[Just for something to do with his hands, Prompto takes the cocoa, but all he does is stare into it. Not about him means it's not about anything he knows, and what should be relief just feels scarier.
What can Ignis know that he doesn't, when Prompto's the one that's ahead? Because he has to. Prompto has no doubt of that.
It's...something I never mentioned about Altissia. I've known, since my arrival here. Noct knows, now. And so I'm telling you because — perhaps this is something you already know, I don't know. But I'm taking you at your word, what you said about people having the right to know, and thus the power to make their own decisions.
[He picks up his coffee, himself, and takes a long and much-needed sip before staring out over the front yard to the street.]
You're aware, I think, that Lunafreya had a dog? Umbra, the black one, but then also a white one?
[He closes his eyes for a moment, paired with a slight lowering of his chin. A moment of respect, perhaps, at the mention of her death — dog or not.]
But for some reason, one that I still can't explain, she...
[He pauses a minute, turning over words like garden path stones in his mind.]
I don't know whether it would be more appropriate to say that she showed me a vision, or that she sent me a message. In either case, she showed me the...the Astrals' expectation, of the Chosen King. What they'll expect of him, for the sake of banishing the coming darkness.
[Leave it to Prompto, to take a matter that Ignis has turned over and over in his head a hundred thousand times, and capture it from a new angle that he has yet to consider. Leave it to Prompto and his photographer's eye, to frame it in such a way that he sees something now that he hadn't seen before, and is left to wonder what to make of it.
Could it be there was a reason that he was the one told, above and beyond the fact that he was simply the one there? Ravus had gone on ahead, he hadn't thought much of it other than that he was the only other one present, but — Umbra had always had a knack for finding Noct wherever he went, regardless of what it took to get there.
Had Pryna really been there the whole time, waiting for someone to show her vision to? Or had she explicitly sought him out, and would've no matter where he'd been at the time...?]
I don't know why she chose me, really. If she chose me at all. But.
[He draws in a slow breath.]
What she showed me is that the power to banish the darkness comes at a price. One that the Chosen is expected to pay, on behalf of the world.
[It's not hard to guess what that is, with a setup like that, but he's got to follow through and say it anyway.]
Prompto, I'm not telling you this out of an expectation for answers, or even to change it. I'm telling you because...because Noct knows, now, and because I think you have the right not to be the one left out of knowing.
[Something hits a dial tone in his head. It blocks even the reception of thought, of feeling. Or maybe it's something like standing up too fast and passing out for a second, except instead of his brain shutting off, it's his heart.
One second he's on the step, mug on his knee, and the next he's on his feet, warm cocoa splashed over his hands, mug gripped so tight in his hands, if he were stronger, he would have broken it. There's no lapse of seconds in between, none that he can recall. There's just him, Ignis, both of their shapes against the backdrop of the door, no interior, no distant background, no depth to perceive or color theory, just lines, geometry, nonsensical.
They're going to ask for his life.]
What?
[At least one of the words has ceased to be decipherable. His life? His what? His life? Whose, Noct's? Noct's what, now? The jittering of the mug in his hands is the only thing to stir him, to catch his attention and ground him in this spot, this half-foot of ground in which he stands. He stares down at the mug half-empty before he hastily puts it down, yanks his hands to his sides, stares at Ignis like he's the one pin anchoring the world to one place.
It takes a moment for Prompto's mouth to remember how to form words, stumbling through the process three silent times before he finds sound again.]
No. [A child's word, simple denial.] No! That's not--they what? They want his... [It doesn't make sense. It can't make sense. The world's reeling around him because, really, Prompto's world--like Ignis's, like Gladio's--is Noct. He struggles to swallow breath down, plants his feet firmly against the earth, and says with every fiber in him:] No.
[No. No, no, no. Prompto meets Ignis's eyes and they're steady, steady as his fists beside him.]
[He's alarmed, of course, when the cocoa splashes, and the strange syncopated-time phenomenon that Prompto perceives is one that Ignis experiences, too — that one second he's seated, and the next he's standing, and it's as though there was no transition between them, just two discrete states.
