Beg, Steal or Borrow – The one where Rh'vaurek comes back - part 2
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
OLD: He caught her fingers in his and looked at her with a serious expression, “Well, you now have the dubious honour of being the only person other than Isha that I’ll take that from,” he said as he released her hand and sank back into his chair, "Did Isha ever tell you how we met?" he asked as if talking about her might be of some use.
NEW:
A little taken aback at the question but too sheepish after her outburst and his gallant endurance of being made the brunt of it, Chelsea slid into her seat quietly and shook her head.
"No?" she replied, her tone a question that asked him to tell her.
Rh’vaurek chuckled softly at the memory, “At the time I was serving as Senator Pardek’s bodyguard but, having swept the board at the summer games I had become something of a celebrity – I had stopped being part of the furniture and become someone notable that the Senator could tout around at parties. It went to my head, of course, I’d just turned forty, held the rank of Arrain and wiped the floor with the sons of all the greatest Houses of the Empire; suddenly a lot of doors were opened to me – mothers were literally throwing their daughters my way – not families of the status of Isha’s, but respectable, solid houses who knew a good prospect when they saw one. Anyway, after a few weeks of this I was beginning to get bored, one vapid simpering airhead begins to look very much like another after a while … I accompanied the Senator to yet another function – this one was held on one of the old Ra'tleihfi estates and hosted by hru’hfirh Llaiir e-Ramnau t’Khellian and her husband Senator S’Tev i-Leinarrh – Isha’s parents.
Chelsea was fascinated as the tale unravelled, imagining his sudden rise to popularity and then becoming bored with the shallowness of it all. She smiled, judging by his own description of it having gone to his head, amused by the pretty scene this conjured in her imagination of a happy, carefree, self-assured young stud who could choose any girl of his choice.
“I was there because as champion I raised Pardek’s prestige and because I was a talking point, I was my usual charming self. I was quite looking forward to meeting daughters of the House - Isha was the sort of women one could read about in the news for doing something dazzling – I wasn’t quite prepared for the reality – I’d known a number of very beautiful women, but she shone – she came down the curved staircase in a flowing gown the exact same hue as her eyes – she has a presence and a charm, I saw that immediately, but I didn’t imagine there was much between her ears – I expected there would be the customary gush of delight and handful of overly personal remarks about my prowess when we were introduced.
Once again, Chelsea succumbed to a smile. The idea of him taking Isha for another of those Airheads he had mentioned boded ill for the young man in the image she was building.
“The evening wore on and eventually our paths crossed. She was talking with the brother of the man she eventually married, hanging onto his words as though he were a sage rather than a scion of a degenerate House … Pardek interrupted and made the introductions and do you know what she did? She smiled with polite disinterest, and looked me up and down as though I was on sale at the slave market, ‘Impressive, I’m sure,’ she said before she returned to her conversation.
Chelsea bit her tongue hard and struggled not to burst into peals of laughter. It was *so* Isha. ~The perfect put-down and come-on combined!~ she thought. ~Game, set and match in one shot!~ Somehow, she managed to maintain her best straight face as he went on.
“I could have exploded. The arrogant bitch, I thought, everyone in Ra’tleifhi was tripping over themselves to make my acquaintance and congratulate me on my victory yet suddenly with that single dismissive look I was reduced to being part of the furniture again - I wanted her to speak to me in the way she was talking to him. I was furious, how dare she put him, someone who has achieved nothing in his life except being born to wealthy parents, above me - I swore that I was going to make her see me. I didn’t know until much later that she had asked for me to be invited to the party, she’d already seen me, and when she met me she read me in an instant and did the one thing that would catch my attention".
Chelsea nodded sagely. "uh-huh" she agreed sympathetically.
“I never thought it would be anything serious, I don’t think either of us did, and if her mother hadn’t spent most of her time off-world leaving the House to Isha it probably wouldn’t have been anything at all – I may have become acceptable to middle ranking families but among these people, well, their own servants probably ranked higher in the social hierarchy than I did – but I was young and she drove me crazy and I didn’t see why she should be beyond my reach – if she wanted a fling, well, I was more than willing to be flung – and it doesn’t hurt to make powerful friends".
Chelsea began to understand more about some of the mysteries of this intricate and fascinating relationship. She could imagine how different they both were from the norm and how similar in spirit, despite their diverse backgrounds.
