aterat | [Open] Shifting Your Perceptions

Entry tags:

[Open] Shifting Your Perceptions

Who; Nida, Ignis, Mono, Open
What; Family is something Nida wishes he had, and maybe it's in reach. Also a chocobo chase
Where; Markets, Library Rooftop
When; Early April
Warnings;

I. Chocobo on the Loose | OTA
It's actually impressive, just how much a chocobo could grow in a year. Back when he'd first acquired her Hibiscus had been small enough to tuck under one of Nida's arms. These days the crimson feathered bird walked at Nida's side, her head up to his shoulder, happy on her training lead and with a small, weighted saddle on her back and full backs at her sides to help train her to the feel of weight on her. Soon enough she'd be more than large enough to start their riding training together, and Nida wasn't excited about that.

But with her increased age was coming to be a reasonable young bird.

Or so Nida thought. Being a guard, on duty, in uniform, sometimes wasn't the best thing. It meant that some children liked to play their little pranks. Which int his case meant running past Nida and cutting his lead line. Hibiscus, bothered by the sudden motion, jerked aside. And then realized that she was further away from Nida than she should be. Which meant freedom. For a moment her little bird brain considered. And then, seeing nearby melon, she strode confidently away.

"Hibiscus?" Nida said, shocked to see her walking away. He lunged for her cut lead without thinking, and she, seeing this as play, darted away with a warble.

"No, wait, come back!"

II. Afternoon Shopping | Closed to Ignis
Their schedules were such complicated things that often Nida and Ignis left their free time that would be shared together for, well, things far more interesting than basic errands. But things had been busy lately and there was a lot of things that needed buying, and Nida had just come off shift, so... Well, when he saw his husband moving among the vegetable stalls, he of course made his way over.

"Hello my gorgeous love. How are-"

Nida pauses in his way to kissing his husband's cheek when he saw what was in Ignis's hand. Spinach. That earned a cringe.

"You doing spinach stuffed in something for dinner? Promise the 'something' is potent. I prefer not to taste my cooked spinach."

Yeah, sometimes Nida was a picky eater too.

III. Heights Give Perspective | Closed to Mono
The talk with Ignis had taken a while, but in the end they had come to the same conclusion. Of the two of them, Nida would be the one to extend the initial offer. And what better time than tonight, while the two of them were celebrating the success of the young man. For tonight Mono had climbed all the way to the roof of the Library, at good speed, with no rope. Then he'd gone back down. And come back up again. While he was approaching the top the second time Nida had laid out the snacks he'd asked Ignis to prepare for the night. He'd had confidence that all of this result to the evening.

IT was something needing celebrating. So Nida pulled the small 'bento boxes' as Ignis had called them, from the bag at his side. A light evening meal, as a gift from his husband, to broach the subject.

"I'm quite proud of you, Mono. And this? Our celebration meal."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Mono listened curiously. He hadn’t known Nida was scared of chocobos. That made sense to the kid, though. They were really big, and the beaks and clawed feet looked like they could do a lot of damage. At least that was Mono’s initial impression when he’d first seen one.

“I got kinda nervous around them when they appeared too, but Yuki’s got one and it’s really small and cute… So I kinda got used to them after being around him. So I bet Hibiscus does a good job of helping you get used to them, too.” The boy responded with a serious nod. Plus, if Hibiscus was being raised by Nida, that meant it was going to be pretty smart and be a good partner, right? At least that made sense to the kid.

"They're from my world, or we have a species of them. And they always scared me," Nida confessed. EVer since he was young. "But yes, she's definitely helping. I still don't like other chocobos much."

But his partner was going to be a good bird, one used to him specifically.

“They are?” Mono blinked in surprise. He hadn’t really known that Chocobos existed elsewhere… Though to be fair, even wildlife had become a bit limited in his world. He wasn’t sure what was in other worlds or only in this one. “So is your world more like this one than it is like other peoples?” It was question time, it seemed, as they made their way towards the house.

"Yep, Ignis's too. But in my world they are only yellow, and they're bigger than these."

So yeah, it's more like the ones from Ignis's world. "But no, this world isn't more like mine. We're lacking a lot of things. For instance, the moon isn't trying to kill us."

“Oh… If they were even bigger, then they’d be even more scary sometimes. I like the yellow feathers, though. I think it’s a happy colour.” He responded with a small nod, as though that was somehow a balance between scary and not scary to his mind. A pro and a con… Not that it was, but it had stuck out to him that way.

Then the boy’s eyes widened, and he looked up at Nida with some obvious confusion. “The moon tries to kill you in your world??? How does the moon do that? It’s so far away?”

"Monsters," Nida said quite honestly. "They come from the moon, warping the world around them. It's really bad."

“Oh…” He murmured with a growing understanding. So the moon warped the world and created monsters in Nida’s world? “… That sounds a little like the signal in my world, only it changes people.” And sometimes animals, but not nearly in the same way. “Is there a way to stop the moon or do you gotta just deal with the monsters?” A very pointed question, perhaps, but the boy wanted to know.

"We just gotta deal with monsters falling from the moon, and the way that moonfall affects everything else. We can't stop it. People like me, we're trained to fight them."

ANd he's been fighting them most of his life.

“So it’s kinda like your job there?” That made sense, the kid supposed. He had joined the guard here, and he fought the monsters and bad stuff that appeared sometimes… If he was used to dealing with it in his world, then he knew what he was doing here when bad stuff happened.

"Yep, it's what people like me are hired for, most of the time. Sometimes I was hired to stop bad people as well, but I didn't kill them."