He can't help but wonder if this is what he'd looked like, or will look like, when Chancellor Ardyn Izunia challenges him for Noct's life. Is this what the bastard will see when he makes his move, a steely resistance like this? Prompto's hands are gunner's hands, and it's telling when he's upset but they're not trembling, because if they're not shaking it means he's ready to draw his gun and defend to his dying breath, and woe betide whatever seeks to go through him to get to whatever he's defending.]
I know.
[He wonders if Prompto understands just how deep his own vehemence runs, just how profoundly he concurs.]
But you know as well as I do what Noct will choose if — [When.] — it's asked of him.
[No, he doesn't know, because he refuses to know it, except that of course he knows it, he knows it as well as--better--than he knows himself, because everything Prompto is, just like everything Ignis is, is based on Noct. Is based on the existence of Noctis Lucis Caelum, a prince who can be lonely in a hall full of people, a boy whose smile eludes the flash of camera like shadow. Prompto shakes his head and then shakes it again, harder, because yes, he knows what Noctis will do, and it can't, cannot, get to that point.]
We have to help him. Iggy, we have to. There's gotta be something we can do.
That's heresy, you realize. Open defiance of the will of the Astrals.
[And yet his voice is far too even to make that sound like a condemnation; it's far too calm to even come close to resembling a challenge. It's a mere statement of fact, the same way that this cannot happen is a statement of fact.]
And if Bahamut himself were to come for Noct, he would have to get through me to take him.
[YET ANOTHER SENTENCE THAT SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED AS CALMLY AS IT IS.]
[The misleading mildness of Ignis's statement doesn't even register. Prompto nods, severely and uncharacteristically serious.
He already lost Noct. Twice. It's not happening again.]
And Gladio.
[A thought occurs to him, and he finally looks down for a moment, frowning at his feet, before he meets Ignis's eyes again, still whole, still sharp as emerald and fire.]
If Pryna came to you... [In bits and pieces, the rigidity of his stance finally starts to leave him. Prompto lifts his hands and holds one elbow, chews on the knuckle of one finger. It tastes like chocolate.] I--I thought I saw her, too. Later. Not about this, but... but it was later, Iggy. Way after Altissia.
[Way after the Rite of Leviathan. Way after the Oracle's death. Prompto breathes in and shifts slightly on his feet.]
If Pryna came to both of us, then I think... I think the gods're gonna have to go through Lady Lunafreya, too. Somehow.
[Now that gets him to sit up and come to attention, and it's probably a good thing that he does, because it also snaps him back into cognizance that Prompto has hot chocolate all over his hands, and he's briskly reaching into his pocket after a handkerchief to help wipe some of it away as he processes what Prompto is saying.
He'd watched Pryna die, and yet Prompto saw her again well after Altissia. He and Ravus had found Lunafreya dead, and yet the Oracle's work was incomplete, and would continue.
So, then, what hand in this could Lunafreya have? The Oracle's work is to banish the darkness, which would mean that hindering the completion of the Chosen King's fate would be counterproductive to that...
...But Ignis of all people knows better than anyone that people are more than just the duties that they're called to carry out, and if he's sitting here contemplating how to change the course of history as they all know it — then perhaps he's not the only one to have had that idea to begin with.]
You think she meant for us to see those visions — I'm assuming she showed you a vision of some variety, too. You think that was Lunafreya's doing?
[Prompto mumbles huh? oh. to himself when he sees the handkerchief. Because he's distracted, he licks a couple more of his fingers before he takes it and wipes them properly, taking it with him when he starts pacing.
He doesn't get very far before he stops, looking at the ground, trying to remember the moment exactly.]
...I thought it was a dream, maybe. I didn't think... I mean, there's no reason for me to get mystical messages from above. And Pryna didn't tell me anything about the future. Kinda... kind of the opposite.
[He returns to walking in place, slower this time, eyes on stone but his memory back in the frozen outerlands, following faint barking through the trees.]
It was--when I was separated from you guys. [His chin drops a little.] I was having a hard time on my own, and she. She helped me. She reminded me of what was most important to me, and why... you know.
[He looks up at Ignis through the screen of his hair, almost sheepish but resolute, too.]
