aterat | [Open] Headache And A Half

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[Open] Headache And A Half

Who; Nida, Open
What; A New Voice In His Head and Chocobo Wrangling
Where; Scientia Household, Markets, Near Chocobo Ranch
When; September
Warnings; Discussion and depictions of talking to voices in your head.

I. The Statue | Scientia Home

It arrives at the door of the house, and just looking at the small statue, Nida knows it's for him. No doubt another one of those little finds that Raimon is good at, something on a list of them that Nida had prepared but never gotten around to coming back for. But he knows it's for him, because he recognizes it from home. Not this little piece, smaller than either of their pets specifically, was exactly like the ones he'd seen at home in pictures, but it was still something of home.

"Now if only I could figure out why you're here," Nida says as he picks the thing up and heads to the kitchen for his morning coffee. He puts the statue on the table to consider where it was almost immediately met by Julia leaping up and nuzzling against it.

"No accounting for your taste, Jules," he tells the feline before sipping at his coffee. What could this be? What could it mean? Why did every bit of his magical senses gifted by Siren scream that it was important?

"Why do you seem so familiar?" he asks after a sip of coffee. Then he reaches out for the thing once more and...

The mug breaks on the floor when he falls. Not that Nida, currently passed out on the floor, really notices.

II. The Arguments | Markets

Nida was learning a lot recently. Like how even a simple walk through the markets on his patrol shift was going to be a headache if he didn't know how to make peace in his own mind.

Oh! Grapes! We should have grapes. You like Grapes!

YOU like Grapes. He doesn't like grapes. There should be no grapes. Raisins instead I think.

Raisins are just boring grapes with wrinkles. Oh, that's why you like them. They're wrinkly. Like you.

And you clearly prefer grapes because they are bloated and much better crushed and fermented like-

"Will you shut up? I'm getting apples and that's final," Nida hissed under his breath, hoping no one else heard him. Which, given his luck, seemed pretty unlikely.

III. The Chase | Near Chocobo Ranch

"Kweh."

"I don't think I can argue with that," Nida said in response to the vocalization of the red chocobo underneath him. The chocobo shied one way and then the other, as if distressed, and Nida of course reached forward to pat her neck gently.

"I know," he says, his voice soft. "I know it's scary. You can smell them too. But I promise, we're here to help the other chocobos. And I won't let any wolves get you. I just need you to do me a favor and help get the other chocobos safe, okay?"

If it gets dangerous, I can shield you!

"That's not a helpful observation, Carbuncle, because she doesn't even know you're here," Nida noted as he nudged the chocobo into motion toward a blur of yellow in the distance. "Maybe save your protectiveness for someone who can understand the words when I relay a message."

And from the looks of it, there might be someone up ahead, astride that other chocobo. Nida raises a hand in greeting to the distant form.

"Well met! You helping out here too?"

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“Okay!” He could do this, Mono was pretty sure. If it wasn’t the best cup Nida ever had, it would have to be forgiven by the newbie to making coffee.

Getting to work and copying what he’d observed Ignis do in the mornings before they all left for their respective jobs or arrangements for the day, Mono spoke over his shoulder curiously. “So, if you were back there, you wouldn’t have to have them both in your head at once?” And they didn’t talk as much? Mono wondered why it was so different back in Nida’s home than here.

It was about the caffeine, not the quality.

"Exactly," Nida says. "I work with Leviathan or sometimes Pandemonia instead."

Then Nida would at least get the caffeine once Mono was finished!

“What are they like?” Mono asked curiously, wondering how different they might be from Siren or the Carbuncle one that just got here. Internally, the boy hoped that Nida wouldn’t have to deal with even more in his head someday if there were that many different ones.

"Leviathan is a great sea serpent. She can be motherly. I never expected it, the first time we connected. And Pandemona is..."

How do you describe that one? Nida doesn't even have words for it.

"Fickle. Loud in one moment, a whisper in another. Tempestuous in their moods."

