Welcome to Adventu, your final fantasy rp haven. adventu focuses on both canon and original characters from different worlds and timelines that have all been pulled to the world of zephon: a familiar final fantasy-styled land where all adventurers will fight, explore, and make new personal connections.
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year 5, quarter 3
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[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Alex hadn’t been kidding when he’d told Noctis that he had a few fishing jobs lined up that the prince could take. He’d half expected that the blond man was just trying to further entice him into joining the Rising Stones (it had worked of course but that wasn’t the point). For his part, Noctis was more than happy about getting paid to fish. It at least took his mind off things, like worrying about his friends or what was going on back home. It sounded like the other three were here at least, but that didn’t change what had been happening on Eos with the nights getting longer and Ardyn planning…something. It’s not that Noctis wanted to face the red-haired man again, but someone had to. He didn’t like to think about what the man had done to the world in the meantime.
Still, it was hard to dwell on much of anything when he was seated on a dock with his pole in a lake. It was his first time being in the Torensten area, and the weather here reminded him a lot of Galdin Quay. Plenty of sun, clear water, the sense that if he ventured into town, he could get a delicious drink with coconut in it. There wasn’t much not to like.
He was currently on the hunt for a large fish native to the coast of Sonora. It was supposedly an invasive species that had been demolishing the lake’s population of local fish, so the city was paying for someone to finally catch the huge sturgeon. Noctis had caught a few smaller bites so far, but nothing that would signal the king of the lake had decided to take interest yet. No problem though. Noctis would switch out the bait if he had to and keep this up for as long as it took.
Or at least that’s what he intended until the prickling sensation started.
When Noctis was distracted, he would sometimes barely notice the feeling of someone calling on his magic. When he did feel it, it was usually small, like a brief tingling over his skin, but he imagined that would get worse the more people that he shared his magic with. There were only three people in the world that he’d given it to, after all. He couldn’t imagine how bad the feeling had gotten for his dad near the end, with whole armies calling on his magic.
Point being, someone was using Lucian magic. Someone close was using Lucian magic. Bolting upright on the dock, Noctis stared in the direction of the city skyline, his heart beating a little faster as he weighed his options. Alex had met Prompto multiple times, but he wasn’t sure where the blond had gotten off to recently. And Ignis and Gladio were supposedly up in Sonora even if they didn’t know that location yet either. Which meant…
“Prompto,” he muttered, nearly forgetting to reel in the line in his haste. He was definitely a lot less careful than normal as he packed up his tackle box and banished it back into his glaive along with the fishing pole itself.
He had a city to explore now after all. If nothing else, he could just follow his intuition.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] The Rising Stones headquarters was…something. Noctis honestly wasn’t sure what else he should have expected from a guild that Alex led given how they’d met, but a half-demolished building still caught him off-guard. Okay, maybe that wasn’t entirely fair to Alex given that the entire street was smashed up. Really, the Rising Stones had made out pretty well all things considered. The basic structure was still in place. The building just needed some window repairs, a new roof, maybe a fresh coat of paint…
Well. He’d stayed in worse places while camping out with the guys. Anyway, Noctis had zero room to complain now that he and Alex were wanted by the Sonoran police for carjacking. He would argue of course that it was just hitchhiking that had gotten out of hand. And what else was he supposed to do, stay there and freeze to death in the middle of a frozen tundra? His excuses didn’t mean much in the wake of his wanted poster circulating around though, and it certainly wouldn’t save him if Ignis got ahold of him.
So the only thing to do in the meantime was to lie low with the Rising Stones until the whole thing blew over. He had a feeling that wouldn’t take too long in Provo at least. The news was pretty distant already since Sonora was way up north, and it was completely overshadowed here by the battle that had taken out an entire city block. He wouldn’t want to be either of those guys right now, that was for sure.