Why I had to get back to you all. [Nodding, shaking his head, Prompto pulls the handkerchief absently around and through his fingers.] So if that was Lady Lunafreya, then I guess what she wanted was... was for me to get back to where I belonged. By you guys' side. By Noct's side.
[He thinks about it a moment longer, then pipes up to ask:]
What do you think she thought you would do when she told you Noct's future?
[It's a good question, and a hard one. What possible gain could there be, to imparting that sort of knowledge onto Ignis at that particular juncture? Why would he need to know then, at that moment, after everything he'd done to fight his way to Noct's side up until that point, of the fate that was ultimately in store for his king?
What would Lunafreya have been counting on him to do, in response to a vision like that? Lunafreya, who'd spent over a decade exchanging letters with Noctis in their shared notebook, who went ahead of him to awaken the Astrals in order to assist him in his quest, who to all appearances protected him with her own life to the very end, there on that altar, until the moment when he and Ravus arrived?
There's a straightforward answer. It's one founded on duty and destiny, and on sacrifices like the one Lunafreya must have enacted on Noct's behalf, herself.]
Perhaps she wanted me to take up her calling. It may have been a plea to see to it that the Chosen King reached his destiny, for the sake of our star.
[Except that he remembers the words spoken in the vision, the same phrases over and over again, variation upon variation but always the same — obsessive, almost, like the messenger was sending it again and again to be certain that it reached its mark.
The king must die. The king must die. The king will die. He'll die, he'll die. For everyone, he'll die. He'll go forth and die. Noct is going to die.
And suddenly, it occurs to Ignis with a flash of frigid wonder that Lunafreya Nox Fleuret might well be far, far more cunning than he'd ever consciously given her credit for.]
If she'd told it to me at any other time...I suppose I might well have. Out of duty, or...out of respect for her sacrifice, perhaps.
[He glances up at Prompto, his face a mask to hide his abrupt, shaken uncertainty.]
But she sent it to me in a moment when I was already out of my head with worry for him. When against all sense of reason, I would've stopped at nothing to protect him. When I'd already done the impossible, for the sake of protecting him.
[A moment when it would've been so utterly easy to throw himself at an even greater impossible challenge, because he'd done the impossible already; what, then, was destiny but one more obstacle to surmount?]
[Prompto's eyes round when Ignis looks to him for an answer. He almost steps back, it's so different and weird.
But over his twenty years living, Prompto's gotten familiar with all sorts of different fears and discomforts. This one? This one's scary because it leads to hope. Answering's not a step into the dark, it's a step towards the crack of light under the door, the flashlight coming closer, calling his name in a voice like home.
He takes a breath and steps forward instead.]
You know, I never met Lady Lunafreya. I don't know much about her, not for real.
[He was supposed to meet her at the wedding. He wanted to. It was his secret, a good one, the only good one he had, white and soft and glowing in his chest. He wanted to meet Lady Lunafreya and give her all the photos of their journey, show her the gift she gave him all those years ago. Friendship. Noct.
'All I ask is that you continue to support Noctis, and that you remain ever at his side.'
Prompto still remembers the faint scent of blossoms on old paper. He remembered it even in the cold, in that place where nothing so delicate could survive. And did. Through him. He looks down at his hands, holding tightly to Ignis's handkerchief.
He tied a handkerchief like this around Pryna's leg, back then.]
But I... I always... had a feeling. I had this idea, that what she really wanted was for Noct to be happy. To... be surrounded by friends. Real friends. Regardless of the king stuff.
[He's never exposed this, never told anyone about Pryna, about the letter, about the girl who addressed him so politely, like an adult, like someone who mattered. It's at the core of who he is. All he was ever asked to do was be a good friend. Not Shield, not Hand. Just there. Just Prompto. Because to him, even though Noctis is everything, the bounds of the world he cares to know, he's also just Noct.
Lady Lunafreya gave him that. And she gave it back to him when he thought everything, his world, was lost.]
...I wasn't permitted to go to Tenebrae, when the king took Noct to Fenestala Manor and he first met her. I was ten years old and I had to stay home; they told me "do everything just as you would otherwise, as though Noct were still here", and at the time I thought that was meant as a comfort to me, but later I realized it was likely to disguise the fact that they'd left at all.
