Let Them Eat Cake

Posted on Mon Sep 12th, 2022 @ 6:24am by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant Myne Redal

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Myne's Quarters
1789 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

Rin stopped outside of Myne's door, one hand behind her back as she pushed the entrance chime.

There is a sound similar to something short-circuiting behind the door, before Myne's voice could be hear. "Come in!!" A bit of smoke filled the air of the messy cabin, which resembled a workshop more than a living space. The bed was neatly made however, with some sort of old looking pieces of metal or technology on a shelf next to it, being displayed for some purpose or another.

As for the smoke, it came from a small drone on the floor, which more or less resembled a cleaning unit. Apparently, the chime at the door activated it, but as usual with Myne when trying out new things, it still had some kinks to solve.

Myne herself stood there scratching her head and looking down at the small drone, dressed in pajamas sporting a rather adorable white and pink cat, holding a umbrella on which it wrote 'Hello Kitty!'

"Is this a bad time? I can come back later. Although I did wish to inquire about your opinion of birthday celebrations," Rin asked.

"Oh hey Rin!" Myne light up and turned to wave towards her friend. Until she became aware of her pajamas and crossed her hands to cover the feline image on it. "Sorry... erm, found this fun ancient Earth religious icon and was trying some of the rituals of this strange Human religion."

Smiling a bit embarrassed she motioned Rin to enter. "It's never a bad time. I had a small droid built to clean the room when I have visitors, but the darn thing broke down. So, birthday celebrations. Ask away and I will do my best to answer. I am not used to, erm, celebrate my birthdays, it is a really confusing mess to be honest."

"I meant if you liked them, because if you don't, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this cake," Rin said, pulling out the box she had been hiding behind her back.

Myne frowned a bit at the box and then looked up at Rin. "Rin, isn't that what Humans eat at their mating for life ritual?" She asked confused. "I am sorry, erm I haven't been to many, erm, Human birthdays." The Trill explained apologetically, smiling a bit embarassed while guiding Rin to place the box on the table in her messy cabin.

"Humans use cake to celebrate lots of things. Weddings, yes, but also birthdays."

Rin set down the box and opened it. "Now, I know you're not a fan of a lot of human food, so I thought maybe this would be more to your palate. May I borrow a knife?"

Inside was tidy little cake covered in dead bugs. As she cut it into slices, Myne could see more bugs tucked in between two layers of simple white cake. "I hope I did it right. Those are the kind of grubs Ferengi tend to use in celebrations, yes? I did risk some actual cake. I find sugar appeals nearly universally."

"I was not aware Humans have such an addiction to cake." Myne chuckled bringing Rin a knife and peering into the box as her friend opened it. "Thank you for being so considerate Rin!" She hugged the xB from the side before reaching for a slice to plug a grub and quickly monch on it.

"Aww, these are really good. And yush, Ferengi do use a very wonderful variety of them in most of their dishes." The Trill said as she quickly went to bring two plates and two spoons. Putting a slice in each plate, she took a seat on one of the chairs and took a bite of the rather delicious cake.

"So, how have you been lately? All well in the intel department? How are you handling the change in captainhood?" Myne asked as she took another bite.

Rin shrugged. "Didn't really know. Lovejoy. Still don't really know Lalor. Hasn't negatively impacted my work so...eh? What about you? I know you liked Super Garrett."

"I, erm, admired him. I still do. He was a good captain, at least to me. I know the crew did not like him for her was the XO of the previous one, the one that got shot on the bridge. And he was here when our current captain was removed from her position. But Captain Lovejoy accepted me readily as I was and encouraged me to be myself and grow and learn. Unlike my first captain. Damn I am ranting a lot, I am sorry Rin... but I do miss him already." Myne replied with a sad smile as she took another bite of the cake. "Do you want something to drink?"

"Sure. Coke?" Rin replied. "You're not ranting at all. Captain Lovejoy is important to you for important reasons. I hope Lalor eventually inspires you as well. Perhaps you could send a message to Lovejoy, let him know how much you appreciate what he did."

Myne nodded went to bring a normal Earth coke from the replicator and a Slug-o-Cola for herself, handing the non ferengi coke to Rin.