Alex was out for the time being, so Noctis had some time to kill alone with the stray cats that the guild members were apparently looking after. Noct had always been a cat guy, and he’d particularly warmed up to a friendly tuxedo cat who had a tendency to head-butt his shin whenever he wanted pets. It would be dark soon, and Noctis had neglected to ask where the cat food was, so he made up his mind to go catch them something for dinner instead. He’d been itching to try out his fishing pole in this new world anyway, and sunset was one of the most active times for fish. Plus it wasn’t like he wasn’t laying low if he was just heading over to the river.
Outside in the rubble, Noctis shielded his eyes from the orange glow of the sunset, deciding that the river he remembered seeing on the way into the city was back to the north. A large pile of debris was in his way, so rather than walk all the way around it, Noctis summoned the engine blade to his hand instead and threw it towards the top. He warped after it in a shower of blue sparks, landing unsteadily on a chunk of concrete before leaping down safely on the other side.
Or that was his plan at least.
As it turned out, a dark-haired woman was examining the ruins with troubled eyes on the other side of the wreckage. He very nearly fell directly on top of her, but with a little course-correcting, he managed to land just next to her and stumble into her instead. An apology was already on the tip of his tongue since he expected that he’d knock her over, but she ended up feeling like a solid wall of muscle. Noctis was the one who found himself on the ground instead, blinking up at her to make sure he hadn’t hallucinated. No, she really was just a tall, thin woman who didn’t look particularly imposing. Somehow it felt more like he’d smacked into Gladio though.
“You’re really strong,” he said, climbing to his feet and dusting off his pants. “Sorry about that. I didn’t think anyone would be out here either this late.” She was the type of brunette woman that would have probably left Prompto sputtering for words with her curves, but Noctis himself noticed other things. The way she’d been staring at the wreckage with an upset expression until he’d run into her for one thing. The fact that no one would be here at night if they had anywhere else to go for another.
“I’m Noctis by the way,” he said, shoving his hands in his pockets as he introduced himself. No last names or titles. He wasn’t running away from them exactly, but they didn’t mean anything here anyway. “I’m staying in what’s left of the Rising Stones Guild. About to go catch some fish for some stray cats though.”
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] The car started to flip over the edge of the cliff, and Noctis couldn’t tell up from down anymore. Without a seatbelt, he crashed bodily against the car ceiling, which sent his ears ringing and made him even more disoriented. That was a problem seeing as he wouldn’t be able to warp out through the window if he couldn’t even see, but Alex seemed to have them covered as he grabbed onto Noct’s arm. The same white mist that Alex had used earlier to phase through the car seat suddenly blinded Noctis, and before he really knew what had happened he was outside and free falling. He probably should have been more concerned about that, but it was a lot better than being trapped in the car. Shiva, it was cold though.
The same arm that Alex had grabbed suddenly jerked upwards and stopped his fall. Really painfully. It felt a bit like he’d dislocated his shoulder or something, but he wasn’t about to complain as he glanced up his arm at Alex and saw the blond man had stabbed his sword into the frozen cliffside with one hand while holding onto him with the other. Yeah, Alex had it way worse than he did. He’d probably dislocated both shoulders or something.
Either way, the Warrior of Light seemed in pretty good spirits as he decided now would be a good time to welcome him to Zephon. Or he tried to at least. The car hitting the rocks below interrupted him as the resulting explosion rocketed up towards them. The fireball stopped short of hitting them, which was the first bit of luck Noctis had had all day, but the resulting heat blast was actually pretty nice in the middle of a frozen tundra. Sometimes you just had to appreciate the little things in life.
“Is it always like this here?” He called up, swaying in the wind a little while staring down at the burning car on the rocks below. “Because honestly? Sign me up.” This felt exactly like a hunt gone wrong with Prompto and Gladio while Ignis had his back turned. He was surprised at just how much he’d missed this. Everything had changed after Altissia. They didn’t do things as a group like they used to. With Ardyn pulling the strings, Noctis wasn’t even sure that he’d ever get a chance to laugh like this again.
