melodiesofeternity | Crystalline Chill

Entry tags:

Crystalline Chill

Who: Residents of house C-01 and friends!
When: All throughout May, see prompts and individual threads
Where: House C-01
What: Monthly catchall for the XV House shenanigans
Warnings/Notes: There's likely going to be spoilers for Kingsglaive and the main game up to Chapter 13 somewhere in the comments.

A. Sometimes you just want to ride...
Late in the morning of the 1st, there is a low purring sound of an engine going down the street. One that wasn't accustomed to travel aside by foot or chocobo claw. Yet, somehow, a certain man manages not to clip a single thing. And it sits there, in front of House C-01, black, shiny, and very much a wonder to a few moogles. Especially since the convertible's roof is airship-grade plexiglass.

B. [Insert "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" joke here]
There was one upside to living with the once-deceased leader of the Crownsguard, and that was one didn't have to go far for a training enthusiast. There was also one downside to this: not having to go far for a training enthusiast. It's the crack of dawn when the nice little symphony of insects and kwehs get interrupted by the sounds of wooden weapons clashing and spells being practiced.

Rest in pieces, light sleepers. They apologize in advance.

C. That's it!
Of course, no one can train or go through the day on no fuel. And one person in particular has taken upon himself to at least ensure a few others can eventually cook eggs without burning them. The real question is: Will Ignis come up with a new recipeh involving that jar of kupo nut butter?

D. I want to ride my chocobo all day~
If anyone is surprised at the fact that there are two or three (depending on the date because Chocobo Eater event) lovely birds, then they clearly don't understand at least 50% of the household's love for the magnificent creatures. The black one in particular seems to be particularly happy with their nice little stack of shiny objects...

There may or may not be a pair of glasses on the top of that pile. Sorry, Specs.

E. Hold my Ebony
(Feel free to come up with your own prompts, guys; these aren't the limits to our zaniness.)

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"Yeah, kinda, except the only way out was one of those terminals, you remember the lock?" He waved his hand that had the bracelets covering that damned barcode. "Only way out. Before I did that, the Chancellor showed up."

He frowned and gave his head a shake. "He gave me back my gun and he had my bracelets, so it was...you could see it." He hadn't even really shown it to Noct, just said it was there. It was so ugly, and wrong, and he'd always hated it.

"Because when I scanned it to get out, it put all the MTs in the facility on alert. I'm...compromised. Set for elimination." His language merely reflected that empire coldness, that reflection that they didn't see him as a person.

"Yeah. Kind of hard not to." That thing taunted him for what felt like hours, before he got his ass saved by Ignis' sharpened hearing and Gladio's quick thinking, and they found Prompto. He looks at the bracelets, not wanting to admit he's curious, but... that curiosity is quickly replaced by a chill that goes down his spine.

"Of course it would," he muttered. Because it's Ardyn. The guy who's dead set on making their lives miserable just to get to Noctis and kill them both in one fell swoop. He placed the mug in his hands, half-emptied, on the table in front of them. Just so he wouldn't have the excuse of being distracted by it as he turned slightly to look to his best friend as he continued.

There's an argument in the way his eyes glowed, but he saved it for now. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When they're done speaking, maybe he can show Noctis. He'd never done so willingly, but his best friend wanting to see it? He'd give Noctis anything.

"Right, uh, well I mean..." In that moment he ducked his head a little shyly. "I kind of um, started killing all the MTs I came across. Throughout the base."

Prompto had done some serious damage to their forces, and he was proud of that. "They couldn't take me down. But uh, I found it. I mean there was paperwork everywhere too, but I found it, the room where they were storing some c-clones that looked like me, kinda. In these jars like pickled eggs or something."

That shy admission eases a bit of that unspoken argument, being replaced with a bit of pride in his bestie. Pride, and concern. If he could, he'd give his friend the world. They all deserved it with the shit they've gone through. Especially Prompto.

"I can imagine." Prompto was tougher than he looked, and if anyone doubted him about that, they're sorely mistaken. He's quiet for a moment, wanting to reach out and place a hand on his shoulder, but kept himself from doing so for fear of getting him to stop.

None of it could have been easy, if that paperwork their favorite ass of an excuse for a chancellor had been true. Though when he went on to mention the other clones, "He led you to it with the paper trail."

It wasn't a large leap of logic to make when Ardyn used the same damn thing on him. "What happened?" And how many times will he have to shoot that sick bastard between the eyes, he doesn't ask or imply, but damn if he isn't thinking it.

"He did." He confirmed before he sighed softly and wasn't sure where to go, or the fact this too wouldn't get out of his head.

