flamesburned | The Apartment Above the Photo Hut

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apartment above the photo hut

The Apartment Above the Photo Hut - Wednesday Afternoon

It had been a week since Prompto had vanished and Liz had been trying to stay focused, searching the island desperately as best she could to no avail.

The only thing that was keeping her hopeful that Prompto hadn’t ended up going back to Insomnia was that Ignis was still there and between him and Nell, she was grateful for their help with prepared meals so she had been able to focus on looking after Noctra as well as trying to do some work with the store, even though she hadn’t been able to concentrate on any work.

At the moment Noctra was sleeping, she had been fussy this morning and she had been up all night with her, before finally getting her to settle. As she waited for Noctra to wait, she repeatedly checked her phone just in case there was a message or a phone call from Prompto somehow, despite it being over a week now but she had to keep checking.

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Marc didn't want to bug anybody but Liz was on his radar as somebody he gave a shit about. So in the midst of trying to figure out what the hell was going on, he swung by and gave a quiet knock.

Liz heard the door knocking and reluctantly put her phone down to get off the couch to answer it, she opened the door, "hi Marc," she said quietly, "um ... come in please," she remembered to add as she stepped back a bit from the door to let him in.

"Hey," Marc said as he came in. He gave a quick look around to get an idea of how Liz was doing. "Wanted to check in. See if there's anything I can do."

"I ... I'm ... I miss Prompto," Liz said quietly, "Ignis and Nell have made meals for me, I haven't had to worry about cooking, I just ..." her voice trailed off. "How's Steven? It sounded like on the radio that Detective Watts has gone missing?" she had a fair idea of how Steven was since it was Marc who was visiting right then.

Liz did know Marc and Steven pretty well, after all.

"Freaking out," Marc said, since he knew Steven wouldn't mind Liz knowing. "I'm trying to keep him from doing something stupid, like running off and right into whatever the fuck this is."

His choice of words also nicely summed up a few extra reasons why nobody should ever ask Marc to step in as a babysitter.

"Working on trying to figure out if there's any clues in Watts's notes," Marc said. "It's not easy. I'm not even sure what's on them is handwriting."

"I'm sorry," Liz said quietly, "I wish there was more that we could do to find them, I've been around Fandom so many times and still nothing," she added, "do you think Detective Watts was trying to find answers when he went missing?" she couldn't help but wonder if there was a connection.

"He was," Marc said. "He was working all the cases - or the ones we know about, anyway. He told Steven he had some stuff he was checking out but he was going to be back by dinner. That part didn't work out. Haven't heard a thing since."

"There's more cases?" Liz said quietly, "I only knew about Prompto, Gladio and Detective Watts ... I didn't realise there was more people missing,"

"Dwight and some kid named Jo," Marc said. He shrugged, showing some of his frustration. "There could be more but hard to tell with his handwriting."

"Dwight's missing too?" Liz said with a sinking feeling in her stomach, she didn't really know Jo all that well but she hated the idea that a kid had gotten caught up in this as well.

What possible reason could Liz have for knowing Jo? It wasn't like they shared some sort of otherworldly connection or something. Pfft.

"Far as we can tell," Marc said. "I mean maybe some of these guys are just taking vacations and didn't tell anybody but seems like a big coincidence."

"It doesn't seem likely," Liz agreed, "I haven't spoken to Dwight lately but I don't think he would disappear without telling anyone," she said quietly.

"Didn't strike me as the kind of guy who takes a lot of vacations either," Marc said. Because it took one to know one. "But does seem to suggest it's not some portal thing. Or at least not like what you and Prompto dealt with last year. Guess that's good news?"

Marc was fully aware that there were a lot of options beyond "some portal thing" and many of them were worse than just being a random portal. But he wasn't going to add to Liz's worries by pointing that out.

Liz bit her lip but nodded, she had been trying to reassure herself that it wasn't portal related, that Prompto and Gladio hadn't been called back to Insomnia, "and people remember who Prompto was as well this time," she said quietly, "last time he was gone at the end of the year, no one remembered who he was but me,"

"Definitely remember who he is," Marc assured her. "If there's anything I can do to help get him back I will."

Watts was of course on a slightly higher priority list because of the Steven connection, but Liz was one of the people on the island even Marc gave a shit about. He'd help her if he could.

Liz managed a tiny smile at that, "thank you," she said quietly, "that really means a lot,"

"Steven will to," Marc said. "But you know that already."

You know. Once Marc trusted Steven to have the body again. Or Steven forcibly took it over. One of those.

Sometime in the morning Nell stopped by to let Liz know what little she'd found out last night.

Liz went to answer the door, "hi Nell," she said tiredly, she hadn't slept much with Noctra fussing during the night, "how have you been doing?"

"M'okay," Nell said, though she didn't look much better. Communing with the land yesterday and the sort of magical barrier she'd rammed into hadn't helped. "But we found... something last night. Might be nothing, but maybe..."

Liz tried to not get her hopes up at that, even though it was hard, "oh, what did you find ... um come in please, did you want me to get you anything to drink or eat?" she stepped back to let Nell through.

"Just a chair would be great," Nell said, "I'm still feeling a bit shaky, but I wanted to come see you."

She held a hand up. "We didn't find them, but there is something out in the woods - not far from the onsen. Like a kind of magical barrier. I couldn't get around or under or through it."

“Of course ,” Liz said, rather worried at that as she went to get a chair for Nell to sit on, “do you … do you think that might be where they are?” she hesitated, trying to not get her hopes up, “that that’s why we haven’t been able to reach them because of the barrier?”

Nell nodded. "Like I said, it might be nothing and I can't swear it hasn't been there all along, but I've never felt anything like it on the island before."

She sighed. "So honestly, we still don't really know anything for sure, but at least it's something to look into which is more than we had before."

Liz bit her lip at that but nodded, "at least it might give us an idea to where we could narrow our searching?" she said softly, "I haven't had any luck so far and it sounds like more people have gone missing according to radio," she said worriedly.

Nell nodded. "Which also is kind of reassuring because at least it makes it far less likely that they got taken back to Eos. And there are a lot of people here to help figure out what to do."

Liz nodded at that, "it's definitely the best news we've had since everything happened," she said softly, "I just ...I'm really worried about them, if they've really been in Fandom this whole time ... " her voice trailed off uncertainly.

"I know," Nell said, "But remember there have been other times when people were trapped in odd places here and those turned out okay. Prompto and Gladio are tough and we need to be strong for them. They'll need us to be strong when they get back."

Liz bit her lip but nodded, she knew there wasn't much they could do until they had a definitive location and could go and rescue them, "at least we have more news than we did a week ago," she said softly.

"We do," Nell said firmly. "And it's hopeful news."

Liz nodded, “I guess we just have to try and stay focused and wait, until we know for sure and can rescue them,” she said quietly, “I just hope we can find them soon,”

"I do too," Nell said quietly. "I... I know it's not the same, but... I miss him. I, we were just starting -"

She shook her head. "Anyway, we'll figure this out. I'm sure of it."

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The Apartment Above the Photo Hut - Wednesday Afternoon

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