mercurio | 〈 recolle ic contact 〉

If it's bad enough to need stitches it must have been quite the fall. I assume you this is how you got blood on the rug?

How did this friend of yours take your bout of trespassing? And what possessed you to think that was a good idea?

yeah it's all clean now though

[and... he refuses to answer the latter part of the message. there's one thing he's learned for himself, growing up with such uncaring parents (or none at all, to an extent), and it was to fend for himself. having in recent years been granted the opportunity to make adults proud of him and wish the best for him, it sucks to be admonished for an action he knows was foolish, immature, and in many ways wrong.]

[he's ashamed]

[therefore, prompto works up exactly no courage to admit to anything. especially not to professor ardyn izunia, to whom he has somehow grown to want to make the proudest of all.]

[But Ardyn is an adult that, ironically compared to a certain past life of his, actually feels empathetic and sympathetic towards others. Despite his flippant nature, and his teasing texts the night before, he had felt a lingering concern. The fact that Prompto has blatantly ignored his question doesn't pass his notice. If anything, it makes it all the more prominent.]

While I'm glad to hear it, I would like to know your reasoning if you're inclined to share.

[A second or two passes before a follow-up text pops up.]

I'm not judging you. I know the way I phrase things tends to lend to that idea, but I'm actually concerned.

[Why breaking and entering, Prompto? Why? What was so important?]

[despite it all, prompto can't help but anxiously check his phone expecting ardyn's reply to his own blatant avoidance of the issue. why was he being like this? his other form of media interactions were a bit annoying at this moment, excepting happy and all-for-it prompto, unawares that he's in hospital, spent all past several hours cleaning his own blood off a carpet, getting the cold shoulder treatment from his best friend for being so stupid, and nyx's clear anger. prompto understands that he deserves it, because no one told him to break into the apartment to just go and collect his camera.]

[he has the best intentions in mind at times, but lacking proper parenting, he tends to go overboard with things that are not considered quite proper at all.]

[such as breaking and entering nyx's apartment because that's something he and noctis often do (even if noctis does have a spare key, so it's not technically breaking in...?), and thinking that's just how they do things. no matter how he looks at it, it brings prompto a lot of shame, enough to colour his face red.]

i left my camera in there
i acted without thinking, i'm already sorry and i apologised
i'm not gonna do it again

[because even though ardyn says he isn't judging prompto, he feels it.]

[a nurse and doctor have started patching him up, and they're allowing him to use his phone to distract himself from the procedure.]

Did you need the camera that badly in the dead of night? I'm merely wondering if this "friend" of yours was surprised or otherwise angry to see you, or if your anxiety had mostly been built upon the fact that you were bleeding on the floor.

[It's hard to feel as if Prompto had been thinking it through one way or another, regardless. There's folly in youth, Ardyn muses to himself -- he has to wonder if he ever was so reckless when he was twenty. (He can't seem to think of a time where breaking and entering was ever on the table; he's pretty sure his parents would have never let him hear the end of it, and that he would have been guilted to death if he ever did something so careless.)

Speaking of.]

I hope your health insurance is decent enough to foot the bill. That or your parents'.

yeah, i wonder... whatever the case and whatever excuse i want to put over it like a blanket, in the end i did a stupid thing and everyone who got angry and upset had the right to do so

[psycho-analysis doesn't really work on prompto now; he fucked up, that's the end of it. whatever collateral damage is what it was and his own injuries were deserved in the grand scheme of things.]

[the last sentence on the text is one he considers not answering at all, but he doesn't want to leave himself open to vulnerabilities again]

it's a small clinic that i've been to before so they know me, i'll pay them back in time.
i always do

[that's a no on the health insurance]

[It's not so much psychoanalysis as it is Ardyn trying to understand just exactly what might have happened, outside of the normal answer of "young people making dumb decisions". Well. Maybe it really was nothing more than that. If anything, Prompto does sound sorry about it, which is-- good, he supposes, though he wasn't even attempting to make him feel guilty.

Doesn't take much, apparently.]

You've learned your lesson, at any rate. We all make terrible decisions at 3 AM.

[Once again, it's the lack of certain points of information that's telling, to a man as perceptive as Ardyn. He likes to think he isn't reading too much into the texts, at least.]

