seeingeyesteward | VR Inbox

Oleander sank a bit into Ignis's coat, clearly looking embarrassed anyway. Why did Ignis have to bring that up? He really felt called out.

Ignis opened his mouth to reply but Ash was already going inside. He could hold off for the time being. Instead he turns Oleander's attention to the two Pokemon making friends with one another at the moment.

"Not shopping. It is a special thing, just for you." He gently nuzzles her, before reaching a big claw to pull the little bag closer for her. "You don't need to wait."

Ignis turns his head back, though Oleander doesn't respond as quickly. It was fine. He picks up the coffee without too much concern. He was used to hot coffee. It hardly bothered him any more.

"It is simply a matter of being polite. If he needs me I am a short call away. It is good for him to make new friends independently."

An Toirneach beamed at the nuzzling, leaning into her very fluffy ~~boy~~friend. She gasped at the little bag, taking it surprisingly gently for a Pokemon born of two brash wrestlers. "Oh! Really?" But even as she was asking she was opening it eagerly, reaching inside and pulling out her present.

"That makes him sound like a right loner." The way Ignis said that, he was sounding more like a parent than a friend.

Still, Ash took a seat and took another sip of his drink, glancing down at the two Pokemon. "What's that?"

"He was, when he was younger. He's became quite good with forming friendships as he grew older. He and Sonia had a rather interesting bond, with her sending him to catch frogs..."

He looks down at the pair of Pokemon, seeing that Caelum had gifted her the Absol fur woven pendant.

"Ah, a pendant. Caelum provided me his fur and I wove it. It should fit her, it is adjustable."

Caelum looks absolutely pleased, black tail thumping against the ground.

"Aw, that's sweet." It was! And judging by how An Toirneach was looking at it like it was made of gold, she loved it.
"This is just for me?" She looked up at him, then jumped up to give him a big hug, before squeaking at Ash and gesturing that she wanted to wear it immediately.
"Alright alright, here ya go." He knelt out of his chair at her insistence, putting it on and making sure it wasn't too tight. She immediately hurried back to Caelum, giving him a big hug for her present and squeaking an excited thank you.

"What about you? What did you get up to as a kid?"

Caelum nods and nuzzles into her fur at the hug. He watches carefully to make sure Ash had it well adjusted and maybe sniffed at her neck a little to make sure himself before setting his larger paws around her to snuggle her close.

He liked her. Obviously.

Ignis shakes his head slightly at the Pichu's antics. He pauses at Ash's question. Oleander's eyes lifted curiously which left Ignis with that same unsettled feeling he always had when he could see his own face.

"Me..? I had a tutor and was focused on my studies. I shadowed members of the council when Noct was injured for some time. I also began training in swordsmanship early, though I learned other weapons as well since the King's magic allows access to a variety."

He sips his coffee thoughtfully. It'd been so long since he had thought about childhood.

"For the most part I tended to Noctis's needs. Anything he needed from me he only needed to ask. His Majesty trusted me to care for Noct and it is a duty I have never taken lightly. Even if Noct had made it diffucult from time to time."

"...You were six." He couldn't shake off how unsettling it was to hear this. It was bad enough that Armin, Jean and Bert had joined the military as young teens and thought that was absolutely fine and normal. This was...it was something else entirely and it brought up a lot of disturbing questions about what their world was like, especially since this was before things went to shit.

Ash put down his drink, frowning. "What did you do in your own time? For fun?"

Oleander's ears went back, sensing Ignis's discomfort though his own expression didn't change. He never questioned his position as the Prince's steward. It never crossed his mind. It was his purpose and his honor. He honestly couldn't remember anyone questioning it before.

"After lessons for the day Noct and I would find some activity or other. He enjoyed books, so I would read to him or he would read to me to better his language skills. He was much less rambunctious because of his accident but no less a handful."

The Meowstic seemed to realize the disconnect of the answer to the question, head slowly turning to look up at Ignis. Caelum had lifted his head as well, both Pokemon now staring at Ignis as if to say 'That wasn't the question'.

