aef inbox

[extirpator]

Comments

post expedition

[lucubrates]

[ At dusk, the day after they return, Zelda decides to write him. ]

Dear Nier,
I am writing you to inquire about when it would be possible to see you again. In addition to being curious about your state of health, I have something I would like to offer you, if you would accept a gift.

Your's,
HRH Princess Zelda of Hyrule

[ Is she nervous? Maybe. Just a little. ]

[extirpator]

Hello :)
I'm alright.
Are you?
Give me a time and I'll be there.

[lucubrates]

[ Zelda has no idea what :) means and she is afraid of it. ]

Nier,
I am working until nine PM this evening, so perhaps ten PM would be the earliest I can see you.

[ She also has to pretend she's been using those sheets she got for the bed, so uh ]

I am quite alright, however. Thank you for asking.

Zelda

lets pretend its 2/29

[lucubrates]

Nier,
Do you have a time when I'd be able to see you today? :)
My visit will be short as I can make it, but I would like to visit today.

Zelda

omg that’s when he joined the [bleep]

[extirpator]

Zelda,

4 PM is okay :)
We can meet at the tea shop
They have flowers there

- Nier

STOP IT

[lucubrates]

[ AHHH NO ]

Nier,
That sounds lovely!
However, I am a bit concerned about space. ._.
Would it be possible to meet you in your apartment, and perhaps then we can go to the tea shop?

Zelda

Mareur 9/ Full Moon

[sing_for_me]

[ Some time in the evening, Nier will receive a message. ]

Does your offer still stand?

[extirpator]

[ it's fine, he's not quite batman yet so— ]

Always :)

Should I come over?

[sing_for_me]

[ A small smile spreads on her face. ]

Door's open

[ She's aware that that's reckless, and even more aware that it sounds that way too. But maybe that will get him to come faster. ]

[bravers]

[Some days after Nier's gift to Cloud (probably long enough for said gift to wither away, actually...) there's something new in Nier's garden.

One hand-made table should stand in a far corner of the space Nier's using to grow his flowers, and should he reach inside it, he should find a watering can, a rake, and a handful of other best approximations for what would be useful in a garden.

There's also a set of gardening gloves with a piece of paper around them, secured with the same blue ribbon Cloud's flowers came in. On the paper...]

Thanks for the flowers.
It took me a while to find out where you grow things. You're pretty fast when you're changed. Hard to track, too.

I don't know much about flowers, and I never took the time to learn what different types mean, but I wanted to do something to help you. Hope it does.
If it's a piece of shit, feel free to tear it down.

Talk to you later.

- Cloud

early april

[lucubrates]

[ Rain does not quite pour down from the sky in the way it did during the previous month. It does come, though, in short bursts to keep the ground hydrated. This summer will be hot, she thinks, coming home from a market run: Eggs, milk, fruit, and admittedly something Zelda is not sure she should indulge in, but a craving for fruit cake had struck her in the last few hours. It's late enough that traveling in the dark and in the rain isn't an ideal condition, and she realizes she might have to invest in a lantern sooner than later.

When her cabin comes into view, the lights are on. At first, her stomach drops, imagining that someone's broken in. Soon enough, however, she recalls having a spare made for a certain someone.

The door opens with a jingle; the little wind chime she'd picked out clinking together as Zelda opens her door, bags in her arms. ]

How are you?

[ That's her greeting tonight, setting down the bags. ] If I'd known you would be coming over, I would have come back sooner from the shops. [ She pauses, digging into one bag. ] I hope you have not been waiting long on me.

[extirpator]

Welcome home. [ nier rings out as she steps through the door. the scent of cooked meat whirls about the air, and there’s a meal to trace it back to splayed across the table — the house itself seems to be free of any dirt or dust, with everything having been organized nearly and put in its proper place.

there is a gentle, cordial smile furled along his lips. ]

It’s alright. I wanted you to take your time. [ on the coffee table is something unusual — it’s a long, thin wooden box, hardy and accompanied with a healthy sheen. ]

I have a gift for you. Open it when you’re ready.

