voidtreckerexpress | [open] just flippin'

Tidus blinks at the first question, but holds his tongue as Inigo goes on. His expression not shifting much in that time, and while there's a quick look spared at the house of cards, it's as quickly dismissed.

"I mean... I brought it up 'cause we started talking about it," he answers quite plainly, unsure if that was weird. Was it weird? "I've talked about it with someone already, but--so what if you're just another guy? I'm just another guy too. We can have opinions, can't we?"

"Of course we can!"

There's a near-pout in his tone, almost a little defensive at the thought that it could have been sounding like he was implying they can't.

"I'm just saying. You're obviously very passionate about this, but it's not like convincing me about your idea is going to change anything, you know?" Not that Inigo necessarily disagrees with Tidus' idea - if anything, he's more just indifferent about it. He's going to stay out of this whole council business anyway, so it doesn't matter too much to him. "You should save some of that passion for when you're really going to have to use it to convince someone. You know, instead of using it all up on your old pal Inigo who's just trying to build a house of cards."

.. then again, Tidus is always pretty energetic, huh. From what he's seen, anyway. Maybe he could talk about it to everyone on the train with that kind of spirit before he'd run out of it.

There's a twist of his mouth as he thinks, a dip to his brow, holding for a moment as he considers not just what Inigo's saying, but also--pretty much the last time he tried to talk about anything along these lines with the self-proclaimed hero.

Maybe Inigo was the wrong person to get into it with, but not for the reasons stated. Or rather, maybe that last part was a subtle nudge. Tidus picks up a card from the stack, another following it.

"If you don't wanna talk about it, it's okay to say, you know? I wasn't trying to drag you into anything--we were just talking."

He says it easily enough, 'cause it's true. He enjoyed the opportunity to bounce back the thought, but if it wasn't a line of conversation Inigo really wanted to get into, he wasn't going to force the guy. Instead, Tidus examines where the house of cards has gotten to now. ...and frowns again. Crap, when did Inigo start on the second row??

"I don't know a lot about this kind of thing," he says, leaning his arms against the table as he....attempts to slowly...bring his pair of cards to rest somewhere. "So talking about it helps."

And with that said, half of the cards topple when Tidus applies too much pressure.

"Shhhhiit--ahh!"

womp womp.

Inigo's jaw just about drops to the floor the moment he sees his card dreams crumbling to dust.

"Tidus!" He says it with so much despair. It's like Tidus just threw his favourite pet straight out of the window into the void instead of just letting a few cards fall. Inigo stares at the remaining cards still standing with the saddest look in his eyes. Why would you do this, man? Bro? How could you, bro?

Thankfully he doesn't easily give up, so he just.. sadly starts trying to put some of the fallen cards back up... Saddest little puppy boy.

And despite being the saddest little puppy boy, he's still replying to the other stuff Tidus said a moment later. Isn't he so good? Look how generous he's being, even at his lowest.

"It's not that I don't want to talk about it.. I just don't feel like the right person to say anything about it. I was never the kind of person who dealt with any of that stuff back home either. It was more my big sister's kind of deal."

Bro, he didn't mean it!!! Bro...!!!!

Tidus looks devastated too, once he's snapped himself out of the frozen shock of what he's done--and even more when he looks over to the kicked puppy face that Inigo is making. The guilt is digging in deep.

He helps to scoop up some of the cards, but now, he's not too sure if he should be helping to put them back. What if he knocks them over again? He can't crush Inigo's hopes and dreams a second time. Would he even survive that betrayal?

...

...it's too dangerous...

"I guess I just saw that kinda conversation and thought...a lot more could be happening, you know? But in the end, I wouldn't have much to say either."

He sounds dejected, but the cards don't really help with that.

Inigo is still trying his darnest to get the tower's second level back up there. And for a moment he seems really focused on that, but then he can kind of catch a glimpse of Tidus from the other side of the table.

.. and that makes Inigo stop for a moment and glance over at him instead. There's still that sad puppy look on his face, but when he noticed how dejected Tidus looks, Inigo shoves that feeling down as quickly as he can. He can't quite summon his wide smile yet (if not just because it also wouldn't feel believable this quickly) but he does smile.

".. Hey, it's alright. I think you're doing a good thing here." About the stuff Tidus was talking about, of course, not the card tower he so cruelly knocked over! Even if he isn't sure about the actual plan Tidus has, he can't disagree with the spirit of it, so that's not a lie. "You're a good guy trying to improve things around here. That's admirable even if you wouldn't have much to say, you know? I think we're all trying to make things better here in our own ways."

Tidus looks over to Inigo at that reassurance, giving him a flash of a smile, raising the hand with the two cards in it.

