i'll try to compromise

// i'm not so good with tenses //

“The chances are low, but never zero.” He says with a huff of a soft laugh before he’s also burying his smile behind his cup. One that grows and has him snorting into the mug at the mention of flooding the space if the coffee isn’t to his liking. “I’m pretty sure people do worry about that. I’m not sure why.” It isn’t like he went around flooding places for fun and at random – finding himself more like a firefighter or powerwasher at this point in time in his region. But perhaps that’s enough to get people’s minds creatively moving.

The rain patters against the window, blissfully quiet and not screeching her discontent, so Sunjata wonders momentarily if perhaps the Mathair isn’t offended by his offering. So, when Niki tilts his head and poses the teasing question back at him, Sunjata’s cup is lowering with wide eyes that he hopes sells the point enough that Niki might believe it when he says; “Oh, no, I wouldn’t dare.” Despite the little tendril of water that Niki might notice once it touches his finger where the magical ring sits. “At least not when you’re not looking.” He amends, the grin brightening on his face.

the Heartless

// i'm tensin' up thinkin' about what i'm supposed to call you now //

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Sounds ominous - my favourite," Niki quips back, though he does raise his eyebrows to hear that people genuinely fear flooding from the man currently cradling a coffee mug to his lips. "Have you ever exacted biblical levels of revenge on them for no reason?" he wonders, unable not to smirk across the table. "Perhaps had a nightmare and caused a tidal wave? Should I consider selecting a residence on stilts, perhaps?"

The sudden wide eyes and innocent look do absolutely nothing to help Sunjata's case - not when it comes to his status as a potential natural disaster and not when it comes to bugging the necromancer. And though Niki doesn't glance down at his ring even once, that's absolutely not to say he doesn't realise what the Heartless is up to. "Is your plan to make my hands clammy?" he wonders. "Because that is an inconvenience, but I would not say that it annoyed me."

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

// i'm not so good with tenses //

To the question Niki poses, Sunjata’s amusement is clear in his face as he seems to think about the answer. “Never for no reason.” He reasons – whether or not he has or hasn’t done it. It’s always been for a threat and not toward his citizens, but for the sake of the jesting and the comfort in it, Sunjata leans toward remaining playful and thoughtful as he sips from the cup of coffee and lets it undo a lot of the stress that’s been weighing on his shoulders. “Stilts might be good. Just in case. You never know.” He teases – back to the low but never zero comments.

And while their jesting and teasing continues to grow, the water magic is clear and mostly stealthy as it reaches Niki’s hand and the ring sat there, working its way under the jewelry to try and slip it off the best it can. “I never plan to. I’ve learned that it just happens sometimes.” To this, he shoots a confident and lopsided smile over the rim of the coffee mug at Niki before he gives up on stealing the ring for a spread of somewhat warm water stretching against the necromancer’s palm before it withdraws and takes every bit of moisture left over from his playful endeavors. “Frey Demi and all that, y'know how it is.” His free hand gestures a little, the ribbon of water dancing around his fingertips now.

the Heartless

// i'm tensin' up thinkin' about what i'm supposed to call you now //

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Oh, I see. You are a benevolent dictator," Niki says with an exaggerated nod. "It is good to understand the sort of leadership of the region I am moving into." Still, at the stilts comment, he pulls a face that is best described as playfully inconvenienced. "I did not anticipate having to walk up so many steps," he admits, fully committed to the bit by now. "Perhaps I ought to see if I can invest in a pulley system to reach my house." Whatever said house may look like and wherever in King's End it might be located.

Finally glancing down at the ring the Heartless is attempting to thrift from his finger - and the way the water magic gives up, albeit wetly, what starts as a wrinkle of the necromancer's nose ends up in a flush of sudden colour in his cheeks. Of course he never intends to, but being a sex demigod is likely to make all sorts of body parts react just by Sunjata being in their vicinity. "Alas, I do not know how it is," he says, dryly amused. "Of all the things I may have dreamed of being, a Frey demigod never entered the equation, I confess."

