Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Holodeck Side Sim - Reia’s Birthday Party - All Welcome and Encouraged

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Holodeck Side Sim - Reia’s Birthday Party - All Welcome and Encouraged

Posted by Ensign Kesh (Engineer) in Holodeck Side Sim - Reia’s Birthday Party - All Welcome and Encouraged
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
snip
“Being ‘quotable’ was curiously not a thing prior to First Contact with Earth 334 years ago, apart from some of the writings of Surak and sayings of T’Pau.” Her kite took a small dive. Angel overcorrected and it hit the grass with a soft thunk. “Evidently there is a learning cycle to be had with these. I can see the appeal of the challenge,” she said. “Do you have any .. famous Caitians who are known for their sayings?”

Round, felid ears flex up for a moment as Kesh’s attention turns from her own kite to Angel’s when it dives into the ground. A small squeaky note escapes along with a quick twang of her tail out of empathy, though she then immediately realizes that it was not necessary. Sort of a relief, sort of a disappointment. Comforting others is something she does have a fondness for, though not needing to worry about another’s emotional response has its own benefits. “Yes, ah… mmrm. A curious hobby, but it has a certain meditative quality, I think.” The caitian’s own kite had, thus far, been maneuvered quiet skillfully, hinting at her familiarity with either the concept or at least the aerodynamics of such a device. “Ah.. mmm.. ‘The daylight lasts as long as you allow it’.” A simple shake of her head follows, “I do not know what it is supposed to means.”

Angel fought with the kite, peering over toward Bat who, despite his flailing attempts to keep his kite going, it was going better than Angel’s. Were a Vulcan to frown it would be at that time. “A fascinating saying,” she said. “And logical. I would consider it a subtle way of suggesting that one’s usefulness in a given day is only limited by one’s own work ethic. If it is poor the day will pass and little will be done.”

Golden brown-rimmed felid ears slung back the more Kesh watched Angel struggle with the kite, feeling a bit self-conscious about her own near-effortless ability to keep her own aloft. Was the vulcan’s kite malformed? Was the holodeck programmed to cause some kites to be problematic? Was someone directly affecting Angel’s kite to pull somne kind of prank? The felinoid’s tail fur frayed out a bit, feeling a great deal of want to do something, but also certain that to do so would be the wrong choice. Instead, a few firm puffs blow from her nostrils, while otherwise keeping up with Angel as they follow in the wake of the others. “Hmn. Well, that does make sense for the context I have heard it used it. Eh, rrr… not sure why it is so well regarded among what other Caitians I know.” Despite efforts, her flusterment is palpable in her vocal tone.

Angel’s kite again took a swoop to the ground. She took that as a cue to pick it up and carry it the remainder of the distance to join the others at the its. “I am curious. In many worlds, including Vulcan with the Sehlat, felinoids are typically nocturnal. And yet a proverb is fashioned around the daylight. Perhaps I am incorrect in my assumption of what it means by basing it on other standards. Forgive me. My assessment was not logical.”

Feeling a self-conscious jab of being good at something someone else is struggling with, Kesh began pulling her kite in, subconsciously causing it to swirl about chaotically and force her to adjust her stride to keep control of it. No doubt Angel was not going to be let down or soothed by seeing Kesh struggle, but the want to be on roughly even ground with her shipmates was still a powerful force for her.

“No need to apologize, rrrrnth. Colonial Caitian are well-understood with my kind to have a very different view of the universe than Homeworld Caitian. I determined long ago that my views align with the Colonial kind that I was raised among, so I tend to misunderstand the views and sentiments of my ancestors on Cait. Mmmnnrrm. Though I will note that the felid’s that Caitian evolved from where more like Earth lions or Endosian suncats than the Vulcan selhat or the Andorian ice prowlers. Quite durinal.”

“I grew up on Riviera, which has as many caitians as it does humans, so I saw the contrast of the two constantly. Mrrm. Humans are definitely, ah… much more… loose? In their approach to… well, everything, really. Ah. Uh. A double-bladed trowel.” Kesh’s general confidence and vocal steadiness gradually wittled away to stammers and softer tone as Angel’s constant even tone and smoothness of verbage proved intimidating. Perhaps that is where her uneasiness with vulcans stems from: they always seem so at ease.

If Angel noticed the change in Kesh’s tone she didn’t mention it. Padding over to where the kite had fallen she picked it up and examined it as though to perhaps assess its aerodynamic properties and better achieve success next time. Whether that was done or not was uncertain, but she opted to try Reia’s method of movement, trotting rather than running but keeping an eye on her path and kite. It moved fitfully in the wind, stubbornly resisting getting comfortably aloft like Kesh’s or the others, though Bat’s one flapped behind him as he moved.
- Angel

Kesh took long, deliberate paces to keep heading after Reia and the others, with an eye toward Angel’s difficulties in case a request for assistance occurs.

