daemonized | RECOLLE IC CONTACT.

For now.

[No, j/k, she has no intention of trying to bully him into a life he doesn't want. Heaven only knows she knows what that's like, and has no interest in inflicting it on someone else.

Her smile fades a touch, and she adds:]

Truth be told, I didn't initially expect to, ah, get on with him as much as I do. We've more in common than I thought.

[Of course, he knows Rosalind is joking. So much that he only huffs out a low laugh at the first part.]

It shouldn't at all be surprising to you. There are very few with whom Prompto doesn't get along with. It's his personality, you know. Though what is it in particular that you believe to be similar between the two of you?

[She hesitates, then a little stiffly:]

We were both very lonely as children. And we both retreated to the world of maths and science as a result.

...Ah.

[Ah, he says, and finding that unsatisfactory, he continues.]

I understand. [He can relate, in his own way.] While I'm sorry to hear that's what you two had to bond over, perhaps in the end it'll be helpful for Prompto. He needs other adults that are willing to show that him that everything will be all right -- that you can be successful and happy -- despite how one's childhood might have been. I think you'd be a good influence, Rosalind.

I suppose we'll see.

[She isn't quite certain about that, truth be told, and perhaps he'll be able to tell. He's perceptive like that. It's not that she thinks she'd be a bad influence, she's just . . . that isn't her role. She's bad at people as it is; it feels like a poor idea to have someone looking up to her.

Still. She did have a somewhat miserable childhood, and yet here she is, so perhaps Ardyn is right.

In any case:]

Ah-- it's been long enough. Let's see if you can get my necklace back, hm?

[He is perceptive enough to see that uncertainty etched into her features, and hear how it echoes in her words. Still, he's certain of what he's said -- Prompto is young and very impressionable, and Rosalind is someone he should look up to, and probably will. It speaks for how highly he thinks of her, but he believes it all to be founded.]

...Right.

[Ah, and now it's time for uncertainty to grace him, but Ardyn keeps it out of his expression the best he can. He extends a hand.]

No pressure, as they would say.

[He focuses, perhaps more than usual, remembering what Dante had told him. That he merely should expect the necklace to be there, that he should trust that it would return because there's no reason it wouldn't. That he doesn't need to think about the sensation of it being in whatever empty space it exists in now, and that to bring it back to reality is as simple as...

...flexing his fingers, an open palm. Magic flickers again, red and shining, and the necklace returns to reality, landing in his hand and catching in his fingers. Ardyn exhales, not knowing he had held his breath.]

Ha. There.

Well done.

[She smiles at him, genuinely pleased. It's not a situation that's life or death, no, but he managed to overcome uncertainty and his nerves and still succeed, which speaks well towards a potential situation where the pressure is truly high.

Carefully, she takes her necklace back and goes about fastening it again.]

Hmm. We hardly have to test it now, but I'd be interested in seeing how many items you can store. If you can feel them each time you dematerialize them, that suggests it's a limited space.

[He's pleased, too, but only because he managed it. He supposes, with a bit of reflection, he should take some pride in how well he's managed to utilize his new powers. But right now, Ardyn is just glad her necklace isn't rattling around in his empty space with no way of returning.]

That, or it suggests I can feel them so I simply don't lose track of what's in there. If we do this, let's find items that are a bit more mundane this time, hm?

. . . you really were worried, weren't you?

[Of course he was. That was the whole point of the experiment. And yet Rosalind looks faintly puzzled, even so.]

Of course I was.

[He laughs, humorlessly.]

A priceless item like that is a lot to be held accountable for. I'd feel quite guilty if I had actually lost it with my magic.

It isn't quite priceless.

[But that's not what's surprising her. Rosalind glances down at her tea, then back up at him.]

. . . you still surprise me, you know. Three years later, and I'm still not used to how much you care about things.

[For once, she isn't avoiding being personal. It's stunning to her how Ardyn can manage to be such a bleeding heart about everything: friends, students, people he barely knows, stray animals . . . god knows she can't do that.]

You made it sound very priceless.

[He lifts a brow in her direction, but- at her concession of still being able to surprise her, he glances away briefly. He doesn't have the protection of text to sound immediately flippant.]

I care because you cared. Empathy is a difficult thing, you know.

[everyone stop callin him out]

Suitable for a man who was once a healer, at any rate.

Suitable for a teacher as well.

[She's smiling faintly, pleased and a touch amused by his glancing away.]

Are you embarrassed?

No, of course not. You know I don't get embarrassed.

[He says, still not looking at her.]

And now you're lying.

[Any other situation, any other day, this would utterly delight her. But today . . . Rosalind uncurls one leg, nudging him lightly with her foot.]

Why on earth would this embarrass you? You're always encouraging me to be emotional; I would think you'd delight in this kind of caring.

[She knows why it would embarrass her, of course, but she and Ardyn are vastly different people.]

My advice to you does not always apply to myself.

[Sounds hypocritical? Well, he means that not all advice should be the same for each individual person. Ardyn does look in her direction when nudged with her foot. It is purposefully schooled, with his usual telltale arch of a brow.]

It isn't something I simply wish to be known for. I'm more than just a "bleeding heart" [YOU CAN HEAR THE SCARE QUOTES] who frets over every little thing.

[He's the flippant professor, infamously strict on his students. (Because he cares too much.) He has an image -- not so much cultivated as it is him. The man who cares too much is, as well, but that is only for his closest to see.

And when it ekes out, so blatantly obvious, well. He doesn't dislike it, but it is embarrassing sometimes. That he's in actuality a bafflingly sentimental man.]

Of course you are.

[She returns his arch look with one of her own, both eyebrows raised.]

I'm not going to go around telling everyone that you were worried for me. But you're treating it as an insult, when it's a trait I admire in you, Ardyn.

[A hand comes up to run through his hair. Of course you are, she says. It's the truth, but you don't have to throw it back at him like that!!! She sounds like Grell. And Dante. God.]

Mmph.

[A very eloquent "mmph" at that, thank you very much.]

A compliment from you is one that I'll hold dear to my heart, so I'll take it as is.

Thank god.

[She waits for a few seconds, letting that settle between them. It really is a trait she admires in him, and she wants it known that it's a good thing, a trait he ought to keep cultivating, not suppressing.

But one can't be sentimental forever. And so:]

Next time I'll simply stick to complimenting your pretty eyes, hm? Would that be better received?

[Straight out of sentimentality, into joking? Ardyn seems to adjust to that well, after letting the previous silence linger for a moment.]

Oh? You think my eyes are pretty?

Fervently. They're the subject of my next painting.

[Ain't no straight face like a Lutece straight face because a Lutece straight face is cultivated from years of having to pretend not to have emotions.]

An oil painting I hope, none of that acrylic nonsense.

[Contrasted with the face of Ardyn Izunia who looks so damn amused now.]

Do be sure to get my good side. The most handsome Izunia requires nothing short of perfection.

I prefer watercolors, but I was trained in oils, if you're so picky.

[Weirdly, this is true.]

You know, speaking of Izunia faces, I finally managed to speak to your brother. Angry sort, isn't he?

Are you really?

[And yet, he can see it. Somehow sitting at an easel, paintbrush in hand, is an image that suits her.]

...Ah, Fynn. Angry, not always, unless Retrospec is involved. But he generally has a very... loud personality. He's always been that way, even when we were much younger.

[Someday, maybe, she'll show him some of the things she's done. They're not really a secret, just not something she advertises all that much.]

Mm. I think I may have made a poor impression on him.

[NOT THAT SHE CARES, HONESTLY, but it's something to talk about.]

The subject was indeed Retrospec. And I was, ah, clinical in my assessment of them. He was not.

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