Mono listened very carefully, motherly should be a term he understood well, but it’s really not. He can only go off of what he’d heard about them. “Leviathan liked to take care of you like a mother would?” He tilted his head slightly, hoping he had that right.

The rest of it, well, Mono doesn’t know the word tempestuous, but he can at least guess a little based on the rest of what Nida said. Mostly. “So you dunno one minute or the next what Pandemona would be like. That must be kinda confusing to work with?”

"I don't know that I'd say that much, but she can be that sort of personality."

Which Nida doesn't realize isn't something Mono's familiar with. If he got that, he'd point out that it's sort of like how Ignis is.

"It can, but they also weren't very talkative or prone to interacting with me, so it was fine," he says with a shrug.

“Ohh…” Yeah, Mono doesn’t quite get it. He’d like to say he does, but it’s kind of clear by his expression that he’s not sure of himself here. “I guess I don’t know much about that stuff.” He finally shrugged, before turning back to the coffee and pouring a cup out for Nida.

Once he finished and hurried (carefully) over to hand the man the cup. “Here ya go, one coffee for your head.” He hoped it helped…!

“I guess that would kinda help if they were talking all the time, then.” The boy ended with a tilt of his head. It seemed like all of them were pretty complicated in their own way. He just hoped that the two Nida had in his head learned to get along soon.

Yeah, that's fair.

"I don't either," Nida admits. "I lost my parents when I was younger than you are now. And with GFs feeding on memories, I don't remember her."

Coffee. Nida smiles and takes it in hand to sip at it. Even though it's still stupidly hot.

"Yeah, it helps a bit. But Carbuncle is so excited right now."

Mono tilted his head at that, considering Nida’s explanation carefully by the look on his face. “Yeah…? I don’t remember mine either, if I had one. Everything before this one place I always end up is kinda fuzzy and jumbled, so I dunno if I had parents or not.” He admitted, though he supposed he’d have to have, right? Kids had to come from somewhere. He understood that much.

Since Nida seemed okay with the coffee, even as hot as it was, Mono guessed he did an okay job!

“I guess that makes sense, since they only just got here and being in a new place and in your head.” He mused, knowing it was pretty weird to suddenly be here, too.

Of course he'd had parents. Though Nida smiles at Mono for now.

"You have them now. Sort of. In Ignis and myself. We're your family and we love you so much, Mono. So very much."

And Nida didn't want to let the kid go.

"Exactly. He's excited, and he'll maybe calm down in time."

Mono sometimes doesn’t know what to do with the positive energy directed at him, it’s both wonderful and a little scary at the same time. The warmth, though, that it gives his little heart is not something easily ignored. Even if he sometimes wondered what they would think if they knew him fully, saw the future and the damage that could be done.

But they hadn’t ever expressed anything more than care and acceptance, even when he returned and made such a chaotic mess of part of the harbor districted. So he kept that part to himself in hopes of holding onto this. That clumsy, uncertain attempt at a smile crossing the boy’s ace as he sat down after turning off the stove where he’d made the coffee. “If parents and family are like you guys, then… I guess I’m super lucky, ‘cause you guys are always so nice and make me feel kinda safe.” He loves them too, even if he’s a little afraid to say something like that.

Kicking his legs back and forth a bit with his usual restless energy, he tilted his head slightly at the idea that carbuncle might really calm down. “I wonder if you can make that faster, like take a day off to show him as much of stuff around here as you can till he gets bored and nothing’s new anymore.” A childish idea, perhaps, but he is a kid.

"I'm glad," Nida says as he sips the coffee. Too strong, but he's not going to judge the kid. It's always a hit or miss thing for him anyway.

"I would like to try that, but I cannot just summon him. So he has to see it through my eyes and my memories, and so Siren will of course get testy when he speaks up."

“Hmm… That makes it kinda hard, huh? It’s too bad Siren is kinda stuck going along for the ride, if him talking will annoy her.” Mono observed with a little frown. He guessed he could understand Siren getting testy if she had to listen to someone be excited about stuff all day and she was used to having the space in Nida’s head to herself… But that wouldn’t help stuff get any better for poor Nida if she started arguing with carbuncle again.