Ignis merely turned Oleander's head back around gently. He didn't like seeing himself.

"...What did you do for yourself though. Your life can't revolve around Noctis, certainly not when you were six years old." Ash stated. Yeah he knew he was being bullshitted and he seriously didn't like this. This wasn't a friendship. It's not what fucking six year old children were meant to be doing. Noctis' well being and education shouldn't have been left to Ignis, not at that age.

Ignis tilts his head, tapping his fingers gently against the table. He was thinking, but.. honestly, what else was he supposed to be doing? He had a job and was raised to do that job. It was honorable to serve the Prince. And they had fun.

"Noct and I did plenty. We fished before, or solved puzzles. After he would go to bed or if he was training with Gladiolus I would spend time reading or practicing instruments or weapons. Ah, or Cooking, after I realized it would be a necessary skill."

Instruments for entertaining Noctis. Weapons for protecting Noctis. Cooking to feed him. And the books he read, he often chose books that were of a textbook variety. There was always more to learn.

"I read some fictional books as well, and quite a bit about the theology of our world. It was all valuable. Ah, and there were the times His Majesty Regis would have tea with me so we could talk."

Usually about Noctis, but Regis was a kind man, he would ask after Ignis as well.

Ash couldn't hide his expression, which clearly reflected exactly what he thought of this.

That it was downright disturbing.

"Dude...Six year olds, shouldn't be training with weapons. Or worrying about cooking because it's a 'nescessary' skill. That's what the parents are meant to be doing." Ash knew that, even if his childhood had been spent worrying about money. He knew that parts of his childhood weren't normal, and that people would go 'oh no that's not right' on principle. "Kids are meant to be kids. What, was Noctis learning how to cook, and how to use a sword at that age too?"

"I should clarify, I didn't begin weapons training until I was older. Noct began learning a couple years after me. We wer of an appropriate age to learn to wield weaponary."

It wasn't meant for war really. Technically it was just meant for exercise and just having the knoweldge but unfortunately the war was a thing.

"And cooking, I began that in my early teens as puberty was hardly kind. It gave me something to focus on beyond more mundane every day things."

He waves his hand, as if attempting to reassure Ash with this rather unreassuring informatino.

"Noct never learned how to cook though, he is rather terrible to be perfectly honest. I would cook for him instead. In fact, getting him to clean up after himself was a chore in and of itself. It wasn't until some time after he began living on his own that he began cleaning up after himself properly. Thankfully, he was hardly a dirty child."

"Ignis...you were two years older than him, right? Then it's not your fucking business if he tidies up after himself. It's not your responsibility to make sure he does that.

The way you talk about him...that's not, that's not how friends talk about each other. Saying 'oh yes he was a troublesome child' or 'oh, the trouble I had getting him to eat his vegetables!' That's what parents or guardians are for! You're not responsible for him Ignis. You shouldn't have been, not as a kid. You deserved to have a childhood where you weren't responsible for anyone, and could just enjoy life and discovering the world. I'm willing to bet Noctis didn't have anyone he was chasing around after, did he? He wasn't running after some kid a couple of years younger than him, fretting about if they were eating their greens, or were learning what they needed to, or was cleaning up after themselves, was he?"

Ash couldn't help the emotion bleeding into his voice, the frustration at what he was hearing. An Toirneach picked up on it. She parted from Caelum, hopping over to Ash with a curious squeak. "Ash?"

Ignis sets his jaw to maintain his irritation. Someone from the outside looking in.. well it must look quite odd. But it was how life was for Ignis and it wasn't a life he would trade away. He felt... defensive even. It was strange to have his life questioned.

"He did not have anyone to run after because he is the Crown Prince. It was and still an honor to serve him as his steward. I was treated well by both him and His Majesty."

He was picked because he was a quiet, obedient child. He didn't have many friends so Noctis was his friend. Noct was the one person who was always around and he was glad to take care of him. It didn't matter that they were young.

