hugtopia_logs | (no subject)

♥ Who: Gladio and OTA.
♥ Where: Everywhere.
♥ When: January 3rd.
♥ What: Gladio finding his feet and meeting the locals.
♥ Rating: PG-13

Another Strange Place:
[Gladio had been walking toward a small group of children, smiling as disarmingly as a man as large and seemingly intimidating as he could. The adults were nowhere to be seen, aside from some of the elderly. He'd hoped to gain some information. Anything, to help...

But between one step and the next... everything went dark. Not not a bad kind of dark. It felt... strange...

... When Gladio opened his eyes to see sky above him, white clouds, blue, clear sky... He turned his head slightly to see... nothing he expected. Instead of rustic houses, dirt paths, wooden fences and children at play, he saw white. White pillars and columns shaped like trees. Red and white ornaments. Strange looking birds. And he was laying down in the centre of it all.

He rose slowly, turned and dropped his legs over the edge of slab of carved stone he lay upon. When Gladio looked down he still wore the same clothes he'd been wearing (black leather pants, dark brown tunic, black cloak), so at least that hadn't changed. There was a sigh as he lifted a hand to scrub across his face.]

Damn train's done it again...

[Was this a side mission? Why had he been pulled away? And where was everyone else? When Gladio looked at his wrist he frowned, his SCA was gone. That didn't bode well. He was just contemplating calling out when a strange robot approached him... and that's where Gladio found out that he wasn't in Irivar anymore.

He was lead from the stone slab into another area to find more robots... he was handed a tablet, some local currency... and sent him on his way.

Gladio stepped out of the, what was it? He looked back and up. Temple... definitely a temple. He stepped out... and immediately sat himself down on the steps in the snow to try and work his head around what the hell he'd gotten himself into this time.]

A Teeny Tiny Fortune:
[Having noticed the strange booth, Gladio approached curiously. These robots were a strange thing, but so was the box that he was handed. He shook it as directed, a small, amused smile on his lips.

Then he was given a piece of paper.]

"The smallest things can bring the biggest rewards." Huh... good things in small packages, right? Thanks.

[Still looking very amused, Gladio shoved the paper in his pocket and turned to go.]

Stuck On You:
[Apparently he needed to look for a place to live. This was a big step up from a small room with a smaller bed shared between four people.

Gladio had taken his cloak off and had it wrapped over one hand. The laces of his leather tunic had been loosened and he was considering just taking that off as well, but figured near stripping in the middle of the street could be frowned upon.

He was so distracted by his surroundings that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going. Gladio bumped into someone. Automatically he reached out to stop whoever he ran into from hitting the ground... except that never happened. Wait, why couldn't he let go?]

Sorry! You okay?

Taking Stock:
[He'd found his way to the centre of the city it seemed. He'd found a fountain, an interesting structure that Gladio stood for a while, just looking at. He moved around it slowly, looking at all angles, before he sat himself down on the edge.

He stretched his legs out in front of himself and sighed.

So far this place didn't seem to have anything in common with where he had been before... He was starting to get a sinking feeling.

It was cold, there was snow everywhere, but nothing that was going to bother him so much that he was rushing to get indoors. He'd spent so much time inside over the last few months, even the snow was welcome.]

Home Away From Home:
[Houses... Small houses bunched together... And he was supposed to find one.]

Right... so how the hell does this work?

[Gladio walked up the street, then down it again, before he stopped in front of a house that appeared to be vacant. The tablet thing claimed it was unoccupied, so he walked on in.

After having a look around, he laughed to himself and did what was necessary to become the new owner... and then dropped himself down on sofa. Well and truly done.]

Wildcard:
[If you have another idea for a prompt, have at it, I'll run with anything. Though if you'd like to contact me I can be found on plurk and discord:

JustAnotherUsername | Theo#4816 - poke me as needed![

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Oh-

[Whoops.]

I'm sorry, it's...very complicated and hard to believe. Ancestor is a more accurate word for it--my younger brother Somnus was the one you call the Founder. I do take it you're familiar.

Damn right it's hard to believe...

[If that was true, if Ardyn was Noct's ancestor, then the things he did... made him a bigger son-of-a-bitch than Gladio had ever dreamed of.

He was almost too distracted by his own thoughts he near missed what Ardyn said, but gave a distracted nod.]

Yeah, I'm familiar.