[lucubrates]

[ Her curiosity is piqued, but she wants to look prim and proper, so Zelda quietly puts away the groceries. ]

I see you cleaned.

[ The meal is appreciated and once she's finished with the groceries, the polite thing to do is eat. As such, she sits to tuck into it, but looking across the way she sees her writing desk, and remembers a note a friend left her. ]

Was it boring?

early june

[bravers]

[It's ya boy with a post-it note! Or a few of them. Somewhere important. Somewhere that can't be overlooked. On your katana? Nope. Stapled to your pants? Guess again.

Congrats Nier because when you rise from your crypt bed in very very early june, there's a few little somethings smack bang on your forehead! (A few? Post-it real estate is pretty sparse, okay. Multiple notes are required.)]

Sorry for this, but I'm leaving for a while. Didn't want to, but someth-

[Note 2.]

something happened and some people I know are gone. They're not responding to calls, messages or

[3!]

anything and something feels wrong. Real wrong. I've still got their scent. I'm taking off to the Wilde to find them.

[4!]

I'm sorry. I got no right to ask but I need you to look after Aerith. Can't take her. Not as a wolf. Please, I know you got your own problems but I don't trust anyone else.

[And finally.]

There's blood in the other room. A lot of it. It's not enough to repay you, I know. But it's something.

- Cloud

[Should Nier deign to look in the kitchen, he should find rows upon rows upon rows of jars of blood occupying ...every corner. There's at least 2 boars worth.

...That's... something?]

[extirpator]

[ when he peels the post-its off of his forehead, he shuffles through each and every one, reading them intently.

there’s a quiet sigh, one that’s a little tired, before he shoves them into the bottom of his drawer.

nier gives it a few days — if only because cloud had said to take care of aerith. but nier decides to make a trek through the wild on one particular evening, where the night is darker than usual, and his katana gleams in the moonlight.

he’s got fleshy scrap of game in hand; one that’s still rare enough to ooze in the palm of your hand, the fur still attached and all. when he notes the presence of a blond haired, silken wolf in the distance, he holds it up for the creature to see. ]

Cloud.

[bravers]

[He'd picked up tracks two or three days ago. It's probably them, he thinks. The animal he became knows it- One is the bootmarks of a heavy man- tall, imposing. The other one is distinct, separate, walking a different direction entirely, light. unsure. Scent is attached to both. Something distinct- something this form equates to feeling, emotion.

It's them.
And the creature he was doesn't really know what to do. They're both in entirely different directions- so it darts between them, following one until it jutters out. Running to the other- even if that's miles away, following that until it exhausts. Circling. Running back to the first, finding something new, following and following until the sun comes up, the wolf exhausts itself, sleeping, losing it, and then running back to the previous one. Finding something new, and...

...repeating.

But then, perhaps today? Maybe even at the moment the sun went down, a third scent occupies the ground upon which he treads. Even this creature, with its absence of human thought, has a reliance on pure instinct which makes it know to be wary of the shades. It's seen animals pounced upon, devoured and consumed by the growing shadows in a single, disgusting gulp- and it knows to run and run.

But this is no shade. The third scent is just as strong, just as heady as any of which the wolf associates with the shades- but it's something else, too. It's similar to the two faint ones the wolf is chasing. It's... comforting. known, and a single word comes to the wolf's mind as it takes the scent in. Family.

So as Nier approaches it, it raises its head, tail making a quick circle in a wag as the wolf recognizes the man. His features- the timbre of his voice just as much as the wolf reconizes what he's carrying.

But it doesn't advance. There was a point of which the wolf would launch itself at him, uncaring as to what calamity would befall a man with occupied arms already having a 100 pound wolf fling itself into them, but not this time.

