warpspammer | INBOX (noctiumrp)

Listen, you can roast a whole cockatrice and not have it lose the flavor and moisture, but that takes time, and a few other things that plate is missing.

[ This is also a conversation he's interested in, especially when Miles is at work. ]

I like it, and I like being on the other side as well. It's not a make or break if someone's got a preference otherwise.

I believe it's seasoned with thyme, actually.

[HE'S SO FUNNY. Or this is the world's most boring dinner, either way.]

I see. Whatever flavor suits the mood, then?

[ He almost types out It damn well better be before he catches the joke, and snorts a laugh to himself. ]

Hope they didn't get too caraway with it, then.

And for your second question - pretty much. It doesn't make you or me the weaker half or whatever bullshit the Crownsguard would spit out half the time to take it instead of give it.

They say that puns are a juvenile form of humor. I rather appreciate them, personally.

It sounds as though your Crownsguard and my mentor came from a similar school of thought. I was never precisely discouraged from my preferences in partners, provided I was discreet and did nothing to damage my reputation or my career prospects.

I was, however, told in no uncertain terms that there was a "correct" way of conducting myself in the course of it.

They're pretty good, not gonna lie.

[ There's a lot to absorb there - the least of all that Miles had been the one receiving when they had sex, which spoke volumes, he supposed. Perhaps about the level of trust Miles had afforded him, or a silent fuck you to his mentor.

Then again, Nyx would probably do a lot of things to silently spite Drautos, nowadays. ]

Sounds like your mentor was a dick about that, then. No pun intended this time.

Galahdians, we don't... really give a damn about how you're having sex or who it's with, we've got bigger worries than that. It's not too far off from how this place is, only we focus on taking care of everyone in the community.

Do you have Christmas in Galahd? A winter holiday, near the solstice.

[Well, well, Miles Edgeworth, that's certainly an abrupt change of direction in conversation, isn't it. But maybe not so unexpected, with the right understanding of where it's coming from.]

You make it sound charming there. Reputation isn't an issue within the community?

[ Miles that swerve was visible from outer space.. but Nyx lets it go. ]

Not Christmas, but Insomnia celebrated the Starlight Festival. Galahd didn't do anything specifically in winter; we had one closer to the spring solstice instead.

Nah. Not to put too fine a point on it, but I had plenty of parents - though yeah, I knew who my biological mom and dad were. But I could have gone crying with a scraped knee to any of them if I was the type.

It's why I mean it when I say Lib or Crowe were my siblings as much as Selena is. It's not something we ever really put pen to paper down about. Sometimes Nifelheim would push too hard and people die, leave kids behind; they'd end up getting adopted by some friends of the family.

[ That... caused problems, in Lucis territory. They were pretty big on the paperwork aspect. A lot of families were separated. ]

Hard to keep getting in a snit about who's fucking who then. The worst I ever saw was the occasional huff over someone coming from a different island.

A very plain-text reading of the phrase "it takes a village to raise a child". I can't begin to imagine how that must have felt, to just...go to any available adult and be treated as a child with a parent.

[There's a pause here, again. Either he's deciding what to say or the next course just showed up; who knows, really.]

Believe me when I say that if you knew the full extent of my complicated relationship with my mentor, his opinions about my sexual interests would be the least of your grounds to hate him.

I likewise have a complicated relationship with the Christmas holiday. The two are interconnected, which is why I asked if you were familiar with it at all.

I suppose you're right about that. It's something that... didn't happen as much after we lost Galahd, and had to come to Insomnia proper.

[ But there's the pause, and he idly considers the nervousness, the feeling that perhaps he overshared. Only Ignis knows this much about his history, and he knows it in a very sanitized manner, if Nyx is honest. It's details in his history file, or shared in bed after a fun romp when he's asked where he learned that trick.

The texts resume, though, and the mild anxiety passes. ]

Well, might as well get lower at this point. I know of it from here and Starlight was pretty similar.

I understand that feeling. Maybe not the exact circumstances, but...being uprooted from one lifestyle to another. Having to become what you're expected to be by those around you in the new place.

Are you sure you want to hear this? These things about me. You won't like it. I'm certain it will change your opinion of me.

Yeah. We got a lot of pushback for how much we didn't want to fit in. Didn't want to unbraid our hair, take out our beads or cover our tattoos, be anything other than what we were.