"You are misplacing your emotions, Ash. There is no unhappiness to be found here and what is past is past. I am satisfied with my life and would not change it as it allowed me to stay close to him."

"It's not right." He stated outright. Blunt, and to the point. "It's not fucking right, to take a six year old child and put them to work. In my world, we call that child slavery. And it doesn't matter if it's for the highest King or Queen of any country. You weren't old enough to say what you wanted, there's a reason you can't hold kids to contracts or vows under any court of law. Yeah, what's past is past. But it's still wrong."

Ash's heart was beating hard, even as he managed to keep his voice form rising. He was steely and tense. A part of him wanted to fight. But there was nothing to outright fight here, no person he could throw his anger at. Except Ignis. But he wasn't going to throw a punch at him, even if this was so goddamn wrong and gross and Ignis was sitting here telling him it was fine. "Take away them being royal. Take away their royalty, and it's a goddamn crime, Ignis."

An Toirneach was young. She hadn't seen Ash like this before and grabbed onto his trousers, tugging and climbing up him. "Ash, why are you angry?"

"His Majesty is not a criminal for wanting a friend for his son" Ignis's voice was carefully measured, an icy edge to it. He was angry. A deep cold anger.

"I was able to leave whenever I wished and I chose to stay, with Noctis. I am one of his oldest friends, well before Prompto. I was there when others could not be and to me it was not wrong."

He didn't want to care that Ash found it wrong yet here he was defending old actions that weren't even his own.

"His Majest treated me as family and asked only for me to stand at Noctis's side which is my intention to do so until the bitter end regardless of how short the time will be."

Caelum has stood, going over to nuzzle the little Pichu and attempt to guide her away from what was clearly becoming heated. Oleander also slid off of Ignis's lap, sensing the man's distress.

"There's no way you could have walked away!" Ash countered, hand curling into a fist. "You were fucking six, if someone tells a six year old kid to do it and that it's important, they fucking do it!" He had to calm himself for a moment, the urge to shout causing his voice to rise in volume. He took a breath before pushing on. "Look. You're friends. I'm not doubting that. But I bet his other friends don't do half the shit you do, nor do they feel like they have to do that for him, do they?"

An Toirneach glanced back at Caelum, clinging to Ash's leg but undeterred. "I have to help him, he's getting upset about something-"

In the brief calm, his mind picked up something he had missed in the heat of the moment. The bitter end. How short the time will be. He narrowed his eyes. To him it didn't even matter if Noctis was dying. It didn't. This situation was still fucked up and yeah, if he met Regis, he would look 'his Majesty' in the eye and call him out for this.

"Ash, I am thirty-two years old. When I started this journey with Noctis I was twenty-two. When I found out thr weight of this journey I was in my teens. I was not six years old."

Was Ash placing that much weight on the age when they met? Obviously there was plenty of opportunities as he grew older to step aside.

"Gladio is Noct's shield, he began training before puberty as well. Prompto was a young man when he decided to become friends with Noct. We were all young. And when we became older we stood by our decisions out of love, loyalty or whatever else we wish to ascribe to it."

He taps his finger a bit hard onto the table to punctuate his point.

"Noct was a sheltered boy in the middle of a war, with only a select number of years allotted him because of something that happened two thousand years ago. It was unfair for him and if life is then a little 'unfair' for myself or anyone else then it's a small sacrifice to be made for his happiness."

Caelum released the little Pichu, nodding. He gives her a nuzzle before moving to sit beside Ignis, resting a big paw on the man's knee.

Calm down, friend.

He was so sick of hearing that people had to have shitty lives and it was fine. He had that with Armin and his friends, being recruited as child soldiers. And now apparently here, with Ignis. His expression didn't soften and he just breathed, trying to find the words to continue this argument and to make it stick. He felt like he was being spoken down to when this should be fucking simple.