"Oh, it's fine! You don't have to worry about me. I know." He isn't the one that should need the comfort right now, glancing between Inigo and the rebuilding project, the true reason for his downcast tone showing itself.

"...You want me to sit this out so you can keep going? Sorry 'bout that," he adds, since he didn't apologise yet, did he? "I should probably practice some before adding to a real attempt."

He casts a quick glance between the other guy and the cards still standing and then shakes his head.

"No, it's fine. You can keep going. It's not like it was that high yet." Despite his totally disappointed reaction from a few moments ago.. but that was more instinctive than anything else. Now if Tidus had ruined a fully built up tower, that'd be another story entirely! "I mean, I guess we can just see this one as practice for you. You've got to get better so we can make the real deal at some point!"

Tidus scoffs, meaningless shuffling some of the cards he's picked up, which can't be more than six or seven. But he feels somewhat better. ...though there's something fishy for sure for Inigo's reaction and the matter of how high it was or wasn't...

"You never thought about learning a ball game with all this free time?" You know, just saying. Tidus places the collected cards down and takes two, looking at where Inigo's started and...starting the slow card process of sitting a pair next to the closest house.

Stop, Tidus! Not all of us enjoy playing with balls as much as you do!

"Not really?" He says, seemingly only half-concentrated on the words leaving his mouth since his gaze is totally occupied with the cards he's painstakingly putting back in place. "But to be fair, I've also never thought about learning how to play an instrument. Or learning how to cook. Or, well, I didn't think about the latter until Bucky started strongarming me into it, anyway.."

Oh yeah?? Who's the one with the boyfriend?

"That your babysitter?" There's a flicker as Tidus looks over to Inigo, his mouth pulling up at the side at bringing back that particular subject. He didn't forget about the existence of that mysterious person!

Thankfully Inigo doesn't look offended the way he would if Tidus had brought up the b-word without Inigo implying as much earlier.. But he's very well aware he brought this teasing down upon himself in this case.

And really? He doesn't mind it as much when it comes to this scenario in particular. He's so dang fond of Bucky that he can't feel bothered at all getting teased over it.

"Yeah." So he just proudly admits that. "Kind of more like the big brother I never had though. We understand each other when it comes to a lot of things, so we grew really close really quickly." Inigo smiles as he talks about it, even as he's looking at the cards. "I'm pretty sure he's trying to keep me out of trouble in his own way."

Isn't that sweet? It gets a smile on Tidus's face, setting two cards ever so nicely together (and worth smiling over itself!), and the fondness is clear in Inigo's voice, his words, that any teasing might usually do isn't that prominent.

Even if he starts off remarking, "You? Get in trouble? Don't think there's any dragons around for you to be poking." That was the one, right. But Tidus then asks with a more genuine interest: "Is he from a similar place like you?"

"I don't think so," he says, though he seems to have to think about it for a moment. He finishes putting two cards together and leans back, crossing his arms across his chest as he stares at Tidus.

"He seems much more used to all the kinds of food they have here." Including the ones that don't exist in his world. Like soda. And that mysterious pizza thing Bucky mentioned. Not to mention he did seem to share a world with Tony, and Tony's outlook on the world seems to be inspired by a world much different from Inigo's own...

"I think he called it.. New York? Something like that, either way." At least he'll know from Tidus' reaction whether or not that place sounds familiar to him, because Inigo sure hadn't heard about it before now. "But he's dealt with a lot of war stuff too, just like me. I guess that's one of those things that doesn't change much across worlds."

There's no reaction that crosses Tidus's face from the city name, keeping a rather curious interest in what Inigo says and nothing else. Stopping with the cards when Inigo does, but his own arms folding on the table, body leaned forward against the edge.

His brows raise at the mention of war, surprise flickering in his gaze.

"You were involved in war? I thought you went over to other worlds," Tidus asks, pausing, and then trying to clarify for himself, "You went with other--units?"

He has to think about the word, as if uncertain about war terms, or army terms.

This is starting to edge close to personal business Inigo would rather not discuss, but he's still confident enough that he can avoid the parts he doesn't want to talk about. Otherwise he wouldn't even have started about it, after all.

So he just nods, a casual smile on his face. Like they're talking about something much lighter than war.

"We weren't exactly a formal army or anything like that." But they were the only defense the world had left, formal or not. "But I'm fairly sure anyone would have called my friends and I soldiers in our circumstances. War, battles.. We were involved in those kinds of things pretty much anywhere we went."

Tidus tries to ruminate over it, without doing so for too long a length of time. Wars on other worlds... he knows what a war is, but it's such a distant, foreign thing to him. His gaze drifting with his thoughts.

"I can't imagine it," he confesses, lifting an arm to let his chin rest on his hand. "Going to other worlds to fight things like that? No wonder you're so serious."

