nyx ulric (galahdan) wrote in valloic, @ 2020-10-09 11:49:00 |
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Nyx sighed heavily and took a step back from the waypoint, standing in line with Bucky. Everything was moot if there was still a waypoint that any of the countless dinosaurs on the island could just run through again. It wouldn't matter if they put a giant bubble around the whole island to keep things in if they could just - go through this waypoint.
"Think it can be shut down from the inside?" he asked Bucky at his side, a shrug of his shoulders and his tone clear that he really wasn't serious.
But he paused. The suggestion suddenly clicked something in his brain.
"Fuck." Well that was it, wasn't it. "Maybe it can be shut down from the inside," this time more to himself. More sure of the words. Which he realized probably sounded crazy. There was no way to stay inside one of them, you went in and were spat out where you wanted to go. But there was a delay. Or at least he'd noticed one. A little pocket of time where maybe, just maybe, someone could actually manipulate the system. A delay that Nyx had started picking up more and more since he'd shoved that damn ring that had shown up into his armiger. Like the power of all the Old Kings reacted to the power in what was essentially Vallo's crystal. Or crystals in this case.
"This is a terrible idea, right?"
“What, experimenting with magic that you don’t know the ins and outs of? Nah, I’m sure it’s a good idea,” Bucky said, deadpan, as he crossed his arms and looked at Nyx. He had been watching Nyx’s back with his rifle, ready to take anything out that came at them while Nyx had worked on putting up barriers. They had been all over the island by this point and they were almost certain they had gotten all of the waypoints, but there was no real way of knowing.
But now it sounded like Nyx had a (terrible) idea about the waypoints and Bucky was definitely not on the train where Nyx could potentially hurt dealing with magic that no one really understood yet.
He was a little overprotective, sue him.
“It’s terrible idea, if that wasn’t obvious by my tone. And let me go on record saying that if you do something and you get stuck somewhere where I can’t get to you, I’ll be useless to you. So, y’know, make good decisions.” He knew he was coming off like bit of a jerk, but he didn’t care. Bucky just wanted Nyx safe.
His brow creased as he stared down the waypoint, a huff of amusement (as deadpan as Bucky's words) at the initial response. "Well, when you put it like that…"
He got it though. Nyx glanced to Bucky beside him and knew damn well if the situation were reversed he wouldn't be exactly happy about it either. It was hard to care about someone and then watch that someone get put into situations they might not walk away from. It was something Nyx had struggled with for over a decade now. More so now.
Nyx knew that while he'd made a damn career out of terrible ideas, this might top it. Keenly aware of the fact that Noctis had gone into a crystal back in Eos and gotten stuck in there for ten years. Aware of the fact he barely knew how his own magic worked let alone whatever magic was at work inside a waypoint. It was a different feeling that washed over him at it though as he looked at Bucky. Because normally he - well, didn't give a shit was maybe not the right term. But right then he didn't feel quite as expendable as he used to.
"Not making sure these creatures can't get off this island anymore is also a terrible idea," he pointed out. He glanced back at the way point and then back at Bucky. Nyx let out a slow breath and shrugged a little. There were words on the tip of his tongue, ones that had been sitting there for a while, ones he somehow hadn't even managed to get out when Bucky was proposing - but it felt cheap to let them go now. So instead he grinned, cocky and sure. "Besides, you love my terrible ideas, Barnes."
And with that he started walking back toward the waypoint. "And if I end up some den of dinosaurs you're allowed to tell me I told you so for however damn long you want," he said before he turned and walked into it.
As he got pulled into the waypoint Nyx focused hard on that delay. That little second of time he'd started to pick up on and focused hard. Suddenly it seemed as though everything slowed and instead of walking out of an intended waypoint he found himself just - there. In some moment between moments. It was hard to focus though and there was the constant feeling of being pulled. Like when he'd gotten caught in the wrong part of the river as a kid and he'd been desperately holding onto a branch as the current threatened to drag him away. And it was loud. Voices maybe. He honestly couldn't be sure. Or the sound of countless people being magically shuffled all over the damn place.
