If there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes

[photoshooter]

Who: Prompto photoshooter and open!
Where and When: Keystone station, February 23-26. It's another multi-prompt catchall because I'm a hack and copying Nai.
What: Friday means movie night, a man draws his rod and tackle, and who needs privacy when we have a roof? All prompts are open!
Warnings: Will warn for anything that comes up in the individual threads.

February 23rd, Level 3 common area

[There's a projector. There's couches. There's a big bowl of spicy sunflower seeds to share. That's right, it's movie night, and whether or not anyone actually sits down to join him, Prompto's sitting in front of the screen watching whatever this is.

He looks, more than anything, perplexed.]

But why are they the Teen Titans? They don't look anything like the guy...

[With the hand that isn't covered in picante lime salsa powder, Prompto occasionally rubs carefully at his eyes, then grumbles, blinks a couple times, and leans closer to the screen.]

February 24th-25th, Tech Lab

[So! Prompto has glasses now. Thanks, Strange! Whether he's embarrassed about them or the rainy weather's made him restless, it appears he's cleared himself a little space at a table in the back of the tech lab, where he's... hmm.

In his left hand, he's got his camera, whose screen he keeps glancing at for reference. In his right hand is a pencil, with which he's sketching what appears to be a diagram of--all right. It looks like a fishing rod? Yeah, it's a fishing rod. He's having a little trouble figuring out the reel, it seems, which of course is the important part, but he's filled with determination.

Sometimes, he leaves his seat with one of his plastic tubs and wanders the lab to look for parts. Got to start somewhere, right?]

February 26th, Roof

[Ah, finally. Here comes the sun, doo doo doo doo.

Once the mist clears, Prompto's up on the roof to soak in the sun's rays, watching that small, natural patch of sky in all that scary fucked-up-ness up there. He basks in the light despite his fair complexion, despite the cool temperatures; it's almost as if he's afraid the sun will vanish like so much else from his life.

Still, even though he took a long-sleeved shirt from the free clothes pile and he's got his vest on over it, he's kind of cold.]

Man, I could really go for a coffee right now...

[Naturally, like any proper young man his age, he makes not a single move to return inside. He's too busy playing a game on his phone.

Millennials.]

Comments

Movie Night

[trashcats]

[What's that a-shuffling on the other side of the bowl of sunflower seeds in the dark? Well it's something...

Vaguely cat-sized? Very pointy in the face? With tiny little hands?

... Is it friendly?]

[photoshooter]

[??

What on Eos is that. Prompto pulls the bowl back, peers at it, decides it's cute, and smiles.]

Aww, hey there, little buddy. Here, you want some seeds?

[Like a fool who doesn't know he shouldn't feed the wildlife, he puts a handful of his Tapatío Chile Limón seeds on the cushion where his new friend can reach them without putting his admittedly probably filthy little hands in the bowl.]

[trashcats]

[Shuffle, snuffle, these smell like food. The critter crawls down the armrest of the couch and starts eating the seeds with its little gremlin hands.

From a little closer, Prompto will be able to see that it's wearing a small orange collar. With rhinestones.

munchmunchmunch.]

[photoshooter]

Awwwwww. You're definitely the weirdest cat I've ever seen. You like those, huh?

[If it's got a collar, it must be friendly. Prompto tries offering it his fingers to sniff. They're the ones, of course, with flavor powder all over them.]

[trashcats]

[Cat. Sure. We'll go with that. Cats aren't nearly this pointy and they don't have weird little people hands but cat works.

Sniffsniffsniff and then those little hands are grabbing Prompto's fingers. Why do you not keep your grabbers clean, human?

Licklicklicklick.]

[photoshooter]

Haha, hey, that tickles!

[But he doesn't pull away, just takes that well-deserved tongue-washing like a man, giggling. Oh, no, this is too cute--oh, wow, is this what happiness feels like again? He almost forgot.]

What's your name, buddy? Does it say on your collar?

[Will New Friend let him look?]

[trashcats]

[New friend thinks he's making funny noises and looks at him like 'what' briefly before resuming that handwashing.

The collar doesn't have a name, but there is a small tag with a 'J' stamped into the metal.]

Roof

[scarsolderthanyou]

A what?

[Did you know there was someone else up there with you, Prompto? Well, there is. From the looks of his rumbled and slightly damp clothes, Stone apparently slept up here, on the platform with all the equipment on it. As he speaks, he's jumping down to the portion of the roof Prompto is on.]

[photoshooter]

[From the yelp and the jump, no, Prompto did not know there was someone else up here with him. He almost fumbles his phone, but manages to grab onto it before it clatters to the roof. It takes a second, but then he breathes out and puts a hand to his chest, relieved to recognize his company.]

Dude, Stone, don't scare people like that! I thought you were an MT.

