Death and Sushi

Posted on Sun Feb 10th, 2019 @ 6:44pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Death

Mission: Earthly Visitation
Location: Death's Chambers. Deck 8
Timeline: 2396

Walking down the corridors of Deck 8, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox was a little nervous. Nervous was, of course, her natural state. But in this instance it was because she was on her way to meet with Death. Not an abstract, metaphorical concept, but the literal manifestation of Death itself, currently taking up residence in guarded and shielded VIP quarters on board the U.S.S. Hera. Underneath Dox's arm was a small covered tray of Sushi she had prepared by the officer's mess just in case the ships replicators hadn't quite gotten the delicacy right.

It was just days ago that Death was still unnaturally bonded to the Baroness Schwein von Alcott. It was a bonding began over a month ago, causing the both of them to become corrupted and dark. But after a pitched conflict involving the ships other resident Deity, the Goddess Hera and the God of Thunder Thor, the two were separated and Death appeared to be herself again. A self that Dox found to be quite a lovely person.

As she approached Death's quarters, she stopped to address the two security guards stationed outside by the new head of security, Commander Rita Paris. The pair of gold clad young women stood at strict attention and looked more than capable of handling any threat that came to that door. However, this was not an unannounced visit and Dox and her care package of Sushi were expected. The taller of the two security officers was a human woman, a solid 6 inches taller than Dox and had broad shoulders and short cropped brown hair. "Good evening, Lieutenant."

The security officer didn't smile or break attention, but it was a pleasant greeting, nonetheless. Dox replied to the two ladies. "Thank you Ensign Jenkins." Then nodded to the other woman, a slightly shorter young Bajoran. "Ensign Nayarr."

Then Dox addressed the door. "Computer, unseal hatch of VIP quarters number 14. Authorization Dox, M. Lieutenant. Access code 795-X9E." With a chirp, the computer replied. =^=What is you Mother's House Name?=^=

Replying, Dox answered. "House t'Aan." With another chirp, the door slid open with a woosh and the security officers stepped to the side. Dox nodded as she stepped in, "Thank you."

Stopping to stand at the entrance as the door hissed shut behind her, she introduced herself as Death was waiting across the room. "Azreal? It's Mnhei'sahe."

The entity of Death, now that she was back to her old self and not having the influence of a forced bond, the Puppetmaster, or being chased by angry yakuza spirits, was relaxing in meditation, having laid down a spirit sand pit in the middle of the quarters she'd been assigned and hovering over them in a cross-legged Buddha pose as she used her reaper sight to study the nature of life and death across the universe.

At the sound of entry, she came back to herself and opened her eyes and smiled. "Mnhei'sahe? Hey! How are you doing?"

Glad to see her friend back to normal, Dox smiled back warmly. "I'm good, thank you. I wanted to come and see how you were doing. And I come bearing gifts." She held the covered tray up high.

The pale woman's eyes went wide. "Is that sushi?" Pulling an ornate glass bottle out of her coat, she uncapped it and sucked all the spirit sand back into it before lowering her feet back to the floor and tucking the bottle back away. "I haven't had good sushi in... ah... I guess it's been at least three hundred years. When a puffer fish chef challenged me to a duel."

Tilting her head slightly as she watched the unusual display, Dox smiled a quirky little half grin. Such displays that were fantasy to the red-headed Romulan pilot we're becoming almost expected the longer she served on the Hera.

"Yeah. I asked the chef in the officers mess make some real stuff. I didn't know if the replicators would do it justice, thought I admit I have no metric as I've never had it before. So, I hope it's good." Dox laid the tray down and uncovered it to reveal a colorful display of the small rolled fish and rice treats, with a set of chopsticks and a container of sauce.

"How are you recovering? Has your memories filled back in? Dox asked with authentic concern. After the initial separation, Death was extremely disoriented and her memories of the time in which she was bonded to Schwein seemed spotty at best.

