Private Jetsam

[Vesper Thrace]

The Captain barked a laugh at the description of herself as a silk rope. She knew better. She was not a silk anything. Not a soft lady. Not even a soft woman. She finished her glass and then held it out to him at his offer before setting it down again.

Another barked laugh at his question about lovers.

"You must be out of your mind. Where would I find the time?" she asked incredulously. "Sometimes there is a man in a cantina when I'm feeling some kind of way. I mean -- always there is a man in a cantina, right? Something perennial about your gender. Reliable only when it means they might get laid." A harsh chuckle. "But it is not transactional -- I'm no beauty, to be sure, but I don't pay, you understand -- but not serious."

She couldn't remember the last time. She almost couldn't remember her aunt's holo frequency.

Too much going on.

"This life is solitude," she observed, lifting her chin to look over at Tavi. "Better that way. But worse, too." A pause, a beat, then she snorted a laugh. "Void Mother's Mercy, I must be drunk. It is the only time I become... philosophical."

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

He wasn't sure if she was not picking up what he was putting down on purpose or that it just didn't even come up for her.

Interesting.

The Captain Thrace was sharp, formidable, but in this matter he wasn't really sure what to expect from her. Or how to approach it without getting a dagger between his ribs either.

He sipped from his glass as he watched her wax lyrically. Vesper was a sight and her voice was pleasant on the ears. Both when she was screaming murder, but also when she was being philosophical. It was just... Tavi blinked and suddenly looked at his own cup. Was he also getting drunk, what was it with this cutesy thoughts?

"I..." Tavi swallowed there and put his glass down. "Worse, yes." Finding something to latch onto before the ground fell under his feet.

Eyes on hers.

"I am not a man in a cantina. But I am a man. And I am here." He watched her curious. "Have you never considered before?"

 

[Vesper Thrace]

Had she never considered before?

The whiskey warmed her from the inside, enough to make her comfortable, but not enough to make her sloppy. Not yet.

She regarded him carefully over the rim of her glass, her dark eyes narrowing a little.

Tavi was a good-looking man -- more beautiful than Vesper thought of herself. He had a natural look that hardscrabble life in space seemed to complement him rather than hollow him the way Vesper felt hollowed out by it sometimes. She had always thought so, but it was never the right time. She was too junior on the crew, or they worked too closely together, or she couldn't trust his position with the Captain, or she worried that if people found out -- and they always did find out, somehow -- her rank and the position she had earned would be called into question.

Was she where she was because of her skill or because of whose bunk she shared?

But now, she was Captain, and there was not a question of how she had gotten to the big chair. She had killed its previous occupant in a mutiny. So what about now? "I could ask you the same," she countered, Vesper at maximal Vesperness. "Or are you afraid to make the first move? That," she added, raising a finger over the rim of her glass, toward him, "was not an invitation. Tonight is not the time."

She sipped her drink and looked over it at him as she savored it, then murmured: "But -- answer is yes. Thought about it. Why?"

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

She responded with her usual frankness and it made Tavi chuckle.

Just a little anyway. Not hard enough to make Ves think he was laughing at her, that was the surefire way to get a shiv between his ribs, and he liked his flesh unpricked, thank you very much.

"Or are you afraid to make the first move?"

"Afraid?" He pondered on that question, even if it was most likely more of her sharp teasing. "No, but cautious, yes. Most likely the same reason why you never made the move on me then."

When Vesper confirmed that she had thought about it anyway. He had suspected, but was not arrogant enough to just assume.

"But -- answer is yes. Thought about it. Why?"

He stretched out and watched her with interest.

"You are Captain now. Whatever you want, you can have." Tavi shrugged there. "If you want me, I am yours. Now or tomorrow." Ember, dark, contemplative sight.

She had said tonight was not the night, but who was speaking there? The Captain? The cautious woman? Both?

 

[Vesper Thrace]

The woman speaking was the woman who had had to put down half a dozen of her crewmates and exiled their captain in mutiny just hours ago, and had spent some time hauling their bodies to the airlock. She was not in the right place to be making a pass at Corvask, even if he was assured to agree. She leaned forward, set the drink on the little coffee table, and crossed her legs before settling back against the cushions.

"Has been a heavy day," Vesper explained. "Lots of big feelings. Lots of big drinks. Not a day on which to be making decisions about -- you know -- fraternization. Besides, as you say, I'm the Captain now. Could have my pick of any of the men. Or the women. Or whatever Kepsam is. I've seen the way Louis in engineering looks at me when he thinks I'm not paying attention. Could do a lot worse than Louis. Probably not worse than... whatever Kepsam is."

Her tone was light, clearly mirthful, as if teasing.

