Girls Night Out XIII: Fortuna Smiles

Posted on Sat Apr 28th, 2018 @ 8:44pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray & Commander Yuna Raza & Lieutenant Commander Selune
Edited on on Sat Apr 28th, 2018 @ 9:47pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Operation: Risa!
Location: Risa, Roma Arcology
Timeline: 2265

'Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat': From Fedepedia, the Federation encyclopedia

Fortune favors the bold, Fortune favors the brave, Fortune helps the brave, and Fortune favors the strong are common translations of the Latin proverb "Fortes fortuna adiuvat", "Fortuna audaces iuvat" and "Fortes fortuna juvat". The phrase means that Fortuna, the Goddess of luck, is more likely to help those who take risks or action. Its earliest recorded use is by the second century BC playwright Terence, in his play "Phormio" (fortes fortuna adiuuat) and by Ennius in Ann. 257: (fortibus est fortuna uiris data).

Bonne Chance: Bonne, meaning 'good', Chance, meaning 'fortune'.



"Oh come on, girls! It's the twenty-third century! The ink can be expunged from the skin reasonably easily, it doesn't hurt that much, and it would be a thing, a bonding thing between the four of us! We don't have to get something silly... we could get the ship's motto! 'Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat'! It's even a military thing! Come onnnn..."

Selune lifted her arm, letting her fur reflect the myriad streetlights, "I think I'll have to opt out," she giggled before turning a stony glare, "And you're not getting ink anywhere near my fur! I spent too long on it to let you get it filthy."

"One duin and she does have a point aboot tha' fur versus ink," Fi chuckled. "Boot what tha heck... I'm game! Twill go with me other tatt nicely!" She shrugged, "and I did help keep her from gettin a tribble."

"Tattoo... you mean... inject ink under the skin? Eww, no way in all the universe," Yuna wrinkled her nose. "How can you do that?"

As they debated amongst themselves, Char skipped back out of the alley to return a moment later with a curved-necked bottle. A leather sleeve that formed a handle of sorts was attached to it, and inside could be seen bright blue liquid. "If you're scared we could do a few shots first...?"

The engineer was laughing when she came back "What on Earth or rather Risa is thet?" she asked.

The statuesque scientist looked boggled for a second, then shook her head sadly. "My poor, poor provincial backwater earthling... far from the peat bogs and the loam mines of your homeworld comes a beautiful and mystic concoction from a people steeped in mystery. They may be sneaky, devious and all-around absolute bastards, but they do know how to brew the best booze in the galaxy."

Popping the cork, which served as a healthy-sized shotglass, Char promptly filled it with precision and care before sniffing it appreciatively, then bending over to present it to Fiona with a flourish. "Allow me to introduce you, my deprived diminutive damsel, to the one and only premiere taste of the galaxy... Romulan Ale."

"Oooh, contraband!" Fiona grinned up at Char. "Well... I suppose we need ta dispose oov tha evidence" the petite woman tossed the shot back like a pro then tried to remember how to breathe. She fanned herself, eyes welling up with tears. "Smooooth," she croaked.

"Atta girl!" Charybdis poured another shot and offered it to Yuna. "Whattya say, Queen for a Day?"

"Romulan Ale... that stuff is banned... entirely and completely throughout the entirety of the Federation. I never did understand why. In the name of... an unofficial investigation?" Yuna nodded.

The leather-clad lieutenant commander poured the security chief a shot, then held it out to her. "Sniff it first- that'll give you a hint of what to expect. It is strong and tart, and it packs a hearty kick..."

Accepting the shot, Yuna inhaled deeply, coughed, sneezed then downed the entire shot in one gulp. She nearly passed out on the spot.

"There ya go! That'll... whoop, your spots did turn red, lookit that. How about you, furball? Nectar of the bastards for you?" Another shot was poured as the first officer kept an eye on Yuna, just in case she really was going to fall out.

A cough spluttered from Selune as she sniffed the blue liquid in her hand, "Did you really just drink this stuff?" she muttered before taking a careful sip and squinting to hold back a slight wheeze. "Okay, you people... are crazy."

The surprising scientist turned the handle around so that the weight of the bottle rested on the back of her hand while her fingers held it loosely. She put the mouth of the bottle to her lips and lifted her elbow, taking a deep draught with a few swallows, then she released it, the bottle making a 'ploonk!' sound when she did so from the suction release. Licking her lips lasciviously, she grinned broadly.

"Oh yeah... that's the real stuff right there. Barely watered down and hits you right between the eyes. Just a sniff can clear your sinuses... whoooo, there's that burn!" Chary grinned like an idiot then looked down at her companions. "What?"

