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

[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."

[newmemorywhodis]

And what approach does Link take?

He shrugs.

"Sleep for a hundred years. Kill the forces of darkness. Give her your house."

All of this was said with Link's usual hard-to-read, blank-faced expression. Was he being serious? Hard to tell, really. But it probably wasn't advice that could reasonably apply to anyone other than him.

[testygirl]

Are they messing with her? Aira's mouth hangs open a little, and her gaze shifts between the two.

"You guys are useless."

[theriflespiral]

She shrugs. "Got me at least one date. Might even get me three, if I figure out ways to show affection without turning on the icebox."

[newmemorywhodis]

Hey, it had worked for Link.

Natalia however, gets a puzzled, questioning look at the mention of 'turning on the icebox'. Perhaps Aira knew what she was talking about, but Link didn't have a clue.

[testygirl]

All three of Link's wooing accomplishments do sound great, but sadly, they're a bit beyond the scope of Aira's reality. Well, two of them are. She does have a tiny house now that she could hand over. Or maybe the forces of darkness are next, if the Empire counts, but no way is she sleeping that long until she's dead.

Anyway! Aira has experienced Nat's icy affliction firsthand, but she really doesn't know or understand the whole deal. So she shouldn't be speaking with any authority, for multiple reasons, but...

"No one worth dating is gonna be scared of little ice. If you're honest and upfront about it, then it'll be fine!"

[theriflespiral]

"While this is true, there's limits, not least my own comfort." While her heart has hurt less as time has gone on, it's still an ever-present threat-- at least to her.

[newmemorywhodis]

Link's puzzled frown intensifies.

Normally, this is the point where people will helpfully explain at length to Link, while he just helpfully nods his head every now and then. But instead Natalia keeps talking like he already knows, and...is he going to have to actually use words to ask?!

As a last-ditch effort before resorting to that, Link leans very obviously into Natalia's field of vision. And stares.

Explanation, please.

[testygirl]

Aira finds herself looking between the two of them again. It does sort of feel like she's smack in the middle of a comedy routine, but she doesn't want to hurt Natalia's feelings by making light of the topic—inscrutable as those feelings can seem to her.

"Um. Do you want to talk about it? Mr. Link looks pretty lost, if you feel like filling him in a little."

[theriflespiral]

Natalia breathes in. "The short of it is this: my heart must remain frozen. The form this takes, it turns out, may be varied, but..."

She forms an aster out of Ice Ether. "If I become hot-headed, or angry, or sorrowful, or joyful-- I have few options. I may express it in my ice and movements. I may suppress the emotion. Or i express it openly, and my heart and body begin to freeze."

[newmemorywhodis]

Link's not an expressive person either; he doesn't tend to wear his emotions visibly on his face. But someone who knows him well, someone who can read small micro-expressions and the minutiae of his body language can tell that this explanation upsets him.

Natalia can't...feel things? Not without turning to ice?

"You're cursed?" he says softly.