Ignis Scientia (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shatteredlenses) wrote2017-08-04 10:09 pm
shatteredlenses) wrote2017-08-04 10:09 pm
LifeAfter Inbox
This is Ignis. Please leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Storyteller willing, I may actually be able to read messages left for me soon.
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And, no, your Highness, this doesn't mean I will be too busy to make sure you eat your vegetables.
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And, no, your Highness, this doesn't mean I will be too busy to make sure you eat your vegetables.
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I have. We'll get another island eventually.
[It's somewhat missing the point but do you really want him realising this is kind of about Ardyn]
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A dangerous thing to assume. We need to plan as if the resources we have now are all there is. Otherwise, we may end up regretting our actions.
[Double meanings? Double meanings.]
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Maybe Noctis died. Laurent hasn't been keeping track.]
And what are you planning to do with what's left of Monsun?
[Maybe Prompto. Maybe Ardyn? Is Ardyn high enough on Ignis’ social rankings to count? Maybe it's one of Ignis’ ten fucking children or however many he's attached to.]
It sounds like something’s on your mind.
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[He pauses to take a taste of what he's cooked, seeming at least content with what he's made if not enthused. It's hard to be enthused about such a basic meal.
After he finishes chewing, he shrugs.]
One of those things is salvaging as many resources from Monsun as possible. Transplanting plants, bringing over what tamable animals we can. It's just a shame some effects don't transplant as well as those plants and animals will.
[Ignis pauses once more and then sets his food aside.]
Somehow I doubt you came here to ask me about Monsun. Is there something I can do for you? Something you need help with or am I in for another lecture about my relations with my enemy?
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[There is something sardonic, even bitter, in his reply. Not too much though, and it's gone by his next sentence.]
If I wanted to lecture you, you would know it by now. But since you brought it up, how is-
[Now that it's been brought up, wasn't there talk of moving Ardyn off Monsun? It's just a shame some effects don't transplant, Ignis is saying, and it occurs to Laurent that most of the survivors are good enough without that island. This game is full of do-gooders, and then there’s- ]
-Ardyn?
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[In Ignis' mind it's not about a person not being good enough. It's about two people trapped within one form. Black and white. Healer and Daemon.
Shades of gray are something that's harder for him to see.]
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… Ignis is entirely blind, but that's still no excuse??]
Oh, you've noticed? I thought you'd be too hellbent on dragging him back. That's all I've heard being discussed around here.
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[There is just an instant pause as if he is fumbling for the right word to describe them, before Ignis continues.]
...person do you think I am?
[There! Safe. Right? Certainly Laurent won't notice anything off about that answer.]
I can't say that I understand what good he thinks dying there will do. Either way the Chancellor will return. There is no need for him to suffer through a death that will change nothing.
cw: suicidal ideation
[He's not saying he understands Ardyn, he certainly doesn't, but there’s something to be said about men who don't entirely mean it when they chase power.
-- I didn't understand what being king meant to you.
-- What's that?
-- An end to fighting.
Laurent responds to that highly incriminating pause with a light huff, something like the beginnings of laughter. ]
Is that what you are to each other? People- 'friends'?
[‘Friend’? What a sweet sounding word. Ignis calling Laurent a friend had not stopped him from moving islands to be with his other friends, had not enticed him to the temple once in January to check on- surely he had at least one ‘friend’ there. Muffet. Tataru, maybe, or if nothing else all the children sheltering there. You will have a friend across the border, Damen had said. They were not friends. To use such a platitude to describe what they had is frankly an insult to Damen's goodness.
Perhaps that's what these two are. In the absence of anything else they could use, saying they’re friends.]
I suppose it's something you need to tell yourself, not me. How’s the food situation? I expect a warning if you can no longer feed Damianos or myself.
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The Storyteller put us there to begin with. They sent requests there. The tent. The mana pool. There may be places where their power is limited, but I highly doubt there is any place truly beyond their reach.
[It was too much to hope, wasn't it? That Laurent would let that pause go? Still, in light of his lingering concern, for once Ignis doesn't try to be evasive when it comes to the answer. Instead, he is just as honest as he can be.]
We're complicated. Even more so if I force myself to stop seeing things in black and white and acknowledge the true grays that lay between.
[In other words, he's aware it's not right for him to continue seeing Ardyn as two different people. Even Ardyn himself has said he's not, but seeing them as one person brings up so many things Ignis isn't ready to deal with yet.]
Please don't worry. I wouldn't place either of you in danger of starvation. Should stores become so low I can't keep everyone fed, I'll let you know. We are shorter than I would like to be due to what was lost during the darkness, but things are not critical yet. Merely strained.
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Not even me? You're extremely diplomatic.
[But don't worry, it's mostly the soulless monsters that think this way and there aren't many of them. I mean this literally, Laurent sold his soul for bling. And some other stuff but that’s irrelevant. ]
Don’t say you wouldn’t put your life on the line for such odds if it would help your prince. [called out?] Death isn't even a steep price here, it's an inconvenience.
[He listens, and it's almost funny hearing someone else struggle with the same tarpit he drowned in. He's run that race last fall, grasshopper, but fine- it's rude to laugh at things like this. Laurent's voice is perfectly when he replies. He would have stabbed a man if they responded otherwise, and he wouldn't expect less out of Ignis.]
