Party Sponsored by Renato, Part 2

Posted on Wed 9th Sep, 2020 @ 9:42pm by Elizabeth Anderson M.D. & Lieutenant Commander Alora Baro & Khellian s'Siedhri MD & Yuliette Marayan Dr. & Renato Solis & Lieutenant Commander Lanis Dhuro MD

907 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Brown Sector Deck 2245 Renato's
Timeline: Md 3, 1545

Previously, in Part 1 ...

Alora had come to the party late, a particularly complicated repair in a shop of a Brown Sector friend had delayed her but she was here now and excited to be so. This was a great sign things were going reasonably well here and these people knew how to party. She hadn't yet seen any of her friends but there were hundreds of people watching the speech as she stood there in her civilian garb and leather jacket. She figured she'd see them soon enough.

---

Yuliette sat on a broad sill of a shop, looking on at the children, giving chase with one another. A smaller girl sat with her arms crossed in a pout, mad that she'd been tagged out so quickly by the older children.

"Would you play with me?" Yuliette asked. "I've got a game."

The girl looked at her doubtfully.

"It's like tag—"

The girl still looked unimpressed.

"Except," Yuliette stood up and stretched, turning to see which way the overhead lights were situated. "You have to catch each other's *shadow*. And there's no getting out. You can get tagged over and over and still try to catch me back."

Yuliette picked a place to stand where her shadow climbed a wall and she wiggled and waved to animate her darker outline, tempting the other little player... who couldn't quite resist and jumped up to touch the wall.

"Oh! You've got me! Now look out!" Yuliette took big monster steps aiming for, but only just missing, the little girl's shadow on the ground each time as they ran circles around one another. The child's laughter was infectious.

Gisele, who had always wanted grandchildren, but didn't have any children to give them to her ... a great disappointment in her life, was drawn to the sound of a child's laughter. Looking over, she saw a woman who looked mostly Cardassian playing with a young girl who didn't. She was curious, but knew there were stranger things in the universe than Cardassians and Bajorans mingling. As she watched, she found herself smiling at the game the two were playing.

Khellian came in as the two began to play, having gotten tied up in his office with a patient. He'd ended up having to send that patient for more intensive cardiac workup- which he hoped that Dr. Addams would follow up with him on. His smile was gentle as he watched them play, his heart aching deep in his side for the joy that more children would bring for his life.

Three more of the youngest ones joined the shadow chasing game, and Yuliette hung back a little to catch her breath as they ran around each other. One tripped over another and she picked him up to check his palms for scrapes. They were bright pinkish from the friction, but no skin was broken. "You're fine." She said, setting him back on his feet, and he believed her and recovered. As the shadow chasing started getting out of hand, she looked around for something non permanent that would "write" on the cobbles. She spied that some of the shop signage were written in chalk and tracked down someone who knew where they had a piece of the stuff.

Without calling their attention, Yuliette started drawing a big spiral on the ground, marking of squares and adding numbers. it was a little wonky because of the cobbled ground but she tried to incorporate the existing topography.

Standing back for a minute, she regarded her work. Then she began skipping it and the shadow chasers gathered to try as she explained the different rules.

"After you hop the whole thing without touching any lines, then you have to hop it and skip every other one. After that, multiples of three."

"Multi pools?"

Eh. close enough. They were a little young for math lessons. "Skip counting." She demonstrated, hopping over 2 at a time, and really testing her own balance as she compensated with her arms. "3,6,9,12... every third square. And then, if you can do that, every fourth square. Then every fifth!"

As she moved off the board for the others to try, the little boy leaped up and hung on her forearm, trying after the chalk for himself. She switched it to the other hand and held it over her head. To his credit, he jumped very high as he kept up his attempts making growling and snapping noises all the while.

"Joys of the season to you Doctor K." The young man who had initially brought him and Makila slipped in beside him with a plate overflowing with food.

"Peldor Joi, Arik was it?"

"Isn't that what I said?" the young man gave a twinkling grin and stuffed his mouth full of food, but still managed to talk around it without spewing it everyone. "Best part of this party is the food. Never turn down free food Doc. Anyway, Alsina and Korden say thanks. Sent me to give you this." The boy handed him a tiny potted plant.

Khellian stared at the pot that was in his hand, and the tiny purple sprout. "Is that..."

"All honor to the healers." He was cut off by Arik, who patted him on the shoulder. This was a phrase he'd heard before, but never in such a tone. The gobsmacked doctor bowed slightly to the young man who ran off and disappeared with his plate.

 

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