#oh and that apparently this course has a hecking high fail rate | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

per-ineptia-ad-astra · 5 years

Text

Star Trek Episode 1.17: The Squire of Gothos

AKA Come Away O Human Landing Party

Our episode begins with a nice relaxed scene on the bridge, everyone hanging out, drinking coffee, and charting a course through a great big patch of nuthin’. They’re headed to Colony Beta Six to deliver some supplies. What kind of supplies are not specified. Hopefully not more plague medicine.

McCoy, leaning on Kirk’s chair as is his wont, picks up Kirk’s comment about how this place is a ‘star desert’ and starts talking about deserts and the imagery the word evokes, mirages and sand dunes and all that, with a surprising amount of fondness for a man who grew up in Georgia. Spock helpfully points out that the definition of ‘desert’ is “a waterless, barren wasteland” so he doesn’t really get why McCoy would be waxing poetic about such a place, which is a surprising lack of fondness for a man who grew up on a desert planet. McCoy just rolls his eyes and says that he couldn’t imagine any mirage “disrupting [Spock’s] mathematically perfect brainwaves” anyway, which Spock takes as a compliment.

All the conversation about deserts comes to a halt when Spock suddenly picks up a large “space displacement” up ahead. The navigator says they must be in some kind of light warp (???) or they would have noticed it earlier. Their sensors seem to be registering a planet, and sure enough there’s one on the viewscreen up ahead, clear as anything. Which is super weird, because this whole section of space has been explored and documented and they’re pretty sure there wasn’t a planet here last time. Strange as it is, though, Kirk says they’ve got no time to explore, they’ll just have to make a note of it so someone else can come check it out. Well, I’m glad to see you learned one lesson from last week, at any rate.

Uhura tries to notify someone over subspace radio about the strange case of the mysteriously appearing planet, but she’s getting interference, and thinks the mystery planet might be a natural radio source. What a nuisance. So Kirk tells Sulu to get out of range of that thing, and Sulu starts to—but then, suddenly, he disappears. And I mean really disappears. There one moment, gone the next, accompanied for some reason by an extremely over the top “BOING” sound.

Kirk rushes over to see what happened to his navigator, only for him to freeze in place and then vanish as well, also with a boing. Spock is so busy looking into his scanner he completely fails to notice any of this, even with the boinging, until the remaining helmsman yells out. Man, if I were that helmsman, I’d be getting out there, just in case whatever that was has an area of effect.

Spock whips round to find that the captain and one of the helmsmen have noped off into thin air, which calls for a bellow of “EMERGENCY! FULL REVERSE POWER!” I don’t really know how that’s going to help, but okay.

After the titles, we get a ‘ship’s log’ given by Spock to fill in for Kirk (how this differs from a captain’s log, I don’t know): they’ve misplaced their captain and helmsman and they’ve been circling around this weird mystery planet for four hours now, scanning it with everything they’ve got, but they haven’t picked up so much as a sneeze. Scotty says they’ve checked all over the ship and haven’t found the missing men anywhere, not stashed under a bed or in a closet or anything, which means that if they’re anywhere around here they’ve got to be on that planet. Of course, that’s assuming that they’re anywhere nearby on a cosmic scale, or that they’re currently on this plane of reality, or that they didn’t get zapped outside and are now floating slowly away through the vast emptiness of space, but none of those are really productive options so yeah, let’s look on the planet.

The other helmsman, DeSalle, immediately wants to beam down there with a search party, a suggestion that McCoy jumps on as well, but Spock reminds everyone that he’ll be making the decisions around here, thank you very much, we went over this enough last episode. He’s got a pretty good reason for being hesitant about that search party, as we learn when he asks the blueshirt who’s come in to sit at Sulu’s spot (for...some reason) what his readings about the planet show. The blueshirt, Jaeger, says that the planet has no detectable soil or vegetation, extremely high temperatures, a toxic atmosphere swept by tornadic storms, continuous volcanic eruptions, and is deadly to any life form as they know it without oxygen and life support systems. So that’s fun. Asked how long two humans without any of that protective gear could survive down there, all Jaeger can say is “not very long.”

This cheerful conversation is interrupted by a startled cry from Uhura. A message has suddenly appeared on one of the smaller viewscreens: “Greetings and Felicitations.”

[ID: Uhura sitting at her console with Spock standing behind her chair, both looking up at a viewscreen that reads ‘Greetings and Felicitations’ in ornate gothic text.]

That font does not bode well.

Spock tells Uhura to send a message back asking whoever this is to identify themselves. A moment later the viewscreen displays new text, as Spock reads out in a hilariously serious-yet-puzzled voice: “Hip-hip-hoorah, tallyho!”

Well, this is turning out to be a pretty weird day, alright. Spock tells the bridge he’s open to any theories at all, because really, what could anyone suggest that would be stranger than what’s already happened? McCoy points out that if someone’s sending them messages, there must be some kind of life on that planet. For once, Spock agrees with him, and orders the transporter room to be prepared. Scotty all but jumps into frame to volunteer for the landing party, but Spock tells him no, neither of them can be spared from the ship. Wait, you’re saying the person in charge of the ship isn’t going to be the first to beam down into dangerous, unknown territory? Spock, I don’t know if you’re really cut out for this command business.

Spock orders DeSalle, the helmsman, to lead the party, along with Jaeger, for his geophysical knowledge, and McCoy, because let’s be honest he’s gonna go anyway so you might as well let him and make things easier for everyone. They’re to go equipped with full armaments, communications and life support gear. “If those peculiar signals are coming from Captain Kirk or Mr. Sulu,” Spock says, “their rationality is in question.” Generally I’d agree, although really, with Kirk, anything’s possible.

The landing party soon meets up in the transporter room, equipped with full life-support equipment, which is...breath masks. Just breath masks, nothing else. Not even goggles or, hell, even a hat and scarf. Budget cuts hit hard, huh.

Spock comes in to see them off, and Uhura reports from the bridge that no more messages have come in, but she’s managed to pinpoint their source, so the landing party is going to be beamed there. Spock tells them to contact the ship as soon as they arrive, like your parents reminding you to call them when you get there, and to use the laser beacon if necessary. So...laser beacon. That’s a thing. I guess.

So the landing party heads down, but when they materialize, it’s not in a toxic, infernal hellscape...it’s in a nice grove with some trees and bushes.

[ID: McCoy, Jaeger (a slightly older white man with light brown hair) and DeSalle (a white man with dark brown hair) standing in a sandy clearing surrounded by trees and bushes, with a green sky in the background. All three men are wearing breath masks attached to devices on their belts, and looking around in confusion.]

“wtf, I know I’m a better geophysicist than this”

A quick reading reveals that the air is also quite breathable, so they take off their breath masks. As one might expect, they’re all pretty baffled. McCoy asks Jaeger (mispronouncing his name in the process) what the heck, what’s up with all those storms you were talking about? Jaeger can only shrug, with the half-confused, half-annoyed look of any expert who’s predicted something bad only to have it inexplicably averted.

DeSalle tries to calls the ship but his communicator isn’t working at all, and neither are the other two. As instructed he tries to use the laser beacon, but it seems something’s blocking it, so he says they’ll need to find more open ground.

The three of them separate a little bit to go looking around, but DeSalle quickly spots something and calls the other two over. It’s...a castle? Or possibly just a large and castle-like house, I’m not really sure.

[ID: Broad stone steps leading up to a stone building, with a large banded wooden door, torches on either side, and assorted gargoyle-like decorations.]

Well that definitely has no business being here. But once you see an inexplicable castle-house, there’s pretty much only one thing to do: go inside. The front door is unlocked, so the three of them slowly creep in.

Through the door is a small balcony overlooking a large, fancy room filled with as many historical-looking things as they could raid from the Desliu prop stores.

[ID: The interior of a lavishly decorated but old-fashioned room, with some assorted couches and chairs, suits of armor, a large globe, a bust of a man in a tricorn hat, a row of flags, and various other decorations.]

Also there’s this weird thing on the wall.

[ID: The mounted head of what appears to be some strange gray-skinned creature with big green googly eyes.]

seriously, what IS that

McCoy is like “where in the entire fuck are we” but no answer immediately presents itself. They start to head down the balcony stairs, but get distracted by the sight of something in an alcove to one side. It’s...Salty?? Yes, the ol’ salt monster themselves, apparently dead and now on display. McCoy looks about as happy to see them as you might expect.

[ID: McCoy, DeSalle and Jaeger pausing on the stairs, phasers at the ready, looking at the still form of the furry gray-skinned salt monster tucked into an alcove.]

“oh man, I had a really bad day the last time I saw this dude”

Inexplicable as it is for Salty to be here, they don’t show any sign of being a threat anymore, so after a moment the three of them carry on. Not for very long, though, because they soon see something even more interesting—Kirk and Sulu! Dang, things always turn up in the most unexpected places after you lose them, huh. Only one small problem: they’re...frozen. Well, kind of frozen. You can definitely see George Takei moving a bit there.

[ID: Kirk and Sulu standing on a balcony in stiff, awkward poses, lit from above by a strange greenish light.]

The landing party naturally rushes forward. McCoy does a scan of the petrified goldshirts and says, “There’s no reading. They’re like waxworks figures.” That’s a disturbing thing to find out, but before they can contemplate it very much, the door suddenly slams shut all on its own. Oh great. Now we have to worry about ghosts too. As if this day wasn’t stressful enough already.

Just as suddenly, there’s the sound of music. They all turn to see a man playing the harpsichord on the other end of the room, a man who definitely wasn’t there before. He’s, uh...interesting.

[ID: A white man with brown hair and thick sideburns, wearing tall boots, green trousers, a fancy blue coat with gold leaf embroidery, and a white cravat, sitting at a harpsichord and looking over his shoulder at the camera.]

“I must say they make a perfectly exquisite display pair,” the man says, in pretty much exactly the kind of voice you’d expect from a guy who looks like that, “but I suppose you want them back now.”

He waves his hand and the strange green light shining over Kirk and Sulu goes out, and the two of them seem to wake up. Sulu starts moving at once, but Kirk just kind of stays in position for a moment with only his eyes moving around in confusion before he straightens up.

“Welcome to an island of peace on my stormy little planet of Gothos,” the guy at the harpsichord says, but everyone ignores him for the moment. Kirk and Sulu climb over the railing to join the landing party, and Kirk tells them to fill him in on just what the frell is going on around here. McCoy tells him that the two of them disappeared and they’ve been looking for them for four hours—which, as far as ways the sentence, “You disappeared and we’ve been looking for you for--” could end, is pretty good, all things considered; better than, say, “You disappeared and we’ve been looking for you for ten years.”

“You must excuse my whimsical way of fetching you here,” Ruffles over there continues, “but when I saw you passing by I simply could not resist.”

Kirk, still looking real dubious and a bit like he has a headache, goes over to introduce himself, which really sends Ruffles into full-on “OH HO HO HOW WONDERFUL SMASHING BRAVO” mode. When Kirk asks him who he is, he says that he’s “General Trelane, retired, at your service,” and tells them to make themselves at home and all that before going back to the harpsichord.

The landing party does a huddle, and DeSalle tells Kirk about how they’re out of contact with the ship, leaving them pretty much trapped here. Trelane interrupts to say that he’s delighted to have visitors from “the very planet that I’ve made my hobby.” Oh boy. It is never a good sign when someone tells you they’ve made the place where you came from their hobby.

Trelane says he’s surprised, though, because he didn’t think they were capable of such voyages. Jaeger quietly points out to Kirk that this place is about nine hundred lightyears away from Earth, and it all looks about nine hundred years out of date, indicating that maybe Trelane’s been looking in on the ol’ home planet without realizing his information is on a bit of a delay.

That really bums Trelane out because he so wanted to make them all feel at home, but he bounces back pretty quickly. When Kirk addresses him as General, he says, no, call me Squire-- “yes, I rather fancy that.” Okay, Squire, why are we imprisoned here? Trelane insists that they’re not prisoners, they’re guests! And he wants to hear all about “your campaigns, your battles, your missions of conquest.” Kirk says that their missions aren’t for conquest, they’re peaceful—well, y’know, most of the time. Romulans notwithstanding. Now, can we please go back to our ship?

