poly_chromatic | Text

And strawberry ice cream?

What does that mean?

What kind of chocolate do you like?

Hmmmm possibly. I think it's more of chocolate, chocolate, chocolate ice cream kind of day.

It's that time of the month and my insides are waging war. It's the one thing I didn't miss when I was dead.

Dark chocolate and brownies and chocolate cheesecake and...basically if it's chocolate I will devour it and repay you with kissing as long as it doesn't disturb the whole heating pad thing I have going on here.

...Um.

[ TMI TMI TMI ]

[ .........moving on ahem ]

How about pastries and parfaits?

Ah.

I can get that. Would you also tell me what stereotypes of women during... [um] ...during that time of month are true and which aren't? Not today, maybe, but I would like to know for future reference.

Absolutely. Please.

You are a perfect human being. Just so you know.

It's okay, Pavel. I'm not going to bite your head off for saying period. Or whatever. My uterus is trying to eat the rest of my body and the only thing preventing this cannibalism is a heating pad.

I've also cried six times since I woke up this morning. Once because I broke a nail.

I don't even know.

.............I've, um, been told that tea also helps.

[ At least, when on the battlefield, it's what he'd ply his younger sister with. ]

[This silence is brought to you by absolute terror. How do women even function with their bodies trying to destroy them once a month? (And do Vulcan females suffer similar emotional difficulties when menstruating? Chekov isn't sure he can ask Commander Spock that without dying.)]

Are you home? I can be there very soon. I will tell my boss that it's a medical emergency.

[He doesn't bother saying that he's not perfect. Lucy already knows that. She must be employing a hyperbole.]

Are you secretly British? Are you going to tell me to keep calm and carry on?

Er ...well, tea is sort of an everyday feature in China and Japan too.

It's good for soothing the nerves. [ pauuuuuse ] Also, I was trying to think of something useful to suggest.

[Poor Chekov. She's also employing a hyperbole when describing her pain. It just feels like her body is trying to destroy her. (She would love to see that)]

I am. I took the day off. You won't get in trouble?

[Because as much as she wants him there to take care of her and provide chocolate, she doesn't want him in trouble. Despite that, she is definitely using her 'please, please,please' puppy face

Also, she knows and it was hyperbole but she does think he's pretty perfect as far as human beings in general go, who are never, ever completely and actually perfect.]

I will try tea.

Thank you. I don't mean to be snappy.

It's okay. You're just [ he almost says Acting like a typical woman -- then decides that would be insulting ] in one of those 'moods.'

They're the eye of the tiger?

You mean a 'feeling like crap' mood.

[Yeah what he almost said wouldn't have gone over well.]

I was thinking more takes a beating and comes up fighting?

[ One of the many reasons 'Li' is more palatable than his unkinder counterpart. ]

Well [ ever-so-solicitous ] what usually works when you feel like this? Aside from chocolate, I mean?

Movies, heating pad and ginger ale.

And this is where I out myself. Never watched it.

Simple comforts. [ At least she's not maiming anyone. Yet. ] I'll be sure to bring over some candy-bar pie. And maybe chocolate fondue.

[Look, the idea of a cannibalistic uterus is almost as frightening (okay, maybe slightly more frightening) than the thought of a City-wide ring of kidnappers tied into the sex slave trade. Some things are worth taking seriously.]

No, my supervisor is very understanding.

[This isn't entirely true, but Delacroix seems to care more about the work being done than when or where it gets done. And how is anyone with a shred of humanity supposed to refuse the pleading puppy face?]

I will see you in twenty minutes?

Oh! It's...good? I mean it's not my favorite movie, but he's pretty and shirtless for a lot of the movie and very dumb.

[She usually doesn't. Unless they're just dumb verbally] You are amazing, Li.

[It is pretty frightening and it's nice that he takes it seriously rather than blowing it off as some kind of hormonal thing.]

Just use your key to let yourself in. I'm not going anywhere.

Not so sold on the very dumb part. Were it Rocky the musical, well...

Yeah, there's a soundtrack but no musical although talk to Broadway. They might be interested.

