Heaven Scent - Part 2

Posted on Sun Oct 21, 2018 @ 2:04pm by Civilian Teena Otrei & Civilian Aleczandra Naqiis-Ryan & Civilian Opal Oliver (Deceased) Dr

2,505 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Victory Conditions
Location: Promenade/Tamashī no umi Perfumery
Timeline: MD 10 1000

"I think it would be very interesting," Teena agreed. "How are you doing Dr. Opal?"

“How about this, Dr. Oliver?” Aleczandra smiled sweetly and held up some targ musk, something only a Klingon would enjoy.

Opal leaned forward to smell the scent Zandy was holding up and was visibly repelled by it, surprised and somewhat hurt. It was the most open of the insults she'd offered and it didn't bode well. Opal wasn't sure how to laugh this one off, but she tried. She wasn't going to be scared off so easily as this. Caleb was worth a proper effort to fight for. She shut off her facial reactions as only a doctor can and worked hard on keeping brave for his sake.

"Really, dear? Do you think it's quite me?" Opal asked, trying to suppress the reflex to gag at the scent. "I was hoping for something more... well, floral?" she said, regaining her smile again, but it had stopped reaching her eyes now.

Teena groaned inwardly. They had started off so well, she supposed. "Oh, that’s for a very special client." She grabbed the small dropper bottle, trying to defuse the situation. "And it's a base mix. Surprisingly, Cardassians like scents mixed from this. Go figure."

Aleczandra dropped the needling of Opal and looked at Teena. “Serious?” she asked, amazed. “I would have thought Cardassians liked snake venom.” Zandra tilted her head, the look in her eyes changing slightly. “No, Cardassians like it...spicy,” she said. “And strong. Something they can...taste.” Kinony was a wealth of information on alien seduction.

Aleczandra blinked and looked momentarily confused before picking up another couple of scents. “Sage and cinnamon,” she told Opal. “Maybe a bit of mint. Dad will like it. It will remind him of the ranch.” She paused. “Well, so will the scent of horse shit, but I doubt you want to wear that.” She grinned at the doctor.

That was actually funny, and it gave Opal the chance to laugh, genuinely amused by that. She rolled her eyes. "Honey, I'll wear whatever he wants, even that, if I have to. He's worth any amount of effort and, if necessary, sacrifice. There aren't many like him around and I'd do anything to make him happy if I could," she responded from the heart.

Teena froze, not really sure how that comment was going to be taken by either Zandy or her mother, who Zandy told her got jealous. She knew Dr. Oliver was trying to connect with her girlfriend, making a joke of the horseshit comment, but she didn't know if Dr. Oliver was in the know of what she knew about her girlfriend. She was actually getting nervous now. Zandy had, via a host, attacked one of the other doctors in a jealous rage.

“He is,” Aleczandra said, her tone strangely detached as she almost mechanically moved around bottles on the table. “He is worth the world.” Mika had fallen for Caleb twice, before and after her joining. He hadn’t given up on her, even though she had changed so much.

Aleczandra blinked and looked up. “I’m sorry, were you saying something?” she asked. “I’m afraid I...wasn’t paying attention.

Opal stopped and looked at Zandy with a slightly confused look on her face, but it didn't last long as the doctor mask clipped back into place. She smiled softly at the teen and said something vague about how it didn't matter, she had just been waffling about scents, and not to worry. She went back to trying, smelling, and moving along the scents again, as if nothing had happened and it was totally normal and uneventful to just carry on where they had left off.

"You know, back centuries ago on Earth, my new grandmother was telling me they used to make perfume with the vomit of a big fish in their oceans. Luckily we now have much nicer smelling and easier to get ingredients," Teena said at the lull of in conversation. "Interestingly it’s mostly alcohol people use these days."

"Would you like to pick a bottle for your creation?" She indicated a cabinet with bottles of all shapes, sizes, and colours in. She had been picking bottles and collecting them for years. Everything was clean and sterile.

“Not fish,” Alexandra said idly as she mixed her scents. “Whales. They’re large mammals, actually. But yeah, ambergris. They used to eat the stuff, too.” She pulled a face. “It was like gold.” She added in a bit more from the licorice. “Did you know people used to rent pineapples?”

