Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Side Sim - Dagen and Reia’s Quarters - Meet the Family

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Side Sim - Dagen and Reia’s Quarters - Meet the Family

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Side Sim - Dagen and Reia’s Quarters - Meet the Family
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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The ‘weather’ should be fine he was told but as an afterthought shrugged on a regulation jacket that was a good general all purpose thing. He can always roll it up as a pillow on the way if need be. Extended time on a planet where he was not taking a course. THAT would be different and he found himself more anxious about time on a world than meeting new people. He would be himself and they would hopefully be fine with that. No point in putting on airs or another personae. Reia had said much about them here and there if one could piece all the snippets together to form an idea of them. He thought she was the more nervous one of the two but then she had him to present, that Trill wildcard. Cramming that last piece into the straining case he virtually had to sit on it to close the clasps. Fortunately 25th Century hinges and clasps were sturdy - at least until they went through luggage handling. Dagen always figured they employed Klingons and Orions to work the luggage. At the last snap he said, “Ready.”
Dagen

Reia looked at both of their bags and saw the vast difference in what he had packed, and what she had packed, definitely time to let him at that replicator. Glancing around she made one last check of their quarters and thought if there was anything at all either one of them had forgotten. Too late now. Hefting both bags she made her way towards the door. Certainly she could have let him carry a bag or two but for now physical exertion was her form of distraction.

“So, I’ve plotted out a few courses and sent them to the shuttle. Just pick the best one and get us there love. I promise I will probably stop being nervous by the time we get there.”

• Reia

Dagen followed, both enjoying the view and the fact that he had to hustle to keep up with her. Were he in the lead he’d have been harangued to move faster. Fortunately his luggage was less, though not less light in his opinion. However, luggage stowed and they in their seats and away. He had some time to look at the courses she had picked. Either of them would get them to the destination in good time. He chose one that had them pass by a small cloud that would look pretty good and at least give them something to look at outside beyond space.

That being said, Dagen found the shuttle cramped - which is pretty impressive given his old shuttle was even more cramped. And by the time the shuttle set down he was more than ready to get off and stretch his legs. Terra was always a bit odd to him. Very little was a ‘normal’ purple color that Dagen considered normal, at least for Trill. A pale blue sky seemed just wrong and the sunsets he found were totally wrong colors. Still they looked nice in their own stead. He felt the gravity; the ship was most often Earth standard which was close to Trill, so he was used to that. That much was good.

A lift was there as previously requested and, this time, Dagen hauled the cases to it and was happily relieved of one by the driver. Once they were stowed and the driver inside Dagen gave Reia a long hug. “We’re here,” he said. “Losing one more game of backgammon would have totally messed with my morale and personal manhood so getting here was none too soon. Now, where from here?”
- Dagen

Reia sighed and squeezed Dagen. She was excited, happy, and a little nervous to be back on Earth in Australia so close to her grandparents. She loved her homeworld in the way that most people she found usually did. Her childhood had been complicated but she was ready to deal with most of that. Hopefully Gramps and Graham had mellowed over the decades but she kind of doubted that. Pulling away she looked around again and just smiled for a few seconds.

“Well, on the trip home why don’t you replicate so monotonous Trill game for us to play and you can thoroughly trounce me. I think after this visit I’ll need it. As far as where to from here, they’ll be meeting us in a few minutes. Why don’t we just have a good walk about until then.”

• Reia

Wow. Reia was even more nervous than she showed. Dagen gave her an assessing look. “Or get on a larger ship with a private cabin and engage in things that will take your mind of things,” he suggested with modest seriousness. “But you are right. Let’s have a walk. The sun is out and we can get our planet legs again.” How was it that one could be in an expansive holodeck experience of land and sea and everything in between and feel like one is there and yet be on a world and the experience just felt ‘different’ as though the senses knew one was on a world and not a pretend world? Something for the counselor to answer.

