poly_chromatic | action // video

Entry tags:

star trek xi - pavel chekov

action // video

[Chekov is, to put it mildly, alarmed to find the bridge of the Enterprise replaced by the City--the fountain, specifically. As startling as the abrupt change of scenery is, there are, as far as the young navigator is concerned, worse places to find oneself than in a fountain. The shallow water feels good after hours--he can't even begin to guess at how many hours--spent running around in the bowels of a beleaguered ship, issuing orders and trying to nurse failing systems along.

There's no time to enjoy the surprise reprieve. It takes several moments for his City memories to hit and several more for them to fall back into place but, once they do, Chekov has the presence of mind to remove the gold tunic that marks him as a Starfleet officer. Harrison is here. The captain had warned them against making themselves targets.

The captain. Captain Kirk, who's alive here...

Chekov, wet curls plastered to his forehead and stripped down to his black undershirt, clambers out of the fountain and disposes of his gold shirt. He fingers his hair into some semblance of order and fumbles for his waterlogged communicator.]

[video]

He--? [Audio and video distort and give way to static. After some minor adjustments, they return. Chekov doesn't look all that different than he did prior to his disappearance (thanks to the City's temporal isolation from other universes, he's actually a few months younger than he was over a week ago, if sturdier), but recent events have given him a somewhat haggard countenance.] Hello? This is En--Pavel Chekov. I realize that very little time has passed--relatively speaking, I mean--but I must ask: Who is here still?

[Starfleet people, that's directed primarily at you.

And, hesitantly:] Has anyone fed my dog?

[ooc: Action or video! Chekov is back in the City and updated to the not-quite-end of Into Darkness (immediately after San Francisco getting smashed up and Spock beaming down). I tried to steer clear of major spoilers here, but I make no promises for the comments.]

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[Shhhh, the City knows what goes down in brackets!]

Regardless, I would feel badly if Doctor Brown's dog was to die because I left. [But he's thinking of the ominous bit of meteor, too, even if he doesn't mention it out loud. If something had happened to it after he was pulled from the City--something that unleashed its supposed destructive potential--

And Hei's easy acceptance of that brief description is a relief. Maybe not asking for details indicates a lack of social grace on Hei's part, but Pavel is grateful for it.]

Unsuccessful pirates would be simpler to cope with, I would think. Were you cursed?

[ Does it? Then why doesn't food materialize in his lap whenever it's discussed in here!!? X( ]

[ I mean -- ]

The City's too full of bleeding hearts for that to happen. [ He doesn't bother hiding the sarcasm. Even after a year, it still disquiets him, how seemingly well-meaning people are here. He'd say it's rubbed off on him. But that's not exactly true. It's just narrowed certain parameters in his life, and forced him to adjust his priorities accordingly. Hei's mind these days is less about swaying pendulums and lightning charges and more about neurotransmitters leaping like silvery piranhas from teacups. Social chessgames over wetwork. ]

I'd think so too. But they were much messier than capable ones. [ At the question, he offers a small shrug, shot through with wryness. ] Only with seasickness.

[It doesn't love Hei that much, sorry.]

Perhaps. I forget, sometimes, how adept those in the City are at taking care of what is left behind when we leave. [Out of necessity, habit, or the hope that, when they themselves leave, someone will be there to step in for them. It isn't like that at home, where it's generally assumed that no one will go missing (or at least that anyone with a hazardous lifestyle will have the decency to note what needs to be done in the event of their death).]

Then I am sorry that they weren't as professional as you might have preferred. [There's mild exasperation in his tone, not snark. Only Hei would be disappointed by amateur pirates.]

[ Point. But then, who would? ]

I wonder if it's concern, or scavenger mentality. [ Possessions don't mean much to Hei. Things are things in his world; generalities are generalities. All that matters is the use they afford. That was a common practice in Heaven's War. If a comrade fell, you didn't carry him back to camp. You stripped him of anything remotely useful -- rations, weapons, trackers -- and left him there, dead or ready to die. Those were the rules war operated by. Every man for himself. ]

[ He's faintly amused by the exasperation, but keeps it off his face. ] Maybe it's better that they weren't. Skilled pirates leave more insidious forms of damage.

