Drink and Be Merry

Posted on Tue Feb 6th, 2024 @ 6:20pm by Lieutenant Commander Keishara Davaris & Lieutenant Evelyn Stewart & Char

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Year One: Whispers in the Wind
Location: USS Moore - Various Locations
Timeline: MD: 24 0032 hrs

Char looked across the bar and the DMZ and sighed heavily before calling over the comm system to the security chief. =/\= Char to Commander Davaris=/\=

=/\= Davaris here, what can I do for you Char? =/\= Kei asked almost resigned to the fact she already knew what it was most likely to be.

=/\= I think you better get down here, Commander.=/\= Char offered as the only explanation. They had enough of these conversations to not have to go into detail.

Kei sighed heavily, very audibly. =/\= I'm on my way. Davaris out. =/\=

The route down to the DMZ was quick and quiet. After midnight, after 2200 hours really the ship bedded down for the night as the night shift took over and most of the crew decided to hit their pillows hard.

As the doors opened she saw the sparse DMZ open out as she walked further in. There were still about half a dozen patrons and then her eyes hit Evelyn and Kei grumbled walking up to the bar. "How long has she been in here?" she asked.

Char pointed towards the group of patrons. Stewart leading the group in the loud joking and talking, holding court more or less. "Since about 1800 hours." He comments with a heavy sigh. "Already had a group from engineering leave due to the noise. I figure I'd call you and avoid filling out an incident report."

Kei nodded. "Probably a smart idea." she said looking over as Evelyn spilled some of her drink from the glass she barely held in her hand. "Less form filling suits both of us. What has she been drinking?", this was because some types of alcohol made people act in different ways.

He glanced around at the lieutenant's glass. "Started with the Trakian ale before going straight to the whiskey for the last two hours."

Pinching the bridge of her nose, giving her head a little shake, she began to walk over to Evelyn. The officers she was around gave Kei a look of unease and began to move away slightly. "Evelyn..." Kei said softly.

Evelyn turned and beamed at Keishara as she saw her approach, ignoring the expressions and discomfort of the other officers with her. “Kei! How are? A bit late to the party, aren’t you?” She asked with clear amusement.

Kei looked over at Char, "I'm fine Ev, and I'm not here for the party. I think that ended a while ago." she looked around to see an emptier lounge. Char looked a bit nervous, he'd felt Evelyn's ire more than once.

Stewart glanced around and saw that the group had scattered. Instead of being annoyed though, she gave a silent chuckle before turning her attention back to Kei. “You really know how to bring down a party, don’t you?” She asked rhetorically before steering Davaris towards the bar. “Come on, let’s have a drink on me.” She said good natured as if Kei had arrived straight from her shift.

"I'm security Ev, my presence brings parties I'm not a part of to their knees." Kei smiled a little at the observation. 'Or maybe its just me...' she thought to herself.

Kei felt Evelyn leading her to the bar and there was a little resistance in her as she did so. Kei knew when they got where they were going it wasn't going to be the experience Evelyn had hoped for. Char had cut her off.

Evelyn ordered two drinks and Char paused, about to open his mouth Kei looked at him as if to say, 'just these two and we'll go'. This was the easiest way she felt to get Evelyn to leave.

Stewart was too drunk to notice the meaningful looks between the security chief and the barkeep. "The usual, Char. Two whiskeys." she ordered.

"Small ones Char. Shots preferably." Kei requested. She hoped a quick shot would satisfy Evelyn before Kei had to tell her she had to go back home.

Char nodded to both of them. "You got it, ladies." He commented, though not with his usual cheerful demeanor.

Evelyn just smiled at the situation. A noncommittal noise somewhere between a scoff and a dry laugh escaping her. "I see this is one for the road then." She commented before shrugging. "That's fine, if he wanted to close up early, he could have just said something. He didn't have to call you down." She added to Keishara without looking at the woman, her gaze focused on the bar she was drawing indiscriminate patterns on while they waited.

"He tried to say something the last time and you ignored him." Kei responded. "I think Lieutenant Matthews came to see you that time." she cast her mind back as they waited on the shots to arrive, which they did rather quickly. "And I am glad he called me. If he'd logged it with security the proper way then its recorded and I don't want you getting in trouble." For once Kei's demeanour was soft, her eyes not so sharp and objective.

