Complete Private Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

[Fiora Di Angelo]

The clock finally ticked right. The sun has fallen, and they all were at their respective rooms, or at least they should be, given Nico wasn't some kind of seer and she couldn't see past walls nor cared enough to find out. Blue eyes were set upon her phone, in a constant limbo of checking over her messages with Ronja.

Just scrolling up their last conversation got her smiling. Perhaps it was just how adorable the brunette really is, but it distracted her well enough, her legs swinging up and down over the bed. At least, until the crimelord herself would show up, and there was much explaining to do...

Ever since she got Val's name, It was inevitable to find out about Ari's totally-not-girlfriend's activities online. Specifically her streaming. Nothing otherwordly, and certainly nothing she would watch for long. From push came shove, and digging deeper before their fated reunion in Hawaii found her something peculiar.

Something that led her straight to disappointment: A patreon link, well hidden in fact, and difficult to get a grasp on. Yet once you had it, it was just like Terrasphere. Always there for you.

'It can't be that bad, right?' Oh how her optimism doomed her that day, and after dropping a few bucks, she realized exactly what this patreon was, and now the elephant would be addressed once silence got broken in her outburst at the dinning table.

And when Luthien dropped in, Nico's features turned to a frown filled with disgrace, the pinkette wearing her hello kitty pajamas and all still looked fairly intimidating from the neck and above. She crossed her arms against her chest, waiting until the blonde closed the door and sealed her fate.

"If you needed money, you could have asked Ari. Hell, you could have asked ME. I'm sure selling drugs lets you keep your dignity over... This." Nico showed off her phone, switching back to her browser and into Luth's patreon, having unlocked one of her cheap, low tiered fanservice maid outfit pics.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

The last thing she had expected was to hear the word “patreon” tumbling from Nico’s lips in the middle of dinner, having caused the blonde to almost choke as a result before that gut wrenching feeling was back. She’d drank her beer in response, feigning ignorance for the most part in the hopes that the pinkett might forget about it—though both of them knew that was almost impossible.

Valeria had taken her sweet time showering and getting ready for bed, the blonde dreading the thought of going into the master room she’d be sharing with Nico for their two week stay in Hawaii. A glance had been given towards Ari’s door as she’d exited the bathroom, before a long and drawn out sigh escaped her lips as the blonde resigned to her fate.

With some luck perhaps Nico had fallen asleep while waiting…?

Piercing blue eyes stared right into her own amber hues the moment Valeria’s head peeked into the room, the gremlin very much awake and clearly waiting for the blonde to finally grace their shared room with her presence. "W-What a day, huh?" A nervous chuckle escaped her lips, the words colored with the same uneasiness the blonde felt gripping her chest. This wasn’t a conversation she had expected to have, and certainly not one she wanted right now.

"If you needed money, you could have asked Ari. Hell, you could have asked ME.”
"Okay first, that’s a bit hard to do when I didn’t even know either of you—"
”I'm sure selling drugs lets you keep your dignity over... This."

Her lips clamped shut as the woman continued, her phone now pointed towards the girl who stood by the closed door of their room with one of her Patreon pictures on display.

"Second of all there’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing, Nico." her brows knitted together, the distaste she felt noticeable in the way the timbre of her voice changed. "Boudoir photography is just another art style, and if I can make a living while enjoying multiple hobbies of mine that’s a win in my book."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"W-What a day, huh?" By now Nico had gotten pretty good to read whenever Val felt uneasy, and for certain she expected the blonde to notice a thing or two from how she stared hard back at her. So instead of waiting around, she went straight to the point.

And for once, Val retaliated with a clear lack of enthusiasm on it, given how displeased the woman seemed to be called out. Her own brows fell down and met for a frown. "Call it for what it is: Soft-core. And yeah there -is- a problem, goddammit!" Nico started, throwing her phone gently over to Luth's bed before cutting short the distance between the both of them. "Look at you! Selling yourself for a couple bucks for some creeps to look at," She gestured with both hands back at her friend, in a 'look at you!' kind of expression.

