Week 3

[airlockedmods]

Week 3

[Two weeks in, and all at once four people are dead. Chitose, Miki, Lucina, and Tsurugi - whatever the circumstances, however any of you may feel, their rooms are just as empty at the end of the week. If you check your P.I.P.s, you'll find that their pictures on the profile page have gone monochrome.

C.E.C.E.'s morning announcement comes like clockwork on Sunday. This time, though, there's an addendum to her usual message:]

Congratulations, Champions! By surviving your first trial, you have unlocked the second floor of the ship. A new mini map has been added to your P.I.P.! To access the second floor please stand on the teleporter and select the floor you wish to be teleported to.

[In addition to the new floor, the Champions will find that they've gained another memory this week.]


Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday



(( Welcome to Week 3! Don't forget to check in and submit your memory regains! Turn in your benefactor threads for sweet loot, too! ))

Comments

[theundertaken]

[This seems like it's becoming some kind of awful routine, but Max isn't not gonna check in. Knock knock.]

[photoshooter]

[There's no answer.]

[theundertaken]

Prompto?

[wait can he even hear him through that door probably not

Max is just gonna go then, and return in a few minutes to slide a note under the door.]

Hey buddy, it's Max. You need food delivery?

[photoshooter]

[It takes a while either for Prompto to see the note or respond or both. Maybe he really is sleeping. But after maybe ten minutes, whether Max stays there the whole time or walks away for a while, the note slides back out with a penciled-in addition.]

Not hungry
thanks

[The letters are shaky, as if the hand might have been, too.]

[theundertaken]

Need anything?

[photoshooter]

No

[theundertaken]

OK
You're not alone, today's shit for everybody

[But yeah, if that's it, he'll go. It doesn't feel right, leaving Prompto alone, but he's not gonna batter the kid's door down.]

[photoshooter]

[...

Just as Max turns to go, the door opens, and Prompto peeks out, wrapped in a blanket and looking like microwaved shit.]

Did something... [His voice is gone, yo. He gulps.] Did anyone... is everyone...

[Did anyone else die today?]

[theundertaken]

[....oh. Max stops up short, brow furrowing in worry as he looks Prompto over.]

Yeah, no. Everyone's... [He glances down the quiet hall.] Seems like fine is a strong word, but nothing's happened.

[Nothing here, nothing that hadn't already.]

Those, uh. Those dreams, I think.

[photoshooter]

...They're not dreams.

[Even whispering that hurts.]

[theundertaken]

....yeah. Yeah, I know.

[Poor choice of words, maybe.]

[photoshooter]

I c-couldn't dream up something like that...

[He sways a little, steps back to catch himself.]

No wonder... Noct p-pushed me...

[theundertaken]

Woah, hey - [He steps forward as Prompto sways to catch at his elbow.] - no no, hey, who pushed you?

Incoherent FFXV spoilers, here we come!

[photoshooter]

[He doesn't fight.]

Noct. Noct pushed me off the train. But I--I didn't know, I didn't mean to... n-no one ever told me what... it meant, what I am, what...

[He's dizzy. He's got that weird cold feeling that isn't because of cold; Shiva, he knows the difference now. His arm shakes in Max's hand. His everything is shaking.]

They did a-all those horrible things and I... I'm one of them.

\o/

[theundertaken]

Ooookay, okay, shh shhh shhhh...

[Max moves to wrap his other arm around Prompto's shoulders and steer him back over to sit on his bed. He doesn't seem like he needs to be upright right now. Frankly, he has only a general gist of what happened, but clarification isn't the important thing here.]

You didn't do anything wrong. I'm sure you didn't. Whatever you are, it doesn't matter - like - [no maybe don't bring up Tsurugi] - you're still you, Prompto.

[also who's this Noct guy he sounds like an asshole]

[photoshooter]

[He sits like someone's cut his legs out from under him, or like a marionette whose strings have been dropped. He leans forward and muffles a miserable noise in his palms.]

I'm not--I'm not anything, Max, I...

[At least Tsurugi had been someone, once. Not like this. Not like Prompto.]

I'm. I, I'm. I'm a clone. Of the most twisted, evil man I ever... he, he mass-produced us, babies, so he could... so he could turn us into...

