3 o'clock things

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

It's a date, Niki might have rebuffed if his tongue had let him, but he has to remind himself not for the first time that for however handsome Sunjata is, however warm his voice or enjoyable his company, Heartless necessarily means that's as far as anything can go - even in the necromancer's fantasies, evidently. So he merely smiles and nods his agreement, raising a brow to hear - perhaps unsurprisingly, at this point - that the similarity had been troubling for Sunjata.

"I s'pose it would be hard seein' that in the mirror every time you looked," he says. "And I used to be curious, but now..." Niki shrugs. "If I'm meant to see them again while I'm alive - my parents, I mean - then Mort will make it happen. I don't even know where they're buried, though. If they even were buried." The Greatwood keeps them as far as he's aware, but Niki has no chance of finding out more than that without divine intervention. "...Are you feelin' a little better?"

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

Sunjata might have also suggested as much, were it not for the fingers of rawness still reaching through him, stealing away any charisma that had a chance of revealing itself. But he sinks into the pillows and feels the way his hands start to relax in the wadded up shirt, enough that he can sneak one arm – the lightning scarred one – up under the pillow to be more comfortable as he peers at the other man and listens.

“It was.” He agrees, before drawing silent to paint the little picture that Niki paints. And he’s left mulling over his silent thoughts as Niki asks if he’s feeling better, and those dark steel eyes of his snap back to the sharp panes of the necromancer’s face to answer. “Yeah.” He says in a soft sigh. “We had a lot of orphanages in Korofi, too, but for vastly different reasons.” He winces slightly, but does manage a small twitch of his lips. “Did you have anyone at the orphanage that you were close to?”

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu

this world is a wasteland where nothing can grow

"Oh?" Niki responds, curious. "Were your orphanages not for children who'd lost their parents?" He's very likely missing the point through a mix of alcohol and miscommunication, but the question makes it through his lips before he can consider stopping it. Smiling a touch to hear that Sunjata is feeling less fraught after his nightmare, though, as the other man continues to get comfortable Niki does the same automatically, laying down fully in bed and angling himself towards the other man a little to keep talking.

It's been years since he's thought properly of the orphanage, honestly, Niki frowning as he casts his mind back. "A couple of kids," he admits. "I lost touch with one when he got taken on to work on skyships. The other, she ended up in the Undercroft as an archivist. We lost touch a few years ago after I..." He scrunches his nose, the memory sudden and unwelcome. "I couldn't give her what she wanted, put it that way," he makes himself say, the words tapering off on a tired sigh.

Niki

i used to have strength but i ran out of hope

relive who i've been at my worst,
every single night, looking for a distraction

“Well, when put like that it’s the same.” Sunjata pauses, as if trying to figure out how best to explain the situation. “There was a rule that my father enforced. A noble family had to have a son and a daughter, one each. And if there were any duplicates, they were taken to the orphanage.” It’s as barebones as he can explain it, but even in the dim light Sunjata wonders if Niki can see the frown that crosses Sunjata’s face with the thought. “It wasn’t something my family dealt with, but, I saw others have to go through it.” And it was awful.

But it also brought up the fact that those kids had to grow up in an orphanage without all of the wealth and typical loving families they otherwise could have had, all because they’d already had a girl or a boy to continue each line.

He draws quiet as Niki talks about the orphanage, though, imagining it in his mind when he hears the first one worked on the skyships. The second he can get the gist of what he’s saying, nodding a touch understanding. “Oh, I see.” No judgement, just a calm understanding. After all, gods knew upon arriving in Caido, Sunjata hadn’t realized the true reality of his sexuality, not until he’d had the chance to experiment. “So.. Just men, then?” He asks, curious and completely open, and he even offers his own little tidbit to make the question seem a little less intense. “I didn’t really know I also liked men until after I got to Caido.”

the flood

waiting for the sun to rise
pretty sight for some hollow eyes

totally sniped from odd ilu