Gay Bar!

Posted on 19 Jan 2015 @ 12:29am by Lieutenant Tuula Voutilainen M.D. & Lieutenant Olsam Mott

3,360 words; about a 17 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: Cosmos Lounge, Starbase 84
Timeline: MD 30, 2200 hours

ON:

"Tyrion, are you ready?"

Tuula pressed the chime outside of Tyrion's quarters. This wasn't the sort of thing she would normally do for her patients, but she pitied Tyrion. The poor thing had been through a lot -- first the death of his lover, and now Starfleet in their infinite wisdom decided to take away his commission and bust him down to an enlisted rank in the only thing he had left.

The poor guy didn't even do anything; he was so kind and gentle in sickbay that Tuula was convinced that there was no way he could have been responsible for the murder of his lover. And the grief when he found out that Tyrek had died by his hand, his feelings of remorse were genuine. He had to have been brainwashed or reprogrammed or something.

Tuula knew how challenging the task in front of her was. But she also knew how lonely Tyrion was, and how badly he needed someone. So, here she was, ready to take him out for a night on the town.

The door slid open to reveal the young Betazoid intelligence officer. "Not really but this'll have to do," he said nervously, gesturing at his off duty attire. "How do I look? I've never done this before, I've never been on an official date..."

"It's not a date," replied Tuula matter-of-factly. "We're just going to get out there and find someone who is right for you. Now," she said, looking him up and down, closely examining his clothes. Tyrion was well-groomed, though his style was slightly dated. But the nervous expression on his face showed that it was his confidence that needed work. "You look fabulous," added Tuula, hoping that the compliment would in some small way boost his confidence.

"Yes but that someone might be a date right?" the Betazoid answered somewhat meekly, blushing at her compliment. "Thank you. I assume...you've done this before? Dating, I mean..because I haven't. Not even with Tyrek though I wanted to. Ask him out, I mean."

"Of course I have," replied Tuula. Though to be honest, fake marriage notwithstanding, she hadn't really dated a while. She just could never find the right person. "It's not hard, you just need to relax and be yourself. Besides, I'm sure an attractive man like yourself will have no trouble finding someone in this place."

"Me? Attractive?" Tyrion shook his head. "No I don't think so...but I'll try. I don't want to remain alone forever. I promise I'll try, but I don't even know where to start. What do I do, what should I definitely not do?"

"Just be yourself, seriously." Tuula could see the anxiety in Tyrion's eyes. "Look, just relax and be yourself. Get out onto the dance floor, mingle, and have a good time. If you get nervous, have a drink and get back out there."

Tyrion nodded as they left his quarters and walked beside the doctor's wheelchair. "Just be myself? But...if I enter with a woman, no offense, isn't that immensely off-putting?"

"Good idea," replied Tuula. "You go in first, and I'll follow you in a couple minutes later. If anyone asks, I'm your sister and it's your birthday. Now, lets have some fun!"

"Cousin," Tyrion counter-suggested as they approached the bar. He rubbed his hands on his pants and pushed the doors open, squinting against the strobe light that suddenly decided to start flashing. He headed straight for the bar and ordered an Aldebaran Whiskey.

Tuula waited outside for a few minutes. She flashed the bouncer an awkward smile as she pondered what might be an appropriate time. Seeing a couple of Bajorans enter before her, she figured it was safe to roll in. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the dark environment and the bright lights, she scanned the area, seeing her companion sitting alone at the bar with his drink. She approached, sliding the barstool to the side as she took her place behind him. Seated lower than Tyrion, she could barely see over the bar and get the Bartender's attention long enough to order a Samarian sunset.

"So," she said, turning towards Tyrion who to her disappointment had been just drinking alone, "see anything you like?"

Tyrion nodded as he gestured over to a pair of Bolians, as well as a lone Vulcan. "They look fairly exotic," he murmured over his drink, "and that Human overthere does look promising too. WHo'd you suggest?"

"Hmmmmm," Tuula tried to scan the crowd, but from her vantage point, she couldn't see much. The Bolians looked like they were more into each other than looking for someone else, and Vulcans weren't exactly what Tyrion needed right now. "Don't look now, but I think the Bajoran at eight o'clock is looking in your direction."

