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

"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.

"I don't think she was following me last time," Nida said, a clouded look on his face. He remembered things, but he didn't know what. "My sister, sort of sister, acquired her. And we kept finding her."

But that is memories beyond him, and he has to accept it for what he got.

"The room at the end of this hall is mine and Ignis's. But the other two rooms we've been considering using as offices. We just haven't worked on the conversion yet. And if you like one of them, we can talk to Ignis, have a meal together some time, and figure out how we all want this to work."

“Yeah? I wanna see what they look like, if that’s okay.” He asked curiously, peering down the hall curiously. Wondering what the two open rooms were like inside, Mono moved from Nida’s side to wander up to the nearest one and look inside. He wasn’t really sure what he would like in a room, after all. What did normal people want in a bedroom? Did it matter? Instincts were to decide on whichever had easier escape routes if trouble found him, but… That might be silly, right?

Honestly, the room wasn't much yet. Pale painted walls, exposed wooden supports and beams, some windows, but otherwise there wasn't much going on. A room in transition. Though up on one of the beams is a blanket and pillow, and Nida chuckles.

"I would take those down if you chose here. I wouldn't set up a nap spot in your space, of course."

Mono wasn’t entirely sure what he was expecting. It was pretty much what Nida had said, after all. It was an unused space, so there wasn’t much to see… But it gave him a good idea of what he’d be working with if he moved in. Though the boy’s eyes cast up to look at the exposed wooden beams with more interest than the rest of the room, especially when he saw Nida’s nap spot. “That’s a good spot for a nap, though. It’s safer and if you’re trying to not be noticed, they can’t see ya unless they look up!” He’d found that was the best way around the school, honestly. The teacher could reach that high, but usually she didn’t look up since the students were all tiny and ran around below her feet.

So sneaking rests up in the rafters when he could climb up to them had been pretty useful, especially after Six got nabbed by the students for a while.

He wondered if he could make it up there himself? “I don’t wanna take your nap spot, but it is kinda great.” Mono added thoughtfully, tilting his head back at Nida with more curiosity than before.

Nida grins, because the kid gets him very well.

"I have another space I hang out, in the bedroom. There are lots of exposed wood features. I think Ignis chose this place specifically to feed my need for height. Of course it's also the only way I can ever be taller than him, so I take what I can get.

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