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[motherfucking_ghost]

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how bout them airlocked aus

[encelevenemus]

[It was probably better not to ask how an invite got to either the Ring of the Lucii or some spectral dimension beyond mortal reach. But get there it had, and the intended recipient had somehow answered. He stood on the distant edges of the celebration, a spectral sort of presence faintly glowing beneath the shade of a tree.]

[Just...observing. The same as he'd done for thousands of years.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Hey buddy, if you don't want noticed 'glowing while in shade' was a bad choice. It catches the edges of his vision, a little baffled, a little alarmed. Who's there, who's watching?

His first thought is oh, I guess Noct's tired of mingling, because for the hottest of seconds, it couldn't be clearer that that's Noctis. With...shorter hair? Who shaved? He just talked to the guy, and he wasn't wearing fucking Roman robes. He raises a hand to awkwardly wave, squint, and then--

--a sword materializes in his hand with a sparkle of crystal, and a red afterimage stands where Church stood.

His aim is true when it counts, apparently.]

[encelevenemus]

[...Okay. Bit unexpected, but that sword was blocked with one of his own--a silver-blue blade the twin to Ardyn's own greatsword. There was a brief look of confusion--red sparks? Impossible--wasn't it?]

I do not believe we have met.

[Calm words, lightly accented in a way that matched Ardyn's own.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He's been prone to acting before thinking. His hunch could have been completely wrong. But the flash of a sword and seeing that face closer up and that kind of speaking--

Church keeps his sword up. Not, y'know, really trained in it all that much, but it's something.]

No. And I don't believe you've met anyone else here, either.

Except maybe Ardyn.

[encelevenemus]

Indeed, that is why I appear to have been summoned here.

[It seemed they would always cross paths one way or another, no matter how much time separated them. Whether in life, death, or whatever all of this was. The sword vanished, Somnus taking a step back and folding his arms.]

And who are you to him?

[motherfucking_ghost]

His boyfriend.

[Actually, hold on, an amendment to that statement:] His fiance.

And you aren't. fucking. welcome here.

[encelevenemus]

[The record scratch was practically audible, if not visible on his face.]

Wait...what? But that's...impossible.

[motherfucking_ghost]

I know, I don't know how it fucking happened, either, but the big stupid lug proposed.

[Which isn't the point!!! He pulls the sword back to do him a swing.]

You've got three seconds to convince me not to cut you down, Somnus. Which, your name is awful. The song's way better. [Guess who's got some Ardyn writing on his inside arm!]

[encelevenemus]

A bold claim made yet bolder by an untrained hand. [He glanced down to Church's arm, then back up.]

...Is he happy?

[motherfucking_ghost]

And since when do you care about something like that!

[encelevenemus]

I do not doubt he has told you much and more of what transpired between us. But there are things he can not know, least of which are my own thoughts over the past long ages.

I would hear that question answered before I do the same in turn.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[He should maybe reply, but he also doesn't feel like he owes this guy shit. Like an idiot who thinks he can win against someone who's actually trained for this, he takes a few hefty swings. There's a heat starting from his hands and radiating out.]

I AM THE SHIELD OF THE KING, and if you hurt him, I WILL take off your god damn head!

[encelevenemus]

[Barely batting an eye, Somnus phased through the strikes in blue afterimages. This just kept getting more and more impossible.]

And have I yet raised a hand to you or to him since my arrival here?

[burninglight]

[Whatever Ardyn got up to on an average day was rarely if ever something to be concerned about--it was usually aggressively normal when it wasn't 'off in space filming terrible soap operas'.]

[Which, all things considered, was also kind of normal on the scale of things he had done and could be doing. But today was the lower end of strange; he'd simply gone out for a while to pick up food of both the human and chocobo persuasion, and come back.]

[And now he was calmly unwinding by sitting on the couch leaning his head on his hand reading a book.]

[...While wearing glasses he had not been wearing that morning.]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[That's all so aggressively normal for them. Nothing out of the ordinary! Nothing strange(r than usual). Baby gonna get him a snacc and then probably roll into some editing, maybe.

He passes by Ardyn once on the way to the kitchen with a little 'hey'. He's got a bag of cheese puffs (which is not conducive to editing) in hand when he passes by again.

And then he backs up.]

Hhhhhey?

[burninglight]

Hm? [Ardyn glanced up, gold eyes over half-rim glasses.]

Is something wrong?

[motherfucking_ghost]

[church.exe has encountered a problem] ..........I think I should be asking you that?

[burninglight]

...I'm missing something here.

[did you already forget you were wearing them you fucking disaster]

[motherfucking_ghost]

[points to face]

Aaaaaare your eyes getting bad?

[burninglight]

Huh--oh!

[He pushed the glasses up to sit on his head, shrugging.]

No, my sight is perfectly fine. I was just feeling a bit of eyestrain lately, so I picked up a pair of reading glasses. Nothing to worry over.

[motherfucking_ghost]

Mm. Hm.

[He is CONSIDERING this. And then he deposits cheesy puffs on the floor to come lean in right up into Ardyn's space and nudge the glasses back down.]

They look good on you.

[burninglight]

Oh, hello there. [well never mind this book, that's a thing to think about Later.] Do you think so?

[motherfucking_ghost]

You look older but not in an old man way. More like refined gentleman way. Proper Victorian noble or some pish posh poppycock.

[burninglight]

Do I, now? [He took the end of his definitely refined and not at all half-assedly messy braid and flicked Church right in the nose with it.] Heavens forbid I start showing my age.

[motherfucking_ghost]

[Puff of air! Betrayal!] You're gonna be a fox. A silver fox. A silvery, maybe sorta salt and pepper but if the pepper was red, kinda fox.

Buuuut you're also pretty foxy right now.