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Day 19 [1430hrs] The Trill of hockey

[Lieutenant Junior Grade Amanda Ashby | Holodeck 01 | Deck 08 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @BipSpoon

To say that Amanda Ashby was excited to be sitting in the Harbour Station again would be somewhat of an understatement. As an avid hockey fan she’d visited the beautiful -and oldest remaining- Canadian arena before, both the holographic representation and the real life version, and she was especially thrilled to be seated here for today’s match; if not for anything but the fact that it was a new one. It hadn’t been particularly hard to find a copy of this match on Qo’noS either, given that the star player of the Montreal Canadiens was a Klingon named Grom, son of Tekoz. While the average hockey match lacked the amount of bloodshed that appealed to most Klingons, Grom was nevertheless surprisingly popular within the First City as ‘a Warrior of renown who rose from our very own First City to master and beat the Humans in their ancestral battle’.

It was an interesting way to describe the sport and, after Amanda happened to stumble onto the sporting shop in the First City by sheer happenstance (in truth, she’d been following the trail of chaos and mayhem caused by the dinner party of Enyd Isolde Madsen and some of her other shipmates), the sheer enthusiasm of the storekeeper convinced her to buy the copies of the last three games; all of which she hadn’t been able to watch yet. In the end, she’d walked away with not just those three copies, but also a blue and red jersey with the emblem of the Montreal Canadiens imprinted onto it, a big red foam finger with the same logo, and even the limited edition Montreal Canadiens mug (signed by Grom, of course) which she’d already used to drink tea this very morning.

When the lights of the arena began to dim to better illuminate the hockey field, the rumour within the arena immediately ceased and the hairs on the back of Amanda’s neck began to rise. From where she was seated, on the fourth row of the lower bowl, she could briefly hear the faint humming sound of the anti-gravity generators beneath the field before music began to play and a voice spoke up over the speakers. ”Good afternoon, and welcome to the Harbour Station! Today’s match is between the Montreal Canadiens and the Leran Manev Ilrienh in this exciting quarter-finals of the 2381 Federation Hockey League!” While the voice spoke, the music changed to the ever-so recognisable theme of the visiting team from Trill as they flew onto the field. Amanda remembered the last match she watched, where the Leran Manev Ilrienh absolutely slaughtered one of the Andorian teams, the Laikan Alicorne, in a spectacular game which saw the first-ever loss of an Andorian team to a Trill team. Today’s match was going to be amazing and, as the music changed into the theme of the Montreal Canadiens, Amanda grabbed the foam finger which she’d conveniently placed onto the empty seat to her right and yelled in support of her team while they flew onto the field.

Re: Day 19 [1430hrs] The Trill of hockey

Reply #1 –
[ Lieutenant Amelya Rez | Holodeck 01 | Deck 08 | Vector 2 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan
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Amelya Rez had only intended to go for a walk that morning, her route taking her past the large bulkhead-style doors that Federation holodecks often possessed. As she passed, she saw a certain blonde Lieutenant walking in, and her ears were met with thunderous applause, and the CLANG-CLANG-CLANG of shoes hitting the bleachers in excitement for…whatever was going on in the holodeck. She only caught one word as she continued past the doors, ‘Harbour Station’. Her eyes went wide. She hadn’t seen a game in ages. Surely it couldn’t hurt just to poke her head into the holodeck?

“Go.” A male baritone called out from behind her, giving her a shove towards the door. She stumbled, and braced her hand against the access panel, inadvertently hitting the entry key. “Jona it’s not my-” Though clearly, he wasn’t asking and continued to physically push her into the door, Jona must have enjoyed watching the Trill team, otherwise Amy saw no reason why he’d even care, unless he only wanted to cause further dramatics, and increased difficulty on Amy’s part in keeping the existence of her little mind-parasite a secret from the rest of the crew. That was the crux though, wasn’t it? It wasn’t a parasite. It WAS Jona, at least the piece of his psyche that imprinted itself upon the symbiote. What he wanted though, or why he was the only one that showed up, Amy didn’t know.

