USS Manhattan
Holodeck 1- Songs for Old Friends (A Wake)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Counter-Intelligence Officer) in Holodeck 1- Songs for Old Friends (A Wake)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Counter-Intelligence Officer) in Holodeck 1- Songs for Old Friends (A Wake)
Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Holodeck 1- Songs for Old Friends (A Wake)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻(snip)
“Ohhh! I so have this!,” Faye said. “You got to tell my fiancé my embarrassing stories, now I get to tell one about you! But, first…” Faye moved over to where she had set the hasperat down and lifted the tray It had apparently been resting on a rectangular box that was fairly flat and wrapped in blue paper.
“Oh no,” Shara said, shaking her head as she watched her daughter. “Well, I can get the guitar ready while you do.” Grabbing her soft case, Shara moved over to the large logs around the fire.
Faye thrust the box at Shara with a grin. “Happy belated birthday. I know we never used to do physical gifts, but eh, screw it. New traditions.”
Shara looked at her daughter with genuine surprise. “Faye…”
“Open it!”
With a smile, Shara lifted the lid and unfolded the tissue paper. For a moment she was perplexed until she lifted out an apron and began to laugh uproariously. She slipped it over her head and tied the waist and turned to face everyone, despite the deepened colour of her cheeks. It was a deep indigo with white writing on the front that said Galaxy’s Best Cook. Shara shook her head, and while her cheeks were still rather vibrant, she didn’t seem upset. “You really shouldn’t have…” she deadpanned.Faye chuckled. “For this story to make sense, you have to understand Tracken. It was a place where we were self-sufficient and we grew food, foraged, hunted, fished, you name it. And we all took turns in rotas taking care of different tasks in the community that supported us all. I got to work in the gardens and on communal dinner cooking mostly because it was something I enjoyed and I was young, but I would go out with the other teams as well. And my mother, who if you don’t know yet, is a woman of many surprising skills. She often would do meal cleanup and help prep, but rare was the time when I ever saw her cook. She taught the older children calculus and advanced mathematics and was often out hunting, trapping or foraging.
“So one year, on my eighth birthday, she decided her gift to me was that she was going to make me a birthday cake.” Shara groaned and shielded her face with a hand. “Now to also make this make sense, you also have to know that because we were resource poor, gifts for special occasions were usually things we made or services we offered others. An example of this is how my parents’ friend Jaris taught me to make the hasperat we brought tonight. His grandmother taught him how to before she died in the camps and so this recipe and his story were priceless to me. And it’s still one of my most cherished memories.
“Anyway, mom disappears into the house and is adamant she doesn’t need help. Now, my father was extremely skeptical and kept trying to offer to help with small things. Now, it was well known in the community that my mom couldn’t cook but no one really knew why. But my father seemed to know more than he let on. Fast forward a few hours and we’re having dinner with T’Lora and Jaris and my mom brings the cake out. But she’s looking pretty skeptical and says ‘I know it’s not how it’s supposed to look but hopefully it’s okay’. And she was so nervous looking. I couldn’t recall her ever looking anything less then self-assured. So there she is setting this sunken looking cake with some sort of brown coating smothered on top that we definitely couldn’t call frosting and I don’t have the heart to tell her I don’t want to try it. So she cuts a piece and I take a bite… and it’s terrible. Like I don’t know what went into it, but it was inedible. But the look on her face! So I take another bite and try again but nope. And even my stomach is turning at this point. It’s sooo bitter! My dad tastes some and his eyes go wide and he’s like ‘Shar? What happened? She replies that she followed a recipe and everything! So he coaxes her into the house to try and find out what went wrong.
“Now, I’m looking at this cake- that we have so infrequently, by the way- and I dunno, I wasn’t upset. I just thought it sort of amusing. So I sneak into the house and I hear them talking and I’m pretty sure they didn’t know I was there. Turns out, because my dad and I do all the cooking and know which container is which, we don’t need to label everything. So instead of confectioner’s sugar, she used… baking powder. And my dad is explaining this to her and she bursts into tears. Now, my mom is a pretty stoic person, not much visibly ruffles her feathers, but messing up a cake for her daughter’s birthday? A wreck. And my dad, who was a quiet spoken and sensitive man just wrapped his arms around her and said ‘Shar darlin’. You are a woman of extraordinary talents, many of which most people don’t even know about. This just isn’t one of them and that’s okay. We love you anyway, and probably even more because of it.”