It's a...very long story. I would understand if you don't believe me, but he was in this city himself some time ago--there are plenty here, Noctis included, that can assure you I'm telling the truth.

[Gladio found himself rubbing at the bridge of his nose. An old, familiar headache was coming back.]

I've no reason to doubt it. I'm sure I'll get the other sides of everyone's stories, but I'll accept yours.

[Because what else could he do?]

My little brother was...perhaps not the wholly benevolent ruler I presume the kingdom thinks him to have been. He did what he believed was right, often to the detriment of the few for the sake of the many.

As for why I'm still alive, that would be a whole other long complication.

[Gladio wanted to be irritated by that, but he was also realising that part of his headache was stemming from the past his world view was, once again, shifting to adjust this new information.

He also planned on hunting this asshole down and skinning him alive if this all turned out to be lies.]

So basically, everything I was taught when I was a kid, pretty much bullshit?

...Yes and no? Forgive me, I've told this story a few times and it gets no less long and complex. [Ardyn was too uneasy and on edge to seem like he was lying, wringing his hands and glancing nervously to the side.]

As simply as possible, it goes like this: two sons born of House Caelum to rule a kingdom not yet fully formed and already in peril. Both sought to save the world from its plague the only ways they knew how--the younger through practical means, and the elder using a healing magic given to him by the gods.

...I did everything I could to heal those I found; yet that magic's nature was not to eradicate the scourge, but to bear it upon myself. I began to fall ill myself, and as time wore on eventually my brother called me back to the capital under the pretense that the gods had declared I would be king chosen by the Crystal.

[It was a massively simplified version of events, but reiterating the worst day of his life for clarity's sake to those who didn't know got very tiring.]

Obviously, that was not the case. We ended up conflicting violently, with A--the Oracle of the time caught in the crossfire. I became a creature consumed by that which I had taken upon myself, and my brother elected to kill me like he would any other daemon.

...I awoke in Angelgard, and was there for two millennia between then and the time when a researcher from Niflheim chose to let me out.

[Gladio honestly wasn't sure what he was doing to set this guy on edge so much, he wasn't trying to be an ass, but he was sure feeling like he was one...

So he took a slight step back, giving Ardyn a little more space, and then listened to the story he had to tell.

By the end of it his headache was worse.]

So... who are you? The Ardyn from back then... or the one who woke up in Angelgard?

A little of both, I suppose. [He was just kind of like that when this particular topic came up. Nervous, unsteady, a far cry from anyone that might have been looked to a kingdom's people as their leader.] I am not who I once was, and too much has changed to be that person ever again. But neither am I...what you know me as.

...Just Ardyn. Nothing more or less than that.

Alright.

[Gladio nodded, accepting that answer.]

Then you've nothing to fear from me. Unless you become that guy. But you now? You're safe.

[He couldn't punish someone for something they hadn't yet done, especially if doing so wouldn't even change a damn thing. If he killed this guy, it did nothing for events back home. So what was the point?]

That...sounds fair enough to me. [Ardyn managed a very small, hesitant smile.]

I've just got here. Last thing I wanna do is make trouble before I even know where I am.

[Gladio offered a weary smile of his own.]

And I'm just too damn tired of fighting. So this is good.

I don't wish to fight anyone either. [He laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.] I always used to skip out on our combat training when we were children, if I recall it annoyed Gilgamesh terribly. But I detest fighting, truthfully--I avoid it wherever I can.

Gilga... heh, oh yeah, you'd have known him before he was some asshole in a cave.

[It was kind of strange to think the thing he'd fought several months back might have been someone just like him back in Ardyn's time. It was such a warped moment thinking like that, and that Ardyn was just like Noct wanting to skip out on training.]

This is so damn weird.

Oh--right, I think Cor might have mentioned he was still around. [Ardyn frowned, looking thoughtful.] I'm afraid I don't have any answer as to 'how', save only that if anyone could fight death and win I would imagine it to be him.

[A small shrug.]

...It's all just a bit surreal, I'm sure.

[Gladio grinned]

And what about the guy who kicks his ass?

[Did that mean if Death came knocking he'd be able to fight him off too? Now that would be funny to see.]

Well, that I can't speak for. But if you've won a fight against Gilgamesh, I confess myself very genuinely impressed.

Nothing to be impressed about, but yeah. That's what I'd just done before I was taken from Eos. Those are my last memories.