imagine jason comforting you, with his fingers carding through your hair and a secure arm around you, as you lean on his chest, finding comfort in his steady heartbeat.
he'd pepper kisses on the crown of your head and when he senses that you're getting lost in your thoughts again, it's okay, he murmurs, i'm here.
it's enough to ground you back to reality, reminding yourself that it's over, you're okay, and you're back in the loving arms of your partner.
you move around to face jason, yet you don't meet his eyes. instead, you bury your face into the crook of his neck, wrapping your arms around him. you feel his hold on you tighten the slightest bit, his entire being radiating warmth.
he knows you don't want to talk about it now, he's been the same way— he still is the same way whenever he's in your position,
so he holds you close, hoping you can feel what words cannot convey,
i love you, i'm here for you.
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For your NyxNoct prompt sentence -
"I always hoped— but to actually hear you say it is better than I'd ever dreamed."
In the ten years Noctis had spent within the crystal, even when he thought he had finally accepted the weight of an unbreakable fate, there were always the What Ifs in the back of his mind. The 'Maybe it doesn't have to be this way' trains of thoughts. The pondering of whether or not he could come up with another way to fix things.
He had no doubt given up hope shortly before he awoke at Angelgard. Though he hoped that Nyx and his friends wouldn't try to save him. At that point, in the poor state of the world, it was easier to accept fate. To lie down and pass on the light they'd all been deprived of for a decade, even if that thought terrified him.
There's no other way. The gods said it, therefore it must be.
What a load of shit.
Noctis still isn't entirely sure how they did it. He's not quite sure how he's sitting here at the top of the Citadel's steps, the suit of his raiment tattered and sullied with dirt and dried blood. There's a singed tear in the fabric at the center of his chest, a jagged scar that would suggest the wound is months old rather than fresh, and a dull phantom ache lingering beneath the skin.
The sun is refreshingly warm on his face. There's no cold clutch of an ancestral ring on his finger. The city, while it might appear to be in shambles at the first few glances, is far from unsalvagable.
In due time, the world will recover. For now, however...
"Can you say it again?" Noctis asks quietly, voice on the verge of breaking as he turns his head to Nyx beside him.
Nyx, who is a little more battle worn from when Noctis first entered the crystal. He bears the same jagged white facial scars that mark his survival from the city's initial fall. There are heavy bags under his blue eyes that bear a decade's worth of sleepless nights and ruthless daemon battles. His hair is now long and braided, beads of Galahd tradition still woven in near the scalp, among a few new ones Noctis hasn't had the chance to ask about yet. Though there are more streaks of silver in Nyx's hair than Noct remembers. He knows one is but another souvenir of that damn ring Nyx dared to become worthy of so long ago. The others... Noctis always wondered if something from that brief possession of power always stuck with Nyx.
Wrinkles form at the corner of Nyx's eyes as he focuses on Noct, discerning the unspoken plea behind his request. He seems like he understands as he scoots closer to Noctis and gently rests his gloved hand over Noct's.
Say it again so I know it's real.
"We made it, Noct." Nyx says softly, smiling as his eyes grow wet and glint under the rays of the first sun in ten years. "Against all the odds, we made it."
Funny enough, while it's better than what he could have ever dreamed, it's more than he can bear. He exhales shakily and finds himself naturally leaning against Nyx, resting a weary head on an equally weary shoulder. Nyx then rests his own head against Noct's, squeezing his hand in reassurance that it's all real.
His friends approach from behind to help him bear the rest as they take in the dawn. Gladio and Ignis settle behind them, each resting a hand on Noct's shoulders and kneading them encouragingly. Prompto settles down on Noct's other side and leans in close, holding his other hand.
It's more than Noctis can bear in the best way possible. More so when he sees Cor pausing in his steps up ahead, Iris, Libertus and Aranea doing the same; seemingly wondering if they see what they think they see. They all start running towards the steps as Nyx and his friends hug him tight.
Noctis closes his eyes to bask under the sun as he takes a deep breath, and Nyx utters softly:
"Long live the King of Light."
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Angstober day 27: System Collapse
I probably spent way too much time making sure my sandhi were accurate in this one. Hooray to the one semester of Sanskrit I'd once taken - never thought it would come in useful.
