I want to ride my chocobo all day!

Well. Despite what Prompto said, things were not entirely alright. After all, there was little time for them to dwell on this reunion, and still a long ways to go. Mind racing, body sore from the elaborate device they had strung him up on to wait for Noct to come and find him like some sort of booby trap, and the general weight of the last few days in captivity finally lifting off his shoulders, Prompto followed them through the stations and hallways, until Ignis' voice stopped them all again.

"Noct," he said firmly, and then quieted with his question. "Do you hear that?"

( Hear what? )

"Unless you'd rather not be," said Ignis, smiling as he regarded Prompto in passing. Not really looking at him, obviously, but still seeing him all the same.

And Prompto, ducking his head with one more soft smile, followed them into the chamber.

[[ at least the last parts are relatively short ones as this mess of a chapter ties up what it needs to before we can move on! Part 4 of 6 of Final Fantasy XV Chapter 13 "Redemption", where I had to alter a loooooot because half the dialogue in this scene wouldn't have even made sense for FH!Prompto, but that's not reason to not try to squeeze in just a little bit more clone drama while I can! ]]

Nothing quite like a frantic race through a frozen wasteland with guns and missile launchers shooting at you the whole time to really cap off an entire existential crisis. If anything, having to plow through hordes of MTs and trying to control the vehicle underneath him as it hit outcroppings of rock and sped along trenches and over rock formations provide and excellent distraction, fueled by the adrenaline and the desperate need to just get away from the facility and all he'd be leaving behind within it.

But, eventually, he had to stop. And when he did, there was nothing left to keep it all from rushing right back to him.

( At least he had a vehicle now, and a potential ally, and a possible rendezvous point.--CW for self harm )

She let that linger a moment before she released him, pushing back his head as she did so and crawled off of him. And what could Prompto do but lay back against the cold, hard ground, remembering how to breathe again, as Aranea stepped over him and left him there to wallow in that question.

"I'm going after the new model in the morning," she informed him. "You're on your own now, kid."

Prompto waited, laying still as if paralyzed, until he was sure the sound of her boots had retreated entirely, before pulling himself up from his sprawled position with a groan.

What did he want? What was he after?

They were very good questions, and he thought he knew the answer, at one point. But now? The answers he had just seemed too incredibly insurmountable to even be possible.


[[ and finally, part 4 of 4 of today's batch of Episode Prompto! More to come tomorrow, and thanks to everyone who's stuck through/skimmed up through this point! You know you're in for it when literally every post comes with a CW.]]

It didn't take long for exhaustion to start creeping up on Prompto as he made his way through the next facility, wondering just how extensive and deep this place really ran. Bust-a-Bases sure were easier with the porta-fortresses and with the others at his side, and it didn't help, with the extra weight of what this particular facility was.


This was where it happened. This was…where he came from. Where it all began…


( And the more he made his way through the building, the more there was to uncover…--CW for more messed up science. )


Prompto wondered if his breath would ever cease to be shay anymore. "So he's the one behind the attack on Insomnia," he realized. "He planned the whole thing…Everything…everything we've lost since that day…" His home. Fandom. Liz. Lucis. Lunafreya. Ignis' sight. Hope. Joy. His future! "...is gone...because of him."


Which meant he no longer had a choice. Gripping that last recorder tight in his hand, Prompto pushed himself back up to his feet, determination mixed heavily with dread.


Sins of the father, indeed.


[[ Part 2 of 4! Gotta love a good spicy lore drop before a final confrontation! ….not even halfway through the episode! ~to be continued~,, and heavily, heavily cribbed from Episode Prompto, as one might expect! NFB, NFI, OOC lovely~]]

It had been...a very long day. Prompto whose mun figured that plot breakages was pretty much inevitable at this point had decided to tell the others...everything. About the worlds of darkness, about the crystals, about Noctis' sacrifice, about...about the clones, about the monsters, about all the terrible possible futures and what they could potential mean for them all. About how he kind of didn't want to go back, about how much more he could take.

( All the more DRAMATIC PARTS cut for length, yo. )

"Hey," Gladio broke in, grin broadening, "you know, even if you didn't have all these great classes Iggy and I picked out for you to go back to, you'd still have to go back. No way we're dealing with Nina if you tried to stay here. We'd never hear the end of it!"

Groaning, rolling his eyes, Prompto slumped in his chair, considering the slew of text and pictures he'd gotten from her at the beginning of the week, during her party on Wednesay, and mostly expecting something else if not tonight then tomorrow, and for every other day until he actually did get back. And even if he did groan and roll his eyes for show in front of the boys, he couldn't really deny the little thrill of appreciation in there, too. He tilted his head, so he could look at Gladio warningly when he said, "I'd watch what you say about Nina outloud, dude. She probably has this place bugged to high heaven..."

Then he realized what he'd said.

Then he realized how it was probably true.

And the others were realizing it, too, he noticed, as they were all now giving him a mutual, expectant look.

"Right," he said, rolling out of the chair and hopping to his feet to go rig up a nice debug pulse through the apartment, "on it!"

[[ NFB for distance, of course, but post is open! ]]

Though he still felt like it was some sort of miracle that he'd decided to stay, Prompto had not just hitched a portal right over to Insomnia the moment he got back from his food philosophy class on Monday, even though he'd been tempted. He really, really didn't like what the island was doing this week; the whole being-under-water-in-a-dome thing would have been bad enough all on it's own --it didn't help that he kept thinking of that force-field that had gone up with all the vampires, either -- but the fact that it was leaking? That it was clearly not maybe the most structurally sound? Terrifying. Like, at least with Insomnia's barrier, you barely noticed it. And it was, you know, underneath sky and not an entire ocean that would crush them all in probably two seconds after the first really big crack. Just thinking about it made it hard for Prompto to breathe...

...and then there were those...those...things, attacking people at every turn, all of those nightmares he'd been having about himself, come to life, lurching for him...

....fuuuuuck thaaaaaat. But running away to Insomnia was...just that. Running away. Like a coward. And Prompto didn't want to be a coward. And something deep, deep, deep inside of him told him that being a coward, especially in the face of all his friends here was far worse than being crushed to death under a sudden rush of water, of suddenly losing air because there just wasn't enough of it anymore, of being ripped apart of sliced to ribbons by something that could have been, would have been, should have been human.

If he was staying, though, there was no way he was leaving his room, unless he absolutely had to, or unless he was going to classes. He was definitely not venturing into town, and that included for the weekly activity (though he kind of wish he knew it was going to be just at the auditorium and not the community center or something). He was still on the fence about work tomorrow, though, biting his lip, eying his phone a little, debating on whether or not to just text Zack and tell him 'sorry man, i can't come in today, but i'm sure sidon could come in for me?'. He liked to think Zack would understand, but the idea that Zack might think he was a coward....was just too much.

So he debated a little while longer before sighing, not sending anything yet, and picked up his video game controller again to just...lose himself somewhere that wasn't here, as if that would be enough to just make him forget.

And you know what? Sometimes...it kinda was...

....just like when he was a kid and all he wanted was for the whole world to just...go away.

[[ door is closed, but the post is open if anyone wants to swing by! ]]