middleofsomewhere | The Will to Fight: Conclusion

The Will to Fight: Conclusion

The battles rage loud and ferocious at the gates of the city and off in the ruined wastelands of Erda, and on the walls a struggle of a different kind occurs. The team who stayed behind at the towers are small but determined as they move stoically across the walls to right the stones that have become misaligned, even as their friends battle not too far away.

The city begins to hum. It's a quiet hum, not loud enough to be heard out where the others are fighting but it vibrates even through stone. The recovering monks assure them that it is done, the wards are back up and no demon will be able to enter the city.

Eventually the battle is won, all three battles. The demons fought back and killed, a major blow to their gate system that will keep them back for hopefully a long time. Those waiting in the caverns return to the city and by the time they get there the illusions are gone. Everyone can see the world for what it really is.

But despite the ruins of their world the people are relieved, the adrenaline of the fight coursing through their veins and the mood is one of hope. They will build again, their people will survive.

All Voidtreckers please return to the Voidtrecker Express. Departure will be in a few hours

It has landed not too far from the city, cloaked to make it unnoticeable to the citizens, for all the good that does. No one has been particularly subtle this last week. People can begin regrouping, packing up the camp and getting any wounded not already healed to the train.

However roughly half an hour later another message appears on their SCA.

Passenger Persephone has requested we remain on system System #86525656412355 for an additional day to further assist the people of Erda. The Voidtrecker Express will depart on the morning of Day Fifteen of the month of Kazoo.

The train remains where it is, so the voidtreckers can use its facilities. There is definitely a lot that can be done to assist those of this world and the citizens will welcome any helping hands.

After an extra day they finally depart, returning to the void once more.

(OOC Note: Once the wards are up any characters who are demonic in nature will not be able to enter the city either!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Prompto was trying to clear a path through some of this rubble. He was definitely a part of the ordinary guy team, but he's stronger than he looks.

He grinned at him. "Can you help me with that bigger rock there?"

Should he be up on his feet? Probably not, but he was the helpful sort.

This guy looks like he's about to keel over. He's still got his pack on him, so he takes it off and sets a bottle of water down near him.

"Here, you take a minute with this an' I'll clear some of this out."

He puts the pack and the toolbox down and starts shoving some of the rocks out of the way, knowing better than to try and keep picking the bastards up after giving himself the unfriendliest of backaches down in the caverns. The cave-in there had been a real test of his patience.

"How long you been at this?"

"Hey thanks!" Prompto said with a cheerful smile and accepted the water, before watching Yondu set to work. Huh, he hadn't thought about pushing them.

"Not that long, uh, couple hours maybe?" Prompto responded between grateful gulps of water.

"I didn't think about just pushing them." Rebuilding wasn't a skill he had...yet...

"There was this big collapse down in the catacombs. Took us for damn ever to clear it out. If you carried ever' damn one your arms'd just be useless within a few hours. So rollin' an' shovin' it was."

In fact when he gets to one of the bigger rocks, rolling it is what he does.

"...There was an empty house that was about half caved in, all battered to hell. Ever'body gone for a real long time. When I was tryin' to show people things went bad with the city I kinda went an' tore it all the way down. Should probably check up on that." He pulls a face as he looks off. "...I cain't remember where that was, though." And in that case everything was pretty much already in a pile. This still needs some straightening up.

"Man, that sounds rough. All I had to deal with was fighting demons." Prompto said with a sympathetic nod.

"Oh, uh, I mean we can look for it? I don't really know how to fix houses. I know how to do basic stuff you know, like make your toilet stop running or uh, fix a leaky tap, reparing your fridge. That kind of stuff." He knew home maintenance, but he didn't really build things.

"Eh. I'll look for it later. Nothin' was in the way. An', I can do shit like that. That's what I was doin' over there." And then he mouths something irritably under his breath. Because, come on, if he's going to be a freak in a place the only benefits to being one are the occasional moments you get to enjoy being an oddity. That was about to be one of 'em.

