❛    anyone can be capable of anything,    ❜  is all they reply in response. it’s a haunting sort of statement, made even worse by salem’s natural monotone. however despite the words, the taller seems to relax somewhat, evidently reassured by nikos’ reply. 

salem often chooses to see the best in others rather than dwell on the worst. but that does not mean they are not aware of those worsts. nikos could very well be someone who actively hurts people he loves. but salem has now decided to believe he’s not despite that possibility. they want to believe the best intentions. so that’s what they’ll do, suspicion & sense giving way to naïveté. 

❛    friends look after the people they love.    ❜  nikos has stated his love for the brothers, salem may as well make a similar proclamation. salem does love the shrouds. they have even before they had realized they were still capable of feeling something like that. they’re salem’s family & they want to keep them safe. there’s nothing more to it than that.  

❛   i’m sorry.    ❜  the words are a little gentler now, salem attempting to convey their sincerity in the ways they can. the redhead’s expression softens somewhat, pale hands moving to clasp in front of them.    ❛    people just don’t want to see them for good reasons very much.   ❜  it’s a true statement. & if nikos knew them as well as he claims to, surely he’ll understand that.  ❛    idia & ortho mean a lot to me. i don’t want them getting hurt again.    ❜

“You’re as deep as ya are tall, I’ll give ya that.” But they raise a good point. Anyone is capable of anything no matter how well intentioned or full of love they may be. Something that was becoming increasingly more clear the closer Nikos was brought into the Shroud family proper.

A sweet sentiment, friends look after the people they love. OR they abandon you as soon as things get slightly difficult. As had happened before with him Idia and would happen again. Nikos almost wants to laugh about this, to call out the error in their thoughts. But he knows he’ll get nowhere if he does that. The stranger is already suspicious of them, no need to make things worse just to feel like he’s right about a matter of opinion.

“Sweet too. Glad to see they’re making friends like you.” Instead he smiles something that comes to him as easily and naturally as breathing itself. He is glad to see his cousins are making friends who seem caring, who seem to genuinely love them. But at the same time he finds himself skeptical wondering when the other will go in the way of everyone else.

nikos does little to dissuade salem’s suspicion. on the other hand his half answer followed by questioning gives them all the more reason to believe he’s hiding something. it doesn’t really surprise them. anyone connected to the shrouds often had something to hide. the shrouds themselves are fairly secretive in nature. well two can play at that game. & salem isn’t inclined to give him anything useful if that gesture isn’t returned.

❛    that’s not any of your business.    ❜  again a faint chill creeps into the brisk air of their way of speaking. though this time it’s more intentional. salem may as well be honest with their suspicion. in the slight chance nikos is actually someone trustworthy, the misunderstanding will be cleared up faster if they’re more clear.  ❛   you haven’t given me any reason to believe i should trust you with either of them.  ❜

it’s a rare break from their usual passiveness, for once their tall stature not marred by shy & meek behavior. though all the same salem doesn’t quite meet the authoritative or domineering air of someone to be feared. they stand their ground but don’t stand to intimidate the other. ❛   i won’t help you until i know you won’t hurt them.    ❜

“And my business isn’t any a’yours .” Despite the chill that runs down their back they tough it out reminding themselves of the chills that ran through their body when lost at sea. Their chills felt like kin to death but he told himself it wasn’t. They weren’t. Their honesty catches him off guard however and this does elicit a reaction beyond jests. A raised eyebrow and a lowering his lips into what could almost be a frown. It’s rare, exceedingly rare, to meet someone so to the point with the truth. Not having to bat things around like a game of cat and mouse is almost unnerving. Which seems only fitting for the unsettling fellow before Nikos.

He waits to know their stance on the issue, what they want from this give and take. What they request shocks him yet again. No demand for secrets or inside knowledge. But an appeal for reassurance that he is there with no intention to harm his own family. This stranger certainly is full of surprises which Nikos must admit he enjoys. The conversation would have grown boring if they hadn’t been keeping him on his toes like this.

salem remains fairly unresponsive as nikos jokes around, the taller merely blinking slowly in response. however there is a more notable change to their demeanor upon the reveal of whom the other is looking for. salem had no reason to distrust nikos before, the only thing they knew about him being his school status. though him having a supposed involvement with the shrouds is another story. 

