Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve and Talent

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 11:24pm by Lieutenant Commander Mindo & Tisar Zemel & Ignatius & Raven Mattel
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:10pm

Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Rec Deck

A Mission Post by Ignatius & Lieutenant Mindo & Tisar Zemel & Raven Mattel
Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Rec Deck
Timeline:
Wed Sep 19th, 2018 @ 5:20am

ON:

Tisar wound his way through the people in the the Little Caesar's arcade looking for the proprietor. Usually it was easy for him to find a Fleeter in a crowd of civilians, but the proprietor of the arcade was a little on the short side. When he finally spotted him across the room, the Cardassian made a beeline for the Engineer. "Excuse me!" He raised his voice over the noise when he thought he was close enough for Mindo to hear him. "Lieutenant! Several people have an idea! We'd like to talk to you! If you wouldn't mind!" He felt a little strange yelling at man he hardly knew.

Mindo hovered a good two feet in the air, still small enough to disappear in the crowd, but not go completely unseen. Upon hearing his rank called, he naturally turned to see who it was, and stared wide-eyed into the Cardassian face belonging to Tisar.

Mindo pointed upwards to the second floor, where he knew the chaotic sounds would be slightly quieter. "Upstairs!" he yelled, and signaled for Tisar to follow him. Once upstairs, Mindo nodded to Raven who stood behind the bar chatting to various customers and being her usual charming self. Once he reached a table, he motioned for Tisar to sit down.

"So the only thing I heard you yell was, 'if you wouldn't mind,'" said Mindo. "Care to tell me what this is about?"

Tisar smiled and bowed politely before sitting down. When Mindo asked he gestured to Raven. "Some of us have been talking... Ignatius as well... It was Ms. Raven's idea though, really, but we were wondering if perhaps you might be interested in participating in a Talent Night? It could be good for many reasons. Morale has been a little low and I think something to distract people would help..." He looked over at Raven to see if perhaps she would join them.

Meanwhile, Raven was roller-skating around the bar, bopping along to the 1980’s synth playing across the speakers. An officer was leaning on the bar, indicating to a cocktail he had received. Raven wasn’t prepared to hear his objections. “Ohh honey I know you wanted a Long Island, but this is a Risen Sunrise. Trust me, it won’t just knock your socks off, it’ll de-rez them!” She saw Mindo and the Cardassian arrive upstairs and smiled knowingly. She hit a few buttons on a console nearby and up popped a holographic bartender to take her place. “I’m taking five, McFly.” She called out as she headed for their table.

Mindo watched the barista move around the bar gracefully, noting the exchange with the officer. As she approached, Mindo gave her a look. "Raven, darling, what did I say about giving people the right drinks, despite their tastes?" Mindo did note, however, that the Long Island officer looked quite okay with the alternative drink.

Raven rolled over to the table and landed in an empty chair with a smooth flourish, kicking her pink patent leather skates up in air and striking a completely unnecessary pose. “Call it woman’s intuition,” she declared, before lowering her feet back down to earth again. “Besides, the folks here need some kind of thrill. It’s been an Emily Dickinson poem around here for days now.”

Tisar chuckled. "It has been rather dreary. We all need something to take our minds off of things."

Mindo cocked his head to one side. "Who's Emily Dixon?" he asked rhetorically.

Tisar looked around. "Do you think perhaps we could erect a performance area of some sort? That is if you're on board?" He looked at Mindo.

"That wouldn't be a problem. I could take out the skee-ball machine over there as well as the other games and put up a pretty good-sized stage." Mindo turned his head and inspected the area near the selection of various ticket games, which he had programmed to spew plenty tickets per game. It made getting prizes a little easier and more fun. But he nodded as he imagined taking them out. There was indeed enough room for a stage. And taking out the pool and air hockey tables would also allow for more room for stage or seats.

Mindo nodded. "This room is already calibrated to turn into a make-shift auditorium for the movies we show here. Instead of bringing down the screen, we could have live performances."