[Shh, Hei; Pasha loves you. ♥]

Some of both. Not everyone is a scavenger. [He knows Hei forgets--or simply can't believe--that not everyone's looking out only for themselves or entrenched in a war mindset.]

Insidious. [Chekov either isn't familiar with the word or doesn't believe that one kind of pirate is truly worse than another. His intonation doesn't make it clear.] How many skilled pirates have you met?

[ Stop, Pavel. You'll make his frozen black kokoro flutter. ]

[ He'd argue that while most people like to believe there aren't predators in their midst -- or that they themselves are too above it -- circumstance and suffering can warp any ideal, strip away any facade. At its core, human nature is rooted in survival. And to survive, people are willing to stoop to levels of selfishness they'd never have previously imagined. But he doesn't say that. He's glad to see Pavel, in his own way, and there's little point in starting a debate with someone whose worldview is so distinct from his. ]

[ Instead he answers, dry but honest, ] More than enough for one lifetime. [ Not all thieves limit their operational parameters to the seas -- or to tangible goods. Just ask his ex-girlfriend. ]

[As shocking as it might be, Pavel wouldn't argue the point too strenuously. When it comes down to it, using what others have left behind is imminently logical. When time and resources are minimal and it's a matter of survival, silly sentimentality won't get in utility's way.]

Your world is very strange, Hei.

[He believes him, of course. It's worth saying anyway.]

[ A shift of one shoulder, not accepting so much as indifferent. ] It's no stranger than the City. [ In most ways, the City affords a level of freedom that would've been impossible in Hei's homeworld. Even back home, the atmosphere isn't as nihilistic or grimdark as signs suggest. The civilian world carries on merrily oblivious; its social shadow, the underground, operates unsung and unseen -- a never-ending stream of blackmail, murders, identity theft and traded information churning in a toxic pit concealed behind veils of smoke. ]

[ A beat, before he adds, ] At least the dead stay dead there. [ Makes business easier for an assassin. ]

[Those words--At least the dead stay dead there--shut Pavel up as abruptly as a slap. He's slow to respond.]

That bothers you about the City? People returning to life?

[ It might not show in Hei's body-language or facial expressions, but duplicity is something he seamlessly employs. There's a 99% possibility that he used that word -- dead -- to get a rise out of Pavel. It's clear that the young man's suffered disastrous setbacks at home. But with what Hei knows about Pavel's nature, it's also unlikely he wouldn't bounce back, unless said setbacks involved a large-scale loss of lives. ]

[ His tone is carefully neutral when he says, ] I guess that depends on the people.

[Oh, he'll bounce back well enough before it's time for psych evals. That doesn't make it okay for Hei to poke at open sores. Pavel registers this along with the overwhelming likelihood that Hei's word choice is entirely intentional. Par for the course.]

Perhaps we should talk later. Thank you for feeding Everett.

[ If it's any consolation, Hei didn't poke out of malice. More to gauge the extent of the mental damage Pavel had suffered back home. It's always in his best interests to understand the psychic wounds of his assets (friends?). And at the end of the day, spies are a bunch of manipulatively nosy motherfuckers. ]

[ Still, away from the Syndicate, Hei can afford to temper his operational necessities with kindness. There's a beat before he looks, uncharacteristically, a little uncomfortable, like even he has to dig inside his encyclopedic repertoire of words for something polite. ]

All right. [ ... ] It's good to have you back.

[ That's as close as Hei will ever get to outright friendliness. ]

[It's not damage so much as a dent that will be hammered out soon enough. His psyche won't be as good as new, but he'll be the wiser for it.

Hei's response sounds a little strange to Pavel--strange enough to make him reconsider just ending the transmission there. Tone uncertain, he replies:]

I'm not unhappy to be back. I mean that.

[ Pavel's response reveals more about the crisis back home, than it does about his feelings on returning to the City. But Hei doesn't share that with the young man. (He reminds him of Kenji sometimes -- so wobbly on his feet, but when he sets his mind on something, there's no displacing him. Hei still hasn't decided yet, whether that's a good or a bad thing.) His own tone is mild when he clarifies, ]

I didn't imagine you were. But that's not something you need to worry about right now.

[ Get some rest, Pavel. You look like something fished out of a shipwreck. ]

Thank you.

[For what, he isn't sure. He's thankful anyway.]

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