Shore Leave: The Bar

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May 16, 2019 9:07 pm
Moira smiles and nods in agreement.

Ah’ll have ya hook yeh up with some ‘a this Auber Spirit Wine ah’ve got. Life been treatin’ yeh all right?
May 16, 2019 9:27 pm
"Im doing well, little one. As it turns out people on shore leave are much better tippers than on a spaceship. Auber Spirit Wine? I haven't had any of that in years. It's pretty hard to get."
The front door opens and a small group of officers talking amongst each other enter. They sit down at a table and Stone excuses himself from the conversation to serve them.
May 16, 2019 10:01 pm
Day 1, 2230 hours

Some hours pass. Moira and Zephyr sit down at a table and talk, steadily getting their drinks refilled by Stone who at first sits with them for a while but as the bar fills up more and more, spends less time at their table. From time to time, others join them at their table and leave again. At one point, they notice that the man that was already in there when they arrived, Nic, leaves, but he gets replaced by a steady stream of new guests.

Cass and Alex go from bar to bar, getting progressively more drunk in each of them. The alcohol is significantly better than it was at the beach and by the time it's dark, they are both wasted. They spot another bar they haven't been in yet and enter. It's small and crowded but it looks like fun. The barkeeper is a large, tortoise-like alien with a friendly face who sees you and waves you in right away. As you come inside, you notice Moira and Zephyr sitting at a small table close to the bar, both with a drink in front of them

Alira decides that she should be well rested for the talk with Lt. Comm. Darcy the next day so you head into your cottage early to get some sleep. You can hear partying noises from the direction of the plaza but they're not loud enough to be annoying.
May 16, 2019 10:18 pm
As Alex struggles to open the door to this latest bar, Cass is saying, "I just don' understand it. How could ev'ry single person we asked give us bad directions to the M'rengi bar? 'S like people were trying to keep us fr'm finding 'm. Like a conspeercy." Finally noticing Alex's difficulty, Cass reaches out and helps her open the door.

They each walk through at the same time, accidentally crowding each other. They manage to sort things out with simultaneous incoherent apologies and patting each other on the arms and shoulders. When Cass spots Moira and Zephyr sitting at a table, she feels the kind of joyful awe that surely comes only with discovering a new planet, or the last green jelly bean in the jar. She points them out to Alex with a gesture made grandiose because she's trying so hard to appear sober.
May 16, 2019 10:41 pm
"I am very shertain that the last directions were off... off..."

Alex waves her hand in a vague sort of gesture, struggling to find the word. She grimaces and holds a hand to her chest. "’Scuse me.". She pauses again, and then says, way too loudly, pleased with her ingenuity, "Planet! Off-planet!"

She peers at Cass owlishly. "We have a ship, right? Maybe we could use it to find the elusive Keeper of True Recipes.". That’s when she sees where Cass is looking. She spreads her arms out as though she’s about to hug something. One of the patrons walking near takes a wide path around her, just in case. "Moira! Zephyr! My very favorite of all the roast chickens I know!"

In a stage aside to Cass, she says, perfectly audibly, "He’s the only one I know, but we don’t need to tell him that."
May 16, 2019 10:58 pm
Cass nods somberly, holding a finger to her lips - well, to her chin, but then sliding it up to her lips - to indicate her vow of silence about whatever it was Alex had just said. Then she throws an arm around Alex's shoulders and heads them both toward the table.

"I'm so happy to finally see us," she says, clumsily hugging first Zephyr and then Moira. "Al'x 'n I've had the strangest time try'nta..." She trails off, then suddenly begins to giggle uproariously. It picks up steam, forcing her to bend at the waist, hands on her knees until the laughter dies down enough for her to gasp, "Roast chicken!"

When the giggles have become more sporadic, she wrestles an inanimate but somehow combative chair out from the table and plops onto it in a triumph of dumb luck over physics. Turning to Moira, she says, "I'm sorry. You were saying?"
May 17, 2019 12:18 am
Moira’s always been better at acting sober than Cass, but it’s been a long day. She thwacked her forehead in an attempt to salute.

Cassano! Alex! Yer here! An’ it looks like yeh’ve been keepin’ Busy! Zeph was jus’ tellin’ me aboot tha fungi an’ spores on tha Potential that help the air quality. He is so smart! she says, bopping him on the shoulder.

Is it.....easier to understand her? How drunk is everyone??

When we’ve got a sec.... Ah’ve wrote a song!! Well, words. Et’s based on tha ancient Earth drinkin’ hymn "Donald, Where’s Yer Troosers"! . You’ve never seen her grin this big.
Last edited May 17, 2019 12:18 am
May 17, 2019 12:46 am
Cass goggles at Moira. "A song?" Her tone is almost reverent, as though Moira had said she'd met God, or had a baby. "You wrote a song?"

She puts a hand to her chest, seemingly overcome with emotion, then places her hands on either side of Moira's face. "I want to hear the song," she says. Then she repeats these words, in fragments or their entirety, over and over, as though trying to get Moira's attention, moving her hands to pat the engineer's face, arms, hand, top of the head. "I want to--" pat "--hear the song. I want--" pat "I want to hear--" pat "--the song. The song. I want to--" pat "--hear it."
May 17, 2019 1:25 am
Moira grins wildly and, losing her balance more than a little, begins to sing her song....accompanied by a small guitar Stone had? This apparently isn't an unusual occurrence.

And she sings, in loud, bawdy, Bard-like strands.

By the end of the song she's on the table, laughing maniacally and with a few more drinks emptied that she had been taking during the interludes. At some points she hopped down and forced the others to dance with her. Right now, Cassano's on the table with her, doing some form of a jig and reel. There is every probability that Moira's wearing her skirt kilt-style. Luckily, there's no proof of this.

