Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Kastarak (Doctor / Counsellor) in XO Quarters - Under the Light of a New Sun (Attn. Kastarak)

Posted by Commander T’Aria (XO / Navigation Officer) in XO Quarters - Under the Light of a New Sun (Attn. Kastarak)

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Kastarak (Doctor / Counsellor) in XO Quarters - Under the Light of a New Sun (Attn. Kastarak)
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(Snip, snip!)

T’Aria heard the ‘clank’ of his cup hitting the saucer before she noticed it was empty. Her instinct was to offer him another. Y’cha gifted her a variety of blends during his travels – herbal teas, green teas, bark teas – and they sat untouched on her shelves. Rarely did she have the company to share them.

But did he have the time or desire? His question offered an ‘out’. If either needed to end the conversation, they could, but part of her didn’t want to. She chose not to entertain that part.

“No,” she said, “we have discussed all I planned.”

“You are welcome to stay for another cup,” came her plain but sincere addition, “but I understand you may have tasks to attend to. I appreciate you coming over this evening, Kastarak.”

– T’Aria

Kastarak pondered for a moment the alternatives that T’Aria offered. Drink another cup, or leave. By the very small cues in her zygomaticus and in the small minute muscles around the eyes, her lips – Kastarak didn’t think a human would have picked up on the cues – he deemed that she’d prefer that he stayed a little longer. On the other hand, Kastarak thought it might be confirmation bias for himself, for he, too, would have wanted to stay a bit longer.

“My tasks for the day have ended, save for that of meditation. But I should like to share another cup, as long as I am not imposing. Perhaps, once we’ve drunk another cup, we might meditate together? It’s been years since I last did so, and it would be good practice for when we return to New Vulcan, to our people, and the old ways.”

– Kastarak

“You are always welcome, Kastarak,” T’Aria assured, intending to dispel any belief that he was imposing. Though she welcomed all to her quarters for a conversation, tea or time away from Chernov’s natural hubbub, Kastarak was one of the few she felt compelled to invite. He had a calm presence that contrasted with the vibrant, sometimes unruly emotions of their non-Vulcan crewmates. Their company invited excitement and intrigue, but it grew tiresome. Sometimes, she appreciated how they interacted with the universe through their emotions. Their unregulated self-expression made them curious and danger prone, but also impeded emotions from building until they were immobilising. Other times, she valued the control afforded by emotional suppression and meditation. Perhaps this was worth meditating on.

“Logical,” she added a moment later. Did they still practice the old ways on New Vulcan? How far from tradition had they strayed to accommodate their new homeworld? T’Aria thought to ask Kastarak if he’d researched or kept up with the planet at all, but his earlier reservations suggested that might not be the case. So, she cast aside her curiosity.

She rose and offered to take his cup and saucer for a quick wash before switching teas, then approached the neighboring kitchenette.

“Y’cha gifted me a variety of teas in his travels as an astrobotanist,” she indicated the shelves lined with dark (to inhibit any light from reaching and degrading their contents) glass containers labelled with Vulcan script along their circular edge, “select any that interest you.”

— T’Aria

(OOC: I don’t have a list of teas, so feel free to choose from your/Kastarak’s favourites or make one up!)

Y’cha had a curious career, and it intrigued Kastarak to learn just a little bit more about him. They were going to meet him soon.

Kastarak rose from his position, and checked the shelves with jars of tea. His eyes were initially drawn to the ones he did recognise, types of Earth teas and others common to the ship, even plomeek tea. Then he saw jestral tea – a soothing Betazoid tea – and Kastarak’s thoughts were taken to Pawl – the man that he perhaps felt a certain attraction to or perhaps it was something completely different altogether as Kastarak was new in exploring his non-heterosexuality. He settled on Pyrellian ginger tea – he had never heard of it, but Pyrellia was apparently a little-known world outside the Federation and the other empires of the quadrant.

