● ( video ) → once more with feeling.

[favouring]

( nearly a year has passed since nuala sat down in front of her communications device for the first time, quiet and solemn and still; the setting has changed, and the costuming. unlike the other elves who call the gardens home, she has left the flets and lives alone in a pavilion that offers more protection from the elements than it seems as if it should for the primary reason that a wizard built it. if she remembers that the last time she lived in such state her people were at war, she gives no day to day indication. it is a more personal backdrop than the identical and sparse rooms of the passenger decks, much of what decorates it stitched patiently over the months - or flowers, woven, assembled by her hand from the gardens. she is dressed more finely than she was then, too, in her handmade gown, her hair braided in a Tymoshenko-esque crown as it often is, lately, to better lean inquiringly over the shoulders of the rest of Xenogen without risking dropping her hair into something that doesn't really need her DNA in it.

it may be familiar to some, all the same. this is a communications device. nuala has decided she wishes to communicate. at some point, in this awful quiet that she's remained in since having woken, things will begin to make sense again. )

Hello.

( there isn't anything else. the idea of leaving her pavilion is paralyzing; she wishes to talk to someone. so she will wait, and sooner or later, someone will talk to her and she won't have to go anywhere to do it. )

Comments

[cabins]

Hello, dear.

[Laura smiles reassuringly at her friend.]

[favouring]

( it takes nuala a moment to recall her; roslin, yes. went into communications. it's a vague sort of relief that the first person to respond is someone she can place, at least, when her resolution to make more of her fellow passengers known to her had-- at best, fizzled. )

You're well?

[cabins]

[That's her. Formerly dating Nathan Petrelli. Now currently shacking up with her own Admiral. Whoops.]

Quite, yes. This past month's adventures seemed to have, ah, skipped me.

[favouring]

( nathan petrelli's mad game is multiversally recognized. )

Well. A mercy, to be sure, Madam President.

video;

[starbuckslord]

[ It's a short greeting, and not something he's used to seeing on the network, but Peter can roll with it. He wonders to himself if she's used to dealing with people. He's seen stranger.

At least he's smiling. ]

Hey there. Something on your mind?

video;

[favouring]

( she isn't quite smiling, in response, but she's not unfriendly. calm and steady, strain underlying it. )

I merely wished to talk.

video;

[starbuckslord]

[ "Wish to talk." Okay, he can manage that. He's a conversationalist. ]

Okay, talk. This your first time up in space?

[kutte]

Hey, darlin'.

[ what up what up ]

[favouring]

( jax merits a bit of warmth, a little wry. he's probably the only person who's going to get away with calling her that, so don't nobody else get any ideas.

this is how they met, she remembers-- )

I promise not to insinuate you might be a lady of the dwarves, this time.

( he didn't actually get the joke, last time. this punchline has been eleven months in the making. )

[kutte]

I dunno, I think I kinda liked that. I've been called worse.

[ ilde gets a free pass for things like that. it's just how this goes. ]

You doin' okay?

action »

[skjalf]

( the idea of being alone in the confinement of her chambers is as paralysing for her as leaving the pavilion is for nuala. she has seen the video of course, but does not respond using her comm device. instead she takes her time to dress finely, and plait her hair in a style more fitting for a married woman, elegant and pulling her curls away from her face.

then she drops by the kitchen on the first floor to gather some things she has made for her meal today, meat pie and fruit tarts, putting them in a basket. only when that is done does she turn toward the gardens, seeking to call on her friend personally. comfort, she knows, is best given face to face rather than over the network. she raps lightly against one of the pavilion's wooden posts when she arrives, and calls out softly: )

It is Elizabeth, dearest friend. May I come in?

action »

[favouring]

( it crosses her mind to say no. not because she doesn't wish to see elizabeth, but--

she'd made a decision about how she wanted to interact, today, and she hadn't genuinely been expecting any company. she'd imagined being able to close the device and take her time if she felt the need to do so. and here is someone, at her door.

...but it's elizabeth, so her second impulse is the one she indulges: )

For a time, dear. Come and sit with me.

( it isn't an unqualified 'yes', but it's meaningful that she permits it at all. )

action »

[skjalf]

( for a time is quite a lot better than not at all, and so she enters the pavilion with an easy grace, pausing once inside to curtsy and smile gently at her friend. she is troubled, that much is apparent. and comforting her may be tricky, because what is also apparent is that she does not want to talk about it.

and so, she will seat herself beside nuala with the sewing she has been working on, and begin to work quietly. )

I thank you. It has been too long since we have sat together like this.

( this is both a safe and good topic to speak of while she passes the thread through the eye of her needle and through the folds of black velvet she holds in her lap, humming softly while she awaits nuala's reply, if she is going to give one. )

voice. private.

[forgodssake]

Your majesty.

[ Voice, maybe out of laziness. She's made the effort for video; Charles, in the throes of taking a day off, hasn't. ]

How're you?

voice. private.

[favouring]

( after a pause-- )

Better. And you?

voice. private.

[forgodssake]

Lonely.

[ But there is something warm in his delivery. ]

But so are you.

( video )

[pushfall]

[ The first shot of her face when going to video is always going to be of the underside of her chin. ]

Bonjour.

[ Good day. How is your wife? ]

( video )

[favouring]

The delightful Miss Bennet. If I were to say I'd heard much of you, you should know me instantly for a liar.

( because your boyfriend is like the worst, what up. but nuala adores him, so. )

( video )

[pushfall]

[ For a moment she looks like someone has just dropped a stack of bricks in her lap. It's smothered in a smile. ]

That's a relief. I like having the element of surprise.

private.

[darkart]

I'd like to speak to you, when you're able. In person.

[ He'd like to be sure she's okay. ]

private.

[favouring]

I'd like very much to see you.

( she will be. )

private.

[darkart]

At your convenience.

[voice]

[circumitus]

[Talking. It's not something that Rey is very good at. She's always been a horrid conversationalist. But she does know what it's like to be in that situation where talking is necessary. Talking keeps her grounded. Keeps her consciousness from drifting to other times, where she will return to the present, confused and alone again.

[She's used to that feeling. So she steels herself as she searches for the right words that usually accompanies conversation.]

What's your name?

voice ∞

[favouring]

( it is a relief not to have to explain herself - to have people simply realize what she wants, and provide it. it would be very lowering, to simply declare her needs, somehow, though with so much guilt and weariness, how much lower can she go? the battle she fought in her mind is nothing new, only her lack of control of it-- )

I am Nuala, Queen of Bethmoora, Orgasnaithe, first of my name and last of my line.

( five'll get you ten the last is more important than the first. )

[circumitus]

That's quite a title you carry.

[Not to mention burden -- to be the last of anything, really. Rey doesn't know of any Bethmoora or Orgasnaithe or whatever she just said, but she's learned to just nod when it comes to these things.

[Not that Nuala can see that, durr.]