Judgement – Foxtrot India Mike
by (G) Arrain - Lieutenant Arrienye t'Merek & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin

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Post Details

Title   Foxtrot India Mike
Mission   Judgement
Author(s)   (G) Arrain - Lieutenant Arrienye t'Merek & Alderman Yolanthe Ibalin
Posted   Sun Jan 30, 2011 @ 3:49pm
Location   Box of Delights
Timeline   SD35 - 21:30 ish (slight backpost)
::ON::

Standing in his room and looking at his own reflection, Kaelin wondered why he bothered. He was very attractive and could probably get away with wearing anything. But there he was, half his clothes on the bed and him holding up his black jacket and his red one next to each other trying to decide between them.

"This is ridiculous," he said, annoyed at himself for caring so much about the impression he might give people, and tossed the red jacket aside, putting the black one on. Straightening it, he went into the living room to see Philip sitting on the couch and reading something. He was still in uniform, despite his shift having ended hours ago. Kaelin was beginning to think Philip slept in it. Scary thing was, there was a good chance he could be right in that assumption.

"Finally decided?" Philip said in a mocking tone, looking up at his room-mate with a superior smirk. Kaelin rolled his eyes, deciding not to comment and just walked out.

Phillip snorted, looking back at the padd he'd been reading. It was the manual for the plasma injectors he'd be allowed to work on tomorrow for the first time. His tech-high was broken as Kaelin stormed back into the room. Philip frowned, watching the Deltan walk into his room. a moment later it opened and Kaelin was wearing his red jacket instead of the black.

"Shut up!" Kaelin cut him off from saying anything, raising up his hand and disappearing from their quarters again.

Philip shook his head. 'That man tries way too hard...'

********************

Seeing the sign of the Box of Delights shining through the crowd, Kaelin made his way towards it. Walking inside, he moves passed a few patrons, muttering 'excuse me's as he did before reaching the bar. Hopping up onto the stool, he smiled at Pelin. He knew he could've gotten Gwen or Alan from Sickbay to come with him tonight, but he knew he was in a really bad mood and didn't think he should burden them with it too.

As Kaelin sat down at the bar, ordering a drink from Pelin, a young man, dark haired, with gently pointing ears that hinted of Vulcan heritage elbowed his way to the bar, slightly out of breath, his mop of dark hair falling in his eyes, every three seconds. "I'm here to see Miss Ibalin."

Pel looked somewhat guilty. "I'm afraid she's... not available. I'm sorry if you had a meeting."

The boy looked crestfallen, frowning, and Kaelin could see the hint of a Risian clan mark faintly dimpling his forehead. "Do you know when she's free?"

Pel shook his head. "Sorry."

Kaelin looked over at him as the young Bajoran moved away from them. As the young man sat down, Kaelin studied him a moment. His eyes slid from the small Risian clan mark along his hairline to his pointed ears and he couldn't help unconsciously tilting his head in thought.

"Yes, I'm a god. I accept prayers, exhortations, but not burnt offerings. Preferred sacrifice is Bolian Tonic Water and Tequila." The boy said suddenly, interrupting the reverie. His tone was serious, but he had such a daft grin on his face, Kaelin could not be certain if the young man really meant what he said.

Caught staring, Kaelin looked away sharply, sipping his drink. Finally he looked back, meeting his green eyes with his blue ones. "I'm sorry. Really. I've just never seen your particular species mix. I was just curious for a moment." ~Because that sounds completely flattering and normal....~ he thought sarcastically and winced internally at his choice of words and instead took another sip of his cocktail.

The young man grinned. "Neither have I. I like to think I'm unique in the universe. Of course when ever anything goes wrong, every one says, you'll know him when you see him, His dad was a Vulcan and his mother was Risian." He gave another endearingly lopside grin, and shoved his bangs from his eyes again. "Makes getting away with things tricky."

Kaelin grinned despite himself. "I can relate. Deltans don't exactly fall out of the trees around here. There's only like two of us. And, believe me, that kind of makes it worse, because people can't seem to tell us apart," he explained with a smile. He turned to Pelin as the Bajoran walked passed them behind the bar. "Hey, Pel, get my friend here a Bolian fire tonic. That has tequila in it," he added the last as an explanation to the man next to him.

"Cheers." the young man said. "Think I'm going to need it. Rumour is the owner's a bit of a dragon lady. A bit of liquid courage would be good right now."

