Posted by Civilian Revna Freya McKenzie (Diplomatic Attache) 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 Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Counter-Intelligence Officer) in Holodeck 1- Songs for Old Friends (A Wake)

(snip)

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.

https://youtu.be/_NvZRo-3wvU

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 free

There’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 free

There’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 free

There’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 free

There’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 free

Hasperat 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

As Shara, Faye, and Cochrane played Revna along with several of the other guests moved towards the tables and returned to the logs and fire to enjoy the music. They were all incredibly talented. Some clapped and some murmured their appreciation of the music and talent being shared. Revna and those around her spoke quietly here and there, similar stories being shared among the gathered, and then it would go quiet as the music started again. There was a resounding murmur of assent to Cochrane’s compliment. The Calloway women were obviously well liked, loved even. This was more than crew it was family, and that brought a smile to Revna’s face.

Revna

Shara laughed and winked at Cochrane. “Oh, you have no idea,” she said with a wicked grin. Setting the guitar to the side, Shara’s elbow was bumped by Tess, who was in a frisky mood and had been bouncing around chasing holographic bugs. But the shift in the general mood had brought her back to the people and began purring as she pressed herself against Shara’s side. The elder Calloway just shook her head and began to stroke the young cat before digging into their meal.

Meanwhile, Faye moved over to Daggum, slipping her arm around his and leaning against him. As she cast her gaze out over the water, the beach alit by all the candles, she found herself once again emotional. But it wasn’t entirely sadness. A little yes, but she could feel that sensation of space between her and the events that created the need for the candles. She wasn’t even sure when that had begun to happen, though she was sure it was recent. Most likely it started the day she had begun to talk about Kodell. Whether she liked it or not, he had been intrinsically liked to the massacre in her mind. It had bene one trauma after another and even after she had left and was free, she hadn’t dealt with it. All these years later and Faye could see how she had bee holding her past at bay but it finally had its say, it finally came into the light and she was better for it. But there was one thing she hadn’t done yet and maybe it was time.

Extracting herself from Daggum, she gave a small weary smile and walked over to the candles, the sand shifting under her feet. The closest ones to the gathering were the ones they had lit for her father, T’Lora and Jaris. Crouching, she looked down at her father’s for a moment and closed her eyes, remembering the Edward Calloway she had known and loved. Whose memory was mixed in her mind by that final parting. Lids slipping open, she looked across the beach to the horizon but all she could see was that confused exchange. He had given his life to save hers- that had never been issue. But t was the promise he had extracted under duress, the one even her mother said that he shouldn’t have forced her to make. He had done the best he could with the circumstances he was in. Just as she always had. Now she understood that. Then, not so much.

Faye inhaled and nodded ever so slightly to herself. “I forgive you,” she whispered. It was forgiveness for the promise to hide herself away to keep safe, for him leaving her alone in a galaxy that held no joy for her for so long, and most of all it was forgiveness for herself for begrudging him his freedom of choice while she had felt powerless. As tears slipped over her cheeks, Faye knew that this was just one more small turning point that had been a long time coming.

~Shara & Faye