Missie + Nadir // Presents!

[bittersaint]

Who: Missie and Nadir
Where: Ezra's place
When: Wednesday afternoon, March 30th
Before/After: n/a
Warnings: Nothing really :|a


This was the place, Missie was sure! She had gotten Ezra's address in case anything happened with Nadir's injuries, but that wasn't why she was here now. Clasped in her fingers was a colorful bag-- bright yellow-- with bits of pale violet tissue paper sticking up out of it to hide the doll nestled inside. Missie always wrapped gifts this way, because using actual paper around a box resulted in tape in her hair and stuck on her nose. And, well, she didn't even have a box.

She tucked her phone with the displayed address away and knocked on the door, bouncing on her heels in anticipation. It was the most fun, giving gifts! It was even better than receiving them. Plus, maybe she could use it as an excuse to check his wounds, if he wasn't too busy. There had been monsters about, or so the rumors went, and there was that mess left in Duncan's dorm... Maybe Nadir would have new injuries to stitch up?

Hm. Was that bad or good...?



He'd been sleeping, actually, despite the hour. It was becoming second nature to turn the phone on to see the time. Four o'clock. That seemed about right. He'd come in about six that morning, finding Ezra still asleep with his pillow over his head. (Did he do that all of the time? Was it a noise thing or was he subconsciously trying to suffocate himself?)

Nadir watched the early morning news, careful to see if any of his and Rhys' antics had been noticed beyond vigilante behaviour. Satisfied it had not been, he waited until Ezra was up, ate, told him of the night's events, checked the news again (just in case) and went to sleep.

So, four o'clock. The knock on the door woke him up immediately. The lack of yelling in the door's direction meant Ezra had gone out. Muttering about idiocy, he got up, made sure his sword was close by, ignored his wrinkled pants and shirt, and opened the door.

To reveal Missie.

"...something wrong?" was his first question. It usually seemed to be a good one. He blinked and stepped aside. Luckily, the place wasn't too messy. (It couldn't be. Ezra hardly owned anything.)


Missie knew an invitation to enter when she saw one and didn't question it, skipping inside to escape the cold. "Oh, no! But thank you." She smiled at Nadir, bright and all too awake for a nurse that worked her kind of hours. "I don't need to stay long! I'm only here to drop something off."

Well, she didn't need to stay long, but, one thing at a time! "How are your injuries holding up?" She looked to his sword, pressing her lips tight. Was he finding time to use that? "Nothing split open again, did it?"



He watched her go in, checking outside again briefly. No, the bicycle was gone. He shut the door and moved aside to the single table in the apartment, finding a note there. Grocery shopping? Nadir couldn't complain about that, though he'd wished he'd waited until Nadir was awake to go along with him. "Did I leave something behind?" he asked, putting the note back down.

He traced her line of sight to the sword, not sure what that look was for. Disapproval, or anticipation? "Bruises, mostly. The stitches could use to come out soon." A few cuts, nothing he hadn't been able to bandage... or get Ezra to bandage for him. "It's a little disconcerting that there are so few antidotes here though, what with all that's been popping up lately." He had some in his belongings, but really not enough to make a habit of getting accidently poisoned by a swamp drake or venom-clawed leopart.


"Oh, no, nothing like that," she said, setting her gift bag down on the counter. But as Nadir spoke, she promptly forgot about it in favor of the conversation.

"I could remove them for you. I have the tools in my purse." And no explanation as to why as she smiled. It faded as her eyes trailed off in thought. "We've had some odd injuries at the hospital. The venoms are especially difficult to treat, but we've been pulling through the best we can." Without anti-venoms to these particular strands, there were those who didn't make it after being poisoned, and she wasn't sure the livestock they used to build antibodies would be able to handle it, either. She tapped her chin, then brightened with a new thought. "Oh, but, do you know any antidote recipes? With all the strange plants popping up, maybe we could make our own."



"Then why..." he started, but didn't really pursue the subject. What on earth was she carrying around?

