Don&#39;t believe in no-win scenarios

"Goodnight, darling." She's too tired to care about whether or not she should call him that.

She wasn't going to talk about it, Jim, don't worry. She knows better than that. "Yeah, if Naugus tries to hurt your body on purpose, he knows he's coming home to me, and nobody wants to deal with me when I'm that mad." Nothing to worry about on that front, really.

She's pretty sure.

"This is a really nice place, Schön. One of your rentals?"

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"Indeed," he confirms, suppressing any appearance of curiosity at what is apparently a verboten subject. Instead, he opens up the little take-out boxes into plates of a variety of treats--duck dumplings, sesame chicken, beef with broccoli, some kind of everything-fried rice. It's a portable feast. "Between tenants, at the moment, I'm afraid, but that does make it ideal for moments like this."

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"Not enough evil geniuses to warrant a place in a Sphinx. If you do volcano bases too, I'm out of here." Jim tries to joke, but it feels half hearted to say the least. He sighs heavily before moving over to the food. A bit of broccoli, and a dumpling seems safe...

No, he's not in his body.

Jim is going to try some of everything. Screw the rules, Jim Kirk has a free pass to eat everything-ville for at least another night.

"I didn't know you were into real estate, by the by." Jim gives Verity a sideways glance. "Or that you two were such good friends." He mostly sees Schon one on one, after all.

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"Volcano bases are so last year. Tropical islands are where it's at." She'll try to play along, but she's not really into it either. Even the food only gets halfhearted attention, though there's a flicker of a smile when she sees Jim enjoying the chance to enjoy it all.

Once Schön's sat down and taken some food for herself she takes whatever dumplings are left. No seconds for either of them. So selfish.

"Schön's one of the first people I met here, and he helped me relocate and gave me a job when I needed it." Surprise, Jim, while you've been wallowing in old hurts Verity's had this whole life happening that you've missed out on. "Once we got over the initial difficulties of being, you know, us, turns out we get along pretty well."

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"The only volcano around is claimed by a tribe of dwarves, anyway. I'm hardly going to wrest it away from them."

Schön's chief focus is the sesame chicken. Claiming just a couple duck dumplings for himself, Verity is more than welcome to the rest. "I try to keep a finger in many delectable pies," he admits to Jim, between bites.

"Nexus real estate is a matter at once simple and complex--there are vast tracts of unclaimed structures, rooms, and land, but the problem is securing them. With the anti-violence field, a thief or other malfeasant could simply walk into your home and rifle through your valuables in front of you, safe from reprisal. The places I manage are less about ownership," although he does own them, "than about safety."

"May I say, by the way, that you are doing excellent work, Verity?"

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"There's actually a volcano around here? And that's...not a concern to anyone?" Jim has had a rather poor history with volcanoes.

Jim's had life happening! He can have a life and be depressed at the same time. It's called multi-tasking. Verity knows how that is, surely. Besides, he's been doing better since he started taking some of her advice.

"That seems about right. Schon really helped me out when I got here too. I'd have never got home if it weren't for him."

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"Lots of places have volcanoes," she points out between dumplings. Seriously, is she even chewing or is she just inhaling them?

Yes, she knows all about having to keep going while grieving. That's part of what he's been missing.

"Thank you." Schön gets a faint but warm smile for the compliment. But, oh wait, there's another thing Jim's missed. "Schön's opening a museum and asked me to be the business manager for it. It's going to be a while before it's finished, but it's pretty exciting."

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Schön shrugs off Jim's volcano-concern. "It's not as if it can do any harm. There's more concern about that somebody fenced off the chocolate hot springs and set up an expensive spa."

While focusing on one's own grief, it's easy to overlook someone else's.

"Mm, your door posed some interesting challenges, as I recall. Nothing insoluble, though." Verity's mention of the museum gets a confirming nod. "I could think of no better fit for the job. The secret of management, you know--give people work they can care about."

