blonderussianspy | (no subject)

The snow was gone. All of it, gone. It was hot out, mostly sunny, though every few days they'd be pelted on and off for hours with fat, warm rain drops falling from barely-grey clouds that would then be blown on out over the water by the breeze off the sea.

Natalya was miserable.

Having sadly packed away the ski gear and snowboots and reverted to her island uniform of tank tops, shorts and combat boots. She hated them. The worst was that she hated them more, now. More than Kansas, more than she'd hated the island's climate when she'd first arrived, she hated it now because she'd had more than a teasing glimpse of snow, almost a full season of it.

The place had almost felt like home.

Today she was going to indulge in her favorite pastime of climbing trees and pretending to bird watch with her sniper rifle while keeping an indulgent eye out on the horizon for signs of ships. Then she would go to where Vladimir and the American Astronaut were buried out of a sense of strangled and floundering duty, and then, who could say. An evening spent sifting through old Russian poetry in search of something palatable was never out of the question.

She ran her hand wearily over the back of her neck as she pushed aside a low hanging palm frond and stepped down onto one of the lesser worn paths from the slope she'd been quietly traversing, and sighed.

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"Privet, Duncan," she said, and offered her hand out to him, fingers gently curled and palm flat, facing up. This was how she had always greeted the dogs they trained at camp. Kneeling would have been pointless, any creature that size knew perfectly well they could take you. It was the courtesy, she'd been taught, of letting them examine your scent and form their own opinion. She had worked with dogs on missions, although she had never liked to. They were not as complicit in their participation in operations as human soldiers were.

"Is Russian," she told him, eyebrows raising up as she turned her face back toward Alistair's.

"Is where I am from. Russia." It was hard with English speakers to not say Russiya, sometimes, but she managed.

Duncan sniffed her hand, though Alistair had a feeling he'd formed his opinion long before the offer.

"Is that another place on...Earth, was it?" he asked. He was trying to get a bit of a handle of all the places that apparently weren't even on his world, nevermind near his land. "I've heard about a few places there."

"Ah, you are come from... other world?" Natalya said, moving to sit on a low, mossy rock, tucking one heel beside her knee and leaning back on her hands, after absently- or seemingly absently- setting the long slender canvas bundle slung over her shoulder to rest leaning against the rock off to one side.

"This I am seeing. You no are alone in this. Even being from the Earth, as is- yes, Russia is there, I am of Earth- is many peoples being from Earths are not the same. Is same world, different in histories. Events are change, so what comes after also is changed. As you are notice, this language, no is my... first." She smiled a little, abashed despite her general air of confidence.

"Most people they are speaking- like you. Where your home is?"

"Oh, I didn't know that," he said. It felt like he learned something new every single moment here. "I'm from a place called Ferelden. I don't think anyone around here knows of it. Well, unless the blank looks I get mentioning it is for something I don't know about."

Natalya shrugged a little, and shook her head apologetically.

"I have no heard of Ferelden," she said, working her way carefully through the word, unfamiliar as it was and filled with a lot of not-Russian-friendly sounds.

"But give this time. You will be taken with surprise, how people from home can will all of sudden be arriving."

"As long as it's people I like, I'll be fine with that," he replied, trying not to shudder at the very thought of being stuck anywhere with Morrigan. It would be worst than his worst nightmares. "For now, though, it's just me and my dog here. And I didn't even know my dog back home. Are people where you're from here?"

Natalya glanced again at Duncan, who seemed to be following along with their conversation rather more closely than one might expect. Or maybe she was paranoid.

"Only there is one. Yorick. He is- good boy."

He nodded. No one he met, but considering how many people he heard was on the island, he wasn't too surprised.

"I would hope some people I knew might show up here but...they're needed back home," he explained, being vague on purpose. He wasn't about to go into the long history of the Blight with a complete stranger who would likely have no interest in it. "Good thing people are very nice here, I suppose."

Natalya considered that for a moment, before she sat forward, absently hooking her arm around her bent knee and pushing her hair away from her face with her other hand.

"I am not good for explaining these things, is... my language is having not the grace for making good explaining. But. Being here is no meaning you no are still at home. Is like... world is been paused, for you. People who are from being after when you are arrive from, they will no have any idea you are- have been gone. Is impossible for say why. But much in this place, this is impossible."

"So what, you're saying there's two of me now? One of me here, one of me there?" he asked, trying to follow what she was talking about. The familiar sensation of being completely confused was coming back again. And here he'd thought he was done with that for maybe a little while. "Well, that's news is certainly something a person I know would just love hearing."

Still, there was a level of relief that came with the very thought. It meant, at least, he hadn't abandoned anyone.

"Is... almost like this, but not. Yes in some way, is being two now of you, but... is still you. Some people are argue every time you is- choice gets made, there become two of you. one world is now existing where you are make one choice, but other universe are exist beside it where you make others." Natalya sighed, gaze dropping to the jungle floor, and she absently shook her head.

"But I am not best for discuss- philosophy. Not with using this language. Still, maybe is can be comfort. I am left behind very... very important task. Friends are rely on me, very much, then I am here? Was cause much distress until I understand- though I am here, i am not gone, for people I leave behind."

"I'm not very good with philosophy either, and I speak this language," he replied, shooting her a grin. "Or so some of my companions would say, anyway. Thank you, though. If what you're saying is true, that does take a bit of weight off my shoulders."

Natalya smiled a little.

"Am glad for to help. Eh, is interesting dog," she ventured, nodding to Duncan, although she also made eye contact with the animal. She was talking about him, after all.

Duncan, who had been sitting patiently as they talked, perked his ears up. He barked once at Natalya, looking as pleased as a dog could look.

"He's a marbari - they're native to my country," he said, reaching out to pat the mabari on the head. He was growing more affectionate with him lately, even though he doubted he'd be a good owner when he first showed up for him. "They're war hounds. Basically they look nice and friendly - if a bit large - until you make them mad. Then it's chomp and you've lost your arm or some other important body part. I don't suspect you'll be pulling any weapons on me any time soon, though, so not to worry too much about that second part."

"No," Natalya admitted, "was not a thing I was considering to do. And now if you gave me reason to even, I would- mmmn, have to consider two times."