"People aren't things. When you take a child and ingrain in them what their duty is, what they're gonna be? Of course they're not gonna step aside. It won't come into the picture. Cos it's been drileld in that this is their life. Yeah, you're in your thirties. And you don't have a life, do you? Almost everything you do or have ever done is for Noctis." Ash tilted his head up. "I'm his friend too. I would stand by his side and fight for him. And I didn't have to be groomed from childhood for that."

He paused, and shifted, steeling himself. "You keep talking like he's dying or on his deathbed. So let's hear it."

An Toirneach had clambered into Ash's lap, looking between him and Ignis. Where they about to fight? Or had they been fighting with words this whole time? She didn't know what to do. Was she meant to fight Ignis too? She looked to Caelum again, a lost, young Pokemon trying to understand what she was meant to do in this situation while standing by her trainer.

"Noct doesn't have a life either."

Ignis's voice was a hard snap now, raised. He wasn't going to back down that it was a sacrifice worth making. He would have many years after Noctis was gone to embrace whatever random thing he wanted to make his life. He could dedicate the first half to his friend.

Caelum looks to An Toirneach, smiling slightly at her. He gives her a little nod. Things would be okay.

"Sometimes, trainers need to talk things out. Its different than battling but just as important to them. They will resolve it."

Ignis hears the Absol talking, though he couldn't understand the language. He rests his hand on the Absol's head gently. It was calming.

"The time I'm from we are waiting for Noctis to be released from the crystal, where he's communing with one of our gods, Bahamut. When he steps out he will be expected to face our enemy, a cursed soul who has brought the Starscourage to full power."

His fingers curl, tightening into a fist.

"The world is dark, and daemons are running wild. Everything is at stake. And to kill the enemy Noctis is required to sacrifice his own life. He will die and there is nothing any of us can do to alter that."

He reaches up, pushing his glasses out of the way to pinch the bridge of his nose hard before refocusing. It was good they shaded his eyes.

"He will not rule. He will not marry, or have children. He will not feel the sun a final time and our only duty was to protect him until it was time. Our success will bring the sun back for the world but take it from ours."

Edited 2018-01-22 01:02 (UTC)

Ash took this in and lowered his eyes. Noctis was destined to die, apparently. To save his world and bring back the light, he would have to kill a cursed soul and die with it. And is imprisoned with a crystal.

"...nothing's written in stone until it's done. But to be in that situation, where he's gonna have to fight and might no make it out, is terrible. For both of you, and everyone else who knows him."

But something equally rose up with an angry roar, like an ocean wave. He lifted his eyes again, expression hard as steel even if Ignis couldn't see it.

"But it doesn't change that what was done to you was wrong."

"Nor does it change that someone without understanding or concept of the world I come from should judge the actions in that world's past."

Ignis's anger came from an emotional well he rarely tapped into. Regis he viewed as a father. He wouldn't accept a stranger disparaging a man who was not alive or present to defend himself. The King was an honorable man, one who cared for country and family. Ignis had seen first hand who this man was.

Ash was making conjecture from a few conversations that weren't even about the man. Ignis lays down the money it would take to cover his portion of the meal as he decides this isn't a conversation he wanted to partake in any longer.

He stands, adjusting his jacket neatly as Oleander looked increasingly distressed from the connection he had with Ignis.

"I stand by Noct out of love and loyalty, not supposed childhood indoctrination. I am sure we will see one another again, good day."

Caelum stands and shakes himsef out. He looks back at An Toirneach, swishing his tail gently.

"Have a good afternoon. I hope next time we see each other can be for longer.

Ash didn't chase him, posture still tense. An Toirneach didn't find any comfort in their abrupt parting, ears lying low.

Once Ignis was gone, Ash's anger rose. He stood and swung his bag over his shoulder. An Toirneach squeaked, quickly clambering onto him and hiding in his hood as he took off, aiming to get onto the rooftops so he could run until he couldn't move and shout until he was couldn't talk.

Fuck this.

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