ximilia | video - un; nightmoves

[ This seems important enough to divulge immediately while he's on a Ziggy hunt; ]

Guys, got something that might be pretty useful. Check these out.

[ He holds up his stolen papers, stretching them out so everyone can see, doing it slowly so they're able to be read. It's as listed;

- An official-looking parchment, granting an audience with the king to a Lord Durwald

- Several letters, all of them short, discussing arranging a fast horse and safe passage through the Forests of Gha'har, towards South Naelor; none are signed

- Notes, written by the same hand as the one asking for the horse; some of them seem to be detailing council meetings and discussions, but there are some particular entries that are of interest:

I have cause to suspect the king is using something to affect our decision-making. Yet another decision has been overruled by the council, despite majority vote passing it in the parliament yesterday. Have enlisted the help of Y.V. to spy on him.

Two more notes detailing council proceedings follow, but after them, there is one more entry:

Y.V. found the king speaking to the heirloom. Said there was a strange glow in the room. Suspicions can only be confirmed by removing heirloom.

Y.V. found dead this morning. Will put the plan to action tomorrow. ]

Seems important. Dunno how it correlates to stuff everyone else has found, but definitely think it should be looked into.

[ a pause, then- ]

If anybody's seen Cas, let me know.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fair enough. I don't know either with as little info about this land as we have so far.

[That irked a little. It was like walking into a black ops mission without any Intelligence. Always his favorite missions, those.]

Why the hell didn't Degar give us more information about this world? Or come down here with us? We could use someone who knows the locals a lot better.

[Like who all these damn lords and ladies were so they could figure out how to find Durwald and/or his associates. Or know whether political shit was going down behind the scenes or not. Or if the land had been altered in any way. Or any number of other things.]

[Natasha isn't exactly unsympathetic. She'd have liked better prep too. She's also pretty used to being dropped in it without more than a trail of bread crumbs, too.]

Hard to say. It might come down to him having to stay on the ship to contain the orbs.

[Safe to say they don't want Olivia getting access to them, or them getting access to her.]

Your guess is as good as mine. That said it might be best to be careful about how much we drop his name. Too late to keep it entirely under wraps, but we don't have any way of knowing what everyone here thought of him for sure, or what's happened since he left.

[He hummed in acknowledgement of that excuse. It made sense. Effin' magic.]

I think that bag was already dropped.

[Don't worry, he agrees with you Natasha. Then again, he'd gotten good information from his targets sometimes by dropping names or information... and some people were dumb enough (or distracted enough) not to notice it. It really all was a matter of reading the room and knowing how to play the game.]

But maybe if you say it again, louder, everyone else will hear it. It's good advice.

At this point I think I'll just have to trust them to use their best judgment, and hope they can keep themselves out of trouble.

[Pausing a beat, because let's be real that's not all they'll do.]

Or hope we can get them out of it if they end up in over their head. It wouldn't be the first time, if some of us end up thrown in a dungeon.

You can do that? Trust them to stay out of trouble?

[He says it good-naturedly, a joke. But is it really. He's not yet sure how he feels about the Orbers as a whole and especially how competent they are. He just doesn't know enough yet how they are under pressure.

He continues in further amusement.]

Why am I not surprised? I've been here for a month and I'm already getting a certain impression.

I think it's less a matter of can I and more do I have a choice? Do you think it's going to go over well to try to tell them all what to do?

[Dryly. Not without humor. Natasha has some experience with this.

Both sides of this.]

[Yeah, Felix hated being told what to do so he was in that boat. He'd sound sheepish but he has no shame.]

...No, probably not. I'm used to being in a leadership position but I don't think I'd want to lead this crew. No offense.

[He was a shitty leader lbr because that was Locus's job but Felix didn't think of it that way. He just expected the people he worked with to do their jobs because he was the one that got them said job. And that made him their leader.

He's secretly (or not-so-secretly) a shitty person, that was the take-away here.]

[Maybe not so secretly. Natasha won't take it personally, not either his leadership skills or the crew's unruliness.]

It takes some getting used to. At the end of the day, it's probably best to just try to do your best and to act as though everyone else is trying to do the same.

[Which isn't exactly the same as believing it, but if done right that's a distinction without a difference.]

And make contingency plans for when things go wrong.

[If he were a more open person he might take her advice to heart. Sadly, he's not. Fortunately, he can and will pretend otherwise.]

Roger that. Normal day at the office, am I right?

[He half scoffs, half laughs.]

Sounds like you've had experience with situations that go SNAFU at the drop of a hat.

SNAFU might actually be too polite of a term. That might be more my bias from home showing through, though.

That's impressive. Something worse than a SNAFU. You wouldn't happen to be...in a war back home?

[She didn't seem like a soldier though. Intelligence officer, maybe.]

I'd go so far as to say a time or two it's been straight FUBAR.

[What else do you call half the life in the universe being erased from existence.]

There's always war somewhere, isn't there?

Oh, one step farther than a Charlie-Foxtrot, eh?

[He's trying not to laugh at that last statement but as he says:]

That's so true. If it's not one thing, it's another. Out of one and right into another.

[He notes she doesn't exactly answer his question though. She seems to do that frequently.]

[Natasha has never pretended she's not cagey. It's a deeply seated habit.

And not one she's likely to try to change soon.]

It's the only thing you can count on. I had a boss once who told me nothing lasts but trouble.

I feel like I know what he's talking about. It's always been that way.

[After the war, during the war, even before the war. His whole life had been nothing but trouble. But he was a survivor and he'd endured all of it.

Except maybe that last bit. He still does his best not to think of it. (But the nightmares don't always agree with that repression.)]

video - un; nightmoves

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