action // video

[candothat]

[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.]

Comments

[voice]

[candothat]

["In one piece" is a small miracle considering how close the whole damn ship was to crashing to Earth after a warp core failure, and that was after a war-hungry general blew engineering full of holes. Worst day to be asked to fill in as chief engineer ever.]

Good. I'm glad that any raiding and plundering was done away from the Wolf's Den.

Will you be there this evening, maybe?

[voice]

[defies_reason]

I certainly can be.

[He likely would be anyway.]

[voice]

[candothat]

I will see you then, maybe?

[Because he can't outright tell Isaak that he'd really like to talk to him after sorting out some Khan nonsense, of course.]

[voice]

[defies_reason]

[Lucky Pasha, Isaak is rather habitually attuned to subtlety, a byproduct of his personal and professional life both.]

Perhaps,

[he says breezily, in a way that means of course.]

[voice]

[candothat]

[That's close enough to a yes.

That evening, Pavel swings by the bar, fairly certain that Isaak will be there (he owns it, there's alcohol there--why would he be anywhere else?).]

[voice]

[defies_reason]

[Well, now and then of an evening he likes a change-- the fact that the Wolf's Den is his preferred sort of bar doesn't mean he doesn't like others as well-- but when expecting a visitor, certainly there's no where else to be.

He's in back today-- it's a bit more secluded, but he's confident the younger man's clever enough to find him. He's sat in a comfortable leather chair with another beside it, a small table between them.]

[voice]

[candothat]

[It doesn't take a rocket scientist or an ace navigator to locate Isaak. Pavel finds his way back regardless and pauses behind the empty chair.]

Is this taken?

[voice]

[defies_reason]

[And yet he is rather pleased to have been found by a genius.

Isaak leans over to pour them each a drink.]

Only by you.

[voice]

[candothat]

[Good. It would be a shame if he was disappointed.

Pavel slips into the chair and, because Isaak is Isaak and not someone who is likely to think poorly of him is his posture is terrible, slouches comfortably.]

Thank you. Business has recovered from the pirates?

[voice]

[defies_reason]

[Well, really, it would take much more to lose face. Isaak shrugs slightly, leaning back.]

It wasn't much worse than any curse, though the transformation was rather remarkable. The rum on offer in the harbour, however, was anything but.

[voice]

[candothat]

[He picks his drink up primarily to occupy his hands. Directionless fidgeting turns into tracing the glass' rim with one finger.]

Pirates are not the most reputable brewers. Neither are engineers. I would not drink anything made by either.

[voice]

[defies_reason]

[Cut that out or you'll have him worried.]

I'd have put my money on the engineers, between them.

[Not that he's showing it, if he is concerned. Sometimes Isaak is calm in order to unsettle others; now, it's perhaps a sort of reassurance. There is nothing here to be anxious about.]

You're readjusting well, I hope?

[voice]

[candothat]

You would take your life in your hands.

[It's supposed to be a joke. It falls flat--very flat. Even though Pavel isn't as jittery as he was when he first returned to the City (and some of that could be due to Isaak's steadiness), he hasn't relaxed back into a state of good humor.]

Yes, and I'm happy to be back. ["Happy" doesn't seem like the best word choice, but.] People died under my command, at home. Here? No one needs to listen to me. I'm happy for that, too.

[voice]

[defies_reason]

[Were he less fond of the young man Isaak might find it funny, that last they spoke Chekov had fretted that his crewmates wouldn't listen, and now he finds it a relief. But fond he is, in his odd familial way.]

That, I think, is one of the facts of command. [He says it seriously, not dismissive; Isaak is accustomed to it, but that does not mean it is simple.] There is a certain advantage to being nobody here.

[voice]

[candothat]

[Try as he might to pretend otherwise, he's still a teenager who's prone to self-contradiction and indecision. Alas.]

Do you enjoy it?

[Pavel assumes that Isaak is somebody back home. Who that somebody is--well. Someday, maybe, he'll want to know badly enough to ask.]

[voice]

[defies_reason]

Being someone, or being no-one?

[The answer is yes to both and no to both, really.]

Wow, I completely stopped processing the subject line there.

[candothat]

Either. Both, although I can't imagine you being no one.

Yeeeaaah I was not so much paying attention

[defies_reason]

Men who enjoy that power seldom use it well, [he says simply, sipping his drink.] Those who fear the loss of their subordinates, who are too timid to risk it, are weak leaders. [And a weak leader is worse than none at all, but Pavel is military-- he sees no need to say it.] It does grow easier, with time. And with success. But the losses must not be taken for granted. Men know when their lives are not valued, and they will not serve with clear hearts.

[He sets his glass down.] I do not expect I shall ever have to ask a bartender to lay down his life. [Here, at any rate. Elsewhere he has done, more than once.] There is an appeal to that.

/brofist

[candothat]

[Pavel listens intently, even though this is nothing he hasn't heard before or intuited. Or an answer, really. The evasion leads him to a conjecture--very dangerous.]

At home, though, you did, and I think that people were willing to die for you. You would be a good leader.

[defies_reason]

At home, I am an effective leader, [he agrees. Often at the cost of being a good man, but that is a decision with which he has long since come to terms.] But we can agree, I think, that it is a relief not to be one for a while.

[candothat]

Then you have chosen not to be a leader in the City. [Pavel scrutinizes Isaak, expression serious, still messing with his glass.] That would be difficult, I imagine, if only for someone who is accustomed to being in a position of power. For me, not so much. I'm told what to do and I do it--I'm very good at that.

[defies_reason]

I've chosen a business with lower stakes, [he points out.] A different sort of power. In part, that is why I regard this as a holiday.

[He leans back again, comfortably, apparently untroubled.] There is no shame, I think, in following orders, as long as you're able to learn from it.

[candothat]

Drinks, not lives. That seems like a wise business move.

[Isaak will need to be comfortable enough for both of them. Willpower alone has prevented Pavel from fidgeting his way out of his skin.]

What do I do if what I learn is that I will not be an effective leader?

[defies_reason]

[He can, at least, appear as such. In truth, it is not so easy; he's admitted as much, but not the scope of it. It is one thing to lose loyal men. It was another to lose Viktor.

But they are focusing on Pasha's concerns, now, not his own. He is calm in order to be calming. Besides, this-- this is something he is accustomed to hide.]

If all men were leaders there would be none to be led. [He lifts an eyebrow, slightly.] Does that possibility bother you?

[candothat]

[Pavel would like to hear more about Isaak's concerns. Someday. Today, he wants someone to talk to who isn't involved with anything going on at home and who will listen without fretting needlessly.]

Yes, it bothers me! I'm a command officer, and everything I have done has been done to prepare for this. What good am I as a command officer if I can't command people?