Prompto Argentum (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hashtag_chocobro) wrote2022-05-24 04:22 pm
hashtag_chocobro) wrote2022-05-24 04:22 pm
Around Hammerhead Garage; Leide (Eos); Tuesday Evening [05/24 FT].
"Don't suppose the Crownsguard is still active," Gladio noted, as they headed back down the now all too familiar road to Hammerhead, leaving the blockade and the smoking wreckage of Insomnia behind them…for now.
"Wouldn't count on it," Ignis agreed. "Not with the Marshal out here."
"I…wonder how things are," Prompto murmured, still trying to process all of this, but also starting to wonder just when he should tell Liz, how he should tell Liz, if he should tell her, "in the city…"
He looked down at his phone in his hand, frowning deeply with uncertainty, thumb brushing over the smooth black surface. She'd be expecting a text from him tonight, at the very least. But how did….how could he possibly give her this news?
"There should be reports before long," Ignis was saying, almost as if in reassurance, but it was an odd way to reassure someone, if you asked him.
"Yeah," Gladio agreed, "something this big can't go ignored."
"And what about us?" Prompto wondered, finally getting to the crux of his concerns. "What do we do?"
"We make for Hammerhead now," Gladio said resolutely, "and figure the rest out later. I did get a message from my sister, though. She's with refugees bound for Lestallum."
Prompto let out a breath of air that he didn't even know he was holding. "Well, at least Iris is okay," he noted, clinging onto at least that one small bit of hope, that tiny slice of sustaining good news. If Iris made it out, then maybe others did, too. Maybe…maybe it might not be so bad…
"Yeah." Even Gladio sounded a bit more cheered by this face, but it didn't last long as he added, " It doesn't sound like everyone else was so lucky, though."
"We best make haste," Ignis decided. "Noct won't be dead forever."
"No going back," Prompto said quietly, looking down at his phone again, the tightness in his throat becoming worse.. "Only way's forward…"
Even if forward felt….terrifying. And it didn't help that he had, finally, pulled up Liz's number on his phone. His thumb hovered over her name; the tightness was almost unbearable, but he finally dropped his thumb, moved it down to the green button to call her…
Only to get an error message pop up, informing him that service to that number was….unavailable.
"No going back," Noctis echoed, a moment later.
With that, they slowly pulled into the lot of the Hammerhead, where Cindy was there to greet them, her usual bouncy brightness diminished and softened.. "Glad y'all made it," she said. "No weather for drivin', that's for sure."
"Where's Cor?" asked Noctis, not willing to waste a second more.
"Left to see to business, and left y'all a message with Paw-paw," Cindy reported. "Boss ain't sat still one second since he heard y'all were comin'. Let's get you to him, right away."
When they found Cid, his wiry form was slumped under heavy shoulders, weighed down by the news. "Crystal and the king's ring," he said, shaking his head, after he'd filled them in on some of the finer details of the attack, as well as the fate of the Crystal that protected Insomnia through all these centuries, and the Ring of the Lucii, the powerful artifact that gave the Kings of Lucis their power.. "What they been after all along…"
"So all that talk of peace," Ignis said, stating the obvious, as if he just wanted that confirmation once and for all, "was merely a pretext…"
Saying it outloud didn't actually help anyone understand or accept it any better, and they were all silent until Noctis finally hissed out, "They played my father for a fool."
"Don't kid yourself," said Cid, reaching over for a wrench sitting on the table beside him. "Reggie wasn't born yesterday." He leaned forward, wrench between his hand, focusing on that as if that would help make this easier to say. "Lucis got dealt a losin' hand, and your old man played it the best he could. He saw this comin' a mile away, and he wasn't gonna go down without a fight….
"In the end, though," Cid finished, sitting back again, and hesitated. "Well….it just wasn't enough."
And words, in that moment, clearly weren't enough, either, as the prince and his Kingsglaive stood there in awkward, uncertain silence.
"You need something else," Cid set aside that wrench again and pushed himself up slowly, almost creakily, to his feet. He held his aching back as he stalked through the young men, this last hope of Lucis, toward the exit of the garage, "you talk to Cor. I can't even remember the last time I saw Reggie. Feels like a lifetime ago."
And Noctis looked back at that table where that wrench had settled against all the newspapers with their headlines of the fall of Insomnia, and the small, framed picture sitting beside it. The Hammerhead, ages and ages ago, and faces he barely recognized for how young they were, how full of hope and life. His father, leaning against the Regalia. Cid, almost fresh-faced compared to how he was now, grinning proudly beside him, and the two others, like his own quartet now, and he didn't even know where to begin in processing the emotions twisting inside his gut at the sight of it.
"Cor left a message," Cid added, once they, too, had exited the garage. "Said he'll wait for ya in the tombs. They're to the northwest of here, just a short ways past the outpost. Find that first."
With the long, hard day they'd had slowly, finally coming to an end, and after having the location of the tombs, just beyond the Hunter's outpost far to the north, pointed out to them on the map by Cindy, it was clear that they couldn't make it there before nightfall. Battered, broken, and beaten, if not physically but in spirit, it was too dangerous to risk encountering daemons at night, and, besides, Imperial troops were everywhere, airdropping along the routes as another way to tighten their grip on Lucis and the surrounding areas.
So they headed, once again, out to make camp at a nearby Haven under the stars, a night filled with quiet brooding and reflection, and Prompto sitting there, out by the fire, hunched over his phone, trying and trying to just get anything through.