"You're gonna be under the table before we even find the table," Yuna warned, making a grab for the bottle. Charybdis let her take the libation away with a shrug.

"Okay, well fine. I was thinking it was a unity thing we could do, but if you're both so indelicate about it then Fiona and I can do it. Or is it too icky to even consider being in the same place with us while we defile ourselves?" The eyebrow came up and she grabbed the petite engineer by the arm and began pulling her toward the shop. "C'mon Fi, let's get us a tattoo!"

"They can make faces at us," the engineer giggled happily. That ale had hit her system at warp 5, and she was not alone as Chary giggled at her. Hand in hand, they skipped cheerfully into the tattoo shop.

Inside there were a few individuals working... they were all Risans, but not the perfect pristine and sculpted specimens of the center of the arcology. Fiona had wondered where the less attractive Risans were, and now she was discovering her answer- the further out you went from the center of money, the less attractive the locals became. Judging from the looks of these three, they were now quite far from the center indeed.

The largest of the three, a Risan male with a shaved head and a number of tattoos showing on his forearms in intricate patterns that wove and danced with one another as he moved, stood and strode to the counter. "Help you girls with somethin? You look a little far from your hotel... you all right?" His voice was gruff, but he actually did sound concerned for them.

"Tattoos," Fiona held up a finger. "We want them," she said with a smile and great dignity.

"No, YOU want them. WE do not," Yuna amended, pointing towards Selune and herself.

Sticking her tongue out at the Trill, Fiona opined, "Char plus me makes a we. WE as in she and me," she pointed to the other two. "Not thee."

"You're definitely gonna make a 'we' if you keep drinkin that stuff," Yuna elbowed Selune with a smile.

It seemed that Fiona found that hilarious, but then again, most things seemed funny. She was filled with much happiness and good will towards her fellow man. She blinked at the big bald Risan like a baby owl then swayed slightly as she took in the ink on his arms, "Oooooo pretty! I like the colors."

"Thanks... some of my best work. So what kind of a tattoo are you girls looking for... maybe a flower or some kind of tribal thing or maybe your planet's flag or something?"

"Not at all! Nice and simple... three little words." Char grabbed a pen and a scrap of paper from the counter and wrote in remarkably precise handwriting 'Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat'. "Nice print, easy to read. Where you want yours, Fi?"

"In a Arc... around my other tattoooo," Fiona said primly then held her hand out for the Romulan Ale bottle. "More please!"

"Where's your other tattoo, missy?" the artist asked with a good-natured smirk.

"On me bum!" Fi said with her customary bluntness. The smirk spread into a smile. The man apparently loved his work, and it showed.

"What's that mean?" Yuna asked from her prime viewing location. Thankful she wasn't going under the proverbial knife herself.

The titan began to snicker, then caught herself. "It's the ship's motto, Yuna. It is Latin, the root language of the languages that created Federation Standard that we speak today... it means 'Fortune Favors the Bold'. I liked it from the moment I heard it, and there may be other ships, but the Bonnie will always be special to me... so thus this tattoo."

"We have a motto," Fi nodded, "it's latin because that's how we roll."

"Latin, isn't that from like eons ago on Earth?" Yuna raised a glitter sparkled eyebrow.

"Uh huh... dead language... more Fed-er-ation eth-no-cennnnntricity." Fiona said with a nod.

"Ideally 'Bonne Chance' is the same language- meaning 'Good journey'. It is somewhat unique amongst her peers, as most of them have classic military names. But she's latin named... well, French, but who's counting... and with a latin motto, so..." Charybdis shrugged. "Better the motto than the ship's name and registry I should think."

"That would be a really big tattoo," Fiona opined.

"How about you, ears? Where you getting yours?" the artist asked as he began setting up his work station for them, putting on gloves and sterilizing his equipment.

The Vulcan stiffened at that for a second, and her brow furrowed. She looked at her friends, one after the other, and then she shucked her heavy leather jacket. "Left shoulder. Wrap it underneath... what's already there."

Misunderstanding Chary's reaction, Fi stuck a forefinger up on either side of her head and said, "You... you have the," she poked her finger skyward slightly, "and he doesn't know our names."

The Vulcan vixen laughed at the sight of Fiona with her fingers alongside her head simulating Chary's pointy ears. "That doesn't bother me," she whispered loudly. "People call me all sorts of things in bars and shops across the galaxy... remember, Vulcans don't earn a very hospitable reputation, so I get to enjoy that when I travel. He's not being rude at all, really."

"I think it's kinda nice that he didna call you... boobs," Fiona nodded sagely, as Char was slightly taken aback by that. "Verra profushional oo him."

"Uh, indeed..." the buxom bombshell agreed.

