JP - LtC Foster and LtC DeVeau "Favorite Things" (Part 1)
Jamie LeBlanc
((Starbase 118 Ops - Chief Surgeon’s Office))
Alora checked her list, her teeth chewing on her lower lip. So she had Lucas, check. Tony. Check. Ashley, definitely check. Oh man, that was going to be a funny one. Hm. The captain, check. Nijil, check. Sheila, check. Next on the list…
Prudence Blackwell.
Hm. For that, Alora had no idea. Although she’d served on the last couple of missions with her, she’d not had the opportunity to really get to know the woman like she wanted. She was definitely going to have to change that. In the meantime, however, she had a deadline, and that meant she needed information fast. Going straight to the source would be awkward as she’d likely have to say /why/ she was asking.
So Alora did the next best thing. She went to the gossip train.
While not generally the sort of person to gossip, she did find it useful. Sometimes. In that particular case, not so much, except that by asking others, she did get one lead - evidently Wyn Foster was a good friend of hers . According to the gossip train, Wyn Foster might be a bit more than just a good friend. Alora was definitely not going to pass /that/ along. Still, it was a clue, and a clue was better than nothing at all .
Which brought her to the doors of the surgeon’s office. She entered when given leave and offered a bright smile to the blue man.
DeVeau: Hello Doctor Foster!
Wyn looked up from the mess of PADDs on his desk where Triberius the orange hybrid tribble-cat… thing looked balefully at him, quite upset that work was being done that did not involve petting Triberius. The Andorian doctor himself was very awake, on his third mug of raktajino already, and his head and antennae snapped up at the sound.
Oh, she was chipper. He was awake, but she was way too sunny for a day of processing medical reports. Wyn met the bright smile with a mild wave.
Foster: Hey. Commander DeVeau, right?
Seriously? She would hope that considering he was treating her he wouldn’t have to ask her name. Maybe he was having a bad day. Or he was teasing. Yeah, Alora was going to assume he was teasing.
DeVeau: Alora. Just call me Alora. I have a question for you.
Foster: Is this about the Borg? ::That seemed to be a very popular topic of conversation between the science and medical people on the station lately.::
Alora shook her head and stepped around the chair across the desk so she could actually sit in it. PADD in hand, she leaned forward, earnestly peering at the man.
DeVeau: No, not about that. I’m in dire need of some information and I was hoping you could help me.
Foster: Alright. So is this a personal medical question or a hypothetical medical question?
DeVeau: What sort of things does Prudence Blackwell like?
Full stop. He blinked and stared back at her like someone who had just been slapped awake.
Foster: Was not expecting that.
DeVeau: That’s okay, but I still need an answer.
It was important. She had several other people on her list that she had to figure out, and Prudence was one of them. Alora didn’t want to leave anyone she’d worked with out of the picture.
Foster: I mean what do you mean likes? There’s likes as in what she likes to eat on a Sunday morning and likes as in the sort of guy she takes to bed after a night of drinking. There’s a lot of likes in the world.
His sharp Terran tone was fast and reasonably blunt today. He settled back, answering Triberius’ prayers and moving the creature to his lap to lavish skritches upon it.
DeVeau: Uh….definitely not the second one. More of what are her interests, hobbies, that sort of thing. Ooh! Tribblecat!
Foster: Ok, well, she’s big into movies. Like super big into old fashion Terran movies. Knows all of the classics and most of the not so classics.
DeVeau: Okay, what kind of classics? I mean, for what Era? Does she like things other than movies? Oh he’s so adorable I just want to hug him forever!
Alora’s mind was still on the question, but her attention was on the tribble cat. She grinned broadly at the sour faced creature, not caring that it didn’t care. It was so cute. So cuddly. It was a tribble and a cat, the best of both worlds!
Foster: ::He picked Triberius up who gave a faint cry of dismay and offered him out to Alora.:: His name is Triberius. He’s a hybrid. A crazy genetic scientist made him and gave him to me ::he shrugged.:: He just wants to be petted and worshipped like the fluffy little overlord he is.
