houseofcards_rp | [ota] sleeping under strange skies

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[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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"Mm? Oh, my snakes. These used to be fishtanks but Francis killed his fish by accident and got fed up." And oh look, room full of tanks and balls of snakes.

It probably shouldn't have only occurred to her that he might freak out just then. Her grip tightens.

Apparently it's a day of being surprised by unexpected animals. At least his reflexes are good enough that starting slightly doesn't mean actually dropping his end of the tank.

"Jézus--" But he's not skittering. Just... moving a bit more slowly, peeking around the room. "These-- are pets?"

Better than she expected. Good.

She maneuvers to set the tank in place. "They're work animals. Pest control, when they're not brumating. Er, hibernating." His carefulness with English hasn't passed her by.

He's following less fluidly now, it's true, but he's still following. Just.

Possibly peering down at the ground. Just in cases.

"...work animals?"

He'll get to 'brumating' in a minute.

They're not moving unless you look really closely. They're hardly going to detangle, jump out and bite him.

Possibly it'd be more alarming if they did do just that.

"Uh huh. Their diet's mostly rats and the creepier crawlies we find around the castle. We know they're doing their job well if I have to take them out to find food." She's already turning to the door, but she looks over her shoulder at him. "So try not to smash a snake if you see one indoors, okay?"

All right. Snakes. Working snakes. Working snakes who ate rats and weren't meant to be killed. Salute for the lady while carefully shifting to follow.

"And bru..." Damn. The world was already gone. "Brum--bernate?"

So close.

"Brumate," she says, enunciating carefully as they patter down the stairs. "And hibernate. Hibernating is when animals sleep for the winter, yeah? One long sleep until spring? Brumating is for the reptiles, but people are more familiar with hibernating as a concept."

The words are repeated very softly under his breath as he follows along at her elbow. It's important to say them, after all, if he wants to get them actually settled into his mind.

"Why are-- there two words? Is it... different with reptiles?"

"The basic deal with reptiles is that they don't need to build up anything where food's concerned before winter starts. Long cold days-" she snaps her fingers, "-sleeping snakes until it's warm again. Whereas mammals need to eat up before they hibernate, because they have to keep warm by themselves."

She taps her fingers along the banister, then adds, "Regular pet snakes don't need to brumate, but you can feel how cold the castle stone gets. Imagine crawling on your bare belly on that for hours. Plus they breed better after a long sleep."

His fingers shift briefly to smooth against the stone walls they're passing. It's not as cold as the home he had known--but he can certainly see the problem for something stuck against it all the time.

"It must be-- interesting work. To handle snakes here."

She grins as they reach the first floor. "It is. Keeps me busy, and it's- well, it's not like I'm much good with a lot of other things. I've liked them since I was a kid, so it was lucky I could spin 'em into a job."

"It is-- very lucky?" Maybe this was a place everyone made their dreams into reality. After all, isn't that what he was here to do, in his own way?

"Mmhm. Between washing dishes and working with the castle exterminator, that was totally a piece of luck." She wrinkles her nose as they pick up the second tank. "I don't think I'll ever wash a plate clean enough for dad-in-law."

It takes a second. 'Father-in-law' isn't a common word to begin with, and substituting in a synonym for 'father' makes it take that longer.

But he does get to the point of being hit with a thought and stumbling.

"--Mr Iollan?"

The stumbling gets a squeak out of her and a readjusting to make sure they've both got a secure grip still. So it can't be helped that her thoughts are preoccupied when she opens her mouth to answer. "Yes, Iollan! I'm pretty sure Declán doesn't have any other dad to be an in-law!"

Well. That's. Information. Or, well, not so much information as a good to know. Or maybe just boggling to know.

He's going with boggling.

"You seem... I would not have guessed."

He's working on being politic in English, clearly.

Some things just transcend language barriers.

"Nope. Which is a plus, seeing as I'm married into the family, not related." A little more cheerfully, and maybe slightly maliciously, "and I'm basically an anti-Chives, anyway."

Is that... a thing? A phrase he should know? There's a bit of quiet bemusement before he has to ask.

"Anti...?"

"Reverse? Opposite? Because I'm dark and short and not that tidy." Or barely sloppy enough to not qualify.

One eyebrow rises. "How long've you been speaking English?"

It's a lot more obvious in hindsight. 'Chives' being a surname and 'anti' being a prefix and all of it being not so much one word as a slang-ish compound.

He's got this.

He's also got the ducked head of a moderately embarrassed language learner. "I have been learning for the last four years. In--" And he tries, for a second, to think of the translation. Really he does. "--in Gimnázium school. The-- second school?"

To be fair, English is the most ridiculous of his four languages. It's got the affective filter riding fairly high.

"But not-- speaking. Learning."

Actually being in an English-speaking 'country' had started for the first time this morning. Practical use was a hell of a lot harder than academic grappling.

She chuckles a bit, clucking her tongue in lieu of wagging a finger. "So this is, like, your first time in deep water after practising in the shallows? It's better than I thought, then. Gymnasium, that's- German? I think?"

It's a good analogy--and one he understands. Back on the right track, clearly.

"Maybe-- quite close? It's Hungarian."

"Suppose there's some overlap of systems there," she says agreeably. "Geographically close, or something."

There's still something that strikes her as odd, though, how he's been in a clearly Good School and still so young- and yet here.

It's all part of the mysterious allure, Annie. Mysterious mystery. Hopefully mysterious mysteries which would some day result in a proud father, but until then.

Allure.

"Something like that."

Hopefully the mysterious allure will persist long enough until he's comfortable with navigating this place. It's barely any help with navigating the people.

"Okay, last stretch- we're going thattaway this time." Indicated with a jerk of her head.

[ota] sleeping under strange skies

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