Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Sausage and Scuttlebutt

Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Sausage and Scuttlebutt

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Sausage and Scuttlebutt
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
(snip)
“Aye, I do!” Zachariah yelled back, the strength of his tone diminished not one atom by the admission. “Because anger is the only emotion that has not yet deserted me!”

Casela yelled back, “Good! We’re on the same page then!” Outside the office Dean looked at Watkins, wide eyed. “Umm.....” Watkins shook her head. “Let ‘em go. They need to get it out. If things start getting thrown we’ll call the XO down here.” Dean nodded, but he didn’t look convinced. Watkins just laughed.

“I know,” he attempted an offering of truth, “something of what you’re going through. There is a reason I remain single, after my mistake with Prim. And, all physical evidence possibly to the contrary, it has not been for the absence of offers. It takes a certain kind of person to inflict such pain upon another, even within the framework of battle. But to wreak such misery on a fellow soul, simply for daring to love you? To sever a hand for the crime of daring to touch you? Tear out a tongue for uttering your praise? People like that, people like me, were we to crumble to dust tomorrow then I doubt even hell would shed a tear.”

Oh she knew, she knew what she risked, and it wasn’t herself. She hadn’t told anyone what Sandman had shown her, or what Hampton had made her live though. The risk was all to real. It wasn’t figurative, it was real and it had been threatened and risked and had been prevented but only barely. What would happen next time?

Attempting to break through her barrier, Cobb reached out and placed a hand on her own.
“When you look in the mirror, Casela, do not let it be my face that you see. But if, truly, a monster stares back, then I will never question you for doing what you must to protect those around you. To protect them from yourself.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

“No Hell won’t shed a tear it will scream in terror when the likes of us approach the gates for entrance. But somewhere, some where here in this life someone will, otherwise why do we do what we do?” She wouldn’t answer the rest. She saw a monster every time she looked in the mirror, like Frankenstein’s monster. pieced together by mutilated bits. But that create wasn’t really a monster was it? Oh she was being too philosophical. “I’ll find my way, Zachariah, and if I don’t,” she shrugs, “I won’t drag those I love with me.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

He nodded, no more words of fledgling wisdom bobbing to the surface, no more strands of advice brushing against his fingers. “I know,” was all he could offer instead.

But the silence brought a defeat he was not yet willing to accept. As he remained unable to accept that she, this wonderful, caring, courageous, vibrant woman before him could truly be as wretched as he.
“If you ever start to plummet,” he concluded with a shrug, “I believe, with everything that I am, that Ryder possesses strength sufficient to pull free. But while you remain in relatively calm seas, truly what can be the harm in allowing him a small dip at your side, eh?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Casela didn’t answer. She’d already made her choice, she loved Ryder and T’Jal would have her hide for being a coward. It wasn’t a conversation she should be having with Cobb anyway. This was between her and Ryder and that is who she should be talking to. “So he told you. He has a deep respect, I guess, for the chain of command. It won’t interfere with our duties. It hasn’t for the last 6 months I don’t see it starting to now. I’ve always gone after what I want, and I’m not going to stop now.” It was the only answer she’d give him. She wasn’t in the habit of discussing her personal relationships like they were idle gossip. She nodded to Cobb, offered him a refill. “I do have appointments to get to.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

“And I would expect nothing less,” Cobb fired back, before releasing her with a wink and a “Go on then, off with you. Before I start in with the really personal questions.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Watkins leaned over Dean and started messing with his console. “What are you doing?” Watkins laughed and very quickly Casela’s entire schedule for the rest of the shift was cleared. Dean looked up at her, “She’s going to kill you.” Watkins laughed, “Yep, but getting to hear the answers to those questions are SO going to be worth it.”

Casela settled back against the desk, “That sounds like a dare, Zachariah. Good thing for you I’m busy.” And then her console beeped and she spun it around to look at it. Zachariah could see the screen as well as she could, her schedule had been cleared for the day. She turned calculating eyes on her door, her mind reaching out and nodded. Watkins and Dean. She would find an appropriate retaliation later. She turned her gaze back, daring the captain. How much more personal could it get?
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

At the sight of the cleared schedule, Cobb’s eyes grew wide and he began to fuss with his collar, before catching himself and scanning the room for whiskey instead.
“You’re going to have to provide more potent fuel than coffee if you’re expecting an impromptu truth or dare, lass,” he stated with a slight hint of desperation. What the hell had he gotten himself into now?

Casela turned, a little too quiet, and pulled out the bottle she’d provided earlier. She refilled his glass and handed it to him.

Then, sitting back and fixing his eyes on Casela, a wide grin spread across his face as he said, “As a Starfleet Captain, I am, of course, fully authorised to officiate over marriage, partnership and commitment ceremonies. Should I be looking to dust off my dress robes in the near future, eh?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Casela’s expression turned wicked. “I’m aware of your ‘special’ duties. Whether you will carry them out or not remains to be seen. However you won’t be needing those dress robes.” She put one hand on either arm of his chair and leaned forward to be eye to eye with him. “I’m very traditional in this matter, you see. You won’t be needing dress robes. Betazoid marriages are performed and attended in the nude.” She let that sink in for a flash of a moment before stepping back sitting in her chair.
Lt Synthi-er, CNS

Dammit. In his eagerness to tease the Betazoid counselor, it had leaked from Cobb’s own memory, the rather…unique customs associated with a Betazoid wedding. Not that he was a complete stranger to the ritual - he’d been a guest at one such wedding many years ago now, although he had been in far better physical shape at the time.

“By the gods, Casela,” he sputtered once the ability to speak had been regained, his cheeks still burning slightly crimson beneath his beard. “Do you want to give all your wedding guests nightmares? There is nobody on this ship deserves the ordeal of glimpsing me in my birthday suit!”

“Your visage shall be much more welcome than that of a bride that appears to have been pieced together by Dr Frankinstein himself. So do not worry, Zachariah you are saved from such an event. Besides, I have no idea what might be on Ryder’s mind. Somewhere in one of his life times, he was trained very well in being able to keep his thoughts to himself.”

Curious, the vast chasm that lay between the human reluctance for mass nudity, and the Betazoid desire to celebrate it.
“Does it never get…awkward, Cas?” he asked, leaning in towards Synthi-er and dropping his voice to a whisper, “I mean, living and working with people, giving orders and commands to them on a daily basis. Then suddenly finding yourself standing next to them…and both as bare as the day you were born?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Casela considered the question. “When you live in a community where all thoughts, all emotions are known and shared. Not just told but you can feel it. That you quite literally can say ‘I understand.’ That your soul is laid bare to even those you do not know, all around you every single day, the embarrassment of physical nudity means very little. You have been nude from the moment you were born. That even though our children do not posses telepathic talents before puberty, the adults have it and are able to read the children. Physical nudity is....well it means very little when someone knows your inner most desires, embarrassments, passions, dislikes, haltereds, and secrets. As for working beside, giving orders, and the like. I have no idea. The crew is not entirely Betazoid, and I have not attended a traditional Betazoid wedding, or any wedding for that matter, since before I joined the academy.”

She considers quietly. “I don’t know. I find the human custom of a veil very strange. To hide one’s face from the person you are meant to spend your life with. Oh I know the history behind it, but to still follow the custom. I find it deceitful. And the four gods know I live with enough of that in my life already. And perhaps I’m biased but I find the Betazoid tradition very honest, open, and reassuring. Though I am sure others would not.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS