Joint Duty Log - LtCmdr Waterhouse & Cmdr Dahe'el - "Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici."

Posted on Mon Dec 8th, 2014 @ 11:56pm by Commander Amelia Waterhouse

1,653 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: All Hallows’

The view from the third floor gallery afforded Amelia a peaceful observation point of the crew. She hadn't yet found the person she'd been hoping to see. Most of the costumes blended into one another as she watched from her vantage point, the music softly drifting up above the soft chatter of conversation, until one caught her eye. Dressed entirely in black, save for the white Guy Fawkes mask, the figure stood out to the willowy geek, and a grin bloomed on her face. She whistled, summoning her green PADD and yanking it out of the air as it materialized. Fingers moved, programming a subroutine triggered by a particular string of notes, and then in a flash the PADD disappeared again.

Her sandals softly slapped on the marble floors as she made her way to the stairs and headed down to the ballroom floor. She managed to contain herself enough that she only skipped stairs a couple times, and always when it seemed no one was watching. Her hair flowed behind, mostly down with the occasional rope braid and ribbon to decorate, and her dress floated around her as she arrived next to the quartet. The Cellist leaned over, his silver eyes locked on her blue ones through the eye holes of their respective masks and he grinned toothy and wide. She giggled as she noticed his pronounced canine teeth, well suited to the wolf he was dressed as, and she leaned close to whisper a request into his ear. He nodded, not missing a note as he'd continued to play, and she drifted into the crowd on the floor.

She hung back in the shadows, watching her prey as he moved about, and waited patiently for the next song. When the band paused, and then the first notes started to play, Amelia made a bee line for the man playing at being a comic book character and her grin returned as her subroutine kicked in to expand the quartet's efforts into that which sounded like a full orchestra.

"The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta, held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous," she said as she approached him from behind. She did not know who was under the mask, nor did she actually care. She was simply amused that someone had brought this character to life for the masque.

Turning to meet the woman who had sought him out, V gave her a bow as she began reciting some of the lines he had memorised, it gave him cause to smile again under the mask as his gaze caught Rochelle, or whom he had a good feeling was Rochelle, weaving her way through the crowd, his attention came back to the woman before him and he giggled slightly, "Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V."

When his head moved ever so slightly, the only indication he was looking elsewhere for a fleeting moment with his eyes obscured by the mask, Amelia couldn't help turning to see where he looked. She spied the holographic wings, leather mask, feathers, and glitter that was the tell tale signs of her brother's efforts for Rochelle, and smiled softly. Noah had truly outdone himself. Her prey's voice drew her attention back though.

"V, you have magnificent taste in costume," she returned, a smirk playing across her face between the leather tentacles of her mask. Whoever this was, he clearly did his homework... but she couldn't quite guess who it was based upon the voice. She'd never been good at that. "You may call me Cthulhu," she returned with a curtsy. "Though, there is a Snidely Whiplash wandering about who might accuse me of being an evil elder god all the time."

"I have tried my best to make sure that I remain at least partially in character," V replied with a slight smile to himself behind the mask, "It took quite a bit of research to get the outfit correct, as well as the mannerisms and accessories."

"There is such detail in the graphic novel and the film both. Do you reference both, or pull from one or the other in particular?" Amelia favored the graphic novel, but the love of the artistic print medium had been imbued upon her at a young age; it was from those same sorts of pages her love for a quad of turtles had also sprung.

"A bit of both, the film mainly though, the character himself was portrayed quite well and certainly drew a decent amount of attention to the fiber details and the message behind him." V responded, his hair being flicked slightly as it drifted across one of his eyes.

"Hugo Weaving was a perfect casting, there is no doubt," she returned, her eyes drifting over the costume again. He really had taken great care in it's creation. The music drew her attention again, and she bit back a smile as she wondered if he noticed it yet. She couldn't help rocking forward onto the balls of her feet in fangirlish glee at it. "I know it would be in character for you to dance. Shall we?"

"We shall," the masked man replied as he presented his hand to the Woman come Elder God before him, "I have to admit, the choice in music is quite fitting, I trust you had something to do with this selection, given that it seems to relate very well to this visage."

"Being the one to assemble the program does give me certain liberties," she returned with a slight bow of her head, laying her hand in his. She wanted to tease about the finish she'd put in, but figured she would let it play out. She couldn't help a Cheshire cat grin.

"And with one fell swoop, you give away your identity," the masked Cardassian replied with a light chuckle that reverberated around the visage covering his face.

"Ah, but if I'd truly intended to hide it, would I have left such a telling hair color on full display?" she countered with a laugh of her own. "You are lucky I'm not so good with recognizing voices. Though I bet if I wanted to crack the mystery of you wide open, all I'd have to do is find the little Ferengi masquerading as a black bird."

"Perhaps, but that may be considered cheating by some," the masked man replied with another chuckle, "However I think the good Captain uncovered my identity as soon as I took hold of her for our dance,"

"That makes me think you want me to uncover it too, teasing me with factoids like that," Amelia challenged, winking even though the mask likely obscured it. "There are few men on this ship who I believe the captain is familiar enough to be able to identify through such a well done costume that provides such a shrouds of mystery. In fact, I think there really is but one I'd lay money on-" She paused with a half laugh. Well, two but one of them isn't at this party, she thought.

"I would think that you've hit on the right person," V replied with a slight bow of the head as they danced, "Rochelle hit on it as soon as I took hold of her, not many would dare."

"I'm glad she realized it was you, I've seen what sort of damage she can do when approached unwelcome," Amelia explained with a smirk. "We may want to be closer to the doors out to the balcony in a moment here." She could hear the song building to its crescendo, and knew what the rest of her subroutine had in store.

"You have something planned for just such an occasion as someone dressing themselves as this character?" V replied as he turned to look towards the balcony.

"Programmer's prerogative, I can change things on the fly," she explained as the first firework exploded in a flash of bright color in the sky beyond the balcony. There was a collective gasp of surprise, and then people moved towards the balcony to watch the display as the fireworks continued in time with the overture's most well know part.

"Well, you have certainly created an extremely accurate representation of the fireworks, right down to the lettering created by them," V replied with a slight smile beneath the mask as the letter V was cut into the air above the balcony by brilliant red fireworks.

"Mama found all manner of comic book related holodeck programs once she realized it resonated for me. I just had to pluck the bit I wanted out." Amelia wasn't about to take credit for anything she didn't do, but she was pleased the pieces had been available to her to use.

"You may have to forward me the usage on some of those programs, I have to admit, it was quite interesting to do the research on this character, quite enjoyable for a few evenings without duty reports." the Cardassian replied with a light chuckle.

"All the my programs are openly available to the crew to use, but I'll see to it you've got a cheat sheet to what's available first thing tomorrow morning," she assured.

"Thank you," the masked man replied as the song began to wind down after the show of the fireworks, "Quite impressive, certainly good for the crew after everything that has happened."

"Indeed," Amelia returned. "And with that, I shall leave you to enjoy the rest of your evening." And with a curtsy, she melted into the crowd.

=/\= End Log =/\=

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator, NCC-78213-E

Commander Almar Dahe'el
Chief Engineering Officer
Masquerading as V from V for Vendetta
USS Vindicator

 

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