Event Twenty-One

[awashmods]

Sometimes I feel happy, Sometimes I feel sad. Sometimes I feel curious, Sometimes I feel mad. Sometimes I feel silly, Sometimes I feel surprised. How many feelings, Do I have inside?

t's another regular, normal day in the Town. There's absolutely nothing to show that anything could possibly be wrong; the birds are chirping, the sky is bright, and everything is absolutely, entirely wrong. This time, though? The problem is internal. Slowly, bit by bit, people are going to stop feeling entirely like themselves -- or maybe even stop feeling at all. And suddenly that nice, bright day doesn't seem quite so nice and not quite so bright any longer after all. Welcome to Awash's Twenty-First event log, everyone! Further information on this event can be found here at the OOC post. You are welcome to make your own logs and posts for this event! If there are any questions, please ask them here. Thank you!

Comments

Well;;; ok..............

[photoshooter]

Uhh, yeah?

[Prompto gives himself a second, but the panic and self-doubt that would normally arise at a question like that--did he give her any reason to think he wasn't human?--never arrives. Huh. Shrug!]

The guys said I am. [He says that like it makes it a fact.] Though--hang on, I guess what they said is I'm a Lucian. We didn't really discuss being human. But if I weren't, I proooobably couldn't have entered the havens, since daemons can't do that and neither can MTs. So! Yeah, probably! ...What brought that on?

[pyrafect]

[ Ignoring his question! ]

Lucian? Havens? [ Her eyes brighten, and she looks at him curiously. ]

What's all that, Prompto? If you weren't a human, you wouldn't be allowed somewhere important?

[photoshooter]

No, no. Well, kinda? Huh.

[He rubs his chin, then the back of his head.]

It's more like, Havens are places that've been blessed by the Oracle so daemons can't get in, which makes it safe for people to rest there if they're traveling around. It's not like there are big, bad guards blocking people out, like, no, you look wrong, you can't come in here! Hoo-ah!

[He puts his fists on his hips and puffs his chest out to complete his bouncer impression.]

1/2

[pyrafect]

[ She laughs lightly at his impression. ]

[pyrafect]

...But you're saying that... since you're allowed in within, you must be human.

[ A pause, and she repeats his word back to him: ] "Probably."

[ She looks at him curious, teasing: ] No lingering doubts?

[photoshooter]

[Prompto hesitates, but he's not afraid to share this. It's just unpleasant to think about.]

I, uh... The circumstances of my birth are like, kind of complicated? And kind of icky. Kind of totally icky, honestly. But yeah, I should be human, one hundred percent, or else the haven stuff doesn't really make sense.

[pyrafect]

[ She seems thoughtful for a moment. ]

These Havens then, blessed by the Oracle,... assume that all fully-humans are peaceful?

[photoshooter]

...Nnnnnno, I don't think that's the idea. If the Oracle could stop wars, I bet she'd still be alive. She just protects people from the things no normal human can fight, not unless they dedicate their whole lives to keeping the light alive.

[He shrugs.]

There's gotta be people who cook and work on power plants and do radio, just as much as there's gotta be hunters and soldiers. The Oracle... she believed in something more than just fighting to stay alive, for us.

[pyrafect]

[ A pause.

Then, gently as she approaches him: ]

She "believed?" [ Pyra doesn't seem to have any problem with him seemingly made uncomfortable by this line of questioning. If anything, she appears all the more curious.

Smiling sweetly, she takes a seat and pats the space next to her, an invitation to sit down as they talk. ]

[photoshooter]

[Prompto smiles, too, but more wanly, as he takes the seat she offers.]

She passed. We were on our way to see her, actually, but she died before we could meet up officially. Or... do anything to help her.

[pyrafect]

[ She makes room for him, but leans forward as she links her hands together. ] It sounds like quite the... hopeless journey. [ Her tone remains sympathetic, her smile, gentle. ] You had something to fight for, and now it is gone.

Is that when you came to Chroma?

[photoshooter]

Haha. [He shakes his head and slumps lower, mirroring her posture in a way--hands clasped between his knees, broadcasting dejection from every angle.]

No. No, not me. [Prompto sighs and looks distantly ahead.] I got here a while after that.

[Long enough to lose even more. Long enough to lose... pretty much everything.]

[pyrafect]

[ Had she all of her emotions, her empathy, her sympathy, she would have been gentler with him. She would have apologized, she would have, perhaps, hugged him and told him that everything is alright, that there is a future to hope for-- things that he probably already knows, but does not hurt to be said once more.

As she is now, however... ] You've had time to think of your failures, then.

[ There is a dissonance in her soft tone and the harsh reminder of the words themselves. ] Did you learn from them? From losing the Oracle?

Or have you lost even more?

1/2

[photoshooter]

[He picks his head up quick and looks at her, uncertain and assessing, but unafraid.]

Y'know, I had the impression you were a lot nicer than this.

[photoshooter]

[It's because he's unafraid, though--sure, the line of questioning bothers him, makes his heart sink deep down to the bottom of his boots, ripe for the squashing, but he's not scared to hurt--that he looks away again and keeps talking.]

Both, honestly. Not from losing Lady Lunafreya--there was no point to that. There was no reason to kill her except to hurt... hurt all of us.

[As Prompto speaks, his expression wavers between that grief and pain and an equally visible, equally powerful resolve. An angry resolve. Fuck that guy, says his resolve; we're going to make something better.]

But I learned a lot from other stuff that happened. Even if all of it was bad. And I lost--we lost...

[He trails off, then breathes noisily out and rakes both hands back through his hair.]

We lost a lot. [Prompto blinks quickly, still looking ahead, but the set of his mouth is firm.] I'm not losing anything else. And we're gonna get it back.

[pyrafect]

[ She glances at him from the corner of her eyes, relaxing back in the seat. Before being taken from atop the World Tree to be awakened on the earth, it had always been but her duty, her purpose to merely observe. The curiosity of that ancient role remains, but it lacks the respect it does from before. ] ... But what can someone like you do, to ensure that?

You're human.

It is inevitable... [ From where she sits, she leans towards him. ] That you will lose everything, whether by your own hand, or by someone else's.

Why persist? [ She asks him, spoken as if she's almost in disbelief, perhaps even surprise that he would say that he wouldn't. Perhaps he is a fool, perhaps he simply doesn't know better-- this Pyra would like to think that. Had she all her emotions, she would certainly encourage him to fight for whatever he believes him, for peace and happiness. ]

[photoshooter]

[He started to wince while she spoke, but for some reason, the last question just makes him frown.]

...Wait. Uhh, what?

[He's--not upset.

He's confused.]

You're saying... that we shouldn't try because we're human? [His eyes flicker back and forth between hers, and his expression just gets more and more perplexed.] Because, what, we'll die eventually? Is that what you mean by 'it's inevitable'?