Kaelin smiled lightly. "Yeah. But don't worry. Yolanthe is sweet, she's just going through some stuff now," he said before moving a bit closer to him and sliding his drink closer as well. "Her friend died," he said, lowering his tone a bit so he wouldn't be overheard. "But don't worry. You're cute, that's all that really matters," he told him, then blushed, realized what he'd said. "I mean, that's what she cares about," he added casually, looking away and sipping his Sunset. Then, wanting to recover before the young man said anything.

"But like I said. She's in a terrible mood. We all get them," he said the last more quietly, sipping his drink again.

The young man took a hard look at all the other staff. "I can do cute. But I hope I don't have to take my clothes off as part of the interview. All those boys look as smooth as the top of your head and under these deceptively opaque clothes I'm as hairy as a tellarite."

Kaelin had been in the process of trying to drink but as his new companion said that, the laugh that burst forth caused him to spritz poor Pelin with some of his tequila as the shy Bajoran was passing by. ~This day keeps getting better and better~ he thought to himself. "Oh, Pelin, I'm so sorry," he said, pulling out his handkerchief and wiping some tequilla and ice chips that had clung to Pelin's cheek and neck. "There, all better," he smiled, then looked accusingly at the young man beside him. "Don't worry. I don't think hair really enters into it," he chuckled. "I think you'll adjust," he added.

"I hope so. I hadn't realised there was so much going on here. I thought it was just a bar and some holosuites, with a bit of dabo. Didn't realise they had so much of it. Tongo and cards and this bar is longer than my quarters and the guy's next door."

"Yeah, Yolanthe's done a lot in the short time she's been on the base. Everyone comes here. Well, except the Romulans, but that's a long story," Kaelin explained, finishing his cocktail and ordering another from Pel.

The young man looked around for the bokkai in the vein hope she might have appeared in the last five minutes. "I think I've got time."

"Yeah," Kaelin nodded, then turned to his new drink, not really knowing what else to say. As such, a silence fell over the two men for a while as Kaelin sipped his cocktail, savoring the burn of the alcohol in it.

"So?" The young man pushed. "All the juicy gossip!" He shoved his bangs from his eyes again. "I could say the wrong thing in the interview without it, and then I wouldn't get the job, and then I'd have to follow you around all day and night, begging for food."

Kaelin laughed, turning back to look at him. "Well, I'm afraid I can't tell you the gossip about her friend dying since it's an investigation which I'm involved in," he said that first, wanting to make it clear. "As far as this bar goes, let me try to fill you in as best I can." With that, Kaelin sat on the stool next to the one occupied by the younger man. "Far as the people go, it's more looks than brains around here. That's Pelin, the Bajoran behind the bar. He's pretty shy, but all you need to do is talk to him about parisses squares and he's yours," he chuckled.

Then he motioned to one of the waiters. "That's Blake. He's good looking but pretty much the most innocent, gullible boy you'll ever meet. Ahjess and Jessica over there are best friends but they completely hate each other. I know that sounds contradictory, but they somehow make it work. As for the Romulans not coming here, people say that Yolanthe and the Head of Security for the Romulan Consulate t'Merek had a fight so Yolanthe kicked her out and in return t'Merek now won't allow any of her people to come here," Kaelin explained.

The young man looked impressed, but whether it was with Yolanthe's willingness to pick a fight with Romulans or Kaelin's appraisal of the staff in the Box, Kaelin couldn't tell. He let out a whistle. "Sooooo," he began. "Don't mention the Romulans and be cute but dumb." He took a swig of his drink. "Cute but dumb. I can fake that."

Kaelin shook his head. "Well you'll just need to fake the dumb part," he told him, then blushed slightly and decided this was the perfect moment to turn away and sip his drink again.

In the mirror behind the bar, Kaelin could see the young man blush himself, and then do that thing with his hair which was rapidly becoming one part endearing, one part annoying, and suggesting some very improper ideas on how to get the man to stop doing it.

"So," The young said after a sip of drink, "Starfleet? or are you hoping to fake dumb as well?"

Kaelin looked at him again. "Well, I would've thought it was obvious. I'm in a bar, at night, alone and drinking. It's one of two options. I'm either a doctor or a Security officer," he smiled lightly, thought it seemed forced. "In my case, I am a doctor. And yes, I'm Starfleet."

