Look What The Cat Dragged In Part 2

Posted on Fri Jan 5th, 2024 @ 4:00pm by Indigo (*) & Dodai Yaari

Mission: Fractures
Location: Freecloud
Timeline: December 2397
3073 words - 6.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Indigo was a heavy sleeper after several shifts for the Watchdog. Each morning, her alarm would blare loudly, jolting her awake and leaving her groggy and irritated. But on that particular day, Indigo experienced something entirely different. As the sun began to cast its rays through the curtains that she had barely closed and somehow got through the snowstorms, she slowly emerged from her slumber, feeling surprisingly refreshed. Which after how trained she had felt the previous night was a welcome change.

Stretching her limbs out, she reached out to her bedside table to grab her PADD and check the time. It was well after 9am which meant she had slept close to 12 hours which surprised her more than anything. She had expected a disturbance in the night or something from her house guest but there she was undisturbed and refreshed as she finally shifted from bed and shivered in the coolness. If she had been alone she might have been more tempted but she needed to face him.

After a quick detour to the bathroom she grabbed up a robe over her vest and shorts and set out to see what he had gotten up too. “Morning…” she called quietly.

There was every possibility that he hadn't slept. Ever one to be unpredictable, Dodai had the capacity to stay awake for days on end whilst simultaneously harbouring the skill to sleep for a duration even Rip Van Winkle could only aspire to. He was up, in any case, and as he had hinted at the night previous, was deep in the throes of preparing breakfast. His skillset in this regard was potentially better demonstrated on an open flame, braced against the climate in the depths of a rugged wilderness no one with any sense would make camp in, but he managed well enough with the luxury of pure convenience. The main living space smelled of bacon, at least, which was probably not the most objectionable thing to wake up to.

"You rested well." A mere observation, a fleeting redirection of his attention to glance at her before he resumed the breaking of cracking eggs.

“I needed it. My ass has been kicked all over Freecloud last 2 days.” She admitted. The wounds had been fixed up but the muscle aches and pains were harder to heal up when you still had to move around.

If he was surprised by that, which was doubtful, Dodai wisely chose not to mention it. Instead, with bowl and whisk in hand, he focused on the preparation of scrambled eggs that, if served up at just the right time in just the right way, had previously proven to be a good extension of his welcome. "If you are sore, you need only ask." He had given up attempting massage as an unspoken gesture. She didn't always push him away but given his tenacity for thoroughness, Dodai was never a very accurate judge of whether or not she had the time.

“I will keep that in mind.” She assured trying to not think on the potential of his offer. It took her back to nights when things had been a lot simpler between them. “Coffee or do you want something else?” She wondered seeing he was making breakfast she could the very least stumble around and make a drink.

"I brought tea."

If there had ever been an understatement, this might have qualified as the champion of all. Dodai and his tea, a fixation centuries in the making, and yet the pursuit of just the right blend for just the right occasion was as close as the man got to a hobby by some standards. At the very least, it followed his creative impulse, the need to pull together resources and combine them to forge new purpose. A gesture with his head indicated several tins already unpacked on the counter, though they likely represented only the tip of the iceberg.

Indigo went over to where the tea canister were and raised an eyebrow at them. There were several unfamiliar ones but one stood out more than any other it was one she had spent the time they had been together the longest drinking. It was certainly not his type of tea unless he had really changed. “Tea it is then.” She decided starting to boil the kettle.

The plate that eventually arrived in front of her was a balance of protein and grains, specifically bacon and eggs with toast. He had long ago stopped fighting her on the intake of his breakfast gruel, as she liked to call the porridge he favoured, though there was the inevitable pot of it on the stove heating. "Do your plans for the day permit rest at least?"

“I am off for several days now. Your timing was good.” She said over blowing the steam from her tea. She looked at the plate and smiled at what he had given her. “I would have been fine with the gruel but I do appreciate this.” She leant out and touched his hand. “Thank you.”

The morning typically always restored her disposition. Indigo might not have declared herself an accomplished early riser but Dodai had always found her at her softest first thing. For her thanks, she received a rare half-smile, and the conveyance of fondness that did not always settle easily on stoic features. A large thumb stroked the back of her hand before he pushed the plate closer and reached across to grab her some cutlery. "Eat. There's plenty of gruel if you want seconds."

The woman nodded and started to tuck into the food that had been cooked for her. She was always nice if someone else was cooking her food but especially first thing in the morning after a rough week. “So do I dare ask what you have been up to in last seven years?” She wondered once she was full and sat back holding her mug tightly in her hand.

