Raise a glass

Posted on Thu May 27th, 2021 @ 4:43am by Lieutenant JG Miraj Derani & Lieutenant Commander S'hib

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: The bowels of Elysium/Arcadia Bar
Timeline: After return from Quellish
2563 words - 5.1 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON]

Miraj was somewhere to the back of Elysium, where people were less worried about exposed ducting, draped over a large pipe filled with smaller pipes that rushed and gurgled off to cleaning and processing. It was a different form of bliss to being at helm, but they'd kicked her off the bridge when her shift was over, so she had found another place to ground herself. It was quiet back here, and after so long away from her ship, she could sit and absorb the vibrations without bothering too many people, letting the low buzz wash her awareness deeper into her surroundings, the vibrations of the warp core, pulsing like a metronome, the soft brown noise of the EPS behind its insulated tubes, the low fuzzing of the air scrubbers and the soft whine of the lights. The clip-clop of hooves.

She shifted her head slightly to see below, and as expected, the tall form of S'hib came into view. There wasn't much room for him, at well over two meters he took up almost all the space. Though he wasn't quite high enough to see her in her cosy spot. She carefully reached down and flicked his ear, before pulling back to try and stay hidden, trying not to giggle.

"Ow!" Was all S'hib blurted out as his startled hooves instinctively moved him to the side, making him hit his head on the low hanging pipes with a dull thud. "Ahh..." He groaned, a pained exhaled followed by an angry snort as his hand clutched his pride more than his skull.

Miraj had to press a hand over her mouth to stifle her laugh, and tried to stay still whilst S'hib was looking around. If she stopped to think about it, she'd have realised that it was fairly obvious where she was, but she was too busy trying to keep quiet

"No, go on... let it out." S'hib remarked as he slowly turned his head towards her, his ear flicking against the ceiling in annoyance as he crossed his arms.

She couldn't stop the sniggering then, and peeked over the edge of the pipes to look at his displeasure. "Good evening, Commander, what brings you down here?"

"You, actually..." He said softly as he leant against the wall opposite her. "I know you like to be alone, but I thought you could do with some company... plus I have something to give you." He smiled, watching her curiously.

"I'm not alone, I'm with Elysium." The flare in her orbital arch made raising an eyebrow physically impossible but she did squint at him. "What sort of something?"

"You know what I meant, just get down." He sighed, nostrils flaring as he unfolded his arms and tugged at the pouches along his belt.

"Fine, catch!" She flopped off the pipe on top of him.

His eyes flicked up as she fell, his lips already attempting to form the words to make her stop, but it was too late. "Red sands you're worse than a filly that's learnt how to run," He snorted as he caught her, ungraceful as it was before lowering Miraj off his head to his chest.

"You should have been more specific," she told him primly. "You just said down."

"Hm, I suppose you are right... oh well, down you go then." He said as his brow raised in anticipated amusement before pretending to drop her, letting her fall for merely a second before clutching at her body again with nonchalant ease.

She gave out a squeal and clutched at him. But when she realised he'd caught her again, Miraj gave him a glare. "Meanie." She wriggled out of his grasp and back onto her own feet, just. It wasn't graceful. "You said you had something for me?"

"I do," He said, the amusement in his voice boarding on a chuckle. "Took me a while to track down actually, crawling about in the cargo bays getting weird looks from engineering..." He added before removing a small polished disk of durasteel out of his pouch, the name and registration of the Acheron engraved along its outermost edge.

"There was an original plate on the hull that was damaged and removed, most of it had been repurposed by now," He said softly, holding out the cold metal between his open hooved digits. "She looked after us, It's only fair that you get to look after what's left of her."

Miraj ran her fingers over the piece of hull. "Poor thing. I hope she had a grand finale." She beamed at him. "Thank you. That's really sweet."

"Well, I still don't understand your connection too..." S'hib replied, looking around the cramped environment to imply the Elysium. "But just because I don't understand doesn't mean it's not there..." He added, gesturing to the metal disk in her hands.

