fandomtownies | The Perk; Sunday Morning [05/28].

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The Perk; Sunday Morning [05/28].

Over the past few weeks, Gladio had actually acquired a substantial To-Be-Read pile of books that he'd barely been able to really make a dent in. So he figured that Sunday might be a really good chance to really dig in and clear away some pages. It was a nice enough day that he supposed he could have found a nice spot out in the park or in the preserve, but that would only open him up to getting distracted by nature and whatnot, and that would defeat the whole purpose.

Granted, there was a good chance he could get distracted by people here in the Perk, but that was kind of different.

So he had a nice, big coffee and a nice, big (well...moderately sized, really) book, and got settled in a nice big (and sturdy!) chair, and got to reading.

[[ work-related SP is very inevitable for me, but the post is definitely open for all your coffee shop needs! ]]

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Stark didn't have a book with him. Stark still didn't read much. Stark did consume a lot of coffee and coffee-adjacent beverages and the ones here were so much better than what he came up with in his own apartment by just adding a lot of sugar and cream.

"Morning, Gladio," he said as he entered and headed to the counter for one of the sugary monstrosities he favored (iced today, with plenty of whipped cream). "Is that book from Steven?"

"Hey, Stark," Gladio nodded a greeting and, bookmark ready in case he wanted to stay and chat for a bit, took a brief glance at the cover for a reminder of what other people would see he was reading. "Nah. Just something I picked. Marc and I were talking about it at the gym the other day, and it seemed pretty interesting, so I thought I'd look into it a little more."

He never really got the chance to chat with Steven much, for some weird reason.

"You familiar at all?"

How odd that Gladio wouldn't see Steven much when he tended to see Marc regularly.

"Mostly only what I've heard from Steven," Stark said as he collected his drink. "About his god who isn't really his and the goddess he met when they died."

Normal stuff, you know.

Well, for Gladio....yeah, kind of. He nodded a little.

"Pretty interesting stuff," he said. "Especially if it's not exactly what you're used to."

His nod now was toward one of the seats nearby.

"Wanna have a seat?" he offered. "Catch up a bit? Or are you headed out for something else this morning?"

"None of the gods or religions here are what I'm used to," Stark said. "I'm sure they're all different for you as well. Aren't they?"

He pulled out the indicated chair and sat, nodding back. "Thank you. No plans for today. Most of my weekends are quiet."

"Until the ones when they're really, really not," Gladio noted, as was required, pretty much, with a snort, "right?"

He reached for his coffee, which had, admittedly, gone somewhat forgotten while he was caught up in his book.

"And, yeah, very different. For one thing, we only had six of them. Much easier to keep track of."

"Exactly," Stark said with another nod. "But this one is definitely quiet. I like the quiet, sometimes. Not always. Right now it's fine." Sometimes he worried when it was too quiet, or he got too stuck in his own head at those times.

"Steven's Egyptians seemed to have a lot of gods, from what I've heard. I know of some other traditions with several but not the ones I was most familiar with. But then I only really had to know about the ones that deal with death."

"That," Gladio mused, "would fall mostly under the Draconian's umbrella. Bahamut. The Bladekeeper. God of War. Sigil of the Kingsglaive."

His expression went a little soft, a little wry, almost a little fond.

"Busy guy," he snorted into his cup, "as you can imagine."

"Someone you had too much experience with?" Stark asked softly. "Steven's hippo sounded lovely, the way he talked about her. Much nicer than some deities that preside over the Other Side."

"Not too much," Gladio said, with a small shake of his head. "Maybe just enough. Really came in clutch for us when it really mattered, so I'm hardly going to disparage the guy too much. Plus, you know..."

There was a shrug, as he trailed off, as if it didn't really matter if Stark knew or not.

"And Marc mentioned the hippo, too." His grin grew a little, and he lifted the book. "Taweret. I told him it sounds like she should really run into Sidon some day. I think thry'd get alongm"

And bond over being really, really tall and water and stuff.

"I know what?" Stark prompted. "Unless you don't want to say. You don't have to."

He knew how that was, not really wanting to talk.

"I haven't seen Sidon much of late. Perhaps I need to spend more time by the water. Or at Furnado."

Gladio shrugged a little again. It wasn't that he minded talking about it, he just didn't want to bring anyone else down complaining about his own hang-ups.

"It's just," he said, "as far as the Astrals go, Bahamut was always the big one for me. Obviously. Sigil of the Kingsglaive and that was everything for me, growing up. Pretty big deal.

"I think he's been busy," he added, in a thoughtful, musing tone, with maybe a touch of envy, "with things back home, but, yeah, I haven't really talked to him much lately."

Another snort.

"Definitely would be less quiet if he were around more."

"I never had my own deities," Stark said. "But I've... sometimes I borrow Zhaan's Goddess. I don't think She minds."

"Most of them don't," Gladio noted, thinking specifically of the Tide-Mother as an definitely exception to that.

"So," he prompted, "what's Zhaan's Goddess like?"

"Kind," Stark said with a faint smile. "Forgiving. Good but strong. Very much like Zhaan. She was a priestess."

