round 8 Ensign Ceilidh Riverview - "What is family?"

[Toni]

ooc-I'm back. RL had to take priority, but I wanted to read what everyone posted. RL is still a but fuddled, but getting better. Thankfully our CO is wonderful and understanding. This is just a post bringing Ceilidh up to speed. Hope it's okay.
 

(( Embassy Beach Area))

 

Riverview...life in recent review

 

::Ceilidh sat at the edge where the grass turns into sand and stared at the water. The slow ebb and flow of the waves as they touched the shore and then retreated held her captive. Time here at the Embassy seemed to be a fickle thing, never really keeping a predictable rhythm. At times, moments passed by as quickly as one blinked, while at others, they seemed to take hours for a single nanosecond of time to pass. The only constant seemed to be the patterns of the waves as they washed up against shore. It was this that kept Ceilidh feeling in sync with the world she now inhabited. The people here also kept her attention, as she tried to understand each one. Coming from a large family, people always assumed that she was quite at ease in large crowds, but the truth be told, she was anything but. Ceilidh appreciated her time alone, her imagination her true source of comfort and confidence. Perhaps that is why she always seemed to just...what was it? Drop from reality as often as she did. Now, sitting here close to the shore with people interacting on the beach, she questioned if perhaps her own comfort within her imagination was truly a blessing of Kerlia, or a curse.

 

Whether curse or blessing, Ceilidh’s mind drifted with the breeze deep within her and tried to fit various pieces of information with the faces and names she was beginning to become familiar with. Your crew was to be your family she remembered some commander muttering one day while she was a cadet in the academy. She never really fully understood that, nor did she want to. She had a family, it was back on Kerelia where it was supposed to be. Those on the ship she would work with would simply be her crew mates, not family. Oh how she had kept that rational of thinking all this time, even up until now. The idea that her shipmates would become her family was an uncomfortable notion for her. Her family was constant, whereas her assignments were not. The idea of constantly starting a new family over and over again was unbearable. Every day Ceilidh was forced to acknowledge and live with the reality that part of her family had been taken from her, and that no amount of wanting them back would ever make it happen. She mourned for the other two who she never got to know. Was retreating into her imagination a way to conjure up what they might have been like?

 

Frazier

Stelin

T’Lea

 

These were individuals she had gotten to know since she had arrived on the Embassy, but could she call them family? Wasn’t family something that was comfortable, familiar?  She had worked with them, even interacted with them off duty in a social setting, but that was it. Would she invite them over to just ‘relax’ and talk together the way she used to back home with her brothers and sisters?

 

Toni

Waltas

 

These two flustered Ceilidh and how opposite at times they seemed to be, then the next in perfect sync. They reminded her of the winds just before a storm would hit shore back home. One moment a north wind would swoop in bringing cold air, the next, a western wind would dash in from just off the coast and clash against the north. Moments later, they would seemingly become one and create magnificent fierce storms. But when they got out of unison, heaven beware, for the depths of their emotions were unbridled and fiercely opposing each other.

 

Her new commanding officer and spouse reminded her of those winds. She wasn’t certain if she should be frightened of them, wary, or simply accept the current situation. She had seen them both socially - at their wedding -  and then on duty when things got haywire. One a loving parent who provided the best examples of what to remember in life; while the other was split in two, each child at the opposing ends, yet it was easy to see they truly were one before life forced them to grow up.  Glancing momentarily from the waves to the prints in the sand at the edge of the water, Ceilidh had to ask herself if she was comfortable referring to them as her family? After all, wouldn’t the commanding officer typically be seen as the head of the family? If so, was this the type of family Ceilidh was comfortable having? Her own parents always seemed to be in such harmony, even when at opposite sides. Could she ever get to a point of comfort where she would refer to them as family?

 

Irena

 

Ceilidh’s aunt was a woman renowned for her passion and joy of life and her temper. She didn’t hesitate to enjoy life and include those around her in experiencing life with her, no matter how embarrassing it might be. Yet, cross her path or her family, and there was no shadow you could hide in where she wouldn’t track you down. If Ceilidh had to call anyone family at the Embassy, it would be Irena. She reminded her of her aunt, and to her, it was a comforting thought, and one she doubted her Aunt Maude would actually mind. This small thought produced a small spark in Ceilidhs memory, as if a wick was finally being lit after such a long time dormant and unused.

 

The warm winds slowly dying down brought Ceilidh out of her thoughts and back into the present. Looking around, she noticed that in the span of 5 minutes the beach had filled up with much of the crew and that people were starting to drift to the left to form some type of assembly. Standing up, Ceilidh dusted off the sand from the crinkles of her clothes and joined the group. There were still so many faces she didn’t recognize, but hopefully over the course of the next while she would become familiar with them. Perhaps it was time to take her eldest brothers’ advice and create her own family where she was, and to not be afraid that if she created a new one that her original family would be forgotten or ignored. It was what their parents had hoped for, that as they got older, they would create their own lives and live them to the fullest. It wasn’t until recently that Ceilidh was starting to understand this. Sure, she had moved away from home, but family had always been there, just back on Kerelia. Yet this had left her lonely, and a sense of emptiness that never seemed to be filled.  With understanding comes new challenges...this time to think in new terms of what the term family meant. Ceilidh desperately needed family...heck, everyone did.

 

Turning to face her commanding officer, she hushed as the crowd was addressed. Apparently this was to be a celebration of awards, ribbons and promotions being handed out amongs the crew. Each was fitting, especially the promotions. It was nice to see the crew being recognized by Star Fleet command for their service to the Federation. When her own name was called, not once, but twice, Ceilidh blushed, and honestly didn’t feel that she deserved either  of the Ribbons she received. Back in her small spot, she looked over the two and felt the material between her fingers. The ribbons were small, and the material was smooth underneath and course on the front. The Explorer’s ribbon with its hues of blue and yellows, and it’s capital E in the middle, reminded her of her time on the Invicta and those she had served with.  The War of Shadows Blockbuster ribbon with it’s brilliant emerald green and single star held her gaze much longer. Emeralds reminded her of home, and perhaps it was fitting that she was now receiving here, on her new home, with her new family.

 

As the presentation ended and the music and food were served up, the introvert within tried to rear it’s head once again. But Ceilidh wasn’t having any of that this time. If this was to be her new family...and she desperately needed one, then she would have to work through her uncomfortable and awkward silence and interact with others...for longer than 2 minutes.

 

Talk about a challenge.::

En. Ceilidh Riverview
Diplomatic Attaché
Duronis II Embassy - USS Thunder-A

ID number: C239209CR0