#wondering why everyone online was talking about buying potions from the regalia

[secret-engima]

Nox is very, very powerful. So powerful, keeping his magic close in around him is. Not painful, but definitely uncomfortable. So he's more free with it than most Lucis Caelums are. After a period of time, the Citadel is almost saturated with his free-flowing magic, and it becomes background to everyone who can feel it. The first time he goes Grave Quiet, he pulls it /all/ in. The only ones who don't freak out are Axis & Ardyn, and even they're worried. It's not a Quiet Day, what triggered this?

Hmmmm I like this. This is good.

It’s probably a flashback. Nox probably ran into someone/something that ISN’T the Hall of Arts that he wasn’t braced for or expecting and it- sent him back. Back where, even he doesn’t know. All he knows is he feels scared and old and in DANGER so he goes GraveQuiet and the whole Citadel proceeds to freak out while looking for him (considering he knows all the old passages and hidden places and they DON’T... Axis and Ardyn are starting to Fret by the time Nox recovers his senses and slowly unfurls his magic enough to be tracked down).

Oh.

Oh wait.

I know exactly what set him off.

He’s walking down a hallway, passes by two servants cleaning a room who don’t notice him and are talking about something else entirely when one of them (a man) says “You’re such a tease!” and normally he can fight it off. Shudder and go about his day because they TALKED ABOUT THIS. He and Ardyn lanced this wound in the Void and scarred it over. But he’s not braced for it. He’s not in any conversation or in any kind of social event where those words might come up and the man’s voice is JUST RIGHT and suddenly Nox is-

Back in Gralea. Scared and lost and trapped without any weapon but the Ring that whispers in his head and burns his hand, without any of his friends (Ignis is BLIND and they are both unarmed are they okay? They have to be okay don’t believe Ardyn that they’re dying he always lies-lies-lies-), searching-searching-searching for Prompto and crying-screaming-breaking when all he finds is an empty husk of an MT wrapped in an illusion of blond hair and freckles (but what if it isn’t, what if he’s walking away from Prompto while his friend screams and begs and Noctis cannot hear-). He’s stumbling for days-nights-eternities through claustrophobic halls, harried by MT units and chased by the daemon that Won’t Stop Hunting him. That can feel his magic unless he grinds-grinds-grinds it down into his core until he feels like he’s dead all while the Thing-With-Ardyn’s voice cackles-

Such a tease such a tease such a tease sUcH A tEaSE

Nox comes back to himself, shivering and panting and burning up inside from suppressing his magic so hard and for so long, in some kind of safe room buried in the oldest parts of the Citadel. He’s alone and the stones are old and cramped and cold and for a moment he panics because what if he’s really back there no-no-no-no-.

Then he registers Regis’s magic, curling through the stones, vibrating with an ever increasing worry-comfort-fretting that can only mean he is HERE and ALIVE and- and-

And Nox remembers where he is. What’s going on. What happened. He carefully doesn’t think about what set him off (he doesn’t want to fall into that trap again) as he makes his way out of the safe room and stumbles off to find Axis. Axis tracks him down the moment he lets his magic relax, opens his mouth to yell, shuts it quietly when he sees just how pale and hunched in on himself Nox is.

“You’ve been missing for three days,” Axis fusses as he drags Nox off to eat something.

“Flashback.” Nox rasps back, because really that’s all he can say as Ardyn tears into the room with wild eyes and Regis on his heels. Because Ardyn has enough guilt issues, he doesn’t need that one dug up from its grave just because a servant said something only Nox is scared of.

#SE asks #anon asks #Nox verse #Secret Engima Rambles #Melodies and Manuscripts #okay #okay look #I PLAYED THE VANILLA VERSION #of that cursed level #not day one patch #not the alternate gladiolus path #V A N I L L A #because I'm an idiot #and i didn't know that day one patches were even a thing #I played the entire game my first time through #wondering why everyone online was talking about buying potions from the regalia #took me forever to remember that #OH YEAH #PS4 HAS INTERNET CAPABILITIES #GAME PATCHES EXIST #AND I CAN ACTUALLY GET THEM FOR ONCE #anyway the end result #is that I still twitch when I hear ardyn say that line #because those are FOUR HOURS of my life I'm never going to fully repress #unfortunately