Prompto Intro ~ OTA

[kings_knight_rocks]

Open/locked?: Open
Who: Prompto and whoever finds him
What: Arrival in Auradon
Warnings: Possibly some panic attacks/flashbacks? Nothing graphic though


The figure out on the quad stood out from the snow in the all black ensemble, neither the colouring nor the short sleeves particularly suited to the weather, though his light hair and white feathery wings did a much better job. Anyone would be able to see just how confused he himself was to be there. Confused, and none too happy either.

Prompto had no idea how he got here. Or where ‘here’ even was. The chill and the dusting of snow definitely wasn’t a Longwythe feature, neither was the- was that an actual castle? He looked around, trying not to let panic creep in just yet. But a second assessment only proved that this was, in fact, not the rocky plains near Longwythe Peak. It appeared to be a well maintained yard. From what he could see under the snow at least. He was glad for it. The weather brought memories of a different tundra, but the architecture here was all wrong.

The bigger issue, he was realising, was that Noct and the others were nowhere to be seen. He looped his camera strap around his neck and pulled his wings close in an attempt to keep warm. “Noct? Iggy?” He spun around again, squinting against the glare of the sun off the snow. “Gladio?”

This wasn’t good. He reached for the familiar pocket of space of the Armiger, looking for his phone, but all his hand met with was empty air. Oh, really really not good.

“Okay. This is fine. Totally fine. I just need to not panic. Yup. I can do that. Not panicking.” He took a deep breath and turned towards the castle. Hopefully there he’d at least be able to get out of the cold, if not find someone who could tell him where on Eos he was. He fluffed his feathers, hugged his arms over his chest, and started walking.

Comments

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea grinned. "Among other things, yeah," he said to the space heater comment. Almost immediately, the temperature immediately around Prompto would rise further to something just above room temperature. Where he's holding Lea's arm, meanwhile, feels unusually warm for a human, even through the coat, though not uncomfortably so.

He actually chuckled about the cult question. "It's fine, the coat is designed to look kinda off-putting," he said. "But no, I'm not in a cult. This isn't my first choice of outfit these days either, but the coat's convenient and mostly waterproof; ideal for snow clearing. And the name's Lea; good to meet you." Well, meet him again, technically. Though they could get into that later, after the basic situation had been explained.

[kings_knight_rocks]

He sighed, relaxing minutely as the warmth kicked up. The dude really was like hugging a heater. "That sounds exactly like something someone in a cult would say... Eh, I'll take your word for it Lea. So, what is this place?" He freed a hand to gesture towards the castle.

Focus on the immediate issues. Not freezing to death; check. Locating where he was, and where the guys were; in process. Freaking out could come later. And come it would, based on the tight stress-knot coiling in his stomach.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Fair enough," he said, amused, as he began leading Prompto to the delivery entrance.

"Anyway, this here is Auradon Prep. Under normal circumstances, it's a boarding school for the kids of this kingdom's ultra rich and elite," he said. "Think 'half the student body has had titles in front of their names from the moment they were born' levels of rich. There's a really pretentious sign sign back the other way near the front entrance that basically says 'look how much richer and better than you we are'; it being half buried in snow is a big improvement."

"For better or worse though, things right now are decidedly not normal. So currently the school dorms are basically a home away from home for me and a number of others. Thankfully, they're every bit as comfortable as you'd expect for a place like this, and the few locals we've run into here are alright too."

[kings_knight_rocks]

He couldn't help but laugh a little at the first part of Lea's spiel. As far as Prompto knew, Noct had never gone to an elite private school like this, but he would definitely suit the place (even though he would hate it). "Sorry, I just have a friend that would fit in here perfectly. He'd whine my ear off if he heard me say it though." Hopefully he'd be able to track down Noct and the others soon.

"So anyway, what happened? Where'd all the students go? Shouldn't it be about mid-term this time of year?" He'd lost track of the exact date after all the traipsing around in the outlands after the Fall, but the weather had certainly took a turn, and he couldn't have travelled that far north without remembering it, surely?

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah that's... complicated," he said. "Long story very short, a magical mishap caused most of the local population to vanish. And an attempt to fix that resulted in a second magical mishap when two spells clashed. Instead of bringing back the people who are supposed to be here, it started bringing in people from all kinds of different times and places. That's how you and I both ended up here. So, yeah... sorry for the accidental kidnapping?"

[kings_knight_rocks]

He took a second to process that. "So, just making sure here; we aren't on Eos? And you're not from wherever here is, or Eos?" If this was some kind of weird dream, he was ready to wake up now.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Got it in one," Lea said. "For better or worse. It's OK to be a bit freaked out, but for the most part people here are alright and will do their best to help you out. No one's gonna leave you out in the cold, literally or metaphorically."

[kings_knight_rocks]

"A bit freaked?" He laughed, a little in shock, a little in disbelief. "Try totally... How- can we even get back?" He felt a bit sick. Were Noct and the guys back on Eos worried about where he was? What had happened to him? Were they secretly relieved to have him gone after everything that had come out the day before..?