As the lights dimmed, Amy ducked her head a bit and made her way to an empty seat, ushered in by the holographic security staff of the venue, and pointed at a seat. Behind her, stood about fifty holographic patrons in line, trying to get to their own seats. Amy and Jona followed the directions of the staff, and found themselves face to face with Amanda Ashby, “Oh-” Amy swallowed nervously, hoping that the lieutenant wouldn’t be annoyed with the intrusion, “Sorry I just haven’t seen a game in forever and well-” She gave her a nervous sort of smile, “If you want someone to watch with…but I’m definitely cheering for the Trill.” She smirked, and glanced once at the empty seat to Amanda’s left, Jona already worming his way through the bleachers to sit in the empty chair to Amanda’s right. Of course, he was invisible to everyone except for Amy, but his presence was nonetheless distracting as he began yelling expletives at the Klingon player.

Re: Day 19 [1430hrs] The Trill of hockey

Reply #2 –
[Lieutenant Junior Grade Amanda Ashby | Holodeck 01 | Deck 08 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @BipSpoon

She was so caught up in the start of the game, this amazing new game which she hadn’t watched three times already, that Amanda barely registered the arrival of someone to her left. It wasn’t until she heard a somewhat nervous “Oh-“, just as the noise on the stands was starting to grow quiet over the start of the match, when Amanda’s blue-eyed attention shifted in the direction of a rather familiar person; Lieutenant Amy Rez. When the blonde-haired Trill spoke up and apologized for intruding, Amanda almost instantly answered the other woman’s nervous smile with a huge smile of her own. ”Oh, that’s quite alright! You’re more than welcome to join me.”

As Amanda spoke, the umpire tossed the anti-grav puck in the air and officially started the game. The puck flew up in between Grom, the center player of the Canadiens, and the center player of the Ilrienh. Grom snatched the puck away with his stick and slammed it into the air, where it was caught by the left winger of the Canadiens. Under loud applause, the left winger advanced and managed to bypass the right winger of the Ilrienh but, upon running into the right defenseman, passed the puck back to Grom. In a move that incited a groan of disappointment from part of the audience but applause and cheers from others, the center player of Ilrienh came out of nowhere, intercepted the puck, and slammed it down towards the ground where it bounced just twice before the left winger of the Ilrienh took control of it and advanced up into the sky.

Now the puck was no longer under Canadiens control, Amanda pulled her attention away from the game and held out a bag of salted peanuts towards Amelya in a friendly invitation for the other woman to take some. ”I can’t blame you for cheering for the Leran Manev Ilrienh, to be honest. They are-…” Amanda paused briefly as the left winger of the Ilrienh ran into the right winger of the Canadiens, briefly collided and dropped the puck, but recovered and passed it to the center player. ”They are having an amazing season. Have you seen their last match against the Laikan Alicorne? That was an absolute slaughter!”

While Amanda talked, she saw how the goaltender of the Canadiens blocked the first shot of the Ilrienh. She clenched the bag of peanuts and inhaled sharply, but the left defenseman of the Canadiens picked up the puck before it fell back onto the ice and passed it back to Grom once more. As Grom advanced, Amanda leaned forward in suspense but nevertheless threw a sideway glance towards Amy. ”How have you been though, Amy? It’s been a while!”

Re: Day 19 [1430hrs] The Trill of hockey

Reply #3 –
[ Lieutenant Amelya Rez | Holodeck 01 | Deck 08 | Vector 2 | USS Theurgy ]b Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan
[Show/Hide]
Amy moved down the row of seats, her legs moving over and around the legs of the various people in the crowd. Once she made her way to the seat, she sat down right away, “Thanks, I haven’t seen a game in…a while, like I said. I used to go to them all the time. Me and some friends even snuck into a couple of matches, tickets were already all sold out, but that didn’t stop us.” She smirked at Amanda, but her grin faltered slightly as she saw Jona staring right at her from behind the other woman, but she did her best to maintain the facade of calm she’d been working so hard on, she knew she was no spy though, eventually something would slip, a crack would appear. She waved down a man carrying a tray of beers, and quickly took one off his hands.

