success is no accident

SUNJATA

i'm drowning in all these voices in the sea
and meeting all my vices in the ring

“Oh, don’t be.” He says with a soft laugh, flushing slightly himself as he sees the effect it has had on the necromancer. “I really don’t mind.” Its an attempt to reassure him as they walk, even as he notes the immediate flush and focus Niki puts on their path back toward his home.

As Niki warms up (or cools off?) from the comment, Sunjata glances back over at him to hear the soft laugh and see the shrug from his thin shoulders. “Here’s hoping.” He comments about the banshee and the threat she no longer poses, feeling a bit better about the fight overall (thanks to Ronin’s turbo projectiles.) But regardless, he’s latched onto the candle holder and he glances over to see the warm smile that sparks.

“That sounds great.” Sunjata murmurs, thinking on it and the latter half of the comment that has him laughing and shaking his head a little. “I don’t need it to be elegant. I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime, I think.” He admits, tilting his head toward Niki to offer a bit of a lore drop. “I was a rich kid. Grew up in a mansion with marble floors and iron wrought railings for the staircases. The whole house was lit by crystal chandeliers and everything had its perfect place. It honestly loses its charm after all that.” He doesn’t say it’s because sometimes his nightmares remind him of the white marble that’s coated in Lusea’s blood, but that is part of the reason he doesn’t seem to care for white marble in the slightest – or the finer things in life. "I'll take a rustic decoration any day."

so step inside, i ain't afraid to bleed
there ain't a casket strong enough for me

NIKI

"Whether you mind or not, I do not plan on whispering into your ear by accident," Niki says with a self-conscious laugh, rubbing at the back of his neck. Little by little, though, the conversation settles back into safer ground, and he's able to glance across at Sunjata properly as he takes his candle holder idea and runs with it. "Oh?" Eyebrows raising, it's not as though the Flood doesn't look as though he enjoys elegance so much as he's only ever really seen him on the beach or in the woods. (And often looking worse for wear, no offence Jata).

Understanding dawns, though, as he explains, Niki nodding despite having absolutely zero ability to relate to such things. "It feels as though we are always looking for something different to how we grew up," he agrees. Sometimes much easier said than done, granted - and he's the prime example of that. Speaking of which, evidently the Greatwood has taken pity on them, because through the trees up ahead Niki can already start to make out the slanted roof of the funeral parlour.

"Luckily, you will find no shortage of rustic decorations here," he says, gesturing at the forest around them.

stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

i'm drowning in all these voices in the sea
and meeting all my vices in the ring

“Alright.” Sunjata says with a soft laugh to Niki’s self-conscious one. The steps they take seem to be guided perfectly by the Greatwood, though. Enough that while he isn’t used to the route the forest seems to take them, it still somehow manages to feel right. And it gives him the ease of which Sunjata can explain the briefest cliffnotes of his upbringing – how he’d grown up rich, despite the fact he’d gone without in other aspects.

“It does, doesn’t it?” He agrees, because the second Sunjata left the Korofi he’d strove for nothing more than his own selfish happiness because he hadn’t had any growing up. And much like back then, each time he thought he’d found it, it crumbled between his fingers as though he were a child, trying his best to keep something close and not damage it, only to realize he’d been gripping it too tight so that when he looks at it again, it’s broken and nowhere near the same.

Perking up a little from those darker thoughts to see the funeral parlor peek through the trees, Sunjata shoots a lopsided smile over at Niki. “Here’s a close second to King’s End for me, I’ll say that.” He teases, snorting softly and letting Niki lead the way to his home.

so step inside, i ain't afraid to bleed
there ain't a casket strong enough for me

NIKI

"Oh, it is?" Niki finds himself smiling at that without knowing quite why; he feels attached to the Greatwood in that same way all people are attached, for better or worse, to the places where they've grown up, but it still warms him a bit to hear that Sunjata speaks of it fondly. "I am ashamed to say that I have yet to visit King's End," he admits as they approach the funeral parlow. "I have read about it, though. It has a lot of history even if it is relatively new as a region."

