izunia lucis callout

[founderinglight]

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

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[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.

[founderinglight]

That is one of several contributing factors, yes.

[He hasn't... actually gotten comfort from another person since Gilgamesh left. Not for the things that really matter.]

[photoshooter]

Oh.

[Prompto fidgets a little, wringing his hands.]

Well, if it helps, it didn't sound like you meant to be horrifying. It just came out that way.

[founderinglight]

I do not make a habit of being intentionally horrifying.

[Well, not since he was a teenager, anyway.]

May I ask...?

[photoshooter]

[He looks away, shifting his legs to put the soles of his boots together and bounce his knees like a butterfly, hands braced on his feet.]

...How much do you know about what Ardyn did?

[founderinglight]

My knowledge after my death is limited to the experiences of those wearing the ring. So - mostly Insomnia, some of Altissa, and what he did to Noctis in Gralea.

[Pretty much nothing to do with Prompto himself.]

Some of it I can guess, as there's no one else who could have revitalized magitek for Niflheim in the first place - much less built Ravus Nox Fleuret an arm like that. Prosthetics were one of his specialties.

[photoshooter]

[Prompto bites his lip, pressing down on his feet to keep his hands still.]

I mean... I dunno. There was someone. Someone who could've helped him, anyway. With some stuff.

[Let's be real, Verstael would've probably LOVED to help stick an ugly arm on Ravus.]

Do you know anything about, um. The Magitek Troopers?

[founderinglight]

...Beyond that they were Niflheim's half-daemon army, no, not particularly.

[Well, and that Ravus found them intensely creepy.]