hashtag_chocobro | Room 303; Saturday Afternoon [05/25].

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Room 303; Saturday Afternoon [05/25].

Well, this week had been one hell of a ride, hadn't it? Prompto always did have a problem with getting all wrapped up in his own head sometimes, but last weekend and the events that followed meant that he'd been mired in even deeper than usual. And, in light of certain events, he found himself in a situation where he couldn't just ignore and avoid certain people for their own damn good. Which meant that he'd have to do the other thing to do when things got like this, the thing he didn't really like to have to do, the thing he tried to avoid at all costs, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that it was the right thing to do.

He really needed to talk about it.

And since treats always made talks easier, he remembered an unfulfilled idea to go get milkshakes at some point and latched onto that. Of course, getting around the island was a pain in the ass for nearly everyone except Sidon, and while the thought of commandeering Sidon for a trip had crossed his mind, he didn't even know whether any of the good milkshake spots in town were flooded or not, and he didn't want to bother with figuring it out when he could just make milkshakes himself and his room would be more private for all this crap, anyway. So, with more trouble than there should have been (he decided to blame class yesterday, somehow. After blending all those CDs, blending milk and ice cream and fruit seemed suspiciously smooth-going), he managed to make one strawberry one for Nina and one banana one (he was going for a yellow color, which he did not really get, but whatever), found fancy glasses to put them in, even whipped cream and a cherry (thanks, mysteriously accommodating refrigerator!), and then brought them back to his room where he could take a picture and send her a text:

If you're not up here in five minutes, I'm totally drinking your milkshake.

He figured that would do the trick, so he settled in comfortably on the floor, leaning against his bed, contemplating sending her a picture every minute or so with a little bit of her shake sipped away each time to prove that he was serious.

[[ mostly for the one, but can be open if anyone wants to swing by after Nina! And the fact that they met to talk about stuff is a-okay, but if the nitty-gritty deets of the convo could be NFB, I'd greatly appreciate it, squirrels! ]]

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"Yeah..." Prompto looked away again for a moment to build up his courage to go into the next part.

"And then....there's this." He reached across himself to push back one of the leather straps that he always wore with his gloves, then held out his wrist of Nina to see the neatly tattooed barcode there. "I always thought it was just, you know, something they did to people when they were born there, to keep track of of them, stuff like that. That always seemed to make sense to me, that seemed like the sort of thing they would do. I always wondered if it meant anything more than that, though. Did it, like, I don't know, designate me as a sort of soldier? If I hadn't been slipped out of the Empire, would I have been in their army? Would I already just some faceless cannon fodder dead in a field somewhere by now? I've heard that they do weird stuff to their soldiers, too, subject them to all sorts of experiements, so that they're barely even human anymore, but, you know, we're at war, you never really know if any of that's true or if it's just...scary stories you tell kids or kids tell themselves, trying to scare each other about the big bad evil Nifs..."

He couldn't look at it anymore. He drew his wrist back, shuffled the leather strap back in place to cover it again.

"But I know now. It is true. And...it's actually...it's actually a whole lot worse."

Edited 2019-05-25 23:41 (UTC)

This was one of those times where Nina really wished that she better understood how a lot of modern things worked. She knew what barcodes were for, of course, but maybe if she understood their history a bit better, she'd.......

For now, all she could do was memorize the numbers and letters. That, at least, she didn't have to understand to be able to do. 05953234 and N-iP01357 were seen, committed to memory and then tucked away as she listened to what he was saying.

Nina reached out to brush his arm with her fingers, wanting to comfort him. Worse than being made a solider? Worse than being subjected to a whole lot of experiments?

She kept her mouth shut, for once, and just listened, being there for him.

Prompto almost wished she had said something; this was...hard, talking about it, having to actually hear the words come out of his mouth, words that took all of his worst fears and nightmares as a child and blew them up to something almost beyond reasoning, beyond nightmares.