Besides, the idea of anyone falling over themselves at the sight of him is laughable.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

// i'm not so good with tenses //

The banter is easy to fall into, easy to keep going which is a relief. “I am.” He proudly touts, puffing up a bit at the idea of it. Benevolent was an understatement when the blueprint beat into his mind from his youth had been the hard iron rule of his father. His own governance had been much more lenient, much more relaxed, and he thinks it’s thrived better because of it.

Though it probably helps being able to build up your own rules rather than going off of tradition when there was hardly any governmental tradition in a place such as King’s End. “I’m sure we can make an elevator.” He muses, before he’s tilting his head avian-like in thought. “Or build it on the hill.” Preventing the need for an elevator but definitely producing an issue with meandering down the stairs in question.

Either way, Sunjata’s focused on trying to remove the ring and when he comes up empty, he leaves Niki’s hand completely dry as the water is drawn back to his fingers dancing with a ribbon of water as Niki responds to the question. “You know what’s funny about that?” He pauses, his gaze dropping down to the mug of coffee as he vanishes the water magic to collect the cup in question. “Didn’t enter mine either. It was… a surprise, to say the least.” He admits before he takes a sip, looking up and across at Niki.

the Heartless

// i'm tensin' up thinkin' about what i'm supposed to call you now //

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

Niki hasn't yet been subject to Sunjata's pride, playful though it might be, and he finds himself hiding his smile behind another sip of his drink. Most of his run-ins with the Flood-turned-Heartless have been unfortunately rather dire, whether in mood or situation (or both), so this is quite a pleasant change. "Build it?" he echoes, and though he's still committed to the banter, there is something quietly uncertain in his smile now.

"I was under the impression there were empty buildings to choose from in New Haven. I'd not want to have to inconvenience anyone just by moving in." It's what Sunjata had led him to believe anyway, and though it's likely very true, there's something about putting others to work to create space for him that doesn't sit well with Niki. Something something trauma, probably.

His eyebrows raise at the revelation that Sunjata hasn't always wanted to be a sexy demigod (who knew?), and he bites back his immediate smirk to consider him properly. "What would you have been given the choice?" he wonders.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

// i'm not so good with tenses //

It is still banter, if he’s being honest. Because the likelihood of needing to make Niki’s home on stilts was a joke that he’s perhaps taken a bit too far. It’s something he realizes when Niki’s tone takes on an air of truth and worry, reiterating what he said previously. All of things things are still true, of course, but as the Heartless looks back over toward Niki to see the slight uncertainty in his smile, he offers him one of ease in return.

“There are. And that was still the plan. It was just… y’know, in case you wanted a house on stilts.” It hadn’t been a very good joke he realizes, since he had to explain that it was all hypotheticals. And as it stood right now, there was a particularly nice section of New Haven on the bottom floor of the town’s stretch that backs up toward one of the graveyards that he thinks would make a lovely spot for the necromancer to take. One that he doesn’t think Niki’s picked out (if he’s picked out any of them yet), but one he’s a touch too excited to show him when he arrives.

But when it comes to the revelation that Sunjata hadn’t always wanted to be Frey’s, well, he sips from the coffee and lowers the mug as he considers the question back. It wasn’t a great road, really, to go down the what-if’s. But he’s realistic and he knows himself well enough these days that he feels fairly confident with the answer. “Well, I think I probably would’ve stayed Safrin’s. I.. Probably would’ve swung hard toward her when Nate died and became her demigod.” He’d never know, but she had been asking him to do it before the war. Perhaps had he evaded that question and not joined Frey and burned that bridge so badly that the stars were blotted out of the sky that he’d probably have found comfort with her just to have something that wouldn’t leave him.

