A Proposal and A Glow In Dark Swamp

Posted on Tue May 5th, 2026 @ 1:39pm by Leiddem Kea (*) & Delaney O'Callaghan

Mission: Shackles
3213 words - 6.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Leiddem was surprised when his girlfriend decided she wanted to come along on his wander around. He had just been thinking of going for a quick walk and then coming back in time for a late dinner, but there they were. He had to admit that wandering along the dock of a phosphorescent fungal swamp with Delaney was a lot nicer than without her.

"You know I was going to wander, then come back and wake you." He teased, knowing she was feeling much better after her surgery and recovering, but he still worried.

It was adorable, Delaney decided, that after all this time Leiddem still thought she was going to be the one sleeping through exploration opportunities. The surgery had certainly surprised them both with how much it had knocked her out, but that was mostly medication-related and hadn't lasted longer than a week. Now, her inability to stay in one place for very long was well and truly back in full force.

"I figured," she admitted, knowing he had at least roused her from a fairly typical couch-crash. "Might need to talk to Kali about upping your stealth stats." Honestly, it was less that the Betazoid was noisy when trying to sneak around and more that it was pretty difficult, especially in close proximity, for Delaney not to be aware of him. Her visit to Betazed and the chats with his family had granted some level of understanding about the nature of telepathic bonds so Delaney chalked it up to that and opted to just use it to her advantage.

“I do not believe I am designed to be stealthy.” The man said spreading out his limbs to make a big star shape in the space. “But I am sorry I woke you up. I was literally going to check out this place and then come back.” He promised stepping down onto the dock and turned instinctively to offer his hand.

As much as she typically balked at being coddled, Delaney took the offer as an opportunity to keep hold of her boyfriend's hand, tugging gently as it took her all of several seconds to take the lead. Curiosity had run high over this place, which was already giving soggy-Hysperia vibes, just with a lot more fog and a somewhat incessant dampness that left Delaney feeling like her joints ought to be aching even though they weren't, yet.

"Well," she concluded, having paused to peer over the edge into the muck below, "on the plus side, you'd probably suffocate before you drowned."

“Oh… no. You … I came here because it’s meant to be pretty at night.” Leiddem stammered through trying to explain why he was there even as he followed her to the edge. “It’s meant to be phosphorescent.” He explained.

"Gloopy muck can be pretty," Delaney agreed, though a spark of intuition prompted her to look up and pause for a moment, instantly intrigued. Leiddem was absolutely not gifted in the acting-nonchalant department, and she was pretty sure she wouldn't have needed any kind of telepathic bond to sense his nervousness. He wasn't the type to spook easily either, though there was some vague resemblance at least in terms of ambience between this and a certain holo-adventure-gone-wrong.

Actually, she kind of wished she hadn't thought of that.

"Let's wander up further," she suggested, in an attempt to mask the fact she had surreptitiously glanced towards the treeline to check for headless monstrosities on horses. "I mean, that greenish glow over there is probably not radioactive sludge, right?"

“There is nothing radioactive here.” He promised quickly as he took her hand again and tugged her along. He had thought it might be a good location for something romantic as they had not done much of that recently but he was starting to think she was right; it was sludge. “I did a check before I came down and asked the Allhallowlians.” He murmured quietly.

Delaney was good-natured enough to admit she could be gulliable at times. Where she was prepared to give herself some credit was judging Leiddem's mood and him settling for apologetic despondency over scooping her up and threatening to dump her in the muck was the final alarm bell she needed to fix him with a look of narrow-eyed suspicion. Scrutinising his profile didn't reveal much but she didn't think anything was wrong. When he fretted, he was distant, distracted, caught up in his own thoughts. If anything, he seemed hyper-present, which was a type of energy Delaney would have agreed typically suited her role in their relationship.

A gentle bump sideways tried to shake loose some of the tension.

"Even if it is, I always did want superpowers."

He surveyed the nudge and shook his head. She was trying to work out what was bothering him which meant he was not doing a good job of hiding his nerves. “Knowing our luck it would turn out horrible.” He said smiling at the way she nudged him. He wrapped an arm around her and held her close to his side. “So let’s not risk it.” He did not want to risk it at all. Not with what he had planned.

She was about to argue that risking it was half the fun but Delaney caught herself, a rare moment of introspection that allowed her to acknowledge her boyfriend's discomfort and consent to just play along with whatever had him scrambling to readjust his plans. Ordinarily, Delaney would have just called him on it, she wasn't very good at adopting the subtle approach, but something about Leiddem's pensiveness stopped her. Slipping an arm around him to return the squeeze, she shot him a half-grin and raised her eyebrows. "Plan B then? I assume you have one."

The man looked confused at the Plan B comment before he nodded. “Of course. Plans B through Z.” He answered quickly and ducked his head to lay it on hers for a moment as she wrapped her arm around him and squeezed. Why did this night have to become complicated? He thought to himself for a moment before he looked up and blinked at all the sudden sources of erie green and purple glowing light. “Well what about that?” He whispered softly.

