[Not nice he can deal with- at least it's honest. Noctis struggles in navigating conversation with others at the best of times, but it helps if they can both stop pretending to be something they aren't. The kid doesn't look like he's staring straight through him, but instead Noctis gets the feeling that he's being put on some kind of invisible scale- trying to measure his worth. It'd be disconcerting if he hadn't experienced it before, but Noctis' years before the Quad had been full of that kind of appraisal.]

Checkmates happen because someone's moving those pieces.

[The correction might seems small, but what the kid is trying to sell him is the idea of a team effort. All Noctis feels like he's seen since he got here was power and powerlessness.

Everything else he might think about how Nine "people" are ruling an entire Quad is something he needs to keep in his mouth. That commentary might be something he could get away with on Westerley, but he's not about to try his luck in a Leithian charity gala.]

No offense meant for your father, but if I was going to be a chess piece, I'd want to know who was playing me.