AGURIL CATCH-ALL • OPEN!

[trulygifted]

Who: Nico + TBA!
When: Throughout Aguril
Where: All over Aefenglom
What: TBA
Warnings: Cussing, child labour, a very brief allusion to potential child injury, more TBA!

1st - 2nd august • poppin' parties.

( It isn't until after she and Siegfried have parted ways following the wedding fashion show that Nico begins feeling a little strange. You'd think that with a best friend as loved-up as Nero she'd be used to talk of vows, romance, and ever-lasting commitment, but the truth of it is that Nico has spent years fortifying herself against that sort of thing. She ducks out of those conversations, leaves Nero and Kyrie to do their thing when they start looking like they're about to start singing to each other, and throws herself into her work to avoid having to think about how all that exacerbates her own insecurities.

Bonding. Marriage. Depending on someone else and having someone else depend on you — even if it's just to make sure your magic doesn't go crazy and destroy someone's flowers again. Nico's understanding of relationships is that it's better to make sure you can survive alone, for all the best years of her life were spent under the wing of her adoptive grandmother. Justifying her self-imposed isolation leaves a bitter taste in the back of her throat, and the best way to deal with that?

Oh yeah. It's alcohol.

Fortunately for Nico, these celebrations are well-stocked with all sorts of silly, fancy drinks. She doesn't bother gathering up the skirts of her dress as she heads to one of the outdoor bars — shit, it isn't like she's going to wear the thing again anyway — and she sweeps a few strands of flyaway hair back from her face where it's loosened from the messy bun. )

Hey! My good-for-nothin' fiancé just left me at the altar, anyone here gonna buy me a drink to commiserate?

( Her makeup is sparse but her lips have been painted a rich wine-red, and they curve into a confident smile as she brandishes her bouquet. )

Don't be shy, now.

9th - 15th august • forging ahead.

( It's taken Nico a while to gather up the things she'll need for her first real test-run at the Forge, but now that they're getting in to Aguril? She thinks it's about time to give it a shot.

She's had to un-learn a lot of what she already knew in order to make sense of the relationship between alchemy and magitech: it's not like back home, and alchemy doesn't work the way it did in her rotten father's notes, but a lot of the core fundamentals of magitech are reasonably mirrored in home-world physics. The kitchen table has been a half-decent workbench so far, but it's time to dream bigger.

Nico is going to need a lot of heat — and a fair bit of magic, too.

With Nero's man-flu all but cleared up she feels less guilty about leaving him home alone, and has gathered up the spare parts she's been collecting into a threadbare sack she found left-over from the cottage's previous residents. The malfunctioning devil breaker is going to be her experiment today: if she can get it to work again at even half the capacity it used to, it'll be a win, and she's hopeful that what she's learned (plus the materials she's gathered) will get her to her goal.

She's half-way to the Forge when the sack, already groaning under the weight of her tools, gives in to the strain of its burden. There's an almighty clatter as scrap metal and spare cogs scatter across the cobbled floor, the din only added to with an exasperated female: )

Fuck!

( Someone give her a hand? )

16th - 22nd august • hazard at the harbour.

( Now, Nico doesn't really like to talk about it all that much, but she's a sucker when it comes to helping out lost-looking kids. It's why she never means it when she complains about being roped into Nero and Kyrie's activity days, and it's why her muffins are practically famous among the children they look after. Nero knows all he'd have to do is call if they needed her to come over and do some minding.

The harbour kids hit that same chord deep within Nico's chest. Child labour? Strike one, because that should have gone out of fashion decades ago. Poor factory conditions? Strike two. If you're going to make orphaned children work, at least have the decency to make sure they're not going to get sick or injured on the job — especially if you've got them working with any kind of machinery.

... And speaking of. )

Now, have you all been listenin' to what I've said here?

( Nico is standing on a crate before an audience of kids with one hand on her hip, while the other gestures towards the machine's mechanism with the head of a screwdriver. )

It should work way better now, and you won't need to jam your fingers in there to unstick the wheels anymore.

( She suppresses a shudder at what might've happened had one of the children been too late in yanking their hand back out again. Nope, not gonna think about that. Moving on. )

If I catch any of you geniuses messin' with my work, don't think I won't come down here an' find you. My best friend? He's a dragon. And— ( She says pointedly, reaching down to procure the basket she'd stashed behind the crate. ) I won't bring you any more of my world famous muffins. Got it?

wildcard + ooc notes!