"You are worth more than that. Hell, you are a nice person, just that alone is worth a couple billions in this world and I'm selling you short on it. I can kiiinda expect this from Dayeon, not gonna lie." She had to get that out of her chest, but that's only because the idol was that: an idol, and that would garner attention real quick if she started to sell her body around in pictures like Val does. "But not you, girl. Is it really just for the love to art why you do that?" She couldn't hide her curiosity given the way she described it as art. It wasn't art, just like filming people doing it with a cheap camera and uploading it to a site ain't art.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Call it for what it is: Soft-core.” Valeria couldn’t help the dramatic roll of her eyes as Nico continued, insisting that this was a bigger issue than it truly was. Nico’s phone was lobbed towards Val’s side of the bed before the pinkett followed it, the picture still displayed on its screen as Nicocontinued with her tirade. "You are worth more than that.”

She knew her friend’s criticism came from a good place in her heart, and that single thought was the only thing keeping Valeria from lashing out in return—though it did little to lessen the scowl on her face. Instead she allowed Nico to get her feelings on the matter out of her chest and into the open air, the lack of a smile or even a smirk from Valeria as the pinkett took a jab in Dayeon’s direction speaking louder than any words the blonde could’ve said.

”Is it really just for the love of art why you do that?”
"Right now? Yeah, I wouldn’t call it a hobby if I didn’t enjoy it Nico."

The odds that Nico would drop the topic now that she’d started it were in the negatives, and Valeria couldn’t help the frustrated groan in her throat as a hand rose to pinch the bridge of her nose. Of all the nights for this bullshit… A part of her had hoped that the pinkett would’ve forgotten about the matter entirely after the amount of beers they’d drank tonight, but it seemed luck just wasn’t on Val’s side tonight.

"Scoot over before I shove you off to your side of the bed," The last thing she wanted to be was standing if this was going to be a long conversation, a hand grabbing the phone atop the bed before pressing the side button and locking the screen. It was carefully lobbed towards Nico’s lap before the blonde sat down and closed her eyes, head tilted back and resting against the headboard as a long and drawn out sight escaped through her lips.

"Just so we’re clear Nico, I’m not closing down my Patreon because you don’t like it." The serious expression on her face and the finality of her words clearly showed this wasn’t a point that was up for debate, amber eyes staring straight into the baby blues of her friend as Val spoke. "We both know you’re not gonna drop this anytime soon though, so go on—ask whatever’s on your mind."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"Hey, hey" She snapped her fingers in tandem as she noticed Val just roll her eyes. "Don't act like that. I'm talking nice, so play nice." It was the sweetest kind of heads-up she could give, to which she got for an answer an ugly scowl no sooner she continued. Nico took note of it, a good change comparatively, but regardless, she continued as per planned.

"Right now? Yeah, I wouldn't call it a hobby if I didn't enjoy it Nico."
"Weird." She replied, judgemental stare without a lack present on her face. "With how well you hide the patreon itself, that is."

The idea just seemed like Val was completely out of her mind. Or perhaps that's just the kind of woman Yugam likes, and the more she thought about it and the more Dayeon came to mind, the easiier the connections could be made as to why what happened, happened, in regards to a certain situation.

"Scoot over before I shove you off to your side of the bed,"
"You know I don't sleep here though. The floor is it for me." Dead serious about it too. There were two people she would share a bed with: One backstabbed her, the other is currently unreachable given her condition. And she wasn't about to make Ronja fly all the way here. Lena wouldn't approve it anyways.

Bouncing off the bed, Nico got herself back on her feet, effectively switching places with Valeria, with the first thing the blonde did, aside of a very negative look, was to express her refusal to change, only to add after a little pause for her to ask anything on her mind.

Nico raised a brow to that.

"Nah, I don't think I have to ask anything else," She shrugged it off, her voice didn't have venom dripping upon it like one would expect out of that sentence, it lacked it entirely, as much as she lacked any seriousness for it. Just like that she turned a different switch inside her head and left any worries to the side. "If you gonna keep doing it, keep doing it."

Stupid of her to worry for a friend in the first place.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Don't act like that. I'm talking nice, so play nice."
"Trust me, I am playing nice."

The snapping of fingers as the blonde began to roll her eyes caught Val’s attention, a light snort escaping the girl as Nico admonished her before the girl corrected the gremlin’s assumption. Critical eyes remained on her as Nico pointed out how well hidden the patreon link was, earning a sigh from Valeria as the girl headed for the bed. "That’s ‘cause I don’t want every creep on the internet and then some coming across it." It was unavoidable of course, those were the risks that one took whenever they shared something out into the world through the world wide web, and as such the blonde had always been careful of taking whatever precautions she could to keep the vermin out.

