[[open post: a new friend!]]

[ravkanwitch]

After speaking with Sagramore at the dance, Nina now has her heart set on finding a pet of some sort. She isn't necessarily lonely, not with so many friends, but sometimes when she lays in bed alone at night and thinks about her past, her memories, and her worries, it all feels... a little too quiet and empty-- alright, maybe she's slightly lonely. But only at night. And only when her mind gets away from her. That's why after her morning walk, she's planning on going to ask Aziraphale about producing a rabbit for her.

Is a rabbit right for her, though? She considers this as she takes one of her favorite routes through the forest; it eventually leads to a small waterfall and she's enjoyed watching it slowly freeze into ice and then slowly start melting again. She doesn't mind the cold too much, not with her Ravkan blood and Fjerdan tendencies, and this forest is starting to feel like home. Only on short, ambling walks, though. She enjoys her solitary walks and the feel of the wind and sun on her face -- but at the end of the night, she wants to be in a soft bed with silk sheets.¹

Perhaps rabbits are too skittish, too terrified of loud noises, Nina thinks to herself. She is a loud talker. She does like to talk to herself and sing terribly. Right as she considers these thoughts and as she makes her way past a large pile of rocks, she hears a low wuffling sound emerge from it. She pauses. A rabbit?? A small squeak emerges that is distinctly not rabbit-like. She walks towards the tumble of rocks as it squeaks again, and she stoops down to peer into a crevice followed by another. On the third try, small beady eyes stare back at her. She offers her hand to it, tentatively. In a flash, a small furry blur streaks out and up her arm, ending up on her shoulder. She screams -- stifling it and feeling slightly silly when she realizes that the definitely-not-rabbit is just sitting on her shoulder and not attacking her. She slowly turns her head, meeting eyes with a very self-satisfied, mischievous little face.

"Hi," she says, cautiously reaching up to touch it. The ferret makes a soft dooking noise. "Aww," she says, petting its head, at which point the ferret gently nips her and then makes a dash for her jacket pocket, making a huffing laughing sound. "Ow! You rascal." Nina's already gone. Head over heels. What a perfect little creature. As she makes her way back out of the forest and indoors, anyone is welcome to meet the newest resident of the mansion.

¹Nina Zenik, you would love glamping.

Comments

[lightbearinglord]

"Mn." Lan Wangji is light on details about whatever happened that evening, but he did get the chance to see Crowley the following morning and to note his generally dejected air. "Claudius described it as a misadventure." Obviously, this was quite generous of him.

[ravkanwitch]

"True love always finds a way in the end, I suppose." Nina smiles a little. She's surprisingly not the overly romantic type. She's usually thrilled and over the moon for everyone involved, of course, but it's a bit difficult to be a romantic with her history.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji considers that assertion quietly. Arguably, he should be the first person to agree with it. His found its way. But that was hard-won, and it came at the cost of Mo Xuanyu's life. "Sometimes."

[ravkanwitch]

"Sometimes it gets muddled," Nina allows. Khitka creeps back into her pocket, sensing a boring conversation. "My friends have been desperately in love for years, but I'm not sure if they've worked it out yet."

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji is freshly familiar with the frustration of watching such a thing play out, and he did not suffer on that account even half as much as Claudius did. Then again, his advice was also much better than Claudius'. He hesitates, not given to prying, but Nina did volunteer this much information already. "And have they told one another?"

[ravkanwitch]

Nina laughs in a very frustrated way. "Well, I saw him rip the eyeballs straight out of a man's head for daring to harm her in combat, so it depends if that counts as talking about feelings or not."

[lightbearinglord]

That sounds like a reasonable enough reaction to witnessing the person one loves being hurt in battle. Lan Wangji considers himself a paragon of restraint on this matter, frankly. He left all thirty-three of those elders alive. "It does not. I believed my feelings were obvious."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina sighs. "Last I heard, he had used his resources to track down her parents for her, and then he bought -- bought? Stole? Who knows with him -- her a ship so that she could track down slavers. And they still haven't talked about their feelings for each other." Nina's wrong but she doesn't know that. They did once and then never talked about it again.

[lightbearinglord]

Nina's apparent frustration has become eminently understandable. Lan Wangji, petting Xiaoxue's back now, says, "For some, actions come more easily than words." Such as himself. That may be obvious.

[ravkanwitch]

"You can say that again." Not that words don't typically come easily for silver-tongued Kaz Brekker. Just not words about Inej. She rolls her eyes and does a quite passable imitation of Kaz's low, gravelly voice. "I protect my investments. Saints, what an idiot."

[lightbearinglord]

There is some mild visible amusement in Lan Wangji's eyes, if Nina happens to be looking. "Longing eyes," he says dryly, repeating her back to herself.

[ravkanwitch]

"Longing eyes and a closed mouth," Nina tells him sagely, making it sound like a proverb.

[lightbearinglord]

Lan Wangji accepts this phrase immediately as a piece of timeless Ravkan wisdom. He nods. "I am familiar with that," he says, with the faintest trace of self-deprecation.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina is putting some pieces together. "The... thirteen years you had to wait, right? Did you say anything before that happened?"

[lightbearinglord]

There is still something jarring about hearing his own story out of another's mouth. It is through no fault of Nina's -- Lan Wangji told her this voluntarily. He is only startled at himself, that he has grown so comfortable here with so many varied people. He hesitates, then says, "I did, but he did not remember."

[ravkanwitch]

"I'm sorry," Nina says, genuinely.

[lightbearinglord]

Her sincerity is plain enough. Lan Wangji, who had been tempted to break eye contact, does not. "Thank you."

[ravkanwitch]

The conversation has suddenly gotten a bit heavy -- which is fine! Nina doesn't mind deep discussions. They have reached a natural break in the conversation, though, and she searches for a new conversation topic. "I heard that Magnus was attacked by a sword," she says cautiously. "Do you know anything about that?"

[lightbearinglord]

Well, that topic is unlikely to do anything to break up the conversational heaviness. Lan Wangji's face turns notably grimmer. "Mn. Its master was not in evidence, but I believe it must have one."

[ravkanwitch]

"He wouldn't tell me much about how it attacked him. There aren't many people here who have control over objects, especially metal," Nina muses, tone very different from her gossiping one. Perhaps a very strong Durast could move a sword through the air, but not any Grisha.

[lightbearinglord]

"My sword can move without my touch, but our spirits are linked. The sword that attacked Magnus has no more qi than any object." Lan Wangji has turned the thing over in his hands several times, searching for some clue. Shen Yuan identified its time and land of origin, but that information seemed to do nothing to advance his investigations.

[ravkanwitch]

"So you mean that if it was a cultivator's sword, you could sense it," Nina says slowly.

[lightbearinglord]

"Yes." His gaze sharpens on Nina. Because it seems like she is about to alight on some idea, he says nothing else.

[ravkanwitch]

"I think Aziraphale could sense if the sword has been influenced by an angel or a demon, if you brought it to him-- It's good to rule things out. It's espionage basics. It's not that I think Crowley would do anything like this." Or Luo Binghe, she thinks silently. "But I trust him. I also wonder if Dionysus would be able to sense if a god has done anything to it. As for the rest..." She hesitates again.

[lightbearinglord]

"Crowley would not have," Lan Wangji says, with confidence, "but it is worth asking, in the event that another resident has concealed their abilities. I can think of no likely suspects, so we must turn to the unlikely."