Through Wanderings

Posted on 14 May 2021 @ 2:21am by Civilian Eddie Reynolds

Mission: Mission 5 - Season of the Witch?
Location: Lounge
Timeline: Current
2795 words - 5.6 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

Tia yawned as she leaned back in her chair and glanced out at the stars. She wasn't thinking of them though, she was thinking of what had happened with Eddie, the other girl and the milkshakes. It was funny how brains worked sometimes. Perhaps she should journal about this? It would have to be super secret as she didn't want to embarrass Eddie anymore than she already had. Completely lost in thought she didn't hear anyone else enter the lounge.

"So this is where you have been hiding?" Eddie said. He slumped down in the chair next to her. "Dads been stuck down on that planet for a while now. Mums driving me up the wall. Oh she has a new boyfriend. Did I tell you?"

Tia smiled at him. "Oh yes, well no, actually you didn't tell me. It's Mr. Vern. I heard it from someone else who saw them together. And I'm not hiding. I was just . . . . daydreaming I guess. But anyway. What do you think of your mom's new boyfriend?" She sat up more and watched him carefully.

"Seems nice. Hes not pushing to do any father/son type stuff. I appreciate that. Mums happy so I guess that makes me happy. Its just .... well i knew it would happen eventually ... but its still kinda weird.

Watcha daydreaming about?" he asked.

"Oh you I suppose. What happened on the station." She absolutely refused to blush but she was a little bit ashamed of her behavior, especially the jealousy. She wanted to talk about something else. "I bet it is weird," she said softly. "I don't know what I'd do if my parents split and started seeing other people. But . . . you got True as a step parent. I mean I guess they aren't technically married but they might as well be."

"I don't really think of her as a step parent. Trues cool. She seems to trust me and let me be me you know. Dad did say he would marry her in a heartbeat when he met Vern but its a bit soon. And besides we don't want some big farce Betazoid wedding. My grandmother would have to come and we would all have to be naked," Eddie said seriously. He wondered if Tia knew that about his race.

The fact she had admitted thinking about him certainly was making him happy though.

"I never thought about that." Tia had certainly known about the naked wedding tradition but she had never considered attending one before. "I think I'll take a moment to be glad they aren't married yet then," she replied with a small laugh."Do you have plans for tonight?"

"Beyond ordering something full of sugar that I would get tutted at if I replicated it in my either of my parents presence no," Eddie said simply. "What are your plans?

Its not that bad. The naked wedding stuff," he added sensing her thinking on it. "You just have to remember to keep your eyes up. Really up in some peoples case. Old people have wrinkles you know on more than their faces," he frowned.

Tia dissolved into a fit of giggles over this. "Sorry. I'll try not to worry about it. It's all in the future anyway. Who knows when that will be. As for plans, I don't really have any. We could go for a walk or take over a corner of the lounge and eat ice cream?" It was the only food she'd seen Eddie long for. "Or both?"

"Lets commandeer that corner," Eddie pointed, "And we could share an ice cream sundae?" It seemed a nice thing to do with your girlfriend. And hopefully it showed her how much he liked her. He didn't share food with anyone but was willing to share with her.

She smiled. She'd seen him eat massive amounts of his own ice cream. "I appreciate that, I would take a bit or two or you can get your own. I think I'd rather have something to drink, I'm not that hungry." Tia had thoughts of getting some hot chocolate piled with whipped cream. "Do you like to read?"

"Sometimes. I'm not a big reader. My family wish I read more," Eddie said honestly as they walked over to the corner. He flagged down one of the waiters. "Can I please get a double fudge sundae?"

"And you madam?" he asked Tia.

"Hot chocolate with double whipped cream. Thank you." Tia announced as she sat down on a stool to wait for it. "Well what do you read if you can? Graphic novels?"

"Sometimes. Sometimes old history books. Uncle Liam got Dad one on greek myth. He let me read it. You know the legend of Andromeda?" he asked.

"Afraid no. I do know some of the greek legends but not that one. I know the one about Atlas holding up the Earth which I think is very funny that True named her cat that. She's likely to give him a complex." Tia stopped talking so that Eddie could tell her the story. She happily scooped up her hot chocolate when it arrived and looked at him.

"That cat is jealous of dad. Honestly its hilarious. And the cat knows dads got OCD and it loves to move stuff, mess stuff, scratch stuff ... I mean Dad really loves True. He hates mess, he hates stuff not organised. He really hates scratches. And it nicks his clothes," Eddie chuckled.

