Posted by Lieutenant Commander Sharah Fayth (Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer) in Calm (Markets) Before the Potential Storm

Posted by Captain Eela Dasca (Lt. Governor) in Calm (Markets) Before the Potential Storm

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Sharah Fayth (Chief Star Fleet Medical Officer) in Calm (Markets) Before the Potential Storm

(snip)

Sharah nodded with a indulgent smile. “Tabris is El-Aurian. He has lived many centuries, but the only thing he always wanted was a family. But after watching his spouses and lived ones die he decided to give up. Then he found out there was an El-Aurian boy, Neltus, in an orphanage. So he decided to look into adopting him. At the same orphanage there was a set of 3 siblings. 2 boys and a girl. 2 Cardassians and a Bajoran.”

Sharah paused and looked at Eela, “Oh yes, as impossible as it sounds. Vedi, the oldest boy refused to let them be separated. Even though he and Mecona looked different from Julin they were family. And they claimed Neltus as well. Tabris couldn’t bear to separate them, so he petitioned the courts to adopt all four. They are all amazing. I was there when they arrived. It was right around the Human holiday of Christmas. Their shuttle pilot was dressed up as Santa.”

Sharah

Dasca beamed. “I love that so much. But oof, that’s a lot of work. Four children!” she said with a laugh. “I know many who had large families, but my brain struggles to work through how to manage all that. I’m glad he has you to support him though. That’s where that chosen family is vital, if not for the day to day parenting, then just the emotional support for the parents and children.”

“It is, but Tabris…he has a huge beautiful heart. He loves each of them deeply, for themselves. They are wonderful children. Tabris recently found his parents. He had thought they died centuries ago, and they him.” Wasn’t that wild? Sharah could say, at least in that one thing she had actually made a beautiful difference to the people who mattered to her. There was a intense swirl of bittersweet joy, crushing relief, and soul weary sadness that leaked out from her before she managed to control it. “Tabris took them back to Earth. His parents have an estate in Ireland, and they are all there together now.

They came across another stall and Eela eyed some of the produce that was all grown on Oed, even though the vegetables and fruit originated from all over the quadrants. She picked up a large, round, dark purple root vegetable, that looked like a cross between a beet and carrot. “Good day,” she said warmly to an Andorian man and Barzan female. “Does this have juice or pigmentation in the interior, or is it all in the peel?”

“Oh! Well, there is some juice but not a lot and the flesh turns white when you cook it. Most of the colour is in the peel,” the man said.

Eela smiled at Sharah, a gleam appearing in her eyes. “You know, I’ve been pondering over an idea, and I think you might be able to help me. I’m wanting to take up watercolours again, but I don’t have the mental patience for the kinds of paintings I used to do. So I’m going to try something else, and I was thinking it would be interesting to make my own pigments from things from Oed. Seen anything else today that would make for a rich enough colour I can use?”

~Eela

“Hmmm…I have never made pigments, though I know the basics.” She scanned the stalls. “Beets make a wonderful color. Oh! The man Jal’na buys her yarn from. He dyes his own wool. He would know.” She pointed across the market. “That’s his stall over there.”

Sharah

Eela nodded. Even if he didn’t have the natural pigments she was looking for, he could point her in the right direction. It had been a long time since she had made anything like that, but much like the decoctions she used to purify her home, Eela found the processes rushing back to her mind as if simply forgotten and revived in her memory. Powders were easiest and so she would need to dry out and grind the items that weren’t dry to begin with.

She paid for several different vegetables that intrigued her for either tasting or using for paint dye concentrate or grinding up. “Alright, let’s go see about some dye. At least I know that fabric dye utilizes powders for ease too, so at least I’m working with something similar.” Eela was brimming with excitement. Like her garden, this was a small thing for herself that had nothing to do with her work or any one person. It was all her own and abut expressing herself, something that was of vital importance now and going forward.

~Eela