Love In The Air (Night Witches)

GM
--

## Recurring NPCs

Cpt. Olga Barsukova

Jr. Lt. Anastasia Sheremeteva

Sr. Lt. Svetlana Sheremeteva

Jr. Lt. Polina "Polya" Makarova

"Talents" is the seventh episode of the first season of Night Witches: Toils and Trouble.

## Summary

Pashkovskaya, March 1943. The 588th and the 218th are deployed together again. The men have it all, with better lodgings and the lion's share of the supplies; they are upriver from the women, too. As if this were not enough, the airwomen will have to put on a talent show tomorrow for a visiting general. Section 2C pin their hopes on Anastasia's talent for ballet, and Irina in particular hopes Alexi Popov will take her place in lifting Anastasia during her performance.
Even Captain Barsukova, when she has talk with Veronika, expresses her displeasure for that talent show; she also agreed with Veronika's complaint about the dubious homage to Marina Raskova. The captain shares her concern about little acts of sabotage that have been happening.

Meanwhile, the deputy politruk lashes out at Tatania for playing with her sister's feelings. Tatania accepted her friendship, is happy to look out for her, but thinks she is *young, inexperienced and naive*. Indeed, it doesn't take long for Anastasia to think she will marry Alexi.

Svetlana also reveals she has done her best to get food to Lena at her hospital.

Veronika tells Tatania about her husband who was a hero, and Captain Barsukova knew him. Veronika doesn't tell much at this time: *When war broke out, my town was one of the first hit [...] there weren't many survivors [...] He was a hero for the state*.

Irina, who eavesdropped on Tatania's talk with Svetlana, heard of a Colonel Kurdin, a well-regarded party bigwig.

Nik speaks with Mel, goes to Boris Smirnov to retrieve servos for her. She'll have to make and display a banner proclaiming his proposal to Sergeant Yú during the talent show to get the second half of the show.

The night's mission over a village held by the Nazis takes place; they choose the option of coming from the sea. The approach is a success, but it seems like the enemy was aware of the mission and had time to set an ambush. the planes are caught in searchlight, Section 2C's planes manage to escape the flak but at least two others go down in flames. The bombing would not have caused significant damage, were it not for Veronika's supernatural intervention: maybe her invocation to her dear mother helped?

Tatania shares her impression about a possible betrayal during the debriefing. This is also the moment Nik is awarded the battle merit for manually detaching bombs and successfully leading the recovery mission.

The joy doesn't last, as Polya, who has witnessed everything, falls dead, having bled out from a piece of shrapnel in her chest. Her last words: *It was a really good fight, I think I got hit*. Irina, who brought her to the medic — too late —, is devastated.

More unsettling news are still to come that night: Alexi has just been allowed to leave the base and marry Lena, who will therefore be allowed to return, soon.

Nik is the one who breaks out the news to Mel, knowing how special Lena is to her. It's unclear why Lena married Alexi despite her feelings for Mel: her ordeal may have changed her. At any rate, this is the moment Nik chooses to share her own feelings for Mel. They keep talking; Mel puts her arm around Nik's shoulder, takes a drag from her cigarette and the scene fades as they have a thought for Polya, *one of the likable ones*.