"He was talking to someone, Verstael Besithia." Another name he wanted to avoid, but for the sake of the story, Prompto could tell Noctis. "Ardyn said he loved bringing family together. Apparently it's him. He cloned himself."

Prompto's voice caught a moment and he shook his head. "I saw him. He called me a failure and he was coming at me - I didn't have a choice Noct. He didn't give me a choice I had to-" His voice wavered slightly.

"I killed him. I killed my father like...I don't even know what that would be like." Ardyn had taunted him, of course he did, but he hadn't cared. All the fight had gone out of him in that moment because it had seemed so wrong, and he had voiced Prompto's insecurities, in one fell swoop. Not to mention, the horrible truth, that they'd been killing people all this time. It made him want to be sick.

Prompto looked a little queasy, in fact, even in just focusing on how he felt at the time.

Verstael Besithia... There's a light of recognition on his face at that. '...The Deathless Project," he muttered, realizing what that meant. Connecting dots he didn't want to connect but they all lined themselves up and it all just... clicked into place. His face paled, realizing as his eyes widened what that meant. All of those they'd killed... were Prompto's-

He shook the thought from his head for now, focusing on what Prompto was sharing. It all sickened him to the core, that someone's own flesh and blood could do that to someone like him.

Noctis gently nudged the mug out of Prompto's hand, placing it on the table beside his before he turned to face him again.

There was so much he could say to that. So much he wanted to say, but the words would not come. So instead, he gently pulled his best friend into an embrace. Wanting nothing more than to shield him from the terrors of the past but knowing he couldn't. That they were invasive just as much as his own were and would be for however long he had left. But for now, he was here. All of them were, save for Gladio. So instead he put as much as he could into the weight in his arms and words.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, afraid his voice would give if he were any louder. "That you had to face it alone.

"He may have been your father, but he wasn't your family." They were, and he wasn't about to leave them if he had anything to say about that. But more than that, he's angry. Not at Prompto, but at the circumstances his own father and Noct's family put him through. It also angered him that the last part was actually true, and if things were any different, the coffee would have been on fire. Twice, now. "To hell with them if they think being something more than what they planned for you means that you're a failure."

He let Noct pull him into a hug, falling against him drained and tired, a lot like he felt when he'd done the dead, when Ardyn taunted him to no end and would not shut up.

"I just wanted him to shut up." He whined which likely made little to no sense. He sucked in a breath.

"Aranea."

He swallowed and hid his face against Noct's neck, arms coming around him now to cling back. "She was there. I don't know...she came out of nowhere and we finished getting through that building and I, we took off. Then um, things were bad for me."

Prompto meant mentally because he felt like he'd had something of a breakdown.

The whining both did and didn't make sense to him, but it earned another slight squeeze as Noctis listened. His finger was likely on the trigger and it just... happened in the moment. Not that he could blame him.

"She was there, in Tenebrae." He informed Prompto when he paused. "Apparently she's in the search and rescue business, now." Something he desperately wanted to do at the time, to find Prompto himself, but he had to rely on others. Just like he had to, now.

He buried his face in Prompto's shoulder, not wanting him to see the face he was making when he admitted to having a bad time. All because he fell for it and his uncle of who knows how many generations is a godsdamned bastard.

If he hadn't killed Verstael, he would have been killed. He believed that because they were clearly soulless assholes, the damn Empire. He nodded.

"She uh, she said that. That she saw you after she gave me a potion."

Prompto knew skipping details didn't count but that was fine, maybe Noctis wouldn't ask.

"She told me if I give up, she wouldn't help me."

Those in the military and seats of power? Definitely. Yet there were some good people, like Aranea and those under her. So they all couldn't be soulless monsters.

"A potion?" Prompto may have hoped he wouldn't ask, but too late. He's asking, anyway. Letting go only enough to pull back and look at him. Almost expectantly, but he wouldn't push it.

He's also attempting to hide the fact that a chill went down his spine at the last part, because it sounded a little too similar to what Ardyn said over the speaker system in the Keep. Though if she was saying that, then Prompto must have been in an even worse state than he implied.

Prompto let go a moment to rub the back of his neck, looking somewhat sheepish because honestly, he knew Noctis was going to be mad.

"I..."

He even knew why Noctis was going to be mad. He sighed, they needed to go through it however.

"I tried to burn off my barcode." He swallowed and offered the same quip he had at the time.

"Branded for life though."

You're damn right he was going to be mad. And, fortunately for Prompto, being a black mage at the moment meant he didn't have nearly as strong a punch as usual. If he actually tried to hurt him, which he swore never to purposely do again. He punched Prompto's shoulder, lightly, yet he still had a fire burning in his gaze as he pulled him closer again. Unable to stay so mad at him when he's still upset with himself.

