ᴢᴏʏᴀ ɴᴀᴢʏᴀʟᴇɴꜱᴋʏ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
commandership) wrote2021-09-12 03:54 pm
commandership) wrote2021-09-12 03:54 pm
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« gruzeburya »
TEXT ✧ AUDIO ✧ VIDEO ✧ ACTION
ZOYA NAZYALENSKY ✦ GRISHAVERSEINFO ✧ PERMISSIONS ✧ KINKLIST ✧ EXTRA
« gruzeburya »
TEXT ✧ AUDIO ✧ VIDEO ✧ ACTION
ZOYA NAZYALENSKY ✦ GRISHAVERSEINFO ✧ PERMISSIONS ✧ KINKLIST ✧ EXTRA
[ backdated a wee bit to closer to her arrival. now that she's a little settled, she has to reach out to zoya for so many reasons. ]
So how many people do you have worshiping at your altar here? I'd wager at least twenty.
So how many people do you have worshiping at your altar here? I'd wager at least twenty.
You deflect as poorly as he does.
[ veiling it behind humor, as though glib excuses and poor distractions could soften the point of a knife. it's not a learned habit on alina's part, she's certain — but it grates zoya's nerves as it has always grated her nerves, needing to sink her claws in to rip past those layers until nikolai bleeds the truth.
starkov is no better. perhaps they had suited each other after all. ]
Did stealing this happy ending for yourself make you feel any better?
[ an ugly and jagged question to ask, knowing it will slice and carve, but zoya has never shied away from the grotesque truth. ]
[ veiling it behind humor, as though glib excuses and poor distractions could soften the point of a knife. it's not a learned habit on alina's part, she's certain — but it grates zoya's nerves as it has always grated her nerves, needing to sink her claws in to rip past those layers until nikolai bleeds the truth.
starkov is no better. perhaps they had suited each other after all. ]
Did stealing this happy ending for yourself make you feel any better?
[ an ugly and jagged question to ask, knowing it will slice and carve, but zoya has never shied away from the grotesque truth. ]
I don't need flattery.
My reflection does that for me.
[ and it's always empty in the end, isn't it? the idle wishes of idly powerful men, flattering themselves into believing the sweet compliments they give her. ]
My reflection does that for me.
[ and it's always empty in the end, isn't it? the idle wishes of idly powerful men, flattering themselves into believing the sweet compliments they give her. ]
[...Yeah, that's about what he expected. Time to split in a different direction.]
So aside from glancing in the mirror on occasion, how is my general occupying herself these days?
So aside from glancing in the mirror on occasion, how is my general occupying herself these days?
Zoya will receive:
- a blue wool coat, exquisitely tailored and embroidered with white flowers
- a leather-bound day planner; select dates are already filled in with "tea with Nikolai"
- a tin of homemade gingerbread cookies
In the card enclosed:
Dear Commander Nazyalensky,
All I can do is try my best and learn to accept that it will never quite be enough. One day at a time, general. Happy Sankt Nikolai's Day.
Earnestly,
Nikolai
- a blue wool coat, exquisitely tailored and embroidered with white flowers
- a leather-bound day planner; select dates are already filled in with "tea with Nikolai"
- a tin of homemade gingerbread cookies
In the card enclosed:
Dear Commander Nazyalensky,
All I can do is try my best and learn to accept that it will never quite be enough. One day at a time, general. Happy Sankt Nikolai's Day.
Earnestly,
Nikolai
Do you ever miss chaining me up at night?
[Today in perfectly normal things to text your general...]
[Today in perfectly normal things to text your general...]
[ nina. a hot poker of relief sears through zoya's insides. how long ago had she been seated across from nikolai, demanding he ship zenik home as though she had the reign to pass edicts? it isn't ravka, no, but it's ... something. a guarantee that zenik still lives on.
that she won't be a sapling to grow in her garden, lost in remembrance. even then, zoya's fondness is muted thing, a hidden seed within herself, once she recovers from the initial blow of surprise. ]
Sankta Zoya of the Storm is a retired myth, Zenik.
Fortunately, I don't need legends to bend men to their knees.
When did you arrive?
that she won't be a sapling to grow in her garden, lost in remembrance. even then, zoya's fondness is muted thing, a hidden seed within herself, once she recovers from the initial blow of surprise. ]
Sankta Zoya of the Storm is a retired myth, Zenik.
Fortunately, I don't need legends to bend men to their knees.
When did you arrive?
That I do not doubt. [ that zoya has made men beg at her feet here. her power is one that nina has always admired.]
Just today.
Just today.
[ hm.
zoya's reply comes after the same minutes of consideration she would afford a particularly grueling puzzle — one she does not, irritatingly, have the threshold of patience to fully solve. naturally, alina's choice to sever contact would imply a relenting of duty, and yet — perhaps she had expected starkov to martyr the final shards of her heart to see to nikolai's burdens, like a saintly image stained into the holy glass of cathedrals.
not the case, then. the pause between them is mostly perfunctory, to give away very little; what could a general with no viable title here possibly provide a king with no throne? they've no need of each other, but here he is, requesting a return to duties that were no longer hers. (deliberately, she does not think the word usurped. usurped from her. certainly tying him up at night is neither a privilege nor a right.) ]
Late night reminiscing?
Or are you so magnanimously offering to let me relive the utter madness of trying to tame your beast each night?
zoya's reply comes after the same minutes of consideration she would afford a particularly grueling puzzle — one she does not, irritatingly, have the threshold of patience to fully solve. naturally, alina's choice to sever contact would imply a relenting of duty, and yet — perhaps she had expected starkov to martyr the final shards of her heart to see to nikolai's burdens, like a saintly image stained into the holy glass of cathedrals.
not the case, then. the pause between them is mostly perfunctory, to give away very little; what could a general with no viable title here possibly provide a king with no throne? they've no need of each other, but here he is, requesting a return to duties that were no longer hers. (deliberately, she does not think the word usurped. usurped from her. certainly tying him up at night is neither a privilege nor a right.) ]
Late night reminiscing?