"I'm..." he started, then stopped, tried again. "They were...are...making people. Human clones, in their magitek research facilities. People they could just...do whatever they wanted to, because it didn't matter, because they could just, you know, make more, they weren't really people, they were just...clones. They didn't matter. And they were....using...daemons. Trying to create some...super daemon-human hybrid. And they marked those clones with barcodes..." His lifted his hand again, weakly, and let it fall back down again. "Like mine.

"And the technology's not perfect," he added, quickly, as if to move as swiftly away from that detail and get right to the point as quickly as possible. "It usually didn't matter, either, because, you know, they're just supposed to be experimental, you don't need them to live very long, you're planning on getting all up in their DNA and changing it anyway, they probably never even had one live as long as...as I...do...but it turns out, the cells weren't meant to last, they just start...breaking down....they're...not like a normal person's cells..."

"But they're not breaking down yet," Nina said softly, her thoughts whirling through possibilities, sorting out and discarding and trying to figure out what she could do to help that but....... the Prompto, right here and now was more important. "You're not breaking down yet. You're not some thing. You're Prompto."

That was really the most important thing.

"Your origins matter only because looking at them mean we'll have a better chance to cure you. It's the same way doctor's like to know the medical history of a patients' family. Where you come from and how you came to be, that matters, but they're not you."

That...sounded familiar, like he'd heard it somewhere before. Obviously in the future, the future that was starting to fade with the details, and he rubbed his face a little, trying to remember who had said it, but it was all starting to just be a messy jumble.

He rubbed his face a little, rubbed his thumb and forefinger in his eyes, down to his chin, and let it fall away again with a sigh.

He didn't know what else more to say, really. Because it was him. It was who he was; it might not matter, but it was still...

...but if said that, Nina'd probably just argue the point, so there didn't seem to be much use in saying it at all. And he'd said enough already, really, didn't know what else more there was too say.

A goddamn clone. Not even his own person, but by the grace of a few spies collecting information and finding a whole lot more. They could just have easily have grabbed the schmuck in the test-tube next to him, and then he'd be Prompto, probably the exact same, too, no different, because they were just copies anyway...Copies that embodied everything Lucis was fighting against...

It was....

...a lot to take in, yo.

It was a lot to take in and she didn't know any way to make it better or easier for him, if there even was such a way to do something like that.

She just sighed, softly, pulling her knees up against her chest, and thought about how, sitting here next to him, with melted milkshakes, none of it felt quite real. Her angle of research was going to have to change, though she wasn't sure how yet. There was time to puzzle out the enemy later, when she didn't even have a good grasp on Insomnia or Lucis.

Sitting there, just keeping him company, would have to do for now, and Nina was glad to do it and loathe to break their silence, but...

"What about Vette?" she asked, after a while. "Are you going to tell her?"

"I...don't know," Prompto admitted. "I...probably should, though, right? I mean, it's at least easier to tell you guys than it will be to tell..."

Well, that was because it didn't mean as much to Nina or Vette or anyone else here. It didn't even mean anything to them that he was a Nif. And he always got the feeling that Noctis somehow already sort of knew, somehow, but he hadn't even told them that much yet...

He rolled his head to the side to look over at her again. "Do you think I should?"

At least with this, there was a segue, a build-up, they actually had to talk about stuff. But there wasn't anything like that with Vette, it would be just like strolling up to her and being all 'oh, by the way, I found out I'm a clone made by a bunch of bad guys to be made into a nightmarish monster over the other weekend, anyway, how was your day?'

Nina met his eyes, looking up at him.

"I think... I think that you should," she ventured, even though... well, Nina was hardly one to talk about being open and honest with secrets.

What he'd said, though, definitely silenced her other question, about if his boys knew, back home. No, they didn't, and Nina didn't need to ask to know that, like the pictures she'd taken of older-Prompto, she wasn't to tell them about what Prompto had said today.

Which, in a way, was a crying shame. Figuring out how to fix him would go easier if his boys could help... even if only to ease her way and point her in the right direction for research...

"Because, we said it, we promised. Together, we're unbreakable." And, already, they were doing great at the drama part of their name, weren't they? "So... so I think Vette should know. It can be a gang secret, but I think she needs to know."

