Q had once gone to Orkney for Hogmanay. Britain is not particularly large, and its weather is much more temperate than the continent, and it's generally just cold and wet, so the drastic nature of the temperature difference between even London and Inverness had taken him by surprise. The layers that had felt on the stuffy side of comfortable in London suddenly felt completely inadequate. He'd never been so aware of his knees in his life. He envied his sisters then, with the thick wool tights they had on underneath their long skirts.
From Inverness they had taken an overnight boat to Kirkwall, which was a relatively smooth journey for the time of year. Standing on the stern of the boat, watching the way the wake of the boat sliced the velvet dark water open like a jacket zipper, Q had thought it could not possibly get colder or windier. His cheeks had felt raw and about to blister, stung by the speed of the air and the spray of salt water. His nose had been running since he'd stepped into the open air, mucus dripping down to his lip, protecting at least that small section of his face from the chill. Q now knew the meaning of 'dreich', a Scots word he'd thought he'd understood from his reading, but he had realised he'd been far from it. The clouds hung low in the sky, pale grey, like a pillow that was about to smother you. Between the cruel sky and the unforgiving sea, Q felt like he was being crushed. Was gravity different this far north? Q wanted to look it up, but the phone signal was so choppy it was impossible.
They docked in Kirkwall as the sun was finally choked out by the ominous night, the six of them huddled with their suitcases, waiting at the wharf for the ferry that would take them around the north islands to Eday. Q had thought Kirkwall was bad. After a nauseatingly rough winter crossing, they'd docked at Eday and piled off with the two locals who disembarked with them. The locals were chatting with his parents, curious as to why the family was even there, as Q huddled with his sisters like penguins and tried not to shiver. Their contact had finally driven into the parking lot to pick them up, and they had to exit the covered waiting area to get into the car.
Q had never felt wind like that. He was fairly tall, and exercised regularly, so he was a respectable ten stone. As he tried to walk out to the car, the wind hit him as if he'd tried to walk into the wall of a bouncy castle. It was thick, somehow, stiff and oppressive, the pillow an assassin holds over your face before they shoot you point blank. Q felt suffocated. He had to force himself to wade through it, like one would ford a river, his body slanting forward as he was compelled to become smaller to reduce wind drag. Three more steps and the wind had become so hostile that he felt like he was getting pushed back every time he lifted his foot and lessened his grip on the ground. He thought that if he lost concentration for a moment he would be lifted up and blown away, a kite let loose from a toddler's hand, lost to the sea only to turn up, blue and frozen to death, on a beach in Norway. The weightlessness made him feel truly small, insignificant, an ant on the face of the world, completely irrelevant in the grand cosmic plan. This was what philosophers called the sublime. Being enveloped in such unstoppable power was terrifying and exhilarating in turn.
Q felt that way with Bond. He'd stepped out from his barren shelter and accepted another into his life, and James was now threatening to pick him up and fly away with him. Q hadn't realised that his windows and doors had been rattling, but now he'd gone out and the sound was deafening. It was taking everything in him to hold himself down, to stay in the mud and grass and frost. The sheer force of James' focus, his desire, his hope, and his faith felt as inevitable as the tides of the North Sea slowly eroding the cliffs.