Instead, its tail wags and wags, a low, mournful sound coming from it (A howl, maybe? Or the beginning of one?) before it ducks its head, slinking behind an old, gigantic oak tree.

Growling. The sound of something splintering. Then gasping. Lungs filled with blood, coughing it out before his voice will work. And.]

...What're you doing here? Where's Aerith?

[Concern. And lots of it.]

text, idk late may/early june

[lucubrates]

The fruit are coming in nicely. I might even say that we can expect a decent harvest within the next two weeks. I have to admit... I am looking forward to making with them!

What's your favorite sort of cake?

no i did not go to sleep

[extirpator]

Good job :)
I’m proud of you.

I don’t have a favorite. I’ll eat any kind. It’s not often that I get to eat sweets.

[lucubrates]

Thank you, Nier.

Oh, yes. I've told you my favorite. Perhaps I can make something similar for you soon, but what about chocolate? Strawberry? Vanilla? Have you had princess cake before?

text, un: asura

[mirshikar]

[ In the early hours of an Iuneril morning...! ]

Yo, Nier.

Was going to drop by and drag your ass out for a drink, but goddamn.

Where do you even live?! Send directions, I'm already walking.

Re: text, un: asura

[extirpator]

The southeast corner of the city, third floor.

I don’t drink much.

Wait

Why are you awake?

[ he’s a vampire what’s YOUR excuse ]

[mirshikar]

[ Dude, his Bonded is also a vampire: being awake in the small hours of the morning comes as a requisite part of that partnership. But— ]

Because every night is a time for a drink. Or a fight. Or both.

Preferably both.

And even if you don't drink much, I sure as hell know you like to fight.

Meet me outside. Would pick you up like a gentleman, but it sounds like you live in an apartment, and I'm too huge to fit inside.

[ He's an outdoor dragon, okay!!11 ]

very late birthday stuff dont look at me

[lucubrates]

[ Of course she's invited him over for his birthday. Why wouldn't she? Nier may not be the sort to celebrate that but she had said she would share her Hyrule tradition of birthday cake with him.

When he gets there, late enough in the evening that sunlight has gone and the sisters are high in the sky, late enough that fireflies are starting to flit through the air, he'll find the door to Zelda's woodlands home unlocked. It's bright inside, lights all turned up and the scent of cake and something else, even more familiar, wafting through the air. Garland is hung up, reading "Happy Birthday." There's even a silver serving tray, the cover over it, sat on the table next to a setting. Twine hangs from corner to corner of the living room, rugs put away and the floor cleared. The only other new thing there is a phonograph, tucked away near an open window, playing a tinny but easy feeling song.

What is missing is Zelda. Where's he inspect first? ]

☆ delivery

[bravers]

[As Nier wakes up one dark, creepy night, he might find a little something right next to him. Cloud is nowhere to be seen- but some faint clattering elsewhere would indicate he's not too far away.]

There's a note!

It's almost winter. It's not like you can wear your jerkin all the time, so I figured this might help until you get other stuff.

[Inside said gift (tied quite neatly, and with some flowers which certainly belong in Nier's garden!) there should be a scarf. Not just any scarf! This one's magical. As Nier touches it to pull it out of the box, it should merge and shift, transforming, in front of his very eyes, into something in the style, length, and colour he most likes. Even better, when worn, it's like it changes again, into something the perfect softness, and hangs on him how he most prefers to be extra, extra warm.]

[lucubrates]

[ aching bones aside, the recovery from illness has been easier than expected. perhaps it's more that zelda isn't the sort to stay in bed for that long, firstly. and secondly, perhaps it's the fading heat. she is not of weak constitution but she is still working hard and barely having time for relaxation in the days— if that was her body's way of forcing her to take a break, then at least she could say she feels more rested than she has in a few months. ]

That book I had gifted to you some months ago. Do you still have it?

[ so, it isn't likely a surprise when zelda drags into two wagons worth of watermelons; small as they are, she'd grown them herself. ]