voidtreckerexpress | [open] just flippin'

"I suppose I shouldn't be surprised." Ignis replied with a shake of his head. He almost told the blonde to grab Gladio but refrained. And since the blonde now sounded like Gladio..that was actually funny in a delightful sort of way. "I'm sure there will be times you'll feel like it. But that is why a lot of the train people look so forward to missions and not being so cramped in a right space like here."

Green eyes followed Tidus to see what new shenanigans the other was up to, but the man was always moving around it seemed. His head shook again. "It does it on its own, resizing to accommodate all of the new arrivals. And even with the people that leave..it seems to gather many more than it lets go of." His first train friend Evie had left with this last batch of people. And it still hurt.

The next topic of time keeping changed his thoughts and he nodded. "If you want a clock, one might be a splendid idea..or..mayhaps you could get a clock or watch from the train shop."

"I might ask," he says, in regards to the clocks. "The train for 'em, anyway. I can get a watch, but what's it matter if I'm the only one who knows the time? Better way to organise everything too. We can have an actual dinner time!"

Which wasn't the most useful prospect for having time around, but hey. More structure would be nice, especially if there wasn't going to be a sun or moon to give it to them.

"What about you? What's it been like being on this ride? How long's it been for you anyway?"

Two months? Three months? Tidus figures Ignis has been around for a while, but not an exact amount of time.

Tidus had the right idea about asking the train but..ask who precisely? Well he wasn't going to think on it and figured that was the blonde's future headache and not his. However he couldn't help but smirk amusedly as dinner was presented as a reason for the other's request for a clock.

At the question though, Ignis had to stop and think. "It depends on who you're asking I suppose. By our reckoning the time runs different. But according to the train's time, I've been here around five months or so."

There was a light shrug as he looked out to the rest of the carriage. "But there are those that have been here longer than I have."

There's a grimace Tidus makes at the length of time, but it's not the first he's heard of it, of someone being around for that long.

"That's rough." How much had the train changed by then? How much did they have to do compared to now. Tidus knew the cinema was a new addition when he showed up, and not they had this car too -- but what did they always have? And how was it like, going that long without any real answers about why this was all going on?

But instead of asking any of that, Tidus asks: "How long was it 'til your friends showed up?"

Ignis thought a moment at the question before giving an answer. "Prompto and Gladio showed up a platform ahead of Noct, so they've all fairly recently arrived." But then his tone went a tad more thoughtful. "However, even as I was here, time has flowed differently. Noct and Prompto say they've gone past what I recall and that I was with them the entire time back home."

The advisor shook his head. "It doesn't make sense because I've been here and I vividly recall what was going on around me at the time I turned around and ended up on the train."

Sure he believed his friends, especially having been at the king's side since Noct was four and a half, and Ignis was six. But it still didn't give a clear picture and Ignis tended to love clarity.

Tidus looks at the man thoughtfully, a pinch to his lip appearing before he speaks up.

"Dunno if it's the same, but when I arrived here with Yuna--a friend from my world," he clarifies, unsure if he's spoken to Igis before about her, "there was two years between us. It's a lil' complicated, but I've heard other people talk about being from the same world and having a time difference too. It didn't make sense any sense to any of us either."

In a way, it did make sense, why he was plucked from that time. But not the reason why, when the train or whatever entity operating it could have taken someone from the same point as Yuna.

Well this was good to hear that this time puzzle wasn't new to other passengers. It had certainly thrown him for a loop and that had been pretty disconcerting. In his own timeline back home according to Noct and Prompto he was blind and the king himself had been almost tearfully grateful to see that had not been the case here. Meanwhile Gladio didn't know half of what had gone on and that was concerning. The shield had recalled earlier events than in the advisor's time frame.

No wonder the train had captured him from the time frame he was from. A blind warrior wouldn't do much good unless he could retrain his former abilities.

There was a resigned sort of sigh when Ignis shook his head. "Then I suppose the time riddle will need to be solved by the train conductor." There was absolutely no way that he would ask the inspectors should they come aboard again.