He clears his throat after that quiet revelation and shoots Niki a smile that’s a touch more vulnerable than he intends. “I might’ve done it before when she asked me had she not hated my husband so much.” It was really the main point of contention back then. The hatred of the only thing Sunjata had that stood beside him regardless.

the Heartless

// i'm tensin' up thinkin' about what i'm supposed to call you now //

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

Niki relaxes despite himself as Sunjata reiterates their original plan, letting his smile ease up a bit. At the idea of him wanting a house on stilts, though, he can't help but laugh, gesturing to himself with bemusement. "Do I look as though I would thrive having to walk up and down steps to get home?" he quips, before his expression is growing a touch softer, the necromancer finding himself seeing Sunjata through yet another new lens.

"You would have had it built if I had wanted it," he says, a thread of revelation in his voice. "Wouldn't you?"

But then the conversation takes a turn, one Niki hadn't intended to be so serious, and he's about to tell Sunjata he doesn't need to answer when he starts to expand on it. The necromancer is left listening quietly to the tale he spins - devotion and loathing, commitment to something just to make sure he wasn't left with nothing, and the frown on his face is as empathetic as it is thoughtful, in the end.

"What were you before all of that?" he asks. "Before Safrin or Frey? Would you not have wanted to just be yourself?"

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

// i'm not so good with tenses //

“Honestly, no.” Sunjata says with a soft laugh as the tension loosens – temporarily, of course, because the answer he gives Niki is a loaded one. One that can be expanded on as soon as he hears how he responds. For now, though, the first statement is one that Sunjata could continue to banter with, but the answer is surprisingly honest when he nods. “I would have, yeah.” He agrees. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

But then there’s the subject of being Frey’s demigod and what he would’ve stayed as that has layers and layers of his own trauma woven in like a picturesque blanket when Niki’s question hits him and his steel gaze lifts from the mug to the necromancer. It’s a good question, one that he isn’t even sure he could answer well. So he tilts his head and hums, looks up to the ceiling of the kitchen as he considers it and his long dangling earrings brush against the tattoos on his neck that point right at Niki from how he’s sitting. “I wasn’t really anything? I was.. Accepted when I arrived but that didn’t last long. I pledged myself to Safrin shortly after arriving because I wanted more, so she made me attuned.” He explains, how he’d chosen to be attuned, but chosen to bear the weight of owing the starry goddess.

“If I’m being honest I don’t think I ever really have just been myself.” And the times he had were too painful to stay sober for in most cases. Even back in Korofi, he’d been a solider. A defector. A puppet his father had tried to use until he’d realized he was too far past the point of control. And then he’d been an enemy. It’s almost as though Sunjata has always been in a fight one way or another, always looking for ways to be useful for them, to help everyone else at the expense of himself because he’s never really liked what was left of him without it.

His gaze drops back from the ceiling to offer Niki an apologetic smile. “I was the equivalent of a prince, back home. I was raised to be a soldier who’d then rule. The closest I got to being myself was making my own decisions and that’s when I escaped my father’s thumb and fought for the resistance. I had the know-how and the information, but it wasn’t really for myself after all. It was because I knew things could be better. Things had to be better.” And that, dear Niki, was just the tip of the iceberg of that question.

the Heartless

// i'm tensin' up thinkin' about what i'm supposed to call you now //

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

The silence that falls between them isn't uncomfortable but it is very much loaded, Niki left fidgeting with his half drunk coffee and watching as Sunjata looks for answers in the pattern of his ceiling. His lips part to break that silence when the Heartless speaks at last, and even his first sentence startles a quiet laugh out of the necromancer.

"Nobody is nothing, Sunjata," he says quietly. "I am sorry you feel that way, though. I think a lot of people have a lot of different selves, depending on the situation - that is what I learned when I was an apprentice, anyway. But there must be something at the core of it that is just for you, surely?" Some part of him that can simply be at peace, no masks, no princes or soldiers or demigods or resistance?

Smiling back at the other man and catching himself, suddenly Niki inhales a deep breath and sits up in his seat, offering a soft laugh. "I did not mean to steer us into philosophy," he says. "Even if you are Frey's demigod now, I hope you are able to carve enough time out of your day to be yourself."

