Lt Avander Promontory: Grateful for New Friends
Avander Promentory
((Gratitude Festival, Bajor))
Avander had made it to the Gratitude Festival and, more importantly, had found a fellow officer from the ‘Oumuamua. The security officer, who Avander had only known in a professional capacity aboard the ship, played host, wearing a breezy green dress that made Avander think his black uniform might be out of place. He rolled up his sleeves in an attempt to compensate a little.
Promontory: So, is there more to a gratitude festival? I’ve never been and I didn’t get a chance to read up on them.
Sherlock: Well, there's the vendors. Lots of food, I just recommend avoiding Hasperat carts.
Avander was keen on experiencing the culture, but he had enough negative experiences with alien foodstuff that he was happy to play it cautious on that front.
Promontory: (nodding) Makes sense.
Sherlock: There's also the tradition of burning a Renewal Scroll.
That sounded promising—something new that wasn’t food and a chance to learn about Bajoran culture.
Promontory: Is that something we could do now?
Sherlock: ::looking back to Promontory and nodding:: Yeah, let's do that.
Aine led them to a kiosk of sorts that seemed to be equipped for precisely this sort of thing.
Promontory: So how does this work? Do I pick something I’m grateful for or…
Avander found himself at a loss—he really didn’t have a clue what this was all about. This is why he usually read up on things before jumping in.
Sherlock: It's simple, really. People generally write a problem they have on the scroll. Burning it is symbolic of letting it go.
Promontory: Oh! OK. (beat) And it’s legit for off-worlders to do, right? You’ve obviously done this before, I take it.
Sherlock: I have, it was about two years ago.
Avander watched as Aine approached a small altar. A liquid streamed down towards a glass bowl, feeding a flame. Next to it sat a small stack of parchment and ink.
Promontory: So, any sort of problem? (beat) Not just ones we’re grateful for?
Avander wasn’t sure he got the connection between renewal scrolls and the gratitude festival, but there was surely some deep, meaningful cultural history there. Perhaps it would be best to let the lieutenant lead.
Promontory: What did you do last time?
Sherlock: Last time? I was filled with all kinds of doubts. Doubts about my career. Doubts about my relationships. ::beat:: So, that's what I wrote, doubt.
In his limited interactions with the security officer, Aine had seemed supremely confident. She had certainly performed admirably when she held the bridge in the Alpha Brenkelvi situation, from all reports.
Promontory: Oh! (beat) So I guess it worked then. (beat) No doubt!
Avander was so engaged in considering the contents of the scrolls that he hadn’t noticed another officer of the ‘Oumuamua had saddled up behind them. He had a fleeting thought that it probably didn’t bode well for someone to be able to sneak up on the security and intelligence officers of the ship, but they were off-duty and unlikely to run into too much trouble down here.
Herrick: Hello… (a bit awkwardly) Lieutenants. Burning anything good?
Avander turned to face the newcomer—it was their acting Engineering Chief, another officer whom Avander didn’t know as well as he’d like.
Promontory: Not yet, we’re just about to start. Lt. Sherlock here was giving me the overview.
Sherlock: Response
Herrick: (half jokingly) Many! To be honest, being deep in space I think makes you grow in ways that you never thought possible. And… inter-ship dynamics.
Sherlock: Response
Promontory: After you then.
Avander passed Josh the writing implement and moved over so he could get at the blank scrolls.
Herrick: 1 scroll for all my problems, or 1 scroll per problem?
Avander, who was generally a happy-go-lucky sort of person, hadn't even considered that one might list multiple problems to burn.
Promontory: Oh, that’s a good question… Aine?
Sherlock: Response
Josh carefully wrote on the scroll and then tenderly placed it in the fire where it immediately turned to ash.
While he watched his fellow officer enact the ceremony, Avander used the time to consider what he should put on the scrolls. This did not seem the moment for flippancy or surface-level answers.
Kessler.
As he reviewed his time since boarding the ‘Oumuamua, one name stood out above the others. Jack Kessler had been a friend and a mentor and the failed mission to rescue his kidnapped parents still weighed on Avander’s mind. Jack was now missing-in-action, presumed dead, and there had been no additional intel on the Kessler parents. oO Poor Krystal, I hope she finds someplace to land. Oo The child he had helped rescue on his first mission, Jack’s adoptive sister, had been through enough in her young life.
Avander thought too of V’Len Kel. He had been on that failed mission as well, but had since taken a transfer to the Ronin. As had Kammus Corelli who had taken a LOA since. It seemed like everyone was leaving.
When Avander had gone off adventuring with the timecops for a few years of his personal timeline, he had justified to himself that he’d return to the moment he had left and so he wouldn’t really be missing his colleagues and friends. But the ‘Oumuamua crew he remembered and had held in his mind wasn’t the same crew that now occupied those roles.
Avander took a scroll and quietly wrote ‘the past.’ He held the paper to the flame.
Promontory: Like this?
He moved his hands quickly away before he burnt his fingers. He stepped down from the altar to put some literal as well as metaphorical distance from the offering and to give Aine personal space.
Sherlock: Response
Promontory: (turning to Josh) Join us?
Herrick: I came here on my own — I’d appreciate that. Less risk of getting kidnapped.
Promontory: (wistfully) ‘Oumuamua crew have to stick together!
Sherlock/Herrick: Response
Promontory: I’m good here. (beat) Maybe trying something more upbeat?
There was a time to be solemn and reflect and there was a time to engage in celebrations. He jerked his hands towards a crowd surrounding an entertainer juggling objects high in the air.
Sherlock/Herrick/Any: Response
Promontory: Well, it’s my first time on Bajor.
Sherlock/Herrick/Any: Response
Tags/TBC
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