[ No matter if he's largely playing a part right now or not, being called brave sends a very genuine sweep of warmth through the cosmonaut, and the smile he gives in response is just as genuine, this time. (It also further fuels him into thinking he is being Extremely Charming and successfully winning the woman over, however that means — sorry, Telrim; he can get so much more insufferable than this...) ]
That depends. [ ... ] Does your friend at the lab have as lovely a smile as you do? Because yours is really helping me get through such unsettling topics of conversation.
[ Oh dear lord........
Konstantin quirks another wide, white grin: playful and pleased with himself all at the same time, even if beneath everything his mind is spinning with fresh thought, fresh decisions to be made. On one hand, talking to this friend of hers could yield very interesting results. On the other..... it could lead to devastating consequences, if he's wrong about the fact that his captors are willingly letting him run free for a while to study him that way. Maybe they aren't. Maybe they're waiting for the next chance to snag him again.
(There is, suddenly, a third option. Maybe a very foolish, very hopeful option. The most dangerous one of all: that there's some help that could be found in this scientist's research. Maybe he can play his cards right and worm his way into picking up some information from these people, even if they've never studied anything quite like his particular situation before. Because maybe— she just doesn't know about it? Maybe people who work further in do. It's possible, isn't it? It's possible, but it's the biggest risk he'd take amongst so many other risks in this past hour.) ]
....You know, it might really be worth hearing what this friend of yours has to say about parasitic entities. I'd be interested to learn if there's anything on Earth that's at all similar to the sorts of thing that might exist out there beyond it. [ Wink-wink, we're still pretending that he didn't actually just admit to knowing about alien life forms that can inhabit human bodies.
(He's desperate, more than anything else. He needs this thing out of him, as soon as fucking possible. Could there be a way to disrupt its life cycle, as she says? To trigger it to move on? He hasn't tried everything; he's barely tried anything.) ]
telrim's just annoyed he's good at playing all his cards
[Decades of traipsing around the galaxy on imperial nonsense business, and she's never had to deal with this before. It is not cute, she tells Natasha. He's obviously trying to manipulate me.
And he'd be effective at it, under normal circumstances. She can feel her host's cheeks getting warmer, pulse quickening in spite of the Yeerk's incredulity. Through human eyes, she's all too aware that he's very attractive, and charming- and clearly confident of both.
Good grief, she's going to have to play along. She'll just have to enjoy herself when she yanks the rug out from under him.]
Oh- well- I don't know, but I'm sure it'd make his day to meet a real cosmonaut!
[Her smile is more demure, trying to play it cool and also not really resisting his teasing. She lets her expression brighten when he agrees. Why not? Natasha is just pleased she can help him (and, obviously, get to talk to him some more).]
Even better if he gets to go wild 'speculating' about how alien biology might work. [Not even a lie, that. Issek just has a lot more practical experience with aliens than she's implying. Humans included!] Much more fun than writing up reports about enzyme activation and so on.
[She pauses, quirks a sheepish smile.] I should probably remember to introduce myself before I set you up to chat with other people, shouldn't I? Sorry about that- I'm Natasha.
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That depends. [ ... ] Does your friend at the lab have as lovely a smile as you do? Because yours is really helping me get through such unsettling topics of conversation.
[ Oh dear lord........
Konstantin quirks another wide, white grin: playful and pleased with himself all at the same time, even if beneath everything his mind is spinning with fresh thought, fresh decisions to be made. On one hand, talking to this friend of hers could yield very interesting results. On the other..... it could lead to devastating consequences, if he's wrong about the fact that his captors are willingly letting him run free for a while to study him that way. Maybe they aren't. Maybe they're waiting for the next chance to snag him again.
(There is, suddenly, a third option. Maybe a very foolish, very hopeful option. The most dangerous one of all: that there's some help that could be found in this scientist's research. Maybe he can play his cards right and worm his way into picking up some information from these people, even if they've never studied anything quite like his particular situation before. Because maybe— she just doesn't know about it? Maybe people who work further in do. It's possible, isn't it? It's possible, but it's the biggest risk he'd take amongst so many other risks in this past hour.) ]
....You know, it might really be worth hearing what this friend of yours has to say about parasitic entities. I'd be interested to learn if there's anything on Earth that's at all similar to the sorts of thing that might exist out there beyond it. [ Wink-wink, we're still pretending that he didn't actually just admit to knowing about alien life forms that can inhabit human bodies.
(He's desperate, more than anything else. He needs this thing out of him, as soon as fucking possible. Could there be a way to disrupt its life cycle, as she says? To trigger it to move on? He hasn't tried everything; he's barely tried anything.) ]
telrim's just annoyed he's good at playing all his cards
nonsensebusiness, and she's never had to deal with this before. It is not cute, she tells Natasha. He's obviously trying to manipulate me.And he'd be effective at it, under normal circumstances. She can feel her host's cheeks getting warmer, pulse quickening in spite of the Yeerk's incredulity. Through human eyes, she's all too aware that he's very attractive, and charming- and clearly confident of both.
Good grief, she's going to have to play along. She'll just have to enjoy herself when she yanks the rug out from under him.]
Oh- well- I don't know, but I'm sure it'd make his day to meet a real cosmonaut!
[Her smile is more demure, trying to play it cool and also not really resisting his teasing. She lets her expression brighten when he agrees. Why not? Natasha is just pleased she can help him (and, obviously, get to talk to him some more).]
Even better if he gets to go wild 'speculating' about how alien biology might work. [Not even a lie, that. Issek just has a lot more practical experience with aliens than she's implying. Humans included!] Much more fun than writing up reports about enzyme activation and so on.
[She pauses, quirks a sheepish smile.] I should probably remember to introduce myself before I set you up to chat with other people, shouldn't I? Sorry about that- I'm Natasha.