[SE] i wanna be the last thing anybody ever sees

doves and ravens fly the same

While Vesper didn't really go in for the whole enchanted woods vibe that the Greatwood was known for, what he was interested in was the rare and notable craftsmanship of the Fae. He'd been told that they didn't really take to outsiders, but that was fine as far as the demigod was concerned. He wasn't looking for them to take to him, so much as sell him some shit he could gift to his sisters for their first Deepfrost. And, being able to do what he could, he didn't really foresee any issues getting what he needed.

With a sprig of peppermint bark tucked into the corner of his mouth and his hands spraying a deck of cards from one palm to the other, Vesper wandered through the Sidhe Village seemingly without aim. His deep blue eyes hardly rested on any one market stall for longer than a few seconds, and the upturned collar of his coat made him look nearly as unapproachable as the thin set to his lips. This, of course, was because he was more interested in what those milling about thought of the various wares in contrast with what the sellers knew their actual values to be. Besides, with the height difference between he and the Fae, Vesper didn't really feel like bending down to half of his height to peer at trinkets that weren't worth his time, nor was he interested in making small talk.

VESPER

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

NIKI

Deepfrost is an understandably difficult time for Niki, given the slippery nature of ice, but he's managing well enough for now. The skies overhead are grey and opaque with latent snowfall, the ground hard packed and crunching with cold underfoot, but other than frost that rimes the edges of buildings and the branches of trees, the flakes are yet to fall. 

He's grateful for that, having headed out to drop some more of his creations to the local stall that sells them for him; tiring of trinket boxes, this next batch takes the form of delicate twists of silver in the shape of branches and twigs, intended to be used as hair ornaments or other such decorations. Easy work, in truth, and not particularly exciting, but he'll need whatever he can trade for firewood and food for the season.

Stopping at the stall in question and leaning against his crutch as he deposits the box down before the merchant, his small talk is polite and dry at best as the man goes through his wares, satisfied with them and querying about some other piece he'd created the past Longheat. Niki remembers it - remembers it had been a pain to make, too, but concedes that he can craft another.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

doves and ravens fly the same

Havin' come from a place like Torchline, Vesper wasn't unaccustomed to the idea of markups when it came to buyin' and sellin'. Sometimes percentages were downright criminal in nature (like those set by his dear old dad), and then there was whatever the fuck was goin' on between the cripple currently hobblin' away and the fae spreadin' out his new merchandise. Now, don't get things twisted, Vesper, of course, applauded anyone with the brains to take advantage of someone else (yes, even a cripple, he was an equal opportunist asshole), but that certainly didn't mean he felt compelled to haggle with the asshole bleedin' Niki dry. Not when he could clearly get the same goods for cheaper just by going right to the source.

"Where you runnin' off to so fast?" The demigod calls out, his long fingers still dexterous fanning an entire deck of cards back and forth between them.

VESPER

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

NIKI

With his business concluded at the stall, Niki leaves the merchant to his trade (and his mark-ups, apparently, though that is none of the boy's concern) and turns away with the intention of procuring an early lunch to take back home. It's as he's on his way to a familiar stall selling small, filled pastries that he catches a voice ringing out, apparently aimed directly at him. Halting and turning, Vesper will be treated to the dark, quiet machinations of the necromancer's mind, pieces fitting and turning in place to produce a seamless and sharp understanding.

"Is that supposed to be a joke?" he asks, raising his eyebrows towards the other man, his tone dry. "Because I have heard better." Whilst the demigod is undeniably handsome - a feature that would normally have Niki culled into politeness if nothing else - he isn't in the habit of backing down from a verbal sparring.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

doves and ravens fly the same

Vesper was slowly coming to learn that you couldn't really judge a book by its cover, and here before him was a perfect example of that. While Niki moved like a gimpy old man, his mind ran like a well-oiled machine, with thoughts and ideas bubbling away in individual cylinders and chasms. If any overlap occurred it seemed meticulously presided over such that for all the grand explosions and sparks Vesper could feel, it was the sort of controlled chaos that would put even the most clever mind to shame.

Huffing out a laugh under his breath to feel the steel in the boy's mind, Vesper merely grins wolfishly. "Yeah? Like what?" He wants to know; raising his dark eyebrows, the contrast is all the more stark given that today the demigod's hair is as pale and wintery as the overcast sky above. Continuing to flit the cards between his ringed fingers, Vesper lets his blue gaze mark the lines of Niki's thin frame beneath his coat, not needing to linger on the abandoned's hands to know that they were likely quick and dexterous in exactly the same ways his mind was and his legs were not.