“I can handle, Greco.” Stewart replied confidently with a smirk as she thought about their mutual disdain for the uptight first officer when Char arrived with their drinks. With a quiet thanks and bright smile at Char, she quickly downed hers and looked at Kei. “So... does this mean we have a nightcap in my quarters? Neither of us are due on the bridge for another eight hours or so. Gives us plenty of time.”

"I meant in trouble with me as well." Kei chuckled softly as she accepted the drink and threw it down her neck. For the sake of getting her back to quarters Kei knew that it would be easier to just agree to this nightcap even if she had to back out of it when they got there. Evelyn did look like she had the energy to go all night, but even that, behind the eyes looked as if ready to lie down and forget the world for a minute. "We can go back to your quarters, sure." Kei replied rather cryptically.

Evelyn looked at Kei was amused puzzlement. "Don't worry, I know where you stand. You made it clear the last time." She commented about the security officer rejecting her advances. "Besides, I've found someone else who could call if that was what I was looking for." She added before thanking Char and heading for the door with Kei.

In the short walk down the deck corridor, the last shot of whiskey hit Stewart and when they entered her quarters, she stumbled over a chair on the way to the table where she kept her private liquor, she only just caught herself from falling by grabbing the edge of the dining table as stumbled before standing upright again with a soft chuckle at her clumsiness.

Kei was initially confused by the comment about knowing where she stood. The thought had never crossed her mind that going back to her quarters would lead to anything, in fact she was only going there to make sure she got home. That, and now the admittance she'd found someone else. Kei knew of her and the captain, but it did feel like she meant someone else.

Shaking it off as they moved on they soon entered Evelyn's quarters where she proceeded to almost take a nosedive over a chair. Puzzling as to why she found it so hilarious Kei moved to her. "Are you alright?" she asked, the icy façade fading from her features.

Stewart waved off Davaris. "I'm fine, I'm fine." She attempted to reassure her before taking a much needed breath that caused her to pause for a long moment, an uncomfortable and serious look coming over her face. The last time she said words to that affect, explosions were going off as people screaming and yelling in the chaos of Brighton Colony's streets. She was thinking of the immense heat and weight of Remy's body shielding her own when she heard Kei's voice draw her back to the present.

"You're drinking a lot..." Kei commented almost without realising. "I don't think you are fine Ev." she said softly, almost as if she was embarrassed to bring it up.

Evelyn shrugged out of Kei's grasp and shrugged her shoulder a bit to reassure herself. "Yeah, well. I've been doing it for a long time." She said in reference to her drinking habit. "I know when I've had enough." She added, trying to be defiant but the effect ruined by the quiver in her voice brought on by the sudden rush of emotion.

Taking a breath, Stewart closed her eyes and focused hard on pushing down the intense sadness that was about more than just the attack. The same deep sadness and underlying fear that had been with her since her earliest memories from when her mother died and she was first brought to Vulcan. That pain being a constant reminder that she would never be good enough for the Vulcans she grew up around. Evelyn knew from a young age that she was different than the Vulcans. She couldn't naturally suppress her emotions like them, no matter how many hours in meditation she spent. She didn't have the physical ability. She was constantly aware of that weakness. But she learned in time that if she drank enough, she could make herself not feel anything at all. It was the next best thing.

Kei's hand hung for a moment in the air as she'd reached for Evelyn but hadn't made contact. The room became awash with colour, with vibration. El Aurian's empathic ability wasn't like that of a Betazoid, the telepathic sense, the meeting of minds as such. El Aurian's felt the vibrations of things in the universe, that is how they sense changes in time. Vibrations change and their bodies remember.

Feelings are much like that. You may not always see them openly but a person's vibration can change as their mood does. If one is happy it is quicker, vibrant, almost full of life itself depending on the kind of happiness on show.

Sadness, shallower, duller and the vibration itself lacking sharpness. It is slower and can at times even show the person to be moving slower in real time when they are not.

Evelyn had slowed.

