Posted by Captain Eela Dasca (Lt. Governor) in Dasca’s Apartment- Dinner with Kenzo

Posted by Civilian Kenzo B’tren-Hyrushi (Governor) in Dasca’s Apartment- Dinner with Kenzo

Posted by Captain Eela Dasca (Lt. Governor) in Dasca’s Apartment- Dinner with Kenzo
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

For a moment her eyes drifted elsewhere, her lids closing as she tried to still the flux of emotion. It was so much harder now. Before she could meditate and it would clear her mind, calm everything about her, but now it was a skill that was just out of her reach. At least for now. There was a chance she’d regain it now that certain variables were no longer at play in her life, but maybe she was just kidding herself.

She opened her eyes and allowed her gaze to drift back to him. “It’s hard to explain, and trust me I’ve tried before. But we both know the process of acceptance can be a rocky one. It’s not just about my cognitive changes, Kenzo. There is a deep part of me that resents being told I can’t be on a starship again. And since I wasn’t ready to have a desk job back then, I left. It was my choice, but it didn’t feel like one. It felt like I had failed to meet some mark and was quietly pushed out. The admirals knew I wasn’t interested in teaching again. I had done it before and I really wasn’t interested in becoming one of the brass myself at the time.” She sighed. “I’m sure you’ve noted my resistance to being called Captain Dasca. I tolerate it and I will get used to it because it is practical on many levels. But I am not Captain Dasca anymore, as much as I want to be. She, as you say, no longer exists. So I’m here trying to be Eela Dasca and everyone keeps calling me Captain. I know they mean it as a sign of respect, but the cognitive dissonance it creates is jarring on a daily basis. I don’t know that I can just be until that dissonance is resolved, and I don’t know what that will take yet.”

~Eela Dasca, Lt. Gov.

Kenzo fixed her with a look that was both understanding and firm simultaneously. “ ‘Captain’ is a title. It is nothing else. It does not define you, nor does it dictate who or what you are. You are Eela Dasca. Captain and Lieutenant Governor are what you do, not what you are. If you seek to find yourself in a title, you will find yourself trying to be something you are not. Because there are hundreds of thousands of Captains. And probably that many Governors and Lieutenant Governors. They are not unique or special, no matter how many wish it to mean exactly that. But you and I? We are unique. I am not Governor. I am Kenzo B’tren-Hyrushi. I am me. No more, no less. Governor is what I do. Lieutenant Governor and Captain are what you do. But the person seated across from me is not ‘Captain’. Or ‘Lieutenant Governor’. That person is Eela Dasca. And Eela Dasca is whomever you decide her to be. The titles do not dictate the character.”

Kenzo

He was right as much as he wasn’t and for different reasons. Of course the title wasn’t the end all and be all of who she was, but it had represented something huge in her life. It had been a part of her evolution and one that had been extremely painful and also rewarding. It was tied to events and people that she missed deeply. That grief felt tangible to her for a brief moment. But beyond that was something unshakable that she had been feeling since she had left the hospital, something indescribable that left left her feeling smaller, less than. It had crept in at some point with such stealth that she hadn’t even realized it was there until it had taken a firm hold. And it was tied to many things, namely the necessary secrecy enforced about her ship’s destruction and also the steady unravelling of her marriage. At least in uniform she could stand proudly. Now? Even here on Oed she was being asked to prove herself, over and over again. The difference today was that she wanted to, for her sake as well as the colony’s. But Eela couldn’t deny that it was more than a little exhausting.

Still, Eela nodded. She heard him and a part of her believed him. The rest would have to come when she was ready.

Gazing at him again, she smiled softly. “Are you a dessert person? Or would you prefer a hot beverage instead?”

~Eela Dasca, Lt. Gov

“I am not a ‘dessert’ person, no. But a hot beverage would be quite nice.” Kenzo said. “If I can help clear?” he asked and stood and started picking up plates.

Kenzo

“That would be great, thank you,” Eela said, pushing herself to her feet and gathering up her dishes in ones hand, while grabbing the salad bowl.

In the kitchen, Eela simply set things next to the sink. “Just set them there at the sink. There’ll be fine there for now.”

She filled the kettle and turned it on before moving to her shelf of glass jars which was hung on the wall next to a cupboard. Inside the cupboard she pulled a hinged box made out of a tightly woven grass, and a large bag of loose leaves. Eela tapped the box. “I have a variety of teas in here, but I can also infuse some jestral from dried leaves I got at the market this morning.” Inside the box had over twenty varieties of fine teas including caffeinated, decaffeinated and herbal.

Kenzo looked inside and selected a heavy and strong black tea. “You cooked, please allow me. Select yours, and the cups would be where?” he asked.

“In the cupboard to the left of the stove,” she said as she peered at her options for a moment before selecting one of her favourites: a purple tea made from the ruffled leaves of the rem plant from Halii. It always tasted of her childhood.

The simple action of clearing the table had allowed her to recenter herself and contain those errant emotions. He didn’t seem put off by her emotions, despite his only tight control, but still it was one of those skills she needed to practice so when she was in public she could be effective. That and they were treading in areas that there just wasn’t time to get into, nor was it perhaps the night for it.

~Eela Dasca, Lt. Gov.

Kenzo retirced two cups and two spoons. He set these on the counter in a very precise and controlled fashion. The spoons he set next to the cups, and then he began preparing the tea. Individual leaves were folded, but not broken, and put into the cups one at a time. Each was placed in a specific spot inside the cup, and the leaves soon formed a kind of flower in the bottom of one cup and then the other. The spoons were lifted, tapped against the side of the cups three times, and set back down. Before the kettle indicated it was done, Kenzo shut it off. Very carefully, he balanced the spoons upside down on the rim of the cups. He then lifted the kettle, and very slowly poured the water over the upside down spoon, causing the water to spread and fall down the cup sides equally. When the cups were full, he again tapped the sides of the cups with the spoons three times. He set the spoons back to their original position on the counter, and lifted Eela’s cup with both hands, cradling the cup in his hands.

She watched him carefully, taking in the nuances of the ceremony. reaching her hands out, she accepted the cup.

As she took the cup from his hands, he bowed his head until she had it fully, and then he lifted his own cup and bowed his head again. He looked at her and said “A much abbreviated version of the Tea Ceremony. It is meant to instill a sense of harmony and hospitality.”

Kenzo

Eela bowed her head to him. “I am honoured,” she said before sipping. her drink was mellow and floral, delicate. “Is there a meaning behind tapping the cup three times?”

~Eela Dasca. Lt. Gov.

Kenzo smiled slightly as he sipped his tea and then said “ ‘Just like in life, every movement should be done with meaning and purpose.’ as my father told me when we started studying together. So yes. Every movement, every placement, every sound on the part of the giver of the tea and the recipient has meaning. At the core of all of it is to bring harmony and balance. For the tapping, it is a simple reasoning. Two taps feels incomplete. Four feels too much, therefore three.” and he chuckled dryly. “It is not lost upon me that irregardless of what species I have performed the ceremony for, all of them have agreed that three is the perfect number… and for those same reasons.”

Kenzo