[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.]
[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.]
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.
[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?
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.
[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?
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.
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.
[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!
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.
[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.
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?
...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.]
[Something comes over her expression, then — a half-smile that never reaches her eyes, and a gaze that fixes itself somewhere in the middle distance — but the most defining part of it all is the way that there's nothing about it that suggests a lie. It's not the kind of smile that pretends to be something it's not; it's too automatic, too fixed, like the facial equivalent of tension seizing up someone's shoulders in a moment of impending apprehension.
It's the kind of expression born of resilience, stubbornness, and perhaps even spite. It's the sort of expression that looks carefully controlled, so as not to allow itself to shift into a different one.]
He likes to remind me that he's better than me. Usually something like this happens when it starts to seem like I'm forgetting.
[That's not an expression Prompto's seen before, no. He's accustomed to hobnobbing with people with all the power and influence in the world, shackled by no one above them but duty.
But he does know a thing or two about automatically tensing up. About the consequences of forgetting what he's not.
His hand comes up, but hers isn't an expression he can touch, so he puts it down again, fiddles with his belt.]
If he's listening, he won't get mad at you if I say rude things about him, will he?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2018-05-24 09:37 pm (UTC)[And awayyy he goes!]
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Date: 2018-05-24 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-24 10:06 pm (UTC)[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.]
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Date: 2018-05-25 12:59 am (UTC)[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?
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Date: 2018-05-25 01:01 am (UTC)[...]
Probably nothing? I know fairy tales and stuff, but that's about it.
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Date: 2018-05-25 01:19 am (UTC)[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?
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Date: 2018-05-25 01:25 am (UTC)[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.]
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Date: 2018-05-25 01:29 am (UTC)[...]
The kind that, if developed right, would let you kick an Astral's ass. That kind of...potential.
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Date: 2018-05-25 01:32 am (UTC)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?
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Date: 2018-05-25 01:35 am (UTC)[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.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-25 01:47 am (UTC)[Someone's taken his conversation with Maribelle to heart.]
So what were you saying? About not telling me it was you?
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Date: 2018-05-25 02:04 am (UTC)[She shrugs a little.]
One of the ways of doing that is by getting your hands on their true name.
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Date: 2018-05-25 12:26 pm (UTC)[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!
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Date: 2018-05-25 08:54 pm (UTC)[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.
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Date: 2018-05-25 09:59 pm (UTC)Someone sent you here? You're sure?
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Date: 2018-05-25 10:45 pm (UTC)[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?
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Date: 2018-05-25 11:01 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2018-05-25 11:04 pm (UTC)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?
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Date: 2018-05-25 11:07 pm (UTC)[He wasn't in the greatest shape when he arrived here, after all.]
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Date: 2018-05-25 11:16 pm (UTC)[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.]
no subject
Date: 2018-05-25 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-05-26 12:08 am (UTC)[If by "they" you mean DC Comics but you know what, no one is going to ask her to cite her sources.]
I just figured I'd pissed off a guy and he'd chucked me here. Putting me in time-out or something.
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Date: 2018-05-26 12:15 am (UTC)[Carefully:]
Does that happen a lot, or was it kind of a special occasion?
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Date: 2018-05-26 12:41 am (UTC)It's the kind of expression born of resilience, stubbornness, and perhaps even spite. It's the sort of expression that looks carefully controlled, so as not to allow itself to shift into a different one.]
He likes to remind me that he's better than me. Usually something like this happens when it starts to seem like I'm forgetting.
no subject
Date: 2018-05-26 01:30 am (UTC)But he does know a thing or two about automatically tensing up. About the consequences of forgetting what he's not.
His hand comes up, but hers isn't an expression he can touch, so he puts it down again, fiddles with his belt.]
If he's listening, he won't get mad at you if I say rude things about him, will he?
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