[Even now, he remembers how he'd hated being separated from Noct, thinking he was in trouble, having no way to help him. "Carry on as though he were still here"; if Noct dies to return the dawn, it's going to feel like that every day for the rest of his life.]
I can't imagine anyone who knows Noct even the slightest bit not wanting him to be happy.
[He falls quiet a minute, turning away just enough to stare out over the cobblestone street without really seeing it at all.]
There was no one to save her from her own destiny. Perhaps that's why she hopes Noct might yet be spared from his.
[He has to turn away with a hand over his mouth, his other arm curled around his chest.
Lady Lunafreya.
When Prompto collects himself, when he swallows down the lump in his throat, he manages to croak out:]
Then we have to. Don't we? Can't nay-say the Oracle. That'd be... like. [His shoulders rise as he takes a deep breath in, plants the weight of it down heavy on both feet.] So disrespectful. Can't turn down a request from a princess, right?
...No. That isn't fair. And Noct'll do what he thinks he has to, anyway.
[He manages to loosen himself up enough to hold his arm instead of his chest, staring at the ground and then staring at the backs of his closed eyelids.]
We didn't even... when I'm from, we weren't even thinking about going back to Lucis yet. And if the Crystal gets him, then--then I think it's over. Because we can't touch the Crystal, there's nothing we can do to protect him once that happens.
[Leave me behind in Gralea. Don't take the bait, I'm not worth it. Prompto gulps, rocking slightly on his feet, and shakes his head.]
We gotta do something before that. We gotta... we gotta figure out some other way to fix everything, one that won't--won't take him.
...What exactly does the Crystal do to him? You've said that before, that it "gets" him, but I'm not...
[He lets the thought trail off, letting it go free for a moment as something else occurs to him — the faintest hint of some of those thoughts warring in Prompto's mind, the implication of that soft gulp. And maybe, on some level, it's because in this he and Prompto are two of a kind, looking to the sacrifices they can make themselves as their go-to solutions, and tolerating ones that involve others only afterward.]
It sounds as though, from the events you remember, I chose not to take the chancellor's offer to go with him. I suppose that might be a way of effecting some sort of change...
[The last no shudders as he does, tightening his arms again and shrinking down into his boots. The thought of Ignis strung up on that cross--Prompto squeezes his eyes tightly shut and sucks in a sharp breath, shakes his head jerkily.]
No.
[He can't let that happen to Ignis. That can't happen to Ignis, that utter, unfathomable powerlessness. He was nobody; once Ardyn had his fun with him at the facility, he lost interest, he only needed him to bait the trap. He could do so much worse to Ignis or Gladio. He could hurt Ignis so much more than he already did.
Prompto shivers and tries to think his way free of those dark bars.]
Wh...what if Noct's been right all along? What if we c-can help him save Lady Lunafreya? That'd change everything, right?
[Would it? It's a question he's contemplated in passing, but with an eye toward the emotional benefits it would produce for Noct, not on the greater ramifications it might have as a whole. So, then. What if Lunafreya weren't to perish at the altar, where he and Ravus found her?
Her allegiance was to Noctis. Could her influence have turned Ravus to join them, properly?
If he saves her, perhaps he'll be awake by the time he and Ravus reach the altar. If Ravus doesn't attack, they can flee the altar sooner — perhaps before Ardyn and his MTs can even arrive. And if they can manage to regroup with Prompto and Gladio, then Ardyn would have no one to deceive them with.
If Ardyn never catches up to them, he'll have no opportunity to blind him.
And Prompto said he had gotten knocked off the train on the way to Tenebrae —]
...Why were we going to Tenebrae, Prompto? When we were on the train, as you said. Do you recall our purpose?
[It takes Prompto a second to pull free of Zegnautus Keep and reorient himself once more. Not that it helps much. Every question on this line leads back to Gralea.
No, he's fine.]
The train goes through there. To get to Gralea. We had to get the Crystal back, and that's where they were keeping it. Noct was supposed to use its magic to make things better...
[He closes eyes and shakes his head more sharply, like he has to physically jostle his memory back further. The twilight before darkest midnight.]
Gladio didn't want to stop in Tenebrae at all. But I think Noct wanted to say good-bye to her. To Lady Lunafreya.
