[video]

[candothat]

[The video starts with a shot of a car that, to those who know (or knew) Dean Winchester, will look very familiar. It's impeccably polished, gleaming even in the waning daylight.]

I now have a car.

[He sits down in front of the bumper (a move indicated by some very careless camera work) before rearranging the camera so that it points towards him. Chekov is, mercifully, wearing clothes. Fairly nondescript clothes, but clothes nonetheless.]

I cleaned her very well today, although she may get dusty when I drive her back home... after midnight, I think. [Because there's nothing more awkward than spending the day with your 19th century girlfriend when she's naked.]

Before you ask, yes, I am old enough to drive and yes, I can operate a vehicle like this. I have a license to pilot anything as large as a military shuttlecraft, and that is not so maneuverable. The Impala is the first ground vehicle I have piloted outside of a simulator and, although I know very little about vehicles as old as she is, I think that she handles well. Maybe she would be better off with Sulu--he has many hobbies, and twentieth century cars must be one of them--but I will be careful with her.

I am trying to decide which is better: driving or riding a horse. Driving is simpler, but when I knew how to ride a horse, that was more exciting. Horses are easier to find, also. I have been visiting the barn where they live to talk to them--the horses. The brown one stabled there is a good listener.

[His somewhat pensive and subdued mood (not a normal mood for Chekov) becomes very serious as he jumps to a new topic.]

What I also mean to say today is that no one else that I know is allowed to leave the City without telling me, not even if you leave a car for me.

[He knows just as well as anyone else that no one can control when and how they leave, but it's a nice, empty threat to end the video on.]

Comments

[uprouse]

What a nice thought to end on.

[candothat]

And a wishful one. Also a stupid one, maybe.

[uprouse]

Aaaa, are those the first adjectives to spring to your mind? Personally I would have said "unambitious".

[candothat]

I try not to ask for too much. What would you consider not unambitious?

[uprouse]

What would you consider modest? But perhaps we should take this in steps. Do you enjoy living here?

[candothat]

Modest? Asking for a day off of work where there are no curses.

I do, yes, although it could be improved.

[uprouse]

You see, you found the answer pretty fast after all. Ambition's the opposite of what you're willing to ask for, wouldn't you say?

[candothat]

That is not how I would define it.

[uprouse]

Oh?

[candothat]

To me, ambition is a striving for something that is obtainable, but with great effort. It would be ambitious of me to say, "Someday, I would like to be an admiral in Starfleet." Not impossible, but not so easy. If I were to say, "I would like to dictate the arrival and departure of everyone in the City," that would be wishful thinking. Wishful thinking is not ambition.

1/2

[uprouse]

Isn't it? After all, somebody does so already—dictating our arrivals and departures, that is. Would it truly be so unrealistic to dream that you could come to do the same?

[uprouse]

Not that I mean to say I'd begrudge you your dream—far from it! An admiral, then, you said?

1/2

[candothat]

I would not aspire to be a deity.

[candothat]

Yes, in Starfleet! It would be many years from now, but I am hopeful. Also, "Admiral Chekov" has a good sound to it.

[uprouse]

Then I'll wish you the best of luck with your venture! Is it only the sound that attracts you? Or there something else that makes you aspire to admiralship?

[candothat]

Thank you! No, the sound is coincidental. To have earned a rank so high as admiral and to command entire fleets of starships--that is what I aspire to.

[uprouse]

Power—but not too much power, then, is that right?

[candothat]

Not too much, no, and only power I have earned.

Do you have many ambitions?