Welcome to Gaia! ::

Finley was wandering the ship today. He wanted to become more familiar with his surroundings. But besides that, he had another objective. And that was to ‘casually’ bump into Mister Argent. After all, Argent had mentioned taking Fin along on a gathering mission. And as nervous as adults still made Finley, he was still eager to learn!

It kind of made him excited to think maybe he could prove himself to the older genomes! As he made his way through the halls, he became lost in thought, trying to figure out how to best impress his superiors AND learn a lot at the same time. He wasn’t really paying attention any more to where he was going and pretty soon he almost collided with someone. Luckily there was no impact as the other genome caught Finley in time. Fin was a bit startled. Though the warm hand on his shoulder, and the voice saying ‘hey’ now had his full attention.

“Huh?” There was a pretty handsome young genome staring at him. One Finley didn’t recognize. “OH! Sorry about that!” he said, offering an apology. “I was just caught up looking for Mr. Argent,” he admitted. “Are you new around here?” he asked, curious. He was getting better at talking with others now. It was much easier than when he had first started out.

Finley tilted his head in confusion as the boy before him gave a snort of amusement. Had he said something funny? But the boy seemed to recover and compose himself, so Finley didn’t ask.

“R-red?” he blushed a little, his cheeks matching his hair. This was the first nickname anyone has given him. Sure, he had told Kanja he could call him ‘Fin’, but this was a bit different and it caught him by surprise. He didn’t really mind though.

He cleared his throat and tried to calmly reply, “Oh! Uhh yes I’ve been around awhile I guess. And um, to answer your question, Mister Argent said he would take me gathering with him one day!” He couldn’t really hide the excitement in his voice. He figured it was a pretty big deal. It wasn’t everyday he got to go exploring with one of the adults. “So..do you know him?” he asked, assuming he did, or had at least heard of Argent before, since he had asked Fin why he was looking for him in the first place.

“I thought maybe he forgot, so I was kind of hoping to bump into him so I could ask,” Finley went on to admit. Though really it hadn’t been that long since the swimming party. He was probably just being eager.

"Oh, but I didn't catch your name," he added, realizing he should probably introduce himself too. "I'm Finley," he replied, curious to see if the boy would still call him Red. He secretly kind of hoped he did. It was unique and kinda cool in his opinion.

When Dema draped his arm over his shoulders, Fin found his cheeks still matched his hair. Maybe even more so now than before.

“Well I guess that’s true…” he began. He didn’t really NEED Argent to go out and explore and gather herbs. He just figured Argent would know more about what they were gathering and all the best spots for locating the edible stuff; which Finley in turn could use in new recipes. But it might be kind of fun to go on an adventure and discover things for himself. It was pretty tempting.

And now Dema was suggesting he take the lead! “Err well, I suppose I do know a few gathering spots that have quite a variety of herbs. I could show you..., I mean if you want to, that is.” It was true he knew of a couple spots that were relatively easy to get to, and near the ship. He began to feel a little more confident and puffed out his chest a bit. “Yeah, I can take you there!”

As Dema began to talk about Argent, and having met him a few times, Finley couldn’t help but agree that he was definitely a cool dude. “Yeah, he IS pretty awesome!” Fin said in agreement. “But I think we can find stuff on our own too.” He wondered if maybe, just maybe, going out and helping Dema would impress Argent. This could be a chance for Fin to prove himself!

If Fin had been even the slightest bit indecisive about going with Dema, he was now practically convinced it was the best idea ever. Not only that, but there was something about him that pulled Fin to follow him. Maybe it was those mischievous glittering eyes of his. He nodded and followed after him, repeating his name as he did so. “Dema. It’s nice to meet you! I’d be happy to go gathering with you!” He nodded and followed his new acquaintance. Once they were outside, Finley would lead the way.

The herb on the cliff sounded a bit dangerous to get to. Thankfully Dema had said he was looking for tangy herbs in the woods. But spicy herbs? Now those sounded even better! Finley had never tasted anything spicy before. But supposedly ‘hot’ foods were good according to the books he’d read. Though it might be an acquired taste. Nonetheless, he wanted to try them.

“Ah yeah, actually I do plan on eating them. Perhaps you can show me where the spicy stuff is? I like cooking. Or at least trying to. Sometimes my recipes don’t always turn out so great.” He made a funny face, remembering a time or two that he had accidentally put too much of an ingredient in, or left an ingredient out, or even substituted an ingredient that didn’t belong.

“But I’ve been writing everything down, so I don’t make the same mistake more than once. My friend suggested that I have a journal for that. I thought it was a pretty good idea too!”

He moved along, heading towards the stretch of trees nearby. “By the way, do you like cooking?” he asked. He was just venturing a guess that maybe Dema also liked to cook since he was looking for tangy herbs. That would be a wonderful coincidence if he did.

It made Finley happy to hear that Dema thought cooking was pretty neat. He didn’t know that Argent also dabbled in cooking. He just knew that he gathered edible herbs. That was super cool to learn that he had something in common with someone he admired!