This was hardly the kind of drama Prompto had in mind when he'd suggested the name, but he wouldn't deny that it still fit pretty well, didn't it?

He drew in a bolstering breath and nodded a little. "Then I'll tell her. Soon. I'm...not sure when it'll be a good time, but I'll try not to put it off. If I do, it'll be too easy to just, you know, conveniently forget or get distracted or whatever..."

"She'd be really hurt, if you didn't tell her and it came out later that I knew," Nina told him, because it was true. "Vette might not say when she's hurt, but she would be."

So... going off and getting distracted and forgetting or... whatever, well, that might still happen. Nina wasn't going to make him talk to Vette, not about something like this.

But if he didn't tell her then, at least, she'd warned him.

"Vette's used to people leaving her," she added, more quietly. "Don't leave her like that, Prompto."

Prompto's attention drifted back to Nina with a little more focus at that, blinking a little as his brain dredged up something else from last weekend, something that made that statement seem to hit with a particularly ironic sting. "Hm." It came out as a mostly thoughtful little breath, but he shook that train of thought away.

"I wouldn't," he said softly. "I...won't. I can't." He nudged her lightly with his elbow. "We're all stuck with each other now, whether we like it or not, right?"

"Always and always," she said, smiling just a little. Even if the universe was determined to make it hard for them to stay that way. "I never though, when we all got on the bus together, that this would happen."

It still seemed unbelievable, how everything had happened.

"I'm so, so glad it did, though," Nina added. "Even when it hurts."

It always hurt; just some times slightly less than others.

"Saaaaaaaaaaame," Prompto tilted his head back and declared it emphatically, chuckling a littlle...and letting it build to a lot. "It hasn't even been a whole year yet, and it feels like I've known you guys for pretty much ever."

And what a trio they made. The slave, the clone, and the orphan spy.

"It's...pretty great, actually," he added, sending a good old lopsided grin her way.

She grinned back.

"And now," Nina declared, "you're not even allowed to get sick of us."

As if he was really allowed to get sick of them before but now, now it was official.

Nina hesitated a moment, but really, given that she'd just told him about not keeping secrets, it really did make her a bit hypocritical to not tell him things.

"Ummmmmmm," yeah, she really didn't want to tell him; Nina sometimes liked keeping secrets for the sake of having a secret, not because it was important, "just so you know, like, I spoke with Ignis?"

Well. Texted.

"And he helped me get a library card for your world," Nina admitted. "Because... because even when you hadn't told me all of this... I was worried. I didn't tell him why I needed one and he didn't ask."

Prompto's head tilted with a little bit of curious confusion, trying to go over the last week for anything particularly embarrassing that he might have done that she'd have sent to the boyos like the potato sack race, but then she continued on with an explanation, which seemed...interesting. A little confusing. Why would she want to....ah, but, then again: Nina. That was kind of all the explanation he really needed.

"You run out of stuff to stick your nose into on this world, had to go start sticking it in mine, huh?" he asked, lightly teasing with a soft smile to prove it. "I bet he was stoked, too, probably went on for about an hour talking about how nice it was to finally have someone actually interested in pursuing," and here he pulled out his best Ignis impression, which wasn't that good, especially since he hadn't gotten nearly as much practice as when he pulled it out on Yang over the reunion weekend, and it helped, giving those invisible glasses a push up his nose and of course he had to add the little flourish of his hand afterwards, that was apparently the best part, "a healthy extracirricular interest in such scholarly pursuits."

Rude! But also accurate.

Nina giggled at his impression. "He's really very nice!!!!!" she protested, though she knew Prompto was aware of that. "Even if... well, he did go on for a bit............"

She had the texts to prove it.

"And it's not just your world I'm sticking my nose into," Nina said loftily. "I'm also sticking my nose into Vette's too."

Because why meddle on one world when she could meddle on four, including her own and this one?

"Yup," said Prompto, "that checks for Ignis. And that checks for you, too."

But there was a slight, maybe even a little bit uncomfortable pause following it.