Death looked over the delicious tray appreciatively and expertly picked up a set of chopsticks. "I believe so, for the most part. I... Have some amends to make... And some apologies... Not the least of which is to you." Poking Dox in the sternum with the chopsticks, she continued. "You now carry with you a burden you wouldn't otherwise have because of me. You and Schwein von Alcott both."

"Well, I have a lot of help carrying burdens, these days, so I'll be okay. But I appreciate it, thank you. As for making amends, in regards to me, you don't have to do anything." Dox smiled as she spoke, still standing at the table.

"What happened to bond you to Schwein was unnatural, as I understand it. As a result, the longer the two of you were connected, the more the effect changed you both. As a result, none of us were quite ourselves. So, don't worry about me in that regard. I can't say, regarding Schwein, however."

"And then there's that Angel in Gold..." Picking up one of the pieces of sushi, Death poked it in her mouth and chewed, purring as she savored the flavors. "Oh, I love eel... Is this from Rigel?"

The anxious aviatrix smiled, happy that her offering was being well received. "I actually didn't, ask. I just deferred to the chef and asked them to make the best variety of sushi they could come up with. But I'm glad you're enjoying it."

Moving back to Death's previous comment, Dox thought for a second before continuing. "Commander Paris still can't see or hear you, so I can do my best to relay any messages you'd like."

The pale woman munched on another piece as she spoke, her chopsticks waving in the air. "Then please relay to her that I can't read her timeline. When she passes it's going to have to be one pretty traumatic festival. I'm guessing she's not from this universe and another Death is supposed to be responsible for her but is no longer connected."

"I'll tell her, thank you." Dox smiled, watching her enjoying the sushi. She reminded herself to try some the next time she was in the officers mess as it smelled quite good. "Has the room been okay? Is there anything else I can get for you the next time I stop by?"

"The room is fine. Please bring more food though. There's no one feeding me in this place and it's not like I can walk down to the nearest convenience store and snag something." Picking up one of the fancy tuna sushi, she dipped it in the soy sauce and noshed on it like a starving woman at an all you can eat banquet.

"Absolutely. I can always stop in when I'm not on duty. In the meantime, you... uh... I didn't think about it, but does the replicators not respond for you? As she spoke, Dox thought that Death might simply be looking for some company and she was still standing at the table in 'officer' mode.

Dox gestured to the chair opposite. "Do you mind?"

The pale woman gesticulated at the chair as if she'd forgotten about them even existing. "Please! I am sooo sorry. I'm so used to no one seeing me unless they're about to die... Do you want some uh..." She looked around for something she could offer her guest. "Chair? I have chair and table to offer... And what's a replicator?"

"Uh, it's okay." Dox chuckled every so slightly. "I'm awful at socializing, so I tend not to know how to do this either."

Dox walked over to the replicator in the wall behind them, called up the on-screen menu and pushed the button for a hot tea and seconds later, a hot tea materialized. "It responds to verbal commands, but the screen interface might work better if it can't hear you. But from this menu, it can create pretty much anything you might want to eat or drink."

Dox picked up her tea and took a sip. "Would you like something to drink? It doesn't do alcohol, by the way. Only synthol, which tastes... close... but won't get you drunk."

With a tempura sushi hovering millimeters from her mouth, Death stared at the magic hole in the wall like she'd seen a ghost. "That thing... Makes food? Can it make a virgin bellini? I don't really drink but I do like virgin cocktails."

"Absolutely. You just press the button on the menu, which opens up these sub menus until you find was your looking for." Dox stood to the side so Death could watch her. It was slower then just speaking your request out loud, but likely would work better for her. A few seconds later, a virgin Bellini appeared in a shimmer of light.

Walking to the table, Dox placed the drinks on the table and sat down. As she sat down, she began to realize that this woman wasn't exactly the same woman she had met before as the Death that was linked to Schwein liked her drink. A trait likely mirrored from the Pirate Baroness. "Hope you like it. And yeah, the Replicator can make anything, but I'm still happy to come and bring food, if that's okay with you."