She brought the cup to her lips, and let out a sound, “Hmmm”, though clearly it was a sound of enjoyment, Jona smirked at Amy, and she didn’t quite understand why. Beer was certainly more of a Jona drink than an Amy drink, she much preferred wine or a mixed drink, but hey, symbiotes did all sorts of weird things, maybe it was changing her taste-buds too. Amy took a handful of the peanuts that were offered, this one was a snack that she had always loved. She tossed a few in her mouth, and much to her delight, she still loved the things. “One of the best things to come from Earth, these.” She watched intently as the trill center took control of the puck, and brought it up into the air. Her fist clenched, and her eyes darted as fast as they could as the player moved at breakneck speed through the court.

“Actually, no I haven’t.” She frowned slightly, “I haven’t had much time to watch recently to be honest. Still getting used to the symbiote, plus work and well…I’ve been pretty exhausted at the end of the day.” She shrugged, she was telling the truth…mostly. Her exhaustion likely came from the fact that she was quite literally being haunted by a specter of the past.

‘Tsk, tsk, tsk.’ Jona clicked his tongue at Amy, ‘I know when you’re thinking about me. I’m not haunting you. I’m not really sure what’s going on here either to be honest but…you’re a smart girl, you’ll figure it out. Order another beer though, that’s a good one, he picked up a cup from his own cupholder, identical to Amy’s own. She brought her cup to her lips, and as she did, so did her, their movements and the fluid level of their cups identical. Amy felt the urge to set her cup down…but didn’t, she kept on drinking, like Jona did, and her eyes went a bit wider. After a moment, Jona set his cup down, and so did Amy, draining half the cup in one go. He’d made her drink the beer…somehow. His desire for more beer overpowered her own urge to pace herself.

Her posture slightly stiffened and she looked away from the game, and over to Amanda, “I’ve been alright, just busy and tired, like I said. Not too bad though. Just been trying to…adjust. How about you?” It wasn’t exactly secret knowledge that her becoming the Rez symbiotes host happened quite recently. Her eyes peeled momentarily back to the court, where it appeared that the Klingon ran the puck down and…scored. “Dammit!” Amy shouted, in tandem with the invisible man next to Amanda. “Come on!” she clapped and watched in anticipation, before breaking her gaze back to her friend for a moment.

Re: Day 19 [1430hrs] The Trill of hockey

Reply #4 –
[Lieutenant Junior Grade Amanda Ashby | Holodeck 01 | Deck 08 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @BipSpoon

Amanda hadn't failed to notice how Amelya drained about half of her beer in one go and, given that she didn't often see someone down a beer like that, she was about to make a joke about it. Something like a small, concerned “Wow, are you alright?”, but hidden beneath a joke so it would sound friendly instead of overly inquisitive. Just when her lips curled into a grin and she opened her mouth to speak up however, excited cries pulled Amanda's blue-eyed attention back to the field; just in time to see how Grom scored the first goal of the match. In reply, Amanda began to laugh excitedly and clapped along with the rest of the crowd while the puck was thrown back into the air and the match resumed.

The right defenseman of the Ilrienh took control of the puck and, upon being confronted by the left winger of the Canadiens, quickly passed the puck on to the Ilrienh center player. Upon taking control of the puck the Ilrienh center player immediately found himself confronted by Grom, but he skillfully evaded the Klingon center by boosting up into the air and passing him overhead.

While all that was going on, Amanda turned her blue-eyed attention back to Amelya and presented the woman with a charming smile. ”I’m alright, thank you! How’s the symbiote?” As she mentioned the symbiote, Amanda’s slightly Martian-accented voice gained a somewhat concerned undertone. ”I’m no expert, but I can absolutely imagine how exhausting a symbiont might be. Being introduced to all the experiences and unique personalities of the symbiont’s former hosts sounds incredibly intense.”

