Thirty Days to be Mad

Posted on Mon Feb 22nd, 2021 @ 6:55pm by Ensign Duncan McManus & Ensign Elegy Nascimento

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: Machine / Fabrication Shop
Timeline: Day 158
Tags: Monthly Challenge
2081 words - 4.2 OF Standard Post Measure

McManus was covered from head to toe in metal dust and metal shards that stuck everywhere. His hands were covered in little cuts but he looked mightily pleased with himself as he took a step back and looked at the first phase of his off duty hours project. It was beautiful what could be made by someone determined to do a good deed and lift seventy people's morale out of scrap metal that was no good for anything. He turned quickly as someone opened the hatch and came in. The Scottish man offered a smile to the scientist. “Do not see you down here often?” He called hoping he sounded clear enough as he did not have his speech to text glasses on.

Stepping through the hatchway, Elegy Nascimento tapped the control panel on the bulkhead and it closed the hatch behind him. There was something tentative about the way he walked into the compartment. His flight suit had been freshly cleaned and the dust cloud further in was mighty thick. "I hope that doesn't mean," Elegy replied, "I've been neglecting our nascent friendship."

"Nah, man!" Duncan assured quietly moving out of the dust cloud and engaged to the extraction fan. "Just means you have a little more sense than most people than to be down here longer than is needed." He assured quickly wiping a hand through his long hair hoping the metal shards that were even stuck in his hair would eventually come out in the shower he was promising himself.

Any tenseness in Elegy's expression melted away at Dunan's reassurance. Elegy clasped his hands behind his back and ventured deeper into the compartment, having a nose about. "What are you building today?" Elegy asked, as his sapphire eyes drunk in the large machinery. The question may have sounded like a lead-in, but his gaze was all naked curiosity.

Duncan wondered if he should eat the man not to touch the machinery but he was smart and old enough to know better. “You do not recognise it?” Duncan wondered looking concerned that it was not recognisable from where the science officer stood. He had been working from sketches and images but he was sure he had the shape correct.

His head on a pivot, Elegy's attention had gone wandering around the compartment, drinking in every little detail he could see. That didn't last long. At Duncan's prompting, Elegy snapped his attention back to Duncan's creations. "It looks like a couple of ocarinas," Elegy said, and he practically sang the last word. Just saying those words out loud birthed a beaming grin across Elegy's features. Bouncing his gaze between the ocarinas and Duncan, Elegy's eyes came alight with great joy... and gratitude. Down on the workbench were a couple of metal creations that looked almost like amorphous phase-pistols with holes in them. "I never dreamed they'd be so beautiful," Elegy admitted.

"They are not completed yet but the body of them is perfect and they are a lot less fragile than ones I've seen or researched." He was proud of the scrap he had turned into something that would make a beautiful noise in the right hands. Just not his hands, he had tried to make something less ear shrieking and it had been awful. Even Darcy had nearly left and never come back over it. "You should be able to paint them however you want to as well once I've coated them in polymer to make sure they are sealed where they need to be."

Stepping closer to the workbench, Elegy flashed a grin at Duncan beside him before he extended a tentative hand towards one of the ocarinas. "I don't know how to thank you adequately," Elegy said. In the middle of the statement, his voice went hoarse momentarily, as he was overcome with emotion and then reigned in back in. "Do you know what these mean to me?" Elegy asked Duncan.

Duncan grew wide-eyed as mans voice grew hoarse and emotional. He had not expected any of those types of sentiments or anything like that. "You do not need to thank me. I did this because you are my friend and for the greater good of the ship. People need entertainment and in your hands, this will make something for everyone to enjoy. Even I might like it." He spoke quickly. "Do you need a hug?" Duncan finally wondered when the silence resumed after he stopped talking.

The feeling snuck up on him, like something serpentine coiling around his throat. Elegy had been basking in the genuine warmth of Duncan's generosity of time and spirit. He listened to Duncan's words and he didn't know what to say, until Duncan asked that question. He asked if Elegy needed a hug. And it wasn't until he asked it that Elegy realized he couldn't remember the last time he'd touched another human being. That thought in itself gave him shivers, made him start to well up.

Elegy had been speaking with his hands, looking around at the workshop, and his body went very still all of a sudden. His voice was almost lifeless when he answered Duncan's question. "My husband has been ill for a few years," Elegy said, breathlessly. Although he had been looking at Duncan, he ended up staring into the middle distance. "He was stable when we left Earth, but he's been very ill. I had to step away from Starfleet for a while to watch over him. I couldn't bear the thought he might--" Elegy stopped, and he took a breath sharply, and he started again. He looked Duncan in this eye once again. "Caring for Paulo is truly the only good thing I've ever done. I didn't always get it right and it was hard and it left me with static in my head at the end of the day," Elegy said.

"Music is the only--" Elegy said, sweeping a hand at an ocarina, "But this is the only thing that’s made the last three years bearable."