So that would change things, as well. With Lunafreya still alive, there'd be no need for the travel to Tenebrae. Which might mean no opportunity for the chancellor to step in and deceive Noct on the train.
[He lets out a slow breath.]
So. Perhaps it could change everything. There's still the chance that Noct can change what's to happen — and yet I worry about telling him as much.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2018-07-05 12:59 am (UTC)[The look of uncertainty and surprise on his features is probably answer enough, even before he does Prompto the relief of actually answering.]
No, it's nothing about you. It...affects you, which is why I wanted to say something, but.
[He glances away briefly, falling quiet.]
It's not about you, no.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-05 01:25 am (UTC)What can Ignis know that he doesn't, when Prompto's the one that's ahead? Because he has to. Prompto has no doubt of that.
He looks up.]
...Okay. Tell me.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-05 01:32 am (UTC)[He picks up his coffee, himself, and takes a long and much-needed sip before staring out over the front yard to the street.]
You're aware, I think, that Lunafreya had a dog? Umbra, the black one, but then also a white one?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-05 01:41 am (UTC)What? Pryna? [He frowns, baffled on top of worried on top of deep, deep dread.] Yeah, we--we met before. But I thought she...
[His throat's so dry.]
She died. With Lady Lunafreya.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-05 01:47 am (UTC)[He closes his eyes for a moment, paired with a slight lowering of his chin. A moment of respect, perhaps, at the mention of her death — dog or not.]
But for some reason, one that I still can't explain, she...
[He pauses a minute, turning over words like garden path stones in his mind.]
I don't know whether it would be more appropriate to say that she showed me a vision, or that she sent me a message. In either case, she showed me the...the Astrals' expectation, of the Chosen King. What they'll expect of him, for the sake of banishing the coming darkness.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-05 02:05 am (UTC)He tightens his grip around the mug to keep it from shaking in his hands.]
...She was... always very smart. Like... she knew what people needed. Before they did, even.
[He rests the mug on his knee, looking away for a second.]
I-I guess she knew you must've been the one to tell. If there's something we need to do for Noct, I mean.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-05 02:22 am (UTC)Could it be there was a reason that he was the one told, above and beyond the fact that he was simply the one there? Ravus had gone on ahead, he hadn't thought much of it other than that he was the only other one present, but — Umbra had always had a knack for finding Noct wherever he went, regardless of what it took to get there.
Had Pryna really been there the whole time, waiting for someone to show her vision to? Or had she explicitly sought him out, and would've no matter where he'd been at the time...?]
I don't know why she chose me, really. If she chose me at all. But.
[He draws in a slow breath.]
What she showed me is that the power to banish the darkness comes at a price. One that the Chosen is expected to pay, on behalf of the world.
[It's not hard to guess what that is, with a setup like that, but he's got to follow through and say it anyway.]
Prompto, I'm not telling you this out of an expectation for answers, or even to change it. I'm telling you because...because Noct knows, now, and because I think you have the right not to be the one left out of knowing.
[He draws a breath.]
They're going to ask for his life, Prompto.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-06 01:27 am (UTC)One second he's on the step, mug on his knee, and the next he's on his feet, warm cocoa splashed over his hands, mug gripped so tight in his hands, if he were stronger, he would have broken it. There's no lapse of seconds in between, none that he can recall. There's just him, Ignis, both of their shapes against the backdrop of the door, no interior, no distant background, no depth to perceive or color theory, just lines, geometry, nonsensical.
They're going to ask for his life.]
What?
[At least one of the words has ceased to be decipherable. His life? His what? His life? Whose, Noct's? Noct's what, now? The jittering of the mug in his hands is the only thing to stir him, to catch his attention and ground him in this spot, this half-foot of ground in which he stands. He stares down at the mug half-empty before he hastily puts it down, yanks his hands to his sides, stares at Ignis like he's the one pin anchoring the world to one place.
It takes a moment for Prompto's mouth to remember how to form words, stumbling through the process three silent times before he finds sound again.]
No. [A child's word, simple denial.] No! That's not--they what? They want his... [It doesn't make sense. It can't make sense. The world's reeling around him because, really, Prompto's world--like Ignis's, like Gladio's--is Noct. He struggles to swallow breath down, plants his feet firmly against the earth, and says with every fiber in him:] No.
