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bakerstreet2019-04-05 12:10 am
sockarocka) wrote in bakerstreet2019-04-05 12:10 am
Entry tags:
THE LAST WORDS MEME
This is it. The final curtain. You're at the end of your life, and there's someone here you really, really need to say something to before you die.
CW: Death, violence, potentially mental illnesses and suicide.
CAUSE OF DEATH
1 - Accidental. Nobody meant for this to happen, but it doesn't matter now. Due to negligence, arrogance or just plain bad luck, you've become gravely ill or injured and are now in your last moments. This covers all kinds of accidental deaths--strangulation, drowning, car accidents, unintentional beheadings, whatever you can think of.
2 - Murder. Somebody really didn't like you. Enough to kill you, it seems. You're now dead by someone else's hand. (Maybe even the person replying to you?) As with accidental death, this covers all types of intentional, malicious murder, regardless of method--so poisoning, stabbing, shooting, etc., all work here. Same with all the below options: any possible variation you can think of on it will work!
3 - Suicide. There is no hope for you, and no way out. You've reached the absolute bottom pits of despair, and the only recourse you have is to take your own life. Someone shows up to stop you... but they're too late to help you now.
4 - Terminal illness. You have cancer, or tuberculosis, or cholera back when people got cholera. The doctors have done everything they could and it wasn't enough. The only thing to do now is give your loved ones the bad news.
5 - Starvation. So thirsty. So hungry. Maybe you've been traveling in the desert for hours, or maybe you're just really poor. Whatever the reason, it doesn't matter, because you're slowly wasting away until you're nothing but skin and bones.
6 - Death in battle. You've died a hero's death, and gone out in a blaze of glory. Or maybe you were a coward who got shot for deserting? Either way, you're now a casualty of war. Will you be honored with a parade or scorned as a traitor to your country?
7 - Natural causes. You've lived a long, happy life, and now your story is at an end. In a warm bed, surrounded by your family and friends, you peacefully drift off. Just make sure that you've made a will somewhere, or at least use your deathbed to set the record straight. Otherwise, who knows what kind of squabbles might errupt after you leave this world?
TIME LEFT
1 - A few minutes. You're fading fast and you don't have much, well, any time left. Better tell the person with you that you love -- or despise -- them with your last breath, because you'll never have the chance otherwise.
2 - A few hours. You haven't got much time left. Is there someone you still need to kill? To kiss? Better do it quick. (Note: last kisses not recommended for people dying of highly contagious illnesses.)
3 - A few days. The doctors have given you the news, and it's not very good. You've only got a couple days left to live. You should start trying to make peace with people and saying your final goodbyes with the days you have left.
4 - A few weeks. Take that vacation you've always wanted to go on but never had the chance to. Go do that thing you've never thought you'd be any good at. You've got only weeks left to live. Don't waste them.
5 - A few months. While you aren't quite on death's doorstep yet, your lifespan has still dwindled considerably from what you probably thought it would be. How are you going to spend your last few months on Earth? Making the world a better place and telling your family you love them? Or raising as much hell as possible?
RELATIONSHIP
1 - Lovers. This is your husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, mistress, whatever you call them they were the person you wanted to spend your life with. Too bad you don't have much of a life to spend with them anymore.
2 - Siblings. Your beloved little or older sibling is just standing there, watching you slowly waste away before their eyes. Can you say anything to comfort them? Note that it doesn't necessarily have to be interpreted literally; adopted siblings and friends so close they might as well be siblings work too.
3 - Parent and child. Nothing is worse than a parent having to bury their child... except, maybe, a young child now alone in the world after losing their parent. As with the sibling prompt, this can be expanded to include parental figures and people who are LIKE a father/mother to you as well as actual biological parents.
4 - Co-workers, teammates or classmates. You were fighting for the same side. Or you worked together in the same office for years. Or they sat behind you in biology all semester. However you met, how do your react when you find out someone who used to be a fixture in your life is going to die?
5 - Friends. You're the best of friends! You go everywhere together, know all each other's secrets, and are never seen apart. At least, you didn't use to be. Now one of you is dying and the other one is left alone in the world. Or maybe you're dying together. Wait, is that better or worse?
6 - Bitter enemies. You hate, hate, HATE this person. In fact, maybe you killed them. Or they killed you. Or maybe nobody killed anybody and they're just bitter that Mother Nature got to you before they did. Regardless, they want to confront you one last time before you bite it, if only to rub your nose in your imminent demise and their ability to outlive you.
