indeed pride month! "I'm Paco. Have you been enjoying Pridefest so far?"

Teno smiled as Paco walked in and waved. "Hey, Paco, nice to see you. Happy Pride!" A butterfly landed on his shoulder, a monarch. "How have you been lately?"

"Oh, Teno! Hi!! Happy Pride!" Paco greeted Teno back with a smile as the cool beetle crawled up his finger, a scarab. "I'm good. I found this beetle. Also I'm waiting for my cousin, right now. she's been excited for Pride.... I might pop to the food carts in a little bit, i dunno." They answered with a shrug and a chuckle. "How about you? How have you been?" (edited)

Teno nodded with a big smile on his face. It was always good to run into friends and hear how they were doing. “Oh, that’s an interesting beetle,” he said, craning his neck curiously. “Do you know what kind it is?” He met Paco’s eyes with a thoughtful gaze. “I’ve been really good, just working and kind of feeling out different hobbies and rest. Everything has been really relaxed lately. I’m just…relaxing.” He chuckled softly.

Shears poked at a few pink and orange butterflies dotted about the trees. They tilted their head to the two other officers, bringing themselves to their feet. "Pardon me, sirs," they spoke. "What do officers tend to do on this holiday?"

"I dunno to be honest. I think it's a scarab, but apparently there are different kinds of scarabs." Paco answered with a shrug and a soft smile as his gaze met Teno's. "Yeah the station has been more relaxed... its nice." They added with a soft chuckle before he turned over to Shears to answer their question. "Pride's for everyone. During Pride Month in general, its a time where everyone, especially the LGBTQ community, can express themselves, celebrate their identity, and continue advocating for LGBT rights and equality." Paco explained, being the anthropologist he is. "I've been to Pride Festivals in the past, I usually just go around and eat food and get a bunch of merch. Though there are other activities as well depending on the organizer, people go out dancing, play games, drink, make out with their lovers, or in our case in PRIDEFEST, chill with butterflies and bugs in a separate quiet area from the loud festivities."

"Oooh, scarab. Those are so good for the dirt too... I love the little guys that help the ecosystem like that... the symbiosis between bugs and plants is so cool. But yeah, it has been really relaxed lately. Nothing weird going on here, which is nice. Sometimes DS9 had a lot happening. Things just seem to happen on some postings more than others." Teno listened quietly while Paco explained Pride and PRIDEFEST and just nodded along, not really having much to add to his very good explanaation.

Silver was enjoying her time on 777, to be honest. She loved how people were so accepting here, how she was immediately just one of them. It was nice, honestly. It felt like Cryo-IV, though much, much warmer and without the constant risk of death. The similarity was bittersweet given what had happened to Cryo-IV, but her brain loved to make connections, so she was making them. She was dressed in a long, flowy sundress, yellow with white lace at the hem. Not much rainbow on her, despite her weird as fuck gender situation. Instead, she had a sunhat on, with a rainbow ribbon and bow on it. Her white hair was left free to flow down to her mid-calf, though its specific construction and composition fiber-wise meant it hardly ever tangled. She was just standing off to the side, holding still so butterflies would land on her- she was succeeding in that, she had several already.

T'Lane looked over at Silver very very slowly and they softly spoke towards them making their presence known as living and not a statue. "That is the correct method. Hold as still as possible and they will perch upon you like a tree." T'Lane wore a fairly basic but still pretty dress with a golden rose in their hair. Around their neck was a rainbow choker.

“I am aware, though thank you. I did this a lot on Earth- oh, an ogomadara, how lovely..” She said, her voice becoming softer after a black and white spotted butterfly landed on her finger- it was a species native to Okinawa, and she was familiar with it. Silver loved all living things, and butterflies were certainly no exception.

Maya was definitely here, in PRIDEFEST 2415, the whole time. Well, she would've stayed by the bar to talk to Allan, definitely the first Gay boss she ever had... actually the second gay boss she ever had, Alizati was the first gay boss she ever had, and she didnt know either where gay until fairly recently... honestly, her past bosses might've also been within the spectrum of openly gay and closed bi, but she never really noticed nor bothered to ask back then. Small is the world of not-straight people when living under a rock. Was Maya even sure Alizati was gay? She assumed Paco or Allan might've mentioned it once in the past. Oh well. She could always ask Allan and give him the plushie and gay pins she made later. ANYWAY! She was here the whole time (mostly because she told Paco she would meet them here)! Now with a new look and 25% more gay! Newly cut and pink-purple colored hair from when she was in the salon for bestie time with Alaya; an open-buttoned orange and pink flannel shirt with just her black binder underneath; and paired with some jeans and sneakers. She also had a small satchel bag filled with stickers, buttons, and keychain plushies she made prior to this. Since Paco looked busy finally talking to people more and being a social butterfly, Maya decided to head towards Silver and T'lane. "Hello. Happy Pride!" Maya greeted with a warm smile.

Without moving his head (in order not to scare the butterflies who had just gotten comfortable on him), Silver flicked his eyes over to the new voice. Eyes that were, by the way, very much not human despite Silver looking human- with diamond-shaped pupils and bright yellow irises, Silver did not hide the fact he was an android. Silver did like Maya’s outfit, though- it was quite fashionable, and seemed comfortable too. And he did recognize her as well, having seen her around the Engineering division, but not knowing her well enough to know how she actually way. He was very new here after all. “Oh, hello, happy pride to you too, Commander.” He said quietly in order not scare his winged companions.

T'Lane slowly raised a hand giving Maya a Vulcan salute. They softly and monotonely spoke. "Greetings. I hope you are having a good lesbian gay bisexual transexual plus pride."