This was weirdly nice. All things considered.
Also, he was hired apparently. Noctis had only done one other job interview in his life, and it was for the sushi restaurant he’d worked at during high school. This one didn’t really compare. “Ragnabawk?” He questioned blankly, wondering if he’d misheard, before he had to laugh under his breath as Alex practically begged him not to tell his friends about this. That wasn’t a hard promise to make.
“Trust me, I don’t even want to know what Specs would say about this one,” he reassured him, before deciding that he should really do something about them dangling from a cliff. Alex had a good grip on his right arm, so he summoned the Engine Blade into his left hand, squinting up at the ground above them.
“Okay, I’m better with my right hand, so this might be a little messy,” Noct warned him, before doing his best to chuck the sword in a neat arc up the cliff. Of course, with his off hand, the angle was all wrong and he ended up warping them about five feet left of where he’d intended as they went spilling across the frosty ground. Still, it was the ground. And he hadn’t even hit Alex with the blade, which was a legitimate concern when he was using his other hand. Not that he’d tell him that.
“Seriously, what’s a Ragnabawk?” He asked, shivering a little as he sat up in the snow. Smoke was starting to bloom in thick patches over the cliffside, and that reminded him of the taxi driver whose car they’d just totaled. “...Do you think I should leave some gil in a pile on the ground?”
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Alex took Noctis’ stunt pretty well all things considered, but maybe he was just feeling too nauseous to yell at him. Or maybe he just appreciated the potion, though Noct gave him a weird look when he said he’d rather drink it next time. “I don’t know how well it would taste, man. We usually just break them. More power to you though.” Alex seemed to know what the vials of potion were at least, which wasn’t too weird if they’d supposedly met before. And really, there wasn’t too much doubt about Alex’s story anymore after the fishing comment, even if Noct hated the idea of having any kind of amnesia. Why would the crystal bring him to different worlds anyway?
Best to worry about that later though. Once they weren’t being chased.
Alex finally explained what the ink was all about, and Noctis leaned forward in interest. “So it’s magic?” He’d gathered that the blond man could use magic by now, which would have been weird except for his ‘Warrior of Light’ title. That probably gave Alex his own magic without needing a bloodline connection to an ancient crystal. “Really? You just watch what monsters do and ‘poof,’ you can do it too?” That was really cool honestly, though he tried not to read too much into that in terms of Eos. Back home, the only creatures that really used ‘magic’ per se were the daemons, and you really didn’t want to learn anything from them. He tried to tell himself that Eorzea probably played by different rules though. “You got to show me that one,” was all he said instead.
Alex went on to explain the source of his sudden headache—he was remembering stuff from back home that he’d forgotten. Noctis was at least glad to hear that he wasn’t the only one with amnesia around the place, though he gave his companion a weird look when he pretty terribly explained what he remembered. Noctis wasn’t even sure how to go about asking him to expand on that so he settled on “...How exactly do you fight despair? Is that metaphorical?”
Alex suddenly veered the taxi off the road and onto the frozen stretch of land around them. Noctis gave him a curious look as they started driving towards a drop-off in the distance. He assumed the guy had a plan of course, but he started to get nervous when he said something about needing Noctis to push a button because this car was different from the Regalia. ...Alex. Alex, what are you doing?”
The cliffs were getting closer every second, and Noctis was getting a bad feeling about this. Then a worse feeling. Then all he could do was gape at Alex when he expressed that what he was waiting on was for Noctis to press the button that would make this car fly.
Oh. Oh shit. He was serious.
“Taxis don’t fly!” He managed to get out before he lunged for the wheel and pulled it hard to the right in an attempt to avoid the cliffside. As the car started to flip, his first thought was that this was probably karma for wrecking all those police cars.
