poly_chromatic | 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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ 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.]

action // video

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