[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

[oneirophiliac]

"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?"

[thepupthatmatters]

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.

[oneirophiliac]

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?"

[thepupthatmatters]

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

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

[oneirophiliac]

"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.

[thepupthatmatters]

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."

[oneirophiliac]

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.

[thepupthatmatters]

Ah. Right. Following the leader. There's a brief moment of uncertain tilting, head twisting to see around the glass case properly to where she's indicating, before he nods.

[oneirophiliac]

It's a bit easier putting the tank down this time, given that there aren't any snakes here to shake him up. Just a lot of tools and bottles.

"Okay, I think you'd still be in time if you go now. Gonna be okay?"

[thepupthatmatters]

Tools and bottles are a good deal less startling. And saluting is absolutely on the menu once it's set into place.

"I will do my best to be, Ms Chives."