[Yeah that definitely is a reaction oh god what did he do -
The figure puts its hands up in the universal gesture of 'I'm not carrying a weapon' (not that that means much from someone with an Armiger at their command), with an expression of sheepish shock that would look extremely out of place on the Ardyn Prompto is familiar with.]
I sincerely appreciate not being shot at, but I can't say we've ever met before.
[The only explanation he can guess at is WHAT DID HIS BROTHER DO TO THIS POOR BOY OH GOD]
[Yeah, you know, last time a guy wearing that face held his hands up like that to him, Prompto got knocked off a moving train. His breath hisses in, 20% hatred and 240% terror, hands gripping the wall behind him just for something solid to hold.]
Wh--you can't play dumb at this point! It's so too late for that, dude! That ship sailed out of Galdin Quay!
[This is stupid. He sucks down another quaking breath and mutters to himself.]
Wake up, it's just a nightmare, wake up, Prompto, you know he's not here...
[Izunia just. Stands there. With his hands still in the air. Debating. Debating.
...Oh, to hell with it. It's not like anyone outside himself and this young man are ever going to know, and even if he was never the healer, Izunia still has a kind heart and can't very well just leave someone panicking at the sight of his face.]
...You do know what an identical twin is, don't you? Ardyn is my elder brother.
[Especially when - he remembers that name, Prompto. One of Noctis' treasured companions. One of the people who deserved so much better than the endgame between the Chosen King and the Accursed.]
[It comes out more a creak than a word. He opens his eyes again, staring at the road as he tries to make sense of those words individually and then string them back together again. He still doesn't understand. But it's such a preposterous thing to say, and his dreams are usually either way more inane or more grotesquely horrific than this, this weird, unreal middle ground.
So he frowns. And eventually, without looking up, he says:]
I would advise you to ask him to confirm it... But as he is now he'd probably stab you on the spot.
[They... did not part on the best of terms, really. At all. In any way.]
Which is a form of confirmation, I suppose, but not one that leaves you long for this world.
[The worst part is, they even talk alike.
When Prompto looks up again, though, the man's outfit has changed just a little - the baggy Ardyn-like coat is still there, but the dress shirt and vests underneath are different enough to make him doubletake, and he's wearing high boots over his pants instead of Ardyn's spats and flats combo. Even as he's talking, Izunia is pulling the scarf loose from his neck to hang it more like someone would normally wear a winter scarf, its tails hanging down the left side of his chest.]
[Prompto flinches at the word stab, like he has been. Stabbed, that is, by the word itself--or all its associated memories. Still, Ardyn's voice--Ardyn's supposed dream twin's voice hasn't gotten any louder, so he hasn't gotten any closer, and Prompto does, eventually, dare to lift his eyes again, darting and nervous.
Okay. Wait. What?]
...Whhhhy are you doing that?
[What is this nonsense dream at all supposed to be about, why is not!Ardyn (?) (he's still not convinced about the 'not!' part of that) changing his clothes in the middle of the street? Someone please help him. Luna, Pryna, Space Freud. Anybody.]
...Izunia possibly just has a little more experience manipulating his image of himself than Prompto does, and the dream is reflecting it by showing him as... Somewhere in the middle between himself and Ardyn, apparently. He finishes adjusting the scarf and looks at the sleeve of the coat before shrugging.]
It's something of a long story and wouldn't make you any less incredulous to tell it, so suffice it to say I figured I may as well be more comfortable.
[If he's not being Ardyn then he's going to wear his own clothes???]
[After a moment, Prompto finally feels safe enough to move, taking one half step away from the wall--though not towards Izunia, of course, just away--and wrapping his arms around himself so he can grip his elbows.]
You're. Really sticking to that twin thing? Is that what you mean by a long story?
[He still looks like he's ready to bolt at the slightest sudden movement, the smallest change in the air.]
[Izunia's eyes follow him - if Prompto looks close, they're a sort of hazel, not Ardyn's unnatural yellow - but that's the only part of him that really moves in Prompto's direction at all. He's instead opted to fuss with trying to straighten the cuffs of his shirt.]
Considering that it's true, of course I'm 'sticking with it.' That's not even the half of it, really.
[He does consider it. It's the kind of thing that's just crazy enough to be true; they say that's stranger than fiction, right? He stares down at his own chest, trying to figure any angle Ardyn would have to offer such a super weird lie, then surreptitiously pinches his own arm.
When that doesn't wake him up, he smacks both his cheeks simultaneously. Yup, okay, no dice.]
I finally lost it. I'm completely gaga bonkers.
[He covers his eyes and slumps back against the wall, but he's given up on a conversation that makes sense, at least.]