But he continues on. "Was the captain of a interstellar ship for a long time. Big ol' thing with a real rowdy crew that'd keep breakin' stuff with no idea how to fix it. Now I had mechanics but ever' once in a while it was me tryin' to put shit back together hollerin' I was gonna dock pay if it happened again an' I caught who done it. 'Naw, Cap'n. It weren't me.' 'You wet as a fish ya lyin' fool, who else broke the water. How else you get that way, fall in the toilet?'"

He shakes his head, still holding onto those good memories. Strange now to think of them as good ones.

Break time now over, he helped Yondu with the pushing. It was a good idea, not that he didn't need to do arm day, but this was more of a full body workout.

"Oh that sounds pretty cool, travelling space. I didn't know you could do that." Eos didn't have that kind of technology.

He giggled at the story. "Sounds like me and my friends. Iggy won't let me drive anymore because the car broke. I mean. It...might...have been out of gas? But that's not my fault!"

At least Yondu's still got plenty enough muscle, it's just under some dad-bod. "Been doin' it most of my life! Actually I ain't even been back to my homeworld since I was real little. Barely remember what it looks like upfront. Mostly recall it from stories my kind tells an' pictures an' such."

It's not something that tears a lot at him. He's more Ravager than anything else now, the way he sees it. But sometimes he'd like to be a little more Centaurian than he shows. He's still a hunter who whistles. It's ingrained in his very core.

"You didn't check your fuel, huh?" And Yondu kind of chuckles at that, turning so his back is against the rock, pressing his foot up against an old bit of wall, and shoving so it rolls over rubble. When that's done he backs off, dusting himself off. "Y'all travel a lot on your world?"

"Wow, that's really cool. This is my first trip outside of Insomnia." Prompto said with a bright smile.

"So uh, no I didn't, but we're on a road trip now. It was supposed to only be like a week but..." He trailed off a little.

"Here's hoping we make it to Altissia soon...and that everything works out." He was a bit naive about that, he wanted things to get better through diplomacy. He didn't know that was off the table.

"You got one of them hard-pressin' situations back home?" He props his foot up on a smaller rock, leaning against it before giving it a hard shove off towards the rubble pile.

There are a few people comin' from that kinda life. At least Yondu showed up feeling done, maybe in the worst way, but there wasn't so much for him to be worried about.

"Uhhh, well, kind of." Prompto said with a bit of a sound that said he was considering that.

"We were trying to get Noctis to Altissia so he could get married." He smiled. "It was supposed to be part of a treaty, but the Empire already broke it and took over Insomnia so....I don't know. I think we're all hoping if he marries her it'll work out and we can go back home." It was a little naive.

"Pretty sure all the books I come across with that as a plot don't end all that good." Place names aside, it seems like a pretty normal tale.

"If they ain't into it I'd save your buddy the trouble."

"I...well we need to go there to speak to Leviathan too but..I don't know what else we're supposed to do? Give up? Never go home?" Prompto asked.

"Wait until they hunt us down and sometime we lose?"

"I ain't sure. Ain't completely sure of the situation. But I'm just sayin', if the weddin' is already fallin' through? I'd just kick ass harder until it takes. I mean, they keep makin' us fight swarms of demons ya oughta be able to before ya go back home. Them things about wore ever'body out."

Yet, here they are, still busting their asses. Says something about 'em. Sorta pisses him off that the train is right about the kinda people they are.

"Well...I don't think the wedding itself is. I mean, Lady Lunafreya said she wanted to marry Noct too, at least, even with the whole mess. All that happened was instead of coming into Insomnia to sign a peace treaty, that was supposed to culminate in this wedding..." He trailed off.

Prompto sighed. "They kind of killed everyone they could and took over the city, including our late King Regis."

"Well them folks sound like asshats. That's what they sound like."

He picks up a big piece of a broken beam, dragging it along the ground until he can throw it on the pile.

