At Your Leisure

Posted on 12/12/2020 @ 12:12am by Jeysa Zeror

Mission: S3E1: Time of Change
Location: The Blue Parrot
Timeline: Day 70 at 1945

Lieutenant Jodon Joral was casually dressed, off duty, but clearly still preoccupied with work as he walked the corridors of the starship with a PaDD in his hand. His eyes locked on it when he rounded a corner and quickly found himself colliding with another body. It sent J.J. bouncing backwards and landing on his ass.

"I'm sorry, Sir" he responded instinctively. It was still ingrained in him to be around superiors, just being a lieutenant In the sciences. Sometimes, he just needed a moment to recalibrate his thoughts and identity. He was the ship's Executive Officer. There was only one person aboard higher than himself.

J.J. scrambled back to his feet. It had been Doctor O'Hamlin that he had bounced off of. "Oh Doctor. I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention" explained Jodon. He noticed the Chief Medical Officer too looked dressed down a bit. "I was just heading to the Blue Parrot. Care to join me?"

For his part, Chet had also not been paying attention. But, what had distracted him was not a PADD, but a pup. A very adorable and friendly little corgi had just walked by with his doggy daddy and he had been wearing a tie! The dog, not the daddy. It had been so cute, Chet had turned his head to watch and that's when he had collided with the ship's XO.

"The Blue Parrot," repeated Chet, rolling the name around his mouth as if it were a fine wine that needed tasting. "That's either a bar or a very strange Ventriloquist act. Never mind, I'm in either way."

Jodon flashed a smile, his personality illuminated in a cheerfulness. Truth was as much of an isolationist as he had been raised to be, he always excelled and thrived on socialization. This was true even as XO aboard the Crazy Horse. He may have escaped and hid in a science lab or the arboretum from time to time, but he needed to pull out at times. He needed experiences like this. "It is a bar or lounge of sorts on the ship. I do not know why exactly it got the name, but it is a good place to unwind."

"Ship's lounges usually are," agreed Chet. "And that sounds almost as good as my typical evening activities of dog watching. There's an adorable Husky that is one of my favorites. Very friendly. Will probably try to lick your face off, though, so be careful. Anyway!" he added, rubbing his hands together as if a Chef had just delivered a scrumptious looking steak. "Lead the way!"

"With pleasure," replied Lieutenant Joral with a small smile. He led the two of them into the Blue Parrot and proceeded over towards the bar area with the Chief Medical Officer in tow. "Good evening," J.J. said to the tender of the bar. "I don't think we've been properly introduced. I'm Lieutenant Joral, XO of the Crazy Horse and this is Doctor O'Hamlin, Chief Medical Officer."

"Ranks at the door unless you're here on official buisness Mr Jorol." Jeysa smiled at the two men. "Nice to meet you both, can I get you anything?"

"Call me Chet," replied Chet with a charming smile. "Or Jason; I don't care, really. Whatever you fancy. That's what you can get me, too; whatever you fancy. Make me your favorite. Also, I'm sure a pretty girl like you has a name." Even though his words were flirty, his tone was somehow fatherly, making him sound like an older brother teasing his sister.

"Oh I couldn't possibly serve you my favourite, especially with Mr Xo sat here, he'd have me thrown off the ship for serving something so alcoholic it'd have you on the floor after one glass without the Co's permission." Jeysa laughed.

"I'm not here in official capacity," J.J. teased, but he appreciated that the woman was not going to serve her fancy. "I appreciate you not letting our Chief Medical Officer pick his poison unwisely" he said flashing a small smile. "I'm simpler, just something fruity, fizzy, and virgin."

"Alright, coming up." Jeysa grabbed a glass and set about mixing a drink for JJ.

"Well, that's me out; I only fit into two of those categories," offered Chet, completely unashamed. "Never mind. Want to try your hand at a peanut butter and jelly martini?"

Jeysa looked up from her preparations,. "That..... sounds horrible." She eventually said.

"Ah, you're probably right," agreed Chet. "Have you ever had peanut butter vodka? It's dreadful. I'll have a rum cocoa, then."

"I have a whole other lifetime from my Symbiont's previous host. So, I can't quite say anything about those uh categories" commented Jodon. "Trill...gets complicated being joined."

"Yep, we certainly can be complicated, even if we're not joined." Jeysa smiled at her fellow Trill before turning to order a hot chocolate from the replicator for Chet, a few seconds later she placed a glass down infront of JJ. "Here you are, a taste of home for you, a virgin Jeysa special." she then started work on Chets drink adding a shot of synthahol rum to the hot chocolate.

