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Likely so. Would you like company that promises not to lecture you, at the very absolute minimum?

if ur asking bc u wanna come over and see my awesome self u have my permission

not gonna promise a timespan of consciousness tho take me as i am

That's fine. Should I just let myself in and spare you any extra effort?

umm just come in, should b unlocked or pyra can let u in. or iggy w/e

[then, a few minutes later-]

can u bring malasadas from the cafe too

Anything you say. I'll be there as soon as I can.

cool

[He's going back to dozing, because what the hell is energy these days, but Ardyn can easily find him in a blanket nest in his room, little more than a tuft of black hair sticking out of the collected fabric. Umbra is curled up comfortably behind the lump that vaguely resembles legs.]

[He did come by soon after, quietly setting down a bag of several malasadas and tapping lightly on where he assumed Noctis' shoulder was.]

Sorry--are you awake?

Uh-huh.

[It's done with some reluctance, but after a few seconds the top blanket is pulled back and Noctis lifts his head, drawn by the scent of sweets. He looks kind of pale, and visibly tired, but not otherwise wounded in any way. The only exception is his middle finger- devoid of the ring for now, the band of scarring where it sat is a little darker than it was before, a series of faint spiderveins stretching from knuckle to the first joint.]

Thanks for the snacks.

It's no problem at all. I'm glad to see you a little more awake.

[He smiled faintly, looking a little more tired than usual but in decent condition besides. He tugged his left sleeve down a little further over his left hand, shrugging slightly.]

[Noct's gaze is drawn lower as he moves his sleeve, lips pursing tightly and fighting back a wave of guilt before he glances away and reaches for the bag.]

I won't lie and say I'm glad to be awake, but I'll get there.

[Probably. Maybe.]

I'll just have to be grateful for the both of us. How are you doing?

I'm okay. Seriously, all I've done is lay around in bed and sleep this off. Getting better, too. Pretty soon I won't have an excuse to get pampered anymore.

How terrible.

[A small smile.]

You might find it terrible if people ask you every ten minutes how you are when the answer hasn't changed all day.

[A pointed look.]

[Ardyn laughed softly, at least managing to look apologetic.]

I'm sorry. I'm sure you've heard it more than enough.

I'm sure I'll hear it at least a few times more.

[He's resigned to his fate, anyway. He takes out one of the snacks and holds the bag out for Ardyn if he wants it.]

... [Ardyn hesitated like he was going to protest he didn't need it, then thought better of the idea and reached out with his left hand to take one.]

Hopefully, I can do my best to refrain.

Sure, sure. [Said like he totally believes it, for real, you bet.] How are you doing, though? I know that was, um. A lot.

[He'd felt how much pain it was while it was happening, so... he knows how much Ardyn took. And yeah, he's seen the man's body shatter into pieces and come back unscathed afterwards, but that doesn't mean he couldn't be affected by anything- especially when part of this pain was from the ring's magic, and that's what was meant to kill him in the end.]

[Ardyn didn't answer right away, looking everywhere except directly at Noctis in much the way he often did when debating how much of the truth really needed to be told.]

...I will be fine. It would be a lie to say that my actions haven't had consequences lasting longer than I expected, but that is my responsibility to bear and no one else's.

Uh, we did kind of go overboard. Figure I should at least take some responsibility.

[He doesn't mind sharing if they all made collective stupid ideas, but they already went over this back when it first happened, so he doesn't like that it's still persisting. Pyra seems keen to take on a lot of the blame, too. Had they both forgotten who it is that decided to take the Fetter into his armory in the first place?]

Perhaps so. But I can't find it in me to hold it against either of you.

['Stupid shit happens' was a phrase Ardyn wasn't likely to say, but the sentiment was there somewhere.]

It was an accident, as we said, and everyone involved will be fine before long. Right?

Right. Which means you don't have to say stuff like that, and you're allowed to gripe about the fact that you're stuck with them now. Which I know you're not happy about, because you wouldn't be hiding them otherwise.

[He's haded going shirtless for 12 years for this reason, dude, he gets it.]

[The already shaky smile dropped off Ardyn's face, hand moving to his right arm.]

I....wasn't expecting it would leave a mark, that's all. I didn't think anything could, after what happened on Angelgard.

[If swords and crossbows didn't manage to leave scars anymore, it was easy to assume nothing would.]

Until I understood what it was I was contending with, I wasn't fully realizing what I was even doing. Even so, it wasn't as if I could stop and leave you like that. I have more than enough scars already, a few in addition is no terrible thing compared to knowing you lived through whatever the hell happened there.

[Ah. Yeah... yeah, that. Noctis glances down at his hand, at the circled mark of the ring and the dark veins. It's... eerie, in retrospect. How much the scars left by the ring of the Lucii, a holy artifact from the gods, looks an awful lot like Starscourge.]

It was... trying to protect me, I think. [He twists his hands together uncomfortably, fingers rubbing against the mark.] Those wounds on Pyra... I did that. The ring was...

[He grimaces, ducking his head. Why didn't he think to take it off? He only wore it on a whim today, it served no purpose. Did it really help him in the end, or just cause more damage to everyone?]

It was trying to shield me. But I can't make shields, I never could. Instead it just lashes out at whatever's trying to hurt me. Since the source of danger was inside me... [He shifts his arms closer to his chest, cradling his hand carefully.] ...I don't know. As usual, my magic doesn't know what the hell it's doing.

It's...difficult, isn't it? Realizing you hurt someone else out of instinct, self-preservation, or merely by complete accident.

[He said that quietly, staring at nothing in particular as he tried to work through his thoughts. Lashing out in self-defense was Ardyn's own worst nightmare, and he was finding it difficult to navigate the right thing to say as a result.]

[It wasn't the first time he'd drawn his own parallel between the ring and the scourge, but he hated it no less for the underlining of the point.]

...I've no doubt all three of us are blaming ourselves in some measure. We're rather terrible at doing much else, aren't we?

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