A thunderous roar, followed closely by loud applause, interrupted Amanda and she quickly turned her blue-eyed attention towards the field once more; just in time to see how the right winger of the Ilrienh swooped up from below and surprised the Canadiens’ goalkeeper. The result was an amazing goal which brought the score back to 1-1. In response to the goal, Amanda hooted mockingly but nevertheless laughed again just moments later when the puck was brought back into play. It was a nice goal and, admittedly, the Learn Manev Ilrienh were playing an amazing season thus far.

When the ruckus died down again, Amanda turned her attention back to Amelya once again. ”I can see how the Ilrienh made it to the quarter-finals. Their play is quite good!” As she spoke, the puck made its way to Grom. Amanda could see from the corner of her eye how the Klingon center charged towards the goalkeeper of the Ilrienh, only to be confronted by the Ilrienh center and losing the puck; mere moments later, Ilrienh was in control of the puck once more and the left winger charged the Canadiens’ goal. ”Anyway, please let me know if you need any help? I know that we haven’t talked that often, but you seem like a nice person and I would love to help you adjust if you want!” Amanda’s friendly voice was only further accentuated by her charming smile, even though it only lasted mere moments and was replaced by a scowl the very moment the Ilrienh left winger scored the 2-1 and put his team in the lead.

Re: Day 19 [1430hrs] The Trill of hockey

Reply #5 –
[ Lieutenant Amelya Rez | Holodeck 01 | Deck 08 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Nesota Kynnovan
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Amanda was on her feet as the crowd began to scream and shout, the puck bouncing from player to player, team to team. It was exciting, and for a few minutes, her worries and fears vanished. Jona was still visible in the corner of her eye, smacking his fists against the glass of the arena and shouting at the players, but Amy didn’t even notice him, it was as if he’d faded into the crowd, another face she didn’t know. She wasn’t able to fool herself for very long though.

Amy paused for a moment, and turned her attention to Amanda as the trill coach called a time out, likely to devise a new strategy for defeating the monster of a Klingon player that was out there. “It’s-” She paused, trying to find the right words. She didn’t want to give away what was happening just yet. She didn’t want to be remanded to quarters, or stuck in sickbay for test after test to try and figure out what was wrong with the symbiote or even worse, wrong with Amy herself. What use would she be to her crewmates in that condition? None. If she kept up like this she’d be fine. If Jona became a problem, she’d talk to somebody but…not yet. She’d fooled herself into believing that everything would be okay. “Exhausting is one way to put it. I’ll just be doing a random task and…it’ll all hit me.” She left it intentionally vague, hopefully letting Amanda believe it was the memories that would hit her, and not the disembodied ghost of the past that had been haunting her.

“They’re incredible!” Amy shouted as the trill took the lead. She balled her fists and let her eyes flit to the clock…time was running out, and the trill were still ahead before…BANG. The Klingon had checked the Trill team captain into a board and he went down at once. Refs were on the large Klingon in moments, and he was sent to the bench. “Oh shit.” Amy peered over towards the man on the ground as he stumbled his way up, giving the crowd a thumbs up and a grin. “That…that was intentional…he goaded him into hitting him.” Amy laughed and smacked her hand against the glass, “Finish it!” She shouted, and within moments…they had. One more score before the buzzer went off to announce the end of the match. 3-1 to the trill.

“Thanks I uh-” She looked away from her friend for a moment before turning her gaze right back. “I appreciate it. Might take you up on it. Wanna grab a drink?” She pointed up towards the top of the arena to a sort of spire, which if they were actually at the game they’d have no chance of getting into, given it was the VIP bar and looked like a winter wonderland from a storybook once you stepped inside, but they weren’t actually there, and Amy had always wanted to check it out.
 

Re: Day 19 [1430hrs] The Trill of hockey

Reply #6 –
[Lieutenant Junior Grade Amanda Ashby | Holodeck 01 | Deck 08 | Vector 02 | USS Theurgy]
Attn: @BipSpoon

Amanda scoffed when the coach of the Leran Manev Ilrienh called for a timeout, but used the short break to turn her undivided attention towards Amelya as the woman spoke up about her symbiont. While the initial question had been out of sheer curiosity, given how a hockey stadium was hardly the right environment for an in-depth analysis, it wasn’t hard to see that the experience clearly took a toll on the blonde-haired Trill. In all fairness, Amanda could understand why it did; being introduced to the collective memories and experiences of several previous hosts like that would take a toll on everyone’s psyche, and the Martian Psychiatrist couldn’t help but respect Amelya for the amazing way in which she adapted to the situation.