"If it's that serious, I don't think the weddin' would fix it. I say that 'cause I was a slave to a big ol' empire once. They did shit like that, used those kinda political things as ins rather than outs. I'd go get me some allies an' make it worth their while to help ya out. If you got a chance for that anyway."

"Yeah kinda." Prompto said cheerfully, but then he sobered a bit.

"We were the last hold out in Insomnia...the rest of Lucis...won't support us because we-" He sucked in a breath. "The treaty was the king ceding every land except the Crown City to the Empire, which they took anyway. They've conquered all of Eos at this point." He sighed.

"There are a few contacts here or there we can work with, or speak to but solid support? I don't...I don't think so. That's why the wedding too, I think. It's very visible. Everyone loves Lady Lunafreya. She's not an Imperial. She's their prisoner."

Well they certainly are up shit creek, ain't they?

Yondu leans against a still-standing piece of brickwork as he's thinking on it. "So she's that kinda woman, huh? The kind people go stupid for."

Sounds like the type his son would get stabbed for flirting with. At least before he hooked up with his current squeeze. "Well, maybe you're right and it ain't the worst idea. Somethin' to be said for the curb appeal of a good lookin' public couple. Aletta and Stakar always had that 'unbeatable' vibe to 'em."

Though that might have a little to do with how he looked at Stakar. Aletta was hot, no denying that. But something about Stakar just... never shook that affection for him. Wounded him in the heart whenever he thought of him.

"I'm not sure it's like that, but she's important." Prompto explained. "She's the Oracle. She's the one that talks to the Astrals." They had a fairly comprehensive religion system built in.

"She's pretty." He admitted with a little blush. "I've uh, I've never met her though. I'm hoping to! She sent me a letter once!" He offered a bright smile. "And uh, Noct says he's told her about me sometimes so, yeah, should be good."

He was looking forward to the chance of speaking to her.

"Yeah, they're both the kind of people who are...important enough for people to care about." He had the same view of Noctis, really, but there was nothing he could do about that. It was never meant to be.

Ah, crap. This poor kid. Down a shitty path Yondu recognizes. He'd always liked Aletta, don't get him wrong. Crazy as hell and if he could have weaseled in on both for action he would have. But Stakar? Stakar had been special, the man that freed him and gave him a place. ~~The man that took that place away when he did wrong by him.~~

At least this good-hearted sounding guy doesn't seem like the type to make the bullshit mistakes Yondu would make.

"Sounds like you're the guy in the best position to help 'em make it work, then. An' if that ain't a whole anchor of weight on you. Just uh... make sure you do right by both of 'em."

Don't be stupid. Don't be like Yondu.

"I'd to anything for Noct, really." Prompto said cheerfully. "So don't worry, if he wants to marry Lady Lunafreya, we'll get him there."

He meant that, Noctis was his first and best friend. What wouldn't he do for him?

Yup, he knows that feeling.

That horrible, terrible, wonderful, wanna kick its ass in retrospect feeling.

"He got the same attitude towards you?"

"Oh uh, well..." Prompto considered it. "I don't know, but uh, maybe? Probably not though since he's got more important things to do."

Noctis wasn't supposed to put his guards first, but the human heart was fallible in that regard.

Edited 2021-03-29 01:29 (UTC)

"Y'know, I had a friend like that? Maybe not that same scenario, but I liked bein' around him just the same. But I messed some stuff up an' he cut me out. If I was you, I'd tell him somethin' what it is you think of him while you're still good. You never know what kinda shit misunderstandin's can ruin ever'thin'."

Which he can't really shut up with that kind of advice, not when he sees someone that might unknowingly be at the same risk that he was a long time ago. When he never got to make things up to someone.

Prompto considered that. It could be good advice for someone who wasn't him, in his situation.

"I don't think something like that would happen." He said gently. "I took a lifelong oath to protect him. It's not-" Prompto considered. "It's not like a teenage promise, it's a legal contract. Military service. So I don't think he'd get rid of me."

He blushed lightly. "He's the king of Lucis. There's...nothing really to say."

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