"My people keep clippings of manes of those who are no longer with us, It's a way of keeping a part of them with us, so they never truly leave the herd." he smiled warmly before glancing to his right at a maintenance crew, arriving down the other end of the corridor and reminding him of where he was.

Miraj nodded. Keepsakes were another one of those things that seemed universal. "Speaking of Herds... have you decided what you want to do before you make a new herd with Major Azhul?"

His brow furrowed at her comments, what did she mean by before? he wondered. "Before?" He asked, lowering his bulk and turning his head to one side. "What do you mean?" He added, nostrils flaring with a deep inhale that subconsciously puffed up his chest.

"Your stag do," she reminded him. "Which sounds weird, because, you know, not a stag. But also stallion do also sounds wrong. But maybe we could find you some antlers. From what my brother said, a big rack is a traditional component of these things."

S'hib turned away as soon as Miraj finished, finding himself struggling not to laugh as he clicked a few steps away. "Miraj..." He started, clearing his throat and trying to compose himself. "Let's go get a drink..." He added, turning to face her, top lip still quivering back and forth from a smile to his usual stoic expression. "I'm going to need one if we're gonna have this conversation."

They took a turbolift to the Arcadia lounge, and Miraj ordered a chocolate milkshake and an apple juice. "So," she said as she put down the drinks then settled into her chair. "What sort of party do you want?"

"I'm not having one." He stated bluntly as he dragged the chair out from under their table and sat down, finding it difficult to fit his long legs under the table.

"What?" Miraj stared at him. "Why not?"

"I'll answer that in a minute," He mused, before taking a small sip. "But first I need to ask you some things..." He said as he gently placed his glass down and sat back, never taking his eyes off of her for a moment.

She frowned, her orbital arches flaring with the move. "What sort of things?"

He paused for a moment, using two of his stubby hooves to scratch at his neck. "Well, what exactly is it you think a stag do... is."

"It's a sort of party you have before you get married." Everyone knew that. Or had she missed something? No. She remembered some of the men in her dorm at the academy had gone out one night for one, and hadn't staggered back until the next morning, very hungover. "With your friends. And drinking."

"You're almost right, a few details missing, but we will get to those..." He smiled, pondering on his next question. "You've never been out drinking before have you." He asked rather bluntly, looking down at the chocolate milk in her hands.

"Sure I have." Miraj said, slurping her milkshake on purpose. "I mean, things were busy at the academy, I wasn't partying every week, but I did go out with some other girls once or twice. And I can take my grog like the horniest sea dog."

"Well, when you went out with those girls, did they leave with anyone else?" He asked softly, trying to nudge the answers into place rather than blurt it out.

"Well, I don't really think so. Kimmi and Etya were into each other. And Nesta would go home to her boyfriend."

He didn't mean to groan so loud, nor garner the attention of the other tables... though he was too busy burying his face into his oversized mitts to notice the heads he had turned his direction, their perplexed expressions scrutinising the oversized Sequus as he hunched over the small table, trying desperately to appear as small as the pink hair girl across from him.

"Ok... let's... start again," He said with his brow curled into a furious knot, more so at his inability to find the right words than anything Miraj herself had done.

"Culturally speaking, a stag do... doesn't really make much sense to a Sequus... because, well..." He started, turning his head to one side, his eyes scanning around as if hoping the answer would jump out from behind the nearby decore.

"They're... normally for doing things, you really aren't allowed to do when you're married..." He finished, painfully aware of how much simpler things were on his home world.

"I don't follow. Surely there are things you aren't allowed to do when you're married?" She gave her milkshake a noisy suck. "like look at naked people and go to the loo with the door open."

The next few words that came out of S'hibs mouth seemed to fly across the table at her as quickly as possible. as if tearing off a plaster, before quickly hiding behind the rest of his apple juice. "Miraj, your brother went to a strip club... and he wasn't talking about antlers."

"He wasn't?" her blue eyes went theatrically wide. "Maybe it was some other type of horn?"

S'hib didn't say anything as he placed his glass back down and glanced his head around, quickly surveying around the room before looking back at Miraj and raising his hands to his chest, cupping the air with his hoofed digits in an attempt to visualise what he lacked as a physical medium.

