Joint Personal Log - LtCmdr Waterhouse, LtCmdr Neyes, Lt Shea & Zed - "Sing Loud For The Sunshine"
Posted on Mon Sep 15th, 2014 @ 8:29pm by Commander Tristan Neyes PhD. & Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Lieutenant Dustin Shea
2,484 words; about a 12 minute read
Mission: Are You Touched?
-=/\=- Counselor Neyes' room at Qapla' Resort -=/\=-
Neyes' sandals clapped against the floor in front of his and Zed's room. Zed's pitter-patter footsteps quickly followed as the two boys approached their door. They'd just come from a quick visit to the food 'arena', as it was so aptly called, and dined while watching two klingon warriors duke it out over some honorable disagreement. Neyes was almost sure it was staged, until one of them lost a few teeth.
Taped to the outside of the door using a stamp sized piece of lime green dust tape was a calling card. The paper had a bit of a texture, nice and thick, and had a green stripe along the edges. The text on the front was indented into the paper with black ink, like the letter presses of old earth, and in a simple san-serif font it said:
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator
On the back, in a neat curvy hand and bright green ink, it said 'Zed: Beach - 14:00 Come watch the nunchuks play'.
Zed jumped up at the letter on the door, just barely coming up short. "What's it say, Daddy?"
"Ms. Waterhouse wants you to come watch nunchuks at the beach." Tristan answered, squinting at the letter quizzically. What an odd way to send a message. Paper? Ink? Humans were truly proving themselves an eccentric race of people, even if they were widely accomplished. There was nearly no end to their shenanigans, especially concerning their First Officer.
Zed stopped jumping, shaking sand out of his hair. "What's nunchuks?"
Dropping the letter to his side, Neyes looked down at his son, "I guess we'll find out?"
-=/\=- Beach, Qapla' Resort -=/\=-
Amelia sat in the sand near the base of the cliff at the north end of the beach. She was wearing her green shirt with the orange mask across the chest, which she'd rescued from Dani's quarters when acquiring the comic books to babysit, along with her cut off shorts. The shade provided by the cliffs really did result in the perfect counter balance to the high heat. She waited for her audience, her nunchuks sitting cradled in her lap. The green transparent aluminum of the handles caught what light bounced off the bright white sand, scattering through the frosted flame areas that provided a grip-able surface.
Dustin made his way towards the beach from the room he was staying in. He was wearing a pair of jean shorts, a typical generic white t-shirt, sandals, and his favorite black shades. In his hand he carried a small carrying case that held his pair of nunchuks. He was a bit unsure if he wanted to be "showing off" his skills with them because he held the art of Tae-Kwon-Do sacred and liked to practice his art in solitude. He couldn't, however, pass over an opportunity to attempt to bring Amelia and him closer together as friends.
Dustin exited the doors leading out towards the beach and scanned the beach for Amelia. Upon spotting her in the distance, he made his way towards her. After a while, he was there and took a seat next to Amelia. "Good day, Amelia," he said with a smile.
Amelia looked at Dustin with a smile. "I knew you couldn't turn me down," she teased with a smirk. "It's for a good cause, a little boy that might take up the art if we do this right."
"Of course I couldn't. If it's for a good cause, I'm game. It is not often that I make a public spectacle of myself for others. So, who is this little boy that I... we are showing off for?"
"He's the son of Vindi's head counselor," she explained. She'd actually considered not mentioning it, but assumed that when introductions came up, Tristan would confess to his job and it would only look bad that Amelia tried to hide it. "I assure you, he's on leave and if he starts prying too much, I'll knock some sense into him," she added quickly. "I haven't even mentioned you to him at all yet."
"Thank you. I really appreciate that. I really want this to be between us. I want to be the one to bring others into the mix as I feel necessary," Dustin said as he placed the bag containing his chucks down by his feet in the sand.
Coming down from the lip of the beachhead, Tristan and Zed appeared from behind a bunch of tall grass roughly 20 meters away. Tristan waved at the two, having spotted Amelia.
Amelia jumped to her feet as the two spotted men, one of them pint sized, came into view, collecting her nunchuks into one hand. "Good afternoon, did you like the calling card?" she asked when they were close enough to hear her.
