Letter of Marque

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa stood dumbfounded at the Commander's request. A silly, inconsequential request she immediately complied with if it would stop him from acting as if she had a medusoid crawling on her shoulder. At least he'd found the resolve to turn around and look her in the eyes again. Top swiftly pulled on, the Captain pulled her hair free from the neckline and splayed her hands out as if to say ta-da and hope her magical vestment had cured him of his insanity.

And then he went and repeated himself.

"jI know jyou djidn't come herre forr ssex, Commanderr..." she started carefully, hopefully not liable to send him off into another skittish tirade. There was something major in the plot here that she was missing.

"And jI'm glad jyou haven't, becausse that would be jimprroperr and unethjical jin ourr currrent possjitjionss..."

Carefully, she nodded her head to compel him to see her point of view.

"...can jyou pleasse sstop sscarrjing me now, ssjirr."

[Kes Akiena]

"Scaring you?"

So thankful that she was now fully clothed, Kes had to stop himself from placing a hand on his chest over his heart. He already knew that it was beating far too fast for a man of his age. Well, he wasn't that old, but the sentiment... the principle of the matter...

"Captain, I've not had a woman come out of the fresher looking like that for at least a good twenty years."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

She gawked. She felt the separation of her lips as her jaw went freefall, and only by force of will did her mouth snap shut. She wrapped her bosom up with both arms, never realizing what a toxic reaction that might be liable to cause. Needling curiosity pushed her to ask just what made the sight of exposed breasts to drive normally steely men to leap out of their skins, but no. No no no she was just going to triage the insanity and leave that matter for a topic of discussion at another time. Maybe when draped in a burlap sack. Standing behind a pane of smoked glass. From a distance.

Her lips were dry, and she carefully wet them with her tongue, hopefully not in a lascivious manner to cause poor Kes to catch the vapors.

"Commanderr, we've both had a verrjy sstrresssful bout of frree tjime. Can we have a do-overr?"

[Kes Akiena]

Kes seemed to fall into his previous seat, and one hand went up to massage his temple.

"Please."

What his second now proposed was infinitely more agreeable than the alternative, and he risked a look from between two fingers at her.

Of course she was properly clothed now, and the Commander breathed a sigh of relief regardless.

"So then... "

Still though, how did one recover from such a massive misunderstanding? His eyes went from her to the painting on the other side of the main room.

"Your painting... ?"

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa grimaced, but only slightly. While it wasn't the top subject she wanted to talk about, it was so infinitely better than the alternatives that she almost bubbled at the chance.

"It's Tu'aa Hyeeiaali, errr..."

An ear flicked as she looked at the floor, trying to figure a way to explain it best in basic.

"Wholenesss of mjind and bodjy. Mjy fatherr taught me how."

She glanced at the canvas tentatively, it's bare paint strokes skeletal, naked, incomplete. Not yet anything. T'yeellaa sat on the desk adjacent to the Commander, affording her a perch to appraise the slapdash.

"jIt'ss a combjinatjion of medjitatjion, brreathjing, bodjy possse, and decjissjive sstrroke."

Just looking at the yearning empty on the canvas was almost compelling her to drive it to resolution.

[Kes Akiena]

"Ah."

His brow knit as he stared at the beginnings of the painting. At this stage, it was an incredibly simple design, yet the strokes that had been laid out were strong and precise, and had the strange quality of drawing one into the spartan lines. In a way it was almost hypnotic.

"It seems... relaxing."

Still looking at the painting, he went on.

"I taught myself card counting and other little tricks back in the day," he gestured to the unfinished work.

"... certainly nothing as impressive as painting, but space was limited back then, and no one really had the time for larger pursuits beyond making bad grain alcohol in mortar tubes and concussion missile casings."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"Carrd countjing?"

She raised an eyebrow. Cheating. It was curious to see the differences in their worldview made manifest. Her stark divides, his gradients. A year before, she would've never given that frivolity the time of day. But she was a daughter of aristocracy, desperate to flee the ivory tower for perspective. And Commander Akiena had exactly that.

"Werre jyou alwajyss ssuch a rrogue?"

[Kes Akiena]

He turned to look at her.

"'Rogue'?"

It was the first time that he'd ever had that moniker attached to him; in years past it'd been 'scum', or the ever popular 'rebel trash'.

"A person takes up strange things," he shrugged, "... downtime wasn't much of a luxury unless you were six feet under."

Settling just a little bit more, the redhead thought about her question though, and one arm came up to lay along the armrest of the sofa.

"Before I got on with the Rebellion, I was starting my second year at a university on Corellia. Wanted to be an architect."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

She tried to imagine that. Kes Akiena, hunched over a holoprint in an office, making painstaking changes and quantitative reasoning. Measured, analytical.

"An arrchjitect?" She blurted, maybe too impudently.

