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]

Link pauses a moment; he hadn't actually thought much about when the lizards were due to shed. But now that he thinks about it, she's probably right. He nods.

Then he holds the lizards out for her, so she can get a good look at it. It's an interesting lizard, not like the ones at home. It's tiny, with little spots all over.

"It's new," he says.

[theriflespiral]

"Ah. You haven't seen this species before?" She hums. "Wish I knew more about local biology. Maybe Senshi...?"

[newmemorywhodis]

Link shakes his head. No, he hasn't seen this one. But he takes the lizard, and puts it into his pack.

"Can try to make something, if I find more," he says. Which honestly was Link's usual response to finding any new and unseen species of small critter - toss them in a cooking pot with some monster parts, and see what happens.

[theriflespiral]

She hums, and hops atop a small spire to look over the city. "If I recall, there's a few places with plants and insects in the city proper. You might find some there..."

[newmemorywhodis]

"I'll look," Link says, hopping on top of the edge of the building, looking down.

Before he decides to launch himself of the side in search of them however, he glances back at Natalia.

She's got a delivery business now. And it's probably something that takes a lot of work, on her part.

"...You need help delivering?" he says.

[theriflespiral]

"... I might, at that. It's not all me, mind you, but another hand who is careful isn't unwelcome." She pauses. "Though I'd have to get you a uniform, but that's not too bad."

[newmemorywhodis]

"I've worn uniforms."

Came with the job of being a knight, really. Even if these days, Link generally did prefer a lot more personal expression in how he dressed.

[theriflespiral]

"Well, then. Let's get you to where I get all the uniforms for Penguin." She gestures with her head. "It's not far. Follow me."

Confident that, if nothing else, Link can keep up, she leads him to a small clothing shop at a rooftop run.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link nods, and follows at a quick pace. Although with Link, a 'quick pace' involves just as much paragliding as it does running.

When they arrive at the little clothing shop, he gives it a curious look. He hasn't seen this place before.

[testygirl]

The storefront is classy and clean, with a few half mannequins dressed in snappy uniform tops and caps displayed behind the glass. There's a wooden sign above the door: Silke Boutique and Tailoring, displayed with gold lettering in compact cursive.

It takes just a few seconds for Aira to appear.

"Good afternoon, welcome to—oh, hey, Nat."

She's halfway through a polite dip of the head before she stops herself. Then her gaze shifts over to Link, and she straightens up while clearing her throat. For Natalia to show up out of the blue with such a good-looking guy in tow...

Well, it presents a lot of opportunity for teasing, but Aira will try her best not to be embarrassing. Which will be hard for her, but.

"What's up? Who's your friend?"

[theriflespiral]

Natalia pauses. Her voice is caught in her throat for a second before she manages, "Aira! Good to see you again. This is Link, an acquaintance of mine. We've done hunting."

All of which was mostly true, but more a cover for stretching ears than the whole truth. "He wants to do part time delivery work, I saw no reason to dissuade him. Especially because he can keep up with me."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link, naturally, has made a bee-line for the mannequins. Sure, he's here for a uniform - which presumably he'll get no choice in what it looks like - but maybe there's something else in here he likes?

But he does pause in his inspection to glance over at the Natalia's friend. Gives a little wave. And says, "Hi."

[testygirl]

Aira lets them in, then out of habit, she glances around for a second or two to see if they might have been followed, or if there's anyone suspicious lurking around. There's no one, naturally; Aira knows how seriously Natalia takes all of this.

Once inside, a grin breaks returns to her face when Link heads straight for the displays, and when he greets her, she waves back cheerfully. "Hi! Hehe, nice to meet you."

Most of the outfits on display are catered towards Empire fashion, which generally isn't hideous, but the men's wear in particular trends towards being uniformly stuffy and lacking in flare. Bit by bit, though, she's been incorporating some elements of modern fashion from her world. One of the mannequins is in a trim, royal blue tuxedo, and there's another sporting a more casual look for summer, dressed in a string-laced v-neck and lean khakis.

Aira ends up chuckling at Nat's comment. "It's good that someone can!" She taps her chin. "You want something tailored? We've got a size that'd probably work fine, but it'd be kiiiind of a shame not to fit him up."

[theriflespiral]

"By all means," Natalia says. "Since he seems interested in other clothes of yours, it sounds like you've a good idea of where to take it."

She says this with her usual 'barely above a monotone' conversational patter, but then she's also clearly looking at the tux. She paces around it for a moment as if taking its measure before attacking.

But then, her own sartorial choices had been largely declared a disaster by all and sundry, so she'd keep her own counsel, for now.

[newmemorywhodis]

As it turns out, it's not just the men's wear that Link is checking out; he's just as interested in the feminine fashions as well. Who says Link can't be pretty every now and then, when he feels like it?

