Things Are Fucked Up

Tal'Ara laughed.

"I'll drink to that."

She offered her glass up for a cheers.

Falten had been observing the newly promoted crew members and little Inabnet from behind the bar all night. She'd been observing Tal in other ways, but her antennae were picking up the stress and tension being woven. There were almost an infinite number of half-truths being spoken, enough so that Falten couldn't even begin to keep track of where the web began and who was lying to who. It was not uncommon for such webs to be spun on stations like this, where the community was essentially trapped and strange things grew in the corridors, but there was a violence in the past and future that Falten could feel, and it made her uneasy. She just didn't want it to have anything to do with that fucking Cardassian peeper.

A moment came where she extricated herself from the celebratory masses and slid down towards the trio.

"All right, all right, all right! Congrats to the fancy pants over here," She grinned, her arms folded and a smile in her eyes. "Is my lowly company still welcome among such high ranking officials?" She gave Tal an amused smile, and her eyes flickered down her dress. She'd seen it from afar all night, but up close its dark splendor was absurd and stunning. Falten's own dark, leather pants and loose, sleeveless tunic top were practically rags in comparison, and she was doing everything she could not to think about how utterly plain she looked.

Tal'Ara positively lit up when Falten came over. Just seeing her made her blush and squirm. She couldn't even hide it - and frankly, she didn't care.

"Of course you are," she said sweetly.

She looked up and down at the Andorian's clothes. Even though it wasn't anything fancy, it was doing it for Tal'Ara. She liked the hard, working appearance on Falten. She wore it well. Made her look tough - which she was.

This time T'Pren actually had a drink for the cheersing, so she tapped her glass to Tal'Ara's and took the appropriate post-cheers sip. Which is when Falten arrived and Tal'Ara changed completely.

She sat back to observe the interaction with wonder, eyes slightly wider but her expression otherwise impassive. She did, however, chance a glance at the Captain.

"If I'm still allowed among them," she told Falten with a smile, "you certainly are."

"You most certainly are, Falten-- so long as you bring the finest vintage our new Commander can recommend with you," he said.
The energy between Falten and Tal'Ara was palpable. He found himself relieved that Tal'Ara would have some kind out sexual outlet on the station, otherwise her energy would be entirely too much to handle.
"Before you two joined us, I was telling the Lieutenant about the changes I was planning to make to our bleak accommodations."

Tal'Ara clinked her glass with T'Pren and downed the last of her drink.


"I would say the 2325. What do you think, Falten? They've already tried the 2360."

She felt weird giving orders to Falten. She tried to be as polite as possible, but now that they were more than just patron/bartender... she felt guilty bothering her at work.

Tal'Ara sunk a little in her chair. The welts and bruises on her back stung a little harder now for some reason.

Falten smiled at her welcoming comrades, offering Pren a particularly kind and friendly smile.

"Again, congratulations to the both of you." Falten gave a nod of her head to Captain Rai and Commander Tal'Ara. "Redecorating?" Her antennae perked up noticably. "What kind of redecoration?"

"And Tal, definitely the 2325. You're making an ale snob out of me," She grinned and turned to fetch a bottle, noting the sudden sadness and unsurety from Tal and not knowing exactly what was causing it.

"I'll take it! Yes, redecorating. You saw the Phylosian, Da-an? I'm employing his botanical expertise. I'm going to turn this station into a slice of paradise, if it kills me," he winked at Tal'Ara at the words 'kill.'

The change in Tal'Ara was absolutely fascinating. It was, for lack of a better word, humanizing even. T'Pren swallowed the rest of her Romulan Ale to prepare for the next vintage, favoring Falten with a smile in return as she went to fetch it.

As for Rai, she gave him a weary grin. "Feel free to use my quarters as a test."

Falten looked like she might literally squeal the moment the Captain mentioned the garden decor paradise. She whirled with the bottle in her hand, mouth wide and eyes practically shining.

"Plants? All over the station?" She put the bottle on the bar and wiggled a little bit with joy. "Oh, that is SO badass!" She deftly popped the top and slid four glasses across the black surface of the bar, pre-chilled.

The idea of her plant haven extending to the wide, sharp halls of the Cardassian space station was beyond joyful. She could barely contain herself, though she tried to keep a level face so as not to disappoint Tal with her stupid glee.