VESPER

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

NIKI

Having fallen to a halt - to further demonstrate that he is not running anywhere, even by accident - the surprise that shimmers across Niki's mind at the stranger's blunt response soon glides seamlessly into further machinations, and he scoffs out a dark laugh. 

"Oh, you know. Asking if I do my own stunts, or I had a good trip, or if I have a licence for this thing," he says, giving the crutch a brief wave. "All sorts about how I must be an upstanding citizen, or that I do not have a leg to stand on in certain affairs." He reels the jokes off quickly, tilting his head as if asking if the other man has anything further to add.

"Did you want any others to add to your compendium of jokes, or can I be on my way?" No part of him, evidently, has expected that Vesper will want anything from him other than a quick laugh at his expense. Which - whatever, everyone has to have a way to pass the time, he supposes - but Niki's is valuable, and he'd like to get back to it.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

doves and ravens fly the same

Practically able to hear the click and whir of Niki's mind as his thoughts go shimmering by on their way to his lips, Vesper merely arches his brows further looking the way one might imagine a bored cat would when faces within an uninteresting bit of string. "None of those really fit this situation though, now do they." Vesper points after a moment. Giving his cards one final dramatic shuffle, he shoves all but one into his back pocket.

"Be my guest." Splaying his fingers out, the demigod shrugs. "Clearly you're makin' the money you need sellin' to that merchant even if he is takin' a hefty cut and then markin' up your jewelry and keepin' the profits." Flicking the card between his fingers so that it seemed not to spin but simply to reverse instantly, Vesper shifts the sprig of peppermint bark to the other side of his mouth. "Guess me'n my gold coins will shop elsewhere." Turning and drawing himself up to his full height to gaze across the market, the demigod twists, nodding over one shoulder towards a stall which was clearly selling jewelry at a far lower quality than what Niki was capable of making, at far higher prices.

"That one looks pretty much the same as yours, no?"

VESPER

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

NIKI

"Consider them a gift, then. Use them in whatever situation you see fit." Niki says, inclining his head politely but coldly towards the other man and turning as if to continue on his way, only for the stranger and his card tricks to continue. Now irritation is replaced by a bloom of confusion mingling with curiosity, and he glances between the stalls and the jewellery that they are selling (some his own, some an obvious knock-off) before back to Tall, Frosty and Handsome.

"Why do you care?" he asks, his tone softer now that his mind is no longer bristling with a perceived verbal scrimmage. "And more to the point, why do you think that I care?" He shrugs a shoulder and gestures to the stalls. "I only make those things to get by. There is pride in the work, but no passion. Buy where you please, it makes no difference to me."

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

doves and ravens fly the same

It's a game of cat and mouse that Vesper can't decide if he wants to play or not. Uninterested in Niki's mental machinations and blueprints, as the surprising steel begins to soften in the boy's mind, so too does the demigod's interest in him similarly wane. Still, his passion-free creations were still the best he'd seen by far, and he had come here to find something for his sisters, so perhaps he'd play along a little longer.

"Maybe I'm just the sort of guy who doesn't like to see a cripple get so obviously taken advantage of." The way Vesper's flash of white teeth seemed to only darken his blue stare rather than make it shimmer had the expression been genuine was more than proof enough that nothing could be farther from the truth. Ignoring Niki's second question, the demigod merely shrugs again, pocketing his final card. "See, that's where you're wrong though. If my coin goes in someone else's pockets instead of yours, that's gonna make one hell of a difference, especially with the cold comin'. " Glancing up at the sky as if expecting fat snowflakes to begin fluttering down around them, Vesper nevertheless turns the collar of his jacket up around his neck to ward off the imagined chill.

"Besides, what else you got to do today? Ain't no seasonal sprints on, no jump rope tournaments." Again Vesper flashes a frosty smirk. "I checked the Notice Board myself."

VESPER

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

NIKI

"Spare me your pity," Niki fires back, his smile equally as emotionless, the steel shimmer returning to his countenance as if to match the stranger's energy when it doesn't thaw in the face of his lowered guard. "And only my friends get to call me a cripple. You can call me Niki." As for whether he's being taken advantage of, that's between him and the merchant he supposes. It certainly isn't any of the arrogant, white-haired boy's business.