HOW IT WORKS:
1. Feel free to choose how you are going to die, just be sure to list the closest matching categories in your subject bar, along with your character and their series.
If you are having trouble coming up with a prompt or situation, feel free to use the random number generator. Or if you rather just take a risk feel free
2. Responding characters then roll for the relationship between the two of you. Optionally responding characters can also share your cause of death/time left to live or roll for their own, but that's not required. A living character caring for (or horribly mutilating) a dying one is fine, too.
3. Tell the person what you need to tell them before you bite it.
4. Have fun!
kylo ren ( STAR WARS ) ota
Kain Highwind | Final Fantasy IV/Dissidia 012
HMMMMM....
[In truth, Kuja didn't hate the man. They had all been brought to this world against their wills with one directive at the behest of gods who knew as little about them as they knew about each other. But not hating him didn't breed any particular affection or camaraderie either, especially having spent time with one at the duty end of a spear and the other in the heat of a small supernova.]
[Still, something moved the Genome to stand by and watch, unwilling to step away and unable to move any closer, as Kain turned the spear on himself in a most gruesome fashion. Poetic, really. It was easy to assume they were all, on some level, capable and worthy, at least in the eyes of the battlefield, but even he himself had been close to despair in his darker moments when the cycles refused to end and the fighting continued day after day, time and time again. Was that why, then, that this warrior choose to take his own life?]
EXCELLENT, this is so wonderfully traumatic!!
[These thoughts had weighed heavily in Kain's mind for a long time before he fell over the edge enough to act on them. And act on them he'd planned on doing now. He'd chosen a spot that was quiet and remote, where there was little chance of his comrades stopping him... but it's in a territory where Chaos' warriors might be apt to go. Not that it mattered, and not that they would stop him, anyway.]
[It had been a dream, in the end, which finally forced Kain's hand. There was an achingly beautiful woman in the dream, with long blonde hair and a cheerful smile. She'd said his name so sweetly, and somehow Kain just knew she was his beloved, a love who he'd been torn apart from. He doesn't even know her name, but he knows she's lost to him, forever. What point is there in going on, in that case? This war has no hope for ending. He'll never see her again.]
[So Kain had come out here, taken one deep breath and a last look around. Then, lodging the lance in the ground, he'd jumped for a final time. A dragoon must have control in the air, and this time was no exception. Kain had soared down to land just so, the lance striking him right through the midsection as he then slowly sinks down its length, landing on his back with the lance jutting right out of him. Dark red blood is already pooling under him, as he'd still fortunately... unfortunately... struck a major artery and some organs with that landing. It gives him a few minutes of life left. He'd hoped to aim a bit higher, for his heart, to make it instant. But... the end result will be the same, anyway, won't it? He makes some pained sounds, his breathing labored.]
[He hasn't yet noticed that he's not alone. For now, Kain stares upward at the sky, waiting for death.]
;3; IT IS omgs
[However it would be, it would happen and there was nothing now he could do about that. They were no longer in a world where he could even try without being side tracked by fifteen other obligations, all rushing at him with claw and fang bared. He hadn't had time much to think about it before, but seeing Kain in the man's misery brought it all painfully onto center stage. He was going to die one day.]
[He was going to die.]
[Fears renewed, his skin tingled as it did when his darker moments crept too close to him, breaking out in a cold sweat against the relative warmth of the night air. This would be him one day, in whatever form death came for him. He would breathe his last, his soul would be lost to him, and he would know nothing ever again. The world would continue on as it did, wherever Zidane would go from here - and he had no doubt the boy would - and Kuja would rot where he fell, to be hated and then forgotten.]
[It occurred to him then that he was trembling. Pitiful. But this is what he had become, how far he had fallen.]
[After a moment of hesitation, Kuja turned, intent on departing, and stopped again, intensely uncomfortable although all he wanted was to be away from the reality that was lying mortally pierced in front of him. He can't do it, he realized. He can't leave Kain in agony like this, and he doesn't understand why. Did the man not come here to end himself? Kain would have known it would hurt. He would have known what he was asking for in that.]
[And yet he'd done it anyway. And something, damnably something about it all, as much as it filled him with dread, remembering his own date with eternity was just as inevitable now, bothered him worse that he would turn his back on another like this. Kuja never cared before. His entire purpose was to generate death; he had been created for no other. What was wrong with him?]
