Fade to Black

Posted on Thursday May 20th, 2021 @ 19:15 hours by Mayterial Droz & Alexandria Farron & Lozen Nachtnebel

Mission: Safe Passage
Location: Sci-Fi Convention, Convention Halls, Betazed
Timeline: Immediately after 'Queueing up some Resentment'
1867 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

[Previously in 'Queueing up some Resentment']

She turned to Kari, finally free to ask what all the tension with the women had been, when one of those same aggressive women rocketed out of the crowd toward them. Whether she was play-acting or serious, Lo couldn't tell, and she felt herself freeze in indecision. If the woman actually meant to hit Kari or Alex, she should intervene... but if this was all just another elaborate game, like the Grand Slime cosplayers, Lo did not fancy the thought of decking some innocent fan.

"Uh, guys?" she said, not able to hide the quiver in her voice.

Alexandria hadn't really understood what the problem was. Yeah, the other two cosplayers had been acting super weird, but they hadn't really been mean or threatening. Flippant and condescending? Sure. But they were also the reigning top cosplayers at FantasyCon for several years running. As far as Alexandria was concerned, they had earned the privilege to act that way. And besides, they still weren't half as unfriendly as some of the crew of Fawkes, like those jerks who'd made fun of her in the crew mess.

With that in mind, the navigator stepped forward as the Betazoid cosplayer approached with intent. Kari really didn't seem to like her or Kiezi very much, and the last thing Alexandria wanted was for the lot of them to get tossed out on their butts because an altercation had broken out. Betazoids could be touchy about those... disruptions of social harmony and whatnot. As Alexandria walked up, it became clearer that the woman in red wasn't exactly aggressive. Conflicted seemed more likely. She stopped in front of Alexandria and spoke softly to her, too softly for the others to overhear. And then just as quickly as she'd approached, she turned on a heel and left, her way-too-short dress skirt swirling in indecent fashion.

Alexandria turned back to join her friends without saying a word, acting as if nothing had happened. She looked shifty as hell though, even more so than usual.

Kari arched an eyebrow in Vulcan fashion when Alex joined them again, "Well, you do realise that you'll have to tell us what the hell that was about, right."

"I'd agree with that statement," Lo said.

"Kiezi wanted to know if you're single," Alexandria said nonchalantly to Kari, before glancing at the ever-shortening line. Very soon it would be their turn to visit with Commander Carter, and the navigator had absolutely no idea what she was going to say.

"What?" Kari was taken aback by that sudden curveball, "what did you tell her?" She looked back over to where the Orion had disappeared to, wondering if she should be shocked or flattered.

Lo muffled a snort of laughter, trying and utterly failing to make it approach the simulacrum of a cough. "Ah-h, yes--" she grinned wickedly, "what did you tell her?"

Alexandria looked a bit crestfallen as Kari quickly scanned the room, in search of her new not-so-secret admirer. She knew she couldn't really compete with the Orion, neither in cosplay nor matters of the heart, and the reaffirmation from her friends only worsened the sting of hard truths. Lo's laugh, which Alexandria took for mockery, only confirmed this.

The wannabe Star Crusader had wanted to stay in-character, and tell them all that Kari was her princess bride, but it wasn't true... that and she wasn't very good at staying in character when people started asking super-personal questions. Kari deserved the truth. And she also deserved the opportunity to be with someone who would potentially offer more than Alexandria had to give.

"I told her that you were my favorite mistress, and that if she wanted to know more, she could come ask you herself." Alexandria said, feeling a bit like a slimeball at having to admit to her infidelity aloud, especially to Lozen. Technically she had yet to become... intimate with Kari, and she had yet to even meet her wife, but those seemed like minor details when the intent was there.

Kari her mouth fell open in shock, why would Alex ever consider that an appropriate response to the question. She wondered if it was just a universal translator malfunction or Alexandria missing some of the finer details about how to describe their relationship. Flabberghasted she stood there for a moment, wondering what to respond to that, "Why?" was all she could muster before the line started moving again and carried them inside the small auditorium where Commander Carter was supposedly holed up. Still completely in shock Kari shuffled along with the group making their way inside.

Alexandria cared, she really did, but unfortunately she wasn't very good at showing it... or in this case, knowing when it was time to shut up. Why? Does she mean why is she my favorite mistress? The navigator thought, and had been about to voice the thought aloud when an elbow nudged her sharply from behind. Alexandria turned and saw the woman in line behind her shaking her head with a very emphatic no, while giving her a hard, disapproving stare. Should she be upset that people were reading her mind? Or grateful that they had and wanted to keep her from further screwing things up? Whatever the case, it was now clear to Alexandria that she'd upset Kari, and the worst part was, she still didn't know why.

