psl: polychromatic AU | stargazers

[sleepingstar]

[On the top of the hill, Pai feels like she can reach up and touch the stars. Lying on her back, the grass scratchy on the back of her neck, she stares up at the sky.

She reaches an arm up and covers one of the stars with her thumb. Look, brother! I made another star fall! Except it's still there; all she has to do is move her hand. She doesn't have to kill anyone anymore. Neither of them do.

Hei isn't comfortable here. He's fallen into the habit of paranoia. He doesn't trust the peace, doesn't remember who he is outside of the Syndicate's control. He's so very human in that respect. Pai isn't bothered by the uncertainty. It's irrational to worry about something so completely out of her control.

Instead of making the stars fall, she can make them into stories. She traces shapes in the sky -- finding a bear, a swan, a man dancing. It's a silly exercise, but important. The mind is a muscle like any other; it requires a variety of exercises. It needs whimsey & rationality, exertion & rest.]

熊...

Comments

[sleepingstar]

He says that like he has one. [A joke, of course. Hei has a sense of humor -- low key, often morbid, but still there. He learned it from Amber; they both had. The lessons came more naturally to Hei, being human, but Pai had worked harder at it. Any measure of happiness she could bring him in the midst of Hell was worth the effort to her.]

[candothat]

I think Vulcans, ideally, are emotionally well-regulated. [When they aren't being provoked after having their planet destroyed.] Nyota would know about this than I do.

[Pai's comment provokes a smile.] And you, Pai? How is your sense of humor?

[mortemscintilla]

Are there a lot of Vulcans in Nyota's life?

[ At Pai's remark -- and Pavel's question -- his gaze flicks down, fingers tugging teasingly at the end of Pai's wispy ponytail. ] Too much mouth, [ Although he seems inordinately indulgent. Truth be told, he's always secretly pleased with Pai, even when she's mouthing off. (He's had no idea how much he's missed even this, the intimacy of little barbs -- something small and familial and almost human. In the outsized steel and glass environs of Tokyo, and later, the City, it's easy to feel like just an anonymous face in the crowd, an unknowable blur. Which is a feeling Hei has grown accustomed to -- even welcomed out of operational necessity.) ]

[ Odd how something as simple as this can swamp him with a stunning nostalgia, although Pai's right here. ]

[sleepingstar]

[She makes a face at Hei, but she's happy. Nudging him with her shoulder, she turns to Chekov.]

Who's Nyota?

[candothat]

Perhaps, but I only know that she spends time with Commander Spock, who is half-Vulcan. [Rumor has it that the two are dating, actually, and Nyota does seem to miss him; that, however, is none of Pavel's business. It's fine to pry into the lives of peers, but superiors? No.

He also shouldn't ask too much about the relationship between Hei and Pai. Their wordless interactions are sweet and there's no doubt that they care for each other. That's enough. (It's enough to make him a little jealous, too. He hasn't ever had a friend who was so close that they didn't need to speak to communicate.]

Nyota Uhura is a lieutenant on the Enterprise and she's the best xenolinguist I have ever met. I knew of her at the academy, but we spoke rarely until coming here.

[mortemscintilla]

[ Pavel probably doesn't understand -- or perhaps he does? -- the close bonds that can form between people who spend each day and night on the battlefield, who fight and bleed and kill together. In Hei's and Pai's case, that closeness pre-existed the war. What resulted was an almost uncanny synchronization, a wordless communication almost akin to telepathy. ]

[ (That didn't, however, mean that the sibling shared everything. Even with their matter-of-fact intimacy, there were secrets between them. Like, for example, Pai's knowledge of the Syndicate's plans, and her own designs against them. Designs she -- and Amber -- hid from Hei right until the end.) ]

[ He doesn't want to think about it. Not at this moment, anyway. But by degrees, he finds himself leaning into Pai. Out of unconscious protectiveness, or remembered loneliness, even he can't say. ]

[ To Pavel, almost dryly, ] At least with her around, you have someone to speak Russian with.

[sleepingstar]

What about Spock? [Pai is interested to meet a Vulcan.]

[candothat]

[He doesn't know about those bonds yet, although the main bridge crew did feel a sense of closeness after the Nero ordeal. Nothing like a sibling bond, or the bond between soldiers trapped in an ongoing war.]

Terran languages are not her specialty. Her Russian is good, but I think she likes it less than more exotic languages.

Spock? Commander Spock is frightening.