“I took her out of a world that was filled with bored friends and empty young men – I had a reputation for violence, I didn’t flatter her or tolerate her tantrums, every meeting we had was clandestine – I think she loved the challenge, both of maintaining a secret relationship, and of trying to get me to let her have her way"
Chelsea could *see* how that would work and be part of the magic and charm for them both.
"And she brought beauty into my world, or at least allowed me to see it through her eyes, though I think her light only made my own shadows darker.” He paused and gazed at Chelsea, “Isha was the first person who was ever kind to me without expecting anything in return, you are the second.”
The lump returned to Chelsea's throat. Moved both by the whole story with it's unexpected romance in the midst of harsh Romulan stricture, and by the compliment he was paying her.
"Rh’vaurek" she answered, her voice still soft with emotion. "You and Isha are both so incomparably clever, agile and invincible, especially when you're teamed up in a mutual cause.... is there *nothing* to be done about this hideous situation that Nniol and Fver-Fveirrolh have created to ensnare you both? It's too much to bear, it truly is!"
Her heart was wrung and it showed in her pained expression. However, as soon as she had said those words, Chelsea *knew* there would have been no stone he would have left unturned if there could have been something to be done, but she was so heartfelt in her desperation for these two brilliant lights to continue to shine that she couldn't help but grasp at any straw.
Rh'vaurek snorted, "Its tangled through my past, her past - if I hadn’t read her official transcript – most of it, anyway – there are parts that even my clearance does not allow – if she hadn’t told me a secret or two, I’d believe the accusations against her – our esteemed and paranoid Praetor will no doubt see it as the basis of a bid for power and take steps to curb her influence in future. It reads like an expertly arranged conspiracy between Isha and the brother of her late husband and if there is one thing that we Rihannsu will readily believe it is in conspiracy.
Its too neat, Chelsea, if you look at it closely, every thread of evidence leads to Isha and Nniol, either, or both of them, but only a fool would tie themselves in the middle of their own web. They’re both being set up, but by whom? Somebody staged a deliberately botched attack on this station, which has forced the rift between Isha and her husband’s brother into the open. I haven’t yet worked out why, but I will.” He paused again, thinking over the facts and considering what else he should tell her, “That House, the Illialhlae, they owe their continued existence to Isha, she considers it her duty to keep the House intact … if I were her I’d have the lot of them shot. I don’t know how she can be so forgiving, but then she forgave me, didn’t she. Isha should have taken my life when I offered it to her,” Rh’vaurek laughed bitterly, oblivious to the fact that Chelsea did not know what he had done in the past. “I should have stayed away. If I hadn’t penetrated their security and made her speak to me we couldn’t have been seen, and if we hadn’t been seen Nniol would not have had an excuse to do what he did.
“That bastard screwed his own brother’s wife – he thought that Isha and I were messing around behind his brother’s back and to punish her Nniol kept her drugged and raped her repeatedly over a number of weeks, and that treacherous son … Fveirrolh was the result. She didn’t tell her husband, she didn’t want to destroy him and his House. Now Nniol had done a bit of digging around in Isha’s past, he found out about our history and he began spreading rumours – eventually he accused her of conducting an affair with me. That is when she told her husband the whole story, of our relationship while they were betrothed, of when I abducted her, of what Nniol had done to her – do you know what her husband did? A normal man might have chosen to believe his wife, a normal man would have punched his brother in the face and thrown him out, a normal man would have hunted down the man accused of sleeping with his wife and confronted him but the head of the House of Illialhlae was not a normal man.
Nveid tr’Illialhlae wanted the truth so he had his wife arrested. He gave her to the Tal’Shiar ostensibly to frighten her, but ultimately so that he could be sure of the truth. I happen to know the man who conducted the ‘interview’ – Geillun is very good at his job, and he was characteristically thorough with her. The experience scarred her terribly, we can be very cruel in our methods. Isha can barely stand to be in the same room as someone wearing this uniform,” Rh’vaurek said with a wave, at himself, “if you’ve ever wondered why I don’t wear one, that is the reason. Isha didn’t tell me any of this, of course, I read Geillun’s transcript – she must suspect one exists and know on some level that I have read it but I pretend not to know and she pretends to believe that my choice of clothing is merely a reflection of my casual disregard for the rules.”
He released a long hissing breath through his teeth, "Its my fault, Chelsea, all of it, because I couldn’t keep away," he said waiting for her reaction.
To be continued ...
