flora
Flora snorts, the sound bright and unbothered. "It isn’t necessarily bathing when you’ve got company," she corrects with a grin, voice tipping toward playfulness. "It’s just… relaxing." She makes a little wave of her hand like it’s the most obvious distinction in the world.
At his point about shamanism, she only shrugs, curls bouncing over her shoulders. "Maybe we can go ask Ludo one day. If anyone knows the difference, it’s probably Ludo, right?" Her smile warms as she catches the rare flicker of amusement on the necromancer's face, soaking it in like sunlight through stained glass. It’s such a rare thing, his laughter, that she clings to it quietly, adoring in the way she watches him.
Her own body draws smaller as he does, knee hugged tight against her chest as she glances sidelong at him. The bright sweep of colours all around them feels distant when his words come, and she presses her teeth gently into the inside of her lip before nodding. "Hadama’s stepping down," she says softly, "so now it’s just me. Mateo’s moving back to Stormbreak, and Sohalia has already." The words carry a quiet weight, gentled but sure.
She exhales, looking down before she dares a glance back at him with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, blue-green and sad. The offer that follows isn’t meant as a trap, and she knows that. She’s not trying to tie Niki to her with an obligation he can't refuse, but to give him a reason to want to stay that doesn’t begin and end with her. Something official, something that might make Torchline his home in its own right. "I thought if you had something here you might want to stay." She glances back at him with a smile that tilts fragile at the edges, eyes shaded with quiet sadness.
The breath she lets out next is heavy, shoulders lifting and falling as she shakes her head. "It was just an idea, but never mind. It's okay."
At his point about shamanism, she only shrugs, curls bouncing over her shoulders. "Maybe we can go ask Ludo one day. If anyone knows the difference, it’s probably Ludo, right?" Her smile warms as she catches the rare flicker of amusement on the necromancer's face, soaking it in like sunlight through stained glass. It’s such a rare thing, his laughter, that she clings to it quietly, adoring in the way she watches him.
Her own body draws smaller as he does, knee hugged tight against her chest as she glances sidelong at him. The bright sweep of colours all around them feels distant when his words come, and she presses her teeth gently into the inside of her lip before nodding. "Hadama’s stepping down," she says softly, "so now it’s just me. Mateo’s moving back to Stormbreak, and Sohalia has already." The words carry a quiet weight, gentled but sure.
She exhales, looking down before she dares a glance back at him with a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes, blue-green and sad. The offer that follows isn’t meant as a trap, and she knows that. She’s not trying to tie Niki to her with an obligation he can't refuse, but to give him a reason to want to stay that doesn’t begin and end with her. Something official, something that might make Torchline his home in its own right. "I thought if you had something here you might want to stay." She glances back at him with a smile that tilts fragile at the edges, eyes shaded with quiet sadness.
The breath she lets out next is heavy, shoulders lifting and falling as she shakes her head. "It was just an idea, but never mind. It's okay."
i scream for whatever it's worth
"i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
"i love you" ain't that the worst thing you've ever heard?
