Glass of Class

Posted on 06 Apr 2015 @ 1:02am by Lieutenant Prudence Devin Ph.D. & Ambassador Solene von Lanthen

1,602 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo, Deck 7, Callisto bar
Timeline: MD-01, 18:30

[ON]

It felt like it had been a long day. Between Prudence's own duties as a Counsellor and working in Sickbay for this mission, she felt stretched thin. Even with the extra patients...all three cases quite similar, different and daunting. Three people she wished to help. So it made sense for Prudence to get out of her uniform and into a royal blue dress and heels, to put on the makeup and the jewellery and go out. To enjoy some time. And since they were arriving at their destination tomorrow, she had taken today to go to the bar.

She found it quiet when she entered and smiled, the calm music adding a bit of a sense of class to it. Piano. She loved the piano. Without any hesitation, Prudence walked to the bar, meeting the eyes of the bartender. "I'll have a double scotch, please. The proper one, 21 years old, please," she added, to make sure she got the nice one rather than the synthahol one. Thanks to the new mixologists, their real stock was rather remarkable.

"That's not the best they have my dear." A voice said from behind Prudence, ringing, striking and cutting through the air, commanding and dignified.

Prudence turned her head, looking at the striking woman behind her. "I know," she said lightly. "But it's what I fancy today. Good, but not excellent. There is always a difference..." she turned to face her properly. "I'm Prudence Devin...a pleasure," she offered her hand to her...even if she recognized she wasn't human.

Solene raised her long, slender arm to make her draped, delicate hand come to reach Prudence's, like the grand dowager that she was. Only her fingers met Prudence's hand and he thumb barely made enough contact to give a light, subtle shake. Were it anyone else this motion would have been awkward, but with Solene's confidence and grace, it tricked the mind into thinking it was majestic. "Solene von Lanthen, charmed my dear." She said, turning her head slightly to accentuate the look of her blue eyes closing the distance between them.

Prudence watched her with fascination before nodding gently. "Would you perhaps like to join me for a drink, Miss von Lanthen?" she asked gently, wanting to be polite as well as pleasant with the other woman.

"Why thank you Prudence." Solene, said, lowering her hand and turning back towards the greater part of the bar. "Such a lovely name, 'Prudence'." She mused as she walked over to an empty table by the windows with a lovely view, even if it was just a static, perpetual image of the ship's warp field.

Prudence smiled gently, shaking her head weakly as she sat down. "It is an old family name. It was either going to be Prudence or Patience...I do not necessarily think Patience would have suited me," she said lightly, her eyes warm as she took a seat.

"Names do have such power though don't they?" Solene said, taking a seat of her own. "They mask, they conceal, they enhance, they arouse the senses, imagination and even the body." She spoke almost sensuously and obviously from her own experience.

"Your name is rather beautiful," Prudence said before sipping her drink, studying the other woman, clearly trying to read her. She remembered her of her grandmother and her friends. Reminded her of jewellery and expensive things and little dogs running around. Old grace. "As are you, Miss von Lanthen."

Solene smirked and conceded the point with a motion of her head. "Why thank you, Miss Devin. I've always said that if you're aiming to look at beautiful things you might as well see one in your morning mirror." She said with a small laugh. That joke had always seemed a bit bawdy and vulgar to her, but she found it amusing, and it helped to reiterate that despite her refined carriage and exterior, she was not uptight. Though perhaps her presence at a little bar on a very small ship did that for her.

Prudence chuckled softly, nodding as she sipped her drink. "It is one way of doing it," she agreed softly. She personally just put a shawl over the mirror until she had drunk coffee and brushed her hair. "May I ask what you do here? You...do not seem like regular Starfleet to me."

"Oh I'm a Starfleet regular my dear, just not an officer." She said with a look in her eye. "Perhaps I should reintroduce myself, Ambassador Solene von Lanthen." She said with a small smile.

