action // video

[candothat]

ACTION;
[Chekov may have woken up with a cluster of sullen, chatty balloons that look like they belong at a misery-themed party shadowing him, but he's not about to let a nonlethal thing like that prevent him from going about his day as usual. They follow him during his morning jog (he takes care to avoid the pockets of strangeness that have been popping up, as there is only so much weirdness that he likes in his life at any given moment) and to the City Solutions Laboratory. They trail him to the labs that have been taken over by Starfleet (he doesn't linger there) and to the hospital where he visits friends who were injured in the recent attacks, glowering, as ominous and dark as any potentially hostile region of space.

Their constant looming and unimpressed--disappointed, even--glares are a minor annoyance. It's the sounds they make that chip away at Chekov's usual patience and good humor. There's some incoherent grumbling and groaning, but some phrases are perfectly, humiliatingly, horribly clear.

Ty ubil ikh.
Failure.
Too young.
Bespoleznyy.
Too slow.
Pomnyu tvoyu mat'.
Slishkom medlenno.
Their deaths were your fault.
Ty brosil svoyu sem'yu.
You'll never succeed.
You killed her.
Slishkom molod.
Useless.
Vam ne udalos'.
You abandoned your family.
Vam nikogda ne udastsya.
Remember your mother.
Vy ubili yeye.

He tries not to listen to them (and of course they're bilingual, this is the City--why wouldn't he be told off in two languages?). Those who encounter him may find ignoring the grim balloons difficult. They're loud.]

VIDEO;
[Judging by the view--the back of Chekov's head--this is not an intentional recording. He's sitting at Lucy's baby grand, tense, posture hinting at anger. The talking balloons are still hovering over him like a raincloud, chatting away. There are fewer than there were earlier, but the remaining faces seem eager to make up for this by being exceptionally strident.]

Vy ubili yeye.
Failure.
Ty brosil svoyu sem'yu.
Slishkom medlenno.
You killed her.
Their deaths were your fault.
Bespoleznyy.
Useless.

[They've been at it all day and Chekov doesn't want to hear it anymore. In an effort to drown them out, he launches into what must be the angriest and most aggressive interpretation of Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp minor of all time. He's not great--out of practice rather than untrained--and it only takes about a minute and a half before the balloons, which have only grown louder to combat the piano, reduce the boy to discordant keysmashing.

He gives up after a particularly enthusiastic plunk of the keys and mumbles something at the balloons. The network device doesn't pick his words up, but it's safe to assume that he didn't say anything pleasant to the specters.]

Failure.
Slishkom molod.
Ty brosil svoyu sem'yu.
You'll never succeed.

[Maybe an angry rendition of something by Balakirev will be more effective. Watchers won't get to find out; the video ends abruptly.]


[ooc: Russian brought to you by Google.]

Comments

Video

[recognize_an_opportunity]

[Should he say something? Is it rude? But it's hard to pretend he doesn't understand the Russian, and it's even harder to ignore a video like this. So finally he clears his throat delicately, frowning slightly.]

What remarkably unpleasant balloons.

Video

[candothat]

[Meyer is the lucky guy who alerts Chekov to the existence of this entry. And of course it can't be deleted. Where's the fun in that?]

Scheiße!

Yes, very unpleasant.

Re: Video

[recognize_an_opportunity]

You speak German, too? Or, at least, swear in it? Impressive.

[A pause, and then...]

I hope you're not taking what those balloons say to heart.

[phonetical]

[It's not in her to ignore it, not when it comes to a crewmate and when she can easily read both types of balloons... nope, Uhura has a thing to say. In his native tongue, no less.]

None of that is true. You know it. We spoke about this.

[candothat]

[He sounds uncharacteristically snippy. Apparently assaulting the piano wasn't enough.]

There is some truth to what they say. You said that some things are out of our control, but there must have been something--with Spock's mother, with everyone who died in engineering.

[phonetical]

[He can be snippy all he wants. Uhura knows when ignore misdirected anger.]

There is no truth. When things are out of your control, that's that. [A pause and her voice softens, less harsh, less pushing the truth past those balloons.] And if there was something, if there was anybody who could figure out something, it would have been you. You did your best. You did all you could. None of that was your fault. Other people's ultimately, but none of yours.

starfleet comm frequency » video

[hischair]

[ He only has to read one type of balloon after getting a look at that screwed up piano-playing and Jim calls him immediately, concern lacing through a steady tone that implies he wants an answer directly. ]

Chekov.

starfleet comm frequency » video

[candothat]

Aye, Captain.

starfleet comm frequency » video

[hischair]

[ He waits a pointed moment, raising his brows. Not unkindly, he asks, ] Are you feeling okay?

action; outside the hospital

[sleepingstar]

[Pai watches as Chekov walks out of the hospital, trailed by a bunch of gloomy balloons. She's surrounded by her own collection, but they're easy enough to ignore.