But as he turned, in front of him he could see it. The waypoint he'd just come out of. And more than that he could see the others for the island. Glowing and flickering.
And like most things magic related Nyx had no clue what the fuck he was supposed to do. But there was a feeling. Instinct maybe. Like if he could just focus on the cluster of points, dig into something similar to the barrier magic he could close them. So he did just that.
Except it wasn't enough, it wasn't nearly enough.
He knew it was probably his imagination, but he could feel the Ring of the Lucii burning from inside his armiger. Calling to him which, well, that part he figured maybe had some merit.
"Fuck.." he muttered out and before he could talk himself out of it, called on it - the ring appearing in his palm in a splash of blue sparks. He didn't think - because if he did he would go down a path he couldn't afford to go down right then, the kind that ended with dying again because distractions were a killer - he just shoved the ring once more onto the middle finger of his left hand and braced for… well, he wasn't quite sure. Bahamut had legitimized him, the power in the ring? Was his power.
Unlike the last time there was no judgement. There was no place removed from time with the spirits of a hundred and thirteen dead kings and queens asking him to prove his worth. No. There was just - power. Magic that coursed through his veins and Nyx looked back to the cluster of waypoints.
He held his hand out, closed his eyes and gave in. Reached to them and slowly, but surely, began to power them down. His eyes opened, and he watched as they started to fade, top and bottom the glow drained to meet in the middle. And he almost missed it, but realized with barely a moment to spare that he still, ideally, needed to get out and back where he had come from.
In a quick move he summoned a dagger, threw it out the waypoint in front of him and let it pull him out as it closed behind him.
It wasn't a perfect warp. Nowhere near. The dagger flew out first, lodged about ten feet off the ground into a tree trunk and Nyx knew before he even hit it that this was not going to end well. His hand grazed the hilt of his dagger, fingers scrambled to get a grip but couldn't quite manage and he fell to the ground in what he was sure was an ungraceful heap. A thought he didn't have for long as his head smacked the ground and the world went black.
It felt like forever, to Bucky, waiting outside of the waypoint for Nyx to come back. But what felt like forever, was probably just a few minutes in actuality. The problem with the waiting though was that a person could come up with a lot of things that could have gone wrong in the amount of time it took for Nyx to get back. He was definitely starting to work himself up into a frenzy of worry, when Nyx finally made a reappearance.
Well, the dagger did at first. It was lucky that Bucky wasn’t standing in its path when it came flying through, but he tightened his hand around his gun and waited to see what else came out. Who knew what kind of trouble he might have run into while in the waypoint?
Luckily, the next thing that came out of there was Nyx himself, though more unluckily, it seemed like he had knocked himself out in the process of coming back. “Shit,” Bucky muttered, holstering his weapon and rushing over to Nyx’s side. Pulling his head onto his lap, he started checking over Nyx’s vitals. “Nyx, open your eyes,” he said, a touch of panic colouring his words. What the hell had happened in there? Were the waypoints closed? Bucky had no idea, as he ran a hand over Nyx’s head to check for bumps or cuts.
He wasn't out long, and later he might remember coming to almost too quickly and mull on it and whether that was within the realm of normalcy or something else. A ragged gasp of a breath as his eyes shot open, a purple tinge to the normal blue and not really looking at Bucky though his gaze was fixed that way. It faded quick and he blinked a few times, though his focus was still a bit shot. Bucky above him a hazy blur.
Nyx's hands moved, one to grab at Bucky's on his head, lacing their fingers together, the other sort of half patted at the side of Bucky's face, like he was trying to figure out where exactly Bucky was while his vision half betrayed him.
"Hey…" he got out, voice a little raspy for a moment as his hand on Bucky's face stilled. "Hey - I'm good - " which was maybe an overestimation at the moment, but he was breathing and alive and really that was about all anyone could ask for half the time. He hadn't gotten stuck in some waypoint, hadn't lost a limb as far as he could tell on his way out. He'd call that a win for the moment.
