melodiesofeternity | Event || Once Upon A Dream

Event || Once Upon A Dream

Who: All characters who signed-up!
When: May 31st - June 04th
Where: The Dream Width (+ Curti Center & Airships)
What: Event log for the Once Upon A Dream Event! Should your character have their own memory, start your own top-level with said memory. If not, then tag around in other characters's memories! Furthermore, feel free to use the Mingle threads at the Curti Center and in the Airships for non-memory related CR. Please refer to the OOC Post for details and plotting. Plot Memories and the second Airship Mingle will be unlocked on May 25th.
Warnings/Notes: Memories with specific warnings will be marked as such by their players.

Please use the following form for your memory's title line:
CHARACTER'S NAME | MEMORY TITLE | WARNINGS (IF ANY)
We will add links to your memories here as the event progresses!

Mingle: Curti Center | Airships #1 | Airships #2
Plot Memories: The Dream | The Nightmare | The Premonition
Holographic Messages

Adrien Agreste | Then and Now
Aqua | Thorny Pathway | cw: spoiler for kh 0.2
Castor | Lord of the Inferno | cw: fire, mind control
Ena | Zera Hamlet, Reprise | cw: mutilated corpses
Futaba Sakura | Early Days | cw: references to verbal abuse/neglect and auditory hallucinations
Ignis Scientia | For The Life of the Chosen | cw: spoilers, violence, death
Irhya Pendhula | The Parting Glass | cw: violence, amputation
Johnny D'Amico | United Earth Prisoner
Kanji Tatsumi | You're a BOY, you know! | cw: bullying, mild homophobia
Lelouch vi Britannia | Julius Kingsley
Monika | Just Monika | cw: spoilers, possible horror, possible deletion
Nanamo Ul Namo | A Good Memory
Noctis Lucis Caelum | Light of the Crystal | cw: chapter 13 spoilers
Okuyasu Nijimura | Lending a Hand | cw: blood/injuries
Prompto Argentum | I'm not one of your experiments! | cw: episode prompto spoilers
Selphie | The Answer | cw: gore/death
Takashi 'Shiro' Shirogane | The end of the beginning | cw: end of season 2 spoilers
Tidus | A Broken Dream | cw: death, bullying

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Noct... that's-

Noctis blinked, pausing as he shook his head. No, that couldn't be. Prompto was with the others. He had to- to get to the Crystal.

He doesn't see the hand waving in front of his face. The hand phases through him as though it wasn't really there, as he took steps closer to the Crystal. And, slowly, he reached out to touch it with his right hand...

"Please. Help me stop the daemons."

That was all it took. The light latched on to his hand and wrist, as though a claw were taking it in its grasp. He winced, grabbing his arm with his other hand- "Why?!"

"Unharmed by the light." The bastard they both love to hate nearly purred. "The Chosen King indeed."

He let out a pained noise and sucked in a breath. "Don't go!"

Prompto covered his mouth. He hadn't meant to say that. It wasn't real, this wasn't real was it? No. He hadn't been there. Noct had been taken and he hadn't been there, and he needed Noct to snap out of it and come back.

"Come on, this isn't real, come on!" He cried out, tugging on Noct's free sleeve.

He dropped the grip in surprise at the voice - that voice - the one that sent shivers down his spine.

Of course he was here.

"Damn it." He muttered. "Noct, please, please wake up! Snap out of it!"

Don't..!

Don't what? He almost wanted to ask, but at this point he started to wonder just how much sanity he had left thanks to a certain bastard. Began to think he was just hearing things.

Come... isn't real...

He shook his head again, trying to pull himself free from the light. Even as he felt himself being pulled up. His feet no longer touching the floor completely, toes barely touching it as he heard faint echoes of shoes clinking against metal and knowing just who was behind him.

Damn it. That was exactly how he felt as that smug bastard drew closer, smirk written across his face like that of a coeurl who caught the chocobo chick.

"Allow me to regale you with a tale," Ardyn began, just as he could have sworn he heard something. (—please... wake... snap out of...!) "In an age long past, an incurable scourge ravaged mankind. A tiny menace that twisted men into monsters, the likes of which you've seen."

The older man's voice remained calm, practiced despite the scene before him. Almost as though he is only educating the young royal instead of giving a lecture as he struggled and writhed as, inch by inch, the Crystal wasn't just pulling him up, but inside. He was at least half a meter off the floor by now, having given up on freeing his trapped hand and instead kicking at empty air as he tried to keep more of him from being absorbed by the light as, again, Ardyn simply kept talking. Despite the pure outrage wildly burning in blue eyes.

