Here we have an extract featuring a rather heated discussion between Ardyn and Verstael by railyard ghosts

Truths and lies are easily twisted💜

This piece is part of a wonderful artist & writer collaboration the other half of which was shared earlier today!

[this post comes with TW for disturbing stuff. presumes that verstael made prompto when he was in his late 30s or 40s, when prompto already has a LOT to remember.]

At 18, Verstael was awarded his own lab for studying magitek; at 18, Prompto has dreams of tearing living things apart.

Prom slept over at Noct's place sometimes, and Noct heard Prompto sleep-talking about "dissection" and "subject trials."

Sometimes they're happy dreams, because Prompto is smiling. but it makes little sense to Noct, so he pays it no mind.

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At 20, Verstael began studying starscourge victims. The boys who hear Prompto occasionally mumbling in his sleep think he must have heard about gory stuff in the news or in a documentary somewhere...

But the words he uses disturb them somewhat. "Vivisection"? "Remained alive for six hours"?

Once, filled with dread, Noct asks Prom if he was talking about people. Still asleep, Prom smiles and mumbles, "They're not people...anymore."

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At 25, Verstael began purposefully infecting innocent citizens with starscourge, and recording the results. Prompto realizes he doesn't feel anything anymore when he kills - but he thinks, it must just be because he's done so much daemon-hunting during the Dark. He's killed so many of them. So many.

And now, faced with the prospect of having to kill people sometimes, for the sake of survival, he finds that he doesn't care. Even if he knows in his heart that it SHOULD feel different, it's all the same to him.

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At 30, Verstael began to clone himself, using the life force of his clones to power magitek machines...little knowing that his constant exposure to the scourge had already affected his reasoning.

And Prompto dreams of killing himself over and over.

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At 35, Verstael started to go insane.