[[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]

"I mean, it's worth a shot," says Gideon. "Science, or whatever, right?" She flips up the lid of the waffle iron and hovers her hand over it. "It is getting hot."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina stares for a moment at the pink-flesh-colored-goop-batter, as if entranced by its color. "I wonder what the best way to get it onto the waffle iron is. Maybe we just... pour it?"

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon shrugs. "Alright." She picks up the bowl and starts pouring the goop into the iron. It hisses when it hits the metal (promising??) and then almost immediately overflows onto the counter beneath it. Gideon stops pouring. "Shit."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina lets out a yelp of dismay and immediately grabs some kitchen towels to soak up (?) the goop. Meanwhile, the batter that's on the waffle iron is already puffing up quite dramatically. Perhaps they used the wrong kind of baking-whatever or the wrong amount. Who knows at this point?

She can't help but laugh now. "It looks delicious," she says, helplessly.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon cracks up when Nina does, clapping her on the shoulder. "Five stars," she manages, between wheezes.

[ravkanwitch]

"I think we've created a new life form," Nina says, still laughing. There's a charred scent in the air and she quickly unplugs the waffle iron, which makes her laugh even harder, looking at the flesh colored puff they've made that's probably raw and gooey in the middle and burnt at the bottom.

"I dare you to try it," she adds, once the giggles subside a little.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon almost asks whether they can cook it a little more in the oven or something, but she's been dared. She reaches forward and takes a full handful of the stuff. It mushes and tears off into her palm, and when she takes a big bite it is both crunchy and slimy. The taste actually isn't that bad—it's kind of interestingly sour with pockets of extreme sweetness, which is exciting, and then a burnt aftertaste—but her throat really does its best to mutiny at the texture before she can swallow. "Delicious," she manages, eventually. One of her eyes is tearing up.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina looks simultaneously entertained and amused and mildly disgusted for a second before she relents. There's no way she's going to let Gideon suffer through it alone. "Delicious?" She asks, casually eyeing it like it's a sweet treat.

Only with slight reluctance, she grabs part of the creation and takes a big bite. It almost tastes... foreign, though it's not meant to be, and it takes forever for her to chew, so she just ends up just swallowing the entire wad of it. The flavor is fine. She's had worse. She coughs, just once. "I once told someone that he was better than waffles and he called me a liar... I probably meant these waffles."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon cracks up again. "I'd be worried for you were flirting with anyone who wasn't better than these waffles." She eyes the mass again. "What do we... do with it? Plant it? Set it on fire?"

[ravkanwitch]

She looks at the mess grimly. "I think we give it a funeral. We bury it."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon gives her a long, measured kind of look. She doesn't want to bring it back up, but—"We hold a funeral today, boss, no one's gonna think it's for a waffle monstrosity."

[ravkanwitch]

Nina deflates a little -- unlike the waffle -- and gives a sigh. "I know, I was trying to be silly. Maybe I was trying a little too hard. I still think we should bury it, though. If we throw it in the trash, the whole kitchen will smell like it."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon hesitates, then opens her arms, gesturing Nina into them for a hug.

[ravkanwitch]

Nina gladly meets her for the hug with not even a hint of half-heartedness; she squeezes. "Thanks," she says, after a long moment, slightly muffled.

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon squeezes back, then lets her go, turning back to the waffle iron, her face set in her deadliest, most impassive Ninth House rictus. "No funerals. Let's bury this motherfucker alive."

[ravkanwitch]

"No mourners, no funerals," Nina says, half to herself. She looks up at Gideon. "I think you'd like the meaning of that phrase."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon finds a butter knife and starts prying the burnt part of the monstrosity out of the waffle iron. "Oh yeah?"

[ravkanwitch]

"It means good luck. And that nobody else is going to die. But it's... also kind of dark. We were at the bottom of society in Ketterdam. It meant that even if we did die, we wouldn't have a funeral." She shrugs slightly. She likes the first meaning for the mansion, reassuring herself that nobody else is going to die.

[ninth_cavalier]

"You were right. I do like it." Gideon's been to a lot of funerals in her life, starting with The Big One, the one commemorating two hundred infant souls, though she was too young to remember it. She wonders if they bothered to have one for her mom, before they sent her off for bleaching and processing. If so, that had probably been the one right before, unless one of the old nuns had kicked it between. It must have been odd, to attend a funeral for a stranger, and then for every child except that stranger's. No wonder everyone looked at her like that.

She balances the weird waffle mass between her hands. She knows it's dense, from the, you know, eating it, but it's somehow also shockingly light. "Y'know, I think we were kinda getting somewhere with the fluff."

[ravkanwitch]

"It wasn't a bad idea," Nina tells her. "I think sometimes people put it into sandwiches. Maybe we should've tried that instead and started smaller. Maybe next time."

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon gives her a crooked little grin and starts leading them back outside. "Next time," she agrees. "Where do you think is the best place for this thing? I don't want it to, like, poison any flowers or anything."

[ravkanwitch]

"There are some clearings near the rock pile where I found Khitka," Nina tells Gideon. "Oh-- I'm not sure if you've met her yet. She's a ferret. If you're missing a piece of jewelry or something small and shiny, she's probably stolen it."

[ninth_cavalier]

"I haven't met a ferret before," says Gideon. "And I don't have much jewelry to steal—just this, really." She shifts the mass of quote-unquote food to one hand and holds up her other wrist, shaking it so the bracelet Tally gave her jostles a little. It isn't quite true—there's also Harrow's earring, tucked away in the branches of Galahad's church. But she's not thinking about that right now.

[ravkanwitch]

"Where did you get that?" Nina asks casually, though she has her suspicions. "Let me see if Khitka's around-- Khitka!!" She has a good set of lungs on her; sorry to Gideon's ear drums. 

[ninth_cavalier]

Gideon looks around, trying not to look super casual about both answering Nina's question and the potential sudden appearance of whatever a ferret is. "Tally gave it to me—apparently it means I like girls."