"In Lucis lived a savior that could cure the afflicted. His body would come to host a myriad daemons, that countless lives be spared." His right leg was inside the Crystal, making it harder still to pull away. Yet he continued to struggle to extricate himself, grasping at his shoulder in an attempt to pull his arm out at least. The attempt failed as his hand fell back out, just within Prompto's reach. If only he could see him. "But a jealous king, one not yet chosen by the Crystal, ostracized and demonized this healer of the people. Making a true monster of him."

He was feeling desperation, if Noctis disappeared into the crystal in this dream, would he stay that way? Would he not come back to the ship?

Prompto wrapped both of his hands around Noct's bicep, holding on for dear life.

"Don't Noct...fight it, please, wake up, you can't leave us again, we can't take that-"

He let out a frustrated sound, Ardyn was soliloquizing.

Prompto turned around and snapped. "Don't you ever get tired of hearing yourself talk? Shut up!"

He wasn't ready to face the possibility of Noct not coming back, it was far too soon. He needed more time.

Don't Noct...fight it, please...

Suddenly that voice that was so much like Prompto's was louder. He could feel hands holding onto him. Looking down from the amber eyes he was glaring at, just in time for the very hands that were holding him to become visible in his perception. What- How?

—you can't leave us again, we can't—

Something deeper than rage began to show brilliantly in his eyes. No, please, he can't- Prompto shouldn't see this, he can't— He looked from his best friend to the man he was destined to die to kill once and for all, relieved that their tormentor didn't seem to notice the other's presence.

"Prompto..." he choked out between hisses and grunts of pain, struggling even harder to break free—

"I gave you my name earlier, but you should know that it was not the name given to me at birth." No, please, stop—! Yet the bastard slowly looked up to the struggling descendant of his brother. —don't say it! "Ardyn Lucis Caelum is my proper name. You'll never guess whose name Izunia was."

"He- really doesn't—" Noctis tried to drown out the rest of what Ardyn said, but seeing Prompto's face like that—

"—once the king and Crystal are no more can I know redemption. Come back soon. I shall keep your friends company until you are ready."

Noctis screamed. The sound that left his throat was bordering on unnatural, filled with all the anger and rage, the pain and torment that sick, son of a bitch put them through...! Yet as everything went white, all he could see was Prompto's face as he was pulled in.

Flashes of the train: Ardyn standing there, grinning flashed over an image of Prompto standing in the same place, grinning that same cocky grin. Chasing "Ardyn" through the train, slamming him into the wall.

'Why wouldn't I?!'

warp-striking from a now-exploding airship and attacking the wrong one, only realizing a split second later the huge mistake he made—

"How long were you... in the dark?"

Being knocked unconscious with Prompto's own pistol, falling to his knees on the top of the train as everything went black.

"Where is he? Where's Prompto?!"

Tears threatening to spill as he comes to, maybe hours later. "I pushed him off the train. I mean, Ardyn made me..!" His voice began to crack, but he didn't care as he practically shouted at Ignis over the phone. "I don't know where he is, but we can't leave him—!"

"I am as concerned for Prompto as you are, but we-" ..."—sitting ducks for the daemons."
"Are you two okay, at least?"
"...Yes. Can you make it to... Gladio is with me."

Tenebrae ablaze, Aranea offering her two engineers to get them to Gralea, Noct pulling her aside after to—

"I'm worried about your friends. They've fallen and can't get up."

Noctis, trying to reach Gladio and Ignis as they lay unconscious and frozen on the train floor. Falling to his knees as he clutched his shoulder.

"A coldness that can only be hers." Gentiana approached, holding a finger to her lips. "Ah. The face you wore the day you-"

Ardyn becoming an inhuman popsicle as "Gentiana's" finger touches his lips. Noct receiving Shiva's blessing and the Trident—Luna's trident. Spearing the frozen Ardyn through the abdomen, the 'popsicle' shattering into icy dust, before the young monarch fell flat on his ass and the others awoke.

It all ended in a sea of brilliant hues of violet and blue, wisps of white surrounding the owner of these memories turned into a single one. A recollection of the only thing he had for company besides the God of War for who knew how long it would be. He remained curled up in himself, arms hugging his knees as he guarded his face from the way the Ring on his hand seemed to glow even brighter.

"Prompto..." His voice betrayed his tiredness, the pain he felt. Knowing that his best friend likely saw all that.

It wasn't his memory and he couldn't shut Ardyn up. No matter how much he'd tried even in their time together, he couldn't keep him quiet. He'd never managed and he certainly wasn't going to keep quiet now.

