(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]

This is enough.

[English and one phrase, that is. Pavel sort of gives up on resisting gravity, prevented from toppling over by Ginny. His good mood darkens somewhat.] There are times when it is harder, you're right. How many Christmases and summers has it been, Ginny?

[hexuality]

[The answer comes easily.]

Five Christmases, five summers.

[candothat]

I'm sorry for that. If I had a family like yours, I think even one Christmas would be too much.

[hexuality]

This December will be six, if I don't go home before then.

[She smiles, quiet and reassuring.]

The first Christmas wasn't bad, actually. I had loads of people from my world here when I arrived, even one of my brothers—Ron. The second one was a bit awful, though, because everyone had gone home by November of that year. But I've always had friends like you around, so it could always be worse. I'm lucky.

[candothat]

[He's quiet for a moment, then seems to realize that he has fallen over onto Ginny. Chekov rights himself, staying shoulder-to-shoulder with Ginny.]

I had a friend at the Academy, Lan, who said that six was a very lucky number. If you stay for six Christmases, something should be done to make the sixth special.

[hexuality]

I think you're just trying to find a reason to give me a gift because I told you not to.

[But it's a joke because she's really quite touched. And yeah, sprawling happens, but they can totally lie here on the sand.]

Seven's a lucky number in my world. I wonder what the difference is.

[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.]

[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]

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.

[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.

[hexuality]

I don't know if anyone has always been here, even the Anonymous people. I wonder if there have ever been children born in the City, though? People meet here, fall in love, get married. You have to wonder... But then, imagine if the parents go home—

[Ginny knows too many orphans to continue in that train of thought, unsettled.]

Well. Anyway, you're right. The good and bad balance out, sometimes. I can't say I hate it here nearly as much as I did when I arrived.

[candothat]

I hope that there are no children born here. It would be cruel of the parents, I think, to willfully have a child from whom they may be separated at any moment. [He's a little too serious about the topic--unusually so. But he moves on.] But there are good people here who would care for such children.

Please don't dislike me for saying so, Ginny, but I'm glad that you are here.

[hexuality]

[She wonders about it, sometimes. What if she met someone (not Harry), what if they fell in love, wanted a family, despite all odds? What if the idea that they could go home at any minute was enough? She thinks she could never do it, that it would be the ultimate form of giving up hope, but almost five years and no end in sight is hard. Hogwarts became home to her after a year, still feels like it after six—she's almost been in the City as long as the castle.

She looks over at him when he speaks, smiling softly, and she wraps an arm around his shoulders again, sand everywhere and voice fond.]

How can I dislike someone for feeling the same way I do?

[candothat]

[Sandy hugs banish all of the negative thoughts. This is a party, not a place to discuss the various personal problems the City forces a person to deal with! Pavel leans heavily on Ginny.]

You cannot, obviously.

[hexuality]

[She laughs, pressing a quick and affectionate kiss to his temple.]

Happy birthday, Pavel.