Dagen took Reia’s hand and they moved about, guiding her to a grassy spot where they could feel the grass under their er, shoes. The swish under his was rhythmic and, as they waited and walked he just took in the new sights. They called this place ‘down under’ though Dagen couldn’t quite fathom why. It didn’t seem under anything in particular unless it was sand which he saw in the distance. He pondered asking Reia to explain that when he saw a vehicle approaching. It was kicking up dust behind them that made it look like it was on fire and trailing smoke. “Is that ..?” he asked, squinting, trying to place the vehicle and failing.
- Dagen

OOC: Bump :) .. gene

The walkabout had done Reia some good. She was fairly calm now and looking forward to seeing Gram and Gramps again. She was about to suggest that they take their shoes off and actually feel the grass of Australia beneath their feet, no holidays, no recreations, a real planet. She turned when dagging asked what was that coming down the road and gasped.

“I can’t believe it, they fixed the beast. They’ve even painted it.”

The beast looked not unlike his makeshift hobby shuttle and past home. And painted nearly as well, though even Dagen tried to make the paint even. The makeshift job on whatever they were riding looked like something out of what one of his Academy roommates had pushed him to watch in the common room, a holo series by the name of The Road Warrior. It was amazing how imagination had met reality in some of the worlds and conditions that later sadly came. What was under the hood of that thing? It must have taken some work.

The beast Reia was speaking of was trundling down the road at a fair pace. Within a few moments it stopped in front of them. An older couple got out rather quickly. They seemed much more spry than Reia had remembered.

Not quite the picture of aging that Dagen had been told. Spry. Good vitamins evidently.

“Well well, you absolutely don’t look like you’re from around here. Ready to take a ride with some old crazy strangers?”

Dagen glanced from them to the vehicle and didn’t have an argument against what they said about themselves.

Reia wasn’t used to hearing Gramps talk like that but it did her heart good and she ran to embrace him. After a quick squeeze she turned and introduced them.

• Reia (writers block SMH)

From glancing to Reia and back to them it seemed even she was surprised. Quickly recovering he saw her move quickly to greet them. Dagen followed more slowly to let them do their greeting and not have that ‘awkward’ time of standing their waiting for the introductions. “Hello,” he said to them, reaching out to ‘gramps’ to shake his hand. “Very nice to finally meet you. Reia has regaled me with tales of her growing up and has made this whole land something of a Shangri la.”
Dagen

Reia stepped aside so Dagen and Gramps could shake hands. She looked from Gramps to ground and wondered what had been going on in the last few months. All of their calls and messages had been nothing unusual, nothing to hint at why they look so amazingly fit seemed so active and full of life. They certainly weren’t bumps on a log by any means, but this was something new. She determined then and there this would be an amazing vacation.

“This is my Gramps John, and my grand Becca. This is my wonderful amazing husband Dagen. I think this is his first time coming to this part of Earth so we absolutely have to show him every amazing thing about this place. It’s not quite Shangri-La love, but it’s my own little piece of magic.”

John was a fairly large man even at his mid-80s age. He was about 6 ft tall sporting a wild Gray Maine that he had recently cut. Becca was a bit smaller and very slight in build. Her silver hair was still to the shoulders and she dressed quite stylish yet casual. Hugs were given all around before their bags were collected and stowed in the back of the beast. The beast was an automobile of indeterminate origin and they couldn’t even place the year anymore. It had been painted various incarnations of black as it were. Raya could remember when it had been a mud brown, camo, and something that might have been blue at one time or another.

All general awkwardness aside in a way it was a relief to finally meet some of Reia’s family. From his myriad hosts and history he knew every family had some strangeness to it simply because they were different. Her gramps was a big man that Dagen unconsciously looked up to. Becca seemed very ‘bush-ey’ as though more at home in the wild than in a city. For the vehicle Dagen had no clue of its original pedigree only that it was put together more like some of the SCE boys had had some years to meddle with it. He collected the luggage and hauled it over

“Look, we’ve even got the top down today, oh isn’t that special? All right love, slid in back with me and let’s see what this old beast can still do.”

• Reia

After packing in the luggage there was just enough room for he and Reia in the back. Perhaps squishing together would help in the event of an accident in keeping them from flying too far. It was likely his imagination that he half expected it to backfire on starting up but only partially so. “I think we’re set” he said as he looked at the interior for some sign of what this vehicle used to be before its .. evolution.
- Dagen