"Besides, most of the boudoir community are actually pretty chill people."

She’d been a part of it long before the idea of her patreon had surfaced in her mind, and unsurprisingly that had been the market Valeria had initially focused on at first in the earlier days. The integration of her cosplay work had come much later when she’d found it necessary to expand her reach for a higher revenue, and Val was sure she wouldn’t have had as much control of the current audience within it had it not been for those earlier members of the boudoir scene.

"You know I don't sleep here though. The floor is it for me."
"Wha—Nico that’s absurd, you’re not sleeping on the floor."

Amber eyes stared at the pinkett as if the woman had grown a second head, it seemed the gremlin was full of the most unlikely surprises as she’d continued to reveal throughout their first 24 hours in Hawaii.

"For starters that’d make Ronja sad," The index finger on her hand rose into the air as she made her first point, deliberately choosing to use the brunette’s name for emphasis before her middle finger shot upwards too. "And also what kind of friend would I be if I let you sleep on the floor of all places?"

It did little to dissuade the pinkett however, the woman already on her feet as she bounced off the bed as Valeria sat down. The deadpan expression she gave Nico slowly shifted to one of light surprise when the woman seemed willing to drop the matter as suddenly as she’d brought it up in the first place, before her eyes narrowed in suspicion towards her friend. It was like someone had flicked off a switch, and it left a terrible taste in her mouth as Val recognized the behavior.

"Nico… look, I’m sorry okay?" A sigh left her lips as she looked at her friend, the very same one that had stuck by her side back in Lübeck and afterwards too, as the blonde struggled to find the words she wished to say. "I shouldn’t have been so crass with you."

Friendships were complicated, and something Val herself had little experience on. It had always been easier to keep others at arms’ length, but somewhere along the way this pink gremlin wormed their way into her heart—even though they knew little of each other outside of the world that TerraSphere provided.

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"Trust me, I am playing nice."
"Good." Her answer went through quick and without a doubt matching the criticism Val had. The tension was clear in the air, but she rather not comment much into it.

"For starters that'd make Ronja sad,"
"Don't bring her into this... Don't. There's a reason, okay?" She couldn't let her bring up her lover just like that, and the severity within her features, from lackadisical to offended, were sign of this. "It's just a way to phrase: 'im going to the couch'. Just trust me in this one that it's my decision and not just me wanting to be nice for no reason." Because Val of all people should know sincerity was part of this gremlin's speech.

Then apologies came her way, and Nico couldn't meet her in the eye, not without a glare at the very least, until even that anger just faded into a tiresome sigh. Troubled, as she rubbed her temples. "Listen, it ain't your fault. I'm still salty for you not telling me about Ronja. I told you, I got a knife on my back and that wound is still fresh in my head, specially now that she's with me. She... Means too much, Val."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Don't bring her into this... Don't. There's a reason, okay?"
"Fine, I won’t… but really, the floor?"

It was then the pinkett finally confirmed that she wasn’t being literal with her words, though given Nico’s nature the woman couldn’t fault Valeria for taking her at face value—she really wouldn;t have been surprised had the gremlin decided to make a nest of bed covers and sheets on the ground before curling right in the middle of it and sleeping.

"The couch…?" Her head tilted sideways at that, remembering that Nico had called dibs on it once they had arrived to the AirBnB, and if memory served her well she was pretty sure the pinkett had turned Ari’s living room into her personal room—with the couch in it serving as her bed. "... is that really comfortable?"

The tension was still there, lingering in the air between them like before, but her apologies seemed to start paving the way towards a resolution when a tiresome sigh left Nico shortly after. "I know… promise I didn’t mean anything by it." Her hand had reached for one of the pillows on the bed, pulling it towards her chest to loosely hold onto it as the blonde spoke. "You suddenly seemed so guarded regarding her that I… well, I dunno why but part of me thought you might be mad to find out I knew her?" She unconsciously read the mood of the pinkett, a learned behavior that Val was sure she’d never be able to get rid of, though her analysis of it had seemingly been quite off the mark.

