[[open post and announcement: no mourners, no funerals]]

[ravkanwitch]

[cw: discussion of death!]

Nina knows that word of Shen Yuan's death has been slowly spreading. She tried to put out a general warning of danger right after it happened... but she's not sure how many people were warned by it. She wasn't in the right mind at the time, after all. This time, she's more careful and collected. With SecUnit's help, she's alerted and gathered everyone who's interested for an important announcement in the lobby of the mansion. Despite all appearances of bossiness and stubbornness - all quite true - Nina has never been in charge of anything so serious. Kaz, Zoya, and the King himself; she followed their lead. As people slowly begin to gather and she attempts to compose herself, she wonders why she decided to put herself up to this.

Deep breath, Zenik. Pretend that - well, that this is pretend. She's back in the orphanage as the official greeter, making an important announcement to all the other children. She's the governor of a small town, making sure that all the citizens are aware and prepared. It does have to be her, after all. She's playing a crucial role in everything. She also doesn't want anyone else to carry the emotional load.

"Hi," she tells everyone gathered, trying to paste on a somber but not-too-morose expression. "Thanks for coming. I'm sure some of you have heard part of this announcement already and I'm sorry that it took so long to pass this information onto everyone else... but there was an incident not too long ago. We're not sure what caused it, whether it was the house or whether it was an individual, but... Shen Yuan is dead." There's most likely a reaction at this point and Nina forges onwards as confidently as she can, pitching her voice above the hubbub.

"But there is a way that he can return. We're sure of it. We're just trying to figure out the details, which might take a while. If you want to know more about that, you can ask Magnus, but I'm not sure how much he can tell you. Also, if you encounter any signs of Shen Yuan's spirit, you can talk to--" Here she meets Aleksander's eyes almost instinctively; this line of conversation is something she's purposefully kept from him. "You can talk to myself. Or... to Lan Wangji. ...That's all. Thank you."

A confident start but slightly deflated by her last few sentences, Nina steps back and allows for conversation to happen. If anyone would like to speak to her, she's looking much less strained and grim than she has in a while.

[[Feel free to post a single comment reaction and/or start a thread with Nina in the comments!]]

Comments

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon leads them outside, into the gardens. She finds them a little overwhelming, still—so many growing things, and so much of it just for beauty, rather than utility. But—

"People grew all this, right?" she asks, meaning the first spring blooms around them. "Like—the people here, intentionally. It wasn't here when everyone got here?"

[ravkanwitch]

"Not all of it. I think some of it was here, but I know a bunch of people have been working really hard on it." She looks around, thinking about the grounds around the Little Palace. "Did you not have a lot of greenery, where you come from?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Basically none," admits Gideon. "The soil on the Ninth is shit. We had snow-leek fields, but I wouldn't really describe those as green. They were kind of... snot-colored."

[ravkanwitch]

"What did you eat?" Nina asks, curious. "There wasn't much of a growing season in Ravka or space to grow crops near Ketterdam -- but both imported produce from Shu Han and Zovyi Zem and there was plenty of game and fish."

[ninth_cavalier]

"Soup, mostly, and porridge, both usually 'enhanced'—" she does heavily sarcastic finger-quotes, "—with nutrient paste we got shipped in from other planets. Bland as fuck. Blew my mind when I got here and there was so many kinds of food, and it all tasted so, like. Much."

[ravkanwitch]

Being outside feels freeing after the stifling atmosphere of the meeting -- and the no stakes conversation with Gideon is comforting as well, weaving in and out of conversations about death and their previous lives. "Gideon," Nina says suddenly and solemnly, with a dramatic hand on her arm for good measure. "Have you ever had waffles?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Nope," says Gideon. "What's waffles?"

[ravkanwitch]

Nina's mouth may actually drop just slightly. Has nobody fed Gideon waffles since she arrived? What has everyone been doing? "We should go have some right now," she declares.

[ninth_cavalier]

"Whatever you want, boss." Gideon's up for anything that makes Nina more smiley and less exhausted, so she just starts toward the nearest kitchen.

[ravkanwitch]

"I have terrible news, though," Nina tells her, as they head towards the kitchen. "I'm an awful cook."

[ninth_cavalier]

"I haven't even attempted anything more complicated than a sandwich, so you're pretty much guaranteed to be better than me," Gideon reassures her.

[ravkanwitch]

"I burnt the sandwich that I was trying to make Luo Binghe," Nina tells her a little miserably, but she brightens once they enter the kitchen. "Maybe there's a waffle recipe in one of these cookbooks."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon pulls a couple out and starts leafing through them. "What kind of thing are they? Everything's in categories."

[ravkanwitch]

"They should be under breakfast foods. I think we'll need flour..." Nina says to herself, pulling it out of the cupboard -- but she doesn't sound entirely sure about it.

[ninth_cavalier]

"Breakfast foods," Gideon mutters, flipping to the right section. "What makes something a breakfast food? Isn't food, just, like, food?"

[ravkanwitch]

"It's not a hard and fast rule, it's more of a ...mood. Breakfast foods can still be eaten for dinner. Or at midnight. Sometimes they even taste better at a different time," Nina says contemplatively, taking down sugar, butter, and ...salt? Is that right? Do you put salt in waffles?

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon finds breakfast foods. "Emperor's balls, there's a lot of ways people eat eggs."

[ravkanwitch]

"Do you think there's a difference between baking powder and baking soda?" Nina asks her, holding up both.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon frowns at them. "I thought soda was liquid?"

[ravkanwitch]

"Waffles are very fluffy," Nina confirms, trying to sound like the waffle expert she is, "so there must be a good amount of liquid in them. Any luck finding a recipe?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"Yeah, I think," says Gideon, and shows her the page. Classic Buttermilk Waffles with Maple Brown Butter. "Looks like we need something called a waffle iron?"

[ravkanwitch]

"You mean the thing that--" She makes a gesture, ostensibly opening and closing a waffle iron. She drops lower, starting to search through some of the cabinets. "Is it anything like a clothes iron?"

[ninth_cavalier]

"What's a clothes iron?" asks Gideon, and then, "nah, I'm just fucking with you, I know what those are. And probably, right? Big pieces of metal, get hot, make stuff, uh..." She squints, trying to think of an adjective that encompasses both clothing and whatever the texture of waffles is. "...stiffer?"

[ravkanwitch]

"I think I found one," Nina says uncertainly, pulling it out of the cabinet. "It's a strange shape, though."<sup>1

1</sup>That's because it's a Millennium Falcon waffle maker.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon takes it, and shrugs. She sets it on a counter, then examines the cord coming off the back of it, the two prongs at the end—one slightly larger than the other. There's slots, set into the wall, next to the stove, and with great care and no little amount of showmanship she slides the prongs into the slot. Then she steps back and waggles her eyebrows at Nina.

The waffle doesn't ding, or hiss, or light up. Gideon frowns at it. Terrible magician's assistant. "Is it supposed to do something?"