Costuming

Posted on Sat Dec 29th, 2018 @ 6:28am by

Mission: Season 2 Episode 3.A: Christmas cheer
Location: Sami's Quarters
Timeline: before winter festival post
1388 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

“Hey Sami, you like winter, right?” Anya asked her newfound friend. “What are you going as for the winter festival?”

“Well, I decided to go very St. Pete for the festival.” She began, showing Anya her planned outfit: a pair of leather pants, high heeled boots in a light blue, a yellow sweater top, and a mask of an alien in a baseball cap with an aurora on the front, “I’m Raymond!”

“Raymond? First person I can think of by that name is Raymond of Toulouse, the crusader”, Anya said. “I don’t think that’s him, right?”

“No, no.” Sami smiled, “Raymond, he’s kind of a symbol of St. Pete. I mean, I think at one point he was like a restaurant mascot or something for the chamber of commerce…. Nobody’s quite sure, but he’s just always been an icon there.”

“Hmm”, Anya wondered. “I should look up what the mascot of the Aberdeen was, maybe? I don’t remember it, but I was born there.”

“Well, guess this means Gallia is right.” Sami smiled, moving closer to Anya, “The prettiest ones do come from Aberdeen.” She wanted desperately to kiss the beautiful security officer, but wasn’t sure if she should.

“Aw, thank you”, Anya said, putting her arm around Sami. “But with me, it’s the U.S.S. Aberdeen, one of the glorious old Ambassador class explorers.” That ship was still in service, had survived all the odds during the war, and was still being refit by her crew even though Starfleet had intended to abandon the Ambassador class as there were too few ships in existence to make it worthwhile starting a refit programme like for the very numerous Mirandas and Excelsiors, even though they were a lot older.

“I’ll have to look that one up.” Sami said, enjoying being in Anya’s embrace, “The Elysium is the first ship I’ve ever been on….”

“We’ll make a real spacer out of you yet”, Anya grinned. She walked over to a computer terminal and looked up the information she needed, but then shook her head. “No, no, no, I’d look totally ridiculous dressed up as a sea otter, no matter how cute those are.”

“I don’t think you’d look ridiculous.” Sami reassured her, “But it’s definitely not the sort of thing I envision you in at the festival.”

“I’ll trade you”, Anya offered. “Your vision of me at the festival, for appropriate winter snacks I’ll get for you.”

“Sexy female Viking.” Sami said without hesitation, almost as though she’d already imagined it many times previous.

“Yes! That’s a great idea!” Anya loved it immediately. “I’ve got several outfits, from my holodeck programmes.” She brought them up on the wall monitor, but none of them were in the particularly sexy category. There was armour, and the kind that would actually be effective, not the typical high level fantasy female armour which consisted of little more than a chainmail bikini. And the helmets had no horns either.

“Those are pretty.” Sami complimented, even if they weren’t the sexy outfits she had in mind; Anya could look good in anything.

“I’m sure we can modify them a little”, Anya figured. “Dispense with the metal, go for leather armour. It’s not as sturdy but more flexible. Not suitable for my preferred two-handed fighting style, but certainly good for a costume. But it would have to cover most of my skin or I’ll freeze.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be all that cold in there.” Sami replied, “I hope not anyway.” If it was, her outfit was not going to be as much fun as she’d imagined.

“The announcement said there would be snow”, Anya reminded her. “And, well, I’m more of a hot weather person.”

“She says to the Floridian.” Sami laughed, her head back.

“You’ve seen some of the dresses I like to wear”, Anya said. “If I wear them in the cold, it looks like my torpedoes are armed.” Not to mention she’d be doing a lot of shivering. “But I still like your idea. I could put on a skin-coloured thermal suit underneath, like the Andorians wear to keep them cool, only to heat me up.”

“Sounds great.” Sami nodded, “I think we can work with that. Can I help?”

“Please do”, Anya said. She brought up a hologram of herself in intricately designed leather armour. The leather had beautifully stitched patterns on it, which in real warfare would have been far too precious to risk, and Anya pointed at it. “Which parts do you want to remove to make me look suitably sexy?”

“Obviously we want to go bare midriff.” Sami began, changing the hologram to show just that, “A little lower in the front, maybe some ‘tears’ in the leather on the legs and buttocks?”

“My midriff’s not as toned as yours, though”, Anya said. “Not my best asset.”

“Yours is just lovely.” Sami reassured her, “Besides, little harder to list your best assets than most of us. So many…”

Anya blushed. “Well, I like my legs and my butt most. The rest of me is just average.” She looked at the image and figured, “Hm, maybe a belt to tuck it in a bit, and exposed above and below that?”

“Sounds like a winner to me.” Sami smiled, “That’ll look fabulous.”

“Excellent”, Anya smiled. “Now, traditional green, or coca cola red?”

“Can’t go wrong, either way.” Sami contemplated, “Though, you being such a historian, I’d go traditional.”

“Ah, I’m no historian”, Anya said. “I just love all those fighting programmes. And the crusades were in a hot region.” She turned the costume the colour of ilex. “So, are you going to expose your best assets?”

“Depends.” Sami teased, “What do you think they are?”

“Except for your eyes, which you’re certainly not planning to hide, I’m sure, I’d say your abs, and you have worked hard for them, haven’t you?” She smiled. “Your arms, too. You know, I was teasing you about that before but I do think they look great. Just the right amount of strength in them, without looking, well, manly, you know?”

“Thanks.” Sami blushed, “So, want to rearrange my outfit then? I think you’ve got an eye for it.”

“I’m not sure”, Anya said. “It does make you look like a stuffed animal, you know?” Tact wasn’t her strong point.

“Well, I was going for cute with Raymond.” Sami shrugged, not sure why she felt she had to defend the costume; Just nervous, I guess, she thought, trying hard to keep it from showing.

“Hmm, I guess”, Anya nodded. Sami was still a teenager, Anya should not forget that. “Cute is fun, I agree. But if you want to mix cute with sexy, that usually results in an overload.”

“Okay, got another idea?” Sami asked, figuring Anya’s more refined fashion sense would be useful.

“No, your original idea works, I’m sure”, Anya tried to reassure her. “It’s just hard to combine. Plus, I’d look like a hunter, and you’d look like my prey. That could be awkward.”

“Okay, that could be a little awkward, yes.” Sami agreed, “Though we don’t want our costumes to be too similar, either.”

“Just pick whatever you like”, Anya said. “Really, it’s just about what you want to go as. The idea is to have fun, nothing else.”

“Well, I just…” Sami stalled, then finished, “I don’t want to embarrass my date.”

“Hey, we’ve got Estelle Hertz joining us that evening”, Anya smirked. “Nothing’s going to be embarrassing compared to whatever I’m convinced she’ll come up with.”

Sami heaved a sigh of relief and laughed, “Yeah, there is always that!”

“Then we’re all set?” Anya asked.

“Yep.” Sami smiled, offering Anya her hand, “Ready to take the most beautiful girl to the dance.”

“Oh, stop it”, Anya laughed, taking Sami’s hand.

“Stop what?” Sami faux boasted, “I just wanted to know if you were ready to take me…”

“Hah, okay, that’s better”, Anya grinned, leading her towards their destination.