Faye was grinning fondly at Shara now, who seemed to have composed herself by this point. “My mom is *very talented but when it comes to the kitchen, her role is as sous chef. She’s scarily handy with a knife, but to be on the safe side, we banned her from the stove. Don’t know if much has changed but I err on the side of caution.”
Shara snorted. “For the record, I’ve made it sixty-five years without starving. I know my skills and that just gets me every time. Happy to help and watch but I think it’s best I stay away from doing anything more than boiling water.”
Faye shot Micah a look. “Hear that Pikelsimer? You’ve been warned!”
~Faye & Shara Calloway
Micah took a sip of moonshine, smiling and eyes locked on Faye. He set the jar down and licked his lips, and then said “The fastest way to a man’s heart ain’t always through his stomach, kid.” and he grinned wholly mischievously.
Pikelsimer
“Well… clearly,” Faye said, brows raised.
Covering her mouth with her hand, Kiama chuckled softly. It was an amusing story. But much more than that it was a very heart-warming one. One that made her feel very happy for her dear friend. And yet she also felt a slight twinge of sadness over the fact that she wasn’t able to tell such stories about her own family. But tonight wasn’t about her. Tonight was about Faye and her mother and all the people on Tracken they had lost. So she pushed that sadness to the very back of her mind and took another tiny sip of her drink.
~Kiama Naim
Having finished tuning the guitar, Shara just shook her head, still wearing her Galaxy’s Best Cook apron. “You ready, daughter? Shall we do this?” she said, a gleam in her pale grey-blue eyes.
Faye exhaled and nodded, moving over to sit on another log next to Shara. They were facing each other.
“So, music was a staple of Tracken and to me just a part of any good gathering. Tonight of all nights it seems especially important. So I’ve… encouraged”-she grinned-“Faye to do something with me and we’re going to share some of Edward’s favourite music with you.” Settling her fingers on the strings, she mouthed a countdown as she gazed at Faye and then they began to sing a duet. Faye taking the upper line and harmony-her voice clear and bright- and Shara taking the main line- her voice rich and rounded with a hint of a rasp, though not gravelly. Clearly Shara was the more skilled singer, but she was attentive as they went along, making sure to keep moving along with Faye.
I’m sittin in the railway station
Got a ticket for my destination
On a tour of one-night stands
My suitcase and guitar in hand
And every stop is neatly planned
For a poet and a one-man bandHomeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for meEvery day’s an endless stream
Of cigarettes and magazines
And each town looks the same to me
The movies and the factories
And every stranger’s face I see
Remind me that I long to beHomeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for meTonight I’ll sing my songs again
I’ll play the game and pretend
But all my words come back to me
In shades of mediocrity
Like emptiness in harmony
I need someone to comfort meHomeward bound
I wish I was
Homeward bound
Home, where my thought’s escaping
Home, where my music’s playing
Home, where my love lies waiting
Silently for me”
They finished strongly, their voices synched up and Faye had seemingly relaxed into it. But Shara didn’t stop and it was clear they weren’t done yet as she did a crafty chord progression that led right into another song.
Time it was, and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence, A time of confidences
Long ago, it must be, I have a photograph
Preserve your memories; They’re all that’s left you
And as Shara plucked the last notes it felt like they maybe, perhaps, they had said goodbye. Goodbye to what had once been. Goodbye to that ideal place they held in their minds. And it was okay. It was okay to let it go. Because it wasn’t just them holding the memories, the stories, the community feeling. They passed it along to everyone here, letting them hold it too so it was no longer their burden alone.
Shara inhaled deeply and then grinned. “Alright! Who’s next? Anything and everything. Maybe something brighter?” She shrugged.
OOC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VufDTNVng_o followed immediately by: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCdNqQN4BCU
~Faye & Shara
Kiama stood in silent, slightly on the margin of the group gathered. She hadn’t even consciously noticed that she had moved slightly away from the others. Not that distance actually changed anything. The emotions she was sensing, from Faye and her mother in particular, would be overpowering no matter where she was on the holodeck. But that was okay. This wasn’t the first time what she sensed from those around her threatened to overwhelm her. And it surely wouldn’t be the last time. But she knew how do handle those moments and what to do to protect herself. So she took several deep breaths, her eyes closed, and focused on re-enforcing her mental shields.