Taking a sip of the replicated drink, the pale woman wasn't sure if she should be reviled by it or amazed. "Well, it's obviously rearranged molecules... but impressively so." Sliding into the seat in front of the sushi tray, she slid another into her mouth and chewed. "I have to admit, it's nice to be able to talk with someone that I'm not about to kill. I wouldn't mind some company now and then."

"I'm glad to." Dox replied earnestly. Of all the friends she had made since boarding the Hera, this might be the most unusual, but as she thought, her face shifted to a slightly more thoughtful expression.

"When I woke up in the Sickbay... a few weeks back. When you were sitting at the end of my bed. I know I was really still out of it, so I only kind of remember everything. But, I don't know If I said 'thank you'. So, thank you."

"That event I do remember well. And you're welcome. It wasn't your time so I helped make sure you stayed right where you belonged. I think a few other forces would have had it out for me if I had done anything else, anyway." Nomming on a salmon sushi, Death started almost purring as she scooped up a bit of ginger and wasabi.

Slightly chucking, Dox replied to the slightly cryptic comment. "I do not think I want to know what that means. But I'm glad you're liking the sushi. The officers mess actually cooks food the old fashioned way, so I can grab you something else on my way when I stop in next time. What do you like?"

"Pasta and meat, mostly. Though I haven't had a good wet sub sandwich in ages. I am going to gain so much weight here. My horse is going to be pissed..." The pale woman stuffed another piece of sushi in her mouth and washed it down. "Ugh... Sea urchin... Delicious, but it's definitely an acquired taste that I never acquired..."

"Ha! Well, I'll do what I can." Dox laughed out loud. "Great, I'm going to go down in galactic history as the fat girl that fattened up Death."

Death could only give a snorting laugh at that. "I wouldn't feel too bad. I'm about a tenth of my predecessor, a fat mongoloid man. Well... Technically... Everyone sees something different, but that's who he was. Like me, I'm betting you see me as a familiar Romulan woman? I'm actually Japanese. I killed my predecessor when I was about to slice my neck open in the ah... Eighth century, I think? He walked in, skull peering out of his robes and a scythe in one hand, casually looking at some sort of timepiece and without even thinking, I sliced open his throat instead."

"You never forget the first soul you reap..." Sighing heavily, she poked another piece of sushi into her mouth.

"Wait... so you were... a mortal human once? This is a... job?" Dox sat back in her chair, mildly shocked by the matter-of-fact revelation. "I'm sorry if I'm prying, but what happened? He came to you when you were going to... kill yourself?"

"Yeah..." The pale woman set down her chopsticks and a bit of a shadow crossed her face. "The smallpox epidemic wiped out so many, including my parents and most of our household... Then the Fujiwara no Hirotsugu Rebellion took the rest of my family... I had nothing left and the government was likely going to execute me for my husband's involvement with the rebellion so I was going to try to do the honorable thing."

"Then the current Death came in before I actually committed the act, which is a big mistake. Never do that because that's a good way to lose your job. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I sliced his neck open, and the rest... Well... I guess is history."

The young Romulan was taken aback. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry. I can't even imagine."

Then Doc's face went quizzical again. "So... none of the names you told me sounded Japanese. If you don't mind me asking, what was your name before?"

Death just shrugged it off and finished her drink. "Couldn't tell you. Don't remember it. None of the others like me remember their prior names either, though we all have memories of those lives."

Hanging her head slightly, Dox suddenly felt extremely sad for her friend. While it wasn't exactly the same thing, she herself had only learned what her true name was just months ago now, so the idea hit a little close to home for the anxious young Romulan.

"I am sorry. I know there's nothing I can do, but... if you ever want to just talk about it... I can listen." Dox smiled and shook her head empathetically. "Also, Asa's subbing as ships Counselor and they're really good. And they can totally see and here you too, so you can have two sets of ears at your disposal." She added, trying to lighten the mood.