[scarsolderthanyou]

You didn't know I was there?

[Stone tilts his head, thinking that over.]

You really must have a terrible sense of smell. And hearing. But I'll try not to do that again. So what's an MT? And a coffee?

[photoshooter]

[He trades him a skeptical look.]

Coffee is a hot drink made from... uh, coffee beans. And humans don't usually smell things to discover their presence? And, my hearing is fine.

[Glancing aside, he kicks at the roof a bit. Prompto seems to need to always be in motion--sometimes it's nervous habit, sometimes it's an outlet for the youthful energy he holds. Sometimes it's hard to tell.]

And MT stands for 'magitek trooper.' They're... enemies my friends and I have had to fight for a while.

[scarsolderthanyou]

I'm pretty sure we don't have those here, or we'd have found them by now. Magitek troopers, I mean. This place is too small to really hide them from us.

[He comes up beside Prompto.]

Sorry about startling you, though.

[photoshooter]

Oh, it's okay. [A nervous smile flutters onto his face and then away, and he points up at the patch of blue above.] It's just sometimes airships would drop them from the sky. Always had to be on our toes, you know?

Movie night

[foolishjustice]

[Goro is parked on the couch, with a soda in hand...in the sort of cup you'd get at a movie theater, complete with straw.]

It may be a reference to the Greek Titans, who had incredible power. This is set in a world that appears to be very similar to my own, I'm even from Tokyo, myself.

[photoshooter]

The what Titans? But shouldn't there only be one Titan? I mean, yeah, believe me, he has incredible power, but it's not like there's a Mrs. Titan to, uh, help see to the making of more little Titans...

[foolishjustice]

The Titans of Greek mythology. It's not an individual name, but rather the name of the species that was the precursor to their gods. The Titans were the children of the primordial gods, the earth and the sky. Honestly, they were deities in their own right, and ruled over the world before the gods overthrew them. Some of them, such as Helios, Selene, and Hecate, even made peace with the new generation and remained in power...although many people forget Helios and Selene in favor of their younger counterparts, Apollo and Artemis.

[photoshooter]

Dude, how many gods does your world even have? That sounds like a total recipe for disaster. Supernatural disaster.

Going into detail on that last bit would involve major spoilers.

[foolishjustice]

I'm not certain of the exact number of gods in the Greek pantheon, they have a number of minor deities that don't get as much attention. But there's no evidence any of them are real. It's entirely likely that the majority of gods represented in various cultures' mythologies are simply the result of primitive cultures trying to explain natural phenomena they lacked the scientific understanding to study.

If the one god I'm certain exists is any indication, though, deities seem to prefer to work through subtle means rather than directly announcing themselves.

[photoshooter]

"Subtle."

[Prompto looks profoundly skeptical.]

All the gods I've met wouldn't know subtle if it smacked them in the tailfin. Pretty sure the word isn't remotely in their vocab. Then again, what do I know, apparently they have their own god language us mere mortals couldn't hope to understand.

February 24

[stormkingofshepherds]

[Well, a strange crablike creature with a spherical shell has come scuttling in as well, tapping some of the equipment with her claws. When she notices Prompto get up, she starts following him, occasionally pulling out pieces that look like they might work and trying to show them to him. After a bit, Nathaniel comes in as well.]

Oh, there you are, Belle. She's not bothering you, is she?

[photoshooter]

Her name is Belle? Hi, Belle!

[He waves. He's already comfortable and happy with the idea of Pokémon, and it helps that Belle is 1) smaller and 2) doesn't remind him immediately of a daemon.]

She's not bothering me. I think she's trying to help? I'm trying to build a fishing rod, I don't know if she knows that.

[stormkingofshepherds]

You'd be surprised. She knows quite a bit about computers, at least. [Seriously, she was the group's tech expert, and that's counting in the human members of the party.] And I think she might have peeked at your blueprints.

[photoshooter]

Oh! Well, a fishing rod's pretty different from a computer, but if you're mechanically minded...

[He's talking to Belle more than to Nathaniel, actually moving down to her level.]

What do you think? I got the basic idea down?

[stormkingofshepherds]

She is. Don't know where she picked it up exactly, but I'm grateful to her for that. [He's so proud of his no-longer-as-tiny rock bug.]

Crust-tle! [Belle glances at his box, before picking up a slightly different reel and holding it out. Size-wise, it might fit with the other pieces better.]

[photoshooter]

You think I should use this one instead?

[He accepts the offered reel and weighs it against the other, one in each hand, thoughtfully, then nods and replaces the one in his box with her suggestion.]

Thanks! Teamwork makes the dream work. Gimme five, girl!

[Grinning, he holds his hand out for a high five. Or a high two, maybe, given Crustle's pincers.]

So does she help you build computers or use them?