Posted Nov. 7, 2022, 8:27 p.m. by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) (David Bennett)
Posted by Lieutenant Tom Jarvis (Internal Security) in Slade Quarters - Tuesday night is movie night
Snip“Nope just random conversation,” Vanessa let out a laugh. “I had this stuffed baby doll that came with a huge English-like baby carriage. I loved it but if you notice the past tense nothing lives long in the Slade household. My brothers wanted to join this soap box derby thing one fourth of July so they repurposed it. Needless to say, none of us had any idea until they came flying by us toward the finish line and I lost my crap along the side of the road. I am not sure I really liked the toy until it was destroyed. You have any family?”
Vanessa Slade CNS
Tom contemplated lying but then thought why? Why lie. It was killing the mood but he didn’t make it a habit of sparing people’s feelings. It wasn’t part of him and that’s part of the reason he was good at his job. He only liked when it was mission critical and didn’t want to start operating fallacies outside of the purview of his work.
“I was an only child and had a happy home till I was twelve years old.” Tom replied, “After that it was just awkward and I had to be rehomed before I turned thirteen. That day your mother screams and calls you an imposter and wants to know where her baby boy is… Well let’s just say life wasn’t easy after that.”
Tom sipped at the water again and looked up to see where they were in the movie.
“Next question?”
- Tom
Vanessa slowly set her pizza down and looked at Tom. “Well, this conversation took a different turn than expected. I thought you were going to say legos.” It was clear that Tom did want to talk and since she would forget everything once he left, it didn’t matter what he revealed or shared with her. In a way, it was freeing. No matter how shocked, stunned, or confused she felt, it would all be gone before dawn. “So why did she think that?”
Vanessa Slade CNS
“Because I had matured and deviated enough away form her memory of what I looked like that she thought I had been replaced. My father couldn’t get her to reconcile. Talking over comms got her to acquiesce that I might be who I and my father said I am but she’s always had that doubt in the back of her thoughts.”
- Tom
“Wait so she and your dad remembered you on some level?” Vanessa seemed rather excited at this response. “I get it that it was more like a traumatic brain injury where it was like a drunken bender where you remunere but not clearly however for the rest of us it’s a pure nope never saw him before in our lives the second you walk out the door. Tom this is huge.”
“If your parents have any recollection of you which they must or at least your mom because she recognized it wasn’t you versus a complete stranger that means we to learn why. The brain is nothing but a cocktail of chemicals that make cells fire neurons. Something in your moms chemical make up is allowing her to glimpse you. You are half of your mom so there is hope. Have you explored this before?”
Vanessa Slade. Can s
Tom frowned a little and shook his head.
“No, it’s not like that. They remember me fine till puberty set in. My mother’s last personal memories of me, that aren’t because of long range comms, are when I was twelve years old. When puberty set in and my mutation began to rear it’s head, her and my father’s discomfort around me had been building till it broke that morning that she came in to wake me and the screaming started. My father was always the stoic man but he couldn’t handle the uncertainty anymore either and thus I was shuffled off to be rehomed. For eight years my mother thought I was dead.”
Tom drank some more water before getting up to get a refill.
“I wasn’t always so forgettable.”
- Tom
Vanessa had always been told she practiced more hard love therapy than passing the tissue box. While Tom’s story broke her heart, it also irritated her on some level. All families were different but at the heart of all families was the core of a person that grew into a member of a larger society. How they fit into that society depended on many things but it all started from the core. With this being, not a session, Vanessa was able to have more leeway in her approach and curiosity.
Watching Tom leave to get some more water, Vanessa spun in her seat so that her arm hung over the back and she could see him without getting up. “Okay riddle me this,” she wore a thoughtful expression. “Are you telling me that Starfleet is more open-minded and accepting than your own family? I mean Starfleet obviously knows and accepts your condition but your own family would rather accept that you are dead and out of their life than find a way to let you be a part of it?”
Vanessa Slade CNS
“No, Star Fleet sees me as a resource, a specialized tool to be used when needed. That’s how Star Fleet has accepted me. If I ‘went rogue’ Section 31 would be out hunting for me.”
Tom refilled the water.
“My mother and father know what’s going on with me but they just aren’t comfortable. They don’t want to forget and that’s why, now, if we do interact, it’s over indirect communication. I haven’t seen my parents in person since I left home.”
Tom returned to the seat and looked at Vanessa as he took another sip.
- Tom
bump
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