[Yeah that doesn't sound like something totally fucking made up at all. The look on his face says that he's completely aware of what Ardyn used as an alias and knows what it sounds like.]
...Lucis Caelum.
[Fuck it if he's gonna do this he's going to just. Do all of it.]
[Prompto just stops. And stares at him, spreading his fingers so he can look through them and truly absorb how absolutely ridiculous this is.
He closes his fingers up again. Make a sound like the air hissing out of an improperly popped balloon, small and pitiful. Then he just lets himself slide down the wall to sit on the ground, groans pathetically, and flops over, hands still pressed tightly over his face.
Prompto Argentum has reached capacity, he is Done.]
[Well. He's certainly. Expressive in his disbelief.
No wonder Noctis likes him. If Prompto was a woman, Izunia might be tempted to argue that he should be married into the line immediately, because it's gotten downright somber lately. That's what people would expect from 'Ardyn,' after all.
Instead he's just. Having to deal with a kid who clearly doesn't believe a word of it and this. This isn't even the truly ridiculous part, yet.]
I did say it wouldn't make you any less incredulous. Please sit up?
[He whines, literally whines like a child, rolls onto his back, and stretches his legs out so he can kick his heels moodily against the road.]
Why can't I ever get mysteriously spirited away to somewhere that makes sense? I wanna go back to Florida. Uggghhh.
[He rolls over one more time to put his back to 'Izunia,' just for a moment, but he does eventually acquiesce to sitting up and facing him like a big boy.]
Okay, I get it, everything everyone's been telling me is true, can I go back to, like, languishing in a swamp now? No offense, but I don't wanna hear about your brother's super tragic saintly past anymore, I get enough of it like every day from the other dead guys.
[Maybe his face can just live in his hands for the next two thousand years.]
If Pryna really brought me here, I guess she's trying to tell me you're real. I don't think I could dream this up. I mean, I don't usually time travel in my dreams. Do you?
About that long, yes. And I haven't had a dream in nearly that long, so I can't say I really remember.
[At least now that Prompto has apparently accepted it, the conversation flows... Well it's still rather stilted, actually, but there's less 'please believe this I swear it's true.']
[Okay, yeah, not a dream. That's not the kind of dialogue his dreaming would give this guy. Prompto sighs loudly and then wraps his arms around himself, rocking slightly as he looks around.]
What is this place, anyway? Is it... really Insomnia?
[Because, while time-travel in his dreams would be pretty weird, mashing up the home he loves with the magitek he hates? That's something his brain would totally come up with to torment him, yeah.]
[Ardyn and Izunia's city, too. It's not hard to figure out who is responsible for magitek coming back after so many centuries, when you think of it like that.]
The whole world had a much smaller population then, not just Insomnia. The Astral War wasn't exactly good for population growth, and it was a long time before Eos recovered.
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The figure puts its hands up in the universal gesture of 'I'm not carrying a weapon' (not that that means much from someone with an Armiger at their command), with an expression of sheepish shock that would look extremely out of place on the Ardyn Prompto is familiar with.]
I sincerely appreciate not being shot at, but I can't say we've ever met before.
[The only explanation he can guess at is WHAT DID HIS BROTHER DO TO THIS POOR BOY OH GOD]
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Wh--you can't play dumb at this point! It's so too late for that, dude! That ship sailed out of Galdin Quay!
[This is stupid. He sucks down another quaking breath and mutters to himself.]
Wake up, it's just a nightmare, wake up, Prompto, you know he's not here...
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...Oh, to hell with it. It's not like anyone outside himself and this young man are ever going to know, and even if he was never the healer, Izunia still has a kind heart and can't very well just leave someone panicking at the sight of his face.]
...You do know what an identical twin is, don't you? Ardyn is my elder brother.
[Especially when - he remembers that name, Prompto. One of Noctis' treasured companions. One of the people who deserved so much better than the endgame between the Chosen King and the Accursed.]
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...Huh?
[It comes out more a creak than a word. He opens his eyes again, staring at the road as he tries to make sense of those words individually and then string them back together again. He still doesn't understand. But it's such a preposterous thing to say, and his dreams are usually either way more inane or more grotesquely horrific than this, this weird, unreal middle ground.
So he frowns. And eventually, without looking up, he says:]
That's... that's stupid. Twins? Nuh-uh.
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[They... did not part on the best of terms, really. At all. In any way.]
Which is a form of confirmation, I suppose, but not one that leaves you long for this world.
[The worst part is, they even talk alike.
When Prompto looks up again, though, the man's outfit has changed just a little - the baggy Ardyn-like coat is still there, but the dress shirt and vests underneath are different enough to make him doubletake, and he's wearing high boots over his pants instead of Ardyn's spats and flats combo. Even as he's talking, Izunia is pulling the scarf loose from his neck to hang it more like someone would normally wear a winter scarf, its tails hanging down the left side of his chest.]