"This and that." Whilst not an uncommon response, in this case it was offered with a degree of mischief twinkling in the El Aurian's eyes. His evasiveness was not a trait she expressed a lot of fondness for, though he often argued that elaboration really never offered much better clarity. "A year on Risa, several months on Bajor, the last couple of years on Antica." And every place in between. She would also know that there was no guarantee of an excessive amount of contact with people during that time. Risa was a popular retreat but he rarely ventured towards the tourist areas, and the rugged mountains of Antica were as enticing to his hermitage as Betazed's tropical jungles.

“Sounds like a very lonely time.” She said gently. “I have just been here most of the time.” She had spent the last six years mostly on Freecloud enjoying the experience of becoming something more despite why her elders would much prefer her to become.

"Isolation has its perks." She'd never known him to be any different, and Dodai's capacity to spend vast amounts of time alone became an inevitable repelling force once he'd ignored it for any length of time to match her pace of life. Indigo involved herself, Dodai preferred to retreat. Fundamentally, the two states of being couldn't exist in easy harmony.

“It does.” She agreed quietly as she watched him closely. “So have you heard from anyone important?” She had ignored any communication from elders or anyone important but that did not mean he had done that. People wanted them to do what they assumed they should be doing as couple in a species that was very limited.

"I believe contact has been attempted." Having spooned himself a bowlful of porridge, Dodai finally resolved his divided attention and stood on the other side of the counter to watch her, his guarded gaze rife with faint amusement at the understanding that neither of them were being particularly obedient, even if their methods of protest were markedly different. "I may have forgotten to look into it though."

The blue haired woman had a moment where she thought he might have looked into it and he had been one of the reasons he had turned up there. Her grip tightened as she listened. “Atta boy.” She encouraged looking from him to the drink in front of her watching as her nerves released and the grip on the mug loosened.

"Their opinion is not suddenly going to start impressing me, Indigo." The rumble of reason in his voice, whilst tender, also carried a slight chiding for her concern. It wasn't that Dodai was incapable of changing but it was an agonisingly slow process that was not likely to out-pace her when it came to matters involving their...arrangement.

“Good. My opinion has not change on children with the universe this ruined.” She whispered not looking up at him for a moment before the magnitude of what she had said struck her and she needed to see his reaction.

Predictably, he weathered the impact as if it was a trickle of summer's rain rather than the inevitable deluge. Dodai had never expressly admitted to objecting to fatherhood, it was a subject that he was resoundingly stubborn about giving an opinion on. If pressed, the best he came up with was an enduring acceptance that the universe would carve from him what it wanted, and as with all matters, he bent his attention towards being somewhat ready for whatever it threw at him next. Once, a very long time ago, he had assured her that, should a child emerge from their bond, he was more than willing to secure it away from whatever life she preferred. In this regard, at least, he had promised to be accountable.

Dark eyes watched her, brooding without judgement. "Only parts of it," he eventually corrected.

“But enough for me to not want to bring someone innocently into it.” She whispered putting the mug down. The emotion was evident in the way her hand shook before she placed it flat against the table.

A slow exhalation mimicked a sigh, a relaxation of acceptance as Dodai gathered up both tea and gruel to relocate to the dining table. He looked ridiculous, of course, far better suited to being bent over a bowl whilst crouched beside a fire but he could dress up in civilisation if the moment called for it. He gestured with his spoon to one of the other chairs. "Talk to me about it, whatever has you so grim." The offer to listen from one of their kind was infinitely more profound than an off-hand gesture and Dodai was good at it even for an El Aurian. It brought him no pleasure to see her reduced to pessimism, in any case, not when he knew the capacity off her full spectrum.

Indigo shrugged a little as she watched the man reduce himself and sat at the table in front of her before she followed suit. “It is just been being for years. Every time I try to settle something comes along and just … the Borg… the Dominion and what’s next?” She wondered.

"Indefinite harmony is quite an ask." Several spoonfuls of porridge provided plenty of time to prepare for the oncoming barrage of in-depth philosophy. "You risk squandering the short reprieves by expecting hope everlasting." Glancing up, Dodai established eye contact mid-scoop. "You've stopped meditating again." It was a guess but a reasonable one given her pessimism. The only way to deal with a lifespan that exceeded the nature of chaos was to constantly pull yourself back to a place of detachment. Dodai wasn't as crass as to pull an 'I told you so' from his back pocket but this was the risk of associating solely with those whose lives came and went in the span of a single sigh.