Chekov looks rather upset by them, though. Out of boredom more than anything else -- although she does like Chekov, just a bit -- she calls upon her power to explode them.]

action; outside the hospital

[candothat]

[For his part, Chekov jumps and looks around for the source of imminent peril, as one does.

The balloons, however, crackle a bit and then start wailing. Loud, proper wailing. Angry wailing, and there are still words hidden in those wails. (It may please Pai, however, to see that their faces have gone from gloomy to pissed off.)]

Pai! [You have electric powers, too. Yay. Only not.] What--ah, thank you.

[He almost has to shout to be heard over the balloons. And yes, the only response to a little Contractor who just tried to zap your curse away is thank you, however poorly it went.]

[sleepingstar]

[Ineffective. Either the curse balloons are immune to her power or, less likely, she didn't use enough of it.

While it is the least likely option, Pai decides it's still worth trying to see if she can destroy the baloons. Ignoring Chekov, she sends out a stronger voltage -- enough to kill a human being, but targeted enough that it shouldn't affect Chekov.]

voice;

[defies_reason]

Can they be burst, I wonder?

voice;

[candothat]

Not by conventional means. It makes them louder.

voice;

[defies_reason]

How irritating.

What conventional means have you tried?

Action; City Solutions

[lefthandedgenius]

Lydia has been eyeing the balloons all day. LBR, this is obviously a curse, and the messages are intriguing enough that they're enough to raise Lydia's brows. She goes about ignoring them for a while, but a usually cheerful Chekov being dour for hours is more than she can stand, until finally she moves over next to him at his work table, and leaning her forearms against the edge, peers up at him.

"Alright. Are you going to tell me what this," she wafts a hand at the balloons, "Is all about? And by this I mean the content, not the obvious fact that this is a curse."

Action; City Solutions

[candothat]

Poor Lydia, having to listen to these things all day. Chekov isn't surprised when she finally comes over; he is surprised when she doesn't ask him to please leave. Surprised enough that he shoves away the equations that he has been busy not solving to give Lydia his full attention.

"There are many things that I have not done well," he replies cryptically. No one wants sob stories.

voice | private;

[hexuality]

[Quietly,]

I didn't know you played.

voice | private;

[candothat]

Not often now, and not well, but I have been told that I play with great emotion.

[Ah ha. Ha. Not really a joke.]

action;

[logistical]

[What's the best course of action when something freaky is bothering a crewmate? You point a tricorder at it, of course. He comes across Chekov near the laboratories, and frowns at the balloons.]

[Mutters to himself:] Curious.

[To Chekov:] These have been following you all morning?

action;

[candothat]

[Oh, it's the last person Chekov wants to see right now. Instead of spontaneously combusting with guilt and embarrassment, he tries to see if the tricorder's registering anything interesting.]

They have, sir, yes.

[One of them is kind enough to wail a very distinct You killed her. Really, their timing is impeccable.]

action

[mightbeconcussed]

[Lucy is pleasantly surprised to walk in from work and see Chekov sitting at Jill's piano. She's less pleasantly surprised to see the balloons hovering around him or witness via his playing how the chatty balloons are affecting him. She kicks off her heels at the door, tosses her purse and her jacket onto the couch and walks over, arms wrapping around him from behind. She presses a kiss to the nape of his neck and whispers to him. \

You are wonderful.
You are amazing.
You are gorgeous.
You are scary smart.

[ Yeah, she's going to attempt to offset whatever the balloons are saying with compliments.]

action

[candothat]

[He's just glad that Lucy is still walking around--or he is once he stops abusing the poor piano with a fragment of a Balakirev composition that he remembers. Listening to Lucy takes precedence over listening to creepy balloons and beating up musical instruments.]

You believe all of these things, don't you?

[Pavel doesn't move, but a couple of the balloons silently deflate and vanish.]

» action

[excelsiors]

_{( it’s on that jog that sulu catches up with him. he’s always out in the mornings, anyway, some sort of background obsession with staying in shape pushing him to rise early and take particular care with his physical condition. but none of that is on his mind when he finds chekov, and when he sees—and hears—the balloons, his normally mild expression is replaced by a fiercely agitated one. )}

No. _{( he says, firmly, jogging up beside chekov with no other preamble. )}

» action

[candothat]

[Chekov doesn't run out of habit or concern for his physique so much as he does for the clarity it gives him. Not that there's any room for mental clarity with a parade of gloomy, grumbling balloons in tow.

For a second, Chekov considers running away from the conversation that he suspects is about to happen. While he might be able to outrun Sulu, however, he doubts that he would be able to hide from him for long. He slows to a brisk walk.]

No? Is this an objection to my form?