A JP Between:
Lt. Cmdr. Chelsea Adams
ACMO - DS5
and
erie'Khrein Rh'vaurek Raedheol
by Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham
Post Details
| Title | The one where Rh'vaurek comes back - part 2 | |
| Mission | Beg, Steal or Borrow | |
| Author(s) | Commander Isha t'Vaurek & Commander Chelsea Dunham | |
| Posted | Wed Jul 29, 2009 @ 10:27pm | |
| Location | Infirmary | |
| Timeline | Current |
NEW:
A little taken aback at the question but too sheepish after her outburst and his gallant endurance of being made the brunt of it, Chelsea slid into her seat quietly and shook her head.
"No?" she replied, her tone a question that asked him to tell her.
Rh’vaurek chuckled softly at the memory, “At the time I was serving as Senator Pardek’s bodyguard but, having swept the board at the summer games I had become something of a celebrity – I had stopped being part of the furniture and become someone notable that the Senator could tout around at parties. It went to my head, of course, I’d just turned forty, held the rank of Arrain and wiped the floor with the sons of all the greatest Houses of the Empire; suddenly a lot of doors were opened to me – mothers were literally throwing their daughters my way – not families of the status of Isha’s, but respectable, solid houses who knew a good prospect when they saw one. Anyway, after a few weeks of this I was beginning to get bored, one vapid simpering airhead begins to look very much like another after a while … I accompanied the Senator to yet another function – this one was held on one of the old Ra'tleihfi estates and hosted by hru’hfirh Llaiir e-Ramnau t’Khellian and her husband Senator S’Tev i-Leinarrh – Isha’s parents.
Chelsea was fascinated as the tale unravelled, imagining his sudden rise to popularity and then becoming bored with the shallowness of it all. She smiled, judging by his own description of it having gone to his head, amused by the pretty scene this conjured in her imagination of a happy, carefree, self-assured young stud who could choose any girl of his choice.
“I was there because as champion I raised Pardek’s prestige and because I was a talking point, I was my usual charming self. I was quite looking forward to meeting daughters of the House - Isha was the sort of women one could read about in the news for doing something dazzling – I wasn’t quite prepared for the reality – I’d known a number of very beautiful women, but she shone – she came down the curved staircase in a flowing gown the exact same hue as her eyes – she has a presence and a charm, I saw that immediately, but I didn’t imagine there was much between her ears – I expected there would be the customary gush of delight and handful of overly personal remarks about my prowess when we were introduced.
Once again, Chelsea succumbed to a smile. The idea of him taking Isha for another of those Airheads he had mentioned boded ill for the young man in the image she was building.
“The evening wore on and eventually our paths crossed. She was talking with the brother of the man she eventually married, hanging onto his words as though he were a sage rather than a scion of a degenerate House … Pardek interrupted and made the introductions and do you know what she did? She smiled with polite disinterest, and looked me up and down as though I was on sale at the slave market, ‘Impressive, I’m sure,’ she said before she returned to her conversation.
Chelsea bit her tongue hard and struggled not to burst into peals of laughter. It was *so* Isha. ~The perfect put-down and come-on combined!~ she thought. ~Game, set and match in one shot!~ Somehow, she managed to maintain her best straight face as he went on.
“I could have exploded. The arrogant bitch, I thought, everyone in Ra’tleifhi was tripping over themselves to make my acquaintance and congratulate me on my victory yet suddenly with that single dismissive look I was reduced to being part of the furniture again - I wanted her to speak to me in the way she was talking to him. I was furious, how dare she put him, someone who has achieved nothing in his life except being born to wealthy parents, above me - I swore that I was going to make her see me. I didn’t know until much later that she had asked for me to be invited to the party, she’d already seen me, and when she met me she read me in an instant and did the one thing that would catch my attention".
Chelsea nodded sagely. "uh-huh" she agreed sympathetically.
“I never thought it would be anything serious, I don’t think either of us did, and if her mother hadn’t spent most of her time off-world leaving the House to Isha it probably wouldn’t have been anything at all – I may have become acceptable to middle ranking families but among these people, well, their own servants probably ranked higher in the social hierarchy than I did – but I was young and she drove me crazy and I didn’t see why she should be beyond my reach – if she wanted a fling, well, I was more than willing to be flung – and it doesn’t hurt to make powerful friends".
Chelsea began to understand more about some of the mysteries of this intricate and fascinating relationship. She could imagine how different they both were from the norm and how similar in spirit, despite their diverse backgrounds.