And, in believing so, Amanda took the bait and genuinely believed that it were the memories that exhausted Amelya instead of something far more serious.

When the match resumed the conversation, short as it had been, was immediately forgotten as Amanda turned her attention back to the game in front of her. It was brutal and both the Montreal Canadiens and the Leran Manev Ilrienh put up a brave fight. It actually brought a grin to Amanda’s face to hear how much Amelya seemed to enjoy the ongoing game as well and, after throwing the other woman a sideway glance, she soon joined the blonde-haired Trill in cheering for the teams. Just… the opposite team. She roared along with the crowd when Grom checked the Captain of the Ilrienh into a board and wasn’t beyond booing when the large Klingon was subsequently sent to the bench by the referees.

Without the large Klingon on the field, Amanda soon began to realize that the game would be hugely in favour of the Leran Manev Ilrienh and, indeed, when the buzzer went off the game ended in a 3-1 victory for the Trill team. As the game began to wind down along with the humming of the anti-gravity generators, which allowed the players to slowly come down onto the field, the speakers crackled to life once more. ”Amazing! The Leran Manev Ilrienh advances to the semi-finals of the 2381 Federation Hockey League as the first Trill team to do so in the history of the League!” It was a well-deserved victory as well; while Amanda had been rooting for the Montreal Canadiens, she had to admit that the Leran Manev Ilrienh had simply played better. Turning her attention back to Amelya once more, Amanda was about to speak up when the blonde-haired woman beat her to it and invited her to the VIP bar for a drink.

”A drink?” Amanda followed the gesture of Amelya’s hand towards the VIP bar and, for a brief moment, she was actually taken aback; she watched several holographic matches in the Harbour Station, but not once had she even considered to visit the VIP bar. A grin appeared on her face as she turned her attention back to Amelya and Amanda nodded enthusiastically. ”You know, I’ve never even considered to go to the VIP bar! That’s an amazing idea Amy, I would like that.”

With those words, the two blondes (and Jona, unbeknownst to Amanda) began to make their way towards the spire. Under normal circumstances, had they visited the Harbour Station in person, they would have definitely been stopped near the elevator; in this particular case however, the doors of the elevator opened right in front of the trio as if to actively welcome them aboard. After a short ride up towards the spire, the elevator doors opened right in front of them and the view immediately stunned Amanda.

Instead of what the actual spire of Harbour Station might’ve looked like, the VIP bar in the holodeck program was winter-themed and offered them an amazing view of the winter wonderland that could only be Andor. As they disembarked from the elevator, a sharply dressed Ferengi immediately approached them and smiled his most friendly smile at them. ”Ah, welcome to the VIP bar. Please, follow me and I’ll get you seated at one of our prime tables.”

While Amanda wasn’t exactly sure whether it was the knowledge that she was in the VIP bar, the smile, the curt bow or the tone of the Ferengi’s voice, she couldn’t help but feel that somehow, she would end up losing latinum. Regardless, she followed the Ferengi through the bar, impressed by everything she saw along the way, and ended up at a tall table surrounded by four comfortable high stools. The table itself was located right near the window and offered an even more impressive view of the landscape below the spire; it definitely wasn’t Montreal but only confirmed Amanda’s initial suspicions that they were looking down at the snowy landscape of Andor. ”Wow, Amy…” As Amanda sat down on one of the stools, she turned her blue-eyed attention towards Amelya and the look on her face only further accentuated the amazed tone of her slightly Martian-accented voice. ”You sure have good ideas, I should go out with you more often.” A soft laugh escaped her lips before she nodded her head towards the landscape outside. ”Just look at that, we’re looking at Andor, aren’t we? The view is absolutely beautiful!”
 
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