a protective like air washes over them, eyes slightly narrowed as salem more closely inspects the other. it’s a subtle change, virtually undetectable unless you’re aware of how mild their emotions are displayed. ❛   yes i know them. they’re my friends.    ❜  salem’s not entirely against helping nikos. but they’ve elected to refrain from doing so until they know he’s not here to cause harm. they’re all too familiar with how people in the shrouds’ past enjoy to torment them. ❛    what do you want with them?    ❜

“Friends?” Nikos repeats sounding almost skeptical of the word. He goes through hours of texts, years of conversation, looking for someone to fit the criteria. One person comes to mind, Salem. The name repeats on end far more often then Nikos cares to calculate. He wonders if this might be they with eyes like ‘life itself’. What did that even mean, Idia? Nikos stares at them silently a moment trying to discern if their eyes are at all akin to life. But nothing tells them there’s any life there. He kinda feels bad for the stranger now. Didn’t mean they weren’t still lying to mess with him however. “Their attention, obviously.” Not really an answer but he doesn’t owe an answer to this person. All he owes them is a ‘thanks for the help’ and a ‘have a nice day’ once he gets where he’s going.

with the apology salem relaxes somewhat. it’s not exactly common for others here to back off immediately when they request it. often night raven students take it as some sort of challenge. maybe the reason this one is more considerate is the fact that he’s not from this school at all.  

❛    you’re from royal sword academy.    ❜  it’s a blank statement, spoken softly in the chance that someone else would overhear them. salem doesn’t quite understand the intense hostility founded in the school’s rivalry. but they’ve never been one to care about petty things like that anyway.  ❛   who are you looking for?    ❜

“That obvious? And here I was trying to blend in.” He was being sarcastic, of course. He had attempted to hide his school affiliation but kids in this school seemed to be able to sniff out RSA students like bloodhounds. Or the fact that he was an unfamiliar face wearing RSA blue uniform pants was a give away. Luckily this student didn’t seem to hold the same rivalry as others.

Why was it Ness’s duty to bring Riddle his forgotten belongings? It’s not like it was his fault the queen of perfection forget his arm band at club practice. Besides maybe a teacher would see he forgot and get onto him for it. It’d teach him some humility at least. This was what Ness kept telling himself as he trudged towards the mirror to the Heartslabyul dorm. If any teacher other then Vargas had asked him to do this he’d have made up some excuse about why he couldn’t or more over wouldn’t help. However as he’d do most anything to please the head coach of NRC, he agreed. He debated throwing the damn thing away and really teaching the kid a lesson about not forgetting his things. But thought better then to risk having Vargas find out he was unreliable.

Still he didn’t have to actually go into the dorm or even see Riddle. All he had to do was make sure this stupid piece of cloth got to him. The bare minimum of what could be considered a plan formed in his mind as he began to scan the passing students for the marks of a Heartslabyul student. His eyes finally landed on a red haired boy not too far ahead of him with a red and black armband that just so happened to match the one Ness was carrying. He picks up his pace until he’s right next to the other before throwing his arm around them to keep them from running.

“ mm, so that’s the stuff i should sell, ” ollie agrees, neatly dodging sylvia’s attempt to smack them upside the head with an ease that could only be born of practice. 

it was a pleasant surprise for ollie to realize that sylvia, kalahan’s-girlfriend, was the same as sylvia, professor-at-night-raven-college upon arriving, making keeping them out of the greenhouses — even (especially) when she was teaching a class — a complete lost cause. right now they’re skipping magical history: it’s fine, ten minutes with sylvia is more educational than ten hours with trein.

“ ‘s got any copycats ?? there’s one sorta like it back home that you could eat, just tasted gross. ”

“With side effect being noted as extreme tiredness, full body numbing and paralysis of the limbs.” The thwack at Ollie’s head comes not long before Sylvia’s words are spoken. There’s no force behind the movement barely even enough to leave a gust of wind behind. But it’s enough to accentuate her annoyance for having been interrupted during her explanation of the Somaura plant. A slightly tan thistle like plant with heads of pale pink and blue blooming out.

“That’s what only a little can do. If more then that were to get to someone stupid and they were to get hurt, it would not be worth the profit that could be made.” One would assume that as a teacher who loved her job Sylvia would not be one to advocate for her students selling drugs to their fellow students. However her objection is raised more at the danger of the situation. Always a firm believer in the ‘If you can’t stop them, warn them’ approach she assumes telling Ollie this and moving the plant out of his reach will be enough to dissuade this endeavor.

