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]

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.

[testygirl]

"Uh... yeah. That sort of thing does take some courage, huh?"

Someone may or may not be sitting on her own feelings, whoops. Aira shakes her head a little, then claps each of them on the shoulder.

"I'm rooting for you guys!"

Unclear what she's rooting for Link about, specifically, but this camaraderie is a mood.

[theriflespiral]

She pauses, and, grateful for the out, she decides to use it for deflection. "Do I detect a hint of projection?"

She's certainly not become a major gossip since she became part of Elysium.

It's just habit. Any bit of information is useful, right?

[newmemorywhodis]

Link didn't need any rooting for. He didn't have a crush; he had Zelda back home. He'd been offering to ask Natalia's crush, on her behalf.

This was, unfortunately, the sort of miscommunication that tended to happen when you were someone who was disinclined to use many words. But he does now turn to Aira - who also has a crush, apparently? - to make the same offer.

"Can ask for you too?"

1/2

[testygirl]

She's rooting for him in life! Or something. Anyway, Aira is not prepared at all for the turns to table.

"Wh— hey! Who said anything about me?!"

2/2

[testygirl]

With the measuring done, she turns and thunks the tape measure onto her desk. Then she folds her arms, sighs, does the whole bit.

"It's nice for you to offer, I guess, but I have no idea what to do with her. Just, like. In general."

Re: 2/2

[theriflespiral]

"Huh, really? You usually seem pretty swift on the uptake with social matters. It's one reason I go to you for advice."

[newmemorywhodis]

At 'who said anything about me?', Link points to Natalia. Natalia did, she was the one to say something about Aira.

The he pauses, and just looks between the two. He's only just met Aira; he hasn't got a clue how swift she is on the social uptake. (Thought really, in general almost everyone is most swift on the social uptake than Link is).

So he just stays silent, and listens to see what Aira says.

[testygirl]

Getting put on the spot like this is a funny thing. Like, it's embarrassing, but receiving this kind of attention and talking about crushes is fun in it's own way.

Still, when she looks flustered and tosses her hands, her anxiety is clearly authentic.

"It's a touchy subject, okay? I totally screwed up the last time I confessed my feelings to someone! I've gotta nail it this time."

But she's still too stubborn to accept any help, which goes unsaid.

[theriflespiral]

"Could do what I do." She shrugged. "Be absolutely and accidentally blunt. Walk up to the object of your affection and inform them of nascent feelings."