It was tempting, at first, to just refuse to move. On any given day, the pace at which the pair of them tended to operate didn't always allow for a lot of slowing down, not until the evenings at least when a certain amount of routine had lead to the same old face-down-on-couch scenario that was both comforting and, admittedly, a little frustrating at times. Laney thrived on forward momentum and recuperation had become her least favourite word now that the obvious signs of recovery had long-past. Opportunities to wrap herself up in Leiddem's arms and just breathe him in were often snatched between obligations; it was hard to justify interrupting an opportunity to do it somewhere utterly different for a change.

Eventually, she lifted her head and squinted at the spectacle that had drawn his gaze. She had to hand it to the place; it was doing a lot of hard work turning inherently spooky into ethereal beauty, and Delaney wasn't opposed to the fact that the combination still managed to send a cold thrill down her spine. Adrenaline wasn't a bad thing, after all, she was well-acquainted with it by now. "Are they bugs or something?"

“Phosphorescent mushrooms.” The man answered quietly. “I thought you might enjoy it which is why I came down here to check it out. I wanted to do something romantic as we have not had much time to be that in a bit.” The last time had been Betazed and he had been very aware of how she needed to heal and rest so his attempts had been more about connection and reminding her that he wanted her no matter what. How had the human snuck into his life and made him so happy and settled?

The idea that Delaney could sneak anywhere was amusing enough but, currently, she was more enamored by the fact that her boyfriend had thought glowing mushrooms were romantic. He wasn't wrong, but only in the sense that these absurd little moments were such a defining aspect of their relationship that Delaney would have been more disappointed had Leiddem opted for something far more standard. Turning so that she could secure a better vantage, Delaney pulled Leiddem's arms around her middle and leaned back against his chest as she scrutinised the irridescent fungus. They were awfully pretty.

"As far as romantic settings go," she agreed after a moment, "this isn't too shabby. Complete lack of headless horsemen though," Laney added with a grin, poking fun at her own botched attempt at a date that had ended so drastically, it tended to crop up in conversation over and over again. "So minus a few style points."

Leiddem laughed a little and shook his head. "I should have known you needed the headless guy to enjoy anything with me." The man chuckled, feeling himself relaxing as they spoke about something that had brought them together. It was part of their story, but it was also one of the things that he had considered for her.

"Not true," came the immediate challenge, punctuated by an index finger angled upwards at first and then tapped against the tip of his nose. Leaning sideways to let his chin settled into her shoulder, Delaney grinned as she pressed her nose into the side of his face. "There's always the freezing cold of failed systems, or being yanked through time fractures, or being harrassed by spiders." It was strange to think they'd spent the initial days of their relationship worried that the ship was never going to power back on again. Still, it was hard not to be a teensy bit nostalgic for Leiddem's makeshift tent. She still teased him about confronting a life-threatening situation by making sure he could still get her into bed.

“Ah Stan… I miss the spider sometimes.” He sighed softly as he slowly stepped back. “All those moments brought us together and made me realise just how much I love you.” He admitted quietly. “Betazoid culture is different for dating, you would already know my thoughts and know how I feel because it would be all open but I hope my actions have shown you often enough that I love you and I never want to spend a day without you. Seeing the future where you were gone is something I never want to face so I would like to know …” he knelt down in a very human gesture and held out a small box. “If you will marry me?” He said the last part looking straight at her.

Years later, they would look back on it as one of the rare occasions where he'd actually stunned her into silence. It wasn't just the intent itself, which was monumental enough on its own, but the fact that Leiddem had somehow plotted this without Delaney figuring it out ahead of time. It would be cause to be immensely proud, eventually; Laney wasn't adverse to a matching of wits and this perhaps marked the beginning of her not being able to take for granted always having the upperhand. It would eventually occur to her, that is; currently, she was too busy trying to reboot her brain.

And so she stared, eyes locked, and though Delaney wasn't a telepath and still only just about understood how this connection of theirs worked, there was never any question of doubting Leiddem's sincerity, or the absolute audacity of being this bloody perfect. Very tentatively her gaze dropped to the box he was holding out and finally her expression startled into something a little more akin to its usual animation.

"You wonderful asshole."

It was all that was needed for the tension to break and then she was laughing, teary against her will, and swept up in the kind of exhilaration that only Delaney could summon out of thin air. Her tone was playful, accusatory and yet, by now, she could trust the man knew her well enough to know the difference between an actual protest and sheer joy.

"I can't believe you actually had me believing this was about mushrooms."

Leiddem had never felt this type of fear before, not in the Marines and not on SS Mary Rose, but watching the emotions flutter across her face, he was scared by what she was going to do or say. "Is this a yes?" He wondered, smiling at the way she called him an asshole.

