gotta get down for a mingle

[redactions]

Who: The crew of the SS Heron and visitors.
Broadcast: nope.
Action: Aboard the SS Heron.
When: After returning to the ship.

[ finally back on the right ship, except the corridors are all mysteriously cold and the ship seems smaller. Thanks, Atroma. New crew, visitors, starters in comments ]

Comments

[redactions]

What about all the others who disappear? Doesn't mean they're all winning, some of 'em ain't even here long enough to make an impression.

​[ He shrugs. ]

'Course, that's assumin' we know how the audience or the Atroma work. Personally I think they're lyin' to us about that. None a'the cameras on the Marsiva worked at all. I've looked at this ship inside and out and there ain't no microphones anywhere. They could be foolin' us. But it's too damn easy — pardon my French — to pull this from the outside and convince us it's real.

[dancingmd]

[Pardon his French? But he's not speaking French. It may be a dying language but she still has picked up enough from Picard to know when it's being spoken.]

I've thought of that too. Then again, if they have the ability to pull us out of our universes, their form of watching us may just be entirely different than we're imagining. Either way, we don't know what's really happening to the people who leave.

[redactions]

I'd rather not speculate.

​[ He's never been an optimist, and after meeting the Winter Soldier there's only so many horrors his mind can conjure. ]

[dancingmd]

I'm sorry.

[It's nearly impossible for her not to speculate, especially when it comes to Julian.]

We can talk about something else. Like... What did you mean when you said "pardon my French?"

[redactions]

[ He makes a bit of a face. ]

It's a colloquialism -- I swore in front of a lady, so that's used to say excuse me.

[dancingmd]

[She sucks in her lips to keep from laughing, but the twinkle in her eye is irrepressible.]

Don't worry, I can handle a few damns and hells, and some other things besides.

[redactions]

And a few others besides, I'm bettin', but that don't make it right.

[dancingmd]

[Idly, she wonders if he has met Nightingale yet.]

Because I'm a woman, or because it is rude to curse in general?

[Her tone isn't accusatory at all... This sort of thing is so genuinely out of her realm of experience that she is mostly just curious.]

[redactions]

Rude to curse in general. You'll pardon me, ma'am; I am a soldier.

[dancingmd]

No need to apologize... You'd probably do well in Starfleet, you know. I only wanted you to know I wasn't insulted. And well... I found that particular colloquialism funny because I was imagining what Jean-Luc would have to say about it.

[redactions]

Nobody French I met seemed ta mind.

[ He's positively glowing at affirmation — though it's probably even ruder to tell Beverly her world is fictional. There's so many here, he's not surprised some might bleed into the others. ]

[dancingmd]

[Yes please, let's not give her an existential crisis on top of everything else. ]

Ah, but you see, French is a dying language by my century, so Jean-Luc can get... Protective of his mother tongue.

[redactions]

... Your Captain?

[dancingmd]

[Beverly nods. Then, simply, because he knows, he has seen how much Jean-Luc means to her:]

I miss him.

[redactions]

[ Quietly, ]

Sorry.

[ a beat ]

I know how hard it can be.

[dancingmd]

Thank you. [Sad smile.] Who is it, for you, if I may ask?

[redactions]

Captain Steve Rogers. I was a sergeant in the War, he was my CO. Went missing in action, presumed dead.

[ And -- ]

The one who's been brought here is different.

[dancingmd]

Steve Rogers?

[Making a connection here.]

Then... do you know Natasha?

[redactions]

Yes, in a way. [ sheepishly, ] Different timeline.

[dancingmd]

[She nods.] We've talked about that before. I mean, not about you specifically, but she was very interested in what I knew about alternate universes when we first met.

[redactions]

[ He snorts. ]

I can only tell you they're a pain.

[dancingmd]

Don't I know it. Got trapped in one, remember?

[redactions]

Yeah, it's a real party.

[ He snorts again. ]

How do you know Natasha?

[dancingmd]

We met a few months ago, when some fan gave us a bunch of shampoo for redheads. I suppose they wanted to see us all together, I don't know. [Grin.] And now we're friends, even if she doesn't always want to admit to it.

[redactions]

[ His mouth quirks, fond. ]

That's a loaded word.

[ For him and Natasha, though Jim's better at hiding it. ]

Nice, though. Say, you don't mind me askin' how exactly you knew the shampoo was from "fans"?