[No. No, no, no. Prompto meets Ignis's eyes and they're steady, steady as his fists beside him.]
They can't.
[They can't do that. They can't have him.]
no subject
Date: 2018-07-06 01:38 am (UTC)He can't help but wonder if this is what he'd looked like, or will look like, when Chancellor Ardyn Izunia challenges him for Noct's life. Is this what the bastard will see when he makes his move, a steely resistance like this? Prompto's hands are gunner's hands, and it's telling when he's upset but they're not trembling, because if they're not shaking it means he's ready to draw his gun and defend to his dying breath, and woe betide whatever seeks to go through him to get to whatever he's defending.]
I know.
[He wonders if Prompto understands just how deep his own vehemence runs, just how profoundly he concurs.]
But you know as well as I do what Noct will choose if — [When.] — it's asked of him.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-06 01:47 am (UTC)[No, he doesn't know, because he refuses to know it, except that of course he knows it, he knows it as well as--better--than he knows himself, because everything Prompto is, just like everything Ignis is, is based on Noct. Is based on the existence of Noctis Lucis Caelum, a prince who can be lonely in a hall full of people, a boy whose smile eludes the flash of camera like shadow. Prompto shakes his head and then shakes it again, harder, because yes, he knows what Noctis will do, and it can't, cannot, get to that point.]
We have to help him. Iggy, we have to. There's gotta be something we can do.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-06 01:54 am (UTC)[And yet his voice is far too even to make that sound like a condemnation; it's far too calm to even come close to resembling a challenge. It's a mere statement of fact, the same way that this cannot happen is a statement of fact.]
And if Bahamut himself were to come for Noct, he would have to get through me to take him.
[YET ANOTHER SENTENCE THAT SHOULD NOT BE DELIVERED AS CALMLY AS IT IS.]
...And you too, I think. Am I right?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-06 02:05 am (UTC)He already lost Noct. Twice. It's not happening again.]
And Gladio.
[A thought occurs to him, and he finally looks down for a moment, frowning at his feet, before he meets Ignis's eyes again, still whole, still sharp as emerald and fire.]
If Pryna came to you... [In bits and pieces, the rigidity of his stance finally starts to leave him. Prompto lifts his hands and holds one elbow, chews on the knuckle of one finger. It tastes like chocolate.] I--I thought I saw her, too. Later. Not about this, but... but it was later, Iggy. Way after Altissia.
[Way after the Rite of Leviathan. Way after the Oracle's death. Prompto breathes in and shifts slightly on his feet.]
If Pryna came to both of us, then I think... I think the gods're gonna have to go through Lady Lunafreya, too. Somehow.
no subject
Date: 2018-07-06 02:29 am (UTC)He'd watched Pryna die, and yet Prompto saw her again well after Altissia. He and Ravus had found Lunafreya dead, and yet the Oracle's work was incomplete, and would continue.
So, then, what hand in this could Lunafreya have? The Oracle's work is to banish the darkness, which would mean that hindering the completion of the Chosen King's fate would be counterproductive to that...
...But Ignis of all people knows better than anyone that people are more than just the duties that they're called to carry out, and if he's sitting here contemplating how to change the course of history as they all know it — then perhaps he's not the only one to have had that idea to begin with.]
You think she meant for us to see those visions — I'm assuming she showed you a vision of some variety, too. You think that was Lunafreya's doing?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-06 08:04 pm (UTC)He doesn't get very far before he stops, looking at the ground, trying to remember the moment exactly.]
...I thought it was a dream, maybe. I didn't think... I mean, there's no reason for me to get mystical messages from above. And Pryna didn't tell me anything about the future. Kinda... kind of the opposite.
[He returns to walking in place, slower this time, eyes on stone but his memory back in the frozen outerlands, following faint barking through the trees.]
It was--when I was separated from you guys. [His chin drops a little.] I was having a hard time on my own, and she. She helped me. She reminded me of what was most important to me, and why... you know.
[He looks up at Ignis through the screen of his hair, almost sheepish but resolute, too.]