His second thought was that he had forgotten to put his seatbelt back on.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Noctis had left a car wreck in his wake, but hopefully the cops inside the cars were okay. Hopefully. He wasn’t out to hurt anyone for doing their job, but man he had been chased a little too much lately. Between the MTs dropping from the sky and the endless hordes of daemons in Gralea, he was probably going to acquire a twitch whenever anyone made a sudden movement in his direction.
God he needed sleep. But first he needed to get off the back of this car.
Banishing the Engine Blade back into his glaive, Noctis carefully used both hands to climb onto the roof of the car. It wasn’t the most steady thing in the world when they were travelling so fast, and the wind hitting him in the face was unbearably cold up here. It took his breath away and whipped his hair into his eyes, but he squinted against it and forced himself to keep moving forward. Hell, there was the dent that he’d put in the ceiling with his knee when he’d first landed on the taxi. He really owed that taxi driver a new car. Best not to think about it now though.
Thankfully his window was still rolled down where he’d left it, so from the roof, Noctis was able to ease his legs through and vault back inside. He landed hard on the passenger seat, and he quickly rolled the window back up so he could get warm in the car’s interior. “Alright, you’ve sold me real hard on the seat warmers.” Glancing over at Alex, he suddenly felt a little sheepish about his rash decision there. The other three wouldn’t have been happy about him warping off alone. Alex wasn’t one of his crownsguard or anything, so Noct doubted that his safety was the guy’s top priority like it was with the others, but he still felt like he owed him an apology.
“...Hey. Sorry about that. Guess I just saw the way forward was blocked and…figured I’d take care of it.” His hair was probably a mess by now, but he did his best to smooth it down as a way to cover his awkwardness. He really wasn’t the best at explaining why he did something. Probably because his brain was usually about six steps behind his actions. “Not even an hour ago, I was running through a daemon gauntlet, and…I think I haven’t really realized that I’m out of it yet.”
He still didn’t want to think about Ardyn. Not in the middle of a car chase, and maybe not ever, but that wasn’t feasible. He’d have to get a game plan for how to handle the immortal once he had the time to slow down. For now though, he just glanced over at the blond man next to him, frowning when he realized how pale Alex had gotten. “Dude, you okay? What’s going on?” His pained expression wouldn’t have been good on anyone, but especially not on the guy driving the getaway car.
Noct could already tell that Alex wasn’t feeling good, but as if to hammer the point home, he suddenly rolled down the window and vomited out the window. “Oh…Shit,” Noctis muttered, summoning one of the potions he had stashed in his glaive. Reaching over, he cracked it in his hand over Alex’s head, hoping that the magic would stave off any further nausea. At this point though, he realized from glancing in the rearview mirror that it hadn’t been vomit so much as another wave of that black ink from earlier.
“...Seriously, what is that?” It didn’t seem healthy at any rate.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Alex agreed that the cops were almost certainly coming for him. Groaning, Noctis rubbed his eyes tiredly for a second before glancing at the empty ignition switch next to him. Ignis wouldn’t approve of him stealing a car. He really wouldn’t approve of him stealing a car, but he had to protect himself, didn’t he? And there was nowhere else to run on a snowy highway outside of a major city. There was nothing else for it.
Glancing back, Noctis was about to tell Alex his plan in case the blond man wanted to get out and go his own way. He wouldn’t blame him for not wanting to get involved in a police chase, but it looked like Alex had his own plans as he drew a sword from his belt. “Er. What are you-?...”
Alex chucked the blade at the front windshield. Noctis ducked on instinct as the hilt smashed into the front and cracked the glass before the sword went tumbling to the floor. “Dude!” He complained almost as loud as the taxi driver outside was. Was Alex trying to decapitate him? That was pretty ineffective since the blade hadn’t gone anywhere near him, but he wasn’t sure what the point of that was otherwise. Alex just looked disappointed though, sighing to himself before he suddenly phased into white smoke and turned up again in the driver’s seat next to him.