The fact that Kesh was casually commenting about humans to a vulcan in an entirely friendly manner stood out to her. To think, she used to outright dislike vulcans. All it took was living longer than she’s supposed to in order to mature past such prejudices.

Further pondering on this occurs as the wind carries the caitian’s chosen wedge of fabric into the sky to be held aloft by one upraised arm and two pinching fingers.

Reia had set the lovely bottle of perfume down next to the cupcakes. For some reason she had a feeling that Bat wouldn’t accidentally inhale that. She watched him on the grass and couldn’t help but laugh as he went tumbling like a giant blueberry. After that, she turned her attention to Dagen. Leaning in, she held him closely for a few seconds and kissed him passionately.

Dagen was caught off guard by Reia’s spontaneous hug and kiss. He had been wondering whether he was to help Bat disentangle himself or let him be. Apparently letting him be was the order of the day, help forgotten in the instant of Reia’s warm press and even warmer kiss. “You’re welcome,” he said with a budding crooked, pleased smile.

“I’ll just bet there’s some naughty little present waiting on my pillow when I get home, isn’t there?” she whispered against his cheek and sighed contentedly.

“Or somewhere,” he suggested mysteriously, but by the tone did imply a yes to the question.

And then she was gone as quickly. Dagen watched her in this unguarded moment of seeing his wife just having fun.

“I’ve just got to fly that kite now. Chase me to the horse shoes?” she said a little louder.

• Reia

“I’m in!” Bat cried out, though he was not in an easy position to do much running for a moment at least. Dagen moved to help him up, but all the while he was trying to keep the kite aloft.
- Dagen

An ear twists toward the nearby conversation, with Kesh’s golden eyes shifting to glance at Reia, Dagen, and Bat. This gaze turns then toward Angel, then back into the simulated sky, electing to remain here and fly the kite a while longer.

-> Kesh

The kite lifted in the breeze as Reia began running away from Dagen. Laughing, she glanced down at Bat.

Dagen smiled, still pleased to see his wife enjoying herself while he himself was enjoying watching her move while running.

“You’re in trouble you mean. I’ve never see someone get so tangled so quickly.” she said as she passed by.

“You should see him in Engineering,” Angel commented as she passed.

“Hey now,” Bat said, rolling now to try to stand and get himself upright to untangle himself. In the end, after some seconds the rotund Bolian simply started trotting in Reia’s direction, still entangled but miraculously with the kite still aloft.

Half way to the horse shoes she slowed down wanting to just enjoy some time and let the breeze take her butterfly kite where it would.

• Reia

Dagen, et al ..

A long breath allows the stress Kesh was allowing to build to, instead, subside, as her focus centered on keeping the kite aloft, and in moving with the breeze in the direction of the others, on the way toward the horse shoe tossing game area.

->Kesh

Reia laughed and waved at Kesh. She was glad to see this new friend had come to the party.

“So… When are we gonna play that game of yours? I think I can schedule us a work out in a day or two if you want.” she asked looking between Kesh and the beautiful clouds.

• Reia

“Ah, uh? Well! Ah… whenever you.. want to devote at least an hour to going over the basics. Rrrrnth. A short micro-dungeon can be done in a half hour, though I like the ones that take multiple sessions. Awrrr. The better ones provide lots of opportunities to make camp and pause.” Those large, bright golden cat eyes squint shut for a moment as whiskers fan out and tremor in conveyance of the caitian’s delight at Reia’s continued interest in the subject. “Let me know when you do your work-outs and I will be there, mnyrr.”

-> Kesh

Dagen had come within earshot as they approached the horseshoe pits. “Dungeon?” he asked.

Round, fuzzy ears flex up at Dagen’s question, neck straightening a bit as the tuft of Kesh’s tail flicks side to side a couple times. Oh yes, she is very familiar with the ways discussions about Dungeons and Dragons can be mis-understood out of context. “Ah! Uh. The kind with monsters in it… for adventuring… that kind.” Brisk headbob to confirm. Not any of the other kinds. No.

“Uhhhh …” Dagen replied. “Evidently I missed out on something in my misspent youth.” That misspent youth was doctor’s appointments, psychological appointments, studies and assessments at the Trill Commission, and in between that school and training for the ill fated Olympic bid. Games were limited to family and occasional outings with friends. He must have missed something there, and looked at his wife for a little more exploration. It did sound like some fun daring do though.

