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Side Sim - The Envelope, Please. - (Tag ALL Crew)

Posted Jan. 23, 2021, 5:29 p.m. by Lieutenant Kiama Naim (Chief Science Officer) (Silke Fahl)

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Side Sim - The Envelope, Please. - (Tag ALL Crew)

Posted by Warrant Officer Walker Darach (Chief Operations Officer) in Side Sim - The Envelope, Please. - (Tag ALL Crew)

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Side Sim - The Envelope, Please. - (Tag ALL Crew)
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

OOC: This is the new garden for everyone’s reference: https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf1/manhattan/posts/116416/

(snip)

Turning to face Kiama, Faye saw Luke as Darach passed by. “Hey, Darach!” Faye called out. “Grab something synth for me, will ya?” she said with a grin. She needed to have a word with the man who had done her a huge solid while on the run. Likely, he had no idea what his actions had meant.

“Sure thing,” Walker called back as he motioned to the bartender. He took a sip of his drink as he waited for Faye’s drink. With the requested drink in hand he headed back towards where she was standing.

As she shifted her attention back to the group, Faye let her gaze meet Luke’s and she gave him a tiny nod of acknowledgement, her face schooled so it was hard to tell what she thought about him currently.

It was only a small gesture and Luke figured that not everything was said in it, likely she was hiding most of her emotions. She was genuinely good at doing that when she wanted to be but the gesture did assure him, he hadn’t destroyed what little… Little what? he thought, respect? friendship? Appreciation? He wasn’t sure, but he was sure that if she wanted to ignore and forget about him she’d not even looked at him. He sipped his drink a small victory smile tugging at his lips, he had done the right thing.

Gesturing to her mother, Faye smiled at Kiama. “Uhh, Kiama Naim, this is Commander Shara Calloway, my mother. Mom, this is Kiama Naim, our Chief Science Officer and one of my friends.” The word flowed so easily it was rather astonishing. Later Faye would be able to pick it apart more, but all she knew for certain just now was that the mother she had talked about being missing and not in her life for twenty-five years was standing next to her, and she could say for certain that Kiama was her friend. Wonder never ceased.

~A celebrating Faye Calloway

“It’s nice to meet you Commander Calloway,” Kiama replied with a wide smile and a slight bow of her head. She had a lot of question about what had happened and hoped that, in a quiet moment in the coming days Faye would tell her as much as was allowed to tell and felt comfortable sharing with her. But she wouldn’t press her. And right now wasn’t the time for that conversation anyway.

  • Lt Luke Wyatt

Shara smiled, still beaming because of her daughter. “And it’s really great to meet a friend of Faye’s.”

Stepping up to the small group, Walker held the requested drink out to Faye. “Well I’m glad to see that you were able to come out on top at the end,” he said raising his glass towards her. Keeping an eye on the assembled group, he had to be careful what he said. While in the end his trust had been proven, his actions weren’t exactly kosher at the time.

WO Darach - COO

Faye accepted the drink with a grin and raised it, meeting Walker’s gaze. “It was a narrow thing at times, but I can say for certain that it has proven to not been in vain. I was fortunate that I wasn’t in it entirely on my own.”

“Indeed,” Walker said grinning. He raised his own glass and took a drink.

Zef watched the interactions from a distance, sipping a glass of white wine. She was extremely happy that the Captain had made a celebration of the truth of the situation, and that now Faye might breathe a sigh of relief as she realized the crew didn’t hate her and she wasn’t a pariah.

When she caught the passing glance of the younger Calloway, she raised her glass to the woman and gave her one of her best smiles, feeling good that she’d never lost faith in her.

—Rollo, CNS

Faye raised her glass to Zef with a wide smile and gestured with her head towards the group, adding a half shrug. It was an invitation to join them, but only if Rollo wanted to.

Placing one hand lightly on Faye’s arm, Kiama leaned towards her and whispered, “I’ll be right back.” And without another word the dark-skinned Betazoid disappeared. But it wasn’t long till she was back; now with a glass of Rosé wine in hand. Raising her glass, she said, “Thank you, Faye, for all you have done and for being my friend. It means a lot me. To Faye Calloway.” She then took a sip and added in a lower voice so that only Faye could hear her, “Once you had time to relax and let everything sink in, I’d like to invite you to dinner. I’ll cook.”

