I wonder what "or else" would have been. Threatening me would be difficult if I was in another universe. [As if he'd ever be in another universe for very long. Kitty won't get rid of him that easily.
He's already pulling on shoes and heading for the hanger.]
I can tell you that you were asleep for two months and that you missed your birthday. [And his! What terrible timing.] I would rather tell you the rest in person, if you wouldn't object to company. Is there anything that you would like me to bring you?
Oh, no, it was terrible beyond measure. You're much better off just imagining it often.
In person is good. [She needs to get out and see her crew, but she wants to do all of it right now and some things have to come before others because that's how she experiences time. So limited.] And nothing. I mean, unless you have birthday cake now that you made me think of it.
I would rather stay here and not deserve "or else" at all. That would be simpler [That might be a lie since he's still iffy about existence in this universe, but at this moment it feels true enough.]
No cake, no. It would be very stale after forty-six days. [Hopping into a shuttle, moving quickly, hopefully not crashing.]
I mean, no one stopped you from baking a new one each day just in case, but if you say so. [This is good. Familiar. Fun. But she isn't feeling as light as she may come off. She's seen enough on the network to be concerned.]
Mr. Jarvis is territorial about the kitchen. I would never have had the opportunity to bake even one. [There's a lot to be concerned about... and there are a couple of things that Chekov doesn't want to tell Kitty at all. He's torn between sticking with the easy banter and trying to ease her into the bad news.]
Wave some flamingos at him until he leaves and stake your claim.
[She may just run headlong into bad news while he's making the trip if that helps? Not that it will stop her from trying to discuss it.]
Working on it. [Scrolling through network items but it would be rude to listen to the video ones while she's talking and there aren't that many in text.]
[Well, fine! There are not-so-awful things to talk about anyway.]
Chloe is gone and Captain Kirk has been in a coma for a month. There are three new people on the Tourist, but I have not spent enough time on the ship to meet them yet.
[He pauses and pretends to concentrate on navigating the shuttle for a moment.] In the middle of the last month, we learned that a meteor was going to hit Lyuku--the planet that we were on. The fleet helped with evacuation efforts for six days, and then many of us helped on the space station that the planet's population was relocated to for another six. This is our third full day of drifting.
Yes, you should apologize for napping so long and at such an inconvenient time. [He smiles a little. Please don't apologize (even though he was extremely worried).]
I'm nearly there. I hope that you're prepared to be hugged.
Keep the spiky jacket on if you must. I will endure.
[He hangs up (do you hang up when you're doing the video thing?) to better fly and land the shuttle. By the time he does that and makes his way to Kitty's room, entire minutes have gone by. Maybe enough minutes for her to make a post and learn whatever is convenient or desired from other people!]
[She planned to meet him in the cargo bay, but she got distracted by increasingly concerning comments from others and she found a disturbing message from a week ago from Kurt. Consequently she's in her room on her bed with the door open and her eyes wide as she rereads the words. What does it mean? Why would he admit these things? What was he about to say? Why is it cut off?]
[That whole hug-Kitty-immediately plan falls by the wayside once he lets himself into her room. He stops at the threshold, wondering exactly how much she knows now.]
[Hug it is then! He picks up on the intention behind her question and keeps hugging her. Might be easier to say the thing that way.]
The planet, Lyuku... when the meteor hit, not everyone from the fleet was off-world. Some people didn't survive... Kurt and Remy among them. I'm sorry.
[She pushes him back at those words. On the plus side, she's not as toned and trained as she normally is since she just woke up from a coma. It's just enough to separate the hug.] What!? [Maybe she should have expected it. Maybe part of her was anticipating fleet deaths. Maybe even Kurt's after what she say, but it still hit her hard and suddenly.] No!
[He takes a couple of extra steps back and fumbles for a response.] I'm sorry, I wish that-- [that he'd personally chased down every single fleeter on the planet? sure] ... I'm sorry, Kitty.
[Why are you moving so far away when she needs to crumble back on you? Oh, was it the pushing? Should she not do that?
She steps forward, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she can and burying her head against his neck. Her body shakes. There's a lot of unsatisfied energy there that needs to come out or be contained. She wants to destroy things. She wants to be held. The inner conflict is real. And she's just waking up to this. The others lived through it. They struggled and worked and watched people die around them. Watched a planet die. And Kurt's last words were about being the reason their world died? Why? Why did he tell her that then? Was it even true? Did he think she was some wild animal he nursed back to health and had to be mean to so she'd go live in the wild again instead of wanting to be with him?]
He can't be dead! I need to yell at him and hit him repeatedly! [Her voice is also a conflicted mix of anger and sorrow with a dash of desperation.]
He hugs her again--cautiously at first, more securely once it seems like she's not going to push away again. There aren't a lot of worse things to wake up to than dead friends.]
Maybe he will come back and you'll have an opportunity to do both of those things. [People didn't usually stay dead in the City or in MarinaNova. Weirder things than coming back from the dead happen all the time.]