"You idiot," he muttered under his breath, not really sure if he meant Prompto or himself. Maybe even both. It's Complicated.

What was it with his closest friends burning themselves or throwing themselves into situations they could potentially die?

He deserved that punch and he sighed and didn't complain about it. "Yeah. I know. I just..." He swallowed.

"Noct, I just found out I was a monster, the same kind of thing we've been fighting, killing, that they wanted me to be an MT. I didn't think you'd want me around anymore."

He was sorry, he was sorry he doubted them because they shrugged it off so easily.

"And they-I've killed so many of them. I didn't know. I didn't know they were people Noct!"

Without his friends, he had felt bereft, he thought he had nothing to live for, because he was nothing but a failed MT, serving no use to anyone.

Noctis doesn't say anything about that for a good few long moments, mainly because it was so painful to admit what kind of state he was in when the wool was pulled from his eyes and he'd realized what he'd done-

"Prompto... Think I'd have asked if I didn't?" He grimaced, before forcing himself to just say it. "Hell, I wanted to go back and find you myself, but Ardyn knocked me out and by the time I woke up... we were almost to Tenebrae and had no idea where you were."

He laughed, quietly and with a bit of something else in his voice. "I was so upset and worried when Ignis stopped me for the sake of the passengers on the train, saw daemons attacking us, that Leviathan showed up."

They were a mess, weren't they.

"None of us did." Yes, he was acknowledging that he knew. He knew daemons, and by extension, MTs were people. "Don't even remember if I told Gladio or Ignis when they found me. Everything happened at once."

But that was a story for later. When his eyes would stop stinging.

"I know that now!" He defended and pulled him back into the hug now that he was done punching him. "I...I know that. I know you wanted me to come with you I just-"

Prompto exhaled heavily near his ear. "I'm sorry. All I've ever wanted was to belong with someone and have friends and I didn't know what to do if I lost you guys. I can't- Sorry. I shouldn't have thought about that, and Aranea was there to pull my head out of my ass."

He didn't know what would have happened if she hadn't been, if the promise of Noct wasn't there to pull him out of it.

"I feel so guilty. They were...what if there was some way to fix them? They didn't choose any of that Noct."

Prompto buried his face in Noct's neck, no he wouldn't cry, he wanted to, but he'd refrain. "Astrals, I haven't even gotten to Zegnautus."

Noctis gently squeezed back as Prompto tried to reassure him, trying to let him know that he knew while attempting to make sure he didn't crack yet. Instead gently rubbing a circle into Prom's back as he admitted it.

"If you didn't, I'd have to punch you again," he mumbled into Prompto's shoulder. Though there wasn't much bite to the statement, only a concern he didn't feel like sharing. Again. It'd just be beating a dead chocobo and that wasn't fair to anyone.

"And I know- Could probably count the amount of people who did on one hand." Those who chose to become daemons themselves. And pretty sure he only knew two, poor sick bastards. "We can't change what we did, but we can change what we do from now on."

Even though the only way he knew how... No, he wouldn't say it. He can't. So instead, he buried his face into Prompto's shoulder again. Refusing to shed a tear as he waited for Prompto to continue.

Edited 2018-05-12 04:15 (UTC)

"I know. I'd deserve it." He murmured and let Noct cling to him as much as he wanted to cling back.

"Right. So Arenea and I took down their new weapon. We just..." He shook his head. "We didn't want them to succeed. We wanted to destroy them. That was all."

Prompto sighed. "After that, I got on a snowmobile and left for Gralea. I mean, we took out the production facility right?"

He did good, he did something good. He damaged a lot of forces.

He normally wasn't one to cling, but he had a feeling Prompto needed it. He needed it, but he wasn't about to voice his own needs when someone close to him was finally opening up a deep scab that was likely going to bleed for a while. Much as he wanted to, he couldn't be that selfish.

"Considering what they worked on there..." He would have been right behind them had he not been, you know, on the train to Gralea. "And I'm glad- Aranea was there to help you get back on your feet."

Noct smiled very faintly, proud of his best friend but sensing the other shoe was about to drop. He had to end up in that cell somehow.

Prompto nodded. He was grateful to her because he really needed it at the time. Noctis would have been sad if he'd done something stupid. Well...something even stupider than he already did.

The clinging was firm and grounding and he needed that, or he'd clam up. It would be too overwhelming, but he wasn't alone. Noctis was with him. Noctis was always with him when he needed him. That was just how it was.