[Maybe, a part of him thought, it wasn't what was wrong with him. That part sounded suspiciously like Zidane, and he shook it away, turning back to spite it though his was an action to feed it, and approached Kain on legs that did not feel nearly as steady as they looked. He slowed a few feet away and dared not stray any closer. The stench of blood here was intense; so far away, this had been easier to observe. But he had come anyway.]
[He said nothing. What was there to say to a man in his final moments, strangers and enemies that they were? He said nothing, but he raised a hand, fingers spread. It would have been so easy to drop Flare and end the man's suffering, but Kain had done this intentionally. This was how he wanted his death to be, and Kuja would give him that. But he couldn't bear knowing how much it would hurt, the scene before him painted on a terror of his own future. The magic that circled around the spear at its entry point, green and benevolent, did not heal the injury, but Kain would soon notice the pain fade. It was all Kuja could do, and it made him feel no better about anything. His own death had yet to come, and now it was his turn to wait.]
no subject
[So this... this process of dying is every bit as awful as he'd expected from witnessing it countless times. It's painful. Agonizing. Messy. There's so much blood, thick and wet as it slowly spills from the wound, taking his life away with it. Already, his face is going pale white beneath his helm, and he feels a cold shudder move all along his body. It's even more terribly cold than he'd have expected. He's been gravely injured a few times in the past, of course, but... not quite like this. Usually he's fighting for life with a healer hovering over him. He's never before actually tried to let go and simply... depart.]
[Soon, he won't have to worry about any of this anymore, right? There won't be a him to worry. Soon. Each strained heartbeat taunts him: soon, soon, soon. But not yet. Kain is now completely certain that he would rather be dead than dying. It's hard, though, hard to imagine himself being gone, completely. The immensity of it is enough to almost crush him, but he knows this is what he wants. Right?]
[Kain's eyes are teared up with his face contorted in pain, as his life continues fading. But then something happens. All at once, the pain starts to lessen, slowly fading away as if it's just a distant memory. Is this it? Kain has wondered what that moment will feel like when it happens... will he know when it comes? Does the end of pain mean the end of life? He's getting more fearful as the moment approaches all too slowly, it seems, even though not much time has passed at all.]
[Wait... no. There'd been a flash of something... Magic? With his pain gone, Kain is better able to be aware of his surroundings, and now he sees Kuja there for the first time. His eyes widen for a moment, but what does he have to fear from his enemy now? What is Kuja going to do, kill him? Ha...]
Wait, you... But why?
[Why come here, why is he simply standing there, why did he cast that magic to dispel his pain...? That was him, wasn't it? Kain coughs, sputtering out some blood in the process, as he tries to focus his foggy gaze on Kuja. There's no more physical pain, but Kain's eyes are still filled with a deep distress. His mind is a tangled mess of emotions right now.]
agh wanna help him... wanna save him but... ;3;!!!!!
[As Kain's pain vanishes, it dawns on Kuja that perhaps the man had wanted that as well. Maybe he wanted to die in agony, now taken from him out of selfishness. But what's done is done, and he can't give it back without killing Kain outright and taking his suicide away from him.]
[His mouth opens. Closes. Opens again.]
I don't know. [It was the truth, of course, but it sounded pathetic even to him. He looked to the injury, found it easier to see. He could have turned to his aloof dismissal of everything, as was his wont, but he had lost his mood for it the moment the darkness returned.] You wanted this, but does it have to be so painful?
but he's stuck in the meme of DEAAAATH!
[So he'd tried and failed to go painlessly, and yet, he'd been spared the physical pain. Maybe it was meant to be, he can't say for certain... All he can do is stare up at Kuja. He'd faced him before, in battle, many times. They'd fought, their weapons striking upon one another's, Kuja's magic thrown against Kain's jumping. They had loathed each other and traded cutting insults. Now, look at them... Kain feels almost pathetic, laying here in total helplessness and defeat.]
Death is... always painful... [Kain pauses as another burst of coughing wracks him. His heart is fluttering in his chest, struggling so very, very hard to keep going, but the pattern is getting more irregular by the moment.] I just. I. [He pauses, losing his breath and his train of thoughts for a moment. The world is slowing down, feeling almost unreal. Of course... he doesn't belong to it anymore.] Didn't expect that, from you, of all people...
he iisss *bongos sadly!!!!* but I desire MOOOAR
Neither did I.
