Word Choices

[tasha_yar]

To say her first home did not have weddings would be an understatement. Her second home with the Vulcan clan which took her in after that nightmare, like all Vulcan clans, arranged their marriages. Being human (and hopelessly illogical), she wasn't going to be subject to that.

So, please forgive her, Deanna. Tasha is going to be buzzing around her friend with all the enthusiasm of an anthropologist hummingbird. At least today, she bringing stories:

"So Data turns to all of them with this grin and says, 'Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing!' You mother practically burned a hole glaring at her food while still trying to smile!"

Comments

[tasha_yar]

"Sex. Sex is one thing I do understand," she says flatly. It's close to the tone she used when inspecting the weapons for her battle with Yareena. "Using it to cement alliances? I understand that as well."

With a blink, the tactician retreats.

"But connecting it with love?" She blows the bangs out of her eyes. "I don't know how it fits."

[2_worlds_1_woman]

Deanna looks thoughtful as she adjusts her skirt; she's found that wearing her uniform seems to make people more hesitant in counseling sessions, but she misses it and is considering going back to it.

"There are multiple elements to the ceremony, Tasha, and to both sex and love in general for Betazoids." And the most painful one she will deal with last, if she has to.

Deanna immediately feels guilty for the thought and continues explaining the one she thinks might be easiest for Tasha to grasp as a starting point. "Most Betazoids are telepathic, Tasha, and even empaths like me can communicate telepathically with other Betazoids, as well as--as with non-Betazoids with whom we've formed certain bonds. The bonds are...something perhaps best described as between special and sacred.

"The result is many Betazoids, especially those who rarely go offworld, pay little attention to the bodies and dress of those around them. Even those close to them. So on a certain level, nudity is a way of saying--and reminding all who are present at the wedding--that the bride and groom are actively, at least for those moments, taking in all parts of each other. Body and mind. And that the body that contains the mind is just as loved as the mind it houses."

[tasha_yar]

Her friend grows uncharacteristically quiet and still.

"That's new," she conceded.

Maybe not too new...

Did it all get out of hand because he'd been a whole other kind of attractive? One she couldn't use?

But you did. she reminds herself.

This snaps her back to the her and now. "It's not like you know Wyatt. Are you even attracted to him in any of those ways?" After she asks, she regrets it. Damn curiosity.

[2_worlds_1_woman]

This leads, potentially, to the question she's now suspecting will come.

But Deanna tries to be honest, and so she's silent for a few moments, trying to find the right answer. "In some ways I'm attracted to him, yes."

Despite her argument with Riker and her comments about loving Wyatt, too, though...

She tries to be honest. She doesn't always manage it.

"Physically I'm attracted to him. And we are comfortable with each other."

The words sound lame even to her.

"We do not...have one of the bonds I spoke of. Not the most ideal one, certainly, but--not any. Marriage alone won't fix that."