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

Nico gave her a weird look just as Val asked twice about it: The couch, her one bed at ari's appartment, and it would be the same in this little place of theirs. She rubbed her temples and sighed off.

"Yes Val, the couch. I just feel more comfortable there than in a bed." Yet her voice trembled for a second. The topic just got too touchy, given the answer was far beyond what she wished to share. "I do it in Ari's appartment, I can do it here too." Nico merely added, shrugging off her nerves away.

The sight of Val just grasping onto a pillow, one of the pillows she had an urge to hug back at her call with Ronja. She blinked in surprise, letting her gaze dart across the room-

"You suddenly seemed so guarded regarding her that I… well, I dunno why but part of me thought you might be mad to find out I knew her?"

Nico wasted not a second to cut the distance yet again, and this time, her right hand reached out for the blonde, resting on her shoulder. Not an iron grip, but a reassuring touch from the pinkette. "It hurts, Val. It still does, and every day I have to remind myself Ronja might be gone, that I'll lose her, and in more than one ways: Someone could take her from me, or her own body may not hold itself together, or the game itself may kill her." She let go of the puerto rican, a hand reaching out to her own chest, nails clawing against her shirt and flesh alike.

"I'm scared, Val. I really am, even if I look mad, I'm just fearful of what could happen to her. And I'm trapped far away from her... Too far away from her."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

A soft "Eep!" involuntarily left her chords when Nico quickly closed the distance between them, an instinctual reaction to the sudden movements while the woman kept direct eye contact with the blonde. Nico’s hand came to rest on her shoulder then, the reassuring touch that the pinkett offered being the opposite of what Valeria had initially expected.

She listened as Nico finally opened up about the things that plagued and worried her, many of the thoughts that the pinkett mentioned being familiar to the blonde as well… though in Nico’s case there was an additional worry in the real world as well. "We really got the short end of the stick when it comes to romance, huh?" An empathic smile was offered to the woman as she released Valeria’s shoulder, her hand moving to tap an open space of the bed beside her as an invitation for Nico to sit down.

Everyone felt scared at times, it was an unavoidable reality of life, but Nico’s boisterous and loud personality had caused Valeria to forget that.

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

Instincts took hold of Val, sudden movements of her own combined with a traumatic profile...

A profile not so different to her own. One that Val got to see for a moment hours ago. These ticks they would try their best to hold down, and yet they came out, and as if a twist of fate, it was exactly the kind of reactions both of them knew to the letter. There was no hiding that from eachother, even if they didn't mention it in the first place.

"We really got the short end of the stick when it comes to romance, huh?"
Nico released air out of her nostrils, vaguely amused. She made her way over to the bed, sitting next to Luthien, yet keeping a fair distance between the both of them. At least one person away from eachother. "Blame the second fuckboy for that. And well, in your case..." She trailed off at the end, confirming the suspicions Luthien might have at this point. Weary expression turned to face the door of their bedroom, as if she somehow felt a presence behind it. Paranoia, most likely, one that she casted aside, shooking her head off to achieve that.

"I can't forgive Dayeon for what she did to you. I know I'm harsh to her, and I still am, even if I try not to punch her on the throat every day. That day, I tried to cheer her up," Regret, guilt, or perhaps anger. She couldn't tell what she felt right now regarding that memory that felt so ancient yet so fresh. "But maybe I just didn't believe it. It felt good to see her suffer, real good. Then it felt empty. And then I realized: Nothing Ari did would really fix that scar you got, just like nothing really ever fixed mine." She didn't want to express pity for the blonde. She didn't need it from her.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

Perhaps this is why she’d felt so close to Nico without ever having met the girl face-to-face until now, an underlying feeling of similarly shared experiences that translated into their body language and facial gestures. Neither had ever said anything directly about it, but the kinship was there and impossible to miss, and it seemed broken souls rarely had issues spotting others when they were near.

The bed creaked slightly as Nico accepted her silent invitation, though the woman kept a healthy distance between them. She made no comment about it however, a light scoff escaping her lips instead as the woman spoke. "Why is it always a fuckboy?" Her head shook lightly as she was reminded of her first flame back in high school, thankful that he’d misjudged her and shown his true colors early enough—before Valeria had the chance to add additional regrets to an ever growing list.