Zandra went over to the cabinet, eyeing the choices in bottles.

"Rent them?" Opal asked, fascinated. "What, and give them back in what kind of a state? Wouldn't they have been used up?"

“To display,” Zandy said. “They were something of a status symbol, telling others you were rich enough to have this fruit sitting on the table.”

Opal watched Zandy as she was having a look at the bottles on one side of the room. Opal was thinking about how the girl slipped into and out of personalities and appeared to be being taken over by her symbiont’s many previous combination identities. It had been clear to Opal that the attack on Amia Telamon had been an identity error and that had been meant for herself, but despite Zandy's snipey remarks and open dislike of Opal, she didn't seem to be a violent girl, so that characteristic must be coming from someone else. Namely, Opal thought, the only symbiont/host pairing of the girl's mother, Mika. It was a very complex and worrying idea to come to terms with. Opal wasn't certain how to help either Zandy or herself in this. She was just thinking it over and beginning to resolve to contact Lt. Reynolds when the moment for quiet thought was over and there was someone else talking to her again. She blinked back out of her thoughts and up at the person speaking. "Sorry," she apologised. "I was lost in thought there."

Teena went pale slightly as she sensed the other woman connecting some dots in Zandy's direction. She hoped to all the goddesses she had not worked out Zandy's secret. That meant she needed to change the subject and fast. "Dr. Opal, tell us about yourself. Why did you get into Starfleet? Did you go to the Academy on Earth?" she asked.

Opal looked surprised at the questions but she responded anyway. "I... I'm a civilian doctor. I'm not in Starfleet," she replied, looking a little embarrassed. "I have...had...two siblings who joined Starfleet and one who was civilian like me. I was born on a quiet little terraformed backwater planet in the Alpha Quadrant, not far from the Eye of the Gods nebula. It was idyllic until there was a new influx of settlers brought in by the government who brought in new diseases. They didn't have symptoms, but the virus they brought was something our native settlers didn't have immunity to. My father was one of hundreds who died. It was a very obvious thing to do, to take up medicine and try to help."

"Sorry, Listen to me going on. How about you? What brought you to DS5? Was it to join your half-brother?"

"Erm, no. Daddy was on a business trip. Initially we -- my sister and I -- thought it would be fun to come stay and do some shopping and officially meet our new brother. He wasn't at the wedding," she replied. "It's one of those stupid archaic traditions. Our new mother insisted on observing it to keep face. Society sucks, eh. But I got to meet this amazing woman," she grinned at Zandy, "and realised this is what I wanted to do. Liam encouraged us. He's actually a silent partner. Only ten percent, he put the deposit down on the shop for me and he'll let me buy him out as soon as we find our feet. I'm not going to be here permanently though. Sometimes I will be summoned back, you know, to Betazed, for some stupid archaic tradition."

Zandy frowned and looked over at Teena. “What kind of archaic tradition?” she asked. “And...anytime soon?” Damn, had she fallen for a girl that would just end up getting married off to some guy for politics and babies? Fuck her luck.

"There are many in the upper Houses," Teena said quietly. She took Zandy's hand and smiled at her. It was so sweet she was worried about her having to go. "I am not aware of anything currently. Don't worry. I will be coming back, whatever the occasion."

Aleczandra gave a wry smile. “Yeah, come back with a husband,” she said. “Someone I’ll have to fight to the death for or something.”

Oh, that sounds fun, Juheni commented with glee.

Not likely a fight to the death, Kinony replied. More likely Zandy would be added to Teena’s harem. She is Betazed.

I could accept that, too, Juheni replied.

Aleczandra tried to ignore them and gave Teena a kiss. Okay, so why did the idea of her being in Teena’s harem make her hot? Stupid Juheni and Kinony. No, wait. That was Delald. Huh. Aleczandra didn’t hear from her musician former host much, but she remembered being involved with a Betazoid woman during his life.

