Awash IC Inbox

[photoshooter]

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Comments

[whichcraft]

...

[OR he could just render the chatterbox speechless, as whatever it was she was going to say immediately goes out the window in favor of just kind of gawking at him for a minute, halfway between startled and wanting to laugh.]

...Okay, that's cheating, and also, fuck.

[photoshooter]

[Even if she won't laugh at him, he does, bringing his hand back to his chest.]

You forget, Your Highness, I've hung out with royalty for years. I know how this stuff works, trust me.

[whichcraft]

"Nice hair" was cheating, you cheater. Besides, yours is nicer than mine.

[Well, well, someone's flustered.]

Well, now I'm not even going to tell you what they really are.

[photoshooter]

[He snickers and brushes his hair out of his eyes, self-conscious.]

Whaaaat? Come on, I wanna know!

[whichcraft]

Hell no, I'm not telling, not ever, you jerk.

[Which lasts about all of three seconds, before: ]

No, the actual answer is you've got to be good, you've got to be beautiful, and you've got to have ties to a kingdom, and I'm zero for three on those.

[photoshooter]

Hmmm. Well, I guess that checks out. Though you're nice enough! Helped a stranger out of the well, didn't you?

[whichcraft]

Nice is different than good. You can definitely be one without being the other.

[She shrugs a little, sticking her hands in her pockets.]

I wouldn't say I'm very good. Decent, maybe, but not good.

[photoshooter]

[Prompto has to think about that.]

What's the difference? I mean, okay, I know what the difference is between good and decent is generally, but where would you draw the line?

[whichcraft]

Mm. I think a good person is someone who does the right thing because it's the right thing to do. A decent person's just someone who doesn't go out of their way to be an asshole to people.

[She tips her head back, looking up at the sky overhead.]

I think the baseline standard for good is a lot higher than the baseline standard for decent.

[photoshooter]

...Maybe.

[He scratches his head.]

What about people who do the right thing because... everyone else is doing it?

[whichcraft]

Decent. Good's the kind of thing you do regardless of who's around you. Like...I don't know, stopping for a red light at an intersection in the middle of the night, when you know there's no one around anyway. Good would still stop. You know?

[photoshooter]

Huh. So then, most people are decent at best, right? Aaand I'm not sure my friend would stop at an intersection like that. I mean, who's gonna ticket him, the Crownsguard? Yeah, right.

[whichcraft]

Well, yeah, but most people also aren't princesses either. Like, I'm not saying it's a criticism, "so and so's not a good person", it's just...more about how rare "good" people are than anything else.

[She shoots him a sideways look.]

Your friend doesn't seem like the type to pull rank on the law, though. I just, just from what you've said about him.

[photoshooter]

Eeehhhhhh, well.

[Prompto draws the wait out light-heartedly, then shakes his head and shrugs.]

Might depend on the circumstances. I mean, lawful doesn't always mean good, right?

[whichcraft]

[Good for him; now he does get a laugh out of her.]

Sure doesn't. 'Cause sometimes laws are bullshit.

[photoshooter]

Haha, don't we all just know it. Noct probably knows it most of all of us, he had to actually learn all of them and junk. Major snoozefest! I'm glad I'm not royalty.

[whichcraft]

So what would you want to be, if not royalty? What do you want to do with...you know. Yourself? Everything? What's the goal?

[photoshooter]

Uhhhh. Wow, um, I haven't had to think about that for a long time. Hmm...

[He sweeps his hair back, one hand on his hip, then laughs, a little awkwardly.]

I mean, I guess they swore me into the Crownsguard, and that's a pretty long-term deal. But besides that... well, I'd love to do something with my photography, really bring my game to the next level. And I wanted to save up for my own set of wheels?

[Grinning, Prompto offers her another helpless little shrug.]

You know, I'm only twenty, that's barely the age of majority. The future might as well be the moon.

[whichcraft]

Bullshit you're twenty. Are you kidding me?

[For a minute, she actually stops dead in her tracks to stare at him, albeit more for the sake of hyperbole than because she's actually that stunned, but you know.]

I had you at like, twenty-five, twenty-six easy.

[photoshooter]

...Iiii don't know if I should find that flattering or not. I think it's better than getting pegged for fourteen...

[whichcraft]

It's a compliment, because I'm twenty-one. I always peg people I like as older than me.

[photoshooter]

You're older than me?!

[He's startled, sure, and then the other shoe drops, and he turns a fluorescent shade of flustered pink.]

Oh. Th...thanks. [aaaaaaaaaaaaa] I. I don't get that a lot, heh.

[whichcraft]

By a year! Jeez, it's not like I'm pushing retirement age.

[Wow. Who knew a human being could turn that color of awkward. SCIENCE.]

What don't you get a lot? That you look twenty-five?

[#innocent]

[photoshooter]

W-well, yeah! Gladio calls me "kid" sometimes and he's only twenty-three. If I were twenty-five I'd be older than the whole party!

[whichcraft]

S'not my fault you have a mature swagger. And a deep, manly voice. And like...I don't know, what else do twenty-five-year-olds have. Quarter-life crises?