Video | welcome, hallo, buenos días, ohayō, etc, etc! | UN: Newt

[groupiedrifter]

[Newt comes shuffling into view on the screen, holding a cup of coffee in his hand with a bag of what seems to be Sour Patch Kids harrowingly hanging out from beneath the pinky finger of the very same hand. Disheveled but more than happy to provide his services after dragging himself out of bed, he taps his knuckle on the chalkboard beside him — one that used to be Hermann Gottlieb's, may he rest in peace (in a not dead way — may he rest in peace on a beach or something while wholly alive and thriving).]

Noticed an influx of new and kinda-new faces over the last few days or weeks or whatever.

So here's my handy dandy welcome board! Recently updated, to keep with the times.

Read it over and get a feel for how this place goes; I'm gonna finish off this coffee before I take any questions.

[As he takes the world's most obnoxious-sounding sip and burns his tongue, here's the board in question:]



[And then, after a bit of time, he turns the board over to the other side:]



[No worries, current crew, if you can't get one of those introduction papers in person!

Because he's attached them in file format, too.]



[And in case you wanted a text format copy:

Name:
Age:
Birthday:
Favorite color:
Favorite food:
Favorite subject:
Favorite toy:
Favorite animal:
Favorite candy:
Favorite activity:
Favorite place:
Favorite book:
Favorite TV show:
Favorite movie:
I am good at:
I want to learn:
Least favorite subject:
Place I want to go:
If I could make one wish, it would be:
If I could have one superpower, it would be:
This is what I want my teacher to know about me:

(Have at it — threadjacking is encouraged).]

Comments

[ravkas]

i wouldn't call it gossip. it was more like investigative research.

[ is alina mad fr take 200000000 ]

i've never truly considered it, but having taken a moment to do so, no, i'm not surprised.
royalty? would this be considered a type for you?

[peasant]

i'm going to tell the entire ship you've a fear of spiders in clown paint, then
call it "investigative research". these are important facts to know about you

[ saints please smite her and kill her now. ]

no
i'm simply blinded by giant, shiny gemstones, like a bird

[ravkas]

if i agree to this heinous crime against me, will you level with me?
what's going on between you and mal?

i would be concerned if i started sharing personality traits with kaz brekker.

perma- private🔒➡️

[peasant]

[ because one of them has to be wary of scrutiny, she takes the time to seal off this conversation from prying eyes. doubtlessly kirigan is watching, conspiring, hoping to spy some weakening crevice he can slither back into; she won't allow him the easy luxury of nestling in this particular wound. ]

not that it's any of your business but nothing's happening, as you well know

[ravkas]

[ it is his business. why wouldn't it be? they are friends, after all, the three of them, after all they've been through, although it certainly feels like he's been shut out of something remarkably important. what had fitz said that was so unbearably aggravating? that a king doesn't have friends? even if there was an ounce of truth in that statement (yes), there are still loopholes to everything in life. alina, after having seen the darkest parts of him, is his loophole.

should be, anyway. or he should stop assigning weight where it can't hold. ]

specificity is an astonishing skill. never to be used in politics, but quite helpful in casual conversation.
i don't well know. i thought the opposite of "nothing" was happening for you two.

[peasant]

there is no such thing as casual conversation for kings or saints.

[ first and foremost. court has wielded that lesson well — taught her the weight of a misplaced tongue, and the power of a well-placed word. never mind nikolai lantsov's penchant for dodging specificity as though it were tar and feathers lobbed in his direction.

(he's always been nimble-footed when the truth catches up to his shadow.)

still. there's something to be said for the precarious nature of a crown, dangling on the edges of so-called casual conversation. hers, more precisely; mal is gone. nikolai and ravka are all she has left. there's no need to endanger that next. ]

mal made his stance quite clear when he left.
have you suffered any smacks to the head lately, or has your memory always been this poor?

[ravkas]

[ if yelena hasn't seen the two of them frequently copulating with the gauche, desperate passion they're so fond of, then this certainly confirms his already suspicious suspicions. nothing is as it seems on this ship. nothing is as he remembers. ]

people keep asking me that. you're welcome to gently caress my golden locks to ensure my head is intact and to your liking.
things are just... different. but it's no matter. i'm sorry to hear about mal, but i assure you that nothing has changed between you and i. i still consider you

[ an uncharacteristic fumble here. how to end the sentence? why did he even begin it? my friend is what he wants to say, the raw, honest truth, but he's never been good at that. ]

the prime candidate for queen.

[peasant]

[ he isn't sorry.

she doesn't believe it for any longer than a second. despite his golden heart, nikolai lantsov has his own darker ambitions. he'd been a prince with everything to win, once. now, he's a king with everything to lose. mal's choice only benefits nikolai's reign, a threat removed. only solidifies the bricks of its foundations.

if there's no lover to whisper over in court, there's no cracks to plaster over — one less possible fracture they're meant to deal with. it's an uncharitable view of him, alina knows — but neither is she blind to the politics at play.

can a victor ever be truly apologetic? she lapses into a quiet fog, dispersed only be a single self-pitying thought. ]

lucky me

[ it feels a hollow triumph, on her part, exchanging love for the idolatry of a nation. but perhaps mal's loss can be her own gain, too, one day. ]