03: In Like A Lion

[theriflespiral]

01: Pancake Week (Elysium)
Much as she despises the Orthodox Church, there was one tradition, Natalia thinks, with which she can truck, and that is the week before Lent being Pancake Week.

She has a small Ether stove and a little chalk sign: IT'S PANCAKE WEEK! Deliver a pancake! Ask me how!, with a small list of fillings, and a drawing of a penguin carrying a pancake wrapped around little herrings and a pleased expression.

Although, the ability to deliver a pancake, still warm, without breaking it, is a hell of a statement for a shipping company to make...


02: To Dance As The Queen Does
Once more, Natalia listens to distantly piped jazz and taps the rhythm carefully, gathering Ether, ice swirling in her hands as she moves to the beat.

And, once again, as her mind fills with other things, the spell breaks, sending little bits of powder snow all across the improvised dance floor, to evaporate.

She hums in annoyance. Of course, by now, surely someone would hear soft or hard jazz and come to investigate.


03: Unfurling Inner Lotus
While much of her time is given to maintaining her front or honing her marksmanship and spellcraft, time must be given to conditioning her body.

This is risky, because unlike the other forms of training, to do it she must engage her energies at their fullest. This is less a risk of her being hurt-- no more than usual-- but rather a risk of discovery; for no one notices a girl with black hair and black eyes, but a girl with blue stars shining in her eyes? Now that has been seen once or twice, to say nothing about how it might touch on the senses of those sensitive to Ether.

But it's the only way to make sure she's training to her utmost, and so utmost she must go-- keeping up with others, never mind the Empire, demands it.

Thus it is that someone as apparently light as Natalia Koutolika is now lifting sacks of shot that are obviously as heavy as she is, and tossing them some distance, besides.


04: Special Deliveries

This was the spot. Natalia stood on the deck of the Humboldt in the little shelter the rocks of the island made, and waited to make contact.

As much as she wanted to recover and utilize larger ships, even ships that might be better suited to the line (intentionally), ships like the little sea sloop were too useful for Penguin Logistics' other purpose: smuggling packages, people, and information.

Was her chronometer wrong? She kept a weather eye out. Who is meeting her? And for what?

Comments

[newmemorywhodis]

"You pick," Link says, almost immediately. There's no way Link could pick just one or two favourites. Besides, he doesn't mind the surprise.

"...But not Hylian armour," he says. And then he demonstrates why, by reaching into the small pack at his waist, and pulling it out. How exactly it fit in there is unclear; the armour is bigger than the pack. But he's definitely got it in his arms now.

[testygirl]

Oh, well, easy enough. Which means the next thing is—

Her train of thought immediately gets derailed when Link pulls out the armor.

"Wh... what the heck?" She points, eyes wide with intrigue. "How'd you do that? Magic or something?"

[theriflespiral]

"That's not even the half of it," Natalia says, having seen Link pull hot food out of that pack before.

[newmemorywhodis]

"Korok-enchanted pack," Link answers, as if this were an ordinary, normal thing.

Well, for him it is. For everyone else, not so much.

[testygirl]

Korok-what-now? Sounds like something not of this world. Unless there are Koroks running around all over Esthere and she's somehow never heard of them. She brings her hand up to her mouth and stares intently.

"Dang. I want one."

[theriflespiral]

"It does seem like it would be handy to have around. Sadly we seem to be a bit short on Koroks." Leastaways she's never heard of them outside of Link's mouth.

[newmemorywhodis]

"...I haven't seen any koroks."

A fact which Link had found...strangely dispiriting. He'd gotten so used to always keeping an eye out for little korok puzzles. Saying to hi them, whenever he solved one.

But there were no koroks in this world. Or if there were...none of them wanted to reveal themselves to Link.

[testygirl]

Aira sighs, perhaps a bit too dramatically for the context. If there's some other way to get a magic pack, at least they know what she'd want for her birthday...

"No biggie!" She recovers quickly. "Mr. Link, can I borrow that pad for a sec? Just so I can do a few quick sketches."

[theriflespiral]

Natalia is maybe a little too damned familiar with the layout of Aira's shop, because she's reaching for the sketch-book even as Aira mentions that, and has it ready for her with pencils and pastels by the time she gets to it.

[newmemorywhodis]

There's a brief hesitation - the Purah Pad is Link's, and he's maybe a little possessive over it. But after a moment, he hands it over; the desire for more things wins out in the end.

He will, however, hover over her Aira while she draws. And curiously watch what she's doing.

[testygirl]

Aira giggles and gives Natalia a little smile. "Thanks. If you didn't have better things to do, I'd totally force you to become my star assistant."