“Oh. Uh. Wait, you can warp?” It didn’t seem to be quite the same thing, but it was the best word that he had for it. Anyway, Alex seemed to be on the same page as him about taking the car as he complained about the taxi driver still having the keys and told Noct to buckle up. Back on Eos, Noctis had very rarely worn a seatbelt. Sometimes he’d even sat up on the back of the Regalia when Ignis was the one driving, but after that stunt with the sword, Noctis just wordlessly pulled on the seatbelt. “You can drive, righ-?”
Alex hauled the taxi driver over to his window with a tether that he’d seemingly pulled out of nowhere. From there, he proceeded to open his mouth and vomit black oil all over the man to steal his keys. This seemed to be completely normal to him too as wiped a stray bit of ink off his chin and without missing a beat explained that he’d met Prompto here.
Noctis became aware that his mouth was open, and he closed it as Alex started up the car and eased it around the poor taxi driver. Noctis owed him for more than car repairs now, but that was another story. “...What?!” He managed to get out as he gestured back behind them in an attempt to ask what the hell those powers had been. It had happened so fast that his brain hadn’t even caught up to the fact that Alex knew Prompto yet, but when it did, he quickly leaned forward to hear the rest of the story.
“They really mixed him up with a terrorist?” It was a comical mistake, at least to Noctis. You could tell at a glance that his best friend always meant well. Prompto was the kind of guy who would help bugs outside instead of smashing them, so the idea that he would break in somewhere to hurt people was just stupid. “...Thanks though. For helping him out of that. He ends up in all kinds of trouble when you leave him alone,” he said with a slight grin that faded when he remembered the last situation that he’d gotten Prompto out of. Strung up in a cell after suffering who knew what at Ardyn’s hands.
Nope. This wasn’t the time to think about Ardyn.
Alex snapped him out of his funk by offering him a place to stay, and Noctis blinked in surprise. It was nice of him when Noct didn’t know left from right here, and he liked the idea of doing jobs for a guild again. He hadn’t taken a hunter job since before Altissia, but it was the mention of fishing jobs in particular that made him perk up.
“...You have met me.” It wasn’t altogether a good revelation since that suggested there were gaps in his memory, but it helped him trust the blond adventurer next to him a little more, and that was something. Especially if Alex could help him find Prompto.
The sirens ahead of them were blaringly loud as two police cars barrelled towards them. Alex seemed to have no intention of slowing down, and Noctis was just starting to wonder if he’d have to grab the guy and warp out to abandon ship when Alex suddenly swerved the car to the direct center of the highway and slid between the others with barely an inch to spare. Noctis swore he could see pure shock on one of the cop’s faces before the moment was gone and they were shooting past them. Unable to help himself, Noctis laughed in a way that he normally only did with his three friends. “I’m driving next time,” he voiced without any real complaint. That move had been impressive if nothing else.
He hadn’t expected Alex to mention Gladio and Ignis on top of everything else, and he frowned when he tabled the discussion for now. That sounded a lot more problematic than what Prompto was doing, but he could agree that there were more pressing issues right now. “I’ll hold you to that,” he said, resisting a snort when Alex took the time to turn on the seat warmers. His level of concern seemed to be pretty low if he felt cold right now, but Noctis wasn’t sure that he shared his optimism as he glanced in the rearview mirror and noticed the cop cars gaining on them. There were two more in front of them as well, and Noctis made the executive decision that he’d clear their path.
“Be right back.” Clicking his seatbelt off, Noctis rolled down the window before sticking his head out and squinting through the snow. He’d forgotten how cold it was, but hopefully this wouldn’t take long. Summoning the Engine Blade back to his hand, Noctis took aim at one of the police cars coming towards them and launched his sword towards it. Warping after the weapon in a blue streak, Noct landed heavily on the hood of the car, knocking the breath out of himself as he rolled over to the side and used his sword to pop one of the tires.