"In other news...I have godchildren! It's a religious thing on Earth where you promise to be part of a child's life. I made that promise on the London for twins, and they've been found. xBs, adults. But they have no surviving family, so they asked if I would take up that role. So I'm godmother to two people who fully understand my own experiences. Not to dismiss my other family, but this feels different. They're on Charon Station, so we'll mostly communicate through subspace, but I have children.

"You're the first person I've told" Rin continued. "I think my excitement might be similar to that of biological mothers, although I don't have any personal experience to compare it too."

"You are a grandmother? That is amazing Rin!! It must be the most wonderful feeling ever, I am sure!!" Myne cheered and smiled widely at Rin. "Not to mention you have similar experience on which you can drawn upon for understanding with one another. And yes, family is important, and now you are building another family for your godkids."

In a spur of the moment, Myne reached out and hugged Rin, keeping her big grin on her face. "I am honored that you told me this Rin. Excitement like this suits you and you wear it wonderfully. You will be an amazing godmother. I am so proud of you!! Not that you need me to be proud of you, but I still am. You're doing awesome stuff and helping people and being really amazing Rinrin!!"

Rinrin? Rin thought. And then she smiled. She kind of liked the idea of someone giving her a nickname.

"Godmother, not grandmother," Rin gently corrected, still grinning. So what about you? What have you been doing?"

Myne blinked at Rin for a few seconds, then chuckled. "Yeah, Godmother, sorry! My brain has been fuzzy as of late Rinrin!" Then she excitedly got up and brought a normal looking PaDD. "I have been tinkering with this!! A gift from Captain Lovejoy!!" Turning it on a hologram of the former captain and Myne appeared, in the personas of Super Garrett and Gadget Girl.

"It is a compiler for video formats and holodeck. You input various parameters and it generates a whole episode with Captain Garrett and myself!! As Gadget Girl, his faithful sidekick!! It is suuuuper cool and the most thoughtful gift I have ever gotten from a captain before. Well, erm, the only gift I've gotten from a captain before. Gaaah, I miss him soooo much already, he was soo cool Captain Lovejoy!" As she offered the PaDD to Rin to look it over, she took another bite of the delicious cake.

"You think your godkids would like something like this to play with? I could modify it for other characters and they could have fun making their own things with it."

"I...have no idea what they like."

"You should ask them then! What are their ages?" Myne asked.

Rin sighed. "Myne, they're *adults*. It was 34 years ago. Even without the maturation chambers, they would still be adults now."

"Sooo? Just because they are adults it shouldn't mean that they are not open to you know, exploring their more youthful side. I know I do still love things that remind me of a more innocent time." Myne replied with a warm smile.

"Ok, you asked about ages. I thought you were assuming they were children." Rin paused in thought. "I don't know how they would take it. On one side, they never had a childhood, and it might give them a chance to experience it. On the other, it might have no nostalgic value and remind them of that fact. They've also probably struggled to get others to take them seriously as adults. So I think maybe hold off on it, although I appreciate the gesture, truly. I have no idea what I'm doing."

"I did, didn't I? Sorry, my head is scattered in a million pieces. But yeah, if they never did have a childhood, this is your chance of offering them some of the experience of one at least. It doesn't have anything to do with nostalgia, but with a novel experience. Being an adult is so boring and awful Rin. You should encourage them in retaining a small piece of childish wonder, or foster it in them. As for having no idea, welcome to my world! I am always walking blind!"

"So what can we do to make adulthood less boring and awful for you?"

"For me? You don't need to worry about that." Myne paused and suddenly a very mischievous grin formed on her lips. "Unless, you let me take a peek at your intel database on the crew? I think I can get up to quite some shenanigans if I knew people's dirty little secrets. Could spice up the Super Garrett show with lots of new characters based off of that."

Rin's face grew serious. "Want boring and awful? Try a court martial."

Rin was pretty sure that was Redal rather than Myne talking, but she didn't know what else she could do about it. One of these days Redal was going to get themselves in a world of trouble, and Myne was going to go down with it.

"Do not ask me that again," Rin added.

The two looked at each other a long, awkward moment before Myne sort of shrugged it off and Rin sighed in exasperation. This was Myne's birthday. She didn't want an argument.

"Uh, more cake?" Rin offered.