~Kiama Naim
Alex listened intently and watched the emotions pass over the faces of his crew. He loved them all… and this was why. Each one, never having known the place or the people, felt the loss. It was that trait… that empathy… that made them special. That made them all their own family. As the last notes of the song faded away, Alex lifted his bow and began to play softly, just in the background. It was a peaceful piece… hope and joy, but with the darkness of the loss of the past.
Alex
Faye sat on the log with her eyes closed, listening to the poignant notes emanate from Alex’s playing for a few moments before she inhaled deeply and rose to her feet. It was lovely. Moving around the group, she rested her hand briefly on Alex’s shoulder and went to the table to get some food.
But Shara was transfixed, her mind wandering back as her arms draped over her guitar. She could picture the concert hall and the orchestra playing piece after piece. Music not so unlike the piece Cochrane was playing. Her mother seemed larger than life up there on the stage at the piano and a six-year old Shara sat in the front row with her mother’s best friend while her father was at home with Gavin, who was too young to sit for such a long time. But Shara could. She could listen to this music forever! A smile slipped onto her face as she listened and nearly missed the moment when Faye handed her a plate with hasperat and the sandwich looking thing the diplomat brought. This here, right now, was that feeling she had long missed and never thought she’d find again. Setting down the food, but smiling and mouthing ‘thank you’ to Faye, Shara waited till Cochrane had finished and clapped with sincerity.
“That was awesome, Alex,” Faye said, holding her hasperat up in a ‘cheers’ motion before delving into her favourite food in the entire galaxy.
“Thank you, Alex,” Shara said softly, still feeling the motions of the music in her own body. It did that to her, though she had never been able to explain it to someone and have it make sense.
~Shara & Faye
As people gathered food, Shara sat on the log still, her plate beside her and she picked at the strings of her guitar mindlessly until a song bubbled up from the surface.
There’s a man who’s been out sailing
In a decade full of dreams
And he takes her to a schooner
And he treats her like a queen
Bearing beads from California
With their amber stones and green
He has called her from the harbor
He has kissed her with his freedom
He has heard her off to starboard
In the breaking and the breathing
Of the water weeds
While she was busy being freeThere’s a man who’s climbed a mountain
And he’s calling out her name
And he hopes her heart can hear three thousand miles
He calls again
He can think her there beside him
He can miss her just the same
He has missed her in the forest
While he showed her all the flowers
And the branches sang the chorus
As he climbed the scaley towers
Of a forest tree
While she was somewhere being freeThere’s a man who’s sent a letter
And he’s waiting for reply
He has asked her of her travels
Since the day they said goodbye
He writes “Wish you were beside me
We can make it if we try”
He has seen her at the office
With her name on all his papers
Through the sharing of the profits
He will find it hard to shake her
From his memory
And she’s so busy being freeThere’s a lady in the city
And she thinks she loves them all
There’s the one who’s thinking of her
There’s the one who sometimes calls
There’s the one who writes her letters
With his facts and figures scrawl
She has brought them to her senses
They have laughed inside her laughter
Now she rallies her defenses
For she fears that one will ask her
For eternity
And she’s so busy being freeThere’s a man who sends her medals
He is bleeding from the war
There’s a jouster and a jester and a man who owns a store
There’s a drummer and a dreamer
And you know there may be more
She will love them when she sees them
They will lose her if they follow
And she only means to please them
And her heart is full and hollow
Like a cactus tree
While she’s so busy being freeHasperat in hand, Faye stood and stared at her mother, awed and terribly moved. “Mom…”
Shara glanced over and gave a tiny, if forced, smile. “It’s just a song,” she said, raising her brows.
“Uh huh,” Faye replied. She didn’t buy it for a second, even if Shara just picked up her plate and set about eating as if nothing happened.
OOC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myeJYtiKJR0
~Faye & Shara
Alex listened silently for the duration of the song. As Shara concluded it, he nodded in her direction and said “That was truly well done. You are a woman of many talents.” and he grinned.
Alex