The effect was immediate as the police car spun out of control and smashed into the vehicle next to it. The collision launched Noctis into the air, and he just barely managed to twist around and toss his sword back in the vague direction of the taxi cab. His aim was a little off given everything, and instead of landing gracefully on top of the taxi like he’d intended, he ended up banging off the top and clinging on to the back of the car for dear life. Raising his gloved hand, he gave Alex a sheepish thumbs up through the back windshield.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Alex seemed shocked to learn that Ramuh was one of the astrals, so Noctis assumed that they never went much into Eos’ history together. It made sense though--if he really was stuck wandering around this Eorzea at some point, then Noct would have wanted to talk about wherever the hell he was. Not where he was from. At any rate, Alex didn’t seem to have any preference on nicknames, so Noctis made the choice for him.
“Alex it is then.” Maybe if he cut his hair shorter then he’d look more like an Al, but that felt like a weird thing to say. Anyway, the tone was shifting to something more serious as the blond man went on to explain what the Warrior of Light was. It sounded like Alex was as much at the mercy of the gods’ will as he was, and Noct had to furrow his eyebrows as he laid out the whole reincarnation thing. “...Sounds like that kind of sucks honestly. At least I only have to worry about this life.” However long or short it might be, and it was looking more on the short end if Ardyn had anything to say about it.
Alex jumped forward a bit in his story to explain what had happened before when they’d supposedly met. Apparently one of the female astrals--and it had to be Shiva because Leviathan would have just tried to kill them both--had revealed the prophecy in front of a group of people. Including a reporter. Noctis, having dealt with tabloids since he was a kid, groaned and let his head fall forward dramatically to hover over his arms.
“Great. So I’m famous in two worlds now.” He had never really liked getting recognized by strangers, which was one reason he had enjoyed their road trip outside of Insomnia. No one had cared much about the Lucian royal family outside of the capital. Thankfully though, they didn’t seem to be on Eorzea either right now if Alex was to be believed. Maybe this world was still neutral enough.
Alex had a copy of the Regalia apparently. Noctis raised his head again to give him a weird look. Normally he might have even been a little offended since that was his dad’s prized car and all, but since the original Regalia had been smashed, he actually perked up at the news. “Seriously? Is Cid here?” He didn’t hold out hope that Alex was talking about Cindy’s grandpa--the name was probably just a coincidence, but Noctis desperately wanted to meet the man if he could build a copy of the Regalia from scratch.
Alex wanted to know the names of the astrals, and Noctis had to blink at him for a second since it seemed off-topic. Something must have prompted the question in the man’s head though, so he shrugged and gave him what he was looking for. “There’s five main ones we worship, and then Ifrit the Infernian who tried to wipe out humanity ages ago. The others are called Titan, Ramuh, Leviathan, Shiva, and Bahamut.” Speaking of Bahamut, Noctis had expected to see him as soon as he had been sucked inside of the crystal, but instead he seemed to have woken up here. Did that make this world part of the Draconian’s trial for him? It would explain why he smacked into somebody who recognized him almost immediately.
On that note, Noctis perked up again and glanced back at his blond tour guide. “Hey, Alex? You haven’t met anyone else here from Eos, have yo-?” Police sirens. Normally he wouldn’t have thought much of it, but with the taxi driver out the back windshield still staring down the highway, Noctis suddenly had a bad feeling about this.
“...Hey, uh. What do you think the odds are that he’s actually talking to his mom and not the police? Cause I’m suddenly about 50-50.”
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] The blond guy in the back of the taxi didn’t seem to think much of the gods. Noctis gave him a surprised look at first, since he wasn’t exactly used to blasphemy coming from someone other than Ardyn. Eventually though, he couldn’t resist a snort when the man asked what the astrals would have done if he had failed their trials. “Honestly, yeah, I always wondered that too. At least Ramah’s trial was pretty chill, but the others didn’t seem to mind if I failed.” It was only when he finished talking that he realized how odd it was for a stranger to know that he was supposed to end up as the chosen king from the prophecy. His father hadn’t been big on spreading that particular fact, so he gave the man a slightly suspicious look even if it did lend some credibility to his story.