Or hit me with something else! Prompt dates are just the dates between which I'd prefer these interactions to happen! I'm not fussy about getting specific, it's just so that I can keep an eye on where she is and what she's doing. Feel free to message me any time if you'd like to plot something out, otherwise have at her.

( ooc: This is open to all! Feel free to message me any time if you'd like to plot something out, I can be found on Plurk scry or Discord @ pearls#4530. Thanks! )

Comments

[trulygifted]

( Nico's breath stutters in the back of her throat as Sephiroth closes the space between them, silver-pale yet somehow dark as the night encroaching in on them from all sides. It thrills through her body like so much electricity — keeps her rooted to the spot as her gaze snags on the luxurious spread of his wings — and her pupils pinprick on yet another rush of adrenaline that floods its way through her core.

No, this isn't better. This is deeply, arrestingly worse, in no small part because of how easily he rids himself of his sword. Sephiroth is a man confident enough to hunt with little more than his own physicality, and that has Nico's pulse thundering in her throat. When she speaks again it's a just a little breathless, just a little ragged around the edges: )

... You're a real piece of work, you know that?

( But the tension is too much, and Nico is bold — bold enough to try one last attempt to throw him off. She wreathes her hand in a weak shimmer of flame and curls her fingers into a fist, which she pulls back and swings on a wild trajectory to connect with Sephiroth's jaw. It feels like a desperate, slightly manic gesture, if only because she already doubts that she'll land her hit, but she refuses to let herself be cowed when he hasn't so much as touched her. )

[supersoldier]

[And so the figurative thread snaps. Nico summons forth fire and swings it straight at his jawline, and Sephiroth does something that might surprise her — he allows it to connect, feels that crack across his face and the licking of flame that gutters against his skin. It’s stingingly hot, but it won’t even leave a burn. His head does little more than jostle, his wings flare in tizzied excitement, and he just looks at her again and smiles.

Talons reach out and grasp at the wrist belonging to the hand that had just struck him. He aims to pull her forward, yanking unkindly, as though to keel her balance awry and keep captive the origin of her magic — her fingertips — in the same motion.

Close like this, he is certain he can feel the blood throbbing in her veins. The temptation to feel the heartbeat in her neck manifests into action, his free hand coming up to slide across and just under her jaw, where he can feel the quick-fire tapping of her pulse beneath. It’s exciting, in a way, to have this kind of control; to feel delicate anatomy housed in someone so openly rebellious.

So near that his hair might tickle her face and neck, he says—]

Your magic’s weak. What happened to the flame that destroyed my flowers?

[He almost laughs, breathy and barely-heard.]

I wish I could show you what mine could do, once. [In an admission pulled forth by the addling nature of the moons, and the moons only—] I’ve been told it razes entire towns. I think yours could, too — with enough practice. That would make the hunt more interesting. You'd put up more of a fight then, wouldn't you?

[trulygifted]

( Nothing. Her punch does nothing — it doesn't even leave a mark — and Nico realises that this might be the first time she's ever experienced feeling truly powerless. Back home her guns have always kept her safe enough, even if all they did was hold back the demons until Nero arrived, but this time there's no Devil Hunter coming to make mincemeat of this particular ... problem.

Sephiroth isn't an enemy — not really. He's just a vicious, beautiful nuisance.

He pulls her in closer, setting her off her axis and leaving her wobbling a little as he lifts her hand up higher. He's — those are talons, real talons setting against the tender skin inside her wrist, although the fact that they don't pierce supports the idea that he really is just outside looking for fun. Sephiroth has had plenty of opportunities to do her harm — more than she cares to think about, really — and yet here he is, leaning in close to share her warmth and talk about his flowers. )

R-Razes entire towns, huh?

( Nico makes an irritable sound in the back of her throat when she realises that inherited stutter is back. A deep breath follows, then a long exhale, as she tries to get ahold of herself again. )

Sounds like they were talkin' from experience. Is that really somethin' to brag about? Wiping out whole towns like they're nothin'?

( She grits her teeth, squirming just a little to test the strength of his grasp. )

Think I'll just stick to gettin' strong enough to deal with the assholes creepin' the woods at night, if it's all the same to you.