ღ don't need cars cause we've learned to fly on saturn

[anythingforyou]

[The Galactic Building is certainly one of the odder places to spend some time at, but it seems to be what some have agreed to do. It'll be interesting, if nothing else; a place that originally served to remind them of how far they were from home, being a place they willingly stayed at? It was almost unthinkable, but here we are.

Once the ordeal is finished, Camilla and Ignis are once again off into the kitchen; a long day like this deserves some good meals to go along with it. The stuff they have to work with is certainly...interesting, if nothing else; hopefully nobody minds eating vegetarian tonight, because that seems to be what the menu is comprised of tonight. Hopefully nobody minds eating their vegetables!

Get some rest, everybody; it's been earned after all that's happened today.]

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

Mmmm.

[He approaches to look at Ignis's work, and...boy, he does not know what you are making or how he himself would go about making it in your stead! So:]

You should go rest after this, we've all earned it.

[discutio]

I will, I...just need to keep my hands busy a bit longer.

[because wow, unpacking all that right away is not anything he is prepared for so let's throw out the whole suitcase.]

[eudaimonikos]

That's fair.

[He leans back in his chair. After a moment, you can hear the sound of his tossing his stress ball up and down - it's probably a familiar sound, he does it often enough when he's bored, or just thinking.]

Wanna talk about it?

[discutio]

...I'm not sure I would know where to begin.

[It's not a no.]

[eudaimonikos]

I could start you off, but it's not gonna sound too friendly.

[Fair warning? He knows he's not, uh, the most sensitive guy around.]

[discutio]

You, come across tactless? Perish the thought.

[eudaimonikos]

[Michael laughs at that.]

Okay. You've been groomed since childhood to serve Noctis, and now you don't know how much you really exist as a person outside of that.

[It's a lot easier to quit torturing people than it is to quit compulsively taking notes on things you could use to torture people!]

[discutio]

[Deadpan:] This is a statement of fact, yes. Go on.

[eudaimonikos]

Why am I the discussion leader here?

[This is YOUR bookclub]

I mean, obviously Saturn brings up a lot of shit for you every time you talk to him. He's sort of a mirror-universe you, except neither of you have a goatee, and you ended up being the scarier one.

[discutio]

Because you may as well have opened with 'the sky is blue'--gods, I hope it still is.

[ignis, can we focus]

Setting aside the last bit which I choose to interpret as a compliment, you're right. The more he speaks, the more I hear myself. So I just...couldn't leave things as they were, even if retreating was the safer choice.

I made my choice to live as I do, and I don't regret that. But that doesn't mean I wish it on anyone else.

[eudaimonikos]

Normally I just tell people what's wrong with them, and then they say things about it.

[Not a therapist]

Did you choose it, though? I mean, you choose it now, clearly. But my understanding is that human children aren't generally considered competent to make career decisions like that.

And the scary thing was a compliment.

[discutio]

The responsibility was placed before me and I accepted. Noctis' father was far from holding me at the point of a sword telling me what to do. Is that not choosing it?

[NO BECAUSE YOU WERE SIX WHAT THE FUCK OH MY GOD I HATE FFXV]

[eudaimonikos]

What are we talking here - like Aya's age? Lucas's?

[Michael's reference points for human children are sort of all people he's met in Sinnoh.]

[discutio]

Noct was three, so I was somewhere around six. Younger than both of them.

[IGNIS FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S HOLY PLEASE CONSIDER WHAT YOU ARE SAYING AND WHY IT IS FUCKED UP]

[eudaimonikos]

[....WELL. A human being would probably have a more visceral reaction here, but that doesn't mean that Michael's blind to how fucked it is.]

That's easily two decades off from full brain development. Six-year-old humans are basically just slightly smarter than an ape, with fewer teeth. They probably sell wine at drugstores that's older than that, are you serious?

[discutio]

[something something blind joke please call a therapist]

With no one else around close in age to the crown prince, I presume my family and King Regis alike thought it prudent we were introduced early.

The house of Scientia has served the line of Lucis as advisors and hand of the king for generations well before me, as have the Amicitias served as their bodyguards for perhaps longer still. That's just how things are, Michael.

[eudaimonikos]

Tradition's just a crutch for people who are afraid of change.

[You're talking to a demon who decided that actually fuck the entire purpose of his species, this is literally the worst argument you could have chosen]

Humans change the way they operate generation by generation, because eventually they always notice which parts of what the previous generation did were stupid bullshit. Takes a while sometimes, but I've always admired that about you. And I do mean always.

[Before any of this, ethics or friendship or even basic respect, there was just something about humanity.]

[discutio]

[...A slow breath, and a quiet sigh.]

I-...don't know if I can muster an argument in favor of things like tradition anymore. Not when...perhaps the kingdom's held to ours a little too rigidly for just a bit too long.

[eudaimonikos]

Mmmmm. Yeah. Whole thing sounds very...stodgy.

[He tosses the ball from hand to hand a few times.]

So what are you going to do now?

[discutio]

...I don't know, Michael.

[eudaimonikos]

[The ball-tossing stops as he turns to look at Ignis.]

Well, you don't have to decide right away. You've got options - not immediately, but after all this is over. I've heard people talking about settling down here, or going home with somebody else...

Long time before that'll happen, though.

[discutio]

We have a world to rebuild. Even if I didn't already want to return home, neither Noctis nor myself can leave our friends behind. I've already offered Camilla a place with us as well, if she decides to take it.

[eudaimonikos]

Nice! I'll have to see if I can pop by.

[.....]

So you know what you're gonna do, practically speaking.

[discutio]

Return to Eos with Noctis and repair the world he's already saved. That much isn't in question. It's what I do about myself that is.

[eudaimonikos]

Gonna be rough getting out from under that while...completely not doing that. But no, I get it. You can't just walk away.

[......]

Is that what hobbies are for?