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[saviorexe]

@markus.manfred | ■ ▲ ◌ ▼

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[saviorexe]

Hey.

[Hi Noctis.]

Everything all right?

[fessus]

Ig but not really.

Do you have extra pillows?

[saviorexe]

Yes, but does your "not really" have to do with needing these extra pillows?

[fessus]

Maybe about 5%, it'd just help rn since your mattress is kind of lumpy.

[saviorexe]

If you want, I'll trade you. My bed for the couch.

[He's joking, but... he's given up his bed and Noctis just wants to complain about it being lumpy? The most spoiled guard he's ever had the pleasure of knowing.]

I'll find a few extra pillows for you. What's the other 95%?

[fessus]

haha very funny

Idk just some stuff on my mind.

[ He'd encouraged Markus to be open with him, hadn't he? Maybe he should take his own advice. ] Have you seen the new arrivals?

[saviorexe]

I have. I made a point to be at the safehouse once we received the message from El.

[Getting up and beginning his trek to find extra pillows tucked away somewhere, Markus can easily multitask. The text comes fluidly enough]

What about them?

[fessus]

Oh okay.

One of them's from my world, that's all. My best friend actually. Feels kinda bittersweet, just don't wanna say that to him.

[saviorexe]

[He pauses in his step, just briefly, as he reads that. Knows the importance of meeting someone from your home in this place — and that’s not even accounting for if they’re a best friend.]

Why bittersweet? Did seeing him bother you more than it was a relief?

[fessus]

Kind of. Means he was subjected to the same stuff we were. Obv I don't want that for him, feels like I should've been there to keep him safe.

That and he was just saying a lot of weird stuff to me. [ ... ]

Guess this won't make any more sense to you than it does to me, not sure why I'm putting it on you.

[saviorexe]

You can tell me anyway. I told you before, didn't I? [Back when he visited him in the hospital. The conversation they had.] I want to listen if you want to talk about it.

What do you mean by "weird stuff"?

[fessus]

[ ... damn, this is difficult. But it's important, right? ]

He talked about me trying to hurt him or something. I'd never do that, I don't know what he meant.

He was scared of me.

[saviorexe]

[Another stilled motion as Markus reaches for an extra pillow that’s found itself perched on the highest shelf of a linen closet.]

That doesn’t sound like you at all.

Is this another issue of differing timelines?

[fessus]

[ The pause is longer than before. ]

Idk. Does it matter? If I did it before I got here or I do it in the future.

[saviorexe]

And do you believe that under any circumstances you would’ve willingly hurt your best friend?

[Markus can’t help but think of his fight with Connor. How he had lost his composure, and had harmed him without remorse at the time.

Such things are possible, but maybe circumstances dictated that they weren’t normal. Maybe that’s the case for Noctis, too.]

This place has recently proven to us all that we can act irrationally because of variables outside of our own control. What’s important is that you talk to him and try to understand just what had happened between you two.

[And taking a second pillow to tuck under an arm. He closes the closet door and makes his way down the short corridor towards Noctis’ (his) room.]

[fessus]

[ It's a familiar speech because there are threads of it that are reminiscent of the one he'd given Markus from a hospital bed, faced with a stubborn man in visible pain who willingly shouldered it as penance. But... when it comes to this, Noctis isn't sure how he can repent. He doesn't even know what the hell he did in its entirety, not yet. ]

No I don't believe it. Just hard to shake that he did.

[ Which is the heart of the problem. Either he did it by his own will, which he can't wrap his head around, or he didn't and Prompto is still afraid of him. ]

He's not saying much to me. Guess I had to vent a little.

[saviorexe]

He's newly arrived. This world is foreign and frightening. Maybe what he needs is time.

[A few steps more, then-]

We all tend to gravitate towards the familiar. You're familiar to him. Even if he's scared now, I have a feeling he'll come around and the two of you can have the discussion you need.

[He's here. Knuckles rap lightly on the door to his own room. And though it's a little silly to send a text message when he's literally on the other side of the door, Markus composes them so quickly it hardly even matters; he might as well send it through.]

I realize that doesn't do much to make you feel better about it now.

[fessus]

[ The knock at the door comes but Noctis is rereading those messages once, twice, taking a few seconds longer before actually dragging himself up to answer it. Of course it's Markus, and if anything could make him feel stupider about potentially oversharing his problems it's the fact that he's actually armed with pillows. ]

Hey... I didn't mean to make you hunt those down or anything; I'm not that lazy.

... thanks. [ And not for the pillows. ] It's just--

I dunno. Thanks.

[saviorexe]

[Of course he's armed with pillows. Markus only replies after he steps in, closing the space between the door and the bedside, and offering one of them to Noctis.]

You're welcome. [He knows it's not just the pillows, he knows the thanks is for something else harder to enunciate, and Markus accepts it all the same.]

Settling in okay in here?

[He'll continue the conversation if Noctis is willing, but he might as well see if the other's doing all right in his room.]

[fessus]

[ He takes the proffered pillow with his good hand, unable to resist checking the quality of it by flattening it against his stomach and giving it a little pat. Not bad. ]

Ah, yeah... I mean it's a lot better than sleeping outside. [ ... did that sound rude? ] And the safehouse. [ Better. ]

You're pretty tidy.

[saviorexe]

[The second pillow is gently tossed to him, landing harmlessly next to Noctis’ hip. At the comment, he glances around the room in an idle, assessing sort of way.]

Yes. There hasn’t been much time to accrue very many personal objects.

[Beyond the basic furnishings, Markus has lived here for less than a month. It might not be as spartan as Connor’s room (at least Markus does have a painting of the river that cuts through the city on one wall, and a weird little spindly lamp that can be twisted in all sorts of directions on the corner of a desk — a hint of eccentricity that doesn’t really show anywhere else quite yet) but it it’s very tidy because it isn’t difficult to keep it that way.

That, and Markus is a rather neat individual in general.]

But I’m also used to keeping things tidy. Just habit, in some ways.

[fessus]

Yeah, I guess that makes sense... But even then there's not really any trash in here or anything. My-- well, Ignis, the guy I told you about, he used to come over to my apartment and give me a hard time. It was always a wreck...

[ Which is a far fonder memory now than it was then, and as he drops fully onto the bed again he finds himself thinking back. ]

... hey...

If you can forget most of that stuff I said, I'd appreciate it. I shouldn't have brought it up.

[saviorexe]

[Markus finds something sad in the resignation he hears in those words; or maybe it’s the way Noctis has slumped back into the bed, mind caught in what he can only assume is memory.]

Noctis.

[The desk isn’t really all that far from the bed, a comfortable distance for conversation when Markus decides to sit casually on its surface, crossing his arms loosely across his chest.]

What good will that do you? Keeping this all to yourself.

[Ah, selective hypocrisy.]

[fessus]

[ Markus chooses to make himself a little more comfortable which tells Noctis he isn't getting away with that request so easily, picking at a loose thread in that pillowcase before he forces his hand to flatten over it. ]

Ahh... I dunno what good it'll do me. That's not the point.

It's something he shared with me... that's all. And I shouldn't be talking about him behind his back before I know what's going on. That's wrong.

[saviorexe]

[It’s fair reasoning, but Markus isn’t sure it’s quite satisfying enough to let it go just yet. There’s a line between this being any of his business and Noctis’, and while he’s careful to not careen himself over it, it feels strange leaving him alone to stew in his uncertainty.]

There’s a difference between talking ill about someone, versus seeking advice or consolation.

[A beat.]

I won’t force you to talk about it, of course. Especially if you think there’s nothing more to be said. But you can be open with me; I can keep things just between us.