The Flame of the Countless Deaths
The connection between the leylines is tentative, volatile. Hard as he tries, Kalidasa cannot fully feel the other locations, but it’s better than nothing.
Breathe in, breathe out. His heart beats in sync with the weak, dying magic of the world.
He is about to cease to exist. He is everywhere.
Keeping track of time is hard. There is no time where his mind is, and yet the time is everything now. Sounds of fighting reach him, and he isn’t sure if it is his brothers and sisters fighting at the Mrtyunamjvalah temple below, or if it’s echoes reaching him from across the world, the last cries seeping in through the unstable network.
It hardly matters.
The first seals are barely beginning to settle when the first interruption rocks the leyline.
Kalidasa frowns, breathing steady as he tries to pull closer, figure out where the disruption is coming from. One of the second seals comes with a delay, and with it, Qiao Xiu’s unusually terse voice in Kalidasa’s head, “Got off schedule, but we’re fine.”
And it is fine. The seals should be done simultaneously for them to be stable, but on the cosmic scale, some minutes are a minor issue. The disturbance caused by whatever happened on Qiao Xiu’s end dies down as the rituals continue, and Kalidasa keeps hoping. “Take care,” he replies, and listens to the silence once more.
Time passes through him. More hours, more seals, more fighting seemingly everywhere. The powers that don’t want their divinity sealed off are not going to let it go smoothly – those running the rituals were prepared for it, each group made precautions for it.
Some hid the sites, some set up traps, some placed guards. Below Kalidasa, surrounding the circle where the ritual is taking place, are the monks that do not expect to make it to sundown.
Kalidasa wonders – no, hopes that it will be enough.
After four seals have taken root, things go downhill.
“Hoards of demons,” Zamani’s voice follows the tidal wave of unstable magic. “We’ll try to get back on track.”
He isn’t sure why they report to him. There is nothing he can do, he cannot even send the word out without breaking his connection to the leyline. Perhaps, Kalidasa muses, they just want him not to worry, aware that he’s watching over them.
“Do your best,” is all he can think of replying.
Perhaps there is some comfort they gain from knowing he’s still there, for however much longer it might be.
To his sorrow, the leylines do not have the time to stabilize before the next big interruptions. With each seal, it seems, the price of mistakes becomes greater. “Man down. Will try to finish with eleven.”
The few words of comfort Kalidasa can give don’t seem at all sufficient.
He utters them anyway and watches in dismay as the perturbations grow stronger and stronger, no longer needing their missteps to feed themselves. Something is bound to crack, Kalidasa worries, but the fighting seems to have stopped for the most part.
The air is thick with death, and Kalidasa keeps repeating the same prayers for departed souls over and over again. It is all he can do.
Most have completed eight seals when another shock makes Kalidasa jerk, almost throwing him out of his trance. Something goes wrong, somewhere above and on the inside, and Kalidasa isn’t sure where it is in the real world, but he watches helplessly as the connection to one of the leylines breaks, sending ripples through the entire network.
He hadn’t realized before that there is noise in his ears, but it’s growing more and more uncomfortable to the point where he cannot easily ignore it. It is so loud that he almost misses the voice reaching for him through the void.
He barely recognizes Remi.
“I’m sorry,” is all he hears, and perhaps there was more to the message, but it’s gone, dissolved in static as waves of uncertainty wash over the leylines.
Four more seals to go.
The cut off leyline returns slowly, and he knows it’s Remi’s group giving it one more try, no matter how desperate the situation looks on their side. The rituals continue, exhaustion bleeding to Kalidasa instead of finesse as the hours of work take toll on everyone.
The rituals finish in an unsteady cacophony, a rough patch rather than neat embroidery on the fabric between the planes. Kalidasa feels each backlash and winces, knowing they mean more deaths he will probably never learn about.
His magic feels weaker and weaker as more leylines are cut off, but it’s not fully gone. The seals are still fluid, like unfinished stitches, but Kalidasa holds on to hope.
It’s the only thing he can do.
The people of Mrtyunamjvalah leave, knowing better than to disturb him. His own skin feels frayed, and Kalidasa wonders what is happening outside, but dares not open his eyes.
There is still time. There is still hope.
Whatever the outcome, he will be there to witness it.
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