The Silk Shop

It had been a few days since the bomb in Val Etilen's room, and both he and Papus had recovered from the ordeal with the help of meditation and self pampering. Unfortunately that paired with a thin client base had meant times were lean again.
At least he was going to get a new scarf today.

Conscious that he should always be on display when walking in public, Val wore a sheer wrap with an abundance of copper bangles that made a quiet clang when he moved, along with his usual form fitting trousers. He scanned the promenade for new prospects, but alas there was no new fleet of recruits to peruse.

He slipped through the gold curtain of the Silk Shop, and found it uninhabited, but the telltale shifting from the back room betrayed the tailor to be in residence. Val smiled and ran his eager fingers over a row of newly woven dressing gowns in beautiful patterns and jewel tones.
"Hello Wheezy.." he called.
A gurgling noise came from the back room.
"I'm perusing happily, take your time," Val responded.

As promised, once T'Pren had time off, she immediately scheduled to meet up with Val, and though she was a few minutes late -- science waits for no one -- she arrived nonetheless, long wavy hair covering her ears and the shoulders of her absolutely impeccable science officer uniform. So if the Bajoran was looking to be seen with a high-ranking official, he was about to get his wish.

She strode directly to the shop Val had mentioned, having done some casual recon earlier in the day, so that when she didn't see him outside the shop, she decided to simply go in. She ducked her head as she navigated the curtain and found herself in an entirely unfamiliar land of designer clothing and fine fabrics.

And her Bajoran. Well, the Bajoran.

"I apologize for my tardiness. I only just got off duty."

The young lieutenant may have been a wreck when they first met, but she was almost a completely different person this time. She was calm, confident, collected, alert...there was a liveliness in her eyes that hadn't been there before and she even smiled at him in greeting.

"Hello, Lieutenant," Val said brightly. "No problem at all, I could wander this shop for hours. I like to feel things, don't you?" He dragged his fingers over a cowl on a mannequin with ludicrously long fringe, hanging almost to the floor.

The lieutenant gave a light laugh in response, looking a little surprised to find that she agreed: "I do, actually. Touch is a deeply underused sense for most races, scientifically speaking." She gave herself a sideways smile. "But I personally try to experience as many new and different sensations as possible, of all kinds."

If she sounded at all awkward or nerdy, she had no idea. In fact, she'd already moved on. She wandered closer to the Bajoran and experimentally touched a cornflower blue off-the-shoulder dress. It was of a particularly light and delicate silk. While T'Pren was looking at it, she added more softly, "I wanted to apologize for the other day. I was...it had been a long-- a very long day. And I am not always the most...socially conscious individual. So if I offended you in any way, I am sorry."

T'Pren Inabnet wrote:

The lieutenant gave a light laugh in response, looking a little surprised to find that she agreed: "I do, actually. Touch is a deeply underused sense for most races, scientifically speaking." She gave herself a sideways smile. "But I personally try to experience as many new and different sensations as possible, of all kinds."

"Oh? But you don't like touching people?" He asked, still genuinely perplexed by that foreign concept.

T'Pren Inabnet wrote:

If she sounded at all awkward or nerdy, she had no idea. In fact, she'd already moved on. She wandered closer to the Bajoran and experimentally touched a cornflower blue off-the-shoulder dress. It was of a particularly light and delicate silk. While T'Pren was looking at it, she added more softly, "I wanted to apologize for the other day. I was...it had been a long-- a very long day. And I am not always the most...socially conscious individual. So if I offended you in any way, I am sorry."

"Not at all, it was just a misunderstanding," Val waved it off. He picked up a dainty set of dove grey buttoned gloves that say low on the wrist. They were far too small for his hands, but he laid them over his knuckles wistfully.

"I-- no," T'Pren stumbled, looking at Val with a mixture of amusement and dismay. Her cheeks were starting to turn a minty sort of green. "No, it isn't that I don't like to be touched, I just--"

Everyone on this station was asking all the right/wrong questions. It was deeply unsettling.

The lieutenant took a look around the shop and sucked in a deep breath before she finally answered, "I spent most of my adolescence as a..." As a what, exactly? She still didn't know. And probably the Bajoran wouldn't know what a guinea pig was. "I spent eight years in captivity," she finally decided. "The only time anyone touched me was to run tests or inject chemicals or..." T'Pren gave a thin smile, "I find touch very..." Intimate. "Personal."

"Oh, so do I," Val agreed. "That's why it's so nice under the right circumstances." He drew a reddish sunset colored scarf over his arm. "I wish I could wear these colors, but they blanch out my skin."

"Vulcans almost never share physical contact," T'Pren mused aloud, no longer really exploring the clothing out of an immense feeling of having absolutely no idea what to do with any of it. "When they do, it's extremely meaningful."

She frowned deeply at the red against Etilen's skin, trying to ascertain what he meant and how it applied to clothing shopping. "I don't really understand clothing," she admitted earnestly. "Do you not want to be blanched?" As a particularly pale person herself, she didn't see quite what was wrong with it.

"Well... It's better for your clothes to draw attention to your body, your skin. Not distract from it. I think this scarf makes me look a bit like old linen. It's too vibrant. But it's very pretty. It would be wonderful on an Orion."
At the mention of Vulcan physical contact, Val put his middle and index fingers together, and touched his other hand with them, concentrating.
"My mum serviced a Vulcan once. They did this. It was very interesting."

