izunia lucis callout

[founderinglight]

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

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[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.]

[founderinglight]

...I can't say that I do.

[Astrals why are you so VAGUE, child.]

[photoshooter]

I... um.

[Because words are HARD, Grandpa Lucis Caelum!]

I got... space kidnapped? And time kidnapped. But I got a chance to talk to Noct, and he said it's been ten years for him and I wasn't missing during any of that time. So. I dunno? I might not be me.

[founderinglight]

[...Ah.

This, strangely enough - this he has an answer for.]

It's a person's own determination that decides who they are. If you're still 'Prompto' at the level of your very soul, then your friends will see that, and nothing will change it.

[That's why - he could never really be 'Ardyn.' In the depths of his soul, 'Izunia' always lived, wrapped in the blue scarf that the man finds himself fingering as he speaks.]

In a worst case scenario, they simply have twice as much of you.

[photoshooter]

[Ummmm.]

Somehow, that's equal parts comforting and horrifying? I mean, technically speaking, they've already had about a million more times the amount of 'me' than anyone should ever have to deal with.

[Or perhaps not technically speaking, but magiteknically speaking.]

[founderinglight]

[Yeah well IZUNIA HAS NO IDEA ABOUT THAT, PROMPTO. Well okay he sort of knows that you had a thing and Noctis had a feeling about it, but.]

I'm afraid 'equal parts comforting and horrifying' is the only kind of comfort I get these days. Perhaps it's rubbed off?

[photoshooter]

[Prompto looks around the empty city.]

Uh, who comforts you, though? Ah, that came out kind of bad. I just meant, like. It seems pretty lonely here, is all.