healing hands and meditation

[ethnobotany]

WHO: Beverly Crusher
WHERE: around House #15, the hospital, wandering around town
WHEN: April 10th
OPEN TO: ALL
WARNINGS: TBD, will update as needed
STATUS: Open

---

Beverly has been a resident of this tiny little village for less than a month and she wouldn't be able to say that she has settled in by any stretch of the imagination. By now she has claimed an empty house and is starting to figure out a routine, the latter of which is by far the only real settling she's actually done since she got here. The last thing she wants to do is get complacent here. Not that she really thinks she can, given how much she misses the Enterprise's crew already.

So today starts out as normal. She hunts for herbs that might be around to stockpile or use. Naturally, she can't help muttering about wanting several others that don't grow here. The supply on Caldos had been much better than this one, even on Arvada III during that disaster. Still, it's better than nothing and she knows better than to complain too loudly. If Q really is involved, he might take that as a challenge.

About mid-morning sees her cleaning her new house as best she can. She might be from a very, very distant future than most of the people and equipment here, but that doesn't mean she can't get down and dirty. Every so often she takes a break outside, looking around the property for a good place to think about starting a garden.

After she's had enough cleaning, she takes to wandering the village. She pays a special visit to the hospital, to check up on which of her colleagues is around and catch up with them, as well as the fountain, too see if there's anyone who might need to get pulled out of the water.

Late in the day, closer towards evening, she can be found out by her house again practicing Mok'bara, which looks like some kind of intricate and very slow full-body dance. It's not much of a dance and if anyone tries to interrupt her physically, she may or may not slide into using the techniques she's practicing as they were intended: as martial arts.

Comments

[ethnobotany]

On the plus side, Beverly's attempt at meditation doesn't get interrupted. That's always helpful. On the down side, she's not really managing enough of what the meditation is supposed to be doing for her. She feels off balance and nothing is really helping. No matter how hard she tries to focus, she can't quite manage to line up the right feel. Maybe that's the problem; she's hyper-focusing. So, after another minute or so, she huffs out an annoyed breath of air and finally opens her eyes.

Only to find that she has an observer. It's enough to make her feel a little self-conscious, though not by much. Still, she offers a small smile as she pushes some of her hair back. "Everything all right?" she calls just in case there's something else that this woman might need rather than interest in what she's doing.

[goldsteins]

Tina can't help but look a little sheepish at being caught, but it wasn't as if she was hiding it either. At least there was the excuse here that the woman's home was right next door to he own (which wasn't much of one since she was heading back that way as it were). The younger woman shakes her head quickly, smoothing out her features from the quizzical look she had worn moments prior.

"It's fine," she responded curtly, letting out an exhale of her own, "I've never seen anyone doing waht you are s'all. Sorry, I'll just head inside." The words fall all too quickly, there's still certain curiosity in her tone-- But she's hardly going to remain and make the woman (or herself) feel anymore self-conscious than she does. It's not as if she hasn't seen plenty of odd things.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly waves off the apology easily. This woman hadn't interrupted her, so it's easier to get over the idea of having been watched. At least Mok'bara is soothing. Not as soothing as if she had been caught gardening, but it's better than some things she could have been doing.

"It's all right. You don't have to go." More because Beverly is often far too friendly for her own good. She sees no reason to shoo off the other woman too soon. As if to punctuate that thought, she steps forward and offers a hand to shake. "Beverly Crusher. I was trying to meditate, I guess, but it wasn't working too well."

[goldsteins]

Tina's far too unused to the ease-going way people seemed to have about people here. Something like this would be brushed past and forgotten within moments in the city, by wizard and no-maj alike. It's a friendliness she always felt was reserved for her sister so the mild surprise that crosses her features isn't too unexpected.

She tucked her hair behind her hair before stepping forward and grasping the offered hand. "Tina Goldstein," She responded evenly, her nose scrunching up in thought about meditation. "Meditation wouldn't work for me even on a good day," she commented with some humor, "but I always thought it didn't involve moving." Then again, she knew very little about that at all.

[ethnobotany]

"You never know until you try," Beverly points out with good humor. "Sometimes it takes a while before you start to see any kind of result and even then it isn't always easy to find." Sometimes she still has trouble with it, depending on where her head is on any one given day.

Her smile turns a little bit wry. "The type I was practicing is more to relax your mind so your reflexes are sharper, but sometimes I just use it to take the edge off my mind. It's not really working well today, but that happens and it's always worth trying." Even if Worf would likely have a few choice words for her about it by now.

[goldsteins]

"Unfortunately, I don't usually have enough time for something like that," She returned, giving a roll of her shoulders. Time off wasn't something she gave herself, at least her idea of relaxation was reading a book and she rarely gave herself time for that.

Her brows furrowed and Beverly earned a short laugh. "I can't imagine why," She offered. Even after a few weeks here she's still not at all comfortable and has heard the same for those who had been here a few months longer. "It'll come to you."