Of course it's complicated. Damianos killed my brother and I had his back flayed for it. The most personal things are the hardest to see greys in.
I didn’t pester you out of reading too many romance novels the last time, for the record.
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[Like nothing. Well, maybe on Maribelle. Maribelle is cool.]
...but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you starve.
[Anything else Ignis is thinking of saying in response to Laurent gets pushed away when the blonde mentions Damianos.]
Wait, that's why you had him whipped until he nearly died? He...didn't mention that.
[Ignis' expression becomes conflicted then as he tries to sort this new piece of information into everything he's learned about these two men. It doesn't take long for Ignis to realize he had missed Damianos point, missed it almost completely. Had he been willfully blind or had he just not been ready to understand?
Honestly, he's still not sure if he's ready to understand, but he's at least trying now.]
Do you really fear how much he trusts you? So much you fear another becoming like him?
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He hasn’t? I couldn’t say why, [wryly.] Our kingdoms are historically enemies, it is a little awkward to mention.
[What’s going through Ignis’ head? Damen’s said something, hasn’t he. He does have a talent for that- or at least that’s going to be Laurent’s assumption, because the alternative is Damen bringing up Arles for small-talk. His lover's talents toe the line between incredible and idiotic like that.]
That's a rather intimate question, no? You're not even either of our retainers. [the answer is yes, the answer is he’s awed and terrified every time Damen does a Thing and one day if Damen runs himself onto a sword for him-] I just thought ‘someone else’ could use the warning, attachment to an enemy is unpleasant.
At this point I’m just wondering if there’ll be another story like mine. It's too late for anything I could do. Are you going to follow him back onto Enso? Pitch your tents right next to his?
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Need I remind you that you accused me of whoring myself out to my enemy in order to get him to go 'easy' on Noctis? At this point, I believe we are open to questions of all intimacy levels.
[He may end up regretting that, but he's not about to let Laurent hide when he himself has not been allowed to.]
My home is here and it's here I will return to once the camp in no longer inhabitable. I've heard Asch speak of moving the tent so that it is near Ardyn's abode, though. A gathering ground of sorts.
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[That's not even the point but he does sound like he's serious?? He sounds like he'd be annoyed, but that's about it. You can actually do this.
Now, the tent’s much more intriguing, as is the denial that it's anything in Ignis’ heart next to enso. That iInis lived months on end out of it is fact, impregnable. You don't need to live abroad when you have mana pools. If that isn't explained by an attachment to the monsun outpost itself, then the explanation is elsewhere. I've heard Asch speak of moving the tent so that it is near Ardyn's abode.
Ignis has been staying in Monsun, despite several responsibilities otherwise, for Ardyn. Out of some sense of duty, perhaps.
“If you could give me three days, I—’
‘I’ll stay,’ said Damen. ‘You know I’ll stay for as long as you—”
Now Laurent has an equivalent canonpoint he can pin this to. And knowing this-]
I wonder, if someone were to become like Damen, would they have kissed their nasty, mistrustful, snake politician by now?
[tl;dr I swear I'm not infomodding??]
*Bops you on the nose* You worry too much!
As he listens to Laurent continue, a small smirk just barely turns up he corner of Ignis' mouth. There is a part of him that is upset that Laurent hits so close to the mark with his guess, but there is a much larger part that is just amused. It only makes sense the blonde would guess that considering how close their stories are now that Ignis is forcing himself to be honest, however, Laurent has made a slight error with his wording and Ignis is hardly going to let that slide.]
For your information, I can very honesty say I have kissed no nasty, mistrustful, snake politicians recently.
[And he hasn't. Who he did kiss was an exhausted, hurting and forgotten healer. It's a big difference and he's not above arguing it.]
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Aww.
[Low and disappointed, though mostly amused; he takes it at face value at first. But wait a minute.]
……….are you arguing some kind of semantics?
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[Despite the innocent look, all signs point to YES.]
The words one chooses for their questions are important. As are the words used for the answers. I'd think you, of all people, would know that.
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[laurent no]
But I hope you'll indulge me, I've never had the chance to gossip like this. Hypothetically… Chancellor Ardyn is false, but the person you might've kissed is true. Maybe one of the truest people you've ever known? Did something like that happen? You kissed someone who you knew would treat your heart tenderly?
[Is he just fucking quoting Damen? Maybe. … yes, yes he is. But he’s having fun?]
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Goodness, if I didn't know better, I would swear you were reading from one of Gladio's cheesy romance novels. Did you make that up or are you quoting someone?
[Question Avoidance Tactics: ACTIVATED.]
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That depends. Are you trying to get me to admit to being a romantic or to having kissed someone? I'm afraid I lost the point in all those pretty words.
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I would think that much would be obvious by now.
[Wait a minute! He still didn't answer the original question!]
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The blonde mulls over his response for a while.]
You should get him tipsy. He might admit something.
[The real operative is ‘drunk as he's never been before’, but you know, he shouldn't advocate the shit he does out of an unwillingness to admit his alcohol tolerance. ]
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