[ota] sleeping under strange skies

[thepupthatmatters]

He's ready for this. Of course he's ready for this.

He wouldn't be here if he weren't ready. Holló wouldn't have sent him through without being prepared. This isn't, after all, the sort of place a person gets sent without it being purposeful. Even the people who wander here 'by chance' are the people who need to be here, he's been told.

So it's the right time for Aleksei Volkov to be stepping out into the cold sunlight barely warming the walls of the Castle Spades, newly minted and processed and told he'll have to start working his way up from Two now.

The few things he'd brought with him have been settled into the cramped quarters he'll be sharing with a few other recent arrivals. What's stuck from his grandmother means he'll be starting off under the apparently quite severe Spade kitchen staff.

Hopefully it isn't the end of the world that he needs to pause when he's sent out to Town to pick up a few extra bottles of truffle oil and vanilla extract. Hopefully being 'ready for this' doesn't mean he can't take a moment--take a deep breath--as he lets settle into his bones the fact that he's here.


{ooc; He can be bumped into at the castle or being lost in Town. Also tag plz?}

Comments

[longingforthenight]

"Aw, kutti." She nods sympathetically. "Life here has it's fair share of long days. They do get better, though - if you find something you like doing."

[*pet name for young people]

[thepupthatmatters]

"How long does it take to find something you like doing?"

Because working in the kitchens wasn't shaping up to be that. He was fairly certain, despite being only one day in.

[longingforthenight]

"Depends. What do you like doing for fun?" she asks, raising her eyebrows at him. "As soon as you find something, you can start challenging up in it and escape the perils of kitchen duty."

[thepupthatmatters]

"...I don't know yet." He'd only gotten sixteen and a half years under his belt thus far. A lot of that had been discovering things he didn't like. "I've-- been looking into filing?"

[longingforthenight]

"Secretary work. A boy after my own heart." She grins at him. "I mostly do organization and courier things. I could do more, but right now, I'm satisfied. Speaking of which!" She raises an excited finger. "Did you meet Katya?"

[thepupthatmatters]

Ah, well. That is something (or someone, at least) he knows he likes. "She's beautiful."

[longingforthenight]

Something in her... isn't too pleased at that answer. She shifts a little in her seat, smile not fading a bit - but her response is a little less enthusiastic. "She is. I... She's very lovely."

[thepupthatmatters]

He doesn't quite notice. The gushing of a boy this age is a delicate sort of butterfly to begin with, after all.

"Just like you said. Like-- a work of art, igen?"

[longingforthenight]

Her stomach curls slightly and the smile does falter now. She thinks a moment, then blurts out, "yeah. Like... she's like... I think I like her."

Which is a ridiculous thing to say, but Kritika does barrel into things like this.

[thepupthatmatters]

His grandmother would likely have made a tight-lipped comment. His grandfather would probably have started to pray on the thought. They'd done the same thing whenever his mother left.

For himself, Aleksei blinks once and starts to re-calibrate.

"How could you not?"

[longingforthenight]

"I mean... I just..." She picks up one of her pens, fiddling with it before putting it down. "I never thought about it in a... in the sense that..."

Her lips twist slightly, and she huffs before looking up at him. "I think I might like her. Like... in a sense that... I think wouldn't make my parents very happy." And here comes the slightly confused chuckle.

[thepupthatmatters]

He's young enough that it still feels odd not to go with impulses. He's still not beaten down enough to hold his tongue when making an ally.

"Is-- it so important? To make parents happy?"

[longingforthenight]

"Not... not particularly. At least... I'm already planning on disappointing my parents as is. Just... this... if it's a thing, it's an unexpected wrench in the... okay, I'm rambling." She cuts herself off, shaking her head. "Don't mention this to anyone, okay? But... yeah, Katya's... gorgeous."

[thepupthatmatters]

The pause is brief, half translation and half sorting through his own thoughts. His head cants sideways slightly in consideration.

"It doesn't make you happy?"

[longingforthenight]

"What doesn't?" She frowns, looking down at her desk again. "This doesn't... I mean, it doesn't make me happy or unhappy, I don't think. It just... exists. Though I've never really thought about it in this sort of perspective before."

[thepupthatmatters]

"It... should maybe, I think." This place won't keep him buoyant, likely. Today, at least, he's still got something hopeful in him. "To care about someone should be-- a happy thing."

[longingforthenight]

She can't help but laugh at that, shaking her head. "What a cute thing to say. I haven't heard something so sentimental from one of our Cards in a long while."

[thepupthatmatters]

That had him ducking his head again, brow slightly furrowed. "It's-- not okay?"

[longingforthenight]

"It's fine!" she quickly says, nodding at him. "It's unusual for someone in our Suit, but fine. Something that you should keep. People will underestimate you, and that's helpful if you're planning to climb the ranks."

[thepupthatmatters]

And there, for the first time, come properly sharp eyes as he looks up again. The world's told him he looks like his mother, but Holló used to say he had his father's eyes when something actually got him excited.

"You think?"

Climbing ranks absolutely had to be exciting. It wasn't naturally, but it was what was going to earn him a family again.

[longingforthenight]

"I think that if you aren't a knife-wielding assassin, you stand the chance of being underestimated. And that is just a trait that you have to milk. Though, you know, you do have to have some skill that they would be surprised you have. Do you have anything like that?"

[thepupthatmatters]

Ah. Well. Hm. That's something he actually hadn't been overly-well prepared for, caught so late in life by his parents' handler.

"I-- don't know."

[longingforthenight]

"You might want to start on that. It doesn't have to be anything life-threatening - I bake and decorate cakes. But it needs to be something, hmm?"

[thepupthatmatters]

That's a bit more difficult, really.

"How-- do you know it is surprising, then?"

[longingforthenight]

"For your age? ... something really threatening or something very obscure would probably be best. No one knows how to decorate cakes - that's why I win my challenges. Though I do try to be nice and at least challenge people in the kitchen."