Welcome to Gaia! ::

Stillwaterite twirled a fallen leaf between her fingers as she waited. Sergei had done what she requested after he set his ultimatum, and arranged a time and place for her to meet his sister. Nadia. The name carried a large weight, and now with the impending meeting in place, the corrupt couldn't help but ponder. She had been...avoiding? No. That didn't seem like the right word, but perhaps, when it boiled down to it, it was correct. The woman's photo in Olga's wallet always stirred something deep. Something heavy, and she found that perhaps she had been...avoiding acknowledging it. That coming face to face with this one person would...

Rock the boat. For a lack of better words. The boat was a-rocking regardless. In light of other things, and the guilt she was feeling about keeping these meetings with people from the past a secret from Machine and Bus was very much real. Still...clearly she didn't feel too bad, because she kept doing it.

So many bricks, and not enough concrete to piece them together.

The corrupt continued to twirl the leaf between her fingers, staring at the fountain in front of her. It was empty of water in preparation for the winter, and instead, leaves were landing within it. It was a nice little square regardless. On the outskirts of the city. There was no one around, and more importantly, she didn't feel any signatures.

Now to wait.

The voice was like being hit by lightning or....well, what she imagined getting hit by lightning would feel like. A jolt through the entire system. Still turned towards the voice, laid eyes on the woman, and while, yes, the fleeting thought of a resemblance to Methone crossed her mind, it was overshadowed by the brilliance of seeing this woman in person. Also incredibly alarming. The picture paled in comparison, and she thought even that was stunning. If she thought the picture unsettled her, the real thing did so much more.

This probably wasn't a good idea, but she was going through with it anyways.

"More like the garters dig into him." She returned, and couldn't help but smile too, both at the tease and just well...seeing her smile. The corrupt dropped the leaf she'd been twirling and moved to close the distance between them. She held out her hand to the woman.

"A pleasure, Nadia. I'm Stillwaterite, but please, just Still." She paused a moment, before adding. "There's something I need to tell you, and I imagine it will be...unpleasant. It's not how I'd prefer to start a meeting but the sooner it's out the way, the sooner we can move onto more pleasant things, hm?"

Still couldn't help but be a bit taken aback by Nadia's forwardness and cheerfulness regarding the topic. Pale brows lifted slightly. This was not the picture Sergei painted of a heartbroken sister---

No. That was insensitive of her. It had been quite some time since she woke up in the Negaverse. It was time for Nadia to handle and process what had...happened? But just because she was cheerful now, didn't mean she was over it, and she shouldn't assume otherwise. It was unfair. "Yes." Still finally said after a moment. "And yes...though I would disagree with you about the not much changing." Still smiled a bit. Everything had changed, hadn't it? That was the problem.

"Yes, but for the record, he kissed me first and then I got into his pants, and yes, again." The corrupt replied, and though Nadia had addressed the bulk of the topic first already, she would elaborate. Just so that there were no stones left unturned. Also so that she kept her word for Sergei. She was to tell Nadia everything she had told Sergei about her memories---or lack there of. It would hopefully stop the man from throwing another tantrum...about this subject, anyways.

"Every connection I make with someone is new." She told the woman. "I don't have the memories of who I used to be. They're not floating around anywhere, and I'm not ignoring them. I just don't have them. It's been ten months since I woke up, and nothing substantial has come back to me. I'm not waiting for it to, either. I'm not that person anymore...but I am also not against trying to...build connections with people who knew the person I used to be." The corrupt paused for a moment, a tad surprised at how easy it was to just lay it out there for this woman.

"Just understand that." She looked to Nadia, and waited for her reply.

It was terribly refreshing to be talking to someone reasonable. Still nodded, and quirked a brow at her, eyeing the letters that appeared. A corner of her lips pulled up briefly as well. "Oh no." She said. "Look at this fuel I'm getting from you to use against him. Should I be wielding this knowledge, Nadia?"

The corrupt stared at the letters for a moment before taking them. She listened to the woman, and opened one of the letters just enough to see the date and the first few sentences. It was...weird. In a way, it felt like she was prying into a correspondence between two people she had no part of. On the other hand...it felt like...looking back on something...familiar. The writing...she could see her hand in it. The writing on the paper she currently held though...it was more bubbly. Open. Still's writing was more serious. Narrow...but the way the letters formed for the most part, she saw her hand. Still glanced at the date, and then looked back to Nadia.

