Nᴏᴄᴛɪs Lᴜᴄɪs Cᴀᴇʟᴜᴍ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
warpstriking) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
melodiesofeternity2018-05-10 02:41 pm
warpstriking) wrote in melodiesofeternity2018-05-10 02:41 pm
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.)
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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"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.
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"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."
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"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?
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"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.
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"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.
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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."
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"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.
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"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.
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"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.
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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."
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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.
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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."
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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."
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"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.
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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.
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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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He had nightmares about that. Of Clarus saying no, he couldn't come with them. That he would be inside the city when it fell into chaos. He had dreams about finding Ardyn was here all along, just biding his time and waiting until they felt safe and secure.
It's like something breaks inside him at that quiet confession, but it only had him hold on tight again.
"We'll take it one step at a time," he replied quietly. And yes, we. Because no matter what, Noctis is not abandoning him, or Ignis, or anyone else. They're his family, and all he has left. This late night chat didn't change that and never would.
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"Yeah. I just...yeah. I need you." Because he felt like he needed Noct, and when he left in the crystal, he didn't have him.
He'd been devastated.
"Please don't go. I don't-" He swallowed. "I don't know what to do without you Noct."
Prompto knew that sounded dumb, and needy, but it was how he felt. Ignis and Gladio were good friends, but they weren't Noctis. No one was Noctis and five years brought them to this point. He relied on him. He needed him. He wanted him in his life. He never wanted to let go.
"I meant what I said." He remembered the vow he made, those promised words in an awkward conversation with forgiveness on the table, discomfort and a lack of time to really talk.
"Ever at your side. I meant that. I've got your back." Prompto knew that Noct had his.
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Noctis wanted to promise him that he wouldn't go. That he would stay by their sides and never leave them behind. But he'll have to.
It wasn't fair.
"...So did I." He remembered it, too. Wanting to make their world a better place. One without borders and where no one cared where someone was from. Because it didn't matter. Just like that dream to the gods' plans.
It wasn't fair...
"I'm not going anywhere. Not if I have any say in it." Except that he doesn't and he knew that, but once. Just this once. Please, Shiva, let him be there for the people he loves.
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He would just have to come back as fast as he could, that was all there was to it.
"Good. I mean...sorry, I'm freaking out a little."
Prompto could admit that and he finally let go to drag his fingers down his face. He was so tired.
"Do you...want to see it?" He asked, shaking his wrist a few times, drawing attention to his jewelry. "I uh, don't think you did and...it really didn't burn, there's nothing there. Promise."
It was less about the barcode at that point, but the fact he'd hurt himself.
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If only he were able to say it, but after this... he can't. He just can't.
"And that's new...how?" He tried to joke, imply the happier little freak outs (like the festival), but it fell flat. Just like his expression other than how concerned and exhausted he was.
"Only if you're okay with it." He wasn't going to push it. Not at Prompto's expense.
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This dark cloud that was hanging over them needed to disperse.
He shrugged slightly. "I...you already know about it. It's probably as bad as you think."
He unclasped his bracelet and pulled the leather away, and there black ink and standing out was his magitek laced tattoo, one that marked him as property of the Empire and coded with a string of numbers instead of a name. MTs didn't deserve names.
However, true to his word, the skin around the tattoo was undamaged and healed completely, despite the fact he'd been rash.
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This was one of the few times he hated how his asterisk allowed him to see perfectly fine in the dark. He frowned, looking to Prompto first as if silently asking if it was alright to touch it before he even reached for his arm. After all, he knew how painful that could be.
But he was honestly relieved not to see any burn marks.
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"Magitek. I mean...I think that's why I can't remove it."
Prompto had concluded he was branded for life, and that seemed to be true. Magitek, something that they didn't inherently know that much about, except because he could be scanned like a package at the grocery store, it held some data.
He wondered, sometimes, how much of who he was, was genetic modification, now that he knew. He was a clone, surely, and bred to be a weapon, but they must have made changes. He knew they experimented with many models.
How many of them died because they didn't measure up?
Would he have even made it that far?
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"Whatever it is, it's only a reminder of the past. Not your future." Noctis gazed down upon the lines and numbers for only a couple more seconds before he let go, looking to Prompto's gaze instead. Smiling faintly. "Doubt I need to remind you that it's yours to choose."
He rests a hand on Prompto's shoulder, smiling faintly. "Should probably finish our milk then head back upstairs."
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