(open)

[hischair]

When: 19th
Rating: TBC
Characters: You!
Summary: A shindig at the beach for the best navigator in Starfleet.
Log: 

[ OOC: Feel free to assume your character has received an invite to the party via their inbox or word of mouth for Chekov's birthday! Everyone is welcome except you, Khan and presents are mandatory for the Enterprise's young navigator. Please tag under either section to keep the party somewhat ordered, and have fun! ]

Comments

[candothat]

[At times, Pavel loves Lucy so much that there's nothing he can say or do to adequately express his feelings. This is one of those times.

The mention of home gets a barely-perceptible flinch and a sigh.] Ah, no, but my captain was--or had. He had just saved the ship.

[candothat]

I think that I would find a reason to give you a gift regardless.

[This is one of many reasons he likes Ginny. Not everyone tolerates being flopped on.]

There is a sociocultural explanation, I am sure. In Russia, we have no lucky or unlucky numbers. It's nice, not having omens predicting the enjoyability of a specific year or event.

[Disregarding, of course, the bazillion omens of bad luck that the most Russian Russians remember without really believing. It would be more fair to say that there are no lucky numbers in Russian culture.]

[mightbeconcussed]

[ It's probably for the best that Pavel can't express those feelings. She still gets scared by the idea of it, despite the fact that she's admitted she has the same feelings for him and she knows how he feels about her.

She sighs a little and nods. ] Pavel, if he hadn't been there to do that, I'm sure you would have. You're brave and kind, very capable. You just weren't in the right place.

Dusk

[moonlitrequiem]

[Something she can do.]

I will. [But for now, she remains unaffected.]

[candothat]

[Someday, maybe, they'll both have words, and that words won't scare them.]

Thank you, Lucy, but you hold me in very high esteem. I wouldn't have been strong enough to realign the warp core, or good enough at fighting to do anything else he has done. [This sounds self-pitying, even to him. Even if he isn't exactly hero material in his world, he doesn't need to whine about it to Lucy.] But I am good at keeping us from flying into stars and preventing the captain from falling to his death, so that is something.

Dusk

[candothat]

Thank you.

[It's a very cordial exchange. Chekov falls silent, returning to his thoughts. Yin's presence doesn't bother him; she's welcome to stay until something more exciting presents itself.]

[mightbeconcussed]

[ Someday. Lucy is making progress even if she has setbacks on occasion. ]

Pavel, that's it's own form of being a hero. If the ship went off course and started flying into the stars, you'd be the one that saved the ship. Just because this time requires a hero with different skills doesn't mean that you aren't one.

[hexuality]

[Her brothers and the way she grew up made her immune to and comfortable with all forms of physical affection.]

Really? Well, for us... You've got seven years of school, you turn of age on your seventeenth birthday—and I'm the seventh child in my family, which doesn't really mean anything, but I was the first Weasley girl in generations. That's special enough on its own.

What do you have in Russia, then? Any lucky anything?

[candothat]

[He shifts, sits up, and puts both arms around Lucy, resting his head on top of hers in a tidy reversal of their former position. This isn't something that he can make her understand, but he appreciates her optimistic take on things--and maybe it's a take that would be true in other worlds and under other circumstances.]

I do my job, and I do it well. This is what everyone on a starship does, and because we all do well, we all prevent disasters. It is all of us saving the ship every day, and only because that is what we are supposed to do.

[candothat]

Entire generations? And have all of those generations been as large as yours? The Weasley family is a statistical anomaly. Maybe seven is lucky for you.

Ginny, what you must understand about Russians--and I mean the traditional Russians, the ones like my family--is that we are considered very pessimistic by those who don't appreciate the benefits of expecting disappointment from life. But when bad things happen, we think of those as omens of good luck, because once your luck is bad, how can it do anything but improve?

[hexuality]

Dad's got two brothers and Mum had twin brothers. [They were killed in the first war.] But Mum's family are the Prewetts and I've got an aunt on that side. But girls carrying the Weasley name? Yeah, I'm the first in a while.

[It was probably a Big Deal. Ginny listens to what Pavel has to say next, brows raising at the idea of accepting the bad which is understandable but seems a bit—well, he's already said it: pessimistic. But who is she to judge?]

So you're pretty cheerful about what goes on in the City, then? The whole idea that we can't get out just means we'll get out eventually, somehow. Haven't we all at some point, anyway? It's only really a matter of time.

[valedictory]

[ Nervous is Harry's default operating mode - it's certainly his reaction to the competitive commanding officers of the Enterprise wanting to take on his crew in some kind of sand battle. The chattiness, though, doesn't bother him at all - Chekov certainly isn't the source of any of it. ]

It's always kind of nice, having something to make you think of home. I know it helps me out, to feel some kind of connection when I'm nowhere near it.