He squeezed his wings in tight, focused on the discomfort of the action, and tried to dispel his spiralling thoughts. He needed to stay focused on the here and now, figure out what he was going to do.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea could tell that Prompto was panicking. As much as he wanted to try and lay it off as no big deal, he couldn't. Lea was used to it, if rather annoyed by it. But this was clearly Prompto's first time dealing with multiversal shenanigans.

"...Also a valid reaction," he said. "This isn't my first go round with this sort of thing, but I understand how scary it can be. Getting dragged across time and space by the seat of your metaphorical pants isn't anybody's idea of a good time."

"At the moment, we don't have a way of sending people back on purpose, though that's among a number of things that's being worked on. But before you enter a new level of freaking out, there is some good news. While we're stuck here, time in our own world's effectively stops. So if you had anything time-sensitive going on, or if you're worried about what your friends'll think of you suddenly popping off to who knows where, there's no need to worry about that. Once you do eventually make it back, it'll be like you never left, cause as far as anyone back home is concerned, you didn't."

"Of course that's it's own kind of weird, but at least it's a helpful kind. And in the meantime, no one here's gonna hurt you. So just...try and take a deep breath. The situation is absolutely bonkers, but right here and now there's nothing to be afraid of, and I'll do my best to answer whatever questions you might have."

[kings_knight_rocks]

He took a few shaky deep breaths. Lea's understanding and explanation were appreciated, but it was certainly still a lot to take in. He shook his head. "I'm not even going to ask how that thing with time works, I was never good at science, I'll just appreciate it and move on."

He frowned. "I'm curious though, what else are you working on? Wouldn't getting home be the first priority?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Probably a good idea," he said. "I generally do the same, and it saves a lot of headaches. Vexen's the science guy, not me. Well, there's Ian too, but they're more on the tech side than metaphysics."

As the reached the delivery entrance and Lea opened the door with his free hand, he continued. "Among other things, dealing with the food situation. This area's cut off from things like farms and grocery stores, so we're mostly only still eating at the moment because one of the people here can produce food magically. But relying on her's not a long term solution, and it looks like we might need one. Also there's figuring out why this area's cut off to begin with; it's clearly not natural and may or may not be connected to most of the population vanishing. Then there's retrieving said population from wherever they've poofed off to, and in the mean time, establishing reliable communication with the only other place that currently has any people. The issue is that that place is basically an island prison designed to be sealed off from the outside world, and for better or worse, the barrier around it works really well."

[kings_knight_rocks]

He rose an eyebrow at the new names, but didn't ask. He could worry about introductions later. Once they were inside, he took a small step away from Lea, not wanting to cling unwelcomely, but also glad to have a bit more of his space back. The extra room also gave him enough room to gently shake out his feathers of any stray bits of snow or water.

"Got it, big list. Not gonna lie, most of that is going right over my head. Pretty sure the magic back home works a bit different than here." He chuckled, a bit self-deprecating. "But I gotta ask; prison island? Actually, I there's a legend about one of those where I'm from... Anyway, how is that the only other place people are right now? And why are we wanting to get in contact with criminals?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Well aside from it just being.... the only other place with people at the moment, it's because people can just appear there too the same way they do here," Lea said. "And if the supply situation here is tight, it's a lot worse over there, since conditions there were pretty bad to start with. Since the Isle is technically under Auradon rule, it's the kingdom's responsibility to keep it up. Which... admittedly they weren't doing a good job of before, but now that King Ben's in charge, he's serious about changing that, even under current circumstances. There's also a standing offer for anyone on the Isle to be able to earn their freedom by proving they've turned over a new leaf. Kids from there get something of a free pass though, albeit kinda on probation."

[kings_knight_rocks]

He'd paled a little bit. "Well, I'm glad I showed up over here. I hate to even ask, but... Kids? In a place like that?" He refused to think about the uncomfortable familiarities. His situation had been very different- still was very different. At the end of the day though, Cor had probably thought something similar all those years ago. He shook the thought off.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah," Lea said, clearly not any fonder of the idea than Prompto. "The ones who are actually native to this world were mostly the result of how the Isle was set up. Men and women weren't kept separate, and with not that many entertainment options available... yeah, kids were kinda inevitable."

"What wasn't inevitable was them being left there, which I still don't get. There was some stupid idea about evil being genetic or something; whether people actually believed it or it was just an excuse, I don't know but that, as far as I know, was the official line. Ben realized how dumb that was, but by that point the kids had been spending years going to actual schools and being raised by parents that literally teaching them to be as evil as possible, so there were.... issues with getting the Isle kids integrated."

"Currently, people get dropped either here or on the Isle kinda at random; that includes kids. People who've done evil things or have dark pasts seem more likely to arrive on the Isle, but we've got no way of knowing what the actual criteria whatever spell or force or whatever is making the determination uses to decide who ends up where. If there even are any."

[kings_knight_rocks]

"That's so messed up." Look, anyone could see the faulty logic there, there was no reason to analyze that train of thinking compared to his own situation. He was genetically different. And he also wasn't going to go down that train of pondering. Especially because, if what Lea was saying was accurate, it made no sense he'd end up here instead of on the Isle.

"You said 'randomly', has the spell not been right before? Besides the kids I mean."