But Trelane won’t hear of it. He insists that they stay and have a “repast” with him while they tell him all about their feelings on war and killing and all that jazz. “Did you know,” he asks them, “that you’re one of the few predator species that preys even on itself?”

Oh lord, not this “humans are the only species that kill their own kind!!” nonsense. Predators prey on each other ALL THE DAMN TIME. You think that, say, a lion, in direct competition with other lions for food, territory, and mates, is going to go “well I could have all of that lion’s stuff if I killed him, but of course I would never sink to such lows”? Animals will kill each other, they’ll kill each other’s children, hell, chimpanzees will wage full on war against other chimpanzees. Humans are just the only ones that feel bad about the whole thing. I suppose Trelane could mean humans are one of the only sapient species that does it, except that doesn’t track either—the vast majority of aliens we see in Star Trek seem to be fine with it. Even Vulcans got a whole lot of killing each other in before they settled down.

Kirk reacts to this statement with more or less the same expression that I did.

[ID: Kirk with a distinctly unimpressed look on his face.]

DeSalle has his hand on his phaser, but Kirk tells him to hold off for the moment, and to put it on stun rather than kill. Trelane overhears DeSalle’s name and gleefully asks him if he’s French. DeSalle admits he has some French ancestry, and Trelane promptly rattles off a whole bunch more French, then tells DeSalle that he “admires your Napoleon very much.” DeSalle looks appropriately perplexed about all this.

Kirk introduces the rest of the crew. Trelane gives Sulu an extremely overwrought bow, prompting Sulu to mutter, “Is he for real?”. Then he turns his attentions on Jaeger and starts shouting in German and goose-stepping in a circle. Oof. Jaeger stiffly tells him that he’s a scientist, not a military man, so cut that shit out, but Trelane just says “we’re all military men under the skin.”

He then turns to admire himself in the giant mirror hanging on the wall. Unfortunately said mirror also shows him DeSalle sneaking up on him with a phaser. DeSalle, I’m going to guess that stealth isn’t your strong suit, so here’s a beginner’s tip: don’t try to sneak up on people while they’re standing in front of large reflective surfaces. Trelane promptly turns around and freezes DeSalle in place with a gesture. He doesn’t seem upset about the attempted sneak attack, though, instead taking the phaser from DeSalle before unfreezing him and then gushing over the phaser like a kid with a brand new Nerf gun. It doesn’t take him long to figure out which setting won’t kill and which one will, and he promptly starts shooting it all over the place, destroying Salty—who just can’t catch a break—and another taxidermied monster, while raving about how this awesome gun could kill millions!

At that point Kirk grabs the phaser away from him and says, so what, are we going to be your next targets, is that it? Trelane says that’s just typical of humans, they don’t understand something so they fear it. Really? Really? You were literally just firing a lethal weapon in their direction while talking about how great it would be to kill a lot of people with it. At that point I think we’re in territory where fear is pretty reasonable.

Trelane goes on to “anticipate [Kirk’s] next question,” which he presumes is going to be about how he’s doing all this stuff. He explains that “we—meaning I and others--” yes, thank you, that’s what ‘we’ usually means—he and others have perfected a system by which matter can be transferred to energy and back again. Kirk asks if it’s like their transporter and Trelane sneers that the transporter is just a crude version of their much better and way cooler technology, because unlike the transporter their tech can not only move energy around but change its shape.

But Trelane’s tired of answering all these questions now; he wants his guests to relax and enjoy themselves. Kirk is immediately like “well, I would really enjoy leaving, so bye” and starts herding everyone out of there. This really pisses off Trelane, and, deciding that Kirk needs “another demonstration of my authority,” he vanishes Kirk with a sweep of his hand. Kirk suddenly finds himself somewhere barren and dark, filled with clouds of vapor that have him choking and coughing in seconds. Then, just as suddenly, he’s back in the room. Trelane tells him that that was a sample of what the atmosphere on this planet is like “outside my kindly influence” so he and the rest of them better behave from now on unless they want another taste of that.

After the break, Spock gives another captain’s log for Kirk—specifically a captain’s log this time, and not a ship’s log. I don’t know what the difference is. Maybe Spock just got more ambitious in the interim. Anyway, they’ve orbited the planet fourteen times now and still haven’t found or heard from the missing crew. They also still don’t have communications, but they have gotten their sensors working again by diverting power to them. Oh, huh, that actually worked this time.

Said sensors have located this one tiny little Earth-like spot down there in the midst of all the kill-you-in-minutes stuff. Scotty is, appropriately, extremely confused by how the heck that spot is there, but Spock is not, at the moment, terribly concerned about that; however the spot got there, it’s evidently there now, so we’re gonna work with that. He tells Scotty to fine-tune the sensors to detect any lifeforms that might be down in the oasis and beam them up. Scotty points out that they have no guarantee that any lifeforms down there will be the crew, but Spock counter-points out that if the crew are on the planet, that’s the only possible place they could still be while also still being alive, so they can either see if this works or continue doing nothing.

Meanwhile, Trelane is showing off all his battle flags and going on about how cool armies are while the landing party stands around looking distinctly annoyed. They might have escaped dying in a toxic hellscape, but listening to this guy talk is almost as bad.

Eventually he goes back to the harpsichord, leaving them free to confer. Sulu wonders to Kirk just who exactly Trelane is, anyway. McCoy says the question is more what he is—he did a scan of Trelane and got nothing. No signs of life, no signs of recently deceased life, no signs that anything was there at all. Jaeger also points out that the fire in the fireplace looks like it’s burning but isn’t giving off any heat. Oh my god, he has electric fireplace capability! We’re really in trouble now, lads!

The combination of the faulty fire and the fact that Trelane’s historical knowledge is almost a millennium out of date leads Kirk to the conclusion that Trelane is not omniscient. He’s clearly capable of making mistakes. And if he can make mistakes he has vulnerabilities, and if he has vulnerabilities we can exploit them, and if we can exploit them maybe we can defeat him. It’s a slim chance, but that particular line of logic has served Kirk pretty well in the past.

Trelane interrupts them to say oooh, are they making their little plans? How wonderful! Kirk tries to say that actually they really aren’t, but Trelane waves him aside, saying that he’s not mad at them—on the contrary, he loves this whole martial deception and strategy thing, it’s one of the many things he just admires so much about their species. Welllll, in that case, Kirk says, you must admire our sense of duty, too, right? Our sense of duty that’s making us really need to return to our ship to actually do our jobs?

Nice try, but it doesn’t work—Trelane’s having far too much fun to let them leave now. Kirk asks how long they’re going to have to stay, then, and Trelane says, “Until this is over.” Asked “until WHAT is over” he just brushes the whole thing aside: too many questions, enjoy the moment, etc, etc. Kirk persists that there are four hundred men and women up there on the Enterprise who need their captain and crewmates back. Unfortunately, Trelane fixates on precisely the wrong part of that sentence and immediately flips out because WOMEN?? DID YOU SAY WOMEN??

Oh dear. Yeah. Trelane is absolutely amazed to find out that there are members of the, ahem, fairer sex in the crew, and starts going on about how, “Oh, how charming. And they must be very beautiful. And I shall be so very gallant to them.” Great. He’s one of those guys. What a surprise.

He’s all ready to bring down all the female crewmen here and now, but Kirk has now really had enough and tells him that this game is over. Trelane is all set to throw a big temper tantrum, but McCoy’s communicator suddenly beeps, and he says he’s receiving a transporter signal. I didn’t know that was a thing that the communicators did, but apparently it is.

Well, looks like the party’s over, thanks, as Kirk says, to Mr. Spock. Trelane pitches an absolute fit about how he hasn’t dismissed them yet and he won’t stand for this, but the group is beamed up all the same. Spock comes into the transporter room to meet them, and if he’s at all relieved to see Kirk back after having been mysteriously gone for several hours on a planet with little hope of survival, he, of course, doesn’t show it. Kirk doesn’t offer much explanation, either, sending everyone back to their jobs as soon as they step off the platform, then asking Spock how they were able to pick up the landing party on sensors through all the radiation. Spock says, well, they didn’t—they just scooped up everyone in the vicinity. Which means, as McCoy points out, that Trelane really isn’t any kind of life form as they know it, since he didn’t get beamed up as well.

No time to stand around and think about that one, though—Kirk orders them to hit the gas and get away from this obnoxious planet as quickly as possible. Everyone returns to the bridge, where some random redshirt has the conn (why must Scotty be so often denied his command?). As Kirk takes over, McCoy goes to hang out by Uhura’s station, and she asks him what the heck was going on there. McCoy gets about as far as saying, “Well, there was a--” before giving up entirely, and really, who could blame him.

They’re all set to skedaddle when who should suddenly appear on the bridge but Trelane himself, startling everyone. Well, mostly everyone. Kirk just sees him and immediately looks extremely tired.

Trelane looks around the bridge and asks where the weapons are—don’t they display their weapons? Well, you know, there’s not a lot of empty wall space on the bridge, so what are you gonna do. Anyway, he tells Kirk not to worry, he’s only a bit upset with him. The person he’s really upset with is this Spock fellow who took away his playmates. Trelane wants to know just which one of these people is Spock, and Spock obligingly gives himself up. Sadly, this does not prompt a Spartacus-like scene where everyone else on the bridge starts yelling, “No, I’M Spock!”

This revelation is surprising to Trelane, who scoffs that, “Surely he’s not an officer, he’s not quite human.” Wow. Rude. Spock tells him that indeed he has a Vulcan dad, and Trelane asks if Vulcans are a predatory species. “Not generally,” Spock tells him, “but there have been exceptions,” with an expression that indicates that he might be willing to make one of those exceptions right about now.

Trelane expects Kirk to have Spock appropriately punished, and Kirk says that on the contrary, he commends Spock for his actions. I might have gone with, “Oh, yeah, sure, I’ll punish him. We have to go far away to do that, though...so we can...put him in time out...” but that works too. He then tells Trelane to get off his damn bridge already so they can leave, but Trelane won’t hear of it. They’re all going to come back with him because he has “an enchanting sojourn” planned.

Just like that, they’re all back at Trelane’s place—all of the original landing party plus Spock, Uhura, and a yeoman who was on the bridge. There’s now a large dining table in the middle of the room, which Sulu and DeSalle find themselves seated at. Despite nothing else seeming to have changed, Trelane boasts that “the décor of my drawing room is much more appropriate and tasteful, don’t you think?”

“No,” Sulu cheerfully tells him, because Sulu does not have a single fuck to give this episode.

DeSalle promptly jumps up to have a go at Trelane, which only results in him getting frozen again while Trelane coos over the impressive savagery of humans and all that. Kirk tells him to let DeSalle go, which he does, leaving DeSalle to be quickly grabbed and led away by the much more collected Sulu, admonishing him not to try that shit again.

Well, never mind that display of bad manners, Trelane says—let’s eat! He’s quite anxious for them all to sit down and sample the victuals. The men glance at Kirk and he gives them a nod, so they sit down. No, you fools, don’t eat the food! If a mysterious and powerful entity living in a place that shouldn’t exist offers you food, do not eat the food. That’s how you get trapped in the Otherworld forever!

But Trelane isn’t paying much attention to his dinner guests anymore, because he’s suddenly remembered that there are ladies here and insists on being properly introduced to them. Kirk begrudgingly introduces him first to Uhura, whom Trelane starts fervently admiring in terms that...well, let’s just say it starts with “a Nubian prize” and only gets worse from there. Then he starts in on the yeoman, one Teresa Ross, with “is this the face that launched a thousand ships” etc, etc, and tries to go for a kiss, but Kirk wearily grabs him by the arm and pulls him back.

He then formally introduces Trelane to Spock, whom Trelane is rather less enthused about. He thinks that Spock’s tone is “challenging” (it’s really not any different from Spock’s normal tone) and asks if Spock is in fact challenging him. Well, since you asked, Spock says, “I object to you. I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose.” Kirk listens to this little speech with an expression I can only describe as “smitten.”

[ID: Kirk listening and smiling as Spock, offscreen, says, “I object to power without constructive purpose.”]

Trelane comments that Spock does have “one saving grace after all. You’re ill-mannered. The human half of you, no doubt.” Gee, thanks.