Duncan did not know what to say so he stayed quiet letting the man talk and spill. He had never been in a relationship like that where he was relied on that much so he did not have the first idea of the strain it must have caused him. Once words stopped Duncan stepped forward and gave his offered hug wether the man wanted it or not. It was nothing more than a quick squeeze before he stepped back again deciding words were finally needed. “I am sorry that you are going through that now. It must be hard knowing we are here and he is there. Why have you not said anything before now Elegy?” Duncan wondered. “Music is a release for a lot of people. I love loud pumping music much to one of my neighbour’s hatred.” Mattias did not mind the noise at all but Margery hated it no matter the level he played it at.

Wrapping his arms around Duncan's mid-back, Elegy welcomed the hug greedily. When Duncan took a step back, Elegy took a couple of breaths to compose himself. Truly, the intensity of emotion that ran through him had surprised even Elegy himself. At Duncan's question about why Elegy hadn't spoken much of Paulo in their months shared aboard Atlantis, Elegy winced diffidently and he looked away. "It's been too heavy to put into words," Elegy admitted. He nodded at his own statement and he looked at Duncan, looked right at him. "I didn't know you that well, when I first came aboard," Elegy said. "And since we were hurled to the wrong end of the quadrant, I think I've been in denial. I wanted to believe we would still get back to Earth on schedule... somehow..."

Duncan smiled slightly and squeezed the man's shoulder before fully moving away from him to pick up one of the instruments. The engineer couldn’t fathom why the man had not said anything to anyone but he had his reasons and that was enough for him. You did not push people into things like talking in his family, you waited for them to come to you. “So I’m guessing you’re no longer in denial?” He wondered holding out the instrument to Elegy.

"Uhhhm... Huh," was what Elegy vocalised at first, as he mentally struggled with Duncan's question. He accepted the ocarina between both hands and he looked down at it. "No, I don't think I can be sure of that," Elegy answered. "My mood has been awfully variable since we became stranded." --He narrowed his eyes and he shook his head-- "I thought it might get better once the Vrav stopped hunting us, but..." Trailing off, Elegy shrugged at Duncan. "Are you saying you've reached acceptance?" Elegy asked Duncan, almost sounding jealous. "You've settled into our isolation?"

It was a difficult question for Duncan to answer but finally he decided to nod truthfully. The man deserved the truth, his truth. He had come to accept the situation over two months ago. He had given himself 30 days to drink all the booze that he had before he sobered up and got on with the world and the new life they had. “Yes I did. 128 days ago. I gave myself thirty days to be mad, drunk and do whatever I wanted to attempt to make myself feel better about the situation. And then I let it go. It does not make me any different from anyone else. It is how I handle things. I give myself time to mourn then I find another way.”

With a lopsided smirk, Elegy remarked, "Maybe I need a month of drinking. Maybe that's what I need." --He shrugged and he passed the ocarina from one hand to another-- "Messy cry it all out. ...Although ...it would be easier with a colony full of tequila and lonely men."

Duncan nodded absently thinking about the hangovers he had dealt with. If he had any left he would have shared to try and lighten the mans load. “Will have to find some moonshine then my friend.” He would offered advice on men but he did not want to presume.

Leaning into the lighter tone of this conversation, Elegy crossed his arms over his chest, still clutching the ocarina in one hand. "We, sadly, haven't prioritized the reconstruction of the chemistry lab," Elegy said. He shook his head too. Any mourning in his tone was quickly evaporating into mischief. "Are you trying to tell me," Elegy asked, "that nobody's built a still in this here workshop?"

Duncan’s eyes grew wide as he looked at the scientist before breaking into a big grin. “That would be telling and I am the keeper of secrets. I am not the weak link.” He said grinning just as mischievously as Elegy was. He helped anyone who asked so he knew a lot more than was going on around the ship than most.

Lifting a hand to his own lips, Elegy mimed locking his mouth with a key. "I'll ask no more questions," Elegy promised. "But tell me," Elegy said, "what can I do to repay you, for the ocarinas, and maybe a bottle of moonshine? There must be something a lonely scientist can magic together to make your life easier?"

“Not that I can think on. We can IOU it until I think on something though I really do not need anything for these. The moonshine on the other hand I’ll have to ask my business partner.” Duncan grinned just a little before shrugging. He would have to talk to Billy and get back to the man. “You should really go to the rec room and just blast out and let loose with these things. I bet you would be less lonely.” He mused thoughtfully.

Nodding at Duncan's suggestion, Elegy said, "One is for Avira," speaking about the crew's Chief Medical Officer, Avira zh'Kenarh. "She asked me to teach her how to play an instrument, but I can hardly track down one for myself, let alone one to share. So you haven't only made one person happy; it's two."

“Well I guess this grinches heart has doubled then.” Duncan said with a grin. He was just happy that even the scraps from the Vrav attacks could be worked into something wonderful. Maybe he had found a new craft if they ever got home.