His eyes focused in a bit better on Bucky and he grinned, and alright maybe it was a little loopy. Like he'd just tapped into some serious power and smacked his head something fierce and wasn't entirely all back with reality loopy. But his gaze was soft and earnest. And even if his next words were also maybe a little loopy, there was a sincerity behind it that would make them hard to come off as anything but true. "Fuck, I love you."
Bucky released a harsh breath of relief when Nyx's eyes opened and he came to. He was a little amused when Nyx started patting his face, but mostly still worried because despite Nyx claiming otherwise, he didn't look like he was completely good. Letting Nyx have the hand he had captured with his own and using the other to keep him steady on his lap, he noticed that something different was going on with his eyes.
Just as he was about to point that out, some unexpected words came out of his boyfriend's mouth.
Love.
They hadn't discussed that yet, had been careful to skirt around those words so far. Bucky has no doubt about what he felt for Nyx, knew it was love, but the right moment for saying those words out loud hadn't presented themselves. And up until this point, he had been almost certain that Nyx felt the same, but to hear it confirmed now, threw Bucky off balance.
He couldn't help but think back to his drunken proposal, to Nyx telling him to ask when he was sober next time. It hadn't been the right time then and now probably wasn't the right time for admissions of love, but Bucky was now convinced there would never be the perfect moment. Not with the way their lives were.
So he smiled softly at the goofy smile on Nyx's face and said, "I love you too, dummy." Despite it not being the perfect time, it felt natural to say it. He had no regrets about admitting it now. "Think you can get up?"
He'd never said it to anyone before. At least in this way. And while he was sure of the words, even as his brain felt a little mushy from everything, he knew he didn't regret it. Regardless of what Bucky's reply might be. His own confession he knew probably wasn't coming out of left field, they'd danced around it for months now really. Though he'd be a liar to say he wasn't a little bit relieved when I love you too came out in return, even with the added dummy. He smiled up at Bucky, steadily looking more and more with it and he knew that had a lot to do with the grounding force of having Bucky there. Something to hold onto. Something good and not the heavy feeling of wielding the ring and the complicated feelings that threatened to bring up.
"Well that was easy," he said, his tone a bit amused. Hadn't it all been though - easy? In a way Nyx had never really associated with relationships. But it had been, like things had just fit from the start and ending up here was just the natural progression of that. It was the last place Nyx had ever expected himself to end up, but now that he was there - well, it just felt right.
"Yeah - " he answered but didn't quite make the move to do so. "Just - one more minute," he added and gave Bucky's hand a squeeze as he let his hands close for a moment, though it was pretty clear it wasn't falling back unconscious but rather just a quick moment to recharge.
Slowly he sat up, groaning a little as a headache spiked. He glanced down at his left hand lips pressed together for a moment before he slid the ring off his finger, turned it over a couple times and then it disappeared in a little flash of blue before he stood up.
Nyx glanced to the waypoint, now dull and and nothing more than a crystal shaped rock. "I think it worked?" he said as he looked to Bucky. He spotted a small rock near their feet and reached to pick it up, threw it at the waypoint and shrugged a little as it hit the waypoint and fell to the ground.
“Easier than anything else we’ve done with this relationship,” Bucky said, laughing a little as he caressed the side of Nyx’s face. Now that it was out, it kind of felt dumb that it had taken this long for them to admit what now, in hindsight, seemed rather obvious.
He waited for Nyx to get himself together and then leaned back to give him enough space to sort himself out after he sat up. Bucky stood up as Nyx did and watched in amusement as Nyx threw a rock at the waypoint. “Looks like it was a success. So guess we’re going to have to use alternate means to get out of here.”
Honestly he would have been content to lounge around longer on the ground the way they were, but he was keenly aware of the dangers of the island and it didn't exactly scream great idea. So he settled for slipping his arm around Bucky's back and leaning against his side a little - and he'd loathe to admit it but some of that was the fact he currently felt like he'd been run over several times by a very large truck physically and mentally.
"Guess we're walking?" he offered, paused. "Or radioing Torunn to pick us up," he added. "I vote for the second" Which was as close as he'd get to admitting the idea of traipsing through god knew what to get back to the meeting point felt way too daunting in that moment. "Pretty fucking done with this island."