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

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Dagen and Reia’s Quarters

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Dagen and Reia’s Quarters
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Dagen was an engineer. He could so engineer something to not be damaged through normal or abnormal events. Well, maybe not normal as the wear of life and events did have an effect on anything. He mused over a small tag that could create a temporary stasis field around the object to prevent it from being damaged in a fall or ship turbulence. These things were precious to Reia and deserved that kind of protection. Still he remembered that accident on the Enterprise E, not to mention the D and how that was so damaged. A ship loss would mean the loss of all of this. Dagen wasn’t sure he wanted to put all of their eggs in one duranium basket, however. “Some of these are fit for an apartment we might rent or that home away from home, that shuttle we looked at before.” He didn’t want to outright come out and say he was scared of it all being lost (that being said there was the fear of them being lost with it, but given life over stuff, he might want to keep treasures in different places.

“It looked like it came out okay,” he said, looking at it. No notable water damage on it. It looked almost pristine .. in an aged fashion. “They look like something compiled with spare parts,” Dagen offered.

Tearing himself away from that he picked up a thin box that had been inset on its side. It had some weight to it and he hefted it as though trying to fathom what was in it. A ribbon held this shut. Slipping off the ribbon and lifting the top he groaned. It was filled with a half dozen thin notebooks, the covers dog eared, bent and, at least the top one, covered with doodles and stickers of dogs, or at least the Trill equivalent. “Oh man, I would be scared to look at these. In my time through the Symbiot commission to try to qualify mom said to keep a diary. I was kind of an anxious kid with this as the competition was fierce. I’d have typed it out but mom made me write it. Said that it would focus me better. I can’t imagine the teenage angst in these pages.” He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Oh ancestors if she and auntie read them!”
- Dagen

Reia succeeded in stopping herself from lunging at those dog eared notebooks. Oh the secrets they held and she would find out every one of them.

“You mean I have something to practice reading my trill with? Oh yay this is going to be such fun. Wow, handwritten.”

• Reia

Dagen laughed. “Handwritten yes. Legible .. ” He made a gesture that was suggestive of ‘well, that might be dubious’. He pulled one out. It had a earthy toned cover to it that had been doodled on. Yeah he’d been a restless kid. Sitting and just writing was not something that came easy. He traced a kind of spiral doodle with his fingers. He remembered doing that. It was at a day when he had absolutely no idea of what to write. Opening it up, his thumb brushed along the curled pages till he stopped randomly at one about a quarter way from the start. It had bold brown ink on it, the lines almost invisible with the writing. “Let’s see here,” he said, believing that there wasn’t much that was ‘too’ incriminating in its lines.

‘10th of Gilia’ .. “That would be about July equivalent,” he said.
‘Just back from the TCT.’ “Uh, TCT. Trill Commission Testing.”
‘Aptitude testing. Not like I couldn’t just tell them what I’m good at but it is just another of their incessant tests. And always repeating that only one of the class of twenty will stand a chance at a symbiot. I’m competing against all of them. It was hard to work this test today. It felt routine quizzes of random questions. Another of those. To think I’d be out playing on the court in intermission with all of them in a game of ‘Matrices’. “Um, Matrices.” He looked at Reia. “Kind of like basketball only being able to stick to one colored region on the court depending on the team you are on. Anyone outside of that is fouled. There is a lot of … jostling to get people out of their zones.” Dagen smiled. Jostling. Near tackling some days! The goal was to get fewer people on the court to be able to move more freely to score. And at that point everyone came back on to play, some to try harder and some to even scores of a different kind. “Where was I?”
‘H’len was another who scored high with me in manual dexterity and object analysis. Big words. We were good with working with things. Sure I was good with stuff. She was an artist. Pottery and sculpture. I like her fingers. Among other things.’ .. “Oh man I had such a crush on her!!”
Dagen

“Oh, a crush. Well, I’m going to have to ask your mother if there are any pictures of this dear little crush of yours you know, yearbooks etc. I’ll get it out of one of you somehow.”

Dagen groaned. Not so much because of any grand reveal over the various girls he had that ‘crush’ on but for his own photos!! He thought that he looked positively .. silly. Sure virtually everyone did look rather gangly and oh so young!! But it was different with the critical eye on oneself. “Yeah, I think mom has all those yearbooks about.” He cast a worried glance in the box as though expecting that it might be there. In the digital age they were not ‘books’ per se but a tablet with each annual publication added to it. Complete with soundbytes and zoomable images and interviews and so on .. oh how squeaky a voice he thought he had!!

Reia was enjoying herself, laughing and smiling. About now it was truly at her husband’s expense but there would probably be a time, in the very near future, where he would find a way to turn it all around on her. She truly love this man.