Ascending the steps to his porch, Niki withdraws a key so he can open the front door. As it swings inward, it almost immediately catches on a small wooden ball with a bell inside, sending it tinkling along the hallway. "Ah," he says, smiling again to himself. "I have acquired a cat. I prefer this to the other gifts they are prone to leaving," he explains. "Would you like something to drink? You know where the living room is if you would prefer to sit down."

stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

i'm drowning in all these voices in the sea
and meeting all my vices in the ring

He refrains from telling Niki about the time he’d been somewhat banned from the Greatwood during the time of the Ascended war, but out of all the places he’s been to lately, the Greatwood definitely takes up number two. Torchline used to hold it, but with so much of Safrin imbued within each nook and cranny of it, it was hard to find it as a space to feel like home. Having the Frey shrine here helped, too, at the end of the day.

Hearing that Niki hasn’t seen King’s End has him sending a playfully wry smile toward him. “You’d like it, I think.” He says with an easy shrug, glancing forward toward where he can see the necromancer’s home approaching. “It’s about as temperate as here, but it doesn’t have all the trees. They make up for it in burial mounds, I guess.” Things he’d always had to be aware of when it came to changing the landscape.

Stepping up on the porch alongside the other man, the door swinging open to reveal the wooden ball that chimes as it skips away from the door. “Gods, that’s so fair.” He nearly groans, thinking about Petronella and the sea panther’s preferred gifts to leave behind. He winces slightly, following Niki into his home. “My companion is a sea panther, so I’m sure you can imagine the creativity she gets up to.” He’d left her at home for the banshee fight, thankfully, not wanting a repeat of his first companion’s fate.

At the offer of something to drink, he initially wants to say no – but he thinks otherwise since Niki has asked. “Sure. Whatever you’re having, I’ll take one.” He smiles, lopsided and easy, nodding to the offer to sit as he follows the steps in the familiar home toward a living room he distinctly remembers leaving a blue feather for the other man to take a seat.

so step inside, i ain't afraid to bleed
there ain't a casket strong enough for me

NIKI

"People say that about all the places I have not been," Niki teases, his tone both dry and playful as he smirks over his shoulder at the Flood. As Sunjata explains, though, the boy has to admit that he's got a point. "Burial mounds?" he repeats, as though the Flood has thrown that little tidbit out on purpose. "I did read about... the Barrows, is it? It is interesting that so many people were buried there before it was a liveable region."

The wooden ball goes tinkling to a gentle stop down the hall, and when no phantom feline springs out to claim it, Niki figures that his furry roommate has stepped out for the afternoon (likely to collect some of those more unsavoury gifts, he suspects). "A sea panther?" he repeats, brightening a bit. "I can only imagine. I have never seen one - they are native to Torchline though, yes?"

Nodding and excusing himself to the kitchen whilst Sunjata heads for the living room, Niki will remember shortly - and feel thoroughly embarrassed by it - that the blue feather leftover from the Flood's prior visit is still sitting prettily in a vase on his dining room table. Alas, there's little he can do about it now, and by the time he does return with a small tray and two mugs of coffee, he's already half hoping the other man hasn't noticed.

"I will go and fetch my tools and the box?" he suggests, perhaps a bit too quickly. "Unless you would prefer to have it taken to the Gilded Market in the Grounds. There are more supplies and equipment over there."

stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

i'm drowning in all these voices in the sea
and meeting all my vices in the ring

Sunjata snorts at Niki’s dry and playful tease, sure that the other man has heard such things for what he knows him to be a bit of a hermit here in the Greatwood. Though, he has seen him in Torchline a few times, something that did come as a surprise even if he was so busy trying not to get murdered by both Ronin and Astaroth at the time to focus too much attention on asking Niki how it was for him.

Instead, he nods. “Yeah. It’s definitely something to consider when building there.” He mutters, though he’d been very careful the majority of the time in making sure they hadn’t bothered any of the graves they knew of, it didn’t mean there wasn’t the occasional ones that they missed that came sprouting up, bones of any number long since passed.

