[It isn't cut and dry the way he'd like to be, a simple or binary answer. There are layers of complexity, with pain to be had on both sides. He doesn't want to watch his father kill him again. He doesn't want his father to have to watch him die, either, or be the one to stop his heart. He'll learn to accept his duty eventually - accept it fully, that is, rather than the halfhearted resignation he feels now just to keep himself moving forward - but why must it be so cruel?]
I'll... give it some thought. Though I guess it's more that I'll have to accept it, since we don't have a choice about it either way.
You're allowed to feel however you like about it. Regardless of anything we're meant to do, no one can demand we change what we think of it in the process.
...I don't like any of this myself, certainly. But right now, there's little else presenting itself in the way of a solution. So should that remain the case, I am trying to accept that I'll more than likely become something terrible and do little to make anything else less horrible in the process.
Guess that's true. Feeling isn't the same as doing.
[He can feel like this whole scenario is obscenely unfair, but he can still follow through with it, anyway. He and Ardyn don't have to hate each other, but they still have to kill each other.]
I know it's awful, but a part of me's... glad, kind of. That we're in it together. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have anyone to talk to.
[If Ardyn wasn't here, he would still have her, it's true; he wouldn't be completely alone. But Ardyn shares this fate in their world, from the same gods and the same Crystal. There is kinship in their mutual morbid destiny that he can't really deny. He could bury it, sure - business as usual with him - but he's been edging up so close to a breaking point for so long now that solitude in this could tip him over.]
Likewise. I wouldn't wish isolation on anyone, that kind of thing causes scars no blade ever could. I'm grateful that you're with me in this, and that I can be here in turn. If things do have to be so dismal, then...it would be better that neither of us were alone in it.
[Wouldn't he know it. Gods, but he missed Aera and even his brother on occasion--being cut off from the life he'd once known was an achingly painful thing no one here could remedy. But he wasn't alone, not in their shared ultimate fate and in little else. That was enough, for the moment.]
[Ardyn paused, a hesitant smile beginning to form on his face.]
...If I ever make mention of wanting to cut my hair, stop me. I think I've still sanity enough to know when I look ridiculous, and it won't grow back for another two millennia.
[Noctis makes a faint, agreeable noise at the first- and then a quiet scoff at the last. His hair... there's a priority he can appreciate. Ridiculous might be a little harsh, but Izunia's style was definitely haphazard.]
Should I be saying the same thing about letting mine grow out?
[Not terrible, yet it looked like apocalypse hair - not especially fashionable. Though that makes him glance sidelong at Ardyn, considering his attire. His hair is one thing, but...]
[Yeah, by the look Noctis gives him, it's pretty clear he's not buying it. Dignified... there was nothing dignified about that. Though his future self more or less tried his best, it seemed. There are worse ways to look, or to die, probably.]
No idea. I just figured it was Niflheim fashion being extra weird. It didn't look like any Lucian clothes I'd seen.
[A lot of their garb was more modest, really. Even the kings mostly wore simple suits with a bit of fancy accenting, and half the time he could barely see the little crown in his dad's grey hair. Most of their flair goes into the weaponry, not clothing- their own fashion is meant to outlive them.]
He has this weird... wing... thing. On his arm. Just one arm! And it doesn't even do anything, just makes him look lopsided.
Well I can't say I would know, but I certainly know what I wouldn't be caught outside wearing. Contrary to popular belief, I have standards now and again.
[Ardyn considered that for a moment; he was already at least capable of the occasional teasing, but it was something he was still trying to relearn at times.]
This from someone whose hair resembles the back end of a chicken? Things truly have changed in the last two thousand years, clearly.
See, that? Right there? That's too nice. I don't even know what the hell to say to something like that.
[Despite the words his tone is only half-heartedly begrudging; such a comment shoots right for the heart, and he's quieter than before, sinking down into the couch cushion and pressed more firmly against Ardyn's side.]