Why I had to get back to you all. [Nodding, shaking his head, Prompto pulls the handkerchief absently around and through his fingers.] So if that was Lady Lunafreya, then I guess what she wanted was... was for me to get back to where I belonged. By you guys' side. By Noct's side.
[He thinks about it a moment longer, then pipes up to ask:]
What do you think she thought you would do when she told you Noct's future?
no subject
Date: 2018-07-07 05:10 pm (UTC)What would Lunafreya have been counting on him to do, in response to a vision like that? Lunafreya, who'd spent over a decade exchanging letters with Noctis in their shared notebook, who went ahead of him to awaken the Astrals in order to assist him in his quest, who to all appearances protected him with her own life to the very end, there on that altar, until the moment when he and Ravus arrived?
There's a straightforward answer. It's one founded on duty and destiny, and on sacrifices like the one Lunafreya must have enacted on Noct's behalf, herself.]
Perhaps she wanted me to take up her calling. It may have been a plea to see to it that the Chosen King reached his destiny, for the sake of our star.
[Except that he remembers the words spoken in the vision, the same phrases over and over again, variation upon variation but always the same — obsessive, almost, like the messenger was sending it again and again to be certain that it reached its mark.
The king must die. The king must die. The king will die. He'll die, he'll die. For everyone, he'll die. He'll go forth and die. Noct is going to die.
And suddenly, it occurs to Ignis with a flash of frigid wonder that Lunafreya Nox Fleuret might well be far, far more cunning than he'd ever consciously given her credit for.]
If she'd told it to me at any other time...I suppose I might well have. Out of duty, or...out of respect for her sacrifice, perhaps.
[He glances up at Prompto, his face a mask to hide his abrupt, shaken uncertainty.]
But she sent it to me in a moment when I was already out of my head with worry for him. When against all sense of reason, I would've stopped at nothing to protect him. When I'd already done the impossible, for the sake of protecting him.
[A moment when it would've been so utterly easy to throw himself at an even greater impossible challenge, because he'd done the impossible already; what, then, was destiny but one more obstacle to surmount?]
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Date: 2018-07-07 06:06 pm (UTC)But over his twenty years living, Prompto's gotten familiar with all sorts of different fears and discomforts. This one? This one's scary because it leads to hope. Answering's not a step into the dark, it's a step towards the crack of light under the door, the flashlight coming closer, calling his name in a voice like home.
He takes a breath and steps forward instead.]
You know, I never met Lady Lunafreya. I don't know much about her, not for real.
[He was supposed to meet her at the wedding. He wanted to. It was his secret, a good one, the only good one he had, white and soft and glowing in his chest. He wanted to meet Lady Lunafreya and give her all the photos of their journey, show her the gift she gave him all those years ago. Friendship. Noct.
'All I ask is that you continue to support Noctis, and that you remain ever at his side.'
Prompto still remembers the faint scent of blossoms on old paper. He remembered it even in the cold, in that place where nothing so delicate could survive. And did. Through him. He looks down at his hands, holding tightly to Ignis's handkerchief.
He tied a handkerchief like this around Pryna's leg, back then.]
But I... I always... had a feeling. I had this idea, that what she really wanted was for Noct to be happy. To... be surrounded by friends. Real friends. Regardless of the king stuff.
[He's never exposed this, never told anyone about Pryna, about the letter, about the girl who addressed him so politely, like an adult, like someone who mattered. It's at the core of who he is. All he was ever asked to do was be a good friend. Not Shield, not Hand. Just there. Just Prompto. Because to him, even though Noctis is everything, the bounds of the world he cares to know, he's also just Noct.
Lady Lunafreya gave him that. And she gave it back to him when he thought everything, his world, was lost.]
Do you think that might be true?
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Date: 2018-07-08 01:54 pm (UTC)[Even now, he remembers how he'd hated being separated from Noct, thinking he was in trouble, having no way to help him. "Carry on as though he were still here"; if Noct dies to return the dawn, it's going to feel like that every day for the rest of his life.]
I can't imagine anyone who knows Noct even the slightest bit not wanting him to be happy.
[He falls quiet a minute, turning away just enough to stare out over the cobblestone street without really seeing it at all.]