Whether or not Noctis wanted his story to have credibility was another thing entirely.
The man finally introduced himself as Alexander Sorel with enough flair that Noct had a hard time keeping a straight face. It felt like he was trying to emulate the high-born political crowd that Noctis himself had always been forced to mingle with, but maybe the man had a background in high society too since he’d called himself a Warrior of Light. Just his introduction had left Noctis with enough questions that he waved his arms to put “Alexander” on pause. “First of all, that’s way too much of a mouthful. So do you prefer Alex or Al?” He couldn’t help a slight grin since he somewhat expected the man to hate both of them. Everyone he’d traveled with before had used a nickname too though--except for Prompto come to think of it.
“Second...You said Warrior of Light?” His expression turned more downcast as he rubbed the back of his neck. “...Sounds like you’re pretty ‘chosen’ yourself.” Not that he really wanted to pry, but Alex seemed to know all about Noctis’ assigned destiny from the astrals, so it was only fair.
Alex went on to explain how he knew Noctis, and the boy’s head snapped back up to stare at him more and more incredulously the longer he talked. Even with how confused he was though, Noctis still had to snort when Alex flexed to show how strong he was. This dude was a piece of work, but he didn’t seem like a bad guy even if his story was crazy. Eventually he took a pause for questions, and Noctis just gave a half-chuckle in response. “Hell, I thought you’d just seen my picture in a magazine or something. But that was...a lot.”
Understatement. Taking a moment to process, Noctis glanced out the back window at the taxi driver still on the phone before he let out a slow breath. “Alright. Let me see if I got all that. You’re saying we met before in your world, but...I have amnesia about going there. And that would have had to have been before Gralea, because the Regalia’s totaled now.” It still hurt even thinking about his dad’s prized car rusting under the snow, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it. It probably wasn’t the time to defend his body’s honor either, but he couldn’t let that one slide since Alex had literally pointed at his arms for effect.“Dude, I’m not that weak. You sound like Gladio.” His shield had always tried to force him into the weight room more when they were growing up, but Noct had avoided it like vegetables.
Tapping his boot against the car door, Noctis glanced back at Alex again, trying to decide how much he believed. “Look...that’s pretty crazy. But you know a lot of stuff you shouldn’t, I’ll give you that.” He hesitated again before deciding that Alex definitely had his attention at least, crazy or not.
“If we met before, then got anything else you shouldn’t know about me?” He didn’t want it to seem like a test or anything, but if the guy knew too much, then at some point he might not have a choice but to believe Alex.
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] The blond guy in the back of the car seemed almost disappointed the first time that Noctis looked at him, even going so far as to mutter that he hadn’t expected anything else. In any other circumstance Noctis would have scowled at him for that, but as worried as he was for his friends, he mostly let it go. Instead he just crossed his legs and messed with the buckle on his single leather glove as he muttered “Yeah, I get that a lot.” He knew that he wasn’t exactly what most people thought of when they pictured Lucian royalty, but he’d always preferred it that way. At least he had until Insomnia fell.
“Voidsent?” Noctis met the man’s eyes in the rearview mirror, raising one eyebrow as he tried to process the word in relation to daemons. “Never heard them called that before. Is that catching on in the empire or something?” A vocabulary difference became the least of Noct’s concerns though as the man went on to try to tell him that he was sitting in a different world entirely from Eos.
Swiveling around in the leather seat, Noctis tried to figure out if the blond dude was just making fun of him, but he didn’t have the right expression for that. If anything he looked like he was just debating the next thing to say, and Noctis was suddenly kicking himself for sliding into a taxi with a stranger. Hadn’t he learned anything about not accepting help from suspicious characters after Ardyn?
“Er...Right. Well I think I’m just gonna go…” Noctis was reaching for the door handle when the lock clicked shut. Glancing out the back window, he scowled at the taxi driver still on the phone who was holding up his keys and giving him a look like he better not run off. Even through the glass, Noctis was pretty sure he could read the man’s expression. Not until you pay for my car damage, buddy.