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

// i'm not so good with tenses //

It’s slightly awkward, he finds, when the quiet answer that Niki offers hits him somewhere deep – scratching a part of his walled up soul that he’d kept boarded up with little success. So many saw through it despite himself, and he watches as the other man offers some explanation, something that has him working his jaw. “Yeah I dunno, maybe.” He says with a slight huff of a laugh. Not that he doesn’t think Niki’s got a valid point. He just thinks it’s for everyone else but himself.

He didn’t like to be alone. He didn’t like who he was by himself. It was a dark cave he often descended into that he couldn’t get out of with alcohol or drugs anymore. And he knows he needs to eventually be okay with it, but he can’t. He kept himself busy just so he doesn’t have to look at himself in the mirror.

“It’s okay.” He offers, shooting Niki a smile as the Heartless sinks into his seat a little more despite Niki sitting up more. “I probably should start trying to, huh?” Between being Frey’s demigod and a leader and the owner of the brothel of King’s End, he rarely had time to himself which was often preferred – going from task to task.

the Heartless

// i'm tensin' up thinkin' about what i'm supposed to call you now //

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"You are doing a fine job at deflection. Does that normally work for you?" Niki asks with a slow raise of his eyebrows, lifting his mug to his lips to take another long sip of his coffee. Sunjata's responses are an array of lipservice agreements and non-commital remarks, and however badly socialised Niki might be when it comes to going out and having fun, he's seen this sort of thing in spades during his apprenticeship.

"We do not have to talk of it any further," he decides, opting to retreat back towards safer ground. It isn't his intention to push Sunjata too far into uncomfortable territory, especially given that he's just come from a meeting with his ex-fiance and is quite literally without a heart, which probably makes things a good deal more difficult.

"Depending on how much longer it takes to pack everything, I am hoping to be in King's End well before Deepfrost," he continues, hoping to offer a lighter topic of conversation. "Though I have heard it is just as cold there as it is here during that season."

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

// i'm not so good with tenses //

Surprised, perhaps, to be seen through so much, Niki’s question receives a raise of his scarred brows and a bark of a laugh that’s accompanied by the flicker of light arcing through his scars – all of them along his face, glowing under his shirt, down the arm with the lightning scar to his fingers that cradle the cup. “Actually yeah, it usually does.” It breaks the tension he’d been feeling – if nothing else because he realizes that his passive magic has given him away even more, snorting again as he peers down into his coffee mug.

It’s nearly gone, now, and in spite of the downward turn of the conversation, he latches onto the lighter topic of conversation like it’s an escape rope from the cave of everything else he’d unknowingly descended into. “Sounds great.” He agrees, settling in a little more, his thumb stroking along the handle of the mug. “It does get pretty cold, unfortunately.” He sighs dramatically, his nose wrinkling. “Luckily New Haven’s got a lot of merchants and people that come together and clean up the streets so it’s easy to walk around and stay warm. Outside fires and stuff, too.” At least they had last season, and he finds it very easy to boast about how much the citizens took pride in their region, like it was some kind of reflection on himself.

the Heartless

// i'm tensin' up thinkin' about what i'm supposed to call you now //

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Ah. Apologies - if you like we can go back and I will pretend to fall for it?" Niki offers, smiling despite himself at Sunjata's abrupt laughter, not to mention the way his scars suddenly light up across his skin. He doesn't expect it to look so beautiful in truth, biting back the urge to say so and instead promptly finishing his cup of coffee. He'll regret it in a few minutes for the too-quick flood of caffeine, but for now it has been worth it to give his hands something to do.

Nodding at the turn in conversation towards the weather, of all things, Niki nevertheless feels glad to have an idea of what he's letting himself in for. "And to clarify, the pathways do not rearrange themselves whenever they feel like it?" No shade to the Greatwood, because it's one of the necromancer's favourite things about the place, but it is also somewhat ableist in his humble opinion.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope