JL | Lt Merlin, Xue'Daio | "Like A Diamond In The Sky" pt 2

Posted on Wed Nov 29th, 2017 @ 4:19am by Xue'Daio Nox Tr'Verelan & Commander Evan Merlin
Edited on on Sat Dec 2nd, 2017 @ 5:19am

Mission: The Round Table

Evan was only gone for a couple of minutes, but when he returned, there was a vast difference between the bedraggled man of a few moments ago and the image he presented now. He had toweled his hair dry, and it stood out around his head like a dark halo, moving almost with a life of its own every time he himself moved. She had picked the colours of the robes expertly: the dark colours echoed the colour of his hair. The lighter ones highlighted his sea-coloured eyes, which were now the light blue shading into azure of a shallow area near the shore. The robe itself was expertly draped around his slender frame. "I love them!" he exclaimed with a smile.

Peering back over at him from where she was busy laying out bowls and steamers on a low laying table surrounded by cushions, it was clear she regarded him with approval. The colors, not meant to match him, were certainly complimentary. It was almost as if he belonged in them and them upon him - fate bringing the garments together with the man and Xue, however dismissive she might often be, knew better than to wave away such an occurrence. "They suit you." She agreed with a small smile, "I took liberties without asking your primary diet or if anything could kill you," With a gentle shrug, she gestured to the spread, "I'd caution that you ask me what things were before trying them, but please... Join me. I know you've had questions since our first encounter on the promenade."

"Oh, so many questions," he said, inclining his head to accept her invitation. "People generally run out of patience before I run out of questions. So, perhaps there is something to the quite human statement that 'One fool can ask more questions than a wise person can answer'." His smile was quite unlike the manic, child-like grin he had displayed in the arboretum. "For instance, what is it like to glow? To see it is a marvellous sight – not something I've ever come across before in a sentient species, and certainly not in the spectacular way you do. But I can only see what you look like from the outside. I wonder how it feels." He lowered himself upon the cushions with unselfconscious grace. "This looks and smells delicious. I don't forsee many problems, I've tried lots of foods and drinks and the worst thing which ever happened to me was that actual smoke came out of my nose and mouth. Very weird dish, that was, of a curious little race just outside of Federation borders, not that far from the Triangle. Didn't make me ill or anything, but the sensation was quite curious, I can assure you." His eyes shone as he spoke, his whole being seemed to be one which celebrated the vast wonders of the universe.

Finding her own way down to her own cushions, the Empress served him first a bowl of soup filled with with cut chives and dumplings stuffed with seasoned seafood. The broth itself was amber in color, scented softly with a promise of a hint of something akin to ginger - a dish she loved and now would share with the strange man asking her what it was like to glow. "Enjoy." She bid him with that same patient smile and served herself before considering the answer to the question, "I suppose, if I stop to think about it, perhaps there's a tingle that runs along the surface of the skin. It's not unpleasant or pleasurable... It just is and you become one with it without much thought." She replied, savoring a bite of food and the comfort of of the hot broth. The combination of the saltiness and the ginger accompanying the pillows of seafood were quick to pull any residual chill from her bones - and hopefully his as well, "I'm glad that you don't seem to have any issue with food, Lieutenant." A lock of hair was cast away, still drying from it's tryst with the rain, "Tell me... Does the glowing truly fascinate you or is it more a passing intrigue?" Another bite and her eyes began to glitter again.

He ate with the same intensity with which he approached everything else, beginning with a half-filled spoon which he consumed with full intensity, inhaling before he ate and closing his eyes as the taste filled his mouth. Only after he had taken the first few bites did he let his attention to flow out again. "Does any fascination ever last?" he asked in return, speaking quietly now. "It must burn out, as time goes by, else people get stuck in their passions and there will never be room for anything new…" He tilted his head slightly. "Though yes, some people do get stuck on one or two passions, are obsessed by it, consumed…" Then he waved that thought away with that same airy gesture she had seen him use on the promenade. "Yes, it fascinates me. All uniqueness does, but few things are as unique as they are beautiful."

"Please," Xue rested deeper against her cushions, relaxed and tame for the moment as she basked both in the food and the company, "Enlighten me." It was her gentle cue for him to continue, to explain and extrapolate and dissect his words for her pleasure. Perhaps more, perhaps to satiate her own unyielding curiosity now that they were in the quiet of her own private world and not out on the promenade for all to gawk at and observe with their wide, hungry eyes. Eyes that acted as if they'd never seen before. Eyes that didn't hold the same intelligence or depth of knowledge that her guest had dancing within those sea-hued orbs of life.

He folded his hands together and rested his chin upon them, stared into the distance as he collected his thoughts. "The Vulcans have this wonderful philosophy," he said at last. "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations. You'd think it would delight them, to see this living philosophy in action all around them, the wonders of the universe around every corner, under every stone, behind every star. Instead, they pride themselves on their self-control and lack of emotion. What is the worth of a philosophy if you can't delight in it?" He took another bite, sighed in satisfaction at the taste. Either the spiciness of the food or the conversation, or both, began to have its effects. The colour of his eyes deepened, they changed towards a darker blue. "To me that is sometimes the greatest miracle of all, that so many people take the wonders of the universe for granted. We are here on a space station which blends the old with the new, with an arboretum large enough to generate true storms, and people here complain that their food is two degrees too cold. We live in a galaxy where new species are encountered nearly every day, and people scrabble for power, seek to subjugate one species for their own goals and desires. People are surrounded by gems and squabble for mud. They see beauty and seek to enslave it, or to destroy it if only to prevent others from getting what they cannot have. Yes, I delight in uniqueness, in beauty, in the wonder of it all. To do otherwise would be a sacrilege." His eyes, which had been blazing like stars during this curious monologue, were cast down again and he dispelled the earnest words with another smile. "That's what I think, anyway."

At first her only response was the gentle shift of her weight as she reached for another bite of food, her head canted to one side being the only signal and suggestion that she was even considering what he had said - save maybe the sharp shine of intelligence in her floral hued eyes promising that words and thoughts were being digested into... Something. Next there was the quirk of her lips, their coral hued fullness hinting at a ghost of a smile, the smallest hint of her approval, and then she turned all of that towards him, "There are many that would discount you as both a madman and a fool, Lieutenant Merlin, but I think you're well aware of it and beyond caring." She smiled with the lightest of chuckles, "Here you are dining with the Empress of a society that may or may not be powerful enough to bring the Federation to its knees, and while the rest are leaping about like trained apes and can can dancers, you're here philosophizing about beauty and the wonders of the galaxy, whether or not the only known glowing species is a fascination worthy of holding your apparently fleeting attention span." The smile failed to fade, but her head shook softly, "I see a man of great intelligence."

Now it was his turn to listen, and to answer her words with his own expressions: a brief grin at the image of Federation dignitaries dancing and leaping, a slight nod at her assessment of his character. "I find intelligence in itself is overrated, if it's not balanced by something else. Like wisdom, empathy, compassion... Mere intelligence is cold and hard. Like a diamond: it can be pretty and has is uses, but it can cut." He smiled and inclined his head towards her. "Whereas you possess great wisdom and powers of observation, you are enhanced by your experiences - whatever they may have been. I can see their shadows in your eyes." Once again he dispelled a shadow of his own making with an airy smile. "Yes, I'm quite aware of my reputation and delightfully indifferent to it. There is only one me, and many people who have opinions of what they want others to be. If I should conform to what everyone else wants me to be or thinks I should be, soon there would be no me left. Something which you will recognise, unless I'm quite mistaken."

Again her head shook, a practiced motion that seemed to be filled with marvel and agreement, "No, you and I were never meant to blend in with the status quo. You and I were meant for other things entirely - which is unique given how you have no idea what you are, but you're so poignant in your understanding of who you are." Her smile was wry and only broken when she gathered up her glass of water and brought it to her lips, "It's my turn to be completely and utterly fascinated."

For awhile he was uncharacteristically silent as he absorbed her words. "Something which happens less often to you than it does to me, I take it," he said at last, studying her with another tilt of his head. "My work and my hobbies bring me in frequent contact with new situations all the time. Whereas you are surrounded by the empire which you carry with you at all times, only rarely managing to escape, and then briefly. Already we must be subject to gossip…" he smiled faintly. "Who is this person the Empress is dinining with? What is so special about him? I wouldn't be surprised if my lack of past is making your intelligence department rather nervous, or will be soon." His smile broadened. "It is a testimony to your skills and abilities that you are allowed to be alone with a stranger at all."

Again he shrugged away this reflection. "So, we have established a mutual fascination," he said, and now he was looking directly at her. Not studying her, gazing her reactions, or anything like that. Just looking at her, really *seeing* her, inside and out, accepting what she wanted to show, delicately ignoring the parts she did not. "Now what?"

Xue's smile never faded, it only twisted into something more coy... More secretive, and perhaps a little smug. It was only a small smile, but it cost so very little in the giving, and like morning light it scattered the darkness and made the day worth living. "Now I tell you that you may be wrong. That I may see the impossible and the rare and the never before gazed upon twenty or more times a day," She spoke with gentle clarity and the barest hint of amusement laced along the soft bell-like notes of of her voice. Soup had been forgotten, as had the rest of the still warm spread, in favor savoring the man with the untamable mop of curls and sea-foam eyes. "But I think it's your lack of past, other than your loyal last thirteen spent with Starfleet, that will trouble your intel more now that you've been seen soaking wet with the Empress of the Stenellian Ascendancy and subsequently disappeared into her private suite for reasons only the Gods will be able to attest to and be believed." There was something more there in those eyes than simple fascination and glee - more than the thirst for life and hunger for knowledge and experience that had dominated the playing field where he was concerned. Each time she'd met him she'd watched him metamorphose from that carefree child to something far more... Esoteric.

He smiled, delighted at the thought of keeping Starfleet Intel busy. There was a fair-sized delegation of them here on Cold Station Theta, and while there was enough going on around them to keep them occupied, it would be an added bouns to intrigue them. And who knew what they would find.

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who couldn't hear the music." The moonwake's coral lips wrapped around the quote with delicate precision, recalling it from memory and tossing it to him to do with as he pleased and take as he would. The ball was in his court, that 'fascination' more so established and poked at and prodded and now stoked as she watched her selcouth visitor.

"Ahh, yes…" he breathed. There it was. Those words were almost an exact definition of what he so often felt but for which he rarely found the words. He accepted them as the precious gift they were, with a courtly bow and, again, a delighted smile which almost made him glow himself. "Please, tell me, lady," he said, still so softly that the words were almost a whisper, "when you look at the stars, at night, or from space… Do you hear the music of the spheres?"

"Musica universalis," Xue nodded with the briefest of smiles, "The more important question..." she added as she leaned forward and towards him, her own voice as soft as gull feathers, "The bigger question, my dear Lieutenant, is do you feel it?" Her head tilted gently off to one side as she considered him, perhaps challenged and invited him, but the question remained the same regardless. As did the glitter and sparkle of her eyes.

He was drawn towards her as she moved towards him, like two magnets being pulled towards each other. He raised his hand, or maybe the hand moved of its own volition, reaching out towards her but stopping at the precise place where, in the dark, her radiance ended. His smile was as gentle as the summer rain. "Oh yes," he whispered. "It took me the longest time to understand that so many people do not…" Her eyes sparkled, as if two stars had decided to give up their lofty seats in the heavens and deigned to walk amongst mortals. And he smiled again as he listened to their song.

He extended his other hand, palm up, waiting. "Dear lady," he said softly. "As one fool to another… may I invite you to dance?"

The brilliance of her blush colored eyes watched as the first hand neared, the light of her shimmering grace playing across the contours of his hand not unlike an aurora of blues and dusky silvers. For a moment she watched it, her eyebrows perking with interest and a small degree of wonder as the light arced across the pads of his fingers and she could swear she felt the heat of him against her flesh where the touch would have rested. How strange the man was who sat across from her, strange and yet so in touch with the universe. Crazy had a definition that was open to interpretation dependent upon who chose to define it - and for the moment Xue had dismissed the notion for sake of enlightenment where so few, if any, had dared or deigned to forge before.

Her eyes, departing the borealis, studied his other hand and soon found her own petite, snowy one sliding to rest within it. "You may," she conceded.

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To Be Continued...
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Lieutenant Evan Merlin
Chief Strategic Operations Officer
COLD STATION THETA, SB-1170

Empress Xue'Daio Nox
Queen of Apsha
Ruler of Aleine
Stenellian Ascendancy