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"Someone that wasn't you, you mean." Jim, don't point with your chopsticks. It's rude. "Besides, couldn't you just walk in if you wanted to? You were just talking about that being a thing in the Nexus. I'm surprised there's any sense of a stable economy with that being the way things are."

Things are changing for the better. Slowly but surely. Naug's ears perk up at the news and he grins.

"Hey, that's great news. What sorta museum? Ver'd be great for it--she's great at detail work." Of this Jim is certain. Schon's comment about management makes Jim laugh, closest to a real one he's had since this whole mess started. "Worked for me, so it can work for anyone."

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"And get harassed by the security detail? No thanks." Ah, anarchy. They're all Libertarians here, even Socialists like Ver.

She's slowly cheering up too. Food helps, and seeing Jim smiling helps too. "An art museum. And sort of a memorial." So, that answers the questions about what art. "I am trained for these sorts of things, and I'm good with numbers, so yeah. Plus, nobody's ever going to sneak a forgery past me."

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"There are things one can do, wards one can set..." Schön hesitates for a moment, glancing aside to Verity. He's agreed not to reveal or exploit the things he's learned about Naugus this evening, he trusts he can count on her discretion in turn, with regard to some of the tricks of his trade. "One can make it so that trespassing in a place is, itself, a form of harmless attack--at least enough to coax away the anti-violence field for a time. And without that protection, even simple charms are often enough to dissuade unwelcome guests." The reputation of enforcers also helps.

"Verity was kind enough to allow me to rescue some of her world's art from an untimely end. What more fitting fate could it find?"

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"Yeah? That's a relief then. I'd have thought with no way to protect your stuff this place would be a hell of a lot more chaotic than it already is. And it already does stuff like this." Jim gestures to himself with a shrug.

"A mem...oh." Oh. There's a brief pause while Jim shuts his eyes and pays his respects. Deep breath. Well, that's probably a healthy course of action for Verity to take then. Preserving what's left. Jim should check in with Clint and see if there's anything else he can help with on the whole 'fucking don't let this happen again' plan.

"She's the perfect person for the job then. Ver is gonna make your museum the best damn thing that ever happened to the Nexus, or my name ain't James Tiberius Kirk. Who names their child Tiberius, really? Jim's just glad it's his middle name.

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She gives Schön a slight nod. His secrets are safe with her unless he gives her a reason to think they shouldn't be. The only way she can keep this precarious situation from toppling over on her is to make sure both of them know she won't be dragged into it, and that means keeping a lot of secrets for them both. Which is fine, who would she tell? She doesn't understand half of what they tell her anyway.

"It's going to be beautiful." This is half vision and half promise. "I was thinking of putting some of it in the mansion Schön uses for his balls and things. It would be arranged with furniture and things like people were living there, and each room would be a different style or era. Which will technically be pulling from more of his collection than was originally intended, but..." She shoots Schön a quick look--he still likes the idea, she hopes?

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"Someone who pines for the glory days of Rome? Or a hazy, golden recollection of it, perhaps," Schön suggests. He nods his agreement at Jim's assessment of the quality of Verity's work. He has no doubts whatsoever that the museum will be exquisite under her care.

Her idea gets an intrigued look, but not a disapproving one. "No, no, the idea has promise. I like it. I was hoping the museum's early successes might pave the way for expansions, down the line. There is a crypt I should like to reconstruct, that was built to house the very essence of a culture at its peak, when opportunity allows."

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"So what kinds of stuff are you gonna put in it aside from that, if expansion is on your mind already?"

Jim doesn't know much about museums or the managing of one, but he likes that Verity is getting so much trust and approval form Schon about this. It'll be good for her to have something positive about her world to focus on for a change. It reminds Jim to take a look for Vulcan artifacts the next time he's in the commercial district. He figures giving Spock a small piece of home might do wonders for him, too.

He's going to finish his food while they discuss museum things and politely listen. They've heard him out all night, and the conversation is a good distraction from remembering 'oh right, this is still happening and he is still Ixis'.

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