She was silent when Dayeon crossed the woman’s lips, a faint nod given to show she was listening as the woman spoke. It was impossible to miss how often the pinkett liked to dunk on the idol, and while Valeria sometimes did her best to intervene for the most part she stayed out of it. It was all still a bit too soon, too fresh, and the blonde wished to avoid saying something that she could later regret down the line.

"I wasn’t mad at them for what happened, y’know?" A sigh escaped her lips as her head tilted back to rest against the headboard, the grip on the pillow tightened as Valeria pulled it closer to her chest. "We all saw how insane that thing was… that could’ve been any of us, really."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

Should she be surprised? No, not at this point, it felt like Val and her knew eachother for a lifetime. Worse, they were the same, only set in different paths, despite sharing the same route with a similar tragedy. Sooner or later it struck them.

"Why is it always a fuckboy?"
"Because it has to be someone who toys with ya', obviously." Irony bled from their stories: it was a guy in both of their stories who took things to an extreme, and now here they sit, indulging into the past if only to better the present. Or, try to, as best as they could. "See this?" Nico rested her hands by the edge of her shirt, pulling it up high enough to reveal her midriff to Valeria. Average, were it not for the nasty, jagged scar that ran across her left side, the discoloured patch was like a beacon too hard to ignore. "Philly is pretty nasty, you can ask Ari about it. It hurt like hell, but it passed away real quick. In comparison, I would take another knife to the gut than a third fuckboy." She let her shirt drop back down.

Nico crossed her legs over the bed, turning her full body to face Val as the woman laid back against the bed's headboard and gave a piece of her own mind. One far more understanding than her own, admittedly.

"I know. I didn't expect you to be mad. I couldn't either with him. The second time just pissed me off, so all of my worst fell on Dayeon." She shook her head off, the memories of their fight had become but a blur, a leaf scattered over the wind in the lake of thought. "I can't remember what happened in that fight. All I know is that Dayeon started to talk weird at me in the tavern for a moment and her eyes were different. I remember..." A hand went after her neck, a burning sensation almost threatened to separate head from torso. At least so it felt. "Pain."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"See this?" Her gaze shifted to look at Nico as the woman reached for the hem of her shirt, the curiosity displayed in her eyes soon giving way to surprise as a short gasp escaped her lips. She’d never seen a stab wound before, but it wasn’t really hard to put two and two together as Nico provided additional context. "Fuck…"

”In comparison, I would take another knife to the gut than a third fuckboy."
"Never been stabbed myself, but I’d probably prefer it to dealing with a fuckboy too."

At least physical wounds healed on their own, all she had to do was make sure she ate well and gave the body the proper rest it needed while it recovered. Mental wounds though… those were dicier to patch up, if not downright impossible at times.

"That tree’s a goddamned menace… one that most of Lübeck deserve too." The town still left a bitter taste in her tongue, the attitude of most of the landers within it having ruffled all her feathers the wrong way. Sure, if she looked hard enough Val was sure they’d be able to find one or two that weren’t utter assholes—like that bakery lady—but for the most part the blonde’s heart held little, if any, love for the inhabitants of the place.

Her thoughts were snapped away from her own personal feelings regarding Lübeck and its people when Nico tried to remember the fight once more, her chest tightening in response as her mind slowly began to breathe life into memories she’d been trying to ignore. "It’s probably best not to remember it, right?" At least in that sense the pinkett was lucky, it seemed most of her memory of the fight had been locked away or lost to the winds… though it was a blessing that Valeria wasn’t afforded.

"Someone should just set fire to that whole forest and call it a day, take out the tree and all those goblins one one go."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"Fuck..."
"Yup. Fuck." She couldn't even pull a joke at Val's reaction, yet at least she didn't get the misfortune of a stab. Some differences in their paths, at least. The last she wanted was for that to also have been part of her fellow gremlin's life. "Our similarities ending there is good though.The stab hurt, eating hurt. Hell, even breathing felt like a nightmare. It wasn't fun." A weak smile coated her face. "Months of recovery beats years, though."

"That tree's a goddamned menace… one that most of Lübeck deserve too."
"The locals started to give me looks, but apparently the shiny Guild's tags were all it took to convince them otherwise. Fuck Lübeck, to be honest." Fists bailed in short-lived anger. If only her words could start an arson, the whole town itself would burn to the ground by now. Yet unfortunately that would never be the case, at least not outside of the game. "Would rob their bakery though."