She stops and holds her hands on her knees, panting between laughs.

Cass. Caaaaaaaaass. Was. Was that a good song?
Last edited May 17, 2019 1:26 am
May 17, 2019 1:33 am
Cass responds by laughing and throwing her arms around Moira, nearly unbalancing them both off the table.

"Whoa, we'd better get down, I think." Cass holds out a hand to whomever will help her and Moira down.
May 17, 2019 6:01 am
As Cass and Moira are struggling to get down from the table, both of them find a hand in front of them, held out to help them down.
Before they can get off the table with the offered help, the front door of the bar opens and a group of four people enters.
They are obviously spacefleet, even though none of them are wearing uniform. Three out of the four are human, the last one is an alien with a bone ridge from his forehead to the back of his neck where it disappears under his shirt. They all seem to be in their thirties, except for a young woman with dark hair and a complexion that looks Mediterranean or maybe Arabic, who is in her early twenties. They enter without looking around much, looking like they know the place well, and find a spot at the bar where they order some drinks.
Alex recognizes the young woman who seems to have not spotted her in the crowd yet.
May 17, 2019 6:47 am
Cass notes the arrival of the Spacefleet people peripherally, more concerned with getting down from the table than with scoping out newly arrived bar patrons. She takes the offered hand and manages to get her feet to the floor. She finds her empty chair at the table and drains the last of her current drink. Turning to Alex, intending to say something enthusiastic and moderately coherent, she notices that the diplomat's attention seems to be on a group of people at the bar.
May 17, 2019 4:18 pm
Watching Alex's face is almost like an educational vid of how the brain controls expression. Thanks to the liberal application of alcohol, the synapses fire in slow-motion, and her features respond with equal deliberation.

First, her eyes start to widen as she spots the young woman at the bar. Her hand rises to cover her gradually opening mouth (though she misses, and splays her fingers across her cheek instead). Her posture loosens and a sappy smile covers her face. She starts to get up from her seat, though she needs a lot of careful stabilization to do so. Wobbling through the patrons toward the bar, she calls out, "Julia! Stars, you came! I thought you didn't answer 'cause... but you came!" And before the poor young woman can even turn fully, Alex has awkwardly wrapped her in a hug.
May 17, 2019 4:43 pm
Julia spins around and pushes Alex away instinctively. She's never liked physical displays of affection, especially in public, and she definitely didnt expect it here. Her face shows confusion. "Mom? What are you doing here?"
She steps back and looks Alex up and down for a bit.
As you look at her up close, you notice that her appearance has changed since the last time you saw her. Her hair is shorter than you remember and she has switched from contacts to glasses apparently.

When she speaks up again, she doesn't look quite as confused anymore. "Oh, I get it. You heard about it and you're here to talk me out of it, aren't you? Well, you're out of luck."
May 17, 2019 5:05 pm
Seeing her friend get pushed by a stranger prompts Cass to get up from the table and walk toward the commotion. The fact that Alex had engaged the stranger in a hug before getting pushed doesn't register until she remembers Alex mentioning that her daughter was graduating from the Academy soon. By the time she's close enough to hear the conversation, Cass is wearing a big smile.

"Alex, this your daughter? Looks just like you. I think." She sticks out a hand. "I'm Cass. Nice t' meet you."
Last edited May 17, 2019 6:23 pm
May 17, 2019 5:35 pm
Julia looks at Cass, her expression turning back to slight confusion. She shakes Cass' hand quickly and just introduces herself as "Julia"
She then turns back to Alex and says "You're both drunk." It's not a question or an accusation, just a factual statement.
May 17, 2019 5:40 pm
"Shore leave," Cass says by way of explanation. "And nobody could need that more than your mom, after all she's been through." At the memory of just what Alex did go through recently, Cass is overwhelmed with feelings of compassion, and wraps Alex in a fiercely inappropriate hug.
Last edited May 17, 2019 6:46 pm
May 17, 2019 5:54 pm
Julia raises an eyebrow at the hug and then narrows her eyes at her mother. It looks as if she's checking out Alex for injuries or signs that something is wrong.
"Why? What happened? Are you okay?"

Stone comes by and hands her a drink that she hasn't even ordered yet. She nods a thank you without taking her eyes off Alex.
May 17, 2019 6:29 pm
Alex stares blankly at Julia, as her addled brain attempts to make sense of her daughter's initial response. Cass's timely arrival sends her feeble train of thought careening completely off the rails, and she returns to her friendly drunkenness, returning the commander's hug and apparently appreciating having someone to lean against.

"This is my daughter! Julia," she says cheerfully, forgetting or having failed to notice that she already introduced herself. "Julia, this is ... oh. She already told you her name. And yes, we are happily, wonderfully drunk."

She beams warmly, until she realizes what Julia's just said. "What do you mean, what happened? I thought you got my comm... that's... not why you're here?" Peering more closely at her daughter, she reaches out to touch Julia's hair. "You cut your hair? You had such gorgeous long hair!" She turns to Cass and adds earnestly, "Beautiful hair. From her father. I was her age, I was already going grey." Turning back to Julia with a fond look, she adds, "Might have been from having to raise a 1-year old by myself."
Last edited May 17, 2019 6:36 pm
May 17, 2019 6:37 pm
"Ohhh," Cass says mournfully. "I'm so sorry." She seems to be reacting to the news of Alex's single motherhood, but then she frowns, putting her hands into her own hair. "Am I? Going gray? I feel like I should be, after everything. Is it...?" She bows her head, as though the much taller Alex needs the help to look at the top of her head.
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