September 7, 2364

Mother talked me into going with her to visit the shop she'd been raving about. While the dresses themselves were nice for the most part, the shop keeper had me at wit's end by the time I'd only tried on two dresses. She kept discouraging me away from dresses that displayed my spots. While she didn't come out and say that's what she was doing, the trend was pretty clear.

At first, I just held firm to what I wanted, reiterating that I was seeking an open neckline and exposed shoulders, but this did not seem to slow her down one bit. I finally just slammed her into the wall as I demanded what the hell was wrong with my father that I should make efforts to hide my relation to him. To this question, she acted confused, so I tried to rephrase it as calmly as I could. I explained to her that I was proud of my father's contribution to my genetics, and I didn't appreciate her attempts to encourage me to hide the physical evidence of this.

She gave me bullshit lines about defensive armor in a wedding dress, and even seemed to imply that I would need extra armor due to my genetic shortcomings. This pushed me across the line, and I all but ripped her head off. I was surprised I could say anything at that point, but I think I finally did get through to her that I could not be bullied around when I finally said this:

“Your people have attacked and harassed me for far too long, and I have grown to be a stronger warrior for it. I would gladly go into battle naked due to the extra strength this trial by fire as given me, in fact I have, so giving me bull shit excuses about needing armor for my wedding dress in order to keep me from showing pride in my mixed heritage is more insult that you have any right to throw at me.”

In a twisted way, I suspect Mother was impressed by my very Klingon display. The shopkeeper likely would have taken my challenge as a need for combat had my mother not forcefully pulled me off the woman as she explained that making threats and insults about her honor and motives were going to make it hard to acquire a wedding dress here. I certainly hadn't had anything jump out at me, and the poor service I'd received left me without motivation to try to find anything, so we left soon after anyways.

When I told Travis about it later, he agreed that I was probably right in thinking my mother was proud of me for standing up for myself like that. It may have also given her an insight into why I was so disenchanted about the Klingon culture and people. He also told me he was proud of me for standing up like that for myself.