Did he already tell her that? Probaby, one of those days when his head was hurting and he wanted to block out whatever happened. Those were happening more often nowadays. Something he should really get fixed and yet kept putting off.
DeVeau: Yeah, I know. You told me that last time.
Now Alora was beginning to wonder if there was something wrong with Doctor Foster’s memory. Not that it mattered. He was letting her pet the tribblecat! She set down her PADD and took Triberius without hesitation.
DeVeau: You deserve to be petted and worshipped, don’t you? You’re adorable. Absolutely adorable.
And she was more than willing to give lots and lots of scritches. See, he didn’t need Wyn Foster at all.
Foster: Oh yeah, movies. ::He was easy to get off track at times.:: Ok, she likes movies. But she has two favorite types - fantasy movies from the twentieth century and movies from any century that fit the description of ‘so bad they are good.’
DeVeau: Oh. Huh.
Alora wasn’t overly familiar with a ton of bad movies. She liked good movies, but hey, she could do fantasy. She loved fantasy. That was a start. The problem was, how did one ‘get’ someone else a movie? Prudence could watch one any time she wanted.
DeVeau: Okay. Anything that’s more...tangible?
Foster: Like what sort of tangible?
DeVeau: You know, something I could make her or buy her or something like that. Maybe a tribble?
Alora glanced down at Triberius, then shook her head.
DeVeau: No. No tribbles. She’d have to go through a whole riggermarole to be able to keep one. No plants either. I do that all the time. Something she would like, that would mean something to her.
Foster: She likes the book The Last Unicorn. ::He said, thinking.:: She likes this stuff called Marionberry jam… probably chocolates? That’s like a human thing, right?
Wyn - great at surgery. Not great at what girls liked.
Alora’s head snapped up.
DeVeau: Wait...did you just say “The Last Unicorn”?
Antennae flaring upwards he blinked.
Foster: Yes.
DeVeau: As in...Peter S. Beagle’s “The Last Unicorn”?
Foster: I dunno… yes?
Clearly Wyn had not read it.
DeVeau: As in, the Last Unicorn tries to find out what happened to the rest of her kind and she winds up getting turned into a human “The Last Unicorn?”
Foster: Sounds like it. ::he was going off Rue’s summary - how many books with the same title could there be? Especially books about magical unicorns?::
Alora might have jumped up and hugged the Andorian doctor, but she managed to refrain from doing so because she still had Triberius in her arms. Her face, however, lit up with a bright grin. Oh that was perfect! Just perfect! It was something she knew all about and something she could work with! She could find something based upon that bit of information.
DeVeau: Yes! That’s exactly what I needed! Thank you!
Foster: You’re welcome.
He said with a tone that confirmed how utterly confused he was that his information was such a positive hit.
DeVeau: I do have another question.
Foster: What’s that? And no I don’t have any tribbles to give out right now.
Which wasn’t an overly common question, but one the man with all the tribble licenses did get from time to time.
DeVeau: Other than medical stuff and tribbles, what sort of things do /you/ like?
Wyn blinked again, antennae stilling. That wasn’t a question he got often. Or at all.
Foster: I mix drinks ::He shrugged.::
Which, while true - he was a fantastic mixologist, did not actually answer the question. Mixing drinks was something he did, not something he liked.
DeVeau: Oh...I may have to ask you to mix me one some time, but that’s not actually what I’m looking for.
Foster: Mostly just try to live another day and keep people from getting killed by stupid preventable things. ::he murmured back, realizing once again that he was not nearly as exciting as he hoped he was.::
~*~.
Lt Commander Shar’Wyn Foster
Chief Surgeon
StarBase 118 Ops
&
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Lt. Cmdr. Alora DeVeau
Science Officer
Starbase 118 Ops
M239008AD0
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~Julian Beck
E239010ST0