Just then, another set of curtains opened at the back of the shop, and a tall, red-haired woman emerged from the fitting room. She was wearing a long, clinging dress that just barely came together at the swell of her full breasts. In her hand she held several fabric samples. Her green eyes followed from Pren to Val, then down to Val's fingers. Her perfectly shaped eyebrows rose and she pursed her lips. "Val! In public!"

Val's recreation of Vulcan action sends a broad grin across T'Pren's face and she actually laughs. Out loud. Genuinely. Almost as a reflex, her own hands split into the familiar gesture.

"It isn't the only way Vulcans can couple, but it is...their preferred way." She glanced down at her hands, still grinning, and gave a light shrug. "My father was Vulcan and my dad was human and I can tell you Vulcans are definitely capable of--"

But whatever it was Vulcans were definitely capable of never got said because out came Lorelei, and even without body image issues, T'Pren suddenly found she felt frumpy and slim and unadorned. So she concentrated on understanding this clothing thing Val was explaining: "I usually just get something colorful and comfortable for when I'm off-duty."

Val thrilled at the appearance of the woman. "Lorelei, I *think* you've seen me do worse things in public." He laid the scarf back down and came over to embrace her, kissing her on each cheek. He looked down at the fabric samples.
"Not another dress..." he said enviously.

Lorelei let him kiss her happily, squeezing his arm. "It's for my opening night," she beamed, "The Eel is finally getting a show. I was thinking this lovely peach organza, barely even there..." she stopped suddenly, lifting her eyes up at Pren. "But you haven't introduced me to your lovely friend." She let go of Val's arm and walked towards Pren. As she came near, the chief science officer was enveloped in a cloud of orange blossom and vanilla. Lorelei gazed at her warmly and confidently, then glanced at Val, "I saw you at the bar the other night, but you seemed very engrossed. I didn't wish to disturb."

Oh. T'Pren's brow knit as Val swept away to be touchy-feely with the Venus of Willendorf, but she quickly pushed it away in favor of a more polite, professional expression. She was, after all, still in uniform. And because she was not a complete savage, she offered her hand for a firm handshake with eye contact. "I'm Lieutenant Inabnet, the new Chief Science Officer."

She should probably just get that printed on a shirt or something so she didn't have to keep saying it.

And then was the part where she stood around awkwardly in a shop full of things she didn't understand with two people she most definitely did not understand, trying not to look like she was awkward and not understanding.

Etilen really had to resist touching the lieutenants back as he introduced her to Lorelei.

"Lieutenant, this is Lorelei, a very dear friend of mine." He glanced at Lorelei, her statement sinking in. "Does this mean you got the gig singing at the Eel? That's splendid, we'll both be there on your debut, don't we, Lieutenant? The Lieutenant and I have just been discussing Vulcan lovemaking. Sadly in this particular sphere, I am a virgin."

Lorelei took T'Pren's hand in both of hers and pressed it in a warm, intimate greeting that was at odds with the formality with which the lieutenant held her hand out. "Vulcan lovemaking is... very pleasant in my experience," she said, then looked down at her and T'Pren's clasped hands, "Oh... are you of Vulcan heritage? Excuse me," she loosened her grip and politely let go, looking at T'Pren with a smile. She didn't seem especially sorry.

If only T'Pren weren't quite such an easy mark.

She didn't so much as blink when Val explained they'd been discussing Vulcan lovemaking or even that he was inexperienced in that area. These were scientific facts that applied to the universe at large and not directly to her. At least that was the case until Lorelei started pressing her hand and talking about how pleasant it is.

The lieutenant's eyes grew wide and she blushed an almost tropical green. When she was released, she took a step back and held both of her own hands, standing stiff and awkward and uncertain.

"I wouldn't, ah, really know," she managed, clearing her throat. Something else, quickly! Oh, yes. The Eel. Nope. Nothing was coming out of her mouth. It was just going to hang there between them like a neon sign.

Lorelei noticed the blush, but luckily, she moved on. "Well, Lieutenant, your first day on the station was very eventful. A true trial by fire. We're all indebted to your cool and expertise in handling yesterday's situation," she said, "And I hear from Val that he all but owes you his life."

"Well, she owes me a scarf, at any rate," Val said with a grin.

There was never a half-Vulcan so grateful as T'Pren when they changed the subject and it showed on her face even without the slow draining away of her blush.

She was already shaking her head at Lorelei even before the woman got to the part about saving Val's life. And then she actually laughed. "I just did my duty. He was the one who notified us of the situation in the first place. So I suppose he saved all of our lives."

The lieutenant returned Val's grin, "Which I think is worth at least replacing the scarf I blew up."

"An exploding scarf!" Lorelei exclaimed with a laugh, "You'll have to tell me all about it over a drink. Maybe when you come see me sing at the Eel for my premier at the end of the week. You will come, won't you?"

"Of course we will," Val volunteered them both without a second thought. He drew an olive colored scarf with an iridescent shimmer across his arm and considered it.

"If I'm not on duty," T'Pren added as a caveat, but mostly she was studying the two civilians in bewilderment. She barely knew either one, but they were inviting her places and Val kept speaking for her and did that mean they were friends or...? Because she had a distinct impression she was missing out on something huge, like maybe she was being played, and it was an unpleasant feeling.

She slipped into silence to mull it over and her gaze fell to the scarf on Val's arm. And then to the new dress on Lorelei's body. The pale green blush was creeping back into her cheeks, but if anybody on this station could help her...

"May I ask a...somewhat ridiculous favor of the two of you?"

"Why, certainly," Lorelei replied, turning her attention fully to the chief science officer.

Val looked up from his scarf, as he placed it around his shoulders.
"Sure. If you only knew the ridiculous favors I've been asked in my life."