Tyrion followed her gaze and smiled shyly at the handsome young man.
"He's cute," he admitted, "but I think he's a Vedek....or soon to be one. He feels wrong."

"In that case, definitely the human," replied Tuula.

Swallowing, Tyrion nodded and flashed an encouraging smile towards the Human, who had turned his head. The Betazoid was particularly drawn to his handsome face but mostly his black wavy hair and his sparkling dark eyes. He picked up his drink and weaved his way through the crowd towards the young man. "Hi," he said, though the word barely squeaked out. He cleared his throat and gestured towards the man's empty glass. "I'm Tyrion...would you like another one of those?"

"Hello Tyrion, I'm Abdel," he said as he turned to face the stranger. He had barely a second to smile at Tyrion before a firm hand pressed down on his other shoulder. "...and this is Q'oral."

A foot taller than Tyrion, the Klingon looked down at him with a menacing grin; one that clearly indicated his displeasure at Tyrion for intruding on his territory.

"Oh.." Tyrion backed away, clearly intimidated by the tall Klingon. "I'm...going to leave you two alone." He looked over his shoulder at Tuula and shrugged, then gestured towards the group of Bolians. The Vulcan just seemed so..austere, no fun to be had. Covering his drink so nothing could get dropped into it, he made his way over to the cluster and greeted them with a nervous smile.

Awkwardly, all the Bolians stopped speaking at once and turned to face Tyrion. There were three of them but in many respects it was hard to tell them apart. Although, to be fair, it was hard to tell many Bolians apart; hair did more than you realized as an identifying feature. One of them seemed younger and more lively than the other two and more than a little bit cocky; the one in the middle, who seemed the most engaged in looking at Tyrion, looked a little rough around the edges; and the third one just looked like a nervous wreck shifting from foot to foot. The middle one spoke up first.

"Hey, I'm Kot," he said, extending his hand to Tyrion. The Bolian's hand was enormous and heavily calloused, betraying that his line of duty involved some form of manual labor. He used his thumb to point to the other two in turn. "This is my little bro, Korvin, and my big bro, Hars. He, uh, doesn't really go to bars. Spends a lot of time with his rocks. Like, studyin' 'em and stuff, so he don't get out much."

"Rocks?" Tyrion felt dwarfed when he accepted the Bolian's offer of a handshake. "Nothing wrong with rocks..." He smiled at the man, as if you say he knew exactly how he felt. "Bit like me and computers, I got dragged here because someone thought I needed to go out and meet people. And not get on my roommate's nerves."

Hars and Korvin shared a subtle look and stepped off slightly to the side, falling into their own conversation; Korvin's eyes roamed the room like a predator and Hars just looked grateful to have been extracted from the situation without having to say anything.

Kot laughed, a deep burly kind of laughter, and turned his body so that he was facing Tyrion full on and almost blocking the other two Bolians out of the picture, like staking a claim to a find. "So, you some kinda Starfleet computer scientist or something? I know a thing or two about computers myself. I'm a repair technician for the deep space relay station network, so I spend about half my year out in the middle of nowhere with just me and a bunch of computer parts. It's lonely as hell, but least I ain't got nobody ridin' my ass about something all the time."

"Or something," Tyrion smiled, while sipping his drink. "I'm an intelligence officer but I specialize in computer systems. So far there isn't a system I haven't been able to gain access to." He gestured to Kot's empty glass. "What were you having?"

"Bolian scotch, neat," Kot said, looking down at his glass; there was only the thinnest layer of the blue liquid remaining. He glanced back up at Tyrion, grinning. "But let me buy. I'll get you one, too, see just how tough you intelligence types are." He led the pair to the bar, put in the order, then roughly slid the glass into Tyrion's hand across the bar top. "So, you gonna tell me your name, or you gotta kill me if you tell me?"

Tyrion blinked and sniffed the bright blue drink. "My name's Tyrion," he said, "but most people just call me Tyr, so I don't mind if you call me that too. "This smells potent," he added, taking the smallest of sips. "Not bad either."