"So Andromeda, the legend. In a nutshell Andromeda is the daughter of the king of Aethiopia, Cepheus, and his wife Cassiopeia. Cassiopeia boasts that she is more beautiful than the Nereids those are Sea Nympths who Poseidon, the sea god likes to have as company. Anyway Poseidon sends the sea monster Cetus to ravage the coast of Aethiopia as divine punishment. Andromeda is chained to a rock as a sacrifice to sate the monster, but is saved from death by Perseus, who marries her and takes her to Greece to reign as his queen." Eddie said history Cleary a passion.

"And is that the only greek legend you've memorized or is this an interest of yours?" Tia asked curiously. She could see the sudden interest peak in him and she liked a good story as well so she didn't mind talking about the subject in the least. "Like, I know a little bit about the greek gods but I could probably learn more if you wanted to tell me."

"Okay so I may enjoy history as well as graphic novels," Eddie flushed a little. "I mean its fun and well historical holo's are really fun. Yes I know a few more greek legends. Some of its quite dark and well a little crazy to follow. I mean in the beginning they believed there was only chaos," he said seriously, "Then out of that the sky (Uranus) with the sun, the moon and the stars. Then Uranus and Earth came together and gave birth to the Titans. Who were pretty mean you know. And Uranus was so worried they would step on his territory he banished them to the very depths of the earth but his son defeated him and then married Rhea, who gave birth to two gods and three goddesses: Hades, Poseidon, Hera, Hestia and Demeter .... gosh I remember too much. Im secretly a right geek. You cannot tell Bok about this ever," the blond said.

Tia was smiling from one ear to the other. It was as if in an instant Eddie had opened up to her and shared this important part of his personality to which he seemed almost ashamed of. But she was fascinated. "Oh I would never tell anyone. I like history too though I mostly like the mysteries of history, the things that weren't solved rather than myths and legends, not that they aren't interesting. But I always want to seem to find out what really happened. Like the colony at Roanoke Island and the mystery of the Mary Celeste whose crew disappeared off ship."

"What do you think really happened?" Eddie asked.

"Well for Roanoke I think either the native americans killed everyone or the colonists went and joined the native americans to try and survive. That just seems the most likely to me. They probably all died, their bodies weren't prepared for life on a different continent. I can't imagine what it would have been like. As for the Mary Celeste, I'm not certain. I think there are some theories like they encountered an unusual weather pattern and abandoned the ship thinking that it was going to sink, or there was foul play somehow. It's all very interesting because we can guess but no one actually knows for sure."

"Well unless we invented a time machine and well figured out how to programme it exactly where Earth was during that time," Eddie said his eyebrows creasing as his brain started working through how one would even make a start on that. "Oh thank you," he said to the waiter sliding the large sundae in front of him. "Oh we need two spoons."

"Two?" he asked looking at Eddie as if he had two heads. "Your going to share food?"

"Hey, " Eddie shot him a look. "Yes."

"An extra spoon coming up," he chuckled.

"Do I really eat that much?" Eddie asked after a minute.

"Yes," Tia smiled. "But that's okay. You're still growing. And I only want a little bit. Do you think. . . . sometime when you're reading that I could draw you? I've been practicing and I need more subjects." She took the spoon gratefully and tasted the ice cream, letting Eddie take the first bite. He did not seem like the kind of person to sit still for very long, but she was hoping he'd say yes.

Eddie had scooped a piece of brownie and a huge amount of ice cream on his spoon and had just raised it to his mouth. Clearly not expecting that question he lowered the spoon. "Draw me. Yes okay. I mean its not naked right? I didn't know you drew."

"No not naked," Tia wasn't sure whether to laugh at that or not. "It's something I've been teaching myself to do. Well, I've taken a couple of classes on the holodeck but I really want to get better at it. I really love art, in a lot of it's forms. I like looking at paintings too, but I figured if I get pretty good at drawing then I'll start painting."

"Lets see some of your drawings," Eddie asked after swallowing.

Tia pulled out a pad of paper and handed it over to him. It was small but had several small drawings on it, including several portraits of people she'd seen on the ship.

Eddie grinned, “Hey that’s the grumpy dude on deck 6. You definitely captured his essence. Is this .. is that Atlas?” He asked looking at a cat.