[Expect what he'd done of himself. Expect suicide of a warrior of Cosmos. They were all, he had assumed, too driven, too full of love for their own lives and the lives of others around them. Wasn't that what they said so often? They were stronger together? They fought for their friends? And now here one was, on the ground, dying by his own hand. He had wondered what the warriors of Cosmos thought of their opposition. Were they all unrepentantly evil to Cosmos's lot? Did her chosen think all warriors of Chaos thrived on destruction and misery? Such petty, meaningless things now, those musings, in the face of Kain's condition.]
[In truth, he didn't know what he expected of himself when it wasn't his own death he was facing, not in the moment. How many lives had he torn from their bodies from a distance and never given it a second thought? How many times had he given the command and watched the world bow to flame and fury? Always under the delusion of his own immortality, always without concern. Perhaps the warriors of Cosmos were right to assume what he thought they did. Life to him then was a game, to be played on a whim.]
[Now, at its end, at Kain's end, suddenly it wasn't fun anymore. The fear was all too real, the horror so very close, just as they had been when Garland told him of his betrayal. His own heart staggered in his chest, watching the life blood drain away from the dragoon's features, leaking freely from the hole in his torso to stain the ground around him.]
[He looked back to Kain's gaze again, faltered, eyes flickering back and forth once or twice from wound to gaze once or twice before he could make himself hold steady. In a way, he wished it would be done with. He couldn't bear the sight of the man like this, wanted desperately to be away from this place, for what good it would do him.]
Neither did I.
heheheh I'll... draw out his few moments as long as possible!?
[But he really has given up. Every time he thinks about returning to the war, his heat just fills with dread. Every time he thinks of picking up his lance, now, he just doesn't have it in him to care. Not when he's forever without that woman... ah, but he needs to stop thinking about her. It's not as if he'll ever see her in death, either. What... what will he see at all? Is there an afterlife for the likes of him?]
Surprised you're not... [He takes a few harsh gasps, then there's more blood that he coughs up so violently he's practically choking on it. Where is it all coming from, this blood...] Surprised you're not...making... a mockery of me somehow... You're missing your... chance to gloat...
[But it's not a battle that Kuja won, so maybe that's part of it. Kain... almost thinks he understands.]
[By now, he's just utterly covered in sweat and blood, and all his visible skin is a sickly pale color. His breath is more ragged than ever and his heart keeps on going, as weak as it's becoming. He's getting so lightheaded, and is starting to lose track of his thoughts again. He knows Kuja is there, he knows more or less who he is and what's happening, but... even some of that is starting to fade.]
Better this way... it's... for the best...
you dun gotta. he suffering. poor beebee
[So he shook his head, unsure if Kain could even see him by now. So much blood had been lost, he wasn't sure how the man could, but the coughing and the color loss... Kain's end was near. As if the spear through his belly wasn't proof enough of it. It made him ill to think, and he had to look away again.]
There is nothing here to mock. [Small comfort to him that he was not the one dying, but like Kain, his was still only a matter of time. What lie before him would be his one day, and after that there would be nothing. Confronting it now, in Kain's brand of expiration, wasn't doing him any favors, just as he was certain his being present did Kain no favors.]
[He wanted to say more, to fill the silence with something other than the dragoon's weak death throes and an even weaker breeze, but words caught in his throat, meaningless in their attempt. He had little to say anyway.]
I'm so awful to this dragoon!! <3
[One hand lifts up weakly, clutching briefly at the lance jabbed straight through him, a reflexive sort of motion, before it falls away once more. The fog covers more of his mind, clouding him in confusion. Kuja looks so far away now, the entire world feels so far away, so distant... He reaches upward once more, this time an open hand toward the sky, for just a moment, before again the hand falls down, too weak to be moved anymore. Neither his legs nor arms will respond to his commands, and he finds he simply doesn't care that he no longer has control over any of it. This body of his is just so heavy and he's just so weary of dragging it around.]
...just wish I could... remember... remember her, and her name... [All at once, he doesn't seem quite sure of who he's with anymore. That lack of memory has affected their entire time here in this world, has inevitably shaped the course of their lives in this war. So now here Kain is, at the end of his life, struggling to cling to what little he has, memories of home, of who he's supposed to be.] Do you? Do you remember? Will you remember?
