(no subject)

[dancingmd]

Who: Beverly Crusher and Friends!
Broadcast: No
Action: Blue Fish
When: October 13th

[Dr. Beverly Crusher, Personal Log, October 13, Seventh Month after arrival. Today is my birthday.

Theoretically.

With a sigh, Beverly stops typing. Normally, she is all about birthdays, both her own and everyone else's but today... frankly, today is weird. By her own calendar, her birthday should have been two months ago, yet time isn't flowing normally back home. Or time isn't flowing here normally. Or something. Damn alternate universes. And does it even matter when no one is aging anyway? She rubs her temples. This is too much to think about before breakfast (though admittedly, the vagaries of traveling through spacetime are better to focus on than the fact that there is no one from home to celebrate with in the first place).

Once she has some coffee in her, she comes to a decision. Real birthday or not, she's going to give herself a little holiday. Which means people aren't going to be seeing her around the dusty moon, or much at all really. After taking a nice long hot bath, and changing, for once, into something other than the fleet issued jumpsuits, she spends most of the day in her quarters, reading and listening to old letters on her tricorder. Even if she can't be with them today, she at least wants to hear Wesley and Jean-Luc and Deanna, surround herself with their voices. It doesn't make her as sad as it once did. Instead, she finds the recordings comforting, for the most part.

Late in the afternoon, however, she will emerge to set up shop in the kitchen where she's going to bake herself a cake! If anyone wants to find her (or that yummy smelling cake), that's where she'll be, humming a jazzy little tune as she cooks.]

Comments

Action

[preformthisneigh]

[Cheese, as always, knows when he's needed. It helps Beverly told him when her birthday is, but he wouldn't really need it. His Cheesy Sense pulls him to the Blue Fish and lo, here he is.

He appears behind her in a cloud of streamers and noisemakers. Confetti floats from some unseen source.

He also has his accordion. ]

♫ Today it is your birthday!
I hope you have a super special day!
You're a doctor, it's your job to make everypony feel better
But today the tables are turned
It's time to have some fun that's well earned
Soooo have a very very happy birthday to yoooou ♫

Action

[dancingmd]

[Beverly jumps at the sudden loud sound. Her hand on her heart in shock and confetti gathering in her hair, she turns to face the intruder. However, her face breaks out in a big smile when she sees who it is. As Cheese continues to sing, her grin only gets wider and when he finishes, she claps enthusiastically.]

Oh thank you, Cheese, that was lovely!

[preformthisneigh]

Yoooou're welcome! I hope you have a splendiferous day!

[He pulls a little blue balloon from nowhere, releasing it so it floats roughly near her head. ]

[dancingmd]

[She laughs and takes hold of the balloon.]

Well you're just full of surprises aren't you?

[preformthisneigh]

Sure am! It's part of the party pony parcel.

So, are you having a good birthday?

Action: later

[alwayscomeback]

[Sokka has hung back until a little later. Mostly because he wanted to avoid the weird fucking talking horse, but also because he needed to perfect his gift. He eventually finds Beverly, knocking on the side of the door. He's hiding something behind his back in his other hand.]

Hey. You busy?

Action

[dancingmd]

[Oh who, her??? No, she's not busy at all, certainly not busy trying to eat a spoonful of cake icing, nope. She quickly tosses the evidence into the sink and turns around.]

Sokka! No, no, come in!

Action

[alwayscomeback]

[HE SAW THAT.

He rubs the back of his neck, stepping in, before awkwardly thrusting out a (terribly) wrapped gift towards her. ]

Uh. So. Happy birthday.

[dancingmd]

[Shh. No one needs to know.

Aww, Sokka. She looks touched as she takes the gift and starts to unwrap it.]

You didn't need to get me anything, you know.

[alwayscomeback]

I know, but I did anyway. So there.

[Inside is a box (because yes, Sokka can wrap a SQUARE badly) and inside the box is a necklace. It has a few nice looking blue-green jewels in it, but the impressive part is the metalwork the jewels are set in. The metal has a strange, blue hue. It's been oxidised. The shape almost looks like crashing waves, with the jewels becoming droplets within the waves themselves.