“Ehhhnn!” Kesh made a little gesture with her shoulders, craning neck back as her fangs breifly expose and eyes squint shut. This makes those bristly whiskers fan out and her cheek fluff to fray, making her almost seem like she had just been struck in the back. Yet, there was also this breif flutter of vibration akin to a cat’s purr that flips the gesture to one of a sort of impish amusement. It’s definitely a bit flustering when one’s preferred form of amusement is misunderstood, and she’s not at all any good at trying to be any less awkward once that train starts rolling.

“Long ago at the Academy,” Dagen began, thinking he should at least try to understand, “there was a group who at one moment said they ‘cos-played’ and at another it was ‘creative anacronysm’,” or so he hoped he pronounced that right. “They dressed up in costumes not unlike earth heroes of old and used technology to imitate the super powers. Others just liked bashing at each other with swords. This was somewhat before holodecks were past their infancy. I take it that you’re more .. sophisticated now?”

“Ah! Yes, cos-play.” Kesh dips her head once on mention of that term. It was something of a forgotten craft in much of the Federation thanks to holodecks making it far easier to take on the apperance of literally anything, but there were those that still saw an important part of it as being the crafting of the outfit, so small pockets of activity remained for passionate individuals. “I certainly appreciate being able to ‘wear’ one of my holocharacters without the need for alterations of their anatomy to fit over mine, rrrrnth.” Caitian body shape, particularlly the tail, makes things quite difficult without holograms. “Ehrrr… ‘sopisticated’?” One ear twists outward as the other sags, “I suppose one could call it that, aye.”

Reia was getting closer to the horseshoe pit as she continued her conversation with Kesh.

“Well that depends on what you consider a work out actually. I prefer activities to sheer repetition. I was thinking of a bit of hiking in a few days. I could find some Australian countryside and show you where I grew up.” she suggested thoughtfully.

• Reia

Dagen and Angel

With a few things jostling Kesh’s levelheadedness, she needed a pair of deep breaths to center her emotions, to which a bit of feigned wrestling with the kite string gives her easy excuse to not reply to Reia immediately. “Hiking is very fine! Ah. Rrr. So long as the terrain is not one of jagged rocks. My pads can handle most surfaces.” The caitian preference toward bare feet sometimes runs at odds with Starfleet standards, but the species really does have its own built-in boot heel. “I would quite appreciate seeing your place of origin, yes. Awrr.”

->Kesh, Engineering

Reia glanced up at her husband and gave him a cheeky grin.

“Yes. That kind of dungeon you bad man. Just exactly what were you thinking anyway?” she asked teasingly.

Dagen presented a shrug with hands out in a ‘what was I to think?’ gesture.

Taking Kesh’s suggestion in mind as she walked a few more paces towards the horse shoe pit, her memory floated back to a lovely place she had been as a young girl.

“Actually Kesh, I have a particular place in mind now that you mention your paws. Maybe we should even bring him.” she said pointing at Dagen with a laugh before taking off at a run again. She intended to make it the last few yards tot he horse shoe pit and find a place to rest her kite.

• Reia

There was anywhere to rest the kite. Sebastian and Deeg were at it on one of the pits and showing a budding skill at it, however it was apparent that they had stopped at one time to watch a brief holo on ‘how to’ with it. The dinging sound of a horse shoe connecting with the pin and deflecting off was met with a groan from Deeg. “I’m sure that this is rigged somehow,” he said, peering at the far pit conspiratorially.

Reia would note a glinting object in a short hedge row .. a third chest.
-Dagen

OOC: LOVE Kesh’s gestures!! Wonderful!

“Sure!” Kesh’s head bobbed briskly, eyes blinking firmly once again toward Reia in a happy response to her suggestion. Then, as a means of legitimate distraction to let her head cool down from being flustered, Kesh stopped in place and finished winding her kite in, taking meticulous care to return the string back into nearly the exact same state it was when she picked it up, as if that somehow mattered for a holographic kite.

-> Kesh,

OOC: Aw, thank you!

Reia looked over the horseshoe pit and was a little perplexed by the whole thing. She looked back at Dagen and Kesh.

“I’m sure you know how to hike oh husband of mine. It’s just a walk in varying terrain. Kind of like skiing without skis. As for Dungeons & Dragons, you’ll have to ask Kesh more about that.” she said smiling at them both.

Dagen glanced over to Kesh. It seemed to be utterly uncharacteristic to essentially see a ‘cat’ wrap up string, but then the Caitian was full of surprises.

