smartass_captain: (Moment the plan falls apart)
Jim Kirk ([personal profile] smartass_captain) wrote in [community profile] nexus_crossings2018-12-03 09:36 pm

Impromptu Family Meetups

It's that time of year. Holidays around every corner, family and friends dropping in unannounced, needing to be entertained and fed and plied with stories of how you've been, how is work, and all sorts of things. The thing is, for most of Jim Kirk's life he's never known any of that. It's hard to have sudden family visits when you don't have much in the way of family and aren't speaking to damn near all of them.

Which makes this day exceptionally stressful.

No Starfleet uniform today--even if Jim wanted to he's not allowed to wear any of his own clothes for where he's about to be headed. Instead he's dressed in a soft wool tunic in his preferred golden color and simple linen pants beneath the fur lined cloak he's got pulled over his clothes. Gloved hands fidget with the ties on all of this, a nervous habit he can't quite stop himself from making.

He stops his pacing when he nearly stumbles over a passer-by with how lost in thought he is and it's only then that the captain looks up at whomever he's nearly trodden upon.

"What's the best way to impress your in-laws? What's the etiquette for meeting someone's family for the first time?"
conjuredskies: (Careful)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2018-12-06 07:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Felix inclines his head to rest his forehead gently against Jim's. He's trying to be a reassuring influence, though it's not a role he'd claim to perform well. Perhaps only when it comes to Jim. For Jim, he's tried to learn.

"I was thinking... you're from an island off the coast of High Rock, too small for most mapmakers to bother with. You chafed for years to get away and explore Tamriel, and that's what you've been doing for some time, though you're still unfamiliar with many things about the wider world." His grin is teasing, although it is a useful claim to make. "Fortunately you have an aptitude for scholarship as well as adventure. Eventually your wandering brought you to Solitude, which is where we met. How does that sound?"
conjuredskies: (Indeeeeed)

[personal profile] conjuredskies 2018-12-08 08:26 pm (UTC)(link)
"Exactly. Their province is divided into many different kingdoms and duchies and what-have-you. Nobody keeps track of them all, and it won't be so odd if they catch you speaking a strange dialect from time to time."

Jim's obvious intelligence and his determination to learn about everything around him will swiftly dispel any negative conceptions about his obscure past, Felix is sure. And it's very important to have that layer of plausible ignorance, ready to excuse any dangerous slips when it comes to local politics and religion. Not so necessary in dealing with his father - Felix hopes - but necessary.

"I can't apologize. It's a sound template. Besides, you'll have more freedom to invent details than I will - people in my world can't ask clever machines to tell them about every place in the world." That's the best name he can give a computer, without adopting the word wholesale.
Edited 2018-12-08 20:59 (UTC)