Dustin stood up and turned to see who had approached them on the beach.
"Zed Irelle, and his father, Tristan Neyes," Amelia introduced the boy and the ship's counselor with a nod in their direction, then nodded to Dustin, "Dustin Shea."
Dustin looks down at the little boy, "Hey there lil' man!" Dustin exclaimed with a big smile, and then looks up at the counselor extending a hand, "Greetings."
Zed immediately leapt backward to disappear behind Neyes' leg, taking up a shy look of suspicion. He peered out from behind his father, unsure about how to react to the new man before him.
Tristan smiled, ignoring his son, "It's wonderful to meet you, Dustin. How's R&R treating you?"
Amelia giggled softly, kneeling down to Zed's level with a quick glance between Dustin and Tristan. "I promise Dustin doesn't bite," she told the boy with a wink. "You don't need to hide behind your dad." She held out her hand to him, trying to coax him out.
"She's right, I don't bite," Dustin told the boy.
Zed looked from Amelia to Shea, and then back again. Tristan noticed the exchange and gave the boy a quick tap on the head and a little shove out toward Amelia. He took her hand and moved in close to her, shying still. "He's short." Zed said plainly.
Tristan coughed, having accidentally swallowed and inhaled at once.
Amelia laughed and grinned at the little blond spotted child. "He is, but I promise he makes up for his size in spunk."
"Yeah, I am short. No doubt. That hasn't stopped me from doing some amazing things. Besides, being short comes in handy at times. Especially, when the big guys can't get to the places that I can," Dustin explained to Zed with a bit of a chuckle. He then looked over at Amelia with a smug smile.
"So," Tristan asserted himself into the discussion of the poor man's height. While Zed was often a very mild-mannered and wide-eyed little boy, there was always the exception to the rule. Their vacation on Qo'Nos had brought out the wilderness in Zed, and the previously uncharted regions of his post-toddler behavior were coming through loud and clear. Neyes pointed to Amelia, "So we got your card. What did you need to show us?"
"Need? No, no, that was an invitation. Using a calling card," Amelia corrected with a grin and stood up. She playfully bumped Dustin with her shoulder as she stood. "I just thought Zed might enjoy seeing something that I became passionate about because of my favorite comic book... TMNT. Which we'd discussed while you cornered Rochelle in the kitchen during tea." Amelia held up her nunchuks to show Zed and Tristan.
Dustin looked over at Amelia with a smile as he gracefully took the fact that he was knocked off balance as a reason to reach down and grab the small black bag that was holding his two pairs of wooden nunchuks that were custom made for his size. He pulled out both pairs and held one in each hand at his side.
Neyes felt her comment about Rochelle grate for a moment, before he allowed it to roll off. Ivanova and her were long-time friends, so of course she would be a little protective. Amelia was still very young, and it only showed more plainly with each back-handed comment she casually cast off at the crew. Even if she didn't know a more professional way to handle it, he'd witnessed it enough times now it was a pattern worth noting. The XO was currently one of Zed's favorite people however, and that counted for something in this instance.
Zed gasped, naturally, in complete awestruck amazement at the devices. They held a set of two large dowel-like sticks bound in metal and linked together by a small chain. Something in Neyes' thoughts perked up at the notion of it's implications in some kind of combat exercise, and he quickly shook it from his mind. He'd known Landon to be skilled in many martial weapons, but nothing quite like these.
"Then by all means," he smiled, "we can't wait to be impressed."
Dustin took a few steps backwards and while doing so, let an end of each chuck fall to its length. He then performed a quick flip of each wrist causing the chucks to fly up under each arm. Dustin then took a stance with each leg bent firmly. After a few moments, he bellowed a loud "KIA!" and the chucks in each hand started following a figure eight pattern in front of him. He then started flipping the nunchucks around his waist. The end of the chucks gracefully flowed in his hands as he ended up grasping the opposite wooden dowel when it made it to the opposite side of his waist. He let this continue for a few moments, then without hesitation, stowed a pair between the black colored belt going through the belt loops on his jean shorts and the pair of jeans. Once stowed, the remaining nunchuck started fluidly moving between his legs into his opposite hand and then around his neck back into the originating hand. When Dustin was done with his performance, he let out another bellowing "KIA!" as the nunchuck that he still had out returned to its starting position under his arm. Dustin pulled the stowed chuck in his belt out, clasped the two wooden ends together in each hand. He brought his arms up in front of himself, the clasped nunchucks resting against his inner arm and bowed to his audience looking straight ahead to honor the respect they showed him as he demonstrated his skill with nunchucks.