There was no one to save her from her own destiny. Perhaps that's why she hopes Noct might yet be spared from his.
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Date: 2018-07-08 02:16 pm (UTC)Lady Lunafreya.
When Prompto collects himself, when he swallows down the lump in his throat, he manages to croak out:]
Then we have to. Don't we? Can't nay-say the Oracle. That'd be... like. [His shoulders rise as he takes a deep breath in, plants the weight of it down heavy on both feet.] So disrespectful. Can't turn down a request from a princess, right?
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Date: 2018-07-08 02:34 pm (UTC)[He gives Prompto his space, lets him process what he needs to process. Six knows they all do.]
But I've yet to work out how we're to save him, to begin with. The most I can think of as yet is to not allow him to return to Insomnia, but...
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Date: 2018-07-08 05:19 pm (UTC)[He manages to loosen himself up enough to hold his arm instead of his chest, staring at the ground and then staring at the backs of his closed eyelids.]
We didn't even... when I'm from, we weren't even thinking about going back to Lucis yet. And if the Crystal gets him, then--then I think it's over. Because we can't touch the Crystal, there's nothing we can do to protect him once that happens.
[Leave me behind in Gralea. Don't take the bait, I'm not worth it. Prompto gulps, rocking slightly on his feet, and shakes his head.]
We gotta do something before that. We gotta... we gotta figure out some other way to fix everything, one that won't--won't take him.
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Date: 2018-07-11 11:36 pm (UTC)[He lets the thought trail off, letting it go free for a moment as something else occurs to him — the faintest hint of some of those thoughts warring in Prompto's mind, the implication of that soft gulp. And maybe, on some level, it's because in this he and Prompto are two of a kind, looking to the sacrifices they can make themselves as their go-to solutions, and tolerating ones that involve others only afterward.]
It sounds as though, from the events you remember, I chose not to take the chancellor's offer to go with him. I suppose that might be a way of effecting some sort of change...
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Date: 2018-07-12 12:53 am (UTC)[The last no shudders as he does, tightening his arms again and shrinking down into his boots. The thought of Ignis strung up on that cross--Prompto squeezes his eyes tightly shut and sucks in a sharp breath, shakes his head jerkily.]
No.
[He can't let that happen to Ignis. That can't happen to Ignis, that utter, unfathomable powerlessness. He was nobody; once Ardyn had his fun with him at the facility, he lost interest, he only needed him to bait the trap. He could do so much worse to Ignis or Gladio. He could hurt Ignis so much more than he already did.
Prompto shivers and tries to think his way free of those dark bars.]
Wh...what if Noct's been right all along? What if we c-can help him save Lady Lunafreya? That'd change everything, right?
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Date: 2018-07-14 08:22 pm (UTC)Her allegiance was to Noctis. Could her influence have turned Ravus to join them, properly?
If he saves her, perhaps he'll be awake by the time he and Ravus reach the altar. If Ravus doesn't attack, they can flee the altar sooner — perhaps before Ardyn and his MTs can even arrive. And if they can manage to regroup with Prompto and Gladio, then Ardyn would have no one to deceive them with.
If Ardyn never catches up to them, he'll have no opportunity to blind him.
And Prompto said he had gotten knocked off the train on the way to Tenebrae —]
...Why were we going to Tenebrae, Prompto? When we were on the train, as you said. Do you recall our purpose?
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Date: 2018-07-14 10:38 pm (UTC)[It takes Prompto a second to pull free of Zegnautus Keep and reorient himself once more. Not that it helps much. Every question on this line leads back to Gralea.
No, he's fine.]
The train goes through there. To get to Gralea. We had to get the Crystal back, and that's where they were keeping it. Noct was supposed to use its magic to make things better...
[He closes eyes and shakes his head more sharply, like he has to physically jostle his memory back further. The twilight before darkest midnight.]
Gladio didn't want to stop in Tenebrae at all. But I think Noct wanted to say good-bye to her. To Lady Lunafreya.
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Date: 2018-07-15 06:15 pm (UTC)[He lets out a slow breath.]
So. Perhaps it could change everything. There's still the chance that Noct can change what's to happen — and yet I worry about telling him as much.
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