Star Trek: Starbase 777

These silly fellas requested something out there, and OPS delivered! When Ato and Serin stepped into the holodeck, they were greeted by a completely medieval themed sight, with an instructor standing by, ready to teach them the ancient art of.... axe throwing! How's that for a first date?

Ato hadn't been entirely sure what OPS was going to be able to come up with, whether he'd get paired with someone who was a bit less playful or if they'd found someone who was just as excited as he was to try new, wacky things. Stepping into the holodeck, though, proved to him that he should have more faith in a) people and b) OPS in general. They'd worked a miracle. When Ato saw the instructor, he broke out into a big smile and joyous laughter. This was going to be so much fun. He'd only wished he'd been able to get dressed for the occasion. He was just wearing some comfortable but presentable clothes. A soft buttoned shirt with long sleeves, loose linen trousers, and shoes with a good amount of support. He walked over to the instructor and said hello, thanking them for taking the time to provide this service, then leaned on a nearby wall, waiting for his date to appear through the arch of the holodeck entrance.

He had dressed for the occasion! As a wizard. A very Ren Faire one. One might assume that he'd been informed of the date's theme ahead of time and dressed accordingly. Wrong. He would have dressed like this regardless. This was appropriate date attire for him. Approaching his leaning date of pisa, he said, "Good morrow, match of mine. Can you believe what a perfect occasion this is?"

Ato's head turned at the sudden bright light from the entryway, Serin's outline with flowy robes silhouetted until he came closer. The Andorian-Romulan's eyes widened at Serin's outfit - he couldn't fit in more perfectly! "A perfect occasion indeed!" He said, moving away from the wall and toward Serin to greet him. "You look nice," he said, his voice happy. "My name's Ato. It's a pleasure to meet you." And he took a deep bow, chest parallel to the floor, then slowly stood.

He copied, bowing low. "You look nice as well. I'm high wizard Serin." Not as high as that one guy with the meth gummy. "Have you thrown any axes before? I have. This isn't my first sort of thing like this. I've done a little archery, too. Make no mistake, however - that isn't to say I'm good at these things." Luckily, it was fun to throw axes at things whether you were good at it or not!

"It is a pleasure to be in your company, high wizard Serin." Ato flashed a wide smile and gestured toward where the axes were, encouraging Serin to go first. "I have thrown axes before, though I've not practiced archery. My friends call me an "adrenaline junkie," ha!" He said, with air quotes around the words. "I enjoy doing really wild stuff sometimes. Like, jumping out of planes in or out of the holodeck. And climbing really steep mountains." He was being genuine. Ato raised a curious eyebrow at Serin's comment. "I'll trust that you're good enough at this to at least not bonk either of us or the instructor with the axes. But I mean, safeties are on right?" He laughed, giving a little eyebrow raise to the instructor. And his antennae wiggled curiously. "I'm sure it'll be fine," he said with a laugh and followed Serin to the table with the axes.

"Safeties are on. Not that this would stop me from throwing arrows and shooting axes." Wrong order. Oh well. Time to plough on ahead anyway. "I enjoy doing wild things too," he said, picking up an axe and testing its weight. "Not as much as you, I think, but it adds spice to life. Have you ever jumped the bun cheese?" Something went wrong with the translator there. Ploughing on once again!

Ato’s antennae flitted about at Serin’s comments. He couldn’t tell what was going on with the translator, but the wizard’s crypticisms were amusing to him. He laughed and picked up an axe too, feeling the worn texture of the leather handle. Many people had held and thrown this axe before him. Or well, it had been programmed to feel that way. “Jumped the bun cheese?” He asked. “I’m not sure what you mean. Oh yeah, wild stuff though. What’s one of the most exhilarating things you’ve done?” He asked curiously, his pink tipped antennae perking up.

"Bungee jumping." Ah, it worked this time. "I like the bit at the end where you sproing back up like a rubber band snapping into place. Very fun." The word sproing was not translatable. The UT was really struggling with this guy. "You wanna throw some axes?" The axe guy would probably have to demonstrate first.

“Oh! Bungee jumping, yes! I’ve done that once. The sproing is definitely a fun feeling. Your rubber band comparison is very apt.” He nodded in affirmation and watched as the demonstrator came over and explained, well, showed them what to do. The guy chucked an axe a couple different ways - single and double handed throws - making sure to show the two how to be safest. Ato took note of where the demonstrator was letting go of the axes when throwing, slightly above his head, keeping his arm straight and not flicking his wrist too much. “Oh wow,” he muttered as the axes flew through the air and smacked into the giant wooden target on the wall with loud THUMPS. “Would you like to go first, Serin?”

"I would, thank you." He picked up the axe, held it above his head (and he was very short at five foot one, so that probably didn't come up above Ato's head if he was decently tall), then threw it at the target at the end! Unfortunately, it bonked against the wall and fell off. No satisfying sinking of the blade into wood. "Alas. Here, your go." He took a step back.