Neyes took Zed's hand and put them together, making a slight applause. "Humans clap their hands together to make noise. It tells them you liked their show." He explained.
Zed looked up quizzically, and stared at Dustin for a few moments. He then immediately giggled and starting slamming his hands together. "Now Amelia!"
Amelia had watched Dustin carefully as he'd done his demonstration, taking note of the things her mother's program had never brought up. She knew that her mother had put together something that was cribbed from watching videos of competitions, pulling parts from other training programs, and basically had distilled the art down to the combat essence, shedding everything else along the way except for the occasional flourishes that were intended to intimidate one's opponent. In particular, she eyed the black belt that she hadn't noticed Dustin was wearing when he arrived.
When Tristan showed Zed how to clap, Amelia also applauded. She met Dustin's eyes and smiled at him.
"Okay, okay, my turn," she said to Zed with a laugh. She brushed past Dustin, leaning close to whisper, trailing her hand on his shoulder as she paused, "You're a tough act to follow, we're absolutely comparing notes later." When she moved away again, she distributed her nunchuks to both hands.
Once she moved far enough away, she started flipping her transparent green beauties around her hands as she turned to face her audience. With no set stance or shout of warning, she suddenly sent the nunchuks flipping around her waist much like Dustin had his. She had ended up in the sunlight when she'd moved away to have room, and the light played through the colored transparent aluminum as they flowed around her. As quick as she'd started, she changed directions, sending one nunchuk spinning high in the air as she flipped the other between her legs, up behind her back, and over her shoulder. The airborne nunchuk returned to gravity's embrace, and Amelia set it to spinning around her hand as she brought the other one to a stop, grasping both ends. She bowed, one nunchuk still spinning around her hand, and the other tucked behind her back.
The explosion of claps from Zed was quickly followed by an equally loud volley from Neyes. The two grinned wildly, and Tristan was surprised with how much their demonstration had excited him. Seeing the two deftly display such skill with such an awkward device was actually quite impressive. "Very good!" Tristan said.
"So good! Do it again!" Zed said, "Where'd you learn that?! Can all Humans do that?"
Neyes leaned in to Zed, "Remember Commander Waterhouse is only part Human. She's also a quarter Trill like us, and a quarter Klingon, like the people who live on this planet."
Amelia smiled at the little boy as she stopped her nunchuks and stepped closer again. "It takes many years of practice. I started learning from a holodeck program my mother gave me when I was seven years old," she explained, then glanced at Dustin as if to invite him to explain where he learned. She was certainly curious what his answer was.
"With much dedication, patience, and practice, anyone can learn how to use a weapon. I have had official training back on Earth where I learned Tae-Kwon-Do. Tae-Kwon-Do, translates to the art of using the hands and feet. It is a Korean art primarily practiced in China and Japan. Those are three countries on Earth where various other art forms were created, such as jujitsu, ninjitsu, and judo. Just to name a few. So, the answer to your question, 'Can all Humans do that?', the answer is, 'yes,'" Dustin tried explaining to Zed his background of his skill of the art.
"Woooooow." Zed's darted from the two practitioners, and then to their weapons, and back again.
"Now, the next thing to show you would be Dustin and I sparring," Amelia admitted, a glance at the small engineer. "But we're not really set up for that... if you want, we can plan a later time to do so?"
"I think that's an excellent idea." Tristan nodded.
-=/\=- END LOG -=/\=-
Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator
Lt Commander Tristan Neyes, PhD
Chief Counselor
USS Vindicator
Lt Dustin Shea
Asst Chief Engineering Officer
USS Vindicator
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