He then goes back to bothering the women, asking—well, ‘asking’--Ross to dance with him while Uhura plays them some music. Uhura protests that she doesn’t know how to play a harpsichord, but Trelane says that of course she does, makes a sound effect happen, and suddenly Uhura starts playing with a surprised look on her face. Personally I would freak right the fuck out if someone just up and inserted an entire skill into my head, but she seems pretty chill with it. The poor yeoman, who most surely did not expect her day to wind up going this way when she woke up that morning, gets swept into a dance with Trelane.

I’m not quite sure how to take Trelane’s attitudes here. His information about humans is very dated, so it makes sense that his outlook towards women and black people (and Japanese people and German people, for that matter) would be likewise dated. It’s not a thing that the episode really calls out, though; at most there’s some exasperated eyerolls and polite befuddlement. Now, I don’t mean to come over all “if a work of fiction doesn’t explicitly and firmly condemn bad behavior that means it supports it!!” but it’s a little trickier when you’re dealing with a work that doesn’t necessarily have a great track record with those things to begin with. When you’ve got a show that’s unironically said some rather discriminatory stuff, it makes it more difficult to tell where the line is between that and a character who’s intentionally been written to be offensive in a way that we’re not supposed to approve of. I mean, some of Trelane’s behavior is quite obviously supposed to be outdated, especially what he says about Uhura; it might be more uncomfortable today but I’m sure it was always intended to be uncomfortable to some degree. But a few of the things he says aren’t real dissimilar from things that get said quite seriously throughout the show, so it’s, y’know, kinda weird.

While Trelane is distracted, McCoy and Sulu get up from the table to come talk to Kirk. Sulu wants to know how long they’re gonna be putting up with all this, and Kirk says they’ll have to put up with it until they can think their way out. In the meantime, they’ll just have to go along with Trelane’s hospitality—such as it is. Speaking of that hospitality, McCoy’s noticed a distinct flaw in it: all of Trelane’s dinner, as nice as it looks, is completely and utterly tasteless.

[ID: McCoy, Spock, Kirk and Sulu gathered in front of the large, ornate fireplace. McCoy, holding a glass of brandy, is saying, “Well, you should taste this food.”]

“And this brandy just tastes like apple juice! What’s up with that.”

Spock comments that actually, this makes sense; the flavorless food and drink indicates that Trelane “knows all of the Earth forms but none of the substance.” In other words, he may have observed what their food looks like, but has no idea at all what it should taste like. Kirk points out that this means Trelane isn’t infallible. I thought we already had that conversation, but okay. He also thinks that Trelane must have some kind of device or machine that’s helping him do all this.

Meanwhile, Trelane and Ross are still dancing, which Ross, understandably, does not look super happy about. He stops and says that her dress “hardly matches this charming scene,” and magics her into a fancy new pink one. She doesn’t look super happy about that, either, and really, who would be? The idea of someone being able to just instantly change you into whatever clothes they want you to be wearing is disturbing enough on its own even without all the other stuff Trelane seems able to do.

Trelane then pauses to preen in the big mirror on the wall, and Kirk notes that Trelane seems to have a thing about that mirror and never gets very far away from it. He figures this is just because of Trelane’s enormous ego, but Spock thinks there may be something more to it. Is there something special about that mirror, maybe? The two of them talk about what kind of machine Trelane could have that could do all this. Spock says it would have to be extremely sophisticated. “Like a computer,” Kirk says, “only much more.” ...Sure.

Kirk then asks if the device that’s keeping this whole area in livable conditions could be inside the house. Spock doesn’t think so because anything that could do that would surely be too big to fit in there. Kirk’s glad that Spock agrees on that one because it leaves him free to act. “If I’m not mistaken,” he says, “I think I can turn his lights off at the source.”

He then turns and starts loudly dissing Trelane, talking about how his actions are “those of an immature, unbalanced mind.” Trelane, hearing this, stops dancing and starts getting upset, but Kirk says he’s only just getting started. He wants Trelane to leave his crew alone, then pulls Ross away from Trelane and says that she’s not to dance with him or accept his gifts because Kirk doesn’t like it. Trelane is excited about this apparent display of jealousy, which, like ‘savagery’ and ‘killing things’ he seems to regard as an admirable trait. When Kirk says that he’s “had enough of [Trelane’s] insulting attentions to [Ross]” Trelane responds, “Of course you have. After all, that’s the root of the matter, isn’t it? You fight for the attention, the admiration, the possession of women!” Oh geez.

If Trelane wants a fight, Kirk says, then he can have it, and then he smacks Trelane across the face with Ross’s glove. Trelane gleefully asks if Kirk is challenging him to a duel. “If you have the courage,” Kirk tells him.

Oh boy, a duel? An actual duel? Trelane, practically beside himself with excitement, runs over and grabs a box from the mantelpiece. Inside it are a couple of pistols. “A matched set,” he says, “just like the pair that slew your Alexander Hamilton.” (Insert your own Hamilton joke here.) He then informs Kirk that “Captain...I never miss.” Kirk looks rather rattled, as if he wasn’t expecting to have to fight with guns, geez, how primitive, although I really don’t know what he would have thought they were going to duel with.

(Given that Hamilton died in 1804, and that dueling was falling out of favor in England by the 1840s and in America by the 1850, where it pretty much died off (even in the South, where it was way more popular) after the Civil War, we can estimate that the time period Trelane’s been looking at is roughly the first half of the nineteenth century. (Maybe someone with better historical knowledge than me could narrow it down more—or maybe not, I kind of doubt they were meticulously accurate with their period references here.) The earlier comments about this being nine hundred years out of date would therefore place the show in the twenty-seventh century, four centuries later than what they would eventually settle on. The best Watsonian explanation I can come up with for this is that they overestimated just how much of a delay Trelane’s information was on, and that Jaeger, being a geophysicist and not a historian, didn’t realize that his whole get-up was five hundred years out of date instead of nine hundred. A bit weak, but it’s better than “we forgot what century we were in,” which is the only other thing I can think of.)

After the break, Kirk narrates a “delayed log” (presumably meaning he made it after all this was over, although it’s still in the present tense so who knows) about how they’re all prisoners of Trelane and are weaponless and powerless--’cept for this gun—and the only way out is to play his games. Kirk has chosen this game, and now everything depends upon him and this ancient dueling pistol. Man, I bet Sulu’s feeling jealous right now.

They get into position and Trelane, still all giddy about getting to fight a real human duel, says that as the one challenged, he gets the first shot. Kirk is like, “...no? You don’t? That’s not how this works?” Not that they’re really following any dueling rules at the moment, but that one’s going a bit too far. This is like when my brother used to insist on setting up both sides whenever we played Battleship together. Trelane immediately starts throwing a fit and says that it’s his game and his rules, and if Kirk doesn’t like it, he could be persuaded...as he points the pistol at Spock. Okay, okay, Kirk says, you go first, geez.

So Kirk stands there, waiting, as Trelane prepares to fire. There’s a long, tense pause...dramatic music...and then Trelane fires harmlessly into the air (well, harmlessly in this instance. Please don’t fire guns straight into the air above you in real life) a move known in dueling as deloping. It can be done as an attempt to avoid actually killing anyone should you get dragged into a duel you don’t want to be in, but it can also be taken as an insult, implying that your opponent isn’t even worth shooting. I couldn’t find any examples of it being done by godlike beings toying with their victims, though, so I don’t know what the regulations on that one are.

[ID: Kirk, standing the foreground with his back to the camera, facing off against a grinning Trelane, who has just fired his gun into the air with a puff of smoke.]

“YOU’RE NOT WORTH THE POWDER!”

Trelane grins and says his fate is now in Kirk’s hands, and hold his arms out all ready to be shot. Well, that looks far too easy. Kirk evidently thinks so as well, because instead of shooting Trelane, he shoots the mirror. Unusually for mirrors, it promptly explodes. Not sure how that’s covered under the whole “break a mirror and get seven years of bad luck” rule.

The lights in the house start flickering on and off—yes, that includes the candles and fireplace—while electricity sparks from the broken mirror, which sure enough, appears to have some kind of machine behind it.

[ID: The remains of a large mirror in a gilded frame, now completely shattered, with most of the glass gone and complex machinery visible underneath.]

As Trelane starts yelling about how Kirk’s ruined everything, DeSalle says the subspace interference is clearing, and Kirk tells him to try contacting the ship. Trelane says that they’d better go back to the ship and prepare for their fates because they’ve earned his wrath and they’re “all dead men, you especially, captain.” Then he disappears.

Well, that’s a bit odd, but never mind that right now—let’s get out of here. Again. Hopefully it’ll stick this time. They’re all beamed up, and everyone heads to the bridge, where Kirk tells Sulu to GTFO. Then he takes a moment to look over a PADD someone’s handed him, because a captain’s life is never free of paperwork, even while fleeing from godlike beings throwing a temper tantrum.

Uhura asks if she should make a full report on all this to Spacefleet Command (goddammit, Gene, could you just pick a name for Starfleet and stick with it) but Kirk says not yet. He wants to wait until they’re out of range before sending out any kind of signal that could potentially be picked up by Trelane. Spock asks if they even know what Trelane’s range is, and Kirk admits they don’t, but he’s going to make an educated guess that it’s about where they first came into this solar system. Are they in a solar system? I thought they just found this one planet out in the middle of nowhere.

Yeoman Ross, still in the dress Trelane magicked her into, takes the PADD from Kirk and asks if she can go change. He smiles and says, “Yes, I think you might.” He doesn’t say, “Sorry I had to yell some nineteenth century views about women at you to provoke a creepy dude into dueling with me,” but there doesn’t seem to be any residual awkwardness between them, so I guess she’s fine with it.

They’re about to go into warp, when suddenly there’s a planet in front of them—so suddenly, Sulu only just barely avoids crashing into it. Sure enough, it’s that damn Gothos again. All their instruments show they’re on course, but as soon as Sulu tries to leave, it shows up in front of them again. And again, with them barely avoiding a crash each time. Even after pulling away from it the last time, Sulu says they’re still accelerating...or maybe the planet is still accelerating towards them (what, do you not have a speedometer on the helm anywhere?). It seems that Trelane isn’t about to let them escape that easily.

Kirk’s had enough of this shit. He tells Sulu to decelerate into orbit, and orders the transporter room prepared—he’s going to go down and talk to Trelane until he lets the Enterprise go. If they haven’t heard from him in an hour, he tells Spock, they’re to leave as quickly as they can. Which, I mean, they can’t leave at all right now, so who knows whether that order will be any use. McCoy, predictably, objects to this plan, and Kirk, predictably, ignores him.

So Kirk leaves the bridge, but before he can even make it to the transporter, he suddenly finds himself in a dark courtroom where Trelane sits high above him, judge’s wig and everything. He tells Kirk, “The prisoner may approach the bench. Any demonstrations shall weigh against you with the court, and this time my instrumentality is unbreakable.” Then the shadow of a noose appears behind Kirk. Well. That got dark.

Trelane then reads out a list of charges: “The high crime of treason against a superior authority, conspiracy and the attempt to foment insurrection.” Kinda surprised he didn’t add “and being a big mean jerkface” on there. He asks Kirk how he pleads, and Kirk says he’s not here to plead anything; he’s here to get his ship back. Trelane only bangs his gavel angrily at this, so Kirk tells him to take all his anger out on him, since he was the one who lead the others and destroyed the machine. He’ll admit to the charges, fine, anything, if Trelane will just let the Enterprise go.

When Trelane still doesn’t seem swayed by this, Kirk marches right up to the bench and tells him that they’re living beings, not Trelane’s playthings. At that point Trelane really flips out and yells that this trial is over, Kirk is guilty on all counts, and “in accordance with your own laws” he’s going to hang from the neck until dead. Which is obviously anachronistic nonsense. You only get the death penalty for going to Talos 4 these days.

After the break, Spock gives a captain’s log saying the hour is almost up and there’s still no word from Kirk, so as per his instructions they’ll have to leave soon. Wait, the hour is almost up? Like five minutes have passed since he went down there. Was there like fifty-five minutes of Trelane shouting that we skipped? I mean, not that I would complain about skipping that.

Down in the courtroom, Trelane throws off his wig and robe and cheerfully says that wow, he experienced actual rage—which he didn’t even think was possible! This whole experiment has been a success! Oh, are you still angry, Kirk? What’s that about?

If Kirk had any hope that this sudden shift in mood might prompt Trelane to call off the hanging, no such luck—he’s fully intending to carry it out, and asks Kirk if he has any last requests.

