it would have been so much easier - had he done the normal human response where her presence is banished as far from sight, as far from mind, as possible. there has never been a need for her to be as close to light as she feels upon this ship: a ship so many of them truly do consider a home away from where they have left. ( perhaps, maeve wonders, it would be easier for her to understand if she’d ever had anywhere she could call home. ) ❝ now, you’re working off the assumption that my reports aren’t be being terribly petty and using every overly specific scientific term I know. ❞ if universe && those with powers continue on refusing to allow maeve a path where she may hide out in some semblance of peace, her intelligence might as well prove a curse to them too whilst she still does the jobs that she must. it is better her than someone who truly buys into section 31’s beliefs.
yet still she finds herself biting back a dry joke about how he, surely, should have better taste in people who end up on his bridge if it means so much. she does not understand it, and at times, maeve feels as though she doesn’t understand him at all. instead it is the melancholy of his words that lingers and twists around her attention.
self deprecating humour can wait, at least for now. ❝ and what would end up on such an important playlist? ❞ it is a silent, gentle way of sticking with topic a little longer - to try and understand a little better. words don’t need to be disguised as borderline teasing: they are such in truth regardless of how maeve would wish for them not to be. ❝ humans have a lot of beliefs about music being a way to tell things about a person. don’t worry, I promise to put it in as convoluted language as possible if I’m ever questioned on it. ❞
“ glad to see we both found the best approach to dealing with tyler, ” he notes quietly her lack of a reply to his second comment, becoming accustomed to listening not just to what maeve says, but what she chooses to sidestep. there is only one other person on the galaxy who has any right to dictate what is happening on the enterprise and that is number one; section thirty-one, the admirals, they may bicker and send as many requests and people as they wished, none of them would step foot on this ship without his brand of approval.
after all, at the end of the day, try as he might to deny it, this wasn’t purely an exploration ship. war was at every corner of the galaxy, and he would not be able to head into battle if he didn’t trust the people behind him. for a man with a known distaste of politics, he had a deft hand at playing their game, bluntness working worders for him; it helped mask the cleverness and cunning behind the golden aura of the boyscout.
he hums quietly, bringing a hand to his lips. “ american classics. grover washington, fitzgerald, coltrane, spears, billie holiday, some springsteen and joel. i think the meaning is pretty clear. as i’ve said, i’m not a man of mysteries. ”