Open: Takes a lot of medicine to make it through the wintertime

[vineleaves]

The first day of Dark was difficult enough to get through. When the situation didn't improve after a few days, however, Dionysus really began to worry. That the house would stop cooperating when it comes to creating food at the same time his own powers of generation have become so severely diminished... it doesn't sit easy with him.

He is grateful that he still has some powers, but he's been finding it difficult to produce grapes or wine (or any related products) of any quality, whereas before it came to him like breathing. But he considers it his duty to do what he can to offset the dwindling supplies, so every day he spends a few hours creating what he can: grapes, raisins, cartons of grape juice, and of course, bottles of wine, before diligently distributing it to the various kitchens and eating-places in the house. Wherever he thinks people may go to look for something to eat. Should anyone need him, he shouldn't be too difficult to locate.

Comments

[ravkanwitch]

Nina carefully watches his expression. "There might be. I think I saw some preserved in jars. Do you... Is there something wrong with frogs?"

[vineleaves]

Is there anything right with frogs? "I've had... a bad encounter with them. One tried to eat me." To be completely honest, he hated frogs before all of that, but that's not important right now. "If they're dead in jars though that might be okay." He still doesn't want to look at them, but at least they can't attack.

[ravkanwitch]

"I think they're kind of cute," she says, then backpedals slightly at the presumed expression on his face, "but I'm sure there aren't any live ones in this room. I can tell you if you need to cover your eyes."

[vineleaves]

"Okay, but if any of them try to eat me again I'm not making snacks for your party." It's an empty threat though, he totally still would.

[ravkanwitch]

"Deal," Nina says. Laertes showed her this room a while back and she in turn showed Gideon. It's one of the more fascinating rooms in the Mansion, not seemingly there for any particular recreational purpose -- unless, of course, you're very interested in taxidermied animals and bones. Which Nina is. So maybe there is a purpose. She leads Dionysus to the door and pushes it open. "Here it is!"

It's a bit dusty but the room consists of shelves full of taxidermied creatures, skeletal remains, and glass jars of -- things.

[vineleaves]

Dusty is right -- nearly everything is coated in a gray layer of dust and cobwebs. He looks around a bit. No frogs yet, which is a plus. He frowns at what he's reasonably sure is the skull from a young cow. A negative.

"My sister¹ Persephone would probably like this place. She's into... dead stuff like this. Queen of the underworld."

1. sister/cousin/aunt

[ravkanwitch]

"Queen of the underworld? That sounds really impressive!" As his gaze roams around the room, over the jars of things and creatures, she makes a jarred frog wave at him and stifles a smile giggle. "I wish I was into dead stuff. This place would be a lot more interesting... if I was."

[vineleaves]

"Yeah, she married our--" he lets out an incredibly loud shriek, because that frog definitely moved, right? He ducks behind a nearby table. It's dead, it couldn't have moved. Arguably though, the frogs that live in the River Styx are also dead, yet they were the liveliest frogs he's ever seen in his whole life. And it's been a long life.

"Nina. Nina. It waved at me. Please be careful."

[ravkanwitch]

Her eyes widen dramatically as she looks toward where he had been staring in horror before he ducked behind the table. "What? It's dead, Dionysus! It can't wave??"

[vineleaves]

"Lots of people here are dead! Maybe the frog is in the same boat!"

[ravkanwitch]

"But it's dead dead. It's preserved in a jar! It can't move... Unless..." She says this part very dramatically, with a hint of menace to her tone. "Unless there was a Corpsewitch here who could control dead frogs and use them to take over--" She breaks off, unable to continue anymore, bursting into laughter instead. "I'm so sorry, I absolutely had to."

[vineleaves]

He peeks up from the table, visibly annoyed, once she starts laughing. He can piece together what 'corpsewitch' means from context. "You're gonna give me a heart attack, you know." He doesn't sound too upset though. "You really should meet Persephone, you two would get along like a house on fire ...and brimstone."

[ravkanwitch]

"I'm sorry," she says again, but she doesn't look too sorry, judging from the smile on her face. "I won't do it again. ...Well, I might do it again, but I'd warn you beforehand. It's just... where I come from, Grisha - people with abilities - are sometimes persecuted for it." She shrugs, then waves a hand and makes a couple of small bones float through the air. "It's nice to be somewhere where it doesn't matter as much."

[vineleaves]

He casually takes an old, tattered tablecloth off one of the small side tables in the room and drapes it over the frog jar. A hole falls exactly where the frog’s face is, so he quickly shifts the cloth to cover better. Finally satisfied, he looks back at Nina.

“I’m glad you’re here then! Do all Grisha have this same power, or are there different domains for different people?” Now that he has calmed down and caught his breath (and covered up the frog) he’s genuinely curious about her power. The floating bones don’t weird him out nearly as much. “You know, if we need any puppetry for whatever play ends up getting picked, you could be an amazing puppeteer. As long as the puppet’s full of bones I guess.” He’s also picturing a Milky White puppet from into the woods, but made of carved bone. Not that they have anywhere near the numbers required to do Into the Woods.

[ravkanwitch]

"I could get into bone puppeteering," Nina says. "That's a great idea. Grisha ...can be three different types, Corporalki, Etherealki and Materialki. The human body, the natural elements, and materials. I'm a Corporalki but I'm one of a kind. I used to be a Heartrender. I could, um, control the flow of blood through a human body." There's obviously more to it, the used to be, but Nina seems slightly reticent to talk about that part.

[vineleaves]

"Ooh, were you helping people with poor circulation and the like? Clots and whatever?" He's not a doctor but this sounds medically useful to him.

[ravkanwitch]

"No," Nina says slowly, "that would be a Healer. As a Heartrender, I was training to be in the Second Army... But that was before I was kidnapped."

[vineleaves]

“There’s a lot to unpack here, hold on. You were kidnapped? Who kidnapped you?”

[ravkanwitch]

Nina sighs. "It's a long story. I was a little too rash and I ended up getting kidnapped by a group of drüskelle... they're holy soldiers from Fjerda, a neighboring country. They were going to put me on trial for being a Grisha-- almost like a witchhunt. But long story short, the ship that I was on sank, I survived, and now I'm here!" Long story real short.

[vineleaves]

"Oh, Nina, I'm so sorry my dear." He goes over and gives her another hug. "That all sounds so horrible. I'm glad you got away."

[ravkanwitch]

"I found friends," she tells him, to cheer him up. "Both later on in Ketterdam and also here. I'm okay now."

[vineleaves]

"Good! I'm glad. You must have been awfully young when all of that happened. That's terrible."

[ravkanwitch]

"I was sixteen or seventeen when a lot of it happened," she admits.

[vineleaves]

"And I thought my teenage years were rough." They were, they decidedly were, but at least that was mostly just because of one particular person being cruel, and not the mountain of experiences Nina just went over.

[ravkanwitch]

"Were they rough?"