"Just because you've done it for a long time doesn't make it effective, or right." Kei replied, sighed and opened up a bit. "I've been a bitch for nearly 200 years. Closed off, damaged... you can pick anything and it would probably stick. We are not the same, but we are not all that different... and where as I don't understand why you feel how you do, I do understand how you feel to some extent." Pausing for a moment she could feel Evelyn pushing her feelings down further, almost in defiance of what Keishara was saying.

"It is scary to be vulnerable. To let someone in. To be uncertain." Kei moved a little closer. Evelyn's vibration changing a touch.

Realizing she was lost in her own thoughts and emotions, Stewart let out a deep shaky sigh and composed herself as best she could and shrugged at Kei. "Since when are you the ship's counselor?" She teased with a trace of a shallow smile before shaking her head. "It's nothing I can't handle. We going to have that drink?" She asked before walking towards the makeshift bar.

"Sure, let's just get drunk and magically wish our problems away." Kei was half joking, half serious. "And I don't need to be a counsellor to be your friend Evelyn. I don't even like counsellors." Her mind flashed to Koaruh, "Talk too much."

Evelyn stopped reaching for the bottle and looked at Kei with mild irritation at her comment. “Listen, Kei. I don’t pry into your life and how you handle things, despite how much of a bitch you are. Just leave it alone.” She said pouring each of them a large glass of some kind of liquor, Stewart wasn’t even checking, drifting back into her ruminations.

"You are a very smart and beautiful woman, a talented officer and I know you see that, that you know that." Kei tried to break Evelyn's trance like reminiscence. "But you do feel things deeply, over think things a little too much. That's not me being in your head, I can't do that but I have been feeling a lot more emotion from you lately than usual..."

Stewart scoffed at Kei's comment and simply shook her head before handing Kei her glass. "Then I've not been drinking enough, have I?" She asked rhetorically before taking a large sip.

Kei accepted the glass and sighed as she sat and leant back into a single seat near the sofa of Evelyn's quarters. "Oh I think you've been drinking plenty enough for everyone." she commented taking a sip from the glass. "But I guess emotional suppression and alcohol have worked a charm for you so far." she tipped the glass towards her sarcastically.

Stewart bit down on her frustration as she gulped half the glass and stood at the makeshift bar. "What the hell do you want me to say, Kei?" She asked, leaning against the table as she looked at the El-Aurian.

"That you'll cut back, that you'll stop?" Kei countered. "That I'll stop getting calls from the DMZ just before Char cuts you off because you've had too much. That maybe you'll listen to someone who cares for you and knows that doing this to yourself is starting to show not only in your personal life but in your duties as well." The last part had been comments made by Greco. Kei defended Evelyn but the boy scout didn't look like he would let it go.

Kei wasn't the healthiest in dealing with her issues either, but she didn't drink as much as Evelyn. Sometimes her temper got the better of her, such as the Ktarian they'd had in custody found out recently. In fact their meeting together had been quite aggressive but she tried to not let it affect her duties to the ship.

Stewart simply sighed heavily and looked out the window to watch the stars stream past for a moment before shifting her attention back to Kei. "I'll think about it, alright?" She asked the security chief. It was a lie and she knew it and strongly suspected so did Keishara. But unless Kei was ready to violate regulations and throw her in the brig for drinking in her own quarters, there was nothing the El-Aurian could do about it. Shaking her head in disappointment, she downed the rest of her drink. "Anything else you want to lecture me about?" She asked sarcastically, a colder edge to her tone before softening as she turned her attention to the floor in front of her. "I should have been there. I should have stayed on the planet." She said quietly to herself.

Keishara rubbed her free hand over her face as if trying to clear the frustration from her appearance. "Sure. I'm sure you'll give it a lot of thought." Kei replied before thinking, 'I didn't know thinking came out of a bottle...', and pursing her lips. "And no, no more lectures right now." she added before finishing off her drink and offering Evelyn the empty glass for a refill.

Kei picked up on the quiet words Evelyn had to herself and wondered if she should reply. In this instance it felt like she was making a statement more to herself and frankly she didn't believe anything she could say would make that statement feel any less true for Evelyn. Her beliefs were strong, as was her emotions and character. Going against that would pointless.

Resistance was futile after all.

Evelyn didn’t respond, too despondent to argue with the El-Aurian. Instead she simply refilled their glasses and drank in silence, feeling there was nothing to say.

 

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