Posted by Captain Eela Dasca (Lt. Governor) in Tenkiller’s House- Tipping Points

Posted by Civilian Kenzo B’tren-Hyrushi (Governor) in Tenkiller’s House- Tipping Points

Posted by Captain Eela Dasca (Lt. Governor) in Tenkiller’s House- Tipping Points
Posted by… suppressed (4) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

She took a moment to sip on her smoothie, trying to breathe and steady her rising emotions. But true to Kenzo’s earlier efforts they weren’t so overwhelming. Eela set the smoothie down on the table and moved the short sleeve of her t-shirt to reveal the now darkening imprint on her bicep. “I felt his desperation a moment before I felt pain and turned to look back at him only to see that it was him who was causing me the pain.” She gazed at the marks, the clear thumb on top, and she turned her arm a little to where the pads of the rest of his fingertips had dug in. Eela looked back at Kenzo, her eyes misty. “It was like we were actors who had been given a script for parts we didn’t realize we had been asked to play. We just… froze. And he was still gripping my arm so I told him to remove his hand or I would since I could still defend myself. He let go and I told him to leave. He tried apologizing saying he hadn’t meant it to happen and I lost it. I yelled that I didn’t care what he meant. That he and I were done for good. I didn’t want to see him ever again. And then…”-her right hand closed in a tight fist-“then he tried to use the family we created together as some reason I should reconsider! And that’s when I threw a vase of flowers on the floor,” she said, her voice quietening. That uncomfortable rage. That rage that felt dangerous, unpredictable. Eela shook her head.

“The next thing I knew, four agents in tactical gear stormed in, and Agent V’ter asked me if everything was okay. I said it was not and that they should escort him out.” Eela knew her mind was very muddled in those moments, that it had been hard to process anything. But something suddenly made more sense. She slapped a hand to her mouth to stifle the laugh but it escaped anyway.

“Oh my god,” she said, laughing. “Hasid gave Cory two options! Go quietly or…” Eela laughed harder. “Have flying lessons. He even told me I could insist on option two myself.” Was it just as funny back then in that moment, or only now that she had distance from it all? Eela fell against the soft back of the couch, laughing, hand trying to suppress it, because it should not be a funny situation. But right now it was hilarious! “It would only take them four or five times to get him through the window!” Tears streamed down her face and this time they were only partly from sadness.

~Eela

Kenzo didn’t laugh, but he did nod in satisfaction. “I believe a comm3ndation is in Agent V’ter’s future. My only regret is that we did not get a definitive answer to the question of how many tries would have been necessary.” There was definitely a touch of mirth in Kenzo’s words, and the corners of his mouth turned ever-so-slighty up in a small grin… but there was an air about him that said there was more than a kernel of truth in his words.

Kenzo

Her laughs had died into a final sigh and Eela rested her head on the back of the couch and tipped her head up to the ceiling. “This changes everything. I can move forward with my life, but it looks different. It’s not just subtracting a person from my life. But that man is the father of my children. We have a granddaughter. Everyting will have to be so very calculated. Add I hate that that burden has to be on Caridee and Jourin now too. I’ve thought about not saying anything to them, but I can’t do that. Their relationship with Cory is their own and I won’t interfere in that, but they are half-Haliian and empathic. I couldn’t hide it from them in person if I tried, and Dee, well,”-she sat up, grabbed her half-filled glass and pulled her legs up onto the couch, sitting cross-legged-“she’s a psychiatrist and she has a uncanny way of seeing right through me.”

“I’m sad for them, Kenzo. And for me. We could have continued and occasionally been around each other, and it might not have been fully comfortable, or maybe we would have adjusted. But now that can’t be, ever. And I’m just… heartbroken.” She drank from the smoothie

~Eela

Kenzo looked at her for a moment and said “Burden? I see no burden for them. I see them having to see their father in a different light… a light that it seems you have seen, but perhaps not acknowledged until now. Not the… physicality… aspect; but the sheer selfishness.”

Kenzo

She gazed down and rubbed her left palm along her thigh. “I have to decide whether to get a restraining order. Or even go so far as to press charges. It would affect…” Eela bent forward and braced her elbows on her thighs, holding her head. She was thinking of how it affected everyone else. Again. Every time, it was her default these days, and her job certainly didn’t help that. It never had. “I suppose they would figure out how to navigate whatever the situation was. And if the worst happens and this all becomes public, then”-she lifted her head-“then I will be able to be an example for my children and grandchildren about what it means to not let anyone else tell you how to be in this life.” She actually gave Kenzo a soft smile. “I told you I wasn’t sure I liked who I was after the accident, but you know what? I like this Eela Dasca. She has spirit and fire, and love and compassion. I can’t undo overnight the thought processes in my head that he helped create, but I can take tiny steps, make tiny choices that are mine and not his. Maybe that’s the only way forward with this.”

~Eela

Kenzo looked at her and said “If that decision is a struggle, might I suggest asking yourself what you would tell your own daughter had she come to you with this same problem… and then do that.”

Kenzo

She jolted more upright, eyes wide, lips parted. Before she knew it, Eela was on her feet moving away, the need to flee reality still very much present in her body. She really hoped that subsided sooner rather than later.

Arms folded across her chest, Eela forced herself to take a breath. She hadn’t asked for any of this! But it was here. She didn’t want to be a person that needed a restraining order against her former spouse, to even have to consider having him arrested. But what transgression crossed a line too far? If it wasn’t what happened in her foyer, then what? How much pain was okay inflict? Her fingernails dug into her palms for a brief moment as she imagined Caridee in tears as lost as Eela was feeling right now. “I’d tell her to do whatever she needed so that she felt safe. So that she could move through her life with her head held high,” she said softly. The tears were back, tiny trickles rather than the torrents of earlier.

~Eela

Kenzo stood and walked over to her. He took her hands in his, and looked her in the eyes. “You are safe. And there is no reason to not hold your head high. You stared fully at your past… and you refused to bow to it. I, for what it is worth, am very proud of you.” he said softly, but wholly sincerely.

Kenzo