[ID: Kirk standing in a dark room with his hands on a wooden railing in front of him, glancing back at the shadow of a noose on the wall behind him.]

“Uh...I commend my soul to any god that can find it.”

Trelane wants Kirk to get on with it and put his head in the noose, to which Kirk is naturally like, “I’m not putting my head through that thing get out of here.” But Trelane informs him that he has no choice, and the noose starts moving over to him of its own accord, while Trelane laments that this is all so easy it’s tiresome.

Before things can segue into a Punch and Judy sketch, Kirk says that that’s Trelane’s trouble: he doesn’t think and he misses opportunities, like the experience of being angry right now, which he could never have accomplished without Kirk because he’s a bumbling, inept fool. Wow, don’t hold back, Kirk. Tell us how you really feel.

Kirk says that Trelane could just hang him, if he wants to be boring like that, but there’s no sport in it. There’s an opportunity here for a new experience: “the terror of murder, the suspense, the fun.” This intrigues Trelane, and he asks what alternative Kirk has in mind. “A personal conflict between us,” Kirk says. “Not like the duel before, but the real thing. The stakes? A human life, mine.”

This gets Trelane really pumped, and he starts waving a sword around excitedly. Kirk tells him that that’s the idea, but it’s still not enough sport to just kill him with a sword. So Trelane thinks for a moment and then decides on “a hunt, a royal hunt, predator against predator.” Kirk will go hide in the forest outside, and Trelane will hunt him down. Lovely.

Now he’s talking, Kirk says—but if Trelane is going to make it worth Kirk’s while, he’ll have to up the stakes. If Trelane agrees to free the Enterprise, Kirk will give him a contest he’ll remember. Trelane huffs about how Kirk just can’t shut up about that dang ship of his, but he agrees. Then he magics Kirk outside and tells him to go hide.

Kirk wants to notify the Enterprise before the game starts, and Trelane’s disembodied voice tells him, “At your convenience.” So Kirk pulls out his communicator, but only gets static. He tries anyway, telling them to get the ship out of there while he buys them some time, but he’s barely even finished speaking when Trelane appears and starts attacking him with the sword. Man, that’s not convenient at all.

The two of them tussle a bit, and then Kirk runs off into the woods. He gets some headway, but stops to try to contact the ship again, and Trelane catches up to him. So off Kirk runs, with Trelane running after him and telling him he’s got to try harder because this is too easy.

Kirk runs through a clearing, and a moment later Trelane runs through it after him. As he stops to look for Kirk, Kirk suddenly comes in swinging on a nearby branch and kicks Trelane hard in the chest, causing him to go flying and drop his sword. Kirk grabs the sword and swings it at Trelane—but Trelane vanishes, leaving the sword to pass harmlessly through thin air. Then he reappears, crowing, “Touche, Captain, touche! You scored first! But after all, I never played this game before!”

It’s not looking like Kirk has much of a chance if Trelane’s gonna cheat like that, but he’s not giving up yet. He throws the sword away, only for Trelane to magic it back into his hand and start attacking Kirk with it. They circle around a nearby tree, Kirk fending off the sword with a branch, but eventually the branch breaks against the sword and Kirk has to run.

He makes it back to the house and tries to get in through the front door, but it won’t open, so in desperation all he can do is try to call the ship again. Trelane comes running up and Kirk turns to try to escape, but iron fences appear first on one side, then the next, leaving him cornered. He reminds Trelane that he promised to let the Enterprise go, but Trelane says that no, this game is so fun he’s gotta bring everyone else back to come play it too. Four hundred people to chase through the woods one by one. How many of them would die before he finally got bored?

Trelane orders Kirk to kneel, but Kirk tells him he still hasn’t won, and refuses to back down despite Trelane’s repeated demands. After all, he’s got nothing to lose now, and anyway he’s far too tired and pissed off now to be afraid. So he grabs Trelane’s sword and breaks it over his knee--geez, cheap sword—throws it away, and then smacks Trelane across the face a couple of times for good measure. Trelane rages that Kirk cheated and didn’t play the game right, and Trelane’s gonna show him—when suddenly a female voice firmly calls his name.

Two spots of glowy green mist have appeared above the ground nearby. Trelane runs over to them and protests that they said he could have this planet for his very own. Another voice, this one male, tells him that all this has gone far enough. “But you always stop me when I’m having fun!” Trelane whines, but the orbs tell him that he’s been disobedient and cruel and it’s time to come in now.

Trelane says that he doesn’t wanna come in, and he’s not gonna, cause he’s a general and he doesn’t have to listen to them. Dad Orb tells him that’s enough. Trelane insists he hasn’t done anything wrong and besides, he hasn’t studied finishing his predators yet. But this isn’t hardly studying anything, the orbs tell him; if he can’t take proper care of his pets he can’t have them at all. Anyway, he can’t go around treating them this way because “they’re beings, they have spirit, they’re superior.” He’ll understand when he grows up. Trelane pouts that he never gets to have any fun, and Dad Orb tells him to cut that out or he’ll have his planet-making privileges revoked.

“But I was winning,” Trelane protests, “I would’ve won, I would’ve...” He repeats it petulantly over and over as he slowly fades away.

The orbs then address Kirk, who has been watching all this with a sort of “you know what, this might as well happen” expression. They apologize and say it’s their fault for indulging their child too much, and they would have stopped this all much earlier if they’d realized how vulnerable the humans were. They’ll maintain the life-supporting conditions on the planet while he gets back to the ship, and then with another apology, they vanish.

Kirk stands there for a moment looking extremely tired before trying to call the ship. This time Spock finally answers, and Kirk tells him they’re free to go so beam him up already and let’s leave this dumb planet behind.

This does leave open the question of what that whole business with the machine was about. For all the focus there was on it, and Trelane’s angry reaction to Kirk destroying it, he doesn’t really show any reduction in his abilities after it’s taken out, and Trelane’s parents didn’t seem to be using any such thing when they showed up. So what did Trelane need it for, really? How many of his powers came from the machine as opposed to being inherent to his kind, whatever that is? Whatever the answer, we’re never gonna find out.

Some time later, the Enterprise is finally approaching Colony Beta Six, and as Kirk sits on the bridge Spock comes up to him and says he’s wondering how they’re going to classify Trelane for the record. “Pure mentality? Force of intellect? Embodied energy? Super being?” Are those preexisting classifications? If so, I’m really curious what the exact definition of “super being” is.

Kirk suggests ‘God of War’ which, as Spock points out, is not very helpful. “Then a small boy,” Kirk says, “and a very naughty one at that.” Spock notes that that’s going to make for a strange entry (though really, it should hardly stand out among all their other entries), and Kirk says that, well, he was a strange small boy. But then, he figures, he was probably just doing his equivalent of typical small boy pranks just like Spock might have done as a kid—dipping little girls’ curls in inkwells and all that. Although given the attitude Trelane had towards his ‘pets,’ he seems more like the kind of kid that would pull wings off flies or fry ants.

Spock looks half scandalized and half confused, understandably so since dipping little girls’ curls in inkwells as a prank was anachronistic enough in the 1960s, let alone in the 2300s. Or the 2700s. Whatever century we’re in. Kirk apologizes and says that he should have known better, and Spock gives him an “uh, yeah” eyebrow, and the episode ends.

As you might well have noticed, this plot of this episode bears a striking resemblance to that of Charlie X: the crew are at the mercy of a young person with incredible powers and no real understanding of life outside their own, who they ultimately only escape from because a guardian with even greater powers comes to collect them. In both cases the protagonists, for all their ingenuity and bravery, wind up unable to really do anything except stall for time. Trelane’s fading cry of “I would’ve won, I would’ve...” even echoes Charlie’s last cry of wanting to “stay...stay...stay...”

The difference, of course, is all in the tone; Charlie X is more or less a horror story, while The Squire of Gothos is much more comedic. Trelane presumably had the capability to do things just as horrific as Charlie did, but even at his most threatening his antics are obnoxious rather than terrifying, and no one takes him seriously, even when literally being held at swordpoint by him. The idea of a race of beings so powerful that even their children could treat us as little more than interesting toys could very easily be played as a full-on cosmic horror story, but by invoking highly recognizable human behaviors so closely—Trelane whining that he never gets to do anything fun, and being sternly told to stop playing and come inside, etc—it becomes funny and whimsical rather than threatening. It’s an interesting example, I think, of how much just changing the tone can alter a story.

Trek Trope Tally: We’ve got another case of Godlike Beings, with Trelane and his mysterious parents. Next time, Kirk’s gonna make like Steve Irwin and wrestle a giant reptile in Arena.

#star trek #star trek TOS #star trek season one #1.17 The Squire of Gothos

38 notes · View notes

shorties-unite · 4 years

Text

You know the worst part about having an Anatomy final tomorrow? It’s that bc of campus’s closing down I haven’t had labs since about week 3 and that means I also haven’t done my lab or surface anatomy exam yet so I can’t go into my “FINAL” knowing what I need to pass.

#meganmakesapost #uni stuff #uni #oh and that apparently this course has a hecking high fail rate #thanks for telling me that JOEL #dude there are way too many muscles in these fuckin meat sacks #not to mention vessels and nerves #like cool! but also i am not going to be able to memorise them before tomorrow #hopefully having some notes will help

0 notes

ryqoshay · 6 years

Text

How to Handle a Nico: Rhythm Game

Primary Pairing: NicoMaki Words: ~2.3k Rating: G Time Frame: Late in Maki’s 1st year and Nico’s 3rd year in high school Story Arc: Stand Alone

List of all HtHaN scenes

Author’s Note: It wasn’t exactly my intent to write a scene for this adorable pic, but after I wrote the last one, I couldn’t help it. @lolitomatobunny has really made some good works. Who could blame me for being inspired by such wonderful images?

Also, double woo! ♡ ＼(≧▽≦)／ ♡ Not only does this make my fifth chapter posted in as many days, but it’s 2k words, not just 1 or less.

“Ughn… Not again, nya!” Rin cried, tossing her phone, rather carelessly onto the table.

“Failed another song, Rin-chan?” Hanayo asked with a sympathetic tone as she moved over to her friend’s side.

“The beatmap just doesn’t make any sense!” The cat-like girl complained. “And the notes that require special gestures are just nyannoying!”

“Well, you did just start playing a few days ago.” The youngest µ’s member assured. “I didn’t figure things out right away either. And there are plenty of Expert level songs I still cannot complete, much less Full Combo.”

“But that was only Hard!” Rin whined, dropping her forehead onto the table in defeat.

“You’ll get the hang of it in time.” Hanayo patted her friend’s back. “You still like the game, right?”

“Of course.” Rin admitted with a sigh before pushing herself back up enough to prop her head on her hands. “The music is really good and makes me happy listening to it.”

That got the attention of a certain redhead sitting across the table, though she did not look away from the book in her hand.

Rin tilted her head onto one hand before reaching out with the other to retrieve her phone. As soon as the screen was unlocked, a peppy tune began to play through the speaker.

Maki blinked. If Rin had been playing earlier, why hadn’t she noticed the music before? Had the other girl been wearing headphones? Maybe said device had been disconnected when she tossed her phone away? Maybe she had just ignored it because it sounded like the music to which Nico was always listening. It was just another embarrassingly happy tune, the likes of which A-RISE might create. Or East Heart. Or Midnight cats. Or µ’s… Well, it wasn’t like Maki hadn’t helped create pieces like that herself. Quite a few, actually.

“Does that interest you, Maki-chan?”

“Buweeh?” Maki balked back to reality and looked up from her book.

Rin grinned at her friend.

“W-what?”

“You can’t fool Rin, Maki-chan!” Rin jumped up from her chair and practically skipped around the table. “I could see that you were interested even though you tried to hide it.”

“I wasn’t really…”

“It can be a little hard at times, but it really is a fun game.” Hanayo explained.

The orange-haired girl held her phone out in front of the redhead. “I’ll do an Easy song as an example.” She explained before hitting Start.

“Hmmm…” Maki watched with more interest than she was willing to admit.

Rin’s thumbs tapped certain points on the screen as moving circles crossed a threshold. In the background, various girls popped up occasionally to say something encouraging, though Maki couldn’t quite tell if the lines were supposed to be directed at the player or to the other girls in the group.