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[It isn't cut and dry the way he'd like to be, a simple or binary answer. There are layers of complexity, with pain to be had on both sides. He doesn't want to watch his father kill him again. He doesn't want his father to have to watch him die, either, or be the one to stop his heart. He'll learn to accept his duty eventually - accept it fully, that is, rather than the halfhearted resignation he feels now just to keep himself moving forward - but why must it be so cruel?]
I'll... give it some thought. Though I guess it's more that I'll have to accept it, since we don't have a choice about it either way.
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...I don't like any of this myself, certainly. But right now, there's little else presenting itself in the way of a solution. So should that remain the case, I am trying to accept that I'll more than likely become something terrible and do little to make anything else less horrible in the process.
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[He can feel like this whole scenario is obscenely unfair, but he can still follow through with it, anyway. He and Ardyn don't have to hate each other, but they still have to kill each other.]
I know it's awful, but a part of me's... glad, kind of. That we're in it together. I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have anyone to talk to.
[If Ardyn wasn't here, he would still have her, it's true; he wouldn't be completely alone. But Ardyn shares this fate in their world, from the same gods and the same Crystal. There is kinship in their mutual morbid destiny that he can't really deny. He could bury it, sure - business as usual with him - but he's been edging up so close to a breaking point for so long now that solitude in this could tip him over.]
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[Wouldn't he know it. Gods, but he missed Aera and even his brother on occasion--being cut off from the life he'd once known was an achingly painful thing no one here could remedy. But he wasn't alone, not in their shared ultimate fate and in little else. That was enough, for the moment.]
[Ardyn paused, a hesitant smile beginning to form on his face.]
...If I ever make mention of wanting to cut my hair, stop me. I think I've still sanity enough to know when I look ridiculous, and it won't grow back for another two millennia.
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Should I be saying the same thing about letting mine grow out?
[Not terrible, yet it looked like apocalypse hair - not especially fashionable. Though that makes him glance sidelong at Ardyn, considering his attire. His hair is one thing, but...]
...The clothes were worse.
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[they both looked like shit and he knew it.]
Honestly, what was that? I've never worn black a day in my life, to say nothing of...well, everything else.
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No idea. I just figured it was Niflheim fashion being extra weird. It didn't look like any Lucian clothes I'd seen.
[A lot of their garb was more modest, really. Even the kings mostly wore simple suits with a bit of fancy accenting, and half the time he could barely see the little crown in his dad's grey hair. Most of their flair goes into the weaponry, not clothing- their own fashion is meant to outlive them.]
He has this weird... wing... thing. On his arm. Just one arm! And it doesn't even do anything, just makes him look lopsided.
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[A shrug of his shoulders, and a small but somewhat more present smile:]
Seeking attention, maybe?
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[Unpredictable, except when he worked hard to be incredibly predictable.]
Maybe he was trying to use bad fashion to piss me off even more.
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How would you dress up the harbinger of the apocalypse? Something more colourful maybe?
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[Tired hippie TA is a unique fashion, but it's still fashion of sorts.]
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[It's a little bad. But he didn't say it.]
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[He appreciates the niceties - it's not Izunia's thing - but that doesn't mean he wants Ardyn to be a doormat.]
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This from someone whose hair resembles the back end of a chicken? Things truly have changed in the last two thousand years, clearly.
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[Of course he goes for the hair.]
At least chicks are cuter than a rat's nest.
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[He and Prompto have been doing the butt jokes for years, Ardyn has some catching up to do.]
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[Noctis smiles faintly and offers the wine back. He needs to slow down or he actually will fall asleep.]
I guess being nice really does suit you. Keep it up, then.
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[He'd definitely be taking a drink, though.]
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[Despite the words his tone is only half-heartedly begrudging; such a comment shoots right for the heart, and he's quieter than before, sinking down into the couch cushion and pressed more firmly against Ardyn's side.]
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