"Yes." She answered. "It's fair." Because Nadia understood that Still wasn't going to try to pretend to be someone she wasn't, and didn't expect her to be. Didn't expect her to be Olga.

Once again, internally, she felt conflicted. She kept thinking of the Machine. Of what they said when she had woken up that day. How she seemed alone. But if that was true, how come she was running into those people who really seemed to care? Either Machine didn't know or---

Or they---

"...How long were you and Olga friends for?" She asked. The date on this letter was from a few years ago.

High school...that was a good chunk of time to have known someone. Then until now. She smiled at the jest, because the woman looked anything but old, and the tidbit that Olga had a crush really shed a lot of light on how she felt upon waking up. "I see." The corrupt couldn't help but make an amused sound. Nadia was an instigator, hm? Even right now apparently. There was no mistaking the mischievous twinkle, and she found something about that expression endearing. When Nadia moved to take a seat on the fountain, Still followed. She sat next to the woman, and crossed one garter clad leg over the other. She placed the letters on her lap for now, and rested a hand on top of them.

She listened, and her lips couldn't help but pull into a smirk. Free fingers smoothed out a ribbon at the end of one of her garters . "I'm surprised he knows what that word means, considering he's been anything but that." Still was quiet for a moment. She wanted to read the letters now, but also wanted to wait until she was alone as well. To think about them. Instead, she focused on talking to Nadia.

"I have a photo of you." She said. "It's from a ballet recital, I believe. Do you still perform?"

They were chess pieces on a board when it came to this war. That's what Machine said, and she couldn't help but agree. As individuals, they didn't really make a difference, but as opposing armies, yes. Her thoughts strayed away from that point though, and focused on what exactly Nadia had said. Sergei had said his sister was in the war, and now the sister was saying the brother was, too and---

No. Leave it be. For now. She filed the thought away for now, and returned her attention to Nadia.

"I'm sorry for your loss and...it's alright." She murmured. "It's not excuses. It's just...life." Still trailed off, and her thoughts did turn again, but it was a new train of thought. Nadia was passionate about ballet. It was proven in that photo, and what she just said now, and the corrupt couldn't help but realize that she...it was suddenly silly to think of. She didn't have a life passion. She lived mostly day to day, but didn't have any dreams or goals she wanted to work towards, or to keep continuing. She hadn't even visited another country. She'd just been here ever since she woke up.

Suddenly, she couldn't help but feel...shallow.

"I think you're very passionate about it, especially if you relocated your life for a time to another country to pursue it." Still pulled herself out of her thoughts to look back at Nadia. "And you're...very dedicated. I think if you keep looking, you'll find something. Life's too short to not pursue what you love."

She had said that to Eurydike, some time ago on a park bench.

Lorne...once again that kind of seemed familiar. It didn't ring many bells at the moment. "Ah...I'm pleased to hear it, then, and wish the best for you both." Still smiled a bit. That must be nice. Two people agreeing to work on things together...

The corrupt watched as Nadia fluidly rose from the fountain, and was fascinated as she twirled at the seamless ease and grace with which she moved. The confidence. The feeling of nostalgia felt stronger. Seeing her dance, it almost made her feel sick from the effort with which she wanted to recall just one single solid memory---

She couldn't help but laugh softly at the sudden change. "You blow those girls out of the water." She replied, and her brows lifted briefly. "...Are you reading my mind?" She asked, and then shook her head a bit. "I don't write." Still replied. "And while I have a few...hobbies..." She trailed off for a moment. "They're not something I'd say are dreams or even less careers." Still lightly tapped a finger over the letters.

"It's not something that bothered me until now."

"Yes. One people can't often read, though." The corrupt slid the letters into an interior coat pocket, and she slid from the fountain herself. Still intercepted the other woman, where one hand came to rest on Nadia's waist the other caught her hand, where she led her into a twirl.

She was quiet for a moment, contemplating. She wasn't ready to spill her innermost thoughts---no. She was caught between two odds. This woman was a stranger, but yet she wasn't. She felt that she could lay it out there for her, but wouldn't, because this was the first time she had come face to face with her since...she had woken up?

Still didn't reply, and instead pulled a card that Sergei hated, and answered the question with a question. "If you and Olga were friends for as long as you say..." She mused, swaying back and forth to an imaginary but simple rhythm with Nadia. "Then you must know her well. Did she want to join the Negaverse?"