[ if anything, no one else having run into them yet is kind of worrisome. noctis wonders briefly, if he dreamed the encounters. maybe getting whisked away to another world on top of everything else caused him to do that.

but - no, he'd hugged both of them. they were real in his arms. he brushes the thought aside, feeling guilty for thinking they were figments of his imagination. ]

Yeah. I mean - there's nothing like that back home. Phoenix downs only work if you're still mostly alive. [ they were the only thing that could bring someone back from the brink of death - but once you were dead, and had breathed your last, they didn't work anymore. ] But if whatever we're fighting can freeze time maybe it can... pull people from different points?

[ he shrugs a little after a moment, looking away. ignis' question is as gentle as he can make it, and noctis takes a breath to steady himself, closing his eyes. ]

Luna looked how she did in Altissia, with Leviathan, before - before everything happened. Her dress was ruined and she had bruises but she was fine; she had Pryna with her. And dad... dad looked like he did the day he sent us off.

[ he had apologized, to noctis. but he keeps that to himself. ]