Raising his eyes to the overcast sky visible through the branches and tilting his head, he scoffs and lowers his gaze once more. "Is this the part where my frail body shivers and I remember that I am nothing but for your generous handouts?" he asks. As for what he's got on, that's once again none of his business, but given his persistence, Niki forces out a sigh and gestures with his chin back towards the stall he'd dropped off his stock at. "What were you interested in?" he wants to know.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

doves and ravens fly the same

"Or what? You gonna hit me with that?" It's in response both to the accusation that Vesper would bother to pity the boy as much as being told he WASnT ConsiDerEd a FriEnD (and oh, how Vesper's heart ached). Taking a step closer as if to make it easier for the necromancer if that was indeed what he had planned, Vesper only raises his eyebrows. "You can call me whatever you want. Most go with Vesper." He offers.

"Nah, I thought it was the part where you drop the woe is my lot in life but I've become far too damaged to be smart first, I have to come across tough and accept a good opportunity. That's my bad for thinkin' you'd be able to just jump ahead in the conversation." His eyes widen a fraction, you know, just in case Niki had missed the cripple joke he'd made, before pulling in a slow breath and glancing over his shoulder back toward the market as if continuing this conversation was somehow a favour he was now doing for the cripple Niki.

"Somethin' for my sisters. They're into that whole together but unique shit, so I was thinkin' maybe a moon and a sun on a hair comb that fit together."

VESPER

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

NIKI

"And break a perfectly good cane? You are not important enough to merit that kind of violence," Niki replies smoothly, despite the fact that they likely both know that the act of swinging said cane will leave him out of breath at the very least. "Ah, well far be it for me to go against the majority, Vesper," he says, his accent curling around his name.

What he doesn't expect is the spill of assumptions on the other man's part, Niki nodding earnestly along and raising his eyebrows as if putting on a very animated show of listening to Vesper tell him about himself. "Mm, I do apologise. Occasionally I find it difficult to orient myself in a conversation with somebody who is not burdened by intelligence," he says with a rueful nod.

But with barbs exchanged and Vesper getting to his point, Niki takes a moment to consider before inclining his head once more. "A simple enough concept," he says, this time without the malice of calling the other man stupid. "I do not have anything like that currently that I could adjust, so it would be from scratch. How long are you in the Greatwood?"

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

doves and ravens fly the same

Raising his eyebrows, Vesper doubts if he needs to do anything more than let his gaze slide from the noodle arms he's quite sure Niki has hidden beneath his jacket and then to his cane to communicate his utter lack of belief in the boy's threat. "Wouldn't have pegged you for a follower." He comments smoothly, unsure if he liked the feeling of Niki's tongue wrapping around his name the way it did. It didn't sing the way it always did from Caly or Nova's lips, but there was a bite in it he hadn't expected.

As Niki's wit turns dry and cutting, much as Vesper found it amusing, he schooled his expression into one of vague disappointment as he clicked his disapproval under his tongue. "Is that supposed to be a joke?" He parrots, mimicking the slow cadence of Niki's voice if not his accent. "Because I have heard better."

Removing one of his rings in order to dance it between his fingers in order to give him something to do, Vesper presses his lips together before he shrugs. "How long you reckon' it'll take?" If it'd just be a day or so he could probably find something to occupy his time, but there was no way Vesper wanted to spend any more than that in a place that required him to be constantly bundled up.

VESPER

Styling stolen from Sky (obviously)

NIKI

"And I wouldn't have pegged you for a fool," Niki replies with an smile that, despite his best efforts, is becoming more genuine as the seconds tick by. "I suppose we are both disappointed in that respect." And Vesper all but seals the deal as he calls back to the first words they exchanged, the boy letting out a soft laugh that clouds the air before him (because it is Deepfrost, and it is chilly, even if the snow is only threatening to fall so far). Seeming to relax, even if he has to shift his weight thanks to standing still in the cold for an extended period, he considers the timeframe for Vesper's request.

"I could probably have them finished by tomorrow afternoon, if I put other projects to one side," he says. "Did you want any further input on the designs, or shall I surprise you?" Rather than cutting this time, Niki's question is a genuine one; as he had said previously, there might not be passion in the work he does, but there is a good amount of pride, and he'll not make Vesper anything he'd consider incomplete or sub-par.

my body's on the line now, I can't fight this time now
I can feel the light shine on my face

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!