I dreamt something long and complicated about Spock and a culturally significant meal that humans translated as lasagne. None of the ingredients originally matched, of course, but it had that layers and sauces thing going for it. And the translation seemed handy for Vulcans, since it was traditionally a guest gift that you adapted to suit the host, so suddenly they knew where in the human recipe book to look for the local versions, though they'd have to change a few things in several sorts just so everyone could digest them. That's what Vulcan lasagne was about, blending the different parts to make a pleasing whole.
It was the sort of thing which, when made by hand, took for flipping ever to make, and wouldn't stay nice to eat for very long, so if someone arrived with a steaming hot serving dish full of it, it was Very Rude to not let them in to eat it together.
So when someone was shutting Spock out, being too Vulcan about not wanting anyone to see them lose emotional control while they were in their final illness, Vulcan culture had an answer: good food!
But to make it, he needed the Family Dish, and his sister had inherited the china. So he contacted her and she brought what she had, but the Dish was not there. Instead there was a record of the last person who it had been served to, who had kept it, as was traditional. Sarek had gifted it to Picard, who kept it among his most honored personal treasures, knowing it was not for the Captain of the Enterprise but rather for Picard as an honorable representative of the Picard family. It would be Proper to pass it on to a younger generation in due time, though always with the understanding it properly belonged to Sarek's family. So it sat there being a rather layered reminder of how Picard had and had not contributed, in his own mind, to his family, and given that they'd mind melded, that might well have been intended. Considering Sarek had such a mixed family by such mixed means, when his possibly genetically engineered son and his adopted daughter turn up to ask for the dish back, it is rather a demonstration that Picard has options, and inherently an offer of continued connection.
For his part, Picard can understand from a bunch of different angles why someone might not want Spock to see them lose themselves, and he can also see that Spock's control is more tenuous than it traditionally has been. This connection matters very much to him. So Picard offers his support, with a human style hand connection, and certain memories very much on his mind.
Spock at first experiences this as a rebuke, one from the memory of his father, and tries to pull himself together while feeling even more hurt. But then he unpacks the layers to see that his father had similar experiences, from the other side, and it gives him more depth of perspective, which is greatly needed to sustain him right now.
And then he sets out to cook Vulcan Lasagne.
There isn't a single ingredient in it that's from the original recipe, though many parts are from Vulcan. And he has put thought into who can digest what, with every ingredient.
I do not know if the dish was well received. I hope so. It would be terribly lonely to think you have to get ill and die alone, just from misunderstanding how Vulcans view emotion. They understand how much effort goes into control, and how awful it can feel to lose it, but in extermis the cause is certainly sufficient. The important parts, the reason for control, include not breaking bonds of fellowship that could last for generations, if both parties will it.
... and as dream ideas go this one is lovely and layered. You could do whole generations of diplomacy, the family to family kind, with just this one dish. Asking for it back so you can make a new friend could be done to include the previous honored friend in the new connection. You'd have to communicate clearly about your reasons, to avoid causing offence anywhere. And to see all this play out on a family tradition level between people who have spent whole careers as diplomats for their entire species, but have had... difficulties with that other level...
well, it's delicious.
I don't know as it could fit into canon well enough to call it proper fanfic though. The newest canon I haven't seen and the older stuff I haven't seen for a long time.
But I like the ideas.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}