Gemütlichkeit

Posted on 04 Feb 2016 @ 12:40am by Lieutenant Wilhelm Von Haeften & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim

1,396 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: Juptier Station Bar
Timeline: MD82 - 1212

ON:

Allyndra walked with Wil toward the bar she remembered passing. She had had a nice breakfast but for some reason suddenly felt as if she had nothing in days. It was the talk and all, the release of the energy that is was over for now.

As she walked she explained. "Our names have meaning, well just like many other but I suppose more like almost Earth Amerindian. For example Wind in the Face, or say Crazy Horse, to abbreviate a name would be like calling one Face, or Crazy, do you understand?"

"I suppose. May I ask what your name means?" Wil asked.

"Ahhh'leee'innnn'dr'aaaahhh," Allyndra pronounced the name with the rising tonal infection with trill and the final drop in tone in the most formal Akkadian way. "It means the Wind Off the Ocean. So Ally, would be like saying hey Wind. It would seem very odd to me."

Wil tried on the name for size "'Wind Off the Ocean'...now you sound more like royalty than ever Your Worshipfulness." he teased her.

"Stop that," Allyndra replied. "If you were a Guild member it might be mother. The highest we would have would be Guild Mother." She reached the bar and entered. She changed the subject.

"So, what would appeal to you? I enjoy beer almost as much as blood wine."

"I'm German...we are born to love a good beer. The distilleries on New Berlin are renowned for their craft beers. I prefer a good dark lager myself."

Allyndra nodded, "Very good. I somehow suspected that. I find the taste interesting but perhaps to my palette they are a bit too bitter." She took a stool and waved the bartender over. "A Berliner Burgerbrau Schwarzbier for him and a Bitburger Hefeweizen for me. Full stein please."

Wilhelm looked at the Akkadian Doctor with great respect.

"That was excellant pronunciation Allyndra." He did his best to pronounce her name the way she had showed him earlier, but he was sure his human tongue made a hash of it.

Allyndra took a swig of the brew when it arrived. "You know probably should introduce this to Akkaddia. Blood flower nectar is all we have," she mused a moment. She looked at Wil, "A bit like your mead. So we made it! Interesting talk by the way."

"Thank you. Yours as well. I won't lie, I didn't understand most of the math, but it only made you all the more mysterious and desirable." Wil laughed, only half-joking. "I'll bet half the men in there went into mating season immediately!"

Allyndra shook her head, the bright blue metallic streaks flashing in the bar lighting. "I seriously doubt it. I have found that on most worlds, most males seem to be threatened by a female with any intelligence. It was odd to me when I got off planet as it is almost the reverse back home." She lifted her stein. "That we wish we could just take each other as we are, but then I suppose sex always gets in the way," she winked. "As your talk indicates."

Wilhelm took a drink before responding.

"Not all of men are frightened of intelligence in a woman Allyndra." the German said. The fact that he had not used his affectionate nickname for her showed the seriousness of his conversation.

"And I do not know how a "proper" gentleman acts on your world, but for humans, noble ones anyway, it is not proper to make it all about sex when properly courting a lady."

Allyndra peered at the man over her stein for a moment before responding. "I am flattered and...." she turned a bit shy, "honoured. There are things that should know though. So perhaps something for you to consider."

She put her stein down. "I was married once. Now widowed. It is part of the reason I am off world. The other which I find myself uncomfortable with is that while in the mirror universe I ran into my husband or at least his counterpart there and well.....I am with fertile eggs now."

Wilhelm had takena swig of his own brew, and stopped in mid-sip as Allyndra's words registered with him.

"I...see." was all he could manage to say.

"Uh...how many young ones are you carrying?" the German said, sheepishly.

"Our usual is about twenty. Most will not survive their time at sea. My very first matron flight, none returned." There was a sadness in her voice for a moment. She looked at Wil for a moment and then coloured. "Have I made a mistake? There are nuances that even my time amoung others I still make."

"I'm sorry Allyndra, for the loss of your young ones." the German looked sad. He had never known the joys of children, and could not imagine the intense pain that must've caused his friend.

"Mistake? In what way Allyndra?" the German asked.

"I thought perhaps...." Allyndra felt embarrassed. "That perhaps you were...well interested in me. I mean physically." The last words came out it was harder then the entire talk.

"I..." Wil started. Part of him wanted to say that he was indeed interested, but the fact that she had told him that she was with child, the children of her late husband (granted from his mirror universe counterpart, but still), made it feel like the dishonorable thing to do, as if he was spitting in the face of her late husband.

"Allyndra, I think you are a very lovely female. Believe me when I say that the offer is tempting. But the fact that you told me that you are with child, from your late husband no less, changes things immensely. The fact does not detract from your physical beauty. But it would feel... very dishonorable of me to try and court you when you are so soon removed from your...reunion...with your late husband. Please forgive me for my flirtations before. If you would prefer I do not, I will cease from now on." the CSO said with a sad smile. Part of him wanted to say to hell with decorum and honor and pursue the Akkadian doctor, but Wil could not bring himself to do it after what she had told him.

Allyndra took a deep breath. Well it was not unusual. It seemed her usual run of luck but such was the way the universe went. She lifted the stein. "Well at least we can be friends. I could always do with a few more of those. So let's just put the rest aside and enjoy...I believe your region calls it Gemütlichkeit. If I pronounced that correctly."

The German smiled at hearing his own language.

"Quite correct: 'hospitality'. I must say that the sound of my language sounds better on your lips Your Worship." Wil said, returning to the playful name-calling.

He raised his glass.

"May you have twenty lovely daughters as beautiful as their mother, to shatter the hearts of twenty once strong-willed men." he said, his face grinning.

"And if you say worship or some variation or something other than Allyndra I shall bite you for real. Now Prosit!" Allyndra replied.

"You are only saying that because you are after me for my body...your..."Wil left the last word hanging in the air for effect.

"...magnificence." he smirked.

"And you wouldn't dare. You don't wish to know what lurks underneath this gentlemanly demanor." he teased the Akkadian.

Allyndra looked the man and then around before turning back and smiling but displaying those sharp inner teeth. She retracted them. "You are such a flirt. And so am I. Now teach me a good drinking song and let's see how much we can get in before that stupid symposium restarts!"

And so they did; Wil taught her a song his Father had once sang to his mother when they flirted, "Scarborough Fair". It was a song about a man who tasked a lady with impossible tasks if she were to wed him. The lady in turn teased him by agreeing to these tasks only if he provided equaly impossible conditions for her products. They got mildly buzzed in the process, before returning to the Symposium.



OFF

A JP by:

LCmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Galielo

&

Lieutenant JG Wilhelm Von Haeften
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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