Mr. Ten Million Dollars

Oh, he just kept talking.

This was only going downhill the more the other spoke, really. He was more than well aware he had a scary presence, normally it really would have kept people like him from even approaching. What a pain that hadn’t deterred him. Things like this weren’t to his liking, and he was exhausted already.

“For my benefit.” Interesting way to put that. “While I do rely on people being too unnerved to speak to me, I don’t believe cream on my face is much of a hindrance to that. However you have sought to speak to me over it, so perhaps there is some truth in such a statement.”

Yeah for a mechanically smart and desperately trying to be cool he was really rolling in stink here. He probably should have made his exit before even speaking to this guy but you know what. Cool guys like Rhys don’t need to think even a little bit.

So you know, he tended to get into a lot of trouble. Nice one Rhys.

“So I mean technically then I helped you. So really, you should be thanking me.” Bold choice in words from a man that looked like he would fall over if a strong breeze rolled through town. “I-I mean if you want to it’s totally cool if you don’t. I wouldn’t be upset by that. I’m still talking, why am I still talking.”

❝ Well I would hope there’s muscle in there SOMEWHERE or I’d be carrying you right now— don’t get me wrong, I absolutely could. I’m RIPPED. ❞

Well, maybe not ripped. Cue the flexing of perfectly toned biceps as she peeked over her shoulder towards him, winking as she continued, ❝ My back muscles are pretty SEXY too, but you’ll have to buy me dinner before I show you those! You can use your imagination for now, though~ ❞ She couldn’t help her laughter as it rose from her chest, turning away once again before a hand lifted in an attempt to stifle the sound. Temptation begged her to turn back around, as they continued their stroll, hoping to catch a glimpse of his reaction to her forward behavior, but Nicolette feared she might end up laughing herself into a pile on the sidewalk if she did.

Suppose she’d have to use her own imagination this time.

❝ I’m sure you’re very— pfftbfbt— very EAGER to take me up on that offer, so I suppose I should introduce myself, huh? ❞ Introductions were, as it turned out, long overdue for the pair; although, Nicolette was far less concerned with such things as her newfound friend was ( unbeknownst to her, of course ). Still, it was appropriate and necessary, lest they find themselves in the awkward position of referring to one another as SHE and HE or maybe even just YOU. Plus, she wasn’t kidding before when she said she’d like to be treated to lunch again. If he was willing to pay for her meal over something as small as giving directions, who’s to say he wouldn’t just do it for free next time?

With a flourish, Nicolette turned on her heel and began walking backward to face him, obnoxiously presenting a hand toward him to shake in mock seriousness. ❝ The name’s Nicolette, good sir. You’ll do well to remember it, in case your bullshit ever lands you in another shitty situation! And you’ll be awfully useful for a meal— or, you know, if I ever need to reach something on the top shelf! ❞

“Okay I am not super doubting you here but I am heavier than I look! I have a metal arm!” Rhys who even brags about that you stupid, stupid asshole.

Also don’t be a gross dude and look at her muscles. Or think about them. Rhys get your head out of your ass and just focus on the fact you met another human being. Maybe you could be friends? The last time you befriended a random girl nothing went wrong right? Right? He could practically hear the studio audience laughing in his head. He was just gonna. Take one more peek aaaaand okay eyes on the road keep looking ahead.

“Oh shit yeah introductions are way way past due by this point. I mean by now we probably would have nicknames for each other.” Like fucking what? Yeah. That’s what I thought.

Rhys took her hand, shaking it as they continued walking. This probably looked so weird to literally anyone walking by. Wouldn’t be the weirdest thing hes done but uh.... hmmm.

*          That arm of his   certainly gets attention. No one in Fodlan has an arm like that, but it tugs on a memory of a place Claude would sooner prefer to forget. Did that mean the arm was fake? How did it work then? He’d only know if he asked. And by asked, he meant direct the other into revealing the information himself, thinking it was by choice when the truth was, he was being lead by someone with too glib a tongue for his own good.

It… sounded a lot more sinister than it would be.

     “I mean, you’re not wrong, but if you entertain yourself, that’s good enough,” he starts and then shakes Rhys’ hand. It didn’t feel real at all, he could tell even with gloves on. “Good to meet you, Rhys. Cool name. You know, this may be the first time I’ve ever said this sentence, but that’s quite the cool arm you’ve got there as well! Very sleek.” If he was prodding too far, he’d pull back. First though, he had to test the waters.

Despite having not seen anyone else around with one, Rhys was fairly confident that his mechanical arm was not something entirely uncommon. At least, not where he was from anyways. It was very... How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying (because you bought a mechanical arm and eye using your bonus to get ahead in said business). But that was entirely too much of a mouthful to say. And he would never say it. But he would think it. God he was so smart.