[His voice is barely above a whisper now, as he can hardly draw enough breath to speak. That breath is starting to rattle horribly in his chest as fluids and blood build up, lungs aching for air that they aren't quite getting. His heart is slower, weaker, dutifully trying, like any soldier standing their ground in a losing battle. Kain stares at Kuja, then shifts his gaze toward the sky. He knows instinctively he has to make the most of that sight before it's too late. His vision is starting to go. So this... this is the feeling of hovering right on the brink of life and death.]
so ver awful aaaaa but it's what rng wanted
[It tore at him, ripped him two ways, neither of which he was able to follow, and inevitably scared him into musing over his own demise. He would fight it all he could. Until his very last, he would attempt to deny eternity what it would have of him. Was this truly what his end would look like? Less a spear, but no lack of regret? And then, how could it be any other way? Kuja himself had no real reason to live other than not to die. Not like this man, who had someone who would miss him, apparently - someone Kain would miss. People would mourn the dragoon; maybe that was what Kain now looked back on and wished he had stayed his hand.]
[Whatever the reason, it was far too late. Kain could no longer keep his grasp on the pole, and neither could he hold his hand to the sky, reaching for something Kuja would never be able to see. It was closing in faster now, the air seeming to grow even heavier around them. Something about it brought a stinging to the back of his eyes he was unfamiliar with and he shook his head at it, blinking a few times to force it away.]
How can I forget? [Oh, no. This will haunt his dreams for weeks and months to come. Battles will come and go, some won, some lost, but this memory will be one burned into his mind's eye as long as he lives. Whatever Kain intended in asking him if he would remember, surely the dragoon wouldn't find it in Kuja's meaning, but he'll keep that meaning to himself.]
yessss indeed!! :D rng loves a tragedy apparently!
[He's not even sure why he said that. Is it thanks for showing him some sort of mercy, easing his pain in this moment? Right now, he's done with those weighty thoughts. He sees things, though. Images flash through Kain's mind, a flickering, confusing jumble of things from his time both here and at home. There are all of his companions on Cosmos' side, the people who he's leaving behind. They'd counted on him, and a deep sorrow overtakes him for a moment as he sees each of their faces.] ...sorry, so sorry... [It's a low whisper, barely audible over that horrific gurgling and rattling in his chest. It's as if he sees them all there, friends who he'd not so much as said a farewell to. He hadn't wanted to be talked out of this, though, and hadn't wanted them to worry. They'll just... they'll have to carry on without him. They must.]
[The images of home have no words attached to them that he remembers, but they also strike a chord with him, dredging up so many complicated feelings. He sees a majestic castle, a ship soaring through the air, and other landscapes beyond that... He sees people he couldn't name: a green haired woman, an angry man with short white hair, a pair of child twins, a laughing, portly bearded man... Cecil is also there, and Golbez. Oh, Cecil... Is he letting down his best friend?]
[Then there's the beautiful woman who he still cannot name. It's enough to see her, surrounded by rose bushes and smiling at him, reaching out to him before the fog in his head claims her as well.]
I wish... I could... still remember...
[That's what he tries to say, anyway, but it's even more strained than before. This is it. It's happening. There is no going back, no sorting out the confused emotions that have always haunted him. The death rattle sound worsens and he's losing his focus even more. He doesn't see Kuja anymore, and he doesn't see the sky. He tries in that last moment to hold on, surprisingly, for just a bit longer, but he inevitably loses consciousness all too soon. The blood loss is just too much. All of Kain's fears and desires and hopes are all lost now, as if blown away by the wind.]
[His clogged lungs fail completely, his breath just going out in a long, unsettling exhale. His heart, already slow and weak, gives one final motion before it stops. His eyes become fixed and glassy, completely unseeing. All at once, there's a quiet, subtle change, as Kain's body slackens in a way it would never quite appear in life, all the normal tension gone out of it. The only motion is a slight breeze stirring his hair... otherwise, the body is eerily still.]
[Kain has gotten his escape, his death wish, his peace. He will never fight another battle. Whether or not it was worth it... is something he will never know.]
aaaaa
[And that silence then. That unnerving silence, broken by that awful gurgling. For a moment, it even seems like Kain might be coming back around somehow, but no. On the last exhale, everything stills. Everything stops. There are no more words, no more gurgling, no more ragged breaths. Only the breeze around them. Even the breeze has died. It isn't his own passing, but Kuja still wants to deny it. Something in him wants it not to be true, because for it to be true means that it can happen here and now, and if it can happen to Kain, it can happen to him, and Kuja can't take it.]