Miraj's face was a mask of confusion. "Finger nails? I know they're all made of the same stuff."

"red sands miraj..." S'hib muttered as his hands fell into his lap "Breasts!" He snorted loudly, stunning the rest of Arcadia into silence as he stared at Miraj, a slight twitch enveloping his left eye.

She blinked at him, innocence radiating from her blue eyes, "Breasts don't have fingernails."

His mouth opened in stunned silence, a thousand words clamoring to leave his lips as he squinted in genuine annoyance at the pink-haired menace across from him.

Then without uttering a single word he leaned his arms against the table and let his face fall into his hands, he sat there for a moment, his weight lifting the table slightly as he let out a long drawn-out snort.

After a second he heard a sound that was like hiccups mixed by hissing.

Diamond-shaped ears perked at the sudden noise, arching slowly as he raised from the comfort of the palm of his hands.

Miraj was trying really hard not to laugh. her whole body was shaking, her hand was pressed over her mouth and there were tears leaking from the corners of her eyes.

"Can't take you anywhere..." He huffed as he stared at her, trying very hard to maintain the displeased and obviously fake expression on his face.

She gave up on trying to be quiet, and let out a gale of dirty laughter. "Your face! Oh, I can't breathe! That was hilarious."

"It's a good thing I like you... because you're a pain in the ass." He grumbled, trying his best not to smile.

"I know." She agreed happily. "So what's it going to be? Madame Miaow's Interstellar Burlesque Review or The Fragrant Lotus Geisha house?"

"Miraj, if I wanted to see naked dancing women I would go back to Sequella..." He snorted stubbornly, starting to wonder just how innocent his friend really was.

"I can arrange that too." She downed more milkshake. "Would you like to? Go to Sequella, I mean. I bet they can throw you a kickarse party."

"What I would like to do and what I can do, are seldom things that go well together..." He sighed, looking down at his drink. "It's fine... I don't need to have a party."

"You can't go to Sequella?" She asked, concerned. "Why not?"

"Because I'm with Naxea." He replied, as though it was obvious

Her orbital arches squeezed together. "We wouldn't be taking her with us. Thats missing the point of a stag do."

"Us?" He neighed in amusement. "Miraj, you freeze the moment you see anyone without a shirt on... how are you going to handle Sequella."

"Ah." Miraj realised. "That's a good point." Her shoulders drooped. "You really don't want a party?"

"I'll make you a deal, I'll have a party... but only if you come to Sequella with me at some point."

"Alright," Miraj agreed. Afterall, in a hundred years was still technically Some point. "But party first."

He leant over the table as she finished, a hoofed digit pointing somewhere between her and the ceiling. "No putting me in silly outfits, I know what you're like..." He warned her, an obviously forced squint across his face.

"You take away all the fun." she pouted. "So when do we set the date for your stag do?"

"And your idea of fun tends to be a security risk... why do you think I'm friends with you." He smiled, tilting his head to one side and pointing at his eye, tapping a single hoof tip against his cheek before letting out a small chuckle.

She grinned, and looked at him through her eyelashes. "So, date?"

"Well you're the one planning it, you tell me." He snorted, leaning back in his seat before stubbornly crossing his arms.

"I meant when are you getting married? No point in having our party too soon!"

"What do you mean?" He squinted, his face moving ever so slightly forward. "I offered her a ring of my mane, and she wears it... I'm just waiting for her to give me a length of her hair in return." He stated matter of factly.

"You mean she didn't actually say yes?" Miraj looked shocked. "You gave a ring, she's supposed to say yes. Does she know you have to give hair in return? What happens if she doesn't? Do you need to go say something?"

His face went blank as he stared through Miraj and into the bulkhead beyond, it was true, he hadn't actually explained to Naxea how Sequus marriage worked, nor did he understand the more... widely used template that the humanoid species of the Alpha quadrant used.

"Oh..." A single word was all that left his lips, with all the context and realisation squeezed into.

"You need to go say something." Miraj said. "Like, right now. Do not wait."

"I'm sure it'll be fine..." He said quietly, reaching back for his glass.

[OFF]

 

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