"Just as well you don't have to fake dumb. A doctor and Starfleet? You'd never pull it off. Far too many brains."

Kaelin smiled despite himself. "Yeah, you'd think," he said.

The young man laughed, "I can't believe you've ever come across as dumb. What happened?"

"Not dumb just...okay, dumb. It's complicated," Kaelin said, not wanting to discuss things with some guy he just met in a bar.

"Ahh. Complicated." the young man said, nodding sagely. "Means you have depth, layers, sensitivity, maturity." he gave a full body shake, a bit like a dog getting water out of his coat. "Think I'll stick with shallow and cheesy. I'm too young for complicated. Plus when things go south, it always gives the other party a chance to bow out with some dignity. Its not that fault, I'm a vain and layerless. The mushroom to their onion." He gave another wide grin, saw Kaelin's face was still quite serious. "I'm lying about the vain part. Kinda."

Kaelin couldn't help but give a small half smile, shaking his head at the younger man, who he couldn't help feel was actually growing on him. He found something endearing in him being that young and apparently carefree. The slight feel of nostalgia he felt at the thought wasn't something he could ignore. He could remember when he was like that, but after everything that had happened in the last few years, he knew that he couldn't go back to that. He thought he had with Ai'lani's own carefree, easy-going attitude around, but last night had very effectively put an end to that.

The boy stretched on his stool, craning his neck to see if he could detect where Yolanthe had ggot to. "She's vanished." He stared at his drink. "I wonder if I've got time to check out the holosuites."

Kaelin raised his eyebrow. "Why? Holosuites are a waste of time," he stated, sipping his Sunset.

The boy stared at him for a moment, speechless. Then his jaw dropped in mock horror. "Wash your mouth out!" he demanded with faux-outrage.

Kaelin looked around, before setting his gaze back on the boy opposite him. "What? I'm serious! There's nothing cool about spending hours in a false reality, deluding yourself that what you're experiencing is actually happening. It isn't. If you go into the holosuite to experience something like,..." he searched his mind a moment before deciding on an example, " going on top of a certain mountain, or seeing some city you always wanted to see, you're only fooling yourself into thinking you actually experienced it. Because you didn't. All you experienced was a lie. I don't know how holosuites work. My engineer roommate wanted to explain it to me, but after five minutes I zoned out and secretly wanted to just knock myself out from boredom, but what I know is that it's all a lie in there. Because, nothing can take the place of the actual experience of going up that mountain or visiting that actual town," Kaelin continued, before having to stop to take a breath.

The mock outrage was gone from the young man's face. Now his features were cold and closed.

"What I'm saying is that actually working to experience something is what's really important, because that's what you remember most besides the actual feeling of being there. If you can just walk into a room and order an experience, it just makes it....cheap."

"Cheap," The young man repeated, flat and unemotional. "What's cheap about the freedom to go anywhere, be anything, just for a moment. Freed from every condition and limitation?"

Kaelin's mind warned him about the shift in emotions, but he ignored it. "You can't be anything in the holosuite. You're still you. You're just pretending to be someone else."

"And why not pretend?" The boy asked, sliding from the stool. "The fun is still real, the happiness still real, what does it matter if the source isn't the real thing?" There was a tone in his voice, part petulance, part anger.

"That's like saying let a psychosis patient or a schizophrenic just go without drugs," Kaelin stated, though in retrospect, he realised that may have been slightly out there for reference, however accurate it was.

"So you think using holosuites is like being insane?"

"I think there are a lot of other things to enjoy other than a false reality," Kaelin said firmly. It was a belief he'd held since he heard about holodecks even as a child. What his parents had always told him and after experiencing holodecks for himself, he couldn't help but agree. It was like replicated food. However real it looked, it wasn't, really. Maybe he over analyzed thing, but he thought not.

"Maybe you're right." There was a snip to the words, a temper just under control. The Young man grabbed his drink and tossed the dregs down and slammed the glass back on the bar in one swift jerk. "They'll probably be very enjoyable. But I think I'llleave them to you. Good night."

Kaelin was little taken aback by the sudden animosity, but didn't comment, instead deciding it was no big deal. "Fine," he just said. "Night," he said just as sharply, turning his attention back to his drink. He could feel a part of his insides clench up with guilt, but he ignored it.


OFF

A handsome but petulant young man
NPC by Notty

Ensign Kaelin
Pathology resident