"Of course," Ato said and stood back, still clutching his axe, and watched as Serin's arms lifted up above his head (no, they did not reach Ato's height at all). The axe flew through the air, bonked the wall, and fell down, but Ato knew that was normal. "Right, thanks. Good effort!" Ato took a step forward, gazing back at Serin curiously for a moment before training his eyes on the target. He was opting to throw one-handed this time, and his long slender arm reached high above his head (which was 6'6" in the air, not counting his antennae), reached back, and threw the axe. When he let go, the axe spun in the air, lurching forward, and met the same fate as Serin's. The blunt part of the axe bonked the wall, fell down, and rattled against the floor. "Dang," Ato said and made a smile that was half a grimace too. "Next time maybe." And he went and retrieved both Serin's and his axes, handing Serin's back to him gingerly.

He looked up at Ato's hands throwing the axe. It was a pain in the neck. Literally. "Hm. I see a problem here. Let me just cast a quick levitation spell. Computer, spawn stool." A small wooden stool appeared near his feet. He stood upon it. "Abracadabra. Alright, would you do me a favour and hand me an axe?" If Ato did, he threw it, and it hit the target with a thunk. "Hmmm. Am I doing something wrong?" Maybe his arms weren't long enough, unlike Mr. Giant over here.

Ato chuckled at the stool. Serin was quite a bit shorter than him, or he was quite a bit taller. Well, regardless, the stool was cute and useful. And clever! Ato did in fact hand the axe to Serin and watched as he launched it at the target again, and then it fell down. "Hmph, I think the target has it out for us." Ato took a step forward after Serin was done throwing and aimed again, this time using both hands and lifting the axe higher above his head. He dropped his hands back and then launched them forward, harder and faster this time. The axe tumbled over itself in the air three times and then hit the wall with a loud bang and clattered onto the floor again. "Oh come on!" Ato said with a slightly annoyed laugh, and went and retrieved the axes again, handing one to Serin once more.

A small, amused smile. They really were failing hard at hitting this target. He threw the axe again. Bonk! It clattered into the floor. He stared at it, aghast for a second before his smile appeared again. It was tight, like he was almost about to laugh. "Wow. How did we ever pass phaser training?" Or whatever it was called in the academy.

"I have no idea at this rate," Ato said with a hearty belly laugh. "I swear I'm a better shot than this. Okay, okay..." This time Ato took a different stance, one foot kind of out in front of him and the other slightly behind, as if he was mid walk. He took the one-handed approach again this time, bending his arm at the elbow just above his head, and carefully but surely flinging his forearm ahead of him in a straight line. He let go at what felt like the right moment and... Plonk! The axe finally sunk into the wood! And it was even in a pretty good spot, quite close to a bullseye but no cigar. "Well, at least I have a couple points now," he said, laughing in amazement. "I'm not sure what I did differently this time. What did you see?"

"Finally. Well done." He took his glasses off and peered at the board. "That looks like around eight. Does that mean you have eight points? Right, that's a number to beat." Perhaps the reason he kept missing was that he had dark glasses on inside. He put them back on quickly, leaving Ato with only a glimpse of piercing blue. Taking an axe once again, he threw it, and it missed the board completely, stuck in the wall instead. He stared. Still stood on the stool. Stared some more. Took a deep breath... "Well," he sighed. "There's no doubt about it. I've been cursed!" He pointed at the board. "I can feel the malevolence radiating off the target even from here. Or perhaps it's curse upon my throwing arm?" He clutched his arm. "Ah, I can feel the corruption creeping up my arm as we speak!" Or maybe he just sprained something. (edited)

"Thanks," Ato replied, watching intently as Serin readied himself. Ato had idly wondered why the man was wearing sunglasses in the dark holodeck, but to each their own. And a flash of blue! It appeared Serin's eyes matched his long blue hair. Pretty, really. Hmm. "Curses are particularly medieval, right? I want to say I learned something or other about Terran curses in a history class or something at the Academy years ago. Well, let's see if we can break the curse, shall we?" Ato walked up to the throwing line next to Serin and his stool and tucked the axe under one of his arms. Then he raised both of his arms, one lower than the other since he was still holding the axe, and pretended to wipe away the curse. "I banish you, malevolent spirits. Curse begone!" He stole a glance at Serin, with a raised eyebrow and a silly smile, and turned back to the targed and chunked his axe at the wall. It did not gain purchase, smacked the wall, then bounced onto the floor a couple times. "Well, it appears I am not a qualified curse breaker."

He took a deep breath, then sighed in relief, as though he'd been cleansed. Then he looked at the axe bounce sadly across the floor, frowning. "I think you've absorbed my curse. Well, now that I'm back at full power, it should be no problem for me to cleanse you. Come closer!" On the stool, he put both his hands on Ato's shoulders and closed his eyes, muttering various arcane words. They sounded convincingly like a real language, though the UT was unable to translate it - had this guy made up a conlang just to pull off antics like these? "Shazam! You're healed. Now try it again!" He was letting Ato take another turn.

