nexus_crossings | working out complications

working out complications

People who have met and are familiar with Rondo are relatively few and far between in the Nexus. He appears here and there, and occasionally introduces himself, but for the most part he’s been an observer. It helps that he’s small and quiet; his ability to be overlooked is almost supernatural. Those who have met him, though, may notice that he looks slightly different today. He’s colored his hair, for one thing. The soft brown is full of streaks of plum-purple and there are a couple tiny braids decorating the back of his neck, each with a pair of little jewels stuck in the end, like the eyes of a dangling snake.

His clothing is mostly black, too, where he normally wears earthtones and green. Otherwise he seems the same, though, seated on a bench outside the library, surrounded by books but scrolling through his tablet screen. Rondo is obviously not human, significantly under five feet tall, with an elongated face and pointed ears dotted with chains and earrings. He looks young, though. A student, maybe? The large cup of coffee at his knee makes that idea plausible.

“Um…” he’s hesitant to speak publicly in this place. There are so many humans, and other species he doesn’t even know anything about. But he does have a couple questions. “So, uh, for people who come and go from this place, assuming you can’t just openly announce to your neighbors and friends that you have a gateway to a multidimensional realm—how do you keep it a secret? How strictly do you separate Nexus stuff from home stuff? Are you worried about cross-contamination?”

“And—I’m kind of thinking about renting a room here. Because I keep finding books I want, and things I’d like to have access to, but can’t take home. Tech, instruments, even food and clothes. I’d only need, like, a studio, I guess? Anyone looking for a very part-time tenant? Or roommate?”

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"Jim!" In contrast to the way he's looked uncertain when other humans approach, Rondo perks up visibly when he spots Kirk. For all that there's a lingering tension in his interactions with any human or human-appearing person, Rondo has been more or less won over where Jim is concerned. There are topics they probably shouldn't broach, certainly not lightly, but he's happy to see him, and that's not complicated.

"How've you been? And your husband?" He smiles. "Oh, this? It's for Veth's Night. My school goes a little crazy for holidays. The parties started last Wednesday and everyone's going to be hungover until next Wednesday."

"I guess you don't celebrate that...it's supposed to be when the Rock Serpent, Phrakha'an, and his followers come up from the ground to celebrate and, uh, interact with living people. The old stories say the smallest veth-snakes can creep into your ears or up your nose and possess you, if you sleep through it. It's pretty wild."

"Busy!" Jim's laugh is genuine as he comes to a stop in front of the other where he's seated on the bench. The man's dressed in his usual uniform and still carries a hint of military bearing to his stride. Freshly off of work, today. He peers toward that cup of coffee to see if he can gauge how full it is. "I just got off shift. Stopped in to see about grabbing dinner to bring back to Felix in a bit here."

After a long shift full of paperwork the siren song of caffeine is music to his ears about now, too.

"Holidays, huh? I suppose a good party's hard to argue with so long as you're in the mood to be celebrating." A few holidays Jim leans all in on, even if some of the more important ones to Terrans he abstains from entirely. It's helped, picking up some of Felix's instead. Less baggage to deal with. He trails off when Rondo continues on with his story with a low whistle. "So...what, you try to stay awake as long as possible?" Is that intrigue in Jim's voice?

Does the man Really need an excuse to sleep less?

The cup of coffee is about 2/3rds of the way empty. Rondo has been hitting it pretty hard, which makes sense given what he's just said about the recent holiday. Noting the glance, he smirks and takes a sip from his cup, whether in defiance or friendly acknowledgement of their mutual interest is hard to say, but either way chances are he'd be up for a refill with a friend.

"Veth's Night is one of my favorites," he admits. "You don't have to plan too far ahead or fake nice to anyone you don't like, because everyone's too busy celebrating to care."

"The idea is to be up and dancing all night," he nods. "So the serpents can't get you."

"Of course, if they do get you, the story is that they'll just take your body out into the desert for more dancing and singing, so it's really six of one, half a dozen of the other. Sometimes people take it a little too far and vandalize things. There was a fire in the western quad last night, but it didn't last long. It was just in one of the garbage compressors."

"Wait, so it's just staying up one night? That's not bad at all." Jim, not everyone is half Vulcan and only sleeps every other day or tries to keep up with said half Vulcan to varying degrees of success. Felix puts up with some very odd hours where Jim is concerned already. "You need a refill on that? I'm dying for a cup of coffee myself right about now. Spent the whole day in meetings, feels like. We just finished up observation of the system we were in on Gamma shift so today was meeting after debriefing while we picked the next most likely system to check out based on long range scans."

Thankfully it'll be a couple days of travel to give Jim the buffer he needs to finish all the preliminary paperwork that came out of those discussions but man. Whoever says space exploration is all adventure really ought to read the fine print.

