It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Posted on Thu Dec 19th, 2019 @ 6:07pm by Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Warrant Officer Koh Ottasu

Mission: Sounds of Silence
Location: Personal Quarters

The benefit of their current circumstances was that the Captain had relegated almost everyone to 'sick leave' until they reached Starbase. Duty shifts had been reduced significantly and anyone who wasn't deemed essential staff were basically told to rest.

Though there hadn't been much in the way of rest happening, Shaille was definitely happy with herself. Her once stark and impersonal quarters had been made over with a glittering array of decorations, tinsel and twinkling lights. The Christmas tree in the corner had been assembled and decorated with an assortment of decorations representing both Earth and Ts'usu (the latter of which had to be largely improvised given that they neither celebrated the festivities nor share much in the way of cultural information freely).

An assortment of prettily wrapped packages sat under the tree, and there seemed to be signs of festivities everywhere. Dozens of assorted festively themed figurines as well as garlands and wreaths of flowers, leaves and twigs adorned nearly every surface, interspersed by softly shimmering candles, and music was playing softly in the background.

Music Shaille was unashamedly singing along to as she stood, precariously balanced with one foot on the back of the couch and the other foot on the back of a heavy dining chair as she reached toward the ceiling, a small bunch of what looked like leaves and berries in her hand that she seemed to be trying to fix into the panels above her.

Koh had just finished his shift. Sitting on standby didn't sit too well with him, but he'd take a quiet shift over wartime any day of the week. Still though, a full shift of whatever that card game was...

Koh returned to his shared quarters, a smirk on his features as he recalled Shaille walking in to him soaking his ears. As the doors to their quarters swished open, his senses were all but assaulted by the room that lay before him. Dazzling, sparkling garland and decorations, representations of snow hanging from the ceiling, figures and model town... wait, there were Ts'usugi figured in that little town!

The scents of cinnamon and burning candles, and through it all he saw Shaille, precariously perched and hanging something up on the ceiling. This seemed distinct. There was only one sprig of.... whatever it was... hanging from the ceiling.

The music, the flair, the ambiance...

"This... means something." he probed gently, curious as to what happened to their quarters.

Startled slightly by his unexpected presence, Shaille grinned as she finally managed to complete her task and climbed down carefully onto the couch before jumping to the floor. "It's Christmas," she said brightly. "I don't know, I just felt like celebrating this year, so I decided I would."

Turning, she looked around their quarters and smiled. "When I was little my parents used to go all out for Christmas. My brothers used to joke that our house had so many lights it could be seen from space. There was always so many presents and so much food, and we were together, that was the best part." She shrugged slightly before she turned back to face Koh. "I want to celebrate it with you."

Christmas.... Christmas.... didn't ring any bells. "Well, I like the part about food." he joked, but then grew slightly more serious when he heard how important this ... Christmas .... was to her. "Well, then we celebrate it. Tell me about it. It seems very festive, from the decorations. Lights, shiny pieces of string, models, apparently a tree." he chuckled, then turned back to her. "Tell me about this... Christmas."

"There's a legend that once upon a time a virgin gave birth to a baby that was considered to be the son of God. Three wise men came and brought the baby gifts," she shrugged slightly, walking across to the replicator and ordering two mugs of hot chocolate with marshmallows, handing one to him. "Try this," she siad with a smile. "Anyway, it became a whole big thing and people celebrated his birth every year and it just kind of went from there." She took a sip of her hot chocolate and licked her lips. "Some people still do the whole religious thing, but for me it's about being with the people you love."

He took the cocoa and gave it a sniff, before taking a sip. "So it's a celebration of the birth of a celebrity of some form." he recapped, and gave a nod, "Okay, I can understand that. We have a few holidays back home that involve getting the whole family together. One of them is the celebration of the new year, and one of them is the Emperor's Birthday. Thankfully, a long time ago one of the Emperors said that changing the date everytime a new Emperor is chosen was too much of a hassle, so they set the date six months into the year. Pretty much exactly six months away from the new year celebration." he smirked. "Genius."

He snuck an arm around her shoulder, and leaned in to nuzzle her head gently. "I like the last part the most."

"So......... we get the rest of the day off, right? For Christmas, I mean."

"Well, we get the whole day off to do as we want. We get to open presents, eat food, curl up on the couch in front of a fireplace and drink hot chocolate. We can do anything we want." Shaille smiled, leaning into him. "Oh!" She suddenly exclaimed. "That's the other thing I forgot to explain. Christmas Presents! So, the other Christmas legend is that a fat man in a red suit comes down your chimney at night while you're sleeping and leaves presents in your stocking if you've been nice. If you've been naughty, you get a lump of coal."

Koh, to his credit, listened to this crazy story, "Alright, now you're just being silly hon. If you want to just have dinner and snuggle up, you don't have to make anything up." he offered with a soft smirk. It sounded too fantastic.

Shaille was almost affronted at his reaction. "It's true!" she exclaimed. "We leave out a plate of cookies and a glass of milk and Santa comes down the chimney and leaves either presents or coal. Oh! And we leave carrots and oats for his flying reindeer." She smirked.

Koh gave a nod. This meant a lot to her. "Alright, so this intru... Santa... comes in and gives gifts or coal, but only on basis of behavior." he tried to follow. Does this entity actually exist? Does he still make the trips? Did Christmas fall on the same day on every planet?

He looked around at the model town, and just now spied something odd on the rooftop of one of the buildings. "Is that Santa?" he motioned to the slightly more rotund figure. Then he noticed all the other festive figures. "And... these are his reindeer?" he was trying to follow along with the story, though as odd as it must have sounded to him, if he told her any of the stories of Ts'usu's yore, they'd easily sound just as silly to her.

Shaille laughed. "It's okay, we'll just stick with gifts, food and quality snuggle time with the one I love, how's that?" she asked. "I don't think you're quite ready for any more back story about Christmas. I mean, if Santa and the Reindeer are a bit too fantastical, i don't know how you'll handle the North Pole and the elves and the toy factory."

At that, Koh gave a laugh. It was rare for a Ts'usugi to really express their emotions so simply, so openly, but this was a good belly laugh.

"Food, gifts, and snuggles." he repeated with a nod, recovering. "I think I'm alright with that. Regardless of how deep into the Christmas story I go, I'll learn and respect the Christmas spirit." he offered with a nod. "Least I can do for the one I love." and with that, he gently pressed his forehead against her's, ears lazily drooping to almost rest against her head.

"So.... a toy factory?" he asked, "Though, I'd imagine our holidays would sound just as weird to you, so I shouldn't laugh."

"Mmmm..." She didn't reply to his statement, instead she closed her eyes, leaning into him, her free hand moving to rest against the side of his face. These moments were among her favourite, the gentle touch, the silent declaration of love.

He held the moment tenderly, gently, as though too harsh a grip would shatter what they had. After the moment, he opened his eyes slowly, looked into the lids of her eyes, and did his best to wish her the very best that his heart could offer.

"Happy Christmas, dear."