“Entertain might be a strong word but uhhh yeah we can go for it.” Rhys gripped at his hand with his cold robotic one. What a show off. “Oh bro thanks I think it’s a cool name too.”

He looked over his own arm for a second. It was bright and kinda rad looking. It definitely wasn’t sleek but it definitely had its charms.

He’s been wandering around this new city he’s found himself in, and for whatever reason he feels more lonely than usual. Maybe it’s because he usually had Iris or Mizuki with him…or even Boss or Pewter for company. 

It’s late at night, but sleep continues to evade him. Having a roommate is one thing, but having a roommate that isn’t the same one he’s had for the past 4 years makes sleeping harder. It seems he’s not the only out this late, and considering the sky hasn’t lightened at all, he decides to comment on it.

“It sure is hard to tell when to sleep when it’s dark outside, huh.”

Very stellar conversation starter, Date. 

“D’you…uh… Come here often?” 

“Here” being a 24 hour coffee shop. Yep he’s doing great.

@niceatlass

Rhys himself had had a hard time sleeping lately. Maybe it was the overwhelming dread of not knowing where he was at any given time. Maybe it was the nagging feeling in his chest that he didn’t know if any of his loved ones were okay. Though if he were to pick...

It was probably the coffee.

Maybe he should switch to decaf. Or eight sugars instead of ten. Or smoothies. Yeah okay that sounded good. Too bad this wasn’t a 24 hour smoothie shop. God he wished there was a 24 hour smoothie shop.

He got a nice tea (a passion fruit one, a treat) and was standing outside, just sipping at it and staring at the sky.

Oh god oh man someone was talking to him and he was not awake enough for this. Come on brain, function like a human for once.

“Don’t I fucking know it” Rhys commiserated. “It’s like when is late enough? 7? 230am? There are no rules with the night time agenda.”

Rhys holy shit.

“Nope, this is my first time here. I decided to like... switch it up a little and get not the most caffeinated sugar bomb I could drink today.”

❝ Oh is THAT what you did? Hm! Interesting! ❞ The response was terribly casual, as if they were merely talking about the weather, but she can’t help the break in her facade at the dawning realization on the other’s face and— Jesus Christ, he was even pouting. She couldn’t blame him, really. Her arrival in the city had been equal parts willful ignorance and alcohol induced memory loss ( with bouts of anger ), so his choice to hide it all from sight wasn’t all that unusual. It was probably, at the end of the day, a much healthier coping mechanism than whatever the hell SHE had done.

It was still pretty fucking funny, though.

❝ I meaaaan… if it makes you feel better let’s just say that you definitely don’t need any of that stuff! Look, you made it this far without it, and now I’m here so it’s TOTALLY fine! Although, it’s be a real bummer that I won’t be able to contact you after this to pay for my lunch again! Guess we’ll just have to make this count, huh? ❞

Speaking of— glancing at her phone once again, Nicolette made a mental note of the time and quickened her pace. ❝ If we hurry, we can catch the next trolley to the Asobi district on Beaulieu. I’m sure you can keep up, what with those beanstalk legs of yours and all. ❞

“Well it was more of an ‘I don’t know what’s going on here and at this point I’m too afraid to ask’ kind of thing and less of an ‘I actively want to ignore materials that will maybe fucking help at all’. Which I mean is fair in my opinion.” The trademark pout plastered across his face was out of irritation for himself. New in town and already making an ass of himself. Great. Cool. Nice. Though some people probably made an ass out of themselves to cope right? Right. 

 “I literally just made it down a few streets but I  absolutely not going to turn down any of the enthusiasm you have for what bullshit I have going on.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket to check the time. Little after noon, day wasn’t a total waste after all. He forgot he had the phone honestly. He must’ve shoved it into his pocket before shoving the box away. Absolutely incredible Rhys.

His hesitation came as a bit of surprise, and Nicolette nearly regretted making the offer in the first place, as his brained seemed to short circus through a response; however, it was very telling that he chose to take such passing words to heart, thanking her ( albeit rather slowly, stumbling over every word ) for what would hardly be considered a compliment by anyone else— more a slight at his apparent vanity.

It wasn’t a deal breaker by any means, though. In fact, Nicolette could appreciate the NARCISSISM, what with being a little ( definitely more than a little ) conceited herself— she would still absolutely give someone else a hard time about it though, just for the laugh.

❝ Yeah, yeah of course… a MAP would’ve made total sense, that’s so SMART. ❞ Her tone took a bit of a lilt as the words were spoken, almost as if she were in awe of his genius, but the smirk on her face said another story as she looked over her phone again. It was clear to Nicolette in that moment that her new friend definitely hadn’t paid very much attention to the instructions when he’d first arrived here, or he might’ve known about the map app that came on every phone that every new citizen was provided with.