For some reason, Maki found herself paying more attention when a dark-haired girl sporting twin-tails came on to the screen. Not that she reminded Maki of anyone, of course. The character’s eyes were a different color, there was no pink to be found in her outfit, and her smile was nowhere near as brilliant. Yes, there was no way the character in the game was anything like her. Not that Maki was thinking about her, of course.

“And that’s how you play, nya!” Rin proclaimed proudly as the English words, Full Combo! appeared across the screen.

Shortly after, a girl with a reasonable resemblance to Hanayo appeared to give one final congratulatory line. Wasn’t that the girl who had been in the center of the group? Of course, Rin would set things up that way. Maki couldn’t help wondering if the twin-tailed girl ever mentioned wanting to be the center. Oh, what the heck. She shook her head. She was definitely thinking too much about this. It was just a silly mobile game.

“Bet you wanna play now, huh, Maki-chan?” Rin asked after a moment.

“Not really…”

“Hmmm, maybe if they included some classical music, then Maki-chan might be more interested.”

“I doubt it…”

“Are there classical songs that have lyrics for the girls to sing?” Hanayo wondered out loud.

“There are a lot of songs with lyrics.” Maki stated. “Though sometimes the lyrics are written at a later time by a different individual.”

“So maybe someday they’ll make a classical themed rhythm game.” Rin seemed excited about the concept.

“Probably not.” Maki shook her head as thoughts of a group comprising Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Rossini and Tchaikovsky wearing stylized outfits danced through her mind.

“Rin-chan.” Hanayo spoke up as she glanced her phone. “We should probably get going if we want to beat the rush at the ramen shop.”

“Iku-nya!” Rin cheered, running over to grab her bag.

“Do you want to come with us, Maki-chan?” The brunette asked.

“Thank you for the offer.” Maki replied. “But, I already have plans for the evening.”

“Oh? Wha’cha doin’?” Rin asked.

“Uhm, Nico-chan asked if I would help her study for an upcoming… What?” Maki stared back as her fellow first years smiled at her.

“Nico-chan’s lucky to have someone smart like Maki-chan help her, nya.” Rin explained. “And Rin is lucky to have someone as amazing as Kayo-chin to help her!” She grabbed the arm of the girl in question.

“Rin-chan…” Pink dusted Hanayo’s cheeks, though she continued to smile.

“You two have fun.” Maki nodded toward the door. “Nico-chan should be done with cleaning duty soon, so you don’t have to worry about me.”

After saying their goodbyes, the other two girls departed, leaving Maki alone in the clubroom. She was just about to go back to reading when her phone vibrated.

NicoNii: Sorry, going to be delayed a little bit

NicoNii: Eli and Nozomi need me to do something

NicoNii: I’ll try to make it quick

NishikinoMaki: That’s fine

NishikinoMaki: I’ll see you when you get here

Maki returned to the home screen and was about to turn off the screen when the icon for the app store caught her eye. Surely, it wouldn’t hurt to take just one more quick peek at that game, right? Downloading it didn’t mean she was really interested, right? After all, the music was in the same genre of everything she had heard from school idols, µ’s included, so if anyone asked, she could just pass it off as research and inspiration. Yes, that was it; research and inspiration. Those were the only reasons.

Apparently, the initial download wasn’t enough, and more data started loading once Maki had opened the app. However, chibi versions of several of the girls appeared on screen, including the twin-tailed girl she had noticed before. Out of curiosity, she tapped the character and jumped when a voice came out of the speaker telling her to stop touching her. That was her voice? It was actually… kind of cute. Kind of. Not as cute as someone else’s though. Not that Maki was thinking about her, of course.

After finally getting to the game itself, an opening scene began that introduced what Maki assumed were the main characters. For some reason, she found herself relieved that the twin-tailed girl was among the main cast. The characters talked, explained the player’s role in the story and then walked her through a quick tutorial concerning gameplay. And finally, it was time to play her first song. She pressed Start and…

“Buweehh?!” Maki practically jumped out of her chair as arms draped across her shoulders from behind.

“Maki-chan plays that game?” A voice asked from next to her ear.

Pause! Pause! Where is the pause button?! Surely there is a Pause button, right?

The notes scrolled down the screen and with hands trembling, Maki began to tap at the screen.

Maybe… Maybe this isn’t so bad. Actually, even with Nico-chan scaring me, this is pretty ea… What?

The game made a dissonant sound as it did not accept Maki’s attempt to tap one of the special notes.

Maki grimaced as she heard Nico giggle, but continued to hit the normal notes with perfect timing. Nico giggled again when another special note was missed and Maki held back a growl. Finally, the song ended and the game tallied her performance; all Perfects, sans two Misses for the special notes.

“Still learning those notes, eh?” Nico asked.

“I… I only missed them because you scared me.” Maki grumbled.

“Uh-huh. Look here.” Nico held out one hand flat to mimic a phone before holding it with the other. “For those notes, you have to make this kind of gesture” She moved her thumb across her other hand as though it was a screen. “And for the other type you will see, you do this.” She moved her thumb again. “The tutorial doesn’t really do a good job of explaining them. Even Nico had to look it up online.”

“Hmmm...” Maki mimicked the gestures she had seen.

“Yeah, like that. That’s good, Maki-chan. Practice that for a few more songs on Easy.”

“Easy?”

“Yeah, I can see you got the normal notes down, but that was still on a slower speed. And the real world is full of distractions so you’ll have to learn how to do the special notes even if someone scares you.”

“Hmmm…” Maki wasn’t quite sure if she detected teasing in that tone.

“Maki-chan may be a prodigy with the piano but it will be years before she catches up to Nico-nii on rhythm games.”

Now that was definitely teasing. Maki’s brow furrowed as she tapped the screen again.

“Wha? Maki-chan that’s…”

“Mmph.” Maki grunted.

The song started again, but this time there was a significant increase in the number of notes cascading down the screen. And their speed had at least doubled. But Maki didn’t care. She knew the rhythm of this song now; it wasn’t overly complex. And as expected, the notes matched perfectly, meaning the only thing she had to watch was placement. Well, and the special notes, but Maki was confident she knew how to handle those, so long as Nico’s demonstration was accurate.

As her thumbs danced across the screen, Maki wondered if it might be easier to hold her phone in one hand and play with the fingers of her other. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her thumbs to keep up, just that she was more accustomed to using all of her fingers in tandem.

“Wow…” Nico breathed, about halfway through the song.

Almost there. The end was in sight. Maki felt her jaw clench as she concentrated on the last few… the arms around her shifted ever so slightly. A finger barely brushed her arm.

Maki’s breath hissed with a rapid intake through her teeth as the game released another discordant clash and her combo was shattered. With her concentration in shambles, her saving grace was that the remaining notes that were missed were not enough to completely deplete her stamina.

“Oh! Oops… Sorry, Maki-chan!” Nico pulled away quickly. In her haste she ended up backing straight into the bookshelf behind her. “Keh…”

“Nico-chan…” Maki griped, turning toward her senior.

“I’m sorry!” Nico repeated, throwing up her hands defensively. “Really, I am! I-I-I was just so impressed with your skills that I didn’t realize what else I was doing and… and… I don’t know! I’m sorry!”

Maki paused. She couldn’t recall seeing Nico like this; truly repentant. She wasn’t apologizing, grudgingly, because she was told she had to. She also wasn’t pulling the puppy dog eyes or falling into her idol persona. Rather, she seemed honestly upset after having disrupted Maki’s game. Was a mobile game really worth such a reaction?

And sure, Maki was annoyed, but she wouldn’t say she was actually angry with Nico. As such, she let her posture relax and opened her mouth to speak.

“That really was impressive, though.” Nico probably didn’t realize she was interrupting, as technically, Maki hadn’t actually spoken yet. “How long have you been playing?”

“I just downloaded it before you got here.”

Nico blinked. “Really? That’s impressive, Maki-chan.”

Maki felt a smile tug at her lips. “Thanks.”

“So, uhm… you aren’t… actually mad at me, are you?”

“Not really, no.” Maki admitted. “Just… don’t do that again.”

“You don’t want me to hug you anymore?” There was no mistaking the concern in Nico’s voice.

Ah, so that’s what she was worried about. Maki couldn’t help laughing a little. If she were being completely honest, she knew she would miss the hugs if Nico actually stopped.

“No, that’s not it.” Maki shook her head. “Maybe just not while I’m trying to concentrate on something?”

“I’ll try to remember that.” Nico said earnestly. “But Maki-chan is really cute when she’s focused and Nico can’t help wanting to hug her…”

Maki felt heat building in her cheeks. “W-well just t-try, alright?” Geez, why was she stuttering?

“Alright.” Nico smiled, finally. “So, uhm, we never did decide if we were going to your place or mine.”

“Either is fine, though it might be quieter at my place.”

“Sounds like we’re going to your place.”

“Alright.” Maki nodded.

“Oh, and maybe when we take a break, we can play together?”

“What do you mean?”

“There is a function that lets you set up private rooms, so you can play in a team with your friends to get higher scores and better rewards.” Nico explained. “And since you’re a new player, your teams won’t be that strong, even if Maki-chan’s skills are amazing, so Nico can lend you the strength of her teams and get you some nice early bonuses!”

“Sounds fun.”

“Then let’s get going!” Nico cheered with renewed vigor. Her smile was now as brilliant as... no, more brilliant than that of the character in the game as she held out a hand to her junior.

“Alright.” Maki agreed, grabbing her bag before taking her senior’s hand and letting her lead her out of the clubroom.

Author’s Note Continued: No, the game in the scene is not SIF. I still maintain that SIF does not exist in HtHaN. However, with as many mobile rhythm games as there are in the real word, it’s not hard to imagine some iteration of them occurring in this world. And since at least one is themed around idols, of course Nico and Hanayo play that one. However, just because the game isn’t actually SIF, or any other game from our world, doesn’t mean I can’t reference certain parts from any real world game. So, I’ll see where things go.

So, HtHaN has a rhythm game in it now. I guess I’ll probably want to bring it up again at some point. More notes for the collection!

#NicoMaki #Nishikino Maki #Yazawa Nico #How to Handle a Nico #Love Live #fanfic

19 notes · View notes

ryqoshay · 6 years

Text

How to Handle a Nico: Reassurance

Primary Pairing: NicoMaki Secondary Pairing: NozoEli Words: ~3.7k Rating: T? Time Frame: Late in Maki’s college career and early in Nico’s idol producer career Story Arc: Stand Alone

List of all HtHaN scenes

Author’s Note: Not too long ago, a comment over on AO3 made mention of liking how I portray Nico demystifying Maki, “breaking her behavior and responses down to a science” and that got me thinking that the reverse is true as well. Maki also analyzes and learns Nico’s behavior and responses. She may be a bit slower in figuring things out, but she is just as driven in her desire to learn everything she can about Nico.

On thinking more about this topic, I realized that a lot of the scenes I have been writing as of late have been more or less using Nico as the audience surrogate. And while I think that’s fine, I would like to turn things around every so often and write a scene or two that focuses on Maki’s perspective on things.

The moment Maki entered the room, she knew something was wrong. “Nico-chan?”

“Maki-chan!?” Nico jolted before looking up at her girlfriend. “I didn’t hear you come in.” Her hand moved to do something on her laptop before she flashed a smile and her signature gesture. “How were classes?”

No. That wasn’t right. Maki pursed her lips and furrowed her eyebrows as she moved across the room.

“Maki-chan?” The raven-haired girl’s smile faltered, just a bit at the lack of response.

The redhead knelt behind her girlfriend, draped her arms over her and nuzzled her nose into her hair.

“You don’t have to lie, you know.” Maki said softly.

“Wha…?”

“That was probably fakest smile you’ve ever shown me.”

“Oh…” Nico’s shoulders slumped.

“What’s wrong?”

“Noth…” The older girl cut off as the younger girl grunted disapprovingly. After a moment, she sighed. “Sorry, Maki-chan, I… I guess I just don’t want to make you worry.”

Maki pressed herself more against her girlfriend’s back. “I’m already am worried.” She admitted, her mind running through memories of how she had watched her girlfriend ride an emotional rollercoaster for the last couple of weeks. And while she was more than happy sharing in the highs, she was feeling increasingly helpless during the lows. “Tell me, please.” She requested. “If there is anything I can do to help, anything at all, please let me know. I want to help, Nico-chan.”