No matter how hard, the pinkette couldn't recall a thing, no more than blurs and flashes that didn't quite make sense. With the way Val spoke about it, it felt like something stuck in the blonde's mind. It was apparent, given the surprise on her face, but Nico didn't act upon her own shock.

If she didn't wish to talk about it, then they shouldn't. Some things are best buried. Like the town itself.

"Don't tempt me. You know I'm not shy from starting a wildfire at this point, specially if it unfortuantely catches the town in the aftermath."

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"I bet, those are your core muscles after all." She’d been lucky enough to avoid any terrible injuries so far in her short life, but late night rabbit hole trips through the YouTube algorithm had once landed her in various retellings of people going over their surgeries and post-op recovery—the common denominator being that anything that cut your abdomen, even only a little bit, was a bitch to deal with. "Apparently those are used for everything, even things we’d normally never think about."

"Would rob their bakery though." A soft laughter escaped her lips then, the girl shaking her head as she offered a better alternative. "Nah, we just spirit her away over to Finweald instead~ Gosh that bread was so good."

Valeria had been pleasantly surprised the first time the scent of freshly baked goods had reached her nostrils in Honeyhome, though a part of the blonde had worried their taste would not deliver the same intensity… thankfully her worries had been misplaced, and the game had opened new flavor profiles and textures for Valeria to explore—some that would probably never exist back in the real world.

The way Nico’s face twisted lightly wasn’t missed on the girl, the pinkett trying her damn hardest to remember a fight that remained elusive and just out of her grasp. Her hand reached over, patting the woman lightly on her leg as she spoke. "Don’t force it, some nightmares are just best forgotten." A relieved smile tugged at the corners of her lip at that thought, glad that Nico had been spared remembering the gruesome details of it all… even if her body did remember the phantom pain where the everwhite had struck the finishing blow.

"Y’know, I never thought I’d actually make a living through boudoir growing up." A small pause had stretched between them until Valeria had filled the silence, the grip on the pillow now loose as her head tilted to look at Nico. "Kinda thought I’d have to suck it up and work a boring eight-to-five like everyone else."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

"Apparently those are used for everything, even things we'd normally never think about."
"Yeah, I found out the hard way, and then I educated myself a bit.." A light chuckle reminded her of these first few weeks. Months. Even that same year and the next left an itch that never went away. But bitching about it would get her nowhere these days where working oddjobs was the only physical activity she did in an almost daily basis.

Granted, it worked: It made her regret existence.

The trance in which she set herself led nowhere, a mist remains were memories used to be, and within that fog she could only find faint whispers echoeing screams into her ears. What little concern that brought got blurred by confusion, and Val's touch which snapped what little connection was formed.

"Nightmares are worth remembering. We need to know where we screwed up to not do it again, right?" She replied, yet her tone made it sound like she would lean for Val's logic this time around. Case by case scenario, and her friend might just be right given the lack of elaboration she gave. For now, at the very least.

Once Val begun to indulge on her life experience relating to boudoir, her hands went behind her, palms against the bed sheets as she got herself comfortable for story time. She had gotten used to uncomfortable silences, they were part of conversations like these.

This in particular she had little to go with, but Val might have sensed just that, given how quick to speak she got to fill that void between their talk.

"We do what we gotta do. Sometimes we got shit options, but we shouldn't be doing them just because they are our best alternative. I guess it's all a personal matter at the end of the day." She shrugged. Everyone could do whatever they wanted, that wasn't for her to dictate, despite her strong urge to do so at the most inconvenient of times. "I stream too, you know..." Nico said, despite her streaming days being left behind, she could still call herself one if she suddently came back to the platform, albeit with less of a welcoming than if someone like Val did it. "But I kinda stopped. Same as you: I didn't imagine myself making a living out of Ari's wallet and a few oddjobs." A pun, half-hearted, her mood didn't allow it to be any better than that, and it was noteworthy at least. Words dull like a butter knife when they used to be a machete whenever it came to jests, be them good or not. If only, because it lightened the conversation and the burden of it out of the blonde. Or so was her intent. "I plan to leave at some point though." She had no need to elaborate, wishful look in her face soothed her thoughts with visions of the brunette's smile.