Tuula looked on in horror as Tyrion was surrounded -- some might say absorbed -- by the blue mob. A couple of the Bolians looked familiar; she figured they could be one of Mott's relatives. Of course, to her, all Bolians look alike.

As she sipped on her samarian sunset, Tuula considered staging an intervention and extracting Tyrion, but decided that the risk was too great. Besides, Tyrion didn't seem to be doing too badly and intervening in his mingling, even to save him from the cruel fate of being surrounded by Bolians, would risk damaging his confidence and doing more harm than good. So Tuula simply turned back towards the bar, hoping that she wouldn't be noticed.

"We're a potent people, Tyr, and we like potent things," Kot said, downing his entire glass of Bolian scotch in one go. His eyes had been looking around the side of the glass, though, taking in his new drinking partner. He was definitely a Betazoid - no one else had those eyes - so there was no sense in trying to be too coy about things. When he sat the glass back down on the bar, he took the opportunity to take a half-step closer to the other man and give a not-so-subtle grin. "I'm not usually a hard drinker, I don't want you gettin' the wrong impression about me, but I've been out on a rig near the Betreka Nebula for about 260 days with nary a bottle in sight. Or much else."

Except that, despite being full Betazoid, Tyrion never consciously strayed from his desire not to use his telepathic skills. He looked up at the tall Bolian and smiled, taking another sip from his drink. "I barely ever drink at all," he admitted, "me being on my second glass for the evening is already a record. So you've been out there all by yourself? For nearly a Terran year?"

Kot's brow creased in concern while he looked at Tyrion's glass - Bolian scotch was strong; it had to be to get through the Bolian digestive system and provide any kind of a kick. "Yeah, hard to believe, ain't it? That relay was a piece of work, I tell ya. I've never seen one so broken down. I think it'd come through about three or four ion storms or something. I had to order parts, wait for 'em to come in, then the damn transceiver couldn't handle the standard power output from the new EPS outflow regulator, burned the whole thing up. More waiting for parts. Nobody but me and the computer out there, damn near lost my mind." Suddenly, the big man fell silent and a worried look crossed his face. "Am I talkin' too much? You been out in the middle of nowhere for that long you start to feel like two sentences is talking too much..."

"Oh no, no no you're not talking too much at all," Tyrion replied sweetly, taking another sip, a bigger sip this time, which made his black eyes water. "Keep talking. What did you do to pass the time when you were out there on your own? I mean it had to be kind of fun and relaxing, I wouldn't mind being on a station on my own for a while...just to have my mind to myself for a change." He faltered. "Not that I want to right now, that'd be rude," he hastily added. To give himself some posture, he took a nother big sip, which ended up in a series of coughs.

Kot reached out a strong hand to steady Tyrion during his coughing fit, trying to hide a bemused smile. The corded muscles in his bulky arms barely strained to help keep the Betazoid in place. They were the sort of arms that seemed preternaturally suited to lifting and moving things like subspace relay transceivers and whatever else the man had to haul around with him from relay station to relay station.

"Careful there, it's strong stuff. Kinda sneaks up on you a little bit, like a Ferengi merchant," Kot grinned. Feeling much more at ease with the other man, he relaxed back against the bar. "I caught up on all the Bolian operas I've missed over the years, and I did some reading. I worked my way through an anthology of Bajoran poetry from the monks in the Kadis province. Tinkered with a few projects I've been working on, mostly relay stuff. Just any little thing to keep busy. If I ever got bored I could always put in a subspace call to a family member, they're all pretty chatty."

He shifted his eyes to look for his brothers; Hars was gone and Korvin seemed to have a particularly feminine looking Argelian cornered.

Tyrion chuckled in amusement. "Yes, I imagine so," he grinned, "I sent a letter to my sister a few weeks ago but I haven't heard back. I haven't seen anyone from my family in about oh...fifteen years?" He shrugged. "I left home to escape them, and I have lived on Earth ever since. No questions asked either, I tried to hide who I am to be honest. But recent events have taught me that you can't hide..." He shrugged a second time then tipped the glass back, downing the remains of his drink. "Potent and sneaky or not...I like this!"

