Devil's Nest, Monday, October 24, 2022

[texted3times]

Eric came into the bar to find it ornately decorated for Diwali.

He stopped, frowned, then looked questioningly at Tiny, who shrugged. "Are there drink specials?" Eric asked, settling at the counter.

Tiny slid over a Chat Phat Margarita.

"I don't hate this," Eric decided, which was high praise coming from him.

The Devil's Nest was open! And festive!

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[sword_chocobro]

Gladio (still stuck, still resenting it, still holding onto some sliver of hope despite apparently owning a gym now) definitely noticed the decorations as he came in to take up his increasingly regular shirtless spot at the bar.

"So what's the occasion?" he had to asked, looking over them approvingly.

[texted3times]

"Diwali," Eric said. "A festival of lights."

Which the bar was definitely embracing.

[sword_chocobro]

"And now I feel," said Gladio, considering the decorations with newly enlightened (ha) eyes, "I should have probably guessed as much. But to be fair, I am still kind of getting used to light as a concept being a whole thing again..."

[texted3times]

"Welcome back to the land of electricity," Eric said. "I remember being overwhelmed by how bright the world was when it was first used on a large scale."

He could understand the need for light-centric celebrations. The dark had been scary as fuck back in the day.

[sword_chocobro]

"Well, the electricity was fine," Gladio clarified. "Essential, actually, to survival, but it was limited, with just the one power plant and a handful of generators for everyone...at least on our side of the Cygillan Ocean, anyway, but things weren't looking too great for the other side of it, either. So we had it. It was just limited. And constantly under threat."

He grunted a little, a small, sardonic kind of laugh.

"Now when we got the sun back, that was fucking bright."

[texted3times]

"That sounds like a story that needs alcohol," Eric said and behold, there was Tiny with some Cup Noodle.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio grunted a bit wryly in agreement, nodding his thanks to Tiny as he reached for the drink.

"Well," he offered, "I won't bore you with the nitty-gritty details, but the short story is that there's this plague that's infected our planet for as long as anyone can remember. Centuries, if not eons. And the whole time, it's been slowly emitting this....miasma, of darkness, to slowly creep in on the daylight. Until about ten years ago, when a series of events were kicked off by some immortal asshole with a grudge that caused the miasma to practically explode and cover the whole planet, blocking out the sun, and now this plague....which can only survive in darkness, by the way...takes over the whole world. Only safe places left are the places that can provide enough light to drive back the darkness. Everywhere else? Overrun with monsters and daemons in the dark."

He took a swig.

"Ten years of that...up until about a month and a half ago."

[texted3times]

Eric shuddered. "And you want to go bac to that?"

[sword_chocobro]

"Well, no," said Gladio, "but I wouldn't be going back to that. My friend sacrificed himself to rid Eos of the Starscourge once and for all. So now it's nothing but a bright, plague-free future ahead. That is what I want to go back to. That is what I spent the last ten years fighting for. And I wind up fucking stuck here instead."

He was maybe just a wee bit pissed about it, yeah.

[texted3times]

Justifiably so, in Eric's opinion.

"That's fucking terrible," he said, not without sympathy. "So you got to the big dramatic, horrible for your friend finish...and ended up back here?"

[sword_chocobro]

"Exactly," Gladio sighed, shaking his head. "Got to stick around long enough for everyone to start figuring out what we were going to next, stepped outside of my apartment one day, turned around, and found myself standing outside of Atlas Gym instead.

"Which," he felt compelled to add, after another drink, "I apparently own now, by the way."

[texted3times]

"Congratulations," Eric said, grinning. "I appreciate the effort you put into those abs."

[sword_chocobro]

"Thanks." Gladio laughed a little, his grin going almost a little modest. "I knew all that hard work wouldn't be for nothing..."

[texted3times]

"Because you were doing it entirely for me," Eric teased, "and to make shirtless Thursdays better."

[sword_chocobro]

"Well," Gladio allowed, but lifted his drink pointedly with his faint smirk, "let's also not forget the Cup Noodles^TM."

[texted3times]

"Much as we try," Eric said.