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[fessus]

— NOCTIS LUCIS CAELUM

USERNAME
DARKNIGHT

DIVISION SUPPORT
EDICT TARNISHED AZ-MEHET

Comments

[blyat]

[Seeing Noctis using the Russian he's just been taught... makes him feel a certain type of way.]

well yours is all jagged and awkward

[This is school kid level insult now.]

to: ноцтис (noctis)

you're a big この野郎

from: ケイン

[fessus]

[ Cain's messages have forced out reluctant smiles before, but this is the first time he doesn't try to dim it. The quiet expression is for him and him alone, and hiding it before merely signalled an effort to keep lying to himself. Staring at this? The lie feels pointless. ]

Ouch. Is that how you celebrate Christmas?

It doesn't exist on Eos ftr so you don't get to lecture me for getting it wrong. Blame the records on Earth history

н = N? Looks like the letters are one to one except я. That means ya?

[blyat]

yeah, we write letters to each other full of insults, it's normal

you really did the homework? wow
i'm not from earth, remember

basically
which means "i" or "me" as the subject of whatever you're saying

[fessus]

Dw I remember, it's hard to forget when it feels like we're the only two that aren't

I could always come take back the present if it's not traditional for you guys yk

Replace it with one of those letters

[blyat]

nope
can't take it back

you can still write the letter, though
kinda cheating that you didn't do it in the first place

[fessus]

[ That "nope" is all he really wanted. Responding to it any further might highlight how it makes him feel, so he sidesteps it neatly. ]

Maybe not one with a bunch of insults, yw, but it's not like I left you nothing

[ ... ]

Thanks, Cain

[blyat]

[It might seem like the conversation should come to a natural end there, except a few minutes later, Cain follows up with an attachment: a photo that must has been taken recently by the light outside, showing the dashboard of his ship, and Noctis's gift upon it. The sun makes the faux-ocean look bright at the angle it's taken against the hull's windshield, from the cockpit.]

the ocean is really that blue?

[fessus]

[ Noctis does believe it's over, and unlike some of their other abrupt conversation ends he's at peace with it. He's not really sure how much more he could want as he tries to study a few of those Cyrillic characters... at least until he gets it.

The picture is saved without thought, an action he purposefully decides not to analyze. ]

Yeah, sometimes

When it's a bright day and the sun hits it it's like that. But the light reflects so it sparkles too, almost enough to hurt your eyes

When it's windy and the waves get choppier it turns this dark grey instead

I could prob find you pictures but it's not the same. If you want my advice I'd tell you you need to see it for yourself some day

[blyat]

it sparkles? no way, you're making that up

so there are waves during a storm
makes sense, sand is kinda like that too
and with snow, yeah... sky gets so dark it's like night all the sudden

[He's not thinking much when he describes the environment he's more accustomed to than anything else.]

you think we'll ever get there?
to some other alien planet with the ocean
or even earth

[fessus]

Haha nah

I'm a stubborn asshole and I'm annoying but I'm not a liar. Not about stuff like that. When the water moves it catches the sun, like when you move a light near a mirror

I don't need to tell you anything else tbh. You're gonna see it, guaranteed, bc yeah I do think we'll get there. But if you want me to spoil it I can tell you more

[ ... ]

Does it snow a lot on Mars?

[blyat]

fine, then i'll just have to see it to believe it

[Noctis has a lot of confidence that he doesn't necessarily feel, but for once... he'll let it go and just pretend he agrees.]

constantly
most of the year
when it's warm, it's still a little cold

[fessus]

On a whole planet?

That's hard to imagine. It didn't really snow much back home, and when it did it'd get blocked the city's shield. So ig we have to hope for a snow planet too huh

Trade off

[blyat]

the city's shield?
does that have to do with the... demons?
whatever you called them
the things that come at night

a snow planet, huh

[It would probably just make him... homesick. He doesn't even know if he'd enjoy it.]

feel like i'll probably have to keep you and jonas alive
so you don't freeze to death

[fessus]

You remembered

[ It's not that it's surprising. He would expect Cain to; he's proven himself to be detail-oriented, the kind honed by a powerful survival instinct. It's more that he didn't anticipate he'd bring it up, like it's a fact to be logged away but not discussed. ]

Daemons, sure. More importantly it's always been there to keep out the country we're at war with. Royal family's magic keeps it in place, and it's been there since before I was born. You get used to it ig

You don't trust us to know how to use heaters now? Lol

[blyat]

magic again
that's everywhere in eos?

i mean, sure you can use heaters
but since you two like to wander around outside and try to get hurt
have to account for stupidity

[fessus]

Just in Lucis. The royal family loans it out when they feel like it but they're the only ones who get dibs apparently

[ ... ]

Tell me smth else I don't know about Mars? Did you like being there?

Yk before we get into a fight bc you basically just called me reckless lol

[blyat]

wow bet there's no way they'd ever take advantage of that

you said the word, not me

what i like? not much
mars is just the backwoods by most standards, not exactly a travel destination
what's to say?

[fessus]

Idk if I'd call shielding our city "taking advantage"

And beats me, it's your home. It doesn't have to be fancy for me to wanna know about it. What was it like growing up there?

[blyat]

not that part, the "loaning it out"

boring
had to make your own entertainment, which is what i did
you're getting nosy again

[fessus]

Is it that bad? Being nosy

You're asking me questions back yk

[blyat]

i'm not asking you how it was growing up on eos or how you liked it

you want my life story? do you think it'd help you understand something about me?

[fessus]

[ One step forward, two steps back. It makes him frustrated because it disappoints him, but actually managing to voice that would require more emotional awareness than he has. ]

Nah forget it

I'll save my energy for trying to figure out your weird language instead

[blyat]

[Cain almost leaves it there. It would be easy — Noctis's questions about his feelings, his life back home, continue to rub up against untended wounds. But then he looks up from the screen of the device in his hand, and immediately he sees the ship-in-a-bottle in front of him.

This is so annoying.]

it wasn't great
i told you mars was backwoods, i meant it. the only people who really had lives there were convicts or factory workers, sometimes soldiers but rarely. the outposts i mentioned were alliance. the one we had in new volga was a correctional facility. snowed half the year, ice storms a lot, just a cold rock the rest of it.
but some of the people weren't bad

[fessus]

[ With an argument carefully averted he's ready to go about his day with his mood intact, a primary goal of his after receiving a video message he wants to replay. What he isn't expecting is another text, and not too long after his last one.

The contents are even less expected. He reads it twice, unaware of his own furrowed brow, only able to envision cold fortresses as stand-ins for the architecture of Cain's home world. It sounds... bleak. Like the kind of place fully capable of forging a man with a guarded outlook and a bad disposition. ]

Sounds tough

[ That's an understatement. And insufficient as a reply. He tries again. ]

I was wrong before yk. When we first got here and fought, giving you shit about where you wanted to go

You prob did okay for yourself bc you seem like you could get through w/e, but if you wouldn't pick to rush back it makes sense. You should get to choose

[blyat]

you weren't that wrong

[He doesn't elaborate on what he means. But it gives back, a little — to acknowledge he was also a huge dick in the way he'd engaged Noctis at the time.]

wouldn't it be nice if we could just choose for ourselves
that kinda freedom doesn't exist for most people