The pale woman just shrugged it off. "After this long you get used to a few things like only having names that mortals remember as you. I suppose if someone alive remembered who I was before I became Death, I might know that name too, but... Oh well." Not bothered by it, she popped another piece of sushi into her gaping maw.

While Death seemed nonplussed, Dox made a mental note of each detail given of a sixteen hundred year old human life for future reference. But it was clear to the young woman the her strange friend didn't seem to care to dwell on her former life. "Fair enough. But consider the offer an open standing one. Anytime."

"Is that really the sort of thing you're interested in? You don't want to ask about the kinds of people I've reaped or the places I've been?" Death asked right before stuffing the last piece of sushi into her mouth. "Mmmm... spider crab..."

"I'm not not interested in any of that, per say. I mean, I'm sure you've been pretty much everywhere." Dox leaned on her elbows onto the table slightly. "But I'm more interested in you as an individual.

"Like it or not, I think of you as a friend. And I like to know more about my friends. What interests them, entertains then, and what bothers them. That's all." Dox grinned as she spoke. "But I'm also good talking about whatever you'd like as well. I certainly don't want my questions to be the thing that bothers you."

The pale woman set aside her chopsticks and leaned in, studying Dox's face curiously. "Are a lot of modern girls like you? Talking about honest feelings and things like that? I find that fascinating because for the longest time, people seemed to talk about nothing but other people. Some would talk about things like inventions and objects... But now and then you'd find someone that would speak highly of ideals. Some of my favorites were those. Like this Vulcan guy... A follower of Surak. Only person to beat me fair and square in a game and all he wanted was enough time to finish his masterpiece and make preparations for his death, which I helped him do."

Laughing slightly, Dox replied. "I really don't know what 'modern girls' do. My best friends are a woman from over a hundred years in the past and a genderless El Aurian. But, yeah. We all tend to want to know what what's going on in our friends lives."

The pale woman just leaned back in her chair and chuckled softly, a soft smile gracing her features. "Fair enough. So I've never had a friend before. At least not one that wasn't either doing a job as similarly demanding to mine, at least. What kind of things should we talk about?"

Relaxing a bit more, Dox relaxed back in her chair as she spoke. "Well, usually we avoid talking about work off hours and try to focus on stuff like personal interests. Like, you were meditating, it looked like, when I arrived. Is that something you enjoy doing when your not on the proverbial job?"

"Actually, that's part of my job... That meditation, I can see across and through the entire universe." Not explaining further, Death just sat there for a few moments before asking something of her own, something she wouldn't know the answer to by reading the timeline floating above Dox's head. "So uh... What are your feelings on that Hera lady?"

Thinking on it for a moment, Dox replied. "I don't know, really. I mean, she appeared to me as some sort of... beacon when I was beamed into space. We only really talked the once a couple of days ago. I know she and Commander Paris are friends." Dox chuckled slightly. "I honestly couldn't tell if she liked me or not."

"Do you plan on visiting her again then?" Death asked curiously. "She seems like a nice person, after all."

"Yeah, I think so. I'd like to get to know her better." Dox replied.

"That's good. More connections means more resources to draw on later in life." The pale woman smiled and looked into her empty glass. "So... This replicator thing... Let's see if I can figure it out on my own." Standing, she headed over to the magic hole in the wall and set her glass inside and started pushing buttons. Sometimes they responded to her and sometimes the screen just went haywire and had to reset itself. After a minute of this, she just gave up and tried speaking to it. "Computer, virgin bellini. Virgin... Bellini... Vir... Gin... Bell... Ini..." Eventually, the replicator started cycling and spit out a bowl of Cardassian porridge...

"Hnave..." Dox cursed under her breath in Rihan as she stood up and walked over to stand next to death at the replicator. "I hoped that push button interface would work better. The sensors can detect you, but not with enough precision to work effectively." Dox pushed the bowl aside. "Computer, virgin Bellini."