Indigo said nothing but let her shoulders drop in defeat. He was right it was a big ask but surely it was something that they deserved after the Borg destroyed everything they had known from childhood. “And what if I have?” She asked quietly keeping her gaze on her tea mug.

"Balance is built by intention and persistence." He managed to sound somewhat like the Elders whilst, at the same time, representing far too much that they disapproved of. Having picked and chosen which parts of their philosophy worked best for him, Dodai had spent the rest of his existence gathering sentiment from across the universe that best matched his own internal ruminations. Right now, his only concern was how deeply she had burrowed into what would be, in the grand scheme of things, quite fleeting concerns. "When was the last time you sought joy?"

"And look at you the elder in the making just like your father always wanted you to be." Indigo said not at all mocking or judging just simply stating the fact. His words sounded like something his father would have said once upon a time, it took her back for a moment to flickering fires and the intense smell of a herb that was always burning. "I do not know... a couple of months." She thought back to Hysperia and the fun she had, had there. Did that count?

It was an antagonistic remark nonetheless, hardly meant in kindness given the amount of evidence that proved contrary to the claim. Dodai, as some people liked to continually remind him, was nothing like his father. This, of course, meant that he was probably ever bit like his father in all aspects except the choices he'd made that the older Yaari had sacrificed against. As was typical, rather than foster the seed of resentment that Indigo had provoked, Dodai simply sat in silence and turned his attention instead to what the remark said about the woman's state of mind. His people's capacity for depression was greatly exacerbated by the need to constantly rebuild and move on. The longer you experienced the ongoing loss of outliving your current circumstances, the greater the risk. For those who chose to keep their distance from other El Aurians, the mattered became even more dire.

He finished his gruel and rose to wash out the bowl. Where he was used to living, reclamators didn't exist.

"We shall have to put that to amends," he eventually replied. "You have time free today, correct?"

Indigo wondered for a moment if her comment about his father was a touch too far but she kept the silence and waited. She waited for a storm that she knew would never come, it never did with him no matter how much she wanted a screaming match sometimes. She almost in moments there and then wondered why the elders had paired them. "I do." She answered cautiously as she watched him go about the motions of cleaning up the bowl and spoon.

"Then there is opportunity to seek some enjoyment." His task done, Dodai turned to lean against the sink, arms across his chest, and afforded her a rare smirk. He could, when he chose, exude a certain boyish charm that he wielded with a little too much relish when prompted to engage with civilisation. It wasn't so much an act as it was just one of those facets of his personality he'd cultivated over the years to better integrate, especially in a place like Freecloud, where pensive recluse didn't really resonate. "A guided tour of everything that brings you joy here."

Indigo was not at all convinced that were many things that brought her joy there but he was trying to seek her out. “Why do you always turn up to bring me back?” She asked quietly as she rose to put her plate in the replicator to deal with.

"I wouldn't need to if you didn't insist on getting lost." Despite the layers-deep implications of his statement, Dodai sounded fond. "A simple measure for keeping me away would be to avoid despondency, which may reveal a hidden intent in your methods." Reaching out as she drew close, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, a measure of tenderness behind his teasing. "One might almost imply that you intend for me to keep showing up."

“Maybe I am just not a good El Aurian like you.” She said looking at him intently her bravado and aggression from the previously evening all gone leaving her looking more and more vulnerable. “You should let me fade. Would be done with me once and all. Could find yourself someone much more like you.” She said touching his chest feeling the warmth and his steady heart beat under her as she spread out her hand.

"So...someone that lives up a mountain, doesn't wash for weeks and growls at anyone who comes near?" His damned memory and its capacity to recall in such vivid detail. It had been a while since she'd described him in such terms but there it was, returned as a twinkle in his eye as he reached up to fold his hand around hers. "It doesn't work like that," he reminded her, relenting enough to address her melancholy with sincerity. "A tether is not the same as a leash. I have freedom enough to satisfy me, all that your disappearance would achieve is emptiness." Letting go of her hand, he reached up to tweak her nose. "One song does not replace another."

“It’s been a 100 years since I said that to you.” She said shaking her head. “Okay… well this tether is going to have a shower and get ready if you really want to go out in the cold.” Indigo had not meant to full into melancholy but it was hard not to when she was not feeling as connected to the people around her there and then. Theo was trying to work out what was going on but she played it off and put her mask on but she knew the human knew it was what he suffered with.

"I was born ready for the cold." This, it was fair to say, was not much of an exaggeration. Dodai remained, leaning back against the counter, waiting until Indigo had moved out of sight before he set to the task of restoring the kitchen to order. As far as the messes he'd walked into went, it was a decent enough place to start.