nightlogs | oh mother things ain't going so well

Who: Nyara and OPEN
What: you know how when you adopt a cat you gotta accept that it will probably want to hide for a few weeks?
Where: Pole generally
When: ambiguously throughout the month
Warnings/Notes: she Struggling. oblique reference to coming from a bad home situation.

Nyara is not taking this in stride.

Is the Pole different from her father's fortress in winter? Yes, absolutely and in many ways, but feeling the tropical heat and knowing it's cold outside, seeing the bright colors and lights and luxury, and smelling reeking stomach-turning things like peppermint... it's filled her with dread and had her looking over her shoulder and flinching at shadows. She wants badly to run away to somewhere plain and peaceful, to return to quiet and hunting for her meals, but is also afraid of consequences should she act out. She doesn't understand what's out there, what could get her, so she hasn't made a break for it. Yet.

catnap: Instead of the appointed quarters, Nyara's made a few nests for herself lower down, where it's cooler and darker and the smell is less powerful. You can most easily find her in the sleigh room bundled against the cold, maybe moving an armful of straw, probably looking at you with feline alarm. She sleeps lightly and doesn't want anyone seeing her in that vulnerable state, but it can't always be helped especially if Need is doing work on her - then the girl buries herself in straw and blankets and twitches, like she's dreaming.

catfight: She can also be found in the training room, firing arrows into dummies or fighting them with Need in hand. Usually for hours at a stretch as she tries to exhaust herself. She's alert and nervous and stops what she's doing if she notices an observer, but if she's been at it for long enough that she's glazed over, panting, pushing through the pain of exertion and moving more slowly, she won't notice.

catnetworking: If Need knows you, you may be interrupted in your non-urgent business at some point by a Mind-voice both concerned and deeply irritated, asking, :Could you please tell my girl that she should eat?: Need is perfectly capable of making Nyara feel okay with the dramatic change in circumstances, and with just making her take care of herself, but she hates to do that sort of thing.

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He stops, not expecting to hear his name. But it's not accusatory, and it's familiar, too. He looks for her. "Nyara? Are you venturing outdoors as well?"

"Ah - no. It is bitter cold." She's made a couple of attempts, but no matter how heavily Nyara layers herself, the temperature is too low. Painful low, and she can ignore quite a lot of pain, but Need doesn't think she should go out unless she has enough of a reason. "But not for you?"

"No, not for me," he says softly. He's dressed in his usual leather outfit. "It never has been, though I did not understand the significance for most of my life."

He breaks out of his mini-reverie and looks her over. "Why are you here, then? The cold may not be harmful, but it cannot be comfortable. This is not a room where living beings are meant to linger."

A god thing, Nyara's going to assume. She has no particular thoughts about gods. They exist. In Velgarth they are distant for all but their most chosen people. She isn't one of those, and has never prayed for their intercession; she knows none would answer her. Need has plenty of thoughts on gods that she keeps to herself.

"Ah. You should not worry about me, I have clothing." She brushes at her makeshift tunic, dislodging some of the reindeer hay. "It is not comfortable perhaps but... here is better than much of this place."

Quite the contrary, it marks him as not truly one of the gods. But maybe that's not such a bad thing.

He does look worried about her. "Are you staying here, not simply passing through? Surely there must be some place that is more comfortable, or could be made so."

"I am passing through," she temporizes, not noting his expression. Nyara's looking down. She's not lying but she has been mostly staying on and around this level of the, she thinks of it as a compound. "You should not wait on my account, I am well enough."

All visible fur is standing on end, too short to actually help trap heat but long enough to soften her outline. It doesn't necessarily mean much that her hair is unwashed and in a braid that's surrounded by flyaway strands, messy hair happens and her dexterity isn't really as good as someone with typical, slender fingertips. She's clearly not in regulation-issue cold weather gear and has been in at the reindeer bedding, but maybe she doesn't like fashion and hay is comforting to her as a pseudo-medieval. And she's a bit jealous that Loki isn't bothered by the cold.

He doesn't look convinced, but she is free to make her own choices. "I would recommend going elsewhere for a while. I do not plan to be out for very long, but I suspect my passage will let in a lot of cold air."

He moves to the door, but he stops there and waits, watching to see if she is leaving the area that opens directly to the outside.

Nyara does not leave the area entirely, but she retreats further from the door. She wants to catch a glimpse of the outside world, even if she can't go out into it. It distinctly does remind her of peering out at the world beyond her father's fortress, before he allowed her to escape.

Loki doesn't realize that she wants to get a look outside, so he tries to open the door as little as possible and get it closed very quickly, to minimize the cold air let in.

He's somewhat less careful when he returns a couple dozen minutes later, assuming that Nyara would have left. His face is unreadable. Oh, and his skin is now blue and lined, and his eyes are orange.

A little disappointed, she spends the intervening time back in reindeer stalls, bundling up clean straw with a length of colorful, reflective ribbon. She's setting up a spot in a storage room, where she's shifted packages to make an enclosed nest. Straw makes them warmer and more comfortable.

She's on her way out with an armful when she hears the door and feels the dramatic drop in temperature, snatching and stinging at the inside of her nose. Instinctively - she easily feels like she's about to be caught doing something people will object to - Nyara ducks behind a support strut, stashes her bundle, and crouches to peer over.

Loki's mostly numbed from his disappointing time outside, but he catches a glimpse of movement and pauses his plodding back. He doesn't reach for a weapon or magic, but calls out softly, "Nyara? Are you still here?"

She hesitates, caught between hiding and immediately coming out. Does he know she's here, or just suspect it? Can she avoid him if he doesn't know? If she draws it out will Loki be angry?

Need cuts into that and murmurs to her, :Just talk to him, dear, he's not going to bite.: As always - almost always - the sword is all utter, perfect, enviable calm. It's steadying to know that she's there and that there are few situations Nyara can find herself in that will stymie Need.

She stands up. "I haven't anywhere interesting to go." Yep, he's blue, and that's curious. It has no particular meaning for her, she's wary for the same reason that she's wary of everything.

He gives her a vaguely sad, sympathetic look. "That is unfortunate. I would think there would be better places to be than a drafty room like this. I thought you would have moved on already. My apologies for not giving a warning when I returned."

"It is nothing," she says, eyes down. The only way Nyara knows to take an apology is to claim there's no need for one, though since it's not her father giving it and she doesn't detect any particular sarcasm she knows she doesn't have to grovel or say anything about deserving discomfort. Maybe that means getting to move on quickly.

She'd like to ask what it's like outside but first, glancing up through her eyelashes - "Ah... May I ask why your color has changed?"

He looks down at his hands- still blue and lined. "An illusion. I thought it might help." He sighs and dismisses the illusion, returning to his normal Asgardian appearance. "Unfortunately it did not seem to have any effect."

She pauses, curious and trepidacious at the same time. "Is there something I should know?" It seems like a better question than repeating what he'd just said.

Things are more complicated here, that's for sure, and Nyara's aware that with everyone from such different places there won't be a lot to interlink them.

He hesitates, then shrugs. "I would not say you need to know, but... that is how I should have looked. This place is much like the realm of my birth, though I did not know it until very recently. I had thought to see if I could feel a connection to the ice."

oh mother things ain't going so well

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