[That jars her. She hadn't considered it. At least not recently. Sure, Marina did that at the end, but it hadn't always. Most of the time she was there when people died they stayed dead. The graveyard had marked people who'd never come back. But they could. They always could bring them back. They were always there in storage.]
...Wait, does that happen here? Do people come back?
[She'd never heard of someone dying. She'd asked a few times early on, but those people hadn't known and couldn't remember anyone dying. And then things seemed so peaceful most of the time it didn't feel relevant anymore. It's pretty freaking relevant now though.]
I have no idea, but since it was possible in both of the two prisons I was in previously...
[Not that he's going to get his hopes up--better to assume that Kurt and Looma are permanently dead than to believe that they will come back--and he doesn't want to get Kitty's hopes up, either. The possibility just seems worth mentioning.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[Video]
He's already pulling on shoes and heading for the hanger.]
I can tell you that you were asleep for two months and that you missed your birthday. [And his! What terrible timing.] I would rather tell you the rest in person, if you wouldn't object to company. Is there anything that you would like me to bring you?
[Video]
In person is good. [She needs to get out and see her crew, but she wants to do all of it right now and some things have to come before others because that's how she experiences time. So limited.] And nothing. I mean, unless you have birthday cake now that you made me think of it.
[Video]
No cake, no. It would be very stale after forty-six days. [Hopping into a shuttle, moving quickly, hopefully not crashing.]
[Video]
[Video]
Have you learned anything about what you missed?
[Video]
[She may just run headlong into bad news while he's making the trip if that helps? Not that it will stop her from trying to discuss it.]
Working on it. [Scrolling through network items but it would be rude to listen to the video ones while she's talking and there aren't that many in text.]
[Video]
[Well, fine! There are not-so-awful things to talk about anyway.]
Chloe is gone and Captain Kirk has been in a coma for a month. There are three new people on the Tourist, but I have not spent enough time on the ship to meet them yet.
[Video]
Where have you been instead? [Wandering right into the neutral zone.]
[Video]
[He pauses and pretends to concentrate on navigating the shuttle for a moment.] In the middle of the last month, we learned that a meteor was going to hit Lyuku--the planet that we were on. The fleet helped with evacuation efforts for six days, and then many of us helped on the space station that the planet's population was relocated to for another six. This is our third full day of drifting.
[Video]
Probably a good topic for when you get here.
[Video]
[The banter is dead now. RIP banter.]
...I'm glad that you're awake. I know that I am not the only one who missed you.
[Video]
And for sleeping while Kirk was too.
[Video]
I'm nearly there. I hope that you're prepared to be hugged.
[Video]
Does that mean I should take off the spikey jacket? [There's no spikey jacket.] I'll see you soon.
[Video to Action]
[He hangs up (do you hang up when you're doing the video thing?) to better fly and land the shuttle. By the time he does that and makes his way to Kitty's room, entire minutes have gone by. Maybe enough minutes for her to make a post and learn whatever is convenient or desired from other people!]
[Action]
[She planned to meet him in the cargo bay, but she got distracted by increasingly concerning comments from others and she found a disturbing message from a week ago from Kurt. Consequently she's in her room on her bed with the door open and her eyes wide as she rereads the words. What does it mean? Why would he admit these things? What was he about to say? Why is it cut off?]
[Action]
...Kitty?
[Action]
What's going on? [This is not a casual greeting. This is a, "why does everything feel sideways?" question.]
[Action]
The planet, Lyuku... when the meteor hit, not everyone from the fleet was off-world. Some people didn't survive... Kurt and Remy among them. I'm sorry.
[Action]
[Action]
[Action]
She steps forward, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she can and burying her head against his neck. Her body shakes. There's a lot of unsatisfied energy there that needs to come out or be contained. She wants to destroy things. She wants to be held. The inner conflict is real. And she's just waking up to this. The others lived through it. They struggled and worked and watched people die around them. Watched a planet die. And Kurt's last words were about being the reason their world died? Why? Why did he tell her that then? Was it even true? Did he think she was some wild animal he nursed back to health and had to be mean to so she'd go live in the wild again instead of wanting to be with him?]
He can't be dead! I need to yell at him and hit him repeatedly! [Her voice is also a conflicted mix of anger and sorrow with a dash of desperation.]
[Action]
He hugs her again--cautiously at first, more securely once it seems like she's not going to push away again. There aren't a lot of worse things to wake up to than dead friends.]
Maybe he will come back and you'll have an opportunity to do both of those things. [People didn't usually stay dead in the City or in MarinaNova. Weirder things than coming back from the dead happen all the time.]
[Action]
...Wait, does that happen here? Do people come back?
[She'd never heard of someone dying. She'd asked a few times early on, but those people hadn't known and couldn't remember anyone dying. And then things seemed so peaceful most of the time it didn't feel relevant anymore. It's pretty freaking relevant now though.]
[Action]
[Not that he's going to get his hopes up--better to assume that Kurt and Looma are permanently dead than to believe that they will come back--and he doesn't want to get Kitty's hopes up, either. The possibility just seems worth mentioning.]
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