"Her talking annoys him too," he says with a laugh. "They're like... Fire and water. They don't go together."

They are opposites. In fact, many GFs in his world seemed to have opposite numbers. Which was what was causing this issue.

"And their personalities... It's like having Ignis together with someone unorganized who doesn't like coffee and talks constantly."

So they both annoyed each other… Even if one was being quiet, they would probably get annoyed with the other one. Was there actually any hope they’d learn to get along and stop giving Nida bad headaches? Mono’s face scrunched a bit with worry. That really didn’t sound like fun to him.

Put in that context, it was pretty easy to imagine how bad that would go! “Oh… Yeah, that would be really for them to work around each other, huh...” So Nida was stuck until Carbuncle calmed down enough to be less chatty and even then they might still bicker? That sucked.

"They will have to learn balance. The only other person here who can handle GFs is Ignis, and I don't wish to make him forget things. So he takes them only rarely."

It is better not to force his husband to take on such an odious task, even though Ignis does volunteer for it.

Mono was quiet for a moment, mulling over the explanation quietly as he tried to decide if he understood it properly before he responded. “So only you can him can do the thing with having them… And you only get a little break from one of them sometimes… That sounds kinda hard.” Mono frowned a little, kind of sad that Nida had it so hard. Nida was one of his favorite people, after all.

“Do ya forget a lot of things with two of them?” Mono asked quietly, tilting his head slightly. He wondered if there was anything more he could do to help, or if it was more of an ‘adult thing’ that he couldn’t. Then again, even if he could, he doubted they wouldn’t like the inside of his head much. People seemed a bit baffled the one time he tried to explain things.

"It is kind of hard," Nida admits with a shrug. "But I was raised to do something like this. To work with these forces to protect people."

And really, was it so bad to do that and enjoy doing that? He didn't think so. It let him help other people beyond just with the strength of his weapon.

"I don't think I do. I think... they eat at the last echoes of the two worlds that took me before here. I forget more of them every day, but I remember home. I think they're trying to let me keep the most important things."

No, Mono didn’t think it was bad to help people and enjoy doing it. It wasn’t something that happened where he was from, after all. “Yeah, it seems important if you can help protect people. I just kinda hope it gets easier, so your head doesn’t hurt all the time.”

And it was good, the boy thought, that the things in Nida’s head seemed to try to not take the important memories if they had to take any at all. Mono wasn’t sure what Nida’s important memories or unimportant ones would be, though. Was he not sad to forget the other places he’d been, or maybe they weren’t good places? Maybe some memories were better to forget. The boy was well aware of wishing you didn’t have some things in your head. “That’s good, I think… It would be kinda sad to forget important stuff.”

"It would," Nida agrees.

He's forgotten important stuff. He knows that. A lot of it he had done willfully. Maybe it was best not to think about it, because the look of emotional pain that flashes over his face is... deep.

"Forgive me, Mono. You know I try not to avoid topics with you. But this one grows painful. Can we... can we move on?"

“Oh, I’m sorry…” The boy mumbled, knowing that he probably wouldn’t want to dwell on some topics for long himself. “But yeah, we can talk about other stuff instead.” He confirmed, trying to think of another topic the man might be interested in.

Or at least something to take his mind off the current one. “Is the coffee okay?” He added, for a start, while he tried to think of something better. Mono was, of course, not always the best at thinking of what to talk about.

(ooc: Should we wrap this one?)

"Wonderful. The coffee is wonderful," he promises. It wasn't great, but Nida wasn't really as married to it as his husband was, not anymore.

"But come. Tell me about your work. I wanna know how it's going for you."

That was enough to make the boy feel better about his attempt at coffee, so he was taking Nida at his word. The request to tell him about work was also a pretty good distraction from the prior line of conversation.

Mono didn’t take much prompting to launch into the interesting people he met while delivering things, or talking about his really cool boss, or about the bigger location they were moving into.

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[Open] Headache And A Half

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yeah that sounds about right

Then we shall wrap