Actually, he was probably one of the only people who would not think it strange she carried things like that with her. It made sense- it was her profession. The idea of work being seperate from everything else was the stranger thought. He frowned, taking up a spot on one of the crate perches Ezra had scattered about the place. "I don't think I could be a big help. I never had much of a head for herbology. I left that to the clerics." Clerics or alchemists, though he'd tended to hang about the former more. Particularly Marianne. "Couldn't be hard to look it up, though. People tend to be very meticulous when it comes to information on Zenderael." He found it too strange to really look into Zenderael as a game, so left most of that sort of thing up to Ezra.

"You play someone as well, don't you? It might help to ask an alchemist or a cleric what they use for antidotes." Stitches on his bicep, definitely ready to come out. T-shirts were his go-to these days, so it made it easy to roll up the sleeve.


Missie set her purse on the counter to sort through her supplies, getting a small bottle of antiseptic, a pair of tweezers-- well, forceps!-- and a seam cutter. All were small enough to go unnoticed with virtually no added weight to her purse. She began to clean the area around the stitches just to be sure, and removing any scar tissue in the process. "This isn't supposed to hurt. Let me know if it does," she said before going on her way lifting the knots and cutting them free to pluck the threads out.

As she worked, she fell easily back into conversation. "Do they? I was having fun learning for myself, but, um, I guess it's not so much a game now..." She frowned a little. It had turned from something fun to share with her brother and a way to make friends into something... confusing. A little scary? Maybe more than a little. Missie hadn't worked out the details. She knew what was there: Nadir, monsters, magic, and characters who acted without players. But what did it mean? "I play an assassin. I wonder if that's even a good idea... Assassins hurt people, right? I always glossed that part over..." Iravati hadn't struck down a target on screen. It was only presumed that she did it for a living, provided Iravati wasn't skipping work.

Oh. Maybe that wasn't as much of a character flaw as Missie thought.



"Mmhm," he said in a noncommittal tone. It wasn't painful at all- itchy, maybe, and it was always a strange sensation to get stitches out, but there were no complaints and the threads came out easily.

"Spellswords hurt people, too," he pointed out, but he understood where she was going with this. "As I understand it, how you shape them is important to what they become if they become self-aware." It was odd talking about it, but he was overcoming it, ignoring it almost. He had to if he wanted to get anywhere, referring to his own world's people as little more than playthings. "Tell me about her. Is she capricious about it? Is she picky about her contracts? Does she even care if there's a contract? There's a lot you can do to minimize the damage." He shifted his arm as she dabbed at it, looking at it curiously. "Assassins aren't necessarily bad sorts to have around."


It felt odd speaking to Nadir about. The idea he had been a character once, and not always his own person, was difficult to believe. Missie's brain struggled to coil around the idea that maybe Iravati could be as much a person as Nadir. There seemed so many details missing. Perhaps only the greatly written became real...? She hoped so. Missie wasn't the best writer, so maybe she'd never worry about it.

"Um, well," Missie started, pausing to focus on each knot to remove it properly, "She avoids guild work, most of the time. Her father raised her to be an assassin, but--" Pause for another knot, "--She going through the motions, I think? She did protect a cleric, once! Kind of." Missie frowned. "They got arrested because, well, Bastan and assassins, but!" There was another pause as she dealt with the last thread, gently tugging it form Nadir's shoulder. "There we are. Did you know any helpful assassins?"



Bastan and assassins... ah, right, Ezra has mentioned something. "Ah, you were with Zachary, right?" he asked. He'd known Zachary, if only for a brief while, as a member of the same league. "I can't imagine how confusing it must be for the self-aware ones." He found he was actually glad, in a way, that things had happened the way they had. Here he had some explanation for what was going on. If he'd been self-aware in Zenderael, things may have been much more frustrating.