Falten's delight was contagious. T'Pren's weariness melted into something a little cheerier as she let her grin grow.

"See, Captain? All the good ideas."

Tal'Ara smiled bashfully at Falten when she said she was becoming an Ale snob.

When Rai shot the little quip about if it "kills" him, Tal'Ara perked up an eyebrow and an incredulous smile.

His suspicion and fear was warranted - and exactly what she wanted. He would be a fool to trust her right off the bat. His trust would come later...

Tal'Ara gave a slight eye-roll to Falten when T'Pren made that little innuendo to Rai.

"I'm having Da-an import plants from Bajor, Betazed, Risa, everwhere-- in fact, if the two of you have any flowers you'd like added, I would certainly welcome-- Da-an will make it happen, they're a mastermind." He wondered what Tal'Ara would request. Something thorned and grey, he figured.

T'Pren's grin twisted into a confused frown when Tal'Ara rolled her eyes.

"What?" she wondered, more baffled than defensive.

"My father used to tend a garden... Vulcan Orchids were one of his favorites. I think he also had some local Romulan Lillies... I remember them being quite beautiful - though, I have terrible allergies, if memory serves me correctly."

Falten couldn't contain another slight wiggle of joy as she poured out the glasses.

"I have so many favorites... do you think Da-an would take a look at my collection, if I asked them to swing by sometime? He'd know better than I would what will take in these conditions..." The creeping, colored vines that graced her shoulder and upper arm suddenly made sense. The little botanist. "Andor has plenty of flora, but it's all pretty much the same color palette. Some rock creepers might look nice amid green, though..."

Falten pushed the glasses to each of them, her hand lingering on Tal's glass and her eyes meeting the Romulan's. She grinned.

Tal'Ara's bit her lip when Falten grinned at her. She took the drink immediately and had a sip to distract from her squeamishness.

Was Falten fucking magical or something? How did she manage to cast this kind of spell on her?

Her eyes shot downwards. She was embarrassed for behaving this way in front of her fellow officers. It was a sign of weakness.

On the other hand... that could be a good thing.

Tal'Ara was a bit startled when T'Pren asked, "What?"

But she played it off innocently, "Hm? Oh, nothing."

And smiled back.

Falten lifted her glass to the three of them.

"I don't know what we're toasting to, but I want a toast. Let's toast!"

From a startling morning (someone must have put her back in her room, because she woke to the stark walls and small garden of her room and it had nearly put her in shock) and catching up on more naps, this day hadn't turned out half bad so far. And it looked bound to only improve. DS15 was treating her just fine.

There was a creeping insecurity in T'Pren's stomach as she continued to frown at the Romulan Commander. Nothing could make a lab rat reintroduced into society feel self-conscious quite like the idea that there was something she was missing that everyone else got.

She raised her glass for the toast, but not without anxiety and reluctance.

"Yes, let's toast until we're blind!" said Rai. "To new friends!"

Falten was only a little surprised at Rai's enthusiasm. It had been a momentous day for him. She'd just never seen him so blunt about things. It was always a diplomatic veneer that covered anything so full-hearted.

"To new friends," She repeated, looking over at Tal. She had no idea what she was getting into, but the lightness in her gut everytime she saw her seemed to bode only good things.

"To new friends," she said, beaming at Falten.


She lifted up her glass for the toast and had a drink or the royal blue ale.

T'Pren joined the toast with a silent tip of her glass before taking a long draw from the new vintage. It was certainly pleasing on the tongue, but she had no heart to comment on it at the moment. She didn't want to invite more of what she was sure was ridicule she wouldn't understand. She sat back in her chair and concentrated on breathing in between nursing sips of the ale.

She also quite suddenly wondered if they'd just been poisoned...but figured it was a little late now and took another drink.

Falten took a long, gratuitous drink from her glass, the ale complementing her skin tone quite nicely.

Her antennae moved slowly across their faces.

Fear, apprehension, delight, satisfaction, sadness, sexual tension, suspicion, lies.

There was so much coming from each of them that she could not even begin to separate them out. There were concerns and secrets, and though she was curious, she had learned from experience not to push, or dig for answers when they weren't hers to find.