“You really don't get it, do you, Maki-chan?”

What? A flash of panic skittered across Maki’s consciousness. What didn't she get? What had she missed? Did she do something wrong? Was Nico upset?

“You’re doing it right now and you don’t even realize it.”

“Huh?”

“Just keep doing what you are doing.”

“Hugging you?”

Maki could feel the other girl chuckle under her.

“Well, that too. But what I mean is… keep being you, Maki-chan. Continue to cheer me on. Stay by my side. Just… uhm, how did that song go from the Phantom again?” Nico pondered for a moment. “<Love me, that's all I ask of you.>” She couldn't help singing the lyric in English.

“I do love you, Nico-chan.”

“I know. And I don’t think I could ever tell you properly how happy that makes me. So, like I said, just keep doing what you’re doing, because I love it.” Nico leaned back against her girlfriend. “I love you, Maki-chan.”

A warm feeling spread through Maki. No matter how many times she heard Nico say it, she doubted she would ever tire of it. Still…

“I just…” Maki struggled for a moment to find the best words to express her concerns. “I wish I could do more. You…” She was about to list off all the things Nico did for her when she was interrupted.

“Maki-chan.” Nico said firmly. “Not once have I ever thought that you don’t do enough for me. Not once have I thought, ‘Gee, I wish Maki-chan would do more in our relationship.’” She took her girlfriend’s hand, raised it to her lips and placed a gentle kiss on the back of it. “I love you, Maki-chan and I love all that you do for me.”

“… Sorry…” Maki heard herself say before she thought better of it.

Nico chuckled again. “What are you apologizing for now?”

“I wanted to reassure you because you looked upset when I came in, but you ended up reassuring me instead.”

“But you did reassure me. Weren’t you paying attention?”

“Wha…?”

“You saw that I was upset, didn’t buy my attempt to hide it and came over to comfort me. You reassured me and didn’t even realize it. Geez, you’re dense sometimes.”

“Mmmph…” Maki felt a pout come to her lips.

“You reminded me that no matter what, I have your support. And the support of many others.” Nico explained. “I’d forgotten that for a moment.”

“What the heck?”

Nico sighed. “Because I stupidly started reading some forum threads.” She motioned to the laptop in front of her.

“I don’t get it.”

“Remember that deal I was trying to set up with that other small production company?”

“The one that fell through?”

“Yeah. Anyway, it seems Etsuko somehow found out about it and has spent the day stirring up the embers of anger with my old fans who still feel betrayed. There’s a full-fledged flamewar spreading across several idol sites.”

“Hasn’t Etsuko done enough to you already?” Maki wrinkled her nose while saying her name.

“Apparently not.” Nico shrugged. “But it’s alright. You can’t have a fight on a forum without two sides and that other side is made up of those who still support me. I really am blessed to have such loyal fans.”

“Yeah, you do have some great fans.” Maki agreed.

“And that thing falling through isn’t even that big of a deal.” Nico continued. “Sure, it would have been nice, I mean connections are connections and alliances are alliances, but it’s not going to break us. Egao Jōshō will still become the No. 1 Idol Production Company in the Universe.”

“You mean it isn’t already?” Maki couldn’t help asking, allowing a hint of teasing into her tone.

“Nope.” Nico responded with a surprising amount of sincerity, enough that it made Maki second guess her teasing for a moment. “But so long as amazing people like Hanayo, Tsubasa,” she hugged Maki’s arms “and you are around, we’ll get there. I know we will.”

“Mmm…” Maki tilted her head down to plant a kiss on top of the other girl’s head.

Nico began to twist around and push herself towards her girlfriend. Maki sat back and allowed the other girl to slide onto her lap. From her new position, Nico wrapped her arms around Maki’s neck so she could pull closer. Maki responded by turning her head to meet the incoming kiss.

“We’re home!” A voice announced from the entry.

And just like that, the spell was broken. Maki pulled away, immediately lamenting the sigh Nico released before rolling her eyes.

“Welcome back!” Nico called, getting to her feet. She turned to her girlfriend and offered a hand. “Let’s go greet them, shall we?”

Maki nodded quietly, accepted the help up and allowed herself to be lead toward the door.

“Hey, you two!” Eli greeted with a smile as the couple came around the corner. “We have a surprise for you!” She indicated a long and slim, but sizable box leaning against the wall.

“Elicchi noticed this while we were out shopping today.” Nozomi explained, already moving to open the box. “I consulted the cards and they said it would prove useful.” She slid the item out of the box before turning to reveal it.

“A keyboard?” Maki stepped forward to get a better view.

“It’s a little beat up because it was used, but I tried it before they reboxed it and I think it sounds alright.” Eli turned her attention to the redhead approaching. “Still, we should probably let you, our resident pianist, make the final decision on whether we keep or ret…” She cut off as she suddenly found herself in an unexpected embrace. “Xорошо?” She uttered in confusion.

“Thank you.” Maki murmured before letting go. She turned to find Nozomi already grinning and holding her arms wide. Suddenly aware of her emotionally charged behavior, she blushed.

“You’re welcome, Maki-chan.” Nozomi said, as the younger girl sheepishly moved over to hug her as well. “So, do you want some help setting it up?”

“Yes, please.”

With all four girls working together, it took less than five minutes to get the device up and running. Immediately on powering up the keyboard, Maki began pressing keys to listen to the sounds they made. Eli had been right, despite the external casing being a bit banged up, the sound quality was surprisingly good so the internal components were fine.

“Are you going to play something, Maki-chan?” Nico asked, obvious anticipation seeping into her voice.

Maki looked up to find an expression of excited expectation on her girlfriend’s face and she couldn’t help meeting the smile with one of her own. The older girl knew how to cook, willingly did house cleaning duties, took care of her when she was sick and overall did many things to look out for Maki’s wellbeing. And while Maki’s abilities to reciprocate in those departments was lacking, there was one thing she knew, for certain, she could do that never failed to make Nico happy; play the piano and sing. Or maybe that was two things, but whatever.

“Definitely.” Maki agreed as her mind began shuffling through what she knew she could play from memory.

One song, in particular, repeated itself in the cycle; the one Nico had brought up earlier. She did a quick mental check to ensure she remembered all the lyrics and chords. But, it was a duet, in English… Would Nico pick up on that? Did she know the words to her part? Wait… in the play, the song ended with the two characters kissing! Eli and Nozomi were here! Would Nico still want to… yes, of course she would want to; Nico loved public displays of affection. And Nozomi would definitely tease them about it because that’s just what Nozomi did. Still… it did seem to be a fitting song for the situation… and she hadn’t sung a duet with Nico in far too long… and it would definitely make Nico happy…

Swallowing her embarrassment, Maki began to play. “<No more talk of darkness. Forget these wide-eyed fears.>”

Nico’s eyes widened with recognition. Maki could tell by her expressions that the older girl was quickly reviewing Christine’s part in her own mind to prepare. She fidgeted with her phone, likely considering looking up the lyrics. However, when she smiled, Maki knew she was ready.

“<Say you’ll love me every waking moment.>” Nico sang, moving to a position opposite the keyboard from her girlfriend, maintaining steady eye contact the entire time. “<Turn my head with talk of summertime.>”

For someone who had likely only heard the song less than a dozen times, Maki had to admit she was impressed with how well Nico performed the part of Christine. Though she didn’t play an instrument, nor did she write songs, there was no question that Nico’s musical knowledge and prowess easily rivaled that of Maki’s. Well, actually, there were a few songs that Nico had written mostly on her own, and she definitely had helped refine many of the songs Maki and Umi had written back in high school. And, if she put her mind to it, Nico probably could play an instrument if she wanted.

Nico giggled a bit when Maki substituted her name for Christine’s and it was enough to bring Maki’s focus back on the duet they were sharing. By the gods, she loved that smile. Nico’s smile was undeniably genuine now, not fake like she had tried to show earlier. This was the smile that had worked its way deep into her heart years ago. Seeing that, Maki was certain she had made the right choice in songs.

“<Anywhere you go, let me go too.>” The couple sang in unison as the song approached its conclusion. “<Love me, that’s all I ask of you.>”

As they held the note for the required number of beats, Nico reached up to Maki’s cheek. The redhead responded by leaning forward, across the keyboard. Finally, they ended the song and their lips met.

“<Bravi! Bravi! Bravissimi!>” Nozomi intoned in Italian.

Maki tore away from her girlfriend, almost throwing herself off balance with how quickly she stood up. Silently, she cursed the blush she knew was already flaring across her cheeks. Gods, she hated this part of herself. Nico’s lips turned down into a frown. No. That wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted to see Nico smile again. But what could she… well, the kiss had ended prematurely… again… and she did like, no, she loved kissing Nico… but Eli and Nozomi were watching…

“Geez, thanks Nozo…” Nico began to grumble.

Oh, what the heck. Maki crushed down her embarrassment once again and reached forward to place her hand on her girlfriend’s cheek. The raven-haired girl’s eyes widened again, this time in surprise as she cut off what she was saying. Before she could decide against it, Maki leaned forward and pressed their lips together. She felt Nico stiffen for the briefest of instances, but then she relaxed and wrapped her arms around the taller girl’s neck to pull her deeper into the kiss.

Closer. More. Nico.

Maki shoved all thoughts of the audience aside and let herself get lost in the moment, almost tipping over the keyboard as she tried to get even closer to the girl she loved.

After a little while, it was Nico who began to break away, and with no shortage of reluctance, Maki allowed her. Ah, that was more like what she wanted to see. Nico’s eyes were unfocused, her breathing was heavier than normal and she even swayed a little unsteadily, all proving how deep she had dived into the moment with her.

Maki couldn’t help glancing over at Nozomi, who thankfully remained quite this time, though Maki decided she could do without that overly-satisfied smile. Eli looked like she wanted to say something but was unwilling to be the one to break the silence.

“Mmm…” Nico hummed contently as she came back to reality. She smiled as her gaze met Maki’s before murmuring. “That was lovely.”

“Quite lovely indeed.” Nozomi agreed.

“Uhm, yes.” Eli spoke up. “That was a lovely song, though I cannot place where I might have heard it before.”

“Oh, it’s from Phantom of the Opera.” Nozomi explained.

“Ah, that’s why.” The blonde nodded. “I’ve never seen the show, just heard some of its music here and there.”

“Well, perhaps that’s what we should watch tonight.”

Maki couldn’t help wincing a bit and quickly tried to hide it.

“You object, Maki-chan?” Of course, the ever-attentive spiritual girl would notice.

“No, I just, uhm…” Maki fumbled for an explanation. “It’s not that the movie is horrible, just that… well, I grew up with the Broadway production…”

“Grew up with Broadway?” A quirky expression crossed Nico’s face. “Maki-chan, the movie came out when you were only, like what, five…”

“Eight.” The redhead corrected.

“Whatever.” The raven-haired girl dismissed. “Anyway, you would have grown up with that as well.”

“Not really.” Maki shook her head. “My parents love the theater and took me to see shows on Broadway when they traveled to New York on business. They wanted me to appreciate the theater and the arts as much as they do. And the movie is just… I dunno… Butler’s voice is too…” what had that one reviewer called it? “rock ‘n’ roll? I mean I know The Lord Lloyd Webber…”

“The Lord Lloyd Webber?” Nico raised an eyebrow.

“Technically, the Right Honorable The Lord Lloyd-Webber, but…”

“Huh… royalty…” Nico shook her head.

“Nobility.” Maki corrected. “And he’s a life Peer, not a hereditary Peer.”

“Whatever.”

“Anyway, I know he liked Butler, but it’s just not what I’m used to. The Phantom is supposed to have a smooth, powerful and seductive voice. And…”

“Yeah, well not all of us can just go see Broadway plays whenever, Maki-chan.” Nico pointed out. “So, the more widely available Hollywood production is good enough.”

Nozomi giggled. “Nicocchi, have you forgotten you’re dating someone who can take you to Broadway whenever?”

“I… no!” Nico protested. “I’m sorry, Maki-chan.” She glanced apologetically at her girlfriend. “I didn’t mean that like it probably sounded. And I wouldn’t want to take advantage…”

“I want to go.” Maki interrupted. “I love Broadway. And I would love to go with you sometime, Nico-chan. We could see any show you want, even if I’ve already seen it; especially if it’s Phantom.”