"Yeah, no kidding." And weren't their experience with getting anything out of the conductor a giant zilch? Tidus swings his legs a little, letting them knock softly once or twice against the soft padding of the cube.

"Don't some people think the train itself is the conductor? You know--that it's alive."

He leaves it as an open question, of what Ignis himself thinks. Perhaps how popular the theory is. Tidus doesn't know; he just knows he goes along with calling whoever's behind everything the train, 'cause at least they know what the train looks like.

And everyone likes a face. Even a big giant metal one.

"I've heard that theory." Ignis replied. This was where he kept quiet about talking to the train conductor before falling asleep and ending up in the luggage compartment during a mission. That hadn't set right with him from that day forward, and he'd been angry about it because Joss had fallen during it. The advisor's head shook, hoping that Tidus wouldn't ever experience such a thing during his tenure..however long it would be. "However there's not enough evidence to support it."

There was a small sigh. "On the other hand, I wouldn't completely discount it." After all some pretty fantastical things had happened to him back home and here, so he wasn't about to spit in the face of something supernatural or anything akin to that.

His eyes sort of lit up in a half joking expression as he moved away from the wall, walking over to the things the blonde had done his routine through. "I take it trains that kidnap people are non existent in your world."

"Who, me? There's trains kidnapping people all over the place!" He swings out an arm, spreading out his hand in motion of the flying train; watching where Ignis goes and what he might do.

"But nah," he goes on, joking tone subsiding, "there aren't many people who use machines where I'm from, 'cept a people called the Al Bhed. It doesn't really matter to me though who or what's running the train. Just the way it does it, you know? There's got to be a better way than just swiping people from whatever they were doing."

Especially if they were in the middle of something important.

The advisor's head turned back to look at Tidus with his reply about crazy trains everywhere and was rather amused at the arm motion. But he turned away before the smile could be seen. The lack of machinery was concerning and he had no idea who the Al Bhed were, so that question got tucked away as he sighed and looked around some more at the things the other man had used in his demonstration.

He hadn't turned around when he answered the other part about the selection process itself, still walking around as his words came out. "Precisely. And how it would know who to take or why that particular person was chosen if they can't fight is quite an issue."

Kidnapping wasn't nice in the first place, but grabbing fighters or mages or anyone who could fight was one thing. Grabbing helpless children was quite another matter entirely, especially when it came to his own team.

Finally though Ignis turned to look at the other man and halted his meandering. "Call it a scholar's curiousity, but..who are the Al Bhed?"

Tidus gives a slight tip of his head, a show of indifference to the question.

"They're people, like humans, just they have swirls for their eyes. Sort of how...Inigo--you know him, right? He was on the island with us-- he has something with one of his eyes too." Tidus gestures to his face. "Like that. But the entire pupil."

But there's more to them than that, and so he continues. "Anyway, they use machines--called machina these days, and they're the only ones who do 'cause people thought it was the reason something called Sin was attacking the world. To keep that story short," because it was definitely a long story, "everyone followed a religion to try and repent, and that religion said people using machines is what made Sin appear."

He spreads his hands out, a sort of shrug. "The Al Bhed didn't believe in any of that. But because they didn't, people judged them. But things are better these days," Tidus adds. "So I hope."

At the mention of Inigo, Ignis listened. He hadn't quite taken that deep of a look into the warrior's eyes, especially when the boy seemed to ready to just about jump right out of his skin and run away from him half the time when they conversed. But now he was of course wondering, so that topic would be taken up with the other in due time.

He listened intently to Tidus' story and wondered why a thing would attack a world just because it used machines. That wouldn't make sense in his world since he himself drove a car and there were plenty of those, along with the power plant in Lestallum, not to mention the weaponry used by the Empire.

Mulling a question over, green eyes dropped to the ground and wondered if the other's world could be similar in a sense. So he was quiet for several long moments before his gaze picked back up and looked at Tidus. "Is there any way to stop this..Sin from attacking as in ultimately facing it?"