In short order he had Fiona parked on his table, where it was easier to just pull her skirt up to work on her bum and tug her panties down. "Right around this here, huh? Okay, so you ready?"

The tattoo on the engineer's hip was small and beautifully wrought. It was some sort of thorny plant which, when asked, Fi Identified it as a thistle.

"Aye... I've had two shots oov Romulan ale... I'm ready!" she told the artist.

With expediency and professionalism the artist went to work, the laser implanting the pigment below the integumentary layer. The holoprojector gave him the path to follow, and within five minutes he had the outline complete. "You want it all in black, just an outline or you want somethin fancy there, lil Red?"

"I like your lettering there... the way it's shaded," Fiona pointed to a particularly fine bit of writing. "Tis bonnie... almost 3D."

"I gotcha... three dimensional it is." He punched a few keys on his display PDD, it changed the display on Fiona's hip, and he went back to work, the laser efficiently obeying his artist's eye and steady hand to produce the desired effect. Within moment it was complete, and he help up a hand mirror so that she could inspect the initial finished product.

Studying the reflection Fiona beamed at him. "You do excellent work!" She slipped down off the table and paid his fee plus a nice tip that included a chaste kiss on the cheek. She proudly showed the tattoo off to her friends... and subsequently about half of the shop's patrons.

The elevated executive officer waited until the artist had sterilized the surfaces and his tools once more, which took remarkably little time, and then she delicately perched on the edge of the bench, her legs crossed and ankles close together. She looked around at her friends once more with apprehension, then she turned to the artist.

"Put it here, and wrap it in an arc beneath this," she said as she reached over with her right hand, picked at the skin of her left shoulder for a moment until she found what she was looking for. Then she tore a dermal patch off, exposing a darkened seared pattern on her left shoulder. It looked somewhat like a stylized bird with wings upraised, but somehow less tribal and more technological looking.

Fiona blinked at the wings. The only comment she had was, "Cool."

Shuffling a little closer, Selune peered at the image for a few seconds before scuttling back again, "That really doesn't look like it was pleasant to have done. Did I mention no one is getting ink anywhere near me?"

Smiling gently, Charybdis nodded. "It wasn't pleasant, but it was a long time ago, Selune." The artist ran his fingers over the surface of her skin with his gloved hand, then looked at her.

"This isn't just a tattoo... this is a brand. This was burned into your skin... years ago."

The snowy Caitan frowned as she looked back at the branding, "Why would you have a brand?" she asked in mild confusion.

"It isn't a brand, it's a mark of pride..." Char replied, realizing after she had said it that was exactly what the Andorian fortune teller had muttered in her trance. "I didn't have a choice when this was placed upon me, and I have spent a long time trying to hide it. But I need to own it, and accept it as a part of me... so that's part of what I am doing here tonight." She took the Caitan's hand in her own, then turned to the artist. "Same lettering, same style as Fiona's. Do it now, please."

Wincing slightly, Selune tried to imagine what it would like to have a permanent mark on her fur - she simply couldn't. Squeezing Chary's hand she tried to avoid visibly grimacing as she watched the tattooist approach with his tools and quietly muttered, "I still think you're all crazy."

"I second that comment," Yuna quipped, watching them both from a safe distance, "Quite crazy they are, don't you think Selune?"

"Join Starfleet they said. Go have a vacation on Risa they said. I really, really don't remember them talking about drinking engine degreaser and defacing each other... I don't think I'll ever understand you aliens," she joked, "Is this another of those 'here, here' moments?"

Patting the held hand, Chary let Selune go so that she could back away as she so obviously wanted to. "You understand us enough to be our friends. I guess the rest is all just... flavor?" she joked as the artist worked. "It can be a 'hear hear' moment... wanna hand me that bottle?"

"Not right now unless you want a very ugly piece of work on your arm, lady..." the artist grumbled, and the pointy-eared minx held still, suitably admonished. He worked on her for a few moments, taking about as long as he had with Fiona. When he finished he leaned back, inspected his work, turned off the laser and handed her a mirror.

Looking it over, a smile slowly spread across Charybdis' face. "It's perfect... thank you very much," she said, then hugged the artist. She paid him handsomely for his work, then grabbed her jacket and shrugged back into it.

"Ale!" she demanded, then took the oddly designed bottle and expertly sucked a few more hits off of it. She offered it to the rest of her companions. Fiona cheerfully took another, but Yuna and Selune declined.

Taking one more swig, Char then handed the half-empty bottle to the artist. "An ironic gift," she grinned, then turned on her heel and strode out the door, like a general leading the charge.

"To the Bacchanalia, ladies!"

 

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