Getting back to the topic at hand though, Jim's all grins. "I really can't argue a holiday of drinks and dancing. Sounds like the Nirnish New Year and that's great fun." So long as one ignores some very tense politics at least. Too many years at his post mean that the mention of property destruction makes Jim frown thoughtfully rather than chuckle. He'd be horrified to know he's become responsible. "Glad no one was hurt, at least." He relaxes a moment later. "Pretty sure everyone does something stupid while drunk at least a few times in their lives though."

Rondo can't help but laugh at Jim's commentary. "I think it kind of worries me that that's your first reaction. Veth's Night-proper is just the one night, but like I said, my school latches onto it pretty hard. The actual holiday was the night before last, but there will be another couple days of late nights before it settles down."

Pause. "Whiiiiiiiich is why I'm here. Because my roommates are loud drunks and I wanted to read a little."

As soon as he suggests a top-up, Rondo's on his feet and collecting his things. "Absolutely, I want a refill. I'll follow you anywhere with coffee."

"Well," he goes on with a shrug, "you have to keep in mind it's a magic school. Any dumbass who's been there for more than two months can put out a garbage fire. It almost doesn't even count as vandalism. If anyone did a really good prank, we won't notice until classes start back up."

"Well here I was worried you'd be trying to stay up for a week, week and a half straight. That's enough to damn near kill most humans." Sleep deprivation is no joke and the bane of Jim Kirk's existence. Imagine how much more he'd be able to get done if he didn't have to go pass out for several hours a night. Almost every night.

"Right. Even when I was stuck here I crashed on a friend's couch in their world rather than staying in the Nexus itself. But a lot of folks live here full time. Hell, I know a gal who I'm pretty sure lived just off the library for a while here. Amelia isn't...the Most friendly, but if you treat her nice she'll probably be decent back." It's clear from the way Jim skirts around the subject that she does not extend much in the way of that treatment to Him but well. Theirs is a long and slightly immature history. But they both like Felix so truces have had to be made.

Jim considers leading them off to one of the cafes or diners he knows around but none of them are terribly near the library. How badly does he want that blessed caffeine? Rondo won't have to scramble to keep up here. Jim's slowed his pace to match the other.

"How social are you feeling? We can trek up to a proper cafe or we can swing by the fringe of the plaza and hit up one of the vending machines and come back."

"Not me." He shakes his head. "Arraka'arans need about the same amount of sleep as humans. Maybe a little less, but not enough to spend a week up and about partying. I hear some of the desert tribes have a staggered sleep schedule so they can work part of the night and sleep through the hot part of the day, but it all adds up to seven or eight hours."

Pause. "Except right before exams. Then I'm up half the night and running on adrenaline and caffeine."

"Oof. I don't think I'm ready to travel to other peoples' worlds yet." He shakes his head again, much more vehemently this time. "It sounds exciting until I start imagining everything that could go wrong. I definitely wouldn't be able to sleep there."

"As long as no one's shouty-drunk, I can handle a cafe," he says with a wry grin. "I'll trust your judgment here, at least this once."

Jim can't help but to grin at the admission concerning Rondo's exams. He remembers all too well trying to juggle far more lessons at the Academy than was advised and the many sleepless caffeine laced cramming sessions that came out of those years. It's not something he needs to do quite so often anymore, thankfully.

"It's a useful skill to have. Being able to power through when circumstances demand it. If there's ever an emergency you'll be glad you know how to knuckle down and work through the fatigue for a long while." The voice of experience, there.

That last bit earns a much more serious nod. Jim understands that anxiety all too well.

"My Chief Medical Officer is the same way. I'm not exactly comfortable with it without any prior knowledge, but I've gotten used to being able to rest and work in unfamiliar places." With Rondo's permission Jim's happy to swing them up one of the less busy streets to find one of the quieter places Felix has guided Jim to before. The Imperial always manages to find these nice hole in the wall places Jim never would have thought to look twice at.

This one in particular isn't run or frequented it seems by many humans. The couple running the place definitely aren't Argonians, though it's always the first word that pops into his head where the vaguely reptilian proprietors are concerned.

"This place is one of my husband's favorites, and always fairly quiet." Jim smiles as he glances aside toward Rondo. "Plus, their cold press is second to none if that's your thing."

The fact that so many magic lessons are hands-on demonstrations in labs and ranges adds an extra wrinkle. You try to cast a tricky elemental spell while you're groggy and anxious, you run the risk of leveling the classroom. Usually there are fail-safes in place to prevent disaster, but you can't plan for everything.

Exam time is stressful on more than one level. For some reason, Rondo thrives under these conditions. "I don't know, I think I enjoy the rush a little too much," he admits with a smirk. "I end up feeling like I've been run over by a hoverfleet the week after, but I make good marks."

He nods thoughtfully at Jim's comment about unfamiliar places. "I guess...you have to, if you're traveling so often. I've never thought about that before, what it must be like to leave home like that."