"You did not answer my question, really," said the Captain. She spoke as a woman gathering data, not a girl in the first flush of romance, that -- do you really like me? would you still like me if I was a sarlacc? check yes or no -- bullshit. "Don't be a coward. If you have something to say, do it with your chest."

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask

​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

Oh, Vesper enjoyed playing with him, that much was clear.

Teasing him.

Luckily for both of them, Tavi had grown up in a matriarchal society. Even if he had left it behind, it was still something that was inherent to him. He appreciated strong women. And even if he rejected it verbally, somewhere, in the back of his mind he knew that a woman ought to hold the leash so to speak.

That was just right and correct.

All that was to say that Tavi didn't have bluster or annoyance. Instead he just smirked, maybe... his neck growing a bit hot, at the way she was clearly toying with him.

"With my chest..." He echoed there before finishing his glass. "I asked, because I am interested in you and I believed you were interested in me, so I wanted to... check the waters before earning a shiv between my ribs if I misread certain signals."

He reached out, his fingers brushing hers.

"I heard you loud and clear, not tonight. Too much. But... if you want me to be bold, I will be bold. I want it to be me, not Louis, Kepsam. I want it to be us. We work well together... I want to see how good it can become."

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"Noted," said the Captain, her voice as cool as if he'd just delivered a logistical report in the command information center, and not what he'd actually said. "I will... take it under advisement. Now finish your drink and leave me in peace. I'd like to get some sleep before we get to this shadowport of yours, and you should rest, too. Need to be sharp when we deal with them."

She drained her own glass and stood, the alcohol suddenly hitting her. Her vision swam a moment before she took a deep breath to steady herself. When the room stopped its tilting -- not spinning, not exactly, just a gentle tilt -- she carried the glass over to the sideboard and set it down.

"One thing, que?" said Vesper, turning. "This -- whatever it would be, whatever it could be, whatever it might be -- doesn't change facts. I'm Captain. I tolerate public questioning of my orders roughly as well today as I will tomorrow or two weeks from now or two months or two years." Her authority wasn't absolute, and she would afford Tavi more leeway than would be extended to anyone else. But she would not allow any personal interactions or entanglements to undermine her authority or her position. "We talk in private. Be sure that's understood before anything else."

When they parted, Vesper locked the door behind her and went into the 'fresher. She took a shower and then got into the bed, laying flat on the covers in a loose shirt.

The next morning, Vesper took command in the CIC as naturally as a duck took to water. She helped herself to a cup of caff and stood at the command center, scrolling correspondence and reports when Tavi made his appearance. "First Officer Corvask," she said, in as cheerful a tone as Vesper Thrace was capable of when there wasn't an obscene amount of loot involved. "Rough night?"

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​

 

[Tavi Corvask]

Vesper Thrace

He finished his drink as ordered and got up.

When Vesper did the same and swayed a little, his hand settled under her elbow, supporting her as best as he could. In a way that was unobtrusive, because if Tavi made too much of a show of it, he wouldn't be surprised if she broke his arm for the effort. Which was the last thing that he wanted as a start to... whatever this relationship would be.

Neither Vesper nor him knew, but that didn't mean it wasn't worth trying.

He nodded to her warning.

"I will do my best, Captain, but we both know I got a slippery tongue." They did, because that was what landed Thrace in the Captain's Chair, among other things. "But trust me when I say I will never on purpose try to fuck you over, fair?"

With that over, he left the cabin.

The next day came the bridge.

"First Officer Corvask," she said, in as cheerful a tone as Vesper Thrace was capable of when there wasn't an obscene amount of loot involved. "Rough night?"

Tavi rolled his eyes.

"I feel like someone used my face like a punching bag, so yes, rather." He had never been good with the alcohol, if he was being honest. "And you, Captain, feeling... well?"

 

[Vesper Thrace]

"Fit as a fiddle," she answered him.

It wasn't true, exactly. She wasn't hungover, but there was a gnawing headache behind her eyes. Vesper had not slept well; the tension around the mutiny had lodged in her and stayed there. The alcohol hadn't helped matters. But she probably felt better than he did, with that description. She set her caf down and went to make him a cup, brought it over to him. She had done it a thousand times over the years they'd worked together, and she tried not to let it feel different this time.

It still did.

"Drink," she said flatly. "Going to be a long day otherwise." She picked up her own cup and stepped onto the CIC platform, bracing with one hand as she leaned over the display. "Twenty minutes til we drop out of hyperspace at the shadowport coordinates," Vesper told him. "Need you on comms so you can use that slippery tongue of yours to talk our way in, que?"

The Captain sipped her caf and glanced at her First Officer, lips twitching upwards in a tight smile.

___________________________________________________________________

Tavi Corvask​