Though home was not exactly something J.J. was fond of, he accepted the drink and did indeed find it enjoyable. Sometimes, even places one was not fond of had plenty of good things. "Thank you," he replied. "It tastes like home in a cup," added Jodon. "How are you liking it aboard the Crazy Horse?"

"No complaints so far, apart from your Ops and Engineering departments won't let me put a bigger screen into that wall so we can do movie nights and stuff like that." Jeysa replied then put Chets drink down in front of him. "One rum cocoa.....synthahol of course." She smirked at JJ.

“Of course,” agreed Chet with a wink as he sipped from the mug. “Oh, come on, that’s lovely,” he muttered happily, and then aloud, “delicious. Two rum is better of course, but I’ll take what I can get.”

Jeysa smiled. "Soon as the big boss lets me serve real alcohol I'll come find you and give you a real version with as much rum as you want but for now I'm afraid that's all you can get."

"It's fine," replied Chet. "My dad used to make them with artificial rum flavoring when I was a kid. Now if you want to taste something awful, try that! But, I was little and loved it." He rolled his eyes. "Kids! They like the strangest things."

"I never really got the chance to find my likes and dislikes as a kid, I ate whatever my parents put in front of me, if I didn't it'd get served up again and again till I did." Jeysa told them, her parents were quite strict.

"My dad was strict, but he never made me eat anything I truly didn't like," replied Chet. "Although, he DID make me try everything. Including sushi and escargots. And Oysters. I was six when he made me try oysters. I thought they looked like snot, and so of course I had to eat about ten of them." He grinned. "Boys, eh?"

"Huh," said J.J. with a bit of curiosity. The whole conversation had been interesting, but the talk of boys, of kids had particularly triggered something. "You know that reminds me. My symbiont's previous host had always regretted not having kids, not settling down a bit. She was thinking about doing it shortly before she died."

"What about you, specifically?" Jeysa asked Jodon.

"After the crap, the last set of kids pulled aboard the Crazy Horse?" Jodon shook his head. "No thank you. I think that the whole ordeal sealed it for me. I am much happier being responsible for adults civilian or otherwise than I am children, who don't listen and place themselves in dangerous areas without authorization or supervision."

"I love kids," offered Chet, who had not been around for whatever the kids in question had done. "I'd love to have a bunch of my own some day. Not sure how I'd manage, but I'd probably adopt."

"That sounds like a tall tale Jodon, what happened?" Jeysa asked, she was always up for hearing stories.

Jodon shook his head. "No, not really much of a story. I was relatively new coming aboard, back when there were a few children aboard. They were misfits and their parents did not have the best 'control' over their children. We have a bit of a breach of security and the children I believe acquired access codes from watching their parents. Nevertheless, they, as I recall, decided to throw a party one night in a cargo bay. The Captain and I were not pleased about the whole thing."

Jeysa laughed a little. "I bet he wasn't, but I don't blame them, children on a starship don't always have it easy."

"No, they don't. There are just classes of ships where children have no place being. I wouldn't necessarily call a Luna class an ideal place to raise a child."

"There are worse places," Jeysa said shrugging slightly. "imagine trying to raise a child on something like one of your Nova class starships, none of the even limited ameneties we have here."

"True," replied Jodon. "Well, it has been nice chatting, but if I do not get some rest, I'll be buried in logs and paperwork by the end of the week. There's more to being XO than sitting next to the Captain and leading away missions."

"Always paperwork, you never escape it, even me." Jeysa gave her fellow Trill a smile. "Good day Mr Joral."

“And that’s why doctors rarely pursue command,” quipped Chet. “Just being Chief Medical Officer is enough paperwork for my taste. Why do we still call it paperwork?” he wondered. “Centuries ago, it actually used to be paper, but no more. And yet we still call it that.”

"I think the human term 'old habits' applies there." Jeysa said before turning to program a drink order that had just been dropped at the bar into the replicator. "Like how you humans still refer to ships as female."

"Never really understood that, either," replied Chet, "even though I will freely admit to doing it frequently."

"You two have fun," Jodon said before he finally left. He was sure they had hit it off and that the Chief Medical Officer would enjoy the rest of his time.

"Have a good evening, sir," Chet called after him. "I suppose I should probably go, too. Although," he added, studying his now empty drink. "This was delicious. I could probably go for another one before I go."

Jeysa smiled and turned to the replicator "Coming up."

A post by:

Dr. Chester "Chet" O'Hamlin
Chief Medical Officer
USS Sitting Bull

Jeysa Zeror
Lounge Manager

&

Lieutenant Jodon Joral
Executive Officer
USS Sitting Bull