• Reia

As much as he felt himself blushing for really no reason he was happy that Reia was happy. What would they find in those publications Dagen could not remember at all. He had had more important things to do than ponder that, at least so he thought then. He looked at the stack of notebooks and sighed. Even with those what he had written was nearly forgotten. What would he find in them?! When Reia settled down enough to address her he leaned in and kissed her. “Like a little treasure trove here, eh?”
- Dagen

“Yes, a little treasure trove and a peek into our past. Both interesting and perhaps a little scary don’t you think? I know there’s a bit more left in that box and I should probably reach in and grab something. To tell you the truth, I have no idea what our devious family has put in there next. All right, here I go.”

“There is enough quirk in each side to make anything in there worrisome of what is there and intriguing. Rather like a Christmas while inside Alice in Wonderland.”

Reia reached into the box and grabbed what appeared to be the last item but probably wasn’t. It was just something with paper wrapped around it not a proper box. Frowning she set about opening it.

• Reia

There was more in the box. Something for later perhaps. He was sure that if Auntie Claire had anything to do with it that there was something naughty in there that they just had not found yet. She had said she had been fond of a certain holo novel book that showcased .. things. Given that was not on the standard replicator fare Dagen wondered where she had gotten that. The sound of a soft tear took Dagen out of his reverie and back to the matter at hand. What was Reia unwrapping?
Dagen

Paper fell on the floor and Reia stood up with a giggle. Shaking out what appeared to be a large blanket she simply smiled. It was a blanket indeed, the very blanket they had slept under. It had now been washed and ran through a fluff dryer of some type looking absolutely pristine.

A blanket. Admittedly it looked in better shape than he remembered it. Admittedly he didn’t remember it well. It was .. well, a blanket. He brushed a thumb along an eyebrow as he watched Reia shake it out and look at it. It had been in her room, their room, when they stayed on Earth. It was .. a blanket. Elaborate for sure. He thought more decoration than anything as it had more often than not been moved off to the side. Now that he remembered it, Reia had taken more care with it when moving it.

“I never actually told you the story of this blanket love. The summer before I went to Starfleet Gran and I actually made it together. Crochet is an old art form you do with these large needles, not really needles but that’s what they call them. We set together every time we went to the beach or spent any time just sitting about being lazy. We made it and then the night before I went to the academy Gran and I had a huge fight and I left the silly thing at home. I guess it’ll be with us now forever. Lovely don’t you think?”

His expression was one of appreciation mixed with some surprise. To pin Reia down long enough to make something like that must have been a feat! He looked at it more closely to see whether he could tell who made what part of it. His grandmother knitted and had knitted well. His mother couldn’t tie two threads together much less knit anything. Well, anything that would stay together more than five minutes. “Very impressive,” he said, truly. He reached out to feel a corner of it. It was softer than he remembered it, even if he had not really considered it before. Truth to tell between his shaggy body and that, he had at the time, found it scratchy. “Does the pattern have a story?” he asked.

The blanket was cream colored with splashes of tropical blues, greens, and even a bit of purple at the edges. It was a completely abstract fabrication and quite lovely to look at. Perhaps it was a little girly to be on Dagen’s bed, but Reia slept there too.

• Reia

His eyes followed the pattern finding nothing regular about it. It was a patchwork of colors that were reminiscent of where she lived in Australia. It was .. okay. He could see it on their bed. He was far from a fashion .. well .. anything, and could only say that any extra dashes or anything made their place look better, even if Dagen tried to liven it up with random sock piles. He appreciated the history behind the blanket for sure and how much it meant and means to his wife. It may be something he would grow into. Now, however, it was a colorful blanket with random splashes of color that offended his sense of engineering predictability and even in the world of having had a female host of Thor, it felt, what was the term Reia used occasionally, girly. “Love it,” he said. “It should just fit.”
- Dagen

Reia smiled and laughed as she folded the blanket up and put it along the back of their living room couch for the moment. Then she smiled and crossed the room to her husband. Folding Dagen in a big bear hug she kissed him.

Reia’s bear hugs were just that, and when they were tight they could push the breath out of him. Her soon following kisses tended to sooth any rib soreness that may be a result. It did look decorative on the back of the couch and may be used more for warming Reia there more adequately than sitting elsewhere. But that thought was put on pause with her kiss.

“No silly man, you don’t love the blanket. You like the blanket, and I think you appreciate it very much for its craftsmanship and maybe a few other things, I don’t know. You love me and you might even love the history. I love you for all those things, thank you. We can put it at the foot of the bed or we can leave it on the couch like it is right now. It really doesn’t matter to me.”