The sea panther, though, is easier to talk about. “Yeah. Absolutely terrifying in their full size. I gotta say I prefer their companion size much more.” He says as a parting statement, slipping into the living room where yes, Niki, he does spot the feather in the vase. But in the time it takes for the abandoned to make the coffee, he’s added another one to the mix, sticking up and seemingly ignored while Sunjata sits on the couch, busying himself with everything else but looking at the vase that now harbors two blue feathers.

“Thanks.” He hums, taking the mug when Niki returns, cradling it in his hands and waiting for it to cool a bit before he takes a sip. “Oh, honestly? Whatever’s easier. I already feel like I’ve imposed a lot. And you're probably tired from earlier, yeah?” He says with a soft laugh, one that’s a touch awkward as it is quick in his own answer.

so step inside, i ain't afraid to bleed
there ain't a casket strong enough for me

NIKI

"Mm, you could end up accidentally breaking into a mausoleum," Niki says, sounding quietly interested despite his best efforts to remain casual. "I read about... daemons there too, I think? Spirits of companions that guard the barrows. I imagine you might draw some unwanted attention from them if you were to build in the wrong place." And gods, if he wasn't guaranteed to be absolutely obliterated by such a creature, Niki might have been tempted to try and see one for himself.

He chuckles at the idea of the pocket-sized sea panther, finding it easy to imagine if only because the likelihood of him coming across the full grown version is nil. And luckily he's too preoccupied with the actual demigod seated on his sofa to notice the additional feather (yet), but rest assured, Sunjata, it won't be missed for long. So instead, sinking down into the nearby armchair and dismissing his cane back into a ring, he cradles his own coffee in his hands.

"If you were imposing I would tell you," he assures him with a wave of his hand, despite it being a lie. "Though I do believe I could do a better job of it at the guildhall. I can send it down to King's End for you when it is finished?" At the mention of his being tired, though, Niki can only shrug sheepishly. He's always tired to some extent, after all, and the company is a good distraction from it for now.

stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

i'm drowning in all these voices in the sea
and meeting all my vices in the ring

“Yeaaaah.” He says with a slight wince, his nose wrinkling with the movement as he huffs a soft laugh and shakes his head. “They do tend to crop up now and then.” Mostly avoidable, thankfully, with the proper spaces to ensure he doesn’t build in the wrong spot and anger them. They don’t seem to be too much more of a problem once you proved you weren’t messing around too closely.

He watches as the cane vanishes into the ring on his finger, Sunjata’s steel gaze taking it in before his gaze flits up to Niki and he remembers he can sip from the coffee. Surprised a touch to hear the bluntness of Niki’s words, it does soothe something in him to know that he’d tell him (whether or not he would). “Sure. That sounds great.” He murmurs once he swallows down the sip of coffee and lets the combination of caffeine and warmth settle in the numb sensation of his chest.

Perking up a touch as Niki shrugs, he tilts his head slightly. “Your ring is really cool. It collapses your cane in it?” He asks, switching the subject for something Niki could talk about instead.

so step inside, i ain't afraid to bleed
there ain't a casket strong enough for me

NIKI

"Do you find you have more trouble with them at Leafchange, when the Festival of Lights is getting closer?" Niki asks, blowing on his coffee before lifting it to his lips for a quick sip. He'd added a little honey to Sunjata's quite before he realised, recalling that the other man had enjoyed his drink sweeter than Niki prefers his own. "Here in the Greatwood it is as though you can feel that it is Ludo's season, though I suppose with a place called Ludo's Woods, we ought to expect as much."

At the mention of his ring the boy's gaze drops to his finger as if only just remembering that it's there, and he offers a gentle nod. "It does, yes. It was a birthday gift from Flora," he explains, setting his cup down and slipping off the ring to offer it out for Sunjata to take a look at it. "I told her I did not need anything, but she insisted. The cane is the one I have always had, so I needed to go without it for a couple of days." Which had been... interesting, to say the least.

stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

i'm drowning in all these voices in the sea
and meeting all my vices in the ring

“Eh, sometimes?” He says with a soft laugh, his tattooed shoulder rolling in a small shrug. “Usually when Ludo’s close by it gets a little crazier.” Which coincides with precisely what Niki had said. With the Greatwood harboring Ludo’s Woods, it only made sense the spirits might liven up during Leafchange, not that Sunjata has any experience with it here. “Yeah.” He agrees, taking a sip of the coffee and letting it warm him thoroughly again, too.