With a groan, Noctis gave up and fell back in his seat. It wouldn’t exactly be hard to flick the lock again and climb out, but the moment was gone. “Alright, I’ll bite,” he said instead from where he was slumped in the seat. “You’re trying to tell me that...what? The gods made other worlds too?” He wouldn’t entirely put it past them, but then he wasn’t sure why they even cared so much about Eos or prophecies if they had other worlds to play with. Luna might not have liked that phrasing, but he’d never know now. He’d never be able to ask her if she’d resented the fate that the astrals had given her too.
Thinking about Luna really wasn’t the best plan right now, but thankfully the blond guy in the back distracted him from the sudden lump in his throat. Turning around again, Noctis placed one boot on the leather seat and rested his arms up on top of his knee. It felt more like they were having a conversation now that they were facing each other, so he didn’t mind being a little more blunt. “You’re not making much sense, dude.” He at least tempered it with the small half-smile that he usually reserved for his friends. Maybe because this whole situation was so ridiculous, starting from when he’d practically hijacked the taxi.
“People used to know me all the time when I didn’t know them. I figured you’d just been to Insomnia or something, but I guess not.” Rubbing his neck a little self-consciously, Noctis took the time to crack his neck before looking up at him again. “I’ll take the truth though, since you’re offering. Maybe you could start with your name.”
[attr=class,lyric1]i am noctis, prince of lucis and
[attr=class,lyric2]king of fishing
[attr=class,bulk] Maybe this hadn’t been the smartest plan that he’d ever come up with. The yellow car veered off the road before skidding to a halt so abruptly that Noctis was very nearly flung off. He just barely managed to hang on to the side by loosening his grip on his sword, but that meant that the engine blade was wrenched from his grasp and went flying off into a snow drift.
Well. He couldn’t say he didn’t deserve that.
Letting the grip on his magic go, Noctis banished the sword back to his glaive as he carefully slid off the side of the car and straightened up on his own two legs. He could see the driver better now--a man around Ignis and Gladio’s age who was currently screaming at him through the closed car door. Noctis rubbed at his neck sheepishly, waiting to get a word in edgewise when a second man in the back spoke up instead. Noctis blinked. Then he blinked again wondering if he’d heard right or if the car had muffled his hearing too much.
“...Yeah, that’s me.” Getting recognized back in Insomnia had been a pretty regular thing, but if he’d learned one thing on his road trip, it was that no one outside of the wall in Lucis cared about the royal family. It was even weirder to get recognized inside the empire. It was the kind of thing that Specs wouldn’t have trusted, and that realization made Noctis backtrack. “I mean...who’s asking?”
He wasn’t exactly fooling anyone at this point, but the two men seemed to be ignoring him anyway as they talked among themselves. Finally, the taxi driver rolled down the window and gestured for Noctis to get in as he stepped off to make a call.
“Er...catch up, right.” Noctis hesitated for a second even if he’d literally forced the man to pull over, but it wasn’t like a better option was going to come along. He opted for the front passenger seat instead of the back next to the other rider. It wasn’t exactly taxi etiquette, but it made him feel better in a car he didn’t know well. Still, sliding into the leather seat gave him an immediate sense of nostalgia for the Regalia, and he tapped one foot a little restlessly as he wondered what had happened to the car’s wreckage. Probably rusting under a pile of snow.
Rubbing at the back of his neck, Noctis finally turned around in his seat to get a good look at the man in the back. “Hey. Thanks for talking him down. Guess I should have thought that one through more.” The stranger definitely looked like he was from this continent. He had the same color of pale-blond hair as Luna, though he had the strong build and impatient expression of a hunter from the outskirts of Lucis. Noctis immediately wondered what he was like in a fight.
“What’s going on by the way? Last I saw, Gralea was a lot more daemons than people.”