The very same app she had open right now and was using to locate the electronics store he’d first mentioned. Oh handsome and stupid, talk about luck! ❝ Well, just think of this as your lucky day! You get to have lunch with ME, after all! Right this way~ ❞ And with that, she gave a gentle shove to his back and they were on their way ( going back the direction he’d originally come from ).

Oh Rhys was pretty vain. He knew he was a snack up on Helios (at least in his humble) opinion, but he was a full course meal down on Pandora. So yeah, he was at least a little proud of the way he looked, from the top of his nice haircut to the bottoms of his Hyperion size 13 white ankle boots.

He narrowed his eyes a little at her response. Like yeah he was a dingus but he could tell when he was being made fun of. Sometimes.

“Something tells me if I had looked in that box instead of shoving it in a closet and basically forgetting about it then we would be having a very different conversation right now. If we would be having one.” Rhys I cannot stress enough how important instructions are.

[ ★ ] well, who was prompto to judge weird drink choices? if anything, he was at least impressed that a human being’s taste buds could handle that much sugar in the first place.

he took a sip from his straw with raised eyebrows, shocked that this guy was even indulging him, “exactly! next we’re gonna be approached by a man with badass shades, offering us a red or blue pill and–” he tapped his chin, suddenly puzzled, “huh, that sounds familiar actually… ah well. who knows? maybe we’re the fictional ones and this is the real world,” he added this with a wink and a nudge, clearly just messing around at this point. what would be the chances of him being a fictional character? 0%, buddy!

streeeetch. he had to admit, it was fun getting his conspiracy on with someone, not to mention with someone who approached him first! it felt… nice! “feel free to walk away if this is really forward, but is it cool if i have your number? it doesn’t hurt to have more people to nerd out with at like 3am, ‘specially since we’re both noobs here… a-again, it’s totally cool if you’d rather not!”

Rhys hadn’t actually meant to indulge him this much but he was honestly having a good time and honestly, this dude could be right. What if…

“Oh dude don’t even joke about that. I’m not a fictional character. If I was, I’d like to speak to my writers because I have some suggestions.” Like more people to date or his company becoming number one on a planet or something. Could he even imagine that? Imagine if he was a cool CEO someday with a rockin mustache and a cool ninja friend and stuff. It would never happen but… a boy could dream.

Oh shit!! Oh man was this a new friend? That was entirely the reason he came in here to that’s a good thing! Otherwise he would have shared conspiracy theories with a stranger and that would not have set well with him.

*           There’s no judgement   in his stare as he watches the stranger, though he is scrutinizing him. It’s what he does best: projecting a casual, non-aggressive air about him while sizing up the entire situation. So far, this man seemed harmless enough… maybe even a little on the weak side, given how little he felt when he ran into him. But the real curious feature was that arm of his. It looked, for lack of a better word, fake, yet it moved like any limb made from flesh would. He held his tongue on asking any questions… for now.

Regardless, a cheeky grin and a fake bow are given as a response to his punmanship. 

     “Gotta keep people on their toes, right? Exercise your mind, too.” He rights himself, then gives something like a salute. “Call me Claude. Nice to meet you, stranger. Say, have you been here for very long? I’m fairly new myself.”

Though he wasn’t exactly focusing on this dude enough to know Claude was giving him the once over, Rhys did understand how he came across to people. They look at him and think he’s weak and also an asshole. And while people were right, they shouldn’t say it. This entire situation was his fault and he could own up to that. This time. His eyes flickered up and down Claude once more, finally taking in his attire. Was he like one of those weird like… war reenactment dudes? The ones that lived for this shit? What was would this even be… Rhys focus he’s talking to you!

While normally a tea person, the cafe had some drinks that seemed… to be something he wanted to try. Specifically, they seemed to be sweet, and he was never one to pass up trying something like that. So he’d placed his order and waited, going up to grab it when called. Immediately taking a sip to try, he was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable it was, and was about to go walk off to keep enjoying it.

Until it was blatantly obvious there was a man staring at him, concerned expression on his face.

He was going to ignore him, really, but the man decided that it was his responsibility to speak to him and make him aware of the whip cream on his face. It wasn’t something he particularly cared about, and the way the other put it could have been… phrased far better than it was.

“Why did you feel the need to address this?” While he spoke, he did bother to wipe off the cream from around his mouth. Not that he really needed to be told this though. “It’s not issue of yours if I have something on my face, and you are not my mother…”

Rhys still had no idea why he was talking to someone who looked like he could easily have been some weird soldier in the past with a rad murder name like... Death Knight sounded cool, something like that maybe. Anyways, stop being a rude boy and get out of your own head dude.

He admitted that he could have probably phrased what he said better but here he was, a train wreck of a man about to get told off by a man covered in whipped cream.

He should have just minded his own business. He should have just shut his big stupid idiot mouth.