[Prompto curls further in on himself, wrapping his arms around his head, dry-sobbing from the sheer horror of it.]

He i-injected them with Starscourge before they developed a sense of self, and--and made them into--an army of m-mindless killing machines, and we've been... we killed so many of them and I never knew, I-I could've...

[Oh, real sobbing now.]

I was supposed to be--one of those things that killed Luna's family, that ruined Noct's whole life--!

[theundertaken]

[Oh, god. Oh, Prompto, honey. Max is just gonna pull Prompto into a hug, if he allows it, wrapping his arms around him and rubbing his back.]

Prompto, Prompto, breathe. You're okay. [Not "it's okay", because hoo boy it is not] Genetics...genetics isn't even a thing, bud, you're not anything other than who you are. You haven't done anything wrong. Luna'd tell you the same thing.

[This is small potatoes. This isn't addressing the whole question of magic Clone Wars happening over there - and Max winces inwardly at the comparison. How belittling. But, you know what, he can't do anything about magic clone guy. Just Prompto.]

[photoshooter]

[Despite himself, despite every terrible thing he now knows, Prompto lets himself be gathered into the hug, into where it's safe. Even if he doesn't deserve it, even if he was meant to be some inhuman thing, a daemon, a weapon, he can't help it. He's so, so weak.]

But he was right, I--my whole existence is wrong. They stole me before he could--he could f-finish his experiment, but I'm not... I can't...

[He's supposed to be a Lucian. He's supposed to be Noct's best friend. But everything, everything's adding up, all the logs and files and scanners and profiles and Ardyn's stupid, evil voice.

Hometown: Arctic outerlands, Niflheim. 'We can't have you spilling blood here. After all, it is your home sweet home.'

Prompto hides a choked whimper in Max's shirt, clutching his own wrist as if some burning brand were set there even now instead of twenty years ago.]

I killed that bastard but it doesn't change what I am, how can--h-how can I get Luna back to Noct if he never wants to see me again?

[theundertaken]

If Noct doesn't wanna see you again, he's being a jerk.

[Fuck Noctis Lucis Caelum, actually??? Max pulls Prompto against his narrow chest, reaches up with his free hand to tuck that blanket a little more carefully around the kid's shoulders. He always looks so cold, and now he seems so small.]

But he's supposed to be your friend, right? Maybe - maybe he'll come around. You haven't done a single thing to him, and...I've known you for like two weeks, and I know you're not some kind of evil clone. Nobody who's worth it should throw a friend away just 'cause of where they were born. You killed the guy, you're making things right and that shouldn't even be your job.

[photoshooter]

[He sniffles, but the gesture, even more than the words Max is saying, at least starts to quiet him down.]

I d-didn't mean to. I was scared...

[Just like Lucina.]

A-A-Ardyn called it patricide, I... I don't know, he was touching me and half his face was gone. He was t...turning into a daemon and he wanted to turn me into one, t-too, I think.

[theundertaken]

Woah, hey, that guy was not your dad. You didn't even know that guy.

[Does Prompto have a real dad, somewhere? Also, Ardyn is also a dick! He and Noctis can go join the dick club for dicks!]

Whatever happened to him was his own stupid fault. You're not responsible for...I don't know, this fucking evil clone man.

[photoshooter]

[Does Prompto have a real dad? Super unclear, supposedly he has parents but we literally never see them even when he is a small bab or just got inducted into the Crownsguard. Chalk the Argentums into that dick club, too.]

...Okay.

[He can't really argue with that.]

Should've killed him, too, when I had the chance. ...Ardyn, I mean. If that's what I'm good for.

[theundertaken]

[dick club so big]

You're good for lots of things, Prompto.

[photoshooter]

...

[Subtitle: That sounds fake, but okay.]

[theundertaken]

[oh my god]

C'mon. Everybody here loves you, y'know? [He reaches up to ruffle Prompto's hair.] Me and Roxy were just talking about how we think a roadtrip with you sounds super cool. Even if there's meteor gods, I mean nothing's perfect. You...

[Lucina should be here.]

You're a good person. You bring people up.