"Sounds like a good goddess to borrow," Gladio said, with a faint grin back. "And that would be Shiva. And I guess Lunafreya would have been like a priestess, as their Oracle."

"Zhaan served her all her life. Sometimes it helps...to feel a little closer to her. Lunafreya is a friend of yours? From home?"

Gladio shook his head a little. "I never really knew her too well," he admitted, a little ruefully. "She was the one Noct was going to marry, when we all left. The marriage that was supposed to be a peace treaty and ended up a trap."

"I'm sorry," Stark said. "You don't have to talk about it if you'd rather not. But I can listen if you would like to."

He'd lost plenty of people. Not in the same way though.

"I don't mind talking about it," Gladio said, with another shrug, "so long as you don't mind having to listen to it. But it's also been a long time, too. For me, anyway. So, you know. Old news by now."

"It must be difficult dealing with the lost time," Stark said. "Or...not lost. The extra time? The time you had there that hasn't happened here yet? Or maybe it was harder before and now you're used to it? I don't know. But I'm happy to listen if you ever need someone to do that. I'm good at listening."

And at babbling occasionally.

Judging by the amused grin on Gladio's face by the time Stark finished....yeah, thanks, narrative, he'd noticed.

"There's not really a whole lot to say," he said, but, then again, that was how he was for most things. "Besides, it hasn't been as hard for me, time jump wise," a very important distiction; he actually might have something to say....a lot of somethings, actually...about other aspects of him being here. "It's not like it was with Prompto, being gone ten years and coming back to a surprise kid."

And not even in the usual Fandom way!

"He seems happy enough with that," Stark said. "I really ought to try and meet the baby. I like them. Babies. Children. I don't know that I'd settle in so well as he did with all of that battlements happening."

Stark definitely would not.

"I imagine it's harder for you. He had someone to come back to. You came back first, didn't you?"

"She's a good kid," Gladio assured her. "So far, anyway, at least she has been whenever I've been tagged in to help out. But, no, man, it was Prompto first, then me, then Iggy. Prompto disappeared almost as soon as it all ended, once..."

He trailed off a little, brow knotted and furrowed, as he found out maybe he did mind talking about some if it after all.

"...when the light came back," he concluded, although thay definitely wasn't where he'd been going. "Thought he was dead, actually, until I showed up here again about a month later, I think. And the time thing doesn't get me so much as the begin stuck here does. I had shit to do, man, you know? And people there. If you save a godsdamned world, you should be able to get to stick around and enjoy it."

"After we stopped the war," Stark said after a pause, "after it was over...I left. I didn't want to be there anymore and there wasn't anything for me there then. Or I didn't think there was."

"I'm glad you found Prompto here. And that Ignis followed you both. But I'm sorry. Not being able to get back must be hard. I hope you can make it. Someday. Though I'd miss you here. But you deserve to be able to be there. Your home. Especially after saving your world."

"We worked hard to pull that off," Gladio said, his snort more wry than properly amused, and a shake of his head. Took a good sip of his coffee. "And sacrificed a lot. And, yeah, there are worse places to be stuck...a lot worse, and I know we left Eos in good hands, but..."

He sighed.

"But, yeah. Like you said. It's hard. Sometimes, it's a lot less hard." Sometimes, it was downright easy and comfortable, and that was a whole new box of issues there. "But it's still hard."

"It's your home and you feel responsible for it," Stark said making it sound almost like a question. "Of course it's hard. Is there anything I can do to make it easier?"

That pulled another wry snort out of Gladio, who quirked an eyebrow at Stark.

"You any good at intimidating gnomes?"

You know, more than the 6'6" mass of pure tattooed muscle sitting in front of you at the moment.

"I've never tried intimidating any gnomes," Stark admitted. "I could try..."

He shrugged and shook his head. "I'm rarely intimidating."

A part of Gladio almost did want to see that effort transpire, because that seemed like it would be quite the thing to see. He grinned faintly, shaking his head. "Nah, you're good," he said. "Pretty sure they have no plans on budging any time soon. Pretty sure that, unless Summer has a breakthrough with all her portal stuff, I might be looking at the long haul. Which means the real question is...is it going to take another ten years? And what does that mean for how much time is passing over in Eos, too?"

Stark could, when pressed, get a bit scary. He didn't like doing it.

"When I went home the last time I was there longer than I was gone here. Not that much longer, but still longer. Other times I've gone back barely any time has passed at all. It's all...fluid, I think. There don't seem to be set rules. The universe, every version of it, is strange."

He frowned and look a long sip of his coffee.

"I could ask Summer if she's made any progress? Although I'm sure she would have told you. She hasn't said anything to me about it but then you don't come up in conversation all that often."

Which was too bad, maybe they could compare notes.

Were those notes you really wanted compared, though, Stark?

"I'm shocked," said Gladio with a snort, "that the two of you aren't just talking about me twenty-four/seven.

"But, yeah. She said she'd keep me updated, on any changes."

He did not sound optimistic.

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The Perk; Sunday Morning [05/28].

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