[ Some caved. Some didn't, like him and Libertus. And the question? ]

I doubt it'll change it for the worse. If you're that worried, though, you can always come tell me after your work dinner, instead of having to share it over text.

[ And so, Nyx thinks, he can reach out and assure the man nothing's changed. Short of Miles admitting he's secretly Titus Drautos, he doubts it'll change much. ]

Edited 2021-09-18 07:14 (UTC)

I admire you for that. Refusing to sacrifice what you once were for the sake of what you were expected to become.

I've gone about this all wrong. I shouldn't have...I would've done it sooner or later but this is about the worst way I could have made the attempt.

Oh, god, I should've just stayed talking about sex on my desk. It's just that you condemned him so easily for something so mildly ridiculous, is what did it. The man groomed me into the worst possible version of myself over the span of fifteen years but he also had pigheaded opinions about sex. It's like charging someone with arson, murder, and littering.

I mean, we can go back to the sex on the desk if you want.

[ Almost immediately after sending that: ]

Listen, people with opinions like that tend to be rotten on the big stuff, too. He may have turned you into the "worst possible version" of yourself but you also, clearly, don't want to be that kinda person anymore. So I'm not gonna judge you for shit you did in the past, Miles.

[ He forgave Libertus for what he did. He doesn't think Libertus was the lynchpin of the operation, but he still made an attack against the King, and thus against people Nyx cared about. Miles can't do worse than that. ]

I've spent years working out the person I want to be, and not just the one he made me into. And yet there's more overlap than you might expect.

He was a man obsessed with perfection. Seventeen years ago, my father indelibly tainted that perfection in an irrevocable way. His "perfect" solution was to murder my father and raise me, his orphaned nine-year-old son, believing I was responsible. Once he had crafted me into a flawed, worthless copy of himself, he framed me for murder and personally prosecuted the case, so as to render his revenge complete.

Those are facts. The story I'll do properly, in person. But the facts are the facts.

[ Well yeah, that's a hell of a lot of crap for Miles to have gone through. ]

I'm not sure where you'd expect me to have a low opinion of you in all this, I'll be honest. He sounds like a monster; just because he maybe taught you some stuff that ended up being good, or you share traits or desires, doesn't make you a bad person.

Sometimes the monsters are a lot closer than we expected. That doesn't make us like them because they taught or raised us.

I would rather have you think me a bad person than a pitiable one.

The day we first met, if I seemed...distracted. It's because I had the memory of this incident on my mind. There were earthquakes in the Burnished Crater upon my arrival, and an earthquake was the precipitating incident that led to the murder in question.

I've tried to work past it. I feel as though I should have put it behind me by now. Yet sometimes things still bring it back.

[ Oh, Miles. ]

I don't pity you, I think it's damn impressive you've managed to get this far. There's no timeframe, for getting over these things. You'll think you're doing okay, and then one day someone says or does something that pulls you back to the worst day of your life.

You just... learn how to pull yourself back up each time, a little better than the first time.

That's the wisdom of a man speaking from personal experience.

Perhaps I should just start taking you with me to these formal dinners. Spare myself the temptation of texting you all my mortifying secrets. Let you distract me with your opinions on broccoli.

Broccoli as a garnish, for Six's sake. Which place is this so I know never to go there.

[ He could take the lighthearted exit, but. ]

Tit for tat if you're really worried about your secrets, though. Like I said, it takes time. There's no A+ here for getting through your grief faster.

I'm not going to tell you. You'll be left in perpetual suspense, always wondering if the place I take you on any given evening is the dreaded Broccoli Garnish establishment.

I've never been someone who's been content to do things slowly, I'm afraid. But...you're right. Of course you're right.

If you take me to that place I'm gonna walk our asses out even if I have to pay, and find us a real diner.

I'm the smartest.

[ he is absolutely not. ]

Some days I don't think about Selena at all, you know, and some days she's always in the back of my mind. You'll have good and bad ones, but it gets easier, promise.

What a snob you are, Nyx Ulric. I think this is the part where I entice you with the promise of sexual favors in exchange for your indulgence of food that offends you.

...I'll hold you to that promise. Thank you.

Hm... maybe if you're promising me things like that I can handle a fancy dinner.

But not broccoli garnish.

You're welcome. Andd the offer stands, whenever you might want it, to talk.

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