izunia lucis callout

[founderinglight]

you will pry twinzunia from my cold dead hands let's do this

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[photoshooter]

The population density seems way lower than what I'm used to, yeah.

[...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.

[founderinglight]

[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.

[photoshooter]

Your brother's not doing it any favors in my neck of the century, either. The population, I mean. Or Eos.

[Prompto curls up completely, forehead pressed to his knees.]

Think most of Niflheim's gone. Just for starters.

[founderinglight]

...I know. Most of Insomnia, too.

[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.]

[photoshooter]

[That hurts, for some reason. Maybe because he never saw it himself, except from a distance on that hill. Maybe because it felt like he was never his time to grieve, what with Noct and Iggy and Gladio there, too, losing so much more than he'd ever had.]

...Guess my parents are probably dead. I mean. They never called or anything.

[Maybe it hurts because right now, hearing that voice say it with so much love, so much history, he thinks, maybe it was never mine to begin with, and pulls his legs in tighter.]

Though I guess they were never really my parents, either, so whatever. Maybe that's why they didn't.

[founderinglight]

...If blood was the only way to love someone, no one would ever get married.

[That may not seem directly relevant but he promises that it is.]

I'm sorry. For whichever reason it is.

[photoshooter]

No, I know that. It's just.

[Of course he knows that, because he loves Noct and Gladio and Iggy so much he could die. Would die. Wouldn't even think about it. But here, everything's upside down and backwards, and a guy with Ardyn Izunia's face is trying to tell him he's sorry for his parents' disappearance from his life.]

I don't know, I guess it's just that I'll never know how much they knew? Like, if they were trying to protect me, or they were ashamed, or if they just... got handed a random baby, here, he's yours, and got kept in the dark about me, too. And all of it's his fault, and I just...!

[He takes a loud, deep breath, then lets it out slowly.]

He didn't even try to apologize. He said he'd come get me and Luna and everybody, and--and I guess Noct's okay with him? But I don't know what to believe, like... if he actually even cares. Or what I'm supposed to do with that if, now, all of a sudden he does.

[founderinglight]

[It's hard to know what to say to that, especially when Izunia doesn't know which of his brother's many, many sins is responsible for this. He leans against the lamp post again with a sigh.]

I don't have any answers for you, there. I haven't been able to see what goes through my brother's mind in a very long time.

[He sighs and pulls - a pen? - from the Armiger, for something to twirl between his fingers as he thinks.]

Perhaps it's simply that some sins are too big for an apology to ever make it better. I don't know.

[photoshooter]

...That could be it. I guess.

[He goes quiet and closed-off again, but after a time, finally picks up his head.]

When you say you used to see what goes through your brother's head, do you mean that literally, or?

[ARE PSYCHIC TWINS REAL?]

[founderinglight]

[No Prompto that's just a comic book thing.]

Hardly. If I had had that power, perhaps things wouldn't have gone so badly as they did.

[If he had known that that was still Ardyn, scourge or no, instead of having the revelation dropped on him by watching through Noctis' eyes, how much would be different?]

Just the regular sort of insight of being together constantly from birth to about your age.

[photoshooter]

Aw. Bummer.

[Because that's the bummer, clearly, is the lack of psychic powers and not the horrible chain of events that led to this situation, to their ruined home, to Prompto's entire existence.]

So more like how Iggy knows everything about Noct. Except that Iggy knows everything about basically everything, so maybe that doesn't count.

[founderinglight]

[You are a very strange person, Prompto. Isn't the whole Armiger thing and the crystal and all that enough for you?

At the mention of Ignis, Izunia flips the pen in his hand again.]

That's a fairly apt comparison, yes. Though in our case, it went more both ways than Ignis would have allowed. He's... far more hung up on propriety than either Ardyn or I, most of the time.

[The one time he wasn't was how Izunia knows him.]

[photoshooter]

[But what if all that and espers, Izunia? The possibilities!]

Mm... I guess that's true. But Iggy's actually a surprisingly gentle kind of guy, too, when you get to know him. I think... I think that's why it was easier for him to accept help from me than Gladio, when. Uh. His eyes. Umm, how do you know Ignis, actually?

[founderinglight]

[Oh boy isn't that just the question, Prompto. Isn't that just. The question.]

You are probably aware that the Ring of the Lucii contains the souls of kings past, correct?

[Hello that does include the guy in front of you.]

I know at least something of anyone who has donned it with the intent to use its power, of the bloodline or not.

[photoshooter]

[...

...

Prompto unfolds and cranes his neck to look at him, as if adding two and two together isn't quite enough, like he wants to peek at the answer book.]

You're telling me. That Ignis put on Noct's magic ring. The one Luna died to give him?

[founderinglight]

[The answer book is still just a tall skinny guy with a scarf and a pen.]

How is it do you think that he lost his vision? The power of the ring comes always with a price, even for those who don't give themselves to it completely. Even for kings.

[photoshooter]

I--I guess I kind of thought Ardyn did that to him? Since he was already there? Stabbing Luna?

[Just, you know, the law of conservation of plot devices.]

[founderinglight]

No. Ignis reached for the power to defend that which he loved most, and as he was worthy, we gave it to him.

[For maybe the first time in this conversation, Izunia sounds like the king of old that he is. For the length of a sentence, at least.]

I think Ardyn found it a rather unpleasant surprise.

[photoshooter]

[And, viciously:]

Good.

[...He has the grace to pause, at least.]

I mean, not good that that's why Iggy got hurt, but good for sticking it to Ardyn. No offense. He's just, you know. Literally the worst.

[founderinglight]

That does rather come with the territory of being the human incarnation of the Starscourge, yes.

[Look he knows that his brother is a messed up pile of Literally Every Negative Emotion, you don't need to dance around it for the sake of being polite, Prompto.]

Ignis hardly needed much of our power to do what he needed to do. I think he would have done the same even if we refused - I'm quite fond of him, as ring-bearers go.

[photoshooter]

[And that, oddly, gives Prompto pause.]

...Ring-bearers.

[He blinks, then breathes out a grieving, wondering kind of laugh.]

Guess that makes Ignis his Samwise, huh? ...Don't worry, I don't expect you to get that reference. It's just space stuff.

[founderinglight]

[Yeah, congrats Prompto, you get the rare sight of Izunia Lucis Caelum completely confused.

Ah, pop culture. He never was much good at it.]

I'm glad he survived. And I do not say that lightly, and not just because Noctis needed him, either.

[photoshooter]

Mmm. He's the best. Well, and Gladio. Noct, too, of course.

[He finally leans back against the wall again and stretches his legs out, hands laced loosely in his lap.]

I miss them.

[founderinglight]

I'm sure you'll see them again.

[Even if only... Well. In a place like this.]

[photoshooter]

I don't know. It might not be me who does. You know?

[Maybe he'd know if Prompto actually made any sense, ever.]