"Does Ari know of what you doing, though?"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"It’s not hard to guess how we fucked up, or why." Nico did have a point, memories could be a great tool to review one’s own fuck ups and how to avoid them for the future… but not this nightmare, no. This one was best left forgotten. "We bit more than we could chew on our own, and our minds weren’t really all in it too."

The latter was probably the main reason they lost, the blonde was certain of it after those memories had replayed again and again within her mind for the weeks that had followed—despite how hard she’d tried to forget them. "Next time we’ll be prepared, fucker won’t know what hit it~" Her words were light and airy even as a smile was offered to the pinkett, though the way her fingers curled up into loose fists and the tenseness that lingered at the corners of her mouth betrayed the lackadaisical approach Val used for the topic.

"What can I say, the flexible works hours were a godsend back then…" A light shrug of her shoulders accompanied their words as their conversation shifted away from the everwhite and into the matter that had started this whole conversation in the first place. "Grandpa was sick, and nonna wasn’t exactly able to drive him to appointments and stuff."

It had been the deciding factor that had steeled her resolve before taking that step forwards, though she’d always kept it a well kept secret from them both—to the best of her abilities, at least. The few times they had inquired she’d simply said her streaming had kicked off, a half truth that was easier for them to accept than the whole one.

"I stream too, you know..."
"Huh, wait for real?! You should’ve told me sooner, Nico!"

Eyes had grown wide in surprise upon hearing those words from the gremlin sitting beside her, before excitement soon flooded her face as the girl reached towards her phone and unlocked its screen. "What’s your handle? Definitely need to drop you a follow and a subscribe—" It was then the pinkett admitted she had stopped following that venture, a light pout crossing her lips though the girl still looked at Nico expectantly.

"I’ll just have to watch your old content then until you decide to stream again,"she said with a cheeky grin, one that soon shifted as a light chuckle escaped Val as the pinkett described how she made a living nowadays. "Nothing wrong with odd jobs and receiving help from a friend when you need it."

"I plan to leave at some point though." Her eyes caught the longing look in those bright blue eyes, a soft nod of understanding given in return by the blonde. It was easy enough to figure out the reason, mostly because the blonde was sure she’d have the same plan had she been in Nico’s shoes. "Mmm, figured as much… Ronja, right?"

"Does Ari know of what you doing, though?"

This was a question she should’ve expected, but somehow it had managed to catch Val by surprise when the pinkett suddenly gave it voice. She felt the heat rush towards her cheeks, a hand unconsciously reaching for the loose golden strands and fiddling with them as she was reminded of that conversation.

"M-Mhmm," There was an unintended tilt to her voice before the girl cleared her throat slightly, figuring it was best to provide Nico with more context before her friend got the wrong idea. "T-Told him myself while we were out eating and drinking the first night in New York."

@Fiora Di Angelo

 

[Fiora Di Angelo]

It wasn't hard. Not at all. Yet curiosity is a blight at times, and it's saying applies true just as much for cats as it does for pinkorillas.

"Yeah. We all were out of it that day, weren't we?" She guessed as much, but the tension was evident even before they begun that fight all together. Whatever happened after the tree dragged them all into it's realm would forever be within Luthien's mind, and she didn't know how to feel about it by now.

"Next time we'll be prepared, fucker won't know what hit it~"

Nico snorted a little to that. "Yeah no, it will know. It just won't be able to do shit about it." She replied. Bold words, but ones she would stand to to the bitter end. The weariness had begun to wear off her voice, distracted fairly enough from the topic. Until a frown finally turned her lips upside down at Val's reasoning. The elaboration she didn't need to know.

Or rather, she did want to, if only to stop being a jerk about it.

"I'm sorry to hear that." She didn't get to meet her own grandparents. Would her life be any different, like Val's? Not like she would switch places, but it made her more concious now of just how stupid of her was to beat her down for nothing. Much like her own mother taught her to via exposure.

Fists bailed together, yet she let go of the feeling entirely at the explosive excitement coming out of the blonde, perplexed enough that, in the blink of an eye, she already got a phone out and begun to attempt her internet search for her channel. "Wait wait." She staggered over her own words, sighing off before offering her open hand, waiting for Val to hand it over before searching herself through her alias...

