houseofcards_rp | [ota] sleeping under strange skies

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?}

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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?"

"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."

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?"

"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."

"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."

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."

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

"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."

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.

"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?"

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."

"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?"

That's a bit more difficult, really.

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

"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."

Threatening... he could work on. Obscure?

"Is there any way to challenge in-- speaking Basque?"

He's trying. Help him.

"... I don't think so." She grins. "I know people have challenged in trivia before, or things like that. But it needs to be a little more easily compete-able, I guess, than just speaking a language. Though... I guess you could challenge in a more linguistic, grammar type challenge?"

At least she's smiling. That means he's not completely hopeless. Probably.

"But it isn't very... threatening."

"No, not quite. And not very unexpected, to anyone who knows your name. I think you'll probably have to learn something new."

"Or change my name." But he's thinking. Promise he's thinking. Thinking with that slight unconscious wandering expression boys his age tend to get because focus doesn't come naturally anymore. "Something-- violent, something quiet?"

"I like it. Your name, I mean. I wouldn't change it." She rests her chin on her palm, hmming idly as she thinks. "Not necessarily violent, but it wouldn't hurt."

There's an almost unconscious smile for that. His name had been such an afterthought. The idea it was nice sets very comfortably in his heart.

"I will-- try to remember my staff."

"You can do stick fighting? What, like quarter staff?" She's not very skilled in such matters, but hey, she thinks it's cool.

"A little. We did-- for physical education class."

Which had been a hell of a lot more fun than dodgeball, apart from being bored to death with the cultural significance of it all.

"That's definitely something. You should keep that. Maybe even work on it." She grins at him. "I can teach you the soft stuff on the side."

That's a nice reassurance. That gets his lips quirking back up a little. "You're-- very kind, you know?"

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