(some freewriting: Nathan and the Correspondence)

The man who greets you at the door is wan but handsome, of respectable dress and a way of carrying himself that betrays an aristocratic upbringing. His eyebrows are intact, his long hair unsinged - only a few bandages on his fingers betray his true profession. This must be the doctor's... friend? Associate? Partner?

"Colleague, after a manner," he says, with a warm smile. "And you must be the pupil he mentioned. The one who wants to understand the Correspondence on a deeper level."

[...]

"A common mistake for those new to the Correspondence," he says, "is to conflate the sigils with what they represent.

"By way of analogy, take our own language." In normal ink, he writes the word "joyousness" upon the paper. "When we write a word - one that already exists, that is - we are not bringing it into being. Nor are we bringing its associated concept into being. Both existed before the writing, and both will continue existing, even if this particular inscription is destroyed." With two quick strokes, he strikes out his writing.

"So, if we're not bringing a word into existence when we write it, what are we doing?"

Invoking it, perhaps?

"Correct," he says. He inscribes a sigil: THE EAGER ANTICIPATION WITH WHICH ONE BEHOLDS AN OPEN HORIZON. It sputters to life, blackening the paper with little licks of flame. "Not everything about the Correspondence can be understood in relation to human language. After a certain point, the metaphor will hinder your comprehension, instead of helping it. But as a beginner, there are worse misunderstandings to have."

(answering as both Lucent and the good doctor because I think it would be fun)

what is a core memory from your childhood that you think defines you today?

Lucent:
"You know, I was seriously ill once, when I was a kit. But they brought the village mender to see me. And she held out her hand, and... the warmth of her magic chased away the sickness, just like that.

This is the kind of thing every somanoutics hopeful writes on their applications, I know. Though an applicant would tell you that this taught them the meaning of compassion. For me... well, it was just fascinating! I could feel the cold and the pain and the weakness being chased away, and I could feel my body knitting itself back together as I laid there. And she was happy to teach me! I was going to become her apprentice... and then puberty happened.

Despite everything, I'm grateful that the Studium gave me the chance to pick up where she left off.

The doctor:
"Oh, childhood... that strange country to which none return. Much like the Surface, for those of us who partake too deeply of the Neath's generosity. Haha. An innocent time! A sunlit time. Shattered by the truths seen only in the dark.

No. I have been foremost changed, shaped by what I have encountered here, as a true denizen of the Neath. Germany is a world away... childhood is a lifetime ago. All has led to what lies ahead..."

if there's something from your past that you'd give anything to go back in time and redo, what is it?

Lucent:
"...Only one thing comes to mind, and I don't know if it would have made a difference. Hatia, my mentor - she died of an incurable disease. If we'd known sooner, maybe we could have bought her more time. But maybe that's all we could have done. And I'm not sure if it would have made any difference to her husband, in the end. I... don't know if anything we could have done would have made any difference to him, in the end.

...This is why I don't like these questions. We did our best with what we knew. All we can do is to continue doing that. The river of knowledge flows only onwards."

The doctor:
"Regrets? Ha. Haha... Who among us does not have them? In the Neath, of all places! Regrets swim as thickly as secrets!

What would I give? What would I give? Oh, but why would I give up something precious for the sake of the past? When the future is ripe with opportunities to right the wrongs both old and new? We can only move forward, my friend, and that is exactly what I plan to do. The heavens willing, or not. Hahaha!"

Nathaniel's highest advanced skill would be A Scholar of the Correspondence if it was an advanced skill, and it would be something in the range of like. 25. (his Artisan of the Red Science is notably lower - he works more with the concepts and theories of the Correspondence rather than its potential uses in the breaking of reality. a mathematician rather than an engineer, in contrast to the doctor)

as it stands, his actual highest advanced skill is Mithridacy, thanks in large part to a lifetime lived under the thumbs of people with moods more volatile than the H.M.S. Inadvisable

been experimenting with the idea that in my OCs' timeline, Wren is the person who tips the dominos. the Masters start plotting to buy a new city, which would lead to London's destruction. and in response, she assassinates the one Most In Charge of the plan.

this leads to a series of escalations that costs an untold number of lives, but ends in the Masters, the Bazaar, and the royal family all dead or fled, and London Liberated. in time, the city heals. a stranger, kinder society blooms in the darkness.

not that any of this is of comfort to Wren, who leaves in the midst of the rebuilding. the new London is no place for someone like her, someone who knows only how to kill. instead, she will go to a far place, a frozen place - a place where she might better understand the ways of absence.

(that's what she thinks, anyway.)