tushanshu | Text; Don't judge.

[Korra can’t help but raise her eyebrows.]

You guys have that stuff on the starship too?

[She wasn’t sure if Jim had seen his armor or not, but Korra had caught a glimpse of it on the network earlier that night. It was still hard for her not to think that wasn’t some kind of advanced form of metalbending.]

What stuff?

[He reaches back for his glass of ice fruit thing, giving her a curious expression.]

Um, Stark stuff.

[And that’s the best the Avatar can come up with on the fly.]

[... Excuse him, he bursts out laughing.]

'Stark stuff'. He's from a different universe, so probably not.

[Korra can’t help but laugh too, it really did sound pretty dumb when she heard it repeated back at her.]

Well, that’s a shame. Some stuff I’ve never seen before, but I guess that’s not saying much. Everyone thinks all I’ve ever seen is glaciers and igloos.

[Then a realization.]

Wait, which Tony did you meet?

[... That gets an arch of one eyebrow.]

There's more than one? Acts like me, a little shorter, dark hair, funny facial hair? Thing-- [he waves vaguely toward his sternum] in his chest? Super interested in science? Like to the point where he was practically willing to ['prostitute himself' excuse you Jim] take me out to dinner to get a look at my tricorder?

Acts like you? [She shakes her head.] Not really. But yeah to pretty much everything else.

[Korra's eyebrow raised and she took a good long stare at Jim.]

Tell me a tricorder is something not attached to your body. [Please.]

[Oh god, why would you ask that. Jim facepalms very briefly, and then pulls his tricorder out of its belt holster and forks it over for her to examine in full.]

It's a scientific device that scans for things like atmosphere viability, lifeforms, that sort of thing. It's got a twenty metre radius.

[Thankful that it was an actual device and not kind of slang from Jim's home world, Korra takes the tricorder and just blinks when it's open.]

I'm not even going to ask about the lights. [She runs finger over the lights, avoiding the buttons as if it would explode if she touched them.]

And no music? I thought you had better-than-stark-stuff. [Her smile is small, but filled with playfulness.]

Does it have any kind of weapon on it? [The main reason she didn't want to touch any buttons.]

[And Jim, with the utmost in patience, replies to each of her comments in turn,]

The lights are coded, they mean a lot of different things, we're trained to interpret them. It doesn't have music, it's a tool. For a job. Music would be a distraction. And no. It's not a weapon.

[He leans over, presses the 'scan lifeform' button, and a tiny holographic representation of a human (ie: him) pops up above the device.]

We're explorers first. Our mission is to boldly go where no one's gone before. Weapons are sometimes necessary for that, but a Starfleet Officer is trained to always try a diplomatic solution first.

[There’s actually a little sigh of relief at the no weapons part. She remembered what happened when she fiddled with the buttons on the sphere piece of tech she found after the satellite fell.]

Oh whoa. [The little holograph of Jim causes her eyes to widen and she slowly pokes it with her finger, cleanly passing through it.]

I think I see what you mean about earning your way through those Starfleet ranks.

[Then a question comes to her mind, and she has to ask:] Did you show up on Tu Vishan in the palace, or did you get here by your starship to explore…?

[The question makes him close his eyes, and he thinks of Spock. I order you to-- he cuts it off. He doesn't need to think about that right now, or hear it.]

No, I got here like everyone else. Man, I wish my ship were here. She's the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen, I bet you'd love her.

[She's everything beautiful bout the universe rendered down to sleek lines and folded steel and she's his heart and soul and being apart from her is worse than he could have ever imagined. His ship, his crew, his entire family's out there somewhere without their captain and it's driving him crazy by degrees.]

[Fascinated, Korra had reached the point of covering the hologram with her hand, and then removing it. A lot.]

Well you should me a drawing of it, and- yeah, okay so that’s not the same. [Looking at the hologram curiously and then back at Jim, Korra suddenly brightened with a huge smile.]

Can you show me what it looks like on here?

[A question, with that smile meant Korra had an idea. If he said yes.]

Yeah, sure.

[He reaches to take the tricorder back from her, and then he fiddles with it a moment, until it shows a the Enterprise in her sundry glories. Jim's expression is bright and fond, looking at her. Even though she's, you know, barely even a fraction of the size.]

This is the bridge-- [he highlights the area, and points with his index finger.] Engineering [likewise] and our med-bay's right here, it's sort of out of the way so it takes the least amount of damage in a firefight.

[Seeing the holograph of it really did it more justice than the schematics had. Korra’s eyes flicked to see Jim looking like a child showing off their brand new bike. A giggle and she paid attention to the design of the exterior as well as where the different sections were located.]