After a second, the drink materialized. "Well, I can set up a menu program for you that will generate set items in a schedule for when I'm on duty for breakfast and lunch. But otherwise, it looks like you'll be having company with your dinners if you don't mind." Dox smiled somewhat awkwardly, hoping the inconvenience wasn't too much.

"I'm used to not eating that often, so it's not that big of a deal. One meal every few days is more than enough for me." Tapping at the controls a bit more, she finally got it to produce something again... This time it was a bowl of feline supplement 47 with strawberries... "Well doesn't that look appetizing..."

Taking her virgin bellini, she just returned to the table and sat back down. "I'll just have to rely on others since this place doesn't like me either."

Sitting back down across from her, Dox felt terrible at the situation. "I'm really sorry about this."

"It's fine. These things happen." Death sipped at her drink and relaxed, brushing it off as she considered dropping a landmine. "The life of a pseudo-ghost. So what do you normally do for dinner? Anyone special you go on dates with?"

Immediately, Dox began to blush as she took a sip of her tea. It had been a few weeks since she had begun realizing she had feelings for her Miradonian flight assistant, Mona Gonadie but she had yet to say anything. "Me? Uh... dates? Yeah, no. Usually I just eat alone in my quarters. Sometimes I go to Ten-Forward or the officers mess, though."

"So are you going to tell her then?" the pale woman pressed.

At which Dox inadvertently snorted tea up her nose as death spoke. Coughing for a second, Dox looked across the table with a slightly goofy, flustered expression as she rambled out an answer of sorts. "Uh... her? What? Her who? No... I mean... I dunno... Maybe... What?"

"Sorry, I read it in your timeline. Your Miradonian friend." Death grinned wider. "Are you going to tell her or not?"

Realizing that pretending she didn't know what Death was talking about was clearly pointless, Dox scrunched her face slightly. "I... I guess. I just.... I made an ass of myself the last time we..." She knew she was rambling and so slowed down and started over.

"We work in the same department, and a few weeks ago I kinda realized that I... liked her... ya' know. But it was at the same time I was going through my first... well... um... I mean..." As she started rambling nervously again, she flipped her head down onto the table. "Ugh... I was horny. I was aggressively horny and apparently I was projecting frickin' pheremomes across the room. Mona... her name is Mona... picked up on it and was flirting. But I don't know if she was just messing with me or not and I'm too scared to ask and find out."

"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?" The pale woman sipped at her drink. "The way I see it, you could potentially make your work environment awkward or regret not saying anything. You have to decide which one you'd rather live with."

Raising her head off of the table Dox moaned. "Work's already awkward since my little fawning session. I'm just being a coward. I know it."

The aspect of Death giggled softly. "Then what do you have to lose?"

"Ugh... nothing, I suppose. Surely not my dignity. That warped out of here a while ago." Dox flumped back in in her chair and took a drink of her tea. "I just have no idea how to do it. Seriously. I have... I have no idea what I'm doing."

Death leaned in and took Dox's hand in one of her gloved hands. "You walk up to her, take her in your arms, and you tell her in the sultriest voice you can that you want to have a candlelit dinner with her, then make sweet, passionate love to her all night long. Simple as that."

Hanging her head, Dox sighed. "Me? I don't..." The young pilot trailed off as she thought. "She'd... She would just laugh at me. They... they always laugh."

"Has she ever laughed at anything you've said in seriousness?" Death pressed further, squeezing Dox's hand.

Rolling her eyes, Dox sighed. "No, but... I don't... people don't.... think of me like that."

Death leaned back in her chair and finished her drink. "Ah, you're right. Who am I to know of such things? I just watch people live their lives and help them pass on. You're right though. I don't know what people think. I can only read their timeline of actions through their life and even most of that isn't clear a lot of the time."

Sighing, Dox conceded defeat. "Point taken. I'll... I'll try. But... I do not have a 'sultry' voice to call upon." She laughed a light chuckle as she raised an eyebrow. "Candlelight dinner?"

"Just do your best. Be romantic." The pale woman winked reassuringly.

Chucking nervously, Dox replied. "Thanks. I will."