No service.
No service.
No service….
[[ and fin for the day. More dialogue swept heavily from Final Fantasy XV, but Chapter 2: No Turning Back this time! NFB, NFI, TBC, but of course OOC is love ]]
"Wouldn't count on it," Ignis agreed. "Not with the Marshal out here."
"I…wonder how things are," Prompto murmured, still trying to process all of this, but also starting to wonder just when he should tell Liz, how he should tell Liz, if he should tell her, "in the city…"
He looked down at his phone in his hand, frowning deeply with uncertainty, thumb brushing over the smooth black surface. She'd be expecting a text from him tonight, at the very least. But how did….how could he possibly give her this news?
"There should be reports before long," Ignis was saying, almost as if in reassurance, but it was an odd way to reassure someone, if you asked him.
"Yeah," Gladio agreed, "something this big can't go ignored."
"And what about us?" Prompto wondered, finally getting to the crux of his concerns. "What do we do?"
"We make for Hammerhead now," Gladio said resolutely, "and figure the rest out later. I did get a message from my sister, though. She's with refugees bound for Lestallum."
Prompto let out a breath of air that he didn't even know he was holding. "Well, at least Iris is okay," he noted, clinging onto at least that one small bit of hope, that tiny slice of sustaining good news. If Iris made it out, then maybe others did, too. Maybe…maybe it might not be so bad…
"Yeah." Even Gladio sounded a bit more cheered by this face, but it didn't last long as he added, " It doesn't sound like everyone else was so lucky, though."
"We best make haste," Ignis decided. "Noct won't be dead forever."
"No going back," Prompto said quietly, looking down at his phone again, the tightness in his throat becoming worse.. "Only way's forward…"
Even if forward felt….terrifying. And it didn't help that he had, finally, pulled up Liz's number on his phone. His thumb hovered over her name; the tightness was almost unbearable, but he finally dropped his thumb, moved it down to the green button to call her…
Only to get an error message pop up, informing him that service to that number was….unavailable.
"No going back," Noctis echoed, a moment later.
With that, they slowly pulled into the lot of the Hammerhead, where Cindy was there to greet them, her usual bouncy brightness diminished and softened.. "Glad y'all made it," she said. "No weather for drivin', that's for sure."
"Where's Cor?" asked Noctis, not willing to waste a second more.
"Left to see to business, and left y'all a message with Paw-paw," Cindy reported. "Boss ain't sat still one second since he heard y'all were comin'. Let's get you to him, right away."
When they found Cid, his wiry form was slumped under heavy shoulders, weighed down by the news. "Crystal and the king's ring," he said, shaking his head, after he'd filled them in on some of the finer details of the attack, as well as the fate of the Crystal that protected Insomnia through all these centuries, and the Ring of the Lucii, the powerful artifact that gave the Kings of Lucis their power.. "What they been after all along…"
"So all that talk of peace," Ignis said, stating the obvious, as if he just wanted that confirmation once and for all, "was merely a pretext…"
Saying it outloud didn't actually help anyone understand or accept it any better, and they were all silent until Noctis finally hissed out, "They played my father for a fool."
"Don't kid yourself," said Cid, reaching over for a wrench sitting on the table beside him. "Reggie wasn't born yesterday." He leaned forward, wrench between his hand, focusing on that as if that would help make this easier to say. "Lucis got dealt a losin' hand, and your old man played it the best he could. He saw this comin' a mile away, and he wasn't gonna go down without a fight….
"In the end, though," Cid finished, sitting back again, and hesitated. "Well….it just wasn't enough."
And words, in that moment, clearly weren't enough, either, as the prince and his Kingsglaive stood there in awkward, uncertain silence.
"You need something else," Cid set aside that wrench again and pushed himself up slowly, almost creakily, to his feet. He held his aching back as he stalked through the young men, this last hope of Lucis, toward the exit of the garage, "you talk to Cor. I can't even remember the last time I saw Reggie. Feels like a lifetime ago."
And Noctis looked back at that table where that wrench had settled against all the newspapers with their headlines of the fall of Insomnia, and the small, framed picture sitting beside it. The Hammerhead, ages and ages ago, and faces he barely recognized for how young they were, how full of hope and life. His father, leaning against the Regalia. Cid, almost fresh-faced compared to how he was now, grinning proudly beside him, and the two others, like his own quartet now, and he didn't even know where to begin in processing the emotions twisting inside his gut at the sight of it.
"Cor left a message," Cid added, once they, too, had exited the garage. "Said he'll wait for ya in the tombs. They're to the northwest of here, just a short ways past the outpost. Find that first."
With the long, hard day they'd had slowly, finally coming to an end, and after having the location of the tombs, just beyond the Hunter's outpost far to the north, pointed out to them on the map by Cindy, it was clear that they couldn't make it there before nightfall. Battered, broken, and beaten, if not physically but in spirit, it was too dangerous to risk encountering daemons at night, and, besides, Imperial troops were everywhere, airdropping along the routes as another way to tighten their grip on Lucis and the surrounding areas.
So they headed, once again, out to make camp at a nearby Haven under the stars, a night filled with quiet brooding and reflection, and Prompto sitting there, out by the fire, hunched over his phone, trying and trying to just get anything through.
No service.
No service.
No service….
[[ and fin for the day. More dialogue swept heavily from Final Fantasy XV, but Chapter 2: No Turning Back this time! NFB, NFI, TBC, but of course OOC is love ]]