You haven't anyone who can help you for now?

uh

[it's better to just put it all out there for once, otherwise ardyn's going to keep making questions prompto can't pretend he keeps evading]

my father bailed on us when i was really small and my mother has a new family
i think
we don't keep in touch
it's just been me for as far as i remember

[He'd feel more satisfied about having Prompto be upfront, if not for the fact that this seems to be more sensitive, personal information than he was truly expecting.

He wavers somewhere between guilt and wanting to backpedal for all of two seconds before typing out a response.]

I see. Insert foot in mouth here, or so they say. Forgive me for being so tactless.

[And so! A subject change, or so it would appear.]

Did you get your camera back, at least?

it's okay

[is his absolute immediate reply, seconds within the text message. fuck's sake... don't give him pity...the last thing he wants from ardyn of all people...]

i can pick up my camera later that's the condition
but i guess it's fair
they're stitching my arm now and it's pretty gross but also cool lol

[It isn't pity, Prompto. It's a genuine concern that he can't quite enunciate fully, simply because there's a line of familiarity there that Ardyn doesn't quite feel comfortable crossing just yet. Not when it comes to talk about family, and their lack of presence in one's life.

But he can offer a bit of help in a way he does find suitable for now.]

I'd like to enlist your services, using your eye for photography, whenever your camera is returned to you. You'd be paid accordingly, of course.

You should take a picture to terrify all your squeamish friends.

[he's in a slightly better mood after those two texts. prompto will hate to take a picture of his arm to then explain to those who weren't involved what that was about. in fact, he's already taken a picture even before ardyn suggested it, and sends it to ardyn (not a picture i will link because ?!!..)]

15 stitches so far damn
that'd be really cool though
what kinda thing do you need pix of?

15? Expect an impressive scar to go along with them.

[And his phone buzzes with a picture. Yes, that's definitely gross... but some small part of Ardyn thinks it's also kind of "cool", too. Him and his innate morbid sort of curiosity that he doesn't always share with others.]

My brother has a new car that he spent far too much money on. He'd like to get it photographed, to have something artistic to show off when he's bragging about it.

[(Fynn asked him for no such thing. It doesn't matter. He's getting photos now whether or not he likes it.)]

yeah... hope not though lol what an embarrassing story
oh that's cool! congrats to your brother. younger? older?
it'll be the coolest car pic he'll ever get though for sure, i promise that!

[he can't promise that, but people tend to like someone with a sense of confidence about his work. prompto can work with that.]

could coordinate for a shoot for tomorrow onwards though
i'll head home and sleep for ages after this

Younger. He's actually closer to your age than he is to mine. Certainly the baby in the family.

[And highly... highly annoying and loud. But. Prompto will see, surely.]

As well you should. I can let you know of a proper time once I speak to him again.

[Or... for the first time.]

wow wonder what that's like!

[to have a baby brother much closer to his own age?? how much older is ardyn...]

that works with me
in any case i'll keep my phone close

[a little (unexpectedly?) later]

..i did wanna say
thanks for checking up on me sir

It's not unlike growing up with a lump attached to your arm, except it's a younger brother, and your parents tell you that no, you can't just leave him at the grocery store for someone else to find and bring home someday.

[What a sudden spike of sarcasm! Truly a loving family.]

And as I said, don't thank me. It would be impossible to not want to check up on your after your texts last night. Anyone would have done the same.

sounds like an interesting kind of relationship
bet you guys get on just great from what i just read

[also being sarcastic, although surprised at that... aren't siblings supposed to get along? supposes he isn't an expert on the matter]

[smiles wryly (at the sting of the stitching, in part)]

yeah i guess those were pretty morbid
sorry about that again
i'll be more careful next time

If you had a younger brother, you would understand my meaning. Regardless, I'm stuck with him, and he's presented you a reason to indulge yourself in your photography once more. So there's that at least.

Good. You've reached your quota of stitches for the year, anyway. Let's not go too overboard, shall we?

haha probably... thank you sir! i promise to make you proud, and hopefully your brother too!

[little does prompto know...]

yup! i've learnt my lesson!

〈 recolle ic contact 〉

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject