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[daemonized]

@ardyn.sky | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[daemonized]

[Just because he’s agreeing doesn’t mean he’ll be amicable when the time comes... but Noctis likely is very well aware of this already.]

I’ve not been there yet. Ever expanding my horizons for me, how good of you.

I’ll leave now. Best make haste.

[fessus]

Now?

[ "Now" isn't a good time, not when he's in the middle of his own tasks, but this is important enough that he already sets about extricating himself from his present duties. This bastard, making his life harder even in small ways... ]

Fine, I'll be at least 15 min

actionnnnn

[daemonized]

[No reply.

And when fifteen minutes pass, the meeting place is empty, that same bench unoccupied by anyone waiting — much less Ardyn. In fact, it’s a good 30 minutes or so until he arrives, a casual stroll to his gait, dressed in plain dark clothes with his usual amount of layers having been trimmed down to accompany the weather. He’s been doing a lot for that, these days, accompanying this mortal shell for the sake of comfort. The sun, still blazing strong, lights up wine-colored hair as if it were fire; the heat is damnably annoying. (He should look into finding a trustworthy hat to shield his eyes from the light.)

He arrives indolently, not caring if Noctis is already there waiting or otherwise, hands in his pockets like he has nowhere important to go.]

Re: actionnnnn

[fessus]

[ Noctis manages to keep to his word, an actual rarity here and even back home when it comes to his punctuality. Normally he trails his conversation partner by a solid five minutes at least, but this? Well, he's beginning to think that he's been effectively stood up, just about to send Ardyn a message when he spies a glint of that telltale hair that has him tensing up.

Blue eyes fix on him, narrowed in a mixture of apprehension and now new mild exasperation that he can't quite hide as well as he'd like. There's a drink gripped in his right hand, courtesy of the cafe, elbows braced against his knees. His outfit looks like one he might elect to wear in Lucis, dark pants paired with a white shirt featuring some slick geometric design or another. ]

You're late.

[daemonized]

[And his outfit is a very far cry from what he’s seen wearing on Eos, and thank god for that. Maybe he’s been banned from bad fashion, maybe he just hasn’t accumulated enough of it yet (probably this), but the trousers are dark, the shirt black and relatively plain — with the exception of a black-on-black printed shimmer of some floral pattern crawling up the side. Subtle — kind of — yet very, very Ardyn.

Terrible Lucis Caelum fashion choices aside, he laughs in the face of the accusation, and unearths a hand from his pocket to gesture sweepingly at the seated young man.]

I said I would leave straightaway.

[He looms for a moment, but only a moment. A second later and he’s sitting next to Noctis like it’s nothing, bench gently creaking, the space in-between them suddenly as sharp and perilous as bramble. Hyperaware of it, a pressurized distance of mere inches.]

I never said I would make it here in the same fifteen minutes you took claim to.

[fessus]

[ No one looking at the two of them seated here would assume they were related. It's something he tells himself as Ardyn gets comfortable so close by, a quiet comfort just like Ignis's presence is — at a good distance, at least, hidden from sight but ready to respond if things go south.

His eyes drop to Ardyn's side, to the mere centimeters separating him from that overwhelming poisonous hatred and bitterness that he can't shake from his memory. It feels electrified, thumb wiping at condensation as a mindless distraction from the fact that the rest of him is loath to move. ]

... doesn't matter, though I didn't get you a drink or anything. [ What a surprise. ]

Guess you're living with X'rhun now.

[daemonized]

[Ardyn does little more than lean back, tilting his head up idly to look at the sky and its propensity to be interrupted by the jagged lines of surrounding buildings and skyscrapers.]

Yes, that’s right. You should see the apartment, it’s the absolute epitome of luxury. I daresay it gives your precious Citadel a run for its gil.

[He grins wide, supercilious and deftly sarcastic. Their apartment is small, unfurnished, and plain. It’s not at all the high life, but this bothers Ardyn about as much as one might expect — not much at all.]

Ah, better than the safehouse, at any rate. [—he continues, if Noctis wants to play at casual conversation.] Away from strangers wandering to and fro, away from organizations I couldn’t care less about.

[fessus]

[ It takes practice to actually focus in on his words and dull the instinct he's honed over the years that warns him to be wary of physical movement, carefully ironing out his expression into an agonizing neutrality that stands starkly against Ardyn's version of a mask. He elects for nothingness; Ardyn chooses smiles and overly dynamic body language. Two sides of the same coin, neither honest. ]

I'll have to pass. If I want to talk to you or X'rhun, it's not ever gonna' be there. [ Which is a great way to jinx himself, but that's not important right now. First things first... ]

... do you have reasons to keep lying to me? With the things that matter out in the open, now.

[daemonized]

[Your loss, he almost says, knowing full well Noctis would never want to visit. Why walk straight into the lion’s den with hopes of talking to the lion? But maybe he’ll keep it as a standing invite, just for the sake of how ridiculous it is.

At the question, however, he tears his gaze away from the sky, supplanting his look onto the young king instead. Their opposing countenances might make for a humorous sight for any poor soul that passes by.]

And is that an accusation? Or a legitimate query?

[And Ardyn, in his frustrating fashion, continues without giving him a chance to reply.]

The full truth lies out in the open, as you said. I’ve no reason to spin a web of confusion and misdirection, unless I’m terribly bored.

[Or unless he simply wishes to not share it, some truths treading too close to parts of him he keeps close to the chest.]

[fessus]

[ Expectedly his mouth opens to answer, cut off so quickly by his relative. Even in answering his questions he manages to keep himself as irksome as possible. ]

Good. There wouldn't be any point in me asking you anything without making sure of that first, anyway... and it wouldn't be an accusation. I know you told me the truth before.

[ Under the influence of that drug, the only way he could trust him. ]

I want to talk to you about the Astrals.

[daemonized]

[Oh, his favorite subject.

Something tightens in his jawline, but maybe it’s just the way his smile presses against everything else.]

Do you? What of them, exactly?

[fessus]

[ Another dart of his gaze over, then away. ]

I haven't interacted with them much. Hard to, when they speak another language...

But you have. You know more about them than I do.

[daemonized]

[Moments pass, Ardyn saying nothing, letting the ambient noise of the city fill the void. It isn’t that he doesn’t know where to begin, it’s that there is too much to say on the matter, too much dread acridity that scrapes across the underside of his skin like sandpaper at the very thought of the subject at hand.

If Noctis were to touch him, he would feel that flashfire of hatred, flaring up and snapping angrily as if it possessed teeth. Thankfully, space remains between them — if barely.

And his reply, schooled as ever, only just allows the reverberation discontent to pass through, shadowed under the usual lilt.]

You’ll have to be more specific than that. I could tell you the things you already know, their hand in creating Eos, their role to watch over the land, Bahamut’s blessing of light to the Lucis Caelum family. [The lot of them, puppets on strings.] But I imagine it’s not the Cosmogony that you want regurgitated back at you.