"Yeah, animals are harder for some reason, probably because he won't sit still so I can look at him properly."

“Your really good at this Tia,” he said impressed. “You should definitely try painting too. I bet you will really enjoy it. Mum had a phase but well like all her phases of trying different hobbies it didn’t last long. She doesn’t commit long enough to improve though. You I think are different there.”

"Thank you," she said with a small smile. "I'll stick to drawing for now, but I will try painting at some point, I just want some more practice." She took one more bite of Eddie's ice cream. "You can have the rest." She'd rather stick to her hot choclate anyway since she was a bit chilly. "Want a pencil and some paper, you could learn?"

"Sure I could give it a try," Eddie said spooning more ice cream into his mouth. "What should I draw?"

"Whatever you see. That's just what I started doing. Though I wouldn't recommend your ice cream since it's disappearing fast " she teased. "So you have any idea what you think you might want to do with your life when you're an adult?" She asked off hand.

"I'm considering historian or counsellor," Eddie said. "Or if things pan out good with our bearded dragon maybe zoologist or something." He picked up the archaic pencil and started sketching.

"Of course I have to marry for the sake of the house or my grandmother will never leave me alone," he said, "And produce heirs. But one thing I am going to do if Dad doesn't manage it is find and meet my sister," he said firmly.

He looked at her intently his hands moving rapidly over the paper as he tried to sketch her.

"Really? You surprise me, those aren't careers I would have picked for you. But if that's where your interests lie . . . I am not sure what I want to do yet. I do like art but I'm not sure I would want to do it all the time. I like animals but I don't know if I would want to study them. I think I'm too shy to do something with a lot of people like a counselor. Maybe something like stellar cartography? I mean mapping the stars would be super interesting, who knows, I might discover something awesome." She made no comment about marrying and producing an heir. But she had known who he was for a while and assumed that someday there would be a child, even if things didn't work between them.

"Can I ask you a question about your sister?"

Eddie was licking the icecream around his lips and clearly wasn't expecting her question. "Of course," he said after a moment ensuring his mouth felt clean again. "What do you want to know?"

"You mentioned that you'd have to have a kid to pass down your Betaoid responsibilities. But what about your sister? Doesn't she outrank you in that? Being a girl and all?" Tia was a naturally curious person and she hoped she wasn't stepping over any lines she shouldn't be crossing.

“Well my sister is not recognised by my grandmother and unless that changes those responsibilities stay with me but even if she did get recognised officially I still have an obligation to provide more daughters of the 11th house,” Eddie said simply.

“Its complicated, she was conceived out of wedlock on my dads part. Well he didn't know about her till recently. I think that revelation was a bignailin my parents marriage. Mum couldn't forgive it. I'm not supposed to know but they are not as quiet talking as they think they are or that clever at hiding things they think they are. I was able to piece things together, ” he shrugged.

"I see." Tia said though she understood it also seemed silly to her. "Parents are complicated. Want adopted into my family?" She joked. Her parents were married and though they argued sometimes it was never anything serious in her opinion. "If it makes a difference, I think you'll be good at whatever you decide to do, you have the right mindset to set yourself on a task and finish it," despite the hormone surges, but she didn't say that part out loud. It did amuse her though.

"Well I know Im supposed to as Im a son of the 11th house," Eddie said not looking all that impressed uttering the words, "But its more Dads mentality. He always says, "do a good job. You will be happier if you give it your all." Mum I watched hobby after hobby. She never stuck to anything. But yeah thanks. And I know you will nail whatever you decide to do too."

"Hmm," Tia said seeming to sense his mood in the moment. "Let's talk about something more fun. We don't have to worry about our future lives," she chuckled. "We're a bit young for that. Do you . . . want to have another movie night? Or something like that?"

He nodded quickly. "Yes of course." Hopefully it would go better than the last one. Both had been tense after the aftereffects of running into Mirror Fox and Tia having to shoot him. "I'll let you pick the movie."

Maybe he would be brave enough to put his arm round her. Or kiss her cheek this time. They had kind of agreed they were boyfriend and girlfriend now.

"Good," Tia smiled again, somewhat relieved. "I will have to think of what movie. Something both of us will enjoy." She set her hot chocolate down and leaned back in her chair and just looked at Eddie, losing herself in her thoughts.

Eddie smiled and continued sketching her.

OFF:

Tia Hawkins
USS Andromeda

Eddie Reynolds
USS Andromeda