Between the soft gasps of slightly watery laughter, Delaney wiped an errant tear away with a hand that shook just a little more than she normally would have preferred. "Well, I'm not weeping like a feckin' eejit because I need to think about it. Come here." Ignoring the box for now, she reached down to slip her arms around his neck and, a little awkwardly, ingratiated herself into an embrace that was left to benefit from Leiddem's sense of balance since he was still technically kneeling. "I don't think it's legal," she murmured into his ear, "for anyone to be as happy as you make me. You're going to get us arrested."

"I'll plead the fifth." The man said, closing the box for a moment to wrap his arms around her tightly and pressed his lips against hers. He slowly stood holding her close as he pulled back from the kiss and leaned his head against her. "I wanted it to be perfect, but we are so unperfectly perfect that it would be stupid to try."

"We wouldn't know what to do with ourselves," Delaney agreed, eyes drifting closed for just a split second to soak up what she was starting to learn was a very real emotional warmth. "You know," she confessed after a moment had passed, "I came close a few times to just asking myself." The wrinkle of her nose preceded a surpressed grin as she once again opened her eyes to look at him. "But then I remembered all those sisters and how much of your life has been shaped by women trying to spin you around and point you in a direction that I just figured it could wait until you decided what you wanted."

A finger jabbed him playfully in the side.

"That's not to say you weren't slowly running out of time. And I don't think I'd have managed anything quite as glamorous as mushrooms."

“My culture allows the woman to ask.” He laughed as if she did not know that when his whole species was matrilineal. The man smiled and opened the ring box again. It was a Betazoid design with a darker gem in the middle but his sisters had assured him a million times that she would like. “So can I marry you?” He wondered pulling the ring out holding it out to her again properly.

"My culture allows women to ask too, or at least I'd like to see it try to stop us." It was an automatic response, made in the midst of total distraction because Delaney had somewhat cautioned herself not to expect jewelry as part of the deal. She wasn't entirely sure what the Betazoid customs were outside the fascination with turning up butt-naked to their own weddings but in the weeks of her own serious contemplation about the future, Laney had chastised herself about being entirely content with whatever shape their relationship took moving forward as long as it remained permanent. Now that there was an actual ring on offer, she was forced to admit there was a teensy chance she'd been hoping to sneak the custom in.

She held out her hand, fingers waggling, for him to slip it on.

"Yes, but with one condition." Twinkling eyes watched him, still a little on the watery side but alight with merriment and the kind of adoration she would have made fun of herself for daydreaming about before she'd actually experienced it. "We need to tell my family in person."

Leiddem laughed as he put the ring on her finger. “I think I can manage that.” The man admitted with a smile as he looked at and leaned down gently brushing his lips over hers. “I am sorry that you thought you were going to have to ask me yourself.” He never wanted her to doubt him.

"Would have just been history repeating itself." With a wriggle, it became easier to inspect the ring by laying her hand against his chest, and in usual Delaney-style, the rush of emotion that came with unpacking just how much thought had gone into the item's design prompted her to keep talking lest she lose the ability entirely. It might have been tempting to pretend she wasn't a romantic sap at heart but Leiddem had her measure by now and she was already blinking far more than was strictly necessary to try and get her tearducts to behave. "Mum's always said if she'd waited for Dad to get his finger out, she'd still be single."

"I would have never done that. I would like all of you forever, Lan. I just wanted things to be perfect before I screwed my head on properly." He said quietly, caressing his knuckles across her cheek. He glanced down at the hand on his chest. "It looks perfect on you."

Quite apart from what the ring symbolised, Delaney was taken aback by just how affected she was knowing that it likely existed because of an intentional effort to design something to suit. At the very least, it looked new, but she realised that was an assumption probably best not left unverified. "I don't think it could look ugly if it tried. Tell me about it." It was a sincere invitation that also doubled as an attempt to control the wobble in her voice.

“I had considered a Claddagh ring but that seemed not to be your style of things. So I went with Celtic knots as they meant eternity intertwined with Betazoid vines.” He said indicating the parts he meant as he spoke. “It is Moss Agate Emerald. It just seem like a perfect combination of your eye colour and my own. No two moss agate stones are the same, making each one unique just like us.”

"Oh gosh."

By now, it was widely understood that if Delaney wasn't swearing, the situation was serious. In this instance, that involved a failed attempt at remaining dry-eyed. In retaliation, she jostled Leiddem just a little before lifting her now-adorned hand to wipe furiously at her eyes, the tips of her fingers catching droplets as she ran them across her cheekbones.

"Last chance," she laughed, a damp sound fueled by a typical surge of excessive energy, "to rethink tying yourself down to this whole mess." Shining eyes found Leiddem's, laden with a ferocity of affection that immediately challenged her own joke. "Actually, don't you dare. It took too bloody long the first time to catch your eye."