(no subject)

[outstandingbalance]

Who: Natasha Romanoff
Broadcast: Fleedwide
Action: Iskaulit to start with
When: 16 Nov

Video

[The broadcast is brief and obviously accidental. A young girl's face appears on screen, confused and tense, then almost at once her brows draw down and together in an intense frown. Her expression is dark and thoughtful as the feed shakes, then cuts out entirely.

For those paying attention, the corridors off the Islaulit can be identified behind her before the transmission ends.]

Action

[When she wakes up, a young Natasha finds herself in what appears to be a small dance studio. Unfamiliar, but not too shocking. The mirror, the barre, the wood flooring, are all things she's accustomed to. It isn't where she expects to be, but it is somewhere she would expect to wake up in a general sense, in a general way.

Waking up somewhere strange isn't completely shocking either.

It's not until she ventures out into the rest of the Iskaulit that she starts feeling out of her depth. She can't place where she is, even where she might be. There's no outside. The structures are nothing like she's scene before. The computers are completely alien to her. The people are worse. She avoids them, of course. At least at first. Sneaking through shadows and hidden corners, in ducts if she's lucky enough to find access. She observes what she can, trying to work together the situation as she can, applying what training she can. But how much she can do is limited.

Tiny spy is out of her depth.

Which is what forces her to come out of hiding. (Maybe that was the point?)

When she finally lets herself be approached, she's already determined to put on a lost, scared face. It's for the best. That way people will underestimate her. Trust her more. It's a good plan.

The expression might not be entirely fake, though, and she can't entirely hide her suspicious skittishness. The end effect isn't entirely unlike a stray cat begging for food.]

((OOC: Augment glitch? Come play with smol murder ballerina.))

Comments

[bythewaves]

Our name for ourselves is Quendi, the Speakers, but Men have always called us Elves.

[outstandingbalance]

[Natasha doesn't believe in elves or fairies, magic. All of that seems unlikely to her.

But what they call themselves, that stirs her curiosity.]

Quendi? [Even at this age, she speaks several languages. She doesn't have a problem replicating the word.] Why do you call yourselves that?

[bythewaves]

[ He smiles approval at her mimicry ]

Because we were the first to speak with tongues, in our world. [ Wryly ] Some say, because we like to talk. Which is also true, if not the inital reason we chose that name.

[outstandingbalance]

It could be both.

[The second seems more realistic to her, though. The first explanation sounds like a myth.]

[bythewaves]

Well it would make sense that if we wanted to speak we would invent the words to do so, no? [ He smiles at her wryly ]

[outstandingbalance]

I suppose that would depend what you wanted to say.

[bythewaves]

[ He laughs ] Listening to the tales my grandfather told us of those days, I think the answer to that is "everything". They were newly woken and all the world was new.

[outstandingbalance]

You say that like he was alive then, to remember it.

[bythewaves]

He was. Grandfather is one of the Unbegotten, the very first elves to wake, long ago.

[outstandingbalance]

You realize this sounds like a myth.

[bythewaves]

I suppose it does. [ he hums softly ]

But time does not wear on us as it does on you, and I too, am a relic of the Elder Days, for I can stil remember the first rising of Moon and Sun. You may choose to believe me, or no - but it changes not what I remember.

[outstandingbalance]

I haven't thought much about time. [She's young. And doesn't expect to get old.] If that's what you remember, that's what you remember.

[bythewaves]

You are young, yet. [ He smiles at her ] The young often do not - I was so in my youth as well, and the days flew by without count and we thought them unending. We were wrong, of course, but we were young and foolish, in those days.

[outstandingbalance]

I don't understand. How did they end?

[bythewaves]

We grew up. [ He says softly, sadly ]

Darkness came, grandfather was slain, and father... went mad. We swore things that should never be sworn, and so bound ourselves to deeds that should never have been done.

[outstandingbalance]

[That went deep quickly, didn't it? Or maybe it already was and Natasha was just too young and careless to realize it until it was obvious. Either way (it's the latter), she's not sure what to do with an honest answer.

Especially when it still sounds like a fairy tale.]

You know you didn't have to tell me that? If you didn't want to talk about it, I mean.

[bythewaves]

[ He smiles at her and the shadows in his eyes are tucked away neatly back to where they hide (always there, always, but carefully tucked out of sight, where they cannot hurt those who do not know) ]

I would not have, if I did not wish to. [ He says simply ] I decided long ago that I would never deny any that tale, for what use are my mistakes if no one learns from them?

[outstandingbalance]

It seems like it would be easier not to talk about it. If you've lived that long especially.

[bythewaves]

Perhaps - but then it becomes forgotten, and there are things that it is unwise to forget.

[outstandingbalance]

There are things that are better off forgotten too. Maybe it would be better not to remember the bad things.

[bythewaves]

Maybe - but who can tell if someone else might be able to learn, perhaps be saved? No - without the bad things to give meaning to the good, I think we might grow too complacent

[outstandingbalance]

It's not like the bad things go away. Just... it's up to you if people see it, I guess.

[She's not trying to change his mind, but it's clear she doesn't understand his choice tierh.]

[bythewaves]

No - but they are good at hiding in plain sight, sometimes. [ He says sadly ] Sometimes in the best of intentions, too.

[ He smiles for her and shrugs a little ] But we are wandering into deep waters. Should we change the subject?

[outstandingbalance]

[For a moment Natasha simply watches him, considering his position and trying digest it. In the end it proves too far from her experience though, and she shrugs awkwardly.]

If you want to. I didn't mean to argue.

[bythewaves]

You are not. [ He says firmly ] And it is good to question, for how else are you to learn enough to make your own decisions? I do not mind, little lady. But the road there delves deep into sorrow, and I would rather not burden you with my griefs unnecessarily.