“Let’s try this one, if you don’t mind?” he said, as he held the jar in his hand. “I’m at a loss how to prepare it, however.”

– Kastarak

“Of course,” T’Aria dried their cups and set them onto saucers, before approaching Kastarak to consider his choice. Pyrellian Ginger.

Y’cha shared its secrets once. His work often brought him to Federation planets for conferences and specimen exchanges. In 2268, it brought him to San Francisco, where she was stationed at Starfleet Medical after an abrupt departure from the Chernov. He arrived on her doorstep one evening, unannounced and holding a glass canister, and asked to come in. When questioned, he spoke of a blend introduced to him by a botanist doing comparative research of phenolic compounds in edible rhizomes. Y’cha didn’t explain how they knew each other or from where he obtained the spice, but she later came to know it as Pyrellian ginger.

When he shared it with her, he tried to talk to her about her departure from the Chernov and their family affairs, but she wasn’t receptive. So, they sat in near meditative silence for hours. When he gifted the tea to her earlier that year, she assumed it was a gift in appreciation of her time with Awiyat, but now she saw it as an invitation to try again.

“I am also unsure,” she admitted, subduing a mix of frustration and warmth in discovering new meaning but nothing about how to prepare the tea itself. “Excuse me, Kastarak.”

She disappeared into her bedroom and returned a moment later with a PaDD.

“Y’cha often recorded his observations and sent this in a communique. They are not instructions, but his notes may provide insight into how steep this blend,” she located a communique entitled ‘Pyrellian Ginger Tea - Observations & Recommendations’ from early 2272, then placed it on the counter for their convenience.

Amid the scientific jargon were notes like ‘do not allow water to exceed 100° C’ and ‘use infuser method for loose blend’ and ‘steep until palatable’. It sounded remarkably similar to other herbal varieties, aside from his suggestion they add spices unavailable to them.

“Will you start the kettle, Kastarak?” She asked, stepping aside to retrieve the pods from a drawer tucked beneath the cooktop. “Why did you choose Pyrellian Ginger?”

— T’Aria

Kastarak had listened carefully as T’Aria related Y’cha’s travels and notes. He thought Y’cha, T’Aria and he himself had much in common, travelling, enjoying teas from all over the universe. He nodded to T’Aria’s suggestion of starting the kettle, and rehearsed the instructions in his mind; simmer, don’t boil. There was something meditative about heating water in a kettle. Normally, he would not do that, he would simply programme the water dispenser a certain temperature. The ritual of heating up water in a kettle took Kastarak back to his childhood days (or nights, even), when he would not be able to sleep, and his father would make him a herbal tea to remedy the sleeping troubles.

“I was thinking of another tea, and then I saw this, which I had never heard of, and thought, why not try it? The jar looked full enough, implying that perhaps you too have not sampled it as much as the other teas. I wonder what Y’cha made of this tea. Does his notes say?”

– Kastarak

T’Aria wondered which tea Kastarak had in mind, but his interest in Y’cha’s notes distracted her from inquiring further. She nodded, then reached for the PaDD and scrolled to a section aptly entitled ‘discussion & sampling notes’.

“He described Pyrellian Ginger as ‘fragrant, introducing a warm, spiced top note that fades into a herbaceous musk with citrus and floral undernotes’, which he attributes to a high concentration of (R)-limonene and α-farnesene. He warns that, during steeping, the aroma can be overpowering for Vulcans but does not affect species with less sensitive olfaction.”

T’Aria paused to inspect the tea. As Kastarak observed, the ginger was untouched and unharmed by exposure to harsh, circulated air and light, as expected from a favoured blend. Its fragrance seemed tolerable, but her nasal numbing agent made some pungent odors difficult to detect.

Hesitant to fill the pods until they both agreed it wouldn’t be to pungent, she turned to Kastarak.

“What do you make of it, Kastarak?” She asked, extending the open jar to him. “And its fragrance?”

– T’Aria