Looking back over at the ring (and pretending very well that he hasn’t added another feather to the vase on the table), Sunjata snorts and sinks into the couch easier, letting his long legs stretch out in front of him as he gets more comfortable. “That’s really thoughtful of her.” He comments, eyeing the ring again before his gaze finds Niki’s face. “I’ve found that even if you do or don’t need something, she’s got this great uncanny way of finding a way to help you regardless.” It’s something he hopes stays with her even if he’s not directly a part of her life anymore, but those thoughts he keeps behind his teeth.

He does linger on the idea of Niki having to go without it for a few days, though. “I can’t imagine.” He laments, not really knowing what it was like to have something so vital and necessary gone for however long it took to make the item.

so step inside, i ain't afraid to bleed
there ain't a casket strong enough for me

NIKI

"Is that not always the way with Ludo?" Niki says with a smirk that might even be playful. "Even so, I will always be grateful that the Festival of Lights came here to the Greatwood a couple of years ago. It had been a long time since I had seen so many people." And it was also where he'd first run into the Flood, so of course it's a fond memory, even if Sunjata hadn't been at his best.

Still isn't, by the look of him, but Niki doesn't mention that.

Slipping the ring back onto his finger and smiling down at it, he chuckles his agreement at Sunjata's appraisal of Flora, nodding readily and reaching for his coffee again. "For this particular occasion I believe I was all but bullied into accepting a birthday gift," he admits. "Not that I am complaining at all. It has been more useful than I think even Flora thought it would."

But then Sunjata's tone is slipping towards something that might look like pity if you dim the lights and squint, and Niki shrugs a little stiffly. "We learn to manage, do we not?" No matter what the ailment might be.

stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!

SUNJATA

i'm drowning in all these voices in the sea
and meeting all my vices in the ring

“It was nice.” He agrees softly, a small smile tugging on his face as he realizes that despite the isolation that it seemed like Niki seemed to favor (if you looked on the outside of his glass house, that is), weren’t entirely the truth with how Niki seemed to favor seeing so many people. It’s something he can relate to, to an extent. Craving surrounding himself with people that warred against isolating himself.

He eyes the ring, however, snorting softly to hear that it was a bullied birthday gift. “Oh? When’s your birthday?” He asks, wondering if it was coming up or something far away – if Niki chose to celebrate it or not, like how Sunjata tended to forget his on occasion.

As for the next comment, well, it isn’t pity that leaves Sunjata’s lips. It’s a strange understanding that he can’t imagine what it was like to have that kind of injury but one that changed one’s life regardless. “We do.” He agrees with a lopsided smile, as though he can feel the tension in the room. “After I got this one, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to eat anything but soup for like a year.” Lifting his hand to his face where the scar bisects the tissue, cutting through the beard in a stark pale line.

so step inside, i ain't afraid to bleed
there ain't a casket strong enough for me

NIKI

"Mm, especially because the woods had been overrun by the void up until then," Niki agrees with a soft nod. "Things seem to have picked up since, though I imagine the fae have mixed feelings about it." Internally, anyway. Given that the winged folk can't tell a lie, odds are good that most tourists hear only the most carefully put together mistruths.

As for his birthday, Niki's scoff is a little self-deprecating; he doesn't tend to celebrate, it's true, but given how Flora had managed to find out without too much effort, and the fact that she'd likely share the information if Sunjata asked, there's no reason to avoid it. "Deepfrost," he tells the other man. "Quite early into the season at least. Not that it is any warmer regardless."

Sipping at his coffee, the necromancer realises far too late that he'd mistaken empathy for pity, and as his gaze flickers across the pale line of scar tissue (and absolutely does not linger on the Flood's handsome face, shut up), he winces on his behalf. "What happened?" he asks, before immediately catching himself. "Sorry - you do not have to answer."

stay your pretty eyes on course
keep the memories of who i was before

Code blatently stolen from queen of codes, Sky!