Or are you so magnanimously offering to let me relive the utter madness of trying to tame your beast each night?
I didn't expect to hear from you. Not here.
But it was only a matter of time before you followed. Ravkans are particularly enticing to this world.
[ hadn't expected her to reach out today. tomorrow. the day after. this realm is more secure than zenik causing (calculated) terror in fjerdan courts, but — zoya is well-aware she's done little to deserve nina seeking her out. little to ensure she's content in doing so. ]
You've secured housing, I hope.
[ a stern statement, rather than the nagging maternal question that it wants to become. ]
But it was only a matter of time before you followed. Ravkans are particularly enticing to this world.
[ hadn't expected her to reach out today. tomorrow. the day after. this realm is more secure than zenik causing (calculated) terror in fjerdan courts, but — zoya is well-aware she's done little to deserve nina seeking her out. little to ensure she's content in doing so. ]
You've secured housing, I hope.
[ a stern statement, rather than the nagging maternal question that it wants to become. ]
[ nina's lost too much lately to want to keep anyone she cares about at bay. for any reason. ]
Inej invited me to stay with her. Are you safe?
Inej invited me to stay with her. Are you safe?
The only danger I’ve faced is letting my edges dull.
I’ve always said Ravka needed to compensate me with a vacation. This isn’t what I had planned.
I’ve always said Ravka needed to compensate me with a vacation. This isn’t what I had planned.
Surely there's people here that deserve your cutting remarks.
Is it anything like vacation?
Is it anything like vacation?
Hm, well I'm better suited to magnanimity than wistfulness... Though I'm equally handsome in both moods.
And I am better suited to direct answers.
[ — says the woman who hasn't quite given one. then again, sentimentality does them no favors. ]
[ — says the woman who hasn't quite given one. then again, sentimentality does them no favors. ]
It's a high honor few deserve.
No temperamental country to make demands of us is vacation enough.
Unwelcome as that vacation is.
No temperamental country to make demands of us is vacation enough.
Unwelcome as that vacation is.
Anyone in particular? [ aka does she have a somebody? idle gossip is a nice distraction from the way her heart feels shattered, destroyed.]
So this place makes no demands?
So this place makes no demands?
No.
My duty is to Ravka first, no matter where we've been taken.
And most men expect I'll thaw and melt into their arms.
[ as she'd informed count kirigin — an impossible fool's fantasy. ]
Only of the usual variety.
Synchronicity to prevent becoming stone is a small demand to fulfill.
My duty is to Ravka first, no matter where we've been taken.
And most men expect I'll thaw and melt into their arms.
[ as she'd informed count kirigin — an impossible fool's fantasy. ]
Only of the usual variety.
Synchronicity to prevent becoming stone is a small demand to fulfill.
And there are no men here willing to take the honor of trying to woo you? Have a little fun, Zoya. That is what vacations are for.
It's not the most difficult thing any of us have been through.
It's not the most difficult thing any of us have been through.
Then mostly the latter.
Fear not, I won't require your services every night.
[He's sure she's found other things to occupy her evenings. What he isn't sure of is how to feel when his mind tries to fill in those dark gaps with glimpses of imagined trysts. Once — a year ago, before he ever came here — a small foolish part of him almost believed it could be possible, if laughably improbable, that she might see him as something more than a king to serve or even a friend to lean into as they marched endlessly forward.
But now, the distance she's kept makes it sharply clear that it might as well be impossible.]
Fear not, I won't require your services every night.
[He's sure she's found other things to occupy her evenings. What he isn't sure of is how to feel when his mind tries to fill in those dark gaps with glimpses of imagined trysts. Once — a year ago, before he ever came here — a small foolish part of him almost believed it could be possible, if laughably improbable, that she might see him as something more than a king to serve or even a friend to lean into as they marched endlessly forward.
But now, the distance she's kept makes it sharply clear that it might as well be impossible.]
No different than your usual need for my services, then.
[ how fortunate for me, she does not say, that you only call upon me when starkov can't stand to look at your face. ]
I don't fear anything, Lantsov. Though I do have one greater concern.
My babysitting services do not, and will not, include a clean-up of whatever mess you're currently making.
It seems no matter where we are, I continue to be dragged into them.
[ how fortunate for me, she does not say, that you only call upon me when starkov can't stand to look at your face. ]
I don't fear anything, Lantsov. Though I do have one greater concern.
My babysitting services do not, and will not, include a clean-up of whatever mess you're currently making.
It seems no matter where we are, I continue to be dragged into them.
[ """"fun"""". what a mysterious unknown word. ]
You call it honor, I call it bravery.
Should I spend the night and whisper sweet, soft nothings for them? Dry their tears with a cuddle?
You're going to nauseate me, Zenik.
You call it honor, I call it bravery.
Should I spend the night and whisper sweet, soft nothings for them? Dry their tears with a cuddle?
You're going to nauseate me, Zenik.
I didn't know you were such a prude, Zoya. I don't think you have to cuddle or spend the night to have fun.
[Uncanny, how cutting her words can be even through a screen.]
I expected nothing of the sort. Nor will I burden you with the messy details of my personal affairs.
[Fear might not be the right word, but he's certainly leery against her judgment.]
I can, however, cook breakfast for you in exchange.
I expected nothing of the sort. Nor will I burden you with the messy details of my personal affairs.
[Fear might not be the right word, but he's certainly leery against her judgment.]
I can, however, cook breakfast for you in exchange.
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