The Japanese and the Irish

Posted on Tue Jun 23rd, 2020 @ 12:35am by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:19pm

Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Various - USS Pandora
Timeline: Current

A Mission Post by Lieutenant Cailus Griffin
Mission: Death in Paradise
Location: Various - USS Pandora
Timeline: Current
Tue Oct 30th, 2018 @ 11:38pm

“I want to meet her.”

The declaration by the stern, older Japanese man on the monitor made Cailus frown. He crossed his arms, glaring. “Tatsuo, I remember well what your great grandfather did to me when I was engaged to your great aunt. You will not do the same to Shae. I will not permit it.”

Unfortunately, Tatsuo Suzuki was every bit equal to Cailus’ angry glare, responding with disgruntlement. “Cailus, if you are to be wed to this woman, than I would meet her. To see for myself. You are family to us, and should this wedding go ahead, she shall be also. It is only proper.”

Cailus’ glare only grew more furious. “Should this wedding go ahead?” he said quietly, scowling. “Shae and I are getting married. Nothing can change that. Nothing.”

They remained silent for a moment more, both glaring at each other across hundreds of lightyears, before Tatsuo finally relented. “My ancestor must’ve been truly brutal for you to be so afraid.”

“He was an excellent father-in-law and grandfather to Victoire,” Cailus said, still glaring, “but yes, the man put me through hell before he was satisfied that I would be a good husband to Harriet. Shae has no obligation to endure the same treatment.”

Tatsuo nodded, his wrinkled old face softening fractionally. “Then I vow to you, on my word of honour, that I shall be courteous to your fiance. Truly, Cailus, I would like to meet this woman, but not to test her. I am curious. My wife and my children were very fond of her and her daughter when you visited our residence on Mars. It is, I should think, not an unreasonable request.”

Even so, Cailus’s glare remained, before after a few seconds it finally broke. With a resigned sigh, he reluctantly nodded his assent.

I hope that I don’t regret this.



“I’m nervous, what if he doesn’t like me?” Shae asked as she and Aoife and Cailus walked to the holodeck. Yesterday, Cailus had told her about how his great nephew, Tatsuo, wanted to meet her before the wedding, and now the holodeck connection was just about ready for this meeting. But with each step they took, Shae grew more worried because Cailus had warned her that Tatsuo could be a bit of an arse, even more so than Cailus himself on his grumpiest of days.

“Everybody likes you,” Cailus resassured her as they entered the turbolift, even if privately, he was still extremely reticent. He looked down at Aoife, who for whatever reason, had chosen to latch onto his hand today. She was getting stronger all the time, choosing to walk more and more, although she still required an adult’s hand to keep her balanced and upright. “Isn’t that right, Aoife? Everybody likes Mama, don’t they?”

“Yeah!” Aoife said with excitement. Shae smiled down at Aoife, her heart lightened by the child’s innocent exuberance.

“Okay,” Shae said, trying her best to put on a brave face. “After all, I won you over, so how hard can it be?” she said to Cailus. They rounded a corner where they saw a tech making some adjustments to the holodeck, and Shae stopped in front of the great doors with a heavy sigh. “Alright, here I go, wish me luck!”

“Good luck, Mama!” Aoife said cheerfully, then looked up at Cailus. “Play now, Papa?”

Cailus frowned down at Aoife in bemusement. “You aren’t shy about what you want, are you?” Looking back up at Shae, he reached out to squeeze her shoulder, sighing. “Really, Shae, if he becomes too abrasive or frustrating, then you can just walk out. You have no obligation to tolerate the man. Hell, I changed his father’s diapers once upon a time. He has no position to judge you.” Glancing at the holodeck tech, who was courteously ignoring them, Cailus leaned down to give Shae a quick peck on the lips. “Just be yourself, love. That’s all you need to be.”

Shae giggled at the thought of Cailus changing Tatsuo’s father’s diapers; that really did help put things into perspective! “Will do,” Shae replied, then looked to the tech. “Is it ready?” she asked.

“Good to go,” the tech replied, then closed up the panel he had been working in and picked up his tools.

“Alright, and have fun you two,” Shae said with a wave to Cailus and Aoife, hearing Aoife saying “Play, Papa, play!” as she entered the holodeck.

The doors closed behind Shae to reveal the bland, black-and-yellow walls of the holodeck. It was utterly silent for a moment save for Shae’s breathing, but within seconds, everything around Shae transformed into a familiar setting: the living room of the Suzuki home on Mars. It had to be a recreation, since technological constraints ensured that Tatsuo could only be communicating from another holodeck on Mars, but the recreation was uncanny in its resemblance. The sky outside the window was a burnt orange, filtered through a protective atmospheric dome, while a small vegetable garden could be discerned just outside.

Tatsuo himself popped into existence a moment later, on the other side of room. The man was smartly dressed in some sort of black robe, and he looked around the facsimile of his home with approval before seeing Shae. “Miss Brennan,” he said politely, bowing briefly. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you.”