Kain?
[As he expected, no response. Something in his stomach clenched hard. Kain was finally gone.]
[He had never known Kain personally, never knew the man's past, his ambitions, what drove him, what haunted him or what drove him to end his own life. But that Cosmos had summoned him spoke of a particular quality - all of her warriors had this... this light about them. And Cosmos had not summoned Kuja. In that knowledge, he felt certain that what he had just witnessed had been a kindness compared to the death he himself would know.]
[The thought cracked a part of him already shattered somewhere along the way. Was that truly what was waiting for him? He didn't want it. He wouldn't be able to handle it, couldn't accept it. He didn't want to die, and he didn't know if he could stop it. The rebellious side of him that fought to master his own fate surged with denial that even death itself could be stopped while another side, one threatening to break him, said no, this would happen, because it was no less than everything he deserved.]
[A full minute passes before Kuja can finally move again, stumbling a step backward, away from the gruesome display at his feet. Once he does, he finds himself sapped and shaking and near unable to hold himself up, but manages. This can't happen to him. It can't be his fate. He has to find a way. There must be a way! There is nothing he can do for Kain now, and there never was. The dragoon chose his path. It isn't one Kuja himself will walk, he cannot.]
[The warriors of Cosmos will know their comrade is missing, he remembers suddenly. When they find Kain dead there, lying on the ground impaled by his own spear, what will they assume? What will they know about what has happened? A lone warrior of Chaos standing beside the body looks far more suspect, Kuja imagines, than that the man took his own life, and he isn't thinking clearly, not clearly enough to be able to fight them off without throwing himself into a Trance and dropping Ultima down on them all and catching himself in the blast in his rage. He has done it before and nearly killed himself in the process.]
[Later, he will wonder if in that moment on Gaia, he had come close to sharing Kain's fate before Kain had even attempted it. Now, he knows he cannot stay here. A portal opens behind the Genome, and with a touch of magic, he pushes himself back through it to vanish where he can't be found, at least for a while, to try and calm himself again. He tells himself it won't end like this, repeats it like a mantra until his skin warms again and his head clears and he believes it.]
[But still there is a place inside him, waiting quietly in the shadows, and it knows what he denies. It knows he can't run from this forever. Forever is not his, and it never will be. For now, he is alive, and by virtue of that alone, one day he will die.]
ahhh yay THANKS, that was fun in the most horrible way!!!
josh foley | marvel | ota
damian wayne | injustice | ota
Lunafreya Nox Fleuret | FFXV | ota
djeeta. granblue fantasy.
klaus hargreeves ☂ the umbrella academy
Leo | Fire Emblem: Fates | ota
Zelda | Hyrule Warriors
Tenya Iida | BNHA
Fumikage Tokoyami | Boku No Hero Academia
Starscream | Transformers | OTA
Midna | Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Noctis Lucis Caelum / final fantasy xv
/stretches
It'd been that way for a while now since the Glaives had moved to Angelgard in order to prepare for the King's return, and the Crownsguard had moved into Insomnia proper, on a final mission to get there and assess or die trying. Taking the Glaives- traitors, and the reason why all of this had even happened, to Angelgard in order for Noct, a dead man, to come back, was something he wouldn't have believed, and only had because it came from Ignis.
Likewise, moving the ruined Crownsguard, Monica, Cor, and so many others, was something he wouldn't condone. He only had because of Iris.
Hammerhead wasn't doing much better. The expressions that dogged the Hunter's eyes when he'd visited had always been bad, their expressions always grim, but now? There were less of them. Way less. Which meant there were more daemons.
He'd barely thought of Prompto and Ignis for a while, too. Some years ago, when they'd split, Prompto to try and focus on the human side of relief, Ignis on his own mission to not be a liability, he'd worried over them. Called them most days. Now? No. They had their own stuff. He had his- which was wandering, out in the wilds, in a single task. Kill or be killed.
Maybe he'd given up.
Maybe he knew death for him was next.
Whatever happened, happened. Nothing had been able to get him yet. So he kept going, even in the knowledge that the daemons he took down weren't enough to change anything.
Only then he'd been called.
Noct was back- alive- and he knew what he had to do.
He'd hoofed it back, of course, threw on false bravado and false jibes, false confidence and false barely concealed insults. False... everything, really. Including making fun of Prompto's chin scruff, including making fun of Noctis' modest beard for the sake of it taking ten years for him to grow what he could in a week.
