magician_king: (a bit of a strop)
Quentin Coldwater ([personal profile] magician_king) wrote2020-01-12 01:19 pm

IC INBOX for The Last Voyages

You know what to do.
utselet: (i was here)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-21 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Nina takes a deep breath and nods, calming herself. "That makes sense," she agrees, sounding a little apologetic. She really doesn't mean to be as difficult about it as she knows she is.

She thinks for a moment, reaching out to touch the teacup lightly, feeling its heat through the ceramic. "I just want to be able to protect myself here," she murmurs. "That's still all I really want. I just don't want to be so afraid anymore."
utselet: (i wanted)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-21 06:28 pm (UTC)(link)
She mulls this over. It would work in a fight, in a pinch, but not all of the dangers she fears are quite like that. Not necessarily things that can be cured by knocking one person out one time -- neither in these close quarters, nor out in the world where any bid for freedom means being hunted.

"Could you make me disappear?" she asks suddenly, twisting around to look back up at him. "Or-- could I do that? Is that possible?"
utselet: (i was here)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-21 10:09 pm (UTC)(link)
She doesn't even really have time to be disappointed before he turns into some kind of sugar plum fairy before her eyes -- which makes it rather difficult to concentrate on what he says next, but she does get the gist. Not that, then.

"Maybe fainting to start with, then," she concedes. "Now change back -- you're freaking me out."
utselet: (it would be)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-21 10:35 pm (UTC)(link)
"That might be nice," she admits, a small smile returning to her face. "But that's for fun, yes? This--"

She gestures to the cup, framing it with one of Popper's terrible positions. "This is for work."
utselet: (everything that)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-21 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
She blinks owlishly. "Yes, I suppose. I hadn't thought of it that way."

She enjoys the Enclosure trips -- loves them, actually -- but she's started to keep them separate in her mind. With Quentin leading them as much as he does, they feel almost more like healing time than work; she usually comes out of them feeling happy and energized in a way she rarely does otherwise. Even with the teacup magic, the idea of doing it herself seems impossibly far away.
utselet: (Default)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-23 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)

She nods and flashes him a taut but grateful smile. "Less danger."

She takes a breath and nods again, reaching for her teacup. "Maybe I could have turned into a starling during the flood and hidden away somewhere," she mutters ruefully.

utselet: (it would be)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-24 02:43 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, when you take a bunch of people who are used to lying and force them to tell the truth to each other, it doesn't always go very well," she says dryly, sipping her tea.

It could have been worse, really, she knows. No one got violent with her, although there are definitely a few people who know she could take that a lot better than she lets on. She doesn't think anyone will really stop speaking to her, although there are a couple of dicey cases there. But mostly...

She sighs and shakes her head, absently brushing her hair back from her face. "It was tiring," she admits. "Very tiring."
utselet: (so they won't forget)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-24 09:34 pm (UTC)(link)
She leans her head on her hand and smiles wanly at him. Of all the wardens, it's Quentin she comes closest to forgetting herself with. She's most painfully honest with Tommy even when she's not flood-affected, but the emphasis there is on the painful; Quentin is the closest thing she has to a real friend, a real confidante, among them.

But he's her teacher, not her friend. She hasn't forgotten the difference yet.

"I'll be all right," she assures him, leaning back in her chair, crossing her legs. "I'm just not used to it. Spies -- we're not known for our non-fiction."
utselet: (i did i've done)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-25 12:13 am (UTC)(link)
"An open book?" she offers, her smile widening a little, growing warmer.

"You remind me of a friend of mine," she admits, despite the shields she still holds in her mind. "He was never meant for KGB. He could handle the pressure, but not the secrecy, even working at a desk."
utselet: (leave something to remember)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-25 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
"I don't really know much about it," she admits. "The... sci-fi, fantasy."

"My friend was a realist, too." Like her. Very much like her. Despite everything, she still considers herself a realist, a pragmatist. She only believes in the magic because it is, quite literally, in front of her eyes. "We don't have magicians, so he was going to leave for med school."
utselet: (everything that)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-26 04:50 pm (UTC)(link)
She falls quiet for a moment, sipping her tea, though her silence is a pensive one; she's clearly thinking about something.

"I never thought about anything else," she admits eventually. "There was never any other plan for me. Always I wanted to serve my-- what used to be my country."
utselet: (leave something to remember)

[personal profile] utselet 2016-03-26 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
She nods. "It is, but it's not only that. I don't..."

She looks up. "I told you what happened, yes? The FBI turning me, the gulag?"

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