Noct was entirely sure how to act around Talcott. The kid had only been eight the last time Noct saw him and here he’d been living in the dark longer than that since. It felt like a personal failure. Talcott has lost his beloved grandfather and Noct hadn’t been able to get him a decent world to grow up in. But then that was making it all about him and he was really trying not to do that here. So Noct invited Talcott to his favorite arcade, with every intention to not be awkward about home. Or depressing. He figured he had about a ten percent chance of success.
“Okay, so the flight sims are there in the corner. They’re decent, but there’s a whole arcade dedicated to them a few miles away so if you’re into that, we can check that one out later.” Noct rubbed at the back of his neck, hair in his face as always. A group was loudly playing the dance machine nearby and it made him wrinkle his nose before he turned his attention back to Talcott. It was still a surprise every time he looked at him and realized this was the same kid he’d known.
“I’m fond of the fighting games myself," he shrugged. "And the racing games.”
Truthfully Talcott was a little lost on the how to act part too. It had been a bit of a whiplash feeling to show up and have only Iris be the age he remembered, the others much younger. And in general there'd always been that little struggle around Prince Noctis - Noctis. Wanting to give into how Noctis insisted on just being like a regular old person but knowing that really… he wasn't. That there should be certain things in place to keep distance between them.
But he appreciated Noctis asking him to check out the arcade, it'd been forever since he'd seen the inside of one.
"Let's start with the fighting ones then," he said as Noct mentioned them. He personally didn't have much in the way of a favourite. "And then maybe some shooting ones?"
Part of Noct wanted to hurry towards a machine. Better to distract Talcott with a video game then risk sticking his foot in his mouth. But the rest was too curious and too glad to have Talcott around to pass up the chance to get to know the grown up in front of him. He did walk lazily towards some shooting games though.
“Right. I mean, you probably haven’t had much more than old pinball machines since you were a kid, right?” That thought darkened Noct’s expression – not because Talcott had most likely lost the joy of video games growing up, but because he’d had much worse problems over those ten years. He swallowed painfully and shuffled in place. “I uh…are you good at shooting? Did you get lessons from Prom?”
"Yeah but I hold all the top scores at the Justice Monster 5 machine in Hammerhead and no one else is even close so there's that?" he replied with a satisfied grin. He half wanted to try to tell Noctis it was okay, that it was what it was and hopefully that might stop the look like someone had kicked his puppy. But Talcott wasn't sure if that was the right thing really. Would it just make it worse? Would it be more or less depressing that his memories of a time before the endless dark were just like a faded dream, that he was more used to living in the chaos than he was without?
He followed Noctis to the shooting games and nodded at one that caught his eye. "This looks cool," he said as he picked up the gun. "Yeah, Prom taught me," he answered. "He's like stupidly badass at it."
Noct smirked at the mention of the pinball machine at Hammerhead. He'd spent a few bad weather afternoons killing time on that machine. The world going to shit hadn't left a lot of time for pinball but sometimes there was nothing they could do but wait. "All the top scores? Kinda hope it shows up now. So I can kick your ass, that is."
He shot a finger gun at Talcott - okay this was not better than awkward, definitely a lateral move - and then he pulled a frequent player's card out of his wallet and swiped both gun stations. This felt easier, at least. Focusing on pulling the gun out of the holster, readying his stance. Missing Prompto was nothing new either. "I'm not as good of a shot as Prompto but I'll try not to bore you. How, uh…how was he the last time you saw him?"
"Is it treason to thoroughly show you up at pinball?" he asked, a joke. Mostly. "But that'd be sweet if it did." There were better games, just a quick glance around the arcade more than showed that. But Talcott had a soft spot for that particular machine. Good memories were hard to come by and the ones he did have he held onto tight.
Talcott got into a good stance as well, eyes focused on the game screen as it started up. "He's good," he answered easily. He knew his definition of good was probably different from what Noctis would think. But it was all relative, right? "Kicking ass and taking names," he added with a grin. "He's trying to grow this terrible goatee though."
"It's the guillotine for sure," Noct joked back. He was a competitive shit, but he was also reasonably sure Talcott would beat him at pinball a hundred times over. It wasn't really his game. He was curious to see how the guns went though. He started up the round and distractedly fired at the screen as he listened to Talcott's response.
"A goatee? Yikes. Guess that's what happens when I'm not there to make fun of him for it." His smile wasn't completely sad. It was nice to talk about Prompto. But he wanted to learn more about Talcott these last ten years too. "Do you uh, want to tell me about yourself? Ten years is a long time."
