meadowlarklogs | the miles are way too long

[A small grin, skewed, the kind that V likes to give, like he finds something cynically amusing.]

And that's the nature of dreams and nightmares. They might not have physical form, just ghosts in the mind, but they are affecting. Even in hazy remembrance.

[He can imagine Griffon resting on the back of this chair, squawking laughter down at him. Delcaring that he was a nightmare of no such thing; too loud and opinionated to be defined as a "hazy remembrance".]

According to what you said, this world forcing us through new experiences isn't limited to you and me. At least you can find company in your misery with the rest of the Displaced.

[But with that said, he flows along with the topic switch.]

No, you haven't shown me any of your pictures. [Eyes fall to the camera, curious.]

[somehow, v manages to put into words what prompto was unable to. and, somehow, too, manages to offer the words that prompto had wished sorely to hear from others in regards to dreams, with how they confuse and torment, no matter how lighthearted they may be. it's reassuring in a way he can't quite explain.]

[and so he just nods at v's words about finding company in his misery, that statement being more comforting than it has any right to be.]

Maybe this is why I always take so many pictures, to make sure I remember things. My brain-gallery is so messy. I have over ten thousand pictures all messily hanging around. [something he should... get to organizing, maybe. picking himself up and onto his feet, he's tapping at buttons on his camera and walking towards the other.] It's more organized on my camera cuz the space is limited.

[he offers the camera to v, gallery open, even as he steps to lean his side against the back of the couch so that he, too, can see what pictures v will be looking at. one of the comforts an actual camera offers is how analog it feels in comparison to their neural implants--with buttons and options displayed on its screen, rather than popping up into their vision.]

Ah, just press the right arrow to keep going, and left to go back. There's a bunch of pictures of me and my friends, actually.

Edited 2019-06-16 14:26 (UTC)

[His touch is unknowingly careful when he receives the camera, some part of his subconscious taking over. This is an item of high sentimental value to his roommate — it would be the equivalent of V handing Prompto his book of poems (now missing) — and so he treats it like a relic, a chassis encasing countless memories and colorful experiences. Gently, gently.

A press of the arrow key, moving from picture to picture.]

So these are your friends. [He says with a crook of his usual smile, drawing itself out.] They look like a lively group.

[The same faces, over and over. Prompto really did surround himself with them, kept them close, through both battle and quiet moments in the night. If V feels an ache in his chest, an almost-jealousy, he is an expert at keeping it tamped down and not showing.]

You look like you’re having fun. When you’re not being attacked by… creatures, that is. [Daemons?]

Edited 2019-06-18 04:51 (UTC)

Considering we had nowhere to call home after the Empire absolutely decimated it, yeah, we were trying to have a good time.

[it's all they could do, really, to keep from feeling the weight of what really had happened to insomnia, to what the rest of their journey meant--and, now, prompto wonders if they even knew what it meant at all, or if their ignorance really befuddled any solid ideas they might have had about it if they had not kept on with that stubborn optimism despite all the odds.]

[he stops v at one of the pictures, sitting down on the arm of the chair and reaching his hand over to point at the screen, stilling on a picture.]

That's a Naga, and it's what we call a daemon. That one spoke, which was unusual. They're usually in dark, cramped places, so obviously this one was inside a cave. [he presses on a few more pictures] And these are examples of the wildlife in Eos. They're Arbas, which are like -- cattle? Livestock? They mostly run wild. Pretty calm animals, to be fair.

Oh, that's Ravatogh in the background. It's a live volcano, and people say that that's Ifrit's resting place after he got taken out during the Astral War, or somethin'.

[some more pressing...]

Ah. These would be chocobos, which I guess are like giant chickens for you guys, and we ride them, kinda like horses? They're pretty reliable form of transportation out in the wild and when going off road. Y'could find some in the wild, but there's this ranch that breeds them and keeps them safe, what with the whole daemons coming out at night, y'know.

[prompto doesn't have to continue pressing for long anymore, rounding back to this picture. he seems hesitant for a moment, but ultimately pulls back, sitting with his arms crossed, one foot on the floor, the other crossed over the arm of the chair.]

Aside from daemons, we had the Empire's troops on our tails a lot. That's a Magitek trooper, MT for short, the best of what magic and science could put together. There's thousands of those.

Edited 2019-06-18 11:11 (UTC)

[Quiet, listening. Each picture shuffles through, is committed to memory in V's mind, mainly out of curiosity. It was always curiosity that made him lose himself in the pages of books, when "he" was younger. This is not much different, only that there are pictures and personal experiences to go along with each image.]

And now you're painting your world to be beautiful but equally dangerous.

[He notes the pause at the picture of the MT, which of course only makes it more peculiar.]

