I want to ride my chocobo all day!

It had been a very long day.

They'd left Insomnia that morning, after an awkward blessing and some awkward and intense departing words from the King. "I ask not that you guide my wayward son," Regis had told them, as they stood on the steps of the Citadel on their way out, "merely that you remain at his side." Easy enough, right? That was, after all, the plan.

It had not, however, been the plan that the Regalia, the king's own royal vehicle that they were borrowing for this trip, would break down before they even got halfway to their destination of Galdin Quay, the quaint seaside port that would whisk them all away to the Altissia, capitol of Accordio, where the wedding would take place. Thankfully, the Hammerhead garage was not too far down the road...

At least, it wasn't supposed to have been that far down the road, but when you had to make the travel by pushing a big, heavy classic car down the scorching desert roads winding through the sun-blasted plains of Leide...it seemed like it had taken a lifetime. Even with muscle like Gladio's behind it, pushing the car into the Hammerhead had been slow going, already eating up a good chunk of their day.

The repairs wouldn't be quick, either, and, according to Ignis, they were also not cheap. The costs had quickly eaten into most of their funds, leaving very little allowance left over for any room, board, food and supplies they might need, which seems a bit more pressing now that they weren't making a straight shot to Altissia anymore. Luckily, Cindy, the quirky, plucky, and rather...noticeably dressed granddaughter of the Hammerhead's own and, apparently, according to Fandom, one of Prompto's potential future baby-mamas, which did not make the meeting awkward at all, no, not even a little, had some errands for them to run to kill some time and maybe put a little extra gil back into their pockets.

And that is what led them here, to the Merrioth Haven just west of the Hammerhead in the Three Valleys, setting up camp around the soft glow of one of the many spot throughout Eos magically enhanced to protect against the marauding daemons that would come out with the encroaching night, already beat and bruised from a day of pushing cars and hunting down reapertails--varmints, as Cindy liked to call them--and helping to find some lost hunter named Dave....who also wanted them to help take down a more dangerous beast that had been giving them some trouble. All of that had eaten most of the day, though, and it was dangerous to travel at night, so there they were, setting up camp to rest up for the big hunt, eat some amazingly delicious camp pizza from Ignis, and, hopefully, take down the beast and get back on the road nice and early in the morning.

But not...too early, Prompto hoped. And, as he let dinner settle and listened to Gladio and Noctis training behind him, Ignis cleaning up his camp kitchen, he looked out over the sunset, lifted his camera to get a good shot of it, and, smiling softly to himself, went to send it and a couple of texts over to Liz:

Just look at this view!

With that message she'd get a bunch of heart emoji and the dusky orange sky, the rough terrain of Leide giving way to mountains in the distance, where the shining, glowing twist of the Disc of Cauthess could be faintly seen far, far, far in the distance, and, much closer, to their left, the jagged tooth of Longwythe Peak.

Plans are a little delayed. We ran into some car trouble, but it should be fixed and back on the road to Altissia tomorrow! So it's camping out here in the Leidan wilds until then! My first night out of the city, but Igs insists the Havens are safe from the daemons. Definitely going to send you a shot of the night sky, even if it's only half as beautiful as people say it is. Hope everything's going well back at Fandom. Miss you! Love you! 😘😘😘

With that, he sighed, sitting back in his chair and looking out over the horizon, his first actual Eos sunset out in the wild, outside of the city, as things settled down for the evening and he felt Gladio's hand fall on his shoulder.

"Better wrap it up for the night," he said, "another long day ahead of us in the morning."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Prompto brushed it off, but with a grin, as Noctis pulled up a chair and flopped into it next to him. "We'll get there. What's the rush, big guy?"

"I just don't want to hear you whining about being tired when I kick you two out of the tent tomorrow to go take on that beast."

"Don't worry," Noctis offered, "we'll have plenty of other things to complain about, too."

That earned him a roll of Gladio's eyes and a chuckle from Prompto, before he sighed again and just thought that this was kind of nice, actually, like it was just the four of them against the world.


[[ and so it begins, the point of no return for the boyos, as we finally enter Final Fantasy XV proper! NFB for distance, but open for interaction if anyone, particularly texted girlfriends, would like to get in touch....while they still can (bum bum BUM!). May be slow, though, as I will actually be stomping around a convention center as one of these dudes all day today ]]