"Well when he shows up we'll leave getting rid of it up to you then," Talcott replied with a grin. He knew, of course, that wasn't a guarantee. But it seemed cruel that it wouldn't happen now. For all of them.
Taclott's gaze narrowed at the screen as he shot at the enemies flying across the screen, focused despite still carrying on the conversation with Noctis. "Uhm - I hung around Lestallum for a while after I saw you last?" he started, not really sure how to condense ten years really. "I helped Ignis a lot and started collating everyone's hunts and information between the hunters. There was a school kind of that I went to for a bit," but it hadn't really stuck. He enjoyed being on the ground much more.
There was a grin as he cleared off the screen and he dropped the gun while the next one loaded. "Lately though I've been hanging around Hammerhead a lot. Trying to help Cindy keep on top of the vehicles coming through."
"Can't imagine what that school was like," Noct mumbled. School even behind the protected walls of Insomnia had still been with war constantly as a backdrop. Even if things had been perfect, he'd have hated everything but Prompto. "So you're like a tipster-slash-mechanic? Do you prefer that to hunting?"
It was weird thinking about Talcott hunting. He'd always been a smart kid, helping out with information and whatnot, but he'd been eight. The thought of him having to kill daemons was a terrible one. Noct missed a shot on the screen and frowned. "Crap. I'm out of practice."
"I'm a do what needs to be done?" he replied with a shrug of his shoulders.
"I don't hunt a lot though," he added. "I'll do supply runs and stuff with escorts but the whole going out looking for trouble thing never was my style," he admitted. Which was maybe why he worked so hard on other things, to try to make up for it. Even if he was currently clearing the screen without a second thought. He knew how to handle himself of course, but it was never in him to be like the other hunters.
"So yeah, prefer tipster-slash-mechanic," he said with a wry grin.
Noct started making more shots by the second - competitive as ever - but he could tell already that this was going to be a sound beating. His focus was on the conversation anyway. "It suits you. You always were sharp and helpful."
When his character died the third time and the countdown to put in more money flashed across the screen, Noct lowered his gun and sighed. If Prom were here, he'd be getting a lot of affectionate crap right now. It didn't matter that part of the reason he'd never bothered to get all that great at shooting was because he'd had the best gunslinger at his side already. "Well that was embarrassing," he said, holstering the gun into the game. "Uh…what do you think you would've done if the world hadn't gone to crap? Still think you'd have gotten into cars?"
"Thanks," Taclott said, with a smile, proud that someone like Noctis thought he had merit.
He shrugged a little at Noct's embarrassing comment. "Could have been worse?" he offered and set his own gun back in the slot. "Maybe," he tacked on with a grin.
He mulled the question over for a moment before answering. "I don't know? I don't really know if my life before everything happened would have really involved cars that much? I mostly remember thinking about wanting to to to school forever and a day and I think there might have been a train conductor phase." It was hard though, to remember specifics from before everything. And most of what Talcott had been doing in the past few years had been from need than want. "But I like it though? Working with Cid and Cindy. I don't know if I would have gotten into it if things had been okay but I do like it."
Noct shrugged off his embarrassment and flashed a bashful grin. Sometimes he was a sore loser but it was hard to feel worried about it with Talcott. There were better things to focus on. “I’m glad. Uh, that you like it, I mean. You could do school here, though? If you’re still into that?”
He’d never been all that interested in school, much to Ignis’s frustration, but he’d gotten through it because it mattered. No country deserved an ignorant prince. Or worse, an ignorant king. He appreciated the interest of others in learning, though. “My friend Keith goes to the college here. He could probably give you some direction.”
"Yeah? Maybe I'll have to pick his brain about it soon," Talcott replied. "But I'm trying to make myself take at least a week or two off from doing much of anything," he added. It was hard. But it had been suggested by a few people to just take some time to just get used to Vallo and not living from disaster to disaster.
"Which feels… weird," he admitted.
There was a noise from a machine a bit down the row and Talcott's gaze went to it. Something about shooting plungers at what looked like bunnies and it was all sorts of ridiculous. But a tempting ridiculous. "Want to check out that one?"
“Oh, yeah, of course. Dude. Take as many weeks as you can stand,” Noct said, waving his hands in an apologetic gesture. “Hopefully the weirdness’ll fade?” He’d have insisted Talcott get all the years he’d missed as a teenager if he could. But at the very least, he could encourage as much relaxing fun as possible.
He grinned and nudged Talcott’s shoulder as he moved towards the indicated machine. “I’m better at this one, so watch out. It’s time for a reckoning. With rabbits.”