01 | New Phone Who This

[frost_and_shinies]

Looking at this a bit, it seems like introducing oneself is normal here, so. Greetings, Crimson Corsairs.

I'm Kaitlyn, a Chosen of Winter. Skipping the details you can ask about over drinks or something if you're really curious, I'm a 'skirmisher'. Sneak around enemies and hit them where they don't expect to be hit from with light-fire ice abilities. Or complete a goal without hitting them at all because they never saw me in the first place. (I love it when I get loot that way honestly.)

I'm not new to working in a team, I'm not new to adventure and combat... But uh I am new to both at once, so. Help adjusting to the combination might be good.

Looking forward to meeting people and doing stuff, and, uh. Not sure what else to say?

So. Hi.

Comments

[frost_and_shinies]

Kaitlyn pauses.

"I mean. Doesn't have to be just that? I-if you're, erm. Interested?"

She's not exactly had a steady relationship before, but adventurers are adventurers so she's had a few experiences within the Dungeon realm, but this might be different or maybe not and wait what about Natalia's condition oh hell what did she just do-

She doesn't manage to say anything further before Natalia has a chance to respond.

[theriflespiral]

Natalia has no idea. She pauses. "I would not mind spending more time with you outside of strictly necessary contexts."

Her eye twitches with expected pain, and then she breathes with relief when it does not, in fact, result in her hands starting to shake, her teeth chattering.

[frost_and_shinies]

"... Your body handled that okay. G-good. Sorry. I wasn't thinking."

Natalia managed to clamp down enough? Or are certain emotions okay? Or...

"... I gotta admit, I'm curious what even caused that condition for you. It's obviously way different than what I've got going on..."

[theriflespiral]

"I am not certain either. Regardless of its nature, it did not start expressing itself before I--" Before she won the most dangerous game, and joined the Corsairs.

In short, before she took off her suppression collar. "-- the collar must have kept it under control."

She is not putting that thing back on.

[frost_and_shinies]

"... We'll just have to work on better solutions, then," Kaitlyn offered. "Because not a chance that thing goes back on. Ever."

[theriflespiral]

"Honestly it is more remarkable that the collar was suppressing something, because it sure was not my physical or mental capabilities." There's a brief pause. "Well. Considering my performance, maybe the mental ones."

we done for today, boss? "Ah-- yes. Let me hand over the pay for today and you can go, now your route's finished."

A quick transaction later, slips recorded carefully, Natalia stood up from the chair and buttoned her coat and put on her glove.

[frost_and_shinies]

"Let's not assume that barring evidence," Kaitlyn couldn't help but say with a slightly odd tone.

Kaitlyn, by now, had her glove back on.

"... So. Any idea where next?"

[theriflespiral]

"As you say," she nods.

"As for where to go-- No shortage of coffee houses and ale houses near the docks; no shortage of thirsty sailors after carting their masters about, after all." She slowly locks up, and hangs up a sign that tells both customers and delivery folk she is OUT FETCHING LUNCH. "Warm meal isn't hard, either. Most places shouldn't need too much time to get to."

[frost_and_shinies]

"... Ah. That requires I think about what to get, doesn't it?", Kaitlyn pondered after a few seconds of, well, kind of spacing out.

"Sorry. Just. I don't know what's here at all enough to posit ideas."

[theriflespiral]

"Mm. Let's go for a place I, well. I tolerate, anyway. It's not far and they have a take-away service. Pretty typical imperial village food, but it's alright." She hums. "Well, so long as you're not allergic to bread or something?"

... Shit, was she allergic to bread?

[frost_and_shinies]

"As long as the bread isn't decorated like summer."

... She pauses, realizes how weird that would sound without context.

"My abilities are of a 'Winter' thematic, so I sometimes react to stuff that's conceptually 'Summer'-ish. It's not precisely heat in and of itself. I, er, put a lot of effort into learning how to swim in order to handle being anywhere near beaches."

[theriflespiral]

"... Not the Sunshine Bakery, then," she notes, more for her own later consideration than because that was where they were going.

The actual place they came to, the Rising Flounder, sold fish stew, rolls, small beer, and, of course, sausage and pickled cabbage. Or, at least, that's what the slate at the sidewalk said. "The menu changes a little day to day, but..."

[frost_and_shinies]

"Hard to say," Kaitlyn responded. "Bakeries are sometimes more Winterly due to... I think it's at least partially psychosomatic to be honest."

That said... She does seem more interested in the basic idea of what the Rising Flounder has in mind.

"Sounds good to me."

[theriflespiral]

"Because there's a comfort in warm bread on a frost-bitten day?" Natalia guesses wildly with a shrug. "Regardless, shall we?"

The place is busy, as promised-- there's not much space inside; more a sop to the workers' cold than the eaters, whose line would be remarkably familiar to anyone who had withstood the fast food lines at their local city in a relatively modern Earth. Just behind the counter, cauldrons of heated soups and water baths of sausage and warmed pickled cabbage fill the air with a slightly clashing smell once combined, and a small oven kept piles of bread rolls warm.

Natalia closed her eyes and breathed it in by proxy.

[frost_and_shinies]

"Yeah. Let's," Kaitlyn responded, looking over the soups and sausages.

"... Yep. Time to get some stuff."

She soon winds up with a potato soup, some sausage and some cabbage. And, this part was important to Kaitlyn apparently, a few rolls of bread.

[theriflespiral]

"I don't suppose you have a beet-vegetable soup?" Not that she particularly enjoyed borscht-- she preferred a good blin-- but a good soup goes a long way to recover one's spirits.

"No joy, Penguin," the man behind the counter says. "Beets won't be up for a few weeks, yet."

They've really just taken to calling her that, huh? "Perhaps then, then. The bream soup, sausage, cabbage, two rolls. Oh, and--"

"Your usual to-go order for your workers?"

"Yes, thank you." She takes up a seat among the benches and waves Kaitlyn over if she's still looking.

[frost_and_shinies]

Kaitlyn joins Natalia quickly.

"They just refer to you by the name of the company now, huh?", Kaitlyn quietly observed...

[theriflespiral]

"Also because i moved like one a bit, a little earlier," Natalia admitted. "Add in my cold demeanor, and..."

[frost_and_shinies]

"... That's. I don't know. It feels mocking, but."

[theriflespiral]

Natalia shrugs. "If they think of me like that, it's fine."

She'd never seen one in person, but in the books she'd read about them, she'd seen photos of them swimming, gracefully, underwater.

[frost_and_shinies]

"... I guess I just. I dunno. My Patron may have gone by 'foxybara' because she had a fox's ears and tail and a capybara's love of sitting in a hot spring with water dropping onto her head, but it never sat right with me."

... Man, Kaitlyn's situation sounds kind of odd when she describes it aloud.

[theriflespiral]

"... No, I understand that. Who would not like sitting in a warm hot spring on a frosty day?" Still, she thinks about what Kaitlyn said. "Business doesn't wait for accidents."

[frost_and_shinies]

"Nor the heat of battle, for that matter," Kaitlyn responds, before taking a first spoon of soup.

"... This places knows what it's doing. That's nice at least."

[theriflespiral]

Natalia nods. "The soups are clearly paid attention to while they're made, and even if they sit out some time, they're meant to take the beating. The herb selections especially stand out, but not the salt. And who can argue with warm bread, yes?"

... Does she do this to every meal she likes?

[frost_and_shinies]

"... Very true, all." Kaitlyn just smiles a bit.

"There's more I could ask, of course. But perhaps that'll need to be in time."