daemonized | ML INBOX.

Then you have your answer, don't you? If I'm so closely associated with the Starscourge, then what do you think is keeping me alive? Or was, at any rate.

That's surprisingly keen of you! [Though he did drop a rather large hint.] That's right. Dearest little brother of mine, Somnus.

[to be fair, ignis deduced most of it while noctis talked to them about it.]

you were supposed to be the actual founding king of lucis

[he gets this much]

was it the starscourge that made you like this? full of that hatred i mean
if you've been waiting all this time... how come you went off the radar for 2k+ years?

I was supposed to be many things. A king, a man to guide Lucis with a just hand and a steady heart. How long ago that was, and what laughable expectations they are now.

[It's like talking about a stranger. A naive stranger, who gave too much, expecting nothing, and was crushed underfoot by the astrals themselves as thanks.]

The scourge might have filled me with darkness, with daemons and sickness, but that was my choice. My hatred comes from betrayal, and the long, ever-grinding wheel of time that allows that same hate to grow with every year that passes.

[Oh were you thinking that you'd continue to get straight answers? It won't be so easy.]

[figures he's not about to get any straight answers from ardyn, but he also doesn't feel like fighting ardyn anymore. not right now, not over this. maybe he's being naive.]

[all he gets from this exchange is an honest and curious question of:]

were you ever someone with a just hand and a steady heart?

[And with this, there's a delay, the first that Prompto would ever have experienced in all of his correspondences with Ardyn.]

Yes.

But that man is dead now, left to rot millennia ago.

[he struggles with his next text. it takes him a while to send.]

i won't hold my breath we'll ever see eye to eye
you've been waiting since forever ago for something that isn't going to happen while we're all stuck here, you and noctis especially
i can't say i get all of it but i know that it really fucking sucks

[anticipating something but not being able to have it, despite it being at his grasp. he gets that.]

plus i don't think you'd care whether we forgive you or not for what you've done
like you said: your hatred grows with every year that passes
and you have no real reason to put it aside

[why does he get himself into these things]

it sucks that it had to be you, that it had to be your family, that it had to start with you and end with noct

[The delay that comes after this response is even longer than the last—]

And is that supposed to mollify me? Your pity? Your understanding?

[—but there’s something darker in tone that transcends even text messages, that sets his nerves alight with how

(correct, all of it)

presumptuous Prompto is, sending him this. As if he understands, pretending to sympathize after being dealt a handful of paltry explanations, even if one had been Ardyn's own. He hates it, like it’s so simple. (It is.) Like he can cut through the hundreds of layers of grit and grime and rot that’s caked on after centuries, and hollow out the core that’s entombed within. (It sounds like he has.)]

Don’t patronize me. Only remember what I’ve done to your friends, what I’ve already done to your world, and leave it at that for now. I don’t need anything else from you.

i know it wasn't and won't because in the end we both know that i'm hardly of any relevance to you
i just wanted to understand even if don't have the whole picture

you're the worst of the worst and i doubt you'd try to deny that
but you were human before now and before the starscourge

[that's got to mean something]

since we're more than likely gonna all run into each other
idk
might be nice to not be banned from every single panini shop in the city

[whatever..........]

[Whatever, indeed. The words convey a point, beyond Prompto's inelegant and superficial way of stringing them together.]

What exactly are you trying to achieve, then? What I told you before still applies, no matter how desperately you want to carve out a truce in the presence of all the sandwich shops in the city. I can still hurt you, and your friends, and the friends of your friends.

Does an understanding of who I was in the past change anything in the present? I think both you and I would agree that it does not.

you gotta think i'm an idiot if you think me messaging you and having this conversation means that i've decided to stop being cautious around you
the opposite really
now i know i gotta be even more careful

and it may not change anything but it does bring things to a different perspective
not like you'd be willing to let yourself be thought of anything but an unstoppable force

[because that's what ardyn thinks, right? he'd rather kill them all than have them all pity him or try to put forth a friendly hand. regardless, that ship sailed when ardyn first spurred besithia to create thousands of soldiers and poisoned aldercapt's mind with greedy thoughts of taking the crystal for himself.]

[insomnia fallen, quiet and empty, and lunafreya's death are simply only the closest they've all been to the chaos ardyn's been working hard to have consume eos.]

you have a right to your anger and wanting destruction
but don't expect us to stay seated and take it

[...]

do you have a birthday on your id? [as much as he hates to ask...]

[Gods, what is this? Wretched attempts at understanding. Like rusted nails under his skin, foreign and unwanted.]

I expect nothing less. I would be disappointed otherwise.

[And now, what? bIRTHDAYS? The patronization has looped so far around that it’s gone beyond the point of offense, and straight into hilarious disbelief.]

If you care so much, then look. Nothing to say it’s accurate.

[not even prompto is too sure on what he was attempting here. make the fear he feels towards ardyn lessen? make him more human, and not the evil monstrosity that pervades his thoughts when all he hears is the ricochet of a gun and the mocking words of committing patricide?]

[he wants to get past this, somehow]

it's not that i care
we're trying to get our ducks in a row

[he thinks ardyn wouldn't remember his own birthday, were he to really think about his actual date of birth.]

And knowing my birthday will achieve that how, exactly?

[Ardyn never makes anything easy.]

we need excuses for getting together for the sake of the greater good in this place to hopefully get back home some day
don't you want that too?
so that you can continue stringing along your plan to fulfill the prophecy?

anyway, got it

Should you find an actual reason to apply to that excuse, then perhaps I’ll see more of a use to all of this. As it stands? This community is nothing but a group of lost souls grasping for answers and pulling forth nothing but dead ends, pretending all the while that progress is continually being made.

[Throws shade on all the other fellow displaced pretending to take the lead, the initiative, yet leaving them still wheeling in the wind regardless. How laughable.]

What was it? I don’t remember what I put down. [A lie.]

april 30
knowing you it's probably fake anyway

[lol]

it's always easier to criticize when you're not doing anything to lead in the right way or help out make better sense of things
if we were all doing the same as you we would be getting nowhere

April 30th? Yes, that one is certainly incorrect.

[ARDYN IS A LYING LIAR WHO LIES.]

A fair point.

But ultimately a moot one. You all are working diligently, and as far as I’m concerned, it shall remain so — whether or not I decide to contribute. So for now, I will rest easy on my laurels, simultaneously riding your coattails while you unearth answers for me. How kind.

ugh

fine, whatever

you're really hard to talk to you know

How so? I’ve been nothing but sincere. Honest. Concise.

[Maybe not that last thing.]

let's leave it at me not being to your brain level

[HE MEANS CRAZY]

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