Awash IC Inbox

[photoshooter]

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[whichcraft]

Well, I will eat all of the potatoes he's not eating, for sure. Nothing wrong with a good potato. When I first got here this one guy gave me his purple potato fries and I almost cried.

Also technically if we both go into the woods together then neither one of us is going in alone. Technically.

[photoshooter]

wanna go together then? make it an official friendquest?

(also: potatoes can be purple???? Σ(゜ロ゜;) )

[whichcraft]

Sure, let's do it. Friendquesting for MEAT.

(I guess so? Some of the ones in the garden are purple.)

[photoshooter]

( (。･o･｡) do they taste different??)

okay so wanna MEAT up somewhere? maybe the well?

[whichcraft]

(The fries tasted like salt and oil and sin, and that was all I really cared about at the time.)

Sure, that seems to be the go-to meeting place. MEATing place. Good place for a STEAKout, I've got no BEEF with it.

[photoshooter]

lololol SEAR you there flor!

[And awayyy he goes!]

[whichcraft]

[And wouldn't you know it, Prompto is going to be in for a surprise whenever he shows up at the well and discovers that his mysterious Prince Who Was Promised is in fact the same fantastical stranger who bailed him out of the well on day one, black cloak and red hair and all.]

[photoshooter]

Oh--it's you! You're...

[He stares, pointing, then laughs a little and smooths down his hair instead.]

You know, I never did get your actual name, Flor. Like, I kinda figured my new princely friend was a girl, but I didn't realize you'd be a girl I knew. Why didn't you say anything?

[Prompto rubs a knuckle above his upper lip, kind of embarrassed.]

[whichcraft]

Oh, right. Yeah, I...um. It's...kind of a long story.

[Being dodgy is so much easier over text than it is in person. Which isn't to say that she couldn't still do it in person, but it's...weirdly hard to be dodgy with Prompto. He's too reminiscent of those boys she used to know. He's too reminiscent of home.

He's too nice to her, without any apparent ulterior motive. And without her life on the line, there's no pressing reason to take advantage of him.]

I usually just let people call me whatever they want. I don't really mind answering to whatever anybody comes up with. But I, um.

[...]

How much do you know about witches?

[photoshooter]

Uh. Like... if witches were real?

[...]

Probably nothing? I know fairy tales and stuff, but that's about it.

[whichcraft]

They are real, bud. I am one.

[She motions with one arm, making her black cloak billow and sweep, and it's just as difficult to look at and overtly magical as ever.]

It's not synonymous with "evil". Just with a certain kind of magic. The kind of magic that tends to make people decide they'd rather see you dead or under their thumb than, y'know, doing your own thing. You follow me?

[photoshooter]

Ummmm. Mostly, I guess? What kind of magic is that?

[Sure, normally Prompto would react to such a reveal, but also, he's spent the last five years in close contact with Lucian godsdamned nobles, the most dramatic goth fuckers in the universe.

Also he already knows she's magic, so.]

[whichcraft]

...I'm trying to think of a relatable equivalent here. Um.

[...]

The kind that, if developed right, would let you kick an Astral's ass. That kind of...potential.

[photoshooter]

[A frown flickers across his face, but then he glances aside a moment, arms crossed, heel tapping. Results inconclusive, he shakes his head and turns to her once more.]

But it's just potential? Like... it's power, but not, I don't know. Aligned one way or the other? ...It doesn't, I don't know, eat people?

[whichcraft]

I'm...not aware of any recorded instances of it eating people, no.

[As she gives him a look like "what a remarkably specific concern to have".]

It's like exercising a muscle. The more you work it out, the stronger it gets, the more you can do with it — but the muscle doesn't care whether you're using it to win a race or kick a toddler in the face. It just is.

[photoshooter]

Right, okay. So it's not like you're bad or the magic's bad. People are just dicks.

[Someone's taken his conversation with Maribelle to heart.]

So what were you saying? About not telling me it was you?

[whichcraft]

Well. Like I said, some guys see it as there being two acceptable outcomes. A dead witch, or a bound witch. Dead is, y'know, complicated, because you have to get away with killing the witch. But binding them is comparatively easier, if you can figure out how to bind them.

[She shrugs a little.]

One of the ways of doing that is by getting your hands on their true name.

[photoshooter]

Oh. ...Oh.

[He looks at her with new consideration as that clicks into place, then nods quickly. He gets it!]

It's okay, I can keep calling you Flora if you want. I mean, it's not like I have to change anything around for it, I've already been thinking of you like that for a while. Well, that and Cape Girl. But now I know you're the same person, so. No biggie!

[whichcraft]

You can call me whatever you want. I'm pretty used to it, just...kind of letting people come up with something that works for them. I figure the more names I have, the harder it is to lock down any real one.

[She rubs at her nose, gaze going askew for a minute as she looks away and down at the ground.]

No way of knowing whether the guy who sent me here is still listening in somehow, or not.

[photoshooter]

[!]

Someone sent you here? You're sure?

[whichcraft]

I'm...pretty sure.

[She frowns a little, glancing back up and regarding him carefully with sharp, curious eyes.]

You don't think that's how you ended up here?

[photoshooter]

[He shakes his head and crosses his arms, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet as he thinks.]

I've never heard of anyone or anything on Eos that could do something like that. I guess we were all standing pretty close to the most powerful thing on the planet, but... but that doesn't make sense for Iggy and Noct, they came in from way earlier than I did. And the Crystal's for fighting the darkness, not doing crazy interdimensional stuff. So I don't think anything could've sent me from where I was.

[whichcraft]

[Hmmmm.]

And you didn't see anything like...I don't know. Something that just didn't look...right? A void just kind of opening up, some fierce winds, nothing like that?

[photoshooter]

It was like I just blinked and I was in the water. ...I thought maybe I passed out for a second or something.

[He wasn't in the greatest shape when he arrived here, after all.]

[whichcraft]

...So do you randomly pass out a lot, or was this just kind of a special occasion?

[But even as she says it, she's thinking back to the well — how for all that he's taller than she is, and clearly stronger, and leaner, and more physically capable, he'd still sat down in the water and huddled there like he was just waiting to be hurt.

She hasn't forgotten how familiar that pose had seemed, either. How it had resonated with her own memories of huddling in the exact same way.]