The mental image was too difficult to construct. She tried not to think of a room with a leaning floor and a door that wouldn't close. The Commander wasn't an incompetent, she just had difficulty imagining him existing in such a procedural existence.

"What changed?"

[Kes Akiena]

"Who knows."

Kes leaned forward then, his arms moving to rest elbows on knees, hands coming together.

"I just sort of fell in to the cause. My uncle kept up a safehouse, and I started helping him."

He looked up at her then, a crooked smile turning up one corner of his lips.

"Nothing glorious, I promise. I guess I just didn't like how things were going, so I decided to try and help change them."

He gave a slight shake of his head, his eyes once more returning to the canvas.

"I left university and didn't really look back. Never had time to, I suppose. I still dabble every so often, but those times aren't often."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

He played it low key, but T'yeellaa was hungry for more than his cursory humility. Leaving a career to risk very real threats and abandoning all certainty. She'd had her own little rebellion, sure, but it seemed so small in comparison. Were she to have nothing to lose, what would she do? What kind of person would she be?

"So jit jis jyourr own Tu'aa Hyeeiaali, then?"

She had no formal knowledge of architecture, though any Cizerack education worth the cost of tuition was deeply founded in maths. If you didn't understand the way the world around you worked, you were incapable of controlling anything.

[Kes Akiena]

He continued to stare at the beginning of the painting, and slowly nodded.

"I suppose."

He could almost smell her curiosity, and finally angled his head to meet her eyes.

"Deep in its' own way. Instead of a paint, I simply threw my efforts at a galactic canvas and hoped that they stuck."

He gave a rueful shake of his head.

"I'm only one person though. Collective action is what shifts the universe. I serve the Alliance because I still believe in the cause."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"jI meant the arrchjitecturre."

Her ears perked as she smiled, getting a little more introspection out of her superior than she'd expected.

"But jI'm glad to hearr what motjivatess jyou. Therre'ss morre to jyou than jI rrealjized when we met, and jI'm glad to be wrrong."

[Kes Akiena]

"Oh that."

Pulling a strange face then, Kes pursed his lips.

"It was really only something that seemed challenging, so I decided to study it. It wasn't an early dream or passion, if that's what you're asking."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

T'yeellaa brushed back her hair behind her right ear.

"jIt ssoundss sstrrange to ssajy, but jit'ss almosst forrtunate forr jyou that the warr came when jit djid. Not everrjyone jiss forrunate enough to fjind themsselvess."

The Captain broke eye contact, looking back at the painting, and sighed.

"jI've sseen plentjy of thosse ssorrt. Coddled and sshelterred and sso sself abssorrbed jin thejirr comforrtable sspacess."

[Kes Akiena]

"Lucky is certainly a good word to use," he chuckled while slowly rising to stand.

"I was failing half of my classes."

A wink was sent her way.

"Problem with architecture is that you have to have an eye for design. I can do the math, but I can't draw myself out of a paper bag."

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"That would make two of uss, then."

T'yeellaa took the opportunity to rise herself, moving to the hot plate at her desk to pour her own cup. She paused, teacup just below her mouth, wrinkling her nose slightly.

"Dessjign, arrt, fasshjion. jI've neverr had tjime forr that. Feelss too much ljike ssomeone makjing up rruless asss thejy go along."

She sipped the pungent tea, trying not to frown and simply look stoic.

"Mjy fatherr pjicked out all of mjy clothess untjil jI wass ten, to prrevent me frrom wearrjing ssomethjing that djidn't match. And once jI got overr that, jI jojined the mjiljitarrjy sso that ssomeone elsse could teach me what to wearr and what not to wearr."

Her tongue was running loose in her head, and somewhere in the back of her mind she was dismayed by it. Maybe she was just glad to be doing anything other than making a big mistake caused by a big misunderstanding. Or maybe the human's strange gee-whiz charm actually worked on her.

[Kes Akiena]

Watching her sip from the tea, Kes had to wonder at the facial expressions that she was making. It did not bode well to the flavor, and he was suddenly very glad that he'd declined that particular beverage. She'd said something about caf earlier, but after the nearly disastrous misunderstanding that'd occurred, he was certain that it'd take something a bit more strong than caf to wash away this visit.

"Sounds like your father was a good man. Do you still talk to him?"

[T'yeellaa Meorrrei]

"jI talk to mosst of them, at leasst once a month."

That was a strange question to ask. It had taste of finality to it.

"Thejy'rre mjy parrentss."

It was stated for emphasis.

"That'ss unavojidable."

[Kes Akiena]

He blinked as he registered her words. Most of them...?

One hand came up to scratch an itch at his temple, and he glanced away.

Most of them...

Kes didn't really stammer, but when he spoke next it was clear that he was somewhat flummoxed.

"Um, 'most of them'... ?"