"Excellent!" Tisar said with a grin. He looked around at what Mindo had been looking at. "I am willing to help if need be. I might be a musician now, but I've done my fair share of hard work." He looked over at Raven. "Perhaps a sign-up sheet of some sort? It would be nice to be able to organize it a little... Not that I don't think that open mic wouldn't be okay too. Maybe give them a number? Just something to maintain order," the Cardassian suggested.

Raven leaned into the table, “I’ve run comps plenty of times in the past, I’m happy to handle the talent portion. We could advertise the contest for a few days, maybe a week, and set up a registration form on the ship wide comms system.”

Mindo was about to remark that he hadn't said "Yes" yet, but knew that ultimately he was in full support of the event. "What kinds of performances are we talking about here?" he asked. "We'll need to know what we're getting into. Lay down a few guidelines."

"Oh! That's also an excellent point. I mean... I think it would also be important to maybe set a time limit for the performance? Klingon opera is great, but four hours of it might not be so good. I'd like to propose fifteen to twenty minute time limit... Perhaps music, art, comedy, poetry... dance?"

“No one wants twenty minutes of poetry either.” Raven snarked. “How about we limit it to 5 minutes? Unless we don’t get many applications, in which case we can afford to give more time to...” she sighed, “Poetry.” She tapped her nails on the table before continuing. “What about a judging panel?”

"No," said Mindo. "This isn't 'The Federation's Got Talent.' It's just a show. I think ten minutes would be the best time limit, with the possibility of an extension based on the act. If it's ten more minutes of poetry, maybe not. But if it's a one-act play, perhaps a little more time wouldn't be so bad. I think we should also allow each act rehearsal time before the show, maybe make it a day or two in advance. A kind of dress rehearsal. If needed."

"I have to agree with the Lieutenant. I don't think we need to judge anyone and a dress rehearsal would be an excellent idea," Tisar said agreeably. "I do want to reiterate that we would be doing this to improve crew morale... I hear some bemoaning of poetry, but I do not think that we should refuse someone based on our personal preferences. Not everyone likes the same things."

"Of course," said Mindo. "The rules should be simple. Do what you want for no longer than ten minutes, whether that's reading poetry, telling a story, juggling, or whatever. We should encourage people to keep the time as short as possible, to allow more time for more acts. Maybe limit poets to three or four poems?"

Tisar nodded. "Although, I think that they should be limited to one poem, one song, one routine. If they have more than one then perhaps we can give them several slots. So, for example, if someone has a song... then we can put the poet next... one poem... and then the next person... and perhaps the poet can go again... This way we won't get bogged down by one person's performance. The available places that we have to do things like that will completely depend on the length of the performance and how many people sign up. It might be alright to have extra prepared just in case we can't fill all the time, or someone cancels. Does that make sense?"

“Yes.” Raven nodded. “I’d like to offer my services as hostess for the evening. I could even open the show with my own performance. Show ‘em how it’s done.”

"That sounds perfect!" Tisar exclaimed. "You know... I've never seen you perform, Ms. Raven."

"Darling you're in for a treat," Raven replied with a saucy raise of her eyebrow. She winked to the Cardassian before turning back to the Chief Engineer. "So how does all that sound, Mr. Boss Man? It'll be great for the crew and a good promotion for Little Caesar's. Pleeeeeaaaseee Mindo?" she begged.

Mindo pretended to think about it, putting one finger under his chin in exaggerated thought. "Hmmm... OK. Let's do it!" he exclaimed at last.

Raven's wink made Tisar blush. Fortunately, he was Cardassian and the color change to his heated cheeks wasn't that obvious. He tried to recover by clapping for Mindo's decision. "I don't think you'll regret this, Lieutenant. We'll try to make sure you don't." He chuckled.

"YES!" Raven gave out a mighty cheer, her voice descending a couple of octaves in the process. "It's going to be super fun."

:END