“Commander Suzuki,” Shae greated in return, bowing slightly as well; Cailus had told her that Tatsuo retired after the war, that he was now a civilian Engineer working at Utopia Planitia, but she still wanted to show respect for the rank he once held. “I’m sorry we didn’t get a chance to meet in person when Cailus and I visited Earth, but duty called.”

“Yes, I quite understand,” Tatsuo said stiffly. He was plainly not in his element with such politeness. He looked around before spotting a tea set waiting on the table, and he gestured at the couch as he sat down in a comfortable armchair. “Would you care to join me for tea?”

“Thank you,” Shae replied, then perched herself daintily on a couch cushion with her hands folded neatly in her lap. “I, uh, just want you to know-” Shae started uneasily as Tatsuo poured the tea for them both, “I- I’ve never tried to supplant Cailus’ memories of your great aunt. He still misses her deeply, and I’ve tried to respect the connection they shared by keeping her memory alive. Pictures of Harriet and Victoire are mingled with pictures of us in our quarters, and even my daughter knows who they are,” she revealed softly.

Tatsuo made an unintelligible sound as he set aside the teapot, looking up at his guest. “That’s good,” he said gruffly. “Family is important. I am glad to see that you understand this.”

“I do,” Shae said with a small smile, graciously accepting a cup of tea when it was offered to her. “I hope I haven’t upset you by speaking of your aunt like that,” she said with an apologetic tone.

“No, no, not at all,” Tatsuo replied dismissively as he sipped his tea. “I assure you, young lady, I am not so ill-tempered as my wife would have you believe. You need not be so concerned of offense. If I disapproved, then you would know.”

Shae laughed nervously, not wanting to admit aloud that his wife wasn’t the only one who thought he was a bit of an arse; this was going to be a long afternoon…

A while later, as he watched Aoife start her speech therapy with Rebekah in the ship’s daycare, Cailus’ combadge chirped. “=/\=Griffin here,” he said sharply after tapping his badge. While technically off-duty with Aoife, he was always ready to respond to the call of duty at any time of day, all part and parcel of service aboard a starship.

“=/\=Cailus, this is Sophia. Have you heard from Tatsuo or Shae yet?”

Cailus frowned, crossing his arms as he watched Rebekah patiently try to teach Aoife the alphabet. “=/\=No.” He paused, realising what Sophia meant, especially since she wouldn’t contact him in such a manner across hundreds of lightyears on a whim. “You can’t possibly mean that they’re still in there? It’s been nearly two hours. Our holodeck time here is nearly done.”

“=/\=That is exactly what I’m saying,” Sophia replied with a tone of worry, although her voice carried the steel that a rear admiral could bring to bear. “=/\=I just called the holosuite and they say that Tatsuo hasn’t left yet. I’m on my way there now, but I want you to check on Shae too.”

Cailus winced. “=/\=On my way, I’ll meet you in the program. Griffin out.” With that, he moved forward, crouching down to where Aoife and Rebekah were sitting on the floor. “I need to go, but I’ll be back soon,” he said quietly to the nurse before looking at Aoife with a smile. “Keep at it, little one. Mama and I will want to hear everything you’ve learned when we get home tonight.”

Aoife responded by blowing raspberries at Cailus, then laughing wildly. Rebekah rolled her eyes at Aoife’s antics.

“I’ll bring her home when we’re done,” Rebekah said, then returned her attention to the lessons.

Yet when Cailus arrived at the holodeck and stepped through the doors, for all his concern, he saw nothing to be worried about. The program was still running, having deposited Cailus in the living room of the Suzuki house, but neither Shae nor Tatsuo were there. They had clearly had tea, but that was all that could be deciphered. Moments later Sophia strolled out of thin air into the room, clad like Cailus in her Starfleet uniform.

“Where are they?” she asked him, perplexed as she looked round. “He had better not have broken Shae down, or I swear, I will have his head.”

“I’ll be damned if I know,” Cailus replied, similarly befuddled and worried. “Honestly, Sophia, if I were you, I’d be more worried about your spouse than mine. Shae doesn’t break easily.”

But the practice swords in the sparring hall certainly broke easily enough. In this small addition to the house where Tatsuo practiced his swordsmanship, broken bokuto were strewn about, and Shae and Tatsuo sat on a pair of cushions on the floor with several bottles between them, most of them now empty. The air smelled heavy of beer and warm sake, and was filled with the sound of Japanese drinking songs. Shae didn’t know what she was singing, she was simply following along phonetically, but when the song came to an end, Tatsuo called out ‘Kanpai!’ and they both drank, and then it was Shae’s turn to add a drinking song to their repertoire, this one an old irish reel about a girl with loose morals. They both looked more than a little roughed up, but were in good spirits, or at the very least full of good spirits.

A cursory question to the computer was enough to find the wayward souls, although when Cailus and Sophia finally reached the sparring room, neither of them could quite believe their eyes.