"I got into Gralea, but that's where he wanted me to go, he just let me think that I..." He shook his head.

"I was picked up just inside the city. They took me to the Chancellor and he took my gun...guns. I'd stolen some from the facility and he attached me to that thing."

Prompto was squeezing harder, his fingers curling into his sleep shirt.

"He had a lot of stuff, you know? And he talked to me, all the time. How I belonged to him."

Ah. There it was. So familiar to what he experienced himself but would have to share later. Right now, his full attention was solely on Prompto. Not realizing whether they had a spectator or not.

He knew. He saw some of those things both on the way to him and in the room while he and Gladio worked to undo the restraints. It was hard not to, when he saw how battered and bruised his best friend was.

"That guy really likes the sound of his own voice," he growled, grip tightening for a brief moment in an effort to reassure him just what he thought of that. His fingers gripping the fabric of Prompto's shirt in a vice even after he otherwise loosened his grip. There was just so much wrong in that statement that he had no idea where to begin unpacking and deconstructing it.

"I know. I had so much time with him he loved talking to me."

It was because everything he said hurt. The words opened his deepest wounds and rubbed salt in them.

"He made me to serve him and I was just a thing that belonged to him. You guys would never want me if you knew. Stuff like that. Never shuts up."

Prompto dreamed of those consequences. He dreamed of the pain, and suffering he endured. He was terrified of being restrained again, thanks to Ardyn, he had another phobia for his list, yet consider he'd been born and grown in a jar, maybe all of his phobias came from the man's doing in the first place.

"I knew you'd come for me."

"...So did I," he said as a promise that he would tell Prompto what had happened. That everything he said was just a twisted version of the truth only made it worse.

He could feel his eyes stinging again, but he refused to shed a tear.

"Of course I would," he agreed easily, letting go of the back of Prompto's shirt and gently pulling away so that he could look him in the eye. Resting his hands on Prompto's shoulders and squeezing them tightly. "You're not just a thing, someone else's possession. You're your own person. My best friend, and nothing will change that. No matter what that bastard says."

"I know you would. You did Noct." He gave him an unsteady smile, all nerves and uncertainty. This was his best friend who always had his back. That was what he thought.

"I...know." He whispered. "I was the lucky one."

If whoever saved him hadn't saved him, he would have been his own person. He'd have been canon fodder for the Empire. It would have been a waste of his bright cheer and personality.

Prompto swallowed thickly. "He talked about everything. He loved talking about how I was made and just...everything that mean to him and how I was just his plaything and he didn't even want me he just wanted you to come and I was his bait and just-"

Apparently, once the floodgates opened they did, and he was letting it out in a rush, repeating everything Ardyn told him while he suffered. While he was pinned down and played with like some toy he intended on breaking.

Sometimes he felt broken. Other times, he felt like he survived it.

He didn't want to think of what would happen if he hadn't met Prompto. What his life would have been like without someone who coaxed him out of his own shell. To see him like this was painful, but he kept his mouth shut. Not wanting to stop the dam lest it never got out and festered to the point it was crippling.

Especially as the floodgates opened, and he just... sat there, listened quietly and at a loss of what to say. That, when Prompto finished, he wrapped his arms around him and pulled him in close. Not denying the wounds that Ardyn inflicted upon him, not arguing them with every fiber of his being. Just... accepting it, gently brushing one hand up and down his back.

He won't say what happened with him, not until asked.

"What can I do to help," he asked, so quietly that he wasn't sure he even said out loud. Yet he wanted- no, needed to help Prompto feel safe again.

Aside from what he would have been, mindlessly serving the empire, even before he met Noct, he'd been crippled by his anxiety to the point that even leaving Insomnia would never have occurred to him.

He'd likely have been lost when Insomnia fell.

Prompto didn't like to play what if, because their meeting, their friendship seemed to be fate, at least Lunafreya might have thought so.

He'd been moving around the house, skittish and ghost-like. He was afraid of imposing himself upon those he didn't really know well. It wasn't that he was a terrible housemate, but in his life he learned to avoid other people, don't make a mess and keep out of the way. Ardyn found a way to twist the knife in every bad thought he'd ever had.

Every night, he relived those words. It was torment, torment that didn't seem to end just because he was no longer in the Keep.

"I...wish I knew." He confessed at a whisper, swallowing nervously. "I wish I knew how to fix it."

He did not feel safe, he felt scared, and he wasn't sure the new world was helping with that, because what if Ardyn followed them?

Sometimes, he dreamed about that.

The only consolation was that when he snapped, taunted until he felt raw and he was ready to scream, when he pulled the trigger, Ardyn stayed down.

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