"Most assassins are helpful, just not always towards you." He shifted his arm, rolling it. This one looked like it would scar less, but that was to be expected with superior equipment. What would a cleric think of a place like a hospital? Well, so long as he never had to go back to one. Even the Temple in Bastan hadn't been that piercingly bright. "I worked with one over the years, but he was just as like to try to kill us as help us. It all depended where the money came from. If she's more like to do work on her own terms, killing can be avoided... or, at least, she has the freedom to pick and choose. Most assassins give that freedom up."

He looked at her again, somewhat amused and partly concerned at the idea of Missie having created an assassin. "Does your assassin know Ravindra, then?"


"Right!" Missie smiled. "He's a good kid. But I'm worried... he's real, but, um, most of his friends and family aren't. It must be rough, not knowing where they've gone to... But! Iravati did like him. So she must have her good sides." Characters could be surprising! Missie liked that about RP. Or at least, she had before RP became so real. "I guess she does prefer her own terms. I mean, she had to go by her father's for so long. She doesn't want to give up freedom." So that was good, right? Missie bit her lip, unsure. It felt too late to change Iravati much, and she was already speaking as if her character were real. She wasn't though! Not yet. Maybe...? How could Missie know what happened when she wasn't at the computer?

The question had her perked up again. "They're brother and sister." Then Missie slapped her hands over her mouth, remembering who Nadir was to Ravindra. "Oh! Um! Forget I said that? Or uh, don't tell anyone I said that! No one's supposed to know about that, since, um, it might not be good for Ravi."



He wondered, briefly, how long Helia had been real before she'd been killed. He tended to think about it from time to time, unable to help himself. Had there been something more he could have done?... "Then maybe let her go through a rebellious phase," he suggested, pulling his mind to the present problem, "and have her not kill anyone. She can still incapacitate them. That's incredibly useful."

He looked at her, startled, before he suddenly started laughing at the shocked look on her face. "Really? Really." He considered it a moment, then hastily reassured her, "there's nothing I can do about it now, Missie, it really doesn't matter if I know or not." Ravindra related to an assassin? Possibly raised as one, too. He did seem to recall Ravindra not having been local to Bastan, either.

He went back to thinking for a moment. If warp mages were starting to change... could players, then, too? "What is Ravindra's background? An assassin family, then?" A paladin with assassin skill? He found the idea oddly intriguing.


Missie smiled. "Rebellion is practically her middle name." But not really! Missie had never given Iravati a middle name. All the same, Vati was often contradictory for the sake of it, and her relationship with Ravindra would make it more likely for Iravati to reconsider her loyalties and priorities. Well. For what loyalties she had! Mostly, that was to herself. But wasn't being loyal to yourself an important trait...?

The laughter made Missie smile in spite of herself. She joined him, more nervously, but also relieved that Nadir hadn't been offended or angry. "Mm, he and his sister were raised together to be assassins, but Ravindra ran away because he hated their dad. That made Iravati pretty upset, because it meant she was trained in his place. Oh, but, um, she's forgiven him now!" This wasn't about Iravati though, it was about Ravi. Missie began to put her supplies away as she thought it over. "I think Ravindra became a paladin because it was the opposite of an assassin."



"Work on that, then. And if she becomes self-aware, you shouldn't have too much to worry about." And hopefully she would have the good sense- or good enough companions- to help her make whatever choices she needed to later on, without Missie feeling the same guilt that seemed to riddle most of the other players.

Except Ezra. With the exception of him, Ezra said he felt fine with Tristan and Rasmus as they were. Nadir would never understand the desire to write a story that was purposefully terrible for the protagonist, particularly after his own.

His amusement settled as she spoke, listening to Iravati's background. He did recall now Ezra's dragonmail to Ravindra through Rasmus. Had it been mentioned then, their connection? Or had it simply been "the assassin"? Perhaps he would look through the forums again, just in case, for all of the player talk. "Is that so? They really must be related then." Contrary for the sake of being contrary. He'd never expected it out of Ravindra, but then the paladin was not a very open person, and Nadir not much for prodding peoples' personal lives. Usually. It meant people kept out of his business.

"How are you dealing with all of the monsters about?" he asked suddenly. "You aren't walking to and from work much, I hope."


