Welcome to Gaia! ::

The concept of Professor flogs people was extra funny to her, and she had to bite back another giggle. Right. He had, like, students. She didn’t say anything out loud, ‘cause she didn’t wanna go, like, overboard on the threats, but the thought crossed her mind that if he ever wronged her, she could always skip out on the physical violence and instead just tell a bunch of college kids about his raunchy hobbies.

“I mean, Emain also causes pain,” she said. It felt weird phrasing it like that, kind of clinical compared to calling it beating people up for fun, but if they were here talking about this in a serious way, then she should probably use the right terminology. “I already knew about that, too! But, like, I dunno. I trust him.”

He was a good person. She’d always believed in him.

“On the other hand, I was kinda mad at you? For, uh, the other stuff?”

The part where he’d been being weird about Emain Ablach’s purification and making him live in the Bell’s basement instead of his house. Yeah. That. Like, she didn’t wanna beat a dead horse about it, but it had changed her perspective on stuff, like, a lot.

“So, when I say weird,, I don’t mean in a good way, but, like, I’m glad you proved me wrong!”

Imhotep had, too. She’d been so scared of him at first, but now he was her science buddy.

“But, like, okay, quirky professor. Tell me something weird about yourself that doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

Okay, now this was something she could get behind. Like, no blushing, no avoidance, no weird feelings, just, like, standing up on her tiptoes, eyes sparkling in the moonlight.

Fashion was literally Nikki’s job. She could talk about print for days.

Leopard was a good choice. Some people might say that it was dated, or trashy, but honestly with the 90’s coming back in, Nikki would be surprised if it was gonna stay out of style for long. Also, she was an alt fashion designer, so the mainstream stuff didn’t really matter to her.

What looked best, she thought, was what people loved.

He clearly loved it, so it’d look great in his clothes, or his house. She liked it, too. “Okay, that’s fun, though,” she told him. “Leopard print makes me think of, like, Lisa Frank, and what kind of kawaii girly would I be if I didn’t like Lisa Frank? Also, I alway like it when people wear clothes and stuff that’s not boring.”

She remembered the cup that Dirays had let her drink out of, with the leopard on it. Did that mean that there was more stuff like that in his house?

“Is that in, like, your current house?” she asked him. “Can I see it?”

She really wanted to see it.

Her tone went a little bit teasing. “Okay, but are you sure no other print comes close? What about, like, galaxy print?”

She faked a pout, and then reached out behind her so she could hold her cape spread out, like real wings. “What about butterfly?”

Gaia pls

“Yeah, he was working on some macrame stuff when he was in the basement,” said Nectaris. She thought it was super fun. Like, one of the big things that had started her on her fashion journey was making friendship bracelets as a kid, that had turned into figuring out fancier knotwork for jewelry, and then wire wrapping, and then she’d kinda gone from there.

She still did a lot of accessories like that, though. Simple little knotwork earrings and stuff in her signature fun, bright colors made up a decent part of her sales, and it was cool seeing what someone else did with it.

She wondered if he’d been working on anything since he left.

“And I gotta visit him anyway! I’m, like, due!”

But anyway, speaking of her job-

“I could make you one!” she said. She didn’t get as much demand for custom pieces, her thrift flips and stuff, usually, but she was good at it. “Could do paint, or embroidery.” She puffed out her cheeks, trying to think about hours and materials and stuff in her head. “I might have to charge you a little bit, but I could give you a discount.

He wanted to make sure that artists were paid fairly? Okay, now she really liked him.

“Okay, you can pay for materials and labor,” she told him. She wasn’t gonna say no to something like that. “No, like, upcharge, though.” Plus she wouldn’t have to consider, like, fees and shipping and stuff like that if she wasn’t going through Etsy. She was sure she could get him something nice with it only being, like, kind of expensive.

“But, yeah! See what you can thrift. I’ll sketch something up.”

This was gonna be a fun project, honestly.

“And I’ll be by soon to, like, look at your stuff for inspiration.”

She rolled her shoulders. “For now I should probably head back, though.” They’d finished sparring a while ago, anyway. Even if she kind of wanted to talk about fashion all night and look through his stuff, that wasn’t the responsible thing to do if she wanted to be awake enough to actually do some of that work in the morning.

Nectaris narrowed her eyes playfully, one hand on her hips. “Hey!” she said. “You just referenced it! On purpose!”

For some reason she didn’t actually seem that upset about it anymore. She did puff her cheeks out in thought for a couple seconds, though, before she said, “See, if you keep this up, I’m gonna have no choice but to exclusively refer to you as Dr. Flogs People.”

Maybe it wasn’t much of a threat when it wasn’t like she really interacted with anyone he knew besides his husbands. It would still be kinda funny, though.

That was the thought she left hanging in the air as she raised her hand to wave goodbye.

“Yeah! Okay bye!” She said, and started skipping back down the path towards her house.

When they met again, they could talk more about fashion and less about weird secrets.