[ethnobotany]

Beverly has known enough workaholics in her lifetime, and served under plenty of the Starfleet variety, to be able to at least suspect when she's run into another one. For a second she just watches the other woman. The signs are there and the roll of her shoulders says enough as to the state of the woman's 'relaxation' efforts.

"Don't have time... or don't make time?" she prods gently. Between Jean-Luc and Worf, Beverly has had her fair share of prodding people into taking shore leave and rest breaks when they need it.

"It will," she agrees. "Maybe later, after I've had some time to focus on something else. If I had a good book, I'd be reading." Or pruning a plant or working on a cybernetics paper or any number of things she can't actually do here.

[goldsteins]

Tina's brows knit in answer before they're matched with a shake of her head. "No time," She answered evenly, "it's not that bad." She enjoyed her work, after all, that and taking care of the house had always been first and foremost.

She managed to look somewhat more amused at the mention of doing with a book being helpful and she can't help but agree. "Books appear to be priceless commodities around here," Tina mused, with the tineist huffs of a laugh.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly isn't sure she believes that fully, but for now she'll let it go. They don't know each other nearly well enough for her to feel comfortable pushing that particular issue just yet.

"So I can tell," Beverly replies wryly. "It hasn't been easy to get used to. I'm guessing you're used to having more than can be found here, too?"

Though, to be fair, she's leaving off the part where books, actual books with paper and ink, are something of a priceless treasure in her time. Most records are kept on computers now, leaving a lot of books for archaeologists and collectors like Jean-Luc. There's a reason he has a large book in a glass case in his ready room.

[goldsteins]

"There's more than enough books and case files to read, yeah," She responded ruefully. As odd as her sister might have thought her for it she did enjoy reading the casefiles she had from the Major Investigations department. Maybe not her work from the Wand Permit office, but she'd settled and organized that far more than her sister managed.

She shrugged her shoulders before continuing, "I've managed to get some papers and ink but that's it so far as I have. I'm starting to get the feeling we should just write our own books, but I'm neither that desperate or creative. Yet, anyway."

[ethnobotany]

Books and case files suggests law enforcement of some kind. Police or lawyer, Beverly isn't sure yet. But it's interesting what simple word choice will show. Beverly's own often belies a military background and people wouldn't be wrong to assume that about her.

"We could always start writing what we already know," Beverly suggests, thinking back to Helen's idea of writing up a medical journal. "Sometimes it's nice to have reference material. Not exactly the best for reading yourself, but that's where lending comes in."

[goldsteins]

"I'm afraid my areas aren't going to be of any particular interests to those outside of myself," Tina remarked warily. Most of what she would have to say are things that could be read by the villagers here even if she learned to get on with some of them. The things she documented about here, certainly, but too much of her life remained a secret.

Tina shook her head, settling on peering beyond the woman's shoulder as her lips formed a thin line. "Almost wonder what anyone here before had against books of all things," She added lightly.

[ethnobotany]

"You never know until you try," Beverly says easily, hoping to go for the encouraging angle. This woman really does seem to take after so many Starfleet officers she knows, particularly certain captains. Getting her to understand how to relax will be difficult.

"Or maybe it wasn't them," she points out carefully. "Maybe it was whoever brought us here. The people who lived here might have enjoyed books just as much as we do, but books have knowledge. Power. Those who have power over us might not want to share it."

It's a bit of a scary thought, something that one might not think she, of all people, would point out. Beverly might be an idealist, but she understands the way things work, even if she doesn't particularly like it. This seems like just the sort of thing a powerful enemy might think of.

[goldsteins]

"No, I know," Tina answered sharply, voice rising some. It's met with a wince that become something of an apologetic grimace. "Trust me. There isn't anything I can say that'd be of any interest." Well, it might be of interest to people, but what she knows is purely of her world. Their secrets aren't ones she really wants to share even here-- She may not hate No-Majs but that didn't mean she wanted them to know everything. It went against every principle she knew.

She tucked a strand of hair away, the creases on her forehead deepening. The other woman is not wrong, of course, they've already made so many of them powerless compared to what they were before. It was difficult enough to find any books on dealing with the environment here, though she knew some existed in the school house.

"It's a possibility," She conceeds with a shake of her head, "though I'm not necessarily certain I believe children's books would provide much in the way of a revolt." The Wizard's Flapping Cape, after all, had always been a silly bedtime story more than anything thought provoking. Even the Tales of the Bard, though interesting, were not a cause to draw from to try and escape.

[ethnobotany]

Beverly doesn't really believe that, but given Tina's insistence, she decides this isn't something she really wants to press. So she lets the topic go and focuses on the rest of their topic.

"Maybe not for you, but it might for someone else," she points out instead. "You never know what someone else's perspective might pick up from something simple like that. Some of our children's stories were very educational."

Of course she's thinking more along the lines of holoprograms than books, but they equate out to about the same thing. They're stories that teach lessons and most children seem to really enjoy them.

"Besides, it's hard to say one way or the other what someone in charge of a place like this might or might not approve of," she continues with a shrug. "Something doesn't have to be educational to be banned, just something they don't like, for whatever reason."