Though they might be having innocent fun now, the truth was that Alexandria was a bad person. Kari had tried to convince her that she wasn't, but there was no reason for the navigator to believe that that wasn't true. After all, she'd lied, cheated, stolen, and even killed people... either in the service of Starfleet, or Captain May. Good people didn't do those things. Alexandria had also told Kari that she was married, multiple times. Did Kari not believe her? The navigator had to admit that there were plenty of reasons for her to believe this, when it was known to both that she couldn't even get through one fake date on her own.

Sooner or later, Alexandria always got the drink thrown in her face.

After each failure Alexandria's instinct was just to turn off the game, and then try again later and hope things went differently. Her strategy in real life appeared to be no different, and she tried to scoot out of line and hide when her friends weren't looking. But the same person who'd jabbed her in the back before was there to intervene again. Just as Alexandria was pushed forward. she felt an intrusive voice in her mind. Apologize, you creep!

Nearly stumbling, both from the shove and the shock of hearing another voice in her head, Alexandria stepped forward and bumped into Kari from behind. Her semi-flailing arms closed around the Trill, partly due to inertia, but also from a desire to keep her from being knocked over.

"I'm... sorry." Alexandria said, officially entering the running for worst apology ever.

Kari was taken slightly by surprise from the apology, there had been some people around them that had given off soothing emotions in her direction. In all honesty she hadn't really needed them, nor the apology. She knew the stakes when it came to Alexandria and this was all par for the course, "I know."

Lo, who had kept silent during the awkward exchange, rubbed at her temple. She'd actually caught a little of the vibe, if not the exact wording, sent by the betazoid behind Alex. In fact, she bet that a good half-a-dozen people in line with them were psychically aware of the situation and were eating mental popcorn at the show. She had to agree with the one who'd interjected, however. Alex had needed to apologize and, poor though it was, there could be no doubting its sincerity.

Perhaps it was being around so many of her mother's people, but Lo could feel her mind opening gently to the feelings of those around her, including her friends, in a far broader way than she was used to. Or maybe it was the tension between Kari and Alex that had suddenly blossomed... or heatstroke from the sun outside...

All she knew for certain was that, for a brief moment, she felt the full plunge of Alex's neurosis as if they were her own. A distorted view of the world, to be sure, and one which poked enough of her own secret fears and self-doubts to be triggering even at the best of times. Now, with the sudden widening of her mental awareness, the experience proved to be too much altogether.

"Hey..." Lo said, trying to get her friends attention, but they were still too focused on each other to notice her. "Ehh...?" her mouth felt full of cotton, her words all slurred before they could even make it around her tongue. A terrible headache began to rage. Someone in the crowd, it might have been the same woman who had elbowed Alex, was moving toward her with a look of extreme concern.

"Wha-?" Lo said as the world tipped sideways and gravity laid its hands fully upon her.

Alexandria, not exactly the keenest social participant, didn't understand what was going on. Kart was probably pissed at her, Lo had this strange look on her face, and the crowd looked like they were about to tar and feather her... Alex had heard people on Earth actually used to do that to people. She was trying to figure out if there was even way for her to make things right when she saw Lo go down.

The last thing that Lo saw before consciousness slipped away was the faces of her two friends and several dozen strangers looking down on her. Then a very familiar woman's face appeared, a woman that Lo recognized in a blurry, half-realized, and extremely intense way. She held her hand up straight in the air.

"Mm-nicetomeety'Commander."

Sherry Lee Ngmoba, the actress behind the sometimes infamous Young Commander Carter, yet still-undoubted darling of the fan community for her constant commitment to her fandom, stared down at Lo from a million miles away and then raised an inquiring brow at Alex and Kari. "Is your friend okay?"

Then, much to Lo's gratitude, everything when black.

"Uh..." Alexandria said, really not knowing how to answer Sherry's question. Part of her wanted to go try and help her friend, but there were already several others who'd reached her first, and none of them looked too pleased with her at the moment. Plus, she didn't really know what was wrong. If Lo was sick, she could be contagious... granted that meant that Alexandria was probably already on her own way to becoming sick, but still. If she got super sick, she'd need to go to the hospital and then most likely lose her job. What should she do?

The Young Commander Carter looked at the wanna-be Star Crusader and shook her head in disbelief as the medics began to arrive. "I guess I'm not the only one who has this effect on people."