~Lt. Naim, CSO

“To Faye!” Shara said, having retrieved a drink herself.

“To Faye,” Walker chorused before taking a drink himself.

Faye leaned to Kiama and nodded. “It’s a deal,” she said softly back to the CSO.

Exhaling, Faye looked around, giving a nod of acknowledgement to some random crewmember she didn’t know who had lifted their glass to her. It was surreal, to say the least. She knew that she would need to replay all of this over a few times in her head to truly get her mind-wrapped around it. But for the moment she was going to simply float along on these feelings that were, in a rare moment, happy and not marred by anything negative. It was easy to dismiss Faye as being a cold person but she was intensely passionate about everything- the things she loved, hated, found interesting, refused to consider. Nuance was a tricky thing and it had its place. It had worked its way into her life more recently allowing for events and people (and the emotions they provoked) to be more than one thing, less clear. The ambiguity was just a tiny bit less scary.

Returning her attention to the group, Faye was pensive. “I know there are a lot of questions, and some I might not ever be able to answer, but when the time is right and I am able, know that I will be able to be more forthcoming about some things. And I guess in the meantime… I’m really grateful for you all,” Faye said, just a tiny bit emotional again. She didn’t know what came over her, but perhaps it was the idea of having been seen, that made Faye reveal something more about herself that most others didn’t know and she began to recite a poem:

I read within a poet’s book
A word that starred the page:
‘Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage!’

Yes, that is true; and something more
You’ll find, where’er you roam
That marble floors and gilded walls
Can never make a home.

But every house where Love abides,
And Friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home-sweet-home:
For there the heart can rest.

Rather moved, Shara reached out and pulled her daughter into a one-armed hug. “That’s lovely, I like that.”

And… Faye took a sip of her drink to hide her slight embarrassment.

OOC: Credit: A Home Song By Henry Van Dyke
~Faye Calloway

“Very appropriate. Though I’m not sure I’ve heard that before, where is it from?” Walker asked.

WO Darach - COO

Faye turned an amused gaze upon her mother. “You should recognize it,” she said emphatically.

A bewildered look spread across Shara’s face. “I should?” Faye just stared at her harder until it dawned on the elder woman. “Oh!! It was in that damn book of his, wasn’t it?”

Faye nodded with a light laugh. “Uh huh.”

“Yeah, never read it,” Shara said flippantly. “Tried the first three poems once and they bored me to tears and I never got any further.”

“Should have kept going,” Faye said before returning her attention to the rest of the group. “My dad had this really old book of poems that he treasured. It was an anthology from four hundred yeas ago that he acquired through means he would never tell us but always made him smile. Anyway, the poem was in there. It’s called A Home Song by Henry van Dyke Junior who lived on Earth in the nineteenth century and died in the early twentieth. He was a member of the clergy, as well as an author, diplomat, teacher… and you didn’t need to know all that,” Faye said, her cheeks warming slightly.

“Hey, I always loved having you as our resident encyclopedia,” Shara teased. “Livened up our dull days.”

“You’re such a riot,” Faye deadpanned, though there was a gleam in her eyes and she was enjoying the banter. It felt… normal.

~The Calloways

Without noticing it, Kiama had taken a step or two back as Faye and Shara talked. Not because she didn’t want to be there, though, but because the poem had touched and stirred up something deep inside her. She had an idea what was going on and it was okay. But she felt her eyes fill with tears and she really didn’t want to spoil their good mood because she was suddenly overcome by memories and emotions. Yet she also didn’t want to just walk away and neither did she want to interrupt Faye and her mother. So she did the only thing she could think of and crossed the small distance between Darach and herself. Hoping he wouldn’t see the tears in her eyes, she whispered, “Can you let Faye know that I’ll be right back? I don’t want to interrupt her and Shara.”

Turning around on her heels, wine glass still in hand, Kiama headed towards a quieter corner of the arboretum.

~Lt. Naim, CSO


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