He was related to Noctis. On what planet did that even make sense?

He opened his mouth to say something but Ardyn said the line that sent shivers down his spine, and made him pale at the thought of having to spend more time entertaining the man.

His expression when Noctis was sucked in looked anguished, almost as though he might be sick. There was a light and a moment for him to catch his breath. Ardyn wasn't there.

"Noct." He choked out softly, but the memories were coming hard and fast, Noctis' anguish because he was missing, he hadn't really considered that, Ardyn taunting him with his gun, which just made him nauseous. At the same time, he'd been hanging there, in that cage, being told his friends would never come for him, how worthless he was except as a plaything.

Prompto swallowed and shook off his own memories. This was not his dream, these were not his memories.

Noctis was curled up, the memories had ended and there was only one thing he could do.

He dropped to his knees behind Noctis and wrapped his arms around him, squeezing tightly.

Prompto would find that, in this place, there was no floor. No up, no down. Only weightlessness.

He didn't hear his name being called, but certainly felt something solid behind him. The first solid thing since the Draconian had— No. That's not right, is it? There- there was somewhere else, right?

His head lifts slightly away from its resting place as a hand moves to rest atop of one of the other's. The feel of the wristbands telling him who it is without him even having to open his eyes. "Prom." I'm sorry. You should never have had to see that.

To say it was freaky not to have a floor beneath him was an understatement.

Prompto responded by squeezing him. He'd seen it, it was too late to take that back, but he rested his head against Noctis' back. A solid presence in this place that was...nothing.

"I'm here." He said, holding him. "I'm here. Just...can you wake up now?" He asked, a little unsteady, there were things he'd seen and heard that disturbed him but he couldn't give up on Noctis.

"Airships. Airships Noct."

Trying to focus on that word brought up another memory. One that's far more recent.

Space. They're floating in space, the images of the Altar fading as he clung harder to the back of Ignis' shirt.

"Specs. Wake up..." Yet he doesn't stir right away, and Noct frantically looked around, trying to find a way to save them before it became too late. Relief flashed in his eyes as Ignis stirred, finally opening his eyes as Noctis' grip loosened. There was the ship the adviser was supposed to be on. But, he knows it wouldn't work. That they could both die if they're exposed to the Dream Width too long without the protection of—

He pushed Ignis away to safety.

Prompto squeezed him and held onto him, he didn't like seeing him like this, floating in nothingness with little hope to get out.

"You're not alone." If only he could have done this in real life, if this was what Noctis was doing? If this was his future? He would give up his time away just to keep him company for however long it took.

To think this was awaiting his best friend, he was worried about it. It was terrible. "I'm here okay?"

Prompto didn't know how to fix this. He wasn't even sure how to get him to wake up.

Noctis let himself be held for a moment, afraid to turn his head and open his eyes to find that the other would disappear. Just another cruel attempt at comfort from the gods. Yet that didn't make sense with that last glimpse.

...not alone. I'm here...

Noctis pulled away, gently, and only enough so that he could turn. If or when he did, he gently wrapped his arms around Prompto, fingers grasping at the leather jacket.

He could let him turn around, it was hard to say how long it took because this place was so strange, time seemed to be irrelevant like everything else, floating in a void of sorts.

"I'm here." Prompto repeated, pulling him to his chest since he was hugging him back and petting his hair.

"And you need to wake up. You were on an airship. You have to go back. Please?"

It was a small, unsteady plea.

Good. Because Noctis was going to regardless. Hug, cling, but not once shake. He accepted this, resigned himself to his fate. For it wasn't just his past, but his present; his future.

"Prompto, I-" I don't know how and I'm sorry are what he wanted to say, but like so many times, words failed him. Instead he shook his head. Prompto's here, but he shouldn't be. No one should see him like this.

His words weren't quite reaching the dreamer, the pull of memory too strong. "You do, too."

Go back. Go back.

Just like that. The memory ripped them apart, Noctis curling back into himself as Prompto's presence disappeared.

"We can-" He sucked in a breath. "Together."

Noctis may not have been shaking but Prompto was slightly, he hadn't accepted anything - he wasn't ready to see this, or for it to happen.

Suddenly out of nowhere, Prompto ran out of time and Noctis was pulled from his arms, ripping them apart as the dream faded away, ripples of a new one coming to his consciousness.

"Astrals." Prompto breathed as it came into focus. He was staring at the First Magitek Production Facility and all thoughts of Noctis alone in that crystal faded away.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event || Once Upon A Dream

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