"I hope not." But Missie smiled, optimism taking the place of doubt. Iravati would probably be okay! She was a good girl who happened to be in a bad situation. That was all. Most people were pretty good, if you looked deep enough! "I won't make any other characters, though. I mean, that seems irresponsible now that we know..."

"They're more alike than they want to think!" Her smile broke into a grin. "But that's just how siblings work. Always trying to be different, and ending up more the same." Her sisters would especially find that to be true as they grew up, and Duncan and Steve... well, the less said about them, the better!

"I haven't seen any myself," Missie admitted, glancing up in thought to double check and make sure that was true. Sometimes she would forget things, after all. "But I've seen what they've been doing to people, so I know they're out there. But! There are kind people, you know? They've been looking after people wandering around and fighting the monsters. They help me and the other nurses get to and from work."



Irresponsible... that was what Ezra had inimated as well, at some point. That Missie had reached that conclusion as well had to speak to how bad the situation was. He settled in to hear her talk of siblings, amused. "I'll take your word for it," he said. "I don't know many people with siblings. Is the same true of you and your brother?"

He found himself nodding. "Keep with them. If you need anything, let me know... ah," he said, looking about and getting up, shifting his shoulder again as he moved back towards the couch. Phone, phone...

He found it, picking it up and turning it on. "You have one, too, don't you? I'll give you the number for this one."


Missie paused to consider that. She didn't often consider herself and Duncan terribly similar. Duncan was smart! And, ah, a little high strung too. "We have our moments," she decided. They shared a certain distracted forgetingness. Er. Forgetfulness! That was the word.

She found her own phone, brightening. "Oh, you have your own now? How nice!" It had a map in it, at least! "That's a good idea. If you get hurt again I can do something about it." She asked less questions than the hospital would, and this sort of thing was introducing a lot of questions.



"Ezra thought it would be a good idea," he said, not able to wholly disagree. It was a little more convenient than dragonmail, though not by much. The way Ezra explained it to him, it may not even be cheaper, but it was all they had. (Now that he thought about it, though, would mail dragons start showing up? He ought to look for one and see if he could retrain it... he really had nothing better to do, did he?)

He found the number in the phone's information and turned the screen to her so she could punch the number into her own phone. "That's one use for it, yes," he said, not having meant that but not seeing a downside to that either. "If there's anything that group can't take care of, though, let me know right away. I'm out most nights anyway."


"It's hard to get around without one," Missie said. "If only because everyone's so used to having one." Maybe it would be better to be less dependent? But instant communication was a difficult thing to give up! She entered in his number and texted him with a simple <3 so that he would have her number in return. "That's mine."

She smiled at him. "Thanks. I'll let you know if we get attacked by anything particularly nasty." Zen was a place of magic, and bullets and baseball bats probably had their limits. Nadir had lightning! Missie wouldn't have minded having lightning.



What was that she'd sent back? He couldn't figure it out. Ah, well, he'd ask Ezra later to avoid the explanation from Missie. "Yeah, I don't think I've met anyone without one. Honestly, it makes me feel a little more at ease, here." To blend in, if nothing else. And it had a map.

"Do that... oh, that's right," he said, looking back to the bag. "What was it that you brought?"


Missie blinked and perked up, looking to her back. She gave a small jump, remembering it for the first time since she arrive. "Oh! That!" A smile spread across her face as she plucked it form the counter and offered it to Nadir. "A gift! ... Housewarming?" Her head fell into a tilt. "A welcome to earth? Ah... something like that!"

If he took her up on the offer, he would find a plush replica of a mindflayer with pose-able wire tentacles and beady, glow in the dark eyes with the fabric tugged down and filled out to make angry brow ridges. The stitching was detailed enough to mimic the veins along the creature's skull and texture to its mind devouring tendrils.

"I started on it before this all started happening. Um. I guess you don't need something to remind you of home now, since so much is going on, but, well. It's done! So here it is."