"What sort of stuff are you looking for, anyway?" he wondered.

Nina considered that question.

"In which world?" she asked, finally.

"Mine," Prompto clarified easily. "I mean, I assume with Vette's, it's a lot of stuff about trying to get her home, right?"

Which was definitely a nice can of worms just sort of sitting there, but he really felt he was in no position at all to open that one...

"Yeah," she sighed, the sound a bit frustrated. "I can get myself to her home, but I haven't figured out how to get her there yet. Vette mentioned having Sidon try talking to the Portalocity people next."

Which Nina kind of desperately wanted to see. The Portalocity people tended to avoid her these days.

"For yours, honestly, all I've really started looking at so far is basic world history," she said tilting her head back. "And some gossip rags, because those are always fun no matter what. But I was looking to see if... if I could find a reason that your future world was in such a bad state. Like, always, in both the past weekend and when your kid showed up... But I don't know anything about your world, so I figured the best place to start would be the beginning.........."

Prompto was quiet for a moment, a thoughtful, debating sort of pause where he was clearly going through a few things. "If you can," he finally said, slowly, "you'll want to look into daemons, maybe....more about what they are and where they came from, but good luck finding much in Insomnia. You should have probably gotten a Nif card instead, that's all their territory. And I dont know what happened in Lucy's timeline, but, in this last one....the details are all fuzzy, but...the world pretty much ended. Everything got dark and the daemons took over after Noct....I...really don't remember what happened, but he was gone, and then, like, ten year's later, he came back, but just long enough to..."

His brow furrowed. Why couldn't he just remember? For sure?

"I think....I think he died, trying to set things right. And...it worked, everything did go back, the daemons were gone, we even got Sidon to send Zora architects to help us rebuild Insomnia, something like that...but everything before...

"Anyway," he shook his head a little, "maybe start there. With the daemons..."

"I'll start with the daemons," she said, though she had so many questions, about things he said he didn't remember, about darkness and daemons and Noctis saving everything but dying in the process...

"Not just for saving you," Nina said, "but for saving Noctis too, and your world."

Because Prompto loved his home and Noctis was his best friend.

"I can get a Nif library card."

How, exactly, she wasn't sure. She didn't even know the name of any of their cities. But thanks to Ignis she knew how getting a library card and, she was pretty sure, it would be similar in other countries.

She'd probably have to come up with another last name, though...

"I dont even think they have libraries," Prompto admitted with a faint laugh, which sobered up pretty quickly with a realization. "But...they do have research facilities! AND you can probably use the data on my barcode to get in! It....granted me access, when...we were all at one, at some point, but I can't....remember why, but I could use the barcode to get into places! Maybe the code is enough to access stuff remotely! But...I mean..."

He trailed off a little, the excitement waning.

"Then you'll really have to be careful, Nina. You don't want to mess with Nifs. If they found something out, who even knows what they could do?"

"Hey," Nina said gently, nudging him. "I know it sounds big and scary and it would be terrible if I got caught, but..........."

She studied her hands for a moment.

"Like, the best way you can help me out is help me figure out the technology of your world," she admitted. "Because, Prompto, the spying is what I'm good at. That's... that's my job. It's just, my world doesn't have all the tech you guys have, so.......... that's my biggest concern."

That wasn't to say she was at all comfortable with the idea of being hunted down, tortured, imprisoned or killed. But those were all threats that she would face at home, too, if she got caught.

"I can definitely help with the tech," Prompto assured jer, since that was easier than thinking about the fact that it was big and scary and probably a terrible idea. "I know the tech..."

He...was the tech, in a way.

A grin surfaced, a little easier, now. "Maybe, I'll have to plan a trip home. I wanted to talk with everyone about this, anyway, I just wasn't sure how, but, maybe, if this means we can convince the Crownsguard to do a raid, we can find what we need, you know? We did a lot of raids, once I got out of here, and they're pretty helpful. And there's Hunters, too, they might be helpful if I can't convince the Guard to do anything yet..."

He knew how crazy it would sounds if he brought it to them, but who knew?

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