"I think that's the liquor talking," Kot said with a grin. He replaced his own empty glass on the bartop and made a discreet motion to the bartender, signaling for the tab. With the kind of casual indifference that underscored his confidence, he gave his thumbprint over to pay for their drinks without breaking eye contact with Tyrion. One of his big hands came to rest lightly on top of the Betazoid's. "Hey, you wanna grab something to eat from one of the promenade vendors? We'd better get something heavy in you, or you won't be able to walk soon."

"Sure, though I'll need to let my cousin know that I'm leaving or she might get worried. She's the only one I can tolerate you see...she's Human." He smiled brightly, turning his hand over so their palms were touching."

"So, you don't talk much with your family?" Kot asked as they weaved their way through the bar crowd looking for Tyrion's cousin. As much as he liked getting away from his own family, fifteen years sounded like an incredibly long time.

"No. I left to get away from all the bossing around. You see, in Betazoid culture, the women are in charge. I have three sisters and all three thought to boss me around. Doesn't help that I was born telepathic so I knew they were coming long before they found me. I often wish I was Human..." His eyes traveled across the crowd until they found Tuula. "There she is."

Kot followed his companion's gaze to Tuula and then stopped dead in his tracks. "What? That's your cousin? Her? In the thing? No way... That's my sister-in-law. She's, uh, she's married to my brother. Wow." The Bolian shook his bald head and laughed. "Small universe, right?"

"More like a second cousin," Tyrion quickly amended his little white lie, "but we should tell her...I don't want her to worry."

"Second cousin," Kot repeated, turning the idea over in his head. He shrugged it off and was grinning by the time they reached Tuula, like there was some kind of joke she wasn't privy to. "Hey there, sis. Seems I ran into your cute cousin here, why didn't you tell me you had family visiting, too?"

"I... er..." Tuula was stumped, caught like a deer in the headlights by his question. She wasn't expecting to be confronted by Motts at Cosmos, so she was unprepared for this and needed to quickly come up with something that didn't blow her cover. "I didn't realize Tyrion was your type," she replied, turning to face Kot. "Had I known, I'd have introduced you two sooner," she added, offering the two of them a smile.

"We serve on the same assignment," Tyrion continued, "and we don't know each other that well, actually we only recently discovered we're family, didn't we Tuula?"

"Yes, you know how genaeological research can uncover the darnedest things," added Tuula, faking a nonchalant attitude.

Kot fixed Tuula with a strange look. Humans were so weird sometimes. "Right... I think we've got a Benzite in the family somewhere along the way. Odd how things like that happen, isn't it? So, uh..." Kot cut his eyes to look around, unsure how to extricate himself from the situation. Was he supposed to invite her to come with them? He'd only had something greasy from the Andorian foodcart in mind, but she'd definitely muck things up. But, she was family. Sort of. Right? Kinda? "We were just gonna... Uh, head out. To grab a bite to eat."

Tyrion nodded in confirmation. "I just wanted to let you know so you'd not be worried about me if you wouldn't find me in the crowd." He leaned over and quickly kissed her cheek. "Don't wait here for me, I'm not sure we'll be coming back here."

Kot did a very Mott-like job of covering up his wry grin, which was to say it was all over his face as plain as day. Truthfully, he'd been about to die out on that subspace relay being alone for so long. Despite being that rarity of rarities - a solitary Bolian - he wasn't that much of a solitary Bolian. 270 days alone was a lot for anyone, and while he was enjoying his family's company that was...different. A lot different, really, especially given his present company. He'd take a handsome young Betazoid over 46 Bolians any day.

"Let's go," the Betazoid told him, taking his hand to start and tug him towards the door. "I'm famished!"

Watching Tyrion leave with Kot, Tuula raised her drink and smiled at them as they exited. She was glad for Tyrion, feeling that the guy needed to get out and meet more people. Even if they were Bolians.

OFF:

Lieutenant (J.G.) Tuula Voutilainen, M.D.
Medical Officer
USS Galileo

CPO Tyrion Faye
Intelligence Officer
USS Galileo
[PNPC T'Vanna]

Kot Mott
Subspace Relay Repair Technician
United Federation of Planets
[ NPC - Mott ]

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