izunia lucis callout

[founderinglight]

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

Comments

[photoshooter]

I meant... well, yeah, that too. I get that.

[If Prompto could change things... actually, maybe he wouldn't. No, he definitely wouldn't. Wasn't that what he wrote to Noct in a letter that will never be sent? It hurt, it sucked, but he can't regret those things he experienced at his best friend's side.

All the same, yeah, maybe he wouldn't mind some things with Ardyn, particularly, going down differently. But anyway.]

I meant more, would you go back now. Knowing that it's all different and so much went on without you, but it's still... your home. But no one's waiting for you.

[founderinglight]

If you're looking for advice, mine isn't going to do you much good.

[Izunia shrugs a little, almost melancholy about it.]

As I said, I had a full life. It wouldn't be nearly the same for me, who raised two children and met my infant grandson before I passed, as it would be for you. You're what, twenty? Twenty-one? There's a lot of life you haven't lived yet.

[photoshooter]

Twenty.

[Distantly, he thinks it's a little nice to be pegged as older than he is, for once. Not assumed to be a high schooler.]

I just... if there isn't a place for me, I-I don't think I'd want to know. Ugh, no, that's stupid. That's stupid, right? Gah, why do I keep having the same problems over and over again?

[founderinglight]

Then you'll find a new place. You have plenty of time for it.

[He's an adult, sure, but barely. Twenty is plenty young enough to start over.]

[photoshooter]

...Guess so.

[Never see the guys again? Never see Noct? Ouch.]

Nothing's ever easy, huh?

[founderinglight]

Not if you overthink it.

[It's... almost a gentle scolding, especially when coupled with the fact that Izunia throws his pen, with a practiced hand, to hit Prompto in the shoulder before it vanishes back to his Armiger.]

[photoshooter]

Hey!

[And that's such a--such a stupid Noct thing to do that Prompto's throwing his glove right back at him without even thinking about it.

Yeah. That's right. He just threw a biker glove at the Founder King's face. Suck it, Lucis Caelum.]

[founderinglight]

[Izunia catches it with a blink and then just... stares at it in his hand for a moment before tossing it back. Then he laughs a little.]

Have a little faith. You are loved. Everything else will work itself out.

[photoshooter]

...

[Prompto clears his throat and busies himself with putting his glove back on, because that's not a totally obvious ploy for a moment to think that over, of course.]

I am, aren't I? Guess I'll take your word for the rest, Grandpa.

[founderinglight]

[It's okay, Izunia needs a moment to recover, himself, from being called Grandpa.]

...If you are ever in doubt, don't be afraid to ask. Consider that the obligatory advice to keep you from making my mistakes.

[photoshooter]

Uhhh, I'm pretty sure it's, like, abjectly impossible for someone like me to make the kinds of mistakes the Kings of Lucis can.

[founderinglight]

[Oh boy. Thanks for giving him one of those laugh or cry moments, Prompto. He'll pick laughing, however awkwardly.]

We do tend to do things on a somewhat grander scale, mistakes and all, but we're still people. We make the same kinds of mistakes as anyone else.

[photoshooter]

Guess that's true. Do you actually mean... asking if people like me? That seems a little, I don't know. Needy.

[Never mind that it was basically the first thing he asked after the guys got him down off that fucking bondage cross.]

[founderinglight]

There are worse things to be than in need of a little reassurance from time to time.

[photoshooter]

Hm.

[He nods, apparently thinking about that, but mostly just watching Izunia.]

You wanna talk about it?

[founderinglight]

I thought you didn't want to hear about my brother's saintly goodness.

[Still in that liminal space between funny and pain, over here.]

[photoshooter]

I don't. But you probably didn't want to hear how he twisted the lives of millions of people like silly putty and then trashed them when he was done, either.

[And Prompto hasn't even mentioned what Ardyn did to him personally.]

[founderinglight]

Not especially, but I can't really shy away from it, either.

[He pauses, then sighs.]

If I had spoken to him directly, perhaps things would have been different. I couldn't have taken that curse from him, but at least... At least he would have known that he was still loved.

[photoshooter]

...That's really vague and yet still, like, super sad, man.

[There... there?]

[founderinglight]

Well, it sounds better that way than "When I realized he was full of daemons, I my have stabbed him more than a little."

[Emotional content vs literal content.]

[photoshooter]

Well, maybe it sounds better to you.

[Everything's subjective.]

But... yeah, I guess I can see why you, uh. Might have some baggage there. ...Sorry.

[founderinglight]

[Everything's subjective! Except stabbing, and stabbing definitely happened there.]

That's not even the half of it, really. He has every right to want for revenge and remember me with no fondness.

[photoshooter]

Doesn't mean he's got a right to take it out on your great-great-great to the zillionth grandkids. ...Or totally unrelated people who just happened to live on this planet.

[Noct. Ignis. Niflheim, Insomnia. Altissia.]

They didn't deserve to suffer like that.

[founderinglight]

I can't argue with that. But... I doubt that Ardyn really has an understanding of what's 'right' after so long.

[He closes his eyes, briefly.]

And the people it would be 'right' for him to take it out on are beyond his reach. Everyone from our era who wronged him is dead, and the gods themselves - well, I suppose he did his best to use Niflheim to destroy them, anyway, if my understanding is correct.

[photoshooter]

...Yeah. They killed Shiva. And did a number on Titan, too. ...Mostly I think they just annoyed Leviathan.

[Who knew the Tidemother was so tetchy?]

Though I guess they had a lot to deal with at the time. I still don't really know what happened there.