The blue tuxedo meanwhile, gets a rather perplexed, unimpressed look from Link. To his eyes, it seems a weird garment - it doesn't seem to be either practical or decorative. And why would you want something that had neither of those things? The v-neck and khakis seem much better.

But Link was under the impression he was getting a uniform; he assumes he's not going to have any input into this whatsoever. So he lets the two of them talk, not feeling any particular need to interrupt.

[testygirl]

Yeah, Aira's eyes only shine brighter once Link shows interest in some of the women's outfits, too. He's a pretty guy to begin with, so the effect could be quite dazzling. There's a long, lacy gown on display, along with a breezy white one piece, and others in between—as much as she can fit in the limited space without it all getting too clustered.

"Hey, our base design is basically perfect already. I just need his measurements." Then she flashes Nat a smirk. "You'd slay for days in that tux. Traditional black or gray might be even better, though."

Anyway, it's pretty clear to her already that Link isn't much of a talker, so it wouldn't hurt to prompt him while he browses. She drifts his direction, happy to multitask.

"See anything you like?" she asks. "What do you normally like to wear?"

[theriflespiral]

When Aira catches her looking at the tuxedo, Natalia blushes. "I always wondered how I might appear in one. But... So much black already. Maybe something that works in bright?"

She nods to Aira about the other clothing Link was looking over. "I'll spot you an outfit and the uniform, if it's a matter of cash."

[newmemorywhodis]

"I have money."

Mainly through excessive amounts of collecting stuff, and then selling part of it on mass. Link was practically a one-man economy.

As for what he likes...Link pauses. Immediately concludes that he does not want to describe what he likes. And then pulls out a tablet-like device - one that's clearly different from the Corsairs communicators.

He taps at the screen a few times - until he's turning it around, to show Aira and Natalia a picture. Then once they've had a chance to look, he pulls it back, taps it a few more times, and shows another.

This is repeated until he's shown them - in no particular order - warm feather-lined armour, a loose outfit with fire designs and a headdress with two curling red horns, a set of leather armours, some climbing gear, decorative armour that didn't seem to cover much at all, some billowy silks with a veil and bare midriff, a dark hooded outfit, a skintight suit with a mask and a painted red symbol of an eye, and a detailed blue minidress or tunic with a cutout on the back.

In all of these pictures, Link looks to have taken a selfie in a range of locations - a desert, the snow-capped mountain, a gloomy underground space. There also seems to quite often be some kind of strange monster in the background.

[testygirl]

Aira might argue that 'so much black' could really work if Nat wanted to exude a cool, intimidating air—which is very attractive to some—but she decides to keep that in her pocket. Not too surprisingly, she opts for the teasing route instead.

"Okay, okay. So, like, banana yellow? Or bright orange, like a yummy dreamsicle?"

At some point she'll learn not to reference things from her world that no one is going to understand. Though Nat is definitely being spared, in this case.

Speaking of things from her world, Aira blinks as Link pulls out his device. Isn't that a...? Nah, it can't be. Aira shuffles closer to get a better look. "Ooh, you have pics?"

She nods along encouragingly as he cycles through them, also giving approving hums and comments. "That looks really cozy!" "Whoa, dang, those horns are wild." "Talk about serious lonesome warrior vibes." "Whew, that one is bold." And so on. Naturally, by the end, her creative juices aren't just flowing, they're frothing.

"A lot of these incorporate armor, huh?" She pauses, thinking. "If there's a certain set you like to use for missions and stuff, I could totally design something around the pieces using one of these outfits as a reference. That'd be cool."

[theriflespiral]

As if she's not already intimidating. "Maybe something in reds? Or offsets my eyes, whatever color they happen to be at the moment."

But when Link pulls out the pad, the banter from Natalia stops. Instead, she's mostly just as fascinated as Aira is, though her expressions are more subtle and she's glad to let Aira take the lead. "... They're good on you," is all she'll add to the mess.

Still, she can't help her own hint of a smile. She knew this would turn out to be a good idea.

[newmemorywhodis]

"...I like all of them for missions."

That's part of why it was so frustrating that he was missing almost all of them. Link liked to wear whatever the situation or his mood called for.

Really, a lot of what Link liked was options. Lots and lots of options.

[testygirl]

"Oh, hell yeah, red would be the ticket! But I'd have to think really hard about the right shade."

She then puts a hand on her her hip and steps back a little.

"As for you, mister..." A bit of sternness seeps into her voice. "Let's start off with one or two, okay? I'm a busy girl. And if you can't decide, then I'll choose for you."

Now, she doesn't sound that stern, since his plight is very relatable. Sometimes she misses having access to her old wardrobe so much that it's physically painful, like she feels it in her chest.

[theriflespiral]

She nods along, letting them talk, for now. The Laconic Club, it seems, is back in session.

[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?"