if you're feeling dead i'll be your reanimator

[whichcraft]

WHO: Summer and YOU!
WHAT: All over Chroma!
WHERE: Various times in the month of October!
WHEN: Catch-all prompts for the month of October, some open, some closed! See below for links to open top-levels.
WARNINGS: Will be marked in their individual threads!


QUEST 29 (SKELETON WAR) — OTA! | QUEST 30 (TRICK OR TREATING) — OTA!

Comments

[whichcraft]

...Holy fuck.

[That's...that's actually terrifying to watch, in a way that hits her with a sort of rare apprehension she doesn't usually experience, even in battle. There's fear, and of course she understands the fear of a credible threat, but there's the sort of fear that makes you aware that you have to be careful of something, and then there's...well, this.

Watching Noctis reminds her of how it felt to watch the old man cast magic: the sudden, sobering recognition of someone whose skill so far outstrips yours that you wouldn't even know where to begin when it comes to trying to stand against it, and the fear that feels like a block of ice dropped into the pit of your stomach when it occurs to you that if this person wanted you dead, you already would be.

She's so used to sword boys being stupid and dumb and reckless. She's not used to this.]

...Fucking fuck.

[Congratulations, Noctis. You've rendered her both wide-eyed and speechless.]

[nascere]

[ Noctis is a little too far away to notice the look on the face, but that isn't a problem. Noctis doesn't even look like he's broken a sweat, because he warps to a few paces before her, dusting himself off.

Up close, however, he notices, and his brows raise in concern. ]

You okay?

[ Is it the skeletons thing? Is she scared of them? He knows she hates them to pieces, but you never know with girls. ]

[whichcraft]

[Make him love you, her instincts snap immediately, not because it's a good thing but because that's how problem-solving works sometimes, you take an answer that worked once before and you use it again and again, no matter how shitty it is or whatever better answers might be out there, just because you know for a fact that this one does. And this is how she'd felt about Nick at first, isn't it, when she'd seen what he could do, how fast he was, how powerful when she was still so clumsy and inept. This is exactly how she'd felt, when it had occurred to her that he could abandon her or betray her or kill her if he ever wanted to, and she couldn't stop him, and she didn't have a way to prevent that.

Kind of funny in retrospect — she'd gotten him to love her, except that then she'd kind of fallen into the exact same trap of her own, and in the end he'd abandoned, betrayed, and killed her anyway, on a battlefield just like this one.

She's glad for her cloak, because it means she might stand a chance at hiding the way her hands are shaking. She's glad, too, for a moment to catch her breath, because it leaves her time to remind herself of all of the good things Prompto has ever said about Noctis, and how she trusts Prompto's word if nothing else, and how his promise that she's safe has meant so much toward freeing her from fears exactly like these in the past.

She swallows hard, and tries to get hold of herself.]

I've never seen anyone move like that.

[A shaky laugh escapes her, accidentally betraying some of what she's really feeling as she adds absentmindedly: ]

Maybe I'm the one who should stay off the battlefield, so you don't get me mixed up with one of them.

[nascere]

Yeah, well.

[ Something's not right here, but he doesn't know her well enough to put a finger on it. What he does know, however, is that something about this whole thing makes her nervous, and he's not entirely sure what to do. ]

Good that you're long range, I guess...?

[ He offers, not coming any closer for fear of spooking her. ]

[whichcraft]

...What do Prompto and Ignis even do, if you can fight like that?

[And here, maybe, reveals another telling difference between her experiences and his. One of them was trained to be a warrior, taught to use his abilities, pressed and grilled and honed into the skilled fighter he is today. The other was dropped into it and told to survive on nothing but her wits, surrounded by boys who simply picked up swords and thought that somehow that made them heroes.]

You just...

[She motions back vaguely at the piles of bones where skeletons had once stood.]

They're...all gone. By yourself. With a sword.

[nascere]

They fight along with me.

[ Noctis tells her simply, not quite understanding the question because it is what it is. His friends, Ignis, Prompto, Gladio, they bring their own gifts to the table, they show him the way. They make things less... lonely.

He tilts his head at her, curious. ]

You haven't seen something like that before, huh.

[whichcraft]

Nobody ever taught us how to fight.

[And there it is — the thin, nervous admission that really digs into the heart of the problem she's grappling with: the clarity that comes with seeing someone who knows what they're doing at work doing it, and having to reexamine even her own successes beneath the new lens of what it looks like when someone is capable and competent, and not just reckless and lucky.]

My friends. We just...found weapons. Practiced sometimes. Tried to stay alive most of the rest of the time.

[She shakes her head, still visibly stunned.]

I've never seen anybody fight like you fight.