“What the HELL!?” Sophia exclaimed loudly in horror as she walked in, her mouth agape as she beheld her bedraggled husband and guest as well as the mess they’d made of the place.
“Hey Sophia!” Tatsuo called back to her drunkenly, grinning lopsidedly as he raised a half-full sake bottle in salute. “Wanna join us? ‘Cos I tell ya, I approve of this’hun.”

“I made a new friend!” Shae declared to Cailus with a wide grin. “Come celebrate with us!” she invited the two sober newcomers.

After they reached the two happy drinkers, standing above them, Sophia looked at Cailus in utter bewilderment.

“Don’t look at me,” Cailus said, equally stumped, although he couldn’t help an amused smile as he looked back down at Shae and Tatsuo. “Ah...you deal with yours, I’ll deal with mine. It’s not too far from the holodeck to our quarters.”

Sophia facepalmed, although even she chuckled under her breath. “For you, sure, but I need to cross half the city with this idiot.” When Tatsuo unleashed a mighty belch, she laughed out loud, although it was unquestionably a laugh of exasperation. “How? I don’t even understand. How?”

“What happens in the dojo stays in the dojo,” Shae said in a hushed tone as though it was some grand secret. “Seriously, you’re not gonna come celebrate with us? Thought you wanted us to get along?” Her speech was slurring more and more with each passing minute.

With a sigh, Cailus crouched down, grinning despite himself. “And you have, Shae, brilliantly. But we really need to get home now. Our holodeck time is nearly up, and you need to get to bed.”

“Owai, bed!” Tatsuo shouted merrily, waving his arms in the air. “You’ve got babies to makes! Time for you to get to bed and get started, eh?” Then, just to make things even worse, he leered at his increasingly embarrassed wife. “Oh, how about you and me, Soph? A bit of the old 1-2 style, get another baby in ya belly!”

Shae blushed crimson, but giggled, the laughter building up until she fell over. “Oops,” she said, still giggling.

“I am going to kill him,” Sophia hissed under her breath, glaring daggers at her husband, who was busy laughing at Shae’s lack of balance. Furious, she stormed to a wall, which after some quick verbal commands, transformed into a control station. The admiral’s hands flew for a good minute or so over the controls before she turned, smiling in dark triumph.

“This is what you get,” she declared to Tatsuo before tapping a control, and just like that, he vanished in a flurry of blue sparks. Without stopping for breath, Sophia tapped her combadge. “=/\=Azul to the Suzuki house computer. Activate the shower for five minutes, ten degrees centigrade, immediately.”

“Oooh, that’s just wrong!” Shae declared still laying on the wooden floor, shivering at the thought of such a cold shower. “Remind me to never piss you off.”

Sophia rolled her eyes, looking to Cailus. “We’ll talk tomorrow about...this. I’m sorry, Cailus. Good luck with her.” And then she strode away, plainly still furious.

Cailus, for his part, was grinning throughout the entire affair, save for a sympathetic wince for Tatsuo’s plight. Sophia’s vengeance was somewhat overblown, he thought privately. Harriet had been every bit as ruthless as Sophia, perhaps even more so, but she had been as patient with her husband’s rare excesses as Cailus had been with hers. Still, he reasoned, it wasn’t any of his business.

Moreover, Cailus had another wife to focus on, and so he gently guided Shae back up into a sitting position. “There we go,” he said he eased her up, before swiftly plucking a bottle out of Shae’s hands. “Time to go home, love.”

Shae pouted. “Aww, but we were having so much fun!” she whined, not wanting to leave so soon, even though her new playmate was already gone. Although the change in position and her subsequent belch did remind her that she was hungry. “Can we stop by the Box on the way home? I wanna see what Huyo made as her special tonight, I’m starving!

Wincing at Shae’s rather loud (and pungent) belch, Cailus sighed. “You’re lucky that you’re so adorable,” he said wryly. “I promise, as soon as we get home, I’ll get you some dinner. Come on, now, time to go.”

With that, he carefully wrapped an arm around Shae’s back, hooking it around her. After a three-count, he heaved Shae up onto her feet, still supporting her weight.

“Mmm, after so much sake, I want sushi!” Shae declared as she wobbled on her paws. “But no wasabi! No, no wasabi…” As long as it was real wasabi, she could tolerate it in small amounts, but replicator wasabi was simply too ‘sharp’ a taste on her sensitive tongue. “Then maybe we can go make us a baby like Tatsuo said?” she said with a giggle, clearly forgetting for the moment that it would be at least another week before Cailus’ monthly injection cleared his system.

“Sure, Shae,” Cailus reassured her, chuckling quietly as they hobbled out of the holodeck even if he privately winced at the thought of kissing Shae, as she did tend to get very affectionate when inebriated. Beloved or not, engaged or not, Cailus wasn’t going anywhere near her mouth until Shae brushed her teeth.