She thanks Link, too, before accepting the Purah Pad. It hardly goes far—just to her desk over in the corner of the room. She sits, tucks back her hair, then flips open the sketchbook. Warmer weather is coming, so she starts with the lighter outfits.

"You're gonna have some people really going gaga when you wear these around, but don't blame me."

Her linework and coloring are deft, and it goes quick enough that Aira ends up sketching the whole lineup, save for the Hylian Set. It's obvious how much practice she's had with this stuff over the last few months. Some of the finer details get simplified by necessity, but that just leaves room for her creative license.

"Whew, alright. Now let's get you measured, then we'll be all set."

[theriflespiral]

"I welcome you making the attempt." That said, she does pull out her own notebook and starts writing. Is there something she's imagining, in that head of hers? Perhaps. At least expressing herself silently, and with her usual blank expression, doesn't set off the Heart.

Not least because this keeps her from staring at Link while they're taking measurements.

She's had too much excitement today as it is.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link doesn't even blink at Aira's comment about people going gaga. He's run around Hyrule in all sorts of outfits. Sometimes even no outfit at all. He never paid much mind to people's reactions then, so why would he now?

But he does not, and dutifully allows himself to be measured without any complaints.

He will also - if he gets the chance while he's just standing around and getting measured - attempt to peer over Natalia's shoulder and read what she's writing. He is not at all subtle about it.

[testygirl]

Aira grabs her tape measure and gets to work. It goes along without a hitch—until she notices Link trying to peek at Natalia's work.

"Hey, rude. What if that's meant to be private, huh?"

Like she also hasn't been trying to steal a look or two. And frankly, her attempts haven't been all that subtle, either.

[theriflespiral]

It's... Poetry.

In her opinion, it's not even particularly good poetry, mostly doggerel to satisfy herself and avoid having to say something about the situation in front of her. At least the meter's consistent.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link looks at Aira. Shrugs. And then continues to blatantly peek at Natalia's writing. So maybe Link's a little nosy. Just a bit.

Though in the end, he can't make too much sense of Natalia's poetry. Not because of the quality of it, but because his ability to read Imperial still isn't very good. And poetry in particular is the sort of things that can be difficult to parse if you don't have that level of reading ability.

[testygirl]

Aira's reading comprehension isn't super sophisticated, either. Which turns out to be fine, because regardless, there's precisely one direction her mind is going to go.

"Ooh, is it a love poem?" She squints, like that's going to help her parse it at all. "You're not allowed to crush on someone without spilling to me, just so you know!"

[theriflespiral]

"It's doggerel, is what it is. I can't get the hang of kennings and keeping the meter."

Regardless, she's clearly a little embarrassed about it.

[newmemorywhodis]

Kernings? Meter? Link has...absolutely no idea what either of those things are. He also doesn't know much about love poems either, so Link's looking a little blank during this conversation.

But if Natalia has someone she likes, well, there's other ways to show that affection other than poetry she's apparently not very good at.

"You could cook them their favourite," he says. That's what he always did. Of course, Link also happily cooked for other people too, so maybe that wasn't necessarily and exclusive demonstration of affection...

[testygirl]

Aira is equally mystified by the terminology. For a beat, she considers asking what the hell she's talking about, but then Link comes in with the surprise assist.

"Y-Yeah, totally! And if you aren't that confident with your cooking, then I could taste test for you."

She gives Nat an encouraging thumbs up. Gosh, how quickly things can get derailed.

[theriflespiral]

she stood, frozen fortress, ice-eyed, unmoved
wintry winds blew decades strong, heart's door unknocked
What new flower breaks snow and ground?

"Well. That. Would be a good question to ask," she admits.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods his head rapidly. Yes, him too for taste testing! Not that he thinks Natalia needs it - she makes good pancakes, after all - but he's never going to say no to taste testing anything.

And then he just pauses, and looks at Natalia. Expectantly.

Who is it that she needs to ask?

[testygirl]

Unfortunately, there's much to be desired here for a one-two punch of literary critique. But does Natalia actually have feelings for someone, hmm? The mystery makes the prospect extra tantalizing for Aira, admittedly.

"I've heard that pansies are hardy against the cold! Tough and cute is the best of both worlds."

[theriflespiral]

She hums. "-- well that might work-- under that blanketed ground seeds sat/ waiting ever for hearth-warmed wafting winds... Ugh, no. That's no good. As to taste testing, as soon as I've the courage to ask what their favorites are, I'll talk to you."

[newmemorywhodis]

"I can ask."

He'd done that before. Multiple times, even.