He notices the thinning out of the human element in the crowd, and while he won't say anything aloud, the awareness that Jim is catering to his quirks is heartwarming. "It looks great," he says, and smiles, then his ears perk. "Cold press, like juice? Do you think they have pineapple? I've only ever had them tinned and imported from offworld, but they're so good!"

"Gotta take the adrenaline where you can get it, sometimes." It's an urge the human understands quite well. Flourishing under pressure, in stressful high risk seeming scenarios. Even when the stress is entirely artificial and his life is not in fact in danger there's still a rush to be had in performing in those situations. Performing well, at that.

"I feel more at home on the ship than I do in my family house, by now. But in my friends worlds, or overnight on missions....yeah it takes some getting used to. I suppose the university is the furthest from your home you've been?"

Present company excluded there's only one or two other humans present and none of them are on staff. Jim certainly isn't going to make mention of his choice but he notices how at ease Rondo seems to be and its reason enough to smile. One that turns a bit bashful after a moment.

"Er, I meant the style of coffee, but we could see if they have juice as well. I'm a fan of pineapple myself. I'm allergic to most berries so the fruits I can eat I'm usually pretty big on."

In Rondo's case, the thriving on stress is born in part from leading a sheltered and rather neglected childhood, while watching his parents bustle about Being Important. He hasn't quite made the connection yet, but on some level he anticipates pressure as a part of being an adult.

"I've been further than university, technically, but never unaccompanied. I went to Kannaffar Province with my father on business once or twice, and our housekeepers used to take my sister and me on trips sometimes. Once Vanette moved out, my mother let go of a lot of the staff, though, so I was on my own. I think she felt like Vanette needed the supervision, but I was always pretty well-behaved."

"...I didn't know cold-press was a coffee thing. Color me interested." And if they have pineapple juice, too, he will be hydrated as hell.

Jim has to stifle a grin. He only mostly succeeds.

He's pretty sure there's not a day of his juvenile life that anyone would have called him 'well behaved'. In fact he's pretty sure most anyone who knew him growing up would be shocked to hell and back that he's made it as far as he has. But Jim gets the idea all the same.

They approach the counter and Jim's quick to order his favorite cold press coffee before stepping aside so Rondo can place his own. There's a few juices on offer though none of them are going to be anything either man recognizes. The assistant behind the counter gives a soft snort when Jim shrugs at Rondo after being told their options.

"I can put out a few samples if you two like."

Jim puts his hands up immediately and shakes them slightly. "None for me thanks." Strange fruits and his luck are a bad idea when he's got work to do yet today. "But my friend might appreciate it."

Rondo eyes that grin with mock-suspicion, but he's still smiling, too. "You're laughing at me being well-behaved? Everything is relative, Jim. If you met my sister, you would understand. She's a force of nature."

The counter, Rondo finds, is less egregiously tall than most, though he would not have to bend down much to rest his head flat on the surface of it. He studies the menu while Jim orders, and asks for a smaller size of the same coffee, black. "I...would love to try those samples, though, if you don't mind, if they're not too sweet?"

He may or may not find one he likes, but the experience should be entertaining for all concerned.

"No, I'm laughing because I was never what you'd call well-behaved, growing up. I'm trying to imagine what that would be like."

But hey. That just means he's proof that people change and mature, surely. The captain's busy scoping out an open place for them to sit while Rondo places his order. The assistant offers Rondo a nod.

"The prickleberry juice might be to your taste then, but I'll grab a sample of it and the nonas. We should have both freshly made." The tray set out before the gentleman will have both coffees as well as two small glasses. One looks almost fizzy and a lovely shade of magenta while the other smells a lot more akin to a citrus of some kind a more opaque sherbert orange in the glass.

"Boring," Rondo answers promptly, with a sparkle in his smile. But then some of the brightness fades into something altogether more serious, even sad. "Frustrating. Kind of empty."

He gives a little his head then, and refocuses visibly, rising up on his toes to smile warmly at the assistant. "That's brilliant, thank you very much. I'm from a very arid climate and we have less native fruit, it seems, than some other worlds."

He watches the tray set out with interest, and it's clear his eye is drawn to the magenta fizz, but he'll happily try both.

Ah. A sore subject. Jim doesn't look away when Rondo sobers though he will wipe the smile off of his own face in respect for the shift in conversation. Jim may not have had those feelings triggered by the same source, but they're ones he empathizes with all the same.

"Never too late to make a bit of excitement for yourself though." He's cut off from elaborating by the rest of the drink samples being brought out. Even if he's choosing to be responsible there's more than a passing interest in the drinks Rondo is going to sample. Strange new things are his bread and butter.

"Those smell really damn good, if nothing else. I wonder if you can get candles scented like that orangey one. I'd put about ten in my quarters and not have enough of it."

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working out complications

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