"Madam Ambassador..." Prudence nodded, with respect at the words. "A well suited title. I do not often head down to where the Diplomats roam. Mostly, I stay in sickbay or my own office."

"Oh you're a doctor?" Solene asked, though the realization did not seem to surprise her. She had always found the healing arts to be one of the noblest callings in life. Noble Doctors were sometimes hard to come by considering the unusual amount of ego many of them possessed, no doubt a product of their extended education.

"Far worse than that, I'm afraid," Prudence said and leant closer, as if whispering a secret to Solene. "I'm a Counsellor. Keeper of secrets." She winked, completely relaxed in the other woman's company. Yes, it reminded her own home. Of great parties socialising. Of going to the races and indulging in conversation.

"Oh my dear well that is an unfortunate occupation isn't it? You listen to other people's problems all day and now you don't even get paid." Solene said with a bit of faux, playful concern and dreariness. "But I suppose that's what the whisky is for isn't it?" She said with a laugh that stayed in her throat and a gesture to Prudence's drink.

Prudence looked into her scotch, smiling as she raised an eyebrow. Her smile became quite wicked and she nodded. "It is my reward. Oh, do not get me wrong. I love my work. I love what I do to help people. And this is how I reward and congratulate myself for a good day's work. A glass of something nice, or an indulgent piece of cake, or a new item of clothing or shoes..."

Solene hummed a bit to display her approval at the notion. "Mmmm, yes fashion is the surest form of expression and the most rewarding form of self flattery."

"It is therapy," Prudence said lightly and there was a smile of satisfaction at it, as if she remembered the sensations. "For me, it is therapy for when I want some...me time."

"My dear clothes are for any time." Solene said with a sly look.

"I have found people talk more easily if I am dressed," Prudence said softly, smiling gently as she watched her. "May I ask how you are finding the ship and its crew?"

Solene leapt into a sort of stance like she was being interviewed, she was focused and intent. "Eclectic, very diverse, not something I've see in a while, and from what I gather, this is only the ship at half strength. Already though I see these ah.... patterns, if you will, so rich and so vibrant, like ribbons of energy." She said with a flourish of her hands. "Yes I like it very much Prudence." The preceding words betrayed Solene's age for the first time in the conversation, there were gaps where she stopped to find words and allegories and there was a low element to her voice, something aged, that was well covered by vibrancy before, but was now exposed. It was minute to be sure, but still there none the less.

Prudence watched her closely before nodding, her eyes gentle as she smiled with warmth. "I feel the same way. I only saw the entire crew for a few minutes...once this training is over, I look forward to meeting everyone properly, to...to see them all."

"Shouldn't be too hard on a ship this size." Solene said with a smirk. "So is that why you're here today then? 'If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, Muhammad must go to the mountain' as they say." Solene was aware the penchant most people had for avoiding psychologists, especially in the military. Personally she rarely utilized such services but she didn't have an avoidance complex so extreme as she had observed in countless Starfleet officers across the years.

"Oh, I am here for my own counselling. I find a nice stiff drink far more enjoyable than drumming up clients," Prudence smiled back, shaking her head. "But I suppose people seeing me here out of uniform reminds them that I am not some Hydra waiting to devour them."

"My dear if you can't be loved, be feared." Solene said with a sly glimmer in her eye.

"If I was in any other job, I would not mind being feared," Prudence said before leaning closer. "I will settle for being respected, Ambassador."

Solene smiled. "A worthy goal, and a far healthier one than wanting to be liked, but like people enjoying your company, respect comes with ease, if you let it." She said, making some hand gestures.

Prudence smiled at that, but it was a smile that was filled with knowledge. Call it an instinct, but she was pretty damned sure Solene was one of those women who invoked respect in everyone she met. "I hope that one day it will," she confessed softly, somewhat hopeful, somewhat cautious...

OFF:

Lt. Prudence Devin
Chief Counsellor
USS Galileo

&

Ambassador Solene von Lanthen
Diplomat
USS Galileo

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