#starstcff:asks

[duefaith-a]

          //  @starstcff​ sent,    ❝ hide .   hide now . ❞    from vala.

          ❛ I... what? ❜    her words come sudden,  interrupting the pointless story he’d been telling  ( attention diverted,  he’s already forgotten what it was ).  his reflexes are too slow for her,  and while he stands floundering,  she shoves him forcefully towards high cabinets in the corner,  towards the boxes and piled there,  some open,  some serving as pedestals for their former contents.  

          there’s voices,  he registers slowly,  outside in the room,  in the corridor beyond.    ❛ vala... ❜    he begins,  but once hushed once more,  he yields to her;  it’s not worth the fight.  he permits her to tug him into the midst of the mess,  to tug him down to crouch behind particularly tall boxes near the wall,  far from the door as they can reach.    ❛ you know if they’re looking for what’s in here,  we’re screwed. ❜    he taps a knuckle upon the wooden frame before him,  words muttered to her under his breath.

          he peers out,  seeking a glimpse of the door,  and slowly the emphatic nature of her response sinks in.    ❛ vala, ❜    he begins tentatively,  not sure he wants the answer,    ❛ do you recognize them? ❜

[gaerlhoss-a]

          // @starstcff​​ sent,  ❝ i’m swallowing the urge to set the record straight. ❞

          ever since he arrived to babylon 5,  john has felt as though the world as he knew it had been yanked from beneath his feet,  leaving him to topple down an unending,  impossible rabbit hole,  like alice on her way to wonderland.  he has been wrong plenty,  floundering to forge a path where there is none.  he has had to set aside his pride,  has had to balance authority and the humility of one admittedly far out of his depths.  however,  as his gaze drifts up from the reports upon table before him,  his lips pressed into a frown that conceals a smile,  he resolves not to be bullied  ( however charmingly ).  not this time.    ❛ now,  when do you ever pass up the opportunity to correct me? ❜    yet for all the apparent brusqueness to the question,  there’s no trace of true accusation in the intent,  goodnatured humor concealed behind wry words.    ❛ and I stand by what I said. ❜

         with indignation and a shake of his head,  returns his attention to former reading.  under his breath,  he adds in a grumble,    ❛ set the record straight,  indeed. ❜    but then his eyes narrow,  attention caught not by the data upon the page but by fleeting thought.  he looks back up at her once more.    ❛ you do realize that setting the record straight would mean giving a straight answer.  I thought that was illegal on this station. ❜

[gaerlhoss-a]

          // @starstcff​​ sent,    ❝ its me,  hi.  I’m the problem,  its me... ❞    from vala.

          what’s the problem?  she had spoken the words absentmindedly,  attention only half torn from shifting data.  she rues the words almost as soon as she’d spoken them,  something in the glint of vala’s eye telling her all she should need to know.  she’s too tired for this,  eyes dry from staring at the brilliance of her computer screen,  of scrolling through numbers seeking...  well,  sam’s not entirely sure anymore just what she’s seeking.  that alone is more than indication that she needs to rest,  and probably it would be only a matter of time until cameron arrived to drag her away,  or until daniel wandered in with a dilemma of his own to offer as distraction.

          ❛ vala,  that’s... ❜    she sighs,  not fully certain where she’s going with the sentence.    ❛ that’s not something you’re supposed to be proud of. ❜    and yet,  vala being vala,  of course it is.  and if she smiles,  just a bit,  at the thought,  who’s to say.

[pathlit]

⤷ ✧ @starstcff said, ❝ you held this, and nothing happened to you? ❞ from emily.

❛ should something have happened? it is a button, em. perfectly simple and entirely mundane. ❜ he wrangles the glare he's tempted to throw at the offending item, which is not nearly so mundane as he claims. ❛ frankly, I think you should burn the thing. it's an affront to the hallmarks of civilized society everywhere. ❜

fire would do nothing to it, of course, but he doesn't for a moment expect her to actually agree to his suggestion. certainly not for his reasons, considering her own sense of fashion ( really, her lack thereof ). he suppresses a long-suffering sigh.

regardless, in one thing he was earnest: they were both better off without the thing's presence, and he'd have seen to its removal himself had she not chosen the most inconvenient of moments to walk back through the door. but alas, this was, after all, emily. he'd been a fool to think even for a moment he might get away with the scheme.

[pathlit]

⤷ ✧ @starstcff said, ❝ are you calling my life's work nonsense? ❞ from nikolai.

she would never... and she could earnestly affect an air of utter indignation, of offense that he would even suggest.... but instead she grins at him, unable to resist asking, ❛ and what if I was? ❜

her smile proves more fleeting than her usual, drawn quickly back into the furrow of her brow. ❛ but it can't possibly actually fly. ❜ that's not something people do, that's not something that wood and canvas can permit. the weight, the physics of air and resistance...

the little science transcends much, and elia knows all too well the way it bends what should be feasible. a whisper heard across a crowded courtyard too long to carry even in abject silence. resonance of music shifted just so to draw a tear from even the most stubbornly stoic... air ships, however, transcend credulity.

[pathlit]

⤷ ✧ @starstcff said, ❝ I just want to know if you left me here to die. I just have to know. ❞ from vala.

despite the sharp retort that springs to his lips, the demand to know if she really thinks he would do such a thing... cam catches, nearly a moment too late, that glint in her eye that shatters the apparent earnestness of the question. righteous indignation morphs instead into a roll of his eyes. ❛ yes, vala, we absolutely left you here to die. that's why we're standing here now. ❜

❛ makes perfect sense. you strand someone to let them die, then show back up to save their ass. no contradictions there. ❜ okay, so maybe 'save their ass' is unjustifiably dramatic, considering the circumstances and considering vala's sometimes-downright-infuriating ability to weasel her own way out of trouble — trouble which she all too often has caused and which he and the rest of his team have less luck evading. regardless, his point stands.

[pathlit]

⤷ ✧ @starstcff said, ❝ Well, I guess that answers the old "if I asked you to drive off a cliff" scenario. ❞ from pike.

an eyebrow raised in quiet challenge, the hint of a smile only he will recognize as a smile. ❛ you had doubts? ❜ it has long since ceased to be duty, ceased to be an obligation imposed upon her by rank and position, yet it remains her responsibility: christopher pike says he wants something done, and whatever it is, she finds a way to do it that does not risk ship, crew, or captain.

even if her confidence that her solution will work remains hers alone, and even if she neglects to share the finer points of her plan — those that might give reassurance of its success.

she should fix him with a look that asks now what?, but she cannot resist adding, ❛ you do recognize that that is a silly scenario to begin with. it assumes a binary of options: trust ❜ — she nearly says obey, but knows that that isn't the point — ❛ and risk almost certain death, or, as common sense would dictate, not take the action that might very well kill you. ❜ he knows her well enough to know that, presented with two options, she will find a third.

there is always a third.

[pathlit]

⤷ ✧ @starstcff said, ❝ I'm not afraid of death. I'm afraid of time. ❞ from cat.

his scoffing laugh is more derisive than he intends, fueled by bitterness he prefers not to acknowledge. ❛ there a difference? ❜ where does time lead, after all, save death? and sooner rather than later, though they defy it with every breath they take.

beyond the wards, a threat for which they lack the strength to defeat. within the wards, a society structured to keep everyone blind, military too caught up in ensuring their own survival to question and civilians blissfully content to accept the stories offered to them. xaden’s not certain, when all is considered, which alternative is truly the worse.

but he's rude without cause, and surely he owes her enough to muster some small semblance of civility, unsatisfactory though it is likely to prove. less harshly, he adds, ❛ why time? ❜