“I took her out of a world that was filled with bored friends and empty young men – I had a reputation for violence, I didn’t flatter her or tolerate her tantrums, every meeting we had was clandestine – I think she loved the challenge, both of maintaining a secret relationship, and of trying to get me to let her have her way"
Chelsea could *see* how that would work and be part of the magic and charm for them both.
"And she brought beauty into my world, or at least allowed me to see it through her eyes, though I think her light only made my own shadows darker.” He paused and gazed at Chelsea, “Isha was the first person who was ever kind to me without expecting anything in return, you are the second.”
The lump returned to Chelsea's throat. Moved both by the whole story with it's unexpected romance in the midst of harsh Romulan stricture, and by the compliment he was paying her.
"Rh’vaurek" she answered, her voice still soft with emotion. "You and Isha are both so incomparably clever, agile and invincible, especially when you're teamed up in a mutual cause.... is there *nothing* to be done about this hideous situation that Nniol and Fver-Fveirrolh have created to ensnare you both? It's too much to bear, it truly is!"
Her heart was wrung and it showed in her pained expression. However, as soon as she had said those words, Chelsea *knew* there would have been no stone he would have left unturned if there could have been something to be done, but she was so heartfelt in her desperation for these two brilliant lights to continue to shine that she couldn't help but grasp at any straw.
Rh'vaurek snorted, "Its tangled through my past, her past - if I hadn’t read her official transcript – most of it, anyway – there are parts that even my clearance does not allow – if she hadn’t told me a secret or two, I’d believe the accusations against her – our esteemed and paranoid Praetor will no doubt see it as the basis of a bid for power and take steps to curb her influence in future. It reads like an expertly arranged conspiracy between Isha and the brother of her late husband and if there is one thing that we Rihannsu will readily believe it is in conspiracy.
Its too neat, Chelsea, if you look at it closely, every thread of evidence leads to Isha and Nniol, either, or both of them, but only a fool would tie themselves in the middle of their own web. They’re both being set up, but by whom? Somebody staged a deliberately botched attack on this station, which has forced the rift between Isha and her husband’s brother into the open. I haven’t yet worked out why, but I will.” He paused again, thinking over the facts and considering what else he should tell her, “That House, the Illialhlae, they owe their continued existence to Isha, she considers it her duty to keep the House intact … if I were her I’d have the lot of them shot. I don’t know how she can be so forgiving, but then she forgave me, didn’t she. Isha should have taken my life when I offered it to her,” Rh’vaurek laughed bitterly, oblivious to the fact that Chelsea did not know what he had done in the past. “I should have stayed away. If I hadn’t penetrated their security and made her speak to me we couldn’t have been seen, and if we hadn’t been seen Nniol would not have had an excuse to do what he did.
“That bastard screwed his own brother’s wife – he thought that Isha and I were messing around behind his brother’s back and to punish her Nniol kept her drugged and raped her repeatedly over a number of weeks, and that treacherous son … Fveirrolh was the result. She didn’t tell her husband, she didn’t want to destroy him and his House. Now Nniol had done a bit of digging around in Isha’s past, he found out about our history and he began spreading rumours – eventually he accused her of conducting an affair with me. That is when she told her husband the whole story, of our relationship while they were betrothed, of when I abducted her, of what Nniol had done to her – do you know what her husband did? A normal man might have chosen to believe his wife, a normal man would have punched his brother in the face and thrown him out, a normal man would have hunted down the man accused of sleeping with his wife and confronted him but the head of the House of Illialhlae was not a normal man.
Nveid tr’Illialhlae wanted the truth so he had his wife arrested. He gave her to the Tal’Shiar ostensibly to frighten her, but ultimately so that he could be sure of the truth. I happen to know the man who conducted the ‘interview’ – Geillun is very good at his job, and he was characteristically thorough with her. The experience scarred her terribly, we can be very cruel in our methods. Isha can barely stand to be in the same room as someone wearing this uniform,” Rh’vaurek said with a wave, at himself, “if you’ve ever wondered why I don’t wear one, that is the reason. Isha didn’t tell me any of this, of course, I read Geillun’s transcript – she must suspect one exists and know on some level that I have read it but I pretend not to know and she pretends to believe that my choice of clothing is merely a reflection of my casual disregard for the rules.”
He released a long hissing breath through his teeth, "Its my fault, Chelsea, all of it, because I couldn’t keep away," he said waiting for her reaction.
To be continued ...
A JP Between:
Lt. Cmdr. Chelsea Adams
ACMO - DS5
and
erie'Khrein Rh'vaurek Raedheol