Opal felt a pang of sympathy for Zandra in the moment. The teen was clearly in love and dreading how the House politics of Betazoid society might snatch her lover away from her. She wondered if there was any way she might get Zandy to see the comparison and empathise back at Opal for the worry that she herself was facing with the idea that Caleb might be snatched away too. How was she going to make this something that Zandy might see? It was a very dangerous, volatile thing to go dabbling with. She said nothing, but decided she ought to speak to Caleb about it later, if she could find the right time.

"I have no intentions of acquiring a husband," Teena informed Zandy, shocked at that idea.

Opal looked thoughtful. She wondered if she should say something, but decided from the look on Zandy's face that she wouldn't do it right now. She picked up a different perfume and took a sniff of it, hoping that it would be lovely enough to distract everyone by sharing it around, but she didn't like it a bit so it lost its intention there. She put it back down and replaced the stopper, intending to reach for another.

"Ferengi seem to like that scent," Teena commented. "Are we going with the sage and cinnamon?" she asked Opal. "I think," she picked a small bottle up, "some Vulcan parusis would complement that nicely. A tiny hint of heat to cut through the sweet and smoke, balancing it quite nicely. What do you think?"

"Oh yes! I think that combination is perfect!" Opal enthused when she took a deep smell of the new combination Teena had put together for her. "It's just right! You're very talented at this, Teena! This is going to be a wonderful business as soon as your reputation is known around the station! I would like to buy this one please, and will you do the service of keeping records of the recipe so that when I want more you'll have it all recorded and be able to just pop a new bottle or two out, no problem? That would be an amazing bonus, and I'm sure it would make your fragrances all the more of a must-have!"

Aleczandra had fallen quiet and worked on mixing her perfume. What Teena said about archaic traditions, what if she didn’t have a choice on taking a husband? Gah! She should have just stuck with a Human girl, where she knew what to expect. But then, she figured, she herself would be the problem, a half-breed with a symbiont that liked to occasionally take over.

“It does smell good,” Zandra had to agree with Opal. “Dad will like it.”.

"Thank you, Zandy," Opal replied, very pleasantly surprised at Zandra's calm and clearly her own response, as opposed to one influenced by her mother's symbiont. It was a wonderful relief to be talking to the real Aleczandra. Opal approached the teen she hoped might one day become her step-daughter and opened her arms in invitation of a hug. Was it too much, too soon? She would find out soon enough.

Teena froze again as she saw what Opal was attempting. She didn't know how this would go down.

Aleczandra gave Opal a queer look. “What are you doing?” she asked, taking a step back. “Fuck, I say one nice thing and suddenly we’re besties! God! You’re not my mom yet!”

And never will be, Mika huffed.

Do it! She’s hot. Grab her ass! Juheni urged, laughing.

Mika more wanted to stab her in the back while they hugged.

I’m cool with that, too, Juheni cackled.

Opal stepped back and put up her hands in a surrender type of movement, palms forward in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry. Listen, if I ever get lucky enough to spend more time with your dad, and if he ever were crazy enough to want to make it long term -- and let's face it, I stand about a snowball's chance in Hell with that dream -- I would never try to be your new mum. I would love to be friends, yes, please. But I would never want to set myself up to replace her. I would want to start over. As me. New start, new person, new everything because I know how hurtful it would be to try to edge myself into the huge rift she left. I have too many bad memories of my own not to know how that would feel."

Teena felt bad. The poor doctor really really liked her girlfriend's dad, but she couldn't help but feel she was laying it in too thick to fast. Zandra was still coming round to this situation and she didn't imagine her mother inside her head was reacting well to what was just said. But how was Opal to know. She chewed her lip and watched on.

Aleczandra just glared at Opal for a moment. “Fine,” she said. “Because my dad likes you. Just...slow the hell down. It isn’t like he knows what he’s doing, either.” She shook her head and pushed back her rainbow hair. “Let’s make these perfumes,” she said, turning back to Teena.

Teena smiled. That had gone better than expected. "Yes, let’s."

FIN

Dr. Opal Oliver
Civilian
NPC Amia Telemon

Aleczandra Ryan
Civilian dependent
NPC Caleb Ryan

Teena Otrei
Civilian
NPC Liam Reynolds

 

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