So these make it go. [her fingers trace along the edge of the hologram.]

What does NCC-1701 mean? [Recognizing individual letters in English was a lot easier than fully formed words.] And where do you sit?

'Naval Construction Contract', and her hull number. It's basically an identifying code.

[And in answer to her second comment, he enlarges the bridge section, and then points towards the central chair.]

Captain's chair. Everything I need to know about my ship, I can hear from right there.

[Korra’s eyes enlarge almost in perfect rhythm when the hologram does. Unable to help herself, Korra tried to touch the chair.]

Everyone gets their orders from you here? And the others around your chair do things too right? Command shirts like yours?

There's kind of a mix. My helmsman and my navigator both wear the gold, my communications officer, Uhura - you'd like her - wears reds. Spock's in blue, like I mentioned, for the sciences. Running a ship's a community effort. It takes a village, you know.

[Yes he just compared his ship to raising a child. What of it.]

Pretty sure my village couldn’t run that. [A smirk paired with a nod is all she gave with that.] But I think it’s pretty and cool. I’d like to fly on it. In space.

[The thought of it actually caused her to rear her head back, closing her eyes and giving a light shake of her head. That was a big concept, almost too big.]

I know you said Spock was here too, so sciences and medical are blue. Does that mean he has to do both, or just one of them? Because if it’s both, then I’m out.

[A scientist the Avatar is not.]

[Okay, he actually laughs.]

So what's your village like, anyway? Everyone's always trying to kill me in the ones I find.

[Most of the time it's because they're possessed or brainwashed or whatever, so at least there's that. Jim swishes his drink around - it's almost empty - and after a moment he reaches for another piece of that jerky.]

Before I forget, I've been warned about sea prunes. Got any I can try?

[HE NEVER TURNS DOWN A CHALLENGE EVER. He'd eat them and force himself to like them just because he can. And then, he rubs his jaw against his shoulder.]

Medical's considered a science. It just fits together in the triumvirate.

You mean aside from below freezing temperatures? Kind of nice actually. It’s not big, so everyone knows everyone pretty much. We have igloos and huts. Everyone seems to think they’re supposed to be small, but really they’re quite big. The village is a little scattered around, but not too much. The compound was close to it, so I could Naga back and forth to visit my mom and dad before or after training for the day was done.

[She shrugs.] Nothing fancy like Republic City, but it’s home.

[Korra actually tries to repeat triumvirate, but gives up after saying the first syllable three times incorrectly.]

You seriously want to try one? [Korra looked at him with raised eyebrows.] Just about everyone seems to get sick or nauseated at just the smell. They’re a lot stronger in flavor raw than in a stew. Which would your prefer?

And Naga is... your polar-bear dog.

[Taking a wild stab in the dark, here. YOUR WORLD IS SO WEIRD, KORRA. He grins a bit, lifting a hand to hide it (he's yawning, okay!!) as she tries out 'triumvirate', but drops his hand away when the topic switches to sea-prunes.]

Let's try a raw one.

[ALL OR NOTHING.]

[Korra nods enthusiastically.] Mm-hm! She’s the best, I raised her myself. [The yawn doesn’t go unnoticed and before could whip out a little snark about it, she contained a yawn herself by just taking a very long, hard breath through her nose that made her squint slightly.]

Alright, but remember, you asked for it. [She was hoping that he would be able to stomach it since he mentioned that weird wedding food that punch people in the mouth, but Korra was sadly ready for the inevitable vomiting that would occur. She quickly fetched a sea prune from the bowl on the island in the kitchen and a glass of water just in case. Holding it out to him like it was a rare and precious thing, Korra warned:]

No backing out.

Please. I never back down from anything.

[He takes the prune and without the least bit of ceremony, tosses it in his mouth.

He chews a little. Tilts his head like a dog that's just found out there's peanut butter on the roof of its mouth. Shifts his jaw from side to side.

Chews more.

Swallows.

Then he shrugs.]

Wow, after all the fuss people put up about them I figured they'd be like, completely awful. Those things aren't actually half bad. Little salty.

[Those words are one she’s said so many times that it felt odd being on the opposite end of them. While the sea prune is in the air, Korra is suddenly very attentive. Trying to catch an initial reaction, sure that he would try to muscle through it and lie about the taste.]

Wow.

[A genuine word of surprise as Korra blinks a few times, bringing herself to accept what she just witnessed.]

I would have betted against you. Glad you’re not all talk. [That had a small, teasing grin.]

Uh, yeah. SEA prunes; salt water. [She had to take it if he was going to just lay it there in front of her.]

Edited (But what is html really?) 2013-07-19 20:08 (UTC)

Text; Don't judge.

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