we're gonna party like it's 1920 in New Orleans ( OPEN )

[ethnobotany]

The holodeck party had been designed as a funeral-type gathering, originally for Fatima and Beverly to let go of some of the trauma they had incurred at the hands of COMPASS. It had evolved since then, turning into a larger party without losing its original purpose. Spread mostly by word of mouth, the party ended up being larger than Beverly had expected, but likely just what Fatima had wanted. All were welcome, as long as they didn't cause trouble.

The setting was the streets of New Orleans in the 1920's. In the middle of one large street was where the party would be held. There were tables with all manner of replicated food. Annie had offered to find out what would be good to set up and they had used her information to find something that nearly everyone would like. Drinks were the same. Plenty of Earth varieties and plenty of others. Surely everyone could find something to enjoy.

There were plenty of holographic people around as well, dressed to the '20's fashions, or as close as this far in the future could get. Some of them introduced the music and the dance floor. It was more of a dance street than anything, but it counted. Everyone was welcome to join them and the party turned into a bit of celebration amidst everything else. The music itself kept changing, rotating through what the Enterprise systems had on file. One minute it might be classical. The next it was something entirely different. Everything imaginable would probably have played by the night's end.

Or whenever the party actually ended.

A little bit away from the main drag, the holodeck had been programmed to create an alley between two brick-walled buildings. Unrealistically, the alley was clean and dry. Illuminating it were three trash cans along one of the walls, filled with kindling and crackling with golden flames. Holographic flames, of course, as much as Fatima had wanted to use the real thing. By the cans was a small table, with slips of stiff parchment and pens in every possible color there was.

It had taken some doing, but Fatima had programmed the holodeck to include a chalk drawing on the wall over the cans. It was a swirling pink and purple and blue rendering of the Milky Way galaxy. In yellow stars, a simple message was written out:

Write the names of those you left behind…
Cast them into the fire to say goodbye…

The party had been originally been conceived as a funeral, after all. A way to let go of the past and face the future, no matter how uncertain. There wouldn’t be any bodies, but there was still a place to say goodbye.

Comments

[hasopinions]

"The 45th rule of acquisition is expand or die." Important information for any person to have. "You can't do that for very long without changing. Even if some areas change harder than others." And look, they changed and they vastly expanded every business's customer base.

[dust_of_life]

"Expand or die." It was a little hard to take a mantra like that so seriously, since it sounded like something a villain in a movie about Wall Street would say, but Fatima wanted to be respectful of her culture.

And even if it sounded a little hackneyed, it did sort of have the same sentiment behind it.

"How many rules are there?"

[hasopinions]

"Two hundred and eighty five. Some of them are in dire need of revisions." Her personal copy is thoroughly annotated. "I think Rom will do it, too." He didn't have the lobes for business, really. But that was why he needed to revise them to consider more than just profit.

[dust_of_life]

Two hundred and eighty five. It figured. "You've got it tougher than we do," she muttered. "There's only ten or so where I come from." Most of them, in her opinion, somewhat self evident. Give or take.

She shook her head. "You'll have to teach me some of the others sometime."

[hasopinions]

"I taught both my boys. My copy's a lot more annotated than Quark's is, though. Never could get through to him the places they needed work." Oh, he learned them better than Rom, no arguing with that. But he didn't think about them as much as she'd like.

[dust_of_life]

"I'm good with annotations," she said. After all, all the texts that she pored over in the name of research back home were filled with notes, both by the authors and interpreters.

A few of her own too.