“Really?” Ruby eyes sparkled.

“Honestly, when we all went to New York as µ’s, it felt strange not to see a show.” Maki remembered the trip they had all taken a few years back. “But I didn’t know if anyone else would want to go, so I didn’t bring it up.”

“Sorry, Maki-chan,” Nozomi spoke up “I didn’t realize you felt that way. I would have gone with you.”

“Same here.” Nico added.

“I would have gone as well.” Eli chimed in. “I’ve seen some of the dance numbers in online videos, but seeing them in person is an entirely different experience.”

“Maybe…” Maki’s mind raced with ideas. “Maybe we could all go sometime?”

“All four of us?” Nozomi inquired.

Maki nodded. “We could join Papa and Mama the next time they go for business. There’s plenty of room on the plane. We could get a box to ourselves.” Amethyst eyes lit up. “Maybe we could even get Box 5!”

“We wouldn’t want to impose.” Eli said.

“You wouldn’t be.” Maki shook her head. “As I said, my parents love the theater. But they really love sharing that experience with others who might be interested. They bring friends and business partners and such all the time. And they’ve told me before that I could bring friends if I wanted. I guess I just haven’t had friends who were interested in theater before.”

“Maki-chan.” Nico’s shoulders slumped in an exaggerated display of exasperation. “How many musicals have we watched together?”

“I, uhm… a lot?”

“And you didn’t know I liked musicals?”

“Well, yeah, but the stage is different from the screen…”

“Yeah, it’s live.” Nico grinned. “And what have I said about listening to recordings of my idol music versus seeing a concert live?”

“Live is better?”

“Exactly. And Eli is a former ballet dancer, so we know why she is interested.” Nico motioned to the blonde who nodded affirmation. “And Nozomi… probably just wants to check out the chorus girls…”

The purple-haired girl giggled.

“So, you guys want to go?” Maki asked tentatively, despite pretty much knowing the answer. When the expected three confirmations were given, she smiled and continued. “I’ll ask my parents when they’re heading over next.”

Nico practically skipped around the keyboard. Once on the other side, she threw herself at her girlfriend in an excited tackle hug. “This is going to be awesome!” She bounced up and down happily, pulling Maki along with her movements. “I’m going to have to check online to see what shows are running.”

Maki couldn’t help but laugh at her girlfriend’s exuberance. And knowing that she was responsible for Nico’s excitement made her all that much happier.

“We’ll leave the planning up to you then, Maki.” Eli glanced at her girlfriend, who nodded. “We’ll see whatever show, or shows, you two want.”

“In the meantime, are you really that opposed to watching Hollywood’s version, Maki-chan?” Nozomi asked.

“Not really, I guess.” Maki twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. “If Eli hasn’t seen either the movie or stage version, seeing the movie first might be the better order to do things.”

“Alright then, I’ll see if I can find it one of the services.”

“I’ll go make dinner.” Nico said, turning toward the kitchen. “Would you be so kind as to provide some accompanying music, Maki-chan?” she asked over her shoulder.

A smile pulled at Maki’s lips. “Of course.”

“I’ll…” Eli started.

“Elicchi.” Nozomi interrupted. “Please take your usual spot, relax and be your adorable self.” She smirked as her girlfriend’s blush. “I’ll join you in a moment so we can enjoy Maki-chan’s concert together.” She then began to fuss with the remote in order to find the movie.

Once her audience was ready, Maki began to play.

“So… Maki-chan as Raoul, huh?” Nico mused as she crawled under the covers to join her girlfriend. “Would owning a hospital today be a kind of modern equivalent of a viscount?”

“Maybe.” Maki replied. “I’m not sure, really.”

“But Nico thought Maki-chan knew all about royalty and stuff.”

“Nobility.” The younger girl corrected again. “And I don’t know everything. Though I think I remember Mama or Papa telling me that members of Nishikino lineage were included within the Kazoku.”

“So, I’m dating someone of royal blood?” The older girl suddenly sounded excited.

“Noble. And maybe?” Maki conceded. “But I’m not entirely sure. I’d have to ask them again to remember what rank we may have held.”

“So, Nico really does make a good Christine.” Even in the dimly lit room, Nico’s smile shone splendidly. “Not only are we both amazing singers, but we are both dating royalty.”

“Nobility.” At this point, Maki figured the other girl was doing it on purpose to annoy her.

“Though given the choice between Raoul and the Phantom…” Nico continued, apparently ignoring the correction. “I don’t think I’d take either.”

“Oh?”

“Yup. Nico is quite happy with her choice.” That said, Nico pulled herself closer to her girlfriend and snuggled into her. “Nico-nii’s Maki-chan really is the best choice.”

Maki’s heart skipped a beat and warmth gathered in her cheeks. Strange. Even though they had been dating for a few years now, Nico still managed to have that same old effect on her.

“Hee… is Maki-chan blushing?” Nico propped herself up on her elbow so she could lean over the other girl.

“I… hey…” Maki turned her head. “D-don’t look at me…”

Nico laughed.

“Mohhh…”

“Anyway,” Nico settled back down beside her girlfriend “thank you, Maki-chan, for a wonderful evening.”

“Mmmm…”

“Today was kind of rough and that whole flamewar forum thing didn’t help.” Nico continued. “But then you came home and reassured me that, all things considered, I’m doing pretty good.” She smiled. “Really good, actually. Really, really good.”

“I’m… glad I was able to help.”

“You did.” Nico confirmed. “More than I think you realize.”

“Hmmm…” Somewhere in the back of Maki’s mind, she felt like had considered something like this before; if just loving Nico was enough. After a few moments, she realized she wasn’t going to remember and decided to just be happy that Nico thought it was enough, even if Maki still wanted to do more.

More…

Well… there was one other thing she knew she could do that made Nico happy… though, maybe happy was the wrong word, but…

“Maki-chan?” Nico asked as the other girl turned toward her.

“Nico-chan…” Maki let her desires color her tone as she pushed herself up to a position over the other girl.

Nico reached up to pull Maki down into a kiss. As their lips met, the pleased sound Nico made let Maki know her actions were appreciated.

Author’s Note Continued: I swear this scene was not originally intended to turn into a discussion about the Phantom of the Opera. I had Nico say sing that one line initially just as a reference to the fact that the couple often watch musicals together. Then my µ’s muse started working a bit of overtime and the scene almost quadrupled in length. Not complaining, mind.

And I guess there is now a keyboard in Nico and Nozomi’s apartment. I have little doubt it will come into play - pun intended - in a future scene or two.

And there is a New York trip being planned. That has also been added to the notes for a possible future scene or two.

And now I need to double check to see if the Original Broadway version of Phantom is still on my iPod so I can listen to it the next time I drive up to the cities.

#NicoMaki #Nishikino Maki #Yazawa Nico #How to Handle a Nico #Love Live #fanfic

18 notes · View notes

ryqoshay · 6 years

Text

How to Handle a Nico: First Tree

Primary Pairing: NicoMaki Words: ~3.2k Rating: K Time Frame: Late in Maki’s college career and early in Nico’s idol producer career. The couple has recently moved into an apartment together. Story Arc: Stand Alone

List of all HtHaN scenes

Author’s Note: This took a little longer than I intended to finish, as I had hoped to post it around the 1st or 2nd of the month, as that is when I imagine it occurring. Though honestly, perhaps it occurs even earlier. It would all depend on how early Nico is willing to give into Maki’s obsession with Christmas.

NishikinoMaki: I’m home

NishikinoMaki: Nico-chan?

NishikinoMaki: Where are you?

NishikinoMaki: Are you on your way?

NishikinoMaki: Nico-chan?

NicoNii: Sorry, I’m running a little late

NicoNii: It looks like I missed my train

NicoNii: But there’s another one soon

NicoNii: So I’ll be home in a bit

Nico imagined her girlfriend staring anxiously at the boxes they had set out earlier.

NicoNii: Yes, you can start without me if you want

NishikinoMaki: Thak yiu

Nico laughed at the uncharacteristic, yet completely unsurprising, hasty reply.

NicoNii: You’re welcome, my impatient princess

NicoNii: See you in a few

The idol producer slipped her phone back in her pocket, assuming there would not be another response as her girlfriend was undoubtedly emptying the boxes already.

“I’m home!” Nico called over the music coming from within the apartment.

A moment later, a grinning redhead girl practically skipped around the corner to the entryway. “Welcome home, Nico-chan!” Maki greeted before grabbing the other girl and pulling her into a tight hug.

Nico couldn’t help but laugh at her girlfriend’s enthusiastic behavior. Even now in her early twenties, Maki got overly excited about Christmas. But as amusing as Nico found it, and as much as she often liked to tease, she also thought it was quite endearing and was thus willing to play into it for Maki’s sake.

“I was just about to hang some garland.” Maki started explained merrily.

“Alright, let me finish taking off my shoes.” Nico replied. “I’ll be right there.”

“Alright.” The younger girl replied, stealing a quick kiss before pulling away completely. She headed back toward the living room with the same spring in her step as before.

There was no denying that the enthusiasm was contagious, though Nico had no desire to remove the smile from her own face as she quickly stowed her shoes and jacket. Not wanting to keep Maki waiting any longer, she made a beeline for the living room.

“Wow.” The word escaped Nico’s lips as she took in the sight before her. “You’ve already done a lot.”

“It’s my first year out of the dorms.” Maki reminded. “There’s so much more space here. I can really go all out and get everything up that I want. And depending on how far this stuff gets, I might want to get more.”

Nico chuckled. The apartment they had found was not that much bigger than the one she had previously shared with Nozomi, but it was significantly bigger than Maki’s old dorm room. Nico found herself wondering how excited Maki might get if she had an entire house to decorate, which would mean not only would she have that much more space on the interior, but she would be able to do the exterior as well.

Of course, that meant the two of them would be in a house together. A whole house. Just for the two of them. Nico had no doubt that Maki would eventually want to own a house; she was accustomed to larger living spaces. As opposed to Nico who had always known smaller living quarters…

“What’s wrong?” Maki asked suddenly.

Nico blinked. “Nothing.” She quickly derailed the train of thought; she hadn’t liked where it was going. She was happy where she was with Maki now and would undoubtedly be happy with her anywhere. And the house thing was probably a ways off anyway. She could deal with it then; no need to ruin the cheery atmosphere tonight. “Sorry. Long day at work and I think it’s catching up to me.” She knelt to retrieve a string of garland. “Have you decided where you want the tree?”

“Somewhere where it can be seen through the balcony door.” Maki replied. “I want people who pass on the street to be able to see it and maybe get some Christmas cheer from it.”

“You sound like an idol.” The idol producer commented.

“Huh?”

“Has Maki-chan already forgotten that an idol’s No. 1 Duty is to make others smile?” Nico held a hand to her chest, feigning shock.

“Idiot…” the college student rolled her eyes.

“You love it.”

“Maybe…”

“So, you wanna set up the tree next?” Nico climbed onto a chair beside Maki’s to hold up the garland.

“Definitely.” Maki nodded, sticking a hook to the wall to mount the decoration. “That was one part I wanted to make sure we did together.”

“Because it’s your favorite?” Nico probably could have allowed a teasing tone into her voice, but she chose sincerity instead, even it was a bit rhetorical as she already knew the answer.

“Yes.”

“You know, Nico has assembled her fair share of artificial trees in her time,” the raven-haired girl continued, “because she’s used to living in apartments that don’t allow live trees. But I’ll bet Maki-chan is used to having a real tree.”

“It’s fine.” The redhead assured. “It’s bigger than the one I could fit in my dorm room. I should be able to fit all of my ornaments on this one.”

“Just remember that Nico needs room her hers as well.”

“There’ll be room. I promise.” Maki said earnestly. “This is our tree; our first tree together. And it should represent us both.”

Nico smiled at the sincerity of her girlfriend’s insistence.

As the two knelt by their boxes, Maki found herself curious about what ornaments Nico owned. Well, beyond those she had seen on the small tree she and Nozomi had in their old apartment. There was little doubt there would be more pink involved, and most would likely be cutesy. But that was fine, pink and cute were what suited Nico best, after all. A moment later, Maki’s suspicions were confirmed as Nico opened her ornament box.