Magic and science. With armor like that, they look more like machines than much else.

[Fishing, quietly, for Prompto to continue. Wondering if a connection is about to form.]

[it doesn't take much to pry prompto open, so to speak.]

They are machines.

[he clears up that much, at least, leaning back and staring at the picture from a distance for a moment. they're the axeman type of MTs, the fast ones that run at them and slash their axes in wide angles.]

I told you about the scientist who cloned himself, from who I was cloned from. [he's jogging his knee, annoyingly, the movement going through the chair.] He basically harvested human clones to use together with the starscourge to be able to power the armors. [a shrug, his foot-shaking stopping momentarily.] I read some reports about it.

[suddenly, a lot feels like spilling. prompto presents his wrist, without the usual clutter of accessories, his black tattoo stark in contrast to his pale skin, mottled with scattered freckles.]

This is my production code. I never knew what the numbers meant until recently, so that's one mystery out of the way!

[keeping it cool and collected]

[V has no expectation that Prompto should be upset about it. That he would have an existential breakdown about his origins right before his eyes, on cue; that would be silly, and too assumptive. V can see, even if some of it is trying to put on a brave face, that he's confronted this aspect of himself, has possibly turned it over in his head and maybe fought with the idea more than once. And now, he witnesses the fruit of these efforts; an acceptance, spoken plainly to him, even if there is a lingering unease beneath the surface.

But, even so, he's curious. V represents the part that Vergil looked away from, the part he would rather deny. The story behind someone else simply accepting who they were, and every part that came with it, is of interest to him.]

Until recently. How did you-

[V reaches out with a hand, fingers reaching out to almost-brush over the exposed skin where Prompto sports his tattoo. But he stops, remembering both himself and the threat of the empathy bond.]

-how did you find out? [He finishes, retracting his touch.]

You sure you wanna hear about it?

[his question is because he has his doubts that it would make a story worthy of v's time. he never got to explain it properly to noctis, feeling like adding on a lot of details would only just upset him. he finds his words lacking, when he wishes to ask ardyn for more information, to rehash that time, to make it real because it feels like it was just a dream with every passing day.]

[prompto brings his arm closer to himself and glances down at the tattoo, solemnly, almost, even if he has no need to. he knows the lines that mar his skin by memory, for all the time he spent wishing he didn't have them at all.]

[v isn't the type of person to ask questions for the sake of it. he wouldn't ask one if he didn't actually wish for an answer.]

[and so prompto takes a deep breath, before speaking,]

Right before I got here, a lot of things happened back home. I got chucked off a train--it's a funny story, almost. But... I ended up walking aimlessly for a while. [how much should he explain? how unnecessary are some of the details?] Long story short, I was taken to a magitek production facility, and there was this huge lab lined up with glass tubes.

[his arms spread out as he looks about, as if picturing the setting.]

There were bodies that looked just like me, just sleeping in them. It was pretty freaky, but I already had a suspicion. The doors only opened when I scanned my tattoo. There were research documents all over that mentioned the experiments, that mentioned me getting 'rescued' [air quotes] by Lucian soldiers. And then there was Ardyn, welcoming me back home with this... air of flippancy that I thought he was just being an ass on purpose.

[he deflates a little, rubs his left hand around his wrist, something he's used to doing, constantly.]

Then I met the man himself, Verstael Besithia. I never seen someone so crazy, talking crazy. 's my dad though, I guess? Biologically, there's no denying that. And as far as family reunions go...

I shot him in the head.

[and he puts his hands down, fingers tapping at his leg, as if any and all anxious energy can escape him through this action. he adjusts his position on the arm of the chair, having found himself in this position and not really minding the proximity that it allows, as odd as that may sound. he stares at his camera, in v's hand still.]

It was pretty intense living through it. It's almost like I wasn't in my body when going through that.

Edited 2019-06-19 15:36 (UTC)

[He’s putting imagery to the words. Thrown off a train, wandering without a direction, then straight into facility where these “MTs” awaited Prompto, asleep in their glass chambers. V wonders what it must’ve been like, to face other creations made like you, and then to meet the origin point of it all — his “father”, or so he calls him.]

It doesn’t sound like… you had much time to process what was happening. Wandering into that facility and seeing others like you.

[Seeing identical faces, identical features. Copies of yourself, but not yourself.

The young man’s anxiety is twisting in his gut. V can see it, though he makes no effort to point it out, remaining still, quiet, and even. He speaks as if he were reciting lines of poems back, no reason to let concern sweep into his tone when it probably isn’t what Prompto wants.]

Not all family reunions are happy ones. Especially if you’re considered family by technicality alone. [This, he can definitely relate to…]

Do you regret it? Shooting him?