Well, serious in the midst of a battle. "I imagined you kinda like how we do things here, 'cept on a smaller scale. Going around dealing with small troubles here and there."

Inigo laughs, like they're not talking about a subject as heavy as war.

"Well, I may have underplayed it just a bit." Did you really, Inigo? When you claimed to be some sort of hero of the multiverse, huh? Was that you being humble? "Most of it involved war of some kind, yes. I don't think it's anything that particularly special or admirable though. Even if you can't imagine it, it's the sort of thing you get used to quickly the more you participate in it."

Hence why he doesn't blame Tidus for not being able to imagine it. If Inigo didn't have to be part of a war since he was much younger, he most likely wouldn't have been able to imagine what it'd be like either.

He taps a forefinger against the front of his chin, brow drawing in, something bugging him about this life of Inigo's. Maybe this comes from him not really understanding wars, but...

"So if you were going to other worlds to fight wars.... who were you fighting?" Tidus's mouth sits askew for a second. "Did you have allies or something? One side you picked over the other?"

Was it going over to different worlds to help out friends? Or was it a similar case to how he imagined it before, but on a bigger scale? This whole multiverse world saving business was as bizarre as when he first heard about it (and even if he's technically been on such a job now himself...!).

At least he does seem to understand where Tidus' confusion stems from. It's a complicated situation, after all, and while Inigo makes absolutely sure to keep his tone as light and casual as possible, he does seem to turn a bit more serious as he explains.

"I guess that's where the main difference is between our situation here on the train and mine back home. Rather than going to all these worlds that are very different from each other, we were more or less traveling to worlds very similar to mine, yet slightly different. I.. believe Laurent called them "parallel worlds"? I'm no good at thinking too hard about that sort of thing though."

He laughs.

"So we were often fighting the same enemy from our own world, just in a slightly different world. Or in a slightly different form, or one of said enemies' minions.. Anyway, that enemy is this huge dragon called Grima. I'm really hoping we don't run into it here anytime soon."

Tidus makes a face that anyone might make upon first hearing about the existence of parallel worlds: a type of confusion and disgust that combines to form 'bwurgh'. Because bwuh?, but also, ugh--who needs more than one of the same world?

Sounds like magic to him. Or something to do with this dragon, which comes as its own surprise to hear about, to Tidus.

"I thought you liked dragons in your world? Are they actually a bunch of trouble in your...worlds?"

Because surely dragons can't be bad and good. That's just weird.

I see Tidus has elected to take the Dragon Morality 101 class. Welcome.

Because seriously, that's what he's in for. It probably doesn't (or does..?) help that Inigo talks about it so easily, like this stuff is just normal. Which.. it really is, where he's from! It's much weirder to him that literally no one on this train has such a notable dragon presence in their world the way his world does.

"It's just this particular one, really. You see.." By the way his voice trails off, you can just tell he's about to start on A Story. "A long, very long time ago, about a thousand years ago, Grima already tried to destroy the world. It was so powerful, moreso than any other dragon, that everyone called it the Fell Dragon. Another dragon, Naga, tried to defeat Grima, but was only able to do so in the end by forming a pact with a human. Together they performed the Awakening rite that was able to put the Fell Dragon back to slumber for a thousand years. That's how Naga ended up being the Divine Dragon worshipped in my world, and how that human ended up becoming the first Exalt."

He pauses, before seeming to realise something that makes him scratch himself behind the ears.

"Oh, right, I guess what we call 'Exalt' is what most other worlds would call a king." Because clearly that's the only thing that needs clarification here, right. The rest of the story? Totally normal. "His bond with Naga has been passed down through the royal bloodline ever since."

Making a clarification for a guy who knows basically zilch about kings, no big deal. But it is a clarification that does help, so Tidus can get an idea based on what he knows about royalty. He hums at all this new information, though of course with a guy like Tidus, there's still plenty of curiosity left over.

"So this Exalt or this pact... what does that mean? Is this Naga dragon still around and they work with the first human's descendants? --Ohhhhhh." A thought clicks with Tidus. "You called the thing that takes you to different worlds the Divine Dragon, didn't you? The 'Great Divine Dragon Gate', or something? So it's Naga who's doing that?"

Is he getting it.

Inigo grins as Tidus seems to get it. It just saves him a lot of explaining.

"Right! Naga is around, though more in a.. "she might appear if you call upon her" kind of way." In case Tidus is getting the idea that there's just some huge all-powerful dragon floating around in the sky daily in Inigo's world or something.. She really functions more like a god. Except one that reliably appears when you call for her. "One of the Exalt's heirs called upon her to make that gate work for us."

He feels rather clever saying that. Because of course that heir was his sister, but he can avoid saying he's a prince if he phrases it in this technically-true-but-could-be-clearer kind of way, right?

no subject

no subject

1/2

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject