@silverook | u wanted this.
THE WALLS ALL LOOKED THE SAME, every grey metal panel the same as the last DRIVING HIM MAD as he all but crawled on hands and knees through the maze the Keep had become for him, taunted madly by his CAPTOR like an animal in a cage / they looked the same around him, too, the figure illuminated at the end of the hall staring blankly back at those who had come for him — too late, too late.
Noctis limped closer; from the fall taken his arm was broken, his leg was weak / barely able to hold his weight, HIS RIBS ACHED; shards of bone threatening to break off / each heavy breath an act of defiant agony from the body that tried to keep him from breathing. All this fighting, chasing shadows concocted in his mind in fear of death ( seeing blond hair matted red, seeing twisted bodies, seeing MT’s clawing at his ankles ) was going to be worth it in the end, he thought — to see Prompto again, all smiles && blue, all sunshine, all ICARUS still full of hope.
( Something was missing inside him; something had snapped, SOMETHING HAD DIED A VIOLENT DEATH IN THE FLUTTERING HOLLOWS OF HIS CHEST, drowning in his blood; to see HEART’S DESIRE standing there, no light, no joy, all melted wax. )
“Hey, Prompto...” HE SMILES / OH, it’s beauty; it’s bitten red lips && bruising, it’s teeth marks && teeth. It’s the laugh that breaks through choked into a sob as his bones pull. It’s staring at Prompto, vacant gaze ( full of miasma ) fixed on his own && Noctis, tilting his head to the side, eyes drifting to close. His mind’s refusing to take it in, trying to save what little remains of his fragile psyche, wrapping it’s hands around it with child-like wishes, soft like bird-bones. “Stop it, okay? This isn’t funny anymore.”