Finley smiled at Dema’s determination to help out Argent. “That’s great of you to assist him! I bet he really appreciates it! He’s lucky to have you around!” He knew what it was like to want to be helpful. He felt a connection there; like they had similar goals.

“Well now that you mention it, I do use my journal for listing items I’ve found too. But I also have a separate paper where I mark down the locations of things so it’s easier to find again the next time I need it. It’s slowly becoming a pretty complicated map I suppose. It’d probably be easier if I had a compass. I’ve heard those are handy for finding your way. Especially if you get lost.”

Finley couldn’t help but feel a little lonely when Dema removed his arm from his shoulder. He kind of liked the closeness. But his attention immediately turned from his empty shoulder to the last thing Dema had said. “Dad? ...Wait….you mean THE Argent is your father?!” he exclaimed in surprise. “W-wow! I wasn’t expecting that!”

“Oh!” he quickly added, “But I’m sure you’ll be a great cook one day! I bet your dad will teach you all kinds of stuff!” He tried his best to recover from this shocking new information. He figured he probably sounded goofy after calling him ‘the’ Argent. Hopefully he didn’t sound too silly.

Finley stammered a moment. “O-oh,” he began, unsure of what the difference between father and dad was exactly. But if Dema said there was a difference he assumed it was so. Maybe someone could explain it a little better to him at some point. He still wasn’t entirely sure he understood how new genomes were created when two other genomes loved each other. Just that it involved Mother somehow. Maybe he would ask one of the adults how it worked.

When Dema mentioned that he thought it was ‘cute’ how Finley was talking about Argent, the young genome blushed again. He hoped he wouldn’t inevitably end up being weird; especially now that Dema had brought it to his attention. And in response to his comment, Finley found himself saying, “I-I’ll try not to be too weird. I promise!” He offered Dema a sincere nod with his hand over his heart as if he were making a vow. He really wanted to be friends after all so he hoped he hadn’t mis-stepped or anything.

“That’s cool that you’re able to help your parents out, and spend time with them. That must be nice.” He wondered what it would be like to have parents around. He didn’t have opportunities to cook with Mother or anything so he could only imagine what having a family was like. For a brief second he felt a little empty. But Dema quickly snapped him out of it when he mentioned that Finely could maybe come cook with his family. “Thank you for the offer! I’d really like that!” he said, a smile forming on his face.

“I’d never considered the possibility of being a cook for a job before. But that actually sounds like a really neat idea!” He seemed to be in deep thought for a moment. “And that could really help the other genomes and natives!” It was like a lightbulb had gone off in his head. He was really considering this now as he followed Dema over the big log.

“Ah yes, I drew the map myself. I don’t know if it’s very good. But it’s accurate to the best of my ability,” he explained. He wondered if Dema had any interesting hobbies like drawing maps too. He was curious, so he asked a question. “So if you could pick any job, what sort of occupation would you choose?” He hoped Dema’s answer would give a hint as to his interests.

Finley could just barely see a blush creep onto Dema’s cheeks. He wasn’t sure exactly why, but it made his heart skip a beat. He quite honestly liked that look on his face. It was cute! He wouldn’t mind seeing Dema do that more often.

Smiling, he nodded. He could understand how Dema was not his Dad or his Father. You could be similar, sure. But that didn’t make you exactly the same. Finley actually liked to think that every individual was different, or rather ‘special’ to be exact. Unique and wondrous, all at the same time. Created by Mother to be themselves. He told Dema this, even though he figured he might sound a bit silly. Once he voiced his feelings, he ended his little speech with the comment, “You should be you.~”

He then paused a moment, realizing that what he said was pretty profound. “Ermm sorry that sounded way more serious than it needed to be.” His face reddened.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is, I think it’s pretty cool just being yourself.”

Listening to Dema talk about his family, Finley could see the look in his eyes and hear the tone of his voice filled with love and respect for them. He thought that was wonderful.

Arriving at a large log, Dema had taken Fin’s hand to help him through the boggy area. Finley felt that warmth again. His heart sped up a bit, if only briefly until Dema let go. He kind of wanted him to touch him again. He was a little embarrassed at his own thoughts, not fully understanding why. As much as he wanted to say something about it, he felt he shouldn’t bring it up. At least not now. He didn’t want to weird out his new friend. But maybe he could hold Dema’s hand again later. If he could work up the courage to ask.

He shook the thought from his mind, and went back to the current conversation. He was encouraged by Dema’s words, to pursue cooking. “I would love to work on new recipes and help out your Dad. Together we could probably get a lot more done, and provide lots of tasty food for the colony. It would be great to be able to feed everyone all sorts of different things instead of rations all the time.” They were definitely in agreement on that.

“Ooo, I bet you would make a great healer,” Finley replied. “It would be nice to have more around. I can’t tell you how many times I had to go to the sick bay when I first started out cooking, and ate things I shouldn’t have. Heh. But with nobody really working I was pretty much on my own. More importantly though, I bet you could take care of more serious medical issues too! I’d feel much better knowing someone was around to take care of me if I ever got hurt.” He gave a wise nod. “I bet the others would feel better too.”