T'Pol Learns About Traditions

By RadcliffePotter

For permission to reproduce, please email mtownley at eden dot rutgers dot edu Originally, this story The Toughest Battle started as a one shot comedy story, but now I think I'm going to add more one-shots to it, where a member from the crew has an experience with something they've never seen from the 21st century. So, this is T'Pol's experience…;)

T'Pol looked down at the green jiggling mass in her hand. Surely this was a joke. She glanced back up from the amorphous gooze in her well manicured hand to see Trip gleefully extract another greenish yellow blob. "Got it!" he yelled and held up the wiggling mass for the approval of Captain Archer and Travis who were also present in the room. Archer grinned boyishly, his eyes twinkling and Travis let out a snort of laughter.

"Look at that size of that one!" marveled Archer as he too reached in for another extraction. T'Pol could see a look of concentration settled on his usually contented face.

"Careful, sir," said Travis, anxiously twisting his hands and staring fixedly at the object in the middle of the table.

Archer breathed a small sigh as he apparently lost his latest extraction. T'Pol again looked down at the green, wiggling blob in her hand. It smelled slightly moldy and was vaguely sticky, clinging to her hand when she least expected it. The feeling made her stomach roil.

How had she gotten into this situation? It had been simple really. She had overhead the senior staff talking about it after their latest staff briefing and had been intrigued. Trip had said that it was a "long standing tradition", something that they always did on his birthday. And since T'Pol was always looking for more insight into humans and their behaviors, she was more than willing to take part in such an event, whatever it might be. That had been her mistake.

Archer was still carefully searching for the extraction he had lost before. With a cry of triumph, he pulled another green gelatinous mass free. There was a cry of surprise from all three men as Archer had apparently made a bad choice in his extraction.

T'Pol felt something small, pink, and squishy hit her squarely between the eyes. She looked down to her lap to see a tiny brain sitting on her left thigh. Gagging and fighting back bile at this most disgusting of traditions, she fled the room.

By this point, all three men were laughing so hard that they were practically wheezing. "Direct hit, sir!" Travis managed to laugh out between fits of giggling.

"You always did have a way with women, Jon!" Trip said before overcome with a fit of raucous laughter. Archer was laughing so hard that he was unable to speak. Tears streamed down 

his face as he gasped for breath. He managed to squeak out, "The look on her face was priceless!"

The group collapsed once again into fits of laughter. Trip, clutching his sides, grinned and said, "I guess she doesn't like Gooey Louie!"

So, did you like it? I was just thinking about that game the other day and I was thinking about how bizarre it would be for someone who wasn't familiar with human games to see much a thing. And then I thought of T'Pol and was laughing to myself and I knew I had to write this. ;) Ladyhawke Legend, Begoogled, startraveller776, LadyRainbow, and Emiliana Keladry: thanks for reviewing last time and look for more to come soon! Please read and review, just push that awesome little button down there and drop me a line.