But now the jokes and the jibes were gone, it felt different. Ignis was off somewhere, bartering for something from the Hunters of Hammerhead, and Prompto was already asleep. He leans forward, looking from the fire at his friend, and the words finally come.]
I missed you. So damn much, Noct.
no subject
Ignis had ditched the walking stick he'd been forced to deal with the last time Noct saw him and finally had some of his old confidence back, but his scars were faded now. Part of his skin. Permanent in a way that made Noct's stomach roil with guilt.
Prompto was fucking quiet and kept distance in a way Noct wasn't used to. Like he was afraid that his king might disappear if he slung an arm around his shoulder or whacked him on the back too hard. He seemed...older. Harder, in some ways. Like maybe he was too tired to keep up that happy-go-lucky front anymore.
And then there was Gladio, trying to be blustery and sarcastic when his hand trembled on Noct's shoulder. New scars on his torso, probably elsewhere too. Scars he didn't get protecting Noct.
And everything just seems so...off and stilted. Like he's come into a movie halfway through the sequel and has no idea what's going on or why. According to Talcott, the guys weren't even together most of the time while he was gone and that's just wrong. He'd never wanted that.
Even now, sitting by the campfire the way they used to, it feels different. Quiet. Like they don't have anything to talk about, or maybe there's too much to talk about and no good way to start. Eventually Prompto and Ignis make their escape from the awkwardness and Noct's left with just Gladio.
He actually jumps in his seat when the other man speaks first.]
Yeah, me too. [Even if his days in Reflection seemed more like weeks instead of years. Any time spent away from his friends seemed like way too long.]
I didn't uh...didn't actually think I'd be gone that long. Seems like a lousy joke, really. To put me back here now when everything's like this.
[Gladio's eyes are killing him so he looks away, hands coming up to rub at the face that doesn't feel like it belongs to him.]
Ciel Phantomhive | Kuroshitsuji
no subject
[It wasn't as if they hadn't known this day was coming. Ciel still was mortal, after all, and the end would have come for him eventually, as it did. There always seemed to be enough time, until there wasn't, and now time had come to collect. His only real comfort was that in the end, the demon hadn't won, and the boy's soul was safe. He would accept his own comeuppance when he returned to the afterlife with the Earl's soul intact and secure.]
[Then they would take Ciel wherever he was meant to go. Surely he was bound for heaven, whatever that was. He had never seen it and now, he knew, he never would, but he didn't care. Ciel would be okay. That was all that mattered. Even still, he settled at the boy's bedside lightly and reached out a hand that he couldn't quite stop the tremble in to feel for a fever.]
How are we today, my lord?
no subject
[So very mortal. It was almost naive to think his weak constitution wasn't going to catch up with him eventually. And then for his body to just get too tired, too weak, to keep up. Undertaker had more than made up for his own weakness in that time though.
He's warm and comfortable, giving the reaper a tired little smile. The tremble isn't hard to see and he reaches to lightly touch at his wrist, trying to help steady him as he felt the faintly heated skin.]
Much better, I think. A little tired.
[He wants to make it easier on him. He's desperate to take off some of that stress and misery.]
no subject
[It's wrong that the boy has to comfort him during these times. He curls his fingers around the smaller ones on his wrist and lets their hands drift toward the soft mattress below them, no more pleased to feel the fever is still there, despite treatments, but not surprised.]
You've had a rough go of it. Why not try to get a little more sleep and let the medicine work and I'll have a nice cup of tea waiting for you when you wake?
no subject
[He knows how hard Undertaker has tried to look after and protect him though. And after all that, now he has to watch as all that work saved him in one way but did nothing to stop time and physical frailties from taking their toll.]
I sleep so much though, don't you get tired of watching me sleep? [Tired or not, he doesn't want to waste what time he has by sleeping.] Maybe we could have tea and we could play chess or something?
no subject
I get tired of so little these days, milord. I only worry about what makes you tired. If it's a game of chess you wish, then we shall have one. What sort of tea would you like?
no subject
I'll try not to fall asleep on you while we play. [He smiles and it's as playful as he could make it.
What does he have to fear with a reaper taking care of him? If anything, he's sure it guarantees him peace. And he knows he's promised comfort through it all.]
Rose (WoL OC) | FFXIV | OTA
Lindianne Parker/The Agent | Tom Clancy's The Division