She may recognise the shape as the symbol on his door. ]

Action

[save_the_souls]

[Allen did what he could to avoid mentioning what day his birthday was, but that didn't mean he didn't pay attention to his crew's birthdays when they got mentioned. And so when he hears her in the kitchen, he'll step up to the doorway, his present being held behind his back.]

Hey- Happy birthday, Beverly!

Action

[dancingmd]

[Beverly stops humming and turns around with a big smile for Allen when she hears him come in.]

Oh! Thank you, Allen!

Action

[save_the_souls]

[Oh good, she's in good spirits. You never know how people will take their birthdays here. He'll step into the kitchen]

Ah..sorry, are you busy? I got you something. [He'll take the package from behind his back and hold it out for her tentatively]

[dancingmd]

[It may be a weird day for her today, but she's satisfied with how it's progressed so far.]

No, no, not at all! I'm just baking a cake! You're welcome to have some when it's ready.

[She takes the present with an appreciative smile and starts to unwrap it. Her crew is too good to her!]

[save_the_souls]

Really? Great! Sorry, I probably should've thought of making you a cake too.

[Or convinced Belthazar to do it because Allen's cooking skills are Not. Great.]

Still, I hope you like the present! [Inside the gift, it's a nice deck of cards and a specialty set of poker chips.] I found them in one of those casino stations, a few months back.

Action

[forsometimenow]

[Feeling a little lonely, Jennifer had gone to seek her friend's companionship. She was surprised to find Beverly baking- considering how little they tended to have in the way of actual food- but sat down at the Blue Fish's kitchen table anyway, smiling.]

I'd offer to help, but I'm not much of a cook, so I'll sit and appreciate instead.

Action

[dancingmd]

[She smiles back, especially happy to see Jennifer today.]

Well, don't get too excited yet. My cooking may not be any better, not without ... [Her breath catches a little and her smile fades.] Not without Kairi's help.

Action

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer frowned. She didn't recognize the name, but from Beverly's sad reaction, she could guess Kairi was a friend.]

Someone you know left, huh?

[dancingmd]

[She nods.] Kairi was... she was our crewmate and our cook. [A little laugh.] Feeding this crew is a lot of work, so when I could, I'd help her out in the kitchen.

[Beverly comes over to sit at the table too.]

She was such a sweet girl, she knew just how to light up your day. [She points for emphasis.] But she didn't take any crap off of anyone either. If I had ever had a daughter, I couldn't have been prouder than if she'd been like Kairi.

[forsometimenow]

[Jennifer had to smile.]

I wish I would have known her- sounds like she was a good person. And a good friend. We need more people to help light things up around here sometimes.

[tobeajedi]

[It's a coincidence that Vima decided to drop into the Blue Fish today. But when she smells the baking smell from the kitchen, she decides to investigate. Maybe the Force is directing her towards cake?

...Or towards Dr. Crusher, dressed snappily and humming to herself. With cake. Vima grins and comes in, wondering what's up.]

You seem pretty chipper today. Any special occasion?

[dancingmd]

[The Force has very good timing, as the cake is just about done. Beverly takes it out of the oven and gingerly sets it down on a cooling rack. It's only a small yellow cake, one layer, but she looks very pleased with herself nonetheless.]

Oh, it's just my birthday! Or at least, it is according to the calendar here. It's hard to keep these things straight.

[tobeajedi]

Yeah, I'm not used to the calendar yet either. The months and the day names just sound like someone made them up--they're not even consistent. [at least all the days end in 'day'.] So it's your birthday, huh? How old are you? You should have let people know--I would have gotten you a present.

[tact she's good at it.]

[dancingmd]

[She laughs.]

Oh no, one of my calendars is the same, as far as the names of the months and days go... they're historical Earth names, pulled from several different cultures, though I don't know the etymology of all of them. But you see, when I arrived, it was May at home and March here. I don't know which date I should be calculating from. And no matter how long I'm here, from all accounts it appears that I will return to that May. So am I always the age I was when I left, or do the years here count, even though none of us physically age while we're here?

[tobeajedi]

Oh, that would explain why they don't match up right. [wait, several Earth cultures? More than one per planet?

but the timey-wimey stuff, as usual, puts Vima in a state of befuddlement.]

That's a puzzle, all right... I guess when you go back, you'll be your normal age? [She frowns.] And wait, we're not physically aging? Should I even ask how Atroma accomplishes that?