Karma - What Goes Around

Posted on Wed Feb 22nd, 2023 @ 5:15pm by Cooper O'Reilly & Daiyu & Zhang Quing

Mission: Home Sweet Wonderful Home
Location: Fortune's Echo - Daiyu's bunk
Timeline: November 16 - Early Morning

As the door opened, Cooper stepped inside and placed the tray he'd been carrying down on the small desk to the near side of the bunk. Toast, three mugs of tea, and covered separate bowls of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon and fresh tomatoes. Plates and cutlery to the side and some fruit - fresh apples and bananas - that Cooper was particularly looking forward to. It was one of the big joys of being planetside for a while after a long run in the Black.

"You two ladies need anything else?" He asked, leaning then against the far wall and regarding Daiyu and Zhang. "Mind if I stick around, or you want me to just come back in when you call?" Cooper was playing big brother to Daiyu and had been for a while - partly because Whit asked him to and partly because he wanted to. He wasn't exactly sure about Zhang-Daiyu combo yet, but figured Quing could handle herself if that need arose.

Quing nodded briefly to cooper to give him permission to stay if he so wished. It would not harm the conversation to be had, although her sense were concentrated on the young woman before her.

Daiyu paid Cooper no mind, either to his presence or his question. Her eyes were only for Quing.

"Tell me about karma," she said plainly. "Karma says people die and... that's it? They must die?"

Cooper smiled gruffly and opted to stay in the room for the moment. He ignored both women and gave all his attention to peeling back the skin of a bright yellow banana. This... this was going to be magical.

Quing gave Daiyu a gentle smile. "It is a bit more intricate than people must die. Karma would dictate that the actions of a person determines their fate. People die because their actions have brought them to that juncture in the cosmos. An action is an energy, just as we are energy. We cannot be destroyed or stopped, we merely change. Death is just a conduit for that change that we must all go through to arrive at out next stage of existence."

Quing lifted her mug of tea and took a sip savoring the taste. "What becomes of us in our next existence is also dependent upon our actions and what we manifest through our deeds and interactions with others. One can become so out of balance with the Verse that it is merciful and good to keep them from the horrors of the next existence they are creating for themselves."

"It is a mercy to kill bad men?" The concept made Daiyu turn pale. What if she was not a murderer? What if she was merciful? "A bad man died. Because of me. Does karma say I am bad too?"

Quietly, Coop savoured the freshness of his source of potassium, B6 and fibre and listened. "Sometimes people die because they need to be driven into the next stage of existence," he said with a quiet respect for said process and his personal part in it. "Sometimes a call is made by a higher power." He looked up from his banana then and regarded Quing. Daiyu's question was for the monk, not him.

"But how do we know?" Daiyu persisted.

Quing lowered her eyes, she spoke softly, "It is not always a matter of knowing. As you strive to become in harmony with the Verse, the time to act comes to you. You must be patient. We are not called upon to right a wrong, we are to adjust that which is out of Harmony. There is not a good or a bad... for you or your actions. The question is do you stand in the way of the harmonious flow of the Verse. If not all is well... if you do, you must... adjust."

For Daiyu, the words were both confusing and profound, liberating and captivating. It made a perfect kind of sense regardless of her ability to understand it. "Yes..." she whispered at length. "A man terrorized her and then she removed his face. Another man tried to penetrate her and she removed his innards from chest to pelvis. But..." Emotion clouded her mind, filling her eyes with tears. "... another man tried to love her and she tore his throat out. How... how does she adjust?"

Addressing herself in the third person indicated a level of detachment due to trauma the poor girl was dealing with, not to mention the violent pattern to the examples she explained. Quing gently touched Daiyu's hand. "What has been done is done. Pain and guilt are merely guideposts as you adjust your self to be more in harmony with the Verse. You must let go of yourself and surrender all things to the flow of the Verse. In time, as you draw closer, you will find that horrors of the past are only steps on your journey to enlightenment. It is not easy. I have been a monk since I was a child and I am not in perfect harmony, but I know I bend with the flow and it makes everything alright."

All of that sounded terribly confusing but still somehow encouraging. "So I do nothing?" Daiyu asked at length. "I did small things at the Monastery like tend to the vines and... and... and I can't remember anything before that. Maybe I need a new monastery?"