“Kotaro made this one for me in kindergarten.” The idol producer remarked fondly as she pulled a crudely crafted but unquestionably cute piece from the box.

“Your siblings know you well.” The college student replied with a smile.

“I know, right?” Nico found a place among the branches. “It’s one of my favorites.”

Maki smiled as a familiar pang of jealousy crossed her consciousness.

“What about you, Maki-chan?”

“Huh, wha?” The redhead came back to reality.

“What’s one of your favorites?” the raven-haired girl clarified.

“Oh, uhm…” Maki shuffled through her collection. “Probably this one.” She held up a small, glass treble clef. “Mama bought this for me after I played at my first Christmas concert.”

“It’s lovely.” Nico replied, gently taking the ornament and placing it next to hers. “Two of our favorites should be next to each other, don’t you think?”

“Definitely.” The redhead smiled.

The two young women continued to pull ornaments from their respective boxes, regularly commenting on them before finding a branch on which to hang them. Maki had been right, the tree was big enough to accommodate their entire combined collection; and likely more if they were to collect additional pieces over the years to come.

“Where…” Maki suddenly started glancing around the room.

“Where what?” Nico inquired.

“My star. It was in its own box.” The student continued to look around. “Did it get mixed in with the other boxes? Or did we not pull it out of the closet?”

“Uhm, I don’t know.” The idol producer shrugged. “But you know what the box looks like, why don’t you check the closet while I get something that might work instead.”

“Mmm…” Maki furrowed her brow. “But Papa gave me my star though. It’s kind of a tradition for me to put it on top of my tree.”

“Well if you haven’t found it by the time I find mine, I’ll help, alright?”

“Alright.” Maki headed towards the closet.

“I found it.” Maki said cheerfully, returning to the living room. “What the heck?” She uttered, coming to a stop as the tree came into view.

“Ta da!” Nico cried, holding her arms out in a grandiose display to indicate the newest decoration at the top of the tree.

“Nico-chan… I…” Words began to fail the redhead. “I don’t get you…” She fell back on a habitual phrase.

“What’s not to get?” Nico protested. “Isn’t it tradition to put either a star or an angel at the top of a Christmas tree? Well this is an angel!”

“Well, it is an angel… but…”

“But?”

Maki sighed as she continued to stare at the… ornament, or more appropriately, ornament-like-object adorning the top of their tree. It was a well cropped, and high-quality picture of Nico holding a trumpet and garbed in an adorable pastel blue and yellow dress. From her back, two white wings sprouted, indeed making her look quite angelic.

Part of Maki wanted to chastise the older girl for having the audacity and narcissism to put a picture of herself at the top of their Christmas tree. The other part of her wanted to chastise herself for not expecting something like this from her girlfriend. This was Nico, after all, the girl with enough pride for the whole of µ’s. Though she did have to admit the chosen picture was pretty cute.

“But…?” Nico repeated, apparently still waiting for a response.

Maki’s mind suddenly raced to find an appropriate response out of the various thoughts that had just crossed it in the past few seconds. “Why just you?” Was apparently what it chose for some reason.

Nico smirked. “Is Maki-chan jealous?”

“W-What?” Maki sputtered, scolding herself for asking such a foolish question that provoked such an obvious response from her girlfriend. “No!” She denied, though she wasn’t honestly sure as to the level of truthfulness the denial held.

Was she actually jealous? Did she actually want a picture of herself on the tree as well? For that matter, she didn’t recall wearing a costume similar to Nico’s. Had she worn an angel costume in their school idol days? She thought she might recall a different costume set the whole group had worn.

“Uh-huh…” The twin-tailed girl sang. “Well, no matter, Nico has just the thing!” That said, she climbed back up on the chair, snatched the picture of herself and replaced it with another.

Maki took a step closer to the tree to inspect the new ornament-like-object. This time, pictures of both Nico and Maki were set next to one another on a background of red hearts. The entire thing had even been cut into the shape of a heart and lined neatly with white tinsel.

Ah, she had been right; the group had worn angelic costumes. How could she have forgotten? As embarrassing as that photoshoot had been at the time, it had served as one of many early signs that her feelings concerning Nico were more than just that of simple friendship, even if she denied it back then. Also, she had actually liked wearing that costume. It had looked quite good on her and purple had always been one of her favorite colors to wear. And Nico, well, of course, Nico had been as adorable as ever. But…

“Wasn’t that supposed to be a White Day theme?” Maki couldn’t help asking aloud.

Nico shrugged. “Well, yeah, but it was the only time we all wore angel costumes.”

“Was it?”

“What do you mean?”

Maki’s brow furrowed in thought. She could have sworn there was another time. “I thought there was another set…” She pondered. “Something more… Christmas themed.”

Nico’s eyes widened with realization. “The Choir set!” She exclaimed starting to become a bit more dramatic than necessary. “That’s right! I should have used that one! Good thing I still have more high gloss paper...”

Maki sighed.

“How could I forget that one?” Nico continued her melodrama, placing the back of her hand to her forehead. “The photographer kept telling Maki-chan to smile and she wouldn’t.” Her tone turned to teasing.

Maki grimaced.

“Yeah, like that!” Nico chuckled. “Good thing Maki-chan looks cute even when she frowns.”

Never mind. Perhaps it might have been best had Maki not reminded her girlfriend of the other angel costumes. However… “And you let your hair down for that photo set, if I remember correctly.” The images came back to her.

“I might have.” Nico thought aloud. “I’ll have to check in a little bit.”

“You know, I always liked seeing you with your hair down.”

“Oh?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’ve always felt that your twin-tails suited you.” Maki admitted. “Even now when you wear them lower than you used to. But like I said, I also like it when you take them out.”

Nico grinned. “And now you get to see me like that every night.”

“And I like that.”

“Well then, as a reward for such honesty.” Nico reached up to one of the ties.

“You don’t have to now…” Maki started.

The idol producer paused and raised an eyebrow.

“… But… I wouldn’t mind…” The college student concluded.

Nico giggled before continuing. “So?” She asked upon completing the task.

“Lovely.”

“I know, right?” Nico’s grin grew at the expected, but always welcome compliment. “I’ll be right back.” She said, turning toward the hall. “I’m going to make a new one with the choir pics.”

“Really?”

“Yup. For the other side. Go ahead and put up your star while I’m doing that. I left room.” And with that, she disappeared into the office.

“Oh…” Maki realized her girlfriend had indeed left the tip of the tree bare. This meant there was room for both her beloved star as well as the new angel picture Nico had just made. Though Maki personally felt it was a little embarrassing having a picture of oneself being used as an ornament on a Christmas tree, she knew Nico liked it. And given the choice, she’d rather have them both together than just Nico alone.

Maki smiled to herself as she opened the box she still held in her hands and gently removed the treetop star. Like the glass treble clef and several other ornaments she had already put on the tree, this one brought back a lot of memories. And putting it at the top of this tree marked the beginning of a new chapter of memories to be made. Memories that would be made with the raven-haired girl currently grinning at her from her tinsel frame. Perhaps Nico had the right idea with the picture.

Now that Maki took a closer look at the ornament, she could see that Nico had put a lot of effort into making it look professional. Stick a price tag on it and put it on a store shelf and it could pass as regular retail merchandise. And while the girls of µ’s knew the origin of the costumes, most anyone else who might see the ornament would not, so it could just as well be Christmas themed.

A thought occurred to the redhead as she realized that while the original ornament of just Nico had been fine, the one with both of them was the one with an added background and border. Had it been Nico’s plan all along to swap them? Had she merely used the one with herself to gauge Maki’s reaction before the reveal? Maki found herself wondering how she might have reacted if she had seen this one first. From there, she started wondering what the new one might look like so she finished placing her star, stepped down from the chair and made her way to the office.

“Hey, Maki-chan!” The older girl greeted happily as she looked up from the younger girl’s laptop. “I’m almost done with the digital side. Wanna see?”

“Mmm…” Maki replied, rounding the desk to stand behind the chair. As was common practice between the couple, she then draped herself across Nico’s shoulders. She then nuzzled into her girlfriend’s hair, earning a giggle.

For her part, Nico pulled a hand away from the keyboard and placed it on the arms around her; the rest she could finish with just the mouse anyway.

“You added green hearts to this one?” Maki commented as she turned her attention to the screen.

“Just on my side, yeah.” Nico confirmed. “It felt like it fit better for some reason.”

“Because you’re a grinch?”

“Don’t think I won’t pinch you.” The raven-haired girl curled her fingers to emphasize the threat.

The redhead laughed lightly and kissed the top of the other girl’s head.

“Anyway, since you’re here, you can help me assemble it.” Nico continued. “It will be easier than doing it all on my own like the last one.” That said, she selected Print from the pull-down menu. “Not that Nico can’t do it on her own, of course.”

“Of course.”

“Hand me those scissors.”

Maki pouted for a moment when she realized she would have to let go of Nico to retrieve the requested item. But she immediately realized that she would have to move anyway to allow the other girl to do so if she did not. As such, she relinquished her hold on her girlfriend and grabbed the scissors.

“Thanks.” Nico said.

Maki marveled at the speed and precision with which her girlfriend cut the picture from the media. She was well aware that Nico had always been good with her hands, which was why she had often assisted Kotori with costume creation and Eli with accessories. However, to witness the finesse firsthand was something else.

“Hold this like this.” The older girl instructed. “This stuff dries fast, so timing is important.” That said, she set about applying dabs of adhesive to the edges of the cutout and securing the tinsel trim. “And done. It should be dry enough by the time we put it on the tree, so let’s get this up and turn on the lights so we can see the final result.”

Maki nodded in response before following her girlfriend back to the living room.

Nico climbed back up on the chair and set the ornament on the opposite side of its match. “And with the pièce de résistance in place,” she announced, “we have the first ever NicoMaki tree!”

Maki rolled her eyes, but refrained from comment as she knelt by the outlet to plug in the lighting of the pre-lit tree. At least none of their friends were there to hear that declaration as they’d never let her hear the end of it.

“It’s beautiful.” Nico said in awe, stepping back to get a better view.

“It is.” Maki agreed, joining the other girl.

“No more snide objections to my additions to the treetop?” Nico inquired.

Maki shook her head and smiled.

“Good.” Nico grinned as well before taking her girlfriend’s hand. “So,” She said after a moment of silence, “what to do for the rest of the evening? Why don’t I whip up something quick then we can watch a holiday movie?”

“It’s a Wonderful Life?”

“If you want. I’ll let you pick.”

“The Grinch?”

“Only if you want to sleep on the couch.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right.” Nico admitted. “Nico loves sleeping beside her Maki-chan too much to force her to sleep somewhere else.”

Maki chuckled and squeezed her girlfriend’s hand. “I love sleeping beside Nico-chan as well.”

“Anyway, I’m going to go make dinner.” The idol producer said, turning towards her girlfriend.

“I’m going to adjust a few branches.” The college student replied, turning as well.

“See you in bit.” Nico tilted her head up.

“Mm…” Maki hummed, leaning down to meet Nico for a kiss.

This Christmas season was starting out well.

Author’s Note Continued: First and foremost, I need to give credit to my inspiration; a lovely post by my friend and fellow denizen of Sukutomo, rdsanthene. I had to reblog it with my idea as soon as I saw it.

Second, I can’t believe I’ve been writing this long enough to warrant a second, seasonally appropriate, Christmas scene. Deities help keep me motivated to make a third. KLab and Bushiroad, give me more cute NicoMaki cards for inspiration! ... or just to help me with my collection...

Next up, the notes just keep piling up. Now I want to write another photoshoot scene with the White Day angel costumes. Obviously I’d be using the idolized versions, but I may very well include the unidolzied as well, as it might allow be to show how I want to incorporate those SIF stories into HtHaN. Perhaps that will be a project for this coming February?

I also realize this is the first mention of the apartment that serves as the first home Nico and Maki officially share. As opposed to one always staying at the other’s place. I had intended on introducing it in a different scene, but I guess that’s just one more scene for the ever growing To Write list.

Lastly, we come to the cards referenced:

Yes, there was a reason why Nico chose green for her half of the background on the second (technically third) ornament, though she may not have been aware of it in-universe.

#NicoMaki #Nishikino Maki #Yazawa Nico #How to Handle a Nico #Love Live #fanfic #Merry Christmas

23 notes · View notes