Lorelei's debut

Da-an waved a tendril at Akhil in greeting.
"I am Da-an, the station's new groundskeeper. It's quite alright, perhaps you've never seen a Phylosian before, we're very rare."

Da-an wrote:

"I like music, that's why I'm here," they said to Val.
"They all seem very nice," they said, gesturing to the Federation officers. "Do they treat you well?"

"When it suits them," Val said with a smirk, deciding not to advertise that he'd just been released from prison. "Music! Really." He tried to imaging what sort of instrument could possibly fit that physique.

Akhil's pat on the back sent Val jolting forward with a cough, which he gladly laughed off. He wouldn't mind being roughed up by the klingon one bit. "I am well! Look, our gardens are finally going to be getting some pruning. It's like a creeping jungle in there at the moment."

"Ah! Welcome," Akhil replied, and ordered more bloodwine for his table when Falten caught his eye. "The station is getting more diverse by the moment. It is refreshing!" he said the Phylosian. "I am Akhil, son of Sirtis, of the house of Mnemon. The ship's counselor. I hope you are settling in well so far." Compared to the quiet, mild-mannered Phylosian, he was like a foghorn.

"Was that a jibe at my race, Lieutenant?" he asked in mock indignation.
"I'll have you know, I think a little shameless nudity would do everyone some good from time to time!"

"My fathers certainly agreed with that philosophy," T'Pren admitted with a grin only vaguely touched by loss. "Our ship was practically a private nudist's colony."

"Your fathers had the right idea," he said. "Between you and Ozan back in the academy, who had the better constitution for bloodwine, you or her?"

"Well," T'Pren confided, dropping her voice to pretend to help Regan save face but still loud enough for her to overhear, "It's an unfair comparison. I am half-Vulcan. Alcohol doesn't effect me in quite the same way."

"Did you hear that Doctor?" he said, raising his voice. "The lieutenant here says she can handle her bloodwine better than you. What do you say to that?"

"She's lying. Or her memory is faulty... Remember a certain New Years celebration, Pren?" Regan turned back to the commander, "She'll tell you I cheated. But she's lying."

"I believe the only way to determine this is a rematch," he said.

Her antennae swayed. The liquor was flowing, tonight. She gave a small sigh and kept her working smile on, watching amusedly as the evening played out.

A thought struck her as she watched the Risan singer flirting outrageously among the crew.

"Lady Lorelei!" She called out, still flipping glasses expertly from the tap to the bar and back again. "You done singing? Didn't think you'd call it quits this early, hot shot." She grinned.

"She was spiking my bloodwine!" T'Pren insisted, clearly scandalized at the thought that she might lie about her ability to drink bloodwine. Thank goodness Akhil wasn't back to hear these outrageous accusations. "One New Year's party and that one Bloodwine Binge when I was--" The half-Vulcan stopped short, and though she had been rowdy and comfortable for a while, she suddenly turned a green brighter than perhaps should be physically possible.

The look she shot at Regan across the table had an obvious warning against continuing that train of thought.

"Lady!" Lorelei exclaimed with a laugh, "I guess that's me!" She rose just as Akhil got back to the table, carrying a tray of bloodwine for the party. Lorelei grabbed her glass and, with alarming expertise for someone in an organza gown, downed it like it was water. "Any song requests?" She asked, "doctor?"

Falten grinned. She'd been getting some pushy clients wanting to know why Lorelei had stopped paying attention to anyone but the group at the table on the side.

"HJ, light 'er up," She gestured at the stage and the buxom Risan again.

Watching Lorelei down a glass of bloodwine had a peculiar effect on Regan - if she had been taken before, she was now dangerously on her way to falling for this woman.

Lorelei wrote:

"Any song requests?" She asked, "doctor?"

'I'm a doctor, not a Jukebox!' Regan thought in a panic as every song she had ever known flew out of her head. "of course!" she said, because that's what you say when a beautiful woman asks if you have any requests, "I'd hate to break the Human music streak, do you know Fever?"

T'Pren, who had taken a huge drink of her new bloodwine to cover her embarrassment at her earlier almost-slip, choked at the name of the song and started coughing.

Regan continued to smile as she trod on Pren's foot under the table.

That only made it worse. The half-Vulcan had been green-faced and coughing, but now she was also laughing hysterically in between trying not to choke on the bloodwine in her windpipe.

"Why doctor..." Lorelei practically purred when Regan named the song. She missed the rest as the holographic band charged into the song's tell-tale drum beat. Lorelei stepped away from the table, the spotlight flickering on and following her movement. "Never know how much I love you, never know how much I care..." she breathed out, the tiny microphone amplifying her voice and carrying it over the bar, silencing it. Lorelei moved slowly, swaying out into the crowd. "When you put your arms around me..." her hands snaked up the curves of her figure, and she turned back to look at the command table, "I get a fever that's so hard to bear. You give me fever..." The Risan met Regan's eyes and winked, moving on back to the stage.

Both Regan and Pren were watching Lorelei with mirroring expressions, slack-jawed and flushed. When the singer winked, their heads turned toward each other for a moment of very pregnant eye contact...then the doctor and the lieutenant went bright colors and identically knocked back their bloodwine, avoiding each other's gaze.

Falten danced a small shot glass between her blue fingers, splashing a quick hit of Allakas Malt into it and downing it without a flinch.

Fever. She did like this song very much. She didn't need to lift her eyes from the myriad of taps and glasses before her to see the electricity arcing between multiple patrons. Lorelei might as well have been a solar flare of sexual energy, blasting the command table shamelessly.

Akhil pushed fresh glasses towards the doctor and lieutenant. Even he was riveted, though far more familiar with Lorelei's every look, curve and movement. The Risan was completely in her element.

Regan and T'Pren accepted their new glasses without looking away from the singer and took another large, identical drink.

Lorelei made her way through the crowd, shoulders and hips swinging mesmerizingly. "Sun lights up the day time, moon lights up the night..." Her hand stroked the surface of the bar when she reached it. It took a single tap of her other hand for a burly ensign to lift her up to sit on it, a had and shoulders above the crowd in a spotlight. "I light up when you call my name, and you know I'm gonna treat you right. You give me fever!"

Falten pulled another few ales, then stepped to a computer panel to settle some payments. Between calculations she would lift her eyes to the singer to take her in, though she didn't need her eyes. Her antennae were sensitive organs, acting as ears and eyes in ways other humanoid anatomy did not. Her range of vision went slightly beyond the human's spectrum, and her hearing... well, her hearing was accentuated by her unwritten family history, and she felt and heard and saw all as one.

Falten couldn't help her smile as Lorelei was lifted onto the bar, dazzling in her grace and poise. Falten sidestepped quickly to avoid even the edge of the light that followed the singer, and leaned on the bar a bit further back, her antennae lifted towards the Risan.