[He hasn't known enough women who didn't treat him like a baby brother to have personal experience with these kinds of things. Hormones, what?

In approximately twenty minutes, Chekov enters Lucy's apartment, backpack and grocery bag in tow.]

Hello, Lucy. How are you doing?

[Lucy is curled up on the couch with her heating pad, Masha and the remote. She's wearing her pajamas and her hair is all pulled up on top of her head. She looks a bit miserable.]

Existing. You?

Better than existing.

[He puts the grocery bag down and takes out chocolate in varying forms: dark chocolate bars, chocolate cake, chocolate cheesecake, brownies, chocolate chip cookies...]

I wasn't sure what would be best. Is there anything else you would like?

Good. One of us should be.

[A very fond, grateful smile curves her lips when he starts taking out chocolate.]

All of it is best. I mean, it's all fantastic. Thank you. [She considers that a moment, bending her legs and moving her feet up.] You could sit down, eat chocolate with me and watch a movie if you wanted.

Of course. [He sits after putting all of the chocolate in easy grabbing range.] Would that make you feel better?

[She nods and pushes herself up into a half sitting position, heating pad still on her stomach.]

So what were you doing at work that I pulled you away from?

[She appreciates that especially as she reaches over and picks up a bar of chocolate.]

Nothing important. Working on the schematics for a superluminal drive.

[He snuggles up to her.]

[Oh she likes this treatment. Chekov may have to make this a regular thing. She sighs happily and curls up around him, heating pad still between them. She tucks her chin against his chest.] What does a superluminal drive do? It sounds like it has something to do with really bright light.

[It can be a regular thing. He likes snuggling and chocolate as much as the next person.

Pavel kisses her forehead.] It makes objects move at and beyond the speed of light... very common in my time, but the materials necessary to making, say, a gravimetric field displacement manifold don't exist here. This drive relies upon the creation of much smaller amounts of negative mass and energy. Assuming antimatter can be harnessed using modern technology, of course.

[He really is the ideal not!boyfriend as far as Lucy is concerned.

There's a lot in that explanation that she doesn't really understand, but if she asks him to explain everything, they'll be here all day so she picks the big things that she thinks will help her figure out the rest of it. ] So...like the stuff a black hole is made of? Where do you get that?

[Bonus, all the science talk makes it necessary to concentrate on something besides her cramps.]

Black holes are not made of anything. [There's not a judgmental tone to be heard. Chekov doesn't mind that Lucy doesn't know much about physics; he thinks it's very sweet of her to take in interest in the subject and to listen to him.] They create antimatter, though, but it's very difficult to use. Even if it escapes the immense gravitational field of a black hole, it is quickly annihilated by matter.

On ships at home, we use antideuterium, which is stored in antimatter pods until it is needed. When it is released, antimatter and matter annihilate each other and are converted directly into significant amounts of electromagnetic radiation. All of this is mediated by dilithium crystals to produce an electro-plasma that can be funneled to the warp field coils.

[It's not a very elegant explanation, but Chekov feels that, in context, it is sufficient.]

M'kay. I knew they had something to do with anti-matter. Anyway...that makes sense. Kind of. That you'd be making--wait. Si antideuterium [She probably slaughtered the name of that] something people make or something the universe makes? Just curious.

And so you force the stuff to make radiation and these crystals make the fuel that makes things travel really fast. [She bites her bottom lip, nodding.] So you're trying to figure out a way to do all of that without the right materials, the antideuterium and the dilithium.

That is something that is manufactured. Naturally occurring antideuterium is difficult--and risky--to harvest.

[He loves Lucy's curiosity so much.]

Essentially, yes, and that is why it's so difficult. My supervisor, Marie Delacroix, is from a future that is less advanced than mine that has superluminal propulsion. Perhaps she will have better luck in replicating her technology.

[It helps that Chekov doesn't make her feel stupid for not knowing the things she asks.]

Especially if you're both working on the same technology. You know two heads are better than one.

[Very few people understand what he's talking about. It's a fact of life, not a reason to get judgmental.]

I hope that proves to be right.

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