"For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief," intoned Cooper with a quiet certainty. "Your word, Lord, is a lamp for my feet and a light for my path."

Quing shot a sidelong look at the man. "Doing nothing isn't exactly true. The journey to enlightenment is one of purposeful self examination and removing yourself from the material impulses that entangle you. The flow of the Verse carries you in its current where it will. What you will need, you will find. But to get to that point you must surrender yourself to the Verse."

"I don't think it's materials that bind me..." Daiyu presented her empty palms. "I have nothing..."

At the sideways look, Cooper raised his eyebrows and maintained a stalwart, calm expression. Their paths were different, as many before them, but they each sought to bring Daiyu comfort and regardless of the journey undertaken, the Shepherd believed that inner enlightenment was never impossible, if one desired it. If one worked towards it. He again spoke softly, and steered from using the Lord's name this time out of respect for the mutual support they offered despite their differing points of view. "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past," he said. "These things others have done unto you are the burdens you now bear, the entanglements you carry with you in your present."

"But... forgetting doesn't seem to help," Daiyu said. "Sometimes I cry or yell or... want to do things... and I don't know why because remembering is hard... and when I try it makes me forget more... and then I do things that I don't remember doing and... and..." She began to weep into her hands.

Words vanished in the moment the young woman started to cry, and like the proverbial big brother, Cooper abandoned tea, conversation and ceremony and wrapped a long, muscular arm about Daiyu's shoulders. His stern face regarded their new security addition, an enigmatic look in his eyes, but he said nothing. Daiyu's current situation was a recipe cooked through her unknown past, though bits and pieces of that history rose and fell like unpredictable tides. He had no means to 'fix' that any more than Quing did, but still, here they were, actually giving a crap on at least two levels he could see.

Finally, he simply said, his words quietly pensive.

"You're not alone," Cooper said. "And these things take time. We'll figure it out together, mei mei."

Daiyu shook her head, tears still trailing down her cheeks. "No. I don't want to figure it out. I want karma. I want harmony. I want to flow with the universe. Anything to stop feeling this way and... and just be happy!"

Coop looked to Quing and raised an eyebrow. "Pretty sure you get karma whether you want it or not," he said, gaze and tone questionning this if the lil fighting lady wanted to leap in ay any point. "Harmony and happiness are a lil more complicated." He sighed, not with any weight behind it, but simply out of a need to expel air in a thoughtful manner, then added. "Mebee start with the lil things," the big man said. "Like what would make you happy for a minute or too right now. And then work your way up from there?"

"I could do that," Daiyu said, "but when I act impulsively, people yell at me."

He chuckled despite himself. "Yeah," Coop noted. "I hear ya on that one. Mebbee start in private, or give a friendly warning if you're gonna do something unexpected near other folks? Sometimes when they don't know what you or I are about to do, some folks have a tendency to get all worried and freaked out."

A very guilty look came over Daiyu's face. She was visibly challenged by some sort of dilemma. "If I did something wrong, I should confess it, right? I did it in private... but now I feel so ashamed." She reached under her pillow and retrieved a bundle of cloth which she handed Cooper. "Take it. I stole it from the cargo hold. I just meant to borrow it! But... once I had it... I didn't know how to give it back..."

Cooper looked concerned as a first reaction, his worry for Daiyu as well as whatever issue she had potentially inflicted upon others. In the interest of supporting her, he reached out both hands to accept the confession and related item, automatically moving the cloth aside so that he might see the hidden, stolen item. On sight, he instantly dropped it to the ground and stepped backwards, crossing himself feverently and looking upwards as if forgiveness might be denied.

The brightly coloured dildo bounced unhelpfully atop the rug covered metal ship tiles, loudly proclaiming its presence despite Cooper's need to make it vanish.

Words uttered, cheeks flushed, the Shepherd took the cloth wrapping and awkwardly recaptured the animated rubbery culprit, then held it at arm's length with a clear and overt displeasure for this unwanted position. "I'll be leaving you two ladies to talk," he stated, fumbling the words. "On account of needing to return this item," 'to the fires of hell' he added in his mind, but avoided saying out loud for Daiyu's benefit. "Please... uh... call if you need me, Miss Daiyu."

"I hope I get good karma for that." Daiyu's frown turned upside down.

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