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Okay. Wait. What?]
...Whhhhy are you doing that?
[What is this nonsense dream at all supposed to be about, why is not!Ardyn (?) (he's still not convinced about the 'not!' part of that) changing his clothes in the middle of the street? Someone please help him. Luna, Pryna, Space Freud. Anybody.]
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...Izunia possibly just has a little more experience manipulating his image of himself than Prompto does, and the dream is reflecting it by showing him as... Somewhere in the middle between himself and Ardyn, apparently. He finishes adjusting the scarf and looks at the sleeve of the coat before shrugging.]
It's something of a long story and wouldn't make you any less incredulous to tell it, so suffice it to say I figured I may as well be more comfortable.
[If he's not being Ardyn then he's going to wear his own clothes???]
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You're. Really sticking to that twin thing? Is that what you mean by a long story?
[He still looks like he's ready to bolt at the slightest sudden movement, the smallest change in the air.]
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Considering that it's true, of course I'm 'sticking with it.' That's not even the half of it, really.
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When that doesn't wake him up, he smacks both his cheeks simultaneously. Yup, okay, no dice.]
I finally lost it. I'm completely gaga bonkers.
[He covers his eyes and slumps back against the wall, but he's given up on a conversation that makes sense, at least.]
What's your name, then? If you're not Ardyn.
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[Yeah that doesn't sound like something totally fucking made up at all. The look on his face says that he's completely aware of what Ardyn used as an alias and knows what it sounds like.]
...Lucis Caelum.
[Fuck it if he's gonna do this he's going to just. Do all of it.]
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He closes his fingers up again. Make a sound like the air hissing out of an improperly popped balloon, small and pitiful. Then he just lets himself slide down the wall to sit on the ground, groans pathetically, and flops over, hands still pressed tightly over his face.
Prompto Argentum has reached capacity, he is Done.]
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[Well. He's certainly. Expressive in his disbelief.
No wonder Noctis likes him. If Prompto was a woman, Izunia might be tempted to argue that he should be married into the line immediately, because it's gotten downright somber lately. That's what people would expect from 'Ardyn,' after all.
Instead he's just. Having to deal with a kid who clearly doesn't believe a word of it and this. This isn't even the truly ridiculous part, yet.]
I did say it wouldn't make you any less incredulous. Please sit up?
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Why can't I ever get mysteriously spirited away to somewhere that makes sense? I wanna go back to Florida. Uggghhh.
[He rolls over one more time to put his back to 'Izunia,' just for a moment, but he does eventually acquiesce to sitting up and facing him like a big boy.]
Okay, I get it, everything everyone's been telling me is true, can I go back to, like, languishing in a swamp now? No offense, but I don't wanna hear about your brother's super tragic saintly past anymore, I get enough of it like every day from the other dead guys.
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I somehow doubt you've gotten the full story if you didn't know about the family resemblance, but... okay?
[He says it like he's never used theword before in his life. Being two thousand years old, it's possible he hasn't.]
Don't look at me, this is the first time I've said more than two sentences to someone who wasn't a relative in a very long time.
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[Maybe his face can just live in his hands for the next two thousand years.]
If Pryna really brought me here, I guess she's trying to tell me you're real. I don't think I could dream this up. I mean, I don't usually time travel in my dreams. Do you?
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[At least now that Prompto has apparently accepted it, the conversation flows... Well it's still rather stilted, actually, but there's less 'please believe this I swear it's true.']
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What is this place, anyway? Is it... really Insomnia?
[Because, while time-travel in his dreams would be pretty weird, mashing up the home he loves with the magitek he hates? That's something his brain would totally come up with to torment him, yeah.]
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[He uses the lamp post to briefly boost himself up to get a better look.]
Maybe four hundred, but magitek was falling out of favor by then.
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Good.
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The Insomnia I called home was a very different place from the one you know, I imagine.
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[...But, okay, maybe if he keeps talking he'll get distracted from how creepy this is, a whole city powered by magitek. His city. Noct's city.]
We've got a lot more buildings by my time. Taller ones. After a while I guess we mostly built up instead of out, 'cause of the Wall.
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The whole world had a much smaller population then, not just Insomnia. The Astral War wasn't exactly good for population growth, and it was a long time before Eos recovered.
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[Prompto curls up completely, forehead pressed to his knees.]
Think most of Niflheim's gone. Just for starters.
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[His consciousness might have been limited to the ring, but Nyx Ulric gave him a very good idea what he would find, in the Insomnia of now.]
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