Whatever it was, she seemed very excited about it, which made him somewhat suspicious, though not in a manner that suggested he thought it would be dangerous.

Maybe it was the bag that did it.

He obliged by taking the thing out of the bag and for a moment could only stare at it. "It's hideous," he said, though he was clearly impressed by it. He handed the bag back to her and turned the thing around carefully in his hands to inspect it. It was disgustingly accurate, and even while he wanted to kind of put it down, he found he couldn't, examining the details curiously.

"You made it?" he asked, looking up from the thing, tentacles wiggling a little as he moved it around. What a terrible thing to make. Ezra would hate it.

Best gift ever.


Missie clapped her hands together, bouncing on her heels. "Isn't it?"

Seeing that he liked it, she was smiling more brightly than ever. "Mmhm! It's a hobby of mine. I couldn't keep a lot of supplies around, so I had to stick with something simple." The details hadn't been easy, but they hadn't required much excess material to be on hand.



With a bemused smile he tweaked one of the tentacles. He knew all that, or most of it, of course, having been listening to the conversation between her and Alison and Eileen, but it was still something to see what she had produced. He was still partly amazed she'd deemed it a good gift to give to someone, really.

Well, so long as the gift didn't come with losing an eye, he was fine with that.

There was noise coming up the stairs and he glanced up. "Ezra," he said to Missie. He had only a moment to consider his next move, and when the door opened to reveal the bespeckled delivery boy, calling a "s'up" into the house without looking in first and setting the grocery bags down by the door, Nadir said, "catch," and chucked the thing at him.

Ezra caught it reflexively, then gave a small shriek and let it go, where it fell into the grocery bag with some apples, hamburger buns and a case of beer. "What the ffff...fffhow's it goin'?" he asked, seeing Missie then when he looked back up, Nadir already turned around so it would be too obvious he was trying not to laugh.


The tentacles were sturdy, Missie had made sure. There was no fun in a doll that couldn't be played with, tweaked, and given a little abuse. The sadder fate went to dolls that were kept as collectors items, set on shelves to forgotten except for an occasional admiring glance. Besides, tears could be stitched up!

Missie perked up at the mention of Ezra, turning her attention there with Nadir. She started to wave in greeting, but her hand went to her mouth instead at his reaction. It helped hide the smile that was there, too. "O-oh, um. Hello!" She was quick to calm, already having plenty experience with not laughing when it wasn't appropriate. "I was only dropping by to check on Nadir's shoulder." And the doll. Maybe now would be a bad time to bring that up.



Ezra muttered to himself something that it was probably best Missie didn't overhear, and he tried not to wipe his hands off on his legs because he'd touched it and she was right there. Oh, he remembered her posting it on the forums. Ezra had a long memory for things like this. He hesitated, looking into the bag again, made several attempts to fish it out only to drop it again before, exasperated, he took up the other bag and left the one there. "You can get it," he said to Nadir as he passed by him to the open kitchen area.

"Sure thing," Nadir said, looking to Missie with a barely contained smirk. He went over to do as told, taking out the mindflayer first and setting him on the windowsill just by the door before taking up the bag, pulling his hair back as he straightened up.

"You're sure I can have it?" he asked.


Missie pretended not to notice the muttering, though it probably wasn't anything worse than Duncan said. She smiled as politely as she could manage, only letting it flicker to something more mischievous when Nadir glanced in her direction.

"Of course! I made it for you. Just take good care of him." He eyes shifted, barely, to Ezra again before landing back on Nadir. She had an inkling of what that would mean.

It wasn't a bad use of a gift.



"I know what you two're thinkin'," Ezra said over his shoulder in a scolding tone. Nadir tossed the toy in the air gently and caught it. "Don't know what you're talking about," Nadir answered back, leaving Ezra muttering again.

"Of course," he said to Missie, "thank you very much. Are you all right to get home?"


Missie nodded. "Mm! I should be safe from here." She gathered her purse and raised her hand and waved with her fingers. "Take care, you two! And play nice!"