The place blew up right after and I was forced to leave it without really getting any kind of -- real closure, I guess is what you'd call it. So, yeah, there really wasn't a lot of time to think about anything. Between explosions and driving through the snow.

[it was pretty desolate, pretty lonely, at the time. had it not been for aranea, prompto doesn't know if he would have been able to have gotten off his knees and moved.]

[as v asks the questions that he does, prompto leans forward and presses the back button on the camera until he finds this photo.]

--I took that shortly after when it was nighttime. I miss the night sky the most from Eos. [leaning back] I don't know if I regret it or not. It seemed like the right thing to do, but it also felt like I didn't have much of a choice. I--I've never actually shot at anyone and killed them.

[the last he says gets quieter and quieter with each word, as if that's something that's been bothering him, unconsciously.]

[this conversation is bordering on something he doesn't think he's quite to ready to think about too much, yet, always guarding himself and these feelings from bubbling. he crosses his arms, instead, looks down at v's profile.]

You got a sad family backstory, too?

[it's meant to be ... a little uplifting from the dreadful talk, even if the topic could be pretty heavy in itself.]

[It does sound lonely — a lonely place, a lonely thing to go through. And even while the camera’s screen transitions to the photo of an expanse of stars, V cannot help but think the vastness of space only accentuates this feeling, a big wide world that encompasses small existences.

It’s beautiful, though. The question promotes a lingering silence out of V, and he hands the camera back without looking at him.]

My father and mother died when I was young. [Leaning back in his chair again, his posture is more of a tired slouch than what it was before.] A sad backstory, but certainly not unique.

[He shears away the details so that he doesn’t have to go into them.]

Not like your story.

[prompto takes his camera back, getting back on his feet as v leans back and seems to slouch.]

Doesn't need to be unique to not be rough. Sorry, for your loss.

[because he really is. no one is without something that eats them up inside, in fear and hesitation and compromise, of something that has changed their life's paths forever. it's painful at best, endlessly searing hot at worst.]

[he walks back towards the couch and sits down, playing around with his camera some more, eyes kept low.]

...are you also lonely, sometimes?

[it's a heavy question to ask, he knows, but he wonders about it, regardless, even in the quieter tones of his voice.]

[That is a heavy question, one that doesn't bypass his reticent nature all too easily. While V might be more open about certain things than his previous self, there is still an enclosure around his insides; an iron gate, barring the path, even if it isn't difficult to see past the bars.]

I think everyone is. Sometimes.

[Widening the scope of the answer to encompass "everyone", and not him specifically. Thus it's only half an answer.]

[prompto can't help the sharp exhale of air, a small smile on his features before he rubs it away with his hand.]

[he knows what v is doing--the desire to talk about others rather than to talk about himself. prompto is also guilty of deflecting, mostly when he first started hanging out with noctis and the others.]

Right. [he glances up.] I like that about you. You put things into--a different perspective and, like, you get it.

[it's the interactions they've had from the start up to this point, from being relative strangers to roommates. prompto understands that v wants his space, and so he gives it to him. at the same time, v is approachable, never really pushing a conversation away unless he wants to--and by then, he would let you know that he's done talking.]

[as far as companionship goes, prompto's glad to have v around. makes things not seem that lonely.]

Hopefully I'm not a huge pain in the ass as your roommate. Even if it gets lonely... [for himself, he means. softly,] I'm feeling a little better. [he means that!!] Guess I felt I couldn't really -- talk about this with anyone.

[He supposes the compliment should be satisfying enough. At least V can return it in a similar fashion.]

I'm not used to living with others. It probably comes as no surprise to you, but I tend to keep to myself when necessary.

[Such as his memories would remind him, the only time he felt comfortable in shared company was when Vergil had been so, so much younger.]

So for what it's worth, the fact that you're not a 'pain in the ass' at all says something for your character. [And that is sincere enough. He looks at him with a raising, slightly amused, brow.] I'm glad you're feeling better.

You can't commandeer the couch forever, after all.

[the words that v says are like blows of feel-good energy. there's no real virtue to them, but they don't seem to contest with prompto's more nebulous, detrimental thoughts about himself. rather, they seem to help the good that he knows he has shine more.]

[the thanks aren't said due to their being unnecessary, a smile fitting onto his face with ease.]

Yeah, like you're a big couch-user anyway.

[v has his preferences in furniture, and it's the armchair he's on right now that suffers his attention most days, witness to softly-spoken poetry or the light tap of fingers to the rhythm of a symphony or two.]

[his eyes reach the other's amused look, some hesitation in his words.]

I was thinking of ordering somethin' for lunch. [he braves on with a casual air (but for the way he turns his camera over in his hands, seems to shift too much on the spot).] Dunno if you'd want something, too?

[you know, roommates stuff.]

the miles are way too long

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