Sending Off
Posted on 09 Sep 2024 @ 7:56pm by Chief Petty Officer Ibis Xeri & Olivia Winetrout & Major Porter Wallace
Mission:
M4 - Falling Out
1208 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure
It was strange. Perpetually strange, to have no ocean, no wind, no sky full of clouds and stars. No sand on bare feet. Shoes that went all the way around your toes and heels and had to be strapped and tied. Clothes made of weirdly woven thin fibers.
Ibis had picked the clothes. She’d said, “You can wear the shorts and the sports bra– under these,” and then handed her something like pants and a shirt. The pants weren’t fitted to her the way that Ibis chose to wear pants. They were cuffed partway up the calf and kind of loose and baggy. Ibis had called them harem pants. But when Olivia had asked what ‘harem’ was, Ibis just handed her the shirt. It was a loose sleeveless shirt. “So you can see your new ink. And remember.”
She’d wanted to throw the clothes back at her, but before she could figure out something mean enough to say, Ibis had pulled out a long knotted cord and got to whispering again, forcing Olivia to focus and lean in. It was so irritating. “This used to be mine. My mother brought my old jewelry box. I wore this to a photoshoot when we took headshots. It was this whole nature theme, and I kind of liked how the pictures turned out. But I have never worn it since. I think you should have it.”
Dumbstruck by the gift, Olivia had stood, fingering the silken cord with the various mishappen pearls, gnarled bits of driftwood, and polished pieces of shells.
“They’re all from Earth, your mother’s homeworld,” Ibis had added in an attempt to make the necklace more personal to Olivia, tying the ocean theme to her mother’s history.
Ibis had reached her arms around Olivia to show her how to wrap the strand around and change the length the way she wanted to. “It should go nicely with your Korinn chains. You’re layering, see?” She had stood back from Olivia and given her a smile. But Olivia had thought Ibis looked like she was about to cry. She always looked like she was about to cry. Ever since they left Korix. Olivia wondered if Ibis actually missed the Island and was just being stubborn and trying to pretend like she didn’t. Especially seeing as it was her and Wallace that had been so set on leaving. She was just confusing.
“Now,” Ibis had continued in her maddeningly small voice. “You probably aren’t going to want to wear a jacket or a coat. I understand. But it can get surprisingly chilly in classrooms, especially if there are any Andorian students or faculty adjusting the environmental settings. So I asked my friend Moon to make you a shrug. It’s not a whole sweater. Just baggy sleeves. They go on like this…”
Ibis had pulled them around her, wrapping them in the middle and creating a slouchy look which she called “bohemian, kind of tribal.” and went into how the fibers were a mix of a kelp from some place called Pacifica and of Bajoran silk, whatever that was, so it had both a soft and crunchy look in the weave; Ibis proceeded to show how the sleeves could be adjusted above or below the elbow, before she stripped it off, turned it right side out again and handed it to Olivia.
Not wanting to gratify Ibis and seem too eager to pull on this genuinely fascinating thing, she decided she would just carry it, and maybe put it on after Ibis left her...
Wallace and Ibis had told her ahead that they planned to walk her to her new school and leave her with the new teachers. Olivia’s belly had twisted like a fish on a hook at the idea: both thrilled and terrified. She’d kept that feeling to herself. She didn’t want Wallace to think she was scared.
She stood there briefly, staring at the twisting lines etched forever into her arm. The Tides of Change.
Presently, she looked up from the design. hey had walked and taken turbolift cars and gotten to the right place. Although Olivia was ashamed that she didn't actually know her way there, and so, wouldn't know her way back. But she didn't want to tell Wallace that, so she kept it to herself.
To her left was Ibis, Wallace on her right, and ahead of her towered a big, double wide, extra tall door frame leading into a brightly lit tunnel full of people. Humanoid, mostly, walking around and talking and laughing and shouting. Her curiosity ran hot in her veins at all of the potential friends while her stomach ran cold with all the ways she might be rejected or misunderstood by these humanoid pups.
Barely paying attention, Olivia couldn’t entirely hear Ibis with the way she’d gotten to whispering things and the busy noise of the students filing around and past them to go inside. She didn't even know how long she'd been talking, if you could call it that.
“ – just remember that.”
It was all Olivia had managed to hear as Ibis straightened the girl’s sleeves and preened at her clothes, before handing her two pads and a fancy looking little stick thing. Remember what, Oliva wondered? She blinked, blankly.
“That’s a good thing to keep in mind,” Wallace grunted, but he smiled toward Ibis. He was glad she was handling this change; she was struggling a little in that department lately. Then he slipped an arm around Olivia’s shoulders and gave her a half hug. He bent down to whisper in her ear, “Not for nothing, but this is a big first step. Your mom and dad would be proud. Do your best and we’ll see you when you get out.”
As she broke away and started towards the tunneling passageway, Wallace’s words prompted her imagination. Olivia tried to picture her mother and the recordings of the man in the remembering padd who had been her father. Uncertain what exactly they might look like here and now, Olivia checked back over her shoulder… knowing she wouldn’t actually see her parents but some how reflexively wanting to find the Winetrouts there.
Instead it was just as she knew they would be: Wallace had his arm around Ibis– Wallace looking tall and sure, and Ibis still looking like she might burst into tears. That was what it looked like for them, being proud, she supposed.
Picking up her pace again, Olivia moved further into this whole new realm called school. All her life for as long as she could remember, she had wanted to join a school. Even knowing that it wasn’t actually the same thing as joining your training and sleeping pod like an actual Korinn would when they left the nursery pod, it still ran through her like a thrill anyway, the very word: school. She was entering a school.
And she promptly forgot about Ibis and Wallace standing there. For all she knew or cared, they’d be in that same spot all day.
She was on a new adventure all her own.
