#professortora

@professortora

Ironically enough, it wasn’t easy for a young changeling to adapt to life on a busy space station. Especially with the tense attitude toward changelings in general since the start of the war. Shekuu often found themselves given a wide berth, or less than cordial looks, but they did their best to shrug it off.

They had found it was easiest to get the attention they desired by shifting into some kind of soft creature in the shadows and following the solids around in that form. Due to their inexperience, however, it usually wasn’t long before their form began to falter.

Shekuu was determined to make a friend besides their ‘father’, Odo, and his own friends, and this was the only way they knew to get close to anyone. Spotting the Bajoran woman, they immediately latched onto the hope of making a friend and shifted into a feline form.

Closed starter for @professortora

It was rather different from her typical way of doing business. No private store, no walls to help block out noise, no grand bows welcoming people to the antiques and relics. Different however did not mean it was any less worth Rumple's full effort, and attention. Most thought it nothing more then a simple food kiosk albeit one with surprisingly good noodles and an oddly wide selection of sweeter foods, but she had discovered something that she'd never truly considered before. People... talk. People talk while eating, people complain as they chow down their food, people look for companionship during their breaks. People... talk. When people talk that allows for information to be shared, Deals to be made, and items to be traded. It was very different from her typical way of doing business, but Rumple found it increasingly interesting this small little food kiosk. Joreen Ashda's food kiosk rather, as she was after all posing as a Bajoran.

Earring proclaiming her a member of the Va'telo caste she always simply smiled and shrugged when anyone asked her about it while motioning to the Cardassians as though that explained her current place in the world. Clothing about what you would expect from anyone else of her status, it was notable that her kiosk alone was seldom interfered with. Yes she had all the needed papers and permits, but even more whenever someone interfered with her business bad luck always fell their way. On occasion, fatal bad luck.

Nat knew she wasn’t a Vedek, but she was a Bajoran and knew more about their culture and way of life than him. He also knew she wouldn’t belittle him or find any questions ridiculous or get offended by them, because he had come to realize that some Bajorans were quite easily offended by things he did nit yet understand. Despite all this, he felt a weird connection to the people he had never done on Earth.

Standing outside the room he knew Naprem were in, he felt unusually nervous. His right hand were shoved into his pocket, fingering on the ear ring that had been his father, which was the reason he wanted to talk to her.

Continuing from here

Naprem scoops her up and tucks her to her body, heart already wrent in two. “Yes,” she assures her. “Yes, yes, the witch is gone. You’re safe, starlight. You’re safe, I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

She’d warned her, of course – Ziyal was far too gentle to partake of such games to her own enjoyment, and they’d been very popular amongst the castle younglings this season, no doubt thanks to the tales from the visiting delegation of Knights. But Ziyal – like every Tora before her – often took her mother’s warnings as encouragement of the opposite kind, as though the word “no” were itself the greatest motivator.

And so now half the castle were working themselves into a fit, trying to find the missing princess after she’d run off in the midst of one of these games, spiriting herself off to Goddess knew where.

Still, Naprem found herself far too full of love and pity to scold her. She’d known exactly where Ziyal would be, and so had partaken only sparingly of the panic – thus, no anger sweeps in to fill the void it leaves. She kisses all over her daughter’s cheeks, made slightly gooey with tears, feeling utterly consumed with love for her.

“Now,” she says, “you see? You’re alright, my darling. You’re perfectly safe.”

“Yes, mama… all safe.” Ziyal said, pressing her face close to her mother’s chest, both to hide her tears and to dry them at the same time, trying to calm herself down.

“That was a pretty scary game…” She started, tracing the creases of her mothers garments. “I was hiding in the cupboard, but then no one found me and I thought… I was lost and no one would find me but the evil witch!”

Dukat looks at the delicate hand in his, trying desperate to pull his focus into this one small fact. There was a hand in his. He knew who the hand belonged to. Naprem was right there... he could hear her voice, whispered as if from across the room. So many other voices were louder and more present. Screaming in his ears and demanding his attention. But none he could feel.

None but the hand in his.

So he gripped it tightly, pulling it close to his chest, eyes wide and wild, looking at the shadows and faces around him. Searched for hers. Desperate for it.

Nat had been working on Deep Space 9 for almost four months now, but he’d never had the chance, or time, to go down to Bajor until now. It felt odd, being surrounded by people that looked like him, though their ridges were more pronounced than his, he being only half bajoran. Some ignored him, others looked at him with suspicion, maybe because he wore clothes that weren’t bajoran and didn’t wear a dja pagh, though he had the one who had been his father’s in his pocket. A few people, however, smiled at him and greeted him, which he tried to return, but his Bajoran was very limited. He had, after all, grown up on Earth, having never even met his biological father. Nat had the genes, but that was about it.

After having walked around in the city for awhile, he was now outside of it. The city had it’s charm, but here where the countryside began, it was absolutely beautiful. It was hard for him to grasp the brutality that had taken place here, though he didn’t doubt that it had happened.

Having walked far enough for the city to just turn into a background hum, he sat down on a stone where he soon disappeared into his own mind, which was why he didn’t noticed that someone approached him until he was spoken to.

@professortora

Weyoun wasn’t sure why the Founders had sent him here, to meet with the leader of Cardassia. They decided not to ally with them, so why push it? He wouldn’t question the Founders directly, however, so here he was, right outside their residence.