[ He follows the gesture, and gives a more amused, open laugh. ]

I appreciate that. Definitely can't have anyone stumbling across it and discovering that sand is my own true weakness.

[mightbeconcussed]

[Oh. Well she's perfectly content to be in that position as well, snuggling into him and resting her cheek against his chest, one arm sliding around his waist while the other hand rests on top of his heart.

Unfortunately, he's right. It probably isn't something Lucy can understand without experiencing it first hand. She ponders his words a moment, measuring her breathing with his. ]

I guess I just don't have that much ambition. I admire you for having it. I just can't understand it. I"m happy right now. That ambitious enough for me.

[candothat]

[He likes holding Lucy. It makes him feel like he can protect her.

For a moment, Pavel just listens to their synched breathing and the snap of the bonfire's tinder.]

I'm happy, too. I think, if both of us are happy, that will be enough for now.

[candothat]

I am sure that your family celebrated when you were born. Even if they do not say so, many parents who do not have a girl want one.

[Brow-raising is the mildest reaction that Pavel's clumsy explanation of Russian pessimism evokes.]

Yes, I try to be. We all have to get out eventually--is there anyone here who has been here always?--and, when things are bad, they invariably improve in time. And, until we leave, we have good times here between the bad.

[mightbeconcussed]

[ Lucy considers that, absently drawing patterns that happen to be hearts over and over again on Chekov's shirt. ]

I can always play hard to get if you need something to conquer.

[ She says it teasingly. She thinks she's made things difficult enough for them. ]

[candothat]

[Kirk likes to make everything a competition. He seems to think that it boosts morale or something, or encourages people to work harder. Or maybe he just gets bored and does it to entertain himself. The captain never means anything by it, and he's a gracious winner and loser.]

What kinds of things make you feel this connection? Here, or in space.

[Pavel starts in on a new and less ambitious castle.]

I do what I can for my friends.

[candothat]

[Don't think he can't tell what those shapes are.]

I am an explorer, not a conquerer. I would much rather explore you.

[mightbeconcussed]

[ Busted. She's just going to keep it up though.

He can't see it, but his words bring a wicked sort of smile to her lips. ]

I'm fairly sure at this point, you've explored every, single inch of me, but you are more than welcome to re-explore.

[logistical]

[Spock takes it at face value. He honestly has little need to know the context, he was just concerned something about him was concerning Chakotay, but if it needs to be teased out, string on a ball of yarn, then he'll accept the situation and proceed logically.]

Temperature? Or other discomforts?

[He figures it's a safe question.]

[lefthandedgenius]

That's fair. Whenever you're inclined and with whatever amount of booze that needs to be applied as necessary.

[chakotay]

I was a bit of an outsider in my tribe, the child who wanted to be starfleet more than listen to his elders speak of the land and the spirits.

[ a complete opposite of the person he is now and rather telling, actually. he pauses for a moment longer to pat sand around the base of his section of the sandcastle before he continues. ]

I was once a very angry person. It often takes extraordinary circumstances to change people and even then... it's difficult to forget some of life's twists.

[ he's got a point to this, he promises. ]

[mightbeconcussed]

Deal. You'll be the first to know when I want to spill all the gory details. [ Most of the people that know what happened to her are gone, including the person that did them. Chekov knows some things because he's the reason she's alive now. ]

[logistical]

[It's a story, and one would expect Spock not to care very much for them, as he takes only facts and observations, strings them together to form a coherent whole. Yet, stories are woven together from threads, and if one isn't aware of all of them, the entire foundation is unsteady. The forest can't be understood if one refuses to see the individual trees when necessary.]

[He nods.]

Extraordinary circumstances tend to make one unpredictable.

[He's hedging. It's only to indicate that he's listening, and following, waiting for Chakotay to get to the meat of it.]

[chakotay]

[ he takes a moment. as much as he tries to encourage kathryn to talk about her troubles and issues, it's hard for him to talk about his own. and this is a big one, one he doesn't normally address, let alone to someone he barely knows. ]

Even more so when you continuously find yourself being betrayed by people you thought you could trust. [ which is the real problem here. ] It has a tendency to taint your future encounters, even to the point of offending someone you barely know without even realizing it.

[ this is a roundabout apology here and he gives his part of the sandcastle another firm pat before looking up at spock. ]

What I mean to say is... I never meant to offend anyone, least of all you. [ which means kathryn told him about that whole thing, the vibe he's been subconsciously sending spock. ] If it's all right with you, I'd like to start over. Maybe I can learn to ignore past grievances.