Devil's Nest, Monday Night

[texted3times]

"I do not want to see the pictures of the kid you and that barista had this weekend," Eric told Tiny. "Not even a little."

He took his vodka and sat down at the bar. Tiny, at least, would be more sympathetic if people were missing their hypothetical children tonight.

The Devil's Nest was open.

Comments

[sword_chocobro]

"Alright," Gladio looked momentarily impressed. "So he's been around for a while, too. And here I'm over here thinking 34's been kind of pushing it."

In his defense, though, it had been a particularly long last decade, at least.

[texted3times]

Eric laughed. "Well, you've had a very trying mid-30s."

[sword_chocobro]

"And those late-twenties weren't exactly a walk in the park, either," said Gladio, trying very hard to not think of how close those kids came to running circles around him at the gym yesterday, but he had gotten a little distracted once Nell dropped in, too.

[texted3times]

"That either," Eric agreed, finishing his drink and signaling for a refill.

[sword_chocobro]

And, well, while Tiny was getting refills, Gladio was just going to take a moment to drink down the rest of his glass, too, lifting it to request the same, with a nod of thanks, and just sort of sitting in a thoughtful silence after that. He'd been pretty prone to things like that, lately.

[texted3times]

Eric watched him thoughtfully. "You good?"

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio shrugged a little, the type of shrug that seemed to contradict his words.

"Yeah," he said. "I'm good."

Even he had to admit that didn't sound terribly convincing, though.

"Just a....weird couple of weeks, I guess."

[texted3times]

"You're at a bar. It's traditional to spill your guts here," Eric said. "Like therapy but cooler and with better alcohol. What's been so weird?"

[sword_chocobro]

"Arguably cheaper, too," Gladio added, with a lift of his next drink, and taking care of a good portion of it before he sighed, shook his head, sipped a little more, and relented. A bit.

"Kids showing up from an alternate sunshine happy ending future is pretty fucking weird, man, no matter which way you slice it."

[texted3times]

"That will fuck you right in the head," Eric agreed. "You stuck wondering why another you got the happiness and you're hear talking to a thousand year old vampire?"

[sword_chocobro]

"No, actually," said Gladio, head shaking his head again. "Not exactly, anyway. That's more of the weirdness, I don't....know what I'm feeling about all of it. I do know that, as far as thousand-year-old dead guys I could be talking to, you're much better than what I got stuck with back home. And, I don't know. Something jist felt...off about it. Like it was just....fake. Unearned."

His hand idly went to his chest, his thumb brushing against the welt of the scar across it. Which Fort hadn't even recognized. Just like his own father, he'd never even tried the Trials. He never felt he had to.

"And that's probably the most fucked up part of all it."

[texted3times]

Eric nodded. "Could you imagine how many things needed to have changed in your life to even create the kid?"

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio just shrugged his shoulders a little.

"We got the Nifs before they could get us," he said. "Simple as that."

Ha. Simple.

[texted3times]

"That doesn't sound simple," Eric said, focusing his full attention onto Gladio.

[sword_chocobro]

"I mean," said Gladio, feeling the urge to double down on his vagueness now that he apparently seemed to have Eric's undivided attention, "it was a war, it's never really that simple, is it?"

[texted3times]

"I've been through my share," Eric said, "and I've never seen one that was easy. Who are the Nifs?"

[sword_chocobro]

"The Niflheim Empire," said Gladio, who sighed for a moment before remembering her had a drink and taking advantage of that fact. "The guys we've been at war with for hundreds of years. Well. Up until ten tears ago, anyway. Our city was the last place they hadn't successfully managed to dig their claws into, and they finally decided to make their move. And it worked....and then set off a chain of events that put the whole in jeopardy and lead to those last ten years of darkness."

[texted3times]

"That's very complicated," Eric said sympathetically. "So in your child's version, the chain of events that defined you just...never happened?"

[sword_chocobro]

"Yup," said Gladio. "Never happened. Our armies pushed back against the Nif's crawl toward Insomnia, we secured the marriage of the Crown Prince and the Oracle, which allowed us to regain Tenebrae, and from there, we marched on Niflheim at last, annihilated their labs, drove back their plot to spread the Starscourge and got the gods to finally banish all the daemons. Like I said..."

He lifted his nearly finished second drink with a dry grin.

"Simple as that. According to the kids, anyway. Avis gave a thorough report."

[texted3times]

"Were the rest of you as discombobulated by the news?" Eric wondered.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio snorted. "Yeah," he confirmed, "you could definitely say that. Hell, even the kids were, so at least it wasn't one sided. Ignis being blind, Prompto with a whole 'nother family. Noct and Lunafreya being dead. Pretty big mind fuck all around."

[texted3times]

"Tiny, get him another drink," Eric ordered.

[sword_chocobro]

Gladio snorted a laugh, shaking his head, and lift a hand. "No, it's fine, Tiny," he said. "I'm good. I got work in the morning."

[texted3times]

"Ehh, but it's the gym," Eric teased. "You can sweat it out."