• Reia

Dagen wanted to shrug at the distinction which was a bit loose but he was in too tight of a grip to do that. He did appreciate the craftsmanship if not the relative chaos of the pattern. “True. True. True again.” he said mulling over the ‘few other things part and wondering where her mind was going with that. “Very true. And true. And I love you too.” He hoped he got all the spots that he needed to there. “I think it looks good there and draped over you,” he commented, his mind being both rational and racy.

He glanced to the box. “Should we leave the rest for later? Spread out the memorabilia so to speak while we find places for these?”
- Dagen

Reia let Dagen go from the immense bear hug. Sometimes she could just be a little too clingy, but maybe he liked it. Stepping back she nodded and smiled. The box did seem to be an endless situation and quite frankly, she could use a break.

Reia was a wonderful hand warmer, she with her higher Orion metabolism and warmth to go with it. Sometimes it didn’t work so much with skin to skin contact, rather like cold feet, but in this case right now he enjoyed it. And her. He rubbed his hands and closed up the box. “I’ll pop it into a corner of the room,” he said, hefting it.

“Yes, I think that’s a capital idea. I think it was date night. I’m fine if date night turns into find an old movie and let’s just replicate some nibbles while we putter. Besides, I think you’ve moved straight to dessert mentally anyway.”

• Reia

“Someone needs to think of dessert,” he said. “What I don’t understand,” he continued, disappearing into their bedroom, “is why don’t people on ships eat more desserts. I mean if replicated food tastes like the actual thing but in reality incorporates what the computer denotes as being optimal for one’s health and needs then whether it is steak or a sundae it is the same thing nutritionally.” He poked his head back out. “You know?” He looked her over and then winked. “When was the last time we actually finished an ‘old movie’? You have any in mind?”
- Dagen

As Dagen moved around their quarters and chattered with Reia, she was busy bustling about and dealt with the replicator and looked up a few movies. By the time he re-emerged she had several things set out on the glass top table and a few movies selections ready to go.

Dagen’s moving about did have a purpose which was to find a small chip that he had dropped previously, that previously being the week before. It was a replacement for an engineering tricorder that specialized in energy field readings. And yes, he had dropped it. Thinking that it had joined other things swallowed up by the couch he had left it but after not finding it had put it down to either said couch being far too hungry or it had not indeed fallen there.

“I don’t know about all society’s, but I think most of them have us convinced that these are still real desserts with real sugar and calories.”

His head poked up from behind the couch to see all that was laid out. “Wow,” he said, shifting, then hearing a crunch under his knee. With a small wince he glanced. Yes, the chip. Now chips. Well, it was found, and lost again.

She explained pointing at what was presently on the table, several cakes, several pies, and the recipe Dagen’s family had sent.

“Now if these tasty little tidbits had been served at my home, they would definitely be real and full of sugar and calories. Remember all those nibbles we had down at the bar? Also, the morning swims I would have to take afterwards? That wasn’t just for the fact that I love the water, that was because they were real food and real calories, this isn’t, so let’s have a dessert feast. I found a few old Disney movies before they got turned to trash in their later years. Lady and the Tramp?”

• Reia

“I do remember the food, very well,” Dagen said, and watching Reia swim. With his coat of fur on him Dagen getting wet was not a favorite part - well, not the drying off and carting half the beach on him. Dagen didn’t bother going around the couch but climbed over it and sat, inspecting the food choices. “Good picks,” he said then wondered at the movie. “That about a high class lady and some down and out guy meeting up?” he asked.
- Dagen

Reia’s eyes widened in mock horror as he climbed over the couch. Smiling, she simply laughed and sat down beside him. In truth she was used to these antics and secretly loved them.

“Well, kind of. They’re both dogs, you just have to see the movie trust me. Before you ask, I think this place is far too small for the types of dogs you’ll be seeing in the movie.”

• Reia

Dagen’s mouth opened to inquire then ..

“Ah …” he said, though Reia could see that his eyes were looking about and thinking, a nail absently scratching at the side of his mouth.

A dog movie. They tended to have a certain emotional quotient to them, Dagen noted, which could be good or bad. He wasn’t sure how to take that. Dagen was an emotional mess, to a degree, ever having his emotions ‘on his sleeve’ as he had been told by others. As such these kinds of movies had him wind up a bit of a mess. Perhaps it was why he liked high action holos or adventure holos. It left one more exhausted or exhilarated than effusing tears. He would see in this case. Glancing at the snacks he would need to pace himself that way. Pie wasn’t popcorn after all.

With a gesture to invite Reia over close to him he was ready .. “Do those dogs come in miniature size?” he asked …
- Dagen