Ardyn Izunia came to Ignis' mind and he was careful to keep the anger off of his face.

"Well, they had a method before," Tidus explains, "but it led to Sin coming back after a year each time it was defeated. But, that's all over now. We finally got rid of it for good before I showed up here. And it's been gone for two years."

He gives the ending the smile it deserves, a positive note for a short tale. It didn't get across really the destruction Sin brought, but there was no need to get into the details. And a happy ending was a happy ending, no matter how much comes before it, right?

Though the tale of conflict does remind Tidus of another he heard not so long ago, and he wonders, asking Ignis--

"Prompto said some kind of war was going on where you guys are from. You're on the run? I guess you don't have any idea how that's been going from any of the others?"

"Then it sounds as if the job is finished." There was a slightly cautious smile and a nod at having pronounced such a thing in case he was wrong. Every year was a short span of time and if Tidus said the thing was gone for good now, Ignis had no reason to disbelieve him.

He blinked at hearing how much Prompto went around and told people but the advisor wasn't going to lie to this man so his head shook. "There's been no one here but the four of us to find out how things are going past what Noct and Prompto himself have seen first hand."

It would be nice in a sense to see how everything turned out but even as far as the other two had gotten, there was no conclusion as far as things getting wrapped up. Which meant so far the Chancellor hadn't been defeated and that was still work that needed to be done. His shoulders sagged a little but he wasn't out of the game, future blindness or not.

"I suppose it might have to wait until we return."

Tidus hums, both in acknowledgement and in thought, a small dragged out sound that dies away to a pinch of his brow, a small frown on his lips.

"Has anyone tried asking for some kind of update on their home worlds? Maybe...through the shop. Can't you ask for things for where you're from on there? What about pictures? Or...I dunno, where I'm from, we had ways of getting the news. Do you have anything you think you could ask for like that?"

It was worth a shot, wasn't it? If someone hadn't tried it already. To see what was going on back home, at least some glimpse of it.

Ignis nodded. "That is a thought, though Prompto and Noct have a..better chance of that since they're further along in time than I am." Plus Ignis was blind in their future so he wouldn't even know what to ask about. But the photos had him wondering. "Prompto is a photographer..so I would imagine in the future he hasn't stopped snapping away."

He wondered if doing something like that would be risking the secret he knew of the king's fate that he hadn't revealed to the man himself due to being intent on putting an end to it. Neither of the other two had mentioned that they knew what LunaFreya's dog Pryna had revealed to Ignis.

So finally the advisor nodded. "I will go to him and see what we can come up with." A hand hesitantly went up to the blonde's shoulder and was there extremely briefly.

"Thank you."

Tidus flashes Ignis a smile, warm and supportive, hopeful they'll come up with something that'll give them good news of the future. There was the room for bad too, but Tidus didn't want to think about that for their benefits--and didn't they deserve to know something, anything, of their home world?

"No problem! Lemme know how it goes. And hey, remember--you owe me a game of cards!"

So, an excuse to meet up proper and speak in the future.

Something about that smile reminded the advisor of Noctis. It was both trusting and warm and that had to be what the resemblance was. He nodded but then stopped and turned around at the mention of cards.

Right.

"Give me about twenty minutes. Then we can meet in the dining room and I'll get some snacks and drinks together so we can have that game of cards." The game itself would be fun but it would have an edge of anticipation about it regarding this other matter.

Still, all in all it would prove to be an enjoyable time. Snacks and drinks were the least Ignis could to to repay Tidus for the idea.

Oh? He hadn't expected for Ignis to make the offer this soon or quickly, but Tidus barely needs to think about it to decide, "Alright, I'll put this stuff back. You go on ahead."

Well, he might put the equipment back. ...or decide he can come later and pick up where he left off. Whichever happens, he'll be long gone before anyone else can try and complain!

[open] just flippin'

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