Usually. The kid didn't need to know that.

To be fair, Mono probably wouldn’t exactly judge. It wasn’t as though the child hadn’t killed bad people (in self defence) before… It was just debatable on whether or not those he’d killed could truly be called human anymore or not. Unfortunately, the only person he’d spoken to on that matter was Illyana thus far. Then again, there were a couple of moments he wasn’t sure he remembered what he did exactly. Sometimes he remembered it one way… and other times another.

But he listened with curiosity. “And that’s why you’re a guard here, right? Since you got experience and are good at it when there’s bad stuff happening in the city.”

"Exactly," Nida answered. "And I can do a lot more to help people. Including making sure people who do bad things because they have no choice don't get hurt too much."

It's the best he can do if he's honest.

Something about that made the kid pause, and his eyes cast down thoughtfully, as if watching his feet while he walked. “So… If someone doesn’t mean to be bad, but bad stuff happens around them or they do bad without meaning to… You would still try to help them while protecting people?”

"Of course," Nida answered. How does that not make sense?

Because Mono was pretty sure that most people would sooner get rid of or take their anger out on the person causing the bad stuff. “Oh… That’s good.” Was his very quiet answer, feeling slightly comforted by the firm answer.

"My life needs to be about helping what lives I can, when I can," Nida answered. That was the only way to make hte world better.

“That’s a really good thing to do…” He responded with another small nod, fussing a button on his coat again. “Not everyone does stuff like that. Lots of people don’t think some people should be helped. Or they kinda give up on everything and stop trying to do anything at all aside from being angry.”

Nida turned them down a side street, and there was the house, finally in sight, if a bit further down the road.

"SOmetimes people do that because they're angry and hurt. Sometimes it's just because they aren't the sort to share. I am what I am because others have, at times, given me a chance."

Even if he didn't deserve it.

Mono peered down the road curiously, taking in the area carefully. The boy looked rather confused, though.

“Really? So people gave you a chance because of stuff?” It at least made sense as to why Nida was so nice about stuff, and his belief in helping people who might not be considered worth helping by others.

He did get a little distracted as he saw they were approaching a house, eyes tracing the outline and lingering on the windows or doors. “Is this the house you and Mr. Ignis live in?” He finally asked, wondering what it was like inside and if he really could belong in a home. It was far nicer, in his opinion, than the apartment buildings. Those buildings had always reminded him of the ones in the Pale City… Even if they were nicer, there were days when the shadows and grey skies on a stormy day made it hard to not see it the places from his world. Especially since he’d been in the gray building.

"Yep, that's it," Nida agreed. Normally this is when he'd climb the side to slip in through the bedroom window, but... Yeah, seems better to use the front door.

"Come in, let's see it," he says, just about jumping up the stairs of the porch to produce his keys and unlock it.

Using the door was a smart move for now. Mono was already used to creeping into houses and apartments in the Pale City to get around. If he thought it was normal here, he probably would just start doing it, too.

“It’s nice? Like from the outdoors part, it looks nice.” Mono responded, looking over the place with interest. What would it look like inside, though? So, as Nida opened the door, he followed the guy inside with a hesitant looking curiosity. The boy falling silent as he began taking in the various details out of habit.

Nida's only a few feet into the house when a body darts out from under a chair and then there is a blur of blue and green as Julia ascends quickly and easily to his shoulder. The Peacock Cat Queen purrs as she rubs her face against his cheek and Nida hums contentedly over the weak sense of euphoria that comes with that contact.

"I suppose I should warn you that we're cat people. Ignis is the proper owner of Ebony, a very lovely black cat. And this here is Julia, she's a peacock cat. If you touch her feathers with your bare hands, you feel sorta super happy. Good thing is that she's picky about people."

So she likely won't harass Mono for a good long while.

Mono didn’t really mind animals, especially the ones he’d run into in this world. There were a lot more of them here, and most of them seemed pretty nice and friendly as long as you were careful. The kid still wasn’t fond of crows or ravens, even if they were smaller here… But at least he didn’t look scared as Julia darted forward to climb up on Nida’s shoulder.

If anything, he looked quite awed by the sight. He’d seen strange animals before, ones that weren’t either the wrong size or a weird hybrid… But this was the first one he’d seen that was so beautiful! “Wow…” He mumbled at first, tilting his head up as he looked the creature over from his vantage point. He wouldn’t reach out and touch her though, warning about her special ability or not. Just because animals here were nicer, didn’t mean you could just reach out and touch them. They didn’t always like that, in his experience.

“I’ve never seen a cat like her before.” He didn’t really know what a peacock was either, so that meant she was extra special. “She’s really pretty though, I’ll be careful not to bug or scare her.” He added with a more serious nod.

"There is no other like her on this world to my knowledge," Nida answered. "I met her in the first world I was brought to. She followed us in a way to the second, and then, on suspicion, I checked with Raimon. And she was indeed with him."

And so he'd acquired his girl.

"Want to come upstairs?"

“Wow, so she kinda just follows you wherever you end up then? That’s kinda nice.” He responded with a small nod, wondering how lucky it was for that to be possible. It was nice to think that Nida hadn’t been separated from her with all the places he’d been so far.

Mono nodded quickly, though, eager to see more of the house. “Yeah, okay!” It was nice enough so far, but the boy wanted to see a little more to get a better idea of what to expect if he lived here. It wasn’t like he was entirely sure how to go on a tour of someone’s house when he’d been invited in, before. So he just defaulted to following Nida around.

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