[ she laughs a little, shaking her head privately as she digs more diligently into the dishes. she stacks them with clattering sounds beside the sink and shakes off her hands, drying them off and rolling her sleeves back down before she goes to sit at the prep table, tucking her skirts carefully under her and hunching her shoulders.
out the window, it's getting dark, finally. not much to look out. so she just waits. ]
[It took fifteen minutes for Ianthe to show up - she got momentarily distracted - but then she breezed into the kitchen. An open journal in hand, she came up behind Alina and set it on the prep table in front of her.
Leaning against her back, flesh arm looped lightly across Alina's chest, Ianthe reached over with her other arm to gesture to the journal.]
Here's my unfinished map. You can borrow this for a few days to tidy it up for me. If you're still willing, that is.
[Opened to the centerfold of the journal, there was a map sketched out with the clocktower as the central point. Detail was missing in anything beyond the immediate area around the moot hall and boarding house, but it was good enough one could reasonably find their way around. Ianthe wasn't an artist by any means, but she had a technical skill that allowed her to copy things she's seen accurate enough.
Interestingly, the map was divided into eleven equal parts, and in one corner the numerals 10984 were absently doodled like a schoolgirl would the name of their crush during lessons.]
[ alina jumps when the arm slides around her, betraying just how skittish and paranoid she has become. but she catches her breath, pressing a hand to ianthe's arm where it rests over her racing heart. she shuts her eyes for a moment, lets her breathing even out, then turns her attention to the map. ]
What are these symbols?
[ she points at the numbers, which are so unfamiliar from the cyrillic-adjacent numerals that ravkan uses. ]
[That wasn't the kind of racing Ianthe liked hearing from Alina's heart. At least, not now. Hmm. What had her so jumpy? Unconsciously, the lyctor tightened her arm a fraction to be more solid for Alina.]
Oh that's just a number. It's unrelated to the map. [Mostly.] Can you work with this?
[Close enough to see the brown flecks in her blue eyes.]
Future research. I've been measuring distances; these are potential new vectors to explore. And it's organizational. Easier parse out when broken down into sections.
[She just happened to like the number eleven for some reason.]
Now a true question for you: Can I trust you with this journal?
[Still keeping that an around Alina, Ianthe fanned through the pages to the front of the journal, revealing extensive writing, calculations, and diagrams. She then did the same on the other end, revealing similar stuff just upside down from their current orientation that included drawn human figures (featureless T-poses) with arrows indicating flows of energy. If Alina's eyes were sharp, she might even catch a brief glimpse of a sketch of her own face in that section. Ianthe returned it to the map.]
alina's fingers settle back on the pages as ianthe returns it to the map. she considers in particular their edges, and the many pages behind the edge of the map. the ones in a language that alina could not read, but with diagrams and images that seemed very vulnerable for ianthe to be offering to anyone else. ]
I'll be careful with it. [ a promise. ] You know I can't read it anyway.
I know, but that could change at any moment. We don't speak the same language and yet we understand each other perfectly.
[It was a vulnerable thing that Ianthe had been turning over in her mind since Alina offered to help with the map. None of it was her current Void research, and she could replicate it but she'd rather not lose what was in the pages. Besides...]
Though I'm not particularly concerned with you suddenly being able to read any of it. There are others here that can read it or possess abilities that make me think they could read it if they tried. A lot of this is... personal.
So if you take this to finish the map, I'm trusting you to keep it safe and undamaged, to not allow anyone else to read it, to not transcribe or alter anything but the map.
[ the seriousness of the plea settles over her. alina is quiet for a moment, more out of respect for that sentiment than any awkwardness on her part. then she nods. ]
I'll take care of it, Ianthe. You can trust me.
[ she wants to believe that's true, even if she's lying to so many other people about so many other things. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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You made the Fold sound like the Void is here. Except it's presence doesn't drive you insane. Am I misrepresenting it?
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[At least, she thought she hadn't been near it long enough for now than that.]
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Where are you right now?
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I'm coming to the kitchen in ten minutes, Sunshine. Just like... take a seat or something.
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Ten minutes.
[ she laughs a little, shaking her head privately as she digs more diligently into the dishes. she stacks them with clattering sounds beside the sink and shakes off her hands, drying them off and rolling her sleeves back down before she goes to sit at the prep table, tucking her skirts carefully under her and hunching her shoulders.
out the window, it's getting dark, finally. not much to look out. so she just waits. ]
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Leaning against her back, flesh arm looped lightly across Alina's chest, Ianthe reached over with her other arm to gesture to the journal.]
Here's my unfinished map. You can borrow this for a few days to tidy it up for me. If you're still willing, that is.
[Opened to the centerfold of the journal, there was a map sketched out with the clocktower as the central point. Detail was missing in anything beyond the immediate area around the moot hall and boarding house, but it was good enough one could reasonably find their way around. Ianthe wasn't an artist by any means, but she had a technical skill that allowed her to copy things she's seen accurate enough.
Interestingly, the map was divided into eleven equal parts, and in one corner the numerals 10984 were absently doodled like a schoolgirl would the name of their crush during lessons.]
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What are these symbols?
[ she points at the numbers, which are so unfamiliar from the cyrillic-adjacent numerals that ravkan uses. ]
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Oh that's just a number. It's unrelated to the map. [Mostly.] Can you work with this?
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[ she looks over her shoulder at ianthe, breath catching when she realizes how close ianthe's face is to hers. ]
It looks sectioned off. What's that for?
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Future research. I've been measuring distances; these are potential new vectors to explore. And it's organizational. Easier parse out when broken down into sections.
[She just happened to like the number eleven for some reason.]
Now a true question for you: Can I trust you with this journal?
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[ there's a little scoff in her voice. ]
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[Still keeping that an around Alina, Ianthe fanned through the pages to the front of the journal, revealing extensive writing, calculations, and diagrams. She then did the same on the other end, revealing similar stuff just upside down from their current orientation that included drawn human figures (featureless T-poses) with arrows indicating flows of energy. If Alina's eyes were sharp, she might even catch a brief glimpse of a sketch of her own face in that section. Ianthe returned it to the map.]
This is half my research.
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alina's fingers settle back on the pages as ianthe returns it to the map. she considers in particular their edges, and the many pages behind the edge of the map. the ones in a language that alina could not read, but with diagrams and images that seemed very vulnerable for ianthe to be offering to anyone else. ]
I'll be careful with it. [ a promise. ] You know I can't read it anyway.
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[It was a vulnerable thing that Ianthe had been turning over in her mind since Alina offered to help with the map. None of it was her current Void research, and she could replicate it but she'd rather not lose what was in the pages. Besides...]
Though I'm not particularly concerned with you suddenly being able to read any of it. There are others here that can read it or possess abilities that make me think they could read it if they tried. A lot of this is... personal.
So if you take this to finish the map, I'm trusting you to keep it safe and undamaged, to not allow anyone else to read it, to not transcribe or alter anything but the map.
Okay?
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I'll take care of it, Ianthe. You can trust me.
[ she wants to believe that's true, even if she's lying to so many other people about so many other things. ]
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