Posted Sept. 27, 2023, 1:14 a.m. by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) (Catt Bennett)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Side Sim - His Quarters - Ancestor’s Day
Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Reia Shandy (C Intelligence -Comm Officer) in Side Sim - His Quarters - Ancestor’s Day
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dagen Thor (CE) in Side Sim - His Quarters - Ancestor’s Day
Dagen had left shift early having put engineering in the capable hands of Angel. Once back in his and Reia’s quarters he set out to arrange things. He ‘thought’ he may have told Reia about this at some point but he may have been mistaken. It was probably a ‘next year’ is Ancestor’s Day that Trill celebrates. It used to be something that clans held individually but it soon became apparent that that simply disrupted things far too much and the governing elders created that day - that day to commemorate those who had gone before them.It was not a formal tradition that everyone kept to such as some on Earth that held the same tradition in each family group to commemorate a single event. It was more like the Earth tradition of Halloween or Christmas in which each family unit celebrated in their own way. Ancestor’s Day was very informal but solemn in its own fashion. The clan leader per se would designate the family Ancestor to celebrate - though this would be from each side of the family. In his case Dagen’s father had chosen Dagen’s grandfather Burle. For Reia, who was not Trill, she could choose anyone; it was not so tight as to have to be specific unless it was once a decade where the elders would include a noted Trill personality. This was not the case.
Dagen fussed some by setting up the coffee table with candles, a bottle of not just wine but of a certain Trill brandy that his grandfather favored. On a small raised centerpiece he set Burle’s ring. It was a clunky affair of a somewhat tarnished silver like metal and topped with a flat cut green stone with red veins. On earth they would call that a bloodstone.
- DagenReia was fairly oblivious to the events taking place in her quarters when she walked in late as she remembered. Seeing everything set as it was she had some dim memory of Dagen reminding her of the event.
“Oh, right, I think I have some things in the other room I should probably set out with yours. Is that the way it’s done? What is this we’re celebrating again?”
- Reia
A small frown crossed Dagen’s face and he bit his tongue; this sort of holiday was a rare event outside of Trill and usually quite private. Mixed families were rarer in Dagen’s case. He remembered his father’s words in their conversation about this and he nodded to himself. “Something like that,” he said to her first question. “A celebration of the past isn’t that regimented,” he said. “Families customize what they do. In this case they are recent ancestors and can be very personalized.” He hoped that he had kind of answered her question. “It is a remembrance of the past and an appreciation of the present and future.”
He stood up and moved to give Reia a tight welcoming hug.
- Dagen
“I’m sorry for being such an absent-minded dolt sweetheart. Just give me a minute. I love you.”
Reia walked quickly into the other room and slipped out of her shoes. She reached into the bottom drawer of her nightstand and pulled out a small package she had wrapped and set aside just for this day. Appearing in the other room she sat on the couch, unfolded the package, and laid out several things next to where Dagen had placed his. She also set out a small framed picture of herself at around 5 years of age and a 15 year old girl who, even without white hair and dark skin, looked similar to Reia.
“This is my aunt Sandy. Most of my relatives come in this weird family mess because they have come down to me through my grandparents. If you remember, I wasn’t raised with or by my mother after the age of three. Sandy was the closest to me in age coming from my grandfather’s relative, I don’t remember which one. We were kind of inseparable until she passed a few years ago.”
From the small package Reia laid out a blue hair comb with Crystal in it.
“When Aunt Sandy thought she was going to get married she got all of her traditional wedding trappings together, old, new, borrowed, blue and this is the hair comb that she was going to wear that day. The wedding didn’t happen but that’s actually not important to the story. We found it when we were shopping together and, when the wedding didn’t happen, she gave it to me. I will always remember that day, it was one of the most golden days in my life.”
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