Ato laughed heartily and walked over to where Serin had beckoned him, letting the shorter-but-tall-enough-to-reach-because-he-was-on-a-step-stool-man grasp his shoulders and say some fancy words. Were they real words? Fascinating. Ato would ask later, though maybe it wasn't appropriate to ask a magician to reveal his secrets. But it couldn't hurt, right? Regardless, once Serin had said his spell, Ato nodded at him thankfully. "I appreciate the curse-breaking, O Great High Wizard. Let us see the results of your magics." His antennae wiggled tentatively as he turned back toward the target, reached his arm back like he had before, and threw the axe once more. This time the sharp end hit the wall and the axe stuck in the target for two seconds, and Ato was very excited, and then it fell out and clanged onto the floor. "What..." Flabbergasted, Ato looked from the target to Serin. "Okay. These axes must be cursed. Computer, new axes please!" The cursed axes on the ground disappeared, and two new axes materialized on the table near the pair. The instructor snickered amusedly from a few feet away.

He narrowed his eyes at the snickering instructor. An enemy agent? "Good call. I shall try one of these new axes." He took a deep breath. Raised the axe. Paused to calculate the throw in his head. Tossed it... And it hit! Right next to Ato's axe! "Ah, the same one you got. We're truly in sync today, wouldn't you say?" Was he flirting a tiny bit? Maybe. "Have another go. We need to test further."

Ato let out a whoop and pumped a fist when Serin's axe buried itself in the wood next to his singular scoring attempt. "What a nice throw!" His voice was happy and encouraging, and his eyes moved from the target, back to Serin's face. He looked pretty enchanting in the low light, what with the cool glasses and bright blue hair and the robes... Hm. The Andorian-Romulan smiled at the comment. "It seems so to me," and he laughed softly, picking up the other axe that had appeared. "I am really enjoying this. Let's see if your magic is rubbing off on me, hm?" He said earnestly, a goofy little smile, and then he turned to throw the new, hopefully-not-cursed axe. It spun end over end three times, then lodged itself in the ring just outside of the bullseye! 9 points! "Whoa!" He exclaimed.

"Incredible. So it was the axes this whole time. That makes sense. Cursed objects are the bane of many a wizard... I had to dispel the magic of one particularly malicious ring just last week." In his D&D campaign. "What an excellent shot. What's that make your score so far? Seventeen?" He picked up an axe and threw it. Four. Not so good. And he couldn't blame it on a curse this time. "I think you may have stolen a little too much of my magic."

"Huh, yeah I think you're right. My mom always said to follow your intuition...My father, however, believes everyone lies, including your intution." He raised a curious eyebrow at Serin's comment about a cursed ring. "What did the ring look like? Who did it belong to? Did you figure out who cursed it and why?" Ato, generally a man of science, was intrigued. He'd never encountered a cursed object, necessarily, but he was pretty superstitious about some of his medkits. Never use MedKit #1 in Emergency Surgery. "I would never," he said, grinning like the cheshire cat. He summoned some more axes, picked one up and lobbed it confidently at the target. And then...it buried itself in the wood, but not on an actual scoring spot of the target. "It appears your magic wore off." And he laughed, and stepped aside so Serin could go again.

A sharp exhale of air through the nose. The Vulcan Laugh, one might call it. They really couldn't catch a break today. Before he said anything, he had another throw. Maybe he, too, would flop this time, to create solidarity. And it worked! The flopping, not the throwing. He flopped so hard the axe didn't even bonk off the wall. It just landed pathetically on the floor. He had thrown it too gently. "I think mine is as well. My magic is done for the day, I think." He shook his arm a bit. That cramp from earlier was acting up. "I don't know if you want me to explain the whole thing with the ring right now. At least, not in this environment. It's a long story. I could tell you over dinner, though." Smooth.

Ato’s body was angled toward Serin, his attention focused on the High Wizard more than the pitifully empty target wall. He smiled at the man’s ’Vulcan laugh,’ which he’d heard many times from other Vulcans he’d encountered. At least Serin was enjoying himself. Amusement looked good on him. Ato’s eyes were only drawn from Serin when he heard the clanging of the axe just flopping on the floor, followed by the other man’s deadpan commentary. He laughed, nodding in agreement. “Okay yeah, the curse is back for sure. Maybe, after you tell me about this ring over dinner, we could try another activity. One that doesn’t require good aim.” He paused for a moment, his antennae swaying back and forth and a curious expression on his face. “Like cliff jumping and swimming or hiking and finding an abandoned tower to explore, perhaps?” A grin broke out, his cheeks round and a tad darker than they were a few moments before. (edited)

Despite Ato's disastrous performance, he and Serin managed to make it a great date.