'Trustworthy IE'

"I just like to play PvP games and stuff. Usually yell at my viewers for being lil' pricks, I think they like it when I insult them." She shrugged. Perhaps that's why they fought her back at every opportunity, but they were good company despite it all. "Don't hold your breath though, I don't have time to stream, so I probably will never pick it up again." Sharp to cut down any hope out of the puerto rican, but if she didn't now, then she would keep her waiting forever. Best to be given the harsh truth than a sweet lie.

She couldn't comment about help, however. She's allergic to it, and taking from her friends. Every buck taken from Ari was a brick in her conciousness. The pinkette nodded and played her part, instead taking focus on the accurate guess the blonde made. "Yeah, I'm saving money to move over to where Ronja lives, and see if I can find something there. We got plans and all." Surprises to be given, and some not so surprise at all given arranging a flight would take little for the couple to organize, or in this case, for Ronja, given she's the one paying.

And the bricks multiply when it's her.

When given yet more hints of nerveousness, Nico raised an eyebrow and folded her arms under her bust, giving the benefit of the doubt to her friend who had yet to explain herself: she learned her lesson today, and instead of lollygagging about it, she clarified with the context she needed.

"Well if he knows and is fine with it, and well... You had very good reasons to do it in the first place." Nico admitted, a hand reaching out to scratch at her nape at the embarassment over her own assumptions, but that alone wasn't colouring her cheeks to a peach colour. She could barely meet eyes with Val, quivering lips parting once enough bravado was found to pull out her thoughts out of her mind. "But uhh, in that case, and given we are friends and all... Could you like." She swallowed. Hard, their eyes meeting once again. "Like, show me a bit so I can learn how to do it..? Maybe I can do some for Ronja one day and I can... convince her to try it out for me." The thought that she could show up wearing some cute outfit for her beloved in the next trip to visit her just made her die spiritually, if only because she told someone ELSE about it in the first place.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don’t be, it’s not like I actually hate what I do—or regret any of it."

She shook her head lightly to accompany her words, a reassuring smile given to Nico to show she held no ill will towards the pinkette for suddenly springing this topic upon her out of the blue. "I was intrigued by that style of photography from the first time I laid eyes on it, so it’s probably little surprise I started learning more about it." Moving far away from her mother had certainly opened opportunities that Valeria once hadn’t been able to dream of, it was amazing how much the life of one person could change when they actually had a support system around them.

"I was apprehensive at first about posting them on the web though ‘cause, well, y’know how that can go… I got lucky finding a good community and mentors willing to guide me through it when I finally decided to take that first step."

The second Nico returned the device into her hands Valeria was already tapping the Follow on the profile, a grin on her lips as she hummed happily even while the pinkorilla tried to convince her that it was a futile endeavor.

”I think they like it when I insult them.
"There’s a market for everything out there~"

She made zero attempt to restrain the impishness that colored her grin soon enough, a soft chuckle escaping her shortly after as she clicked the side button on her phone to lock up its screen once more. However she spared her friend from any additional teasing as they had moved onto the topic of Nico and Ronja, a soft nod given as she’d listened to what little the pink-haired gremlin felt comfortable sharing of their plans.

"It’ll work out, you’ll see." She knew Nico was the determined type, once the pinkette set her mind onto something it was very unlikely she wouldn’t see it through to the best of her abilities—one of the few similarities she’d found between them that made Valeria feel she was looking into a partial mirror of herself at times.

And then the conversation took a turn she had definitely not expected, amber eyes slowly widening at first as her mind double checked to make sure she’d heard what she heard, before a Cheshire’s grin slowly took over her features as her gaze stared intently at Nico. "Mmm?" It was impossible to miss the rosy cheeks that began to match the pinkorilla’s hair now, and Valeria did little to hold back her own teasing as she finally responded.

"Of course, I’d be absolutely delighted to teach you Nico!"

Her eyes never strayed from the vibrant blues of her friend even as the blonde shifted to cross legged position. The pillow she’d been loosely holding onto now was promptly discarded as Valeria unlocked her phone once more, quick swipes of her fingers bringing up her unholy patreon account and the unrestricted access to the content within. The device was then placed in front of Nico, free for the pinkette to pick up and browse, before Valeria rested her elbows on her knees as her fingers linked together to offer her chin a resting place.

"Let me know which of these maybe matches the idea you had in your head, and we can go from there~"

@Fiora Di Angelo