While she does not go about it with any sort of flair, those clawtips are useful to guide the string into a neat bundle, and she’s practiced at it after dealing with so many cables and wires in Engineering to not even think about it, or the ‘cat with string’ implications, thankfully.

“I have a.. ah… quite thurough knowledge bank on the subject, so.. mmrp!… Ask me whatever you like any time, yes!” Head bobs briskly enough to make ear tufts wobble.

Glancing around again she saw a small cooler which looked oddly out of place for the time period. Kneeling down, she popped it open, rifled through it, and found a bottle of water.

“Oh love, you must have known I’d be parched. This and the chest over there are about the only things I’m certain I recognize.”

Standing, she walked over to the chest and picked it up.

“So I’m not very familiar with horse shoes. My grandfather and a funny little friend of his used to play them all the time but, I was either never very good or spent a lot of time doing other things when we were over visiting that friend.” Reia explained.

• Reia

bump

“Then you are more familiar than I am,” Dagen said. “This is most certainly an Earth game. Trill didn’t have horses. Our medieval times were .. boring by comparison then.” He watched as the chest was picked up. It was not unlike the others, though he found himself no less jealous for the key. “I had to research this and get help relating to this game. But these two,” he said, gesturing to Deeg and Sebastian, “picked up on it right away.”
- Dagen

With the kite set aside on the nearest convenient surface, Kesh took a moment to adjust her pettycoat and glance behind herself to double-check that her tail was not misaligned with the coat tails or any other wardrobe malfunctions. Satisfied, bare footpads stride the rest of the way to stand off at an angle from the horseshoe pit. She was not intimately familiar with the game, other than that it had the same concept as a form of Hacky Sack, where a small pouch of sand is kicked into a hole or slanted plank. She surmised the goal was to catch the hook-shaped object onto the standing rod just from a moment of staring, but she stays quiet for the moment until Dagen finished explaining and Reia made some attempts at it.

-> Kesh

Deeg stopped and called over to Kesh. “Okay your turn Kesh. I’ve embarrassed myself enough.”

Sebastian stood at the far peg, peering through his glasses and clanged his horseshoes together. Whether that was something to knock the dirt off of them or whether it was to get them going was uncertain.

A sound somewhere between a bark and a chirp comes out at Dargen’s beckon, with the felinoid tugging her pettycoat to adjust it on the way over to sinking down and scooping up all of the U-shaped pieces scattered around the peg. A gesture then follows to Sebastian to let him go first, otherwise taking her turn at it.

The end result of Caitian balancing, swaying, staring, and almost leaning over too far more than once, is one horseshoe squarely landed, and the rest no closer to hitting the target than any of Dagen’s attempts. Appropriate grumbles, puffs, teeth clacks, and the one squeal of delight certainly show Kesh is not above a bit of gutteral utterance, as if that wasn’t already clear.

Reia decided she would leave attempting horse shoes until after opening this last chest.

“Oh please keep playing, I just have to know what’s in this first and then I’ll join you.” she said to her group of assembled friends.

Reia unlocked the chest and slowly opened it to reveal a simple golden envelope. Her eyes widened as she pulled it out and opened it quickly.

Turning, she looked at her husband with glee.

“Is this what I think it is? Oh please tell me it is.”

Smiling, she looked back down and carefully pulled out what was inside the envelope.

Two elabor5ately printed tickets for one of the most luxurious resorts on the Risan coast and a delux travel brochure complete with exquisite color pictures. Everything was done in old glossy 2d style but Reia supposed it made the experience more memorable.

Jumping to her feet she giggled.

“And, of course, you’ve arranged the shore leave haven’t you?”

• Reia

“I have to do something to keep me busy at work,” Dagen replied with a wink. “Strangely enough Angel helped,” he continued, tipping his head in her direction.
“The facilities are optimal for seclusion and meditation away from others,” she said. “I’m certain you will find your own meditations there to be satisfying.”
Bat chimed in. “Angel said she’d bring me along next time too.”
“Which will result in a 98.4 % chance that that will not be .. optimal for mediation.”

Kesh gets the horseshoes tiddied up for a moment before passing her inquisitve ears toward Dagen and Reia and Bat. Her head tilts a bit, having missed enough to not be sure what they are talking about, but she surmises it is some sort of shore leave holiday. To this, a mild chortle arises to herself. Yes, she’ll get some time off, too, eventually. Still got to actually earn that, first, but hopefully the story of it will be told to her afterward.

For the moment, the Caitian spends a moment pivoting her bare footpads up to brush her fingers across them to clear away dirt, holographic as it may be, with that tufted tail swinging and swaying for counterbalance.

->Kesh, Engineering