“Oopsies.” Ness finally speaks smiling at the stranger as he grabs the arrow, pulling it from the tree near effortlessly. “Guess I wasn’t looking where I was shooting.” If Vargas knew he was practicing his shooting off the proper shooting grounds Ness would be lucky to just get detention. It was the third time he’d nearly hit someone since returning from winter vacation. In theory he could go to the school’s shooting grounds to practice when he pleased, all he’d have to do was get permission and follow the rules. But where was the fun of practicing in the same place everyday? They had so many rules and restrictions on the proper shooting grounds that it got almost boring to work there. Ness found it a lot more entertaining to work on his marksmanship outside of the grounds. Where he had to make calculations for anything that could happen. Where anyone could step into his line of sight at any moment. It added a sense of danger.

“No, Metis stop!” But before he can reach to grab her the eighty pound Sheepdog she’s slipped her collar and bolting across the lawn. Still just a pup she’s not used to having to walk on a leash especially not when she used to run so freely on the beaches at home. The entire change from wide open spaces she could run around in as much as she likes, to remaining kept in only certain gardens to now having to remain hidden most all the time is a change that’s certainly taken some getting used to for the young animal.

“Niiiikoooos!! I’m being extorted for money!”

it’s an easy mark; your regular average - joe type passing through an okay part of town doesn’t even think to keep an eye on his jacket pocket, especially not when he’s walking past some loud construction on a crowded street. guys like him didn’t always carry cash (and ollie doesn’t have much use for any of the cards), but a low - risk low - reward sort of mark is alright for a fairly lazy afternoon. it can’t always be high-stakes shoplifting, after all. 

they’re also smart enough to know when they’re being followed, even by somebody decent enough to blend into a crowd properly. fagin’s not — well, it’s hard to say anything complementary about fagin, but at least he teaches his kids how to survive. ollie hasn’t lasted this long on luck, now have they ?? they brace for the guy to just wrench the wallet out of their grasp, ears pricking just-so and tail fanning side to side in short, quick motions. bigger people — bigger than ollie anyways, which isn’t exactly a feat — tend not to go for subtly, and they’d like to get back to fagin without any new injuries. he gets touchy when he thinks they’ve been disparaging his good name.

SO IT’S A PLEASANT SURPRISE, TO JUST HAVE A CHALLENGE. yeah, the guy’s probably just using them as bait, but it’s — nice, to have the monotony of a regular day in the city broken up a little. the corners of their lips quirk upwards, despite staring straight ahead. “ i dunno, i’ve been feeling real slow lately. might speed up if you told me what’s in it for me, y’know ?? ”

They don’t immediately run or deny the challenge, this is going to prove interesting. In fact their response only makes Kalahan more intrigued by if the kid can snatch the bracelet or not. They certainly have a good head for business, wise to take his bet and up the ante instead of simply taking him at his dare. In normal life a dare like this might wound one’s pride force them into action. But on the streets you needed more then wounded pride to force someone to take up a bet. At least if the other person was smart, you needed more.

“Five hundred dollars on the spot.” The bracelet is worth more then that easily. From the shimmer that keeps catching his eye when the sun hits her wrist just right he can guess there’s a diamond encrusted amongst those pearls too. But it’s a low ball offer a test, if one will, to see exactly how much this kid is able to pick up on. They were able to notice Kalahan something most professionals don’t even manage. That was certainly a start. But starts will only keep you alive for so long out here.

Over the summer, before school started, Nikos lost his parents and his three brothers in a sailing accident. The sole survivors were him and his dog. They were spending the summer traveling the world via the ocean, trying to visit as many places as possible before their sons had to go back to school. The news of his family’s death was all over the news due to the popularity of their businesses. Nikos was forced to move in with his cousins, he was at least given the option to choose which cousins he could move in with. He choose to move in with the Shroud’s as they were the family he felt closest too.

Since his family’s death he’s been trying to act like himself before the accident happened with constant smiles, songs and stories to share. But Idia and Ortho both have noticed him smiling less, talking less, singing less and acting far more protective then before. Since the accident he’s only become more clingy of his cousins, more terrified of losing them like he lost his family before. He doesn’t want to admit it but without them around he feels more alone then he ever has before.

He wishes he could attend NRC with them but all attempts to transfer schools have been impeded or dismissed leaving him at RSA. At RSA he still smiles and jokes around. But everyone’s noticed he’s acting different then before more withdrawn and spacey. It’s hard not to know why either especially when the events of his family’s passing had been all over the news. He’s not particularly fond of anyone bringing it up either. Even if it is to give him their condolences, if anything it seems to just make him angry.